Dan Sich at the University of Western Ontario posts an update that shows how Hab.la is responding to user suggestions and now has a solution for the previously-reported cap of 5 simultaneous users. They've even got a page on Hab.la for Libraries! If you haven't yet implemented chat widgets on your site, this is definitely one to consider. I haven't played yet, but it may even be worth switching to from MeeboMe. Anyone else considering that?
Danielle Dennie at Concordia University asks for your assistance in a survey she's running on your use of Instant Messaging Widgets:
Dear all,
I will be conducting a study to learn about and compare usage of IM widgets on online subject/research guides from different North American academic libraries. I would like to see the types of users that use IM widgets on a librarians subject guide and the type of questions that are asked. The survey is short (it should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete). Here is the link to the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Lk5nkzDRP_2bUOh2NEdgU2YQ_3d_3d
If you (or someone you know) have an IM widget on your subject guide, I would appreciate it if you could take the time to fill out the short survey.
Thanking you in advance,
Danielle Dennie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Danielle Dennie
Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry and Physics Librarian
Concordia University
Vanier Library Building
7141 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montréal (QC) H4B 1R6
Office: VL-127-3
Tel: 514.848.2424 ext. 5237
Email: danielle.dennie at concordia.ca
A few weeks ago I started using Digsby on my work machine to tie in all my IM, email accounts and Twitter. It seems quite stable, and I think it's a keeper. Major bonus that I haven't even explored yet is that just like Meebo, it offers a flash-based embeddable chat widget that then connects to the desktop application. I'm not sure how it shows up at my end, or if it has any limitations, so let's see, shall we? Feel free to pop in for a quick chat if I'm online...
Windows only for now, but they say they're working on a Mac and Linux version as well.
Technorati Tags: Digsby
I couldn't resist the headline when I saw that as part of the layoffs they were going to refocus on "providing answers to its core audience of women searching on... reference topics". ;-)
Stephen Abram has a good number of links on this shakeup.
Technorati Tags: Ask.com, restructuring
OK gang, the biggest strength of Meebo, that it's web-based, has also been the biggest strike against it. For those of us who are using it as a service, it's a bit of a pain to remember to fire it up, and to have the web browser open. Accidentally shut down the page or have a browser crash and you lose the service.
Worry no more, here's how you can run Meebo completely independent of your web browser, as a desktop application!
You need to download a small application from Mozilla called Prism. Did I mention it's available for Windows, Mac AND Linux? :-) Prism allows a web service (any website) to run in its own window, available with a desktop or startup menu shortcut. Because it's in a separate window, you don't even have to have a web browser open to access Meebo, and because it can launch as an application, you can add it to your startup routine so it starts with your OS, just like Trillian or Pidgin can.
It's incredibly easy to install and run; I'll be using it heavily starting tomorrow at the office. Here it is in action (email and RSS subscribers will have to click through to view):
While this should run on Leopard, there's another application specifically built for the newest OS called Fluid. Someone try it out and let me know how it works, kay?
Yesterday I posted a screencast about how to embed a MeeboMe widget right on the desktop using ActiveDesktop. While surfing around to see who else had made use of this, I found a link to a Flickr page from late 2005 where someone was using ActiveDesktop to show their Meebo account, and in the comments was a suggestion for a Mac application called WebDesktop that does more or less the same thing on OS X. It's not quite as good, IMHO, in that upon minimizing your active windows you have to click one more time to make the webdesktop become operational, but still, you don't have to have your browser running, and this could easily be made to run upon startup (though of course the Mac won't be starting up nearly as often ;-). Just something else to experiment with.
Here's your screencast (aggregators and mail subscribers will have to click through to view):
Hey, I'm excited about this one! At a meeting yesterday we were considering additional places we could stick our MeeboMe widget (you may recall we've had it embedded in our catalogue since the beginning of October, 2007). Someone wondered if we could embed it on the desktop, and I recalled that Microsoft has something called Active Desktop that allows websites to be displayed on the desktop. So this morning I did some quick checking and it works!
So first you'll need to create a MeeboMe widget, and then you'll need to create a basic html file on your hard drive, OR you can point to a live website. Just remember that folks will still want to use their desktop icons, so if you do use a live webpage, make sure it's not too cluttered.
Information on how to turn on Active Desktop is here.
And, um, that's it!
Here it is in action:
I don't know if there might be any security or other implications for this - haven't yet checked on that...
Update: My colleague David pointed out that we have over 200 machines in our InfoCommons, and wonders what having them always connected to our Meebo account might mean. Good question - does anyone have any idea if there's a limit to the number of folks who can be simultaneously connected to a Meebo account? I'm going to check their FAQ's and maybe send them an email. Still, the above should work well for a small library...
