Top List: My Top 10 Favorite Web 2.0 Services

For those of you that don't know me I'm a huge web 2.0 fan and spend most of my free time playing around with new tools. There are so many services out there and a lot of them do the same that sometimes you don't know which one you should use. So I've decided to share my can't live without sites with you, and give you at least one reason why I prefer these services to help you out.

Here I go by category:

Blogs
Blogger - To me this is by far the best blogging service and it's not because I have a free hosted blog. Other blogging services (like WP) restrict you from customizing the look and feel and also don't let you add a lot of cool things available through widgets or code.

Social Bookmarking
Delicious - I use to be a Favorite's fanatic until I discovered Delicious... no more browser favorites for me. This social bookmarking service is easy to use and very convenient. The only thing I didn't like was the site design and they just redesigned it. Looks great, kudos to the designers at Delicious. By the way, feel free to add me to your network.

Wikis
WetPaint - If you need a Wiki I highly recommend this service. They have several features that other wikis don't have. For example, when you create new pages they automatically appear in the navigation, you can create sub-pages from the start, they have a photo gallery, it looks very professional, and if it's an educational wiki they remove the ads for free. You can check out one of my wikis to see what I mine - Web 2.0 Applications review or Cynthia Medina.

Microblogging
Twitter - The first time I heard of microblogging I asked myself "why would I do that?" Well let me tell you that the best resources I've gotten have been through Twitter. This is the best way of keeping up with your network, news, friends and family. You can Twitter using your computer or phone which makes this service very addictive. You can follow me on Twitter.

Social Networks
Hum - It's hard for me to pick a favorite in this category. I'm in several social networks because the people I keep up with are completely different. I use Facebook to keep up with siblings and coworkers, MySpace for friends in the U.S, HI5 for childhood friends and cousins in the Dominican Republica, and Ning for work related communities. Now if I go by the features I would go with MySpace hands down because just like blogger they are not restrictive and I like to put my creativity to work. I also like Ning, they actually let you create your own social network for free, and it's very easy to set up.

Video Sharing
YouTube - Do I have to explain?

Readers
Google Reader - The application looks like an e-mail inbox which makes it easier to use, and most of the RSS widgets have their one step icon for subscribing.

Online Photo Sharing
Here I have to admit I've been using Shutterfly way before all these other sites were launched and I still use it. They just finally added a community feature to it so I'm a little excited. It's hard to change photo sites after you've been saving your pictures for years some where else. Now from the newest sites, I like Photobucket and Flickr. These two sites just make sharing so easy, they have lots a cool features, and you can embed your pictures in other web 2.0 sites in a few clicks.

Photo Editing
Picnik - Why pay so much money for Photoshop when you can do a lot of photo editing online, for free and without having to download anything. You can also edit pictures that you have saved on other online photo sharing sites.

Creating movies
Animoto - You can create free movies using up to 10 pictures, and you can add music and credits to it. They also have a paying option for larger movies which you can also download and save on your computer. What I like is that your pictures appear to the beat of the music and they look very professional. They also have their own music selection but you can also add your own which is a great feature as well.

For more services and reviews you can visit my Web 2.0 Applications Review wiki.

OK, these are my can't live without sites, what are yours?

Are you thinking of implementing Wikis?

If you're thinking of implementing Wikis in your organization I would recommend you review these episodes created by Stewart Mader, the author of Wiki Patterns. He provides some great insight on how to implement and grow your organization's wiki.

21 days of wiki adoption

Do you know which web 2.0 application to use?

I'm always testing new web 2.0 applications and services and some times I forget why I don't use some and why I use others a lot. So I decided to do the logical, document it. I created a Wiki called Web 2.0 Applications to keep track of these software and services and at the same time add a quick review of each and make it available to everyone.

In my Wiki I explain what that service is, how can it be used in training, and provide videos and tips when applicable. I also list the services I've tested along with a review which includes their ease of use, fees (if any), URLs, if customization is allow, my star rating and any other information I think will be helpful.

Hopefully my trial and error will help others.

Is there any software or services you use or wouldn't use because of a bad experience that you would like to share with us? You can post your reviews here or add them to my Web 2.0 Applications Wiki.

