Lewisham's Web 2.0 blog

How gazetteers help local authorities make the most of their data

2012-01-26T10:20:00.000Z

How gazetteers help local authorities make the most of their data:

Mark Say investigates how how the details of land and property can be used to improve public service delivery

The local gazetteer has taken its place among the prime digital assets of public authorities. There has been a widespread recognition of how the details of land and property can be used to improve service delivery, and an increasing number of organisations have launched initiatives that are now being held up as exemplars for others to follow.

It has been an evolutionary process that has recently moved on to a new stage with the creation of the National Address Gazetteer Database. Developed and managed in England and Wales by GeoPlace, a joint venture between the Local Government Association (LGA) and national mapping agency Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace went live in April 2011 and raises the possibility of authorities extracting even more value from their geographic information.

The predecessor of the National Address Gazetteer Database, the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), has been the prime tool for existing initiatives, together with the National Street Gazetteer (NSG). They have often been used to create new products for specific local services, some of which have been highlighted in the latest round of Exemplar Awards run by GeoPlace.

West Midlands fire service (WMFS) carried off the overall winner award for the creation of a new gazetteer named Chimp, which brought together a number of datasets into a single system.

The project involved creating or modifying more than 1m pieces of data to create a holding of 2.9m basic land and property units and 86,000 streets, along with more than 20,000 land and property identifier records to help correctly identify a location in an emergency call out. Using Chimp, all of the data was integrated into the brigade's new command and control system and its corporate gazetteer was extended across all of its business support systems.

The key result has been that the brigade is now better equipped to get crews to the right location more quickly, but it also has a valuable tool to support its long term planning. Chimp has already been used to manage more than 120,000 home safety checks in the West Midlands and in an area risk modelling project to support policy making.

Chimp has now been picked up by Staffordshire fire and rescue service and two others are said to be preparing to take it on.

In another case, Northumberland county council made use of the NSG in consolidating its 1,500 paper based traffic regulation orders (TROs) into a single database.

All the orders were scanned before being referenced against the NSG, following which the council surveyed all of its roads and reviewed each of the TROs. All of the information was placed in the new database, which was then used to create a layer in the council's geographic information system, so that anyone – including the public - could easily see the full details of the TROs on Ordnance Survey MasterMap. The database can also be used to produce reports and consultation documents.

Carl Dent, Northumberland's asset database manager, says the NSG was crucial in the validation of paper records and has become so in the introduction, revoking or updating of TROs. "In three years we have moved from a paper based system with lots of missing orders that relied on officers' memories to function to a full electronic system that is up to date and available to all," he says.

The National Address Gazetteer Database is going to add a new element to the capabilities in combining the NLPG with Ordnance Survey's address layer, the national dataset with addresses and their precise locations. It is also expected to gradually replace the NLPG as a basis for local land and property gazetteers.

Gayle Gander, marketing manager for GeoPlace, says that public authorities would not make direct use of the new gazetteer, but AddressBase products from Ordnance Survey through its public sector mapping agreement. This makes them free at the point of use for eligible organisations, although they have to pay for use of Royal Mail's Postcode Address File when utilising it in conjunction with the datasets.

A key feature is the provision of a unique reference number, described by Gander as a "golden thread", which makes it possible to find matches of a property in different datasets. This makes it possible to identify significant discrepancies, such as when the bins from an address are emptied but nobody there is on the council tax register or electoral roll. This could be used to correct a shortcoming in the delivery of a service, or to detect a potential case of fraud.

Equally important is that the information is now coming from all of the public sector, not just local authorities. Fire services and councils are already providing updates to GeoPlace, many on a daily basis, and Gander says that none of the information has gone more than a month without verification.

"Once embedded in local authorities there are all sorts of opportunities to do new things," he says. "Organisations are now testing it and we believe that in future it will be a core service offering for public authorities."

Two fire and rescue services, Hampshire and North Yorkshire, have emerged as early adopters. They are using the AddressBase Premium product from Aligned Assets, which includes details of non-addressable objects such as bus stops and park benches and can alert them to potential obstacles in an emergency.

