Archive for the 'Social Media & Technology' Category

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a keen e-book fan for their space saving qualities and the fact that you can make the text/ font larger for more easy reading. Along with audio books, e-books are beginning to become my number one format of book consumption.

At the moment, I’m reading e-books on my various PCs using the Mobipocket desktop reader and also the Kindle PC reader, which are both free applications. They are great for reading books while I’m munching at my sandwich lunch at my desk at the office, say, or sitting in an armchair with my laptop on my … er.. lap. But a more easily portable device would be great for commuting and lying down to read.

So, I’ve been watching the e-book reader battles over the last year or so between different devices and manufacturers. I’ve discussed the various pros and cons of the myriad of devices elsewhere on this blog. (See Going Shelfless and a href=”http://www.fusionview.co.uk/2009/10/a-thousand-books-in-my-pocket/”>A Thousand Books in My Pocket)Recently, the main battle seems to have been between the Kindle and the iPad. I’ve been quite taken by the Kindle over the iPad because it’s smaller and lighter. At the same time, the iPad is a multi-function device and having a colour touch screen makes the whole user interface so much more attractive.

The downside of the Kindle - up till now - was that you could only get it by ordering from the USA. But in the last week or so, it has finally come to Amazon’s UK store. It comes in cheaper than the iPad - £109 for the WiFi versionand £149 for the WiFi and 3G.

Here’s a YouTube video review of the Kindle, which shows how thin it is!

You can also add notes and upload pdfs as well as surf the net (albeit in a limited way). There is a text to audio feature which can read the books to you (though I expect a computer generated voice might not be the most soothing of ways to digest a book..!).

So if you’re in the UK and fancy getting one, you can click here to go for it… [You’ll need to pre-order it cos it looks like the first shipment is already sold out!]

I don’t know what it is about the breakfast menu but for some reason, whenever someone who can’t see the point of blogging talks about blogs, they always say, “I’m not interested in what someone had for breakfast” as if that and all the other dull minutae of life is what bloggers blog about.

Well, out of my hundreds of posts now here on this blog, I’ve only blogged about my breakfast only once before (see My Favourite Breakfast) and I’m now going to blog about it again - sorry, if you’re not interested…!

Most of the time during the week, I have my breakfast when I get to work as I leave home very early. I usually have a bowl of cereal at my desk as I scroll my way through emails and my tasks ahead. The great thing about Sundays is having the time to make ourselves a cooked breakfast and to take time eating it.

The other Sunday, I had a full English with as many of the trimmings I could muster from the provisions in the kitchen. The only things missing were mushrooms and black pudding - and maybe hash browns, though they are not a traditional accompaniment to this meal. And although I would have liked fried bread alongside the bacon, sausages, baked beans, tomaotoes and fried eggs, I had toast instead - my one minimal gesture to healthy eating…. I’d been obsessing about a fry up all week for some reason - perhaps the weather getting cold again all of a sudden in spite of it being the spring had got me hankering for comfort food!

The thing about blogging is that in many ways it is the minutae of bloggers diverse every day lives that is what can draw you in. If you were reading a novel that went into such details, you’d say of it, !My, how wonderfully well-observed this novel is!” Similarly, for me, the small things of people’s lives can paint for me a picture of who they are and help me make that connection with them online. Which is why, I think, I enjoy the so-called trivia of Twitter and Facebook as it helps me glimpse, say, my cousin’s daily life as she takes the kids swimming or goes to boot camp or watches Lost with her husband.

Of course a diet consisting solely of trivia and banalities would be as unhealthy for you having a fry up every day. I supplement it all with books (fiction and non-fiction, physical, electronic and audio)and news (online) and magazines (print and digital) as I supplement my full Englishes with fruit and veg and lean, grilled meat and fish - as well as curries, stir fries, pasta, soups…

I shared with you some blogs by Malaysian foodbloggers the other week so, to counteract all that calorific content, I thought I’d check out some blogs about running by Malaysians. It’s a more surprising topic and I wasn’t expecting to find many but to my delight, there are quite a number of running enthusiasts who trot out quite happily in the sticky equatorial heat.

I haven’t run around in Malaysia since I was a kid, preferring the cool of a swimming pool whenever I go back for a visit - I’ve got so acclimatised to the UK cold that I find it quite a challenge exerting myself to much under a hot sky and even the heat of an English summer can be a little too much for me! - so I’m really impressed by these Malaysian fitbloggers who race marathons and even ultras (ie more than 26.2 miles) out in the midday sun!

