eNetworking 101: The Blog

Where do you store information that you want to refer to again? Where specifically do you store web resources?

There is not one correct answer. Likely you have bookmarks in your Internet browser. You might also have bookmarks saved online in a service such as del.icio.us. And you might have stored information in a blog or wiki.

I have stuff stored in all of those places! Although I have uploaded the bookmarks (favorites) from my Internet browser into del.icio.us, I still look in my browser first. There are a few items (generally related to Second Life), where I look in del.icio.us first.

But for items related to digitization -- a topic that I follow closely -- I always look in my Digitization 101 blog first. I have made it a habit of placing things in the blog that interested me and that I wanted to find again later. And it works for me.

What works for you?

Technorati tag:

Blogging,

del.icio.us

Labels: Blogging, del.icio.us

[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 **