Archive for March, 2008

It seems like newspapers everywhere are revamping their web sites in hopes of staying ahead of the wave of people going online to get their news. The Eureka Reporter unveiled its site in December, and a couple months the Times-Standard released the lastest version of its site.

The previous version of the Times-Standard was chaotic and hard to look at. While this version is an improvement, there is still way too much going on, particularly on the home page.

For one thing they have lots of ads and if any of them are animated this lends a feeling of chaos. Also, the nature of ads, unless they are carefully controlled, is that they clash with the overall design. Their whole point is to draw attention to themselves and away from the content. Additionally, they are still using annoying pop up ads. I realize they need to find a way to monetize their content, but those things are so aggravating they are probably more a net negative to advertiser. Of course, I don’t have any metrics to back this up. Just my personal reaction.

Additionally, the T-S wants to become more than just a newspaper, with video and blogs, an event calendar and more. But they seem to want to cram links to everything on to the home page. And today, they had not one, but two embedded videos competing for my attention.

I like that you can still comment on articles. But I’m not sure what value the location tool is since it uses the IP you are assigned by your ISP and that could be any number of locations. It’s just confusing.

But the bigger question here is will all of these new web sites save newspapers in the long run? Does the revenue earned from online ads really offset the cost? How can newspapers compete with Craig’s List? And with so many options for news will newspaper web sites be able to retain their importance as a primary news source? Eric Alterman’s recent essay in the New Yorker subtitled “The death and life of the American newspaper” notes the following statistic:

Only nineteen per cent of Americans between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four claim even to look at a daily newspaper. The average age of the American newspaper reader is fifty-five and rising.

But if newspapers, that pay for original reporting disappear, where will we get the news that bloggers like me comment on? What will we link to? I think as newspapers die, a new model will rise as the hunger for information does not seem to be diminishing, but growing.

Technorati Tags: journalism, new yorker, newspapers, times-standard

Cancer is a scary disease. It can lie hidden for years and suddenly a test reveals your bones/lungs/liver/brain/colon is riddled with it. But I have been fighting the good fight. I have been fending off cancer by drinking red wine. Not only that, but the same cancer fighting ingredient, resveratrol, is also helpful in staving off some of the effects of diabetes. And there is some indication that red wine could be good for the heart.

I just got done hauling and stacking wood. I think I will have a nice glass of red wine and little nap. I’m such a health nut!

Technorati Tags: cancer, diabetes, health, heart disease, red wine, resveratrol

Well, after strutting around all winter with nary sniffle I came down with one of this year’s versions of the crud. Really, just a cold. But a mean one with a debilitating dry cough that caused my  entire torso to ache and found me spending two nights in the living room chair trying to sleep in a semi-upright position.

I tried to work, off and on, at home. I tried to read when I could concentrate or focus my eyes. But really, I spent a lot of time just sitting and trying not to disturb whatever it was that my lungs were trying to expel.

I know I am not alone. I’ve had many friends tell me their horror stories. I’ve read about the losses in school income due to high  absentee rates. I’d felt so fortunate, even a little superior having gotten to Spring in such a healthy fashion. Now I have joined the many weak of soul and body. I have succumbed to the viral menace.

But things are better today. I can walk through the house without collapsing in to a hacking fit.  I can talk for more that a few minutes without my voice devolving in to an incoherent whisper. Tomorrow is a new day. And hey! It’s Friday already!

Technorati Tags: crud, health, sickness

Karen Armstrong is a tremendous writer on religion. She was honored recently at the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference. Her acceptance talk is revelatory and I thought appropriate for this Easter weekend. She includes a proposal that offers a chance of transcendence for all of us. The 20 minute video is well worth watching and contemplating.

And if you aren’t aware of TED, check out the other talks available.

Technorati Tags: Karen Armstrong, peace, religion, TED, the golden rule

We’re slowly letting go of the video production side of our business. Lots of
reasons for this but one of them is the stiff competition. I mean with people
like these folks, it’s hard to imaging being able to match the quality and
effervescence they bring to their work. Enjoy!

[youtube AC0sR5_NTFo]

Rich Ryan offered some exciting options in his presentation for the RTC last night. His company, Hunter Communications has a great deal of experience building fiber networks in rural areas. They seem to know the issues that confront a region like ours. They understand the physical and regulatory landscape. They also seem to be able to make economic sense out of building fiber in areas that are generally under served by the telcos.

Rich is also very community oriented and is open to partnering with anyone. He has an interest in expanding his operations in to Northern California. I am hoping we can get him started on some solutions very soon.

