• CogDogBlog » Barking » Rendering RSS inside Media Wiki
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Even though I belong to several listserves, I only have time to closely follow a few.  One is the SLED (Second Life Educators Forum) because of the work that Heidi and I are doing with my class and NMC.  I have managed to put that in its own folder, saving my inbox from tons of posts.  The second list serve that sneaks into my inbox (just because I have been to lazy to set up a folder) is Online Faciliation.  Usually the posts are too corporate for my needs but one recently caught my interest.  The author shared a link that discusses the idea of a personal wiki – an idea that I have been meaning to explore for some time.  Dennis Kennedy writes:

And, even though this goes against the grain of the “collaborativeness” associated with wikis, I’ve long been interested in personal wikis. They seem that they could be a tool for personal knowledge management.

My sense for wikis is that you need an “easy enough” wiki tool and, most important, a project about which you are motivated or which gives you a clear personal benefit for which a wiki makes sense. Ideally, this would be a small and simple project where ongoing changes are required. I could see doing a book project, certain research projects…

The author makes a good point that our “bio” or “about me” page is often out of date, sometimes by 2-3 years.  The easy editing feature of the wiki (and blog) will allow our web presence to stay current – see Rick Klau’s CV as a great example.  Another great example is Jo Kay’s wiki (another SL resident) – I really like what she has been able to create with a free wiki tool. 

My problem is that I have 3 server spaces with content about me (here, Columbia, and Seton Hall).  I would love to combine them all into a wiki space for an online portfolio – my problem is how to make mediawiki, which I just installed, to look nice.  I have to carve out some time to play – as soon as I get something presentable I will be sure to share.  Still have to work on a new snazzy banner…

I have spent a considerable amount of time this weekend adding content to the side column of my blog – my next step is to start on my wiki (so proud of myself that I was able to install mediawiki on my web space).  I am always on the look out for new features to add for my blog and started to notice a links generator popping up on some of the sites that I visit.  Check out the NMC Campus Observer and Managing the Grey (CC. Chapman’s Blog) for an example.  After a bit of investigation I found the code for this on a blog authored by a Berkeley student – Trapped at Berkeley.  I have to give it a try as soon as I have time to figure out what the whole crontab thing – probably not as hard as it seems.

The second thing that I want to complete is a snazzier banner.  The image that I use is one that I took but I have been playing with idea of using a SL picture but manipulating it so that you can’t quite tell what it is – photograph or image.  I really like the on that Elika uses – although it is too glam for my purposes here (but I do love glam!!)  Instead of trying to stage the whole thing in SL I might try combining images – not sure why I did not think of it before but it was not until I saw the post on how to make your own fashion ads for SL that the idea was sparked. 

Lots to learn from the business side of SL.  Hopefully next time your check back I will have had more time to play. 

I knew that I needed to just take a rest from trying to fix my flickr plugin.  It took awhile but I cleaned out all of the files associated with that plugin from my server, I think that the cache files (all 2 million of them) were causing the unresponsiveness I complained about before.  The new version of the plugin allows you to hide certain albums or pictures!  This is great – I do not mind sharing my scenic vacation pics, puppy pics or SL images but I like to keep the family pics private.  The new version of the plugin can be found at http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit and the instructions for the API are on the TanTanMoodles Flickr group.  So happy

 On a side note be sure to check out the new sculptures and items that have been added to the NMC museum space.  There is a new curator for the museum, whose name I would have to look up, so check back often to see exciting new additions.  There are even pumpkins, each with a spooky design and luminous center, just in time for Halloween.  Do avatars dress up for Halloween?  Maybe we can host a party at the NMC campus –  I have a feeling some people are already in disguise.

I have spent have the day fighting with my Flickr photo album plugin and have officially given up.  If you use the Silas Partners plugin which allows you to inlcude Flickr images in your post as well as create photo albums (I took down the photos page on my blog since it showed all my images even ones available to only family and friends) you need to get a Flickr API.  In a posting on the TanTanMoodles Flickr group it was explained the APIs used to support the plugin had exceeded its limit and individual users would need to request their own.  After hours of trying to get it right my blog times out each time I try to connect with the Flickr site with my new APIs.  I admit defeat

I should have enjoyed the day like little Cocoa (I took this picture this afternoon) who spent most of her afternoon being entertained by the squirrels and rabbits in the front yard. 

Excuse my poor neglected blog, things have been so hectic.  I found another cool plugin to share.  Check out http://robm.me.uk/projects/plugins/wordpress/now-reading/ - it allows you to add books that you intend to read, are currently reading and want to read.  So far I have only added one book but will be sure to include others. 

Have a great start to the semester!!

If you like Flickr check out this cool resource: http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/
Its something to do on a rainy Saturday night when you want to procrastinate on all the other work that you have to do

Preparation for the beginning of a new semester has preventing me from contributing as much as I would like to my blog but I thought I would share a Wordpress plug that I am also testing in this post.  Hopefully (fingers crossed) a social book mark bar will appear with this post.  If it works and you like it you can find it at Apostolos Dountsis’ blog.

Sconset Beach, originally uploaded by dmirliss.

Flickr has recently received a lot of bad press in the Second Life community lately (see cogdogblog) because of their policy against images that do not fall into the strictest definition of a photograph. Putting this argument aside (if you look into my account I have close to 100 SL images myself), I am absolutely loving my flickr account. It might be the fact that I practically grew up in a darkroom, helping my professional photographer father develop Black and White images (I am not that old – color photographs were in existence) or that I love to create photographs myself. I would take a guess and say that it is a combination of displaying my art and sharing it with others. color photographs were in existence) or that I love to create photographs myself. I would take a guess and say that it is a combination of displaying my art and sharing it with others.

Sharing my images also has some interesting consequences. The beach picture that is featured in this post is being used for a travel web site, www.homeandabroad.com, to advertise Nantucket (very cool). Others have also enjoyed my photographs, adding them as their favorites. I always look to see who has added my pics as favorites and what other images they had in their favorites collection. It started with my banner pic - a very innocent picture of flowers. Then it escalated to a picture of my SL avatar - ok, someone thinks she looks good (I spent enough money on her). Then someone added a pic of my husband’s feet to their favorites – ewwww. Why is there a pic of my husband’s feet? Well, I was bored on the same beach and started to take pictures of anything including feet (I also took a pic of my own feet). When I looked at this person’s profile she had a collection of men’s feet all tagged as her favorites. I am tempted to comment back “Get your own hairy feet – these are taken!”. *smile*