How quickly others follow, particularly from local government, remains to be seen, as it may take time for councils and others to discover the value for the new products based on the National Address Gazetteer Database. But the long term trend indicates that public authorities are extracting more value from location based information, and the more detail it includes – and the closer it gets to real time – the more it is likely to be used.

This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the oin the Government Computing Network here.

Mark Say

Google Launches Internet Security Campaign

2012-01-19T11:12:00.000Z

Google Launches Internet Security Campaign: From NewsOK :

The Good to Know campaign, which launched Monday, is the company's largest consumer education effort. It offers a host of security and privacy tips meant to make the World Wide Web a safer and more comfortable place.
The tips were designed for users without a lot of technological [...]

ICO issues guidance about private emails

2012-01-12T15:32:00.000Z

ICO issues guidance about private emails:

Information Commissioner's Office reminds public sector that the Freedom of Information Act covers private emails if they are used for business matters

New guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has made it clear that information about public sector business held in private email accounts is covered by the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said: "It should not come as a surprise to public authorities to have the clarification that information held in private email accounts can be subject to freedom of information law if it relates to official business.

"It came to light in September that this is a somewhat misunderstood aspect of the law and that further clarification was needed. That's why we've issued new guidance today."

The guidance has two aims. Firstly, to give public authorities a steer on the factors that should be considered before deciding whether a search of private email accounts is necessary when responding to an FoI request.

Secondly, to set out the procedures that should generally be in place to respond to requests. Graham said that the need to search private email accounts should be a rare occurrence and his office does not expect this advice to increase the burden on public authorities.

The guidance emphasises that if a public authority decides that a private email account could include official information which is not held elsewhere, it will need to ask the individual concerned to search their account. There should be a record of the action taken to demonstrate that appropriate searches have taken place.

It says that public authorities should remind staff that deleting or concealing information with the intention of preventing its disclosure is a criminal offence under section 77 of the act.

In addition, the ICO says that it is accepted that, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to use private email for public authority business. However, it calls for a policy which clearly states that in these cases an authority email address should be copied in to ensure the completeness of the authority's records.

This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.

Credo Reference eBook Collections and Titles Offered via SwetsWise

2012-01-12T12:38:00.000Z

Credo Reference eBook Collections and Titles Offered via SwetsWise: From the press release:

Under the agreement, SWETS will incorporate Credo Reference with over 1,500 reference works from more than 80 of the world’s best reference publishers into the Swets Wise eBook catalog. Collections and titles are thoughtfully selected to offer broad coverage of subjects such as psychology, history, business, education, environmental [...]

Google Launches Election Site

2012-01-12T12:36:00.000Z

Google Launches Election Site: If you're having trouble keeping up with who's the "front runner" in the Republican primary, Google is here to help. In advance of the Iowa primary election, Google launched a Politics & Elections page. According to SiliconFilter :

Maybe the most interesting aspect of the site is the real-time dashboard , which [...]

Stockton and Darlington councils launch shared cloud services for schools

2012-01-10T12:13:00.001Z

Stockton and Darlington councils launch shared cloud services for schools:

North east authorities finish implementation of cloud hosted shared services for finance and accounting at a number of schools in the region

Stockton and Darlington councils have completed the installation of shared finance, HR and payroll transactional services, including technical IT and operational support, at 10 academy schools in the area.
The councils, whose joint services venture is known as Xentrall, said that the implementation was completed in six months as part of a deal with software firm UNIT4.
Ian Coxon, head of transactional services at Xentrall, told GGC that the academies will use enterprise resource planning software Agresso business world, which will be hosted in the cloud using UNIT4's shared journey solution.
"All the academies need is broadband access and internet explorer, and they will be able to access a shared version of Aggresso," said Coxon, adding that this cuts out the need for locally hosted services.
He explained that another one of the benefits of the service is that the software they access through the cloud is "tailor made" to each academy's specific need. The service is also subscription based, with the schools paying for what they use.
Coxon said that the shared service could be used by other schools or authorities further afield as the technology means that geography is no long a barrier to collaboration.
Xentrall, which was first launched by the authorities in 2008, first considered a cloud shared services initiative in April 2011. The councils said they have been pleased with the uptake so far and hope that the cloud service will be seen as a "benchmark" for other public sector organisations setting up similar services.
Coxon said: "It demonstrates that in the new economy there is appetite for innovative operating models and technologies.
"We have been told that this, along with Xentrall's shared services heritage and not-for-profit status, makes the services attractive to public sector organisations looking to adapt to funding challenges."
The councils said they would not reveal the value of the deal as it was "commercially sensitive information".
This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.

