This is your opportunity to throw a couple back with the Resalequeen and Mr B

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Tags: Stout NYC Meetup Croncast ]]>
Location:
Stout
133 West 33rd Street
New York, NY
Map

Near Penn Station and these trains
33rd Street (PATH)
34th St-6th Ave (B, D, F, V, N, Q, R, W)
34th St-7th Ave (1, 2, 3)

This is your opportunity to throw a couple back with the Resalequeen and Mr B

New Guinness Draught 1759 T-Shirt Beer Ireland Stout Current bid: $9.99 on eBay New Guinness Draught 1759 T-Shirt Beer Ireland Stout Current bid: $9.99 on eBay See all 1,289 Stout items on eBay.

Tags: Stout NYC Meetup Croncast ]]> Tue, 05 May 2009 08:29:47 -0500 tag:croncast.com,1955 This Friday, May 8th the meetup will be at 7 p.m. Location: Stout 133 West 33rd Street New York, NY Map Near Penn Station and these trains 33rd Street (PATH) 34th St-6th Ave (B, D, F, V, N, Q, R, W) 34th St-7th Ave (1, 2, 3) This is your opportunity to throw a couple back with the Resalequeen and Mr B no Stout, NYC, Meetup, Croncast, http://www.croncast.com/rss/1952/Whos-up-for-an-NYC-Croncast-meetup-with-BOTH-Betsy-and-Kris_NYC_Kris-Smith.php Blog
We'd love to share a drink or two with our New York area listeners. It might even turn into show prep ;-).

Which night works best . . . Thursday night the 7th or Friday night the 8th?

true crime: nyc for xbox Current bid: $5.00 on eBay 1997 ZIPPO NYC FIRE DEPT EMBLEM - MATTE DARK NAVY BLUE Current bid: $25.00 on eBay See all 7,369 NYC items on eBay.

Tags: NYC Kris Smith Betsy Smith meetup Croncast ]]>
We'd love to share a drink or two with our New York area listeners. It might even turn into show prep ;-).

Which night works best . . . Thursday night the 7th or Friday night the 8th?

true crime: nyc for xbox Current bid: $5.00 on eBay 1997 ZIPPO NYC FIRE DEPT EMBLEM - MATTE DARK NAVY BLUE Current bid: $25.00 on eBay See all 7,369 NYC items on eBay.

Tags: NYC Kris Smith Betsy Smith meetup Croncast ]]> Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:38:32 -0500 tag:croncast.com,1952 Yes, both of us will be in town May 7, 8 and the morning of the 9th. We'd love to share a drink or two with our New York area listeners. It might even turn into show prep ;-). Which night works best . . . Thursday night the 7th or Friday night the 8th? no NYC, Kris Smith, Betsy Smith, meetup, Croncast http://www.croncast.com/rss/1950/Think-differently-about-RSS-and-its-uses_flickr_live-photo-blogging.php Blog
Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she navigated her adopted habitat and to see her operate in a way that is far from the norm in our everyday lives.

I knew this was going to be an interesting experience. Why not share it in as many ways as possible (distribution to: Flickr, Twitter, blog and RSS) with as many people as possible? One input with multiple outputs across the various Croncast audiences.

Making it happen is a lot easier than you think with email and RSS.

First. it is the camera phone that takes decent photos. Second, is the phones ability to send email with photo attachments. Third, is a place to email the photos that has an RSS feed or other API connectivity to other applications. Tons of sites like Flickr, Seesmic and Tumblr offer these and can even do some of the distribution for you. Get these three things in place and sharing your experiences in near real-time has never been easier.

Currently, it does take a little more skill to distribute the photos to Twitter. However, if you get creative you can breathe life into photos that wouldn't normally have existed after it was consumed/viewed in a photo sharing site or through an RSS reader. It is worth the effort to figure this out, it's the next stage of content distribution online.

How do I know? Google Reader shared feeds are the perfect example. Typically once someone reads a post in their reader it has reached the end of the line. But if someone shares it with Google Reader it then gets added to the individual users shared RSS feed and resyndicated. A new life for that content. The same goes for photos that end up in Flickr or a Flickr RSS feed.

In my case, live photo blogging and my ability to cast a wider net wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Flickr RSS feed from my account. It is the magic API that feeds (pun intended) the river of resyndication that allows me to give that new life to our content.

Here's how it goes down:

1. Upload photo from phone to Flickr with subject line used as image title
2. In the body under the photo begin with an asterisk (*) if I want the photo, title and description to be a blog post also
3. In the body under the photo begin with a carat (^) if I want the title and a link to be a tweet
4. Add both asterisk and carat (*^) for blog and twitter
5. A PHP script grabs the Flickr RSS feed and reads it for asterisks and carats every two minutes and sends the photo, title and description where it needs to go
6. If it goes to the blog the title and description will be run through a keyword generations script
7. If it goes to Twitter only the title is sent and a shortened url is created to link to the photo

What all of this does is allow me to create multiple channels of distribution that can reach the different audiences that follow us. There is a bit of overlap with multiple audience members subscribed to the same services but quite a few are not. We have the Twitter audience, the blog audience, the flickr audience and the RSS audience. We also have our podcast audience but they are not really a part of this type of delivery

Summary: Look for ways to utilize sites like Flickr as a content management portal, if even from your mobile phone, to cast a wider net across your network. Work to find that one point of contact that has the lowest threshold for allowing you to get your media and thoughts online with the ability to resyndicate your content without having to lift a finger. Well, too many fingers. And make sure that it has an RSS feed!

