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Archives for June 2008

When Is Fair Use Not Fair?

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That is the question that will hopefully be answered when the Associated Press publishes their revised set of Fair Use guidelines after sending the Drudge Retort a letter requesting that seven items be pulled off the site according to the NYTimes. The seven items in question were between 39 to 79 words. Seems like a reasonable length to me for a quotation but the A.P. disagreed. The letter sparked an outrage by a number of bloggers forcing the A.P. to temporarily retreat their stance on bloggers violating their Fair Use policy.

Mr. Kennedy of the Associated Press believes

that it is more appropriate for blogs to use short summaries of A.P. articles rather than direct quotations, even short ones.

The good news is, the A.P. is not stupid as Mr Kennedy points out

We are not trying to sue bloggers,” “That would be the rough equivalent of suing grandma and the kids for stealing music. That is not what we are trying to do.

Taking a look at the Fair Use document from the official Copyright website, here is a clear indication that a court case is needed:

The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

What is your stance on this issue of quotation and Fair Use? It would be interesting to see the A.P. actually go after a blogger for using a quotation which was under 100 words and claim that they violated the concept of Fair Use. The results of the case would create a better understanding of what can be construed as Fair Use giving the rest of us bloggers a metric to gauge upon.

How Long Should Your Blog Posts Be?

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It is a pretty simple question: how long should your typical blog post be? Well, the answer relies on several factors, but the question itself is almost irrelevant—but many still ask it.

Before going any further, you must look to your audience. So, to keep things simple, let’s say there are two types of people reading blogs: the impatient and the intricate. The former wants to get in and get out as quickly as possible. The latter wants the content to be full and informative. It is essentially a coin-flip.

So, which is it—long or short? Ironically, I feel that this is the wrong question to ask entirely. It is not a question of length, but, instead, a question of detail. The detail you put into an article should determine the length. Some bloggers, unfortunately, do not understand this.

Attempting to “bulk up” an article with unnecessary words accomplishes little but annoys many. There is nothing worse than re-reading the same sentence multiple times, and I have seen many bloggers pull this off. Unless you are an all-star blogger trying to be creative or cute, there is no point in wasting a reader’s time.

If an article ends up being more than just a few paragraphs, it should be a result of taking the time to cover all the details which will be of interest to the reader.

I tend to get quite detailed with my articles, but this comes with the cost of having some readers shy away from the lengthier ones, but most seem to appreciate them.

Knowing your audience also helps. It is obvious that the details are appreciated by Performancing readers; however, every case is different. Using an analytics package like pMetrics is a great way to see what your audience appreciates, and you should build from that.

Some blogs that load on the details:

Some blogs that keep it short and sweet:

To wrap things up, do not judge an article by its length. Use a measure of facts and details to determine its worth. There is an incorrect trend with bloggers asking for 1,000 word posts, but why write a 1,000 word post when it can be done just as effectively with half the words?

To answer the initial question: your posts should be as long or short as required by the details you want to provide with the content. I made the mistake of juicing up my articles with unnecessary words when I started, but I have learned that it is not worth it.

Tips On How To Create Good Comment Policies

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Just a few days ago, I published a poll which asked the question, “Who owns your comments?“. So far, the response with the majority amount of votes is “The Blogger“. Despite all the hoopla involved with the issue of owning comments, I think every blogger should clearly display a commenting policy either near the comment form or have a link within their navigation that points to the document. This policy will cover the basics and will ensure that the blogger and commenter are on the same page. Now, let’s dive into some examples of commenting policies as well as tips on what information your own policy should contain.

Your commenting policy should be easily accessible. If you are using WordPress, you can use Alex King’s Comment Policy plugin which will add the policy within the comment form. In case you don’t want to use a plugin, you could always add it in manually by editing your blog’s theme and hard coding the text into the comment form. Alternatively, you could publish an entire page dedicated to the policy, but I doubt anyone will bother browsing to that section of your blog.