Running With Passion is a Kuala Lumpur based runner who seems to run “in most road races all over my beautiful country, MALAYSIA and also in oversea places that I have visited”. He has some great photos and videos on his blog as well as lively write-ups of the events. He also blogs about music, the blogging scene and a wide range of other activities and festivities in Malaysia.

Living, And Loving Life is the public diary of Haza, “A working mother of two who would like to believe she can shuffle on a relentless forward motion and explore her boundaries.” That’s a very modest description as she’s an ultrarunner! She’s also a great photographer (many Malaysian bloggers seem to be!) and there are some lovely portraits on her blog, too.

KL Runner focuses more on race stats in his write ups but it’s the photos of race events that really bring his blog to life - it’s great to see the Malaysian scenery that the runners are slogging through as well as all of them going hard at it in many action shots.

Photos: L to R
L: from Running with Passion, with thanks
Middle: from Living, And Loving Life, with thanks
R: from KL Runner’s blog, with thanks

I’ve updated my How To guide for listening to podcasts as I thought it might be useful for some of you to have a handy reference guide on how to access podcasts - not just my Fusion View Mobile Podcast but also other podcasts available out there.

When I was telling a friend the other day about my podcastes, she asked me, “How do you listen to a podcast?”. On asking around, it turns out quite a number of my “middle youth” friends don’t know how to listen to podcasts and don’t have iTunes or other music / multimedia aggregator installed. Many have been too busy with work and family to fiddle around online to find out how to do it and others just don’t know where to start.

So to help them out - and anyone else who’d like to know how to listen to podcasts, here’s some guidance

Listen from my blog page

You can listen from my blog - on the post which has the podcast, click on the player and the podcast will start. That’s the simplest way to listen but you will need to be at your computer during the whole podcast to listen to all of it.

Note that you’ll need to have your sound speakers on to hear the audio. You’ll also need a broadband connection for best results.

Listen on your iPod or mp3 player

It’s best to listen to podcasts on an iPod or mp3 player which you can take with you wherever you are. Setting it up takes a few steps and once you’ve done that, everything is pretty much automated.

1. The easiest podcast application to use is iTunes - but do note that there are other options. Go to the Apple iTunes store and you’ll see the prominent section to Download iTunes, which will take you a page explaining what iTunes is with instructions. When you’re ready, click the Download Now button on that page and follow the instructions.

2. Once iTunes is downloaded, open it up and go the iTunes Store. You’ll see a virtual store where you can download music, videos, podcasts and audiobooks - some of which are free and some are paid-for.

3. To find the Fusion View Mobile Podcast in the iTunes Store, the easiest thing to do is to go to the Search box in the top right corner and type in Fusion View or Fusion View Mobile Podcast. My podcast will come up - click on that to see the episodes. Click Subscribe and iTunes will download the latest episode. In future, any time you open up iTunes, it will download the latest episode since your last download. (You may see both the Fusion View Podcast and Fusion View Mobile Podcast - the Mobile Podcast is the latest one that is regularly updated so that is the one to subscribe to for current and future episods.)

You can also click on the Subscribe with iTunes button on the podcast posts on my blog - or below:

Clicking on the above button will open up iTunes and subscribe to the Fusion View podcast automatically.

Many other podcasters have this or similar logos on their blogs so clicking on that will automatically subscribe you to their podcasts using iTunes.

4. If you want to get previous episodes on my podcast, go to the Library section of iTunes (left sidebar), click on Podcasts. This will take you to your library of podcasts that you’ve subscribed to. Click on Fusion View Mobile Podcast in the list of your podcasts and you will see a drop down list of previous podcasts in pale grey text to indicate that you haven’t downloaded them yet. Click on the “Get” button alongside whichever episodes you want to download.

5. To transfer podcasts from your iTunes library to your iPod or mp3 player, plug that device into your computer with iTunes open. iTunes should automatically recognise the device and take you through the steps to make the connection and download items from iTunes to the device. The iPod synch should be seamless as it’s an Apple product but you can find more help at the iPod and iTunes FAQ page. For those with mp3 players, there’s more detailed information on the mp3 players and iTunes page.

6. Every time you then plug in your iPod or mp3 player to your computer, iTunes should automatically open up and transfer the latest episodes of podcasts you’ve subscribed to across to your device.

For beginners, there’s more info and help at the New Users Guide to iTunes page.

Again, you’ll get best results for fast downloads via a broadband connection.

There are great podcasts to download from the BBC as well as radio stations in Australia and USA - what I love is that you can listen to them when you choose, not when the broadcaster chooses. There are also really good ones by ordinary people like myself (eg on running, triathlon, gardening, marketing, management, communications, technology etc) and also podcasts of lectures from some of the best universities in the world - check out iTunes U in the iTunes Store (I especially like UC Berkeley’s History and Psychology podcasts). Podcasts have really saved me from boredom and helped me get through tedious activities as I plenty of interesting audio to entertain me when I commute to work or I’m doing the washing up or gardening.

Enjoy!

Continuing my exploration of the volcano ash travel crisis, I reflect on the silent skies above the UK this springtime. Podcasting guru Neville Hobson also adds his voicemail, reflecting on a silent London.

There’s also a round up of travelling friends who’ve been posting about being caught up in the air travel chaos on Facebook, including a voicemail report from Ingrid Beazley of Dulwich OnView who is stuck in the US after a museums/ heritage sector conference.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

Here are links to the articles I discuss on the podcast:

Social Media and Stranded Travellers

Dunkirk-style mission to transport travellers

Also, I mention Dulwich OnView wins an international award

Other resources:

Liftshare.com - social network site for car sharing

My snaps from the park:

I’d love to hear about your experiences of the air travel ban - have you been enjoying the quiet in the skies above your area? Or have been caught up in the chaos, trying to get to your destination? You can send me an email or voicemail via my Contact Page

Twitter proved invaluable for my cousin who has been caught up in the volcano ash air traffic chaos while on holiday in Malaysia - in this podcast, I share her story and ask: How do you use Twitter to keep in touch, especially in a crisis?

Also, I use Rebtel.com for cheap international calls on my mobile phone so I thought I’d give you a handy tip about this service. I don’t get a commission from them but I just want to tell you about this useful service because I like it.

There is a new Postbag section with readers’ comments and feedback.

And I’ve set up some voicemail lines with a US/ North America as well as a UK telephone line AND a Skype line for you to leave your voicemail to be included in future podcast episodes. You can find all the details on my Contact Page at www.fusionview.co.uk/contact.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

I’d love to hear how you’ve used Twitter to keep in touch with family and friends or if you have been caught up in the recent air travel crisis - or if you have any comments or thoughts about anything else I’ve discussed in my podcasts or on my blog. Just go to www.fusionview.co.uk/contact to send me an email or voicemail.

Photo: thanks to Danny Choo from flickr.com (CCL)

We got a text message this weekend from our fellow volunteer Ingrid Beazley who was at the international musuem conference in Denver, Colorado, USA to tell us that our volunteer blog Dulwich OnView has won the Best Small Museum Site 2010 at the Conference Archimuse International Best of the Web Awards this year. We are all thrilled that our hard work and collaborative effort over the last few years has been recognised on the international heritage sector stage. Thanks to everyone who voted for us at the conference site. Thanks also goes to our co-editors, contributors and readers!

The Best Small Musuem Site award is given “to explicitly recognise work from smaller institutions. [ie] These sites [which] have been:

• Created in-house or with volunteer effort
• Mounted by small institutions (with 5 for fewer professional staff)
• Created with very limited budgets (sometimes no budget)”

Congratulations also to the other winners in the other categories!

Photo: of the Dulwich OnView editorial team and regular contributors, from Dulwich OnView

As you may know, I’ve been involved in a social media project for the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery on a voluntary basis - a community blog called Dulwich OnView. We started it just over two years ago and it’s been going from strength to strength, gaining quite a lot of attention within the heritage/ musuem sector here in the UK and internationally.

The exciting news is that the blog has been nominated for the Conference Archimuse International Best of the Web Award 2010. The annual conference is one of the biggest international conferences in the heritage/ museum sector and is taking place this year in Denver, USA. One of our bloggers team, Ingrid Beazley, is off there this week to give a presentation about Dulwich OnView alongside a number of academics who have written research papers on the strategy and structure of the blog.

The success of Dulwich OnView (DOV) is due to all the individual volunteers who have contributed their diverse skills as well as their time to the project so I want to set out for the record acknowledgements to the core team who have, to date, made the blog an eclectic and lively online community:

Founder Members and Editorial Team

INGRID BEAZLEY - In her capacity as chair of the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery she facilitated Yang-May’s concept, ’selling’ it to the Gallery staff and Friends committee. Now as one of Dulwich OnView’s acting editors, she commissions articles from the Gallery staff and from the local community and promotes the website ceaslessly, locally as well as internationally.

ANGIE MACDONALD - took over from Catherine Fraher as acting editor in the early months of Dulwich OnView and shaped the role of the Acting Editor. She wrote the Editor’s Handbook, trained other team members to be editors and to use Wordpress blogging software. She also writes occasionally for DOV. More recently she has been involved in project managing the redesign of DOV, co-ordinating the team ideas and working closely with Ingrid and the web designer to create a new-look DOV.

