Virtual worlds, universities and hype

Thinking of exploring virtual worlds like Second Life for training and meetings but are scared off by the hype? A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds, explored the joys and frustrations of college and university teaching on Second Life and virtual worlds. I found the article interesting, but even more so the comments.

TRB Annual Meeting 2010

The first TRB annual meeting of the decade started out with a bang (lots of construction noise at our committee meeting) and went out with a bang (two of our sponsored sessions were recorded as e-sessions). Co-chair Larry Orcutt and I are working to firm up the notes from the committee meeting (mainly due to the aforementioned construction noise) and will get those out soon. In the meantime, I have updated the calendar on the committee wiki. You'll notice that the deadlines related to program planning for the 2011 annual meeting are highlighted. Once, one annual meeting is over, it's time to start planning the next.

Check out Transportation Research Collaboration

What Is It?

Transportation Research Collaboration (TRC) is a Microsoft Sharepoint site which allows the transportation research community (researchers and research managers) to share information and to connect and collaborate on shared issues. Over time, we envision this as a repository of documents and work products that will become a collective set of best practices for planning, conducting, managing, and implementing transportation research projects.

Site Overview

This site is organized around the following concepts:

• Setting the Research Agenda – Share information about your research needs, priorities, selection processes and timelines, and learn about those of other organizations.
• Collaborating in Research Activities – Share and learn about tools for collaborative partnership, and ways to connect with others who share your research goals.
• Carrying Out Research – How you can manage your projects and programs to maximize your research investment.
• Delivering Results/Communicating Value – Ways you can ensure research lives beyond the project, and makes a difference in transportation practice.
• Team Collaboration -- The vision for this section is to create a space for research committees and teams to have a place to collaborate and share products for the broader research community to use.

The Audience

The target audience of this site includes transportation researchers, research mangers, and transportation committee members.

Site Functions

This site’s functionality is similar to a regular website but with the added capability to collaborate and share information with professionals within the transportation research community.

• Add a link or announcement, participate in a group discussion, download a document- Any site visitors are given this permission.
• Post a document – A user account is required in order to add documents in existing lists and libraries in the areas of interest.
• Create a collaboration area - A unique sub-site for collaboration can be created by us for team collaboration.

If you would like to get a user account so that you can contribute content, please contact Frank Law (Frank.law@dot.ca.gov) at Caltrans.

Related Sites

• Professional Networking for Transportation Research Collaboration: www.transportationresearch.ning.com
• Transportation Collaboration, USDOT NTL and RITA: www.transportationresearch.gov
• Transportation Research Collaboration” Group on LinkedIn
  

If you or your organization would like to become involved and help set the direction of this effort, please contact Linda Preisen (lpreisen@umn.edu), Co-Chair, AASHTO RAC-TRB Conduct of Research Web Collaboration and Coordination Subcommittee.

The buzz from TRB

Having experienced several committee meetings for the Research and Education Section, I keep hearing the same words over again, like:

• Cooperation
• International
• Collaboration
• Interactivity
• New technologies
• Limited resources
• Unable to travel.

We had as productive a committee meeting as we possibly could have with loud construction going on. Thanks to the committee members and friends who soldiered on with all the distractions. Co-chair Larry Orcutt and I will be following through with notes from the meetings and an update of our strategic plan.

Our last session is tomorrow. Check out New Media Communications in Transportation from 8 to 9:45 a.m. in the Hilton, Lincoln East.

Missed Everything You Need to Know about Web 2.0?

This will be available as a TRB “e-Session” for the 2010 Annual Meeting. The e-Session recording will include a video of the presenter at the podium, and audio synchronized with the visual aid (i.e. .ppt, .pdf, etc). The recordings will be available to rent as on-demand video (view-only) starting on Monday, January 25, 2010.

Sunday at TRB off to a great start

Sunday at TRB was chock full of great T2 events. My day started off at the Everything You Need to Know about Web 2.0: Using Communication and Collaboration to Improve Transportation” workshop. I caught Andrew Krzmarzick from GovLoop.com. GovLoop is a social network for government (all kinds). Check out the Transportation 2.0 group. They’ve got discussions as well as information from TRB.

Georgene Geary from GeorgiaDOT related some very practical information about implementing Web 2.0 in a state DOT. Kendra Levine shared her www.MashTrans.org site with us. Check it out for some really fascinating uses of Web 2.0 technology.

Then it was off to the Shoreham for Communicating the Value of Research and Accelerating Innovation for Transportation Professionals. T2 Committee Larry Orcutt organized this session and brought together the experts in communications and innovation. The workshop was centered around two new efforts – NCHRP Project 20-78 “Communicating the Value of Research Training” and the National Highway Institute course, “Leap not Creep: Accelerating Innovation Implementation.” Speakers included committee members Ann Overton and Rukhsana Kahn Lindsey.

Unfortunately I had to leave right when the discussion was getting lively to attend the new and young attendees welcome session. If you want to get energized about transportation and TRB, just spend a few minutes with these folks. The crowd was mostly young and international and they were eager to learn about TRB. As you go about your day at TRB, be sure to say hi to attendees with a while new attendee badge and welcome them yourself.

My day ended with an overview of what’s happening in the exhibit hall. It seems like every year there are more and more exhibits. After hitting the highlights and seeing old friends, I’ll have to get back.

I hope to see all the T2 fans at the committee meeting on Tuesday. --- lisa

Getting ready for the annual meeting - The TRB cheat sheet

We have posted TRB’s 2010 State of TRB Report on the committee’s wiki.

Today’s blog posting concerns the use of communications tools, with commentary from your committee co-chair.

TRB Staff and Committees Make Progress in Enhancing Use of Communications Tools

Effective communications have always been critical to the success of TRB standing committees.

With travel budgets being cut, robust communications portfolios are more important than ever.

• Each committee was asked by TAC to review its communications portfolio during 2009.(Currently the committee maintains a wiki and a blog. In addition, we have a presence on Facebook and LinkedIn. )
  
• TRB has been updating/expanding its guidelines to committees on effective communications portfolios and sample templates and guidance for committee webpages have been provided to the committees. (We will be considering whether to convert our wiki to TRB’s web pages.)
  

In response to an offer earlier this year, more than 170 standing committees appointed a communications coordinator to work with TRB staff and other committees to enhance the communications portfolios (Ann Overton is the T2 committee’s coordinator.)

• Three webinars and communiqués will have been provided for communications coordinators by January 2010.
  
• A shared webpage for communications coordinators was launched. The webpage contains guidance and discussion areas for questions and sharing of experiences.
  
• A smaller Council of communications coordinators was formed and works with TRB staff between the issuance of webinars and communiqués to the larger group.

The Technical Activities Division, with help from National Academies staff, initiated a review and a possible reorganization of the Division’s webpages.

• Will complement the revamped TRB website that was launched in August.
• A detailed survey of over 350 members and friends who volunteered to participate in this effort is underway and the analysis of the results will be concluded shortly after the Annual Meeting.
  
• For our chairs, our objective is to make the ‘business’ side of running a committee as painless as possible-- easy access to all of the annual deadlines we ask you to meet, templates and samples to work from, etc.
  
• Another objective is to do more to explain how the work of the standing committees fits in to the bigger TRB picture and how to go about becoming a friend of a committee and what that means.

TRB examining opportunities in Web 2.0/social networking.

• Revamped TRB website includes links to social networking sites.
  
• National Academies Mirzayan Fellow assigned to TRB researched social networking opportunities for TRB and transportation organizations.
  
• As a result, TRB has initiated a Twitter account. Follow us at TRBofNA.
  
• Upcoming webinar for committee communications coordinators will address potential committee applications of social networking.
  
• Currently, at least 20 committees have established social networking sites.

Two Sunday workshops and several sessions at 2010 TRB Annual Meeting will be dedicated to social networking. (Check out sessions/workshops the committee is co-sponsoring:

• Jan 10 2010 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM: Everything You Need to Know About Web 2.0: Using Communication and Collaboration to Improve Transportation, Marriott, Thurgood Marshall East
• Jan 13 2010 8:00 AM- 9:45 AM: New Media Communications in Transportation, Hilton, Lincoln East

T2 Committe schedule for 2010 TRB annual meeting

Mark your calendars for interesting sessions and informative meetings sponsored by the T2 Committee at the 2010 TRB annual meeting.

• Jan 10 2010 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM: Everything You Need to Know About Web 2.0: Using Communication and Collaboration to Improve Transportation, Marriott, Thurgood Marshall East
• Jan 10 2010 1:30 PM- 4:30 PM: Communicating the Value of Research and Accelerating Innovation Implementation for Transportation Professionals, Shoreham, Blue Room
• Jan 10 2010 1:30 PM- 4:30 PM: International Transportation Research Collaboration: Success Stories, Hilton, Jefferson West
• Jan 12 2010 8:00 AM- 9:45 AM: Knowledge Management: Successful Practices for Succession Planning, Hilton, Jefferson West
• Jan 12 2010 3:45 PM- 5:30 PM: Technology Transfer Committee Meeting, Hilton, Holmead
• Jan 13 2010 8:00 AM- 9:45 AM: New Media Communications in Transportation, Hilton, Lincoln East

Want to know more about Web 2.0? Check out T2 Committee sessions at TRB annual meeting

Wanting to get down with the latest in technology? The T2 Committee is co-sponsoring a workshop, “Everything You Need to Know About Web 2.0: Using Communication and Collaboration to Improve Transportation.” The workshop will take place January 10, from 9 a.m. to noon.

What will it cover? Transportation agencies have begun experimenting with Web 2.0 technologies for everything from tweets on road closures to using VOIP services to collaborate with researchers. This workshop provides overviews of many Web 2.0 applications, including social networks, podcasts, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and virtual worlds. The workshop will highlight current efforts to improve transportation research by using Web 2.0 and provide participants with instructions to get started using these technologies.

You’ll hear from:

• Andrew Krzmarzick- U.S. Department of Agriculture on Introduction to Government 2.0 and Social Media
• Georgene M. Geary - Georgia Department of Transportation on Using Web 2.0 Tools at Georgia Department of Transportation
• Melissa Jordan - Bay Area Rapid Transit District on Transit 2.0 at BART.gov
• Transportation Security Administration's Blog and Idea Factory
• Kendra Levine - University of California, Berkeley on Mashtrans.org: Looking at Transportation with a Web 2.0 lens

And, if you want to know even more about new technologies and what they will mean for you and your organization, check out the session we are also co-sponsoring Jan 13 from 8 to 9:45 a.m. at the Hilton. You’ll also hear about some of the new media initiatives being sponsored by TRB.

New Media Communications in Transportation

• TRB’s Communication Coordinators Council on New Media Technologies, Jeffrey L. Western - Western Management and Consulting, LLC
• Overview of New Media Technologies such as Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, Web 2.0 , Brian P. Kennedy - AECOM
• Social Media Statistics: Who Is Doing What by Mia Zmud - NuStats, LLC
• Web 2.0 Technologies for Collaboration: Ways to Use Web 2.0 for Collaboration in Transportation and TRB by Lisa Haakon Pogue,
• Twitter for Transportation: Effective Uses of Twitter for Transportation Information, News, and Building Communities by Kendra Levine - University of California, Berkeley
• Sensorpedia: Web 2.0 Methods for Sensor Information Sharing by Bryan Gorman - Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Communicating the value of research and accelerating innovation at 2010 TRB annual meeting

In this and future blogs, we’ll be previewing the excellent sessions and workshops the committee has been busy organizing for the 2010 TRB annual meeting.

Be sure to attend the workshop, “Communicating the Value of Research and Accelerating Innovation Implementation for Transportation Professionals” on Sunday, co-sponsored with the Committee on Conduct of Research. Co-chair Larry Orcutt has put together an great chance to get to know the NCHRP Project 20-78: "Communicating the Value of Research Training," and an NHI course, "Leap Not Creep: Accelerating Innovation Implementation." Transportation professionals will learn to overcome typical communication challenges and institute best-practice activities in the research process, which results in successfully conveying the value of research to key audiences and leads to innovation. A panel of practitioners will share innovation success stories, including:

• Committee member and the committee’s TRB Communications Coordinator Ann M. Overton, Virginia Transportation Research Council, will lead with ” What Works in Communicating Transportation Research: View from the Field”
• Kim Hilsenbeck, NuStats Partners LP will introduce us to the NCHRP project with “Communicating the Value of Research: Overview”
• “Introduction to National Highway Institute Course "Leap Not Creep: Accelerating Innovation" will be given by Joseph P. Conway, Federal Highway Administration.

