NCCE TechTalk

Google Calendar Handout

2012-01-26T15:17:00.000-05:00

Andy Click in the NCSU College of Natural Resources, shared the handout he uses for teaching his class on Google Calendar.

https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B380oixtu6yQNmZkZjZjMDgtOGViMy00OTc1LWEyNDUtYmZmMjI5NTUxYzdj&hl=en_US

If you are going to print it, you might want to Download the original.

Great tool!

Thanks Andy for sharing!

Make the transition to Google Calendar

2012-01-13T11:49:00.002-05:00

Now that you have Google Calendar, how do you make the move from using the paper calendar you've been using for years to a new electronic calendar? It's very easy. Use both.

If you have a smart phone, then you don't need to deal with paper. You have your calendar with you at all times. See the video setup instructions at: http://google.ncsu.edu/accessing-google for configuring your smart phone or PDA. Learn how to use that and you can stop reading now.

Until you have a smart phone (some day, you will), you can start using Google Calendar as your primary calendar by printing your calendar as you need it.

Many years ago (we had a computer in the office, but it didn't even have a hard drive - yes, I'm getting old), I tried to keep two separate calendars. One on my desk for my secretary to know where I was and my pocket calendar for me to know where I was supposed to be. It lasted about a month. I found it impossible to keep the two synchronized. My advice. Don't even try to keep two separate calendars.

Why use Google calendar?
Several years ago (okay, more than a decade), I started using an electronic calendar. For me, they have some significant advantages.

It's legible.

If you've ever seen my handwriting, you'd understand why this is #1.

I don't have to worry about losing it.

It's an awful feeling when your wife asks you, "where is your calendar" and she's holding a handful of lint out of the dryer.

It can be shared.

My boss, my coworkers, my wife, or anyone I deem worthy can see my calendar - or just times I'm not available.
You can invite others to meetings.
You can RSVP to others' invitations.

You can keep multiple calendars.

Have separate calendars for projects, clubs, associations, meeting rooms, vehicles, your personal life, kid's activities, etc. and keep these all separate, showing just the ones you want at any time. They work like color-coded layers.

Get reminders via email, pop-up on your computer or text messages to your cell phone.
Task lists are wonderful for keeping up with all those 'to-dos'.

How can you keep using your paper calendar and still use Google Calendar?

Here's how I did it before PDAs and Smart phones.

I made my online calendar my primary calendar. I lived by this calendar.
I printed out the next 6 months or so. More if I was going to a meeting where we'd be planning events farther into the future than that.
I carried the paper calendar with me like I did my old 'paper' calendar and made entries in it as needed.
Periodically (frequency depended on how many events were added), I'd update my electronic calendar with the items that were handwritten in my paper calendar.
When my paper calendar got too 'messy', I'd print off a new copy of that month.

How would I do this with Google Calendar?

Google's monthly print view is not quite adequate (it's better if you change to font to smallest). So, I would use one of the following methods for printing.

Print the weekly view for the next few weeks and the monthly view for the next few months.
Print 2-week views rather than monthly views.
Integrate Google Calendar with Apple iCal on Macs or Outlook on Windows.

See: instructions to sync with iCal
See: instruction to sync with Outlook (will not sync secondary calendars)

Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Share your suggestions, experiences and lessons learned! (comment)

Searching Extension

2012-01-10T08:44:00.000-05:00

How often are you looking for information, but you only want it to be from someone you trust? Try using the eXtension Search tool at: http://www.extension.org/search

Searching from this page will search almost 1,000 Cooperative Extension sites.

You can put a search box like the one below on your blog or website by following the instructions provided by Google

Sending Large Files with Velocity

2011-12-12T13:37:00.001-05:00

When sharing files, Google Docs is a great tool. But sometimes the file is too large to share via Google Docs. There are many sites that will allow you to send a file to someone without attaching it to an email message. NCSU's Velocity https://velocity.ncsu.edu/ is a site that is offered by NCSU to do just that.

You can share files or whole folders (Velocity calls them cabinets). It is very easy to use.

Note: this is not place for long-term sharing. Files can stay up here a month. If you want a file to stay available more than a month, you will have to "Extend" it's availability.

Give it a try.

