Successful Blog

Introducing: The NEAT LIVING Blog

by

SOB Hall of Fame Entry: The NEAT LIVING Blog

Ariane Benefit Is Neat Too

The NEAT LIVING Blog is written by Ariane Benefit, M.S.Ed, a former corporate consultant turned professional organizer and life coach. She writes about simplifying, letting go of clutter, organizing, “ThinkBuying,” resisting consumerism, getting healthy, working with passion, charity, ethics, being clear about what’s really important, and having more energy, time and money to do what you really love!

Notes from Liz: The first comment Ariane made on Successful Blog was in-depth and articulate. It was almost a post in itself. It was a response to my post on designing a complex process. Ariane set me a challenge to write a similar post for designing a process in the virtual environment. I did. It turned out to be a great challenge and a great after-post conversation. Ariane’s blog is as fascinating and insightful as the woman herself.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Has your SOB Blog Been Introduced to US?
Blog Promotion: May I Introduce You?

Net Neutrality 6-08-2006

by

Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

The Question of Access

Why is the principle of network neutrality so important? As a hero of mine, Trevor Goodchild, once put it, “It’s not a question of excess, it’s a question of access.” Content, and by extension, what people choose to do with content, is not the just domain for discrimination or constraint.

Tech News :: Google Founder Lobbies For Neutral…

Google co-founder and President Sergey Brin met with U.S. lawmakers Tuesday to press for legislation that would prevent Internet access providers from charging Web sites more for faster content delivery.

“The only way you can have a fast lane that is useful–that people will pay a premium for–is if there are slow lanes,” Brin told reporters after meeting with Republican John McCain, a member of the Senate committee that oversees telecommunications issues.

Google, Microsoft and other major Internet site operators have joined with small Web site owners to oppose broadband providers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications that want to offer faster network performance to companies that pay more. The issue has been dubbed Net neutrality by those who oppose a two-tier system of access and pricing.

John McCain pushes a la carte TV channels bill

“We are pleased to see that this bill pushes forward the concept of themed a la carte family programming,” said RCN Senior Vice President of Strategic and External Affairs Richard Ramlall. “Since August 2004, our company has expressed a willingness to test consumer reaction to themed program tiers on our digital systems. Most recently we met with Federal Communications Chairman Kevin Martin and indicated we would be willing to conduct a trial in Boston.

“We believe that themed a la carte tiers would greatly enhance consumer choice by allowing them to choose from an array of smaller programming tiers, limited to the kind of categories of programming they most want and value. At the same time it would support development of new and diverse programming in those categories,” explained Ramlall.

“However, we’ve been frustrated in our effort to develop such offerings by the impediments imposed by programmers. Many of them are owned or controlled by the largest incumbent cable operators, who require tying arrangements and other contractual restrictions that preclude RCN and other competitive providers from offering consumer-driven programming options.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Right Brain Creative? Business Needs You

by

Brain-Left What?

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

I won’t go crazy here on scientific theory, but it goes like this. Experiments have shown that each side of the brain seems to work on different types of thinking.

Left brain thinking includes:thinking that is logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective, and looking at parts. Right brain thinking includes: thinking that is random, intuitive, global/holistic, synthesizing, subjective, looks at the whole.

To say it in other ways, people who prefer left-brain activities deal well with statistics, analysis that drills into data, information, language, and like to build from the bottom up. Right brain thinkers focus on aesthetics, arts and music, big-picture ideas, patterns, geometry, and creativity. and like to build from the top down. Almost everyone does both. Almost everyone has an inate preference.

Most schools are highly left-brain places, focused on academic subjects.

What does this have to do with business? [Read more…]

Link Leak Virus Epidemic at Open Comments Night!

by

Chicago Won’t Be the Same

The Chicago River is still recovering from last night’s Open Comments Night.
Once again, someone took on the challenge of live blogging the event. This week it was Mike Samsone of Converstations. Take a read of his post,

UPDATE: So did Scot Herrick.

The Link Virus Epidemic

Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes. On Open Comments Night the virus got out of control. Here are some cool links that were shared:

Dr. Who’s ship
The Creative Coast Blogs
Chicago Bloggers
Neave Planetarium
Smoke and Mirrors
NO SPEC Campaign
Use Bloglines to Find Interesting OPML Blogs by John Cox

Link Leak Virus Still Raging Today!

As you can see, I apparently brought home a strain of the virus. The links are still leaking to everyone who attended. Take a look at who’s ailing now. Oh it’s all my fault. All they did was participate and have fun. This is a cautionary tale of safe blogging.

Joe started the conversation talking about the mike in Chicago. Chris Cree brought the Klondike bars. Rod stopped by, even though it’s finals week, and Mike Samsone hung out while he waited for the next train.

