In relation to the timeline of communication tools, websites are only a millisecond old. Even if we disregard paintings on cave walls and the formation of the alphabet and just start from the first printed word, websites are mere saplings against the giant redwood.

Yet it is hard to imagine a life without websites; they have become so pervasive in our lives. They have grown and adapted. New tools, uses and applications are added all the time. The pace of change is phenomenal. Never before has communication had to adapt and change so fast. And never before have people needed to adapt their communications strategies so quickly.

The underlying philosophy of how organizations make their business decisions has been shaped by our journey through the industrial revolution. One thing the industrial revolution instilled in us is the need to automate, to do away with the individual craftsman, and to make things cheaper. To relate this to the evolution of the websites, the highly individual skill and craftsmanship of coding a website in HTML gave way to software that allowed any competent person to build a website in frames. Predetermined templates were created where you could just drop in a few photos and a bit of text and hey, presto, there was your website. As Henry Ford once said “You can have any color you want as long as it is black”, the web developer’s mantra is: “You can have anything you want as long as it fits into one of these templates.”

As static templates are no longer adequate for organizations we are seeing a move towards templated social media solutions, choosing the template that most closely resembles what we think we need. But it is more complicated than that. We can no longer try to fit our organizations identity into a predetermined template. In order to keep up with the pace of change we need to alter our thinking. Today we need to make our message available on new media devices and portals. We need to integrate all our online assets. We want to weave our community into our brand so that there is a seamless integrated brand experience.

The changing approach we need when considering our online strategy is not limited to our online assets. We are seeing a general shift in the world’s consciousness. The establishment is being questioned. Alternative medicine’s holistic and spiritual approach is challenging the conventions of western medicines prescriptive antibiotic regime. There is a realization that blind allegiance to the production methods used in the industrial revolution is leading to climate change, wasted resources and dissatisfaction as value, creativity, purpose, collaboration and community give way to price, products, waste, exclusion and consumerism.

Within industry, through the research and thought leadership of organizations such as The Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank and research institution, we see that by changing the way we approach the methods of production in industry, we can make real gains and savings through effective resource management and processes. We have had an excellent uptake of tcg’s Green Prepareâ„¢ programme, not because companies want to save the planet, but because there is a realization that in order for industry to survive, it needs to address the reality of our planet’s dwindling resources.

The ideology of production is wasteful and ill considered; yet these production methods are entrenched. It is difficult to throw this thinking away and accept alternative ways of producing, even if those methods lead to increased production and a stronger bottom line. Looking at organizations in a holistic manner and designing production so there is true integration of all aspects requires a shift in approach. Embracing alternative fuels, alternative build and engineering and new, considered production processes is not taking a step backwards; it ensures we can carry on producing way into the future.

This shift in consciousness is not about supplanting one way of doing things with another. It is about taking the best of all disciplines and changing the way in which we think about the relationship.

Similarly, the way we build out our technology is more important than ever. It is no longer a case of just having the best applications, widgets and tools; it is also about how that technology is structured and how relevant it is to your organization. Each organization has its unique business rules, structures and objectives. As an organization integrates and streamlines its operations, the same thinking needs to be carried forward into its online presence. More than ever, online tools and applications are becoming the way in which brands communicate with their audiences. As windows to our brand, websites are extending beyond the computer screen to a host of mobile devices, 10 foot interfaces and portals, some of which we still have to discover.

We are seeing a shift in how we think about our online property. The new social media platform has to embrace and enable this. It has to have tools that powerfully enable the user, yet it cannot be a rigid structure. It has to allow for unique business needs and it must integrate all aspects of the organization. Like any movement away from the established norm, not everyone gets it and not everyone at first will want to embrace it. Yet once the “ah-ha” moment comes, it all clicks and there is no going back.

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The Colonel and Bill Shirley review a full day of Texas Roller Derby Action. In the first half of the review, we cover the first three bouts.

