Women in ICT workshop

As a first step in our "Women in ICT" project, we organized a "Women in ICT: In Search of Identity" workshop on 19-20 December 2006 at SAP Falcha. Due to the bandh called on 19th Dec, we almost had to postpone the workshop. Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead with our schedule and indeed it was a good decision for significant number of participants turned up despite the disruption. The second day was also a fruitful one due to the presence of some key personalities.

The main question that our workshop focused on was "Why are women left behind in the ICT movement?". Discussions focused around the issue andwe were able to come up with quite a few strategies to address this issue, thanx to the valuable inputs and suggestions of the participants.

Another key feature of the workshop was the knowledge sharing mechanism that we used. Open Space methodology that we used to facilitate the discussions was appreciated and liked by all the participants. Also, setting up wiki stations was a key example of appropriation of technology.

All in all, the workshop was a satifying experience for us all.

The magic of AJAX

Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

(From Wikipedia:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming))

WYSIWYG editor

WYSIWYG [wɪziwɪg] or [wiziwɪg]), is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, used in computing to describe a system in which content during editing appears very similar to the final product.^[1] It is commonly used for word processors, but has other applications, such as Web (HTML) authoring.

The term describes a user interface that allows the user to view something very similar to the end result while the document or image is being created. For example, a user can view on screen how a document will look when it is printed to paper or displayed in a Web browser. It implies the ability to modify the layout of a document without having to type or remember names of layout commands.

NOTE: Extract from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG)

StumbleUpon:: Extension for IE, Mozilla and Flock users

Hey everyone. The following article is about an extension in a web browser.

I was surfing through the extension page of Flock web browser n came upon this wonderful tool. Its called Stumble Upon. As the name says it all, it helps u to stumble upon any gr8 websites or pictures or videos or arts, graphics, animation,etc. etc. (the list is endless) according to ur interests. All u have 2 do is sign up n create a stumble upon account. U can then keep it in ur web browser (mozilla or flock) as a toolbar. Finally, all u need to do is click on the stumble button n start stumbling into some of the great web pages. 'Njoy.

For more information on StumbleUpon: www.stumbleupon.com

Another Social Networking Video Site

VodPod is heavily designed around social networking. Have a thing for birds? Join the bird “pod” and you’ll have an instantaneous collection of birding videos. Like unicycling? Some kids from Australia have started a pod around that pastime too. Users can join multiple groups that cluster videos around various subjects that allows them to post and collect new videos that pertain to that topic. Although you don’t have to join a pod or even sign up with VodPod to search pod videos. Users can “lurk” within the pods anonymously without being socially networked.

(Courtesy: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/04/another-social-networking-video-site/)

Semantic web

Everyday we play with a lot of data. For example, I view my appointments in a calendar, view my photographs in my web gallery, check my bank statements online and so on. But can we view our photos in a calendar? The answer is NO. Because each of these applications have their own set of data, which is controlled by these applications themselves.

Semantic Web is a web of data. It provides a common formats for interchange of data, where on the original Web we only had interchange of documents i.e. with Semantic Web, data can be shared and reused across applications, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF).

Creating flash presentations has become much easier

Have you ever thought that creating a flash presentation or a manual in flash was a professional's job? If yes, then with softwares like "WINK", you don't need to be a professional to prepare a flash presentation.

All you have to do is download this software (http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) and you are ready.

More news on FLOCK

This is so cooooooooooool. I am loving it so much more. FLOCK has almost all the features a person may want and much more.

With FLOCK, i can integrate my del.icio.us bookmarks into My News feature. Then there's this feature called web snippet. You can save links, text and pictures as snippets so that you can blog about it later

Snippets are especially handy for re-blogging bits of text from web pages. When you drag a snippet into a blog post, it is automatically formatted as a blockquote with proper citation.

FLOCK - a social web browser

I just learnt abt this new browser - FLOCK. Haven't tried all its features, but from what I have tried, it is so cooooooooool. I have also worked with Mozilla Firefox, IE and Opera web browsers. But FLOCK seems to be a little different. It is an amazing new web browser that makes it easier to share media and connect to other people online.

Try it and you will feel the difference. ;-)

Something new

I was just surfing thru blogger and its settings and came across this "Mail-to-Blogger Address" thing. So am writing this blog just to test it. ;-)