Implementing Enterprise 2.0: A Practical Guide To Creating Business Value Inside Organizations With Web Technologies Review

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(More customer reviews)Ross Dawson is quite properly regarded as a leading authority on business strategy. In Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Ross distills all of the essential information that forward thinking business leaders need to harness the opportunities presented by changing and emerging internet technologies. The information presented by Ross is well laid out, it is easily readable and very useable. In short, this is an immensely practical, exceptional guide to understanding and using Web Technologies to add value to your business.

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Implementing Enterprise 2.0 provides detailed practical insights into how to create substantial business value with web technologies, supported by numerous case studies of successful implementation and lessons learned.Implementing Enterprise 2.0 can be used to gain a clear understanding of Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 in organizations, identify opportunities for value creation, provide a structured view of benefits and risks, establish governance initiatives, create and communicate a clear Enterprise 2.0 strategy for your organization, and design and implement successful projects.

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The 2009 Internet Directory: Web 2.0 Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Trying to find what you want on the Internet can be a frustrating and somewhat overwhelming task. Of course, you can do a search on Google. You'll get pages of websites that contain whatever key word you input. Dozens and dozens of pages of entries, probably hundreds of them will come up. Some of these pages will actually lead to a useful page. Many more will not.
2009 Internet Directory looks to simplify the process. As the name implies, it's a directory of websites, wikis, podcasts, blogs, forums, and social networks. The entries are seay to search through by topic for instance nonprofit business resources, science news, children's health, boating, museums, etc.
Of course, the entries listed are not complete listings of what is available online. However, this book does give you a good solid place to start looking. The majority of the websites are national or international associations and organizations. While doing my own searches, I found some really good resources with free material, newsletters, and some blogs that I bookmarked right away.

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2009 Internet DirectoryWeb 2.0 EditionVince AverelloMikal E. BelicoveNancy ConnerAdrienne CrewSherry Kinkoph GunterFaithe WempenThe Best of the New "Web 2.0" Internet…at Your Fingertips!A whole new Web's coming to life: new tools, communities, video, podcasts, everything! You won't find these exciting "Web 2.0" destinations with old-fashioned Internet directories…and it'll take forever to find them on search engines. But they're all at your fingertips, right here! Carefully selected by humans, not algorithms, here are the Net's 3,000 best Web 2.0 destinations: amazing new sites, tools, and resources for your whole life!They'll help you…• Have way more fun!• Build your business…• Buy the right stuff, and avoid the junk…• Stay totally up-to-date on news, politics, science…• Be a better parent…• Go "green"…• Get healthier—and stay healthier…• Deepen your faith…• Pursue your hobbies…• Plan incredible vacations…• Find the perfect restaurant…• And more… much more!

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Enterprise Web 2.0 Fundamentals Review

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(More customer reviews)It's perhaps slightly surprising to see this put out by Cisco Press. They usually deal with topics closely if not explicitly tied to Cisco hardware, or to Cisco sponsored credentialling.
The book has more general scope, for the most part. It talks in broad, largely nontechnical prose, about the Web 2.0. Explaining what this means in terms of blogs, social networking, wikis and other user-generated activities. But it also has meaning in terms of the mobile user, who might access the web from a cellphone, PDA or wireless netbook.
As to how the Web 2.0 is accomplished in a technical manner, the book describes various programming languages that are popular in building such websites. Think Ajax and Ruby on Rails, for instance.
The conceptual boundary of the Web is the so-called Semantic Web, a term proposed by Tim Berners-Lee. We get some airing here about the Semantic Web. You get to appreciate that this is still early times for it. The book also brings up cloud computing. Alas, the latter term is so vague, but to the extent that it has useful meaning, the book tries to educate you on this.
The last 2 chapters are where Cisco is actively promoted. Describing how Cisco uses things like blogs in their sales group. I'm not sure quite what to make of these chapters. Is it mainly to build mindshare about how Cisco uses these ideas? For instance, it mentions how Cisco won several awards for their projects. Good for them.
The appendices are extensive and quite good, if you want to use the book as a guide to far more detailed resources on the Web. In a way, the appendices somewhat impart the book the flavour of a review article in a scholarly journal, by their copious references to original texts.

