General Thoughts

The iPod Touch is great. It is the best portable media device I’ve ever owned. I haven’t owned many but it is light years ahead of my iRiver H320 or my Samsung Blackjack, which were my two previous portable media workhorses. The iPod Touch looks good, has a perfect form factor and has features that address the realities of a digital lifestyle. I’m definitely glad I made this purchase. Specifics follow.

What I Like

• The touch screen is awesome. It makes the device so easy to use that my 2.5 year old can flick through photos and really enjoy it. This is a much better option than the chiclet sized buttons and controls that most devices have. The screen seems pretty durable too as I’ve put it in my pocket and jacket a lot and it hasn’t scratched.
• Videos look amazing. This is a real leap forward in portable video. Playback is smooth and sharp. Both video podcasts and commercial TV episodes look excellent.
• Web browsing is fantastic. Another leap forward in the experience for mobile devices. The experience with the mobile Safari browser is a close as I could expect to real web browsing. No problem with logging on to regular versions of websites. Expansion of the view of a page by flicking my fingers on the touch screen works well. Scrolling is silent. No annoying clicking when you’re surfing with others in the room.
• The iTunes and YouTube apps are fun to use. I didn’t think I would be interested in these apps but I have been. I’ve enjoyed being able to sample tracks via iTunes while on the go. I’ve even purchased a few. All were seamlessly transported over to my desktop based version of iTunes. Every so often I’ll cruise YouTube for interesting videos and have used the bookmarking feature which works well.
• Integration with television is pretty easy. If you go out and spend the money on a dock and cables you should be able to get this hooked up to any recently manufactured television or stereo system. I’ve connected the iPod Touch to both my television and stereo. I watch downloaded movies, tv shows and podcasts. I’ve also run a couple of photo slideshows on my tv as well. One cable to the aux in of my stereo and I can play my favorite music for everyone to hear.

There’s more that I like about the iPod Touch but these are some of the key differentiators. To keep it balanced I also want to note some of my pet peeves with the device.

What I Don’t Like

• The touch screen does not work with gloves on. This is a minor issue. But when I plug it into the car in the morning I start with a long podcast because my gloves need to come off so I can queue up a new show.
• You can’t use the browser when streaming media. If you’re connected to wifi and stream media (it will play mp3 or Quicktime files) through the browser you cannot open another Safari window. At least I haven’t found a way to do that.
• Contacts and calendar will only sync with Outlook. I use a combination of Google Calendar and Thunderbird to manage my info. For the moment I am out of luck.
• The 16GB hard drive is small. I’ve still got about 6GB of space left but that won’t hold my entire music collection. So I’ve had to be picky about the music I put on the device. I also delete videos after I’ve watched them a couple of times.

What I’m Looking Forward To

First off, the next official update from Apple can only make this thing better. Next comes the software development kit. Because the iPod Touch has the touch screen you can create some amazing apps. Developers are not constrained by hard wired buttons. I’m looking forward to some awesome apps that will extend the functionality of this device. Three things I’d like to see are: Google Calendar sync, Flickr integration and a Google Maps application. I’m also excited about the possibility of movie rentals via iTunes.

Necessary Accessories

I have purchased some accessories over the last few months that I think are necessary if you really want to enjoy the iPod Touch.

• Apple Care Protection Plan - Just in case the thing breaks.
• USB Charger - So I can charge the iPod when its not connected to the computer.
• Universal Dock - So I can dock the iPod for connection to my TV and stereo system.
• Component Cables - So I can get video and picture slideshows on to my TV.
• Belkin Tunebase FM - So can can charge and use while driving without jeopardizing my life.

The Real Cost Of The iPod Touch

It is more expensive than I thought. Here’s how it breaks down for me.

• iPod Touch - $399
• Apple Care Protection - $59
• Universal Dock - $49
• Component Cables - $49
• USB Charger - $29
• Belkin Tunebase - $89

That adds up to a grand total of $674 plus tax. Ouch!

My Bottom Line

No device is perfect, so even with the costs and certain drawbacks I am still very happy with the iPod Touch. Frankly, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go out and by a Zune while the iPod Touch is on the market. Sure, you can get more hard drive space with the Zune. But you don’t get the web browsing with WiFi. And you don’t get the great touch screen, mobile iTunes or YouTube support.

