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Tips for trainers

CONTACT DETAILS TIPS FOR TRAINERS Holly Ashley Web 2.0 tools: Participatory Learning and Action series International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Email: [email protected] a series of short Luigi Assom Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) Email: [email protected] introductions

Jon Corbett There are vast numbers of Web 2.0 tools, applications, platforms, and University of British Columbia Okanagan Email: [email protected] services available. Many of them are free or low-cost and easy-to-use. In this issue, we present a series of short introductory guides to a selection of Ben Garside commonly-used Web 2.0 tools: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Email: [email protected] • Blogging • Micro-blogging and Dave Jones Independent media consultant • Email: [email protected] • Online social networking • RSS feeds Christian Kreutz CrissCrossed Consulting • Tagging Email: [email protected] • • Glossary of Web 2.0 terms Duncan Macqueen International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Each introductory guide provides a brief description of the tool and how it Email: [email protected] can be used for development purposes, along with links to further Kevin Painting information and where applications can be downloaded online.1 We hope Technical Centre for Agricultural and that you find these short introductions useful and welcome feedback from Rural Cooperation (CTA) our readers. Email: [email protected]

Giacomo Rambaldi Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) Email: [email protected]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The introduction to wikis includes some tips from the Kabissa Space for Change in Africa Web 2.0 in African Civil Society . The content of the Kabissa wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. See: http://wiki.kabissa.org/ web_2.0/start

