Archive for the 'Web 2.0' Category

A nice little nod from ma.gnolia

Published
by
Prof. Dino Baskovic
on July 29, 2008
in Social media, Web 2.0 and Web design
. 2 Comments

ma.gnolia logoOn 15 February 2006, Jeffery Zeldman and the thought-forward folks at Happy Cog helped to launched ma.gnolia, a then-new social bookmarking tool.

Me being the all-important web prof that spreads the occasional DWWS love to my students immediately fell in love with its utter simplicity. Coupled with finding similar sites like digg and del.icio.us far too yucky for their time, I signed up for my own ma.gnolia account five days later.

And just five days ago, I received a warm note from Larry Halff, ma.gnolia’s founder, that I shall now appear as a Featured Linker on the site.

Dino Baskovic, one of the newest Featured Linkers on ma.gnoliaSmall honor? Perhaps in the grand scheme but to me it’s huge. All for sharing with you those bookmarks I feel are worth a damn on the site, this blog, Facebook, FriendFeed and I suppose Twitter.

There’s even a nice little blog post about me and my newest esteemed colleagues in the newest “Featured” ranks.

Hey, it may not pay, but it’s a living. And thanks again, Larry!

Human torch denied bank loan

Published
by
Prof. Dino Baskovic
on April 23, 2008
in Social media and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

The Legend of Ron BurgundyAnybody who has ever worked with me or had me for class knows that the legend of Ron Burgundy lives on in my comps.

For years, I’ve used the hed “Human torch denied bank loan” for everything from wireframing to copywriting. It makes for quick filler between <h1> tags, takes less time to type than “The quick brown fox…” and is far less vague a prototyping construct than “Lorem ipsum.”

That, and it simply amuses me (though, a depressing chunk of my students still think I speak Latin). So it gave me great rapture to hack CNN’s t-shirt thingamabobber and try to mod my own swag. Alas, like the Torch, I too was denied. After a full day of blogospheric snickering, the CNN.com team finally read the chapter on URL crackz, and their accidental viral campaign is no longer.

Idiots.

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Restoring your reputation—from a backup?

Published
by
Prof. Dino Baskovic
on March 11, 2008
in Social media and Web 2.0
. 5 Comments

Social networking portabilityWe’ve all been there. Deleted a file—or an entire hard drive—and couldn’t recover the data. Sometimes, it’s not your fault. A virus sneaks past the firewall and corrupts your entire PC. Or your laptop bag walks away from you in a busy airport.

It happens. I once lost an entire week’s worth of web site changes, and on one insidious occasion, an entire site. It’s why we keep backups, or at least should. Assuming, of course, we actually can.

Not so much with social networking, as one of my LinkedIn connections recently discovered. With at least one popular social networking site, there is no option to restore deleted profiles, even if by accident.

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Grande Yukon

Published
by
Prof. Dino Baskovic
on March 7, 2008
in Communication, Lawrence Tech, Social media, Web 2.0 and Web design
. 0 Comments

A newly renovated Franklin Hall, a fresh blanket of snowSince Starbucks still finds it necessary to charge for wi-fi, I am posting this from home, hours after having left Kent. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay for a drop of wireless.

I now return to Lawrence Tech, where the wi-fi is deliciously free to use. Today’s YouToo Social Media Conference and Boot Camp at Kent State gave me a much needed boost as I aspire to offer a course in blogging this fall, if not next spring. Of course, I’m still waiting for this spring to arrive. My keyboard is practically frozen as I type.

Rounding out the rest of the day’s highlights:

  • People that never podcasted did so in under 15 minutes.
  • Sage Lewis gave a luncheon sermon that effectively restored my faith in SEO. This was probably a good thing, as former classmate Stefanie Moore and I delivered a primer on SEO do’s and don’ts later in the afternoon.
  • Our day ended with a panel discussion on social media’s impact on the presidential election. Half a million Facebook friends for can’t be wrong, or can they?

I am told that video from throughout the conference will be available online, as will most of the presentations. Brief snippets of mine follow…

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LiveBlogging from YouToo

Published
by
Prof. Dino Baskovic
on March 7, 2008
in Social media and Web 2.0
. 4 Comments

Question just posed from the audience: “Do we need to cite research [when we blog]?”

Answer from presenter: “Naw.”

He was, of course, kidding.

I am nothing but proud—and not at all surprised—to see how far my alma mater has evolved. As I present this morning at the YouToo conference at Kent State University, I am surrounded by my former professors, new ones, old classmates and area PR pros, all sharing our social media smarts with each other.

As I write this, professors Bill Sledzik and Rob Jewell are currently talking about WordPress, the blogging platform that powers this very blog. A crowd of marketing communicators is listening attentively, many blogging for the first time. Nothing but smiles and nods of agreement. Revolutions are being hatched before my very eyes. I kid you not.

Hearing Bill talk about blogging, I can’t help but grin. He was a newbie not very long ago. Today, he shares the stage with a number of social media luminaries. He’s scary good as he presents, as are the rest of the presenters…

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Good to be back

Published
by
Prof. Dino Baskovic
on March 6, 2008
in Communication, Lawrence Tech, Social media, Web 2.0 and Web design
. 2 Comments

After nearly a two-year hiatus, I’ve decided to relaunch the “LTU Web Design” blog.

Dino BaskovicI suppose the guilt of presenting at a social media conference back at my alma mater in Ohio got the best of me. Thanks, Bill—the itch to blog is back.

That, and after having registered for one of those fancy ISSN numbers, I feel I owe it to you the taxpayer. Well, at least to my students at Lawrence Tech. They pay some hefty tuition to hear me ramble for three hours each week, so the very least I can do is put my money where my mouth is….

As I did in early ‘06, I’ll continue to focus this blog on web design, social media and communication. My previous foray was probably too formal in retrospect, and a tad preachy. Us web standards-types tend to be a bit into ourselves. Starting with this post, I’ll lose the tie and blog about what makes web design in the modern era so great, and why I have so much fun with it as a practitioner and a professor.

If I do my job well, you may learn something along the way. Heck, I’m still learning as I go.

Until next post, catch me on LinkedIn and Facebook, or this Friday night at Ray’s where I’ll talk more about last year’s massive web crash…

Continue reading ‘Good to be back’