MLA 2010 Conference: Web 2.x Tools to Make You Look Cool: The Internet Strikes Back!

Presenter: Cynthia Dudenhoffer, Director of Information Services, Central Methodist University

Will be discussing all free, web based,.com that require no downloads.

Aviary - image editor, screen capture, audio editor, music creator effect editor, eolor editor, image markup, etc.

Analogue - ondemand, anonymous, multi-user chat interface

Bubbl.US - brainstorming tool, do need to create an account to keep. create flowcharts, etc.

Bounceapp - Let's you comment, share, or post stuff to any website, great for comments for webdesign

Cramberry.net - make your own flash cards, also available as an iPhone and Blackberry app

Crappygraphs.com - can make a graph of whatever you want, really just for fun.

Dragontape.com - lets you stream videos together so you can string them together to watch all at once, instead of watching in sections can watch all at once.

Followupthen.com - Time management system that sends emails and reminders to do your work.

Heapr.com - aggregated search engine that allows you to search social networking as well as search engines

Kwout.com - Can highlight and quote a webpage and email it out to someone

Librivox.org - free audio books, or create your own audiobook and share it with others

Lynda.com - free tutorials on anything you can think of.

MyWeboo.com - manages everything that you do on the internet.

Prettygraph.com - lets you make professional graphs for free, and provides the source code so you can put it anywhere you want.

Paper.li - allows you to read twitter as a daily newspaper.

Redkid.net - a safe, educational website for all ages, for tweens, does have image generators, upload image and make into a sign

Replyz.com - People asking and answering questions in real time. Caution: may not always be appropriate.

Scribblemaps.com - Let's you write and more on top of any google map and then share. Can search any google map or google earth.

Sciencestage.com - Includes science tutorials, demonstration videos, lectures, etc. Starts at middle school and then goes up.

ShareSomeSugar.com - Allows you to borrow items from others within your zip code. Allows you to share items without having to buy something.

Smories.com - Original stories for kids, by kids, and read by kids.

Totspot.com - A safe place for kids that allows you to create a safe website for and about your child to share with those you want to see.

Visualizing.org - A creative commons infographics.

XSketch.com - Online pictionary, realtime virtual.

YourFonts.com - Does require a scanner, but allows you to create a font from your own handwriting.

YTTM.tv - YouTube time machine, goes back all the way to 1880 up to current day. You can choose a year and pick a video from that year. Can filter subjects such as commercials, current events, sports, etc. Great for the assignment of students looking to see what happened the year they were born.

ZamZar.com - convert files from one format to another.

This is a great presentation. Lots of websites I want to go home and play with. I can't wait.

Super Searcher Shares: Search Tips Spectacular! Session

Super Searcher Shares
Mary Ellen Bates, Owner, Bates Information Services, Inc.
BatesInfo.com

Slide Deck found at BatesInfo.com/extras

Newsy.com - The Week meets YouTube
-Human editors summarize the news
-One-sentence summary
-Walter Cronkite of the 21st century
-Links to original sources

Google Buzz - Competition for Twitter
-Access via Gmail; comments to a post go to email
-Nice browse features
-Includes Google Stars; you can star a link on a search, will automatically be saved to your goole bookmarks; you can star a google buzz
-Rudimentary search; no date sort of results; includes other social media sources
-Offers recommendations

BuZZZy.com
-Searches Google Buzz plus Twitter, Friendfeed, etc.
-Results are chronological (unlike Buzz)
-Can limit by language

***Side note: Google Language Search, need to search other languages***

Factery.net
-Searches Yahoo BOSS and Twitter
-Ranks by FactRank
-FactRank secret sauce includes
--Tweeted URLs
--Frequency of factual sentences (One Riot indexes URLs that have been mentioned in Twitter)
-Looks for more fact based sites
-SERP (Search Engine Result Page) has facts, not extracts
-Great for mobile devices
-Tools to extract data from a web page

See latest web "facts"

Technorati - technorati.com
-Authority is working!
-Cuts out spam
-Search by blog title or blog post
-sort by date or relevance
-shows hottest posts in various channels (topics)

SlideFinder.net
-great search tool for slide decks
-they crawl individual PPT pages; emphasis on university sites
-SERP includes thumbnails of indiviual pages; one click to full slide deck, one click to download
-Search by: presentation name, slide and note text!, language
-Try strategic
-Add in lets you know you can search within PowerPoint

World Govt Data
-Compiled by The Guardian
-Metasearch of govt data from US, UK, Australia, New Zealand
-Standardized format; can compare data from multiple sources
-User ratings

Factual.com
-Search data sets
-Like Wolfram/Alpha, but as a wiki
-Now, primarily wikipedia content

Twitter Lists
-Create and publish an RSS of your faves
-Can see who is listed on other lists
-Can see what lists a user follows; who does the guru monitor?
-Can't search the lists

Listorious.com
-Spiders (public) Twitter LIsts
--Find lists on a topic
--ID experts

What you're worth per hour
-Your salary x 1.3
--$74,000 is SLA median salary (=$96,200)
-Divide by BILLABLE weeks
--47 weeks ($2050/week)
-Divide that by 40 hours/week
--$50/hour

***This has been a great session. Instead of presenting a session such as 45 sites in 45 minutes or Top 20, Mary Ellen really discussed some great websites that are USABLE. While I love to hear about those fun cute sites, these sites she discussed are ones that not only can I use for myself, but also show to my library users, as well as incorporate into my class. I just know my students are going to love it!***