1 For more information about the examples of development listed in the guides, see e-participation, p.130 (this issue).

105 106 TIPS FOR TRAINERS Tips fortrainers Blogging development Tips onhowtocreate andmaintainadynamicpopular in discussion. comment ontheirpostsandengage • Blogauthorscanallowothers to are free-to-use. web space.Mostbloggingplatforms blog software torunontheirown existing blogplatform,ordownload • Userscansetupablogonan current relevance. oldest posts–thisgivesthemasense • Blogsstartwiththenewestnot video clipsandaudiofiles. multiple mediasuchastext,photos, and otherresources. Blogscaninclude of writtencommentary, news,events, • Blogscontainentriescalled‘posts’ groups ororganisations. individual, butcanalsobedoneby • Ablogisusuallymaintainedbyan space. –orthefundstorent web technical expertiseneededtosetupa content onawebpage,withoutthe allowing peopletopublishtheirown wasused,by which theInternet • Blogsradicallychangedthewayin on anytopic. you caneasilyandfreely create ablog • Providing access, youhaveInternet content toablog. • Bloggingmeanstomaintainoradd interface. administered viaasimpleweb-based an easywaytopublishcontent, Itis a websitelikeanonlinejournal. • Ablog(shortfor‘web’and‘log’)is What are ? 2 1 bandwidth bloggers. be more appropriate forlow ora mobilephone.Theymay send andreceive shortpostsviathe • Micro-blogging toolsallowyouto other blogsbytopic. bloggers andtopicaltrends andfind track theinterconnections between • Usingblogsearch engines,youcan collection ofconnectedcommunities). connected community(orasa that blogsexisttogetherasa interconnections. Itistheperception encompassing allblogsandtheir • Theblogosphere isacollectiveterm with more links. engines likeGoogleprioritisewebsites to byalotofotherblogs.Search • Ifablogispopular, itwillbelinked pathways new onlinenetworksandinformation • linktootherrelated blogstoform conversations online • allowustoparticipateinongoing debate and/ormobiliseaction • helptoinform,triggerandfoster • canbeusedforraisingawareness • encourageotherstoparticipate • canregularly disseminateinformation Blogs… Why blogfordevelopment? to tagpostswithmultiplekeywords. • Manyblogsplatformsallowauthors See alsoMicro-blogging, p.108(this issue). See alsoTagging, p.117(thisissue). 2 1 have updatedyour blogsothatthe features tonotifythemwhenyou Technorati. Alsousetheir'' register yourblogwithengineslike engines andwebsites,youshould for blogs.Justaswithnormal search • There are specialisedsearch engines the originalpost. particular posthashadunderneath other blogswilllistallthetrackbacksa helps buildcommunityandoften have referred tothemonyourblog.It automatically notifythemthatyou '' or'ping'functionto another blog,usethe'', • Whenyoureference orlinkto blogs, makesure youlinkto them. information. Ifyourefer toother where readers canfindmore • Provide linksinyourblogspoststo to existingdiscussions. • Useyourblogtohighlightandadd to yourfavouriteblogs. • Becomepartofanetworkbylinking any commentsandfeedback. • Addcontentregularly andanswer eventually moderatecomments). You willneedtoleaddiscussions (and • Staywellinformedandup-to-date. to over-generalise. interesting andusefulcontent.Try not • Stayfocused.Write consistent, (writing), whichsuitsyou. • Developyourownstyleofblogging away. want tostartyourownblogright commenting onthemifyoudonot • Checksimilarblogs.Startby audience inmind. • Chooseatopicandhavean Some tipsonhowtostartablog your voiceheard orpubliciseanissue • are aneasyandcheapwaytoget learning reflection and canhelptodigest opinion, agoodprocess ofself • canbeanexpression ofpersonal TIPS FOR TRAINERS 107 5 6 Tips for trainers Tips Full URL: http://dotsub.com/view/dc75c2e2-ef81- Full URL: http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/ 5 6 4851-8353-a877aac9fe3c projects/guide-blog-for-a-cause Examples of development blogs • Afrigator: http://afrigator.com • Alive in Baghdad: http://aliveinbaghdad.org www.crisscrossed.net • Crisscrossed: • Ghana GINKS blogspotters: www.ginks.blogspot.com • Global Voices: http://globalvoicesonline.org • iCollaborate: www.icollaborate.blogspot.com • Indian Kisan blog: http://kisan.wordpress.com • Kabissa: www.kabissa.org/blog • Roxanna Samii: www.rsamii.blogspot.com • Reporters Without Borders: www.rsfblog.org of Africa: • Voices http://voicesofafrica.africanews.com blog: conference • Web2forDev http://blog.web2fordev.net See e-participation for more information about the websites listed (p. x, this issue). Tips on blogging Tips • http://blogsessive.com • http://tinyurl.com/globalvoicesblog in Plain English Blogs Video: German, Portuguese Also in French, and Spanish. Also with multiple language subtitles on Dotsub.com: • www.commoncraft.com/blogs • http://tinyurl.com/dotsubblogs between bloggers: • http://technorati.com • http://blogs.google.com • www.blogscope.net • www.blogpulse.com • www.icerocket.com Global Voices is a community of more than more is a community of Voices Global work together to bring who 200 bloggers blogs and from reports and you translations with emphasis on citizen media everywhere, in heard not ordinarily voices that are media. international mainstream providing they are properly cited – properly they are providing to check first. always remember popular or which blogs are • Explore trusted by others. Get to know who is using them. • Always your posts. Use popular so that others keywords and relevant for them and find your can search easily. content more Find other blogs by keyword, topic or Find other blogs by keyword, and track the interconnections trend • www..com • www.livejournal.com • www.typepad.com • www.wordpress.com • www.xanga.com Blogging software download and host on your own To web space: • www.wordpress.org • www.moveabletype.org Blog search engines Where to get started Where or low-cost, several free are There easy-to-use blogging websites. Here some examples. are Blogging websites This means that others 3 4 See also RSS feeds, p.115 (this issue). material on one website is Syndication is where • Writing takes time and patience. Do • Writing of effort the not underestimate blogging. posts keeps your regular • Writing blog dynamic and interesting. • Always quote your information sources. • Clearly distinguish between opinions and facts. • Low bandwidth limits access to blogs with photos, audio and video. • Blogs can be used as references Keep in mind… Keep blog will index the engine will index blog search content of your new post. • Allow your blog to be syndicated via RSS feeds. can easily feature headlines from your headlines from can easily feature blog on their own websites and your can automatically receive readers updates when new material is published on your blog. may also wish to automatically • You other blogs and content from feature websites (e.g. headlines) on your own RSS feeds. blog by importing relevant 3 4 made available to multiple other websites. See also p.124 (this issue). glossary, 108 TIPS FOR TRAINERS Tips fortrainers Tips onusingmicro-blogging tool Twitter fordevelopment and Twitter Micro-blogging relevant messageseasier. keyword tag,tomakesearching for a word isusedtodenotethatita • Puttingahashsymbol#infront of their updates. enable themtosendwebpage linksin to shortening serviceslikeTinyurl.com characters long,peopleuseURL- • Sinceupdatescanonlybe140 interest. breaking newsorparticular topicsof very usefulforsharingandmonitoring updates, meaningthatitcanalsobe well assubscribetootheruser’s updates inreal timeforkeywords, as • Userscansearch everyone else’s in touchoverdistances. situation monitoringandforkeeping coordination andcampaigning, ground protest citizenjournalism, a verypowerfultoolforon-the- submit updatesviaSMSitcanalsobe • SinceTwitter allowspeopleto them (i.e.subscribedtothem). Twitter memberwhois‘following’ page andbevisibletoanyother • UpdateswillappearontheirTwitter the Internet. phone oracomputerconnectedto ‘tweets’) viaSMSontheirmobile 140 charactertextupdates(knownas known services.Userscansendshort • Twitter.com isoneofthebest very shorttextupdates. blogging where usersmostlypublish • Micro-blogging isaformof What ismicro-blogging? minutes. reaching thousandsofpeoplein send themessagesopotentially encourages othersto‘re-tweet’ orre- inamessage • Usingtheletters‘RT’ withintheirmessages. ‘@username’ to aparticularuserbyusing conversation ordirect theirmessages • Userscanalsomaintaina Twitter memberwhois ‘following’ them. Twitter pageandare visibletoanyother Updates willappearonthe Web2forDev The Web2forDev webportalnowuses Twitter. manage multipleblogging,micro- accounts easierandenableusersto make managingmultipleTwitter third partyapplicationsdesignedto • There are agrowing numberof showing theURLofphotograph. update totheirTwitter account Twitpic willalsoautomaticallysendan which willappearontheirTwitpic page. have takenontheirmobilephone Twitpic.com tosendaphotographthey Twitter. Peoplecanuseserviceslike other servicesare integratingwith • ManyotherWeb 2.0websitesand Rsstotwitter.com. such asTwitterfeed.com or with anRSSfeedbyusingservices • UserscanalsofeedTwitter itself on otherwebsites. stream ofmessages tobedisplayed searches forkeywords, enablingthe user’s updates,oroftheresults of • Twitter alsoprovides RSSfeedsof TIPS FOR TRAINERS 109 4 3 Tips for trainers Tips Full URL: www.web2fordev.net/component/content/ Full URL: www.digiactive.org/wp- Other similar micro-blogging tools Other similar micro-blogging • Identi.ca: http://identi.ca www.yammer.com • Yammer: Resources article Web2fordev.net 140 characters of ‘Micro-blogging: gossip or added value for development organisations?’ • http://tinyurl.com/twitterfordev for DigiActive Guide to Twitter Activism (PDF) • http://tinyurl.com/digiactive-twitter 3 4 article/1-latest-news/68-micro-blogging content/uploads/digiactive_twitter_guide_v1-0.pdf 2 Full URL: http://dotsub.com/view/665bd0d5-a9f4- Also in French, German, Also in French, Portuguese and Spanish. Also with multiple language subtitles at Dotsub.com: • www.commoncraft.com/twitter • http://tinyurl.com/dotsubtwitter Video: Twitter in Plain English Twitter Video: • Global Voices: http://twitter.com/globalvoices • Kabissa: http://twitter.com/kabissa • MobileActive: http://twitter.com/mobileactive 4a07-9d9e-b31ba926ca78 2 1 For more information about Ushahidi and For more FrontlineSMS see Okolloh, p.65 (this issue). FrontlineSMS 1 • Web2forDev on Twitter: • Web2forDev http://twitter.com/web2fordev Examples of development Twitter organisations using Where to get started Where blogging and messaging platforms. blogging and messaging in which Twitter • Many of the ways implemented can be used can be and phone-based SMS through like bulk messaging software through and FrontlineSMS.com implementations like Ushahidi.com. Tips for trainers

