Citadel of the Blogs The Inbox of the Internet (really)

I just figured out how to get ad-free Gmail: switch to “basic HTML” from the bottom of your page.

ostensibly this page is for older browsers–apparently it is compatible on *anything*. however, to my great delight, it also means: no “clips” and no sneaky ads based on the content of your mail. wh00t!

only two functions appear disabled: the ability to select all boxes or none (like delete all spam, etc.). ya gotta click em all in this view. and the ability to “preview” the first few words of an email without actually opening it. actually, i like this one to determine if it is spam or not. so I will revert to “standard”. but at if I weren’t nit-picky on that point, basic html avoids ads.

Whew! Finally found the RSS feed to the Librarian’s Index to the Internet. It lists weekly new sites added but oddly was very counter-intuitive to locate. They kept directing me to add them to my Live Journal friend’s list, not to subscribe to the RSS feed.

anyhoo, they have recently revamped their website. newer cleaner and yes–fresh scent too! seriously, check out the friendly solar rays! yay, internet.

the nice thing about their sites is that all are annotated and described. nicely done (check out the history by place to see what I mean.

Fascinating article entitled Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past

thanks to Christina for the link.

Last week my collections development prof announced that Wikibooks are coming. I have to admit my first reaction was, “Huh?” How can a book be a wiki? That was before I realized that we are talking about collaborative non-fiction, not fiction. And the darned thing is I am now convinced that, more than just coming, wikibooks will be the next big thing.

Think about it: would you choose a university text you have to pay $70 for or an online reputable reference that is open source and free? Of course “reputable” is the key word here but if the current wikipedia trend continues it really won’t be long before the tide changes and people start to give wikipedia a fair shake. It is a step in the right direction! Wikipedia is the closest thing that comes to realizing the early democratic dream of the Internet: everyone posting one page on something they know or care about to improve the quality of online resources. But of course the ratio of posters to readers is highly skewed. But whatever: it comes closer to the ideal than homepages, blogs or discussion groups.

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