57 - Alamo City Las Tejanas
144 - Assassination City Special Ops

114 - Houston Roller Derby Hardknocks
90 - Dallas Derby Devils Travel Team

141 - Texas Roller Girls (Austin)
52 - Assassination City Special Ops

Stay tuned for the second half of the Governor’s Cup Review!

thecolonel@colonelpod.com

I’m sure all of you out there have at least heard of someone being ripped off by a cowboy tradesman. It’s happened to me twice before, when I was grossly overcharged for electrical services. One time I was charged £100, just to change a fuse when I know its a simple job. After all the electrics in my house went off at the beginning of July, I was extremely begrudging to get in any old electrician from the Yellow Pages. I was refereed to a relatively new company called BH Electrician Services. After  I called, they sent someone round the next day and within 10 minutes I had my electrics back on. It was another blown fuse again, but this time it was in the main fuse box. I was worried to hear what the price would be. Turned out it was £15 and I didn’t eve have to pay up front. I was told and invoice would be in the post. So if anyone out there has been ripped off by an electrician, check out these electricians.

Isn’t it funny that we rush to work everyday and then spend the first hour at our desk reading the paper and drinking coffee?

Isn’t it funny that if you’re done with your work for the day at four, you can’t just leave? Why do you have to stay that extra hour and pretend to be busy?

Why do we assume that time = productivity instead of talking about the kind of results the person is actually getting?

Why do we talk about people being “out of the office” when everyone is reachable by cell phone or e-mail?

Interested by ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) ? Really, really interesting… You should read it now !
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/….part-1/

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/….part-2/

Dan Mason, president and CEO of CBS Radio, and his crew rolled into San Francisco this week to talk about radio in the digital age. Mason told the crowd of mainly media buyers, radio personalities and sales executives that radio is still very much relevant in this new digital age. Mason also pointed out that the prediction of the demise of radio has a long history dating pack to the advent of the launch of TV. More recent forecasters have continued on with this theme, saying that 8-track tapes, cassettes, CD’s, satellite radio and iPod’s would kill radio. However, in this round of innovation, it seems that CBS plans on embracing the change as demonstrated in its launch of the new play.it media player. The objective seems to be to target the 9-5 at work listening audience, who may not be able to receive a radio signal or bring a radio into their work space.

The player which will be marketed jointly with AOL seems to be ahead of the pack in web based media players. Now listeners will be able to listen to radio stations from around the country from a single radio station’s website. So if you are a music fan and you enjoy listening to Alice Radio in San Francisco, and you hear news of Elliott Sptizer, you can click over to CBS’s NYC news station, WCBS to get the low down.

But this is only one interesting feature of the player, which soon will have a Pandora-like feel to it. Listeners will be able to create their own radio station by typing in an artist and getting suggestions of other similar artists. The listener will then be able to easily rank the artists by dragging them closer to the start of the play list. If for instance, you are a big Springsteen fan, but hate the Eagles — you can ban the Eagles from ever playing on your station.

There are multiple benefits to advertisers with this new platform, as banner ads can now be contextually placed in the media player and synced with the content of the audio feed. For instance, if a music station is promoting a concert, a graphic could appear on the player during the ad or even when the talent talks about the concert.

I asked Mason about allowing advertiser generated content to be integrated in the player, and he said it’s open for discussion. I wondered if I could place some of the financial programs that I syndicate into the player, so a listener could create their own business talk radio station. All I can report right now is, stay tuned…

Matthew

Add to:

Well, I just found out that Jason Kidd will be traded along with Malik Allen to the Mavs for Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, DeSagana Diop, Deaven George and Maurice Ager. I just don’t know what to even say about this! Kidd, is old but still doing well for his age. Stackhouse is getting old too and man I really was never feeling DeSagana Diop nor Deaven George. I just think this trade is dumb altogether. I think they should have traded for someone much better than that. Also, Dallas will be giving out 3 Million bucks in cash to the Nets and also give out their first round draft pick this year and also 2010.
Stay Tuned,
DJ A-Smooth
Sources- ESPN.com

Nowadays, many bloggers are trying to optimize their blogs in search engine as well as blogging. I myself also tried some of the techniques that I learned from internet to optimize my site too. Today, I just came across an interesting article about the basic of Search Engine Optimization explained that

Bold text <b>/<strong> is given more weight than ordinary text but not as much as H tags. As much as is reasonable, enclose the search term in bold tags when it appears on the page.

Another article explained that italic (<i>)/emphasic (<em>) tag is also important as well as bold tag.

