Simplicity

The movement to ‘take back the web’ continues.  Now there are swickis.  People like you and me create these selective search engines which learn from their users.  You can find a whole bunch at the neat Swicki homepage,  which well deserves exploration.  And, of course, there is, as of today, a sample right here on Simplicity of some swickis useful in learning more about all matters Indonesian, nettish, and Friendsterish.  They’re on the right sidebar along with the searchrolls and listibles. 

Swickis return a broader set of search results than listibles or searchrolls — which have a more laser-like focus.  If swicki rhymes with wiki, it is no accident.  Each search done on one by any user has the potential to improve its performance for those who follow.  Searches modify swickis just as user entries modify wikis.  The key to achieving optimal outcomes in a swicki is using searchwords especially pertinent to each swicki’s subject of inquiry. 

I set up one called Indonesian-Studies.  As the originating ‘moderator,’ when I sign in to the Swicki beta site, I see more than you do.  (You don’t need to sign in unless you want to make your own swicki.)  If I see that ‘my’ swicki  is getting some serious use, I can tweak the configuration to make it perform better.  So, please give at least this one a try. 

Right now there are over a dozen other swickis in the right sidebar.  I have to admit that those I played around with most — MalaysiaNet, Cambodia, Humor, Immigration, and Webmasters Tool Search — proved very adequate in finding what I wanted.  Their ‘moderators’ must give them lots of tender, loving care.  Oops, sorry, as net vets you all know what TLC is. 

Remember the bad old days of the net when the Great Search Engines and Great Directories were the two main ways of finding things in cyberspace?  Well, those surviving are still great, but many users wanted simpler alternatives.  Now, in the days of the participatory web, users are increasingly taking search into their own hands.

To Rollyo’s  searchrolls (user-built targeted mini search engines) we can now add a site like Listible! (user-built targeted mini directories).  Rollyo is further along and more trafficked at the moment than Listible!, but both are well up there in the rankings (as are other sites doing much the same things). Rollyo covers an ever broader range of subjects, while Listible! is still in the stage where it is focused on useful net and practical stuff.   Still, Listible! has already produced some prime entries for knowledge workers.  Accordingly, I have cherry-picked a bunch and placed them in the renamed right sidebar here in Simplicity titled Searchrolls and Listibles. 

Try a few.  Listibles are very convenient in helping you make choices in enhancing your own net presence and projects.  You can play some of the new Nice Songs, too (right sidebar).  Hint: Hold your cursor over each song title so you can see the type of player required.  Windows Media Player and Real Player will let you listen to just about all the songs (all legal).

A big subject, indeed.  To show what two segments of it look like, what it covers and omits, and its varying styles and biases, I’ve created the US Newspapers  and  US Magazines  searchrolls.  Permanent links appear in the right sidebar, Searchrolls.  Each again has the maximum 25 sites currently permitted by the Rollyo software.

In selecting newspapers, I sought most of the major ones plus geographic diversity across the US.  American newspapers generally allow you to view much of their content online (though less than you might think, some hiding behind portals for the cities in which they principally circulate), and give a great deal of content away free.  One notable exception is The Wall Street Journal, which is mainly a paid subscription site also offering in the deal its European and Asian editions as well as the American one.  Apart from vitriolic conservative editorials and some op-ed page columns, though, it’s a very good buy for its main pages.  A few teaser stories and web-only content are offered online daily — those parts you can access through the US Newspapers searchroll.

American magazines comprise a somewhat different world, many focusing on investigative journalism, at least one in-depth story per issue, some specialization, and, in a few cases, an ideological agenda (I’ve included some self-proclaimed key liberal and conservative ones).  Generally, the magazines do not provide as great a proportion of their content online as do newspapers, though some make all major articles available to paid subscribers. 

These searchrolls yield good materials for contemporary American studies since Rollyo searchrolls allow easy access to saved past content on the web from their listed sources. 

They are less valuable (though far from worthless) for workers in the field of Southeast Asian studies.  Traditionally, American publishers and editors allocate few resources to the region.  When correspondents or stringers file from the field, often they have been asked to cover the same breaking story.  This makes for a certain monotony.  More diverse wire service reports often fill obvious news gaps. 

It is interesting that US broadcast media, when they deign to cover news in Southeast Asia, often draw their content from newsbites with ‘experts’ living in the US, a few stories in US print media, some from major wire services, and very little from the foreign  press.  Often well-informed resident correspondents here from the non-US press get relegated to a few talkshows and rarely appear in American print media.

I’ve created a new searchroll called Islamic World Press.  A permanent link may be found in the right sidebar under Searchrolls.  Using the maximum of 25 searchable sites permitted by Rollyo, I focused on those producing current news in English and emphasized sites originating in countries with Muslim majorities or large minorities.

Now this may be a bit of hubris, but I think you will indeed easily find current and past news from the entire Islamic world by using this searchroll.  Use mainly English searchwords.  Especially use variants like Islam, Islamic, Islami, Islamiyah, Muslim and Moslem, since newspaper stylebook usages differ greatly.  Names of countries and ethnic groups also seem to yield good search results.  Remember that you can find all results for any search term in a particular source by clicking the name of that source in the searchroll source section.

