Maybe building a website, joining a social network or plugging widgets into a blog is intimidating.

I’ve always said here that technology is second to connecting with people, that’s what beat blogging is about. That said, you need to be comfortable online. As a result Ning, which is a point-and-click content management system, has been adopted by a few of our beat bloggers as an immediate way to get started in building your own social network.

Let’s take it one step further. How about a Ning site to teach you how to become a wired journalist. Today Ryan Sholin, Howard Owens and Zac Echola have introduced: Wired Journalist – a Ning social network for non-wired journalists to learn how they can become tech savvy.

It all stems from Howard Owens post earlier this month which gave challenges to a non-wired journalist that, if they passed, would drag them along the road to becoming web-savvy. The post stirred up good conversation (66 comments) and has even produced some old-media converts.

Check out the Wired Journalist social network.

A few of the objectives:

• Become a blogger.
• Start shooting your own pictures.
• Do the same with video.
• Join social networks.

If you’ve done all these you will be well on your way to becoming a beat blogger. That’s right – this is the extent of the technical skills you need. After that – you need a strategy and you need to know how to interact with people online. But these aren’t "new media skills" – they are people skills.

So if the only thing holding you back from realizing your beat blogging dreams is "tech savviness" join this group. You’ll be surprised how easy it is once you get started and how much easier it is to learn if you have a community to support you.

I will be mulling the community too (with the creator’s permission of course got it) offering any advice or help I can. Here’s why: If Wired Journalist is a space to
help one figure out the technology, beatblogging.org is about figuring
out how to interact with people online in an efficient and effective manner. But first, you have to feel
comfortable online – and that’s why I love this project.

View my page on Wired Journalists