#23: Learning never ends (but the time has come. . . )

Listen to our podcast [2:10]:

Wow! How time flies when you're having fun. That's the power of play.

Even though learning never ends, we've come to the 23rd thing. Just in case you were worried, these 23 Things aren't disappearing, so you can come back at any time and catch up, or add a comment to any of our entries, or explore some more. Because we have feeds to all of your blogs (and we hope you do too), we invite you to keep playing, writing, commenting and sharing. In fact, you can go to the Blogger Template and change the title of your blog (or add a subtitle) so it reflects the ongoing nature of learning 2.0. If you never quite got around to sharing the name of your blog with us, you can still let us know (by commenting on Thing 4.) We know we have some lurkers out there; you don't have to hide!

So now it's time to take stock and reflect on what you've learned over the past 10 weeks. Even if you skipped some of the 23 Things, we're really interested in what you've learned about your own learning during our time together.

Discovery Resources:

1. Go back to Thing #2 and review the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners. Read your notes (is it still in your 23 Things folder?) or re-read the post you wrote for Thing #4.
   


2. Review all of the 23 Things. There's a list in the very first blog post (linked in the sidebar on the left). Think about which ones you enjoyed and which ones you didn't like or just passed over.



3. Read Will Richardson's "Why is it so Hard for Educators to Focus on Their Own Learning?" from his blog Webblogg-ed. Don't forget to read the really interesing comments at the end.

And now, for our final activities.

Did you play and learn? We've played (and worked) and learned a lot. A lot of a lot. So much so that we were challenged by the Goldilocks dilemma throughout our trek with you. You know, that conundrum of whether it's too much, too little, or just right?

So, did you find anything "just right"?

We want to know! We will be gathering information from here and there, from those of you we know, from those we sort of know, and from those of you who choose to remain anonymous. Please consider informing us of your impressions and/or suggestions through one or more venues:

• Anonymous survey responses (use link below)
• Your blog entries (most but not all of yours indicate names)
• Comments on this blog entry (another anonymous option)
• Email us at 23Things@gcmail.maricopa.edu (both Karen and Christine receive the message) or email one or the other of us!
  

Thanks for taking the trek with us and for letting us know what you think.

Discovery Activities:

1. Complete our survey, please.
   
2. Write a blog entry about what you've learned about your own learning during the past 10 weeks.

So we've come to the end of our travels in the world of Web 2.0, but we know we will keep on learning, and we hope you will too. Happy trails!

Christine and Karen

#22: Audiobooks online - without pulling out a credit card!

Listen to this podcast [2:01] --->

Any books on tape fans out there? Modern listeners (and marketers) call them audiobooks, so we're no longer tied to a specified delivery format. Some of us listen on CDs now, and some of us with iPods or another type of MP3 player may have already ventured into downloading audiobooks for listening on more portable devices. If you are among the latter, perhaps free audiobook downloading is something you already do, but maybe we'll introduce you to some new-to-you sites worth exploring.

BTW: you don’t have to have a portable player to listen to audiobooks, you can also listen to them from a computer - and/or burn the audio files to a CD. Some libraries are making available online audiobooks through companies like NetLibrary and OverDrive. Sadly, though, these audio files don't work with iPods! The reason for non-compatibility with iPods has to do with digital rights management (DRM) - and that Microsoft created the DRM protection for audio files without (yet?) making it available to Apple.


Discovery Resources

• LibriVox - public domain titles recorded by volunteers with a whole Web 2.0 community driving it!
  
• Gutenberg: The Audio Books Project - Yessirree, those electronic book pioneers are dabbling in audio, not just plain text files! Audio titles are integrated into the full catalog; just look for the icon on your search results; however, if you're interested in just browsing...
  • Human-read by author only listing,
    
  • Computer-generated audio - again, browse-by-author-only (finite list for now; Project Gutenberg is exploring how to create a way for users to create computer-generated audio on-demand)
    
• Audiobooks for Free.com - First image you notice is PayPal?!? No, that is the correct url. In spite of the name, it looks like they're trying to make a buck (notice the DOT com?) - but persist! You will need to "join" before being able to download, but they do not require you to register your email address (and this will be the last account we of 23 Things @ GCC will ask you to create!).
  
• OverDrive - if the no -iPod-compatibility issue doesn't impact you, this link brings you to a search page where you can search for Arizona libraries making available titles through OverDrive downloading or search for titles (and then check if any of your local libraries provide access).
  NOTE: you do need to download a media software application to listen to OverDrive titles.
  FURTHER NOTE: unlike the sites listed above, not all titles are in the public domain (i.e. without copyright nor digital rights concerns) because libraries are paying for or subscribing to them. So look for Janet Evanovich instead of settling (?) for Jane Austen!
• Check out this great blog post (found by searching Technorati). The end of the entry includes a far more extensive list of audiobook links than included here.
  

Discovery Exercise

1. Visit LibriVox. Notice the equal treatment on Listening and Reading? From the get-go, this site broadcasts its participatory nature.
   
2. Click the LibriVox Catalog link to search or browse for familiar titles (bearing in mind that all are in the public domain).
3. Once you've identified something that appeals to you, choose either of the first two mp3 files - the one that best suits your connection speed). Audio streaming should kick in at first click; downloading requires right-clicking. Listen online or try downloading a file.
   
4. Blog about your listening experience and about the ideas fueling and sustaining LibriVox. Would you consider recording a contribution to the cause?
   

Technorati Tags mp3,audiobooks,LibriVox,listening,audio

#21: Can you hear me now?

It may seem that this Thing is out of place. I mean all those videos you found in your Discovery Activity for Thing 20 had sounds with them -- raucous music or a soft puppy yip or two. But sound isn't the same thing as a podcast -- they are cousins, maybe even siblings, but not twins.

A technical tidbit: Podcasts are just audio files (generally in a special format called .mp3) to which you can subscribe using RSS (remember that from Thing 8?). If you subscribe to a podcast, you don't have to remember to check for new files; you're notified automatically. Our audio snippets at the beginning of each Thing aren't technically "podcasts" because we didn't make them available that way, but we could have done so (and might in the future). Our audio snippets were created with and hosted on Odeo.

Podcasting, in the words of the late great Ed Sullivan, is big. Really, really big. You can learn about podcasting in general from EduCause's 7 Things 2-pager on podcasting, or from Carnegie Mellon's white paper on podcasting. You can find everything you need to know about how to do podcasting on our own 23-Thinger Alisa Cooper's wiki, "Coop's Word: Technology Use In & Out of the Classroom." If you're interested in where we're going in Maricopa, take a look at Veronica Diaz's blog post on iTunesU at Maricopa.

