Hangout Swapshop the idea #hangoutswapshop the hashtag uses Realtime Video

Remember this from 1976-82 ?

Hangout Swapshop is an idea I'm working on following last night's hangout and the six hours I spent Sunday from 8-2am.

#hangoutswapshop asks two things

1, Come with an idea to share and 2, listen to others (without forcing your own talking point till the time is right). That's it..

Last night, we saw +Sarah Hill pop in, ten rejoin an hour later to test some mics ready. Kevin Selle turned up to ask about glass and realtors. Brilliant to +Dolidh Young - it's been too long. 

+Moritz Tolxdorff was there when he shouldn't have been (school night), but the ironing board in the back was fun. But, one guy turned up - thought it was a private hangout and left, I feel bad about that. I was sat there talking code with +Keith Milner .. You all get the idea..

I make no claim this is anything new -- But, as the UK still struggles to find mainstream hangouts, it seems I may have to spend some time face to face with people at Silicon Roundabout (that's where some pretty smart UK people seem to hangout, while claiming not to be hipsters. Point being - I've been in 1,000s of hangouts, but about two in the last 3 months, again I feel pretty bad about that..

Just because we used to use hangouts as a global-local meeting place back in the day place, doesn't mean it has to stop now. I'm tweeting more now as the #yearofcode #hourofcode demands it -- but an eye ball to hangout eye ball sure is no 140 chrs..

Hangouts are Dead - Long Live Hangouts The lead hashtag seems to be #hangoutpost and g+ helpfully provides associated tags, hmmreally? By looking at the slide we see not that many linking from#hangoutpost or #hangoutsonair .. So what tag do you use? remeber hashtags are a big deal in Google Search like: http://goo.gl/Uts72m which also link to twitter and facebook ..

The friends I have where global is local with Hangouts. Since July 2011 I have made new friends and contacts. Here's many I've thought of first by First Name and approx location ..

The #yearofcode Google+ Community Resource Page

I normally create a resource page first, and then a Google+ Community - but in this case it's the other way around. That means, thankfully for the reader, this post can be concise.

Anyone can join The Google+ #yearofcode Support Community, there two messages that I will post here.

About Welcome to The Google+ #yearofcode Support Community created by Mike Downes. This group does not form part of the yearofcode.org, rather it's for those who wish to understand what coding involves. It's a place for discussion, to share your stories and learn from each other. 

Post made on 17 Feb 14 talking hashtags

The #yearofcode will be found across all platforms like twitter, facebook and the web. It's my belief Google+ will be a very strong and valuable resource for everyone - Teachers, Year of Code Partners, Parents and of course the students. 

 As of today 12 Feb 2014, there are 201 days until 1 Sep 2014 when the new National Curriculum starts. That's not a lot of time - so let's get cracking, if like me you cannot code. I've heard of a few more people recently like that too. But, I know plenty of coders. Some are friends, some are googlers - but all are kind and helpful. We can all learn together. This group does not have anytime for politics or agendas - time is too short for that.

The Seymour Papert post

Welcome Message I've been asking a lot of questions in the past week. This group is a first step in addressing my curiosity with the world that surrounds us all and how we can best cope with it. I'm declaring myself uneducated and vulnerable - but I want to learn.

Every year I watch the live stream from Google IO and come away wanting to code - then a few weeks later I've forgotten all about it. I deal with coders every day - I tell them what I like, what I want moving around and the suggestions I have to make stuff work even better.

But I don't do it myself. Maybe I'm too scared to learn, think it's too hard or too time consuming - I'm not really sure. Sometimes, I get this almost uncontrollable  narcoleptic urge or mind mind drifts off. Which is pretty odd as I spend all my waking hours at the desktop. I write, take photos, creative stuff, talk to people, listen to stuff, create even more stuff - but I don't code. Until now.

I'm a teacher creative considering the new National Curriculum 2014. I'm also a UK Citizen baffled by the politics in the last few days - thank goodness this group is free of all that. I want this group to be a place where 5-16 year olds, parents, teachers and partners can all come in and leave feeling they've had a valuable use of their time. This group is public - anyone can see it, remember that.

I'm also looking to eventually hook up with Google's#connectedclassrooms  just like the super successful #hourofcode did with some really great people. I'm sure thewww.yearofcode.org people are thinking of that already.

That's it - I'll be looking for a few moderators along the way. In the meantime, let's all learn together and any question, like any question at all is worth asking.

If this really is the #yearofcode  then we have 322 days until the end of the year - wow what can we all learn in that time? Hopefully something marvellous.

Leaving you with clip as it's so much fun ..

Find Google Help Fast - What do 87 shares and 36,000 views tells us?

On 9 Feb 2014, I made a simple post at Google+ as I was fed up giving people the same links over and over again. It had this slide and text:

Find Help for Google Stuff fast There are 519,000 results athttps://support.google.com so to find ANYTHING by googling 1, Support 2,   3,  .. like support youtube comments or support blogger domain .. This is the No1 way I find stuff .. #googleit #support #help

I have an altruistic rule with myself than I find or

A slide I made from watching a YouTube Help Video

create something useful to me, then it will probably be useful to others. But there's catch - the really useful stuff, goes unnoticed by 99% of the people.

One example is the brilliant series of +YouTube Creator Academy videos made recently. They have like tiny views compared to what they should be getting. Take a look at the last six videos with +Rachel Lightfoot & +Yury Polnar where views are 1,331 to 2,722. 

What I'm getting at here is the busy life we lead, the uncontrollable urge to click on something when we shouldn't and the irresistible temptation to walk away, when we know we should stay. Bottom line, a video (or post) gets a million views in a day or just a few.

I never ever post anything for the views - I do it usually, to teach somebody something. It's a bit like my own FAQs - I want to be left alone, so if I can help people answer themselves - great.

It took a day to get 80 shares and I declared give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.

My Take Away When people get stuck, they often panic a bit, get fed quickly and become impatient too. Even if one person reading this could just stop and think - Google, support and read the results - I will be very happy.

Autonomy Did I tell you about the friend I had in teaching who had the latest iPhone? She showed me the latest features are how wow it was. But when she was late for a city centre appointment - she was late, defaulted to what she knew and rushed to find a copy of the local AtoZ Map. We all know the iphone and google maps would be there faster than she could say OK Google .. 

UK Police Social Media Survey Feb 2014 One Year On Twitter Facebook YouTube Google+ by Mike Downes

One year ago, I made a post looking at how UK Police Forces were using Social Media (14 Jan 2013).

Welcome to the annual Feb 2014 Survey where you will find six charts and a video. If I were you, click on the first image and scroll through the charts (they should open in a light box), then have a read of this text if you need to.

UK #photosphere Study Post 1: The Natural History Museum, London

I'm curious to know of the many photosheres that are live on Google Maps.

Which are the ones getting the views and are they simply the ones that are closest to the road?

You can drag Pegman on any Google Map and see blue dots for photosheres.

The Tesco Eat Happy Project #connectedclassrooms Resource Page

Screenshot from Eat Happy Project at 4:09

When new things happen, I make a resource page collecting together everything I can find in one place.

You will find  all I can find out about the project including the press release, google+ pages and posts, youtube channels and videos, news clips and useful links.