Outreach

Status.net

Status.net is an internet-based piece of software for microblogging, and is an alternative to Twitter. Microblogging is the transmitting of short messages, often limited to 140 characters. Microblogging systems make it easy to follow other bloggers and keep up to date with their news and views. Often the microblogs (also called tweets or dents) link to more detailed information on webpages elsewhere.

Cross-Posting Tools

Brdcst.it & ifttt are two online services that provide essentially the same thing. They take content from one place on the internet and send it over to another place. The services can be seen as a response to the way social media is developing. Often individuals and organisations have a presence on many online forums: their website, twitter feed, pages on social networking websites and so on. It can be hard work keeping all of these places up to date.

Drupal

Drupal is a content management system (CMS) which can be compared to WordPress. A CMS is a way of creating and keeping track of different webpages and online content in a dynamic way. It is said that if you can't do what you want with WordPress, you can do it in Drupal. While there is a 'Drupal core', which will give you a functioning website, there are also many modules that may need to be added and configured to add more features.

WordPress

WordPress is a tool used to create websites and blogs.

There are two ways to use WordPress: you can download the software from wordpress.org and install it on your own server, or you can sign up to use it as a blog service at wordpress.com.

If you use the blog service, you have less customisation options, but the hosting is free and the technical side is taken care of, so you can focus on content.

Handbrake

HandBrake was created to convert DVD discs into smaller video files suitable for viewing and sharing on the Internet. This is called 'DVD ripping'.

HandBrake is popular, and is available for many different operating systems.

There are now more features including transcoding, which means changing one type for video file into another. This is very useful for video makers wanting to make their projects small enough to fit on a CD, or to share online or on a mobile device.

Amara

Amara is a free online subtitling service.

It allows you to add or import text to create subtitles for a video hosted somewhere else on the Internet. The interface is easy to use, allowing you to play, pause and review your video as you type the text of the dialogue. You then match the text to the timing of the video. Subtitles can then be made available for other users to review and improve; or they can add extra subtitles in a different language.

Flickr

Flickr is a popular photo sharing site and one of the largest online image repositories. Flickr is very popular with a large number of professional and amateur photographers. It has many features which make it easy for you to present lots of images through tagging and arranging them in different groups or sets. You can also control how images are shared. You can keep keep some out of the public view, and allow others to be used freely. You can create groups of friends and share your photos only with them.

Morsi Meter

Before the Egyptian presidential elections in May 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Morsi, proposed a 100-day plan for reinvigorating the economy and social and political situation of the country post-revolution. After he was elected in June, Zabatak, an anti-corruption and transparency advocacy group struck on an innovative idea to publicly monitor Morsi's performance.

WordPress for audio and video distribution

WordPress is a system for creating websites and blogs.

You can have your own installation of WordPress if you have some webspace, or you can use the free service at wordpress.com.

It is easy to install WordPress and learn how to publish webpages, and it is a good vehicle for publishing and promoting your audio and video online.

If you are using wordpress.com, you either have to pay an upgrade fee to host media files, or you can include them from SoundCloud, YouTube or other audio and video sharing sites.

Soundcloud

SoundCloud is an internet service that allows you to listen to and share audio files.

The service is mostly used by musicians, but SoundCloud actively encourages contributions from journalists, communities and campaigners.

You can upload large files and make them available for online listening or for download. You can add audio from your smart phone, email or via a phone call.

You can also embed a SoundCloud audio player in the pages of your blog or website.

Users can leave comments at specific points on each audio track.

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