2 days after the BIG news got released, ‘Google now can search within Flash swf files’ [link], I found out 3 Flash developers of my company are NOT aware of the fact at all. When I mentioned the news, within few seconds they gathered  all the facts  about it via Google! I was thinking about this typical Gen Y style of information gathering pattern.

The way we find what we need ‘now’ at Google age is great. But it works only in the cases of when we know about what we don’t know. Without a regular ‘reading habit’ (RSS or old school books too), a habit of gathering knowledge beyond the domain of ‘now’, we can’t possibly know - what we don’t know.

Serendipitous learning is absolutely necessary, even at Google age. 

BTW - in case you missed the heavily discussed article by Nicholas Carr, here it goes -  Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Here goes a tag cloud of my del.icio.us bookmarks. Aesthetic geekery anyone?

• Corporate Policies on Web 2.0
  One of the barriers commonly cited during my presentations around eLearning 2.0 (use of Web 2.0 / social media for work and learning) is that organizations often have not established their policies or guidelines around the use of these tools. Unfortunatel
  (tags: blogging enterprise2.0 web2.0)
• Anecdote - Whitepapers - Three journeys: A narrative approach to successful organisational change
  This paper describes the approach we take with clients to successfully foster change in their organisations. It is based on our deep knowledge of both complexity and narratives, and it reflects our holistic approach in working at both systemic and persona
  (tags: management business storytelling)

• OpenKM Document Management System | Open Source DMS - Home
  OpenKM is an multiplatform application for document management based on open technology (JBoss + GWT + Jackrabbit). Thanks to its elegant and intuitive interface, OpenKM transforms complex operations into easy tasks. It allows the storage, classification
  (tags: km document repository)
• YouTube - Software as a Service overview
  A new InfoClipz provided by www.infoworld.com. Infomation Technology explained in 3 minutes or less!
  (tags: saas video)
• 47+ Excellent Ajax CSS Forms
  (tags: css webdesign)

I blogged about Google Notes and Zotero before, and I liked both of them. But, if you really need a note taking tool which can pan across web-desktop- mobile; which comes with a very usable desktop (PC / Mac) version as well as web based version - you need Evernote.

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere.

On the web. On your desktop. On your phone.
Everything you put into Evernote is always synchronized across all of your devices. That way, all your memories are available to you wherever you are.

It comes with a powerful Web Clipper, a Desktop Clipper, a great Desktop tool with a nifty editor. It synchronize with the web based note automagically! Desktop Evernote indexes itself - makes searching really easy. Also I was most impressed by the fact - it stopped indexing when my laptop was running in battery (small things matter)! Tagging is easy. Display of the web clips, specially images are good (one up against Google Notes).

Top of that a screen capture tool comes along Evernote desktop, which is very handy to quick snap any app and paste it in your note.

The browser clipper and the web version is very usable, specially the thumbnail display of the notes. Sharing the notes via email or publishing is neat too!

Yet to try out the mobile options, but already I am impressed!

Here goes an overview video of Evernote:

BTW : Evernote is still in private beta. But I have few invitations left. if you want one - drop a comment here.

Stanford University’s Human-Computer Interaction Seminar, is now available at iTunes U consisting of no less than 36 lectures by people such as Bill Moggridge, Bill Buxton, Elizabeth Churchill, Paul Dourish and Donald Norman.

A great resource for folks interested in HCI and usability field.

More on iTunes U

Jonathan Harris’s & Sep Kamvar’s most recent visualization project "I want you to want me", explores the search for love and self in the world of online dating. Created for the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at MoMA.

I Want You To Want Me chronicles the world’s long-term relationship with romance, across all ages, genders, and sexualities, gathering new data from a variety of online dating sites every few hours.  The system searches these sites for certain phrases, which it then collects and stores in a database.  These phrases, taken out of context, provide partial glimpses into people’s private lives.  Simultaneously, the system forms an evolving zeitgeist of dating, tracking the most popular first dates, turn-ons, desires, self-descriptions and interests.

The data is presented as an interactive installation, displayed on a 56” high-resolution touch screen, hung vertically on a wall in a dark room.  On screen is an interactive sky, whose weather (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, etc.) can be controlled by the viewer.  Through the sky float hundreds of blue (male) and pink (female) balloons, each representing a single dating profile.  The brighter balloons are younger people; the darker balloons older.  Trapped inside each balloon is one of over 500 video silhouettes, showing a solitary person, engaged in any number of activities (yoga, jumping jacks, nose-picking, air guitar, etc.).  The viewer can touch any balloon to select it, causing its photo to dangle from a string and its sentence to appear in a thought bubble overhead.  Touching any balloon a second time pops it.  The balloons move through the sky along different paths and at different speeds, bumping up against each other, sometimes traveling together for a time, but only ever getting so close, as each silhouette is ultimately confined to its own balloon.