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Thursday, March 16
Thu, Mar 16 Morning Featured Article
by
tecHead
on Thu 16 Mar 2006 07:59 AM EST
Fun Free Feed Tools for Both the Publisher and the Reader
By Tinu AbayomiPaul
As youÂ’ve probably been reading, there are basically three problems many webmasters have with web feeds (that is,
among those who are already familiar with them on a basic level).
The three concerns I hear the most are:
"How do I deal with the bandwidth hit?"
"Is there a way to include information that isnÂ’t in the automated resource I use to populate my feed without touching
any code?"
and
"Where can I find a cost-effective, simple way to display feeds on my site?"
Say Goodbye to Bandwidth Overages with FeedBurner
http://feedburner.com (http://feedburner.com)
If youÂ’re a publisher, chances are, youÂ’re familiar with the bandwidth increase that occurs every time your audience
reads the latest update to your feed that for some webmasters lead to the possibility of exceeding monthly bandwidth
limitations. ThereÂ’s an easy solution.
Burn your feed with FeedBurner. TheyÂ’re happy to take the burden off your server. (And yes, they say, FeedBurner is
one word.)
Whether youÂ’ve just created your news feed or you have been RSS-ing for years, you can create a free account at their
site. Their service will also:
translate your feed from Atom to RSS or vice versa,
make a browser-friendly page that explains what web feeds are to the new user,
allow you to splice any link into your feed using some of the more popular social bookmarking services.
FeedBurner also allows you to study your demographic by giving you statistics on how many request have been made for
your feed contents, down to the item if you like.
Though I offer both the burned version of my feed and the original to my audience, they love the extra information my
FeedBurned link provides them.
Social Bookmarking -Share More Info with Less Hassle
http://furl.net (http://furl.net)
http://bloglines.com (http://bloglines.com)
http://del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us)
Social bookmarking allows you to create a bookmark online, and share those bookmarks via RSS.
Some services even allow you to share your collection of links, as you can do with the service from del.icio.us . Furl.
net, newly acquired by LookSmart, also adds the capability of saving an old version of a page you have visited with
the bookmark feature. And at Bloglines, you can get ezine subscriptions via feed by subscribing through a special
address they give you.
All three of these services can be coupled with FeedBurner to splice external links - or other internal links from
your own site - into the "burned" version of your feed.
Display links on your site for free with RSS Digest
http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/ (http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/)
You've heard about the value of displaying feeds from other sites (with permission of the publisher, of course) on
your site. The theory is that the frequently updated headlines add freshness to your site, which results in more
frequent visits from search engine spiders. This can lead to better rankings for the site carrying the headlines, and
more backlinks for the feed publisher. Everybody wins.
For the most part, IÂ’ve found this to be true, with a feed that frequently updates, at sites that have suitable
content for both the visitor and the spiders to enjoy.
The trouble for many smaller web property owners is finding a cost-effective manner in which to employ this technique.
Most free tools that do this with javascript are fine for site publishers who are using the headlines for content,
but if you also want the search engine benefits, it doesnÂ’t help as many spiders donÂ’t register content that appears
in this format.
RSS Digest will do this for you in HTML, as recently reported in Search Engine Journal.
ItÂ’s not as sophisticated a tool as CARP or RSS Equalizer, but if you want to offer your feed to an audience and they
don't mind using an IFRAME or pasting PHP code into their pages, this will do the job just fine.
If youÂ’re good at supplying tips, finding resources, or locating fresh information, after viewing some news feeds for
yourself, you might find that youÂ’re ready to take the next step and publish one. If youÂ’re already a publisher,
utilizing some of these free tools may help you build a better feed.
Either way, good luck!
Copyright 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul
Tinu saw a 75% increase in site traffic using only promotion of her web feeds, not taking into account increased
exposure in search engines. She compiled her findings into a quick, ever-evolving guide this past July that you can
download from http://www.freetraffictip.com (http://www.freetraffictip.com), in addition to the semi-daily free
traffic tips youÂ’ll find in her blog.
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Wed, Mar 15 Evening Featured Article
by
tecHead
on Wed 15 Mar 2006 12:59 PM EST
Gary Giddins & Christopher Lydon to Speak in Boston Feb 7
By PRWEB
(http://pdfserver.prweb.com/pdfdownload/
196785/pr.pdf) Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document. (http://pdfserver.prweb.com/pdfdownload/196785/
pr.pdf>Download)
Gary Giddins, Christopher Lydon, Roger Brown, Bob Blumenthal, Donal Fox, Ann McQueen discuss "The Future of Jazz in
Boston, Part 2."
(PRWEB) January 13, 2005 -- The Jazz Journalists Association will present, "The Future of Jazz in Boston, Part 2," on
Monday, February 7, 2005, 6:30-9:30 pm, at the Regattabar at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA. Panelists are:
Christopher Lydon and Donal Fox, co moderators; Gary Giddins, jazz journalist and author; Roger Brown, President of
Berklee College of Music; Ann McQueen, Program Officer, Boston Foundation; and Bob Blumenthal, consultant to Marsalis
Music. The event is free and open to the public.
Panelists will address the topic of the business of jazz and how arts, culture and economics affect the arts in Boston
and across America. They will discuss how changing audience and marketing trends are affecting the arts–jazz in
particular–both in Boston and beyond, and how musicians and the industry may direct their efforts to benefit the
needs of ticket-buyers, musicians. recording companies, funding organizations, marketers and presenters in a positive
and productive way. They hope to begin an assessment of the economic impact of jazz on the City of Boston including
tuition, club revenues, advertising dollars, retailers, engineers, tourism, etc.
The association's November panel at Scullers Jazz Club had over 160 attendees and included panelists Steve Bensusan,
President, Blue Note; Bill Beuttler,jazz journalist, Boston Globe; Steve Charbonneau, Program Manager, WGBH Radio;
Donal Fox, composer and pianist; Fenton Hollander, Executive Director, Water Music/Mainstage; Producer, Real Deal
Jazz Club & Cafe, Cambridge; Maggie Scott, jazz vocalist and vocal teacher, Berklee College of Music; Fred Taylor,
Entertainment Director, Scullers Jazz Club, Boston; Owner, HT Productions, and was moderated by Jon Hammond, WRIU
Radio, Kingston, Rhode Island.
Christopher Lydon has been a distinctive voice in print, television and radio journalism for more than 30 years. He
covered presidential campaigns for the New York Times, anchored "The Ten O'Clock News" on WGBH TV, and founded "The
Connection" on national public radio. He is a pioneer audioblogger whose recent work is posted at Christopher Lydon
Interviews (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/ (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/)) and on the group blog BOPNews
(http://www.bopnews.com/ (http://www.bopnews.com/)) which he founded last year to cover "the Blogging of the
President, 2004."
Gary Giddins wrote the Village Voice column, Weather Bird" for 30 years. His eight books and three documentary films
have garnered unparalleled recognition for jazz, including a National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, two
Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Awards, five ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards, a Peabody and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Giddins
received national attention for his commentary in the Ken Burns Jazz series on public television.
His most recent book, Weatherbird (Oxford University Press, November 2004) is a collection of over 140 essays, reviews
and articles written over a fourteen year period with an illuminating commentary on contemporary jazz events, on
today's top musicians, on the best records of the year and on leading figures from the past. Other highlights include
a look at avant-garde music and his controversial essay, "How Come Jazz Isn't Dead," which advances a theory about
the way art is born exploited, celebrated and sidelined to the museum.
Roger Brown is President of Berklee College of Music, the world's largest independent music college and premier
learning lab for contemporary music. Brown assumed the role in June 2004 as the third president–and the first who is
not a member of the Berk family–in Berklee's 59-year history. Brown's earlier career was co-founder and CEO of Bright
Horizons Family Solutions and Bright Horizons Foundation for Children. He was the recipient of the 1999 Caring
Corporation Award from the Child Care Action Campaign in recognition of his advocacy for better early childhood
education. He was named the "National Entrepreneur of the Year" in 1996 by Ernst and Young/USA Today, and "Best
Entrepreneur" by Businessweek Magazine in 1997.
Bob Blumenthal began writing jazz criticism in 1969 for Boston After Dark (later known as the Boston Phoenix) while in
college and continued to contribute to that paper though 1989. After serving as guest critic for The Boston Globe
during its jazz festival for a decade, he became a regular Globe contributor in 1990 and a weekly columnist in 1993,
and continued in both roles until 2002.
Throughout these years, during which he worked as an attorney, primarily for the Massachusetts Department of
Education, Blumenthal was also contributing to The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Down Beat and
JazzTimes, and writing numerous album notes. He was one of six commissioners for the Recording Indusry Association of
America who selected the White House Record Library during the Carter Administration and currently serves on the
boards of the Jazz Alliance International and the All Newton Music School.
Blumenthal has received Grammy Awards for best album notes in 1999 for Coltrane: The Classic Quartet/Complete Impulse!
StudioRecordings and in 2000 for Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-61, as well as
the Jazz Journalists Association Excellence in Feature and Review Writing Award in 2001. In March 2002, Blumenthal
became the permanent creative consultant to Marsalis Music, the record label founded by saxophonist Branford Marsalis.
Donal Fox is an internationally acclaimed composer, pianist and improviser in both the jazz and classical fields. His
numerous awards include a 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, a 1998 Fellowship from the Bogliasco
Foundation (Italy) and 1999, 2001 and 2003 nominations for a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts.
Fox served as the first African American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony from 1991-1992. In the 1993-
94 season, Mr. Fox was a special guest artist at the Library of Congress in a program that was recorded by National
Public Radio and was a visiting artist at Harvard University where he received a Certificate of Recognition from the
President of Harvard College for his contribution to the arts In the 2003-2004 season he was featured concert artist
with the American Composer Orchestra Improvise Festival! where he gave the New York premier performance of T. J.
Anderson's piano concerto Boogie Woogie Concertante with the MSM Jazz Philharmonic at LaGuardia Concert Hall. The
concerto was written especially for Mr. Fox and asks for him to improvise all the solo passages and cadenzas in the
eight movement work with spontaneous interactive dialogue with the orchestra.
Fox's exciting and innovative "Jazz Duet Series" has included concerts and collaborations with Oliver Lake, John
Stubblefield, Billy Pierce, David Murray, Elliott Sharp, Regina Carter, Stefon Harris, Al Foster, Gary Burton, John
Patitucci and poet Quincy Troupe. He has recorded as composer and pianist for New World Records, Evidence Records,
Music & Arts, Passin' Thru Records, Yamaha's Original Artist Series and Wergo Records.
Ann McQueen is Program Officer of the Arts Fund at the Boston Foundation with primary responsibility for grantmaking
to organizations working in arts and culture and in the urban environment. She is actively involved in research and
convening on behalf of the interests of those sectors and works with the Foundation's development team in cultivating
gifts and grants for the endowed Arts Fund. In 2003, the Boston Foundation headed a major study on "Funding for
Cultural Organizations in Boston and Nine Other Metropolitan Areas" that documented a local cultural sector that
rivals that of large cities but noted that Boston's cultural organizations suffer from a lack of support from
corporate, foundation and government resources.
The JJA panel will be held from 6:30-9:30 pm at the Regattabar at the Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge, MA.
It is free and open to the public. Mr. Giddins will hold a booksigning and Mr. Fox will have CD's available at the
event.
Henrietta's Table, the restaurant on the second floor of the Charles Hotel, will offer a 10% discount beginning at
5:30 pm to those who are planning to attend the panel by notifying their server or the host. Parking tickets will be
validated at the Regattabar and will offer the regular club discount.
The Jazz Journalists Association is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization of internationally-based writers, editors,
photographers, broadcasters and media specialists who institute collegial and educational programs for the
appreciation, documentation and promulgation of jazz. As of January 2005, JJA comprises more than 400 members, mostly
in the US and Canada, but also in Australia, Europe, the UK, Japan, Mexico, Moscow, South Africa and South America.
For more information on the JJA or the panel presentation February 7, contact Dawn Singh at 857-544-0739 or e-mail
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