#2 Create a blog and share your thoughts.

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and understand how this program will work, it’s time to setup your very own personal blog to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries and exercises.

Blogs seem to be everywhere these days. Political candidates John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all have blogs. Your local newspaper and television stations all blog about the day’s news. And of course there are library blogs as well.

You may even read the Collection Development blog to keep up with new books and collection news. But hearing about blogs, and reading blogs isn’t quite the same thing as creating your own blog.

Watch this video that explains blogs in plain english.

Blogger has a nice little tour you can take, that’ll help you get started if you want even more information.

For this program we recommend you use Blogger * a popular free online blog hosting service that is easy to use. Your blog will be your tool for sharing your thoughts, and insights about the web 2.0 technologies you’ll be discovering as you progress through Sno-Isle’s 20 for 2.0 program. It will also be how the 20 for 2.0 Team will track your progress as you complete each discovery exercise.

*Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. Another blog hosting site is WordPress , if you are more comfortable with WordPress or another blog host, please feel free to use it.

So, let’s get this party started.

Try it Out

1. Go to the Blogger website: www.blogger.com

2. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Create Your Blog Now‘

3. This is what you’ll see:

You’ll need to set up a Google Account to use Blogger – follow the instructions and click continue.

A couple of notes:

• Google will ask for an existing email address–feel free to use your Sno-Isle email address for this sign-up.
• How you choose identify yourself on your blog is your decision. You can blog under an anonymous screen name, or as yourself. The 20. for 2.0 team are the only staff who need to know your identity and we’ll ask you for that later.

4. Give your blog a name.

This is what you’ll see:

Having trouble coming up with a name for your blog? Try this fun little site.

5. Choose a Template for your blog.
This is what you’ll see:

Blogger has lots of templates to choose from, so show the world your style. If you decide you don’t like it, or get bored with the look of your blog you can change it later. Its like redecorating your living room without all the heavy lifting! Cool, huh?

6. Create and publish your first blog post.

Click on the ’start posting’ link and away you go!

Ah, but now that the cursor is blinking at you like a hypnotist’s watch, and the question is what do I write about?

Here’s some ideas to help you get started.

• What do you hope to learn from the 20 for 2.0 program?
• Was setting up a blog easy or hard?
• Or anything else that strikes your fancy, after all this is your blog, so go forth and proclaim to the world, ‘I am blogger, hear me roar!’

And finally, let us know about your blog.

Send the Team an email sil20for20@gmail.com with the subject line : “I created a blog” Include the following information so we can include your blog in our blogroll.

• Your name
• Title of your blog
• The URL for your blog.

Congratulations! You’ve completed Thing 2.

To get back to your blog and add future postings:

1. Go to your blog (remember that URL you created earlier–for example ours is http://sil20for20.wordpress.com/)
2. Look to the top right corner of the screen and click on the ‘Sign In’ link. (If you’ve forgotten your blog URL, head to www.blogger.com and continue with the next step.)
3. Look to the top right corner of the screen and click the ‘New Blogger’ link.
4. Log in with your Username and Password (these will be tied to the Google account you set up a few moments ago.)
5. Find your blog on the ‘Dashboard’ and click on it’s ‘New Post’ link.
6. Blog on.

Next up: Tracking your progress with permanent URLs and commenting.