Web 2.0 Tools – Has anyone tried these?

SCRIBLINK – ONLINE WHITEBOARD
A colleague of mine, Alexandria Pickett, Director, SUNY Learning Network, posted a link on Facebook to a Web 2.0 online whiteboard.

http://www.scriblink.com/

Scriblink is a free digital whiteboard that users can share online in real-time. Sorta like pen and paper, minus the dead trees, plastic, and the inconvenience of being at the same place at the same time.

We are all about collaboration. Whether you’re here for fun or more practical things like layout planning, concept diagramming, or tutoring a friend in math, Scriblink brings you the power of free hand expression with anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world.

On the homepage you’ll be immediately directed to a Scriblink board, which is free and requires no registration. Here you can take advantage of all kinds of useful features, such as:

• Privacy: the board is all yours, open only to the people you choose to invite
• Dynamic Tools: use shapes, hundreds of colors, a size bar, a text feature, and a grid to help guide your drawings
• File Options: gives you the ability to print, save, and email your work
• Image Uploader: upload an image onto the whiteboard as the background, allowing you to share it, mark it, deface it, or highlight key elements
• In-Screen Chat: when working with others, no need to sign in to third party software, simply use our in-screen chat
• VOIP Conferencing: if you have a mic for your computer, you can automatically connect with your collaborators (no software necessary) and talk for free for as long as you like
• File transfer: when emailing is too much of a hassle, simply transfer files directly to anyone you’re working with

I haven’t tried it, but it looks interesting. My problem is there is so much Web 2.0 coming at me, I don’t know where to begin. Does anyone use this or a similar product? Let me know and I’ll post your comments on our Epsilen resource wikki and our Web 2.0 resource blog. Post comments, please.

TINY URL
This was a Web 2.0 service I wasn’t going to use. The name, Tiny URL, bothered me. But, I have to admit, I’ve used it. Academe is home to mile long URLs. Facebook allows so many characters in the link field and that’s it. You can’t post the link.

For instance, the History of the Internet website at 
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/starthere/historyofthenet.html
(60 characters and what’s the “starthere” in the URL?),
through the TinyURL website becomes
http://tinyurl.com/historyofinternet
(36 characters with more intuitive words in URL)

TinyURL.Com – http://www.tinyurl.com
It’s a simple redirect.

The name still bothers me. The “tinyurl.com” becomes part of the created URL, but shortening the length of a url for a presentation or a reference post is practical. Does anyone else use TinyURL? Are there similar, less irritating services out there?