Some tips on creating a wiki • Visit other wikis to get a feel for how Wikis they work and what they do. • You can either sign up to a free-to-use wiki platform via one of the many wiki providers – or download the software to Tips on online collaboration using wikis run on your own web space. • List your known requirements and preferences in detail before selecting a wiki platform. Can it expand to meet TIPS FOR TRAINERS TIPS FOR future needs? Can you migrate from What are wikis? easier to edit content online.2 one wiki platform to another later on? • Wikis are online collaborative • Most wikis also enable users to • Try to choose an open source wiki workspaces.1 upload e.g. documents and photos. platform so that if your partners wish • A wiki is a simple, text-based web • Wikis are also particularly good for to start their own wiki, it will be freely page or collection of web pages developing complex documentation. available for them to use.3 4 where teams of people can work • Many individuals also use wikis much • Plan and organise how you want to together online from different physical like an online personal notebook, to structure your content. A well-devised locations. store and develop ideas. structure will be important as your wiki • Wikis are like very basic websites in grows. Remember you can also modify style and structure. They are designed Why use a wiki for development? the structure as the project expands. to be read and edited using a web Wikis can be used to… • Include a table of contents on each browser. • quickly and informally share, develop page for ease of navigation. • Unlike conventional websites, wikis and organise ideas and information • Regularly check internal wiki links and enable anyone who has access to together online external web links to ensure they are write, edit, discuss and comment on • foster participatory and collaborative still active. the wiki content, including each working online from individuals, • One useful feature about working on other's contributions. Users can project teams, community groups and a wiki is the ability to create pages that constantly modify and organise the organisations to international networks should exist, even if you do not have content. and the general public the content or the information to fill • Wikis can be made public or private. • collate resources from project them yet. This encourages others to Administrators can choose who can information and meeting minutes to add the missing content and create access a wiki and specific sections trip reports and photos relevant pages. within it and define users’ rights. • create and edit content from sharing • When creating a new wiki page, • All wiki page versions are kept, from ideas, developing projects, and writing think about where you want this page when a wiki page is first created. documents to developing online to be linked from. Then edit those Collaborators can monitor and training manuals pages to include a link to your new compare recent and past changes and • enable project partners to contribute page. revert to older versions if needed. and provide a workspace for them to • Give new pages sensible names. Do • Wikis will also show which user has adapt content to local conditions not use abbreviations but ensure the edited the content. • find agreement and/or consensus • Wikis separate formatting from among users 3 Open source software (OSS) is usually computer content, so people can work on • easily create simple community or software where the source code and certain other rights are in the public domain. See glossary, p.122 improving content without concern project websites and jointly develop (this issue). for layout. Most wikis offer a content on them 4 Choose one that is distributed e.g. under a GNU General Public or Creative Commons License (which WYSIWYG editor, which makes it 2 WYSIWYG or ‘What You See is What You Get’ is enhances free use and development) and is a computing term to describe a system in which supported by an active wiki community (who will be able to provide advice and support). See e.g. 1 content displayed during editing appears very Wiki is Hawaiian for ‘very quick’. similar to the final output. www.creativecommons.org

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Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. Wikipedia is multilingual and is now the ninth most popular website in the world. Where to get started TIPS FOR TRAINERS There are many free, easy-to-use wiki platforms. Here are some examples.

Free or very low-cost wiki platforms • http://pbworks.com (formerly PBwiki) • www.wikispaces.com • www.wikidot.com

Downloadable wiki platforms To run on your web space: • www.dokuwiki.org • www.mediawiki.org • www.tikiwiki.org name is short and descriptive. • Usually for best results, a disciplined • www.atlassian.com/software/ • For larger or more formal projects, workflow is needed with good confluence wikis require constant maintenance. among all With multiple people contributing to a collaborators. For more tips on using wikis wiki there will be many works in • http://tinyurl.com/wiki-tips5 progress. Budget for and appoint a Keep in mind… coordinator to maintain the wiki, • Choosing whether or not to create Compare available wiki platforms ensure consistency and keep things in and use a wiki should be a • www.wikimatrix.org good order (style and formatting, collaborative process. Who is the navigation etc.). intended community of users? Who Video: Wikis in Plain English • Set aside time to agree on shared can participate and who cannot? Is a Also in French, German, Portuguese editorial guidelines on how to use the wiki the most appropriate platform? and Spanish. Also with multiple wiki – and then follow them • While wikis can be very informal, you language subtitles at Dotsub.com: consistently. still need to write clearly. Avoid the use • www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis- • Make sure the guidelines are easy-to- of slang terms which others may not plain-english follow and provide training if necessary. be familiar with. • http://tinyurl.com/dotsub-wiki Users need to know how your wiki • As with all online publishing tools, works before editing and contributing always quote your information sources Examples of wikis used in development to it. and provide links where available. • Agropedia: http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in • Include a practice page (known as a Clearly distinguish between opinions • Appropedia: ‘sandbox’), which allows people to and facts. http://www.appropedia.org experiment. It helps encourage people • If converting existing materials to a • Kabissa Space for change in Africa to familiarise themselves with how the wiki format you may need to revise wiki: http://wiki.kabissa.org wiki works. some materials to best suit the change • Web2forDev wiki: • Before opening up your wiki to a in publishing medium e.g. a training http://wiki.web2fordev.net larger group of participants ask a few manual. • Wiki Advocacy: people for comments and feedback. • Wikis are based on collaboration and http://wikiadvocacy.org Making universal changes to an can be used to encourage debate. • Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org extensive, existing wiki is harder than However, they are not necessarily the doing so at the start. best place for finding consensus See e-participation for more • Decide who will have access and amongst dissenting voices. A mailing information about the websites listed contribute to what (and when). You list or face-to-face meetings may be (p.130, this issue). may want to open up access to others more appropriate for these types of 5 Full URL: www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/ gradually as your wiki develops. discussions. 07/07/what-is-a-wiki.

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relationships with them (e.g. via LinkedIn) Online social • keep up-to-date about work carried out by your peers

networking Comparing different types of social networking platforms and websites Tips on using online social networks for development • For most people who are interested in using online social networks, joining TIPS FOR TRAINERS TIPS FOR and contributing to an existing What are online social networks? • These services are designed to be network is sufficient. However, if you • Online social networks are a new straightforward to use, from signing are thinking of creating an online generation of online community up and logging on, creating a profile , you may want to start platforms which are similar to and inviting people to access it, a new group on an existing website or websites but offer specific interactive through to interacting with friends, create an independent one. features and tools. colleagues, partners, and even people • Existing social networking websites • An online social network brings you have never met. often allow users to create new people together and enables them to groups within them. They are often find others who share common Why use online social networks more appropriate for less sophisticated interests or activities and who are for development? forms of networking, which focus interested in learning more about Online social networks can be used more on promoting topics, issues or each other and what they do. to… events within a more public sphere. • They enable users to establish and • target, create or enhance networks • Such websites work well for basic make visible relationships, discuss or communities of practice networking tasks but often the topics of interest, access material, find • foster and enhance participation infrastructure is not available for more contacts and encourage the growth of and collaboration and promote a collaborative working. Examples networks of people. sense of membership and solidarity would be or LinkedIn (which • Membership can be restricted or within these networks has a more professional focus open. • interact with particular audiences compared to Facebook). • You can start a new ‘group’ of e.g. civil society groups, policy makers, • Social networking platforms like Ning people with similar interests on an private sector allow you to create your own existing social networking website or • facilitate better linkages between customisable online social network. create your own using free-to-use groups, for example partners, service They contain a package of useful platforms. providers and decision makers features, such as online forums, groups, • Social networks can range from • easily share and access information – blogs, and video and photo libraries. As friends and family, small dedicated from event announcements, work you have control over the appearance communities of practice or interest, opportunities and reports to practical of your website it allows for a more professional networks, to networks manuals, photos and videos professional online presence. with global membership. • enable greater information-sharing • The third option is to download • Most online social network services and support dialogue on key issues software to run on your own web provide a variety of ways for users to within the network server, but this requires more technical interact, such as messaging and • build capacity by providing expertise and resources. , membership information and resources on • Running your own social networking profiles (sometimes including particular topics platform on your own web server curriculum vitae), online discussion • learn about the professional provides far more security for your forums, blogs, photo- and video- background of people sharing your data and your users since you are in sharing, and other digital resources. interests and establish professional control of every part of the service.

