Magic Bookshelf

Twitter - An Annual or Perennial in Your Social Media Garden?

beamishboy — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Inspirational Place
My family is very fortunate that our home has been blessed with a beautiful garden in spite of having nary a green thumb in sight. When my wife and I first saw this property two-and-a-half years ago, it looked like something out of a magazine - the inside was pristine and the outside looked like a snapshot from the local botanical gardens. Our three active kids have ensured that the inside is now far from pristine, and we haven't put nearly as much time into the garden as we might have liked, but it's still an inspirational place. For example, I was so inspired while sitting out here working on a Facebook fan page the other week that I got an idea and decided to record a video of myself out in the garden, just because it seemed like the right thing to do on a beautiful day.

A Legacy of Love and Labour
The main reason that the garden is still presentable is that, from late April to mid-October, there is always something blooming each week. My wife and I do some work in the garden, but nothing compared to the work that was obviously done by our predecessor. Clearly, a lot of love and labour went into creating and maintaining the garden. That lesson, that preparation and planning can produce wonderful long-term results, has again given me inspiration, this time for a post on Twitter.

Twitter Basics
Before we get into how gardening can possibly teach anyone a lesson about Twitter, let's get through the general Twitter stuff, that most of you probably know by now if you watch Oprah or are fans of Ashton Kutcher. Twitter is a "microblogging" service, where you can stand on your soapbox and say whatever you like, as long as it's 140 characters or less. Each message is called a "tweet". The message goes out to the Internet in general, but particularly to your "followers" - people who have expressed interest in hearing what you have to say. If you're not the soapbox type, you can just be in the audience, by following whomever you think it is who has something worthy to impart. You don't need to use your real information as your username, so you don't have to worry about people finding out your personal information.

Legions of Followers
To the uninitiated, the whole having followers thing sounds like a bit of an ego stroke, which of course it is, but no more so than being a follower is a bit of a humility stroke. Therein likely lies part of the genius of Twitter. It's great both for the soapbox shouters and those who like to listen to them. Those who are neither may be a little less excited about its possibilities, but could certainly find at least enough usefulness out of it to understand why it's this year's social media darling.

How Can Twitter Help Me?
I've certainly been getting a lot of questions from these types of "in between" people, both as individuals and representing businesses, about what they should do on Twitter. If Oprah is doing it, it must be worth checking out, right? Well, it can have many useful functions, depending on what you're looking for. It can act as a "breaking news" service, from which you can get news as it happens. Twitter is the first place you will normally hear about pretty much anything of relevance that is happening in the world. It can also be a very current search engine, which will return results about the state of something at this particular moment in time. For example, do a search for gardening and you'll get a real-time stream of what people are doing out in their gardens. You can also share videos, share pictures and now even post voice notes over Twitter. Best of all, you can measure your Twitter stats to learn how many people are clicking on and reading your tweets. I use a URL shortener called bit.ly because I use my Twitter account mainly for posting links to stories you won't find on the six o'clock news, and I love the fact that bit.ly gives a simple 2-click process to post relevant links to Twitter with the added benefit of traffic stats.

To Plant or Not to Plant
Of course, anything this popular gets the attention of businesses and marketers. The tendency among people or organizations who want to sell things is to want to make everything, from marketing and sales copy to the sales cycle itself, shorter, so that it can offer quicker returns. There are no shortage of examples of this on Twitter. My view is that you should indeed be ready to be able to jump on some of these new opportunities, but you need also need to consider longer-term consequences. What this meant for me with Twitter is a decision to hold off jumping onto the Twitter bandwagon until I understood it and knew exactly how I wanted it to fit into my overall Internet presence. In other words, to further cultivate the garden metaphor, I knew that to get the balance right between perennials and annuals, a gardener needs to plan, so I needed to figure out where in my garden to put the Twitter space, what to plant in it, and when I wanted it to bloom.

My Social Media Garden
In my social media garden, I use different social networks and services to manage different types of information, because if I scattered it all across everything, I wouldn't be able to keep track of it, and it also wouldn't look very good. So, I use iGoogle to bring in and organize information, I use Digg to keep track of the social value of that information, I use Twitter to re-publish interesting information, I use a Facebook fan page to distribute premium (ie. sellable) information, and I use different blogs (like this one) to create and publish original material to a target audience. Giving each service a specific place in the garden allows me to keep the garden organized so that I can measure the effectiveness of each particular patch and know which areas need work if they aren't adding to the overall health and appearance of the garden.

Only the Good Stuff
Like any social network, Twitter does have certain etiquette points you should understand before you roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. There are lots of ways to increase your amount of followers, but the golden rule of social media is that people will choose to follow you based on the quality of the content that you post. I have tested this out. Using the traffic measurement tools that I mentioned, I have cross-referenced links that were clicked more often with the number of new people choosing to follow me. In other words, when I posted something that was interesting, I picked up new followers.

Twittiquette
The "Twittiquette" question I hear most often is whether you should follow someone who is following you. My answer is that you shouldn't feel obliged to do so. I only follow someone who has chosen to follow me if that person is posting content relevant to the reason I am on Twitter. For instance, if you're on to learn about gardening, and one of your followers posts a lot of gardening tips, then follow that person back. You will lose some followers by choosing not to follow everyone who follows you, as some people expect a reciprocal follow and will "unfollow" you if you don't reciprocate, but it will keep your Twitter presence less cluttered if you are disciplined about it.

Irrelevant Personal Details?
Critics of Twitter often cite examples of people tweeting irrelevant personal details ("I'm out in my backyard gardening") to argue that there is no relevance to this type of information, and so it's essentially a useless waste of time. I agree in part, but if for example you're about to plant something and learn from another gardener in your area that it's a bit too early, that has relevance to you, so it's news. There is a great video of a Wall Street Journal interview with Twitter's two founders discussing this and several other issues. Of course, this theory only works if you and your followers (presuming you have any) are tech-enabled, so there is an argument to be made that it's great for the techies and their opportunities, but doesn't do much to help the "ordinary" person. What do you think?

Tweet Me!
To tell me what you think, or if you have questions about using Twitter, you can leave a comment here at the bottom of this post, or, if you're feeling ambitious, you can use Twitter and tweet me what you think. If you're a Twitter newbie, you can give it a try without worrying about breaking someone's account or saying something you shouldn't. Just go to Twitter and set up an account. Once you've set up your account (or if you already have one), you'll see a 'What are you doing?' box at the top on your main Twitter page. This is where you type your tweets. In order to address a tweet to a specific person, just begin your message by typing the @ symbol before the person's username (so I am @oryx_orange), type your tweet, and I will see it in my Twitter profile. So go ahead and mess with it - I promise I won't get upset if you do something wrong! If you want to receive "always up-to-date" news on technology and all kinds of other stuff you won't see on the 6 o'clock news, you can click 'Follow' on my account page and you'll be a tech expert in no time!

Plan Your Garden
Whether or not Twitter belongs in your social media garden is something you'll have to decide on your own, but the most important thing to remember is that the easiest way is not always the best way and, like anything, any patch in that garden will require planning and care for it to yield what you want it to. So roll up your sleeves and get your hands a little dirty with Twitter, but before you get them really dirty, take a step back and figure out what you want to plant and when to plant it.

P.S. A great big thanks to all of you who supported me by purchasing my "How To Promote Your Business on Facebook" Guide and/or becoming a Fan of my Facebook Page.

P.P.S. If you are already on Twitter and you like this article, feel free to tweet it. You can use the following text as your tweet:

Twitter - An Annual or Perennial in Your Social Media Garden? - Magic Bookshelf http://bit.ly/18Vs4K

A Social Media Star is Born - The Many Facets of Facebook

beamishboy — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Celebrity Gossip
The prevailing wisdom of our celebritized culture seems to tell us that, when everyone has an opinion about you, you know you've done something right. Facebook is a celebrity, a big star. It's a cultural phenomenon. Everyone has an opinion on Facebook. And just as the tabloids love to talk about celebrities, the Internet loves to talk about Facebook. The chatter about Facebook usually comes from one of two camps, admittedly with some inhabiting the territory in between.

Those Not on Facebook
If this is you, you probably have friends and family telling you daily that you should be, and other friends and family who think you're just fine in holding back the tide. What you should know is that there isn't even a typical Facebook user. Some are on just to be on and see what's all the fuss is about, and don't do anything with it - I actually count these among the "Not on Facebook" camp. Those aren't the ones telling you to get on it. If that is you, I understand your point of view. You're just like my wife, who thinks Facebook is a big waste of time. Offline or online, some people are more social than others, and will regulate their amount of interaction accordingly.

Those on Facebook
The ones telling you to get on Facebook are the social ones, regaling you with stories of finding that old school friend, or chuckling to themselves about that great video of the grandchildren that you never saw. I'm sure that if you're not a particularly social person, that can be mighty annoying. Unfortunately, I plead guilty to being one of those people. We all know that life these days can get very busy, and there are always people in your life that you wish you could spend more time with. I am on Facebook because I know it as a great online way to replicate my offline personality, and therefore spend more "almost-quality-time" with people I care about but often don't have the time to meet.

Isn't Facebook Information Public?
However, I'm going to try not to take sides here, and, in the spirit of trying to write an objective article on something it's very hard to be objective about, I will start by addressing a few common misconceptions, so that we can at least all get on the same page. Many non-users of Facebook, or even beginner users who are on but not active, are under the impression that by registering for a Facebook account, all a person’s information will be immediately “made public”. In fact, Facebook only shares the information that you tell it to share, which in the case of some personal profiles is nothing other than name. Even among those who share more information, most people on Facebook choose to share that information only within their own network of friends. In other words, anyone who you don’t know well can only see your information if they request to and you give them explicit permission.

Security and Privacy on Facebook
That said, the Facebook naysayers are certainly right about one thing - you should always consider very carefully what you choose to show to the world. It's always a great idea to take a very close look at privacy and application settings of any Internet service before you do too much on that network. The good ones (like AnnTheGran!) are very respectful of that, know how to store your information, and won't do anything with it without your permission. The sneakier ones are the ones you have to watch. If you are thinking of dabbling in Facebook but aren't sure where to start, or even if you're on it but are concered about your privacy, my recommendation is that you set up an account and go immediately to the Settings, so that you can review and choose which information you'd like to share. If you have questions, they have an extensive and searchable Help section. If you're still stuck, you can always ask me using the Comments field below.

A Talented Matchmaker
So, now that we've established that, what is it about Facebook specifically that makes it a mandatory part of the daily routine of over 200 million people? Aren't there other social networks on which you can "replicate" your offline self online"? I think the key to Facebook's current success is that it started with a very simple and very strong value proposition to potential users - to rekindle long-dormant relationships - and made an interface in which it was very easy to do so. As its userbase grew through this simple functionality, it became very good at recognizing relationships between its existing users, that they might not have known even existed. For example, if I live in Mississauga, my friend Pedro lives in Guadalajara, and my friend Kenji lives in Osaka, and I am connected to Pedro through Facebook but I haven't spoken to Kenji in ten years, Facebook looks at my relationship with Pedro and understands that I may very well know Kenji, and so it tries to put us together. If Facebook makes a mistake and I don't know Kenji, I ignore the attempt to connect and Kenji is none the wiser. But if Facebook is right, and I end up re-connecting with an old friend, Facebook looks like a genius, and has earned my gratitude.

Making You a Better Friend
Now that Facebook has grown by leaps and bounds, this little trick applies now not only to connecting people but to connecting the important moments in people's lives. The Facebook algorithms (programs that analyze information and figure out what is relevant to you) have now evolved to monitor not only which relationships are the most important to you but even to speculate as to which kinds of interactions within those valued relationships (wanting to see photos, attending similar events, supporting the same organizations, etc.) might interest you. Facebook doesn't always get it right, but you sure end up knowing a lot more about those in your world than you did before you found them on Facebook. It could even be argued that, with its ability to help you remember important birthdays and share in important milestones, Facebook makes you a better friend.

Lurking in the Shadows
In one sense, this is all rather elementary, and is no different from what happens when one person facilitates a personal connection between two other people in any social situation, but when it is done digitally and automatically, it dramatically expands your network of people. Now, of course, there are thousands of applications added to the mix that allow you to do everything from send gifts and play online games to share favourite movies and have caricature sketches done of yourself, and this is where it all starts to drift back a little towards being more cautious. There are quite a few unscrupulous application builders on Facebook, whose applications are designed to be fun and to spread quickly for one primary purpose - to get your contact information so they can sell you stuff, or sell your information to someone who wants to sell you stuff. The good news is that Facebook has recently undergone a major overhaul that now allows legitimate organizations a way to connect easily and safely with legitimate users.

Facebook For Business
So, even if you are not the slightest bit interested in the new Facebook on a personal level, if you own a business or are involved with an educational or charitable organization, you owe it to yourself and your employees or volunteers to be aware of the incredible promotional opportunities that exist on it. Many of the recent changes to Facebook revolved around its Pages, which exist for the purpose of promoting organizations like yours. Pages are great because they are viewable by non-users of Facebook and get found by search engines like Google, sometimes above the organization's own web site. The business buzz around Facebook Pages right now reminds me of the early days of the Internet when Google first got into pay-per-click advertising, the system that still allows them to make most of their money. At that time, the possibilities of search weren't well understood by businesses, and so the businesses who did understand it could spend almost no money yet still make a huge impact. I know that's what my company did. If you have a business, Facebook can do for you now what Google did for me then.

How To Promote Your Organization on Facebook
If you're interested in knowing how, I've created a guide that I'm selling through the AnnTheGran store. For those of you with a business or organization to promote, it will be the best $40 you've ever spent. The whole system is based on using the FREE tools already available on the new Facebook. For non-users of Facebook, the good news is that you don't have to be personally active on Facebook to make it work for your business. In fact, you don't even need to be on Facebook to see what a Facebook Page looks like. To give you an example, I've created an actual Facebook Page (click on the link to view it) as a tutorial for the kit, from which I took screenshots I used to make the kit. The best thing about this new opportunity on Facebook is that it works for pretty much any kind or size of business. So, whether you have a small home-based embroidery business or a ball-bearing factory with hundreds of employees, you can reap huge promotional benefits for just a bit of effort and no cost (except the cost of the Guide!). You can view the product page for the Guide here, including some sample pages.

The Bottom Line
Whatever you use it for, the right amount of Facebook time, like anything, is all about how it affects your relationship to those with whom you are connected. I've overheard some people say that they think it's ridiculous that their friends spend a couple hours a day on Facebook and yet they think nothing of spending those same couple hours in front of the television. Like television, Facebook, and the Internet for that matter, can be used for education and enlightment just as it can be used for mindless entertainment and trash. In fact, with the added social element of Facebook, I don't see it as much different than getting a group of guys together to eat nachos, drink beer and watch the big game. Either way, whether it's in front of a screen or not, it's the quality of the time that counts.

Magic Bookshelf - Re-Connecting with Distant Family & Friends

beamishboy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Hello, AnnTheGran Community!

It's only been about a month, and I miss all of you already, so I thought I'd come back and say hello. More importantly, I have unfinished business. I had some great requests from a previous Magic Bookshelf post about technology aspects to talk about, and I never got around to addressing those. So, here's what I'm planning to post about over the next little while:

Post #1 (today) - Connecting with Distant Family and Friends on Skype
Post #2 - What's So Great (And So Dangerous) About Facebook? Should you be on it?
Post #3 - Twitter and Microblogging - What is it and is it here to stay?
Post #4 - Using Social Networks to Share your Photos (and Scrapbooks) with Others

So, with that out of the way, let's get started with Skype. I know that a number of AnnTheGran users have already been using Skype for years, but my experience is that it's one of those things that people familiar with technology mistakenly assume is common knowledge, when that is in fact not the case. If you are a regular user, feel free to comment on this post and provide some encouragement to members of our community who might be thinking of giving it a try.

I have to apologize from the start if you work for a phone company, because this is not the type of post that encourages spending money on long distance calls. In fact, it's the type that shows you how to make all of your long-distance calls for free. I have written before about a service called Skype that I use regularly to keep in touch with family and friends all over the world. Because I have a webcam as well, it's not uncommon to have the whole family in the room during a Skype call with family overseas, and we'll talk for hours because it really is just like having them in the same room. Rather than always watching the clock because you're worried about the cost, it's more like a real interaction with loved ones that you don't ever want to end!

Skype is a program that you run on your Windows or Mac computer that allows you to talk with family, friends, or business associates anywhere in the world using your Internet connection. In other words, no long-distance charges. It uses a technology called "Voice over Internet Protocol" (VOIP for short), which basically means that it uses the same technology as instant messaging programs like MSN Messenger but it also carries voice. For the record, both MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger also have voice and video options, but I've always found that Skype gives a better connection. I have a high-speed connection, but I actually find that, even with a wireless connection, sound quality is just as good as it is through my home telephone and the phone company.

In addition to just making calls, Skype also lets you:

    * Send or receive files over the Internet to and from fellow skype users.
    * Search your address book contacts in your mail program and call them within Skype.
    * Search the database of all Skype users everywhere to find people you know who already use Skype.
    * Hold a conference call with a group of people, still for free
    * For a small fee, call to or receive a call from a regular telephone or a cell phone

In order to start using Skype, all you need is a computer with Internet access, the Skype program, and a headset with a microphone. If you don't have a headset, you can get one for as little as $20 at your local electronics store. As I mentioned above, to really get that "in the same room" feeling, add a webcam as well. Many laptops come already equipped to use Skype without a headset - as long as the computer's built-in microphone is sensitive enough, no headset is required. Same with webcams. Many laptops (like my MacBook Pro) have built-in webcams. Either way, it is extremely easy to start using Skype. You can download the free program and test your computer system for compatibility at http://www.skype.com. Just download it and follow the instructions.

If you're reading in a more rural area and you only have access to a dial-up connection, it still applies to you. Certainly, the quality of a dial-up connection will never be as good as broadband, but you should still be able to use Skype. If you want to try it with a dial-up connection, just make sure all other internet-related programs such as browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari), e-mail clients (Outlook, AOL), and chat applications (MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger) are closed, so that there is nothing interfering with your connection. You can even try a video chat through dial-up (I've heard of it being done), but the quality likely won't be that great.

So, if you haven't yet tried Skype, and you make a lot of long-distance calls, it's definitely something you should look into. Your far-flung family and friends will be glad you did.

Stay tuned for my next post: What's So Great (And So Scary) About Facebook? Should you be on it?

Staying Safe on Cyber Monday - Protecting Yourself from Scams and Identity Theft

beamishboy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:59:00 GMT

Almost everyone has reason to be excited about this coming weekend, not just because it's Thanksgiving in the United States but because, for retailers that sell in the U.S., it's the kick-off of the Christmas selling season. Pretty much anyone who shops is aware of that Friday is known as Black Friday, and just about everyone who shops online knows that Monday is Cyber Monday. Even in these harder economic times, retailers everywhere are gearing up for their busiest weekend of the year. According to the National Retail Association, last year, an estimated 72 million people in the United States alone shopped online on Cyber Monday, which obviously makes retailers stand up and take notice.

However, retailers are not the only ones looking to take advantage of that frenzy. This post is inspired by a couple articles I came across last week, whose recommendations I felt compelled to share with our community here at AnnTheGran.com. With all those online transactions going on, there is also an unprecedented opportunity for identity thieves and fraudsters. One of the articles quotes a Federal Trade Commission report saying that last year consumers reported losses from identity theft and fraud of more than $1.2 billion. Click on either of the following links to open the articles in a new window.

Low Prices, High Identity Theft on Black Friday

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Breeding Grounds for Identity Thieves

Both of these articles share some excellent tips for keeping both your mall-going and your online self safe while still enjoying the great discounts available this weekend, and I highly recommend reading both of them. Recognizing that some AnnTheGran users may have a specific set of concerns, I've chosen what I think are the best online tips, and elaborated on them below:

No Phishing Allowed - Watch out for "phishing" scams, or any unsolicited e-mail. Phishing is when crooks send you e-mails that look to be from legitimate companies, requesting that you provide them with personal information. These often take the form of letters from a bank or a major Internet service provider such as Google, because the crooks know that these are established brand names that recipients will recognize and probably open. Common wisdom for street-proofing kids is that, if they are in trouble and there is an absolute need for help from a stranger, the child should choose the stranger, not the other way around. The same goes for online behaviour. Suspect anyone who "chooses" you - it should be you doing the choosing. If you see something that you think may be legitimate but about which you are unsure, don't answer or click anything in the e-mail. Find the company's web site or, better yet, telephone number, and contact them that way.

Password Protection - Be careful with your passwords - Always make sure passwords use a combination of letters, numbers, and other characters. Also, don’t use the same password for all of your online endeavors! This is very insecure and could allow people you don’t want accessing other aspects of your online life. Instead, try using a system. For example, create five or six master passwords that all relate to each other, like names of former cars and kids’ birthdays (mustang0318, pacer1223). These are hard to guess for others, but they mean something to you, and you know that if it isn’t one for that particular site, then it has to be one of a limited set. Many people find it helpful to store all their passwords in a safe place. A number of people I know use a little recipe box. If you want to store them in a file on your computer, that’s fine, but make sure you don’t name the file “Passwords”, in case anyone ever gets into your computer and searches for the word “password”. Call it “TheSecret” or something fun and don’t use the words “username” or “password” in the file (use “unam” and “pw” or something).

Information is Golden - Your personal information is like gold - keep it safe. Never email your personal information - e-mails are not secure enough for sending financial or personal information. Did you know that the CAN-SPAM Act, the law that regulates commercial e-mail, requires that all commercial emails sent must include a "valid physical postal address of the sender." Check for that, or check the web site for a contact phone number. Even when there is a contact phone number, call it and check it. Be very careful who you give your credit card information to. I know that we have to jump through hoops for security – we’re not allowed to store or even see any credit card information (it all gets encrypted) and we are strictly forbidden to share anyone’s private information, whether they have bought from us or not. Any reputable e-commerce site is subject to the same regulations. Those horror stories that make the news are almost always unscrupulous operators running fly-by-night sites, so look for sites that have been in business for a good long time and who aren’t afraid to tell you how their security and information systems work. Better yet, ask a friend or an independent source such as a message board whether their experience with the site has been good.

The Trust Trap - Don't fall into the "trust trap". A common strategy among fraudsters is to use good information to establish a relationship of trust with a reader, in order to "set up" the scam. Every good salesperson knows that it's a good idea to give a little something to create an obligation on the part of the receiver to somehow respond. This is fine, but remember that it's ok to take the information without buying anything. It is easy to get good (and bad) information on the Internet - just because someone has taken the trouble to compile it, it doesn't mean you owe them your business. They still need to earn it the old-fasioned way - with good customer service and openness in doing business.

If you have any specific questions about anything I haven't covered here, please feel free to post a comment and I'll try to answer it as best I can. Also, if you know someone who does a lot of online shopping and might benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it on.

And, of course, with all this information I've given you, if you do indeed feel an obligation to give something back, and you're sure I'm not setting a "trust trap", I wouldn't object to you shopping with us this weekend . We do have some great deals!

Magic Bookshelf - New Site Features and a Question for Readers

beamishboy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Greetings, all, from the Great White North!

It's been a busy last couple weeks here, so I thought I'd better get my act together and get back to the Magic Bookshelf. My greeting notwithstanding, we have no snow up here yet, but they say it might come next week. Any of you down in the warm places interested in a house guest for a while? I promise I'll clean up after myself and not eat you out of house and home...

New Security Feature - The Captcha

But seriously, I thought I'd cover a couple upcoming site features first. Early next week, we'll be introducing a new security feature that you may have seen on some other sites. The idea is to prevent 'bots' (automated programs) from using our Community to deliver unauthorized commercial messages. The feature is officially called a "captcha". It's a little box that appears with letters or numbers that bots can't read but humans can. Here is an example of one: Now, we know that some of our users' eyes might not be what they used to, so we chose numbers. My eyes are fine, and I have trouble reading some of the letters in the captchas on some sites, but I have no trouble reading our new ones, so hopefully you'll feel the same. We regret that this is necessary, but we know you already get enough garbage and we want to do everything we can to prevent you from getting more.

Upcoming Changes to our Free Designs section

We're also getting set to launch some changes to our Free Designs pages. Users will soon be able to search for free designs by keyword, category and even design contributor. The search will be available to all users of the site, although not all the designs that turn up in all searches will be available to non-Club members. I also have some good news for those who have been asking why we haven't added to our collection of over 6000 free designs in a long time. Within the next couple weeks, we'll be launching a new feature of Ann's Club, whereby Ann's Club members will have a section where new free designs are added every week. I suppose these designs can't technically be called completely free, as they will only be accessible for Ann's Club members, but these new features took a lot of work and we're hoping our users can understand that, in order to continue to improve the experience of the site and offer as much as possible to those on a budget, we have to try to make sure that these new services can at least pay for themselves.

Is our Community Tech-Savvy?

