Blogs. You've seen the word, you've seen the web sites and you may even have one. But have you ever wondered: What's the big deal about blogs? To make sense of blogs, you have to think about the news and who makes it. We'll look at news in the 20th vs. the 21st century to make our point. In the 20th century, the news was produced professionally. When news happened, reporters wrote the stories and a tiny group of people decided what appeared in a newspaper or broadcast. Professional news was mainstream: general and limited. The 21st century marked the point where news became both professional and personal. As blogs became popular, they created millions of news sources and gave everyone an audience for their own version of news. With a blog...A business owner can share news about his business A mother can share news about her family Or a sport star can share news with fans These people are all "bloggers".
How did this happen? Let's say you have a blog about green living and outdoor photography. Wikis. These four friends are going on a camping trip. They need to bring the right supplies because they're backpacking. The group needs to plan and plan well, so coordination is key. They're all computer users, so they start planning with an email. It's start with one, but then becomes a barrage. Email is not good at coordinating and organizing a group's input. The important information is scattered across everyone's inbox. There is a better way. Most wikis work the same. The buttons are really important. Here are our camping friends and here is a wiki website. Once you're finished editing, you click save and the document becomes a webpage once again, and is ready for the next person to edit it - easy!
Edit - Write - and Save. Mary signs up for a wiki site and then sees the new site for the first time. Now it's John's turn. Henry visits the wiki, clicks edit and he can edit the page. Frank saves the page and realizes something awesome. But wait! Social Networking. Networks get things done. Whether it's sending a letter or lighting your home. Networks make it happen. To get from Chicago to Santa Fe, we need to see the network of roads that will get us there.
We see that Chicago is connected to St Louis, which is connected to Dallas, which is connected to Santa Fe. Of course, people networks can help us with finding jobs, meeting new friends, and finding partners. The problem with social networks in the real world is that most of the connections between people are hidden. This problem is being solved by a type of web site called a social networking site.
Here's how it works. When you find someone, you click a button that says, "Add as Friend". What's really cool, is that you can see who your friends know, and who your friends' friends know. This solves a real world problem because your network has hidden opportunities. Social Bookmarking. It's just too much. Did you know that there are over 15 billion web pages? To make sense of it all, we need to pluck out the best pages and save them for later. We have choices.
We could bookmark or add to favorites in our web browser. Nah, it quickly becomes messy. There's a new way that doesn't use a browser. We'll focus on three things: How to get started with bookmarking, how bookmarks are organized by tags, and why this kind of bookmarking is social. First, go to delicious.com to sign up for a free account. Consider this example, you are a teacher who often uses the web to find math lessons for 8th graders. Here's what happens when you tag a site: a new window opens and asks for more information.
When you save a page like this, two things happen. Let's fast forward two months to make our second point: Why tags are so important. To find all your sites about algebra, you click the algebra tag, and voila, one hundred becomes three. Think about your fellow teachers. Online Photo Sharing. When asked what should be saved in a fire, along with family and pets, people often choose photos. If photos mean a lot to you, it's time to learn why keeping them on the web makes sense. As you know, cameras and photography have changed. What used to appear on paper, now appears on computers and phones. No matter the format, we still love our photos and now they they have new powers. First, let's be practical. These days a fire may not be your biggest worry - a computer failure can destroy 1000s of memories. You can avoid this by keeping your photos backed up on the internet. Now, because photos can be uploaded to a web site, all sorts of cool things are possible.
You visit the Grand Canyon and take beautiful photos. Now, let's look at the new way with a popular service I use called Flickr. You visit the Grand Canyon and take beautiful photos with a digital camera. But it doesn't stop there. So, try sharing your online photos with the public. Twitter. So, what are you doing? It's one of the first questions we often ask friends and family. Even if the answer is just mowing the lawn or cooking dinner, it's interesting to us. It makes us feel connected and a part of each other's lives. Unfortunately, most of our day-to-day lives are hidden from people that care.