Karlie Robinson

New Business blog

2011-01-24T12:42:00.000-05:00

Hi all! I've just created a new business topics blog at karlierobinson.com

The business content that I've already written will still be here, but any new topics will be posted at the new blog. Other topics such as linux, Software, knitting and other crafty things will still be hanging around here for the time being.

~Karlie

TEDxRochester 2010 - Bridging the Digital Divide

2010-11-27T14:35:00.000-05:00

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. ~Mark Twain

Truer words were never spoken! It took me longer to put together the 6 minute slide deck for TEDxRochester than it did to prepare for any of the other talks I gave in 2010.

The good news is that it did get done and I think the presentation went off without a hitch. I also promised the slides would become available in the Fedora Project wiki in case you'd like to give an encore performance or build it into something bigger and better.

In the TED tradition, the presentations are also available for viewing in case you couldn't make the event.

Herlo's blanket - Completed Project

2010-10-26T14:05:00.000-04:00

I finally got the blanket for Herlo's son done. What do you think? Click the picture to get a larger image.

It took a little longer than expected to finish because my schedule has been a bit busier than normal lately.

My hope is that I'll get it in the mail today or tomorrow and by this weekend, there will be a little Fedorian snuggled under it.

The stitch pattern is simply linen stitch except it's worked with two colors of yarn.

To start the blanket, I cast on 150 stitches with Color A (Chocolate Brown) and switched to Color B (Seafoam) for the first and second row. Then back to the brown for rows 3 and 4.

The knitting in the image above is actually on it's side. The cast on and cast-off are the long edges, but I don't suppose it makes much difference what direction you travel while knitting. If you'd like a better idea of what the work looks like as your knitting, the image to the left ought to do it for you.

Personally, I like longer runs because turning the work tends to break me out of the zone. I suppose I'm spoiled by knitting in the round.

I simply knitted until the piece measured a rough square, or about a skein and a half. The knitting then found it's rectangle shape in the washer. With every other stitch slipped, you shouldn't get too hung up on what the shape it really is until the yarn finds it's natural location. You could block it back to a square, but for a baby blanket that's going to be washed a lot, natural, unblocked is a good way to go.

Help Wanted - Fortune Hunter Math Adventure

2010-10-18T10:05:00.004-04:00

Late last week I had the opportunity to check in with RIT to see how student projects were coming along. To my surprise, the Fortune Hunter team has plans to push out a release by the end of the year. But to do that, they recognize that they need to push development beyond the borders of RIT and actively recruit from the FOSS community as a whole.

First, I should say that Fortune Hunter is a dungeon scenario role playing game where players navigate a series of rooms, collect items and battle various creatures by solving math problems.

Though I'd have to say that one of my favorite concepts in the game is the shop. The idea is that if the player wants to barter for special items they must deal with the shopkeeper in a realistic manner. Offer too little money and you'll get snubbed. Offer too much and the shopkeeper will gladly take the money and use it against you later on.

So what does the Fortune Hunter team need? Truthfully they need Artists and Pythonistas who can elevate the code quality. Jon writes -

What would actually be extremely helpful would be some programmers. Currently, the team is lacking any experts in that realm and to be honest, they would probably save us a whole lot of time and help us progress much further to push and get more done.

Jon compiled a short list of needs and promised that there would be more organization to the project to help new contributors and the project reach it's release goal.

If you, or someone you know could help get this release out, please don't hesitate to contact Jon and the team. You can get details in the Fortune Hunter wiki and you can get copies of the game in the GIT repo if you'd like to test the game and Fortune Maker engine.

Image - Fortune Hunter Logo from the SugarLabs.org wiki

Gearing up for FSOSS

2010-10-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

This morning I received my speakers packet for the Free Software and Open Source Symposium taking place at Seneca College in Toronto in a couple of weeks.

For those of you feeling the vacuum that the Ontario GNU/Linux Fest left, this might be a good alternative for you.

Just be aware that early-bird registration ends October 8 and it's a significant discount. Especially for Students!

As far as the feel of the two conferences.... I won't pretend that OGLF and FSOSS occupied the same niche, because they always catered to a slightly diffrent audiences. OGLF was more of a user conference and FSOSS is geared at academic use and leading edge development.

That's not to say that all the topics covered at Seneca are advanced, or that topics at OGLF didn't meet the needs of hard-core hackers. It's just that the topics are focused on a slightly different area of the spectrum that is Open Source.

In any case, if you're looking for a nice little conference in a great city, I'd highly recommend registering for FSOSS.

Wanted: Design Ninjas

2010-10-05T08:57:00.001-04:00

There's another way for university students to participate in Open Source, and this week it comes by way of the Fedora Design bounty.

Máirín Duffy writes in her blog:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a street-wearable, stylish T-shirt for folks involved with the Fedora Students Contributing project. This T-shirt should be something these folks can wear proudly, and it would be totally cool if it was a design eye-catching enough to elicit questions from passers-by, “Where did you get that T-shirt?” or “What’s Fedora?” I’m hoping it will open up the way for a conversation to share what Fedora is and what it’s about.

If you'd like to know what's in it for you, or get info on how to participate pop over to Mo's blog post "Fedora Design Bounty: ‘Fedora Students Contributing’ T-Shirt" for plenty of links to get you started.

Ninja by Hector Gomez from openclipart.org – Public Domain.

Color play with Linen Stitch

2010-10-04T14:27:00.004-04:00

Last year, I made a blanket for my nephew, Luke. Well, I'm at it again, but this time I'm not sure who'll get this blanket, but I'm making it anyway.

I'm using the same Seafoam (sorry it's washed out, my camera is only so-so and the scanner didn't quite grab the color either) and Brown yarns that I had left over from Luke's but this time I'm doing a 2 color linen stitch. Depending on how you look at it, it seems to zig-zag, or checker-board. But no matter how I look at it, I'm loving the visual.

I even like the back of linen stitch. If you click the image above, you'll see what I'm talking about. The front is on the bottom and the back is at an angle at the top of the picture.

So if you'd like to knit along with me, you'll need...
Worsted weight yarn in two colors (Color A, Color B). If you're not sure about the amount you should buy, ask your local LYS Staff to help you out.

Needles - I'm knitting back and forth using US 11s on a 24 inch circular, but the gauge is 4.75 sts per inch or about 19 per 4 inches, so, as always, if you're worried about the gauge, please choose needles that give you the size you're looking for.

Using color A, Cast on 150 stitches. I've been using a Crochet Cast-on because I like that it matches my bind off.

Row 1, with Color b, begin linen stitch for the Right side
Row 2 , with Color b, Linen stich for the wrong side.
Row 3, Color A Linen stitch for the Right side.
Row, Color A for the wrong side.

Carry your colors up the side to cut down on weaving in ends.

You might also want to consider adding a third color to the mix. Just switch colors every row. Don't worry about keeping track of which to use, the pattern will present itself - really, it only takes a moment or two to catch on to which yarn comes next.

Also, If you take a moment to untangle and move your unused yarns out of your way when you're switching colors you'll avoid making a giant knot.

The sample on the right was knitted using an el-cheapo pack of pearl cotton skeins I found in the embroidery section of the craft store.

I was experimenting with color combinations by starting with a random length and then adding in a new color as they ran out.

If you click the image, you'll get a high def image to examine. If you look closely, you'll see that I started at the bottom with dark blue, light blue, and orange.

Dark blue ran out first, and was replaced with dark green and then light blue was replaced with yellow. My color selection technique was to randomly grab a color out of a bag. I knew I could find complementary colors, but what I was really looking for was what "clashing" colors might look like.

What I found was that, yes, some are more pleasing combination than others, but when mixed like they are, there's noting that's too outrageous. In fact, I was really disappointed that my first 3 colors were blue, blue and orange. It felt too much like team colors rather than anything fashionable, but the tonal colors with a bright looked pretty good together. Not sure I'd make a sweater for the office with those, but as an accent piece it would be stunning.

It now has me thinking about my stash of odd balls and yarns that make me (and my husband) wonder what I was thinking when I bought them. Perhaps they could be mixed into a pleasing Linen stitch throw or other object.

Linen stitch is also quite firm, and doesn't curl, so I'm thinking of a cotton bath mat, to keep my good towels off the floor. I'll let you know when I cast on.

~Karlie

BitNami - I think I'm in love

2010-10-01T10:25:00.001-04:00

Those of you who've known me for a while know that I'm a fan of beginning with the finishing touches whenever I can. While the idea sounds easy enough, it's not a fool-proof method of building business applications especially when you consider the prep that is involved.

To begin a website with the finishing touches, we need to start with the idea that any computer can become a server. All you need are the appropriate applications to announce your presence to the world.

The thing is, the "appropriate software" is a list of things such as

an operating system - Microsoft, Apple, Linux, or another.
server software - Apache, LAMP, MAMP, etc.
the database - MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc.
software for any languages your applications will be using - PHP, Ruby, Perl, etc.

After all those are up and running you're ready to install your Content Management System, eLearning, Photo Gallery, or whatever else you might need to conquer the internet.

While this may not sound like too many steps, for those without a lot of experience, the process may not be as straightforward as it sounds. The term "Dependency Hell" comes to mind when I think about how the process could turn sour.

This morning, however, I stumbled upon BitNami. While I haven't had the chance to use it yet, the idea has me fluttering with the first blush of puppy love.

BitNami offers to simplify deployment of many of the internet applications that I recommend to SCORE and Webpath clients like Joomla, DruPal and others.

I'd suggest you take a look at their site for complete information, but, in short, the beauty of BitNami comes through in the steps that follow the operating system in my list above.

Rather than downloading and installing all of the other components separately, the BitNami stack does it for you. The server software, programming language support, database, and application come together in one tidy install.

Now I'm not saying that there won't be tweaks left to perform, but when you're jumping ahead to the spit-polish phase, BitNami can make it easier for you to get there.

Now I'm not all raves at this point. One major shortcoming is that they're lacking any sort of shopping cart system like OSCommerce or Magento. But like most projects, a quick trip to their forums show me that you could request an application. I even saw that OSCommerce will come down the pipe if there are enough votes for it.

I'll be keeping my eye on BitNami because I think it holds a lot of potential to help small businesses get up and running faster. Faster also means less money out-of-pocket. Especially if/when the offerings grow and more of my favorite FOSS Internet suites are available.

Master of Disaster Chef

2010-09-19T11:36:00.002-04:00

I like to think that I'm a good cook. I can prepare meals that both family and company rave over, but in a lot of ways I'm a novice.

Take this weekend's project - A small birthday party for my now 6 year-old son, Quintin.

Since his birthday was 10 days after the start of school and he didn't remember the last names of any of the children he wanted to invite, it was a very last minute affair.

Lucky for me, Q is fairly easy to please and agreed to a make-your-own-pizza-and-cupcake party.

Being my Master-chef self, I whipped up a batch of dough and cooked up 20 flat breads for the kids to make pizza on.

Don't they look delicious? Well they were, and a hit with the parents too.

The Disaster Chef part comes in when you look at the cupcakes I made.

They looked more like a volcanic eruption than anything edible. In fact I was so embarrassed by those monstrosities that I stopped at Sugary Moon and purchased proper cupcakes for the kids to decorate.

I realize that it was probably an over-fill situation, but I was certain that two tablespoons of batter in an ice cream cone would allow plenty of expansion space... I was wrong.

The good news is that I've vowed to perfect my cone-cakes. I had such high hopes when I sent away for the baking pan/carrier that I just can't justify giving up. Not to mention the fact that the kids are more than willing to help me dispose of any future rejects.

Guest Lecture This Morning at RIT

2010-09-14T08:49:00.000-04:00

In just a little while I'll be heading over to RIT to give a short talk on FOSS Community Collaborations.

For those who are interested in the slide deck, I've uploaded them to the Fedora Wiki.

As you can see from this picture it has girl-y goodness through out. Why so girl-y for this talk? It has nothing to do with the topic. It's not from a girl point of view, or for any other psychological reason. I just liked it and never use the same background twice. Each presentation is Unique. So watch for the next upload for something new to look at.

List of embedded links are below for ease of clicking. And feel free to leave comments below if you have questions about the presentation.

~Karlie

Visual Collaboration

IRC

On Failure

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100823162322.htm

On general community Etiquette

http://theopensourceway.org/book/The_Open_Source_Way-How_to_tell_if_a_FLOSS_project_is_doomed_to_FAIL.html

Slide Background image -
“Colorful flowers” by Martine Lemmens

Kicking off the Fall Quarter at RIT

2010-09-07T16:53:00.000-04:00

This morning I was able to attend the first session of RIT's Humanitarian FOSS class.

As some of you know, the class has been running since Spring of 2009, but this time around it seemed like a much better start than we've had over the previous quarters the class is run.

While I'd like to point you to the one thing that has me feeling more positive about the course, the truth is, there isn't one thing.

Instead, it's lots of little things that have morphed into what looks like it's going to be a well oiled machine. Of course I know that won't be the case because there will be things to work on no matter how well the class goes.

But still, I walked away feeling really positive and energized about this quarters syllabus and the students in the class. I'm really psyched about the newly regrouped Pythonistas and Rochester OLPC user group being combined to better support the class.

Next Tuesday I'll be giving a short guest lecture on FOSS Community mores. It will cover some basics like using IRC and what we feel is effective communication. I've also been asked to work "How to tell if a FLOSS project is doomed to FAIL" into the slides as well.

I'll post my slides when I get them done, so watch for those on the TOS wiki.

~Karlie

Thoughts of knitting

2010-07-31T08:29:00.003-04:00

Ever have sleepless nights because you have too many thoughts running through your mind? Well that was me this morning. But rather than worries, knitting was on my mind.

It's a funny thing too. I had taken a few months hiatus from Knitting because I didn't have anything to knit. I still checked out knitting books from the library, browsed patterns online and tried to secretly study how my co-workers sweaters were constructed, but I didn't have anything interesting enough to cast on.

A couple of weeks ago, I began doodling with sock yarn in the evenings only to frog it out just before I went to bed and eventually came up with a project. Excited to get going, I ignored my wrist and have been paying for it for the last few days.

So here I am in bed this morning trying to get back to sleep and all I can think about is sticks, strings and stitches.

In fact, I'm thinking about a blanket based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac April Mystery Blanket. But, instead of uniform squares, what about a mix of sizes and even some rectangle shapes... More like random tiles or a stone wall?

Hmmm. Might have to spend a few more mornings thinking about that one.

abstract knit by missa h.

Positioning Yourself as a FOSS Service Provider

2010-07-21T12:05:00.010-04:00

In my previous posts, (1, 2) I've been talking about why Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMB) need Linux and Open Source solutions. I've also talked about Open Source industries. But what we haven't covered is getting in the game.

While I could go high tech here or dazzle you with business terms, the truth is, going into business only requires that you understand the ground rules.

Think of it in terms of poker or any other game. Yes, it might take you a while to develop the skills you need to be really good at the game, but one of the most important steps is learning the rules and understanding what makes for a winning hand.

No matter how unique your method of doing business, or your business model, you will need to pick up the basic skills and techniques. But just because you may not have a full tool kit at the outset doesn't mean you can't get started. Especially if you surround yourself with people who have the strengths you need.

The really good news is that you can get the basics lots of places. There are countless business resources online and many in your local community. If you're in the United States, SCORE offers free business counseling and low cost workshops and the SBA sponsors Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) where you can also get free counseling and learn the basics of writing a business plan, accounting best practices and other essential skills.

Where you'll find it getting tricky is getting past the no-cost mindset when you, and your clientele, begin thinking about free software solutions. I can tell you that the early years of my FOSS business were rough until I figured out how to properly position ourselves in the market place.

Our business model needed to be tweaked more than once to be sure our potential customers could see the value in doing business with us. In some cases we raised our prices, others we lowered them. In some instances we dove into the marketing plan, hammering out little details and studying our customers.

As I have branched out and helped other FOSS projects think about their positioning I've found the biggest issue is marketing messaging. You see, it isn't about what they wanted to say about their latest and greatest update, but about what the customer needs to hear.

While that statement could be interpreted as the sort of thing con-artists do, it's not about trickery, but about point of view.

Think about it this way... What are the key things high level geeks think about when it comes to setting up a new computer? Processor speeds, RAM, Kernel version, getting the proper video drivers and all those other spec sheet gems.

Now think about what a business owner wants to know. They want to know how much it's going to cost. Is there going to be any down time? Will their employees adopt the new tech and use it effectively? Who'll be able to solve any problems that may arise? Why should they trust that a free download isn't going to be a lemon? If it's so great, why is it free?

My best advice, DON'T Underestimate the importance of re-programming your thinking so that you can step away from the for-geeks-by-geeks FLOSS marketing that you're use to seeing. If needed, find someone familiar with FOSS and SMB speak to translate for you.

The reality is that the barriers to starting a successful business aren't that big if you've got the right mindset going in. Again, a good team of advisers can help you overcome any portion of the business process that you have questions about. The rest comes down to your skills and ability to get the job done to your client's satisfaction.

We've got a winner by Dimitri Castrique

Marketing Software Skills

2010-07-18T11:52:00.008-04:00

If you ask a software developer how to make money writing code, you'll usually get employment or selling applications as your answer. It's my opinion, however, that most are missing the boat and need to think of their skills as a marketable service.

The other answers, while not wrong, have to do with point of view.

If I get a fancy box and shelf space in the big box chain stores, then I'm offering a product. The transaction might even present itself as selling of services – like getting the neighbor kid to mow my lawn. But no matter how you look at it, it all starts with a skill.

If I toss Open Source software into the mix, then I usually have to deal with "Yeah, Right. How am I going to make money competing with a free download?"

Here's the thing, software isn't the only Open Source industry. In fact, many other open source businesses are very profitable and are generally skills that have been around for quite some time.

Let's think about Open Source for a moment. The first line of the Wikipedia article states...

Open Source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials.

To me, it's just the way we've always done things.

Software isn't the only open source skill, in fact I'd say that all of these could be considered open source.

Carpentry
Plumbing
Farming
Repair – Automobiles, Washers, Refrigerators, etc.
Fashion - Sewing, design ideas, etc
And many others

The people who practice these trades might have their own secret sauce, but all can be learned in an open source manner by examining the construction or using freely available information to gain understanding of the process. If I can get a book at the library or search the internet for the information I need, then I consider the industry to be open source.

Let's now consider what it means to be in an open industry where anyone has access to the tools and materials that you do...

Wouldn't the existence of prepackaged seeds put farmers out of business?
What about home improvement stores? Shouldn't that put Plumbers, carpenters and electricians out of business? Does access to scissors put the barber out of business?

With the answer to those questions being a resounding "NO," then why do so many people within the Free and Open Source Software movement think that there's no business opportunities for their skill set?

Yes, there is a bit of a vacuum in the consciousness about the use of Open Source software, but I don't think that it's going to be too hard to overcome.

What the middle market is missing people with marketable skills who are willing to begin offering their services in various formats. It could be shelf ready products, it could be custom work. FOSS could even be offered alongside commercial options.

The thing is, FOSS has so many advantages and one of them is price. If you are a provider and can offer the same services and functionality, but you don't have to undercut your profit to be the less expensive option, that's a big advantage for you and your customer.

So you make more money, they spend less... Talk about bringing value to the table. You're happy, they're happy, the computers are effective. How can you loose?

Up next!

To keep this post on topic and in an easy to digest format, how about we stop here for now.

In the next article I'll talk more about how to position yourself as a service provider and how to set yourself up for a win.

I/O Session II - Lost Bits 1 by Carsten Mueller

Re: Have you seen this?

2010-07-11T11:30:00.004-04:00

On 07/10/2010 09:54 PM, D. S. wrote:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microsoft-imagine-cup

No I hadn't seen it yet, but MS is losing ground to companies like Google and their "Don't be Evil" stance on business. So how does a company become less evil? They start finding projects for the good of the order and shout it from the rooftops every time they do something that's even a little bit generous.

It's actually very cleaver of them from a marketing point of view. They know that they still have market and mind share and while the majority of their clientele isn't looking at FOSS, they're adopting some FOSS like programs to soften up their image.

The biggest thing to consider is the basics of business. Throwing money at a problem isn't usually an effective solution. Yes, MS has lots and lots of money to solve problems with, but FOSS has enough momentum now that no matter what MS does they can't regain the ground they've lost. Their only hope is to slow the exodus now that there is a public awareness of alternatives and that the choices aren't half bad.

My best advice - remember there is choice. When things like this come up, remind people that the HFOSS project has been doing this same thing for a while now. When MS wants to talk Education, bring up OLPC and such. Yes, it's good that they're putting money to good use, but they didn't invent some of these ideas, nor are they the only players on the field.

It no longer has to be about how FOSS is like commercial, but it can be about how commercial has to be like FOSS and behave like human beings to remain relevant in the changing tech environment.

~Karlie

The Business of Linux - Series Start

2010-07-05T09:06:00.007-04:00

It's become quite clear to me that I'll never fit all I want or need to say about the business of Linux in my LinuxCon talk. In fact I could make it a full day workshop and still not cover everything there is to know about making money on products your customers can get for free.

The solution is to begin evaluating what information really needs to be in the presentation and what would be better here. In some cases I've begun shucking slides from the deck and for others I've decided that there needs to be a better explanation of what I'm trying to cram into my allotted time.

With today's post I'm going to start addressing some of the topics that could use a little more depth than what time will allow. I also hope that by exploring the topics here I'll have a better grasp on what is most important to convey when I stand at the front of the room next month. ~Karlie

Midmarket Companies are the Key

Less than a month ago, eWeek published an article titled "Midmarket Companies Steady on PC Purchases, Report Finds."

This article is based on The NPD Group’s Small and Medium size Businesses (SMB) Technology Report.

As you can guess from the name, the midmarket is made of up of companies who sit right between Mom-n-Pop operations and big businesses. They're generally smaller than 500 employees and actually make up most of the US economy.

The first bullet on the slide above is fairly easy to understand - Buying is going up this year. While that's good news, it's the next two that set my heart all a flutter. They show me some really good numbers - Let me explain.

The biggest reason I'm in a very good mood following this report is that the percentages give me a starting point for basing a financial model off of.

Yes, 40% is less than half, and on first look can seem sort of dismal. The thing we need to understand is how big that 40% could really be.

According to the US Census Bureau, there are nearly 5 million businesses with 499 or fewer employees. So if we do a little math, 40% comes out to be approximately 2 Million potential clients. It could be even more if you set your pool to include business with over 500 employees.

We also need to factor in that the estimated market share for Linux is just about 1%. If we assume the market share is the same with SMBs, we're looking at about 20,000 firms to get your feet wet with.

I'd also go out on a limb and suggest that if SMBs began adopting FOSS technologies that 1% market share for Linux would rise rapidly. How far? I don't know exactly, but for every percentage point it jumps you'd be looking at another 20k or so in your national customer pool.

The lesson here is not to get hung up on what constitutes big or small in the business world, or even take a percentage at face value until you understand what those numbers actually represent.

20-Thousand businesses may not seem like that many either, but could you handle that many clients? Probably not while you're just starting out, so 20k is really a fairly large number for you to grow into... Especially if you can grow the Linux adoption rates while you're at it.

Meet Chunk

2010-06-30T14:42:00.005-04:00

We've gone in with a friend on 10 Cornish Cross Chicks. The deal is that we'll split the cost of the feed and the chicks - I'll raise them - he'll butcher.

They'll be a week old tomorrow and all seem to be doing quite well. Except for the one I've named Chunk.

Chunk, as you can see from the picture, is pretty darn big for 1 week. What this little chick lacks in feathers and energy, it makes up for in pure pound packing progress.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it means that I need to keep a close eye on this big, little bird to be sure it is getting it's chubby little self over to the water as the weather warms up.

As you can see, our little friend is bigger than my hand. S/He's also lagging behind the rest of the flock in feather production.

Here's a flock-mate resting in the coop (Click image to enlarge). Notice the feathers on it's wings and the little wisps of tail feathers starting to form?

Now take another look at Chunk.

All I can assume is that Chunk's genetics put body mass ahead of feathers.

The Rule of Two

2010-06-25T08:01:00.009-04:00

I was following a thread this morning on the TeachingOpenSource.org Mailing list about using Scribd for source materials.

Five messages in, there's a reply that sends up a red flag for me.

This is the second time hearing a story that's so similar that it can't be considered a coincidence.

I've mentioned my "Rule of Two" theory of customer/community relations before. It states...

If one person comments, take note but use your best judgment on how seriously to take it. If a second person tells you almost the exact same thing, there's no guessing, you've got trend.

While I would hope that the trend isn't larger than the two accounts, there's no way to ignore the fact that Adam's email echos what another developer said to me just a few months ago while standing in my kitchen drinking beers with my husband.

The trend conveyed by both guys is that there is a tendency for Fedora/Red Hat people to start from scratch rather than start with the finishing touches.

This worries me not because two guys might be feeling frustrated, but that these guys work with different parts of the FP.o/RH organization and have similar stories. I'm also a bit concerned because I'm not up on day to day operations yet I know of two cases.

That leaves me wondering... Who else might be feeling the same way? Is there something about the project culture that encourages people to avoid collaboration outside of the project core? Is it that there are so many resource available that the practice of external collaboration is rusty? Or maybe just the communication conduit between internal and external projects needs a look. (as in - this is why we decided not to collaborate, or this is why I want to collaborate with you)

I'm also a plan-for-the-worst-hope-for-the-best kind of girl and at the moment am thinking not just about the missed opportunities to collaborate on solutions that meet everyone's needs, but also about letting these concerns grow to become community rifts and/or future barriers to collaboration. You can't please everyone all the time, but I'm looking the future potential for this to get out of hand.

I can't pretend I know the answers to any of the above. Just that the Rule of Two is in effect and the powers that be need to give a little time to address the break down.

Working together 3 by Mark Robinson

Week 1, Pontiac MI

2010-06-21T08:46:00.006-04:00

One harsh reality of On-Disk.com is that while ISOs are fresh, business is booming. But, 3 months after a release, those who wanted the latest and greatest the Linux world has to offer probably have it. Then after about 4 months, those who haven't gotten it will most likely wait a couple of months and get the next release.

This August, however, I will be giving a talk at LinuxCon. Yes, it's going to be a fun time in a great city, but by then it's past the 4 month mark and we won't have lots of extra money to spend on the trip.

A solution to our slow summer months presented itself this year with some casual employment as a corporate trainer with Eagle Productivity Solutions.

While I knew I'd be jetting off to some US City to deliver the training, I didn't expect;

for my first week on the road that I'd be in Pontiac MI.
that a very recent Twitter follower would be on the Michigan!/usr/group board.
the MUG meeting would fall on my off night between my two training sessions.
to talk a few minutes about my role as a community hacker.

I didn't have anything prepared, in fact, I can confidently say I was the only person in the room who opted to pack a lipstick rather than a laptop.

The talk was very casual. A bit about how I got into FOSS, and how someone who avoids the terminal window at all cost could be qualified to give a talk to hard core Unix and Linux users.

But I think I got my point across. That point of course being that the community is key. Using is one thing, but involvement is a whole other ball of wax.

I suppose the most important thing that came out of the talk was a question from a member asking "how do you/I/we get involved?"

My answer was to take these notions that someone should do something - about anything really - and take 10 seconds to seriously consider being that someone. No one would hold their feet to the fire if they opted out of helping, but if they cold get into the habit of weighing the pros and cons of involvement, they might find something to become passionate about.

There are a lot of needs and a lot of really good projects out there that do so much more than pump out fresh ISOs. The best part is that at this point it's not just grand ideas. There are functioning groups out there so I did talk a little about TeachingOpenSource.org and the Math4 project class that has spawned FOSS@RIT and the chain of events that those projects lead to.

Most importantly, I tried to show how little ideas and passionate people help bring FOSS out to those who can benefit from open code.

The Karma of Business

2010-05-17T08:38:00.013-04:00

One concept I tend to be over zealous about is karma. Karma isn't some sort of cosmic luck, it's really just a word that translates to "Outcomes." Good karma is just another way of saying good outcome. So imagine my sarcastic joy when this direct quote was waiting in my in-box this morning.

"They want a business plan, marketing plan and everything in between. I guess if you spend that much time doing this you should be rewarded ... to pay for the headache of doing this!"

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy for you if the stars align and you're an overnight success, but there's only so much you can do with your budding business if you don't understand the outcomes of the decisions you'll have to make along the way. A business plan is that worksheet that allows you to look at many of the decisions you'll be faced with so you can pick the good and minimize the bad.

Maybe it wold help if we thought about growing a business from a hobby if we didn't use standard business imagery. Instead, let's think of business in terms of baseball so we can get a little better idea of what the stages of success might look like.

There are hobbies that make a little money on the side. These businesses can be thought of like playing little league. You win some, you lose some, but in the end it's about enjoying yourself and going for an ice cream cone with the team.

Formalizing your Small business is like joining the farm team. When you play at this level, you can call yourself a professional, but it's a fact that not everyone who plays makes enough money to support themselves, nor will everyone be called up to the majors. (Sorry, kid. Maybe next season.)

Another consideration is that the mentality changes too. At this level you're not playing just for fun anymore. Yes, you may still enjoy the game, but the highs of winning are offset with the knowledge that if you have too many loses you're going home.

Growing a small business into a big one is like making it to the Major Leagues. But even then, there's no guarantee that you'll be like Randy Johnson and pitch effectively for over 20 years.

Ok, so I can't stay on the Baseball thing forever, but I hope you can see how the steaks are constantly going up, while at the same time, the number of successful participants is going down. You also need to see that talent and luck can only carry you so far.

The economy, customer preference and your competition fluctuate. Those without a plan and the ability to look ahead and revise those plans usually don't advance to the next level.

So don't think of your plan as a a pain in your ass. Think of it as a function of getting where you want to be while also helping you stay away from the bad outcomes.

Why was it me?

2010-04-24T12:08:00.005-04:00

Before you get the wrong idea, I'm not having a pity party here in my blog. Instead, "Why me?" is sort of the basis for a series of rhetorical questions I've been processing this morning.

This morning I received an email saying that John Resig, creator of JQuery is going to visit RIT this week. I'm excited to meet him and am sure that our FOSS mixer Thursday evening in the Innovations center is going to have a nice mix of people. (Visit the Facebook Event for details)

The other thing the email reminded reminded me of is a trend I've been seeing in little bits and pieces over the past year or so... That RIT has some very talented alumni that have gone on to be leaders in the FOSS Community.

So the question I'm struggling with this morning, is why me? Why didn't the ball get rolling for RIT to Teach Open Source Development techniques until I helped push it? I don't doubt that RIT would have formalized it's FOSS development coursework at some point, but why did the push have to come from me when there could have been so many others leading the charge?

People who not only had more clout in the FOSS community, but connections at RIT.

To clarify, I'm not a student at RIT. I'm not on staff at RIT. The FOSS community isn't waiting with baited breath to hear what I might say next, so, again, why was my participation a key component?

Question Mark Icon by Svilen Milev

Withdrawing my FPL Application

2010-04-21T17:04:00.009-04:00

I should probably trust my gut reactions, they usually don't lead me astray, but this time I decided to suppress my initial reaction and apply for the Fedora Project Leader (FPL) position.

Here's the thing, I've been having reservations for a few days and had sort of hoped that the FOSS talent pool was so deep that my lack of Software Engineering experience and my hit-or-miss involvement in the Fedora Project would filter me out rather quickly.

Then a couple of things happened today. First was an email from Paul Frields, the standing FPL, trying to nail down a time for a Phone interview with someone at Red Hat.

The second was a cattle call IRC ping for a meeting that was taking place face-to-face somewhere else.

So why should that lead me to withdraw? Let me explain...

Knowing my prompt rejection was off the table, I had to get myself in gear and prepare for wowing everyone I met in the interview process. That means running through possible questions and answers... etc.

That process, for me, can be a lot like a psychological test. The first thing that comes to mind as I begin the Q&A practice is very enlightening for me because it's not always the answer I would or should give, but it's usually very accurate as to how I really feel about something.

So while I'm reading and prepping for the call, I got another pointless IRC meeting ping from the guys at Open Video Chat.

So as I'm getting myself polished and sorting through proper answers, I was getting pissy and telling OVC to stop wasting my time... well if my other insights didn't tell me anything this did. And what it said was "this is a bad fit."

You see, FPL is not about what I can do, it's about what I could help the community do and it just doesn't seem like I should be so cranky about a pointless meeting ping.

In this case, the right answer would have been to go over to RIT and ~~slap the guys around~~ politely explained that they need a lesson on transparency and IRC meetings. Instead, I had the eureka moment I needed to have. I finally could see that I'm ok letting the opportunity slip by. That I'm ok with not being one of the few women leading FOSS projects. I'm also ok not trying to be a rising star.

It's not failure, it's just the right thing to do.

computer danger 3 by Gabriella Fabbri

Writing a business plan is suppose to be Frustrating

2010-04-15T08:11:00.007-04:00

You heard me! I'd even go so far as to say if it's easy you're probably doing it wrong.

In fact I would encourage you to really screw things up... on paper, because when you do it on paper you're much less likely to screw things up with real money, with your house as collateral, employees that need to be paid and on and on.

Let's think about the plan for a moment. There are two reasons why you need one. First, it's your own personal road map. It allows you to give everything a dry run, on paper, so that when your put your money where your mouth is, you'll know what's going on.

Second, it says to investors, bankers and potential partners that you've thought everything through and they will get their money back.

While a business plan does have a formal layout that you should aim for in the final draft, it's not the kind of thing you write from start to finish. Even logic tells you that while you may put the Executive Summary first, you can't write a summary until you have something to summarize. To make the process easier, dive in with what you know and try to complete it from the inside out.

Just keep in mind, it's suppose to be hard and it's suppose to be the place where you work out all the details before you get too far. You'll find dead ends and numbers that don't jive and all those other frustrating points along the way.

So when you get that feeling like you'd rather just wing it, don't. Remember, it might suck for the moment, but not as bad as it will when your business is in a downward spiral. When it gets that bad you don't have time to stop and research a course of action. But when you've followed dead ends and have already sifted through a mountain of data, you'll get to answers quickly and have a much better chance of survival.

Typewriter Keyboard by Sergio Ianni

Please Donate to Interlock Rochester

2010-04-13T11:26:00.002-04:00

Interlock Rochester is a Hackerspace in Rochester, NY. They provide an open, collaborative environment for technologists and artists to work on projects and “hack” on cool things.

If you’re interested in learning about new technologies, refactoring existing technologies, and stretching the limits of collaborative thinking and creative making, Interlock Rochester is the right place. And they need your help.

Getting the Garden Ready: Our Crazy Spring

2010-04-02T09:45:00.003-04:00

We live near the Genesee river and we have a very high water table and are prone to drainage problems due to the heavy silt soils.

A huge puddle in the back yard, muddy foot prints throughout the house, and running the sump to keep the basement dry, is expected when snow melt and spring rains team up.

However, this year we got lucky. It's not that we didn't have any of those joyful events, but they were short lived and it gave us a head start getting the garden ready.

A few weeks ago I mucked out the chicken coop and got all the dirty litter on the garden and tilled in. Since it's not composted it's going to need as much time as I can give it. First, the nitrogen content is probably off the charts and would burn the roots/kill the plants. Second is the possibility of pathogens.

From the time the manure was added, I'll be looking at 2.5 - 3 months before I begin planting the garden and about 5 before I begin harvesting. My estimate is that this should be enough time for everything to mellow out.

As far as the pathogens are concerned, we're also going to try the Stout system in the garden. I'm hoping the thick layer of mulch will also provide a barrier between the soil and the veggies. By preventing the soil from coming in contact with the food from simple things, like splashing, we should be ahead of the game.

The Stout system originally caught my eye as a way to prevent weeds. With a home business, the family, volunteer hours and everything else that comes up, we're usually not that good at keeping up with the weeds.

Based on the estimate of 2 pounds per square foot in Mother's article, we ended up with 10, 60 pound bales that I broke up and placed on the garden. As you can see in the photo (click to enlarge) I just grabbed a flake from the bale and flopped it down. I'll break them up more as I begin to pull and make holes for the plants, but for now, they're fine.

My hope is that I'll be able to keep you updated on the garden's progress throughout the season, and give progress reports on the stout system and other observations.

~Karlie

Resumes and Cover letters.

2010-03-26T09:33:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago, I received a response to a resume that had been floating around Monster.com for who knows how long.

Then, shortly after that incident I had a SCORE client tell me that he'd been keeping his resume up-to-date. It's not that he feared loosing his job at any moment, but it sounded like it was more of a just-in-case sort of thing.

When the universe keeps telling me about Resumes, it's probably time to get my ducks in a row. So yesterday, I completed 1 version of it and then for kicks I uploaded it to CareerBuiler.com and even found a very intriguing little company's want-ad on Craig's list and threw my hat in the ring.

Then this morning, the Universe, by way of my trusty StumbleUpon button, told me my cover letter could use some work. While I was thinking it was pretty good and not bad for being out of circulation so long, I see now that I should up my game should I write another one.

One major boo-boo I did know to avoid was the form letter, but that makes me wonder what HR departments are thinking of when they send one to me?

It seemed like moments after I got done reading about great cover letters I received a response to my resume at Career Builder. In it the recruiter said;

I place qualified individuals in various franchises that fit within the realms of their previous work history and acquired talents ultimately training (and equipping) born entrepreneurs with the necessary tools to take the leap towards owning a business and taking control of their futures.

With that I'm pretty sure I never even got a read. Because had she even browsed my Resume, she would have seen that I have already taken the leap and do, in fact, own a business.

Keeping your Facebook Fan Page Perky

2010-03-25T09:11:00.006-04:00

So by now we all know that social networking is about attraction and that constant blasts about sales and product updates is not that attractive.

For the On-Disk.com Fan Page I've decided to post at least one FOSS or Open Source link per day, since I'm pretty sure that sort of content would be most attractive to our customer base. So far, I'd say it's working. I did put a fan banner in rotation on our website, but other than that I'm not pushing the fan page out to my customers. How do I know it's working? Not all of the fans are friends and family.

So when you're up to your eyeballs keeping the business running, how do you find the time to keep your Facebook fan page perky?

One answer is StumbleUpon.

For me, StumbleUpon started out as the "Entertain me" button, but by using some of it's features, I'm also able to find neat content for fan pages too.

It starts off assuming you're already stumbling content that's relevant to your industry.

The second step is setting your Stumble bar so that you can stumble for relevant content. If you click the image above, you'll see where and how to select your topics.

From there, just hit the Stumble! button as needed to find a good page to share with your fans.

As a personal preference, I like to us the linking feature on Facebook status updates. While you can just add the link in the "What's on your mind?" box, I think it looks better to save it for comments and add the link separately.

Boot Cut Jeans to Capri Modification

2010-03-19T08:41:00.007-04:00

I had a pair of jeans that had just gone beyond the sweet spot. They had gotten to the point in their evolution where they're soft and comfortable, but had begun to fall apart.

Rather than use them for rags, I decided to give them one last hurrah and hope the material lasts through the spring.

The button had fallen off, but that was an easy fix, but the more challenging fix was the bottom hem. I didn't really need a pair of cut-offs... It's warming up, but there's a lot of time before it will be warm enough for shorts.

My solution was to cut the legs off at about mid-calf and roll a hem to make capris.

The technique was easy enough -

Roll the hem twice to enclose the raw edge
lace up the joint.

I used Perl Cotton left over from the Rose Window Beret and the technique is very similar to how you would lace up your shoes.

Find the middle of your thread and put needles on both ends. Again, the technique is so similar to lacing your shoes that I can't think of another way to describe. Clicking on the image will give you a close up of the stitches for you to examine.

Now it's time to go outside and see if I can't get a little color on these winter white legs.

~Karlie

A Disc full of Sugar helps the FOSS go down

2010-03-18T08:15:00.006-04:00

Tonight is Open House at TJ Conner Elementary and I sent a special disc to school for the families.

As you may recall, I've been taking an XO to my son's first grade class on Wednesday mornings. The record activity has been extremely popular and Mrs. Richmond asked if she could show the pictures at Open House tonight.

Of course I said yes, but did one better and offered to make discs for everyone in the class so they could all have a copy.

The best part is, that even with all 200+ pictures the students have taken, there would still be hundreds of megs of space left on the discs.... Also known as plenty of space to include a Sugar Spin. (for this disc we used the current version of SoaS but applied it to optical media instead of Solid State)

So while the families might also be getting the pictures of their children, they're also getting a chance to use some open source software at home.

I did include this letter (Click to see a larger version) covering the very basics. Although it might not totally explain the Live CD I hope the combination of the children being famililar with the Sugar environment and the vagueness of what they're getting will get a few families exploring Open Source Educational Technologies.

Rose Window beret

2010-03-16T13:44:00.003-04:00

I've spent the past couple of weekends knitting the Rose Window Beret from the spring issue of Interweave Knits. How do you like it?

It's toddler size because I used tiny needles (US size 4) and crochet cotton.

I might be tempted to make one for myself over the summer, but it looks like I should start some projects for end of school gifts for the boy's teachers. But what to make?

Any ideas?

~Karlie

Baby Luke's Blanket - Follow-up

2010-03-08T09:03:00.003-05:00

So here it is, Baby Luke's Blanket. It's done and has been done for a while, but I'm just getting to the post - so sorry.

The Blanket was made with 2 skeins of Red Heart Soft. One each of Chocolate and Seafoam.

The Pattern is simply alternating stripes of the one I hacked a few months ago, which I think needs a formal name... How about "Luke's Triangles?"

The stripe effect was added because it was becoming obvious that I'd need to balance the yarn usage since the slipped stitches use much less yarn than the main color.

I suppose I could have stuck with an all over pattern, but I probably would have used twice as much yarn of one color as I would have with the other.

To do the stripes, it's really quite simple. The row number of the pattern didn't change, just the yarn I used to knit it. So rather than sliding the work on the needle, I turned the work and knit back with the color I had in my hand.

Thoughts, Comments?

~Karlie

The old Bandwidth is Like Water Explination

2010-03-04T13:54:00.005-05:00

I had a phone message come in from the SCORE office on Tuesday from a small business owner who has questions about expanding her business onto the internet.

While it may have sounded better to say that she "had" questions, I know that no matter how good I get with explaining the guts of eCommerce websites, there's always more to know and thus, more questions to be asked.

One topic I always need to cover is the basics of hosting - specifically storage and bandwidth since those two factors effect the cost more than just about anything. The idea is to get the right package. One where you're not paying for more than what you need or getting hit with overages every month - or worse, getting a limited number of visitors to the site. (better to get a big bill than have your reputation tarnished by poor site performance)

I've found that the easiest way to explain storage and bandwidth is to think about the data as if it were water. Most people can quantify and understand this analogy even if they're not plumbing experts.

So in this analogy bandwidth is the pipes or hoses and storage is the tank.

To determine how much storage one would need for a website, we need to think about the content the site will be providing so that we can get a general idea of what we'll be dealing with.

A full page of HTML coded text - without any images or fancy script functions (like Java Mouse over effects) would be a drop.

Add some graphical layout elements like small images to soften the corners of tables or a tiled background image you'll bring your data up to 1/4 teaspoon.

A large header image adds another 1/4 teaspoon to the size of the page.

Of course you can rack up the file sizes pretty quickly with high resolution graphics (1 cup) and even need more space with HD Video (1 liter per minute)

So depending on what content you are thinking about I would hope you can begin wrapping your head around the data storage needs. At least in a Small, Medium, Large, etc sort of way.

Next we need to think about bandwidth allotments so that your visitors can view your content. While we commonly say that someone is visiting a website, the truth is, the content is being sent to their machine. So each time someone requests information the tap is running.

Bandwidth is measured by each byte of data that comes and goes and how many of them can move per second. Just as you can measure how much water your family uses, you can also measure the bytes coming in with requests and bytes going out with content.

When your hosting agreement comes with a transfer cap, think of it as being limited to a certain number of liters/gallons. So while this doesn't provide a definitive number, it does help if you keep in mind a small number of people requesting a large file will have the same effect on your bandwidth cap as a large number of people requesting small files.

The bytes per second number will be a factor in how fast the data can be sent from your server. Will your users be trying to get a gallon of information through a drinking straw? Hopefully not.

Now I'm sure you'll have more questions. If so, leave them in the comments below.

~Karlie

Rain Barrel by Bas van den Wijngaard

Dinner with RMS - the Great Freedom Debate

2010-02-25T11:49:00.001-05:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to join Steve Jacobs and Richard Stallman for dinner, Tuesday night. If I said I was honored to be included that would be an understatement.

But what does one talk about with the father of the Free Software Movement?

Freedom of course!

While this post will read as if we had a long and fruitful debate, the truth is I changed the subject when I realized that he was unbending and not willing to accept any observations other than his own. So my observation that there is a hypocritical element to his position was getting nowhere fast.

Steve tried to interject for clarification since we were discussing such a small nuance to "freedom" but even that was met with inflexibility. In fact he repeated his wording exactly as he had before Steve's question.

Here's the issue as I see it...

Freedom is an inalienable right. I also believe wholeheartedly that if you have a restriction of any kind you don't have true freedom.

I also understand that true freedom is rare and elusive. Laws, taxes, social mores and such are all limiting factors. You can have some freedoms, like the freedom of speech, but I also don't believe the US is a Free country when there are so many questionable laws still on the books (yes, Patriot act, I'm talking about you and your sleezy friends!)

You should also understand that I'm all for of some laws and mores. For instance, when we all know what side of the street to drive on, its good for everyone. You would also misunderstand this blog post if you come away thinking that I dislike the GPL and/or the Free Software Movement. The fact is I'm a fan and have deep respect for the movement as a whole.

However, my side of the debate focused on copyleft, and the GPLs Share Alike clauses and Stallman's penchant for term correctness.

As I see it, if you're going to explain to a crowded room that you can't...

... call something piracy because it didn't attack any boats;
... use the term "Intellectual Property" because it refers to multiple laws;
... call an Operating system Linux because the Linux Kernel wasn't fully effective without the rest of the GNU operating system and vice versa...

Then you must absolutely be certain that you're not acting hypocritically when it comes to the use of the term "Freedom."

For me, the question is, how can software really be "free, as in Freedom" when there are restrictions built into it's license?

Stallman's stance is that he respects your freedom, but in return you must respect the freedom of others. Then he explained that share alike/copyleft clauses needed to be included because he didn't want to lose ground. To open up a code base only to have it taken away again isn't an acceptable situation.

I say that's a risk you have to take if you're going to insist that what you're trying to do is make all software free.

Freedom always comes with a choice. When you have good information and care about the outcomes, you always make the right decision for you. Besides, if information or desired outcomes change, you always have the option to make new choices.

So if you're to ask for a simple clarification - the Four Essential Freedoms outlined in the Free Software definition do define freedom. However this Free software definition points out that there's a flaw in copyleft when it states,

"For example, copyleft (very simply stated) is the rule that when redistributing the program, you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms. This rule does not conflict with the central freedoms; rather it protects them."

It's cleverly written and on quick glance you think "oh it's about not adding restrictions, that's Kosher." But it brings you back to reality when you see that it's a rule (aka restriction) that needs to be clarified in the second sentence of the quote.

Conflict or not, rules are restrictions and restrictions limit freedom.

Am I the only one seeing this as wordplay and a form of restricting Freedom?

~Karlie

Image "Freedom" By ivan petrov

Richard Stallman and Free Software at RIT

2010-02-24T11:02:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, RIT hosted Richard Stallman and I have to say it was not nearly as odd as I had set myself up for.

The main issue is that RMS's reputation as a bit of an eccentric precedes him and that can be a bit of a turn off even for those of us who are somewhat familiar with the whole idea of freedom in computing.

Though to be fair to those who are thinking - "Not odd, then why is that the only picture you have of him?" The image you're seeing here is the Emacs Saint costume that was brought out at the end.

There was video taken of the event and I'm tracking down when and where it will be made available for everyone to see.

For me the best part of the talk was that there seemed to be a fairly diverse crowd. Those, like myself, who are already familar with the ideas of GNU and Libre software and those who were brand new to the ideas presented.

He even covered all the goodies like students getting access to low/no cost Proprietary software. Because it's like your first hit of crack being free and making you pay once you're hooked.

All in all it was a very good talk and I'm sure it hit home with many of the students and staff in attendance. I also hope that it will be the begining of even more free software development and usage at RIT.

Since my son will be home from school shortly and I have an errand to run this afternoon, I'll talk a little bit about my dinner with Stallman in a Part 2 post.

~Karlie

Lending environment in WNY - A 7... what?!?

2010-02-18T15:28:00.006-05:00

For a while we've been getting mixed reaction about small business lending.

On one side we keep hearing that the US Government is trying to loosen the grip on bank loans, yet so few are being made. Why is this?

News out of the SBA office in Buffalo NY seems to indicate that smaller, regional banks are still lending, since they weren't hit as hard by the financial shake-up as national banks. However the minimum credit score to secure a loan is right around a 730.

Meaning if you don't have pristine, excellent credit, you are going to have a really hard time.

To put that in perspective, a 650 use to be considered mid range for "good credit" and the credit score tops off between 830-850 depending on the reporting company.

Might be a good time to think about bootstrapping a business.

~Karlie

First Graders and XO Photo Retrieval Woes

2010-02-16T11:05:00.010-05:00

Every Wednesday morning, I volunteer in my son's first grade class. You could describe my duties as crowd control. As Mrs. Richmond works with small groups of children on their reading skills, I'm keeping an eye on everyone else.

Some children are writing in their journals. Others are working on handwriting or reading along to a picture book at the CD player. 3 kids also get to go to the computers.

Problem is, only 2 of the Macs in the room are working properly. The 3rd just won't boot and I don't know enough about them to trouble shoot. Plus the School's IT department probably wouldn't be too happy with me if I did.

A few months ago I came to school with an XO laptop so when 3 kids were working in that "Center" they could use a computer if they wanted to.

As you can imagine, the XO has been a big hit in the classroom. We started out playing Speak, but the kids have been exploring and have also discovered the Record Activity and I've finally managed to get at the pictures.

Why have I "Finally Managed?" Well because it was a giant PITA to get the pictures off the XO.

You can use Flickr's basic uploader to capture 6 images at a time. Fine if there were just a few, but with 180+ images on the XO and most of them named "Photo by Karlie" it was more than a waste of time trying that route.

Method 2 was plugging in a USB or SD card and moving the files. Equally painful especially since keeping track of which "Photo by Karlie" was moved and every image transferred was appended with an underscore and series of numbers. How's that bad? Well the 15th image I moved was appended with _1_2_3_4_5_6_7_8_9_10_11_12_13_14_15

Method 3 was right up there with knowing the secret handshake. Lucky for me, Mel Chua is in the club and showed us where to grab every file from the XO's Journal. It's /home/olpc/.sugar/default/datastore/store in case you're wondering. But you'll still need to use the terminal to transfer the files.

This method still had it's draw backs, but turned out to be the least annoying.

For one, every file has a seemingly random name assigned to it and no extension to sort by. However, once the files were transferred to USB, Fedora was smart enough to see pictures even though none had .png or.jpg extension.

To upload to Flickr though, they'd all need their appropriate extension. Easy enough to fix, but again, so down right annoying that you'd even have to include this step. While I'm told you can do a batch update, I hate the terminal so it was faster for me to ctrl+v .jpg and rename the files one by one (vs learning the commands).

~Karlie

PS, I've left full Copyright intact on these pictures. While we don't have names or other details on the images, they're still 6 year-olds and that brings a certain amount of restrictions as to their use. If you'd like to use them for something, ping me and we'll discuss it.

Public Software Rides Again? - Maybe

2010-02-04T10:51:00.005-05:00

A couple of years ago, Todd and I started a little side project called the Public Software Foundation. But like lots of good intentions, it didn't quite make it off the ground.

It's not that we didn't give it our all, we just couldn't sustain an altruistic side project as the economy was beginning to tank. After all, there are little men with big appetites around here.

A few days ago I was being my normal busy body self and butted into an IRC conversation on #TeachingOpenSource and ended up blabbering about PSF even though the site had been down for who knows how long.

Well it's back up now due to that initial conversation and I'm wondering what you think about a project like the Public Software Foundation?

I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look around and give me your feedback.

~Karlie

It's official - Stallman @RIT Feb 23

2010-01-29T08:23:00.004-05:00

The good news - It's official - RMS will be at RIT on Tuesday, February 23 from 10:30-12:30 am.

"Richard Stallman will speak about the goals and philosophy of the Free Software Movement, and the status and history of the GNU operating system, which in combination with the kernel Linux (sic) is now used by tens of millions of users world-wide."

Click on the image to the right to see a larger version. You can also download a PDF version of the flier.

The bad news - his talk will be in the Innovations Center and it's going to fill to capacity before 200 people get in the door.

I asked and was told that they will be setting up video in other rooms, but I'm going to suggest you contact RIT and ask them to find a bigger space and/or stream the talk live.

I would also suggest that you not let the space limitations and time of day stop you from making plans to attend or prevent you tweeting, forwarding, etc to anyone you think might want to attend.

~Karlie

Life Sucks When We Are Being Stupid

2010-01-26T08:10:00.003-05:00

Here's another article pulled from the CyberTemple archives.

The True Freedom Teachings of
Suwattano
The Four Noble Truths of Life:
(Life Sucks When We Are Being Stupid)

(note: loose translations of quotes of the Buddha are in Italics annotated with quotation marks)

1. Life sucks
"Now this is the Noble Truth concerning life sucking. Birth sucks, aging sucks, death sucks, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair suck; not getting what one wants sucks. In short, the limited five aggregates suck that make up this human life."

2. Life sucks for a reason
"And what is the Noble Truth of the origination of life sucking? The craving that creates further becoming, accompanied by chasing after lust and delight, relishing now here and now there, i.e. craving for sensuality, craving for existence, craving for non-existence."

The Buddha told us that life sucks for a reason, and that we make our own lives suck. We make our lives suck by our constant chasing after excitement and our thinking that life sucks when it isn't exciting. There is no possible way that life can be exciting all the time, and it is our wanting life to always be exciting even though it can never be that way; our wanting life to be other than it is; our own wrong thinking, that makes life suck so much. Our own trying to make life more than what it naturally is and can ever be; trying to get more out of life than what it has to offer, where we make our own lives suck.

3. Life doesn't have to suck
"And what is the Noble Truth of the ending of life sucking? The abandoning and cessation, renunciation relinquishment, release, and letting go of the craving that causes life to suck."

The Buddha says that life doesn't have to suck, that if we stop being stupid life won't suck anymore. If we look at this we can see that we make life suck ourselves (create our own turmoils). So if we stop being stupid by creating our own difficulties life won't suck so much.

4. The path leading to the ending of life sucking - Don't Be Stupid!.

The Buddha described it as the Eightfold Path saying: "And what is the Noble Truth of the path of practice leading to the end of life sucking? Just this very Eightfold Path: right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration."

That doesn't mean that we should sit around trying to perfect each of these eight aspects individually. That would be being "Stupid", it would take forever. Look back at the time of the Buddha...at the number of people who gained enlightenment...not a single one of these people had a Ph.D., so this path can't be as complicated as most modern teachers make it out to be. Maybe they just like being important and in control, I don't know, but it is not so difficult. Just Be Only The Heart the best you can, and be patient (but patience is not negligence). If we are patiently doing the best we can and not being negligent, we are practicing the entire Eightfold Path...it's that simple. It just comes down to: Don't Be Stupid...it's not so difficult, so don't make it difficult.

This short text may be freely reproduced and distributed, and this statement may be taken as sufficient permission to do so, there is no need to seek further permission. - 18 May 1997 by the True Freedom Cyber-Temple

Project updates at RIT

2010-01-22T11:58:00.004-05:00

I made it to class last night and lucky for me, I was able to catch some project updates.

They all seem to be coming along and are starting to get in the groove. Though I still had to remind them that while everyone loves how well RIT does a wiki page, they still need to put themselves out there a bit more. Although I didn't see it until this morning, there was a mailing list post and a reply before we left class. (More please!)

We also showed his video.

I first saw it when Greg DeKoenigsberg posted it on Facebook, and was instantly taken with it and suggested it be shown in class. It's such a great way to show the development process. It's humble beginnings, contributors fading away and explosive growth when they switched from CVS to GIT repos.

It's sort of a crash course in FOSS community and project development. It showed in a little less than 4 minutes what I've been struggling to articulate in the past 3 quarters I've helped with the course.

Full Spectrum Tech Writing - Defining the process

2010-01-18T09:18:00.009-05:00

My first blog post about Full Spectrum Copywriting was a little short on details. While I'm not a fan of excuses, I can say I left the post short because I'm not sure how much is too much for the blog.

With less than 20 full blog posts under my belt, please bear with me as I find my blogging rhythm.

So let me take Mel's questions one at a time and see if I can't clarify things.

How do you figure out what terms (and phrasings) are at what level of beginner/expertness?

Part of it is basic knowledge of the field you're writing about. The rest is putting yourself in a position to see where the questions might come from. Can you anticipate the FAQ?

So let's say On-Disk.com is listing a 6 DVD Repo set. First, I need a draft of what needs to be said. Since I'm pretty good with Linux jargon, my first draft will most likely exclude any entry level terms.

For the second step, I'll look for variations that include opportunities to define draft without the use of Jargon. Since I'm listing a Repo, I need to use the variations on that term in my listing -- Repository, Extra/Additional software, etc -- as I strive to find the lowest common denominator.

Rinse, lather and repeat for any of the other industry specific terms from my basic draft - Mirror, Package manager, Dependencies, and such.

Balance is key. You're not trying to dumb things down or show people how smart you really are. Instead, think about how you can bring people up to speed without taking too much time to do so.

The inspiration for the technique came from my uncle John. He was the first person I ever knew with a PhD (Or at least associated with a PhD).

Because I was still a child and feeling that he was probably much smarter than everyone else I told him so. He then explained that no matter how "smart" someone might be, if they can't explain a concept to someone else, they don't really know what they're talking about.

How do you learn these terms if you're copywriting for a field you're encountering for the first time (or does that not happen much)?

The thing is, you don't need to be an expert to take advantage of the full spectrum. Being on the middle ground is also a good place to start.

Most of the time, the copywriting process is more like a translation service. It doesn't really matter what the product is, since the person/people on the bleeding edge of the technology usually know all the terms and jargon. They may also supply a draft for you to write from.

Have you ever done an experiment to see how much more effective full-spectrum is (over writing entirely for a novice or an expert audience, over writing with the reverse order - expert terms at the beginning, beginner at the end)? That sort of data would make an incredibly compelling pitch for FSC.

Not a formal study, but I do have anecdotal evidence to suggest the benefits.

It kind of plays into one of my other beliefs about customer service.

If one person comments, take note but use your best judgment on how seriously to take it. If a second person tells you almost the exact same thing, there's no guessing, you've got a serious problem.

Full Spectrum copywriting developed as I wrote and rewrote listings and web pages so we could stop tripping up our customers.

~Karlie

Full Spectrum Copywriting

2010-01-15T07:13:00.013-05:00

I've just been hired for what initially was billed as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) job. The thing is, when I'm done, the website isn't going to be optimized just for the engines. If I do my job well, the site will also be optimized for sales conversions.

Let me explain...

The company I'll be working with offers a software suite to enterprise customers. The important part of these transactions is understanding how enterprise level decisions are made.

First off, most sales training makes closing the deal sound as if you simply need to get past the gatekeeper and convince a decision maker. As if the process is a linear game, like Mario trying to rescue the princess.

The reality in enterprise level B2B sales is getting the buying committee to understand how the products and services will benefit their organization. Knowing that each person is going to have a different point of view on how their company will best be served. For some it's all about the financial commitment and return on investment (ROI). For others it's integration into an existing systems.

This is where the idea of Full Spectrum Copywriting comes in.

When I'm writing anything that might be technical or only appeal to professionals in a specific industry, I assume the audience has both entry level and expert understanding of the topic.

To keep the everything organized, I start with plain language and use more industry jargon as I go.

As someone reads down a page or goes deeper into the site by clicking second and third level links, it's important they understand what they're buying into before they get overwhelmed by terminology. By continuing into industry specific jargon, experts in the field should also be satisfied that the company might actually know what they're talking about.

Just don't get hung up on on what defines your unique set of technical terms since they'll vary by the audience. For example, if I'm talking about how a product or service saves money, I'll be sure to include details only an accountant would love.

This technique also works outside enterprise sales because you're never quite sure who's reading your materials. Even consumer items will have quite a broad spectrum of people who will need their questions answers.

One example would be a family contemplating a big ticket purchase. Will your customer's spouse see the benefits?

We also try to use Full Spectrum Copywriting techniques at On-Disk.com since there's always a good mix of expert and new users viewing the catalog. I'm fairly certain our customers don't always run their purchases past a spouse or committee, but it's really easy to assume the customer knows what you're talking about or leave out the juicy, technical details advanced users might need to know before they buy.

I'd love it if you'd leave questions for me about Full Spectrum Copywriting in the comments below.

~Karlie

Excptional trip to Walmart

2010-01-07T15:41:00.008-05:00

The truth is stranger than fiction.

Of all the other visits I've ever had to Walmart, this has to be the exception, rather than the rule.

As I walk in I see a man at the check out wearing Jackfruit brown monk's robs. The tote bag he's carrying also has Thai writing on it.

It takes me a moment to go from "oh cool a monk" to "I wonder if he's Thai Forrest Tradition?"

Now here's the kicker... While I've spent an enormous amount of time with a former monk, they're not on every street corner here in the US so I've only ever interacted with Todd.

I'm pretty sure I didn't make any major Faux Pas, I'm also pretty sure I didn't make a great impression either. A drive by greeting if you will.

I'm still hanging my head in shame for not being more "normal" when I met the men.

Now that I've got the things I came in for, I head to the express check out. There I'm met with 3 individuals who not only have more than 20 items each, they're also doing their best to complicate things for the cashier.

The first cart is just finishing up as I approach. He pays for his groceries.
The Second cart is unloaded and now there's discussions about this woman's groceries.
The third person in the party takes a $100 bill out of her pocket and gives it to the man.

The man then proceeds to pay for everyone's groceries with his welfare card.

"Whats the total now?" As the second woman adds a pack of gum. They're still short of spending every last penny alloted on the card so the first woman exclaims "If you get another pack of gum I'll pay you a dollar for it."

So if I didn't have reason enough to avoid Walmart, this takes the cake.

What do Buddhists believe?

2010-01-05T09:00:00.004-05:00

What is Buddhism? What's religion?

It it not unusual for people to ask me"What do you (Buddhists) believe in?" I usually say that "it's not important what I believe." Generally people are not sure how to take that, but they are usually sure that I don't believe that "it's not important what I believe." They usually just think I don't wish to discuss it with them, and create some mental idea (predisposition) as to why. Usually people equate religion with theistic beliefs...so if I'm a Buddhist then I should have "Buddhist" beliefs. Buddhism is often regarded by theistic religions as atheistic, and sometimes not even a religion at all...it's seen as a psychology or philosophy because Buddhism doesn't originate from a theistic or doctrinal position. Not so long ago someone showed me a description of Buddhism as a "non-theistic religion", which seems to indicate a non-religion.

I remember a book I read a few years ago where almost an entire chapter was spent debating whether Buddhism is a religion or philosophy...the Author finally came to the conclusion that he thought it was a combination, a sort of religious-psychology, although he wasn't really sure. So, we could go debating and speculating about this forever...we come to theistic irrelevancy...back to "it doesn't matter what I believe." You see...religion isn't really what a person believes, but what a person practices day to day. If someone says that they are a Christian with Christian beliefs, but they don't practice the non-judgement of others on a daily basis, then they don't really believe in the teachings of Jesus...they're just speculating about the way things could be.

In Buddhism we emphasize practice because that leads to true understanding as opposed to mere speculation. As we practice we begin to see how our mind works and how things really are...our beliefs keep changing with our realizations until we finally realize how impermanent our beliefs are, that there is no permanent "self" to be found in them, and that they are essentially unsatisfactory because trying to hold onto them only stands in the way of our willingness learn. Then we can have a real belief...the belief that our beliefs don't matter, not even the belief that 'our beliefs don't matter' is important, they all become irrelevant as mere beliefs.

please, take care of your heart...
Suwattano

The True Freedom Teachings of Suwattano
This short text may be freely reproduced and distributed, and this statement may be taken as sufficient permission to do so, there is no need to seek further permission. - 1996, updated March 1997 by True Freedom Cyber-Temple

Nostalgic start to 2010.

2010-01-01T09:39:00.006-05:00

It's the first day of 2010 and I'm in a nostalgic mood this morning. Probably because my cold is getting worse, rather than better and I'm not too excited about doing anything other than pretending to be a vegetable.

So instead of doing anything serious, I'm digging through a few DVD's of data archived at one of the many updates my personal computer has had over the years.

Along with the old files and business documents I found lots and lots of photos I hadn't looked at in quite a long time. For example, here is my youngest son at about 8 months old in May 2005. (please see updated copyright notice for photos in the left menu.)

I also found a copy of my husband's first website. The site is long gone and I was actually surprised to find a version at Archive.org. In fact I thought I had lost my only copy of the site before I rediscovered these discs. I should also kick myself for not checking the way back machine sooner. Though if I knew the Internet Archive had a copy I might not have looked so hard for the discs.

Anyway, I've decided to post some of Todd's writings as I go along. I do have a few things that the way back machine didn't capture so with luck I'll have some unique insights to share with you.

Hope you enjoy the new year,
~Karlie

How do you market a website anyway?

2009-12-25T10:25:00.001-05:00

I can't really give you a silver bullet on marketing the site. The marketing is going to be dependent on who your target audience is and the product/service you're selling.

You can use search engines to pull in clients. This article I wrote can help you understand some of the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Websites that work for Small Business

You should also be thinking about your marketing this way... Facebook is a great place to advertise if you're trying to reach college students. It's a really bad choice if you're trying to reach people looking for retirement housing (although there has been some noteable growth in the 55+ demographic). Not that you can't target your ads at Facebook to reach the people you're trying to reach, it's just might not be a grand slam.

Instead, think about your marketing in traditional terms and then translate that to an online medium. You'll need to clearly define who opens their wallets for what you're offering. Then you'll test market, and refine the message until you're pulling them in left and right.

If the site is simply content and you'll generate revenue from adverts, you'll still need to do the same process so you'll know who your reader is and what advertisers will pay you to be in front of those eyeballs.

~Karlie

So what is the right domain name?

2009-12-23T10:24:00.004-05:00

Domain name can play a role in your business success, but it's not as vital as it once was.

People use to worry that a long domain name would be hard for people to remember as if it were a long phone number. But the reality is that your new domain name can can be almost any length as long as it describes your business well.

While I'd avoid BigTonysAllKazooPolkaBand.com* due to excessive length, it's not inappropriate if, in fact, you are Big Tony and you lead an All Kazoo Polka band.

Now if the name you want is already taken, you'll be better off finding another name. If the site is established, the registrant isn't going to be too keen on giving it up and they won't do it cheaply. If it's simply a squatter, you might be able to negotiate a good price. Just keep in mind that a year of domain registration is usually under $10, so if you're paying a few thousand dollars to a squatter the name should be really fantastic.

~Karlie
* Factoid of the day - once upon a time I was the owner of BigTonysAllKazooPolkaBand.com

Project proposals at RIT

2009-12-16T14:39:00.002-05:00

The third quarter of RIT's Open Source Development class made their project pitches last night. As each one was made, there I was poo-pooing all the ideas.

It's not that the ideas weren't good, on the contrary, some were shockingly well thought out and could be the start of some very great projects. It's just that my critiques, while trying to be helpful seemed to be continually negative in nature.

Regardless of how I came across, I was trying to give direction and allow the students to think a little further into development process while there's still time to work out who's working with whom and on what.

So besides pointing out that snowball fights might not go over well with children living in tropical climates and war, fighting, and demons can be very inappropriate in some cultures, we also had some good conversations about where to focus their energy right now.

The first focus is Research. What's already out there? Is there anything similar being done?

The second, which ties into the research is my new favorite phrase "Begin with the finishing touches." Is there anything "close enough" to what you want to do? If two or more components were coded together, would that get you to your goal faster?

The vibe I got last night was that the kids might still be transitioning their thinking about what's appropriate to copy and build upon. After all, one of the things that makes this class unique is the whole plagiarism aspect. While we can't disregard licenses and copyright completely, there's a whole slew of great code out there just waiting for someone to modify.

It will be interesting to see what the kids end up working on. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

~Karlie

Beginning with the finishing touches

2009-12-15T15:41:00.007-05:00

So here's another general response that pops up all the time when I'm counseling at SCORE.

The question is usually something like "Is $1400 too much to pay for a 5 page website?"

So my answer is usually something like this...

If I knew more about the type of business, the better I could tailor my response here, but in general, you'll want to go Open Source.

Open Source software is publicly licensed. It's underlying code is open and available for modification and to top it all off, it's usually been tested and tweaked a thousand times before you use it so you're less likely to have problems or need support contracts.

Also, if you find something that's close enough to what you want your site to do function wise, you'll only be paying a professional to shine it up for you. So instead of months of custom code that will need complete bug testing you'll be looking at a week or less to get things up and running.

You'll also need to think about the site in two ways... What's behind the scenes managing content, catalog and check-out process - usually the database portion of the website and your admin panel. Then how that data feeds out into your site.

The good news, the graphical layout is really a minor detail once the back end is working properly.

You'll usually have a template of some sort (Cascade Style Sheet - CSS or XML) for the graphical layout with snips of code to indicate where the various components go. Menu on the left or the right - no problem. Don't like the colors, again, no problem. Simply tweak the style sheet and all your information will fill in just where it's suppose to go.

Every page will have a similar look and feel while allowing you lots and lots of dynamic space for content.

You might even be able to find an open source template that you can modify to suit your needs.

For instance, http://on-disk.com/ is http://demo.oscommerce.com/ We have modified the code and the database to meet our needs, but the sky's the limit on graphical modifications. We've kept somethings the same, but there's no need to be stuck with anything.

Another example is Webpath.net The back end is blog software called Nucleus. The layout started out as a free template called Invention. I liked the general layout, but wanted it co-branded to the On-Disk.com website.

But these are just examples. You'll have lots of choices with Open Source Shopping carts, Content Management systems and loads and loads of templates to choose from.

Just think of your business functions in Must, Should and Can features. Knowing what you need will help you sort through options as you research components for your site.

What must the site do from the beginning? What should be included in phase 2. What can we integrate now for future upgrades so that we don't have to re-write the code?

Have I overwhelmed you? In any case, let's stop here for now. Email with questions.

~Karlie

Websites that work for Small Business

2009-12-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

A website doesn't have to be complex to be an effective tool for Small Business owners. The key to making a website work for you is taking advantage of the passive nature of websites.

Websites, in their natural state, just sit around waiting for someone to browse the content. They only become active when we begin driving visitors.

The good news, is that you don't have to go to great expense to bring in your visitors.

The Advantage of Being Passive

All too often we are dragged into feeling that we must aggressively compete. That the Internet is a turf war and if we can't go big, we should go home.

That's just not the case.

In any business, there's a target market and the key to having a successful website is getting your information picked up by the search engines so very specific customers will find you.

Relevant Content and Searchable Terms

The key to understanding what the engines will sort into the top 10 listings is Relevant Content.

Think about listing websites from the search engine perspective. There is an infinite number of websites with similar content. If people can't find what they're looking for, they'll search with another engine. To keep the "good stuff" front and center and the users in front of their advertisers, they have created complex systems to sort out the good from the bad.

Relevant to the engine usually means hitting as many of the search terms as possible within written content of any given website. And it's important that the terms are within standard sentences because the engines will read your site and can tell the difference between coherent sentences and lists of terms.

Relevant content is including the information your customers want to find.

That means, you shouldn't get hung up on key words as stand alone terms. Instead think of providing information that is not only a good read, but is also very descriptive so that you'll have more opportunities to include relevant content.

By including as much information about your business as possible, the search engine can't help but sort out a very specific group of customers to send you.

The more ways you can get your point across, the more likely you are to include relevant, searchable terms that will bring in the customers you were hoping to reach with your website.

If you do business locally, your location and distances from landmarks is very relevant and will drive foot traffic to your store.

“On the Corner of Main and Center.” “Across the Street from {Landmark}.” “Just 3 Miles from Downtown {City}.” “Serving the Greater {City} Area.” “In {Shopping Center} near {Anchor Store}.”

If you sold shoes you could say something like, "This {brand name} ladies shoe has a 2.5 inch heal and butter soft leather..." would hit on searches for {brand} shoes, {brand} ladies, ladies leather etc.

As far as your use of the relevance, {brand} {location} is very relevant if your customers know exactly what they want and where they want to buy it. By including your location somewhere on the same page as your product listings, you'll be able to catch the attention of these very specific shoppers.

Getting Listed in the Search Engines

Getting listed in the search engines is FREE and requires no special software or service providers. Best of all, it's easier than you think.

You can submit your site directly to the engines by visiting each one you'd like to be listed in and finding their submission criteria. While it may take you a while to do it manually, you'll only ever have to do it once. Once the engine knows about you, that's all that's required. Sending it in over and over again doesn't increase your ranking.

Just give the listing process time to work.

The engine wants your information and will send an automated program called a Spider to your site in an attempt to catalog your content.

It's called a Spider because it crawls across the world wide web following links in an attempt to visit every page.

Relevant links

In the same way that Relevant content on your own site can bring a specific type of customer, so can relevant links from other websites.

It does two things for you. First, it will deliver a certain number of like minded people. Secondly it will help boost your “relevance” in the eyes of the search engine.

Think of it this way... What's more relevant than the corporate website for the brand itself? Logic then dictates that if they list your website as a point of purchase, you are relevant too.

Again, if the aim is to align yourself with the most relevant content, you can't get much more relevant than a link from...

The Manufacturers of the products you sell
National, Regional and Local Associations you may belong to
Chamber of Commerce
Local business listings to establish your relevance to local customers. (Tourist Info, online yellow pages, etc)

Maintaining Relevance

In passive mode, all that's required is to be sure the most relevant key words are present on your website.

If you want to take things a little farther, the key to maintaining your relevance to the engines is to keep your content fresh. Changes in your content will trigger a listing update at the engine for your site.

If you add new pages, you'll also get another listing opportunity and another chance to reach your target audience.

Though you'll probably find that it's your human viewers who'll benefit the most from new information. After all, the ultimate goal is to be relevant to people by way of the engine.

Boosting Relevance and Search Engine Rank

If fresh content isn't enough to boost your relevance, the first place to turn for answers is your website traffic statistics. (Ask your webmaster if you aren't sure how to check your stats.)

With your site stats you'll be able to see a basic snapshot of who your average visitor is and what's bringing them to the site.

Most statistics programs will show you which engines your visitors are coming from and which search terms they used to find you. Sometimes you'll see that your customers are finding you for reasons other than what you intended.

For the most part you'll probably discover traffic flow from unintended key words. This is usually a good thing! It's only bad when the search terms are misleading because anyone arriving at your site is likely to leave the moment they discover you don't really have what they were looking for.

If customers aren't finding you using what you think are your main key words, type them into the engine to see what other sites are beating you out.

Then just tweak your message until you're ranking where you'd like to be.

Just one word of caution... it may be impossible to get top 10 for some key words and phrases, so pick your battles and focus on the areas you can win. Remember the idea is to use the engine to sort out customers most likely to make a purchase.

Knitted version of the buttercup bag (Tutorial included)

2009-12-11T10:18:00.005-05:00

It's not that I can't sew... I'm actually not too bad if I put my mind to it. Instead, you could classify my problem as dinner-table-itis. Meaning if I can't finish by dinner time or don't have a really good reason, I probably shouldn't haul out the sewing paraphernalia. Unfortunately, a pretty little handbag doesn't fit into my schedule right now and it's not a good reason to prevent us from dining at the kitchen table. C'est la vie.

However, a few minutes of knitting now and then, does fit into my schedule. Yes, it probably would have been faster to simply get out my sewing machine to make Made By Rae's Buttercup bag, but I just can't resist a knitting pattern challenge.

Here's the results...Filled, hanging, More Accurate color

Flat, Colors washed out with the flash

The Recipe...
Ingredients for this bag -

Bernat Worsted. A one pound or so skein. (Will make more than a few bags)
Knit picks Options - Your favorite size (See notes on Gage below) needles on 24" or longer cord for Magic Circle knitting or two circs, lots of DPNs, Or your favorite method.
2 stitch markers - it's helpful if they are different so you'll know when the rounds begin
cable needle
stitch holder or scrap yarn
Optional - clip to make a key ring holder

Project Notes

This bag is knitted from the bottom up so it is seamless.
I used a magnetic snap to close this bag and the jeweled leaf 'bling' was chosen because I could sew it on to add stability to the knitting.
Guage and needle size is not important but I chose a tight knit because I didn't want to line the bag.

Let's get cookin'!
Cast on an even number of stitches as you would for your favorite toe up socks. More or less stitches to adjust the width of your bag. In this case I cast on a total of 48 stitches onto a single needle and transferred them to two DPNs by alternating needles as I transferred the stitches. It sounds confusing even though I'm the one who did it. Think of it this way... needle one gets the first stitch, needle 2 the second, needle 1 the third, needle 2 the fourth etc. Or again, your favorite method (cast on as to knit in the round and then sew up the bottom would work too).

Shaping
The bag is knit in the round and we'll begin shaping the radius corners in the very first row.

So you understand my method for creating the radius, I used the GIMP to make some circles so I could see the shape in pixels.

As you'll see in the example image above, that the second row up from the bottom is 3 pixels longer, per side, than the first row. So that means I need to increase 3 stitches to shape that portion of the bag. I'm also working with a flat shape, so increases will happen before and after each of the side two markers.

For the bag in the picture and after frogging several times, I settled on a 26 stitch radius.

So let's get Knitting!
Round 1 - Place Marker *KFB 4 times K 16 (assuming casting on 48 stitches or 24 stitches per side) KFB 4 times*. Place Marker. Repeat between * to complete round 1

For the next 25 rows You'll continue making the number of KFB increases in this same manner as above, but with the numbers listed below. For example, Round 2 would be to KFB in the first 3 stitches after the marker. Knit to within 3 stitches of the second marker and KFB3 times.

If you're using Magic Circle Knitting, as I did with this bag, when you reach a marker, take time to adjust your cord. I usually kept the bulk of my extra cording at the opposite marker and used just enough slack on the working side to get my needle started.

Round 2 - Increase 3
Round 3 - Increase 2
Round 4 - Increase 2
Round 5 - Increase 1
Round 6 - Increase 2
Round 7 - Increase 1
Round 8 - Increase 1
Round 9 - Increase 1
Round 10 - Increase 1
Round 11 - Increase 1
Round 12 - None - Yep, that's right, there's no need to increase in this row.
Round 13 - Increase 1
Round 14 - Increase 1
Round 15 - None
Round 16 - Increase 1
Round 17 - None
Round 18 - Increase 1
Round 19 - None
Round 20 - None
Round 21 - Increase 1
Round 22 - None
Round 23 - None
Round 24 - None
Round 25 - None
Round 26 - Increase 1

Now that the corners are done, you'll be adding an increase round (make one before and after each marker just like we did for the corners) every few rows until you have 72 stitches on your needles. The more rows between your increase rounds the deeper your bag will be.

Pleats
I don't know about you, but I've never seen directions for pleating in knitting so I had to devise my own technique. The pattern reads - K6 (Pleat 12) 5 times K6 - Repeat for side 2

Now how does one Pleat 12? Good question... Slip 6 stitches to a cable or Double Pointed needle and hold them at the back. Then 3 needle knit from your left hand needle and the cable needle at the same time. Stitch Diva has a good video tutorial on YouTube if you'd like to see how it's done.

Seed Stitch band and Handle
The good news is there's only one row that needs pleating so we're already onto the top band. In this bag I Knit 9 rows of K1P1 seed stitch for the top band. To get an odd number of stitches so I'd have beautiful seed stitch as I went round and round, I replaced the first K stitch with a single K2Tog.

At row 10 I began the bind off round Leaving 3 live stitches on each side of your markers. So starting at the beginning of the round I would knit 3 stitches in pattern, then bind off until I had 3 live stitches before the marker. Do the same for the other side.

For the handle, begin back and forth knitting in the K1P1 pattern until your strap is as long as you'd like it to be. Mine is fairly short because I usually end up with my purse in my hand or around my forearm. Depending on how comfortable you are, you can leave the live stitches you left on the opposite side right on the cable of your circular needle or slip them to a stitch holder.

Attaching the strap
The first trick is getting the K1P1 pattern of the strap to match up with the live stitches when you're ready to attach. We're going to do a bit of 3 needle knitting again, so slip the stitches on to your Cable needle or a DPN. Take a look at what you've got on the needle and what you'll be knitting next on the strap. To get the next row to match up, the pattern should look the same on both sides.

At this point you can do a 3 needle bind off in pattern, or you can continue seed stitch for another round or two past the connection point.

The second trick is making sure you're binding off or continuing your knitting where you'd like it to be. So take a moment to determine if you'll be knitting to the inside or the outside of the bag before you join.

On this bag I knit just a couple more rows of the seed stitch pattern and then decreased by 2 stitches. I continued as a 4 stitch icord to attach a little spring clip for my keys.

Now I should caution you that I've been a knitter for less than 2 years and this is one of my first tutorials and I know the pattern isn't quite standard format. Please leave questions or comments below and I'll do my best to clarify. If I get some time, I'll also replace these snap shots with something better.

Thanks for looking,
Karlie
P.S. This was a BtB (Before the Blog) post at Craftster

FUDCon Toronto Follow-up. Day 2

2009-12-08T09:32:00.007-05:00

My Sunday started off without too much in the way of expectations. I had hoped my family would be able to join me in Toronto, so I only booked my hotel for 2 nights. Even though the guys weren't with me, there's not a whole lot for me to do in hack sessions so I wasn't planning on staying long.

The first and most important thing I had to do Sunday was find out how Remy was getting back to Rochester. We drove up together and he wanted to stay for the hack sessions.

I was also invited to attend a meeting about the Fedora Campus Ambassador program.

The bummer was waiting around for Remy and the meeting to kick off. Remy had a late night in the hotel hack suite so he didn't arrive until late morning and the meeting I was invited to didn't get rolling until early afternoon.

Now don't get me wrong, I did have some good conversations with the guys, but for the most part, I spent the time clearing my email and doing show and tell with my XO running Xtra Ordinary. I will admit that it's pretty impressive that an XO-1 machine can power an OpenOffice.org Impress presentation - even if it is on that tiny little screen.

With Remy squared away the only thing left was the Campus Ambassador meeting.

What we figured out is that there aren't any stated goals, and as a result there isn't any significant activity in the program.

So what do we want to do about it? Good question.

First off, I think we still need to state some goals and for that we'll need input from Fedora and Red Hat as to what outcomes they're hoping for. Is it market penetration by way of installs? Is it measured in presentations per month? Or can it be anything we want it to be as long as it involves engaging with university students and faculty?

Knowing that I had to leave as soon as the 3:30 pizza delivery arrived, we didn't get very far.

The key points I had in my moleskin were...
1, If we can get people started, do we have mentors?
2, Can we come up with suggested activities, presentations and SWAG offerings to get these new folks rolling?

Key points to question 1 are; Do students find us, or do we find the students? Both? Does the campus ambassador need to be a student? Is it possible to ask current ambassadors to hit campuses near them to get things started or should we try other ways to spur interest?

For question 2, I think we all felt a little more confident that we could update the wiki and provide collateral materials.

