Taking a mildly pro-active approach to Social Media and Networking

In the interests of further developing and broadening my employability skills (ahem) I have boldly gone and created a Twitter account, a Pinterest account and a Linked In account. I did use my real name on LinkedIn for obvious reasons. One difficulty I faced was filling the "Where are you employed and by whom?" sections. When I tried to type that I was employed by children, at home,  LinkedIn was quite unhappy so I changed it to student. I guess that's accurate too. LinkedIn offered to help me find the right smartphone app and I did just that. I haven't fully finished my profile but I want to take the time to get it right.

Then I created a Pinterest account using my alter ego - Jeanne Buckfield.  Didn't have much time to play with that one so I just got as far as pinning an image from NASA re: plans for Mars and creating a board. It is all pretty straightforward and I like the option there for keeping pinterest boards private to select followers. I will play with Pinterest more over the weekend. That's the plan anyway.

Twitter was a little more annoying to set up. First it was was reluctant to accept my email address. Once I convinced it do that Twitter became pretty insistent that I select a pile of twitters/tweets to follow to create my timeline. So I am following one daughter, The Mercury, Manchester United, NASA, JPL, Universe Today, Top Gear, another daughter, my son's teacher, Chandra, Angela, the English football team (World Cup coming up soon) and Mars One. Then I tweeted to one daughter and promptly lost interest. My daughters' will be startled by the presence of a certain Jeanne Buckfield following them. Both Twitter and LinkedIn searched through my contacts list and offered suggestions as to who I should follow or connect with. 

After that I moved on to playing with OwnCloud which is provided by the domain my main email address is through. But it crashed and I lost interest again. It's all open source and still in the teething stage; not too mention occasionally unstable on Windows platforms. No real surprises there folks. 

RSS Feeds

I have used RSS Feeds before for news updates and with my Assessment Blog I also experimented with adding an RSS Feed gadget. I used the RSS gadget to add a feed from NASA concerning Mars. Also, once back at home where the wireless is reliable, I was able to use Feedly with some degree of success. I am now following all bloggers through Feedly (which is a pretty silly name). I do like the idea of being informed through one platform rather than accessing news and what have you through different sites. It's definitely far more convenient.

It's another information source libraries can use in the networked world either for keeping clients up to date with the latest library news or for being kept informed on other items of interest to the client base. As with just about everything on the net it's important to rely on your own judgement and research rather than assuming that the RSS Feed you subscribe to is accurate. 




Social Media by mkhmarketing under (CC BY 2.0)

RSS feeds

I have added an RSS feed gadget to my blog but some kind of security measure means it can't be viewed over a secure connection. So you'll need to take it on faith that the RSS feed is there. To keep any stress levels to a minimum, and reduce deaths through curiosity, I can let you know that is a feed to the ABC news website for world news.

Update! The RSS is now working as you'll note down the bottom of the blog. I'll just blame Google.

Multimedia Assessment Task

Surface pro from jbuckfield

I decided that as one of the assessment tasks for Multimedia also needed a powerpoint presentation that it would be a good idea to embed the presentation in my blog. It's a good way to practice the skills learned in Chandra's class. I also uploaded the presentation to Slideshare.

Chained Library (and correct referencing)

Wimborne, Chained Library  by www.dorsetforyou.com licenced under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

These are beautiful. Now you can buy a handful of pre-loved books from any Vinnies store for the princely sum $2.00

The referencing took me longer to get right than it ought to have done but I got there in the end.

Embedding Chandra's Presentation in my blog.

Still playing around with slideshare and embedding presentations in my blog. So far it's a better idea to use somebody else's presentation. I find the idea goes wrong somewhere between my brain and the screen. Still, it's the thought that counts isn't it?

Manchester United & Social Media

Manchester United in Social Media from Simplify360

I chose this presentation from Slideshare because it's about the best football team in the world although I wish Sir Alex would come back. I miss him on the sidelines. It seemed to tie in with the subject too - we are developing our social media skills and this presentation is all about how much attention Man U attracts through social media. Twitter is very popular with fans. I'm tempted to give it a go.