We Are Media Toolbox: Photo Sharing

It's photosharing day in the We Are Media toolbox festival!

Does your organization run any events? Do you hire a photographer? We used to. Now, each year at the NTC, we ask our colleagues to upload any digital photos they take into Flickr, and to tag those photos with 07NTC / 08NTC / etc. (and NTEN).

The major down side is that we don't always get the high resolution images we might want for a printed piece of collateral.

But there are many more up sides than down sides. I can't think of a better way to show the energy and enthusiasm of our community than through their own photos! Also, we get a much broader range of photos than we would from a single photographer. Finally, when the photos are in a service like Flickr, we can use them in a multitude of ways.

We Are Media Toolbox: Podcasting

The We Are Media Toolfest continues today with podcasts!

I recently wrote about my first experience as a podcast guest and the process Big Duck uses to create their podcasts. Of course, there's more than one way to make a podcast. I don't do it very often, but when I do, I use a service called Utterli. (I don't like to produce "shows" per se -- but I'm really into interviewing people on the fly.)

There are many reasons you might want to podcast. But where should you start? What tools are right for what kind of podcasting? Share your favorites with us in comments or on the wki!

We Are Media Toolbox: Blogs

Week Two of the We Are Media Toolbox begins!

Today, our topic is blogs. To this day, whenever I hear the word blog, I think to myself, "It's better than bad, it's good!" Ren and Stimpy jokes aside, blogs are typically one of the first things people think of when they hear the phrase "Web 2.0." Many begin their launch into the social media space with blogs; I always get questions about how blogs work and what software an organization should use.

Since I've become a near-daily blogger, I have lots of tips and opinions. But we want to know what you use to blog. What features are important? Share your intel with us in the comments below or on the We Are Media wiki.

We Are Media Toolbox: Commenting

We're going to close out this week's round of We Are Media Toolbox fun with commenting.

Have you ever commented on a blog, a picture, or a video? In many online communities, comments are more than just, well, comments -- they're part of a conversation. Comments, and then comments on the comments, often create some of the best discussion on the web. Chris Brogan knows this. Sometimes, he lets his community do his blogging for him, in the comments section.

But comments can also be the Nobu of the online world: where you go to see and be seen. Adding value to a post on a highly trafficked blog can bring you lots of exposure -- so much so that cottage industries are springing up! (My favorite line from that site: "Minimum 3 lines of non spammy comments!")

Of course, participating in all those conversations also means that you have a lot to keep up with, so there are more and more services that allow you to track your comments, like coComment.

So tell us, what commenting tools do you love? Share in the comments (!) or on the wiki.

We Are Media Toolbox: Social Bookmarking

Another day, another We Are Media Toolbox challenge!

Today's topic is social bookmarking. When I first heard that phrase, it conjured up images of women reading their favorite passages from Nicholas Sparks novels aloud to one another while drinking white wine.

How wrong was I? Social bookmarking is now part of my everyday online experience. I use Delicious -- thanks for getting rid of all those goofy periods Yahoo! -- to keep track of articles and blog posts I may want to come back to. I search Delicious to find information about topics I'm interested in. I keep track of what other people tag with "NTEN" in Delicious, as well.

I haven't gone the extra step of building community around my tags. Have you? What social bookmarking site do you prefer, and why? Share with us in comments, below, or on the wiki.