bookglutton.com: an excellent idea
This website for people who enjoy reading is an ingenious combination of online reader, public library and discussion meeting place. And it’s free. Creators Travis Alber and Aaron Miller, according to their About page, “set out to create a better way to read on-line; our goal was to make something different, engaging, intelligent and digital.”
After watching the introductory video (below), I signed up and did a test run. You can search the Find A Book section by either title or author, or you can browse the website’s entire collection alphabetically via either of these categories. All went smoothly, no glitches, no delays. The instructions are simple and clear, even for those of us prone to user error.
The website also is pleasingly democratic. Reading groups are available for those who like that sort of thing, or the reader can opt for solitude and read all on his or her lonesome.
Highly recommended!
What Web-based worlds tell researchers about the real one
What we can learn from people’s behavior in Web-based worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft is the subject of an article today in the Christian Science Monitor online. Reporter Chris Gaylord talks to, among others, scholar Robert J. Bloomfield at Cornell University.
Bloomfield describes how he and his colleagues are researching economic policy issues by taking a look at choices players make in virtual reality. There are an estimated 73 million people now participating in these online worlds, according to the article.
Intrigued with Bloomfield’s ideas, I looked around online and found Metanomics.net, where he blogs. There I found a link to Serious Games Institute (SGI) and the video below. It is an interview with SGI director David Wortley who also explains how and why more scholars and business leaders are increasingly taking online games seriously.
Find more videos like this on Serious Games - The Serious Games Networking Portal
Obama’s Great Speech in South Carolina
That it may be one of his best yet is an opinion shared by a lot of people, from what I’m reading. The video isn’t hard to find online. Just in case, here’s the whole thing, by way of TalkingPointsMemo.com.
Virtual living: just playing dress-up, or more?
A peek at virtual living sites online, plus a deeper look at what it all means is offered in a recent video interview hosted by Ira Flatov, of ScienceFriday.com. Flatov talks to Sherry Turkle, director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self. Turkle discusses some psychological aspects of living in virtual reality.
Also offering commentary in the video is Cory Ondrejka, former Chief Technology Officer at Linden Lab. Linden Lab created the popular Second Life virtual world website. Ondrejka talks about learning how to use virtual reality living as a way to communicate, and to connect more to the real world.
The video also features scenes from Flatov’s own visit to Second Life to meet listeners to his show.
Want to see an Iowan in its natural habitat? Here’s one
He’s columnist David Yepsen of Iowa’s Des Moines Register. And for those who aren’t political junkies (USA), this interview with TV talk show host Charlie Rose may be largely gobbledygook. But for those who do take an interest in the internal workings of the U.S. presidential primary season, the drilling down into detail done here may be of interest. The interview also is timely (for the next eight hours or so, at least) given that the Iowa caucuses are being held today.
Rose and Yepsen talk about Democratic candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, and who’s saying what, who’s listening and how Iowans may be responding. There is also some discussion about the leading Republican candidates, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and the Iowa surprise, Mike Huckabee. (I found this video on HuffingtonPost.com)
What’s shrinking the digital divide the fastest?
The mobile phone is the electronic device most often in the hands of those in developing countries, according to Katrin Verclas, of MobileActive.org. As of the end of 2007, three billion mobile phones were expected to be in use across the globe, Verclas says.
As a point of comparison, an estimated one billion people in the world reportedly had Internet access by the end of 2007 (see more on digital statistics here).
Verclas is the founder of MobileActive.org. It is a worldwide network for people interested in using mobile phones, and their potential for communication, in civil society and for social activism, according to the website.
Examples of innovative campaigns and projects abound. Democracy organizations have used mobile phones to swing elections through innovative get-out-the-vote activities, ensured impartial voting through poll monitoring via SMS, developed ground-breaking new information services with vital civic or health information, documented abuses of political prisoners, and lobbied legislators to pass environmental laws. (From the About section of MobileActive.org).
For more information about Verclas and the work she is doing, check out this webpage on Changents.com, where I first read about her.
