Social Networking and Blogging with Squidoo

If you are not familiar with Squidoo and its unique style of social networking and blogging then you should seriously pop over and give it a try.

If you don't know much about Squidoo its a way that you can blog, photo blog, make money blogging and social network all at the same time.

I was recently awarded Giant Squid status. The minimum requirement for this is to create 50 so called 'lenses'. Lenses are a general template that you populate with pre-created modules (think of them as mini templates)You select from a wide range of types. The squidoo modules allow you to post your own written content, photos,videos,run polls, and integrate things such as Amazon, eBay and Zazzle. You can also link to Twitter, Flikr and bring in RSS feeds.

Lenses are themed on topic of interest. For example I've built ones on a wide range of themes like my genealogy and family history lens The Border Reivers, and I've created lenses on quirky themes such as How to open a champagne bottle using a sword another on Disguise Camouflage Deception and Mimicry business themes such as Marketing Ethics and Criticism, and other business themes such as Leadership, and ways to achieve Competitive Advantage.

A full list of my lenses can be found in what the Squidoo social networking community call a Lensography.

When I first started on Squidoo I only had a couple of lenses for many months. Then I was contacted by Michelle Willow to join a social networking group of Squidoo users who share tips and encouragement to go for Giant Squid status. I was drafted into a sub group led by Free Lance writer Carol Fisher, who was a great help in offering content and design advice.

As you learn more about Squidoo and the people and relationships in the Squidoo social networking community you discover that it is supported by a huge range of resources, it has its own forums and specialised squidoo lenses and there is a constant and vibrant technical development programme that adds and refines lens and module features.

Where did the idea originate from? Squidoo was the brainchild of Seth Godin, you can learn more the background to Squidoo here.What is Squidoo.

I really enjoy Squidoo. It is good way to do social networking, its a complementary form of blogging, it allows you to share knowledge and know how, and to photo blog as well. My next task is to create 100 lenses.

'Dare to Know' A Guiding Maxim?

We wonder if you agree with our suggestion that The Gullible abdicate responsibility for important aspects of their knowledge to others?

Several great thinkers have approached this issue. Rene Descartes insisted on the diligent application of Doubt as an essential critical tool that could be used to test claims to knowledge. Don't you think it is interesting to observe that in everyday situations we have social conventions that mean 'doubting' somebody's view of information is regarded as bad manners? This key source of social embarassment is something that 'gullers extrordinaire', & con people the world over rely on to get their way. You can hear their astonishment should you dare to ask what they mean, or for proof of their claims. This social 'convention' is also refered to by Chris Argryis when he talks about issues becoming 'undiscussable' in the workplace, and worse still the fact that they are undsicussable is undiscussable too. We suggest that some of the worst executives deploy this technique to prevent questioning of dubious decisions and policies.

Dare to Know (sapere aude) was the maxim of Immanuel Kant. An exortation to have confidence in your own understanding. Eric Fromm makes the observation that a key human weakness is falling in with people (leaders of cults, cliques etc) that 'appear to have the answers' Why is it? you have to ask, have they got the answers to things that the rest of us couldn't possibly uncover?

May we encourage you NOT to take our word for it, and perhaps discover what these thinkers have to say in your own way!

If you don't know who's who above - why not do a bit of original research?