Thursday, November 19, 2009

Welcome to My Presentation Blog

I'm trying something a little different with my presentation for the 2009 IETC. Rather than developing a PowerPoint presentation and printing handouts, I thought I'd try blogging my presentation. Seems like a more 'green' way of doing business. Plus, it adds the benefit of interaction from the audience. I'm hoping that folks add comments, share resources, provide input, etc on these free tools.

To aid in the functionality of the blog, each section title below is a hyperlink to the showcased resource - so just click on the title to go directly to that resource's home page.

So here goes! I hope that you find at least one helpful tool - and that you share a helpful tool, too!

SkyDrive

SkyDrive allows you to store, access, and share your files from anywhere online.

- Free 25 GB, password-protected online storage
- Drag and drop upload process
- Share folders with classmates, coworkers, family, friends
- Each folder has a unique Web address

Cooliris - Larger than life graphical interface

Cooliris enhances your web-browsing experience. When you are on a Cooliris-enabled site, just click the Cooliris button. Your browser is transformed into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing photos and videos.

This plug-in only supports a handful of graphics-intensive sites - Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, Amazon, ESPN, etc.

ping.fm - Update social networking sites simultaneously

Widely popular, this site allows you to manage your social networking sites all in one location. Ping.fm offers a simple web-based dashboard from which you can update your status on a variety of social networks - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more.

In addition to supporting over 40 social services, you can also create groups of networks.

Xobni - A Lifesaver for Overcrowded Inboxes

Ever spent precious time searching your inbox for a particular message or attachment? Ever forgotten an important contact's name or organization?
Ever wonder who you spend the most time emailing?
Ever forget who all needs to be included in a follow-up message?

Xobni is an Outlook add-in that includes lightning-fast search, threaded conversations, email analytics, and more. This powerful tool helps you find emails, contacts, and attachments.

It also helps you stay connected and get connected through a variety of social networks - Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Zamzar - File Conversion

In four easy steps, Zamzar allows you to convert files (up to 100MB) to a variety of different formats - image, document, video, audio, etc.

Step 1: Select the file to convert
Step 2: Choose the format to convert to
Step 3: Enter email ID
Step 4: Agree to the terms, and convert

Please note that the conversion process (especially for larger files) may take time.

Zotero - Firefox Add-on to Collect, Manage, and Cite Resources

Zotero is a powerful research tool to aid in the storage and organization of bibliographical information.

Similar to Endnote and Evernote, Zotero offers additional benefits, such as:
- An Autofind feature
- Folder structuring
- Tagging
- Search as you type
- Notes
- Free!

In an age where we spend more time browsing virtual libraries and less time hanging out in physical ones, Zotero can be a real time-saver.

Even for those of us who do little bibliographical reasearch, Zotero can be a great way to collect, organize, and share web resources.