BESTSALVIA.INFO

The first podcast in over six months!

In this action-packed explosion of erudition Lee shares his experiences on a half-day workshop on Social Media, especially his view that business communicators suck at communicating.

Allan agrees, noting that the two best ways to prepare for a presentation are to:

1. Don’t work out and shape your presentation in Powerpoint; only turn on Powerpoint when you already HAVE your story.
2. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Lee praises David Grossman for his superb presentation that obviously met both of the above criteria, and agrees that he is the ‘one born every minute’, as PT Barnum would say.

Allan goes into depth about how to use headline titles in PowerPoint correctly.

Allan confesses that he doesn’t read blogs these days, preferring to read Twitter, Jaiku and Facebook. Lee is really concerned at the possible death of blogging at the hands of micro-blogging and wonders whether the ‘attention deficit economy’ means that we are witnesses to the end of long-form creativity.

But then again, ‘they’ all said that children were only interested in multi-colour, fast-paced, interactive blip-style media, and Harry Potter completely blew ‘their’ opinions out of the water. As Nassim Taleb says, a ‘black swan’ moment (a ‘black swan’ because scientific reason held that swans were only available in ‘white’, because hundreds of thousands of observations had shown only white swans. When black swans were discovered in Western Australia they completely and instantaneously made a mockery of ’scientific experts’ and destroyed several ‘truths’ about swans that the scientific community held dear to their hearts.

The differences in blog usage between Lee and Allan reflect their different perspectives. Allan uses his social media tools to engage with a small group of practitioners, to swap ideas and so on. Lee uses his tools as branding and marketing outreach channels. Both of their perspectives are equally valid.

Like the ‘old fart’ that he is, Lee laments over the ‘walled gardens’ of Facebook, CommunicatorsNetwork, MyRagan, Second Life, MySpace and so on, arguing that these walled gardens are the opposite of the ethos of social media and the internet in general. Allan, quite naturally, sees these as complementary not antagonistic to the ethos, allowing small, like-minded groups of individuals to coalesce and share the conversations they would probably share around the water cooler, coffee urn or friendly pint down at the Queen’s Bum & Icepack.

Allan points out that there are stylistic differences that the limitations of micro-blogging can actually work to enhance, recounting that one well-known blogger is incredibly stilted and annoying on their blog posts, but warm, friendly and very funny in their micro-posts. Allan even briefly mentions Danah Boyd’s paper about the socio-economic differences between the residents of MySpace and Facebook.

Agree with them? Disagree? Let them have it - both barrels! Drop your comments on the show blog, or even better send a Waxmail to their Gmail account: commscafe at gmail dot com.

All in all, 30 minutes of caffeine-fuelled hyperbole and satire, which you can either download and listen to right away, or else subscribe to via your rss podcatcher. And if you are an iTunes user, you can find our podcast in the iTunes Music Store (for free, of course!) Beware, though: iTunes has a funny habit of not picking up all of our chats; you are better off copying our rss feed and then, in your copy of iTunes, go to ‘Advanced’ in the top menu bar, ‘Subscribe to Podcast…’ and paste in our rss feed there.

Until next time (paying clients must always take priority) take it easy, take some risks, take your children to the park.

 

UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Are There Users Who Always Search?
Recorded: September 26, 2007 from UIE’s studios
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 21 min | File size: 12 MB
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Each week in our Usability Tools Podcast series, I will be sitting down with UIE’s Managing Director, Christine Perfetti to discuss tips and tools for improving your site’s user experience. The goal of our weekly podcast is to share some of the most important findings from UIE’s research on web design and usability.

In the design world, there’s always been an assumption that some users demonstrate “search-dominant” tendencies by going right to the search engine when they first visit a web site looking for content. But back in 2000, UIE made a groundbreaking claim that blew away the web design world. From our research, we concluded that users aren’t Search dominant. A few years back, I wrote the article, Are There Users Who Always Search?, and have received tons of questions about the findings ever since.

In this podcast, Christine Perfetti and I discuss the study, including:

» Why no user always went to the search engine on a site
» How the design of a site’s page determines what location strategy users employ
» How the design community reacted to UIE’s research on Search Dominance
» Why your site’s navigation may be poorly designed if your users are gravitating to Search

As always, we’re very interested in hearing from you. Do you have questions or comments about this episode? Do you have suggestions for future episodes? We want to know. Please leave a comment below or email us directly at mailbag@uie.com.

UIE’s Latest Research: If you’re interested in the topics Christine and I discuss in the podcasts, I highly suggest you sign up for our free newsletter, UIEtips, to read our latest usability and design research as soon as we publish it. (We first published the results of our research on Search Dominance in our email newsletter.)

New: Survey and listener drawing!
We would like to give you and your co-workers free admission to our next Virtual Seminar program, with full, lifetime access to the archived program as well! All you need to do to be eligible is give us your feedback on your podcast listening experience. Fill out the following survey and each week we’ll randomly send one survey participant a free admission to the next UIE Virtual Seminar and Archive, a $169.00 value!We appreciate your input!

Participate in our survey to win!

We had quite a storm come through here last night.  At one point Amazing Husband and I stood at the back door and could not see the back trees through the sheet of water that poured down.  It was really something to see.  The sad news is that the wind blew so hard that it began to uproot one of our pine trees.  28 years ago I brought that tree home from northern Wisconsin in a coffee can.  AH and I have considered all the options and it seems a certainty that it will, eventually fall down.  Luckily, it doesn't look like the fall zone will cause too much damage, but I am honestly heartbroken.  The picture on the right is the ground on the west side of the tree where the roots are beginning to pull up.   This pine is the tallest of a corner grouping and must be about 30 feet tall.  It will leave quite a hole in the yard as well as my heart.   

In other news, I spent the entire day yesterday in the emergency room with my mother who has begun hallucinating.  After a complete testing work up the doctors couldn't find a single thing wrong with her so we're hoping that it  is the result of a combination of drug reaction and a lack of oxygen.  She is staying with my sister for a few days until either the hallucinations stop or we make other living arrangements for her. Not the best idea to have her living alone.  It's an interesting phenomenon and not a little frightening.  (Although I think my sister and I are probably more shaken by it than Mother.)  She sees people in the room with her, always people that she knows.  When we were at the hospital she saw things that would be found in a hospital (trays, nurses, wheelchairs) and then once she arrived at my sisters she saw geese and other animals in her yard.  None of these things were actually there, but they could have been.  I'm doing some serious praying that the situation will resolve itself and life will return to our own version of normal.  She is so adamant about living independently that it's hard to consider what the next step might be if the hallucinations continue.  One day at a time.

As long as nothing goes too far south between now and Tuesday AH and I are planning to make a short trip north to Duluth Tues-Thurs.  (WAY too short, but we're taking what we can get.  AH is in the middle of a big project at work.)  I am SO excited about this.  I wish we were going all the way to Grand Marias, but Duluth is no hardship.  I can hardly wait to hear the wakes break against the rock wall. 

Time to get out and mow the grass for the first time this Spring!  Have a wonderful weekend! 

From The The Geek Spin to Sundered. This is podcastJunky and I listen to it all.

 I share the best stuff on my ipod and ask you the question...What are you listening to?

And to answer that question, my call in line (714) 855-2639

On today's show Grammar Girl.

Grammar Girl is the Flagship show on The Quick and Dirty Tips Network Other shows on the network are:

• Money Girl
• Traveling Avatar
• Legal Lad
• Mighty Mommy
• Modern Manners Guy
• Get-It-Done Guy

All of the shows are just a few minutes long and their motto is "Fun, Friendly, Practical advise to help you do things better".

Since the shows are only a few minutes long, finding just a clip to play is a bit  challenging. So I'm going to play for you an entire episode entitled:Top Ten Grammar Myths,Episode 97

Please visit the above link for the text of Grammar Girls episode 97.

Now Grammar girl is not usually a top ten kind of show. I picked that episode because it gives you a flavor for the types of topics she covers. Normally she takes one topic a fleshes it out a bit more. She first gives the rule, with all the fancy words that, for me, fly in one ear and  right out the other side. But then she gives examples and easy ways to remember the rules. English class was never this quick or this much fun.

