Thing #6: Some Flickr Fun

Well this one is definitely 'some flickr fun' as I cannot see this ever being useful (if you can please let me know!). It's called fastr.

This mashup shows you 10 images from flickr, and you have to guess the common tag describing each image. It's a bit of fun, I scored 45 points on the "Original (English) Game".

Can you beat my score?!

(I realise that I could have blogged about something a little more useful - I loved bookr - but I figured that why not throw an 'odd-ball' one into the mix, or would that be mashup?)

(This is quite a large list of mashups that are available at www.programmableweb.com/api/flickr/mashups)

Thing #5: Explore Flickr

Trinity Beach - Cairns
Originally uploaded by At_The_Beach

I'd like to share with you an image of where I grew up, a lovely little suburb called Trinity Beach, which is about a 20 minute drive north of Cairns, Queensland.

I don't miss living there, Melbourne is too much fun and does well to keep my mind off the endless sunshine, constant warmth and amazing lifestyle. Although, I do long to head back during winter!

Oh, and when I see images like this it's hard to not want to go back and go for a ski off the beach towards the Great Barrier Reef, have a few hours of fishing and then skiing back home!

Thing #4: Register your blog

I’m registered and I’m off! Have been playing around with the layout of my blog a little and a cool feature I like is the Blog List Gadget. I’ve used it to list all of the blogs participating in this program. It’s a great help in keeping in touch with everyone prompting me to read and then comment on posts.

Thing #3: Set up your own blog

So I've found it pretty easy to set up my first blog. However, I was not too impressed at the designs that were on offer for me to use. Now I could take the time to re-design a new template, or use a free one that someone else has created.

I have found this template (I'm not saying that it's fantastic but it is something different and may inspire a more creative and unique design in future) at Finalsense.com. Share some that you find.

Thing #2: What is Web 2.0

Web 2.0 means different things to different people, but ultimately when all’s said and done, everyone comes to the same conclusions.

For me as a designer, Web 2.0 means I can create interactive websites, innovative designs and provide mechanisms for users to add and create content.

Interactive Websites

If I can create a website that engages the user and gives the user multiple reasons to visit the site again and again then I have created a successful site. There are a number of ways to create and display engaging content:

Database driven websites

By capturing and storing users data in a database you can provide individualised content to users targeting there specific interests. A good example of this is the Scorptec website, a hardware eCommerce website that enables you to create an account and build and save computer systems.

Video

Embedding video, such as YouTube videos, can create a unique experience for your customers. A great example of this is iiNet’s website, one of Australia’s leading ISP’s.

Feeds

Services like Twitter and RSS enable you to include content to a webpage dynamically, so when you update content external to your website, that content ‘feeds’ into your webpage as displays automatically. An example of this is the Twitter feed on the ANZMAC 2009 homepage.

Innovative Designs

With the dawn of the Web 2.0 ere came an exciting new breed of website design. Designers adopted CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and when used with bright colours, large buttons and bold lines we were not only thinking outside the box, we removed ourselves from the box completely. Some great design examples I’ve found recently are Home Design Find, Sean Johnson and Komodo Media.

User added content

A prime example of user created content are blogs that allow users to comment on posts. More often than not, on popular blogs, comments generate their own comments, and in turn they generate comments, resulting in a plethora of user created content. The ultimate example of this would be online news services such as news.com.au where readers make comments on articles.

My favourite Web 2.0 feature or service at the moment is Google Docs. You can create word files, spreadsheets and slide show presentation and share them all with friends. If you haven’t explored Google Docs yet, get into it!

Thing #1: 23 Things

So here I am with my first blog post as part of the Monash University’s Department of Marketing’s 23 Things.

23 Things is a self directed series or activities, 23 in fact, to explore the wonders of Web 2.0. The idea for this program was developed by Helene Blowers, based at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

So, subscribe to my feed and stay tuned to my posts to follow my journey into the wonderful world of Web 2.0