Preseason 30 Day Challenge Notes Part 3

Still going and nearing the end of the preseason…

In fact this is all probably very boring to everyone and if you know what’s good for you – don’t read it.

If you don’t know what’s good for you the read please do – read on…

But be warned – It’ll only make sense if you are following the 30 Day Challenge program.

Youtube

• How did Ed get an unlimited time restriction? How useful is that 🙂
• It may take a while actually finding a username that isn’t taken here!!

iTunes

This is the only bit I found disagreeable. I had a bit of hesitancy downloading this as in my mind I associated this with many other web music apps that have been about over the years that tended to overload your machine with unwanted devices and spam and unwarranted suggestions to buy buy buy.

I’ll go along with this one but really would like to see, ideally Open Source, an equivalent application that is not so commercially pushy.

On a plus note, it did seem quite an easy way to download all the videos and transcripts you might need.

OK, just one more plus note, even though I still don’t like iTunes 🙂 It is great to be able to watch the videos in good resolution running from your local hard drive rather than from the streams. No pausing, stopping and breaks in concentration, plus it’s there whenever you need it in the future.

Kiva -  http://www.kiva.org/

This is a fantastic site, well put together. Definitely the kind of thing I would like BeyondOneWorld to get involved in when I get things running there again. The site is the world’s first person to person micro lending website enabling anyone to lend interest free loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world – the one’s that really need the help. It has to date enabled lenders to send $116,950,335!

This is a great way of giving back and knowing that it gets right to the heart of the need.

Facebook Accounts

Ed runs through simply setting up Facebook and a quick overview of his personal pages and what they do. I’m reminded of how embarrassing this could be to either yourself or your friends if you ever dare to do this live – definitely a no-no 🙂

This is an area I feel will need to be thought of in many different ways as it goes on. With the recent news that FarmVille, a popular Facebook game is attracting more users than Twitter then you feel that there is some other social hybrid – just on the horizon 🙂

Facebook Features (Find a Friend)

Overview of finding friends on Facebook and keeping it only friends you know.

Seesmic Desktop

Seesmic appears to have more functionality than TweetDeck with Facebook ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’. Oh Well – Both are on my machine now and I will learn more about them as I and they develop.

Using Google Analytics

Intro in setting up Google Analytics – such a powerful reporting tool now!!!!

Gurubob says you can have as many profiles as you wish? No apparently the maximum per login is 50. However there is a work around by connecting more Google Analytics accounts under your same login details – see http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55566. This should not worry any regular 30DCers though.

Google Alerts

I found it interesting that Google has integrated these Alerts into Google Reader – when I used to try it out it was only email. Haha I set up the typical vanity one 🙂 Just put your name in quotes and when anyone mentions you get an alert.

Google Reader / Tips

I jumped to this module next because of the connection above.

Very nice – things have certainly improved here, looks like the folders really help you keep organised. Loved Ed’s idea of having a Vital Reads folder. Totally converted to Google Reader now.

Reader On The iPhone

Ed personal productivity secret revealed for the IPhone. Nice Google Reader App on the IPhone, which he uses to inform FriendFeed,  which then informs whoever he wants like Twitter. I think this makes me a definite buyer of the next best thing should the opportunity arise 🙂

Google Docs

Eugene showed loads of things here of interest to me. This is now a really powerful set of applications, that have surprised me with things like the Equation Editor in the Document, the Solve and gadgets in the Spreadsheet etc etc etc.

I wondered how many people use the presentations, seemed effective for quick overview and setup. The forms too – hmmm will definitely like to see how people use those. The latest news is that you can upload any kind of files now into Google Docs – just when I needed some hard disk space 🙂

Skype

OK – Back to Skype again. Did start getting some real problems with it a while ago so I had to uninstall it. Did some cleaning up of old usernames and decided I will now stick with ‘du-mmett’ from now on. Looks a lot nicer – but now I guess I have to find a little video sometime to put into the profile 🙂

Social Bookmarking

This is one I was looking forward to seeing 🙂 What is the latest way of getting backlinks?

Ok – Joined up delicious.com (When did Yahoo get it?? – I’m out of date) and going through all the others. Having something like LastPass is a must. The logins of the bookmarking sites are tedious, but something again I knew before and avoided so I will go through them all carefully and get the job done whilst listening to the other interesting modules. SocialMarker then will be my friend 🙂

Downloading Files

Managed to do that via iTunes already but useful alternatives given by Caro (and Rose the Cat).

Using Google Groups

Explanation by Caro (and Lucan the Cat) of how to set it up. Previously tried it as a public forum without much success but using restricted access on it is a great idea. A simple team forum in 5 minutes.

Being On a Team

Listening to the advice by Caro (and No Cat) I am a little more compelled to try out the team experience. I keep thinking, I Will – then – I Won’t – finding loads of reasons why (or why won’t) team working be a help. I think I will give it a try to find some tenacious characters out there who are driven enough to want to make this work well. There is a definite process here and I am personally using it to shake away the cobwebs and I fear at this moment in time I really cannot hear another ‘I cannot do this’ argument. A ‘How can I get this to work’ is fine but I don’t want anyone to suffer from my own tiredness of people who cannot do things (only through the lack of trying). Looks like I have a problem doesn’t it 🙂 I think I need to prove something to myself this year and then I can give back.

30DC Forum

Important video to watch that covers a few of the rules of benefiting from feedback and chat in the forum with other 30 Day Challengers.

Almost there…