JPEG not displaying in MS Internet Explorer 7 or 8 ? I was puzzled. I checked the src link, re-uploaded the image…
Well, then I learned that JPEGs saved in the CMYK color model will not display in MS IE, while they do display in Firefox 3.x.
I guess saving JPEGs in CMYK is unusual, esp. for screen use. I assumed the file was in RGB, given that it was intended for the web.
More:
CMYK color model
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 does not display JPG images with CMYK color mode
hmmm…
70% of your tweets should share resources- sharing others’ voices, opinions, quotes, blog posts, articles, content and resources
20% of your tweets should engage in conversations with others, responding, connecting, collaborating and connecting with others.
10% of your tweets can be chirping, chitchat as Angela calls it, on trivial details or self-promotion.
via 10 Tips For Managing Twitter As Your Usage Increases | Blog of Mr. Tweet.
All these rules, guidelines. Not sure I endorse any of them. I assume their target audiences are people tweeting for business reasons.
Twitter is many things to many different people. What works for you may not work for the next person. Or do you plan your conversations to include “70% of resource sharing”?
But by quoting this guideline, I am showing that this kind of article works. 10 steps to success… Follow this method and success will be yours.
Research on Jaiku:
Apparently… who knew… Research has found… Microbloggers are really boring… The article shows 3 things: either there were no linguists on the research team, otherwise they would know that a lot of content that is sent across the communication channel is “meaningless in itself” but serves the purpose of keeping the communication going. Or secondly if there was a linguist on the research team he or she failed to make this connection. And thirdly the amazing culture of searching (errr… by default gooogling) for everything. I entered the new disclaimer of this site as a search phrase “This is a very boring personal website” to find the article on Jaiku research.
In was für einer Welt lebe ich eigentlich.
Personal projects:
The MBA project is moving along. It was quite an experience to be on-campus at a large state university. One thing that struck me most was the vast expanses of ruralness. When I think of the US from my Euro-centric perspective, it comprises sprawling big cities like San Francisco, New York, Miami, Chicago. Influenced by visits and movies. But 2 weeks in West Lafayette have changed this image. Lots of farmland between O’Hare International Airport and the uni.
I learned – during one of the cultural classes – that China has 143 cities with a population of over 1 million. Compared with the US where there are about 52 metropolitan areas with a population of over 1 million.
Somehow I find it both comforting and scary that the superpower of the world is based on large expanses of small and mid-sized towns that depend on farming.
Compare this with the increasing pressures of urbanization in many parts of the world.
The big three: Land, water, food.
Another amazing fact from a euro-centric perspective: The wage rate in Indiana dropped from $30 to $15 within one year. That number alone shows the crisis.
New cam: Going to get an S90 to replace my overexposing Ixus 900 Ti.
Flickr wall: I want to build a Flickr wall based on this example. Wish me good luck…
Free advice for a Twitter/Google/Facebook/Friendfeed world…
And a finally word of advice: Remember that all of your precious UGC data that is stored at external, commercial sites may be gone tomorrow. Don’t take 5 years to learn this.
QOTD:
Successful businesses will not be everything to everyone; that’s the broadcast mentality. Instead, they will play a meaningful role to a cohort of committed consumers who give their attention to them because of their relevance.
I stumbled across this quote:
We assume that people are interested in technology, just because we are. Most people aren’t.
I saw this retweet pointing to Jeremy Toeman’s article Will normal folks ever use Twitter?”. (By default that makes me un-normal….)
He makes an excellent point which matches my own experience. Most people don’t see the added benefit of using Twitter. The uses are difficult to grasp. Especially since Twitter turned off the SMS service for the rest of the world, which is the single feature that got me started on Twitter. Connecting the mobile world with the web world – at no extra cost – was a killer app in 2007. Unfortunately it didn’t last. Read this 2008 article, What Twitter’s global failure means for Africa by @whiteafrican.
In addition to not understanding Twitter uses, many people don’t like reading online. Reading deadwood media is more relaxing for the eyes, still more portable, less battery-dependent.
My suggested uses
Listed below are some of my Twitter use cases.
