Weblogs and Wikis BootCamp2018:Weblogs and Wikis

Weblogs and Wikis BootCamp2018

Complete tasks from Week 1 by the deadlines listed. You're welcome and encouraged to go on to Week 2 at any time.

Week 1

1. Review the CourseStatement2018. Make sure you understand how this course will proceed, how it works, what is expected of you. Re-read the details about time needed and frequency of posting. Ask questions now. You can ask them by posting to the comments on the Welcome post on the Daybook (best), or by email, or bring them to class face to face.

2. Check the Daybook regularly during this first week. I will be adding advice and updates. You can also post to comments on the Daybook if you have questions.

Deadline: Fri 12 Jan, midnight

1. Do the activities on SettingUpYourWPWeblog page. Update 2018 Use Lorelle's Tutorial for setting up your WP weblog.

2. Once you've completed the activities on SettingUpYourWPWeblog, do two things: 1) Email me with address to your blog. 2) Add a comment to the welcome post on the Daybook. I'll add your weblog to our blogroll.

Deadline: Sun 14 Jan, midnight

1. Set up a Twitter account. If you have one, you can use that account for the class or start a new one. As with your blog, write a profile. Tweet an introduction using #en3177. Everyone search for the tag #en3177 and follow others in the class. Send a tweet with the address of your weblog once it's set up. Start tweeting using the #en3177 tag. Learn how to search for #en3177. Read your time line regularly, and follow others in the class. Follow @weblogsandwikis. Add your Twitter address to your About page on your blog. You might add a Twitter feed widget to your blog, if you wish.

2. Set up an gravatar. Read the WP Gravatar page to get a sense of what Gravatars are and how they work with WP: https://en.support.wordpress.com/gravatars/. Then, select an avatar - an image or icon to represent the self that is working in this course. You may already have one, or you might find one specifically for the course. Register at http://gravatar.com using the email address you're using for this course. Gravatar is associated with WordPress.com. Once you register with WordPress, you can use your WP account name and address to register with Gravatar. Once registered, your avatar should show up on WP posts and comments. You can add and verify other services as you wish.

From Sun 14 Jan through Tue 16 Jan

3. Start posting to your weblog daily to get into the routine. I'll post some ideas and directions on The Daybook to get you started. Posts can be brief: a link, a quote, an image ... Have a look at Post formats.

Week Two: Starts Tue 16 Jan - 22 Jan

Face to face class meets at 12:30.

Week Two is about RSS, CC and IP, refining up your weblog, visiting others, and practicing embedding media into blog posts - because we're all about multimodality now.

RSS

1. Study up on RSS: What it is, how it works. Start with RSS in Plain English, and read up on RSS in The Missing Manual. You may not understand it completely until you've set up a reader and subscribed to some feeds, but push on.

2. Set up an RSS account at Feedly.com. There are other RSS aggregator sites available, but Feedly is pretty good.

3. Subscribe to some course feeds and news feeds.

Subscribe to the Daybook's RSS feed.
Subscribe to the Weblogs and Wikis home page RSS feed.
Subscribe to the RSS feeds of others in the class.
Go to some of the sites (news, blogs, info) you visit regularly and subscribe to their feeds.
Rather than always checking into Feedly, you can use a dedicated RSS reader on your computer/phone/tablet. There are apps for that - both free and paid, including a Feedly app Google for them.

Make a blog post in which you report what you've found so we can all benefit from your work.

4. Add a blogroll, and display it in your sidebar or menu.

1. Read the WP page on blogrolls (also called Link Menus): https://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/
2. Follow the link to the WP page on Links Menu (Blogroll): https://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/add-a-blogroll-link/. Create a blogroll to other blogs. This blogroll won't appear on your blog until you add a Links Widget. So
3. Refer to the https://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/links-widget/ page. Add a links widget to your sidebar.

Option:4a. Use Blogs I follow. Rather than setting up a blog roll, use Blogs I Follow widget to list those blogs. Blogrolls are still useful to bloggers and visitors - as long as you are selective about what site you include.

Deadline: Friday 19 Jan, midnight

Post a reflection about Creative Commons and Intellectual Property. Respond over the weekend.

1. Read up on and write a post on copyright and the CC movement. Do the research first. Look into Creative Commons, and read up intellectual property (IP) by googling the term. WIPO is a good place to start, or References section of the Wikipedia entry for intellectual property. The Missing Manual also has some information on copyright on the web, on placing copyright notices on your weblog, and asking permission to post - which should be part of your research. Then write up a blog post in which you share your findings, linking to the resources you found most useful, and annotating those links. End this post by considering how you'll be licensing your work for this class, and why you made that choice. This post is due by midnight Friday so others have time to read and comment.

2. Saturday, Sunday, Monday visit the posts of others, comment - extend - develop - compare those that strike you as useful / significant / interesting.

Deadline Monday Jan 22, midnight: Post a Reflection

By Monday midnight, post a reflection on these two weeks of Bootcamp set up. Refer to the HeuristicForWeeklyReflections as a guide. Link to your work for the last two weeks. I'm not considering your work with BootCamp2018 complete until materials are linked. Categorize this post under the appropriate category on your blog (Weekly Reflections or something similar).

You can post your summary earlier, of course, once you've completed the bootcamp activities and had a chance to review what others are doing, glean what you can, and comment here and there.

Continuing Activities

Refining your blog

Common Mistakes, from lorelle.wordpress.com. A wide set of tutorials for setting up and managing a site.

Attribution

On the internet, we share - and in sharing we attribute. Alan Levine (@cogdog) explains this, and offers an Attribution Helper. Even if it's yours, include an attribution.

Add categories and start using tags in your posts

Learn about categories and tags.

Read about categories and tags in WP: The Missing Manual, Chapter 4
Read Using Categories and Tags from Problogger.
Have a look at the WordPress support pages.
Search Google for more specific questions.

Set up Categories

1. Missing Manual, chap 4 has details on how to use categories. Even better, Common Mistakes, from lorelle.wordpress.com. Use the WP support page on Categories to set up and add categories to your blog: https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories/. Add a few: Class exercises, etc. Set up a widget to display categories on the sidebar. There's also a Daybook post with a collection of advice. Add you own advice in a post on your blog or a comment.
1. Consider in a post, what's the difference between categories and tags? There are differences and they are important ones!

Start using Tags

1. Use the WP page on Tags or, as above, Lorelle, to get a sense of what to include in tags for your posts: https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/tags/. You can use a widget to display tags in the sidebar, if you wish.

Refine your weblog and develop a workflow

Tweak your weblog as you continue to post every day.
Fashion your About page. Have a look at other blogs to see how bloggers use this page.
Read up on post formats at https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/post-formats/. "You can put any kind of content you’d normally publish in a post in any of the post formats, but [post formats] were designed with particular kinds of content in mind" Try posting using Quotes and Link, and other formats.
Refer to The Missing Manual chap 6 to refine your posting practices, chap 8 to tweak commenting, and chaps 9 and 12 for plug-ins that might be useful and getting your posts seen and, more importantly, shared.
Develop a workflow by posting and replying to the posts of others every day - with posts appropriate to the course. Add the WordPress Press This bookmarklet to make posting easier.
Practice embedding images in your posts - your own images or images that are open for use. (Flickr is good for this).
Link link link. Start using readable links rather than raw http: links.
Continue visiting and replying to the posts of other in the class.

CategoryAdmin

Props to ds106 Bootcamp

Weblogs and Wikis : BootCamp2018