First of all, you do need a Google+ account.

1) Go go to your Profile page on Google+ and click on Edit Profile (right side)
2) Under your Profile Photo is a link that says Change Photo, click on it.
3) Then upload, or find the photo of your choice in your albums, then add.
4) Repeat Step 4 and add a different photo.
5) When you’re happy with the various Profile Photos, click on the Done Editing button on top.
6) You should be back on your profile page. Now click on the Profile Photo and watch it switch to your other photos!

Pretty cool huh? :) You can test it out on my profile photo.

Join in on the conversation on the Original Google+ thread.

1. Backup two files in your /screens directory — wwwoptions and bib_display.html, then download to your computer (via FTP)
2. In wwwoptions, look for ICON_RECORDLINK and change it to:

   ICON_RECORDLINK=http://YOUR_LIBRARY_WEBSITE/%s

   where YOUR_LIBRARY_WEBSITE is the URL of your Library Catalog. %s will dynamically display the unique record id.

3. In bib_display.html, add in:

   
<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=120x120&chl=
<!--{recordlink}-->
" />


   to where you want the QR code displayed. Be sure to put the recordlink token on it’s own separate line and aligned to the left.

4. Upload both files back into your /screens folder and reboot the webports.
5. Do a keyword search in your Library Catalog and find a record. You should see your QR code somewhere on the record display. (See image below)
6. Take your mobile device and scan the QR code (using a barcode app). It should take you directly to the page with the catalog. This makes it easier for patrons to search for something on a desktop computer, scan it, and capture that data on their mobile devices to take to a librarian.

Recommended QR Scanner Apps

If you need a QR scanner for your mobile device, here are some I recommend. Download the appropriate one.

• iOS: QR Code Reader and Scanner
• Android OS: Mobiletag Barcodes Reader
• Palm WebOS: QR deCODEr
• Blackberry, Nokia, and more: UpCode

Further Reading

For further reading and more advanced QR techniques, read about it on Google Code.

If you’re like me and signed up for newsletters, store ads, or other mailing lists, you may want to separate these emails from your more important ones. I personally think important emails should be sent to the inbox and maybe added to an additional label.

Other things from mailing lists can skip the inbox and be added under their own folder, or “label” as Google calls it.

Step 1: Creating a new label

So let’s create a label (folder) to store these emails in. In the example, I’m creating a label called “Ads” to store all of my store advertisements in. Other labels you can create for are Facebook, Twitter, and other social network notifications, Google Buzz, Work emails, etc.

1. On the top right, click on Settings.
2. Scroll down to the Labels section.
3. In the text box, enter the name for your label and click Create.

Step 2: Find sample email to filter

Now go to your email inbox and find an email you would like to filter out. In the example, I picked a clothing store ad. On the top right of this email, you will see the option to “reply.” Click on the arrow next to it to see all the options available. In the drop-down menu, click on “Filter messages like this.”

Step 3: Setup Filters

Once you click on “Filter messages like this,” it’ll bring you to the Filter page with the From field already filled out. Click on Next Step.

HINT: You can also filter your Google Buzz emails/notifications by putting label:buzz in the Has the words: field. Create a label for these emails before filtering. I put them in a label called GBuzz. More info about Google Buzz filters here.

Step 4: Create Filter

Here is where all the options for the filters are. Let’s have these types of message skip the inbox and filter into the label “ads.”

1. Select “Skip the Inbox” so the message would not appear in your main inbox.
2. Select the appropriate label from the drop down menu. In this case, it’s “Ads.”
3. If you want apply the filter to what’s in your inbox already, checkmark the last option.
4. Click on Create Filter.

I hope this tip will help you keep your Gmail inbox more manageable. As you can see from my inbox counter, I still have a lot more filters to add!

Question: I have set-up/configured our Facebook, Twitter, and Blog this week. We are in the process of posting content to each, but I was hoping you could go over a few things with me. Mainly, how to integrate the 3 so that we don’t have to constantly update all 3 sites? And also, based on your experience, are there any general settings in each dealing with user interactivity that we should enable/disable?

Answer: I would first start with integrating Twitter into Facebook, instead of the other way around. The reason is because I think students are more familiar with the Facebook interface than Twitter.

