Discovering The World From Your Laptop

2009 Gold Rush Writer's Conference Mokelumne Hill, Calif. May 1-3, 2009 Laptop 1: Navigating The World From Your Laptop Tom Johnson Institute for Analytic Journalism Santa Fe, New Mexico [email_address]

What we’re aiming for today

Major changes in datasphere

Open Source

Web 2.0 (aka “Cloud Computing”)

Effective search-and-keep tools

Refining and refined search engines (Hot Tip: Google ain’t the answer.)

If time….look at some non-text web sites

Enrich your research

Bring new levels of truth, detail, verisimilitude to your writing

What’s going on in the “datasphere”?

Open Source

People writing applications, add-ons, widgets for FREE

Applications moving from your computer hard drive to cyberspace

Places more “intellectual” demands on the browser and browser extensions/add-ons

Need Broadband

Be careful in cyberspace! http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/deadpool/

What all this means to writers

Datasphere is constantly changing

Tools to navigate datasphere constantly changing

We can be better at what we do if we constantly adapt to those changes

Data In

 Analysis  Info Out

How to navigate cyberspace?

Current - and updated - browsers

On how many of your computers?

Do you need portability? (USB drives)

Bookmark and note-keeping apps

Sophisticated, flexible search engines

“Invisible web” resources

What’s behind the closed digital doors?

Alternative Web Browsers

Major Browsers : Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome

More Cross-Platform Browsers : Mozilla and Flock

Windows Browsers : K-Meleon

Macintosh Browsers : Camino, OmniWeb and iCab

Linux Browsers : Konqueror, Galeon and Epiphany

All of these ALT browsers feature:

Tabbed browsing; automatic updates

Modern web pages with HTML, CSS, SSL, and JavaScript

Cookies and cookie management

Plug-ins and Java

Ad blocking and/or pop-up blocking

Download Managers

Integrated Search

Favorites/Bookmarks and import (and export)

Finding bookmark utilities

Google Search words: [+free +bookmark +programs]

Surfpack

http://freebookmark.surfpack.com / (scroll down to see list)

Tucows (keyword: "bookmark")

Windows has 498 hits (last year 209) . Mac has 27 (last year 25)

Establish your criteria

Are tools browser specific or generic?

Bookmarks on YOUR hard drive and/or in the digital cloud

Degree of control

Make folders and sub-folders

Annotate

Add tag words

Import/export entries

E-mail full or partial set of bookmarks

Evaluation sites and tools

Search Engine Directory Internet search engines categorized by topic as general and specialty search engines. Also resources and tools for exploring the deep web , performing advanced research, and for learning about using search engine tools and technology. http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking Faceoff -- http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_bookmarking_faceoff.php

Some major Bookmark tools

FireFox ’s Bookmarks

Good organization after capture: “Organize Bookmarks” Good export. Install “ FoxMarks ” extension to synch multiple computers.

Scrapbook (Firefox add-on)

Pros : Save Web pages or parts of.

Major features are: Save Web site hotlinks and other file format documents (i.e. PDF); Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks; Full text search and quick filtering search of the collection. Good highlight and annotation tools. Cons : can’t synch to online or other computers. Difficult to tag and save in multi-folders.

Some major Bookmark tools

Diigo.com (TJ’s current favorite)

Good highlighting, annotation and tagging. Private or shared links. “Save and e-mail” feature.

del.icio.us

Allows access to the same bookmarks from any computer; add bookmarks from anywhere. Use tags (i.e. keywords) to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders. [Well, maybe. ]

Note-taking tools

Criteria?

Just one desktop or multiple computers?

Browser accessible?

Synchronization?

Export to ????

Backup storage flashdrive, HD or web “locker”?

E-mail to yourself or others?

Receive notes sent via phone - text or pics?

“ Search within” functions?

Major note-taking tools

Eluma - www.eluma.com Collect, organize and share all of the information you find on the Web, or through Eluma .

Keep all of your Web stuff in one place - favorite Web sites, RSS feeds and podcasts, blogs you read, etc. Organize your favorites by creating collections and/or assigning tags

Discover new content; subscribe to collections created and recommended by other Eluma users.

Subscribe to real-time alerts

Synchronize favorites automatically across all your computers.

Evernote - http://evernote.com/

Capture the things you want to remember using what you already use — your Windows or Mac computer, the web, and your mobile phone.

Run everything through the recognition technology; synchronize it across your devices. You can then organize and tag the notes.

When you want to find something, just search or filter for it.

Microsoft OneNote – ( 60 days  $100) http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx

One place to gather notes and information; search to find what you are looking for quickly

Shared notebooks so that they can manage group work

Multiple computers? Use MS Windows Live to backup and synch http://www.officelive.com/ and https://sync.live.com/home.aspx

First lesson of online research!

Have a web-search strategy

UCB “Five-Step Search Strategy” http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

Understand how the search engine(s) work

Google: Always begin at “ Advanced Search ” and “ Advanced Search Tips ”

Yahoo  More  ” All Search Services ”

Ask.com Advanced Search Tips

The Deep - “Invisible” - Web #1

Deep Web Research 2008 http://www.llrx.com/features/deepweb2008.htm Marcus P. Zillman: “The Deep Web covers [approx.] 900 billion pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats that the current search engines on the Internet either cannot find or have difficulty accessing . Search engines currently locate approximately 20 billion pages. “This article and guide is designed to give you the resources you need to better understand the history of the deep web research, as well as various classified resources that allow you to search through the currently available web to find those key sources of information nuggets only found by understanding how to search the "deep web".

Navigating the “Invisible Web”

Start with reference librarians

UC Berkeley Library’s excellent site www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html

Note search examples for Google and Yahoo keywords

Desktop Search Engines

Copernic Desktop Search 3.2

Find files and emails fast along with its wide network deployment options http://www.copernic.com

Google Desktop

Search your computer as easily as you search the web with Google

Find and launch applications and files with just a few keystrokes http://desktop.google.com/

Citation Management Tools

Digital Research Tools Wiki (DiRT)

Zotero - www.zotero.org Zotero is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives in the web browser itself.