TECHNews

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Introducing “Ole Miss Blogs”

Posted on: August 3rd, 2010 by Robby Seitz

Does your office need a way to distribute information but is reluctant to sacrifice trees for printing newsletters?  If so, then let me introduce you to Ole Miss Blogs.

At its heart, a blog (short for “web log”) is a Web-based content management system that enables non-webmasters to post information on the Internet.  More simply, it lets anyone contribute to the Web using basic word processing skills.

The blogosophere, a term that implies an interconnectedness of all blogs on the Internet, consists of sites covering a wide variety of topics. Hobby enthusiasts share their interests; politicos rally their comrades; parents exchange tips about child rearing;  and more topics can be added almost as quickly as the ideas occur.  Statistics show a new blog is born every 1.5 seconds, and the proliferation of easy blogging applications has made it possible for just about anyone with a computer to become a part of the phenomenon.

With Ole Miss Blogs, IT uses WordPress, a free and open-source application, to manage multiple, independent campus blogs.  TECHNews is among the first newsletters to make use of this service.   Other users include the UM administration’s Ole Miss Point of View and the College of Liberal Arts’ View from Ventress.  Many Bulletin Board links on the UM homepage direct visitors to our Notices blog, and more uses are still ahead.

With so many free blogging sites already available, why does Ole Miss need its own blogging site?  Ole Miss Blogs is here to provide UM offices and departments blog opportunities with our unique “olemiss.edu” branded URL and it comes with IT support.

If you have ideas for how your department might use a blog, complete this form and let us help make it happen. Look for sessions covering setting up and maintaining blogs during this fall’s IT Training.

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