Update #2: The Meebo Wiki says 100 people can be simultaneously connected via widgets:
"How many people can talk to me at any given time? Is there a limit?
Right now we have set the limit to 100 people who can see you online through your widget. In the future, we may make it a preference to help you do some crowd control. If you’ve got 100 peeps IMing you at any given time, you’re pretty popular and might wanna hit that Invisible mode! You can also disable a widget in the meebo pref pane."
Posted to the Web4Lib mailing group:
Primary Research Group (http://www.primaryreserch.com/) is planning to publish a survey of college libraries that provide library services to distance learning students. This survey is open to accredited colleges from all countries. Participants receive a free PDF copy of the estimated 100-page report. Data is broken out by type and size of institution for easier benchmarking. Participants are listed but responses are confidential. To take the 40-question survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yX6WslbR6pWYfSaTsDC0Qg_3d_3d
James Moses, Research Analyst
Primary Research Group Inc.
Took me about 10 minutes to complete...
Just before I went on vacation in the middle of December, Dan Sich at the U of Waterloo really hit his stride in experimenting with Hab.la as an alternative to MeeboMe widgets. When I returned from vacation I let his posts sit until I made the time to digest them, and today noticed this update:
Dan writes, "Bad news: a Hab.la staffer just confirmed for me that there is a cap on the number of users that can see any given widget at any given point in time. Currently that max number is 5... I believe this means that site-wide or OPAC-wide installation of the Hab.la script would be rather futile. Only 5 people could see the widget at any given point in time. OPACs and library websites both frequently get more than 5 users at a time."
Bummer. It's always nice to have alternatives, but it seems at this time, Hab.la isn't a viable one. Thanks for the legwork, Dan!
From the most recent issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy (Volume 8, Number 1, January 2008):
Pomerantz, Jeffrey.
Mon, Lorri M.
McClure, Charles R.
Subject Headings:
This paper identifies key methodological issues affecting quality of
data in the evaluation of remote reference services. Despite a growing
number of studies in this area, no comprehensive effort has been made
to identify potential problems and suggest solutions. The strategies
proposed in this paper offer practical ways in which libraries can
improve the overall quality and usefulness of data gathered in remote
reference evaluation studies.
Going the Extra Mile: Supporting Distance Education at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Suzan Hahn, Lisa Lehman, Rheba Dupras
Abstract:
The Elmer E. Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has a long history of supporting distance education through state-of-the-art, remote access services. Harsh climate conditions (heavy snowfall and icing, high winds, and extreme temperatures), rugged terrain, limited road and telephone systems, and permafrost that prevents the installation of communications networks, all contribute to the challenge of delivering distance education. This article describes and explains the library's services while discussing the challenges of providing information access to a diverse student population living in an area covering over 500,000 square miles.
Journal of Access Services : |
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Scott Leslie at edtechpost is seeking a zero-install remote screen sharing application - something that would allow him to see his patron's screen w/o the patron having to download an application. I think Yugma might do the trick, do any of you have actual experience with Yugma, or with any application that would fit the bill for Scott? There are a couple of decent suggestions in the comments of his post.
Technorati Tags: Yuma
Learned from Tom Boone at Library Laws that there's a new cross-platform IM client out called InstantBird, "based on Mozilla technologies and Pidgin". And it's open source. It's pretty spartan right now being on its first release, but worked right out of the box for me. Just enter your account details in the account wizard, and for Google Talk, use XMPP protocol and fill the username with your Google Mail e-mail address like this: "my.address@gmail.com/instantbird". Then type "talk.google.com" in the entry "Connect server".
Right now I don't see any indication that someone on the other end is typing, and I don't seem to be able to edit the names of the people in my contact list, and I can't minimize to the clock tray, so it takes up space in my taskbar. But it does connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk and many others I don't use, like MySpaceIM, GroupWise, IRC, Gadu-Gadu, etc.
Oh, and get this - Windows, OSX 10.4+ and Linux (2.2.14+)! I've only installed it on the Windows machine so far...
Yet another reason to use Firefox - Aaron just pointed out that there's a new plug-in for Firefox and Meebo that will really help with the alerts - you still have to have Meebo open in a tab, or a sidebar, but you no longer have to have that tab in the foreground for fear of missing an incoming chat request - now you can get an alert box and a blinking browser window. Just installed it and we'll see how it goes.
Technorati Tags: Meebo, Firefox
So I've recently noticed that our Meebo Widgets are not correctly showing our status for our reference service; they almost always display that we're offline even when we're logged in. Looks from the support forums like we're not the only ones, and it's frustrating that nobody from Meebo is chiming in to offer a solution. Jocelyn, a librarian from Arizona Western, does suggest that if you enter your meebo room (first contact on your list), then the widgets may display your status correctly. Worth a try - I was unable to even connect to our Room when I tried it at the end of my shift yesterday...