So in this Thing, we're just going to dip one big toe into the world of audio.

A bit of techy talk here: In order to listen to an audio file (like our comments at the beginning of each thing), you either need a computer with speakers (external or built-in) or earphones (that fit over your ears) or earbuds (tiny little things that fit inside your ears). But you already knew that, right? Or have we been whistling in the wind for the past 8 weeks? If you want to listen on-the-go, you need an mp3 player that you can clip on your belt or stick in your pocket. Those players usually have some kind of a docking station or cord that allows you to automatically download your files to them (and recharge the player's batteries at the same time.) But you know that you can also listen to an audio file just by clicking on the little embedded player on these blog posts. We're keeping it simple today.

Mp3 players aren't expensive -- you can find quite a few at less than $50, and you can find podcasts to load on to them for free. Did I mention that there are scads of free podcasts?


Discovery Resources:

In Thing #20, we introduced a number of search engines for finding videos, but many of them also find podcasts. You should see some familiar options: Most Recent, Most Popular, specific categories, etc. Just like with video, you can find your podcasts "raw or refined." Here are some places to look:

• Yahoo! Podcasts (I like their simple explanation of podcasting in the banner at the top of their page.)


• Podscope (which says it searches the audio itself; it doesn't rely on tags)


• Podcast.net (uses categories and keywords, much like searching a library database)


• NPR's Podcast Directory (these are professionally produced radio shows)


• Podcast Alley (select a specific genre to narrow your search choices)

Discovery Activity:

1. Explore various categories of podcasts using a couple of different search engines and listen to some podcasts at random. Make sure to listen to some that are serious and some that are fun!


2. Subscribe to a podcast using RSS, or download a podcast to your mp3 player.


3. Write a blog entry that reflects on what you found (or didn't find).
   

Did you know that more and more podcasting sites (like evoca and Gabcast) allow you to record a podcast from your cell phone? Everyone can be a podcaster now and just phone it in.

#20: Hollywood, Bollywood, and Old Broadway

Not.

Actually, this Thing is about video, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll see your name in lights (except if you’re playing around with Flickr stuff), or strut down the red carpet for the Academy Awards in that gorgeous gown, or earn beaucoup bucks as the latest STAR. Don’t draft your acceptance speech just yet. Yup. We know you could’ve been a contender, but that’s not the point of this Thing!

The bad news is that PRINT has serious competition these days, and the really bad news is that the competition is winning. Just take a look at CNN.com. I have to really search for the news in text; the page is just riddled with those little camera icons, and much to my dismay, occasionally I see video as the default with a little link that says TEXT, as if it were some poor relation, somewhat shabby and out of date. Sniff, sniff.

So much for the bad news. The good news is that every day incredibly clever people are creating captivating video and uploading it to the web to share with us for free. And the REALLY great news is that many of these incredibly clever people are our students! Nudged on by good teachers, these students might be inspired to explain or demonstrate complex ideas in innovative ways that help other folks learn. If not, a lot of the video is just plain fun.

The point of this Thing is to find these videos, not create them (although your garden-variety cell phone or digital camera can do video these days). Techcrunch says there are two options for finding videos: raw or refined.

The granddaddy of all video-sharing sites is YouTube, but it's difficult to separate the wheat from the [umm] chaff. Luckily, YouTube enlists its users in ranking and rating the user-submitted videos. I found a minute about a yellow lab puppy uploaded by edpryan last October 26th on the first page of the Featured Videos. It has 4 1/2 stars and has been viewed more than 11,000 times. It's cute, but my Jack is just as cute -- just a bit bigger now :-)

If you're looking for user-developed "instructional videos," check out TeacherTube. I found this one-minute project from a Google Teacher Academy and "Technology Fear Factor in Education" by CoolCatTeacher Vicki Davis. Clever. [Just a few hints: The URLs for these videos are ginormous, but the links are available as a TinyURL built right into the page. Use that, especially if you want to email a link to a friend. Note that you can also embed a video player in your blog posts or in a web page.]

Then there are video search engines or video aggregators like blinkx, Google Video, AltaVista Video and Yahoo! Video. Note that many of these sites have "channels" or Advanced Search capabilities that allow you to restrict your searches to a particular kind of video, a specific source, or a topic. And HOT OFF THE PRESS -- on Wednesday, WeShow appeared, billing itself as a search tool to find "the best videos everywhere." Modest, aren't they? Or subscribe to Open Culture which keeps tabs on multimedia available free on the web that has (in their view) educational and cultural value.

Discovery Activity:

Explore a couple of video sites by looking at the Most Popular or Most Discussed videos. Or check out the Most Recent. Who knows what you'll find:

1. Using one of the video search engines or video aggregators, look for clips on both serious and not-so-serious topics. Don't forget to play as you explore!
   
2. Some sites allow you to subscribe to feeds for new videos or specific topics. Look around the pages for the familiar RSS icon or the word "Subscription."


3. Blog about what you find. Remember that you can embed a video player in your Blog post either by using the Edit HTML button or by using Blogger in Draft.

Isn't this fun? So much to discover, so little time!

#19: Winners of Web 2.0

Well actually, we the users are the real winners of Web 2.0, but for this Thing we'll take a look at a listing of the best sites offering us Web 2.0 tools.

Listen to this podcast [1:55] --->

Maybe we thought we were cutting edge here, exploring our 23 Things -- but honey, we've only touched the tippity top of the iceberg of what sites are available.

Visit Go2Web20.net to see a listing of more than a thousand sites offering the benefits of the new Read/Write Web. [Thanks, Karen S., for this link - I think.] The site touts itself as "a directory of web 2.0 applications and services." Whether or not the site is comprehensive, the sheer number is mindboggling (not to mention the visual bombardment of seeing all those logos!).

So a "best of" list is a good place for us newbies to start. SEOmoz has the list for us: the 2007 Web 2.0 Awards. Browse the list - you'll see some familiar sites, and you might wonder why other familiar ones didn't make the list. This short version makes for faster viewing of the list, but you'll miss the blurbs and interview links on the main award page (not to mention the Honorable Mentions...).

Discovery Exercise:

1. Select any free site/tool from the list of Web 2.0 Awards winners and nominees. Over two hundred sites are listed in all, so you could narrow yourself to looking at just the winners or you could simply choose one of the 41 categories that interests you.
   
2. Explore the site you selected.
   
3. Post a blog entry about the site you selected. What are your impressions? Greatest thing since sliced bread or tomorrow's 8-track tape? Could you see any uses for teaching and/or learning? for your personal life?

