Widgets Overboard!

Some may have thought I was going "overboard" with widgets here on Jordan's View. Well, now I've thrown "overboard" a whole bunch of widgets; made them "walk the plank", as perhaps Jack Sparrow might say. I guess these widgets weren't that essential since now that I've dumped them I can barely remember what they were. Anyway I believe the blog is now uploading much more easily, though the last two enhancements I added-- the one that turns each article into a podcast you can listen to, plus the green "share" button-- still manage to slow things down a bit. But it's certainly loading better and faster than it was just earlier today.

I've also been tweaking what I previously titled the "Reformed Podcast Player" and am now calling "Jordan's Podcast Player". I've changed the colors and added fresh audio-- just click and you can easily listen to the 5-part debate on Calvinism between James White and Steve Gregg that I mentioned in a previous post. I'm going to try to add I have added all the recent "Together for the Gospel Messages" to the player T4G 08 Podcast Player so that you can listen to all the messages in one convenient location. I've also brought this podcast player to a more prominent place on the blog, because I think it's especially important to bring to readers' attention the strong, interesting excellent teaching/preaching going on in reformed circles nowadays, that we may all be challenged and edified. Feel free to recommend any messages or preachers-- now that I've finally figured out how to quickly add messages to the player, I plan on keeping it updated regularly.

Plus, if you go to this site you can subscribe to this "Best of Reformed Podcasts" feed, or, get the flash player for your own site.

Tags: Reformed Podcast Player, Jordan's View, Together for the Gospel 2008, TG4 2008 Messages, James White vs Steve Gregg debates, podcast player, widgets

Web 2.0 Enhancements at Jordan's View

Hey friends,

I love trying out new web technologies that add practical value to this blog. From the beginning, I envisioned this blog as not only a place to communicate Christian truths through articles, but also as a web resource center. So the idea was to create links in my sidebar to point people to excellent web resources, and have those links organized according to categories. Thanks to ingenious hacks developed by technically-minded folks like Stephen Webber at Singpolyma Technical Blog and Hans at Beautiful Beta, I have been able to enhance features on my blog in ways I desired, but would never have been able to figure out on my own. For example, the sidebar link mentioned above were converted to mostly scrolling lists that one may show or hide, just by clicking on the title.

In addition, thanks to improvements Blogger made to its platform after being acquired by Google, I am able to categorize all posts easily, using their "labels" system.

Then there are the more "Web 2.0-type" enhancements I've added, such as the Jordan's Video section powered by vodpod that lets me share videos, or the Music Live Video Collection (powered by YouTube) I added at the bottom of the blog that lets me share favorite music video performances.

The web 2.0 enhancements continue this week, with the addition of a "Share" button next to the title of every post. This button comes courtesy of madKast. Clicking the button brings up a pop-up that allows readers to easily bookmark the post using their preferred service, or send the article by email to a friend. And today I have added a "Listen" button (powered by Odiogo) that when clicked allows you to hear a podcast of the article being read. Other options are to download an MP3 version, or subscribe to the Jordan's View podcast. What's really amazing is that the work of creating these podcasts was done entirely by Odiogo-- all I had to do was set up an account and provide my feed information. The voice that reads the articles is automated, yet sounds pretty human and is mostly clear and understandable.

So if Jordan's View is taking a bit longer to load these days, please do be patient. I think these latest features are worth the little extra time it takes to load the blog.

Tags: web 2.0, Jordan's View, podcast, Odiogo, madKast, Google Blogger platform

Recognize This Celebrity?

Hint: She's a singer, actress, pop star, dancer and cultural icon. She looks familiar, doesn't she?... OK, so she doesn't really exist. The image you're viewing is a "morph" image that combines the faces of Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

In other words, she's a Morph Thing!

Below, are her morphed "parents". In other words, the two images below, themselves pairs of combined celebrity faces, were morphed together to produce the image above. With all four faces morphed together, you get a very interesting face that actually looks quite real and attractive.

Madonna's Face Combined with Gwen Stefani:



Britney Spears' Face Combined with Christina Aguilera:



Here's more of the morphs I made:

Antonio Banderas' Face Combined with Denzel Washington:



Brad Pitt's Face Combined with Tom Cruise:



George Bush's Face Combined with Prince Charles:



Or how about this very strange morph? Elvis Presley's Face Combined with Ann Margaret:



Now, is this another example of "Web 2.0"? I'm not sure. It sure is another way of wasting time. But fun nonetheless. Check out Morph Thing, the online face morpher, and try out your own morphs. You can even upload your own images to experiment with.

Tags: Web 2.0, image morphing

The Web 2.0 Revolution

It seems that almost every day new web sites are coming out with functions much more dynamic than yesterday's static web sites. These new sites use ever-evolving technological innovations such as Ajax programming to create powerful, intuitive and even user-configurable sites. Such sites have earned the name "Web 2.0", not only because of the new technologies they utilize, but also because they are the product of ongoing collaboration between their developers and the people who use them. The Web 2.0 conception sees web communication as no longer just a unidirectional monologue (from speaker to listener) but as a multi-directional dialog. Through technology, every participant has opportunity to become a communicator, as well as receiver, of information. Thus the web becomes a giant collaboration among many.

I am finding it quite exciting and interesting to discover, explore and begin to use some of these Web 2.0 sites, despite the fact that I don't always fully understand them conceptually or technologically. But you don't have to know exactly how they work in order to take advantage of them. In fact, the best of these sites are designed to be extremely user-friendly, this being a high value in Web 2.0 thinking. Since, as mentioned earlier, new applications are continually being developed, the following list provides a very brief survey of Web 2.0 applications.

