Thing 22: Google Hangouts

The great thing about cloud applications is that they undergo incremental development - no waiting years for the next release. The annoying thing about cloud applications is that they undergo incremental development - no waiting years for the next release - but you may wake up one morning to find it's all changed.
Such was the case with New Hangouts, its release timed to perfection a few days before it was destined to become one of our 'Things'. So finally...

When I were a lad (quite a while ago now), many futuristic TV programmes included people talking to each other using some kind of visual communication system - video screens on the wall or a hand-held device. They also tended to include some rather dodgy fashion statements, but that's another issue.

The point is we've been expecting it for years, and now we can all join Jeff Tracy and his sons, together with Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, and talk 'face to face' when we're miles apart.
Actually, we've been using video-conferencing and Skype for ages now, but a Google Hangout makes it really easy, AND you can broadcast it if you need.

What's a Google Hangout?

It was a component of Google+ (G+) (see Thing 8) with which you can hold a video conversation with one or more people simultaneously, but the new version integrates better with email calendar etc. Although Google maintain you don't need a Google+ profile to use Hangouts, in practice you do if you want to start/join group video calls or use it with iOS devices. If you don't already have a Google+ profile, take another look at Thing 8.

You can get into a hangout through several routes, but when you get there it will basically look the same. In the example shown here, Larry Lamb and Sean the Sheep are enjoying a video chat.


During a Hangout you can:

• Invite more people 
• Choose who to view (also auto-selects person talking)
• Mute microphone and/or camera
• 'Chat' silently with typed text
• Share screens
• Capture the screen image
• Share and edit Google documents
• Wear silly hats - via the icon below drive documents (optional)

Why should I Hangout?

Interesting question, suggesting some US companies need to think more carefully how they name products and services. Have I ever told you my (true) story about the re-branding of the 'Customer Care' section of the 'Wang' computer company? I digress.

• It's a simple conference call, where you don't have to book special rooms or equipment
• You can have a face-to-face conversation with people - an alternative to a voice-only phone call
• Great for meetings when people are in lots of different places
• You can have a meeting without getting out of bed (not recommended)
• Friendlier contact with distance learners
• Broadcast an interactive lecture that can be viewed later
• Screen-sharing feature lets you 'show what you mean' when it's difficult to describe

The list could go on...

What do I need?

• a computer with a web camera and microphone - most laptops are now equipped with these. It works fine with a PC, Mac, Chromebook and probably several others I haven't tried. With an iPad you need to download the (Free) G+ App.
• a reasonably good network connection - it will usually work on the UoY Wi-Fi.
• a G+ account - see Thing 8 if you need to know how to sign up for G+

... and that's it.

How do I start a Hangout?

 

Since the recent changes, starting and joining a hangout has become even easier as it now integrates more closely with email chat and calendar. Look for:

Google+

On G+, over on the right, is the new 'green with quotes' Hangout icon. Choosing it reveals a list of the people with whom you've already 'hung out'. Start a Hangout using any of these methods:

• Click the + next to New Hangout and enter an email address
• Hover over a person from a previous Hangout and choose the Hangout icon at the bottom of their profile pop-up - then choose the camera icon to initiate contact
• At the foot of the Hangouts pane, hover over Hangout Party and choose Start a Party (yes, I know). Invite people using email addresses - you can also invite G+ circles

Another method:

• From your G+ page, under the Share what's new... box choose Hangout

Email chat

1. Open the chat section of the mail screen (speech bubble, bottom left - unless you've moved it).
2. Make sure you are signed in to chat - you and others with cameras are listed with a camera icon instead of a simple green disc (though this isn't 100% reliable).
3. You can then initiate a Hangout with an individual on your list or start a hangout and invite several people using various methods - watch for pop-up boxes, chat boxes etc and look for the icons.

Calendar Hangouts

This lets you plan a hangout at the same time as you invite people to a calendar event.

1. Set up an event in calendar as normal, but make sure you choose Edit Event to see the full details. Invite people as normal.
2. Before you Save, choose the Add Google+ Hangout link - it's labelled Video call and is below the Where textbox.
3. It's also a good idea to make sure you set a reminder or you may leave people hanging around for you when they should be hanging out with you.
4. When the appointment time arrives, view the appointment and choose the link next to Video call - this should take you direct to the Hangout. It doesn't matter who joins first.
   

Hangouts on Air

You can also choose to do a Hangout on Air. This means it is 'broadcast' (streamed) as it happens and others can view it. The session is also recorded and stored on YouTube (see Thing 21), which means you can provide others with a link to the recording after the session has finished.  Some at the University are making great use of this to do 'broadcast' lectures, so their students don't need to get out of bed (humour).

