Hey, it turns out I was a Ning member of Library 2.0 anyway, so I didn't have to worry about setting up stuff. It turns out I'd registered for this Ning so I could be a part of an online conference last year called Library 2.011.
I find Ning a bit like one of those free website hosting tools that were around in the late 90s. Sure it's good to use, and provides stuff that isn't easily available on other website, but the lifespan is limited.
What it does provide easily is a forum for likeminded individuals, but you can use a free CMS to do that such as bbPress which you can easily add to your WordPress blog, or even use a fully functioning CMS like Joomla, Drupal or even something like XOOPS or CmsMadeSimple.
Actually, after reading through the site, I'd recommend using Joomla. It's free, you can probably find free webhosts for Joomla sites if you want, and it's designed around having a database of people that connect, which is what Ning is advertising itself as doing.
Meh @ Ning.
/rant.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Some delicious twitter evaluation
Twitter:
Well, I liked the Commoncraft video, but I mostly find twitter useless. I don't really have a lot to say about myself on a regular basis, and putting things like "eating porridge" online seems a tad silly to me. That being said, I use a program called GetGlue allows me to easily say what tv shows I'm watching or what books I'm reading, and because that hooks in to twitter, I sometimes get comments about the stuff I watch. Rarely about the books I read though. It can make for some interesting discussions, but mostly I find twitter useless.
What I have found it useful for is, when I'm at a conference, seeing what others are saying about the speakers on there. I've seen some very interesting discussions about topics related to the speaker. And sometimes just some horrible comments about how boring the speaker is.
If you want to have a look at my stream, my name on there is @tas_666 . Note the _ in the middle. That happened because I wasn't nerdy enough to get in first.
Delicious:
I used this a lot at Brimbank Libraries. We found it an easy way to do our website's list of resources. It meant that we could syndicate web links throughout webpages using tags, and if a link changed/died/needed updating, we didn't have to go through 4-5 pages to change it on all of them, just change it in the one spot. http://www.brimbanklibraries.vic.gov.au/index.php?option=com_deliciouslinks&Itemid=77 has a link to it. There were previously accounts in English, Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese and Dinka, but they've moved away from using them and I cannot find the accounts.
Evaluation:
I use Google Analytics for most of my evaluation type things. But it is definitely restricted to only evaluating who is using your resources, not who is talking about them. I set up a Google Alert (which basically seems to be a Google Search that runs on a regular basis) and found out that someone is using my nickname on Instagram...and they're not even posting!!! What's the use of stealing my nickname and then not using it? So far I've found tas666 is a Thai male around my age, a Texan male in his late 50s, and now some blonde woman with poodle hair. Long ago someone took tas666 as their twitter name, and after searching for that, I just have to say that I look particularly good in this photo. http://in2utattoolondon.tumblr.com/post/25569887071/woody-tattooing-king-diamond-on-tas-tas666
Well, I liked the Commoncraft video, but I mostly find twitter useless. I don't really have a lot to say about myself on a regular basis, and putting things like "eating porridge" online seems a tad silly to me. That being said, I use a program called GetGlue allows me to easily say what tv shows I'm watching or what books I'm reading, and because that hooks in to twitter, I sometimes get comments about the stuff I watch. Rarely about the books I read though. It can make for some interesting discussions, but mostly I find twitter useless.
What I have found it useful for is, when I'm at a conference, seeing what others are saying about the speakers on there. I've seen some very interesting discussions about topics related to the speaker. And sometimes just some horrible comments about how boring the speaker is.
If you want to have a look at my stream, my name on there is @tas_666 . Note the _ in the middle. That happened because I wasn't nerdy enough to get in first.
Delicious:
I used this a lot at Brimbank Libraries. We found it an easy way to do our website's list of resources. It meant that we could syndicate web links throughout webpages using tags, and if a link changed/died/needed updating, we didn't have to go through 4-5 pages to change it on all of them, just change it in the one spot. http://www.brimbanklibraries.vic.gov.au/index.php?option=com_deliciouslinks&Itemid=77 has a link to it. There were previously accounts in English, Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese and Dinka, but they've moved away from using them and I cannot find the accounts.
Evaluation:
I use Google Analytics for most of my evaluation type things. But it is definitely restricted to only evaluating who is using your resources, not who is talking about them. I set up a Google Alert (which basically seems to be a Google Search that runs on a regular basis) and found out that someone is using my nickname on Instagram...and they're not even posting!!! What's the use of stealing my nickname and then not using it? So far I've found tas666 is a Thai male around my age, a Texan male in his late 50s, and now some blonde woman with poodle hair. Long ago someone took tas666 as their twitter name, and after searching for that, I just have to say that I look particularly good in this photo. http://in2utattoolondon.tumblr.com/post/25569887071/woody-tattooing-king-diamond-on-tas-tas666
