LeanDog's boat, the Keasarge, is docked next to the USS Cod Submarine just West of Burke Lakefront Airport. Clevelanders may remember it as the former Hornblowers Restaurant.

I just had the most amazing weekend at Cleveland GiveCamp, an event at which programmers, developers, designers, writers and others came together to build Web sites and applications for local non-profit organizations. The event was hosted at Lean Dog, An Agile Software Studio housed in a converted steamship, the Keasarge, and its on-land neighbor, Burke Lakefront Airport.

Throughout the course of the weekend 100+ volunteers produced Web sites and applications for 20 organizations. While the sites vary in complexity according to the needs of each organization, it's fair to say that these sites could have cost thousands of dollars each to develop without volunteer labor.

For some organizations this meant they were able to get their first site. For others it meant that they could have their sites rebuilt—in a manner that would help them maintain them on their own—so they could better communicate with their constituents in the future. For all it meant that the dollars that might have been spent on the Web could instead be put towards directly helping their cause.

Mark Schumann, one of the event organizers, drove this point home during the closing presentations. There he told us that the Suicide Prevention Education Alliance will be able to hire another staff person now that they don't have to spend money to build a new site. This will allow them to reach 3,000 more teens, out of which typically 150 will get professional counseling. Mark went on to explain that we can't know for sure how many of those 150 would have taken their lives without getting help—but I think we can all agree that if even just one life is saved, that makes a tremendous impact.

Each of the many charities served by Cleveland GiveCamp supports our community in important ways, so it was really impressive to see how the volunteers were able to help them continue those efforts.

My time at Cleveland GiveCamp

Macintosh, Linux and Windows laptops all saw their fair share of the action as teams worked on developing their projects.

Everyone who participated in GiveCamp had their own unique experience. The organizers have been working hard for months. I, on the othe hand, ended up turning up at the last minute. I'd first read about GiveCamp some months back, but at the time I assumed they needed programmers who knew more about developing applications and other things outside of my skill set. As we all know, one should never assume.

On Friday afternoon I learned that Susie Sharp had been asked to bring down extra volunteers to help document/promote the weekend's activities via social media. I tagged along with "Team Tweet" thinking I'd go see what was up and help live-Tweet the action.

We arrived at GiveCamp just in time to see them assign the developer teams to their non-profit organizations. Originally they'd hoped to have 70 volunteers working on 16 projects, but Cleveland spirit prevailed and they ended up with 100 volunteers who were able to work on 21 projects. At this point I still thought they'd be programming their own content management systems and applications, so I just went back to the boat to set up my MacBook Pro and plan out my Twitter strategy. The one skill group teams were short on was design, so I also let folks know that I could help teams with that as needed.

Almost everyone chooses WordPress

As the groups started planning their projects and choosing their development tools, something unexpected happened. 15 of them chose to use WordPress as the content management system for their sites. WordPress struck me as a good choice because it is relatively simple to implement, it's free, and the end-user interface makes it easy for the non-profits to update and maintain their sites.

Estina Goertz from the Cleveland Tenants Organization asks a question during WordPress training. (Photo by Susie Sharp)

Many of the teams who chose WordPress hadn't used it before. So it was natural that they would have some questions. I'm not an expert, but as many of you know, I use WordPress pretty much every day. This blog runs on WordPress, as does every site I've built in the past year. Their choice of WordPress gave me a new purpose, so I switched gears and took on the roll of roving WordPress troubleshooter. I also gave a presentation on Sunday afternoon to show the non-profits how to maintain and update their sites.

As mentioned, it is relatively easy to set up a WordPress site using a pre-existing theme. Many users can do this themselves. But these were not do-it-yourself level projects. Customizing a site to serve specific goals and functions is far more complicated. One needs to know a certain amount of HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL and may also need to know more elaborate programming. The sites the developers built fit into this category.

Some required more complex navigation, others had special uses for incorporating social media, many needed PayPal integration for online giving, one required an e-commerce shopping cart solution and another was part of a project that also integrated a new iPhone application with a Twitter feed.

WordPress 3.0 has great new features, but—it's really new

Iggy, one of the LeanDogs asks if it might not make more sense to use a WordPress query, rather than a plug-in, for a feature we've been discussing.

WordPress 3.0 integrates the former WordPress MU (multi-user) features as well as many options that make it easier for users to customize navigation and other page elements. But it's also very new. The official final release of 3.0 was just launched in June. I've upgraded many of my sites to 3.0, but I've not yet built a new theme that incorporates the new features.