Sade Laja

Caffeine - New Google Search

2009-08-15T16:31:00.001+01:00

Google's new search is now available - nicknamed Caffeine - at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. Looks the same but should provide more current listings.

My presentation about Lewisham's Web 2.0 programme at COSI 2009

2009-08-04T11:29:00.002+01:00

Web 2.0 and taking the fear out of community engagement

View more presentations from Lewisham Libraries.

TwitterPlan - get Lewisham local planning updates on Twitter

2009-06-13T11:25:00.005+01:00

TwitterPlan lets you get local planning applications sent directly to you via a Twitter DM (direct message). You need to be on Twitter, then just click on the link below and follow the instructions.

You can specify your street, neighbourhood (up to 800m), or a wider area (up to 2,000m).

http://www.twitterplan.co.uk/

New Google products

2009-04-21T10:25:00.003+01:00

Google have launched 2 new experimental products that change the way you can search for images and news.

Google News Timeline
A web application that organizes information chronologically. Google News Timeline allows users to view news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and more on a zoomable, graphical timeline.
http://newstimeline.googlelabs.com/

Google Similar Images
Search for images using pictures rather than words. Similar images helps you narrow your search by finding images that are visually similar to an existing result.
http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/

You can keep up to date with these and similar developments through the Google Labs site and their RSS feed - http://www.googlelabs.com/

Database State report

2009-04-04T13:12:00.002+01:00

'Database State' is a report written by FIPR for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust on the failings of public-sector IT in Britain, and how to fix them.

"In recent years, the Government has built or extended many central databases that hold information on every aspect of our lives, from health and education to welfare, law-enforcement and tax. This 'Transformational Government' programme was supposed to make public services better or cheaper, but it has been repeatedly challenged by controversies over effectiveness, privacy, legality and cost. The report charts these databases, creating the most comprehensive map so far of what has become Britain's 'Database State'. All of these systems had a rationale and purpose. But this report shows how, in too many cases, the public are neither served nor protected by the increasingly complex and intrusive holdings of personal information invading every aspect of our lives."
http://www.jrrt.org.uk/uploads/Database%20State.pdf

From the Foundation for Information Policy Research

Websites for children must register their moderators, says new law

2009-04-03T10:34:00.000+01:00

Organisations with interactive websites likely to be used mainly by children must ensure that staff moderating the sites are not barred from working with children from October.

It will be a criminal offence for an organisation to knowingly employ a barred person for a regulated role, such as moderating children's sites. The Government is changing the way that it controls who has access to children and vulnerable adults and new laws take effect on 12th October. Those make the moderation of online services such as bulletin boards a regulated activity.

That means that anyone on the list of people banned from working with children will also be banned from moderating online services that are likely to be accessed and used by children. The same is true of people on the list relating to vulnerable adults in connection with online services likely to be used by vulnerable adults.

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act was introduced in 2006 and has been modified by a commencement order which expands it to include some online services as regulated activities, meaning that they cannot be performed by anyone on the list of banned people.The new law includes as a regulated activity "moderating a public interactive communication service which is likely to be used wholly or mainly by children".

This is from Out-law.com. Read more here http://www.out-law.com/page-9762

British Library: Online Courses on Intellectual Property

2009-03-07T12:00:00.002Z

The British Library Business & IP Centre has developed three free courses on intellectual property. The courses are totally free, easy to access, and being on-line they don’t require people to come to the Library. On the contrary, they might well be completed from home or from a local library.

BL have asked us to help promote them, so try these links -

The link for the courses is http://bipc-ecourses.bl.uk/
The link for the Business & IP Centre is http://www.bl.uk/bipc/index.html

"If you have an idea that you are looking to commercialise, these free courses from the British Library will help you understand how to protect your idea and how it might be developed.
The courses are designed with a customisable structure, so that you can both start from scratch or directly get to the specific areas you are interested in.

