April 10, 2008
Test entry
this is a test entry to see if I can embed a survey monkey survey
Posted by gabaldoc at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2007
Wikis - the way they are supposed to be!
So Bryan, Michael and I have been working on a presentation for OLA this week and we've been using PBWiki as our platform. In my usual apologetic tone, I was going to begin the next sentance withthe phrase "No offense", but then realized that yes, I mean offense. PBWiki knocks our campus wiki software off the chart! It really is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich, while our campus wiki is somewhat more like making tamales - challenging, time consuming, and, unless you really know what you are doing, not worth the effort. Who knows if my voice will be heard on this one, but here's a plea: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - let's try something different. Wiki technology rocks! This is one of the best collaborative projects I've ever worked on and it is all about the platform (and, of course, the collaborators). Our students could toatlly do this and, I think, they would get into it as much as me, if it were somewhat less discouraging to use than our current system.
I would hate to see our instruction be handcuffed by dated and difficult technology. It is not fair to the students or faculty. Ok, there's my Tuesday evening rant :-)
Posted by gabaldoc at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2007
And the winner is...
| A comparison of IM widgets | |||
| Chatango | MeeboMe | Plugoo | |
| Easily embeds in a web page | X | X | X |
| Does not require patron to have their own IM client/screen name | X | X | X |
| Supports patron anonymity | X | X | X |
| Customizable appearance | X | X | X |
| Can be used with an IM client | X | X | |
| Supports multiple simultaneous sessions | X | X | |
| Easily configured within a chat client | x (kind of) | X |
Since I've been playing with them, I thought it would be appropriate to write up my impressions of three of the major IM web page widgets: Chatango, MeeboMe and Plugoo.
All three widgets tested were great as far as ease of embedding in a web page, maintaining patron anonymity, and allowing for IMing without requiring the person contacting you to have an IM client. The anonymity issue is an interesting one. If the patron wants to identify themselves, MeeboMe and Plugoo give the patron the option to create a nickname on the screen, no login required, while Chatango requires the patron to log in if they want to use a nickname.
The differences started to emerge with customizable appearance. None of the widgets offered great customization options and, as most are Flash-based, this is not something that can be modified with style sheets. Plugoo and Chatango offer the most customization options, with choices of colors for lines, boxes, and fonts, as well as font size and widget size. Plugoo also allows for a customized header and customized messages for different situations. MeeboMe has very limited options on the Meebo site, but many more are available at meebome.com. Even these, though, are limited to color selections, header information and widget size.
A big concern I had with embedded IM widgets is how they notifyied me of new messages. Chatango, as a stand alone product, was least effective at this, primarily because it cannot be used with an IM client. They do offer a little program called MessageCatcher, which runs in the quickstart bar and flashes a message at you when a new IM arrives. If you already have a window of Chatango open, your only new message notification is the appearance of another tab. This is only available for Windows and is somewhat less convenient than many IM clients which pop new message windows to the top of the screen when they arrive. Both MeeboMe and Plugoo can be used with other IM clients. Plugoo was particularly easy to configure with a different IM client – it merely required adding myplugoo as a buddy. MeeboMe was a little more complex. First of all, Meebo uses the Jabber protocol so the free version of Trillian was not an option. Then, with Gaim (my preferred Windows, Jabber-friendly client) each time someone visited the page I had loaded MeeboMe on to, I was prompted to authorize them and add them as a buddy – not an ideal situation if you are wanting to install the widget on, say, a library homepage. Since this authorization of users is part of the Jabber protocol, neither Meebo nor Gaim seem eager to fix it. That, of course leaves it up to users to find a solution and Dan Beckvall provides a great one.
I found that each visitor was still added as a buddy but at least I wasn’t prompted to add them and, in Gaim, I could minimize the tab that they showed up under and did not have to clutter up my interface.
A final point of comparison for the three widgets was on the ability to support multiple simultaneous sessions. Only Chatango and MeeboMe allowed this. Plugoo allows options (which I was not able to get to work) for others to write a message which will be sent when the previous session has finished and provides a polite “busy" message to all visitors to the site in the meantime.
Overall, I was most impressed with MeeboMe. Plugoo’s easy functionality held a lot of appeal for me, but the one session at a time limitation was a deal breaker. Who wants people who come to your page to think that you are unavailable? It is akin to getting a busy signal when telephoning a business. I may try again, but if I am just trying to find a store that can provide a product/service, I will more likely move on to the next one. In the world of IM it is easy enough to acknowledge someone. People are patient and even if you are not comfortable IMing with multiple people at the same time, most will be willing to wait.
Update 5/11/07: After a lawsuit with AOL, Gaim is now Pidgin (http://www.pidgin.im). The interface is a bit cleaner and the neat plugin someone created makes functionality with MeeboMe much smother than with the previously mentioned workaround.
Posted by gabaldoc at 12:44 PM