Thing 8; online bookmarking

The next Thing we'll be looking at is online bookmarking using Delicious, which will help you organize all of your favorite websites and bookmark sites, pages, or interesting URLs--that you can now access from anywhere.

Watch this explanation from Common Craft and then sign up for a Delicious account. When you first look at Delicious, check out some of the "Fresh Bookmarks" and "Popular Bookmarks" to see how they have been tagged.




Once you've created a Delicious account, add and tag some of your favorite websites. Post your Delicious username on your blog (I have two: jane.nesmith and jcnesmith), then, once other people have started posting their Delicious usernames, add a few of your classmates to your network. You can add me first just to see how it works.

Then spend some time browsing the web for stories about any topic that you're thinking about these days--can be a topic in one of your classes, something you need to do research on, or a personal interest. Add and tag a few pages. Now you can access these pages from anywhere.

When you're finished, create a post and reflect on your Delicious experience.
Discovery Exercise:

• Create a Delicious account and add websites
• add me to your network (jane.nesmith), then add a few of your classmates
• Create a post about your experience: Do you see this as a useful tool? How might this be useful for your work in college? How about after college? If you already use one of the other social bookmarking sites, feel free to share that and your thoughts about it rather than create another account (but at least look at Delicious).
  
• AND post your Delicious username

Just for fun:
Look at Stumbleupon; you don't have to create an account (unless you want to after learning more about it here), but this is an interesting way to see what the general public is discovering on the web. Click "Discover" and you'll see current sites getting top rankings. On the right-hand side you'll see a list of popular tags. Look around a bit and perhaps you'll find something exciting.

Diggo is another bookmarking site to check out. Diggo is quickly gaining popularity with new features like post-it notes and the ability to create thumbnails of saved link pages. Feel free to complete your discovery exercise using Diggo if you prefer.

Thing 7: Twitter

You heard all about it during the uprisings in northern Africa--and you learned that it was a great way to share important information with the world.

No longer is Twitter mainly used to let the world know what you had for breakfast: surgeons use it to instruct medical students and educate the public, journalists use it to let their followers preview stories, politicians use it to update their constituents, the Red Cross uses it share emergency information and educational leaders use it to share new ideas and engage in dialogues with interested "followers."

Thing 7: Twitter

Read the article "Twittering, Not Frittering, Professional Development in 140 Characters" from Edutopia OR 10 High Fliers on Twitter from The Chronicle of Higher Education, and then create a Twitter account for yourself. If you're comfortable sharing with the world, set your account as "Public" (that way we can all find you on Twitter). If not, then you have to approve individual people to be your followers. Do a few Internet searches to find leaders in your area, and chances are that they will have a Twitter account. "Follow" at least three of them, post your Twitter name to your blog (mine is jcnesmith), and then let us know who you're following.

If you're interested in a particular topic, you can look for who's tweeting about it. Check out the "trends" box on the right side of twitter. If you tweet about a particular topic and want to make sure people interested in that topic find it, you can add a hash tag, like #writing or #oscars.

To post a link, use tinyurl to create a smaller version of the URL--so you won't use up those 140 characters.

I like to follow other writers . . . and some funny tweeters. Here is an example of some of the people I'm following:

• Wired magazine, which posts updates about tech (@wiredmag)
• Stephen Fry, the British actor and word nerd (@stephenfry)
• essayist Susan Orlean (@susanorlean)
• Local journalist Christophe Trappe (@CTrappe)
• children's book author Sarah Prineas (@SPrineas)
• and The Onion (nice to have 140 character laughs!) (@TheOnion)

I have to admit I don't tweet much. I used to use it for posting updates about my writing, but I'm not doing that now--I just enjoy reading others' posts, and I've learned about some cool stories that way. Plus I get a laugh from The Onion.

If you want, you can have your twitter posts automatically posted to facebook. Just include the hash tag #fb at the end of your post.

Discovery Exercise

1. Create a Twitter account
2. Find at least 3 people to follow
3. Post a tweet about some writing project you're working on
4. Retweet a post or two from someone you're following
5. Post a link with a brief comment (use tinyurl)
6. Add Twitter to your blog (In your dashboard, click on Design tab, then "add gadget," and search for Twitter). This allows blog readers to quickly catch up on your tweets.
7. In your blog: Tell us who you're following
8. Reflect on your experience using/reading about Twitter. How do you see professionals using it? How do you see writers or PR people using it? Will you keep tweeting this term? (note that you can tweet from your phone . . . )

Thing 6: Following blogs and tagging

Now that we have our blogs established, it's time to get connected and see what everyone else is doing.

