We've just set up a couple of Twitter accounts for the University, one for news, and the other for internal announcements from myLearning Essentials and the intranet:
University News - http://twitter.com/newportuni
Internal News and Announcements - http://twitter.com/newport_mlenews
Both these take news from existing sources, the first from the front page of the University web site, and the other from the Intranet news, so it's not a new place you need to look, just a convenient way of getting noticed when news is updated if you happen to be a Twitter user.
No idea what Twitter is? It's a service that lets people communicate via short messages (or Tweets). It's sometimes known as Microblogging. The great thing about it is that there a whole range of ways to make and receive Tweets, including from the web, mobile phone, SMS, and desktop application (my preference). The way it works it that Twitter users 'follow' people or accounts (sounds a bit dodgy!), which means they receive that person or accounts Tweets.
This article from the Guardian is worth reading if you want to find out more: Making the most of Twitter .
I'm not expecting this to be a particular mainstream service, but it took very little effort to set up, and will hopefully be useful to a few people.
Here are some more University Twitter sites:
http://twitter.com/ManMetUni
http://twitter.com/KeeleUniversity
http://twitter.com/AstonUniversity
http://twitter.com/OpenUniversity
http://twitter.com/CoventryUni
http://twitter.com/CardiffUni
Not sure why it took me so long, but I've finally bought an iPhone!
In a previous post I noted how difficult I was finding it have work and fun mixed on one device (that was an iPod touch). I was very grateful for a comment from Kevin from Glamorgan who told me had the same issue, and had bought an iPhone for home and Blackberry for work. Suitably reassured I've gone down the same route, iPhone for non-work things, and I'll stick with my Windows Mobile HTC for work.
So initial thoughts? There are two aspects of the iPhone that I think are absolutely fantastic - the App Store, and the GPS/App/Flickr integration.
The App Store works like this. Anyone can buy the SDK for about £100 and start writing apps for it. The author submits it to Apple, who check it, and then add it to the store. Apple keep some of the money, and the author/developers get some. Applications are typically sold for small amounts of money (eg 59p for 'Shopping List', £5.99 for Super Monkey Ball). The great thing is, small developers can now compete on a completely level playing field with big companies, and actually have some chance of a revenue stream. It almost reminds me of the first days of computing, with the ZX Spectrum cottage industry. The big criticism is that Apple are acting as gatekeepers, but it really doesn't bother me. As a consumer I'm more than happy to have some quality control, and as a potential developer I've no issue with some sort of third party verification. I'm sure it won't be long before I buy the SDK.
Second thing, GPS/App/Flickr etc. This is just fun really, but it feels like something completely new. The iPhone has GPS, so it knows where you are. So, for example, you can then search Flickr (via a third party apps, some free, some £1.59!) and find pictures taken near you. Great for exploring new areas (you could then use Google Maps to find them). And obviously in true Web 2.0 style, you can take photos with the phone, Geotag them (ie add their location, again via GPS) and upload them to Flickr for other people to find. I know other phones have GPS as well, but it's all so elegant on the iPhone. I'm sure we are going to get more an more Apps that make use of GPS and user generated content.