[slideshare id=648808&doc=sequoia-1223625495238287-9&w=425]

I was there to listen to and learn from the best in the industry. I'm trying to prepare a research proposal for my postgraduate dissertation (MSc International Business Management), so this was the prime opportunity to build a small rolodex of willing contacts who would be prepared to respond to some questions in a couple of months time. In short, I went to work, but I had a surprising amount of fun and gained much more than I expected.

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Here is an overview of the university sessions:

Inuda talk from Jon Markwell (Founder)

They're a 5 man team of Ruby on Rails programmers. In a long weekend off, they hacked together HowSociable – a tool to rate a brand name's presence on social networks and the blogosphere by giving the Coca Cola brand's online presence the score of 1000 and then using this as a benchmark.

It was a story of how important word of mouth is to get a product out. This wasn't marketed in any way, and wasn't even announced except in a note on a wiki. The tool is useful and stood the test of time. Users have started to email feedback and feature requests, offering to pay for the service.

Ways they plan to monetise – premium account with black box so popularity can be recorded over time, page ads perhaps.

Myspace talk from Chris Thorpe (Developer Platform Evangelist)

Sustainable communities and how they are looking to change apps on the API so that they're profitable over a longer period of time. Myspace are looking to get rid of apps that have a 2 minute shelf life and that never get used after their first use and viral marketing. To do this, they're launching an app development competition - £10k up for grabs to put their app to work.

This talk was important from a strategic HRM perspective – they're making workers and outside coders hungry to write apps for them with rivalry and competition.

Marketing was also a big issue because the current system of small, cheap and nasty virally marketed apps has been recognised as not sustainable, not profitable, and actually pushing away end users from the service. The marketing isn't appealing enough, and users have developed immunities to these style apps.

The competition, then, looks to address and manage these two business problems – spurring coders into fresh ideas on marketable apps.

Microsoft talk from Bindi Karia (VC/Emerging Business Lead)

“Start-up and stay up with Microsoft”

Microsoft take a different approach to Google and prefer to partner with startups than acquire them. Team provides contacts, technologies, licenses, business consultancy and advice, and sometimes cash.

Partnering offers more opportunities for business later on, adding more b2b as well as end users of a product. Partnering also ensures that products are made under Microsoft supervision yet with the fresh eyes staying outside of the company's influence: allows workers to do what they are best at, innovation goes further.

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There was a lot to take in from the stalls being run by various SaaS and PaaS providers, startups and others. I had a great time in both the Sun and Microsoft lounges, especially the demo of the Microsoft Surface, which you can see a video or two of on my Qik account. I took the following notes from the stalls around the expo floor:

BookingBug.com is a startup looking to sell their service to small businesses such as plumbers, electricians and so forth. They aim to be a classifieds but with an inbuilt calendar system so that when the business logs in, they can see customer requests for service, and choose to accept that booking. Helps small businesses to manage their time, and customers to see when the business is available for service. Good idea, but how likely are they to get businesses signed up?

Swirrl.com is a wiki service being bootstrapped. They've been live for a couple of weeks. 2 man team, very friendly. I was unable to see the difference between this and other wiki services like WetPaint, but I know nothing about programming and real technical workings, so perhaps there's more to this than meets the eye. Very straight forward freemium business model with 3 levels of paying packages. I can see small and medium enterprises using this as a work and collaboration solution, but due to the quantity of similar wiki services mass or larger scale adoption not happening. I'm sure they've thought through the technical side of scaling it, but where's the unique selling feature that would make everyone jump and grab at it? I definitely do want to give this a try though.

Adknowledge is an ad solutions company, looking to take on Google and Yahoo! with their pay per click system for advertisers. As well as trying to appeal to advertisers, they offer ad solutions up to publishers. They have funding from Technology Crossover Ventures, and can't really go wrong with their ad business, it just seems that there's a lot of competition in this arena already. I'd like to talk to them a lot more about monetising through ads and how the model can grow.

AbilityNet provide services for disabled people to enhance their interaction with technology. They're a not-for-profit charity, backed by Microsoft and others.

Salesforce.com were demonstrating force.com platform as a service which is an incredibly powerful system. Looking around their stall, they demonstrated their services for other businesses, providing sales, crm, marketing, channel management, analytics, customisation, integration, and an app exchange market place. The marketplace was what impressed me the most, a place to trade in apps, it looked so simple and functional. The guys were extremely helpful with answering my questions and I'll definitely be getting in touch with them at a later stage.

Anish Kapoor (CEO and Founder) from yuuguu demonstrated his cross platform remote assistance technology. Has an installed client for the desktop that launches the request, and then a web portal viewing for the support. Features integration with Google Talk, so the request can take place through your buddy list. This can be sold to consumers and businesses, although I came away confused as to who was the main focus. With services out there like LogMeIn and remote assistance built into Windows Live Messenger, will this take off?

Cmypitch.com is a way for startups to record themselves pitching their company, be rated and advised by other startups on their pitch, and then viewed by potential investors. I take this to be a way of removing the nerve racking experience of pitching that would take place in an office, and maybe saving some time and money for both sides. It's more than that though: they are another social network, but with a business and video podcasting spin. I assume that businesses will have to pay to be listed in the directory, else there seems to be no way for the site to make money. Nice idea, and I hope it gets adopted by companies to make them more transparent to the community.

