ITTS Update

The time is finally at hand for us to upgrade ALA Connect from Drupal 5 to version 6. This will happen Wednesday night, July 29, 2009, from 8:00-10:00 pm CST (6:00-8:00 PST, 9:00-11:00 pm EST). During that time, you won’t be able to access Connect, but no data will be lost, and the site should look pretty much the same when it returns in its new 6 self.

The best place to watch for updates during that time is the AC Twitter account at http://twitter.com/alaconnect. However, we’ve integrated lighting lots of candles as an early step in the upgrade process, so we’re hoping it will go pretty smoothly. We also had some great beta testers who we think found all of the bugs so you don’t have to.

Because some of the Drupal 5 modules either don’t exist in Drupal 6 or have changed a little, a few things will be different in the new version. We’re not introducing any major new features yet, though, so you shouldn’t have to learn any major new tricks to keep using Connect the way you have been. Here are a few of the things that will be different when the site comes back online Wednesday night.

• The biggest change is to the “notifications” setup. In the current version of Connect, you go to each group to turn on email notices, unless you’ve manually set the default email preference in your profile to “send all” or “send none.” In the new Connect, you’ll have a new “subscriptions” tab on your profile where you can set all of your group email preferences from one page. Here’s a sample screenshot.

  

  In addition, you’ll be able to set a default interval for email notices so that you can receive a daily digest if that’s your preference.

  

• Your network will display by type of contact, although it will still default to “all.” Here’s a sample screenshot of how it’s broken out in the new version.

  

• A new “lock” icon appears next to “protected” content to indicate it’s not publicly viewable.

  

• For the time being, we won’t be able to include information for instant messenger accounts in your profile because that module hasn’t been updated yet, but we’re still exploring our options for returning this feature in the future (along with expanded options to include services like gTalk).

As you can see, there aren’t any major functional changes, but please let us know how the new version works for you after we flip the switch Wednesday night.

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect | No Comments »

ALA Connect got a warm reception during the ALA Annual Conference earlier this month, and we’re seeing increased usage as a result of the marketing push. The dust had finally settled a little from Annual, so this past weekend we flipped the rosters in iMIS (our member database), which means the rosters in Connect got flipped, too.

What does that mean? It means that anyone whose appointment to a committee ended on June 30, 2009, is no longer part of the roster for that committee in Connect. So if you log in and find that you suddenly don’t have access to a specific group anymore, it’s likely because your appointment has ended and new people have been added to the roster.

Conversely, if you log in and see a new committee showing up in “My ALA Groups” or on your profile, it’s probably because your appointment to that group started on July 1, 2009.

We performed some magic behind-the-scenes to make the switch happen after Annual in order to give working groups the ability to access their space in Connect during the conference, but now it’s time for the new roster to work in that space.

If you believe that an affiliation is missing from your profile in Connect or that you’re on a group you shouldn’t be on, please leave a comment here, email me at jlevine [at] ala.org, or use the contact us form on the Connect site. Even better, if you *know* you should be listed on a specific committee, contact that committee’s staff liaison (or “admin” in Connect), because that’s the person who can add you in the member database so that Connect reflects your participation.

ALA staff members who receive questions about committee appointments from members should first check iMIS to make sure the appointment dates are correct there. If you’re still experiencing problems with rosters in Connect, feel free to call or email me. In fact, it’s a good idea to check your rosters in general to make sure that they’re accurate, as we only flipped dates for appointments that ended on June 30 or began on July 1.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect | No Comments »

Back in January, I got an early taste of the power of ALA Connect during ALA’s Midwinter Meeting while the Website Advisory Committee was beta testing it. I found the site to be a huge help, so I want to share some tips as we all head to Annual because if you’re lucky enough to have a laptop or web-enabled cell phone with you at #ala2009, Connect can be both useful and fun.

Useful:

• Being in a meeting and trying to figure out who else is in the room with you by looking at the group’s roster.
• Meeting someone for the first time and adding them to your network so that you can easily find them again later.
• Emailing someone whose address you don’t have handy at that particular moment (just go to their profile and use the “send a message” feature).
• For committees: entering your meeting notes as an “online doc” directly into your Connect workspace as you’re taking them so that you don’t have to worry about distributing them via email as Word documents afterward. Doing this also allows the whole group to make their own additions/corrections or add comments much more quickly

Fun:

• Seeing which avatar/picture your friends choose for their Connect profiles.
• Seeing which groups and communities your friends are active in.
• Watching which new communities are forming during conference.
• Watching the Connect tag cloud change as various groups add content from their Annual sessions.

More than 11,000 people have visited ALA Connect in the last month alone, so it’s a pretty good idea to make sure your profile there is accurate. To check it, log in using your ALA website username and password and click on the my profile link in the left-hand sidebar. If any information listed is incorrect, you can fix it by updating your profile on the ALA website and logging back in to Connect.

Even better, if you’re comfortable with the idea of posting a picture of yourself, add one in Connect in order to help your colleagues do the useful and fun things listed above. If you’re looking for a job while at Annual, you might also think about fleshing out your profile, making it “public,” and linking to it from your resume so that potential employers can see your professional affiliations. It’s a great way to use Connect to your advantage!

My member profile on Connect (friend me there!):

Posted by Jenny under Uncategorized | No Comments »