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An introduction to next-generation web technologiesThis is a comprehensive, candid introduction to Web 2.0 for every executive, strategist, technical professional, and marketer who needs to understand its implications. The authors illuminate the technologies that make Web 2.0 concepts accessible and systematically identify the business and technical best practices needed to make the most of it. You'll gain a clear understanding of what's really new about Web 2.0 and what isn't. Most important, you'll learn how Web 2.0 can help you enhance collaboration, decision-making, productivity, innovation, and your key enterprise initiatives.The authors cut through the hype that surrounds Web 2.0 and help you identify the specific innovations most likely to deliver value in your organization. Along the way, they help you assess, plan for, and profit from user-generated content, Rich Internet Applications (RIA), social networking, semantic web, content aggregation, cloud computing, the Mobile Web, and much more. This is the only book on Web 2.0 that:Covers Web 2.0 from the perspective of every participant and stakeholder, from consumers to product managers to technical professionalsProvides a view of both the underlying technologies and the potential applications to bring you up to speed and spark creative ideas about how to apply Web 2.0Introduces Web 2.0 business applications that work, as demonstrated by actual Cisco® case studiesOffers detailed, expert insights into the technical infrastructure and development practices raised by Web 2.0Previews tomorrow's emerging innovations–including "Web 3.0," the Semantic WebProvides up-to-date references, links, and pointers for exploring Web 2.0 first-handKrishna Sankar, Distinguished Engineer in the Software Group at Cisco, currently focuses on highly scalable Web architectures and frameworks, social and knowledge graphs, collaborative social networks, and intelligent inferences.Susan A. Bouchard is a senior manager with US-Canada Sales Planning and Operations at Cisco. She focuses on Web 2.0 technology as part of the US-Canada collaboration initiative.Understand Web 2.0's foundational concepts and component technologiesDiscover today's best business and technical practices for profiting from Web 2.0 and Rich Internet Applications (RIA)Leverage cloud computing, social networking, and user-generated contentUnderstand the infrastructure scalability and development practices that must be address-ed for Web 2.0 to workGain insight into how Web 2.0 technologies are deployed inside Cisco and their business value to employees, partners, and customersThis book is part of the Cisco Press® Fundamentals Series. Books in this series introduce networking professionals to new networking technologies, covering network topologies, example deployment concepts, protocols, and management techniques.Category: General NetworkingCovers: Web 2.0$40.00 USA / $48.00 CAN

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Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World Review

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(More customer reviews)Using the power of each of us to solve problems that challenge all of us is the central premise of Macrowikinomics. Tapscott has always been good at spotting, shaping and branding trends and this book is no exception. However, this book repeats and restates earlier ideas rather then moving forward to the next logical question of how we do this.
I am sorry to provide a less than enthusiastic review, as I am sure others will find this book revolutionary. However, I am reviewing the book as someone who wants to learn how to make the changes that Tapscott and Williams advocate in my company and industry.
The authors do cover different industries and mention emerging companies giving the impression that the book breaks new ground. However, readers familiar with Tapscott's other works will find that this book repeats and restates Wikinomics more than it covers new ground. It is clear that Tapscott and Williams are looking at this issue from the macro economic rather than business perspective. Is there microwikinomics in the wings?
The book's structure reinforces this observation as it starts by revisiting the basics of the Wikinomics and the five principles of networked intelligence: Collaboration, Openess, Sharing, Integrity and Interdependence. The authors next concentrate on discussing the complex challenges and industries under threat. These include: Green energy, Transportation, Education, Health Care, Media and Government.
The middle section repeats the same pattern of describing their issue, the inability of modern approaches to address the issue and examples of companies using wikinomics to address the issue which that authors report are too early to be reshaping the world we live in.
The last part of the book concentrates on the challenges posed by wikinomics. In my opinion these last two chapters are the more valuable parts of the book, particularly for someone who has already read Wikinomics. But these chapters, like the rest of the book, raises more issues than it resolves.
Recommendations
If you are a wikinomics fan, then you will probably buy the book no matter what anyone says. As a reader familiar with Wikinomics I found more examples but little in the ways of new ideas or applications. The examples are interesting but they lack specifics of how you apply wikinomic principles.
This is a four star book, if you are new to Wikinomics. Macrowikinomics has more examples of than the original book. I would suggest reading Chapters 1-4, then the chapters related to your industry and finish with chapters 18 and 19. This should make the book about 150 - 200 pages which is an appropriate length.
This is a three star book for those who enjoyed Wikinomics and wanted to learn more about how leaders are applying these ideas rather than where the ideas could be applied. I had hoped for more than an expanded restatement of the earlier book.
Strengths
Comprehensive in tackling a diverse set of global issues and industries. The breadth of Tapscott and William's discussion illustrates the broad ability of social media and mass collaboration to change the way the world works.
Company specific examples are interesting and they do illustrate that people are applying these ideas in each of these areas, but the examples are general marketing level descriptions rather than providing actionable advice.
The beginning and the end of the book are quite clear and provide a good overview of the ideas in the book. These include chapters 2, 4, 18 and 19.Challenges
The authors have had more than three years since the introduction of Wikinomics to understand how these forces work in companies. Unfortunately there is little of this understanding in the book. It does not discuss how to address significant issues such as assigning responsibility, accountability, management, measurement and rewards. These are issues that people running companies need to face and ones that people studying rather than living the problem can overlook.
The authors are at times strident in their dismissal of current governments, companies, industries and individuals. Throughout the book the authors are clear that they believe that believe that wikinomics is the only way to solve these issues. This may be a good way to energize people around social issues, but it does little to help people apply these ideas to evolve from where they are to where they need to be.
Americans appear to be the primary audience for the book. While Tapscott and Williams mention India and China, their intended audience is people in the U.S. This is surprising given the author's calls for a coordinated global response to economic and environmental issues.
The book is long at over 400 pages; in large part because of the middle chapters follow a similar structure, which makes the book seem repetitive and reinforces the impression that the authors believe that the same solution applies to every situation.
The notion of 'rebooting business and the world' is an interesting premise and an inaccurate description of what the authors intend since rebooting is used most often as a way of solving problems by resetting the system to its original configuration. This is not what the authors intend but it's the analogy they have chosen.

