Virginia DeBolt's blog

The L Word: a formula for success

2009-11-17T07:00:00-06:00

The L Word ended on Showtime in March. For people like me who don't have Showtime, the final season is just now coming out on DVD. We are finally getting to see season 6 and watch how the series ended.

I say "watch how the series ended" carefully, rather than "watch how everything turned out." The series ends with a lot of unanswered questions. Even though I haven't seen it yet, I know it made a lot of fans unhappy to be left with plot lines hanging and odd character developments. I remember leaving the theater after seeing John Sayles' Limbo, so angry about the ending that I wanted to kick the walls. I'm hoping with the last L Word DVD has played and I've seen it all, I won't contemplate kicking the walls. I'm hopeful, but I see how other fans have reacted. I might want to wear tough shoes when I roll the last episode, and stock up on sheetrock.

The wait for season 6 to arrive on DVD has given me some distance from the story lines and my interest in knowing what is going on in the lives of the characters. That distance has led to some reflection about the phenomena of The L Word and its rise to success.

The L Word started in 2004. It was a cast of mostly women–usually at least 8 or 9 major female characters in the story line at all times–and few men. That fact alone is big. BIG. The L Word wasn't a series with 4 men and 1 woman who just tags along doing whatever the men do. Not 5 male cops and 1 female cop. Not 4 male lawyers and 2 female lawyers. Not 4 men friends and a couple of occasional female sidekicks. Not 6 male doctors and 2 female doctors. No, this was women's stories, women's lives.

Grant me that: a series about women is a big deal. As it would be if another one made it on air today.

These women were different from the usual stories about nurses or doctors or army wives that deal with women. That's because all the main characters except one were some variation on not straight. That's another BIG deal. Gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and several other points along the gender scale were depicted by major and minor characters in the course of the series.

@chookooloonks tweeted a TED Talks video by Chimamanda Adichie about "The Danger of the Single Story." I hope you take 20 minutes to listen to this video, but I'll summarize by saying that we form opinions and stereotypes about people, countries, cultures, religions, and many other things based on a single story, a single idea. That can include a single idea about gender or sexuality. My reply tweet was that the single story of most American television is white, male, and straight. To me, The L Word is important simply because it departs from that monovision.

Grant me that: a series about lesbians is a big deal. As it would be if another one made it on air today.

The dramatic hooks that come with stories about women who are not straight are both personal and political. You get stories about relationships and character development, work life and everyday life.

You also get politically charged plot lines about things like:

dealing with family reactions to sexuality issues
dealing with the medical establishment when a loved one is ill
having children
adopting a child in a lesbian relationship
dealing with hate-related discrimination
dealing with work-related discrimination
dealing with don't ask, don't tell
wanting to marry a life partner
coming out to family, but also to the public when it may affect a career
changing gender identification
abortion decisions and services

The two big-name stars, Jennifer Beals and Pam Grier, play half-sisters. Women of color filled other major character roles as well. This allowed story lines around racial politics.

The political climate of the Bush adminstration factored into the show, too. It could hardly be avoided at a time when progressive thinking was gaining political traction and a majority of people were eager for change.

Gays and lesbians were in the news. From propositions on state ballots to famous lesbians getting married, sexual identity was on people's radar and under discussion.

Let's narrow down the discussion to the star of The L Word–Jennifer Beals. Jennifer Beals was in something like 50 movies before The L Word started. Jennifer Beals has always been able to deliver her lines in a convincing manner. She's always been able to show any emotion with her face, her posture, and those expressive eyes. She's always looked fabulous in a tank top, a power suit, or a beautiful dress.

In The L Word, Jennifer Beals showed her talent while looking extremely good, every week, on TV. But, instead of playing opposite Campbell Scott or Denzel Washington, she played opposite Laurel Holloman or Marlee Maitlin. A weekly look at Jennifer Beals from the living room couch in a show that ran for 6 seasons adds up to a lot of visibility.

Other things were going on in the world between 2004 and 2009. Call it Web 2.0 or the explosion of social media or the rise of community. Whatever you call it, it's a BIG deal. There was now a place to discuss what you were watching each week with the world at large.

There was the weekly deconstruction of every episode of The L Word on afterellen, where people could and did comment about all things Jennifer.

There were and are fan sites devoted to Jennifer Beals or to Jennifer Beals and Laurel Holloman (the players of Bette and Tina, a couple dubbed Tibette by fans). People can and do comment, visit and talk about their feelings regarding Tibette. The L Word stars were the subject of intense discussion. Check out Tibette.com, One More Lesbian or Dorothy Surrenders.

Showtime put Jennifer Beals in special features, podcasts, interviews, and every other type of promotion they could come up with to market the show.

For a while, there was even a site called Our Chart, a social community based on a key concept from The L Word called the chart. The chart is a visual map of relationships intended to show how connected we all are. Fans went to ourchart.com to talk about the show, and about Jennifer Beals. (Since the series ended, this site has moved back into the Showtime web space.)

Don't forget YouTube. There are now over 3500 videos on YouTube related to Jennifer Beals, many of them clips from The L Word. With comments.

So. Fans are seeing Jennifer Beals in the living room once a week. They're discussing her on a favorite social media site. They're invested in Jennifer Beals. She's an icon among fans of The L Word and has acquired a multitude of avidly loyal fans from around the world. Her fan base has expanded, dare I say it, dramatically.

I'm not saying Jennifer Beals doesn't deserve to be an iconic figure with millions of fans worldwide. She's talented, she's gorgeous. But she's been both talented and gorgeous for a long time. So what am I saying?

Take a look at this table at Evolution: The Eight Stages Of Listening from Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang. When I look at this table, I place what Showtime and The L Word accomplished in terms of interaction with their audience at about step 6 or 7. Do you agree with that placement? I think they got social media right, partly because of their own efforts, partly because the fans were so enthusiastic.

Have you read Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell? The description at Amazon says,

Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."

One of Gladwell's theories in the book is that people who put in the time to master something (according to him, it takes 11,000 hours) are ready when the moment arrives to become superstars using what they've mastered.

Ilene Chaiken, second from left, in a Keynote Panel at BlogHer09

Here's part of what I'm saying—there were a "tide of advantages" that brought The L Word and its leading actress to the place where they are today. Let's check them off:

Ilene Chaiken, the creator and producer of The L Word spent years getting to the point of being ready to seize the opportunity of the moment with this show. She had the idea, the dream. She'd pitched it before—several times—with no luck. She knew the stories, knew the lives. She'd put in her 11,000 hours. She was ready.
Jennifer Beals worked in 50+ movies and many TV shows since Flashdance in 1983. She was ready to be the lead character in a series that was bold and different.
The topic was women. Millions of people were hungry for stories about women.
The women were not straight. Millions of people were hungry for stories about lesbians and other non-straight characters.
The politics surrounding this kind of content was accepting enough that Showtime was willing to give it a chance.
Web 2.0. Social media. Community sites. Blogs. Millions of people were online every day seeking community and connection to others of a similar mind. They seized the opportunity to talk about every minute detail of The L Word with great passion.
Conventions. Not Star Trek Conventions. L Word Conventions. Taking media into the real world on global stages in numerous locations.

And it came to pass that The L Word rode that tide of advantages to the top. It made an icon of Jennifer Beals. It made Ilene Chaiken an influential name in the creative community of TV and movies. It carried a slew of actresses, web sites, community sites, and discussion boards along with it.

I know I'm leaving out a great deal by tying the idea of The L Word up within loops of social media. I haven't mentioned how sexy the show was, for example. Sex is factor in success—just look at True Blood. I haven't mentioned any of the criticisms of the show, and there are many. But, hey, that's what comments are for. Can you add something you think figures into this particular story?

Maybe you're not blogging about lesbians, or running fan sites about TV stars, or pitching ideas to Showtime. But you do have a passion for something. Keep at it, keep putting in your time, develop mastery. Be ready to ride the wave of your own tide of advantages. Keep up with what's changing and learn how to use those changes to achieve your own goals. Work it. That's what I'm saying about success.

Virginia DeBolt

BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor|Web Teacher|First 50 Words

TV NOT Worth Watching? Mine for gold in TED Talks

2009-11-10T07:16:22-06:00

Been a long day? Want to veg out on the couch for a couple of hours before bedtime with the TV? You turn on the tube and what happens? You find nothing but moronic programming, repeats of cop/detective/mystery shows, and movies you've seen twice already.

