For future reference:
Creating Collaboration in a Room Full of Opinions
Blog
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Collaborating
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Overheard: “Hello! I’m jogging.”
I just passed four joggers on my daily bicycle ride home from work. Just as i passed, one of the joggers answered her smartphone while continuing to jog:
“Hello! I’m jogging.”
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Best chiperoni.ch snapshot of 2016?
Another year has passed. And it’s time to look at my photos and select a snapshot per month.
My photo selection skills are influenced by memories, rather than the photo’s quality alone.
The method:
I quickly scan through my photos on a per month basis and select a photo based on number of views, personal taste, or memories or a mixture of all three.History:
See past summaries for 2015 and 2014 and 2013 and 2012 and 2010.January 2016
February 2016
March 2016
April 2016
May 2016
June 2016
July 2016
August 2016
September 2016
October 2016
November 2016
December 2016
Your feedback and comments are highly appreciated.
You can also view the selection in this Flickr album.
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Scrum and UX design
I saw this article on Scrum and UX design at t3n.de (in German only).
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“Büseli, Büseli”
How to call your cat indoors on a rainy autumn evening in Basel:
“Büseli, Büseli“
Büsi is Swiss-German for cat.
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Learning to use Hugo to build websites
I’m learning how to use Hugo to build websites. I signed up for a Udemy course by Dan Hersham.
I followed the tip to use Homebrew. And 2 to 3 commands later I had generated a skeleton of a site.
Hugo is well-documented and it looks like an exciting alternative to explore.
It supports TOML, YAML and JSON.
I still have a couple of lessons to go thru in my Udemy course.
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Quote to remember
via Su Franke on Flickr:
"Firmen wollen auf den Mond fliegen, haben aber nur klapprige Fahrräder rumstehen" Zitat von Jürg Stuker https://t.co/PKlFCO22Q9
— Panchenga (@nchenga) September 17, 2016
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The fast track to DIY images
For all my creative photography friends, here’s an article by Moz on how images boost conversion. And a list of tools.
- Visage https://visage.co/
- Recordit http://recordit.co/
- GIFboom (no link cos the sample photos look like they are intended for a dating site)
- Placeit https://placeit.net/
- Studio http://www.madewithstudio.com/
- SnapChat (errr… really?)
The sample images displayed in the Moz article aren’t very inspiring but the tools look useful.
My toolset? I use Canva and Photoshop at the day job and Pixelmator on my MacBook at home.
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Co-working space in Copenhagen
Need a place to work in CPH for a couple of hours or 1 day? I can recommend the cafe of http://republikken.net/. Good coffee. Work atmosphere with other people working around you.
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Recommended article: Great content isn’t the same as long-form content
Here’s a Moz article on the current trend to write long-form articles.
Great Content ≠Long-Form Content
Long-form articles need to be well-researched. Just going for length is not going to work.
“Create content that helps people.”
It’s fun… writing about long-form articles in very short blog posts.
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3 Copywriting tips supported by research
Tip 1: Use simple vocabulary
Tip 2: Use short sentences
Tip 3: Help readers navigate your writing
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Barcamp Bodensee 2016
Last Saturday I attended Barcamp Bodensee in Konstanz.
Here are some brief notes and thoughts on sessions that I attended:
Ask a digital teen
Barcamp attendees asked a 15 year old what apps and web services he uses. Youtube, Gaming, TeamSpeak, Discord app, some Whatsapp, Google Calendar. No TV. No Facebook. His school doesn’t allow the use of smartphones on the school grounds.Digital strategy for non-profit organizations
Digital strategy means finding a way to connect CMS and CRM and accounting and payment apps and processes. CiviCRM was recommended; if offers connectors for WordPress and Drupal. There’s an association called “Software für Engagierte” (in German only). QuickBook, Collmex were mentioned for accounting purposes.Getting Things Done
A certified GTD trainer offered an intro to David Allen’s method. Mind like water. Some very useful tips. For example, to do lists aren’t enough. Lists need to be sorted and categorized. Actionable items and next steps instead of just listing the project. Tasks that take less than 2 minutes should be taken care of immediately. Cos it takes more time to get back to these mini-tasks. Related links:Intro to Snapchat
Useful intro to a social network that is growing fast. The speaker encouraged us to sign up to learn how influencers are using Snapchat for storytelling.Sehr coole Session zu #snapchat von @sozialpr beim #bcbs16 pic.twitter.com/EdCYOuELyg
”” André Kirberg (@adkirberg) April 16, 2016
Messaging
Messaging apps are probably going to change in 2016, c.f. Facebook’s recent announcement. E.g. possibility to order services and buy products via chat like in Asian chat apps, Line and WeChat. We went off on a tangent and collected a comprehensive list of messaging apps….
I’ve learnt a lot at barcamps in the past and recommend attending one or two if you can. The same content will cost you $$$ at a commercial conference and lots more nerves. Barcamps are fun and way more relaxing.
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Snapshots
Some photos from my Flickr stream:
I’ve got this theory that fresh green colour soothes the eyes and helps to relax.
I saw 2 cats. Both look somewhat unamused. And ready to pounce on any intruders.
Saturday was sunny and warm. I like this snapshot, taken with my Moto 3 G:
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Useful check list for your new WordPress site
I found this list of useful tips on launching a WordPress site:
Don’t Launch a WordPress Site Before You Go Through This Checklist https://t.co/1jYcZV1yVH too late, already launched
— Panchenga (@nchenga) March 27, 2016
Things to watch out for are:
- fast hosting
- search-engine optimized theme
WordPress is working on a new codebase:
The new WordPress.com codebase, codenamed “Calypso,” moves WordPress.com away from MySQL and PHP. It’s built entirely in JavaScript, and communicates with WordPress.com only using our REST API.
I don’t know how this will play out for self-hosted sites. You can use Calypso functionality via Jetpack. The benefit, that I read most frequently, is that the Calypso editor is well designed for writers.
See also:
What is WordPress Calypso and what does it mean for self hosted sites?
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Museum Unterlinden in Colmar
On my daily bicycle commute, I kept noticing art posters, labelled Le nouvel Unterlinden. Today, I saw a Designboom article, shared by someone in my community, discussing the newly renovated museum in Colmar.
herzog & de meuron renovates and extends colmar's musée unterlinden https://t.co/qXcTozsuOY pic.twitter.com/sepN4lgU19
— designboom (@designboom) February 7, 2016
Connection made.
Advertising works. Both print and online.
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It’s February already
I listened to the latest episode of The Big Web Show this weekend. The topic was interaction architecture. Here’s a tweet pointing to the show:
Is Information Architecture a dead art, or does it matter more than ever?@abby_the_ia @zeldman
Big Web Show â„– 142https://t.co/ft9EQIw8n4— The Big Web Show (@thebigwebshow) January 22, 2016
On Sunday evening, I saw this tweet, which describes exactly what happened to our content/our attention.
Remember when we all moved out of the houses we owned into the big free hotel, and years later management changed the wallpaper to ads?
— Paul Ford (@ftrain) February 6, 2016
Maybe a good candidate for my Twitter Poetry collection?
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Recommended movie: An by Naomi Kawase
I saw this film: An by Naomi Kawase. I liked it.
It’s about freedom. It has a poetic feel. It’s slow and feels real. You get attached to the main characters.
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Best snapshot of 2015?
Here is an attempt to find my best snapshot per month for 2015.
January 2015
February 2015
March 2015
April 2015
May 2015
June 2015
July 2015
August 2015
September 2015
October 2015
November 2015
December 2015
The method:
I quickly scanned through my photos on a per month basis and selected a photo based on number of views or memories or both.History:
See past summaries for 2014 and 2013 and 2012 and 2010. -
Reasons to blog
I saw this article today on the benefits of blogging:
“So why should you blog?” https://t.co/sxbWSvtWPI
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) November 1, 2015
- Blogs refine your thoughts
- Blogs reward the creator
- Blogs amplify your humanity
- Blogs connect us to our tribes
- Blogs give introverts a voice
- Blogs reward the “new age” publishers
- Blogs embrace the experimenters
- Blogs accelerate discovery
- Blogs open up a world without borders
I’ve written about the reflective power of writing. E.g. here.
I bet, there were similar articles about writing ever since writing was invented.
It’s quite difficult to carve out a space in our multimedia world to sit down and write and reflect and create. Many times I just feel like I am part of the echo chamber. Not adding any value. Not going deep enough.
One reason to keep your blog going is digital memories.
The weather was beautiful today. Sunny and warm. I tried to capture the day and hold onto the moment with these snapshots.
Walking down the stairs:
Crossing the river Rhein at the Kraftwerk:
This bicycle colour is cool:
Looking down:
Just like in San Francisco, the fog moved in at around 5 pm:
Autumn colours:
I am continuing my Vine experiment. Here’s the new water fountain in Riehen Dorf:
Riehen https://t.co/OIWZPqef3c
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) November 1, 2015
Video isn’t easy. At all. This Coschedule blog post mentions some tools to explore:
- Video Hance (iPhone)
- QuickCast (iPhone)
- ScreenFlow (desktop tool)
Always a good resource, Hubspot lists video ideas to try out for your business.
What tools or apps can you recommend? I’m on Android.
By chance, I learnt that there is an edit function in Vine.
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Jetpack Publicize
Auto-sharing via Jetpack Publicize didn’t work on my previous post on chiperoni.ch. I’ll need to investigate if there is a conflict with another plugin.
Irgendetwas ist immer.
Maybe this post will be auto-shared?
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Autumn colours
Last weekend, I went for a walk on Belchen in the southern Black Forest (1414 m). Not as high and spectacular as the Swiss alps, but still very beautiful.
I nearly forgot to take my camera.
Here are some snapshots:
