You Think, I Think, We Think (Better) Together

Been reading reviews about Charles Leadbetter’s book We Think all over the place. Got to get my hands on a copy sooon (come on Rosie, hand it over).

If anyone is trying to get their heads around Web 2.0, social media, new paradigm thinking and all that claptrap – get a look at this. Lovely simple animation. I’m going to use it at the beginning of all my courses. Free event coming up soon to give people a taste of it all. Watch this space.

Guardian review here (including Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky) which also looks reeal good.

Shame The Big Issue review isn’t available online. A different and very valid take on things.

No wonder most journalist’s I meet are annoyed with blogging and What’s Going On with we-think.

No wonder I am compelled to work in and support this space.

So glad Rosie Sherry is in it with me (thanks for the video).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiP79vYsfbo&hl=en]

Tags vs Categories

Here I want to write a little about Tags and Categories and what they mean, and when you might want to use each of them.

When blogging, use categories to add internal structure for you and your readers. And use tags to join an unstructured global conversation around common topics.

More about tags and categories on wordpress.

We’ve all dealt with categories a lot; fill in a form for insurance and somebody is going to ask your occupation. Tricky. I never get anything that matches quite what I do — the answer is always somewhat of a compromise. But the designer of that form is really happy, because they make you fit into their list of occupations — their taxonomy. That’s categories. Somebody makes up a list and you have to fit in. The world is full of famous taxonomies — the classification of all the species on our planet is the biggest and most famous of them all. But think of the Dewey-Decimal system in the library as well.

When you’ve got your own blog, you can make up your own categories and put your own posts in them. You’ve got your own taxonomy to play with and you can use it in lots of different ways to classify blog posts.

Now, tags are a different question born from a different problem. Say me and fifty thousand others get together and try and hammer out the categories we need to describe all the websites on the internet or all the knowledge on the planet or something nice and humanly complex. Will we reach agreement on some set of categories? Maybe a little. We’ll run out of time, argue like mad over lots of individual distinctions and end up getting nowhere.

Tags evolved to solve this problem. Tags are just words, anyone can make them up, use them and apply them. There’s no rule book or plan of categories or hierarchy controlling them.

This works in the real internet world because people tend to use similar tags for things and it is possible to search for them and cluster them together. Lots of stuff gets tagged. Blog posts, photos on flickr, events, videos on YouTube and so on.

So, you can tag your posts with some words, and if others on the internet tag their stuff with the same word, then a tag-based search engine like technorati.com can put them together.

For example, the top popular tags at Technorati at the moment are: music, iraq, al gore, britney spears, and so on.

Go deeper on tagging at wikipedia in the Folksonomy entry. A folksonomy is, I guess a taxonomy made by folks.

Free E-Book on the Essence of Authentic Blogging

Here’s a living document I prepared for our first three groups of budding bloggers. I feel a collaborative book coming on.

Not sure I see myself in the same light as the company I am keeping in this collection, but some wonderful people to be gaining inspiration from all the same. David Bohm, Carl Rogers, Carl Jung, Natalie Goldberg, Julia Cameron, The Cluetrain folk, Scoble, Meerman Scott (in some order of importance).

We see this as essential reading for anyone on a quest for personal and professional growth through blogging, but it is a very first draft. Stay tuned for more…

Have a read and let me know which quotes resonate most for you…

FREE E-BOOK on the Essence of Authentic Blogging
More posts on writing to help get your words flowing…

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Blogging course for Sussex Staff

The pilot course we are offering staff at the renowned University of Sussex was confirmed some weeks ago. Many thanks to Sarah Strupinski (Staff Development) and Dr Frances Aldrich (participant) for helping get this off the ground. Hopefully it will be the first of many at Sussex and other universities. One only hopes students get a turn too, post-grad at least.

Our approach here focusses on blogging as a process and a tool for enhancing:

• research
• teaching, and
• professional development (skills & knowledge)
• personal development (”human becoming”)
• the Universities profile and reputation – online and off – within key stakeholder groups (eg. students, peers, editors, other media, general public).

There will be three x two-hour weekly sessions on Wednesdays 3-5pm with a two week practice / reflection break in between. 10/17 October and 7 November. Arts C169.

The six-hours of tuition plus tailored research and online supervision have been funded by the Universities staff development budget, so there is no charge for Sussex staff (academic or non-academic).

Here’s the course outline.

Academics Blogging Autumn 2007

We had over 18 people across most Schools quickly express interest. They will have first offer, max. 10 for the first cohort. But please get in touch if you would like to be wait-listed or keep notified of future courses. You may also be interested in the other courses we are running for beginners in Autumn, advanced in January (not at Sussex).

I would also like to offer an occasional tune-up session on campus, say once or twice a term. We shall see.

We aim to create a supportive, stimulating community of academic bloggers at the University. I will be including links to their sites as they come online and are ready to share.

No doubt there will be much food for thought amongst them, and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Just how we like it!

Enrol here.

New choices for blogging course

After a long gestation period, things have been moving fast on our innovative, profound and effective (says us) blogging courses. They are now two time slots to choose from – an evening or a morning.

Eight weeks in a row (not including half-term school holiday)

Monday mornings 10-12 noon
8 October – 3 December
or
Tuesday evening 7-9pm
2 October – 27 November

Find out more about them but exploring this site and clicking here, and email Libby to reserve a place or call 01273 540 023 or 07968 687 107 to find out more.

Want to learn how to blog really well?

