June 23, 2007
Wikipeadia + OpenLearn?
I spent huge chunks of today tinkering on and off with different combinations of Wikipedia and OpenLearn content in wikimindmap style but none of it was very satisfactory. Here are a few things I noticed/tried along the way (nothing more substantial to report...):
- wikimindmap uses a modifed version of the map widget, that handles special "wikilinks" that launch a new wikimindmap centred on a new topic;
- Wikipedia has an API and a query interface (via searchenginejournal.com) that will return results via a JSON feed;
- it's easy to add the Yahoo content analyser to a Yahoo pipe that feeds off an OpenLearn RSS feed (and then optionally use the returned terms as the basis of a Yahoo search over Openlearn or Wikipedia, for example) but non-RSS appended links don't seem to make it to the Yahoo Pipes output RSS feed - though they do appear in the JSON feed;
- this json2xml Javascript routine can be combined with a Pipes AJAX feed to generate XML text containing everything the Yahoo pipe has generated, RSS compliant or not.
It's easy enough to handcraft a map that combines OpenLearn Unit links with Wikipedia maps - but why is this interesting/useful? If I manage to produce a demo that feels even half-way right, I'll post it.
For now, here's a glimpse:
This shows a combination of an OpenLearn Unit map and a Wikipedia/wikimindmap node (the exploded "computer virus" node). The green recycle symbols are a feature of the modified map viewer. Clicking on the symbol loads a new wikimindmap centred on the corresponding node.
Posted by ajh59 at June 23, 2007 10:20 PMComments