News from April, 2008

As this initiative may encourage a large number of participants, just thinking ahead on how we could perhaps automate this process. We could encourage members to set up a Del.icio.us account where they could tag their blogs or items they want to share as SLA23Things. What are the team's thoughts?

Need some clarification on a few questions/ideas:

1. Logistics: Not clear on whether John Lowery/Quan Logan will take what we've created within the wiki and add to another tool OR whether our wiki will become the delivery/tracking mechanism for SLA's 23 Things. The wiki and this blog-like, news feature could be the delivery mechanism for 23 Things.
2. Learnings: How do we plan to keep up with everyone's learnings. There could be a large number of people participating. Here are a few ideas:

• Idea 1: This wiki tool has the capability of streaming RSS feeds, so we could add a combined feed to the conversations/insights participants are talking about through their blogs. We need, however, a mechanism for aggregating all participants' blogs.

• Idea 2: We could use Del.icio.us to aggregate the links to participants' blogs (not the conversations/comments) along with any other favorite sites they might link to/create through the course of these exercises by asking them to tag items on Del.icio.us as SLA23Things. Social bookmarking is not covered until #13. Do we want to re-arrange the sessions to better meet this need OR figure out another way to aggregate.

• Idea 3: Do we want people to comment directly within our 23 Things wiki's blog-like feature for better tracking/representation of ideas from our fellow SLAers? If so, then we'd need to build this into the exercises?

• Idea 4: None of the above ideas are mutually exclusive. Just some ideas to help us get started on formulating the final game plan.

As you edit your assigned 23 Things(revised order/assignment posted 4/21/2008), a few things to remember:

1. Make obvious editorial fixes: Grammar, misspellings, etc.
2. Ensure content flows logically/consistently: Use the WYSIWYG editor within the wiki to add bullets, numbering, bold, etc. as needed. It's sometimes helpful to break paragraphs apart with bulleted list to make more digestible. See Wikis 101 if you need some additional help.
3. Check all links. If a URL is added to a page, make sure it links to the site indicated.
4. Add images that might enhance, make the page cheerier. Site the source of the image in the image's comment field (see Attachments tab).
5. Add labels, or tags, at the top that is pertinent to the content on the page.
6. Enhance content by adding additional ideas, benefits, perspectives, videos to the entry you think might be useful for our participants.
7. When finished...

• Email the authors. Confirm that you completed review/editing of assigned entries and offer any feedback you think might be useful.

• Email Deb Hunt that you finished your assignments. Deadline: May 9, 2008.

Other Thoughts:

• When we launch 23 Things, we may want to encourage participants to comment directly on the exercise page if they are having difficulty with something. The person who put that page together could be monitoring their page(s) on the assigned week(s) to respond to queries from participants. If one person has a problem, others will probably encounter the same issue. Maybe we should include a "Need Help" box on each page, if participants are having problems. I'll create a fun avatar character or something. 
• If you already have a blog OR have set up a new blog, bookmark your blog on Del.icio.us and tag as SLA23Things. I've added a streaming feed on the left sidebar to our sites. This will grow as members add their blogs as well.