Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a festive and Happy New Year, with hopes for a wonderful 2009.

Sorry it's been so long since my last post - I've been working on the center's blog and creating one for Volunteer Managers, so things have been quite busy. I also created a Twitter account and have been playing with the website.

On a side note (like I ever really stay totally on topic), I finally figured out how to get that tiny little icon in the address bar and next to the address in bookmarks - it's called a favicon and I used a service called Dynamic Drive Favicon Generator, created the icon, uploaded it to the website, added a wee bit of html and whooosh! Done! I feel so. . . so techy!

I also connected the Twitter account, the blog, and the Facebook page for the center together which makes updating super easy now. I'm not claiming to be Amazing Web 2.0 Guru or anything, but it sure is interesting to learn new things about how this technology works. I can see so many possibilities in terms of meeting my nonprofit's mission. . .

Anyway, have a happy and safe New Year!

Tweet Away Part Deux

So I know that I made a previous post about Twitter, but it was about a guide I found called Twitter Jump Start.

To back up a step, Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to stay in touch with others by updating your answer to the following question: What are you doing?

Now, if you are anything like me you are saying to yourself, "Self, I have very little interest in staying in touch with people ad nauseum. I do not need to know that my friend from college is drinking coffee or that a colleague is at the mall." I hear ya. But consider that Twitter has other applications, as well.

The messages that get sent are called Tweets. When you send a tweet you can choose whether it is private (only viewed by your Followers) or public (can be viewed by anyone with a Twitter account). So one application is you can see what people are talking about by viewing popular tweets. You can also search by word or subject to see what people are saying about a particular topic.

All tweets must be 140 characters or less, forcing you to learn how to convey your thoughts and views concisely and, at times, creatively. Also, you don't HAVE to use your phone to receive tweets, you can choose instead to create an account and only view and send tweets using the internet.

For non-profits, a couple of things to consider. First, Twitter could be seriously useful in a disaster situation in terms of mobilizing volunteers (if the site is still up and mobile phones are working).

Second, many Americans have computers, but there are some that do not. Even more Americans have - you guessed it - mobile phones capable of receiving text messages. Sure, someone without a computer would still need to activate an account on a public computer at a library, but if they choose to do so (and if they have unlimited messaging), Twitter is one more way for you to keep in touch with constituents without computers.

Web 2.0 Awards for 2008

SEOmoz's Web 2.0 awards is an interesting place to discover new social media resources. Now my first question was, naturally, how did they select their winners? In their own words:

After scouring the web for Web 2.0 sites both new and old, we developed a "short list" of over three-hundred sites in forty-one categories. From there, we had some of the web's best bloggers, entrepreneurs and business people vote on winners, narrowing the field to 174 place-getters and Honorable Mentions.

I'd discovered the first place winner under "Philanthropy" already (yay!) but hadn't heard of either Giveness or the fascinating DonorsChoose (a resource specifically for teachers and classrooms).

Another finding of note: according to these awards, Twitter beat out Facebook under Social Networking mainstays.

Deliciously Amusing

So I'm finally going to post about Technorati and Delicious, both quite interesting (to me) more as research tools than a way to promote my own blog (such as it is) or share my bookmarks.

Technorati allows you to search by popularity as well as rising tags (tags that are receiving the most search requests), so it's an interesting way to keep your finger on the pulse. I'm not in love with the interface or the ad placement, at this point - perhaps I'll get used to them. I'd be interested in hearing what others think.

Delicious allows you to view the most popular bookmarks, search tags, and if you create an account you can "subscribe" to certain tags. This last option allows you to find bookmarks that may be of interest to you. I enjoyed adding a few bookmarks (I chose not to import all of mine for now. . . I use Foxmarks at the moment and find it to be effective) mainly to see how popular they are.

Another assignment from the 23 Things is to embed a video from YouTube, which I did in a previous post (RSS Feeds).

Slide Share

SocialNetworking & NonProfits

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socnet nonprofit)

Please don't underestimate the value of Slide Share when you want to learn something. Visit the site, search using terms related to your topic (I believe I found this one looking for info on RSS Feeds, to be honest), and see how many presentations appear!

Depending on the topic, you may want to sort by relevance. For this topic, I wanted to search by latest. I actually viewed several shows that were quite relevant but woefully outdated (the boon AND the curse of social media, sad to say, is that it is constantly evolving).

If you are a visual learner (like me!), then this site is Your Friend.

Never Judge a Book by Its. . . Nevermind

Purely for entertainment purposes: if you have a blog hosted by Blogger, run (don't walk) to the Layout Section and click on Add a Gadget.

When I first did this, I added what turned out to be fairly standard gadgets. Blog roll, archives, followers, labels (changed into Magical Tag Cloud), blah blah.

So tonight I'm thinking, these can't be the ONLY gadgets available, can they? And the answer to that is, in fact, a resounding NO.

In taking another peek, I discovered that there is a gadget for pretty much EVERYTHING ON THE PLANET.

An extremely partial list:

• Jon Stewart Quote of the Day (I was one click away from adding this one, I have to admit.)
• Useless Knowledge
• Sticky Notes
• Weather Forecasts
• BBC News Feeds
• Digg
• Sunset of the Day
• Calorie Calculator
• Periodic Table (Strangely compelling but no.)
• Smiley of the Day (Please.)
• Dog Health Tip of the Day (You think I am making that one up. I'll wait here while you check. Go ahead. Seriously.).