I’m pretty sure that new iPod releases in 2008 will also include a larger hard drive as well. So if you can wait a little longer you might get a nice surprise. Most of the operational and feature related flaws are fixable. That’s why the new firmware updates and SDK release should be the icing on the cake for Apple in the quest for the ideal portable media device.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

I’ve never owned an iPod before. In fact I’ve held a mild disdain for the device because of the lock in with iTunes for managing music on the device. Unfortunately I still haven’t found a piece of software that manages my desktop based media as well as iTunes. Although I must say that the Songbird media manager is gaining ground.

I finally decided to buy this iPod because of the strong feature list. Yes it handles audio and video. I expect that from any portable media device these days. But it also does well with photos. And it can access the internet via WiFi. I’ve always wanted those features in a device and the iPod Touch promised them. There is the more open Nokia N800 which I had considered. Form factor was important though and the N800 looked a little too big to me.

Aesthetics

The device has a really nice form factor. I have small hands and it fits well in my hand. The iPod is a little thinner than I expected and also a little heavier. Other people who have held it are quite surprised at how sturdy it feels. The back of the unit is very shiny. So much so that you can use it as a mirror. The downside of this shininess is that it gets light scuffs and scratches very easily. The front side is clean and smooth. Once on the screen is bright and looks great. Apple has really done a good job on designing a clean interface.

Features

Most people know what this thing can do vis-a-vis media. I didn’t even consider the calendar or contact features that are included. I haven’t done much with them yet, especially since I’m not using Outlook as my mail and calendar client these days. I really would love it if this device could sync calendar and contacts with Mozilla Thunderbird. Its not a dealbreaker though since I manage my contacts and calendar on my Samsung Blackjack when I’m on the go. I like the photo syncing mostly because the photos actually look good enough to show people on this device. And flipping through them with the touch screen is a really easy way to look at them. If there is one thing that I would to have added to the iPod Touch it would be a dedicated Google Maps application

Function

In general I think that the iPod Touch works really well. Its my first iPod so I can only compare it to the older iRiver audio player that I owned. The touch screen has worked well so far. Sometimes I have to touch something a second time to get it to activate, but that’s pretty rare. The only button on the device is an on/off button. So there’s a lot of sliding that takes place to adjust volume or skip around in media. People who want to manipulate the iPod Touch without looking will be sorely disappointed.

I’m a big podcast listener/watcher and I have noticed something funny with the may the device handles video podcasts. Video podcasts are stored in the podcast section but also in the video section. If you play the video podcasts from the dedicated podcast area you only get audio. You have to click on the link to the video gallery to get to the video podcasts to watch them. In general I would like to see a dedicated podcast button rather than having to find them in a sub-menu of ‘music’ or ‘video’.

The internet features have been working well for me so far. You can connect to any WiFi hot spot and the Safari browser looks nice. The screen is too small to comfortably view most web pages, but you can zoom in easily by grasping the screen with your fingertips and spreading them apart. This isn’t the optimal way to browse the web but it works well for reading feeds and news. One continual bummer is the fact that the browser on the iPod Touch doesn’t support Adobe Flash. So you can’t view any objects coded in Flash. I do love being able to sit on my porch and just flip through news stories courtesy of my home office WiFi hotspot.

I found some interesting things with media that is linked from a web page. If you click on a link to an audio file then that file will start streaming to the device. If you click on a direct link to a video you get an error saying that the page is too large to view in Safari. But the iPod Touch will stream iPod compatible videos provided that they are embedded in a web page. Few people embed QuickTime into web pages these days so video junkies will have to rely on the built in YouTube functionality.

I had heard that you only got access to a small portion of YouTube via the iPod/iPhone interface. I did a little test and uploaded a video to my YouTube account yesterday. Then I was able to search for and play it with my iPod today. So it looks like Google has done a good job catching up. You can also bookmark YouTube videos on the iPod which is a feature I like and did not expect.

The only real bummer I’ve found is the fact that you have to pay an extra $29 (which I did) for the benefit of a charger that plugs into the wall. Otherwise you can only charged when hooked up to a computer with the USB sync cable. The folks at Apple are masters in the art of the up sell.