Start (Home) Pages
One of the sites I recently discovered is Netvibes.com, a site that reminds me of the Firefox browser (itself a product of Web 2.0 innovations) in terms of its high intuitiveness and configurability. Netvibes aims to be a place where you can set up your own web "universe". I have already begun using it as a home base on the Internet, gathering together in one place my contacts, calendar, to-do list, blog feeds, news feeds, podcasts, etc. Time Magazine recently selected Netvibes as one of their top 50 websites.

Of course, this is not a new concept. Many sites, such as My Yahoo or iGoogle, have aimed to become the preferred portal to the web for their audiences. Yet while both My Yahoo and especially iGoogle (with its many, often user-designed widgets) have implemented new ideas for personalizing home pages, sites like Netvibes take the innovations to the next level. Thus Netvibes and the similar Pageflakes are probably the top Web 2.0 choices right now for creating customized start pages.

Social Networking
Responding to invitations from friends, I recently joined three social network web sites: LinkedIn, Facebook and Plaxo Pulse. LinkedIn and Plaxo Pulse both seem geared toward those wanting to link to others professionally, while Facebook seems more a networking tool for friends. All three sites seem are very "Web 2.0" in terms of purpose-- trying to connect people via Internet-- and also in regard to ease of use. Being new to these networks, I can't really give an opinion as to which of them is best-- their functions probably overlap, if using all three. Another popular site along these lines, especially for a younger crowd, is MySpace.com.

Social Bookmarking
A phenomenon related to social networking is that of social bookmarking, in which users create online lists of Internet resources they like or have found useful and share them with others. Sites such as del.icio.us, Simpy, and Furl have become popular networks of this kind. More recently Diigo, Ma.gnolia, Netvouz, and StumbleUpon have also joined this growing web market. You can learn more about social bookmarking in this helpful Wikipedia article. Wikipedia itself is another great example of Web 2.0 in action-- an on-line encyclopedia collaboratively maintained and expanded by its readers.

Office "2.0"
Do you use programs such as Microsoft Word or Excel to create documents or spreadsheets? What if you could create, collaborate on, access and share such documents on the web? Innovative sites such as Google Documents and Spreadsheets, Zoho.com, Writeboard, ThinkFree.com, and Ajax13.com provide free online software that makes it possible to create spreadsheets and documents compatible with Microsoft Office, even if you don't own Microsoft products. Best of all, you can upload your created documents to the web to share with others or access from any computer with Internet. Recently, Google acquired a company called Jotspot, a Wiki-type site that enables online collaborative projects. This site will soon be integrated with Google's Documents and Spreadsheets. Microsoft has responded to the challenge posed by such Web 2.0 sites with Microsoft Live, which they describe as "services [which] allow you to create a professional online presence without the expense of buying a server, setting up a complicated infrastructure, and hiring technical staff to maintain it."

There are so many more Web 2.0 sites in multiple categories. The following is a mere sampling:

More Web 2.0
City Guides & Reviews
Yelp
Judy's Book

Digital Storage and Remote Access
Mozy.com
Omnidrive.com

Email and Communication
Gmail
Meebo.com
Skype

Feed Management
Feedburner.com
Rojo.com

Photos, Digital Images and Sharing
Flickr.com
Picasa
Photobucket

Mobile Technology
Twitter.com
plusmo.com

Music
Pandora.com
LastFM

Online Desktop
Goowy
desktoptwo.com

Podcast Services
Odeo.com

Video Sharing
Vimeo
YouTube

And of course, this blog itself is part of the wonderful world of Web 2.0.

Utilizing Web 2.0 wisely
I feel I would be remiss without admonishing (myself, as well as readers) to use the Web wisely. All the technological innovation of Web 2.0 is meant to make modern life easier and more productive, and certainly can be a tremendous asset in this regard. But, as with anything good, there is a danger of the Web becoming an idol in our lives. An idol is anything we allow, by the value and time we spend upon it, to become a kind of "god" to us, something which usurps relationship with the true God. The Web can easily become a totally absorbing and distracting place in which to live, and tracking the endless barrage of information becomes an exhausting addiction, even when the information in itself is good and helpful.

Christians recognize the reality of indwelling sin, which means that the pull of the world and sin are still present. So if you are Christian, please bear this in mind as you explore the world of Web 2.0. And if you are not a Christian, I would suggest that you consider the idea that if God is real He must have a claim on all human life. No activity in this world will ever bring us the true satisfaction and abiding joy that comes from being in relationship with our Creator. And no human activity or philosophy can solve the sin problem which separates us from Him. Visit my Gospel Presentations section for more about this.

For Discussion
What are your favorite "Web 2.0" sites? Do you ever feel that you've become addicted to the spending time on the Web?

Further reading:
50 Best Websites, selected by Time magazine

Web 2.0 by Wikipedia

Review of the Year's Best Web 2.0 explanations

What exactly does Web 2.0 mean?

Best Web 2.0 Sites July 2007 (top 10 from Real World Software Development)

2007 Web 2.0 Awards

2007: Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn’t Live Without

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2006

Top 100 Web Apps (included are many Web 2.0-type sites)

Top 100 Web 2.0 Sites

The Best of Web 2.0

Brave New Web: 20 Top Web 2.0 sites

Go2Web20.net-the complete web 2.0 directory

Ajax Projects (Web 2.0 sites)

Tags: Web 2.0, Ajax programming, Netvibes.com, social networking, social bookmarking, Office 2.0, Wiki