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

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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.

#14: Separating the wheat from the chaff with Technorati

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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

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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!

#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.