Friday, May 29, 2009

Stumble and Cloud Computing

"Stumble" through Firefox is wonderful. It is a great browsing tool for the internet, much like browsing the stacks in a library full of books. I think it is similar in concept to the new cloud computing model that will emerge in the near future. The browser will be the key and it will be smart, keying into our situations: where, who and what we are and like to explore.

I am excited to see how this new technology will expand the internet and our own psyches. There is a great article on hp.com regarding "The Next Wave: Everything as a Service." I thank Dr. Assefa for turning me on to this new development!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Luminotes Wiki for Students

After viewing www.wikimatrix.org and consulting the Wiki Choice Wizard to see which wiki would be best for me, I decided to explore Luminotes. I wanted a wiki that used WYSIWYG editing and was more of a personal wiki, especially one that students would be apt to use. I also wanted something that was basic and I wanted the option of using it online or downloading it to my own server. Luminotes is free/open sourced, geared toward students and does not require one to use special markup codes. It is a personal wiki notebook for organizing one's ideas, perfect for a student.

Luminotes is limited; it does not support Atom feeds, XML export or PDF export. It does not allow for media revisions, embedded flash or video. There are no blogging capabilities. There are no tables or math calculations. What it does do is take basic note taking to a more organized level. Luminotes describes itself as a wiki of linked notes with unique titles. It is great for revisions and reordering of content. It stores past content and allows one to make lists including nested lists (lists within lists). Not only is this wiki great for students and teachers, but is great for writers of all kinds. As an amateur writer of short fiction; I have lost content within my numerous revisions. Storing past content and the organizing of this content is a must.

Luminotes has the following features as cited by wikimatrix.org:

Free and Open Source
Programming Language is Python and JavaScript
Data Storage: Database
Hosting Features: Luminotes
Storage Quota: 30 MB to unlimited
Own Domain: Yes
System Requirements: Luminotes Operating System
Online version: Any Operating System,
Download version: Windows/Linux

PostgreSQL: Yes
SQLite: Yes

Development/Support: Luminotes
Preconfigured Hosting: Yes
Preview: Yes
Page History: Yes
Page Revisions: Unlimited
Page Index: Yes
Unicode Support: Yes
Namespaces: Yes
Search: Full Text
Wiki Farming

Links: Luminotes
Freelinks: Yes
Image Links: Yes
HTML Tags: Some
Toolbar: Yes
WYSIWYG Editing: Yes

CSS Stylesheets: Yes
Printer Friendly
Print View
Mobile Friendly

RSS Feeds: Yes
HTML Export:Yes
File Attachments: Yes
Image Galleries: Yes

You can explore Luminotes more fully by consulting the user guide found on http://luminotes.com/

About Me

My photo
I am a reference librarian for a public library. My emphasis is on YA readers advisory as well as conducting storytimes for children (birth-five years). I have a Masters in Library and Information Science, as well as a background in Theatre.