Here’s a map of Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Jim, who works with us part time, put it together. He had never used the Wayfaring site before, or Google maps. Pretty cool.

So you’re coming to tomorrow’s NABA meeting (or maybe not - but you’re on the blog so let’s assume for now that you are) and you want a handy, clickable list of sites for the tour.

First: What is Web 2.0?

Simply put, it’s a new way of looking at websites. Web 2.0:

• encourages more participation (blogging, wikis)
• allows users to classify things in ways meaningful to them (tags, folksonomy)
• enables websites and services to play well together (mashups)
• syndicates everything (RSS, podcasts)

Can you use it in your business? Probably. Think white hat SEO. Think user interaction and networking. Think a better way to let people know who you are and how you work.

But step one is to get to know it from the ground up. And the only way to do that is visit some sites.

Here’s the [dynamically generated] list

(Of course, you can also visit this list on another site, the same that this is built from, Del.Icio.Us, a very useful Web 2.0 site.)

03. Flickr: Explore! - Share your pictures with friends and soon-to-be-friends.

04. FlickrBlog - Yes, pretty much all of these services has a blog.

05. Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Contains more articles than the Britanica and anyone can edit it.

05a. Growing pains for Wikipedia | CNET News.com - No - it's not perfect. But still worth a look.

05a Workbench: Adam Curry Caught in Sticky Wiki - Can Wikipedia be abused? You bet! Here's a story about a VJ gone wrong.

06. Fastwebupdates.com - Yellowikis - A "Yellow Pages" version of the Wikipedia.

07. HousingMaps - Craig's List and Google Maps mashed together. - National -- You'll want to select "Chicago" from the drop down box, top right.

07a. OnOneMap - The UK property search engine map - OnOneMap - Recommended by a visitor. Like housing maps, but for the UK. It's got a great user interface--you should check out what they're doing across the pond.

07b. Cool Google Maps - Who knew maps could be fun? -

08. ZIP code 60606 | chicagocrime.org - Chicago crime statistics and Google maps mashed together.

09b. Wayfaring Map - FastWebUpdatesPlaysWithWayfaring - Sample Map We Made

09c. Frappr! - custom maps for ant group.

10. Podcast and Vlogcasts - The internet -- not just for text and images any more!

11. del.icio.us - A great web 2.0 site. Del.Icio.Us combines a great interface, tagging and a detailed API.

11. digg - A social bookmarking and commenting site - the next Slashdot?

Someone asked: Hello … I am in the process of starting a new business selling X. I don’t have a website yet, and know I can hire anyone for that, but I am most concerned about maintenance. Can you please tell me about what you offer.

We sent back the regular reply, and the person replied that we were more expensive than she’d hoped–she was hoping to stay in the 20-25 an hour range. My response to her:

What you’ll find is that the professional services in the 20-25 range are all off shore. Updates tend to take a bit longer and require a few more interations to get right. That’s not necessarily a bad thing–just something to keep your eyes open on. On shore professional operators are typically in the 40-80 range.

What you might want to find is a freelancer or student. If you go that route, you usually end up with a lower rate per hour but you run into a few risks there, too. Turnaround time is the usual culprit but you also run the risk of not having access to the original working files.

Even if you never buy time from us, please consider our site a resource. I talk to people about website maintenance a lot — pretty much all day, every day in fact — and I like to share what I learn on the blog.

What are our prices? Pretty much smack dab in the middle, but we also have a way for people to get on the low side. Hit prices up top for details.

Risks of freelancers continued: First, if you hire an individual, make sure you know who their backup is so you still have help when they’re on vacation. Second, make sure they’re using the latest and greatest of all the standard website development tools and not old or obscure stuff. Stick with Photoshop, DreamWeaver and Flash, and you’re fine. Anything else and you’re increasing your costs down the road.

Ever wanted to get listed in an online Yellow Pages but didn’t know how? Well, go hit YelloWikis.com.

YelloWikis is the same software as Wikipedia but designed for commercial use. You can add your own profile, create your own category, and add links to yourself from your competitors’ entries. What fun!

My Google Analytics doesn’t seem to be doing anything yet. I’m not sure why. It does say that I’ve installed the code correctly, but it does not display any results.

The features do look cool–the geographic overlay in particular.