Category Archives: Marketing

MiniCard Review

Posted on by
Reply

I have been looking at the WP Theme, MiniCard. It is really cool. The design follows a Tim van Damme style layout.

Tim van Damme's Famous business card layout

I have been playing around with Minicard for some time. I have used it as my splash page for about a year. (I have been using K2 since 2005 so any change in theme is a big step). There are some things I really like and some things I think could be improved upon. (Granted I am using and looking at the free version.) I really like the minimalist business card design. However, one of the things that I find difficult is separating what is too much info from what is just enough. Right now I have quite a few social networks loaded on my front page so, even though it is Minimalist, it is almost not business card.

TheJourneyler.org as I had from 2010-2011

Most of my suggestions have to do with the options page, but a few have to do with layout.

Options:

  1. A place to store a Child Theme.
    K2 has a really cool way of selecting where the author wants to store their child theme so that when the theme is upgraded the child theme is not written over. Because the Code is GPL’d, I think this code could be copied from K2 into the GPL’d version of MiniCard. Being that the whole Tim Van Damme (TVD) idea is to be unique with style, it seems that Minicard would benefit from embracing child themes by providing a user the option to not just use a child theme, but also facilitate where to store that child theme.
  2. More Networks.
    It seems that it would be really easy for users of MiniCard to use more or some Social networks which are not on the list provided on the options page. I think it is crazy for any user to expect a developer to have anticipated all the possible social networks out there. I went through TVD’s wall of fame just to get some inspiration and noticed a few networks that minicard does not offer out of the box:

    • iusethis.com
    • ffffound.com
    • vi.sualize.us
    • corkd.com
    • wikipedia.org
    • www.colourlovers.com
    • soundcloud.com
    • filmreviewfriday.com
    • github.com
    • pandora.com
    • themeforest.net

    In one of the past revisions to the Minicard theme there was released, an easy way to add a custom social network. This is much improved over earlier versions of this theme. (I think this is still the case in the current 2011 release.)

    The Plug-in Find Me On has an interesting interface for adding new network. It is sort of Drag and Drop. I use this plugin on hugh.thejourneyler.org.

  3. A Contact Info page separate from my social networks page.
    One thing that might be helpful too is separating Messaging and Contact from social networks. “Messaging and Contact info” is usually treated differently from “social networks”. That is social network info like skype, aol, google chat, IRC, etc. are not really conceptualized in the minds of the people on the TVD wall of fame as “social networks”. If this information is provided then it most often falls under the “contact” section rather than “my social networks” section. Out of the box MiniCard does not have a contact section, so I can understand how this info is lumped together with the users social networks.

    Perhaps one solution to this is add an optional (included in the theme by default but not active by default) template page that could be added to MiniCard for contact info and pull data from the hCard data as well.

    This contact info page might also display Online Status of Messaging information. One caveat suggestion pertains to aim v.s. iChat. That is the syntax to open these protocols is a little different if the website admin wants ichat to open… it just aint going to work on a windows machine… I am wondering if a little javascript magic might be able to sniff out a OS X machine visiting the site as apposed to a Windows OS and put in the proper syntax for opening up iChat.
    Interesting enough Themeforest had a theme much like MiniCard.

    MiniCard like Theme displaying Contact info

  • Add direct color and background pattern.
    There are more color options “out of the Box” on the pro version of the theme. However, the color options are not as user selectable as they could be. I have seen color wheels and a palates for suggesting associated colors as option panels for selecting css values. A color selector for the background, and the various parts of the theme would be nice.
  • More hCard options:
    MiniCard does support hCard, but as I was looking over the format of hCard I think that more can be embedded in hCard content than what MiniCard allows for out of the box. That is I think that MiniCard could be improved with more fields in the admin section for the site admin to input their data. There is an hCard creator on the Microformats website. It shows the supported values in the hCard speck.

    • Interoperability of online dictionary data: 
 A test case using WordPress as a CMS

    Posted on by
    Reply

    Linked data is an effort to enhance applications and thereby lives with structured knowledge. This structure at its core is developed by human interaction. The challenge to consumers of linked data is to convince holders of unstructured data to structure it into actionable, manipulatable knowledge. Continue reading →

    Many Facets to Planning a Website

    Posted on by
    Reply

    I found this image which I think explains many of the kinds of things that Website builders need to think through. For some in the industry this is like.. Duh! but for others this kind of layout really helps us see the complexity and the parts we need to be thinking through to implement the website.