The power of the iPhone....

Santa brought me an iPhone this year and I have to say I love it. I don't care what features this version is missing, what bugs they have found, how sometimes the internet is a little slow because for me, it rocks. You have an iPod, cell phone, driving directions, weather, e-mail, camera, internet and more, all in one with the touch of your finger. What else can you ask for?

Yes, it doesn't have word processing applications but hey, for those of us that have laptops we don't need that, do we?

How can we use an iPhone in training? Well the iPhone can be used in all sorts of ways... you can blog, mobile blog, twitter, network, collaborate on wikis, text messaging and the possibilities are endless. I think this is one of the most collaborative tools out there, what do you think?

Adding comments to traditional content

Well one of the features we would like to add to some of our traditional content is to allow users to leave comments and also rate the content. You see our users are not too techie and we want to gently get them to start collaborating with each other and we thought taking baby steps was more appropriate.

We are planning to implement blogs, wikis, and discussion boards this year but we have so much traditional content and it's not interactive. It's great content but again you can't collaborate.

So we have formed a team to look into collaboration tools, and one of them is adding comments to our traditional content. In researching off the shelve applications I found Joomla CommentBox which looks pretty neat but I think the look and feel would be too different from ours.

I'm a big fan of widgets, and I usually use Widget Box for all my widget needs. Just now I visited their site and something told me to search for the word "comments". Oh wow, here it was. There is a widget called Easy Comments that you can add in the body of any web page and it allows users to leave comments. How cool is that? And it has a five start rating. I also found another widget called Instant Rating which combines star ratings with comments or star ratings with reviews.

We will probably continue to research this but in the meantime I've added the Instant Rating's widgets below to show you how they work. Has anyone found another way of adding threads and user ratings to their traditional content?

Benefits of wikis and blogs in training programs

I'm a firm believer that a curriculum in which you use a lot of cool tools doesn't necessary bring better results than a traditional class. My opinion is that the instructor makes a curriculum. Now with that said, there are a lot of great benefits that blogs and wikis bring to the classroom which are not brought by a traditional class.

Benefits of blogs:

• Promote critical and analytical thinking.
• They allow participants to contribute to a wide body of knowledge.
• Your participants can share ideas online and learning from one another.
• Blogs can be open to other departments allowing them to contribute to projects.
• Class assignments are archived and can be used to create a portfolio.
• Departments can archive meetings minutes, record meeting actions items, share links to project documents and resources.
• Serve as a means to communicate up coming training events. Are used to share lessons learned with your peers.

Some companies are using blogs for information discovery, dissemination, and evaluation amongst teams across their organization. An article in ASTD.org called Learning and Networking with a Blog by Tony Karrer states: "bloggers continually search for interesting information they can post. When they post information, they must synthesize that information, formulate additional questions, contrast and make sense of differing viewpoints, and identify patterns and trends."

Bloggers are learning more from blogs than from other resources.
You can view this video for a simple explanation of a Blog.

Blogs in Plain English video

Benefits of Wikis:

• Participants have ownership of the knowledge. They learn to seek it and create it.
• High-level critical thinking is developed. Participants learn to critique others participant's contributions for accuracy.
• Participants are required to check their content for accuracy and correct errors discovered by their peers.
• Create an online curriculum in which participants and trainers can contribute to.
• You can engage in collaborative projects with a global audience.
• They can be a center repository for classroom lesson plans, handouts, resources, presentation, and assignments.
• You can use them to disseminate important classroom learning beyond the classroom.
• They encourage collaboration of class notes.
• Encourages peer to peer learning

Wikis are very popular because of the ease of use, they don't require knowledge of HTML to create quality content. Trainers are using these more and more as class portals because participants and trainers can access them from any where.

Have you incorporated blogs and wikis in your training programs? What other benefits have they brought to the table?

You can view this video for a simple explanation of a Wiki.

Differences between blogs, wikis, and discussion boards

This is a question that keeps on coming up so I decided to write a post to clarify it. Now, before I go into the differences I will explain what each of these are.

