tools

Last week I talked about how to make a soundslide using SoundSlides Plus. This week I'd like to share Animoto with you (which I learned from Mei Lin Fung from TechVirtual.org)

Animoto is an application that makes creating a soundslide very very easy all I did was add these fun science and math art pieces from Kevin Van Aelst, they asked me to choose a song, and then they did all of the fancy editing work for me.

On the other hand, I was not able to figure out if I could manage the timing of the slides, which is not great if the pictures need to match the recording of a voice. So, overall I think that it's a great tool if you are in need of a very quick soundslide, but if you are in need of a tool that is more precise in matching the images to your sound, then SoundSlides Plus wins.

Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Howard Weinstein from Paula Castillo on Vimeo.

The above is my attempt to making a soundslide of Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Howard Weinstein whom I recorded while he was presenting a brown bag in our office and then I added the pictures from his power point plus pictures I took from Flickr and music from Jamendo.

How I learned to make these:

With Google Patents you can search roughly 7 million patents that have been granted since 1790! And in case you were wondering, there is already a patent for a "device for cooling an infant's brain".

Because Google Patents is just for the US (see note below) make sure you check out the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Guide to International Property World Wide, a great resource that allows you to search for patent information in other countries.

Please note that: "All patents available through Google Patent Search come from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patents issued in the United States are public domain government information, and images of the entire database of U.S. patents are readily available online via the USPTO website."

Quick disclaimer #2: I am not a lawyer so I can't give you legal advice regarding intellectual property issues but I can forward you some of the information that specialists have developed.

If you are delivering a presentation on your project and are in need of some statistical support, check out Gapminder.org, a site that gathers social, economic and health indicators in a neat online tool.  We saw Hans Rosslin the director of this initiative in last week’s

conference and were impressed with his amazing presentation. You can view his TED talk to see for yourself how he uses these statistics to convey some pretty powerful messages.

Each month Ashoka compiles a list of fundraising and other resources for Ashoka Fellows.  These opportunities are typically open to all sorts of social entrepreneurs as well. You can download the June 2009 version of this list here. (Also available in French and Spanish).