Stolen From Lou

As I mentioned in the last post I was experimenting with Tagcloud. I also checked out the Imagination Prompt Generator and found it to be a useful meme for bloggers.

I bookmarked both of these sites at del.icio.us/firemind (called Firemind Bookmarks in my blog's sidebar). I found them in Lou's del.icio.us and copied them to mine.

Raiding friends' bookmarks is a great way to find out new things (to post about) and you can't get arrested.:)

Demo Junk Examples

Everyone had their own test blog except me. I have been using "our" test blog: Demo Junk. I finally stole it for my self. :)

I have examples of Clustrmaps (Hitmaps) and Tag Cloud there that I removed from Firemind. Clicking on the examples will take you to the websites. The Tag Cloud can be found at the bottom of each page.

There is a brief analysis of both in the post called Changes.

Quick Review
Clustrmaps is boring and causes your blog to load slowly in browsers. Tagcloud is buggy and tags the wrong words.

Update: Clustrmaps - see my clarifications regarding Clustrmaps in the comments following the post. I may add post them as an addendum in this blog.

October OPB Theme

October is coming and it is time to think of a theme for Our Photoblog. I am open to suggestions but here is my suggestion and reasons.

I thought a fall theme would be nice. "Changing seasons, changing lives". Something like that. Rain, snow, leaves and trees and maybe people doing fall things. (Including returning to school).

A fall theme would mean we could participate in Animationman's Fall Fest. I would list OPB as a participant and exchange links with him. We could also link from individual posts. I will certainly be participating.

Btw you can also participate in Fall Fest by writing something in your own blogs. Let's support a fellow blogger.

Blogging And Learning

I remember a conversation with a friend who doesn't blog. He is a professional and feels blogging is not needed for most professions. I mentioned an article I had read that said blogging could be a useful tool for librarians. (Mainly because of the need to share ideas in a timely way).

I remembered this conversation when I found a blog called MISt it up! The blogger, Alex, is a student in the Faculty Of Information Studies at the University Of Toronto.

The website for the program says:

Reflecting the expanding role of the profession, FIS incorporated three diverse, though related disciplines within a single graduate program, namely: library and information science, archives and records management, and information systems.

Alex is in Library and Information Studies stream. MISt it up! was created for a course with a section on blogging. The course outline says: "Set up Blog (www.blogger.com) and comment on others' blogs".

Here we see a professional program at an accredited university encouraging students to blog. Our hobby is finding a space in mainstream academia. What's more it is being used as it was meant to be used. Not for profit (ie: business blogs) but for sharing information and interesting ideas.

I commented in the blog and mentioned this blog. I also looked at some of the other class blogs. It will be interesting to see how many of the students keep blogging. It will be interesting to see what blogs evolve.

Dead Guestbook

Blogtools is unavailable for a while so our guestbook is down. I may allow outside comments with word verification. What do you think?

Update: It's back.

Using Tags Part 1

Technorati

At Fire Links I have been experimenting with using Technorati tags and Blogger together to:

• simulate Wordpress categories


• use tags to create a usable Blogger blog directory


• integrate these ideas with del.icio.us.

So far I am disappointed with the results. I find the task of adding tons of tags a bit tiresome and I find that some tags never seem to appear at Technorati. Furthermore I find that Technorati tags are so widespread that individual blogs get lost in the babble.

When I look at Lou's Wordpress blog I find the Wordpress categories more useful. The Technorati material is nice but hasn't been useful yet. Maybe I just don't get Technorati.

Here is a question for those who use Technorati a lot. Do you ever use the tags to search for content or do you just list/tag your own content?

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del.icio.us

I am almost ready to stop playing with Technorati at Fire Links and use the blog as a place to explain my FireLinks del.icio.us site and sign up blogs that want to be listed.

I enjoy using del.icio.us to bookmark interesting things I find on the web. I also 'troll' other peoples bookmarks for info.

My FireLinks site can be easily set up around a chosen set of common tags which bloggers use to define their blogs. The only requirement would be a link on their sidebar. They would have an easy to use blog directory that (unlike 99% of those operating now) isn't clogged with dead links.

I think del.icio.us is an interesting and useful tool. I use it to store info I want to blog about later. I also use just for bookmarking interesting things.

I found a blog that uses del.icio.us in an interesting way and I will comment on it in Part 2 of this post. I want to have a good look at the blog first.

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Feedback is appreciated. Especially about my Technorati questions.

Sept OPB Theme

Ok, Parties and Celebrations it is. I am writing up an intro tonight.

September OPB Theme

September is already here and we don't have a theme for Our Photoblog. Does any one have any ideas? Shall we ask our readers?

Ideas:

Fall
Back to School
Parties and celebrations
???