extension 337 - this feed has moved

Your monthly reminder

2005-06-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

This weblog is now at www.ext337.org. You'll find the RSS feed at http://ext337.org/?rss=1.

Just a reminder

2005-06-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

New domain; new feed.

You can find this weblog at:

Ext337.org

You can find the RSS feed at:

http://ext337.org/?rss=1

You can find the Atom feed at:

http://ext337.org/?atom=1

You can find the link blog feed at:

http://del.icio.us/rss/ext337

Restart your aggregators

2005-05-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

While the tweaking will surely continue, I've got most of the set-up on the new version of this blog set. That means that, with the exception of a few housekeeping announcements, posting here will stop. Here's the info you need:

Ext337 is now at, appropriately enough, http://www.ext337.org;
The RSS feed for Ext337 is at http://ext337.org/?rss=1;
The RSS feed for my link blog, now called "Briefly Noted" is at http://del.icio.us/rss/ext337.

The good news (for me) is that this change has both strengthened and simplified the mechanisms I use to publish my blog. Del.icio.us now handles the link blog entirely. Since Textpattern supports categories I'll no longer be posting all of my own entries to del.icio.us in a category-like hack. I've reduced, greatly, the amount of information that appears on the blog itself for those of who still visit the actual website.

Anyway. See you there.

Houston, we have a URL.

2005-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've purchased ext337.org for the next incarnation of this blog.

Let the tinkering begin.

2005-05-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well, as much as I like bryght (and I really like it), I've decided that I just can't foot the $40/month hosting bill right now for a personal site.

With that in mind, I've made the somewhat surprising decision to use an application called Textpattern to manage this weblog. I'll be hosting it at Textdrive. You can see the beginnings here: ext 337. I still have some more to do before I flip the switch and stop using this site completely. I will, however, be doing some updates to that site.

I'm using Textdrive to manage my link blog -- it's in the left rail -- as well.

I decided to go with Textpattern because, well, I wanted to. I like the way that it manages content, using tags, and focuses on the ease of writing entries. I also like the chance to broaden my experience with different applications.

If the posting here slows down, check that site.

Cleveland?

2005-05-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

As it stands, I'll be in Cleveland Saturday, May 14th until Wednesday, May 18th. It looks like Saturday and Tuesday nights are free. If you're in Cleveland and you want to talk nonprofits and technology send me a note.

(in: meet?)

They're dead. They'rethriving. Dead. Thriving.

2005-05-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Beth Kanter offers a nice round up of the conversation to date: Beth's Blog: The trail of discoverability ... take 2.

Lots of food for thought. The whole discussion -- and the way in which it has been conducted -- provides, to my mind, a good evidence that blogs are in fact different than websites. Could anyone imagine this happening on a bunch of organizational sites? Would they even recommend that it should?

Blogging is about personal voice. Beth's post (linked above) points to examples of the way that organizations do this. Microsoft and Sun provide two other examples. In neither case are their blogs on their main corporate site -- but clearly both are letting employees talk about their work on company time.

(in: nptech, blogs, blogging)

What do you need? | ConsultantCommons.org (beta)

2005-05-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

What do you need? | ConsultantCommons.org (beta). Let us know.

Blogs may be obselete, but blogging isn't

2005-05-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

Ed Batista argues, in two posts, that blogs are obsolete. His point, if I understand his two posts correctly, is that we should just get on with it. Take what's good about blogs -- the voice, frequent updates, ease of use -- and let's convince people to incorporate that into their communications and let's stop talking blogs already.

And I might be persuaded to agree with him about blogs the artifact. Not, however, about blogging the activity. Blogging, the activity, includes linking, frequent updates that center around short bits of text, permalinks to content to make it easy for other people to track. It is not just about the communication style. It is about the activities that make the communications style work.

In my recent experience presenting on this topic, nonprofits are familiar with blogs. They aren't familiar with blogging.

I also believe that this activity allows things to go on that couldn't normally. Even in the most personable, well-written, frequently updated website.

My example? What Robert Scoble just did around Microsoft's decision to not support a Washington anti-discrimination law could not have been accomplished on any company site. The ensuring conversation and Microsoft's change of heart would never have happened on a company or organization site.

A nonprofit wants to turn part of its site over to employees? Blogging becomes an easy rubric in which to do that. Encourage people to talk about the organization? Blogging. Share links, in a news service-like fashion? Blogging.

Even with that, I'd love to get to blogging 2.0. What metrics are appropriate ones to follow on a weblog? Why? What are organizations successfully employeeing this medium doing? Stop talking more about the definition and start talking more about the practice.