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• Free open source content your safety and security – or that of clearly defined audience. This helps to TIPS FOR TRAINERS management systems (CMS) such as other people. create a genuinely interested and Drupal or can be used to • Consider who you will be active membership with useful create more customisable online social networking with – and who will see experience to share. networks. They offer a wider range of your profile. Social networks can be • Decide whether to create an tools and applications, enabling you to used for ‘professional’ or ‘social’ independent online social networking customise your social networking purposes. Some are a combination of website or a new group within an website even further. the two – however, some people use existing one. • Elgg is another free open source different profiles to separate their • If creating one, determine what platform which is designed specifically professional and personal identities. features your website should contain. for social networking websites. It is • If in doubt, keep your profile • Develop a framework. Begin by mostly used in the educational sphere, information private or restricted. Think uploading a few useful reports, where it has been used to power social about whether to use your real name example blog posts, discussion topics, networks for various institutions and or a pseudonym when you sign up. photos and videos to stimulate communities, such as Eduspaces.net • Always consider others when interest. with over 20,000 members. It is also uploading content. Get permission • Once you have set up your group or the platform that the new before uploading e.g. someone else’s website, invite potential members to Unionbook.org website has used.1 work, culturally sensitive information join. • Buddypress is a newly-updated suite or photos of other people. • All new members should receive a of plug-ins which turns Wordpress MU • Consider the tradeoff between welcome message. Encourage them (a popular multi-user blog platform) making information publicly available to invite others who might find the into a fully-featured social networking and who may use it and for what website useful. platform. purposes.2 • Send members regular, short email • Is the material you want to add digests to inform them of recent Some tips on joining an online appropriate? Remember to check and updates. social network adhere to any editorial policies before • Encourage repeat visits and new • Typical examples of social networking adding content. members. Keep the content fresh with sites are LinkedIn and Facebook as well • Be clear about who owns the links to new information e.g. reports, as photo- and video-sharing websites information that you enter on your manuals, announcements, resources, like and YouTube. profile or that you upload. Always discussions, blog posts, photos and • Look for relevant communities. check the terms of service before videos. Subscribe to a social network whose joining an online network – some • If you are creating an online social members share your interests. service providers retain the right to use networking website for an existing • Popular social networking websites your material without your network, ensure that important vary from country to country. For permission.3 Find out what rights the content from the network is example Orkut.com is popular in India service provider has in terms of using published, e.g. interesting news and Brazil, Hi5.com in South America, your data and what rights you have to features, workshop reports, country and Friendster.com in the Philippines. recall/delete your data. developments etc. • Keep content relevant, informed Keep in mind… Some tips on creating an online and up-to-date, especially if you want social network to lead discussions. When joining an online social • Be clear about the purpose for your • If your website includes forums or network social network and ensure you have a blogs, help start interesting • Stay safe: never upload personal discussions and encourage active 2 For further discussion, see Overview, p.8 (this issue). information that may compromise 3 For example, Facebook and YouTube retain the rights debate. Use thoughtful discussion to use any information uploaded by members. In topics and summaries to which addition, some websites such as Facebook may retain a participants can respond. 1 See www.ericlee.info/2009/02/unionbook_launched. permanent archive of all material uploaded – even after html deleted by the member from their own profile page. • Encourage members to take a

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Research and Media Network is an online social network built using Ning that brings people together to improve communication of research findings. proactive role in contributing to the network – uploading material, notifying people of forthcoming events, writing event reports or messaging other members – this participation will provide wider exposure to member’s ideas and materials, as well as generate new content for the website. • You may want to stipulate that key TIPS FOR TRAINERS TIPS FOR members share materials – participation is critical to broadening future contributions. • Remember to offer guidance in the form of a help page and a Frequently Deleting or rejecting unwanted Review of various popular social Asked Questions (FAQ) page on how content should, wherever possible, networking platforms similar to Ning: to use and contribute to the website. always be mutually agreed between • http://tinyurl.com/tcrunchsn4 • Consider running a blog covering the the moderator and the contributor. development of your social network • Keep an email contact list for the Privacy and security issues website, describing new features and members of your social networking For further discussions on issues gathering feedback from users. website in a different location to the related to social networks, terms of server that is hosting the website. Should service, privacy and intellectual Keep in mind… anything go wrong with your social property rights see Ashley et al., p.x networking website (e.g. if your account (this issue) and also e.g.: When creating an online social is closed or a company goes out of • http://tinyurl.com/bbcfbook network… business and ceases service etc.) you will • http://tinyurl.com/ericlee-faceb • Social networking websites may not still be able to contact your members. • http://tinyurl.com/wikipfbook be appropriate for your target • http://tinyurl.com/wikipmsp audience. Other, more accessible Where to get started • http://tinyurl.com/digiactivefb5 communication platforms (such as There are several free or low-cost email discussion lists, DGroups.org or platforms to choose from – either as a Examples of social networking regular face-to-face meetings) may be new member of an existing network websites for development more appropriate. or to create your own. Here are some • Africa ICT Network: • Remember that managing online examples. http://ictafrica.ning.com social networking websites takes energy • Forest Connect: and time. Allow at least one hour per Social networking platforms http://forestconnect.ning.com day. Larger, more active networks may • www.linkedin.com • i-genius: http://i-genius.org/home require longer daily maintenance. • www.facebook.com • OneWorld TV: Remember to budget for the time. • www.meetup.com http://tv.oneworld.net • Avoid members adding inappropriate • www.ning.com • Research and Media Network: material to your website with clear • www.buddypress.org http://researchandmedia.ning.com editorial guidelines or moderation. Use • www.elgg.org • Web 2.0 Mapping and Social polite, private messages explaining • http://drupal.org Networks Group: why such material is inappropriate. • www.joomla.org www.meetup.com/webmapsocial

4 Full URL: www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/24/9- ways-to-build-your-own-social-network 5 To see the full URLs for these websites, see e- participation, p.130 (this issue).