    Many of the different kinds of things that website planners have to think through.

    Finding that Apple command symbol

    Posted on by
    1

    I have always wanted to be able to type the ⌘ symbol for various reasons, including writing tutorials, but I have not know how to access it through my keyboard. A few, general, related notes:

    1. There is a nice wright up including some history on the Command Key, ⌘ on wikipedia.
    2. How Apple Keyboards Lost a Logo and Windows PCs Gained One
    3. PopChar is an application which helps users find obscure characters.
      PopChar

      PopChar is a utility for helping users find the Characters they are looking for

      This functionality is built in to OS X with Character Viewer, though it is likely that PopChar extends the user experience in some way.
      CharacterViewer-with-highlight

      OS X Character Viewer

      Shiftkey-in-characterViewer

      Shift Key in Character Viewer

    4. This discussion on the Apple Forums talks about a way to put these symbols in Pages’ auto correction so that Pages will auto correct a set of characters typed to the symbol desired. I have seen this used in MS Word too.
    5. A table of Unicode characters corresponding to Macintosh keyboard symbols, as they commonly appear in menus.

      6. The Next two Links are more detailed but like the above.

    6. Special Key Symbols
    7. Apple Keyboard Symbols

      8. Marginally relevant:

    8. Multi-stroke Key Bindings
    9. Keystroke mapping explained by SIL’s NRSI.

    It is unicode point 2318 (the html hex code is ⌘ ) and so you can find it in the character palette under:

    • Code Tables>Unicode>2300>2318

      • or you can go into

    • All Characters>Symbols>Technical Symbols

    .

    Apple ⌘ symbol

    Apple ⌘ symbol

    There are a few other ways to get at it, but that should do it for you.

    On OS X, if you switch your keyboard to Unicode Hex Input, then holding down opt allows you to type the four digits for a unicode symbol and get the ⌘ (2318).

    The Alt/Option Symbol has also been elusive. It can be fount at Unicode point 2325. U+2325.

    Alt Key U+2325

    Alt Key U+2325

    Unicode and Hex Keyboard symbols
    ⌘ – ⌘ – ⌘ – the Command Key symbol
    ⌥ – ⌥ – ⌥ – the Option Key symbol
    ⇧ – ⇧ – ⇧ – the Shift Key (really just an outline up-arrow, not Mac-specific)

    ⇥ – ⇥ – ⇥ – the Tab Key symbol
    ⏎ – ⏎ – ⏎ – the Return Key symbol
    ⌫ – ⌫ – ⌫ – the Delete Key symbol

    Leadership in an OpenSource Project

    Posted on by
    Reply

    In the past week have been confronted with several issues related to project planning, task & time management and project execution. Just defining the “deliverables” has been a real challenge. Given that the workforce of the company I work for is largely constituted of people who consider themselves to be volunteers, it makes for an interesting work environment. I naturally gravitate towards planning for tactical success and wanting to view things from the “big picture” perspective – knowing how the parts fit together. Project planning and project execution involves a lot of decision making and a lot of communicating about decisions.

    Over the last year I have been watching with some interest the UI development of WordPress. UI design is an area that I really enjoy. So when I saw Jane presenting on this issue of “How decisions get made at WordPress” (on the Open Source part of the project), I thought I would watch it. I thought that I would be watching how a company does UI decision making. But the focus of the talk was broader than that. It was generally good to see a model at work in a company where there is a successful product. As I listened to the discussion I was struck at how their project deals with:

    • Decision Making
    • Community Involvement
    • Consensus Building
    • Project Planning
    • Leadership
    • Sustainability

    In many respects the company I work with deals with these same issues. It was good to see how another company/project deals with these issues, and sees these kinds of issues as important to the success of their product.

    Social Network Marketing

    Posted on by
    Reply

    My friend Abbie, (Facebook, MySpace) is currently in a competion to perform live with Ingrid Michaelson. She is also in first place currently. (Go ahead vote for her. http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/videocontest/vote/ Her’s is #6 in the top ten listing.)

    That is not what is the most interesting though.

    What is interesting is the social networking going on to get all the votes needed.

