Zigmas Bigelis' Blog, Profy.com

Powerset - natural language search - coming soon

Zigmas Bigelis — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:51:00 -0700

During a few months I have participated in testing on a new natural language search engine Powerset.\

It is coming soon - today or tomorrow. I shall not be able to have
internet access tomorrow therefore I write preliminary comments.

The engine has a number of very interesting features:

1. You enter a query in natural language. It means that you do not
need to think about keywords and can get more relevant search results.
It means more deep search as well.

2. When you get search results you easy see not full document or
webpage but highligted sentences that are relevant to your query.

3. You see semantic environment of your search results. It means
that you see a content of the document and you see both related terms
and actions you can do for more relevant search.

4. You can select and click the new term or action and then you will
see the relevant part of the document or webpage in the content at the
right of the document.

5. Powerset team used very nice friendly and interesting tool for collecting feedback.

Top 100 analyst blogs

Zigmas Bigelis — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:51:00 -0700

An interesting analysis of top 100 blogs (18 February 2008)
http://technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/top-100-analyst-blogs-2/

You will find
- list of 100 blogs
- methodology of ranking (determined by PageRank, subscribers, recent inbound links, frequency and focus of posts as well as the number of comments)

Big List of Online Productivity Tools

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:42:00 -0700

A big list of tools related to creativity
http://lifedev.net/big-list-of-online-productivity-tools/

Online Office Suites

Online Calendars

Online Documents

Online RSS Readers

Startpages

Invoice Managers

Time Tracking Services

Goal Tracking Services

Project Management Services

To-do Lists

Personal Organizers- calendars, to-do’s, etc. all rolled into one service

Sticky Notes

GTD Tools

Mind Mapping Tools

Bubbl.us

Online Collaboration Tools

Web-Based Operating Systems

Misc. Productivity Applications

Running

Music

19 Online Destinations for Boosting Creativity

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:38:00 -0700

An interesting list of tools boosting creativity
http://lifedev.net/2008/03/19-online-destinations-for-boosting-creativity/

1. SpringWise
- A database of great ideas that any entrepreneur can act on to help
you start the “next big thing”. There are some great, fun ideas, plus
they showcase the latest trends of entrepreneurship.

2. WhyNot?
- Much like SpringWise, WhyNot? has lots of user-submitted ideas for
any ambitious soul to take under their wing and develop. However,
WhyNot? is more of a community for entrepreneurs than SpringWise, which
can be a bit more helpful at times.

3. Digg
- You can find a smattering of news, tips and other odd things on the
Digg homepage. Digg’s users find the best of the web, and the community
voting does a wonderful job of showcasing quality news and compelling
links. You know it’s a good site when LifeDev has been on the homepage
a few times ;)

4. Del.icio.us Popular
- I love the del.icio.us popular page. One can find the most creative
and interesting articles and tools on the Internet on the Del.icio.us
popular page. It’s basically a barometer of what’s hot on the web with
designers and techies alike.

5. Tumblr
- Tumblr is another one of my personal favorites. Aside from creating
your own Tumblelog, the Tumblr homepage showcases the best links,
images and videos that people are sharing around the web.

6. Nasa’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Have a breathtaking shot of the cosmos, once a day. Nothing is more
inspiring and mysterious than outer space, in my humble opinion.
Perfect for shaking any sort of doldrums you might be in.

7. FlickrLeech
- If you’re a visual person and love to view creative photos, check out
FlickrLeech. You can browse just about any type of photo, plus the
default view of Flickr Interesting page is very handy, especially if you need some creative wallpapers for your desktop.

8. LifeRemix - Shameless plug? Maybe. But I visit the site every day and am almost always inspired by the quality of writing. Note: Yes, I’m the co-founder of LifeRemix ;)

9. DocStoc -
You can find some incredibly creative and informative documents that
can lead to many ideas. You’d be surprised at the great content you can
find at DocStoc.

10. WisdomQuotes -
Nothing inspires more than a great quote from someone smarter than
myself. I’ve done entire blog posts based on an inspiring quote.

11. Seth Godin’s blog
- Aside from his uber-savvy marketing advice, there are plenty of
untapped ideas and inspiration that he shares frequently with his
readership. And you better believe that if Seth Godin dreamed it up,
there’s a good chance he’s on the mark.

12. TechCrunch
- Mike Arrington and company constantly showcase the newest and the
best sites on the web at TechCrunch. There is plenty of inspiration
that can be found just by seeing the newest thing in web applications.
Many ideas I’ve had for web apps come directly from concepts introduced
through TechCrunch. Here’s a tip: If you’re wanting to create the next big web phenomena, hang on to their every word.

13. Kottke.org - Jason Kottke has been posting interesting and creative information on the web for the past 10 years. He’s a favorite of many bloggers, and rightly so.

14. BoingBoing
- One of the most popular blogs around, BoingBoing showcases the most
“wonderful things” on the web. Like Kottke, BoingBoing does the dirty
work of sifting through the web for the creme de la creme.

15. Google Docs
- While not expressly a site for finding information, GDocs is a great
tool for capturing ideas and thoughts. GDocs gives the perfect
flexibility for saving quick ideas and then expounding on them later.

16. How to Change the World
- Guy Kawaski is a fun guy with great ideas. Though his blog is geared
slightly more to the marketing crowd, it’s chock-full of great ideas. I
think the most stimulating thing about Guy’s blog is that it’s written
with great voice and lots of humor.

17. MindMeister - Although I’m personally not a huge fan of online apps for creativity’s sake (other than GDocs), many people do like
to use online mind-mapping tools for brainstorming. MindMeister is
right up there with the best of the online mind-mapping tools because
it’s quick and intuitive.

18. Twitter - Although the way I use twitter is more as a web service, (I use the twhirl
twitter client), Twitter can use your friends to help you find
interesting and creative articles to check out. You can quickly ask
your friends if anyone has an idea for XYZ, and odds are someone can
point you in the right direction. Also, your friends will most likely
link to content that you’ll find interesting as well.