New GPS Receiver Data Logger Photo Tagger for Flickr Current bid: $41.90 on eBay Flickr Mashups Current bid: $0.99 on eBay See all 17 flickr items on eBay.

Tags: flickr live photo blogging RSS as API seesmic tumblr twitter ]]>
Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she navigated her adopted habitat and to see her operate in a way that is far from the norm in our everyday lives.

I knew this was going to be an interesting experience. Why not share it in as many ways as possible (distribution to: Flickr, Twitter, blog and RSS) with as many people as possible? One input with multiple outputs across the various Croncast audiences.

Making it happen is a lot easier than you think with email and RSS.

First. it is the camera phone that takes decent photos. Second, is the phones ability to send email with photo attachments. Third, is a place to email the photos that has an RSS feed or other API connectivity to other applications. Tons of sites like Flickr, Seesmic and Tumblr offer these and can even do some of the distribution for you. Get these three things in place and sharing your experiences in near real-time has never been easier.

Currently, it does take a little more skill to distribute the photos to Twitter. However, if you get creative you can breathe life into photos that wouldn't normally have existed after it was consumed/viewed in a photo sharing site or through an RSS reader. It is worth the effort to figure this out, it's the next stage of content distribution online.

How do I know? Google Reader shared feeds are the perfect example. Typically once someone reads a post in their reader it has reached the end of the line. But if someone shares it with Google Reader it then gets added to the individual users shared RSS feed and resyndicated. A new life for that content. The same goes for photos that end up in Flickr or a Flickr RSS feed.

In my case, live photo blogging and my ability to cast a wider net wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Flickr RSS feed from my account. It is the magic API that feeds (pun intended) the river of resyndication that allows me to give that new life to our content.

Here's how it goes down:

1. Upload photo from phone to Flickr with subject line used as image title
2. In the body under the photo begin with an asterisk (*) if I want the photo, title and description to be a blog post also
3. In the body under the photo begin with a carat (^) if I want the title and a link to be a tweet
4. Add both asterisk and carat (*^) for blog and twitter
5. A PHP script grabs the Flickr RSS feed and reads it for asterisks and carats every two minutes and sends the photo, title and description where it needs to go
6. If it goes to the blog the title and description will be run through a keyword generations script
7. If it goes to Twitter only the title is sent and a shortened url is created to link to the photo

What all of this does is allow me to create multiple channels of distribution that can reach the different audiences that follow us. There is a bit of overlap with multiple audience members subscribed to the same services but quite a few are not. We have the Twitter audience, the blog audience, the flickr audience and the RSS audience. We also have our podcast audience but they are not really a part of this type of delivery

Summary: Look for ways to utilize sites like Flickr as a content management portal, if even from your mobile phone, to cast a wider net across your network. Work to find that one point of contact that has the lowest threshold for allowing you to get your media and thoughts online with the ability to resyndicate your content without having to lift a finger. Well, too many fingers. And make sure that it has an RSS feed!

New GPS Receiver Data Logger Photo Tagger for Flickr Current bid: $41.90 on eBay Flickr Mashups Current bid: $0.99 on eBay See all 17 flickr items on eBay.

Tags: flickr live photo blogging RSS as API seesmic tumblr twitter ]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:18:54 -0500 tag:croncast.com,1950 It's been quite a while since I wrote a blog post and it was time to get down with the reality that some things can't be said in 140 characters or less. Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she no flickr, live photo blogging, RSS as API, seesmic, tumblr http://www.croncast.com/rss/1318/Make-better-RSS-feeds-by-not-making-them_RSS_CNET.php Blog
Within reason my guess would be that most of you answered, yes then no. I know on my sites, even this site, I would have answered the same.

The solution isn't to create more feeds. The best solution is for publishers to create no feeds at all. Let your readers make their own.

Here are a couple examples why this is a better method for content syndication than relying on your own editorial skills.

Example 1: How not to do it.



Don't get me wrong on this, CNET is offering nearly all of its content up for syndication. This is an excellent strategy to create value from older content. However, do readers really need the option of subscribing to 100 plus predefined RSS feeds? Simply, no.

Finding feeds for the topics you are interested in is difficult. The worst of it is that you can only access them individually, i.e.; you want 10 of feeds, copy and paste them one by one into your feed reader. Sounds like a party to me. If you have more skills you might use a service that rolls all of them up into one feed for you. I would guess that about three people have done this.

Why overwhelm your readers like this? And besides, it is pretty intimidating for someone new to the RSS game. Shouldn't they be able to access your content in a way that makes it relevant to them?