Technorati Tags: alternat fiber, broadband, fiber, hunter communications

The Redwood Technology Consortium has invited Rich Ryan, CEO of Hunter Communications from Southern Oregon to speak at the monthly meeting tomorrow, March 13 at 5:30 PM. Ryan has built fiber networks in Oregon and is very interested in finding solutions for the North Coast.

Topics discussed will include:

* Hunter Communications background and current composition

* Development of fiber networks and the implementation of the Rural and
Metropolitan Area Network in Southern Oregon

* Vision for the Northern California Coastal Region and what a
regional fiber network could mean for businesses, municipalities and
other groups

* Hunter’s Plan for our region and how it fits in the “big picture”

Hunter Communications’ formed a creative public-private partnership model that leveraged pre-existing, school budgeted telecommunications funds to build a network infrastructure capable of handling regional demands, and currently servicing over 90 sites. Hunter’s efforts have resulted in unprecedented new communications and connectivity resources for a number of previously disregarded rural communities.

The meeting this month is at the Humboldt Area Foundation Conference Room. 373 Indianola Rd., Bayside.

Technorati Tags: alternate fiber, fiber, redundant fiber, Redwood Technology Consortium

The newly formed Humboldt Film and Digital Media Commission is holding a public meeting tonight to discuss state and the future of these arts in our region. The event starts at 5:30 PM at the Wharfinger Building. You can find details of the event on the Redwood Technology Consortium Calendar.

Update: There was a somewhat small but very enthusiastic turnout for this meeting. Of particular interest was a presentation by the folks putting on the upcoming Humboldt Film Festival. With a new venue, a whole lot more entries to choose from and some interesting judges it should be an exciting and eye opening event.

As for the Film and Digital Media Commission itself, it’s hard to know exactly where things will lead, but they seem to have a dedicated group with a vision for region as a center for film and digital media.

A new web cam pointed at the Arcata Plaza has arrived. It’s momentarily interesting. But unless something actually happens on the Plaza, like a drug bust or the Oyster Festival, I’m not sure of the appeal. Also, I’m not sure what caching scheme is being used, but once I’ve visited the site in Firefox, returning back to the site later brings me back in time to original point when I first visited. I’ve tried everything (clearing browser cache, forcing reload) short of restarting the browser to see if I can get a current view of the Plaza. For this screen shot I had to open Safari. Maybe it’s just my Mac operating system that doesn’t work will with the camera.

Installed by C4i Security, a company which specializes in video security systems, I wonder if it’s as much designed to monitor the Plaza by officials as it is a novelty for interested civilians. At least from the public page there are no controls such as pan and zoom (like the Camel Rock Surf Cam), so the fixed angle is pretty limiting.

We recently completed an upgrade to the Redwood Technology Consortium web site. A few years ago we converted the site from a proprietary Cold Fusion system to the open source Drupal platform. We felt it was time to upgrade since the site was running on a 4.x version of Drupal. 5.x had been out for a while and all the modules we needed had also been upgraded to the current version. While we were working on the upgrade, Drupal released version 6 while progress on version 7 proceeded on a fast pace. All this to say I am glad that we went down the Drupal path. Development on the platform is rapid and core improvements and module development is quite intensive

While for the most part visitors to the site won’t notice much difference since the upgrade, back end functionality is much improved. The system allows multiple users with the proper access privileges to maintain the content and that hasn’t changed. The original design by Carson Park Design remains the same as well.

During the upgrade we did move member management to a major module suite called CiviCRM. This will allow for much easier joining, renewal and display of members. For an all volunteer organization, anything that streamlines the process is a huge benefit.

Technorati Tags: drupal, open source, Redwood Technology Consortium

After some dire budget issues traumatized the City Council the proposed feasibility study that would give Eureka a basis for making intelligent decisions on telecommunications issues was put off once again. The motion that passed indicated that the project would be re-visited in six months. As if the budget will magically get better by then. Not with this economy, and not with state budget troubles that will roll downhill to cities.

However, they did also agree that the issue could be brought up again sooner if staff could find alternate sources of funding. It’s likely that these sources will be found, and I was surprised that these alternatives were not part of tonight’s proposal. So, we’ll see.

