Cool Thought: A Delicious Flickr

I recently joined Flickr and Delicious. For anyone who doesn't know what these sites are about, Flickr is a place to upload and share photos while Delicious is place to save and share bookmarks on the web.

If you're itching to see what photos and bookmarks I've shared and can't wait till the end of this post, you're in luck:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zham61/
http://delicious.com/zham61

I'm an avid Facebook'er, so I post all my pictures on there. Everyone I know uses Facebook so I don't really have a need to use Flickr. If I need to host a picture, video, etc my blog already does that for me as well, so once again I find myself in the same place as many people on the web--trying to sort through all the substitutes for a particular need. Sorry Flickr, but Facebook fills my needs (for free, I might add).

Now Delicious is a pretty interesting idea. I remember waaaaay back in high school, that's right folk, back in the 90's, Yahoo had a service that could save your bookmarks. I never used the service, but I sure thought it was a cool idea. Oddly enough, Delicious and Flickr are both owned by Yahoo. The obvious benefit of Delicious is that you can access your bookmarks anywhere in the world on any computer that has the internet (I don't think you'd be using bookmarks if you didn't have the internet, but anyway). Delicious is more than just saving and sharing bookmarks online, you can "tag" bookmarks with particular labels called "key words." If you select a keyword in Delicious, one can see all the web pages that have been tagged by everyone on the site. Pretty neat eh?

Now you're probably thinking, how could I use these sites for an educational purpose (I suppose if that 'you' Dr. Wiley, than yes)? Well I'm about to tell you! The obvious use for Flickr at an educational level, is for posting photos dealing with a particular lecture or using the slide show feature as a teaching instrument. What about Delicious? I'll use an example from one of my classes I'm taking this semester (No not Honors 295).

Suppose a professor at university assigned his/her class, as part of their regular curriculum, a research paper who's topic had to do with the subject matter of the class. In this particular class, all students picked their own topics, but had to do with a general area of study. The professor has this assignment for all of his/her sections and gives the same assignment every semester for the same class, and teaches three semesters a year. This professor decides to creates a Delicious account where he/she bookmarks some sites/online articles that would be helpful for students picking topics and gives those bookmarks a unique tag that identifies with the class and additional tags that identify with individual topics. As students use this resource to find topics and information for their research papers, they find additional interesting sites/online articles and with their Delicious account, bookmark them with said special tag and additional tags based on topics. After a few semesters there exists on Delicious a living, breathing, database that has to deal specifically with topics discussed in that particular class. Wow, I should get paid for these ideas, or someone should, wait I think someone did.

Gabriela Grosseck wrote a very good article on the use of Delicious in education, entitled,"The Role of Delicious in Education". Of all the things that she said, the product insight that she discovered that I thought was most interesting, is that Delicious creates an environment through tags where people discover new things they wouldn't have otherwise. This is especially true when considering Popular section of Delicious.

What are some other ways one can use Delicious or Flickr for education? (This is your cue for comments.)

Cool Thing: Max Hall looking good at Shrine game and for the Draft

Max Hall had a good showing at the East-West Shrine game. Russ Lande at SportingNews had this to say,

"Hall definitely helped his cause with a strong week. Among the QBs in Orlando, he was the closest to being NFL-ready. He showed excellent footwork and throwing mechanics, a very quick release and excellent short/intermediate accuracy. Don't get us wrong -- Hall's lack of height (6-0 1/4) and arm strength will keep him from being a high draft pick, but he showed he has what it takes to be a very good backup. He will be drafted and he will have a good NFL career."

Continue the story here.

Cool Thing: Fear the Boom and Bust (Econ that won't put you to sleep)

How often is Economics the subject of a rap video? Okay, well you might be able to think of a few references. But how many rap videos do you know that exclusively star dead economists? Yeah didn't think so.

Here is the "whacked" description from NPR, the crazy guys that put this together.

"In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there's a "boom and bust" cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it."

Continue the story here.

