How to: A guide to using those cool tools
All these applications are free. Some have upgrades that you can pay for. Give’em a whirl and see if it’s for you. For on online tools you might like, check out Friday 5 and Dan Conover’s geekery tips.
The official line on Twitter is that it’s a form of “microblogging,” a description that hardly does the service justice. You can use it to communicate with your friends and family, to keep up with the latest news, or to stay current with the leaders in your field of interest. Some people think of it as instant messaging within a group of people that you select.
You can also send and receive private “Direct” messages with your Twitter friends.
Another great thing about Twitter: Mobility. You can send and receive Twitter messages (known as “Tweets”) via SMS text message on your regular cell phone. Which means you can tell your friends the joke that Charles Wadsworth told at chamber music the instant the concert ends.
And it’s absolutely free.
SpoletoToday is using Twitter this season to keep you up-to-date with the latest on festival events, spontaneous sightings and updates from the SpoletoToday crew. Looking for opportunities to meet other festival enthusiasts for coffee or a drink after a performance? We’ll be using Twitter to announce short-notice, informal social events whenever they arise.
A good introduction is the Twitter FAQ. Once you have an account, simply go to SpoletoToday on Twitter and click on the “Follow” button! You can also find us at sign-up by entering our “spoletotoday@postandcourier.com” e-mail address in the “Find friends” box. And if all else fails, simply sign in to Twitter and search for “spoletotoday.”
Signing up is easy, but if you’d like a bit more help, here’s Dan’s video tutorial on setting up your account and getting started.
Twitter get-started tutorial from Dan Conover on Vimeo.
A social networking tool, Facebook is a great way to organize group activities on the fly. It’s what teenagers use instead of email. After creating an account, join the SpoletoToday group, by clicking the “Groups” option under the search box (upper left corner, people).
Flickr
Flickr lets you share your photos and video by posting (uploading) them to the Web. You can create a free account and then start uploading your photos. This stores your images on a server, so that you can share them with other. Here’s where you can learn more. SpoletoToday.com has a Flickr group.
Entries (RSS)