13 Things Reflection

I have been meaning to look into a lot of these different online tools, but had convinced myself I didn’t have the time. This was a fun way to explore these “things,” but also convince myself that I wasn’t wasting my time. This experiment has made me feel more confident in my Web 2.0 abilities and has encouraged me to explore other similar tools that are offered online. The internet is really a limitless collection of ideas and ways to interact with others, both personally and professionally.

Going forward, I think I will explore many of these “things” and other related tools on my own personal time, so that I will be better-acquainted with their features and possibilities. Taking the time to learn more about these tools will allow me to transfer these skills to a professional level.

I was somewhat familiar with blogs and Blogger prior to this assignment, but I had never felt the desire to create my own blog, nor did I think I had anything worthwhile to blog about. It’s been very interesting and fun playing around with Blogger. I keep trying to find ways I can make my blog more visually appealing to gain more followers and interest.

It’s amazing how many different things you can do on sites like Blogger and Weebly…and they’re FREE. Free blogs and websites have made it easier than ever to promote yourself, an organization, or company on the web. So many people are convinced they do not have the necessary knowledge to create a blog or website, but if I can set up a blog and a website in less than 15 minutes, then just about anyone can do the same. It seems our technological limitations are placed on us by ourselves, rather than our actual abilities.

Of the other “13 Things,” I was most familiar with Twitter. I set up a Twitter account over a year ago, but soon discovered that many of my friends did not have Twitter accounts yet. I never actually “tweeted” until this semester for this project. Being a huge personal and professional user of Facebook, I was somewhat bitter about Twitter and it’s 140-character limit. It just seemed so much more limiting than Facebook. However, after forcing myself to tweet and follow others, I’ve become much more receptive to Twitter, especially on a professional level. I follow a lot of news and non-profit organizations, and I think Twitter has become one of the most effective tools of information dissemination for these types of businesses and organizations. In fact, Twitter seems more useful on a professional level than Facebook -- assuming your target audience is on Twitter and not just Facebook. I’ve come to appreciate the 140-character limit and view it as a new writing challenge. Longer text is not always better text. After becoming a more avid user of Twitter, the longer Facebook posts have become more of an annoyance.

Thing 12, the Wordle assignment, was my favorite post. I have some interest in typography and would love to learn how do kinetic typography videos like these ones created with audio from the TV series Dexter and the movie Fight Club.

Wordle was a really fun and easy site to work with. I think word clouds can be a useful tool used on blogs and other sites to give readers a sort of summary about the content of your blog. I uploaded my word cloud created for my “14 Months Until ‘I Do’” blog, but ended up removing it since it didn’t coordinate well with my background and had become a distraction from the actual content. I tried to receive a similar effect my inserting a label cloud into one of the side panels of my blog. This gadget takes the labels I have attached to my blog posts and makes the words smaller or larger based on their frequency, or the amount of time I have used that same label.

The word clouds created using text from my blogs was an interesting way to become more aware of the types of words I tend to use over and over again. The biggest, boldest words should somehow reflect the content and theme of my blog. If any common words were large, but not necessary to the content of my blog, I became much more cognizant of how I used such words in my blog posts. I have a tendency to use the words “however” and “basically” more than necessary.

Self discovery was an interesting approach to this assignment. I love due dates. I need that kind of structure in order to effectively organize my priorities. With this being my last semester at Coe, I am overwhelmed with different assignments, meetings, and job interviews. Nearly all of my classes this semester are advanced workshops that allow me to set my own due dates, so it has been more difficult trying to establish a list of priorities this semester. I really miss those hard, set-in-stone deadlines. However, not having clear-cut deadlines made me feel more accountable for this assignment. I had create my own timeline that worked for me and with my other classes. There was an enormous amount of freedom associated with this assignment, and it was somewhat refreshing to not have weekly due dates hanging over my head.

Mashup Reflection

The mashup feature provided through middlespot.com was a unique tool that allowed me to sort of storyboard the content of the Clay Creek website. I think this would be a great tool to use for brainstorming (much like the mindmaps created using bubbl.us). Although this is more creative than simply writing about a topic, my creativity capacity felt very limited with this tool. I'm used to playing around with more advanced editing programs like Photoshop and InDesign, so I was disappointed with the programs limitations. The end result is certainly more visually appealing, but my creative side just isn't satisfied.

I actually think I might be able to get more use out of DataMasher. This program has the ability to create user-friendly, interactive displays for statistical information. Since I am currently working on summarizing results from a survey I distributed for my senior thesis, I'm very data-oriented at the moment. However, there is a major downfall with this site in that the data sets are all determined by individual users and may or may not be backed up with verifiable research.

Mashups

Below is a mashup inspired by one of my Advanced Writing Workshop projects: Clay Creek Foods.

Word Clouds

I really love this tool. Coming from a more creative background, I can see how this can be appealing and used even in a professional setting.  It’s a creative way to provide viewers of a website or blog an idea of what the site has to offer and the types of topics that are discussed. I am thinking about using the word cloud I created for my 14 Months Until I Do blog as the header for the site.

It’s fun to play around with the file Wordle creates for you. You can remove words, change fonts, change colors, and change the layout with a simple click of the mouse. It’s interesting to see how a word cloud can change and evolve after making these simple changes.

I thought all of the word clouds I created are representative of the content they are based on. It’s interesting to see what words are most prominent and how that reflects on the writing. Appropriately, the most prominent words based on an essay I wrote about the Flood of ’08 in the Czech Village were flood, house, cedar, river, home, camera, and felt. The essay details my experience taking photos of homes in the Czech Village area damaged by the Cedar River flood. It’s a personal essay, so it also includes my reactions to and feelings about the devastation and my own photographs.

After the Flood essay

13 Things Blog

Visual Thesaurus

I use the synonym feature of MS Word like it's nobody's business. I rarely come up with that perfect word on the first try, so using this tool is a daily occurrence, it seems. Perhaps we've become too spoiled. I don't even bother opening a web browser to go to thesaurus.com anymore.

Although I am generally satisfied with this feature, it does not always work as well as one would hope. Most of the time I am dissatisfied, it is because the word that I think I want to use is not on the list of synonyms. However, it can also be the case that the synonym you choose doesn't quite have the same meaning or the meaning you intended with the original word. Then it's just obvious that you were using a thesaurus.

The best part about using a thesaurus: expanding your vocabulary. Eventually writing that uses more complex synonyms for common words will translate to your speech and become a part of your daily life.

Because I have been working on revising my resume and cover lately, I have been using this tool to best describe my qualifications to a potential employer. I want to limit my use of conventional, cliche descriptions for personality and skills.

I used Visuwords and Lexipedia and compared their results for the word "achieve" (a common word that came up while I was editing my resume and cover letter).

Visuwords



Lexipedia

The synonyms attain and accomplish both offer the same definition: to gain with effort.

Out of the two visual thesaurus sites, Visuwords is most aesthetic, but I found Lexipedia easier to interpret and understand. The legend used to describe the results on Visuwords is very complex and can be confusing. Lexipedia is a little bit more user-friendly.

For a simple word, I entered "fast" into Visuwords.

This produced some very interesting and surprising results:

Alacritous: quick and eager

Meteoric: like a meteor in speed, brilliance, or transcience

Winged: very fast, as if with wings

In some ways, I am definitely a word nerd. I'm generally not satisfied until I find the perfect word and will keep searching until I find it. It's almost an obsession. I like to expand my vocabulary and discover new ways to express myself. Some words are better than others, you just have to be willing to look for them.

Creative Commons

I seem to be very particular about my work. It’s mine, and I most likely worked very hard to create it.

I have a photography background and would be willing to share some of my more basic photographs, most of which focus on an every day object. If a website administrator wants to use a photo of a plate of cookies on their homepage, I would be flattered. My more artistic and time-consuming works, however would generally not fall into this category. For me, it seems to depend on the amount of time that was put into the project.

With writing, I am much more strict. In the past, I have shredded a lot of the academic papers I have written for past classes so no one else would be able to get a hold of them. I’m very particular about how my writing is distributed, which makes me somewhat hesitant to place a large amount of writing on my e-portfolio. I’m sure there probably wouldn’t be anyone who would want to steal any of it, but I just don’t like the idea that my work is out there, on the world wide web, ready for the taking -- ctrl-c.

I definitely see the benefits of Creative Commons and have used it extensively in the past. I’m just a little more hesitant to give up my own personal copyright.

