New Gmail features: Quick access to contact details, improved autocomplete and Google+ circle integrations

Here's the latest updates from the Google Apps community  - http://bit.ly/JSL1kJ

The following new features are now available to Google Apps domains:
- Quick access to contact details: When searching for an email address, the results will now show you contact details in addition to that person's profile photo and the emails sent from and to them. From here, you can start a chat, call their phone and more. Plus, if your contacts have a Google+ profile, this information will stay up to date automatically.
- More circle integration and circle search: Users on Google Plus will also now see profile photos of people in their selected circle and circles are now supported in search and filters.
- Improved autocomplete predictions based on the content in your email.

The Latest Scheduled Google Apps Updates

Posted: 15 May 2012 08:00 PM PDT

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:

- Sites: Keyboard shortcuts in Sites editor
- Docs: Migration of documents to the newer documents editor
- Drive: The rollout of the “opt-in” phase of Google Drive to scheduled track domains. The “opt-in” phase consists of the following:

• Users can visit drive.google.com where they can opt-in to Drive. 
• As part of opting in, they will be shown an interstitial which includes this video. 
• If an opted in user visits docs.google.com, the user will be redirected to drive.google.com. 
• The “Documents” navigation item will change to “Drive.” 

The following features are intended for release to these domains on May 22nd:

- Docs: Comments and discussions available to Government domains.
- Gmail: Graduation of three labs: Message translation, Smart Mute and Title Tweaks.

More on the New Email Archiving for Google Apps.

Google Apps Vault Brings Information Governance to Google Apps

Here's insightful information about the new Email archiving for Google Apps:

@Greg, @patto @Dean & @Argon0 - Google Apps Vault is a completely new archiving solution, built from the ground up and working natively with Apps. While there is some overlap with Postini/GMD functionality as they both archive email for the purposes of retention and eDiscovery, there are key differences including:

1) Google Apps Vault is built natively in Google Apps and provides a true manage-in-place capability

2) Vault can archive on-the-record chat messages

3) Vault plans to support additional data types in the future (stay tuned for more information). GMD only supports email.

4) There is no time limit on retention. GMD has a maximum retention period of 10 years 

5) Easy set-up through the Apps CPanel. GMD has a separate, non-integrated user interface

6) Vault supports archiving email and on-the-record chat messages in all languages that Google Apps supports. GMD does not support as many languages, particularly double-byte languages. 

7) Vault can leverage existing migration tools for Gmail which gives customers more flexibility and can lower costs.

8) Vault can be deployed “on-demand” and immediately begin applying information governance policies to the data that exists in your domain’s Gmail inboxes (legacy and newly created data). GMD starts capturing messages from the time that it is deployed and requires Historic Message Journaling to load historical email into the GMD archive.

@ el Baker - We are working to enable EDUs to purchase Google Apps Vault and expect to have it soon. Stay tuned...

@T Mullenaux - Currently, Google Apps Vault can only be used together with Google Apps.

New Google Apps Control Panel Dashboard UI

New Google Apps Control Panel Dashboard UI

Released on 4/30/2012

Beginning Monday, April 30th, a new Control Panel Dashboard user interface will start to roll out over the next 2-3 weeks.

The new design simplifies the Dashboard layout and brings commonly used actions and setup tasks to the main page.

Google Apps for Education and Government customers will receive this update around late-May to early-June 2012.

Release track:
Rapid & Scheduled

Editions included:
Google Apps and Google Apps for Business

Languages included:
US English only (Next Generation release only) 

For more info - http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-google-apps-control-panel-dashboard.html

New Gmail Features!

New Gmail features: YouTube video + image sharing, People widget, Adding people to Google Plus

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 04:30 PM PDT

Users on Google Plus will now see the following new features:
- Share YouTube videos and inline images in Gmail messages with one-click
- Add Google Plus users to circles directly from Gmail messages

Additionally, there is a new People Widget in the upper-right hand corner which will show the last three images a contact has sent. Clicking on the image will take you to that particular Gmail message.

Major Game Changer - eDiscovery for the SMB community!

 Google Apps Vault Brings Information Governance to Google Apps

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Posted by Jack Halprin, Head of eDiscovery, Google

Today we’re announcing the availability of Google Apps Vault (Vault) for Google Apps for Business customers. Vault is an easy-to-use and cost-effective solution for managing information critical to your business and preserving important data. It can reduce the costs of litigation, regulatory investigation and compliance actions. Businesses of all sizes need to be prepared for the unexpected. In today’s environment, using Vault to manage, archive and preserve your data can help protect your business. Litigation costs can really take a toll on a business when minor lawsuits can run up to many thousands of dollars, and larger lawsuits can cost even more. Significant litigation costs come from having to search and find relevant data, which is also known as electronic discovery (eDiscovery).
E-discovery can be part of virtually any litigation and requires you to search, find and preserve your electronic information such as email. Vault helps protect your business with easy-to-use search so you can quickly find and preserve data to respond to unexpected customer claims, lawsuits or investigations. With an instant-on functionality and availability of your data a few clicks away, Vault provides access to all of your Gmail and on-the-record chats and can provide significant savings to your business over the traditional costs of litigation and eDiscovery.



Additionally, Vault gives Google Apps customers the extended management and information governance capabilities to proactively archive, retain and preserve Gmail and on-the-record chats. With the ability to search and manage data based on terms, dates, senders, recipients and labels, Vault helps you find the information you need, when you need it. Vault gives management, IT, legal and compliance users a systemized, repeatable and defensible platform that will reduce the costs and risks of doing business. With just a few clicks, the business can access a service designed for security and providing auditable access to critical information.
Vault is built on the same modern, 100% web-based architecture as Google Apps. Unlike traditional solutions, it does not require a complex and costly IT environment, and can be deployed in a matter of minutes. Vault brings the security, ease-of-use and reliability of Google Apps to information governance. It can help meet the sophisticated requirements of large organizations and makes these advanced capabilities available to business of all sizes.
Google Apps Vault can be added to your Google Apps account for an additional $5 per user per month starting today, so contact our sales team or a Google Apps reseller if you are interested in signing up for Google Apps and Vault.
We hope that Vault, together with Google Apps, will make a difference to your business and provide the right solution to reducing risk and cost so you can focus on growing your business.

Merge cells vertically in Google spreadsheets

There are many times when you want to format your spreadsheets in a certain way to make your data easier to read and understand. Starting today, we’ve extended the merge functionality to let you create vertical merges across several rows of data.

In the spirit of the NFL season, let’s say you want to host a football tournament for your friends. To make it easier for them to cast their votes on the winning team, you organize the NFL teams by conference and division in a Google spreadsheet. Using vertical merges, you can assign headers to sets of rows. Simply select the set of cells you’d like to merge, then click on the down arrow next to the merge icon, and select Merge vertically.


In the NFL spreadsheet, you’ll see that some of the team names don’t fit on one line in the width of the cells of Column C.

To improve the formatting, select the cells across all the rows of teams in the AFC (rows 2-17) and 2 columns (C and D) and click Merge horizontally. You’ll have 16 merged cells that span 2 columns for better formatting.


After applying vertical merges to all of the conference and division headers and horizontal merges across the team names in each conference, you’re ready to share with your friends for the tournament!


To undo a merge action, select a merged cell and click Unmerge in the drop-down menu.

New look for Google Docs and Sites now rolling out

New look for Google Docs and Sites now rolling out


Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:58 PM PDT



Previously available as an opt-in option, the new look for Google Docs and Sites is now rolling out to all rapid release domains. You’ll see clean menus and toolbars, prominent action buttons, and colorful presence that pops when you’re editing with others.



Some of the changes:

- We made it clearer that your document is always saved, by showing “Saving...” right after you make a change and then “All changes saved” once it’s fully saved.

- We added an icon to the Share button so you can tell if your document is shared at a glance.

- If you’re looking for options that were previously under the Share button (e.g. “Email as attachment...”), you can now find these in the File menu.

- By default, the documents list automatically fits a comfortable number of documents on your screen (large desktop monitors show more, smaller laptop screens show fewer). We also added density options to give you more control.