Don't forget her book Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing can be preordered at Amazon.com, BooksAMillion.com, and you can also preorder it from your local bookseller by searching Booksense.com. If its anything like her podcast it will be a handy reference guide, especially if you don't want to wade through hours of archived shows.

Speaking of books,don't forget to send in your entry for a signed of Scott Sigler's INFECTED. The date for this giveaway has been extended. I did not account enough for time shifting habits of the listeners and so entries are just now starting to role in. The new date is May 28.

Because of shipping costs this offer is good only in the Continental United States. If you are outside the US you are more than welcome to enter the contest but I will ask you to cover the mailing costs if you win.

To enter send your name, mailing address, and a photo of your self with your copy of INFECTED to podcastjunkycontest@gmail.com by May 28, 2008. All I ask is that the winner gives their current copy to a library or friend who would appreciate this fine book.

Now for some link love.

In toady's intro I used the same two shows mentioned in episode 16 because I completely to talk about link love last time.

The Geek Spin is a music show for us geeks. From the same crew that brings you PodCulture, Brad plays music with a fun and âgeekyâ spin.

Sundered is a science fiction podcast novel that is in pre-production. I ran across the first prelude episode and it blew me away.

The author Raphael Tehan is currently discovering just how much work it is to create a podcast. He probably thought he was done when he finished his novel. No no, not in a web 2.0 world. Now Raphael will be putting in countless hours to podcast it. He has 2 prelude episodes out now so if you like them, send him some email encouragement. It may help keep him going during the 2am editing sessions.


Music on this show was now then soon by 3rd Man and the outro music will be Exclamation by The FuMP. Thanks to the Podsafe Musc Network or whatever they are calling themselves now for making it legal for me to play them.

That's it for me.

oh wait that's not it for me. I recorded that last night and was ready to hit publish this morning when I exchanged emails with Jack Hosley, the wonderful @WNDRWolf on twitter. On his show Wonder Radio, Jack podcasts and blogs about books, audio dramas, music, funny commercials and parodies. He covers both his own work and others. He is also the person who turned me on to the song you are about to hear. This morning he educated me on the band. The Fump is actually the Funny Music Project. Which is a group of artists that specialize in novelty songs. The band playing Exclamation is actually called Brobdingnagian Bards here is Andrew from the Bards to pronounce the bands name properly.


Go Subscribe to something.

Beginning a career as a professional musician at age 19, Jamie Barnes plays what has come to be called “bedroom pop.” In other words, he records literate, lush songs in his bedroom, often alone, playing all of the instruments. His confessional style and way with words incorporates biblical and historical allusions track his journey and invite the listener along. Barnes is an active member and worship leader at Soujourn Community Church in Louisville, KY. I recently spoke with Barnes about his music, his faith and Girl Scouts taking care of public roads and everything in between. Enjoy:

• Were you raised in a musical home?

Yes, definitely. My father was actually a professional drummer when he was younger. He played in a white soul band in the late ‘60’s. They were called Tom Dooley and the Love Slides. They actually had a pretty good following, opening for bands like The Doors and Sam and Dave and the Beach Boys. He had all sorts of neat stories to tell my brother and I. Of course some stories he only shared later in our lives. He always had music playing in the house. He had a pretty extensive record collection that we took to very early on. Music was always going on. I started out as a drummer like my dad, as we often do we try to be different from what our parents do. I think I picked up a guitar at age eleven and it was pretty much it from there.

• Were you raised in a Christian home?

Yes. It’s sort of an interesting story to some. I actually was raised in the Church of Christ, the very consertive Church of Christ. Meaning that the church that I was raised in all we had was acapella music. They sort of take a stance against instruments being used in worship, which is not something I adhere to any longer. Especially doing what I do at Sojourn. That was what I was a part of growing up. They still do that. They sing four part harmony. They feel that instruments aren’t a part of… it’s hard to explain. When I was knee part in it I could rattle off as much proof as I wanted to, now I don’t necessarily agree with their viewpoints, so I’ll just leave it at that.

• That seems like an interesting choice of worship styles for your dad.

Yeah, it was tough for me too. I think that when God give you a gift, especially when you want to be close to Him, you want to draw near to Him, you want to be able to use that gift in service. That was something I was totally discouraged from doing growing up. I became a professional musician at age nineteen or twenty when I was first signed to a label. My music was considered secular. You know I don’t even like to use the term secular, but that was just the way I looked at it then. Most people who were around me at the time I guess were okay with that. They would have rather seen me take another job. As long as it remained secular and no mention of God in my music, which is strange for me to look at now. What aspect of life does God not touch? At the time you know it was very difficult. Now I see differently. I’m very, very blessed to be using what gifts God has given me in service. To lead worship or write songs for the congregation or what have you.

• Can you briefly describe your salvation experience?

Sure. I came to know Christ through the church of Christ. I wasn’t baptized into the specific local church. I very much knew who Jesus was outside of that indoctrination. It wasn’t until years later that I felt like something was missing in my walk and that is when I decided to leave the Church of Christ. I as just recently married at the time. Both me and my brother left at the same time and took our families with us. It wasn’t until later when we found Sojurne where we’re currently members of now. I think I really understood what Grace is. The church that I grew up in is very much…. And I really have no problem saying this because it’s where I come from, its’s very much like a works based sort of church. It wasn’t until later that I really understood exactly how big the gift of Grace is and how dependent I am on God for my salvation and not my own self. That absolutely changes your viewpoint of God and you begin to appreciate your salvation even more, and you’re not weighed down by guilt which I was for years. It’s sort of like two different experiences. I was raised in a house that taught Jesus. I guess I had the basics down. It wasn’t until later that my faith became more concrete and genuine because before I had a huge lack of understanding of what it meant to fully rely on Jesus.

• Before you mentioned you don’t really like the term secular music. On the flip side of that, are you comfortable with the term Christian music?

It’s not something I use to describe my music. My music ends up on the folk rack, or indie rock or something like that. I’m fine with the term when it helps people categorize things. The reason I don’t like secular as I stated earlier, it’s tough for me as a Christian to be able to divorce your faith from anything you do, so why even use the term “secular”?

I guess Christian music, well, any sort of genre helps people sort through, what’s the fell of it and what’s the message behind it. But it’s one of those things where Christian music has developed a stigma amongst unbelievers over the years, just because the majority of the quality is just sort of questionable, in my mind and a lot of people’s minds. I think it’s taking a turn but if you notice, the good quality stuff that’s coming out, it’s not really labeled “Christian music,” it just happens to be Christians making music. They’re just being honest and they’re not divorcing their faith from their art but at the same time it’s not alienating any listeners that are unbelievers. I think that’s just absolutely necessary; not that you’re ashamed of wearing the name “Christian” at all, I don’t think any of these artists are, I’m certainly not. It allows you to circumvent a lot of the issues that come with labeling something “Christian music.” You’re just being in the world but not of the world.

I think it’s been effective. I know of several people that, after watching the Danielson Famile movie, them not being Christians, they were affected by it and it caused them to want to discover more about Jesus, even in just loving these artists. I think they’re definitely not the same people that would listen to Twila Paris or Carmen.

I don’t know, you can probably make an argument for both sides but that’s just how I see it. I think it’s great when Christians are just honest and make music from their hearts and it just so happens to be a light to people. But it’s just being who you are.

• Is this something that you’re conscious about when you write or not necessarily?

I don’t think so. What comes out of me just comes out of me. I don’t’ think it’s a matter of being conscience about it. There is a different approach that I take when I know that I’m writing something for, like the church that I attend, Sojourn Community Church here in Louisville. We put out our own CDs. We have a lot of really great songwriters and musicians. But I take a different approach when writing for the church than I do when writing for a Jamie Barnes album. It’s not that when I write a Jamie Barnes album I turn off all faith or anything like that; that would be a horrible mistake.

It’s harder for me to write worship songs, just because I’ve been doing the other for so long. But that’s just a personal thing. It should be easier for me but that’s just another issue that I’m overcoming.

