librarian a go-go

For Friday fluff, here’s part two of some video we captured on University of KY island in Second Life this week. I’m just going to say this: I don’t think “Alice” (as she’s known in SL) does this in her real life as a librarian here at UK. SL gives us many freedoms … including the opportunity to get down in the virtual WT Young Library.

WRFL-SL

WRFL now has a “tower” on University of KY island in Second Life. You can also link to their website and, coming soon, pick up a free t-shirt for your avatar. While on the island, you can click on the media button and hear the station, as well. The work is still under way, but here’s what it’s looking like:

a little virtual music …

The work continues on University of KY island in Second Life. Here, “Oz” demonstrates a little musical pleasure in our concert corner. Watch for an announcement of our opening celebration, set for Thursday afternoon, March 20!

I2/BIG BLUE Postponed

The Internet2 event planned for today (see previous entry) is postponed due to inclement weather closing the participating schools. I’ll post the new date as soon as we have one.

I2/BIG BLUE

This Wednesday (02/27/2008) if all goes well and the snow holds off, UKy will host some engineering outreach to Kentucky high schools via Internet2 (I2). The event is called BIG BLUE on I2, and it features University of Kentucky’s BIG BLUE project (creating and testing inflatable wings for flight over Mars!) and NASA’s chief scientist, Dr. James Garvin. Others off-campus can watch via a URL (potential viewers can contact me for that URL). Find out more at http://www.uky.edu/TASC/i2/. If you’re interested in attending on campus, you can contact me as well.

But be aware that I2 is for far more than outreach. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities: I2 provides great capacity (with far fewer users than the commodity Internet) for sharing information and completing research. It’s possible to remotely operate things like telescopes and scanning-probe microscopes with I2. What can you do with I2?

Google Docs

In the continuing Blue 2.0 work toward learning about Web 2.0 applications, I’ve done some work with Google Docs. In fact, this blog entry was created in Google Docs and then posted directly to technology180. It was very easy. The interface is familiar (no different really than most word processing packages I’ve worked with), but the difference is that it is completely web-based and is accessible from any computer (requiring only a browser and Internet access). I can save it, I can share it with others, I can post it to my blog, etc. The only catch is, of course, that you must have a free Google account.

Google Docs does make it very easy to share documents for editing. Here at UKy we also have SharePoint, which is probably preferable for my work-related shared documents. Google Docs does, though, give me other options for sharing with friends, volunteer groups, and social groups.

What’s that lady doing, Mom?

So, I’m watching an ’80s-era movie with my kids. Woman in a car reaches over to her door and starts moving her arm in a circular motion. You know, she’s rolling up the window. My son looks at me and asks, “What’s that lady doing, Mom?” My daughter looks at an I-Spy book and isn’t sure about which hidden image is the phone. Oh, she sees it, but it’s a rotary. When we moved here to Lexington, we didn’t take cable for a while. Teaching them about “rabbit ears” was a hoot. “Don’t stand in that part of the room! I’m trying to watch the news!”  Are you with me? Yes, you oldie but goodie, you are. And so are others. Check out the Obsolete Skills webpage, complete with an A-Z wiki under way for editing/additions. Does anyone still need to know how to churn butter? Crank a telephone? Learn cursive writing? (ouch!)

ser.ious.ly add.ict.ive

OMG. As part of Blue 2.0 I have learned how to use del.icio.us and I am now addicted. My assignment was to create a free account and tag five websites. Okay, so I tagged 39. That doesn’t mean I have some kind of problem. I mean, I can stop at anytime. Really, I can. So, del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. You can share your bookmarks with anyone, see how many other people have bookmarked that site, find lists that exhibit shared interests and find more more more cool sites. Send help, please.

My del.icio.us account is at http://del.icio.us/patsycat01. I’m embarrassed, 39 sites are all I could really add in 20 minutes. Attempting … not … to … go … back … .

iTunesU

If you haven’t visited iTunesU lately (or at all), now is a good time. It’s a growing area for educational and instructional podcasting. To enter, open your iTunes software (free at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/) and then click on iTunes Store. In the window that opens, click on iTunesU (it will be in a box near the top left of the page). Once in the right place, you’ll find a list of universities ranging from Duke and MIT to Texas A&M and UC Berkeley. This section also includes some public television audio and video podcasts.

48 hr video … in SL

A number of communities participate each year in th 48 Hour Film Project – a wild ride in which groups form to produce short films over a 48-hour period. There’s more to it than that, but we won’t go into it here. But this year it appears there is a Second Life category. See it (or any of the videos) at http://ww2.48.tv.