Blog Day 2008 And Beyond
September 2, 2008 § Leave a comment
Yesterday was Blog Day, so as a good Internet citizen, I participated over at my personal blog, Paradoxologies. In participating in that exercise, I have been mulling over the meaning of community and what it means in the context of the Internet. I don’t know any of the bloggers that I wrote about well at all, but I obviously feel some connection to them, as they are all writers about topics that are of interest to me. I have only met one of them in person, and I have corresponded with each of them over the months that I have been following them, and occasionally responding to their posts.
Not long ago, I read another blog post (though regrettably I don’t remember which) that called on other bloggers to commit to posting comments regularly. That post really got me thinking about how important it is to keep the momentum of this online grassroots network-building by actively participating. I continue to espousing the growth of this online public discourse, and I am committing to updating my blogs at least once a week, keeping up with the blogs I like, and regularly posting comments.
Building community through social networking tools is only going to be successful if we enocourage each other by engaging each other.
Be the change that you want to see in the world
August 28, 2008 § 4 Comments
Britt Bravo recently started a Ning site for Change Bloggers, and here she asks the question: Are we BEING the change?
By creating blogs and participating in the onling social networking community of folks who are trying to make a difference in the world, does it make a difference? Good question. I think I’ll ponder and post an answer. Care to join the community?
Web Activism
August 25, 2008 § Leave a comment
Gosh, it is hard to keep up! Last year I participated in Blog Action Day. Just within the last couple of months I have learned of three other similar blog days where bloggers all over the world will promote something on the same day. Britt Bravo over at Have Fun, Do Good blogged about all of them earlier this week. So social capital bloggers everywere, mark your calendars:
- Blog Day, August 31, 2008 – Promote five new blogs that you think are cool and rather unknown (I had better get busy!).
- One Web Day, September 22, 2008 – Write about online participation in democracy.
- Blog Action Day, October 15, 2008 – Blog about poverty.
- Bloggers Unite, November 10, 2008 – Support Refugees United, a nonprofit that helps refugee families reunite and relocate.
Now spread the word!
Magnolia Featured Linker
July 30, 2008 § Leave a comment
I’m such a geek and so excited that my favorite social bookmarking site has invited me to be a featured linker. My friend, Larry, is the founder of Magnolia, and he emailed me last week to see if I was interested. I was thrilled!
It may be a little thing, but I truly love this gem of a web tool. I have virtually met such nice and intelligent people there, discovered some very interesting links, and have been able to share a few of my own. I am happy to evangelize and spread the word about Magnolia. And if being a featured linker introduces me to yet more interesting folks, lucky me!
So, for the uninitiated, check it out, add me as a contact if you like, join some groups and discussions, and see what remarkable resources you find there!
Ning’s potential and annoyances
July 28, 2008 § 1 Comment
Purely by coincidence, I have recently had the occasion to join three different Ning networks, and while I think it’s super cool that this is a tool anyone can use to create a social network, I find the functionality lacking in many respects, not the least of which is the search capability. Its one of those simple searches that won’t allow for you to do any finessing whatsoever. You search for one term, fine. I did a search for “Yoga”, and came up with 27 pages of 20 results each. When I combined the search with “Chicago,” I got 17 pages. Better, but still too many, and I could see immediately that I was getting some identical hits from my first search. Still too many, and not what I’m looking for. It would be great if there were some advance search options that would let you search by region or combined terms or something.
Another problem is that one of my social networks doesn’t appear on my main page after several days. And it seems as though I have to keep logging in when I try to move back and forth from one window to another with my different networks open. This just doesn’t make sense to me, since I’m using the same Ning login for all of my networks. Very strange.
Finally, I found a group from my neighborhood that I wanted to join, the Uptown Chicago group, but you must be a member of a block club in order to be approved for membership. I’m not a member of a block club, and I wanted to email the founder of the group about it, but there is no way to do so if he is not my friend or if I am not a member of the group. Not helpful, and I would wager that the group is not intended solely for members of the neighborhood block groups (at least I hope not…doesn’t seem very neighborly).
With these limitations, Ning so far feels clunky and confusing. I wish that there were an easier way to move around from network to network, instead of having to login separately and needing to create a page and a blog for myself within each one. Maybe I just need to give it more time before I get it.
On the surface, the groups that I have joined are small so far. I hope that they grow because the community is the important thing. But when I dug in a little deeper on some of the groups that I thought were interesting, many of them looked like they had died on the vine. I know that’s going to happy naturally with any social networking too, and perhaps there are some vibrant Ning communities out there. I’ll keep giving it a try because like I said, the community is the thing, and ultimately I’m trying to connect with people who have similar interests. Perhaps its functionality will improve, so I’m withholding judgment today as to how conducive Ning actually is to community building.
Ambidextrous?
July 13, 2008 § Leave a comment
I have heard friends complain that they can’t switch to Facebook after using MySpace for so long. I do understand the investment of time and having a strong orientation to one site over another. This especially makes sense when considering wanting and needing to stay in touch with friends and contacts.
I maintain pages at both sites, though recently I have declared my preference for Facebook. I started out with a MySpace page, and thought it was interesting. I have accumulated random friends, people I’ve found who I think are interesting, and some random groups, bands and causes that I want to support or affiliate with in some way. With both services, I have been able to reconnect and stay connected to friends very easily since we moved across the country. I find it easier to share things there and integrate other online services I use there so that folks who are interested can see what I’m up to, and for me to follow what they are up to. However, I find that I have more friends on Facebook and it is easier to communicate there. At MySpace there are too many bells and whistles and way to many obnoxious flashing ads. It’s enough to give you an anyerism.
