Well, Chris, by now you'll know I'm going to add at least ONE thing. First off, good list. Covers all the basics and I find that you and I use most of the same tools. Wiki: I love Jotspot, but ever since Google procured them, they've shut down accounts for new users. I like that you can password protect the wiki so that only authorized users can see/edit. Hopefully they open that up again. Podcasting: Never forget The Levelator by Gigavox that automatically levels any inconsistent voice volume for interviews. Couldn't live without it. Also, BlogTalkRadio's platform (disclosure: I work for BTR) allows for live streaming and interactive podcasting via phone. I love it for the ways people use it to build communities and demonstrate new, innovative uses for it. Photosharing: I've gotten into Photobucket recently, which I thought I'd never do. Dead easy to use with linking/embedding options on every photo. Great tools. Nice post, Chris, thanks for sharing.
MaxWeb
· 2 years ago
Chris, that's a great run down of some of the services being offered. The only thing I don't see you posting is 'why' you use all these services. What are the benefit to using each of them? By that I mean, how do you, "Chris Brogan" use these items to better what you do? Do they add to your bottom line? Or just to your ability to express yourself? Bottom line it for the newbie users/ beginning wannabe bloggers... What's the point of including these services in your daily work?
Has anyone ever checked out eyespot.com? It lets you upload your video, audio, and edit them using an AJAX based platform and then spit back out to Blip, etc. I was pretty impressed by it. Still, I'd really like it if there were a basic video editing app for my mobile, so I could cast wherever I am.
Jeffro2pt0
· 2 years ago
For Live and Interactive Podcasting, I recommend Talkshoe.com Less quality, then if you would do it yourself, but if you get enough people involved, it's quite fun to interact live with your listeners.
For news reader, I recommend FeedDemon. I use FeedDemon on windows XP and it's the best damn feed reader I have ever used. I subscribe to a ton of feeds and then, I can set up detailed searches within FeedDemon to look for specific topics or keywords within the feeds. Talk about being specific. It looks to me, like you already know how to harness the power of RSS to stay IN THE KNOW.
steve garfield
· 2 years ago
Great list. It's a good place to refer people to.
Clay Newton
· 2 years ago
RE: RSS ... Flock is really amazing, the drag being that it is locked to a machine. That said, it has one of the best feed interfaces I have used.
Connie Bensen
· 2 years ago
I'm glad that you asked Chris!
Microsoft's Live Writer makes Wordpress better! I can compose offline, embed images with copy/paste, more text options, manage multiple blogs, automatically ftp's images & the list goes on. It opened up the world of blogging for me.
Evernote is also a MUST have. Those 2 are essential for me. Clicking & dragging in url's & images to create live links allow me to browse the net quickly & later organize my notes into a highly structured system. (I can find things quick!) http://digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/2007/06/17/e...
I prefer the google alerts to rss because the rss misses so much.
Just got a quick question- what advantage does the second step into Garage band offer over doing the whole editing process in audacity? Is it just the ID3 tagging, or is it something else? Just curious.
Connie Bensen
· 2 years ago
I should add: Feedburner, Google Analytics and the In-Series Wordpress plug-in!
Alex
· 2 years ago
Thx for the Flock. It's realy great.
iwilker
· 2 years ago
Chris --
I found my way into your digital orbit via your Tweets, and it was quickly apparent to me that you were really stretching the scope of the app's utility -- not just "here's what I'm doing" but lots of crowdsourced questions, requests for feedback, etc. From there I discovered you were just as busy giving all the tools above a workout as few others have. All this to say that readers ought to treat your issuance of this list as an E.F. Hutton type thang -- you may just be the hardest working man in this social-web show business!
Just as useful as the picks themselves is the breakdown of what elements the standard-issue social media toolkit ought to contain -- your list coveres the key bases without getting bogged down in more services than any one person could possibly feed. (Although in your case I don't know -- I've no idea how you manage to be so prolific across so many fronts.)
There are a only categories and/or specific services I might add to your list:
* you've got a few more in your own sidebar, including social-news sites (for me, newsvine and digg) and social bookmarking sites (for me, del.icio.us or ma.gnolia.com).
* Social-networking platform: For me LinkedIn is still a necessity as a professional networking tool -- imo Facebook needs add a "user template" or two to allow grown-ups to center their Facebook experience around the relationships that are most relevant to them, e.g. the ability to make an affinity group or a profession/field the central "network" associated with one's profile. (I'm 41 and have an established career -- my "college network" has zero relevance to my life today.)
* screencasting tool: I recently tested a bunch of OS X options and IShowYou is my fave. (For Windows users, I've liked Camtasia...)
