Ted Ritzer: Interpretation Web Links

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 20:03:58 GMT

EVALUATING THE SUCCESS OF YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAM: [IC Table of Contents]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 20:01:51 GMT

Interpretation Canada's Awards of Excellence in Interpretation [IC Table of Contents]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 19:27:02 GMT

IAA National Conference [Interpretation Australia Association]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 18:31:03 GMT

Electronic Field Trips - Online Educational Programs [Yellowstone National Park's Official Page for Kids & Teachers]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 18:21:38 GMT

2002 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Launch Kit [IUCN Species Survival Commission]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 18:20:45 GMT

Ecological Systems of the United States [NatureServe Homepage: A Network Connecting Science with Conservation]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 18:18:22 GMT

State of Washington Publishes Natural Heritage Plan [NatureServe Homepage: A Network Connecting Science with Conservation]

Sat, 19 Jul 2003 18:05:11 GMT

Use a Better Browser (2003.07.19 11:01) [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Real-World Hyperlinks

Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:45:17 GMT

Real-World Hyperlinks
This idea is not mainstream yet, but the ability to link hardcopy or billboards to the online world is an incredibly innovative idea. One result could be you are walking by a billboard that catches your interest and you want more info, and to such down the URL you just press one button on your PalmPilot! RIGHT ON!

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 04:38:29 GMT

U.S./Canadian Parks. U.S./Canadian Parks [Recently approved feeds from Syndic8.com]

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 06:39:17 GMT

ARKive

from their website:

" What is ARKive?

ARKive is a not-for-profit initiative of The Wildscreen Trust (www.wildscreen.org.uk).

It is the Noah's Ark for the Internet era - the world's centralised digital library of films, photographs and associated recordings of species, accessible to all via the world wide web.

ARKive is leading the virtual conservation effort - finding, sorting, cataloguing and copying the key records of species, and building them into a comprehensive and enduring audio-visual record.

For each species, we are selecting and digitising an average of 10 minutes of moving footage, 6 - 10 stills and sound recordings (where appropriate), to compile a complete profile of the species' characteristic behaviour and appearance."

http://www.arkive.org/info.html

Thu, 26 Jun 2003 12:41:44 GMT

QuickTopic Goes Pro. QuickTopic -- who provide our message boards gratis -- has launched a premium service with lots of great bells and whistles (and a reasonable pricetag). Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 05:10:17 GMT

TouchGraph's Google Browser a Hoot!

The whole six degrees of separation thing for the web! Check out ToughGraph's Google Browser to see who is linked to who on the net!

http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html

Sun, 15 Jun 2003 02:46:01 GMT

Whales face new bloodbath if Japan wins hunting vote. Hunted to the brink of extinction, their relentless slaughter became the first great symbol of the overexploitation of the earth's resources. Now, for the first time since commercial whaling was banned almost two decades ago, the recovery of the species ... [news.google.com / Scitech]

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 01:29:01 GMT

Mark Meyer Photography

I really enjoyed visiting Mark's web site for a number of reasons. He has incredible photography. But he has a really interesting background as well. He started off as a professional pianist. From there moved into photograpy, and along the way did at least one volunteer stint at one of America's most loved national parks, Olympic National Park.

So with all that said, I put Mark's URL in a number of my categories, so here goes with the URL! Enjoy!

http://www.photo-mark.com/

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:55:29 GMT

Cool Disc Analysis Tool.

Cool Disc Analysis Tool

I haven't had the time to look at this personally but Chris Pirillo im'd me last night about it and say "best ever" so I think it must be good.

[The FuzzyBlog!]

Sat, 31 May 2003 17:10:29 GMT

Journey to the North Pole.

I've just watched an online slideshow of a trip to the North Pole by Andrew Revkin of the New York Times. I think it is a great use of the web - it really gives you a much stronger feel for what Revkin experienced by use of sound and pictures rather than the one-dimensional text. (Not that text can't be good, but for conveying the feel of something, pictures and sounds can be better.)

Watch it at:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/science/20030513_NORTH/index.html

[David Harris' Science and Literature]

High Tech Meets Bushman

Wed, 21 May 2003 04:00:59 GMT

I posted a fascinating story with links about how a researcher in southern Africa has managed to equip Bushman with high technology that may revolutionize biodiversity monitoring. And at the same time invented a new category of software called "Greenware", and set up a global not-for-profit conservation organization in the process.