19. Smashing Magazine - A site that shares useful and interesting bits for web developers and
designers. It likes to showcase the trendy and useful, which can
stimulate creative ideas for any reader.

How to claim a Profy blog on Technorati?

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:13:00 -0700

Read Svetlana FULL blog

Today I
realized that I have not claimed my authorship of this blog on Technorati yet. And since usually
Technorati is the first tool the majority of bloggers use to make their blogs
noticed by other bloggers, I have decided to correct this by claiming this
Profy blog.

Obviously,
I already have an account on Technorati that owns our multi-author Profy blog (I will appreciate you adding this blog to
your favorites, of course, if you like reading our posts). If you do not
have an account yet, you will have to register first.

Claiming this blog on Technorati

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:08:00 -0700

READ Svetlana blog

Technorati Profile

source

Leadership - Unlocking the potential in teams

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:04:00 -0700

I suppose that it is rather interesting especially if you have read a previous post about Svetlana interview.

Leadership - Unlocking the potential in teams

Posted by Admin on Mar 18th, 2008

2008

Mar 18

How leaders can unlock potential in their teams

Leaders are faced
with unlocking the potential in the people that they lead and
motivating the individual is a key part of this process. Motivation is
not something that is done to an individual as they already posses it.
What a leader does, to profit the whole team, is to discharge, or
unlock, it.

Here are seven ways leaders unlock potential in people.

1. Leaders
share their vision and values. Vision is what the team aspires to. Some
visions may not ever be reachable, yet by their very existence they
inspire, excite and motivate people to turn them into a reality. Where
the vision comes from, however, is less important than whether team
members fully share the vision. Where does vision come from?
Essentially it comes from what you value or care strongly about.
Values, then, are the foundation of the vision. Normally you would have
only a few values. Each person can usually identify and describe them
in their own words. They are not necessarily the same as mission
statements, slogans or taglines written on walls or bulletin boards. As
a leader, it is important that you regularly restate the team values
and display them by your own actions. Leaders should also ask team
members to keep producing examples of how they are turning values into
reality.

2. Leaders
value people. People will work very hard for a leader because they feel
you value them as a person. You do this by treating each person with
respect and by persisting in demanding that this is how team members
treat one another as well.

3. Leaders
Give Recognition. Research has shown that organizations seldom give
enough recognition to their people. All too often people feel that they
are taken for granted and that there is insufficient feedback about
their efforts. Recognition does not always have to be in the form of a
promotion or pay raise. Your team needs clear signs of appreciation and
this can easily and simply be done by saying “thank you,” a small gift,
public praise, a party, etc.

4. Leaders
are Creative. Creativity is one of the most powerful means a leader has
of unlocking your team’s full potential and infusing them with new
energy. You can foster creativity by being open to new possibilities,
new connections, new methods and surprising solutions. To use everyone
in the team to their maximum potential, they need to be stretched as
human beings. This does not mean setting impossible goals as much as it
does expecting the most of each person on the team. To expect the most,
you need to know each persons talents. You can learn about members of
the team through formal assessment procedures, asking the person,
asking others, trial and error in the workplace and so forth. The range
of your team’s talent will likely astound you. Have fun uncovering the
team’s talents.

5. Leaders
Inspire Special Effort. Interestingly, people will do extraordinary
work for some leaders and not for others. This happens when people see
their own interests linked with the leader and he/she wants to achieve.
When you call for team effort, remember that people respond to facts
and emotion. Both are essential. Facts will start the process of
convincing your team that heroic effort is needed. Make sure you
prepare the facts carefully since they must stand up to the team’s
scrutiny. Emotion is another vital ingredient. You need to appeal to
people’s feeling, not just their logical, rational, parts. Facts alone
will seldom tap a team’s hidden energy and commitment. Watch for signs
in the team to indicate that people are making special effort and
immediately reinforce this by offering approval and recognition.

6. Leaders Do
It Their Way. Leaders need to develop a method and adopt a style that
suits them. Then, when you need a special effort from the team, this is
the moment to show them your real leadership style. Inspiring people is
not as easy as it sounds. It starts with you, sharing with them what
inspires you. If are committed to what you want, people will respond to
your inspiration, energy and vision. If you really believe in your
vision, and exude energy and passion about it, the team will also share
in that effort with you and feel your passion. 7. Conversely,
negativity will also breed negative thoughts from your team. Remember
that each team member will internally respond with a “what’s in it for
me?” approach. Discover what each person on the team wants and you will
have the key to unlocking their potential and sustaining that special
effort you need.

Your
qualities as a leader will attract people to consider making the heroic
effort you want or need. They may be drawn to your passion, your
humanity, energy, integrity or commitment. They may admire and fear
your determination to make something happen, but it is the human
qualities you share that will gain their

Lessons From Entrepreneurs: Svetlana Gladkova

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:11:00 -0700

http://howtosplitanatom.com/interview/lessons-from-entrepreneurs-svetlana-gladkova/

By Steve Spalding March 18th, 2008
Under: interview

Svetlana Gladkova is a part of the team behind the blogging platform Profy.
What’s especially interesting about this company is that it’s based out
of Siberia. Svetlana was kind enough to share some insights about
development, networking and reaching international markets.

Here is what she had to say.

First of all, I need to point out that we only launched Profy
blogging platform in private alpha back in January so this is a very
early stage project – thus the early-stage lessons I can share with
your audience. So my tips are focused on the development and launch
stages of the web project.

Development is your focus until your product is perfect

As a marketing person I used to think that success of any project
depends mainly on marketing, publicity, and public relations. Now I
know that no PR can actually make any project a success. Now I know
that when you prepare to launch a web product, almost everything
depends on the development process and this is what any web
entrepreneur should focus on. You can believe your over-optimistic team
and expect the development to be completed in 6 months (and have the
development budget for this period as well) and you can easily end up
with over a year in development.