Search
Twitter Search is great for non-mainstream, niche topics. Many bloggers have added Twitter to their publishing toolset. Un-normal people everywhere in the world that are at the scene, on the ground have access to mobile phones and send out tweets. The data is raw, not confirmed, and unfiltered, but it gives a voice to the unheard and a different opinion from mainstream media outlets that dominate western opinion (commonly known as the gatekeepers). Google now searches Twitter and displays recent tweets:
The use:
In addition to all the mainstream media I hear and read, I read tweets on currents affairs as a supplement.
Traffic
Twitter generates traffic for your website, photo stream, blog, online shop. If you want to be noticed by the early adopter market segment, Twitter is the place to be. I would compare it with blogging in 2004 to 2005, when it was easy to google bomb yourself into the top 10 search results. One thing is certain, web traffic streams are constantly changing. Maybe Twitter will be discarded. The key is good content. Regurgitating or copying content that is not your own will not help you in the long run. Writing yet another review on an over-hyped topic is destined for oblivion. A good example how to build a web audience in a consistent way is Handmade 2.0.
The use:
Since generating traffic for websites is part of my day job, hanging out on Twitter helps me to figure out the changing traffic streams.
Tech help
I use Twitter to get feedback and help on technical topics. I share my knowledge and experience.
The use:
Share knowledge, learn!
Connect
Still fascinating after 14 years on the Internetz: connecting with others. Discussing. Reviewing.
For example, every Sunday evening on German TV there is a murder mystery called Tatort. It’s an institution for some. A distraction for others, ironing clothes for the work week ahead. With Twitter you can review the latest Tatort in real-time.
The use:
As in the C.S. Lewis quote: We read to know, we are not alone.
I like this quote from Hacktivate:
We need to stop underestimating people. Don’t expect Africans to be content with boring old SMS and voice for long. Smartphones, droids and even iphones are much higher up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs than we realize, especially if nobody around owns a computers, your schools suck, and the government controls the radio and newspaper. Africans have leapfrogged over landlines. They are now leaping over laptops.
(Desperate housewives, lonely on their isolated farms, also surprised the world by being the early adopters of the strange world of cranks and dials and operators that made up the original telephones of the 19th century)
@bikobiko posted a series of cell phone photos used by Community Health Workers in Malawi. One guy paid 8 bags of rice.
Just got back from visiting family in beautiful Blantyre. It’s rainy season now and there are regular rain showers every other day. Everything is green and lush. The sun is hot. The air is moist. And the shopping centres and outdoor markets of Blantyre are busy with holiday shopping. And except for a couple of power cuts and short water supply intermissions, I had good access to Blantyre’s “Big Three” from my part of town.
In search of the best Internet connection in Blantyre
To connect with my MBA study group, I needed an internet connection. Here are some of my findings and observations regarding Internet for private use.
Internet service providers in Blantyre include:
Mobile phone networks offer data services as well:
First, I tried TNM, but unfortunately they did not have any USB dongles in stock at the Chichiri sales office.
Next I tried Globe’s MAX 4G service. This promised the best connection speeds, but unfortunately the reception in my part of Blantyre was less than optimal. Instead of 4 LEDs lighting up, I only got between 2 and 3. And even then, the router showed a high fluctuation in signals. I kept losing my Skype audio connection when the signal dropped. When I got a strong signal it was speedy. But – due to my geographic position – the signal strength was unpredictable. I contacted Globe support and they wanted to update the firmware of the router and stated that they were some problems with Skype, which they had resolved.
If you don’t need audio or video streaming and if coverage in your area is good, then Globe MAX 4G is a good and viable option. But check the signal strength beforehand. Following the signal fluctuations, I started speculating about the quality of the provided Globe router, the influence of the weather, etc. When I returned the router, Globe suggested installing an external antenna to boost the wifi signal. At the end of the day, I think your geographic position and proximity to the signal decides whether this solution will work for you or not.
MTL (Malawi Telecommunications Limited) offers a wireless broadband product called MTL Liberty. A friend in Namiwawa strongly recommended it. The company is also advertising a new fibre optic cable connection in all major newspapers. I walked into an MTL shop near FMB in Blantyre to find out more about the fibre optic cable connection. The MTL sales person said that this will indeed connect Malawi to the Seacom cable and improve the Internet backbone, but it was not yet connected. He advised me to go to the MTL headquarters for more information. I didn’t have time to follow up on this.