114 TIPS FOR TRAINERS 115 6 5 Tips for trainers Tips 4 For further discussion and critical reflection on the For further discussion and critical reflection See Social bookmarking, p.119; also Tagging, Widgets mini portable applications which can are use of filtering see Ethan Zuckerman, p.87, (this issue). p.117 (this issue) additional be easily added to a website to provide functionality and dynamic content. Widgets can also new functionalities. be combined to create 4 5 6 • There are various websites that allow are • There • When subscribing to RSS feeds, blogs, websites, spend time searching social networks and social bookmarking websites to find relevant of information. and trusted sources as such • Some online feed readers allow you to see other users’ RSS subscriptions – it is useful to see also what others in your field are online. reading • If bandwidth is an issue in your download a feed reader community, application and install it on your which will enable you to computer, your RSS feeds offline. read with • Users can choose the frequency checks RSS which their feed reader feeds for new information. Decide how often you want to receive updates. • Personal start-pages such as Pageflakes, iGoogle and Netvibes and customise allow you to create your own web page, integrating multiple RSS feeds and other social networking applications and widgets. • improve information-sharing, • improve especially with the combined use of tags, social bookmarks and RSS feeds Some tips on using RSS feeds incorporate content from your website from incorporate content by • add value to websites relevant automatically incorporating other websites information from • keep the level of content received manageable, targeted and relevant forget that using filters – don’t problem information overload is a real for many web users 3 Other syndication icons include or XML. • Some feed reader applications will applications • Some feed reader download the content onto your viewing. computer and enable offline popular with • RSS feeds are a powerful publishers as they are and can tool marketing and outreach many automatically by be produced website platforms and blogs etc. web popular too with • RSS feeds are developers as they can incorporate and display external RSS feeds on their their own RSS website and share feeds with other websites. • The RSS icon on a web page shows visitors they can subscribe to an RSS feed by clicking on it or by the copying and pasting the link from RSS icon into their feed reader. Why use RSS feeds for Why development? With RSS feeds you can … the visibility and accessibility • improve of development content online your organisation, news, • promote or ideas by allowing campaign, project other websites to automatically • Content from multiple RSS feeds • Content from into one place i.e. can be aggregated a new RSS feed, a web page or a feed They can also be manipulated reader. either using filters – to increase mash-ups – to – or through relevance of information, combine sources adding value to the original content. 3 They have become very

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Atom is another data format used in syndication. Syndication is where material on one website is Syndication is where popular with publishers and users alike owing to the ease and simplicity and use. of their production • Each RSS feed is comprised of one feed ‘items’. Each item or more consists of a URL, text and (optionally) multimedia content. An RSS feed could contain the latest news stories, the latest weather reports, or even releases, publications, press radio or television programmes. • Individuals can subscribe to RSS them, or RSS feeds can feeds to read be incorporated into other websites. popular with users for • RSS feeds are keeping track of news and new any number of websites content from directly delivered because updates are to them without the need to visit each of the websites in turn. Feeds could RSS enabled websites, come from news websites, blogs, social networks and social bookmarking websites. (or • Users can use a feed ‘reader’ to subscribe to and view ‘aggregator’) can RSS feeds. A feed reader different either be an online website/service or application installed on a software your computer. • RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a data format used for syndicating web content in the form of RSS or web ‘feeds’. What are RSS feeds? are What 1 made available to multiple other websites. See also p.124 (this issue). glossary, 2

Tips on using RSS feeds to access and share development online share Tips on using RSS feeds to access and content – and how to filter it for relevance RSS feeds 116 TIPS FOR TRAINERS Tips fortrainers feeds onyourphone. youcanaccessyourRSS Internet, • Ifyourmobilephonecanaccess the Feedmarklet. tool tocreate RSSfeedsis be usedinthisway. Anothersimple bookmarking websiteDeliciouscan website isnotRSSenabled.Social content onyourwebsiteif create yourownRSSfeed of new pages. Thiscouldthenbeusedto manually bookmarkingspecificweb website eitherautomaticallyorby an RSSfeedofcontentfrom any • Somewebsitesallowyoutocreate reader ordisplayedonotherwebsites. then besubscribedtousingafeed producing anewRSSfeedwhichcan relevance ofthecontentand of RSSfeeds–improving the (aggregate) and/orfilterthecontent you tomanipulate,combine Pacific countries. in African, Caribbean, and development practitioners news withagricultural feeds andemailtoshare NewsforDev.org usesRSS Rsstotwitter.com. Twitterfeed.com or service Twitter.com anRSSfeedvia • You cansendmicro-blogging available. Here are some examples. There are manyfeedreaders Where togetstarted for details). filter newcontentonline(seebelow Online isproject where peoplealso value. Forexample,GlobalVoices into otherlanguagesaddadditional expert commentaryandtranslate meaningful contexts,whichhave portals thatputnewsinto incredibly useful.However, web and well-filtered multiplesources are • RSSfeedsfrom trustedwebsites Keep inmind… 7 (this issue). characters inlength.SeealsoMicro-blogging, p.108 Content received viaTwitter isonlyupto140 7 4bc8-a511-bb0a1ee95e12 9 8 feed reader functionality. Firefox orOperaalsoincludebasic Note: severalwebbrowsers e.g. (forMac) NetNewsWire • www.newsgator.com/Individuals/ • www.newsfirerss.com (forMac) FeedDemon (Win) • www.newsgator.com/Individuals/ Downloadable feedreaders • http://feedshow.com newsGatoronline • www.newsgator.com/individuals/ • www.google.com/reader • www.bloglines.com Web-based feedreaders • NewsForDev:www.newsfordev.org • IIED:www.iied.org/rss-feeds http://globalvoicesonline.org/feeds • GlobalVoices Online: http://blog.afrigator.com/about • Afrigator: using RSS Examples ofdevelopmentwebsites • http://tinyurl.com/dotsubrss english • www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_ language subtitlesonDotsub.com: and Spanish.Alsowithmultiple Also inFrench, German,Portuguese Video: RSSinPlainEnglish • http://tinyurl.com/rssbbc Very basic guide toRSSfromBBC • www.feedmarklet.com • www.zaptxt.com • http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes • www.filtermyrss.com • www.feedsifter.com • www.feedrinse.com RSS feedfilters, mashersandeditors Full URL:http://dotsub.com/view/69aa48a4-a95f- Full URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm 8 9 TIPS FOR TRAINERS 117 Tips for trainers Tips 6 For example, during the Web2forDev conference, For example, during the Web2forDev participants were encouraged to use the tag participants were to describe any uploaded content ‘Web2forDev’ to the event, e.g. blog posts and photos. related 6 Some tips on using tags possible, always tag • Where information or data that you upload blog online e.g. online presentations, posts, photos, videos and reports. • See what tags other people in your using for similar content. For field are example, social bookmarking websites list popular tags chosen by other Internet users to describe they have online resources bookmarked. • Assign multiple tags to a piece of content. Include the most important What year Is it a report? keywords: was it published? Is it about an event? Which organisations? Which countries? Which topics? unique tags is an • Creating important way of differentiating content. This can be particularly where useful for events/conferences organisers encourage participants to unique tag to use a pre-specified that event identify material from photos or write-ups, (such as reports, blog posts). Why use tags for development? Why can be used to… Tags and share find • organise, structure, development content for possibilities • open up more sharing and collaboration, making it online interesting easier to share content on particular themes with others information-sharing, • improve especially with the combined use of tags, social bookmarks and RSS feeds collections of popular • create development tags used by others (e.g. a development ). 4 This is 3 5 2 See also RSS feeds, p.115, this issue. two or more A mash-up is combining data from Internet bookmarks (or ‘Favourites’) are stored web stored Internet (or ‘Favourites’) are bookmarks See glossary on p.121 for a definition of . • Tagging is particularly important for • Tagging media such as photo, video and audio, which unlike text does not content other have word-searchable than a title or short description. • The practice of ‘social tagging’ to with others is quickly resources share 2.0. A becoming a staple of Web collection of online user-generated to as a tags is often referred ‘folksonomy’. • Geotags are tags that give a • Geotags are geographic location for a piece of content (e.g. a photograph) often using and information. Flickr allows photographs to be geotagged and is important becoming increasingly especially for use in mash-ups. • Social bookmarking websites like allow users to add their own tags to Internet bookmarks to help them. organise and remember also especially useful for content it has which cannot be tagged where been uploaded. tagging will that support • Websites often allow an RSS feed to be generated for a particular tag or set of tags. This RSS feed enables tagged content to be syndicated to other via a feed reader. websites or read external online sources. See glossary, p.122 (this issue). See glossary, external online sources. page locations (URLs) that can be retrieved. See Social page locations (URLs) that can be retrieved. bookmarking, p.119 (this issue). 5 2 3 4