Such situations can easily crash even the best of ideas so it is
extremely important to have a good architect to plan the development
process and set deadlines. And even if you are 100% sure in how your
team will perform and know that your product will not have any single
bug, it is still wise to add a couple of months to your plan to be
absolutely sure you have at least some time allowance to have the
product ready.

You are the leader, your enthusiasm is crucial

READ FULL interview

iPhone Users Are Having More Fun

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:08:00 -0700

http://gigaom.com/2008/03/18/iphone-users-are-having-more-fun/

New data from M:Metrics
for the month of January confirms that folks who own an iPhone tend to
do more entertaining things on their devices — such as watch video and
visit social networks — than those who own smartphones. However
February data from mobile ad network AdMob
points out that iPhone users are still a relatively small part of the
overall mobile phone market in the U.S. Good thing, otherwise we’d
never get anything done.

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Zigmas Bigelis — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:27:00 -0700

Introducing The Source

The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe. An updated forecast of worldwide information growth through 2011 (Note: PDF)

From the EMC Corporation website

This white paper calibrates the size (bigger) and growth (faster) of the digital universe. It also seeks to understand the implications for business, government, and society.
Some key findings are as follows:
• The digital universe in 2007 — at 2.25 x 1021 bits (281 exabytes or 281 billion gigabytes) — was 10% bigger than we thought. The resizing comes as a result of faster growth in cameras, digital TV shipments, and better understanding of information replication
• By 2011, the digital universe will be 10 times the size it was in 2006
• As forecast, the amount of information created, captured, or replicated exceeded available storage for the first time in 2007. Not all information created and transmitted gets stored, but by 2011, almost half of the digital universe will not have a permanent home
• Fast-growing corners of the digital universe include those related to digital TV, surveillance cameras, Internet access in emerging countries, sensor-based applications, data-centers supporting “cloud computing,” and social networks
• The diversity of the digital universe can be seen in the variability of file sizes, from 6 gigabyte movies on DVD to 128-bit signals from RFID tags. Because of the growth of VoIP, sensors, and RFID, the number of electronic information “containers” — files, images, packets, tag contents — is growing 50% faster than the number of gigabytes. The information created in 2011 will be contained in more than 20 quadrillion — 20 million billion — of such containers, a tremendous management challenge for both businesses and consumers
• Of that portion of the digital universe created by individuals, less than half can be accounted for by user activities — pictures taken, phone calls made, emails sent — while the rest constitutes a digital “shadow” — surveillance photos, Web search histories, financial transaction journals, mailing lists, and so on
• The enterprise share of the digital universe is widely skewed by industry, having little relationship to GDP or IT spending. The finance industry, for instance, accounts for almost 20% of worldwide IT spending but only 6% of the digital universe. Meanwhile, media, entertainment, and communications industries will account for 10 times their share of the digital universe in 2011 as their share of worldwide gross economic output
• The picture related to the source and governance of digital information remains intact: Approximately 70% of the digital universe is created by individuals, but enterprises are responsible for the security, privacy, reliability, and compliance of 85%

source

80 Online Resources for Book Lovers

Zigmas Bigelis — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:28:00 -0700

An interesting list of different tools, including Web research tool and other
http://ydabondelli.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/80-online-resources-for-book-lovers/

Social Networking for Book Lovers

1. LibraryThing
is probably my favorite book-related resource on the web. I use it to
catalog my personal library, as well as discover new books, find people
with similar reading interests, discuss books, and more. Membership is
free for a library of up to 200 books, and they offer annual
memberships as well as a lifetime membership for a mere $25 (I’m a life
member). A paying member can have an unlimited number of books in their
library and full functionality of the site. If you are a book lover it
is a must. You can visit my LibraryThing profile here.

2. What’s On My Bookshelf is also a book trading site that works on a point system.

3. Listal is a social network based on the things you like, including books, movies, music, etc.

4. Shelfari
let’s you create a virtual shelf to share with friends, get
recommendations, and all the stuff you expect a book-centric social
network to do.

5. Good Reads is another social network for sharing book recommendations with friends.

E-books

6. WikiBooks
has open-source/open-content textbooks that anyone can edit. The have
over 25,000 modules in their variety of textbooks and serves as a great
companion piece to Wikipedia.

7. The Rare Book Room
contains photographs and scans of some great and rare books from
libraries around the world. Currently there are about 400 complete
scans on a variety of subjects, but the Rare Book Room is focused on
quality over quantity, so the material they do have is superb.

8. The Poetry Archive is an online collection of recordings of poets reading their own poetry. Listening to the recordings is free of charge.

9. ManyBooks.net contains about 17,000 ebooks for your PDA, iPod, or ebook reader. All of the ebooks are free of cost. They also show PSP and cell-phone friendly ebooks.

10. Project Gutenberg
is the founding father of public-domain ebooks online. There is a large
number of ebooks available through the site that is operated on
voluntary donations. You can also volunteer to help the project by
proofing captured text from books to ensure accuracy as well as greater
roles once you have established yourself as a reliable contributor to
the project.

11. Google Book Search allows you to search the full text of books online using the Google search algorithms. It can be a useful research tool.

12. Bartleby is another large resource for free public domain electronic books and resources.

13. Bookrags
has over 5.7 million pages of literature summaries, biographies,
literary criticism, essays, encyclopedias, and eBooks sourced from over
100 respected education databases.

14. E-Book Searchr is a Google powered search for e-books.

15. Bookyards
has a total of 14,550 books, 38,945 external web links, 4,197 news
& blogs links, 384 videos and access to hundreds of online
libraries (800,000 eBooks) for your reading pleasure.

16. Memoware has a lot of free e-books in a number of different genres.

17. Just Free Books allows you to search for free e-books.

18. Rackhub Books has free e-books on computers and IT.

19. Classic Bookshelf has free e-books of classic literature.

20. Athena has a large selection of links to e-books.

21. Yale Avalon Project has e-books and documents on law and history.

22. Bibliomania has more than 2000 classic e-books as well as study guides and summaries.

23. Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a collection of classic Christian writings.

