Category Archives: blogger
How to Backup your Twitter World
As many of you probably learnt by experience, Twitter Search only shows results for the last couple of days.
I guess, one of the preliminary assumptions is that you consider your collection of 140-character-long phrases valuable. And would like to search thru them from time to time.
Friendfeed
One easy workaround is to add your Twitter stream [...]
Also posted in General, tech Tagged dave winer, friendfeed, google reader, Opera, opml, twistory, twitter backup 1 Comment
Chiperoni goes Mobile (kind of)
As part of my ongoing research regarding internet access via low bandwidth connections, I saw App+frica displaying a mobile version at http://appfrica.net/blog/.
I installed the same MobilePress plugin and activated it a few minutes ago. Based on the plugin description, it should detect if you’re accessing the website with a mobile device and display a [...]
Also posted in blogging, tech, wordpress Tagged mobile access, mobilepress, wordpress, wordpress app for iphone Leave a comment
Intro to SEO and SEM
I am faced with the challenge to explain SEO and SEM in a 1 hour presentation. The audience consists of business folks.
Where to start explaining is the hard part.
Also there are so many myths in this area – garnered by SEO vendors selling their services as a “Wunderwaffe” for instant web traffic success.
As is typical [...]
Also posted in General, blogging, marketing, tech Tagged content, explaining seo to non-bloggers, frequency, google-bomb, old media vs. new media, outposts, patience, search engine optimization, sem, seo, technical aspects Leave a comment
Return of the Blog
Gigaom recently published an article that highlights an important point. A point that has been resonating through my head since Lift 07:
In this incredible sea of data that surround us, what happens to my data when a service like Twitter or Flickr or FriendFeed is sold to another company.
Gigaom writes:
The cynical me believes that [...]
Also posted in Photos, blogging, flickr, tech Tagged batch download, Build your own blog, export, Return of the Blog, Your blog is your mothership Leave a comment
Malawi Twitterers
As Malawi celebrates independence day tomorrow, here is a list of Malawi twitterers you might like to follow:
Vincent Kumwenda – currently at Muloza border, Mulanje; topics include Malawi news, world news, interesting Malawi web pages, and soccer. He also writes a blog.
Fred Bvalani – in Blantyre; tweets about mobile applications and phones, Oracle training [...]
Also posted in General, Malawi, blogging Tagged africa, Blantyre, lilongwe, Malawi, malawi tweeple, malawi tweets, malawi twitterati, malawi twitterers, microblogging, twitter 3 Comments
Hiding in Full Public View
In January my stats dropped to an all time low. There are a number of reasons, I guess.
One reason is that I haven’t been writing much lately. Just an occasional link. Short cross-references to my Flickr stream. That’s it.
Another reason is my retro-style homepage, which points to my other life stream options (Twitter, Flickr, [...]
Also posted in blogging, tech, tweet, wordpress Tagged amakhala scared, personal thoughts, sn 1 Comment
How to Resize Photos
My family’s email account in Blantyre was blocked twice in the past week, due to well-meaning but over-sized Christmas and New Year email greetings. Attachments with over 2 MBs. The family is still on a phone line with a very slow connection rate. And downloading emails with a large attachment takes forever and a day. [...]
Also posted in General, Malawi, Photos, africa, blogging, flickr Tagged change size, flickr, gimp, irfanview, jpeg, Malawi, ms paint, paint, picasa, resize photos, slow internet connection 3 Comments
Appfrica Interview on MTN Uganda
Just a quick note to point to an interesting interview with an official of MTN Uganda at:
Appfrica: Interview With MTN’s Erik van Veen – Part 1
These points caught my eye:
(…) revenues per user, are very low in Africa by international standards, and require a low cost operating model if the Operator is to be profitable. [...]
Zemanta
I am learning a lot from the African blogs I am reading…
App+frica recently wrote about useful web applications for bloggers in developing countries.
In his list he mentions Zemanta:
Zemanta, which just scored a new round of funding from Union Square Ventures, is a huge time saving tool. It’s a browser-side plug-in that scans the context of [...]
Mulanje
I just surfed through lots of cool new photos in the Malawi group on Flickr.
