Introductory Guide to Social Software By Trevor Cook and Lee Hopkins

Through Des Walsh‘s weblog post Social Media De-mazed I have actually been able to locate another really good resource to help out all those folks who would want to go and read through a very comprehensive introductory guide on how to get the most out of social software, i.e. the so-called Web 2.0, and get to understand some of the commonest terms associated with it without having to focus too much on the technical terms but looking more into the practical uses of social software in general. In the past I have been weblogging a few times already about different ways and approaches towards defining Web 2.0 and what it is all about and I guess that to find one that would accommodate to most people’s needs would actually be almost impossible, pretty much the same thing as what has happened with Knowledge Management all along.

However, what Trevor Cook and Lee Hopkins have ventured into sharing with the rest of the world is just remarkable enough to comment on further and to help spread the message around. Yes, it is that good. Check out Free introductory guide to social media where a couple of days ago Trevor actually shared a link to a PDF whitepaper that would provide you with a very comprehensive introduction to everything related to social software. So if you didn’t know how to get started with the whole thing and was looking for a good resource to get you going then look no further and get busy downloading Social Media or "How I learn to stop worrying and love communication".

As Des mentioned over at his weblog post, it is, indeed, a very easy read and perhaps one of the best things about the whitepaper is the good amount of useful examples put together to describe different Web 2.0 concepts with very simple terms. Ideal for those who would want to get started with social software and wouldn’t know where to get started. So you would get to learn some more about Web 2.0 as a new and refreshing collaborative environment, also about weblogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, a good number of different weblog writing tips and an extensive list of must-check resources to get you started with it all.

Yes, as I said, quite an impressive job put together quite nicely and in very simple terms so whoever was struggling to understand some of the key concepts in this area should certainly have a look and download the PDF file. It would be really worth while checking out and digesting it further. And to make things even better, Trevor mentioned over there as well how this whitepaper is just v. 1.0, so there would be more upcoming updates, and, hopefully, we would be able to access all of those.

From here, I just want to give a special thanks to Des for finding such a great resource and to Trevor and Lee for sharing it with us all, making it freely available to us truly showing some of the core skills from social software: knowledge sharing and collaboration for the sake of sharing and collaborating. Well done, guys !

Oh, one other thing, and on a related subject, if you feel you don’t have just that much time to actually go ahead and read through it, then I would suggest you take a look into this particular screencast where U Tech Tips just provides with an impressive description of what Web 2.0 and social software are in just a bit over five minutes. Yes, indeed, just five minutes of your time ! I can certainly recommend going through it if you would want to get exposed to another great resource to try to define all this social media. Here is the embedded video, just in case you may not want to wait any longer:

Tags: Web 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Des Walsh, Trevor Cook, Lee Hopkins, Guides, Tutorials, U Tech Tips, Wikis, Weblogs, RSS, Podcasting