Are women running the Twitterverse? It’s men’s names we see on the “people you need to follow” lists. But Vanity Fair says America’s Tweethearts are really the big news.
Woman Domesticated at the Onion is, well, a piece from the Onion. But compare the photo in Vanity Fair with the photo in the Onion. Once the ladies get their own trench coats, they aren’t ever going to return.
What’s an hCard, you ask? It’s a digital version of a business card. You put it on your blog or website and it provides your name, your contact information and other information you want people to know. Because it’s digital, it can be exported from your web page to an address book and synched to a mobile phone. Google and Yahoo! both index information in hCards, so it gives you some search engine clout as well as providing portable contact information to your blog’s users.
You can provide only your name in an hCard, or you can give a physical address and phone number. If you are running a brick and mortar business, letting your customers have your phone number and address on their mobile phones might be a smart move. If you aren’t selling something at a physical location, you might just want to include your name, perhaps your URLs or an email contact.
Before you learn how to make an hCard, look at some in action. hCards are a particular type of HTML code called a microformat. A Blog Not Limited is the home of the queen of microformats, Emily Lewis. Scroll to the bottom of her page and look at that material where is says, “The Coolest Person I Know.” That information, which includes Emily’s name, email, and location is wrapped up in HTML behind the scenes that makes it an hCard. The hCard can be exported from her web page and saved as a contact. Emily wrote a book about microformats—Microformats Made Simple—and numerous blog posts on the topic. Here’s her post describing everything you’d ever need to know about hCard.
Here’s another blog with an hCard: New England Living. This blog uses the hCard in the footer of each post, and identifies only the post author’s full name as Alyson (New England Living). This isn’t the only blog I’ve seen with an hCard microformat in the post footers. It makes sense in each post footer if the blog has more than one author. If your blog has a single author, I think it would be much better placed on the page’s footer for each page of the blog. I have an hCard in the footer of my blog that simply provides my real name and a link to my sadly neglected site at vdebolt.com
Look at New Parent’s About Us page. Here is all the business information you would put in a full-blown hCard, but it isn’t in one. This is a place where an hCard would be very valuable. Or here, at the Austin Real Estate News and Advice Blog. The realtor’s name and phone number is given right there in the blog’s header, but there’s no downloadable hCard with the info that can be synched with a mobile phone. A realtor’s blog is a perfect spot for an hCard.
Ready to make one? The easiest way is to go to Microformats.org hCard Creator and fill in the form. As you add your information to the form fields, the HTML is generated beside it. Only fill in the fields for the information you want to share. Copy and paste the HTML into your blog in an appropriate place. An appropriate place might be the page footer or an About page. (Feel free to leave out that last line about the hCard Creator when you use the code.)
When you examine the code, you see that most of the magic is done by using various classes to define your data. You don’t really need to know why the microformat class is called “vcard” instead of “hcard,” but if you are interested in the reason, the article I mentioned by Emily Lewis tells you all about it. If you are geeky enough to make your own hCard by hand instead of using the hCard Creator, Emily’s article is the place to learn all the details.
How do you find and download hCards that are on web pages? The easiest way is to use the Operator Add-on in Firefox. When an hCard (or several other types of microformats) are on a web page, the Operator toolbar lets you know and has a menu option to view or export the information.
If you visit this page at A Blog Not Limited with the Operator Toolbar working in Firefox, you see three contacts.
One or all of the contacts can be exported to your address book and synched to your mobile phone.
The Operator toolbar also shows other microformats on the page. The image above shows: Events(2). hEvents can be exported, too, and added to your calendar. Microformats have many handy uses besides contact information via hCards.
If you are running a business with your blog, I think you need an hCard. If you are using your blog for other reasons, you need to decide for yourself how important having your contact information in an hCard format is to you.
The L Word ended on Showtime in March. For people like me who don’t have Showtime, the final season is just now coming out on DVD. We are finally getting to see season 6 and watch how the series ended.