Value For The Money

I’ve seen plenty of people squawking about the fact that you pay $399 and only get 16GB of storage on the iPod Touch. I would love more storage on this thing. But at the same time I think the WiFi and other applications here that you can’t find on a regular iPod balance it out. The only shortcoming for the dollar you spend is the lack of a basic wall charger. I suspect that in the beginning of 2008 we will start seeing new models with more storage at the same price of less. As the people who bought an iPhone over the summer now know, there is a bit of a price for being an early adopter.

Bottom Line

I’m very happy with the iPod Touch. If you have tons of media you want to take with you then you are better off with a classic iPod with a huge hard drive. If you’ve recently bought another mobile media player you are happy with I would recommend waiting to buy an iPod Touch til the prices come down and the storage gets bigger. If you are ready for your next upgrade and want a true multimedia device to satiate your information as well as entertainment needs, then this is definitely the way to go.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Gigavox Media released a new tool at the Podcast Expo called The Levelator. The Levelator is a free tool that enhances audio by performing a combination of tasks that more experienced audio engineers would perform by using effects like compression, limiting and normalization.

According the Gigavox, The Levelator “…adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use.”

They’re right on when they say this tool is simple to use. Just drag a .wav file into the Levelator window and you get a second file that’s been leveled for you. The original file is left unchanged so there’s no worry about losing the sound from the first recording.

I’ve tried the tool out by processing a couple of .wav files and then comparing the original with the ‘levelated’ tracks. The levelated tracks definitely have a smoother sound with a more predictable volume range.

The processes performed by The Levelator are very important ones in the workflow of producing good quality audio. If you’ve ever heard audio with large differences in the volume from segment to segment or experienced listening to an interview where one voice is markedly softer than the next, you know the reasons why a tool like this is so important.

My favorite feature of this tool is that fact that there are zero settings. I’m an experienced computer based audio producer but I’m not an audio engineer. And settings for things like compression and normalization really confuse me. So this is a welcome addition to my worklfow and toolset.

Thanks to Michael Geoghegan, Doug Kaye and the folks at Gigavox Media for contributing this fine tool to the podcast community.

[tags]Social Media, Podcasting, Gigavox, Audio, Levelator, Review[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Stand around a room full of bloggers and start talking about blogging tools. You’ll hear people mention Movable Type, Typepad, Typo and Blogger along with WordPress.

I’ve used (and still use) both Blogger and Movable Type. Both of which I started trying out before getting started with WordPress in 2005. While those other tools can do many things just fine, WordPress has the combination of features makes it stand above those other blogging tools.

When you’re looking at a tool for blogging there are a few things you should consider, not the least of which are usability, extensibility, themability and spam protection. WordPress meets all of these requirements in spades. 

The robust user community has created a wealth of documentation, plugins, themes and more recently a podcast. Some entrepid folks have stepped up to create supercharged versions of WordPress like the very popular K2.

WordPress not only works well for blogging but does pretty darn good with rich media for podcasting thanks to great plugins like PodPress and Embed The Video. And there’s great spam protection via the Akismet spam incinerator.

Honestly I can’t do the tool justice since there are so many people doing so many great things with this free, open source blog creation tool that you can run on your own server.

WordPress is currently maintained by the folks at Automattic. Development is lead by founder Matt Mullenweg who leads a team developing some more cool blogging software like the web based WordPress.com service.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Podcasting, WordPress, Automattic, Tools, Open Source[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Wikis offer an alternative approach to mailing documents back and forth. As many of you well know, Wikis help to foster collaboration by allowing multiple people to edit a document based on the web. The tool that has helped to popularize wikis for collaborative use is MediaWiki.

Media Wiki is a free, Open Source application that allows anyone to host a wiki on their own server. There are many potential uses for Wiki software, including use as a collaborative encyclopedia (as in Wikipedia), an online knowledge base (as in the Social Media Wiki) or as a community based site (as in Armchair GM). A number of podcasters also use Wikis to allow subscribers to contribute to their show notes.

One of the great benefits of using MediaWiki is the fact that their sites load quick and they are generally very easy to use. Despite the name, I haven’t found MediaWiki to be a great platform for rich media such as audio and video. The installation and configuration aren’t the easiest I’ve seen, but they aren’t the hardest either. The key is to take your time and follow the installation steps carefully.

