Discover what is being said across SB You by looking at the category and tag pages. These pages show the trending and most commonly used tags and categories across all public SB You sites. What this means is that we have a way of seeing what we are all saying on any specific and connected item. Couple that with the ability to search on any word or phrase across the network and one can see what is being published.

Why is that interesting?

Imagine you have a class and you’ve asked all your students to have their own SB You spaces that they will write in on a regular basis. You could ask them all to tag their posts with a course specific tag that you can then pull together and look at and expose. If each student in the class is writing in their own SB You, but using the same tag a custom page can be generated to see all posts using that specific tag. Here is an example using the tag, “SBUDoIT.”

Now, think about site-wide search and how you could use that to see what the community is talking about in general. Think of the power during popular events … search for a term like “Obama” and see what people are saying about the president. Search for a more general term like, “democracy” and see how our community is reflecting on that concept.

Discovering more structured content through the use of the category page is another way to see what is being done. Amazingly lots of people either choose to use the same category or are asked to do so. For example, check out the results for the multi-site category result for the term, “technology” … pretty cool.

So the next time you are bored, why not take a look at what is happening across the SB You network … and as always, we encourage you to add your voice!