The Blog Herald

5 Lesser-Known Benefits to Creative Commons

Jonathan Bailey — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:14:51 +0000

Bloggers use, and don’t use, Creative Commons Licenses for a variety of reasons. Some feel that it is a great way to give back to the community, others use CC licensing as a form of promotion, encouraging their content to be used with attribution, and others feel that it is a way to promote copyright reform.

However, Creative Commons can actually provide bloggers benefits that go well beyond the buttons and badges. In the uncertain copyright climate of the Web, having a firm lawyer-written license, regardless of what it says, can have huge benefits over the ambiguity that comes with not having one.

Here are just five less-promoted ways that choosing a CC license can help you, your site and your content, even as you surrender some of your rights in a particular work.

5. Search Engine Benefit

Though it is unclear if using Creative Commons will get you a higher rank in Google, there is no doubt that it will get your content into CC-oriented search engines, such as Google and Yahoo! This can help expose your work to many new visitors.

The only caveat to this audience is that, when they are searching for CC-licensed material, searchers are looking for something to use on their site, not necessarily something to follow and enjoy. However, most searchers visit dozens of links before they find one that works and often times they discover new writers, artists and musicians along the way.

Likewise, Flickr users that add CC licenses to their images will find that their content comes up on more image searches and more API queries. Even if it is not used every time, or even most of the time, it is additional exposure.

4. Greater Copyright Clarity

One thing that I’ve noticed over the years is that there are many people on the Web that are confused about what exactly they can and can not do with content licensed under a traditional “All Rights Reserved” license. However, thanks in part to the buttons, CC terms are clearly explained, within reason.

Though the exact limitations in some cases are confusing, especially when dealing with non-commercial licenses, there is much less confusion and headache to end users and this encourages them to actually follow the license. As Anthony Falzone, the executive director of the Stanford Fair Use Project, said in one of his presentations that Creative Commons is a GUI for copyright and that though, like Windows, it may crash once in a while, it is a lot easier to use than MSDOS.

This clarity not only makes it easier for you to express your terms, but for others to follow your wishes, at least in spirit. That, in turn, makes it more likely they will do so.

3. More Likely to be Quoted

Though fair use allows others to quote and cite content from your blog, the broad fair use exemptions are a largely American invention and, even then, are very difficult to predict and use successfully. As a result, many people are not comfortable quoting even small portions of content without permission, even if the fear is unjustified in most cases.

Having a CC license offers encouragement for that kind of reuse and lets anyone interested in reusing some of your text that you are fine with it. Though the lack of a CC license may not stop many people from quoting you who was going to do so previously, it does encourage others to quote more from your site, talk more about it and link more to your work than they might have otherwise.

2. Less Time Dealing with Infringement

Though, as a copyright holder, you have the right to decide what cases you deal with and which you do not, setting up ambiguous rules makes enforcement difficult and can lead to problems. Having a Creative Commons license allows you to give permission for what might otherwise be an accidental infringement, or a more minor misstep, and focus only on those that plagiarize and/or use your material for commercial use.

This means that there are fewer infringements to deal with and less time spent deciding what cases are worth handling. This gives you more time to grow your site, create new content and build your audience.

1. An Actual License

Much of the copyright interactions we have on the Web are governed by implied licenses, or licenses that exist when no actual license is granted. For example, one of the reasons Google is allowed to index and cache Web pages is because, according to the courts, by putting your content on the Web you are giving them an implied license to do so.

Though implied licenses can be good things, they can also be bad. Since it is hard to know what an implied license grants until a court rules on it, there is always a great deal of uncertainty. This has spilled over into areas such as RSS scraping.

However, implied licenses can be trumped by actual license. Providing a real license to use your content and making the terms of use clear, makes it so that there is no need for an implied one. As such, giving your content a true license makes good sense.

Granted, this can be done with any license, not just a CC one, but CC ones are lawyer-written and have been tested in at least one court internationally. If you can’t afford a lawyer to write you a license and are not comfortable doing it yourself, a CC license is a good way to get a well-written and reviewed license for free.

Conclusions

There are many reasons to consider a CC license for your site (and more than a few reasons to not want one as well). Every Webmaster has to make the choice that is right for them and it is rarely an easy decision.

That being said, there are a lot of benefits of CC licenses that aren’t heavily advertised. Though it does its stated mission of providing “free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry,” what it makes less clear is how marking a work with those freedoms can benefit the original author.

In the end, Creative Commons is really about a symbiosis. Creators giving up certain rights and getting other benefits in return. Though, for many, licensing one’s work under a CC license is a selfless act, it can actually provide a great deal of benefit.

Simply put, sometimes the best way to make your content work for you, is to give it a little freedom to roam.

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Movable Type Monday: Custom Header, jQuery, ImageMagick, and More

Billy Mabray — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:00:45 +0000

Happy Monday, folks! First off, I’m sorry there was no Movable Type Monday last week. Seemed like most of the community had taken off for the holidays, so I decided to hold what I had for an extra week. But now it’s a new year and there’s lots of new stuff to talk about.

