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Improve Your Web Life: New Sites, New Uses, New You

Fast, accessible solutions to Internet overload

PRICE
$29 ($24 for )

SYNOPSIS
Columbia School of Journalism Dean and TV tech guru Sree Sreenivasan is lazy and cheap and proud of it. He also spends an inordinate amount of time staying on top of the latest sites, tools, and applications on the Web.

In this lecture/demonstration, Sree shows you how to streamline your online life by taking you to sites you don't know and showing you how to use familiar sites in new ways. Most important, he shows you how to manage the onslaught of internet information and email so you can track what you want and disregard the rest.

A detailed, downloadable crib sheet includes links to the best sites for everything from buying electronics and managing documents to free, reliable software for editing photos, video, audio, and more.

Useful for both Internet novices and pros.

DURATION/TIME
10 videos
1 hour, 41 minutes total running time

Speaker

Sree Sreenivasan is a leading technology expert and WNBC-TV's tech reporter. He is also Dean of Student Affairs at Columbia University's journalism school, where he runs the new media program. His tech reports can be seen on Thursday mornings at 6:20 am and Monday evenings at 5:20 on Channel 4. He previously spent six years as WABC's Tech Guru. His work explaining technology has appeared in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Rolling Stone, and Popular Science (where he was a member of the "Geek Chorus"). In March 2004, Newsweek magazine named him one of the 20 most influential South Asians in the nation. More on him at www.sree.net. He also teaches mediabistro.com seminars on digital media (view his seminars).

Table of Contents

Sections Length Size
PREVIEW
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Watch a free preview of Improve Your Web Life: New Sites, New Uses, New You.		 1:53 7 MB
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Crib Sheet (PDF)
Download this outline and use it to take notes. Includes resources and other information.		    
1.

Section 1

Introduction: The Big Picture
We're going to see as many changes in the next 10 years as we've seen in the past 10. The problem is identifying the long-term successes and ignoring the Pets.com debacles.

 9:57 39 MB
2.

Section 2

Firefox
Firefox features, including tabbed browsing, better security, built-in searching, and other add-ons and extensions, make it the browser to beat.

 9:37 38 MB
3.

Section 3

Social Networking Sites
Why you should use social networking sites, web-based communities that facilitate sharing, collaboration, and creativity among users.

 12:02 47 MB
4.

Section 4

Facebook
A closer look at Facebook and why it dominates the field.

Shopping for Electronics
Find recommendations for electronics without having your own personal tech advisor.

 8:29 33 MB
5.

Section 5

Passwords
Firefox has a password manager, but there is also a site that will do it for you.

Online Photo and Video Editing
There are alternatives to expensive programs like Photoshop. Here are a few recommendations for easy, cheap, and fast programs on the Web.

Getting Help
There are websites to help you with everyday challenges like getting an actual human on the phone when you call a business.

Tools to Take Charge of Your Money
People don't just want information from websites—they want to do stuff.

 8:44 34 MB
6.

Section 6

Web 2.0 Tools
What makes a site a Web 2.0 site? It's dynamic and interactive.

Take Charge of Your Health
New ways to find information about your health.

 13:35 54 MB
7.

Section 7

Open Source/Free Software Options
These programs don’t do everything we want, but we don’t want everything.

Yahoo! and Google Alerts
Alerts are a great way to keep up with topics you are interested in.

 8:35 34 MB
8.

Section 8

RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are a way tracking sites without having to return to them.

Three-Letter Words You Need to Know
RSS, CMS, MSM, BAW, and PCA.

Websites and Blogs of Interest
Sree shares a few websites and blogs that he tracks in his RSS reader, and shows how to add them.

Google Docs
Google Docs is a powerful way to minimize unnecessary email traffic by allowing users to collaborate on the same document.

 13:57 55 MB
9.

Section 9

Real Estate, Recipes, and Music
Find sites for researching real estate, recipes, and music.

 8:15 32 MB
10.

Section 10

Final Tips
Final tips: Just log off. Talk to other people to find out what they are looking at and listening to. Trust but verify. Learn languages, find out what the world thinks of the U.S., get directions, and watch Sree on WNBC.

 10:00 39 MB