Sources

You may be interested in the social software, such as YouTube. This blog provides a study on it.

In addition, this is a conference source: SRHE Annual Conference 2008 in Liverpool.

Some interesting presentations from TED

I come across this video which talked about creativity and education by Sir Ken Robinson. It’s humorous and thought-provoking. On TED website, there are a collection of interesting scientific presentations, which really bring fresh air, especially for me, to rethink the way of my own education and research. Also, it becomes a new source for my break.

A few interesting sources

A piece of news: Research says blogging still booming

Ten digital trends to watch out for in 2008

Top Business Research Tips (1) (2)

A few interesting sources

Come across this website AlleyDog.com, with some interesting quizzes.
Slides - The Evolution of Web 3.0
An article: Science 2.0 -- Is Open Access Science the Future? by M. Mitchell Waldrop

Today’s trip to Oldham Library & Lifelong Learning Centre

I had a half day trip to Oldham Library & Lifelong Learning Centre (see some pictures below).

It is a nice and big public library and it’s the winner of the 2007 Prime Minister’s Better Public library Award. At the first sight, I felt the building is not as fashionable as Information Commons at the University of Sheffield, however, it do provides diverse services to communities and people live around. In particularly, “The building relies predominantly on natural ventilation and light, minimising energy consumption. Rainwater from the green roof is collected, treated, stored in tanks in the basement area and used to flush toilets throughout the building which significantly reduces mains water usage.”

Social search

It is interesting to realise that the social search engine grows quietly. Typically, Facebook supports so-called social search service, which may compete with Google, a traditional search engine. I think it’s a part of Web 2.0 concept, but also someone may put it under Web 3.0. Some of my colleagues may already look into this new direction.

Also, there is an entry What is academic blogging about? by Daniel Lemire on his blog. Again, basically, some benefits of blogging.

Sources from two conference websites

• Some latest papers about blogs and social media on International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media 2008 website.
• There are some interesting Slides and Videos on the 5th International Conference on Social Software - Blog talk 2008 website.

Two blog sources

• The Top 100 Academic Medical Blogs
• Why Academics Should Blog... posted by Henry Jenkins. There is a source of master thesis about media studies at MIT.

Why do people read my blog?

A bit tired, writing and writing. So I was thinking a question, ‘why do people read my blog?’ I found the visitor number increases everyday. Let me trust the visitor counter at the moment.

I presume it is because you

1. clicked a wrong link
2. are bored, and want to be entertained
3. know me, and are curious what I’m doing with my blog
4. are actually looking for information about me
5. are similar to me, are conducting a research into blogs phenomenon or a research student
6. want to find a piece of useful information
7. have different ideas from mine