Example 2: How to do RSS right.



What you see above is one of two flavors of how to let your readers pick what they receive in RSS feeds. It's a simple and easy to use text input that allows readers to enter keywords and phrases that they want in their feed. There's nothing fancy, easy access to old content in the straight-forward way that RSS is delivered; updates of the newest items first and set number items in the feed, usually twenty-five.



What the second screen shot shows is the magic of thinking differently about RSS feeds. This image demonstrates what happens when someone clicks on the 'advanced' link. The reader is then given control over every aspect of the RSS feed. They choose the content, when it is delivered, how much content, in what order (none of this newest stuff first mumbo jumbo - great use for episodic content) and how many updates to get at a time.

Who is better to choose than the person doing the consuming? RSS needs to be like Burger King where a customer can have it their way.

When this concept is applied to large volumes of content the value of it increases with each new article or podcast. Imagine if you could have this type of access at the NY Times or with your local paper. Even the obits from 30 years ago are now of value again. Value to the reader and value to the publisher with ad inventory.

The future of content syndication isn't in prescriptive channels created by publishers. The future is in the subjective choices of the consumer. They neither need or want every product that you have to offer.

We need to be smarter about our syndicated content via RSS and take into consideration how to make that user experience more satisfying. Whether it is by allowing users to pick topics or order of updates, something needs to change. Why? Because it is all about attention; the premium of which is measured in subscribers, influence and the influence of those subscribers.

Social News Portal with rss feed and amazon and adsense Current bid: $19.95 on eBay Real Estate Social News website Portal with rss feeds Current bid: $19.95 on eBay See all 113 RSS items on eBay.

Tags: RSS CNET readers consumers interaction ]]>
Within reason my guess would be that most of you answered, yes then no. I know on my sites, even this site, I would have answered the same.

The solution isn't to create more feeds. The best solution is for publishers to create no feeds at all. Let your readers make their own.

Here are a couple examples why this is a better method for content syndication than relying on your own editorial skills.

Example 1: How not to do it.



Don't get me wrong on this, CNET is offering nearly all of its content up for syndication. This is an excellent strategy to create value from older content. However, do readers really need the option of subscribing to 100 plus predefined RSS feeds? Simply, no.

Finding feeds for the topics you are interested in is difficult. The worst of it is that you can only access them individually, i.e.; you want 10 of feeds, copy and paste them one by one into your feed reader. Sounds like a party to me. If you have more skills you might use a service that rolls all of them up into one feed for you. I would guess that about three people have done this.

Why overwhelm your readers like this? And besides, it is pretty intimidating for someone new to the RSS game. Shouldn't they be able to access your content in a way that makes it relevant to them?

Example 2: How to do RSS right.



What you see above is one of two flavors of how to let your readers pick what they receive in RSS feeds. It's a simple and easy to use text input that allows readers to enter keywords and phrases that they want in their feed. There's nothing fancy, easy access to old content in the straight-forward way that RSS is delivered; updates of the newest items first and set number items in the feed, usually twenty-five.



What the second screen shot shows is the magic of thinking differently about RSS feeds. This image demonstrates what happens when someone clicks on the 'advanced' link. The reader is then given control over every aspect of the RSS feed. They choose the content, when it is delivered, how much content, in what order (none of this newest stuff first mumbo jumbo - great use for episodic content) and how many updates to get at a time.

Who is better to choose than the person doing the consuming? RSS needs to be like Burger King where a customer can have it their way.

When this concept is applied to large volumes of content the value of it increases with each new article or podcast. Imagine if you could have this type of access at the NY Times or with your local paper. Even the obits from 30 years ago are now of value again. Value to the reader and value to the publisher with ad inventory.

The future of content syndication isn't in prescriptive channels created by publishers. The future is in the subjective choices of the consumer. They neither need or want every product that you have to offer.

We need to be smarter about our syndicated content via RSS and take into consideration how to make that user experience more satisfying. Whether it is by allowing users to pick topics or order of updates, something needs to change. Why? Because it is all about attention; the premium of which is measured in subscribers, influence and the influence of those subscribers.

Social News Portal with rss feed and amazon and adsense Current bid: $19.95 on eBay Real Estate Social News website Portal with rss feeds Current bid: $19.95 on eBay See all 113 RSS items on eBay.

Tags: RSS CNET readers consumers interaction ]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:00:20 -0500 tag:croncast.com,1318 Did you pick the content of the RSS feeds that you are syndicating from your site right now? Or did you let your readers pick? Within reason my guess would be that most of you answered, yes then no. I know on my sites, even this site, I would have answered the same. The solution isn't to create more feeds. The best solution is for no RSS, CNET, readers, consumers, interaction http://www.croncast.com/rss/1948/Season-22-Ep-02:-Gothar-Alaskan-Nomads-Ham-Ketchup-Sandwich_lizard-food_gothar.php Podcasts Croncast - 2009-04-17.mp3
Show: #527
Length: 24:15
Size: 22.3 mb
Format: mp3

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