06.28.06
A-Z of Professional Blogging
From ProBlogger, “Helping bloggers make money,” comes the A-Z of Professional Blogging. The list features over 130 useful tools for any aspiring blogger, professional or amateur.
06.26.06
Deconstructing “You’ve Got Blog”
We keep coming back to the story of Kottke and Megnut because it’s a look at the personal side of blogging, the gossipy side of blogging. Back in the day that included an article titled “Deconstructing ‘You’ve Got Blog,’” which took a Bloggie nominated look at Rebecca Mead’s seminal article.
More recently, Rebecca Mead took another look at Jason and Meg last month and how their story has evolved since her original story.
06.24.06
Blogumentary
The blogosphere is being documented in bits in pieces through words, audio, and video but has anyone set out to capture the spirit of blogging in film? Well, someone has, and here’s his own words to explain his vision.
“Hi there. My name is Chuck Olsen, and I produced an independent documentary about blogs.
We live in an age where everyone is a mediamaker. Blogs empower us to tell our story, spout and debate our politics, and share ourselves with the rest of the world ? or at least the 5 people who read our blog. What compels us to blog? How does it affect us, each other, our work, the mediascape, the world? Do bloggers have anything in common? Does the blogosphere have a life of it’s own, like the emergent behavior of an ant colony excited by the discovery of food?
These are some of the questions I had in mind while making this documentary. I think I found some of those answers, and of course new questions. Blogumentary was created, and continues to grow, in new and unexpected ways. This is a conversation and a collaboration - We Media.”
-Blogumentary-
06.22.06
School Spirit
The book has a whole section on how blogs are being used by educators at all levels to enhance their in (and out of) classroom experience. Blogs are being used as collaborative class projects and tools. Colleges professors use their blogs to organize classroom info. Blogs are utilized by students from the kindergarten to collegiate level.
Here’s an article posted today about blogs in education. Give it a read.
“Educators have been slower to adopt Weblogs for a variety of reasons, among them access, privacy, and security issues. But as more and more people get on the blog bandwagon, more and more teachers and schools are starting to experiment with the technology as a way to communicate with students and parents, archive and publish student work, learn with far-flung collaborators, and ‘manage’ the knowledge that members of the school community create. In fact, many are seeing Weblogs as a cheaper alternative to course management systems.”
-The “What’s It?” and “How To” of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators-
06.18.06
Fever Pitch
It’s hard to not get caught up in the global spectacle that is the World Cup. Sophisticated soccer fans are always politely discussing their team’s chances, how their respective “pools” are going, and which players they think are the hottest. For the rest of us who aren’t quite in the know about the real football, World Cup blogs can come to the rescue.
Want to follow along with the U.S.’s thrilling losses and um…ties? Check out the USA World Cup Team Blog. Reporters from the BBC and the Guardian Unlimited are also in Germany filing in their daily updates. Soon you’ll be able to tell the difference between Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Robinho. When in doubt, just cheer when everyone else cheers.
Oh and there’s a little thing called the NBA Finals going on too. Follow The Real Time Finals Blog to get a (almost overly) detailed analysis of the game as it happens. And let’s not forget that prominent blogger Mark Cuban just happens to be the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who are now facing the threat of elimination. Check out Cuban’s blog, Blog Maverick, to see his reactions to tonight’s free throw shooting contest, otherwise known as Game 5.
06.12.06
The Giant Blogging Terms Glossary
Podcast? Post Summary? Plugins? Confused by any of these words? Check out this handy dandy glossary of blogging terms. Memorizing this site is guaranteed to make you the center of attention at any social gathering.
06.08.06
Your “About” Page
Brian over at copy blogger provides a lengthy post about the function and uses of a well composed “About” page. You know, the one where you tell people about yourself in order to entice them into continued reading?