File Conversion
Topic: All subjects

Here is a free site for converting files to different formats without having to download software. There is a growing list of online file conversion sites, but Zamzar has an impressive list of support file formats for documents (including MS Office docs), images, audio, and video including WMV, AVI, and many more.  More importantly, the site is incredibly easy to use and very handy when you need to do an urgent file conversion and want to avoid the hassle of the numerous freeware downloads.

Daily News - Current Events Updates
Topic: All subjects

This is an excellent site for keeping abreast of current events. It's a good start for any project involving current affairs, allowing you to get all the info without aimless wondering through Google's dark corridors. Make sure that you register for access to My World. MyWorld is your personal collection of news within Daylife, where you can save stuff that you find interesting, or want to easily check up on later.

Five Simple Steps To Designing With Colour
Topic: Website design
Here is a tutorial on using colour in design. Designing with colour is perhaps the element of graphic design which is the most difficult to get right. Why? Well, because it is the most subjective. For some, a palette of dark grey with splashes of bright pink will be just great; to others it would just be all wrong. Too many designers, whether schooled in colour-theory or not, end up making subjective decisions about colour and then when it comes to explaining those decisions to a client, things begin to unravel.

Write Notes on a Web "Whiteboard"
Topic: All subjects

Use this web “whiteboard” for your own notes or collaborative note development. SKRBL is a web whiteboard. Just start SKRBL, give your SKRBL URL to your friends, and instantly start sharing online. Write notes and add images, see & edit each others notes...Everyone sees the same screen, everybody stays on the same page.

Web Design Tutorial
Topic: Website design

Here is a link to basic web design tutorials. You can't just take all the design elements, throw them together and make a good web page, any more than you can take some eggs, sugar, flour and throw them together and get a cake.  Making a web page that works requires a lot of sensitivity to the various forces at work. A good design solution is one that balances those (often opposing) forces. And here is a link to a tutorial that focuses on Web 2.0 design.

Improve Your Writing Skills at OWL
Topic: All subjects
Use this resource to improve your writing skills. The goal of the Online Writing Laboratory (OWL) is to provide a resource for students who want writing help but can't attend writing classes. OWL has become a complement to classroom instruction, a supplement to face-to-face tutorials, and a stand-alone reference for thousands of writers worldwide. Use the "Navigation Menu" to access learning resources the include "The Writing Process", "Creative Writing" and "Job Search Writing".

Words Using Flickr Photos
Topic: All subjects

Spell with Flickr is a widget that enables you to create words with each letter represented by a photo from Flickr. Be creative and use this widget for your projects and reports. You can experiment with alternatives for each letter and the html code is provided to enable you to embed your words/titles in your blogs and wikis.

Slideshow Creator
Here is a great free slideshow creator. Use this web2.0 service to create slideshows from your photos and PowerPoint slides (saved as .gif files) that you can embed in your blogs and wikis. Slideshow creators can take photos from different sources and put them into a flash-based widget which flips, slides, scrolls, or fades through your favorite pics. 

New Web2.0 Developments
Topic: All subjects
If you want to keep up to date with Web2.0 software releases then visit, better still subscribe, to this blog. With hundreds of thousands of subscribers via email and RSS and in excess of 1 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on social networks and Web2.0 developments.

Website Development
Topic: Website design

Try using this webservice to create and publish websites. Weebly is the easiest way to create and publish a great looking website for free. From personal to professional sites, Weebly will enable you to spend your time on the most valuable part of your site, its content. Features include * Drag and drop interface, * a variety of themes, * personalised sub-domains (WOW!), * export to zip filies and numerous content elements (photos, videos, maps, etc.

Photo Enhancements Using ZingFu
Topic: All subjects
ZingFu lets you take your photos and put them into Zings (borders and/or crazy photos). You can send your Zing to friends or even your projects. You can also post your Zing in your blogs. You can copy the HTML code from the Zing page or from your ZingFolio. On both of these pages there is a link that says "post to MySpace". Click on that link and it'll open a box with the code. Then just paste that code into a section on your blog or wikispace.

77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better
Topic: All subjects
The average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what you may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques. Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. Some of the tips are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning.

Podcast Music
Topic: Podcasting
This is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want. There is a huge range of music here that you can download for use with your podcasts. Use 'Browse Tags' to search music categories.

Using Graphics in Blogs
Topic: All subjects
Here is a great article on using graphics in blogs. People pay attention to graphics. They respond to graphics. They learn from graphics. If you want your readers/audience to "get" something as quickly and clearly as possible, use visuals. And you don't have to be a graphic artist, designer, or information architect to put pictures in your blog.

Free Online File Storage Services
Topic: General
Here are links to many free online file storage services. The benefits web storage services are that they provide a means of backing up personal files and also making those files available from anywhere. Some services will allow you to share files or folders with other users so it becomes another way of distributing files that e-mail systems can't cope with. With broadband speeds ever increasing, it makes using these services even faster as well.

Improve the effectiveness of your RSS feeds
Topic: All subjects
A site called FeedRinse allows you to filter your RSS feeds by keyword, author or tag. "This is a service that's both so vital and so obvious that it's practically an indictment of RSS feedreaders that they don't all include this already," writes Cory Doctorow. "The beauty of this kind of filtering -- eliminating posts that do or don't contain certain words, or that have certain authors -- makes it possible to cast your selection net a lot wider than you would otherwise." Very cool.

Here is an article on two very significant WWW2.0 developments, YouTube and MySpace. Both YouTube and MySpace fit the textbook definition of Web 2.0, that hypothetical next-generation Internet where people contribute as easily as they consume. These sites have reached a critical mass where "a real network effect has kicked in. Their impact on future Internet applications in profound.

Web2.0 Awards
Topic: All subjects
"Web 2.0" refers to a recent rebirth of sites that focus on user empowerment and open-source applications online. We surveyed over 300 sites and sorted them into more than 30 categories. Then, from the biggest categories we selected the top three projects and ranked them based on their usability, usefulness, social aspects, interface & design, and content quality. In order to be considered "in the running" for the Web 2.0 Awards, sites had to exhibit the basic qualities described in O'Reilly's original concept of "Web 2.0". As such, only true "web as a platform" projects were considered - those that ran entirely off a downloadable client and did not interface with a browser were disqualified.

Improve your communication
Topic: All subjects
Here is a great blog that focuses on communication. "Communication is one of the most important skills anyone can have, in business and in life. As individuals and as a species, I believe we will be happier and more productive if we can improve our ability to communicate. This blog is dedicated to that effort. Join the conversation!" Posts link to more comprehensive articles and include, 'How to know when someone is lying to you'.

10 Steps to Boost Your Creativity
Topic: All subjects
This site has lots of resources for boosting creativity and innovation planning. Use the techniques for creating projects that demonstrate your creative genius.