Who coined the word "blog"?

Well, that would be Jorn Barger, who came up with the word weblog ten years ago "to describe the daily list of links that 'logged' his travels across the web." Wired Magazine asked him for topics for new bloggers and Jorn came up with this list. I like advice #4:

Being truly yourself is always hipper than suppressing a link just because it's not trendy enough. Your readers need to get to know you.

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Technorati tag: Sharing

Ning!

The name says nothing about what it is, but Ning is a growing social networking service that allows you to "create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds." In Ning, you can join multiple networks on topics such as:

• The Business District
• Women in Film & Video
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Library 2.0

Some groups are open to anyone, while others are "invitation only." Group pages allow for forums, posting of videos & photos, information from member blog posts, and other stuff. The group "owner" decides what can be on the group page.

Members also have individual pages on which they can include a variety of things as well as customize the look of the page. Unfortunately, a person who is part of multiple networks in Ning must setup an individual pages for each network. That can be a pain the "back side" after a while and also make it difficult to track "what's where."

Although I first was thrilled with Ning, I quickly found it difficult to keep up with the multiple conversations. Ning does allow you to follow the forums through RSS feeds, but that has not kept me truly connected with my groups in Ning. Personally, I find that I will use Ning when I have a specific question that I feel one of the groups on Ning can answer for me. Others, though, find Ning quite useful and some groups have found very interesting ways of using Ning. For example, the two-day conference in Australia called "Beyond The Hype 2008: Web 2.0" is using a Ning group to disseminate information to people who are interested in the conference and allow for those people to interact before the event. This is a very focused group, which seems to be working well.

Is Ning for you? I don't know. I do think it is worth looking at. Do a search and take a peek at some of the groups. You might want to join an active group, setup a basic page for yourself and participate for a while. See who you can connect to and what information is being shared. You may not really know if Ning is for you unless you jump into it.

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Technorati tags: Connecting, Sharing, Ning

Article: (part 1) Social Networking Tools: Let's Be Social

[This article is divided into three parts: Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3. This article was previously published in the November 2007 issue of the RPCN Newsletter and a version of this article appeared in Oct/Nov issue of the Bulletin of the Information Technology Division/SLA.]

After the presentation I did at RPCN on Sept. 21, I realized that it might be useful to talk more about how I use various online social networking tools and when. I am a firm believer that you need a defined reason (or benefit) to may your use worthwhile, so I am chronicling my benefits in hopes that you might see how they will benefit you.

I spoke about social networking tools in three categories. Some tools help you connect with other people. Others provide ways for you to share information with others. Finally, a growing number of tools facilitate collaborations. A trend is for a tool to work across these three categories and several that I use do just that.

CONNECT

We are used to connect face-to-face, on the phone or via email. Social networking tools allow us to connect in ways that ensure that we are:

• Accessible
• Able to exchange information fast
• In the know and considered part of "the crowd"
• Not "missing in action"

In fact, these tools allow us to be "hyper-linked." You are linked to your colleagues not just in one way, but many ways.

The tools you use to connect to your colleagues will depend on the tools they are using. The people with whom I want to connect are using LinkedIn.com and Facebook.com. Some of us also connect as friends through various sharing services (below) including Flickr.com.

LinkedIn describes itself as "a place to find and leverage professional opportunities, now and throughout your career." There are more than 14 million professional on LinkedIn who:

• Present their professional capabilities
• Find and connect with colleagues
• Use their extended networks to find and reach potential partners, clients, or employees
• Discover business opportunities
• Locate information

A basic account on LinkedIn is free. Premium accounts are available for those who really want to work their networks in LinkedIn. As an example of a LinkedIn profile, you can view mine at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jillhurstwahl . Notice that others on LinkedIn can leave recommendations on your profile that are visible to everyone.

If you are using LinkedIn and want to learn more about using it effectively, read LinkedIntelligence.com, a blog that focuses specifically on LinkedIn. The blog gives great advice for making LinkedIn work better for you. You might also read The LinkedIn Personal Trainer written by RPCN member Steven Tylock.