YANG-MAY OOI - created the concept of Dulwich OnView as a community blog and developed the key “guerrilla marketing” strategy for the blog to raise Dulwich Picture Gallery’s profile among the online demographic. She also planned the DOV team structure and set up the web-based collaborative systems which make this project self-managing and non-hierarchical. This includes creating the collaborative editorial documents which ensure that the blog runs smoothly and writing the several handbooks which set out all the processes for current and new members of the team. She continues to provide strategic advice as well as contributing multimedia content to the blog.

ANNA SAYBURN - wrote many of the earliest DOV articles, helping to develop the informal, community style of Dulwich OnView through a mixture of interviews with local people, reviews of local events and pieces about local history and art associated with Dulwich. She served as an acting editor for part of the first two years, helping bring in new contributors and fostering the sense of community. She still writes regularly for DOV.

STEVE SLACK - writes off the wall articles for DOV with the aim of debunking the myth that Dulwich is populated solely by rich, posh people. He’s written about pub quizzes, street names, local history and general peculiar cultural goings-on. Working with DOV has helped him develop as an online writer and given him skills he uses in other freelance work.

TAHRA MORTON - is an intern at DOV, writing articles as well as carrying out her role as one of the acting editors while on a work secondment in Brussels, Belgium, underlining that DOV is truly an online community that while local is also without borders.

SALLY ANN JOHNSON - advised the team on risk management and helped develop DOV’s article submissions policy. She also writes for the blog.

CATHERINE FRAHER - was DOV’s first acting editor. She co-ordinated the team of volunteers, editorial meetings and uploaded much of the early content onto the blog.

SHAPA BEGUM - an intern at DOV, she currently writes articles and is responsible for the Paul Nash online art competition. She is provided with regular support by the editorial team to learn and develop skills in networking, editorial management and technical skills.

ANNA MARIA DI BRINA - is one of DOV’s acting editors and also writes articles on art and events.

ANGELA CORRIAS - contributed to the editorial style of DOV as one of the acting editors and collaborated in its content with interviews to local artists and coverage of local events.

Other Contributors

Amanda Greatorex, Greville Havenhand, Laverne Hunt, Ed Saunders, Rebecca Portsmouth, Erica Green, Steve Overbury, Nigel Thorpe, Lorenzo Ali, Daniel Pateman, Patrick Knight, Bella Tullo, “Jane Morris”

~~~

Related info:

Dulwich OnView
Patrons of Dulwich Picture Gallery
Blogging for the Heritage Sector
Dulwich OnView leads the way for heritage sector blogging
Our pro-bono project, Dulwich OnView, makes impact in heritage sector
Dulwich OnView Wikipedia entry

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Malaysian must be in search of a good meal. Malaysians will travel far and wide at any time of the day or night to find the best and tastiest dishes. I’ve known people who would drive for three hours on a Sunday out of town to go to a coffee shop in another state because that coffee shop made the best noodle soup. While the Brits might go on pub crawls, my pal Kenny Mah over at Life for Beginners tells me that he and his friends would go on food crawls, going from restaurant to food stall to cafe over an evening to eat different courses of their meal - and more!

So is it any surprise that when Malaysians discovered blogging a mass of food blogs sprung up!

What impresses me about these food bloggers is that they have the self control to set up their cameras to take photos of the food with loving care before tucking in! When they go out for meals together, it must be an amazing sight when they whip out their arsenal of high end digital cameras and start clicking away. The results I must say are almost pornographically mouth-watering…

Here are some that I’ve been enjoying - and salivating over. (To find others, simply check out their blogrolls which will reveal a whole new world of food.)

A Whiff of Lemongrass - a delicious blog by an accountant, would you believe, who writes beautifully and goes under the moniker Lyrical Lemongrass. She is of mixed parentage which means she has a wide cross-cultural taste. Based in Shah Alam, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, she and her husband make a feast of their lives wherever they are, taking luscious shots of their meals with a pretty serious camera.

Precious Pea - a Malaysian based in Melbourne (we get around, you know), she blogs about her two passions, dogs and food, as well as sharing some glimpses into the people in her life. I enjoy the fact that this isn’t purely restaurant reviews and that we can get to know Precious Pea’s life a little bit. But the food photos are again the highlight!

Dad, Baker & Chef - The title says it all. He’s a dad and he bakes lovely cakes and desserts for his family and friends. Click on this pic of the dessert he made for his wife and girl friends who came round for a meal and swoon - at the food but also at his loving generosity and creativity. What a guy!

Photos: from the food bloggers’ respective blogs, with thanks