It doesn’t seem though that when my records come out people miss the spiritual stuff, even in articles and reviews that are not printed in any sort of Christian-oriented magazine or radio station. They get it and make comments to it. But they seem to appreciate that it doesn’t seem to be written specifically for Christians.

• Have you received any negative feedback because of that?

Not that I’m aware of. I’ve never received any sort of difficult e-mail or any bad press because of that that I’m aware of. Whether or not some people choose to come out to shows because of that, I’m totally not sure. Personally I’ve never had any of that. In fact, I’ve had more of a good response from people that are not Christians. They seem to appreciate it. At least that’s what they tell me.

Even if I did, I’d just have to see what the people have to say. I definitely don’t want to beat people over the head with my faith just because I want to beat them over the head with it. But I also don’t want to be shamed out of sharing my faith through my music because it offends people; that’s just what Christ does.

• Earlier, you alluded to the fact that as your faith progressed, so did your understanding of music. Can you elaborate a bit as to how those two have worked together in your life?

I think that music has a deeper meaning now than it used to for me. When I thought was I was doing was “secular” music, it just didn’t have as much weight or meaning behind it. I’ve seen the fruits of sharing spiritual things, or just having my faith on my sleeve on some of the records that has caused me to realize that that’s what the Lord wants me to do. I think, years ago, I was struck by the parable of the talents.

After I read that and had not been using my music to any sort of advancement of the kingdom or trying to preach to people or even just admonish the Body, I felt like the guy who was burying his talent under the sand. Everything was self-motivated. I looked at music as a way of making my living and I was very intent on gaining as many fans and as much attention as I could as an artist. But it wasn’t for the right reasons. It was just because I wanted to live the dream of being a professional musician. The Lord has helped me take a turn with that over the last few years, through what He’s allowed me to do through service at Sojourn, the church where I’m at. I’m heavily involved with the worship team there. Before two years ago, I had never played music in the church. Just seeing what the music inside the church means to the body of believers and experiencing what a difference it is to play a show at a bar or club versus inside the church. It’ definitely changes your perspective. Music is not just entertainment, it’s more than that. It’s communication, it’s a gift. My view has certainly shifted and continues to do so.

• Sojourn is one of a growing number of churches heavily involved in the arts. When you look back on church history, that was the testimony of the church, great art often came from Christians. Yet, as we’ve progressed, this no longer seems to be the case, how did this come about?

That’s a huge question. I don’t know where it can be traced back to or who is to blame. I think it’s just that Christians are to blame due to heart issues. I think it’s a matter of honesty. I have a hard time saying that, obviously you can’t judge people’s hearts when they’re producing stuff. I think that people just picked up on the fact that, for a long time, Christian music just seemed to be like the machine of pop music. It was the same, only we mentioned Jesus. It just wasn’t produced well, it wasn’t written well or performed well.

I guess it comes to personal taste too. I’m sure a lot of people have been blessed through the ages of some art, liturgical art, Christian art or whatever you want to say, but it’s important to always do what we do well and with a lot of thought behind it and make sure we’re not just cranking things out.

It almost seemed like Christian music was cranked out just to combat pop music but that’s not a good reason to do it: “We’ve got to have something for our kids to listen to, so let’s just send this person to a studio and sing this song.” It almost seems to me like that’s what happened.

The Church took such a huge stance, particularly in the middle of the 20th century against pop culture and I think the art that came out of that was just a response to stick it to the Beatles or something: “Our kids burned all of those records so we’ve got to have something for them to listen to.” I don’t know if it traces back even further or not.

The one thing I always encourage people to do when they’re just getting involved in the arts at church is to remember that we’re made in the image of a Creator. That means a lot. We do these things to the glorification of God’s name. Look at what He’s created! If we can understand that, that we’re made in His image, then we too have a creative side and can say a lot about the character of God through what we craft. But we’d better make sure that our heart is in it and the reasons behind it are true and just. I think that when we’re honest enough to really put our hearts behind our craft, people will at be less offended by it. They might object to the message just because Jesus came to bring a sword but I don’t think that people will be able to put it down just because it’s cheesy and lite.

• It would seem that Sufjan Stevens is a perfect example of that, wouldn’t you say? Many reviews essentially say that they don’t like what he’s saying but they love the music.

Right, that is great. At least if they’re going to reject it, let it be the message. Get yourselves out of the way and let people look at the message. We’re definitely not going to get anywhere with a world of unbelievers when it’s just sort of half-way lobbed up there or it’s not a well-crafted thing for everyone to look at. Why would anyone want to be a part of anything that just seems like it was put together half-heartedly?

I always stress honesty when I talk to other writers but that’s tough. It’s tough because that requires a level of transparency. Even as Christians, not just as artists but as Christians, we have a hard time doing that. I think Sufjan Stevens has been great at that. I use his song “John Wayne Gacy” in seminars on songwriting. It’s an awesome song and he talks about Gacy and all the horrible things he did as a human being but the last line is something like “look underneath my floorboards and you’ll see that I’m just like him.” Man, what a confession! That’s a true understanding of sin and depravity. People can appreciate that. Instead of Sufjan pointing a judgmental finger, he points it back at himself. He has the wherewithal to be transparent with his listeners and that’s huge.

• You sometimes lead songwriting seminars. Do you have a typical creative process?

I’m pretty atypical on that. I don’t necessarily have a typical process. I teach building around one thought. Sometimes I teach based working around a title. I’ll give you an example: there’s a song on the last record called “Hell’s Adopted Mile.” I totally built that song around that title. I was driving down a road somewhere and you see those signs saying that this stretch of mile was adopted by the Jefferson County Girl Scouts or whoever and it looks nice and taken care of. So I saw one of those signs and then a few miles later it was apparent the Girl Scouts were no longer taking care of the road and I said that it looked like the Devil adopted that part of the road! There were wrecked cars and trash along the road. I thought that was a pretty good line and started working with it. So I built the song around that. You can train yourself to listen to your thoughts and to other people and listen to yourself ramble off stupid things like that, which I’m very accustomed to! You never know when a thought might be worthwhile that you can build all sorts of themes around. I don’t really have a set formula: it’s hard to schedule creativity. For me, it’s hard to come up with a solid process that you can teach people to do so I just teach a lot of things but I’m still learning too. I hit creative walls all the time and I just figure the Lord wants me to be doing something else until the moment strikes.

• Your music has been described as “simple, hooky, lo-fi, bedroom pop gems.” How would you describe your music?

I don’t know that I’d use any of those words. I don’t know, I guess that would be fine. I think the one thing I would agree with is the “simple” part. That’s not self-deprecating. I like the idea of things being simple. I try to be simplistic in my approach to it.

• And yet there’s a lush-ness to your music. How do you balance that?

I don’t know that I have an answer to that. I know that it takes a long time for me to write a song. I wouldn’t call myself prolific. I definitely err on the side that it takes me a very long time to craft a song. There’s a lot of thought and pain that goes into every one of them. Whether or not that’s for the better, I don’t know. So in that way, they’re not simplistic. But I think the musical presentation is simple, maybe that’s what I’m trying to say. If someone down the road publishes a Jamie Barnes fake book of guitar chords, which I doubt that anyone ever will, but anybody can play these songs on guitar. I dress them up simply but the words is what I focus on. I love language and I love words. That’s something that I really try to put a lot of effort into.

• Do you read much literature or poetry?

I don’t read a lot of poetry. I’m a real history buff and I read a lot of things about obscure portions of world history. I really like early American history, Civil War and around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. I’m a big documentary watcher. I love the History Channel. I love being able to look at history and how that applies to present day and learning from history. But also, it’s very easy for me to make poetic allusions from history. That’s a resource that’s always been very precious to me as a writer.

I’m not a big poetry guy. That’s not to say I don’t like poetry I just don’t read it a lot. I love novels. I’m a big fan of Cormac McCarthy whose been getting a lot of attention lately. Flannery O’Connor. I love writers that seem to have their own jargon. Like Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, the language is just so rich, it’s just a very violent book. The language that he uses to describe all the depravity and absolute ugliness is truly beautiful and that’s something I’ve always admired.