I went back to TNM; this time to the head office in Livingstone Towers. The sales consultant was very savvy and explained the various data bundling options very well. I found out that if I have a postpaid TNM sim card, I can easily add mobile data services. The consultant advised me to wait another week and buy a 3G USB dongle. He said the 3G USB modem will go on sale on 30th December 2009. TNM is currently testing 3G in parts of Blantyre.
Automatic software downloads
Coming from Switzerland and a flat rate setup where I don’t care how many MBs are downloaded in the background, to a price plan where every MB counts, I realized how dependent software has become on a high speed internet connection. I was unable to download the latest Symantec Norton anti-virus update on my mom’s laptop via Globe Wifi at Chichiri because Norton timed out after 6 MB. I tried 3 times before I gave up. Unfortunately iGetter didn’t help cos Norton connects directly from the app. All kinds of software from Adobe Reader to Mozilla Firefox want to connect and download updates at regular intervals. It’s OK if you’re using a flat rate but if every kB costs extra time and money…
Software companies should consider alternative options for developing countries. Cloud computing is not yet available everywhere.
My mom had to go to SDNP to get her legally purchased version of MS Office registered *online*. What a hassle.
Flat rates connections are not yet very widespread in Malawi and usually only corporate customers can afford them. Most of my friends have Internet at their workplace or on their mobile handset only.
Opera 10
I strongly recommend getting Opera. Opera Turbo loads web pages much faster and compresses images. Thank you to Appfrica for their excellent article pointing to resources and tools.
Web design
Pages optimized for mobile internet and simple HTML load much faster than CMS-based web pages.
I was able to access the mobile version of chiperoni.ch at an acceptable speed. While other sites failed to display.
If you are targeting developing countries, please consider this in your web design.
Resize photos for lower bandwidth
Same for emails. My mom still connects using dial-up. Downloading 1.2 MB takes 20 to 30 minutes and many times the connection breaks. And she pays for the length of the dial-up connection. But, so many people from Europe forget to resize their photos for lower bandwidth. Please resize your photos before sending!
In Picasa 3 it’s really easy. Go to Tools > Options > Email and select a new size such as 640 pixel:
You can then email a photo from the Picasa interface.
I am having some problems with the .htaccess file on the WordPress level. I tried regenerating the permalinks. Hope that will help for a while.
A couple of days ago there was a lonely s at the end of the file. Amakhala scared.
And:
I am seeing a lot of “MySQL server has gone away” error messages in different context,
e.g. when I updated the WP install, when I try to access the website, in the right-hand area displaying categories.
I asked the hosting company and they pointed me to this link (which I haven’t tried yet).
If you have any hints please let me know.
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 into Friendfeed. Friendfeed – currently in a difficult interim situation since the Facebook announcement – still has the best real-time search. It is a great way to archive your tweets and make them searchable.
Import OPML file into Google Reader
These days, bloggers don’t talk much about OPML anymore. OPML files (and the legitimate re-use thereof) were widely discussed in the early days of the Swiss blogosphere.
It seems many apps try to shield us from the underlying technical issues regarding import/export and backups.
Dave Winer shows how to extract the feeds of your Twitter world using an OPML tool.
My Twitter world is accessible at http://tw.opml.org/get?user=nchenga&folder=1.
Next, I can download this file to my desktop.
And upload it into Google Reader:
It puts all of the newly imported feeds into a separate folder. ReadWriteWeb has a detailed how to.
The only downside is that you don’t want to re-read all of the tweets in your Google Reader. Especially if you’re reading other RSS streams within the same account.
Offline RSS Reader
You can use the OPML file to create an offline backup within your favorite desktop RSS reader. I use the feed reader in Opera 10 to pull a copy of my RSS feeds together. Advantage: doesn’t interfere with my online reading.
Twistory
Another fun tool is Twistory, which adds your Twitter prose to your Google Calendar. It offers an iCal feed. And you can time events by adding t and /t to your posts.
Timetracking tagging: start your tweets with both t or /t and Twistory will keep track of what you’re doing.
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 version optimized for iPhone and Barackberrys and others.
