A tutorial for higher education Web professionals

1. Monitoring Your Web Identities
GETTING STARTED
Higher Education Web Conference
Jay Collier, Bates College
October 16, 2007
www.jaycollier.net

2. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Internet_dog.jpg
www.flickr.com/photos/ticklebug/32196382/

4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog
www.flickr.com/photos/ticklebug/32196382/

5. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2003/spring/3/
www.flickr.com/photos/ticklebug/32196382/

6. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

7. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

8. WHAT IS A WEB IDENTITY?
Essential nature as reflected on the Web
• A Web identity is the
essential nature of a
person or organization as
it is created and reflected
on the Web.
• Traditions, beliefs,
competencies, and
aspirations all contribute.
• Self-identity may differ
from external perceptions.

9. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

10. WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Why is identity monitoring important?
• Our constituents are turning to off-campus producers
for increasingly credible stories about us.
• We need to pay attention to this external content in
case, in a campus emergency, fast-moving
independent producers participate actively in creating
and distributing coverage.

11. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

12. WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE?
RSS: Real Simple Syndication
• RSS is a simple method for notifying people when Web
content is updated.
• Most Web systems now provide RSS feeds automatically.
• RSS feeds are easy to monitor.
• Just click on RSS icon.

13. WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE?
RSS: Real Simple Syndication
• How a feed looks: in Firefox (Windows and Mac)

14. WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE?
RSS: Real Simple Syndication
• How a feed looks: in Safari (Mac and Windows)

15. WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE?
RSS: Real Simple Syndication
• How a feed looks: in IE 7 (Windows)

16. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

17. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Use a desktop application
• FeedDemon ($29, Windows), Vienna (free, Mac)

18. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Use a free online monitoring service
• Google Reader provides basic personal features.

19. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Use a free online monitoring service
• Bloglines: Web page for public feeds, organized by folder

20. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Getting started: open an account
• First, create an account

21. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Add the subscription button
• Drag a “Subscribe with Bloglines” button to your browser.
Get the button at: www.bloglines.com/help/easysub

22. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Start adding feeds
• Go to a Web page
and, if there’s an
RSS feed,
subscribe.
• Select Bloglines
reader options.
• You’re subscribed!

23. HOW DO I MONITOR FEEDS?
Organize your feeds
• Edit your folders and feeds: reorder, drag and drop, delete.

24. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

25. WHAT CAN WE MONITOR?
Mainstream news searches
• News searches: via Google News, Yahoo News

26. WHAT CAN WE MONITOR?
Community and personal blogs
• Google Blog Search, Technorati, Bloglines

27. WHAT CAN WE MONITOR?
Wikipedia revisions and discussions
• Monitor Wikipedia articles

28. WHAT CAN WE MONITOR?
Media and bookmark sharing services
• Flickr and Delicious

29. WHAT CAN WE MONITOR?
Web pages with no RSS feeds
• Dapp Factory, PonyFish

30. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

31. HOW DO I SHARE MY FEEDS?
Use OPML (Outline XML)
• Share outlines of news feeds, playlists, and presentations.

32. HOW DO I SHARE MY FEEDS?
Mark feeds as public
• Select folders and feeds you’d like to share.

33. HOW TO SHARE FEEDS?
Give out your public URL
• Public feeds are now available for anyone to see.

34. HOW TO SHARE FEEDS?
Others can monitor public feeds with you
• Anyone can import your public feeds into their reader.
They can download your feed list ... ... and import into their own account

35. HOW TO SHARE FEEDS?
Forward items on to colleagues
• Go to an item, forward the URL via e-mail.
jay.collier@thecompass.com

36. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Getting started
• What is a Web identity?
• Why should I care about it?
• What makes monitoring possible?
• How do I monitor feeds?
• What content can I monitor?
• How do I share my feeds?
• Why should I create my own feeds?

37. WHY SHOULD I CREATE MY OWN FEEDS?
Share knowledge with the world
• A new way to promote campus stories to those who are
interested: students, communications staff, professional
colleagues.
• A new way for faculty and staff to establish credibility in
an academic or professional field of endeavor.
• An important way to balance external contributions to
our Web identity.
• An easy way to join the social Web. Feed sharing is
already integrated with things you may already be doing.

38. WHY SHOULD I CREATE MY OWN FEEDS?
Share bookmarks

39. WHY SHOULD I CREATE MY OWN FEEDS?
Share research and scholarly images

40. WHY SHOULD I CREATE MY OWN FEEDS?
Share literary reviews & recommendations

41. WHY SHOULD I CREATE MY OWN FEEDS?
Share film reviews & recommendations

42. WHY SHOULD I CREATE MY OWN FEEDS?
Share music reviews & recommendations

43. MONITORING YOUR WEB IDENTITIES
Now, it’s your turn
Please share your monitoring experiences ...
Jay Collier
www.jaycollier.net