Veedow.com is all about "shopping without searching". I was told to think of StumbleUpon clashed with Amazon. My answer to which is why not partner with StumbleUpon? I assume this will monetise by transaction percentage, and probably ads too.

Skimbit lets you research and compile your research into one page and then share this page with others, a little like delicious bookmarking, but aimed more at collaboration. It's a nice idea, but I felt it filled a very small niche in the market, and that there are a bunch of other ways I could put together a similar result. I do think that there's a ton of directions this product offering could be taken. At the moment it reminds me of instapaper, which I used for about 5 minutes and then realised that I saved a lot of time just leaving articles sat in my Google Reader and it was one less page to visit. Skim-in-a-box is great because it lets you put their service into full swing through your own site, a white label service. This and ads on their main site would seem to be monetising sorted.

Empressr is a competitor to SlideRocket. I didn't get to chat to anyone from their team, so I was just left to guess about it from posters and leaflets.

GoodBarry is a webhost that make running your ebusiness a lot simpler. They have made the complete package of services and tools so that a business can be run through a backend web portal. The demo was impressive, and I'm sure they will attract a lot of customers who are looking to set up an online business but lack time and tech knowledge to do so. The interface was exceptionally clean and very quick to learn your way around. I really liked the live feed of usage, that's a neat feature. As standard it lets you keep on top of every element to your business and produces stats on everything from page hits to revenue.

Fav.or.it is a blog aggregator, that to me seemed like cheating: it's like turning your rss feed reader into a blog. You can import content through certain tags, feeds etc and add commentary, or just leave it to gather and publish all that info. What I like is that commenting through the interface actually posts the comment back to the original site that the article came from. Revenue comes from ads by Google, and they're proudly powered by Sun who had brought a surf machine and internet cafe to the expo for everyone to enjoy.

These are the stalls I got to see, the people I got to speak to, and the interesting leaflets I picked up. Time flew, and as everyone began to pack up, the focus turned to the live taping of Diggnation. Congratulations to Alex and Heather on getting engaged! I had such fun watching this, meeting new people and drinking Google Beers. Marketing genius - provide free beer and people will love your brand. A couple of rounds at Fox bar run by Digg and Facebook finished a thoroughly enjoyable and productive day. Many thanks again to all those that made it happen!

La crise dans laquelle est rentrée le web était prévisible.

Le web vient en effet de connaitre son premier Cycle Juglar

Pour ceux qui ne savent pas à quoi cela correspond, un cycle Juglar est un cycle économique (période d'une durée déterminée qui correspond plus ou moins exactement au retour d'un même phénomène) de l'ordre de 7 à 11 ans. Il est  aussi appelé cycle des affaires.

Dans un livre paru en 1862, l'économiste Clément Juglar montrait qu'un cycle économique traditionnel suivait 3 phases: expansion, crise et liquidation.

D'autres économistes se sont interessés dans le temps au travaux de Juglar. Ainsi, l'économiste Alvin Hansen a  observé douze cycles de type Juglar entre 1837 et 1937 aux États-Unis. Ils ont duré en moyenne 8,33 années, cependant entre 1857 et 1937, leur durée moyenne chute à 8 ans.

Et bien, rappelez vous , la premier  crise de web, c'était en  2000 et aujourd'hui, on est en ... 2008.

Bon, une fois que celle-ci sera passée, on aura un peu de temps devant nous, la prochaine ne serait qu'en 2016

If you're interested in social media or have colleagues you'd like to educate about social media, I highly recommend Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's text: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. At a time when many companies and c-suite executives see social media as a threat, Li and Bernoff do their best to demonstrate ways in which we can use social media to our advantage.

The authors point out that the rise of Web 2.0 is a phenomenon that should not be ignored. "If you have a brand, you're under threat. Your customers have always had an idea about what your brand signifies, an idea that may vary from the image you are protecting. Now they're talking to each other about that idea. They are redefining for themselves the brand that you spend millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions of dollars, creating." (Groundswell, p. 12)

Early in the text the authors define the movement they define as "groundswell."

Your company's customers are talking about your brand right now on MySpace, probably in ways you haven't approved. Your support representatives' conversations with customers will show up on YouTube, and so will your TV commercials, intercut with sarcastic commentary. If your CEO has any hair left, he or she is going to tear it out and then ask for your help in taming this torrent of people expressing themselves. But this movement can't be tamed. It comes from a thousand sources and washes over traditional business like a flood. And like a flood, it can't be stopped in any one place. Often it can't be stopped at all. This is the movement we call groundswell. (Groundswell, p.8)

Sounds like a social media tsunami! The good news is that Li and Bernoff spend most of their text clearly outlining the various social media platforms and technologies that are currently in play. For each platform, they outline how people get involved and interact, how it is a threat, and how we can use it to our advantage. The authors give us strategies for engaging and tapping into the groundswell. In short, it is not an effective strategy to stick our heads in the sand and pretend this isn't happening. It is happening and if we're going to win, we've got to join the conversation and assert our agendas online using social media. Yes, it is scary; but it is more scary to do nothing.

This book is well worth the $19.77 it is currently selling for on Amazon.com. Buy it and give it to your manager, CEO, or even your chief technology officer! If they read this book and still don't understand the relevance of Web 2.0, then there is just no hope. I plan to give this book as a holiday gift to several of my co-workers, clients and colleagues.

Protrude into willing public profiles and add them as friends!