Trisha wasn’t going to comment, but couldn’t resist the fun. Then along came Ben and his code-writing donkey. Cat stopped to say she couldn’t stay. Then found 200 comments in her email subscription.

Claire Tompkins gave us a lesson in taiko that was “hella fun.” Scot Herrick discussed drinking Merlot while reading about the business of beer. HART agreed that as a Canadian he really does know everyone.

Jamsi brought Liz some Australian wine.

One small snippet:

218
Chris Cree Says:
June 6th, 2006 at 8:44 pm e
Oh, Geze Ben. Your donkey’s drooling again. Can ya tell him to behave around Trisha? She’s new here.

219
Ben Says:
June 6th, 2006 at 8:45 pm e
Damn donkey. Soon as I get on the keyboard he starts hovering over my shoulder asking inane questions.

Hi Trisha – pleased to meet you.

Joe – good luck with Darren tomorrow, I feel your Blogger pain. I’d be curious how you got that interview with Darren…

I never did find out whether The Teacher is into the Doctor.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles

The Mike Is in Chicago!
LINK LEAK VIRUS PAGE

6+1 Ways to Compelling & Elegant Blog Posts

by

Atilla, the Great Idea Killa

Power Writing Series Logo

Ideas. Everyone talks about getting ideas. I get one. It’s great. I jump on it. I start to write. Soon enough I find myself in a pile of mush — words all over, thoughts in too many places.

What made me think this was a great idea? Now I’ve wasted all of this time. Here I sit — still no blog post and now one mangled idea. it isn’t pretty. What the heck am I doing wrong here? I was sure this idea was great. I am Atilla, the Great Idea Killa.

Yeah, I do that too.

I Want Compelling & Elegant!

The truth is that most ideas misbehave. They’re just not strong the way they come to us. They have a problem staying on track. Sometimes they fall apart. Often, they’re too large or stray all over the place. Your average idea needs a little help to be what it will be when it grows up to be a “Hey, lookat me” blog post. [Read more…]

Net Neutrality 6-07-2006

by

Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

FCC Chairman: Too soon for net neutrality rules

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said Monday that it would be premature for the agency to issue rules on the doctrine of Net neutrality, which would prevent discrimination in the delivery of services over the Web. . . .

Martin added that the commission has demonstrated its willingness to step in and take action if it sees, for example, a large cable or phone company discriminating against certain content providers. However, he said: “We’re not seeing widespread examples of abuses in the marketplace that would justify us trying to adopt rules at this time.”

The FCC chair said the commission’s main objectives under his watch are to make sure broadband deployment continues; that the regulatory environment “rewards” investors in new technologies; that there be sufficient competition to ensure “more innovation” and benefits for consumers; and that there be an “even playing field” that “treats like services alike.”

Specifically, he referred to digital subscriber line-based broadband technology and the cable modem, which enable users to obtain fast Internet connections.

Net Neutrality: Who’s David? Who’s Goliath?

I guess since they really only care about one side of the value chain of the Internet – the side that touches the users – they are viewed as representing the “little guy,” the end-user, the consumer. In reality, they are using their market power and big business lobbying oomph (that is a technical term) to shape the debate so that they can benefit from the network but don’t have to invest in it.

The “other” side of the debate, mainly the service providers, are trying not to get their hands tied in developing next generation networks with speeds and feeds that will be able to support all the high-bandwidth consumer and business applications that are coming down the pike. They actually care deeply about consumers as well, which is why they are seeking help from their large users (see pro-net-neutrality advocates above) to pay for differentiated services and quality of service which will help offset the huge cost of their infrastructure investment.

Craigslist is being blocked by Cox Interactive – is this a net neutrality issue? By Tom Foremski for Silicon Valley Watcher

An SVW reader left this tip:

I use Cox cable internet, Cox’s media empire printed classifieds is one of their big revenue drivers. Guess what? If you try to access Craigslist over Cox Cable internet… its nearly impossible! It appears that they throttle access to craigslist – as a matter of fact there have been a zillion complaints but hey, who can blame Cox? They’re trying to stop the opening cap in their money dam! Maybe you should investigate this tip further. Cheers.

I did investigate further, I walked out of my apartment and across Alamo Square and popped in on Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of Craigslist. Jim was just getting back from work and I spoke with Susan Best, publicist for Craigslist. Susan said they have known about the problem with Cox.

Jim soon arrived and said the problem of access had been going on since late February. It had something to do with the security software that Cox isusing from a company called Authentium.

Cox has been collaborating with Authentium since April 2005 to develop the security software suite.

Back on February 23rd Authentium acknowledged that their software is blocking Craigslist but it still hasn’t fixed the problem, more than three months later. That’s a heck of long time to delete some text from their blacklist. . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE