Read the whole story on NRP.org →
∞Latest Tweet
Conversion==Community
Conversion is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot in marketing and being in Higher Ed doing all that kind of work a lot, I hear it all the time. I even think in those terms to some extent. But while in many business settings conversion is thought about in terms of sale, I think we are seeing a strong shift in what a conversion creates apart from that new lead or income.
For eight years I was apart of a medium-sized music festival in Southern Illinois and for five of those I was directly responsible for a lot of the marketing and online promotion for it – or training those who did those jobs. Music fests tend to draw a certain age demographic and ours, being a Christian music festival, drew kids from junior high up to high school. During my tenure with the event, social media began to take hold in the mass market and become a viable channel for engaging our fans.
I was kind of the first one to grab ahold of this. We adopted a blog/news format for our site, started active community building on Twitter, pushed a Facebook group and then page, generated photos on Flickr in the form of a group… I generated a lot of community. And that only grew and the students who ran the festival started using participatory media to engage our fans.
Today I think in terms of what really happened there. Sure, the major conversion point might have been when a ticket was sold. They were locked in. But what about the miniature pieces of converting that happened throughout?
I don’t hate them, I don’t wish they had accidents. I think their fans are boring and ugly and don’t look like they’re having a good time.
Liam Gallagher on Coldplay & Radiohead (The Guardian, August 2008) via NME
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This is awesome. [link] (via @fienen)
∞I am super-excited. I just bought tickets to see Ben Folds and Street Corner Symphony in concert in Milwaukee tonight. It’s going to be awesome.
∞O Christmas…
Lots of Christmas! Most of these photos are by my lovely wife Jessica.
Favourite Music of 2010
photo by ghettojack on Flickr
This post is also featured as a guest entry at the Higher Ed Music Critics blog.
Totally check it out.
I have heard some great music this year. In my recent memory I can’t remember the last year I had a batch of personal favourite albums. It might have been in college. Usually only one or two really impress me. Cynical am I? Okay, maybe. But also really particular in what strikes my fancy.
So, top five, best records of 2010 (in my own opinion, as it were):
In Desperate Need…
…of a break. I have been going almost non-stop for a few months. We had a nice break over Thanksgiving with my mom and sister visiting us. I got nothing done that I needed to and then all of that came crashing down on me once they left. But it was worth it to gain back my sanity and to enjoy my family’s presence.
Freelance kind of jumped off a cliff and went soaring this month. I’m working on two projects for Department Three clients and one for the wife of our university president. And that’s fine. Except for having finals and school and all that stuff. Luckily, my large, intensive final is finished.
So I can focus on coding these last two sites and wrapping up my classes before we take off next week for West Virginia and our long Christmas break.
Prior to Christmas, Jessica and I are going to Williamsburg, VA for our fifth wedding anniversary. It’s be five years. Amazing. Doesn’t seem like it’s been that long while at the same time seeming longer. We’re going to have a nice 3 day weekend away from responsibility just to enjoy a massage, history, great food, relaxation, and each other’s company.
In any case, I plan on returning to work on 3rd January re-energized and ready to dive into a CMS migration project.
What A Week.
I am so tired. It’s been a ridiculous week. Or weeks. I can’t remember.
All I know is that last week was packed with a ton of projects, lots of school, and that all took over my weekend. So it feels like it’s been one long week.
This week, I woke up on Tuesday with a sore throat. But it’s getting colder and if we run the heater in the house I always end up with a sore throat. It normally will be gone in a few hours. Yeah, this one didn’t go away. I was really worried I was sick. Wednesday I woke up and the throat was not as bad, and I felt great, physically. Ended up going to work with tons of tea, Theraflu, cough drops, and Zicam. Felt terrible as the day wore on.
What Is A Wix v2.0
This weekend I launched version 2.0 of whatisawix.com for my good friend Chris. It’s been in the works for quite a while, but I am happy to finally have it built and released.
NaNoWriMo 2010
It’s November (well, in a few hours it is) and that means it’s time for National Novel Writing Month — that extra-busy month where tens of thousands of people set out to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. This will be my third year attempting, and hopefully my second year winning.
To be perfectly honest, I lost last year. I gave up. I was teaching my first college-level class at the time and just felt like NaNoWriMo was one more thing on my task list. I’m hoping to be a little bit more diligent this year, especially as I have a lot more going on (full time work, full time grad school, tons of freelance, family coming… yeah).
In any case. NaNoWriMo is a great time and a great group of people. It feels good to be able to say at the end of November that you have finally written a novel in your life. I’ve written one. I hope to have a second this year (and to actually finish it).
If you’re interested in coming along for the ride, head over to NaNoWriMo.org and sign up. And if you want to publish your novel online, check out my WordPress theme especially for National Novel Writing Month, Modern Linguist.
If you’d like to follow along with my noveling progress, register here.
Modern Linguist 2.0
Modern Linguist 2.5 is now out, with its shiny new dedicated site. http://modernlinguist.com
I’m happy to announce an update to my WordPress theme especially designed for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I created this theme in 2009 to not only show off my word count for the month, but to allow friends to register, login and read my writing along with me.
Today I am releasing version 2.0 of the Modern Linguist for your use. It is, of course free and licensed under Creative Commons and the GPL. Feel free to edit, tweak, share, modify, or totally rip off the theme (if you do any of that, I’d love to see it).
Changelog
Version 2.0
- Now utilizes Google Fonts API and Directory for better, faster, more universal webfonts
- Includes more font options.
- Cleaned up various styles.
- Revised a few minor styling issues.
Getting XBMC Onto a Foxconn nT330i
Originally posted on 08 April, 2010.
Note: This tutorial should also work for the Viewsonic VOT 132 and KCS NanoBox 2030 – as they’re all the same thing.
Last week Newegg had an incredible deal on a Foxconn NetBox nT330i Atom-based mini-computer. We are looking to get rid of our satellite TV, so I jumped on the deal. Everything arrived on Friday and I started putting the thing together. There is a great discussion about using this computer over at AVForums.com, but there really isn’t a step-by-step guide anywhere. So I’ve documented the whole process here.
Modern Linguist Updates Are Coming
I will be making some updates to my Modern Linguist theme for WordPress for this year’s NaNoWriMo. It’ll be released before November 1st and will include a couple of new features:
- Google CDN font embedding (Google Fonts)
- Cleaner code (I’ve learned a bunch in the past year)
- WordPress 3 updates
- Some fixed up CSS styles w/ a bit more CSS3
An announcement will be forthcoming. If you have specific requests, leave them in the comments and I will see what I can do.
back from #heweb10
Wow. What a week. I got back from the HighEdWeb conference on Wednesday night. It was a blast. Great group of people–amazing to see some old friends and to finally meet a few newer ones face to face.
I wrote up a post over A Not-So-Commonplace Book about my thoughts, and I’m not going to reiterate any of that here. Except there’s one point I want to emphasize. The #heweb community is fantastic. When I finally make the leap out of HighEdWeb and into academia or graphic design or something else, these people are what I am going to miss the most.
Some strange stories, a lot of fun, and some thought inducing lectures. Excited for where I am taking the next year.
So, so glad I got to hang out with people like @billyadams, @KarlynM, @mikepetroff, @lougan, @MalloryWood, @lanejoplin, @kylejames, @fienen, @NikkiMK, @nickdenardis, @radiofreegeorgy, etc., etc., etc. Hope to see you all soon.