Once your MediaWiki is set up it’s very simple to use. The tool has a user management feature that allows you to require that people register in order to edit or create pages. And you have the option of blocking accounts that post undesirable content. If you want to get beyond the basic look and function of your MediaWiki implemenation you can browse the many styles and extensions available.

If wiki technology is new to you I recommend that you take the time to set up a test install and play around with it. Or you can visit some of the links in this post to get some ideas. Start out by contributing to other Wikis to get a feel for the layout options and how to use the tool.

As with any good Open Source tool, a number of people have contributed in the development of MediaWiki. Check out the MediaWiki history page to find out more about the development of this fantastic collaboration tool. While you’re at it, browse the site and see if there’s anything that you can contribute. After all, collaboration and contribution are what Wikis are all about!

[tags]Social Media, Wiki, MediaWiki, Open Source, Tools[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Feed2JS is short for “Feed To Javascript”. The tool allows you to convert an RSS feed into a bit of javascript code that will display the contents of a feed when included in a web page.

Take my simple implementation as an example. I use Feed2JS to include the latest five blog posts on the Awakened Voice home page. The bookmark service BlinkList uses Feed2JS to allow users of the service to republish their lists of links on any web page. This functionality powers my Latest Links section in the right sidebar of this blog. I’ve also used the BlinkList implementation to power the Social Media Directory section of the Awakened Voice website.

But you don’t need a BlinkList account to implement this tool on your site. Feed2JS is an Open Source tool that runs on any PHP enabled web server. So you can run the tool on your domain for your own publishing purposes or for the purpose of allowing others to build their own Feed2JS enabled feeds.

I understand that this may not be the most exciting tool that you’ve ever heard of. But if you’ve ever racked your brain trying to figure out how to integrate content from one site into another then you are sure to appreciate the simplicity of Feed2JS.

Feed2JS was developed by Alan Levine for a site at Maricopa Community Colleges. All you need to do now is start thinking of where you want to place feed content around your site.

[tags]Social Media, Tools, Open Source, RSS[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

This tool can allow you to host one or many blogs. This tool can also support development of a discussion forum. You can also publish one or many podcast channels using this tool. Or you can collaborative write a book using wiki-like features. There is support for RSS, a news aggregator, OPML, tagging and e-commerce. So what do we call such a tool.

I believe that this tool is best described as a framework for developing rich social communities on the web. Let me introduce you to Drupal. Perhaps you’ve been introduced to Drupal before. Have you ever visited TheOnion.com website? Did you see the new MTV UK website? How about OurMedia.org? If you have then you’ve seen Drupal in action. In fact, thousands of sites, including the recently launched ChangeEverything.ca and This Week In Tech are built on the Drupal framework.

When I found out about Drupal earlier this year I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how I could use this tool. I answered that question by building a site called Music Buggy. In the process I realized that there is very little that you can’t do with Drupal.

Like all the great Open Source tools I’m highlighting, Drupal has a vibrant worldwide user community. Their website at www.drupal.org is the epicenter of this community. There you will find documentation, user groups, contributed modules, themes and community news. The site, of course, is just one example of the type of community that you can build with Drupal.

The most difficult part about getting into Drupal is figuring out how you will use the tool. Start a personal blog website. Start a blogging community. Create a podcast directory. Build a news website. Build a corporate intranet. Collaborate on a research project. Start a video sharing community. Create a photo sharing site. I’m going to stop there only because I could keep on going for a long time.

Constructing a Drupal based site is definitely not for the faint at heart. There are many choices to be made and many contributed modules you can utilize to extend the functionality to meet your needs. Planning, researching and experimenting are some of the key activities in achieving success when you’re building a site on Drupal. You also need to give yourself some time to get things done properly. I recommend taking the time to build a test site to proof your concept and test potential upgrades when your site is live.

Drupal is an English variation for the Dutch word ‘druppel’ which means drop. Dries Buytaert, a Belgian PhD student, is the founder and lead developer on the Drupal project. He’s supported by a cast of thousands in the Drupal community. Why not drop in on Drupal and join the party?

[tags]Social Media, Tools, Open Source, Drupal[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Vanilla is Open Source community forum software. When most people think about Open Source forum software they probably think about phpBB. For a long time it seems that phpBB has been the forum of choice for those looking to maintain a vibrant discussion on the web. Vanilla just might change all that.