Plugins

Custom Header — Byrne Reese put out a new plugin for uploading and customizing the header image on your blog. Custom Header handles the whole process of uploading, cropping, and positioning your banner image. This will be great for personalizing template sets, and it modifying an existing template set to use this plugin looks very straightforward.

Share — This plugin lets you add an “email to a friend” form to your blog posts. Created by Dan Wolfgang, Share is customizable and works with MT’s junk filters. Thanks, Dan!

Tips & Tutorials

Besides his Share plugin, Dan also recently wrote instructions for using his Poll Position plugin with jQuery. Poll Position lets you add polls to your blog. I’m a huge jQuery fan, so I’m glad to see Dan write this up.

Beau Smith wrote improved installation instructions for the Action Streams plugin. Looking at Beau’s method, it seems odd Action Streams isn’t set up this way to begin with. Glad somebody explained the right way to do it.

Writer Susan McNerney posted instructions on changing your banner image. It’s clear that Susan was frustrated by how much trouble it was to change her banner. Sounds like she needed Byrne’s Custom Header plugin.

Over at TMCnet, Tom Keating out does himself, writing a tutorial that offers several things one can do with MT assets. He starts with listing recent image assets linked to entries, then creates a related entries widget that includes images, and finally shows how to add images to the FastSearch plugin. Thanks, Tom!

Finally, John Walker describes how to install Image::Magick on CentOS 5.2 for your Movable Type blog. His instructions may not be limited to MT, but since ImageMagick is one of the most difficult things I’ve had to install for any blog platform, I wanted to share his instructions.

What have you done with MT this week? Let us know in the comments.

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Twitter in Phishing Scam

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:28:02 +0000

Twitter is being used in a phishing scam to obtain your login credentials, using a fake login site under different domain to try and trick you to fill in your username and password. They are using direct messages to do this, and supposedly uses tricked accounts to widen their scam. Read the Twitter blog post for more.

Always make sure that you sign in on twitter.com! That way you’ll know that you’re not sending your login credentials through an unknown party. You might even want to take it one step further and just not click any links in the notification emails sent out that tells you you’ve got a DM. Just go to twitter.com instead, and click the DM link in the right column and you’ll be in the clear.

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Teen launches ScotBlog social network

Andy Merrett — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:23:25 +0000

Scott Campbell, a 13-year-old entrepreneur, has launched a new Scottish blog-centric social network called ScotBlog.net.

Aimed at anyone living in Scotland or with Scottish ancestry, it has many of the same features found in other social networking sites such as the ability to create profiles, add friends, join groups, send private messages, and maintain a blog.

The main aim of the website is to create a safe, fun community for anybody to use, from tech savvy users to silver surfers,” says Campbell.

Scott was a runner-up in the 2006 British Telecom Internet Rangers competition.

I’m a little perplexed by the statement in the press release claiming that “the site is one of the internet’s first socially focused blogging sites” as there are other online communities offering similar functions. However, I don’t want to take anything away from the site as, with some decent marketing and word-of-mouth, it could become a good landing place for proud Scots to hang out.

ScotBlog.net has been online for a couple of months, and while its current membership count won’t rival the number of Scottish Facebook users, it’s early days. If you qualify, geographically or ancestrally, you may want to check it out.

ScotBlog.net

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Make way for “Mom 3.0″: Blogging, vlogging, twittering parents tune into tech

Andy Merrett — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:00:05 +0000

Two-thirds of moms use five or more forms of technology every day to stay in touch with their families, consume and compose content, and manage their lives.

That’s according to recent research from BSM Media, published in “Mom 3.0: Marketing with Today’s Mothers by Leveraging New Media & Technology”.

The report predicts that video blogs (vlogs), podcasts, social networking and microblogging will increase in popularity over the coming year.

Four out of five moms have watched two or more videos in the last week compared to just one-third who have read blogs, while the availability of cheap and compact camcorders allows them to record their own video journals for sharing online.

Two out of three moms said that video is an appealing format because it is more easily adaptable to their lifestyles.

Though podcasts may be losing some appeal in the tech sector, the increasingly ubiquity of MP3 players among parents (over 80% of moms, own one compared to just 20% in 1999) means that they could be a more important form of media.

Adding weight to the argument that Twitter will go mainstream in 2009, the report suggests that moms will increasingly use such services this year, along with instant messaging and mobile phone SMS, to stay in touch with their families.

I’m not sure about the “Mom 3.0” tag, but it’s certainly true that parents are using a lot more technology and online services these days to stay in touch with both family and peers.

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WordPress News: Weblog Tools Collection Scholarship Fund, WordPress at the Supreme Court, Top Plugin Authors, XML-RPC Trouble, and More

Lorelle VanFossen — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:02:26 +0000

WordPress 2.7 downloads now passing 800,000. WordPress goes to the Supreme Court. Weblog Tools Collection announces college scholarship fund for WordPress students. WordPress 2.7 problems with XML-RPC. WordPress.com annual wrap up features dramatic statistics and features. Analysis of top WordPress Plugin authors in the WordPress Plugin Directory - who is on top? Chicago Breast Cancer Marathon call for WordPress men to march. And more WordPress news, security information, Plugins, Themes, and tips.

