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Reflection Week 11 – Open Data

I decided to do this week’s reflection on the following question:

Open Data is the Future of the Web?

After I read the learning activity for week 11, I asked myself the following questions:

  • What is open data
  • Why is it important

In this reflection, I am going to answer both questions.

Open Data: 

[opendefinition.org] Open data is the content that is found on the Web for everyone to use and copyright does not apply.  [Glenn Tremblay] Another way to describe open data is the sharing of public record for example, government records over the Web in a way that promotes analysing and using the information.

I found the following YouTube video that is great way to start to understand what is open data.

I do believe that the future of the Web is to have access to open data, but the following issues need to be address:

  • Privacy of health records
  • Bank details
  • Copyright issues in regards to music and books

[Glenn Tremoblay]  Having data on the web open to the public would make governments more transparent and this would advance every ones lives.  [Open Knowledge Foundation]  Government records are a largely untapped resource and allowing it to become open date would provide economic and social value to everyone.  The values are:

 
  • Transparency:  allowing you to see how government are spending your money.  In addition, it can stop fraud in government organisations.  Another benefit is that you can see how active your member of parliament is.
  • Better decision making: you will have more information that would allow you make the right decision so that you can become more active in your community.  For example using your local Council website you can find were your local dog parks are.
  • Financial: open data can help households to save money for example on their energy bills for example on their energy bills  Educational institutions and libraries can save money by sharing resources with other people using resources like [Slideshare, Flickr and LibraryHack] to produce information literacy programs for students and users.
  • Efficiency: open data also provides value to governments themselves.  They highlight areas where they can increase efficiency.

Organisations, governments, libraries, and education institutions are starting to see the value of open data access for everyone.  Queensland University of Technology is leading the way with [ePrints].  To have a world were all data is universally accessible would be great but I cannot see that happening in my lifetime because of copyright and intellectual property legal rights.

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L-Plates – Play Activity – Week 8

Wow!  What a great play activity.  I do not know about everyone else but for me to learn, I need to have practice as well as theory.  Before this week, I had no knowledge with the presentation tools that help information delivery.  Therefore, I decided to investigate and record my findings on my blog.

  Presentation Tools

 Screencasting:  Is the recording of computer screens with narrative.  It allows users to learn by example and for the creator to provide clear and complete instructions [Adam Hay].  Only disadvantage with screencasting it is not interactive [Educause] but it still a good way for students to learn to do audio presentation.

Slidecasting:  Format development by [SlideShare] to allow teachers and librarians to link audio to their slide presentation.  I found a great site that answers questions about slidecasting [Frequently Asked Questions].

Slidesharing:  To share slides presentation on the Internet without audio and allows teachers and librarians to share their Conference PowerPoint presentation with their colleagues. (See Presentation 3)

After looking at all the free presentation tools, I decided to finish week 8-play activity by using the following:

[SlideShare]:  Not only a great place to load and view PowerPoint presentations, it also allows you to contact people who have the same interest.  Actually, it could be considered great networking tool, which allows users to embed/link their presentation to websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter [Matthew Allen].

[Screencast-O-Matic]:  Allows teachers and librarians to record computer screens with narrative for class presentations.  See the following YouTube presentation.

I finally finished my screencasting activity and I wish I could have had a voice double but still the experience was enjoyable and I did learn a lot.  Slidecasting and screencasting not only helps classroom learning, they also help libraries to provide more access to their information literacy programs.  [SlideShare] and [Screencast-O-Matic] are great tools and so easy to use, the only problem was the operator who is still on her L-Plates.  We all need a laugh so enjoy the following presentations.  In the future I would uses [SlideShare] over [Screencast-O-Matic] my reason are:

SlideShare:

PROS:

  1. Easy to use
  2. Interactive
  3. Tags
  4. Allows you to store your conference presentations
  5. Allows you to share presentations with others
  6. Easy to update
  7. Free – Purchasing is optional
  8. Allows audio presentation
  9. Allows notes
  10. Help – Yes

CONS:

  1. Others can use your presentations
  2. Audio and slides are done separately

Screencast-O-Matic

PROS:

  1. Easy to use
  2. Allows comments
  3. Allows notes
  4. Allows audio presentation
  5. Great learning tool for students
  6. Allows you to share presentations with others

Cons:

  1. Not interactive
  2. Have to purchase to store more then one presentation
  3. No tags
  4. Update the whole presentation again
  5. Help Desk – poor
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Reflection – Social Network Presences – WEEK 6

techextremity.com

I decided to reflect on the following:

                      BEST PRACTICE FOR LIBRARY SOCIAL NETWORK PRESENCES
 WHAT ARE THEY?

 

At the beginning of the week, I did not understand or know what “Best Practice for Libraries Social Network Presences” is so I started to do same research on the topic. Using  Google, I found a number of good sites that talk about “Best Practice” so I formulated them into a Bundlr.  (See bottom of the page)

BEST PRACTICES

[Michael Stephens]

  • ACCURATE – Information that is place on your social media sites must be accurate and with no spelling errors.
  • CONFIDENTIALITY – Make sure all personal information that is place on your social media sites is safe.
  • COPYRIGHT – Follow copyright laws.
  • FEED BACK – Allow your users and staff to give you feedback on any issues that affect your social media sites.
  • MARKETING – For people to use your social media sites you must promote them on your web site.
  • MONITORING – Your social media sites should be monitored every day to make sure that the conversations on your sites are appropriate to your brand.
  • PLANNING – Understand the needs of your users, before setting up any social media site.  As Zaana Howard stated in her interview with Kate Davis that is not worth setting up social media site for example “Second Life” if your users will not use it.
  • UPTO DATE – Do not set up any social media sites if you are not prepared to keep them up to date.
  • UNDERSTANDING – Make sure everyone who is involved understands your brand.
  • WELCOMING – Have the layout of your social media sites friendly and welcoming and always write in the first person. Make sure your social media sites  have personality.

Social Media is great way to get your community to interact with each other but do not forget to promoted your brand face to face with your users also.

 
“Social Media best practice for Libraries” on Bundlr

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