-----

P.S. Links to web pages mentioned in the podcast:

• The Webby Awards, specifically the Best Practices list of nominees
• Business 2.0 Magazine's "The Next Net 25" article (March 3, 2006: 3:30 PM EST)
• SEOmoz's selection criteria for award nominees
• Web 2.o Awards Zeitgeist
  

P.P.S. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

#18: Word processing without purchasing software?

And you can access your documents whereever you have Internet access??

And it's free?

Yes, Web 2.0 explorers, this is the new world in which we are living and working and playing.

Listen to this podcast [2:30] -->

Web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications are readily available and powerful collaboration tools. Users can create and share documents without having to transfer or email files to others; further, users need not be concerned about what software (and version) their collaborators have installed.

Online word processing tools like this do their best to have similar tool bars to the omnipresent MS Word. So, for the most part, using these tools are practically identical to the way you create, type, and edit documents using the Word program on your computer. Plus, these tools warehouse earlier versions of your document indicating time, date, and username -- just like on a wiki!

So why not use a wiki instead, you might ask?

Users can share access to documents/pages for simultaneous use, leaving their "mark" for what changes or additions were made when; nobody needs to transfer files; access can be public or private; accessibility is centralized in a single online location. Yes, all these are features common to both wikis and to online word processing applications. However, web-based word processing allows for printed documents and for file format options for sharing or storing elsewhere. These tools simulate programs normally installed as software applications for producing tangible documents - for printing physical manifestations of work completed electronically. While wiki pages can be printed just like any html documents, the formatting options for printing are rather limited.

And at the root, the genesis of these marvels of Web 2.0 distinguish them (even as the evolving uses of them may blur these distinctions). The creative intention behind wikis centered on collaborative databases of information - virtual collections of interlinked documents residing on the Internet. The intention of web-based applications like Google Docs and Zoho Writer centers on production, with the old fashioned physical sense that implies. In fact, another term for these applications is online productivity tools.

Discovery Resources

If you are curious to see "published" documents created by web-based word processors, take a look at these:

• created using Zoho Writer
• created using Google Docs

Each of the above are html pages so you cannot really get a sense of simulated word processing until you use the applications yourself. So, on to the part of the Thing where you do your own tinkering!

Discovery Exercise
As has been my habit, I'm offering options that vary depending on you deep you like plunging in the deep muddy of Web 2.0.

Just Curious Depth

1. You already have a Google account if you created your blog using Blogger, so you're halfway there! Visit Google Docs (or from a Google search page, click more and select Documents).
2. Sign in with your gmail account name.
3. Create a document - or a spreadsheet, if you're more of an Excel aficionado.
4. Publish your document on the web or to your blog. Note: If you create a spreadsheet, you can only publish to the web.
5. If publishing to your blog, edit your post to add something about when or why you might use this instead of posting from your blog initially. If you publishing to the web, provide a link to your document in a blog post and let us know what you think of online productivity tools like this.
   

Deep End

1. Follow the above steps 1 through 4.
2. Go to Zoho Writer to sign up for an account.
3. Create the same kind of document you created at Google Docs and publish it, too.
4. Open a second window or tab so you can be logged in at both Google and Zoho at the same time. Compare views of your revisions. Similarities, differences?
   
5. Create or edit a blog entry comparing Google and Zoho for word processing or for spreadsheets. Which do you prefer? Tell us why!

Really Deep End

1. Complete the above Deep End tasks.
2. Invite 23Things (@gcmail.maricopa.edu) to collaborate on a document you've created - or invite a 23Things @ GCC buddy or any friend to collaboratively work on your document. Note: your collaborator will also need an account with the tool you use; otherwise, access will be read only (not read/write).
   

-----

BTW: the first draft of this blog entry was created in Zoho Writer. I "published" it to my blog (as a draft) having checked the options "With tags" and "Post as draft" - and it transformed the Zoho tags to coded links to Technorati. Amazing!

Technorati Tag: collaboration
N.B.: two-word terms don't work unless you run them together as one word -- even if you put quotation marks around a phrase, the code will only search for the first word. Fixing this is beyond my current html knowledge.

#17: Tee, hee, hee -- what wiki variety

Listen to our podcast [2:00]:

Wikipedia gets most of the media attention these days*, but in our explorations, we have found lots of other kinds of wikis, including the following:

• Wikibooks (a collection of open-content textbooks)


• WikiTexts (a different collection of open-content textbooks)


• The Flu Wiki and The Lostpedia (a genre of Fan wikis


• Nine Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Wikipedia

GCC launched a wiki pilot last year. You can read it without an account. If you'd like to play around by editing or adding new material, let me know and I'll create an account for you. GCC's wiki uses a different piece of software, Confluence. If you explore enough different wiki sites, eventually you'll be able to recognize the different kinds of wiki software.

Discovery Activity

1. Explore the 23 Things wiki. This wiki has an editing password to reduce the amount of spam we have to deal with. It is learning2.0


2. Feel free to edit any page. That's the whole point of a wiki! You can add information, re-organize material that's there, change anything (especially if there's an error).


3. [Optional] Create a new wiki page in the 23 Things wiki.


4. Write a blog post about anything related to wikis. Share ways in which you think you could use a wiki for personal and professional activities.
   

Most wikis have some kind of notification mechanism that can alert you by email when a page has been changed. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click on notifications to set up an email alert. The RSS option is located on the bottom right of the page. (You know how to use that, right?)

Tags are important parts of wikis too. Use the [tiny, tiny] + sign on the bottom left of each page to add tags to each wiki page. You can add tags even when the author didn't.

* If you are interested in the controversy surrounding Wikipedia, we are building a collection of resources about Wikipedia itself in the GCC wiki. You can also read the Britannica Blog's Web 2.0 forum, although remember that they an interest in encylcopedias.

#16: Making collaboration easy with a wiki

Listen to this podcast [3:13]:

Two important features of Web 2.0 merge in this week’s thing: the read/write web and social tools. Blogs and Flickr make it possible for anyone to contribute to the web easily, and tools like tagging and social bookmarking help us leverage the wisdom of crowds, or at least winnow what we find. Now – hold on to your boots, folks – we’re going to examine a Web 2.0 application that combines all of this: the wiki. Don't be fooled by the strange, slightly silly-sounding name; this is a serious application that allows anyone to write, edit, or remove content on the web. It's quick and easy.

There are both free and buyable wikis, but all of them share four important capabilities:

• Anyone can add, edit or delete content. Sometimes you may need an account or a password in order to reduce the amount of spam.


• Tracking tools (often combined with RSS) help you keep up with changes.


• Reversion capabilities allow anyone read or return to previous versions of a page.


• Users can compose pages using simple editing tools. No HTML needed!
  