Anybody else having this problem, or found a solution?
Technorati Tags: Meebo
The Cerulean Studios blog reports that they're going to be bringing Trillian Astra to OSX.
Technorati Tags: Trillian, OSX, Reference, IM
Yesterday we soft-launched our IM reference service here at the U of Calgary. We're using Meebo to handle all our accounts, and also chose it for the ability to use the MeeboMe widgets. Back when I did my screencasting seminar for the SirsiDynix Institute, Sarah Houghton-Jan asked a question that really stuck with me; "can you embed screencasts within databases so they're available to students right when they really need them?" And so what we've done with some of our widgets is embed them at various points within our catalogue (click through for full-sized images):
I haven't heard of any libraries making use (or wishing they could) of file transfer over meebo, but it could be useful to push a subject guide or something. Meebo just announced they now support file transfer between the different networks.
Technorati Tags: Meebo
Chad Boeninger has a comprehensive post at Library Voice describing how to view your MeeboMe widgets while using Pidgin (formerly GAIM), thus obviating the need to have Meebo open in a website at all. I haven't tried Pidgin in a long time, but would LOVE not to have to have a web page open in order to receive chats via the MeeboMe widget, so I'll be trying this one out. In the comments, Caleb points out that "you can monitor MeeboMe with any XMPP client", which makes me think that Trillian Pro might be able to be made to talk to MeeboMe as well.
Technorati Tags: IM, Meebo, Pidgin
One of the nice things about Google taking over the Newsgroup and archives several years ago is that I can subscribe to them with an RSS feed and consume them along with the rest of my daily updates. One of the ones I subscribe to is the local forsale newsgroup, and this AM I noticed the following posting:
I'm a U of A alumnus in Calgary and I need to do some online library research at the U of C for the next month. I need to borrow a UofC library card. No books will be taken out. Any charges guaranteed covered. Best offer.Of course it's a violation of our licenses and the Terms of Service each student signs to share their ID numbers. I responded in the newsgroup:
Wonder if he'll bother to respond? Wonder if the rest of the group will flame me? How's that for being ubiquitous? ;-)Rather than enticing a current student to break his/her terms of service re: their ID card, why not come to campus - you can use any of our databases w/o authorization as a walk-in user. Did you know that Calgary Public Library also offers a pretty good suite of online databases? http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/elibrary/
Hope this helps, your friendly neighborhood Newsgroup-reading librarian,
Paul
One of the nicest features of Meebo is that it can be used w/o any installation - if you've got access to the web you can use it. One of the nicest features of Trillian is that it also includes Google Talk in its stable. I just saw this video of the upcoming release (no date yet) of Trillian Astra in which the developer suggests Astra will have a web interface as well:
The other killer feature of Meebo for me is the MeeboMe widget, which allows anyone to chat instantly even w/o an account on any service. If Trillian Astra offered a web-embeddable widget AND allowed me to interface with all four of the big IM clients I'd probably switch. Personally I prefer to have a client on my desktop as well, so if Astra offers the choice of client or web, and if they offer a widget (I've seen no mention that they are though, unless this is it), I'd be pretty darn happy!
Technorati Tags: Meebo, Trillian, IM, Astra
Meebo certainly seems to be the weapon of choice, at least amongst libraries, but did you realize there are other web-based IM options out there? Robin Good provides details on a cool dozen in his post, Web-Based Instant Messengers: A Mini-Guide. Don't want to Meebo, why not Snimmer or Mabber? (the names aren't all that silly).
Technorati Tags: IM, Meebo, Chat, KoolIM, eBuddy, Radius, Snimmer, Mabber, EasyMeessenger, IMunitive, Messenger_FX
Sarah at LibrarianInBlack points out that the new chat rooms launched by Meebo this week can in fact be used as a rudimentary shared browsing tool. I tried it and she's right - it's better than nothing.
What is nice is that it'll work when you're on Meebo and your patron's on a native client - they get a link to join the librarian-created room (password optional). When they click that link they'll be brought outside their client to a webpage containing the new Meebo room, and the chat will continue from there. Any URL that's typed in the chat session will immediately appear in a small window adjacent to the chat session so both (or all) participants can see the same tiny page. You can't interact with the page, but your patron can click on it to launch at their end and be on their way. Um, kinda like if you'd sent them the URL to click.
Another link from Sarah at LiB (this one via the lo-fi librarian): Yugma. I haven't tried it, but it looks to be a solid option if you're considering tools to share the desktop (co-browsing). The basic service is free and cross platform. It doesn't offer voice over IP, so you're stuck texting with whoever's on the other end, though they do offer a built-in audioconference option; for that you'd both be paying long distance charges to Minnesota(!). Might want to check it out if you're in need of such a tool.
Technorati Tags: Yugma, co-browsing
