I've written a little about the use of social networking by the Presidential candidates during the campaigns. I didn't "friend" any candidates during the campaign even those that I supported, because to be honest, I would rather seek out political information than have to endure the constant barrage of PR spam.

Finally, the libraries blog has been widgetized. Finally, finally incorporated our meebo chat widget in as well as a few other goodies. I'd love to put better search mechanisms in here for the catalog and elsewhere. Sigh. Maybe a rss feed for recent books added....Anyhow, that's future thinking.

This election saw both political parties building strong web presences and utilizing social networking sites (and some mobile, too!) Candidates and their supporters actively participating in facebook, twitter, myspace and other social networking sites: advertising, building networks, and well... campaigning!Although I'm not particularly fond of the term web2.0 (what happens when we get to web20.0?), there is no doubt that the information/technological revolution has been a major shift in the U.S.

When I have a bit of free time (as if - ha!), I've been wandering around second life. Honestly, I still don't get it. I've been to a couple of academic/IT related presentations, I've gone shopping (for free clothes), and I've been to a few museums/art galleries. I'm still trying to see how I could use this for learning or teaching. I see some of the potential (emergency services training, language classes/conversation, virtual meetings, museums, interactive multimedia art projects, etc.) , but I'm thinking the technology is still too new to be of greater use by the general population.Why?

Video excerpt of last week's webinar in second life. This segment deals with digital video repositories.

Although I was late, I managed to attend the Carolina Conversations webinar in Second Life. Yep, I actually got my avatar to the presentation and I got her to sit down. I've been wanting to attend an academic event in SL for a while, but they always seemed to either cost money (real money!) OR were at 3AM my time. Sorry, I may be an insomniac at times, but even I have to sleep occasionally!

I just found out about this and I'm going to try to attend (if I can find my avatar....)Please join us for Carolina Conversations. Carolina conversations is a series of live interviews with members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community conducted in the virtual world, Second Life. Our guests discuss their work and interests and will also respond to questions from the Second Life audience attending in-world.Guest: Gary Marchionini, Professor in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina.Live at 3:30 p.m.

Just passing along! Interesting -- gives virtual office a whole new meaning!Subject: Looking for Colaborators? Need content development?Hi everyone, It's Fire Centaur here from English Village.I am sending this message in a search for Collaborators!Are you looking for a venue to bring your students? Interested in teaching English or another Language publicly?

For those of you who are dealing with the impact of Desmoid tumors (in my case my sister), please do check out the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation. ------------------------------------Please join DTRF in supporting the Sarcoma Patient Registry developed by The Sarcoma Foundation of America. You can start the process by going to DTRF's website (www.dtrf.org). On the bottom left hand side of the homepage there is a link to the Patient Registry information.