Week 8: Mashups and API

Week 8
Well, I'm trying to catch up; I know this week 8 post is coming before the ones for Weeks 6 and & 7, but that's the way it is...

Exercise 1:
Mashups blow my mind! Who has the time for creating these things?? (Does that sound like "old world" Boomer Generation??)

I explored and found Musiic.net. I did my standard search on "The Supremes." As usual, I found the musical group and the 9 Supremes (The U.S. Supreme Court) Technorati had a piece for Mother's Day, and listed The Supremes' song "Love Child," and a link to hear the song. A sobering thought: how many Moms are "Love Child Moms?"
Googleblogs featured a piece on Roe v. Wade--also interesting for Mother's Day....

Exercise 2: Rollyo and librarianblogs and privacy:
What I was finding was related to public libraries and privacy. A Mom called in to ask if patrons could access "MySpace" there. The parents wasn't happy with the answer; the libn did not comment. As a Tech Services libn in a medical library, I don't face such questions; in fact, much of our online content would be seen as "illegal" or at least "questionable" for public library patrons! However, I hasten to add that we do not allow viewing of pornography--although we do not closely monitor use to discover it...

The difference between "online life vs. in-person interaction." Traditional values about user privacy (held by many libns) vs the level of personalized service people now expect. OCLC's study was the source of that info.
Then I looked at a piece on Amazon's A9 policy and how my interactions with Amazon are used to personalize messages to me. ...and how any "future owner" of Amazon might use them.

As this is a post for week 8, I must take the opportunity to say how great this course has been!!! I would never have been able to learn about these Web 2.0 products on my own--I would not have taken the time to explore. Having the guided exercises has been wonderful! Thank you for creating these, and offering the "hand-holding" guidance!!

I am eager to attend the program on May 21 at MLA!! And now I might begin to understand what is discussed!