When mentioning your keywords throughout the page, it’s helpful to put them into italics, bold, or emphasis (<em>) to make sure the search engines know that these words are important.

CSS <span> tags to format text, but search engines don’t have an easy way of determining either of these. Why make the search engines work harder than they need to? Use these basic HTML tags and help yourself (and the engines) out!

How much they will effect in SEO? It is hard to say that those are not really important but they are needed when optimizing the site.

Further reading

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - the basics
• Header & Bold
• The Easiest SEO Tip for Online Artists: Using Bold and Italic Keywords

I recently uncovered a plot to take over the world - well, not quite the world, but I’m sure thats what you’re up to. Republishing my information like that is just downright wrong ! And outranking me like that for my own keywords - outrageous !

I recently received a DMCA complaint from Google where a third party was claiming that one of my sites was reproducing their content without their permission. Moreover, the site was reproducing others content too ! - I really couldnt help but laugh. Initially, I went looking for an email I might have missed, or some other indication that I had in fact received a complaint from the complainant via normal channels. But of course, contrary to their claims - no such communication had taken place.

It surprised me that in their complaint, the complainant had mentioned third party sites they couldn’t possibly represent (because I owned them), but not just that, they had 2 weeks prior published an article on a similar topic. Was this their ‘experiment’ ??

Google requires you to respond to the complaint not only with remedial action, but in accord with a legally binding agreement that makes you subject to federal jusrisdiction in the United States. If like me, you’re located on the other side of the globe, you’re actually expected by way of this document to MAKE yourself subject to same. I actually had to do a double take when reading this recommended response to the complaint, in that which halfwit, wherever they may be from, would actually agree to being legally bound in this way ??

My response of course was to ignore the complaint and register using a different business entity. And yes, to placate any naysayers, remove the ‘infringing’ content. But it does lead me to question why Google would actually compell third parties to agree to be bound by the DMCA when the process can be so easily abused by complainants.

Remedy through removal of infringing content - fair enough. Expect earners to bend over and take it up the @ss legally because a competitor wants to play cute - I dont think so.

Its easily sorted as described above, but still annoying when it could have been sorted through simple communication (assuming genuine intent and assertable rights).

Google noose anyone ?

DMCA, Federal Jurisdiction, Google, Google Adsense, PPC Pay Per Click, SEO Search Engine Optimization

I installed one of those bidding scripts. The cost was around $25 for the script and installation was a breeze and the administration looks easy. One thing I notice though, is that when someone does make a bid it is suppose to be automatic after paying with Paypal, but not with my install. No idea how that happened and it must have happen during the install procedure, but either way i’m online and I can always do it manually it’s just the same and in some ways it’s better this way I think.

Sonstra Web Directory with the bid of $11. At this point the script was almost paid for itself. The way with this type of link bidding is that, well atleast mine anyways is that it has no PR at this point and my marketing ability is some what limited, though I have marketed before I even knew what IndexQueen was going to be. It started of as a General web directory, but I figure I have to many of them already and wanting something alittle different this time, so I made the move and made her as a Link Bid type.

The last to bid was Big Web Links and made a bid of $13 which brought the listing to the top and that paid for the script and a few advertisement that I’ve already bought at DP for link signatures among the members, though I think I paid too much for the link sigs at $22 per month with a post count of 2,000?. Be honest I forgot who it was that I bought it from. anyways, I trust them to have the link there for a month.

IndexQueen din’t take off like how I wanted too and I din’t expect to get this low amount of bidding, but I look at it on the brightside, it has already paid for the script and the domain and soon maybe it will also pay for the advertisement i’ve already put in and for future adveritisement. I like the domain and the script isn’t too bad either and I will continue on promoting it.

The way it works is just like any other directories, first you choose a category, in this case the first letter of your Title (as shown below) then make a bid and pay, a very simple process.

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Hi guys,

as you can see, Serradinho.com has had a few changes. I am happy to let you know that there are loads of new features that complete my site.

Features:

• New theme layout
• Related Articles
• Social Bookmarks
• Featured Categories
• SEO Friendly Search Result URL’s
• Many Admin Control Panel Changes

This is all done by the one-theme development team who have been working really hard to get the new features released.