"Not my oxyge... er... email!"
--Techno-addicts everywhere

Most of us are addicted to electronic communication in one form or another.

Email was invented about forty years ago and it's becoming a difficult, tired technology. The way we communicate has changed a lot since its creation. Forty years ago, technologies like Twitter, Facebook, wikis, blogs, etc. didn't exist, and whether or not you like to admit it, they have drastically changed the way we communicate.

So, if email is growing old and tired, what will it be replaced with? As I gaze into my crystal ball, the image of the future begins to be covered by a dense white fog.

Email's successor could come from many, many places, but one of my favorite candidates right now comes from Google in a service called Google Wave. Google Wave is currently in closed preview, but a couple of us at IT Training & Education have been able to get into the preview to see what it's all about. I'm by no means an expert in how to use Google Wave, but I've been digging through it long enough to know a little bit of what it's about.

NOTE: This article is not intended to be a "How-To Use Google Wave" article, rather an explanation of what Google Wave is and some resources to make your transition easier and more enjoyable.

Continue reading after the jump.

What is Google Wave?

Google Wave is a new internet communications platform that melds several concepts from existing web technologies into one application. It borrows the best features of wikis, email, instant messaging, and social networking.

Instead of me re-creating everything that already exists on the web about Google Wave, I've added a couple of videos that do a great job explaining what Google Wave is and some of its best features.

This first video explains how Google Wave relates to email:

As you can see from that video, wave allows users to all view a single copy of a message rather than multiple forwarded, replied to, carbon copied, etc. messages. At one time in all of our lives, we've seen one of those monsters of email come charging our way.

You might be thinking, "So what? It's email with a fancy interface, big deal." Google Wave does more than just email-like tasks. You can embed videos, maps, polls and Twitter feeds into waves. You can also publish waves directly to your blogs, or even have the wave translated between participants in real time!

Check out the following video, exploring some of those features:

The 80 minute video can be found here.

Google Wave Resources -- Bots, Extensions, etc.

Let's assume you get an invite, and are now riding the Google Wave, where do you find information about bots, extensions, gadgets, etc.? There are already some sites out there devoted to listing these resources. Below is a list of some that I've found useful:

• Google Wave Bots Wiki
• Featured Google Wave Extensions
• The Complete, Up-to-Date, List of Google Wave Gadgets and Robots

Riding the Wave Into the Future

How do we go from email as we know it, to waves? Rest assured, Google has a plan. Right now, Google is the only provider of wave-like communication and it's only in closed preview. If they get their way, that will change in the near future with other providers using the Wave protocol to replace email. Google Wave is intended to be mostly an open source application, allowing third parties to build their own Wave services and for the public at large to develop their own Wave extensions (bots, gadgets, etc.).

Along with the open source Wave software, Google is developing a new open messaging protocol called the Google Wave Federation Protocol. It's based on the XMPP (Jabber) protocol and is intended to mirror the ease of adoption of the email protocol, allowing communication regardless of wave provider.

I apologize if I lost some of you in those last couple paragraphs, my inner geek took over and made me get excited about protocols and source code.

The bottom line is that Google Wave is a new, powerful way for us to communicate. You can sign up for an invite to the service from Google or you can wait for one of your friends to have a block of invites given to them from Google.

...And no, I don't have any extra invites!

• Search engine is extremely effective
• Couldn't have made it through Grad School without Google Scholar
• My best friend speaks fluent Spanish and I don't; Google's Translate tool provides an easy way for me to send him messages and figure out what he murmurs under his breath in another language
• Gmail provides a massive amount of storage space and unlimited free accounts
• Google Earth is awesome!
• In my opinion, Picasa is the best free photo editing application available
• The company is creative and not afraid of looking silly (the ever changing image on the search page proves this)

...and if that isn't enough, a few days ago Google announced that they would provide free Wi-Fi in airports around the country through January 15, 2010.  That confirms it. My heart now officially belongs to Google!

To see a list of the 47 participating airports, or to read more about this recent announcement, click on the image below:

Have you thought about creating a video of your own, but you aren't sure where to begin? Do you have a video camera but aren't sure how to transfer footage once you've captured it? Maybe you've gone out to buy a new camcorder but were overwhelmed by the many choices available? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to check out the free IT Training & Education reference guide for beginning videographers.

 This learning module, called Video Basics: An Overview of Tools & Resources, is a comprehensive guide for beginners and it is free! You won't have to spend hours searching the Internet, because all the most relevant information has been compiled into one convenient resource.

Below is a list of some of the topics that are covered:

• Types of video cameras on the market
• Storage formats
• Features
• Accessories
• Cords and connectors
• Lighting
• Audio
• Clothing
• Video editing software
• Transferring video footage
• Publishing
• Video compression, formats, containers, and codecs
• Media players
• Links to many useful websites, blogs, and movies
• Much, much more!

So if you have dreams of becoming the next Steven Spielberg, or if you are simply interested in filming your daughter's dance recital, check it out. You won't be sorry.

1. aesthetic skills (to make things look good)
2. information architecture skills (organizing the content in a way so that users can find what they need)
3. interaction design skills (making sure that the paths within a website makes sense and are pleasurable for the user)
4. technical skills (XHTML, CSS, knowing how to turn on a computer)

Many web design shops have pros who are experts in each of these areas. How can you, a smart but inexperienced person, compete with that?  You're just trying to put together a little web site for yourself, your aunt the locally famous banjo player, or a volunteer organization...

divide et impera, or, Divide and Conquer

It is quite likely that you will go crazy if you attempt to figure out the page content at the same time you're trying to figure out whether the color scheme should be pink with purple or tan with brown. It is my opinion that the most amazing design sense cannot overcome bad planning, so, it is my recommendation that you focus on the stuff in the site first, then worry how it looks. Decide what stuff is going where, in roughly what order, and then you can experiment with graphics, colors and typography.

Wireframes to the rescue

Wireframes in the design world are very plain sketches or diagrams that show where the content, navigation, and buttons on a webpage go. Wireframes are usually in black and white, and use placeholders like

to represent images that will go onto the page later. To use an analogy, wireframes are to an Amish person what a finished website is to Lady Gaga.

The nice thing about doing wireframes as part of your planning process is:

• they're much easier to change and modify than an actual web page
• you don't have to invest any time on the technical side (figuring out how to make the XHTML and CSS work together to accomplish your vision)

So, what are some tools you can use to create wireframes?

Pen and Paper

If you have some artistic skills and are working on a site by yourself, hand-drawn sketches can be a great way to go.  They get you away from the computer and can be fun to do; just grab pencil and paper.

Gliffy.com

A cross-platform, online-based tool, Gliffy is definitely not all-powerful, but it is pretty easy to use,  free, and allows you to share your sketches with others. Running your ideas and sketches past other people is always a good idea, and its a lot easier to change aspects of your design at this phase than it is later on.

There are actually quite a few tools for wireframing, but the important thing is to wireframe first, then add the design bells and whistles later. You really don't have to learn a whole new tool just to do a wireframe.

Good luck!

Here's how:

In your Twitter space, click the Profile link at the top of the page. Under your username, click the Lists   button and choose New List. You can name your list anything, and make it Public or Private.

Once you have one or more lists, in the "Following" section on the right of your Profile, click the View All link. To the right of each of your followed usernames is a List button:   Click this button to see your lists, and then assign the selected username to a list.

Your Lists appear in the right section of your Home or Profile. Click a list to see only tweets that have been assigned to that list.

Let's see how InDesign handles this.

Open up an InDesign document with some text.  If you don't have a document handy, then simply create one and place a text-heavy Word document, or even a web page. (From the menu bar File->Place, and then locate a file to place.  Double-click the file, and then click on the page to place).

Now, select the Type tool from the toolbox, and test out the following.

• One click places a cursor in the text
• Two clicks in quick succession(double-click) will select a single word
• Three clicks in quick succession(triple-click) will select a single sentence
• Four clicks in quick succession(quadruple-click) will select an entire paragraph
• Five clicks in quick succession(quintuple-click) will select all the text in the frame (the same effect as going to the menu and selecting Edit->Select All)

InDesign is far ahead in the multiple-click arms race.  Most applications will support up to three clicks, (Word, Dreamweaver, most web browsers), and three clicks in these applications will commonly select an entire paragraph.

The Opera web browser is somewhat of an oddball as it will support four clicks, in the same way that InDesign handles four clicks.

Experiment with some of your other favorite applications, and see how much time you can save with extra clicks versus pressing and dragging.

Video Basics - An Overview of Tools and Resources - In this workshop, Donna Jones will discuss the basics of video, starting with a discussion of cameras, and what features to look for, and then using Windows Movie Maker to edit a short video.  While working on editing the video, the process of shooting a movie will be discussed, including setting up lighting, getting good quality audio, and setting up good shots.  Donna will also discuss some simple ways to make your production look more professional.

After Effects: Text Animation and Video Basics - Adobe After Effects is an animation program focused on video production which allows you to combine video and animations into a single project and then export it into many common video formats. In this workshop, Andy Hunsucker will guide you through the creation of a short movie trailer that combines text animation, video, and background music, along with some animations created entirely within After Effects.  Participants will get a chance to spend time working in the interface, and learn the basics of the animation system and the effects system.

See the workshop descriptions to sign up.  If you can't make it next week, we're doing a rerun on 11/17 and 11/18.  And don't forget about the same workshops being held at IUPUI.

In October IT Training & Education from Indiana University received awards for two training videos at the Fall ACM-SIGUCCS Conference in St. Louis, MO. ACM-SIGUCCS stands for The Association Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services; it is an international group of professionals involved in the support of information technology at institutions of higher education.

The communication awards were given in Category 3b: Electronic How-to Guides: http://www.siguccs.org/Conference/Fall2009/award_winners.html . Click "Read the rest of this entry," below, to see the tutorials.

The Oncourse: Reorder Tools video is one of many such online demonstrations of the Oncourse system, to help instructors and students collaborate and learn more effectively. See the award winning one at: http://www.indiana.edu/~ittrain/oncourse/feature_demos/reorder_site_tools.htm, and view the group of Oncourse Feature Demos at http://kb.iu.edu/data/arbl.html.

The Tandberg video tutorial is at: http://ittraining.iu.edu/online/tutorials/tandbergFinal/index.htm. Read more about it in our IT Training Tips Blog, at http://bit.ly/yAYP4.

From a wide range of IU-supported technologies -- including email, phones, Oncourse CL, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Presenter, Adobe Connect, and Lynda.com -- instructors can recreate important aspects of an effective learning environment even with minimized face-to-face class time.

The guide offers assistance with such issues as how you might, in an online environment, effectively:

• share content from your lectures
• manage discussions, including those for case-study, project, and project-based learning
• create collaborative learning opportunities and facilitate group work
• distribute readings and other resource media
• conduct demonstrations, including audio, video and screen captures
• provide feedback and opportunities for self-assessment
• accept students work products
• establish virtual office hours

When people speak of fonts, they are typically using the word inaccurately. Here's the truth:

• a typeface is the name of the font, also referred to as a font family. Examples are: Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Arial.
• a font is a rendition of the typeface, for example, "Arial Italic 14 pt."

Historically, the term font is derived from the words, "fount" and "foundry," brought forth from the printing press era when type actually came from blocks of metal or wood. At that time, each character was a physical object; therefore, each was manufactured in a specific size and shape. Print houses organized these fonts by family names. Because of this process, each typeface designer created separate versions (i.e., fonts) of his/her typeface - and they still do so today. As a result, true italic and bold typefaces are not just slanted or thicker; they have their own unique characteristics, which look completely unlike their "faked" counterparts. See: http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typestyles/a/italics_2.htm.

In practice, the faked ones (e.g., the ones you get by clicking the Bold or Italic buttons) may not print. Although your desktop laser printer can print your slanted or fattened versions of fonts, commercially used offset printers may not understand the computer-fabricated versions. Since it is best not to risk expensive proofing, the temptation to "fudge the font" is eliminated in InDesign.

To supply further reasoning: font designers are artists, and they get royalties for their work. Generally, you purchase typefaces by individual font style; adding any of the type's children (which may be italic, bold, etc.) is optional and involves additional cost. In this way, the font "artist" receives royalties for each purchase.

For all these reasons, in InDesign you can't do something that seems so easy. Consequently, if you don't find your favorite typeface in italic, you'll just have to choose another typeface.