Cool Thing (Maybe): (Update) Free Mass Effect 2 DLC on Launch Day

Update. Most of the extra content will be free to anyone that buys the game new. So yeah, even if you didn't pre-order for all the extra goodness, you can still buy a new copy and play like the cool kids.

For all of you out in video game land, I don't have to tell you (you're probably already standing in line at Gamespot), Mass Effect 2 is set for release at Midnight today. For all of you Mass Effect junkies (yes you, Josh) that cringe at thought of paying more than $60 bucks for all the cool stuff you could get for the game, you're in luck! The guys at Joystiq are reporting that downloadable content for ME2 will be free on launch day! Yay! And there was much rejoicing (hopefully). We'll find out if this rumor pans out at Midnight.

Continue the story here

Cool Thing: Lost city of fair skinned "Cloud People" found in Peru

"Archaeologists have discovered a lost city carved into the Andes Mountains by the mysterious Chachapoya tribe.

Spanish texts from the era describe the Cloud People as ferocious fighters who mummified their dead.

They were eventually wiped out by small pox and other diseases brought by the Europeans.

The women of the Chachapoya were much prized by the Incas as they were tall and fair skinned. The Chronicler Pedro Cieza de León offers wrote of the Chachapoyas.

'They are the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen in Indies, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas' wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple.'"

Continue the story here

Jeremy McDermott @ Telegraph

Cool Thought: Social Network Sites and Sharing the Gospel

SNSs or social network sites (or social network services) are all the rage these days. I’ll be honest, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t check my Facebook. Checking Facebook for me has become like checking my email—or even more, like checking my phone. In many ways Facebook, in college life, has become like having a phone number—you just assume everyone has one. In fact, if someone didn’t have a Facebook it would likely give your run-of-the-mill, indie rock love’n, staying up late, Slurpee drinking college student pause—even a smirk on their face with the inevitable, “Really? You don’t have Facebook?”

With all the different types of social media, what exactly is a social network site? Danah M. Boyd in here article, Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, she defines SNSs as:

“We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.

It seems that not every social media makes the cut as a social network site. Boyd also makes the clarification that SNSs are not social “networking” sites, but social “network” sites because while networking--which implies connecting with strangers--sometimes happens on SNSs, that isn’t the primary function of these sites.

So what is the primary function of these sites? What exactly is “done” on Facebook? Facebook seems to be used for a variety of things, mostly for connecting with people one knows and people that share similar interests. Connecting can really mean anything from email correspondence, to “wall” posts, to sharing pictures or videos, or even playing games together. As one who’s spent hours on Facebook, I can say that it’s functionality and appeal for many college-aged twenty-something’s lies somewhere between “hanging out” online and virtual stalking. Oh come on, we know you Facebook stalk. There are two kinds of people in Facebook world, those who Facebook stalk and those who lie about it.

So what constitutes Facebook stalking? Well I’ll leave that up to your best judgment, but to me it seems if you’re going through someone’s profile you’re not friends with, you’re probably doing something that would require a ski mask and flash light in the real world. Which brings me to my next thought; there is an immense amount of personal info on social network sites. At this very moment, I’m pulling up my Facebook and looking at someone I know from school, whom I’m about to add as friend. Without being their friend though, I can see this persons birth date, where they go to school, their relationship status, their email, their msn screen name, their phone number, and yes, even their address! Along with my friend request, I’m also including the recommendation to change some privacy settings.

There have been a lot of privacy issues with Facebook and the like. Some incidents have even made it into the news. The fact-of-the-matter is that people put a lot of personal info on the web and give a lot of people they don’t know access to it. Teens especially have a tendency to bare their soul on SNSs according to Boyd. So how much personal stuff is okay? Obviously pretty much anything one puts on Facebook is going to be personal to some extent. I think there are better personal tid-bits to share than others.

It seems like a month doesn’t go by where I don’t get a couple of Facebook group invitations for groups like “Ashley and John are getting hitched,” or “Join the (insert charity or awareness group here).” I think this is personal info worth sharing. One interesting profile identification category is religion. Every SNSs has it. When I first got back from Canada in 2005 MySpace was the “cool” SNS among my friends. When I got to BYU a few months later, everyone had Facebook so I naturally upgraded. In both cases, Christian-LDS was my religious designation. Since I'm sharing what my religion is, why not use these sites to help share the Gospel?

