Central Perk

luni, 16 mai 2011

Do you know someone like this?

Good morning,

Last year I asked the public to help identify outstanding Americans I should consider for the Citizens Medal, the nation's second-highest civilian honor. After receiving more than 6,000 nominations, I invited 13 outstanding Americans to the White House to receive the medal and be recognized for their service.

It's time to do it again.

Like last year, we're looking for Americans who have performed exemplary deeds of service outside of their regular jobs and provided inspiration for others to serve. You can view the full criteria and get started on a nomination here:

Now I know there are thousands of citizens out there who meet these criteria -- I read their letters every night, and I meet many of them in my travels around the country. I also know that many times their contributions go unrecognized. The 2011 Citizens Medal is a chance to recognize the everyday heroes in your community.

Here are a few examples of Citizens Medal recipients from last year.

Betty Kwan Chinn was homeless as a child in China and became mute. When she came to America, Betty found her voice and her calling. Today, she provides meals to the homeless in her community twice a day as expressions of gratitude to a welcoming nation.

Susan Retik Ger is a widow who lost her husband on 9/11 who found cause in educating and training Afghan widows and their children.

George Weiss, Jr. is veteran of World War II who founded the Fort Snelling Memorial Rifle Squad, a group of over 125 volunteers who have performed final military honors at over 55,000 veterans' funerals.

Their stories are powerful reminders of the impact an individual can have on his or her community and on the world. You can watch them tell their stories in a video gallery on WhiteHouse.gov:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/citizensmedal/2010

If you know someone like Betty, Susan or George, please take a moment to nominate them for the 2011 Citizens Medal before May 30.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

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Seth's Blog : The future of the library

The future of the library

What is a public library for?

First, how we got here:

Before Gutenberg, a book cost about as much as a small house. As a result, only kings and bishops could afford to own a book of their own.

This naturally led to the creation of shared books, of libraries where scholars (everyone else was too busy not starving) could come to read books that they didn't have to own. The library as warehouse for books worth sharing.

Only after that did we invent the librarian.

The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.

After Gutenberg, books got a lot cheaper. More individuals built their own collections. At the same time, though, the number of titles exploded, and the demand for libraries did as well. We definitely needed a warehouse to store all this bounty, and more than ever we needed a librarian to help us find what we needed. The library is a house for the librarian.

Industrialists (particularly Andrew Carnegie) funded the modern American library. The idea was that in a pre-electronic media age, the working man needed to be both entertained and slightly educated. Work all day and become a more civilized member of society by reading at night.

And your kids? Your kids need a place with shared encyclopedias and plenty of fun books, hopefully inculcating a lifelong love of reading, because reading makes all of us more thoughtful, better informed and more productive members of a civil society.

Which was all great, until now.

Want to watch a movie? Netflix is a better librarian, with a better library, than any library in the country. The Netflix librarian knows about every movie, knows what you've seen and what you're likely to want to see. If the goal is to connect viewers with movies, Netflix wins.

This goes further than a mere sideline that most librarians resented anyway. Wikipedia and the huge databanks of information have basically eliminated the library as the best resource for anyone doing amateur research (grade school, middle school, even undergrad). Is there any doubt that online resources will get better and cheaper as the years go by? Kids don't shlep to the library to use an out of date encyclopedia to do a report on FDR. You might want them to, but they won't unless coerced.

They need a librarian more than ever (to figure out creative ways to find and use data). They need a library not at all.

When kids go to the mall instead of the library, it's not that the mall won, it's that the library lost.

And then we need to consider the rise of the Kindle. An ebook costs about $1.60 in 1962 dollars. A thousand ebooks can fit on one device, easily. Easy to store, easy to sort, easy to hand to your neighbor. Five years from now, readers will be as expensive as Gillette razors, and ebooks will cost less than the blades.

Librarians that are arguing and lobbying for clever ebook lending solutions are completely missing the point. They are defending library as warehouse as opposed to fighting for the future, which is librarian as producer, concierge, connector, teacher and impresario.

Post-Gutenberg, books are finally abundant, hardly scarce, hardly expensive, hardly worth warehousing. Post-Gutenberg, the scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data.

The library is no longer a warehouse for dead books. Just in time for the information economy, the library ought to be the local nerve center for information. (Please don't say I'm anti-book! I think through my actions and career choices, I've demonstrated my pro-book chops. I'm not saying I want paper to go away, I'm merely describing what's inevitably occurring). We all love the vision of the underprivileged kid bootstrapping himself out of poverty with books, but now, (most of the time) the insight and leverage is going to come from being and fast and smart with online resources, not from hiding in the stacks.

The next library is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian who understands the Mesh, a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information to bear.

The next library is a house for the librarian with the guts to invite kids in to teach them how to get better grades while doing less grunt work. And to teach them how to use a soldering iron or take apart something with no user servicable parts inside. And even to challenge them to teach classes on their passions, merely because it's fun. This librarian takes responsibility/blame for any kid who manages to graduate from school without being a first-rate data shark.