Sure, networking is great, it offers one the opportunity to meet new people, potential friends, even future business associates to advance one's personal interests. It becomes a problem when it is overused, and some people suffer from social networking addiction, similar to businessmen who are slaves to their smart-phones. Instead of taking the time to get to know someone by spending quality time together, that focus is shifted to a more superficial level, and it isn't hard for it to turn into a popularity contest of vanity. For me, the word "friend" has become adulterated, or people are just very, very, very friendly when they have several hundred friends each. Who are you again? Wait, let me pull up your profile to refresh my memory.

I find it odd that there are as many uploaded photos as there is, simply because I have a digicam, Mini DV recorder, and other media devices - and I still find it hard to record anything unless I really need it for something. In the case of social networking, it's an added task to update your profile with the latest info, to show followers a graphical representation of what you've been up to. Consumerism of course finds its way into all of this (such as ads and Facebook's gift feature - hey dude, I care about you THIS much!). One of the services that is doing very well and as an addition to the frenzy, is something called Twitter. What is Twitter? Why not ask my friend Lisa Nova of YouTube fame to explain it:

As you can see, it allows users to network and update each other in near real-time. This is one of the major distinctions of Twitter, is how fast updates travel. Users can only enter up to 140 characters per "tweet", so it is very easy to enter updates on the go with a mobile phone. You can follow your friends' tweets and vice versa. There are real life stories of how Twitter saved them, an example is the journalist in Egypt. He was taken to jail while covering an assignment, and his first instinct was to tweet about his situation, and supposedly his followers saw the tweet, and started calling the US Embassy for his freedom. That's right, tweet away my little bird, tweet tweet tweet your way to freedom!

England has a padded street to protect the obsessed from themselves (yeah, it's that bad)

The issue here, again, is using the service beyond respectable measure. I've seen people who tweet almost all the time, so Lisa Nova's video isn't far fetched at all. Just like those who are addicted to texting or talking on the phone the majority of the time (people who text and spend less time actually talking even in the presence of company), one can't help but feel pity for those who have declined to such a state of reliance. It can get to the point where interacting with someone by talking to them gets awkward, and texting is the remedy to withdraw to. I don't agree that it makes people stupid, but I can see that if the trend continues, many years from now, people may become more socially inept in live situations. It is interesting to see how these services have changed the way how people used to act. Here is an interesting article.

Even Olympians aren't immune, gots to get mah txt on!

Here's my Jerry Springer wrap-up. Online social networking and real-time mini-blogs are great services in today's society when used appropriately. However, it is very easy for people to lose sight of themselves and become enslaved to networking services. That's exactly it, it's just a service, not a replacement. No amount of photos, friend tallies, or texts can match the value and authenticity of an actual live conversation. So put down the phone, your hundreds of friends can wait. Take the effort to meet someone live and establish a real human connection. Until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other.

The authors point out that the rise of Web 2.0 is a phenomenon that should not be ignored. "If you have a brand, you're under threat. Your customers have always had an idea about what your brand signifies, an idea that may vary from the image you are protecting. Now they're talking to each other about that idea. They are redefining for themselves the brand that you spend millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions of dollars, creating." (Groundswell, p. 12)

Early in the text the authors define the movement they define as "groundswell."

Your company's customers are talking about your brand right now on MySpace, probably in ways you haven't approved. Your support representatives' conversations with customers will show up on YouTube, and so will your TV commercials, intercut with sarcastic commentary. If your CEO has any hair left, he or she is going to tear it out and then ask for your help in taming this torrent of people expressing themselves. But this movement can't be tamed. It comes from a thousand sources and washes over traditional business like a flood. And like a flood, it can't be stopped in any one place. Often it can't be stopped at all. This is the movement we call groundswell. (Groundswell, p.8)

Sounds like a social media tsunami! The good news is that Li and Bernoff spend most of their text clearly outlining the various social media platforms and technologies that are currently in play. For each platform, they outline how people get involved and interact, how it is a threat, and how we can use it to our advantage. The authors give us strategies for engaging and tapping into the groundswell. In short, it is not an effective strategy to stick our heads in the sand and pretend this isn't happening. It is happening and if we're going to win, we've got to join the conversation and assert our agendas online using social media. Yes, it is scary; but it is more scary to do nothing.

This book is well worth the $19.77 it is currently selling for on Amazon.com. Buy it and give it to your manager, CEO, or even your chief technology officer! If they read this book and still don't understand the relevance of Web 2.0, then there is just no hope. I plan to give this book as a holiday gift to several of my co-workers, clients and colleagues.

Interessant -i un pèl llarg- el discurs del president del Parlament, Ernest Benach, sobre la nova cultura 2.0, sobretot per venir de la classe política, que de mica en mica ha anat entenent que ja no es podrà treballar en aquest àmbit sense les noves eines col·laboratives. Un activista de Twitter i Facebook com a segona autoritat del país!

Una darrera percepció meva, que pretén ser constructiva: penso que el món dels blogs és un univers plural i en el lliurament dels premis vaig tenir la sensació que tot era massa oficial i que la política ocupava un espai massa ample per la varietat que trobem en l'entorn catosfèric. Tot i així, felicitats per l'èxit!

I ja per acabar, un record per tots aquells que em vau votar: m'he adonat que tinc molts amics, molts més del que em pensava, i això m'omple d'orgull.

Tiene un inconveniente y es que el servidor esta muy ocupado a veces.

Existen otras utilidades online similares; a mi la que me sirve es esta y la recomiendo por su sencillez.

También podéis leer más de esta web en: bitelia, leegar y dosbit.

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Tuo yksinäinen vaalimainos lankesi kohdallani todellakin hedelmättömään maahan. En ole koskaan edes harkinnut KEPUn äänestämistä. Ehdokkaan nimeä en tässä yhteydessä mainitse, sillä en halua auttaa häntä Google-näkyvyydessä. Mainoksessa hän poseerasi rinnakkain pääministeri Vanhasen kanssa, mikä vielä lisää kyseisen mainoksen tehottomuutta minun kohdallani.

Edellä viitatussa blogipostituksessaan Jyrki kertoo havainneensa, että "ei mainoksia" -merkinnät postiluukuissa ovat tuntuvasti lisääntyneet vaali vaalilta. Minullakin se on ollut mielessä jo kauan. Lappu on jäänyt kuitenkin luukun päälle liimaamatta lähinnä saamattomuuttani.

Asia muistuu mieleeni aina silloin, kun kannan paperiroskaa jätekatokseen, mutta kotona ollessani nostan saastan luukun alta syrjään niin pienissä erissä, että ei juuri silloin tunnu siltä, että kieltolapun askartelemisen vaiva olisi juurikaan pienempi kuin mainosten nostaminen eteisen tuolille. Tulostimenikin on jo kauan aikaa ollut viimeisillään ja käsialaani en viitsisi julkisesti rappukäytävässä esitellä.

Se ylenmääräinen mainostaminen on kyllä todella dorkaa touhua. Vaikka saatankin pinnallisesti vilkaista kaupan tarjousesitettä, en kuitenkaan sitten kauppareissulla muista, mitä siellä ostettavaksi tyrkytettiin. Enimmäkseen ostan totuttuja tuotteita ja mahdolliset erikoistarjoukset huomioin hyllyjen välillä liikkuessani.

Paperille painettuja ilmaisjakelulehtiäkään en ole lukenut vuosiin kuten en muitakaan paperilehtiä. Miksi lukisin jonkun toimituksen käsitystä siitä, mikä on oleellinen uutinen ja vielä onnettomasti myöhässä? RSS-lukijassa uutisotsikot itse valitsemistani lähteistä ovat nähtävissä jokseenkin reaaliaikaisina. Kiinnostavista teemoista etsin taustatietoa ja halutessani ehdin jopa asiaa kommentoidakin (esimerkiksi tässä blogissa) ennen kuin lehtiä on edes aloitettu painamaan.

Vaikka Jyrki tuossa postituksessaan väittää, että ilman paperille painettua esitettä ei ehdokkaalla ole toivoakaan läpimenosta, on paperimainos puolueeseen katsomatta minun tapauksessani pikemminkin pelote kuin houkute. Helenan blogipostitukseen kirjoittamassani kommentissa totesin hiljattain, että ehdokasta ei minulle ole olemassa, jos häntä ei ole Internetissä. Erityisen vahvoilla ovat ehdokkaat, jotka ovat netissä läsnä jatkuvasti eikä vain vaalien alla.

Olisi mielenkiintoista nähdä, miten kävisi sellaisen ehdokkaan, joka on jo hyvissä ajoin ennen vaaleja luonut itselleen nettitunnettavuutta blogillaan ja sosiaalisissa verkostoissa (Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, MySpace jne) ja perustaa koko kampanjointinsa näihin foorumeihin. Ymmärrän, jos istuvat valtuutetut eivät uskalla tätä kokeilla, mutta vähävaraiselle ensikertalaiselle se voisi olla varteenotettava mahdollisuus. Jos tällä kertaa ei tule valituksi, olisi neljä vuotta aikaa tehdä itseään tunnetummaksi.

Sellaisen ehdokkaan kampanjointi ei edes tuntuisi kampanjalta. Jos netissä on läsnä rehellisesti sellaisena kuin todella on, se herättää huomattavasti suurempaa luottamusta kuin iskulauseet ja superlatiivit brosyyrissa. Sellaista ehdokasta voisin ehkä äänestääkin, jos näkemykset olisivat edes siedettävällä tasolla omieni kanssa samankaltaiset.

0. INTRODUCIÓN

- Experiencia persoal:

• A miña incursión no mundo blogueiro e da WEB 2.0 é a dun usuario medio de internet coa vontade de inserir as TIC na súa práctica educativa... diso vai case un ano. Por unha banda, elaborara algúns materiais que quería subir a un blogue para categorizalos e almacenalos e, por outra banda, facelos confluír con outros recursos educativos (vídeos, presentacións, música, etc.) que hai na rede. A miña é só unha experiencia que está a anos luz dos máis avezados; se cadra, por ser común, vale.

- Os recursos:

• Materiais: as aplicacións na web 2.0 son asequíbeis para calquera que teña un equipo informático e unha conexión á rede normais. Son -na maioría dos seus tramos de uso- gratuítas e funcionan de xeito intuitivo. Non hai que ter un coñecemento profundo desta tecnoloxía, non hai que saber de código.
• Humanos: a nivel individual, xestionar un blogue e actualizalo con asiduidade, ademais de integrar nel unha serie de aplicacións, require moitas horas. En palabras do amigo Luís Teira nunha charla que impartira o día anterior no mesmo centro "É o que ten estar solteiro e non ter fillos". Segundo o meu compañeiro Alberto Armada: "É o que ten estar casado e cos fillos criados". Eu fico nun punto intermedio. En todo caso, na rede vanse creando redes colaborativas que salvan todas as dificultades. Pola contra, se o obxectivo é crear blogues departamentais nun centro como a EOI, aconséllase o traballo en equipa: compartir a configuración da bitácora e a actualización dos contidos faise imprescindíbel para sortear riscos como delegar en quen manexe o blogue e depender en demasía dunha persoa. Perigos: o blogue engancha, crea adicción, mais tamén gusta aventurarse no seu manexo e descubrir novas funcionalidades e aplicacións.