You could shut the damn thing off and read the latest Diana Gabaldon novel. That would keep you busy for a while. Or you could go to your computer and be amazed and enlighted watching a video from TED Talks.

TED Talks cover many topics: technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues. Let's take a look at some of the people and subjects in the technology area.

Surgeon and inventor Catherine Mohr talks about surgery and surgical robots in Catherine Mohr: Surgery's past, present and robotic future. When Why Homeschool listened to this TED Talk, the conclusion was

It is a wonderful time to be alive.

Rebecca Saxe: How we read each other's minds talks about the problem of other minds: how is it so easy to know other minds, or neuroscience made fascinating. This one talks about how kids' brains develop and might be especially interesting to parents as well as neuroscience geeks.

Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy is about the democratization of intimacy through communication channels like IM, text, and with mobile phones. This TED Talk was discussed heavily on Twitter by people like @brainpicker (Maria Popova) and @coots.

Carolyn Porco: Could a Saturn moon harbor life? shows images from the Cassini spacecraft's sweep by a moon of Saturn. Amazing discoveries that show compounds that could sustain life. In this very short talk, you fly to Saturn. Who could resist?

Speaking of space, how about a talk from astronaut Mae Jemison? Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together is of interest to educators.

Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk" is so interesting! She explains how bacteria communicate through a chemical language. Her talk reminds me of something BlogHer CE avflox might write about, except the organisms avflox talks about are bigger than bacteria.

For the sports fans, try Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs is a great talk about the human body and her 12 pairs of prosthetic legs. In a blog for a class at Bryn Mawr called Gender and Technology, Rebecca Church wrote about this Talk, saying,

She called herself “super-abled” because her body “had potential their bodies didn’t have yet”. She recounted the story of a woman at a party who, when hearing that she could change her height at will, said “that’s not fair”. “It’s not fair that you can change your height as you want it”, not “it’s not fair that you lost your legs and have to use prosthetics”. Super-abled indeed.

I was crying by the end of Aimee's Talk. (She's really inspiring.) The only thing on TV that can make me cry is a Hallmark commercial.

Aimee Mullins was at TED Talks way back in 1998 when the topic was about running. You might enjoy that one, too.

I don't find TED Talks to be a vast wasteland, obviously. If you've never stepped into the waters there, you may be surprise by how much you enjoy it.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor|Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Amazon's New PayPhrase: Will you or won't you?

2009-11-03T07:25:18-06:00

Amazon's new PayPhrase technology promises to speed up the buying process on Amazon. But it isn't only for Amazon. It also works for Amazon partner sites DKNY, Jockey, Patagonia, Buy.com, and J&R Electronics. I already had One-Click buying enabled on Amazon, and using PayPhrase on Amazon isn't much different. Instead of buying with the One-Click button, you buy with the PayPhrase button, and then enter a PIN to go with the PayPhrase. Yet for some, the speeding up of the transaction seems to be the attractive feature of the new technology, as this tweet from @sarahkay shows.

To me, the feature of PayPhrase that may make waves in the online buying world is with third-party sites. PayPhrases can be used for express checkout from sites like Buy.com and then confirmed by entering a PIN. I signed up for PayPhrase at Amazon and then went shopping at buy.com. Here's what I saw: a "Checkout With Amazon" button right under the normal "Add to Cart" button.

Since I don't have an account already established at buy.com and have never given them my credit card info and all the other goodies they need to know to ship you something, here's where using my Amazon PayPhrase could save some time.

As I mentioned, I already have an account at Amazon, so setting up PayPhrase took me only about 3 minutes. Here's how the process goes. I clicked the PayPhrase link on the home page to find out more about it. A popup window explains what it is and suggests a pre-assigned phrase for me.

I clicked the "Create your PayPhrase" button. The Choose Phrase page opened. My pre-assigned phrase was filled in, but I choose a new one of my own. Notice the small optional settings checkbox near the bottom? You can select that and enter spending limits, approvals and allowances.

The next step is to create a PIN.

Once you have a phrase and PIN, you need to sign in to Amazon. If this were a new account, you would have to fill in all your information, but for a recurring customer like myself it was a quick process.

Okay, then. You are all ready to go shopping with your new PayPhrase. I checked out the iPod Touch offers just to see what I would find on the page now that I had my PayPhrase. Sure enough, under the box where I normally would click one-click checkout (which I can still use) I saw this button. My PayPhrase was filled in—I blanked it out here—but even if you knew it, you'd still have to know my PIN to buy something.

A benefit of PayPhrase for the password overloaded is that, at least for the Amazon partner sites that use it, you don't need to remember any new passwords, only your PIN. Another is that you can buy quickly at sites where you don't already have an account.

A four digit PIN is easier to crack than an 8 digit password with a mix of numbers and letters and upper and lower case. When Consumerist asked their readers if they would use the new PayPhrase, the security issue and other topics were brought up in the comments. An article at TechCrunch asks, Amazon Launches PayPhrase — Will It Be Easy To Game?

Sarah Perez from ReadWriteWeb differs with me on the comparison to One-Click. In Amazon Speeds Checkout with New PayPhrase Techology, she said,

Although not designed to replace 1-Click, the new PayPhrase system is even easier to use and more flexible. Using this system, shoppers don't have to be signed in to the site with an Amazon account as is necessary with 1-Click. That saves an extra step and could lead to more impulse buys as there's no "cooling down" time, however brief, between seeing something you want to purchase and then finalizing the transaction.

I'll give Sarah points for the warning against impulse buying, but I don't think the speed of a purchase on Amazon itself is the real importance of Amazon's PayPhrase techology. I think it's the aforementioned fast purchase from affiliated sites. And, Sarah points to the fact that this new technology lends itself to fast purchases on mobile devices. See her article Amazon announces Mobile Payments Service. That's big news. Instant purchases on your phone. Yep.

I haven't seen a lot of women blogging about what they think of Amazon's PayPhrase, but there has been some tweeting. For example @jamieai and @stacyamo. A number of tweets dealt with the humorous nature of the Amazon suggest phrase, such as @meredithlar, @ananelson and @jennie.

I'll ask you the same question that Consumerist did. Will you use Amazon's new PayPhrase technology? Why or why not?

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor|Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Variety Pack: More Blogs, Less Searching

2009-10-27T09:20:16-05:00

This week at Web Worker Daily, Aliza Sherman wrote Mine Twitter’s Wealth in 15 Minutes a Day. She offers a 3 step, 15 minute program that will help you keep your Twitter time under control and make the most of it.

According to Aliza, this is the way to compress your Twitter time into 15 minutes a day (with heavy snipping on my part–so read the original):

5 Minutes: Listen, Retweet

Start by “listening” on Twitter to get a sense of what people you’re following are talking about. Scroll down a page or two’s worth of tweets and skim until you see the ones that grab you. Then retweet them by copying their tweet being careful to give them credit.

5 Minutes: Listen, Respond
Next, listen to see who is speaking about something of interest to you or something you can respond to authoritatively. You should also check who has mentioned you or addressed you in their tweets in your client or by searching for @yourtwittername.

5 Minutes: Promote, with Care
Let’s face it — many of us are using Twitter to promote who we are, what we’re doing, and even what we’re selling. There is nothing wrong with promotion on Twitter, but do it with context — think about how the information fits into your Twitter persona.

It's a constant concern of bloggers who get asked to write in places other than their own blogs. Should you always get paid? Should you work free sometimes?

The Times I Wrote for Free by Deborah Ng at Freelance Writing Gigs talks about the decision to take unpaid writing jobs and why she might choose to do it. She mentions reasons like getting referrals, landing other gigs, and filling up a resume with projects that look good. Her conclusion: it can be valuable if you know exactly what's in it for you before you agree to work for free.

Have you noticed those Intuit ads on TV lately promising you a great business website for about 5 bucks a month? Cre8pc's Kim Berg has. She took a look at what you get for your money in Intuit Web Site Setup Service Misleading. Kim takes a satirist's approach to the ads, and thanks Intuit for sending business her way.

I would like to thank Intuit for their hard work in bringing me new clients. It came as quite a surprise that you support my web site usability and SEO services.

Imagine my surprise when I flipped on the boob tube for several minutes while making tea from the comfort of my (very busy!) home office and there you were, all professional sounding like, with your (dare I say it?) sly and devious commercial to small biz web site owner hopefuls.

