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Archives for 2008

Change.org


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A friend happened to pass this by me the other day and after a couple clicks, I liked what I saw (which is telling, because if it doesn’t grab me, I’m not staying).  I even took it one step further and went the their sign-up process (painless, but nothing special).

What grabbed me though was the extremely tight look’n’feel and the content display… I like their simple and streamlined look.  And the organizational pages were well created and styled appropriately.

The profile page was also clean and simple to understand.

Oh, and did I mention that the concept was kick butt too?  Change.org is a blog network built around social issues, like genocide, women’s rights, poverty, social entrepreneurship, and homelessness.  It appears that each cause is handled by one or more individuals that is extremely passionate about the topic (and probably knowledgeable as well) which can really grab your already-short attention span.

Perhaps it’s a fitting time for something like this to pop up?  As the founder, Ben Rattray says:

“The surging interest in social causes and civic participation we see across the country has the potential to transform the way we address social problems, but too often there is a disconnect between that interest and outlets for action. The internet offers the unique potential for bridging this gap, and I think one of its biggest achievements will be to serve as a platform for empowering broad-based social change. With today’s launch, we’re one step closer to making that happen.”

I couldn’t agree more with the “bridging the gap” idea.  Biggest achievement…? Maybe.  But certainly one step closer.  I think the mantra he’s got going here is something very close to my heart, and should be what keeps us going to drive for ingenuity and innovation for using web tech for the Kingdom.

Some great screenshots here.

ClickHeat Heatmap


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Many people believe (unfortunately) that to create a world-class website requires all the time, attention, money, and sweat up front.  Even in the last couple of Fortune 50 gigs one of the vacuums of time and money were attempting to create the best site out-of-the-gate, first time, every time.

But this just isn’t the case (and has never been).

A business and ministry needs to prepare itself for revision, and make revisions/changes and what I’d like to call “complete-customer-facing-annihilation-updates” part of their roadmap.

One simple way to get customer feedback is through their actual experience. Don’t bother asking (but that’s a good idea too), just look at what they are clicking (or not).

Enter ClickHeat, a self-hosted easily installable heatmap that shows you visually where your users are clicking.

I’ve actually been able to download, install, and get this up and running in about 15 minutes.  That, in and of itself, is a beautiful thing.

Smush It – Serious Image Optimization


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Not much to report here other than the fact that Smushit.com is pretty much one of my favorite websites as of recent.

This super easy image web-based optimizer is king in regards to simplicity and speed.  Just upload an image from your desktop, plug in a URL, or download the extension for firefox, and voila, your images are crunched smaller without losing any image quality.  It even shows you the specific amount saved and percent as well.  Nothing like some simple to understand metrics to make the heart grow fonder.

I’d be interested to know what specifically they are using in the backend to “optimize” the images, but the proof is in the pudding: images (to the naked eye) are lossless in quality.

It’s a great tool for the church web-admin or graphics guy who doesn’t have time to boot up the old ‘shop or needs to save some overall site-weight for the congregation members still accessing the church site from a 56k modem.

That gets a Thursday morning ‘w00t’ from me.

The New “Google Man”


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Stephen Colbert comes up in my readers and “random” web browsing far too often and is typically a source of either early morning humor or another link I hit while “browsing-bored.”

But, coming across his interview with Nicholas Carr made me whip out a notepad and jot down a couple of very intriguing quotes.

Carr has written a book called “The Big Switch – Rewiring the world from Edison to Google” and here are some of his thoughts with Colbert:

The world wide web is becoming the world wide computer… We’re using the internet so much that we’re starting to think like it.

and,

In time, we begin to look like and act like the tools we use… beginning to think like a computer, jumping from information to information, link to link.

and,

But what it takes away is our ability to concentrate, be contemplative, to be reflective, to slow down and think…  We can’t stay focused on one thing, we become so connected to everything that we’re disconnected from one thing… It’s the ability to sit down, and read deeply, think deeply, and concentrate on one thing, one line of thought.

But it’s this that really struck me:

You [Colbert] are the New Google Man, who sits at home with a superficial relationship with information.

The previous quotes were unsettling, but this one struck a chord.  It made me think about how much time I spend engaging and interacting with dead content.  How much of it is one way.  It truly is a strange relationship, and very superficial.

Is this what it’s supposed to be about?  It would be easy to say that Carr is right but hope against hope that there are a few who are trying to make sure that this isn’t what it all, eventually, becomes.

I want to be intentional with my time, purposeful and productive.  I also want to build relationships.  Let’s endeavor not to be “google men.”

Full Video Here:

State of the Blogosphere


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Technorati [site doesn’t seem to be up anymore] has just finished their gigantic State of the Blogosphere report which had more facts, figures, pie and bar charts than one could possibly digest in a single sitting.

I’ve noted some of the highlights from the past 5 days and their relative importance for those that seek to use their blogs as a communication medium for the Gospel.

[Read more…] about State of the Blogosphere