- Os conceptos:

• Que é a Web 2.0 ou web social? Este termo designa un novo xeito de os usuarios se enfrontaren á rede posto que os internautas non só son meros observadores do que fan outros senón protagonistas e creadores de información. Este paso foi posíbel grazas ao desenvolvemento dunha serie de ferramentas e servizos que permitiron almacenar información, elaborar presentacións, colgar arquivos de audio, enviar mensaxes instantáneas ou crear un espazo común dende/no que comunicarse.
• Que é o blogue? Tamén chamado blog ou bitácora, é a imaxe máis visíbel da Web 2.0. É un sitio da web onde os textos (“post” ou “entradas”) creados por unha ou varias persoas (“blogueiros/as”) se ordenan cronoloxicamente. Pode funcionar a modo dun diario persoal en liña ou enfocar diferentes temáticas especializadas ou xerais. Trazos comúns á maioría dos blogues son: hai un espazo para que os lectores poidan deixar comentarios; fornece unha listaxe de ligazóns a outros weblogs ("blogroll"); e amosa un arquivo coas publicacións anteriores (normalmente en modo calendario). O blogue naceu en 1997, hai máis de 100 millóns unha década despois, 3700 deles en galego. As plataformas máis coñecidas a nivel mundial son WordPress, Blogger (Blogspot) ou Bloggia. En lingua galega destacan Blogaliza e Blogoteca e o "blogmillo" é a comunidade de blogueiros/as en galego. As bitácoras, como todo, teñen un día: o 31 de agosto, Día Internacional do Blogue.

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1. OS BLOGUES EDUCATIVOS: PARA QUE SERVEN E COMO SE USAN:

- Caderno de materia do profesor

• Serve como un contedor de materiais de elaboración propia. Bastaría con telos á man no disco ríxido: presentacións powerpoint, audio, textos... coa diferenza de que hai recursos xerados directamente na rede (presentación en Zoho Show Funciones de los blogs en las áreas de lenguas, de Felipe Zayas).
• Serve como almacén de materiais alleos que outras persoas soben á súa vez ás súas páxinas ou blogues. Os recursos circulan (mapa de recursos das Letras Galegas '08 elaborado por Alberto Armada).
• Os blogues presentan a capacidade de almacenar recursos e ordenalos, así como trascendelos a través de ligazóns (post de escolma de materiais de lingua no blogue Na punta da lingua).

- Taboleiro aberto á rede dun departamento, dun centro ou dun grupo de traballo.

• Dá a coñecer actividades, avisos e novas, reflexións sobre a disciplina; establece dinámicas de colaboración con outras entidades; contén recursos para o alumnado, etc. (Bibliolaxe, blogue da biblioteca do IES Auga da Laxe de Gondomar).

- Caderno interactivo do alumnado e o profesorado:

• Permite desenvolver actividades en liña (O caderno interactivo "Os camiños das linguas" no blogue Dis ti!), poñer tarefas (reseñas e cuestionario d'O neno do pixama a raias en Revolta da Freixa), activar a competencia lingüística da escrita e a competencia dixital se o alumnado é autor (artigo de dúas alumnas en Seica chove no patio?), etc. O blogue ten un inmenso potencial como soporte de traballo do alumnado e é, ademais, unha ferramenta motivadora ao fomentar a implicación e a participación do alumnado no desenvolvemento activo das aulas.
• É unha ferramenta de futuro no ensino de linguas ao servir de plataforma de aplicacións como o podcast (podcast de 2 rapazas sobre Celso Emilio para o concurso da AS-PG), as vídeo-conferencias (experiencia no IES de Chapela), etc.

- Por que non unha páxina web?

• O fácil manexo do blogue: crear un blogue leva de 30 segundos a un minuto. A chamada web dinámica dos centros educativos da Consellaría non é tan dinámica como o seu nome indica. No entanto, para manexar un blogue basta con moverse pola rede e coñecer o contorno Windows e o paquete office (word...) para dominar minimamente esta teconoloxía. O usuario medio de ofimática e internet xa está alfabetizado nesta linguaxe. De todos os xeitos, unha bitácora persoal ou dun departamento compleméntanse perfectamente coa web dinámica Drupal da Consellaría de Educación, xa que nesta o volume de almacenaxe de arquivos é moi alto.
• Onde están todas esas ferramentas de audio, vídeo, texto... que se integran no blogue? Todo está na propia rede, as aplicacións web 2.0 e as súas guías de uso. Os blogues teñen limitacións de espazo pero podemos integrar neles toda esa serie de ferramentas. Só hai que darse de alta en cada unha das aplicacións e, ademais, a linguaxe segue sendo moi semellante en case todas elas.

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2. CREACIÓN, CONFIGURACIÓN E DESEÑO DUN BLOGUE: TODO ESTÁ NA REDE.

- Onde abrir un blogue?