Discovery Resources
Because of their growing popularity, you can find lots of resources on the web about wikis. We've collected a few, but you can find more using any search engine.

1. Here's a video from Common Craft:

Click To Play

2. From EduCause, "7 things you should know about Wikis," a simple 2-page handout in portable document format.

3. Read Jay Rosen's statement/manifesto published a year ago, "The People Formerly Known as the Audience."

Discovery Activities

We created a wiki for 23 Things several weeks ago; some of you may have found it linked on the left side of our 23 Things blog. (This wiki uses pbwiki, a free site on the web.)

1. Take the PBWiki Tour to learn how PBWiki works.


2. Explore this PBWiki Video Gallery of PBWiki features


3. Write a blog post about what you've learned about the use of wikis.

#15: Thinking about "2.0-ness"

Listen to this podcast [1:58] ---> powered by ODEO

I'm sure some of you are just bursting at the seams with pent-up thoughts about "Web 2.0-ness" and its implications for teaching and learning. We've seen little hints of exasperation or confusion in some of the blog posts, and we find them very exciting! Recognizing that we haven't explored some major tools yet, like wikis, podcasts, videos, and online productivity tools, maybe it's time to reflect a bit.


Discovery Activity

Thing #15 asks you to blog about one or two key issues about 2.0-ness and education. What's bugging you? You can use any of the tools we've introduced so far to find blogs on Web 2.0 or learning 2.0, but here are a couple of interesting items:

• A thread at Britannica Blog beginning in June, 2007 initiated by Michael Gorman in the Web 2.0 forum


• Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? By Bryan Alexander published in EDUCAUSE Review in April, 2006
  
• Pay Attention from TeacherTube or the more raucous Technoloy Fear Factor in Education by Vicki A. Davis (CoolCatTeacher)

Or perhaps you've used del.icio.us or Technorati to find some key discussions in your discipline. What are the Web 2.0 issues in learning in the sciences, or mathematics, or literature or for librarians? Is there a difference between Web 2.0 issues in college and in secondary schools?

Don't forget to use links in your blog post to those others who have sparked your thinking. For example, rather than just adding a comment to Alissa's post on collective intelligence or to Veronica's on School 2.0, why not buld from their ideas in a post of your own?

So much to think about . . . so little time!

#14: Separating the wheat from the chaff with Technorati

Listen to this podcast [3:45] ---> powered by ODEO

By now, we have some very practical examples of how big (deep? wide? vast? huge?) the live web really is. We’re much more than knee-deep in the big muddy.

In this Thing, we will look at another search engine (like Del.icio.us) with social bookmarking features, Technorati. When this tool first appeared on the web, way back in 2002, it was unique, but now it has many competitors that do some of what it does (like Google Blog Search, PubSub, and Feedster).. Technorati attempted to establish a measure of value or quality for blog posts by tracking inbound and outbound links, not just tags. When I write a blog post and comment on your blog post by referencing it, some little meter at Technorati counts that reference; similarly, when someone else comments on my blog post and includes a link to it, another little Techno-meter clicks.

Technorati took the number of these inbound and outbound links, added some other things including frequency and volume of posts, and converted it all into a measure it called “authority.” They maintain this is more than just a measure of “popularity,” much more sophisticated than a simple hit counter or the number of subscribers to your RSS feed. Some folks disagree with their claims (why am I not surprised?) but this attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff is a significant addition to the live web.

Here’s what Tris Hussey says about authority:

Bottom line, blogs that post more and more often start to inch up the authority ranking. Posting frequency is only part of the formula though, links in factors very highly as well. Someone could write 20 posts a day every day for months and not edge up if they are rarely if ever linked to. Then how do you help improve your ranking (as my title suggests)? Post and link.

I know, I know it sounds overly simplistic, however there are only two things in this metric you can control, your posting frequency and who you link to. I've seen time and again that when I slack off posting, my traffic dips, when I pick right back up, so does my traffic. Traffic means people will have a better chance of finding you and when they find you, they can link to you. What about the linking to other people part? Part of good blogging and getting "found" is linking to other
people who are writing about the same topic.

This led to some great writing advice from Paul Chaney about how to increase your readership and thus your authority -- by writing blog posts that readers will value and want to follow:

So, dear blogger, the onus is on you. If you'd like to see your blog stand
out from the pack, post with greater frequency and hang in there for the long
run. One more thing...write posts worth linking to. Here are some tips where
that's concerned...
• Write original material rather than copy and paste what someone else says.
• State a firm opinion.
• Every once in a while, write a good "how-to" post.
• Write some "top ten" posts.
• Break news
whenever possible. A good "scoop" will go a long way toward getting link love
and Google Juice.
• Find a yet unexploited niche, or one that is marginally exploited, and go after it. Become the expert on that subject.

Pretty good advice for any writer, huh? I think I’ll share this with my students.

Discovery Activity:

1. Explore Technorati (Frankly, I find the home page a little silly, but whatever . . .)
   
2. Click on Popular to see the Top listings. On the right, see the Top Blogs and their Authority ratings. You can click on the link to see the Top 100 Blogs. At the top of each Popular screen, you can see how popularity is measured.
   
3. In the Search box, type in some tags of interest. For example, I used college teaching writing and selected English as the language.
   
4. To just search on blogs, use this fast search page: http://search.technorati.com/ I used the same search terms, but I also selected posts with “a lot” of authority. Note that you can subscribe to any search using RSS.


5. Blog about what you discover!

Extra! Extra!

In addition, Technorati’s founder Dave Sifry posts a Quarterly Report on the Blogosphere (now called the “State of the Live Web”). The latest report appeared in April, 2007. You can enlarge each graph by clicking on it. If you love data as I do, these are fascinating reports and can really spark some thought!

Obviously, there is a lot more to Technorati. You can create your own account, set up WatchLists, link to Favorites, “claim” your blog if you want it indexed by Technorati’s spiders, and much, much more. If you explore further, share what you find with the rest of us.

#13: Tagging - a del.icio.us improvement in Web 2.0

Listen to this podcast [3:07] --->
powered by ODEO


http://www.GraffitiGen.com/

During this 23 Things trek, we've used Web 2.0 sites that make use of tags. A brief definition was provided as we explored Flickr, and we could just leave it there (tags are keywords we choose to associate with an image, a title, a Thing, etc.). But tags deserve a little more spotlight time because they hold amazing Web 2.0 potential and have already revolutionized information access.

Tags democratize (or anarchize, if you take a dimmer view) information. They disregard or embrace, as users choose, the usual labels 'the establishment' has always used. Tags give library subject headings a run for their money.