WordPress News

WordPress Men Called to Marathon for Breast Cancer: Brian Gardner is calling on Chicago/Midwest WordPress male fans to join him August 7-9, 2009, for the 60-mile marathon for the Chicago Breast Cancer event. He claims it will be a great journey talking WordPress and blogging non-stop.

WordPress Goes to the Suppreme Court: The community blog of Londonderry NH.net, in Londonderry, New Hampshire, used their WordPress blog in defense of their case on school funding before the Supreme Court of New Hampshire and the Senate. According to Steve Young of Londonderry NY.net, when asked about sharing some WordPress history, he said:

For us it was the fact that it could make history in the way we used it. April 30th, 2005, was our first use of WordPress and [first] post. Using it to blog about school funding in New Hampshire, we published anything and everything on school funding. We ended up in Supreme Court and won. Our attorney told us, in part because they were able to use the data to hold the politicians accountable for the things they had said.

Matt Mullenweg would be proud as it speaks to his favorite subjects: freedom of speech and WordPress.

Problems with WordPress 2.7 XML-RPC: Joseph Scott reports on problems with libxml2 For WordPress XML-RPC users that he’s been finding on the WordPress Support Forums and elsewhere. The problem is not WordPress specific, but the PHP XML extension using the new versions of libxml2 which leaves off angle brackets. The solution so far is to use old versions of libxml2 known to work or build the PHP XML model against the expat parser instead of libsml2. Check the forums and his post for updated information, as well as the Trac ticket on the issue.

One Million Downloads of WordPress 2.7: Two weeks ago, there were 500,000 WordPress 2.7 Downloads and Miroslav Glavic caught the rollover of the counter. As I write this, there are now over 800,000 downloads, moving fast for 1 million. Bets are on Twitter as to when one million downloads will be counted on the counter. There is now the WordPress Download Counter which adds a counter to your blog’s sidebar featuring the number of official WordPress version downloads from the WordPress Download Counter for WordPress fan blogs.

Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition and Now Scholarship: For several years, Weblog Tools Collection hosts one of the most popular WordPress Plugin Competitions in the world, with some of the winners becoming the most popular Plugins around the community. Plans are underway to make this year’s contest even bigger than before, but they want to do more. Mark Ghosh announced plans for a Weblog Tools Collection College Scholarship to promote “WordPress development and help students dip their toe in WordPress.” More news on this exciting educational program soon.

Using a Symbian S60? The Wordmobi: WordPress Client now allows blogging with WordPress on a Symbian S60. Python required.

WordPress Theme Intruder Reported: A lot of people are reporting notifications from their web hosts regarding the remv.php file creating malicious behavior on your WordPress blog. Jason Cosper offers a good step-by-step tutorial and Ronald Davies has a video tutorial on how to remove this malicious file from your WordPress Theme folder. After removal of the file from your server via FTP, update your site immediately to WordPress 2.7. For more information, see these discussions on the WordPress Support Forums: Blog hacked, host said to upgrade and WTF is remv.php in wp-content/themes folder.

Weblog Tools Collection Changes Ad Policy to Favor GPL Themes and Plugins: Always a leader in the WordPress Community when it comes to taking the moral high ground. Weblog Tools Collection announces it will no longer accept ads from advertisers promoting non-GPL WordPress Themes and Plugins. According to owner, Mark Ghosh:

We have made some changes to the advertiser requirements on this blog, much of which drastically reduces our revenue. We now require that all our advertisers who want to promote WordPress plugins and themes, release their themes and plugins under the GPL or a GPL compatible license to be eligible to advertise on Weblog Tools Collection and related properties. Existing ads will be forced to expire and will not be renewed. We will also not link to any work from Premium Theme and Plugin authors that do not release their themes and/or plugins under a GPL or compatible license.

Getting Your WordPress Blog into Google News: WPEngineer offers Google News To Release With WordPress, a tutorial on how to create a sitemap for automatic inclusion of your site in Google News. You must request inclusion in Google News in order to be included, but if you are accepted, this tutorial will help you modify your WordPress blog for inclusion.

Haven’t You Upgraded to WordPress 2.7 Yet? For information on upgrading to WordPress 2.7, see WordPress 2.7 Release News and Links. If you are worried about whether or not WordPress 2.7 will work with your server, Themes or Plugins, see:

The Ghosts of WordPress Past: Ozh released “A Journey Through Five Years of WordPress Interface” and Peter Westwood brought back memories with “Useless graphs (What went before),” each showing us their view on the history of WordPress.

Fake WordPress Malicious Site: Look out for a fake WordPress site. Wordpresz.org looks like the WordPress site but isn’t. The version of WordPress you download has malicious code in the download that opens a backdoor to your blog. If you upgraded WordPress to 2.6.4, you are running a fake version. There is no WordPress 2.6.4. The latest version is WordPress 2.7, and in the 2.6 line, it is 2.6.5, skipping 2.6.4 due to this threat.

Don’t Let WordPress in Your Domain Name: Do you use “wordpress” in your blog’s domain name? This is in violation of the WordPress trademark. If you find a site using WordPress in their domain name, remind them of the trademark rules so they won’t be asked later to remove it.