* Finally, whoever you are and whatever your interests there's probably a niche social-web tool that will be a godsend to you but would be irrelevant to others. Love finding new music and connecting with others who dig what you do? last.fm. Scientist? How bout connotea, a specialized social-bookmarking tool. Environmentalist? don't miss gristmill.grist.org's thriving community, keep an eye on Hugg.com (a green Digg), and (warning: shameless client promotion ahead) connect directly with experts at http://switchboard.nrdc.org.
Daniel
· 2 years ago
I love all your picks, they are mostly like mine!
Critt Jarvis
· 2 years ago
Solid collection of tools, Chris.
I've just recently started using chat, GTalk. I want something more private, for business. Might you sometime shine a light on Chat choices for business apps?
Thanks.
iwilker
· 2 years ago
@ Luke: Rumor has it that JotSpot's debut as an integrated Google App is imminent (http://urltea.com/1dtd); I'm also a JotSpot fan who's been waiting impatiently for this to happen.
Joanna Young
· 2 years ago
Hi Chris, I just wanted to say thanks for such a detailed list, pointers and explanations of how you use these various things (for want of a better word). I'm trying to find my feet in the world of social networks beyond the blog and it can be a bit (= understatement!) overwhelming. This stuff really helps.
Joanna
Rebecca
· 2 years ago
Podcasting: We use Ubercaster. It's not free but is a great all-in-one tool for Macs
Video Editing: Quicktime Pro for the basic stuff like screencasts
Chris, Great list! It's probably no surprise to you that I'm using most all of the same. I'll add a couple more, though:
* del.icio.us - I use http://del.icio.us/ to bookmark and tag all the various sites I find in the course of daily work. My del.icio.us feed is then a sidebar on a blog, posted to a link blog, etc.
* Feedburner - I use http://www.feedburner/ (now owned by Google) for all my RSS feeds, both for the stats and also to add links ("FeedFlare") to the feeds so that people can post my items into other services.
* Windows Live Writer - I'll second the comment made by Connie Benson that Windows Live Writer truly ROCKS for an offline blog editor (if you are on Windows). It has *greatly* increased the ease and speed with which I can post blog entries.
* Screen captures - A recent addition to my tool set has been SnagIt from TechSmith. It lets me (on Windows) very quickly grab a section of the screen and copy it to the clipboard - which I can then paste into Windows Live Writer. It has again greatly accelerated the speed with which I can make blog entries that include graphics, logos, or other parts of a screen.
I like Plugoo much better than Meebo. I found meebo to be unstable, slow to load, and it did not take messages when I was offline. Have not had a problem with Plugoo, and I can logon to it through my im program instead of having to open another tab in firefox.
Some really great adds here. You guys rock at making this even more helpful. I sure did miss a few tools in this discussion. I should've talked about LIVE products, like TalkShoe and BlogTalkRadio and uStream and BlogTV.com . I should've covered tagging services like del.icio.us and RSS help like FeedBurner.
Chris one more item http://www.apple-of-my-i.com/index.php?option=c... Joe Taylor Jr did this Screencast for me ! It has a lot of tech tips and free software suggestions ! It also has an index of the Script in case you don't want to watch video!
Only piece I would consider adding is CoComment. Up until this version, they did track comments very well. Now for some reason, it is only tracking mine and not the others. I hope they fix it soon.
Graham English
· 2 years ago
Nice list. I'm almost 100% in step with you. Great apps. All of them.
Renato
· 2 years ago
I suggest Pidgin (www.pidgin.im) instead of Meebo or Trillian as multiplatform chat on Windows.
Adam Jochum
· 2 years ago
Chris, you're gonna start to think I work for these guys, but, once again: Operator11.com is the shiznitz for live streaming with multiple participants. See you there tonight for Jonny's Par-Tay! Gr8 list, thanks 1MB!
All Comments
First off, good list. Covers all the basics and I find that you and I use most of the same tools.
Wiki: I love Jotspot, but ever since Google procured them, they've shut down accounts for new users. I like that you can password protect the wiki so that only authorized users can see/edit. Hopefully they open that up again.
Podcasting: Never forget The Levelator by Gigavox that automatically levels any inconsistent voice volume for interviews. Couldn't live without it.
Also, BlogTalkRadio's platform (disclosure: I work for BTR) allows for live streaming and interactive podcasting via phone. I love it for the ways people use it to build communities and demonstrate new, innovative uses for it.
Photosharing: I've gotten into Photobucket recently, which I thought I'd never do. Dead easy to use with linking/embedding options on every photo. Great tools.
Nice post, Chris, thanks for sharing.
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/08/26-free...