• Who are some of your musical influences?

Tom Waits is a big one. He’s just been a huge influence on me in the way that he thinks. He’s someone who can make ugly stories into something beautiful. I wish I had a voice like his. A lot of people say not to wish that upon yourself because it probably took years and years of cigarettes and who knows what else. When he sings about hard times or being some sort of rambling guy who sleeps in a graveyard and watches TV through the window of a furniture store, you believe it when it comes out of his mouth.

Another big one over the years is Leonard Cohen. I love the early Leonard Cohen songs; not the greatest musician but a heck of a lyric writer. Jim White is another one. His first record, Wrong Eyed Jesus, I got when I was pretty young, like 16 or 17 and it just blew me away. I still listen to that a lot.

There’s other stuff that might not seem so obvious in listening to my music like, I love ambient music and I love contemporary classical like Steve Reich. Last year there was a whole summer I listened to nothing but old reggae. Sometimes it’s stuff like that that might not be so familiar that’s really fun to listen to.

• Are there any current artists you listen to?

I recently just discovered Neko Case. I know everybody’s been hip on her for years but I totally missed that boat. I bought Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and, man, that’s just a great record! I love it. I’ve been listening to Dawn Landes lately. She’s a Louisville native whose taken up residence in New York. Her latest album is called Fireproof and it’s really good.

• What’s next?

That’s a good question! I’m finishing up producing an album for a guy named Luke Asher. This is his debut album and I’m excited about that. I’ve done production work before but I feel like his record might actually do something. He’s really talented and he’s already got a label behind him. We’re just finishing up the mixing and mastering for that.

• Is producing something you’d like to do more of?

Yes, I think so. It’s just a matter of having the time. It’s time-consuming. I don’t notice how much time goes into my own stuff because I produce myself but when it’s somebody else’s music you’re more aware of time.

• Visit Jamie Barnes’ official website
• Download“Paper Crane” from the EP of the same name
• Download“You Can’t Go Wrong” from the Paper Crane EP
• Download“Devil At Our Heels” from the Paper Crane EP
• Download“Patient Love” from the Paper Crane EP
• Download“Wings On the Line” from the Paper Crane EP

Our deal-sense is tingling. We feel…a disturbance. Forces are shifting. Constellations are aligning. The clouds of fate roil madly in the sky of destiny, presaging severe kismet storms with a 40% chance of serendipity. The universe is trying to tell you something. No, not “live life to the fullest” or “love your fellow Earthlings” or “wash me”. It’s saying “Buy a Zune now.”

Just look at the evidence. It goes way beyond our foul little cranny of cybertopia. Even the unwashed non-wooter masses (or you, if you like) can now get one of those brown Zunes no one wants at Amazon for $89.99, with free shipping. And they’re $89.99 at Buy.com if you use Google Checkout.

It just doesn’t make sense.

Think about the engineers and R&D people who designed the Zune, the workers who labored to mine and manufacture its components, the programmers who created its media-playing software. Consider its 30GB hard drive, 3” widescreen LCD, its FM tuner and headphones and wireless interface. Ponder, if you will, how its battery can play for up to 14 hours on a charge – even more if you augment it with the Belkin TunePower (sold separately, by us). And yet, somehow, we’re able to bring you your choice of black or white Zunes – the attractive ones – for the ludicrous price shown above. You’re telling us that’s a mere ninety bucks worth of parts and labor? There’s got to be something supernatural going on here.

Skeptics will say otherwise. They’ll point out how Microsoft made way too many brown Zunes, and the glut of those unloved models has constipated their entire system. They’ll drone on about the upcoming release of the Zune 2, and Microsoft’s willingness to absorb any cost to grab a piece of the personal media market. They’ll do anything but face the truth: that forces beyond our understanding are nudging us all toward Zune ownership, for reasons the human mind cannot begin to comprehend.

How do we know? Why are we so sure? Because we’ve felt it ourselves. Late last night, as we were planning this sale, a chill wind blew through our transom. We were seized by an unexplained impulse to offer a free Zune Travel Pack to anyone who orders two or three Zunes. It includes the Zune Premium Earphones, Dual Connect Remote, AC Charger, Sync Cable, and a decent carrying bag. Its value is listed at $99.99, although list prices obviously mean nothing in this strange new world. We feel irresistibly compelled to throw one of these kits into every order of multiple Zunes (just one free kit per order, not per Zune). We suspect the universe wants you to buy multiple Zunes, or hook a friend into buying one along with yours so you can keep the kit, and maybe even tell the friend the Zunes cost more than they do so you can get yours even cheaper. That’s between you and this so-called friend. The universe doesn’t care either way.

The one thing we do know is that this celestial blue-light special won’t last long. The Fates will weave a new skein, the stars will drift out of calibration, Microsoft will finally clear their warehouses. Our preliminary sheep-entrail readings confirm it: you probably won't be able to get a full-featured media player this potent for less than $100, and hence fulfill the cosmic destiny of humankind, for years to come. Pre-order from Amazon, employ Google Checkout at Buy.com, or grab a Black or White Zune from Woot, while you can. Do you really want to tempt fate?

TWO podcasts embedded in this blog entry! What a delightful time I had this morning with the RESA2008 MiniConference taking place in Wayne County, Michigan. Many thanks to David Frankel and Carol Mayer (congrats to Grandma! She had to travel to Minn. to be with her grandchild and missed the conference!) for being kind enough to invite me to present to folks!

Not only did I have a chance to give my keynote presentation, Embrace-Learn-Collaborate--Globally!, I also had a chance to listen to Chris K (Dearborn Schools Tech Director) deliver a presentation full of neat tips and tools for open source living in schools.

And, as an added bonus, Jane Perzyk (MBAmom on Twitter) dropped by to say "hello!" She muttered something about coining a new term that involves using Twitter to locate other folks, but GeoTwitter is a term that's been around <smile>. Two other new acquaintances I made today include Jim Wenz and KevG. But, back to Chris.

Chris definitely painted a compelling picture of walled garden applications that he's using in Dearborn schools (Read his blog). Here are some of my notes from this morning's presentation, the biggest attraction being Chris' demo of the web portal he's created--using Joomla content management system--and D-Tube, a YouTube clone that is based PHPMotion's free, open source scripts. Wow! This was the demonstration that just blew me away...when I first spoke to the TeacherTube folks, they shared that they might be putting something like this out and making it available to schools...now, you can use PHPMotion's product to accomplish the same thing! Obviously, Chris is incredibly talented to be managing all these components.

He's using Joomla Content Management System. Without any special software, you can login and create a web site. This is where we post all our district news. At the bottom, there is an administrator login and see backend of the software. You can create an entire school district web site and give individual people access to publish stuff. We're using Joomla to manage the school web site. There are a lot of neat things you can do. Joomla is free. I write about all this software in my blog. He's showing off all this stuff including page curls, slide-ins, slide-outs. He's spent some serious time customizing this.

Now Chris is talking about PTSA (Parent-Teacher School Association). This is a Joomla site as well. Parents use their login and manipulate the web site. He's mentioning iBlog which is based on Multi-user WordPress. Teachers can login and it creates a blog for them. Another open source video provider...it's like Youtube but the script comes from http://phpmotion.com

This is not Hannah Montana, but rather a girl named "So help me, Hannah." DTube looks very similar to YouTube. Chris is scrolling through, showing off all the videos.

You can follow the Tweets via a TweetScan RSS feed embedded at Wikispaces here.

 Listen to Chris K. from DearBorn Schools.