If this appeals to you, check out the story on this topic at:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001455/stories/2003/05/20/cybertracker.html

5 Permanent Nature Interpreter Positions May 30, 2003 Application Deadline

Fri, 16 May 2003 01:11:46 GMT

5 Permanent Nature Interpreter Positions

I have attached the URL for the job ads for 5 permanent Interpreter
positions, on our web site at:

http://www.cd.gov.ab.ca/involved/parks/jobs/index.asp

Please pass on this URL to any and all you feel would be interested in these permanent positions.

thanks very much

Ted Ritzer

Thu, 15 May 2003 02:54:41 GMT

Frontiers: Geography of Change. At the start of the 20th century, 10 percent of the earth's population lived in cities. By the end of this decade, 50 percent will be urban dwellers. Wired magazine presents a visual guide to the geography of transformation. [Wired News]

Tue, 13 May 2003 00:37:33 GMT

An interesting cross-border use of Groove I just found out about: The International Crane Foundation - headquartered in Wisconsin - uses Groove to help a multi-national team address threats to key wetlands used by Siberian Cranes during breeding, wintering and migration. During the past three years, the ICF has worked intensively with the United Nations Environment Program and colleagues in Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Iran on this project, which addresses threats to key wetlands used by this crane species (the third rarest) during breeding and migration through these parts of the world. [Ray Ozzie's Weblog]

Bless Good Design re RadioUserland

Mon, 12 May 2003 23:24:59 GMT

As I desribed in a previous post, my poor computer suffered from one too many MS security updates. The last one resulted in an unbootable doorstop for a computer.

So after a couple of weeks on downtime, I added a second hard drive, installed the operating system again on it, then made the old drive a slave. All with the hope that I could simply copy the RadioUserland program directory from the old drive, to the new one.

Well, so far it seems to be working perfectly , with no orphaned links, etc

so this will be my second post via the rescued Userland app and database.

Whew!!!! So far so good, re copying to the new drive, and loading the app.

Good job Radio Userland!!!!!!!!

Mon, 12 May 2003 23:16:34 GMT

I'm Back

after suffering from a MS security update that wrecked havoc with my computer, making it a glorified doorstop. Than one conference to prepare for and then a training workshop. I have finally, after installing a second hard drive, been able to resurrect my computer and my blog.

I hope, here goes with my first post in 2 wks or more.

West Nile Info via David Fletcher's Site

Fri, 18 Apr 2003 17:48:22 GMT

West Nile Government Info

It was interesting to see this article posted at David's site, as there are recent news reports of West Nile Virus likely moving west through Canada to the prairies this summer.

The West Nile Virus is expected to spread into Utah this summer, so it now has its own website with a growing volume of information and a dedicated West Nile Virus manager in the Department of Health. I've already learned a few things from the site. The Department of Natural Resources has put together this excellent presentation on Utah birds and the virus. The CDC reports that 138 bird species have died from West Nile. Tennessee has a map of all the positive bird cases throughout the state. Ted Ritzer shares some great information on the top birding sites, some of which are government-sponsored.

Right now, if you look at the map, Utah is still one of only four mainland states without a reported case of West Nile. Pennsylvania has an excellent West Nile surveillance system and you can have any updates sent to your email box. Dead birds are already showing up in Lehigh County. The National Atlas has an entire series of West Nile maps, including this flash version for New York City that lets you mouse over to see cases for humans, horses, chickens, and wild birds.

Illinois has an excellent online brochure for protecting your home against mosquitoes.

Although there continues to be some speculation about whether West Nile was introduced accidentally or intentionally into the US, the CDC sees no evidence of bioterrorism.

West Nile as a study case for risk communication response - Center for Risk Communication

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:02:09 GMT

After a Long Climb, Cyberchat on Everest. Members of an Everest climbing expedition must pay $2,500 to use four laptops and an Internet connection during their stay at base camp. By Nancy Gohring. [New York Times: Technology]

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 11:48:24 GMT

XPLANA.COM:Exploring how we can learn and teach with technology. New web site via Sarah at alterego. Yes, they have RSS files. [Serious Instructional Technology]

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 11:33:11 GMT

Utah State Library Is Building an "RSS Turnkey System!".