Facebook.com was originally a place for college students to connect. (Some of us may have memories of the printed face books given to us as college freshman). After a while, Facebook was opened up to high school students, and then to business people. Facebook has replaced MySpace for some, because of its better features and functionality. Facebook describes itself as "a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet."

Here is a good place to talk about privacy as well as learning more about your colleagues. It is important to consider what information you do not want to disclose about yourself online and then be consistent in applying your rule with every social networking tool. For example, I am very honest about who I am and what I do, but I do not disclose my home address.

Since people generally are willing to be more open about their lives in these social networking tools, you can often learn more about your colleagues through these tools rather than what you can learn from them face-to-face or via email. Someone can easily "buffalo" us in a quick face-to-face meeting, but may drop his/her guard online because the person sees these tools as both serious and fun (and we tend to disclose more when we're having fun).

To read a blog post I did on Facebook, go to http://tinyurl.com/ypwg2z . I'm on Facebook for a few minutes each day, updating my status (what I'm doing), checking on a colleagues, and perhaps sending a message to someone else. Facebook has become an important tool for staying in contact with several specific people. I've been able to use Facebook to teach my "friends" what I do in my consulting business, which I believe to be very valuable.

Friends? Many of these tools allow you to connect with "friends." Friends are those people that you want to be connected with, whether they are a friend, acquaintance or someone you don't really know. Who you consider a friend is a very personal decision. Some people will "friend" someone they have actually met face-to-face. My rule for who is a friend is different for each service I use and based on what I'm trying to achieve in a specific social networking tool.

** Continued in Part 2 **

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Technorati tags: Connecting, Sharing, Collaborating, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace

Article: (part 2) Social Networking Tools: Let's Be Social

[This article is divided into three parts: Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3. This article was previously published in the November 2007 issue of the RPCN Newsletter and a version of this article appeared in Oct/Nov issue of the Bulletin of the Information Technology Division/SLA.]

SHARE

The power in using social networking tools for sharing is that you can share what you know AND you can benefit from what other people have shared. Tools that fall into this category include blogs, micro-blogs, wikis (discussed below), and photo, video and presentation sharing web sites.

A blog is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. Think of each blog entry (post) as a short article. Most blogs allow for comments, which means that readers can add information or feedback on specific posts. Business blogs are often focused on specific topics where the authors share information that they have with their readers. Since a blog can have a tremendous amount of content, blogs often rank well in search engine results. If you are trying to establish yourself as an expert, a blog can help you do that. I used my blog (www.digitization101.com) to establish an international reputation in digitization. That reputation did not come overnight, but was built by consistently adding to my blog and then marketing my blog constantly.

There are several places were you can build a blog for free including Blogger.com (owned by Google), WordPress.com and Vox.com. There are actually many web sites were blogs can be built. Please think about what functionality you want in order to decide what site/software is best for you.

Micro-blogs are places where you can send and receive short messages (under 140 characters) with a group of people. They are different from instant messenger services because you are broadcasting your messages to a group of people, not just to one person. Micro-blogs are an interesting way of sharing information with people you know. I'll admit that you can't really understand a micro-blog unless you use one. The one I'm using is Twitter.com (see http://twitter.com/jahurst/with_friends). I don't use Twitter every day, but I have found it a great way of feeling connected with others, and of exchanging information. I do receive useful information from colleagues via Twitter that I know I would not have received otherwise.

There are many sites for sharing photos, videos and presentations. Photos can be shared at Flickr.com, PhotoBucket.com, and KoffeePhoto.com. I use Flickr because I have colleagues that use Flickr. Most photo sharing sites are free, but may charge once you get above a specific number of photos. (Some people have thousands of photos online!) Although I began using Flickr as a way of sharing fun photos, I quickly found business uses for the service:

• Post screen shots of presentations.
• Post information that you want people to review or comment on.
• Post photos to use for instruction (formally or informally).
• Store photos that you want to use on your organization's web site, then use a widget to display those photos.
• Search photos for ideas.

For more information on these five uses, go to http://tinyurl.com/yowd74 .