I say “watch how the series ended” carefully, rather than “watch how everything turned out.” The series ends with a lot of unanswered questions. Even though I haven’t seen it yet, I know it made a lot of fans unhappy to be left with plot lines hanging and odd character developments. I remember leaving the theater after seeing John Sayles Limbo, so angry about the ending that I wanted to kick the walls. I’m hoping with the last L Word DVD has played and I’ve seen it all, I won’t contemplate kicking the walls. I’m hopeful, but I see how other fans have reacted. I might want to wear tough shoes when I roll the last episode, and stock up on sheetrock.
The wait for season 6 to arrive on DVD has given me some distance from the story lines and my interest in knowing what is going on in the lives of the characters. That distance has led to some reflection about the phenomena of The L Word and its rise to success.
The L Word started in 2004. It was a cast of mostly women–usually at least 8 or 9 major female characters in the story line at all times–and few men. That fact alone is big. BIG. The L Word wasn’t a series with 4 men and 1 woman who just tags along doing whatever the men do. Not 5 male cops and 1 female cop. Not 4 male lawyers and 2 female lawyers. Not 4 men friends and a couple of occasional female sidekicks. Not 6 male doctors and 2 female doctors. No, this was women’s stories, women’s lives.
Grant me that: a series about women is a big deal. As it would be if another one made it on air today.
These women were different from the usual stories about nurses or doctors or army wives that deal with women. That’s because all the main characters except one were some variation on not straight. That’s another BIG deal. Gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and several other points along the gender scale were depicted by major and minor characters in the course of the series.
@chookooloonks tweeted a TED Talks video by Chimamanda Adichie about “The Danger of the Single Story.” I hope you take 20 minutes to listen to this video, but I’ll summarize by saying that we form opinions and stereotypes about people, countries, cultures, religions, and many other things based on a single story, a single idea. That can include a single idea about gender or sexuality. My reply tweet was that the single story of most American television is white, male, and straight. To me, The L Word is important simply because it departs from that monovision.
Grant me that: a series about lesbians is a big deal. As it would be if another one made it on air today.
The dramatic hooks that come with stories about women who are not straight are both personal and political. You get stories about relationships and character development, work life and everyday life. You also get politically charged plot lines about things like:
dealing with family reactions to sexuality issues
dealing with the medical establishment when a loved one is ill
having children
adopting a child in a lesbian relationship
dealing with hate-related discrimination
dealing with work-related discrimination
dealing with don’t ask, don’t tell
wanting to marry a life partner
coming out to family, but also to the public when it may affect a career
changing gender identification
abortion decisions and services
The two big-name stars, Jennifer Beals and Pam Grier, play half-sisters. Women of color filled other major character roles as well. This allowed story lines around racial politics.
The political climate of the Bush adminstration factored into the show, too. It could hardly be avoided at a time when progressive thinking was gaining political traction and a majority of people were eager for change.
Gays and lesbians were in the news. From propositions on state ballots to famous lesbians getting married, sexual identity was on people’s radar and under discussion.
Let’s narrow down the discussion to the star of The L Word–Jennifer Beals. Jennifer Beals was in something like 50 movies before The L Word started. Jennifer Beals has always been able to deliver her lines in a convincing manner. She’s always been able to show any emotion with her face, her posture, and those expressive eyes. She’s always looked fabulous in a tank top, a power suit, or a beautiful dress.
In The L Word, Jennifer Beals showed her talent while looking extremely good, every week, on TV. But, instead of playing opposite Campbell Scott or Denzel Washington, she played opposite Laurel Holloman or Marlee Maitlin. A weekly look at Jennifer Beals from the living room couch in a show that ran for 6 seasons adds up to a lot of visibility.
Other things were going on in the world between 2004 and 2009. Call it Web 2.0 or the explosion of social media or the rise of community. Whatever you call it, it’s a BIG deal. There was now a place to discuss what you were watching each week with the world at large. There was the weekly deconstruction of every episode of The L Word on afterellen, where people could and did comment about all things Jennifer.
