Moved to new, faster server

We have moved to a new and much more powerful server in preparation for launching a host of new features.

Stay tuned for some jaw-dropping experiences and exciting news.

ConnectViaBooks is in the final for the 2006 New Media Awards

ConnectViaBooks is in the final for the 2006 New Media Awards by New Statesman.

We are in the Innovation category.

The other finalists are

BBC Back Stage
last.fm
ReadSpeaker: Podcaster

The winner is announced on the 24th of July 2006.

Fingers crossed!

Major change and new features at ConnectViaBooks.com

Major change and new features at ConnectViaBooks.com

- ConnectViaBooks is now totally free to use

- Link to your blog/website from your ConnectViaBook-profile

- Inside Search – Search inside the books others have read


We have today introduced a number of changes and new features on the website.

Totally free service
First of all, the site is now totally free to use. Previous you had to be a premium subscriber to respond to messages from other members.

This principle has now been abolished and the site is now totally free to use, so now you can get in contact with anyone you want.


Link to your blog/website from your ConnectViaBook profile
If you have a blog or website (or indeed both) you can now link directly to them from your ConnectViaBook-profile.

To update your profile with your blog/website address, just go to “My Account” -> “About Me”.


Inside Search
Inside Search (we have been struggling with a good name; any ideas?) is an easy way of finding people who have read books about a particular topic.

Just enter some (the fewer the better) keywords about the topic and press the search button.

Inside Search will then look inside the books other members have read and return a list of those who have read the most books about the topic you entered.

Looking for people with a particular expertise, say “website usability”? Inside Search can be used as well. Or local people who like “hiking”? Just enter hiking and select “near my location”.

Please note: Inside Search is far from perfect. It may both be slow and return confusing results, but the basic principle is working and we will be improving on both the speed and the quality of the results in the coming weeks. (Skimming through a million books can take a few seconds – just try it yourself)

In the company of giants

A very interesting article from European Scholnet about how digital knowledge artefacts may provide some opportunities in learning.

ConnectViaBooks is commented on - along with 7 other sites.

There is also a report in .pdf format available for download.

To tell you the truth I am a bit proud to be in company of the 7 other sites mentioned.

You may have heard of some of them.. (Del.icio.us, Technorati.org, Rojo.com, 43Things.com, 360.Yahoo.com, Flickr.com, Furl.net)

Check it out
http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/
specialreports/digital_knowledge_artefacts.htm

We're site of the week!

Terra, the leading ISP in Brazil, has named ConnectViaBooks.com "site of the week".

You can see the entire article here (we're at the bottom):
http://tecnologia.terra.com.br/interna/0,,OI704423-EI4829,00.html

They cast ConnectViaBooks.com as "Orkut based on books". It's true actually. ConnectViaBooks is all about connecting people, so is Orkut.

Since the link was put up a few days ago we have gotten loads of new members from portuguese speaking countries, especially Brazil. A warm welcome to all our new members.

Shared books

When viewing another member's profile it is now easy to see which books you both have read.

View another member's profile and you will see that the titles of books you share are shown in bold type.

Also on the profile page the person’s discussion preference for each book is now indicated by a “Discuss Online” and/or “Discuss in Person” next to the book.

If the discussion preference appears in bold type (e.g. Discuss Online) it is because you share this preference and both want to discuss the book, online and/or offline respectively.

New features: Find people who want to discuss your books – local and globally, online and in-person; and much more

Today we have introduced a set of new features. They make it easier to find other members who want to discuss the books/topics you are keen to discuss.

As soon as you log in you should see (on the right side of the screen) a listing of those who are interested in discussing your books with you. There is an option to see which of them (if any) who are local.

Now, you can also indicate if you want to discuss the books on your booklists in person and/or online.

Note, that those members who had checked the checkbox “I would like to be contacted by people who want to discuss books I have read or their topics”, will see that this setting has been moved to the individual books with an indication that they would like to discuss these books online. You should go and adjust your booklists in due time if there are some of the books on your booklists you don’t want to discuss online.

We have also introduced the ability to indicate if you are currently reading a book or if you have just finished it. You find this setting on the book-detail page. Just click on the title of a book on your booklist to go there. On that page you can now also see who is currently reading the book as well as anyone who wants to discuss it.

Maintaining your booklists has now also become easier. You can now move and copy books between booklists. Use this to organise your booklists in just the way you want them.