Thing 16: Creative Commons Images

Creative Commons Licences allow people to freely and legally re-use artistic works, as long as they credit the creator of those works. This can apply to anything, but the part we're interested in here is applying it to images. There are literally hundred of millions of images online of very high quality, which we can use in posters, brochures, presentations, websites, handbooks - whatever we like, as long as we abide by the conditions of  the Creative Commons (CC) licence under which they're made available.

Here's an example of a Creative Commons Image from Flickr, by Paul Bica - view the original at http://www.flickr.com/photos/99771506@N00/4714207610

 So where do you find these fantastic pictures?

• Flickr Creative Commons (http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/) - Flickr is the big online picture sharing site, and it has the largest single supply of Creative Commons images (that I know of), tens of millions of them. It has plenty of non-licenced images to - which is to say, they're subject to normal copyright so we couldn't use them ourselves - but the link about takes you to CC part. 
• Compfight (http://compfight.com/) - Compfight searches Flickr better than Flickr searches itself. It does all the different CC licences at once, which is useful, and somehow (I have no idea how) it seems to sort the wheat from the chaff and bring back the more useful pictures. When you run a search on Compfight, click Creative Commons from the menu down the left next to the results - from then on, every image you search for you can use.
• Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images) has over 15 million CC images and, unlike pretty much all the other sources listed here, the images are categorised (by date, location, format, style etc) so you're not reliant on keyword searches to find what you need 
• Iconfinder (http://www.iconfinder.com/) does what it sounds like it does - finds icons which are available for re-use. So not photographs like the other sites we're talking about, but small graphics and images which can be very useful in presentations. All the pictures in this Library slide-deck are from Iconfinder, for example. 
• Stock Xchange (http://www.sxc.hu/) is the equivalent of iStock Photo except the images are free to use with attribution. It is particularly useful for finding pictures on a plain white background, for use in PPTs. 
• Morguefile (http://www.morguefile.com/) is similar to StockXchange, perhaps not as good (and not as comprehensive) - but the images are even licensed for commercial use, so you can use them to advertise things. 
• Blue Mountains (http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/flickrCC/) For the completists, a site called Blue Mountains does roughly what Compfight does. Try searching for a keyword but also putting BW in the search box (e.g. bw clocks) - it'll bring back very stylish black and white photos, often with a one-off splash of colour somewhere within them. 

Activity 

This activity is two-part and shouldn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes. 

Part 1 is to go to the Flickr Creative Commons site and read the definitions of the four types of creative commons licence. It's important to know about the subtle differences between them, as it impacts on how you can use the images.

Part 2 is to explore two or three of the sites listed here with the same keyword search (on whatever you like) and compare which is most useful. Next time you need an image for a presentation or a leaflet or blogpost or whatever it might be, you'll hopefully be able to go immediately back to your preferred image search engine and find some Creative Commons pics you can use!

Bonus Activity 

My favourite image search engine is the TinEye MultiColor Search Engine. You can't search by keyword - instead you search by colour, up to five colours in fact... How cool is that? It's incredibly useful for finding full-slide images to match the theme of your PowerPoint. Your 10 minute entirely optional bonus activity is to try and find an interesting image that matches the Directorate brand (so either blue and dark grey for IT, pinky purple and dark grey for the Library, or orange and dark grey for the Borthwick - perhaps add some white in there to give you a bit more flexibility if you'd like to) and insert it into a blogpost. Make sure you correctly attribute it! The idea is that anyone reading your blog should know who the photo is by, and how to find it online for themselves - as I did with the caption of the photo at the top of this post. 

Thing 15: Catch Up

Today's Thing is just to relax and put your feet up (maybe not literally) if you've done everything you want to so far, or have some more time to catch up if there are any Things you missed and want to try out.

Normal service will be resumed later in the week for the final 8 Things of the programme.

Thing 14: Reflection on what you've done so far

We're more than halfway through! Well done for everyone who's made it this far.

Creative Commons Flickr image by Kevin Dooley

Today's Thing, and the first Thing next week, are a chance to reflect on what you've done so far, and catch-up with anything you've missed. If you joined late or are just having a look at 23 Things now, here's the overview of the programme with links to all the blog posts so far.

For this Thing you can either put your feet up and think about what you've found useful so far, what you haven't, if we've changed your mind about any tools or introduced you to something handy, whether social media just isn't worth the trouble or is something you'll get into more in the future - OR you can do all that and blog about it!

Thing 13: Getting Things Done with Toodledo

What is it?

Toodledo is a task management tool which gives you all of facilities you need to implement GTD (Getting Things Done) a time management methodology. While GTD has a number of dedicated advocates it's not necessary to become a follower in order to get some real benefit from Toodledo. I'd be lost with out it, if nothing else it means I have tackled the problems of having a desk full of hastily taken notes and an inbox full of emails to process.

Toodledo is a free web based tool you can access from any browser and there are also free apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices. Toodledo adopts a Freemium business model meaning that the core facilities are provide free (without adverts) but advanced features such as sharing lists with others require a subscription.

Why use it?

As with the earlier post on Evernote the main reason for using Toodledo is to-do lists which sync between all of you devices. So, how would you choose which to use? My feeling is that Evernote is better for note taking and dumping the details of conversations, ideas and important email snippets. I view it like a digital log book. The CEO of Evernote stated recently that he thought Evernote wasn't great for to-do lists yet, so if your focus is dealing with lists and managing your attention on tasks then Toodledo might be the place to start.

If you decide you need both of these tools in your life then it's worth looking at how people make productivity tools work together. A simple example is how to link to Evernote from ToodleDo.

The power of Toodledo is how it provides different views on your tasks. Folders, contexts, priority and stars give you the flexibility to organise tasks in a way that fits how you think and work.

Activity

To give you a flavour of how it works let's take the top five items from your current to-do list and add them to Toodledo. We will then use Toodledo to manage these tasks until they are complete, if you find that it works well for you just keep adding more.

1. Register for an account at http://www.toodledo.com/signup.php

2. Once you've signed in you can start creating tasks straight away. The screenshot below shows the main toolbar from where you can simply add tasks in the "Quick Add Task" box or use 'Add Task' to provide additional detail:

3. By now you should have five tasks in your list. You could stop here and simply use Toodledo to be a drop box of everything you need to action but in a few more steps we have a simple way to categorise  your tasks. Access the "Folders" section under the "Organize" menu item.

 

Personally I have two folders "Home" and "Work". Each time I create a task I add it to the relevant folder. Create the folders you need perhaps one for a project you are working on and another for daily tasks.




4. Go back to the main page ("Tasks"). Each of your tasks will show "No Folder" under the "Folder" heading. Click on "No Folder" and add your task to the appropriate folder. You can do the same for due date and priority if you like.

5. Now we are in a position to demonstrate how Toodledo lets you view tasks in different ways. Use the left-hand menu shown below to view tasks by folder, due date or how recently they've been changed.

Each of the menu options will give you further ways to refine your list. One of the best things about Toodledo is how these options allow you to focus on the things you must do now. It's a good way to avoid procrastination and getting distracted by those easy tasks that give you a sense of achievement but stop the important things getting done.







6. There are lots of ways to organise and view tasks so continue to explore the options and perhaps share what you find as a comment on this post. Contexts are a good way to bring some order to a long list without creating lots of folders. If you start using Toodledo full time I recommend looking at contexts.

7. Obviously the most important thing is marking an item as complete, just click on the tick box at the left-hand side of the task and it will be crossed through or dimmed (the option to cross or dim along with many other things can be controlled from your account settings). From the "show" item on the toolbar you can choose to hide completed tasks.

One thing to keep in mind is that the free version of Toodledo only keeps your completed tasks for a week. If you upgrade to the paid version this is extended to two years.

For videos, help and more information check out the Toodledo help and learning centre

Thing 12: Organising with Evernote

We're now into Part 4 of the programme - Time-Management Tools. (For reasons I won't bore you with, we're going to go back to Google+ Hangouts in a couple of weeks, so a few other tools have shifted forward.)

Both of the things in this section are essentially list-making tools, and you may be wondering if you really need a separate tool to make lists with... Personally I think it's worth it, for reasons which I hope will become clear as you read on. The first tool we'll look at is Evernote.

What is it? 

Evernote is a productivity app - it attempts to help you remember and act on important information. I'd heard people raving about how good it was, but I’d never used it. My rationale was: I can make notes in Word on my PC, or my laptop, and I’ve got a note-pad app thing on my iPhone; how much more useful can a specialist note-thingy be? The answer, it turns out, is much, much more useful.

This is an app which needs to be installed on your PC - so you may need admin permissions to get it on there, just to warn you early on! 

Why use it? 

The primary reason to use Evernote for to-do lists and for note-taking is that it 'syncs' between all your devices. So let's say you have it on your work PC - you can also have it on your home PC, your smartphone, your tablet, your laptop, wherever you like - and because they synchronise, the same information will appear on all of them. 

You never have to remember to bring your to-do list with you, you can access it wherever. You can take notes at a meeting on your laptop or phone and they're already waiting on your PC by the time you get back to your desk. There's no more getting home from a conference and calibrating all your notes into the right place – if you use the basic word-processor-esque note-taking functionality in the Evernote on your laptop, then press ‘sync’, it’ll appear on your Desktop, your work PC and your phone, instantly. If you don’t have your laptop with you, use your phone to take notes and hit sync and it’ll be on there anyway. And so on.

I also use it to store every piece of information I ever need for events. Start time, location, train ticket reservation number, travel times, named contact, etc etc. I'm not very organised, so I find it reassuring that I don't have to actually remember to bring that info with me - I know it'll be waiting on my phone when I need it. 

Activity: sign for an Evernote account 

This should take 5 to 10 minutes. If you don't work at the same desk every day (so you don't have a work PC you consider 'your' PC) AND you don't have a smartphone, it may not be worth your time to sign up for this - feel free to skip the activity if this is the case (you can always come back to it later). 

Go to Evernote and click the Sign up for an account button in the top-right hand corner. Once you have the account you'll need to download it on each device you use regularly - so search the appstore on your smartphone / tablet and download the app version, and go to Evernote.com on your PC / Laptop and press the big Download Everenote, it's free button on the homepage. I'm hoping you'll be able to download it onto your work PC without any problems as it's such a small and basic programme, but it may need 'administrator privileges'.

Once you've put it on the relevant devices, try it out and see what you think. Create a to-do list, make some notes in a meeting, and if you're using it on a phone, keep in mind you can use the camera on your smart-phone to take a picture in Evernote – this then appears as a note. At events you could also take pictures of slides if the presenter you’re watching hasn't provided paper copies, or a printed schedule at a conference, or building or room plans. If people write stuff on a white-board, just take a photo rather than copying it down.

The great thing is turns any writing in your photos into searchable text, so you can easily locate what you’re looking for later. This also means that if someone leaves a post-it note stuck to your monitor with “Phone John Smith, external user, 01482378″ written on it, and you don’t have time to phone them right away, so you take a picture of the post-it note, then when you get a chance later on you type ‘John Smith’ into the search box and it finds John and his number.

Have a play around, and see if Evernote can make your life easier. Next up, another app called Toodledo. 

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.