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In their 2007 bestseller, Wikinomics Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams showed the world how mass collaboration was changing the way businesses communicate, create value, and compete in the new global marketplace. Now, in the wake of the global financial crisis, the principles of wikinomics have become more powerful than ever. Many of the institutions that have served us well for decades or centuries seem stuck in the past and unable to move forward. And yet, in every corner of the globe, a powerful new model of economic and social innovation is sweeping across all sectors-one where people with drive, passion, and expertise take advantage of new Web-based tools to get more involved in making the world more prosperous, just, and sustainable. Tapscott and Williams show that in over a dozen fields-from finance to health care, science to education, the media to the environment-we have reached a historic turning point: cling to the old industrial-era paradigms or use collaborative innovation to revolutionize not only the way we work, but how we live, learn, create, govern, and care for one another. You'll meet innovators such as: * An Iraq veteran whose start-up car company is "staffed" by over 4,500 competing designers and supplied by microfactories around the world * A microlending community where 570,000 individuals help fund new ventures-from Angola to Vietnam * An online community for people with life-altering diseases that also serves as a large-scale research project * An astronomer who is mapping the universe with the help of 250,000 citizen scientists Tapscott and Williams once again use original research to provide vivid new examples of organizations that are successfully embracing the principles of wikinomics to change the world. Visit www.Macrowikinomics.com.

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Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation Review

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(More customer reviews)Anne is a technical writer who has done a considerable amount of work with FLOSS Manuals in documenting the OLPC laptop, and is obviously well-versed in both open-source documentation and social media. The book is designed to give technical writers and other information developers an overview of the tools and techniques available now for documenting products and communicating with end-users through social media and other non-traditional methods.
As a technical writer and community manager, I am exactly the target market for this book, so it is no wonder that I think it is an excellent resource that is long overdue. What surprised me was the depth with which she covered her subjects, the extensive yet highly selective quality of references in the book, and the sheer number of strategies that I hadn't yet encountered even as a professional in this area.
The most important point Anne makes in the book is that documentation as we know it is changing dramatically. Practically all of the basic tenets of technical documentation are in question. Users depend far more often on advice from random strangers via mailing lists, community forums, and search engines than they do on the technical documentation that comes with the product. I have seen this to be true even for highly technical concepts and tools. This is not news to anyone who has ever used Google to find the answer to a technical question rather than looking in the docs, but it was fascinating to see that phenomenon addressed in such a way that my opinions of it were actually changed. Like many technical writers, I have a lingering fear that I will someday be obsolete and that my job of communicating technical issues to users of technology will be taken over by amateurs in ad-hoc communities. Anne gently reminds us that it is the quantity of information that is skyrocketing, not the quality, and that our jobs as technical communicators are more important than ever in making that information "findable", even if that means abandoning what we traditionally think of as documentation. What I took away from this aspect of the book was the overwhelming necessity to make human connections, even in technical documentation, an idea that resonates strongly with my own role as a community builder. Chapter 3 spells it out best as "Defining a Writer's Role with the Social Web".
The book catalogs the available tools and strategies from several different viewpoints based on documentation strategy---in other words, use cases---rather than simply providing an annotated list. Anne specifically points to references and in-the-trenches stories that underscore her points in a very effective way. The subject that brought me the most "aha!" moments was that of wikis. I use wikis on a daily basis, but there were certain aspects of them that I had overlooked. There were so many interesting references in all sections that I felt compelled to stop reading the book and follow them, which is not a criticism of the writing but rather of the sheer amount of information out there. The consistent, confident, professional tone kept me riveted to the book, but I am now going back over every page and following links.
I highly recommend this book to both technical communicators and those involved in social media and community. My copy is going straight to my boss' desk.

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Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Technical Documentation, industry expert Anne Gentle's new book, brings the tools of the Social Web to technical documentation. She looks at the most important Web 2.0 tools, including blogs, wikis, micro-blogging, and syndication, and shows how they can be used to foster conversations and a community with your customers.Through examples and her own hard-won experience with these technologies, Gentle provides practical guidance for technical communicators, marketers, and anyone who wants to use the Social Web to interact with customers.

