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.