Utah eDG Meeting on RSS News Feeds

"Ray Matthews from the Utah State Library Division will lead a discussion and show 'n' tell on RSS issues and implementations for State Government. Kerry Huntington, Steve Stalter, and others from the ITS development team will demo a wizard-driven RSS turnkey system under development that agencies will be able to use for creating, finding, and consuming news feeds. All interested Utah state and local government agencies are welcome to attend this open meeting. If you cannot come, please see the eDG Meeting site for information on how to participate in the live Web Cast or view the Powerpoint presentation. The meeting will take place in State Office Building Rm. B110." [RSS in Government]

Ray alluded to the turnkey system the Utah State Library has been developing, but we didn't have much of a chance to discuss it. I can't wait to hear more about this!

In other RSS news, Michael Fagan has put together an Explanation of RSS, How You Can Use It, and Finding RSS Feeds. Very informative with lots of resources listed.

"This page is about using RSS, from a non-technical standpoint..... Before you go any further, realize this: RSS is really simple. Just because it is an acronym doesn’t mean that it’s complicated. Don’t get scared away, there’s really nothing to it.....

For anyone that reads a half dozen or more pages that have RSS feeds, an aggregator is a necessity. RSS aggregators are set up to periodically check for new items in the feeds you are subscibed to, often an hour or half hour. In other words, the news comes to you, rather than you having to go to the news. This saves a tremendous ammount of time. Or conversely, you can read many more feeds in the same ammont of time. Many people read several hundred feeds. That just wouldn’t be feasable without an RSS aggregator. Additionally, you avoid all the non-new information on a web page, including the ads, menus, etc."

[The Shifted Librarian]

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 11:29:16 GMT

Information Literacy and RSS.

RSS in the Classroom

"Ryan raises some really interesting ideas about the uses of RSS and trackback and how they might work in the classroom. The ultimate here from a teaching standpoint would obviously be an aggregated page of student work that was somehow sortable by either student or assignment or, preferably, both. Even more, it would be great to be able to comment back to student sites via the aggregator (which I think is something that Radio can do but not Manila(?)).

Even more, however, is the use of the aggregator by students to follow each other's work. I alluded to this before when I was thinking about putting my students into smaller working groups, a plan I'm going to implement this week. The desired effect is to get students to learn from the process of others by tuning in more closely, and to give feedback in the collaborative group style. Not that they can't just click through to the three or four sites in their group, but I'd like them to see how easy this new concept of information gathering is. I see them subscribed to the class homepage, 3/4 feeds of their workgroup, the NY Times and BBC newsfeeds, and a couple of feeds of sites that correspond to their beats. First stop every day will be the aggregator...." [weblogged News]

It's great to see the light bulbs going on all over the place, especially in the sphere of education. Wouldn't it be great if blogging and RSS became one piece of an evolving foundation (predicated on libraries) that teaches kids true information literacy?

[The Shifted Librarian]

Heritage Communicator/Interpreter Training Bulletin, April, 2003

Sat, 12 Apr 2003 16:16:33 GMT

Heritage Interpreter/Communicator Training Bulletin April, 2003

If you are an Interpreter or Heritage Communicator, you will likely be interested in the newsletter that Ross Dobson, of Parks Canada, publishes. For a copy of that newsletter, go to the following link.

http://blogs.salon.com/0001455/stories/2003/04/12/heritageInterpreterscommunicatorsTrainingBulletinIssue43April112003.html

Low Cost AGMs-Electronic Meeting Software

Tue, 08 Apr 2003 03:30:04 GMT

Low Cost AGMs-Electronic Meeting Software

This article was my attempt at providing a backgrounder on how to save money by not travelling for AGMs by using the Internet to facilitate electronic meetings. Check the article out at:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001455/stories/2003/04/07/lowCostVirtualAgms.html

Virtual Parks & Panoramas

Sat, 05 Apr 2003 15:56:57 GMT

Virtual Parks: The idea of this story is to simply list some of the best sites on the Internet that feature Virtual Field Trips to parks around the world.Additionally for those people interested in digital photography, many of the sites have links and information on how to photograph panoramas.

http://blogs.salon.com/0001455/stories/2003/04/04/virtualParksPanoramas.html

Sat, 05 Apr 2003 05:18:49 GMT

Epson Rio PhotoPC Player P-10.

