Soil Ecology

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

SOILECOLOGY List Members:

This is just a brief introduction to use of some of Google+ features,
getting started and making the most of it. I have a collection of
helpful documents and URL's that I can share.

Google+ is on the verge of adding business pages to their service:
<>
Google+ Business Pages Coming Real Soon?
Why They Will Make or Break Google+

PlusHeadlines - "approximately two and a half months ago, on July 21st,
2011 Google+ Project Manager Christian Oestlien made a post explaining
the situation around the much anticipated Google+ Business pages. At the 
time, users were wondering why a clear business strategy was not
integrated within the Google+ framework, and when such a tie-in would
take place. In his statement he said the following:"

"With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in
business profiles, we’ve been thinking hard about how to handle this
process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses
involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a
result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an
initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in
the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that
will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how
businesses interact with consumers."

full article:
http://plusheadlines.com/google-business-pages-coming-real-soon-why-they-will-make-or-break-google/2453/

A little more about Google+ from the Google CEO, Larry Page in a G+ post:

Larry Page  -  Jul 14, 2011 (edited)  -  Public

"Our goal with Google+ is to make sharing on the web like sharing in 
real life, as well as to improve the overall Google experience
Circles let you choose with precision who you are sharing with. Not
surprisingly this has been very well received, because in real life, we
share different things with different people.
Hangouts allow for serendipitous interactions. Like in real life when
you run into a few friends. It gives you seamless and fun multi user
video and it’s really amazing!

Last quarter, we launched the +1 button in search results and
ads--enabling users to recommend stuff they liked, and have those
recommendations show up in the search results of people they know.

This quarter, we released +1 buttons to the entire web, and many sites
like Huffington Post, the Washington Post and Best Buy have added +1
buttons."

<>

G+ is light years beyond Facebook in every respect. Your activities can
be made public or not, you choose. It is very configurable and you can
become quite private in that system, in communication with only those
you want to be in touch with. You simply create a post and designate
which of your circles it is destined for. Public is a default option you 
can choose when you need greater visibility. You can also prevent your 
profile from being indexed and accessable by any search engine,
providing an extra measure of privacy. You can dump circles and users at 
will as well as create new ones and merge them with those of other G+
users. If you get an email request to allow someone to add you to their
circle you can deny that (by taking no action) or allow it. You can
simply go to a stranger's profile to see if you want to add them or not.

There are a number of documents/websites/blogposts floating around with
explicit instructions on configuring your account and ensuring your
privacy. I think Google is doing a great job with this and they have
started off on the right foot.

After getting a GMail account and then a Google+ one, SOILECOLOGY 
Circles can be created by everyone making all of their posts to those 
circles non-public and only visible to people in those circles. Then 
they can begin to merge members in each circle into a community, all in
communication on a common topic. The process of merging members in each
user's circle involves "recommending" your own SOILECOLOGY circle to any 
other G+ member, SOILECOLOGY list subscriber or not as is mutually 
agreed upon whether to allow non list or GWAA members in or not. You can 
include anyone else in your recommendation by sending them an invitation 
by email. If anyone adds your circle then you both share the combined 
user base as both circles continue to grow in members. And so it goes 
from there, merging circles and inviting others by email or directly 
through Google+ to build a SOILECOLOGY community.

One person could create a single SOILECOLOGY circle and then invite 
everyone to join it. This would be the most secure option but not 
necessarily the best. Adding, batch style, a large number of user at one 
time could be done the following way:
Another option is for one of us to create a SOILECOLOGY circle and send 
email invites to all the SOILECOLOGY list members (using the subscriber 
list of email ID's generated by ibiblio list host, Mailman).
Each one would have to have 1) a Gmail account and 2) a Google+ account.
I can generate this list of email addresses and send it to Doreen who
could create the core SOILECOLOGY G+ circle or I could do it. The 
problem with this is that invites would have to be sent out as many 
times as necessary to get all members on board. None of this is 
particularly difficult, though.

The reason you need a GMail account is that any other Google services
that you use can be linked directly to that account and they provide a
button there to load your Google+ page too. Some of the services that
can appear in GMail and Google+ include Picasa galleries, Buzz posts,
#1's and more. From the GMail dashboard you can access nearly anything
Google offers and if you use Chrome, even more plus some amazing new
extensions (tools and add ons). Google Docs is an especially nice
service to add along with Picasa galleries (my preferred photo hosting
site). I like the fact that Google Blogger allows very large posts and
uploads are fast. Your G+ page has its own array of photo and video
galleries alongside Buzz & #1's. Other features include chat and:
(copied from my G+ page)
Send invitations
Invite friends
Hangouts
Have fun with all your circles using your live webcam.
Go mobile
Get Google+ for your mobile device

I'll be glad to follow up this post with more detailed information if
anyone is interested. I already have a small Permaculture circle and one 
for Permaculture Information Web.

Lawrence London
lflj@bellsouth.net
venaurafarm@bellsouth.net
lfljvenaura@gmail.com (my G+ associated email ID)
My G+  "Lawrence London" page:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103323666932740258290/posts