External Links

Building networks is one thing. Getting them to work together is quite another. The pieces of the external network were quick to set up. The internal network within CPIT has presented more of a challenge largely due to the organisational processes and protocols that need to be addressed and managed. My greatest concern now is how best to limit the amount of information duplication. I trust that the most efficient method will become apparent after a little playing.

I have listed the steps I followed to create the external networks below. The steps involved in setting up the internal networks will follow shortly.






As Google owns a number of these sites (YouTube and Blogger) and will link them together I needed to create a Google account first. You'll find a SignIn link in the top right hand corner of the Google page. I used my work email as the principal contact address and will be the one used as the login name for Blogger and YouTube.

Blogger is simple to set up. Choose a username that matches as closely as possible the identity of the other site feeds you will create. Now that you have Google account you can log in using those account details.

Next you need to create a blog. If you have a problem creating this (as I did when the connection reset itself before the process was completed) then the blog name you have selected can be lost to you. So don't hurry things by impatiently clicking on the buttons for example. You can build multiple blogs under the one account.

Note that you will need to set up a blog before you can link to it in the other sites so it should be one of the first things you do even if you don't add much or any content at this point.







Create an account with YouTube. Once created YouTube will let you login using the Username you created or your Google account name which I elected to do to limit the amount of login info I needed to remember. However you will need to set the link between them before you log out. This can be found by following the Account link at the top right hand corner of the page and then clicking on the Manage Account link on the left hand panel. When you come back to YouTube you should find the option to login again using the Google account info part way down the page. YouTube is straight forward and easy to use.

You can upload videos up to 10 at a time or you can install Google Gears which will manage an unlimited number of uploads for you. (It works with both Firefox and IE7.) I recommend using the first upload option, unless you truly have lots of material to upload at once, as the file info is easier to edit there than on the bulk upload page. I also linked YouTube with my Blogger site, ignitioncpit.blogspot.com as well so that new uploads will get posted there. To do this click on the Account link, next to the other links at the top right of the page, and then Blog Setup on the Account Settings page.







My real interest in this site was to create a user group, Ignition, that I could use to build an online picture of what the Creative Industries Faculty students were doing and the events they were running and presenting during the year. In my mind this would become the social hub of the Ignition network if you like. To use this site however you must create a personal account first. I used my work email address here and uploaded a basic shot of myself (more personal but not required). This site uses the email as your userID. Then I created the group Ignition.

The crucial step here though is to import a list of contacts that Facebook can search for and help you connect with. You need a seed audience so you can let people know you have arrived! Facebook supports a wide array of contact list formats.

The beauty of Facebook is that it can both link to and with a lot of other sites. Facebook allows you to do this fairly simply. Once you are logged in you will notice a tab strip underneath your username. At the end of the Wall tab is a dropdown link that lists other options available to you on that tab, one of which includes Import. Import will bring in a range of other sites to your Wall as they are updated, including Flickr, Blogger and YouTube.






Before I could begin creating the Flickr account I needed to set up a Yahoo account. Flickr has a link there as part of its own account creation process or you can follow this link. Yahoo supplied an email address under their domain which doubles as the login username for Flickr.

Once logged in to Flickr I also wanted to link it with Blogger. To do this click on the You dropdown menu at the top of the page just beneath the Flickr banner and then on Your Account. You will see a tab called Extending Flickr that uses a wizard to set up additional functionality including linking to blogs. This particular function will send a post to the blog when new material is uploaded.



SUMMARY
I have included most of the key steps I needed to follow to get this far. Hopefully I have covered it reasonably clearly. Just to cap it off I have included a list of those steps below .... I will return to the internal network components in my next post.

Create a Google account for Your Company.
Create an account with Blogger.
Create an account with YouTube.
Link YouTube with Google.

Create a Yahoo account for Your Company.
Create an account with Flickr.

Create an account with Facebook.
Upload contact list.
Create a Group under Facebook.
Create events.

Begin creating content - blogs and uploading material.
Link each site with the others.