artcodes

ARTCODES is Emily Chang, an award-winning web and interactive designer, consultant, and technology strategist.

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Wiki from Adaptive Path's Ajax User Experience Week

Friday, August 26, 2005

If you’re interested in gaining further insight into the many facets of Ajax (see my post about Ajax from Feb 05), there’s a wiki with conference notes and perspective from Adaptive Path‘s User Experience Conference held last week in Washington D.C.

To understand the primary differentiators of Ajax, see the notes and examples (at the bottom of the page) from Jesse James Garrett‘s Introduction to Ajax/New Web Technology.  Having already seen the openrico and protopage samples previously, I particularly like Andrew Sullivan’s periodic table example and can’t wait to try JohnVey.com’s del.icio.us direc.tor.  Of course there’s a good deal of buzz about Adaptive Path’s own product called Measure Map, which is designed by Jeff Veen and purported to be a hosted “tool for bloggers to better track traffic to their site.” I heard about this last week and plan to write a post about what I would like to see in a tool to help measure traffic, given that I’m currently using two stat programs, a gVisit map, four blog readers (online and installed), pinging ten blog hosts, tagging for technorati, checking views at flickr, and the list goes on.  A consolidated measure tool that would allow me to track my outgoing activity (tagging and cross-linking) and my incoming traffic (RSS readers, inbound links, google searches, technorati, bloglines and other readers, and so on) would be both a welcome time-saver, and as important, it would hopefully give me a more holistic view of “myself” (my content) and its “life” on the web.

I’m also wondering how long it will take for someone to to make a Flickr-compatible Ajax gallery for your blog.  There are already a mix of tools to manage photos between your desktop and your blog or Flickr.  I just came across the FlickrExport which will export from iPhoto to Flickr and there’s Photon (enables automatic creation and upload of images and thumbnails, plus configurable export of all photo data directly to a Movable Type blog) which Doug Bowman used for his Movable Type photo templates.  It would be ideal to have one management layer that would allow me to push selected content from iPhoto to both my blog and flickr at the same time, with the ability to sort, tag, organize, edit, share, publish, or archive.  The other key factor for me is where the physical photos are stored.  Ideally, there would only be one copy of each photo on one server, rather than at my photo blog, at flickr, and my other blogs. 

For me, the promise of a “new” web technology is the ability to 1) simplify my life as a blogger/web publisher/content producer and 2) to enable my site visitors to have greater control over the manner in which they view both my site content and the means by which the content comes to them (via my site, RSS, email newsletter, etc).

When I see current Ajax samples, I am both reminded of how far we have come from simple HTML hypertext pages to today’s possibilities, and it’s also an awareness of how young the internet really is.  While the terms have changed, the goal remains the same:  on the one hand, to deliver vast amounts of information efficiently, and on the other, to manage our ever-expanding network of information sources and relationships.

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Posted by emily chang on 08.26.05
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Movable Type 3.2 released and better than ever

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Movable Type 3.2 was released this morning by the team at Six Apart.  The new release has a wealth of features designed to make blogging even easier and smarter.

Max and I are running Movable Type on BeingEDU and plan to upgrade as soon as we have a few minutes of free time.  I’m looking forward to trying out the context-aware search interface, flltering spam into a junk folder, and having a centralized overview for all my blogs.

Make sure you also take a look at the new smart CSS design templates and libraries of new styles.  I’m pleased to say I had a tiny hand in creating three of the color variations used for the new Vicksburg theme, although the true credit for the design and CSS magic goes to Vicksburg’s creator, Walt.  View the new templates and others at the Style Library Remixer.

For the last month, I’ve had the rare opportunity to sit in the MT area at Six Apart next to some of the people that have built Movable Type, including Jay, Anil, Ezra, Brad.  Aside from the fanfare over the actual product, it’s the dedication and teamwork of the people behind the product that have really impressed me. 

(News story at my company site from Aug 5, 2005: Ideacodes to Create Wireframes and Visual Designs for Six Apart).

Posted by emily chang on 08.25.05
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Pingoat rocks

Sunday, August 21, 2005

I’ve been looking at ways to increase blog traffic and I’ll be posting more about the services and various techniques I’m using, but for now, you’ve got to try pingoat, a great new service that Max found and talks about in his post, The Ultimate Blog Ping Service. 

