The first time I went to Finland was in 2003 which was before all these great web 2.0 technological advances allowing everyone anywhere all over the world to maintain connections in every form. Before it was email and a cell phone in Finland in order to make calls to my family back in the U.S. Now, with the help of Skype, email, IM chat, Meebo, and blogging tools (and of course email) I’m just an arms length away from family, friends, and…because I’m a grown up with responsibilities, my job back in Minnesota for the university. So, as I prepare to depart from the U.S., putting 5000 miles between myself and almost everyone I know, I thought I would go through a walk through of the resources I use to stay connected.
Skype – An oldie but goodie and all around favorite for video connection. I don’t use it as much in the U.S. since I utilize IM chat and my cell phone but when communicating across continents, Skype is a must! I covered Skype In and Skype Out heavily in a previous post so you can read the post here from Frozen-Reindeer.
You can also reach me on Skype with the username: frozenreindeer (all personal contacts you have my personal skype account which you may use)
A side note- Gmail just implemented a video chat that I have yet to try but something of interest to check into.
IM Chat- There is no one IM Chat program I prefer over the other and there are TONS. On my Mac I utilize the software Adium so I can use all my IM chat programs in one place such as MSN, Yahoo, AIM and Jabber. I can sign into as many accounts as I want in one place so whenever anyone contacts me I can communicate in one place rather than having to learn my new chat platform.
Meebo – I’m currently trying this out in a couple different places. I had it on the left side bar for a little bit last week but it got so crowded so I’ve moved it (but it might come back so I’ll discuss it a little bit here) Through Meebo- as the viewer of the blog you don’t need to have any chat platform to message me, you can just head over to the contact page and message me if you see me online and you might get real time responses. In some areas it works well such as having online office hours or for customer service, we’ll see how this goes.
Email- oldie but goodie and never fails in both directions. On this blog you can email me anytime using frozenreindeer at gmail dot com.
Blogging Tools- what I love about blogs …what do I not love about blogs?!? Frozen-Reindeer is my third blog after using the first two as pure blogs to keep my friends and family updated on where I was and share photos and videos of my travels. The best part is they could share this with others so it wasn’t hunting around for an email address or individual emails or cards sent with photos. Rather, it is one place to hold everything and let people stop in at their leisure to read. On Frozen-Reindeer all of you readers with your great emails and feedback have helped me structure this blog to something that can be enjoyed by anyone with a connection to Finland.
Blogger, WordPress, LiveJornal, take your pick. Frozen-Reindeer is on WordPress but Blogger is very easy and a good place to get started!
How do I stay connected? Frozen-Reindeer as my blog on WordPress, Gmail as my email client as well as my personal email accounts, Adium for all of my IM Chat needs and of course, Skype (I get a Skype In and Skype Out Account making it easy for my family to find me when traveling.
As we get ready to head off to Finland I hope you’ll continue to read and watch and feel free to email me or catch me on chat if you want to connect.
As of Monday, December 15th, we are two days away from taking off to Finland!
-Angela
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