Thursday Meetings at Berkman Blog

Posted by j, 2/5/04 at 6:13:55 PM.

Weblog Writer's Meeting on 2004/02/05

• Disclaimer
  • These notes are a best effort.
  • Blog your corrections and commentary or email j
• Webcast Details
  • This was webcast
  • And recorded for later on RealMedia (possibly MP3 as well)
  • Chat back on #bloggercon!!
    • RO will be speaking for IRCers
• Attendees
  • RO: Ryan Overbey
  • SN: Sun
  • DW: Dave Winer
  • JB: Jessica Baumgart
  • SR: Shimon Rura
  • SJ: Scott Johnson
  • BD: Betsy Devine
  • BS: Bob Stepno
  • MF: Michael Feldman
  • MW: Mike Walsh
  • RH: Rick Heller
  • AG: Andrew Grumet
  • JH: Jack Hodgson
  • Madhu
  • GE: Garrett Eastman
  • JiM: Jim Moore
  • SG: Sarah Guerrero
  • Al
  • First Time
    • JC: Joe Costello
    • Julian: Julian
• Past Attendants
  • Single
    • S: Stephen
    • R: Renee
    • PS: Pito Salas
    • BA: Bob Atkinson
    • DO: Dermot O'Rourke, from IAP
    • FT: Fons Tuinstra
      • From Shanghai
      • CBIZ.CN
  • AS: Aaron Swartz
  • JA: Josh Ain, a friend of Shimon’s
  • S: Sarah
  • SZ: Sooz
  • WK: Wendy Koslow
  • VN: Vernica
  • MM: Matt May
  • LW: Lisa Williams
  • GR: Gregor Rothfuss
  • CB: Carl Blesius
  • LM: Larry Mils
  • JH: Jeffrey Henning
  • JM: Jay McCarthy
  • TA: Tracy Adams
  • SK: Sam Klein
  • CJ: Critt Jarvis
  • SP: Steve Pomeroy
  • MC: Mary Chitty
  • JH: Jack Hodgson
• Proposed Agenda
• Topics
  • Introductions
  • Rick Heller introduces his novel on a wiki
    • Dave demonstrates how to edit a wiki
  • Dave plugged librarians and the New York Times article
  • JiM came in, so DW let him talk about the Dean campaign and using the Internet to raise money.
  • Michael Feldman of Dowbrigade may demo his technique.
    • Where does he get his content: news & RSS feeds
    • He uses 3 aggregators
      • One is just New York Times content: New York Times aggregator
      • He uses 3 because he gets so many feeds they roll off the bottom before he reads them
      • A guy whose name I don’t know recommends NetNewsWire as an aggregator
      • MF talks about the benefits of having a definitive article about all of the aggregators and their features
    • He looks for interesting stories that can be well-illustrated
    • MF works in Dreamweaver
    • MF selects a news item about sharks
    • He pastes the text into Dreamweaver, then goes out to look for a photo. Google images, searches for shark.
    • Yes, he worries about copyright issues. His first choice for images is from a server outside of the United States because he thinks it’s more difficult for a foreigner to sue an American than someone like Time-Warner coming after him.
    • MF selects a terrific image of a large shark jumping out of the water at a helicopter (which some people claim is not real) from Germany
    • Next, he edits the photo in Photoshop and saves the image using the “save to Web” feature
    • In Dreamweaver, he inserts the picture and uses alt text to describe the image for people who don’t view images
    • He thinks that 537 pixels is a good screen width
    • Then he writes something in addition to the text he appropriates
    • “Sharks are one of the wonders of evolution …”
    • He uses the screen view with the HTML code on top and the Web view on the bottom.
    • He makes sure he credits the source
    • Now he must upload the image and the text
    • Back in Safari, he uploads the picture
    • He then copies the HTML code from Dreamweaver and pastes it into a blog post.
    • (MF remarks this is the first time he’s done any wireless Web browsing and he’s very impressed with being able to move from his chair to the table without moving wires.)
    • He admits not knowing HTML and uses a list of commands he’s typed so he can keep copying and pasting them. He knows a few commands he uses regularly.
    • He reemphasizes the importance of giving credit and points out that a lot of people who hit his blog are doing image searches.
      • AG comments that it’s MF’s dilligent use of “alt” tags
    • The resulting blog post is: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/dowbrigade/2004/02/05#a2548
    • DW admits that he doesn’t worry about copyright law.
  • j asked for input about the intermediate weblog classes.
  • Addendum: Pursuant to a discussion at the meeting, Rick Heller has set up two wikis for the group:
    one for general group stuff and the other for the discussion about aggregators.