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The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.
To read more on this, please check out Google’s site, as well as these excellent articles and sites.
Tags: laws, piracy, Security, SOPA
This Monday, December 19th, I will be conducting a training session for the Palmetto Technology Hub on the essentials of website development.
No matter if you are doing your own web design or overseeing the production of that work; no matter if you are using WordPress, Drupal, DotNetNuk or a hand coded site, there are certain best practices that should be followed to get the best results possible. In this training we will cover things such as page flow, hot positions, usability, and accessibility. What we discuss will impact both your search engine results and customer satisfaction. Additionally, what we will be going over can be used for any platform with any web tools.
For more information on this training session, please check out the Palmetto Technology Hub’s event calendar.
Tags: development, dnn, DotNetNuke, drupal, seo, website, WordPress
On Tuesday, December the 13th, I will be speaking at the Charleston WordPress User Group meeting. This is part one of a two part session entitled, “Securing WordPress”.
Since WordPress enjoys the position of being one of the most widely used web platforms, it is also one of the most attacked. From installation to operation there are fairly easy, and must-do steps to make sure your site is as secure as possible.
In this two part session, I will cover everything from file permissions and user accounts to script injection and backup procedures to protect your blog from hacking or downtime. The first part of the session will be delivered at this user group meetup, and the second part will be delivered at the February meeting.
For more information, please check out the website of the Charleston WordPress User Group.
The slides from the presentations are posted on SlideShare.
Tags: Charleston, installation, Security, user group, usergroup, WordPress
Now that Google has finally enabled pages for businesses and organizations on Google+ there is a virtual stampede to get those pages up. Before you rush off and do that though, there are a few things to consider. We are by no means saying not to put up a page, just be aware of these three restraints before you hit the create button.
Read this read of this article I wrote over on our DesignTechWeb website…
Tags: Facebook, Pagerank, publicity
Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks)
by Dave Kerpen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An excellent book for those looking to get started in social media, gain a better understanding of it, or understand why it is important. The examples that Kerpen gives are spot on as to the value that lies in the new, but oh so old, form of interaction.
At its base, social media is not much different than all the communication that we have all been doing for years; that the human race and consumers have been doing forever. What is different about it is the immediacy, the permanence, and the reach. Kerpen illustrates this very well with examples of how social media has been used to help companies and causes, or ignored to the peril of those on the wrong end.
As one saying goes about social media, “your customers are already talking about you, don’t you want to be part of that conversation?” Likeable Social Media helps you to understand how to be part of that conversation without being a pushy salesperson or an overpowering know-it-all. You want to be liked. You want to be the person that others gather around at the cocktail party instead of the one they all avoid.
You don’t have to read this book cover to cover, in fact your don’t even have to read the chapters in order. In that way it is a great desk or bedside reference to just pick up from time to time to get a quick bit of inspiration.
If social media bewilders you at all, this book is highly recommended.
Tags: Dave Kerpen, Facebook, Google Plus, social media, twitter
I am very happy to announce that I have formally partnered with graphic designer and web creator Amanda Albertson to create a new firm named DesignTechWeb. Up until this time we both have been operating independently although we have worked together on a number of projects. After continued collaboration and seeing how our areas of expertise complemented each other, Amanda and I made the decision to join forces as a single entity. And now, after operating that way for a few months, we are proud to make the partnership public!
At the heart of our philosophy, and the name of the firm, DesignTechWeb, is the acknowledgement of both the graphic design and the technology components which go into the creation of sophisticated and secure websites. Together, Amanda and I have nearly 40 years of web experience. We have designed websites, marketing and systems for companies large and small – from restaurants to not-for-profits, from healthcare providers to lawyers. Today we choose to concentrate primarily on small to medium sized local businesses and the not-for-profit sector.
DesignTechWeb concentrates on web design, development and search engine optimization, specializing in content management systems that you can easily update yourself. All websites are custom designed for each client. Through integration with social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, a full service approach can be implemented to meet the varied needs of different organizations.