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Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools Review

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(More customer reviews)People no longer just search for information on the web. Now they provide information, too. These people include our students. The world has changed; students have changed, and traditional schools are no longer up to the task of educating young people for the future.
This is the argument of the book Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Although we're still in the early days of bringing together education and Web 2.0, there are good models of learning and technology use that point us in the right direction.
The authors provide examples of teachers who have guided their students to use Web 2.0 tools in creating a collaborative math solutions manual, an independent literature circle project, a collaborative guidebook about online security, for example.
Solomon and Schrum observe that, although young people may be ahead of their teachers in using these tools, teachers can help them use the tools in educationally appropriate ways.

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Web 2.0 has arrived--find out how it can transform teaching and learning!
What is Web 2.0? Once upon a time, Web sites were isolated information 'silos'--all content and no functionality. Today, the next generation of Web sites gives power to the end-user, providing visitors with a new level of customization, interaction, and participation. Many Web sites now allow users to upload, categorize, and share content easily. Weblogs and podcasts allow anyone to publish or broadcast on any topic. Wikis provide information that is constantly updated by the end-user. Open-source software is free and customizable. These new technologies are changing our relationship to the Internet.
What can Web 2.0 tools offer educators? Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging Web 2.0 technologies and their use in the classroom and in professional development. Topics include blogging as a natural tool for writing instruction, wikis and their role in project collaboration, podcasting as a useful means of presenting information and ideas, and how to use Web 2.0 tools for professional development. Also included are a discussion of Web 2.0 safety and security issues and a look toward the future of the Web 2.0 movement. Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools is essential reading for teachers, administrators, technology coordinators, and teacher educators.
Topics include:
-online collaboration tools -technology literacy-technology integration-teacher training-curriculum design-open source-blogs -wikis-podcasts-professional development
Also available:
Database Magic: Using Databases to Teach Curriculum in Grades 4-12 - ISBN 1564842452 What Works in K-12 Online Learning - ISBN 1564842363 Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education - ISBN 1564842479
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the trusted source for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy and leadership for innovation. ISTE is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. Home of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET), and ISTE's annual conference (formerly known as the National Educational Computing Conference, or NECC), ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. We support our members with information, networking opportunities, and guidance as they face the challenge of transforming education.
Some of the areas in which we publish are: -Web. 2.0 in the classroom-RSS, podcasts, and more-National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) -Professional development for educators and administrators-Integrating technology into the classroom and curriculum-Safe practices for the Internet and technology-Educational technology for parents

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Using Drupal Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has been eagerly awaited as the first O'Reilly volume covering Drupal, and having been written by such a rockstar team of Drupal pros.
It's also the first book to focus on a wide range of third party contributed modules rather than just Drupal core, or a narrow subject area of modules. It's written for Drupal 6, although the book would be fairly applicable to Drupal 5 (with the caveat that one of the major modules, Views, is completely different for Drupal 6 - the underlying concepts are similar though).
The first thing that struck me about this book is its fundamentally different approach from most early Drupal books, as well as the kinds of books you find in the early stages of any new technology's mainstream acceptance. It's not simply a higher quality rehashing of handbook pages and technical how-tos, but it has an incredibly cohesive and clever process through the entire book.
Every main chapter of the book will:
* Introduce an example scenario that's easy to relate to. For example, an early chapter that covers creating a simple site for a Mom & Pop shop has this sample case study: "in order to update the web page content each week, they currently pay their next-door neighbor Goldie to hand-edit the page"
* Outline what you're going to be building
* Explain why certain decisions or trade-offs were made when creating this site, and highlight alternative choices depending on your particular situation
* Explains step-by-step how to complete the site with lots of tables and screenshots, pointing out gotchas and important concepts along the way
* Ends with a "Taking It Further" section with suggestions for other features or future modules to watch that are related to the site recipe
The hands-on approach of this book takes you through a single, cohesive example in each chapter. This gets you building a site to completion at every step. This approach reminds me of the different ways to learn a musical instrument such as piano or guitar - you can start with theory and technique and practice your scales first, or you can just learn some chords and be able to whip out a few simple pop songs your first afternoon. This book is the chords.
It also has some great moments of explaining fuzzy concepts that are difficult to understand without significant Drupal experience. The Using Drupal team shows their years of expertise training users and implementing Drupal sites in gems such as this, describing whether you should use taxonomy or a CCK field for content categorization:
A general rule of thumb is that if you can remove the field and the content type still makes sense, use Taxonomy. An article filed under a "Technology" category is still an article if you remove the category association, so Taxonomy is a good fit. If the field is part of a piece of content, such as an album's recording artist, then CCK is generally a better choice.