Some of the innovation success stories will include:

• Finding the Spotlight by Ellen Oman, Washington State Department of Transportation
• Innovation Success Story: Creating and Sustaining Innovation Culture at Utah Department of Transportation by Committee member Rukhsana Kahn Lindsey, Utah Department of Transportation and Jim McMinimee, Utah Department of Transportation
• Moving from Research to Services for Traveling Public: Unique Public-Private Partnership Path by Thomas West, California Center for Innovative Transportation.

Great example of showcasing the value of research

Recently I attended a program at NASA. It was a pleasure to see government agency staff truly excited about their agency and its mission. But, the most exciting aspect of their presentation was an excellent sample of communicating the value of technology transfer. Take a look at their site, NASA @ Home and City, to see, hear and experience the results of NASA research. The site vividly showcases technologies developed by NASA that have been applied to technologies from cosmetics to wireless headsets to freeze-dried foods. The site also provides additional information on these technologies and you can truly see that “space is everywhere you look.”

Great example of showcasing the value of research

Recently I attended a program at NASA. It was a pleasure to see government agency staff truly excited about their agency and its mission. But, the most exciting aspect of their presentation was an excellent sample of communicating the value of technology transfer. Take a look at their site, NASA @ Home and City, to see, hear and experience the results of NASA research. The site vividly showcases technologies developed by NASA that have been applied to technologies from cosmetics to wireless headsets to freeze-dried foods. The site also provides additional information on these technologies and you can truly see that “space is everywhere you look.”

News from members

Steven Jones will be leaving Ireland and returning to the faculty of the University of Alabama (UA) in January 2010.

Jennifer Sheldon has resigned from the committee as she has accepted another position within the University of Washington and will be transitioning from the Transportation Northwest Center and transportation research to the medical research world. We wish her all the best.

Announcing the committee's new strategic plan

Since the committee’s summer meeting in Washington, DC members and friends have been busy updating the committee’s strategic plan and planning TRB annual meeting sessions for 2010. As usual, there was lots of energy at the end of September confirming speakers and refining descriptions. We have a terrific workshop on communicating the value of research planned. The workshop also incorporates the National Highway Institute course on technology transfer, “Leap, Not Creep: Accelerating Innovation Implementation.” We are also sponsoring a session on new media and what it means for transportation. The next blog will go into more depth on the workshop and sessions coming up. In the meanwhile, take a look at the committee’s strategic plan and give us a comment on two.

Gov 2.0

The federal government has a Facebook page. Mission: A Facebook page for information about how government can best use Facebook.

Committee member blogs for Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day in Kansas

People from various organizations will be blogging about ways to put the brakes on fatalities starting Monday, Sept. 14, on the Kansas Transportation Online Community (KTOC).

A total of 20 people will share experiences and information about improving safety on our roadways. Some of the bloggers will include KDOT Secretary Deb Miller, Trauma Coordinator at Stormont Vail HealthCare Darlene Whitlock, KHP Technical Trooper Tim McCool, Sgt. Lance Smith with the Reno County Sheriff’s Dept. and State Director of Safe Kids Kansas Cherie Sage.

This event is taking place as part of the national safety campaign Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day. Whether you are in a car or truck, on a bike or even walking, the goal is for everyone to safely get where they are going.

Blogs will be posted by 9 a.m. each work day. The last blog will be on Oct. 9 by Larry Emig, a KDOT retiree who began Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day in 2001. Oct. 10 is the official day celebrated as Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day though the safety messages are promoted all year long.

People are encouraged to sign up for KTOC and offer comments on the blogs. Anyone can read information on KTOC, but to offer comments you must log on as a member. KTOC can be seen at http://ktoc.net/Default.aspx.

Calling for posters on Web 2.0 in research and comunications

Innovative Applications of Social Media and Web 2.0 Technologies in Transportation Research and Communication

Sponsoring Committee
ABG40 Committee on Library and Information Science for Transportation (LIST)

Call Description
The Committee on Library and Information Science for Transportation invites you to submit proposals for a poster session on "Innovative Applications of Social Media and Web 2.0 Technologies in Transportation Research and Communication” at the TRB Annual Meeting in January 2010.

Background
Carrying forward a theme begun with LIST’s 2006 presentation session on wikis, blogs, RSS and podcasting, and continued in 2007 and 2008 with LIST sessions on the application of social media technologies, the committee is issuing a call for posters related to Social Media and Web 2.0 technologies for the TRB Annual meeting in January 2010. The goal of this poster session is to complement programs being developed by other TRB committees exploring practical uses and limitations of these technologies

Definitions
“Social Media” is defined as both the online content created by people using scalable self-publishing tools and technologies, and the shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and other content; it's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (static one-to-many communication) into dialogues (dynamic many-to-many communication), and in the process democratizing information.

“Web 2.0" refers to the second generation of Web development and design trends, characterized by innovative online technologies that facilitate communication, collaborative information sharing, interoperability, and user-centered design via new Web applications. The trend has sparked a rapid evolution of web-based communities and hosted applications (all examples of “cloud computing”), including social-networking sites, virtual reality worlds, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and content mashups.

Description
The poster session will focus on applications that utilize Social Media or Web 2.0 elements to improve access to transportation research, or which facilitate communication in the transportation sector in new ways. Posters can showcase successful efforts, programs or initiatives by individuals or agencies. The poster session will highlight methods, tools, and programs that TRB attendees can consider to improve the ways in which transportation research and information is communicated and shared in their organizations and with other stakeholders. The audience for this session is all transportation stakeholders: state DOT practitioners and decision makers, universities, consultants and others interested in recent advances in the delivery of information services to save time and money, and improve quality of transportation research. Please review TRB's guidelines for poster presenters at http://www.trb.org/Guidelines/PosterPresenters.pdf .
(Note: A paper is not required for this session, an exception being extended for this call by TRB). Files and information from the poster session will be posted on the LIST committee Web site (http://sites.google.com/site/trblist).

About LIST
The Library and Information Science for Transportation Committee (ABG40) serves as a forum for transportation librarians and the transportation research community on developments in information science and their applicability to transportation. The committee facilitates diffusion of national library and information science innovations throughout the transportation community by monitoring the use of new resources and tools in the transportation arena, defining critical research and training issues relating to their implementation, and promoting the benefits of these capabilities.

Call Organizer
Jennifer.Boteler (Jennifer.Boteler.CTR@dot.gov), (202) 493-3071

We will accept poster proposal ideas submitted by or on behalf of government or education agencies. Please submit an abstract with enough detail to review your proposal to review committee chair Jennifer Boteler (Jennifer.Boteler.CTR@dot.gov)

We will convene a working group of reviewers to judge submissions and notify those selected in late September. We require an abstract for each poster selected, which can be submitted by following the link below. Those selected must present in person at TRB, however, partnering with colleagues is strongly encouraged.

Submit your poster proposals no later than Friday, September 11, 2009 by going here .

Applied technology in Boston

This story has been sent from our special correspondent, committee member John Stevens. It tells how Boston is using mobile technology (GPS and cameras in cell phones) to report problems to city government.

T2 – A Guide to Current and Emerging Technology

The discussion at our midyear meeting inspired new member, John Stevens, to think about how we can use new media for technology transfer. Be sure to read his thoughts and reflections about each technology.

Blogs

A blog (a contraction of the term "weblog") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. [such as Twitter]

Personal Opinion
Blogs are great for spreading ideas about a specific subject and beginning a discussion. Ideas can be put forward and the ability to leave comments allows other people to find flaws in arguments or connect other ideas. Blogs are often public forums, though they can be restricted to a specific set of individuals.

Blogs can be useful to organizations internally to let staff know of changes in direction, the status of projects or to bestow recognition for a job well done.
Blogs can also be great for letting the public know about what things are happening within an organization and allow for public comment.

Wikis

A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or aWYSIWYG text editor, within the browser. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems

Personal Opinion
As stated above Wikis are great for collaborative projects, where multiple people can access documents and make changes or add comments.

RSS

RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. [Look to the right of this posting to sign up for an RSS feed from this blog.]

Personal Opinion
RSS feeds are wonderful for people who want to keep up with a lot of continuously changing websites, like newspapers or blogs. Usually only a headline is displayed and if the headline looks interesting then clicking on the headline will open the full article.

The other great thing about RSS programs is that usually they will know when you have already looked at an article and it will not appear next time you open the program, even if you are using a different machine.

Podcasts

A podcast is a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is released periodically and made available for download. by means of web syndication.
The syndication aspect of the delivery is what differentiates podcasts from other ways of accessing files, such as simple download or streaming: it means that special client software applications known as podcatchers (such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes or Nullsoft's Winamp) can automatically identify and retrieve new files in a given series when they are made available, by accessing a centrally-maintained web feed that lists all files currently associated with that particular series. New files can thus be downloaded automatically by the podcatcher and stored locally on the user's computer or other device for offline use, making it simpler for the user to download content that is released episodically.

Like the term broadcast, podcast can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which the content is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. A podcaster is the person who creates the content.

The term is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast", the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which early podcasting scripts were developed (see history of podcasting), allowing podcasts to be automatically transferred from a personal computer to a mobile device after download. Despite the source of the name, it has never been necessary to use an iPod, or any other form of portable media player, to use podcasts; the content can be accessed using any computer capable of playing media files. As more mobile devices other than iPods became able to synchronize with podcast feeds, a backronym developed where podcast stood for "Personal On Demand broadCAST."

Personal Opinion
Podcasts are very much like blogs, in that they contain content that is continually being updated. As stated above most podcasts are audio or video files and can be carried on portable devices like iPods, or other MP3 players.

My favorite place to get podcasts is iTunesU which has recordings of university lectures and other similar programs from around the world available for free.

Social Networks

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people.

While it could be said that email and websites have most of the essential elements of social network services, the idea of proprietary encapsulated services has gained popular uptake recently.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook widely used worldwide; MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America.

• Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

• Facebook is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. The website currently has more than 200 million active users worldwide. It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using the service. Users over the age of 40 are the fastest growing demographic joining Facebook.

• LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of May 2009, it had more than 40 million registered users, spanning 170 industries.

Personal Opinion
The different social network sites are good for different things; I once read an article the compared LinkIn to talking after a business meeting, Facebook to a cocktail party and MySpace to an all night rave. So depending on the reason for using social networking sites should, in part, determine how you present yourself.

The T2 committee has a page on both LinkedIn and Facebook.

Twitter has been getting a lot of press lately. I have tried to figure out how best to utilize it for something worthwhile. Twitters primary use is that responses are returned in real time. Because of that fact I think that the best use of Twitter would be to ask a direct question to a large group of professionals with expertise in that area. This could be used as a more targeted form of “crowd sourcing” or using technology to quickly receive the wisdom of the crowd to any given problem.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging (IM) is a collection of technologies that create the possibility of real-time text-based communication between two or more participants over the internet or some form of internal network/intranet. It is important to understand that what separates chat and instant messaging from technologies such as e-mail is the perceived synchronicity of the communication by the user - Chat happens in real-time. Some systems allow the sending of messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between Instant Messaging and e-mail.

IM allows effective and efficient communication, featuring immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. In certain cases Instant Messaging involves additional features, which make it even more popular, i.e. to see the other party, e.g. by using web-cams, or to talk directly for free over the Internet.

It is possible to save a conversation for later reference. Instant messages are typically logged in a local message history which closes the gap to the persistent nature of e-mails and facilitates quick exchange of information like URLs or document snippets (which can be unwieldy when communicated via telephone).

Google Wave

Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009. It is a web based service and computing platform designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wiki, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages, and numerous other extensions. It is expected to be released later in 2009.

YouTube

YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos

Flickr

Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository.[2] As of June 2009, it claims to host more than 3.6 billion images[3], up from 3 billion in November of 2008

Geotagging

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, orRSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names.

Most, if not all of these services are becoming prevalent on mobile devices like iPods and cell phones. What this means is that the opportunity to share information can happen anywhere and anytime. This ability could help or hinder anything from public involvement to data collection. By knowing about these services we should be able to promote better organizational policy to show people what we do, why we do it and if appropriate invite them to participate.

Meet new member - John Stevens

John Stevens is a transportation planner at Wilbur Smith Associates. John recently graduated from the University of Utah with a Masters of City and Metropolitan Planning, with an emphasis in demographics and transportation planning. Prior to entering the planning field John worked a few years as a field archaeologist in the Great Basin with a small consulting company. John holds a BS in Anthropology and History.
John’s professional goal is to become involved with implementing effective policy dealing with the integration of transportation economics and land use in developing nations that fits with the cultural context of the area.

As to technology transfer and the committee, I want to more effectively utilize existing and emerging delivery systems to disseminate knowledge of and about transportation, transportation systems, and their effect on populations.