Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos.

This week exercise is about upload and share the videos. The most popular video web-site must be Youtube, then Yahoo Video, Google Video are another options.

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in mid-February 2005 by three former PayPal employees.[1] The San Bruno-based service uses Adobe Flash technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos. In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had reached a deal to acquire the company for US$1.65 billion in Google stock. The deal closed on November 13, 2006.[2]
Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Some videos are available only to users of age 18 or older (e.g. videos containing potentially offensive content). The uploading of videos containing pornography, nudity, defamation, harassment, commercial advertisements and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited. Related videos, determined by title and tags, appear onscreen to the right of a given video. In YouTube's second year, functions were added to enhance user ability to post video 'responses' and subscribe to content feeds.

Quote from Wikipedia.

Yahoo! Video began as a video search engine and re-launched in June 2006 with the ability to upload and share video clips. A new site was launched in February 2008 with a new design and move away from crawled video content. The site now consolidates all premium video from across Yahoo! properties with user-generated uploads and premium partner content. A new comedy network sponsored by Butterfinger was launched on April 1, 2008.
The free service provides users with a means to search and play videos directly from Yahoo! Video, save them to their 'favorites' page, subscribe to partner networks, create playlists, and embed videos and playlists on web pages and blog posts. The homepage contains editorially-featured videos that change daily and skew towards comedy, viral videos, talented users, odd stuff, animation, and premium entertainment content.

Quote from Wikipedia

Google Video is a free video sharing website and also a video service from Google that allows anyone to upload video clips to Google's web servers as well as make their own media available free of charge; some videos are also offered for sale through the Google Video Store.
Uploaded videos were saved as a .gvi files under the "Google Videos" folder in "My Videos" and reports of the video(s) details are logged and stored in the user account. The report sorts and lists the number of times that each of the users videos have been viewed and downloaded within a specific time frame. These range from the previous day, week, month or the entire time that the videos have been there for. Totals are calculated and displayed and the information can be downloaded into a spreadsheet format or printed out.
Competing services include iFilm, Metacafe, Veoh, blip.tv, IKlipz.com, and Outloud.tv. On October 9, 2006 Google agreed to buy former competitor YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, but YouTube will remain a separate service under its own identity for the near future, though Google video searches include YouTube results as well.[1]
Google announced on June 13, 2007 that the Google Video search results would begin to include videos discovered by their search crawlers on other hosting services, in addition to YouTube's and their own uploads. Search result links now open a frameset with a Google Video header at the top, and the original player page below it, similar to the way the Google Images search results are presented.

Quote from Wikipedia

What is a podcast?
A “podcast” is a buzzword to describe a very simple concept: an audio or video file available on the Internet for you to listen to and/or watch. A podcast can also refer to a series of these audio or video files (similar to how a TV or radio “show” can be a series of shows or just one show). When using the word “podcast”, most people refer to the entire series and not just one audio or video file.
Audio and video files have been made available on the Internet for years. Why is a podcast different?
Break PODCAST down into two parts. First the POD: you can either listen to a podcast on your computer or transfer it to your portable audio/video device, which means that file is Portable, and it’s On-Demand because you can listen to or watch it when you want, where you want. The CAST means the file is sent out to you over the Internet, in the way a “broadcast” comes to you over the radio or TV airwaves. But instead of using a radio or TV, with podcasts you use a computer connected to the Internet, and on that computer you have a program that allows you to subscribe to, manage, and listen to or watch your favorite podcasts. That’s where Podcast.com comes in: you don’t need an extra program to listen to or watch your favorite podcasts, or to subscribe to them and manage them, because you can do that right on our site.
What kind of content will you be hearing and/or seeing in a podcast?
Everything from homemade video/radio shows to big-budget productions, from targeted advertisements for products you’re interested in to cartoons, comedy, commercial or non-commercial — you name it. The great part about podcasts, as you’ll see as you browse our site, is that there is something for everyone.
You can also refer to Wikipedia’s entry on the definition and history of the word “podcast”.

Quote form Podcast.com

After that, I also browse the web-sit Project Gutenburg, a source of free ebooks

Some of the materials are free to download, eg

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and there are lots of methods to download the documents.

Online productivity tools.

This week, I am learning two online productivity tools, which are Zoho and Google Doc.

These are the services provided from Zoho:

Zoho Sheet Online spreadsheet service Zoho Meeting Web Conferencing

Zoho Show Online presentation tool Zoho Invoice Online Invoicing. Quick and Easy

Zoho Writer Online word processor Zoho DB ZOHO.ZohoReports.DESC

Zoho Notebook Online Note Taker Zoho Creator Online web applications creator

Zoho Projects Project Management Zoho Planner Online organizing tool

Zoho Wiki Online Wiki with public, private & group permissions

Zoho Chat Instant messaging and group chat tool

The Zoho Office Suite is a web office suite which includes tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management, invoicing and other applications. Being web-native, all Zoho applications are operating system independent.

The applications can be used either to create content or to manipulate files created with other widely distributed office suites. Zoho can read and write file formats used in Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, and other systems. The programs in the suite can be used individually but offer additional integration benefits when used together. The data (document) files can be saved on Zoho's servers as well as those of several integration partners like box.net or Omnidrive, which allows synchronization back to the local PC.