Using Drupal will take you through building a:
* Simple website with blog for a mom & pop grocery store, including a WYSIWYG editor and uploading images to content
* Job posting board for a university, which introduces the key CCK and Views modules
* Product reviews site with user ratings, Amazon product data importing, some simple CSS tweaks using the CSS Injector module, and more CCK/Views
* Wiki, which brings in revisions, input formats, and Pathauto module
* Local arts news site, which takes you into Actions, Triggers, Workspace, Workflow (both as a concept and module), and Views Bulk Operations to create an administration page
* Photo gallery, with ImageField, ImageCache, much more Views and some site display tweaks
* Multilingual website with a strong overview of concepts, then Locale, i18n, and the Localization Client
* Event management site with calendar and attendees
* Online store using Ubercart (focuses on basic store setup, products, attributes, and orders - you'll still need to set up payment methods)
It also covers a few additional topics:
* An overview of Drupal, and where to get help
* Basic theming (this is the only time you'll see code!)
* Installing and upgrading Drupal and modules
* How to choose modules and participate in the community
So what's it missing?
Obviously Using Drupal only scratches the surface of the many, many types of sites you can build with Drupal. There are a few major topics you won't find covered in here - membership sites with protected user access, Organic Groups (a chapter that didn't quite make it due to module readiness for D6), more advanced magazine/newspaper-style sites with modules like Node Queue and Panels, multimedia (there's another book for that!), or social networking sites. However, I think they picked a great selection of site recipes to cover in a relatively small amount of space, and each recipe will get you a solid site built.
The book will also direct you to two additional resources available online: the finished demo site for each chapter for you to browse, and a download package containing installation profiles with the same versions of modules and themes used on each site. The installation profiles will set you up with a clean slate with your modules all prepared for you to start following along step-by-step in each chapter.
Other things I really love about this book:
* It isn't afraid to recommend helpful modules early, such as Administration Menu
* It highlights common newbie gotchas, such as using the blog module when you really want a story
* It points out future modules or alternatives to watch, for example, the WYSIWYG API
* It gives contrib modules such as CCK and Views the foregrounding they deserve when learning Drupal
This is the book I wish I had when learning Drupal. We're even giving away copies of it at [...] because we love it so much. I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone new to Drupal, intermediate users who want to take their skills to the next level or brush up on Drupal 6/Views 2, or anyone who actually needs to build a site similar to the recipes listed above. And, y'know, anyone else who's ever built or wanted to build a website :)

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With the recipes in this book, you can take full advantage of the vast collection of community-contributed modules that make the Drupal web framework useful and unique. You'll get the information you need about how to combine modules in interesting ways (with a minimum of code-wrangling) to develop a variety of community-driven websites. Each chapter describes a case study and outlines specific requirements for one of several projects included in the book -- a wiki, publishing workflow site, photo gallery, product review site, online store, user group site, and more. With Using Drupal, you will:
Get an overview of Drupal concepts and key modules introduced in each chapter, with a bird's-eye view of each module's specialty and how it works
Explore various solutions within Drupal that meet the requirements for the project, with details about which modules are selected and why
Learn how to configure modules, with step-by-step recipes for building the precise functionality the project requires
Get information on additional modules that will make the project even more powerful
Be able to access the modules used in the chapter, along with other resources

Newcomers will find a thorough introduction to the framework, while experienced Drupal developers will learn best practices for building powerful websites. With Using Drupal, you'll find concrete and creative solutions for developing the exact community website you have in mind.

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The Digital Writing Workshop Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the book that every English teacher in America should be reading. Troy Hicks takes the traditional writer's workshop, introduced by well-known educators, such as, Donald Graves and Nancie Atwell, and reinvents it to include the all important digital element.
On page 5, Hicks discusses the purpose of his book, which relates to the obvious changes in technology; he explains how to create a writing workshop that goes beyond paper and pencil to implement a workshop that emphasizes 21st Century skills. Hicks addresses RSS, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and he provides a companion website to support the book at the Digital Writing Workshop Ning.
I love that Hicks discusses how to introduce NPR's This I Believe series into the classroom. His ideas, thoughts, and rubrics are more than enough reason to buy this book. If your high school is not implementing this writing assignment at some level in your school, I highly suggest that you visit the website and buy Hick's book to discover why it is a keeper.
The most important element that Hicks brings up is on page 104 when he discusses why we are missing the point when we assign digital projects as assignments. Is the font, the colors, or even the number of slides used, make a project relevant? None of this really assesses whether a student can effectively create a worthy digital product. As an English teacher who understands that digital elements and images are connected to words on a deeper level than just using the required number of pictures in the slides, I know this is true, but assessing and creating a rubric is difficult. The Digital Writing Workshop demonstrates not only how to use new technologies, but also provides teachers with charts of effective digital writing. If you have just purchased this book, turn to page 115 to figure 6.2 to see what I mean.
I have used wikis and nings with my students, but this is the first year I have ventured into letting my students support their own personal blog. Hicks created a Blogger's Matrix that includes assessments for teachers to use with student bloggers in the classroom. I plan to incorporate these assessments into my classroom.
I was excited to find a book called The Digital Writing Workshop. The title alone inspired me, and I knew that this would be a book that would be an invaluable resource in my classroom.

