The 34 Things
Listed below are 34 things (or small exercises) that you can do on the Web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and social media.
Week 1: Introduction
Thing 1: Read this blog and find out about the program.
Thing 2: Discover a few pointers from the experts and learn how to nurture your own learning process.
Thing 3: Check out some blogs and comment on at least one of the articles that interest you.
Week 2: Blogs and wikis
Thing 4: Create your own blog, add your first post and send us your blog's URL.
Thing 5: Decide how (or if) you would like to publicize your blog.
Thing 6: Visit Wikipedia and add or edit some of the content you find there.
Thing 7: Blog about your experiences. What do you like and dislike about blogs? About wikis?
Week 3: Photos and images
Thing 8: Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site.
Thing 9: Create a free Flickr account and upload some photos.
Thing 10: Invite anyone you know with a Flickr account to be your Flickr “friend.”
Thing 11: Have some Flickr fun and discover some Flickr mashups and third-party sites.
Thing 12: Blog about your experiences. What do you like and dislike about Flickr?
Week 4: Social networking -- Twitter and Facebook
Thing 13: Join Twitter, find some people to follow, post some tweets and download some Twitter software that will enhance your Twitter experience.
Thing 14: Create a page on Facebook and add some content to it. Invite colleagues or other folks you know to be your "friend."
Thing 15: Blog about your experiences in MySpace and Facebook. What do you like and dislike about these social networks?
Week 5: Hootsuite
Thing 16: Create a free Hootsuite account to help manage your social media presence.
Thing 17: Add your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Thing 18: Write your first post directly from Hootsuite.
Thing 19: Schedule posts.
Thing 20: Add Youtube, Flickr and more.
Thing 20: See who's viewing your Facebook and Twitter pages using analytics.
Week 6: RSS and newsreaders
Thing 22: Learn about RSS feeds and set up your own Bloglines newsreader account.
Thing 23: Locate and add RSS feeds to your reader. (In other words, subscribe to these feeds using RSS.)
Thing 24: Blog about the latest content from each of these feeds.
Week 7: Tagging and folksonomies
Thing 25: Learn about tagging and explore Delicious (a social bookmaking site).
Thing 26: Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.
Thing 27: Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0 and blog your thoughts.
Week 8: Play Week
Thing 28: Play around with an online image generator.
Thing 29: Roll your own search tool with Rollyo.
Thing 30: Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests you this week.
Week 9: Podcasts, video and downloadable audio
Thing 31: Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos. Find Morris County's Channel on YouTube and "embed" a video in your blog.
Thing 32: Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts.
Thing 33: Discover the Government Employees Social Networking and Audio-Blogging
Thing 34: Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog. (What did you learn? Why was it important?)