We already have the Indonesian Press searchroll, so I have included only one additional Indonesian site (Antara) in the new searchroll.  Yet Islamic World Press can be very useful for seeing how events in Indonesia are, or are not, being covered well or at all in the rest of the Islamic world. Any issue under public discussion in Indonesia (say, Islamic law or the caliphate) or Islamic organizations of international scope (say, OIC or Hizb ut Tahrir), can also be fruitfully searched in Islamic World Press.

I have included one widely used Palestinian news site and one Israeli site, the liberal daily, Haaretz.  Since there are many sites dedicated to terrorism everywhere which can comprise a future searchroll, I have not included any of those here.  Nonetheless, you can still fruitfully use search terms like terror, terrorist, and terrorism in this new searchroll.

I will continue to announce new searchrolls I (or any of you make) in indonesian-studies list but explanations of them will, from now on, appear only here in Simplicity blog.  So, please add this public blog to your bookmarks list or RSS feed.

Yahoo! (bless its techies’ hearts) has launched an improvement (ahem) of the Photos sections of all groups’ homepages.  Those of you who visit the indonesian-studies list homepage and have Yahoo! accounts know I add regularly to the Researchers on Indonesia photos  folder.  Recently, it (harumph) vanished for three weeks while Yahoo! techies did their overhaul. 

Finally, it can be accessed again.  Now it is called an album.  But no more photos can be added to it, even though the help section insists an unlimited number of photos may be placed in any one album (subject to the overall Photos space quota the limit of which we are not near approaching, thankfully).  So I finally appended #1 to this album of 461 photos and created Researchers on Indonesia #2.  The gods in the machine were benevolent.  #2 accepted new photos (amen).

The buzz in Yahoo! Groups moderators’ lists is that the new deal is not a big deal.  I agree.  It’s no Picasa or Flickr.  The ability to list all photos in an album has been zapped.  Instead, you must page through the whole album (hit ‘Next’) to find out who’s there.  There is a slideshow capability, but ‘Next’  works better.  It’s worth the extra clicks.  You can now click on nearly all photos to make them larger.  This is, of course, a disaster for people with facial blemishes (be forewarned).  Of course, if you’re interested in such matters, I guess this is a good thing.

The order of photos within each album has also been re-arranged.  Now the most recently uploaded photos appear first.  Good.  But the album cover always depicts the visage of the first photo ever uploaded to the album.  Not so good.  Unless I move him, Adrian Vickers always will be the cover photo on #1 (not that he isn’t sufficiently ganteng). 

So far, the one clear improvement I see (may it last) is that new photos (such as those in #2) are now reported quickly on the list homepage (before it took days).  You just click on New Photos in the homepage display, and you see thumbnails immediately.  That’s neat. 

This tinkering goes on quite frequently in Yahoo! Groups.  Fortunately, most of the time it’s not malevolent in outcome.  One recent innovation seriously slowed down the sending of mailed postings.  Another delayed their ever appearing for moderator approval (yes, I must approve my own postings, that’s the Yahoo! way).  Yet another delayed their appearance in the Messages display. 

But searching messages has gotten faster again.  Try it.  But it’s still not googlesque like it once was — only a fraction of all messages is searched for keyword at a time.  Once upon it a time all messages were searched instantly and results were promptly listed. 

Well, maybe it is too harsh to ganyang Yahoo! Groups.  It’s still free.  A blessing.  Maybe all the recent hustle and bustle is just related to Google Groups steady expansion.  If so, thank you, Google.  We forgive your recent realpolitik compromise with China’s net censors.

Beloved Friendster Knowledge Workers on Indonesia, it is time to take the next step.  It is time for you to contribute to Simplicity Blog.  Remember, this is not a personal blog.  It is not about me or for me.  It is a networking blog.  It is about building an informal community among us for mutual benefit.

My work here occurs mainly in the background — building the network, greeting new friends, occasionally posting to provoke, educate, or entertain you.  And, not least, creating and starting the sidebars which in the next step will be the growth area of Simplicity blog and our common effort.  For example, Nice Friends is meant to make it easier to find other knowledge workers you might like to add as friends.  Searchrolls is designed to help you do research and find things on the net.  Nice Songs brings a little relief. 

Therefore (sound of trumpets or gongs or drums or all three), I announce two job vacancies, open immediately, no pay, no glory or fame, just the joy of contributing and gratitude of friends.

Searchrollers (57 openings) - On any subject which interests you and yields some content on Indonesia.  Just go to the Rollyo site and try your hand at it.  It’s easy, even though you are doing a very sophisticated thing, namely, making a highly targeted search engine.  Sample subjects needed: Papua, Sulawesi, Jakarta Life, Economic Issues, Literature, Terrorism, the press of other Southeast Asian countries.  All for the Searchroll sidebar (and anywhere else you want to put them).

Songsters (85 openings) - Links to full-length songs and music publicly available on the net.  Find them with search engines like the Singing Fish site.  Or your favorite public domain music sites.
Even pick some from your own websites or blogs.  Sample genres: Indonesian songs and music, traditional or contemporary, peace and protest, hope and grief. 

Just send your searchroll/s or song/s and music URLs directly to johnmacdougall@comcast.net.