This policy should clearly explain what you as the blog author will do with comments posted on your site, who retains ownership of those comments and explain circumstances which would require you to edit an end user’s comment.

Once you’ve figured out how you are going to display the policy, keep the following tips in mind before creating it.

  • Make the policy clear and concise
  • Be specific
  • Outline what you will do with the comments that are published
  • Explain how certain circumstances will generate the need to edit a comment
  • Think about adding privacy information

If you experience difficulty creating your own policy, here are two examples in which you can use for inspiration.

Alex King’s Policy

Please note: Use of a non-personal web site or blog in the field below and/or comments that are off-topic, personal attacks, or support requests will likely be removed at my discretion.

By commenting here you grant me a perpetual license to reproduce your words and submitted name/web site in attribution.

Themetamorph.com Policy

1) Abuse toward myself or any of this blog’s readers/commenters will not be tolerated, and since it’s my blog, I decide what is/is not abusive and will edit/delete accordingly.
2) This blog uses the Comment Timeout plugin to help fight spam, since spammers seem to enjoy leaving their crap on older posts. Feel free to contact me to discuss a post with closed comments.
3) I DO Follow.

If you still need help, please read this article entitled, Does Your Blog Have A Commenting Policy which illustrates a myriad of different things you should consider putting into the policy.

Do you have a commenting policy on your blog? Do you think this is a non trivial issue? Is this better than actually giving the comments a creative commons license?

Ten Cool Twitter Tools

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In a previous article, I explained how Twitter is a great way to help yourself grow as a blogger, but now it is time to help you keep track of your Twitter account. These are some of the tools I have found very useful, and while not all of us have varying opinions on how useful Twitter can and will be, it is time to take advantage of social networking.

I find micro-blogging quite fascinating at the moment. Now it is time to help you keep track of your Twitter account. Just like all most aspects of blogging, there are tools to help you with Twitter.

These are some of the tools I have found very useful, and while all of us have varying opinions on how useful Twitter can and will be, it is time to find out what makes Twitter so fun and productive to use.

TwitterFeed—One of the more useful third-party applications, TwitterFeed provides users with the ability to import content feeds. This is great for promoting your blog(s); it could also have many other uses for those clever enough to exploit them.

TwitterFone—What’s better than texting to Twitter? Talking to Twitter might be it. There are a few quirks with this service, but it is great for those moments when you need to briefly Tweet about something. Voice recognition seems to work well.

Twhirl—I can’t prove it, but I am certain that Twhirl is the most popular third-party Twitter client available right now. It is multi-platform and it works well. Even I use it, and you should too.

TweetStats—Tech geeks and statistics freaks beware—TweetStats might just appeal to those statistical stats that you all desire. It is not directly useful or productive, but it can tell you how addicted to Twitter you really are. Maybe you’ll cut back on your usage after seeing the data.

Twitterholic—Who’s number one? Although I don’t particularly care, you might be well on your way to making this list, and if you are, it could be worth keeping tabs on. Feel free to send some of your followers my way!

Hashtags—One issue with Twitter is that it is difficult to find people talking about the same thing. This is no longer the case. Hashtags allows you to mark a post for inclusion within a conversation. Check it out.

AutoComplete—One of my most desired features with Twitter would be an auto-complete function; similar to what you’d get in a fancy HTML editor. Well, it isn’t supported in Twhirl just yet, but for those of you that use the web-based interface, this script called Twitter Auto Complete will have you covered. No longer must you struggle to remember your friend’s handles.

TrackThis—I tend to do most of my shopping online, and with that usually comes tracking numbers. Sometimes I’d need to check individual sites to remember tracking numbers, but other times I’d just completely forget. TrackThis allows you to have a service message you via Twitter of package updates, and this means no more having to check emails or sites to know where your stuff is located.

TweetBeep—TweetBeep is a tool that can alert you when certain keywords and/or domains are being discussed on Twitter. For example, I could set up an alert that would notify me when anyone links to Performancing, and I will be notified via email on an hourly or daily basis. This is a great resource for managing a smaller blog or tracking discussions relevant to you and your company.

