ecomm-a-rama

We all come across one, ten or dozens of interesting websites over the course of a work week. But how do we store and share this found information? We might save the name in our head and forget it. Maybe we hope Google can help us pin it down later. Maybe we add it to our bookmarks file in the browser (so that it becomes entry number 245 in a random list of bookmarks). If we want to let others know about it maybe we send an email with the link (and cc our own address so we can find it later). But what if we leave out someone in the email chain? And who wants another email, anyway? They won’t read it. I don’t have time. I could send it to a bunch of email lists but that includes all kinds of people that don’t want to hear about this. Ah, why bother.

Such is the state of knowledge management when it comes to interesting online information. But a combination of your web browser, your finger clicking the mouse and buttons, and a site like Delicious make storing interesting website addresses and information in a group simple and quick. Using RSS or a quick visit to a site that stores these bookmarks and displays them makes sharing the information painless.

One way to do this is to use a “social bookmarking” tool like Delicious in your daily routine. I have been doing this for a while using an account (it’s free) for The Wilderness Society. I find an interesting site. Click a button at the top of my browser, enter a description, click submit and, voila… saved for all to see on The Wilderness Society’s delicious page, in the “Recently Found” sidebar of ecommarama.org or in an RSS reader.

So, let’s say you work for The Wilderness Society (and are somehow tied to this whole web revamp thing). You come across an interesting story in which a blogger talks about some new social network that we might want to look into. Or a cool online action done by another group. Adding it to this delicious social bookmarking thing is pretty easy.

First, get logged into the delicious account here. No shame in sharing the username - it is ‘thewildernesssociety’ (and is also in the url of our page on delicious so it is pretty public already. You’ll have to get the password via other means, though.

After logging in you’ll likely be on the main page for our account. This lists all bookmarks. You can add a bookmark on this page but who needs the hassle of coming to a different page to bookmark another site?

The nicest feature is little button (or bookmarklet it is sometimes called) that you can add to your browser. It will go up there right below the address bar. After adding it you just click the button, fill in a short form and, voila, you’ve added the bookmark to the site for all to see, share and learn from.

Well, how do I add the button, you might ask. The image below outlines the basics.

- go to the buttons page after loggin in.
- click the install buttons here link (assuming you’re running Internet Explorer - if running Firefox or another browser follow the aptly named “Other Browsers” link).
- let the button install itself. That’s it. The button stores our account username and password.

Adding a link…

So let’s say you find a cool page/site and want to add it to the delicious bookmarks page. Another diagram below helps you walk through it but basically…

After clicking your new button you’ll see a form like the one below.

The url and description fields will already be filled in. You can edit the description (which is really more like a title) and add some notes to give folks more background on the bookmark. Tags are helpful for finding and describing the bookmark. The list of ‘your tags’ below the form includes tags that have been used in the past by this account. Delicious may also suggest some tags based on what others have used to tag the same page in the past.

When done. Click the save button and you’ll be taken back to the page you just bookmarked. That’s it. The bookmark will be added to the list and you can see it in the Recently Found sidebar of ecommarama.org. If you use an RSS reader you can subscribe to the RSS feed using this link. If you don’t know what an RSS reader is take a quick look at this ecommarama post from about a year ago.

That’s it. Thanks and have fun.