Including these photos of Mulanje mountain by Lisa de Vreede:
Also posted in Malawi, Photos, africa, flickr, wordpress Tagged flickr group, Malawi, photography, travel 2 Comments
My BlogCamp Switzerland Talk
As announced on Twitter, I presented a talk on mobile technology in Malawi at today’s BlogCamp in Zurich to share what I’m learning from the African blogs and tweets that I follow on a regular basis.
I started my talk with a short intro on Chiperoni (I am a bridge blogger somewhere between Basel and Blantyre) [...]
Also posted in General, Malawi, africa, blogcampswitzerland, tech Tagged basel, Blantyre, bridge blogger, cell phone, chiperoni.ch, mobile technology, nchenga, powerpoint, ppt, presentation, tnm, zain 4 Comments
Meeting Mlle A.
Last Saturday I met the elusive and mysterious Mlle A. at a coffee place* in Hannover.
Once or twice during the conversation there was a cross-reference to something I or Mlle. A. had written or linked to. And for me that’s one of the powerful side-effects of blogging: there’s a regular reader’s familiarity built over [...]
Publishing, the future thereof
1 + 1 = the book (for web and print)
simple really
Also posted in blogging Leave a comment
BlogCampSwitzerland on Saturday
I’m de-lurking on Saturday….
Hope to see you at the BlogCampSwitzerland
Also posted in blogcampswitzerland, blogging Leave a comment
Not new
At Lift 07 there was a panel on technological overload. The video of the panel is available here.
Fellow blogger Mlle. A. pointed out that this kind of discussion isn’t new.
A couple of days ago she sent in an article by Ann Blair on “Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload ca. 1550-1700″ published in [...]
Also posted in LIFT07, blogging, tech 3 Comments
sakku.worker
Via this Flickr comment I heard that there’s a Sakku competition for bloggers…
I already blogged about Sakku bags some time ago. And I would love to win a bag. As a knowledge worker and digital nomad, I believe I’m the right candidate
I’ll write a review.
Take photos.
And test the solar [...]
Also posted in marketing, tech 3 Comments
nchenga’s Web 2.0 roundup: Links and comments
How many online services did you sign up for, use once or twice, and then never return again?
In my case, that would be lots of ‘em. Some of them are really popular services like Digg or Mister Wong, where I just haven’t found a personal use case, or I’ve got a substitute or workaround. [...]
Benefits of Blogging
I like this summary on the Benefits of Blogging
Meet and greet
Self documenting
Self promoting (if you want to, that is)
Mentoring
Education
Giving back (I would say: sharing)
There’s also the side-effect that when I write about a topic it helps me to reflect more on a topic and organize my thoughts.
Also posted in General, blogging Leave a comment
Blog resource links
Here are a couple of starting points:
Blog hosting
Three possibilities:
Sign up with a hosted service such as WordPress.com, Typepad or Vox (fastest cos it takes all of 5 mins).
Sign up with a webspace provider that already includes blog software in their package.
Sign up with a webspace provider that offers PHP 4.x or later and MySQL and [...]
Blogging for Content Developers
At an undisclosed location in the very near future, the editor of this beautiful blog will be holding a talk on a high-flying topic yet to be prepared.
Blogging for Content Developers
I’ve decided to give this whole project a jump-start by writing down the outline in my blog… because getting started is always the hard [...]
Also posted in CMS, General, blogging, wordpress 2 Comments
Malawi music
More crosslinking to Cy’s Film. Or have a look at the video:
Also posted in General, Malawi, blogafrica 4 Comments
BlogCampSwitzerland
I attended today’s BlogCamp in Zurich; a so-called unConference because it organizes itself like BarCamp. But heh, we’re in Switzerland so it was fairly well organized.
I saw a couple of familiar faces. Maybe I should get a t-shirt saying “Blog conference tourist”… And I invited some of the Basel bloggers to the upcoming Basel [...]
Also posted in General, blogcampswitzerland, blogging 4 Comments
Malawi bloggers
When I started blogging back in Jan 2003, one of my high flying and lofty ideas was to help cross the digital divide and point to content about Malawi. A goal I haven’t really managed to keep. But from time to time I’ve pointed to various Malawi sites. It’s great to see that the number [...]
Also posted in General, Malawi, blogafrica, blogging Leave a comment
Twitter for the masses