From the looks of it Vanilla will do for discussion forums what WordPress did for blogging tools. Vanilla features a very simple install. Just upload all the files, go to a screen on the web and enter a few items about your database. This is a process very similar to the current WordPress install.

Once installed, you’re presented with a very clean interface. Browse through the administration settings and set things up to your liking. The process is very intuitive and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

One thing you’ll probably want to do is create some ‘categories’ under which users can post their messages. The tool makes use of Ajax to allow you to drag each category into an order of your choosing. You also might want to check the permissions for the various user ‘roles’ defined by Vanilla.

One thing that Vanilla does extremely well is allow the administrator control over who gets into your forum and what they can within each category once they are granted access. By default, new users must ‘apply’ for a membership that must be approved by an administrator. You are free to change this setting so that people can be granted immediate access. You can even define your own roles as well. In the age of spam attacks on every form of social media the value of these types of features can’t be overstated.

Security features aren’t the only reason to consider Vanilla for building a discussion community. The base install of Vanilla does lack many of the social features that you’ll need in order to create a more vibrant community presence. Like WordPress, Vanilla has an ever growing list of contributed ‘extensions‘ that allow you to change the look and function of your community.

Some noteworthy extensions include RSS, BB Code, Profile Images, Invitations, Smilies and Enhanced Sign Up Form. Installation of extensions is dead easy. Upload a folder to the ‘extensions’ directory. Then go to the extensions section of the admin settings of Vanilla to click a checkbox and activate your extension.

There are other extensions I’ve got my eye on like support for Google Analytics, Flickr and File Attachments. There are a few options for extending the look and feel of Vanilla, but certainly not as many as more mature and widely used tools. I’m very sure that this will change in the coming months. Thankfully the default style is very tasteful and the tool is documented well enough to allow you to build your own style if you need to reflect your brand.

Vanilla aims to make the process of starting and building an online discussion community a much simpler task. The lead developers are succeeding in their task. I’ve worked with a number of forum building tools including phpBB and more recently BBPress. Vanilla is simpler, cleaner and best of all, it works!

Mark O’ Sullivan is leading development of Vanilla and a couple of other interesting looking tools as well. Kudos to Mark and the community who are developing Vanilla into a very sweet social media tool.

[tags]Social Media, Community, Forum, Vanilla, Lussomo, PhpBB, BBPress[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Over the past couple of years I’ve tried out a number of tools for short periods with little success. The problems I’ve had ranged from bugs in the application to incompatibility with certain features found on my blogging service. Thankfully, I’ve found very few issues while utilizong Windows Live Writer along with my WordPress blog.

I’ve written about a half a dozen posts so far with the tool and have published them successfully everytime. Editing some of the posts has worked fine as well. I’ve even included images and special tags related to some of my WordPress plug-ins. Even with these additions my posts appeared on the blog as if I had written them in the native WordPress post writer.

So I have to tip my hat to Microsoft for developing this tool.

Here are some of the features that have been working well for me:

• Simple connectivity to my WordPress blog.
• WYSIWYG post authoring that mimics the style of my posts.
• Option to edit HTML on posts.
• Import and support for all post categories.
• Ability to save drafts locally.
• Ability to edit and re-publish local copies of posts.
• Ability to include images in posts.
• Support for custom WordPress plugin tags.

The only thing that’s missing that I use regularly is the ability to click a button to add a bit of code to split the post so that a “continue reading” link appears on the front page for longer post. This is supported by adding the more tag to the HTML version of the post.

Mileage may vary with other blog services, but this is a great local post management tool. And while Windows Live Writer is a good tool for managing posts, it may not fit your needs if you use your blog tool to publish audio or video for podcasts.

For example, some of the more useful WordPress plugins for audio and video include features that need to be managed in the post editor.

The tool is free so you certainly have nothing to lose by downloading today and giving it a test drive.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Windows Live Writer, Microsoft, Review, Software[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

If you’re just getting into Blogging, RSS and even Podcasting you may want to consider a low risk approach to the matter. If that’s the case then you probably want to make very little (or no) financial or technological impact on your organization. These requirements might be a tall order in certain cases but not in the case of blogging.

There are a some free, hosted blog solutions that allow you to start a blog without capital investment or increased technological overhead. Hosted blog services provide the blog platform as a service with the user logging in via a web browser. So no software ever needs to be installed for you to get started. I’ve been a user of two of these services, Blogger and Wordpress.com so I thought it would be helpful to provide a side by side comparison. And while there are other free, hosted services available I think that these are two that can meet the needs of a business.

Background

Blogger started in 1999 as a free, hosted blog service. The concept has not changed since then but it was purchased by Google in 2003. Wordpress was started in 2001 as a non-hosted blog publishing platform. Wordpress.com debuted in 2005 as a hosted version of the original software.

Getting Started

Very simple for both services. The toughest part of the sign up involves choosing a name that will be the prefix for your blog’s address. Wordpress blogs have domains with the wordpress.com suffix and Blogger blogs have the blogspot.com suffix. You choose the name in front of the suffix. Either way you will have a basic blog ready to go in just a couple of minutes.

Look And Feel

Both services offer standard templates that you can choose with the click of a button. Blogger has more choices for templates, but Wordpress has ones that are a little more hip and professional looking. That said, Blogger offers direct access to the template files which means that advanced users can have full control over the blog. Wordpress offers minimal customization options.

Wordpress.com now has more themes than Blogger. WordPress has sixty-six ready-made themes and Blogger has thirty-one. Wordpress.com has also added paid access to theme CSS for $15 per year.

Ease Of Use

Blogger is very easy to use, which is partly due to the fact that it doesn’t have as many options for advanced information management. Wordpress is pretty easy as well but it requires more investigation due to it’s many features and menu items.

Blogger has added many more options for managing a blog including integration with FeedBurner and a drag-and-drop page editor for page elements.

Publishing Location

Wordpress saves the content of your blog on their servers. Blogger allows you the option of publishing the pages to your own server via FTP. This allows you to fully host the blog with your own domain name, eliminating the need to use one of the blogspot.com addresses. Some businesses may find this to be a plus if they want to have the blog seem completely integrated within their company website.

Wordpress.com now has the option to redirect your blog to a domain of your choosing. The files will still be published on WordPress.com but visitors will see your web address instead of one with ‘.worpdress.com’ at the end.

Post Creation and Editing

Both services offer WYSIWYG editing along with the option to edit the raw HTML. Both services also include the ability to upload (or link to) images for inclusion in posts. The Wordpress editor is larger than Blogger’s and has a more up to date look and feel.

Blogger has added the ability to upload videos (up to 100 megabytes each) directly from the post editor. Blogger has also added the ability to specify and enclosure link to enable podcasting. WordPress.com now accepts document uploads as well as images.

Interactivity

Both services feature commenting as well as support for comment moderation. Comment moderation allows you to mitigate the effects of blog spam. Wordpress supports Trackbacks while users of the Blogger service have to go to an outside service like HaloScan in order to trackback to related blog posts.

Blogger now has a backlinks function that works very similar to trackbacks by indicating posts that are linking directly to your post.

Syndication

Wordpress.com offers standard RSS feeds and includes native support for podcast enclosures. Blogger offers the less popular Atom syndication format. While RSS is the standard for syndication, many feed aggregators can also handle Atom feeds. In addition, services like Feedburner offer options to convert the feed to all usable formats and standards for RSS. Wordpress offers RSS feeds for comments which is a feature not available via the Blogger service.

Google purchased FeedBurner in June of 2007 and now offers feed redirection so that you may use FeedBurner or other services to manage your Blogger RSS.

Information Management

Wordpress.com is way out in front of Blogger in this category. Wordpress includes support for multiple categories, including subcategories. Wordpress.com also has an integrated search function and link management features. Blogger does not support categorization and sidebar links must be added manually by editing the HTML template. Blogger does allow you to manage multiple blogs from a single dashboard.

WordPress.com has added the ability to manage multiple blogs from a single account. Blogger allows categorization via their labels feature. An integrated search function is available for Blogger by using their NavBar which is located at the top of every page.

Collaboration

Both services support multiple authors and editors on a single blog. Blogger allows you to invite new users to a blog by submitting their email address. Wordpress collaborators must have a Wordpress.com account in order to join your blog.

