Friday, September 4, 2009

One 'Web 2.0' site to rule them all

I've been on the search for one ultimate site that will do all that I want it to do, and I still haven't found it. So either someone out there can suggest something for me to try, or I'll have to create it myself!

The site has to be able to:
1. Accept email input of text, photos, videos, audio and other files like PowerPoint etc. (Posterous is good for this, will even convert ppt to iPaper)
2. Provide one or more email addresses that people can post to, regardless of their email address (Vox.com is good for this. Posterous requires you to enter all contributors' email addresses. I suppose this is good for protecting your site, but needs setting up at the start of an academic year)
3. Allow commenting on the post.
4. Be chronological
5. Allow tagging (tags are preferably added as part of the email)
6. Accept RSS feeds and display them in the same part of the window as a post to the blog (so kind of like Twitter. Blogger allows you to add RSS feeds on the side, separate to your blog posts.)
7. Option to be notified by email of contributions to the site.

I probably have a few more requirements but the above are the key ones for now. Can anyone step up to the challenge?

Posterous.com would be my recommendation for education at the minute and although you would have to set up all your learners as contributors to the site by adding their email address (or ask them to do this themselves!), this is one way of protecting the site from 'spam'. Posterous also allows you to set up a password in order to view the site, another advantage from a teaching and learning point of view.

1 comment:

Krishna Baby said...

Hi Lilian

During my last academic term at Kirklees College, I used Posterous with my ESOL learners. They enjoyed it quite a lot and found very easy to use. From all the web 2.0 site I used with my learners, this was one of the best!
As I am not in the UK anymore, I won't know if anyone in college is still using it.
Best Regards
Frieda