• Hai moitas posibilidades, máis sinxelas e máis complexas, aínda que todas comparten unha linguaxe común.
• Un servidor de bitácoras asequíbel: Blogoteca.
• Un servidor de bitácoras máis complexo (e tamén máis versátil): WordPress ou Blogaliza.

- A Blogoteca: é o primeiro servidor público de blogues feito en Galiza e en galego. Presentado en abril de 2006, en dous anos de vida supera os 1450 blogues e as 15.000 imaxes na Fotoblogoteca. Créanse nel unha media de 65 blogues ao mes e un 95% deles son feitos por galegos e en galego. Xa son 32.000 artigos escritos en galego e medrando a un ritmo duns 100 blogues mensuais, contando antes do verán pasado con 2.747.457 páxinas visitadas nun total de 436.124 visitantes.

• Titorial de uso da Blogoteca (na marxe da esquerda).

- WordPress: é o servidor de xestión de blogues máis popular da blogosfera polo seu fácil manexo, a versatilidade na xestión dos contidos e a cantidade de temas (plantillas) e plugins (aplicacións) entre as que poden escoller os usuarios. Blogaliza, pola súa banda, é un servidor de código aberto que bebe de WordPress e agrupa grande parte do blogmillo.

• Titorial de uso de WordPress, por Xano Cebreiro (libro dixital en Calameo).
• Titorial de uso de Blogaliza e análise comparado con WordPress, por Xano Cebreiro para o wiki Ferramentasweb.
• Titorial de uso de Blogaliza no wiki do servidor.

It seems that blogging might help satisfy a deeply rooted human need to communicate. I've yet to see an health benefits, but I haven't been at it too long. Maybe I'll pick up the pace a bit.

Neue Bilder sind online, allesamt mit meiner Pentax ML2 aufgenommen, aber erst eltztes wochenende entwickelt.

Zum Thema:
Nachdem ich Twitter hier schon mal abgeschworen habe, bin ich nun doch wieder ein wenig dabei.

Inhalte liefert mir dieses Dings immer noch nicht, aber mit Beginn des neuen Semesters hat sich gezeigt, dass damit die Kontaktschwelle zu den neuen Erstsemestern und den Kollegen aus Darmstadt erheblich gesunken ist. Vielleicht entsteht daraus ja ein noch größeres "Expertennetzwerk" - die Lernmöglichkeiten die sich damit ergeben würden: Gemeinsames Nutzen von Quellen, Gemeinsame Aufarbeitung von etwaiger Pflichtliteratur, Projekte, gekoppelte Lehrveranstaltung, Erstellen von Präsentationen...

Twitter also als Einstieg ins Web? Via Twitter in die Community?

Zumindest dass kann ich mir vorstellen. Ich komme mit anderen Twitterern auf eine sehr einfache Weise in Kontakt, und stoße so auf deren Blogs, Quellen, Netzwerke und habe damit eine weitere Orientierungshilfe im Netz.
Einer Webseite, die mir von drei "Twitter-Freunden" empfohlen wird, schenke ich nämlich sicher mehr Aufmerksamkeit als etwaigen Google-Ergebnissen.
Jetzt hoffe ich nur noch, dass diese Twitterkontakte bald auch zu delicio.us wandern, selber bloggen, andere Blogpost empfehlen...

Ich würde mich freuen.

Grüße nach Darmstadt

Mi sembra importante evidenziare un aspetto che diversi social network di nicchia avevano colto da tempo: il networking che parte dal web diventa ancora più potente se si fa in modo che gli utenti abbiano occasioni organizzate di incontro nel mondo fisico.

Non è un elemento di poco conto, in quanto un'accusa che viene mossa spesso a certe realtà della rete è quella della pura virtualità, dimenticando che il web sociale è fatto da persone, che esistono anche al di fuori da Internet.

Il caso della festa di ieri è legata ad un discorso ludico, tuttavia questo potenziale di aggregazione e mobilitazione non è certo da sottovalutare, specie se rivolto ad ambiti specifici (si pensi agli incontri dei business network di Connecting-Managers o di Milanin).

Con questo non voglio dire che il mondo dei social network sia sempre e comunque positivo, lo stesso Facebook sta suscitando parecchie polemiche per la gestione della privacy, tuttavia mi sembra interessante segnalare come il networking non sia solo un fenomeno "virtuale".

Well I certainly hope so... Journalism has always had a mucky facade, and it is about time things became more fluid and 'transparent'. By the time I finished Cardiff's Undergraduate degree in Journalism, Film and Broadcasting, I was pretty sure there wasn't anything I could really do to help change today's standard values of news reporting.  And perhaps some of you might think I sound naive when I say now I believe there could be... yes, it is going to take a long time for the drip, drip of online journalism to prove its worth for society, and probably the technology will change lots too, but I definitely saw a glimmer of possibility when I left that lecture today.

I think to get it, you just need to look back at the fundamental reasons why journalists do what they do.  In my first year as an undergrad we learned about Jurgen Harbemas and his notion of a 'public sphere'. On a very basic level, it's a place where people can get together and freely discuss and identify societal problems. From that, we then hope our democratically elected leaders will get the message, and sort them out. Our job as journalists in the public sphere is to get those discussions together. Bring ideas to the open - be an honest voice for the public. But this all goes wrong when the people in charge of our reportage are too similar to the people in power. 

So, at first, the sight of a map, with a few pointers on it to show where a story is having an impact, or a meaningless application called Twitter where you just tell people what you are 'thinking' seems a bit .. well, patronising... why should I, as a professional story teller, resort to these methods?  Well, if you want to work in a public sphere then you are going to have to go public. Open yourself up to the world, hear people's opinions.

