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Links that lead to off-site pages about humans communications via computers.

• ASCII Art
• BitTorrent
• Blogs
• Collective Intelligence
• Emoticons and Shorthand
• IM
• Message Boards
• Online Office
• RSS
• Shorthand
• Wikis

ASCII Art

• AFN.org/~afn39695/collect.htm.
• ArkWorld.com/ascii/. Including color ones.
• ASCII art [W]
• ASCII-art.de. Very good traditional ASCII Art.
• Chris.com/ascii. 
• GeoCities.com/SoHo/2695/links.htm. Links to ASCII art web pages.
• The History of ASCII (Text) Art [Geocities.com/SoHo/7373/history.htm].
• http://jpg2asc.hierklikken.com/. This will convert a JPG to ASCII Art. The JPG should have a max size of 400x400 pixel.
• http://www.romanm.ch/english/index.htm. Including video that was converted to ASCII animation.
• http://the.sunnyspot.org/asciiart/. Includes computer conversion of images into ASCII art.
• text-image.com. Generate text images online.
• http://www1.zkm.de/~wvdc/ascii/java/. Video that was converted to ASCII animation.

BitTorrent

BitTorrent is a protocol, created by Bram Cohen in 2001, for distributing files peer-to-peer as opposed to client-server. A .torrent file describes the components of a shared file (like music, pictures, movies, executables, etc.). People who have the whole file are seeders, people who don't are peers. A seeder initially uploads the file to a tracker server which tracks all the seeders and peers who form a swarm for the .torrent file. Initially people get the files from the first seeder, But as more people get different parts of the file, then more people beyond the first seeder can get and give different parts of the file too.

Most people essentially need two things: A BitTorrent client and a BitTorrent site where they can get .torrent files.

• BitTorrent [W]
• bittorrent.com. The original BitTorrent client and BitTorrent site.

Blogs

• Blogs on Blogging
  • AntsEyeView.com.
  • Rheingold.com. By Howard Rheingold.
  • Scripting.com. "Scripting News" by Dave Winer, the guy who founded Userland.com.
• Blog indexers. See Portals.
  • Miscellany
    • BlogShares.com. Fantasy shares on blog popularity.
    • Feedster.com. Sort of like Google but for RSS blogs.
    • Technorati.com. Lists blogs and indexes sites (not posts) by popularity. Their "Cosmos" feature is nice. Enter the URL of a blog to get information such as when the site was updated last or to see how many other sites point to it.
      • tag cloud
    • WebLogs.com. Lists blogs and tracks recently changed ones.
• Blog enablers/hosts. The usual deal is that they or you host the site but you can edit it from anywhere using your browser. These sites also serve as portals to blogs. Prices listed below are, of course, subject to change without notice. However if you do notice that it has change please tell me!
  • Antville.org. Commercial, JavaScript based  blogging.
  • Blogger.com. The quick and easy way. Bought by Google.com. Makes sites of this format: SomeBlog.blogspot.com. $0-5/mo.
  • CrimsonBlog.com.
  • LiveJournal.com. Open source.
  • MoveableType.org. Must be on your own server. By SixApart.com who also does AListApart.com. Founded by Ben and Mena Trott (who were born six days apart).
    • TypePad.com. A more user friendly version of their product. $5-15/mo. Well loved by its users.
  • MSN Spaces [spaces.msn.com]. Free blogging by Microsoft.
  • pitas.com
  • pMachine.com. Commercial.
  • Tripod Blog Builder. By Lycos
  • upsaid.com
  • Userland.com. Known especially for its Radio and Manila products, both of which are powered by their Frontier product. Founded by Dave Winer.
    • Backend.Userland.com/RSS. Specs and explanation of their RSS implementation: 0.91 [2000/06], 0.92 [2000/12], 0.94 [2002/08]
    • WebLogger.com. $10-40/mo.
  • WordPress [wordpress.com]. $0.
  • Xanga.com. $0-4/mo.
  • Try looking web directories. EG: Look in Google under: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Tools/Hosts/.
  • Blog Tools. Here is a review by PC Magazine on blog tools as of 200-12-05 (even though it says "2003-12-30").
• Commenting Systems
  • BlogExtra.com/BackBlog.
  • KlinkFamily.com/Blogout. "Shout outs".
  • QuickTopics.com. I used these guys for this site for a few weeks.
• Miscellany
  • BlogSkins.com. About design for blogs.
  • Corante.com/many. Corante's section on social software. Closed-membership with guest bloggers.
  • Diarist.net.