24. Diesel E-Books
has free e-books formatted for Microsoft Reader. The Diesel Gratis
Collection includes classic American and British fiction, American
history, children’s literature, Shakespeare, African-American
documents, and more.

25. Digital Book Index
provides links to more than 134,000 title records from more than 1800
commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various
private sites. About 94,000 of these books, texts, and documents are
available free, while many others are available at very modest cost.

26. UVA Electronic Text Center has a large selection of e-books from the University’s library.

27. Eserver
is an e-publishing co-op based at Iowa State University where hundreds
of writers, editors and scholars gather to publish over 35,000 works
free of charge.The site is dedicated to clear, accessible writing in
the humanities.

28. Famous Poets and Poems has a large

collection of poems and quotes from over 627 poets.

29. FreeBooks.org has free e-books and audio books.

30. Free Science has a collection of science e-books.

31. Great Books and Classics has a large collection of classic literature, especially Latin.

32. Sacred Texts has religion and spirituality e-books.

33. Knowledge Rush has e-books and poems, as well as user submitted writing.

34. Perseus Digital Library is the digital library of Tufts University with a number of free e-books.

35. FlazX has computer and IT e-books and textbooks.

36. Baen Free Library has a selection of e-books sorted by author and title.

37. Penn Digital Library is the digital library of U Penn.

38. Wowio has a large collection of free e-books.

39. CHM PDF E-books is a directory of computer and programming e-books.

40. BooksDB has mostly computer e-books.

41. Free Tech Books features computer and technology e-books.

42. Daily Lit has email and RSS feeds that sends you chunks of a book each day until you finish it.

Online Bookstores

43. Amazon.com is the biggest online bookstore there is.

44. Alibris
is my favorite online bookstore for finding out-of-print books. I
discovered them a few years ago after I purchased some books from them
on ebay, and I have been coming back ever since.

45. AbeBooks has new, used, and rare books as well as some great features and newsletters.

46. BookSense is a family of independent booksellers online in case you don’t want to give your money to the big corporate bookstores.

Find the Best Prices for Books

47. ISBN Spy lets you enter an ISBN for a book and find the cheapest place to purchase it.

48. Book Burro is another book price comparison site.

49. BookFinder also offers a similar service.

Audiobooks

50. LibriVox
is a resource for public domain audio books. You can listen to the
audio books from the site or you can volunteer to record your own audio
book for the site.

51. Ejunto
is a collection of free audio books on the subjects of history and
philosophy. There is only a small catalog of audiobooks currently but
the titles are very good.

52. Podiobooks has podcasts of audiobooks.

53. Well Told Tales is a collection of audiobooks of pop fiction.

Study Guides and Summaries

54. Pink Monkey is a place where you can download summaries of literature or get study guides.

55. Litsum is an alternative to Pink Monkey.

Library Resources

56. Library Elf lets you keep track of the books that you have checked out of the library and when they are due.

57. WorldCat lets you search libraries near you to find the books that you want to check out and read.

Bibliography and Research

58. BibMe
is a free online bibliography creator that is extremely useful is you
are writing research. It is extremely easy to use an works with books,
journals, websites, magazines, films, newspapers, etc.

59. Zotero is an online research tool with a bookmarklet for keeping track of your research.

60. Wikindx is a free bibliographic and quotations/notes management and article authoring system

61. Snipitron keeps track of your online research and lets you display it as a web page or work on it in a group setting.

Book Exchanges/Swapping

62. BookCrossing
is something I haven’t personally used (I never get rid of my books)
but a lot of people really like it. Once you read a book you mark it
yourself or with BookCrossing’s bookplates that you can buy in their
online store and place it out in the public somewhere. When someone
finds the book they see the bookplate and do the same thing. This is
essentially a Where’s George? for your books but more robust.

63. Bookins is a general book-swapping site.

64. Title Trader is a swapping site for books, cds, and dvds.

65. Zunafish allows you to swap books, movies, music, and video games.

66. Swap Simple is similar to Zunafish.

67. Swapthing is more designed for swapping general items but people do use it for book-swapping.

68. The Book Cart is bookswapping for paperbacks.

69. SF Books is bookswapping for readers of Science Fiction.

70. Paperback Swap is for swapping any books, not just paperbacks.

71. Frugal Reader is another bookswapping site.

72. Book Mooch is too.

Online Documents

73. Scribd
allows you to upload your own documents for anyone to read as well as
view the documents of other users. It keeps track of how many views
your documents have, how many people marked that they liked it, and
allows commenting on documents. You can view my Scribd profile here.

74. FreeIQ is similar to Scribd though it also lets you sell your content as well as submit free content. My work on Youth Targeted Voter Mobilization is available on FreeIQ.

What to Read

75. WhichBook.net
is another resource to help you decide what to read next, but with a
very different approach. The site features a number of slider bars like
“happy <-> sad” and “funny <-> serious.” Based on where you
place the slider for each of these ranges will give you a list of books
that fulfill that criteria.

76. What Should I Read Next?
allows you to enter a book that you enjoyed and gives you
recommendations for the book that you should read next based on the
book lists of its users.

77. BookBrowse
is a fairly comprehensive website for readers. You can browse the site
for free but their are a number of features that are only available to
paid members.

Miscellaneous

78. Bookslut
is an online magazine published monthly on the subject of books,
reading, and literature. There is also a blog that is updated more
frequently. It is one of the most popular book-related sites on the web.

79. ROMAN Reading by Nick Senger
is an ebook that helps readers get more out of their reading. I found
this book really useful in helping me improve my style of annotating.
The book is free to read and share.