Bonus link: Hammer, Nail: How Blogging Software Reshaped the Online Community

(in: blogging, blogs)

Explaining tagging

2005-05-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing a presentation advocating the creation, for a particular group, of a an area we've taken to calling the commons (you can see ConsultantCommons.org for one view into what I'm talking about). Anyway, I've been trying to figure out how to explain tagging to a group of non-technical users. People who are interested in the outcome and impact on their efforts, not in the gee whiz aspects. Here's what I've settled on:

Tagging is a way to view information across silos. Users, web sites, categorization schemes and formal taxonomies all provide ways to dig deeper into information but they are not, necessarily, good at presenting the cross-view. Tagging provides a way to do that.

What do you think?

(in: tagging, nptech)

My walk to work

2005-05-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

Bay Bridge,
originally uploaded by gorickjones.

Beth's Blog: Podcasting at NPOtech Events/Conferences

2005-05-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Beth Kanter has a terrific idea: Beth's Blog: Podcasting at NPOtech Events/Conferences. And one, as you can guess from my comment on her post, that is probably going to keep me up a little later tonight.

(in: nptech, podcast)

Am I a tag spammer?

2005-05-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

I use del.icio.us as a kludge to create my own categories on this blog. I write a post, figure out how I want to tag it, include the tags in the bottom of the post, and then, once it's published, I use del.icio.us to bookmark adding the tags that I've already decided upon.

I also use del.icio.us as a way to mark and share the URLs in which I'm interested. I use the nptech tag as a defined way of doing that. But I also republish the RSS feed (though a mechanism too convoluted to explain and much harder than it actually needs to be) in the right rail of my webpage. Effectively, this splices together the URLs in which I have interest and the postings on my own weblog.

While that's useful to me, it might not be useful to you.

In fact, some very informed opinions consider this kind of behavior tag spam.

If you look at del.icio.us as primarily a sharing tool -- a way to let others know about bookmarks in which you are interested -- then, yes, it is, in fact, spam. But if you look at del.icio.us as a mechanism for organizing your own data (no matter where that data actually lives) then it is not spam.

I tag plenty of non-me items words or phrases that are either opaque or, like @read only useful to me.

None of these uses -- deliberate sharing, self-organizing, or self-interested tags -- break the system which is the reason del.icio.us works so well.

But what do you think? Are any of those uses better than the others? What will lead to abuse? What will break the system?

(in: spam, tag)

Read/Write/Organize

2005-05-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

I agree with many of Dan Gillmor's thoughts about web 3.0. The first was the read-only web. It was all about what happened in the browser. Blogging tools drove, I believe, the move to version 2.0 -- the read/write web. Those tools are continuing to be matured. They are cropping up in easier and easier to use content management systems. In applications like flickr and the promised odeo and podshow. All those tools make it easy to publish -- words, pictures, audio -- to the web.

Where I part ways is on Web 3.0. He writes:

And then comes the latest web. This is where it gets really interesting.

The emerging web is one in which the machines talk as much to each other as humans talk to machines or other humans. As the net is the rough equivalent of a computer operating system, we’re learning how to program the web itself.

An operating system offers programmers something called an "applications programming interface," or API. The APIs are essentially shortcuts for programmers who want to use underlying capabilities of the operating system, such as displaying text or printing, and they help products interoperate with each other.

I think that's web 4.0 actually. Until it hits the web-savvy but non-programming user, I don't think we get to announce a version change.

I believe web 3.0 is about structure. It allows the average user to organize on the fly. It puts the tools for site navigation into the hands of the people using the site. I've said before that's what makes me so excited about both flickr and del.icio.us.

This movement is why I spend so much time talking about blogging. If we don't get diverse voice on the web -- and right now the diversity I'm concentrating on is nonprofits but other people take a much wider view of diversity -- there will be no diversity built into the structure of the web. The navigational cues will be so culturally specific as to be useless to people who aren't already on the Internet.

(in: web3, folksonomies)

You know your viewpoint is skewed when....

2005-05-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

I was chatting with someone on the ferry this morning when I realized she was wearing a shirt that said, "Basecamp."

Oh, I said. I've been playing with Backpack. And I love Tada lists. We use 'em for running our all our household stuff." And I just kept chatting and chatting and I realized that, well, she was looking at me weird.

Because the "Basecamp" on the shirt meant, you know, base camp.

(in: duh)

Busting through my PowerPoint walls

2005-05-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of Powerpoint. I don't have list of media reasons (dumbing down, bad design). I don't like it because I enjoy public speaking, I like interacting with the people in the room and my Powerpoints of lists have gotten in the way of that.

I'm preparing for a meeting in Cleveland and decided, because I need to keep more than just myself on track, that I should turn to the standby. I've been reading Cliff Atkinson'sbeyond bullets blog for a while and decided to take it for a spin.

