One of the advantages of being a "knowledge worker" is the fact that I can spend hours online evaluating web resources and tools.

Mostly, I rely on Bloglines to keep track of recent news, research and topical blogs that I enjoy reading. It's a great way to scan information sources without having to spend hours actually trying to search for stuff before deciding if it's relevant. With Bloglines I get regular feed from a variety of different online content providers. For me it combines both the benefits of targeted information along with the occasional serendipitous 'surprise' buried in some unexpected places!

Another monitoring tool that I use is Google Alert which is useful for tracking keywords and popping out the odd "bingo" result. Often, though, I find the links are duds. For some reason, Google Alerts seems to find random sources (as opposed to a comprehensive list) and these are not always the most freshest items on the 'Net. I guess that the fact it's a beta version should redeem it slightly!

Anyways, I found the following snippets this week that I thought were worth sharing, so here goes. Be warned though, that it's fairly eclectic mix!

First on my list is a recent article from the UK Guardian that warns of the dangers resulting from the fact that new Internet standards mean that all the world's languages can now finally be used on the world wide web. As a result, english language users may be misled into thinking that a domain perporting to be www.paypal.com (for example) actually contains script from another language (e.g. Cyrillic). As a result a "dummy" domain is created that looks and feels just like the legitimate website. Scary stuff!

Then there's the depressing article from Medical News Today, which examines statistics that reveal that the Czech Republic is recording an increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases. Not good news, but closely linked to the fact that the global AIDS pandemic continues to grow....

On a lighter note, I managed to track down some useful NGO resources in the Czech Republic, the first being the Czech Fundraising Center and the second an NGO called People in Need that supports human rights and democracy across the globe.

Then, last but not least, a White Paper on Content Management Problems and Open Source Solutions by Seth Gottlieb of Optaros, which offers a unique angle for the assessment of different types of open source CMS solutions. In his opinion, using a features matrix to compare various CMS options is not the best approach. He prefers using case studies as he considers these a more reliable source of practical information.

I personally found some of his categorisation of the different CMS systems a bit reductionist. I think Joomla and Drupal could have been categorised together and compared, rather than segregated into separate groups. Maybe this is because I would like to understand how these two systems measure up against each other so that I can make a better analysis of some of the projects I have been involved with.

Technorati tags: Bloglines; Google Alerts; Czech Republic; CMS; Internet Standards; HIV/AIDS; nonprofits

¶ 7:47 AM