This week, I heard Jane Garvey on Woman's Hour tell Theresa May that her Facebook group 'Theresa May for Equal Pay' was just 'gesture politics'.  And yes ok it might be, but she is certainly going the right way about drumming up support and awareness for her campaign. As she quite rightly retorted, there are plenty of women (or men) who might not necessarily think they have an interest in politics, but certainly care that there is a pay gap between men and women (still!).  And with Facebook – whose membership is more than 110 million active users worldwide (and growing) – May can reach them. Don't forget with projects like 'Laptops for Africa', and mobile phone technology reaching more and more remote areas of the world, this isn't just about us here in the West. It's global.

I had a chance chat with Mark Silva before we headed into the Great American Beer Festival this past week.  In less than 3 minutes, Mark manages to summarize how companies need to connect with consumers in the web 2.0 age.  Then we went inside and drank some beer.

For more on how Mark thinks, check out his blog.

For those of you reading via RSS, click here for the video.

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When you think of blogging, what comes to mind?  For me, blogging brings to mind community and coffee.  Let me explain.  As I've written before, I'm a big fan of Joffrey's coffee.  What started off as a Java Beta Test turned into a free coffee sample for this new blogger and about 1,500 others to try their product (by the way - the test is over in the event you try to still find it).  The Web 2.0 strategy behind it all was a great example of how the web can be used to entertain while reward AND not be a bother.  It was permission based; pull and not push.  A few months later the outcome of Joffrey's Beta Test led to a new flavor, Coffee 2.0.  Clever idea - AND a great product.
At basically 5 cents a cup, this varietal will kick your morning into high gear and has a very smooth flavor.

REACHING OUT

OK, so in that promotion, not only did I learn about a great product I would have never been exposed to, I was also welcomed into the Blogosphere because any blogger who signed up on the Beta Test was sent a free sample.  I was reinforced that blogging has a few perks aside from a few kind comments.  I was exposed to community.
I was also exposed to Adam Singer, the digital marketer behind Joffrey's promotion.  Well...not exposed literally.  I took advantage of the community feel that blogging gives you and I reached out to Adam and commended him for a great promotion.  He emailed me back in about 10 minutes and a friendship was formed.  Later I found out that Adam has a blog of his own and is an accomplished musician as well.  I now read his blog, The Future Buzz and I enjoy his music.  And from time to time we'll Twitter or email each other.  Coffee brought community.

GREAT PEOPLE IN WEB 2.0

Had I never taken the initiative to start my own blog I would have never come across a great new marketing tool(s) in social media.  I would also be lacking from a great community I've come to really enjoy and from knowing the many individuals who have been kind to me and many others.  I'm talking about people like John Wall and Christopher Penn from Marketing Over Coffee; CC Chapman from Managing the Grey (thanks for the card); Lisa Johnson from Reach Group, Albert Maruggi from Marketing Edge; Chris Brogan - Social Media Extraordinaire; Jim Tome of eHealthcare Marketing, Mark McGuinness now of Lateral Action, Whitney Hoffman of LDPodcast, Zena Weist of Nothin' But SocNet, Beth Kanter of Beth's Blog, and of course, Adam Singer, who I mentioned earlier, with The Future Buzz.  Now, I could have mentioned a few more (and I deeply apologize if I left anyone out), but these individuals I expressly mention because they typify SOCIAL media.  They preach it.  They live it.  They help it.  They advocate it.  And I know this personally because I've gotten a comment(s) or email(s) back from each. What kind of cool world is this!  Between blogs, podcasts and the social networks, these are the best of the best.

It will be a long time, perhaps never, that I would ever aspire to the level of prowess these individuals exhibit.  But as a role model to me, I hope I can return the favor and help those with what I have learned (which is a lot more than I knew a year ago).

MAKE THE COMMUNITY WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE

We are a community.  Whether blogger or blog reader, there are millions of us who write or read and pass on our thoughts, opinions and expertise to benefit mankind.  Now more than ever we need this kindness that is exhibited online and make it a reality offline.  Akoha looks to lead this charge of making the world a better place and I eagerly anticipate the public release of their "pay it forward" mission cards.  But each of us must participate in that charge as well.  Just remember that when the guy in the lane next to you cuts you off - don't allow his actions to cause you to do the same.  With the same good intentions you have when you blog or comment, take those same intentions and put them in the real world.

Our current economic situation is forcing us to take a good hard look at the mess that's been made.  Because checks and balances were not correctly in place, a new level of accountability will undoubtedly be put in place.  As we look to the future, we must rely on each other, just as our 2.0 Community already does, and start being more accountable to how we treat each other in the real world as well.  Start tomorrow and make the world a friendler place - it all starts with a cup of coffee.

It feels good to have made this decision.

It feels right.

Liz Strauss:
I took my brave and my vulnerable out of their separate jars.
They’re not broken anymore. In that way, neither am I

For a long time I deliberately didn't have an online presence.  This decision, to be an online 'spectator' was mainly because I felt vulnerable exposing myself to the online community.

I have been able to 'take my vulnerable' out of its separate jar thanks to the encouragement that I have received from friends and colleagues in continuing with my blog.  It is funny, while I have been working in training & eLearning as well as studying related areas for many years - it wasn't until I started using Twitter that I developed a true understanding of what it meant to be part of an online community.

If you are interested in finding like minded professionals in twitter make sure you check out the Directory of Learning Professionals and Just Tweet It's Education Directory.

One of the hardest decisions to make at this point is answering the question:

"What will you actually be doing on your website?"

This question has many answers, yet none of them capture the essence of what my new website www.matthewbibby.com will be about.

Some of the possible responses include:

• Showcasing eLearning development skills & resources
• Providing technological advice on the use of web 2.0 applications in business
• Discussing the use of new technology in eLearning development
• Developing eLearning material showcasing how to use web 2.0 applications to increase productivity
• Gathering material for use in online course creation
• A platform from which to offer informational products and my freelance services

I don't know where this project will take us . . . so as an early visitor to my blog I would like to give you the opportunity to play a part in shaping the future of this website.  All you need to do is complete a 30 second, anonymous survey.

Don't worry, no registration is required, just click here and the survey will open in a new window.

There will be many exciting developments on this site over the next few months so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed so you don't miss anything!

Thanks!

The microblog Twitter is a good example of what we all put on line in short sentences, with a maximum of 140 characters. Letting others know what we are doing and when we’re doing it. What have these aphorisms to contribute to society, and why are we all so eager to take part in it? Why do we use Twitter and what are the implications?

Alexandre Passant, Tuukka Hastrup, Uldis Bojärs and John Breslin wrote the paper “Microblogging: A Semantic and Distibuted Approach”, in which they describe ‘the features, methods and architecture of a distributed Semantic Web microblogging system, as well as the implementation of an initial prototype of this concept that provides ways to leverage microblogging with the Linked Data Web guidelines.’

Before we can look at the implications of microblogging, we must first understand why we use these sorts of tools. Passant, Hastrup, Bojärs and Breslin write:

‘The simplicity of publishing such short updates in various situations and in a fluid social network based on subscriptions and response posts makes microblogging a groundbreaking communication method that can be seen as a hybrid of blogging, instant messaging and status notifications, and that some already studied from a social point of view. Moreover, this way of publishing can be extended with more advanced communication means like video recording, as in Seesmic2, which is considered a video microblogging service. This communication method is also promising for corporate environments in facilitating informal communication, learning and knowledge exchange. Its so far untapped potential can be compared to that of company-internal wikis some years ago. Microblogging can be characterised by rapid (almost real-time) knowledge exchange and fast propagation of new information.’

I feel like this is just part of the answer. I too, have seen the advantages of Twitter in my own Twitter community. Like the exchange of knowledge through links to interesting articles, or pointing to new web features. Even drawing attention to job applications.  But I can imagine a part of it also derives from self explanation, or even self absorbtion. Especially when you consider that a lot of ‘tweets’ are not professional or job-related, and are very informal. This tool might be, more than others – at least in my opinion – blurring the boundaries between practical, formal and professional (like sharing interesting links with colleagues) and social and informal (like mentioning that you are about to start dinner and that you’re having lasagna tonight).

All of this information is being shared with the people in your Twitter community, if you are a part of that community there is simply no way around it. Which brings up the question if it is true that ‘this communication method is also promising for corporate environment in facilitating informal communication, learning and exchanging knowledge’, like the authors suggest.  What does informal information have to contribute in a formal, corporate environment? Is it getting to know the person behind your colleague? Is it bonding with them, thereby improving the professional relationship?

Another implication Twitter, and all microblogs for that matter, might have is the reduction and changing of our literary capabilities in reading and writing. Passant, Hastrup, Bojärs and Breslin write that:

‘Twitter users have adopted certain shorthand conventions in their writing called hash tags, but their semantics are not readily machine-processable thus raising the same ambiguity and heterogeneity problems that tagging causes. For example, the hash tag #paris could mean various things (cities, people etc.) depending on the context, and so cannot be automatically processed by computers.’

New ways of writing are introduced with these new applications. And with Twitter-like communication methods increasingly gaining ground – look at the status notifications in social networking sites like Hyves, MySpace and Facebook, or instant messaging for example – I can’t help but think that something might get lost in the process. Perhaps the idea of an information gap due to these tools isn’t such a crazy thought. With the Internet growing more and more into a semantic web, are we now on the verge of a new kind of digital divide?

It is not my intention to cast a dark shadow on these new ways of communication. As I suggested, a lot can be gained from them. I am merely wondering about why and how we use these tools, and how they change the way we write and read. And I am also interested in seeing the added value Twitter might have. It is unfortunate that  a lot of questions like these are not yet answered in research papers. It shows that due to the relative newness of these tools, not many studies have been conducted in this field.

This analysis is also posted on the Masters of Media blog.

Alexander did a pretty good job of describing and explaining concepts, like microcontent, that many intuitively recognize and know, without really being able to name it. The one little thing that sort of bothered me about the article is that he made frequent references to RSS without ever stating what the acronym meant or what it did (Really Simple Syndication).

My own sense of the term “Web 2.0” is that it is a little grandiose. I see it primarily as a continuing evolution instead of a new platform or version of an existing platform.  The use of the .0 term stems from software engineering where new versions would completely replace prior ones making the predecessor obsolete. I think the recently emergent social software aspects of “Web 2.0” will sit side by side on the Internet with the more static form of web design depending on the content and the function of the site.

Kirk

Alexander, B. (2006, ). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? Educause Review, 41(2), 32-44. Retrieved October 3, 2008, from http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0621.asp