There was one gadget that I was looking for. . . a gadget that lists my favorite or recommended books with pictures of their covers and links to buy them online. Given that information, can you name one gadget that I was not able to find? I'll bet you can. . .

TMI

OK, so I have to admit I kind of snuck ahead. I glanced at some of the Technorati and Delicious information and will now need to go back to it. Clearly I need to learn a bit more about labels and tagging, although I am test driving my tag-cloud (it's at the bottom on the right sidebar - sweet!).

There has also been a decent amount of information that is fairly specific to libraries in the Learning 2.0 guide, not terribly shocking seeing as how it was created by. . . guess. . . place with books, lots of media, librarians. . . yep, libraries.

I wanted to capture a good link about Wikis and file sharing - this page from the Maryland Libraries Merlin site seems to present a decent starter list of resources. Visually I think I've been most impressed with Wet Paint, but there are the ads to consider (and the limited file storage). PBWiki looks interesting, too. Here is a completely exhaustive comparison chart of Wiki software (you think I'm kidding but I'm not - it's HUGE). Obviously deciding to use a Wiki is just the first step - then you have to decide which to use.

Mind you, don't forget about Google Groups, Nings, and other resources out there. In fact, as a little reminder, I'm going to include this so you can check your progress - how many terms do you now recognize?

Tweet away!

Found an excellent guide to day called Twitter Jump Start - the intended audience is small non-profit organizations.

RSS Feed Me, Seymour

Well, I created an account in Bloglines but I am going to go back and either create one specifically for work or just delete it altogether.

I may change my mind, but at the moment I prefer Google Reader. I found the interface at Bloglines to be a bit confusing - perhaps they are just offering me too much along with my account? Anyway, I think the point of the RSS Feed lesson in 23 things is to find and populate a reader, which I've done.

In the event that anyone is still confused about RSS Feeds, here is the simple video that finally gave me my "Ah ha!" moment:



To prove it, instead of showing a link to my public blogs on Blogspot, I've added an application to this blog to showcase some of my current favorites (check out the sidebar to the right).

Now what I need to do is find out how to add a feed to either my blog (does it already have one?) or to my website. . .

Is Social Media for Everyone?

Beth's Blog is just wonderful - I always find something relevant (and timely!) in every post.

Today she was discussing questions for organizations to ask themselves before jumping into social media. This reminded me of a discussion I had last week with some colleagues around this same topic. According to Beth's Blog, here are some initial considerations regarding incorporating social media into your organization:

• Are there pressing organizational issues to address?
• Are there effective or efficient ways to reach same outcomes?
• Does your current/potential audience use social media?
• Are you being seduced by Shiny Object Syndrome?

Perhaps it is better to have a concrete list ... don't do social media if ... or the ten tell-tale signs your organization shouldn't jump into social media:

1. Your computers are falling apart because they are six years old,
2. Your database is a mess
3. Your haven't updated your web site since 2001 because your volunteer left and you don't know the password
4. Your executive director and key leadership just walked out the door

I should add that Beth also lamented the fact that many organizations are yes/no, all or nothing about it. She suggested that a better approach would be to try it before deciding so that you can make an informed decision.

Needle in a Haystack

I think the find of the week for me, technologically speaking, is Slide Share. It is a site that allows you to upload your power point presentations and share them with the world. It is also a great place to go to view slide presentations (you can search by topic, presenter, and other search criteria). It includes widgets to add presentations to your blog (stay tuned!) and is now part of LinkedIn, which just added several new applications.

According to the LinkedIn blog, "The nine applications that you see live today on LinkedIn include productivity enhancing applications from Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit, and WordPress as well a Company Buzz application developed by LinkedIn. Each of these applications will help you stay current and competitive as a professional in today’s rapidly changing business world."

As a member of Plaxo, Collective X and LinkedIn, I have to say that LinkedIn seems to be the most relevant to me, and even more so since this update. I've connected with far more people on LinkedIn than on the other platforms. I'm enjoying the groups feature and look forward to trying out some of the new applications soon.

Doggie Dreams and Stranger Things

So I am on to the Flickr exercise. Naturally I searched under "dog" and found this gorgeous image called "Dog Dreams."

I am trying to figure out this Creative Commons agreement. . . it says that I can use the image if I attribute it, ". . . in the manner specified by the author." Trouble is, I can't figure out how the author would like to be attributed. So I'll go ahead and say that this picture was taken by Flickr member bobmarley753 and hope that it is enough.

It received a number of positive comments from other Flickr members. I also learned that there is a FlickrEnvy group (by invitation only!) for outstanding photos, but somehow I suspect that I won't be invited into that group any time soon. Hahahaha!

I went on to try theFlickr mashup exercise and created this little gem:

The Reluctant Blogger

I never thought that I would become a blogger. For the longest time I thought of blogs as "online diaries" posted by people specializing in drama. I suppose that these types of blogs exist, but I've also found some incredible blogs, too, the kind that grab you and say, "Hey! Check this out!"

There is SO MUCH happening in the world today. I've discovered a handful of blogs that keep me informed, that introduce me to new technology or new ways of USING existing technology, and even a couple that keep me up-to-date on writing and cooking and what is happening in my own community. What is even more interesting, blogs can help you view the world through a different lens when you, for example, read a blogger's reaction to a news headline or a local happening.

Maybe this blogging thing has something going for it, after all. . .