Twitter World

Like e-mail, social networks are becoming common knowledge. But if you are in the group that is too confused to even ask a question, you have come to the right place as there will be a series on Twitter World. It’s going to be short posts that take you through every step from signing up for a twitter account to taming the beast social networks can become.

With no further ado, let’s talk twitter. Simply put, Twitter is the equivalent of passing notes to one another; short notes, but with access to the world. Twitter can be used for socializing, following your favorite celebrity around, and other things. But my focus will demonstrate how Twitter can be used to get your work done. If you have unlimited funds, resources and knowledge; you may not want to use social networks. However, if you are not in that category, you can’t afford not to know about pro networking and how to use it effectively.

I think that just about covers everything. Wait! Where’s the information? Well, simply put I told you my posts will be short. But, you have an assignment for the next post of creating a twitter account and here it is:

Gather the following and there will be questions about what you need, but I will cover the why I recommend the following and the pros and cons to them:

• Pick a user name; ideally your real name
• Take digital picture of yourself; head shot only please
• Think about, what people do you want to connect with(using twitter for fun) or who you need to connect with(using twitter for work) and then write a short description about you

With that, in the next post I will go step by step on creating you first twitter account.

Talk to you soon.

Chris

Code Conundrum

I have been working on an ArcGIS Server web app. I first attempted to use .Net, but it was a pain to easily add controls. After that I checked out Silverlight, which I like, but I wanted to used xml files for my xaml instead of xaml files and did not like the idea of creating what appeared to be two projects; desktop and web. Next step, I checked out Adobe Flex; but they had their own proprietary pages like Microsoft XAML. So, last stop sent me to a free language; JavaScript. I have used ESRI’s JavaScript API's, but have found documentation to be inconsistent or incomplete for the purpose of learning. What I mean by inconsistent is that variable change; no big deal you say? When you try to integrate several samples and your not sure about the purpose for each item, and have to logically relate the examples to a new definition, it can be difficult and error prone. That didn’t stop me. I started working on JavaScript driven web page and everything went smooth at first. I had a panel that contained navigation, table of contents, overview map, and the map itself all using AJAX and it was an .aspx page; not a JavaScript sample your likely to find on ESRI’s samples at the time of this writing. You could collapse sections of the panel and drag the panel across the screen. It was well formed using XHTML and even used CSS. But then I attempted to add the identify task and here ends my story of creating and begins the story of creativity and problem solving.

This is a short story as it’s in the works. I am re-creating the samples with external CSS for style, external JS for map interaction, XHTML to ensure writing a well-formed web page and writing it in .aspx. But that’s the easy part, I am documenting nearly line of code, tag, or style I create. This is the least enjoyable part of programming, and the greatest necessity. I want to be able to find out what is happening when, why and how, so I am making notes to myself for every piece. Once completed or if I hit another virtual brick wall, I plan on sharing it. So far, this endeavor has gone bumpily smooth; errors along the way, but none at the moment waiting for me at my desk, once I return from lunch.

Talk to you soon.

Chris

My First Lunch Blog

Right now I have bloggers block, but I will go with that. With everyone tightening their money belts; this fits in with what I have frequently had to do in my professional career; develop whatever is asked with limited resources, knowledge, and time. But I have always had a wild card, many of you know of the online version as social networking, but the spin on that term is pro networking. If you follow me on twitter or see who I follow on twitter, these people are invested professionals. An invested professional is someone that gives/receives feedback for professional personal growth. As I am writing this blog new “tweets” are popping up with twhirl, which I highly recommend if you want to tweet from your desk without keeping a browser window open with the temptation of reading every tweet that is posted.

If you don’t know what twitter is, I am going to do a little write up about it; not how everyone uses it, how I use it; for the purpose of a Pro Network tool. This is the beginning of a series of posts that I will be writing about twitter and Pro Networking tools. Now I am not saying my way is the best way to use the tools that will appear in future posts; in fact I know it isn’t. That’s the power of Pro Networks. Most everyone I follow on twitter, is more knowledgeable than I am, but I help when I can. Is my help always good? No, but you can’t grow in any professional network or career if you don’t try.

Follow me on my twitter page or link to my blog as I will be posting “simple” step by step posts and for those of you that use these same tools or just what to know what they are. For those of you that are in the know, I need your “Pro Network” feedback, otherwise I will need to change my blog to “Clueless Chris”; well, if it gets visitors I can go for that. If you are just here to find out what this is all about and have questions, ask them. It might be the piece of knowledge that you need to understand what you might see as mumbo jumbo.

Talk to you soon.

Chris