Here on artcodes.com, after adding Pingoat’s ping url to my blog preferences, I’ve already noticed a huge increase in page views and robot page views (whoa - 612 for today?!).  I’ll have to look at path analysis to know if these are all real or just evil spammers and such, but I’m impressed at the number of sites that I can ping with no effort. 

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Posted by emily chang on 08.21.05
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081705

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

“In general I have a hacker ethic regarding my work: I don’t really want my job to be neatly divisible from my life. The concepts and ideas that I bring to both are the same. ” (Jessamyn West)

Posted by emily chang on 08.17.05
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Blog comments on

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I’ve resisted turning comments on in my blog for some time.  It’s not that I haven’t wanted feedback from you or to know what you think.  It probably has more to do with my art past and how I saw this site as my online database of ideas, creations, and influences.  For me, blogging began as an evolution of art-web experiments I was already doing. 

In 1996, I started a personal site/art site called ADD (analog digital diary) which was essentially an early hand-made HTML version of a blog.  The site was based on a grid calendar that contained dates with links to view the photos, words, graphics, ideas or sculptures I was working on every day; a listing page with the most current post at the top; ways to view by category (sculpture, multimedia, scan, recording, text) or view by date, theme, or any other views that I wanted to include.  The main page was minimal - the latest post and side links to the various ways to view.  Navigation was also pared down to “view by date”, “view by media type”, “view by theme”, and an archives and calendar link.  The design was equally reduced and mostly HTML text or links with the actual content of the piece as the central focus.  When I use the current version of flickr, I’m reminded of what I was trying to make in many ways, particularly with the calendar view option in interestingness (screenshot pop-up).

The purpose of the site was to give myself a place to post anything and everything that I was doing while an art student in graduate school and to create a website like none that I had seen or used.  Whether I drew a large viewership wasn’t really a concern or a goal, and as far as feedback, I was getting plenty of daily feedback and critique in grad school (to say the least!).

When blogging came around, it was mostly the tools that invigorated me at first.  Suddenly, here were flexible, free, and extensible web-based systems that did everything I wanted to do with a database-driven site but didn’t have the time or know-how to write myself.  But the next wave of excitement was the speed with which blogs erupted online.  Suddenly, everyone was a writer, photographer, documentarian, journalist, thought leader, critic, artist - blogger.  People posting opinions, reviews, photos, art, intimate details of our lives, carefully crafted HTML worlds of how we each want to be perceived.  From an artistic perspective, that has been a thrill to see. 

For the most part with my blog, it’s been one-way communication.  Me exhibiting and broadcasting to all of you.  I’ve turned comments on with lots of anticipation.  Hope we have some good conversations.

Posted by emily chang on 08.16.05
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Choosing blogging software

Friday, July 22, 2005

A recent article by Susannah Gardner in the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review titled “Time to Check: Are you using the right blogging tool?" is a great starting point if you’re new to blogs (features, terminology, uses) or looking for a blog software comparison chart. 

Posted by emily chang on 07.22.05
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Six Apart

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

I’ve moved several times in the last nine years - five moves, three states, and two coasts to be exact.  Despite these environmental and physical shifts in my life, it’s ironic that it’s the bloggers from the virtual world (kottke, hchamp, joi ito, dooce, caterina, mightygirl, and many others) that have provided a sense of permanence and consistency while my life and surroundings have often changed radically.

After almost ten years of making and remaking my personal site/blog, my company, Ideacodes is now helping design the next generation of blog services and products for Six Apart, world’s leading blog company.  Six Apart was co-founded by Mena and Ben Trott, the creators of Movable Type (the software that launched millions of blogs) and then TypePad.  Now that I’ve been in SF for a year, my two worlds (virtual and real) are coming together and I couldn’t be more inspired or thrilled. 

Sometimes when I talk to people I meet, clients, or the non-addicted, they’ll ask, “what’s the big deal with blogs?” For me, it’s about the power to engage in what I think most people are after - self-expression, empathy, dialogue, multiple perspectives - the same core ideas on which democracy is based.  At its most basic, it’s the opportunity to experience other people’s lives in asynchronous “real” time - a daily timeline paralleling your own life.  It’s also about the greater act of being both a consumer and a producer of culture.  Once you start using your voice, you’ll find you have a lot to say.

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Posted by emily chang on 07.12.05
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How much does a college or university blog really cost?