For Thing 6, you'll be commenting on and following some of your classmates' blogs, in addition to tagging the posts you've created so far.

Choose at least three of your classmates' blogs (see the sidebar on the right), and comment on something on their blog--post, picture, twitter. Commenting on blogs allows us to ask questions of one another, make suggestions, or simply to reply to what has been written or posted.

1. Once you've commented, you should then follow those blogs
2. Find 2-3 other blogs that you'd like to follow--maybe about a topic you're interested in, or someone you found out about on Twitter. Take a look at the comments on those blogs.
3. Tag the posts you've created so far. Tagging allows you to categorize your posts, which is really helpful if you blog regularly. To "tag" your posts: go into your old posts by clicking "edit posts" on your dashboard. On the bottom of the edit box, you'll notice a place for labels. Create labels that will help readers find the post if they're looking for info on that topic. As you start to create labels, you can click "show all" if you have trouble remembering the name of your tags (tags and labels are the same thing). Note: I am really bad about tagging. Please be better than I am.
4. Post to your blog. Why do you think commenting is important in online communities? How might professional blog writers (someone writing a blog for an organization, for example) view comments--as helpful or annoyances? Finally, write a bit about the tags you chose for your blog.
5. You can also add them to a blog list, as I have done (that's the list on the side with your blogs and URLs).  Go to "design" and add a "gadget."  Then search for "blog list."  You can add blogs one by one.

Just for fun (optional):check out Technorati; Technorati is a search engine for blogs. According to Technorati's self-description:

Technorati.com indexes millions of blog posts in real time and surfaces them in seconds. The site has become the definitive source for the top stories, opinions, photos and videos emerging across news, entertainment, technology, lifestyle, sports, politics and business. Technorati.com tracks not only the authority and influence of blogs, but also the most comprehensive and current index of who and what is most popular in the Blogosphere.

Scoll around - note the top risers or fastest fallers. Check out the top 100 or blogs with most recent posts. Technoriti ranks based on links compared to other blogs with similar content.

Thing 5: Mind-Mapping

Bubbl.us is an online tool for brainstorming or mind mapping. You remember brainstorming from your earlier education days, right? You start with a concept, usually in a bubble in the middle of a page. Then you start thinking of all of the other related concepts (in bubbles surrounding the initial concept).

Brainstorming helped you look at all angles of the concept, to sort out related items and visualize connections. Mind mapping is similar, except the concepts are things you know or you are studying, and you are connecting them to other things you know (or are studying). It's a great visual technique for getting many many ideas and seeing how they link together.

Here's a mind map I made during break:

I've also used mind maps to get ideas for what to write on my blog. It's kind of boring to write "this is what I did today" posts . . . every day.

Your Thing 4 assignment:

Try out a mind map for some writing project you have to brainstorm for: maybe your blog or fb page? Or website? See if you can get several layers of bubbles out there. Move them around to make the map pleasing to your eye.

If you have no upcoming writing projects, mind map what you need to do this week.

In your blog, post your mind map, and write about the experience of using another visual brainstorming tool. How did this work for you? This one would work best for different topics than the mashup tool . . . can you imagine situations in which you could use it? Do you like the computer version, or would you rather draw your mind map with pen and paper?

Mashups, take 2

OK, so you've been having trouble with Middlespot. Bummer. It must have changed since I created my mashup.

Lisa Stroschine recommends Glogster and Stefanie said she had luck with it. Give it a try for your mashup!

Thing 4: Wikis

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online, open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and likely the most well known of these knowledge-sharing tools. Wikis have many benefits, are easy to use and have many applications.

Some of the benefits of wikis:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
• Tracking tools allow you to easily keep up on what has been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content.
• Multiple pages can be added to one wiki.