Course One: Basics of Intellectual Property Protection Find out all about patents, trade marks, copyright and registered designs in detail.
Course Two: Searching the Databases Discover whether your idea is original by learning how to do searches on different databases.
Course Three: Analysing the Markets Gain the skills you need to establish whether there is a commercial market for your idea.

Now you can grasp this complex subject using a simple step-by-step approach that takes you from the basic facts through to interactive exercises and sections such as "What Do You Do?" and "Ask the Experts".

Westminster Libraries on YouTube

2009-02-25T16:31:00.002Z

Shows what can be done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENUsbM0OWto

UK Trains on Twitter

2009-02-25T16:27:00.001Z

Disruption alerts for UK train services by Twitter, supported by backstage.bbc.co.uk. Created by Ben Smith

Inspired by this tweet from MP Tom Watson and enabled - in part - by BBC Backstage's travel feeds, this prototype service:

Tweets disruption alerts for 25 UK train operators (for all services or by operator).
Gathers 'crowd-sourced' disruption alerts from users and re-distributes them [more details].
[NEW] Collects questions, complaints or praise for rail operators [more details].

To get started register for a Twitter account and follow one or more of these accounts:

@uktrains - Alerts for services from all 25 companies below.

For alerts limited to the operators that interest you, follow individual rail operator(s) from the list below:

@uktr_arrivawale - Arriva Trains Wales
@uktr_c2c - c2c
@uktr_cc - CrossCountry
@uktr_chiltern - Chiltern Railways
@uktr_eastanglia - National Express East Anglia
@uktr_eastcoast - National Express East Coast
@uktr_eastmid - East Midlands Trains
@uktr_firstcc - First Capital Connect
@uktr_firstgw - First Great Western
@uktr_gatwickexp - Gatwick Express
@uktr_grandcent - Grand Central Trains
@uktr_heathrowco - Heathrow Connect
@uktr_heathrowex - Heathrow Express
@uktr_hulltrains - Hull Trains
@uktr_islandline - Island Line
@uktr_londonmid - London Midland
@uktr_londonover - London Overground
@uktr_merseyrail - Merseyrail
@uktr_northern - Northern Rail
@uktr_scotrail - First ScotRail
@uktr_southeast - Southeastern Railway
@uktr_southern - Southern
@uktr_southwest - South West Trains
@uktr_transpenex - TransPennine Express
@uktr_virgin - Virgin Trains

Visit Ben Smith's Uk Train wiki at http://uktrains.pbwiki.com/ for more information

Which constituency is that in?

2009-02-19T13:34:00.002Z

A useful little gadget that takes the pain out of looking up constituencies - it takes a list of postcodes, and returns details of the constituencies for each one: Which constituency is that in?

Powered by TheyWorkForYou, this hosted version limits you to batches of 25; if you want to grab the code and host it yourself with your own API key, it’s free for anyone to use.

Lewisham Council tweets

2009-02-14T12:49:00.001Z

Lewisham Council is on Twitter.

You can sign up to follow their tweets at http://twitter.com/LewishamCouncil

Follow that Councillor!

2009-02-14T12:45:00.004Z

‘Cllr Tweeps’ is a website that lists the UK’s twittering councillors so that residents can track down their elected member, follow their messages and tweet with them.

Cllr James Cousins, of Wandsworth council, who helped to set up the site, said it was inspired by Tweetminister – a directory of all MPs who have Twitter accounts http://tweetminster.com/

The website is politically independent aiming to help councillors engage and communicate with their communities. So far Cllr Tweeps has confirmed that there are 88 councillors from 68 councils who currently have Twitter accounts – but the figure is constantly rising. So far there are 2 listed for Lewisham.

To visit the website see http://cllrtweeps.com/

Severe weather and Lewisham

2009-02-02T09:46:00.001Z

The heavy snow and severe weather has had an impact on services in Lewisham and we are unable to open all of our libraries today.

