Saturday, June 12, 2004

[guidelines] Blogs & Wikis: The Most Important Phenomena Since the Graphical Web Browser -- A How-to Quickstart Guide

Saturday, June 12, 2004
Dateline: China
 
In many ways for better, and is some ways for worse, the blogging phenomena is the hottest thing since the invention of the graphical Web browser.  I'll explain the "whys" and "how-tos" of blogging and Wikis in future messages.  In this message, I want to give a brief tutorial on how to take advantage of this phenomena.
 
Let's begin this process by signing up with a Web-based newsreader.  Trust me, once you start using a newsreader, you'll wonder how you lived without one.  So let's begin, shall we ...
 
2) Click on the "Files" folder.  (If you're not a member, you'll have to join or update your profile.)
3) Click on "David Scott Lewis' Bloglines Subscriptions -- 12 June 2004".
4) On your toolbar, click on "File", then "Save As" and save this file.
(At this point, it's okay to logout of Yahoo! Groups.)
 
6) Click on "Register" and following the registration process.
7) In a new window or in Outlook/Eudora, validate your subscription by clicking on the link in the message from Bloglines.  (At this point, you may close your Web-based e-mail or Outlook/Eudora session.)
8) Go back to the window with your active Bloglines session.
9) When you see a link for "Manage Subscriptions", click on it.
10) Click on "Browse" and find the file you downloaded with my Bloglines subscriptions.  If you didn't change the file name, it's "David Scott Lewis' Bloglines Subscriptions -- 12 June 2004".
11) Click on "Import".  You're ready to rock & roll!!
 
12) Give your Bloglines subscriptions a spin:  Click on "China Sourcing Alert".  (Okay, I had to give myself a little plug.)
13) Next, click on "Mark All Read".  If you don't, you'll regret this!!
 
Congratulations!!  At this point, Bloglines will start aggregating news updates for you.  Simply visit your Bloglines account for updates.  BTW, you'll have to edit three folder titles, but that's not a big deal -- and you can tell what they are without editing them.
 
To repeat, once you start using a newsreader like Bloglines, you'll immediately start switching as many e-newsletter subscriptions as you can to Bloglines (or whichever reader you choose to use).  However, I still receive at least a few dozen e-newsletters.  Fortunately, more and more are offering a XML feed option on an almost daily basis.  You can even receive XML feeds of Google News searches!
 
This has been a quickstart guide.  I'll talk about other issues, including a review of over a dozen alternatives and supplements to Bloglines, the battle between RSS and Atom, and how to use syndicated news feeds as a marcom tool, in separate messages.  And, of course, a few words on Wikis.
 
Cheers,
 
David Scott Lewis
President & Principal Analyst
IT E-Strategies, Inc.
Menlo Park, CA & Qingdao, China
http://www.itestrategies.com (current blog postings optimized for MSIE6.x)
http://tinyurl.com/2r3pa (access to blog content archives in China)
http://tinyurl.com/2azkh (current blog postings for viewing in other browsers and for access to blog content archives in the US & ROW)
http://tinyurl.com/2hg2e (AvantGo channel)
 
In China, to automatically subscribe click on http://tinyurl.com/388yf .
 

posted by David Scott Lewis at 9:28 AM