Toluu

Blog by Jon Bishop

Understanding the Interactive Web

E-Learning with Social MediaOctober 27

Photo by foundphotoslj

While I was living out in Amherst, MA I worked for the computer science department creating math problems in Adobe Flash (well it was Macromedia at the time). The project was called “Wayang Outpost”. It was a virtual SAT tutor that toned in on a students problems and presented exercises to help fill the gaps. It was a lot of fun to be part of.

Now I want to discuss some of the ways we contribute to a more organic form of learning. Social media provides its own set of E-Learning tools in the form of online communities that, once fully understood, can be a mecca of untapped knowledge. Between blogging, social bookmarking, micro-blogging and social networking we have multiple avenues through which to tap into this wealth of information. Once one learns how to efficiently navigate the virtual scholastic tubes, the possibilities are endless.

Our Learning Tools

First lets look at Twitter. I like to see it as a collection of experts. What they’re experts in is of little matter to me because I am not approaching them directly. All I have to do is bring up a t

Micro-Blogging with Video - 12seconds.tvOctober 8

My new favorite “funded by burritos” micro-blogging service is definitely 12seconds.tv. I guess one could argue that it is the natural progression of micro-blogging and status updates.

As much as I love Twitter and Plurk, there is something much more real and personal about 12seconds that makes it appealing. The alpha community is pretty outgoing (and silly) and there is always something interesting queued up.

To encourage users to post, 12seconds does a daily challenge that you can reply to. The winner is featured below the following days question. It’s a great way to encourage interaction on the site and people really come up with some clever stuff.

Now the tagging system that is used allows for some interesting categorized posts. I experimented a bit and created a little game. You have 12 seconds to guess the name of each song. I can easily add new songs by adding my handy little ‘name-this-song’ tag. It will be interesting to see if any similar ideas catch on within the community.

So enough rambling about my new favorite service. Join in on the fun. Don’t forget to add

I Might Win an iPhoneOctober 6

I wrote about how to use search.twitter.com to find contests and giveaways. Well because of that very post I am half way to winning my very own iPhone 3G and a year supply of chocolate.

I received a phone call from Newtree’s PR department about a week ago informing me that I was one of the finalists for the contest. This totally caught me off guard but I had secretly been hoping my story might stick out. The contest was pretty simple:

Inspired by the popularity of cell phone text novels in Japan, this short story contest required that entries be submitted via cell phone text message. Creative writers with dexterous thumbs were asked to incorporate all 11 NEWTREE Chocolate flavors in a short story of no more than 1,500 words. The judging panel has selected the following top ten finalists in the Gr8 Am. Txt Stry Contest. The grand prize winner will be announced October 13, 2008. - Newtree

Now they have announced a small side contest. The People’s Choice awards. If you think my story is the best (or if you just think I’m really cool) please go vote for

Starting a Twitter Account from ScratchOctober 1

If you haven’t checked out my Twitter Starter Page, you might want to go ahead and do that before reading this post. You have to have a pretty basic understanding of how to use Twitter before you can really start using it effectively.

Sometimes however, you might need a little bump in followers to start getting the interaction you need.

How do I get my Twitter account up to par with the rest of the Twitter population?

A lot of people make one huge mistake when starting their first Twitter Account. They use a greasemonkey script or twitter adder to follow thousands of people in hopes of acquiring a quick following.

There are two things critically wrong with this approach:

1. Your Twitter stream is way crowded to engage in quality conversations and keep up to date on key users
2. Other Twitter users may write you off as spam and not follow you back

So here is an alternative approach that will help you develop a solid productive following that will allow for fruitful conversations.

Jon Bishop’s 5 Step Twitter Starter Program

Step 1: Set up your Twitter profile with a unique background, bio

Using Social MediaSeptember 17

One of my favorite parts of my job is hearing the words “well I like what I hear, now put a fence around it”. I’d like to think that this is easier said than done these days as most people forget one essential truth when it comes to Social Media:

Social Media is really only beneficial to a company as an extension of their existing infrastructure.

I personally don’t think of it as a new marketing technique because, well, marketers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from it. You can use it to help with customer relations, recruitment, product development, H.R., and the list goes on.

If we change the way we look at Social Media, we will be able to use it more efficiently.

Here’s a little list of don’ts to get you started:

• Don’t get a twitter account and follow 500 people right off the bat
• Don’t send an email blast out asking for diggs to your most recent post
• Don’t comment on a post just to receive the link back to your site
• Don’t post affiliate links on your favorite micro-blog

And here’s a little list of do’s:

• Be sincere
• Be original
• Be active
• Have a little fun