Still some places left on the blogging course I am running in Brighton for eight weeks from 25 September, Tuesday nights 7-9pm. Call Varndean College to book in on 01273 546604.

I’ve already had chats with some of the participants direct and it’s shaping up to be a very stimulating group of people. Mainly folk who have never blogged before.

Can’t wait.

Feel free to get in touch if you want to know anymore about it. But check this site first under Courses and click through the information provided.

Cory Doctorow on “How to be a top blogger”

Some great tips here for all budding bloggers by net guru and writer Cory Doctorow. Well worth viewing to get the real meaning, but here’s the top three tips:

1. write headines like a newswire writer, ie. be specific, short and sweet
2. open with a traditional news style lead paragraph with who, where, what, why, when – or at least the key information right up front.
3. respect your readers.

Or so Cory says. Click through to also consider what Jakob Nielsen has to say about making web pages user-friendly.

Autumn 2007 Blogging Course

Name of course: Blog Your World (“Blogging”)
Tutor: Libby Davy
Enquiries: 01273 540 023 or 07968 687 107 (Mon-Fri 8am – 7pm)

NEW CLASS TIMES & START DATE

Eight weeks in a row (not including half-term school holiday)

Monday mornings 10-12 noon
8 October – 3 December
or
Tuesday evening 7-9pm
2 October – 27 November

Feel free to phone and discuss your personal, group or organisational blogging goals or clarify any element of the course. I will be working with you to deliver a personalised learning programme that meets the goals you set after further research and reflection.

Content of course

• Learning a new way to make the most of the internet
• Developing a writing practice
• Enhancing your own ability for life-long learning
• Promoting yourself, your organisation or a project you are working on
• Taking control of your ability to publish what you want, when you want online
• Looking for a feedback mechanism for research, communications, marketing.
• Finding a new way to collect, organise, reflect on and share you interests and work.

Blogs are websites you add to regularly and easily, and are like private/public journals, but a whole lot more. Blogs (or web logs) can include words, images, sound and links as well as comments back from your new-found audience. This is your chance to find out what blogging is all about and get your very own (or a group) blog working for you. Blogging is an effective, profound new way for you or a group to communicate, connect, learn and be heard via the power of the internet.

Get your own blog hosted free on the internet within just a few weeks. It can include words, images, sound, links and comments back from your new-found audience. Publish instantly and easily – in your own way, in your own time. Develop greater confidence in expressing yourself, in a supportive and friendly environment. Share ideas and inspiration with a like-minded local or global community. Enhance your public profile.

Your teacher Libby Davy has over a decade’s experience working professionally and teaching communications. Libby is an awarded short-story writer and has had her work broadcast on national radio. For many years, Libby worked in strategic communications, marketing, organizational development, photograhy and business coaching. She has experience in planning and executing communications campaigns across most industry and community sectors. Libby is now doing an MA in Person Centred Education at Sussex University to extend her thinking around education.

By the end of the course, you will have found your voice and be confidently blogging.

Who is it for: (who, what level, what previous experience)

The course is suitable for absolute beginners and those new to blogging. Experienced bloggers should attend the follow-on course.

For anyone interested in blogging for personal, community, academic, creative, business or organisational growth.

You do not need to:
• have set-up a blog before
• be an experienced writer (as you will be developing your own style in a safe, expansive way).

You do need to:
• be willing to learn with yourself, your co-learner, your teacher, your extended community.
• have used computers before for internet searching and word processing.

If in doubt, contact your teacher direct at authenticblogging.com

What will I learn?

• How to create a blog (or weblog) from beginning to end.
• How to modify templates to suit your project.
• What a blog is, and is not.
• How to express yourself more confidently using a range of media (words, images, sound files, links).
• How develop and maintain a regular blogging practice.
• How to inspire, collect and organize your material and reflect on your area of interest with private or public posts.
• How to connect with like-minded people and learn within a community – in the classroom, online and around the world.
• How to be published.
• How to increase interest in your work, research, project or organisation.
• How to optimize your blog to increase the attention it gets, eg. Google ranking.

The course will involve group discussion, analysis of example blogs, self managed learning, individual support, some homework, online help for technical aspects, review sessions and an ongoing community to draw from and continue the learning journey in safe, appropriate, fulfilling and expansive ways.

Check out what our new friends at NixonMcInnes have got to say about blogging and social media in general. We love those guys, even though we’ve only just met (some of) them. (Hi Tom! Congratulations Will.)

Next Blogging Course

Okay people. It’s official. We will be running two blogging courses at Varndean College, Brighton UK (at the bottom of our garden) over the Autumn and Spring term.

UPDATE – GO TO THIS MORE RECENT POST FOR THE LATEST COURSE OUTLINE. Feel free to get in touch to clarify or contribute to how things shape up.

I will be the main teacher, but Gra will be supporting us behind the scenes, making sure my technical knowledge is up to scratch.

But we will also be learning a lot from each other as we go along. In the meantime, send me links to any blogs that inspire you, and stay tuned for more posts that will explain what this and other courses we will be offering.

Autumn Term

X361 8 weeks from 25/09/07 Tuesdays 19.00-21.00

Spring Term

Y379 8 weeks from 15/01/08 Tuesdays 19.00-21.00

At this stage I am imagining the Autumn Course being for beginners and people newish to blogging. The Spring Term would then extend people on from there and offer a more indepth approach.

The prospectus is not quite up on their site yet, but should be by late June 2007.

Shoot me an email if you want to be kept informed about courses. There are already a fair few folk out there …… And we haven’t even really started promoting it yet, just word of mouth so far.