KML News Blast

BlogPulse & Technorati

What's hot news in the blogosphere? Get a clue by using BlogPulse. This site is provided by Neilsen, a company selling consumer and brand monitoring tools. But BlogPulse is free. You may already be familiar with Technorati, another free source for tracking what's happening in the blogosphere. Technorati "looks at linking and attention patterns of posts, who wrote them, who's linking to them, the rate of their popularity growth and many other factors.... to determine what’s hot now and what’s gaining in attention — effectively the pulse of the blogopshere." Technorati also tracks top news stories from the media, so on the Technorati home page, you can find "Rising blog posts by attention" and "Rising news stories by attention," search the blogosphere, or examine Blogger Central for rising links and top tags of the day.

In BlogPulse, you can track your own interests in the blog universe. What's getting more attention -- Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter? Click on the Trend Search in BlogPulse, enter the three contenders, set a time period, and get a graph indicating the amount of buzz for each in a graph.

Or use the Featured Trends button in BlogPulse to browse for trends in news, sports, business, political events, science & technology, health, personal, and "bizarre stuff." Which of the 7 deadly sins are getting more attention in blogs? The answer is a click away in the "bizarre stuff" section of Featured Trends, where a graph indicates that Pride and Anger are getting more buzz than Envy or Gluttony.

Technorati identifies the top 5 blogs in Blogger Central and the amount of traffic at each. I can take those blog names over to BlogPulse to compare their traffic in a graph using Trend Search. Fortunately, the two sites agree in the rank order of the the blogs when I compare Engadget, Boing Boing and TechCrunch in a trend search at BlogPulse.

Second Life

Visit us in the 3-d virtual world Second Life! The Karl E. Mundt Library at DSU, in collaboration with the Kolligian Library of the University of California, Merced, has created a space where students, faculty and staff may meet virtually for meetings or class activities (such as giving presentations or creating objects using the building tools) -- or may just hang out. Second Life is a 3-d virtual world created by its users and where businesses, universities, organizations, government agencies, and individuals offer products, services, educational opportunities, cultural events, and social opportunities. It is a global community where you can meet people from around the world. You must be 18 years old to enter Second Life.

To visit us in Second Life, download the Second Life software at www.secondlife.com and register for FREE to create an avatar (a 3-d representation of yourself). If you are on campus and get a graphics card error on your tablet, you will need to use a lab computer instead (for example, KC 123).

To find DSU & UCM Learning Commons when in Second Life, use the Search feature to search for "dsu" or "dakota." Highlight our name and click "teleport" to arrive at the Commons. Or use this slurl in your web browser; it will take you to a browser window where you can click "teleport" to be taken directly to our location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/132/212/24/?title=DSU%20%26%20UCM%20Learning%20Commons You will only be able to get into SL if you have registered for an avatar.

Contact Rise Smith (Arelle Finesmith in SL) for a tour or to reserve space for a meeting, class or project. The Commons property currently consists of a variety of areas:

…..an open-floor-plan building

…..the open classroom under the apple tree

…..a walled outdoor area intended to provide some privacy for building practice, class presentations, etc.

…..the sky garden – in the sky above the commons

…..the sky platform – in the sky above the commons

We look forward to seeing you!