The Internet has brought the spirit of global communication and collaboration to nurses and other healthcare professionals in ways never before thought possible. These resources are offered to expand your opportunities for discussion, reference, education, and research.
How about a three-step process to create a blog/Web site?
Create a free account.
E-mail your content and attachments to the hosting company.
Your content is automatically turned into a blog.
Too hard? Ok, skip step 1 and just e-mail your content. The site is still created automatically using a name based on your e-mail address. If you like what you see, you can customize the name and password at your leisure.
That sounds good, but what about posting more than simple text? E-mail photographs, videos, MP3 files, or Word or PowerPoint files will be embedded in the site complete with viewer. Interested in some feedback on your site? You can allow comments from your viewers and even create a members-only interactive blog. And by the way, it is also free and does not have any advertisements. The only technical knowledge required is the ability to send an e-mail. No special codes, configuration, or programming knowledge is required.
The site is called Posterous and is located at http://www.posterous.com. The developers have continued to create enhancements and new functionality that make this a perfect tool for both experienced bloggers and anyone wanting to try Web 2.0 technology. Enhancements include a bookmarklet, which enables you to copy text, images, and video to share in your Posterous blog. You can also simultaneously update your Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger accounts and much more.
How could educators and clinicians use this tool? A Posterous site could be a teaching platform combining text, audio, video, and PowerPoint. The group blog feature could enable classroom discussions with all students able to post text and media of all sorts. Each site is RSS capable, so those interested in following your postings could be automatically notified in their Google Reader or whatever RSS reader your viewers choose.
For an individual, it could be an online journal that can be public, private, or even a combination of the two. You can even post text messages from your cellular phone.
For a detailed description of the features and possibilities of this tool, visit the Posterous FAQ page at http://posterous.com/faq. It might be a new means to promote communication, collaboration, and education. All it takes is an e-mail.
William Perry, MA, RN