But, Kim, my nephew will make me a site for free!

Julia from The Digital Guidebook has trouble stying focused while working in the free-styling environment of her own home. She suggests Using a Time to Balance the Work Day at Home.

I am not a natually high-energy Type-A personality, so I need to train myself to stay focused. One way I do this is by using a timer. I set a digital egg timer (I use a timer from Apimac for my Mac, but there are several free timers available for Windows as well) for a period of time that will be easy to concentrate: if it is a particularly tough day, this might be only ten or fifteen minutes. For this time, I work, with no distractions, no matter what. When the timer sounds, I reward myself with a very short break.

I use the timer process over and over, and write on a scratch pad how many times I have done it, so I know how much work I have put in. Then I gradually increase the time on the timer, so that I am working for 50 minutes and relaxing for ten, or working for two hours, relaxing for fifteen.

Julia suggests that the timer method can help people who don't get distracted and never take breaks to improve their work day as well. Take a break, people!

There are many more bloggers talking about technology and social media that you may enjoy. Check BlogHer's Blogging and Social Media topic for more great reading.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor|Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Where the Entertainers Are Older and High Tech

2009-10-20T07:46:15-05:00

What's an actress to do when the part of Laurie in Oklahoma! or the chance to disrobe while weightless in space have gone to a younger woman? If you are Florence Henderson or Jane Fonda, the answer is to keep shining with as bright a light as ever.

Florence Henderson first sang and acted her way into movies and TV in the 1950s. During the 70s she did a multi-season acting job as the mom on The Brady Bunch, probably her best known role. She's recorded music, appeared on Broadway, and now has a blog, her own TV show on the RLTV network, will appear in a documentary called Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age in 2010 and makes frequent guest appearances on TV talk shows and in series programs like Samantha Who. This photo shows her kicking up her heels in 2003.

It was Florence Henderson's blog that caught my eye most recently because she provides technical support and computer information to her audience of older adults through her blog and her FloH Club.

My goal for this blog is to share my own experiences with computers and my growing knowledge of technology. I am eager to pass along information I learn that might also be helpful to you. After you read my words, please feel free to add your own comments. And check back often for new entries! Over time, we will develop a collection of useful facts about computer technology that can be searched for reference. Topics might include news about The FloH Club, common technology terms, computer hardware and software, peripheral devices, the Internet, communication, entertainment, accessibility, and troubleshooting. Please don't worry if you don't recognize all of these words right now. We'll get to that! My philosophy is, "Let's learn together!"

Henderson explains why she thought there was need for technical information for her audience, "I had always felt very capable in life as a performer and as a businesswoman, but when it came to technology, I suddenly felt ridiculously ignorant." She writes some free tips, such as this piece, My Faceoff with Facebook but also has a for-fee element to her technical support club. I think she's right about being a capable businesswoman.

Florence Henderson's official website is themed around The Brady Bunch; there are some great photos in her bio and scrapbook there, and her appearances calendar is kept up to date.

Jane Fonda got her start in the movies in the early 60s. Her most recent movie was Georgia Rule from 2007. Like Florence Henderson, she's going to be part of the documentary Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age. She's won two Oscars, had a mini-career as a fitness guru, and was and still is an activist.

Fonda's gone high tech, too. She's paving the way for elders in the social media world, according to this article in Fast Company, How Jane Fonda Became the Face of the Aging Adult Social Media World. I'm not sure I agree with Fast Company's assessment of her role in bringing elders to social media, but Fonda is definitely in command of the technology. She's @janefonda on Twitter, has a blog on her site at JaneFonda, has a community for Fonda Folks on Ning, and a Facebook page.

Fonda's always been politically active—which has sometimes landed her in the middle of controversy—and she continues her activism on the social networks, using them to support social causes and charities. Recently, she's tweeted about cancer, teen violence, and adolescent pregnancy prevention.

On her blog, Fonda details her public life, her work, the events she attends, the people she meets, and the causes in which she's involved. Here she is on The View talking about her role in the Broadway production of 33 Variations.

As a reality check, or as a counterspin retort to the news that famous elders are geeky, I thought a reminder of some of the social media achievements of BlogHer and BlogHers by not-so-famous elders might be a fitting close to this story. Check these out:

-- Virginia DeBolt BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor |Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Blog Action Day: I'm Thinking about Copenhagen. What are you thinking about?

2009-10-15T09:00:00-05:00

Think ahead to December. Cast your mind to Copenhagen.

This December, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Unlike the last time there was a conference of this magnitude ( in Kyoto), the United States will take part in the deliberations and agree to abide by the resolutions.

Last week I saw ads on TV and in the local newspapers saying "CO₂ is Green" and urging people to contact their legislators to encourage them NOT to limit the production of CO₂. While not technically incorrect to consider carbon dioxide a naturally occurring gas needed by green plants, it is misleading to try to get anyone to think that the planet currently needs more CO₂.

The real problem we face is too much CO₂ in the atmosphere right now. The effect of this overabundance of carbon dioxide is global warming, which leads to more droughts, more floods, less ice and snow which means less drinking water, increases in ocean temperatures which means loss of sea life, rising sea levels which means loss of land under the rising oceans, and extreme weather everywhere. In terms of loss of life in the ocean, methane is also a huge problem. The ultimate result of just two degrees of global warming could be a planet no longer able to sustain life as we know it. We've already passed the maximum safe limit of 350 ppm of CO₂ in the atmosphere and are at a dangerous 390 ppm and still climbing.

What needs to happen in Copenhagen—what must happen in Copenhagen—is for governments to agree to strict, enforceable limits and reductions on the man-made production of CO₂ by business, transportation, energy production, housing, deforestation, and every man-made source of CO₂. There are many viable ways to reach this goal and we need to accept and use them all: conservation, renewable energy sources, restrictions on emissions, land-use changes, transportation changes—the list is long and nothing should be ignored or excluded. We—you and me and the entire cultural milieu of blissful ignorance regarding the effect we have on the natural systems of our planet—must change. We—you and me and industry, government and culture—must change. The only change that will matter is to create limits and reductions.

Not only is cutting global emissions of greenhouse gases vital, it would also save money. Study: 13 Gigatonnes Of Annual CO2 Cuts By 2020 Can Be Met At Net Savings Of $14 Billion:

Achievable gains in energy efficiency, renewable energy, forest conservation, and sustainable land use worldwide could achieve up to 75 percent of needed global emissions reductions in 2020 at a net savings of $14 billion.

Big business fights against new rules that would limit emissions, but that is a false economy on their parts. The attitude that profit making has no connection to the natural environment that supports life on the planet has to change.

What can you do about the problem of global warming?

Contact your government officials and let them know that strong action is needed in Copenhagen to both cap and reduce the production of greenhouses gases (CO2). This is the most important thing you can do. Government officials need to know that citizens support strong action now before it's too late.
Support the efforts of 350.org and take part in their International Day of Climate Action October 24
Support 10:10 and their activities to reduce emissions 10% by 2010.
Find a way to watch The Age of Stupid
Cut down on your airplane flights and on your consumption of beef. Remove bottled water from your life. Changing your light bulbs just isn't enough.
Take Action, a page at the Blog Action Day site, lists numerous additional ideas for how you can make a difference, including a site called Act On Copenhagen from the UK government.

Visit Blog Action Day to find thousands of other blog posts on the topic of climate change today. Use the Mr. Linky widget below to add a link to your post for Blog Action Day and tell us what you are thinking about climate change.

--Virginia DeBolt BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor |Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Take Part! Blog Action Day

2009-10-13T07:49:07-05:00

In just two days, Blog Action Day 2009 will be upon us. You can still sign up your blog and take part in the worldwide event. This year the theme is climate change. You have some thoughts on climate change, I know you do. Here's your chance to share your thoughts and opinions and ideas about climate change and add your voice to this global event.

It's simple and fast to sign up to participate with your blog. The last time I checked, over 5000 bloggers from 126 countries were registered. Here's a video from the promoters explaining what it's about.

