Two "Nifty" Web Sites

I want to share two web sites that I use and have found to be very informative.  The first is Findings.com.  Findings was started by the author Steven B. Johnson and it is his effort to recreate the intellectual hotbed of 18^th Century coffeehouses.  In the 18^th Century coffee houses served as a meeting place for many famous scientists and philosophers (Benjamin Franklin participated in one during his years in England).  The discussions across disciplines and occupations incubated many ideas and led to significant scientific and social breakthroughs.  Findings attempts to recreate this scene by allowing users to share interesting things they are reading on the web or from their e-readers (Kindles, for example).  The set up reminds me of Twitter except that you are not limited by the amount of information that you can post at once. I have purchased books, and discovered different ways of looking at topics based on my browsing of the web site.  Findings is an example of how the internet can help spark ideas.  Look me up; my “Findings name” is Tom Butler.

The second web site is stumledupon.  This service asks you for your interests and then randomly chooses web sites for you to look at based on your interests.  I currently have about 10 interests.  You can “stumble” by limiting your search to one of your interests, or get information randomly from all of your interests.  I have become fascinated with the different web sites that I have come across because of this service.  I highly recommend it.  Both of these web 2.0 tools will help you learn more about the world we live in.