Keep in mind that Known may not work for everyone. In the first post I indicated that I use a WordPress site for my primary website. If you think that WordPress, or other platforms are too complicated, I recommend testing Known.
In this post I’ll discuss the basics of posting and sharing your content using Known. It is assumed that you’ve already got Known set up using either the free version, Known Pro, or a self-hosted option. I’m currently using the self-hosted option for my daily journal. I’m journaling openly online to test out the platform and show the results in real-time. At no point should you expect to find anything of value in my daily journal. 🙂
Log in to your Known site in a new tab…and let’s get started.
Writing, publishing, and sharing from Known
When you are logged in to Known, you are presented with multiple options for sharing content. Some of these options overlap. Some of these options will seem confusing as you try to make sense of how you would use it.
Keep in mind that one of the key concepts is that you should own your own content. This is about you creating and remaining in control of your content online. This means that you’re publishing your content on your site, and sharing it out to the various social networks.
In my own use cases, this means writing posts on my blog, and tweeting that out. It also means saving copies of Instagram photos on my website. If you have a status update, or want to write a long post in Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN…write that post on YOUR site and share it out from there. The simplest reason is that you then have an archive of your content.
Depending on your settings in Site Configuration, you typically have six options for publishing content using Known: status update, post, photo, location, bookmark, and audio.
Status update
Status updates are meant for the brief profile and activity updates you would typically share on Facebook or Twitter. This activity mimics some of the original uses of Twitter as individuals would send out updates about their current location or activity. I don’t use this option often, but have considered using it for a minimal update of events while at a conference or presentation.
Post
Posts are for longer form content, and what we would consider a “blog post.” You have the opportunity to share text, images, embed hyperlinks and other content. The formatting options for text are somewhat basic…at least in comparison to my WordPress site. This is one of the main reasons why I chose to use this platform for minimal content and writing. This is the option I use most for writing on my Known site.
Photo
Photo will allow you to upload and share images and graphics with others. If you regularly share graphics or photos, and would like your audience to focus on the image as opposed to text…this is a good option for you. You can still include text in the Photo option.
I always share a graphic with my longer posts, but do not include photos in my posts on Known. I have been considering saving all of my screencaptures that I use in class and blog posts on my Known site to archive this work. An example of this is the images of Known I’m displaying on this page. You can also see an example of a photo page in which I archive my Instagram posts.
Location
Location will use your browser to identify your location. You can then identify your location and create a “real world bookmark” of an activity or event. This is like Foursquare, Swarm, or Facebook Places on your site. You can identify a location and share an update on what you’re doing. You can include text, photos, and embed other content.
I don’t use this option at this point. If I share my location, I’ll typically use Foursquare or Facebook to share with others.
Bookmark
Bookmark will allow to save and share a link to a webpage and include a short description and hashtags. If you use social bookmarking tools to share your content with others, this is a great option to create a list of bookmarks to share publicly.
I’m currently using Evernote, Diigo, and testing Pinboard to publicly share bookmarks. I’ve been thinking about using this tool on my Known site to create bookmarks of content that I’d like to share with students.
Audio
Audio will allow you to upload and host podcasts, MP3 files, and other similar content to your site. With each post, you can share your audio file with text, images, links, and other materials you’ll want to share with your audience.
I’ve been testing this as an option for podcasting and I love it. You can upload your audio clip and include some text and images. You can see an example of this here. The audio clip loads at the top. I added the large image to the top of the “description” section. I might move that a bit lower in future posts.
So what will you build with Known?
Keep in mind that you have multiple options and you can create something that works best for you. For my purposes, I’m sharing daily journaling, archiving Instagram photos, and sharing podcasts. In the future, I may fold in the use of the Photos sharing to save, archive, and share the screencaptures I use for blog posts and tutorials.
The title of my Known site is IMHO, which stands for “in my humble opinion.” It’s meant to be an area to collect, archive, and share the bits and pieces of what will ultimately become other materials online. But…it also might become nothing. It’s a lightweight place where I can test out new ideas, share some things, and build up my digital identity.
What will you create with your site and Known?
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