Google Reader

To tell you the truth, I really didn’t think Google Reader would benefit me. I like that personal touch of visiting individual sites throughout the day. Of course, I rarely get to them all, but I didn’t think I would like them all combined into Google Reader. I actually love this feature. It is beyond convenient and, contrary to what I initially thought, still attractive and organized to the eye. Because I already have a gmail account, all of the blogs I am following on blogger.com were already listed on my Reader. Instead of searching for the sometimes difficult to find RSS logo on my favorite sites, I just entered them into my Google Reader by copying and pasting the link. So easy! Outside of the blogs from this class, I also added a few wedding blogs for inspiration for my own blog, as well as an RSS feed from The Gazette, the Red Cross, and the Tosh.O blog.

Professionally, it would be very beneficial to establish a Google Reader account. It’s a huge time-saver. In the world of PR, marketing, and writing, I’m sure many professionals follow and subscribe to blogs and RSS feeds as it relates to their careers. Instead of visiting a handful of websites every morning when you get to the office, you can simply log-in to your Google account and get it all at one place.

Social Bookmarking

My Delicious username: agpeders.

I have mixed feelings about Delicious and other social bookmarking sites. My mouse seems to naturally gravitate toward the Favorites tab to save my favorite sites, so it’s a bit of a hassle trying to get used to a new bookmarking tool. However, my Favorites tab on my Internet Explorer browser has gotten out of control. I have to scroll down to the very bottom to see sites I’ve added recently, and it’s more difficult than necessary to sort and go through all of the sites I have bookmarked over the past couple of years. This is why I really appreciate the ability to add tags to your bookmarks through Delicious and the option of adding notes to remind yourself why you bookmarked the site in the first place.

I decided to go through my Favorites on my browser and transfer the remaining relevant ones over to Delicious. Using tags, I was able to organize my bookmarks into two distinct categories: seniorthesis and wedding (putting a space between words creates multiple tags). Having the ability to access my bookmarked sites from a different computer is very useful in college. Over the years, it has been difficult going back and forth between my personal computer and those in the library. It’s kind of unfortunate that I didn’t discover this earlier…it would have saved me a lot of headaches while I was doing research papers.

It’s also unique that Delicious allows you to share your bookmarks with others. I have decided to keep all of my bookmarks private for the moment, simply because I’m not sure how relevant they are to anyone else at the moment. It’s nice to be able to have the option to edit your bookmarks so you can change the privacy level. Although I haven’t shared any of my bookmarks, Delicious also shows you usernames of others who have bookmarked the same site (and when they bookmarked it). This is useful to expand your network -- those with similar bookmarks may have similar interests.

I can also see this as a useful tool in the professional world when multiple employees are collaborating on a project. It may be beneficial to add these people to your Delicious network so you can share and bounce ideas off of one another.

Overall, Delicious is a useful tool that seems to offer a lot of opportunity, both academically and professionally (though I would argue it seems more useful in the realm of academics).

Twitter

In a video project for my journalism class last year, I created a video about how much I hated Twitter. Just over a year later, I have a Twitter account and have started checking it or tweeting daily. I’m still not as pleased with this social network as I am with Facebook, but it’s starting to grow on me.

 

I find the constant tweeting by celebs like @aplusk quite annoying. However, since I have tweeted for the local Red Cross, I appreciate the difficulties of getting a message across in 140 characters or less. It’s a true challenge that requires succinct writing skills and creativity. It forces an individual to cut out details that may be unnecessary and not to overwhelm followers with a lot of information. When in doubt, redirect followers to a web page that provides more details regarding the tweet.

On Twitter, I am much more likely to follow an organization or brand. Facebook is much more personal, and I hesitate to “like” organization pages that tend to overrun my newsfeed. According to digitalbuzzblog.com, 67% of brand followers on Twitter will purchase that specific brand, compared to 51% of Facebook brand followers.

A majority of Twitter users lie between the ages of 34 and 44. Its interesting that my generation has been so hesitant to join Twitter and tweet on a regular basis. Twitter seems much more complex with hash tags -- it really takes some getting used to.

I follow profiles such as @CNN, @andersoncooper, @ACSNews, and the @redcross. These Twitter profiles seem to be much more up-to-date with news and information than websites. My favorite tweets come from CNN and Anderson Cooper. As the Japan crisis has unfolded, I’ve enjoyed getting the newest details in real-time and learning of events shortly after they occur. News organizations will often tweet, providing a sort of teaser, before following up with a longer story on their website.

