Posts Tagged ‘publishing’

5 free apps to show off your iPad

One week in and I’m still learning new things to do with my iPad. The built-in software like Maps, Photos, and Calendar show off some of the device’s capabilities, but there are lots of free titles available through the App Store to put a little more functionality (and fun) in your new tablet. Here are five free apps I’ve found impressive. You can find all of these apps by opening the App Store on your iPad or in iTunes on your computer, and searching for their titles. You can also find popular free apps by tapping Top Charts at the bottom of the screen.

1. iBooks

I know I just talked about iBooks the other day, but I want to mention it again because it’s become one of my go-to apps for showing off the iPad. People like the page flip animation and the VoiceOver text-to-speech mechanism. You also don’t need to spend a dime on a book to enjoy iBooks–the built-in bookstore has thousands of public domain titles from Project Gutenberg ready for your perusal.

2. The Weather Channel Max+

Stand in front of the Weather Channel’s awkwardly-named iPad app and you’ll feel like an on-air meteorologist. It’s a little slow when rendering weather maps but shows great potential. Check it out if you’re interested in ways to present data, or just want to know if you should carry an umbrella today.

3. Ideas

There are fancier sketchbook apps than Adobe’s relatively spartan Ideas–but this one’s free. It’s fun to play with, and its limited feature set might help bolster creativity.

4. Marvel Comics

I’m not a comic book reader myself, but I wanted to check this out since many are looking at tablet computers as the future of that industry. The app itself is free, and several back issues of Marvel properties are available for download. I grabbed a Spider-man from the late 90s to try the app. I like how, from a basic standpoint, a traditional, page-to-page reading of a comic just works like you’d expect it to on an iPad. Double-tap a panel, though, to expand it full screen, to get a sense of the detailed art and avoid distraction of other panels on the page–then just swipe your finger to advance to the next pane. Very slick.

5. FunPiano

The first time you open FunPiano, you’re given two rows of piano keys facing you. You can shift up and down an octave. Play to your heart’s content–then tap the little flip button to turn over one keyboard, and invite a friend for a rousing game of dueling pianos (or maybe teach a new melody). Not practical, probably, but fun.

By Aaron Sumner | April 9th, 2010 | View Comments

Tell your students, don’t “hand it in”–”publish it!”

Over the long weekend, I came across an interesting entry on the Innovative Educator blog. I posted it on our Delicious account but thought it was worth more visibility–I’d really like to hear what you think about it. The article suggests that 21st century educators should require all student work to be published–not just handed in. The author, Lisa Nielsen, provides several examples of how students could publish their work in viable channels, such as self-publishing services, social networks, and video sharing portals.

Nielsen asks, “If the first decade of the 21st century was about data driven instruction and assessment, can we make the next decade about realizing potential of the student behind the data and publishing to authentic audience as part of student’s school lives?” and I’m apt to agree. How would the knowledge that hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people could see your work influence the amount of effort you put into your next project? One of my most memorable projects as a student was in art class, when we created ads for local businesses. It was exciting to open that week’s newspaper and see my work in the real world–this experience probably had much to do with my decision to pursue a degree in journalism/advertising.

Anyway, I know this is easier said than done, but I would like to hear from anyone who’s taken a “publish it” approach to classroom instruction (or, for that matter, professional development–what if publishing Content Enhancement drafts to Depot were a required component of CE certification)?

21st Century Educators Don’t Say “Hand It In.” They Say “Publish It!” (via Delicious)

By Aaron Sumner | December 1st, 2009 | View Comments

Preview the Complete Guide to Google Wave

Have you scored an invitation to Google Wave, only to find yourself scratching your head about what to do with it? Fear not–Gina Trapani and Adam Pash of Lifehacker have released The Complete Guide to Google Wave, now available for preview online.

I’m still going through the book myself, but it looks like it will help address some of my issues with Wave, the philosophies beneath it, and Google’s system for distributing invitations. For example, I have a better grasp on how to participate in public waves–seeing real-time collaboration taking place shows the potential for Google Wave as a communication tool, while showing the need for books like The Complete Guide to Google Wave even for people like me who have been online for quite some time.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is released under a Creative Commons license, meaning others may use content from it as long as certain rules are followed. A PDF version will be available for purchase this month, and a softcover print version will be out in January.

While we’re talking about publishing details, it’s worth noting that the book itself is an experiment of sorts by the authors. Rather than going the traditional route, which for technology books tends to result in obsolete texts in a relatively short time, Trapani and Pash are publishing The Complete Guide to Google Wave themselves, releasing “early and often” to make sure the contents of the book are always current with the state of Google Wave. The web-based version will always be free, and the PDF and print versions will be updated frequently. Read the behind the scenes details about this concept of publishing–it will be interesting to see how it compares to traditional models in the long run.

