Senator Ron Wyden (R-Oregon) anchored a Net Neutrality Forum at Powell's Books on October 19, 2006. Senator Wyden is leading the effort to preserve the Internet as an open and accessible resource for individuals and businesses.
EasyStreet President and CEO Rich Bader thanked the senator for his Internet support since 1995. Listen to his remarks on behalf of maintaining an open Internet not controlled or constrained by a few monopoly companies.
View entire 23 minute Wyden/Bader presentation.
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As the new generation of browsers are rolled out (Opera 9, Firefox 2 and IE7), all include methods to customize and add functionality with widgets and plugins.
One of the nice features I have used for the past year is Rollyo which allows creating a custom search engine within the Firefox browser. These accounts can be shared. For example, mine is http://rollyo.com/daytooley/easystreetsites/ which searches the public websites of EasyStreet. Rollyo uses Yahoo's search database.
Now, Google has stepped up with their version. Here is an example you can try which also searches the four EasyStreet websites (main website, support, Rich Bader's blog, and this business blog).
For those businesses who have a website, it is an easy way to add search capabilities to your site without having to program custom code. Notice the Google Custom Search box added at the very bottom of this page.
Want to roll your own custom search engine?
Go to http://google.com/coop/cse. It takes just a minute.
Technorati Tags: Google, web 2.0, Rollyo, widgets
October 26th, 2006 by Day Tooley
Posted in Web 2.0, Search Engines | Enter a comment »
Blogs, Wiki's and Community Portal sites are being talked about more often. These new tools are being used by business and non-profit organizations to get the word out in a timely fashion.
Most have a pretty good idea of what a blog might be. You're reading this on a blog now.
Wiki's are a shared knowledge-base with many authors. The best known is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org. EasyStreet support has an internal knowledge-base Wiki for stored EasyStreet wisdom. ("None of us is as smart as all of us." - Walt Kelly's Pogo - 1954)
But what about Community Portals? Basically, these are web-based Content Management Systems (CMS) where multiple contributors can add content without having to know HTML. They can be Intranet (local network) or Internet visible.
On the Windows side, there are SharePoint and DotNetNuke. SharePoint is a component of Microsoft Exchange. DotNetNuke is a free open-source .NET application that runs on a Windows webserver.
On the Unix side, there are Drupal and Joomla! Both are free open-source applications which run on standard Unix webservers.
A good example of Joomla! is CARE: Cyber Awareness, Responsibility and Ethics. CARE is a classroom based educational program from the public safety component of the Hillsboro, Oregon's Vision 2020. It's designed to help K-12 students know and understand the opportunities and responsibilities for the use of cyber technologies, specifically the Internet. Educators can collaborate in curriculum development. If you have kids or teach kids, take a look.
Some small businesses are using these tools for private customer support portals and for their main websites. An example using DonNetNuke created by Portland developer Netropole is the Wood Flooring Manufacturing Association website where content now can be added and maintained by non-technical company personnel.
Technorati Tags: Wiki, collaboration, Joomla, Drupal, DotNetNuke, SharePoint
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October 23rd, 2006 by Day Tooley
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A thoughtful 1-1/2 hour program aired on OPB Channel 10 last night: Moyers on America - The Net at Risk
For those who need to understand the implications to the US economy and First Amendment that the loss of common carrier protections represent, this program is an excellent source.
You can get a sample from the Moyers on America website. OPB will rebroadcast this program on Friday, October 20th at 3:00am. Set your VCR/Tivo to record this if you can.
The Internet with its universal access has allowed speech and competition to once again thrive and, along with it, innovation and opportunity. The large legacy phone and transport providers such as AT&T and Verizon are spending $1.5 million per day in lobbying efforts in Washington, DC to defeat net neutrality legislation.
There is a real danger between now and January that a lame-duck congress will ram through dangerous legislation unless all of us become vocal on the net neutrality issue. Small businesses should be particularly concerned.
Need some background? Here's a good class you can print. Then contact your congressional candidates make your preferences known. Links to current congress members for Oregon and Washington are here.
October 19th, 2006 by Day Tooley
Posted in Net Neutrality, General | 1 Comment »