Wavelengths, Forest Hill, Torridon Road, Sydenham and Catford Libraries are all expected to open this morning until 1.00pm. All of our other libraries, including Lewisham and the Open Learning Centre will be closed.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and plan to resume normal service as soon as possible.

Digital Britain - the interim report

2009-01-29T14:04:00.002Z

The Government has been outlining its plans for UK’s digital transition - "to secure Britain’s place at the forefront of the global digital economy". The interim report contains more than 20 recommendations, including specific proposals on:

next generation networks

universal access to broadband

the creation of a second public service provider of scale

the modernisation of wireless radio spectrum holdings

a digital future for radio

a new deal for digital content rights

enhancing the digital delivery of public services

http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

2008 Web 2.0 training success

2008-12-23T10:44:00.004Z

Just thought you might like to know how the Web 2.0 training has gone as 2008 comes to a close.

23 training sessions were held
131 bookings were made for them
over 60% of staff attended at least one session
there was a 16% drop out rate - so an 84% attendance rate
39 blogs were created
18 wikis were created
20 Facebook or MySpace accounts were created
28 Picasa or Flickr accounts were created

All in all a great success and we already have bookings for the next set of sessions!

I'm taking a breather so we'll be doing the next set of training in the New Year. Thanks to everyone who attended and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

WCAG 2.0

2008-12-23T10:39:00.002Z

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people. Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) will apply to text, images, audio and video. It also covers web applications and should give developers more flexibility than the old guidelines. According to W3C, WCAG 2.0 should also be easier to understand and use.

The guidance is designed to address barriers encountered by people with visual, hearing, physical, cognitive and neurological disabilities and older people with access needs.
You can see the new guidance at - http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Lewisham's Web 2.0 in the news

2008-12-05T13:36:00.003Z

Lewisham's Web 2.0 training has made the big time - well Cilip Update at least! Those of you who are members of Cilip can see the article on page 6 of the December edition, or online at http://www.cilip.org.uk/ Those of you who aren't can nick a copy from a colleague.

It's been posted about on the Cilip blog - members only to comment I'm afraid, and there's also a post about it and Learning 2.0 on Sarah Washford's Info Junkie blog

The Power of the Unconference

2008-11-25T13:32:00.001Z

Interesting report on a youth engagement conference

"I think it was clear it was going to be a good day during the introductions. Around fifty youth workers, technologists and others with an interest in youth participation from as far away as Lancashire, Devon, Norfolk and Wiltshire had gathered at DIUS on a Saturday morning for UKYouthOnline, organised by Tim Davies. With that much enthusiasm and experience in the room, Tim’s gamble on the open space conference methodology was sure to pay off - even if only about a third of the participants had ever attended an unconference before."

http://blog.helpfultechnology.com/2008/09/the-power-of-unconference/

How are young people using social media?

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social networking youth)

Library Facebook page

2008-11-09T21:41:00.000Z

Library Facebook page - what to put on it?
By philipbradley
Thanks to Ms Sarah I discovered a really interesting blog post from David Lee King called What can you do with a Facebook Page? He discusses his library's page on Facebook - the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and briefly covers what is included in it and what he'd like to do with it. Great to read, and none of the 'Oh, we don't allow Facebook in our library' rubbish!

Everything you wanted to know about Web 2.0 - Part 2

2008-10-04T15:02:00.002+01:00

The next set of training sessions have been organised - they start on 13th October and run through to December. An email has been sent to all staff and you can find details on the Library 2.0 SPS.

2008-09-06T16:15:00.001+01:00

A new YouTube from Dr Michael Wesch

An anthropological introduction to YouTube
From: mwesch Views: 267,010 Comments: 507

Lefora - forums made easy

2008-09-06T12:19:00.000+01:00

Free Forum Hosting - Easy to get started - Free, hosted, and just a few clicks away. Save time moderating with our community tools and anti-spam support.
Self promotion - Automatic email notifications and newsletters to your members. Provide a better experience for your community members.
http://www.lefora.com/

bubbl.us

2008-09-06T12:14:00.000+01:00

bubbl.us - free web application for brainstorming online. Create colorful mind maps online Share and work with friends Embed your mind map in your blog or website Email and print your mind map Save your mind map as an image

Lewisham Team Read blog

2008-08-15T14:53:00.001+01:00

Well done to Max at Downham who has set up a blog for local children to access and leave their comments about Team Read. The website address is http://lewishamteamread.blogspot.com

Anyone can post a comment and all is explained on the welcome page. Children are invited to swap messages about the books they've read, what they think of Team Read etc. The messages will be moderated.