I don’t really see twitter as beneficial for establishing personal contacts like Facebook or LinkedIn. However, it seems very effective at communicating information and news from organizations and companies. It’s a very effective tool for disseminating brief bits of information to a large audience. The “retweeting” feature is also valuable in that it allows followers of a profile to “retweet,” or repost a tweet from one profile to their own, and so on. It’s infectious -- sort of like that sexual exposure chart they show you in sex ed:



I will continue using my Twitter account this semester (and probably beyond that), but I tend to use it to promote events that I become aware of or to spread the word about organizations I support or volunteer for. I tend to retweet a lot more than tweet.

Following Blogs

Three blogs I follow from other students in this class:
Angelea
M.J.
Jason

It's really interesting to see what other students have decided to blog about. I will try to provide additional feedback as the semester progresses. I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to follow my blog and comment on my posts, so I want to provide meaningful comments to other students. It's encouraging and gives you motivation to continue posting. Comments are a valuable tool that allow you to see and understand how others react to your writing. Maybe something didn't come across the way you wanted it to, or maybe a follower will be able to offer you ideas for your next blog post. Most comments are positive or informative -- just ignore the trolls. Following blogs and providing feedback can also establish contacts and act as a networking skill.

In the world of marketing and PR, you want to gain followers and you want them to be encouraged to provide feedback. Even negative feedback can be a source of knowledge that allows an organization to function better according to the needs of their public. As an organization, it's also helpful to follow or monitor other blogs and be aware of how you or your company's name is being used in these online communities. Even if you do not encounter any negative feedback, it is always interesting to see where and why your company's (or college's!) name pops up in a blog.

I suggest signing up for Google Alerts that can be sent to your coe.edu or gmail inbox. Google Alerts are daily email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, blogs, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Mind-Mapping

Below is a mind-map created for my internship at the Red Cross.  It maps out the various tasks I have to work on over the next few weeks to plan for the organization's annual fundraiser: BIG B*A*S*H.



At first, I really didn’t want to create a mind-map. I like my traditional pen and scratch piece of paper. It does’ t have to look pretty. I always make priority lists to organize my thoughts and keep myself heading in the right direction. After using the bubbl.us brainstorm and mind-map tool, I’m actually a fan of organizing my projects this way. I think this tool is best utilized for larger, long-term projects that you can map out over a span of time, making it worth your time creating it on this site. Overall, the site is easy to use, but it can become irritating as the map grows larger and you must begin rearranging all of the neatly arranged bubbles.


Although I did like this tool, I probably will stick to pen and paper for most of my planning and prioritizing needs. Usually the need to write a list strikes me when I’m away from a computer.

Wikis

How to set up a page:
It’s very easy to set up a professional Facebook page. The more difficult part is maintaining it. The best piece of advice I have for creating professional pages is to stay true to the organization it is being created for. Make sure the page reinforces the organization and is used properly and professionally. In my opinion, it’s best to come up with a plan and a direction for your page before signing on to Facebook. It’s easy to get carried away, so it’s a good idea to have a clearly defined purpose and focus to serve as inspiration.

Advice for posting:
For professional Facebook sites, I would suggest making brief status updates 1-2 times per week. This is just a general guideline -- it really depends on the specific business or organization. One thing to keep in mind is not to overwhelm your fan base with frequent updates (more than once/day), especially if they are similar to each other and/or focus exclusively on advertising. There needs to be some mixture of status updates and posts, so your fan base doesn’t get bored or annoyed by the same things day-after-day.
The Facebook professional updates I enjoy most are ones that ask a question and encourage customer feedback. The Children’s Place uses its page for promotional purposes (like coupons, sales notices, etc.), but it also frequently poses questions. Some recent status updates from TCP:

• Happy Valentine's Day from The Children's Place! How do you celebrate Valentine's Day with your little Valentines?
• You know what goes great with The Children's Place sleepwear? A bedtime story! What's your child's favorite?
• Brrr! Looks like another blizzard is heading toward the Northeast! What do your kids like to do on snow days?

Great professional FB pages:
Gap
Although its status updates can be overwhelming and tend to do a lot of advertising, the actual Facebook page and its structure are very appealing to me. They have multiple tabs the user can click through, so the page is not cluttered with different pieces of information. Overall, it is very user-friendly and promotes user-generated content. There are many videos and discussion forums that make this page stand out from other competitors. Gap also promotes many charities and had a donation campaign that donated $1 to a group of charities for every "like" on its donation status updates.

