Web 2.0 Round-up

Compiled and edited by Karen Blakeman karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk

Web 2.0 Round-up is a compilation of recent postings and comments to the UKeiG Web 2.0 blog at http://ukeig.wordpress.com/. The primary purpose of this blog is to link to support materials for UKeiG's Web 2.0 workshops and seminars, and to provide news and updates on Web 2.0 applications. The RSS feed for the blog is http://ukeig.wordpress.com/feed and the comments feed is at http://ukeig.wordpress.com/comments/feed.

You can also view the feeds on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ukeig . This is mainly a Twitterfeed of the Yahoo! Pipes combined UKeiG RSS feeds, supplemented by comments and updates on UKeiG activities. Comments and chit chat are welcome.

We also now have a Twitterfeed for the 2009 Conference at http://twitter.com/ukeig2009 .

Web 2.0 in General

Library 2.0 at the University of Wolverhampton

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/library-20-at-the-university
-of-wolverhampton/. This is a guest post on Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus from Jo Alcock, Academic Information Assistant for the Harrison Learning Centre, University of Wolverhampton. She summarises how they use blogs, Facebook, wikis and online calendars to support users. The major part of the posting is about what they have learned about user needs and experience, and the barriers they have encountered, such as issues with external hosting and software, lack of awareness of the technologies being used, the need for culture change,.

Blogs

WeblogMatrix - Compare them all

WeblogMatrix - Compare them all (http://www.weblogmatrix.org/) does not quite do what it says on the tin. As Phil Bradley points out (http://philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/2008/08/weblogmatrix.html), it does not include LiveJournal or Typepad. Nevertheless, it does help you identify the most appropriate blogging software for your needs. If you already have a shortlist you can compare features side by side - assuming, of course, that they are included in the 25 blog services covered by this site. You should be able to identify likely candidates for your shortlist by clicking on Search and selecting criteria. There is a similar service for wikis at http://www.wikimatrix.org/.

What “Not To Do” while you grow your blogging empire

This site (http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/2008/09/29/what-not-to- do-while-you-grow-your-blogging-empire/) lists eight things not to do when blogging or commenting on other people's blogs. They should be obvious, but some people still do them. The ones that I find especially annoying are irrelevant comments (they are usually a form of spam and I delete them as such), anonymous comments (I agree with Rajesh Setty that you should have the backbone to stand behind your comments), and copying content without attribution.

Thanks to the British Library Business and IP Centre's BIPC Twitterfeed
(https:// Twitter.com/BIPC) for the alert.

Facebook

Facebook Group vs. Facebook Fan Page

Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/)
compares Facebook Group and Facebook Fan Pages (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-group-vs-facebook-fan-page-
whats-better/7761/) for encouraging networking and publicising you organisation's activities. She cites the two major differences as:

Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed (important for reputation management, for example).

Unlike pages, groups allow to send out “bulk invite” (you can easily invite all your friends to join the group, while with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to the friends of his.

Other features are compared, and the comments are worth reading for other people's experiences.

Twitter

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

“Microblogging lets an airline, for instance, monitor customers' gripes - and tweet back. Is this a creepy trend? “

This article in Business Week (http://www.bsinessweek.com/technology/content/sep2008/tc2008095
_320491.htm) does what it says on the tin. Companies mentioned include JetBlue, Comcast, Dell, General Motors, H&R Block, Kodak and Whole Foods Market.

Easy Tweets - for managing multiple Twitter accounts

EasyTweets (http://easytweets.com/) is a set of tools that can help you post to and switch between multiple Twitter accounts, check replies, and track new followers.

Twibble Mobile

Recommended by several UKeiG members and Twitter followers, Twibble Mobile (http://www.twibble.de/twibble-mobile/) is a Twitter client for Java enabled smartphones including Nokia, Blackberry, and Sony Ericsson. According to the website, its features include:

• post messages via your mobile network or using text message;
• auto refresh: retrieve tweets automatically after a given time period;
• notifications: configure twibble to vibrate if new tweets arrive;
• send photos to twitpic;
• themes;
• re-tweet (forward) of tweets;
• quick @replies;
• Mark tweets as favourites: useful on the road when you want to mark a tweet for later reading.

In addition, Twibble mobile can optionally add your position to a tweet. The position can be displayed on the mobile device and on the desktop in Google maps or Google Earth.

Twiggit - send articles you digg to Twitter