I downloaded the PowerPoint add-in and fumbled my through it based on what I'd read on the blog. And just that made my presentation a radically different thing. So yesterday, I decided to fork over for the book. I read it last night and I felt my PowerPoint walls come tumbling down.

The two really a-ha moments for me?

The notes section really is a part of the presentation. It's not just where I leave cues for myself -- I prefer index cards anyway -- but I can use it give the audience information (in the form of a handout) freeing up the slide itself.
Using the slide sorter view to see view the presentation across slides.

If you give presentations a lot, I can't recommend the book highly enough. It gives the presentation advice I'm used to but joins it with Powerpoint in a way that really heightens impact.

The downside? Everyone in my office is looking at me oddly. Wait, they're saying. A book about PowerPoint has changed your life?

(in: powerpoint, presentations)

My aggregator of choice

2005-05-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

In the comments on an earlier post, Beth Kanter asks why I use FeedDemon.

It's the ferry.

I was a big bloglines user. I would be perfectly happy to do all of my work in my browser. However, I moved an hour ferry ride away from my San Francisco office and I wanted to be able to work offline.

I looked at different stand alone applications (no integration with an email client for me) and settled on FeedDemon because it allowed me to process items easily.

I go through my feeds delete or store for later action. My later actions are:

to read
to comment
link blog
ext337
crankreport

I spend my morning ferry ride into the city processing all the information in my aggregator and then I can quickly act on it when I'm in the office later.

And, yes, I am a GTD geek. Why do you ask?

(in: gtd, aggregator)

RSS article up on TechSoup

2005-05-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

It started with this post. I got feedback from the good folks at the Digital Divide Network and Omidyar Network. I revamped it a few times using the wiki-like tools at Consultant Commons. Now, it's been combined with another Consultant Commons article to appear on TechSoup as RSS for Nonprofits.

Thanks for all the help!

(in: techsoup, mywriting)

SF Goodwill highlighted in N-TEN newsletter

2005-05-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

The May 3, 2005 issue of N-TEN's newsletter highlights Peter Campbell's work with San Francisco Goodwill. Congrats, Peter!

(in: nptech, stories)

Updated OPML file

2005-05-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Prompted by an entry on Beth Kanter's blog, I just updated my subscriptions on bloglines to reflect my current reading. I've been using FeedDemon. And am, generally speaking, happy with it.

(in: housekeeping)

A little love for the nptech tag

2005-05-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

On:

(in: nptech)

I think it's going to be Drupal

2005-04-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

extension337 | Nonprofits, technology, seredipity and social change. I'm doing some more playing around. Let me know what you think.

One of the things that I really like about drupal is the integration of other RSS feeds into the site.

(in: housekeeping)

With her floppy hat

2005-04-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

With her floppy hat,
originally uploaded by gorickjones.

Consider this the monthly parental pride posting.

Go read it right now.

2005-04-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Jason's right: It's that important. Doc Searls' closing keynote from Les Blogs.

(in: blogs, definition)

So you wanna start a blog?

2005-04-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Okay. You're a nonprofit decision-maker.You've read the what's-a-blog articles (1,2, 3, 4). You saw the cover of this week's Business Week. And now you've decided to take the plunge. What are your next steps?

Choose your tool.
Are you wavering in your commitment and love of the form? Not sure if it'll work for your organization? You want this to be in "beta"? Beta like it might not work. Like you might decide not to go forward with it. Then blogger is the tool for you. Even the hosting can be free. And it's stable. Google owns it and they're not going away.

You feel more sure? You know that you want to do this and you've assigned someone to keep the blog up-to-date but you don't want to invest heavily in a technology infrastructure? Go Typepad. Typepad provides a few more options -- notably trackbacks and categories -- that adds to the managability and conversationality of your blog.

Feel strongly that you want this on your own servers? You want to be able to build and customize as you see fit? Two good options for you, both open source: WordPress or drupal, specifically the CivicSpace fork. WordPress can give be a good light-weight Content Management System. Drupal/CivicSpace is a big box of legos but gives you a powerful tool for organizing your website. I don't recommend either of these options if you don't have good, confident technology assistance (though, volunteers can be had).

Name your weblog.
Don't spend too much time on this but do spend some. Give it a name that you like, that fits somehow with your organization. You also have the opportunity to provide a description. Think of this like a title and a subtitle. Don't call it "My Blog" or something else similarly vague. I've named my own blog after my phone extension -- it's mine but still linked to my job. The name you choose for your weblog can help your position in Google (I haven't done a very good job of this). Including a word or phrase that you'd like to own -- something that, when plugged into Google, returns your site -- can be a good idea but don't get too artificial or too long.