One of the original purposes of this Magic Bookshelf blog was not only to provide a guide on how to use the "techie" features of our Community, but also to inform readers about the larger tech world in general. I attended a conference yesterday at which many interesting new ideas about how to use technology were being presented. One thing struck me though, as I kept looking at these great ideas - many of them were being presented in a way that would not have given them much traction with our users. Surveys that we have done of our userbase show that 97% of our users are women, and 70% of those are over 45 years of age. We now have almost 300,000 regular users of the site, and my sense was that, even though some of these great new ideas that I was hearing would have had huge benefits to many of our users, they weren't presented in language that our community would necessarily understand. Don't get me wrong, we have some extremely tech-savvy users in our Community, but judging from feedback we get, they still represent a fairly small minority.

What Do You Want to Know?

With that in mind, I think there is room in this space to cover a few more general areas that the section of our users who aren't so tech-savvy might want to know more about. In other words, what are the things that your kids or grandkids are talking about that you'd like to understand better? I've put a list of ideas below, but it is by no means comprehensive. Please feel free to add anything about which you are curious and I'll do my best to cover it.

Social Networks like Facebook and MySpace
RSS readers like iGoogle
Twitter
Instant Messaging/chat
Widgets and Gadgets
Photo sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket
The iPhone, Blackberry or other smartphones
Blogs that talk about technology and new ideas
Online games (Final Fantasy) and online environments (ie. Second Life)

What Do You Do Online?

To that end, we'd also like to know where you're spending your time when you do go on the computer. Is it just for your hobby (ie. searching for information, shopping) or do you do other things online. I recently read a fact that absolutely shocked me - there was a study that showed that a specific demographic had overtaken teenage boys in playing online games. Can you guess what it was? Women over 40! This is something I would never have guessed in a million years. So, I have to wonder what other shockers might be out there. What do you do online besides things related to your hobby. Do you play games? Do you get your news online, or bank online? Do you use music or video sites? Or are you just happy with knowing how to do a search in Google and pick up a few things from an online store? I'd love to know.

So, please, for those of you who are curious and want to keep current with what's happening online, what would you like to know more about, and for those of you who already spend a lot of time online, what else do you do?

To leave a comment, just make sure you're signed in, type your comment in the field below and click the 'Add' button. Hoping to get lots of comments...

Calling All Experts! - Help Us Expand the Magic Bookshelf

beamishboy — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:37:00 GMT

Everyone is an expert at something.

This is something I have always believed, and continue to believe. Sometimes that expertise extends to a broad subject, like embroidery or cars or lawn bowling, and sometimes it's very specific, like telling "Knock-knock" jokes, or knowing how to perfectly apply eye-liner, or being able to quote freely from every episode of Desperate Housewives. Some forms of expertise pay very well, some don't, some make you famous, some not so much, but one thing is for sure - if there really are as many experts as there are people, then there's also a corner in this world for everyone, with an empty soapbox just waiting to be stood on and shouted from.

Take a moment and think about your area(s) of expertise. I mean it - stop reading for a minute and identify at least one thing about which you could be considered an expert. If you can't think of anything, ask a family member or friend - I bet they'll know. Please come back when you're done.

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Now that you have that expertise in mind, I have two questions for you. 1. How much could you say about your area of expertise? 2. Where would you start?

If you can answer these two questions, WE WANT YOU!

Since we put up the Blogs section of our new site and have welcomed a great selection of talented, funny, and knowledgeable people, we've also had a corresponding surge of ideas for other blog subjects about which our readers would enjoy learning more. Some of the suggestions have been blogs about gardening, needlepoint, hairdressing (from a hairdresser no less!), crocheting, cruises, smocking, knitting and even women's health (yes, I know there are men reading too, but you and I are part of a very small minority here!).

As our Magic Bookshelf has expanded and our number of blogs has increased, a few people have wondered if we might soon be getting to a stage where there are too many blogs, and that existing bloggers might lose some readers. In fact, judging from the traffic figures on our blogs, the opposite has been true. It seems that, if a reader finds a blog in which she's interested, she not only reads that blog but is more inclined to read other blogs about other subjects of interest to her. This is a similar concept to a magazine - you'll read only the articles you're interested in, but the more relevant articles there are, the more of the magazine you'll want to read.

Of course, that doesn't mean that anyone can write about anything and they'll be allowed access to our great audience. We still carefully examine each new potential blog idea to determine whether it will be relevant and interesting to our readers. Judging from your comments and our traffic, we seem to be doing pretty well, but I hope that I can count on you to let us know if we are going astray.

So, this is a call to all you gardeners, needlepointers, hairdressers, crocheters, cruisers, smockers, knitters and doctors, and anyone else whose area of expertise (remember, everyone has one) demands to be shared. Take up your pens, your keyboards, and your laptops and shout it out to the world!

Your soapbox is waiting.

To step up on it, just send an e-mail to blogs@annthegran.com with an idea of what you'd say and where you'd start.

The Floor Beneath the Magic Bookshelf - Ground Rules for our Community

beamishboy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:54:00 GMT

Maybe it's because I'm a man, but when something is new, I just want to dive right into it and try it out. Forget the instructions, just let me rip open the package and figure out how to make it work.

I guess old habits die hard, as it never occurred to me when we were preparing to launch our new Community back in February as part of Ann's new site that that's exactly what I was about to do yet again. I was so eager to dive in and get everything set up and working properly that I never took a step back to consider that a few underlying rules might be a good idea. The fact that the Community has grown so quickly and so positively since we set it up, without any hard and fast rules, is a tribute to the quality of people in this community. While most administrators on the Internet struggle with infighting, unpleasant rants, and the infamous Internet trolls, my biggest concern is just trying to organize all the interesting and inspiring information that flows in. I'll file that one under "Nice Problem to Have."

All that being said, it was made clear to me recently that, as we move forward into the unlimited potential that this Community is already showing, it would be worthwhile to finally step back and put at least some thought into what should be allowed and what should not. In other words, it's time to break out the instructions!

I have divided my suggestions for our guidelines and rules into categories. The most important thing to note is that these are not meant to be stone tablets brought down from the mountain. They are more like building blocks, which can be re-stacked, re-shaped, and even decorated. In other words, I hope to hear lots of comments on which ones make sense and which ones that you as a member of our Community don't think make sense.

Who Can Post?

If you want to post to a particular Forum or Gallery, or comment on a Blog post, you must first be registered with AnnTheGran.com and sign in to your account. You do not have to be signed in to view any of the posts or galleries, but you do in order to see Blog comments, and post anything.

Moderation

Some forums are moderated, others are not. Comments in galleries and on blogs are not moderated. In an unmoderated forum, posts go directly into the forum without the need for approval by an AnnTheGran.com moderator. If we feel that a post in one of these forums belongs in another forum, we move the post into the most relevant forum, and inform the poster that it has been moved. In a moderated forum, a poster will receive an automated message that her/his post is awaiting moderation. We moderate certain forums primarily to ensure that posts relate to the topic of that forum and are properly directed to another forum when they don't.

Manners

Rude behavior, inappropriate posts, users who "spam" and post their comments on more than one Forum at a time are not welcome in our Community. We reserve the right to remove such posts at our discretion, whether they have already been posted or not, and to ban repeat offenders from the Community. That does not mean we will not allow posts that are critical of AnnTheGran.com - we welcome criticism as long as it is appropriately presented, as we want our Community to be an open exchange of information where people will feel comfortable posting any comments in a tasteful manner.

Sales Pitches

Sales posts are not allowed unless they have been approved by AnnTheGran.com. The thing with the Internet is that one never really knows who is affiliated with whom, and so we tend to be fairly strict on "salesy" posts because of the possibility of conflicts of interest with the mission of our site. We try to be tolerant of industry people or company experts answering questions, as long as there is no blatant sales pitch for the product, service, or company being referenced. Our site does offer some advertising opportunities, and we encourage those interested in reaching the AnnTheGran community with a commercial message to explore those opportunities. For more information about these opportunities, please send an e-mail to advertising@annthegran.com.

External Links

We sometimes allow but do not actively encourage links to external web sites, especially web sites of a commercial nature that offer products and services competitive to ours. Our goal is to be the superior source of information on the Internet for information being sought by our community members, so we would always prefer to see our Community create (and improve upon) this information than to reference it elsewhere. That being said, if we really want our Community to be a superior source of information for our community members, we need to keep in mind that there are instances where the best answer to a question is readily available on another web site.

