Learn, Share, Play, Create !
Sometimes, all we need to know is how to connect...with a little magic from technology.
Here are some tools, platforms and ways of connecting yourself to content and people in your own unique way. Knowing how to assemble these tools and platforms into your own personal strategy will help you learn, share, manage, and develop what you need in life, not just in work. FUN !
Make sure to check out the THE EXPERIMENTAL TOY OF THE MONTH
Do you use any tools that are working for you?
A Quick Question
Google has so many extra services and tools.
Are you taking advantage of them?
EXPERIMENTAL TOY OF THE MONTH
Testing new social applications and tools
Now...GIVE THIS ONE A TRY...

In just a few words and a click, you can share "What are you doing?"
There are even interfaces to tweak Twitter - like iTweet which offers:
-- Built-in auto-refresh, search and hashtags
-- Full follow, block, notifications features
-- View user bio, location, URL inline with tweets
-- Watch conversations with "in reply to" links
TECHNORATI
Tracking the Blogosphere

Technorati is the search engine tracking over 112.8 million blogs out there. It has a system for registering and catagorizing blogs.
- Wikipedia on Technorati
- complete history and links
- State of the Blogosphere
- complete report on what has transpired up until the present
- Technorati Blog
- Stay on top of what's happening in the world of blogging.
- Technorati Ping
- Let them know when you've updated your site. You can also configure your blog so that it's automatically pinged.
- Technorati Kitchen
- Developing ideas into working projects and tools for the blogger.
Current idea is Explore!. Find the right blog based on topics.
TOOLS THAT ARE FUN OR USEFUL
former toys of the month
- Claim ID

ClaimID lets you track, verify, classify, annotate, prioritize and share the information that is about you online.
Our reputation is tied to our identity. This is a very BIG issue in the digital world.
.- Xcavator

This is a web application that works with Flickr photos. It's image search recognition technology. Select several points on a photo to instruct Xcavator to find other similar photos. You can touch the color, the design, the perspective, whatever you want to use as guidelines.
CogniSign even has a blog where you can participate in development. They want your feedback.
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HOTTEST BOOKS IN SOCIAL MEDIA
The Blog Ahead: How Citizen-Generated Media Is Radically Tilting the Communications Balance by R. Scott Hall
I really enjoyed the book, The Blog Ahead, by R. S more...1 point
O'REILLY MEDIA NEWS
O'Reilly has been a chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge technology development, homing in on the trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

Here's a taste from their O'Reilly Radar blog.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byGo2Web20.net
the complete Web 2.0 directory
Just drag your mouse over any logo on Go2Web20.net and discover another web application.

Fetching RSS feed... please stand byDEVELOP A PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGY (PIMS)
Getting some guidelines in place
We are completely overwhelmed with information from everywhere.Do you have a personal strategy for managing all the information in your life?
Get the tools in place that support and enhance your style of learning and sharing.
How do you ...
... find what we want to know in a format that suits us?
... clear out the distractions? - and yet -
... not miss things we should know about?
... save it so that we can find it again and put it to use?
Having a P.I.M.S. - Personal Information Management Strategy - in a knowledge society is like knowing where you're going, how to get there - and most importantly, how to get the most out of your journey - when going on a trip.
If you really need help in developing a PIMS, let us know.
We're getting pretty good at coaching you through it. We have Personal Interaction Guides to help you pick the right tools to suit your style of communication.
The Web 2.0 Work Group
a resource for collective intelligence on Web 2.0
Check out the resources linked by The Web 2.0 Work Group to keep yourself up to date. INTEGRATED BROWSERS THAT WORK FOR YOU
search, tag, post to your blog or customize your toolbar
- Safari from Apple

Safari is the browser of choice for Mac users. Now Windows users can try out the Safari 3 beta. If you like speed and images, this is the browser for you." />- Firefox3
- Download the new Firefox3 ! On 17 June 2008, Mozilla made the Guinness Book of Records with 13,851,463 software downloads in 24 hours.

Firefox is quickly overtaking IE as the browser of choice. It protects you from viruses, spyware, pop-ups - and comes with innovative extensions, plug-ins and themes. Try Performancing's nifty extension so that you can blog firectly from Firefox. - Flock

This is a new generation browser that lets you search, grab content to use later, blog, tag - AND - it works with your Del.icio.us bookmark account.
There is even a wiki where users and developers can access knowledge and share their experiences.
DASHBOARDS for Getting Myself Organized
web-based access to your content
If you travel a lot - or work from different computers in different locations, these dashboards can really help because they give you access to what you need from your normal browser.
- Google Homepage
- It's connected to your Gmail account. Customize your dashboard with everything Google or add widgets developed by others - easy to use drag-and-drop RSS feeds that you can even move into other tabbed pages - including your bookmarks, accessible from any computer
- Pageflakes
- This is the Web 2.0 model for managing your info - multi-tabbed and RSS'd. In one tab, keep track of the daily stuff you need to know + in another tab, track notes or to-do lists + in another tab, track the key updates for a project. Customize it to fit your needs - great drag and drop modular system. Flickr, hot blogs, weather, clock, Gmail, del.icio.us tags, translation dictionary, and more...
- Netvibes
- a simple dashboard - customize your own page with drag and drop RSS feeds, including your browser bookmarks, access it from any computer - works with Flickr script also
- SuprGlu
- gathers YOUR web-published content - like the blogs you publish or websites you contibute to - from popular webservices and publishes them in one convenient place
- My Yahoo
- a more complex dashboard - customize this page with everything from news, bookmarks, weather, flight search, movie trailers, message center - many choices, excellent help, but perhaps a bit overwhelming at first
SHARING YOUR CALENDAR ONLINE
staying in synch with others

- 30 Boxes
- a robust but simple social calendar that's easy to share with friends and family
- Spongecell
- the absorbful calendar - integrated with email and your mobile phone - great for people on-the-go
- Eventful
- Discover, create and share events that matter to you. It's responsive to your logged in IP address - find what's happening in your area.
- Planzo
- use the latest technology - AJAX, RSS, Web 2.0, XML, SMS - or build your own social apps using their calendar API
WEB CONFERENCING
- Yugma
- Yugma now has a nifty link with Skype for online conferencing and sharing desktops for collaboration.
If you do try this, we'd love to hear your feedback.
Free web-conferencing for up to 10 people
- compatible with both Mac and Windows - reliable and secure
Yugma is a word from the Sanskrit language meaning "the state of being in unified collaboration."
Present sales proposals, product demonstrations, conducting training, project management, customer service, team reviews, remote support and troubleshooting, and collaboration by web communities such as Skype, Jotspot and Salesforce.com.
Del.icio.us
Tracking, Tagging, Accessing & Sharing Bookmarks Online
Save, tag, store and access your bookmarks online. Access and contribute to a global database of bookmarks. Use these tags to access new information by discovering what bookmarks other people are tagging by the same label.
See what bookmarks that others post to Del.icio.us from all over the world. Search for topics using tags.
Del.icio.us lets you tag each link with categories so that you can access them easily. You can also see what other people are tagging in similar categories. And, you can share your Del.icio.us links with others.
You can discover the most interesting sites that are really helpful to your work or topics. Just search for the tags that interest you - like "Web2.0". You can also track what others are bookmarking with that tag with RSS.
TagCloud by Alex Muse on Flickr:

Open an account (or many), get a bookmarklet for your browser and start posting sites you want to bookmark and track and access from any computer.
Here are a few bookmarks tagged by people as Web2.0:
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTAGGING TOOLS & HELPFUL INSTRUCTIONS
to help you with the social classifications for tagging
Using our tags, we can store and access our links, papers, and content. It also helps us access and share content with others.
- Wikipedia on Tagging
- Here is an explanation for the social classifications on tagging on Wikipedia, the online encylopedia created by online collaboration.
These social classifications are called folksonomies, a term you come across many times in social media. In the scientific world, we call them taxonomies. - You're It!
- a blog on social tagging filled with how people are using this social classification system
- TagCloud
- TagCloud is an automated Folksonomy tool. Essentially, TagCloud searches any number of RSS feeds you specify for each of your TagClouds and extracts keywords from the content and lists them in a box.
You can then click on any of the tag's links and see a display list of all the article abstracts associated with that keyword.
You can then script these TagClouds to your blog or site. - Tool for loading Firefox Bookmarks
- loads your Firefox bookmarks directly into your Del.icio.us account
GEO-TAGGING
connecting through your location
It's based on your longitude and latitude combined with your IP address. Some of our digital cameras register the location of our photos this way. Before long, traffic will be managed by monitoring our mobile phones.
- Wikipedia on Geo-Tagging
- Explanation of geographical identification using metadata
- Plazes
- Sign up and look for links in your own area. After you sign in - you can find us here on Plazes. I use Plazes regularly when traveling, so people can follow my locations. It's also wonderful when trying to find free Wifi! They also have a blog.
- Frappr
- Add yourself to our map and - voila! - you are immediately part of Frappr. Set up your own locations and ask others to join you.
- i-Neighbors
- Even though this is only available in the USA and Canada, the concept is about connecting people in their neighborhoods to deal with social and civic issues.
- TwitterMap
- Put yourself on the map and see who else is there.
SAVING & SHARING YOUR PHOTOS ONLINE
use photos to connect with others
Our photos tell our stories and bring us into contact with others. Store, share and post direct to your blog from many of the photo sites. Send photos direct from your mobile phone to many of these sites.Most of these sites use tagging, so you find just about anything you want.
Here are a few to get you started:
- Flickr
- Flickr is so cool. The possibilities are endless. Easy to use, clean in design, and you can upload and edit your photos in batches and organize them in sets! Members can pool photos in topic groups - like Old Photos. See my photos here to get a taste.
- Photobucket
- Video and image storage and sharing. Host and link your images and videos to social networks, auction sites, blogs, and message boards.
- Foto-Pic
- Foto-pic offers something a bit different. They are more commercially focused. I use them for my more scientific photos from the skies.
- BubbleShare
- New site for storing and sharing your photos online, enabled with Ajax surprises like zoom-in.
- Woophy
- Woophy uses location as integral to photos. People share a forum to discuss topics. There's a newsletter.
What does Web 2.0 look like?
Photos tagged with "SOCIAL SOFTWARE"
THE CREATIVE COMMONS
licenses for intellectual property (IP)

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. It is leadiing the discussion,offering solutions and reshaping the way we share and remix content in our world. This movement is led by Larry Lessig, an intellectual property attorney, who lobbies for changes in laws and how contracts get negotitated.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byPHOTOS FROM THE CREATIVE COMMONS
posted to Flickr from around the world
What people tag as "Creative Commons"
Ok - there has been a change of plans between Squidoo and Flickr that impacts this module. Since I can no longer show you a revolving show of photos tagged creative commons, I have to find another solution. Give me some time!
HOSTING & SHARING MUSIC ONLINE
share your music or just listen
The issues around music sharing have raised political discussions worldwide. What is your opinion?
NEW! Ryan Stewart wrote a great Social Music Overview for Tech Crunch blog.
- Pandora
- This is a read-my-mind music platform. Just type in a tune or artist, and see what shows up as your soundtrack for the day. Try the QuickMix for a blend of your favorites. It recognizes my laptop as I travel, so no worries about forgetting your login. It automatically loads your favorites.
is part of the Music Genome Project. - SoundFlavor
- Build playlists that get better each time with adaptive paths learning from your tastes and moods.
- WebJay
- Great place to store and share your tunes. You can also link it to your blog or site for background music. Full of independent artists.
- LAST FM
- Join the social music revolution. You get your own online music profile that you can fill up with the music you like. This information is used to create a personal radio station and to find users who are similar to you.

Open Source Software Initiative

Many people, companies and governments are beginning to respond to the efforts of the Open Source initiative. Access to software and source code, supported by a network of experts, without the heavy costs for licenses and fees, is changing the way people make choices about software that they use. It also creates opportunities for innovation by building on basic software modules to customize them.
- Open Source Development
- "Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.
The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. - Definition of Open Source
- Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The
distribution terms of open-source software must comply with
the criteria defined in this link.
iTUNES
top 10 songs on the chart
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byPODCASTS
listening to the conversations and stories
- IT Conversations
- Doug Kaye really set podcasting in motion when he started covering the most interesting conferences on social media - PopTech, Accelerating Change and SuperNova. Here's where you'll find people like Malcolm Gladwell talking about their books and thoughts.
- The Podcast Network
- One of the easiest resources for finding a range of audio content using their channel bar. They claim to be the first commercial podcast network in the world.
- iTunes 6
- Download iTunes for free. Subscribe to the podcasts you want and iTunes takes care of the rest. Updates occur automatically. Great for managing your music as well.
- iPodder
- iPodder.NET is a media aggregator that automatically downloads content to your machine as you subscribe to RSS feeds. It integrates automatically with iTunes, creating playlists and synching with your attached iPod.
PODCASTING HOW-TO'S
- Learn to Podcast
- Martin Bamford's Squidoo lens takes you through the steps and important issues to get you ready to podcast.
- O'Reilly Podcasting Tips
- Learn from O'Reilly Digital Media with their "Killer Interviewing Tips for Podcasters, Part 1".
- Pod-O-Matic
- create, find, send, listen, exchange, make friends, learn how, connect, share
Easy format, easy to use - iLife from Apple
- Garage Band - the best way to record music on a Mac is now the best way to record podcasts, too.
VIDEO-BLOGGING, VLOGGING
storing, accessing and sharing your digital video
- MediaMax
- MediaMax - powered by Streamload - gives you a private and secure place to upload, store, access, and share your personal videos, photos, movies, music, and files.
- Daily Motion
- post videos directly on your blog
- Our Media
- providing free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software
- Vimeo
- upload, share and build friend groups
- FireANT
- a video aggregator so that you can find and watch video on the web
- Vlog It
- not a storage site, but the world's first video blogging software
- Steve Garfields VideoBlog Squidoo
- Steve Garfield has a comprehensive Squidoo lens on videoblogging with everything you need to know.
HOW TO BOOKS ON VIDEO-BLOGGING & PODCASTING
books from Amazon
THE PHENOMENA OF BLOGGING
why its growing and changing our working models
Some people blog to share their thoughts, what has caught their eye - or simply to express themselves. Others blog to track something and keep an archive. Some people blog about their expertise.
Technorati is currently tracking more than 70 million weblogs worldwide, with 120,000 new weblogs added each day. That means approximately 1.4 blogs per second ! Check out Dave Sifry's State of the Blogosphere to see the charts.
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- Whatever your reason is for blogging, you will find an audience if you learn how to share your blog with others. People want to share ideas with you.
. - Unlike a static website where nothing changes, a blog is live, connected and ever-changing, fed by comments by others - and also linked to other blogs.
. - A blog profiles you or your topic and can build authority for you in this area.
. - People need to find your blog. There are ways to share your blog and get it into the search engines, like pinging.
. - Blogs are not only written. You can also have a photos blog, or a video blog, an audio blog - or a combination of different media.
. - Building a set of blogs into a blog network is very powerful because they work together to create value.
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READING, COLLECTING & TRACKING OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS
getting a FeedReader to help you get organized
Some feedreaders are just lists, while others help you organize your feeds into folders.
Here are three that I use:
- Bloglines
- I use this as my primary online feedreader. Because it's easy to set up folders tagged with my own categories, I can easily find and share what I'm tracking and reading.
- Lektora
- I love Lektora because I can download my feeds and read them offline. This is great if you happen to travel a lot. It's easy to get caught up on the news, the topics your following, and the updates your partners have made to projects.
- Pluck
- Wow - an RSS feedreader for news and blogs, bookmark manager, tagging, search, and personalized feed portals all rolled into a one social application.
Shadows , their browser tool, is a social bookmarking service for discovering, sharing and managing information on the web. The "Shadow Page" is a community blog for any web page that includes views, ratings, tags, and comments by you, your friends and the Shadows community.
You can also use Pluck's technology to brand a portal of your own!
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
Everything you always wanted to do with it and more...
- Taking RSS beyond headlines
- The people over at www.basement.org are a wonderful source of possibilities for social media and new technology.
- 50 RSS Ideas for Educators
- Download presentation for the Leading Learning 2006 and ECOO Conferences - an ideas guide for educators
PINGS!
submitting your blog after each posting
- Pingoat
- Submits your blog to several search engines
- Technorati
- Tracks all the blog updates
- Ping-O-Matic
- Submits your blog to several search engines
VISUALIZING FOLKSONOMIES
posted to Flickr
AUTO-TAGGING FOR YOUR WORD PRESS BLOG
- Wizag
- " The plugin will automatically assign informative tags to the entire archive of your blog.
The benefits to bloggers and publishers are: increased pageviews through readers finding related posts in your blog using the auto-tags; sending your blogs out to be discovered by readers of other blogs in the community; giving readers broader perspectives and creating more ads space for your blog. "
AMBIENT FINDABILITY
How people find your site on the web
Read Beanstalk if you want to learn more about search engine optimization.
- Peter Morville shares his a wealth of understanding with clear explanations about findability in his blog and in his column on information architecture and user experience.
You'll find his book - Ambient Findability - in the Amazon module in this lens. - Choosing the right keywords and tags for your blog is essential. Search engines use these to match search requests.
There are analyzers like GoogleRankings.
Get familiar with the basic of SEO - Search Engine Optimization - so that you can select the keywords that will work for you.
Check out the new book: Search Engine Optimization : An Hour a Day - Five Link Building Strategies That Work from CopyBlogger.
The way to create compelling content is to focus on "what's in it for the reader."
1. Social Media Sites
2. Linking Out
3. Networking Emails
4. Guest Appearances
5. Article Directories
BOOKS ON FINDABILITY, SEARCH & SEO
from Amazon
QUANTUM-PLAYSHUNS

In my blog, you'll find links to how science, technology, education, and business converge in worlds of communication, collaboration and creativity through media. Join the discussion where it interests you.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTOP BLOGS PEOPLE ARE READING
the most read blogs

Find out what makes the most read blogs so popular. Discover new ideas. Comment on the postings.
- Technorati's Most Popular Blogs
- determined by the number of people who link to them
DOWNLOAD SQUAD
a group weblog on social software
This blog gives you access to the discussion about the social tools people are using and the impact of those tools on people's lives.

Previously SocialSoftwareWeblog!
And, don't miss their weekly issue of

Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTHE LOOK OF BLOGGING
posted by bloggers to Flickr
HOW TO GET STARTED BLOGGING
places that host blogs
Here are some sites that can help you get started:
- Flickr
- Photos, videos, images can say more than words. Add some words as tags - or descriptions. This is a resource with no comparison. Even cities and large organizations are adding their archives to Flickr.
- WordPress
- WordPress is the Open Source host for blogs and wikis.
- Blogger
- Create a blog in 3 easy steps. Blogger hosts your blog for free. It also helps you get Google Ads into your blog.
- SixApart
- Powerful, hosted blogging tools and services - such as TypePad, MoveableType, Vox and Blog.com.
HOW TO BOOKS ON BLOGGING
from Amazon
PERFORMANCING
helping bloggers succeed
A blog with all the info and links to tools and information to help you connect your content to your audience.

They also have a nifty Firefox extension to capture those snippets as you surf, build them into a story, and post to your blog.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byWE, THE MEDIA
people using social media are changing the world
- Manifesto for Social Networking
- Back in 2004, Stuart Henshall established some ground rules for engaging in social media. Definitely worth a read.
- The Wisdom of Crowds
- James Surowiecki writes a popular business column for The New Yorker magazine. He believes that "large groups of people are smarter than an elite few - no matter how brilliant - better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future".
- The Tipping Point
- Malcolm Gladwell - author of the book The Tipping Point - called this phenomenonal change of behavior an epidemic. This is a great link to his rationale for the book.
Since February 2006, Malcolm also has a blog. - We, the Media
- We, the Media was written by Dan Gillmor to capture the impact that bloggers have had on publishing. He called it citizen journalism. You can also access chapters of it here.
THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
the role of social media in context of our economy
Epic Media News ShowWatch this video link. Understand impact of social media on our economy and how it is driving changes for the future.
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