Image source: The Complete Guide to Google Wave by Trapani and Pash

By Aaron Sumner | November 10th, 2009 | View Comments

Flexbooks: Textbooks go online in Virginia

A link to this got pushed to the blog automatically this morning through Stratepedia’s handy Delicious account, but it’s worth another mention: The Virginia Department of Education has begun augmenting traditional textbooks with online materials, giving teachers and students access to cutting edge materials in physics.

As noted in this article from the Washington Post, the traditional textbook publishing cycle is too slow for teachers who want to introduce learners to emerging concepts such as biophysics and nanotechnology. Instead, selected teachers are being asked to write chapters on these topics and put them online for other teachers in the state to use. This concept, called the “flexbook,” is also gaining traction in higher education.

This brings to mind Jim Knight’s current practice of making materials available to coaches in “beta format,” and makes me think about how SIM manuals are currently published. How might the flexbook idea be put to use in the work we do?

Stuck-in-the-Past Va. Physics Texts Getting Online Jolt (Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2008)

By Aaron Sumner | December 1st, 2008 | View Comments

Kindle books (and others) available soon from O’Reilly

Now that I’ve got access to a Kindle, articles like this one are catching my eye: Starting next month, O’Reilly (publishers of technology-oriented books) will make select titles available in digital e-book bundles. While you may not care about picking up the latest edition of Perl in a Nutshell or Unix Power Tools in digital format, this is still worth mentioning because, rather than picking one format and then requiring customers to tether themselves to a device that supports that format, O’Reilly is providing readers a choice to go with PDF, a Kindle-compatible format, a Sony-compatible format, or all of the above. Or you can buy the good ol’ fashioned print edition, same as always.

O’Reilly’s doing a couple of other nice things, too: One, if you buy a PDF book now (the only format they currently support) they’ll give you the bundle when it’s available next month. Two, they’re trusting their customers and not placing digital rights management, or DRM, on the downloaded books. DRM is common with purchased music and video files and is designed to keep people from illegally sharing them, but more often than not causes undue headaches to honest customers.

Anyway, if there’s something for us all to take away from this it’s to think about ways to give consumers–whether they be programmers, teachers, or students–options as to how they may access and use your content.

By Aaron Sumner | June 18th, 2008 | View Comments

Offbeat Guides: Custom, on-demand travel guides

Here’s another interesting example of publishing on demand: Offbeat Guides is a brand new service promising to deliver travel guides customized to your travel plans. The site asks five questions about your trip, then quickly generates a PDF with general destination information, specific weather and event information for the dates you’re visiting that destination, and other tips based on how you’ve answered the questionnaire. The PDF is available nearly immediately for $9; a printed version can also be had for about $25 plus shipping. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has a full rundown of Offbeat Guides, including a video interview with founder Dave Sifry and an example guide for Paris.

Aside from the extreme personalization of the guide, a few things strike me as particularly interesting about this venture. First, the basic model of on-demand publishing, coupled with the methods in which Offbeat Guides acquire and use data, makes for publications that wouldn’t be feasible through traditional publishing. As Mr. Sifry notes, Offbeat Guides is probably offering the first robust travel guide for Carlsbad, California ever (with 30,000 locations available, I wonder if Lawrence made the cut?). Topics seen as unprofitable by traditional publishing houses can make money in this model.

Second, Offbeat Guides is taking advantage of freely available information to create the illustrated event guides, maps, weather forecasts, and other features of each guidebook. In return, they’re developing their own databases of travel-related information and making them freely available to others. Offbeat Guides is quite open in noting that the information in these books is available for free online–they are selling convenience, not information.

Finally, of course, I ask how this concept applies to how the CRL shares information. Could customized SIM manuals, for example, be in our future? Might a teacher or administrator complete a questionnaire and receive a PDF of Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement routines particular to the needs of a classroom or school? Could readers for Fusion or other reading programs be developed based on what a kid says he’s interested in? How else might this concept be used in what we do?

Offbeat Guides aren’t yet available to the public. I’ve registered for an invitation, though (you can, too), and hope to get access before my trip to Chicago in a few weeks. If it works out, I’ll share my experience with the service here.

By Aaron Sumner | June 1st, 2008 | View Comments

Another example of transparent authoring

A couple of months ago I told you about my love for PDF books, and talked a bit about the notion of “beta books,” or pre-release access to the book’s contents in exchange for reader feedback. That example used a PDF generator to send periodic updates to readers. Today I’ll share how one publisher is using a wiki to push transparent authoring even further.

