The Changing Web World
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The internet changes rapidly and as professionals who support media practitioners it is important that we keep our own knowledge as up-to-date as possible. Up-to-date knowledge allows us to remain at the cutting edge of developments and provide the best service to our clients.
Good knowledge of the latest trends on the internet can also help us be more productive in our research and daily tasks, as we will know the fastest and best places to locate information.
The Web is Changing
It's undeniable the internet is moves fast, new programs, new applications and new uses for the internet are developed every hour of every day.
Recently those there has been a surge of development and some of the latest trends have a big effect on the world of filmmakers and screen artists.
Through this Lens we are going to have a brief look at some of the latest things you can do on the web. This site is intended to be a starting block for your travels, a launch pad of sorts.
We are going to begin by looking at blogs, rss, feedreaders, social bookmarking, tagging and tag clouds. Don't worry if you have no idea what these things are, all will be revealed.
Recently those there has been a surge of development and some of the latest trends have a big effect on the world of filmmakers and screen artists.
Through this Lens we are going to have a brief look at some of the latest things you can do on the web. This site is intended to be a starting block for your travels, a launch pad of sorts.
We are going to begin by looking at blogs, rss, feedreaders, social bookmarking, tagging and tag clouds. Don't worry if you have no idea what these things are, all will be revealed.
What is a Blog?
What on earth is a blog?
Blog is short for web log, an online diary. They have become immensely popular over the last 2 years and are one of the best examples of the internet changing from being a passive medium where we read information to an active medium where we are constantly adding information.
Blogs cover a million different topics, some are online diaries, people share their lives, hopes and aspirations, others are more specialized on a particular subject.
There are some fairly common features though, most have the most recent post at the top and you scroll down to read older entries. Most have access to archives and older posts as well.
Most Blogs are created online through simple free web based publishing programs. Some of the more common are Blogger, Word Press and Live Journal.
Blogs cover a million different topics, some are online diaries, people share their lives, hopes and aspirations, others are more specialized on a particular subject.
There are some fairly common features though, most have the most recent post at the top and you scroll down to read older entries. Most have access to archives and older posts as well.
Most Blogs are created online through simple free web based publishing programs. Some of the more common are Blogger, Word Press and Live Journal.
Some Blog Examples
Here are some examples of different blogs on different topics. Click on the link to have a look at each one.
- Abstract Gourment
- This is a blog by a guy who lives in Perth, Western Australia, he writes exclusivley about two things, restaurants he visits and gourment recipes he tries out at home.
- Mrs Moz in London
- Some people use blogs to keep in touch with their friends, share experiences and news. Lui Sit was the Professional Development Coodinator at the Film and Television Institute until she fell in love and moved to London. Read about Lui's latest adventures on her blog.
- Personalize Media
- Blogs can also be used in the professional realm as a way to keep your clients or potential clients up to date. Gary Hayes Direcor of LAMP at the AFTRS has a great blog on the latest research and trends in interactive media.
- Idents TV
- This a blog by John, he lives in Canberra and has recently finished his media degree. He has a facinated with TV station ID's and Promo Clips.
Some Blog Resources
There are lots of places online where you can create and host a blog. Most of them are very easy to set up and the amount of HTML programming knowledge required is very low.
- Blogger
- Blogger is one of the most popular blog publishing resources available.
- Live Journal
- Live Journal is another popular Blog publishing application, it allows tends to be for more personal online-diary type sites.
- Word Press
- Word Press is another popular blog publishing resource.
- Getting Your Blog Started Lens
- If you'd like to find out more about making the most of your blog why not pick up some helpful hints and tips from blog guru Rajesh Setty.
- Feedster
- If you head over to Feedster, you can see the worlds top 500 blogs.
What is RSS and Feedreaders?
Most people look at an average of 6 websites on a regular basis. It takes a lot of time to search, type in the address and wait for the page to load. Most of the time you find that the page is the same as last time you visited it, no new information.
A feedreader is a program or online site that you program to check all your favorite websties for updates. It saves mountains of time.
There are lots of different feedreaders online, but they all work the same way. Rather than visiting 20 websites, just visit one that has the information from your nominated 20 websites.
A feedreader is a program or online site that you program to check all your favorite websties for updates. It saves mountains of time.
There are lots of different feedreaders online, but they all work the same way. Rather than visiting 20 websites, just visit one that has the information from your nominated 20 websites.
Lets take a closer look
- The BBC Feed Factory
- To learn more about feeds let's head over to the BBC feed factory.
- How to use Bloglines
- For a good explanation on how to use Bloglines why not have a look at this helpful video from the Centre for Teaching and Technology at Michigan State University.
Lets look at some RSS
- Film News from the Guardian
- If you click on this link it will take you to the film news page at 'The Guardian', a great British newspaper.
If you look at to the left of the news there is an orange button called 'web feed' if you click on this it will show you the RSS version of the page.