Suzyqhomemaker tells you how to Sign Up for Blog Action Day. The steps are few:

Go to the web site and register your blog
Show your committment on your blog with a badge the way Paula Arturo has done on From L.A. to B.A.
On October 15, publish a post on your blog about climate change. Any aspect of climate change is ripe to discuss: agriculture, travel, events, business, politics, health.
When your post is live, go back to Blog Action Day 2009 to link to your post
While you're there, spend some time reading from what the thousands of other participants have posted

There's one more step you can take here on BlogHer. On Thursday, October 15, both Beth Terry and I will be posting on BlogHer about climate change for Blog Action Day 2009. In my post, there will be a Mr. Linky box, with which you can link to your Blog Action Day post. I hope you will partipate, and I hope you will use Mr. Linky on Thursday to add your post to the list of BlogHer bloggers writing about climate change for the event.

BlogHers have shown an interest in climate change prior to Blog Action Day, of course. Here are a few posts from around the blogosphere you may want to check out before the start of Blog Action Day.

-- Virginia DeBolt BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor |Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Three CSS Tricks for a More Beautiful Blog

2009-10-06T07:41:46-05:00

You don't have to be a CSS guru to make a few simple changes to the styles on your blog to improve its looks and readability. Three places you can make a difference are with line-height, padding and the margins on headings.

To experiment with your stylesheet, change one thing at at time. If you don't like it, go back to the way it was before. Each time you change the style sheet, save the change and refresh the page on your blog to see how it looks. It would be smart to save a backup copy of your original stylesheet just in case of some mishap.

The CSS line-height property determines the distance or spacing between the lines of text on the page. In the print world, this property is called leading. The purpose of line-height is to give lines of text some space so that the text doesn't look unreadably dense. A little room between the lines makes the text more attractive and easier to read.

Line-height can be applied to any text element, but it’s probably best to set it in the CSS rule for the big containers of your blog content. Depending on your blog, you may want to use line-height in a rule for BODY or for a container div like CONTENT or SIDEBAR. When you set the line-height rule for a big container like the content div, then everything in that section of the page inherits the line-height value.

You can find the right spot in your style sheet to add line-height if you look for a rule that mentions font-family and/or font-size. It might look something like this:

mainContent {font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-size: 1em;
}

You can add a line-height property and value to that rule like this:

mainContent {font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.4;
}

If your blog already has a line-height set, you can change the value.

I can't give you a perfect value for the line-height rule. Is it 1.4, 1.5, 1.8, 2.2? It depends on your blog, your font, the size of your font. You can find some photos of the effects of various line-height values in this article on Web Teacher. I suggest you try two or three line-heights before you decide which works the best to you.

Have you ever increased the text size on your blog to see what happens? You can find a zoom command in the browser's View menu that will let you increase or decrease text size. If you've never looked at your blog that way, it's a good idea to see what happens, because there will be people visiting you who do use zoom. Me, for instance.

A problem I have with many blogs is a lack of padding on the left and right sides. At the normal font size, this may not be a problem, but for a page zoomer like myself, it may mean bad things. I have to zoom the text size on many pages I visit to make it large enough to read. If there is no padding on the left and right, the text often bumps right into the extreme edge of the browser window after I zoom. This makes reading difficult: hard to read before the zoom, hard to read after the zoom. A little padding would help.

The place to look for padding rules in your stylesheet is in rules for individual page elements. Padding can be used on anything, but text elements like P, H1, H2, LI, and TD, are a good place to add padding if you need it.

Everything on your web page is in an invisible box. The box can have padding on the top, right, bottom and left. Each side of the box can have a different value for padding. In CSS terms that might look like this:

h1 {
padding-top: 1em;
padding-right: 2em;
padding-bottom: .2;
padding-left: 2em;
}

You might see the rule in CSS shorthand, where the first number represents the top and bottom padding, the second the right and left.

h1 {
padding: 1em 2em;
}

If the padding is the same on all sides, a single value covers it.

h1 {
padding: 5px;
}

To resolve the problem I have with some blogs that allow the page to extend all the way to the left and right margins of the page when zoomed, a few pixels or ems of padding-left and padding-right on the text in paragraphs or post-entry divs would fix it. I was going to make an example of The Huffington Post for this, but I see that HuffPo has now contained its page width in a way that keeps some white space on the sides no matter what I do to the text size. Thank you, HuffPo.

To get all the facts on padding, check Jennifer Kyrnin's page about padding on about.com. She has a couple of example paragraphs with different amounts of padding you can study.

The third CSS trick involves margins on headings. Headings are the h1, h2, and h3 elements on your page.

Margin is similar to padding. Margin goes around all four sides of any element the way padding does. But margin is outside the border of the element (even if the border isn't visible). Padding is inside the border.

In a blog, you have a page full of headings and posts. The visual hierarchy of the page should be clear in terms of which heading goes with which post, which blocks of content are related. The visual principle of proximity is what you use to make sure that headings and the content they identify appear related to the eye.

Two headings, with a difference in proximity to the material they are above are shown in the image. On the left is a heading with a reduced margin between the heading and the paragraph. On the right is a heading with no CSS margin rule applied. Here's the CSS for the example on the left.

h1 {
margin-bottom: -5px;
}

On the left, the margin-bottom has been reduced beyond 0 to -5px. Negative numbers are allowed. As you can see by comparing it to the default spacing between the heading and paragraph you see on the right, the heading on the left seems more related to the following paragraphs. Close proximity creates a visual grouping that makes more sense to the eye.

If you wanted more space between a heading and the end of a post just above it on the page, you could increase the margin-top value for the heading. That additional margin would make it clear that one post ended and a new topic was on the way. Again, it's about proximity.

Your blog's style rules may use some class like postTitle or postHeading to label the heading rules. If you don't see something as simple as an h1 or h2 in your stylesheet, look for a logical sounding name that would identify a heading.

For the CSS adventurers, Styling Design Elements: Five Beautiful Post Headings gives you several examples of more complex CSS rules that go beyond my simple margin tip that will help you create very attractive headings for your blog.

--
Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor |Web Teacher |First 50 Words

Self-Promote Your Book Using the Internet

2009-09-29T07:59:27-05:00

An article in the Washinton Post titled On Web, A Most Novel Approach started me on a quest to find ways that authors promote themselves and their books. I found examples and advice from women who have been there and done that, and I found helpful resources to get you started on the same path.

The current hot trend is to create a book trailer. Book trailer sounds like a movie trailer, because it's the same concept. But it's an attractive and flashy video promo for a book, not a movie.

Here's an entertaining example of the book trailer, promoting A Lady Like Sarah by Margareet Brownley.

The author has placed the video on her own website at MargaretBrownley.com, on You Tube, and on sites like Book Screening and Book Trailers, two sites that aggregate book trailers and present them to readers looking for the next good book.

The trailer for A Lady Like Sarah is pretty professional in appearance. Book trailers range from amateur and homemade to slick and polished. If you are self-promoting a book, put a book trailer on your website and Facebook and YouTube and everywhere else you can make it available.

Kate Messner put her video together for The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z at what looks like a book convention. She added a bit of bouncy music and a few screens of text and — presto — book trailer.

Many of BlogHer's readers have already done similar video feats and wouldn't have to stretch much to envision a book trailer using the same techniques. Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos from Fertility Authority, Silent Sorority and Coming 2 Terms is a good example of successful self-promotion.

Scroll down the page at Coming 2 Terms where Pamela Jeanne promotes Silent Sorority. You'll see links to a book purchase on Amazon, a Twitter link, a link to an amazon.com author page, a link to Pamela Jeanne's video on YouTube, and a link to Silent Sorority's Facebook page.

I contacted Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos about how she self-promoted her book. She responded,

I stumbled into a large, underserved market. After a decade of trying to conceive -- using all that nature and science could offer -- I discovered I was among a silent sorority of women faced with the difficult road of trying to build a life without once sought after children. I searched at length in the "repro lit" area for an account I could relate to, but found that all of the books on infertility published in the past 20 years were authored, paradoxically, by moms. I decided to fill the void by writing a book and blog aimed at giving infertile women a voice. What resulted was a book called Silent Sorority. It's a hybrid of memoir, pop science, and social commentary.

I actively searched out other bloggers writing on similar topics. In reviewing their blogrolls, I reached out and got to know a wider circle of those writing and responding to common issues and challenges, commenting on their blogs and responding to those commenting on mine. I searched out and commented on forums. I branched out further still, developing and posting content on BlogHer and other online platforms from Open Salon to MORE magazine. I contributed to eZines such as Exhale and I landed a regular column on a website called FertilityAuthority.com.

I built a companion book website and became a student of search engine optimization. I set Google alerts for news articles on infertility and the mommy culture, leaving comments on websites ranging from the New York Times to the Orlando Sentinel to the Times of London with a URL that linked back to my book website. I subscribed to HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and I pitched reporters and freelancers who had written on companion topics.

