Open source software has become a catchword in libraryland. Yet many remain unclear about open source's benefits--or even what it is. So what is open source software (OSS)? It's software that is free in every sense of the word: free to download, free to use, and free to view or modify. Most OSS is distributed on the Web and one doesn't need to…

Learning 2.0--aka the "23 Things"--is a self-paced online learning program that the author designed in 2006 as a one-person crusade to move an entire organization of 500-plus staff onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Along with numerous requests to duplicate the program, many seek insight on how to do this successfully. In this article, the author shares…

A widget displays Web content from external sources and can be embedded into a blog, social network, or other Web page, or downloaded to one's desktop. With widgets--sometimes referred to as gadgets--one can insert video into a blog post, display slideshows on MySpace, get the weather delivered to his mobile device, drag-and-drop his Netflix queue…