You will notice it is pretty unreadable, this is the URL address that you would copy and paste into your chosen feedreader program. - Cool Hunting
- Sometimes pages will have a button that automatically allows you to subscribe to popular feedreaders.
Cool Hunting is a site that highlights interesting things on the web. Have a look at the bottom of the second column, you will find a section for subscription. There will be buttons for 'My Yahoo!' and 'Bloglines'. These are two popular feedreaders. If you had an account at Bloglines you could add this feed very quickly by pressing the button. - Seth Godin
- If you are using the program Mozilla Firefox to surf the web you will notice an icon appear on the right hand side of the URL address line if a site has an RSS feed.
Take a look at Marketing Guru Seth Godin's site, there should be an orange square in the top corner.
If you are using a program like Internet Explorer or Netscape to surf the web you won't be able to see it.
Find a feedreader
While Bloglines is popular, there are lots of free online feedreaders available.
- Feedbucket
- One of the newer servies available is Feedbucket.
- Feed Lounge
- Another option is Feed Lounge
- Google Reader
- Even Google has a feed reader service.
What is Social Bookmarking?
Most of us would be familiar with the concept of adding our favorite pages to 'My Favorites' or 'Bookmarks' is a web browser. The problem is though, trying to remember where you saw some information when you are away from your own computer.
Plus wouldn't it be great to let your friends see all the great sites you find!
Social Bookmarking allows you to locate your 'My Favorites' online, they you can see then from anywhere in the world.
Del.icio.us is one of the most popular sites for this.
Plus wouldn't it be great to let your friends see all the great sites you find!
Social Bookmarking allows you to locate your 'My Favorites' online, they you can see then from anywhere in the world.
Del.icio.us is one of the most popular sites for this.
Lets look at Del.icio.us
- Graeme's Links
- To have a look at what FTI's Training Manager looks at one the web, you can go to his del.icio.us account. Maybe you will be interested in similar things.
On each entry you will see if any other people have also noted their interest in this page, often you can find people who find similar things that you like.
If more than one person likes a page it is highted in pink, the more people like the page, the pinker it will be.
Every time Graeme saves a page to del.icio.us he adds a few words to describe what it is. These are 'tags'.
'Tags' are a filing system that allows an item to be saved under several different categories. So an aricle about computer games with grafitti can be saved under 'computer', 'games' and 'grafitti'. - Del.icio.us Home Page
- You can create your own del.icio.us account at the homepage.
Look at a tag cloud
Once you have a series of items arranged into a filing system you can take all the tags and present them as a visual overview of what is stored there.
This is a 'tag cloud'. It can be a easy way to get a quick overview of a collection of items.
This is a 'tag cloud'. It can be a easy way to get a quick overview of a collection of items.
Some tag clouds in use
- Squidoo
- Take a look at the front page of Squidoo, the online teaching system that we are using to bring this information together. Squidoo has lots of 'lenses' - collections of knowledge and links that people have put together.
If you scroll down the front page you will see a tag cloud showing what topic areas they cover. - New Zingo
- New Zingo analyses the stories in Google News and creates a tag cloud, a quick way to see what the big topics in the world are.
- 10 x 10
- Why not take a visual look at the news, 10 x 10 shows the top 100 images in the news reports.
- Graeme's Tag Cloud
- Tag Clouds don't always look that iteresting, what if we took all the feeds in Graeme's feed reader and plugged them into a tag cloud program.... would it tell us what Graeme reads a lot about?
Not so much, we might be able to deduce that Graeme reads a lot of things posted by Cory Doctorow. So all we know is that Graeme reads the website 'Boing Boing'.
Putting it all together
So what can we do if we take all this information and put it together.
Graeme has a blog, that he uses to share his thoughts and findings about the topics he is interested in.
In the side column you should be able to find a link the the RSS feed for the page plus some buttons for popular newreaders.
Keep scrolling down and you should find the items that Graeme has recently added to his del.icio.us account.
Below this will be a tag cloud of Graeme's del.icio.us bookmarks.
Go down further and you should be able to find a list of the web sites that Graeme reads reguarly. This is the same list that is in Graeme's bloglines account, it updates automatically.
Graeme has a blog, that he uses to share his thoughts and findings about the topics he is interested in.
In the side column you should be able to find a link the the RSS feed for the page plus some buttons for popular newreaders.
Keep scrolling down and you should find the items that Graeme has recently added to his del.icio.us account.
Below this will be a tag cloud of Graeme's del.icio.us bookmarks.
Go down further and you should be able to find a list of the web sites that Graeme reads reguarly. This is the same list that is in Graeme's bloglines account, it updates automatically.
- Graeme's Blog
- If you would like to ask any more questions about blogging, rss, tags, tag clouds or feedreaders, drop a note to the lensmaster.
- RSS in Education
- For an indepth further read why not check out this indepth report on RSS in education.
by kwylo
Graeme Watson is the Professional Development and Training Manager at the Film and Television Institute. He has a fascination with technological developments... more »
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