Jun

2

Why trust strangers when you can trust your friends.

Filed Under Doing, Review, Social Media | Leave a Comment

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Why trust strangers when you can trust your friends. (image: 1zoi5jt)GigPark is a new / word-of-mouth referral 2.0 and Facebook (whew!)

What all that jargon means is that if you’re looking for a plumber, accountant, real estate agent or magician you have a convenient place where you can your friends (or their friends).

The concept is ; invite your friends to GigPark, and then start asking them questions. Your questions are immediately visible to your friends, and their friends.

Friends, not strangers. What makes GigPark different is that you have a with the making recommendations - they are your friends or the friends of your friends, not weirdo strangers who may be plugging their own businesses.

When I signed up, one of the GigPark founders immediately became my ‘’ (through the magic of programming, I’m sure, since I never him). Lucky for me, he has 342 friends (everyone signed up to date?) so my query will have some pretty good reach.

To add friends, GigPark makes it easy, hooking into popular services. They’ve also developed a GigPark that you can add to your account.

Removing the complex and leaving the , this is similar to the ‘ & ’ feature in LinkedIn. You a of a trusted group and expect that the replies should be of higher quality, or so the theory goes.

My take: it’s a new so the jury is out. GigPark is still in , and from the FAQ, it looks like they’re going to be expanding the to individuals and businesses (they call them providers).

Eventually, I’m thinking it may have value, as the number of users increases. Then again, when you add more to the mix, the greater your chance of diluting the value of responses. And we’ll have to see how the providers fit into the mix.

Your thoughts? Are you on GigPark? If so, what’s your ?

Update: It’s only been a few hours since I posted my query on GigPark, and I’ve already received one response.

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May

27

Things I learned moving my blog to a new hosting service (it’s easy!)

Filed Under Blogging, How to | 3 Comments


Things I learned moving my blog to a new hosting service (its easy!) (image: 2526037333_07b840e3ec_o)Over the last few weeks you’ll may have noticed that I’ve been and twittering about my blog from the .net to .com.

A few years ago I managed to grab BradGrier.com when it came open, but I’d not decided what to do with it until recently. I’d been having some performance issues (my blog, that is) and decided to test a new hosting provider.

So, the issue. How to move the blog, keep the same look and feel, not lose any Google Juice, and not lose any feed subscribers. Not a trivial set of considerations!

Of course, I turned to my good for advice:

  • How to Move Your Wordpress Blog To A New Web hosting - great technical advice on backing up and restoring your WP blog
  • Use the WordPress Database Backup plugin - I wrote about it recently when my blog crashed, but backups created with it are entirely suitable for use in blog migration
  • Redirecting incoming traffic to the new blog - well, since I’m using the same data structures and permalink structure, the only is one from .net to .com, this was quite ; a .htaccess 301 redirect as described here and here. Slightly technical, but not really too tough.
  • subscribers was also quite , since I use Feedburner to manage subscriptions: simply the Feed Title and Original Feed URL on the Feedburner Feed Details page. DO NOT THE FEED ADDRESS as this will disconnect your readers from your feed — a bad thing :)

A couple of other observations:

  • Set up your new blog/destination site first. Complete importing your data and building your look and feel. Yes, also duplicate posting to this site. You will want to make sure as your readers move they don’t lose any …especially for the tardy ones.
  • Immediately the Feed address in Feedburner. Any new subscribers will never notice, as you are posting to both sites right?
  • Prominently post about the fact that you are your blog. Add a widget or two to the sidebar (make them obvious) to alert your readers to the fact that you are . You want them to begin to identify with the new URL, not the old one, as soon as possible.
  • After a week or two, close commenting on the old feed, with a message directing readers to the new site.
  • After another week or two implement 301 redirects. And test them! @hownottowrite and @lijit both recommended, through twitter, this HTTP header scanning tool and FireFox plugin to validate the redirects (thanks again!).
  • Finally, remember every place you’ve ever used the URL / name, and it.

So, after all that…did you notice? :)

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May

14

Engaging in ‘high risk’ activity - moving my blog

Filed Under Blogging, Doing, Web | 2 Comments


Engaging in high risk activity - moving my blog (image: 20562069_7cf1e2aaec_m)I’ve decided to take the plunge and move my blog to a more traditional .com type (rather than the .net that I currently use). I’m going to keep the .net for more esoteric things, private server, etc.

If you’re this on the old blog (blog.bradgrier.net), then please jump over to the new one, bookmark it, and check it out to make sure it works as you expect. You can find it at blog.bradgrier.com.

The dot-com is more , have a standard ‘expectation ‘of a site or blog when it has a .com address. A .net address seems to have a different ‘expectation’. And I felt the need to try out a new provider.

So, this will mean a bit of :

  • feeds - already moved my feedburner redirects so there should be no disruption
  • Incoming - not sure what to do about this yet. Incoming add value to your ranking, so this transition will cost me some of that precious Google Juice
  • Site duplication - some of the articles I’ve been about domains suggest maintaining duplicate sites for a few months. I’m thinking about this. It may work, but I’d customize the so that some sort of ‘ moved’ message is appended to the feeds etc

But, I’m not the expert here, just the guy doing the work. Do you have any thoughts or opinions about domains? What should I watch out for? What should I do differently?

: David Asch

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May

23

Change or Die: How web tech is killing organizations

Filed Under Photography, Social Media | 3 Comments


Change or Die: How web tech is killing organizations (image: 66u8ydk)Many dinosaurs roam the organizational landscape, complacent in their daily routine, unaware of a new threat to their existence, one that will wipe them out if they don’t figure out a way to evolve and adapt to embrace it.

