Everyone is a Curator

I haven't been excited about anything on the Web in a long time. That has changed recently. My wife and a few other friends recently turned me onto Pinterest. Pinterest is like Flickr on steroids. It is a service/site where you can easily share images with people. Each image you pin or repin appears on your Pinterest wall, which is similar to a Facebook wall. The feed is live and comes in similar to how Twitter updates itself as you watch.


My Pinterest Wall






Users can follow other users’ feeds, and other users can follow your feeds. Images may be added from a website using the Pin It button, or you can upload images from your computer. The Pin It button can be placed onto your browser bar, thus allowing one to pin images by simply clicking on the button when viewing an image you like on any given website.




After a user clicks the Pin It button they are then presented with a window displaying the lined up images from the page they were on. Clicking the Pin It button on the images you want to “pin” to your Pinterest wall presents you with a screen where you may enter comments; add username info, tags, prices or other information to the pinned image.





Once the images are pinned, the user and his/her friends can see each other’s walls and pins. There is a repin button on each image that has been pinned; clicking on this button will repin the image to your wall. There is also a comment button allowing one to post comments on the image. Finally, there is a like button that enables you to like the pins and repins of the people you follow or other images on Pinterest.



In the comment area of the pin you can also:


“ Type @ to mention people, # to add tags, $ or £ to add prices.” Use hashtags #labels to organize your tags. Keep in mind that users can search using hashtags.

"To mention a pin to a Pinterest user, you first need to be following at least one board belonging to him/her. Then, type the @ symbol immediately followed by his/her username. Potential matches to this username will begin to load; when you see the person you want, click their name."


This is called a "mention". There is a link to your mentions page on your user profile page. This link will say @yourusername, allowing you to access your username "mentions".





My profile page also has my boards listed.


Pinterest users can organize their pins by creating “boards.” For instance, I have a “skate” board (no pun intended), where I pin skateboarding images. Users can follow individual boards or they can follow all of the boards a particular user “curates.” On Pinterest everyone is a curator.




You can shop for gifts on the gift page: http://pinterest.com/gifts/


Items are grouped according to price as circled below. I am not sure how to search using operators in Pinterest and am hoping a more robust search is developed in the near future.

You can also search other aspects on Pinterest. You can conduct hash tag searches. For instance, if I am interested in finding skateboarding photos, I would use #skateboarding as my search term, incidentally giving me a great return.






Tagged $49.99


Pinterest requires that an individual be invited to join their site.

"Pinterest is currently invite-only. You can request an invite from us or you can be invited by someone who is already a part of Pinterest."


Ask your friends who have accounts to invite you. You can also use the “Request an Invite” link on the Pinterest home page. Current users can follow the “invite friends” link to send invitations via email addresses, or by importing Yahoo or Gmail contacts into Pinterest. I have invited my Gmail contacts; it was quick and easy. Quick and easy seems to be one of the features I am always seeking, especially in a web application. It’s also intuitive (I hate to use that term, but it’s fitting).




Discussions

Users can follow discussions on various topics by following the “discussions” link.
This looks to be developing. I have not participated in many good discussions yet, but am open to following and participating in the future.







What I love about Pinterest is that it is so visual, that you can share a huge amount of images easily, and that you can go through others’ images quickly, liking and/or repinning them. I have encountered wonderful images: animal photos, images of food that look so delicious you want to reach into the screen, architectural photos, and more. I love that you can follow others’ collections easily and can encounter almost anything (and I mean that in the good taste sense).




I am quickly becoming addicted to my "Pin It" button and look forward to checking my wall daily. It is really fun. I enjoy meeting new people and seeing their images; I've not really found anything to not like about Pinterest.

Comments are greatly appreciated. I would love to hear about your ideas and experiences in Pinterest!