The next library is filled with so many web terminals there's always at least one empty. And the people who run this library don't view the combination of access to data and connections to peers as a sidelight--it's the entire point.

Wouldn't you want to live and work and pay taxes in a town that had a library like that? The vibe of the best Brooklyn coffee shop combined with a passionate raconteur of information? There are one thousands things that could be done in a place like this, all built around one mission: take the world of data, combine it with the people in this community and create value.

We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don't need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.

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duminică, 15 mai 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Competitive Analysis in Under 60 Seconds Using Google Docs

Posted: 15 May 2011 06:07 AM PDT

Posted by Tom Anthony

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Faced with a new client, and having established a list of keywords they need to target, you want to evaluate the competition to find out what sites are dominating the SERPs for these keywords. However... being an SEO you're a busy guy (or gal), and you need it done right now. I've built a Google Docs tool to automagically do exactly that and this post will walk you through it.

The basis for this tool comes from a report in this linkbuilding post on YOUmoz which contained a neat little 'SERP Saturation' report. I don't know how Stephen made his snazzy looking report (he's now shared a few details in this comment), but in response to a few people asking about his I thought I'd put together a tool. Here is Stephen's report:

SERP Saturation Report

Cool, eh? We are going to produce something very similar, albeit not as pretty. We will automatically pull ranking data and tie into the Linkscape API to pull in some helpful metrics.

1. What does the report show?

So, what's the report all about? It is a pretty standard report, and most SEOs will have put together similar reports in their time. It shows which domains are dominating the results pages for the specified list of keywords. It is an excellent way to quickly see who the main players are, and see a few metrics for them.

Ours will be sorted by the cumulative number of times a subdomain has appeared in the top 10 of the search results over all the keywords we specify, and will display the mozRank, Domain Authority and Linking Root Domains for each. We'll show just the top 10 competitors in our report.

You can just duplicate the Google Docs spreadsheet I provide below, and change almost any of this to add, modify or take away as per your needs.

2. How do you configure it?

You must configure it the first time you use it:

1) If you've not yet done so, get a SEOmoz API key. Its free!

2) Open the Google Docs spreadsheet. In File menu select 'Make a copy' so you have a version you can edit (call it "Report Template" or such).

3) Go to the 'Config' sheet at the bottom, and enter your SEOmoz API details.

4) If you'd like to change the template for which Google URL to do (it defaults to UK for me), you can do that here too.

3. How do you use it?

Open your report template spreadsheet you just made.

1) On the config tab, paste up to 50 keywords, one per row, starting at cell B7 (its indicated).

2) Open the 'Report' sheet.

3) Now select 'Make a copy' and give it a name ("Client X Report" or whatever). This step is *essential* or the fields will not update properly (I'm working on making this not necessary - any clues?).

4. What should you see?

You should see a snazzy little report:

SERP Competitive Report

It shows everything I promised, and more even:

SERP Competitive Report Graph

A colourful and interactive, albeit it slightly wonky, graph! What more could you want?!

5. Under the hood

You don't need to read this section if you are neither interested in how it works or need to edit it at all. Besides which, I'm mostly just going to refer you elsewhere! A big shout out to Tom Critchlow, whose prior work contributed heavily to this little tool. Firstly, you need to read:

How To Build Agile SEO Tools Using Google Spreadsheets

Which introduces how to scrape the SERPs for ranking data. I modified what Tom did slightly as I wanted a list of subdomains, rather than pages, so there is a bit of string cropping (and fudging!).

Next you need to read Ian Lurie's post (which Tom also helped with):

Linkscape + Google Spreadsheets. Together, at last.

Again, this I also edited. I changed the code around quite a bit, which you can see in the script editor. You end up with a function you can enter into a cell:

=getLinkscapeData(A1, 1)

The A1 is a cell reference to a URL, and the 1 is a dummy parameter to prevent annoying caching issues.

For a look at the full code for the Linkscape API interface, and some pointers on how to modify it to suit your needs I've put up a separate post on Using the Linkscape API with Google Docs, which includes a simpler example spreadsheet to try the code out with.

The rest of the spreadsheet is a few simple bits to filter and cumulate the necessary bits and pieces, along with a few tricks to try to sidestep some bugs in Google Apps. Nothing in the sheet is protected (there are a fed hidden columns) so you can take a look at the workings. If you have specific questions, post them in the comments and I'll try my best to answer.

This was my first real foray into Google Docs, so it might not be particularly elegant. Also the document seems to have trouble updating sometimes - if anyone has a solution that would be great. In the meantime, if you just 'Make a copy' it seems to force an update.

6. Wrap up

Ok, it isn't in depth analysis, but if you have a keyword list, and want a very quick peek at what domains are players, and their general stats, this tool gives you a quick and dirty look. Most importantly - it is free and open, so you can tweak it to your hearts content.