Some of the tools Chris mentioned included:

1. Chris' Blog
2. Joomla - content management system for managing your district's web sites.
3. Moodle with DimDim - Moodle is course management system and DimDim turns it into an interactive video delivery tool similar to UStream.tv but without some of the bells-n-whistles <wink>
4. Multi-User WordPress - great for blogging. I prefer b2evolution.net but hey, you pick the best tools for your teaching, learning and leading environment.
5. YouTube Clone by PHPMotion - That's right, set up your own YouTube in the safety of your school district's walled garden.
6. Mahara - Tool for ePortfolios that integrates with Moodle ensuring a single login for students. Nice!
7. DekiWiki - this is the graphical wiki he's considering using. We're using it already in my district...see it at http://wiki.saisd.net
8. CraftySyntax - Nifty tool that allows Chris to chat with parents LIVE when they login to the District web site. What a neat idea, not just to connect with the Community but also for HelpDesk calls and lots more!
9. MooTools - This one is over my head, and I'll need to follow up with Chris on exactly HOW he's using this.

I hate to be stingy with blog posts, but I've posted all my stuff online for this presentation at my http://mguhlin.wikispaces.com site. Note that everything is shared under CC license with Sharealike-NonCommercial-Attribution. That means, remix it for educational use! You'll find a copy of my keynote presentation and the audiocast is available below as a download as well. All videos, items for this presentation are linked or available online there. My thanks to Robin Ellis, Alec Couros, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay who inspired aspects of the presentation!!

 Listen to Miguel's Michigan keynote

Alexandra Prokopenko is a Belarusian journalist living, working and studying in Sweden. She spoke with Rod Adams while on holiday in Kiev, Ukraine.

(MP3 - 21.3 MB - 01:01:45 M)

Listen to Atomic Show #091 Here!

This show truly demonstrates the individual power and freedom provided to the world by the Internet. While we talked via Skype video conferencing (without additional charges above our internet connection fees) Alexandra was in Kiev, Ukraine celebrating the Orthodox Easter holiday while I was in Annapolis, Maryland on drizzly Sunday afternoon. Disregarding the two hard drops of our Skype connection, it sounds like we are in the same room or at least in the same town talking over a very clean phone line.

I recently “met” Alexandra online through the introduction of a mutual friend. She is a young woman who was a four year old in Belarus at the time that the operators of the Chernobyl power plant decided to perform an undocumented test procedure and ignored all warning signs to the point where they blew up the reactor.

Alexandra, like many of her contemporaries, has an enlarged thyroid and a few other medical problems that she attributes to the effects of the materials released during the subsequent fire, but instead of becoming a bitter victim, she chose to become an inquisitive journalist and fact seeker.

We talked about a number of different topics including the accident, energy supplies in Eastern Europe, the Ignalina reactor in Lithuania, Sweden’s current plans regarding its nuclear future, Russia’s recently announced plan to build a large power station in Kaliningrad for the electricity export market, and the business practices that she observed as a translator working for Gazprom.

Alexandra is a fascinating person, an experienced print, radio and television journalist, a linguist (she speaks excellent English, Russian, Swedish, Belarusian, and can get by in Polish, German, French and Japanese), and a world citizen with a questioning attitude.

Please listen carefully to this interview and share it with your friends. I am sure you will not be disappointed and may even be energized - like I am - to find out that there are people like Alexandra in the business of informing the world about what they know and what they can find out.

Welcome to the eighty-second Weekly Challenge, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.

The topic this week was selected by Michael.

It's Fear Of Flying

Whew.

The excellent theme music is by Guy David

VOTING

Which were the best stories in Weekly Challenge #82?
	Paul
	Linda
	Tom from Footnote
	Laieanna from Hodgepodge Point
	Guy David from Guy David dot com
	Daphne of Going Broke
	Planet Z
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Go ahead and listen to them by clicking on the grammophone thingy there in the left column and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):

---

PAUL

Hello, my name's Bob and I have a problem

[Hi Bob!]

I have this fear of flying.

[What the heck? What did he say? What's the deal? ]

Which! ... Which is why I drink.

[Oh! Okay! He's one of us, after all. Okay Bob!]

I'm a Consultant. I live on the west coast and work on the East! I have to fly!

But I can't fly without drinking! One after the other! Calling the attendant for more and more!

[Yep! Been there! Don't have to fear flying for that! Hard to walk to baggage!]

Then I can't sleep after drinking all that coke!

[Coke! He's no Alcoholic! Throw out the Bum!]

LINDA

Frank was stuffed into the Toyota. At Seventy-five MPH it sound- ed like a beehive. The toll traffic was unbearable. Work sucked. Suddenly a seagull swooped down in front of his windshield. Man, he was staying ahead of the car! The bird's feet were just touching the windshield!

Frank pulled himself up rooting! This was Frank's whole problem! A
fear of flying, of braking away and striking out. He could do it!
Screw this commute, this job! You Go Bird!!

Boom! An explosion of feathers. Two stuck to Frank's windshield. The
bird veered into a truck. 7:59. Late. Work sucked

TOM

He was shaking like a leaf. The stewardess noted the white knuckler in C35 motioned to the head fight attendant. Tom's new job had him flying regulars to LA for 30 and 60 second spots. It wouldn't have matter if he taken a train car or rickshaw the devastating motion sickness would have gotten him. It was the curse of his Kingdom and that first ancestor Herb. "Why had that fraking Gnome got himself fired?" he thought. Tom Tomato Plant lost it when the head steward offered him a Snap Toms. Lucky the stewardess had a vegetable barf bag ready.

LAIEANNA

Jimmy purchased a parachute and modified it with a smaller harness attached to the front for his daughter. He then spent hours practicing the whole scenario of picking her up, strapping her in, jumping free of danger and debris, and pulling the cord.

On the big day, Jimmy strapped a helmet on both their heads and held
his daughter's hand while waiting in line. He was terrified; she was
excited. When their turn came up to board, he made the sign of the
cross and hoisted his daughter into the Carnival's Miniature airplane
kiddy ride and climbed in behind her.

GUY

The world of open source change is coming Have no fear of flying Fragments of human imagination Caught in a twilight zone of virtual innovation It's the golden age of creation Sweeping through the Second Life nation Shaking furiously with anticipation As I crush out of this world of expectation There's no denying there is some sort of a revolution here But the wheels of steel are moving to slow for the kill The age of open code and sharing is coming There is no denying that In a whirlpool of sweet creative melody Comes the age of enhanced communication

DAPHNE

Standing at the edge of the nest, Stanley looked back at his mother. She nudged him gently toward the sky. He opened his wings, felt the wind rush past them, he looked to the horizon, he envisioned himself soaring with the other eaglets, but he couldn't move. He was an eaglet with a fear of flying. He knew he had to conquer this fear or become food for the beasts that dwell on the ground. So he unhooked his talons and jumped from the nest...and then... nothing... Stanley woke up and realized You can't soar with the Eagles when you are a Turkey.

CALEB

when they came together, zippers fell away like rose petals, underwear blew off in one sweet breath like dandelion fluff. Her mind was a whirl, was this the mythical a plus zipless f**k or was it just the Maui Wowee this guy had brought with him on the Braniff flight from Amsterdam. Either way, her mother always told her to 'eschew the ordinary' and this Randolph Mantooth look alike was anything but ordinary. She eschewed him out the door before her husband got home, then Erica Jong fired up her fancy new bong and began writing the fear of flying.

Z

Sometimes, you're such a fuckup, you need divine intervention to keep you from being too much of a problem to others.

So many people out there in the world, stands to reason there's a backlog of cases.

Standards for guardian angels have dropped significantly since Biblical times.

For instance, my guardian angel is afraid of flying.

"How can you be afraid of flying?" I ask her. "Don't you have wings?"

"I don't you sticking your tongue in light sockets," she said. "You have a tongue, right?"

Okay, so maybe she said something other than "tongue" but you get the point.

The first podcast in over six months!
In this action-packed explosion of erudition Lee shares his experiences on a half-day workshop on Social Media, especially his view that business communicators suck at communicating.

Allan agrees, noting that the two best ways to prepare for a presentation are to:

1. Don't work out and shape your presentation in Powerpoint; only turn on Powerpoint when you already HAVE your story.
2. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Lee praises David Grossman for his superb presentation that obviously met both of the above criteria, and agrees that he is the 'one born every minute' as PT Barnum would say.

Allan goes into depth about how to use headline titles in PowerPoint correctly.

Allan confesses that he doesn't read blogs these days, preferring to read Twitter, Jaiku and Facebook. Lee is really concerned at the possible death of blogging at the hands of micro-blogging and wonders whether the 'attention deficit economy' means that we are witnesses to the end of long-form creativity.

But then again, 'they' all said that children were only interested in multi-colour, fast-paced, interactive blip-style media, and Harry Potter completely blew 'their' opinions out of the water. As Nassim Taleb says, a 'black swan' moment (a 'black swan' because scientific reason held that swans were only available in 'white', because hundreds of thousands of observations had shown only white swans. When black swans were discovered in Western Australia they completely and instantaneously made a mockery of 'scientific experts' and destroyed several 'truths' about swans that the scientific community held dear to their hearts.

The differences in blog usage between Lee and Allan reflect their different perspectives. Allan uses his social media tools to engage with a small group of practitioners, to swap ideas and so on. Lee uses his tools as branding and marketing outreach channels. Both of their perspectives are equally valid.

Like the 'old fart' that he is, Lee laments over the 'walled gardens' of Facebook, CommunicatorsNetwork, MyRagan, Second Life, MySpace and so on, arguing that these walled gardens are the opposite of the ethos of social media and the internet in general. Allan, quite naturally, sees these as complementary not antagonistic to the ethos, allowing small, like-minded groups of individuals to coalesce and share the conversations they would probably share around the water cooler, coffee urn or friendly pint down at the Queen's Bum & Icepack.

Allan points out that there are stylistic differences that the limitations of micro-blogging can actually work to enhance, recounting that one well-known blogger is incredibly stilted and annoying on their blog posts, but warm, friendly and very funny in their micro-posts. Allan even briefly mentions Danah Boyd's post about the socio-economic differences between the residents of MySpace and Facebook.

Agree with them? Disagree? Let them have it - both barrels! Drop your comments on the show blog, or even better send a Waxmail to their Gmail account: commscafe at gmail dot com.

All in all, 30 minutes of caffeine-fuelled hyperbole and satire.

Until next time (paying clients must always take priority) take it easy, take some risks, take your children to the park.

The above comic was on xkcd the other day. (Click on comic for link.) Reminded me of my high school days.

I was in computer class one day (I think it was called Keyboarding 1 or something). Our computers were locked down to the point where you could only run like two programs. One was WordPerfect [was it WordPerfect?](remember that? The Blue screen with the white letters?), the other was some typing speed tester. Well, they neglected to think about the security aspect, and that anyone would be able to use WordPerfect to navigate throughout the school’s networks.

Guess what?

Change directory... What directory would you like to change to? How about ../../../../../../../.? Well... the details of how I exactly did it are lost to time right now, but basically, lame directory transversal. Was able to navigate to the teachers computer where her name was “Sysop”. (Imagine that?)

Well, she maintained the usernames and passwords for all of the users on the networks, all of which were editable using WordPerfect. Very Nice.

Anyway. I never did anything malicious, let me just say that right now, before anyone jumps to conclusions. But the kid sitting behind me did. (No really, he really did) His name was Shawn. I don’t remember his last name, but I know he got kicked out of school a year or two later.

The teacher didn’t really know what we were doing (she was across the room) but she could tell we were in the file navigator. So consequently by the next day, my parents and I were in the Principles office. The teacher claimed I hacked her Sysop password (not true). They wanted me to tell them what the new one was, I had no idea. I didn’t do it!

I was suspended at the end. My Dad was pissed.

I say all that to say this, which brings me back to the comic.

Years later after I left home, joined the military, and blew some stuff up... Dad and I were sharing a beer going over all the funny crap I did as a kid when we came upon this moment in time.

Dad admitted to me that at the time he had to act mad, but he told me that he actually was very proud of me at that moment. He said that I always knew what I was going to do for a living from the age of 14. I just had no idea how to get there.

Famous quote by Steve Jobs, (of course!):
“Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward .... But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.”

I just had a presentation from three tenth grade computer science students that literally blew me away on avoiding e-mail scams and internet fraud.

(This is part of the initial internet security and safety module we do first in computer science -- I do a scaled down version in fundamentals. Safety first!)

They shared the 2006 list of Top Ten Internet Scam Trends from the NCL fraud center.

Here are some points that they made:

• Consumers under the age of 30 account for 27% of all internet fraud complaints (as the victims) --but they are more likely to fall for auction scams (items sold but not delivered), general merchandise, advance fee loans, and fake check scams (where someone sends you a check but then wants a refund and you wire it back before their check clears.)
  
  
• Auctions are the #1 fraud item on the Internet with an average loss of $1,331 and that is not nearly as high as it was in 2003 before ebay removed the link on their site to fraud.org.
  
  
• Initial contact with crooks has now shifted to be mostly on web pages and not e-mails (69%).
  
  
  
  We just think of spam and unwitting senior citizens but statistically only 8% of victims are over 60.
  

An increasing number of people in foreign countries are taking money via Internet scams with 42% of "crooks" being based in foregn countries. Additionally, the top method of taking money is wire transfer (46%) with the second method being credit card (20%)

We require students to take driving lessons because we want to keep our roads safe. I believe that we have an imperative to teach Digital Citizenship -- which encompasses far more than safety and privacy but how to effectively relate to others on the Internet.

I think this is a great case to look at in classes who are studying digital citizenship -- it may just blow away some of their stereotypes as it did mine.

We must not think that because we are more technically savvy that this sort of thing cannot happen to those we know. Just because a child knows how to use a computer does not impart wisdom into the brain behind the fingers. It is our job to educate.

What are you doing to teach digital citizenship?

tag:fraud, safety, digitalcitizenship, teaching, education

Todd Malicoat, AKA StuntDubl, has created a legendary brand among search marketing insiders and needs little introduction.I first had the pleasure of watching him present “Digg pointers” along with Neil Patel at SES Chicago 2006 and was immediately engaged by his no-shit high-integrity approach to content, link building, making friends, sharing,and building his own brand.

StuntDublwas an early SEM blogger, linkbaiter and foundational search marketing practitioner.With recent posts like “The SEO Playbook - Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Alice,” Todd is still quietly active in the blogging community as he builds companies, speaks at search marketing shows, and selectively services clients.

Recently I interviewed him by phone. We talked about linking, search marketing, StumbleUpon, his early Digg days, vetting SEM firms, starting an SEO career, and other practical topics. You’re invited to listen to the MP3 and read the full transcript. This is a must-listen for anyone considering a career in search marketing and seasoned veterans alike.

Marty:Todd, you’re one of the most respected link baiters in the world.I’m curious as to how you got your start in social network link building and if you have any anecdotes regarding your background and early viral successes.

Todd:The first time I did that vanity search for my own name and went out and found my own resume out there online, you know my resume had my name, phone number, home address, everything else, and I went, “Oh well, I guess that’s so much for privacy,” and so I kind of took the proactive approach to it.So as much as my name is out there and everything else, it really wasn’t an accident of, I was pretty much a shameless whore with it, with promoting myself and just always putting content out, you know.Like this year, you know, always being willing to do an interview or talk with someone or record some content here and there.So that’s really kind of how from a personal perspective I got involved in the social networking aspect of the web in general, just kind of within the Internet marketing community, and just really getting to know people and having conversations with people, and like you were saying earlier before we started recording, it’s just kind of a very cool community full of all kinds of interesting people, and the fact that you get to know those people and then how it works, it’s really a pretty amazing thing.

Marty:What was the first actual link bait content you ever blew out on the Internet, Todd?

Todd:Yeah, I really always did it as the SEO thing, and I guess I didn’t even think of it as link bait at the time as much, so it was more really just writing posts about SEO before there was a whole lot of SEO bloggers, I guess.And that came from, I went to a webmaster world show and realized that everybody just knew my screen name and webmaster world where I had been posting and such, so that then became the blog, and then just continues to write there, and it wasn’t so much where it is now of specifically saying I’m going to craft a piece of content to go out and get some links, it was more just writing about, I guess it was a little more authentic at that point –

Marty:Mm hmm.

Todd:– but it wasn’t specifically geared to draw links –

Marty:Huh.

