Web2.0 Tools - What's the point

Aloha everyone, this week I'm somewhat distracted since I'm in Hawaii to "work". I guess I'll have to suffer somehow :). In looking at Web 2.0 tools, I first wanted to find out what a Web 2.0 tool was. So after consulting a few places, I believe that these tools allow users to do more than just retrieve information. They can build on the interactive facilities of "Web 1.0" to provide "Network as platform" computing, allowing users to run software-applications entirely through a browser. Users can own the data on a Web 2.0 site and exercise control over that data (Wikipedia). Wikipeda listed a few tools as Web 2.0 that I had never considered before like eBay, Craigslist, etc. I believed these just to be web sites. So is the term Web 2.0 being overused in that any website that allows the user to inter and interact with their data is now a Web 2.0 tool?

In fact I'm not a big computer user outside of work and this class. Something about being on a computer for 10-12 hours a day and then going home and using the computer for another 4-5 doesn't really appeal to me. Google Docs to me seems like an interesting idea, but at the same time seems to be a novelity. I can see the value in collaborating on documents in a business world, but Google Docs seems to lack the richness of formatting to really play in the mainline business world.

Blogging is a good concept, prior to this class I probably would not have blogged anything. Currently I'm using it to listen and respond to the thoughts of some of the top minds in my research area. This level of interaction with the experts through this medium really accelerates the advancement of knowledge.

Flickr is a pretty good tool for sharing photos. But then again, unless you are a professional photographer, I don't really care to see you family photos of your vacation to the Grand Canyon. I almost seems like society has gotten into the mindset of "well the tool is there so I probably ought to use it." Just look at myspace and some of the content that people post there.... :

Anyway enough with the ranting, I think that some Web 2.0 tools are useful but given the limitations on functionality and openness that is present in the corporate world, I don't see these tools really being embraced by an overwhelming majority of corporate users.

Goodbye textbooks; hello open source learning

Reviewed a talk on TED called Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning by Richard Baraniuk. He talks about Connexions which is focusing on digitizing books that are open/free and editable by anyone. At first I got the impression that this was a lot like wikipedia, but as he went on it became apparent that Connexions is much more. 

First the focus is on low-demand academic books and not mainstream commercial publications like Harry Potter. These books are provides under the Creative Commons license and contain rich interactive content like embedded tools that lets the student experiment with the concepts. The capability also provides the capability to create customer books tailored for the instructors specific needs.

My original thought was that this approach did not really address the problem of textbooks in poor and under-develop parts of the world and relied on the Internet to deliver the content. He did go on the highlight the ability to submit the book to a on-demand publisher and have custom books printed and distributed for around $20.00.

All in all, I though the concept was very innovative in that custom books that draw on a broad diverse talent pool for content can be delivered through Internet or traditional books formats.

It's worth the 18 minutes to watch.

CTU Graduation

Attended graduation last night celebrating the achievements of our fellow students. Ceremony was very motivating to me to get the dissertation completed and finish the program. A much needed shot in the arm.