Wikis in plain English

2008-08-09T13:26:00.000+01:00

Is Cuil really cool?

2008-08-01T14:48:00.003+01:00

'Cuil' pronounced 'cool' or perhaps even 'kewl' is labelled as having the largest database of all the search engines and with an index of 120 billion web pages this may just be the case. Cuil has been around for a while although doubts remain if it will suceed in gaining the same popularity as Google.

Wikis - everything you wanted to know - no 2

2008-07-30T15:04:00.002+01:00

The second wiki session is finished and some of the test wikis created today are listed on the right.

The sessions continue with Photos & Images in August then we'll be doing Social Networking in September.

Wikis - everything you wanted to know

2008-07-21T12:56:00.003+01:00

The first wiki training session went well. 3 new test wikis were created. Participants were able to edit the Lewisham Web 2.0 wiki and had a go at editing Wikipedia. Next wiki session is 30th July. Book now to get your place!

Practicalities of Web 2.0 - meeting report from UKEIG

2008-06-28T11:47:00.002+01:00

Presented by Phil Bradley, at King's College London, Guys Campus, Wednesday 19 March 2008
Report by Fiona McLean, Knowledge and Information Centre, St Thomas' Hospital, London ( mailto:fmclean@gsst.nhs.uk) Published in eLucidate http://www.ukeig.org.uk/elucidate/public/meetingreports/2008/Web2.html

Phil made it clear from the start that the focus of this course was aspects of Web 2.0 we might find useful. The seminar started with a quick overview of some definitions and concepts of Web 2.0, and he gave some examples of it in practice:

A platform serving Web applications to end users, which could take over desktop computing applications
A way of harnessing collective intelligence
Facilitating the use and reuse of data in many ways.
Involving users directly in development.
Not limiting to a single device (storage on a website rather than a PC or individual network).

Or maybe Web 2.0 is actually a state of mind!

He emphasised that definitions were much less important than what you can do with it.
As you might expect, Phil makes use of innovative resources himself. He has loaded some of his presentations on to his ‘SlideShare' site. It's an example of a typical Web 2.0 resource, as it allows the creation, storage and sharing of resources that are not based on one PC. It can be used by others without needing particular software or to download large files. It includes a presentation from a similar course at http://www.slideshare.net/Philbradley/cilipbuilding/, which is worth a look. The site includes a transcript of the all the slides (near the bottom of the page). Some of the links click through (vertical hand icon).

More URLs are listed below, or at the end of this report.

The seminar included practical exercises where we learned about the developing range of Web 2.0 activities, with examples of relevant specific sites, and how to use them.

Pageflakes http://www.pageflakes.com/allows you to set up a start page compiled with ‘flakes' of your choice, in a range of media. These could include elements such as; a 'to do' list, RSS feeds, weather reports, or favourite images.

NewsreaderWe covered how to register and select feeds, and how to organise them, using Bloglines http://www.%20bloglines%20.com/

Set up a search engineThere are a range of sites where you can do this. They do a similar job in a similar way. We focused on using Rollyo http://www.rollyo.com/, as the easiest to use. Other sites include

Yahoo Search Builder http://builder.search.yahoo.com/m/promo,
Eurekster at http://www.eurekster.com/
Google Custom Search Builder at http://google.com/coop/cse/

Start a blogBlogger http://www.blogger.com/provides an easy way to set up a blog. Having created a blog, there are further steps in formatting and publishing it.

Set up a website without having to store anything on your own PCZimbio (http://www.zimbio.com/) allows the creation of content on the Web which can be shared with other people. This can either be public or private.

Bookmark servicesThere are several of these, but what they have in common is that the information is stored on their site, not the user's PC. There are added facilities, such as indexing and related searching.

