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Monthly Archives: June 2012
A quick tale on how to ruin a community in one fell swoop
Ruining a community is easy. First, build one. Then take all the information it’s generated over many years, and thanks to someone with a shiny new toy, destroy it. Throw it all away. But keep your precious, “Posts.”
In today’s media, blogs more specifically, if you have an authentic audience the thing you should know is your comments MATTER. Throwing them away is the same as telling every single person that has ever commented, that you frankly don’t care for them. Giving them an entirely new way to communicate has just ended years of actual relationships.
I may end up with egg on my face about this, but the whole point is to foster a community. Why would you delete that community’s involvement at the expense of your readership. Now you may refer to the fact that Facebook changes it’s layout 3 times a year and everyone trots out a grandiose list of why they’re leaving Facebook and never end up leaving. Facebook never deletes your history and pictures and figures you’ll stay happy with that. At least my friends list isn’t deleted, neither are my interactions. After years of reading and commenting on Gawker, that data is gone (or at least not able to be easily found).
Gawker Media, you had no rollout, there was no warning (I could’ve at least screen cap’d my COTD you jerks!) Just bang, delete.
I’ll probably roll my sorry butt back to Jalopnik, after all, it’s where my car looney buddies hang out.
But know I’ll kick you in the shins if you’ve got a Kinja shirt on.
Here’s your spare brain
My buddy Lou went to law school, here’s what I suggested would make his life magically easier, it might help you too.
Order a livescribe pen (echo) from livescribe.com get : notebooks too, as well as a pack of their post it’s too. if they aren’t still running their Evernote premium deal, go pay for a year of evernote premium and sign up. finally, spend 20$ with Google by clicking on ‘add more space’ at the bottom of Gmail. Also, link Rapportive and boomerang.it to your gmail account, that will take Gmail from regular to magical. Now you will have 20gb of storage for Google docs too! Install Google Chrome on your laptop and add the Google docs extension and enable working offline for Google docs and Gmail. Once you’ve loaded the livescribe software, and setup your evernote account (load the desktop and iPhone/Android app as well as the Chrome extension and bookmarklet. Go back to livescribe and add your evernote account. Also use a backup for your home/work machine that’s not in your location. I use Mozy.com it’s great.
They all play well together and you’ll be able to give your brain a perfect backup!
Voila,, your brain count just went to 2 with completely redundant backups!
ok now you’re set up.
to use it, write and record in your notebook. sync it. then drag it to evernote.com and its backed up and shareable (think- with classmates to compare notes). you can also add notes from your laptop and phone as well. for writing docs, use Google docs. you can even share them and live edit with multiple people.
Social Media Start Up Kit (what I told my buddy Jacob)
Ok, here’s your checklist/setup list.
1. Setup an account with Hootsuite. Load this app on your iphone/make a login!
https://hootsuite.com
You may need to verify this in your email (look for something from hootsuite). This of course assumes you have a Twitter account,, do that too.
This is step 1 to Jedi social-media-ness.
Load your twitter, facebook, and linked in items (I don’t have these logins but will do this if needed).
2. Log into your twitter account, then click here http://klout.com/
Use your twitter login to sync up your klout account. This is a good way to see how you rank. It’s a good reference and there are some decent perks occasionally here. You only need login to twitter first to link to klout.
3. Other items to link to Klout.com
twitter
facebook
google + (use this)
youtube (for artanarchy@gmail.com account)
foursquare load this app on your iphone/make a login!(Get the app, set it up on your phone, use it occasionally when you go cool places, no big whup).
Do you use last.fm? If so, link that.
Tumblr?
Instagram load this app on your iphone/make a login! (that’d be really good for you to use, it makes great pictures better and shares them well)
flickr too
This will let you track where you are roughly in terms of social media and provide a little feedback for your own work (Hootsuite does this a bit too). You need to know what you’re doing and if you’re generating any message traction.
4. You need to identify what you’re doing and why.
Is it
A. Publicizing your site?
B. Publicizing your work?
C. Exposing yourself.
D. All of the above
E. Forming a social media hub to promote A and B
F. is the first letter in Fred. Know it, Love it.
5. We’ll need to plan a true home for your work. I tend to rely on self hosted wordpress blogs for a couple reasons, mostly because they’re fairly easily customized, and extended. IF you want to be lazier, a wordpress.com hosted blog works fine, bt it won’t shove over to a self hosted entirely. It’s best to start with your own blog. It’s a good standard and can be extended easily. If you just want to share pictures, use Tumblr.com and be done with it.
6. Password management use this https://lastpass.com/ setup the plugins for your browser of choice. I recommend chrome because of the extensions and the fact that you use gmail. it makes it far more magical (sorry Chris). If you do that (use Chrome). Add the following, Rapportive.com (it makes gmail magic). Add the hootsuite plugin and bookmarklet as well (you can find them by logging into Hootsuite). The bookmarklet allows you to click on any link and post it to any of your social media connections and even schedule it’s posting to the time of your choosing.
That should be enough to blow your mind quickly. Call me when this gets confusing or anything. These actions should take you about 40 minutes by the time you realize what they are and log in to them/write them. More after that.
7. Here are some iphone camera kit grouping data note the items in bold below are the ones I’d go with (best bang for the buck)
4 in 1 Camera Lens Kit for Apple iPhone 4 (8X Black Telephoto Lens, Fish Eye Lens, Wide Angle + Micro Lens) Plus Tripod and Hard Case
This kit has a full system with the magnetic base and cover, however it was pricier than the others.
http://www.amazon.com/System-Fisheye-Wide-Angle-Magnetic-Accessory/dp/B006L4OL40
Here’s a zoom kit
http://www.amazon.com/Optical-Telescope-Extended-30x70mm-iPhone/dp/B005CERT26/ref=pd_vtp_p_1
tripod mount cover for iphone
http://www.amazon.com/SnapMount-Tripod-Mount-iPhone-White/dp/B004MGR7CW
Here’s a cool 3d way to do things (gotta use their app, but it’s a staggering effect)
http://www.kogeto.com/
Yup, this is a full slr lens mount for your iphone
http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/iphone-slr-mount/
This is the photojojo kit I’d get
http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/cell-phone-lenses/
HEre’s a cute little snap on flash (not a bad idea for the $)
http://www.amazon.com/iFlash-Camera-iPhone-Cyanics-Option/dp/B0040N6638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316700599&sr=8-1
A quickie tripod mount for any tripod (will snap to a quick release hotshoe to fit in anything)
http://www.istabilizer.com/index.php/iphone-tripod-mount.html
Last the joby has feet that ARE magnetic like I mentioned so you could move the whole thing and re-stick it wherever you wanted (have it planned tested first).
http://joby.com/gorillamobile/iphone4/
To do wishlist
Participate (maybe facilitate) a Startup Weekend!
Drive a circle dirt track racecar here in Ada at Oklahoma Sports Park
I’ll keep this updated but those two things are on the top of my mind this 5minutes.