Web 2.0: The Plan

Okay, people, I'm getting Web 2.0 on yo asses.

The dilema:

I'm not a great blogger, we all know that. But I still want to document my kids lives, be able to update all my friends and family who don't live near me on what's going on with our family, and most of all, be able to do the easily. I love my friends (Sarah, Kristen, Melanie, Heather) who are fantastic blog journalers, and I commend you. You make this work as part of your daily existence, and do a beautiful job of it.

I've also started to get over-whelmed with all the options out there for staying in touch with people, and don't want to spend more time than necessary maintaining profiles in various communities.

I also spend most of my day in front of a computer, but for work, and so when I get home I don't want to sit back down in front of a computer. I have decided I might be a better micro-blogger, scrap-book style.

The solution:
I thought about switching to tumblr, which is a great micro-blogging tool, but then realized that Blogger already offers all the tools I would use/want to use in Tumblr, and so should just stay with this blog. And besides, blogger is run by Google, and we all know they're not going anywhere anytime soon. I'm pretty risk-averse when it comes to technology.

I've decided to focus on my Blogger blog and Facebook for keeping in touch with people.

Step 1: Mobile Uploads to Blogger

Some of the best content I have for sharing with you all comes in the form of a picture or video text message from Rachel during the day. She's so wonderful about this - sending me 2-3 texts/day. She gets amazing pictures of the kids on a camera phone (anyone who has tried to photograph a moving child on camera phone knows just how tough this is), and I want to just upload them straight to the blog.

I have registered my cell phone with Blogger: the difference between SMS and MMS is that SMS is just text messages. In order to send picture message and video messages, I needed to also activate the MMS feature (by texting REGISTER to go@blogger.com). I don't have an email-enabled phone, but this still works, and as far as I know, is covered in my unlimited texting contract with Verizon - I will let you know if this is not the case!

Step 2: Blogger feed on my Facebook account

This is a great tutorial on how to get your blog posts into your facebook news feed. Now I don't feel the need to facebook things I've already blogged about, and those people who only find me on Facebook will know what's up (and see the pictures of my adorable children).

Step 3: Picasa web album feed to Facebook

This rocks. This is perhaps my favorite feature. Just search Picasa Tab in Facebook, and you can add the application. I love Picasa, and Picasa web albums - it's a free desktop application from Google to help organize and edit pictures. There is a button on the bottom to quickly upload pictures and videos to your picasa web album. If I make an album public, it will now appear on my Picasa tab in facebook. Ahh, I only have to upload pictures one time.

To add the tab on your profile page in facebook, go to your profile (click your name, not the Home link), and click the + tab. Search for Picasa. You can reorder the tabs once you're done. I also added the "Notes" tab and now my blog shows up under Notes.

When you pull up an album, you can alway chose to "view this in picasa", which will give you an option to download the images to your local machine, or get prints of them from an online provider of your choice (which you can either have shipped to you, or you can pick them up at a local store if you chose Wal-Mart or similar).

Step 4: Mobile Uploads to Facebook

I have also set up mobile uploads to Facebook so I can update my status from my phone, and send picture message - note, just like in Blogger, these are two separate addresses to send the message to. I have also set my profile so that I get text messages when certain friends update their statuses - and reply right back using my (unlimited, so "free") text messaging.

With this 4-pronged attack on the InterWeb (2.0, invented by Al Gore) and all the high maintenance that my digital persona seems to require, I am hoping to have stream-lined my postings to allow you all to receive the most pictures, anectodes, and opinions from me as possible!