Does the Web need another Wikipedia?

Perhaps. Like Search Engines and Browsers, competition is a good thing, and different results are a plus for researchers. While Wikipedia may be the first place we think of to look something up, not everyone was happy with the results.So, along came Citizendium (yes, came: it is one year old October 30th, and still in Beta) an open-source encyclopedia catering to academics turned off by Wikipedia’s lack of academic editors. Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia grew disenchanted with the site and started Citizendium.According to this open letter report, Citizendium now boasts about 3,900 articles, although only a fraction of those pieces have been “certified” by the site’s staff of volunteer editors. That number pales in comparison to Wikipedia’s two million or so English-language articles, but Sanger predicts that “at some point, possibly very soon, the Citizendium will grow explosively.”Here is another take on Citizendium from The Technology Liberation Front.

Lecture Browser cuts to the chase

This search engine, a prototype developed at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is pretty unique. The system can now search 200 recorded MIT lectures, in video and audio, and the technology could be adopted at other universities. Or, the potential for searching through thousands of Podcasts is enormous, if unleashed to the public.

The Lecture Browser search engine is based on speech-recognition software that, MITresearchers say, gets four out of five words in a lecture correct. 

You will need Real Player to listen to your results. I was pleased at how quickly the search retrieved my keywords. 

 

Carbon neutral is so last year. Locavore is where it’s at!

If you are aging in place and upcycling, or wondering about your social graph as you use cloudware, then you won’t need to find out what the latest version of the 2007 New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year is.

However, with recent local (Vancouver) events as well as elsewhere show, the word “taze” (from “Tazer”, a gun like weapon that shoots bolts of volts to stun) has been used many times, and it almost made it as the 2007 New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year.

And the word? Click here to find out!

Steampunk your ride * (updated)

Steampunking has been going on for awhile now, but lately it has been getting more notice. It’s a fusion of old world (think Victoriana steam power and craft) and the new, such as electronics and digital, often with cool results. Everything that gets steampunked has to work, of course, and be usuable in this day and age.Here are some samples:(courtesy of Datamancer.com)And here are a few more(from steampunkworkshop.com)Update November 15, 2007:Interview with Rich Nagy of Datamancer. Also unveils his “Tesla Cane” View it here 

Newspaper Classified Ads: Obsolete

Good morning! A cup of coffee and the morning paper. Looking for a job? A new car? Apartment hunting? Buy a house? I’ll finish reading the news, then head to my computer and go to Monster.ca, Craigslist, or any other such sites to get information, tailored to me.

This article from C|Net News.com speculates on the demise of the Newspaper Classifieds.

Mash-ups and Social Networking for Profs

Pronetos is the social network for scholars. It is a home for University Faculty, Graduate Students, and Research Professionals of every academic discipline who want to be recognized as leaders in their field.

One interesting thing about the new site will be the ability of users to “remix” content posted to Pronetos by others (with everyone involved getting proper credit, one hopes), creating new, custom publications that Pronetos will then market, with all editors and authors sharing in any revenues.

Even though Facebook is mentioned in the same breath regarding Social Networking sites, Pronetos lacks the visual “cool”, but could make up for it in the content area.

Recent articles posted to Pronetos include considerations of medical informatics, urban sprawl, and Idaho during the Depression.

Would you like to smash your student’s mobile phone in class when it rings?

That is exactly what Ali Nazemi did, a professor of business administration and economics at Roanoke College, who went to unusual lengths to drive home a message. When a student’s phone rang during a recent lecture, the professor confiscated it and proceeded to demolish with a hammer.

No matter how hard I drive home the meaning of turning cellphones off (or mute the ringtone), there is always a person who thinks it doesn’t apply to them.

This article from the New York Times points out that the entire event was staged: Mr. Nazemi prearranged with the student to activate the device, so that the outcome would be a drastic visual, and forever scare students who tune out lectures with such devices as phones, iPods and laptops.

Now a Canadian company called Smart Technologies has developed a program, called SynchronEyes, which lets professors monitor their students’ computers and freeze any machines that are not being used for note-taking.

The software might be effective, but how many professors are willing to play the role of police in their own classrooms? Could you, as a teacher, instructor or facilator actually find the time or room in your busy schedules to implement and use such software?