Collective Intelligence

Collective Intelligence (CI) is an "intelligence" that arises from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. This covers topics such as folksonomy, social software, crowdsourcing, collective wisdom, aggregate wisdom, and recommender systems. See also Video.

See also Online Office.

• Wikipedia
  • Folksonomy
  • Social bookmarking. Many links here.
  • Social software
  • Tag cloud
  • Tags
• Audio
  • odeo.com.
  • pandora.com.
  • webjay.org. Acquired by Yahoo.
• Blog posts by popularity. Most of these are not "social" but rather automated counting of hits.
  • Blogdex.com. By MIT.
  • BlogStreet.com. Interesting distinction between their top 100 and biq [sic] 100.
  • BlogWise.com. Candy list.
  • Bloogz.com. Easy access to previous days.
  • DayPop.com. With rising and falling indicators.
  • Popdex.com.
• Books
  • LibraryThing.com. Can also link books to the U.S. Library of Congress and top book sellers.
  • Reader² [reader2.com]. The usual tags, reader2.com/popular, etc.
• Calendars and To Do Lists
  • eventful.com. Calendar.
  • Goo to do [gootodo.com]. To do list.
  • Google Calendar [google.com/calendar]. Came out ca. 2006-04-12.
  • iCal by Apple [apple.com/macosx/features/ical]
    • Not to be confused with the iCalendar/RFC 2445 standard [W].
    • iCal Library
  • iCalShare [icalshare.com]. Shared iCals.
  • iWebCal [interfacethis.com/iwebcal/index.php]. View any ical file in daily, weekly, and monthly tabular formats that you have a URL to. E: The Chicago Swordplay Guild calendar.
  • Kiko [kiko.com]. Online calendar. There are tons of online calendars but they're opening up their API.
  • Mozilla Calendar [mozilla.org/projects/calendar]. Including the Sunbird and Lightning projects.
  • upcoming.org. Calendar
• Maps. See more at my section on Google.
  • Cool Google Maps [coolgooglemaps.blogspot.com]
  • Frappr! [frappr.com]. 'Create a map for your group. Share Group Photos Get others to add themselves. Its easy and fun!' Sort of like a Google Maps crossed with Flickr.com.
  • MapBuilder.net. For locations. Uses the the Google Maps API. Store your own maps and see the maps of others. Uses tags and ranks maps too.
• Photo sharing. Some sites (EG Flickr) do not host the images permanently.
  • bubbleshare.com
  • buzznet.com. Video too.
  • Flickr.com. Social software for photos. Tags, blogs, comments, etc. --> Now part of Yahoo!
    • tag cloud
  • Fotolog.net. Underwent a Brazilian invasion.
  • imageshack.us. Some tagging really. They will host photos for you for free forever.
  • Kodak Gallery [kodakgallery.com]. Formerly ofoto.com. Many physical printout options but commercial (not free gratis).
  • putfile.com
  • riya.com
  • sharpcast.com
  • tinypic.com
  • zooomr.com
• Social bookmarking
  • BlinkList [blinklist.com]. 'BlinkList is Social Bookmarking merged with People Powered Search and Expert Recommendations... all wrapped in an elegant interface'
  • del.icio.us
    • Came out in 2003 as the first popularity & follksonomy site for URLs or links. My whole website is already a bookmark repository, but it isn't weighted by the public.
    • del.icio.us/popular/
    • tag cloud
    • 'a social bookmarks manager. It allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others.'
  • de.lirio.us. An open source variation of del.icio.us.
  • diigo.com. 'del.icio.us with brains'
  • Digg [digg.com].
    • Socialbookmarking with comments. Each post only gets one tag. More ratings options than Boolean. Links and comments get rated.
    • 'Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.'
    • Top Stories [digg.com/topstories]. You can choose the time frame (today, this week, etc.)
    • Digg Spy [digg.com/spy]. See the links as they are added in real-time.
  • furl.net. URLs get voted on ("furled") as well as colored (cool, warm, or hot).
  • reddit.com. Socialbookmarking with comments. Rating is Boolean count. Links and reviewers get rated. Save a link (for viewing later). Hide links. No tags though.
    • top [reddit.com/top]
    • nsfw.reddit.com. Not safe for work. --> They discontinuted it! Too much porn spam as opposed to interesting non-porn nsfw content.
  • stumbleupon.com
• Social networking software/sites
  • Facebook.com. Aka thefacebook. For those with .edu emails, usu. college and high school.
  • Friendster.com
  • myspace.com.
  • Orkut.com. Run by Google. By invitation only. Underwent a Brazilian invasion.
  • Tribe.net. Focuses on cities.
• Miscellany
  • Base [Base.Google.com]. Google allows you to post content (usu. HTML in RSS format) that they will host and then allows you to add labels (aka tag. EG: "fantasy") as well as attributes (EG: "author: J. R. R. Tolkien"). Has some potential.
  • I want to ... [http://www.philb.com/iwantto.htm]. '"I want to..." or "I need to" or "How do I?" These are all questions we all ask all the time. This is a small collection of resources that will help to answer those questions. It is not complete, nor will it ever be. I will be adding to this on a regular basis, so feel free to bookmark it and come back and visit. '
  • MyFilmz.net. For movies. The usual tags, myfilmz.net/popular, etc.
  • MyProgs.net. For programs/apps. The usual tags, myprogs.net/popular, etc.
  • Ning.com. A site for making all sorts of social apps.
  • Rojo.com. "RSS with mojo". For RSS feeds. Tags and all.
  • squidoo.com. "Lens" oriented, i.e. people make a single page on a topic and that gets folksied.
  • tagcloud.com. Make tag clouds out of RSS feeds.
  • TagFacts [tagfacts.com]. Folksonomy for notes. This could be interesting.
  • Upcoming.org. 'a social event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Manage your events, share events with friends and family, and syndicate your calendar to your own site.' --> Now part of Yahoo!
  • YouTube [youtube.com]. Home made and snatched videos. Watch, post, share, rank, etc.
  • Zagat Survey [Zagat.com]. 'Zagat surveyors rate and review a wide range of lifestyle/leisure products and services including restaurants, nightlife, hotels, golf courses and movies. Each questionnaire is compiled by Zagat's content department in conjunction with expert editors. The questionnaires are posted on Zagat's Web site, where consumers give us their ratings and reviews. An independent data processor compiles the votes. The published reviews are based on these questionnaires, with numerical ratings reflecting the average scores given by all participants who voted on each establishment and text based on direct quotes from, or fair paraphrasings of, participants' comments. '

