The lecture “Social Aspects of Information Technology” has a long tradition for using new didactical scenarios as well as modern e-Learning technologies. After using a blogosphere one year ago, this year microblog channels helped to expand the traditional lecture. Students choose (on a voluntary basis) whether they want to participate in a blogging/microblogging group instead of using conventional methods called Scientific Writer/Scientific Reviewer. This study addresses the question whether this method can change the learning outcome into a more reflective one. Furthermore, peer-reviewing groups judge the quality of essays and blog contributions. In this paper we examine if microblogging can be an appropriate technology for assisting the process. This publication comes to the conclusion that an amazing potential and a new way to work with information is opened when using microblogging. Students seem to be more engaged, reflective and critical in as much as they presented much more personal statements and opinions than years before.

The paper is an interesting look at Web 2.0 and blogging in academia – something we know a little about having come under notable criticism a few years ago for putting everything we do in a blog. Personally, the Future Internet Journal is indicative of these changes with fast turn around times and publication in terms of weeks rather than months/years.

You can read/download the full paper via the Future Internet Journal site.

The post Can Weblogs and Microblogs Change Traditional Scientific Writing? appeared first on Digital Urban.

Its been a Neogeography and Web 2.0 dominated conference with a number of talks that while interesting have been worrying for their basic level of explanation – do people in the GIS industry really need to be told what KML or Web 2.0 is? Surely rather than a slightly ‘jack and jane’ view the emphasis should be on applications, techniques and experiences.

Perhaps it was just me but I found the general level of understanding disappointing. Or perhaps I just assume people in the GI industry should know this stuff as its at the heart of the GI revolution. Then again it could simply be a lack of coffee this morning and being too close to the subject. That said i did come away slightly saddened by it all…

Anyhow that aside there was an interesting talk on ‘The Ripening of Digital Globes – From Earth Viewing to Decision Support’ by Johannes Kebeck of Microsoft. In short there is a close tie up between ESRI and Virtual Earth with the main point being that Virtual Earth is merely a ‘viewer’ for information, all the tech stuff still needs a GIS behind the scenes. Of course this is mainly common sense, perhaps of more interesting was the comment that Microsoft are in the Virtual Earth game purely for the advertising revenue that if realized could surpass the income of the Windows operating system.

Of course perhaps that’s common sense as well, we know Microsoft and Google are not in the field for their shear love of geography. They have however changed the game and opened up the sharing of geographical information to the masses, which can only be a good thing…

See edparsons.com for a few more thoughts on the conference as well as the All Points Blog.

You can read our papers on Neogeography, Crowd Sourcing etc via our publications page.

Also note our session call for abstracts with regards the AAG conference on Concepts, Tools and Applications: The Rise of Neogeography

The post AGI and Web 2.0 appeared first on Digital Urban.

Full details below:

Description:

In this live webcast, geospatial web expert Andrew Turner will discuss the current evolution of Where 2.0 and how it is affecting the entire landscape of Web 2.0 and next generation applications. Open standards such as GeoRSS, KML, and Microformats provide a huge wealth of information for mashups and applications, and libraries such as Mapstraction can be used for cartographic visualization. To illustrate the power of these tools, Andrew will talk about some interesting applications and hacks that have pushed the boundaries of the GeoWeb.

We’ll also take a look at the future of location-enabled applications and services that developers can use today to provide users with better contextualized and localized information. Mobile sensors, augmented and immersive reality, and geo-games are just a few of the next generation Where 2.0 domain.

Andrew will also give a short demo of the just-launched GeoCommons Maker.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 10:00 am

Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -07:00, San Francisco)

Duration: 1 hour

You can register for the event here.

The post Trends and Technologies in Where 2.0: Webcast appeared first on Digital Urban.

Our talk is not Powerpoint based but instead mainly running via IMovie with overlays timed to get across our points. For those coming, look away now, but for those unable to make London a section of our Second Life talk is embedded below, examining our use of NATURE Island:

Having moved from a PC a month or so ago it has been interesting using a Mac to rebuild presentations, IMovie has been a joy to use so far. Ok back to the Google/Virtual Earth section as thats still to do…

The Blog will be back as normal and with a new look after the conference, we will also have news on the availability of the booklets.

The post Second Life Presentation/Booklets/Conference appeared first on Digital Urban.

Those nice people at SimpleSpark have made a video detailing 5000 Web 2.0 logos in 5 minutes. Of note is how many we recognise despite the speed of the movie:

It is also well worth looking at the collage of logos created by Ludwig Gatzke, they make a great print out and under Creative Commons license should be in the book…

If you would like to create your own Web 2.0 style logo, take a look at Hongkiat.com

The post Web 2.0 Logos appeared first on Digital Urban.

The video was created as a conversation starter, and Michael notes, works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively:

In the last 18 months things have got simpler – from creating maps to modelling the city, tools are emerging that are making the task easier. This is not to say that the problem is any less complex, it is just that software is reaching out to the masses and with it comes ease of use.

Large software companies with their bloated applications are increasingly being caught out by small, task specific applications, that simply get things done. Our Google Map Creator, Image Cutter and PhotoOverlay Creator for example are mainly ‘Open and Save’ applications.

Simple services or ‘Open and Save’ applications are typical of Web 2.0. Some professionals and educators may bulk at the ability to create maps or digital cities with a few clicks of the mouse but we tend to think its a good thing…

The post Information R/evolution appeared first on Digital Urban.

Oscar Retterer, Director of Instructional & Emerging Technologies at Franklin & Marshall College has uploaded to YouTube his thoughts on what Web 2.0 is all about:

Web 2.0 is about social input, information upload and interaction – Web 3.0 is somewhere we don’t want to go to quite yet but combine Web 2.0 with ‘The Cloud’ and we think your almost there..

More Web 2.0 type posts or thoughts are quite possible over the coming hours/days…. we should also have an updated Crysis and ‘Importing Architecture’ movie which is looking promising.

The post Web 2.0 – Whats it all about? appeared first on Digital Urban.

Oscar Retterer, Director of Instructional & Emerging Technologies at Franklin & Marshall College has uploaded to YouTube his thoughts on what Web 2.0 is all about:

Web 2.0 is about social input, information upload and interaction – Web 3.0 is somewhere we don’t want to go to quite yet but combine Web 2.0 with ‘The Cloud’ and we think your almost there..

More Web 2.0 type posts or thoughts are quite possible over the coming hours/days…. we should also have an updated Crysis and ‘Importing Architecture’ movie which is looking promising.

The post Web 2.0 – Whats it all about? appeared first on Digital Urban.

The movie embedded below is well worth a look, despite being 11 months old in these fast moving times it makes some good points in a simple manner:

Originally from http://mediatedcultures.net the point to grab is that the information world has changed and with it the world of geographic information, collaboration, interaction and with it almost every kind of science.

These are exciting times in science, geographic information and urban visualisation in general. Is the Web 2.0 Information Revolution as important at the Industrial Revolution? – Quite possibly, time will tell…

The post Web 2.0 in Five Minutes appeared first on Digital Urban.

The movie embedded below is well worth a look, despite being 11 months old in these fast moving times it makes some good points in a simple manner:

Originally from http://mediatedcultures.net the point to grab is that the information world has changed and with it the world of geographic information, collaboration, interaction and with it almost every kind of science.

These are exciting times in science, geographic information and urban visualisation in general. Is the Web 2.0 Information Revolution as important at the Industrial Revolution? – Quite possibly, time will tell…

The post Web 2.0 in Five Minutes appeared first on Digital Urban.