Thing 40: Mashup the Web

I took a look at Time Tube, Wheel of Lunch, & CrimeReports for this Thing, and really enjoyed exploring the first 2. They were fun and a very interesting and new way to look at videos of a given topic and area restaturants, respectively. I have the feeling I'll be going back to those 2 mashups over and over again. On the other hand, CrimeReports did not pull up ANY crimes for the last month in Rochester, MN, nor in Minneapolis - not even for moving violations. And for some reason, I don't quite believe that! I have the feeling that the database they pull from for the crimes is not longer available or changed in a way that the information isn't available. Which is a shame.

I was very hopeful for CrimeReporter to work, since I can see this being the most useful for use in the library of the mashups listed. The main purpose I'd see is for real estate research or similar studies. Helpful to househunters and the like.

I had fun playing with some of the mashup tools that were provided as well. I particularly liked the Phreetings, and can see library staff using it to send thank you emails to volunteers, program presenters, etc.

One of my favorite mashups that isn't listed it LOLWRUS. It allows you to search for friends Twitter feeds and once you pick 1 of their Tweets, it pulls up 6 random images from Flickr (usually with a cat in it!) that you can pair with the Tweet. Oh, and of course, it automatically "translates" their post into LOL-speak. Here's one I created this morning: