Social Networks Go Pro

It's Not Really All "Social" Do you use Twitter? That's a question that I frequently ask people with a common response of, "No, I don't use those things." It seems people think sites like Twitter, Facebook and others, are sites just for socializing. They can be, and for some it's a way to unwind and have fun, but we aren't going to talk about Social Networks. There are professionals who have to get their work done with finite resources and the perception that these are strictly online toys can actually hinder the ability to do ones job. Due to various circumstances that limit access to resources, information or training; there was still a need to for continuous knowledge to do my job. After talking to many people from all over the world, this is by no means unique. Enter Pro-Networks. The difference between Social Networks and Pro-Networks are not based on what is used but how it is used. Many professionals have used forums to ask questions, RSS feeds to obtain the latest information and e-mail to interact with one another. Finally, I have had the opportunity to work in a whole new way. The first tool I use is Twitter, which you can check out at http://twitter.com/ That is my picture over their on the left, you can see what I am asking, saying or whining about on Twitter. You can even click on the "Join" link to sign up for twitter or click on my name at the top to go to my twitter page which will give you the opportunity to see who I interact with, follow or follows me. I program in Geographic Information Systems for the web and use Twitter to ask others questions about what I am working on, answer other Twitter users questions or we work together with ad-hoc brainstorming and to solve whatever is asked, basically helping one another to eliminate the road block that keeps us from doing our job. Sometimes I need to ask a question, provide information or answers in detail; then Twitter won't cut it. Its limit of 140 characters per entry does not allow it. Providing Information To provide information or answer a question, I use a Speed Blog. An example of this is at: My SpeedBlog It's a blog that I have no plan on doing except in the process of working on something. I post updates on Twitter using what is called a hashtag. I will say what I am doing and include a hashtag for my project and will state that my speedblog has been updated. It would something like this: I am trying to figure out why my #CollaborationApp isn't working and have posted it to my #SpeedBlog. Asking Questions Okay, I will use the SpeedBlog to ask questions in greater detail, but forums and online groups are ideal places to tap into the knowledge of others or can also be used to share our own knowledge. A site that I frequently go to is http://sitepoint.com/forums/ and the information is sent to one of my e-mail accounts. In addition to forums, I belong to a Google group called Lone GIS Pro. If you work with GIS; if you look around and there is no one to ask technical questions that relate to you job, you are a Lone GIS Pro. Responses or updates about the group are sent to my GMail account. Lightning Info I am quickly going to mention a few other resources and what I use them for in respect to Pro-Networks. I started using Facebook to keep in touch with classmates about future class reunions. On all of the home pages of my websites I have a mashup for any Amber Alerts. An example of one is here on my site in the left column, if there is one active:  The Amber Alert feed in the left hand column is automatically updated. I always hope that there is nothing to report and wish it had it had more information than it does such as a map and other features so a reported child could be found as quickly as possible. Flickr is something that I enjoy using to upload photos to automatically update my maps; I still want to get a camera that has geo-tagging, but for now I can use a free resource. If you create a Flickr account, you can upload your photos and place them on a map on the Flickr site. If you have an account with Google, you can register for a key to add a Google map to your website for free. If I went out, took a picture and uploaded it to Flickr; I could then place it on my map. The picture would then appear automatically on my Google map on my site as seen here: Flickr Pictures on Google Maps With all these resources where is all the valid help? Do you go to page after page finding the same unanswered question? I do. Once I find an answer, I want immediate access to it from wherever I am. I don't want to tell someone; let me go take a look on my computer to check for the link. Instead I use delicious. Some use twitter for displaying links for drive by dog and pony shows. I will come back to this in, "Putting it All Together". You can see a set of links for delicious right below my Twitter feed. The delicious feed is automatically updated, but if you want the details, you can go to: My Delicious All links are structured in a hierarchy starting with the category which I use a number for, so I could group information together. All links have valid help, otherwise they are removed. You can also create a delicious network. This way you can share valid links with others in your network and check if a member of you network has information posted about what you are looking for. When you post a link to delicious, you can a notification pop up on Twitter. Who wants to write twice? The last individual tool I will mention is LinkedIn . This is a site where you can share projects and news about your career with other professionals that work in similar fields or you just want to network with them professionally to know about career opportunities. Are these all the tools? Absolutely not, but it's not just about the tool, but the method on using the tools. Did I mention they all cost the same? They're free and the only cost is not using them. Putting it Together Its time to turn all these simple little tools into power tools using my number one hobby with technology; trying new gadgets, integrating, and automating. twitter; what I use it for and my recommendations for drive by dog and pony. I use twitter to ask/reply to questions technical/non-technical. There are times I will take a moment to whine with sarcasm or add a bit of dry humor. Other times I will say what I am doing; breaking programs, asking questions, posting information, and on occasion an, "Oh my, it worked." moment. "Drive by Dog and Pony Shows" are people posting links that are interesting, have something that will wow the twitter user, or a topic that the poster is passionate about. I have clicked on these links and some are interesting, some wow me, and some have good information. I want people to click on me links and I am sure everyone else wants people to click on theirs, but if they are valuable, why not structure them on some place like delicious? You can post to twitter from delicious and even turn it into and RSS feed. If you have questions about the following tools, please ask; but for now here is a list on what they are and how I use them daily. I have gmail, yahoo, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and other accounts; I do not want to check every account; what good are these tools if I have to do that? Well, I start my day off and fire up Digsby; it minimizes as an icon in my taskbar and all of the accounts I just mentioned let me know if there is anything new added. It even lets you add POP3, IMAP, Hotmail and AIOL/AIM accounts. Of the social networks I mentioned, you can also add MySpace. In you are someone that used many social networks as opposed to e-mail; try Ping.fm and treat yourself to a tool that supports over fifty social networks. With Digsby and Ping.fm, be careful, if you don't check the settings you might find them more powerful than you hoped. Also when you install these tools, read before you click; it's free so if you accept all defaults, you could get what you consider to be garbage add-ons. There are a few more tools that I will add to this blog, but for now I will provide one simple example. Say someone else is searching for a lost pet. Whenever someone is looking for one, they usually have a picture, let you know where it was last seen and ask you to contact them if you see the pet. Why not ask others in your networks? Post a link on delicious with a brief description and have it automatically post to twitter. Now if you are using twhirl, there is a setting that allow for the posting of you status to those over fifty social networks. So now you have really gotten the word out, but it gets better, a picture of the pet could be uploaded to flickr and by using drag and drop, the picture is geo-tagged. If you have a Google map on your website, the picture will automatically appear. No people know where the pet was lost, what it looks like, and they can also know the status as you update it. What kind of tools do you use and how do you use them? Looking forward to hearing from you. Talk to you soon. Chris Coming up on my next blog will cover how to use the tools and the process in using them: Impediment to Progress

Hi, I'm Chris

I have put off posting my first blog for some time, talking about tips and tricks and online social networks, but I want to back up for a moment. Let me take a moment to introduce myself; Hi, I'm Chris. I would like to answer two questions; the first I am frequently asked- "What do you do?" The response to this has always overwhelmed me, as I integrate and automate in an array of applications as this blog continues, you will see that I don't make a list to impress, it's just a list of apps that I have worked in. It would appear to be a difficult task to integrate apps, but thanks to collaboration and online social networks, my abilities to meet such requests are better than ever. The second question is one that I ask myself, how to utilize collaboration to facilitate the optimization of ones own abilities.   So, here I am. Having graduated from high school, which I have to believe, based on my grades, would place me in the rankings near the bottom of my graduating class and nearly failing a computer programming class while there; you might think that college isn't likely, and working/programming even less likely. This might have all come true, except that I had an accidental discovery. It's not the type of discovery that teaches you how to get rich, my discovery was going to be the building blocks that would shape the type of professional I am and has given me the opportunity to do the type of work that I love with the college degree that is in a completely different field, but as I continue to explain in my multi-part intro-blog; as I have told many, in a way I never left my degree program, rather I might have re-defined it's use. Amazingly, part of the process of re-defining the “what kind of professional do I want to be”, gave me the opportunity to meet my wife.   But we will get to that later.   In the late 80's, I thought that I would like programming as I liked video games and gadgets; not a lot of deep thought, but it was high school. So while I was in high school, I took a computer programming class and nearly failed, so I dropped it. After this, I never even considered a possibility of programming or even working with computers as part of my job let alone as a career.   For some time I went on thinking that what I wanted to accomplish would be given to me because I wanted it.   It wouldn't be for nearly another ten years, but in 1995, I was in junior college, I succeeded becaused something I wanted was given to me, ironically for the last time, because something happened, which caused my ethics to completely change.   That one next on; Ethics Evolving