blogging Archives - Page 18 of 24

Useful Links: Tech blogs, the backchannel

Several Tech Blogs Worth Exploring. Oh Yeah, All by Women at JavaWorld is a good source of information for those looking for female tech bloggers, female conference speakers, and inspiration.

Web Teacher has posted about using the backchannel in the past. An event at HighEdWeb in Milwaukee earlier this month resulted in a backchannel revolt that made news in educational circles and serves as a morality tale for speakers and educators in the future. A few reports about the incident:

In my mind, no one should get in front of an audience these days without someone at their side monitoring the backchannel. If you start to bomb, you need to know it immediately and take steps to salvage the situation. If this presenter had realized what was going on, he could have turned off the projector and engaged the audience in a dialog about the topic. Or something. Anything. But instead, he’s now notorious for being a plodding dinosaur in a fast-paced world.

Summary of eHow articles for August

The image above is a Wordle, and shows you some of the things I was talking about here lately.

Below is what I did at eHow in August.

A trial of the Zemanta Firefox add-on

I gave the Zemanta add-on for Firefox a trial run in WordPress. Download it from Mozilla.

Here’s the background. Zemanta promises to make blogging easier for you by finding you relevant images, links or tags as you type a blog post or an email. (It works in Firefox and Gmail.)

That sounds appealing, especially for writing posts that need lots of external links or would benefit from some appropriate photos. I downloaded the add-on and opened up the WordPress admin window of Web Teacher. A Zemanta pane appears on the right of the window where you enter a blog post. It shows images, articles, tags, and links. And it has a search box.

: Image via Wikipedia

Before I started typing this post, I searched in the Zemanta pane added to my WordPress Dashboard for Hillary Clinton and found this image. I just dragged it into this window. No pain. However, it is from a campaign speech in 2007. Not exactly hot news.

Then I typed the paragraphs above, containing the words Zemanta, WordPress, and Gmail. As I typed, “relevant” images related to those words popped up on the Zemanta pane on my WordPress Dashboard. What I got were logos from those three sites. Based on those keywords, I also got suggested links, blog posts (mostly really old posts), and suggested tags (mostly the same keywords mentioned).

I tried searching for some keywords in Zemanta that seem relevant to the things I write about. I searched on HTML 5. The results were pathetic. Unrelated images, unrelated article links, silly tags. Then I searched on Web Standards. Same useless results, but one image of a guy in a blue beanie, which made me grin. (Ahh, that’s what web standards are—head covering.)

On the Zemanta site, there is an interactive demo. I took it for a spin using the text from my most recent article on BlogHer: Old People are So . . . . The results there were marginally better, probably because the article mentions several famous names and contains a number of blog links. Here’s how it looked in the Interactive Demo window.

zemantaEnhanced — The Zemanta Interactive Demo

I say marginally better because the images were connected to names mentioned in the text. The Articles suggested were completely unrelated. The tags suggested were a rehash of the names mentioned in the article. Had I used Zemanta when I was originally typing this post, the images would have been helpful, and as easy to grab as the photo of Hillary above. The rest of it was no help.

For some bloggers, Zemanta might be really valuable. But it’s not useful on Web Teacher. My advice— check it out to see if it returns anything helpful for the type of content you post. If it doesn’t, you can do what I intend to do: disable the add-on.

Later this week, I’ll be publishing a different article about Zemanta and the JS-Kit-Echo on BlogHer. It will appear Saturday, August 15.

Google Web Elements

The big hoopla this week in the world of technology came from Google’s I/O conference. Among the announcements was one about Google Web Elements. What are they and what can you do with them?

Google Web Elements are widgitized versions of Google products such as calendars, chat, maps, custom search, YouTube news, and docs. You can add these widgets to your site or blog. Most of the widgets were already available. Now they’ve been aggregated in one spot. YouTube News is a newly added item.

It’s very easy to use one of these widgets. Making a map widget took about three seconds. I entered the address of the New Mexico State Capitol, commonly called The Roundhouse. I selected a satellite map display. Google handed me a bit of code, which I copied to get this map. If you close in on the map, you’ll understand the nickname.

Denise Wakeman at Biz Tips Blog described making a map widget in Google Launches Web Elements for Your Blog.

Have an event you’re promoting and want to include a map on the registration page or in a blog post? Choose the size map you want, type in the address, a title for the location and you immediately get the HTML to paste in your blog. Nothing could be easier. (click on the image to get the full size graphic)

Since Google Docs can be widgitized, you can embed a spreadsheet or a presentation in a web page.

