Really Simple RSS

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it provides an easy and efficient tool to follow varying types of information. This is conducted in a dedicated program, on a web site, on a blog or in your email program. Here are seven of the most popular RSS feed readers and a little info on each:

Blog Express
BlogExpress is a straightforward and simple news reader. Currently it can’t be used to search news or work on individual items and those limitations might eliminate it from your list of options.
Pros
• Designed for effective gathering of news information
• Easy to use and very functional
Cons
• Search and virtual folders are missing from BlogExpress
• It doesn't separate out individual news items
• It only provides one update schedule for all feeds

Bloglines
Bloglines is a user-friendly, web-based system to read RSS feeds. There's no software to download and it is convenient to use.
Pros
• It is user-friendly and universally accessible
• Individual news items can easily be clipped, emailed and blogged
• It lets you systematize feeds with folders and playlists and offers saved searches
Cons
• It doesn’t offer smart playlists
• Can't customize feed item display

Google Reader
Despite how easy it is to use, Google Reader is efficient and flexible. It offers a pretty flexible labeling system and ample web-based RSS feed reader. It would benefit from providing more help with help organizing.
Pros
• It offers a universally accessible and uncomplicated way to read RSS news feeds
• Sensible keyboard shortcuts make navigating Google Reader a easy
• You can label feeds and items freely and for convenient grouping and organization
Cons
• It can’t label items automatically based on past choices
• I won’t identify related posts and news and put items in context

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0

Mozilla Thunderbird has lots of features. It lets you handle mail efficiently and filters out junk mail. It would be nice if it was more helpful ie. showing related information, suggesting labels or folders, etc
Pros
• You have tools to manage mail including views, tags, filters, fast search and smart folders
• It filters and eliminates junk mail precisely and detects scams
• It allows you to read RSS feeds like streams of email with filters, search and labeling
Cons
• It doesn’t show related messages, sites, documents, posts, etc.
• The RSS feed reader could be better integrated
• It could be more helpful and intuitive by suggesting tags or reply

Omega Reader

Omega Reader is very user friendly and facilitates staying up to date with RSS feeds. It can seem over-complicated at times and I think additional help would be appreciated.
Pros
• It offers tools for searching folders, flagging and helps you stay organized.
• It is fast and reliable.
Cons
• It doesn’t’ make getting started easy. It doesn’t offer learning filters or categories
• It can’t read email and instant messaging conversations

RSS Bandit 1.6

Bandit is user friendly and effective for browsing news. Its offers flexibility, virtual folders and synchronization which while useful, could be improved if they were integrated with Bloglines in addition to NewsGator Online.
Pros
• RSS Bandit can be synchronized across numerous installations
• RSS Bandit lets you save searches as virtual folders
• Feeds can be organized in folders and RSS Bandit threads posts
Cons
• RSS Bandit cannot synchronize with Bloglines
• Searching could be faster in RSS Bandit, and it contains no trainable filters

Ning is exiting the free social networking biz due to poor profitability. Seems once you get your first $120 million in investments you pretty much want some more. I guess you don't become a dot com bazillionaire by clinging to a losing prospect. The list of charges for things you don't want in your site looks pretty lucrative and innovative so it appears the turn around is already starting.

Collaboration Tools

Education keeping up with their students...

It has come to the attention of educators that students are texting and in constant communication with one another. Educators are working to use communication devices that encourage good collaboration. The goal is to promote communication in a format that allow the group to share documents (diagram, photograph, paper, or similar objects), promotes natural interactions and is easy to use and learn.

Since it's highly unlikely that I'm smarted than a 5th Grader, I have no objection to collaborating with students and letting them guide the inclusion of technology in the classroom. To teach one must speak the language of the students and go where they are. In this case it means using technology that they can relate to.

"By relying on the familiar ways students use these tools, faculty can enable new forms of communication and engagement in the classroom, permitting extensions and variations of the informal interactions already occurring in classrooms and hallways, and creating new frontiers for collaboration across geographic boundaries." Amen.

About 37 Signals

This site is based on the belief that most software is too complex, containing too many features and most importantly, is too varied to be easily shared. 37Signals builds simpler web-based software that offers a professional look while being simpler and more intuitive.

Designed for the masses

The numbers appear to speak for themselves. Small businesses and individual entrepreneurs represent a sizable market which 37 signals refers to as the Fortune 5,000,000. Actually companies of all sizes use them this product. In this case building a better mouse trap meant making communication and team work more easy.