80. Library Books is a Mac OS X

Creativity principles | Creativity tools | Articles on creativity | Creative quotes and quotations

Zigmas Bigelis — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:28:00 -0700

http://creatingminds.org/
An interesting website about CREATIVITY with lists of links (click boxes :"he Creative Tools")

Welcome to the CreatingMinds site. Our goal is to provide you with
real and useful principles,
tools,
articles and quotes about all matters
around being creative and using creativity.

You can access all sections from the navigation bar on the left. Or
bounce off the hotlinks below.

Bookmark this page! We have started with a bang, including thousands of
quotations and many useful tools and articles.

The Creative
Toolbox


	Tools for defining creative problems


	Tools for creating new ideas


	Tools for selecting the best ideas


	Tools for implementing creative ideas


	Quotes on all matters creative


	Principles for creating new ideas


	Articles about effective creativity


	The very best books on matters creative

And now you can visit our
sister site, ChangingMinds.org,
for the whole caboodle on persuasion.

And for business improvement, see the
Quality Tools site and
Improvement
Encyclopedia.

The Yahoo! Search Open Ecosystem

Zigmas Bigelis — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:50:00 -0700

Read the Yahoo blog about Yahoo and Semantic Web
http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000527.html

A few weeks ago, we began talking
about the new Yahoo! Search open platform. Today, we're releasing more
details about two important components of the initiative -- the
developer platform as well as our support of a number of semantic web standards.

The Data Web in Action

While there has been remarkable progress made toward understanding the
semantics of web content, the benefits of a data web have not reached
the mainstream consumer. Without a killer semantic web app for
consumers, site owners have been reluctant to support standards like RDF, or even microformats. We believe that app can be web search.

By supporting semantic web standards, Yahoo! Search and site owners
can bring a far richer and more useful search experience to consumers.
For example, by marking up its profile pages with microformats, LinkedIn
can allow Yahoo! Search and others to understand the semantic content
and the relationships of the many components of its site. With a richer
understanding of LinkedIn's structured data included in our index, we
will be able to present users with more compelling and useful search
results for their site. The benefit to LinkedIn is, of course,
increased traffic quality and quantity from sites like Yahoo! Search
that utilize its structured data.

In the coming weeks, we'll be releasing more detailed specifications
that will describe our support of semantic web standards. Initially, we
plan to support a number of microformats, including hCard, hCalendar, hReview, hAtom, and XFN.
Yahoo! Search will work with the web community to evolve the vocabulary
framework for embedding structured data. For starters, we plan to
support vocabulary components from Dublin Core, Creative Commons, FOAF, GeoRSS, MediaRSS, and others based on feedback. And, we will support RDFa and eRDF markup to embed these into existing HTML pages. Finally, we are announcing support for the OpenSearch specification, with extensions for structured queries to deep web data sources.

We believe that our open approach will let each of these formats
evolve within their own passionate communities, while providing the
necessary incentive to site owners (increased traffic from search) for
more widespread adoption. Site owners interested in learning more about
the open search platform can sign up here.

A Developer Ecosystem for Search

We're also announcing, today, that the Yahoo! Search open platform will
be open to all third party developers. We will be kicking off this
component of our open platform with a developer launch party at our
Sunnyvale campus in the coming weeks. That day, we'll launch a beta
program for a tool that developers can use to build Enhanced Results
applications for the Yahoo! Search platform. Enhanced Results apps
built by developers can utilize the structured data available through
public APIs and in our index (made available by site owners through
either feeds or the semantic web standards discussed above).

Let us know what you think below and keep an eye on the Search Blog
-- we'll be posting more info about the upcoming launch party.

Amit Kumar

Director, Product Management, Yahoo! Search

Yahoo makes semantic search shift

Zigmas Bigelis — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:43:00 -0700

Yahoo makes semantic search shift

published about 6 hours ago

Yahoo is starting to use key elements of next generation net technology known as the "semantic web"

» BBC News | Technology | World Edition

Blogging Is Good For Your Social Life: Study

Zigmas Bigelis — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:37:00 -0700

March 3, 2008

http://www.newwebmag.com/2008/03/03/blogging-is-good-for-your-social-life-study/

A new study has found Bloggers are better adjusted and live healthier, happier social lives.

The research, from Swinburne University of Technology found that
“people felt they had better social support and friendship networks
than those who did not blog” after a two month blogging period when
compared to people who do not blog.

The good news also extends to users of social networking sites, with
the study finding than any online interaction makes users “feel less
anxious, depressed and stressed.”

It’s not all good news however, as the study found that some
“potential bloggers” start from a less socially integrated position.
Professor Susan Moore told the ABC:

“We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships
and they felt less socially integrated, they didn’t feel as much part
of a community as the people who weren’t interested in blogging,” Ms
Moore said.

“They were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping.”

“It was as if they were saying ‘I’m going to do this blogging and it’s going to help me.”

Тим Бернерс-Ли: Google придется потесниться

Zigmas Bigelis — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:22:00 -0700

13.03.08
http://svobodanews.ru/Article/2008/03/13/20080313160454010.html

Создатель
Would Wide Web Тим Бернерс-Ли (Tim Berners-Lee) заявил TimesOnline, что
Google будет вытеснен новой структурой Всемирной паутины так называемым
Semantic Web (семантическая паутина). Над этим проектом Тим Бернерс-Ли
работает уже много лет. Он считает, что Google хорошо работает только с
текстовыми интернет-страницами, но сегодня интернет представляет собой
гораздо более разнообразную информацию и для ее объединения методов
Google уже недостаточно.

Тим Бернерс-Ли возглавляет Консорциум WWW (The World Wide Web Consortium – W3C),
который основан MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the
University of Southampton). Здесь уже много лет продолжаются
исследования Semantic Web.

Как считает Бернерс-Ли, Semantic Web
позволит сводить воедино любые, казалось бы, несопоставимые источники
информации – будь то банковские счета, фотографии или звуковые файлы.

