We've made a minor (but hopefully very helpful) change to the athensi.com web page today. In the right hand column is a new navigation aid, with all of the non-news categories listed in alphabetical order. They include:
» BLOGS
» COMMUNITY
» EAT ATHENS
» ENTERTAINMENT
» GOOGLE: ATHENS
» GOOGLE: OU
» LIBRARY NEWS
» MARKETPLACE (formerly "business")
» OU NEWS
» OPINION
» PHOTO GALLERY
» PODCASTS
» SPORTS
» WORLDLINK
Unless users scrolled down the page on athensi.com they may not have even known that these categories exist. And a couple of them are relatively new additions to site. GOOGLE: ATHENS and GOOGLE: OU bring in content that Google News automatically finds about Athens, Ohio and Ohio University, respectively.
Users may also have noticed that the weather information has been changed. We've scaled it back considerably to allow the navigation section to be seen "above the fold."
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Get ready for January '09
Come January '09 I hope you'll be hearing a lot about (and from) athensi.com.
First, a bit of background. athensi.com actually started out as actv7news.com, shoveling content from the student-produced newscast, ACTV-7 News. Then, in February 2001 the site became more of a portal page for Athens-based media. When rss technology came along a few years ago we completely changed how content reached athensi.com.
Now, as athensi.com approaches its eighth anniversary, I've come to realize that the site -- along with the Internet itself -- is just starting to reach its potential to be a real marketplace of ideas. But it can reach that potential only if you, dear users, decide to participate not only as consumers but as producers in the marketplace. Here's how you can do just that.
BLOGGING:
Start a blog and send me the address (stewartr@ohio.edu). If you feel shy, check out what other bloggers in Athens are saying on their blog.
If you are part of a community organization, start up a blog for that organization and pass the address along to me (again, stewartr@ohio.edu). We'll add it to the community section on athensi.com.
If you are a business and want to reach buyers and other members of the community in Athens, start up a blog and write about your business, your products and services, etc., and we'll add it to our business section. Cool, huh?
ADD PHOTOS:
You also can add pictures to athensi.com's photo gallery. Just set up a free account on flickr.com and tag your photos "athens, ohio" (make sure to use the quotation marks so that your tag will be athens, ohio and not just athens and ohio, which won't work).
The reason that I'm excited about January '09 is that I'm teaching a course in the JSchool that will work specifically on getting the word out about athensi.com. Students in the class will go out into the community to teach individuals and organizations that want to have their voice heard on athensi.com how to blog, how to upload photos, etc., so that those blogs and photos can be included on athensi.com Then, and only then, will athensi.com be all that it can be for the community of Athens, Ohio.
First, a bit of background. athensi.com actually started out as actv7news.com, shoveling content from the student-produced newscast, ACTV-7 News. Then, in February 2001 the site became more of a portal page for Athens-based media. When rss technology came along a few years ago we completely changed how content reached athensi.com.
Now, as athensi.com approaches its eighth anniversary, I've come to realize that the site -- along with the Internet itself -- is just starting to reach its potential to be a real marketplace of ideas. But it can reach that potential only if you, dear users, decide to participate not only as consumers but as producers in the marketplace. Here's how you can do just that.
BLOGGING:
Start a blog and send me the address (stewartr@ohio.edu). If you feel shy, check out what other bloggers in Athens are saying on their blog.
If you are part of a community organization, start up a blog for that organization and pass the address along to me (again, stewartr@ohio.edu). We'll add it to the community section on athensi.com.
If you are a business and want to reach buyers and other members of the community in Athens, start up a blog and write about your business, your products and services, etc., and we'll add it to our business section. Cool, huh?
ADD PHOTOS:
You also can add pictures to athensi.com's photo gallery. Just set up a free account on flickr.com and tag your photos "athens, ohio" (make sure to use the quotation marks so that your tag will be athens, ohio and not just athens and ohio, which won't work).
The reason that I'm excited about January '09 is that I'm teaching a course in the JSchool that will work specifically on getting the word out about athensi.com. Students in the class will go out into the community to teach individuals and organizations that want to have their voice heard on athensi.com how to blog, how to upload photos, etc., so that those blogs and photos can be included on athensi.com Then, and only then, will athensi.com be all that it can be for the community of Athens, Ohio.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Businesses in Athens, Ohio, start blogging!
athensi.com includes a business blog section now, which means that area businesses can reach their customers on athensi.com through a free blogging service such as wordpress or blogspot. If you start up a blog for your business, send Bob Stewart (stewartr@ohio.edu) the address of your blog and he'll add it to athensi.com's business blogs.
NOTE: to find the business section scroll down to the bottom of athensi.com. If more businesses start feeding their rss feeds to athensi.com, we'll move that section up.
NOTE: to find the business section scroll down to the bottom of athensi.com. If more businesses start feeding their rss feeds to athensi.com, we'll move that section up.
To bloggers on blogspot: please fix your site feed
Hey folks, if you're using blogspot for a blog that's included on athensi.com, please help us out by making the following fix:
1. select "Settings" for the blog
2. select the tab labeled "Site Feed"
3. switch to Advanced Mode
4. change the settings for "Blog Comment Feed" and "Per-Post Comment Feeds" to "None"
What this "fix" will do is prevent your blog from sending out rss notices for comments made on your blog. This doesn't mean you can't have a notice sent to your own email when a comment is made. It just prevents an rss notice from being sent out. For some reason, those notices appear on athensi.com as "empty" messages, which are confusing to folks.
thanks...
1. select "Settings" for the blog
2. select the tab labeled "Site Feed"
3. switch to Advanced Mode
4. change the settings for "Blog Comment Feed" and "Per-Post Comment Feeds" to "None"
What this "fix" will do is prevent your blog from sending out rss notices for comments made on your blog. This doesn't mean you can't have a notice sent to your own email when a comment is made. It just prevents an rss notice from being sent out. For some reason, those notices appear on athensi.com as "empty" messages, which are confusing to folks.
thanks...
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