The WordPress Podcast: Episode 49: WordPress 2.7 released, Oxite, Blog World Expo and New Media Expo to merge, Pownce closes includes David Peralty and covers WordPress 2.7, Microsoft’s new open source blogware, Oxite, Blog World Expo and New Media Expo merging, WordPress Theme Directory cleaning out WordPress Themes, Pownce shut down, WordCamp news, and more WordPress news and tips.

WordCast Podcast: The last two episodes of the year are WordCast 39: Longer than a list of Madonna’s ex-boyfriends and WordCast 40: And a happy new year!. In the first episode, Jonathan Bailey joins the crew to talk about WordPress 2.7, global Gravatars integrated into WordPress.com, and more WordPress news.

WordPress Weekly Podcast: Last week’s episode with Matt Mullenweg has been mostly transcribed. This week’s episode, WordPress Gone Social - BuddyPress, featured Andy Pealty of the BuddyPress project for WordPressMU, and more WordPress news and tips.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress News: 650,000 WP 2.7 Downloads, BuddyPress, Theme Threat, Schwag, and More.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar.

Upcoming WordCamps not scheduled or confirmed:

WordCamp Indy (Indianapolis)
WordCamp Augusta
WordCamp Seattle (WordCamp Seattle Twitter)
WordCamp Argentina
WordCamp Perú
WordCamp New Zealand

Upcoming WordCamp and WordPress Event News

Dubai WordPress Meetup: The first Dubai WordPress Meetup was Friday, January 2, 2009, at the Montgomery Golf Course, as part of Matt Mullenweg’s visit there. There was a quickly created Event page on Facebook. Hopefully, this will turn into a monthly event gathering of WordPress fans and experts in the Dubai area.

WordCamp Las Vegas on a Roll: WordCamp Las Vegas is next week and is filling up fast. Participants are urged to submit their Twitter ID so everyone can track each other during the event. The Hashtag and tag for WordCamp Las Vegas is #wordcamplv. Also check out the WordCamp after party for any WordPress fans in the area at Jack’s Irish Pub inside of Palace Station. RSVP for the after party event on Facebook.

WordCamp Whistler - Geeks Ski! WordCamp Whistler is only a couple weeks away, the first ever ski and WordPress event. As the event grows near, WordCamp Whistler planners have announced there are still sponsorship spots available. The list of speakers is great and registration is going fast for this limited seating event. They’ve planned photo walks and skiing events along with the WordPress fun.

Learn the Lessons of Content Publishing: New York WordPress Meetup Group will meetin on January 20, 2009, with the meeting topic to be “WordPress as a CMS: The Strategy of Content Publishing.”

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic: The University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center has been set for the first ever WordCamp Mid-Atlantic covering Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia areas on May 16, 2009. You can register now at their WordCamp Mid-Atlantic Facebook.

Chicago WordPress Meetup: The Chicago WordPress January Meetup on January 24, 2009, will feature a Q&A session on “Who uses WordPress” with everyone invited to share why they use WordPress.

Attention WordPress Lovers in New Jersey: The new The New Jersey WordPress Meetup Group will be meeting January 7, 2009, in Belmar, New Jersey, at 7PM at the WebDevStudios.com office. Get help with WordPress, upgrading to WordPress 2.7, and learn about exciting WordPress Plugins and what’s going on in Jersey with WordPress.

WordCampED: WordCamp Education Vancouver 2009 is scheduled in Vancouver, BC, for February 19, 2009, on the UBC Main Campus in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. They are currently looking for speakers and those interested in attending this educational based WordPress event.

WordCamp Columbus, Ohio: WordCamp Columbus is set for May 16, 2009. The Twitter account is @WordCampColumbus. WordCamp Columbus has announced that since WordCamp Mid-Atlantic is scheduled for the same date, and Matt Mullenweg will be speaking there, his keynote will be streamed to attendees of WordCamp Columbus so no one will miss the “state of the word” by the founder of WordPress. Noel Jackson, designer of the Monotone WordPress Theme, and Nick Momrick, speaking about WordPress.com, will be noted speakers at the event. Registration is $20 and will be open soon.

WordCamp San Francisco 2009 Announced: Matt Mullenweg has announced the date for WordCamp San Francisco 2009 for May 30, 2009, at the Mission Bay Conference Center. There is also a Upcoming Event page set up.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere

WordPress Meetup: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress and WordPress Meetups Upcoming Events and tag them “WordPress Events” and “WordPress”, as many track WordPress event announcements there.
WordCamp: A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. Get a Twitter account and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress and WordPress Meetups Upcoming Events and tag them “WordPress Events” and “WordCamp.
WordPress and WordCamp Event News: In addition to our weekly Blog Herald WordPress Wednesday News, you can learn more about the various WordPress and WordCamp Events on the official WordCamp Central site, The WordCamp Report, Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, WordPress Meetups Upcoming Events, and Upcoming: Public events tagged with “WordCamp”.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

Top 10 WordPress Plugin Authors: Based upon cumulative downloads, White Shadow offers the Top 10 WordPress Plugin Developers within the WordPress Plugin Directory. It counts the number of downloads across all Plugins authored. The top of the list includes:

Honorable mentions are included, such as Viper007Bond being honored with the most WordPress Plugins on the WordPress Plugin Directory: 25.

Optimize All Those Scripts in WordPress 2.7 Themes and Plugins: WordPress 2.7 now features a lot of AJAX and JavaScript. Ozz offers a technical article on the WordPress Development Blog for optimizing script loading that is a must-read for all WordPress Plugin and Theme developers.

Misaligned Images in Feeds: One of the annoying aspects of feeds is how images are not floated within the content, distorting the way the content should wrap around the images. In Aligning Images In RSS Feeds, White Shadow explains how to fix it with your WordPress blog feed with the RSS Image Align WordPress Plugin.

Check WordPress Theme and Plugin Compatibility with WordPress 2.7: If you are a WordPress Plugin or Theme author, and your Theme or Plugin will work with the new version, there are two things you must do NOW:

Check to see if it is listed in the WordPress Codex on WordPress 2.7 Plugin Compatibility and WordPress 2.7 Theme Compatibility. Users will check there before upgrading, so make sure you are on the list.
Go to the WordPress Plugin Directory and other services and sites hosting your Plugin and update the information to show that it is compatible with WordPress 2.7, or not.

Installing WordPressMU EBook: Andrea Rennick of WPMU Tutorials has just published Installing WordPressMU - The E-Book, a guide to helping you install the popular multi-blog version of WordPress called WordPressMU. The book is available in PDF form for free download.

WordPress Functions Implementation History: Along with other looks back at history, Ozh offers the WordPress Functions Implementation History Tool for a look at the changes and options for WordPress functions for coders. It’s important to know when a function is deprecated and introduced so you can maintain Plugins and Themes through the various WordPress versions and also include some backwards compatibility, if available. This has been updated now to include WordPress 2.7.

Interesting WordPress Plugins:

Role Manager WordPress Plugin helps to control your various contributors, editors, and users access to different areas of the blog.
Drop-in Slideshow WordPress Plugin plays full-frame slideshow of random images from a single folder on your WordPress blog. Images can be set to allow “auto-navigating” to the post or Page linked to the current image.
Widgets Reloaded Plugin replaces the default sidebar Widgets with new versions with more control and customization features.
Flash Zoom WordPress Plugin allows the display of many videos on your blog’s front page and single post page, allowing the flash video to resize or zoom without changing the source of the flash.

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

WordPress.com News

WordPress.com 2009 Year Wrap-Up: The past year has been one of amazing new features and upgrades for WordPress.com bloggers. In 2008 Year-End Wrap-Up, Matt Mullenweg sums up the year listing many of the new features, staff, and changes in the free blog hosting service of WordPress. New features included: new Themes, WordPress iPhone app, new corporate bloggers added to the VIP WordPress.com blog program, WordCamps all over the world, music and video uploads, identicons, captions, Turbo with Google Gears, sticky posts, HTTPS settings for security, polls, and favicons, just to list a few.

Statistics for the free blog hosting service (and VIP program) are impressive and include:

2,906,086 blogs were created
3,761,296 new users joined
35,926,639 file uploads
13.5 terabytes of new files
78,773,011 comments
15.8 billion total pageviews
66% of English language blogs
8% Spanish language blogs
5% Indonesian language blogs
4% Portuguese language blogs
2% Italian language blogs
2% German language blogs

WordPress Techniques and Tips

WordPress Tips on Twitter: I’ve started sharing WordPress Tips I’ve collected over the past couple years on Twitter at @lorelleonwp. I’ll be posting one WordPress tip link every morning (PST) covering recent versions of WordPress and WordPress usages and features. NOTE: December 25 and January 1, I’ll be posting 10 WordPress Tips for each day.

Want Your WordPress Tip Shared Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Community News

Things You Need to Know in the WordPress Community:

Help Installing WordPress: Installing WordPress for Free
Finding WordPress Plugins: WordPress Plugin Directory
Finding WordPress Themes: WordPress Themes Directory
WordPress Experts Found: Automattic WordPress Consultants List, WordPress Jobs, and the WP-Pro mailing list
WordPress Facebook Community: WordPress on Facebook
WordPress Schwag for Sale: WordPress Shop
WordPress Bugs: Reporting Bugs in WordPress
Online WordPress Manual: WordPress Codex
Have Your Say: WordPress Ideas
WordPress Logos: The official WordPress logos are available for use on your blogs or WordPress event promotions.
WordPress is Trademarked: You are not allowed to use WordPress in your domain name.
WordPress is WordPress: It’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress” and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

WordPress News Sources

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.

Each week, the Blog Herald features WordPress News, a weekly column by Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact her at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

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JournalSpace blogging platform dies: why you must keep your own backups

Andy Merrett — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:29:04 +0000

It may not have been the largest free blogging platform available, but for anyone who used JournalSpace for their blog the events of the last week were catastrophically significant.

Three days ago, JournalSpace lost all of its data. Yes, all of it. The hardware itself was intact, which means that either the OS X Server suffered a major failure or someone with malicious intent wiped the hard drives.

The team writes on the web site:

“A disgruntled member of the Lagomorphics team sabotaged some key servers several months ago after he was caught stealing from the company; as awful as the thought is, we can’t rule out the possibility of additional sabotage.

But, clearly, we failed to take the steps to prevent this from happening. And for that we are very sorry.”

That’s six years worth of blogs wiped out in one fell swoop.

While every web and blog host (free or paid) will tell you that they have backup systems in place, rarely are they bulletproof. Deliberate attack, human error, hardware and software failures, and ISPs going out of business can all cause data to become corrupted and web sites to go offline – sometimes permanently.

Bloggers have to take some responsibility for their own blogs. If your blogging software allows you to export or backup data to local storage, make sure you do it on a regular basis and then back that up with the rest of your home computer systems (you do backup those, right?)

If you can’t backup at least your own posts and reader comments then it’s time to move to a web host and/or blogging platform where you can, before something like this happens and you lose all your work.

At very least, if you words are important to you, keep copies of the articles you’ve written on your PC and back them up. If blogging is your business and livelihood, you’ll do as much as you can to protect your content so, if the worst happens, you can be up and running on a new server with the minimum of downtime.

As for JournalSpace?

We’re considering releasing the journalspace source code to the open source community. We may also sell the journalspace domain and trademarks. Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/jsupgrades for news.

JournalSpace (via Associated Content)

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When Will Twitter Go Mainstream?

Chris Garrett — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:42:01 +0000

I would argue that blogs are already mainstream. When I was in the USA last I saw bloggers mentioned quite a bit on national TV news, to a lesser extent it happens over here in the UK also. When the talking heads mention something assuming everyone knows what it is, surely then it is mainstream, even if a large part of the population couldn’t tell a blog apart from any other website.

MySpace and FaceBook I would say are mainstream because my Mum has heard of them, and not through me.

What about Twitter?

I believe Twitter is about to go mainstream because I am following a few real celebrities on Twitter who get the medium outside of using it as another feed.

One or two of those names might not be familiar to you but I am thrilled that each one has joined the world of Twitter, and of course each one will bring their own non-internet-geek audiences along sooner or later.

Are there other non internet-famous people you are following who you would recommend? Do you think Twitter will ever/never go mainstream? Please share in the comments … and of course follow me on Twitter too!

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Put On Your Competition Blinders in 2009

Andrew G.R. — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:15:49 +0000

There are thousands of career-related Web sites out there, and my primary blog, Jobacle, is one of many. Every time I get reminded of that fact, I get a little dizzy, and then I look away. Because I know I can do it better. Or die trying.

The reality is many of these sites have more resources in terms of manpower and financing. But I can’t let that stop me from creating a product that I believe in.

That’s why I wear blinders 90% of the time.

I know that the shrewd MBA grads out there will remind me that monitoring and analyzing the competition is a key component to making your business a success. However I also believe there is something to be said for trying something different.

That’s why I don’t read your blogs, fellow career writers. And if you’re alos writing in an over-crowded niche, I recommend the same.

Sorry if the truth hurts. I hope you won’t unsubscribe. After all, I don’t think any good writer will hold reciprocity as a standard.

The Web is messy. Every now and then take a peek around, but stargazing is for people looking for an excuse not to write. It’s good to know who is writing in the same genre as you, and it’s nice to occasionally come around for inspiration, but i would not make monitoring part of your daily habits.

What say you?

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Gawker’s Consumerist.com bought by Consumers Union

Andy Merrett — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:22:21 +0000

While many of us were eating, drinking and “Auld Lang Syne-ing” over the past week or so, Consumers Union has been busy securing a deal with Gawker Media to acquire Consumerist.com.

The non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports is bringing its independent, unbiased publishing policy to the site; from today, Consumerist.com will no longer carry ads.

President and CEO of Consumers Union, Jim Guest, spoke of his delight in adding such a vibrant site to its portfolio of information products. It’s most definitely a case of well-established traditional media taking on hugely popular new media – over 70 years of publishing buying out a three-year-old boasting around ten million monthly page views.

The site announces what will change (Chris and Carey are back, Meghann Marco is promoted to co-executive editor and will reign supreme alongside Ben Popken, The only ads will be for Consumer Reports and Consumers Union-related stuff, and new privacy policy/user agreement) and what won’t (same voice, content, independence, subscription-free service, and same commenting system).

Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org claim robust growth both in print and online, and presumably this deal will help to strengthen their brands as well as provide new support for Consumerist.com.

What do you think about the deal?

Consumerist.com announcement (via New York Times)

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Exploring Social Media: Live Citizens Press Conference on Twitter

Lorelle VanFossen — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:10:56 +0000

Yesterday, Twitter was used as a real-time news conference podium by the Consulate General of Israel in New York and featured on their Israel news and commentary blog, Israel Politik. In this ongoing series on Exploring Social Media and Social Media Tools, the politics in issue are not up for discussion, but the manner in how this popular social media tool was used to great a Q&A forum for discussion of a current event is worth discussing.

Called a Citizens’ “Press” Conference on Twitter, from 1300 - 1500 EST on December 30, David Saranga, Israel Consul of Media and Public Affairs in New York, answered questions regarding the situation in the Middle East regarding Israel and Gaza and all parties involved. Questions were submitted to their Twitter account, @IsraelConsulate and attempts were made to respond to the questions through the 140 character limit, with those requiring lengthy answers would be posted on the Israel Politik blog.