The Limitations of Genius made visible

I believe this site is filling a need and that need is based on keeping it simple. Why oh why did they not get the memo about not filling the screen with every color and font known to man? I will need some Advil to explore this site in greater depth. OMG, it is the hardest site to look at E-V-E-R!!!

A Qwiki Look at Wikis

PBworks and Wiki Spaces offer free wiki spaces. Both run on their own servers which frees you from needing your own server.

There are other wiki products like Mind Touch and Media Wiki that you can purchase and run on your own organizations server. You have to purchase the software but those wikis usually have more sophisticated features and functions.

Another example of special functions is Media Wiki (which is the basis for Wikipedia) which does a better job than other wikis at automatically creating a index of related wiki pages. Since these products cost money and require that you run them on your own server, it is logical that users select them based on functions required for the specific needs of the user.

As an educator I like to use PBworks because it helps students learn how to create a wiki that they can create and use in the future. The editing interface seems a little simpler to use than the ones on Media Wiki. When selecting a wiki you need to consider the skills of your users. To do this look for WYSIWYG editor (What you see is what you get). You should test to see what happens when two or more people are trying to edit the same page simultaneously. For example, in Wiki Spaces users encounter frustrating problems when you have multiple editors. When users click save it will not allow your posting if another user hits save first. Furthermore, the message you get doesn’t disclose the bigger problem. The message says someone else is editing that page but fails to alert you that your post is lost. When working with students I assume lower level computer skills. I wouldn’t use Wiki Spaces because there is a significant danger they may lose their work.

I have selected PBworks for an in depth study. Here is a sampling of the features I found most important:

Collaboration Features

Asynchronous

Shared Online Workspaces
It is easy to create an online space for your team to collaborate. Your workspace provides shared pages and the ability to include documents and files.

Add Users
You can share your wiki space with members of your team and guests. You can limit the access of guests to certain parts of your wiki. Conversely you can make it more inclusive by using the “trusted email domain” and allow anyone with the appropriate email address to join.

Collaborative Editing
Save time working on separate documents. The team can collaborate on the same page on the wiki with as many editors as you need. The editing feature includes automated email notifications to keep everyone informed.

Document Management
The documents management feature allows users to share documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoints, etc. and work on them simultaneously. Word, Excel, and WordPerfect documents can also be imported and shared.

Complete History and Audit Trail
The complete audit trail is an essential tool which records all changes made. It identified the author of each change. The document can easily be reverted to an earlier form.

Keep Track of Deadlines
Using a tool called “Tasks and Milestones” you can manage projects or modules of projects. In team work it is essential to keep informed of how the project is progressing and any looming deadlines.

Synchronous

Voice Collaboration
There is a feature that will dial participants in a conference and add calls as needed. The conference call is recorded and stored for later review. This process is kept simple with no special dial up numbers, codes or equipment required.

Other Communication Tools
You can use tools to send instant messages, and set up chat sessions.

Synchronous Editing
Users can work separately or in groups, editing the document as a team, with or without voice collaborating.

Social Networking

Business Social Networking
You can customize the network's user profiles to create social networking features. All participants would have a profile with LinkedIn-style information and a record of the participants activities and tasks. The administrator has management controls, i.e. selecting fields to include and those which would be filtered.

Twitter-style Microblogging
Encourage informal collaboration and awareness with microblogging using a tool to post status updates and share communications.

Security

Access Controls
Levels of access (Reader, Writer, Editor, and Administrator) can be set allowing individualized and differentiating access to your workspaces.

Page and Folder-Level Access
In addition to controlling workspace-wide access levels, managers can control specific documents or pages users can access.

Open Course in Education Futures

About this Project:

"What is the next wave of technological change? What can educators do to prepare and anticipate trends? Using a method called “future thinking,” this course will look at a variety of trends and provide a series of potential scenarios and future directions. Participants will be actively involved in tracking critical trends, exploring their educational impact, and plan for ways to prepare for important changes.

This is a course being taught for the University of Manitoba by Dave Cormier and George Siemens as part of the certificate in emerging technology. It will be an open course, that anyone can join in as we go along. We will be examining the possible futures for education. In order to explore potential paths for education, learning, and training, we will spend time developing a framework for analyzing trends and for generating and evaluating scenarios."

You could spend hours reading here and none of it would be wasted. (not something I can say about hours on the computer often enough.) Blogs range over a multitude of educational topics. A treasure...really.

Simple Feed Rolling for GReader Users - Bundles

Step by step instructions to use Google Reader to roll together a number of feeds and produce a single RSS feed.