Table's blogs - implemented

We presently have the following blogs:
Cheasapeake Blog - Scribe = Upwind
Solomons - Scribe = - Crabman ( He already sent me a word document for the induction. This should be put on the blog! I did put it temporarly in the bocus.org/solomons
Sun Coast - Joe
We also have
BOCUS - North America - Scribe = Vivie = Rascal / mainly for First Watch ) and as suggested: a general US calendar !
New York ( I guess I 'll get this chore... ... ... - The Big Hopper )
BOC-US Blog : very open blog for anyone to continue this topic openly, not just the 5 of us. Everyone may contribute.

We then need:
Gold Coast
Corpus Christi
Florida Keys
Houston
Orange Beach
Potomac
San Antonio
San Juan / Puerto Rico ?
Savannah

Bernard: Can you
1. please e-mail me the roster in a excel/spreadsheet?
2. Leave me as an administrator for EVERY blog: I want to ensure that there is a link to the bocus.org on every table's blog, regardless of the template which I will not touch unless required by the table's scribe himself)
3. Be sure that in every table's blog, there is a link towards the table's page in bocus.org
4. Same return ticket: I will link the blog of each individual table back to its own blog from the bocus.org. ( I have not yet really figured out the best way, though! Could be on the main page or in each table's
5. Bernard: do you want to create these additional blogs or do you want me to ? - Hey - you only leave in 10 days :) LOL

First Watch Superceded!

This is a follow up to the First Watch Discussions we had at the Captain's meeting of the Norfolk ZAF. By the time Rascal receives all the news from every table, the first entries are stale. This beta verison of the new process will enable every table to have its own blog. It will be referenced into each table's page in www.bocus.org. There will be a "national blog " - In fact this is it !
Please each table should send to me its logo/burgee in order to update their respective table's page.

The Chesapeake table is the perfect example. In its page are two links to the Google's and to Flicker's pages Brise-Galets maintains with consistency.
I had sent an e-mail to Rascal outlining the plans. We discussed about it yesterday and this blog is the result.
When it comes to dissemination, we'll try to feed the modifications at will. That meeans that a button will appear on the blog. We suggest you click on it to receive a summarized version of the new entry in the blog right into your own e-mail in-box . This is not spam since YOU decide to subscribe.
Knowing human nature, this gadget will be ( overly) active in the beginning. Its use will fade gradually to achieve a balanced flow of I would estimate not exceeding 2 e-mails per month.
Enjoy !



-------------QUOTE --------------
OK... No I did not forget my assignment started at the Norfolk ZAF meeting. It is a bit more complex that I thought. Mainly because of the nature of our human brains and resistance to changes. YES, a series of surveys revealed to me that people LOVE to receive something that looks like a newspaper journal. I refer to the old format of the FIRST watch. Even when read on-line, it feels like an event. Events are very important in marketing: Sales, Grand Opening - First Release etc...
On-line blogging has a bit reduced this marketing appeal.

The Norfolk meeting had enlightened some needs and requirements:
---- News must be pushed from each table - as an "automatic upload"
Would there be some restrictions on updates ?
Therefore, only one editor per table would be responsible for the news ow his table and to forward it to the central US editor.
---- Presently, the Yahoo groups ORZA-US is used as a list server. Although it could have a lot more capabilities, it is presently used to dispatch some news to all brothers. Brise-Galets is one of the "moderators". The problem is in the security of Yahoo. Brise-Galets would rather spend time at the wheel than on the Mouse! He needs to keep every brother and their e-mail updated in the yahoo database in order to ensure proper distribution of his e-blasts.
---- We have to prevent inundation of the e-blasts ( see my comments about Event Marketing... ) Therefore, we would wait until there is enough valuable news to group them into a single set of which the volume would warrant the e-blast of one combined First Watch
---- Dogwaes from Savannah offered to send to me a copy of his Guide to e-mails. It should explain what is a good photo, suitable for Web or e-mail posting. ( the 400X600 pixels rule... Blogging is still quite confusing for many of us Old Salts. The Thread concept is confusing. I like the Forum I presented at the top of this message. It alleviate to understand the thread concept.

Some confusion arises from the multiplicity of systems we presently use :
a) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orza_us/
b) http://chesapeakebaytable.blogspot.com/ which Brise-Galets uses with Brio! HE actually includes links from his blog to FLICKER which is owned by Yahoo-groups as well and which is more geared to the storage, organization and print production of pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/brisegalets/sets/1671146/
This is a great - clean systems. It still does not resolve all the problems: Although i am a Google member ( Google owns Blogger ) I have to be accepted by the Blog's administrator ( Brise-Galets) before I'd post a comment to an entry in this blog. Same problem as before.

The RSS Feeds
This is a technology which has two ends. I can add some code in www.bocus.org. This will force some web crawlers to send an alarm in the reader's mailbox. However, Each user has to trigger this "alarm" through an "aggregator" in their e-mail program. Therefore, we have to instruct all our brothers to subscribe to this feed. This is a small option in Thunderbird e-mail program. Outlook users can use an add-on called RSS Popper. it seems that this avenue does not resolve any of our problems.

A FORUM
I am also member of the Long Island Woodworkers. Daryl ( here in Cc.) is the editor of this association's newsletter. He definitely declares that creating the "paper" in a PDF, using a well established routine in QuarkXpress is not such a burden. He agrees however that the learning curve for QuarkXpress is steep. He also agrees that receiving articles from the various members is harder than pulling rusty nails off oak... ( Hey - this is a woodworking group... we do not lie like dentists who pull teeth !)
Therefore, Daryl will continue to crate the newsletter as is for the moment.

However, this group also installed a newer version of their forum. There are some great points: it has a public area and 4 additional levels of membership. These levels enable different levels of access, editing, posting etc... There are also multiple forums in this system - therefore each table could have its own. I have not tested if the level of authorization was going down to the forum level or to the whole system - i.e. if a table captain in Kalamazoo could change the postings in the Salt Lake City table's forum.
http://www.liwoodworkers.org/liwcforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=165&PN=1

I did not yet contact my server host to see if this whole system could be implemented. There is a free version for not-for-profit. The max could be $145.00. There are also some other programs offered by Web Wiz. Especially the Web Wiz Newspad which would enable to send newsletters. http://www.webwizguide.com/products/
I have not tested this, nor have I asked our web host if these products were implementable on our system.

Let's recap the four prong entries of the system:

News come from each table to the US coordinator	Can be by normal e-mail
Coordinator creates the Lay-out	Quark...
Coordinator "posts" on the web	e-mail or FTP
Brothers are made aware of an update/upload	Yahoo moderator must keep e-mails and memberships up-to-date Yahoo group e-blast
Brothers can comment	Not existing right now

Let's face it: Brothers have to WANT to receive news or else, it goes to the trash like the Sunday Times advertisements.
I more than welcome feedbacks from Keith/Rummy and Bernard/Brise-Galets.

Sincerely yours - robert -

About this blog...

At he Norfolk ZAF Captains meeting, it has been discussed to create a medium which would accelerate the publication of any news from the different tables. In fact, the forwarding process that enabled Rascal to publish a aggregated newsletter "First Watch" was too complex. Latest news arrived way to late to prevent previous entries to stale. Therefore, we are testing a technology Brise-Galets is already using for more than 2 years. Each table can have its own blog. For example, Google's e-Blog is a well established system. I found it somewhat user friendly. However, Blogger is not a very sophisticated "page maker"! For a large series of pictures, the use of Flicker ( also owned by Google ) might be more adequate. Brise-Galets is also using this for a long time.
A special entry with a link to each table's blogger will be put in each table's page on www.bocus.org.