Some of the developers based their projects on new 3.0 themes while others based them on older themes that will still run on 3.0. It was easier for me to answer questions for the latter group; in many cases I could just go back to my Mac and send them a snippet of code I'd used in the past. Or I could pinpoint which plug-in was involved and just point them to the settings page they had to adjust. It was great when someone asked me a question I could answer immediately.

But that didn't happen all—or even most—of the time. As they came to me with menuing—or other questions that were unique to 3.0—I looked over their shoulders as we tried to work things out together. Other times I hopped on Google and searched about until I found the documentation we needed to solve the problem. Once I found a solution I would e-mail it to the person who'd asked and add it to Delicious where I was sharing links for the WordPress developers. There were a few questions that completely stumped me, or that were outside my bailiwick, but in the end I think we were able to find work-around's or alternative solutions for most of the dilemmas that came up. And in some cases the programmers were able to build their own programs in lieu of plug-ins that didn't already exist.

In the end I think I learned as much as anyone and am glad that I'll be able to put what I learned to use on my next project.

Social media is great for communicating during events

When geeks put together an event, they know what tools to use. Participants needed to communicate with each other and we wanted to spread the word to the public about what the teams were accomplishing.

I used Tweetchat to monitor the #clegivecamp Twitter hashtag.

Keeping in touch on Twitter with #clegivecamp.

The organizers chose #clegivecamp as the hashtag for the event, so one of the first things I did was open a Firefox tab for http://tweetchat.com/room/clegivecamp in order to monitor what was happening. Throughout the weekend participants used this to post announcements; share links, anecdotes and amusing photos; and to converse between the two locations.

I also used it to find out where I was needed for WordPress assistance. If someone Tweeted that team 5 had a WordPress question, I could tweet back asking for the location and tell them I was on my way. If I was away from my laptop others would see the Tweet and someone nearby could let me know where I should go next. People also sent Tweets directly to me, but overall the hashtag made it easy to keep in touch, whether or not we knew each other's usernames or email addresses.

Delicious Bookmarks

Delicious is the social media tool I use most regularly. As I worked with the WordPress teams it quickly became obvious that I needed a place to share links and other information. At first I thought I might make a new blog post here, then keep adding to it. But that seemed like it could become unwieldy. Instead I created a delicious tag for #clegivecamp. Then whenever I found a plug-in, or piece of documentation that would apply to one of the projects, I would save it to delicious along with that tag. I also used secondary tags such as wp-plug-ins and wp-documentation to help differentiate between the saved items.

Throughout the weekend I posted reminders on Twitter and Facebook to let people know that these links were available. Then if someone asked a question, that I'd already researched, I could direct them to Delicious to find the documentation link I'd already saved. I also used this tag as a place to save user oriented documentation for those who attended my WordPress training session. This meant that I only had to give them one link to write down in their notes. They could then follow that link to find all the other links we discussed during the session. Over the next few days I will continue to add more links there as I recall/find those that would be appropriate for this group.

Facebook

Cleveland GiveCamp began the weekend with a Givecamp group on Facebook, but when Team Tweet began their social media promotion they thought they could benefit from the added features of a Facebook page. Thus Susie Sharp created the Cleveland GiveCamp page. Here Susie, Heidi Hooper, Jim Evans, Paul Schambs, Kasey Crabtree, Stuart Smith and others started posting updates and photos about the event.

As the weekend went on, the developers and non-profits added to this content with updates about their projects, announcements and other related information. As people have added to the page it has turned into a nice repository for information about the event. If you have a Facebook account, I urge you to "like" the page. This will help show our sponsors, the media, volunteers and others that you think it is a worthwhile event that should be held again next year.

Cleveland GiveCamp would not have been possible without its volunteers and

Leadership from the organizing team including:

• Jon Stahl
• Andrew Craze
• Mark Schumann
• Nick Barendt
• Laurence Mingle
• Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan
• Jim Gorjup
• Deb Stahl
• Kevin Stahl
• Jane Winik,
• and several others whose names I may have missed

and support from the Cleveland GiveCamp Sponsors:

• LeanDog, An Agile Software Studio
• Burke Lakefront Airport
• Hyland Software
• Rosetta
• DeVry University
• Microsoft
• IEEE
• CODE Magazine
• discount ASP.net
• Keller Graduate School of Management
• American Greetings
• Midwest Research
• Pantek
• Red Bull

Overall Cleveland GiveCamp was a tremendous success. The developers accomplished an incredible amount of work, ensuring that their non-profits can better achieve their goals. The camaraderie of the participants meant that we all had fun while working, and volunteers made sure we were well-fed and provided with sufficient quantities of caffeine to keep functioning. If you would like to learn more about GiveCamp or organize one in your own region, please visit the links below.