O’Reilly is a publisher of technology-oriented books (they’re the ones who release books about programming languages with animals on the covers). They have their own PDF-based early adoption model for their library, but for the forthcoming iPhone Hacks: Tips & Tools for Unlocking the Power of Your iPhone & iPod Touch, the authors (David Jurick, Adam Stolarz, and Damien Stolarz) are taking a new approach: Direct editing of the book’s contents on a wiki. The result: The contents of iPhone Hacks are available online, as the authors add or edit material. Eventually, the wiki’s contents will become a printed book and available through the usual book-buying channels.

A few things are worth noting about this:

First, editing is closed off–only the authors (or people they allow) may edit pages in the wiki, unlike most traditional wikis. (For what it’s worth, this is the same model we use for the Stratepedia Guidebooks–only Amber and I may edit the pages there.) However, the authors are asking for reader feedback, and collect this feedback via a discussion board for each chapter.

Second, updates are not delivered in a batch, like in the PDF method. Rather, readers are notified of updates page by page, via RSS, so you can be sure you’re referring to the latest version of the material.

Finally, the contents are not free. Well, the first chapter is, but if you want to read beyond that it will cost you $5.99 a month for a subscription. Personally, I prefer the Pragmatic Programmers’ payment setup, in which the reader pays a one-time fee to access the PDF throughout all phases of development, including the final copy. If Jurick, Stolarz, and Stolarz take their time writing iPhone Hacks, this could become a pricey book for early readers.

It may or may not be worth noting that nobody’s contributed to the forums as of yet–whether that’s due to the fact that this wiki is brand new or the pricing model is anybody’s guess. At either rate, this is an interesting new model for transparent authoring and interaction with one’s readership. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.

By Aaron Sumner | May 15th, 2008 | View Comments

The Library of Congress’ photo collection on Flickr

One social network I use more than any other, probably, is Flickr, an online service for photo (and, recently, video) sharing. Flickr has thousands, if not millions, of members sharing photos with friends, family, or even the world–for example, I took lots of photos of some of the various national championship-related celebrations this past week, and have made them viewable to anyone who wants to check them out. (Take it from someone who was 2,000 miles away for our previous two trips to the Final Four–Lawrence is an awfully fun place to be when Kansas is still playing basketball in April.)

Today I learned that the Library of Congress has an account on Flickr and is making its vast collection of photography available there. However, the LOC isn’t just putting these photos online to be nice–they need your help. As it states in their user profile, “many of [their] old photos came to [them] with very little description”–so they’re turning to the Flickr community for help, inviting other members to “tag” or keyword photos or offer additional information through Flickr’s comments function. Flickr members have responded–providing keywords, linking to other information about the subject, or just providing encouragement.

I’m sharing this for two reasons: First, I think it’s a really cool idea and an excellent example of crowdsourcing–opening up a problem to a large audience to assign more brains to the task of solving it. Second, the Library of Congress has harnessed the power of an existing tool and an existing network of people for this problem, rather than reinvent the wheel. I’ve done plenty of wheel reinventing in my day, and frankly, there are more fulfilling ways to spend one’s time.

Do you give up control? Probably–but from what I’ve observed in this project (and other, larger crowdsourcing initiatives like Wikipedia) is that altruism tends to outweigh graffiti. And the audience might even be smarter than they’re given credit for.

By Aaron Sumner | April 14th, 2008 | View Comments

Blog-to-print: A success story

I was preparing to sneak out of here a little early to begin girding myself for tomorrow’s big KU vs. Carolina matchup in the Final Four, but this article popped up in my RSS reader and I felt compelled to share. We’ve been talking over the last couple of weeks about how blogs might be used within CRL. This article describes a case study in which a weekly print newsletter made up of the best posts from a New Zealand-based blog is delivered to 6,500 mailboxes. Readership of the blog grew to about 6% of the total population (I’m not sure what that is in raw numbers) and blog participation, such as leaving comments online, increased as well.

I’ve long thought that a print (or e-mail) edition of a blog could be a useful way to rapidly collect news and allow those comfortable with the medium to read it as it’s posted, but distill and deliver it via media more appropriate for those who aren’t ready to make the jump. This could be a good gateway to the blog medium in general.

It’s also noted that “keeping it hyper-local makes it more manageable and may make people more comfortable in voicing their opinions”–although they’re talking about “local” in a physical sense, this could also apply to a highly-targeted audience like those we tend to communicate to.

What do you think? What keeps people from sharing their thoughts on this blog? Would a printed version convince you to give us more feedback?

Read Who says print is dead? Local blog finds success offlne, via ReadWriteWeb

By Aaron Sumner | April 4th, 2008 | View Comments