A couple of Mobilepress URL hooks to remember:
In addition I just downloaded the latest WordPress app for my low and humble iPod Touch. According to @whiteafrican it is much improved compared to the last version.
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 at Chiperoni headquarters, here are a couple of ideas and a rough outline for my presentation.
Ideas and links
I liked this section of Derek Powazek’s recent criticism of all things SEO:
The One True Way
Which brings us, finally, to the One True Way to get a lot of traffic on the web. It’s pretty simple, and I’m going to give it to you here, for free:
Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again.
That’s it. Make something you believe in. Make it beautiful, confident, and real. Sweat every detail. If it’s not getting traffic, maybe it wasn’t good enough. Try again.
Then tell people about it. Start with your friends. Send them a personal note ”“ not an automated blast from a spam cannon. Post it to your Twitter feed, email list, personal blog. (Don’t have those things? Start them.) Tell people who give a shit ”“ not strangers. Tell them why it matters to you. Find the places where your community congregates online and participate. Connect with them like a person, not a corporation. Engage. Be real.
Then do it again. And again. You’ll build a reputation for doing good work, meaning what you say, and building trust.
It’ll take time. A lot of time. But it works. And it’s the only thing that does.
‘Cos it explains why you can have all the SEO you want but without personal drive, it will take you nowhere. It’s the content that matters.
Within a larger organization, this personalized focused drive isn’t always possible and needs to be planned and managed carefully.
Derek’s approach misses some aspects. As pointed out by Danny Sullivan at “An Open Letter To Derek Powazek On The Value Of SEO”. Many aspects that long-term bloggers learnt between the lines while trying to google-bomb their way into the top 10 are unknown to website owners and need explaining. (May I take this opportunity to remind my blogging friends that I am still the top hit for “boring flower snapshot”? Yes, I may).
Rough outline
Here’s a first outline, which I’ll convert into PPT slides on Monday:
1. SEO – from directory lists to a secret search algorithm
2. White hat SEO vs. black hat SEO
Goodbye to link farms, Keyword stuffing, Cloaking, Redirects
3. Myths and legends
4. Technical Aspects of SEO
5. The Google Webmaster Guideline
Web developer must clearly have SEO thoughts in mind when building the site:
But this is only the basis…
6. Writing for the Web and SEO
How to get into the top 10 search items for a search phrase:
What do you think?
Other aspects to consider?
It seems charset and UTF-8 issues are following me around.
At the day job and here.
I moved my blog from one install to the other. After importing the MySQL db, several characters were no longer displaying correctly.
There are a number of plug-ins and descriptions:
I tried a combination of UTF-8 Sanitize and Search and Replace for broken Umlauts and accents.
Any suggestions or further recommendations? Any other strange characters to fix?
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 it’s foolish for any of us to expect that Web 2.0 companies be in the business of providing services for charity. They are, after all, for-profit entities and when opportunity arises, everyone looks out for themselves. That’s just the way of the world.
I really like Flickr, Twitter and I recently started using Friendfeed more actively. Mainly ‘cos I can search thru my Twitter content more easily.
But… what happens when these services are discontinued?
It is my data. I am the owner. As the owner I want:
These are my minimum requirements for online, interactive web applications. Sound easy and straightforward.
End of topic. Well, not quite.
Many web applications – and I’m kind of shying away from the omnipresent social media / social network term here – don’t offer an easy Export/Backup all of my data/Batch Download function.
Flickr Batch Download
Consider Flickr, by all measures one of the more established and mature tools. If you click Get Help this dropdown menu displays:
It doesn’t list an item how to download photos. titles, descriptions and comments or create a backup of photos and comments using a batch downloader or similar.
The tools page only lists applications to upload files.
Apparently, the export feature is being discussed in the Help forums. I know that there are lots of threads, discussing download tools for Flickr, ‘cos I was worried about my data at Flickr. Yes, every dedicated photographer has a backup system in place for their photos.
There are some third party tools like Downloadr (I haven’t tested this yet).
Here’s an example how to create a backup of your Twiitter content using Dave Winer’s OPML tool:
How To: Backup And Search All Your Friends’ Tweets In Google Reader
But, my point is: the effort is on the users’ side. And I know many users forget or ignore this. Luckily, the RSS format offers a number of options.