There were and are fan sites devoted to Jennifer Beals or to Jennifer Beals and Laurel Holloman (the players of Bette and Tina, a couple dubbed Tibette by fans). People can and do comment, visit and talk about their feelings regarding Tibette. The L Word stars were the subject of intense discussion. Check out Tibette.com, One More Lesbian or Dorothy Surrenders.
Showtime put Jennifer Beals in special features, podcasts, interviews, and every other type of promotion they could come up with to market the show.
For a while, there was even a site called Our Chart, a social community based on a key concept from The L Word called the chart. The chart is a visual map of relationships intended to show how connected we all are. Fans went to ourchart.com to talk about the show, and about Jennifer Beals. (Since the series ended, this site has moved back into the Showtime web space.)
Don’t forget YouTube. There are now over 3500 videos on YouTube related to Jennifer Beals, many of them clips from The L Word. With comments.
So. Fans are seeing Jennifer Beals in the living room once a week. They’re discussing her on a favorite social media site. They’re invested in Jennifer Beals. She’s an icon among fans of The L Word and has acquired a multitude of avidly loyal fans from around the world. Her fan base has expanded, dare I say it, dramatically.
I’m not saying Jennifer Beals doesn’t deserve to be an iconic figure with millions of fans worldwide. She’s talented, she’s gorgeous. But she’s been both talented and gorgeous for a long time. So what am I saying?
Take a look at this table at Evolution: The Eight Stages Of Listening from Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang. When I look at this table, I place what Showtime and The L Word accomplished in terms of interaction with their audience at about step 6 or 7. Do you agree with that placement? I think they got social media right, partly because of their own efforts, partly because the fans were so enthusiastic.
Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”
One of Gladwell’s theories in the book is that people who put in the time to master something (according to him, it takes 11,000 hours) are ready when the moment arrives to become superstars using what they’ve mastered.
Ilene Chaiken, second from left, in a Keynote Panel at BlogHer09
Here’s part of what I’m saying—there were a “tide of advantages” that brought The L Word and its leading actress to the place where they are today. Let’s check them off:
Ilene Chaiken, the creator and producer of The L Word spent years getting to the point of being ready to seize the opportunity of the moment with this show. She had the idea, the dream. She’d pitched it before—several times—with no luck. She knew the stories, knew the lives. She’d put in her 11,000 hours. She was ready.
Jennifer Beals worked in 50+ movies and many TV shows since Flashdance in 1983. She was ready to be the lead character in a series that was bold and different.
The topic was women. Millions of people were hungry for stories about women.
The women were not straight. Millions of people were hungry for stories about lesbians and other non-straight characters.
The politics surrounding this kind of content was accepting enough that Showtime was willing to give it a chance.
Web 2.0. Social media. Community sites. Blogs. Millions of people were online every day seeking community and connection to others of a similar mind. They seized the opportunity to talk about every minute detail of The L Word with great passion.
Conventions. Not Star Trek Conventions. L Word Conventions. Taking media into the real world on global stages in numerous locations.
And it came to pass that The L Word rode that tide of advantages to the top. It made an icon of Jennifer Beals. It made Ilene Chaiken an influential name in the creative community of TV and movies. It carried a slew of actresses, web sites, community sites, and discussion boards along with it.
I know I’m leaving out a great deal by tying the idea of The L Word up within loops of social media. I haven’t mentioned how sexy the show was, for example. Sex is factor in success—just look at True Blood. I haven’t mentioned any of the criticisms of the show, and there are many. But, hey, that’s what comments are for. Can you add something you think figures into this particular story?
Maybe you’re not blogging about lesbians, or running fan sites about TV stars, or pitching ideas to Showtime. But you do have a passion for something. Keep at it, keep putting in your time, develop mastery. Be ready to ride the wave of your own tide of advantages. Keep up with what’s changing and learn how to use those changes to achieve your own goals. Work it. That’s what I’m saying about success.
