Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Public Libraries could promote Open Source

I just found a very nice article that shares some great ideas on how a (public) library could promote open source, and by doing that could stay ahead of budget cuts. It was published in the blog OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas: Public Libraries, Open Source, and World Domination: "So needless to say, it's a good idea to think about how libraries can adapt and grow and become the kind of thing you'd never cut the budget for. (..) As mentioned, libraries aren't just books but a place to go and use the computer. (..) Libraries already are associated with free computer use. So let's take that and go nuts with it."

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Kom naar het grote ELO spel

Kom naar het grote ELO spel
Kom naar het grote ELO spel,
originally uploaded by wytze.
Nog een paar dagen. De repetities zijn in volle gang. De koelkasten worden gevuld. De kostuums worden doorgepast. Het geluid en het licht worden nog eens gecheckt. De stoelen worden ontdaan van kauwgum onder de zittingen.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Margreet van den Berg: Great weblog!

I am a regular reader of some very interesting weblogs on elearning and such. Some of them are in Dutch (check http:/www.bloglines.com/public/wytze for all that I try to read, in Dutch and English). To name a few webloggers that I like: Melle de Vries (recently discovered, very nice), Patrick Klaassen, Michiel Duyvestein and Wilfred Rubens. But today I want to point especially to Margreet van den Berg: "Veel leerlingen (en ook docenten) hebben er moeite mee om een goede bronnenlijst te maken. En het is ook niet makkelijk: voor elk medium zijn er andere regels: wat noteer je van een bron, en hoe schrijf je dat op? Er is nu een heel makkelijk instrument daarvoor te vinden op het web: EasyBib."
And EasyBib is very Web 2.0! I know what a timeconsuming task the creation of references can be. So this is a very nice a tool for all those educators and students. Go ahead, and try it!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Group chat: Campfire

From the 37signals team, that has some great web 2.0 products on the "shelf" (you can't really say that, can you, of web 2.0?), there's is some great news for lovers of free, but still-very-useful-even-in-business-environments, software. It is called Campfire. I haven't tried it yet... but this seems very promising. The totally-free-for-life version, allows up to 5 persons simultaneously.
In their own words: "Campfire lets you set up secure, password-protected web-based chat rooms in just seconds. Invite a client, a colleague, or a vendor to a chat. Set up a room on your intranet for internal communications. Conduct meetings with people around the world. The uses are plentiful. Up to 60 people can chat at once. You can even browse previous chats by person, room, or date. No special software required — a web browser is all you need."
Can we tie it in in Sakai maybe?

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Software wordt sociaal

For those Dutchies out there, who want a very readable and understandable introduction tot Web 2.0, I highly recommend the online Magazine B R I G H T. They have a feature on this subject, which was published way back (!?) in December 2005.
So, check B R I G H T :: 06 :: Web 2.0: Software wordt sociaal: "‘The network is the computer’, luidt een oude slogan van servermaker Sun. Wat toen een voorspelling was, lijkt inmiddels een feit. We zijn er nog niet, maar de revolutie is volop aan de gang. Webdiensten vervangen computersoftware, mensen organiseren en delen hun hele leven op vernieuwende sites en er hoeft straks geen programma meer aan te pas te komen. Behalve je browser dan."

Monday, March 13, 2006

WikiVille: tell them about your campus.

WikiVille: 21st Century students building a world-story of life in our home towns. It's time to unpack and move in to WikiVille!
Great idea by Will Richardson!
Sort of reminds me of what we have here on the University of Twente, the campuswiki (only in Dutch so far). This only gives you information on our campus and surroundings. But what a great idea to expand this worldwide. Hopefully it doesn't die soon...

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Writely acquired by Google

I've been fiddling around a little bit with Writely, a real Web 2.0 app. It is basically an online wordprocessor with a lot of nice features, such as public documents, and more authors for one document. The Writely Blog writes: Some of you have been worried about our future here at Writely. (..) Thankfully, your donations won't be necessary, for one very exciting reason: Writely is now part of Google!"

Monday, March 06, 2006

I am back!

CIMG0302
CIMG0302,
originally uploaded by wytze.
I am back from a beautiful vacation in Sri Lanka! These were days well spent. I enjoyed beautiful weather, lots of fish for dinner, and some sunbathing. And the famous Lion Lager.
This picture was taken on the Galle Fort, in Sri Lanka. This couple is not hiding for the rain, they are hiding for the sun (and maybe for pricking photographers like me).