DigiActive.org

Tool: push out your content with widgets

Tool: the widget

Tool Description: A widget is a piece of HTML code that can be embedded into a blog or web site to display content from another source. For example, the widget on the left, from the American site http://jobs.change.org, pulls content about recent social change job postings from the Change.org database and displays them on this page. Other widgets which work in the same way include event count-down clocks and DigiActive’s comment and Twitter feeds, which you’ll find on our left and right-hand toolbars.

Activist Application: As activists, we are often looking to bring useful content to our web sites in order to attract readers or to push out content we have created to other platforms so we can get as many “eyes” on that content as possible. According Danny Moldovan of Jobs for Change, “Our goal is to spark a nationwide movement toward careers in the common good.” Their methods for achieving this goal is to bring together lots of these jobs in a single place (their site) and then send job-seekers to that site.  If they can push out these job posting to other sites and blogs through their “featured jobs” widget, that means that  more people will find  those positions.

Ease of Use: Embedding a widget is quite easy.  If you have a blog, you just create a new box on one of your tool bars, copy and paste the HTML of whatever widget you want to add to your site into that box, and then save your changes.   The widget will appear on your toolbar next time you load your site.

Creating your own widget is also easier than it once was, thanks to free online services.  The  Free Kareem campaign, for example, created a Free Kareem widget of news update on Kareem’s imprisonment using the free application WidgetBox.com.

Hat-tip: Danny Moldovan

Tool: Dipity Makes Creating Interactive Timelines Easy

Tool Description: Dipity allows you to create interactive timelines which can be embedded into your blog, campaign website or social networking profile. Chronological information is presented graphically using any combination of text, pictures or videos. Users can choose between a traditional timeline view, a list view, a flipbook view or a map view which presents any geotagged data or entry on a google map.

Activist Application: Campaign websites often have dedicated pages detailing background information on the campaign or the cause in addition to multiple entries or posts detailing any new or recent developments. It is often a challenge to present such information in a way that is easily and quickly understood by the average reader who might not necessarily be familiar with the campaign’s intricacies. As a visual illustration, a Dipity timeline makes it much easier to follow a succession of events and understand their details. In the example below, the FreeKareem.org is using the timeline to display the developments of the case of jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer since the day of his arrest as well as developments in the campaign to free him.





Useful Features:  in addition to the ability to include multimedia such as pictures and videos in the timeline itself, an interesting feature of Dipity is the possiblity of collaboration. Several users can edit a single timeline simultaneously and work together in inputing entries and information. Timelines can also be linked to feeds and be automatically created and updatted through entries from your Picasa, Twitter, Pandora, Wordpress, Last.fm, Flickr, Yelp, Blogger, Youtube account or any regular RSS feed.