I embraced social media and social networking tools. I created a Twitter account and developed a Facebook Fan Page. I joined author forums such as SheWrites and book lover websites such as Shelfari. I developed an author page on Amazon.com's new Author Central channel.

Pamela has some tips for those of you who are thinking about self-promotion:

Know your audience, the market, for your book better than anyone else. Understand where they spend time online and participate in the conversation. Don't employ a hard sell, but rather engage in a dialogue. Write about what you know and where you have a passionate, informed point of view. Don't think of your book in isolation. Find issues and topics that are relevant and above all, take advantage of all the online world has to offer!

Another successful model to follow is Laurie Kingston from Not Just About Cancer. She's the author of Not Done Yet: Living Through Breast Cancer. Her blog has links to where the book can be purchased, to her book page on Facebook, and to her Twitter account. When I asked Laurie to share some tips on self-promotion, here's what she said.

My advice to anyone promoting a book is to use all the free social media tools that are available to them.

The first thing I did when Not Done Yet was published, was set up a Fan Page on Facebook and send out a message to all my friends. I try and make sure that there is fresh content posted regularly to that page. I also make frequent use of Twitter. I find that it has helped to raise my profile over time.

I wouldn't suggest, though that anyone only use Twitter to promote their book because I have seen that this can really annoy other users. You told me Virginia, that it really pays to "be helpful" on Twitter. [Ed. Laurie and I talked about Twitter over Gino's Pizza at BlogHer09.] I have found that building relationships on Twitter has really helped to slowly raise my profile and, subsequently, the profile of my book.

The hardest thing for me was getting over the idea that it was immodest to promote my own work. It's become easier over time but it was really hard at first to come right out and say, "Hey I have written this book. I think it's really good and you should buy it." But the truth is that, in today's publishing environment (and especially when you are with a smaller publishing company) if you don't let people know about your book, then no one will ever hear of it. Ijust keep reminding myself that I am very proud of what I have achieved and that I wrote the book so people would read it. And they can't read it if they don't know about it!

I have also learned that I need to be patient. It's hard not to feel disappointed when your book is published and the whole world does not rush out to buy it the next day. Of course, there are people (especially folks we know) who will do this, but it takes time to get the word out but, in my experience, it does pay off to make consistent and regular use of social media and to make it as easy as possible for people to buy the book.

Here's Laurie's Facebook Page for Not Done Yet: Living Through Breast Cancer. Check it out and become a fan.

Rita Arens from Surrender, Dorothy is the author/editor of Sleep is for the Weak: The Best of the Mommybloggers. When I asked Rita about self-promoting a book, she said,

The blog is a platform for the book. The book is a platform for the blog. Both are about you and your writing and the art of trying to find people who love you both ways.

Your Internet readers love you from afar. It can be difficult to get them off their couches to come see you in person. If I learned one thing from the SIFTW book tour, it's this: Go to them. Don't make them come to you. Next time I'll do it differently.

If you want to use your Internet presence to promote your book, make sure it's easy to identify you as the author of your book. Make your Twitter handle your real name. Talk about your book on your Facebook page. Put a link to where folks can buy your book on your blog. Make it a part of who you are, and present that whole self to the public. Those who like you will buy your book. Everyone else? You've got a tough row to hoe -- it's a very full world out there.

Here's the Facebook page for Sleep is for the Weak. In addition to SIFTW, Rita has published a number of books for the Kindle, and has a page on her blog devoted to her books.

Some helpful resources for self-promoting a book

Here's an article from eHow explaining how to make your own book trailer using PowerPoint. Online apps for making slide shows are also a good way to make your own. Some of the online apps you might look at include Animoto, Smilebox, and Slide.

Darcy Patterson at Fiction Notes has an excellent list of resouces for Book Trailers to check out.

Get your book listed on Amazon. Amazon even lists indie books. Then complete an authors page on Amazon by joining Author Central.

Find writers on Twitter and build support and community with Twitter by taking part in chats for writers. Inky Girl has a good list of Twitter Chats for Writers.

Put together a virtual book tour. Write Well Me tells how in Virtual Book Tours Make a Splash That Lasts.

Here's how one writer put together a real life book tour: How to Set Up and Do a Book Promotion Tour on Your Own.

Here is my follow-up report on my 8-city, West Coast book promotion trip for An Amateur's Guide to the Planet. This was a freeloader special, done as cheaply as possible. Air transportation was via a free ticket on frequent flier miles. I stayed with friends and family as much as possible, otherwise in youth hostels or $50/night motels.

Even though the tour didn't net many sales, the author found other benefits in doing it. For example, she honed her message and learned to sell better from the experience.

Study the promotion and marketing blogs for writers. Shrinking Violet Promotions: Marketing for Introverts and Book Marketing Maven are two sites full of goodies.

Copyblogger has an article about creating fans, but the advice applies to self-promotion: 5 Social Media Lessons I Learned from Working with a Hollywood Actress.

-- Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor |Web Teacher|First 50 Words

Privacy. Does it have your attention yet?

2009-09-22T07:17:42-05:00

Privacy stories and concerns are everywhere. There are constant issues over privacy at Facebook. Look, for example, at 10 Solid Tips to Safeguard Your Facebook Privacy and at Could I have my stuff back, please.

Privacy in Google Books has been an ongoing issue for the Privacy, Free Speech and Technology Blog at the ACLU of Northern California. TechDirt asks How Far Should Google Go To Protect User Privacy In Lawsuits?

We keep hearing warnings about things that just won't go away or be undone once they are on the Internet. The Digital Guidebook wrote Something to Think About: Your Digital Identity is the New Chastity.

It's considered laughable when eBay and Verison get privacy awards. We recognize the ridiculousness the award, as Dana Oshiro points out in Is This a Joke? eBay and Verizon Win Privacy Award.

A new search engine called Yauba debuts that promises that you can search privately and leave no trace.

I don't know about you, but I read articles like that, or check out the search engine, I think a bit, then go on doing what I'm doing, what I've always done.

Well, that was true. Then I saw What Information is "Personally Identifiable"? from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Mr. X lives in ZIP code 02138 and was born July 31, 1945.

These facts about him were included in an anonymized medical record released to the public. Sounds like Mr. X is pretty anonymous, right?

Not if you're Latanya Sweeney, a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor who showed in 1997 that this information was enough to pin down Mr. X's more familiar identity -- William Weld, the governor of Massachusetts throughout the 1990s.

Gender, ZIP code, and birth date feel anonymous, but Prof. Sweeney was able to identify Governor Weld through them for two reasons. First, each of these facts about an individual (or other kinds of facts we might not usually think of as identifying) independently narrows down the population, so much so that the combination of (gender, ZIP code, birthdate) was unique for about 87% of the U.S. population.

That got my attention.

The EFF report went on to say:

But research by Prof. Sweeney and other experts has demonstrated that surprisingly many facts, including those that seem quite innocuous, neutral, or "common", could potentially identify an individual. Privacy law, mainly clinging to a traditional intuitive notion of identifiability, has largely not kept up with the technical reality.

CNet picked up on the story and wrote How 10 digits will end privacy as we know it. The 10 digits being the aforementioned five-digit ZIP code, gender, and date of birth. CNet said,

Knowing just a little about a subscriber--say, six to eight movie preferences, the type of thing you might post on a social-networking site--the researchers found that they could pick out your anonymous Netflix profile, if you had one in the set. The Netflix study shows that those 10 deanonymizing digits can hide in surprising places.

Our physical belongings also betray our anonymity by silently calling out identity-betraying digits. Small wireless microchips--often called radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags--reside in car keys, credit cards, passports, building entrance badges, and transit passes. They emit unique serial numbers.

Once linked to our names--when we make credit card purchases, for instance--these microchips enable us to be tracked without our realizing it.

CNet mentioned other privacy issues such as the ubiquity of surveillance cameras and concluded that soon, ". . . on the Internet, everyone will know if you're a dog."

An experimental project at MIT, dubbed "Gaydar" suggests that your online data can determine if you are gay or not. From Project Gaydar:

Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person’s online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person’s friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction. The two students had no way of checking all of their predictions, but based on their own knowledge outside the Facebook world, their computer program appeared quite accurate for men, they said. People may be effectively “outing” themselves just by the virtual company they keep.

