Flickr - do you Ya-hooo-ooo?

In my effort to learn about as many tools as I can, especially before school starts again in September, I’ve taken on trying out Web 2.0 apps I’ve never tried before. The second part of this experiment will be to write about the experience, here.

Today I decided to finally give in and set up my Flickr account. I was tempted to try Picasa, since I already have a Google account and wasn’t too keen on setting up yet ANOTHER account. I also wasn’t keen on giving in to Flickr’s right to use my pictures without my consent – and to even changing them.

Now, I suppose I should go and find that part of the ToS myself, since I only know that from what a couple of other people have said. But those folks are pretty in-the-know, so I have no reason to not believe them and not time to comb through the Toss.

But give in I did, and I’ll just be judicious at first about what I put up there. I won’t put up anything they might want to steal and hack up for their own evil purposes! LOL

Anyway, I did not find the sign up process as seamless as I have other products. I tried to use my usual brand name, sorry.afk. It told me the name was in use, so I figured that maybe I’d already set up an account. Well, when I went to try and get my password, it told me that the sorry.afk did not exist. So, which is it – does it or doesn’t it? Anyway, I had to give in and use sorryafk@yahoo.com.

Then, after getting that, I had to set up a DIFFERENT sign in for Flickr. Why can’t they be like Google and just give me one sign in for everything! [snort] It’s one of the things I like most about Google, single sign in. The good new on this is that I COULD use sorry.afk for this, so my Flickr account name is sorry.afk.

I spent the rest of the time trying to get my cell phone set up to send pictures to Flickr directly from there, without having to email them. There were a few choices listed, I started looking into ShoZu and also using M.Flickr.com. I’ll test both of those and see how it goes.

I am sure for many of you this is old hat – you’ve had your Flickr accounts for a long time and you’re probably wondering why on earth I’m so late to the game and even talking about this. For many others, they are so overwhelmed by these “web” things that they just never try them. Today’s exercise is for you, if you’re in that group.

Do you have any positive or negative experiences with Flickr? Any tips you think are important? Any apps you use from your phone or your computer to make uploading easier? Any tips for staying organized within Flickr and/or helping to make the Flickr experience better?

Animoto

Yeah - I know - feast of famine. I don't post blogs for months and now I post two in one day. I hope to post more frequently - but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Anyway, although I'd seen and heard of Animoto before, a work colleague recently tried it out and I like the result so I thought I would try it myself.

It took me about 15 minutes from soup to nuts. I watched a 30 second intro, signed up, uploaded 12 pictures I'd take in Athens in March (which are now on display in an SL art gallery - contact Wealthy Mizser in SL for details.) I selected a favorite classical piece and hit enter - Animoto does the rest.

Here is the result.
http://animoto.com/play/2oddBM4iyUr0iCNU6CTnKA

Have you ever used Animoto before? If so, feel free to post the link here or talk about your reaction to this app.

Renaud leave Cisco

I received an announcement in SL for a Metanomics event today (6/30) with Christian Renaud, who announced on Friday that he'll be leaving Cisco. Renaud has been a leader in the VE field for the work he's done at Cisco and, apparently, he's heading off to do his own thing.

The quote they used in the promo was a bit odd to me.
"From the heart of Cisco's incubator for emerging virtual technologies, we'll explore Renaud's experience, and you'll find out why he believes that "Second Life and its walled/closed ilk will fade into the sunset in the next 24-36 months.""

I'm not sure its a very bold thing to say that SL and other closed environments will fade in the next 2-3 years! 24-36 months doesn't sound so long, but it IS a long time. Think back 24-36 months - had most of you reading this even HEARD of Second Life? I know I hadn't. Now, say that SL will be on a serious downslide this time next year, that might be considered out there, but 2-3 years?

I argue, almost ANYTHING can happen in 2-3 years.

Unfortunate I have previous plans at the time this takes place. Hopefully some of my colleagues will be there (cough cough Fleep cough cough) and perhaps they will write about it.

Showing off for my workshop

Hi everyone, I am posting this blog to show the workshop I am leading how to enter a blog. Please just reply and say hello

EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Group

After the wonderful response at last years EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Seattle, an EDUCAUSE Constituent Group was formed as was a group in Second Life.