    Someone created an Open Event on Facebook. Abbie has about 1700 Facebook friends and a fan page. But by creating an open facebook event other people could envite their friends to the event. So now there are over 11,500 people who have been invited to the event! That is 10 times the number of people that Abbie knows. And this has only been three or four days running.

    When people respond to the event then there is an option for a personal message. Followed by clear instructions (and links) on the event page describing how to vote. The event has gone viral. That is the point of Social Network Marketing.

    I wonder if I created an event for my business purposes if it would fly. I only have 500 friends so to reach the 10x number we would only need to send out 5000 invites.

    You can follow Abbie’s Youtube channel.

    CSS Alert Messages

    Posted on by
    Reply

    I found this great css messages code here (read about it for a fuller explanation):

    /* CSS messages */

    .alert { background: #fff6bf url('exclamation.png') 15px 50% no-repeat; padding: 5px 20px 5px 45px; border-top: 2px solid #ffd324; border-bottom: 2px solid #ffd324; }
    .info { background: #f8fafc url('information.png') 15px 50% no-repeat; padding: 5px 20px 5px 45px; border-top: 2px solid #b5d4fe; border-bottom: 2px solid #b5d4fe; }
    .download { background: #cfc url('download.png') 15px 50% no-repeat; padding: 5px 20px 5px 45px; border-top: 2px solid #3C6; border-bottom: 2px solid #3C6; }
    .german { background: transparent url('de.png') 15px 50% no-repeat; padding: 5px 20px 5px 45px; }
    .english { background: transparent url('gb.png') 15px 50% no-repeat; padding: 5px 20px 5px 45px; }

    Or more Explicitly here:

    http://www.bioneural.net/wp-content/themes/k2bn/styles/bioneural/bioneural.css

    Mastering Missions Marketing

    Posted on by
    Reply

    Last time it was Missions Masters Marriage… but that didn’t work out as planned. It turned out to be Missions Marriage Masters.

    When we think of the term Marketing we might think of a logo, a brand name or some gimmick to make me want something I don’t need. In some circles, especially the non-profit arena Marketing may have a negative connotation. In the context I am talking about here I am going define marketing as intentional effective communication. Effective communication can have some very positive outcomes and covers a wide variety of communication issues and strategies.

      Effective communication implies:

    • Something is being communicated
    • More than one party is involved
    • Meaning is being conveyed
    • An image is being conjured in the mind of the receiver
    • The image being conjured in the mind of the receiver is affirmed or agreed to by the transmitter

    As a business professional I need to realize that effective communication can happen. But, if I am not intentional about it, it is not going to happen as often as I want it to happen. This may result in adverse consequences for my business. The point though is that even in non-profit work like missions, to have effective communication one also needs to be intentional about their communication. This intentionalism is strategy.

    So what is your communication strategy? Lets ask some of the basic W’s.

    • Who are we trying to communicate to?
    • What are we communicating?
    • How are we going to get them to listen, think and respond to us?

    Who
    In the non-profit world we have several kinds of people we want to communicate with:

    • the people we want to benefit
    • the people who help us benefit these people; donors, volunteers, employees, colleagues
    • the people watching us, wanting to know what we are doing and why we do it.

    We need to be aware of each kind of person and talk to them. But, not just talk to them; engage them.

    What
    So the What which are we going to tell them might change, but what we are about never changes. So even though we might use different stories, reports, figures, pictures, etc. in communication they should all point to the part of us that never changes. This part of a communication strategy requires a bit of introspection. A core of knowledge of who we are and what we are about, and why we are doing it. It is from this knowledge we get our passion to do what we are doing, and challenge others to become part of what we are doing.

    How
    How are we going to get them to respond to us? We have to know where they are and how to talk to them. What they are paying attention too, reading watching, listening to, replying to. You can’t engage a person you can’t communicate to. This is were marketing comes in. How am I going to engage people? When I have an answer to How, I will have a communication strategy. The last question I have to answer is: does my strategy achieve the results I want it to achieve? or to put it another way is it an effective strategy? If it doesn’t achieve what I want to achieve,

    • it may be the result of not having a good, well thought through strategy,
    • or it might be the result of not having the right strategy for this group of people (or market).

    At the end of the day though, if something is not achieving the desired results; I need to know:

    • What the desired results are
    • What results my strategy is producing
    • Why my strategy is not working

    and then I need to make some adjustments to the strategy and apply the new revised strategy.