It is a 1

Metadata is a form of data assigned to any piece Tagging one-word descriptor or keyword that descriptor or keyword one-word a user can assign to online content, such as documents, blogs, photos and videos. describe and categorise content • Tags and allow it to be found again by the Internet using that searching keyword. also usually hyperlinks, are • Tags which if clicked, will show all content tagged with that keyword. makes it easier to organise • Tagging and describe information in a manner that is personally meaningful. to the chosen according are • Tags of the user. personal preferences existing While some websites provide categories of tags for users to choose their own users can also create from, tags or keywords. cloud’ is a • A ‘’ or ‘word visual list of tags that have been used on a website or blog etc. The tags shown in used most often are that are larger font sizes and/or different colours. • Most blogs and social networking websites allow users the option to tag Ning and their content e.g. Flickr, Technorati. What is tagging? What • Tagging is the process of assigning is the process • Tagging or tags. online content with keywords • A tag is a form of metadata. 1 of data, which allows it to be retrieved. See glossary, of data, which allows it to be retrieved. p.122 (this issue). Tips on using tags and tagging for development Tips on using tags and tagging for development Tips for trainers

The cover image of this special issue represents some of the more widely-used keywords or ‘tags’ associated with Web2forDev.

Keep in mind… • Some keywords can have several meanings. For example, ‘orange’ can refer to the colour, the fruit or the telecommunication brand. • Be consistent in the way you use tags to identify content related to a particular topic. This enables yourself and others to find information more easily. TIPS FOR TRAINERS TIPS FOR • If you want a community of users to use tags e.g. members of an online social network, provide easy-to-follow guidelines on how to create and use tags as well as a list of popular or specific tags that are used in the specific area of interest. • If you are creating tags for a specific topic, event, website or online group to use, decide on your unique tags in advance – and make sure people • http://technorati.com (for blogs) website see e.g.: know what they are. This will prevent • www..com (for videos) • www.web2fordev.net the need to retag numerous • www.slideshare.net (for presentations) • https://twitter.com/web2fordev documents later on and ensure that related content can be found more To see an example of how content Create graphical tag (or ‘word’) easily by others. tagged with a particular keyword clouds for any text, feed or Delicious (web2fordev) is displayed in Delicious, user’s tags: Where to get started see e.g.: • www.wordle.net • http://delicious.com/tag/web2for Some common examples of websites dev Video: Introductions to tagging and using tags folksonomies • www.flickr.com (for photos) To see how content tagged with • http://k12onlineconference.org/? • www.delicious.com (for bookmarks) ‘web2fordev’ is syndicated on a p=273

118 Tips for trainers

Some tips on using social TIPS FOR TRAINERS bookmarks Social bookmarking • Social bookmarking websites often have downloadable add-ons (or ‘extensions’) available for your web browser to make it easier to Tips on using social bookmarks for development web pages and content with one mouse click. • If your website is not able to produce RSS feeds, you can create your own by bookmarking and What is social bookmarking? most common tags that have been tagging your new content in • Social bookmarking allows users to used to classify a particular web page. Delicious. This allows you to manually tag and save links to web pages and • Tagging is a key element of social create and add new items to a new online documents in the form of bookmarking. Users can search for RSS feed of the content tagged with a bookmarks that they want to bookmarks using one or more tags.1 specific keyword. The RSS feed could remember and/or share. • Many social bookmarking websites then be displayed on your website • Social bookmarking websites have provide RSS feeds for lists of and would also be available for others evolved from free online bookmark bookmarks created by users or tagged to use. websites, which simply allowed you to with particular keywords. This allows • In the same way, you can use store your web page bookmarks (or subscribers to see new bookmarks as Delicious to create and manually add ‘favourites’) online so you could access they are tagged, saved and shared by items to new RSS feeds highlighting them from any computer connected to other users and for RSS feeds to be content from any website. Used the Internet. incorporated on other websites.2 strategically, this is a way of classifying • Social bookmarking websites now • Some social bookmarking websites and then promoting content by allow users to tag, organise, search allow features such as adding notes or making it available for syndication to and share their own and other people’s commenting on bookmarks, rating other websites and viewing in feed bookmarks, often producing RSS feeds bookmarks, and saving copies of the readers.3 and sometimes allowing comments content being bookmarked. and discussion of particular Keep in mind… bookmarks. Why use social bookmarks for • When tagging bookmarks, some • People increasingly use social development? keywords can have several meanings. bookmarking to organise, share and Social bookmarks can be used to… For example, ‘orange’ can refer to the promote content. • organise, structure and share colour, the fruit or the • Social bookmarks are saved on a development content with others telecommunications brand. remote web server, not on your • follow what websites and • Just because you create a bookmark computer, so can be accessed from documents other people in your field for a web page or online document, it anywhere with an Internet connection. are reading does not mean that page or • Most commonly, bookmarks can be • enable others to find information on document will always be there. either public or private, but it is the particular themes more easily Content on the Internet can be ability to share with others that builds • create collections of popular moved or removed without warning. collaborative value. bookmarks related to development It is a good idea to save a copy of any • Users can view other users’ and share these lists with other users important information you want to bookmarks chronologically and also • share information in a more keep. see how popular different bookmarks powerful way by combining the use of 3 are i.e. how many times particular web social bookmarks, tags and RSS feeds For example, http://forestconnect.ning.com uses Delicious to create a list of documents already pages or documents have been available online as well as website links, and then 1 bookmarked by others, as well as the See also Tagging, p.117 (this issue). uses the RSS feed from Delicious to display the list 2 See also RSS feeds, p.115 (this issue). of documents and links on their Ning website.