I am very happy about this partnership, and I hope you will visit us over at http://www.DesignTechWeb.com. And, of course, we hope you will call us if you have any website or social media needs! This site, MichaelCarnell.com, the site bearing my name, will remain up and functional, will house my occasional podcasts, and will be where I can go on diatribes about system maintenance, security and mobile technology.
Tags: CMS, design, secure, seo, Sophisticated, website
You can read my full post on my investigation into web hosts, but what it boils down to for a lot of people – right or wrong – is cost. So how about this? You can get a deal on hosting at my recommended internet host, DreamHost, for half price. For less that you would pay at the not-so-highly rated guys, you can get a full year’s hosting from the provider that I and many other techies ranked the best.
So here it is – if you enter the code PALMETTOBUG when you register for your hosting at DreamHost, you will save 50% on your first year’s hosting! That’s it. It is that simple. That code will bring the per month cost down to less that $4.99. Again, just use promo code PALMETTOBUG for those savings.
Tags: code, discount, dreamhost, provider, web host, webhosting
Following are my slides for the session I did at BarCampCHS this year on WordPress. And let me take this opportunity to thank all the great folks who organized BarCampCHS and the fine folks who attended my presentation.
This presentation covered how to do an installation of the WordPress software to your own server, set the basic settings, and how to add security against spammers and hacking. The session was aimed at people who have basic computer knowledge, a desire to have their own WordPress installations, but who are not PHP or WebDesign professionals.
If you would like to download a full copy of the presentation, just click here to download a full PDF complete with links.
Oh! And if you are looking for the one on Podcasting 101, just check here.
Tags: PHP, Security, Setup, WordPress
I was recently interviewed by David Allen of Answer 20 Questions for his Mac20Q podcast.
In the interview we cover subjects from iPads and iMacs to mind mapping software and video and podcast recording. David is a great guy and simply fun to talk to. Give the show a listen and let me know what you think. Soon I will be doing similar podcasts of social media folk for The Social Media Monster podcasts.
Tags: interviews, Mac20Q, podcasts
What do you see when you see the name “therapists”? Well, depending on the context, you may see the profession “Therapists” or you may see the more dangerous and derogatory “TheRapists”. This is one of the things you need to think about when choosing a web identity such as a Twitter name.
Too often we get caught up in the excitement of a new name discovery or something we think is cute without considering the long term ramifications. We will hold a personal example until last, but lets next consider a friend of mine who came up with a great social media identity – Social Sass. But wait, when we put those words together as a domain name or Twitter ID, that great title can quickly become “SocialsAss”. Most likely not what the selector had in mind.
In addition to the odd double meanings of names, you also need to beware of names that are either hard to spell or confusing. This applies to plurals, multiple words that repeat letters, and the odd spelling form. Think about this – if your Twitter name is read on a radio program or podcast, would people be able to find it without doing a search or having it spelled out for them? The word “skool” may seem cooler to you that “school”, but how many prospects are you going to lose because they can’t find you.
And if your name is Tess, and your run a school, how many people would be able to find “TesssSkool” or even “TesssSchool”? How many “S”s are in that? And remember you can’t put in the apostrophe, so what are you going to do? Even if you don’t make it possesive, you get “tessschool”. Again, how many people would put in the correct number of “S”s?
On a mechanical note, beware of easily lost characters. The underscore for exacmpe, “_”, can easily be lost on forms with underlines. And not just lost in print, but lost on devices. What that means is beware of any character that is hard to enter on a cellphone’s keyboard. The more mobile platforms become a part of everyday life, the more we need to be aware of how hard it can be to enter special characters on those devices.
Finally, lets just look at my own example. Palmettobug. That was my business name. I was enamored of it. Little did I know that lots of people, especially women find the reference to bugs “icky”. So, after having that brought to my attention, and then having to come to grips with it, I am rebranding myself – as myself.
So, choose your name carefully. And for more on this subject, check out my colleague Cheryl Smithem’s post on the rest of this subject. Her post, Social Media Names, speaks to the heart of branding and is the partner post to this post.
Tags: identity, names, twitter