Static Content Options

Both services allow you to include static content pages in order to provide a more traditional website experience in addition to blog. Wordpress makes it pretty simple by allowing you to add “pages” which automatically get added to your menus. This requires a bit more work using Blogger because you have to manually create your menus along with the links to the new pages.

Off-Site Content Integration

In recent years integration of content from other sites, like slideshows and embeddable video players, has become extremely important to bloggers. Both services offer varying levels of content integration. Wordpress.com is the most restrictive as it does not allow most external widgets to be embedded in post without special codes. YouTube embed codes are supported but many widgets must be approved by WordPress.com prior to working. Search for widgets and slideshows on WordPress.com to get more information on what works and what doesn’t. WordPress.com now also offers sidebar widgets that allow you to include content from other sites and rss feeds in your sidebar.

Blogger is more liberal than WordPress.com as far as allowing widgets. You have access to the full html of your template so you can add widgets to your template for display on all pages. You can also add most standard embed codes to your posts. Blogger’s page element features also allow you to add rss, javascript, images and slideshows to your blog layout.

Statistics

WordPress.com has integrated statistics for web page views. The stats include a clickable chart and summaries of things like post views, referrers and links that people click on your blog. Blogger will support the use of Google Analytics, FeedBurner stats or other services that provide embed codes to track statistics.

Anti-Spam

Anti-spam features prevent or at least limit spam comments from appearing on your blog. The Akismet spam protection service is a standard feature included in all Wordpress.com blogs. Blogger offers comment moderation and word verification anti-spam features to prevent unwanted comments.

Advertising

WordPress.com does not allow third-party ad serving services like AdSense or AdBrite to be present on their blogs. Since Blogger is owned by Google they support AdSense advertising on blogs and include a page element to help ease integration. Since Blogger supports adding javascript from other sites, automatic ad serving from other services should work as well.

Conclusion

Both of these services are viable options for business wanting to dip their toes into the Social Media waters. I can’t anoint one as the absolute winner over the other either. I use both for different purposes. I like Blogger’s flexibility on editing the templates and publishing files to my own server. But I also enjoy the more advanced features offered by Wordpress.com like trackbacks, podcasting support and link management.

The best advice that I can give is to take the time to start a test blog on both services. Work with both of them for a couple of weeks to see which one suits your needs best. Once you’ve made a decision on a favored platform you’ll also have the advantage of some time in the driver’s seat before you get into the blogging fast lane.

Both of these services have made great strides over the last couple of years. There is still no clear ‘winner’ if you will. My previous advice still stands. Take a spin through both services and see what will work best for you. If you like you can also get a peek at some of the features in the Blogger service via my Blogger Beta Tour. The tour is a little dated at this time but shows how the newer page elements work.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Like Frappr!, CommunityWalk leverages the Google Maps API to allow users to create custom maps that they can share with a larger group. Unlike Frappr!, you can add items to your map by simply clicking on a location as well as by entering a street address. That’s not the only neat feature though. Items added to the map can be categorized and color coded, making it easier to find specific groups of locations later. Each map contains a legend and a filter to allow the user to view only the categories that interest them.

When adding items to the map you also have a nice array of choices to spice up each addition to your map. Each item allows for a title, description, link and photos. Users can upload photos to be associated with a particular map item or they can capture photos from Flickr. When a visitor to the map clicks on an item they will see thumbnails of the photos along with the standard title and description. Individual photos can be enlarged to allow the visitor to get a good look. Head over to this link to see an example of this functionality.

Another feature of CommunityWalk that has me excited about the possibilities for this service involves the ability to embed links to media or web pages right into the description field. This feature allows a user to associate rich media that can greatly enhance the experience for map visitors. Here’s a practical usage example. If you’re a podcast producer who does frequent soundseeing tours you could use this map to annotate locations of those tours. Each location could have a link to your soundseeing tour where that particular location is mentioned. Click here to see and example of how I’ve linked to a soundseeing tour of the NY Public Library.

The custom maps that you create each have their own unique URL, so you have the option of linking to your map from your website or blog. There are also options to embed different sizes of the map directly into your web page using an iframe. Map visitors also have the option of adding items to the map or commenting depending on the choices made by the map owner in the map configuration. The CommunityWalk blog also has instructions on how to add a version of the map to your Google start page.

