Why Google?
Create A Google Account to Manage Email
Creating and Using Blogs with Blogger
Managing Photos with Picasa Web Albums
Conclusions

Why Google?

Look: it's the 21st century, and it's time to use the communication and organizational tools that are out there. Want to create a blog? Interested in using RSS feed technology (huh?) to keep tabs on your favorite websites? Would it be helpful to be able to set up a group website or discussion group? Need to collaborate with a team on sharing documents? Would you like to explore GIS maps throughout the globe? Want to share photos? Calendar information? Videos?

Of course, there are a TON of various applications out there of varying quality and cost. Which ones should I use? How many websites and logins will I have to juggle? Is there an easy way to integrate all of this "Web 2.0" technology? Environmental Studies suggests creating for yourself a Google account. It's free and allows you, with just one username and password, to leverage all of their applications. By signing up with Google, you can:

• Use Gmail as a superior substitute for LC WebMail
• Create a blog with Blogger
• Manage and share your schedule with Calendar
• Create and share documents (Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint projects) via Google Docs
• Create and share photos and photo galleries in Picasa
• Aggregate feeds from your favorite websites with Google Reader
• Upload and explore GIS maps with Google Earth (see here for detailed Google Earth help)

Create a Gmail Account to Manage Email

1. Get a Google account: Do not use WebMail as your primary method of checking; it's an easy way to get overwhelmed with emails. What do you do? Ignore em? Delete em? Tempting, but since email is becoming an increasingly important means of communication on the 21st Century college campus, you're bound to miss out on some important information coming from a professor or classmate. Email management is the key to getting the information you need quickly without wading through a swamp of emails. Instead of using an email client (which points to your user@lclark.edu address and pulls messages off the server), you may prefer to use a free web-based email service, such as Google's Gmail.
2. Some of you may already have a Google email account; if so, skip this step and go to #3 below. Otherwise: go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount and click on the Create an Account Now link at the bottom right-hand side. Choose a user name, fill in a few fields, and presto, You've got a Google account! This user name and password will allow you to use the entire suite of Google applications. Not only do these services offer a much cleaner and functional interface than LC's WebMail system, they also allow you to create and organize files as with an email client. In addition, it's mobile: like WebMail, you can check it from any computer with an internet connection.
3. Be sure to forward your LC WebMail: You can easily configure your user@lclark.edu address to automatically "bounce" messages to your web-based email.

Creating and Using Blogs with Blogger

Blogs have arguably become the premier means of distributing information through the web, and are a perfect way for you to organize and showcase the progress of your research. Once you have your Google account set up, go to blogger.com and log in.

1. Once you log in, you can create a blog in a manner of minutes. Blogger handles everything on the back-end for you; hosting the blog (your blog will be assigned a unique web address), layout (you can choose from multiple styles and functions), and settings (what you want displayed on your blog and what levels of security you would like it to have). Once your blog is set up, click on the Settings link at the top right-hand corner. The tabs and sub-tabs at the top will allow you to configure every detail of your blog. It's all pretty straightforward, but if there's something you don't understand, don't worry; Blogger sets the defaults to configure a blog in the manner that most people would want.
   
2. Next, it's time to start adding content. Click on the Posting tab at the top to get to the user interface. Blogger uses a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface so you don't need to know anything about HTML to get going! Simply type information into the screen provided and use the buttons above to change fonts, colors, formatting, etc. You will also find buttons to embed links, photos and media files into your blog posts (as well as spell-check). When the post is ready to go simply click on the Preview button to see what it will look like when posted, then click Publish Post to publish. You're now a blogger!
3. You can also become a contributor to the official ENVS blog which allows students, faculty, staff and alumni a platform to discuss anything ENVS-related. You can find more information on the official ENVS blog here. Interested in becoming a contributor? Contact ENVS for details.

Managing Photos in Picasa Web Albums

Once you have your Google account set up, you can create and share photo albums using Picasa Web Albums. Go to http://picasaweb.google.com (or just go to google.com and select More > Photos) and log in using your Google account info. Once you log into Picasa, click on the Upload button on the right-hand side of the page; this will allow you to either select and upload photos to the default album or if you have a lot of photos to first create web albums to help keep organized. Select your album and start uploading photos straight from your desktop. Once your photos have been uploaded, you can organize them, assign and edit descriptive captions, and even create slideshows.

Note: If you're already a user of iPhoto in Mac, you can use the Picasa Web Albums Uploader application to sync your iPhoto galleries with Picasa. Here's a really cool video tutorial. Important!! To share this album with your fellow Mellon Initiative participants, one easy way is put a link to the album in your blog: just click the Link to this Album link at the bottom left-hand side to reveal a web address that you can post. For instance, here is a link to some pictures from our Mellon Initiative workshop on 4/5/08.

Another really cool thing about using Picasa along with Blogger is that the two applications communicate with one another seamlessly: you can access all the images you've uploaded to Blogger here. Images from your Blogger blog are stored in special albums marked with the icon, which means that any image you upload to Blogger in a blog post will automatically show up in Picasa as well.

Conclusions

Hopefully this quick tutorial will give you some ideas on how to use some of Google's Web 2.0 technologies to organize and communicate your research to colleagues. The few Google applications discussed here are just the tip of the iceberg; if you're interested in learning about additional tools you can use, dig around the Google help sheets or contact envs@lclark.edu.


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