Thanks to a tip from Beth Kanter, I played with Tweet Clouds today. I tried three options, shown below in screen shots. The first is just my tweets, the second my tweets plus @replies and the third adds my del.icio.us tags. Fun! Notice any patterns? What I find most interesting is the difference between my tweets and my tags!
(The larger size images are easier to read, but too big for the blog page!)
photo credit: Carnavas
As part of the online Knowledge Sharing (KS) in International Agriculture Development workshop, we are exploring KS tools and methods and then sharing our learning via the KS Toolkit Wiki. One tool that came up for review was Trailfire. I had not heard about it, so I put a query out on my Twitter network and in moments, Scott Leslie, a Northern Voice colleague, came to my rescue. Here is a 15 minute podcast with Scott about Trailfire and related tools used to share and comment on our journeys across the web.
Podcast: Scott Leslie on Trailfire
This tool is a Firefox plug-in, so if you want a defined group or community to use it, they all have to be FF users and agree to use the plug in. It would be interesting to test this in the international agriculture research community. (Or any other community.) There is also the wonderful bit about serendipity – finding trails left by others – their annotations and opinions — on sites that you are looking at.
Scott also shared his pre-call prep notes — which I find interesting. (Thanks, Scott!) I’ve put them below.
If you are interested in more blog posts like this, please let me know — and what tools or methods that might interest you.
Trailfire notes
Firefox plugin that works in conjunction with a main site
allows users to create “trails” which are made up of sequenced web sites
a trail mark also allows users to add an annotation to the page, so that when you are looking at that page
with the plugin enabled, you see a small mark, mousing over it shows you the full comment and
provides a link to the full trailthe website allows you to share your trails with others
you can also have the plugin show ALL trailmarks that have been made for a specific page, not just yours, which opens up
all sorts of possibilities for finding other users and finding other trails, other contexts in which a page can be seenyou can also add comments to other people’s trailmarks, meaning that conversations can actually break out “on” the web pages where the
marks were left without the need for any additional server softwarecross between a social bookmarking and annotation tool
Educational and Other uses
obvious one is for instructors to create a trail through a series of web pages with some educational objective in mindbut as students/learners can also create their own trails and marks, it also becomes a way to connect with other informal
learnersit empowers users to connect and share with each other without requiring the individual sites to provide any facility or
containing mechanism to do sosimple way to add help commentary to websites – add a mark that leads off to further help documents and tutorials from whatever site
you are trying to use, or use the note to add help, like Greader shortkeys marka way to non-invasively annotate the web
a way to leave commentary for Others on websites
a virtual layer that overlays the web; this same technique is now being exploited by browser plugins like PMOG,
passively multiplayer online game, a game played ON TOP of the regular web through a browser plugincf. also medium (http://me.dium.com/ )
URLs mentioned in this podcast:
Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice
Are you in, leading or interested in the development and support of cmmunities of pratice who want or need to use web based tools to connect and be together? (Some call these “social media.” I always squirm a bit because people can use media socially, but I don’t think media is inherently social. It takes us human beings, eh?) What role do technologies such as blogs, wikis and social booking might play in your community’s development? If these questions intrigue you and you are an explorer and learner, then you’ll want to check out this new learning event from CPSquare:
Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice
As Shawn Callahan so nicely wrote: We have been designing this event (which runs over 5 weeks starting in April) as a virtual field trip and experimental lab where you will engage your heads and your hands (and hopefully your hearts) and get a good feeling for these technologies and how they might support communities of practice.
You will be guided on this journey by the following practitioners:
Beth Kanter, Beverly Trayner, Bronwyn Stuckey, Etienne Wenger, John Smith, Nancy White, Nick Noakes, Shawn Callahan, Shirley Williams, and Susanne Nyrop. It is important to note: This is a constructivist learning experience. You will not be offered pre-chewed opinions. We’ll be exploring, testing tools and making meaning together. To get the most out of it, make sure you set aside an hour a day to participate. It will make a difference.
I’ll be stewarding the fourth week on creating a learning agenda for technology stewards with Etienne Wenger.
Consider joining up for the virtual expedition!!
I’ve been helping launch a global online workshop this week, support a massive proposal development and get ready for a F2F conference. (My session on integrating visual practices in whole systems change process has notes here.) Oh, and nurse my husband through knee surgery. So I’ve been silent on the blogging and Twitter front. I had not watched my blog stats much until I installed WordPress and, as is totally obvious, when you don’t blog, your traffic drops like a stone. Makes sense.
Same goes for Twitter. If you don’t tweet, you don’t get tweets back! Beth Kanter pointed me to TweetStats :: for NancyWhite and help me get a great visual of my Twitter patterns since I first signed up in November, 2006. I don’t tweet when I’m really busy.
Late last month I picked up a trackback from a del.icio.us user, pickinjava. Pickinjava is exploring social networks on del.icou.us. This morning I went to find a bookmark and could not resist clicking on the “my network” link. Visiting this page for me is like a time/world travel hole into which I love to slip — and usually lose several hours.
At the top was a bunch of bookmarks about Africa from Pickinjava. I started clicking on links, going back to the list and seeing what tags were there, and who else had bookmarked the link. Now I think I have a tiny taste of why Pickinjava is doing this exploration of bookmarking networks. It is addictive.
It is fascinating is to look at someone’s bookmarks and for a moment, try and imagine what they are looking for, what they are interested in, why the bookmarked any particular link. A novel full of ideas spring to mind. It is like a nano-second of slipping into someone else’s skin. Not long enough to really KNOW anything, but a ghost of a sense.
I can’t explain it, but it is touching me deeply this morning. So Pickinjava, thanks for noticing my tagstream which led me to you.