Suggestions included;

Sponsoring meetings. As in we pay for Pizza to encourage attendance at existing campus meetings.
Presentation templates. Stock presentations covering basics like what is Linux and Open Source, the Fedora Project through possibly more advanced topics. (As I write this I'm suggesting we have a way for community members to request help with presentations to pool resources from the Fedora Project when the topic doesn't exist. )
Activity suggestions - Some could simply be for fun, while others could be outlines to follow for pre-planning specific events. Launch Parties, Install Fests, Software Freedom Day, or others.
SWAG so that there's a little something extra for participants of the above.

So my goal right now is to begin thinking about what suggestions I can add to the wiki. I'm sure we'll have another meeting sometime soon and I'll update you as to what we come up with.

Till then,
~Karlie

FUDCon Toronto Follow-up. Day 1

2009-12-07T08:29:00.016-05:00

Like a lot of this year's FUDCon participants, I haven't been writing much. Heck, I didn't get more than a couple of dents and tweets out, but that's ok because we were face to face for a change.

We got started Saturday morning at Seneca@York with an unconfrence/barcamp style pitches.

Right after lunch, Remy DeCausemaker and I did a joint presentation covering the class we're involved with at RIT.

I kicked things off with the presentation (download) I did for the Ontario GNU Linux Fest a few weeks ago. I didn't quite fill the 50 minutes at OGLF, and I managed to whip through all of them in about 20 minutes on Saturday.

Then Remy brought us up to speed on how he got involved with the class and how his new position as a fellow at RIT fits with his ongoing work with organizations such as the Sunlight Foundation.

We then tag-teamed questions from the group. Everything from gaining a foothold in universities, to the kids getting excused from class on Tuesday if they attend Remy's upcoming Hack-a-thon.

The rest of the day was full of Fedora goodness and most of the presentations, Including Paul Frields' keynote should find their way to the Fedora wiki.

After the keynote, we all made our way to Dave and Buster's. I had never heard of the place, but I liked it. If you haven't been, it reminded me of a grown-ups Chuck E Cheese.

On my way back to my hotel, I was passed by a police car... Then an emergency truck, then a fire truck... "Must be an accident somewhere" I mused to myself.

However, all 3 turn on Wilson Ave... in the direction of my hotel.

Why yes, there was a fire truck parked in the driveway when I arrived moments later.

It was only a dryer fire and I was able to get into my room about 30 minutes later.

I'll cover Sunday's hack fests in my next post so look for day 2 soon.

~Karlie

A blanket for Baby Luke

2009-12-03T10:39:00.006-05:00

Along with my time issues ahead of FUDcon, I've been struggling with a design for a blanket I promised I'd make for my soon to be nephew, Luke. It had been a problem because I wanted to be sure I had something to take with me to work on while I'm in sessons or have down time.

The other problem I've been having with the blanket is that I told my sister I'm already making it. While it's true I've been working on it, I just haven't told her how many times I've frogged the yarn back onto the ball and stared again.

I've been having a really hard time coming up with something that won't be dull to knit or dull to look at without being too complicated. Complicated is more important now that I only have a few weeks to get the blanket done. But I think I finally have something... Or at least I'm going with it now that I don't have any time to goof around with new patterns.

Let me show you a sample of what I've worked out...

For this example I'm using...

Lion Cotton "Poppy" for Color "A"
Lion Cotton "White" for Color "B"
US size 8 DPN (I'm using a circular needle for the blanket)

The Technique
Pattern is worked over an even number of stitches and has a 4 row repeat.
Standard abbreviations used.

Cast on with Color A
Row 1 - RS - using Color B - *K1, WYIF Sl1 PW* repeat between * until the end.
Row 2 - RS - Without turning work, slide all stitches to the right end of the needle and K all stitches with color A.
Row 3 - WS - Turn work. Using B, *P1, WYIB Sl1 PW* repeat between * until the end
Row 4 - WS - Without turning work, slide all stitches to the right end of the needle and P all stitches with color A.

When I get the blanket done I'll post pictures and give details about the yarn choices, needles and finished sizes.

~Karlie

Are We There Yet? FUDCON 2009

2009-12-02T15:52:00.005-05:00

For some reason I thought I had lots of time this week to get ready for FUDCon. And perhaps I did. But now, it's Wednesday evening and all I can say about this week is that I've been running late since Monday morning.

The good news is that the majority of the SWAG I'm bringing is already packed since I never took it out of the car after NYSCATE. Call that a win for procrastination.

There are a few goodies I don't want to forget. First are these cute little pouches I picked up at the TJ Connor Elementary Book Fair a few weeks ago.

They looked so lonely marked down to 25¢ each. Well I hope they'll find loving homes this weekend.

With that said, I should probably get off my computer and see if I can get some laundry done before I'm further behind.

~Karlie

NYSCATE 2009 - Bringing Open Source to Education

2009-11-24T13:11:00.011-05:00

NYSCATE 2009 was, in my opinion, a big success. At least as far as short notice, first-time-out, events go.

We had lots of SWAG, thanks to everyone's help. Even some more last minute Fedora SWAG by way of Charles Proffitt. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank Mike Lee. Not sure why I didn't mention him in the last post, but he did send some print collateral ideas. It was his email that gave me the graphical layout for the Sugar Spin discs we printed and burned for the booth.

So Mike, and Chas - Thank you again.

Now as far as the action in the booth, Monday was a much busier day than Tuesday. We gave out lots of Sugar Spins and lots of openSUSE Edu Li-F-E discs.

Of course the topic of Sugar on a Stick, getting involved, Freedom and free downloads were covered over and over again. All good stuff and I don't think explaining it ever gets old for me. In fact, when I left at 2:30 on Tuesday, my voice was hoarse.

The OLPC XO-1 laptops were such a big hit and I knew they would be. After all, when you have educators, and an education tool, what would you expect?

One thing I didn't expect was that about 10% of the booth visitors thought it was a toy and/or hadn't heard of OLPC. So it's a good thing they stopped by so we could introduce the possibility of truly open and interactive learning.

On the other hand, those who were familiar (having at least heard of OLPC), only a few had ever seen one in person.

The very few folks I spoke with who knew lots about OLPC commented that they still weren't sure how to introduce the learning environment into their schools or lessons.

Almost no one knew about Sugar on a Stick as an inexpensive alternative to an XO deployment. (and yes, I'll give them that one, as SoaS is still a fairly new concept)

In contrast, almost everyone I spoke to at Ontario GNU Linux Fest knew of OLPC and seen an XO in person.

I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a big red flag here.

We should all be wondering why this knowledge gap between FOSS and Edu has formed. Is it because bunch of geeks, hell-bent of freedom and open communications are avoiding local conversations about topics that would have a positive effect on the children in their community?

I might be wrong, but that may be more than a rhetorical question.

In my opinion, by staying in our own geek community, no matter how international that may be, and rarely taking FOSS into the local community it seems we're being counter productive. I'm not sure if it's fear of being too geeky for the average citizen, or what. Regardless of the reasons, I'm now seeing that it's an area that should be addressed.

Now to get off my soap box and walk the walk, here are two examples of how I'm trying to bridge gaps locally.

First I offered to help a rural school district in Wayne County NY hold an install fest. I've even gone so far as to say I'd help find computers to install Linux and FOSS applications on. Why? Because the 2 teachers I met with casually mentioned that they have children without access to basic word processing at home. (Lucky for me, Chas Proffitt is also the meeting coordinator for the LUG of Rochester and we had a chance to talk about volunteers from the LUG to help should this get rolling)

How big of an impact could we have by installing Linux on a few "EOL" computers? I don't know yet, but the digital divide doesn't need to exist when Puppy Linux and other light/fast Linux distros can bring 10 year old computers back to life.

Second, and high on my list, is the opportunity to reproduce the RIT class at a local Catholic High School. The school's Director of Technology told me he bought an XO through Give one Get one, but hasn't seen too much excitement in the school yet. He also told me there's a desire to do more computer science type classes. Can you see how I was starting to get excited as we spoke? I love it when two problems can be addressed with a single solution.

And yes, of course I'll post an update if there is more to report as a result of my time at NYSCATE.

That's all for now,
~Karlie

Stuff We All Get

2009-11-22T08:39:00.009-05:00

SWAG, as it's also known, is the story for me this week and it's been one of those good news, bad news kind of situations.

The good news -- Tuesday morning I received an email from Steve Jacobs saying he's been granted a booth at NYSCATE 2009 and asking for SWAG and Volunteers.

It's a big opportunity to show NY State Educators the monstrous amounts of work being done at RIT with OLPC, SugarLabs.org, the Fedora Project, and TeachingOpenSource.org. Especially since we won't be "preaching to the choir."

Now don't get me wrong, I love FOSS conferences, and I know there are lots of like minded people who want the scoop on what we've been up to. It's just that there's something special about giving free software to someone who isn't all that familiar with what we do.

The bad news -- I had 5 days to scrounge up enough SWAG for our booth. If you consider shipping times, then yes, the phrase "oh crap!" would be appropriate.

So at this point I need to thank the flowing people for going above and beyond and getting boxes of goodies in the mail, simply because I asked.

Brian Powell and his sweet wife for sending Fedora pens, conversation stickers and Tattoos
Chris Neves for sending Fedora 11 discs, "Powered by Fedora" stickers, buttons and Tattoos.
Adam Holt and SJ Klein for sending OLPC postcards.
Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier for giving me permission to use the Free openSUSE 11.1 Quick Ship discs we had on hand and for suggesting openSUSE Edu Li-f-e disc for our booth.

I also need to give special thanks to my dear sweet husband, Todd, for spending his Saturday making openSUSE Edu Li-f-e and Sugar spins for us.

I do have to correct the fabulous Mel Chua when she said -- "Short version: Karlie is Magical."

No, Mel, the community is Magical. Without their quick action, we'd have a very poor presence at NYSCATE.

Wanna get married?

2009-11-18T10:49:00.010-05:00

This morning I was asked if forming a business partnership is the right move when a small business owner doesn't bring all the necessary skills to the table. I'm always a bit nervous about partnerships, so I used my standby response...

The leading cause of divorce is money. With business, you don't even have love to keep you together.

I quickly finished my response to the client and then popped open my spankin' new blog with the prospects of writing my first official post. The problem is, I didn't know if I'm actually right about causes of divorce. Conventional wisdom seems to agree with me, but now that I'm a faux journalist, I should probably find a credible source... Shouldn't I?

A quick trip to Google brought me to an article by Liz Pulliam Weston titled "Money isn't the culprit in most divorces."

The title of the article does seem to indicate I'm wrong. However, the body presents a valid argument showing that I'm not that far off the mark. So while I don't have a straight answer about money being the root of all evil it does give me cause to modify my thinking and the way I'll format this portion of future SCORE counseling sessions.

So if the question is, "Is a partnership right for my business?"

My answer will be, It depends.

While you might be friendly towards one another, have complementary skills and a little bit of money to bring to the table, you need to be very cautious. Becoming business partners is equivalent to marrying someone.

You will spend more of your time with the partner than you will with your spouse.

You will be splitting any money you do make with the partner.

If the relationship goes bad, they can walk away with a significant portion of your business -- maybe enough to cause the business to fail.

If you still think a partnership is right for your business, you shouldn't do anything until you have a signed partnership agreement. I really mean that. Until such time as you have an agreement in place, if they're working in the business you have an employee. If they give money to the business then they are an investor.

The partnership agreement should be reviewed by your attorney and should cover everything you can think of.

Who owns what share of the business?

Where do your shares pass should something happen to you? Accidents have been known to happen. If something does, do your shares transfer to your next of kin or the partner?

How do you get out of the business or remove a partner? Situations change, so be flexible.

What jobs will each of you be responsible for? Be thinking about "Too many cooks spoiling the broth" vs. "Many hands make light work."

Hello World!

2009-11-17T14:35:00.002-05:00

So here I am, another member of the blogosphere.

So what should you expect to find in my blog? Guess we'll need to explore that together.

I can say that I wear a lot of hats so you'll probably find topics on Motherhood, Business ownership, a bit of the old, and probably a fair bit of cutting edge technology too.