There are hundreds of open source projects ranging from simple email software to publicly dedicated WWW servers and full operating systems. This article describes an online platform for educators with free open source educational systems including wikis, blogs, bulletin boards, Content/Course Management Systems, and MOOs, all open systems which are easily installed and managed. By setting up a content-based server, educators can save and archive their files online easily, and integrate their online resources without needing web design skill. With full control of these different educational tools, educators can form a collaborative learning community based on their teaching goals. Thus teachers and students can build an online community as partners. They can learn from and with others, share and try out web learning tools, distribute leadership and inspiration, and support and interact with others from all over the world.
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Large volumes of content (bookmarks, reviews, videos, etc.) are currently being created on the “Social Web”, i.e. on Web 2.0 community sites, and this content is being annotated and commented upon. The ability to view an individual’s entire contribution to the Social Web would be an interesting and valuable service, particularly important as social networks are often being formed through created content and things that people have in common (“object-centred sociality”). SIOC is a Semantic Web research project that aims to describe online communities on the Social Web. This paper describes how SIOC and the Semantic Web can enable linking and reuse scenarios of data from Web 2.0 community sites, and introduces a SIOC Types module to further specify the type of content items and act as a “glue” between user posts and the content items created and annotated by users.
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In general, the World Wide Web has a high potential as a platform for distributed groupware systems. Authors create and change documents locally and upload them to a Web server, where they can be accessed by their collaborators. However, Web browsers and servers which implement the protocol HTTP are mostly limited to provide reading access to Web documents. For this reason, existing Web-based groupware systems (e.g. the BSCW system) are implemented using client/server side scripting. These scripts are used to implement the basic operations needed for this kind of applications.
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The fact that you are reading this handbook probably means that you are experienced in e-Learning implementation at a university or similar institution. You will probably be aware of the tools and styles of working on LMS, and will be used to communicating whilst working and learning online. But at the same time, by surfing the net and probably by observing your students, you will clearly see that changes are coming. Freely available new technologies, common access to the Internet and to information, new types of social interactions mediated by technology; all of these things require a shift in the way that we learn and teach. e-Learning using new technologies is an innovative learning method.
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The concept of “Web 2.0” was born in the first Web 2.0 Conference organized by O’Reilly and MediaLive International in 2004. The concept was further elaborated in the article “ What is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software” published by Tim O’Reilly in 2005. Generally, Web 2.0 denotes the paradigm of employing the Web as the platform to deliver and use software. Nevertheless, what user experiences, design patterns and technologies Web 2.0 actually encompasses are not concretely bound and they keep evolving. As described in Wikipedia, “Given the lack of set standards as to what ‘Web 2.0’ actually means, implies, or requires, the term can mean radically different things to different people.”
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The mercurial rise of social networking sites and user-generated content has rekindled users’ interest in accessing Web-based services on the move. That the mobile phone is an inherently personal device which is not only with us most of the time, but also contains a huge amount of personal data (contact lists of names and phone numbers, stored messages and emails etc.) makes it a logical extension for the social network and the host of other collaborative Web 2.0 applications gaining traction.
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The introduction of Web 2.0 technologies into the enterprise greatly increases the value of your company?s most important asset: employees? knowledge, relationships and initiative. Increased collaboration accelerates productivity. Making knowledge more visible increases innovation and shortens turnaround times. Your company transforms into a more socially connected organization that reacts faster and more effectively to the market.
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Data visualisation has been defined as: The set of techniques used to turn a set of data into visual insight. It aims to give the data a meaningful representation by exploiting the powerful discerning capabilities of the human eye. Part 1 of this briefing paper will highlight some examples of new collaborative web services using Web 2.0 technologies which venture into the numeric data visualisation arena. These mashups allow researchers to upload and analyse their own data in ‘open’ and dynamic environments. Broadly speaking the numeric data being referred to could be micro-data (data about the individual), macro-data or country-level data, derived or summary data.
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