Course Syllabus Spring 2008:Weblogs and Wikis

Wikis for Dummies, Woods and Thoeny.
The Everything Blogging Book, Risdahl. Risdhal's Blog

Class starts Wednesday, 23 Jan.

Weds 23 Jan

for Friday
return to this page and view

from CommonCraft.com
Chapters 1 and 2 in Risdahl if you have the text.

Fri 25 Jan

questions on statement
BlogsAndWikisTour: features, terminology, uses
need texts by Monday

Mon 28 Jan

set up a blog on WordPress.com

Note: People are already posting to the Daybook. You might want to drop in and leave a comment.

Help files

WordPress Documentation
WordPress FAQ
From the WordPress.com page, click on Support or FAQ.

For Weds

Read Risdahl, chaps 1 - 2, 11 - 12
Make at least two postings for Wednesday. In one, comment on a topic Risdahl mentions in chap 1 or 2. Easiest way to handle this: quote from Rishdahl and respond to the quote. Post to your own blog for this assignment.
To get back to your blog, go to wordpress.com and log in. You can also explore some WordPress blogs from the log in page to see how others have set up blogs.
You can also log in by going to your new blog address. Use Log In or Site Admin to log in and create a new post.

Update: Jan 29, 3:45 pm I've added some participants to the Daybook. If you're there, good. If not, please email me with the blog address from the email account you used when you registered with WordPress.

Post the assignment for Wednesday - commenting on Risdahl - to your own blog.

Blog Checklist for weekend and week of Jan 28: Develop and tidy up. Be findable.

Add introductory remarks in the About section.
Add Categories and start using them.
Add to your side bar: Visit sites and use the Link This bookmarklet to add them to your blogroll.
Go to Dashboard > Options > General and devise an appropriate blog title and tagline.
Go to Dashboard > Discussion and set options you want to use for discussion.
Go to your Dashboard > Blogroll and manage your blogroll: Add categories to the blogroll and organize links in them.
Go to Dashboard > Presentation > Widgets and play around with the widgets. Add them, see what they do, remove them ...

We have a lot of blog and writing expertise in this class. So ask your questions on The Daybook. Give your answers there, too. Points for Q's or A's.

WordPress Help files

WordPress Documentation
WordPress FAQ
From the WordPress.com page, click on Support or FAQ.

Weds 30 Jan

The Press It bookmarklet
linking
The Add Link bookmarklet
commenting on other posts

for Fri 1 Feb

Post an introduction, with a link to your blog, on The Daybook.
Make a couple more posts to your blog. Risdahl, chap 12 can help you out. Link to and comment on something interesting you find on the web or in Risdahl. Get in the habit of posting, taking an hour a day or so to draw on something, compose something new, comment on something ...

Fri 1 Feb

How are things going?
Dashboard > submenus > explore
discussion: Legitimacy

Assignment for Mon 4 Feb

Risdahl, chaps 3 - 5, and 11- 12 if you haven't read them yet.
On your own blog (or The Daybook) make at least one post incorporating one of the forms of linking Risdahl discusses in chap 12 (p 154).

Mon 4 Feb

debrief on Friday discussion: legitimacy
connections with posting style, links, colophon, posting strategies ...
images: WordPress FAQ

Weds 6 Feb

Read Chap 13: Building Community; Chap 14: Tools
RSS in Plain English. This video ties in with what Zach mentions on The Daybook.
rss
Prepping and uploading images: WordPress FAQ

Online news readers

Online image editing

http://picnik.com

Desktop image editors

GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ For Windows, Mac, Linux. Free, but installation is not for the faint of heart.
Photoshop: http://adobe.com. Windows and Mac. Expensive.
Photoshop Elements: http://adobe.com. Window or Mac. $60 - $80.00 educational pricing

Fri 8 Feb

No face to face class meeting.
Exercise for Friday - Sunday: What Makes a Blog Popular? on The Daybook.
For Monday, read Wikis for Dummies, chaps 1 - 2 for Monday. You can explore the Dummies wiki (mentioned in the text) and might want to look at some of the wikis mentioned in chaps 1 - 2 to gain a solid ground in the variety of wiki engines out there.

Mon 11 Feb

discussion: debrief on What Makes a Blog Popular on The Daybook
another try at picnik?

Weds 13 Feb

Fri 15 Feb

Design your WikiName page
Read Wikis, chap 3
In class: finding and describing wikis
WikiSurveyExercise > WikisOfNote
If you weren't in class on Friday, you can still earn points for this exercise (and gain the knowledge) by completing it on your own by class time Monday.
For Monday: Read some material on composing on a wiki: from ThreadMode to DocumentMode by way of RefactoringPages
in Wikis for Dummies, chap 6.

Mon 18 Feb

We'll start EngagingABarnRaising for this week.