Questions, comments or suggestions are very welcome - post below and I'll get back to you.

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Seth's Blog : An end of magic

An end of magic

Arthur C. Clarke told us, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Head back to the 1800s with a Taser or a Prius or an iPad and the townsfolk will no doubt either burn you at the stake or worship you.

So many doors have been opened by technology in the last twenty years that the word "sufficiently" is being stretched. If it happens on a screen (Google automatically guessing what I want next, a social network knowing who my friends are before I tell them) we just assume it's technology at work. Hard to even imagine magic here.

I remember eagerly opening my copy of Wired every month (fifteen years ago). On every page there was something new and sparkly and yes, magical.

No doubt that there will be magic again one day... magic of biotech, say, or quantum string theory, whatever that is. But one reason for our ennui as technology hounds is that we're missing the feeling that was delivered to us daily for a decade or more. It's not that there's no new technology to come (there is, certainly). It's that many of us can already imagine it.

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sâmbătă, 14 mai 2011

SEOptimise

How to Perfect Your Press Releases

Posted: 13 May 2011 05:38 AM PDT

As the importance of SEO becomes increasingly widely recognised, millions more marketers have started churning out press releases. Unfortunately, many seem less concerned about the potential media coverage than about the optimisation benefits.

A good press release, when it's picked up on and used by the media, can do wonders for your brand awareness and corporate authority. But it's also great for optimisation, and if your agency is writing slapdash articles, calling them press releases and distributing them to a bunch of websites where nobody will ever read them, then you're barely scraping the surface of your press release potential.

By creating press releases that writers and bloggers will actually use, your effort can pack a far more powerful punch both in online and offline marketing. Here are some of my top tips for dramatically better releases.

Run some analysis or research

Forget every other tip in this article; if your press release doesn't have a good story then it won't even get read, let alone used. Although a good story for an industry-specific publication may not be something the editor of The Times would publish, your releases have to have a decent hook, no matter how niche your field. Otherwise you are doing nothing more than churning out half-hearted copy that no human will ever read!

Pro top tip

Invest in your release! Analyse your company's sales data and see if there's an interesting trend you can highlight, run a survey among your customers or on your website, or even consider paying an agency to conduct research on your behalf.

That way, you have an actual story that goes beyond 'new product launched'. You can of course put out a release when you want to sell a new service or product, but make sure there's something juicier in there for the writer too.

Build relationships with writers

The best way to garner press attention for your release is to have an existing relationship with the journalists or bloggers you're targeting.

For larger brands with bigger budgets, this can mean taking a few writers out for a meal to discuss working with them in the future. Companies with less cash and smaller teams may do better chatting to relevant writers via platforms like Twitter, commenting on their blogs and gaining introductions at conferences and other industry events.

You may also benefit from ringing around a few of the writers you know, just to bring their attention to your release. A quick, friendly chat on the phone can work wonders.

Pro top tip

If you're friendly with a particularly well-known blogger or writer, then why not offer them exclusive access to your release in advance? You'll do them a favour by offering them an exclusive and it makes it more likely that your story will get publicity.

Get your spelling and grammar right

All journalists and most bloggers care about spelling, punctuation and grammar. They can't help it – it's wired into their minds, and for good reason. Badly written news articles look unprofessional and untrustworthy, and the same goes for press releases.

So, if you want your pitch for their attention to look professional, have it proofread before you send it.

Pro top tip

Forget WRITING IN ATTENTION-GRABBING CAPITALS and ditch the over-excited exclamation marks!!!! They make your content look spammy and unprofessional.

If a writer has opened your release, the sight of an abused caps-lock button or an abundance of exclamation marks will just make them close it again. And what's more, they'll be less likely to open your emails in the future.

Be clear, precise and concise

Writers are busy, busy people. Don't waste their time – get to the point as early as possible or you risk them never getting as far as your actual story.

Say what you have to say in as few words as possible and be strict with yourself when you come to edit your release.

Use a professional writer if you aren't confident about writing well. There are even some copywriters who charge just a few pounds to proofread work, so you can get a professional's opinion even if your budget is stretched.

Pro top tip

While puns can be fun, a good headline is a clear one that shows the writer exactly what they will get from the release.

The really good news is that this is also great for SEO, as it makes it more likely that your keywords will fit neatly into your headline.

Justify your claims

Once people start actually reading your press releases, you'll quickly learn how essential it is that you can justify any claims you make.

Journos and bloggers can be a clever bunch, and are likely to pick up on any claims you can't substantiate. That means that your release could result in a negative story, which is hardly the point.

Pro top tip

When making any kind of claim, asterix it and include as much information regarding it as possible beneath the article, such as links, survey size and so on.

If a writer is half-heartedly considering running your story but then decides they would need to contact you for additional details, it might just put them off using it.

Journalists are an overworked race, while bloggers often work in their spare time, meaning they don't always have time to research. Make it easy for them.