A Consuming Experience

Although Blogger does not come with a catagory feature, A Consuming Experience, which is hosted on blogspot, explains how Technorati tags can be used in blogger blogs. I like tags better than heirarchial filing systems, tagging seems to be the way we are headed.

Here's the button I need

First ten items on del.icio.us popular list

This was created with the RSS Digest 2 tool.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Global blogger action day called

BBC NEWS | Technology | Global blogger action day called

Like it says...

Library clips :: Doing different things with blogs

Library clips :: Doing different things with blogs

The article itself is informative with regards to blogging techniques. It recommends several tools and applications.

The blog allows multiple tags or labels for each article and has a few noticable but unobtrusive ads. Down at the bottom are buttons for every feed service imaginable, statistics, and the Creative Commons License. It has the livebookmarks thingy in the lower right corner (does any thing other than Firefox use that?) and links to del.icio.us/libraryclips and these comments.

ABC News: Couple Build Become Blogging Trailblazers

ABC News: Couple Build Become Blogging Trailblazers
This is the story of the young couple who were born only 5 days apart who founded the company of that name.

SAN FRANCISCO Feb 19, 2005 — Like so many other 20-somethings hoping to mine the Internet gold rush of the late 1990s, Mena Trott was thrown for a humbling loop by the dot-com bust, yet still craved stardom. Her unassuming husband, Ben, just wanted another computer programming gig in Silicon Valley's depressed job market.

Dirt and Soundwaves

Dirt and Soundwaves has several features of note. Capone has a nice, clean format with a one line statement of purpose under the title. That's nice. I found the link to his blog on /., so I know he's a geek. His sidebars are arranged neatly on the left, starting with a link to his email address and concluding with link buttons to Firefox, Slackware, FreeSpeech, and Creative Commons. His articles tendto be long commentaries based on quotes from other publications. The quotes are in bordered boxes which makes them stand out, but I'm not sure I agree with the aesthetics. You can tell a lot about a man from the buttons he displays:

This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

That's his blog, BTW, not mine, I'm going to need to add that.

Journal of siriuskase (679431)

I have mentioned Metablog on Journal of siriuskase (679431) at /. I think that this is the furthest I've gone from mentioning one of my blogs on another site. This will make my blogs more "findable". I still haven't officially gone "public", but Becky found me, so I'm not completely out of sight.

Blog Content Based Solely on High Paying Keyword

Michael Buffington has created Asbestos Blog solely to cash in on the high rates advertisers pay per click through. He writes and attracts a few comments on his personal page, and, of course, the /. community discusses it here.

It has sidebars for recent comments, recent posts, and catagories. It has only one ad. According to the /. blurb , the blog is created using highly automated content aggregation tools. Info on the site indicates it is generated by Typepad and uses a 1x1 gif to track visitors.

Maybe I should make a blog about money making schemes? It would help some people make a buck and help other people put the less ethical ones out of business.

UPDATE (4/1/2005): Since writing the above, I've run accross several blogs and other websites that seem to be poorly executed versions of the above. They appear to be completely automated with any text that might be original being poorly written. The trick seems to be for the editor to do some real editing and writing to add a little value to the site. Otherwise, it's just a saved Google search.

The Shifted Librarian

The Shifted Librarian is a blog which seems to be about library technology. I just read that Sirsi is going to implement RSS. That's great news since the Atlanta library uses Sirsi. I'm on it everyday and have lot's of complaints about the design. Nice to see they are working on things. Wonder if Atlanta will keep up with the upgrades?

Apple - Mac OS X - Tiger Preview - Safari

Apple will including syndicated feed capabilities in the upcoming Apple - Mac OS X - Tiger Preview - Safari. It "knows" all standards such as RSS and Atom, and should be able to access any feed on the web if not the entire internet.

Syndication and Feed

The next stop beyond blogging is Syndication. This is a way to get content from one website automatically up on another website. You don't need to be a blogger to use syndication. I've been using it rather painlessly on My Yahoo for awhile to keep up with a few favorite websites. They aren't all blogs, many newspapers use syndicated feeds to provide their headlines.

There seem to be two main rivals, RSS and Atom. I've been exposed more to RSS, so I'll defer commenting on Atom for awhile. My Yahoo is an example of RSS. They have a very long and detailed FAQ. You must log into Yahoo to read the headlines.

I discovered Bloglines late last night. I haven't quite figured out what it does, yet, whether it actually hosts blogs itself, or if it is simply a service for hooking you up with the blogs you are interested in. The most popular feeds on Bloglines are things I don't normally think of as blogs.

Feedster is another RSS service that I have heard of, but don't know anything about. But, they have a corporate overview page, so they must not be in it just for a hobby.

Then there is FeedBurner with its informative FeedBurner - About Feed Syndication.

The exciting one for me is Apple's upcoming Apple - Mac OS X - Tiger Preview - Safari. It "knows" all standards such as RSS and Atom, and should be able to access any feed on the web if not the entire internet.

Mozilla already has feed capability on Firefox, but so far I'm not thrilled with the way it works. I've been using feeds on My Yahoo for quite a while now. I suspect I'll come to love one of these newer (to me) services better, but right now, I'm still playing around and learning.

Google blogger reappears, redacted | CNET News.com

Google blogger reappears, redacted | CNET News.com

Mark Jen, a Google employee who writes a very detailed blog of his work experience with detailed comparisons to his his former employer, Microsoft, experienced a little trouble of the sort I described in my previous post.

Slashdot | Who Owns Weblog Content?

Here's Slashdot | Who Owns Weblog Content? discussion on this Information Week article regarding copyright issues and inappropriate blogging. My opinion?

Most people who publish appreciate being properly credited for their ideas. They may primarily want to express themselves, but if that is all they wanted, they could do so anonymously and avoid the negative reactions of employers and others who disagree.

IMO, the primary reason to publish is to express one's ideas for others to see, interpret, and respond to. It is one unit of a public conversation. Most people who engage in public discourse do not publish to make money. Getting ideas out is primary, making money is of practical interest to only a minority. Obviously, being properly credited for your work is important if you are in the publishing business. But, the concerns of the publishing industry ( by that, I mean, writers, artists, performers, and all those who make a business of getting intellectual property sold) should not overide the interests of other people who create and use publicly expressed ideas.

With regards to the people who are punished for blogging stuff that their employer disapproves of, precedents exist in the "real world". The only difference is that now it is possible for employees to air the "dirty laundry" more easily and in front of a much larger audience. It is also easier for word to get back to the employer who can then easily access the offending expressions himself.

It would be smart for the blogger to be truthful and fair. If a problem is resolved, that should be reported. In return, the employer should only punish employers who are truly out to cause harm to the company. But, what constitutes harm?

Although most people take humor with a grain of salt, the butt of the joke may be much more sensitive, especially if he thinks real money is at stake. With time, bloggers and employers will settle on standards of acceptability much as has happened with journalists and other professional communicators. Since the bloggers are frequently not professional communicators, the employers will probably have to settle for a lower standard if they want to come across to the blog reading public as fair and not stuffy or prickly.

Surely a truly harmful employee can be fired. If he has libeled someone, he should be put on paid administrative leave at least. If he has committed a crime, he should be prosecuted. But, if the employee has made a legitimate complaint, the employer should enable him to communicate more directly. The employee, in turn, should report on these efforts to resolve the problem.

Conservative Blogger suffers Blog Burnout

Conservative Blogger suffers Blog Burnout Looks like the Daily Dish is going on hiatus. But, I'm sure it will be back. Mr. Sullivan always has a lot to say. I think it is better to not try to force an entry every day, just frequently enough to stay in the habbit. I think that for me, just having BlogThis! on my Bookmark Bar keeps me regular.

PRESS RELEASE: Photobloggers Find Permanence in Pages of Full-Color Photography Magazine

PRESS RELEASE: Photobloggers Find Permanence in Pages of Full-Color Photography Magazine

I'm currently not interested in photoblogging, but it is of interest to many people now and probably me later. I think I'll send this to Larry (and a Gmail invite, too, I have 50).