(this is a screen shot of a publicly shared Google in Education Hangout on Air)

You can initiate a Hangout on Air:

• From G+ - point at the Home icon and choose it on the list, then select Start a Hangout On Air
• If you have a YouTube account, visit your YouTube home page and choose Upload - you'll see Hangouts On Air listed under Create videos.

Activity

Camera Safety - There have been some recently publicised cases of laptop cameras being hacked, allowing the hacker to access the view from the camera. This is unlikely to be a problem if you have proper protection (anti-virus software etc), but it's worth being aware of this possibility. On many computers a small light shows the camera is on and can warn of unexpected activity, but in any case you should avoid hangouts whilst showering.

 Now it's your turn, but you'll need a friendly colleague to try this with, and you'll both need access to a computer with a web camera and microphone. The best way to get the hang of Hangouts is to try hanging out and experimenting with the features - 30mins to 1hr should be enough for starters.

1. Start by finding a friendly, suitably-equipped colleague (who doesn't need to be in the same room but it can be easier to start with if you can do real talk with each other).
2. Make sure both of you have your G+ page open (and get them to agree to respond to you!).
3. Start a hangout from G+ and invite them to it using their email address.
4. If you can find another friendly, suitably-equipped colleague, invite them too. It's more fun with three.
5. Try other features, like screenshare and silly hats.
6. Hangup this Hangout and initiate one with your well-equipped colleague via the chat feature of Google mail - make sure you're signed in to chat.
7. See if you can create and edit a Google document between you.
8. Hangup again and in your calendar create an event about 15 minutes in the future. Invite your suitably-equipped colleague(s) and also select the Add video call link (just beneath Where), making sure a reminder is set, and Save the event.
   You should find that when you click on the event, the pop-up includes a link to Join video call. When the appointed time arrives (the reminder says it's a video call), join using this method (and encourage your colleague(s) to do the same or you'll end up taking to yourself - I do that all the time (who? me? Yes, you!))
9. Practice regularly, and if you have access to other devices (iPad users pay attention), you might like to try it with those too. In many cases you'll need to download an App to get it working.
10. ...and when you've experienced some interesting hangouts, write about it in your Blog.

Thing 21: YouTube and online video

Video has become a hugely important part of the web - people increasingly learn by watching film rather than reading instructions. YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google - more people run searches on there for videos each day, than run searches for EVERYTHING on Bing, Yahoo, and all the rest.

There's a million and one things we could write about this topic, but I want to keep this brief. If you want more info on how to create video here's a column I wrote on this topic for Library Journal; we're going to focus on YouTube here but if you want to read a comparison between YouTube and Vimeo, the other big video sharing site, I've written one here.

Image via IconFinder
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/60234/256/youtube_icon

YouTube: what is it? 

YouTube is the biggest video sharing site on the net, and one of the most popular and used sites of any kind. Some stats:

• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month

• Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube – that's almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year

• 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

That's just the tip of the iceberg, really - you can find lots more on YouTube's own stats page.

Why use it?

YouTube is great for distributing information. The Directorate's YouTube channel can be found here - www.youtube.com/user/YorkInformation. Our most popular video (the virtual tour of the Library) has over 3,000 views and in total people have watched over thirteen thousand minutes of our videos! It's hard to imagine any other way to reach that number of people with that amount of information.

But it's also great for finding information. YouTube is full of videos of cats being cute and people falling over, to be sure, but it's also got a load of really useful, legitimate and relevant content to. You don't have to be a creator of videos to find things on the site which can help you professionally.

Activity: find and share a useful video 

Obviously we can't set an activity of creating a video, as that would take technical expertise, equipment resources, and a massive amount of time. So the activity for this Thing, which should take 5 to 10 minutes, is just to go to youtube.com and find a video which is useful to you professionally. So in other words search YouTube for something relevant to working in IT, libraries or archives, or about social media and Web 2.0 tools. Then either post a link to it on your 23 Things blog (embed it if you know how!), post it to the Padlet Wall from the previous post, Tweet it if you're on Twitter.

Thing 11: Doodle Polls

What's a Doodle Poll?

If you're a keen user of Google Calendar (and who isn't), you will know how easy it is to view other people's calendars and find the best time to invite them to a meeting.
The trouble is, if you're trying to find a suitable slot for a larger group of people, this method becomes unwieldy; this is where Doodle Polls come in.
A Doodle Poll allows you to set up a choice of different days and times, ask your potential attendees to indicate when they can make it, and helps you choose the best time. To make life even easier, although it's not a Google application, you can link Doodle to your Google account.

