EmpowerUs http://emp.ower.us Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:37:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 en Get Connected with Instant Messaging http://emp.ower.us/get-connected-with-instant-messaging.htm http://emp.ower.us/get-connected-with-instant-messaging.htm#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:33:07 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/get-connected-with-instant-messaging.htm Lets start by getting at least one instant messaging account. There are quite a few to choose from. If you already have a Google account, Google offers Google Talk. Another popular IM provider is Yahoo Messengerr. AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger are additional popular IM service providers.

A) Pick one and set up your account now.
B) Any of the above IM accounts can be monitored simultaneously with a Meebo account. Click Here for Meebo Help. Setup a Meebo account and add at least one of your IM accounts to it.
C) Add me “empowerus” to your Friends in Meebo and send me an instant message.
D) As you IM me, I will add you to my Friends and let the others know the new IM contact names so they can add them to their list.

]]> http://emp.ower.us/get-connected-with-instant-messaging.htm/feed Generational Pursuit http://emp.ower.us/generational-pursuit.htm http://emp.ower.us/generational-pursuit.htm#comments Sun, 20 May 2007 02:06:18 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/generational-pursuit.htm Just found this excerpt from the talk David Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscillaneous, gave at the SETT conference in Glasgow, Scotland. He says we are entering an age where there is a fundamental connection of ideas and an even more fundamental connection of people[coolplayer width="480" height="90" autoplay="0" loop="0" charset="utf-8" download="1" mediatype=""]
generational pursuit to construct meaning
[/coolplayer]
I wonder about all the people who are not part of the connection and how to reach them.

]]> http://emp.ower.us/generational-pursuit.htm/feed Making Money Online and the Power of Social Networking http://emp.ower.us/making-money-online-and-the-power-of-social-networking.htm http://emp.ower.us/making-money-online-and-the-power-of-social-networking.htm#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:06:33 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/making-money-online-and-the-power-of-social-networking.htm I have been trying affiliate marketing as a way for this blog to generate income, and when I discovered Dosh Dosh all about making money online with lots of specific tips, I added the site to my technorati favorites. By doing this, I also participated in a social networking experiment.

Why the emphasis on Technorati? Simply because Technorati is a blog search engine, content aggregator, social website and ranking system which attracts a large number of bloggers.

The goal of Dosh Dosh was to make it to the Technorati top 100 most favorited blogs and to show that it’s easy to do. As of 4:13 today, the site is number 16!

Dosh Dosh on Technorati
I have alot to learn!

]]> http://emp.ower.us/making-money-online-and-the-power-of-social-networking.htm/feed Social Shopping with Kaboodle http://emp.ower.us/social-shopping-with-kaboodle.htm http://emp.ower.us/social-shopping-with-kaboodle.htm#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:09:04 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/social-shopping-with-kaboodle.htm Kaboodle is similar to del.icio.us in the way that it works, but very different in what it does. Where del.icio.us gives you helpful lists of web resources, Kaboodle helps you make lists of things that you want to buy, have bought, or would buy if only you could.
1. Go to Kaboodle (http://www.kaboodle.com) and create and account for yourself. Make sure to add the buttons to your Firefox browser.

2. Follow the steps to customize your profile. You can upload a photo if you have one on your computer. You don’t have to use a photo of yourself, or even your own name, but you do have to have the rights to the photo you use.

3. Go to a site like amazon.com and search for something that you want/like. When you’ve gotten to the record of that individual item, click the “Add to Kaboodle” button on your browser. You’ll be taken to a screen similar to the del.icio.us screen, where you can pick a list to put the item into (one example is the “if I had a Million Dollars” list), give the item some tags, and add or remove descriptions of the item.

Repeat this process often, and build lists of all the wonderful things you wish you had.

4. Add your kaboodle profile to your Blogroll, and tag your profile in del.icio.us.

5. Invite a friend who likes to shop to join you on kaboodle, and/or search for coworkers involved in this program, and see if you can network with them.

6. Write a blog post about the experience. What are some of the things you can use Kaboodle for?

]]> http://emp.ower.us/social-shopping-with-kaboodle.htm/feed Firefox Browser http://emp.ower.us/firefox-browser.htm http://emp.ower.us/firefox-browser.htm#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:29:04 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/firefox-browser.htm Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/) is an open source browser. It’s steadily growing in popularity as an alternative to Internet Explorer. The benefits of using Firefox over IE are many, but what they all come down to is with Firefox you have a lot of freedom to customize your browser so that it acts like you want it to act.

1. Go to Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/) and download it. It’s a big program, so it might take a bit of time, if you have a slow connection. You will also have to have administrative access to your computer.

2. Modify your browser theme - In your browser, go to Tools, then Add-Ons, then Get Themes. Browse the different themes and choose a look that fits your personality. Don’t worry, you can always go back and change it.

3. Add these Extensions: Adblock, Flashblock, Tab Mix Plus, IE View Lite. Read about each one, and what it does.

4. Add buttons to your browser. Go to View, then Toolbars, then Customize. Choose buttons that you would like to have available. “New Tab” and “Print” are very helpful.

