Blah Blah Bleric

Wordle Shows Us What's What

Eric Matas — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:37:00 -0600

Got a lot of choices online these days? Yes, quite a few blogs have popped up. Every company, newspaper, TV station and radio channel has a website. Or two.

So we have to find ways to know what's what with all these sites. Wordle to the rescue.

I love a good visual, and with Wordle, the picture you get is worth 1,000 words. Still, 100 words will do. At wordle.com you can enter a URL and the elves behind the scenes will create a flashy word collage of recent keywords on that site.

We can learn a lot from those word collages. Using Wordle can help us review our own sites and those we are curious about. Here's my (very) short list of ways to use Wordle to conquer the web:

Wordle Your Blog: To make sure you blog is what you want, make a Wordle pic of your blog's URL. I just did my Posterous blog, Eric's Preposterous, and thought it looked pretty cool. I'm all about learning and growing, so I am glad to see "learn" writ large.

Wordle Sites You Admire: I already like Presentation Zen, so I am not surprised I like the Wordle. Really, it had me at "book" in large green font.

Wordle New Sites on Your Radar: Let Wordle crawl the site and make you a word picture that can give you a sense of what's what with a new site. I StumbledUpon a blog post I liked at Maximum PC. So I sic Wordle on the site and see that Rick Astley was recently a topic, and that's all I needed to bookmark the site.

One last overt recommendation: Wordle, Wordle, Wordle!

Calling People Is Rude

Eric Matas — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:52:17 -0600

In the old movies, one phone hung on the wall in the foyer, and when it rang, the whole house bristled with excitement. A phone call! Who could it be?! What do they want to talk about?!

Fastforward to 2010.

Today when a phone rings, people brace themselves, take a deep breath and look to that caller ID. And they aren't looking just to see who it is--they are looking to see who wants a piece of them. They look to prepare for a quick 2-5 second decision.

To be there or not to be there, that is the question.

Well, I'm not here. Don't call me unless you want to hear my voicemail greeting. My voicemail greeting recommends not leaving a message but finding me on Twitter. Go ahead: call me, I won't answer. (Number's on Facebook.)

Calling people is rude. It's like saying, "I need to talk to you and even though I am not with you, I am going to get in your face via phone and demand that you talk to me." It's like driving your car right into my living room. Yeah, I don't think so. Not today.

Here's a short list of tools to use to reach me that are WAY more effective than a phone:

Twitter
Facebook
Text Message
Email
Text Message
Smoke Signal

To be clear, I use the phone everyday. I enjoy talking to people. But if you call me without some heads-up or an appointment, you better be my wife with some updates about my kids.

The new catch phrase: Tweet me to meet me.

Why Did You Start That Blog Anyway?

Eric Matas — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:07:00 -0600

Tommy Lee via last.fm

I'm thinking about tattoos. Tattoos are like blogs. Tattoos and blogs got their start with a limited population like pirates and geeks. Then, tattoos and blogs grew in popularity.

Tattoos found more people ready to get some ink: prisoners, military, basketball players, rock stars, hippies, and drunks. Then tattoos went viral. Now even my mom has one. Still, they're cool.

Blogs found more people too: journalists, businesses, teachers, comedians, moms, dads, tattoo artists, and many, many more geeks. It is difficult to get the exact number, but I think there are 8 gazillion blogs today.

My favorite similarity between tattoos and blogs is that they are changeable. Tattoos can change in appearance. My favorite alteration is bombshell Pamela Anderson's edit on her ring finger after a break from Tommy Lee: Tommy was changed to Mommy after the divorce.

Blogs change too. Blogs often change when the blogger's interests change. A blog that used to be about HTML might now be about CSS; a blog about partying in college might now be a mommy blog. Blogs also change when the purpose of the blog turns a corner.

I think purpose plays a big role in where a blog goes. So why do people start blogs? Here is a short list of reasons why people start blogs:

To Make Money
Because It's So Easy to Start One
Friends Were Doing It
Friends Said, "You Should Start a Blog."
They Like Writing
Boredom
To Connect
Professional Development
To Promote Books, Other Blogs or Business
Because They Have Something to Say

A big gap exists between #2 and #10. Starting a blog because, like Posterous, is it so easy leads to random posts and questions like, "So what do I want this blog to be about?" A blog started by someone with something to say is, obviously, going to be focused on that thing they have to say. Even so, all of these reasons can result in blogs that eventually change when the blogger's purpose changes.

If you are a blogger, especially a newer one or one on the brink of a change, I hope you find a way to represent your best self. That is, I hope your blog gets to be everything you really want and not some compromised version, altered from what you want to conform to the successful blogs out there.

I, for one, am hungry for some good reading. As a writing teacher, I see how anybody can become a good writer. Most often, students become good writers when they find themselves. In particular, I am thinking about a quotation from Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

What I am saying is go for it. I think everyone is reason #10--we all have something to say. So, let loose the powerful blogger in you. Make a blog that, like a good tattoo, you can be proud of forever.

And when you do, let me know where to find it!

Experimental Psychology - Change Blindness

Eric Matas — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:53:42 -0600

via youtube.com

Oh snap - you don't need to be blind to be...blind. People are so freaking wacked out. And I absolutely love it.

Posted via web from Eric's Preposterous

Elearning Tools Like Wordle Are Fun

Eric Matas — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:26:48 -0600

Just playing around the internet, researching presentation, training, or elearning tools.

Here's me playing with Wordle, which makes pretty word clouds:

Other interesting sites:

Prezi - web-based presentation that is slide free

Evernote - storage for all your ideas, notes, and even tweets and pics

Dimdim - web conferencing tool for webinars

MyUndutu - online elearning development and hosting