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We believe new technologies can advance both the teaching and learning of writing. The National Commission on Writing in American Schools and Colleges, The Neglected R : The Need for a Writing Revolution, 2003.Years later and we re still waiting to see how it can really be done.THE WAIT IS OVER. In clean, clear prose that unravels the labyrinth of new terms and applications, Troy guides us towards a writing workshop for this age. His steady, smart advice eases the transition between the elements of writing workshop we know matter to the tools that can take each to a new place, one comfortably familiar, but with a decidedly updated feel. And this man has his priorities straight. He focuses first on the writer, then on the writing, and lastly on the technology. -Penny Kittle Author of Write Beside ThemTroy Hicks holds sight on good writing workshop instruction. Where others have talked about new technologies and how they change writing, Hicks shows you how to use new technologies to enhance the teaching of writing you already do. Chapters are organized around the familiar principles of the writing workshop: student choice, active revision, studying author s craft, publication beyond the classroom, and assessment of both product and process. In each chapter you ll learn how to expand and improve your teaching by smartly incorporating new technologies like wikis, blogs, and other forms of multimedia. Throughout, you ll find reference to resources readily available to you and your class online. He also includes a practical set of lessons for how to use wikis to explore a key concept in digital writing: copyright. New literacies are developing around us at what sometimes seems like the speed of light. It s hard to keep it all in focus. Let Troy Hicks guide you through the complexities of what it all means for your classroom so your students writing can grow right in step with our changing times and technologies.

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Web 2.0: Concepts and Applications (Shelly Cashman) Review

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(More customer reviews)Good introduction for students to the Web 2.0 concept.
Seems there are not many student oriented course books covering the Web 2.0 topic (yet). This maybe one of the first. The book is well organized and written. It contains 6 chapters:
1. The WEB becomes 2.0
on evolution of the web from the basic websites, to the web as a 'platform'.
2. Publishing online
.... Blogs and wikis.
3. Syndicating content
... RSS, webfeeds, and podcasts.
4. Organizing information
... Organizing digital data, using tags, filtering data.
5. Connecting people
.... personal and business use of social networking (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).
6. Linking data
... 'Cloud computing' and a prelude to Web 3.0
All the chapters have plenty screenshots and figures, which helps in clarifying the text. The screenshots and figures also make it appealing and interesting to go through, read or study. Students are encouraged to visit sites, and for example create a blog, or a wiki. Lots of terms/words are presented. From the more popular, (HTML, streaming video, and many more) to the less known like, reciprocal link, skyscraper, loaderboard, importxml, and many others.
Every chapter is closed with questions and exercises. There's also an online companion website where students can lookup additional material, watch online videos, and try short-answer questions. All intended to help in student retention of the material. I haven't tried the online companion out yet. It sounds promising. I will update this review when I've tried it out.
There are some aspects I do miss in the text. For example the debate on how reliable information posted on web2.0 sites really are. Whether or how students should use information from these sites as reference in their own work(reports). Perhaps more caution with regards on what and how people should handle with posting (personal) information out for public. Sites like Google, Yahoo, and YoutTube, are mentioned, but I feel more could be said about them. I also would have liked to see some information on sites like, Amazon, eBay, MSN, PayPall,... Although "classic" now, these sites have helped the web to evolve. They might have been left out to prevent the book to become too many pages. Which is understandable.

Chances are that students are already familiar with some of the sites in the book, applications and services (Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia). But there are several more that are presented in the text that may not be that well known, and that are certainly worthwhile to explore. Also the text gives the reader/student insight into the background and the concepts.
This book is a good starting point for students (new to the subject of WEB 2.0) to explore and research the web2.0 concept, sites, applications and possibilities.

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Web 2.0 provides dynamic and comprehensive coverage of the most current information available on Web 2.0 today. You will gain a solid understanding of the current trends in technology and concepts associated with interactive information sharing and new web applications. You will gain knowledge of web-based communities, social-networking, video and filing sharing sites as well as blogging, wikis and more.