The custom search widget lets you choose an option that will add AdSense for the search. I didn’t choose that option for this example, but you might want it for your own blog. You’re going to get Google ads no matter what. You don’t have to tell Google anything, even the URL of your site, to get search code. Try the search right now. When you’re finished use the small x beside the Search button to close the search. You don’t have to tell Google anything, even the URL of your site, to get search code.

Widgets are nothing new. You may already have ways to do what Google wants you to do using their products. The Conversation Element, which allows chats on your site, is similar to a FriendFeed widget. A Google Docs Presentation widget is similar to SlideShare services.

Barb Dybwad at Obsessable, commented in Google launches Web Elements suite, embeddable widgets for integrating Google products to your site. She included some tweets on the topic and explained the Conversation Element.

A “Conversation” widget allows readers to post comments and videos that can become shared global threads via Google Friend Connect.

Kate Green, reported on Google’s announcement for Techology Review in Google Launches Web Elements.

In the spirit of simplifying software, Google announced a new way to easily integrate its products, like News and Maps, into a personal website. The offering is called Web Elements and was demonstrated today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco.

At the event, DeWitt Clinton, the technical leader on Google’s developer team, illustrated how to use Web Elements within a blog. He embedded a Google News feed, a map, and a live conversation widget in about the same amount of time it takes to embed a YouTube video. While similar tools have been available for some time, it’s interesting to see Google’s take on letting users easily add some of its popular products to their sites. Currently there are eight products available, with the possibility of more to come.

Do Google Web Elements have any advantages over all the other widgets available already? If you are a Google Docs user, they might make things easier to share, especially presentations. They should work on most blogs and web sites. I’m not ready to say that they are superior to any other widget choices, but they are sure easy to use.

Cross posted at BlogHer.

Does the Kindle Make Sense?

Since I don’t normally buy a lot of books, I never saw much personal reason to buy a Kindle.

That may change. More . . .

I read a lot, but I don’t buy a lot of books. I get books at the library. I buy magazines and newspapers, but only the occasional book. The other day I grabbed a book at the library called Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott because of this sentence on the inside flap of the cover: “The bottom line is this: if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future.”

I haven’t read it yet, so I’m not ready to say I understand the future. As soon as I read it, I’ll be ready to give you any hints about the future that you might want. Right now, pre-reading, I’m thinking that the future involves e-book readers, the hottest of which is the Kindle.

Since I don’t normally buy a lot of books, I never saw much personal reason to buy a Kindle.

That may change.

For one thing, I own an iPhone, and read my first ebook using the Kindle iPhone app recently. I found I loved reading that way. Denise does, too.

And then the Kindle 2 came out. This device is bigger in phyiscal size and is meant to handily display larger format information such as newspapers and textbooks. It will also publish blogs and download your magazine subscriptions instantly.

Yes, you can now publish your blog to the Kindle. You can even self-publish a book to the Kindle, like Burningbird.

As I mentioned, I subscribe to newspapers and magazines. A steady flow of paper comes into the house, passes before my eyes, and exits via my recycling bin. Knowing that I could get all the same material without all the paper is important information based on my world view. Miraz at KnowIT said in Books of the future: chunky bits of digital linkbait?

A while back I published a post called I hate books, in which I wrote about how fed up I am with books being published on dead trees. My pal Maria wrote a rebuttal, I love books where she wrote about the appeal of words printed on paper.

What about those dead trees? What is the environmental impact of e-readers?

An extensive analysis of this issue at Fat Knowlege called E-Books Vs. Newspapers looks at every aspect of this question—from cutting trees, running printing presses, delivering paper reading material on the paper side of the equation to manufacturing and disposal of electronic readers and even the electricity consumed by the servers delivering material to devices on the e-book side of the equation. One of the conclusions was

Reading the physical version of the NY Times for a year uses 7,300 MJ of energy and emits 700 kg of co2. Reading it on a Kindle uses 100 MJ of energy and emits 10 kg of co2.

Newspapers desperately need to keep subscribers right now. The New York Times has released its own Reader application which is used on computers. Other newspapers have gone completly online, even without special reader apps. Funny Business asked, Can the Kindle DX Save Newspapers? At the Business Insider, we learn that Printing the NYT Costs Twice as Much as Sending Every Reader a Free Kindle.

We all seem to grasp the idea that traditional publishing on paper has reached a crisis point. What we resist is concluding that devices like the Kindle may the solution.

People are slow to change, and cite reasons like “loving the feel of a book” as a reason to resist e-book readers. Even people who make the switch, like One Plus Two in I love me some Kindle seem ambivalent about the change.

Then there are unresolved issues around DRM and Author rights vs. disability rights. See Publishers hit Kindle Text to Speech Kill Switch for an update on that the rights story.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Sassymonkey talked about DRM to me in an email.

