Archive for April 2008
Ditch the gym membership… grow a garden!
It’s a shame our leaders can only tell us to “buy, buy, buy” during an economic downturn (slump, recession, whatever you want to call this). As the price of fuel and food climbs upward, they should be urging us to grow Victory Gardens, pitching in to sustain ourselves and reduce our dependence on industrial methods and foreign fuels. When economic recession coincides with a global climate crisis, it makes even more sense.
When you grow even a small portion of your own food, you reap manifold benefits. You get the satisfaction of reducing your dependence on others for your most basic needs. Vegetables are absolutely the best thing you can eat, and when you grow your own they are cheaper, fresher and tastier. You get to control what fertilizer is used (or not) to grow them, and no petroleum is required to truck them to your kitchen. You get to slow down a bit and maybe connect with your neighbor to swap surplus tomatoes or borrow a shovel. Best of all, you get to be out in the fresh air, using your muscles with a real purpose and not just completing sets of reps. It’s the perfect solution: get in shape while improving your diet.
Michael Pollan makes the point more completely in his essay, Why Bother?:
It is one of the absurdities of the modern division of labor that, having replaced physical labor with fossil fuel, we now have to burn even more fossil fuel to keep our unemployed bodies in shape [i.e., driving ourselves to the gym].
Ben-Hur move I say we take his advice. Let’s skip the health club this summer and work out in our back yards instead.
Learning about the web from Maasai warriors.
A recent story out of the UK caught my eye earlier this month – six Maasai tribesmen flew into London to run in the London Marathon. They weren’t just doing it for fun – they were raising funds for clean water resources in their Tanzanian village.
The story itself was fascinating. Wearing their native garb, jewelry and shoes made from car tires, most finished the marathon in under five hours and the group raised over £60,000 (approx. $127,000 USD) for their village.
I was equally impressed, however, by how well the organizers used minimal technology for maximum effect.
The Maasai Marathon site is bare bones, allowing visitors to get more information about the cause, learn more about the runners and donate online to help the Maasai reach their goal. The organizers created an effective offline campaign to generate interest and drive traffic to the site. Without bells and whistles and excessive social media tools, the site is a tool for visitors to get the information they need to make an educated decision about supporting the Maasai’s effort.
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As a web designer, it’s always tempting to experiment with the newest and shiniest tools and technology to create a “wow” online experience. However, sometimes simplicity is far more effective than maximum interactivity. In this case, the simple online site a) was more in keeping with the tribesmen themselves (who don’t own computers) and b) kept the focus on the Maasai and what they hoped to accomplish.
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The Maasai campaign reminded me how more is not always better. It’s critical to define your goals clearly and choose your tools carefully to reach that goal. If the goal is simple, always consider a simple solution. Great editing skills are every bit as important as flashy solutions.
p.s. If you’re intrigued by the Maasai’s story, you might want to check out the chief’s diary of his week in the UK.
Semantic Web – what is it, and how did we get here?
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The modern website can do some amazing things for your business. It’s truly evolved from an online brochure into one of the major marketing engines and key drivers for growing your business.
To understand how we got from simple marketing sites to complex modern web applications, let’s take a quick walk down memory lane.
The web, in its 1.0 flavor, offered static content and little interactivity. A business would translate its traditional marketing collateral into a series of web pages (brochureware) that were rarely updated, and communication was generally one to many (broadcast). This technique was cumbersome and costly to maintain. It also didn’t scale well as sites grew.
To combat this problem the web evolved in the late ’90s into its 1.5 flavor. The introduction of web programming languages (such as Perl, ASP and PHP) and database connectivity allowed for dynamic content that was centralized and easily updated via a web administration system versus a developer. The underlying theme here is that content became easier to manage and publish more frequently. Databases allowed for the introduction of two-way communication on websites via message boards and self-help applications like FAQ’s and forms. The first generation of web software applications — such as content management systems (CMS) and Ecommerce — were introduced. Unfortunately, the cost of entry generally prohibited most small to medium companies from adopting them.
The next evolution (or should I say revolution?) on the web was Web 2.0. For the first time sites allowed users to interact with the website and contribute to its content. Search engine optimization (SEO) became a major factor in any redesign — site structures and content were highly optimized to gain higher organic rankings on search engines. Community features were introduced, including blogs, ratings, wikis, comments, threaded discussions and groups. Technologies such as web services, XML and RSS were added to allow content to be decentralized and syndicated. Sites also became a little smarter, offering different ways to navigate content by offering related or suggestive content and filtered navigation.
The Prince of Tides So, the question is, where are we now? What is the term being used to describe the next generation of web applications? And what technology separates this evolution from its predecessors? The term that the industry has settled on for the next generation website is the “Semantic Web”. Wikipedia has a great summary of this:
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The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content. It derives from W3C director Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange.
Google’s iGoogle
platform is a great example of this technology. It allows you to create your own, completely customizable web dashboard. You can add custom content tailored to your specific needs via RSS feeds, applications and widgets (from Google and 3rd parties). All of your settings are saved for repeat visits. At its heart the Semantic Web is the introduction of the “smart website.” Content is highly targeted to individual needs and desires and can be accessed via any number of media, including the traditional web browser, PDA or smart phones. It is the dawn of a new and exciting era online — one that empowers us with access to personalized information on demand, helping us keep up-to-date in the increasingly fast-paced lives we lead.
Happy Earth Day!