Why should I use it?

I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't want to use Doodle Poll if you needed to find out the best day/time for a group of people to attend an event. The other alternatives - for example emailing everyone and asking them to send you suitable times - are generally more clumsy.
If you come up with a better way, please let me know!
You could use it to find the best time...

• for a meeting involving several people
• to organise an event with input from a range of departments
• for a social event (if it involves eating chocolate, please include me)

How do I start using Doodle?

Although Doodle is an externally hosted scheduling service, the University has a branded version without adverts that can be linked to your Google account.
The other thing you need to do is link your Doodle account with your Google account and make sure you're not getting adverts.

Activity

You will need the University of York Doodle Link (new window tab) for this:

1. First sign up for a Doodle account (if you haven't already) following the Getting Started instructions on the IT Services Doodle Page (opens new window/tab). Use your university email address, but to maintain security please do not set up the account using the same password as for your York account.
2. You will need to activate your account from a sign-up email that is sent to you.
3. If you unwanted adverts are appearing, follow the Removing ads instructions.
4. Following the instructions on the same page, connect Doodle to your Google account.

Now you need some friends again. If you don't have any, feel free to treat Ned Potter, Tom Smith and me (Mike Dunn) as friends for now - you can always ditch us later.
Imagine you want to invite your friends to an event (let's assume for now it's a 2-hour Chocolate Tasting) but are not sure of the best time. Choose 3 or 4 possible days/times and set up a Doodle Poll. Here's the sequence:

1. First make sure you can see your friends' calendars in Google calendar - Doodle will need these.
2. Sign in to your Doodle Account using the Google option on the sign-in dialogue - you can do this after you've linked Doodle and Google.
3. Choose to Schedule an event (Create new poll) and enter at least a suitable title - location and description are optional, but probably necessary! Choose Next.
4. In the calendar view, select your friends' calendars from the list to make them visible.
5. Drag on the calendar to create the possible slots for the event - don't worry if some of them overlap some existing calendar events, but try to use 'gaps' if you can. Choose Next.
6. We'll skip the optional settings, but feel free to take a look at what's available. Choose Next for a Basic Poll, and enter the email addresses for your friends. As it's Google-enabled, auto-suggest should work.
7. Tick the box to receive your own invite, and as this is a learning activity, please ensure you add a suitable message so your friends aren't too confused. Actually, if you send an invite to me, I'm confused most of the time anyway :-o
8.  There's an extra ticky box that helps you track who has responded - if you leave this blank, you'll only see people listed in the poll after they have responded. Try ticking it to see the result.
9. Choose Send and finish. That's it for now, except it would be useful to look at the email invite you sent yourself and respond to the poll.
10. Take a look in your calendar: where you have responded 'Yes' to a date/time, the event is shown with [Doodle-tentative]. This means you know when you may have a commitment.

This what a poll looks like

 After your friends have had chance to respond...

1. Sign in to your Doodle account and view the Dashboard.
2. Towards the bottom of the page, the poll you set up will be listed. Choose the poll title.
3. The page consists of three tabs, but the most important are Table view, which lists the poll results, and Administration.
4. In Administration, take a look at Who is missing? - this information is the result of choosing to track who has responded.
5. Notice that you can email people you've invited, invite more people and even export results.
6. The Table view will show the most popular time. Choose Close poll, and Doodle will suggest the best time, but you can choose a different time instead. Notice if you track responses you'll have a Who is missing? link.
7. Select your time and choose Save. This will allow you to confirm the chosen slot with the participants by email, and will make the appropriate changes to the calendar events, removing surplus 'tentative' ones. Add a message and choose Send.

Doodle by itself is actually very good - Doodle with Google is even better!

Thing 10: Using Google Documents and Spreadsheets

What are they?

Every so often you'll come across an article that says something like, "90% of users only make use of 10% of the functionality of [insert name of application, eg MS Word]."You can argue with the percentages, but it's probably true that many of us produce most of our documents using a limited set of features.

The Google applications provide the essential functionality for producing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, and the feature set is increasing all the time, but their real strengths lie in that they:

• are accessible and editable online using any common browser on multiple devices (unlike MS Office)
• can be shared with others without creating multiple copies (unlike emailing attached documents)
• are supported by group/individual permissions for viewing and editing (unlike shared drives)
• support real-time collaborative editing (unlike MS Office)
• support real-time chat and commenting (unlike MS Office)

Would you want to use the Google word processor for all your documents? No.
Do they have a place in your workflow? Yes, most definitely, especially if you work as part of a team.
Drive, Documents and Sharing
Google documents are saved in Google Drive, allowing you to organise them into folders. Both folders and documents can be shared with Google Groups, or individuals. If you create and share a folder, all documents created within it will automatically be shared with the same people.

