Stature Software

Tracking Conferences Virtually

March 24th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

So this is pretty cool…

Big conferences, like SXSW, have come and gone – and if you’re like me – you missed the boat on all of them. As it turns out, you really could have attended – virtually.

Sure, there are a number of web services and sites that give you access to most of the content at conferences, whether you’re there or not. But one service that is pretty eye-catching: Lanyrd.

Lanyrd describes itself as a “social conference directory.” It features a conference coverage aggregator, pulling together notes, posts, slideshows, audio and more.

For instance, the SXSW 2011 page for Lanryd has 80+ slide decks, dozens of write-ups and video – and more. While it’s not a comprehensive list of content for SXSW, Lanyrd is a great place to go to look at some of the panels you missed out on.

What’s even more interesting about Lanyrd is its social function. Simply sign-in using your Twitter account, and suddenly you have access to all of the conferences your contacts are tracking and/or attending. If one of those conferences piques your curiosity, you can track it as well. And, by “tracking,” I mean following that conference on Twitter.

So the next time you can’t scrounge up enough pennies to pay a conference registration fee, head over to Lanyrd.

And, did I mention – it’s free?

 Tags: lanyrd, social conference directory, track conferences virtually, tracking conferences virtually, web services

iRenew Bracelet Review

March 10th, 2011 by Gregory Silvano Posted in Stature Projects | No Comments »

This is a blog post that has a test review of the iRenew bracelet.  This is a test, only a test.  It has no real content.  I will take this blog post down on 3/17/2011.

Have a nice day!

Oh, if you’d like to check out the iRenew bracelet, go to www.buyirenew.com.

I am going to update this blog post. I should be receiving my iRenew bracelet shortly and will do a full review immediately after I get it.  My review of the iRenew bracelet will be thorough and will talk about everything I have learned after using the iRenew bracelet for a week.  Stay tuned for the review!

Again, this is a test.

 

WordPress 3.1 Features Make Content Management Easier

March 3rd, 2011 by Erin Posted in Business | No Comments »

WordPress is just plain great. It’s so easy to use. Its features help everyone from CEOs and small business owners to busy mothers sitting at their kitchen tables manage their day-to-day blogs and Websites. And, its continual upgrades have given us that much more power over of Web content and design.

But, wait.

The latest version of WordPress – WordPress 3.1 - is even better.

The next time you log into your WordPress dashboard, consider this when you’re stalling to hit the “Please update now“ link.

WordPress 3.1 is offering tremendous new management features. Features like:

Internal linking: A very common practice in blogging is to link to other relevant content from past blog posts. In the past this was accomplished by finding the other post and copying the URL to embed in a link. No big deal unless you’ve got thousands of posts. Now, when you are editing a post in visual editor you have the ability add a link from any page or blog post, including searching through all posts, right from the link editing tool.

Post formatting: WordPress 3.1 has unveiled comes something called Post Formats. Post Formats allow theme designers to create multiple views of a blog post so that sites can have different post layouts inside the same theme for different content.

Theme designers now have the ability to create post formats that include:

- Aside – Typically short pieces of content, published without a title.

- Image Gallery – A collection of pictures in a gallery format.

- Link – A single link.

- Image – A single image.

- Quote – An inspirational or noteworthy quote with a citation.

- Status – Status updates, similar to Facebook and Twitter updates.

- Video – A single video.

- Audio – A single audio clip, like a song or a podcast.

- Chat – An instant message transcript.

Admin bar: Check out the new navigation bar that appears above posts for admins when viewing live content. This features offers easy editing directly from any blog page. And, in case you find this kind of a thing nuisance, you can switch it off by visiting your WordPress account settings.

WordPress never sits stagnant – and neither should your Website. If you haven’t jumped on the WordPress bandwagon yet – do it. Do it now. Sorry Google, but Blogger is dead.

 Tags: content management, management features, wordpress 3.1, wordpress 3.1 admin bar, wordpress dashboard

Visualize Your LinkedIn Network

February 24th, 2011 by Erin Posted in LinkedIn | No Comments »

Social media and networking are no longer just about status updates and sharing information. These days people are just as concerned about visualizing their contacts and connections as they are about hearing what they’re up to.

Twitter has many of its own visualization tools – like Twiangulate and MentionMap. Now, LinkedIn has joined in on the visualization fun by developing what they call InMaps.

If you’ve ever wondered what your personal network looks like – now you can see it. In January, LinkedIn launched InMaps as an experimental project that lets users visualize the connections within their business networks. InMaps technology filters through a users connections to see how everyone knows each other – and then groups people together into network clusters based on their associations.

InMaps can basically shed light on who the major connections and influencers are in your network. People with bigger dots and larger fonts have more connections – and typically more influence.

This application will no doubt help business executives branch out and raise their profiles within certain network clusters. With the help of InMaps, you can make targeted recommendations based on the most influential people identified.

Check it out and see what InMaps reveals about your own business network. What you see may surprise you.

 Tags: linkedin inmap, visualize linkedin, visualize linkedin connections

Chrome Lets Users Blacklist Websites

February 17th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

It’s not a secret. I love Google Chrome – and why everyone is not using it is beyond me. But perhaps, this next piece of information will light fire under the rest of the world.

Google has released an *experimental* extension for Chrome that allows users to BLOCK “content farms” from appearing in Google search results.

While they’ve been around, people are just now starting to talk about content farms and the shady nature in which they appear at the top of a list of search results. These websites specialize in producing tons of material – usually bad quality – to maximize their traffic from search queries. They’re suspect – yet quite effective at crowding out better, original material in search results.

Thankfully, people have caught on to content farms’ wiley ways – and so has Google.

Google Chrome’s Personal Blocklist extension lets users eliminate unwanted websites – like content farms – from search results. Users who download the extension also can edit their block lists, if they wish.

Now, here’s the best part – in my opinion.

Google will pay attention to the sites that users block and could *possibly* use the data to revise the quality of its search results.

I believe this extension is a step in the right direction for personalized search, but other tech-watchers aren’t so convinced. TechCrunch writes that most users probably won’t use the extension and also notes the possibility that rival content farms may use it to sabotage each other. VentureBeat adds that users could block sites that are uninteresting to them, rather than target spammy content farm-riddled search results.

I’ll admit that the average person probably doesn’t know how to spot a content farm and may end up flagging a legit Website. But, I have faith that those “in the know” will find this new Google tool helpful and will hopefully use it rid the search engine of spam once and for all.

 Tags: block content farms, chrome extension, google tool, personal blocklist extension, personalized search