Cleveland GiveCamp Links

• Cleveland Give Camp Official Page
• Cleveland Give Camp Facebook Page
• Cleveland Give Camp Twitter account
• #clegivecamp - Twitter hashtag (live)
• #clegivecamp - Twitter hashtag (archive)
• GiveCamp main page

Fan Like me on Facebook—Follow me on Twitter

We all know these blog posts don't get written as frequently as I'd like. But that doesn't mean you need to go weeks without hearing me babble. Over on http://www.facebook.com/heidicool, I'm using content curation to share one link per day. At one tip per week day it won't clog your Facebook stream, but hopefully you'll find something useful.

And for more links (and ramblings that may not always be related to the Web) I usually Tweet and reTweet a few (or several) times per day at @hacool.

The first post. It's hard to believe I used to write such short entries. (Some of you probably wish I still did!)

Starting this blog was one of the smartest things I've done. To be honest though, it's not something I began on my own, nor did I anticipate how it would evolve over time.

To celebrate the anniversary of this blog (which actually occurs on February 28th), I thought I'd share a bit of its history and reflect on how the blog and I have adapted to changes in the Web and the interests of you, our readers.

A communications need—in search of a solution.

Five years ago Kevin Adams and I were the Web team for the marketing and communications department of Case Western Reserve University. In the second half of 2004 we'd rolled out a new site design as part of a university-wide rebranding effort. Our mission was to maintain the home page, build (and maintain) new sites within the campus Web presence and work with departments across campus to help them do the same with their own sites.

To this end we had periodic meetings with campus Web folk, and answered many an e-mail question or phone call, but this wasn't enough to keep up with the demand for support. Our campus community included hundreds of Web maintainers, of varying skill levels, who had questions ranging from how to edit HTML to how to develop content that would best support their marketing strategies. We needed a more efficient way to serve this audience.

As part of the new site roll-out we had created a Web Toolkit where we shared template files, and various reference materials, but as a static site it seemed an unwieldy place to post announcements or other bits of advice. We needed a system that would let us organize the information more effectively. Thankfully such a system had just been created.

Case launches a campus-wide blogging initiative.

I used the Case blog system to develop a variety of sites ranging from the Community Outreach site to the Case News Center. In July, 2008, I presented Blogs, The many voices of a university at EduWeb 2008 to demonstrate the ways that Case (and other schools) were making use of blogs in the classroom and beyond. You can get a sense of how Case continues to use blogs by visiting Planet Case, a site that aggregates all the most recent posts from the system.

In November 2004, Case's ITS group began alpha testing a campus-wide blogging system using the Movable Type platform. In January 2005 they opened up the system for campus-wide beta-testing, allowing any university students, staff, faculty or alumni to create their own blog(s).

Having previously experimented with blogs on Blogger, I watched the project with interest. Then one day Jeremy Smith, who runs the blog system, called me up to see if I might be able to create a new template design for one of the senior staff. Soon thereafter I had a test account set-up where I could experiment with creating this new theme.

Although I was a regular blog reader I'd not really spent much time thinking about blog construction. As I played with my designs, I found they weren't quite living up to my expectations. I was trying to visually re-style an existing blog structure, when I should have been rethinking the entire interface. Thus the results (such as this example) just didn't feel quite right.

I was learning that the blogs required a different way of thinking in regard to the user experience and navigation system. So I set those first designs aside and focused on learning more about blog structure and the code behind it.

At some point in that process I realized that the blog system was just what Kevin and I had been looking for.

The birth of the Web Development Blog

I don't recall the exact conversation but one way or another Kevin and I agreed to start blogging. Since I'd already been tinkering with the system, I took one of our campus templates and rebuilt it as a blog theme. Once that was ready I wrote our first post. You can view a copy of that post as it appears here on this blog, or the original post on the Case system.

As you will notice the post was surprisingly short. I introduced the reason for the blog, suggested users add contact information to their site footers and listed the hexadecimal colors for the Case Web templates.

Over the next few months Kevin and I continued in that vein, offering basic how-to tips such as setting up password authentication or redirecting pages and posting announcements, book reviews or links to interesting blog posts. As we added more content, the blog began to serve a customer service role. While campus Web maintainers continued to call us, they could now also go to the blog to find answers to many of their more common questions.

Broader mission and the birth of longer posts

When meeting with campus clients to talk about their new Web sites, I often started the conversation by asking about their goals and target audience, much as I do today with current clients. Alas with over 300,000 pages in the Case realm, and just me and Kevin to advise, we weren't able to sit down and have these conversations with everyone. As I was working with the department of pharmacology on their new site it occurred to me that I could write about the Web planning process and post it on the blog. This way users could walk through it themselves if Kevin or I weren't able to meet with them.