Emoticons and Shorthand

• Emoticon [W]
• Emoticons [hatropolis.com/emoticons.html]
• Fun-With-Words.com/acronyms.html
• Japanese Smileys [club.pep.ne.jp/~hiroette/en/facemarks/body.html]
• NetLingo.com/emailsh.cfm
• Smileys and Emoticons [Netlingo.com/smiley.cfm]

IM

IM = Instant Messaging. If you use Yahoo messenger, it is super easy to make a link that allows people to IM you. EG: ymsgr:sendIM?YourYahooID. I can't believe that people post theirs publicly. The noise could become terrific.

• AOL Instant Messaging [aim.com].
• Chatango.com. ' It's the first tool for real-time, private, disposable, one-to-one communication. It works just like one of those IM products, but doesn't require a download, and is accessible from any computer! '
• Google Talk [google.com/talk].
• ICQ [icq.com]. The first all-Internet IM. The name ICQ is a play on the phrase "I seek you", and hence is pronounced I.C.Q..
• IRC
  • #Beginner - Undernet [ircbeginner.com]. 'New to Internet Relay Chat? First time chatterer wondering how to step into the world of conversing with people from all around the globe? You've come to the right place!'
  • mIRC [mirc.com]. Probably the most popular IRC client. Occasionally I'll be on EFnet: US, IL, Chicago.
  • The IRC Preclude [irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html]
• Jabber [jabber.org].
  • ' "the Linux of instant messaging" -- an open, secure, ad-free alternative to consumer IM services like AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo (see the IM quickstart). Under the hood, Jabber is a set of streaming XML protocols and technologies that enable any two entities on the Internet to exchange messages, presence, and other structured information in close to real time.'
  • Web 2.0 IM, with AJAX. Free (libre and gratis).
• MSN Messenger [messenger.msn.com].
• Tencent QQ [qq.com]. The most popular free IM in China.
• Trillian IM by Cerulean Studios [ceruleanstudios.com]. Part of Google Pack. Allows IMing for AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo!
• Yahoo! Messenger [messenger.yahoo.com].

