A Relationship with Word Press/ Assignment #2, MLIS 7505

Coming to the end of a long week that began with a group meeting. At the time my group was all Valdosta based so we meet with our laptops and played with WP. We created our own blog not knowing that we were suppose to use the one that Dr. Oguz set up for us. But that was ok, because we were using the same platform, so it was good practice. By Monday we were up and running, experimenting with the right one! Word Press is one of the most popular blogging platforms, so I think this exercise experimenting with it to be invaluable. I feel more confident in trying to use WP in the future. For the inexperienced person, like myself, you just have to jump in and get your feet wet, through mistakes and questions comes learning. My team is probably tired of hearing from me, and I applaud their patience with answering my questions.
Group 1 continued to experiment, we had two more group meetings which were a tremendous help to me. Dr.Oguz added another team member mid week and we tried to bring her up to date on our progress. I ran into difficulties on Tuesday with the site. When I brought it up on my computer, I could not get into the administration to make changes or play. I could not find the dashboard in my browser history and I experienced this on both by big laptop and my mini.So, I wasnt sure what happened, but something did! Celia provided me with the URL for the dashboard and this was the only way to enter. She had to add the admin back from hers and I was set to go again!
We initially set up a couple of categories, and then everyone was to play with the themes, tags, categories,plugins etc. We created our onw bios. I added a page and heading on therapy dogs in the library with a URL to Therapy Dogs International and uploaded a couple of pictures. My first attempt did not work and my team came to the rescue with directions again but it was exactly what I had been doing (at least I knew I was on the right track!) My third attempt was successful.
I also changed the time, changed the theme, tagged, categoritized and added the Askimet plugin. I am slow, so it would have been fun to have had more time to explore and experiment, but I felt it was a good first attempt!
I enjoyed monitoring the successes and frustrations of other teams. We all seemed to be struggling with the same issues, which made me feel better! I believe Team 7 had the winner theme! It was a little scary but certainly got your attention. I would have liked to have experimented more with the themes, but I am a little hestitant that I might mess the site as we are running out of time! I am a visual being and I like splash!
I checked out other websites that have been made through WP and I was amazed; the Wall Street Journal, celebraties, universities, along list of beautiful sites. I wonder what depth of knowledge it takes to create one of these and how long it would take?!
In conclusion and considering the usual group constraints of scheduling, and the time constaits of the class,I feel the project was successful. Team 1 helped each other, we brainstormed and learned about WP together. Those who knew more, helped the ones that didnt (me!)to understand how to make WP work so I could apply it to the our site.