119 Tips for trainers

An example of how bookmarked content tagged with ‘web2fordev’ is displayed in Delicious. TIPS FOR TRAINERS TIPS FOR

Where to get started • : http://digg.com An example of how content tagged There are several social bookmarking • Diigo: www.diigo.com with a particular keyword (e.g. websites that you can join. Here are • Muti: www.muti.co.za web2fordev) is displayed in Delicious: some examples. • Stumbleupon: • http://delicious.com/tag/ www.stumbleupon.com web2fordev Social bookmarking websites • Delicious: www.delicious.com Review of top ten social An example of how this content can • Technorati: http://technorati.com bookmarking websites: be syndicated on a website: • Google Bookmarks: http://tinyurl.com/bookmarks- • www.web2fordev.net www.google.com/bookmarks review4 • https://twitter.com/web2fordev

4 Full URL: http://websearch.about.com/od/best websites/tp/freebookmarks.htm

120 Tips for trainers

on the user's computer. Many TIPS FOR TRAINERS external applications exist for Glossary of managing bookmarks online (see Social bookmarks). Web 2.0 terms Content Management System (CMS) This glossary lists most of the commonly-used terms describing Web 2.0 A server-based software used to 1 tools that are found in this special issue of PLA. Please note that the publish, edit and control the glossary is not an exhaustive list and does not include more technical workflow of content in a website. It computing terms. integrates many functions that enhance web services and their Aggregator (see also RSS feeds) an important part of blogging. Most interfaces can be freely customised. An aggregator (or ‘’ blogs are primarily textual although For example, web portals are or ‘feed reader’) is a piece of some focus on photographs structured using CMS. software or online service that (), videos (), or audio receives and displays multiple web files (audio blogs or ) and are feeds of syndicated web content part of a wider network of social Crowdsourcing means to outsource a such as news headlines or blog media. To ‘blog’ or to be a ‘blogger’ task to a crowd of undefined, posts. An aggregator could be a means to maintain or add content to generally large group of people. website displaying the latest a blog. Commonly used in Web 2.0 projects headlines from multiple other news such as citizen where the websites or a feed reader application input of individuals is solicited. For that a user downloads to run on Blogosphere is a collective term example, Okolloh (this issue) describes their computer to enable them to encompassing all blogs and their the use of crowdsourcing to gather subscribe to, and view, RSS feeds of interconnections. It is the perception and distribute citizen reports. the latest content from multiple that blogs exist together as a websites without having to visit each connected community (or as a Feeds (see RSS feeds) website in turn. collection of connected communities) or as a social network.2 Feed reader (see Aggregator) Audio blog (see Blog and ) Bookmarks (see also Social Folksonomy (see also Tags) Blog bookmarks) The term ‘folksonomy’ (combining the A blog (short for ‘web’ and ‘log’) is a Internet bookmarks are stored web words ‘folk’ and ‘’) refers to website, usually maintained by an page locations (URLs) that can be a collection of online user-generated individual. Blogs contain regular retrieved. As a feature of all modern tags. Folksonomies are created commentary, descriptions of events, Internet web browsers, their primary collaboratively when people create or other material such as photos, purpose is to easily catalogue and and use tags to annotate and audio files or videos. Blogs often access web pages that a user has categorise content such as blog posts, provide commentary or news on a visited and chosen to save. Saved photographs, web links and other particular subject, such as food, links are also sometimes called web content. This bottom-up politics, or local news. Some function ‘favourites’. Bookmarks are normally classification system has emerged as more personal online diaries. A visible in a browser menu and stored from social tagging, also known as typical blog combines text, images, collaborative tagging, social 1 and links to other blogs, web pages, Throughout this special issue, we make reference classification, and social indexing.3 to Web 2.0 ‘tools’, which includes applications, and other media related to its topic. platforms and services. See our definition of Web 2.0 The ability for readers to leave tools in this glossary. 2 Source: Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ comments in an interactive format is Blogosphere 3 Adapted from: Wikipedia.