One way street
Signing up and uploading is made as easy as possible. I have years of data at Flickr and I really like the application. So far the benefits outweigh the downsides by far. I like sharing my photos at Flickr. But since I signed up, Flickr was purchased by Yahoo and now Yahoo is partnering with Microsoft. Who knows what will happen in the next 1-3 years? A good web application should offer a batch export/download function.
My advice if you’re signing up for a web application:
Remember the continuous bootstrap curve.
But somewhere between my cynicism and people’s Utopian desires lies a happy place. It’s called the blog.
Your Opinion…
What are your thoughts on this? How are you backing up your Flickr and Twitter and Facebook and Friendfeed and Google data? Do you care what happens to your data? What precautions are you taking?
Cyberwiter posted the above tweet on using social media to enhance your company’s online news room.
The article lists ways how to aggregate text, images, audio and video to make it useful for corporations and their target audience.
Ein gutgemachter Social Media Newsroom ist essentiell für die Online-PR: Er …
1. eröffnet einen schnellen Zugang zu den wichtigsten Unternehmensinhalten
2. lebt von aktuellen und vielfältigen Inhalten, die möglichst täglich erneuert werden
3. ist komplett per RSS abonnierbar und individualisierbar
4. basiert auf Pull-Elementen und nicht auf Push
5. spricht Journalisten wie andere Influencer gleichermaà Ÿen an
6. verweist nicht nur auf die eigenen, sondern auch auf fremde Quellen (Verlinkung)
7. öffnet seinen Pressespiegel für alle (Social Bookmarking erleichtert das)
8. ermöglicht den schnellen Kontakt für einen Dialog (Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc.)
9. nutzt Real-Time-Elemente (Livestreaming auf Basis von Twitter oder Friendfeed)
10. erleichtert die Vernetzung mit den Ansprechpartnern im Unternehmen
11. bietet reichhaltiges lizenzfreies Video- und Bild-Material (gerne auch Pod- oder Vodcasts)
12. fordert alle Besucher zu Copy & Paste auf
13. regt Online-Diskussionen auf anderen Plattformen (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs etc.) an
14. Integriert eigene Corporate Blogs und Microblogs
15. bringt die News des Unternehmens zum Laufen
The article lists a number of corporate examples.
The web consultant hiding here at Chiperoni headquarters (errr… me!) believes this is one way corporations can profit from new media technologies.
And I’m not only talking. I have been using blogging technology and RSS feeds within a company context for over four years.
My experience… some traditional PR distribution services still don’t understand that it’s important to be included in Google News.
It is. Whether you like Google or not.
A newsroom is more than just collecting and archiving press releases…
To build a community around Twitter or Facebook or similar, you will need a concept and a company policy regarding behavior in your communities. And before you quote me wrongly. I am not saying your company should start a Twitter or Facebook channel. Think about your time resources and goals beforehand. Ultimately you will want to draw people to your site or sub-sites. And there may be a different way that is better suited for your corporate environment. And most importantly, read the TOS before you start posting your content on third party sites.
See my simple WordPress prototype here – a quick test install to demonstrate how WordPress can be used for a simple corporate newsroom.
I need to run and finish my MBA assignments for today…
I discovered a couple of very useful lists of Gmail tips
Inspired by lots of fresh air
After lots of hours cramped in front of my books, trying to catch up with my studies, I went jogging for a couple of rounds on the Finnenbahn ( a sawdust track ) in the woods. Usually I find running around in circles boring. But today I didn’t mind cos my head is full of unprocessed data.
And while I plodded around the loop, I thought about:
The term mindblogging was coined by fellow blogger Persillie and refers to the writing of virtual blog posts while doing something else such as jogging. By default mindblog posts are always better than their written equivalent.
Congratulations to Mlle. A.! Her blog Handmade 2.0 is featured in the current edition of t3n, a German IT and web magazine.
Way to go!
Next in Brand eins?
I talked to my mom about internet connections in Malawi. She says that prices for mobile internet are getting more affordable. TNM offers USB modems. I need to research this…
Just confirming what I already knew.
No need to fight against machine-readable passports with RFIDs (c.f. #biometrischer pass). Your regular cell phone (that’s without any fancy GPS functions) already provides all the data needed to track you wherever you go.
c.f. this Namics presentation on Internet trends.