Thursday, May 26, 2005

I’ve written a new post about the cost of blogs at BeingEDU.com:
If you’re a school that wants to start a blog for reasons of recruitment, communication, academic voice, strategic planning, or community-buiding, but you’ve been hesitant to, I feel your pain.  I used to work for a “marketing communications consulting firm in higher education” where they once recommended an admissions-focused blog for a client with a $30,000 price tag for implementation.  No wonder the client ran for the door. 

» More...

Posted by emily chang on 05.26.05
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BeingEDU.com

Friday, May 13, 2005

I’m now writing about more strategic and web related issues over at a new Ideacodes blog, BeingEDU.com.  Being EDU™ is a weblog about strategic web design and development for college and university websites, co-authored and co-edited by myself and Max Kiesler.  We invite you to take a look, BeingEDU.com, partcipate by posting comments, and if you’re interested in becoming an editor, please contact me.

» More...

Posted by emily chang on 05.13.05
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Blog Software Comparison

Monday, May 02, 2005

If you’re considering blog software and want to save some time trying to navigate various feature lists and options, take a look at this blog software chart comparing features of various user-installed (not hosted) blog software packages.  It’s a good start.  I suggest downloading the trial versions, installing them, and testing them out for yourself.  It’s also a great idea to read through the user manual and the user forums and see if the blog can be configured to your needs.  I’ve used most of the blogs listed there.  Movable Type and ExpressionEngine are the tools to use if you need full featured self-installed and customizable solutions. If you’re looking for someone to create a blog for you, you can always contact me. 

Posted by emily chang on 05.02.05
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Well-behaved women seldom make history

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Received email from misbehaving yesterday and I’m proud to be listed among many of the most influential women in technology today. 

misbehaving.net is a weblog about women and technology. It’s a celebration of women’s contributions to computing; a place to spotlight women’s contributions as well point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field.

Get a view of the future of technology from the women making it.

Posted by emily chang on 03.30.05
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SXSW 2004

Saturday, March 27, 2004

SXSW interactive festival, March 12-16, 2004, Austin, TX

Enjoyed the conference, in particular, the talks by Howard Rheingold, Brenda Laurel and Sandy Stone, the MoveOn guys (Zack Exley and Eli Pariser), and Jeffrey Veen. Would have liked to take more photos in the sessions but you had to have an official press pass (see Joi Ito’s post).  To see some of the keynotes, take a look at SXSW’s video clips. Mike Slone has a good list to notes on his blog link round up.

(CSS photo slideshow)



Posted by emily chang on 03.27.04
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NYC photobloggers

Sunday, February 29, 2004

Photography exhibit of NYC photobloggers at the Apple Soho store.

Posted by emily chang on 02.29.04
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Phoning in photos for posterity

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

snip…

Last week’s blackout gave moblogging its first real chance to provide
grassroots coverage of a major news event says this piece. The result:
Lots of digital photos appearing on weblogs taken in the blackout zone by
people using digital phone/cameras. Travis Larson, spokesman for the
Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association: “This may be the
first major news event in which camera phones helped deliver the story.
And they’ve done so in real time.” Howard Rheingold: “This is a sign of
things to come more so than a watershed event. The (moblog) coverage
didn’t give me much better than what I could get on television.” But, says
Rheingold, once camera phones offer better resolution and can stream
video, moblogs will become much more interesting.

http://www.corante.com/communications/redir/28053.html

[via VirtualR]

Posted by emily chang on 08.20.03
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Geek Chorus

Friday, July 04, 2003

Students with laptops and wireless connections are opening up “back-channel” discussions during classroom lectures, according to a New York Times article by Lisa Guernsey. While the lecturer is up there lecturing, clusters of students are back there working the instant-messaging circuit—commenting, questioning and even blogging the proceedings. “We’re just moving the corridor into the room and time-shifting it by 30 minutes,” says one participant. Enthuses Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor at New York University: “The intellectual quality of a two-track meeting is extraordinarily high, if it is run right and you have smart people involved.”

» More...

Posted by emily chang on 07.04.03
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Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time

Sunday, February 16, 2003

Pyra is the company co-founded by Meg Hourihan and Evan Williams, the creators of Blogger.  “The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information...”

Story at silconvalley.com

Posted by emily chang on 02.16.03
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