I don’t get to write for The Guardian very often these days, but when I do it’s always a pleasure. Today, my coverage of this year’s edublog awards was published, and has so far been well received. I also covered the event last year, and it was both interesting and a challenge to go back and write a similar piece but with a fresh angle. Luckily, the use of social software in education has moved on greatly, so it turned out to be an easy assignment in terms of the actual story.

The Edublogs are like any other award: prizes, a glitzy ceremony, nominees - except it’s all done online. Steve O’Hear puts on his virtual tux

In partnership with Richard MacManus (of Read/WriteWeb fame), I’ve launched a new blog called last100.com. The tag line is “tracking the digital lifestyle”, and the site will provide news, reviews and industry analysis on products and services related to the digital lifestyle, with a particular emphasis on how the Internet is penetrating the home in an era of ubiquitous broadband access.

So where does the name last100 come from? From the site’s about page:

The name last100 refers to what industry insiders call the “last 100 feet” problem, which is the gap between the typical home’s computer and its living-room TV set. Whilst the digital living room is a primary focus, we’ll also be covering other areas of the digital lifestyle (VoIP, portable media, mobile web etc).

I’m very proud to have launched this new blog with Richard, who was my editor for nearly 10 months, when I was a blogger for the Micro Media Corporation’s TransMission program.

I also think the new site looks fantastic, thanks to some hard work and flare from my designer buddy, Pete Harris.

The site launched with a review of Joost, the p2p video service from the founders of Skype. Other coverage so far includes, AppleTV hacks, a poll asking if Skype is good enough to replace your landline?, BT bringing VoIP to the PSP, and Google Reader on the Wii.

Over at ZDNet I’ve blogged about a new US bill that has been proposed which has a very DOPA-esque ring to it.

From ZDNet:

The Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act contains three sections: Protecting Children, Deleting Online Predators and Children’s Listbroker Privacy. So it’s basically DOPA with extensions to cover child pornography, cyber-bullying and children’s privacy. Many of the bill’s intentions seem noble and are, arguably, needed (such as protecting privacy). However, as with DOPA, the problem with the new act is that it would essentially ban the use of social software in schools and libraries which receive federal funding.

I recently covered the 2006 Edublogging awards for The Guardian newspaper. The article gives a brief overview of the awards and a list of the winners. I had to turn-around the job pretty quickly as my deadline was the following morning, which made it all the more fun.

Mike Arrington (of TechCrunch) has given my documentary ‘In Search of the Valley’ a thumbs up. Thanks Mike!

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As many of you will testify, I’ve been an unofficial Mac evangelist for over 15 years (since I was 16 years of age). One of the things that I liked most about the Mac, was that - in the event of a freeze - the computer could be cold-restarted via a key-combination. No reaching round the back to locate a small button. The same was true of starting up the machine. For reasons unknown to me, Apple abandoned this feature many years ago.

With the introduction of the first iMac, the special restart button on the supplied keyboard was gone (was Apple in denial of how often the Mac OS9 froze?). However, at least the on/off button was still conveniently placed on the front of the computer.

Then came the iMac G4. No keyboard restart button AND the on/off/reset buttons are to be found at the back of the machine. A pain in the ass for all users. To Apple’s credit, the G4 iMac was the most ergonomically adjustable iMac yet - the screen can be moved vertically and tilted back and forth, ensuring the perfect viewing angle.

Next was the iMac G5. A completely fixed height, and buttons / ports located on the back. A step forward in looks, maybe, but a major step backwards in terms of accessibility. To add insult to injury, when the G5 iMac went Intel, Apple abandoned the industry standard VESA fitting (which allowed the iMac to be fitted to any VESA compatible wall mount of desktop clamp) in favor of something proprietary.

When I purchased my new iMac 17inch Intel model, the viewing angle was a disaster. The height I’m sat in my wheelchair meant I was sitting under the screen, which caused me to have neck/head aches after prolonged use.

The solution? A simple table mod… so that the iMac is immersed into my desk (thanks Pete).

We cut the hole…

Sorted!

Do ordinary users care about data portability? And if not, should they? Four social networks respond. A post by Steve O’Hear on the ZDnet Social Web blog, including contributions from Marc Canter, Six Apart, LibraryThing and Elgg.

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Over at ZDNet, I’ve covered the launch of Curverider’s new hosted Elgg service, Elgg Spaces. The post includes an interesting interview with Elgg’s technical director, Ben Werdmuller.

Marc Canter has linked to the piece, but says that I don’t quite get it. As I’ve covered Elgg before (for The Guardian, and Read/WriteWeb), and know a thing or two about e-learning 2.0, I’m pretty sure I do get it!

I can only presume Canter is referring to my headline “Run your own ‘MySpace’ with Elgg Spaces”. Obviously Elgg is *very* different from MySpace but Elgg Spaces does allow you to run (and control) your very own social network - and that was the point I was making.

The MySpace reference actually comes from something Ben Werdmuller said in the interview:

This stuff is a long way away from the likes of MySpace or Facebook, where you upload a profile and post up a few notes or photos. Elgg Spaces essentially allows you to have your own MySpace

Canter was kind enough to call my film ‘coolio’ though!

I’m proud to announce that I’ve joined the ranks at ZDNet as a regular blogger. The title of my new blog is ‘The Social Web‘, and I’ll be covering the whole area of social software and media. So far I’ve blogged about MySpace Music, Google’s purchase of YouTube, Second Life, and the music social network Last.fm.

I’ll still be blogging here at ohear.net from time to time (and keeping a keen eye on e-learning 2.0), as well as writing on various subjects elsewhere. But if you’re interested in the social software scene, then add The Social Web to your RSS reader

My friend over at ‘Librarytwopointzero’ has written an interesting post comparing three social cataloging sites: Librarything, Shelfari, and Gurulib.

All three sites allow you to create a virtual book shelf so that you can share your reading interests with others.