For an overview of wikis, watch this video

Educational uses of wikis are diverse. Check out these examples:

• University of Connecticut Library: Technical Services Wiki: this wiki is used to document all things associated with the tech services area of the UConn library - including daily logs completed by student staff members.
• University of New South Wales: Censorship & Responsibility (course). This wiki was created collaboratively by students taking the course - click links to the entry page of The Theory Book, and you'll see this (along with The Case Study Book) was created collaboratively by the students in the course. If you are interested in seeing how many authors contributed to a particular page, click "History" in the upper right.
• The French Revolution Wikipedia and Ant Farm Diaries: Clay Burrell, teaching World History in Seoul South Korea first has his students create a wiki (Wikipedia fashion) for the French Revolution. Then the students adopt characters from the time, and write diary entries the characters. Mr. Burrell's description: "...using the background knowledge compiled in the class mini-Wikipedia, students "write to learn" by writing role-play diaries of characters from the different social classes during the French Revolution. All characters interact with other characters in diaries written during the main events of the French Revolution." Scroll to the bottom of the page to get links to the actual diary entries.
• Coe College May Term 2009: The Psychology of Peace & Conflict. Sara Farrell's May Term course used a wiki prior to traveling to Ireland to better understand the inter-relationships of various political and civil conflicts within the country. Students researched and wrote about primary topics, and then combed through each others' research to make connections.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Visit and read about facebook and other topics on the wiki AWW students created last year, Online Writing for Professionals.
   
2. Now it's your turn to wiki. Go to the wiki on Moodle (top section) and add to it--it's a wiki with advice about writing. Take a look at the history to see what people have added. You can add text or links, or even pictures. Help make it a fun and informative wiki!
   
3. On your blog, post your reflections about wikis. What makes this kind of collaborative writing work? What might make it not work well? Have you used wikis (besides wikipedia)? How else have you collaborated on writing?
   

Thing 3: Mashups online

Some digital applications can be very useful at the early stages of writing--when we need to get lots of ideas together and not worry about how they're going to fit . . . yet.

I've found digital mashups to be a great way to brainstorm when I've got lots of ideas from lots of sources. Have you ever created a mashup?

It's easy. First the official Wikipedia definition: "a mashup is a web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services."

Mashups are useful because they can allow us to access our visual abilities. Think poster presentation meets digital web. Your mashup (or digital poster) can have videos, links to websites, text, audio files, images and more (some mashup sites allow you to embed applications like counters, surveys and games).

Here is an example of a mashup I created called Backyard Birds in Winter. I used Middlespot, a free tool that allows you to combine text, pictures, video, web links and embedded web content on a customizable background. You can share your mashup by sharing the URL or embedding it on your own webpage or blog. Here's my mashup embedded on this blog.

I did it just like embedding a video: click on "share" then "embed" then copy the code and paste into the HTML editor of blogger. You can look at the mashup by grabbing and moving it with your cursor.

If you want to access your Middlespot mashups on other computers or browsers, you'll need to sign up for a free account.

A visual mashup is not the only type of mashup. Data mashups combine multiple data sources to allow you to cross reference or cross analyze different data points. Check out DataMasher. With a free account on DataMasher, you can create your own custom data sets; without an account, you can look at data sets created by other users. Data comes from data.gov and other state and federal governmental sources.

Bear in mind, this is not considered rigorous statistical analysis--because the data sets are determined by users, and the information on cross-referenced data sets may or may not have a strong relationship. As my colleague Randy Christiansen says "correlation is not causation."

Mashups are, however, a great place to start looking at ideas, trends, and data--in other words, a great brainstorming tool. Mashups are user friendly (and user-generated) and visually appealing.

Thing 3 Assignment:

Using Middlespot, create a mashup on some topic that's of interest to you these days--something you would enjoy writing about . . . but maybe don't have the time to do full research on right now. Could be a hobby you have, a band you like, a country you want to visit, a camera you wish you could buy, a news story you're fascinated by . . . "Mash" together images, text, embedded web content, video and/or audio and move them around into a pleasing collage before saving.

Also, take a look at Datamasher--can you use any of the data for your visual mashup?

In your blog, post a link to your mashup (or even embed it into your blog) and write about the experience:

• how did the collage-like aspect of the mashup work help (or not help) your creative capacity?
• did you enjoy the visual aspect--moving items around and creating a pleasing collage?
• what are the advantages to a mashup versus a written story on a topic? disadvantages?
• is Datamasher a great tool for writers? Or is it "lying with numbers"? Or "a cool way to get ideas for opinion papers"?

Thing 2: Making the most of Blogger

Blogs that only have text are boring. And they don't make the most of the multi-media aspect of web 2.0. So for this "thing" I'm asking you to use some of Blogger's tools to make your posts more exciting.

Simple formatting

There are some simple things you can do to make your blog more interesting. You can see from the toolbar across the top of a blogger page many icons that are familiar.