Folks, tags are the hallmark of what is known as folksonomy. And that's a fancy word making reference to taxonomy, the formal classification and hierarchical structure of a topic or area of information.

Tags are terrific! They are

• personally useful
• personally relevant
• link us to other users (social element of Web 2.0)
  
• discovery tools (find out what others' have tagged with same word)
  
• based on plain language (informal, no imposed vocabulary/subject headings)
• freeform - unstructured, without hierarchy (as in headings, subheadings, etc.)
  
• current and timely
  

Tags are Web 2.0 loud and proud. And they figure prominently in this Thing's featured tool: Del.icio.us. Yes, those 'dots' belong there (no keyboard spasms creating staccato typos). Type it in as http://del.icio.us/, and don't stick a .com at the end.

Del.icio.us is basically an online bookmarking manager, but so much more. Because of tagging, del.icio.us stands out on the social Web's phenomena of collective collections.

The site houses your bookmarks on the go. Find yourself moving from computer to computer - and annoyed that you have to Google to get that url you've forgotten or must visit a site's main page and click five times to get the page you actually want? Bookmark using del.icio.us, and you have those pages just a click away wherever you are! While you're at it, take a look at how others have tagged the same link - and use those tags to discover more sites that interest you.

Discovery Resources

• The Otter Group webcast tutorial for del.icio.us
• Take a look at what del.icio.us has to say about itself

Discovery Exercise - lite

1. Take a look around Del.icio.us using the account created for this exercise: GCC23Things. Many of the sites we've explored on our trek so far are bookmarked here.
   
2. Explore the clickable stuff on this page! Click on the pinkish "saved by # of people" link - then look at the right for common tags used to label this site. Do any of the other tags lead you to good stuff to share? Blog about it!
   
3. Back on our account page, look at the gray box to the right: explore different display options and take a look at bundles. Bundles take a step toward taxonomy - do you think this is a good feature or not?
   
4. Feeling just a little bold? Log in to our account (learn2.0) to add tags or new bookmarks.
   

Discovery Exercise - commit

1. Create a del.icio.us account. You might consider this tutorial (text-based, self-paced) for getting started (from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Xavier University)
2. Import bookmarks from your browser and add more tags.
3. From your account list, click on the pinkish "saved by # of people" link - follow some of the common tags used to label sites you value. Do any of the other tags lead you to good stuff you bookmark and tag yourself? What potential does del.icio.us hold for you as a discovery tool (for finding more sites of interest to you)? Blog about it!

#12: Rollin', rollin', ROLLYO!

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ROLOS? No, but a few of those would be yummy. RollYO. Roll Your Own search engine.

Do you have sites you tend to search frequently? The "usual suspects" when you're looking for updated information on a certain topic? Do you find it a little tedious to go from bookmarked site to bookmarked site looking for similar information from similar organizations/institutions/companies/entities? Well, Rollyo is worth checking out. It enables you to create a search tool for your own selection of web sites; this is called a Searchroll. You can create private ones or public ones to share. Take a look at some of the Searchrolls others have created:

• Food and Dining
• Phoenix News
• Triathlon Junkie
  

The first one above is considered a "High Roller." This moniker is bestowed upon celebrity-created Searchrolls or very popular Searchrolls. My attempts at rolling are: higher ed and ed tech.

If in surveying your search results you are impatient to see what a particular site from the Searchroll has yielded, you can click on that site's name (at the left on the results page) to narrow your search to results from just that site.

You will have noticed that Rollyo does generate sponsored links at the top and amidst search results; however, no obnoxious ads nor graphics litter your screen. These oh-so-brief (and clearly labeled) advert interruptions are certainly worth tolerating given such a useful free tool!

Now, we all know Google basically dominates the search world. But even Google knows that the breadth it covers cannot touch the depth that niche, specialty searching can provide users. Rollyo really has something going here. It is making available to all of us what sites like Travelocity and BizRate make money doing. So not to be outdone by this little start-up venture, the Big G, along with Yahoo! and Microsoft, have their own customizable search engine tools if you are interested in comparing:

Google Custom Search Engine - in beta from the Google Co-op. You must have a Google ID to create (which you already have, if you set up your blog through Blogger!). Google will host a search page for you, or you can paste the code into your own site/page.

Yahoo! Search Builder - tool provides for free (without requiring a Yahoo! ID) the code for providing a Yahoo! search box of your own site. That means Yahoo! does not provide a webpage to host your customized search. [Did any of you notice that Rollyo is powered by Yahoo! Search?]

Microsoft Live Search Macros - Macro Creator ID is linked to your Windows Live ID. This tool creates a webpage for you to bookmark.

Discovery Exercise

1. Roll Your Own! Create a Rollyo account of your own.
   
2. Create your very own customized search engine. It can be based on someone else's if you don't want to start from scratch.
3. Blog about what you think of having this personalized power searching at your fingertips. Can you see some amazing potential here? Or are you satisfied and accustomed to "feeling lucky" with Google's searching?
   

#11: Collective collections

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This Thing is all about sharing collections - or taking a peak at or a cue from others' collections that include titles along similar interests. And the first site even shares our thing for capitalized Things!

LibraryThing features that community element that distinguishes so many Web 2.0 tools. It is a social space where people share what's on their bookshelves (virtually - we're referring to titles, not physical book swapping/lending. There are other sites that do that, though, and LibraryThing has attempted to partner with 'em ... but we're getting off track here). LibraryThing book recommendations come from your browsing collections of others and/or from searching The Suggester (which draws from the collective wisdom/collections of others, and well, an algorithm or two and the Z39.50 protocol).

Take the tour or just jump to the very short introduction to LibraryThing. Registering is easy (no long form with lots of info to fill out), and each user can catalog up to 200 titles for free (fees apply after that - but $25 for life sounds like a bargain, if not amusing, as a lifetime online could be just as fleeting as enduring). "Cataloging" your titles is as easy as typing some title words, an author's name, or the ISBN - LibraryThing works with open access library records, Amazon, and the Library of Congress to provide complete records for your titles (and cover images!). Amazing! You can see the Library of Congress Subject Headings and call numbers assigned to the title - and/or Dewey Decimal number, lest we forget that other classification scheme. But you don't have to rely on those stuffy old library subject headings - you can tag titles with your terms!

You can view your titles in list form (in various table formats) or as a bookshelf (bookstore style: cover facing out, showing off those cover art images from Amazon). You can join a group of fellow readers. You can share book reviews. Okay, I'm going on and on (it's all so neat-o, though!).

