Brian Kelly has a post about library and university apps showing up on Facebook. Take for example the UIUC Library Search app above.
So I now have a simple interface for searching the UIUC Library catalogue. Not much use for me, here at the University of Bath - but potentially very useful for students (and staff) at UIUC.
Should we be doing something similar within our own institutions, perhaps providing search interface not only to the library catalogue and other local services but also to national services such as Intute? Some might argue that this is unnecessary as a search interface is available on the service’s Web site and that developing additional interfaces for platforms such as Facebook)will require additional efort. I would disagree with the first part - I feel we should be making our data and services available where our users are and expecting them to come to our services may be risky. On the issues of the effort needed to do this, well we need to explore how much effort is required. Perhaps work which can be linked to the IWMW 2007 Innovation Competition? Anyone fancy developing Faacebook applications which provide access to a range of JISC services?
There more from Brian Kelly by way of Stephen Downes
This is an interesting article showing how a university mashed its local information system with Facebook. "MyNewport is a Facebook application that allows students to access to MyLearning Essentials resources from Facebook." That said, it is worth noting, Facebook is a closed platform Graham Attwell: "Yes the college VLE uses open standards. But Facebook does not. It is one thing providing access to a developers kit to write applications to get data in to Facebook. But what about the other way round. How can learners get their data from Facebook into their Portfolio. As far as I can see they can't." Why do we keep having to learn the same lesson over and over? See also Doug Belshaw on problem with education-related social networks
Joe Baker, announced on the NTEN discuss list that Care2 has launched its Petitions application on Facebook, http://apps.facebook.com
If you haven't gotten enough of Facebook - the Read/Write web is celebrating Facebook week!
Actually, there is a great application that serves charities on Facebook. It's called Searchgive and it allows you to place a search box right on your profile and select the beneficiary of your search activities. As people search the web through Searchgive, half of all proceeds are given to the charities. This is a great way to show your support for a charity and offer web search from your profile. The application can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2372212405
Posted by: Stas | July 17, 2007 at 07:46 AM