In a lot of ways I’m sharing the Gospel by just declaring what my religion is. I have hundreds of friends, some of whom I’ve found didn’t realize I was LDS until they saw my Facebook or MySpace, which discovery led to a discussion about the Church. I’ve had numerous friends share spiritual thoughts, idea, or even just updates of Facebook. These posts are seen by everyone who is their friend on Facebook. In Ad speak that could translate into a large reach and high frequency of Gospel messages amongst your friends and that’s a good thing. Some people like Tim Malone, as mentioned in his article Sharing the Gospel Using Facebook, are at a loss as to how to share the Gospel on Facebook or are looking for some ideas of how to share the Gospel. Some people don’t really see why sharing the Gospel online is a good thing. Feel free to share some ideas in the comment section for Tim, for now I’ll share some reasons addressing the latter concern--why share the Gospel online.

Here are some reasons why I think sharing the Gospel online is a positive thing:

1. Sharing the Gospel in any way is always a positive thing.


2. Many people like ability to formally write what they believe rather than speak it.


3. Many people (in Utah) say they don’t know anyone who isn’t Mormon to share the Gospel with. On Facebook for example, we connect with people who we’ve lost contact with and for many reasons wouldn’t connect with in the real world. This could be decade’s worth of friends. If we are looking for nonmember friends to share the gospel with, it seems to me Facebook is a great place to start.


4. Unlike a spoken testimony or statement of belief, a written declaration can be returned to and read again if desired. Think of Facebook as the golden plates of the 21st Century.

So why not share the Gospel online? I can see why some would feel a little uncomfortable sharing the Gospel online, in that they feel they might be casting their pearls before swine or so to speak. In these cases the swine is not necessarily the people they are sharing their testimonies with, but rather swine equates to the situation, setting, or medium. The reality is that most people feel uncomfortable sharing the Gospel in any setting. I would argue that in a lot of ways, sharing the Gospel online is probably one of the most comfortable ways to teach truth.

Think about it, sharing the Gospel online is a pretty good gig--you get to plan what you write, you can reference sources, and you can even share it in a non-intrusive way. As Elder M. Russell Ballard talked about in his article, Using New Media to Support the Work of the Church, I have “joined the conversation” in a variety of online settings and have found it to be a really positive experience. I don’t think you have to type out “I’d like to bare my testimony, I know the Church is true…” but simply be the light of the virtual world, an effectual city on a hill that can’t be hid and is always broadcasted. I think when the time comes; you’ll know when you should share the Gospel online with friends, just as you would know to share the Gospel on an airplane with a stranger, over lunch with a buddy, or even with that family member who wants to know more about your mission. The real challenge, in the virtual and real world alike, is having the courage when that time comes to open your mouth--or maybe, just maybe, open your laptop.

Cool Thought: The Wonderful World of the Wiki

I have a unique outlook with collaborative authorship compared to some, in that a couple years ago I actually tried, with some friends of mine, to create a collaborative 'wiki' website. It was a lot of work. We didn't really have access to a lot of the open source web-based programs that many people have today, we programmed everything from scratch. It really was quite the experience. We failed in the long-term scheme of things—we didn't ever complete the site the way we wanted to and eventually the rest of life crowded out our time-suck of a project that was our wiki.

I feel we did succeed in a couple of ways though. We were able to get a somewhat functional version of our wiki operating and contributed, for a time at least, to the online open-source information community. I really believe in what wikis have to offer. Obviously there is a challenge to having content that is can be edited by anyone on the internet, as a place for useful information. I think therein lies the problem with peoples' thinking, when you hear that "anyone can edit" content on a wiki, it paints this idea of "online anarchy" where "anything goes" and "nothing can be trusted." The reality is much different and there are many checks and balances in place to help refine wikis as a reliable source of information.

