An overview of blogging, opensource, and choices for blogging software by robin fay, georgiawebgurl@gmail.com (includes Wordpress, Blogger & more).

1. Available at: http://www.robinfay.net/presentations/blogbasics2009.ppt
All links available at: http://del.icio.us/georgiawebgurl/blogbasics2009

2. O v e r v ie w
Introduction
Blogging: Brief overview of what the UGA Libraries are doing and why
Issues and Challenges
Overview of software: Wordpress vs. WordpressMU vs. Wordpress.com,
Expression Engine, Movable Type, Drupal
Hosted blogging vs. blogging offsite (Wordpress.com/Blogger vs. hosted)
Making a decision
Final thoughts & questions

3. What is a blog ?
Briefly, a blog (short for weblog) is a web based publication which is
updated in a periodic manner. The goal of blogging is to provide an
easy means to put content on the web.
Most modern blogging software functions very similar to word
processor software.
When you see this icon (think of satellite transmission beams), you
know you are seeing a live site which is updating via a feed.

4. …and why would the UGA library want one?
Libraries use blogs to promote events & services, provide access to up-
to-date information about building issues (special hours, etc.), highlight
new databases, and communicate a variety of information from
readings to exhibits to new features in the catalog!
Users can subscribe to ‘feeds’ via their phones, pdas, special web
based reader services, as well as internet browsers and e-mail
programs such as Firefox and Thunderbird to get the latest up to date
information.

5. UGA Libraries WAG (Web Advisory Group) which works with the Web
Editor in oversight and maintenance of the UGA Libraries webpage,
charged a subcommittee to investigate blog software as means of
keeping our users up to date on Libraries news & events.
Not only did we want to add some dynamic content to our website, but
we needed another means to push information to our users.

6. This subcommittee investigated many different blog
softwares including:
•
•Blogger (Free, Commercial, with ads)
•Expression Engine/PMachine (Paid, Commercial)
•Movable Type (Paid, Commercial)
•WordPress (Free, Open Source)

7. UGA Libraries WAG (Web Advisory Group) which works with the Web
Editor in oversight and maintenance of the UGA Libraries webpage,
charged a subcommittee to investigate blog software as means of
keeping our users up to date on Libraries news & events.
Not only did we want to add some dynamic content to our website, but
we needed another means to push information to our users.

8. UGA Libraries WAG (Web Advisory Group) which works with the Web
Editor in oversight and maintenance of the UGA Libraries webpage,
charged a subcommittee to investigate blog software as means of
keeping our users up to date on Libraries news & events.
Not only did we want to add some dynamic content to our website, but
we needed another means to push information to our users.

10. Up next : blogging!

11. B lo g g in g
Remember all links are
also located on the
del.icio.us page!
One of the easiest way to tap into Web 2.0 technologies is through the use of
blogging. We have been blogging since January 2005 at
http://www.libs.uga.edu/blog/
We use Wordpress (open source software) hosted on the libraries server
UGA uses Wordpress. Wordpress also offers some options
these days. Let’s take a quick look!

12. A little about Wordpress
Wordpress
•Advantages/Disadvantages
•Complete control +
•Keep up with upgrades –
•Server stuff =
•Customizing
Wordpress MU
How it differs from regular Wordpress
Advantages/Disadvantages
New; not as many plugins YET
Spam filter – Yes
Multiuser/multiauthor blogs
What if you can’t host a blog? Let’s look at some options.

13. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
B lo g g i
ng
Free choices hosted elsewhere:
Blogger.com
Wordpress.com Remember all links are
also located on the
TypePad.com del.icio.us page!
Why would you want to blog?

14. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
B lo g g in g
Reasons to Blog/social network:
PR/Marketing
Subscription via RSS feeds; also ability to embed content into other
websites (pageflakes etc.)
Ease of updating website
Instant updating/editing
Provide a more informal “face” to the library
Push out content to users, i.e. be in their space
Depending on software, can set up publication of announcements & posts
Sounds great! Ready to start? Consider…

15. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
B lo g g in g
• Consider:
Guidelines & writing style sheets. Appropriateness of content?
• http://www.libs.uga.edu/blogetc/
• Finding contributors
• Keeping the blog active and maintained
• To comment or not to comment
• Advantages of immediate content and high ranking pages in google
Okay, now let’s look at the fun stuff!

16. How can flickr be used in a blog?

17. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
Social bookmarking –
del.icio.us
Uses for websites and blogging
• Del.icio.us toys (links list, tag
clouds, etc.)
• Networking
• Resource sharing and discovery
• Easy maintenance of links lists
Let’s take a look at some libraries using del.cio.us.

18. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
Video hosting – YouTube
Uses
Embed videos in blogs, presentations, websites, etc
Storage space (no need to store large size videos on server)
Networking
Resource sharing and Discovery
Videocasting
Let’s look at some libraries using YouTube.

19. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
W o n d e r f u l w o r ld o f
w id g e t s
• What is a widget?
• Widgets are just little tools which are
generally easy to install in a user interface.
• Widgets can be embedded in blogs and websites
(snapshots, flickr toys, etc.), downloaded for use
on the desktop or on a mobile device. Blogger and
wordpress are both utilizing widgets more.
Pageflakes, a free web based service, uses
widgets to put the page together. Pageflakes
widgets include RSS feeds, flickr, and even static
webpages.
How can we use widgets?

20. W o n d e r f u l w o r ld o f
w id g e t s
Widgets make it easy to embed third party content
(flickr, youtube, etc.) or even code into websites with little
or no coding experience. Widgetbox.com is an excellent
resource! Remember all links are
also located on the
Widgets are frequently drop n drag or copy and del.icio.us page!
paste.
Examples of widgets to embed in websites: flickr
slideshows, youtube movies, snapshots, links lists,
etc.
Pageflakes and netvibes are two widget based
services Let’s look at Meebo.
Meebo offers an IM widget.

21. Meebo provides a single
interface to AIM, Yahoo,
MSN Chat
Meebo widgets are
embeddable
> Meebo in action
So, how does that work?

22. This is the widget code for
UGA’s meebo account.
Notice the embed code. This
is all copy + paste provided
by meebo.
Let’s look at Meebo.
Let’s look at another widget product called snapshots.

23. Snapshots provide a
popup preview of
links.

24. Copy and paste code provided by snapshots.
You’ll need to sign up for a free account in
order to create your code.
RSS Feeds are also used in some widgets. Let’s touch briefly on feeds.

25. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
A lit t le a b o u t R S S f e e d s
What are RSS feeds?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication
RSS provides an easy way for users to find and subscribe to
information. Makes content portable to other web pages
including blogs.
Feedburner.com
What happens when you put 2 or more of these
kinds of technologies together?

26. Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
Yo u g e t a
M AS H U P !
In web terms, a mashup takes
content or data from different
sources or services to create a
new thing
An example of a mashup is
Flickr Maps which uses both
images from Flickr and Google
Maps
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathowie/8496262/

27. This presentation:
All links + extras! Web 2.0 Technologies + Your blog
http://del.icio.us/webtechnologiespresentation/
More resources:
• Intro to Web 2.0 Minipresentation:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dkcxvp2_7d7ms9d
Blog Comparison/Getting started with blogging
http://www.robinfay.net/web2.0/getting_started/
About/Contact:
Amy:
• Amy is a Reference & Instructor Librarian, the Assistant Web Editor for the
Libraries, and Instruction Coordinator for the Main Library, to a name a few of
her hats that she wears.
• http://www.libs.uga.edu/staffpages/watts.html
Robin
Robin is a Database Librarian, member of the Libraries’ Web Advisory Group,
freelance webdesigner & metadata consultant, to a name a few of her hats that
she wears.
http://www.robinfay.net