There were no rules, other than the typical “play nice” and all questions were welcome from any and all angles. While Mr. Saranga was the host of the Twitter event, I’m sure he had a lot of help from his staff at the Consulate to respond to the flood of questions.

Within a very short time, the “edited” version of the Twitter conference was posted in sections on the Israel Politik blog. They explained what they meant by “edited” as:

The conversations were ‘expanded’ (meaning we removed the short ‘twitter talk’ and re-wrote fully spelled words) but otherwise unchanged.

Reviewing the conference, words such as “u” were expanded to “you” and “ppl” changed to “people” with no obvious attempt to censor or change the intent of the words.

The discussions can be found in the Citizen Press Conference category and include:

Twitter hashtags were used when possible in the discussion and included #AskIsrael for the Consulate discussion. Other situation specific hashtags used across Twitter include: #gaza, #gazawarofwords, #israel, #2states, and #rafah.

While many bloggers in the Middle East and around the world have been covering their side and perspective of the issue, this is a dramatic use of social media, possibly the first time a government has held such a “press conference” - a sort of Q&A, town meeting, and world-wide discussion - especially one condensed into 140 character sound bits.

Shel Israel of Global Neighbourhoods and @shelisrael on Twitter, asked this question about the choice of discussion platform:

shelisrael: Why have you chosen to come on Twitter. Is that not political in itself?
IsraelConsulate: We saw debate on Twitter and saw people who had unreliable information. We felt Twitter would be a good way to put an official voice out there.

This is an interesting modern move associated with the Israel government, long known for their struggles to get their message across in the media.

Social Media for Real-Time Citizen Journalism and Media Campaigns

This is not the first time Twitter and other social media tools have been used for press conferences, propaganda, and “real time citizen journalism,” though it might be the first for a government press conference.

Barack Obama’s Twitter account brought up-to-the-minute information on the US President-elects life and activities before and after the election. Other presidential candidates soon jumped on the social media game, and continue to use blogs and Twitter, along with other microblog tools, to get their messages out to the public, creating the next generation of “transparent” politicians.

Blogs, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media tools helped get the news out to the world during several recent political and terrorist events around the world.

In February 2005, the Nepal government shut down all international Internet connections after the king imposed martial law, though it was only down for a short time. During that time, many technologically creative people were able to get some information out via social medial channels. However, the government shutdown of Internet connections inside and outside Burma (Myanmar) in 2007 led to overwhelming support from outside of the country to get news and information to the world through social media tools, especially blogs, Twitter, and Flickr, creating a form of underground network for Internet communications and social media.

As the world’s citizens become more techno and social media savvy, social media plays a bigger role in the distribution of “news” by its citizens rather than traditional media sources - which is a mixed bag of positives and negatives.

Within minutes of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, Twitter, Flickr, and blogs were filled with eye witness accounts and news on the events as they unfolded. @Mumbai is a Twitter account which reported on the situation with terror attacks and political upheaval in that area. The Twitter hashtag #mumbai helped track Mumbai related news and events on Twitter.

The role of social media tools during the Mumbia attacks caused a lot of interest and analysis by traditional media sources due to the uprising of “Real Time Citizen Journalism.” How social media was used during the Mumbai attacks was covered by the Guardian News, InformationWeek, TechCrunch, Reuters, ABC News (US), UK Telegraph, India Times, CNet, PC World, and many traditional and non-traditional media trying to get a handle on how social media tools work, help or hinder the spread of “factual” information versus real-time life stories, and the impact this modern “journalism” has on perception and information dispersal.

Global Voices said:

While the TV and media reports have been accused of using sensationalism and inflicting more terror from rumors, the twitter feeds portray the real sense of what is happening and how people are coping with it…

TechCrunch defended Twitter as a news source:

You can jump up and down and shout all you want that Twitter isn’t a real news source. But all you are doing is viewing the world through a reality lens that’s way outdated. People want information fast and raw from people who are on the scene. If it gets a little messy along the way, that’s ok. We’ll soon see tools that help us distill the really good stuff out of the stream anyway.

Twitter wasn’t the only “source” of information distributed by social media tools. Within a very short time after the Mumbai terrorist attacks a Google Maps, Annotated Google map, GeoCommons Mumbai terrorist attack map, Mahalo page, and Wikipedia page with a timeline of the events and news were created. Images started appearing with the Flickr tag “mumbai, which The Big Picture helped feature and aggregate. Blogs were created or redirected to immediately deal with the news and information, especially to help people get more information about friends and family in the midst of the multi-day attack and upheveal such as Mumbai Help and Mumbai Metblogs. Two Facebook accounts were set up to memorialize victims, In Remembrance of the 11/26 Mumbai Bombings & All Those Affected and In Honor of the Bombay Blasts 11/26- 11/… : Wear a White Shirt on Monday Dec 1. These and many more are listed in the Global Voices Online coverage of the 2008 Mumbia, India, terrorist attacks.

