New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 13

New media picks of the week is my weekly basket of tasty resources, tools and services.

These are this week little gems that I have run into, have accidentally discovered or been pointed to or have read about in articles, RSS feeds and newsletters I subscribe to.

Photo credit: Joxie

Try for yourself, download, install and learn some pretty interesting things with these great new resources and tools.

Here is what I have found this week for you:

1. SEO Keyword Research Guide


2. Competencies for Online Instructors


3. Media files grabber


4. Video feeds aggregator


5. One-stop take-off platform for anonymous Web surfing


6. VoIP service offers free calls and competitive rates


7. Blog directory with blog publishing services


8. Open source library projects research and showcase clearinghouse


9. Online video editing service


10. Microsoft suggested ways to speed up again your PC


11. Open Source RSS feed generator


12. RSS headline archiver


13. RSS to HTML converter


14. Meta-Search tool identifies other sites mentioning yours

Enjoy!

1. WordTraker - Keyword Research Guide
   
   
   Have you ever wondered how experts use WordTracker to keep their clients' sites at the top of the search engine results pages? What can you learn from their methods? How can you apply their strategies to your own website to get outstanding results? Well, now you can find out by downloading the free Keyword Research Guide.
   http://www.wordtracker.com/keyword-research-guide.html
   





2. Competencies for online instructors
   
   The Journal of Online Educators publishes this 18-page PDF entitled: "Fifty-One Competencies for Online Instruction" by Theodore C. Smith, Axia College, Western International University. The essay covers the effectiveness of distance learning measured in results—quality learning. Learner-center programs and competent instructors are two oft-cited keys to success in higher education. Teaching online requires specific skill sets (competencies). This paper identifies and describes 51 competencies needed by online instructors and outlines an instructor-training program that satisfies 3 of the 24 benchmarks for excellence recommended by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
   http://www.thejeo.com/...
   





3. BroadSnatch
   
   BroadSnatch wants to help you pick (or snatch) some good media files to feed your favorite media aggregator, such as iTunes, iPodder or FireANT, using social tagging and rating.
   http://www.broadsnatch.com/
   





4. Mefeedia
   
   Still in the experimental Peter Van Dijck's Mefeedia is a tool to follow the videoblogging revolution taking place. Mefeedia is in fact an aggregator and a video feedreader. Mefeedia doesn't host the videos, it just points to them.
   http://www.mefeedia.com/
   





5. Anonymous browsing
   
   One-stop take-off platform for anonymous Web surfing. If you want to surf the web without being noticed here is a starting page allowing multiple anonymous web surfing start-up points.
   http://www.space.net.au/...
   





6. VoipBuster
   
   VoipBuster is a new VoIP service allowing worldwide calls at very competitive rates. It also allows direct free calls to your online VoIPBuster friends in addition to several popular locations which can also be called for free. Definitely worth a try.
   http://www.voipbuster.com/en/rates.html
   





7. BlogFlux
   
   BlogFlux is a new blog directory service which has added some useful features for independent publishers and bloggers. BlogFlux includes in fact a Google Page Rank checker which can be added to any web site, an automatic pinging service and more.
   http://www.blogflux.com/
   





8. Ibiblio
   
   ibiblio.org, formed as a collaboration between the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill's MetaLab, the Center for the Public Domain, and UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication, School of Information and Library Science and Information Technology Services. The collaboration has multiple components including, but not limited to, programs to expand and improve the distribution of open source software and applications. Ibiblio showcases a number of very interesting ongoing projects that expand the concepts of transparency and openness into new areas.
   http://www.ibiblio.org/index.html
   





9. Vided
   
   Vided.org is a free service still in pre-alpha done by a Norway student, which aims to provide the following services:
   - Encode videos to a common MPEG4 format with AAC audio. It also creates a "quadruple thumbnail" in the open .PNG-format.
   - Simple video editing. Use several short video-clips to create a completely new video.
   - Free sub-domains under vided.org (example yourname.vided.org) where all your videos and text will be published
   - Vlog / video blogging features
   - Free storage and bandwidth for your videos
   http://vided.org/
   Feedback and suggestions for improvement should be directed to:
   Åsmund Garfors
   Supporting blog at: http://ag.vided.org
   





10. Microsoft - 4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Performance
    
    This article contains a few guidelines that you can follow to speed up again your slow-moving PCs. As a matter of fact Windows PCs degrade significantly their performance in a matter of a few months from when they are first bought. Reasons are mainly spyware and malware that gets invisibly installed on the PC while surfing, viruses, trojans and other unfriendly code. The article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.
    http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/...
    See also:http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/...
    





11. List Garden RSS Feed Generator
    
    The List Garden RSS Feed Generator is an open-source, cross-platform tool that allows you to:
    - Creates and maintains RSS feeds
    - Produce both XML and optionally associated HTML
    - Runs either on your local PC or on your web server
    The tool requires no knowledge of XML or the RSS data format it also supports generating RSS feeds with enclosures (podcasting).
    http://www.softwaregarden.com/products/listgarden/
    





12. FeedCatch
    
    It is a free service by FeedShake for archiving headlines in an RSS feed. Why? Generally RSS feeds carry only the latest news headlines from any selected source, and once you have browsed through them they disappear leaving space to fresher new content. With FeedCatch you can keep an ongoing historical track of all the post made to a certain RSS feed without ever loosing anything posted in it. Every item will stay in this feed forever or until you follow its link and/or it gets too old. Recommended. http://feedcatch.feedshake.com/
    





13. TalkDigger
    
    TalkDigger is an online free service that queries all the major web abd blogs-based search engines searching for mentions and references to any specified web site URL you submit.
    http://talkdigger.com/
    





14. Free RSS to HTML PHP Script
    
    Here is a free PHP script that allows you to integrate existing RSS news feeds into any Web page with a minimal effort. http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm