Got files? Drop (it in the) box

Cloud storage services have been around for awhile and are a great way to make your files accessible no matter where you’re located. Among my favorites is Dropbox because it goes beyond simply making your files available to you from any location. Dropbox allows you to share files and folders with others (with your permission, of course!). So, rather than just being able to access your files, you can use it as a place to share documents with co-workers, store and retrieve documents for students, and share photos with your family and friends.

“I usually just use Google Docs for that”

Dropbox can integrate with your other files and folders, appearing right alongside them.

And that’s fine. Google Docs is still a better solution if you’re looking to do synchronous collaboration on a report or presentation, but Dropbox can function just like a folder on your computer, making it more integrated into the workflows to which you’re already accustomed.

It might be possible that your organization has a networked drive or intranet that you use for sharing files (we have both here at Towson). These are both reasonable solutions to this, but both can be difficult if you need to access something at home, as many block access from off-campus. This also causes issues if you’re collaborating and sharing files with someone outside your organization. You might also run into storage and file size limitations with both of these solutions. Dropbox does have a limit of 2GB for free accounts (a subscription can get you up to 100GB). Our entire network drive is 10GB so 2GB for your own use is not so bad.

“Okay, you’ve convinced me. Now what?”

Getting a Dropbox account is easy, as is installing it on your computer. (There’s also a web interface for computers on which you can’t install or haven’t installed it.) To create an account, click the Login option in the upper-right corner and choose ‘Create an account’. Enter your info and voila!

Click 'Login' and then 'Create an account' to setup your account. Click the 'Download Dropbox' button to install it on your computer.

Click the ‘Download Dropbox’ button to install the Dropbox folder on your computer. (You’ll need admin permissions for this.)  This will download the install file to your computer. Double-click the file to start the install process. Dropbox will ask you where you would like the folder to be located (e.g. on your desktop, inside another folder, etc.).

Once everything is installed, you’ll notice the Dropbox folder (at whatever location you assigned it) and an icon in your taskbar.

Both of these will give you access to a variety of Dropbox functions.

Several Dropbox functions can be accessed from the taskbar icon.

The taskbar icon provides a shortcut to your Dropbox folder (either on your computer or on their website), a menu of recently changed files, and options to change your preferences, including moving the Dropbox folder to a new location.

Right-clicking on files and folders within the Dropbox folder will bring up your usual menu of options with the addition of a Dropbox option. From here, you can manage the sharing permissions of individual files. For any files that are in your ‘Public’ folder, you can also get a URL, which you can send to those who aren’t privy to the wonderful world of Dropbox.

What do I use it for, you ask?

I have two primary uses for Dropbox at the moment. First, as a person who constantly finds myself working at home (not recommended), I often use Remote Desktop to access my work computer. This is great, but there are times that I really need my work files on my home computer to print them or listen to them, etc. I used to email these to myself, which was a hassle and unnecessarily clutter my Inbox. Now I simply drag the needed file to Dropbox on my work computer and (almost) instantly have access to it on my home computer.

Second, I am currently serving on two work groups with members outside my organization that require files to be shared. We’re not collaborating on any documents necessarily, but a certain amount of file sharing is needed. One group is sharing video recordings, PowerPoint slides, and PDF reports. The reports and slides contain links to the video recordings. (One of the nice things about using the Dropbox folder is that your file structure stays in tact, so links to other content in the folder should still work.)  The other group is dispersing several Word documents amongst members of the group to facilitate a peer review process. The group coordinators have access to all files and the reviewers see only those files that they are reviewing.

I’ve also used this occasionally to gather content from clients and family for whom I do website development. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re emailing large files back and forth to someone, Dropbox can help you keep your Inbox clean and prevent potential confusion over the newest version of a file.

I’m sure that many other uses for Dropbox exist, and I’d love to hear how you’re using it (or would like to use it). What other cloud storage services are you using, and how do they stack up to Dropbox?

doodle me this…

Here’s a sample email correspondence with which I am sure the majority of you are familiar:

Email 1

Hi <insert name>,

We need to meet about that <insert random project> pretty soon. How’s next week for you? Let me know.

Email 2 (responder)

Hey <insert name>

You’re right. I’ve been meeting to get in touch with you about that. Next week should be fine. What time works for you?

Email 3 (original sender)

Well, I’m pretty booked Monday morning, but I’m relatively free other than that. How about Thursday at 3pm?

Email 4 (responder)

I can’t do Thursday afternoon. I have a dentist appointment. What about sometime Wednesday afternoon? I could also do Friday afternoon.

Email 5 (original sender)

Wednesday afternoon won’t work.  Let’s plan for Friday at noon.

Email 6 (responder)

No, I can’t do noon on Friday. I was thinking about sometime after 1pm. What about later in the afternoon?

Email 7 (original sender)

Oh shoot, I just booked something else for Friday afternoon, so I can’t do that.  My week’s getting pretty full now; maybe we should look at the following week. Do you have any free time the week after this one?

(repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum, ad absurdum)

---

I would hope that this email correspondence doesn’t sound too familiar to any of you, but I’m sure most of us have been a part of an unsuccessful attempt to schedule a meeting. Of course, if you’re scheduling a meeting with co-workers and you have a calendaring and email system like Microsoft Outlook, you can avoid all of this by checking someone’s calendar and sending a meeting request.

 

But what if you don’t have Outlook? Or you’re trying to schedule a meeting with someone who still prefers to use a paper calendar? Or you’re scheduling a meeting with someone outside your organization?

Enter Doodle

Doodle is a scheduling application that you can use to overcome any of the above situations. It “takes the pain out of finding the right date and time” by letting meeting attendees select the times that they are available from a pre-designated list of times/dates. Once everyone has added their availability, the meeting organizer can choose the best time to meet.  Best of all, the basic service is free!

Before you start setting up meeting, you’ll want to click the login link to create an account. (Actually, you don’t have to do this, but it’ll give you a few more features later on.)

 

Before starting, create an account.

Once you’ve created your account and logged in, you’re ready to start scheduling meetings.  Click the “Schedule event” link.

Click "Schedule event" to start.

From here you can enter basic information about the meeting/event, such as Title and Description.  This information will show up on the page that meeting attendees see when they fill in their availability.

Choose Dates

Click ‘Next’ to move on to the screen for select potential dates for meeting. (Note: it is a good idea to pick dates/times during which you – as the meeting organizer – are available.) Don’ worry about the times at this point; you’ll get to enter those later.  Also, Doodle suggests that 5 possible meeting times is usually enough to find a common time – I question that, though I haven’t found a magic number.

 

Choose potential meeting dates. Doodle suggests that 5 potential dates/times will suffice.

Choose times

After selecting possible meeting dates, you’ll next be asked to choose times during which meetings could take place.  These can be entered in various ways.  For instance, you could say 9am, 9:00-10:30, noon, or 15:00.

 

Fill in the potential meeting times.

Sending invitations

You can either manually send out invitations to the scheduling poll or do it through the Doodle interface.  I would recommend the latter option.  Doodle will alert you when someone fills in their availability, as well as tell you when all attendees have completed the poll.  You can then go in, select a final meeting time, and send it to all attendees.

 

I would recommend having Doodle send the invitations.

If you chose to have Doodle send the invitations, you will be prompted to enter the attendees’ email addresses. You also have the ability to enter a customized message that will be sent along with the invitation.

Completing the poll

Each attendee will receive an invitation, including a link where they can fill in their availability.  They will also see the availability of others who have completed the poll.  The user simply checks the times during which they are available and clicks ‘Save’.

 

The attendee can see the availability for other attendees who have completed the poll.

When all attendees have completed the poll you (or whoever the organizer is) will receive an email indicating this and asking you to choose a meeting time.  When you go back into the Doodle poll, you’ll see everyone’s availability, as well as a count of how many attendees are available during each potential meeting time.  Typically, you would choose the time when all/most attendees can come, but of course you could apply your own criteria as well.

 

Choose the time that works best for you and the other attendees.

Doodle will send a notice to all attendees about the final meeting time, or you can choose to send this on your own.

A few parting words of advice

There are a couple keys to making sure that your Doodle poll is successful:

1. Don’t leave the poll open for too long. People’s schedules change, and if you leave a poll open for longer than a day or two, some of the times during which they indicated they are available may no longer work by the time your poll closes.
2. Related to #1, always give your attendees a deadline for completing the poll.
3. Close the poll and choose a time as soon as the deadline arrives.  It’s unfair to the attendees who fill in their availability to have to wait for a few stragglers.
4. Emphasize that they should fill in ALL times during which they are available.  Some attendees may be inclined to just offer up an hour or two of their time even if they have many more hours during which they could meet.  Remind them that the meeting is only 1 hour (or whatever the length is) no matter how many time slots they make available.

There are several other scheduling applications out there.  Let us know in the comments area if you’ve used one that you like.

Remember, just because it’s easy to schedule meetings with Doodle doesn’t mean you should!

Why let code hold you back? Websites with Google Sites.

Are you sick of asking your programmer or IT person to help you build a website?  Are you lost when students ask you about Dreamweaver?  Google Sites might be a great option for you.  Whether you don’t have the skills or simply the time, Google Sites is a great option for quickly creating subject guides, course pages, or even entire library websites.

Design
Without the need for any coding or external programs such as Dreamweaver, you can create a surprisingly robust and customized website.  While there are many built-in templates and themes to easily style your site, with a little more work, you can also customize the colors, layouts, fonts, etc.  Some of these advanced features can get a bit confusing, but the built-in themes should be adequate for the beginner user.

Web Address
Another nice feature of Google Sites is that you can also use your own web address for the page.  Google Sites however, does not supply these custom domains therefore you must buy the domain from a third party and set it up through the domain registrar.  For beginners or those not needing a custom url, Google Sites will give you an address similar to
http://sites.google.com/site/carissa_tomlinson.

Collaboration and Privacy
What would a website be these days without some interaction and collaboration?  Google Sites not only allows multiple people to collaborate on the website development, but it also can be comment enabled, allowing readers to add content much like comments on a blog.  Don’t want people to comment on your webpages?  No problem, simply don’t enable comments.  What if you don’t even want the general population to be able to see your website?   No worries, Google Sites allows you to make your website private and shared only to designated people.  A private Google Site could even be used as a sort of library intranet!

Things to Know

• Any content you create is hosted by Google which means that if Google Sites goes away, it’s possible so will your site.
• You cannot copy the source code and put it into an HTML or CSS file to host on your own server.
• You cannot import a CSS file to style your page, but you can use inline CSS and HTML tags.
• You have a limit of 100 Mb of storage per site (for uploaded images, videos, etc.)
• There are no ads, but you can choose to add targeted ads and actually get paid any revenue from the ads!
• Powered by Google Sites will appear at the bottom of your pages.

Now go and put something on the web!

Yugma and Web Conferencing

Need to meet with a colleague across town or across the country? Trying to present content or teach an online class? Need to teach library instruction at a satellite campus? There’s no need to travel or to teach in an asynchronous environment- why not try a web conferencing tool? Web conferencing allows for easy screen and presentation sharing as well as options for audio through a conference call or voice over IP (VoIP). Some programs even have the capability for a shared mouse and keyboard so that something like database search instruction can be modeled and then tried by all participants in an online, shared environment. Businesses have been using these technologies for years, but they can also be very useful in an academic setting with more and more online and distance education opportunities as well as collaboration between faculty and/or staff at different institutions.

Yugma is one of the many options out there for online conferencing. One great benefit of Yugma over many others is that it has a slimmed down version that’s available for free! With the Yugma free version, you have the capability to share your screen to up to 20 people at a time. It also gives you a free conference call number or the option to use Skype (VoIP) for all participants to be able to connect vocally. For written communication, public and private chat is also included. Yugma is also unique in that it is compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux systems.

With an upgrade to a paid account you additionally are able to share keyboard and mouse, change presenters, record and archive sessions, schedule meetings in advance, and access presenter tools (highlight aspects of screen/presentation). Prices run from $14.95 a month (or $149.50 a year) to $179.95 a month ($1799.50 a year) depending on the number of possible participants in a conference (20 to 500). An additional “Webinar” feature is available at $19.99 a month (or $199.50 a year) which allows you to have personalized web space where participants can sign up and directly access the webinar.

Yugma is intuitive to use, although I did run into some hiccups with the free account. The presenter/organizer will need to download the program, however participants should be able to access the screen share/presentation by simply visiting the Yugma website (www.yugma.com) and entering the access code that the presenter will see when setting up the session. A few things to look out for when using Yugma:

• Although Yugma gives the presenter the option to “Invite Contacts” or “Invite Contacts to View Only”, the free version only allows viewing, so choose the view only option.
• If you upgrade to the paid version and would like participants to be able to do more than view, they need to “run” the program which may cause administrative rights problems.
• The latest Java will need to be installed on both presenter and participants computers
• The teleconferencing, although free, doesn’t have the best sound quality. Skype is also an option.
• The access code that the presenter is given when setting up the session is in a 000-000-000, however needs to be entered by the participants on the Yugma page without the dashes.

For additional options for web conferencing see the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_conferencing_software

 

 

Wetpaint Wikis for Libraries

Wetpaint Wikis

Have you ever wanted to create a collaborative space online or simply a basic web site, but don’t think you have the technology skills to do so? Try Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com), an extremely easy to set up, easy to use wiki program. Don’t know what a wiki is? Don’t worry! The word “wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick,” but it is also very easy! We’ve all seen the world’s largest wiki, Wikipedia, and understand it as a website that anyone can edit or create pages (encyclopedia entries). Encyclopedias are not the only things you can create with a Wiki- you can also create:

• A committee or department collaborative space online– why send emails back and forth when everything can be in the same spot?
• Library instruction web page for students– engage your students with active learning and ask them to add to the page
• Subject guides – easy to collaboratively create and update
• Subject liaison site– add chat, RSS feeds and other interactive tools to your page
• A staff training portal – learn from each other by having both questions and answers in one spot
• A place online to collaboratively work on a project or share ideas.
• Just about anything you’d want to make a webpage for, but with more collaborative capabilities and without needing to have technical skills.

Wetpaint is one of the many web-based platforms you can use to create a wiki. Wetpaint Web based wiki allows you to:

• Easily create and update pages

• Choose from a variety of designs and add your own header image

• Have a variety of permissions settings- possible to assign roles to each user/ creator (editor, writer, administrator, etc.)

• Choose who has access to your page (open to the public or select people)

• Use an easily navigable website design

• Remove ads if your wiki is used for educational purposes

To set up a Wetpaint wiki, go to www.wetpaint.com and choose to create a free site. You will then be asked to name your site and choose the web address of the wiki. You can then choose the level of openness and collaboration of the site by choosing who can edit your site. Next you’ll be able to choose the design and look of your site. That’s all you have to do to get started! Once you start adding to your site, you’ll notice Wetpaint’s option to add widgets to the page. This allows you to easily add things like Youtube videos, an instant messaging chat box, RSS feeds, polls, pictures, audio, and much more. If you need more help setting up your Wetpaint wiki, check out these useful videos:
Wet Paint Wiki How To Part 1
WetPaint Wiki How To Part 2