Evaluating blogs for collaboration

 

6.1) Evaluating blogs for collaboration

v A blog (short for “web log”) is a kind of online journal that its author updates frequently with new musings and information.

v A blog doesn’t have to be the work of a single author; it can include posts from multiple contributors, as well as comments on each of those posts.

v This makes a blog ideal for keeping track of progress on a group project.

 

Here’s how it goes.

u You create your blog, hosted on your company’s servers or on a popular blogging tool such as Blogger or WordPad.

u You make it a private blog and assign authorship status to all the members of your team.

u This means that everyone on your team can initiate new posts, as well as comment on the posts of others.

 

»    When you have something important to say to the group, you make a blog post.

»    Same with the other members; when they have updated info, they post it.

»    In addition, other members can comment on your posts .

 

¤  Members of your group can access the blog by navigating to its web page to see what’s new, or subscribe to an RSS feed that will notify them whenever there’s a new post to the blog.

Where can your blog be hosted?

©     If you work for a large company, ask your IT department about hosting your blog on the company’s servers.

©     Otherwise, you can check out any of the following blog-hosting communities, all of which will let you create private group blogs.

       i.            Blogger

     ii.            TypePad

  iii.            WordPress

       i.            Blogger

v Blogger (www.blogger.com) is Google’s blog-hosting community, and with more than 8 million individual blogs, the largest blog host on the Internet.

v All Blogger blogs are free, which contributes to their popularity.

 

v The Blogger Dashboard, shown in Figure 20.1, is where you manage all your blog activity.

v From here you can

    create new blog posts,

    edit comments to your posts,

    manage your Blogger account and profile, and

    access Blogger’s help system.

v It’s also where you create a new blog.

v Creating a new Blogger blog is as easy as filling in a few forms.

v After you click the Create a Blog link in the Blogger Dashboard, you’re asked to enter a title for your blog and a corresponding blog address (the part of the URL that goes before Blogger’s blogspot.com domain).

v Next, you get to choose a template for your blog—a predesigned combination of page layout, colors, and fonts.

v Blogger now creates your blog—and you’re ready to start posting.

v You can customize your blog with any number of different templates and color schemes; you can also add a variety of gadgets and other nonpost page elements.

 

v one of the things you’ll want to customize is the list of people who have access to you blog.

v By default, a Blogger blog is completely public, and anyone on the Internet can read it.

blog private

v However, there’s a way to make your blog private so that only invited guests can view it;

v just go to the Blogger Dashboard, click the Manage: Settings link, and then click the Permissions link.

v When the next page appears, go to the Blog Readers section and select who can view your blog:

o   Anybody (keeps the blog public),

o   only People I Choose, or

o    Only Blog Authors.

 

v For a group blog, the option you want is Only Blog Authors.

v Of course, you now have to invite the other members of your group to be blog authors; do this by clicking the Add Authors button

     ii.            TypePad

v TypePad (www.typepad.com) is quite similar to Blogger.

v You can customize your blog with a number of different designs and widgets, and you can select multiple coauthors for your blog.

v However, TypePad isn’t free; you pay anywhere from $4.95 to $89.95 per month, depending on the features you want.  

 

  iii.            WordPress

v WordPress (www.wordpress.com) is another popular blog-hosting community.

v It’s a lot like both Blogger and TypePad, but perhaps a bit more customizable.

v You get lots of themes to choose from, sidebar widgets, and a private members-only option.

v You also can create multiple blogs and assign multiple authors.

v And, like Blogger, a WordPress blog is completely free.