We don't really want our community members to have to make this decision, so we generally prefer that, if in doubt, you go ahead and include the link and let us make the call. Our usual procedure in this case is to remove the hyperlink (ie. the address won't be clickable) but to keep the text of the link so that users can copy and paste the external web address into their browsers and visit the link. This way, our community members can still benefit from the information given, but we are not providing competing companies or those affiliated with them an easy, free and trackable advertising opportunity. This is certainly our biggest grey area, and feedback is always appreciated as to whether you think we are stepping over the line in any particular instance.

I would like to post these guidelines, once they are finalized, to a prominent place in the Community, so that newcomers in particular can have "the instructions" at their fingertips as they begin to navigate the site. But first, I would love to hear your comments as to whether or not these suit the Community. The Magic Bookshelf, after all, is meant to be yours more than it is ours.

Recent Changes and New Features - The Magic Bookshelf Under Construction

beamishboy — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:19:00 GMT

Expanding Bookshelf

Hard to believe, but it's only been four months since my inaugural post here on the Magic Bookshelf. I've covered blogs, wikis, digital scrapbooks, tags, product ratings, and lots of other topics, and some great ideas have come back from you. The idea of this blog was to help our Community members learn how to take full advantage of our new site, and to share ideas on where we are heading with it, so it's very gratifying that, in those four short months, we've had over 17,000 separate people contribute posts and comments to the community.

For Those Who Like to Play...

We've been busily making lots of improvements to the Community section of the site in the past couple weeks, so I thought it would be a good time to go over some of the changes and some of the things we have in store. I'm actually going to have to go back and edit a few of my posts here on this blog to reflect a few of the changes, but I figured I would let you know now so that, if you're the type who likes to learn new things by playing around, you can get started right away.

Cosmetic Changes

First things first -- the new features. Very early last Monday morning, we implemented a new and very much improved version of the software that runs the Community section of our site. You may have noticed a few of the cosmetic changes from this update - the name of the 'Photo' section changed to 'Media', a section called 'Groups' was added, and the main 'Blogs' page looks a little different - but the important changes are ones you may not have noticed.

Sharing Photos

For example, it's now much easier anywhere in the Community to upload photos. The last system was a little clunky, but now you have the ability from almost anywhere to upload photos into posts directly from your computer. If you haven't visited the new Photo Galleries yet (now called 'Media'), you should definitely take a look. Not only are photos much easier to upload there, but there are many more features, including the ability to sort photos by criteria such as 'Most Recent', 'Most Popular', and 'Most Downloads'. My favorite new feature in the Galleries though, is the one-click upload button, which you just click to upload your own photo to the gallery in a matter of moments.

Blog Widgets

You're going to be seeing some interesting new things popping up on our blogs. We are at the stage now where we are adding new blogs on a regular basis (in addition to existing blogs, we hope to have at least four new ones for you within the next month - and the return of Cathy!), so it was important that our update keep up with the needs of this growing group of writers. With the new software, bloggers will have much more flexibility in terms of how their blogs look and how they can be viewed. Best of all, bloggers now have the ability to include widgets. You may or may not know what a widget is (this will be a topic of one of my next few posts), but I can assure you you're going to like what they bring to your reading experience. Our Avid Embroiderer Pat is already experimenting with them and I'm sure you'll see the results of her efforts shortly.

Group Homes

I'm also very excited about our new 'Groups' feature. I've been on a mini-holiday this past week (Chicago - my kind of town!), so I haven't had a chance to set this up properly yet, but I thought I'd just give a quick explanation here of what we want to do with this new section. The best example I can think of is our Central Florida embroidery group. Right now, there is a thread in the forums with almost 500 posts. This is a great example of a dynamic group that has really bonded in our Community, but it is starting to get a little hard to find particular details. For instance, if I remembered that someone in the thread had once mentioned a great sale going on at a local dealer, it would be quite difficult to find this information the way the thread is currently organized. What our new 'Groups' function will allow us to do is to create a stand-alone space for this type of group in which threads and posts can be organized the way they are in other forums. Groups can have their own blog, their own media galleries, and their own forums. So, whether it's central Florida embroiderers, West Coast Brother dealers, or Australian quilters, there will be an online home here for anyone who wants one!

In The Pipeline...

Finally, I wanted to let you know a few of the things we have in development for the site in general that you should be seeing shortly, all of which come from suggestions over the past little while from our Community through the blogs and forums. We have developed and are currently testing a 'Print This Page' feature through the site that will bring up a printable version of any page. We have also put some work into our Free Designs download engine that will now take you back to the page where you started the download, making downloading free designs a smoother experience. We have also added e-mail address recognition to our 'Forgot Your Password?' feature, so that if you don't remember your username, you can still get your password reminder using just your e-mail address. Finally, our wonderful developers have set up a great 'Found This Cheaper Somewhere Else?' feature, so that you can help us keep our prices super-competitive with what our competitors are doing. All of these features will be coming online very shortly, and I hope they'll further improve your experience of the site.

As always, I not only welcome but actively encourage your comments on how we can continue to create the Magic Bookshelf I originally described. In fact, if you have a moment, go back and read my original description, and let me know if you think we're getting close!

Time to Get Comfortable - Making the Magic Bookshelf Your Own

beamishboy — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:30:00 GMT

Digital Hugs

People are really starting to have some fun in our community. Many of you are taking advantage of some of the great features that make it possible to really share yourselves and the results of your creativity. A number of you have commented on the blogs and forums that this space is really starting to feel like a sewing bee, where people start out talking about their creative passions - embroidery, quilting, sewing, whatever - but where those conversations continue into discussions about pets, spouses, background, health, and who knows what else. Remarkably, all this takes place within a group of people who, generally speaking, have never even shaken hands or hugged.

Share & Share Alike

In your daily life, when you meet someone you think you're going like, one of your first instincts is to find common ground with that person. You do that by asking questions about that person and sharing information about yourself. I hope you'll agree with me that, in general, those who share more get more in return. An online community like ours is not that much different. Those getting the most from the community are those who are sharing the most. When community members look at someone who has taken a little effort to share herself either through her posts or through her profile, we feel a comfort level with that person, and we really feel like we have begun to know her. That kind of person then becomes easier for us to approach, and we feel more inclined to help her or respond to her (apologies to the gents reading -- for the sake of simplicity and good grammar, I'm using feminine pronoun throughout this post).

World of Possibilities

With this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea in this post to go over the many ways that you, a member of our community, can better personalize your experience in the community, and in so doing, open yourself up further to a world of possibilities. You're not always going to feel like posting something (although we love it when you do!), so the best way for many of you to do this is through your profile. Your profile is your face to our community. To view your profile, all you need to do is go to any of our Community pages (forums, blogs, galleries) and log in with your username and password. You will then see in the top right corner of the screen your username and an 'Edit' link. Clicking on 'Edit' will bring up the screen below (except that it will be your username, not mine!).

Your Face in Our Community

In the Avatar section, you can add or modify the picture that displays next to your username throughout the site. It's been great to see all of our community members getting creative with their avatars. For instructions on uploading an avatar, click here.

Your Bio

You can use the Bio field to give some information about yourself that you would like other members of the community to know. Many people do not like to share information that is too personal, so you can keep it vague if you like. Of course, if you prefer not to keep it vague, another way to protect yourself is to use a username that is not your real name, so that even if you share personal details, site visitors will not be able to associate that information with your real name. For that matter, you can even have some fun and concoct a completely false persona for yourself - nobody will know any differently! A little further down this page, you'll see the following:

About You

If you'd like other users to be able to find you by location,occupation or interests, you can use the fields in this section to provide more information about yourself. There is also a space for your web site or blog, so that visitors to your profile page will be able to find out even more about you if you're already out there on the Internet. If you have a gallery where you've posted your projects (or if you'd like to make one), you can also provide the link to that so that people will be able to see what you've done.

Making It Look the Way You Want It to Look

Now let's move on to the Site Options tab (see below). For those whose eyes are not quite what they used to be, or never were very good to start with, you'll be pleased to know that it's easy to increase the size of the fonts when you're reading forum posts and blog entries. You can also change the way that posts are sorted when you are browsing the Community. I personally prefer to have the most recent posts on top so that I can quickly know what's new when I open a thread, so I sort my posts in Descending order in my profile. A regular user wouldn't need to use many of the other features on Site Options tab, but certainly putting up your local time zone can help so that your posts display the correct time stamp when you put them up. Feel free to play around with any of the settings - we're pretty sure that you won't be able to break anything!

Your Signature

By now, you are really starting to give your profile some personality! The Signature is a line of text that will appear on all of your postings in our forums (please note that it won't appear in any comments you make on blog posts). For example, if you have a motto like "The road to success is always under construction", you can write that in the Signature field and it will appear automatically for all your past and future posts in the forums, and you won't have to type it everytime!