“When they first did it, it was absolutely striking - we said, ‘Oh my God - you can actually put some computation behind that,’ ” said Hal Abelson, a computer science professor at MIT who co-taught the course. “That pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information - because you don’t have control over your information.”

The article goes on to mention other researchers who have been able to determine political affiliation using online data about music favorites and other information. (Or they could just read the comments on BlogHer to discover people's politican opinions!)

The Gaydar software only seems to work for gay men. Apparently a woman won't accidentally out herself by having lesbians in her friends list. What if you are a woman with gay men friends? Will the software crash?

I'm being silly, but this is a serious topic. Could information about your sexuality or political affiliation make a difference to a potential employer? A homophobic neighbor? I think you know the answer to that.

At Langwitches Blog, the issues are discussed in Digital Footprint- Your Online Data Trail

Now the report is almost 2 years old. I am wondering if perception about digital footprints has changed? Have we moved from trying to limit and prevent information about us to be published online (out of fear of privacy loss, identity theft or misrepresentation) to making sure that some trail of us, who we are and stand for can be found online?

[Image from langwitches.org]

Ask yourself the following

In what category do you fall? Worried, confident, concerned or unfazed?

Are you as a teacher thinking about, developing, building, monitoring, and protecting YOUR digital footprint?

Are you thinking about your footprint when (or not) posting or commenting on blogs, uploading student projects, participating on twitter, nings and other social network places?

Do you keep your personal and professional digital footprint separate?

Are you one to “hope for” or “not wanting” parents, principals, students and others finding a trail to and about you?

Do you think that teachers are (will be) at a disadvantage in the future if they do not have pertinent search results when googled?

If you aren't paying attention to privacy yet, now is the time to get your head in the game and take a look at how you live your online life. Color me concerned.

Want to get really down with the issue of privacy? There's a symposium at Stanford in March 2010 you might consider.

--
Virginia DeBolt

BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor |Web Teacher|First 50 Words

FCC plans rules to enforce net neutrality

2009-09-21T10:16:48-05:00

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that the FCC will create new rules to prevent carriers from blocking, slowing or favoring particular types
of content.

Read the full article on Web Teacher.

Will Free Evolve? The Lessons of Geocities

2009-09-15T07:56:53-05:00

Way back at the beginning of Internet time, the best thing you could get free was a Geocities account where you could build your own web site. Millions of people did just that. About 38 million, according to Macleans.

Geocities began in 1994. It will close officially on October 26, 2009. Fifteen years is quite a ride.

According to Wikipedia, Geocities was once the 3rd most popular site on the web. It was used for everything. I used it with my web design students as a free place for them to practice making web pages. Many fan fiction sites used Geocities. Sites for displaying or storing photos were popular. For many people, Geocities was the entry point to the web and the genesis of the concept of a web community.

Yahoo paid several million for Geocities in 1999. Now it is closing the doors and urging all the users to migrate to a paid Yahoo hosting account. Advice on doing that is available at the Yahoo help center.

In March 2009, Super Jive declared "Geocities: so wack it has become cool again." Her endorsement wasn't enough to save the site. The death of Geocities was announced in April.

AV Flox mourns the end of the Geocities era with this There is Always a City.

Perhaps more than places of residence, spaces online are like lovers. We enjoy many people who touch our lives, but there are only a number of them that really change us so deeply, and teach us so much, that we remember them forever.

In a sense, GeoCities was that. It may not have been the moody codependent relationship I had with Diaryland, or the drama-filled, torrid affair I had with LiveJournal or the wild, no-strings-attached fling I’ve been having with Wordpress, or the warm marriage I enjoy on this self-hosted blog—but it shaped me.

Maybe it was my first crush.

Bunnykins commented in Wow–Geocities is closing down that old favorites will be missed.

I know that other free hosting like geocities closed down but I never expected geocities would close down. I think part of that has to do with a lot of the sites I still go to use geocities. Like a few anime sites I go to. Although I will admit some of those sites have not been updated in years so will probably not be moved to another location. I will end up deleting at least 50 book marks that use geocities, I will watch to see if they move though.

Geocities sites were mostly amateur productions. Some were pretty awful: scrolling, blinking, multicolored nightmares. As Laura Scott compared MySpace with it, "MySpace, which is so chock full of hideous personal pages it's really the web 2.0 version of Geocities." So did ktsasis in this comment on a MySpace article:

MySpace so much reminds me of the internet 10 years ago ... when everyone had an Angelfire or Geocities page. Those companies weren't able to translate their member base into cold hard cash, so it will be interesting to see what News Corp. does with their investment.

Instead of lamenting the loss, others scramble to preserve what was there. Many active users will probably take up Yahoo on its suggestion to migrate to an inexpensive (but not free) Yahoo account. Others, like Den of the Ogress plan to preserve sites by copying them. She wants to save the romance writers who used Geocities.

If you know of any old Geocities romance website that you'd hate to see vanish, let me know too. Maybe I'll create an online museum of sorts where folks can visit these pages even after Geocities close down.

The Internet Archive has plans, too. Nothing that appears on the Internet ever really goes away (a lesson some have learned the hard way) and the Internet Archive is part of the preservation process.

Yahoo! announced that it will close the site on October 26, 2009, steering users towards their paid service instead. We have been archiving GeoCities sites for years in our crawls, but, as goes with the territory of being web archivists, we want to make sure to gather as many of the pages as possible before the looming end of an era, 10-26-2009. If you have a page with GeoCities or are a fan of a particular page, please use our special collections page to ensure its preservation. Additionally, please refer to another independent project, the Archive Team, who is working to save cultural information that may be lost with the site closing. Yahoo! is also offering valuable advice at their help center.

Free web hosting sites are common now. Blogs are free. Social networks such as Ning are free. Companies like Weebly offer free site building tools and free hosting. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter: the list of free goes on and on. After 15 years of being free, Geocities is finally saying free doesn't work. Free isn't sustainable. Is this an omen, a warning that Blogger and Wordpress and My Space and Facebook should heed?

Geocities tried the same model that Facebook and other free services use now. Advertising. It wasn't enough. It isn't proving to be enough for former print media giants to survive online, either. Internet users continue to demand free. Sites struggle to find a way to provide free and succeed. The Internet has evolved exponentially in the last 15 years, but free hasn't. We keep searching for a way to make free succeed. Will free evolve or is it an endangered species?

--
Virginia DeBolt

BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
| Web Teacher
| First 50 Words

The Kilogram: Just a Little Off

2009-09-08T07:29:29-05:00

For the last hundred years or so, a metal cylinder about the size of a souvenir shot glass has been the standard against which all kilograms were measured. Take a look at this Wikipedia provided computer generated image of the kilogram.

The REAL kilogram, the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK) is kept in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris. Several official clones of this kilogram are kept in various locations around the globe. Every high school and college science lab has sets of weights and measures that are supposed to be exact duplicates of the IPK.

Therein lies the tale.

When the various official copies are compared to the official IPK, the weights don't match up after a period of time. Scientists don't know whether the official measure is getting heavier or lighter, but something is off. The measures are off by about 50 micrograms. (Goodness knows what discrepancies would arise if the IPK were compared to the one kilo weight at your local high school.)

A microgram is about one millionth of a gram. It takes 1000 grams to make a kilogram, so that means a microgram is a billionth of a kilogram. That may not sound like much to you and me, but scientists are picky about things like that. When they say precise, they mean precise.

Ann Althouse wrote a three sentence post about the kilogram issue at The kilogram. Really, *the* kilogram. This is all she said:

It's a particular cylinder. Don't sneeze on it. Be careful washing it. Dislodge a molecule and you throw off all the weights in the world.

She got 20 rather lengthy comments on her three sentence post. The precise measure of a kilogram is a weighty matter to some people.

An NPR story, This Kilogram Has A Weight-Loss Problem which you can listen to in about 5 minutes, explains what some scientists are doing to redifine the kilogram, not as a physical object but as a numerical constant. They're use a device called a watt balance, which measures electrical and magnetic forces, to attempt a numeric definition of the kilogram.

Badgermama, not one to let the question of the kilogram's weight problem go unnoticed, got pumped reading Wikipedia. In The elusive kilogram! she describes other ways science is trying to redefine the authentic K.