New portable digital photo viewer from Seiko Epson. The Rio PhotoPC Player P-1000 comes with a 10GB hard drive, a 3.8" LCD screen, a slot for copying files from Compact Flash memory cards, and the ability to print photos directly to Epson printers.
Read [Thanks, Christopher and Robert]

[Gizmodo]

Environmental Education Organizations in Alberta

Sat, 05 Apr 2003 04:35:40 GMT

Environmental Education Organizations in Alberta

I have posted a list of Environmental Education organizations in Alberta at:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001455/stories/2003/04/01/albertaEeList.html

Environmental Education Organizations in Alberta, Canada

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 15:08:47 GMT

Environmental Education Organizations in Alberta, Canada

Another good source from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is their list of environmental education orgnanizations that are found in Alberta, Canada.

The folllowing link will take you to the page that lists those EE organizations.

http://www.cpawscalgary.org/education/network-environmental-education/organizations.html

Major Expansion to Canadian National Parks Announced

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 14:36:55 GMT

Major Expansion to Canadian National Parks Announced March 24, 2003

For the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Soceity web site:

http://www.cpaws.org/news/national-parks-2003-0324.html

March 24, 2003 Heritage Minister, Sheila Copps’ announcement of an additional $144 million dollars over the next five years to implement the Action Plan for Canada’s National Parks and National Marine Conservation Areas
This funding is added to a commitment of $74 million announced in the federal budget in February, 2003.
The Minister also announced an ongoing increase in funding of $54 million per year to provide long-term support after the five year plan is complete.
As a result, Canada will be increasing the size of our treasured national park system by close to 50%
In October, 2002, the Prime Minister and Heritage Minister, Sheila Copps announced a plan to create 10 new national parks, five new national marine conservation areas, three park expansions, as well as to restore and protect the ecological integrity of our existing parks.

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 22:27:53 GMT

Look at this great article I pulled from David Fletcher's weblog, check David's blog out at:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0110120/

Thursday, March 27, 2003

National Environmental Information Exchange Network

The National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN) is one of the more ambitious national XML projects. The project is funded by a $25 million grant through EPA and involves 44 states. States are already making progress towards achieving some of the benefits described in the NEIEN blueprint:

A common approach to environmental information exchange that is manageable by an agency as an agency, and not a collection of stovepiped systems, loyalties and approaches.
A transition from traditional information exchange approaches, which are rife with management and data quality problems, to a data-centric approach focused on data and data quality.
Enhanced potential for data integration.
Lower cost to exchange data.
More agency control over its own data, especially in light of public and legislative trends driving all public data onto the Internet.

Each NEIEN member is defined by their "network node." The node is a single point for delivery and receipt of information and contains a catalog of information and metadata available from that particular member (usually defined as a state). The node may contain data relevant to things such as air quality, water quality, leaking underground storage tanks, or hazardous waste. The data flows through EPA's Central Data Exchange (CDX). NEIEN activities are also coordinated through the Environmental Council of the States.

The typical architecture for a network node includes a SOAP listener, SOAP processor, Object Handler, Data Mapper, XML processor, and data connectivity components. According to the state of Maine, the State’s best “bang for the buck” from the benefits of electronic commerce technologies such as XML, Web services, and Enterprise Application Integration depends on the technologies being implemented once centrally and thereafter used by all agencies. Maine is interested in leveraging the NEIEN architecture and experience to develop and enterprise XML solution.

NEIEN Glossary

Fotonotes a Gotta Try!

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 01:11:34 GMT

Fotonotes a Gotta Try!

http://www.fotonotes.net/index.php?action=home

The idea of embedding stories into a JPEG image is a wonderful idea! Well worth your time checking it out.

One of the author's blog is at:

http://gregelin.com:8668/duhblog/space/start

While the official Fotonotes blog is at:

http://www.fotonotes.net/blog/

Dan Gillmor has mentioned it at:

http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000891.shtml#000891

While Doc Searls has mentioned it at:

http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/03/25#embeddedInScottsdale

if you go to Fotonote site and search for Switzer, Pierre Grays or Willemore Wilderness Park, you may be able to view some photos I realeased for your viewing pleasure!

Winged Messengers: The Decline of Birds-Worldwatch Paper 165

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 04:44:00 GMT

Worldwatch Paper 165:
Winged Messengers: The Decline of Birds

http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/paper/165/

Available from the Worldwatch Institute:

The description from the above web site is as follows:

"Washington, D.C.—Bird populations around the world are plummeting faster than ever before, and human factors—from population growth to habitat destruction and climate change—are at the center of this demise, reports a new study from the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. Human-related factors are threatening 99 percent of the most imperiled bird species and contributing to what has become the greatest wave of extinctions since dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago, according to Howard Youth in Winged Messengers: The Decline of Birds.

