MeAggregatorTM is a JISC funded
project to design, implement and evaluate a software solution allowing
the user to gain and keep better control of their data, their tools
('technologies' - 3rd party services offered by eg. MySpace, Facebook etc
and by educational institutions eg Blackboard, Moodle) and their digital
identity.
It is an Open Source project,
and (slightly) more can be found out about it over at it's Google
group, where design, philosophy and project management all get
discussed.
MeAggregatorTM should have multiple benefits for the user, even when used
as a stand-alone tool.
It serves as a
bookmarking tool, which also allows the user to keep track of the sources
of the information (useful academically for making sure things are
cited properly) and format the way the information is presented using
customisable filters.
It also embodies a
form of calendaring functionality and address book, which allow the user
to organise their lives better. Because MeAggregatorTM is fundamentally about linking to other technologies, the
calendar functions will also be shareable with existing systems.
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MeAggregatorTM is designed to be modular - the idea is that the user will
be able to build filters to allow it to connect to new 3rd party services
and share them with the community.
Used in a
connected context, MeAggregatorTM really starts to give the user more benefits.
Distributed search, using the ratings and tags given to items by your
peers. Being able to guage similarity of another user's opinions
and interests, and assign trust levels in their opinions on particular
topics. Fine grained permissions levels mean you can choose to
share your calendar with a few friends, but even then keep elements of it
private. Organise your resources and your friends by tagging them -
a group or a folder can then be manipulated as easily as if it were an
individual or an single file.
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The
underlying technology is what we are currently dubbing a FFS - a Folksonomical File System. The classic
hierarchical systems of filing do not necessarily fit in well with the
way our minds work. Folksonomies work with the 'Wisdom of the Crowd',
but in this case your own filing system just lets you work with your
filing structure (which is extended to include all those things which you
access on the internet, for example, and, intriguingly, your friends!) in
the same way that a social bookmarking site lets you work - by tagging
things with words which provide a summary - to you - of the content of the file.
And, of course, the file contents need not be words
themselves. It can be music, text, pictures or anything which can
be represented on the computer. Or, rather, which can have a URI
assigned to it. Because at the end of the day, we deal with the
pointer which uniquely defines what 'data' we are talking about, rather
than the data itself. This saves having to digitise people!
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