LIBR 246-12: Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools (Fall 2008)

Last year, LAUSD switched student email accounts from ePALs to Google. The switch to Google was, of course, motivated by cost: It's free. Moreover, with Google (LAUSD MyMail - Gmail tailored for LAUSD), also comes its applications such as Docs, Calendar, & iGoogle (their own start page), which are really great tools to help students with their organization skills. I was drafted to introduce this new tool to the students.

I don't *think* anyone has posted this yet. I hope not. Anyway, it's pretty cool. It's Libraries411.com and it will help you find a public library near you. You can search by name or zip code. If you click on the name of a library on the list or a point on the map, you'll get the library's address, phone number, and website. You can even get driving directions!

HousingMaps

This is a cool feature that lets you Google and Craiglists to find apartments listings. I just think that this a great mashups that is simple to use and serve and a great service. It is simple easy to use and nice layout. I think this is really the model of what mashups could and should be.

The legal field is slow to adept to thing as a whole. I mean some lawyers are quick to change with the times, but if you ever read a law school syllabus (you know because its fun to do), you will see 100 year even 200 year old cases. Lawyers do not like to recreate the wheel.
However with mashups a lawyer who is interested in one field, like say special education law. No wait why no something more unique: how about lawsuits that involve chainsaws. Now it might take hours a week looking for cases that involve chainsaws, and forget the hours it would take to read the legal newspaper.

Programmable Web is THE site for mashups. They also have a blog where they feature lots of interesting new mashups available out there. I don't subscribe to Programmable Web because a lot of the mashups they mention aren't particularly useful to me. However, it's a blog I check out every once in a while to see what's new in the world of mashups. They find some out-there mashups I'd probably never have found otherwise.

For this week, you get to choose between two different exercise options. The first involves using Pageflakes and the second involves using Yahoo! Pipes. I will warn you that the Yahoo! Pipes exercise is significantly more difficult to accomplish than the Pageflakes activity. If you're looking for a big challenge, that exercise may be just up you're alley. If you don't have a lot of time to fool around with a complicated mashup engine, then Pageflakes would probably be the better choice.