Social Networking in the Age of Natural Disasters

I'm sitting here today on Thanksgiving Day reflecting on just how thankful I am for family and friends who helped us out during hurricane Sandy! Thankfully our house was spared, but for many like myself we were without power for many days and only resumed our regular schedule last week. To say the least it was very disorienting not having a regular schedule and moving around New Jersey from family and friends to find homes that had power.

The college where I teach got hit hard and was without power for two weeks. During this time, we were alerted about the college closing via an automated system that emails and phones us to give us periodic updates. Because of the nature of the damage there were some faculty and students who reported having trouble getting emails and for a lot of us our only consistent way to get information was using our cell phones which worked pretty well- as long as you were able to keep it charged. There were many times during the two week period without power that I sat in the car and charged my iPhone. Keeping informed with my colleagues, students and friends was important to me and Facebook proved to be a great way to keep in touch and update everyone. I can see going forward that social networking sites like Facebook will become a bigger part of the overall communications system when there are natural disasters. With my iPhone 4S, I was able to check in and get updated information from friends and family. Text messaging proved to be another great way to get in touch with friends and because of the low bandwidth requirements the messages got through when at times it was hard to make a cell phone call.

One other tool that I relied on during Sandy, to communicate with my students was Remind101. Remind101 is a  text messaging service that allowed me to push messages to my students. Remind101 pushes messages in one direction and does not allow recipients to reply. At the beginning of the semester I had my students in each of my classes sign up for the service, which only took a minute or so. Once the students signed up I could now send them up to 140 character messages via my Remind101 iPhone app. Remind101 was great during the hurricane Sandy and allowed me to update my students and keep them abreast as to what was happening. I highly recommend using Remind101 to push messages to students, parents or any one else that is part of your network. I can't say enough for Remind101 and how it allowed me to stay in touch with my students during a natural disaster. So when you are putting together your disaster communication plan consider including Facebook and Remind101.

Tweetchat- A New Twitter Service

I was reading some blogs today and Brent Schlenker had mentioned a new Twitter service called Tweetchat which sounded pretty interesting. In a nut shell you log into your Twitter account and then Tweetchat will automatically track tweets with a specific (#) hashtag. This really adds to the educational use of Twitter and allows multiple users to have an online chat in real time, discussing a topic. All users have to remember to do is include the hashtag somewhere in their tweet so that it can be tracked. The nice part of Tweetchat is the ability to quickly reply to a tweet and follow the thread of the conversation. I will definitely want to explore this new Twitter tool and see how I can use it in the work that I do to communicate with my graduate students.

Embedding your WebBrain in Your Blog

I recently posted about how you can post your PersonalBrain 5 to the web with WebBrain with a click of the mouse. Well pretty close to it. One of the really exciting features of the WebBrain is being able to have access to your links and attachments as if you were working with the PersonalBrain 5 on your desktop. Think of all the possibilities! This is a very powerful feature and one that I will certainly use when I am planning my workshops. Think about giving your attendees a simple URL to your WebBrian that they can access that would allow them to jump to web sites and have access to your attached handouts. That is really an outstanding feature.

WebBrain is evolving as we speak and I just learned that you can now embed your WebBrain in a blog or website by simply clicking on the Share button and copying the embedding code from the Webbrain site. If you click on the Customize option you can change the dimensions to suit your need. I should mention that you can also upload your PersonalBrain 5 files and keep them private so that only you can access them over the web. Likewise you can determine which Thoughts to keep private so that they don't appear when you upload them to WebBrain by marking them as Private thoughts in the PersonalBrain 5. If you have any questions or ideas on how you would use WebBrain - please leave me some comments.

Webspiration has been Updated!

Just wanted to let you know that I received an email today from Inspiration, Inc., that a host of new features have been added to Webspiration. I wanted you to be the first on the block to hear about this. Some of the new updates to Webspiration include:

• Insert your own graphics to your Webspiration diagrams or outlines
• A new Starter screen which gives you easier access to your documents
• New button on the Starter screen to access templates and Examples
• Improved Chat features

Visit http://www.mywebspiration.com/blog/updates-launched to learn more. One of the most asked for features the ability to add you own graphics to your mind map has been added. I for one have sked for this feature for awhile now and am glad to know that it was included in this update. I have tied this feature this morning and am glad to tell you it worked great. I found it very intuitive and easy to use. You will see in my mind map that each of my symbols now has a customized picture. This is a huge feature and one that I know that you will enjoy. Another key feature of Webspiration is the ability to embed or publish your mind maps to the web. To view the mind map that I created with Webspiration click here. Webspiration makes it very easy to share your mind maps over the web and the new Chat features will make it even easier to communicate while collaborating. I would be interested in how you are using Webspiration in the work that you do? So please feel free to comment! To sign up for a free Webspration account click on the link.

XMind -- An Open Source Brainstorming and Mind Mapping Software!

XMind, a leader in mind mapping, visual thinking and collaboration software, helps you to think and create, and to collect and organize information with great flexibility.

Even more, you can also easily share your mind maps online with any people. As an Open Source software application , XMind also brings Web 2.0 concepts and community online sharing.

XMind will enable you to:

* Easily capture your ideas from brainstorming sessions

* Easily organize information for meetings and presentations with a wide range of formats

* Share your ideas and broadcast your knowledge to the world

Croosloop Revisited

While I have talking about Web 2.0 for some time now, the real benefit of these technologies is the ability to collaborate over the web. Just yesterday evening I was collaborating with my colleague and fellow visual mapper Wallace Tait on a visual map. Using Crossloop and Skype we were able to collaboratively work on the visual map as if we were in the same room. The speed and clarity of the screen was really unbelievable. Using readily available Web 2.0 technologies made this collaboration possible at no cost to either myself or Wallace. Using Skype for the audio and Crossloop for the screen sharing session was a real winner all around.

Using these technologies it is now possible to provide high level support, training, and collaboration wherever you may reside. All you need is high speed internet and a free Skype and Crossloop account. If you are looking for training and support in the comfort of your home or office just drop me a line to find out how we can get started. This type of support and training is ideal when you get in a pinch and need someone to turn to. I offer free estimates and would be glad to speak to you over Skype about your training or support needsor feel free to email me.

Dimdim 4.0 Released

FYI- I have written before about Dimdim, a free web conferencing Web 2.0 application that just keeps getting better and better. Here is the latest news about Dimdim

Exciting Dimdim News

Hello. We wanted you to be the first to know that we're launching a brand new version of Dimdim.

Since we launched our first public beta in April, Dimdim has been used in 180 countries by over 500,000 people. And we've made Dimdim even better by adding over 60 new customer-requested features including: Recording: You can now record your meetings and share playback URLs or embed the recording directly onto your own website just like YouTube videos. Multiple Presenters: With a single click you can allow any attendee to share their presentation, whiteboard, webcam - even their desktop. Mac Desktop Sharing: Mac users can share their desktop with anyone using just a browser. Free Teleconferencing: While we've improved our free VoIP microphone sharing everyone now gets their own unlimited free conference call account. Private Meetings: Simply assign a meeting key and only those who know both your meeting room name and your meeting key will be able to join. No Install: Now you don't need to install anything to join or even host a meeting. You'll only need to install our screencasting plug-in if you choose to share your desktop. Best of all, you do not need to do anything to get these new features as all Dimdim accounts have already been upgraded. Just sign in to use Dimdim 4.0 today. Take some credit for helping us make Dimdim even better: tell your friends to sign up for the new Dimdim and let them know these new features were your idea. We'll vouch for you.

Help us by telling everyone that the easy, open, and affordable web meeting is now even better at Dimdim.com. And breathe easy knowing that Dimdim users have saved millions of dollars and thousands of tons of CO2 by meeting virtually instead of commuting. Thank you for helping make Dimdim - and the world - better. Sincerely, Steve Chazin Chief Marketing Officer