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WIKIBRANDS: Reinventing Your Company in a Customer-Driven Marketplace Review

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(More customer reviews)I read an awesome and inspiring book - Wiki Brands - Reinventing Your Company in a Customer-driven Marketplace by Sean Moffitt and Mike Dover.
Mostly it was inspiring because I like marketing and social media and this book is at the intersection of those fields. It inspires me to remain active in Social Media. Sometime the Time Management Guy in me questions if it is a good use of time.
I love branding. Al Ries is one of my brand heros. He talks a lot about positioning. Wikibrands talks about the impact of social media on this positioning.
Wiki Brands reinforces that the web has given great power to the consumer. Consumers now can own the media through tweets and blogs. Companies need a keen awareness that what they do will be reported on. "Social media acts an accelerant for good news about the brand as well as for bad."
And online dialogue is now a two way street. The web speeds things up so responsiveness is key.
Companies do not own their brand, consumers in the internet age do. All companies can do is "help" guide and transparently contribute to help the brand move the right direction.
Marketing cannot fix a bad product. Working first on product and service excellence should be the primary goal of any company.
Wikibrands has a practical list of things companies can do to support an online community including:
"Ability to join a VIP circle
Access to an exclusive channel or influence
Access to exclusive resources
Chance for gaining wider fame
Reputation building
Recognition by the company
Recognition by pers
Sense of we-ness versus the rest of the population "
It is a good book. Worth reading.


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Exploring Web 2.0: Second Generation Interactive Tools - Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Networking, Virtual Words, And More Review

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(More customer reviews)Review of Exploring Web 2.0 by Ann Bell
Exploring Web 2.0: Second Generation, is a straight-forward venture into
the complex world of Web usage. The author's meticulous research into every possible application of educational features and virtual devices to be found on the Web has resulted in an easy-to-read and understand compilation of available multi-media tools.
The result is an honest and detailed text for the student and lay person
alike to inspire use of these technologies. The reader is encouraged to evaluate and select new information and technological innovations to pursue a career or simply to use in their online experience. Countless links to Web sites guide the reader to immense resources of technological material. With this in-depth information, one can't lose in their quest
for feasible ways to navigate the labyrinth of Web 2.0.
Explanations of technological material and language peculiar to the genre is understandable to all levels of users.


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Exploring Web 2.0: Second Generation Interactive Tools - Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Networking, Virtual Worlds, and More is designed to help the casual computer user, students, parents, and teachers understand the latest in free and inexpensive web tools and their power for research, collaboration, and communication. It provides the history, background, and current overview of Web 2.0, RSS feeds, metadata, tags, tag clouds, and folksonomy to demystify the current jargon connected with this latest web phenomenon. Web 2.0 tools covered include:1. Social bookmarking2. Photo-sharing3. Blogs4. Podcasts5. Vodcasts/Screencasts6. Wikis7. Mashups8. Virtual Offices9. E-Learning Course Management10. Social/Professional Networking11. Virtual Worlds12. Online Communications

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Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful Review

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(More customer reviews)Anyone interested in using the Internet to help improve the way government works should read this book. Noveck presents an excellent background describing the problems with existing government decision-making processes, a case study of the Peer-to-patent process she helped develop and recommendations for developing effective Internet based applications.
The book is well written and edited, easy to read and full of examples that will spur your creativity. I read it quickly and thought it was very good, but as I go back and re-read sections I think it's extraordinary.

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Collaborative democracy-government with the people-is a new vision of governance in the digital age. Wiki Government explains how to translate the vision into reality. Beth Simone Noveck draws on her experience in creating Peer-to-Patent, the federal government's first social networking initiative, to show how technology can connect the expertise of the many to the power of the few. In the process, she reveals what it takes to innovate in government.

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Wikipedia: The Missing Manual Review