Now, before I divulge too much to dampen interest in exploring LibraryThing for yourself, I have to point out The UnSuggester. This turns around Amazon's "Customers who bought this item also bought" idea and gives you the bottom of the barrel. You can consider this either the worst book recommendations you'll ever receive or one of the best ways to expand your horizons, widen your world, and consider an opposite (or absurdly mismatched) point of view for a short while (or for just a laughable passing moment, if you don't take up the suggestion).

There is all this and more! Go explore more LibraryThingies!

Reader though I am, books aren't the only collections we hold dear.

There is always music to stir our passions, evoke memories, put a spring in a step. Is it any wonder that there are social sites providing opportunities for us to share our music collections, too?

Here are a few music sites with social elements:

• Last.fm - It strikes me that this one is the closest to what LibraryThing is like - and even partners with Amazon, as LT does, for those who want to make purchases. Tags and "audioscrobbling" help users find and share titles they like.
  
• Pandora Radio - Self-billed "music discovery service" that is based on the Music Genome Project, an amazing, ambitious, and intriguing undertaking (explained in an NPR audio link here [6:32]). Not much visible social interaction beyond sharing "stations;" community is low-key here (if you'll pardon my pun!), but users can connect with other listeners.
  
• iLike.com - This works with iTunes, but iTunes is not necessary. Looks to be trying to appeal to younger listeners (but maybe that's just me?). Recommendations based on algorithm; no tagging feature.

But how can "they" (any of these sites) do that, you may ask? There are various forms of legalese posted, and protections against (former) Napster-like file sharing are in place for the most part.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Create an account at LibraryThing or at one of the music sites above.
2. Find a recommendation that pleases or surprises you.
3. Blog about the recommendation. Does the collective wisdom win you over with something new? Something vaguely familiar? Something you forgot you were interested in? Tell us about it!
   

#10: Generating Play

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Hmmm... maybe we should have thought about renumbering the order of things, so that this Thing could fall right along about 7 1/2?

Karen has referred to this week as Play Week, and it did not strike me until now (and reading Mo's post about the 7 1/2 Habits and Renee's, especially!) that this might have worked better (numerically but in a literary way ;) last week. Anyway....

This Thing is about playing around with images using what are known as image generators.

Image generators? No, you don't need a publicist or stylist - and the generator isn't a backup energy supply (although, with three little ones here at home, I'm thinking I'd very much like a personal one!). What we'll be exploring are sites that allow users to manipulate images by entering text or altering portions of a picture to create something new. We've already encountered some Flickr mashups that do this, but this Thing's tools are not necessarily Flickr based.

So, what am I talking about? The animated sand and surf above is an example. And take a look at this:

What?!? There's a careworn book about 23 Things?! You mean Karen and Christine are putting me through this when I could have just checked out a book?!?

These are just simple examples of images you can make with these generators. Ever wanted a street named after you? Your name in lights on a marquee? Your team's moniker (or alma mater, or pet's name, or vacation spot...) in place of the Hollywood sign? A favorite saying tattooed on someone's back? (me neither, actually)

Other examples can be found among the blogs of our fellow explorers for 23 Things. Marla, Karen, and Kathy have each used the Face Transformer for generating painterly images of themselves. And others have tried the Warholizer (looking fab, Sue and Susan!).

Discovery Resources
Here are just a few of the many sites that enable us to fool around with images in one way or another. The 'big momma' list I found here at The Generator Blog provides lots of links - but also mixes the types of generators (and does not organize them other than alphabetically). Our Thing is focused on images - but if you want to generate a Zen koan, an alien limerick, or a wedding toast, The Generator Blog is worth more exploration.

Most of these sites are text oriented: you insert text (or captions) to appear on an image provided by the site.

• ImageChef
• RedKid.net
• Add Letters
  
• ACME Labelmaker (okay, so it's just a simple labelmaker, but the font selection is so cool - as are the typeface names!)
  

Sites for you to upload your own images or pull in from Flickr (or elsewhere, if you've been intrepid explorers!). As with the above (except ACME), there are multiple options/tools:

• dumpr (you'll find museumr here - perhaps you want your Face Transformer image to appear in a museum gallery?)
• FD Toys (this is a repeat from our Flickr mashup Thing) BTW: FD stands for Flagrant Disregard (yikes!)
  

Discovery Exercise
Play around with these!

1. Choose an image generator tool (among these, or impress us with one you've found) and create something fun. As with the first Flickr Thing we did, if you're hesitant to upload an image, you can just use a text-in-image generator. Most of these sites host the image for you, so you don't even have to download either.
   
2. Share your generated image through a blog entry. If you've downloaded the image to upload it to your blog, please include a link or url to the site where you generated the image.
   

Have fun - remember, this Thing is in the spirit of the 7 1/2th Habit: Play!

#9: Feeding Frenzy

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The easiest and quickest way to find feeds is to search for them. Bloglines has a built-in search engine on the top right of the My Blogs page. You can search for posts (individual blog entries) or feeds (whole blogs) by changing the drop-down selector. Like most search engines, you can get closer to what you want by using the additional search options. Google has a specialized search page just for blogs at http://blogsearch.google.com/

But there are quite a few specialized feed tools that you'll want to explore and add to your wagon:

• Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts


• Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.


• Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
  

We'll explore more feed-finding tools in Week 6 when we look at some more funny sounding things like del.icio.us and Technorati.

Discovery Exercise: Using the various search tools mentioned above, go exploring for feeds. (Remember that this is a "discovery" exercise. You can delete feeds later on if you find yourself getting swamped!) Pay particular attention to the kinds of information you find with each search tool.

• Find and add a couple of blogs about personal interests or hobbies and about professional or academic interests


• Using Topix.net, create a search for a particular subject in the news. Do you like how this search engine opens with feeds from your location?


• Check your Favorites or Bookmarks. Some of the websites you visit frequently may have RSS feeds. Add them to see the difference between going to a web page and having the new information come to you.

Tell us what you think! Here's where you come in. Write about your experience. In Blogger, you can create a new post and edit it as often as you want without publishing it. Or you can create several blogs on different topics and work on them as you go. Just make sure to save your entries before you leave Blogger.

Don't know what to blog about? Here are some questions to think about ...

• Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?


• Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing?


• What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?


• Or what kind of unusual or wacky ones did you find?


• What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

We'll be watching for your blogs in our feed readers!

#8: RSS really is “really simple”

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Wow! What a great list of blogs we’ve created. By now, however, you are probably feeling just a little overwhelmed, right? If each one of us writes an entry or two a week, how can we possibly keep up? Aha! That’s the very clever “thing” we’re going to learn about this week. It’s called “RSS” which stands for Really Simple Syndication. It really is simple! There are lots of explanations, but here’s a good one from Common Craft:

Click To Play

Luckily, Blogger automatically includes a subscription link on every blog it creates (and most other blogging software does too.) As a blog author, you don't have to do anything more. Scroll down to the very bottom of this page and you’ll see it: Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). (Don't worry: "atom" is just a specific subscription method.) That’s the syndication part. See, isn't that simple?

