This week, the final week, we are looking at Mashups. Mashups are definitely another future of the web tool. Being able to take data from all over the web and shape it in the way that is most useful to you is an amazing power. I think for a library’s purposes, some of the most amazing mashups around now are ones that pull information about a query from as many places as possible. For instance, Mapdango identifies a place on a map, gives you wikipedia articles, photos, weather information, and current events in that area. Great for travelers or just for those that wish to learn. It is now possible to get information about traffic conditions, weather conditions, lowest gas prices, nearest bookstores, crime rates, parking spaces, nearest restrooms, 24-hour ice cream parlors, and organic restaurants all in the same place! (I don’t know if anyone has built that particular tool yet, but they could.)
When exploring mashups this morning, I spent a lot of time learning some really cool things, and also wasted a lot of time. I stared mesmerized as tweets (twitter entries) popped up around the globe in real time. I created an Obama logo from my photos. I played flickr sudoku. I learned about to which political campaigns the president of my university doantes, and I explored Middle Earth and the World of Warcraft. It was a lot of fun, and, sometimes, informative. (Okay, so I could’ve chosen ones with wikipedia and news feeds, but come on…)
Today was also my first experience using Rollyo. I had always used Google Custom Search Engines before today. I created a custom search engine that searches all of my Unversity Libraries’ websites. The neatest thing about using Rollyo is that it then allows you to add the search engine you created to your firefox search bar, which is awesome.
When searching the librarian blogs for privacy entries for the assignment, I noticed a lot of discussion about the age gap in privacy concerns. It does seem that there is a bit of an age gap in how people feel about putting themselves out there on the web. I find that my middle-aged friends are less likely to populate their social network profiles with tidbits of information about themselves, and more likely to stick to the professional facts. I have enough sense to know when something is inappropriate for the general public. There are no pictures of wild parties on my facebook profile. I do, in fact, choose not to share my religious or political views. (If a future employer finds this blog post and chooses not to hire me based on my Obama-space logo, then I probably didn’t want to work for them anyway, though. My mom would have totally had a Jimmy Carter logo on her facebook page.) But I do share my love for football, fantasy literature, gadgets, new knowledge, the Harry Potter fandom, and general geekery with whomever chooses to take a look. It helps me connect with others and express myself. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any geek-girl haters or fetishists that are going to camp out at my place of work and attack me because I shared that information. I recently moved 6 hours from home and 4 hours from my college campus. Sharing and communicating on social networks allows me to keep connections. I’m pretty lonely here during the week without many flesh-and-blood friends to hang out, but at least the internet keeps me connected to my friends all over the world (many of whom I met online).