“Declining bird populations mark not only the loss of unique species," says Youth, "but also the unraveling of delicate natural balances. Birds are valuable environmental indicators because they warn us of impending problems through their waning or flourishing populations.”

With twelve percent of the world’s bird population—almost 1,200 species—facing extinction in the next century, Winged Messengers outlines an array of phenomena that is accelerating this demise."

Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:30:22 GMT

Build Your Own Satellite Ground Station. kavachameleon writes "A site called Hobby Space has this article at which there are instructions on how you can build your own satellite weather station! ... [Slashdot]

US Schoolnet Inquiry

Sat, 15 Mar 2003 14:57:35 GMT

US Schoolnet Inquiry

CNET ran an article describing an investigation into the US Schoolnet program that funds schools and libraries for Internet access. Accusations about fraud, abuse and waste to the tune of $200 million dollars have been made.

This issue's resolution will have major implications for online learning in general in the US

http://news.com.com/2100-1028-992522.html?part=dtx&;tag=nhl

Mon, 10 Mar 2003 03:30:01 GMT

Can Science Journalism Be Entertaining and Responsible?. GRW writes "This past week, I attended a panel discussion sponsored by the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, entitled "Can ... [Slashdot]

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 23:02:51 GMT

PICA systems added to LibraryLookup. Thanks to Edlef Stabenau for identifying the LibaryLookup pattern for PICA systems. "PICA is a library system which is leading in Germany and in the Netherlands," he writes. Based on his example, for the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, I've added a seventh option to the LibaryLookup generator. ... [Jon's Radio]

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 22:54:33 GMT

Dinosaur-Killer" Asteroid Crater Imaged for First Time. A high-resolution map from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), released yesterday, has provided the most telling visible evidence to date of a 112-mile (180-kilometer) wide, 3000-foot (900-meter) deep impact crater, the result ... [news.google.com / Scitech]

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 22:23:17 GMT

World Heritage Review. World Heritage Review [Recently approved feeds from Syndic8.com]

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 03:29:28 GMT

Blue Planet: No rest for the ANWRy. Both sides of the debate over oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have become so deeply entrenched they are unlikely to be swayed much by a new report on the issue, even from the highly respected ... [news.google.com / Scitech]

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 00:29:32 GMT

Dinosaur-Killer" Asteroid Crater Imaged for First Time. National Geographic - A high-resolution map from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), released yesterday, has provided the most telling visible evidence to date of a 112-mile (180-kilometer) wide, 3000-foot (900-meter) deep impact crater, the result ...
Image Shows Crater That Killed Dinos Salt Lake Tribune
Radar reveals traces of killer crater MSNBC
AScribe - ScienceBlog.com - Modesto Bee - Townsville Bulletin - and 23 related » [Google Technology News]

Mac Users A Trully New Application For You

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 19:47:59 GMT

Mac Users A Trully New Application For You

A Seattle Times review of NoteTaker confirms that the president of the company is the same Scott Love who worked at Living Videotext. Scott understood outliners in ways that no one else did at the time, and I bet he still does. Very smart guy, doesn't cut corners. I'm sure it's a great product, worth buying a Mac to run. And it's nice to see that it supports OPML and can exchange outlines with Radio. Excellent. [Scripting News]

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 16:30:37 GMT

Mail Mailer - Web-server based email mailer designed for small-business.. Send newsletters to clients, contact staff, send one email or many. Requires a web browser, a web server that supports the PHP scripting language. [New Entries at Datamation Product Watch]

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 15:06:02 GMT

Online Newspaper Shakes Up Korean Politics. OhmyNews, a South Korean Internet news service, played an important role in the victory of Roh Moo Hyun in December. By Howard W. French. [New York Times: Technology]

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 01:38:55 GMT

Lindon Parker sends a pointer to James Farmer's new education weblog, which reminds of Jenny the Librarian; and Farmer points to Anne Davis who in turn reports on what her students think of weblogs. "Every once in a while you have those teaching days when you know that this is why you teach," says Ms Davis. To which I say, this is one of those days when you know why you write software. [Scripting News]