Markmedia

GPS your news

As GPS technology develops and more cell phones become GPS-enabled (it will be ubiquitous in a year or so) there is an opening for GPS-tagged news (in a broad sense).

As your users/subscribers travel from zone to zone within your catchment area some specific item is triggered. Say the three or four latest stories from or about that area are brought up.
The sports arena triggers the latest news on the local team, the hospital triggers health related stories, the theater brings up reviews of the repertoire etc.

With wifi enabled cell phones you can also allow users to vote on the most interesting/useful stories (think digg), and with a Google Maps overlay new advertising streams also open up.

So, why not?

how to sort your email using outlook express

Here is the downloadable .avi file. The file is large (54,7 MB) so give it time.

Webcast -- Face to Face with a Guantánamo Detainee

A video conference with former Guantánamo detainee, Moazzam Begg, followed with remarks by Gitanjali Gutierrez, attorney, Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative, Center for Constitutional Rights.

Begg's recent book, "Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantánamo, Bagram, and Kandahar" (New Press, 2006), details his incarceration at Guantánamo, Kandahar, and Bagram. He talks about his experience and takes questions from the audience.

Gutierrez was one of the first lawyers to visit Guantánamo and currently represents detainee Mohammed Al Qahtani. She also recently filed a habeas petition on behalf of detainees in Bagram and will discuss her experience visiting those imprisoned in Guantánamo.

State of Food and Agriculture 2006

The State of Food and Agriculture 2006 has been released by the Food and Agriculture Organization. The report proposes major changes in the management and delivery of international food aid, one of the oldest and most controversial forms of foreign aid.
Read more from the UN news story, the FAO press release, the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) homepage, or read the executive summary (pdf, 607 KB) or the full text (pdf, 1.7 MB) of the report.

Global Employment Trends 2007

The International Labour Organization has published Global Employment Trends Brief 2007.
According to the report, the number of people unemployed worldwide remained high in 2006 despite global economic growth. Read more in the press release or the full report (pdf, 175 KB).

Community Archives

Archives are great places to find forgotten stories. In your village, shire, county or region there is a history that is hugely interesting to your present (or future) user base.
Have a look at The Community Archives website which hopes to providing the latest up to date directory information on all the community archives sites.
This can be found at: www.communityarchives.org.uk

Google patent search

Google Patent Search only has US stuff at present but can be a hugely usefull tool to track the intended products of your local industry.

From the Googleblurb:

Q. Where does this patent data come from?  
A. All patents available through Google Patent Search   come from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patents issued in the United States are public domain government information, and images of the entire database of U.S. patents are readily available online via the USPTO website.  

Q. What types of patents are available?  
A. Google Patent Search covers the entire collection of   patents made available by the USPTO—from patents issued in the 1790s through those   issued in the middle of 2006. We don’t currently include patent applications,   international patents, or U.S. patents issued over the last few months, but we   look forward to expanding our coverage in the future. 

Q. How many U.S. patents are there?  
A. To date, the USPTO has issued approximately   7 million patents.  

Q. How does it work?  
A. Using the same technology that powers Google Book Search,   Google has converted the entire image database of U.S. patents into a format that’s easy   to search. You can search the full text of U.S. patents from the Google Patent Search   homepage, or visit the Advanced Patent Search page to search by   criteria like patent number, inventor, and filing date.  

outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web

This is an annual series initiated under the auspices of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of The American Library Association to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web. [View selection criteria].

"Since the Web is a changing world, readers should note that these Web sites were as annotated on the date the member reviewed the site. Reviewing previous lists is not part of the charge of the Committee (formerly the Task Force on the Best of Free Reference Web Sites). However, we will make note of updated links, or other very substantial changes (such as a conversion from free to fee-based), if they are brought to our attention." RUSA Quarterly Fall 2001

See also the Combined Index, 1999-2006 for a list of winners over the past number of years. A truely usefull database site,

2008 Presidential Elections

Time to start collecting links to good 2008 related resources.
Grow your linkbase now, share it in your newsrooms/classes.

Race for the White House
Coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, including candidates and their campaigns, media coverage, political parties, interest groups, and voting. Features background and analysis for the pre-campaign and pre-primary periods, primaries in specific states, conventions, debates, and other topics related to the elections. From Democracy in Action, a "nonpartisan, nonprofit effort dedicated to educating citizens about the political process and their role in making it work."
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/P2008.html


The Presidential Field: Full Coverage of the 2008 Candidates
Profiles of candidates for the 2008 presidential elections, "expected to be the first [election] in decades that won\'t include a sitting president or vice president in the field of candidates vying for the White House." Includes personal data, education, experience, books, and links to websites and news articles about the candidates. From the Washington Post.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/ 

The 1916 Rising: Personalities & Perspectives

The 1916 Rising: Personalities & Perspectives
As a formative and pivotal moment in Irish history, the 1916 Rising has commanded the attention of many historians over the past nine decades.
Recently, the National Library of Ireland created this engaging online exhibit about these events. In total, this resource includes over 500 images drawn from the Library’s books, newspapers, drawings, and proclamations. The actual exhibit itself moves visitors through sections that provide a basic
outline of Irish history, and then move through the events over the following centuries that would lead up to the Uprising itself.   http://www.nli.ie/1916/index.html

There is also a 1916 walking tour available from www.1916rising.com [and they really should have it as a podcast]