Google utilities using the Google API

Micah Alpern’s wicked blogroll search application using the Google web services API has got me thinking of all sorts of other possible applications, which led me to search for a comprehensive listing of all applications people have currently created using this API (I was pretty sure *someone* would have created it already – almost inevitably *someone* already has and you just need to look hard enough). There may be others out there – this one seems a good place to start. Notable applications on the list are Aloogle (searches Google and displays Alexa Traffic results on the same page) and the Google API Proximity Search (which allows you to specify the required proximity on a page of two search terms) – SWL

E-learning Job Model

At some point in the not-so-distant-future I may well have to start looking for work again (funding and other circumstances are currently uncertain at best.) So I have been doing some thinking and some searching about what is it I can do, what I have done before and what is it I want to do.

Which lead me to this helpful little document by the folks at Sage Learning Systems. While I’ve worked more in higher ed and its focus is more on industry training, much of the job types and skills seemed relevant. I’m sure there are lots more of these types of documents out there (anyone have other references) but this at least seemed like a place to start. – SWL

Blazing trails with RSS

“What do content syndication, Vannevar Bush’s Memex trails, RSS feeds and Radio UserLand have in common? Read this to find out!”

Once again David Davies is himself blazing new trails in the Radio tool figuring out a way to use it to produce RSS feeds of URLs that represent paths through the net (or collections of URLs) instead of blog posts. – SWL

– by [David Davies: Edtech]

CMSML – XML to describe content management frameworks, systems and editors

I had to post this because it is the expression of what I was hoping we could do in the course management world with the edutools feature set. This project is an attempt to create “XML to describe content management frameworks, systems and editors. The project will develop a comprehensive feature list for CMS, a controlled vocabulary to describe these features, and appropriate names for each in the XML Schema Document. Features will be grouped in three broad areas (content creation, management proper, and delivery), plus overview information (name, company, website, technology, license, etc.). The current CMS Matrix will be expanded to display a side-by-side comparison of any two CMS.” But I’m not sure I see the business model – maybe there isn’t one, not everything needs one, but I need to find one for the work we are doing at edutools. Still, really encouraging sign – SWL

Wiki and Weblog Packages

This via the extensive article I posted on yesterday by david Mattison on all things wiki, a wiki page listing every piece of software they know about that combines both wikis and blogs. Now if we could patch these together with some other personal information management tools and other general office tools…scratch that – I actually like getting up from my computer and I fear the combination of these would simply be too addictive 😉 – SWL

Community-Driven Documentation for Free Software?

This Slashdot thread seemed relevant for a few reasons – some of the material coming from David Wiley (Online self-organizing social systems: The Decentralized Future of Education); a review I’m working on for Edutools of an open source course management system that like so many of them is stretched so thin supporting the code base that there is virtually no documentation…

– via [Online Community Report]