All the world’s a-twitter

Twitter is the latest ‘hot’ social networking tool and it seems like the whole world is getting involved. So just what is it and how useful could it be for your work?

Twitter is micro-blogging. You get 140 characters to answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ That message, or tweet, is then sent to all the people who have chosen to follow you. So it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

As we have seen recently, it’s also a very efficient way of getting information out about events currently unfolding – eg the Iran democracy protests.

By following other people who are tweeting on topics of interest to you, you can keep up with new developments and this is where Twitter can be a useful tool in your work.

Politicians, government departments and other agencies can all use Twitter to disseminate information about policy releases, new reports and developments. Both Kevin Rudd and Anna Bligh have Twitter accounts to promote their governments’ initiatives, as well as including updates on their personal comings and goings.

You can respond directly to someone’s tweets, thus engaging in a conversation with them about the topic they are tweeting on. Again, very useful for communicating directly with policy makers.

So, why not get yourself a Twitter account? The sign-up process is free and very simple and before you know it, you’ll be creating a whole new network to communicate with.

You can find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/elldeelosang

Finding meaning on the internet

In the middle of writing a report and forgotten how to spell a particular word? Or reading a paper containing unfamiliar words? In the past, we would have reached for the trusty dictionary and simply looked the word up. But, these days when even the LGAQ Library doesn’t have a dictionary on its shelves, what to do?

There are, of course, many online dictionaries – Dictionary.com, Your Dictionary and AskOxford to name but a few. However, unless you have a few of them bookmarked, you have to go search for one, then choose which one to use, then navigate around the site, type in your word, click on the result to finally get the definition. Tedious! So here’s a quicker way of doing it.

Simply type define:term into the Google search bar. You’ll be presented with a list of definitions from a variety of sources. Links to related phrases are also provided. How easy was that!

Save time with RSS

Do you have a lot of websites you frequently visit to read the latest updates. It can be time-consuming visiting each site in turn and looking for new content. Instead of you doing all the work, why not set up some RSS feeds and have all the new content from all your favourite sites delivered to you.

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication (one of its meanings) and it allows you to receive constantly updated information from many sources such as websites, blogs, news sites, podcasts and other services. All the new content is collected into one place (a reader), making it quick and easy for you to access the latest offerings from your favourite sites.

To get started, you need to get a reader. There are a number of free readers out there and I can recommend either Bloglines or Google Reader. Once you have signed up for an account, you’re ready to start subscribing to your favourite websites RSS feeds.

Look for the little orange button (like the one in the sidebar to this blog) on the site you want to subscribe to and right-click it. Select ‘Open Link in New Window’ and a window will open filled with what looks like nonsense. Ignore all that. All you need is the URL in the address bar. Copy that.

Now go to your reader and look for “Add”, “Add Subscription” or words to that effect. Click on the link and paste the URL you copied earlier into the box and hit “Subscribe” or similar button.

You’ve now subscribed to your first RSS feed and it should begin to show up in the lefthand panel of your reader. Click on it to see all the new content added to the site since you last visited it. You can simply browse the headlines, or click on them to go to the site and read the full article.

I love RSS and have set up all sorts of feeds. Sites like the ABC  have feeds for all its sections – News, TV, Movies, Radio… go mad picking and choosing the feeds you’d like to receive!

Can’t find feeds to subscribe to? Try using feed directories such as Feedster or Feed Directory. Looking for blogs? Then use blog directories like Technorati, Blog Catalog or Bloggernity. Of course, you could always start off by subscribing to this blog and then you’ll always be up to date with its new content!

Want to know more? Come and see me any Tuesday or Wednesday and I’ll give you a one-on-one tutorial in getting started with RSS.

Delicious digging

Social bookmarking – what is it and why use it? It’s a way for internet users to store, organise, share and search bookmarks of web pages. The advantage of using a social bookmarking site is that your bookmarks, or favourites, are accessible from any computer with access to the internet. You can see what sites your friends and colleagues are bookmarking and share your links with them.

Social bookmarking is a great tool for groups. Simply create a group account and store all the links that are useful to the group’s work in one place, accessible by the whole group.

I’ve created an account for the LGAQ at http://del.icio.us/LGAQLibrary where I’ve listed all sorts of websites, reports and newsletters that you might find interesting or useful.

Some of the most popular social bookmarking sites are:

Del.icio.us   http://del.icio.us/

Digg            http://digg.com

Furl           http://www.furl.net/

Go check them out. I’m sure you’ll love the idea and that you’ll be digging and furling deliciously!