В
основе концепции лежит работа с метаданными, которые характеризуют
свойства и содержание интернет-ресурсов. Google использует чисто
текстовый анализ документов. Используя «семантическую паутину», которая
будет способна распознавать интересующую вас информацию, заключенную в
совершенно разных формах интернет-данных, можно будет сконструировать
веб-приложения, которые будут намного мощнее тех, что используются
сейчас в Интернете. Серьезное преимущество Google заключается в том,
что поисковая система не требует от пользователя никаких дополнительных
описаний ресурса, а работает с теми данными которые размещены на
ресурсе.

Тим Бернерс-Ли говорит,
что семантическая паутина не будет подменять собой Всемирную паутину, а
только станет ее надстройкой, переводя все содержимое на язык, более
понятный компьютерам. В повседневной жизни, говорит он, это будет
выглядеть примерно так: «Возьмем пример из сферы семейного бюджета.
Обычно, анализируя банковские счета, мы мучительно вспоминаем
обстоятельства своих денежных трат, особенно при заполнении налоговой
декларации. Создаваемая нами семантическая паутина позволит свести
воедино полностью несопоставимые вещи, такие как банковские счета и
календарь, заставит их использовать один и тот же язык и делиться
информацией друг с другом. Приставив на экране с помощью мышки счет к
календарю, на последнем вы увидите заштрихованные участки, означающие
дни ваших денежных расходов, - и сразу вспомните обстоятельства, в
которых выписывали тот или иной чек».

По словам ученого,
невероятно популярные сегодня социальные вебсайты, такие как MySpace
или FaceBook (аналогом которых является российская социальная сеть
«Одноклассники»), в конце концов будут вытеснены сетями, соединяющими
не только людей, но и самые разнообразные объекты, размещенные в Сети.

Главная
проблема создания семантической паутины, по мнению экспертов, состоит в
том, чтобы найти универсальный способ распознания любого документа,
помещаемого в Интернет, и фиксации ссылок на него. В случае удачи это
сулит революционные преобразования во многих отраслях.

FaveBot intelligently hunts down content you're into

Zigmas Bigelis — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:38:00 -0700

An interesting application.

By

Josh Lowensohn

–
March 12, 2008, 7:56 PM PDT

FaveBot is a service that keeps an eye on whatever keywords you give it to pull up related items from the Web. If you're familiar with Google Alerts,
the idea is similar. In Favebot's case, you can take any keyword or set
of keywords and apply it to the types of content you're looking to keep
an eye on, be it photos, videos, blog posts, or podcasts. There are
nine categories in all, and the system is designed to serve it up like
a river of news with the most recent items appearing on the top.

What's neat about FaveBot is that it uses location as part of the
filtering. For example, if you live in Texas and earmark a word like
Web 2.0 and opt into the events category, you'll get the heads up on
when the service finds local happenings that match up with that
category (e.g. SXSW). By adding more types of items on your tracking list, you can increase your chances of seeing them in the main news stream.

READ MORE

Collective Wisdom Initiative

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:02:00 -0700

http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/

This website
has been created to help make visible an emerging field of collective
wisdom, its study and practice. It came into being in 2002 with
support of the Fetzer Institute
and has evolved to the form you see today by the support and contributions
of hundreds of people and organizations
who have, for decades, been actively engaged in this field.

CONNECTIONS:
Connect with others by visiting People,
participating in Events,
or or by contributing to Seeded
Conversations.
Seeded Conversations are accessible in selected parts of the site
and may be found wherever you see the
icon. You are also invited to add to what is available on this site
by contributing
a Self-Portrait or suggesting
content.

DECLARATION
of INTENT: We believe there exists
a field of collective consciousness — often seen and expressed
through metaphor — that is real and influential, yet invisible.
When we come into alignment with this field, there is a deeper understanding
of our connection with others, with life, and with a source of collective
wisdom. The work is on-going and dynamic.
We are calling into awareness this field of collective consciousness
and invite you to join us in building this discipline of collective
wisdom, its study and practice.... [continued]

ROOTS:
The Collective Wisdom Initiative began with the publication
of Centered
on the Edge, an Inquiry into group
wisdom. This inquiry developed into an exploration of ten arenas
of collective wisdom, represented by the Doorways
you see on the left. All of the content to be found through these
doorways is contributed by people who are living, studying, or practicing
in the field of collective wisdom....
[continued]

GETTING
AROUND: This site is richly inter-connected,
and in addition to the underlined links, almost any graphic image
or photo can be clicked on to take you to another part of the site.
For some tips about how to best make use of this site, click on
"Getting Around". We hope you enjoy your journey through
and beyond this site.

Top 10 ways to fuel your creativity.

Zigmas Bigelis — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:17:00 -0700

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines creativity as “the use of the imagination, or original ideas…” and while the use of original ideas may seem like an easy task, you and I both know how difficult it can really be.

Simply coming up with creative ideas can be extremely hard and time consuming, especially for - but not limited to - creative professionals; finding advice on fueling creativity is almost just as hard.

That’s why I have compiled this list of the top 10 ways to fuel your creativity. Use these methods whenever your creative juices are running low, and do your best to follow as many of the points as you can.

10. Carry a notepad with you. Creativity strikes when you least expect it, and when it does, you’ll need to be prepared. Get into the habit of carrying around a small notebook and a pen, or use your smart phone or other device to record creative ideas when they hit you. Even if the idea seems pointless at the time, having it written down may help you in the future when you are struggling to come up with creative ideas. Don’t say you’ll get a notepad tomorrow, buy one right now and find a way to take it with you everywhere you go.

9. Give yourself a break. Being able to write down creative ideas whenever you get them is a great start to fueling your creativity, but - if you’re like me - that isn’t going to be enough. In order to fuel your creativity you need to take time to relax and find creativity in everyday life. If you feel overwhelmed or stressed, your creative juices will be running slowly; but if you feel relaxed and comfortable, your mind will be more open to new, creative ideas.

