Well, actually the design portion was already handled by Tracy herself. The challenge in that regard lay in taking Tracy’s clean and exact designs and making them appear on the web as they did on paper. As for development the main challenge was that although this was to be an online store she wanted it to look nothing like an online store.  So basically the project consisted of taking a new site concept from a paper mock-up to a fully working website. Exactly the kind of stuff I like to do.

Taking WordPress right to the edge

The result of a lot of hard work is a website that in my view takes WordPress right to the edge of what it is capable of. Every element of the site is custom built from my basic WaveFront theme to create a look, feel and operation that in no way resembles or even hints at WordPress or a regular e-commerce CMS. That said there is no real reason why any site, WordPress blog or otherwise, should look a certain way. A CMS is after all just a HTML generator that spits out whatever you want it to, and once you have the HTML you can use CSS to display it any way you want. The true challenge here was centered around getting the e-commerce portion to look, work and feel less like a boxed e-commerce solution and more like something classy and custom even though it was built on top of the WP eCommerce plugin. So while on the back end this is a fairly standard WordPress installation with pages, a blog (upcoming) and an e-commerce component, on the outside it looks like a custom site with all the bells and whistles built from scratch. Which is exactly what both Tracy and I wanted.

Ultra-clean designs pose unique challenges

Tracy is a designer of my heart: Obsessively detailed and extremely picky. (To be honest I don’t think you can call yourself a designer if you don’t fall into these categories, but that’s just me.) Her designs looked easy enough, but the true challenge lay in matching her static pages created in InDesign to live dynamic pages on the web. With such a rigid frame to work inside all the regular cross-browser problems like padding- and margin widths, positioning, font sizes etc that we normally choose to ignore or just tweak till they fit within acceptible buffer zones were all of a sudden make-it-or-break-it points that had to be done exactly right. The most notable example was that when each page loaded, whatever page content was in the “content” section of the layout had to line up perfectly with the topmost menu item. Sure, that’s easy enough if all the content is the same, but in this case we were working with four fundamentally different types of pages: Plain text pages for general info (home, about etc), dynamic index pages for each product line consisting of a header image plus a series of thumbnails for each product, single product pages with a larger image off the top with product stats and purchase buttons on the right and info underneath and finally shopping cart pages.

This meant the site demanded entirely separate style codes for the different elements depending on the type of page (or more specifically page template) was being displayed. And all these styles had to be flexible enough to be applied to the same item in different ways depending on the current template. Normally this would be easy enough to solve by using custom page templates, but in this case we were using the WP eCommerce plugin which generated all the product indexes, single product pages and shopping carts. As a result I had to dissect the eCommerce plugin pretty much line by line to find where all these elements were generated and how to go about repositioning them. What I found was a plugin that although it looks amazing on the outside was actually quite messy behind the curtain. I won’t write any further on this topic here – suffice it to say if you want WP eCommerce to do something that’s not just basic implementation you better prepare yourself for hours of decrypting bizarre code layouts and counter intuitive solutions. More on that in a different post.

In the end I created multiple theme files for the theme itself as well as the WP eCommerce plugin that allowed for micromanaged control of all the different pages. Not an easy task, but more than doable given enough time and some good background music.

Overall I’d say DesignSchooledKids.com has been my most challenging project to date, not because of the design or development elements of the baisc site but because the WP eCommerce plugin falls short in way too many places. In the end I made it all work the way it should but that was only because I spent an enormous ammount of time fixing or all together rewriting the code in the plugin so it would behave properly. It’s a bit of a disappointment really but now that I know how all the pieces fit together I should be able to reproduce it in the future.

Visit Design Schooled Kids and check out both what WordPress can do and what Tracy has to offer.

Ever since I was invited to attend Microsoft’s web design and development conference MIX in 2008 I’ve been itching to submit my own session proposal and get on the podium to share with other developers and designers my experiences working with Expression Web and WordPress. The plan was to submit a proposal for MIX09 but life and work intervened and made it impossible for me to even attend (truth be told I was going to a wedding in Hawaii the same week so I really shouldn’t complain). But this year March is wide open and I’ve jumped in head first and submitted a talk with the modest title “I Reject Your Stylesheet And Substitute My Own – Rapid site design and prototyping with Expression Web 3 and WordPress” to the OpenCall portion of MIX10. And now I need your help to get my proposal accepted so I can get in and do my thing.

OpenCall is literally a popularity contest: The ten most voted on proposals get a slot at the conference and the rest are left by the wayside. As far as I can tell my proposal is the only one focusing on Expression Web (at least it’s the only one that shows up on a search) and also the only one talking about WordPress so my hope is that both those interested in the web authoring application and those interested in WordPress specifically or open-source or CMS design in general will find it compelling and want to vote for it. Only time will tell.

To vote for I Reject Your Stylesheet and Substitute My Own visit the OpenCall ballot page found here and click the Add session to ballot button. You can vote for a total of 5 sessions with one ballot. The rest of the sessions can be found here. Once you’re done voting, spread the word and get all your friends to vote for me as well. Voting ends on the 15th of January so there’s little time but I am certain with your help my name will appear on the roster alongside the many other fantastic speakers at MIX10.

