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.
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". ;-)
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."
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.
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!
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 : Service Innovations for 21st Century Libraries Volume: 4 Issue: 1/2 Page Range: 1 - 28 ISSN: 1536-7967 Pub Date: 10/31/2007 doi:10.1300/J204v04n01_01
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.
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.
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?
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-Janasked 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):
Another neat feature is that when we're logged in to Meebo, the name of the MeeboMe Widget the patron is using is displayed, so as soon as they pop online for a chat we know they're coming to us from the catalogue, which gives us a heads-up on the type of question or research they're currently doing. Now if only we could get these things into some of our databases - anyone have any ideas?
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...
