Monday, July 27, 2009

Not too sure?

I'm not too sure what to do tonight.. but we always come up with a number of things based on who turns up.. so this one depends entirely on who turns up!

Chris points to
an interesting write up by a local media consultant about the level of interactivity in Dunedin through social media.

One challenge I'd love to have a go at is creating a full social media presence from nothing for someone who doesn't even know you're doing it.. a Youtube channel based on playlists and favs, a Flickr based on tags and favs, a Delicious account based on tags.. and pool it all into Facebook perhaps...

Monday, July 20, 2009

Hypertext

Have you been caught without your WYSIWYG editor yet? You know, when you're leaving a comment on someones blog, or trying to add a description to a photo and the text input box doesn't have the button for creating a link, making bold, or making italic.

Let's drill this tonight. It comes in very handy.

1. Do a Google search for "what is the HTML for a link?". If your first result is something from W3Schools - you're on a good path. But just about anything will do.

2. Leave a comment to this post and use the HTML to link to the page you found and are referring to.

3. Now find me a good video on HTML and leave me another comment with a link to it.. but this time I want it all in italics

4. Finally, what does Wikipedia have to say about HTML.. is there a course on HTML at their sister project Wikiversity? So what you can find and leave another comment with a hyperlink and one word in bold and another word in italics.

5. If you think you have the hang of it, try commenting me a picture. I wonder if that one will work.

See you tonight at 6pm

Monday, July 13, 2009

What will we do tonight?

No need to ask! Chris has it all layed out:
  1. Linking things together
  2. Work collaboratively to create a presence for something
  3. Mingling a bit more
  4. Creating a youtube chanel
Cool!

Let's set up a social media business tonight.. and here's our ad:



And check out the Otago Polytechnic's Youtube channel. Notice no videos in it? Can you tell me how it works?

Monday, July 6, 2009

Creating a webpage with Jimdo

This one comes recommended by Jonathon.

Jimdo is a WYSIWYG web hosting service.[5] Jimdo offers JimdoFree, a free web hosting service, and JimdoPro, a premium service. Jimdo is operated by Jimdo GmbH, a Hamburg, Germany-based company.



Jimdo's help pages.

How to:
  1. Its pretty easy to create an account with Jimdo so as to get started creating a website.. but you will need to be able to access your email account to confirm the new account and get started on your website.
  2. When you have created an account, the email will issue you a link and a password - open the link in a new tab, and copy the password to use for signing in.
  3. The settings for changing your password are behind a large icon row on the right. All editing is in context and easy to use

Slideshare

SlideShare is a presentation sharing website where users can upload, view and share presentation files.

Wikipedia July 2009


How to:

  1. Set up an account on Slideshare.net
  2. Upload a presentation made in powerpoint or open office or similar, by clicking the big link at the top that says "upload"
  3. Then click the big button that says "Browse and select files"
  4. Locate file and upload
  5. Once the upload completes, you will see fields for adding a Title, Tags, Description etc. Fill these in.
  6. If you like, you can click the "Browse and select files" button again, and upload multiple files
  7. Finally, click the big "Publish All" button
  8. If you have an MP3 recording of yourself talking through the presentation, you can upload it and synch it with your slides. To do this, view your slides on Slideshare, and click the link that says "add MP3"

No requests

Ok, so I've been watching blogs and tweets and no requests for how-to demonstration have come through.

I did get a request by email though. Felicity would like to learn how to embed audio with a slide presentation she has on Slideshare.net so as to make what they call a Slidecast. Slideshare.net is kinda like the Youtube of Powerpoint.. so for those who like making powerful points, or like to get their message down into a nicely illustrated sequence of events, Slideshare is for YOU!



Obviously teachers and students should know how to get the most out of Slideshare, but I am noticing a lot more businesses using it to create short sharp messages about their products and services as well.

So lets spend a little while checking out Slideshare.. starting as always with creating an account.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Social Media and Social Change in New Zealand

Picked this one up from a Tweet by Saah Stewart: Social Media and Social Change in New Zealand by Simon Young.



My presentation to a group of students from Regis University who were visiting New Zealand. Their interest was in the highly successful "Like Minds, Like Mine" campaign, and also the use of social media for social change. Interestingly, although LMLM currently doesn't use any social media, the principles are the same: have a clear simple message, build relationships and spark conversation.