On July 1, 2005, I posted So you want to build a Web site, the first chapter of what turned out to be my Planning Your Web site Tutorial. Over the next few months I kept adding chapters while Kevin kept posting smaller articles on various tips and tricks. Kevin spends much of his spare time playing the trumpet in polka bands, while I'm often compelled to write, so it came as no surprise when I turned out to be the more verbose contributor to the blog.

As time went by I found that sharing the Web site tutorial with clients, before we met in person, helped to save us time in the planning process and ensure that we were all on the same page. I also found that people outside of Case, both in academia and beyond, were beginning to read our posts.

As people commented and asked questions we started writing on a wider range of topics. Instead of focusing strictly on issues pertaining to building sites, I also started writing about related topics such as marketing and graphics.

In 2006 we both wrote a combination of how-to articles such as those on editing images but also branched out into more general topics such as discussions on writing styles. By 2007, I'd also begun covering topics related to what we now call social media. In May of that year Kevin left to work on the corporate sector, so I continued the blog on my own.

Between building Web sites and advising clients, we'd never had much time to blog during office hours so I wrote many of these posts in the evening. Writing on my own time also allowed me the freedom to experiment a bit more with what I wrote. By this point I knew my audience extended beyond campus, so while much of my focus was on Web communications as they pertained to higher education I also wanted to include information that would be helpful to other audiences. And, instead of just writing things to help people build better Web sites, I wanted to address related issues such as promoting and marketing those sites. Topics like search engine optimization and social media were a natural addition to this content mix.

Life after Case

Last year after working at Case for almost 10 years I left the university to venture forth on my own. I knew the blog would continue to be an important communications tool, so I brought it with me to this site, while leaving the original files there for archival and reference purposes. I installed WordPress in a directory on this domain, created a theme to match the rest of my site, exported the blog entries from the old site then imported them here.

While I still sometimes find an odd link that goes back to the old site, the process worked surprisingly smoothly—considering that I was not only moving files but changing from Movable Type to WordPress. For a few weeks during the transition I cross-posted to both blogs then on February 23, 2009 I posted The Web Development Blog is moving! as the last post on the old site and began posting here full time.

Starting a new business takes time, so I've not blogged as often this past year as I'd have liked, but for the most part the editorial policy for the blog has remained similar to what it was at Case. Most of my clients are in small or medium sized businesses so I'm writing a bit more with an eye to the corporate sector. I'm still interested in the higher education and non-profit worlds, so I also use examples from those sectors, and read posts from BlogHighEd to keep up with what's happening in academe.

The role of the blog

What began as a simple way to communicate with clients has turned into much more. I think it worked out because Kevin and I started blogging to serve a specific goal, we didn't blog just to blog. As a result, The Web Development Blog has served as a marketing tool, helped me to establish my personal brand and given me the opportunity to connect with bloggers, clients and others with an interest in Web related issues. And of course it gives me a place to wax forth on whatever Web related ideas I may be pondering in a given moment.

But as much as I like to write, none of this would matter if you weren't out there reading. So now, as I near the anniversary date of the blog, I'd like to thank you all for reading, commenting, reTweeting, etc.

And of course if you have any ideas on things I should cover in 2010, please feel free to share them below.

Social Media Marketing Blog

I am now also a co-author of the Social Media Marketing Blog with Wayne Smallman and Emily Cagle. There we'll be focusing on social media marketing tips such as my first post, Listen, learn and leverage your brand via LinkedIn Answers. That site is also home to Wayne's e-book, The Beginner's Guide to Social Media.

Fan me on Facebook - Follow me on Twitter

We all know these blog posts don't get written as frequently as I'd like. But that doesn't mean you need to go weeks without hearing me babble. Over on http://www.facebook.com/heidicool, I'm sharing one tip per day, usually as a short paragraph with a link to something interesting I've found in the blogosphere.

At one tip per week day it won't clog your Facebook stream, but hopefully you'll find something useful. And for more links (and ramblings that may not always be related to the Web) I usually Tweet and reTweet a few (or several) times per day at @hacool. (I also have links to more accounts on My Social Media Profiles page and am now also babbling on Buzz.)

I wasn't there, but back in September (on my birthday of all days) members of the Cleveland Social Media Club gathered together to discuss ways to educate people on the use of social media. At that time they proposed producing an e-book on the topic "Advice that you would give someone on how to get started with social media." Later that day, Nader Ali-Hassan posted a message on the Cleveland SMC forum asking people to submit articles on the subject.