Todd:– and it wasn’t quite as outrageous and, not even outrageous but just, uh –

Marty:Hyperbolic.

Todd:Yeah, yeah.It wasn’t explicitly for links, it just kind of naturally did that, and I think in ways I’ve really, you know, shot myself in the foot there, you know, because every time I do do a piece of content or something, it gets called out as link bait now.[laughs]So if I do an exceptional piece of content, you know, it gets called out as link bait all the time, which can be a good or bad thing, I guess, depending on how you’re looking at it, and certainly it is and certainly I love the links.And part of how I got into it was just having, got into link building for so long and knowing how tedious and time consuming, but at the same time valuable it was, the link baiting thing just became a no-brainer of people.

Marty:Right.Do you remember specifically when you began to think, if I could do this for my own SEO, SEM content, I can do it for clients, and I’m going to go out and do it in genres and arenas different from SEO?

Todd:It’s just really only been within the last year and a half that the whole link baiting phenomenon really took off.I’d have to go back and see when the term was kind of coined there.I guess maybe a year and a half, two years ago now.So I think for me it was the first time I saw something really do real well on digg and then just hit digg and it got picked up all over the place.So link baiting, you know, itself has been around for forever, just in, you know, putting out a promotional piece of content and a public relations stunt, or whatever –

Marty:Um hmm.

Todd:– and then attracting publicity.So for me it was just the first time I thought, oh wow, that was pretty easy to get a good piece of content on digg.I just need to figure out how to get more good pieces of content on digg and then just by virtue of looking there it’s going to build, you know, who knows how many links.

Marty:Um hmm.

Todd:So that for me probably was the point, the first time I blogged something and it made it on digg, and I went, whoa, this, that got a whole bunch of links, so that was probably the turnaround point.And then it was creating content for that distribution channel that then got me on that channel to other audiences.

Marty:Are you a Stumbleupon fan, Todd?

Todd:I am.I really haven’t done it as much as I’d like to, but I’ve heard fantastic things and I’ve dabbled with it enough to know that I really should be doing more with it. I –

Marty:Mm hmm.

Todd:– I’ve really seen some cool stuff come out of Stumbleupon and traffic is fantastic from what I’ve seen and some links out of it too.

Marty:A lot has changed in the last two years of content publication on the Internet.What do you see as the fundamental values and techniques that have not changed?

Todd:Probably the hooks, for sure.You know, we deemed them the link baiting hooks, and there’s probably even more than what is out there, you know, that we kind of established.I think Nick Wilson was the first one.There was a debate at some point I think between Nick Wilson and Aaron Wall coining the term link baiting and Nick wrote one of the first posts on building bait hooks, so the resource hook, the attack hook –

Marty:Um hmm.

Todd:– the humor hook, and various different, there’s probably three or four other ones there as well.And those are going to be fundamental.The headlines, I think, is hugely fundamental.

Marty:Mm hmm.

Todd:The one for that, the blog that came out of nowhere, not really out of nowhere, but really has gained tons of notoriety now is copyblogger because he’s such a fantastic copyrighter and he focuses on those same core fundamental elements over and over that are just excellent and worth reviewing constantly.

Marty:It’s clear from your writings that you place an extremely high value on tools and research.After a client engages you to create content designed to attract attention, traffic and links, what process do you typically undergo to establish experts, research partnership opportunities, and explore a topic’s sphere and buzz?

Todd:So I think that’s one of the areas that you just can’t automate.That’s part of what makes SEO special and that, well you know, no matter what big company comes along and creates custom solutions isn’t going to last forever because the research, the most important research, is always going to be done on the bleeding edge of whatever the community is.

Marty:Right.

Todd:So a big part of that is going into the communities and, you know, becoming an inquisitive member of them, and going in as a new person and saying, I’m really clueless here, who are the experts, and learning how to listen to people and how to be a, kind of, member of the community without being an overly aggressive or overly parasitic member, I guess, without going in and saying, hey teach me all this stuff.

Marty:Um hmm.

Todd:Going in and being kind of the ideal new member because every community is used to new people and they embrace new people –

Marty:Um hmm.

Todd:– but they do so with a certain threshold of tolerance.So going into those communities and doing that, and that’s really happened in the social networks, you know, digg, Stumbleupon, you’ve kind of got to go in there with, you can’t just go in with the attitude of, I want to rape and pillage and take everything for myself and the selfish attitude, you really have to be learning about what every community is.So I think that’s important within any social, or within any industry, from loans to mortgage to open source code, you know, I think you really have to have that mentality going in of learning about the community and that’s a fundamental part of the research that can’t be done with the automated tools and everything else.There are tools to make it a little bit easier.One I really like is Aaron Wall’s keyword tool, the SEO book, because he’s got all of the keyword information, all of the social sites in one place, so you search for something and you have kind of a repository portal of just different sources.

Marty:That’s really interesting.There’s so much demand for search marketing professionals out there and lots of people want to get into it, many of who are migrating from traditional areas of media and advertising and marketing and public relations, it’s all folding into the Internet, and pretty soon the guys who sell advertising for the cable network and who work at the local PR firm, we’re all going to be playing for the same coaches.What words of support and wisdom do you have for professionals who are heading towards jobs in the SEM world?

Todd:Yes.Ultimately that it’s kind of an idea economy that we’re in now.It’s not, you know, the industrial economy or the automation economy.The money is generally made from great ideas, it’s not from getting over on people or just having a short term solution to something, it’s having a great idea that’s long term and scaleable and that people really like and enjoy and will spread.It sounds kind of, I guess, cliché, but that would be the biggest advice is, you know, coming up with great ideas.

Marty:Um hmm.Now on the other side, for clients who seek professional search marketing help, what advice would you give them to qualify the credibility of a search marketing firm?

Todd:It’s a fairly small community, really.As much as there’s a lot of SEOs out there, but the SEO community is a small one.

Marty:Right.

Todd:And I honestly only came across a handful of SEOs that really were never active in that community that were worth their salt.So generally it’s kind of finding out within, you know, finding the SEO community, becoming a small part of it at some level, at least taking enough interest in it to become a part of it at a very low level, and finding out the provider’s reputation is within the community.

Marty:If somebody has a good reputation on Sphinn that’s a likely indicator that they’re a reputable SEO then?

Todd:Right.Or even just asking around.One of favorite techniques when I’m, I love to go deep sea fishing, and one of my favorite techniques that I use for that, that I think applies to SEO is I go and say, well if you were booked up for that day, who would you recommend?You know, who catches fish?Another interesting one that I have had, have come across, was a potential client had searched for a term that one of my clients was ranking for, he then called up my client and said hey, I’m in this industry and I’m really not a competitor to you, I just searched for this term and was curious who did your SEO because you’re doing really well, and they referred him back over to me and he said, this was how I found you, yada, yada, and I was like, wow, that’s a pretty good way to find an SEO, I suppose, is find out who is doing the SEO for the people in the top 10.

Marty:Cool.Do you ever feel the need to unplug?And how do you escape, Todd?

Todd:Absolutely, and I’m feeling the need more and more.[laughs]So we were talking before we started recording there as well, I love to travel, so I’ll be gone to a friend’s wedding there in the Philippines shortly.I love to get out and, the conferences are kind of unplugging, even though it’s still work it’s getting away and I consider most of the people in the industry to be among my best friends for certain, so that’s always a good way to unplug.Fishing.Fishing is one of my favorites – getting out on the boat.Nothing like a day on the water, just relaxing.

I’ve been putting off this post because I’m slightly upset that my boy sparkle Josh was eliminated from this Sunday’s HGTV Design Star challenge. As previously mentionedJosh Johnson is the Offbeat official choice for the next HGTV Design Star.

Notice I said “is.” The elimination doesn’t change Offbeat’s decision — our new stance is that the judges made a poor choice. Offbeat and I still think Josh is a sparkling star. If you can bear to watch the elimination again, here’s Josh’s video point of view after the fact.

The good news about this elimination is that my heart won’t pound each Sunday with anticipation. The bad news; my heart won’t pound each Sunday with anticipation.

