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Financial Aid
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Josh Catone at Mashable has created a useful guide for aspiring authors concerning How to Write a Novel Using the Web. He includes a discussion of various tools for organization, research, writing, connecting with other writers, and publishing.
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
I was just at the North Suburban Library System in Chicago where I gave a workshop on card sorting which is a type of usability test to discover how your users think about your website content so that your can organize it in a way that’s findable. I have made the content of the workshop available in a wiki if anyone is interested in learning about how to conduct card sorts. Here’s a description of the workshop:
“Web users spend an average of 8–10 seconds and three clicks on your Web site looking for what they need before they get frustrated and click away. Whether you are developing a new Web site or redesigning an existing one, it is imperative to determine an intuitive and usable navigational structure and taxonomy for your user community. Card sorting is a technique used in the information architecture field to determine a classification scheme that speaks to your user population. Discover how to use this quick and inexpensive technique to understand how your users think about your Web site and its content. Learn how to run both an open and a closed card sort, analyze the results, and make recommendations based on your data. This workshop explores both online and offline card-sorting techniques as well as analysis software. Make sure your information is findable and increase usability by involving your users in the process of designing your Web site — they will thank you for it!”
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
In my latest Stacking the Tech column, I had a chance to cover the recent trend toward cloud computing in Library Cloud Atlas: A Guide to Cloud Computing and Storage. If anyone is interested in finding out more about what cloud computing is and how it’s being used by libraries, please check out the article.
“The past few years have seen the phrase ‘cloud computing’ steadily gaining momentum, becoming one of the most hyped technology buzzwords since “Web 2.0”—and with nearly as many different definitions.
But one thing that most can agree upon is that cloud computing is a major shift in the way we’re approaching computing as both individuals and organizations, and is being referred to by many as an IT revolution. Gartner’s 2009 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies has cloud computing high on the list among technologies that it predicts may be transformative to the IT industry in the next two to five years.”
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Mahendra Palsule at MakeUseOf posts about 10 Solid Tips to Safeguard Your Facebook Privacy. This excellent guide to protecting your privacy is a must-read for any member of the social network. Here are the top five recommendations:
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Smashing Magazine has an in-depth article about How To Integrate Facebook With WordPress. In this helpful post, Thiemo Fetzer provides detailed instructions as to how to:
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Ning, the application which allows you to quickly and easily create your own social networks for free has just made even more functionality available to network creators in the form of Ning Apps. Ning Apps is a directory of 90 applications which can be added to Ning networks to enhance their communities. These include everything from collaborative apps such as Zoho programs to games and Hulu functionality. Ning Apps have been much awaited since their announcement and private beta in May of this year.
via Web Worker Daily
Friday, September 11th, 2009
Ben Parr at Mashable reports that Facebook has announced a new feature – the ability to tag friends in your status updates and posts. This feature is very similar to the ability to tag others using the @ symbol in Twitter updates. Friends will be notified and a Wall post will be created linking them to the original post in which they are referenced. The feature will be rolled out over the next few weeks. Read more in the Facebook news release:
“Now, when you are writing a status update and want to add a friend’s name to something you are posting, just include the “@” symbol beforehand. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages. Soon, you’ll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The “@” symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you’ve added your tags.”
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Josh Catone at Mashable rounds up 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions for Students. Here are his top five recommendations for extensions students won’t want to be without, check out the full post for more:
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Gina Trapani at Lifehacker puts together a guide to Seven Easy Ways to Integrate Your Google Apps. This handy article provides quick instructions for combining separate Google applications to increase productivity such as:
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
If you’re doing any sort of writing for the Web, from blogging to tweeting, you’ll want to check out Josh Catone’s 5 Rules for Better Web Writing. This succinct post defines five guidelines to improve your copy writing.
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
PR firm Edelman has published a white paper titled Engaging the New Influencers wrapping up the key sessions and takeaways of the June New Media Academic Summit held in Washington D.C..
“Edelman convened more than 100 professors of communications, journalism, business and public relations from across North America and Europe to discuss how companies, organizations and media effectively engage their stakeholders through social media. The sessions were led by more than 50 practitioners who guide digital communications strategies within leading organizations – including AstraZeneca, CNN, eBay, Environmental Defense Fund, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Starbucks, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, UPS, and Whirlpool, among others…This report provides best practices and actionable insights into how to engage employees, consumers, investors, regulators and media.”
Monday, September 7th, 2009
Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable analyzes 5 Red Hot Twitter Trends to Track. If you want to keep updated on what’s happening with the popular microblogging app, you’ll want to read about these emerging Twitter trends:
Monday, September 7th, 2009
Dragos Roua posts one hundred tips to better blogging with 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog. This massive guide discusses techniques to more successful blogging and is divided into the following categories:
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Josh Catone at Mashable creates a guide to using Twitter Hashtags for Business. If you’re still getting up to speed on what hashtags are and how you can use them to benefit your organization, be sure and check out this article.
“Hashtags are essentially a simple way to catalog and connect tweets about a specific topic. They make it easier for users to find additional tweets on a particular subject, while filtering out the incidental tweets that may just coincidentally contain the same keyword. Hashtags are also often used by conference and event organizers as a method of keeping all tweets about the event in a single stream, and they’ve even been used to coordinate updates during emergencies. In fact, hashtags were first popularized during the 2007 San Diego wildfire, when the tag #sandiegofires was used to identify tweets about the natural disaster.”
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Jennifer Farley at SitePoint post about How To Integrate Twitter Into Your Web Site. If you’re interested in displaying your tweets on your website or blog, you’ll want to check out this guide to:
