LincolnFreak: Week 8, Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards: I Love Lulu

Now scrolling: The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Week 8, Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards: I Love Lulu

The Web 2.0 award winners are impressive. I checked into the short list and noticed several websites we've already used -- Technorati, Blogsline, Flickr, LibraryThing, Google Docs. I explored 2 sites: The Broth, a collaborative, creative visual arts site, and Lulu, a self-publisher. Both sites offer free registration.

On The Broth, you can establish a room, move mosaic tiles and brush strokes around, and look at the artwork others have exhibited in the gallery. You have the option of posting your work so that anyone in the world can add to your canvas, kind of like a visual wiki. On the homepage, they tally the number of tiles moved and brush strokes used so far. It is in the millions. I haven't registered with The Broth, but I did register with Lulu.

I love Lulu. It is a virtual book publisher for both adults and children. You can submit a book manuscript online, choose a binding for it and a price, and summarize it for others to purchase. If it is ordered, you can have it printed out and sold. No overage. No waste. Lulu also publishes calendars, music, information in all formats. So if you have written a novel and Random House has rejected it, go see Lulu. She just might have another answer for you.

If Lulu were available in a library setting, it could serve the purpose of providing online zines or privately published material to patrons. It could also be used by Collection Development as an alternative source for ordering titles not otherwise available from major publishers.

1 comment:

Jackie said...: Hi LincolnFreak -
The Espresso Book Machine, a print on demand machine, is currently being demonstrated at a NYPL branch; here is a NYT article about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/nyregion/02books.html?_r=1&oref=slogin; August 3, 2007 at 4:54 PM