Tools and Tool Support

A nice deployment option for Zoomerang is by e-mail rather than via weblink.

Zoomerang allows to create mailing lists to send survey invitations. It keeps track of who responded, and allows sending reminders to those who haven’t, thereby potentially boosting response rates.

We’ll try this system for ECI’s newsletter survey next week, and will see how it goes.

When making edits to an already scheduled ezine in Newsweaver, it’s important to repost the issue to the web after each edit. Otherwise, the modifications will not appear in the email broadcast.

Google custom search allows you to create vertical search engines, focussing on specific topics. You can shortlist sites to be searched, and results will be either limited to these sites, or the shortlisted sites will be prioritised in the search result.

For a custom search engine on sustainable energy, see this link.

So far, 9 websites have been listed (LE, IEA, ECEEE, ACEEE, ASE, …). Comments welcome which sites we should add. Also some feedback on testing the engine is welcome.

If we’re satisfied, the search form and search results can be seamlessly integrated into various websites of our network and partners.

OUr edublogs portal has been upgraded. Make sure you clear your cache, remove cookings and do a hard refresh when logged in (ctrl+f5).

For a description of the upgrade, and video on the new features, see
http://edublogs.org/campus/edublogs-upgrade/

Vadim made a presentation on Geomapping architectural pictures using a combination of Picasa and Google Earth. The disadvantage is that it requires 2 installations for moderator users.

When one opens pictures in Picasa, there is an option to geotag them under the tools menu. It is quite straightforward. You can watch a 2 minute video tutorial here.

To share the results of our geotagging experiments, an option is Picasa Web Albums. Picasa allows to share an album on the web, either publicly or selectively. Storage is limited to 1 GB (which gives us close to a 1000 pictures, if not more) and can be upgraded. Geotagged pictures in a Picasa web album have a map view showing there origin. There is also a map view for the album. See this link for a test album with 3 pictures.

Albums and individual pictures can be exported into a file for viewing them in Google Earth. It’s another sharing mechanism, provided users have it installed.

Picasa web albums can be embedded in blogs and websites.

Applications for Geotagging appear quite limited. We could think about energy projects, but the number of pictures we have that are specific to a location are very limited. Wind turbine pictures are obviously site-specific, but often we do not know the site. Mapping partners or users may be of value, but only if we have many more users and partners, and many more chapters. In such case, we would need to go much further in automation of geotagging.

Q : What do an architect, an interior designer, an energy manager, an electrical designer and a green energy enthusiast have in common when it comes to build a better reality ?

A : One of the most promising 3D open source modelisation platform & tool powered by Google : Google SketchUp.

As it is open source, users can easily build & share objects in collections.

As it is from Google, beta testers & early hype adopters helped this tool to become their favorite around the world.

As its features & interface are easy to use & allow a freedom of creation, it can be used for various applications like : showing the perfect place for ederly to live in, build your own full renewables world, present projects implantation, raise attention to the main point of interests to be checked for an energy efficiency audit, educate about electrical safety issues in a home etc…

Interested ? -> you can download it here.

We have 5 hosting accounts with Adobe Connect. Currently, these are allocated to Colin, Sergio, Isabelle, Hans and one generic account.

For the generic account, I suggest that the other users share it. Drop a comment if you need access, and I’ll share you the account details.

The catch is that only meeting host at a time can use the generic account. So coordination is needed via the Google Calendar.

2 good comparisons of CMS can be found at the following links:

Joomla! Community Forum • View topic – Drupal Vs Joomla (where Joomla Fails and Major Drawbacks: A discussion )

Joomla and Drupal – Which One is Right for You? – Alledia

These 2 articles demonstrate that drupal is the right system for us, but at the same time comes with a number of limitations we have to live with.

If you wish to play around with a Joomla or Mambo site, I can give you an admin password to the following mockups:

sustainableenergywiki.org – Home

Home – sustainableenergywiki.org

Want a hosted drupal, Mediawiki, Moodle or Joomla site? A most cost-effective way to learn the potential of these applications is Siteground:
Web Hosting Services: All-inclusive website hosting package, Free blog and CMS, Free domain, top customer care. SiteGround – the best Web Space Hosting Provider

At 6 $/month, this is possibly the best way to go through the learning cycle of some of these tools.

Adobe Connect can be used as a powerful e-learning courses generator.

A presentation of all the possibilities offered is here.