I'm convinced you all know Technorati.com: those nice folks that once made an attempt to label, trace and follow the entire blogosphere. Like Google in strange sort of way, but without their resources and unfortunately, without the ability to deliver what was once promised. This blog has been mentioned on their service for over two years, with an increasingly weird fall and drop in their rating system. While it once may have been fashionable to have a significant 'Technorati rating', today I only find missing links: no matter how often I click their "ping" service, major incoming links get ignored, along with some quite distasteful targeted ads (Thank you, but I know where to find a parking space in Antwerp, and no, Scientology is no religion but a sect-under-investigation in Belgium). How's your "Technorati rating?"

America is being held hostage by "SATAN!"

I ask 'all' human beings of Planet Earth  to write-in "Captain Democracy" President of The United States of America November 1, 2008 on a "napkin" at your grocery store, coffee house and "any" commercial outlet!  We will win! The current crop of candidates work for "SATAN!"  We will defeat "SATAN!"  The human condition will be set free under the Grace of, "YHWH" the father of the begotten son, "JESUS CHRIST!"

I ask all human beings of the Seven Continents of Planet Earth to vote for "Captain SDemocracy!"(I Make the way for,"Jesus")

"Patron Saint of Planet Earth."

Elect "Captain Democracy!"

If you write about books or literary topics on a WordPress.com blog, watch out for sploggers who may be stealing your posts. Sploggers are spam bloggers, people who “scrape” posts off your site (typically using the RSS feed) and post them on their own. They may then sell advertising against your posts, so they earn money from your work.

Worse, sploggers keep people from reaching your posts through search engines, because their URL appears on your posts instead of yours with no link. If this happens, you pay a double price: Your work is stolen and you lose the traffic you would have had if your work had appeared under its own URL on a search engine.

Any blogger can become the victim of splogger – the risk isn’t limited to literary or WordPress bloggers. But if you are both of those, you have a reason for extra caution right now.

Since August 12, my posts on One-Minute Book Reviews have been aggressively scraped by a Poland-based blog that claims to offer “books and reviews from all over wordpress.com.” The splogger appears also to be lifting text without linking from many WordPress blogs besides mine, including Stuff White People Like, which recently earned a widely publicized book contract for its creator.

I can’t link to the offending splog, which would send traffic to it. But if you’d like to get a sense of how the scam works, go to Technorati www.technorati.com and search for “Janice Harayda” (not “One-Minute Book Reviews”). Look at the URL for any of my post–Aug. 12 posts, such as those about the children’s books Read All About It! and Lyle, Lyle Crocodile. You will see that my URL oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com doesn’t appear on these posts (as on pre-August 12 posts) -- the splogger’s URL appears with no link to my site. The splogger’s fake posts have preempted my real posts, so you can’t here from there.

This mess remains unresolved. But in trying to protect my work, I’ve found that you can fight sploggers. Here are some tips based on my experience or on ideas from WordPress Forums or Support:

1. Search for your site on Technorati and other blog search engines at least once a week, ideally every day. Use the “Contact” form on Technorati to report copyright violations or other abuse.

You may also want to:

2. Go to stolen.wordpress.com to report the abuse or learn more. WordPress may be able to provide an e-mail address for the host of the site if there’s no contact information on the splog, as there usually isn’t.

3. Send a “Cease and Desist” letter to the site if you can and, if not, to the host or a search engine that lists it. You can find sample letters for the different parties here: www.plagiarismtoday.com/stock-letters/.

4. See the responses to my cry for help on the WordPress Forums for other helpful ideas: en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/technorati-refusing-to-recognize-valid-wp-url?replies=7

5. Get in touch with support@wordpress.com if you are still having trouble.

6. If the splog has advertising from Google AdSense or another agency, use the contact information the agency’s site to report the abuse. To do this with AdSense, search the site for “Report a Policy Violation” www.google.com/adsense/.

7. Search the Internet for terms such as “fight sploggers” or “protect yourself against sploggers” for more ideas.

© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.

"Kenapa blog kamu cacamerba? Asyik cerita tentang cinta-hati-jiwalara-terluka-menangis-pilu. Ahhh...bosan!" kata mereka.

"Kita mungkin sama bentuk. Tapi isi kita berbeza. Dan setiap yang berbeza itu ada pengikutnya!" jawab saya.

Blog ialah catatan. Apa-apa sahaja catatan. Untuk tujuan pelbagai. Blog juga adalah media sosial. Juga alat sebaran yang berkesan.

Blog sudah popular. Ramai yang mengambil peluang mencipta kelainan dalam berhubungan dengan masyarakat luar melalui blog.

Tetapi tidak pelik jika masih ramai tidak memiliki blog. Masing-masing ada keperluan dan pendirian. Mungkin juga kerana dimomok dengan pendirian blog itu cacamerba. Tidak punya apa. Hanya merepek-repek dan buang masa.

Pembinaan blog oleh seseorang melalui pelbagai tujuan. Itu saya pasti. Kerana itulah terdapat berpuluh ribu malahan mungkin beratus ribu blog dengan tema yang pelbagai. Isi kandungan yang bermacam.