When we think of videos, many of us think of YouTube.com, but there are actually other services for sharing videos (e.g., Yahoo and Google). Although you may not have video to share, think of searching these sites for videos on business topics that are of interest to you (e.g., 7 Behaviors of Business Success). Many reputable organizations are placing their videos in these services as a way of spreading their message or sharing important information. I now incorporate YouTube videos into several of my workshops because they do an excellent job of illustrating key points.

I put my presentations on my web site, but I could place them in a presentation sharing service like SlideShare.net. (Actually one presentation is there at http://tinyurl.com/yqnswg .) This service allows people to upload and share presentation for free. If you don't have presentations to share (or don't want to share them in this way), you can still use SlideShare to find presentations that interest you. There are presentations on many business topics.

If you need to share your bookmarks (or favorites) from your Internet browser, there are tools for that too. This can be useful if you are collecting bookmarks on a specific topic and then need to share them with your clients or partners. One site for sharing bookmarks is http://del.icio.us. I have found del.icio.us important in working with one specific client. (I've since gotten additional mileage out of those bookmarks with other colleagues.) No need to worry about emailing URLs and having them "break;" I just tell people by del.icio.us account information. To see my bookmarks on podcasting, go to http://del.icio.us/jahurst/podcast .

** Continued in Part 3 **

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Technorati tags: Connecting, Sharing, Collaborating, Twitter, YouTube, Blogging, SlideShare, Flickr, delicious

Article: (part 3) Social Networking Tools: Let's Be Social

[This article is divided into three parts: Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3. This article was previously published in the November 2007 issue of the RPCN Newsletter and a version of this article appeared in Oct/Nov issue of the Bulletin of the Information Technology Division/SLA.]

COLLABORATE

I am writing this article using Google Docs (docs.google.com). Google provides software that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations on its web site, with many of the features or functionality that you are already familiar. The files are password protected, but I would not place anything in them that was proprietary or confidential. Google Docs allows you to create and edit a files with a group of collaborators, whom you select. Multiple people can edit the files at the same time. Google keeps track of the changes (revisions) and the person who makes them. (That information is viewable, if necessary.) I find Google Docs and Zoho (www.zoho.com), which provides even more tools, to be great tools when working at a distance with a colleague. There is no need to email files back-n-forth and worry about who has the correct version. In one instance, a group of more than a dozen people edited a procedures manual in Google Docs. We were able to make changes effortlessly, leave comments, and mark text that needed to be discussed. This allowed the group to work faster and more accurately.

At their core, wikis are a way of collaborating or allowing a group to share what they know on a specific subject. The most famous wiki is wikipedia.org, which is an encyclopedia being built by thousands of people. Wikis are a great way of building and maintaining manuals, since they often require input from several people and need to be maintained by several people. Many wiki web sites allow wikis to be built for free, but your wiki will likely have ads in it. To eliminate the ads, you may need a fee-based account. To find a wiki that suits your needs, check the wiki matrix at www.wikimatrix.org.

Why am I using Google Docs for writing this article? I'm on my laptop and don't want to have to transfer the file to my desktop to edit later. With this document in Google Docs, I can work on it from either machine, or from another location, as I tweak my wording. In this case, I'm using Google Docs as my word processor instead of MS Word. (By the way, you can export documents created in Google Docs using several common formats, including MS Word.)

Both Google Docs and Zoho are free. I should note that Google has taken some criticism recently of their licensing agreement on Google Docs (see http://tinyurl.com/yqr9r4). At the moment, I don't see a need for concern, but we should all remember that we're using a service that we don't ultimately control.

CUT DOWN YOUR PHONE BILL

We've heard of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) or broadband phones. If you are not using a broadband phone service (e.g., Time Warner), you can still take advantage of the technology using services such as Skype.com. I decided to use Skype in January 2007, when I realized that I was going to be on a many long distance conversations with clients this year. For $30/year (plus a $25 headset), I can use Skype to call any telephone in the U.S. or Canada. Yes, unlimited phone calls for $30/year. Calling international is also very inexpensive. The call quality is very good and I have definitely received my money's worth. You can also send and receive instant messages through Skype as well as exchange video.