Steve Earle's Arte

Commentary on a Black Power Mixtape Review

This is the idiots post:



http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat-goes-on/posts/sundance-review-the-black-power-mixtape-1967-1975

Using Social Media to Make the Case for Supporting Library Services

[Press release from REFORMA]



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Loida Garcia-Febo, President REFORMA 917-548-2910 loidagarciafebo@gmail.com www.reforma.org

Using Social Media to Make the Case for Supporting Library Services Webinar on Thursday, November 19, 2009 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EST

REFORMA and Webjunction are partnering to present a webinar about how non-profits such as libraries can use social websites to put access to information and libraries on the agenda of community leaders, elected officials, and local and national agencies. The content of this WebJunction and REFORMA co-sponsored webinar includes a background on social websites, how to use social websites for advocacy, national and international advocacy efforts by representatives from American Library Association (ALA) and the International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA), and suggestions on how to advocate for services for Latinos and Spanish speakers.Guest speakers include Meredith Farkas, Head of Instructional Initiatives at Norwich University; Fiona Bradley, IFLA Programme Coordinator ALP; Marci Merola, Director, ALA Office for Library Advocacy; Max Macias, Serials Technician at Portland Community College; and Loida Garcia-Febo, Assistant Coordinator New Americans Program and Special Services at Queens Library.
Registration is required for this event: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1623

Questions can be directed to Loida Garcia-Febo at loidagarciafebo@gmail.com or further information can be found on the Webjunction website at http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1623


Loida Garcia-Febo

Assistant Coordinator,

New Americans Program and Special Services



Queens Library, 89-11 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica, N.Y. 11432

phone: 1 + 718-990-8569; fax: 1 + 718-990-8628


-------------------------------------------------------



REFORMA President 2009-2010

http://reforma.org/


http://loidagarciafebo.com/
http://vimeo.com/channels/loidatime
http://www.youtube.com/Loidagarciafebo

Five Ideas on Social Media and Advocacy

Five Ideas About Social Media And Advocacy

View more presentations from maxmacias.

Using Social Media to #beatcancer

This is brilliant, just brilliant!

For every mention of #beatcancer on your blog, tweet, or FB status eBay/PayPal and Miller/Coors will donate one cent to breast cancer research!


I read about this in an article posted on Facebook by Stephen Abram written by Genesis Davies:

http://www.pamil-visions.net/twitter-beatcancer/26918/

I can see the potential usage for many different types of organizations here! The potential for collaboration and mutually beneficial projects for sponsors and organizations is incredible. I do not want to speak to soon though. I will be watching how this works closely. Hopefully we can all gain some insight to see the potential of linking ideas together and using them in new ways. I have seen similar campaigns, but never with this kind of sponsorship and potential.

This campaign displays the convergence of several elements:

Social Media content production has grown exponentially over the past two years. The aggregation of SM has improved greatly and allowed for the simple updating of status on various platforms via one post, as well as led to the ability to aggregate SM into readable groups, etc...with applications written for this purpose.

The recent deluge and abilities of visionaries like Brian Solis from the Public Relations industry have been able to merge their worlds with the White Hat Hacker ethic of Sharing and in PR this is a killer APP! The introduction of the business world had me very worried, but I am now seeing the potential to collaborate, as well as pressure business to change the way they operate.

The introduction of Non-profit and other non-business organizations has led to innovative and new practices in PR, outreach and fund-raising. If you are on FB undoubtedly you have been asked to support a cause. Now I am not claiming any huge successes here, but I do claim that just the ability to send a non-offensive, non-intrusive invitation to support a cause is in itself a success! Add to this new tool, Youtube channels, Twitter campaigns, and various other ideas and you have a nice mix of ingredients to choose from. Next add the ability to mix and match them via widgets and API applications--well then we have the foundations for innovative thinking and partnerships to become a reality.

These are just some elements that have led to this kind of campaign. I am truly excited about this and just had to write this short post to let you in on it. This is a short post, not meant to be extensive, but inspiring!



#beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer #beatcancer

Ten Technologies to Increase Communication in Your Organization

We live in a time unprecedented for information and knowledge in management and organizational cultures. Systems theory and other theories of organizational innovation state that there must be open channels of communication in the organization. Yet, today we use organizational communication based on the memo to communicate for the most part. With the technology available today it is easy to increase communication in your organization even with a tight budget. I am going to talk about 10 things one can do with technology to facilitate communication, either externally or internally. The applications are free and just take the investment of time/labor to get them going.

1) Start a blog. Yes, I know, everyone has heard this before. However, there are so many blogs that are boring or irrelevant. Make your blog interesting--invite guest posters who cover different aspects of your organization. You can even bring in guest bloggers who are external to your organization. Blogs can impart information, creating a dynamic conversation that can include different types of media, and is interactive.

2) Start a Twitter feed. Begin and maintain a Twitter feed with value added informational tweets. By this I mean, instead of just passing along a URL, pass it along with a short annotation, etc. that imparts why someone will want to spend their time following the link. Use hashtags for discussions on Twitter.

3) Share your best practices on a Wiki. I know the glamour of Wikis has faded in the recent past; however, they are still a powerful tool when it comes to sharing information. The fact that they can be made almost transparent via the use of history, comments and discussions is another plus for Wiki use.

4) Start an organizational discussion board. This can increase discussion and spark debate about vital organizational issues. These discussions can also document the chain of reasoning that led to a conclusion and subsequent action/policy. People can be referred to the board for a first step in a search for answers to their questions about the organization. This can ofttimes lead to individuals raising their opinions in writing--people who would otherwise remain silent on issues. Sometimes this platform can lead to increased participation and expression by people of this persuasion.

5) Start a Facebook organizational page. Utilize this to broadcast messages to members and associates on Facebook. This information can then easily be shared, or pasted and copied to other Facebook walls, pages, and discussion boards as well as other websites. You can promote public relation campaigns on these pages and start "cause" pages as well. This can help in increasing membership, as well as fundraising and building a list of allies.

6) Start a YouTube or Vimeo channel. This can be used to post public relation announcements, informational messages, membership communications, presidential messages and more. YouTube works well--one can then use widgets, and embed code to share videos on websites and social networking platforms.

7) Scrap that old print newsletter. A multimedia newsletter will allow for use of media that is used in other places, i.e., YouTube, Vimeo, etc. This will also make the newsletter a bit flashier and eye-appealing. Individuals who may not like to read the newsletter may enjoy some creative videos showcasing newsworthy events throughout the year.

8) Incorporate social software into your organization. This allows for the creation of profiles. This might not seem like a big deal, but it can potentially link people with common interests, who then may be able to collaborate to increase organizational mission accomplishment. An internal social software aspect can generally increase communication, teamwork, rapport, discussion and dare I say, innovation.

9) Create a Flickr account to share organizational photos. Photos do much to convey organizational attitudes, teamwork, camaraderie, as well as documentation of events and people. Photos from these accounts can be shared on other platforms and sites via embedding and widget use. This makes Flickr an even more powerful tool.

10) Begin or maintain an organizational culture that is free and open--one which encourages experimentation, documentation, assessment and rewards innovation. This is the most important technology, as it allows and budgets time for exploration into new techniques, technologies, ideas, and innovations. Which, in turn, allows for progress toward the fulfillment of the organizational mission. This culture must come from the administration of the organization and must be supported with time and resources.

In today's ever-changing dynamic society, we need to be thinking about leveraging our work, budgets and talents more than ever. Collaboration, innovation and increased communication go a long way in achieving this goal. Given that the technologies listed above are relatively free of charge, with the only costs an investment in labor and talent, we should be using them to increase efficiency, reduce costs and possibly increase revenue via increased support and presence in the community. The media available can increase the power of our messages and motivate people in ways heretofore unimagined; we just need to harness the power that is already there.