Archive for March, 2007
Build Your Own Social Network with Ning
With social networking sites being all the rage these days, many people wonder if they can build their own online social network where people sharing the same passion or interest can collectively participate. Such a website allows members to share stories, photos and videos and participate in discussions. If you are looking at building such a online community site then I would recommend Ning.
1. Go to Ning at http://www.ning.com
2. Just like any other web service you got to sign up.
3. And just like several other online offerings these days, Ning is also free. Just fill in the details.
4. Once the system has accepted you, you can start creating your social network
5. Give a name to your social network. I am calling mine “Technology and Learning” as I intend my network to be for trainers and technologists interested in using technology to improve learning. I am choosing the web address techlearn.ning.com so anyone wants to get to my network will have to type http://techlearn.ning.com on their browser.
6. If the names are available, Ning would show you the next page where you can type in a description and couple of keywords. These would help people find your Social Network so it is good to be as descriptive as possible.
Click on the Next button at the bottom to continue.
7. The next page is Features page. The left column shows you a list of possible features. The right hand side is a mock-up of your Social Network page. You can drag the feature from the left to the right. For example, If I wanted my social network to have a forum, I would drag the forum tab from left to the right.
Click on the Next button at the bottom to continue.
8. You can change the visual appearance on the next page. Choose a style from the ones provided. Further down in this page, you can change font style too.
Click on the Next button at the bottom to continue.
9. You can set who signs up on your network. Making it Public lets anyone join in. On a private network, you will have to invite the members to join. To start off your network, you can straight away invite a few of your contacts. There is also a section on the right hand side where you can set what visitors (non-members) to your site can see.
Click on the Next button at the bottom to continue.
10. On the “Profile Questions” page, you can specify the questions that the person who is trying to sign up on your network has to answer.
You can choose the text of questions, the type of answer and also the number of questions you want you ask. The questions can also be made compulsory by ticking on the “Required?” box. Don’t make them too many. Click on the Next button at the bottom to continue.
11. This last page shows you a summary of all the actions by you. Click on the title of the action if you want to change something. For example I still wanted to go back and change some colors, I would click on the Appearance link.
Click on the LAUNCH button to start your social network.
12. Your network is ready now for your members to sign up and use.
Technorati Tags: ning
Namecards in China and Japan and Moo Cards
Personal name cards of girls in Japan are often feature such cute characters and might show their blood type. …aaah…miss Japan… Many Japanese people think that blood type can be used to predict a person’s character.
Just got this name card from a lovely girl from Shanghai…aah…miss China. Chinese kids these days prefer to be contacted via internet messaging services like MSN or QQ (a Chinese IM service). Some namecards also show the person’s skype id.
My favourite cards these days are the Moo cards. Moo takes your Flickr pictures and converts them to cards.
Now everyone wants my cards but no one cares reading my name or contact details.. they love the pictures. I had ordered two packs of 100 cards back in September 2006 and I have already finished them. I ordered three more packs earlier this month.
I also prefer using my skype id to my mobile number as I travel often or keep changing my mobile number.
Technorati Tags: businesscards
SLmame - Your Second Life Blog
People share life experience on their blogs, seems now it is time to set up a blog for your Second Life.
SLmame is a new blog portal for Japanese second life users.
It’s called “SLMame” (pronunced “soramame” which means broad beans).
Image from http://www2.odn.ne.jp/shokuzai/Soramame.htm
You can put the SL map on your blog and share event info using the calendar.
User’s second life blog are listed on the main page. Click on the thumbnail to see individual blogs.
Via Mousan
Technorati Tags: slmame, secondlife
Opening the Children’s Machine (OLPC)
In New Delhi, we were playing with the XO-1 or the 100$ laptop made by the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) project. Seems adults find opening the laptop a bit of a challenge but the kids can do it faster.
Technorati Tags: olpc
Traditional Japanese Storytelling in Second Life
Mousan, our Japan spy, sent us another interesting Japanese project on Second Life
A Japanese company held “Business Design Contest” in SL.
http://www.shibukei.com/headline/4143/The contest had 2 categories of “business plan” and “creative plan”.
And the 1st prize of the business plan category was “kamishibai-ya san”.
Kamishibai is Japanese paper drama
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamishibai) and kamishibai teller goes
around the town by bicycle, tells stories to children and sells
candies.
A Kamishibai teller in action. Image from hanabi’s flickr
“Kamishibai-ya san” is a franchising business model that the owner
sells “kamishibai kit” which contains such bicycles and candies to
franchisees.
So even those who don’t have their own property or their skill to
create objects can run a business.There is a video of this contest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtZW18RMGSI
Interesting, isn’t it?
Technorati Tags: japan, secondlife, storytelling