This post combines a couple of firsts. It is the first post I have done with the WordPress iPhone app. It is also the first visit of Evelyn to her grandparents’ house. Here’s a picture of Evelyn with her Grandma Lisa.
Facebook 130: Facebook Events
The blogging has been light for the past few days for two main reasons:
First, we’re in the middle of volleyball season in Minnesota, and my daughter Rebekah’s team had and all-day tournament last Saturday, a five-game victory Monday night (an away game that was 90 minutes from home) and had another road game last night. You can see the exciting 15-13 Game 5 win over Mankato West in the YouTube video below. Rebekah is the middle hitter who got the final kill that led to the celebration.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwX03upilFs]
And speaking of celebrations, the other limiting factor on my blogging time has been the SMUG Campus Renovation project. It has included cafeteria remodeling (a new kitchen) and a new North Porch on Old Main, creation of a cobblestone campus courtyard and construction of the North Annex.
Much of my spare time over the last few weeks, and all day Wednesday, has been devoted to having the campus renovation completed before this weekend.
Because on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 we will be holding a dedication and naming ceremony for the North Annex. That and a big family birthday party for Rebekah and her sister, Ruthie, along with some cousins. And a welcoming to Austin of my new granddaughter, Evelyn Grace.
So as I do with much of my life, I’m using this as a way of showing how social media tools, particularly Facebook, can make organizing — “community” or otherwise — easier. I created a Facebook Event in the SMUG group, and I captured its set-up in the video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RmxGiEPGBg]
I was interrupted at the end so I didn’t get to finish the screencast, and I’m not sure why the video at the beginning has some black streaks, but here’s the Annex Dedication event in the SMUG Facebook group.
All SMUGgles are invited to the 3 p.m. CDT dedication and naming ceremony on Sunday. While your attendance is by no means mandatory (particularly for those whose presence would require air travel), you’re certainly welcome. And if you can’t come, you’ll be able to participate virtually as I upload photos and videos to the Facebook event.
Assignment:
Go to the SMUG Annex Dedication event in Facebook and leave your RSVP.
Groundswell Review in Social Media Snippets
SMUGgle Scott Meis, an Associate Professor in SMUG’s Department of Political Science, has a couple of great posts reviewing Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
I had heard one of the authors, Charlene Li, at a Web 2.0 Summit and posted my review of her presentation at that time. I had planned to write a full review after I listened to the audio book on the return flight, but got otherwise occupied.
Thanks for your review, Scott!
Social Media 203: YouTube Video Annotations
Annotations are a great new beta feature available on YouTube. They enable you to add text to your videos, and to have that text linked to a specific action on YouTube. I first saw this in some of the BarelyPolitical videos, and thought perhaps this was a premium feature.
It turns out it’s available to all of us.
For an example, I decided to use a video we did yesterday about the first large study of breast cancer detection using molecular breast imaging as an alternative — or at least as a supplement — to mammography. It turns out that molecular breast imaging found about three times as many cancers as mammography in this group of women. You can read more about the study here on the Mayo Clinic News Blog, and we also have links to some photos and resulting news coverage.
Here’s the screencast of me adding the annotations last night, which also shows how you can add annotations to your videos:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc3RY1UEaQQ]
And if you want to see the finished product (and perhaps even subscribe to the Mayo Clinic YouTube channel), here it is:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve0FT9s3fXc]
The only real drawback from the publisher’s perspective is that the annotations can’t be linked to a non-YouTube URL. It would have been nice to be able to link directly to the blog post where the video is embedded, so viewers can get more information. But I’m fine with that, since I could add the link in the video description field.
From my perspective, the major advantage of YouTube annotations is that they offer a standardized way to add descriptive text, such as Dr. Hruska’s title, without requiring either expensive studio-grade video editing software or a lot of time and effort. The annotations are plain, but they also are crisp and functional. It takes only a minute or two to add these annotations. And if this is the standard on YouTube, anyone who uses it can have confidence that it will be seen as consistent with how Web video is done.
What do you think?
Facebook 103: Facebook Friend Etiquette
In the 1960s, when I was too young to be in on all the rebellion, the anti-war protesters had a slogan expressing wariness of all those who had begun their fourth decade: “Never trust anyone over 30.”
For those of us who are now among the thirtysomethings and above, here’s a general rule of Facebook etiquette I follow with few exceptions:
“Never friend anyone under 30.”
I still accept friend requests from youngsters, but I let them initiate the connection. Especially since I’m a grandpa I don’t want to unsettle the younger Facebook crowd. I don’t want teenagers wondering “Who’s this old guy who wants to be my friend?”
If you’re old enough to know better, I’d recommend the same rule for you.
Some other helpful hints:
- Do invite people in your e-mail address book to be your Facebook friends. If you use Web-based services like Gmail or Hotmail, it’s an easy process. We’ll cover how to do it in a future course. The benefit of adding people as Facebook friends is you can retain contact with them even as they change jobs (and consequently their e-mail addresses.) Their Facebook profiles will stay the same, though, and they will likely update them with their new e-mail to stay in touch.
- Do use Facebook Friend Lists to group your friends, as described in Facebook 210. You can assign varying levels of privacy for personal, family or professional friends. Besides the enhanced privacy settings, it also makes it easier for you to send a quick message to a group with a common interest. A person can be on more than one of your lists.
- Don’t just network for networking’s sake. Even worse, don’t network for marketing’s sake. If you’re just adding friends so you can later spam them with get-rich-quick schemes, you’re missing the point. Social media aren’t about aggregating eyeballs; they’re about making real connections. That’s why I have these rules for accepting Facebook friend requests.
- “Unfriending” is OK, but you have other options. If I accept a friend request from someone who turns out to be a spammer, I “unfriend” without a second thought. They have tons of “friends” and won’t be personally offended. In the hypothetical example of a real acquaintance or former classmate who gets uncomfortably friendly after all these years, you can start by putting him or her into a group with restricted access to your profile, including taking away the ability to see your wall or photos. Again, see Facebook 210 for instructions. If that still doesn’t create enough distance, you can unfriend and block the person. But the preliminary steps may be enough, without invoking the nuclear option.
How about you? What additional “Miss Manners” advice would you offer for people new to Facebook?