Now put on your reader hat. In order for you to use that Subscribe link, you’ll have to set up a Bloglines account. Bloglines is an aggregator. It goes out and checks each blog to which you’ve subscribed to see if there’s anything new. When it finds something, it lets you know. Once you create a Bloglines account (and don't forget to add it to the list of accounts you set up in Thing #1), you’re ready to play!

Bloglines is really a personal web page, so you can access it from any computer using the URL: http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs However, many people install "extensions" to integrate Bloglines into IE or Mozilla or Firefox. See all the options on the "My Blogs" page. (I highly recommend you install a "Notifier." Even if your browser isn't open, it will tell you if Bloglines has found anything new for you. How easy is that?)

Discovery Exercise:

1. Set up a Bloglines account


2. Subscribe to the 23 Things blog. Open your Bloglines/My Blogs page in another window. Click Add on the top of the left panel. Now back on this page, click on the Subscribe link at the very bottom of this 23 Things page. Copy the URL of the Window that opens into the Blog or Feed URL box and click the Subscribe button. Or watch this YouTube video created by Helene Blowers: Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines


3. Subscribe to one or two (or all) of the 23 Things participants’ blogs. You can do this by selecting the blogs from the list on the left, scrolling to the bottom of each blog, and clicking the Subscribe link.

Now, you will know when there are any new entries in any of our blogs, just by checking one place. See, it's as simple as 1-2-3.

Extra! Extra! Select a notifier from the My Blogs page and add it to your desktop.

Discovery Resources (for those, like Oliver, who want some more . . .)
There are lots and lots of resources about RSS, so if you're interested in knowing more, it's easy to get knee deep in the big muddy before you go very far.

• Read Chapter 5 in Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. A version of this chapter is available online.
• CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.
• Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
• A 2-page handout from Educause's Learning Initiative
• And don't forget your friends. Alisa has created a screencast here that explains Google Reader, another kind of feed reader or aggregator like Bloglines.

It doesn't really matter which aggregator you use. Once you're comfortable with Bloglines, you can explore multiple readers and read the recommendations of others. It’s a bit like searching for the holy grail. You can easily export your feeds from Bloglines to other readers or import from other readers into Bloglines.

Tell us what you think! Once you’ve set up a Bloglines account, come back here and add a comment to this post letting us know you’ve been successful. It’s important to us to know that you’re not lost in the deep muddy. We really like reading about your adventures!

#7 Blog about Technology

For this thing, just blog about any interesting technology you've used, seen, been exposed to or heard mention of. Also, please comment on some else's blog entry.



I used SitePal to create this animated speaking character (using a limited free trial) and asked my daughter to provide the audio. [As of July 17, this link has been deactivated due to the end of the free trial!]

#6: Flickr Fun - and then some!

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If you thought Flickr was cool in and of itself (I certainly did!), there are a gazillion more things to do and see using Flickr that will amaze you!

Continuing the web frontier spirit of sharing, Flickr invites users to go forth and experiment. For those with technical expertise, this invitation prompts creative design challenges for building new online applications. For those of us without technical expertise, this provides an almost dizzying array of Flickr-based tools that go above and beyond our humble digital dreams.

Examples:

• The the images above, spelling Thing #6, were generated using Spell with flickr. *
• Flickr Postcard Browser - enter a place name to search and watch an array of thumbnail Flickr images as they arrange themselves all over a black screen; click on one for a close-up view. Click the image again to return to the thumbnail screen selection.
• Color Fields Colr Pickr - color wheel with scale for changing hue/tone.
• Flickeur pulls random images from Flickr to merge, move and blend them into an artistically unique display with electronic music. It can be odd and beautiful (from one moment to another!).

Wow, huh?

Now, if you noticed the urls, these are not Flickr addresses.

These are created and hosted elsewhere by those blessed techno-experts who took Flickr, went forth, and multiplied its power. These folks (who will excuse me, please, if I misapply the use of jargon here) have written APIs (application program interfaces) using Flickr's API to create new programs based on Flickr content but transforming or translating it into either new interactive tools or new displays.

These are "mashups." People smoosh two (or more) cool ideas together with tech know-how to create hybrid web applications. When these applications are made available to us, they become third party tools. Ready to mix and mash?

Discovery Exercise:

Two routes for this discovery exercise - no commitment (just play online) or invest something of yourself (err, well, of your images). Whatever trek you undertake, please write a blog entry about it.

1. Low threshold: Just play around with dynamic tools

• A game called Matchr that presents 16 Flickr photos that look random, but are actually 8 pairs with matching tags. If you get the gist my brief explanation, I recommend skipping the beginner stuff in the main "Hi there" box and just clicking the New Puzzle link at the right, midway down the screen.
• Solve an online image puzzle - jigsaw, slide and stick puzzles, play around with kaleidescope variations - variety of options. Scroll down to browse categories, top 40 lists of popular puzzles/images, or search by keyword (on left, more than halfway down scrolled page).
• Flickr Sudoku!
  

2. Taking it up a notch: Do something with image(s) of your choosing

• Use the Warholizer to create pop art out of one of your images. Or choose another mashup from fd's Flickr toys site. Flickr lists this guy's tools at the top of their list!
  
• Create an online jigsaw puzzle! FlashPuzzleZone provides a template for you here. Note: your image will be scaled down as necessary due to parameters for the program and some images work better others. But if it turns out for you, FlashPuzzleZone provides the html code to you, so you can post it to your blog.
• Create a slideshow/animated gif of your Flickr images using Gickr. If you're a digital photo-taker like I am (inexpert), you click click click trying to get just the right shot. This tool looks to be the thing to make use of all those lame shots leading up to just the right one! Again, as with the tool above, not all your images may work well.
  

*Okay, actually only Thing and 6 were generated there. This tool does not create spaces between words nor does it seem to have all typical keyboard symbols. So, I went into Flickr, searched for pound sign (disregarded British pound sterling and other stuff and fortunately found a Creative Commons image originally uploaded by mag3737). His tag is actually poundsign, but Flickr found the variation for me! I inserted the uploaded image between what Spell with flickr provided.

#5: Discovering Flickr

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Let's Dance!
Originally uploaded by greeneyedhedgehog

Flickr - yes, that's not a typo. There isn't an e missing between those last two consonants.

Flickr is a web tool for posting and sharing photos openly online. There are other tools and photo sites, but Flickr sort of revolutionized this web photo album idea (and it's very Web 2.0).