Paling penting, blog menjadi wadah utama selain media arus perdana di Malaysia. Blog dijadikan medium untuk menyalur sesuatu yang mungkin jika menggunakan medium lain akan melalui kesukaran seperti birokrasi dan sebagainya.

Blog tidak berbayar amat mudah dibina. Dan blog yang menggunakan mana-mana domain berbayar pula harus mengekalkan konsisten agar ia berbaloi kepada penulis dan pembaca.

Blog mempunyai pengikut tersendiri. Apatah lagi jika ianya jelas tentang sesuatu perkara. Contohnya blog politik, hiburan, motivasi, agama, buku dan sebagainya yang mempunyai ribuan pembaca.

Sebagai menyemarakkan lagi dunia blog, pelbagai cara wujud bagi mengiktiraf satu-satu blog itu bernilai dari segi isi kandungan atau tidak. Namun ini bukanlah apa-apa bagi penulis yang hanya menulis untuk luahan rasa, atau menjadikan blog sebagai diari hariannya. Ya, saya pasti statistik pengunjung atau nilai blog bukan apa-apa bagi mereka yang tergolong dalam penulis blog 'jiwalara'.

Tetapi bagi blog yang berunsur politik, harga blog pasti diambil kira bagi menunjukkan kekuasaan dan pengaruh mereka dalam menyebar maklumat dan mengikat pembaca agar yakin dengan apa yang disampaikan oleh mereka melalui blog.

Begitu juga halnya dengan blog yang berunsur agama dan motivasi. Juga blog yang bercerita tentang kepakaran penulis seperti penulis buku, doktor, guru, tukang jahit baju, petani dan sebagainya. Mereka akan rasa puas menyebar maklumat kepada masyarakat. Oleh itu harga blog turut diambil kira.

Pelbagai cara wujud untuk meneliti harga sesebuah blog. Mungkin juga anda boleh melihat carta weblog popular dengan menggunakan Alexa Rank.

Ada juga yang menggunakan Technorati Rank untuk menilai blog masing-masing.

Ini pula harga blog dalam Ringgit Malaysia.

Tetapi cara-cara ini dikatakan tidak sah kerana tidak jelas kaedah yang mereka gunakan untuk penilaian sesebuah blog. Adakah melalui statistik pengunjung sahaja tanpa melihat isi kandungan blog tersebut. Ini kerana terdapat blog yang tidak meletak statistik pengunjung di blog mereka namun, hakikatnya, blog mereka amat popular dan dikunjungi oleh ramai orang melalui komen-komen yang tersiar.

Nilai dan harga sesebuah blog sebenarnya terletak kepada penulis dengan tujuan apakah dia berblog. Jika sekadar meluah rasa hati, tidak salah kan jika kita kata blog itu mempunyai nilai yang tinggi. Mungkin kerana kejujuran dan jiwarasa yang tinggi dalam blognya.

Untuk blog yang benar-benar menginginkan sesuatu perubahan dalam masyarakat seperti blog politik, agama, motivasi dan kepakaran tertentu, sudah pasti harga blog akan diambil kira. Ini seterusnya memperlihatkan kecenderungan masyarakat terhadap apa yang mereka mahukan dan apa yang mereka sedang lakukan.

Kesimpulannya, kita tidak boleh menilai sesuatu blog itu bernilai atau tidak. Nilai tidak boleh diletak untuk satu pihak sahaja iaitu pembaca. Nilai dan harga juga harus dilihat kepada penulis dan tujuan dia menulis.

So far, so good. I dig it!

O blog americano de tecnologia é o 3º mais visitado do mundo 

Entrou no ar às 8h desta segunda-feira a versão em português do Gizmodo, blog de tecnologia norte-americano que é o terceiro mais visitado no mundo segundo o Technorati e recebe, a cada mês, em torno de 8 milhões de visitantes. O blog, mais que popular entre os fãs de tecnologia, trata assim de ficar mais perto dos brasileiros, responsáveis por 70 mil acessos a cada mês.

A página local está a cargo da Spicy Media e é a oitava versão do blog, juntando-se às páginas na Inglaterra, Austrália, Japão, Espanha, Itália, Holanda e França. Sempre mantendo o estilo bem-humorado e informal que caracteriza os posts, o Gizmodo trata do mundo da tecnologia de áudio a vídeo, passando por gadgets, hardware, software, Internet, periféricos, da blogosfera e muito mais.

Conheça a versão brasileira do Blog Gizmodo. Clique aqui. 

 (fonte : Terra Magazine)

Fernand Koda

This applies to Insight Services (variously called analysts, research and advisory services). If you doubt that they are misused, have a look at the AnalystAnalyst blog (another thing I caught on my "Return to Work"). If IT is using external authority to justify decisions already taken, and push them through the Governance Board because the Board expects "endorsed by Gartner", the battle is already lost.

So you need to know how to identify and buy the right services, and how to manage delivery and demonstrate value. InformationSpan and the Corporate IT Forum have scheduled a seminar in London, on 24th September, which will provide users with the tools to move in this direction. Your organisation doesn't have to be a member of tif. to attend, though there's a fee discount if you are. (If you're not within reach of London, call me!)

I talk about "Insight Services", because their role is to provide both broader and specialist insight to help IT make its decisions. Not to dictate what those decisions should be! And a Board should know that IT strategy is shaped by the best information available. internal and external; that its team are trusted to apply that information in the context of the business and its needs; and that the investment made in these services – like any other – is returning value. It's an ongoing relationship, not a hit-and-run engagement.

How do you tell the corkscrew from the cathedral? You can't ask the analysts themselves! And most commentators in this arena come at it from IT's supply side perspective. They support Analyst Relations professionals – vendors and service providers. InformationSpan is unique in approaching the field from the user enterprise viewpoint.

Did you know there are over 400 different firms out there offering service, from the global majors to start-up specialists? You'll get a new direction on how to select, buy and manage an insight services portfolio, and a workbook to take back to your team. You'll get the chance to share your own experience with fellow participants and shape the workshop outcomes. I might learn something too!

Follow the links below to read more and register. See you there!

Links:
• The Expert Guide to Managing Analysts and Research Partners Verbatim (Corporate IT Forum blog), 20 Aug 2008 - you will need to create a free Guest account to visit this page
• Ass-covers AnalystAnalyst blog, 14 Jun 2008, and comments

See full details here: http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

Since my interests now have gone back to the tech/social-networking side of things, this is an interesting read for me. I have to wonder what the sad face means (haven't really delved in fully yet), as I am browsing online while currently in the queue for my fourth run of EoTS. We've won two out of three so far (go Horde), so that's kind of nice. I'm just farming honor and don't really know why. PvP isn't really my thing, but it's a nice break from the monotony of what I've been doing for the past several years.

Back to Chrome: I particularly liked the monkeys. :)

It seems they're beta-testing a pre-beta, or something like that. My immense hunger beast (which will soon be soothed by this delicious delivery from Pita Pit) is making it hard to think properly. In any case, I am impressed and will probably use it secondarily for awhile, until it becomes second nature, and then replaces Firefox for me.

Parece que o Technorati é "chão que já deu uvas".

I'm still pretty much a n00b when it comes to promoting my blog and discovering other good blogs. Most of my blog discoveries come through serendipity - links in other blogs, constant great content from a site on Digg, and ad hoc links in Twitter or Friendfeed. In other words, when not looking to discover. That's why it's so disappointing that most blog directories, and not just Technorati, really sucks at this aspect.

It's not that it's difficult to browse and discover content, but to do so, you need to have a different mindset. You have to think like a blogger. That's why it's not surprising that mostly bloggers are the ones that really care about blog directories. I suspect that regular users don't really care for authority rank or blog reactions.

I looked at sites like Blogged.com and Six Apart's recent Blogs.com, and they show signs of promise and a good direction, but it's still not a casual experience. What I mean by that is that they still haven't reached that place of trusting that browsing ad hoc can lead to interesting discoveries.

Blog directories need to learn from sites like Digg. In order for them to really work, they need to look for a way to "pay" with social currency; something that provides some sort of validation to the user. In other words, a reason to favorite on Technorati or to review your site on Blogged. Blog directories need a Mr.Babyman.

Después del periodo de "vacaciones" regreso con un tipo de producto que aún no había ofrecido.

Hace un tiempo que tenía en mente hacer algún regalo de este tipo a los visitantes de El Blog de Joaclint Istgud; y aquí está. Me he decidido por un set de iconos para redes sociales en formato SVG y creados con Inkscape 0.46. Lo he llamado v1.0 porque creo que más adelante ampliaré el set y también he pensado en hacer otro tipo de versiones del tipo web 2.0, 3D...

Puede descargarlos, editarlos y usarlos a su antojo.

Descargar Set de Iconos sociales en SVG

A team of people from Christchurch City Libraries are attending the Christchurch Writer's Festival and will be blogging and taking photos and interviewing the authors and others. The photos we will post to our Flickr set.

I am interested in anyone else who may be blogging, or adding photos to Flickr and if we can connect it all via a tag at technorati or Flickr. I would suggest the tag CWF08 - but you might also want to use a more human friendly one like Christchurch Writers Festival

I have had a brief look around to see who may already have blogged the festival already, and will make suggestions to them that they do this tagging.

Mark Sarvas has mentioned his presence at the event, as has Rachael King in Not Another Bloody Blog!

One has to guess that Bookman Beattie will have something or things to say (rumour has it he wont be bringing his fabled scooter) - while Catherine has decided not to attend the blogging session but is elated about other things at the festival. and Mary McCallum is excited, while Lumiere are Hungry For Words

If you are using any other web2ish thingy tell us.

• Check Technorati tags CWF08 ~ Christchurch Writers Festival
• Check Flickr tags CWF08 ~ Christchurch Writers Festival