- WikiReadingsForCourse, esp
- Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not, Brian Lamb. pdf and WideOpenSpaces: Our wiki page commenting on building on the article.
- Embrace the Wiki Way, Matt Barton

Tues 19 Feb

Having read Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not, Brian Lamb, return to this wiki and add to thread, start a new topic, or refactor into document.
read Wikis for Dummies, chap 7

Weds 20 Feb

quick review of work done so far
working in class
short reading

Thurs 21 Feb

Fri 22 Feb

review of BarnRaising. Cookies
Of note Obsolete Skills
Of note Orange: A Student Journal of Tech Writing, as published on a wiki.
Of note New Media OCW, proof of concept: using a blog instead of D2L
ProjectProposalAssignment. Due 2/27. Approved 2/29 or revise for 3/3

refer to chapters in Risdahl and Wikis for Dummies for suggestions, directions, ideas ...
solo or collaborative
wiki OR blog: not both
find your own wiki host online, or I can set one up for you. There's a list of wiki sources in Dummies, and we can look at others on Monday.

For Sunday evening, contribute to WhatIHateAboutWikis and/or WhatILoveAboutWikis, or make one or two blog posts about the same topic. (Thank you to Zachary for correcting the typo and redirecting.)

Mon 25 Feb

Look at Love and Hate on the wiki and see if a rhetorical consideration addresses some of the issues mentioned. Wikis for Dummies emphasizes collaborative and organizational uses of wikis. There's another dimension to them.

for bloggers

RedefiningTheJournal

book chapters for wiki proposals
book chapters for blog proposals
chap 13: commenting. Opening a blog to commenting: Seeding and weeding
Be your own best editor.
chap 15: the law
chap 16: tips for success
Wikis, chap 6, 7, 8: composing on wikis
mapping/ov of professional uses of wikis and weblogs: revisit: WikisOfNote

List of wiki hosting sites (aka wiki farms)

Wikipedia has a large list of wikis, and a pretty complete comparison chart of wiki farms. Here are a few wiki farms that people in class are familiar with. Readers: Please add what you know.

http://pbwiki.com
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
http://www.wetpaint.com
http://www.wikidot.com/
http://jottit.com: the absolute minimum wiki
http://www.kerika.com Uses mind-map diagrams for information and for navigation
http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/

Wed 27 Feb

project proposals due
CreativeCommonsLicensing

Fri 29 Feb

Special Leap Year Class Session

The tradition ... started with St. Patrick and St. Bridget (5th Century) in Ireland. St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that the sisters in her nunnery were in despair because the prevailing tradition at the time -- that women had to wait for a proposal of marriage from a man. [At the time, nuns were allowed to marry.]] St.Patrick agreed to allow women to propose to men every four years, during Leap Year [in some versions, it's only on Feb 29th]. Bridget proposed to Patrick only to be turned down. [St Patrick was a saint at the time and could not marry. As recompense, Patrick gave Bridey a gown, in some versions.]. care2.com

Last f2f meeting until the end of Mar
ProjectProposalAssignment approved or needing revision for Monday.

Final notes

Most proposals need a few changes - details in number of posts and length, mainly. Once you've made the changes I've asked for, go ahead and start the project. No need to print out the proposal. Add a link to your blog or wiki from the proposal page and I'll add you to the blogroll.
If I've asked for more extensive changes, let me know when they're ready, or set up a meeting with me for next Monday. I'll be in my office during class time: HS 314.
Make your research part of posting. That is, rather than breaking projects into research > write, post about the research. Knowledge accumulates over time on a blog.

Reading for the curious
Wild Wild Wiki, a text in press.
Refactoring and Revision, a chapter.
WikiPatterns
on BarnRaising

Happy Easter Week.

By Tuesday, 25 Mar, post an update to the Daybook for all to read - just to keep us up to date. How are you doing? How are things going with your project? What else is new? And link to something interesting on your project.
We'll meet again f2f on Monday, 31 Mar and Weds 2 April.
We'll do studio tours that week, too.
Want readers? Link, quote, cite. Add other blogs and sites to your blogroll. Write so that others will want to respond: Invite them to do so in the post. Seed and weed.
Check the Daybook daily. Add to the Daybook when opportunity arises.

update: Sunday, April 20

Next face to face meeting: 21 April

We'll get set up to start the ProjectPresentationAndWriteup
We'll start some work on Implications2008
You can (should) continue your project for the next two weeks, even while you're working on your presentation and write-up.

Morgan's note links

Wed 23 April

A discussion on Implications2008

no meeting on Friday 25 April

Implications and Presentations
Remember that millions of people have been taught to use a different form of English from yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions, and punctuation. | Wikipedia:Manual of Style (image: http://biro.bemidjistate.edu/wiki/images//berber_wedding-20080420-094340.jpg)

(image: http://biro.bemidjistate.edu/wiki/images//berber_wedding-20080420-094340.jpg)

(image: http://biro.bemidjistate.edu/wiki/images//ipats-20080420-095602.jpg)

Technological developments ... are constantly evolving, putting users under constant pressure to adapt their language to the demands of new contexts, and giving them fresh opportunities to interact in novel ways. David Crystal, Language and the Internet.

- http://twittervision.com/
- http://flickrvision.com/maps/show_3d

txtin iz messin,
mi headn'me englis,
try2rite essays,
they all come out txtis.
gran not plsed w/letters shes getn,
swears i wrote better
b4 comin2uni.
&she's african
Hetty Hughes

Link journalism | citizen journalism
text on same for blogging side of things
creating communities around a wiki

Announcements

Mon 28 Apr

ElizabethBarclay
aBethJensen
Update 9:30, 28 April WayneSchmeling Family emergency. Sign up for this time if you want it.
HeatherSmith

Weblogs and Wikis : CourseSyllabus2008