You can make text larger, bold it, use italics, or even use lots of amazing colors for text. These tools can be used as toys, or they can be used rhetorically, to make your writing work better.

Images

In addition, Blogger offers icons that allow you to make the most of Web 2.0. For example, you can post a picture.

That's a "virtual cadaver," created by a software company in Iowa City. I just wrote a story about it for the Gazette's Engineering Today tab.

Just click on the picture icon (next to the spell check) and follow the directions. Pictures will always end up at the top of the post; you can cut and paste them where you want them.

Links

You can also share your favorite links. Just highlight the word you'd like to make into a link, and click the globe/chain icon. Enter the URL. For example, here's a link to the New York Times website.

Video

I haven't had luck with the "add video" icon at the top. I usually post video to You Tube and then use the embed code to embed videos I've created. You can find the embed code right below the video. Click on "embed" and the code will be highlighted. Copy it and paste it into your blog.

BUT don't forget to click on the "edit HTML" tab when you paste in the embed code. It's in HTML.

Here's a feature story video I created about a giant Easter Island Head in Iowa . . . .

Or sometimes, I just embed the code for someone else's video I think is worth sharing, like this one that shows how a new technology can really throw people off . . .

Thing 2 Assignment:

For this Thing, I'd like you to create a blog post that shares:

• a photo
• a link
• a video--either your own, or a writing-themed video from YouTube. You do know how to use YouTube, don't you?

Also, use font size to create subheads and play around with at least one other formatting icon (quotes, bullets, etc.)

Thing 1: Web 2.0 and blogging

Welcome to 13 Things for writers. This project will provide you an overview of how you, as a writer, can make the best use of Web 2.0. Some of you have a good idea (you're probably tweeting about it right now!), but you're looking for some new insights. Some of you haven't got a clue and are sick of hearing all this techie stuff! Throughout this project, I hope you gain a better understanding of how this concept is changing the way we write.

To set the stage, please watch the "Did You Know? (Shift Happens)" video below. This video is in its 4th version, and was actually created by one of Iowa's own, Scott McLeod. Scott is a professor at Iowa State, and is a well-known professional in the world of educational technology.

Here's another video. Do you notice the similar set up--tech music, quick cuts :-)

As a 20-something writer, you are expected to have a good handle on how Web 2.0 works. Author Marc Prensky ("Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants") calls you a "digital native"--you were practically born with a cell phone in your hand, and you learned keyboarding when people of my generation were learning cursive.

However, I've found that while many "digital natives" are great users of Web 2.0--you have facebook accounts and shop online--you're not necessarily in the drivers' seat. What about you? Do you keep a blog? Do you have a Twitter or Delicious account? Have you participated in the creation of a Wiki?

Maybe you have, and maybe you haven't, but one thing is sure: when you graduate, employers will expect you to be savvy about digital communication of all kinds. This project will help you reach toward that goal--and develop your own digital footprint.
Now that we've got some background and insight, let's get started!

THING 1: Building Your Blog
You'll use your blog to record your discoveries as you progress through the 13 Things. I recommend you use Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is easy to use.

Create a blog using Blogger is easy:

• Create a gmail account. Unfortunately, the Coe email address won't work to set up a blog. But that's OK. You'll need another address once you graduate anyway--to send out employment materials, etc. You can set up a gmail account right on the blogger site. Keep in mind that you probably don't want to send out resumes from an account called "hotmama@gmail.com." How embarrassing. Use your first and last name, or something similar.
• Set up your blog. Just follow the instructions. The "Display Name" is your name on the blog. You can use your first name, or an alias.
• Name your blog. Be creative.
  
• Select your template.


Once you've created your blog here are two important things to know:

• To add posts: the interface you will use to add posts, edit or change the set-up of your blog is "blogger.com," accessed at http://www.blogger.com. Be sure to write down your login and password.
• To view your blog: To read the blog, use the "blogspot.com" address. Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com (xxxx)=the unique identifier (name) you entered in Step 2. Be sure to also write down your blog address.


If you run into questions or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger, check out Blogger's Quick Tutorial (just follow the orange arrows to learn more).

Discovery Exercise:
• Get your blog set up
• Add a post called "Thing One" (you can also give it a subtitle if you want). Address these two questions:
  a) So far, how have you been using Web 2.0?
  b) What interests you about Web 2.0--what would you like to learn about? Watch the above videos for inspiration.
• Click on "follow" at the top of this blog, so I can find your blog.