8. Jolt your thinking. Another great way to fuel your creativity is to do what Chuck Green refers to as “jolt” thinking. It’s a technique that allows you to draw creative ideas from everything else around you by applying restrictions to your thinking. Here’s how you do it: when you need an idea simply close your eyes, turn around or change your perspective, open your eyes and then the first thing you see when you open your eyes is going to be your topic; try to come up with a creative idea related that incorporates the item - or the purpose of the item. Jolted thinking is based on the simple fact that freedom often hinders creativity.

7. Exercise your brain. Your brain, just like your muscles, needs to be worked out from time to time; exercising your brain allows your creativity levels to be increased - like muscles growing bigger. The best way to exercise your brain is to read or have strenuous discussions. Letting your brain get lazy by watching a lot of TV or sitting in front of the computer all day makes it weak, and your creativity levels will take a bit hit. Working out your brain from time to time will help you to come up with better, more original and creative ideas when you need them most.

6. Ask a lot of questions. Asking questions - even ones completely unrelated to what you are doing - has been proven to fuel creativity. You may not realize it, but when you ask yourself questions you are creating a mindmap and sorting through thousands of ideas with each question you ask. Asking a lot of questions means a lot of mindmapping, and a lot of mindmapping equals a lot of new creative ideas to work with. So don’t ever be afraid to ask questions, in-fact: ask a lot of questions every chance you get.

5. Pay attention to what others are doing. A great way to fuel your creativity is by finding inspiration in other’s work. That doesn’t mean you sit, evaluate, and duplicate other people’s work; it simply means that you need to pay attention to what others are doing with their work, and watch the changes they make over time. Often you will be able to find patterns in other’s creativity that will really fuel your own. A great example is the change in web design: web pages use to be full of animated images and tons of text and sound effects, now simpler, cleaner web pages are the trendy thing. Don’t copy other’s creativity, but do pay attention to what other’s are doing and try to find ways to improve on their work.

4. Don’t settle for one idea. Another great way to fuel your creativity is to not settle for just one idea when it strikes you. Instead, mull over multiple ideas, write them down in your notepad, ask questions about each idea, and expand each idea as much as you possibly can. By having a lot of creative ideas, your solution is bound to be a great one. As Linus Pauling once said: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

3. Be random. Creativity is best fueled when it is controlled by random inhibitions - which is why there is a big misconception about drugs fueling creativity. The way you can place random inhibitions on your creativity - other than by jolting your thinking, as mentioned on point 8 - is by using a random idea generator. Either flipping through a dictionary to find random words, or using this neat online idea generator, and then trying to come up with as many ideas linked to the random topic. By limiting your creativity slightly to something completely random, you are really fueling it.

2. Be confident. One of the biggest struggles people have when trying to fuel their creativity - and one issue I have had big problems with as a creative professional - is being confident in your creative abilities. Confidence is necessary to creating remarkable ideas. If you don’t think you can do it, you won’t. Having confidence in you creative abilities will allow you to really think outside the box, and accept ideas that may originally seem too risky (remember, if you aren’t willing to take creative risks, you’re not really being creative).

1. Quit worrying about risks. While having confidence is necessary to creating really great ideas, using that confidence to jump right into new ideas is just as important. Creating unbelievably remarkable ideas can only be achieved by being confident in your abilities, taking risks, and jumping right in. The Wright brothers first flight is a great example of jumping right in to bold ideas. Don’t worry about the risks too much, any creative idea is almost always worth any repercussions.

That completes the list. If you are having trouble with your creativity, resort back to this list for help and inspiration. And if you want to get more useful and remarkeable creative help, you can subscribe to Creative Something by clicking on the link below, or in the right side column on this page.

Photo by Jeffrey Lindsey.

source

Information Overload Pushing Workers to the Brink

Zigmas Bigelis — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:31:00 -0700

Information Overload Pushing Workers to the Brink

By David R. Butcher

People and organizations cannot keep up with the volume of
information produced by technological innovation, as information
overload is pushing workers closer to their breaking point.

Sometimes the Internet seems like it’s getting too big. That is,
there is so much stuff on the Web: informative stuff, helpful stuff,
critical stuff, interesting stuff, offensive stuff, hilarious stuff and
ridiculous stuff — a lot of stuff. And it takes up a significant
portion of our lives.

In an 8.89-hour average workday, employees spend an average of 2.3
hours daily conducting online research, with one in 10 spending four
hours or more on an average day, a new survey by LexisNexis shows.

Yet blame for on-the-job time consumption doesn’t lie solely on the
Internet. The same survey found that, on average, professionals spend
7.89 hours conducting research, attending meetings and searching for
documents.

Spending too much time conducting research? Ever missed a deadline
because of trouble finding necessary information? How often do you find
yourself searching for an old e-mail? Having trouble finding the
correct or most recent version of a document? Disagreeing with
colleagues about the right way to organize information? Have you ever
missed a meeting or appointment because of scheduling miscommunication?

How much information is too much, and what is it doing to our ability to be productive?

Information overload is pushing workers to the brink and cutting
into workplace productivity, according to the LexisNexis-commissioned 2008 Workplace Productivity Survey, which polled 650 employees in a variety of industries.

According to the survey, a majority of professionals feel they are
close to a breaking point, where they will be unable to effectively
process or handle any increase in information flow.

The survey found 68 percent of professionals wished they could spend
less time organizing information and more time using it. Workers admit
that not being able to lay their hands on the right information at the
right time impedes their ability to work efficiently, as another 85
percent of respondents said not finding the right information at the
right time was a significant time waster. Meanwhile, 62 percent said
they spent too much time sifting through useless information.

“The information age has brought the American professional workforce
to an information overload,” Mike Walsh, CEO of LexisNexis U.S. Legal
Markets, said in a statement.

If we continue to work this way day after day, our brains lose the
ability to fully focus our attention and we develop what he has labeled
“attention deficit trait,” according to Dr. Edward Hallowell, founder
of the Hallowell Center, which provides holistic treatment and education about ADHD for both children and adults, and author of Driven to Distraction.

