Multimedia toolkit: 55 sites you should know about

On Tuesday I taught a quick course on visualizing data at the Knight Center, highlighting free and easy-to-use multimedia tools. Today I’m speaking at the Missouri College Media Association conference, on much the same thing. So, um, I’m cheating and interrupting the tutorials (which so far includes the basics of HTML and how to create tables) to share a list of multimedia tools you should know about.

Must-reads

• Mashable: Social networking news; there’s something for everyone. (Case in point: 10 must-try social media sites for college students and more than you could ever want to know about CNN, Ashton Kutcher and Oprah on Twitter.)
• Smashing Magazine: Information for web designers and developers. Also a great place to look for free blog themes.
• 10,000 Words: If a picture is worth 1,000 words, an interactive story is worth 10,000. This is a great source for tutorials and analysis.
• Tools for News: Information and links to all sorts of multimedia tools.

Social networking and bookmarking

• Facebook: Who isn’t on Facebook these days? Join networks by city, school, employer, and interact with other users.
• MySpace: People still use MySpace, right? (Actually, women are still more likely to use MySpace than Facebook, but Facebook is more popular overall. Who knew.)
• Twitter: Micro-blogging; network, 140 characters at a time
• LinkedIn: Business-oriented social networking site
• Ning: Create your own social network. Wired Journalists, Visual Editors and News Page Designer are all created on this system. (So is Tiara Talk!)
• FriendFeed: More of an aggregator than a network. FriendFeed brings together your updates from social networking sites and blogs and just about any other feed, and also allows interaction.
• Delicious: Store and share stories and content from anywhere on the Web
• Digg: Share stories from anywhere on the Web
• Stumble Upon: Rate stories, videos, etc., from anywhere on the Web

RSS aggregators

• Google Reader: Subscribe to and read blogs and news content
• Bloglines: Subscribe to and read blogs and news content

Blog platform

• WordPress: My favorite blog publishing system. Customizable in design and function, and easy to use. (This blog is built on WordPress.)
• Tumblr: Post text, images, video, links and quotes. (Story of Man is built on Tumblr.)
• Blogger: Google’s blogging platform. The design is customizable, but isn’t quite as versatile as WordPress.

Web editors

• Komodo Edit: Supports nearly any dynamic language you can think of: JavaScript, XML, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and, of course, HTML.
• Crimson Editor: HTML editor for Windows. A new version should soon be released as Emerald Editor.
• KompoZer: This HTML editor (Apple or Windows) includes a built-in HTML validator.

Video

• Mogulus and UStream: Live-stream from a computer; embed the player anywhere.
• Qik: Live-stream from a video-enabled cell phone
• 12seconds: Twitter for video; limited to 12 seconds

Photo editing

• Picnik: Correct photos, add effects, special effects and add type.
• Photoshop Express: Many of the same features of Photoshop, plus 2 GB storage.
• GIMP: Correct photos or create images

Photo storage/sharing

• Flickr: Save, organize and share photos and videos
• Picasa: Save, organize and share photos
• Twitpic: Share photos via Twitter. (A witness to the Hudson River plane crash in January took a photo of the plane on his iPhone and shared it via Twitpic.)

Timelines

• Timetoast: Sleek, easy to use Flash-based timeline. Projects can include photos and links, but no video. The system can be a bit quirky sometimes.
• Dipity: Timelines can include photos, videos, links and mapped locations. Create timelines from your own information, from a web search or an RSS feed. Only the first three timelines are free.
• Lifeblob: Does not arrange time spatially, but can include photos, videos, links and mapped locations.
• Capzles: Photo-based timelines.

Slideshow

• VuVox: Combine photos, videos and audio.
• Soundslides: Photos and audo. Not free; but there’s a free trial, and it’s relatively cheap.

Graphics

• Tableizer: Convert a spreadsheet to an HTML table. (Tutorial)
• Many Eyes: Upload information and create graphics. (The New York Times Visualization Lab uses Many Eyes.)
• Wordle: Create word clouds from text or an RSS feed.
• Google Docs: Create interactive graphics from spreadsheets.
• Swivel: Create graphics

Maps

• Google’s My Maps: Create basic embeddable maps with points, lines and shapes. (Example: How will you die: Knox County deaths)
• ZeeMaps: Users contribute to embedded Google maps. Either carefully monitor what people are adding, or include a warning that information comes from other users. (Examples: Best St. Louis sledding hills and Where’s George Clooney?)
• FM Atlas: Create embeddable Google maps from a csv file. (Places Google ads on the map.)
• UMapper: Create embeddable Flash-based Google or Yahoo maps.
• Map wizard: Create a Google map from a spreadsheet. (Requires addresses to be geocoded.)

Geocode

• Geocoder US: Find the latitude and longitude for a U.S. address
• Geocode: Find the latitude and longitude for a U.S. or international address
• Batch geocode: Find the latitude and longitude for addresses in a spreadsheet

Misc.

• Cover it Live: Sleek, easy-to-use way to live-blog.
• Media Convert: Pretty much what it says.
• Color Scheme Designer: Find the perfect colors for your website.
• Super Screenshot: Take a screenshot of an entire webpage, not just what’s visible in your browser
• Photosynth: Requires a lot of photos and isn’t available on non-Intel-based Macs, but very cool. (Example: T-Rex Sue)

Coming tomorrow: A tutorial on creating interactive graphics.