Learn a new language with Babbel (not babelfish)

I think this sounds like a really interesting way to learn a language — social networking & multimedia style! Mashable has a good overview & review here:

Babbel is the latest site to teach new languages through a social Web-based immersion program, where the majority of the content is packaged into lessons created by Babbel. So far, languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, English, and German are supported. Each lesson package contains material pertaining to a different theme, such as travel or business, so you can learn a series of words and phrases within context.

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Although I do like that the information is presented in multiple ways as it SHOUlD create a richer learning environment appealing to a variety of learning styles, I didn’t find a lot in the way supporting documentation, research, etc. on the site. It seems to be all about language and play… but hey if it works (but how will they know?)

I also wonder if they will expand to other languages — seems like kind of a short list, hmm?

Build the Open Shelves Classification

Build the Open Shelves Classification

Description: I hereby invite you to join the Open Shelves Classification (OSC), a free, “humble,” modern, open-source, crowd-sourced replacement for the Dewey Decimal System.

—from LibraryThing.

You can follow its progress or contribute to its effort here

Flowchart — new free online flowchart site and I have invites!

So, I volunteered to whip up a little flowchart of a project. It’s fairly straightforward and the critical path is rather obvious. I also think I’m pretty good with flow charts. Not only have I been to lots of project management workshops and classes, but I spent way too much time in a previous position (information/document specialist & blueprint librarian) working with Visio. Somehow, not only the job of managing the organizational chart for a relatively huge division of a global company, but much of record keeping of their project management, had fallen to the IS at some point.

Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately!) I no longer have Visio to spit out those beautiful interconnected flowcharts and structured org charts. So, in the past, I’ve used Word, Excel, or some other product, when I’ve need to fake a flowchart. Today, in digging around on the net a little, I found a beta test of a new free online flowchart creator, flowchart.com (think you can remember that? LOL). It is not perfect (for one, entering colors by hexcode didn’t seem to work, and the colors are very standard, otherwise) , but whoa! it works otherwise.

So, if you want to try this flowchart site, you can either add your name to the que for an invitation, or you can drop me an email, and I’ll send you an invite. I only have 6 invites left.

Educational uses for social networking sites

First-of-Its-Kind Study at the University of Minnesota Uncovers the Educational Benefits of Social Networking Sites
University of Minnesota News (06/19/0 Badaracco, Luisa

University of Minnesota researchers have determined the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and also found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their more advantaged counterparts. The researchers found that 94 percent of students in the study used the Internet, 82 percent used the Internet at home, and 77 percent have a profile on a social networking site. Students said social networking sites taught them technology skills, creativity, being open to new or diverse views, and communication skills. Data was collected over six months from students in 13 urban high schools in the Midwest. In addition to the initial surveyed students, a follow-up, randomly selected subset were asked questions on their Internet activity while they used MySpace. University of Minnesota learning technologies researcher Christine Greenhow says students that use social networking sites learn and practice the kinds of 21st century skills that educators say are needed to be successful. “Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content, and thinking about online design and layout,” Greenhow says. The results show that social networking sites provide more than just social fulfillment or professional networking and have implications for educators, who have an opportunity to support what students are learning on the Web, Greenhow says. The study contradicts a 2005 study from Pew that suggests a digital divide is forming in which low-income students are technologically impoverished.

More at Univ. Minnesota News

Flickr pro account — is it worth it?

Just in case you didn’t know, Flickr now allows video upload for “pro” accounts.
At this point, running time is limited to 90 seconds. Hopefully, if they want to be a full media site, they will up the time limit, because 90 seconds, well, that is not very long. To be honest, I’m losing my love of flickr quickly anyhow. “Pro” does not really mean pro - it just means that you pay to have more storage a few richer features (video, more collections, stats, etc.)

I’m thinking maybe I will keep my flickr account but downgrade it to the free account, and then switch over to smugmug or something else, where I can actually sell photos. I’d also love a place to host both my videos and photos, a flickr + youtube place. Yeah, I have my domain to do that, but I’d like to use a social networking site for that stuff, too.

flickr tos (what not to do):
http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne

and what comes with the flickr pro account:
http://www.flickr.com/upgrade/

LinkedIn, what it is and how to use it

From the excellent commoncraft folks.

What is LinkedIn? from LinkedIn Marketing on Vimeo.

Building an educational flickr collection

Nice well-rounded article about the effort by a group at Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR) in are building an educational collection of ceramics images in Flickr, including project overviews, sample codes and more.

http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/74

Librarian professional/networking site

From Libgig’s site
http://www.libgig.com

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LibGig is a new professional networking website dedicated to bringing together everyone who accesses, organizes, creates, manages, produces or distributes information for a living.

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Includes: Job listings, information about LS programs, blog posts, interviews of community leaders, etc.

Semantic Search engine?

From Read/WriteWeb:

Evri Beta Launches: Search Less - Understand More

Evri, a Paul Allen backed semantic search engine, launched into a limited beta this week. Evri was first shown publicly at the D6 conference. Evri’s CEO Neil Roseman likes to talk about Evri in terms of organizing content instead of calling it a search engine. At its core, however, Evri definitely is a search engine, though it adds a very sophisticated semantic layer on top of its results that emphasizes the relationships between different search terms.

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Hmm? Believe the hype? I’ve requested an invite to the beta testing, so I’ll share my thoughts soon, I hope.

Podcast about social networks and technical networks

Author, Here Comes Everybody … The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

Moira speaks with CLAY SHIRKY about the relationship between social networks and technical networks. Now with texting, and digital photos and cell phones, everything from politics to socializing will never be the same

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3596.html