blogsavannah.com

You may remember me from the local tech and blog scene. You may also remember my dear friend and now associate, Diego Orjuela, formerly of Evoca, LLC. Well, we have teamed up with a couple other bright, young technos to revolutionize customer service and tech support. We are proud to announce the private beta launch of MinuteFix.

As I sit here in my office on East Gaston Street I am excited by the prospect of launching another creative endeavor right here in Savannah. There is nothing quite like working some, taking a coffee break at Sentient Bean, working more, taking a walk over to Forsyth to watch people, working yet a bit more, stopping for a slice of pie at Screamin’ Mimi’s, going back to work for a few more hours and then capping it all off with a pint at Circa. Thus has been our life for weeks now. But, alas, it is time to launch. With that said, I cordially invite you to participate in the private beta launch of MinuteFix.

In short, MinuteFix is a new way to get tech support. Powered by a community of experts, MinuteFix lets you get answers and help for any computer-related problem, at any time. The first five minutes are free, and you only pay $0.99 by the minute after that, only paying for the time you need. And, if we can’t solve your technology problem, the session is free.

For a limited time, we will be opening the site to private beta testers providing free tech support during our testing period. If you are interested in testing a new hot product, and getting some free help with your computer, please sign up at www.minutefix.com.

A blog, (originally called a weblog), is a web-based journal in which people can publish their thoughts and opinions on the Internet. Anyone can start a blog. I know this because since late 2003 I have run my won. But thanks to some really awesome advances in personal computing and technology, in general, it’s become more straight-forward than ever and, in a lot of cases, free.

1. Find a decent blogging provider that appeals to you. I personally recommend Livejournal.com, JournalHome.com, Blogger.com, WordPress.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com, Blogagotchi.com, Diaryland.com, Blogdrive.com, or Xanga.com or something very similar. Most of these sites are pre-made with templates and push-button publishing that don’t require much technical know-how.
2. Once you sign up, you’ll have a gallery of ready-made templates and themes to choose from. Select one and personalize it. Add your name, interests, images, etc….or, in other words, a profile.
3. Add blogging freebies like buttons, images, imoods, media players, Flickr, guest maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers’ input, etc.
4. Explore other blog sites that offer more features for a small fee, such as Typepad.com.
5. Decide on whether or not you want your blog to be private or personal: In other words, identify your target audience.
6. Decide on how you want your blog to look. You can pick a color scheme and layout. Most sites come with a set of predefined layouts and schemes that you can choose from, or you can edit your own.
7. After you’ve set up your blog, write a few posts to test it out, and make any adjustments to the layout or style that you see fit. At first, it will seem tough to figure out what to write, but once you get into a routine of daily blogging, you will find it addictive. Write about your day, your thoughts, events, ideas, fears, pleasures, the news, current affairs, art, or anything you are interested in. Heck, you can even write about how cool I am. (just seeing if you were really reading!)
8. Visit other blogs to build a blogging circle. When you leave comments, add your blogging address so they can visit you too.
9. If you want to make your blog look more attractive, there are some sites up that have many “skins” that might make it look better. One example is blogskins.com, which also comes with Photoshop and HTML tutorials.
10. Publish your blog by sending the URL to your friends or publish the URL on your website. Add the URL to posts you make on other blogs. Add your new URL to your Facebook profile, MySpace profile or other social network site.

Thanks to Peachy92 we can now all post our own blogsavannah Un-Con ‘08 pics on Flickr in a pool. Just visit here and join us!

About twenty-five people are sitting here listening to Patrick talk about his background in podcasting. Perhaps better known for his podcast originally broadcast on The South magazine website and also found on iTunes, Patrick seems to be a great new voice in podcasting. I’m not so sure the people sitting here are interested in podcasting beyond just subscribing but it’s interesting to hear how easy podcasting has become. I can remember when podcasting had to have audio ins and outs and adaptors and blah, blah, blah. I recently purchased a Behringer beginner podcast set and I think I had two cables to plug in.

Beyond the traditional how-to information I think this session seems to be especially cool because of the wealth of knowledge offered in terms of legality of using music, copyright infringement, reproduction, etc. I had no idea that any sample over 30 seconds got into some really rock waters, legally speaking. Patrick’s podcast was aimed at the Savannah music scene so he is pretty knowledgeable in terms of how to approach artists and artist reps in order to podcast their music.

I think personally that podcasts are a great resource to broadcast more personal tastes and more personal ideas than maybe even blogs. With podcasts you can download and listen on your iPod whereas blogs require a bit more dedicated attention. I am not so sure I can drive while perusing my RSS feed. I know that I particularly enjoy religious and spiritual podcasts that allow me to “go to church” anytime I want as well as hear from pastors and religious leaders from around the world without ever having to find some parking at that awful airport we have.

I don’t think anyone really thinks of the 2nd annual aspects when putting together the 1st annual. For instance, I am not real sure that Britney Spears thought much about her sophomore album when creating “…Baby One More Time”. She certainly wasn’t thinking about what would happen a decade later. How can you? Growth is inevitable and completely necessary.

When drewandbritt.org spawned the idea of blogsavannah.com and then ultimately the Un-Con ‘07 I don’t remember ever considering how Un-Con ‘08 would go. But alas, here I sit at the registration table watching as Betsy and Chris Yates, Burton Sauls, Darryl Kotz and a host of other navigate this ship through virtually unchartered waters. I counted about 87 people sitting in the keynote address as Josh Hallett talked about the Un-Con format and the growth of blogging. I must admit that it felt a little like being a doting father as their child began to take a first step.

This year I can’t take any credit for the Un-Con but I am pleased to say that it is, again, a success. I guess at lunch today we will talk about next year and all the wonderful things this can bring to Savannah and the Lowcountry. This event just shows that there are voices out there just waiting to be heard!

a wonderful local photographer raised the question in Orlando’s session about why anyone would care what kind of day she had. Another participant wondered if she was “intellectual” enough to blog. Hmmm….

Josh reminds us that in the UnConference environment, we are all on the record. Curb the stupidity at the door, folks.

Itching to get a look at some of your fellow bloggers, or maybe those freaks who call themselves bloggers?

I hear you might get your chance at around 6:00 PM tonight at LuLu’s Chocolate Bar at 42 MLK Jr. Boulevard.

Who’s game?

Wow! There are going to be over 100 Savannah bloggers sitting together
in one room? All that energy could be combustible, dontchay’all think?
Has anyone checked to make sure Armstrong Center is prepared in case our
discussions explode into a mushroom cloud of obscure adjectives and
grits?

I’m just concerned ’cause I’ve never been to a blogging conference
before. Sure, I’ve met a peer here and there, one on one, but attending a convention of a
bunch of opinionated people used to the sound of one clapping in their
heads could be raucous.

My blog’s been around for almost four years, which I guess makes me an
old lady. When I began blogging at yoyenta.com in 2004, I understood the
very nature of blogging to be solitary - in the physical sense, at
least. I had already built a freelance writing career sitting around in
my underpants and a ripped t-shirt, so this wasn’t a problem. But in
spite of my misanthropic intentions, relationships have been built -
some of them with people who like what I write, some who think I’m a
jerk and a dork because I basically learned blogging etiquette by
receiving threatening emails from webmasters (note to newbies: ripping
pictures off other sites is called stealing bandwidth and it makes
people cranky. Also, leaving your web address in other people’s comment
sections without actually commenting is a big no-no.) Some of these
blogfriendships are older than my daughter, and I keep up with folks
I’ve never met and never will. I like that just fine.

A blogging colleague likes to make a big deal out of the fact that I am
a paid blogger, as I was hired by a web site to provide content based on
my previous work as opposed to starting on my own. This is fabulous, of
course, even more so since I suspect the people who pay me don’t
actually read it. But paid or not, the urge to post comes almost every
day, even it means staying up past my bedtime or ignoring the laundry
pile - even when I’m too busy to post or am fresh outta ideas, there’s
an itch to return to it that borders on a nicotine fit (And I would know
- I’ve been having a nic fit since October 2005.) And now that I keep
another blog as part of my job,
it’s a challenge to make time for the real people in my life - I know
you know what I’m talking about, blogger.

Blogging is about building community without actually having to be
present - a revolutionary idea that is our most powerful weapon against
those who would prefer to keep the masses ignorant of each other. If we
all start meeting up and looking into each other’s faces and absorbing
each other’s auras and sh*t, the world might spin off its axis.

Which sounds awesome. So I look forward to meeting y’all in person. And
I promise to wear pants.

Jessica Leigh Lebos
savannah.skirt.com/blog/740
yoyenta.com

Last minute butterflies about the big gig Friday?

Feeling not geek enough? Fear of being the only one not knowing the diff in Ruby and Tomato?
Just go. This is a fine venue with free parking … it’s going to be a GREAT event and I’m not prone to superlatives.

No geek-audits at the door, no tech-ability checks.

Anyone can join in, just be interested.

No tech-bullying allowed. Anyway, with this crowd that sort of behavior simply will not happen. The participants are too confident to bully and too curious to be a know it all.

No one in the room was born knowing this stuff.
No one in the room knows more than anyone else, except in certain specific areas.
That’s why we’re rounding each other up and going in the room.
Mind-share.
Plus, we have a T-shirt for you. Then you can be cool too.