ONE MORE TOOL

Likely you've noticed that some of the URLs in this article are from tinyURL.com. Instead of emailing or printing long URLs, you can use tools such as tinyURL.com or DigBig.com to create short, easy to type URLs. Both services are free and very easy to use.

EVERY DAY & EVERY WEEK

I use at least two social networking tools every day. Besides blogging every day, during a typical week, I'm on instant messenger, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Depending on what I'm doing, I'll also be on YouTube and spending time in a virtual world (SecondLife.com). Over the last year, I've cutback some tools (e.g., MySpace) and adopted others (e.g., Twitter). The tools I'm using now are useful to me and are easy to use. I know that in the next year, the tools I use will continue to change. I keep an eye on my colleagues and see what they are using, as well as trial tools that sound of interest. However, I won't adopt a tool unless I know that there are others using the tool that are in my circle. Social networking tools are meant to be learned and used socially. So I'll learn the new tools with my friends and adopt what the group adopts.

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Technorati tags: Connecting, Sharing, Collaborating, Twitter, YouTube, Blogging, Flickr,Facebook, MySpace, Google, Zoho, TinyURL

Blog post: 31 Flavors - Things to Do With Flickr in Libraries

Although geared for libraries, undoubtedly you'll find useful ideas in this blog post. For example, instead of showing what new books you have, take photos of what is new with your company, put them in Flickr, and also use them in your blog or on your web site.

BTW some people are taking photos of their business cards (especially if they get a new one) and then sharing the photos through a photo-sharing service. Did you get a promotion or a new job? Announce it with the photo of your new business card!

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Technorati tag: Flickr

RSSCalendar purchased by Lookout Software

In looking for a calendar program that would integrate into a blog, I found RSSCalendar though a colleague and liked it. It is easy to use and can generate an RSS feed that can be integrated into a web site or blog. RSSCalendar has been in perpetual beta and the features have not changed in a year. Today I received word that RSSCalendar has been acquired by LookOut Software. LookOut says that there will develop a more powerful commercial application based on the RSSCalendar platform, but will also keep a free consumer-oriented version. It will be interesting to see how the product changes.

It's about sharing

I believe that social networking tools in general can be divided into three categories. Tools for:

• Connecting
• Sharing
• Collaborating

When I talk to people about using the tools for sharing, I always emphasize that you may not have information to share, but that you may want to find and use information that others have shared. For example:

• Use a photo sharing serve to find photos that relate to a topic of interest. An example is that I was interested in photos of technology that people are using. People do take photos of their technology and put them online. (Check out the group of photos called "What's in Your Bag?")
• Use SlideShare.net to locate presentations on topics of interest to you.
• Use blog search engines (e.g., Google, Technorati) to find blogs and blog posts on topics that are interest. There are many serious bloggers who talk about business and technical topics, and who have very up-to-date information.
• Use YouTube to find short instructional videos or videos that show something that you need to know. For example, you may be interested in Second Life, but don't want to explore it directly. You could, instead, look at YouTube videos that demonstrate the power of that virtual world (example).
• Use LibraryThing to read what others have said about a book before buying it or recommending it to someone else.
  

Don't be afraid to think creativity about how to approach your information need through social networking tools. Run searches in the tools to see what information they contain that will pertain to your need (and be sure to use alternate words/terms). If you find nothing, at least you tried. However, you may be very surprised to find information that is very useful to you.

RSS & FM Radio

Yesterday I gave a workshop at the New York Library Association (NYLA) conference on "Social Networking Tools." The 22 people in the workshop came with varying levels of familiarity with social networking tools and everyone left with new information. Many people said they had ideas they wanted to follow-up on. Polly Farrington posted some notes in her blog from the session.

One person asked about RSS (really simple syndication) and wanted to know what it was. The good news is that we don't really need to understand how RSS works. I likened receiving RSS to listening to FM radio stations. RSS allows people to "broadcast" content on the Internet, in the same way FM radio broadcasts many signals into the atmosphere. With FM radio, we use a receiver to help us pick up the signal we want to hear. With RSS, we use an RSS aggregation (like Bloglines) to help us pick up the content we want to read (or just be aware of). That content could be photos, videos, podcasts, vodcasts (video podcasts), or text.