If you’re not quite ready for the new look, choose Help > Use the classic look (or in the gear menu, for some products). We’ll support the classic look for at least a few more weeks, but encourage you to use the new look.



Release track:

Rapid*



Editions included:

Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education



Languages included:

All languages supported by Google Docs and Sites

Here's the latest from Google Apps

Google Apps News April 2010 New customers join the cloud revolution, plus Google launches Google Apps Marketplace: Newcomers to Google Apps: • Simple ways to get more out of Google Apps: The Mind Research Network taps Google’s online documents, video, and archiving and encryption for 200+ research scientists and staff (Free webcast). • An advanced infrastructure, lower costs in two months:City of Orlando becomes one of the first cities in America to switch to Gmail (Free webcast). • No fooling around: On April 1, the same day Google re-named itself Topeka, the State Library of Kansas in Topeka got serious with a move to Google Apps. Google Apps + third-party cloud applications = big win! • New! Google unveils the Google Apps Marketplace, a new online storefront that enables Google Apps administrators to discover and purchase integrated third-party cloud applications and deploy them in their domains. • New! Hot on the heels of the Google Apps Marketplace release, Google announced a new Marketplace YouTube channel showcasing videos from Marketplace vendors. Get timely customer news and product updates delivered to your inbox by signing up at theOfficial Enterprise Blog. All the best from Google, and stay tuned!

Ever wonder about analytic on your Facebook page. - No More!

Here's a great John Haydon post detailing Facebook Insights.

http://johnhaydon.com/2010/04/facebook-page-insights-measure-engagement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Corporatedollarorg-ExceedYourOn-lineFundraisingGoalsWithSocialMediaMarketing+(John+Haydon+|+Social+media+inbound+marketing+for+non-profits+and+small+businesses)

Email summary of Google Spreadsheet forms results - Automatic. Strengthens the case to Go Google!!

Ability to now receive a summary email of form responses in Google Spreadsheets Posted: 12 Apr 2010 05:40 AM PDT If your username is being collected when you submit to a form created in Google Spreadsheets, you now have a new option to also receive an email summary of your responses for your reference. Editions included: Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions Languages included: All languages supported by Google Spreadsheets How to access what's new: At the bottom of a Spreadsheets form when the username is being collected, enable/disable the checkbox 'Send me a copy of my responses' to receive the summary email.

Phybridge Uniphyer Customer's 1st year anniversary! = 0 Complaints and very pleased.

Happy 1st Anniversary to IPC Financial Services "We deployed IP phones using the UniPhyer over a year ago and have not had a single service complaint or quality issue since."                                            Reggie Alvares, VP of Operations, IPC                                                                                          Congratulations to IPC Financial on zero dropped calls since deploying IP Telephony over 365 days ago using the UniPhyer! Installing the Phybridge UniPhyer is a piece of cake!

Very power Social Media information for Non-Profits

Social media 101 for small nonprofits Posted: 05 Apr 2010 10:45 AM PDT   Upcoming tool will help small nonprofits improve their social media savvy Should small nonprofits wade into the sometimes daunting terrain of social media? Increasingly, the answer is: Yes, because that’s where their members and supporters are, and social media the most effective way to reach them. Last year TechSoup Global won a grant fromKellogg Action Lab/Fieldstone Alliance with an impressive goal: to create a tool that helps nonprofits assess their current social media capabilities and to connect them with resources to get them started down the right track. TechSoup Global hired Socialbrite to manage the project and build the tool, and our team spent weeks interviewing the top executives of 50 mostly small nonprofits: CARES Foundation, Down Syndrome Network, Net Literacy, Legal Community Against Violence, National Autism Association and dozens of others. We found that these nonprofits — often run on a shoestring budget with a bare-bones staff — are well aware that major changes are taking place in the media and communications landscape. Often they seem to feel baffled by the disruptions. Many wonder whether they have the resources to effectively use social media, given the resources and time commitment required inside organizations where everyone does everything — and then some. “There hasn’t been a lot of data that justifies putting labor into this. How sure are we that social networking is worth prioritizing?” one foundation’s communications director asked me. Still, the vast majority of nonprofits said they were eager to learn and to push forward internally with modest social media programs. While the survey results are confidential, I can tell you that we’re working with TechSoup Global to put the finishing touches on a Social Media Literacy Tool that will be available to the public starting in May. (The tool is geared to nonprofits but can be used by anyone.) How social media will benefit your nonprofit When I discuss the need to embrace social media with nonprofit leaders, the reasons usually fall into these buckets: (1) Social media has altered the balance of power The same tectonic shifts that have disrupted other spheres of society — the public’s interactions with brands, with media, with government — are starting to affect other sectors as well, including the nonprofit community. The smartest reaction would be to identify key learnings from watching the other sectors and then adapt and apply those takeaways to your own. People no longer want their only interactions with a favorite cause or nonprofit to be restricted to their credit cards — they want to participate (at least some of them do) at all levels of your core mission, from communicating with members of your team to communicating with each other to helping you raise money or connect with community resources. It’s likely that there are rich conversations taking place online about your nonprofit or your cause. You should be a part of those conversations. (2) You can copy what has worked elsewhere The real-world results are in: There are now tons of case studies proving that social media has moved the needle in a positive direction for organizations — nonprofits and businesses alike — that know how to how to create a social media action plan, which begins with a strategy and then an implementation of the proper tactics. I’ll refrain from citing Twestival, which every “social media expert” on the Web cites, and instead point to efforts like: • Awareness campaigns (PDF) by PBS KIDS and War Child Canada • charity: water’s September birthday campaign • CouchSurfing International’s efforts to forge connections across borders • Invisible Children’s Visible Children Scholarship Program • epic change’s Tweetsgiving program • The American Cancer Society’s More Birthdays program The nonprofit Society for New Communications Research — of which I’m a senior fellow — honors nonprofits, universities, media organizations and businesses with annual awards in categories like communities, collaboration, social media production and more. Head over to our sister site, Socialmedia.biz, to read some great case studies. (3) Your nonprofit has a compelling (untold) story In every conversation I had with nonprofits, it emerged that their organization or cause had a heart-tugging, compelling story that wasn’t being effectively captured or conveyed on their website. Social media’s strongest component is its ability to give supporters an easy way to create and share stories about the things that matter to them most. Whether it’s using Twitter to spread the word about your latest campaign or using a Flip cam to interview people who are being directly helped by nonprofit, social media expands the range of possibilities in a dynamic, conversation-driven, low-cost way. (4) Your staff’s internal dynamics will thrive Time after time we’ve heard from nonprofits about how a strong social media effort not only improves the connections between your organization and its supporters but also strengthens the fabric that binds your staffers together. When employees are empowered to interact with the community, their stake in your organization rises immeasurably. When employees use new tools to communicate with each other more effectively, they get more accomplished and form deeper ties as a team. And when your nonprofit begins each day by listening to and talking with your community, deeper understanding follows. Everyone is after the holy grail of return on investment (ROI). The top ROI of using social media for your nonprofit? Insight. Related articles by Zemanta Understanding The Roi Of Social Media (slideshare.net) What’s the real value of social media for communicators? (willmarlow.com) What nonprofits need to know about social media (smartblogs.com) Streamline Your Nonprofit on Twitter (ricksrss.com) JD Lasica works with nonprofits, social change organizations and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

Google Apps for Non-Profits Newsletter

Google for Non-Profits Newsletter - March, 2010
We hope you enjoy this month's update from the Google for Non-Profits team. A reminder that you can find and search all of the old newsletters and other emails sent to this list at the Google group site. Also, please be sure to join the googlefornonprofits-discuss group. This group offers an email forum for members to ask and answer questions about Google tools for non-profits.

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YouTube Nonprofit Video Awards

Google Apps highlights

Improve your AdWords account structure

AdWords for mobile

Increase your AdWords conversions

The Google AdWords Online Classroom

New Blogger Template Designer
Google Apps Marketplace

Today's vowel outage

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YouTube Nonprofit Video Awards - The YouTube Nonprofit Video Awards received 750 submissions and judges have selected 16 finalists.  The winner will be announced at NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference later this month and will receive a $10,000 award.  A public vote will determine who wins and is taking place now through April 7th. Visit this site and click on the "vote" button at the top to watch the finalist's videos and cast your vote.

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Google Apps highlights - A recent edition in this great series highlights calendar labs, security enhancements, conversion tips for organization moving from Microsoft Exchange, and testimonials from organizations that have "gone Google".

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Improve your AdWords account structure - A few simple steps to structure your Google Grants account can save you lots of time down the line and help you to effectively target the right demographics for your ads.  The video in this blog post tells you how.

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AdWords for Mobile - Want to access your Google Grants account from anywhere? Remembered a change to your ad campaign that you forgot to make before leaving work? With the recent launch of AdWords for mobile, you can now have access to all of your Google Grants account information from anywhere, on your smart phone.  This feature is being rolled out over the next few weeks, but you can try it now by clicking here from any Android, iPhone or Palm Pre.

 

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Increase your AdWords Conversions - Google's Conversion Room Blog recently featured a post with five short videos explaining in simple terms how to get more from your AdWords account through better organization, controlling costs, understanding keywords, better ad text and measuring success. Click the link above to learn more and watch the videos.

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The Google AdWords Online Classroom - Whether you are a brand new Google Grants recipient and unsure where to begin, or a power user looking to expand your abilities, the AdWords Online Classroom has lots of free, on-demand tutorials to take you from the basics of setting up your account through using Google Analytics to improve your AdWords ROI.

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New Blogger Template Designer - Blogger template designer gives you 15 professional templates (with more on the way) to start a new blog for your organization or redesign an existing one.  There are also hundreds of professional background images from iStockphoto, customizable fonts, colors and layouts with one, two or three columns. Template Designer makes it even quicker and easier to get up and running with a professional, customized blog for your organization. 

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Google Apps Marketplace - The Google Apps Marketplace allows users to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps.  Once installed, these applications work like native Google applications and with administrator approval can interact with calendar, email, documents and contact data to increase productivity.  From accounting to project management to travel planning to human resources management, these applications are sure to increase productivity and lessen frustrations for users and IT administrators by expanding what can be done using Google Apps, eliminating the need for software updates, multiple passwords and manual syncing.

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Today's Vowel Outage - Google has received recent reports that the Gmail service is experiencing a vowel outage today, April 1.  Please accept our sincere apologies and know that our engineers are hard at work to rectify the issue.

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That's it for this month's newsletter. As always, please send any suggestions for the newsletter or Google for Non-Profits site our way.

Have a great rest of the week!

KLM Airlines moves over 11K employees to Google Apps!!

Google Apps News March 2010 Both customers and IT partners are converging around Google Apps to transform the way they do business. New customers to Google Apps: • From the clouds to the cloud: Find out why KLM Royal Dutch Airlines moved 11,200 crew members into the cloud. • From scarcity to abundance: Sports Basement stops inbox rationing and quota limits and gives everyone access to rich communication and collaboration tools (Free webcast). Google Apps moves forward: • New! Google joins the Cloud Security Alliance, a non-profit focused on best practices and education around the security of cloud computing. • New! The Google Apps team goes to America’s Small Business Summit to answer questions from small businesses. • New! The Google Apps Authorized Reseller Programturns a year old. Get timely customer news and product updates delivered to your inbox by signing up at theOfficial Enterprise Blog. All the best from Google, and stay tuned!

Using Facebook and need more donations? - Take John Haydon's advice.

Socialbrite

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How do I get my nonprofit’s Facebook fans to donate? Posted: 02 Mar 2010 11:01 AM PST Getting an army of Facebook fans for your nonprofit is not an easy feat. It takes lots of planning, hard work, and time. But just because you have a lot of Facebook fans doesn’t mean that you’re any closer to meeting your fundraising goals. Especially if you’re unknowingly creating barriers. When potential donors go to your donation page, is it immediately clear how they can donate and what amount they can donate? Do they have to search around your site? How many mouse clicks does an entire transaction require? 7 things to keep in mind Show Them Impact – One thing that worked very well during the Tweetsgiving campaign was showing people what their donations would buy. It created a direct line of site between donation and impact. Make It Fun – Red Nose Day is a huge hit in the UK, precisely because it’s so much fun! Think of creative ways to make sharing fun for your fans. Make The Dollar Amount Specific – The ever-present “donate now” button with no recommended dollar amounts, gets far less results than an ask with a specific dollar amount. Make It Easy To Share – The moment a person donates is the best time to ask them to share that action with others. Applications like Giving Impact and givezooks do this really well with their social fundraising apps. Target The Ask – Similar to most email marketing services, Facebook allows you to target your messages to a specific subset in your fanbase. You can slice by location, gender and age. Measure The Ask – Measure traffic, clicks, average donation amounts and number of donations. With enough data, you’ll be able to refine your approach over time. Also, Facebook provides great analytics for their Facebook Pages. Keep It Simple – Frank Barry wrote an excellent guest post on optimized social fundraising. Go back and check it out. One last thought. Don’t be discouraged if your first attempts to spur fans to act don’t get the results you expect. It takes time to build an active community. What’s been working for your org?

Phybridge joins forces with Cisco = The Uniphyer Rocks!

Phybridge Inc. Joins the Cisco Developer Network and Completes Cisco Interoperability Verification Testing Mississauga, Ontario - March 26, 2010 - Phybridge Inc. announced that it has joined the Cisco Developer Network as a Registered Developer within the Unified Communications technology category. In addition, Phybridge's UniPhyer has successfully completed interoperability testing with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, 7.1. The Cisco Developer Network unites Cisco with third-party developers of hardware and software to deliver tested interoperable solutions to joint customers.  Members of the program share Cisco's strong commitment to customer service and satisfaction and are required to undergo interoperability testing based on criteria set forth by Cisco.  With offerings such as the Phybridge UniPhyer, customers can more quickly deploy a broad range of Cisco Compatible business applications, devices, or services that can enhance the capabilities, performance, and management of their Cisco network. Phybridge Inc.: Phybridge's mission is to bring practical innovations to market that provides customers and partners an easier way to deploy and manage their VoIP installs resulting in reduced total cost of ownership and enhanced return on investment.  The award winning Phybridge UniPhyer allows for an optimized converged voice and data network; enabling the deployment of IP Telephony to be quick and easy with no network or business disruptions. This patent pending solution leverages existing telephony infrastructure to provide Ethernet, PoE and Quality of Service over a single pair with reach of over 1,200 feet. Complementing the existing data network, the UniPhyer allows customers to centrally converge with the data network while having a separate physical path for voice; reducing deployment and day two management complexities.  With a UniPhyer infrastructure customers can realize the benefits of Cisco Unified Communications Managers and Cisco IP phones with no compromise.  Sectors such as education, healthcare, hospitality and government greatly benefit.  Phybridge is looking forward to teaming with Cisco to bring their customers to the future of communications with much of the focus being on implementing the productivity enhancing Cisco applications ensuring a reliable converged network that handles both voice and data.  * Interoperability testing is designed to simulate typical customer configurations, and does not replace the need for on-site testing in conjunction with actual implementation. For more information and to learn about the 14 compelling benefits of deploying IP Telephony wit the UniPyer, please visit http://www.phybridge.com/uniphyerbenefits.aspx

Google Apps for Educators Webinar recording.

In case you'd like to share the information presented during the webinar with others, or watch again yourself, please make use of the following resources:
• Recorded video
• Published slide presentation
• Q&A Transcript
• Maine Township case study

If you would like more information about Google Apps Education Edition, please visit our website atwww.google.com/apps/schools. You can also access and review previous webinars in our Google Apps Education Resource center

If you have more questions about Maine Township's use of Google Apps, you can contact the Dr. Hank Thiele from Maine Township High School District: HThiele@Maine207.org 

Exchange Migrations to Google Apps have been enhanced.

Migrating from Microsoft Exchange now even easier with new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 03:28 AM PDT

The new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool simplifies migration of email, calendar and contacts from both hosted and on-premise Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. With this tool, admins can:

- Do multiple migrations in parallel.
- Centrally manage migration without end user involvement.
- Selectively migrate email, calendar or contacts (or any combination thereof).
- Migrate from Microsoft Exchange 2003 or 2007.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
- Download page
- In the administrator control panel, in 'Advanced Tools', enable the checkbox 'Allow users to upload mail using the Email Migration API'.
- Enable two-legged OAUTH, as outlined here.

An extraordinary way to build community - Thanks SocialBrite!

Tap into the collective power of your community

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 10:30 AM PDT

The Extraordinaries lets your organization create a crowdsourced ‘mission’

By Kim Bale
Recruiting friends and supporters to get real work done virtually on behalf of social-good projects is easy and fun with the help of The Extraordinaries. Based in San Francisco, the company has created a platform allowing anyone to create a micro-task and blast it to their community of friends and supporters to generate real, usable output when they spend a few minutes of their spare time on an iPhone or computer.
You can download the iPhone app at BeExtra.org and check out a wide array of simple tasks you can help with. Missions featured today on the Beextra home page include:

• Build a collection of cute dog photos for GoodDogz.org.
• Help build a searchable photo archive for the Smithsonian Institution (yes, thatSmithsonian).
• Create a list of job resources for youths on behalf of Goodwill.
• Rate tweets from the SXSW conference.

The tools The Extraordinaries have created are available to nonprofits, for-profits, politicos, evangelists and passionate people alike. For example, Citizens Market, a company tracking corporate behavior, is using The Extraordinaries to research and rate company behavior. To map children’s recreational spaces,KaBOOM! is asking people to mark the GPS location of a playground, rate it up or down and snap a photo, such as the one at top.
Anyone can create a mission and harness the power of the crowd to achieve results while engaging and interacting with the broader community — the Extraordinaries has 29,000 registered users, more than 250 missions and 240,000 micro-tasks completed. The team vetts all apps submitted to the site.

Ways for nonprofits to use The Extraordinaries

How can you use The Extraordinaries?
1. Identify your needs. Many tasks, particularly administrative duties, are ripe for crowdsourcing. The Extraordinaries breaks these tasks into small bits of work with the potential for a big impact. Where could you use a few hundred extra hands? First identify your needs, then see how The Extraordinaries community can help meet them.

Use the community to organize your photo archive by adding descriptive tags, making it searchable and easy to navigate.

2. Create a mission. The Extraordinaries has created a few standard templates, making it easy to create a micro-task, or “mission,” and the list continues to grow.
• Build a map. Whether your organization is creating a map of playgrounds across the country or you just want to locate community gardens, this mission will allow your friends and supporters to help you build the map.
• Collect photos. Let the general population help you build a photo library with this mission. Users take and upload photos, which can then be rated, creating a ranked stock library for you to use.
• Tag and catalog photos. Organize your photo archive with the help of The Extraordinaries. Friends and supporters can add descriptive tags to your digital library, making it searchable and easy to navigate.
• Research a topic or issue. Need research on grants available to your organization, or information on businesses not engaging in sustainable practices? Let your community help do the research and generate usable data.
3. Complete your profile. Just like any social site, The Extraordinaries asks that you complete a profile for your organization. Upload a logo that is simple and recognizable, along with a brief description of who you are, what you do and why you’re asking for help. These are largely read on mobile phones, so brevity is key.
4. Engage your community. Let your friends and supporters know they can do real work for you via their iPhone or computer. Encourage them to download the iPhone app or complete your mission via the Web. The Extraordinaries can provide you with direct links to your mission page and embeddable tools for your website. When people complete your mission, they’ll have the opportunity to tweet about it and share it via Facebook or email, increasing your exposure and missions completed.
At South by Southwest Interactive on Friday, a TechSoup representative cited the Extraordinaries’ efforts to bring a new dimension to relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti. The site collected 8,137 news photos and volunteers submitted 76,584 image tags, resulting in 746 possible matches and 24 matches good enough to contact family members.
Clearly, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the service’s possible uses in the years ahead.
The app is not yet available on other platforms.
How would you use The Extraordinaries? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Kim Bale, a former staffer at the Extraordinaries, is interested in exploring how nonprofits can use technology for social good.

Related

• The Extraordinaries: Building the ‘micro-volunteering’ movement (Socialbrite)
• New ways to take social actions (Socialbrite)
• Harnessing the crowd for social good (Socialbrite)