Keeping Track of News

A little further down on the Site Options tab, you'll see the heading Email Configuration (see below). Here, you can decide whether or not you want to receive automated e-mails from our system. Please note that this does not cover AnnTheGran promotional e-mails - those are sent from a mailing list and you can unsubscribe from those by clicking the 'Manage Subscription' link at the bottom of any of the e-mails you receive. The "Email Notification" referred to on this screen are ones that you can use to keep track of discussions that interest you. For example, let's say you come across a thread (a thread is an internet word for a themed discussion - perhaps the techies stole it from the sewing world!) on discarding used needles that you are interested in, and you want to know anytime something new is posted.

Starts & Stops

The first thing you'll need to do is to make sure that you have enabled emails (click 'Yes' in the Email options tab shown above). You only have to do this once, and then our system will remember the setting when you see a thread you want to follow. When you are in the thread itself (see example picture below), just click on the 'Email Subscription Disabled' button and it will change to 'Email Subscription Enabled'. From then on, you will receive an e-mail anytime someone posts to that thread. The one thing you'll want to make sure is that, when you start receiving these e-mails and you want to join the discussion and post a reply or comment, don't reply by e-mail. This will merely send an e-mail to our automated system (to which you'll get an automated reply) and won't post your comment. To post your reply or comment, go to the forum itself (there will be a link in the e-mail you receive) and click on 'Reply'. If you ever feel like your e-mail inbox is getting flooded and you want it to stop receiving notifications from that discussion, you just need to go to the thread in question and change 'Email Subscription Enabled' back to 'Email Subscription Disabled'.

Pleased to Meet You

Finally, when you're all done, and you want to see what you look like to the rest of our Community, just click on your username in the top right corner of the page and you'll see your public profile. You'll see the personal information that you've chosen to share on the left side, and in the main part of the window, you'll see your bio followed by what's called a news feed. The news feed (see below) keeps track of your recent activity on site, including forum posts you've made or replied to, blog posts you've commented on, photos you've posted, and even friends you've made.

Time to Get Social...

And how, you may ask, do I go about showing that I have made a new friend in the Community? Well, the same way that you contact other community members, by using what I call our talk box (see below). When you find a particular community member whose activity interests you, or whom you just want to get to know a bit better, you can use the talk box to make contact in any number of ways. Not only can you add the person as a friend, but you can also send an e-mail (without knowing the user's e-mail address), send a message that will appear in her Inbox, view her blog if she has one, see what she has posted in the community, and even contact her by an Instant Messenging service like Yahoo Messenger if you have one in common. The talk box allows you to accomplish all of this without compromising anyone's privacy or sharing any undesired personal contact information.

Sit Back & Relax!

So there you have it! You are now comfortably seated in your online space, and you have officially and properly introduced yourself to our community. A world of possibilities awaits.

Fun in the Magic Bookshelf - What's Your Idea?

beamishboy — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:52:00 GMT

Recent Brainwave

Believe it or not, it only occurred to me very recently that, with all the wonderful things available on our new site, we had never actually asked our loyal users where they want us to go next. I’ve told you on my blog here what we’ve planned, but I haven’t asked you what you think we should be planning. We do think we’re doing pretty well, and you seem to agree, but we want to get better, and to do that, I think we need to hear from you.

Credit Where Credit is Due

I have to give credit for this to Cathy, who hit on to something really critical in her blog, which was to ask about you – specifically where you’re from. Among a flood of responses from all over the world came the push-pin idea, which was fantastic. I used to run an ESL school, and the map in our lobby with the push pins showing which countries all the students were from was always a huge hit with visitors, but I’d never have thought of it for our site. Great ideas like this reflect the power of an engaged community. Then we had my challenge to you, to post in our Reviews, Testimonials and Critiques forum, and from that came not only some great product reviews, but that great idea about the e-directory, which I’ve already started working on. And Pat, wow, what can I say. She is our toughest critic (I probably get five e-mails a day from her telling me how the site could be better) and biggest supporter all rolled into one. Pat, I know you’re reading this, because you read everything! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Our community is truly lucky to have you.

Something to Bear in Mind

As you the AnnTheGran Community is formulating what will certainly be a bunch of great ideas, I have only one thing I would ask you to keep in mind, and that is that we are working with limited resources. Everyone knows AnnTheGran for free designs -- indeed, we still hear regularly that, wherever embroidery machines are sold, whatever the brand of machine, the first thing a new machine embroiderer is told is to go to AnnTheGran and stock up on free designs. Ann is very proud of that, and she should be, but of course, we all know that all this stuff isn’t really free. It takes a lot of time and money, more than you might realize. So we do need to sell stuff. When people ask me what exactly my job is, I usually make a joke about being responsible for Ann’s retirement, but the fact of the matter is that, as a company, we are responsible for a lot more than Ann not having to start selling family members to make ends meet. Like any company, we have staff with families to feed. Ann would have loved to be able to provide everything free for all time, and unlimited support on everything, but that isn’t the way the world works. So, we sell things, so that we can continue to do what we love and we can help you continue to do what you love. Please keep that in mind as you open up the brainwaves.

Just For the Fun of It

So, I ask you now how we can do a better job of what we do. Up until now, we’ve been deciding what the Magic Bookshelf looks like. Now it’s your turn. Use the Comments field below to give us your ideas (if any of our competition is reading this, please stop reading here). Tell us what we can do to make ourselves look nicer, be easier to use, have better information, become a better store, and, most importantly, be more fun. Because whether the beautiful things you make are for yourself, for your family and friends, or for a customer, I hope I’m not too far off the mark to assume that you’re in it at least partly to have fun.

Simply put then, tell us how we can help you have more fun!

Measuring Quality in the Magic Bookshelf - Rating and Reviewing Products

beamishboy — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Worth Waiting For?

Well, so much for posting every week to this blog! I hope you'll allow me to claim vicarious blogging as an excuse -- lots of my time lately has gone into getting our two new guest bloggers (and a few more who you don't know about yet) up and running. Cathy's and Pat's posts get more comments than mine ever do, so I figure it's a fair trade of my time to do everything I can to put two such wonderful ladies on the site, even if it means neglecting my own little corner here. To those of you who've been waiting so long for this post, you'll forgive me, right?

AnnTheGran in Toronto

I'm very excited to be helping to host Ann's visit to Toronto this coming week (she blogs about it here). Apparently, the barbeque I'm hosting for Ann, Loes, and their significant others is now being called an "event" in itself, so I guess I'd better cook up something extra special. I was hoping to even have the pool open, but with temperatures here hovering around 10 C (50 F), that doesn't look too likely, although I am heartened to know that the weather for barbeque day is forecast closer to 20 C (70 F).

Ties That Bind

For those of you who don't know, AnnTheGran.com (the site, not the lady) is brought to you by a very special group of people from literally all over the place. I'm in Toronto, Ann's in Orlando, Diane's in St. Louis, and that's just for starters -- the extended team that we rely on to bring you all this extends even to other continents. The reason I mention this is to show you that we practice what we preach. Though there is certainly no substitute for sitting across from another special person in the same room, as we did at Community Circle in Orlando, it never ceases to amaze me how closely we can approximate that feeling of cameraderie and those shared moments within the right online environment. Just as our own community of creative people interacts in meaningful ways even though we are separated by distance, so too does the wider community of creative people that meets here on Ann's site.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth...

In my last post, I talked about the use of tags to help us find what we are looking for, and I gave an example of how tags could also be used to find out information about products out there in the market. Of course, we know that for that information to have any value, to be quality information, it has to come from the people who actually use the products and it has to be unbiased. If you do any amount of online shopping, you'll know that there are many product rating features on sites (usually a five-star system) used to determine the quality of products. This is okay, and definitely helps you decide if you're looking at buying something, but we wanted more than that. We think that, when deciding whether or not to buy a product, you need more than a star system -- you want pictures, ideas, and problems from someone who is actually using the product.

Help Us Help You

That's what we want, too, but we need your help with that. If you use and feel strongly (positively or negatively) about any product that you use to create your beautiful things, we'd love it if you'd share that with us. We even have a dedicated place to do it -- a forum called Reviews, Testimonials & Critiques. (Kudos to one of our superhero users Judy for showing other users the way on using this forum). You can help us and your creative kindred spirits by clicking on the link to this forum and posting your thoughts on any product you use. If you don't find a discussion already taking place about the product on which you want to comment, start a new discussion by clicking 'Write a New Post'.

Tearful (?) Challenge

To that end, I issue a challenge. My goal is to receive at least 20 product reviews/testimonials/critiques before my next post on this blog. If I don't reach that goal, if I don't see at least 20 new entries, I will not write my next post. So, in other words, I will take that as a sign that you do not want me to post and I will likely want to crawl under my desk and sob uncontrollably [:'(]. Okay, maybe not, but I will be sobbing inside...

So if you want more Magic Bookshelf, get busy and post in Reviews, Testimonials & Critiques. If you don't want to hear from me again, just do nothing.

A Magic Bookshelf Game - What Are Tags and How Do I Use Them?

beamishboy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:10:00 GMT

Let's Play Tags - I'm It!

My kids still play Tag, even though the oldest one becomes a teenager this month (), so I'm going to assume that, like me, you are not too old to play a variation of this age-old game. The game I want to play with you is called Tags, with an 's'. I'm going to start out being "It", and I will explain the rules below, but first a little background. In my first post in this Magic Bookshelf blog, when I answered the question "what is a blog", I talked briefly about tags. I've noticed that many of you, as you've gotten more familiar with our new site, have been putting tags in with your questions and answers, and that is wonderful. But not everyone has, and I'm guessing that's because I have not really fully explained how much these little technological wonders can help us in our quest to build the best possible Magic Bookshelf.

How Tags Can Help

Tags are really just about finding what you are looking for at the moment that you're looking for it. I spoke before of a Create-A-Pedia, a place where you can go to find whatever you're looking for regarding your creative pursuits without having to sift through a mountain of information to get it. This is exactly what the effective use of tags will allow us all to do. For example, let's say you love to embroider but you've never used embroidery software, and your knowledge of software in general is limited to typing a few e-mails to family and friends. You hear your embroidery buddies talking about what theirs can do, you've seen some demos online perhaps, and you really want to expand your horizons and make some of the beautiful projects that other people are making. But you're concerned first of all that you won't be able to use the software because of your technical limitations, and second of all that you might go out and spend hard-earned or carefully saved money on something that doesn't even help you make what you want to make.

You Could Just Google It...

Imagine how easy it would be if you could just click on the name of a software that you're considering and find immediately the answers to all those concerns. Imagine if, with just one click, you could view not only the software product itself (that's always easy to find, as there's always someone wanting to sell you something!) but also technical questions that other novices had about it, testimonials and critiques from people who owned it, pictures of projects made using it, and even detailed instructions on how it was used in a few of those projects to get you started if you did decide to purchase it. This is exactly what tags allow you to do. Don't believe me? If you click on the 'alphabet xpress' tag anywhere on our site, you'll get just that. Click here to see what I mean. Three pages of results (testimonials, technical issues, projects, photos) on Alphabet Xpress; enough information to make a decision, but nothing like a Google search that brings up over a million results, at least 90% of which are of no interest whatsover to you.

The Community Busybody

There is even a name for that mess of tags that you see at the left side of your screen. It's called a tag cloud (most of the tag clouds on our site are long and thin -- like me -- but on some blogs they actually do look like clouds!). Did you know that you can click on any of the terms and you'll go to a page that has everything in our community that relates to that subject? Tags on our site show up in alphabetical order, but you may have noticed that some tags in the cloud show up bigger than others. Any idea why that is? Is it because someone just likes them better? Well, in a sense, yes. The big tags are the ones that have been referenced in the most posts. You know how there's always one neighbour on the street or down the hall who always seems to know what everyone in the neighborhood is doing? That's what tag clouds do -- they give you a great idea of what other people in the community are up to.

Leading By Example

So that's the scoop about using tags to find what you're looking for; how about actually creating them? Well, I think the best way to show you how to create them is to first show you an example and then ask you to do one yourself. For the example part, I need go no further than to point out a community member who (without any direction from me -- honest) has been using tags very effectively. My vote for our current champion tagger is cuzzins; every time cuzzins posts something, she tags her posts so that others may find them more easily when they are looking for information. I have no doubt that countless lost souls have found comfort and solace in her tags -- okay, maybe not, but they've at least found her posts!

Tags - You're It!

So now it's time to play Tags! The rules are simple; I am no longer "It" because I've created some tags below for this post (tags, magic bookshelf, finding information, etc.), so you're "It". Tags are used throughout the Community section of our site; for our blogs, our photo galleries, and our forums, so you can post to any of these and you'll have a chance to try tagging. Once you tag, you will no longer be "It". If you write a post or put up a picture, and you can't think of any tags, click on the 'Select Tags' button and view tags that other community members have used, then click 'Ok' and those tags will be added to your post. I really do hope you'll try it, not only because, like the game of tag that kids play, it will be good exercise (of the mental rather than the physical kind), but also because the more of our community members who tag their posts, the easier it will be to find information and the better that information will be.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

The Digital Scrapbook - Memories in the Magic Bookshelf

beamishboy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:33:00 GMT

(If the text is cut off on the right side of the screen, please click on the post title above to view a corrected version)

Where's Your Shoebox?

Whoever you are, wherever you are, the chances are pretty good that, at some point in your life, you've taken some pictures, and therefore chances are also good that have somewhere that you are storing those pictures. Now, I'm not particularly organized, so in my case, a few make it to photo albums (that my wife has put together!) but most of the pictures are either sitting in a box somewhere to be dug out for that occasional trip down memory lane or, in the case of digital photos, are sitting on my hard drive in general disarray.

Worth A Thousand Words

What I'm hoping is that at least some of those pictures you've taken involve things that you have created; a sweater worn by a loved one, a baby blanket now on its third granchild, or a set of monogrammed towels that were just a little too good to give away. If you are even on this site and are reading this page, you must be a creative person (embroidery, quilting, sewing, etc.), so is it too much to suppose that you might have reserved just a bit of that creativity to take a few pictures?

If so, a whole community wants to see those pictures!

Our Digital Scrapbook

If those pictures happen to be from a digital camera, you can be sharing your creations with all of us in a matter of moments. Our site now has a wonderful new feature that is officially called our Gallery section, but which I like to call our Digital Scrapbook. The way it works is very simple. If your photo is on your computer already, all you have to do is go to our main Gallery page. When you get there, you'll see a 'Browse Media' box in the top left corner:

Click on 'Project Galleries' in the 'Browse Media' box and you'll see it expand to show all galleries in the community.

Click on the gallery that you would like to view or to which you would like to post a photo. When that gallery opens, you'll see a small 'Upload' button on the right side of your screen:

Click on the 'Upload' button, and you'll see the following screen, that will let you browse your computer for the photo, write a description of it, and even put tags on it to which other users can refer.

Click on 'Specify File/URL' and use the 'Browse button to find the photo on your computer. When you're done uploading, naming, describing and tagging the photo, click submit and presto; the photo is up on our site for all to admire!

Need To Scan? I'm Your Man...

If your pictures are of the more traditional variety (ie. prints), did you know that, with a very inexpensive scanner, you can put all those old photos on your computer and even touch them up (ie. removing red eye or even an ex-husband) with free online editing tools? If you don't have a scanner, I can't actually go out and get you one, but if you have one (or are thinking of getting one) and you need some generic advice on how to get it working, I can certainly help you there -- but only if you promise me you'll upload some pictures of what you've made! Just use the Comments link below to tell me your problem and I'll see what I can do.

Share Your Memorable Projects

So, if a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, and seeing really is believing, imagine how great it is for someone who is looking for creative ideas, or ways to tackle a new project, to be able to come to the Community section of our site, search for a word or a tag that resembles what they are looking for, and immediately see pictures of successful or memorable (yes, even memorably bad!) attempts that others in the community have made. Enough of these, and we will truly have a Digital Scrapbook for the community.

After all, no Bookshelf that aims to be magical would be complete without a Greatest Memories Scrapbook.

Click here to add your memorable projects right now.

Putting Knowledge in The Magic Bookshelf - What is a Wiki?

beamishboy — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Who do You Trust for Information?

Where do you go when you need to know whether something is true or not? Is there a person you ask, or a place you go? Think about it -- everyone needs to have somewhere, something, or someone to help establish what is fact and what is fiction.

The Buck Stopped Here

Spiritual information aside, there was a time not so long ago that one of the most trusted sources of factual information, the place where the buck stopped on almost all knowledge, was the encyclopedia. I'm hoping it won't be a stretch for many readers to recall, in your school days, sitting down at your desk or table (either at home or in the local library) to do your homework (with pen and paper - what a concept!), accompanied by a trusty encyclopedia.

