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web 2.0

Hunch

Posted Wed, 2009-04-01 20:18 by matthew

Hunch was founded by Caterina Fake, one of the co-founders of Flickr—pretty good pedigree.  The FAQ on the site makes the following claim: 

In 10 questions or less, Hunch will offer you a great solution to your problem, concern or dilemma, on hundreds of topics. Hunch's answers are based on the collective knowledge of the entire Hunch community, narrowed down to people like you, or just enough like you that you might be mistaken for each other in a dark room. Hunch is designed so that every time it's used, it learns something new.

Twiddict your Twitter Queue -- A Cool Twitter Tool

Posted Tue, 2008-06-10 12:47 by matthew

You are busy posting to your Twitterfeed at a conference. You have colleagues doing the same with the plan of combining your collective feeds into a company blog post. As the speech you are listening to comes to the keynote climax--questions, postings, answers, insights are all being fed into Twitter--you suddenly find yourself on the whale screen. Twitter, once again has come crashing down.

Cool Tool -- Plurk.com

Posted Mon, 2008-06-02 23:41 by matthew

Plurk.com is a neat twitter-like tool that allows you to micro-blog posts with preset or free form actions such as "loves", "likes", "shares", "gives". As you and your friends create posts, a graphical timeline is generated with the hour and minute your post. You can move backwards and forwards through the timeline to see what has been posted in the past.

AIM, Skype chat, iChat, ICQ-IRC Started It All

Posted Tue, 2007-11-20 22:45 by matthew

I've heavily used different Internet messaging in both the nonprofit and the for profit realms. Being able to quickly chat with developers during a project is a powerful tool. Skype is great because it not only allows you to IM but to talk and to transfer documents securely. I've also used ICQ and AIM. I still use iChat (on the AIM network) regularly as well.

IRC started it all though and is still actively used by a wide variety of different groups. IRC is cool because there are long standing communities who discuss and support one another on a vast swath of topics. IRC is cool because they were Web 2.0 WAY before Web 2.0 had ever been conceived.

iContact Community

Posted Tue, 2007-11-13 10:52 by matthew

What a curious site. iContact Community merges blogs, forums, and voting into a single site. There are two main kinds of users:

1) Publishers
2) Members

It appears being a member is free. The idea is that you can browse through the publisher's blog posts--which are pretty much advertisements. Publishers pay a fee to blog and send newsletters to a mailing list that they create through the site.

Publishers can:

  • Create a list
  • Add a contact
  • Create a message
  • Create a campaign
  • Create a blog

The publishers are broken up into:

Shilliber, a Voice 2.0 App

Posted Wed, 2007-08-29 03:38 by matthew

Shilliber is a subscription service that allows you to call a preset number, enter a code, and then leave up to a 15 second sound clip. That sound clip, called a shill, is housed on Shilliber's servers and is exposed to the Internet.

I signed up this evening--it was an easy process, but then wasn't clear on *how* one sets up the ability to leave a clip. Finally I noticed that there is a link called, "Create a Listing". This apparently sets up a "bucket" in which folks can leave clips. You can choose to leave a clip on someone else's listing and then, the clip will be part of that person's listing. So, you could set up a question on your blog and then ask for comments on the blog.

BaseCamp and MyQuire, First Impressions

Posted Tue, 2007-08-28 02:51 by matthew

I've researched different project management systems over the last 8 years or so.

I've played with Microsoft Project quite a bit and have found it to quite useful in very linear projects but the tool can be quite complicated and sometimes managing the tool takes longer than managing the project.

The emergence of Web 2.0 applications and social networking was bound to spawn new tools.

Back in my WESTAF days, I used BaseCamp when working with Work Industries on search engine optimization. Really BaseCamp is a fancy to do list with some other features. One thing that I think is pretty slick about BaseCamp is the ability to integrate into BlinkSale, the invoicing system I use for my personal consulting. BaseCamp is good for small projects but doesn't really suit larger projects.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

Posted Fri, 2007-07-06 01:26 by matthew

There are big changes in my future. I've spent the last nine months or so championing the use of Web 2.0 technologies in promoting the nonprofit community in general with an emphasis on the arts. A big part of this has focused on the convergence of different technologies in mashups. These have included:

  1. Drupal
  2. Flickr
  3. Revver
  4. YouTube
  5. Twitter
  6. SecondLife

I see myself as a trainer, writer, technologist, zealot, and missionary. I take part in Nonprofits in Secondlife and have been posting to Techsoup's forums. I like to share knowledge.

I'm happy to say that the change in my life has me moving from my position at WESTAF in Denver to pingVision in Boulder. pingVision is a creative design studio that specialises in Drupal site design, DVD authoring, and graphic design.

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Plaxo Part II

Posted Mon, 2007-06-18 03:45 by matthew

Plaxo can install a tool into Outlook that flags if a person is in your contact list or not and if they are a Plaxo member. If they aren't you can click on a link in the top right corner of your email window and in a couple of clicks add them to your contact list and allows you to immediately request an update from your contact.

Plaxo toolbars can be installed into Outlook, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, MacOS X address book, Thunderbird, and onto your mobile phone.

There is a free limited version of the software.

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Plaxo, Keeping In Touch

Posted Sat, 2007-06-16 22:30 by matthew

Plaxo is a utility that allows you to synch a variety of different address books. For example, my address book at work is in Outlook but at home is in MacOS X Address Book. Plaxo will link to both and give a merged online list that you can access anywhere.

Plaxo will allow you to send reminders to your contacts to update your address book. It will also send birthday wishes to those who have provided a date of birth.

It is incredibly difficult to keep in contact with friends, family, and business contacts. When you have a large address book it becomes nearly impossible. Plaxo makes the effort quite a bit easier.