In Alexander Wolfe’s column on InformationWeek, he addresses the issues and overwhelming impact of real-time live citizen journalism:

Never before has a crisis unleashed so much raw data — and so little interpretation — than what we saw as the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, unfolded. Amid the real-time video feeds (kudos to CNN International), cell phone pictures, and tweets, we were able to keep abreast of what seemed to be happening, and where it was going down, all the while not really knowing those other key, canonical components of journalistic information gathering — namely, who or why.

In fairness, no one did. There were so many tentacles to these heinous attacks, and multiple hot spots… My point here is not to criticize, but simply to note that I was struck, as never before, by the ability of data to outstrip information.

I’d add that Mumbai is likely to be viewed in hindsight as the first instance of the paradigmatic shift in crisis coverage: namely, journalists will henceforth no longer be the first to bring us information. Rather, they will be a conduit for the stream of images and video shot by a mix of amateurs and professionals on scene.

He goes on to describe how Twitter was mentioned as a “key source” for updates on the attacks and how the Indian government asked people to stop posting to microblogging services out of fear of handing information over to the terrorists - a common fear of many governments and enforcement agencies as the ability to monitor social media becomes easier - just turn on your cell phone.

The problem, and challenge, of using social media tools as a “source” of information is the issue of quantity over quality - how do you distinguish the “real” and “quality” information from the noise. Wolfe gives his own example, summarizing what we all know, social media as a useful tool is still evolving:

Indeed, the sheer volume of “#mumbai” tweets would seem to militate against the notion that there’s anything of value easily accessible within. Since going through the first 100 pages of tweets only takes you back several hours, I did random searches on postings from Wed., Nov. 25; Thurs., Nov. 27, and Friday, Nov. 28, and couldn’t come up with much hard information.

The Development of the Social Media and Internet Underground

OpenNet published a white paper technical review of the Internet shutdown in Burma, explaining some of the history and methods used by citizens to get the news out before, during, and after the shutdown.

According to ONI sources, some political blogs have been banned since mid-2007 and rumors circulated that the rest would be banned if this trend continued, spurring many local bloggers to self-monitor their postings in the hope that their blogs would not be added to the blacklist.

Until the Internet shutdown on September 29, citizen journalists inside Burma maintained contact with overseas bloggers through the use of email, chat, proxies, and free hosting pages. These bloggers were often organized in small networks of less than a dozen individuals, including both local and overseas bloggers. Overseas Burmese bloggers sent back local proxy server links and other tools via email and chats. Through this form of ‘trusted contact blogging,’ photos, updates and news links were transmitted to an overseas web of Burmese who were able to post them to the wider world.

…While those who could use the Internet had access to blogs and overseas sites, most Burmese continued to get their news from satellite TV (e.g. CAN) and overseas radio broadcasts (e.g. BBC and VOA). The state mouthpiece, through television and newspapers, directly addressed this fact when it blamed international news organizations for the unrest, labeling foreign media as “destructionists” and “spies.”

At the same time, many more Burmese began looking to blogs and other online information sources during the crisis. Along with the overseas dissident news sites and international news agency sites, CBoxes (or comment boxes) were an important source of news. Burmese bloggers overseas have noted a marked increase in blog traffic, particularly as older Burmese around the world became aware of the importance of blogs and their usage. For one blogger who wrote in Burmese, linking to news sites nearly doubled traffic, while others blogging in English were picked up frequently by international news outlets.

X-Pats were invaluable in getting news out of the country through a wide range of methods from their former homeland, including the creation of a sort of Internet communications underground for transferring the information outside of the country to be published on blogs and social media tools outside Burmese government control.

Preparing for a Social Media Press Conference

As with most modern innovations, it is left to society to figure out how to use these “good ideas” in technology. I’m sure the creators of Twitter never imagined their service being used in all the ways it is used today. Businesses and governments are now seeing the power in Twitter to educate and inform, as well as influence.

In the next article in this series on Exploring Social Media and Social Media Tools, I’ll look at the technical aspect that might have gone into preparing for the Israel Consulate Twitter “Citizen” Press Conference, and the tools that help cover today’s events and news through social media.

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Your Immediate, Unlimited Supply of Blog Post Ideas

Chris Garrett — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:48:36 +0000

Weekly I get asked how I manage to come up with blog post ideas. When people discover that in 2008 alone I will have published more than 500 articles, people get really interested. Fact is, it’s easy …. when you know how …

The thing with blogging is, after a while, ideas are the hardest part.

To begin with you have to think about the mechanics of everything, the technicalities, but the ideas flow along with your initial burst of enthusiasm. After a while the technical geekery becomes automatic and the ideas become the main constraint.

This is where many people give up.

It doesn’t have to be! If you are truly interested in your topic then you have a vast resource of ideas out there waiting to be tapped.

The answer is to find people who are interested in the same subject and have conversations with them! Twitter, forums, chat, real life, skype, and so on.

Most of my best ideas come from just talking to people. I am mainly in niches where I have a real fascination with the subject so I love to discuss them, and inevitably something inspires a post so I note down the ideas I have.

The only time I have to really work hard to generate post ideas is when I have no interest in the niche outside getting paid. A lesson right there.

So find folks who share your interest and get talking. Not only will you have lots of stuff to write about, you might make some friends and have a lot of fun into the bargain!