April 13, 2005
Search Engine for Podcasts
I first became aware of podcasts a couple of months ago, when Karen Schneider, Director of Librarians Index to the Internet, spoke about top technology trends at the Ontario Library Association conference.
Podcasting is simply the creation of downloadble radio-type broadcasts for independent listening. Users can select a broadcast and download the content to their MP3 listening device (like an Ipod), and listen at their leisure. The great sudden interest in podcasting has much to do with how easy it is to do, even for novices. Like a web page, all it takes to create a podcast is a human, a microphone, and the ability to save a file as an MP3 or other audio file. Think about it: it's nice to hear a voice (as opposed to reading a page) and the format has that go-everywhere portability that everyone seems to covet these days.
Already, there are tools to help you find podcasts. Ipodder and Podcast.net are examples of browsable directories leading to thousands of podcast sources. And TVEyes has announced Podscope, a search tool that can search words within a podcast.
The sudden interest in, and growth of podcasting promises to be a future wave to watch, much like blogging was just a couple of years ago.
April 11, 2005
Return on Investment In Information Technology: A Guide for Managers
From August, 2004, this is a rare, FREE report on a HOT business topic - which I spotted on Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff on the Web. The Center for Technology in Government at SUNY-Albany has released a 52-page report, Return on Investment In Information Technology: A Guide for Managers
April 04, 2005
Guide to Downloading Patents from the Internet
In this weblog posting from The Invent Blog, Patent attorney Stephen M. Nipper reminds us that "the USPTO has never provided the ability to download multiple page TIFF or PDF copies of patents/patent applications. " Nipper provides a useful list of sources that can help searchers successfully download patents in readable (usually PDF) format.