downclimb everywhere!

I'm really getting into the spirit of web 2.0. What does that mean? It means I'm embracing the use of the web as a social tool, using it more than ever to establish my character, personality, and presence on the web. It also means I'm as big of a geek as ever, although now I'm a more up-to-date geek. There are so many web 2.0 options out there that it's hard to decide which ones to use, and sometimes even harder to figure out exactly what you should do with the ones you have. For example, I steer clear of the major social networking sites; don't bother looking for me on MySpace, Facebook, or Virb. But what about Flickr? I already have a place for all my photography on the web. Should I duplicate that effort on Flickr just for the exposure? Or should I use Flickr for something else, like uploads from my cameraphone? I'd like an organized presence on the web, so let me explain how I see all these web 2.0 pieces fitting together.

downclimb.com: This should be my main "portal" on the web, linking to everything else related to me. Right now it's badly in need of a redesign and really doesn't serve much of a purpose other than a click-through page to my pictures and this blog.

johnson@downclimb: This is my blog, my online journal. Entries here should be thoughtful, organized, and meaningful. This is my op-ed column on the web, a place for me to exercise my writing abilities and create original content.

gallery@downclimb: This is my photo gallery, where I plan on keeping photo sets that describe my travels and adventures. This isn't the place for simple snapshots or casual photos.

tumbledown: This is my tumblog, hosted by tumblr.com. I caught onto tumblogs after hearing an interview with David Karp, creator of tumblr, on net@nite. Tumblogs are meant to be blogs without the thoughtfulness. They should be more random, a place to toss thoughts, comments, links, pictures, and other goodies onto the web. If blogs are journals, tumblogs are scrapbooks. My tumblog catches a lot of my other content via RSS. My blog postings, Flickr postings, del.icio.us links, and last.fm data is all caught and posted on my tumblog.

Flickr: I may someday reproduce gallery@downclimb on Flickr, but that would certainly require that I get a pro account, and I'm not quite ready to pay the $25/year for that. I think I want Flickr to be more casual, a place for snapshots and quick uploads from a digital camera or cameraphone. I can still use my Flickr account to "promote" gallery@downclimb by posting "best of" pictures or highlights from gallery@downclimb albums.

del.icio.us: I started posting links to del.icio.us a few months ago and I love it. I still keep local bookmarks on my computer for sites I visit often, but del.icio.us perfectly fit the need for those interesting sites that I might revisit or that I might want somebody else to visit.

last.fm: I'd never heard of last.fm until I noticed that it was integrated into Amarok, my preferred music player (and perhaps the greatest music player on any platform). Last.fm can track your music tastes and connect you to like-minded listeners and other music you'll probably like.

I have a few more places on the web, like a ClaimID page, AKA contact information, and various profile places on forums and Wikipedia (check the ClaimID link on this blog to see what pages are mine and which are not). The sites above, however, are my favorite haunts and I'm starting to like how they all fit together. If you want to follow me most closely, the best place to catch everything is probably my tumblog, since it will catch the feeds from the other sites. My tumblog isn't very searchable and has no archive, so for more casual observers you might just want to poke around the sites individually. It doesn't sound great, but I'm hoping my redesign of downclimb.com will help in that process.

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