The Fall of the Index Finger

Young people today may find that a rather quaint notion, that you would trust one source of knowledge so completely, but have things really changed that much? Where previous generations once turned to the encyclopedia or the library, recent generations have their own go-to guy for information -- the Internet. Thanks to the Googles, Yahoos, and AOLs of the world, we can sift through all the information on the Internet with just a few keystrokes, the way we used to scan the index with our fingers. (How long before we'll have to start calling the index finger the keyboard finger?) The question is, can we trust the information we find there? When was the last time you found exactly what you were looking for on the first page of Google?

What's a Wiki?

Fortunately, there is a place on the Internet where information is at least as trustworthy as that old family set of encyclopedias. Most of you will have almost certainly come across Wikipedia at one time or another in your Internet travels, but if you haven't, it's definitely worth a few minutes (hours) of your time. I don't want to go into detail about Wikipedia (you can explore it for yourself, if you like), but I do want to draw your attention to why it is called what it is. The "pedia" part is self-explanatory, but what exactly do they mean by "wiki"?

Serious About Knowledge

Simply put, a wiki is a place where the users, the readers, contribute the knowledge. So, unlike a more traditional encyclopedia, where the experts and editors do all the research, in a wiki it is the community that shares its expertise. At first glance, you might think this is a formula for disaster, what with everyone saying whatever s/he thinks is true, even if it isn't, and creating lots of erroneous information. This does occasionally happen, but only occasionally. By and large, the wiki is an amazingly effective way to gather great information, that also happens to be true. A quick check through Wikipedia will tell you that a community that wants to know what is true and what isn't takes its knowledge very seriously.

Introducing...Create-A-Pedia!

So, how does that relate to us, and what does it mean to our Magic Bookshelf? Well, Wikipedia is great if you want to know the history of the yo-yo, but it's a little sparse on details like how to hoop a baseball cap or how to prevent your specialty thread from breaking. That is where we come in. We want to be your new "Create-a-Pedia", the place where you come when you absolutely need to know the facts about your passion, and the place where you can always trust what you find.

You Have Something of Value

We've built a site that will allow us to do just that, but we can't do it without your help. I don't just mean you the audience, I mean you the person reading this. There is an unbelievable amount of knowledge out there about making beautiful and functional things, and whether you've just started or whether you are used to wowing people on a regular basis with your creations, you have something valuable to contribute. Maybe it's a question about what to do, maybe it's just an idea that you haven't tried yet, maybe it's a time-saving technique, maybe it's a horror story about a project that went very wrong -- whatever it is, it is valuable to someone, perhaps very valuable, and that someone would almost certainly love to hear from you.

One Giant Brain for the Picking

In my last post, in answering the question "what is a blog?", I said that the blog is the part of our Magic Bookshelf that the experts create. The wiki is another important part of our Magic Bookshelf. The wiki is the part that our community creates, the part where all the combined experiences of our users come together into an in-depth resource for information. I also wrote about tags as the way to quickly find exactly the information you're looking for in blogs, and you'll be pleased to know that the same applies to wikis. Imagine being able to "pick the brain" of any one of the thousands of people in our community any time you needed to; that is our goal.

Today's Top Tips

So you may now be asking "Where is this wiki thingie that I'm supposed to get so excited about"? Well, I'm not going to give you the complete answer right here (after all, I want you to read next week's post!), but I can tell you where it starts. Look at our Today's Top Tips forum. When a question, tip or technique is posted there and it is even remotely educational, we approve it and it goes directly onto our home page for all to see, share, and learn from. We did this because, once everyone gets the hang of it, we want everyone in our community to have access to new knowledge each and every time they visit our home page. Actually, don't just look at Today's Top Tips, add something to it. Whether you answer a question or ask one, add something for the sake of the beginner that you once were or still are, for the sake of that person whose best friend's birthday is next week and is stuck in the middle of a project, and for the sake of the warm fuzzy feeling you'll get knowing that you've contributed something of value that is going to help someone else. If you're not sure whether it will fit or not, submit it anyway and let us decide -- chances are it will be exactly what we're looking for.

Next Piece in the Bookshelf

Our Magic Bookshelf is starting to take shape. We have our books and magazines (blogs), we have our index (tags), we have our encyclopedia -- the next piece of our Magic Bookshelf is the scrapbook with all those favorite creations and memories. I hope you'll join me next week as we learn how to create it.

And please keep those comments coming!

Welcome to the Magic Bookshelf - What is a Blog?

beamishboy — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:17:00 GMT

The Magic Bookshelf

Imagine that you sit down at your machine one day to make something for someone, and you realize that there is a part of your project that you aren't sure how to complete. Imagine if you could then point your hands toward any bookshelf in your house and summon it to float through the air and rest softly next to your chair. Then, imagine pointing your finger at a whole stack of magazines and books on your bookshelf and being able to speak a magic phrase, like "free-standing lace", and a magazine or book pops into your waiting hands and opens to a lace project with full instructions and illustrations, provided by an expert. Sound like something from Harry Potter or Narnia? What would you say if I told you that, with only a small leap of your imagination, that's exactly what you're going to find here on Ann's new site -- your own little magic bookshelf.

AnnTheGran's New Mission

It's going to take us a little while to get there, and it's going to require a lot of your help, but at a time in the not-too-distant future, whenever you want to know something, whether your passion is machine embroidery, quilting, sewing, or some other creative pursuit you may not have even thought of yet, you're going to be able to come to Ann's site and find an answer to your question. My job, the job I would do a little more happily if Ann would stop calling me that silly name , is to tell you how we're going to get there.

What is a Blog?

As a former English As a Second Language teacher, I've always believed that the first step in just about any process is to never assume that those to whom you are speaking speak the same language, and so you should always define the terms you'll be using. So, with apologies to those of you who already know this, I am going to start with answers to some basic questions. What you are reading right now is a post (entitled Welcome to the Magic Bookshelf - What is a Blog?), and the post is part of a blog (entitled Magic Bookshelf), and the blog sits on a web site (entitled AnnTheGran.com). The word blog is short for weblog, and, as you'll know from numerous seafaring tales, a log is an updated journal that helps record the ship's passage over the high seas. So, for our purposes, a blog is an internet journal that is updated regularly and helps you navigate all that information out there on the Internet.

What are Tags?

As you may have noticed, blogs also have something called tags. I'll tell you more about tags and how to use them in a future post, but basically a tag is a word or phrase, created by the blog writer, so that readers will be able to see what the post is about at a glance, and will be able find it easily later. When you click on a tag, you'll see all posts that are related to that subject. For example, you'll see below that I have created the tags "magic bookshelf", "blogs", "tags" and "what is a blog" for this post.

Why We Like Blogs

A blog is good for writers and companies because it makes it very easy to keep in touch with readers. Anyone who can create a document in a word processing program like Microsoft Word can create a blog post -- very little technical knowledge is required. The fact that you are reading this is a testament to just how idiot-proof the blogging process is! As Ann mentioned, we have lined up some guest bloggers (writers who write on a blog) for your reading pleasure. They'll be giving you free projects, they'll be teaching you new techniques, and, most importantly, they'll be listening to what you have to say in response.

Why You'll Like Blogs

Which leads me to the main point of this post -- what the blog can do for you, the reader. A blog is meant to be a dialogue, not a monologue. On almost all blogs (and all of the ones on AnnTheGran.com), you'll see a link for Comments. If you get nothing else out of my post, please remember this. Nothing makes a blog writer more unhappy than to spend time creating a post only to find that nobody comments on it, as accepted wisdom among bloggers is that no comments means no readers. I've heard from some AnnTheGran users that they don't comment because they don't know the "rules", so let me set the record straight. There are no rules! Well, maybe a few simple rules of decency and courtesy (people who leave hurtful comments just for the fun of it are called "trolls"), but, beyond that, say what you want. That means that, if a post is missing some details, or pictures, or anything, let the blog writer know. If it's great -- if it made you smile or frown or cringe -- let the blogger know. Your voice is every bit as important as the writer's; all you need to do is use it.

Building the Bookshelf...

So let's call the blog the first piece in our new magic bookshelf. The blog is the part of the magic bookshelf that creates those books and magazines that you'll want to refer to, and tags are the part that help you summon the exact information you need just when you need it.

I hope you'll join me for my next post as I put the next piece in our magic bookshelf, the trusty encyclopedia.

And I'll be waiting for your comments...