Online Volunteering Technology, Tools, and Tips by Randy Tyler

Monitor Your Web Site Visitors in Real-Time as They Click Through Your Site, for Free

Who is Visiting Your Web Site Right Now? Non-Profits, You Can Quickly and Easily Know

Billed as providing what Google Analytics does not, Footprint allows you to view your visitors as they click through your Web site in real-time. Any visitor's click path history through your site can also be viewed along with referrer, search engine terms used to arrive at your site and visitor profile (including city, country, company, IP address and first and last visit).

 How to Track Your Site Visitors Using Footprint

After you provide a working e-mail address, account password, the domain you want to track and preferred timezone, you will receive an e-mail message containing the JavaScript-based tracking code. The tracking code must be placed just before the closing body tag on each static html page that you want to monitor (if your site has dynamically generated pages, paste the JavaScript in your dynamically generated footer for quick site-wide placement). Footprint can also be used with any content management system (CMS) such as Wordpress, Joomla, Blogger or Drupal as well as secure (https) pages. After you have added the tracking code, log-in to your Footprint account to review extensive information about your site visitors, including any live traffic on your site.

Visit the following URL to create your free (currently) Footprint tracking account:
http://www.footprintlive.com/live/sign-up--one-step-signup.html

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Shortened Links May Lead You to Malicious Sites - How to Unshorten a Link Before You Click

       

Click here to download:

Shortened_Links_May_Lead_You_t.zip (54 KB)

You are about to click on a shortened Twitter link but do you know where this shortened link will take you? URL shortening services such as tinyurl have been available for a number of years. Such services originally provided an easy way to shorten long links that could break within an e-mail message or make long URLs much easier to remember. With the introduction of  microblogging services, such as Twitter, where 140 character message limits prevail, shortened URLs became a necessity. This 140 character message limit has in turn spawned numerous new URL shortening services, such as bit.ly, cli.gs, or ow.ly.

However, clicking on any shortened URL can pose significant security and/or privacy concerns. Not knowing where a shortened link goes may land you at a malicious Web site. To reduce your odds of being exposed to such security and privacy risks, before clicking on any shortened URL first reveal the underlying full (unshortened) URL. One such free unshortening service is Untidy (http://unhid.co.cc). Unhid claims to be able to "... preview short URLs from every shortening service..." which may prove to be a significant advantage over competitor http://untiny.me (I have been able to reveal shortened URLs using unhid.co.cc that untidy.me currently could not unshorten).

Untidy provides two easy options. You can copy the shortened URL and paste it into the box at http://unhid.co.cc and click "Unhide" to reveal the full URL (see screen capture). Unhid also offers a more convenient bookmarklet option (for example, if you are using Mozilla's Firefox browser, just drag and drop the bookmarklet, found on Unhid's homepage, to your Bookmarks Toolbar). When you want to unshorten a URL, first click on the Unhid bookmarklet to activate it. (as shown in the screen capture above, a pop-up will state that the bookmarklet has been activated and that the bookmarklet can be de-activated by refreshing the page). Next, click on any shortened URL. As shown in the screen capture, a pop-up message will ask you if you want to preview the shorteneed link in a new window at http://unhid.co.cc (OK) or view the shortened link (Cancel). Press "OK" to preview the shortened link at http://unhid.co.cc (see the screen capture). At this point, you can decide whether or not you want to click on the unshortned URL.

Although you now have the immediate unshortened URL, this revealed link could still be re-directed to another Web site, which could be malicious. At this point, if you are still suspicious about the URL, either do not click on the link or run your browser within sandboxie ( http://www.sandboxie.com) before clicking on the link. This assumes that you are taking other preventive measures, such as keeping your system and applications updated as well as installing the latest anti-virus definitions.

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Monitor Your Web Site or Blog for Free to Ensure it is Up

Pingdom' offers a free level of service which allows you to monitor (on your chosen interval) one Web site or server and be notified via e-mail when your site is down (and up again). Start monitoring your site by first creating your free account at:

http://www.pingdom.com/#freemodal

If the above link to their free account sign-up does not work for you, visit their home page at:

http://www.pingdom.com

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Speed Up Your Internet with Namebench, a Free Open-Source DNS Benchmark Utility

Recently Google announced a free Public DNS service to compete with such free services as OpenDNS. DNS (Domain Name Server) is a database of Internet names and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses which translates names (e.g., randytyler.org) to IP (174.133.21.80) addressses and vice versa. Most users likely use their ISP's (Internet Service providers) DNS address. However, for security, privacy and/or speed, one may choose to use a different DNS service. How do you know which DNS Service will speed up your Internet?

