Flickr, the coolest on-line photo site there is, has always encouraged outside developers to build their own applications that utilize the massive Flickr public database.  I have had a Flickr account like forever, before Yahoo bought them — and have used some WordPress – Flickr plug-ins that utilized the API.  But the problem was you had to find the apps yourself, spread around on developers own web pages.  Well Flickr just launched a new page that provides an easy way to find apps.  I found a cool Facebook app that will display my latest Flickr uploads on my Facebook page — very handy.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Email-this” type links on articles or blog posts are so old-fashioned.  Face it, nobody uses email anymore — or perhaps it is a matter of “nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded” (salute to Yogi Berra).  Twitter is the hot property of the moment, so why not Tweet-this.  And of course there is a WordPress plug-in that does exactly that.   I’m giving it a spin on the blog — go ahead and tweet on of the posts and let me know how it works for you.  I saw this technique used on a ComputerWorld article, although their implementation wasn’t quite a neat (not WordPress!).

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you really want to remember one login for your Yahoo account, another for your GMail account, and another for Facebook?  Well now if you are already connected to Yahoo, GMail or other OpenID providers you can be auto-logged in to your Facebook account.  Here is how it works.  Log into Facebook — go to SETTINGS — Select the Linked Accounts section and select the account to link to.  A pop up window will take you to the site you pick and have you log in and asks for approval to link to Facebook.  After that if, for instance you are checking your Gmail and you pop over to Facebook you’ll be automatically logged in.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the last day of the Seattle Post Intelligence newspaper, it is comforting to see a news organization embracing an open strategy.  The New York Times has been releasing bits of its application programming interface (API) recently, and recently held a workshop day for developers.  This is a great resource and an interesting example for other organizations.  In the long run this may not save the NYT, but it certainly beats trying to hold back the rising tide.  And if the New York Times start showing up in little bits on sites all over the web, their brand will benefit.  I am not quite sure how they make money, but Google has shown that free is a business strategy — and a pretty successful one at that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook, Wikipedia, the photo sharing site Flickr and others are household names, crucial resources in people’s daily lives.  These web applications have vibrant development communities extending their core functionalities, building greater value and encouraging even wider adoption.  Application development in much of higher education has been slow to adopt the successful technologies and strategies used by these leading web companies.  But with the maturing of key technologies, rise in user expectations, and cost sensitivity brought on by the current economic crisis the time is now.  Corporate, or in the higher-ed world central IT units need to start learning from, and adopting these practices.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to a study by eRoi, teens get their first email account around age 13.  17% of college students consider their primary account to be their college address — for 32% it is Gmail, 19% Yahoo, and 18% MSN/hotmail.  Does the college need to keep providing student email accounts?  And when we want to get their attention how do we do it?

Read the rest of this entry »