Google Maps EZ is a free resource for embedding a Google map on a web page without writing any Javascript or learning Google’s map API. It uses standard HTML syntax with a few special keywords in a way that allows search engines to index the map contents. I tried it out to make this custom map for visitors to UMBC. Please suggest some other places to put on the map. I can attest to it being easy. And fun.

I’ve been thinking of how we could use Flickr to publish our photos in a useful and interesting way. The ebiquity web site has, of course, it’s own facility, for uploading, storing and annotating photos (thanks Filip). But there are some advantages to using Flickr. Flickr is very popular so using it might increase our visibility and allow us to connect to more people. For example, searching Technorati for blog posts tagged with ‘pervasive computing’ shows the most recent public Flickr photos with that tag (if there were any!). Flickr also has some useful features like tags, notes, comments, groups, easy interface, etc. and is likely to continue to add innovations as the Web evolves.

Our Ebiquity photo site has some interesting, research oriented features like being able to add arbitrary annotations that are rendered and published as RDF. And, of course, we have complete control over it, allowing us to implement and experiment with new ideas for tagging, semantic web annotations, etc. It’s a valuable testbed, one that most people and groups don’t have.

So, can we have the best of both?

One idea is to use EBWEB as the primary source for our photos, but to add code to automatically upload new photos to the ebqiuity Flickr site. The code would also add appropriate titles, tags and comments and include in the comments a link to the OWL metadata. Flickr limits the HTML one can put in comments, so we can’t do anything fancy like embed rdf or use microformats.

But, maybe there are other ways we can use Flickr. If any ebsters (ebites?, ebiquiters?) want to play around with the ebiquity Flickr site, let me know and I’ll email you the site username and password.

We’ve upgraded EBB to WordPress 1.5.1.3. The posting interface is similar, but there are some changes. If you encounter any problems, email finin@umbc.edu. We’ve added text ads in an attempt to get rich. Or at least make enough money to keep the ebiquity lab’s coffee fund solvent. If anyone’s moral sense is greatly offended let me know. Coffee drinkers get two votes, btw.

Dr. Cynthia Sims Parr is joining the ebiquity lab to work on the Spire project. Dr. Parr is a Research Associate at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS ) an the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Parr received BS in biology from Cornell University and an MS and PhD from University of Michigan, where she studied social behavior and vocal communication in American crows. She studied molecular systematics and behavioral ecology of magpies during a postdoctoral fellowship at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. She served as the Content Development Director for the Animal Diversity Web project at the University of Michigan she uses web technology to help instructors at many institutions teach about animal ecology and evolution. At the University of Maryland she has worked on a number of projects using advanced computer technologies to support research and education in the Biological sciences.

Two of our AIX boxes were compromised this week, including the machine that runs most of Swoogle’s services. So, Swoogle and a few of our other research systems will be off line until sometime next week. We’re reorganizing our systems and putting more of them behind the campus firewall, leaving only the interfaces outside the firewall. This isn’t the first time we’ve had such incidents and it won’t be the last. I’m resigned that it will just be this way until the end of time — a constant struggle between the system builders and the crackers. It’s kind of depressing, and maybe that’s why humans tend to believe in an ultimate, apocalyptic day of reckoning — Armageddon, Ragnarok, Yawmid Din, Acharit Hayami — in which Good will finally triumph over Evil. I wonder what the Internet version of this would be like — I hope it’s not a darker version, like Night of the Living Dead. Anyway, look for Swoogle to be up next week.