People with NCSU ids can login with your unityID@ncsu.edu and your unity password. Others can create an account.

https://velocity.ncsu.edu/

Move Local Mail to Gmail for non-Mac users

2011-12-07T16:50:00.002-05:00

By: John Dorner

If you are using Thunderbird on a Windows computer and would like to move the mail that is in your local folders to your Gmail account, here's how:

Recreate your folder structure with labels using the Gmail web interface (manage labels).
Update Thunderbird. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/
From your Thunderbird, make sure you are connected to your Gmail account.
http://oit.ncsu.edu/email/google-email-computer-thunderbird
Show "All Folders" (View -> Folders -> All) in the left hand pane.
Select all the files in a folder (in your Local Folders) with Ctrl+A or Edit -> Select All and use "Copy To" from the Message dropdown menu or the right-click menu to the appropriate label on your NCSU Gmail account (probably named "your_name@ncsu.edu).
You can also copy individual messages or groups of messages from your Local Folders by selecting and copying those to the desired label under your Gmail account.
After you are done, check to make sure all the messages successfully copied.
If you continue to use Thunderbird, just stop putting new mail in the Local Folders - use the Gmail Labels.

It's probably best to do a folder or two at a time.

Depending on your network connection speed, it may be best to do this when fewer people are in the office or the network is less busy. If you have Gigabytes of messages, this may take many hours. You might want to start a large folder and leave going when you go home for the night.

Keep in mind that these messages will not be archived in Postini.
You are still responsible for maintaining these messages for email retention compliance.

If you have a personal Gmail account, you can add that account to Thunderbird and move personal messages/folders to your personal Gmail account or move work related messages from your personal account to your NCSU account.

Note: If you have questions or need help with this, contact me.

Have you looked at Google+ yet?

2011-12-02T08:53:00.001-05:00

http://plus.google.com/
While your clientele are probably not there yet, it would be good for you to experience it and understand it before everyone else has it figured out and you are playing catch-up - again.

Steve Judd and Kevin Gamble will be presenting "Google+, What's the fuss?" this afternoon (12/2/2011) at 2pm EST - http://www.extension.org/learn/event/372

They wrote a blog post to let you get a feel for what they are going to be talking about at: http://blogs.extension.org/militaryfamilies/2011/11/29/google-what%E2%80%99s-the-fuss/

Some other articles worth reading are:
"Top 10 Google+ Features"
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/top-ten-google-features.html

"What good is Google+ if my friends don't use it?"
http://lifehacker.com/5863389/what-good-is-google%252B-if-my-friends-dont-use-it

"Connect with your community on Google+"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/connect-with-your-community-on-google.html

Note: Google+ is not available from your NCSU Google Apps account, but you can access it from your personal account (mine is jdorner4@gmail.com) or by logging in with your eXtensionID@extension.org and your eXtension password.

Are you a curator of information?

2011-11-18T09:12:00.002-05:00

There is so much information available on the web to the general public that 'lack of information' is not the problem. The problem most people face now is filtering out the credible information from the misinformation. This is one way Extension can help.

Do your clientele (or people you want to become your clientele) look to you to filter the wheat from the chaff of information available to them? Why not become a curator? Identify the best information out there and add some commentary to make it even more useful to your clientele.

Bob Bertch, Web Technology Specialist at North Dakota State University Extension is curating information related to "Working Differently in Extension" at: http://www.scoop.it/t/workingdifferently

Abby Gold, Nutrition and Wellness Specialist/Assistant Professor at North Dakota State University Extension Service and University of Minnesota Extension, is now curating information about nationwide Extension work in the area of food systems. http://www.scoop.it/t/extension-works-the-food-system

They are both using the free tool Scoop.it.

If you are already (or start) curating content in an area of interest to Extension, share your site with us in the comments.

Steven Rosenbaum, author of the book, Curation Nation: How to Win in a World Where Consumers are Creators. In it, he explains and makes a case for curation.

Howard Rheingold and Robin Good who both recently spoke at the National eXtension Virtual Conference are here talking about curation.

NCSU Photo ID

2011-11-08T11:53:00.000-05:00

Do you have a current NCSU Photo ID? If not, the CES Photo ID application is a way for off-campus NCSU employees to take their own picture and get an AllCampus ID card without having to travel to campus. You can use the card to get discounts at certain places (e.g. Verizon) and get into the NCSU Gym and maybe some other UNC facilities.

Here is how the application works. You will upload a digital photo of yourself. The photo's authenticity will be verified by your County Director. Next it will be transferred to the NC State AllCampus Card office. The AllCampus Office will create your ID and mail it to your office. If you are requesting a replacement card, there will be a $15.00 charge, payable by check to the AllCampus Network.

For questions and instructions on how the photo needs to be taken, see: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/admin/wiki/index.php/CES_Photo_ID_Help

Upcoming classes/Google Week

2011-10-24T13:24:00.001-04:00

By: John Dorner

Over the next couple weeks, I have several classes scheduled.
All of these classes will be offered in Elluminate at: http://go.ncsu.edu/learn

Elluminate Live!
Elluminate Live! is a great tool for communicating with others when you can't be face-to-face. Use Elluminate Live! to bring speakers into your face-to-face meetings, broadcast your meetings to those who can come. Record your sessions so those who couldn't participate at that time can see what they missed. It's great for replacing teleconferences because you can share screens, video and work together to create content.

Oct 25 2-3pm
Participating in Elluminate Sessions
All of the sessions below are presented using it. So if you don't feel comfortable with participating in an online session, the session on October 25 is for you!

Nov 8 2-4pm
Moderating Elluminate Sessions

If you feel comfortable as a participant, you are ready to create and moderate your own session. Lead your own sessions, use it to bring in speakers and much more. After this session you will be able to create your own sessions and know how to use most of the features you'd ever want to use.

Nov 3, 2-3pm
Introduction to Twitter
You've heard about Twitter for several years now, but have you tried it yet? This session is for the person who has never even created a Twitter account and those who have an account, but are still trying to figure out how it can be of use to them.

GOOGLE WEEK!

Every afternoon of this week, we'll learn about a tool that can help you every day! Whether you are using a personal Google Account, your NCSU account or your eXtension account, these sessions will help save you time and do things you didn't know were possible.

Nov 14 2-4pm
Getting the most out of Gmail
Unless you have really explored the depths of Gmail, there are probably some features that you didn't know about. Many of these features can help you manage your mail and save you time (and your job if you lose that important email message)!

Nov 15 2-3pm
Getting the most out of Google Calendar
Make the move from paper to electrons! Just because you use an online calendar doesn't mean you have to give up the paper - you just don't have to worry about losing that paper calendar any more.
Google Calendar lets you share your calendar with those you want to, create multiple calendars, send you a text message reminder when you need to to leave for that important meeting and much much more!

Nov 16 2-4pm
Getting the most out of Google Docs
For me, Google Docs has almost completely replaced Microsoft Office. Other than printing a highly formatted document, everything I do is in Google Docs. Come see how Google Docs can save you time and share and collaborate with others in ways you hadn't thought of.

Nov 17 2-3pm
Creating Online Forms/Surveys with Google Docs
Need to evaluate that session and want an easy way to allow the participants to do it online? Want to summarize that evaluation data quickly and easily? Want to just ask several people a couple questions? Google Doc's Forms has lots of features that costly

Nov 18 2-3pm
Shorting URLs with NCSU GoLinks
Okay... not necessarily a Google product, but this one can be used with Google very well. There are lots of URL shorteners out there - tinyurl.com, goo.gl, bitl.y for a few. But, NCSU's has the advantage of keeping the ncsu.edu domain. Your URLs will be "go.ncsu.edu/whatever-you-want". They also give you the ability to know how many people visited the link, what browsers they are using, and if you want to add Google Analytics, you can do that easily too. You also get a QR code that you can use in print media to make it easy for people with a smart phone to get to your site.

National eXtension Virtual Conference

2011-10-06T09:00:00.004-04:00

“Reach”, “follow”, “lead”, “innovate”, “engage”, “curate”, “initiate”. What does it all mean? How can each of us take advantage of the increasing flow of information we see every day? How can we learn more and bring value to our workplace and our clientele?

Navigating the information super-highway isn’t the same as it used to be. Curation, virtual worlds, social media strategy, new media trends, and media literacy are just a few of the intersections we are heading toward both professionally and personally.

The 2011 National eXtension Virtual Conference brings together an outstanding lineup of speakers for More Mind Reach, October 17, 18, & 19, 2011. Anyone working to reach and interact with the public will be interested in this active and reactive virtual conference designed to build your knowledge skill set about the changing world of information today and for the future.

Each speaker will give a 45 minute presentation followed by a short break, and then participate with you in a 90 minute discussion about the topic.

Howard Rheingold [http://www.rheingold.com] is an internationally syndicated author of the weekly Tomorrow column, author of best-sellers Virtual Reality and The Virtual Community, and editor of best-seller The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. He will kick off the NeVC2011 on Monday, October 17 at 11 a.m. ET.

Robin Good [http://www.masternewmedia.org/] is an independent new media publisher, who has converted his professional skills and interests into a self-publishing career. He also curates on Google's Farmer Panda Update and how to recover from it. Robin will speak on Tuesday, October 18 at 11 a.m. ET.

Paulette Robinson leads the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, government, industry, and academia interested in virtual world use for confronting and solving common issues and is the Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning for the Information Resources Management College at the National Defense University. Paulette will speak on Tuesday, October 18 at 2 p.m. ET.

Clay Shirky [http://www.shirky.com/] is the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008) and Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (2010) and studies the effects of the Internet on society. Clay will speak on Wednesday, October 19 at 11 a.m. ET.