Although some applications, e.g. Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects, have Pro features available for a fee, Zoho has stated a commitment to maintaining a free tier of entry-level applications. A single registration grants access to all the Zoho products.

Zoho has opened the Application Programming Interface (API) for six of its products: Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Creator, Zoho Meeting and Zoho Planner. This has enabled third parties to create programs that use the Zoho services. Zoho itself has created a plugin to integrate Zoho into Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as a browser plugin that can open text documents or spreadsheets without having word processing or spreadsheet applications installed. It has also created a desktop widget that allows users to run Zoho products on their desktops in a similar way to traditional office programs. In connection with the introduction of the iPhone, Zoho released a mobile version of Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show called iZoho, available at iZoho.com.[1] Zoho also made its applications available on Facebook after the social networking website opened its API.[2]

Sourecs From Wikipedia

Google Doc also provide the similiar functions as well. Here is their interface.

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of two services, Writely and Spreadsheets, which were merged into a single product on October 10, 2006. A third product for presentations, incorporating technology designed by Tonic Systems, was released on September 17, 2007.

Sourecs From Wikipedia

For the last exercise, I explore the Farecast Web-site that I find in Web 2.0 Awards

I like this (Web 2.0 Awards) web-site because I can always have the good and quality information from it. I am sure I will spend more time later on for my future use.

Week 7 -- Social Networking

This week I check out social networking services web-site such as Bebo, Myspace and Facebook.

Bebo is a popular social networking website, founded in January 2005. It can be used in many countries including Ireland, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. A Polish version was launched recently, which uses a different user database. There are plans for French, German and other versions. Founded by husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch, Bebo had a major relaunch in July 2005. It was bought by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850m (£417m).

"Bebo" is a backronym for “Blog early, blog often”

Quote from "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"

MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive,

user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for teenagers and adults internationally. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; which is owned by News Corporation, which has its headquarters in New York City. Since June 2006, MySpace has been the most popular social networking site in the United States.
The company employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. The 100 millionth account was created on August 6, 2006 in the Netherlands and a news story claimed 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006, and the site reportedly attracts 230,000 new users per day.

Quote from "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"

Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some American colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while still a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. Peter Thiel was the first person to fund the company, with an initial investment of US$500,000. Features include a Wall for posting messages and Photos for uploading digital photos. The website has more than 80 million active users worldwide.
Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. It has been blocked in several countries including Syria, China, and Iran. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. It is also facing several lawsuits from a number of Zuckerberg's former classmates, who claim that Facebook had stolen their source code and other intellectual property.

Quote from "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

In the Delicious bookmark search, I found out that there is a short video for Quick Tips on how to use Delicious on your iPhone.

"Huge thanks to Tom Merritt at CNET who created this video." I hope this is a useful tool for all of you current and future iPhone users!




The delicious bookmark web-site are useful. As a librarian, we may share the news or other things with other staff members. The following graphic cartoon is the one I find in the delicious bookmark web-site.

Then I explore the Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs.

"Technorati is a real-time search engine that is the largest source of fresh information about the global and local conversations going on all across the Web. Technorati allows you to find out what people are saying about you, your company, your products, your competitors, your politics and, other areas of interest, on the Internet in real time. "

quote from " http://www.technorati.com/help/blogging101.html "

Wiki Learning

This week I was asked to explore the Wikipedia.

Oh............., after this exercise, I learn something new. -->> Wiki means quick in Hawaiian.

Wiki’s: A Beginner’s Look gives good explnation of the advantage and disadvantage by using Wikipedia.

As anyone can change the file record, it is good for updating the records.

But on the other hand, Wiki is good for a breif introuction only, it is not a good idea for the academic use as there is no authority control.

In fact, lots of academic institution already banned their students to use Wikipedia as a reference sources for their assignment.

I learn a lot for the discovery exercise................

Discovery Exercise:

1. SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system
2. Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library
3. Library Success: A best practices wiki
4. Other library wiki examples
5. PB Wiki Tour - Find out how this collaborative tool can be used
6. PBWiki Video Gallery - Short videos of PBwiki features
7. PB Wiki Tips
   

At last, and most important.................

I also add my blog onto the manukaulearn to prove I did try to explore, learn and play the theroies behind the Wikipedia.

This week we learn how to use the popular image hosting site called Flickr. The picture on the left is the one that I found in Flickr.






icture from Flickr: GTR by sphilli911 and here is the link of that GTR picture. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2326/2354356073_f484a6f889_m.jpg

Then I took a picture from the library that I currently working at, the Botany Library and I uplaod the picture onto the Flickr as well.

I also try some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools too. The one that I particular like is Montagr , it create a photo mosaics and it's support Flickr as well.

It is a baby face. This picture is combined with another 500 pictures.

And, this is the trading card I create.

Week 3 -- Play around with image generators

This week, the exercises are fun. It is so excited.

Do you know what is the picture shown above?

Here are two more funny things that I have tried.

Furthermore, I addded the Library Thing Search and The Rollyo Search as well. They are the useful searching tools for the advance librarians.