What good is a reality TV show that doesn’t almost give you a heart attack?

I’m not the only one who feels this way; but more on that at the end of this post. We have bigger and brighter fish to fry today because Josh is actually in the Offbeat house! Josh was recently kind enough to answer some questions about his sparkling self and HGTV Design Star so that Offbeat readers could get a better glimpse into the shiny platinum world of Josh.

1. What exactly do you bring to the show that none of the other contestants can?

“Drag Queen Semantics.”

2. Watching the show it seems like you get along with everyone so well; has there been any behind the scenes controversy between you and another contestant – or are the relationships as chill as they come off?

“I adored EVERYONE- this collection of genuinely kind, caring, and talented individuals consistently blew me away as the show progressed…I never had any altercation or controversy arrive in “first” person with anyone…I only hope everyone continued to like me “behind the scenes”, as much as they appeared to in “reality.”

3. How would you explain your unique design vision?

“My design “vision” originates with making “luxury” function in your space- living with and utilizing all the wonderful and beautiful things you own, day to day.”

4. Where did your designing dreams originate from? Did you think growing up that you’d be where you are now?

“I can’t say that I actually had “design” dreams growing up; just dreams of making people laugh and entertaining an audience that really sees me for “me”- bringing REAL joy, comfort, and delight to people who value my contributions and recognize my talents.

I had no idea in past years, that I would be in the place that I am now…the majority of my design inspiration and flair originates from my late grandmother’s influence- a true picture of southern grace, inner and outer beauty, and contagious elegance that came from her heart.”

5. Now, we all know about the elimination but aren’t you curious about what Josh would have brought to the network (I am). Here’s what he had to say about that.

“If I were the next HGTV Design Star, my viewing audience would get my “REALNESS” first and foremost, because that is the element that has established my fan base in the first place….I would create an ostentatiously entertaining and vibrant series, showcasing many aspects of design coupled with my own personality…a design “variety” show of sorts.”

(Sounds to me like someone should snatch him up quick for a show! — don’t you think?)

6. What would you suggest to other designers who are trying to catch their big break? For example, if they’re trying to “Make It” in the world of design.

“Make a BOLD and FEARLESS contribution to your audience.”

7. Lastly, since many of our readers like to indulge in a little home decorating of their own; what’s your best tip for at home do-it-themselves designers?

“Firstly, analyze and identify the end “result” you want your space to have- function, aesthetic, presentation- and build your design plan from there.”

Well, can I just say; what a nice guy. Polite, friendly, really seemingly genuine. How can you not adore him. I’m positive that Offbeat made the perfect choice.

Now about the show. Will I finish out the HGTV Design Star season?

Probably, I’m in it for the long haul. It’s not like I’m boycotting HGTV. I’m really happy that they did invest time in bringing viewers such a cool new design talent. Plus they offer an array of other cool shows like What’s With That House. (Go George).

That said; do I care if another contestant wins. Well, I wish them luck. It’s a big honor. But I don’t know that I’d watch that particular HGTV show. In my opinion, none of the other remaining contestants has quite the punch and hosting personality that Josh does. Much of hosting a show is having a personality that people are dying to see more of. I think the show could have shown less group challenges and more personal designs and that the show has been seriously rushed this year. Viewer don’t want to see double eliminations.

Am I the only one who is bummed about this elimination? Why no… Let’s see who agrees with me.

• David Bromstad, last year’s winner was sad to see Josh go, as stated on his vlog.
• Numerous HGTV Design Star blog readers were bummed.
• Folks at HGTV Design Star Message Boards love him.

Want some great news? Josh will be appearing on the September 16th Design Star season finale! Also, you can keep up with him at his website (a shiny treat in itself) or why not add him as a buddy at MySpace.

Overall here’s the final Offbeat word on the matter. Josh remains a sparkling and real guy; I’m thinking this is more the beginning than the end for him.Offbeat (and me) wish him all the luck in the world with his future endeavors.

[A great big hug to Josh for taking time out of his day for this interview]

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From Sex is Funto PediaCast. This is podcastJunky and I listen to it all.

 I share the best stuff on my ipod and ask you the question...What are you listening to?

And to answer that question, my call in line (714) 855-2639

On today's show if you like This American Life, Extreme sports or Disneyland than I have a show for you. Dirtbag Diaries.

Lately in our home my husband has been championing this show. He even called himself an advocate for the show. Finely on the way home from a family outing he knew I was trapped listening to whatever he wanted to play. He connected his ipod and played "Help Wanted" from Dirtbag Diaries . I have to admit, I was hooked.

What blew me away was the way it felt like an episode of This American Life. If you've never listened to This American Life you should give it a try, it was at the top of the itunes popularity since it was added to itunes until it was surpassed by Oprah.

It's primarily a journalistic show that uses essays, memoirs, found and field recordings to tell true stories in a unique way.

Dirtbag Diaries has a similar feel to TAL. But unlike TAL, Dirtbag Diaries focuses on Extreme Sports. Not so much on the sport itself but on the people involved and their stories. You Disney folks hold on, there's something in this for you too.

Lets listen to the opening of Help Wanted.

*Clip from beginning of "Help Wanted" from Dirtbag Diaries  00:16 - 03:30*

Now some minor sound issues in this one episode aside that opening could easily pass for an episode of TAL. Like it's just a slightly less polished version. Now what could be the reason this show is not quite as polished? Oh wait, I know. TAL has a large staff of writers, editors and talent. Dirtbag Diaries has Fitz Cahall. That's it one guy. He's had some help from his wife and brother but for the most part this one guy puts together a show with quality rivals one of the most popular shows on public radio around.

Let's listen to some more.

*Clip from "Help Wanted" from Dirtbag Diaries  05:05 - 06:46*

Have I gotten you hooked yet? This show is so good I had trouble choosing from so many good clips. Now when you get a bunch of young climbers together in a relatively unsupervised situation, there's going to be trouble.


*Clip from beginning of "Help Wanted" from Dirtbag Diaries13:32 - 16:07

Boy that Tink, I knew she had an attitude but sheesh. There's more to that Tink story but you will have to listen to the episode to hear it. Dirtbag Diaries does more than this Micky Mouse stuff. Fitz's wife Becca Cahall brings does a story about getting older and skiing faster in the episode "All These Things" and in"One Golden Hour" we learn the survival story of survival after a fall that could have killed him if it were not for the work of first responders and "The Golden Hour" between life and death. And much more at Dirtbag Diaries. the link will be in the show notes.

Don't forget to send in your entry for a signed of Scott Sigler's INFECTED. The due date is May 28.

Because of shipping costs this offer is good only in the Continental United States. If you are outside the US you are more than welcome to enter the contest but I will ask you to cover the mailing costs if you win.

To enter send your name, mailing address, and a photo of your self with your copy of INFECTED to podcastjunkycontest@gmail.com by May 28, 2008. All I ask is that the winner gives their current copy to a library or friend who would appreciate this fine book.

Now for some Link Love:

In the show intro I mentioned Sex is Fun, they are an award winning podcast Dedicated to the rational discussion of human sexuality from the approach of fun, enjoyment and pleasure. This one is not for the kids but as long as you're an adult and not to sensitive the the topic of human sexuality being discussed with a little humor than this is a show to check out. 

And then if you're not careful, you might find yourself in need of PediaCast A pediatric podcast for parents. This one is very family and work safe. Everyone, parent or not has experienced going to the doctor and forgetting to ask a question or just not getting a full answer because the appointment goes so quick. On PediaCast Dr. Mike takes the time to fully answer all those questions. He also does episodes on current pediatric news and interviews specialists in the area of pediatrics. PediaCast is an excellent resource for parents.


Music on this show was now then soon by 3rd Man from the Podsafe Music Network, also the Village Haus Music Loop for which we have Paul Berrie from Window to the Magic to thank.  We can also thank Paul for the outro non-music music just called "Matterhorn". It's a bit  long, four minutes , but if you have fond Disney memories then you are in for a treat. If your one of those Disney haters and you're still listening, you might want to skip the next 4 minutes.

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