Why should I use them?

When working collaboratively, emailing attached documents is still incredibly common, yet it can be very inefficient; each individual invariably saves their own version. Even with shared work drives, you end up with multiple copies and versions with names like Plan_with_Mikes_comments.docx, absolutely_latest_version2.xlsx or donteditthisone!.docx.

Scenario 1: You need to work with others to produce an article/proposal/outline plan/costing/presentation etc... Create the content in a Google document, share, edit together, comment, chat, argue, discuss, agree. Then, if you need a 'formal' version, task one person to work on the presentation (this is good practice: thinking about presentation separately from content). This could mean downloading and editing in a desktop application if you need to use additional features.

Scenario 2: When you've finished working on a document (spreadsheet etc...) you know you will need to get comments from several people on its contents. Create it as a Google document initially, share it with them, and invite comments. After commenting, download and tidy up with MS Word if you need the additional features.

Knitting and photo by Clancy Ratliff
Source: Wikimedia COmmons

Scenario 3: You've been asked to plan a session on knitting for the Directorate Staff Festival, and you want to find out which aspects of the craft would be most popular. Create a Google form and make it available to the potential audience. When people fill in the form, their responses will be collected in a Google spreadsheet, allowing you to count, average, total etc.

When should I avoid them?

If I'm honest, and I do try to be, the functionality of Google docs has a long way to go to match the standard desktop applications. However, where the advantages of 'cloud' storage and editing make work more productive, I'll put up with these deficiencies while I'm working on content. When it's essential I also control presentation precisely, I'll switch to a desktop application to utilise the extended features.

Activity

There's a version of the first part of this post saved as a Google Document, and it's shared with you if you are a member of the 23 Things Group (see Thing 9). If you didn't join the group, refer back to Thing 9 and do the Join and Use a Group activity. Once you're a member open the shared document (this is a link to the document to save you having to search for it and it should open in a new window or tab). You will also need a friend.

1. You have edit permissions for this document so should be able to change it. Find a 23 Things friend (I know most of us have friends - if you have difficulty I'll be your friend temporarily - or even longer term if you're nice to me). Make sure your friend is also in the 23 Things Group, and try the following:
2. After both of you have opened the Thing 10 shared document, notice the indicators for multiple editors, top right. You may also have access to Google+ profiles here.
3. Both of you simultaneously add paragraphs at the bottom (below How I might use Google docs) describing how you might... (you get the idea). Notice how Google shows the editing taking place, and repeatedly saves the document automatically.
4. Use the 'Other Editors' indicator to 'chat' about the document with your friend.
5. Read through the document and add comments (highlight a word/phrase, right-click and choose Comment). You can also add other general comments about the document by selecting the Comment button top right.
6. The document has changed while you've been editing it. View the history by selecting File > See revision history. You can select any earlier version to see how it looked, then select the latest again.
7. While you still have a friend available, each of you create a new document (back in Drive, choose Create), add some brief content and share the document with your friend (Share top right, add them and choose to email a notification). Note that you sometimes cannot find a shared document in Shared with me (Drive) unless you have first opened it from the notification email.
8. Check your settings in the new Google document. Unless you have already changed it, the default size is US Letter paper, so choose File > Page setup..., change it to A4, edit the margins if you like and then choose Set as default so new documents will be A4.

Thing 9: Using Google Groups & Google Sites

What are they?

Groups and Sites are brilliant tools to help you work with your colleagues. They enable us to work collaboratively with much greater flexibility than you get just using plain email and shared file storage.

A Google Group is a collection of people, gathered for some common purpose - a project, a forum, a team, a department - which may be long term or short term. You can share resources and communicate with the group without needing to know exactly who is in it. When new people arrive, adding them to the group means they will automatically have access to all shared resources. It’s like this:

A Google Site is a collection of web pages, together with suitable navigation, that needs no special web skills to construct. A range of page types allow you to present information, upload files, receive comments and construct lists, and it’s quite easy to include Google calendars, Drive folders and other Google resources (such as YouTube videos. Best of all, you have control over who can view and contribute (edit) - a perfect use for groups.

Why use them?

In Google Mail you can set up mailing groups within contacts, but these are specific to your account. A Google Group, on the other hand, is available to everyone who is a member - and even those who are not, if that’s what you need. It has a web-page view that enables it to be used as a discussion forum or simple enquiry system, giving an altogether more flexible way of communicating with colleagues and beyond.

Many people already share Google resources (eg documents) with co-workers. Often it is done by configuring the share for each resource to each individual, but this is a very inefficient way of managing shares and can produce a lot of extra work. It’s better to use Groups to share resources.

What about Sites? We're all familiar with the concept of a ‘document’; this goes back to the days when everything was on paper, and the temptation is to assume all important information must be presented serially in A4-sized chunks. But information isn't like that; it is shorter, longer and connected like a web rather than a piece of string. Collections of interrelated pages let the reader map their own path, and are best implemented using web pages - a Google Site will do this brilliantly.

Activity

Join and use a Group

1. Open a browser and navigate to Google Groups (‘Welcome to the new Google Groups’).
2. In the search box at the top, search for ‘23 Things’. Several posts to the group will be listed, but at the top is the link to the web view of the group postings. Choose this link.
3. When you’ve reached the list of posts, choose the star just under the name ‘23 Things’ to add it to favourites - this makes it easier to find again (look on the left for the favourites list).
4. You will be able to read the current posts (that’s because the group is set up with very liberal permissions), but to take part you’ll need to join - choose the Join group control.
5. Read one of the posts by Tom or Mike (or someone else if you know them) and reply to it (you’ll see a Click here to Reply link below the posted message).
6. If you have something to say about 23 Things, post a new message of your own.
7. Open your Google mail and send an email message to the 23 Things Group - the address is: 23-things-group@york.ac.uk. 
8. Check again in the group (you may need to refresh the display) - your message should appear and will be sent to other group members.
9. It may be annoying to receive a lot of mail via the Group. From the My Settings control near the top right (next to the gear-wheel icon), choose Membership and email settings for this group. Configure this to receive a daily summary.

If you're not already using a group for a project or team, set one up and start using Groups.

Google Sites

Take a look at these simple Google Sites. The first was created to help show students how to download references into the EndNote reference management application. The second one is a collection of useful information on Blogging:

Reference Management (opens new window/tab)

Blogging At York (opens new window/tab)

There's a 23 Things Example site available for you to play with. Again it has very liberal sharing permissions, so you should be able to edit it to your hearts content:

https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/23-things-example-site/

If you’ve never edited a Google site before, take a few moments to read through the Home page, and then take a look at Creating and Editing Pages - this runs through the basics of creating and editing pages (as you’d expect by the page title).
And now:
Create a new page and have a play at editing.  

Please remember this is an open site, lots of people will be able to see it, so be good. 

If you make a mess it doesn’t matter - contact the 23 Things Group and we’ll tidy up anything that will prevent others from being able to join in the fun.
Things you might like to try doing:

• Enter text - use some headings and sub-headings
• Enter images
• Embed a YouTube video (Insert > Video > …)

Enjoy!

Thing 7: Taking Twitter further

(Before we start, I've had a couple of emails about pictures or videos not showing up in the emails - if you just click on the title of each post, within the email, it'll take you to read the post on the actual 23 Things blog itself. It's always worth doing this, as all embedded content will display properly.)

In Thing 6, we set up Twitter accounts. Now it's time to talk about what to do with them.

Image via Iconfinder.com

Activity: Three tasks do to right away

When most people join Twitter, they don’t know whether they’ll stick with it or not. For this reason, they often start following a few people before they’ve really set up their profile, and this can actually end up being detrimental to their twitter experience.

The reason is, when you start following someone, in most cases they get an email saying ‘X is now following you’ – this email includes your bio, your pic, and a link to your profile. If you don’t have a bio, your only tweet is something along the lines of ‘Don’t really understand this twitter lark!’, and your picture is the default twitter egg, chances are they won’t follow you back. And seeing as you’ve gone out of your way to identify key people to follow first of all, this is potentially a huge missed opportunity to engage with people who you’d get a lot out of chatting to.

So to avoid this, and generally get off on the RIGHT foot on Twitter, here are 3 very simple things to do right away, as soon as you join, and before you do anything else - it should only take you 5 minutes:

1. Put in a picture, preferably a head-shot. If you’re really camera shy then put in a picture of a robot or whatever, but put in SOMETHING – lots of people refuse to follow anyone with the twitter egg, right off the bat. Twitter is a personal medium – even if you’re only using it for professional networking, you really need a picture of yourself up there.
2. Put in a proper, engaging bio. Remember, people get emailed when you follow them. Oh, who is this new follower and shall I follow them back? I don’t know who they are because they’ve not put in a bio – so I won’t bother. Twitter is about connecting with people – use the bio to say something about yourself, which will make the kinds of people who you want to connect with, want to connect with you. Try and avoid ‘reluctant twitterer’ or similar as the last sentence.
3. Write a couple of tweets. I know it seems silly to broadcast tweets to no one, but you need to give people something to go on when they’re deciding whether to follow you back. Everyone’s first tweet is roughly ‘Am trying twitter out – hello world!’ or something along those lines, and that’s fine, no one expects your first tweet to be a work of 140 character genius. But follow that up with something more meaningful, perhaps about what you want to get out of Twitter, the types of professionals you want to tweet with, or maybe a link to a really useful article or piece of information.
   .

Just do those 3 simple steps and you’ll hit the ground running, and have more chance of developing relationships with people who matter to you.

Some tips for new Tweeters

Once you're there, the absolutely key thing to remember is that Twitter is all about conversation. Getting the most out of it means developing a network of people you want to converse with. Run searches on the things you're interested in to find out who is saying stuff worth listening to. If you see someone talking a lot of sense, start following them!

Cannibalise the follow lists of people you like. So for example, if you are an Information Professional, you’ll probably know of a few people on Twitter than you can start following right away. But also look at the people they follow and start following the most interesting looking of them, and then do the same again, and so on, till you’ve got a decent sized group of interesting people. (If you’re on the Library side of things, feel free to cannibalise mine – most of the people I follow are great… Just click on the link that says Following on my profile.)

Don’t just follow the Queen Bee, follow the workers too. Many, many tweets are @ replies. This means they begin with @[Insert Person's Twitter name here] and are consequently only seen by people following both the tweeter and the person they are tweeting at. So you could miss fantastic conversations if you’re only following one of the parties – they simply won’t appear in your twitter stream. Therefore, if you really like someone on Twitter, follow the people they interact with too, so you increase your chances of serendipitous interesting conversation overhearing...

Give of yourself, from the start. If Twitter ends up working for you, you’ll end up being yourself. You’ll end up sharing more than just work stuff, probably, and being closer to your true personality than you might imagine – more unguarded. You have to make up your own mind if you’re happy to be unguarded online, and how unguarded you are going to be. But the point is, don’t be shy and don’t try and hide your personality – people want personality, they’ll forgive quirks if they get more character from you (and therefore more value), and as I say if you’re here for the long haul it’ll happen eventually anyway. Just be yourself from the start.

Tweet links to your stuff. / Tweet links to other people’s stuff. Twitter provides a large percentage of hits to the blogs I write. You can tweet links to your own 23 Things blog. But don’t, whatever you do, just use Twitter to self-promote. People will suss you out and switch off pretty quickly. People will be interested in what you have to say if you tweet links to a broad range of useful, pertinent stuff.

ReTweet. Don’t assume everyone else will have seen what you’ve seen. If something’s really worth reading, ReTweet it so that your followers can all read it – they may not follow the person who originally said it, or they may not have been online when it was said. Plug people in to the good content. What you want to achieve overall is a blend of useful information, thoughts, links, character and responses to other tweets. Don’t be afraid to jump into conversations, either – certain people I follwed for ages without them reciprocating, but as soon as I @ replied to one of their tweets they started following me too because I demonstrated some value to them; we’ve since gone on to chat all the time.

Don’t ever criticise your employer! Twitter is personal – but don’t forget that unless you lock down your account, anyone can read it. There’s nothing to be gained from venting your frustration at your institution via this medium – just resist the temptation! (I know this is obvious, but you wouldn't believe how often it happens.)

You never know who may end up reading it. Or who may end up not seeking you out to give you an opportunity later. Generally speaking, unless you are going to tweet anonymously, discretion is the better part of valour when it comes to criticism of all kinds – by all means give an opinion, but always run this test before you tweet something harsh about an individual: would I say this to their face?

Investigate clients . I must admit, I’ve mostly found Twitter’s homepage adequate for my needs. But many people use clients, that access Twitter but present the information in a better or different way – try Tweetdeck for example (and you can sync that with Twitter on your phone and tablet, too).

For more info on the nuts and bolts of it, check out Twitter’s official guide.

Finally, you may come across terms to do with Twitter with which you're unfamiliar - the glossary included as part of the Twitter for Researchers guide produced by the Library, may be useful:

Twitter for research by University of York Information

If you want to, write a blog post about whether you think Twitter will be useful to you, what you want to get out of it and, if you use it already, what works and what doesn't.

Thing 6: Setting up a Twitter account

It's Twitter time! Please don't instantly run away - I promise Twitter can be incredibly useful for people in our industry...

In fact, before we go any further, here's a slide-deck I made a while ago about the common reasons people give for NOT using Twitter, and what my answer is to all of them...

7 Reasons People Give For Not Using Twitter And Why They Can All Be Rebuffed With The Phrase: It's a Conversation from Ned Potter

(By the way, if you're subscribing to this blog via email, it's always worth clicking on the title of each blog post so you're taken to the online version - this will mean you see all the pictures properly, and embedded presentations, videos etc.)

What is it?

Twitter is a short-form blogging platform which allows users to exchange public messages of 140 characters or less, known as Tweets. Tweets can be entirely text-based or they can contain multimedia such as images or video, and links to anything online. Tweeting is possible via desktop computer, phone, tablet, etc.

 

Your tweets are seen by other Twitter users who follow you; you see the tweets of users you follow. You can quickly build up a network of peers with shared interests. There are around half a billion Twitter users worldwide.

Why use it?

It is a brilliant, brilliant networking tool. It's great for connecting with useful people, chatting to people who work in the same jobs elsewhere, keeping in touch with new contacts, disseminating information about what you do, and above all (for me, anyway) getting help.

I use Twitter literally every day to help me with my job - I ask questions of people who are in the same role as me or who have done the things I'm doing before, and know what works and what doesn't. (For example, before launching this 23 Things programme I talked to friends on Twitter from Warwick and Oxford who have run them internally before.) Twitter has been vital for everything interesting that has happened to me professionally.


On Twitter the information comes to you, and allows you to keep up with new ideas and developments in your field. It allows you to develop (it enables CPD) beyond the confines of the specific role you do in your 9-5 job (or 9-5:24, in our case...). You can talk to people in real time or they can pick up tweets later, meaning you can chat to people across different time zones.

Plus, Twitter is a fantastic funnel for all your other social media presences (when you get them).

Activity: sign up! 

We'll go into a bit more detail about how to use Twitter next week, but for now the Thing 6 activity, which should take around 5 - 10 minutes, is just to sign up. If you already have an account, just put your feet up and relax.

First go to Twitter.com, put your name, email and a password into the box on the home-screen, and follow the steps from there. Keep in mind you'll need to choose a Twitter name that no one else has used yet. Shorter is better if possible. 

Two words of warning - the 'Captcha' system Twitter uses (where you get shown two words written in a distorted way, which you have to enter into a box to prevent spam) is notoriously tricky - you may need to try a few times (or press the button to request a new set of words to attempt) before it works. It'll lock you out for an hour if you get it wrong loads of times - I'm sorry about this, hopefully it won't happen but if it does please do try again later! The second thing is, Twitter tries to get you to follow 10 people when you first join. It's trying to be helpful, but it isn't - no one knows who 10 useful people are when they're new to Twitter, and it takes ages, and really you need a profile picture and a bio before you start following people. So my advice is, when it starts doing this, just delete everything in the URL after Twitter.com. The address will be Twitter.com/blahblahblah - whatever it says where I've put blahblahblah, just delete it and press they Return key. Twitter will then forget about trying to make you follow 10 people and leave you to your own devices... 

If you want to save some time on Thing 7, go into the settings of your new Twitter account and put in a short bio, and a picture. 

Next time we'll look at who to follow, what to Tweet, and how to get the most out of the platform. 

Thing 5: A social media primer

Welcome to the first of four social media Things. This first one provides an overview of what social media is and how it works, and outlines some of the important platforms - we'll be looking in more depth at Twitter and Google + later on.

What is it?

The term 'Social media' refers to any kind of online platform where users can exchange stuff (sometimes known as User Generated Content). That stuff can be views, opinions, pictures, videos, presentations. Social media is interactive, so because people can leave comments on your blogposts, your blogs are social media.

Facebook and Twitter probably the two most famous social networks - they're the two most popular at this time, certainly. The numbers are huge, and among younger demographics more people use social media than use email. Here's a video with a suitably dramatic soundtrack to give you some mind-spinning facts and figures:

Why is it useful?

There are a HUGE number of information professionals, both in IT and Libraries, on social media. It therefore acts as a way to increase the network of people you can call upon to help and advise and encourage you professionally. In the same way that you might look up from your PC and ask your colleagues how best to do something, you can ask hundreds or thousands of colleagues the same question around the world. It's like a human Google, where instead of an algorithm bringing back the answer, it's a trusted network of your peers.

Using social media also keeps you up to date with your field. Because you're plugged into a network of information professionals, important knowledge comes to you without you having to go out and find it - for example interesting conferences or training coming up, calls for papers, new tools and technologies, trends in academia and so on. I occasionally teach courses on emerging trends and technologies and when people ask how I keep with all the new platforms and ideas, the boring but true answer is always: I'm on Twitter. That's enough.

Having an online presence is very easy with social media, and that makes it attractive to people who want to build their professional reputations. Social media allows you to showcase your knowledge and expertise, and to connect with people who have relevant interests. It's a great leveller - for example on Twitter you can talk to everyone from people just starting out in our professions, to people who run libraries, IT departments, and even Universities.

Activity: Get an overview of the big social networks 

This Thing's activity is very simple - you really just need to read to the end of this post! Then anyone curious can sign up to some of the platforms I'm about to describe, if they want to, and have a play around - it's entirely up to you. As I say we'll be setting up accounts for Twitter and Google+ over the next couple of weeks, so this primer only covers the other major platforms. 

Facebook is the big one - it has over 1 billion active accounts. It's a social network where people exchange pictures, status updates, and so on; you know all this because you're probably on it already...

YouTube is the main site for sharing videos, and it is huge; as the video says above it's the second most searched site everyday. In other words Yahoo!, Bing, all of these search engines that search the entire web, still don't get as many searches as YouTube does just for videos. 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute. In one year YouTube the same number of views as if every single human on earth watched 140 videos each. Etc etc. The other major video sharing site is Vimeo, which provides a smaller, somewhat classier alternative to YouTube. 

LinkedIn is the main social network for business, and for career minded people. It's primarily an opportunity to showcase your CV, but people also use the many groups and discussion forms to chat about professional issues. LinkedIn results show up incredibly high in Google, so it's worth having an account just so people who Google you find your professional activities near the top! 

Academia.edu is minuscule compared to the giants of social media we're discussing here - but we're including it anyway as it's so relevant to working in a University. Academia essentially tries to sell itself as an academic Facebook, and indeed you can use it that way - set a up a profile, interact with other users and so on. But you can just use it to find out about papers being published in the areas you're interested in - authors often put early versions online at Academia.edu before they're published in journals. You can also talk directly to those authors. 

Honourable mentions go to Pinterest (an increasingly popular place for curating and sharing multimedia, usually pictures), FourSquare (a geolocation site which takes advantage of the fact that your smartphone knows where you are, allowing you to 'check in' to physical locations), Flickr (the main image sharing site, other than Facebook) and good old MySpace (many libraries experimented with MySpace when it first came out, often with fairly rubbish results - although much maligned, MySpace has attempted to reinvent itself as a primarily music-based network, and actually still gets over 70,000,000 unique visitors per month). 

Blogging

If you have time, write a short blog (or long!) blog post about whether you think social media is for you, which platforms you're on and what you use them for, and which you might join in the future. 

Introducing 23 Things

Welcome to 23 Things! Over the next 12 weeks you should be introduced to some useful online tools to help you in your job and in your Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

This is a self-directed learning programme - you can take as much or as little time as you like over each activity. All the learning materials will appear here on this blog.

How does it work?

• Every week, there will be two posts on this blog, introducing two 'Things'. This may not be two separate tools - you might be given two Things to do with just the one tool in a given week
• Over the 12 weeks the whole thing is divided up into themes: Publishing Online, Social Networking, Collaboration, Time Management, and Multimedia 
• Each post will be about what a tool is, how it works, why it's useful, and then an activity so you can try it out
• You then blog about your experiences (Thing 1 is setting up a blog, so you will all have one...), read each others' posts, discuss whether or not the tools are for you in the Comments section and so on
• Around half-way through there's a little interval, where the Things are reflection and catching up 
• At the end of it all one person will win a prize at the staff festival - a £100 Amazon voucher 

A full list of the 23 Things can be found here - but the blog posts themselves will appear twice a week as we go on. To release all the information and activities at once would probably be overwhelming.

Hopefully that makes it clear, but if not then please leave a comment below this post to ask a question. There's also plenty more information on the About page. 

Why take part? 

There are loads of really useful tools online, which aren't just for the very technologically savvy or the technogeeks, and which help solve existing problems or otherwise make life easier (rather than just being new and shiny but not really doing much). This programme is an easy way to keep up with what might be useful in your working life, without spending huge amounts of time doing so. The tools you learn to use will hopefully save you time in the long-run - and ultimately, taking part in 23 Things should be fun! They've been run successfully at Libraries across the world, and people get a lot out of them. 

What do I do next?

The first and essential step is to subscribe to this blog. You can either put your email address into the 'Get new posts email to you as they arrive' box, on the right. Or use the 'Subscribe to this blog' button to subscribe to the RSS feed (we'll be finding out more about RSS feeds in Thing 3). 

Once you've created your own blog (the instructions for which will be in a new post published later on Monday) you can register your blog using this Google form. 

Any questions? Leave them in a comment below, or email me (ned.potter). 

Good luck!