Usability Issues that Impact Online Learning from Faculty Focus doesn’t mention specific tools that meet some of the standards suggested for good usability in online learning, but it does tell you some things to strive for:
Good usability for online learning materials means the site, content, and media are easy to find, use, and navigate. And good usability for people means the interaction tools (such as email and discussion forums) are easy to use and facilitate getting input or help as needed.
It would be nice to see an exploration of the usability of the major online learning systems common to colleges. Has anybody done something like that already?
I think it says a lot about the economy, the culture, the Internet, and the power of personal blogging when Dooce can raise money for charity online by selling photos of The Former Congressman Charles. What was it my English teacher used to say? The personal is universal . . .
Nick Bilton on Multitasking and Media is a live-blogged report from (Re)Mixed Messages by Rachel Barenblat from PopTech. Bilton delivered many fascinating gems, which Barenblat captured with quotes like:
What does this mean for newspapers? “We talk about business models,” Bilton says, “but that’s getting ahead of what we really should be talking about — that everything about news is changing.” The devices we access news on are changing. Now we read the news on mobile phones or computers. “I have a different psychological experience with that device, and I’m going to have that same psychological experience with that news, too.”
“The relevance of news is changing.” When Teddy Kennedy died, he says, “that wasn’t news to me.” It didn’t mean anything to Bilton, but to a lot of people it did. “There was a shooting across the street from my house: that was news to me, but not to you, unless you live where I live.” Our concepts of news are changing. By the same token: if someone in my friends network gets in a car accident? That’s news to me. Bilton tells a story about a friend borrowing his cmoputer to check “the news” — meaning Facebook.
“We used to buy newspapers based on the location where we live; now we can get news from anywhere. Our concept of trust is changing. We trust the news media 29 percent and we trust our friends and family 90 percent.”
These devices will play video and music and, of course, display text; they will let you navigate by touching your fingers to the screen; and—this is most important—they will be connected to the Internet at all times. For those of us who carry iPhones, this shift to a persistent Internet has already happened, and it’s really profound. The Internet is no longer a destination, someplace you “go to.” You don’t “get on the Internet.” You’re always on it. It’s just there, like the air you breathe.
You don’t “get on the Internet.” You’re always on it. It’s just there, like the air you breathe. That really resonates with me and sums up a whole lot of how I feel about modern living.
Dreamweaver tip for screen shots may appeal to the Windows users who write material in Dreamweaver. I often write posts in Dreamweaver, particularly if I’m going to include code samples and don’t want to type all those character entities, but I hadn’t thought of pasting the screen grabs directly into DW in this way. Gives you access to the “headless Fireworks” image optimization tools.
How to Build a Community Web Site talks about how the creation of Ottawa Tonight. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – it’s not about the tools. It’s not about the tools. It’s about people.”
The FTC and their new guidelines at Worker Bees Blog is a round up of all the correctly vetted and fact checked information about the new FTC guidelines for bloggers. If you want the straight story, go there.
A truly excellent presentation from Emily Lewis of A Blog Not Limited is Basics of Microformats. Emily has a book coming very soon titled Microformats Made Simple. She really knows her stuff and can make the presentation sing when she delivers it in person and answers questions along the way. Need a speaker for your conference who can talk about microformats? Here she is.
In just two days, Blog Action Day 2009 will be upon us. You can still sign up your blog and take part in the worldwide event. This year the theme is climate change. You have some thoughts on climate change, I know you do. Here’s your chance to share your thoughts and opinions and ideas about climate change and add your voice to this global event.
It’s simple and fast to sign up to participate with your blog. The last time I checked, over 5000 bloggers from 126 countries were registered. Here’s a video from the promoters explaining what it’s about.
Show your committment on your blog with a badge the way Paula Arturo has done on From L.A. to B.A. I have a badge on this blog, too.
On October 15, publish a post on your blog about climate change. Any aspect of climate change is ripe to discuss: agriculture, travel, events, business, politics, health.