Add some pattern matching with some other online tools and voilà you’re identified.
Some links mentioned in the presentation:
Wikipedia on Reality Mining:
Reality Mining is the collection and analysis of machine-sensed environmental data pertaining to human social behavior, with the goal of identifying predictable patterns of behavior.
I really wish this would become reality:
“For me it is so good,” says Sondoto Kobia of Kenya. “I went to sleep yesterday barely being able to get out my emails, but this morning I uploaded a two-hour video of my sons graduation to You Tube in only 10 minutes! I’ve also heard from a number of family members who moved all over the world to places like Spain, France and Washington D.C. The phone is ringing, that’s probably one of them now!”
If only this were real…
In a world full of advertising and sales pitches, it’s the little things that count.
Like a handwritten note on the bottom of the fitness center’s invoice:
Bisch fleissig
The owner of the fitness center is a tough business woman. No discount. No rebate. No nothing. But she does build relationships. Which is the right approach.
I mentioned in my previous blog post that building communities is hard work. And I mentioned the Flickr example. While googling for the quote, I stumbled across the fact that George Oates was fired at Flickr in December 08.
While I don’t want to delve into something I know nothing about, I just can’t help feeling that this is a bad marketing move. And maybe Flickr is indeed being pruned for sale.
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, Google Reader, Delicious) and probably diverts (or puts off) a lot of people.
Maybe another reason is the second WordPress installation I’ve added to showcase an idea. Maybe the Google bot doesn’t like this kind of setup. I’m not sure. It’s not duplicate content.
Although I think I am still listed.
It is surprising because I have over 4 years of content here.
Fact is I could start a confessional style blog and publish details galore. And only five people would read it.
Because the amount of information floating around the Internet has exploded. Gone are the times where a blog post on a specialized topic would get hits.
Somehow I find this strangely comforting. I can hide in full public view. Hide on the Internet.
And the other message hidden in there is that building communities is hard work.
As enterprises try to follow their customers and consider integrating Facebook and Twitter into their marketing programs, I think it’s important to hold up some warning signs.
There are no quick wins in this.
You’ll need Scoble-like marketing resources. Using a video-only communication strategy is not the answer. People are different. Some like screencasts. Some like text.
Scoble says:
Truth is that if you want to build an audience on the web you must use EVERY tool available.
You’ll need to walk the fine line in your choice of communication (no marketing glib, no sales talk, no PR gobbeldygook, a real personal voice, useful and good content at frequent intervals). I read somewhere that the first Flickr team greeted every new sign-up personally.
You’ll need to have a clear community policy.
And above all you need to be aware that you’re giving your data to a third party.
Everything you publish on the Internet is up for grabs. Everything.
I’m not saying that enterprises should not invest in social media. I’m saying enterprises should carefully consider the costs. Maybe that’s a possible business model for Twitter… corporations pay for the ability to export their data and contacts at all times. A service agreement for data?
What happens if Yahoo sells Flickr to a stock photo agency?
As I watch the demise of Technorati and Xing, I keep getting reminded of Adam Greenfield’s talk on “Everyware”.
As we used to say in Blantyre: Amakhala scared.
If you’re here and reading this. Thank you. I’m not here for the stats. I’m here to learn. So far the positive effects outweigh the negative bits by far. And I believe everybody needs to become aware of this ocean of data that surrounds us and become a social media expert of sorts.
I’d like to share this video on building a profitable internet business. The presenter’s voice sounds kind of high strung, but he does address a couple of good points.
(via Twitter)
Here are a couple of links in preparation for a meeting tomorrow where I get to explain how I use RSS feeds.
What is an RSS Feed?
There’s a video explaining RSS feeds in plain English:
How do I use RSS feeds?
Advantages versus a regular email newsletter:
Tools:
I currently use Google Reader, a web-based feed reader. I have used dedicated desktop feed readers, other web-based tools, and the feed reader of Mozilla Thunderbird and Apple Mail. My preferences change from time to time. A web-based reader has the advantage of being accessible where ever I have Internet access and a browser. Email clients are great for a corporate environment.
More on Google Reader:
I can share, email or tag an entry within my RSS reader:
What else? Feel free to comment and describe your usage, while I catch some sleep.