I am not a sports fan per se, but I do follow the local(ish) Toronto teams. I started following the Raptors (the Toronto NBA franchise) after reading the work of the Toronto Star’s reporter Doug Smith, and moreso his blog. Each week he’d take questions from his readers, he now does in game live blogging, and in general does a great job of using the blog for the best of what it can do. This weekend’s mailbag brought an interesting question about the journalism side of his job (the first one in the list this week). What surprised me was that there’s two separate editorial desks, one for web and one for print – that the Star is consolidating. I always thought the two mediums were distinct enough to require specialization, but I guess not. The second thing that surprised me was that Doug makes mention of the tidbits that used to be left out, are now web-bits for the blog.
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Another Reason To Use Twitter
So, it appears I’m a convert. Yep, a Twitterer. Perhaps just a twit. Anyways, people always ask me, “Why do people use it? Isn’t it just a waste of time?” Well, not always a waste of time. I posted on my Twitter account about the slow length of time that it had been taking for my Technorati claim to go through and really, I didn’t think anything of it. Sure, network traffic may be busy, claims may be going through the roof… holidays for workers… all sorts of options. Lo and behold, Technorati folks were listening. And I didn’t use a hashtag or any special thing. Twitter search must be OK.
Same sort of thing with MediaWiki, when I posted about my problems with an old install (which I also posted about here) they were quick to connect. Clearly, Web 2.0+ companies are paying attention. Facebook responded to the concerns over privacy which spread quickly through blogs and twitter. It will be interesting to see if older models of business are paying attention as well. I suspect the ones that are will be better able to survive the seismic shifts we’re still going to see before things settle down again (if they ever settle down again).
Migration Complete
Well, a few short hours of trials and tribulations, and we have the blog in a place where I can actually see what’s going on with linkages and maybe actually take some time to do some blogging.
Yeah, I’m liking WordPress 2.8.2 so far, of course, I’m really only talking minutes here… still it’s pretty slick compared to 2.0 (which is the last install that I had to do).
It was funny, but I mentioned to a friend in passing that I felt like my life was incomplete without my domain. A real piece of me was missing (which is not true at all, I was less encumbered without a domain). But I did and do miss it. And, as luck would have it, the domain bastards that buy up recently expired domains finally gave up on my old domain. Ka-ching, only a mere $30 for hosting and voila, robotvsrobot is mine again. Good to be home.
So, bye-bye edublogs, hello robotvsrobot.com (again).
EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers
If you’re reading this well, you might be a blogger. The EFF re-launched their legal guide for bloggers… it’s an interesting read if you have a bit of time to spare. A lot of things covered that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. Of course, I’m not located in the US, but many of you are (and many of the rules there apply elsewhere as well). Enjoy.