TweetWire—A news tracking site for tweets? Wow! Okay, so it isn’t as good as The New York Times, but TweetWire is an interesting look at what people are talking about. It isn’t perfect, and I just noticed some weird stories continually showing up in a few sections, but when it is working, it is nice to glance through. With some massive improvements, I could see this service becoming fairly useful.

Got any cool tools that I missed? Let me know in the comments section!

Twitter: The Talk of the Web, and for Good Reason

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If you think back to over 23 years ago, when short messaging service (SMS) technology came to be, you might realize how impressive it is that such an old technology still exist. SMS has brought new and inspiring ideas for today’s “web 2.0” applications and services. It is this same technology which has empowered Twitter to flourish.

Right now, Twitter is becoming the talk of the web, and if you don’t believe that, just listen to any recent episode of This Week in Tech. You just can’t avoid it, and it has become a really big deal. Is it a bandwagon? Absolutely, but this one is certainly worth the effort of jumping on.

Recently, applications like FriendFeed and Plurk are trying to do what Twitter has already done. FriendFeed, at its current state, isn’t going to win. I’m only following seven people, and it is far too much information to digest. If I was following 40 people, I would have already given up.

Plurk, however, takes it a step further by displaying information via timelines. Unfortunately, they made it into more of a game with the karma system. At least 70% of the stuff I have seen on there is just an attempt to increase karma. Honestly, it is a stupid idea! I mean, why ask users to add noise? In the end, most “plurks” have an artificial quality. I’d invite someone to argue this point with me, but I’ve already given up on the service; at least until the karma system is removed.

When I first experienced these mini-blogging services, I thought it was interesting that they limited people to 140 characters. I thought it was pointless. Honestly, I thought they were all doomed to failure. Gosh, I so very wrong. It now appears that frequent chunks of small information can entertain users as much as a two hour movie. It can sometimes be annoying, but overall, I enjoy knowing what people are up to.

The reason why Twitter is so appealing to people is that it gives users the ability to instantaneously connect with friends, colleagues, peers, and acquaintances through the internet. Not only that, but it allows us to use third-party applications to stay in touch as well. I simply can’t name a previous instance when this has been attempted on such a grand scale.

Now, I am sure that the vision of Twitter when it first started was very different then today—which is made obvious due the issues of scaling the application—but it is Twitter that has opened our eyes to what is just a small glimpse into the future of the social web. It is such a simple concept, but it is one that works well.

Third-party Support

Twitter is also a shining example of how openness can really pay off in this day of technological rivalry. Jaiku, at once considered a great threat (and some still consider superior) to Twitter, has stumbled by failing to support by third-parties. Now owned by Google, Jaiku still fails to attract as many users as its competition.

It makes sense—Twitter is made fun and interactive by the applications and services developed around it. In some sense, you could consider Twitter as a framework to building your social timeline which can shared with friends. Twitter is nothing without the third-party support it has today. It is almost like Facebook; its appeal has been with third-party applications.

The Future

I understand that they have had a tremendous amount of technical issues. The service was not designed for the purpose it serves today. Fortunately, things are starting to resume normal operation.

The development team has learned from their mistakes. However, they need to re-write the Twitter system now. There is no point in continually building on a design concept for another purpose. They would do themselves a huge favor by optimizing everything now.

Regardless, Twitter is growing, and it will forever have a place in technological history.

What are your opinions on Twitter and its new and old competition? Do you believe Twitter will survive? Let me know in the comments section.

Whats The Deal With Online Advertising?

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I’ve been sitting here thinking about the state of online advertising right now and I am pretty much confused. Here’s why.

Television commercials have succeeded at advertising because they are broadcasted to a large audience. So large in fact, it doesn’t take that many people to make a purchase for the ad to be considered a success. Because television ads are viewed by such a large audience, the ad doesn’t have to take into account personal information to make the ad more relevant. This is not confusing.

