I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Chirstmas!
Thank you for continuing to read and participate with me in this blog.
Your community and fellowship has been a huge gift to me.
Photo courtesy of me (leoschmidt08) on Flickr.
The huge amount of buzz surrounding TokBox (pronounced Talk Box) this week has generated this week’s poll. How often do you use video chat? Are you a power video chatter? Do you sometimes use it to talk with others? Are you in the category of “video what???” Let us know.
If you do video chat, even occasionally, I recommend checking out TokBox. I have used it multiple times this week and even in a video conference earlier today (courtesy of my buddy human3rror (John), who is an incredible blogger). Two great aspects are its lack of member requirements and high techy needs. Do you know someone who is not a member, but would like to participate? Invite them and they can join in the conversation as a guest. Does a potential video conference member not have video or audio? Let them join in also. All they need is an Internet connect, monitor and keyboard. No video or audio equipment is necessary. You will not see them, but the can still participate and see you.
Moving on to the poll:
We appreciate your vote. And as a way to thank you, here is a video I found that will help motivate you. I know I found it inspiring.
This week’s recommendation is for Seth Godin’s most recent book, Tribes. I have been following Seth for some time now. He is one of those bloggers that is a must-add for your feed reader of choice.
Seth Godin - Tribes
In his most recent book, Seth talks about how leaders and innovators assemble groups of similarly minded individuals. These leaders then lead their groups by getting the people excited about new products, services, or messages. Seth writes that tribes have been around for thousands of years in such forms as churches, work environments, or even local communities. He also argues how the Internet has allowed for exponential growth in the number of tribes and leaders alike. His challenge for us is to think as leaders instead of “sheepwalkers” (his term in the book) and try to organize, assemble, and inspire the tribes out there.
If you are interested in hearing what Seth has to say without first buying the book here is an audio recording courtesy of Seth and the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. As a side note, I also recommend listening to Marketing Over Coffee. John and Chris provide a lot of good marketing information in a nice relaxed “atmosphere” (Dunkin Donuts as it so happens).
Has anyone read Tribes? What did you think? Do you also think it is worth people’s time and money? I would love to hear your comments. If you do read it please let me know about your personal review.
Author’s note: I received a free download of Tribes via audible.com. This was my first venture into the audio book realm. I do prefer to turn the pages of a good book in my hand instead, though. (I cannot promise you anything, but you may still be able to download the audio version for free at Audible.)
Oh yes, oh yes. The day has finally arrived when WordPress releases its most current, and probably best, upgrade: WP version 2.7. First let me say that WordPress before v2.7 was just an awesome blogging platform. However, with this most current improvement, WordPress really sets itself apart as the premiere self-hosted blogging platform.
Why is WordPress so powerful? Here are a couple of reasons
WordPress works so well because the application is in tune with the company’s philosophy for its product. Their philosophy is as follows:
I believe the programmers have stayed very much in line with this philosophy. WordPress’ basic structure is very lightweight and easy to use right out of the box. Then as the user feels comfortable they can begin to add extra features through the use of plugins, which serve to enhance the blog’s basic capabilities. Fore example a few plugins I use are Intense Debate, Meet Your Commenters, Akismet (spam is bad), and Feedburner. This combination of lightweight core and plugins really allows for a great user experience from both the reader’s and writer’s perspectives.
So, what is new in WordPress 2.7? I am glad you asked.
(Author’s works cited blurb: I got most of the information about WP 2.7 and the WordPress philosophy from Mark Jaquith (@markjaquith) during his Charlotte WordCamp keynote address. Thanks Mark!)
Okay, so there you are. Now you know why WordPress is so great and some of the incredible features coming up in the latest upgrade. If you are not using WordPress then I highly suggest you give it a try and kick the tires a little bit. I believe you will really like what you see. If you are one of the fortunate ones who already use WordPress then make sure you upgrade and just stand back in awe.
Until next time, happy blogging!
For a couple of months now I have been planning on trying to create a little more structure within my blog. I believe this will help me write a little more consistently. It will also allow for a wider depth of material while still maintaining the purpose of this blog’s purpose. This new blog structure will be a work in progress, but I believe it is time to begin creating a little order. So, here we go.
Feedback Fridays
I hope to let Fridays be your day. Thus, it is only appropriate we begin this new adventure in structure with you starting things out. Fridays are going to be your day to let your voice truly shine. I will usually include a poll within each post to get some feedback. I hope that the comments will then go past the poll’s limitations and allow you to give me more detailed feedback. Therefore, feel free to leave any suggestions, criticism, random thoughts, recipes, or even secrets to a solid free throw in the comments. I am all ears.
So, here is Triune Designs’ first-ever poll. Drum roll please…
I look forward to reading your thoughts.
Obviously, this blog addresses web marketing and blogging as its central theme; however, there is one element that I feel has been missing since its inception: serving others. I am not quite sure how this addition will take place, but expect it to probably be added as part of my (almost) daily posts during the week.
So, to start off my serving-others posts I want to talk about my friend John (many know him by his alter-ego human3rror). I wrote about his two blogs a while ago: Some Blog Faves. John is in a very unique position that most of us will never experience. He and his twin brother are adopted children from Korea. Through no action of his own, OKF (Overseas Koreans Foundation) in coordination with G.O.A.L. (Global Oversees Adoptees’ Link) is giving John, his twin brother, and 44 other adoptees an almost-all-expenses-paid trip to visit their birth moms. How incredible is that? What an opportunity!
So, what can we, as a social media community do to help? John is asking for two things:
Prayer – Undoubtedly this is going to be one of the most emotional experiences of John’s life. He is asking that we pray against fear and anxiety beating them down and also that they will have safe travels.
Financial Support – Essentially OKF and G.O.A.L. are covering thousands of dollars, but John will need to provide an additional $500 to $800 for the trip. He also only has 17 days (maybe 16 days – I am a day behind his original post) to raise the money. Please also note that any money John receives in excess of the amount he needs will be given to a family who is trying to pay for an adoption (apparently they are very expensive).
If you feel the desire to donate, you can find the PayPal form towards the bottom of his sidebar (on the right).
I hope that we (collectively as bloggers, Twitter users, etc.) can show John how powerful the online community is. More importantly, I pray that John will continue to see how powerful and loving God is and that he will raise more money than is needed.
Here is his blog that provides more information than I can give you: Help Me Meet My Mother.
Photo courtesy of WTL photos on Flickr
As I promised in my last blog post, you can see the top commenters on my blog right now. Unfortunately, the list only shows me right now, but I am sure that is just because we have a lot of commenters who are not registered with Intense Debate. This will surely change and I am excited about that.
Speaking of Intense Debate, I have now set this blog up with their comment-tracking system. They really help out with creating more of a conversation on a blog than the traditional commenting setup. Please kick the tires on how Intense Debate looks and functions on the blog. Let me know whether you think this is a good addition to the blog.
If you like what you see, I suggest getting an account with Intense Debate.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and reading your comments (as always).
