OK - This is fun. The American Cancer Society is hosting a Relay for Life in Second Life (SL). I found this information at the discussion boards of the SL Healthy Wiki. It's a wetpaint wiki designed to gather "information about consumer health locations and groups in Second Life, with general health education resources as well."
When I look to see who is behind this wonderful and well-organized resource, I am pleased - and not surprised to see that Namro Orman (one of the masterminds of Healthinfo Island on Second Life) is involved. Namro aka Guus van den Brekel designed the excellent search widget on this page.
As of today SL Healthy has 77 members and it looks like a great place to jump in and add your expertise if you are in Second Life and interested in health information. Other SL and health resources include:
Health and Medicine in Second Life Blog
Healthinfo Island Blog
Healthinfo Island BlogHUD
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Inspiration From Relay For Life
I participated in a Relay for Life last year. It's a 24 hour fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. At the time I was impressed with the structure and organization of the event. They had lots of fun activities like an egg toss, noisemaker lap, and at some point they got a bunch of men to dress up as women. Hilarity ensued. They mix this fun with ceremony and education. It's a great experience if you haven't been to one yet. I recommend going during the luminaria lap. It's quite inspiring.
If you go to their website, ACS is integrating social media applications in a very organized, structured and fun way too. For example, along with podcasts available at itunes, they have a section on recommended music for the event using playlist.com. People can add suggestions which are moderated. Something to think about if you've been holding back using social media applications because you wouldn't have enough control. ACS has the right idea here in that they are allowing participation and maintaining editorial control.
They also have an RSS feed for updates to the site. There is a blog where you can post ideas for local fundraising efforts - what worked and what didn't. The cool thing is that they don't call it a blog, it's called HowTo-Do This Fundraiser. It's true that I would call it something else, but I do give them points for leaving out the word "blog". For this site it's just jargon that doesn't need to be there.
I'll have to make a note to clean up the jargon on all of my pages...
If you go to their website, ACS is integrating social media applications in a very organized, structured and fun way too. For example, along with podcasts available at itunes, they have a section on recommended music for the event using playlist.com. People can add suggestions which are moderated. Something to think about if you've been holding back using social media applications because you wouldn't have enough control. ACS has the right idea here in that they are allowing participation and maintaining editorial control.
They also have an RSS feed for updates to the site. There is a blog where you can post ideas for local fundraising efforts - what worked and what didn't. The cool thing is that they don't call it a blog, it's called HowTo-Do This Fundraiser. It's true that I would call it something else, but I do give them points for leaving out the word "blog". For this site it's just jargon that doesn't need to be there.
I'll have to make a note to clean up the jargon on all of my pages...
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Blogs vs. Wiki's
What is the difference between a blog and a wiki? What sort of things might be better suited for a blog and better suited for a wiki?
From my experience so far, a blog is very useful for providing information and having a discussion. It's a little bit like a public e-mail conversation. Once the information is posted, it pretty much stays the way it is and you can see a record of the conversation over time.
When I think about blogs, I usually think of someone (or a small group of people) either reporting or commenting on current events; or acting as an expert on a topic. An article is written and then comments are posted. I think a library might have a staff blog to let people know about new books, recommended books, give background information about events happening at the library, and highlight search tools or web pages.
A wiki, however, is more like a collaboration tool. It can be used for very large projects especially when there is alot of data. As new information is collected or agreed upon, the change is made and all you see is the new information. If someone makes an error (in syntax, a typo or maybe they post something that was a misunderstanding), another person can easily change or correct the entry.
At our library, we are using a wiki to capture answers to questions that are a little tricky. For example, the students have an assignment to find out about phlebotomy and malpractice. We keep notes on which databases have the best articles on this topic. It's great because if we find out new information, we just change the entry.
Both applications have the ability to remain private and restrict the ability of people to comment or edit.
From my experience so far, a blog is very useful for providing information and having a discussion. It's a little bit like a public e-mail conversation. Once the information is posted, it pretty much stays the way it is and you can see a record of the conversation over time.
When I think about blogs, I usually think of someone (or a small group of people) either reporting or commenting on current events; or acting as an expert on a topic. An article is written and then comments are posted. I think a library might have a staff blog to let people know about new books, recommended books, give background information about events happening at the library, and highlight search tools or web pages.
A wiki, however, is more like a collaboration tool. It can be used for very large projects especially when there is alot of data. As new information is collected or agreed upon, the change is made and all you see is the new information. If someone makes an error (in syntax, a typo or maybe they post something that was a misunderstanding), another person can easily change or correct the entry.
At our library, we are using a wiki to capture answers to questions that are a little tricky. For example, the students have an assignment to find out about phlebotomy and malpractice. We keep notes on which databases have the best articles on this topic. It's great because if we find out new information, we just change the entry.
Both applications have the ability to remain private and restrict the ability of people to comment or edit.
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