Thing 10: Chatting with Skype & Meebo

There are many different ways to “chat” online using Internet telephony software (voice chatting) or instant messaging software (text based chatting). In the lesson, we’ll explore voice chatting with Skype and text chatting with Meebo.

Chatting Online with Skype

Skype is easy to install software that, in essence, turns your computer into a telephone. Users make free phone calls between Skype-equipped computers and inexpensive calls between Skype computers and regular landlines or cell phones. Other neat features: it supports free teleconferencing for up to 9 people, it has built in voicemail, and it can turn conversations into recorded podcasts for sharing with others. Skype has about 250 million users across the world.

To “skype”, you simply download and install the free software and then obtain a headset with microphone. The Skype interface looks like regular instant messaging software, but conversations are all voice, no text! You call your friends/colleagues over the Internet by typing in their phone number using the dial pad.

Skyping allows you to keep in better contact with people, particularly those based internationally or in areas not well served by conventional phone systems. The cost to use is free to low, depending on what type of call you make. Skype initiated conference calls are free, with no long distance charges incurred by participants. View the rates for calling phones internationally.

Chatting Online with Meebo

Meebo is a web-based instant messaging (IM) system. You don’t need to download or install any software to chat online using Meebo, rather it allows you to access all of your other IM accounts (e.g. AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ…) with just one login. Once you login, you see all of your contacts from these different accounts in one chat window.

Importantly, Meebo also lets you create a chat widget that you can embed directly into a web page, blog, or social network (such as Facebook). If you’re not online, messages will be saved and pop up the next time you log in. For example, the North Carolina State University Library has an embedded Meebo widget for chatting with patrons. The UCI Libraries recently also recently launched a chat widget for QuestionPoint, seen off of the Databases to Get You Started page.

Exercises

1) Exploring Skype

• Put in a workticket with IT to install Skype on your machine.
  
• Borrow a headset from MRC or ILC to test it out (be sure to bring your UCInet ID).
  
• Log in to the library demo account and explore the interface.
• Search for potential Skype users and add them to the demo account:

• Call two of the contacts in the library demo account, for example Langson Reference and Melanie (you can leave a voicemail).

• Explore the conference call feature by clicking on “create conference”. Drag and drop names from the contact list to create a conference group.
• Optional: create your own Skype account.

2) Exploring Meebo

• Go to Meebo.com and login into at least one of your existing IM accounts:

• Explore the interface and functionality offered by Meebo.
• Chat with one of your contacts and note all the communication options (including video chat, online gaming, etc.) by clicking on the rocket ship in the chat window.
  

3) Time for Reflection: Create a Blog Post

Blog about your experience chatting with Skype and Meebo. How could these tools be used in the Libraries to support the work that we do?

Thing 9: Getting Personal with iGoogle

In response to user preferences for having custom content delivered directly to their doorstep, Google launched a product called iGoogle.

iGoogle allows users to create personalized pages that provide not only the typical search capabilities, but also lets people build “at-a-glance access” to their key information retrieved from across the web. "Google users have told us they'd like a way to view more of the information they want in a single place” (Google press release, 2005).

On this self-designed page, you choose and organize your content, so instead of seeing the default interface:

You have a personalized page that provides quick access to your favorite information:

All About Widgets
iGoogle brings your favorite content to you by using “widgets” (also known as “gadgets”). Widgets are free, easy-to-use, mini-applications that display web content from external sources. These little gems can be embedded into blogs, social networks, or even other web pages. They require no downloading or installation.

What kind of things can you do with widgets? You can add a YouTube video directly into your 10 Things blog, for example. Millions of YouTube videos are shared on the Web by means of an embed widget. In fact, we’ve used it in the 10 Things blog a number of times. Facebook also supports thousands of widgets (created by third parties) that you can add into your profile; for example, you can add the capability to search ANTPAC or WorldCat directly from your account.

iGoogle currently supports more than 25,000 widgets. You can add weather, news, del.icio.us bookmarks, RSS feeds, comics, or the word-of-the-day directly into your iGoogle page. You name it, there is likely a widget for it!

In the forthcoming UC Irvine Student Portal, students will able to personalize a page for themselves by adding and organizing widgets that provide access to the information most relevant to their needs.

Exercises

1) Set up a Google Account

A Google Account not only allows you to build a personalized page, but it allows you to access all sorts of Google products and services with just one sign-in. Note, if you are already using Gmail, then you don’t need an account; you simply use your Gmail user name and password to log in.

To set-up a Google Account, follow these instructions.