This condition, which seems to be becoming an epidemic, makes us
feel perpetually distracted, impatient, disorganized and overwhelmed by
our work. Our performance levels on important tasks also drop with
“attention deficit trait” because fully focusing our attention is
critical to tapping into our brain’s higher functions.

Research shows that when people are able to fully focus on one task,
their brains automatically screen out distractions and they become more
creative and deliver their best performances. Time slows for them, and
what they are doing becomes effortless and joyful.

The LexisNexis survey indicates that companies have not provided the
right tools employees need to cope with this growing information
burden. More than 40 percent of the survey participants indicate an
inability to handle future increases in information flow.

Walsh said the results should encourage businesses to invest in more
efficient research technology, training and tools. “Companies that take
action on this issue will realize higher employee productivity and
satisfaction,” the CEO said.

When asked what companies can do to solve the information overload
problem, some respondents noted their company should invest in faster
computers and more up-to-date technology. Others suggested training in
information management. Still others said they should be provided with
information management technology or tools that are designed to fit
their jobs and which work together.

Yet there is no single solution that companies can do to solve the
problem, and most survey respondents even said none of these will help.

Motivation Monday: Think like a creative genius.

Zigmas Bigelis — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:57:00 -0700

Searching for creative motivation or inspiration?

Each Monday you can find all of the creative insight you need right here at Creative Something, with “Motivation Monday”.

A few weeks ago I recommend a few books for helping you boost your creativity, one of those books was “Cracking Creativity” by Michael Michalko. For this weeks Motivation Monday I want to share a snippet from “Cracking Creativity” about how creative geniuses think differently than average thinkers.

On the third page of his book, Michalko states:

“Most people of average intelligence, given data or some problem, can figure out the expected conventional response to the problem. For example, when asked, ‘What is one-half of thirteen?’ most of us immediately answer six and one-half.”

Michalko continues, “Typically, we think reproductively, on the basis of similar problems encountered in the past. When confronted with problems, we fixate on something in our past that has worked before… . Then we analytically select the most promising approach based on past experiences, excluding all other approaches, and work in a clearly defined direction toward the solution of the problem.

In other words: average people solve problems based on what has worked in the past. We have been taught that half of thirteen is six and one-half, so we immediately give that response. Average people think reproductively. But - not surprisingly - creative geniuses think differently.

In contrast, geniuses think productively, not reproductively. When confronted with a problem, they ask themselves how many different ways you can look at the problem, how they can rethink it, and how many different ways they can solve it, instead of asking how they have been taught to solve it. They tend to come up with many different responses, some of which are unconventional, and possibly, unique. In response to the earlier question [of ‘What is one-half of thirteen?’], a productive thinker would say taht there are many different ways to express ‘thirdteen’ and many different ways to halve something.”

An example of how a creative genius would answer the question “What is one-half of thirteen” is: Thir and teen. “Thir” is approximately one half of the word “Thirdteen”, and “teen” is the other half. A creative genius sees a the original question differently.

If you want to think like a creative genius, you have to begin thinking productively - and start answering problems in unconventional, unique ways. And you don’t have to worry about being a creative genius, anyone can think productively. You just need to look at problems and ideas in unique ways.

source

Creativity and productivity blog

Zigmas Bigelis — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:31:00 -0700

I have found an intersting blog about creativity and productivity

Thank you for stopping by my blog! My name is Andrea Flowers and I am the owner of Advanced Productivity Concepts (http://www.advanced-productivity.com).
With a BA in English/Journalism, I began my career as a technical
writer writing user manuals and online Help systems for computer
software companies. For the past 16 years, I have written for large
companies, small businesses, start-ups, and entrepreneurs alike. More
recently, I have transitioned into the role of virtual organizing and
productivity coach.

So how did I become a virtual organizing coach? Good question…
Looking to explore different options in my career path, I spent many
months searching for a new path. I had also just had a new baby and was
searching for an opportunity that would afford me the luxury of staying
home with her. One day, I was surfing the Internet and came across the
NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers)
Web site and a light bulb went off in my head. I realized that all the
skills I learned and practiced as a technical writer were 100%
transferable to the professional organizing arena and that my passion
for organizing information could be used to help people organize their
workspaces and increase productivity. After all, I had been organizing
information for 16 years…why not organize workspaces and filing systems?

As a virtual organizing and productivity coach, I work with small
businesses and entrepreneurs to help them reach their productivity
objectives. My main goal is to help people declutter their workplaces
and set up efficient filing, time, and paper management systems. I
pride myself in using innovative techniques and tools designed to
empower them with the

knowledge they need to spend more time building their businesses and
making more money. My versatile background and style allows me to think
outside of the box, without sacrificing quality or integrity.

In this blog, I will be giving you lots of information about how to
become more productive so you can live your life the way you want to
live it.

Zigmas Bigelis' Blog, Profy.com

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Big List of Online Productivity Tools

19 Online Destinations for Boosting Creativity

How to claim a Profy blog on Technorati?

Claiming this blog on Technorati

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The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

80 Online Resources for Book Lovers

E-books

Online Bookstores

Find the Best Prices for Books

Audiobooks

Study Guides and Summaries

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Miscellaneous

Creativity principles | Creativity tools | Articles on creativity | Creative quotes and quotations

The Creative Toolbox

The Yahoo! Search Open Ecosystem

Yahoo makes semantic search shift

Yahoo makes semantic search shift

Blogging Is Good For Your Social Life: Study

Тим Бернерс-Ли: Google придется потесниться

FaveBot intelligently hunts down content you're into

Collective Wisdom Initiative

Top 10 ways to fuel your creativity.

Information Overload Pushing Workers to the Brink

Information Overload Pushing Workers to the Brink

Motivation Monday: Think like a creative genius.

Creativity and productivity blog

The Creative
Toolbox