Plans are in the works for a meeting in Second Life of both of these groups and a poll is currently being taken of what time would be best.

Please consider joining either or both the Constituent Group and/or Second Life Group.

PodCampNYC 2.0

Today I had the pleasure to present with Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat), who works as a librarian/media specialist at the Suffern Middle School in Ramapo, NY. The Ramapo Islands (originally 3 sims but now up to 6) were the first school-owned sims on the Teen Grid.

I was fortunate enough to spend a day at the Suffern Middle School observing how the students were using Teen Second Life in their classes. I left there very impressed after watching four different classes. It was at that point Peggy and I decided we wanted to do something collaborative.

When the call for PodCampNYC 2.0 came out, Peggy asked if I wanted to do a joint presentation. The title developed was “Second Life: Shift Learning” and would focus on how learning was shifting for both grade school and at the college level.

So, bright and early this morning Peggy drove down to pick me up and we left for Brooklyn, to Polytechnic University, where the Unconference was being held. We got there plenty early, which was fine since we needed to put the finishing touches on our presentation slide show. Both of us are Mac users so it was great to use Keynote and make the presentation really sharp. It’s over 30mb, which is the max for Slideshare, but I’m going to try and cut it down so we can post it. I’ll probably reduce the size of some of the graphics.

The day started with a nice opening from the organizers. We then proceed to our first session but the presenter never showed up, so we picked up and joined “Teachers Teaching Teachers”. It was a great session and I’m glad I got to catch it. The next session we wanted to see was in the same location. It was a presentation by Tabitha from Global Kids on some of the machinima their students are doing. It was very interesting and great to see that someone is engaging young people to think and act on global social issues.

During this session we met some folks from Rutgers and we all hit the Cafeteria for lunch. I know, I know…but the food was surprising good and not stupidly expensive.

I was a bit concerned that our presentation followed lunch – that is a slot that many people miss, come in late, or sleep through due to a food coma. Although it is true that a number of people came late, we had a great group. Attendance was not our problem.

The presentation was being made in a classroom and it was clearly not set up for this type of activity normally. No big deal, ya work with what you get when you go to a conference. After hooking the computer to the projector, the projector promptly died. First the bulb went and then the thing would not turn on at all.

This was a huge challenge for us but it didn’t stop us. Peg passed around the presentation on a flash drive to folks with laptops. Those without we invited to move closer to my computer. Peg has a 12” screen but mine is 15”, so we used my computer. It worked, well, and everyone seemed really engaged.

My big gripe about this was that nobody came by at the beginning of the session to see if things we okay and when the tech guys came by at the end to get the projector from the room (we were still presenting, I’ll explain that in a second), I told them the projector wasn’t working and this tech started arguing with me. Forget the fact that I know how to use a projector, or that Peg is a media specialist, or that the room was full of tech types (this is a tech conference), clearly we were wrong and didn’t know what we were doing. This is an example of why some tech types get a reputation for being rude. Fortunately, this seems to be more the exception these days, and I’m sure this guy is highly qualified, but he lacks the skills to effectively interact with people.

Anyway, there was nothing scheduled in the room after our presentation so we just kept going. We told people they could leave if they needed, wanting to get to other presentations, but that we were just going to keep going. We stayed for more than an hour overtime and there were still people there. In fact, three people actually walked out of the room with us! Needless to say, the attendees were engaged and interested.

We attended one more session after that and then decided to brave the rush hour traffic to get home, which was really not that bad.

Overall it was a great experience. Peggy is a talented and gifted individual who has more energy than most people I know combined: I’ll present with her again anytime, anywhere. What they are doing up at Ramapo is nothing short of incredible.

Anshe wins!

To those of you not in (or into) Second Life, this is not going to mean a thing. To those of you just getting in, give it 6 months and re-read this. To those who have been in for a while and/or know something about SL - enjoy a good belly laugh.

There is a Twitter account called SecondLie - they post false, and often very very funny fake updates. Here is the most recent

secondlie: Still think it's a game? Fine. Anshe Chung is the winner! Congrats to Anshe, and we'll be zeroing all accounts on Monday for Round 2.

OK - I have to go back to laughing now.