How do you find the RSS "signals" that you want to follow? Ask your colleagues what they are reading or listening to. Do some searches on the Internet to find content that may be of interest. You can use blog search engines (e.g., Google or Technorati).

BTW I don't know if the FM radio analogy is the best one for RSS, but it worked yesterday, and that's all I can ask for!

How to read a blog

Blogs have become an important part of how we share information. With a blog, the author (or authors) write on topics that s/he is knowledgeable about. Readers can read and comment on what has been written, often providing additional information.

Bloggers, because of their need to provide up-to-date information, often are well-read and have an understanding of "what's happening" that others may not have. In Meredith Farkas' recent survey of the blogosphere, she found that 62% of bloggers who responded subscribe to (or follow) up to 75 blogs. 10% of bloggers follow more than 200 blogs! Reading or even skimming that many blogs can only occur if you use a web-based or desktop RSS aggregator, like Bloglines or Google Reader (both of which are free).

Most blogs automatically create RSS feeds even if they don't say so. However, you might look for something on the blog page that indicates you can subscribe to the blog. There may be text or a symbol such as .

If you are using a RSS aggregator (also called an RSS reader or blog reader), then when you click on the link for the RSS feed, your RSS aggregator may recognize what you've done and ask if you want to subscribe to the feed. Or you may need to cut-and-paste the URL that you see when you click on the link for the RSS feed into your RSS reader (adding that URL to your RSS reader). It sounds mysterious, but once you do it a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.

In fact, everything about RSS sounds mysterious! The good news is that we don't need to know how it works.

Once you subscribe to the RSS feed for a blog, every time the blog is updated with new content, your RSS reader will be alerted and that new content will be available for you to read. If you are using Bloglines, for example, you can quickly see what blogs have been updated and read those updates (or save them to read later).

Can you get blogs posts to be sent to you in email? Yes. There are several tools that will do this for you, including FeedBlitz. See the bottom of the screen for a quick way of getting blog posts emailed to you for free.

I primarily use Bloglines to reader blogs. I'm currently following over 160 blogs/RSS feeds, which is possible only because I'm using an RSS aggregator/reader like Bloglines. Bloglines helps me keep my feed organized and give me functionality (e.g., save, read later, email) that I need. Bloglines may not be for you, so ask your colleagues what they are using and experiment to find what meets your needs. For example, the Google Reader -- which integrates into iGoogle -- may be a better option for you.

He gets Del.icio.us

Friday a colleague of mine wrote to tell me that he is using Del.icio.us. He said:

Cool system. I never realized...

We have gotten into the habit of saving URLs in our Internet browsers as bookmarks or favorites, then emailing specific URLs to colleagues, when necessary. But what if you'd like to share a growing list of URLs with your colleagues and don't want the email hassle? Or -- as my friend is doing -- you want to have URLs saved someplace where you can access them, no matter what computer you are using? That's when a tool like Del.icio.us comes in handy.

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that allows you to save, organize (via tags) and share your bookmarks with anyone. If you'd like for your bookmarks to become part of your web site (and be updated automatically), you can use the link roll feature. Here is my link roll on "podcast":




If you saved a well vetted list of URLs on a specific topic, then the link roll would be a painless way of integrating that list on your web site. Any organization could benefit from this feature.

You can also have your recently saved URLs displayed in your blog (as a blog post) automatically. There are several people, that I know, who do this, perhaps as a way of further keeping track or -- or sharing -- the URLs.

When I began using Del.icio.us, I thought it was cute, but really couldn't see a need for it. Then I began working on a project where I needed to share bookmarks on podcasting. And then I found others that could benefit from those bookmarks. Lo and behold, I had found a use for Del.icio.us and it worked perfectly!

I've said it once, and I'll keep saying it...you have to have a reason (need) why you use these different tools. If you have a need, then you'll use and benefit from the tool. If you don't have a need, then the tool will be useless to you.