I love the *idea* of the e-book readers so, so much but I hate DRM with a passion. When I buy an actual book I can move it around from a bookshelf to the car to whatever. I can even loan it to friends. So why the heck can’t I move an ebook from my Mac to my ebook reader to my iphone to our PC without doing something illegal and causing publisher/some author’s heads from exploding? I mean, I’ve paid for the book. Sigh.

Even as all these issues are debated, legislated, and pondered, the e-book market races ahead with gusto. Develop the technology, sell the devices, and resolve the details later. That’s the current system. World Public Library has over half a million e-books listed. When Jeff Bezos introduced the Kindle 2, he said,

Today there are 275,000 books available for the device. On Amazon.com, 35 percent of sales of books that have a Kindle edition are sold in that format.

That’s huge: 35%. As more people get Kindle devices, I think that percentage will rise. The plus factors are compelling. It’s better for the environment and it’s cheaper. Most books are only $9.99, there’s no shipping cost, and you have the book or newspaper in your hand seconds after you buy it. That seems like a “duh” factor to me. What person who owned a Kindle wouldn’t opt for e-book over print?

Does that mean e-book readers are the solution for publishing, or are they just one aspect of this transition in media that we are embroiled in right now? I wish I had the answer. I can tell you this: the next time I buy a book, if I can get it on the Kindle app on my iPhone, I will. Absolutely.

Cross-posted at BlogHer.

Summary of eHow Articles for March

The bulbs stretched their heads above the ground, the trees bloomed, the grass took on a new green hue, and web geeks from around the world gathered in Austin for SXSW Interactive. Amid all those distractions, here’s what I wrote on eHow in March. More . . .

The bulbs stretched their heads above the ground, the trees bloomed, the grass took on a fresh green hue, and web geeks from around the world gathered in Austin for SXSW Interactive. Registration numbers were up by 25% at SXSWi, as the registration line pictured above suggests.

Amid all those distractions, here’s what I wrote on eHow in March.

SXSW: Grokking Bloggers: It’s about Love and Underpants

Elisa Camahort Page.

Co-founder of BlogHer. Grok is to deeply know and understand something so well it’s internalized.

What’s going on in the blogosphere? Talked about BlogHer benchmark survey.

Blogs are now mainstream, addictive, and trusted. 53% of U. S. online women are participating in the blogosphere either reading or writing or both. Blogging is a part of daily life meaning less time on radio, TV, newspapers, etc. Time-shift to blog reading instead of other media is in the double digits.

Number who consider blogs trustworthy shows importance of community. Blogs have about 60% influence on purchasing decisions.

Blogging is more a cultural revolution than a commercial one. People are finding they are in love with what they can do with the blogging technology.

The underpants relate to a South Park episode where they convince a character that there is an underpants gnome who steals underpants. Phase one: collect underpants. Phase three: profit. Gnomes had no idea what phase two is. She wants to tell stories about phase two.

Blogging changes the way we survive, grieve, take action, make history, live. She showed some heath related blogs. Diabetes Mine and others. Gives a patients point of view, becomes influential in the medical community and design of medical devices. Sense of contribution and community.

Grieve. Find online community for help with surviving grief. Looney Tune. Her Bad Mother. Matt, Liz and Madeline. Amazing writing and online community come together to achieve other goals such as nonprofits and support groups.

The way we age. My Mom’s Blog. Forstalls mental decline by keeping you actively involved in creating media.

Changing history. Most history has been driven by war, government and commerce. Male dominated. Now people, ordinary people, are writing personal stories about how they live. Don’t need to make sweeping statements about policies and decisions: people are telling us what they are thinking.

Elisa talked about her grandmother, who fled from the Nazi’s in the 1940s. She said none of the stories around this bit of family history are known. No oral history. But now we are getting history from difficult places and difficult times from people who are finding a way to blog. It changes what we can retain about our own life stories.

Mommy bloggers are taking off the rose colored glasses and writing about the whole truth of motherhood.

Changing the way we make a living. The professionalism of the blogosphere. Simply Recipes makes a living from her blog. The blog is about food as a way to spread and share love. Most successful bloggers are writing about something they love and who can keep at it.

Changing how we take action. Galvanize people on line. The election, Hurricane Katrina. Grace Davis’s blog Hurricane Disaster Direct Relief. It’s a form of power. Fundraise, raise awareness.

Power to be heard, power to build your own playing field, power to participate, power to change the world, power to empower your user.

It’s the evolution of community. Trust is important in building an online world. What are you doing to be trustworthy?

New BlogHer benchmark survey will be released soon. These figures are for 2008.

Opened for questions.