With the press coverage environmental issues are getting these days, we may think of “green” issues as something new — another shiny object the press will pick up and discard at will. The official “environmental movement,” however, has been around for over 40 years now.
download Wild Things 2 movie Earth Day, as a concept, was first introduced at a Seattle convention in 1969 by Wisconsin’s own Senator Gaylord Nelson, a passionate environmentalist and activist, frustrated with the government’s lack of interest in/attention to environmental issues. Blondie Johnson full movie
He thought he had found a way to bring the environment into the political limelight when he had persuaded President John F. Kennedy to make a nationwide conservation tour in 1963. Although President Kennedy traveled through Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Utah, Washington, and California speaking about the need to conserve natural resources the effort received little media attention. Senator Nelson realized he needed another mechanism for promoting environmental concern and asked himself “how are we going to get the nation to wake up and pay attention to the most important challenge the human species faces on the planet?”
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While reading an article on anti-Vietnam War teach-ins that were organized on college campuses across the nation to protest that War, the thought occurred to him: Why not have a nationwide teach-in on the environment? Upon returning to Washington, Nelson raised the funds to get Earth Day started. He wrote letters to all 50 governors and the mayors of major cities asking them to issue Earth Day Proclamations. He sent an Earth Day article to all college newspapers explaining the event and one to Scholastic Magazine, which went to most high schools and grade schools. (Source)
The first Earth Day was then held, with great success, on April 22, 1970. In Senator Nelson’s own words:
It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.
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Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.
– excerpted from How The First Earth Day Came About – Senator Gaylord Nelson
As a lot of people are remarking today, every The Adventures of Baron Munchausen download day should be Earth Day. Until it is, however, this particular holiday is simply a good reminder for all of us to think about our relationship with and responsibility to the world around us.
(Many thanks to Flickr user, *L*u*z*a*, for the use of her photo.)
Safety First
Most of the time, I don’t think a whole lot about my safety while I run or bike. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’ve never had a serious problem. But running, and especially biking, is not without risk.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire divx The obvious risk comes in the form of a few tons of steel and glass strapped to 4 wheels – cars, trucks, and traffic in general. America unfortunately, isn’t the most enlightened place when it comes to respecting bikes and pedestrians. For the most part it’s fine, but there’s always the random inattentive driver or even worse, the driver thats upset you’d have the audacity to run or bike on an actual road.
The not-so-obvious risk are numerous as well. What would happen if I fainted from heat exhaustion like this guy
? What if had a heart attack or stroke? What if I took a spill in a remote place on my bike and was left unconscious?
I’m generally not a panic-inclined fellow, and I realize that most of the scenarios above are statistically improbable. However, when you solo run 12, 15 or 20 miles in all sorts of severe weather over the course of several hours, it makes you think about things like this. What if something happened to me? I’m 8 miles from the nearest phone! Thankfully, there’s a simple answer and it’s called Road I.D.
I picked one of these I.D. bracelets up a few weeks back and couldn’t be more impressed with the product. The concept is simple. It’s a lightweight bracelet that holds an engraved plaque with you vital info on it. My name. Emergency phone numbers. Blood type. Allergies. You get the idea.
I’ve been wearing it on all of my rides and runs and I can think of more instances where it would come in handy as well, such as extended backpacking trips or traveling abroad. If a bracelet isn’t your style, they have a bunch of other options as well. Check out Road I.D. It’s a simple thing that may end up saving your life
sometime.
And before you ask, this isn’t a paid posting for Road I.D. I just think that it’s a great product from a company that decided to do one thing and do it very well.
Sustainability: That's what I'm talking about.
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We spend a tremendous amount of time in business talking about global sustainability issues — like what practices do our firms put in place to save trees and use less oil? Unfortunately, I fear that most sustainability discussions are little more than lip service; more marketing hype than anything.
We worry, too — what about the sustainability of our own neighborhoods, our schools, our future work force, our health care services?
At Hanson Dodge Creative we’re trying to bring sustainability discussions closer to home and, as a business, get involved.
A Scanner Darkly dvdrip That’s why, as of yesterday, Hanson Dodge Creative stands proudly as one of the first businesses in Milwaukee to become a founding member of Common Ground, a powerful new force for community change in Southeastern Wisconsin. Common Ground is founded on the principles that: 1) if we don’t engage, change can’t happen, and 2) if we unite to demand change in our community, anything is possible.
Over 2,300 people from over 60 regional churches, non-profits and other organizations — representing the wonderful and diverse ethnic and faith groups that are Southeastern Wisconsin — came together yesterday at Milwaukee’s Midwest Airlines Center to launch the founding of Common Ground. Together we will work to tackle issues like job creation, health care for underserved populations, central city crime and skyrocketing unemployment, among other issues.
Reviews of popular Open Source CMS solutions
Last month fellow HD blogger, Gretchen, broached the topic of “What is the best CMS?
” which stirred up some good debate in the comments. The question of CMS selection and approach comes up all the time. Everyone has their two cents on whether your project requires you to buy, build or go the Open Source route. To add to the discussion I wanted to reference an article
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The article’s list of CMS solutions is, by no means, exhaustive or comprehensive — it only focuses on systems that run on Apache, MySQL and PHP architecture including: CMS Made Simple, Drupal, Joomla!, Wordpress and XOOPS. That being said, it is helpful and a nice quick way to compare and contrast some popular Open Source solutions. Enjoy!
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