Namebench, a free, open-source desktop-based application tests a number of DNS servers to determine which is the fastest and provides an html-based report. The individualized report, among other details, recommends Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Servers for you to use. Interestingly, when I ran the test, Namebench recommended I use my ISP's DNS instead of the DNS service I have been using for a couple of years (which is, OpenDNS). As mentioned speed alone may not be the sole factor that determines whose DNS you choose to use. For example, OpenDNS (instead of providing an error) provides a re-direction to a page of suggested sites, accompanied by advertising, when a name does not resolve to an IP address. However, OpenDNS offered a secure service when other DNS servers were vulnerable to attacks.

Namebench, which runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and UNIX is available in both a graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface from:

  http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Twitter and Phone Talking Equals Twalkin

Twitter and Talking Equals Twalkin. Twalkin, currently in beta and available only in the US (although Twalkin is aiming for international expansion according to a recent interview on net@night), lets you easily talk via phone with all your Twitter friends. An iPhone app is waiting approval from Apple. As their Web site states, Twalkin allows you, for example, to have a private chat with your closest friends, make a big announcement while your team or fans listen or hold a conference call with a select few speakers. This is an interesting application with the potential to be used in many creative ways. Twalkin's service is free although you will be charged according to your phone carrier's rates.

Currently Talkin requires a user to provide their Twitter username and password. Hopefully this will be changed to allow secure authentication through Twitter. Secondly, one's username and password are provided in the clear. That is, there currently is not a SSL/TLS connection (identified by https://) between' one's browser and server. To learn more about Twalkin, vist their Web site at:

http://twalk.in/

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Save Time - Automatically Merge a Multi Page Web Article into One Page for Easier Reading

Have you encountered an article (or list) which has been broken up into numerous Web pages, where you have to keep clicking "Next" to read more? If so, you can save time by reaching for "PageZipper".

PageZipper is a free bookmarklet, that when clicked to activate, automatically searches for all the "Next" links and merges all found pages into one. As a result, you will now have one long scrolling page, wherein you can jump to your desired place in the article/list. Among a couple of other limitations (e.g., the bookmarklet works best on English Web sites), PageZipper only works on those pages where standard hyperlink syntax is being used to create the "Next" links.

An example of where this bookmarklet enables efficient reading is a six page New York Times article (linked below) entitled "Drivers and Legislators Dismiss Cellphone Risks":

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/19distracted.html

Once you click on the PageZipper bookmarklet in your browser's toolbar, and start scrolling down the first page, a page navigation box (please see the browser screen capture above) will appear. As you continue to scroll down the first page, the next page will automatically appear until all six pages of this article are merged into just one page for easier reading. To de-activate the bookmarklet, just refresh the Web page.

You can obtain the free PageZipper bookmarklet from:

http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/pagezipper

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Appeal for Online Volunteer Professors – Teach Online from Anywhere to Build Bridges to the World

For details, please visit http://RandyTyler.org/u/fau

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Easily View the Details of any Web Page Element

Whether you are checking your Web page design or want to learn more about the design of another site, a click on XRAY, a free bookmarklet for IE 6 (or newer), Webkit and Mozilla browsers, will allow you to easily see the box details of any web page element. A page refresh will remove the bookmarklet from your screen. The XRAY bookmarklet is available from http://www.westciv.com/xray/

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.

Promote Your Cause, Fundraiser on Other Blogs, Web Sites Quickly, Easily and without Cost

Promote your cause, fundraiser, onsite or online volunteer opportunities quickly, easily and without cost using a widget. Most blogging platforms, such as Wordpress, automatically create feeds (RSS or Atom) of your content (posts). With your feed's URL copied, head to Feedsweep ( http://feedsweep.com/products/fs/create.aspx) and create a required free account (an account allows you to use your widget, change, save and create as many widgets as you like).

With your account created, paste your feed's URL into the Custom Feed URL box (about half way down the page), which is part of the free basic designer option. After filling in the remainder of the fields (e.g., widget title, number of posts to show), customize your widget's appearance and then click on the "Get Code" button, wherein you will be directed to a page containing your Feedsweep widget code (please see the screen capture above of a sample Feedsweep widget showing two posts). If you like the way your widget looks (your widget will be shown beside the code), save it.

The JavaScript-based widget code can now be copied and distributed (e-mailed, made available on your Web site and/or blog) to any of your associates, donors or friends' blogs or Web sites to help you (virally) promote your organization, a fundraiser and/or your volunteer opportunities.

Feedsweep's free option, through their Advanced Designer option, will also allow you to combine feeds, filter content and format your feed using HTML Tables or CSS to match a Web site or blog.

For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.