I don't have any New Year's resolutions to "write more." I'm quite sure that in 2011, I will write plenty. But I am trying to put some frameworks in place to help me better create and curate content.

Social Bookmarking

When Yahoo's plans to "sunset" Delicious were leaked, there was a substantial outcry and a flurry of "what shall we do?!." Like many long-time Delicious users, I've left the service. I've stopped adding new bookmarks, and I've exported my old ones.

At first I thought I wouldn't replace Delicious with another social bookmarking tool. Delicious was a beloved service, to be sure, but it didn't really feel like a crucial part of my workflow anymore. After all (and no surprise) what and how I bookmark has changed since I first started using Delicious, and there are other services I now utilize when I want to remember or share things. I star and share things in Google Reader, for example. I "Instapaper" posts. I tweet links. These tools all handle the social and the (re)reading elements just as well as, if not better than Delicious.

But after some investigation (and a lot of recommendations) I've opted to go with Pinboard for my bookmarks. I like its clean interface. I like it that I can easily integrate Twitter, Instapaper, and Google Reader, so I can have one site collecting and tagging the links that are important to me. The latter will be particularly useful as I intend to be much more mindful of tags and keywords this year, as I read, share, and write.

My username on Pinboard, if you want to join my network, is "audrey." (Score!)

Curating

Just as I'm moving my archival efforts from Delicious to Pinboard, I am changing my curation strategy as well. Or errrr, rather, I'm building a curation strategy.

Currently, I share stuff on Twitter and I share stuff via Google Reader, a haphazard blend of tech and political links... and Star Wars stuff. When I get a chance (when I remember), I post some of these to Posterous. And of course, ya know, I blog.

I'm going to try to be less haphazard with my curation -- what I post, where I post, and how I post. To help address this, Kin has built a tool that, in part, will push shared content from my feeds to other end-points. And that's the "where I post piece." And although it pains me to say this because I have long been on Team Posterous, I'm starting two Tumblr blogs this year. I'm making the switch as because I think the latter clearly has more momentum, a broader community, and a wider reach.

(Shorter) Audrey (Shorter) Hack Education

Flattring

I've never thought much about ads on my blogs. Until this year, I've always blogged on free sites, and writing was more hobby than work. But now I'm paying for DNS, hosting, and IT services (okay, the latter consists of buying beers for my boyfriend). And now, ya know, I'm a Writer. Monetizing my blogs makes sense then, (although admittedly, the thought of doing so gives me fits).

I've opted for no ads here. I don't want to worry about their oddly conflicting or coinciding with what I write about. I don't want the blog to be a flashing marquee for used textbooks and for-profit universities (keyword = "ed-tech"). That being said, I do have ads on my RSS feed. I feel they're much less obtrusive there, less disruptive to the reading experience.

Anyway, I've decided to explore an alternative funding mechanism for this blog (as well as my personal blog): Flattr. Flattr is a social micropayment service that works via a button akin to a Digg or Facebook "Like" button. With Flattr, however, your click is backed with real money. In order to use Flattr, you must pay a �2 minimum fee per month. Then you mark your support for online content by flattering it. At the end of each month, your user fee is divided between all the things you've liked, err, flattered.

As with all these new things I'm trying to incorporate into my writing and sharing next year, we'll see how it goes.

Cross-posted on my personal blog