Technorati Tags: broadband, municipal wireless, wireless

Last Monday Erik V. Kirk, famed SoHum blogger, spoke at my Rotary Club (I can’t believe I’m in a Rotary Club, but there I am). His talk was a fun mixture of tech naiveté and insights in to how blogging information can spread and come back to the blogger in unexpected ways. What he thought was an obscure journal of life and ideas in an obscure part of the world, seems to have been found by thousands of people and become a hotbed for conversation on local and global issues. His approach to the talk was just right for our group, most of whom, while extremely bright, have not had the opportunity to learn about the power, opportunities and pitfalls of blogging for fun and/or profit.

I’ve recently seen an increased interest in the use of blogs by small business. And in response to a direct question from one client on how to get started, I offered the following advice (more or less):

Blogging can be fun, but it can also be time consuming. Blogging isn’t for everyone and not for every business. First, you have to like to write. Second, you should have something to say about your industry that people would want to read, or something special you want to express to your customers. Third, it can tricky to get set up and keep the software up to date if you install it yourself. This NY Times article puts some perspective on blogging for small business.

Using a blogging tool as opposed to just posting content on a web site takes advantage of the way the data gets propagated on the web. Blog posts have a way of reaching far more people than static web pages and draw a wide audience to your site. How this works may be subject for another day.

Basically, there are two routes to go:
1) Using a hosted solution
2) Installing blogging software on your own domain

Each has its own advantages/disadvantages.

The two biggest advantages of using a hosted solution is that you can get your blog up and running in 5-10 minutes. Software is all managed by the hosting company so when it’s updated you don’t have to do anything, and if you use blogger.com (a Google company) or Wordpress.com it’s free.

The disadvantages of this solution is that you have limited control over features and how it looks. You are restricted by using the available templates and plugins (chunks of code that you can install to extend the functionality of your blog). I am not familiar with blogger features as I have never used it. But I know many, many people do. I’m not sure how flexible its system is for changing the look and adding features, but I assume, with a little knowledge of HTML and CSS some things can be changed. Also, Wordrpess.com does have a commercial version where you pay a minimal amount and get more features/flexibility.

The other disadvantage of this approach is that it’s not on your domain. All you can do is link to it. So, a link to your blog takes your site visitors away from your main site.

Solution #2 solves all the disadvantages of solution #1, but of course, introduces other issues. There are lots of free and commercial applications that can be installed on your own account. I don’t intend to review them all here. A good place to find options and reviews of free software is OpenSourceCMS.com. I’ve used the free Wordpress software for years and really like the wide range of tools and the easy of modifying the look and feel.

By installing your own software you can make it do a lot more because you can control how it looks, what plugins you use, etc. You can even integrate it directly in to your site in a nice, dynamic way. For example, we built a site for Adventure’s Edge that uses Wordpress for its blogging software. The back end is exactly like a standard Wordpress installation. But the front end is completely integrated in to their site. Although they aren’t using it fully yet, (a new team just took over the store), the latest 3 headlines from all posts will appear on the home page with links to the full blog post. Also, if they assign a post to a category that corresponds to a department, the post’s headline will show up on the specific department’s page as well. They intend to use the blog to keep their customers up to date on new products, sales, and events at the store.

The disadvantages are that this all has to be set up by a developer so there are costs involved. And if something goes wrong you or your developer needs to fix it. Upgrades have to be done as security patches and new versions are released. However, there is now a plugin for Wordpress that makes this very simple - just a few clicks and you’re done.

If the blog is intended to draw traffic to your main site, it can be better to have it integrated with your site rather than just having a link to your main site from a hosted blog at blogger.com or wordpress.com.

Another alternative is to use Wordpress or something like Drupal (a very popular Content Mangement System which includes a blogging module) for building your entire site. Again, though, unless you have experience with this software, these options are going to require a web developer to get them set up. Both packages are relatively easy to get up and running in minutes. But customizing the design and functionality can be complicated and requires a good deal of planning, configuration and often some programming.

While ultimately, I believe installing blogging software on your own site is the way to go, if you are thinking about blogging and just want to try it out, the best option would be go to blogger or wordpress, sign up for an account and give it a try.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogger, blogging, blogs, drupal, small business, wordpress

The Redwood Technology Consortium is again offering a scholarship of $1500 to be given to a North Coast graduating senior who will be attending an institution of higher education in the 2008-2009 academic year. The scholarship winner is determined by essays submitted by the deadline of 5:00 PM April 7, 2008.

The theme this year:

In this election year, how is changing technology affecting the political process?

To answer this question, applicants might consider the following:

• The effect of technology on the voting process.
• The use of the Internet for fundraising.
• How blogs affect campaigns.

Further details can be found at the RTC web site.