News You Can Use: Some of the Latest Digital Tools

 

Note: To join a Digital Media Special Interest Group at UW, go to https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/MediaSIG/Home

 

The University of Washington Department of Global Health has been gathering information on the latest digital tools. We consult with people like Zied Mhirsi, MD, MPH, who calls himself an “early adopter” of all things new and digital. We also collect information from the digital community at UW, including people enrolled in the Master of Communication in Digital Media program or MCDM. 

 

 To help people keep up with all the technology, we have created this wiki site to track useful digital tools. So far, we have information on the following: gmail, Google Calendar, iGoogle, Google Map (Public Transit feature), Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Slideshare.net, Podcasting, Digital Storytelling (the ridiculously easy way).

 

Note: Many of these tools may be covered in a user-friendly fun video produced by CommonCraft at www.commoncraft.com.

 

 Some of the technology rock stars we should all know:

• Robert Scoble, an influential vodcaster, who wrote Naked Conversations (a book on blogging). He worked at Microsoft to create video programming on cool stuff Microsoft was working on. Now he’s the lead video blogger for Fast Company, talking about all things technology. His blog is http://scobleizer.com/.
• David Weinberger, one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual (2001).  Summary: “This nationally acclaimed best seller is a spirited, original, and wonderfully irreverent conversation that will challenge, provoke, and forever change your outlook on the digital economy.” Weinberger now has a blog called Everything is Miscellaneous. The Power of the Digital Disorder. http://www.everythingismiscellaneous.com/

 

 Various digital tools in no apparent order:

  

gmail

Set up a gmail account at www.google.com. Gmail will allow you to create your own web pages on iGoogle. You can also create a Google Calendar and share your calendar with friends.

 

Zied forwarded his UW mail to gmail because he said it was easier to access in the field and he loves the search function in gmail to find a message. If he wants to find a message from a friend he just searches like he would on Google.

To forward UW email to gmail, go to https://uwnetid.washington.edu/manage/?myuwfor

 

 Zied said gmail is constantly adding new features.

  

Google Calendar

The key features include:

You can invite people to an event. You can share your calendar. You can see other people’s calendar. It’s easy to add an event to your Google calendar especially from gmail. You can mark events public or private. Google Calendar is searchable on Google. You can put it in your iGoogle page.

 

 Many calendars can be exported into Google as well. For instance, the Department of Global Health calendar can be exported by doing these steps:

1. Go to the Events Calendar
2. Click Export link on the right near top below the word year
3. Under Format, choose icalendar
4. Click on Subscription URL
5. Select the date range
6. Click on Retrieve Data and get new URL
7. On your Google Calendar Page, click “Add by URL”
8. Paste new URL in box

 

iGoogle

iGoogle is a very fun way of creating your own information page. This can be your new home page. You will love this! It’s very easy.

You can track popular journal articles or topics like male circumcision. You can track your favorite blog post. You can track the weather in all the cities where your friends and family live. You can create a To Do list. You can track anything that has a RSS feed.

 

You need a gmail account to log on. Go to www.google.com and select iGoogle.

Pick a theme.

Create tabs of things you would like to follow, i.e., News, Global Health, Male Circumcision, Art….

Click Add Stuff and start creating boxes of items you would like to follow. Go to the search button to find gadgets by name (New York Times) or subject (HIV/AIDS). The To Do gadget is popular. You could have the Spanish word of the day, a new art masterpiece of the day, your favorite news sources.

Once you find the gadget you want, just hit “add gadget now.” 

If the name of the source you are looking for is not searchable by gadget, you can go to the website or blog you want to track and grab the RSS feed (this is how the information gets automatically updated).

 

 Example: Subjects on Pubmed

• Go to www.pubmed.gov or go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/query.fcgi?myncbishare=uwonline for a full-text link available at UW libraries
• Search for a subject (like global health)
• After the search, click Send to right below the search bar
• Send to “RSS Feed”
• Click on XML button
• Copy this address and go back to iGoogle
• Click on Add Stuff
• Click on Add Feed or Gadget on lefthand side and paste the url
• You just created a box tracking that subject or author on Pubmed!

 

 You can change the size of the box by clicking on the down arrow of the box and going to edit settings. You can show from 1-9 listings per box.

 You can move around the boxes by dragging them.

  

Google Map (Public Transit)

Google Map has a great feature on taking public transit.

1. Type in your destination and hit “Get directions”
2. Click Take Public Transit (top of the left panel). Google Maps suggests up to four trips for you to take, which may contain different modes of transportation. For example, one trip may include a train while another includes a bus. Click a trip to see the route displayed on the map.
3. To customize your search:
   1. Click Options.
   2. Enter your date and departure or arrival time.
   3. Click Update.

Also the map is connected to current traffic conditions.

 

Facebook

Who needs newsletters any more when there's Facebook!!! Join many great global health groups, including UW. Search for us under UW Department of Global Health. Also join the Washington Global Health Alliance page. 

  

Twitter

The Department of Global Health has nearly 1000 followers on Twitter and have found it to be one of the best communication tools to feel really plugged into what's happening with global health. We recommend downloading Tweetdeck to manage Twitter feeds. It's hard to keep up with all the latest on Twitter but there are blogs like www.twittermaven.com

 

• Here’s a great video: Twitter in Plain English (by CommonCraft)

http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

  

Blogger

Want to blog? Go to www.blogger.com. You can create a blog in two minutes. Give it a title, add photos, organize it the way you want. Blogging is like writing an email.

UW Global Health has a blog called Global Health Diaries at http://uwihp.blogspot.com/.

According to the PR firm Porter Novelli in Seattle, “75% of journalists say they get ideas from blogs.”  One popular blog for tech journalists is crunchgear – a blog on gadgets.

To see who’s reading your blog, go to www.compete.com and put in your blog url. To see what kind of blog conversations are happening, go to http://www.blogpulse.com/, http://www.bloglines.com/, http://www.icerocket.com/. You can also do a Google blog search. Paid sites include Radian6, Buzzlogic, Andiamo Systems. Technorati apparently is no longer so popular.

  

Slideshare.net

Have a big PowerPoint presentation you want to share? Upload it on www.slideshare.net.

“SlideShare is the best way to share your presentations with the world. Let your ideas reach a broad audience. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to create a webinar.”

  

Podcasting/Vodcasting

Kathy Gill, a professor in the UW Dept of Communication, offered this information on podcasting:

 A podcast is an MP3 + RSS.

Oxford Dictionary calls podcasting “time-shifted radio.”

Adam Curry and Dave Weiner are considered the podfathers and the ones who pushed for a standard in podcasting. RSS feeds are managed by sites like FeedBurner, which was purchased by Google. 

 Gill said about 18% of the population listens to podcasts (emarketer April 2008). The easiest way to find podcasts is through iTunes. Gill said Apple worked very hard to create podcasts with just one-click technology. For university lectures, iTunes has iTunesU. 

The UW Michael G. Foster School of Business has a web page on podcasting.

 

How to Audio Podcast?

For audio podcasts, you need a microphone + a recorder. Gill uses an Olympus digital recorder (under $100) with a USB connection.

http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-WS-100-Digital-Recorder-Interface/dp/B0009N9PJA

 Also, iPods have a microphone and computers have built-in microphones. But for good quality, get a digital recorder.

The website Recorders.com compares different digital recorders.

 

Advice from a wiki reader: I would recommend getting one that records in an uncompressed format like wav or aif. Several of them record in wma, a compressed format, and the quality is decent, but to get them into Audacity (editing program) you will need to convert them into wav or aif. And then you compress them again when you convert to mp3. Every conversion you are going to lose some quality so it's better to start with an uncompressed format and keep the uncompressed files for archiving and then convert to mp3 for distribution online.

 

To edit, Gill suggests Audacity because it’s cross platform, easy-to-use and free. Also, Mac users can use Garage Band. 

 

When you create a podcast, be sure to brand the podcast in the beginning with your organization (quick statement on who you are).

 

When creating an original Podcast (not recording a lecture), keep in mind that the conversation must be more intimate (cocktail party vs. concert, seminar vs. lecture). Gill said you should try blogging first so you discover your voice. She said you need to write for the ear: “Reading most long sentence is like nailing Jell-O to a wall.” – David Clark (writer).

 

How to Video Podcast?

