I now can justify spending my time and money spent on this class as I have set up my “reader” account within google.  This means I can now start subscribing to websites, blogs and anything that contains an RSS – Real Simple Syndication.  This is something I have always wanted to do, and although it only took a few seconds, reading chapter six inspired me to expand my knowledge and actually do it!

I also learned what that crazy little box is with funny words that I often have to verify before submitting a post or created an I.D. The CAPTCHA code stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.  (Now that is an acronym!) I understand now, why it’s important to able it on blogs and registration sites to help from being automatically spammed and will use them from this point moving forward.

Forums are a great way to create the sense of community and build a trusting resource that people can go to for information and know they’ll receive honest opinions.  Chapter six talks about the community of a forum being centered around a theme or common interest. There are forums for everything you can image from video games and special codes to pets, sporting teams and thousands for cooking recipes and tricks. Although I believe my company is too small, I like the idea of having forums within a company’s intranet. For a large corporation with many offices worldwide like Pepsi or Honda, this would provide a great place for workers to be open and honest, ask what’s worked and share what hasn’t without letting the outside world/public know something didn’t necessarily go as planne. I know I’ve sent an e-mail to my closest 5 friends to throw a question out there and hope someone has an answer for me! This is exactly what forums can be used for on a personal and professional level.

I checked out www.yuku.com and watched the demo video. It seems like a great concept for someone to blog, post pictures and participate in forums but reminded me of just another social media network or community to belong to with a profile, pictures and updates. The book talks about having up to 5 different profiles on the page but only one account. Are these accounts interest specific?  Would I have one profile for cooking and one for sports?  I’d be interested to hear from someone who has used yuku and what they think!