However, I consider myself to be ambidextrous even while I have a preference. I don’t want to limit myself, and I don’t want to miss out on local events just because they’re posted on MySpace but not Facebook (though most other folks are ambidextrous, too, or are becoming so, and events are often posted in both places).
It’s not unlike the fact that I am equally comfortable using Macs and PCs, or that I have been able to cross over from my Palm Pilot to my new Blackberry, which I was told would be really hard to do (it wasn’t). It’s all about what we’re used to and what we prefer. But all of us, no matter how stubborn, can learn to use new technologies.
Is someone trying to tell me something?
June 26, 2008 § Leave a comment
Both my current and former employers have sent me letters within the last two weeks saying that my personal information may have been compromised. They each had separate laptop-theft incidents in their respective HR departments. It strikes me as just a little too coincidental that it would happen in two separate incidents so close in time.
I’m creeped out. Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.
The Reliability of Resources
June 22, 2008 § Leave a comment
Guy Kawasaki tweeted this question today:
Is the Internet a Source of Information or Misinformation?
With a link to this post on Trueomors about how people think that information found through research on the Internet is not reliable, citing Wikipedia as the prime example. People are saying that children’s heads are being filled with untruths and propaganda, and that Wikipedia is inherently bad because anyone can submit content.
Here is my response: Pashaw!
Yes, I admit that the content of Wikipedia must be regarded with scrutiny and care, but no more so than any other research reference. Misinformation is also printed in books. If people are trained to research with discernment and a critical eye, they know that they can’t rely on the accuracy of any one resource. You should always use more than one search engine when doing Internet research, and you should always use more than one encyclopedia. Once you’ve gathered those references, you should then look for the primary sources that are often referenced in citations. This might even require going to the library and — gasp — looking at books!
The Internet simply makes some commonly used resources more easily available than they ever have been. No longer do you have to go to the library to use the encyclopedias there, or the card catalog (remember those?). Wearing your PJs and bunny slippers, you can research your paper from the privacy of your own home. If I were a lazy college student, I might be tempted not to verify my sources and simply rely on Wikipedia as my sole source. But then I wouldn’t expect to get a good grade.
The point I’m trying to make is that whether it’s Wikipedia or a reference in a book, any research worth his or her salt must confirm any information with more than one reference.
The thing that I like about Wikipedia is exactly what makes it problematic. I really love the concept of user-contributed content. It’s kind of a utopian idea, even if it isn’t executed in reality how it is conceived in it’s ideals. I like to be optimistic, but I’m not naive. I’ve heard about the people who will sabotage McCain’s or Obama’s or Clinton’s Wikipedia pages. I know there are unscrupulous people out there who want to push their own agendas rather than contribute to the integrity of available information on the Internet.
This has been the challenge of the Internet all along: How to manage the onslaught of available information. How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? The answer is this: The same way researchers always have since libraries existed. You use the best research methods and tool available to find all the information you can about your subject, not relying on just one method or resource. Once you have gathered all of your data, then you analyse it, verifying your sources.
Think of it! If we provide better research training to people when they’re in college, when they come across bad information on Wikipedia perhaps they’ll be inclined to fix the citation, thus contributing to the integrity of that resource. Perhaps then Wikipedia will have a better reputation.
Watching the Election
June 5, 2008 § 1 Comment
Tuning into the coverage Clinton’s and Obama’s speeches last night, I must say that the best analysis was coming from Twitter. All of the major news outlets had uploaded their stories about the respective candidates, citing Clinton’s shortcomings and offering analysis about why she failed, and trumpeting Obama’s clinching the nomination.
What I had just watched on TV and what I was finding on the Internet just didn’t match.
I confess, I bought into the media hype like everyone else, and I was totally expecting Clinton to concede. I haven’t been paying attention to much of either her campaign or Obama’s, and I haven’t watched much of the debates over the last five months because I like them both and I can’t stand to see them get ugly at each other. I was excited for all of this to come to an end so that the dems could stop being so divisive.
I found myself surprised at my response when she did not concede: I was really delighted and proud.
I thought her speech was great, and although she didn’t offer an endorsement of Obama, I thought she offered some incredibly gracious words that over the long term may actually unite her supporters and his.
This was the story, and I was getting no satisfaction from the ready-made stories from the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. It was so obvious that the major news outlets had already written what they intended to publish, and it reflected what they had expected to happen, not what actually had happened. And live TV was not much better! The pundits were so confused and did not know what to make of what had happened. I was left very unsatisfied.
I was honestly getting better coverage and analysis from Twitter. I was more interested in the spontaneous reactions from my Twitter friends, to the news and to each other than anything the pundits had to say.
FriendFeed NPTech Room
June 4, 2008 § Leave a comment
I am remiss for not posting this earlier (not that anyone is reading this blog yet). Johnathon Coleman created a room in FriendFeed for nonprofit technology professionals. He and Barb Kantor have been working together to get people talking to each other and sharing resources.
I, of course, haven’t had the time to participate much yet, but I am finally starting to get FriendFeed. I have already stated here that I have been seriously underutilizing it. No more! I thought it was just a simple aggregator, collecting stuff that I’m putting out in the world in my various social networking platforms in one place. Okay, that’s cool, but you can also use it as a forum to talk to people. There is talk of it possibly replacing email listserves because it makes it so easy. I’m not quite convinced on that front, but its still cool.
I’m so excited that I figured out what Imaginary Friends are for! You can still follow people who don’t use FriendFeed. What a fantastic idea.
However, if you want to join the conversation, you have to join FriendFeed. I highly recommend it.
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