2) Log in to your Google Account

Once you've created your account, it's easy to log in to it from the Google home page:

Then you can edit your personal information (optional):

3) Personalize your iGoogle page

When you first click on the “iGoogle” service, you will see an unpersonalized page. To customize this page and learn how to add widgets, view this short video tutorial:

(Be sure to turn your volume up high to hear. Double-click on it to go to the host site where you can enlarge it to full-screen for better viewing.)

(Note: This video recommends setting iGoogle as your default home page, but we would caution against doing so. Not all widgets are created equally, so this can increase load time of the page.)

Have fun! Try adding a theme and then search for and add a few widgets. Search for the word “library” to see what's been developed.

4) Reflect and Blog

Blog about your iGoogle experience and offer your thoughts about widgets. How do you think Libraries could support users’ preferences to personalize and to have content delivered to their doorstep?

Thing # 8: Wikis

(from Wiki, a Hawaiian word for “fast”)

According to Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham, who is credited with developing the first wiki, a wiki is “The simplest online database that could possibly work.” Wikipedia, which ought to be definitive on the matter, defines a wiki as “software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites."

Benefits of using Wikis include:

• Anyone can add, edit or delete content.
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what has been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page can be viewed when needed.
• Wikis use simple syntax structure, users do not need to know HTML to add and edit content.
  

(Adopted from School Library Learning 2.0: A similar project)

Popular wikis include the collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia and its relative, the community news site WikiNews. Library-related wikis including the Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library, the ALA Midwinter Meeting Wiki, and the ALA Professional Tips Wiki.Wiki Farms, such as Wikia, are directories of diverse wikis.

Behind every wiki is specialized wiki software mounted on a web server. Popular Wiki software packages include DekiWiki, MediaWiki, and PMWiki. To get an idea of how they compare to each other, see Wikimatrix.

In the UCI Libraries, several efforts are underway to use wikis for collaboration. Public Service has a wiki as does Collection Development. EEE recently launched a Wiki open to the entire campus community.

For more information about wikis, here is a video tutorial that is fun and short:



Exercise 1

Spend some time browsing popular and Library-based wikis, for example:

• Wikipedia
• WikiNews
• 1911 Encyclopedia Wiki version of the renowned 1911 Edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Ohio University Libraries - Biz Wiki
• Oregon State University Libraries Wiki
• University of South Carolina Aiken Library USC Aiken’s Library site built using PMWiki.
  

Exercise 2

Create and edit Wiki pages on the Public Services , Collection Development Wiki (or any wiki of choice). It is up to you what you want to add. If you went to Midwinter, you might want to post your conference notes on the conference notes page . If you don’t know what to add, you can try editing pages in the WikiSandbox, a page where you practice without messing up existing pages.

Editing or adding a page using PMWiki is straightforward:

• Go to either the Public Services or Collections Wiki and navigate to the page you would like to edit. Click on the “edit” link in the upper right of the page you want to edit; this will open up the editor and enable you to edit or add new content to a page. In order to edit in PMWiki, you may need to use some coding, basic codes are listed beneath the editing window.
  
  
• If you want to add a new page to a wiki, open the page you would like to link the new page and open the editor, then add a link to a new page by typing: [[Title of New Page]]
  
  The brackets “[[ ]]” indicate that you are linking to another page. If the page does not exist already, the wiki will automatically create one .
  
  
• Once you have added a new page, type in your name as the person making the edit and click “save.” When you save, you should see your new link on the page.
  
  
• To add content to your new page, click on the new link to go to your page, then click “edit” to add your content.
  

So, for instance, if you wanted to add conference or meeting notes to the Conference Notes page, you would do the following:

• Go to the Conference Notes page and open up the editor.
  
  
• First, you will need to create a new page for your report by typing: #[[Title of New Page]] at the end of the existing list of reports.
  
  
• In this case, # indicates you are adding to a numbered list and the brackets “[[ ]]” indicate you are linking to another page.
  
  
• Save your changes.
  
  
• To add conference notes. Click on the link you created, and edit the page to add your content.
  

The EEE Wiki, uses MediaWiki, provides a good comparison if you want to see how another wiki software works.

Exercise 3 (Optional)

Blog about your experience – comment on the exercises / what you like, didn’t like / other wikis you found useful/interesting / reflect on possible uses…

Thing 7: Social Bookmarking and Folksonomies

In the past, annotating information resources was pretty much the exclusive pursuit of librarians -- well not anymore! In the Web 2.0 landscape, users are applying their own natural language to describe, organize, and facilitate retrieval to and discovery of online content such as photos, articles, podcasts, and web pages. These user-generated annotations go by many names, including tags, social bookmarks, and social classification.

Why are people doing this? By annotating content themselves they can use language that reflects their own needs and way of looking at the world. They can also group these tags into categories and hierarchies that are meaningful to them (sorry LCSH!) .

People share their annotations with each other in order to help one another find interesting content. For example, users save their tagged content in social bookmarking software such as del.icio.us or Flickr, and then the software organizes the tags so that they are searchable and browseable by others. This community of tags is referred to as a folksonomy.

Folksonomies, according to Thomas Vander Wal (who coined the termed), can be either broad or narrow. A broad folksonomy allows more than one user to tag a digital item (e.g. del.icio.us), thus allowing for a richer system that includes synonyms and more varied vocabularies, whereas a narrow folksonomy generally only allows one user to tag an item (e.g. Flickr). A broad folksonomy usually makes it easier to find information, because information is tagged in many different ways.

Tag clouds are often used in a folksonomy to visually represent user-generated tags. The tags are arranged either alphabetically and/or by popularity. Check out the tag cloud at CiteULike – on the right hand side you’ll see a list of the most active tags, with the most popular tags appearing in a larger font. This tag cloud is automatically generated by the social software.

Exercises

1) del.icio.us

Before you begin, view this fun, short tutorial about del.icio.us:

a) Search del.icio.us for a topic that interests you. Browse the results and note the tags that other users apply to the same topic. Many people use del.icio.us to discover other websites of interest to them. Click on some of these other tags to explore related resources.

b) Set up a del.icio.us account.

c) Copy the URL of a website you're interested in bookmarking. Next login to your del.icio.us account. Click on "post", then paste the URL into the empty field, and lastly click on "save":

d) Fill out the description, notes, and tag fields. Click "save" to complete the process!

e) Examine the information associated with your new bookmark, for example:

f) Check out how some library groups are using del.icio.us accounts.

2) Optional del.icio.us exercise

To make it easier to tag your favorite content, put in a workticket with IT to get a del.icio.us button added to your browser. With this button you’ll be able to bookmark a site easily and quickly just by clicking on it!

3) Explore another social bookmarking site

Pick one from the list of examples and explore it like you did for del.icio.us.

4) Time for reflection: Create a blog post

Create a blog post about your social bookmarking experiences and offer your thoughts about these types of tools. How might you use them in your life? And how do you think libraries might leverage social bookmarking?

Thing 6: Social Networks - Facebook & More

Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, among others, are all social networking spaces.

Social networking spaces are characterized by:

Profile pages, which commonly include name, contact information, interests, and a photograph of yourself. Some allow customization, and others are more vanilla in look and feel.

“Friending”, which allows you to add another person/profile as a “friend” or a “contact.” The “friending” aspect of an online social network often accounts for why some social networking sites are popular with specific groups. For example, Facebook began as a social network for college and university students; it has since opened up to allow anyone to join the network, but it still remains most popular with students.

Groups, which form around common interests, therefore most online social networks allow users to start a group or join a group based on their interests or common goals. Depending on the social networking site, you will probably find a group that represents your interests, regardless of what that interest might be.

Facebook was started by students at Harvard and has included non-education members since late 2006.

MySpace began as a place for independent bands to promote their concerts and music.

LinkedIn responds mostly to the interests of private sector professionals.

We will be using Facebook

Exercise

* Join

* Create a profile (you don’t need a picture, but you could use something from Flickr)

* Search for a friend

* Add a friend

* Look at a friend's friends to find friends

* Accept friendship

* View a friend's' profile

*Join a Facebook group (How about UCI Libraries for one)

*Write on a friend's wall

*Add a Facebook Application (e.g. Search for the Antpac application)

*Try to add, then remove an application

*Blog this!


Further Reading:
Landis, C. (2007). Social networking sites: Getting friendly with our users. C&RL News, 68(11). Retrieved December 19, 2007 http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2007/december07/ALA_print_layout_1_448349_448349.cfm

Tutorial
From Murdoch University’s Kathryn Greenhill. Retrieved December 20, 2007 in swf format. This is fast, so go through it, then try the activity after pausing. A few Facebook details have changed since this was made.
http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/let/Facebook23things.swf

Thing 5: RSS Feeds & Readers

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a file format for delivering frequently updated and dynamic web content directly to the reader like a newspaper. It is used for news, blogs, journals, databases and more. It delivers headlines from which you may choose to read a full posting. It is typically represented as an orange symbol.

This week’s exercise focuses on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account to bring feeds of interest to you together.

[If you prefer to use Google Reader, MyYahoo, or something else, use your blog to talk about it.]

1. Go to Bloglines and set up your personal account.

2. Subscribe to the RSS feed for the 10 Things or So Exercises blog.

• Go to your Bloglines account.


• Click on the 'Add' button on the left side of the screen.


• Copy and paste http://ucilib-10things-exercises.blogspot.com/ into the "Blog or Feed URL" box.


• Click subscribe.

• Click the box next to the first choice on the next screen and click continue.

Check the Helene Blowers’ YouTube Add RSS feeds to Bloglines for a video on how to do this, if you would like a visual demonstration.

3. Subscribe to at least 2 of the RSS feeds listed as example blogs, OR find one of your own interest using Bloglines. Here's how to do it in Bloglines.

• Click on the 'Add' button (depending on where you are in the program, this may be a tab) in the left side of the screen.

• Type in the box in the upper right side something like Los Angeles Times.

• Use the pulldown menu to its right to choose, Search for Feeds.

• Choose from among the results.

• Preview the results and based on your impressions

• Subscribe.

4. Try to locate a database, such one by Ebsco like LISTA or a library catalog, to see if they offer RSS feeds to set up an alert. (Hint: Look for RSS, XML or the following symbol)

5. Create a post in your blog about this exercise.

Finding Your Public Bloglines URL:

1. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the feeds tab on the left, and look for Share.

Thing 4: Tagging Using Technorati

Tagging is basically an informal sort of people’s subject heading assigned by those who uploaded the content (blog entries, or videos, pictures, audio) being described, let’s see how these can be used to advantage. From a library-centric perspective, one might be forgiven for thinking that loosely assigned tags are woefully inexact for searching in comparison to the standardized descriptive capabilities of Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH). Each, however, has its good and bad points.

Where LCSH are uniform, consistent, and can be relied upon for exacting results in virtually any library catalog, they are created by a highly centralized structure resistant to the whims of linguistic fashion. Consequently, new concepts and terminology can take years to come into LCSH use, if ever. The emphasis of tagging (as of blogging itself), on the other hand, is on timeliness. Blogs exist as a continuously updated medium, focusing on events—whether in one’s personal life or in the wider world—as they happen. Library of Congress subject headings would not only lack the nimbleness to adequately describe this fast-changing environment, but would also mean the blogging public would have to consult and attain a working knowledge of an imposing four-volume set of librariana. Tags allow content to be categorized on the fly, and while accuracy then becomes dependent on the descriptive skills of the particular ‘tagger’, the content is mounted and categories assigned in a time befitting the up-to-the-minute nature of the blogosphere.

Blog- and tag search engines (such as Technorati, TagJag, Google Blog Search, Yahoo! My Web, IceRocket, Feedster…), then, search these assigned tags (as well as keywords in the text of blog entries) to produce their results. But how do blogs, which might be updated several times a day, address the issue of having their content found by these search engines? Normally, as most of you are probably aware, search engines routinely send out ‘spiders’ or ‘webcrawlers’ to index Web page content, enabling it to be found in a search. Even the most widespread spidering effort would, by itself, be inadequate to the indexing of blogs, as it would at best re-visit pages every few days.

Unlike Web page authors who are dependent on the speed and thoroughness of each search engine’s spider, bloggers can take matters into their own hands and notify the blog search engines whenever they’ve posted a new entry, through a process called pinging. Bloggers can manually notify whichever blog search engines they like, or the blog can be set up to ping the chosen engines automatically each time there is a new post. Pinging usually results in new entries becoming searchable on the same day, thereby lending blogs a currency that static HTML pages can only dream of.

Exercise

The exercise for this Thing is pretty straightforward: You’ll manually notify Technorati (competing with Google Blog Search, of course, for blog searching supremacy) of a blog entry you’ve just completed , as well as the multi-engine notifier Ping-o-Matic. Then check a few of the blog search engines mentioned in this exercise to see how soon they’ve logged your pinged entry.

Go here to manually ping Technorati. Then go to Ping-o-Matic and manually ping any of the listed search engines, or all of them by clicking on CHECK COMMON. Wait at least an hour, then go back to the Ping-o-Matic page and click ‘link’ next to a few of the search engines on which you’d like to test the success of your pinging. Enter some keywords from your most recent blog post and note which engines have already logged your entry. Report your results in a new post!

If you’d like an additional challenge, set up your blog to ping Technorati automatically. Return to Technorati and follow the directions labelled Automatic Ping.