Always willing to share my two cents, I wrote an article for submission. As time went by others did the same, we formed an eBook committee, and by February we had almost 20 chapters. Soon after I joined the editorial team to help edit the chapters and get the book ready for completion. As we worked on the project, the team decided that we needed to produce something more than the usual downloadable .pdf file for the book. We also wanted a Web site where we could publish an HTML version of the book and provide a place to share other educational resources related to social media.

Cover art and layout of the .pdf version
of Welcome to Social Media was done
by Tony Ramos

Tasked with the creation of the Web site, I built Welcome to Social Media, which launches officially tonight at the Cleveland Social Media Club meeting (members of the public are welcome to attend). This new site features an online version of the Welcome to Social Media eBook, a social media blog and related resources. Over time we'll add additional materials to help educate the world about social media and related topics. If you have ideas on things we might include, please submit them via our contact form or here in my blog comments.

Welcome to Social Media excerpt: Setting Goals to Plan Your Social Media Strategy

As many of you know, I have a tendency to prattle on about goal setting in regards to Web development. The same as true for social media, and thus that was the theme of my chapter. Here is an excerpt:

If you don't control your online presence, someone else will.

When embarking on any new project or adventure, it helps to set some goals. What do you want to get out of the project? When it comes to social media I think we all share a primary goal, that of controlling our online presence.

Many people are hesitant to jump into the world of social media. Some are shy while others simply don't know what they'll do once they join the fray.

The advice I give to each is to consider what may happen if they don't get involved. In a day when employers Google job applicants and the charming lass you met at that party last week is searching the Web to make sure you're not a psychopath, you want to be in control of what they'll find.

The fact that you aren't posting about yourself doesn't mean others aren't. Perhaps your name and your clever ideas about composting were posted in the meeting minutes of your neighborhood gardening club. Perhaps your last promotion was mentioned in the online version of your local paper. Then again what if the first thing that comes up in a Google search is your wedding announcement…from five years ago…to the fellow you divorced when you discovered he was pawning your jewelry to invest in a pyramid scheme? Is that what you want to the world to see? Probably not. Read the article in its entirety on the Welcome to Social Media site.

A Cleveland Social Media Club team effort

Kudos to Jim England, Jeff Hershberger, George Nemeth, Stephanie Jansky, Tony Ramos and the many other authors and Cleveland Social Media club members who worked together on this project. On behalf of them all, I hope you will find Welcome to Social Media to be a useful resource for your social media explorations.

Welcome to Social Media Links

• Welcome to Social Media
• Welcome to Social Media, Volume 1, eBook (HTML)
• Welcome to Social Media, Volume 1, eBook (.pdf)
• Cleveland Social Media Club

Coming soon

Flash and usability—the controversy continues, WordPress as a CMS, and more…

Tomorrow I'm attending the 3rd Annual eMarketing Techniques Conference at Cleveland's Corporate College East. The event will cover many of the topics I regularly discuss on my blog, thus providing a great opportunity to learn more and pick the brains of some of Cleveland's social media and marketing talent.

I'm not speaking at the event—lest you thought this was a gratuitous plug—but I think it will be a good place to soak up more knowledge and meet some interesting people. If you're in town, and interested in such things, you may want to check it out.

Are you a Clevelander who wants to learn more about e-mail marketing techniques such as:

• Social Media,
• Search Engine Optimization,
• Blogging,
• Google Analytics,
• E-mail Marketing,
• Video,
• Writing for the Web,
• And related topics similar to those covered here on the Web Development Blog?

If so, today's your last chance to sign up for tomorrow's eMarketing Techniques Conference at Corporate College East.

The event will feature:

Keynote Speaker, Rick Burnes

Rick is the manager of inbound marketing at Hubspot, a leader in marketing software for small and medium sized businesses.

Plenary Speaker, Matt Dickman

Matt is VP, Digital Marketing at Fleishman-Hillard and an avid blogger, speaker and technology evangelist.

Breakout Sessions led by industry leaders

Sessions will cover a range of topics from engaging your online audience to the secrets of online PR.

Learn more at the 3rd Annual eMarketing Techniques Conference Web site.

May 8 Update: The event was a great success. I was able to reaffirm that I'm on the right track when it comes to social media and e-marketing and picked up some new ideas that I'll be applying to this site and for clients. While I didn't bring my Mac, many folks were live Tweeting from the event. You can catch the Twitter commentary at #etechniques. ]]> http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2009/05/07/emarketing/feed/ 0 http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2009/02/23/newhome/ http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2009/02/23/newhome/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:56:44 +0000 Heidi Cool http://www.heidicool.com/blog/?p=251

After years of building Web sites, I've managed to scatter my content over a number of different servers and domains. During that time I've built a number of sites to aggregate my content. Typically these pages worked well for me. They had links to my content so that I could keep track of my projects. But they didn't really serve the needs of the public.

Now that I'm leaving Case Western Reserve University Marketing and Communications, I've finally built a site that will serve that purpose. While http://www.heidicool.com won't link to everything I've done, I'm hoping it will give you an overall sense of my Web development and marketing philosophy. Naturally, the Web Development Blog serves as the cornerstone of the project. Here I will continue to share my rambling thoughts and observations on the ever-evolving World Wide Web.

Web Development Blog History

When I started the Web Development Blog back in 2005, I thought it would be a good way to share ideas and tips with the Web community at Case Western Reserve University. It was. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that I was speaking to a much broader audience, one that included not only Web developers from academia, but also bloggers, corporate sector content managers, a surprisingly large contingent of real estate agents, students and just about anyone interested in creating and marketing online content.

As readership grew, so too did the editorial slant of the site. Instead of just posting basic tutorials on cropping images or embedding YouTube videos with swfobject.js, I started writing articles about content, marketing, SEO and social media such as:

• An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Beware of your vocabulary
• MKTG 101: Social Media Marketing is still marketing: know your audience
• Social Media: Your Interactive Information Resource
• Your home page is NOT your index; it's your store front

Here on the new site, you can expect more in the same vein. Forthcoming topics will likely cover marketing and social media and maybe something a bit geekier related to code.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest a topic for a future entry please feel free to do so in the comments or via my contact page.

If you are currently subscribed to blog entries or comments on the old site, you can update your subscriptions with these feeds:

• Web Development Blog Entries RSS
• Web Development Blog Comments RSS

Thank you for reading!

The other day journalist Jimi Izrael sent out an e-mail about a new blogging class he's teaching at Tri-C. It occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity for those of you (in Greater Cleveland) who are thinking of taking up blogging. It also made me think that this would be a good time to share some of the other great resources available to bloggers, Web developers and those interested in social media in Northeast Ohio. Whether you want to take a class or network with others in the field, here are some things that may be of interest.

Introduction to Blogging

In this special topics course at Cuyahoga Community College, journalist and blogger Jimi Izrael will introduce you to the myriad types of blogs and explore their evolution as an outgrowth of modern journalism.

Jimi Izrael's work appears in the Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, American Spectator, Washington Post, and The Plain Dealer. Moderator of the "Barbershop" on NPR's "Tell me more with Michel Martin."

Monday and Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. beginning October 20, 2008. Contact Jimi Izrael or view the flyer to learn more.

Bail Out Cleveland! Local Internet Guru Offers Free Consulting at the Cleveland Free Stamp

Need some free Internet advice? If so you're in luck "Jim Kukral, a lifelong Clevelander and web-famous Internet guru wants to help ease the pain. He’s offering free Internet consulting to any business that’s in need of guidance. From web marketing, or strategy or blogging help, Jim is willing to bail out Cleveland businesses in need, for free."

Wednesday, October 15, 2008, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. by Free Stamp in downtown Cleveland.

Telling your story: Nonprofits and the Media

Sponsored by the Center for Community Solutions this half day seminar will offer ideas non-profits can use in promoting their services through social media and introduce you to members of the local media with particular insight in the field. Learn more and register online.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
8 a.m. - Noon
Cleveland Sight Center

Cleveland Web Design and Development Meetup

Founded in 2006, the Cleveland Web Design and Development Meetup is "here to help folks come together to learn about and discuss making the web, web pages, web programming, all that sorta thing. Membership is open to all. And it's free." The groups holds regular meetings, offers study groups for novices and provides a variety of helpful online resources.

Cleveland Web Standards Association

Founded in 2007, "The Cleveland Web Standards Association (CWSA) is grounded on the premise of sharing information in a relaxed atmosphere. The purpose of this association is to provide practical instruction and techniques that will elevate the quality and functionality coming from Cleveland firms and free agents. We hold monthly gatherings that include presentations on best practices for developing web sites. The gatherings are open to any person interested in web design/development, no matter what their current skill level is."

Additionally the CWSA publishes a blog aggregator featuring member blogs covering Web development and related topics.

The Cleveland Weblogger Meetup Group

Founded in 2002, the Cleveland Weblogger Meetup Group meets once a month to discuss blogging, Northeast Ohio, politics and anything else that seems interesting. I finally made it to my first meeting with them last month during which we ate some tasty vittles while discussing gender roles and a variety of other topics. As I understand it topics vary widely depending on who shows up. If you're a local blogger or just thinking about becoming one, you may find it interesting.

Social Media Club - Cleveland (SMC)

Founded this summer, "SMC is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and for promoting media literacy." Members can share ideas and questions through online discussions as well as meet each other in person at monthly meetings.

Not in Cleveland?

Similar organizations and meetups occur all over the world. Whether you want to join a meetup group that meets in person or prefer to share information online, the following will help get you started.

• Find Web Design Meetup Groups
• Social Software Meetup Groups
• Search Engine Optimization Meetup Groups
• FriendFeed Social Media Room
• FriendFeed Social Media Club Room

Obviously this is but a tiny sampling of the resources available. Feel free to suggest other resources that may benefit fellow readers in the comments below.

Forthcoming topics: More about URLs, Linking Strategies…

Registration is now open for summer classes at CaseLearns. Whether you're building your first Web site, adding video to your blog or just want to learn something fun, CaseLearns has a number of options available.

The classes listed below may be of particular interest to those developing or maintaining Web sites.

If you are new to Web design and want to learn Dreamweaver, I recommend reading I'm not going to teach you XHTML/HTML, but you should learn it anyway and doing the homework assignment before taking your first Dreamweaver class.

All CaseLearns classes are open to current Case faculty, students and staff, emeriti faculty, alumni, and Senior Scholars. Case affiliates may register if openings are available. Class schedules are subject to change. Please visit the CaseLearns Web site for the most current information.

Adobe Acrobat 8: Introduction

Instructor: Debbie Korodi
Prerequisites: Familiarity with Windows or Mac OS; knowledge of Microsoft Word.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 9:00am-Noon

Adobe Acrobat 8: Creating PDF Forms

Instructor: Debbie Korodi
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Adobe Acrobat 8.
Thursday, August 7, 2008 9:00am-Noon

Digital Images I: Introduction & Basic Photoshop

Instructor: Jared Bendis
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 3:00-6:00pm

Digital Images II: Advanced Photoshop

Instructor: Jared Bendis
Prerequisite: Digital Images I: Introduction & Basic Photoshop
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 3:00-6:00pm

Digital Images III: Even More Advanced Photoshop

Instructor: Jared Bendis
Prerequisite: Digital Images I and Digital Images II
Monday, July 21, 2008 3:00-6:00pm

Dreamweaver CS3: Introduction

Instructor: Thomas Hayes
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:00-4:00pm

Dreamweaver CS3: Intermediate

Instructor: Thomas Hayes
Thursday, July 24, 2008 1:00-4:00pm

Dreamweaver CS3: Advanced

Instructor: Thomas Hayes
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 1:00-4:00pm

How To Make Web Pages Using HTML: Part 1

Instructor: Thomas Hayes
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:00-5:00pm

How To Make Web Pages Using HTML: Part 2

Thursday, August 14, 2008 1:00-5:00pm

Introduction to Pachyderm

Instructor: Jared Bendis
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 3:00-6:00pm

Understanding RSS Feeds

Instructor: Brian Gray
Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:00am-Noon

Video Workshop I: Introduction To Digital Video

Instructor: Jared Bendis
Thursday, July 10, 2008 3:00-6:00pm

Video Workshop II: Advanced Digital Video

Instructor: Jared Bendis
Prerequisite: Introduction to Digital Video
Thursday, July 17, 2008 3:00-6:00pm

The main Case Web server, Aurora, will be upgraded on May 19th. If you're an end user you shouldn't notice a thing, but if you maintain a Web site on this server there are a few things you should prepare for. If you maintain a Case site and have not read about the upgrade in Case Daily and received email notifications from the Aurora managers, please read the following.

Who should prepare for the server upgrade?

Only people who maintain sites on the main Case Web server will be affected by the upgrade. If you maintain a Web site on http://blog.case.edu, http://filer.case.edu, a departmental server or through a Web hosting service this upgrade won't affect you.

I'm not sure which server I use. How can I tell?

Sites on the main server have urls similar to http://www.case.edu/division/department/sitename/. If your site has an address such as http://sitename.case.edu it is probably not on the main server. Another way to check which server you are using is to check the host to which you upload your files. If you upload files to your site by FTP'ing to wwwftp.case.edu, your site is on the main server.

Check to see that you are registered as the maintainer of record

Authentication to the new server will be done using the Central Authentication Service instead of account specific usernames and passwords. To access your account you will need to ensure that you are listed as the primary maintainer so that your Case user ID will be attached to the account.

Visit the Aurora Maintainer Contact List to verify that you are listed as the primary maintainer of your account(s). If you are not listed as the maintainer, you should fill out an Aurora Project Inclusion Request form and Fax it to 216.368.3165.

Uploading files to the new server.

The new server will use WebDAV rather than FTP to upload files. If you are currently using Dreamweaver to upload files this will require only minor modifications to your current settings. I'll provide further information about WebDAV later this week. Upload instructions are also available on the Case Wiki.

Including server side includes (ssi) files

Due to tightened security, users who include .ssi files using code such as <#include file="../filename.ssi"> will need to change "file" to "virtual" as illustrated here: <#include virtual="../filename.ssi"> . If you don't make this change users will see [an error occurred while processing this directive] instead of your included content. Note, this only applies to paths beginning with ../ paths such as <!--#include file="ssi/related.ssi" --> will continue to work as usual. SSI instructions are also available on the Case Wiki.

Controlling Access to Your Site's Content (Password protecting files and directories)

If you have been using A.P.A.S. utilities to configure access control for your site, you shouldn't need to change anything now. Your current restrictions will be transferred over to the new server. When adding or modifying such restrictions in the future you will use access rules defined within .htaccess, .htpasswd and .htgroup files as appropriate. This will provide more flexibility and is in keeping with common Web practices. I will blog more about access rules in the coming weeks. Access instructions are also available on the Case Wiki.

Conclusion

If you have read the above, ensured that you are registered as your site's maintainer, and checked your server side includes files you should be in good shape for the change. If you would like to see a preview of your site on the new server you may do so by changing www to w07 in the url for your site. For instance the home page can be viewed at http://w07.case.edu/. Additional information is available on the www.case.edu page on the Case Wiki.

Web Server Upgrade Resources

• Aurora server upgrade information on the Case Wiki
• Introduction to WebDAV (includes instructions for Macintosh)
• Uploading files with the WebDrive WebDAV client for Windows
• Uploading files with Dreamweaver (WebDAV)

University Web Developers

Do you ever wish you could network more easily with your fellow Web developers at Case, and beyond?

If so, how would you would you want this to work? Would you want to communicate by listserv as the writers do with wordnerds@case.edu? Would you follow discussions on the Case Forums? Or would you want something more robust?

Gretchen Denaro—from the Annual Fund Office—and I have been discussing this lately and think it may be useful to create our own social media network where anyone interested in Web development or online communications at Case could go to share ideas and ask questions. Here on the Web Development Blog it's easy to get a good discussion going in the comments, but I'm still driving the topic. In the space we're envisioning, you could take the lead, starting topics on anything of interest, from writing and content development to search engine optimization and Web marketing strategies.

Example: University Web Developers Network

I've recently joined this relatively new network (which grew out of a popular listserv) where Web developers from a variety of colleges and universities come together to ask questions and discuss Web development issues. The site currently has 353 members who converse in a central forum, join topical discussion groups and post videos and photos. Each member gets his/her own page on which he/she can provide personal/business information, include an RSS feed or even start a blog. From what I've experienced so far it seems like a great way to share ideas and discover best practices with one's peers. Whether you're running a large school or department Web site or just dabbling in the Web part time, you may find this a very useful community to join.

University Web Developers was established using the popular Ning social network service developed in 2004 by Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Mosaic) and Gina Bianchini. Ning allows anyone to easily create a social network serving a specific area of interest. As such we could have one just for Web developers at Case Western Reserve University.

If I build it would you come? Creating such a place is fairly simple, but will you use it? If so should I make it invitation only—to restrict it to members of the campus community—or should we make it more open so that any friends of Case can join? Think about it and let me know.

In the meantime: Web Development at Case is now on Facebook

I've recently set up a Facebook page for Web development at Case. I've pulled in the feed from this blog and asked one discussion question, so there isn't much in the way of new content, but you are all encouraged to become a fan and help get things started. It's not as robust as a Ning network, but it's a place to begin. We may find that this page is sufficient to the task, we may find we want more. It's up to you, so try it out and give me your feedback. If you think a Facebook group would be more helpful, I could create that too.

Coming soon:

In upcoming posts I'll review my experiments in social media and continue our discussion regarding site navigation. In the meantime, you may be interested in Wayne Smallman's article, The Ideal Homepage design, his follow-up to my previous post on home page navigation.

Gina is just settling in right now, getting her computers configured and such, but we'll soon have her busy building sites, answering questions, and sharing her insights here on the Web Development blog. (In fact I'll be tagging her to follow up on a blog meme later today.)