First, Flickr took 'sharing' to a new level by allowing users to make public or private individual photos; then, Flickr added a feature called tags (with a cute little tag/label icon). Tags are keyword labels users associate with their images. They are not unique to Flickr, but my background reading indicates that Flickr was among the first (if not the first) photo site to making tagging available. We'll be getting into more tagging in Week 6.

So, for this 5th Thing, we encourage you to look at Flickr and find out what it's all about. Okay, maybe not what it's all about, but check it out!

You can head straight to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) to start your own exploration, or you might want to start with their tour.

• Tour (7 pages of brief info)
• Explore
  
• Here's some info about tags. And/or here are examples of popular Flickr tags
• Images from the last 7 days WARNING! Hitting that reload button might absorb a lot of your time
• About interestingness, Flickr's great word for Last 7 days photo selection and a very vague explanation of how they apply it...
  
  

Discovery Exercise:

In this discovery exercise, you have three options… one involves creating an account, the other involves multiple steps to avoid creating a Flickr account but still selecting an image to blog about, the last involves using a digital image you already have (and creating an account).

For all of these options, my verbosity will make the instructions look daunting, but really, this stuff is easier than the length of this page makes it look!

Option 1
Creating an account is really pretty easy - but it is another account (refer again to tips on keeping track of accounts from Karen's first podcast - #1: The first thing!). Well, it's sort of two more accounts but really one account that let's you do more stuff in other places. Flickr requires a Yahoo! ID (essentially a Yahoo! email address) for creating an account - but they walk you through this step by step. [If you already have a Yahoo! email account, just use that and log in right away.]

Once you have the account created, Flickr will ask you for a screen name - it doesn't have to be the same as your account name. Have fun! People have cool, fun, and mysterious screen names. And then you can create an icon for yourself (photo of yourself or an image of anything you like) - or leave it as the default indifferent emoticon. Add as much or as little to your profile as you wish (or are ready to complete at this point) on the Personal Information tab. Before finishing your profile, though, click on the Extending Flickr tab to link your blog to your Flickr account.

Under Your blogs click the link "Configure your Flickr-to-blog settings" then Set up your blog. If you set up a new Blogger account for Thing #3, you'll use the first (default) tool listed, "Blogger Blog (New)," and click the Next button. The next page will say stuff about beta, beta.blogger.com, and things that might confuse you and me, so just click the link "Head over to Google now."

Enter your Google/Blogger/Gmail account and password, then on the next page Grant Access. Flickr assumes you have more than one blog (what a compliment to us newbies!); just click next if your blog title shows. Confirm the blog settings, click All Done. You then have an option for creating a custom post template, layout and settings for posting images to your blog.

You're done with account creation and linking your blog.

Now, go find a picture! Just about every page in Flickr has a search field in the upper right - even the one where you just finished linking your blog. Search for something you fancy. The Italian Alps? snow cones? serenity? From the search results page, click on the image you like best.

The page displaying the single photo will present, just above the image in gray text and icons, options of what you can do with the photo. Select the "Blog this" option and follow the prompts. You can edit this later when you log into your Blogger account (or change it from published post to a draft as I did with the image above while I fretted over verbiage).

Option 2
So, you're not ready to create yet another account. But we still want you to actively explore Flickr. Remember one of the few rules we have? Rule 2 is Share - and Flickr is so good about sharing! They have even incorporated Creative Commons licensing with the images available publicly.

Okay, so head to Flickr and search for something of interest to you. The beach? windswept plains? a Snickers bar?

Got one? An image, that is, not a candy bar.

3 Ft R > 1,
originally uploaded by
MyAngelG.

Select your favorite from among the results and click on it. On the page with the single image, just above the picture you'll see a magnifying glass icon and "All sizes" - click on that button. This brings you to a download page with options for the size you want (mind you, you'll be downloading this for your blog, so think about what size image you want there). Select your size and download the image. Make a note about who posted this image so you can provide an attribution and/or a link to the Flickr page.

Now log into your blog, create a new entry and "add image" following Blogger instructions for uploading images. Publish your post!

Option 3

If you have lots of digital images, you might want to browse through them before getting into Flickr so you have something in mind to start uploading to your Flickr account.

Head to Flickr to set up an account if you don't already have one. Flickr requires a Yahoo! ID (essentially a Yahoo! email address) for creating an account. If you already have a Yahoo! email account, just use that and log in right away.

Once you have the account created, Flickr will ask you for a screen name - it doesn't have to be the same as your account name. Then you can choose to create an icon for yourself (photo of yourself or an image of anything you like) - or leave it as the default indifferent emoticon. This was an obstacle for me because I didn't have a small enough image to use for an icon. (That'll be my 24th thing, maybe?). Add as much or as little to your profile as you wish (or are ready to complete at this point) on the Personal Information tab. Before finishing your profile, though, click on the Extending Flickr tab to link your blog to your Flickr account.

Under Your blogs click the link "Configure your Flickr-to-blog settings" then Set up your blog. If you set up a new Blogger account for Thing #3, you'll use the first (default) tool listed, "Blogger Blog (New)," and click the Next button. The next page will say stuff about beta, beta.blogger.com, and things that might confuse you and me, so just click the link "Head over to Google now."

Enter your Google/Blogger/Gmail account and password, then on the next page Grant Access. Just click next if your blog title shows (if you have more than one Blogger page, there is a drop down menu of your blogs). Confirm the blog settings by clicking All Done. You then have an option for creating a custom post template, layout and settings for posting images to your blog.

You're done with account creation and linking your blog.

Now, upload an image or two (or as many as you wish!). Once you have uploaded an image, you can blog from that image page! Look just above the image to find gray text and icons giving you options of what you can do with the photo. Select the "Blog this" option and follow the prompts. The title of the blog entry defaults to the image title, but you can change that. Type in blog entry and hit the Post Entry button. (You can edit this post more extensively when you log into your Blogger account.) Pretty cool, huh?


Notes about searching in Flickr

• use quotation marks around phrases (otherwise Flickr inserts AND between words)
• the ubiquitous Search box searches on full text, not just tags; you can narrow your search somewhat from the results page by clicking the option "Tags only" and re-running your search.
  
• to go directly to a search page for searching tags only, click on the Search link next to the search box (without typing anything in search box)
• looks like it automatically searches for both singular and plural (e.g. searching "snow cones" will result in images tagged "snow cone")
  

P.S. If you are curious, like I am, about how the site name Flickr was determined, I found a blogged interview of Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake (yes, that's her last name) and learned that they went for "a name that meant light and motion" - and that she is relieved they did not choose a variation on the word photography.