The word Blog comes from the words Web Log. It's a Web site that allows an individual, or group of individuals, to share a running log of events and personal insights with online audiences. In simple terms, a Blog is an online journal.

A Wiki is a type of Web page that allows anyone with an Internet connection to create and modify pages easily and quickly. This means that anyone that visits your Wiki will be able to create new pages and update your content whenever they desire.The name wiki comes from the Hawaiian words Wiki wiki which means quick.

A Discussion Board is a communication tool that allows individuals to collaborate with others through posting or answering questions. Also referred to as forums, message boards, or bulletin boards.

The differences are:

Blogs:
1. Are personal
2. A posting is owned by a poster (could be owned by a small group)
3. Aim is conversation, change in thinking/self/ideas, writing of the moment
4. Content is considered to be static: once posted, the posting doesn't change (comments can add information to your posting)
5. Content is displayed in reverse chronological order and scrolling is required
6. Comments are optional but encouraged to continue the conversation
7. The intent is personal, news, reflection
8. Voice used is conversational


Wikis:
1. Open to collaboration
2. Topics are considered public space and owned by all
3. Aim is creation of documents
4. Content is not permanent, it can be revised by any one
5. Content is displayed in nodes/tree structure
6. Comments are not expected
7. The intent is informational
8. Voice used is passive and active


Discussion boards:
1. Open to collaboration
2. Are owned by groups with equal responsibilities
3. Aim is to provide support, discuss topics and/or share knowledge
4. Content is considered to be static: once posted the posting doesn't change (answers are provided by others)
5. Content is organized and presented in different ways
6. Answers are required
7. The intent is resolution (when used for support) and enlightenment (when used for discussion or knowledge sharing)
8. Voice used is conversational


Another great resource for differences between blogs and discussion boards is the Common Craft blog. Lee LeFever provides a side-by-side comparison chart.

I'm proud to say this article was used as a reference by the University of Hartford to develop a matrix for their faculty.

What other technologies would you like to know about? Leave your feedback in our comment section below.

Cindy

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Article updated on Jan 4, 2018 with more uses on discussion forums that have emerged after the article was published in 2007.

Going Web 2.0 or not?

My organization is ready to embrace the addition of Web 2.0 tools in our training programs. Will we take that leap? I sure hope so.

Currently our Training department is the one that owns the development and maintenance of our Corporate University, and of all classroom and virtual training programs so the shift to Web 2.0 will bring new and exciting changes that I think we can all embrace.

Last year we attended the Learning Conference 2006 which is all about using Web 2.0 tools that enable learning. We came back with so many ideas, and we put together a team that was in charge of researching blogs, wikis, social networks, videos, podcasting, avatars, and audio. The result of this research lead to incorporating audio in our eLearning courses and to beta test an mLearning module which we had great results with but I think not too much chance was given to blogs, wikis, and other tools.

We just came back from the Learning 2007 Conference and this year the speakers focused more on actually examples of how to use Web 2.0 tools in your training programs so can you feel the excitement? After presenting all our ideas to Management, it looks like we will try to implement some of these tools. So I’m very excited, I’m a loyal advocate of these new tools. I've used them with my kids, siblings, friends, and for my professional development. I've learned more through blogging, wikis, communities then by reading books and attending seminars. And of course, thanks to Google I have found great resources.

Going by my experience and what I’ve heard from teachers, trainers, and other educators it seems that this technology is working. So why not give it a try? The concerns we have I know are the same that other corporations and educators have. We are very concerned about wrong information being posted on our wikis and bad comments being left on blogs. We don’t have too many resources that can continuously monitor these tools so it’s a little scary.

The fear is there and they only way it will go away is if we leap into this new world and we don't fall flat on our backs. I think we just need to let go of the ownership of the content, and let others contribute to our success. Like Brad Anderson from Best Buy said “Getting other points of view and other pieces of knowledge into our learning system that might otherwise have escaped is key to our success as an organization." And I think we understand this now.

From my research and experience with some of these tools, I’ve compiled a list of concerns and solutions that I think will help us deal with these issues. These will be posted in other articles so check back with us soon.

What has been your experience with Web 2.0 tools in the classroom? What tools work best for you? Any one?