Monday, March 17, 2008

Thing Thirteen -- i(m)Google(ing)






I opted to go with iGoogle -- it seemed logical with all the other Google features I was using (and it kept the accounts to a minimum). I very much enjoyed building the iGoogle page, especially since I could get down to small town level with it -- I live outside a very small town and ten miles away from a small town. So to be able to pull together weather, local news and movie times for events/area within a 15 mile radius of my home was a great find. I also liked being able to added (and search for) new "gadgets" to add -- and delete if they didn't turn out to work or look quite the way I wanted them to.

I looked at the various calendars available and am using the Google calendar (again for convenience). At work we already use a collaborative calendar that can be viewed by anyone with a login for the network. You can view others calendars, invite them to meetings, send emails when meetings are changed or updated, make meetings/events as private or public and even color-code. Being able to view other colleagues schedules has been a great time saver and productivity promoter. We even have conference rooms, teaching classrooms on the calendar system, so booking of rooms is easy.

I didn't get around to checking out some of the other things on the list -- the list makers, or Backpack (didn't want to get into the whole 30 day free trial thing). However, our institution does use Basecamp and I have found that a very useful collaborative tool. It allows for the posting of common documents, the collaborative editing of documents, to-do lists, the sending and archiving of email messages and other features that are extremely useful for project use. We use it as the center for projects and as I am frequently on several projects at once, it has proved to be a great one-stop to keep on top of what is happening in various projects.

As with some of the other Things, I may come back/re-visit to those things that I skipped over the first time.

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