11:11:42 PM      comment []   trackback []  

3:05:50 PM      comment []   trackback []  

Justin Hitt offers an excellent comment in response to Phil's post, discussing employee/independent contractor distinctions and his own experiences in negotiating similar issues with employers. Justin's comment helps emphasize how a "one size fits all" approach might not be the best solution to this problem. The same thing can be said about licensing, but that doesn't make Creative Commons any less valuable, or, on the other hand, any guarantee against potential litigation. Could a Creative Commons-type system nevertheless be implemented for this situation? Of course, in theory, but Creative Commons represents a unique combination of expertise, commitment, and funding, and unfortunately I don't think it's realistic to expect such programs to spring up wherever a legal powderkeg awaits a match.

As for Phil's hope that a boilerplate "Blogging Employee's" agreement could include a provision ensuring "explicit freedom from retaliation for anything I post?" If someone manages to negotiate such an arrangement, I want that person as my lawyer. I cannot imagine any employer willingly giving any employee carte blanche to potentially defame the company or its representatives, or to disclose its competitive confidential information. That said, there may be work-related subjects an employer would be happy, even eager, to have employees blog about, and there may be employers that would make a church-and-state distinction for employee writing that is purely non-work related. More reasons why it's smart to address such concerns up front, and not to take on employment terms and conditions without some trusted legal advice.

My panel at the Weblog Business Strategies conference touched on these kinds of issues, and I have linked to all the panel coverage I could locate from B&B's About page. The panel also took a stab at answering some of Phil's further and related questions after the conference ("Drops Of Jupiter").
[Bag and Baggage] 
2:57:05 PM      comment []   trackback []  



An interview with Dave Shea
the CSS Zen Gardener, Dreamweaver MX and UltraDev Zone

Nice interview with Dave. I've met him and he's a nice guy and somebody I've been looking for locally for a long time. A Vancouver based designer who can bridge between the design world and the code world of CSS, HTML, etc.

(via: DMXzone.COM) [Roland Tanglao's Weblog] 
2:27:17 PM      comment []   trackback []  



The world as a blog
Congrats to Mikel. Dave finally discovers Mikel Maron's Geoblog site..

"Weblogs.com + Geocoding + RSS." [Scripting News]

Congrats Mikel. You've finally made it. [Marc's Voice] 
1:49:23 PM      comment []   trackback []  



MP3s via RSS
An experiment with RSS enclosures. If this works, users who subscribe to my feed with an enclosure-aware aggregator will have an MP3 of the interview Chris Lydon did with me last month, with no click-wait. [Scripting News]

Whoa!! I got it, Dave. Very nice. [Dann Sheridan's Weblog] 
1:44:02 PM      comment []   trackback []  



Hey, nice links

Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent: Nicely done.

Accessify Forum: Free to the public: talk about accessibility and design. ("Image replacement - accessible solutions?" and "Accessible sites: follow standards or follow browser bugs?" typify the fare.)

Bionic Ear Blog: Adventures of a woman gaining a new and improved ear.

Clip 'n Seal: Very cool bag closer mfrd by designer and blogger DL Byron.

GoodLogo!com: "World's finest selection of logos."

HTML Wish list: Designer Mike Pick dares to dream.

Meccapixel: Michael Cosentino's photos. Nicely done, sir.

Questia: "The world's largest online library of over 45,000 books and 360,000 journal, magazine, and newspaper articles."

zlog: Nicely done, old bean! Many more ..are readily available for your pleasure. :::

[Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report] 
1:28:26 PM      comment []   trackback []  



Blogstakes launch
A new sweepstakes leverages the network and in particular the segment that develops weblogs and other forms of independent content.
[Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report] 
1:20:37 PM      comment []   trackback []  



Understanding RSS
You wanna know all about RSS? Fine. We're gonna help you figure out what's what! Scott Johnson (of Feedster fame) is officially under agreement to produce a tutorial on news aggregators and RSS. It'll be sold direct by Lockergnome and via Amazon. He recently came to me with the suggestion that there needed to be a good, comprehensive resource to help get people started. He suggested a "Mom's First Aggregator" sort of thing. I agreed, and let him have at it. He hopes to be finished with it before Halloween, covering: The Basics, How an Aggregator Can Change Your Life, Versions and Basic Terminology, RSS For Content Publishers, Developers, Users, & Marketers, Choosing an Aggregator, The World's Simplest Aggregator, etc. If you would like your tips, thoughts, or experiences added to the tome, please let us know immediately.

1:13:52 PM      comment []   trackback []  

1) Google Alert - Track any search query from your favorite news aggregator. A variety of cool settings are available once you are signed up. My only gripe is that it is primarily focused on email alerts and I had to dig around before I found the RSS settings in the "toolkit".

2) "It's Google.rss" - I like this tool for query tracking better than Google Alert because I can get to making my RSS feed right away without the login interface and other annoyances. It is a great example of "no frills" ingenuity at work.

3) Gnews2RSS - The holy grail of RSS news feeds, in my opinion. You can finally get Google news without being bound to using MyRSS.com or any other ad supported RSS generator. The webmaster of Gnews2RSS encourages users to host their own version of this tool with his script. A link back to the script's author would be appropriate if used for personal use.
By matt@ctsdownloads.com. [Lockergnome's RSS Resource] 
1:12:40 PM      comment []   trackback []