How to make your Facebook posts go to Twitter

1. In a browser, log into Twitter.
2. In another tab in the browser, go to Facebook.com/Twitter. You will see your Facebook page and a button that says “Link to Twitter.”
3. Click on the “Link to Twitter” button
4. It’ll take you back to Twitter, prompting “An application would like to connect to your account.”
5. Click on “Allow.”

Image: Step 4 – Prompt to allow Facebook to connect to Twitter

This will connect the two accounts. So when you post something on the Facebook Wall like a status update, link, photo, etc. it will also post to Twitter.

How to Add your Blog RSS feed into Facebook

1. Log into Facebook
2. Go to your Page and click on “Edit Page” in the left navigation
3. Scroll down and look for “Notes”
4. Click on the pencil and then “Edit Application”
5. On the right side, click on “Edit import settings”
6. It will ask you for “Web URL.” Put in the RSS feed address, click on the checkbox, and click on “Start Importing”
7. The next page will ask you to “Confirm import.”

This will import your blog posts into the “Facebook Notes” section.

Interacting with Social Networks
Even though you are integrating all three social networks, you still need to attend to them individually. The audience and culture at each social network is somewhat different. Someone may respond on Twitter, and you won’t see it unless you’re on Twitter and in the conversation. Same with all the other social networks.

Settings for Social Networks
As for the settings that you should enable:

• In Facebook, allow your users to comment on the wall, add links, and photos.
• In the blog, be sure to allow comments in each post.
• On Twitter, go to Settings->Account, be sure to NOT checkmark “Protect my Tweets”

Books and Resources
If you’re interested in learning more about these social networks, I suggest reading some of these books:

• Inside Facebook.com is another great resource.
• Tweeternet – What is Twitter?
• Top 25 Blogs about Blogging

Twitter Lists are currently in beta, and have been released to a few testers. Note: Some links in this post may only work if you have lists added to your account.

Twitter Lists help you organize and discover new people with similar interests. And since list are created by real users, I’m sure you will find quality twitter accounts to follow.

Some Twitter Lists features include:

1. Ability to create up to 20 different lists of Twitter people
2. Ability to add people to lists, but not necessary follow them
3. Ability to follow other people’s lists

Useful Links:

1. Lists that I created and follow
2. lists that I’m a member of

Note: These links only work if you have Lists enabled in your Twitter account.

Screenshots of Twitter Lists

Here is a screenshot of my account with Twitter lists. You know lists are working on your account when you see that big box on top asking you to create lists.

If you go to a friend’s Twitter page (Hi Leo!), you can see some new features. You can add your friend to multiple lists. You can also see the public lists they’ve created. And as I found out, there’s a maximum of 20 lists per person.

This is a screenshot of my followers. I’m able to add people I’m not necessarily following onto my lists.

And here is a screenshot of the lists that I am a member of:

For more information, see Twitter’s blog entry about Lists

Here is a sample where I used the “People in Photos” feature. In the photo below, you can see Louis Gray, me, and Jesse Stay.

To start tagging people, type in their screen name, real name, or email address into the input box. A list of users will appear. If they are a Flickr contact, select the appropriate one. Else, finish typing and select either “Search this email address” or “send an email to this address.”

To add a square around people’s face, click on the icon shown in the image below:

Once the square is created, drag the square over the person’s face. Continue doing this for the next person, and the next.

You can read more about Flickr’s “People in Photos” here.

Here is a short clip of the Google Wave demo that I did with Leo Laporte on Twit.TV on June 3rd, 2009. Thanks for archiving this ODTV!

In the demo, I showed Leo how to navigate around in Google Wave. Note, I only had the account for about two hours before giving the demo, and only tested it for about 30 minutes. :)

So how do you get it on your phone? Here are the steps:

1. Plug you iPhone 3G/3GS into iTunes
2. Select you iPhone and click on “Check for Update”
3. It will ask you to download a new carrier file. Select Download and install.
4. Now restart your phone.

To test it out..

1. Click on the “Photos” app.
2. Select a photo
3. In the lower left corner, click on the arrow
4. You should now have a new choice — MMS
5. Click on MMS and the photo will be inserted into a new MMS
6. Click on the + button and select a contact to send it to.
7. Click on “Send”

And that’s it! Congrats, you just sent your first MMS on your iPhone. Welcome to 2002. :)