Cedar Ridge Winery & Distillery
This Facebook page focuses more on creating a positive public image, than in-your-face advertising. The page often posts photos of wine tastings and other special events that showcase what the company has to offer at its location. The main thing I really like about this page is that it isn't frequently updated, meaning someone posts maybe once or twice a week. This is infrequent when compared to larger businesses or organizations that can flood a user's News Feed with posts multiple times per day. When something is posted, it captures my attention, and I usually read it when other Facebook "spammers" get ignored.

Bad Writing

This is the trailer for the documentary called "Bad Writing." I haven't seen the film, but I have watched the trailer several times. I sort of stumbled across this while searching for other videos on YouTube for a different class. Looks interesting.

According to the film's website,

"Bad Writing is a documentary about a wannabe poet who sets off on a quest for answers about writing - bad writing, good writing, and the process in between. What he learns from some leading figures in the literary world will inspire anyone who has ever dreamt of creating art."

A Simple Photo to Share

I took this photo at Brewed Awakenings last year. This old woman had the coolest hands, and I loved her bright red shirt and pink nails. The white coffee cup and the bright red of her shirt contrast well against the wood grain and black background.

A simple photo like this is one I would probably be willing to share on Creative Commons.

Links

Below are a few of my favorite links. I usually visit these sites daily or multiple times per week.

Check them out!

• Local job-search sites -- I've gotten three in-person interviews from jobs posted on these two sites
• Iowa Jobs
• Corridor Careers
• Living Social Deals in Cedar Rapids/Iowa City -- gift certificates to local businesses for at least 50% off!
• Tidbits of Linn County. Enter their weekly drawings -- I've won almost every item.

Using Web 2.0

As a so-called “Digital Native,” I’ve grown up surrounded by technology, and technology has grown with my generation. I wonder, at what point did we graduate to Web 2.0 from Web 1.0? I have grown up with both versions, but it seems difficult to remember a time when the Web wasn’t interactive with virtual communities and user-generated content. YouTube was created less than six years ago, but the site has become so popular for entertainment (and even educational purposes) that it is difficult to remember the days before the site was launched into the internet Hall of Fame.

 So, how do I use Web 2.0? Like many others, I have various social networking accounts – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. I have the ability to check and/or update each one of these sites from my Blackberry or iTouch. Of my various social networking accounts, I only regularly use Facebook. The other accounts have been started, but not expanded upon. With all this talk about limiting one’s digital footprint and monitoring what is said on the internet, I think I’ve become somewhat hesitant to explore these accounts more in-depth.

It is easy to assume, since I am a “Digital Native,” that I have some vast technological knowledge. As I prepare to graduate this spring and begin applying for jobs, I seem to be finding out just how unprepared I am for the jobs created just for “Digital Natives” and Gen Y. I wonder what constitutes proficiency in a computer program, application, or other form of technology. At what point does one become knowledgeable enough in a program to be able to list it on his or her resume?

Of course there are other aspects to Web 2.0 other than the popular social media sites. However, I have had no desire to create a blog and add to the unending digital diarrhea that has flooded the internet and my Google search results (the new search engine Bing! has a point in the phrase “What has search-overload done to us?”). This should be interesting.

Web 2.0 Interests

Today, we live in a world dominated by the internet and social media. The New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year in 2009 was Unfriend (v. To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook). Though I feel comfortable creating and maintaining a Facebook site (public or private), I don’t have a lot of experience with other social media sites, such as Twitter. How relevant has Twitter become in the professional world? Is “tweeting” a new skill I should acquire before entering the professional world? What do employers want to see from me?

Although Marc Prensky would call me a “Digital Native,” I have felt somewhat out-of-the-loop as of late. A few college courses have challenged my technological abilities, but I have rarely challenged myself to learn new things, especially after the classes have been completed and technology has continued to advance. I really want to gain a broad understanding of the various technological tools expected of many new grads. Perhaps one of the best qualities of my generation is the ability to learn and adapt to new forms of technology quickly and eagerly. Although I do not necessarily place myself in the same league as other “Digital Natives,” I am eager to learn and am easily self-taught based on my various experiences growing up with different forms of technology.

A top priority for me this semester, is to gain a better understanding of the marketing, PR, and advertising qualities of social media and other various online tools for internet marketing. I have seen many recent job postings related to online marketing, and it seems this has turned into a very viable career opportunity for “Digital Natives.”