Favorites/bookmarksdel.icio.us http://www.delicious.com/is the well-known example.
WebpagesFURL http://www.furl.net/saves an entire webpage, fully indexed, rather than just a URL.

Create a wikiThe site we looked at was Peanut Butter wiki http://pbwiki.com/.

Some of the other links covered in the seminar:
http://www.netvibes.com/
http://rawsugar.com/
http://liswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.plugoo.com/
http://www.gabbly.com/
http://www.meebo.com/

Phil's extensive website is at http://www.philb.com/.

I found this to be a very practical, relevant course about this rapidly evolving concept. The overview was a refreshingly expert, objective and hype-free briefing, complemented by learning about specific functions, and how to use relevant sites, sometimes with the help of step-by-step instructions. It has given me the knowledge and motivation to investigate more Web 2.0 resources, while having a balanced view on whether they are really ground-breaking super innovations or not!

RSS and newsfeeds

2008-06-23T11:57:00.002+01:00

The training session went well this morning with participants creating their own Bloglines news reader and finding some interesting blog and news feeds to put in them. The next session is on Monday 30th - still a few spaces if enyone else wants to book in.

Blog training

2008-06-18T16:39:00.000+01:00

Well done everyone who attended the blog sessions and created their own blog - they've all been added to the links on the right.

Content warning

2008-06-09T17:35:00.003+01:00

Just a quick comment to say that when I looked at Juvenita's training blog, I received a "content warning" about objectionable content. I can only think this happened because the blog contains the words "adult reading". We probably don't want the public to receive these warnings, so we need to be careful about the terminology we use!

Exploiting the blogosphere

2008-06-01T19:29:00.004+01:00

Presentation by Karen Blakeman on Slideshare
Exploiting the blogosphere

SHARE - What is Web 2.0

2008-06-01T19:24:00.001+01:00

Karen Blakeman's keynote presentation at the SHARE: Annual Briefing Event on 29 April, 2008.

What is Web 2.0?

Blogs and wikis in libraries, our new best friends?

2008-06-01T18:16:00.001+01:00

Report on a course organised by the CILIP Information Services Group South East Branch and held at CILIP on 8th November 2007. The day began with an informative and entertaining presentation by Karen Blakeman on the complex topics of blogs, wikis and RSS. Karen was both key presenter and host for the day and had undoubted expertise in the subjects considered, having specialised in consulting and training on the use of the internet and accessing and managing information resources since setting up her company RBA (www.rba.co.uk) in 1989.

Course report available at http://www.cilip.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E312C568-EDB3-41C7-8C04-9041DB188FF2/0/BlogsandwikiscoursedayreportEveleenAnne1.doc

Five weeks to a social library - free online course

2008-06-01T17:02:00.003+01:00

"Five Weeks to a Social Library is the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. It was developed to provide a free, comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software." The course was taught online in 2007, but the materials have been archived and are freely viewable for interested parties to follow. The live Webcasts were also archived. The course covered the following topics:

Blogs
RSS
Wikis
Social Networking Software and SecondLife
Flickr
Social Bookmarking Software
Selling Social Software @ Your Library

Five weeks to a social library

Blogs and blogging

2008-05-29T18:18:00.006+01:00

The first thing that we are going to try is blogging. The first exercise is to set up your own blog which you can use to begin recording your thoughts, exercises and comments. There are several tools available, but I recommend that you use Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is very easy to use.

Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:

Create an account
Name your blog
Select your template

Once you’ve created your blog here are two important things to know:

To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the appearance of your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com. Be sure to write down your login and password.
To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique name that you entered in Step 2. Make sure you make a note of your blog address.

Exercise:

Set up a blog for yourself through Blogger
Add a test post or two
Find someone else's blog and comment on one of their posts

IMPORTANT NOTE: How you choose to identify yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself. Make sure that it is something you can remember and don't forget to let the other 'trainees' have details so that you can comment on each others blogs

Web 2.0 and Lewisham Libraries

2008-05-29T18:03:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Lewisham's Web 2.0 blog. I will be posting information and links that complement and supplement the training that will be available.