Tools of the Trade

We have used different 'social media' or 'new media' tools to help users make better use of government information online. These tools include - tags, wikis, RSS, specialized search engines.

To get a better understanding of these kinds of tools you can check out this video from the folks at Common Craft.

Ever bookmarked a website to visit later but then wanted to share that bookmark with someone else or visit the website again from another computer? Bookmarking in Internet Explorer or Firefox makes this challenging. But there is an easier way to share websites with others, visit websites your friends think are interesting, find websites you might never otherwise find. You can use a social bookmarking tool.

For this project we used a social bookmarking tool called del.icio.us which allows us to use 'tags' to mark web content with words that have meaning for users. From TechSoup - A tag is a collaboratively generated, open-ended labeling system that enables Internet users to categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs, and Web links. Tagging lets you categorize information online your way.

Here is a short video which explains tagging:

For more on tagging visit - Effective Tagging.

A Google Specialized Search Engine is just what is sounds like - you can simply harness the power of Google to search a subset of websites (sites you have found dedicated to one topic), a domain (such as .ua.gov - all Ukrainian government websites). You can create engines that search in your own language - no need to rely just on English. Once you create the search engine you can make it accessible to others on your own website.

If you are a non-profit or educational institution then setting up a GSE is free and there are no ads. To learn more visit Google Specialized Search

To learn more about how to use Google Search effectively visit - Turbo-Charge Your Google Search

Wikis are collaboratively built websites which are easy to update by even the most novice of users. They make creating web content simple and encourage everyone to be a producer of content.

Here is a short video which explains how wikis work:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a method for distributing and aggregating Web content (such as news headlines) that changes frequently.

Here is a short video which explains how RSS works: