Author: Mack Male

Mack is an entrepreneurial journalist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has been writing about urban affairs since 2008 and is the co-founder of Taproot Edmonton.

Blogging Site Idea! Feedback needed!

Hi there!

We are writing to tell you about a project we are planning and want you to be a part of! We want to create a cool place to have a blog. Not sure what a blog is? You can take a look at ours for an example:

Dickson – http://blog.dicksonwong.com
Mack – http://blog.mastermaq.ca

You can post whatever you want! Topics of discussion, a diary, whatever you want, its up to you! Nothing is censored!

Now whats that you say? We’re crazy, there is already places like blogger.com? Yes we know, but are they cool? Are they run by your friends? Can you ask blogger.com to change something if required? Nope! And thats what we want to create! A cool friendly place for you to blog.

So here’s the plan:

1) We buy the domain and host the blogs
2) You give us your username and we setup your blog (takes around 10 seconds)
3) You blog at will!

All we need from you is help picking a name! Here are some ideas we have had so far:

CanadianBloggers.com/.ca
MapleLeafBloggers.com/.ca
Blogeh.com/ca
Blog-Eh.com/ca

Have a suggestion for a name? Let us know! Think we are crazy and this isn’t something you would do? Let us know!

And most importantly, this site will be free for you to use!

Thanks,

Mack & Dickson

Corporate Blogging

Scoble has a really interesting post on corporate blogging. I think he makes a number of excellent points, and I hope there are some companies out there reading him. If companies blogged, they would seem less like some corporate entity, and instead more like a friendly resource.

Take for instance Creative. I have a SoundBlaster Audigy, which is a really great sound card, but also has its fair share of issues. Just run a Google search and you will find out about the “Squeal of Death”. Well instead of hiding away and leaving customers out to dry for the longest time, if Creative had a blog they could have posted messages along the way. “There is a problem? Okay lets look at that.” and “Yes we see this issue, more and more people are experiencing it.” and most importantly “We are working hard to come up with some new drivers”. That last one gets me, for the longest time there was NOTHING on their site. A blog could have at least made me feel like they were TRYING.

On of the projects I have been working on is a new website design for Paramagnus. I think I will definitely be including RSS and Atom feeds in that design. Especially as a small software company, I can see blogs as a very effective way for us to do marketing (Scoble mentions this power of weblogs too).

[Listening to: Think About Me – Goo Goo Dolls – Gutterflower (04:00)]

50 First Dates

I went to see this movie on Friday with a bunch of people – awesome! I think it is easily one of Adam Sandler’s best movies, very funny, but definitely a Valentine’s movie 🙂 And don’t worry, like most Sandler movies, Rob Schneider is on board, and is very funny!

As luck would have it, I got into the movie for free (helps to know people who work at the theater!) which is really great considerng prices have gone up again!! Now its $13.95 for a ticket…insanity!

[Listening to: Come Clean – Hilary Duff – Metamorphosis (03:32)]

Atom or RSS?

Now that I have been “in the blogosphere” for a while, I have learned quite a bit about the subject. One of the most important aspects of blogs, is their unique publishing capabilities. Most blogs do this using one of two formats (or sometimes both) – RSS and Atom.

Some might say that there is a turf war going on between the two syndication formats. Yahoo has supported RSS, and Google (which owns blogger.com) is supporting Atom. I think that the topic is entirely irrelevant, for the following reasons:

  • Dave Winer (creator of RSS) has said the format is frozen at 2.0
  • Atom is an open specification and will continue to grow
  • Lots of tools already support both formats

Personally, I like the way Atom is going. RSS is currently the most popular throughout the blogosphere, but I expect that as people start to see the improvements Atom offers (and as RSS ages), a switch is probable. One thing is clear however, at least one of these formats is going to be extremely popular if blogging continues to grow.

On that note, I really don’t like that some tools (such as Xanga) do not offer any feeds, RSS or Atom! All blogs should have a subscription feature of some sort (and not the sign up to continue to read online kind). One of the great things about blogs is that you don’t have to visit a website to read them!

[Listening to: (There’s Gotta Be) More to Life – Stacie Orrico – Stacie Orrico (03:20)]