Past Sites of Week - 'Homework Day' to promote the use of Wolfram Alpha for education. Public updates of one's whereabouts could have dangerous privacy and security implications, notes PleaseRobMe.com From staff and wire reports Read more by staff and wire services reports March 1st, 2010 Frequent updates on web sites like Twitter could make users vulnerable.
As more people reveal their whereabouts on social networks, a new site has sprung up to remind students and others that letting everyone know where you are — and, by extension, where you’re not — could leave you vulnerable to those with less-than-friendly intentions. The site’s name says it all: Please Rob Me. Launched last week, Please Rob Me is exceptionally straightforward. Please Rob Me assembles its list by taking information that Twitter makes freely available so that many web sites can show tweets. People are comfortable sharing all kinds of personal details on social sites such as Facebook. Some people choose to show their whereabouts only to approved buddies.
Links: Please Rob Me Foursquare. Top News - Experts debate relevance of 'social search'. The future of libraries, with or without books. (CNN) -- The stereotypical library is dying -- and it's taking its shushing ladies, dank smell and endless shelves of books with it. Libraries are trying to imagine their futures with or without books. Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. "Loud rooms" that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet.
Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians. And that's just the surface. Authors, publishing houses, librarians and Web sites continue to fight Google's efforts to digitize the world's books and create the world's largest library online. Some books will still be around, they say, although many of those will be digital. "The library building isn't a warehouse for books," said Helene Blowers, digital strategy director at the Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library.
Library 2.0 Other libraries are trying new things, too. Community Centers. No longer the Wild West? (CNN) -- Today's Internet is governed by the idea that crowds of people can create the news, share information and collaborate on online projects.
User-generated content sites like Wikipedia appear to be evolving. Some experts say they need more rules. So when Wikipedia, the user-written encyclopedia that's built an empire on this ideal, decided this week to add a layer of oversight to its system, the Web erupted in debate. The popular encyclopedia, which has drawn criticism for inaccuracies, says it will try assigning editors to some of its entries. These trusted volunteers likely would have to approve public edits before they're published to English-language stories about living people. Some see the move as a shift away from Wikipedia's core values and a sign that crowds of people aren't able to produce a usable and accurate body of information. Others see the change as a sign that these communities of online volunteers are getting more complex and they may need more rules. Wikipedia: Beneath the Surface.