Byte of the Week

Today’s Byte is probably of most interest to folks in MN – but it’s an idea that could be replicated elsewhere.

E-Democracy (http://www.e-democracy.org) is a Minnesota nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes online civic discourse by providing space for online discussion.

This year E-Democracy is sponsoring an online debate among the MN gubernatorial candidates. We did this in 1998 (the year Jesse Ventura won in MN) but haven’t done an online debate since. (I am a longtime E-Democracy volunteer.) As of yesterday, all of the major candidates just agreed to participate. So we’re pretty excited.

Citizens are invited to submit questions e-debates@e-democracy.org. For more information you can visit the E-Democracy web site (http://www.e-democracy.org/wiki/Minnesota_Gubernatorial_E-Debate_2006).

The online debate is sponsored by the Blandin Foundation as part of their Next Generation Broadband conference (http://www.blandinfoundation.com/bbsummit/).  In the spirit of full disclosure I should let you guys know that I am helping with the conference. So, if you plan to come I’ll see you in Alexandria MN in October.

According to Wikipedia, a Swicki is a social search engine created by eurekster. Swickis, like wikis, are collaborative, so users can modify and improve the focus of the search engine.

From what I’ve seen, swickis are search engines that you can put on your web site or blog. Visitors to your web site can use the swicki to search your site and/or the Internet. Visitors can also rate the results of the search engine. The search engine will learn from the ratings and will rank results accordingly. The swicki will also track which results get the most clicks and will weight those accordingly as well.

The theory is that the community of visitors to your site would create search results tailored community members by highlighting results they like and discarding results that were not appropriate or applicable.

Here are a couple of examples:

Info for NY http://new-york-city-swicki.eurekster.com  

Popular Science http://www.popsci.com

I think swickis are very interesting in theory – but in practice I didn’t find any that jumped out at me. Maybe it’s just too early to tell.

Today I tried out Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/). I shouldn’t have because it kept me distracted for too long, but it was really neat. (Google Earth is different from Google Maps http://maps.google.com/; I mention that because I’m hoping to research a new feature in Google Maps in the next two weeks and will mention it soon.)

In their own words, “Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.”

It’s not a web site, it’s a software application. So, I downloaded it. I didn’t delve too deep into the options but I could plug in an address or location (such as city of country) and the software would fly me there. I say fly because it looks as if you’re in an airplane. You can see the terrain as you pass and once you get to your destination you can steer right, left, up, down or you can zoom in and out or tilt your camera view.

I checked out Dublin and tried to find the place I used to live – but had marginal luck. (And then only because I lived near a major landmark.) But I checked in St Paul, which I know quite a bit better and had no trouble zooming onto my block.

My intention had been to check out some of their new tools but I must admit I’m not there yet. In short they have partnered with new content providers to offer even more info on places through Google Earth, such as Discovery and the United Nations Environmental Program.

For today I just had to tell you about this not-so-new, but new-to-me tool. Someday I am going to work with my kids to learn more. One thing I liked (for kids and others) was how it gives you an idea of where things are and how big they are (such as the US is compared to Africa). It also gives you a glimpse at the different terrain and housing density. I once lived in a town in Spain with no grass or trees – it was very fun to compare that to Dublin or St Paul. (The town is Mollerusa, Spain – in case you want to check it out.)

People have sent me emails on being safe today. The world of safety differs from “how to fall from great heights” to Internet security – but it seemed as if someone was telling me to do a Safety Byte. Here are some of the resources – I hope that there are helpful but that you will never need them.

(Oh a couple people have asked about my kids’ podcast – they actually have been updating it recently: http://www.10questionsabout.com/.)

Survive a Long Fall http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Long-Fall
It made my palms sweat just reading about it. But

Security Evolution Quick Hits http://www.secev.com/news/bulletin.htm
A fun and helpful newsletter on Internet security from Mike Endrizzi (MN security guru)

USFA Kids http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/kids/flash.shtm
A fire safety site for kids. (Warning: they will ask about batteries in the smoke alarms if they see this – so be prepared.)

National Crime Prevention Council http://www.ncpc.org/Topics/Personal_Safety/index.php
They have topics on nearly everything for adults and kids.

Keep Schools Safe http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/
Info for parents, kids, and educators. (Warning: if I had this much info on lab safety as a high schooler I could have led an effective campaign to ban chemistry or at least make it an elective.)