Turn on RSS.
Don't worry about what it stands for. Don't even worry about what it is. Okay, worry a little bit. It stands for Really Simple Syndication. And you will need to use it. But don't worry about what it is technically. When you are setting up your weblog, one of the options will be to set up a web feed. This may also be referred to as a subscription option. Make it available. All you need to do is check the box and -- automagically! -- the weblog software will generate an additional page of code based on your weblog which will allow people to use third party aggregators to subscribe to your site.

When you do this, you will be presented with some options for your subscription. The wording will vary but typically these options are: headlines, headlines plus a few words, or the full posting. This refers to the content that people will receive in their aggregator. Only want them to know what you titled your post? Choose headline. Want them to get the first little bit of text or a few descriptive sentences that you provide? Choose the second option. Or do you want them to get all of your posted goodness straight into their aggregator? Choose the third.

I say: pick the third. Yes, I know. The first two force people to click-thru to your site. There, not only will they get your posted words of wisdom, they will also have the chance to prowl around. Heck, they may even decide to give you some money. Except you better be really good at writing those headlines because they may not decide to click. They may not link to you because they don't have enough information. They may even be using RSS to read weblogs while offline. In which case, they need to like what you gave them enough to fire up their computer later, when connected, and go back to your headline, click and see what's on your site.

Permalinks, permalinks, permalinks.
Permalinks are built into the weblog software that I recommend above. In fact, you'd have to make a bigger effort to turn then off then to use them. Essentially, these provide an individual URL for each post. They keep people from having to say, when forwarding your weblog URL, Okay, go to this page and then scroll down. Under the picture of the yak. It's the third headline. Permalinks give an individual URL to a chunk of your content. Folks can forward this and link to it as they desire.

Make it easy for people to share your content.
Okay. This is really just reinforcing the last two points. Full-feed RSS and permalinks make it very easy to share your content. People can email it, they can link to it. They can save it. They can even reprint parts of it. None of this is bad. It's allowing the power of the web to work in your favor.

Link.
Don't be afraid of links. Include them -- link to other organizations, weblogs, news articles -- in your weblog posts. Sure, some people will click on the first one and never come back. For other readers, though, you are providing a valuable service by pointing them to important information in your area of expertise. They may leave, but they'll come back. And they will come back because you will become a source of information for them.

But linking isn't just about providing a clipping service for your readers. It's also about sharing your wealth -- readers and web real estate -- with others. This sharing can increase their readership and some of those folks will share right back.

Read your referrer logs.
Website metrics are a tricky business (even more so for weblogs where, I'd argue, some of the traditional notions of stickiness don't apply and where RSS can obscure the number of viewers). I'm not talking about knowing how many people hit your site today, though that can be seductive. I'm talking about knowing who is linking to you. If you can't get at a referrer log easily, add a counter to the bottom of your site.

I recommend Site Meter and Stat Counter. Both are free. Both can be displayed in various ways and are very easy to insert into a page. And both will provide information on where your web traffic is coming from. Click through. Look at the pages.

Comment on other weblogs.
You can comment on other weblogs in two ways: on their site and yours. Both have value.

Comment on their site when you are really just adding a little bit to their post. When you want to say, Hey, I found this interesting and here's a little tidbit that I can add to that. You bring value to their site but you also show them that you are paying attention. And that you are willing to contribute to the web wide conversation -- not just the conversation happening on your own weblog.

Comment on your site if you have something really substantial to say and you think that it would be of benefit to your audience. If someone else's posts or thoughts are really just a jumping off place for you, make a post to your own site being certain to link to the site provided the catalyst. Not only does this give your readers a fuller sense of where you are coming from, it creates the links necessary for a wider conversation.

Use trackback if your software supports it.
Trackback provides a mechanism for others to -- automagically! -- alert and update your site when they make a post based on one of yours. This will show up in your referrer logs.

Turn on your own comments..
Let it be anonymous or not. Moderated or don't. But give people a chance to chime in. Just like your comments add value to their website, their comments add value to yours. And be prepared for people to disagree with you, to ask you for things, to express their opinions. That means you've hit something in them and it's not bad.

Delete the profane and spam as you will but leave everything else. If someone is harsh or rude, others will recognize it and they will recognize you for allowing conversations to take place rather than just accepting me-too comments.

Archives.
This implies that you are posting. Obvious? Maybe. But you've got to do it. Don't wait until you've perfected and polished that 1,000 word treatise. Post early and often. A little link will do you. Show up, on your weblog, every day. Ask for thoughts and then respond. Pay attention, both to your corner and the weblog world in general.

Archives, by month, provide a history. As such, they develop your credibility and show your investment.

[I just put this post up in ConsultantCommons.org. I made it available in book form which means you can edit it. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome]
(in: blog, npech)