For news reader, I recommend FeedDemon. I use FeedDemon on windows XP and it's the best damn feed reader I have ever used. I subscribe to a ton of feeds and then, I can set up detailed searches within FeedDemon to look for specific topics or keywords within the feeds. Talk about being specific. It looks to me, like you already know how to harness the power of RSS to stay IN THE KNOW.
Microsoft's Live Writer makes Wordpress better! I can compose offline, embed images with copy/paste, more text options, manage multiple blogs, automatically ftp's images & the list goes on. It opened up the world of blogging for me.
Evernote is also a MUST have. Those 2 are essential for me. Clicking & dragging in url's & images to create live links allow me to browse the net quickly & later organize my notes into a highly structured system. (I can find things quick!) http://digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/2007/06/17/e...
I prefer the google alerts to rss because the rss misses so much.
Firefox is a must have too with tabbed browsing set up. http://digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/2007/08/16/d...
Feedburner, Google Analytics and the In-Series Wordpress plug-in!
I found my way into your digital orbit via your Tweets, and it was quickly apparent to me that you were really stretching the scope of the app's utility -- not just "here's what I'm doing" but lots of crowdsourced questions, requests for feedback, etc. From there I discovered you were just as busy giving all the tools above a workout as few others have. All this to say that readers ought to treat your issuance of this list as an E.F. Hutton type thang -- you may just be the hardest working man in this social-web show business!
Just as useful as the picks themselves is the breakdown of what elements the standard-issue social media toolkit ought to contain -- your list coveres the key bases without getting bogged down in more services than any one person could possibly feed. (Although in your case I don't know -- I've no idea how you manage to be so prolific across so many fronts.)
There are a only categories and/or specific services I might add to your list:
* you've got a few more in your own sidebar, including social-news sites (for me, newsvine and digg) and social bookmarking sites (for me, del.icio.us or ma.gnolia.com).
* Social-networking platform: For me LinkedIn is still a necessity as a professional networking tool -- imo Facebook needs add a "user template" or two to allow grown-ups to center their Facebook experience around the relationships that are most relevant to them, e.g. the ability to make an affinity group or a profession/field the central "network" associated with one's profile. (I'm 41 and have an established career -- my "college network" has zero relevance to my life today.)
* screencasting tool: I recently tested a bunch of OS X options and IShowYou is my fave. (For Windows users, I've liked Camtasia...)
* Finally, whoever you are and whatever your interests there's probably a niche social-web tool that will be a godsend to you but would be irrelevant to others. Love finding new music and connecting with others who dig what you do? last.fm. Scientist? How bout connotea, a specialized social-bookmarking tool. Environmentalist? don't miss gristmill.grist.org's thriving community, keep an eye on Hugg.com (a green Digg), and (warning: shameless client promotion ahead) connect directly with experts at http://switchboard.nrdc.org.
I've just recently started using chat, GTalk. I want something more private, for business. Might you sometime shine a light on Chat choices for business apps?
Thanks.
Joanna
Video Editing: Quicktime Pro for the basic stuff like screencasts
Screencasting: SnapZPro - cheap, gets the job done, actually pretty neat.
Great list! It's probably no surprise to you that I'm using most all of the same. I'll add a couple more, though:
* del.icio.us - I use http://del.icio.us/ to bookmark and tag all the various sites I find in the course of daily work. My del.icio.us feed is then a sidebar on a blog, posted to a link blog, etc.
* Feedburner - I use http://www.feedburner/ (now owned by Google) for all my RSS feeds, both for the stats and also to add links ("FeedFlare") to the feeds so that people can post my items into other services.
* Windows Live Writer - I'll second the comment made by Connie Benson that Windows Live Writer truly ROCKS for an offline blog editor (if you are on Windows). It has *greatly* increased the ease and speed with which I can post blog entries.
* Screen captures - A recent addition to my tool set has been SnagIt from TechSmith. It lets me (on Windows) very quickly grab a section of the screen and copy it to the clipboard - which I can then paste into Windows Live Writer. It has again greatly accelerated the speed with which I can make blog entries that include graphics, logos, or other parts of a screen.
Again - a great list - thanks for posting it.
http://www.all-podcast-secrets.com/external/aud...
But I didn't have to. You did. : )
http://www.marinersoftware.com/
Also Mariner has Win Journal ! Priced right great software !
Article on Mac Journal from Apple-of-my-i !
http://www.apple-of-my-i.com/index.php?option=c...
http://www.apple-of-my-i.com/index.php?option=c...
Only piece I would consider adding is CoComment. Up until this version, they did track comments very well. Now for some reason, it is only tracking mine and not the others. I hope they fix it soon.
I'm sure you've heard the great news - Google reader now supports search! Hooray!
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2007/09/we-fou...
Thanks for adding us to the list. I'm happy to know we have your vote :)
Kristine
PBwiki team