I’ve been using the internet almost since its public inception.  I remember the mid-1990′s when my junior high buddies and I would telnet into sites around the world.  Later we all clamoured for Unix shell accounts so we could use the primitive text-based Lynx web browser and TinTin++ for online gaming.  The next phase in the internet occurred in the late ’90s when the Mosaic web brower was unleashed upon the world, and graphics, the occasional video, and audio-streaming were finally incorporated into the average person’s internet experience.

Unfortunately, this is where the evolution of most people’s internet experience stops.  They use their web browser, typically Internet Explorer or Firefox, to check various sites that come to mind.  People spend hours checking the same sites each day.  You probably know the sports fan that loads ESPN.com fifteen times a day or the newshound that visits CNN an equal amount of times.

Aside from simply avoiding compulsive behavior, there is a better way to surf the internet.  The solution is called Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and I would have to say that this is the most under-used feature of the internet.  RSS is a form of distribution that allows information about website updates to be pumped directly to you, instead of you having to constantly check the website.

Websites that contain RSS typically have an orange icon with a dot and several lines or they say ‘RSS” in the footer (like this one). Other terms that you might see that indicate an RSS feed are Atom, XML, XUL, or just the word “feed.” Web programmers have come up with many different ways that you can use these feeds.

Ways to Access RSS Feeds

1. In the bookmarks section of your web browser

If you use a modern web browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, or Safari, you can use RSS feeds as a live bookmarks.  Unlike a normal bookmark that just lists the name of the website, a live bookmark will have an expandable portion that lists the content of the website.  Instead of having to constantly visit a site to check for updates, you can simply scroll through your bookmarks to notice any new headlines.

On this page, I’ve made it easy to try it out.  Click the orange icon at the top of the article.  When prompted, click subscribe.  You now have your first live bookmark!

2. In Google Reader

Google Reader is a powerful application that allows you to scan dozens of websites at one time.  Just get an account (it’s  super easy if you already use Gmail or Blogger), and click the “Add Subscription” buttom in the top left corner.  You don’t even have to know the feed name.  Simply type the name of the website and Google Reader will find it for you.

If you spend even five minutes using it, you’ll see that there are all kinds of ways that you can share websites with your friends.  If everyone used Google reader, you’d no longer get those “Hey, Look at this Awesome Website” e-mails.

3.  In Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook 2007 and above has built-in RSS feed integration.  To start subscribing, simply do a right click on the RSS folder and follow the prompts to subscribe to your favorite websites.  Now checking websites will be as easy as checking e-mail.  You’ll no longer be compelled to keep clicking reload on your favorite sites.  You can also set it up to reformat your favorite websites to look like e-mail.  In a workplace situation, this has obvious benefits.

4. In iTunes, Apple Safari RSS, and Many Others

I don’t use these applications, but there are many other applications that allow easy access to RSS. Mac users should know that there are many, many options for them.  iTunes is probably the most commonly installed on desktops.  Imagine, reading cullenhartley.com in the same application that you use to download your favorite pop music.  What a panacea!

5.  In Specialty Applications

There are specialty websites like NewsGator and single-function programs like FeedDemon to access RSS feeds.  I personally think these solutions are cumbersome and not well-integrated into most people’s computing workflow.  If you are already using them, that’s great. But if you are that involved in RSS and you made it to the end of the article, it is minor miracle.

Facebook for Pastors by MinistryMarketingCoach.com‘s Chris Forbes is a step-by-step primer describing how a pastor might use Facebook.  This thirty page e-book clearly presents the benefits of how social media can help shape a ministry, and provides a theological justification for using it as a tool.

The bulk of the booklet presents information that even the most novice Facebook user will know, but the information should still be of some use to the technologically illiterate set, seasoned pastors seeking something more that may just now be dipping their toes into the digital universe.  The last few pages are filled with testimonials from various ministers who have effectively used Facebook in their ministry.

Fortunately, Chris Forbes licensed this book for free distribution via the internet.  On the copyright page he explains:

You have permission to post, email or print this e-book and pass it along for free to
anyone you like as long as you make no changes or edits to its contents or digital
format. The right to bind this book and sell it is strictly reserved.

In that spirit, I have posted a copy of Facebook for Pastors for others to download.

Facebook for Pastors by Chris Forbes (PDF)

I learned about this book on the WM Communications Asia-Pacific website.

After I accepted the assignment as the faculty yearbook sponsor, I had to learn the art of photography fairly quickly.  I invested in gear that would allow me to do the job, furiously began reading books to help me improve my technique as well as share that knowledge with my students, and slowly became proficient in my new found hobby and workplace responsibility.

However, after a few weeks I began running into a problem.  My four year old laptop computer simply didn’t have the disk space to store the archive of photos that I was accumulating.  I was also well past the two gigabyte limit set by my workplace system administrator.

Short of spending hundreds of dollars on a few extra external hard drives or spending over a thousand dollars on a new laptop, the best solution that I could muster was to select an online photo archiving service.  Fortunately for me, there are many of these available and many of them are free.