The kilogram is the only unit not defined off a physical constant - it's defined from this particular object, the 130-year-old International Prototype Kilogram or IPK. And a whole bunch of other metric units are defined using mass, like newtons, pascals, joules, amperes, couloumbs, volts, teslas, webers, candelas, lumens, and lux. (The plural is not "luxes". I looked it up.) It was created and then defined as the standard. But some replicas of it were created, like the Kilogram of the Archives, and over time they have diverged from each other. The story of what they're all made of, and how they're periodically compared and verified, is pretty cool. And sort of insane. Is that a whole bunch of people's life work? Making sure that we know how wrong our kilograms might be? Eeeeeee! That's so hot!!!!!!

And so are multiple bell jars over a brass-looking pedestal thingie! It's like The International Geek Thingamajig on a Steampunk Cake Stand of Awesome!

Burrow deeply into the kilogram article and you will get to the proposed alternatives that would tie the kilogram to a constant. Atom-counting approaches (I liked the Avogadro project, which would use a silicon sphere); Ion accumulation; and the rather sexy sounding watt balance method: the electronic kilogram!

The watt balance is finding a new home in Ottawa, where conditions are hoped to work toward more precision in defining the kilogram. The Ottawa Citizen reports Canada joins quest to set new kilo: Formula to replace inexact old ingot.

It may take several years before the "inexact old ingot" is replaced by a measure science finds acceptable. In the meantime, do your best not to polish too many molecules off the local neighborhood kilogram.

--
Virginia DeBolt

BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor

Web Teacher

First 50 Words

Balloon Fiesta time in Albuquerque

2009-09-01T07:57:17-05:00

You climb out of bed at 4:30 AM and don layers of sweat shirts, jackets, caps, gloves. It's cold in pre-dawn October in the desert at 5000 feet. You grab your camera. You head for a 200 acres expanse of grass near the Rio Grande River. You queue up for coffee or hot chocolate and grab a gooey cinnamon roll or a breakfast burrito or an Indian taco. There are already mobs of people there with you, waiting for dawn.

You may wander down the row of vendor booths selling souviners. But if you're eager, like I am, you take your breakfast goodies out onto the field. You stomp your feet to keep warm and you watch the pickups rolling up with trailers in tow. Hundreds of trailers, spaced out in organized rows like stalks of corn planted 100 yards apart. Out of each one comes a folded up wad of silk and a big wicker basket. You watch people lay the silk out on the grass, stretching it for yards and yards. Despite the mob, no one walks on the silk. The wicker baskets are laid on their sides so the huge gas burners they carry can be aimed into an opening at the bottom of the expanse of silk.

Light behind the Sandia Mountains to the east hints that dawn is coming. Burners fire with a roar and heated air begins to flood the silk.

You follow the roar and heat of the burners. You know that inflated silk, the hot air balloons, will launch in waves across the field. People follow the launch waves like schools of fish, oozing from wave to wave to follow the lift-offs.

You grow tiny among the balloons as they fill with heated air. They bulge and expand and raise their heads. Towering ribbons of colorful silk rise above you, blotting out the sky. There is nothing in your world but color and the rush of flames heating the air inside the silk canopies. There is nothing but pattern and shape and excited voices urging, "Look at that one."

Before it's fully light, a few balloons launch. They test the wind, check the currents.

When officials are satisfied that the wind is right for the mass launch, the dawn has come, and hundreds of balloons bloom around you.

Balloons lift off in quick succession now. People wave and shout. Lucky passengers look down at the masses left on the ground.

The chase crews jump in their vehicles and take off the follow the wind and bring back their balloonists from the morning ride.

You follow the launch waves across the field until the grass is trampled and bare and the sky is a crazy quilt of color.

It's 9 AM. The sun blasts through the clear desert air and you shed layers. The show is over for the morning. Now you can stroll among the shops and grab some souviners. Maybe you head home to look at your photos or take nap or enjoy a day on the town before you come back for the evening events.

You've just attended a mass ascension at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This event takes place in October each year in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2009, the balloon fiesta runs from Oct. 3 - 11. It's the most photographed event in America. In addition to the mass ascension I described, you can also attend gas balloon races, fireworks shows, chainsaw carving competitions—don't ask what that has to do with balloons, because I don't know, balloon glows (balloons lit up by their burners in the evening dark, while still tethered to the ground), flying competitons, special shapes events (featuring balloons shaped like cows, castles, stagecoaches, Darth Vader, bees and clowns). The special shapes are always a favorite as are the days designated for nothing but special shapes.

For more images, take a look at A Shutterbug's Blog: The 2008 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and Jo Castillo's photo albums including Balloons and More in Albuquerque.

Many artists create original works about the event–items often for sale in the booths on the field at Balloon Fiesta Park during events. Here's The Blank Canvas: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta as an example.

At All Over the Map: A U.S. Festival for each month of the year, they warn of traffic.

If you want more than a watch-from-your-front-door experience, you can wake up in the middle of the night and crawl through the hours-long lines of traffic to get to a launch site, where you can check out the inflation process before the balloons hit the sky.

Yes, thousands of people do descend on Albuquerque (and nearby Santa Fe) during this event, but you don't have to fight the traffic. Instead, take advantage of the Park and Ride. Look near the bottom of the left sidebar on the Balloon Fiesta web page for Park and Ride info. It's faster, the buses have their own traffic flow away from the cars, and it's stress free. The Balloon Fiesta site also tells you how to purchase a balloon ride and all sorts of other helpful information.

I live in New Mexico; I've been to the event several times. When you live in Albuquerque, you don't really have to go anywhere, you can see balloons from all over town. The mass ascensions are too exciting to miss, to my mind, and I can't stay away from the Balloon Fiesta Park on those days. Still, it is a thrill to stay at home and see a balloon float right over your patio when the wind is right.

Three O'Clock Walk wrote about Hot air balloons on the brain. . .

I've added going to the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta that takes place every year in Albuquerque, New Mexico to my list of life goals

It's a worthy goal for any traveler. Five J's took her kids to see hot air balloons. Though it wasn't in Albuquerque, she gives you a feel for how much her kids enjoyed it in The Gift of Hot Air.

Joely became so excited she started running around our chairs shouting, "This is so much better than I expected! I LOVE this! This is so awesome!" Watching her pure enjoyment of the evening was definitely a Finer Thing!

The balloons fly when the air is cooler–early morning, late evening. That leaves you plenty of hours during the day to explore Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and the many nearby reservations where you can catch a glimpse of Native American art and learn about the American past. In my opinion, Acoma Cultural Center and Acoma Sky City is the top priority if you're interested in Native Americans and fabulous scenery. It's about an hour's drive west from Albuquerque on I-40.

I don't know Holly and Dave, but when they planned their Albuquerque wedding for last July, they wrote a terrific page on their wedding site that explains many of the attractions in the area. Here are their recommendations:

THINGS TO DO:

The Natural History Museum. The Natural History Museum is located just outside of Old Town and is especially fun for kids. There is a planetarium and Dynatheater.

The Albuquerque BioPark. The BioPark consists of the Rio Grande Zoo, the Albuquerque Aquarium and the Rio Grande Botanical Garden. October should be a nice time of year to enjoy all three.

Albuquerque Balloon Museum. Although the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta will have wound up a couple of weeks before the wedding, in October it is not usual to see a number of hot air balloons in the morning sky. You can get a taste of the Balloon Fiesta by visiting the museum.

Lobo basketball and football. The Lobos are the University of New Mexico’s teams. Since we do not have any pro basketball or football teams, they have a huge fan base, which makes it fun to attend their games.

Sandia Aerial Tramway. We highly recommend taking “the Tram” to the top of Sandia Peak. The base of the Tram is just minutes from our house and it takes only about 15-20 minutes to reach the top of Sandia Peak. During October, you will probably meet with chilly temperatures at the Crest, but will be rewarded with awesome views.

Old Town—Old Town is the oldest part of Albuquerque. It is comprised of a number of shops, primarily selling Indian jewelry and pottery, surrounding a central plaza. There are also several good restaurants, with both fine and casual dining, in this area.

Santa Fe—Santa Fe is now connected to Albuquerque via the Railrunner, a train which will get you to Santa Fe in a little over an hour. Santa Fe is approximately 60 miles from Albuquerque, about a 45 minute drive. It too has a quaint plaza surrounded by shops selling local Indian wares and fine art. Do your souvenir shopping in Albuquerque, as the prices in Santa Fe are much higher! Still, the Plaza is very charming and Santa Fe is full of fantastic restaurants and galleries. There is also an outlet mall just south of Santa Fe.

Holly and Dave failed to mention the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, which has art and information on all 19 Native American tribes in the state. They also omitted the Rio Grande Nature Center. In the fall of the year, thousands of Canada geese, Sandhill cranes, ducks and other feathered creatures make their way along the Rio Grande flyway as they head south. A good place to catch a glimpse of many of these magnificent birds is the Rio Grande Nature Center.

Check out Holly and Dave's ideas about hotels, restaurants, and wineries. Albuquerque has all the usual chain restaurants like PF Chang and Olive Garden and Jason's Deli. Plus we have a nice selection of local restaurants. Here are local-only restaurants I think are worth seeking out.

El Pinto Restaurant is a sprawling hacienda on the north end of town with good food, good margaritas, and their own brand of salsa that you can grab to take home.
Garduños Restaurants are scattered around the city in several locations. One location is right on the Balloon Fiesta Park grounds. They serve Mexican food and frequently have strolling mariache bands to liven up the atmosphere.
The Range Cafes started in nearby Bernallillo and have spread all over the city. They are noted for good American and Mexican fare with funky decor that changes with each location. I'm a devotee of the veggie enchelidas from Chuy's in Austin, TX, and The Range comes pretty close to equalling that delight with the blue corn enchilada with calabacitas. (Calabacitas are a mix of squash, corn and onions–a few pinto beans might make the mix for an enchilida.)
My favorite Asian bistro is Best Lee's. It's small, with a resident Chinese uncle who adds atmosphere, and the presentation of the dishes is photograph worthy. I'm stuck in a love-rut on the ginger shrimp, even though everything else looks good, too.
The Flying Star Cafes are loved for their bakery and decadent desserts as well as their casual menu of sandwiches, salads, and burritos. The Flying Stars all have free wifi and a laid back attitude toward lingering computer users who have long since finished a meal.
Weck's serve breakfast and lunch. They do a great omelette and you can get traditional foods or New Mexican delights like burritos.
Christy Mae's has only one location. Christy Mae's has fabulous chicken fried steak and lots of fresh food and good salads. The iced tea choices there are always delightful.

Plan to see some art. It's actually hard to avoid seeing art in New Mexico. It's all over the walls, highways, and roadways. You won't have to look far to find an art gallery or art vendor. The desert light attracts artists the way San Francisco harbor attracts gulls. Old Town in Albuquerque has a number of galleries. Make the 45 minute run up I-25 to the Santa Fe galleries, or keep going another hour or so and check the galleries in Taos.

I saved the bad news for last. Everything gets booked early: plane seats, hotel rooms—they all get snatched up in advance. Thousands of people find their way to New Mexico in October and the place fills up. Unless you have a camper and a sleeping bag, you might not be able to make it this year. But you have ample warning to make plans for 2010 or any year after that. Do like Three O'Clock Walk and add it to your list of places and events you must see. I know I'll be there.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Women Rock SXSW 2010

2009-08-25T07:36:04-05:00

Panels proposed for SXSW Interactive 2010 include many by or with women speakers. Since SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) is a tech conference that stands out as treating women equally on the speaker's lists, I took a look at what women proposed as panels for next year. The conference is held in March each year in Austin, TX.

Topics at SXSWi change each year, depending on what's happening in the tech/Internet/interactive scene. This year topics include a range of ideas as diverse as advertising, programming, blogging, marketing, cloud storage, design, journalism, sports, games. And more.

Over 2000 panels are proposed for the Interactive conference. Whew. Everybody doing anything in the Interactive world wants to be a speaker at SXSWi. It's a boost to your status and career to be on a panel.

Over 2000 proposals. That huge number gets pared down to a manageable number with the panel picker. The panel picker is an online tool that lets potential attendees of the conference vote and comment on what they consider the most worthy, engaging, and captivating ideas for the panels. Voters are asked to give a thumbs up for panels they most want to attend.

When the voting is finished (on September 4 this year), the most popular proposals make it to the next round, which includes evaluation of the proposed panels by the SXSW staff and advisory board.

I'll pick a few panels for you to look at, simply because I consider them intersting. Jes covered the BlogHers who proposed panels for SXSWi 2010 in A Few Good Women at SXSW '10. Social Signal SXSWonder Women: Ten women speakers to look for at SXSW Interactive 2010 mentions some social media panel suggestions. A huge number of the proposed panels this year include the words "social media," so Social Signal did some major sorting to get the number down to 10 suggestions. Beth's Blog looked at nonprofit panels in Vote and Comment for ALL these Awesome Nonprofit Panels at SXSW! Beth found about 25 nonprofit panels she considers top notch.

I looked at the 100 proposals that fall into the category Accessibility/Web Standards. Okay, I admit, those are my main interests, so I had to look.

Accessibility Past, Present & Future: Slatin Tribute includes a tribute to the late John Slatin, whose impact on accessibility was huge, as well as a discussion of future accessibility strategies. Aimee Roundtree is leading the discussion. Silona Bonewald is leading a panel on Microformats and Government that will talk about transparency in govenment. How The Other 1/2 Lives - Touring The Digital Divide from Jessamyn West, a librarian, talks about training for those new to technology. Open Web Education Alliance: Educating the Next Generation led by Steph Troeth had to get my vote: I'm involved in the project. Molly Holzschlag is leading How CSS3 Will Deliver Web Design's Future. Julie Lewis proposed a panel on Elegant Accessibility that sounds fascinating.

I looked at the 445 panel proposals that fall into the New Technology/Next Generation category. Katie Moffat's proposal Social Media ROI: Tools to Show the Man That it Works sounds good to me. Lauren Bigelow wants to talk about The Power of Social Play in Virtual Worlds. Valerie Buckingham's proposal Disruptive Trends Changing the World of Connected Communications had me at "disruptive." Kate Bauer wants to combine psychology and game theory in interface design in It's Time to Play. Sarah Granger proposes talking politics in Next Generation Politics: Where Will We Go Next? Faith Dow proposed Black Female Bloggers & the Future of Media. Julie Bahar's Creative Youth: Organic, Collaborative, and Throw-Away Media promises research findings into youth behavior. Carie Lewis, in Advanced Brand Monitoring: Let the Haters Hate wants to talk about brand monitoring. Is There a Technological Fix for Human Behavior? is Shireen Mitchell's question. Shireen also proposed Social Media Women of Color. How Social Networks Changed Online Games is the topic proposed by Cindy Armstrong. Charlotte-Anne Lucas proposed the intriguing How Women are Making Journalism Profitable. For writers, Deidre Knight proposed Romancing the e-Book: Publishing’s e-Volutionary Revolution. Nancy Duarte wants to talk about the value of a great presentation in From Monologue To Dialogue: Presentations, Collaboration And Sharing. Identity politics is the topic for Lisa Sabater in The Politics & Economics of Identity. This idea interests me in my real life, and I see Corvida Raven proposed talking about it: Your Online Identity After Death and Digital Wills. Of course, I'm interested in Tara Hunt's proposed Don't Stop Believin: Why Karaoke WILL Change the World.

I stopped roaming in categories and just browsed for interesting looking panels. I found open source ideas such as Lauren Roth's Drupal - A Platform Built To Put Content Center Stage and Mary Luketich's Building Online Communities with Open Source Software. I found cultural topics such as Liza Sabater's The Wise Latina Digital Club. I found journalism topics like The New Mainstream- Journalists Redefining Their Industry from Gina Cooper and craft topics like The Interactive Handmade Marketplace from Kari Chapin. I found a topic suggested by Danah Boyd–no way could I miss voting for Understanding Lies, Deception, and Truthiness in Social Media. I even found panelists who want to talk about real life, such as Karen Hartline's proposed Rocking Events IRL: From Cyberspace to Meatspace.

There is much I haven't mentioned. Women proposing panels about health care, copyrights, music, online relationships, self-help, porn, sports, design: I did mention that there are 2000 proposals to wade through, didn't I? Some of the proposed panels are all women, some are a mix of men and women.

If there is any chance that you might attend SXSWi in 2010, this is your moment to influence the programming choices you'll have when you arrive. Go make your voice heard using the panel picker. Even if you don't plan to attend, go take a look at what a potential speakers roster looks like at a tech conference where men and women are offered equal opportunity to lead.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words