I suppose I'm referring mostly to Wikipedia and the like sites, in the last few ideas, but they seem to get the most media attention. The reality is that Wikipedia goes through a very similar process of editing as most "reliable" scientific journals, except everything happens on Wikipedia in real-time and instead of a handful of peer-reviews from "experts", there are tens-of-thousands of people reviewing.

Wikipedia and the like serve an important function in our society—free, comprehensive information, presented in an easy-to-understand format—service that can be accessed instantly. It's funny, wikis, Wikipedia and the like; seem to be serving the original functional the internet was intended for. Like the initial resistance of so many to the usability and reliability of the internet, maybe the wiki family and all their kin are just biding their time to find the same acceptance.

Cool Thing: Outpost.com Commercials

I'm an Advertising Major so it's fun (for me at least) to watch ads. These commercials really sparked my interest in advertising, oh, so long ago.



On a sad note, Cliff Freeman & Partners, the agency responsible for this legendary ad campaign, recently joined the growing number of agencies that have folded due to the "economy." For more info on what led up to their tragic and arguably untimely demise, visit the folks at Ad Week.

Cool Thing: Mystery Space Object

"WASHINGTON – A mystery object from space is about to whizz close by Earth on Wednesday. It won't hit our planet, but scientists are stumped by what exactly it is.

Astronomers say it may be space junk or it could be a tiny asteroid, too small to cause damage even if it hit. It's 33 to 50 feet wide at most.

NASA says that on Wednesday at 7:47 a.m. EST, it will streak by, missing Earth by about 80,000 miles. In the western United States it may be bright enough to be seen with a good amateur telescope."

Continue story here.

AP @ Yahoo News

Cool Thing: Half-plant, half-animal

"A green sea slug appears to be part animal, part plant. It's the first critter discovered to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll.

The sneaky slugs seem to have stolen the genes that enable this skill from algae that they've eaten. With their contraband genes, the slugs can carry out photosynthesis — the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy."

Continue the story here

Clara Moskowitz @ MSNBC

Cool Thought: Online Social Media--In the Beginning

I'm trying to remember when I first used social media. Of course, I remember way back in the day using AOL chat and MSN chat rooms, man how things have changed since then. I really got into social media in high school through a site call garageband.com. The site was different back then, but I use to review music and get free music and interact with bands and other fans of music. I think it really was a head of its time.

Previous to the mish I didn't really get involved with anything beyond what I mentioned above. It's amazing how things can change in a short two year span. When I got home Myspace was all the rage; so much so, my local Stake President already had held a fireside warning parents about the potential dangers of said social media (I'm fighting the urge to put a 'haha' at the end of that sentence, I actually audibly chuckled when thinking about that fireside). Chuckles aside, the Stake President had a good point, that while such media could be used as a useful tool, it could also be used for ill. I hopped on the Myspace bandwagon mostly because all my friends had and I wanted to keep in-touch with them. By the time I came to BYU everyone was on Facebook so I transitioned accordingly.

Social media for me has been a place to keep up with friends, get info on new friends, and just a fun place to share info about myself. In reflecting on other opportunities social media presents, namely sharing the Gospel, I have to think there is a lot of opportunity there. I have over the years come across blog posts that misrepresented the Restored Gospel and added loving correction as appropriate. While in some ways its easier to share the Gospel over the internet, its also very difficult.

It's nice to have someones' questions or comments clearly defined on a webpage. Their is no question as to what they wrote. On the other hand, not being in person, its difficult to really understand what their perception and intent is. Many times, the people we walk away from on our missions, those that aren't "hungering and thirsting after righteousness" who "set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion," who "Seek… to counsel the Lord, but [don't] take counsel from his hand," these people seem to have a monopoly on internet discussion boards. Initially, I am prone to avoid such discussions, but the problem is that those that are hungering and thirsting after righteousness also go to those discussion boards and are fed, but not with the bread of life. To that latter group, I have an obligation and an opportunity to raise my "fingers," or so to speak, as a "defender of the faith" and "join the conversation" as Elder Ballard said, and take advantage of a great missionary opportunity.