#cpd23 Thing 19: Cut but not bleeding

One last Thing and I’m temporarily caught up. How far behind can I get when there are only three Things to go? Yeah, right, I shouldn’t ask the question if I don’t want to know the answer.

So, what have I learned from the past 18 (chai, life: it’s a good number) Things? Confidence and Community.

I always thought, as the go-to person at work for anything computer/internet related, that I had to know everything and know it well. Have a question about Microsoft Office? I can answer it. Want to know how to use LinkedIn? I’m your woman. Need a presentation built? I can do your infographics. Need a new business card and don’t have the budget to pay an artist? Send your ideas to me.

But in CPD23 the new tools came so fast and furious that I only had time to try them, evaluate their usefulness to me, bookmark them, make a few notes, and move on. Some I adopted, like screencasting. Some I rejected, like Pushnote. Some I had already used, but started to use more, like Google Calendar. Some I had already used but started to use less, like Google Docs. But most are now a set of bullet points and a link on Diigo, waiting for the day I might need them. I know my way around them but am not expert — and that will have to be enough for now.

The biggest thing that held me up when it came to staying on track with the Things was the week we did Mendeley. I had my issues with them, but I’m not one who likes to make waves, so I held off and held off until I realized that if I put off writing until the situation was resolved through private channels, I’d never finish the CPD23 program. So I posted. And because it was part of the CPD23 program, instead of me running after them to get answers, Mendeley came to me. The situation had not been resolved in over a month, but 24 after posting my Thing all was settled. That’s the power of community.

To get from the community you have to give. While I’m not yet at the stage where I’ll be presenting at conferences, I am trying now to give back, which is why I livetweeted today’s IFISH meeting for those who could not join us.

So:

• Stop being such a perfectionist
• give to others
• let others give to me

Not back takeaways, are they?

#cpd23 Thing 18: Can you see me now?

I use Team Viewer to remotely share screens at work. We use it partially for real-time collaboration and partially because there are people in our company who must have been born in Missouri — they have to see things for themselves.

Then there are the customers who ask, for time 768,298, how to create a PDF or how to get a number from one sheet in Excel to another. I have written directions I send out, but some of my customers have trouble following the directions. Tools like Jing or Quick Screen Share could help. My main problem would be that I would have to keep a clean install of the programs I’d be demonstrating, because if I used my customized-to-death applications they would find it confusing. (But my Word doesn’t look like that!) It’s a fine line to navigate, explaining things people with no computer confidence but not talking down to them and still getting them to be able to run the screencast and follow the instructions.

I use Audible all the time, but not for podcasting. As I said in the Thing on presenting, I hate my voice. OK, no. I don’t. I just hate having to listen to the sound of my own voice, so I don’t plan to podcast unless someone pays me very, very well. (Anyone interested?) When I use Audible for is digitizing my audio collection. Tracks get split in the silliest ways and have to be reassembled. I love me my Audible, but I don’t want to be in it myself.

So,what does the jury say?

Screen sharing gets a big thumbs up.

Screen casting is a maybe, but I’d start with temporary casts before I record casts for repeated us.

Audible gets two thumbs up, but neither is pointed to podcasting.