Today was a blah day for me on the Web 2.0 front. I didn’t have anything I REALLY wanted to try out. If you have suggestions of apps you like, leave them in comments and I’ll give them a try.
My day started with a very interesting comment from someone in my recent blog entry. I thought for a long time about allowing the comment to post or not. I have my comments moderated, for a reason. As the day went on I started to feel more and more sorry for this person, it seems as if they can’t even feel a brief moment of joy from something as simple as the linked video. I then encouraged folks to leave comments. A couple did, and I encourage you to as well, but a few wrote to me directly saying they felt SO strongly that they didn’t want to put that kind of thing in print.
Then I poked around at Meezmo. Meh, didn’t really interest me. In fact, I really had to dig around the site to get a good idea what it was really all about. Perhaps I was just being think.
Then I spent some time trying to figure out how to get pictures from my phone to Flickr. I can’t send them by email because for some reason my email (google) gets stuck in the sent box and never sends. I tried some of the troubleshooting, but for some reason it will not work.. There are a couple of tools listed on the Flickr site, but two of them don’t support iPhone and the other wants me to download something from the iTunes store, but isn’t that just for the new iPhone? Perhaps I missed something, and am about to make a fool of myself, but I didn’t think I could download apps to my iPhone. I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.
I posted to Twitter that I was looking for Web 2.0 apps to check out, so we’ll see if anyone posts back. In the meantime, I’ll be on vacation for the next week or so. That doesn’t mean I’ll be entirely off the grid, but I won’t be doing “work” work. So my next update of tested apps might not be until sometime the week of the 21st. In the meantime, hopefully a few of you, or others in my extended network, can recommend a few for me to kick off the second half of the summer checking out.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Diigo
In my ongoing effort to learn more about cool and useful Web 2.0 apps, today I signed up for Diigo. Although I know Diigo is not brand spanking new (I usually don’t like to be the first person to kick tires), I’ve recently seen a few people in my network talk about this service. So I decided to try it out.
The sign up was easy. There is a very well constructed video on the main page (you can also find it HERE on YouTube) that did a good job of letting me know what to expect. It was less of a promotional piece and more of an informational one.
As I was going through the sign up process I decided to drop a note on Twitter to see what others thought and felt about Diigo. A colleague here at MSU, one I greatly respect, responded right away that she uses it and likes it. It was good, positive reinforcement while I was going through he short and relatively painless sign up process.
They do give you the option to search Gmail for anyone who might be on the service, but in light of the fiasco last year with a viral web 2.0 app nightmare (which I won’t name, but I’m sure some of you remember), I never send something to all my friends or to a list. I prefer to send to folks directly (and as side note, I prefer to get my invites that way also).
After signing up a searched for a few friends I figured would be on there and sent them a personal invite. I then dropped a note to Twitter and mentioned that I’d signed up and my username is SORRY_AFK, and invited anyone who had a Diigo account to friend me. Its kind of a test of social networking to see how many people I can get in my Diigo network in 24 hours. Be warned, Diigo puts a toolbar in your web browser – so there is a small bit of set up, but it was quite simple and looks really intuitive and easy to use.
To that end, if you are reading this, feel free to friend me. :-)
I have not tested Diigo yet – I figured I would do that when something came up naturally, instead of forcing it. I do use another social bookmarking service, but I use that more for ALL my bookmarks, not just my professional ones. Its not that I have anything up there that would really matter, but my goal is to use Diigo for career-type stuff and share that with everyone, the other will stay more for personal stuff.
Do you use Diigo? If so, what are your thoughts? If you checked it out and do not use it, why not? Are there other services that do the same thing that you prefer? What and why? Any great Diigo groups (communities?) you like and would recommend?
The sign up was easy. There is a very well constructed video on the main page (you can also find it HERE on YouTube) that did a good job of letting me know what to expect. It was less of a promotional piece and more of an informational one.
As I was going through the sign up process I decided to drop a note on Twitter to see what others thought and felt about Diigo. A colleague here at MSU, one I greatly respect, responded right away that she uses it and likes it. It was good, positive reinforcement while I was going through he short and relatively painless sign up process.
They do give you the option to search Gmail for anyone who might be on the service, but in light of the fiasco last year with a viral web 2.0 app nightmare (which I won’t name, but I’m sure some of you remember), I never send something to all my friends or to a list. I prefer to send to folks directly (and as side note, I prefer to get my invites that way also).
After signing up a searched for a few friends I figured would be on there and sent them a personal invite. I then dropped a note to Twitter and mentioned that I’d signed up and my username is SORRY_AFK, and invited anyone who had a Diigo account to friend me. Its kind of a test of social networking to see how many people I can get in my Diigo network in 24 hours. Be warned, Diigo puts a toolbar in your web browser – so there is a small bit of set up, but it was quite simple and looks really intuitive and easy to use.
To that end, if you are reading this, feel free to friend me. :-)
I have not tested Diigo yet – I figured I would do that when something came up naturally, instead of forcing it. I do use another social bookmarking service, but I use that more for ALL my bookmarks, not just my professional ones. Its not that I have anything up there that would really matter, but my goal is to use Diigo for career-type stuff and share that with everyone, the other will stay more for personal stuff.
Do you use Diigo? If so, what are your thoughts? If you checked it out and do not use it, why not? Are there other services that do the same thing that you prefer? What and why? Any great Diigo groups (communities?) you like and would recommend?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Where the Hell is Matt? He's EVERYWHERE, today!
Today was a very good day. A lot of fun, cool, and wonderful things happened today. As it also so happens, I spent time at the start of my day the same way I just spend a few minutes now.
Early this AM a really good friend of mine sent me a link to a video called “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)” Now, I usually don’t follow any of these links but for some reason I did.
If you have not seen this video, watch it right now.
http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
No, seriously, if you didn’t watch it – do that right now. If you’ve seen it before, watch it again – I’m sure you won’t mind.
http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
This video dispels two really important myths that some people believe:
1. Social media has no value (yes, there are people who think this)
2. Nothing good ever happens in a big way, only bad.
This video has been around like mad. Everyone I know has linked to it today, or Twittered it, or Facebooked it, or FriendFeeded it, or....well....or [insert appropriate social media name here]. Who can keep up?
I think it’s ironic that I first got it by email – how so very 10 minutes ago. Ironic.
If you don’t’ get a smile out of this video, check your pulse. This is a wonderful celebration of life and the human spirit. How we are all so different but ultimately all very much the same. That the only thing that separates us are those who are trying to control us. Well, of course it’s not quite so simple in every spot on the Earth, but I do believe that the spirit of that does live within each of us.
Early this AM a really good friend of mine sent me a link to a video called “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)” Now, I usually don’t follow any of these links but for some reason I did.
If you have not seen this video, watch it right now.
http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
No, seriously, if you didn’t watch it – do that right now. If you’ve seen it before, watch it again – I’m sure you won’t mind.
http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
This video dispels two really important myths that some people believe:
1. Social media has no value (yes, there are people who think this)
2. Nothing good ever happens in a big way, only bad.
This video has been around like mad. Everyone I know has linked to it today, or Twittered it, or Facebooked it, or FriendFeeded it, or....well....or [insert appropriate social media name here]. Who can keep up?
I think it’s ironic that I first got it by email – how so very 10 minutes ago. Ironic.
If you don’t’ get a smile out of this video, check your pulse. This is a wonderful celebration of life and the human spirit. How we are all so different but ultimately all very much the same. That the only thing that separates us are those who are trying to control us. Well, of course it’s not quite so simple in every spot on the Earth, but I do believe that the spirit of that does live within each of us.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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?
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?
Monday, June 30, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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
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