All of this is excellent but are there practical applications for business? In my opinion there most certainly are. Anyone involved in real estate or travel should consider creating maps to educate people on areas specific to their business. Companies could use maps like these to provide an interactive graphic representation of their locations around the world. Educators could use these maps to enhance geography lessons. Entertainers could use something like this to list upcoming shows. After all, if a picture is worth a thousands words then an interactive picture is probably worth a whole lot more.

The service could use some minor upgrades to make it a bit more user friendly for inserting embedded media into map items. And service can be slow at times due to the influx of new users recently. The service also lacks support for RSS syndication of the items on a map. I’ve corresponded with CommunityWalk founder Jared Cosulich and he has informed me that there are plans for a number of upgrades to address these issues.

Jared should be commended for his efforts in making the CommunityWalk concept into a real and valuable service for business, educational and recreational users alike. I have no doubt that the service will improve in coming months and look forward to seeing how that progresses. In the interim, I suggest that you browse over here to see what I’ve been working on. And in the meantime think about what maps you could be creating with this exciting new service.
[tags]Social Media, CommunityWalk, Mapping, Google Maps[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Practically speaking though, everything is centered around the calendar functionality. You can create and list any number or type of events on your personal calendar. Nothing groundbreaking there. Watch out though, because it gets better.

30 Boxes has some sort of an aritficially intelligence behind their event entry system. So adding a birthday is as simple as including the word birthday in the event entry field. 30 Boxes will then ask you if you want to repeat the event and will also prompt you for the year. That’s not all. You can specify the date (or dates) for an event by using standard characters that we all recognize for dates. For example, if you have a business trip from April 1 to April 4 you can enter “Business Trip 4/1 - 4/4″ and the application knows to spread the event across those dates while still keeping them connected. Very nice feature in my opinion.

You can added more details to each event if you like, including a description, tags and reminders. You can also invite people to the event via email from the event detail window. More on that in a second. The reminders can be delivered to you via email or text message. It’s always nice to have options.

I mentioned earlier that 30 Boxes is also a social networking tool. Just like other networks, you can invite people to your calendar. 30 Boxes calls them “buddies”. You can control if your buddies see your calendar and they can do the same. You can also opt to have private entries that no one else can see. I like the level of control so far. You can make connections but you have privacy options. There’s also a convenient list of your buddies in the upper left corner. The tagging features make it easy for you to highlight important calendar items. Items also can have multiple tags. This is something that I find very helpful.

Rounding out the social networking features is the ability to syndicate your calendar using RSS feeds. Each user’s settings includes a page that gives a variety of options for publishing their calendar using RSS. You can publish the entire calendar or exclude private events. You can also create “custom views” using your tags. There are also options for importing to Outlook, iCal or javascript to include on web pages. These are very nice options for syndication.

Finally, I want to point out the personal information aggregation features that you’ll find in 30 Boxes. Each user’s profile includes options to enter information for their instant messaging, Flickr and MySpace accounts. You can also add information about their web page plus an RSS feed.

Entering this information automatically captures relevant items into your calendar. Entering my wife’s Flickr id automatically captured her Flickr icon to represent her 30 Boxes buddy icon. Entering the RSS feed for my wife’s photo blog resulted in the addition of an RSS icon for each of the posts to her photo blog. Clicking on the icon gives you a preview of the post with a link to the real thing. Very nice feature.

The feed link also includes thumbnails of any public photos uploaded to Flickr by your buddies on that date. I could see this getting very cluttered if you have a dozen contacts with Flickr accounts so I’ll be keeping an eye on how a user can manage these options. For now, I think it will work for me just fine. I added the RSS feed to one of my podcasts under my profile and sure enough, RSS links to those items show up on the calendar as well. Information aggregator indeed!

My final thoughts are these. So far so good. 30 Boxes is a very robust and shareable solution for people who need to manage events and share them with friends. I’m initially setting this up as a calendar for my family but I’ve already started adding work events for my family’s information. I wouldn’t recommend abandoning your primary calendar just yet. But I do recommend that you try out this beta version to see if the many features of 30 Boxes are right for you.

[tags]Social Media, Networking, Web 2.0, 30 Boxes[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.