Social Media: Dipping my toe in

OK, I don’t usually blog midweek, but have made an exception today.

Many of you may not know, but I have a moderately serious Facebook (FB) addiction. I check FB each morning over breakfast and, if I have an internet connection, I will check it whenever I can to see what the latest is. I  realised a couple of weeks ago that I really like having the blogs I like and follow pop-up on my FB wall when new posts are out. Then I thought I should have a FB page for my blog, so made one. This is what I call ‘dipping my toe in’, I have a very small (and extremely loyal) following on FB.  Now comes the next step…popping in my FB page link in relevant comments on other peoples FB pages, and in this case organisations. So here is my link to a group I have no affiliation with, other than I like what they do. Their solutions and suggestions via FB are often enlightening and always useful towards organising digital office ‘space’. Below is a copy of their recent support for my Evernote review series.

“Get Organised

Want some inspiration from one of our organisational-types out there in the stratosphere? Fiona Trapani pens a blog called ‘My Paperless Phd’ and writes (and guest posts) on the subjects of organisation, paperless office strategies and a host of great, valuable topics. Visit her blog or ‘Like’ her FB page at http://on.fb.me/qWXf73″

So pop over and visit their FB Page, and if you like what you see, press like! https://www.facebook.com/GetOrganised 

I have also been overjoyed that my use of tagging is improving, so much so (according to my statistics tracker) I have had quite a few page views and likes on some posts from people across the globe, including Germany and the US. Mind boggling!

I have also recently found a few other features of Evernote and have done a comparision to drop box…but that is a blog for another day.

Hope your week is a happy one,

Fiona

What does it mean to be paperless? (Part 2/3)

The ‘cloud’ is a fancy term that basically means your data, files etc are stored at a server remote to your computer. I realise that I have been using the ‘cloud’ for a few years for Facebook (I store recipes in the notes section).  I have recently been introduced to Google docs (that stores documents, pdfs, spread sheets etc), Acrobat.com (has the added ability of web conferencing) and Evernote. It seems the possibilities are ample for persuing a paperless research.

I have played with Acrobat.com, and it looks very professional and was promising until I tried to tag two different people to share a document with. It informed me I would have to upgrade my account…hmmm. I try to keep all my internet relations as ‘financially neutral’ as possible, and am not interested in a monthly fee for something offered for free at another site. This has lead me to look at Google Docs again. I have now uploaded and shared with four people, all of whom can read and comment on my writing. This bodes well, especially in an age where supervisors (and hopefully one day their students) travel around the country and overseas. I also like the fact that storing this work in progress in the cloud provides another back up of my work, aside from my computer, flash drive and email system.

One thing I lamented to my WH early on is that it was a pity I couldn’t write on PDF copies of articles, like I can on paper articles. Aside from converting them to word documents I couldn’t think of how to do this….My WH was a little startled that I wasn’t already aware of this, and said that yes, there was a way to do this! We pulled out the laptop and started to play. There are so many extra things you can so on a static PDF, I was amazed! I can highlight sections of relevant text, annotate them and even make links to other articles and documents stored on my computer or on the internet. Another light bulb moment: this paperless thing is not just me with my head in the clouds (excuse the pun), it could be an achievable reality.

Again, I feel compelled to mention that I do realise the end result of this journey will be a printed PhD on paper. I think it will be great if I have considerably reduced the amount of paper that could be used in my study be using these online, free tools. I am very excited to be embarking on this journey.

Here is a link to a YouTube about a paperless PhD, there are 3 parts and if you are interested in this online storage and PDF editing, this is quite good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6bPvtmio2Y

Next week, part three of this series:

What does it mean to be paperless? (Part 3/3) which will cover common things on the internet that can be used to enhance study and networking, from Skype to Ted Talks and a few stops in between.