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(More customer reviews)Wikipedia, the free access online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is a remarkable achievement. Started only in 2001, it now comprises over 9 million articles is written in over 250 languages, and is the first choice for reference material for millions of Internet users. Despite criticisms by some for the variable quality of its material, the value of the contributions of tens of thousands of unpaid volunteers is enormous, not only in notable and verified content accessible to the vast majority of the world's population in their native languages, but in the opportunity for everyone to contribute to this repository of knowledge in his or her own way (subject to the review and editing of others just like themselves.)
More importantly, in my view, is the model it represents in human collaboration efforts, this one in creating a repository of knowledge, but applicable more broadly to other efforts. Besides merely creating enormously useful things, the collaborative efforts result in a community of people and groups which has its own intrinsic values. Imagine thousands of volunteers committing their personal time and effort into a nonhierarchical, consensus-based collaboration having as its selfless main purpose the improvement of human society. Socialism at its best! It seems to me that the model may be useful in areas of politics, management and administration, education, and other social endeavors.. The Open-Source software movement, predating Wikipedia, operates in much the same way. Perhaps the earliest example of this collaborative model was the developmental years of the Internet.
As a casual user of Wikipedia, I had no idea of the nature of the Wikipedia project (and its sister projects - Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikinews, and Wikiversity - and no doubt others yet to come) until I read "Wikipedia: the Missing Manual," by John Broughton. He is an experienced Wikipedia editor with over 15,000 edits to his credit and is the creator of the "Editor's Index to Wikipedia" which lists every reference page on Wikipedia as well as other off site pages with information useful for serious Wikipedia editors. "Wikipedia: the Missing Manual" is an extremely thorough guide to creating and editing Wikipedia articles. The book is intended to help train new writers and editors and to improve the skills and knowledge of existing participants.
Broughton encourages people to join the Wikipedia community of researchers, fact checkers, and proofreaders. This community seems to be made up of committed, skilled, and serious people who take great pride in the project. There is little organizational hierarchy involved and a minimum of formal participatory rules, but a large set of informal mores and practices which help maintain production, efficiency, civility, and quality. There is always a need for more articles, although of the thousands created every day, nearly one half of them are deleted within 24 hours by attentive editors for a number of reasons explained in the book.
The book starts with an introduction to the basic principles of the Wikipedia project involving notability, credibility, balance, consensus, and good faith and moves quickly into the process of registering with Wikipedia, setting up a user account, and starting out practicing writing, previewing, and saving edits.
In six parts and 21 chapters, the book covers how to document sources, set up an editor's account, and personal workspaces, create new articles, use page histories, monitor changes, and dealing with vandalism and spam. It explains the value of collaborating with other editors and participants in creating and editing articles and in special Wiki Projects and other group efforts. There are several chapters describing how to deal with the inevitable conflict between editors and explains the Wikipedia editing mores of civility, ethics, legality (mostly copyright issues), and efficiency. He explains why editors disagree, in what ways, and how they resolve disputes. He also provides guidance on how disputes can be avoided in the first place.
Separate chapters of the book detail how to work with article pages and sections, tables, lists, markups and links, images and media, and categories. There are descriptions of what makes a good article and what doesn't and there are step-by-step tutorials on creating better articles and being systematic about good editing practices. A most interesting feature of Wikipedia is its large collection of free-to-use images, videos, sound clips, and other media in the Wikipedia Media Commons area which is available for article use and for non-Wikipedia use by anyone for any purpose.
Advanced topics include customizing your user account via preferences and skins and using JavaScript and templates to facilitate efficiency. There is a short 20 page appendix for those people content with being mere users of Wikipedia and learning how to get the most out of it. More involved users will benefit from Appendix C which itemizes the huge amount of Wikipedia help, reference, coaching, and other educational sources especially valuable for those determined to become better editors or higher-level participants like administrators of Wikipedia.
The presentation is thorough and articulate. It covers basic and advanced editing skills. Broughton frequently notes keyword search items and tips to be more productive and efficient. The community norms demand attentive and educated participants. Experience with coding is appreciated. The book has plenty of screenshots illustrating the discussions of Wikipedia features. Most of the sections contain Notes and Tips which provide more detailed explanations of features and an experienced editor's perspective to the prospective new editor as to how and why to do things. Broughton is (perhaps unintentionally) inspiring about participating in the Wikipedia editor community.
Although the book deserves great credit for its content and its tone a few problems with the layout and design detract a bit. The layout is dense with graphics a bit too tightly packed in with the text. Captions at the bottom of grayscale illustrations occasionally refer to nonexistent color clues resulting in some confusion. The density seems to reflect the nature of Wikipedia editing itself, which can be very involved. But, rewarding.

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Want to be part of the largest group-writing project in human history? Learnhow to contribute to Wikipedia, the user-generated online reference for the 21stcentury. Considered more popular than eBay, Microsoft.com, and Amazon.com,Wikipedia generates approximately 30,000 requests per second, or about 2.5billion per day. It's become the first point of reference for people the worldover who need a fact fast. If you want to jump on board and add to the content,Wikipedia: The Missing Manual is your first-class ticket. Wikipedia has morethan 6 million entries in 250 languages, over 2 million articles in the Englishlanguage alone. Each one is written and edited by an ever-changing cast ofvolunteer editors. You can be one of them. With the tips in this book, you'llquickly learn how to get more out of and put more into this valuableonline resource. Wikipedia: The Missing Manual gives you practical advice oncreating articles and collaborating with fellow editors, improving existingarticles, and working with the Wikipedia community to review new articles,mediate disputes, and maintain the site. Up to the challenge? This one-of-a-kindbook includes: Basic editing techniques, including the right and wrong ways toedit Pinpoint advice about which types of articles do and do not belong onWikipedia Tips on using Wikipedia page histories and reversing inaccurate editsWays to learn from other editors and communicate with them via the site's talkpages Tricks for using templates and timesaving automated editing tools Toolsfor fighting spam and vandalism Guidance on adding citations, links, and imagesto your articles You also learn about other Wikimedia services, such asWikinews, Wikiquote, and Wikibooks. Wikipedia depends on people just like you tohelp the site grow and maintain the highest quality. With Wikipedia: The MissingManual, you get all the tools you need to be part of the crew.--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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