What’s with the Wiring?

So this morning we have some people coming round to look at our wiring and cables! Hopefully they are going to sort it all out for us!

After months of flaky broadband my husband finally decided to do an audit of telephone sockets and cable. It turns out that the telephone wire comes in to one room in the house then does a merry dance around each room, splitting itself several times and ending up at the place the router is plugged in to. Basically the wiring is a mess! This combined with our rural location (we are quite a long way from the nearest radio mast) results in our slow, temperamental broadband. (At least that is our current theory!)

We’re hoping that shortening and improving the cables will give us a better chance of being permanently connected. With all the online tools my new job requires I really want to avoid long periods of being offline.

Interestingly my colleague Brian Kelly has been asking about cabling for his own house. He’s even created a Storify (What cabling is needed for a network in a large house?) with the responses. See below for the tweets.

The consensus among the more technical on Twitter is that you shouldn’t scrimp on cable and it’s worth shelling out for Cat5e and possibly Cat6e if you have it installed professionally. We’ve decided to leave this to the experts, fingers crossed they are as clued up as the Twitteratti!

For further information see the useful link to Automated House: Wiring guide with some guidance on installation of the various wiring systems around the ‘automated home’.

Tooling Up

This week marked my first working for the Open Knowledge Foundation #okfn (a previous post explains my current job situation). I’m only doing 2 days a week for now but will build it up as time moves on.

OKF (or OKFN, where the N stands for Network) is a global network with staff all around the world and much of their work is also done through volunteers. There isn’t any official central office, though there are clusters of staff in London and Berlin. Anyway all of this makes for an impressive virtual organisation that uses a huge number of remote working technologies.

In my first few days I’ve been introduced to:

• Webex – http://www.webex.com – Cisco webinar software
• Xero – http://www.xero.com – online accounting software for pay and expenses
• Toggl – https://www.toggl.com/ – time keeping software
• Trello – https://trello.com – for project collaboration and management
• Campfire – http://campfirenow.com – group chat
• Grove – https://grove.io – for group chat
• High Rise – http://highrisehq.com – for contacts management
• Gravatar – https://en.gravatar.com – for managing avatars

They also use a number of tools that I am already familiar with:

• Google docs – for document collaboration
• Gmail – http://gmail.com – for email
• Google hangouts – http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/ – for small group meetings
• Google Drive – https://drive.google.com – for document organisation and storage
• Google Calendar – https://www.google.com/calendar/ – for scheduling
• Dropbox – http://dropbox.com – for document transfer and storage
• WordPress – http://wordpress.com – for web site and blogging
• YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOKFN – for videos
• Various discussion lists
• Wikis

I’m sure there is lots more too…

So my plan is to work through the list and write a couple of blog posts on the most useful tools. Watch this space!

Open Source Cloud Software

Using open source software has a huge number of benefits, firstly it’s free to use, distribute, and modify, also, as the code is open to everyone it is often easier for bugs to be fixed and features added. Over the years I have had lots of dealings with OSSWatch, which provides advice and guidance on the use, development, and licensing of free and open source software to the Higher Education sector. Unfortunately OSSWatch will no longer receive core funding from Jisc, so will now be moving to a consultancy model.  I’ve worked with lots of OSSWatch people over the years and the services it has delivered have been excellent, I wish them well for the future.

OK. Back to topic… Jennifer Marsh, a remote worker who blogs for Rackspace Hosting has written us a guest post about some new open source offerings in cloud computing software. Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides support to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing.

*********

Open source cloud software bundles pertinent and powerful tools for companies migrating to cloud technology.

Why do they do it? Cloud servers and data centers provide fast performance and security that isn’t available through private, dedicated servers. Even businesses using dedicated hosted servers can upgrade to open cloud host services to advance application performance.

Here’s more about the latest in open source cloud software.

OpenStack

OpenStack was created as a collaboration to provide businesses with a full range of cloud tools. OpenStack includes a dashboard, a storage control panel, disk image (backup) catalog control and network connectivity device services. Rackspace offers a community of developers from 87 different countries that participate in the project, so new tools and resources are added to the open source software, which benefits every type of business.

Apache’s CloudStack

Apache is known for its open-source web server software, but the community has also contributed to a cloud application for businesses. The application was developed and contributed by Citrix developers, but it also has an open source license. The CloudStack system includes command line tools, VMWare support, network as a service and user management in the cloud. For company administrators familiar with Citrix or Apache, this tool benefits IT managers who are already familiar with the variety of Apache tools available for web servers.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a cloud service fully compatible with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) system. AWS is a newer cloud product in the market, but it is a reliable source for businesses looking for the power of the cloud. The disadvantage of the AWS system is that many spam sites use AWS to support phishing and insecure applications. For legitimate businesses, Eucalyptus supports a dashboard and image hosting system for businesses just starting out with cloud technology.

Whatever system you choose, the performance and reliability are determined by the cloud host supporting the system. Choose a cloud host that offers the reliability of persistent uptime, a host that offers support if deployment fails and a monitoring system in case a server needs to switch to a backup system.

Visualising your Work Network

I’ve just had a go with the LinkedIn Labs InMap. The service allows you to create a visual map of your LinkedIn connections and label the groups. The map is stored and you can revisit it later on to see how your professional worlds are evolving. My map is available online and you can zoom in and see my the details of my network.

It’s really interesting to see how the groups you are part of fit together and the core people that join those groups (connectors). A lot of my network is built around Brian Kelly – no big surprise as he was my line manager for over 11 years.

The groups themselves seemed to divided up into:

• Jisc (and related) people – Jisc Programme managers, people who work for Jisc services etc.
• Web manager people – people I’ve met through the IWMW community
• UKOLN and RDM people – colleagues from UKOLN and the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), other research data management people/li>
• Library people
• BL and IMPACT project people – people I met while working on the EU IMPACT project, quite a few British Library people
• e-learning people – mainly from the University of Bath
• Friends – some of who have some slight connection to work areas, most of who don’t – I don’t usually make a point of adding friends to LinkedIn
• Local people – mainly people I met while living in Melksham and volunteering on environmental projects

It will be interesting to see how my network changes over time. I have never actively tried to develop my LinkedIn profile, I just accept requests when they come in. It would also be interesting to see if I could influence the network, or try to create new groups. Anyway all good stuff to while away an hour or two!

Battling Big Files

I’ve just returned from a snowy Amsterdam where I attended and presented at the International Digital Curation Conference. Although a former colleague of mine (Ed Bremner) was there to take photos and record the plenary speakers he was unable to clone himself, so I helped video some of the parallel talks using a Flip camera. On the day I battled with the Flip battery life and storage space – Flips only have a 100 minutes of space and need frequent recharging – but I managed to record 12 videos. The videos vary in size but most are around 1 GB.

Since then I have battled with uploading the files to somewhere Kirsty Pitkin (event amplifier) can access them – she is going to edit the files. The place could be public but mustn’t be advertised – so YouTube and similar video sharing sites are out.

So I’m sat at the end of a snow-covered home broadband line with speed restrictions and file upload limits. The whole thing has been a painful process and I think I’ve been going about it all wrong. I am having my own big data problem – ironic in that I advise people on research data management! I’m sure there must be an easier way…any ideas please say!!

The approaches I’ve tried/considered so far are:

• Emailing files was impossible as they are just too big.

• Uploading the files to my public area in Dropbox – this seems to be the most successful approach but is very slow and storage is limited by having a free account. Some files are too big to upload via the Web site so have had to be added using the file system.

• Uploading the files to a public area of my personal work server. This approach requires VPN and breaks in my connection mean I have sent back to square one a few times.

• Putting the files onto memory sticks or a disc and posting it – I didn’t try this as I was hoping using an online approach would be quicker – I may have been wrong, crawling round to Kirsty’s house on my hands and knees may be quicker.

• Uploading files to Microsoft Skydrive or Google Drive – again some files are too big and I was reluctant to try another approach when Dropbox seemed to be working. Each time I try something different I’m guessing it just puts a little more strain on the upload pipe?

• Uploading the files to BitTorrent or other filesharing services might be one way to do it, but they can be a bit dodgy.

• Whatever happened to FTP?!

As I write I have now uploaded 9 of the 12 videos, I’m hoping the others will be in the right place by this time next year… ☹

Virtual Teams on Scoop.it!

Scoop.it! allows you to create online magazines on a chosen subject at the click of a button. The freemium option allows to select up to 5 topics, curate resources from various sources and edit the output. You can also export and share your published magazine on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr and WordPress. If you are willing to pay you can select more topics, use different accounts and track the results.

I haven’t created any scoops yet but I really like the one created by Nader Ale Ebrahim on Virtual R&D Teams. Lots of great articles and links.

Happy scooping and all the best for 2013!

Tagxedo – is it too Wordley?

I was in a meeting discussing images for an e-learning module and someone suggested Wordle. The consensus was that Wordles are everywhere and that they tend to be a little cliché these days. I originally wrote about Wordle on this blog in 2008!

One suggestion was that we use Tagxedo instead. Tagxedo lets you create shaped tag clouds from Twitter IDs, Delicious accounts, RSS feeds, Web sites and searches. The tag cloud above was created from a search on ‘remote working’. There is a lot of customisation available, but unfortunately it doesn’t let you paste in words and use them to create a cloud – though it’s possible that I just haven’t discovered how to do it. You can also buy posters and/or mugs of everything you create.

There are lots of other tag cloud creators around, such as Tag Crowd, Word hearts and Worditout. But are the days of the tag cloud as a visual image numbered? Is is just not new and fresh enough? If so, what can those of us with mediocre graphics skills use to illustrate a point?

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012

Jane Hart, Consultant, speaker and writer at Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has created an excellent presentation on the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012 as voted for by 500+ learning professionals worldwide. The presentation is available from Slideshare and embeded below.

The tools list is perfect for online learning, collaboration and remote working, and is embedded below.

Personal/Professional use, in Education and/or in the Enterprise.

↑↓	rank	Tool	Notes	Pers	Edu	Ent
=	1	Twitter	Social network & micro-blogging service	✔	✔
=	2	YouTube	Video-sharing site	✔	✔
=	3	Google Docs/Drive	Office suite and data storage service	✔	✔	(✔)
↑ 11	4	Google Search	Web search engine	✔
=	5	WordPress	Blogging/website tool	✔	✔	✔
=	6	Dropbox	File synchronization	✔	✔	✔
↓ 3	7	Skype	Text and voice chat tool	✔	✔	(✔)
↑ 11	8	PowerPoint	Presentation software	✔	✔	✔
↑ 5	9	Facebook	Social network	✔	✔
↑ 1	10	Wikipedia	Collaborative encyclopaedia	✔	(✔)
↓ 3	11	Moodle	Course management system		✔	(✔)
↑ 5	12	Evernote	Note-taking tool	✔
↓ 4	13	Slideshare	Slide sharing site	✔	✔
↓ 7	14	Prezi	Presentation software	✔	✔
↓ 3	15	Blogger/Blogspot	Blogging tool	✔	✔
=	16	Google Reader	RSS aggregator	✔
↑ 9	17	Google+ / Hangouts	Social network/video meetings	✔	✔
↓ 5	18	Diigo	Social bookmarking/ annotation	✔	✔
↑ 23	19	Word	Word processing software	✔	✔	✔
↑ 11	20	Yammer	Private social networking engine	(✔)	✔	✔
↓ 11	21	EduGlogster	Interactive posters		✔
=	22	Edmodo	Educational social learning network platform		✔
↓ 2	23	LinkedIn	Professional network	✔		✔
↑ 9	24	Scoopit	Curation software	✔	✔
↑ 5	25	TED Talks /Ed	Inspirational talks/lessons	✔	✔
↓ 8	26	Jing	Screencasting tool	✔	✔	✔
↓ 7	27	Gmail	Web mail	✔	(✔)	(✔)
=	28	Camtasia	Screencasting tool		✔	✔
=	29	Audacity	Audio recorder/editing tool	✔	✔	✔
↓ 7	30	Wikispaces	Wiki hosting platform	✔	✔
↓ 6	31	Voicethread	Digital storytelling platform		✔
↑ 27	32	Adobe Connect	Web conferencing software			✔
↑ 10	33	Google Sites	Web/wiki hosting platform	✔	✔	(✔)
↑ 10	34	iPad and apps	Apple tablet and apps	✔	✔
↑ 10	35	Google Chrome	Web browser	✔
NEW	36	Pinterest	Virtual pinboard	✔	✔
↑ 9	37	Articulate	E-learning authoring software		✔	✔
=	38	Google Maps	Interactive maps	✔	✔	✔
↓ 12	39	Animoto	Video creating software	✔	✔
↓ 3	40	Tweetdeck	Social media dashboard	✔
↑ 32	41	Hootsuite	Social media dashboard	✔
↑ 5	42	Snagit	Screen capture software	✔	✔	✔
↑ 5	43	Adobe Captivate	E-Learning authoring software		✔	✔
↑ 20	44	Livebinders	Digital organizer	✔	✔
↑ 20	45	Sharepoint	Collaboration platform		(✔)	✔
↑ 6	46	Mindmeister	Mindmapping software	✔
↑ 19	47	iTunes and iTunesU	Audio/video player / course distribution platform	✔	✔
↓ 24	48	Delicious	Social bookmarking tool	✔	✔
↑ 20	49	Outlook	Email client	✔		✔
↑ 10	50	Blackboard Collaborate (previously Elluminate)	Web conferencing software		✔
↑ 23	51	SurveyMonkey	Survey software	✔	✔	✔
BACK	52	Google Scholar	Search engine for scholarly works	✔	(✔)
BACK	53	Adobe Photoshop	Image editing software	✔		✔
BACK	54	WebEx	Web conferencing software			✔
↓ 20	55	Google Apps	Branded Google apps	✔	✔	✔
↑ 18	56	Khan Academy	Video learning platform		✔
NEW	57	Google Translate	Online language translator	✔
↑ 24	58	Quizlet	Flashcards & study games		✔
↓ 3	59	Scribd	Document sharing site	✔	✔
↓ 24	60	flickr	Photo sharing site	✔	✔
NEW	61	Flipboard	Social magazine for iPad etc	✔
NEW	62	Bing	Web search engine	✔
↓ 6	63	Ning	Community platform	✔	✔	✔
↓ 13	64	Screenr	Screencasting tool	✔	✔	✔
BACK	65	Firefox + addons	Web browser	✔
NEW	66	Instapaper	Read it later tool	✔
↑ 2	67	Udutu	Collaborative course authoring		✔	✔
BACK	68	MovieMaker	Movie authoring tool	✔	✔
BACK	69	Mindjet (prev MindManager)	Mindmapping tool	✔
↑ 12	70	Kindle	E-book reader	✔
↑ 29	71	OneNote	Note-taking software	✔
↓ 18	72	Wallwisher	Online noticeboard		✔
NEW	73	Zite	Social magazine for iPad	✔
↓ 19	74	iPhone and apps	Apple smartphone and apps	✔	✔	✔
↑ 7	75	Poll Everywhere	Live polling	✔	✔	✔
↑ 14	76	Pocket (prev Read it Later)	Read it later software	✔
↓ 3	77	Edublogs	Educational blogging platform	✔	✔
↓ 29	78	Vimeo	Video sharing site	✔	✔
↓ 40	79	Wordle	Word cloud generator	✔	✔
↓ 39	80	Symbaloo (and Edu version)	Visual bookmarking dashboard	✔	✔
=	81	Excel	Spreadsheet software	✔	✔	✔
↑ 8	82	Paper.li	Curation tool	✔
↓ 15	83	lino.it	Sticky note service	✔	✔
↓ 44	84	Voki	Speaking avatars		✔
↑ 5	85	Buddypress	Social engine (WordPress plugin)		✔	✔
↓ 28	86	eFront	Course/Learning Management System		✔	✔
↓ 26	87	OpenOffice	Office software	✔	✔
↓ 54	88	PBWorks	Wiki software			✔
NEW	89	Learnist	Pinboard learning sites	✔	✔
NEW	90	MentorMob	Create Learning Playlists	✔	✔
↓ 24	91	Mahara	ePortfolio/social networking platform		✔
NEW	92	Doodle	Event scheduling	✔		✔
BACK	93	Keynote	Presentation software	✔		(✔)
↓ 6	94	Android phones and tablets	Devices using Google mobile operating system	✔		(✔)
↓ 6	95	Blackboard	Course management system		✔
BACK	96	Tumblr	Micro-blogging platform	✔
NEW	97	Quora	Q&A platform	✔
NEW	98	Windows Skydrive	File synchronization	✔
NEW	99	Popplet	Visual bookmarking	✔	✔
↓ 6	100	iMovie	Video creation software	✔	✔

Remote Working on Pinterest

I keep meaning to mention my Pinterest board on remote working. I’m just starting to put any related images in there. At the moment there are quite a few info graphics, comics and general images. I hope to build the collection up. Judy Heminsley has a great board on Work from Home offices – I’m just a little jealous!

For those unfamiliar with Pinterest users create online scrapbooks to share images of projects, ideas etc. The site has grown in popularity over the past six months. A good example of Pinterest in use is the ArchivesInfo board.

“I see Pinterest as a great potential outreach tool. I put some text on each of my archives pins to explain what each image is about. I envision adding pins of archives boxes to explain how we organize and preserve. I envision adding pins of cool things from collections that show we sometimes find in the stacks.“

The biggest issues with Pinterest are around copyright. Pinterest relies on users not to break copyright and relies on those with images to notice and alert them to issues. Pinterest makes use of images by republishing them. They take a work, in its entirety and republish without seeking permission.

Personally I think it’s a great site and copyright and digital images has much bigger problems than Pinterest. The whole thing needs rethinking!

If you see any good images do let me know!

Best Practices for Event Amplification Report

Things have been a little hectic around here and I managed to forget to mention the Best Practices for Event Amplification Report which has recently been released. The report, written by Kirsty Pitkin and Paul Shabajee is a deliverable for the Greening Events II project and I was originally down as an author, unfortunately other commitments have since got in the way.

The report has some really useful content. It begins with an introduction to the current event spectrum (three key areas: hybrid, virtual and amplified events). Each area is explained and the benefits and challenges of each considered.

The Event Spectrum

Case study accounts from the three areas are also presented. The event’s position on the event spectrum is identified, and areas like level of engagement, environmental benefits and financial cost considered.

The report concludes with a series of practical briefing documents to help event organisers rethink their own events and make use of amplified and hybrid event models. These include:

• Event Decision Template
• Event Amplification Planning Template
• Risk Analysis Checklist
• Participant Perspectives document
• Toolkit – with information on available tools
• Evaluation and Metrics suggestions

In the appendices there is also some information on the environmental and sustainability impacts of events: carbon foot printing of transport, remote attendance, event amplification etc. Here a proviso is given that “while it seems that the emissions for remote attendees are very much lower than for physical attendees because of transport related emissions alone…this is not necessarily the case.” Reasons for this include offsetting of the savings, displacement of travel, stimulation of other activities etc. I’ve explored some of these ideas before in Home working and the Rebound Effect.

The report concludes by saying:

“Further study is required to assess the long term impact of amplified events and their influence on delegate behaviour patterns to identify the full potential of amplified and hybrid events to reduce the carbon impact of events within the education sector. However, evolving best practice and experimentation by a wider diversity of events will help to establish an evidence base for this further study and expose more event organisers, speakers and participants to new ways of working that could provide an effective alternative to event travel.“

Watch this space…