Now, let’s take a look at online advertising which I find to be confusing. I’ve read a number of reports and polls which claim that the average person would be fine with advertising if the advertising were more relevant to their tastes. How does a company display relevant advertising? Here’s how. They start saving data on their customers, keeping track of buying habits, viewing habits, browsing habits ect. However, there has been a major backlash by consumers that this is an invasion of privacy.

So the majority of people seem to be ok with viewing relevant ads but they are not ok with the way the relevant data is accumulated.

I don’t see people lining up to fill out surveys to voluntarily give this personal information to companies for more relevant advertising. In that case, what is one suppose to do to profit from online advertising? How do you make things relevant without breaching the consumer’s privacy. If customers think one way, companies think another, how will online advertising ever become a more established method of making income?

Online Office Suite Roundup

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Some of you might be a fan of desktop applications for writing, but an increasing number of folks are going web-based to get the job done. If you fit in the latter group, this article is for you. Web-based office is the new “thing” that all the competing companies want to be on top of; as we all know, competition is good for getting a better product. So, if you are considering a move, make sure you know what is available first.

Adobe

Adobe kicks things off with Buzzword, an application I first became familiar with while working at Mashable. I was impressed with how it looked—stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, there were a few features I thought were missing (e.g. spell-check, export options, etc.), but they seem to have tightened things up since then, and it was recently acquired by Adobe—so, it is now in good hands.

There are a few things I should point out: the application is built completely in Flash (probably why Adobe acquired it); there is no auto-complete functionality, and I really miss this feature; and while the interface is beautiful, it sometimes takes awhile to remember where things are located. These concerns are fairly minor, but some of you might not appreciate the flash framework as much as others.

The TeqEdge blog provides a close look into Buzzword.

Google Docs

Google Docs has been available for almost two years, and it is one of the first online office suites that I actually used for a lengthy period of time—for good reason, it works well. During the beginning, I had a few complaints with the rich-text editor, but most of them have been resolved with time. Overall, Google Docs offers great document management and collaboration, and is easily one of the best of the bunch.

The collaboration feature is absolutely amazing, and previous co-workers and I constantly put it to good use. It is not a SubEthaEdit, but it still works very well.

PC World offers their opinions on Google Docs.

Zoho

Zoho offers a slew of applications from its online office suite, and the writing application is really well done. Zoho Writer provides an interface that might be more desirable than what Google has conjured up. The development team is always adding improvements, and I think Zoho has the most potential to expand in the near future. Also, I really enjoy the fact that Zoho Writer uses a tabbed interface; it is very desirable when working with multiple documents.

CNET has opinions about the Zoho Office suite.

ThinkFree

ThinkFree is probably the closest experience to Microsoft Office that you can get online. Users also benefit from experience that the company has—ThinkFree is one of the oldest web-based office suites around. There is also a premium edition which integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office. It works well, and the interface will be familiar to all MS Office users.

ExtremeTech has an in-depth review of ThinkFree.

Judgement

Zoho certainly offers the most types of products, and is more of a complete office suite. I also can’t get over those tabs which I love so much, and many of you might appreciate them. You can also, ironically enough, use your Google identity to sign up for Zoho; something to think about.

BuzzWord from Adobe certainly has the flash and flair, but it still needs some time to mature. However, if you are addicted to pretty things, give BuzzWord a try, and you might be able to contribute to the growth of the application.

I wouldn’t really choose one over another unless you are already using a service that integrates into your workflow. For example, if you are using Gmail, you might be better off using Google Docs for the integration, and ThinkFree could easily integrate into your Microsoft Word application if you can’t completely separate yourself from a desktop word processor.

No matter which product you choose, you can be sure that the competition is just heating up, and improvements are going to be coming fast as Microsoft tries to integrate their office suite with the internet. All of the aforementioned applications are free, and most offer a nice amount of space for storing files.

Let me know what you think of each!