Steven Rosenbaum [http://www.steverosenbaum.magnify.net/] is the author of Curation Nation an exploration of the emerging phenomenon of human organization and publishing of content. He is also the founder of Magnify.net and the creator of MTV News Unfiltered. Steven will speak on Wednesday, October 19 at 2 p.m. ET.

The Virtual Conference will be held via Adobe Connect. More details, including webinar url, at
http://www.extension.org/learn/events/by_tag?tag=nevc2011

Begin following NeVC2011 on Twitter at #nevc2011 and JOIN us October 17, 18, 19!!!

Kevin Gamble & Terry Meisenbach, Co-Chairs
National eXtension Virtual Conference 2011

Gmail tips

2011-09-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

Here are some searching tips for those who are using the web interface for Gmail.

In the Gmail search box, add the following to your search terms to narrow it down even more. Or just use these by themselves to see all the mail that meets the criteria.

Here are some of my favorites:
after:2011-05-01 (note yyyy-mm-dd format)
before:2011-05-01

is:starred
is:unread

in:trash
in:drafts
in:inbox

from:portion of email address, name or portion
subject:portion of message subject
label:insert your label here

"a phrase" (enclose a phrase between quotes)

has:attachment

Use the hypen to exclude terms or operator, e.g. -in:inbox to exclude messages in the inbox or -from:john to exclude messages from all Johns.

For a more complete listing, see: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190

NCCE Technology Educational Program Facebook Page

2011-09-14T10:44:00.001-04:00

Many Extension offices are using Facebook to enhance their programming and marketing efforts. Recently, I gave a presentation titled "Stop Broadcasting and Start Having a Conversation" (recording / slideset & script) where I talked about ways to engage your audience using Facebook rather than just using Facebook as another broadcast medium.

Working with other IM Agents, we decided to create an "NCCE Technology Educational Program" Facebook page to model this idea. We also hope to accomplish several other goals with our new Facebook page.

Learn more about using Facebook for Extension programming
Enable Extension professionals the ability to experience it from their clientele's point of view
Have conversations with Extension professionals
Create a space where Extension professionals can ask questions, learn, share, and just generally communicate with others about using technology in Extension
Have a 'safe place' where we all can experiment and try new things without fear of failure

So, please "Like" our page - http://www.facebook.com/ncce.tech (you don't have to be from NCCE) and join the conversation!

Computer Contact Training

2011-08-23T10:40:00.002-04:00

EIT and the Information Management Agents will conduct a session for County Computer Contacts and CEDs to help understand the role and EIT's expectation of the Computer Contact and to make sure they understand how to carry out those duties. In this session, we will review the roles of the Computer Contact, Information Management Agents and EIT as well as review the hardware that you might be asked to interact with and the processes for adding and removing new users. If you have any questions about the County Computer Contact role, this will be a great time to discuss them.

Date/Time: September 15, 2011 from 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Location: http://go.ncsu.edu/learn
Register at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/xlms/event_display.php?event_id=2507

With Google Docs I'm missing MS Access less and less

2011-08-17T17:36:00.000-04:00

Warning: This article gets technical and may cause your eyes to glaze over. If you don't know how to create a spreadsheet, save yourself and stop reading now - better yet, sign up for my "Intro to Spreadsheets" and "Creating Spreadsheets" classes on Sept 13, 20 & 27 in Extension Learn or if you are an NC Cooperative Extension employee register with LMS

Okay - to be perfectly honest, I don't haven't used Access in years. Most of what most people would use a database for, can be done with a simple spreadsheet.

But, today, Susanne from Watauga County asked how to handle a shirt sale where they had three different colors, six styles and six sizes - and she didn't want to have a spreadsheet with 72 columns. She figured there had to be a better way - and there is.

Google Docs to the rescue.

Google Docs has the ArrayFormula that is designed for working with multi-dimensional arrays. (Think of an array as list, a 2-dimensional array as a table with rows and columns, a 3-dimensional array as a large Rubik's cube, a 4-dimensional array as a row of Rubik's cubes and so on.) The ArrayFormula is VERY powerful and did exactly what I wanted to do.

I've shared the spreadsheet ArrayFunctions Shirt Sale with everyone so you can see the formulas used and make a copy to use and play with. The real work is done in the "Summary" sheet in cells C3:H22.

I'd never done anything like this before, so how did I figure it out? Let me walk you through my thought process (I use that term loosely).

I started thinking that I'd use the "SumIf" and the "AND" function, so I started to search the Google Docs Help for "SumIf". When I typed "SumIf" in the search box, "sumif more forum" came up as one of the recommended search phrases, so I searched for that. One of the first results was "ARRAYFORMULA" and the description looked like it might help, so I read that page. It gave me some insight, and hinted that this might be the tool I was looking for, but didn't give me exactly how to use it with the SUMIF function. (The ArrayFormula page is a good page to read if you want to understand some of the more advanced features in Google Docs Spreadsheets.)

So, I searched for "ArrayFormula sumif". One of the first pages returned was "Google Docs Help - ArrayFormula problem" and this had an example of exactly what I was looking for.

ARRAYFORMULA(SUMIF(A2:A5&B2:B5;"Day"&"John";C2:C5))

Let me translate this formula for you -
It is going to sum all the cells in C2 through C5 for the rows where A2 through A5 contains "Day" and the rows B2 through B5 contains "John".
By putting the ARRAYFORMULA in front of the formula, you can then use the ampersand "&" character to add ranges and criteria.

Since Susanne had three arrays to consider, size, style and color, the formula I used is:
=ArrayFormula(SumIf(Sales!H5:H292&Sales!I5:I292&Sales!J5:J292,B3&A3&C2,Sales!K5:K292))

Translated, it is summing all the cells in K5:K292 where column H equals B3 and column I equals A3 and column J equals C2.

Note: I removed the "$" anchors that were there for copying the cell to make it more legible.

Google Docs Spreadsheet is awesome!

If your eyes are glazed over, you were warned.

P.S. If you haven't used the UNIQUE function, you definitely need to check it out!

Gmail Priority Inbox

2011-08-05T10:55:00.000-04:00

If you haven't tried Gmail's Priority Inbox, you owe it to yourself to at least check it out.

Tuesday, I was teaching a session at the NCEAFCS meeting and the instructions I gave for how to get to the priority inbox have changed the next day.

To see the Priority Inbox from your Gmail account, pause your pointer over "Inbox" at the top of the left navigation list, then click on the drop down menu button (small triangle) and select "Priority Inbox" at the bottom of the list.

This separates your mail into 3 sections. "Unread and Important messages", "Starred messages" and "Everything else".

Gmail will identify which messages are important based on who it is from, the content of the message and messages you've marked as important. You can 'train' Gmail to do a better job of recognizing what YOU consider important by correcting it anytime it mislabels a message (click on the important or unimportant buttons when reading a message).

My favorite aspect of this feature is keeping the starred messages separate. I star messages by clicking on the star icon in the top left corner of the message or at the far left of the message list for messages that I need to act on. This way, I don't lose those messages in the river of unimportant email.

I keep a close watch on the 'important and unread' section and try to keep it down to a manageable size (less than a dozen or so messages by either starring the message to be worked on later, archiving, deleting or moving it to a label.

If I find a message that should have been flagged as important in the 'everything else' section, I mark it as important. I read through these messages when I have time. If they move onto the next page, I don't worry about it too much.

Give the Priority Inbox a try for a couple days and see if it doesn't help you.

Online educational opportunities

2011-07-26T14:17:00.000-04:00

eXtension has LOTS of educational opportunities for you!
To see what's available and to watch recordings of previous sessions, visit the eXtension Learn site at: http://www.extension.org/learn

If you'd like to make your Extension webinar/session available through this site, contact me or Beth Raney, eXtension Professional Development Leader at beth.raney@extension.org.

There are lots of IT related sessions that have been recorded, but there are also sessions on subject matter that may be of interest to extension agents such as the upcoming "Stockpiling Forages to Extend the Grazing Season on Your Organic Dairy" webinar.

Over the next couple of months, I'll be teaching several classes and making them available to a larger audience through eXtension's Learn website.

NC Cooperative Extension employees can register through the NCCE LMS. Anyone else can indicate their interest in attending from the eXtension Learn site at: http://learn.extension.org

Stop Broadcasting and Start Having a Conversation - using Social Media in Extension
August 25 2:00 - 3:00
More info and register - NCCE LMS or eXtension Learn

Intro to Spreadsheets
September 13 2:00 - 4:00
More info and register - NCCE LMS or eXtension Learn

Creating Spreadsheets (2 parts)
September 20 & 27 2:00 - 4:00
More info and register - part 1 - NCCE LMS or eXtension Learn
More info and register - part 2 - NCCE LMS or eXtension Learn

Creating Charts & Graphs with Google Docs Spreadsheets
October 4 2:00 - 4:00
More info and register - NCCE LMS or eXtension Learn

Creating Charts & Graphs with MS Excel
October 11 2:00 - 4:00
More info and register - NCCE LMS or eXtension Learn

Contact me - john_dorner@ncsu.edu - if you have any questions.

The only constant is change...

2011-07-20T09:25:00.000-04:00

Just when you think you've got it all figured out and got a process that works for you, someone comes along and breaks that process.

This was the case today, when NCSU's Google Apps had an infrastructure update. Keep in mind that most of the time, these changes close one door, but open others. Don't fret about what you've lost, look at what you've gained and be flexible enough to adapt and take advantage of the changes.

What changed?
NCSU's Google Apps is more tightly integrated with Google.

(from http://google.ncsu.edu/announcement/announcement-new-google-apps-infrastructure)
NEW LOOK, FEEL AND FEATURES FOR SOME APPS
The upgrade will allow NC State Google Apps accounts to take advantage of the latest features being rolled out by Google. Most recently, Google announced the upgrade of mailbox quota to 25 GB, as well as a new interface for Gmail and Calendar. NCSU users will soon have access to these, and many other updates that Google provides as a result of this infrastructure upgrade.

USING MULTIPLE GOOGLE ACCOUNTS
After the conversion, the process to sign in to multiple accounts simultaneously in your browser will change. Learn more about this here: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182343

DATA OWNERSHIP REMAINS THE SAME
Even though your account now functions more like a regular Google account, all data contained in them continues to be owned by NC State University in the case of employees and by the individual in the case of students. All usage of the service continues to be subject to NC State’s terms and conditions negotiated with Google and NC State policies and regulations.

You can read more and find help for Google services here in the full Google Accounts Help Center (http://www.google.com/support/accounts/?hl=en&topic=28662&rd=1)

What does this mean for me?

Yesterday morning, I had one browser tab with my NCSU email and one with my personal Gmail account. To get this to work today, you have to enable multiple sign-in. To do this:

log into Google with your NCSU account (unityID@ncsu.edu)
select "Account Settings" from your Google login (click on your email address in the top right corner of the window)
if "Multiple sign-in" is "Off", click "Edit"
check the "On - Use multiple Google Accounts in the same web browser.
confirm that you understand the implications by checking the 4 check boxes and Save.

Now, when you click on your email address in the top right corner of Google pages, you will have the option to "Switch Account". When you select that option, you will be prompted to log in with another Google account.

Once logged in to multiple accounts, you can switch back and forth between them by clicking on your name or email address in the top right corner.

I was running Firefox 3.6 and had problems. When I upgraded to Firefox 5.0 everything seems to be working fine. I now have a tab with each account's email open at the same time. Based on what I read, I wasn't expecting that to work, but it seems to be working just fine now.

Remember it is not the strong who survive. It's the most adaptable.

Okay, that's enough cliche's for today :)

Feel free to post questions/answers/comments in the comments section of this article.

Moving from your personal Google Account

2011-05-23T09:03:00.000-04:00

Many people have been using a personal Google account for work. Now that NC State is providing us with Google Apps @ NC State, you can use that personal Google account for just personal stuff and use your Google Apps @ NC State for NCSU related activities.

Some things you will want to do:

If you are logging into Google with your full_name@ncsu.edu address and just using Docs and/or Calendar, change the account name. The easiest way is to change the account address is to add Gmail to it (instructions).

You will want to move any work related calendars to your NCSU account. See: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/admin/wiki/index.php/Exporting,_Importing_and_Sharing_Google_Calendarshttp://www.ces.ncsu.edu/admin/wiki/index.php/Exporting,_Importing_and_Sharing_Google_Calendars

If you already have Gmail associated with your account you may want to remove your NCSU email address from it. Go to: https://www.google.com/accounts/b/0/EditUserInfo to remove your NCSU address. This will help reduce confusion in the future. Keep in mind this is a personal Google account and not affiliated with your work at NCSU. Use this account for personal correspondence, calendars and the like. All incoming/outgoing mail associated with your NCSU account is archived and subject to public records law. If you are using your personal account for work purposes, then it may become subject to public records law requirements. The easiest thing to do is to separate the two and use your personal account for non-work related activities.

You may still want to keep your personal Google account to do some work related things that are not part of Google Apps @ NC State like Blogger, YouTube and more. I expect that over time, most of these tools will be included in Google Apps @ NC State.

If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to contact me http://go.ncsu.edu/jdorner

Surge Protection Can Save Your Equipment

2011-05-10T10:12:00.000-04:00

EIT has seen quite a few equipment losses recently. Several of these have not been tied to storms but just short power interruptions. Power being restored to an area can often create a surge, and that is what we have been seeing.

The electronic equipment in the offices should be plugged into surge protectors. The job of a surge protector is to shunt small momentary spikes in power away from the system plugged into it. These small momentary spikes can be caused by appliances like copiers, AC units, refrigerators, or they can come from the power grid feeding the building.

Surge protectors are not intended to stop a direct lighting strike. The surge protector will help with power fluctuate caused by the power being interrupted or restored due to a storm.

Not all surge protectors are created equal. There is a very wide range in the cord length, layout, size and abilities of surge protectors on the market. There are three ratings that should be present on a surge protector, Joules, Clamping Voltage, and Response Time. Below are the recommendations for a surge protector:

Joules: 1000 or greater
Clamping Voltage: 400 Volts or lower
Response Time: 10 Nanoseconds or less

Most surge protectors that will meet these specification will cost $25.00 or more. More information on surge protectors can be found at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/surge-protector7.htm.

There is a lot of equipment lost from electrical surges that travel through the network cables. These surges are caused by either nearby lightning strikes or excess power running in over a device that is on the network. Surge protection for network cables does exist. Two products that can protect the network side of a device are:
Tripp Lite 2 Outlet Notebook Surge Suppressor
Tripp Lite RJ-45 10BASE-T Token Ring Dateline Surge

Upcoming classes related to Google Apps

2011-04-29T22:02:00.003-04:00

Over the next 2 weeks, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to get help getting your Google Apps accounts working like you want them to (and need them to).

Email
There are several settings that need to be made to your email so it works like you want it when you use the web interface and when you use an IMAP client (i.e. Thunderbird or Outlook). EVERY NCCE faculty and staff who have had their email changed to use NCSU Google Apps for Education needs to make these changes.
If you haven't already done this, please go through the factsheet at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/admin/wiki/index.php/Gmail_web_config and follow the instructions. If you would like help with this, there are several sessions where either Janyne Kizer or myself will be explaining all the settings you need to go through. Although the classes are scheduled for an hour, they will not take that long.

May 4 from 9-10am (Janyne Kizer) Register

May 4 from 2-3pm (John Dorner) Register
May 5 from 9-10am (John Dorner) Register
May 10 from 10-11am (Janyne Kizer) Register
May 10 from 11-12 noon (John Dorner) Register

If you want an overview of the web interface for Google Apps @ NC State Gmail and learn about some of the settings and many options you may find useful. Come to one of the following sessions:

May 3 from 2-3pm (Janyne Kizer) Register
May 17 from 10-11am (John Dorner) Register
May 18 from 3:30 - 4:30pm (John Dorner) Register

Address Books
You will also want to copy your Address Book from Thunderbird or Outlook and import it into your NCSU Google Apps Contacts list so you can have access to them from any computer on the web. Step-by-step instructions are at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/admin/wiki/index.php/Transferring_Thunderbird_Address_Books_to_Google_Contacts If you want help with this process, contact your IM Agent or come to one of the following sessions:

May 4 from 11-12 noon (John Dorner) Register
May 5 from 2-3pm (John Dorner) Register
May 10 from 9-10am (John Dorner) Register

Calendar
If you are using another calendar for your work schedule or office schedules in your personal Google account (non-NCSU Google Apps) you will want to move them to your NCSU Google Apps Calendar account. Step-by-step instructions are at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/admin/wiki/index.php/Exporting,_Importing_and_Sharing_Google_Calendars If you want help with this process, contact your IM Agent or come to one of the following sessions where I'll hold your hand through the process.

May 4 from 9-10am Register
May 5 from 11-12 noon Register
May 10 from 3:30 - 4:30 pm Register

To learn about using the NCSU Google Apps Calendar App for keeping up with everything you need to keep up with (including a task list), creating and using multiple calendars (i.e. for rooms, special events, equipment, vehicles, etc.) and for all the different sharing options, come to one of the following sessions:

May 17 from 3:30 - 4:30pm Register
May 18 from 1:30 - 2:30pm Register

If you have any questions, need help or would like to request a class, please contact your Information Management Agent or the EIT Helpdesk.

Check our the references in the NCCE Intranet at: Google Apps @ NC State References
You can find the link to this from the IT Resources page.

2011 Virtual IT Conference

2011-04-27T09:20:00.001-04:00

Now, we all have Google Mail, but that’s just the start! With Extension’s migration to Google Apps for Education, we also have other new resources: Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Talk.

On May 25 and again on Jun 1, you can discover the power of these new tools! Yes, on May 25 and again on June 1, you can participate in brief webinars that will showcase the features and capabilities of our new NC State apps: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Talk!

You can register for these sessions via the Extension Learning Management System

9:30	9:55	Register	The Advantages of the Gmail Web Interface
9:55	10:20	Register	Intro to Google Docs
10:30	10:55	Register	Overview of Google Calendar
10:55	11:10	Register	Get Talking With Google Talk
11:10	11:30	Register	Using more than one Google account at a time
11:30	12:00		Q & A with EIT & Information Management Agents

Sign up now, mark your calendar, and explore our Google Apps on May 25 or June 1!

UPDATED to reflect June 1 session.

eXtension "Ask an Expert" Widget settings

2011-04-26T16:43:00.000-04:00

Since NCCE implemented the Ask an Expert widgets on the county websites, I have recommended that the secretaries for each office be the people auto-assigned the questions from the county's Ask an Expert widget. My assumption is that the secretaries are more often in the office and in the best position to appropriately route the questions for the best and quickest answer.

To see who is getting the questions coming in from your county's widget, go to: http://www.extension.org/aae/prefs/widget_preferences and search for "NC_CES", then click on the number in the Active Assignees column for your county's widget.

There are days, however, when a secretary is not available, so the best way to make sure questions get answered as quickly as possible is to have your county widget settings to "Email all group members when new incoming questions come in and are assigned". This way, if there is more than one person in the list of users signed up to answer questions from this widget, they will all get notified when a new question is asked.
From the page mentioned above, the "Leaders" and "Members" for the widget can Edit the Widget Preferences (click on the "edit" link) and check the "Email all group members when new incoming questions come in and are assigned" box.

Plea for ALL NCCE faculty and staff to update your information:

It would really help if all extension faculty and staff would review their eXtension Ask an Expert preferences to make sure their Ask an Expert preferences are set correctly.

To do this, go to: http://www.extension.org/aae/prefs/expertise and indicate your areas of expertise (not your areas of responsibility) and http://www.extension.org/aae/prefs/location to indicate your geographic regions.

Also, visit http://www.extension.org/people/profile/edit and make sure your name, title and other information is correct.

gMail Sending Limits

2011-04-26T13:44:00.002-04:00

Google has a sending limit of 2000 message to non ncsu.edu addresses per day for each user. The email addresses can be distributed among the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields. If you need to send more messages than that, we recommend you spread them out over a few days or use an NCSU MajorDomo mailing list. If you need help with requesting or setting up an NCSU MajorDomo list, contact your IM Agent or the EIT HelpDesk.

We recommend a Majordomo list when:

The list is to be used somewhat regularly (not a one-time thing)
The membership is fairly stable... doesn't completely change with each message
The list has a recognizable purpose
The list is large enough for creating a list to make sense... more than a few of people
The list is over 50 people

Recommend using Gmail web interface or multiple separate mailings when:

Sending a message to more than 100 and less than 500. When using an IMAP client (i.e. Thunderbird) the maximum number of recipients is 100. The maximum number of recipients you can send a message from the web interface is 500.

Reference: https://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=166852

Using Facebook to Market Extension Programs

2011-04-20T13:37:00.001-04:00

I just answered an eXtension Ask an Expert question. The question was:
"What are the advantages and disadvantages to using Facebook to promote community events in all program areas of Extension?"

Since this is a question I hear a lot from NC Agents, I thought I'd get the most mileage out of my answer. I'd also like to hear your thoughts... Use the comment link below to add what you see are pros and cons.

My answer was:

One pro is that yesterday 42% of all internet users visit Facebook (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com)

Depending on your audience, this may be the best way to communicate with a large number of people. Many people don't listen to the radio or subscribe to the local paper.

It is a great way to spread information to people with similar interests. If you reach one person and they "like" or comment or indicate they are attending your event, all of their friends can see that. If they comment or "like" that comment, you just reached another level of people.

The average Facebook user has 130 friends. If you get 20 people to "Like" or comment, you just reached more than 2000 people.

Another pro is that you can continue the conversation after the event. You can continue to share information and receive questions with people that attended - or were unable to attend.

Another pro is the networking effect. Much of the learning that goes on at a meeting is done between participants during the breaks. Facebook enables these people to be able to continue the conversation long after the event. And the best part is you can be a part of all of those conversations. The event page can also serve as a place to link to handouts and other resources for those who attended and those who discover it long after the event took place.

Another pro is the ability to continue to reach people interested in your program other than for this one event. Like building a newsletter mailing list that you don't need to maintain.

The biggest con is that 58% of all internet users did not visit Facebook yesterday. There is a (shrinking) group of people who are not using Facebook. You won't reach them this way.

Unless 100% of your target audience is using Facebook, you shouldn't rely on Facebook as your only marketing tool. Just as you wouldn't only market through one local newspaper or one radio station, you shouldn't only market through Facebook. It should however, be a component of your marketing plan.

Through Facebook, Muge Apaydin Celik shared this comment with me:
I like your pros and cons and i agree with you. I just wanted to add one more thing to your last con. Facebook is not our own tool. We are using it FREE for now. but we never know when it is going to be paid or hacked or down.It is never safe to rely on something is not belong you. As i always say we should use Facebook to take attention to our own web site. So we can have more active and alive web sites.

Forgot to export your webmail address book?

2011-04-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

If you forgot, or didn't know you needed to, you can export your address book from webmail, even after you migrated to Google. This will only work for 2 weeks after your migration to Google Apps @ NC State. Go here to learn how: http://go.ncsu.edu/AddyBookExpImp