Harry Hayward, head of electronic media at UW, created this video February 2009 on how to make a video at UW (where to rent equipment, etc.). http://www.youtube.com/uwhuskies.

 

If you want to have a live or archived meeting showing PowerPoint slides, there's Adobe Connect. The pricing is complicated so you have to call one of the customer reps. Adobe Connect Pro also allows recording and archiving of meetings.  check out http://depts.washington.edu/cfas/cfar/webcasts/

 

For video podcasts, you can use a Flip Video Phone for $150, (or less) or use a more expensive device. Currently, a Flip Video Phone has just 60 minutes of recording time. You can put the video phone on a tripod. At the University of Washington, students in the Dept. of Communication can check out a Flip Phone. UW students, faculty, and staff can check out equipment from LST, formerly Catalyst and use video editing software for free. Help  is on the second floor of Odegaard Undergraduate Library.

Helpdesk hours can be found at:

http://catalyst.washington.edu/learning_spaces/computing_commons.html

Also, Classroom Support Services has some nice Canon Prosumer cameras available for student checkout.  They have both tape and digital cameras that could be tied to the house audio system, or work with wireless sets they also check out. 

Students can make an online booking by visiting http://www.css.washington.edu/STFEquipment or by calling (206) 543-9900 for additional information.

UWTV makes very nice video presentations of an event with a minimalist charge around $500.

 

To stream the video, you can create a free account at www.ustream.tv for free! You can embed the video from this site on your own website.

 

(1) For uStream, you need a video camera/mike attached to a computer (PC or Mac) and a (free) uStream account. The easiest thing would be a

modern MacBook because the video camera is "built in." However, the angle can be funky and you'll be using the mike built in to the

computer unless you have an external mike. Not the best solution, but the cheapest!

 

uStream.tv does archive. For a long presentationor workshop, I'd recommend stopping the recording at each break (instead of pausing), so that the workshop is in multiple files. However, with large files, the stream is saved only as Flash (I forget the time limit at which this occurs, but I

think it's an hour).

 

To edit, you can use iMovie (Mac), Movie Maker (PC), Quicktime Pro for Windows or Mac ($30), Adobe Final Cut (expensive but professional) or use LST or Classroom Support Services for help with free video editing.

 

Advice from a wiki reader: If the video will be going online you probably don't need anything too fancy for the video. You can find good cameras now for less than $1,000. You probably want to focus on getting a good microphone since the audio would be very important for lectures. If you're in a quiet environment for a lecture, you could probably go either cardioid (needs to be aimed where you want it to pick up sound) or omnidirectional (picks up sound in all directions). A lav mic that the person ld plecturing could wear wourobably be nice, though if it is someone who moves around a lot you might want to go for a shotgun mic. In any case, make sure you get a video camera that has a microphone jack so you can connect the microphone to it and always check the microphone levels while you are shooting with headphones (so make sure the camera has a headphone jack as well - most do). You should also check the recording capacity since some of the lectures might be long.

 

Videos are powerful. One company has put itself on the map through the use of homemade videos. Blendtec, a manufacturer of commercial blenders, has a series of videos called “Will it Blend?” and blends all kinds of things, including an iPod:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLxq90xmYUs

  

Some helpful links:

• Video: Podcasting in Plain English (by CommonCraft)

http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting

• Book: Tricks of Podcasting Masters

http://www.amazon.com/Tricks-Podcasting-Masters-Rob-Walch/dp/0789735741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216091803&sr=8-1

  

Digital Storytelling (the easy way)

A great tool for click and play digital storytelling is to buy the program SoundSlides ($70). It was created by photojournalists and works great! You can upload photos some audio and you have a digital story in a matter of minutes. Members of the Population Leadership Program (PLP) in Sudan created short digital stories (5 images and one-minute of audio). The Population Leadership Program has a website listing a tutorial for SoundSlides and other tips on digital storytelling.

 

--Compiled by Bobbi Nodell, Communications Specialist, UW Dept. of Global Health

Updated Oct. 9. 2009

 

If you have more tips, clarifications, links, corrections, etc., please send them to bnodell@u.washington.edu. Only people registered with this wiki site can comment so please register and comment. Also, once you register you will be notified of updates to the wiki.