Podcast: Download (26.4MB)

Co-hosts Ken Newquist and Courtney Bentley talk about a bunch of new projects underway for the spring semester, including Moodle usability testing, a WordPress MU pilot, the official launch of Spaces for intercollegiate collaboration.

In Tech News they look at Mars through Google Earth, check out the 2.7 version of WordPress, and discuss the FCC’s decision to push back the Digital TV transition to June. Finally, in help news they review the slate of upcoming workshops to help you get acclimated to the new Zimbra email server.

Getting the Podcast

• Subscribe to the Soapbox podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
• Subscribe to the Soapbox feed via iTunes.

Show Notes

ITS News

• Welcome to the spring semester!
• Soapbox gets upgraded and a new/old home
      
  • http://soapbox.lafayette.edu
• New projects:
  • Moodle Usability Testing
  • WordPress MU Pilot (and a new Coffee Break Blog!)
    • http://sites.lafayette.edu
    • A number of classes/groups areusing WordPress MU
    • Ken’s blog: http://sites.lafayette.edu/newquisk
    • Courtney’s blog: http://sites.lafayette.edu/bentleyc
    • Johnny Transit: http://sites.lafayette.edu/okeefej
    • The New Coffee Break Blog: http://sites.lafayette.edu/coffeebreak
  • Spaces
    • Need to collaborate with folks at other schools or in the community? Use Spaces.
    • Spaces lets people log in using their institutions credentials via Shibboleth or a generic id from ProtectID.
    • http://spaces.lafayette.edu/
• Upcoming conferences
  • NITLE Summit in Philadelphia

Tech News

• Explore Mars in Google Earth
  • Google’s added 3D imaging of Mars to Google Earth. You can see the parachute and heat shield of Mars Phoenix Lander.
  • http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090204-google-mars.html
• WordPress MU 2.7 released
  • http://mu.wordpress.org/
• FFC pushes back Digital TV transition until June 12
  • The digital TV transition has been pushed off to June 12, but it’s optional so some stations could switch over sooner.
  • http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10156931-38.html

Help News

• Smartphones & Zimbra: What you need to know
• Upcoming workshops:
  • Zimbra, Zimbra, Zimbra: Learn how to manage your inbox better using Zimbra:
    • Monday, February 9, 2009
      • Zimbra: Using Outlook calendar and contacts
      • Zimbra: Synchronizing data on the Mac
    • Tuesday, February 10, 2009
      • Zimbra: Using Outlook calendar and contacts
    • Wednesday, February 11, 2009
      • Zimbra: Using the new Webmail
    • Thursday, February 12, 2009
      • Zimbra: Synchronizing data on the Mac
    • Friday, February 13, 2009
      • Zimbra: Using the new Webmail

Contacting the Show

We’re always looking for feedback. You can send a comment to itsblog@lafayette.edu or post a comment on our spiffy new WordPress blog.