My Blue Dot pagerank for my homepage (http://bluedot.us/users/eric) is 5. My Puget News pagerank for my blog (http://thepugetnews.com) is 1. I think if Blue Dot let me do my blogging and money earning from their site (even for an annual fee), I'd do it - I'd certainly get more posts higher in search results that way. But for now, I must toil away in misery trying to find a way to monetize my blog. Harumph!

Here's an idea Blue Dot: Give me control over my profile page and let me monetize it with my own associates links and ads. I'll pay for the privelege as long as you give me enough template flexibility and leeway to post other file types. I already pay $8 a month for my hosting provider on thepugetnews.

Quoted: View your Google PageRank on different Google servers.

Good news for sites like Blue Dot - they even call it "buzz." Geez...

Quoted: A new kind of Web site is turning ordinary people into hidden influencers, shaping what we read, watch and buy.
By JAMIN WARREN and JOHN JURGENSEN
February 10, 2007; Page P1

redotted from: McToonish

This is a very useful layout of some concepts we've been discussing internally for some time. Online participation broken down into 4 categories (consumer, commentor, contributor, commentator). The movement up towards the commentator is a worthy goal but it IS a very small percentage of the online community.

Some really interesting thoughts on social networks and the problems/opportunities in the monetization.

Quoted: Selling Social Networks | Unit Structures

Crazyegg lets you see heatmaps of your site. You can also set up A-B tests...

redotted from pdyjur:

A great article from the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning.

Quoted: The article argues that it is necessary to move e-learning beyond learning management systems and engage students in an active use of the web as a resource for their self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities. The purpose of the article is to discuss the potential of social software to move e-learning beyond learning management systems. An approach to use of social software in support of a social constructivist approach to e-learning is presented, and it is argued that learning management systems do not support a social constructivist approach which emphasizes self-governed learning activities of students. The article suggests a limitation of the use of learning management systems to cover only administrative issues. Further, it is argued that students' self-governed learning processes are supported by providing students with personal tools and engaging them in different kinds of social networks.

A posted discussion with Danah Body, Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley's School of Information.

Quoted: boyd, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information, explores how young people negotiate the presentation of self in online mediated contexts. Her research focuses on how this young audience engages with "digital publics" - connected social spaces such as MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga and YouTube.

Quoted: Currently, boyd is a Graduate Fellow at the USC Anneberg Center, and social media researcher at Yahoo! Research Berkeley. Her recent work has explored diverse topics such as the creation of digital publics in Myspace.com (Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace), the design of culturally adaptive software (G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide), and the exploration of folksonomy (HT06, Tagging Paper, Taxonomy, Flickr, Academic Article, ToRead).

Quoted: At Berkeley, boyd is advised by Peter Lyman and Mimi Ito. She holds an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied with Judith Donath at the Media Lab, and a B.A. from Brown University. boyd is frequently cited in top media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR and Salon.com. She even went toe-to-toe with scary old Bill O'Reilly once. boyd blogs at www.zephoria.org/thoughts/, a must-read destination for those interested in social technology.

The original post defining the 5 rules of Social Media Optimization by Rohit Bhargava.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has issued a second report on the future of the internet. Get it while its hot!