Hands down, the most well known service out there is Flickr.  The user base is huge, and it is backed by internet giant Yahoo.  You can upload 100MB of photos a month for free.  Their photo groups are an incredible resource as well.  Tens of thousands of people critique and evaluate photos, and dispense and discuss advice every minute.  Unfortunately there are drawbacks.  The 100MB limit is pretty shallow.  With today’s modern cameras you’ll be pushing it to add more than twenty pictures in a month. The free service also limits your ability to categorize and organize your pictures; you can only have four sets. Perhaps most audaciously, Flickr doesn’t offer access to your original files unless you pony up some cash.  They hold your original files hostage and only offer lower resolution, degraded versions unless you pay for their “Pro” account.  The bottom line is that for the service that I desired, free Flickr was not an option.  I would have to pay.  But then I asked myself the next question, “If I have to pay, is Flickr really the best?”

After a little research, I decided that the answer is an adamant “No!”

Once I filtered out some of the maturing, but not-quite-ready-for-prime time, services such as Google’s Picasa Web Albums and Zoomr, I discovered SmugMug.

SmugMug pages are infinitely customizable and sport an infinite disk space limit.  Each page can be given different themes, and if you’re a geek you can even modify the CSS.  You can have as many sets as you like, and and people with Power and Pro accounts can store video online. There’s also an option for a custom URL (mine is photos.cullenhartley.com). Plus, if you’re ambitious, you can sell your prints for a profit.

SmugMug makes it easy to store and share pictures from school events.

The only drawback of SmugMug is that you have to pay, and the price is nearly double what most photo services charge.  Whereas Flickr costs $25 a year (for only slightly improved functionality) SmugMug charges $40.  For the advanced features such as full length video and site-wide customization you’ll pay $60.  If you want to sell your prints online, you’ll pay $150.

But even if you opt for the most expensive option, you’re getting what you pay for.  No other mainstream site allows you to sell prints with the potential to earn profit.  No other site provides the extreme flexibility and amazing storage options that SmugMug offers to its customers. Moreover, it is easy to look past the high cost.  Had I decided to purchase two external hard drives (one for storage and one for backup), it could have easily cost me $300, and I would be the only person that could access the photos and content.  Now, I have access to a full featured website that allows me to keep backups and share photos with the world.

This service is also ideal for schools that want to make their photos available online for students and parents.  I have several galleries that I’ve uploaded for my workplace this school year. As a matter of ethics, I don’t make any money from these pictures.  However, if a large school created a policy that allowed school photographers to upload and sell pictures to parents and students, it could potentially add an additional school revenue stream and provide a service that would allow parents to save a lifetime of memories. Some might scoff at the thought of selling pictures of students, but yearbooks, newsletters, and class photographers have done this for years.  There’s no reason that this practice should not move into the digital arena.

Do you want a discount on the cost of SmugMug? If you sign up for a SmugMug account, you’re welcome to use my discount code.  By signing up, you get $5 off the cost of the account, and I get $10 deducted from my next renewal fee.  Please enter the following discout code when you purchase your account: wASFesjLdNPtM

Students must learn that material on the internet is public information.  Even if they think it is locked down or disseminated only to “friends,” it is not. Once something is distributed on a social networking site, it is public information.  Companies can save the information and use it for whatever purposes they desire at anytime in the future, it may be cached on websites likes the Wayback Machine (www.archive.org), or it may be forwarded onto other people.

From the perspective of a professional educator, you’d think this would be an easy problem to handle; unfortunately it isn’t.  Nowadays, web page URLs are increasingly dynamic and social networking sites are building more and more ways to filter information.  A teacher or school administrator might see something atrocious that was posted by a student on the internet, but by the time they go into work the next morning it may be moved, altered or deleted.  After some minor occurrences of students insulting faculty members online, some teachers and I were facing the very issue of how to track down and save this type of material.

I’ve decided to post a procedure to permanently capture material that a student (or anyone) has posted online:

1.       Make sure that the offending remark or comment is displayed on your computer monitor
2.       Push the “Print Screen” button on your keyboard. (Don’t worry, it won’t actually print anything.)
3.       Open up Microsoft Paint
4.       Go to the edit menu and click paste. A copy of your computer screen will be placed into them image.
5.       Click File and Save as.  Name the file and save it.  Make sure you remember the directory that you saved the image.  (If you’re technically inclined, you can save the file as a JPEG to reduce space, but really any format will do.)
6.       Find the directory in the folder that you saved it, and make sure that it worked.
7.       Close Microsoft Paint
8.       E-mail the screenshot as an attachment to the student’s parent, any parties that were insulted, and (if necessary) the principal.

I recommend that everyone try this once just to make sure that you know how to do it.

In our classes, teachers should instruct students that online speech should be treated the same as face-to-face speech.  If something is inappropriate to say out loud, it is inappropriate to type. If you said something inappropriate to 50 people, you would be in trouble.  If you use the internet to distribute something inappropriate to 50 people it is nearly the same.