143 and counting – I am LinkedIn

Building a professional network is what LinkedIn is all about. I like to describe it as Facebook for professionals – only nobody will offer you a hug, a kiss, or a plant while LinkedIn. You build your professional network by finding and inviting people who can (and want to) add value to your chosen professional pursuit. Connect with them and be connected by them. According to LinkedIn, “Your network should be made of people whose value is measured by the amount and quality of knowledge and resources available within your network. . . Generally it's not about the number of connections you may have or connecting for connecting's sake. Your network should be about quality of knowledge, resources, skills and advocacy that LinkedIn can help unlock.”

A true social network, you build your connections by first creating a profile based upon your education, work history, community service, awards, etc. Each area of the profile can be an opportunity to connect with other. The other main strategy is to connect with groups. For example, I belong to several groups, including Chattanoogans, Professional Second Lifers, and MERLOT. I cannot tell you how many people I have reconnected with through LinkedIn, but it has surprised me. Of course, you can E-mail within from within the environment. A primary activity within LinkedIn is related to looking for jobs. Apparently, many large companies use LinkedIn for talent recruitment.

One of my favorite tech Bloggers, Guy Kawasaki, has written a very good piece, Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn. BTW, I have added Guy’s Blog to the Blog List below.

Web 2.0 Blog List

A new feature of this Blog is the Web 2.0 Blog List. You will find it at the very bottom, so scroll on down. The first post is from Alex Berger, a 23 -year old student at Arizona State University. If you want some insight into how the digitally savvy young people look at learning and the world, then read it.

VirtualWayfarer.com | A Place For Intellectual Musings

More Blogs relevant to Web 2.0 will follow

Wetpaint - Create a Wiki

Wetpaint's Website allows one a easy way to create free wiki websites. They invite you to "please touch: create or join a wiki. . . build a community around whatever you love" You have probably known of Wikipedia - it's the online encyclopedia that is literally created by a community of users. Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference sources, attracting at nearly a billion users in 2008. There are some other wiki-generators, but I really like Wetpaint for its look and easy of use. You can watch several videos to find out more here.

Wikis are often used by groups to create a content-based Website with a restricted community of users – in other words, a private wiki. However, like other Web 2.0 applications, Wetpaint can take to existing wikis that may be something to join or at least to build from. In addition to being a tool to create a social website that anyone can easily edit and contribute to, there are many existing Wikis that can be accessed. For example, you can see the Efficient MD Wiki or WikiBirdFlu.

http://www.wetpaint.com/

Tell a story in 5 frames - Visual story telling with Flickr

Flickr is probably my favorite Web 2.0 application. A previous post on this Blog covers Flickr’s basics, but there is a clever use of this Web tool related to storytelling. A group exists for Flickr users who want to meet this challenge: can you tell a story with just five images?

The guidelines for having your story accepted for inclusion in this group state:

A good story has characters in action with a beginning, middle, and an ending. Fortunately a lot of information can be given in a single photograph, enhancing the limitations of five photographs for your story. Location, time, and atmosphere aid viewer imagination. Keep standards of pictorial beauty, but pack as many story telling elements in one photograph as possible to develop an action.

1st photo: establish characters and location.

2nd photo: create a situation with possibilities of what might happen.

3rd photo: involve the characters in the situation.

4th photo: build to probable outcomes

5th photo: have a logical, but surprising, end.

This is a real challenge – the brevity and succinctness of the stories that are accepted into the pool are truly impressive. Sure, there are some that are lame, or at least puny, but try it yourself. Teachers might consider this as a possible student project.