Social Blogging

"If consumers are talking to each other about your brand, you should participate in that conversation and have a good story to tell."

Most afternoons, the Internet in Sarah Chambers' office at iFractal in Philadelphia crashes and leaves her cyber-stranded without e-mail or online communication with clients. via The Seattle Times

Online collaboration tools keep coming, and the more of them I see, the more I feel collaboration is going to be a major, critical part of our future work. Contributing collaboratively, sharing, co-editing, co-distributing, are becoming more and more standard features and facilities in every single new application being released. Photo credit: Dawn Hudson Want to have free video conference with your colleagues? Need to share and send any type of file to your project team? Thinking about watching videos simultaneously with your friends? For this and more, here the online collaboration toolkit I have put together for you this week:

1. Voixio: Free Flash-based application allows you to have free video conferences and calls
2. Dropbox: Free software lets you create a public folder for you to share any file online
3. Wuala: Store and share any type of file online with your friends
4. SeeToo: Select a video on your PC, and watch it simultaneously with your friends
5. Pladeo: Create widgets to embed on your site and chat with visitors
6. BumpIn: Browser plug-in for chatting with people on your same webpage
7. Instantbird: Multi-protocol IM software by Mozilla allows you to chat on multiple services
8. Wauwee: Mobile application enables you to chat and share pictures from any phone or PC

"Miss you tuns (sic) Mindy!! Tomorrows Saturday! YAY"

More than 25 people wished Mindy Erickson a happy birthday Dec. 20, 2007, a tally large enough to make any 19-year-old girl blush. via WisInfo

Yahoo Inc plans to make its Web site a social hub by hosting applications from other online services, part of the Internet pioneer s effort to spawn more advertising opportunities. via The Taipei Times

A few ways social networkers can help protect their privacy: _ Provide enough information for your friends to be able to identify you - but not so much that someone could use information to steal your identity. via StarTribune

They are friends, fellow Michigan Democrats and, after moving to Los Angeles, die-hard Dodger fans. via San Jose Mercury News

"They like to reminisce and have a good time. They come to share stories among themselves and with the community."

MANITOWOC - You couldn't blame Earl Johnson if he wanted to stay in Thaxton, Miss., this week. via WisInfo

"RIP travis & cristina. Why is this happening again?"

Two recent Coppell High School graduates who were home from college died within hours of each other Friday morning, sending this small community into mourning over a tragic double loss. via Denton Record-Chronicle

"It's really important to us that we show up in those search results near the top because it draws an awful lot of traffic"

Have you Googled yourself lately? Do you know what people are saying about you on the Internet? Managing your Google reputation can help you avoid mistakes that can cost you a job. via KVAL-TV Eugene

"In the past, Facebook has prospered because it created a comfortable environment, in which users could feel safe sharing information. via Flying Hamster

An Israeli soldier has been jailed for 19 days for putting a picture taken on base up on Facebook. via Digital Trends

"Do you really want Facebook to manage it for you in the outside world, or do you want to do it yourself so you have control?"

News WEB 2.0 - Firms Getting Blind-Sided By Social Networking By James Niccolai Still thinking about building a social-networking site for your employees? Sure they haven't started without you? Check Facebook, ... via CIO

Yahoo's CTO Ari Balogh and Chief Architect Neal Sample filled in a few more details today around their new Yahoo Open Strategy . via TechCrunch

New media technologies increasingly shape the way we work, think, interact, communicate. Understanding, dissecting, questioning and working with them is inevitable for those who seriously want to get greater knowledge and control over their use and potential. Photo credit: Thomasz Trojanowski and Andrea Danti - mashed up by Robin Good George Siemens, who is an educational technologies researcher and scholar, takes you every week into this short but fascinating journey into stories, resources and ideas to help you make better sense of new technologies and media and their potential roles in our future.

A WORKER has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after some palettes fell on top of him in a warehouse. via Ipswich Evening Star