Thinking about Mashups

Yes, very interesting. I liked the Chicago one because I am familiar with the neighborhoods. It was interesting to "poke around" and see what is going on. And I liked the Jackie Chan movie one that was mentioned in the comments. It was just fun to goof around with that! I really like all of this because there is so much POTENTIAL--people can use their talents and it seems to me that elitism is being removed more and more. I also am still loving the cooperative spirit. Like our playground. I think it is great that people can share information with each other and make contributions and that we also learn about being respectful of other points of view and other posts, etc. It is cool.
Of course there will be an explosion of experimentation. But that is okay! People will whittle down what actually works for them.
My favorite mash up (so far) is still "Spell with Flickr."
I have been racking my brain since week #10 about a neat mash up application for libraries. I haven't come up with anything solid. But in light of the cool things that Infosoup does for our public and how participatory Infosoup is, I am always trying to think of ways for patrons to have more ownership of their libraries. I was thinking, really big, about the arduous task that the Caldecott and Newbery committees face when choosing winners. I think it would be so wonderful if there was some way, electronically, for children to root for their favorite contenders for those awards. And maybe there is already something like this in place--how would I know? But it just seems to me that this would be a perfect example of sharing the enjoyment of making these decisions with the audience that actually embraces the books. And using the power & rapidity of technology to make it happen!