------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 1, Issue 11 Probably one of the most difficult lessons we all have to learn was one that we probably should have picked up before kindergarten. You remember, "Billy, share your toys with your sister", "Be nice to your brother and let him play with you", and let's not forget "If you keep making that face it will stick that way!" OK, ignoring the last one, the first two are all about sharing and that's what we're talking about in this issue's article, "Learning to Share". ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Learning to Share 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Learning to Share ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Web, these days, is all about sharing -- ideas, conversations, pictures, video, you name it. If it *can* be shared, it probably is, somewhere on the Web. One area in which I have become interested lately is that of sharing effort on projects -- collaboration. I mentioned a few months ago about my ongoing testing for my next belt at Keith Hafner's Karate. My partner, Peter, and I have a new task each month to complete and usually demonstrate in front of the school. This next month is a little different. Instead of a physical requirement, this time we are to create a documentary about Bruce Tegner, one of the pioneers of bringing the martial arts to the western world. Now, my partner and I have busy and often incompatible schedules. If we were to try to get together in order to do the work required, we would be lucky to complete our five-minute bit of filmmaking before the end of the *year* let alone by the end of next month. I knew that we would have to use some sharing tools to make ourselves a bit more efficient. Our first task, of course, is to do some research. Prior to receiving the assignment neither of us had even *heard* of Mr. Tegner. Of course, the Internet is a wonderful place to seek out information. The trick would be to share what we had learned. Google Notebook to the rescue! Notebook (http://www.google.com/notebook/) has a great sharing facility which allows you to specify who has access to a "notebook" of information. It does require that you have a Google account, but those are pretty easy to come by, so not really a barrier to entry. This wonderful little tool extends the capabilities of your browser (both Firefox and Internet Explorer) and allows you to save chunks of web-based text, typed in notes, even pictures with just a click of the mouse. Great, so now we have a pile of data, how do we make it meaningful? Well, if Peter and I worked in the same office, we could put a Word document up on a centralized server and track the changes. Since we aren't, we could always email the document back and forth, though that seems a bit cumbersome. Could Google have an answer to this one, too? Why, yes, I think they do. Enter Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Docs and Spreadsheets (http://docs.google.com) has most of the basic functionality that you would need to share written and/or numerical information. In fact, it has the capability to upload Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. It also has the ability to share these documents with other collaborators. In fact, in one of my recent projects working with Sagient, a local Web development company, they user Docs and Spreadsheets to share information about the system that we were building. Very convenient. Now, sharing the development of the video part of the documentary project might be a little more challenging. I am open to any suggestions, but for right now, I figure we can use YouTube (http://youtube.com/) to upload and share the incremental progress on our masterpiece. Uploads to YouTube can be designated as private (so everyone in the world won't be able to see our feeble attempts before we're ready). YouTube also has a comentary process which would probably suffice for tracking our ideas on how to improve the finished product. OK, you may have noticed that all of the tools that I mentioned were Google controlled. What about those who fear that Google is becoming the new evil empire and would like some alternative? Well, I don't have any experience with any of these, but looking around a bit I found the following. For sharing research notes, you might try Notefish (http://notefish.com) or Zoho (http://notebook.zoho.com/). For document sharing, Zoho also has those features (in fact, it's all tied into the same interface). For video sharing/editing you might try Vimeo (http://vimeo.com), though there are apparently many, many, many sites which can help out with this one way or another. So, the next time you have a project to do, especially one where you and your collaborators are separated either spatially or temporally, you might want to consider using one or more of these tools to keep things moving along. Drop me a line and let me know if you are already using any of these facilities. I'd love to hear about your experience. Copyright 2007, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Monday, February 12, 2007 -- Up and Running Again http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/02/up-and-running-again.html Thursday, April 26, 2007 -- The Weakest Link? http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/04/weakest-link.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with notification to the original author. We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited, and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your privacy is safe with us.