#tweetsmart by Jesse McDougall adopts the premise that many people dismiss twitter as idle chatter and cannot fathom why they would want to engage with it. Although I have encountered many colleagues that personally are somewhat dismissive (and in many cases rightly so) I am not sure that business dismisses it as readily and certainly doesn’t do so as quickly as it once might have. However adopting the tact of proving a series of meaningful ‘projects’ to demonstrate how twitter can be used for building an online community piqued my interest and is something that I readily subscribe to. After reading this book however I am of rather mixed opinion and would caution that this book does seem targeted specifically at online marketing of a product or service. I find writing this review difficult as I was raised very strictly under the premise that if you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say anything…but I will say a few things and some of them good.

The book is engaging and well written. I gather that it originally was title ‘#engage’ as most of the QR codes in the book refer to this original title. The tone is playful and almost somewhat sassy. The use of the QR codes for further information, for fun and as part of a larger projects itself is a useful demonstration itself. The promise of an easter egg buried somewhere in the book provides a concrete example of how to engage a following if only one reader at a time. McDougall seeks to provide ‘strategic, measurable and fun’ projects that ‘build an interested and engaged community for your business’. While the book is clearly aimed at business not at causes or organizations as suggested, I am left feeling that it is exactly what it claims not to be — a social media marketing manual — and that the author doth protest too much. Although there are occasional nods to why certain aspects could be seen as pure marketing and not genuine community building, I am not sure that they are followed though — eg. project 22:

'This project is designed to help you build a connection with your audience by promoting your investment in the area and community in which you do business. This project should not be used to create the illusion that you care about your community. You don’t want to put one over on your audience. So if you don’t care, move on. But, I’m sure you do care. You’re a good person. I like you.'

Unfortunately it stops here and the flippant retort to the question actually seems to diminish the real importance that commitment to community building demands. I wish that this were not the case. The world is really crying out for real solid advice on how to build and sustain online communities, but this is not the one. It does however provide an excellent selection of twenty five projects that are well described and outlined in a step by step manner.

I have some concern that although playful, most of the projects do not seem to adhere to the idea of community building — and if they do it, it is a rather tenuous one built around very superficial engagement. All are reasonable ways to pique people’s interest, have a little fun and possibly gain retweets through a specific offering,  but I guess I was also looking for discussion of the followup that would actually turn the communication into something constructive and ongoing. Perhaps I am being too judgmental, but simply offering give-aways through a variety of different twitter-based novelty acts doesn’t strike me as engagement. Especially as the author claims that he is abhorred by the idea of coupon campaigns and claims that this is the ‘ant-marketing how-to community-engagement book’. This is not to say that many of the ‘projects’ don’t connect Twitter to real world activity…whether treasure hunts or scavenger hunts and there is an aspect of this that moves beyond email spam.  I like that each project has a basic structure and premise and then in some instances there are ‘advanced strategies’. However, many of these projects don’t speak to building an online community with any longevity and this is where I am left somewhat wanting. I read back piece and the short teaser for the book and was intrigued, but I have a feeling my expectations were raised a little too high.

The author’s intent is stated to provide projects to carry out using twitter that are ‘strategic. measurable and fun’.  I would agree that all the projects are measurable and initially fun for both the marketer and for the customer, but I would question the long term strategy. They strike me as more tactical and deployable within  a larger scheme and in support of more active community building and these projects seem to be absent. To my sense, many of the projects here are the little gimmicks that I immediately filter out. I have had my email offers of similar tacts for years and have given me the cause to unsubscribe from such. So I was not being hooked. I really wanted to be though and read on.

Around the tenth strategy, things begin to speak more to engagement. Encouraging blocks of time around focussed discussion or web scavenger hunts are things I would note as concrete and innovative, unfortunately these seem to gain less discussion than the earlier projects.

I wish that I could be more supportive of this book. I subscribe to its premise that we need to develop effective ways to engagement in a meaningful discussion through development of communities of shared interest and twitter offers a great tool. However, I do think this is through concrete means of meeting customer’s needs in the commercial sense as well as providing a means to augment traditional or other online forms of communication and discourse.

If the preface was the only part I had read I would feel wiser for it. I found the personal anecdote relating to the author’s grandfather very heartfelt, but also very prescient. The conclusion that ‘the content of your communication is important—not what carries it’ is profoundly important. And this is where I feel compelled to leave it. It is about content and there there are some activities that twitter can enable as part of a larger stable of online activities to gain mindshare, but if you can’t meanignfully differentiate your content you won’t rise above the pack.

This is not to say that this book in inapplicable to all, far from it. To all the merchants and vendors out there who ask you to simply retweet their latest offer…here’s a fine read that shows how to instill some fun into the marketing process and quickly move twitter into an arsenal of tools to reach out to the butting community. I suppose my larger concern is simply that I got the impression from this books promotional material that it was stepping beyond twitter marketing gimmick to look to building effective relationships with a community (which could be absolutely non-commercial) and was intrigued by the prospect of considering such. If it hadn’t been promised.…Unfortunately for the product here, this content I feel is somewhat lacking. It tends towards a series of icebreakers rather than relationship-builders. So market it as such. It plays to heavily on community building in its own marketing and wants to be something it’s not.

This book is fine for the right audience and there is an audience for it. Call it an online marketing aid for twitter in small and medium business and it’s a fun and well written manual. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction by William Shotts jr is as complete as you might desire / imagine and delivers much more than it promises. This is simply the most fun, yet strikingly comprehensive, introduction to Linux that you could want. As the title states it focusses on interaction via the Linux command line yet delves into popular GUI’s at times and provides such comprehensive coverage that you will go from newbie to pro in no time. The author states plainly his intention that you progress linearly through the book and in that it is provides what I felt was a perfect pace. The chapters are bite size and deal with specific aspect of command line interaction. Appropriate commands and instructions are introduced and then put into practical use. It’s instructive both theoretically and with hands-on exercises.

The prose is so well crafted and so friendly and chatty, without being annoying, that you are simply carried along. I have to say, and it’s the last thing I would have expected to say about a Linux book, let alone a command line focused one, but this is a fun read! Seriously. I have used a wide variety of Linux and Unix manuals in my time, sometimes for reference and often for instruction, but this book is head and shoulders above them all. I can’t believe that it really delivers a compelling case as to why the command line can be your friend and also in the process makes you realise that how raw Linux power underlies the modern GUI.

This is a very comprehensive manual and takes you through to a relatively advanced level starting from scratch. It presumes no prior knowledge, and starts off with suggestions on how to deploy a flavor of Linux so you can play with it. As I mention, the chapters are perfectly manageable from the perspective of being able to mentally address a specific concept and despite the comprehensive nature, the volume moves you through at a solid and suitable pace.

I can’t recommend this book enough for novice and intermediate user alike. It offers excellent self-paced instruction and enforces the learning with well crafted exercises. It is clearly well crafted and thoughtfully devised and a superb investment.

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I had the privilege of chairing a symposium organized by the Irish Manuscript Commission which invited participants from a variety of Irish cultural institutions to discuss issues arising from the new Europeana Data Exchange Agreement. Presentations from Jill Cousins, Director of Europeana and her colleagues, Georgia Angelaki, Paul Keller and Lucie Guibault sought to bring clarity to the new agreement and the issues emerging from the online presentation of digital cultural artefacts.

Unfortunately I had to leave during what was shaping up to be a very lively roundtable discussion. The presentations laid bare some of the salient points that surround Europeana’s new DEA. The key points of the new agreement are changes to licensing that will open up metadata submitted by contributors to wider and most ominous to many contributors to commercial uses. Metadata submitted must be done under a CC0 license placing it entirely in the public domain. Thumbnails provided are not covered under the CC0 and the contributors have the opportunity to define their licensing. This has alarmed many past contributors who see their data suddenly becoming prey to commercial vultures and open to be radically reused with or without any attribution.

This symposium provided a forum for free and open discussion of these issues as well as the challenges presented by the online. I opened the session with a short welcome which I include here should you be interested:

“The DHO has been privileged to work with the IMC and Europeana over the past two years. We have facilitated some of the technicalities involved in the metadata aggregation process and many of you have worked with Niall O’Leary directly in this. Thanks to many of you who have shared your cultural objects with Europeana in the past. The nature of the relationship has I hope been mutually beneficial.

Europeana has been a powerful initiative during the past decade and we hope it will continue to take a leadership role in increasing the freedom of access to Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage. It’s a fluid world though and we are here today because Europeana is changing. The objective remains the same but Europeana is moving from the role of being solely a portal to your collections to service becoming a service platform – dedicated to increasing access to the metadata representing the contributed artefacts.

What does this all mean? Well, today we have an opportunity to find out and to interact directly with the folks from Europeana to get the answers we need to make our own decisions. Each of your own institutions has its own objectives and briefs and you have to make a decision as to whether these coincide or are furthered under the new Europeana offering and their new Data Exchange Agreement. It’s crucial that you do take the time to consider your own objectives around what is presented today and how it is best served in this changing cultural space. In this fluid world there are new challenges to how we do what we have done in the past. The way that we engage with our audiences have changed…your artefacts have become data (and metadata) and more importantly people (through such social media as facebook, flickr or twitter) look to new ways to connect with you. Likewise new services and applications — especially in the mobile arena mean that your cultural objects may find new forms of expression — either by your own efforts — or by someone else’s.

And this is a crucial observation. There is a challenge to how you have carried out your own curatorial and dissemination activities and how you have sought to meet your objectives — but this also provides new opportunities. Europeana offers an opportunity. What you have to decide is whether it is an opportunity that makes sense for your institution.

At the DHO we have spent the last couple years demonstrating some of the ways that working with metadata can positively change the user experience of the digital collection. We have engaged with Europeana and with many of you to explore how people engage with ever larger collections of artefacts. The magnitude of these collections challenges the traditional ways of browsing and in many cases denies the utility of the search function. We have chosen to demonstrate how cutting edge data visualisation techniques can provide a route to discovery. And we have been thrilled with the response. DHO:Discovery has been one our response to the challenges that we have seen Irish cultural institutions facing and we have seen similar efforts undertaken by many of yourselves.

Working with Europeana has been one of those responses many of you have undertaken and we have all shared their objective to provide access to Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage. Although Europeana remains committed to this objective their new DEA has asked providers to commit contributed metadata and thumbnails to the public domain. The new DEA is a response to the changes taking place in the cultural sector and we are all called upon to find opportunities in the changes taking place. This has huge implications for existing and future contributors who may worry about others making commercial use of their data. One of the obvious and positive responses here is to be open innovators and to seize the powerful opportunity for you to both share and to draw benefit from what others are sharing to create new ways of meeting your own objectives.

Current EU directives have waded into this nebulous area and have similarly challenged our perceived notions of who has the rights to objects that we present online. And again we come back to this question of how to deal with the challenge.

Today we are all here to ask the questions and the participants from Europeana have come to brief us and to attempt to respond to these queries.”

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Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla continues the missing manual series tradition of providing a comprehensive guide to emerging technology — technology generally in dire need of just such instruction. The Galaxy S II benefits from Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on Android Gingerbread. As such it’s currently at the pinnacle of the android field, offers a superb screen and speedy response. Nonetheless, as with other Android devices there’s much hidden power and without instruction most users will not benefit from many features without a guide to lead. Enter the missing manual.

This missing manual is chock full of useful advice presented as side notes and callouts and makes liberal use  screen shots and photos. The manual approaches the use of the phone from a basic to advanced level moving from standard operations such as making a call to use of the addresss book to syncing with desktop devices and the cloud. Each section deals exhaustively with the options available to the user and the comprehensive index allows the guide to be approached as both a tutorial approach and also a pure reference source. The manual is extensive and one of its strengths is that it leaves few stones unturned. It is specific to the Galaxy SII so it has approximately 90% applicability to other Android users and obviously even more so for other Samsung Android users.

The target audience ranges from new users who are starting to learn how to use their first smartphone to those who may be migrating from a different operating system. There is clear value for existing users who have already gained familiarity with their device but have left areas untapped. It’s always surpassing how many users haven’t started to tap the Android app marketplace. This manual offers a great tour of the app ecosystem and provides copies advice on how to manage apps once you start to add them to your Galaxy.

My only personal quibble would have to be with the fact that it is written from the perspective of an AT&T user and this creates some rather slanted advice. However, this is of marginal importance, but one simply wonders why this very single provider information is put into an otherwise universally relevant guide.

I would recommend this missing manual warmly for nerd users of the smartphone and equally to those wanting to maximize their Android experience.

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Conor O’Clery’s Moscow 25 December 1991 follows a notably growing trend for picking a pivot point in history and revolving round it to find a popular audience (witness 1066, 1421, 1434, 1491, 1492 etc. All good books by and large but adopting a very similar tact). The date provides a recognizable focus and then the space is open for provide the background and the aftermath in a popular fashion. O’Clery breaks the mold though in a most engaging fashion with the book. I am always in praise of those who can manage to effectively uses flashbacks within chronologically-driven narratives and the still hold the thread. In Moscow 25 December O’Clery very effectively picks the day that Mikhail Gorbachev signed the legal document dissolving the USSR as his pivot. The day is divided into a series of periods and as time coverless on the act of signing the paper, the author steps back to the genesis of the two protagonists careers. The careers of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin lead up to the day and as time slows as they converge on the act, the intermingling of the story lines converges. The structure and execution of the writing is superb.

This is not to downplay the actual events taking place. The cyclical nature of revolution in Russia (both political and economic) is thoughtfully documented and exposed and the author takes advantage of a privileged position on the sidelines to highlight much information that simply didn’t make it above the fold in the West. In my opinion Gorbachev comes of far worse than Yeltsin in the author’s handling. I am grateful for this as I feel that western media treatment of him may well have been lately shaped by cultural bias and the politics of the time. Neither of which should surprise. However, it is very good to have some corrective applied. Nonetheless, one is struck by how much the pettiness and personal animosities can play a huge role in the destiny of a nation (or in this case of nations).

I hung on to the few events that I felt I had a degree of familiarity with such as the failed 1991 coup and the rise of Vladimir Putin, and O’Clery thankfully fills in some gaping holes. The character treatment of Yeltsin gave much to consider and appreciate how his portrayal by western media as merely and opportunistic drinker misses a huge swath of his character and denies a truer appreciation of his motivations and accomplishments. The contrasting (less than complimentary) portrait of MIkhail Gorbachev surprises me, yet provides me with a corrective that illustrates how much a carefully managed public persona might hide simple human frailties. Both warn the reader that we much be more critical consumers of the media — forgive my rather naive moment here.

This is a gripping read. The pace of the narrative holds you in thrall and the richness of the story envelops. A true pleasure. I was fascinated by much of the detail that I simply would not have come to appreciate at the time of the events taking place and dismayed that I feel that I was starkly out of touch with the momentous things going on. I am grateful for O’Clery’s work in crafting such a fine account and sharing his experiences. Highly recommended!

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This is one mighty manual! There’s certainly nothing missing from this one. iPhone The Missing Manual by David Pogue is the gold standard for iPhone users. I decided to take a look at this one principally to make sure I know what I need to about PhotoStream and some of the new iOS 5 features. Colour me impressed. This book is far more really than one could hope for. Now in its Fifth iteration, this is the manual brought up to date for iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. It is the most comprehensive and reference source available for new and existing users of iPhones from the 3gs onward.

It’s all here. This offers out of the box first time users with hemp getting setup and getting their new iPhone configured to suit their needs. It offers seasoned users with detailed and comprehensive instruction on particular aspects that they might want to know more about or run into issues with. I find myself in a third group, considering myself a more seasoned user of the iPhone with no particular problems or concerns, but a general interest. To my surprise, there were all sorts of handy tips and hints that I simply had no idea about. These are the sort of things that Apple doesn’t seem to publicize or really make forefront as part of the interface. For example, I had no idea about the wealth of assitive technologies that Apple have now incorporated into iOS5. I have already enabled speak aloud which voices the words that the iPhone suggests as replacements when typing. This is a handy thing for me. I did try reversing the type for curiosity and even enabled Voiceover, but these were more novelty — but the point being I simply had no idea and Pogue’s intense coverage of all the features of the iPhone and iOS5 brought them to light.

There’s definitely something in here for everyone. The treatment is quite readable and because there is just so much useful information I found myself compelled to read this one. Hints are clearly marked in callouts so that you can scan for them. The volume is well illustrated and screen shots provide thorough and easy to follow directions.

This is the manual for all users and will be both welcome and valuable for users novice and expert alike. I would highly recommend this for any iPhone user and think it is a superb investment.

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Well, hot off the digital press and literally out of the box comes a handy manual for the Amazon Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire: Out of the Box provides a comprehensive look at a variety of the features of the Android-enabled Amazon tablet. The volume is short and concise, but throughly addresses the Fire’s features. It is copiously illustrated and provides a great overview of what makes the Fire special. This is useful manual for those who possible feel intimidated by the rather unique Kindle Fire interface. As Sawyer states, Amazon made a decision to ‘turn Android on its head’ and focus on content delivery and then put a custom interface on top of Android that allows for access to the Android platform and a variety of Amazon-ok’d apps through a simplified user interface.

Does the Fire need a manual? Probably for most people no, and this is why Amazon took the decision to include in the package (in the Apple manner) a tiny getting started pamphlet. There is additional material provided as an ebook on the device itself. This manual picks up where the amazon ebook takes off looks at the configuration and setup of the Fire, Books and Newstand, Videos and Music and finally Apps and web services. The general tone of the narrative is peppy and sardonic, but clear and as I mentioned terse but makes copious use of screen shots and graphics. There are call outs providing handily tips clearly identifiable and to the point. The volume ends rather suddenly though and I was surpassed that there was no conclusion or discussion of future steps or directions which would have been a great addition.

The book is clean, clear and a useful overview of how to make the best use of a new Kindle Fire. Most users may not require the extra detail provided by this manual, but for those wanting to make sure that they are exploiting all the exciting new possibilities of the Kindle Fire, this is a useful resource.

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If there was ever a product needing a manual, frankly it’s Google Plus. It remains a rather obtuse beast — at least to my way of seeing things. Google Plus: The Missing Manual attempts to remedy this by providing a comprehensive review of all the possible interactions you’d have with the web service from a user perspective. So, do I feel like I know the service any better after reading the book. No, not really, unfortunately maybe it’s just the case that G+ doesn’t work the way I do. The book makes a valiant effort, but I have a sense that I personally would be better served by a pure cookbook approach. I would characterize this ‘manual’ as a hybrid approach. Although it structurally does follow a cookbook like structure, I found a tendency to words where graphics and images would better suit the purpose. This isn’t to say that the information isn’t there, I just found it harder to find. This is not to say that the book isn’t well illustrated. It’s full of great full-colour screen shots. I think what might improve it for me would be the addition of diagrams that represented the processes related to accomplishing tasks using pictures rather than words.

I am loathe to blame the author or the book overly for any failure as I really think that it’s the product itself that just doesn’t jive for me in terms of usability and this puts the judgement of the book in the negative column for me. So, in fairness this is a very thorough book that does attempt to deal with all the idiosyncrasies of the product and does it very well, it just seems to interracially suffer from the same defect of the product in how I like to work with information. It may well serve your needs admirably and if you are still confused about how and why to use Google Plus then this could well be the book for you. It is nicely self-paced and it provides copious side-info about the rationale behind the various features that I did find very illustrative and helpful. The prose here is lively and engaging, there just seems to be an overabundance of it.

It’s just that you really shouldn’t need a manual with a product such as Google Plus. If you do…then there is a problem with the product and as yet, it just doesn’t work for me…and I so want it to. I just spent the time to read a book to help me use it. I am making a commitment to it, but don’t feel it makes the same commitment to me.

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Mapping with Drupal by Alan Palazzolo and Thomas Turnbull provides a hands-on, in-depth exploration of a the most popular tools for turning your favorite CMS into a geospatially enabled data management system. Contextualising and demonstrating modules such as Geofield, GMap and Location modules and the OpenLayers framework, Palazzolo and Turnbull  provide a superbly crafted guidebook to allow a user to quickly get up to speed and understand the strengths and weaknesses of available solutions.

Background information on cartography and a limited amount on extending Drupal quickly brings a novice up to speed. Subsequent chapters take a practical approach and the step-by-step instructions lead the reader through concrete real-world examples.

The volumes is well illustrated and comprehensive. It further offers useful references at handy points for those who would like to explore more deeply. This allows the authors to maintain a solid focus on moving through the work steps and o accomplish the projects. They demonstrate a particularly well thought out process and addresses many common reader thoughts just as they arise.

I was particularly impressed with the attention of the authors to look at the importance of how data is represented visually and the implications of making stylistic decisions about particular aspects of online cartography. Chapter 6 — Making Beautiful Maps is a very thoughtful and recommended read even if you aren’t attempting to use the tools dealt with throughout the book as a whole. There are really about three separate aspects to this book. A hands-on tutorial, an overview of the context of online cartography and a superb bibliography that provides much fruit for future reference.

As the authors state, extensive knowledge of Drupal is not required, nor of online cartography or GIS. Although they work through examples relying on PHP, knowledge of such is not requisite and can be inferred from the content. This volume provides a self-paced and well referenced approach to the subject of deploying geospatial visualizations within a content management system. It is highly recommended for novice to expert applying to anyone with the need to work with geospatial data.

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Head First by Jeff Siarto is one of a superb series of Head First books that adopt a visual approach to teaching. This particular volume is very well done and offers a deeply basic introduction to setting cup, configuring and managing a WordPress blog. It takes a new user through the basics and then provides a hands-on practical experience with all the appropriate skills to meet basic to intermediate user demands. It is well written and comprehensively delivered and if you are either a visual learner or a person who does not want to sit down with a stock manual than this is the approach for you. It combines exercises so you can pursue a self-directed and paced course while at the same time finding enough background information when demanded to make you a skilled blog administrator.

Not a criticism, but merely a guidance, this is a largely basic text as it advertises. Ten next topics are identified and given one-page treatments at the end of the volume and for me those where I would really have liked to explore further — but then that is the point. This volume gets you in and doing and thereby gain familiarity. It gets you and you blog up and running and runs through  some common avenues of customization taking you into the WordPress cycle and working with themes and plugins to meet your needs. It doesn’t deman familiarity with PHP, although there you go you’ll be working away modifying themes (in the approved fashion) to suit a variety of challenges. I was pleased to see it venture into security issues as this is something that inevitable emerges and the chapter on ‘Locking it down’ gives some great advice and identifies good practice and available plug-ins to accomplish this.

I really like the approach taken and it works for me. Siarto has a great style and this book will not disappoint those looking to gain an immediate and up to intermediate familiarity with how and what you can do with WordPress. Fun, fast, and deep where it needs to be, this is a recommended read.

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