Hyperbole aside, I’m talking about , new , communities, or even 2.0, whatever you want to call it.

Three recent items caught my attention and touched on this idea:

“Take Your PowerPoint And” — BusinessWeek
“Unconferences turn the plodding, predictable gathering inside out. They’re a hybrid of a teach-in and a jam session, with a little show-and-tell mixed in, and they are attracting hundreds…”

“Craigslist Founder: People Who Run Printing Presses ‘Screwed’”  — Editor & Publisher
Newmark told an all-too-knowing that this is a time of “ destruction” and that he has a “great deal of sympathy for who run the printing presses. They are screwed.”

Frequent recent discussion in For Immediate Release podcast — Neville Hobson & Shel Holtz
Discussion about professional organizations, and the of communities (MyRagan.com, , LinkedIn, etc) as networking alternatives.

So what I see here is three examples of organizations that serve a particular . Three groups that are being challenged by one external force, the rapid adoption of easy-to-use . 2.0 if you will.

It makes sense, to me as a user. Heck, why would I pay thousands of dollars to attend an educational / networking / professional conference when I can attend an ‘unconference’ for ? Would you? Why join a professional network when you can get much of the same value, again, for ?

I’m looking at this and thinking that the value provided by these and events compete with any value delivered previously by traditional organizations and communities.

This is a logical evolution. services have already changed the shape of many brick-and-mortar businesness, and invented many new models too! I had my last set of business cards printed by moo.com. I visit bookshops and stores less as I order more from sources, and am continuing my education by taking courses through an accredited university. Physical presence is not necessary to meet my needs.

But that’s old hat now. What is new is the of communities and services that leverage the power of the crowd. Some call this ‘crowdsourcing‘.

I think of it as active communities of committed , creating new value in a way that disrupts the traditional model that organizations have used to provide value to their members.

This diminishing value will result in declining memberships (I may not be joining some organizations), unless these organizations recognize that someone has moved their cheese.

To quote from that esteemed tome on , Who Moved My CheeseChange or Die: How web tech is killing organizations (image: ):

Happens
They Keep The Cheese
Anticipate
Get Ready For The Cheese To Move
Monitor
Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old
Adapt To Quickly
The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese
Move With The Cheese
Enjoy !
Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!
Be Ready To Quickly And Enjoy It Again & Again
They Keep The Cheese.

So, these organizations will have to figure out how to to remain relevant to their audiences or members. Or they risk becoming extinct.

They must , and that’s where the grand adventure lies. Exploring the facets of , discovering the new ways an organization can serve its publics.

There lies the challenge, and the . Yes there are risks, but they can be managed with due diligence.

Given that, how would a newspaper make itself relevant in this new age of citizen journalism, where stories are developed by citizens with a blog, and no traditional journalistic credentials. What happens when photographs are freely available with Creative Commons Attribution licenses on flickr, what happens to the staff photographer and his trade association? Do they lose relevance?Change or Die: How web tech is killing organizations (image: 4u0j6ms)

What about other organizations, what about yours? Do you work for a Dinosaur?

** Update **

Just saw this lovely Diesel Sweeties cartoon that eloquently sums up.

Title courtesy afterfate via flickr

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May

14

Three cool things about attending an webinar online conference

Filed Under Social Media | Comments Off


Tomorrow I’ll be spending some time in, what can sometimes be, meeting hell. I’ve got (actually I booked it for my team) an conference to attend. If not managed properly, or if you’re not the target for one of these, it’s a complete waste of time..and hence, meeting hell.

But, if you are blessed with an awesome presenter and are into the , then they’re one of the best, cost efficient ways for you and your team to benefit from the knowledge presented.

So here’s the three things about (don’t call the webinars, please) conferences:

  1. Group learning. This is because your entire team shares in the same learning , and should have the same context when trying to implement any knowledge gained. Questions from the group can be queued through the presentation and answered by the presenter in the closing Q&A session.
  2. Team building. An conference is a great way to connect with disparate team members or colleges who are not normally part of your daily work.
  3. It’s not part of your regular grind. A good conference can force you to drill down into one aspect of your work, often on a detail level that you don’t normally get to when you’re simply executing and on to the next task. And these things are a great break from the regular 9-5.

So, tomorrow I’ll be taking these things to my conference, one hosted by the CPRS on PR and Social Media. Since I’m interested and in the target , this should be good!

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Oct

18

Every new Palm needs a new glove.

Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment


Well, in this case it’s actually a case, but the title was too good to pass up.

Every new Palm needs a new glove. (image: P1010544_150)So, there I was with my new — not really enjoying the fact that it has a floppy screen cover rather than a case. Sure, it worked, but somehow it just wasn’t satisfying.

Luckily the solution wasn’t too far away. Since I live my work and homelife mostly , it was to go shopping for something that would make my new happy. Read more

Mar

23

Ancient Internet History Rediscovered…

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Ancient Internet History Rediscovered... (image: bradblog)Yep, an early part of history has been rediscovered recently: early blog postings from my first blog — of course — have recently come to light courtesy of the Internet Archive.

Some are cool, some are drivel. I’ll be the ones over to this blog, the rest can languish in the archive ;-)
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Apr

22

GeoCachingEdmonton.com - Techincal Difficulties

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Do not adjust your set...*UPDATE* IT’S UP AGAIN (which is why you’re here, right?? [May 16/05] *UPDATE*

Heh… right along…

Just when we think we have it all under control, the folks hosting GeoCachingEdmonton.com have a technical issue with a drive upon-which GeoCachingEdmonton.com lives. They have backups, we have backups…it’s just a matter of time until the site comes back on line though.

Sigh.

Stay Tuned…and do not adjust your set.

Source: GeoCachingEdmonton.com
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