Since the advent of the Internet, new genres of tools and media are constantly emerging. And just within the last couple of years, these tools have become increasingly social as the more and more people have come to adopt the Internet as an integral part of their lives. Weblogs, wikis, social network sites, photo and link sharing sites, even massive online games are enabling people to connect, participate, communicate and share social experiences through digital means.

Here we’ll give you a brief overview of these new tools, and how they can be used.

Weblogs
- or just blogs – are personal websites with the potential for conversation. Writing on a blog is called blogging, and it is often a quite social thing to do. Since most blogs link to other blogs, they enter a social network with the other bloggers, since the readers can comment on the blog posts, thus allowing actual conversation between writer and readers.



In 2007, we published a book on weblogs and what they can do for organizations. Also, here at Socialsquare, we have our own weblogs, you can find them here.

Podcasts
A podcast is usually a video or audio file that is being distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds (described below) for playback on portable media players and computers. Thus the term Podcast (a combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”). The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. Some people make video podcasts as a way of making more personal weblogs. These are often called video logs, or vlogs for short.

RSS
Is the acronym for “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS is a syndication protocol which allows you to subscribe to the websites, weblogs and podcasts that matter to you. That means you don’t have to visit the site to check for updates – the information comes to you instead. All you need is a RSS reader to keep track of the RSS feeds that you’re subscribing.

We have written a detailed guide (Danish pdf) on getting started with RSS feeds.

Social Networking Sites
A social network site is a website which makes it possible to build online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Social networking sites are being used by millions of people everyday, making on-line social networking is a part of everyday life. Among the most popular are Myspace and Facebook. Here at Socialsquare, we helped found KommunikationsForum, a popular social network for Danish communications professionals.

Photo sharing
Photo sharing websites allow users to store and organize their digital photos online, thereby enabling them to share them with others. Most photo sharing sites have the same conversation features of weblogs, allowing users to discuss their photos. Among the most popular photo sharing sites are Flickr and 23. At Socialsquare, we take a lot of photos of our work, and we share them here.

Link sharing
Link sharing sites, also known as social bookmarking sites, are websites where users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of the web pages they find on the Internet. These bookmarks are usually public, and most social bookmark sites encourage users to share their links to allow the spreading of knowledge.

Many social bookmarking sites also provide users with RSS feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows other users to subscribe and be updated of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users. Popular link sharing sites include Del.icio.us. Here at Socialsquare we have our own Del.icio.us feed, which you can find here.

Wikis
A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites. The best known example is of course the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia, but Wikis are a much more versatile collaborate tool than just writing an encyclopedia. Wikis can be used in businesses to provide affordable and effective intranets and for Knowledge Management. Here at Socialsquare, we have our own internal wiki where we build knowledge on social media, and you’re invited to contribute!

Idea Platforms
An Idea Platform is a website where a company or organization can invite users to add ideas, promote them, demote them, comment on them, and see how they are received and even implemented within the organization.

The first Idea Platform was launched by Dell Computers on February 16, 2007 under the name Dell IdeaStorm to allow Dell “to gauge which ideas are most important and most relevant to” the public.

Socialsquare has built and launched several similar Idea Platforms, for both local municipalities wanting more citizen involvement in public processes, as well as for companies wanting to get fresh input from their customers and other stakeholders.