5. Create a folder for places you go often. Right click on the task bar below the buttons, select “New Folder” and name the folder. Go to each page that you open all the time, and drag and drop the URL into the folder.

6. Open your folder In Tabs. Click on the folder, select Open In Tabs, and watch the magic!

]]> http://emp.ower.us/firefox-browser.htm/feed New ways to learn Chinese http://emp.ower.us/discovering-new-ways-to-learn-chinese.htm http://emp.ower.us/discovering-new-ways-to-learn-chinese.htm#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:43:25 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/discovering-new-ways-to-learn-chinese.htm I have a daughter I adopted from China and she is almost 11 years old. She’ll be going to middle school next year. We are very interested in learning Chinese. I have discovered two fantastic resources. One is ChinesePod where you can sign up for a trial account and check out the podcasts and lessons (I signed up for a one year membership and also joined as an affiliate) and the other is italki, a global language learning community. So far, I’ve become language partners with several people in China who want to learn English.

]]> http://emp.ower.us/discovering-new-ways-to-learn-chinese.htm/feed Not So Technical Technorati http://emp.ower.us/not-so-technical-technorati.htm http://emp.ower.us/not-so-technical-technorati.htm#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:53:57 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/not-so-technical-technorati.htm You might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is. Well, according to Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the number of blogs doubles just about every 6 months with over 51 million blogs currently being tracked by the site. If the blogging trend continues, it is estimated that Technorati will have tracked its 100 millionth blog in just 5 months.Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry. So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati due to the fact that you’re already using Wordpress, a popular blogging tool.

 

Join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the watchlist and other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself. As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? This is easy, too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post (see my example below) and Technorati will pick up these tags when it spiders (or web crawls) your site.There are a lot of new features that have been added to Technorati this past summer, including new ways to search for blogs. You can search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or music).

Discovery Resources:

Technorati Tour – videocast of new features & new look
Technorati Discover & Popular features

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “EmpowerUs” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?
  2. Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
  3. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.OPTIONAL: If you’re up for a challenge, learn how to tag your posts with Technorati tags so they can join tag searches.
  4. Create a post about anything you want and tag it as “EmpowerUs” (and any other tag as well). You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist.
  5. Add http://emp.ower.us to your technorati favorites. You can use this button Add to Technorati Favorites

There’s a lot to explore.


]]> http://emp.ower.us/not-so-technical-technorati.htm/feed Tagging and Social Bookmarking http://emp.ower.us/tagging-and-delicious-social-bookmarking.htm http://emp.ower.us/tagging-and-delicious-social-bookmarking.htm#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:33:49 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/tagging-and-delicious-social-bookmarking.htm Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

The photo sharing site Flickr allows people to take advantage of tagging and we are using a common tag (empowerus) to create an association between photos that we individually uploaded.

We’ll be exploring a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us). Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user’s filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

 

Discovery Exercise:

  1. View the 12 minute Del.icio.us tutorial to get a good overview of its features.
  2. Take a look around Del.icio.us using the empowerus account that was created for this exercise. Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the free tech class.
  3. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
  4. Create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. You might even want to explore Del.icio.us’ latest addition, a network badge. (Psst! see it over there at the end of the navigation sidebar)
  5. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.
    Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

Note: Here’s a quick word about the Del.icio.us Buttons. On PCs that have the toolbars locked down, these will install as options in your browser bookmarks. Use the “Post to my Del.icio.us” link to add the current webpage to your account (you may need to log in). Use the “My Del.icio.us” link to view your online account.

]]> http://emp.ower.us/tagging-and-delicious-social-bookmarking.htm/feed Rollyo Your Own Search Engine http://emp.ower.us/rollyo-your-own-search-engine.htm http://emp.ower.us/rollyo-your-own-search-engine.htm#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:25:12 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/rollyo-your-own-search-engine.htm

Do you have a group of websites that are your favorites? Or a set of online resources that are similar that you frequently use to answer homework or reference questions? Well Rollyo may be the tool for you. Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for the just the websites you know and trust.Take a look at some of these search rolls that have already been created:

Try a search for broad terms like “homework” or “history” to see results listed from multiple sites.

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Explore Rollyo and create an account for yourself.
  2. Create a search roll for any subject you like.
  3. Create a post in your blog about your experience and link to your search roll. Can you see a potential use for tools like this?

OPTIONAL: Add your searchroll to your blog using the “Create a Searchbox” tool.

 


 

Powered by Rollyo

Rollyo - You just never know when this little tool might come in handy.


]]> http://emp.ower.us/rollyo-your-own-search-engine.htm/feed Flickr Photo Mashup Fun http://emp.ower.us/flickr-photo-mashup-fun.htm http://emp.ower.us/flickr-photo-mashup-fun.htm#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:15:37 +0000 Michelle http://emp.ower.us/flickr-photo-mashup-fun.htm Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images. Here are just a sampling of a few …

  • Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map
  • Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
  • Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.
  • Spell with Flickr -

Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.

Discovery Exercise:

Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to:

  1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there.
  2. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you.

Personally one of my very favorite tools is FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker. So have some fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps. And if you’re up to the challenge while you’re at it, why not create a trading card of your own. :)

* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map). In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com).


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