Message Boards

• Usenet. You should have NNTP access via your ISP. There are many companies (like the following) which, for a fee, allow you to access Usenet via most connections and a browser.
  • No-cost
    • FreeNews.MaxBaud.net
    • NewsServers.net
  • Some-cost
    • CoreNews.com
    • EasyNews.com. Bill and Brian use this.
    • GigaNews.com
    • Newsville.com
    • NGroups.net
    • Remarq.com
    • Usenet.com
    • UsenetBinaries.com
• Miscellany
  • Flame Wars and Other Online Arguments [members.aol.com/intwg/flamewars.htm]. Also applies to email threads and the like.
  • Groups.Google.com. Access the non-binary content of Usenet. This was DejaNews.com but acquired and implemented by Google.
  • QuickTopic.com. Make discussion groups on their server on the fly. The discussion groups you make stay there as long as you want them too. For a while I used this for "comments" on my blog.
  • The Tyranny of Email [w-uh.com/articles/030308-tyranny_of_email.html]

Online Office

The ability to share, distribute, and corroborate on documents online with just a browser is very powerful. However, online office suites have some big hurdles: (1) Online security. (2) People are invested in and comfortable in current systems. (3) People do still occasionally work (gasp!) offline. (4) Offline apps tend to be more powerful and feature rich.

See also Popularity-Folksonomy.

• Spreadsheets. All free (gratis) so far.
  • EditGrid [editgrid.com]
  • Google Spreadsheets [spreadsheets.google.com]
  • iRows [irows.com]
  • Num Sum [numsum.com]
  • Simple Spreadsheet [simple-groupware.de/cms/index.php?n=Spreadsheet.Home]
  • wikiCalc [softwaregarden.com/wkcalpha]. Online spreadsheet crossed with wiki (using SocialText/Kwiki). Supported by Dan Bricklin (one of the co-creators of VisiCalc the first spreadsheet) and
  • Zoho Sheet [zohosheet.com]
• Storage. General storage as opposed to specific storage (like just photos or just videos). As of 2007-12, this is in a primative stage because it's not just about online storage but the ability to use it in flexible ways.
  • Google has been teasing us with a with GDrive or Cloud or whatever for so long.
  • Jungle Disk [jungledisk.com]. Part of Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3). $0.15/GB/month and $0.20/GB/transfer.
  • SkyDrive [skydrive.live.com]. Actually Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive (sounds like they're squeezing in too much branding). First GB free.
  • Xdrive [xdrive.com]. Offered by AOL. First 5 GB free then it's $9.95/50 GB.
• Miscellany
  • Bindows [bindows.net]. 'With Bindows you can develop fully functional desktop applications in a web page, without any plugins.'
  • Box.net. 'Free online storage'.
  • FCKEditor [fckeditor.net]. Powerful online word processing. Free (gratis and libre).
  • Gliffy [gliffy.com]. Online visualization tools, including flowcharts and diagrams.
  • gOFFICE [goffice.com]. Online word processing, desktop publishing, presentations, and spreadsheets. Outputs to PDF too. Free (gratis).
  • mediamax.com. Online storage. 25 GB free.
  • Meebo [www2.meebo.com]. 'We're three folks working to bring IM to Web 2.0. Hopefully this lets you get all of your IMing done in one place and makes it easier too.' Free (gratis).
  • Megaupload.com
    • 'for transfering and backing up fileseasily, with complete security and free of charge. Our network transfers over 30 terabytes from more than 500,000 users every day. Our storagecapacity is almost endless and our service runs on redundant multi-Gigabit Internetconnections. There is no competitor out there who can challenge our user friendliness, quality of service, and overall performance. Megaupload is the biggest, fastest and simply the best file hosting service on the net.'
    • It's free but they have a priced "premium" service that let's you browse the most popular files and upload/download larger files.
  • Openomy [openomy.com]. 'an online file system. You can store files on Openomy and access them from any computer. Openomy organizes files and users via tags (as opposed to folders). You can choose to keep your files guarded by Openomy, or allow certain outside applications (of your choice) to do new and interesting things with your data.'
  • S5 [meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/]. 'a slide show format based entirely on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With one file, you can run a complete slide show and have a printer-friendly version as well.'
  • SNiPiTRON [snipitron.com].
    • "A free service for professionals and academics to build research projects containing web pages, files, screenshots and audio/video content. Supports private, public and group projects."
    • With it's web page capture, it's like a personal wayback machine for sites you've visited and want to store. Sort of a way to work around sites that don't make their content free forever.
  • ThinkFree [online.thinkfree.com]. Online word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. 1 GB free online storage.
  • Webnote [aypwip.org/webnote/]. 'a tool for taking notes on your computer. It allows you to quickly write something down during a meeting, class, or any other time that you have a web browser available.'
  • Writeboard.com. Free, web-based collaborative documents, complete with roll backs, version comparison, etc. Also basic formatting (such as bolds, italics, list, and links).
  • Writely [writely.com]. 'Simple & SECURE web document sharing.' Free (gratis). --> 2006-03 Purchased by Google!
  • Zimbra [zimbra.com]. Free (libre) email and collaborations systems.

RSS

• RSS Aggregators
  • BlogHog.com. This was good but it's not working now?
  • Fyuze.com.
  • HeadlineViewer.com. Windows app.
  • NewsIsFree.com.
• RSS Channel Editors
  • Metabrowser. Commercial product you install.
  • RSS Channel Editor. Free online but for RSS 0.91 only.
• RSS Readers. Aka feed readers.
  • AtomicDB.com. PocketRSS. Runs on Pocket PC devices. $5.
  • BlogLines.com. Runs on most browsers and PDAs. Free.
  • FeedDemon.com. Runs on most Windows operating systems. $29.95.
  • Google.com/Reader. Marks thing as read/unread or starred. Shows entire posts one at a time. Web app. Free. 2006-10-09: Major upgrade.
  • NewsGator.com. Runs on top of Microsoft Outlook. $29.
  • Sage [sage.mozdev.org]. An extension for Mozilla Firefox that lets you read and organize RSS and Atom feeds. Shows multiple entire posts. Free.
  • http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss. Add RSS feeds to your My Yahoo! Runs on most browsers. Free.
• RSS Validators
  • Aggregator.Userland.com/Validator. Works with RSS 0.92, 0.94, and 2.0.
  • FeedValidator.org. Works with RSS 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0, 2.0, and Atom. By Mark Pilgrim and Sam Ruby.
• Wikipedia
  • Atom (standard)
  • Resource Description Framework
  • RSS (file format)
• Miscellany
  • Explanation of RSS, How You Can Use it, and Finding RSS Feeds.
  • RSS Workshop. Excellent intro.
  • RSS-Xpress. UK RSS syndicator.
  • Syndic8.com. Largest RSS syndicator.

Wikis

• Wiki providers.
  • Bloki.com. Free and commercial implementation of wiki.
  • CLiki.net. Free implementation of wiki. Written in Common Lisp.
  • jot.com or jotspot.com. A wiki combined with collaborative documents, calendars, and spreadsheets. 2006-10-31: Acquired by Google.
  • pbwiki.com. Free wikis as easy "as a peanut butter sandwich".
  • ProjectForum.com. Free and commercial implementation of wiki.
  • SocialText.com. Commercial implementation of wiki.
  • TiddlyWiki.com
    • 'A TiddlyWiki is like a blog because it's divided up into neat little chunks, but it encourages you to read it by hyperlinking rather than sequentially: if you like, a non-linear blog analogue that binds the individual microcontent items into a cohesive whole. I think that TiddlyWiki represents a novel medium for writing, and will promote its own distinctive WritingStyle.'
    • 'One of the neatest features of TiddlyWiki is that it is entirely self-contained in a single HTML file - even including graphics like the GradientMacro and Sparklines. The file contains the actual hypertext document, and the JavaScript, CascadingStyleSheets and HTML necessary to both view and edit it. This means that it is trivial to host a TiddlyWiki on a website, or to distribute one by email. And anyone with a reasonably recent web browser will be able to read and edit it.'
  • TWiki.org. Free open source implementation of wiki. Written in PERL.
  • wetpaint.com. A free hosted implementation of wiki with a more WYSISWY interface, comments, tags, etc. Wiki is going Web 2.0? I love Wikipedia, but I think others may find the interface dry.
  • wikia.com. Free. Started by Jimmy Wales of wikipedia. Looks an awful lot like wikipedia but it's geared towards communities.
  • wiki.com
  • wikispaces.com. 'Public wikis are free; private and ad-free wikis are $5/month or $50/year.'
• Wiki content providers.
  • c2.com. Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc. Site by the inventor of wikis, Ward Cunningham.
  • Cliki.TUNES.org. "TUNES is a Useful, Nevertheless Expedient, System ... politically committed to promote libertarian ideas in Computing Systems, and technically committed to build a proof-of-concept system around semantically clean reflection".
  • eBay Wiki [ebaywiki.com]
  • Encyclopædia Dramatica [encyclopediadramatica.com]. It looks like Wikipedia, but it's almost all college humor.
  • Memorizable.org. A wiki for flashcards.
  • Wikipedia.org. A free wiki encyclopedia.
• Miscellany
  • wikiwyg.net. 'Wikiwyg is the simple way to add Wysiwyg editing to your existing social software project.'

2007-12-03 16:46:48Z