121 122 TIPS FOR TRAINERS Tips fortrainers Aggregator News aggregator clips. be text,photosorveryshortvideo Micro-bloggingInternet. updatescan or instantmessagingaswellviathe including SMStextmessaging,email submitted viaavarietyofmeans publish veryshortposts,commonly A formofbloggingwhere users Micro-blogging metadata. picture orfile.Tags are aformof information aboutthesizeofa webpage describingthecontent,to from keywords inthehtmlofa Metadata isdataaboutotherdata, Metadata publishers ofthecontentsources. necessarily intended)bytheoriginal or servicethatwasnotprovided (or sources toproduce anewsetofdata that actuallycombinesonlinedata A more advancedmash-upisone feeds, suchastext,pictures orvideos. different contentfrom multipleRSS creating awebpagethatpullsin its simplest,amash-upcouldbejust online sourcesexternal together. At combining datafrom oneormore A mash-upisaggregating or Mash-up through mash-ups. used tocreate visualmapsofdata posts orRSSfeeds.Itisincreasingly photographs, video,websites,blog to variousmediasuchas geographical identificationmetadata Geotagging istheprocess ofadding Geotagging Software (FOSS) Free OpenSource Software (see ) Open Source ) (see 5 4 open_source_software Open source software (OSS) Social networking Online socialnetworking syndicated. to themethodbywhichitis either totheseriesofcontentitselfor term broadcast, Podcastcan refer content isaddedviaafeed.Likethe downloaded automaticallywhennew be syndicated,subscribedtoand digital mediaformatsbyitsabilityto is distinguishedfrom most other APodcast distributed viatheInternet. digital mediafilesautomatically A Podcastisaseriesofaudioorvideo Podcast networking applicationsandwidgets. multiple RSSfeedsandothersocial customised webpage,integrating that allowuserstocreate theirown Personal start-pagesare webpages Personalised start-page PC2PC to asFOSS). (for thisreason, theyare oftenreferred manner. OSSare typicallyfree-to-use developed inapublic,collaborative unmodified form.Itisveryoften redistribute itinmodifiedor improve thesoftware, andto permits userstouse,change,and the OpenSource Definition.This such asthepublicdomain)thatmeets copyright license(orarrangement code ismadeavailableundera which thehuman-readable source defined ascomputersoftware for Open source software (OSS)canbe A post(orposting)refers tocontent Post Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_ (see 5 4 VoIP ) ) (see blogs isreferred toasapost. Typically, commentarywrittenon that isuploadedtotheInternet. similar contentsyndicationformat. Really SimpleSyndication.‘Atom’isa defined asRichSiteSummaryor radio ortelevisionprogrammes. RSSis publications, press releases, oreven weather reports, thelatest could containthelatestnewsstories, multimedia content.AnRSSfeed consists ofaURL,textand(optionally) one ormore feed‘items’.Eachitem reader. EachRSSfeediscomprisedof individuals tosubscribeviaafeed available tootherwebsitesorfor for websyndicationtomakecontent RSS isawebfeeddataformatused RSS feed communicate and collaboratewhile or webservicethatallowspeople to isatypeofsoftware Social software classified byotherusers. topic, astheyare noted,tagged and aware ofnewresources foragiven This allowssubscriberstobecome based ontags,oraparticularuser. allow userstosubscribewebfeeds many socialbookmarkingservices is acontinuouslyevolvingprocess, classification andrankingofresources of folksonomytechniques.Sincethe and search linksthrough thepractice popular waytostore, classify, share Social bookmarkingwebsitesare a service toshare bookmarks. Internet Social bookmarkingisaweb-based Social bookmarks Messaging Service,orSMS. telephone isknownasShort Sending atextmessageviamobile Mobile phonetextmessagingservice. Short MessagingService(SMS) (see also ) TIPS FOR TRAINERS 123 Tips for trainers Tips The term Web 2.0 was first used The term Web With the first phase of the web, They make the discovery of new example of a VoIP service. See: example of a VoIP www.skype.com Web 2.0 Web to a 2.0 refers The term Web generation of web second perceived development and design that facilitates communication, secure information-sharing, cooperation and Widecollaboration on the World to as the Sometimes referred Web. 2.0 and write’ web, Web ‘read concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications. These include applications such as social networking websites, video- and photo-sharing websites, wikis and blogs. by Eric Knorr in December 2003 and became notable after the first O'Reilly in 2004. 2.0 conference Media Web Although the term suggests a new Wide it version of the World Web, update to any to an does not refer technical specifications, but to changes developers and in the ways software end-users utilise the web. most people could only read 2.0 information online. New Web technologies now make it possible for most Internet users e.g. to edit and their own content on websites create that incorporate these technologies. They allow non-web designers to put their own content (writing, audio, video, etc.) online easier than ever more They make content before. portable than ever and easier to remix, in a different mash together or reuse utilise this user- 2.0 tools context. Web generated content and the economy of scale/network multiplier effect to draw valuable connections created and content. users between related ) ) Tag ) Blogs Tag (see also (see (see also association of keywords (metadata) to association of keywords that makes it the file or document an Internet-easier to locate during content. for related based search Vlogs A form of blog that contains video content. (VoIP) over Internet Protocol Voice or low-cost free services are VoIP online platforms which enable you to ‘phone make individual or conference one computer to another calls’ from to as PC2PC). Skype is one (referred User-generated content User-generated The concept of enabling a community of users – not just individual authors – the content on a website, to create there, contribute to what is already govern it by determining its accuracy, and ensure usefulness, and relevance is updated as that the resource content is needed. User-generated such typified by information resources On as Wikipedia or YouTube.com. these websites, user-generated content is everything: without the is no content. users there Tagging Trackback A trackback (or linkback) function on a blog is to notify another blog that them on your referencing you are own blog. Tag cloud Tag is a cloud’ A ‘tag cloud’ or ‘word showing visual list of tags or keywords tags or of user-generated groups website content. A tag cloud links together a collection of other tags popular associated tags. More shown using larger font sizes are colours. and/or different ) Web Personalised Start- Personalised (see (see ) A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term keyword A tag is a (relevant) associated with a piece of online article, content (like a picture, website, or video clip) to describe the a piece of content will item. Typically, than one tag associated have more mostly chosen are with it. Tags informally and personally by the or the consumer of the author/creator item – i.e. not as part of some formally-defined classification scheme (taxonomy). A collection of online tags is often referred user-generated is the Tagging to as a folksonomy. Start-page page Syndication Tags Social networking Online social networking tools focus on building online communities of and/or interests people who share a new activities. Social networks are generation of online community tools devoted to Internet-based to similar networking, which are specific interactive websites but offer A social and processes. features network service brings together common interests, people who share such as photography or a social issue in exploring interested and who are of others and learning the interests about their peers. Social more networking websites make the between people visible. relationships using the application. Email, blogs, using the application. all are and even instant messaging Many examples of social software. tools believe advocates of using these actual community, that these create and have adopted the term ‘online communities’ to describe the social that they claim result. structures 124 TIPS FOR TRAINERS Tips fortrainers we are referring toasWeb 2.0tools. tools, methodsandtechnologiesthat to coverallthedifferent applications, tool. We generallyusetheterm‘tools’ depending ontheactualuseof been more appropriate touse technology orapproach mighthave terms webapplication,method, mentioned inthisspecialissue,the wikis, andblogs. websites, video-sharing tools includesocialnetworking information. ExamplesofWeb 2.0 ways wecreate, share, andpublish Web 2.0).Thesecanenhancethe referred toastheparticipatorywebor applications andservices(often free orlowcostinteractiveweb based. There are dozensofemerging also forapplicationsthatare web- computer software applicationand Tool isusedhere asshorthandfora Web 2.0tools access, store and recall. information thatanyofusare ableto exponentially increase theamountof than everbefore. content more automatedandrelevant Wherever webtoolsare They havethepotentialto Web syndication one websiteismadeavailableto Web syndicationiswhere materialon Web feed perspectives. development information,ideasand moderating andmediating combining, aggregating, generating, Web2forDev isaboutintegrating, content released byothers. information andredistribute piecesof material, decideonlevelsofaccessto produce andpublishtheirown connect tootherstakeholders, development actorscanrelate and development. Itisabouthow about theactiveuseofthesetoolsin Web2forDev isthatWeb2forDev is between Web 2.0toolsand development. Thedistinction production ofcontentfor information-sharing andcollaborative services tointentionallyimprove short –isawayofemployingweb development –orWeb2forDev for Participatory Web 2.0for Web2forDev Web log (see (see Blog RSS feed ) ) subscribers (usingRSSorwebfeeds). multiple otherwebsitesorindividual pick andchoosefrom. libraries ofwidgetsfortheirusersto personalised startpagesprovide social networkingwebsitesand functionalities. Manyblogplatforms, combined tocreate new canalsobe content. Widgets additional functionalityanddynamic added toawebsiteprovide applications whichcanbeeasily are miniportable Widgets Widgets such asWikipedia. specific wikisites,e.g.encyclopaedias of suchawebsite,ortocertain engine) thatfacilitatestheoperation collaborative software itself(wiki The termwikialsocanrefer tothe tool formasscollaborativeauthoring. operation makesawikianeffective This easeofinteractionand linking amonganynumberofpages. change content.Italsoallowsfor allows userstoadd,remove, editand workspace. Awikiisawebsitethat A wikiisanonlinecollaborative Wiki