Oh, and if you’re interested the extremely limited edition I Reject Your Stylesheet and Substitute My Own T-shirts are available in green, blue, tan and black sizes S, M and L (Fruit of the Loom, heavy cotton) for $20. Contact me with your name and mailing address and I’ll wrap one up and send it to you.

A woman’s work is never done

I grew up in Norway, a country where women are constitutionally treated as equals, where stay-at-home moms are often frowned upon and where International Women’s Day on March 8th is celebrated by parades of women carrying huge red flags. And yet even in my home country women are frenquently short changed both in terms of pay, promotions and hirings, not to mention the stil prevalent problem of sexual harrassment and deliberate alienation. True, the situation for women in the work force today is vastely different from the one of women only 20 years ago. But to claim that women are now equal to men, that gender no longer plays a part in the hiring process, project appointments and salary negotiations, makes you the proverbial ostrich sticking its head in the sand. We may be converging on equality somewhere down the road, but we are far from there.

The problem now faced by women in the workplace (and everywhere else for that matter) is that whereas in the past the bias and discrimination was blatant, explicit and counscious (watch just one episode of Mad Men and you’ll get the idea) the sexists of today are for the most part not even aware of what they are doing. Asked up front why a manager chose to send Jack on assignment rather than Jill he may answer “it’s because Jill has a family to take care of” thinking this is a perfectly reasonable explanation. It’s not: it is supressed gender bias. “But it’s true!” you might say. Is it? What if I said that both Jack and Jill are married with two kids. The argument would still be put forward and would still be just as sexist. Our society is rife with inbred assumptions about gender roles such as the established fact that women are responsible for their children. But this is not a fundamental truth, it’s a social invention. Why can’t Jill’s husband take care of her kids while she’s away on business like Jack’s wife is expected to do? This is but one very basic example of how sexism has gone under ground.

We all make assumptions, most of them wrong…

What James experienced while writing under her own name was a version of the hidden sexism I just described, one that is present on the web as well as in real life. Due to perscribed gender roles taught to us by everyone from our peers to our parents to popular culture we have a built in tendency to make assumptions, purely based on gender, about how well people are able to do things. And while women are often thought to be more creatively inclined – more artistic if you will – the skill set necessary to do more technical tasks, be it a car mechanic, a program developer or a person dealing in the ruthless world of commercial blogging, tends to be attributed mostly to men. And for this reason we tend to trust men more than women when it comes to searching out information in these fields. Just think about it: Make a list of all the blogging, web design and technical writers you know and read and you’ll find a major male dominance. And I bet you’ll also find that more often than not the women writers are more focused on design and aesthetics. But this isn’t necessarily their choice: My theory has long been that there are scores of female writers out there who in spite of their skill can’t get a foot through the door because of this gender bias. And with James revelation my assumptions have, at least for one writer, been confirmed. Now I’m left to wonder how many other women in men’s names there are out there.

Feminism and the art of shooting yourself in the foot

In the days following Chartrand’s revelation the debate has been raging on the web. But not over what you think. The most inflammatory debates have been over whether James really is a feminist or if she betrayed her sex by taking on the role of a man. And this latter stance, professed loudly and often obnoxiously with vile accusations of gender abandonment, is the one taken by militant feminists. In fact this type of reasoning is one of the staples of feminism and is, in my opinion, one of the main reasons feminism, and with it equal rights for women, is not gaining ground as rapidly as it should. To put it plainly I believe feminism has become a dogmatic belief system rather than a fight for equal rights. And I think that’s why a lot of women who want to call themselves feminists also hate feminism.

Whereas feminists of the past were fighting for the right to be treated as men’s equals, modern feminists have a tendency of veering towards the extreme view that apart for a few minor anatomical differences men and women are exactly the same. “Gender is a societal invention” they say “and the ideal world is a society witout gender”. (To me that just sounds like Maoist China and I seriously would not want to live there). And from this dogmatic and quite bizarre stance follow some logical but irrational conclusions, from which the criticism of James is based:

If men and women by nature are exactly the same and gender is a societal invention (created by men to suppress women), women who operate within the confines of these societal inventions are in fact enforcing them and thereby hindering the progress of women’s rights and equality.

In other words, the only way the ideal equal society feminists want to achieve will ever come into existance is if women start behaving as genderless entities and men realize they are wrong, shed their evil sexist ways and conform to their new roles as equals.

Which is completely rediculous.

This attitude is doomed from the start. Not only does it have a premise that is ludicrous – that there is no qualitative difference between men and women – but the strategy that it derrives is horribly counter productive: Rather than showing men that women are their equals, this strategy portrays women as weird and disconnected angry people with a chip on their shoulder the size of a small planet.

James got it right – and that makes people angry

Let me turn this on its head for one minute and consider the plight of women as a product with men as it’s primary demographic. How do you sell a product? By making the target demographic feel like they need it. And how do you make them feel like they need it? By making them identify with the characters in the commercials and posters – the ideal customer.

Following this simple principle, the best way of marketing gender equality is to make the target demographic, the oppressive man, identify with the product, the oppressed woman and thereby understand his mistakes by seeing himself from the other side of the glass ceiling. But this is a pretty tall order: You can’t start underpaying all men or subject them to systematic demotions to favour female employees. A version of this strategy, affermative action, has been used extensively throughout the world to even the playing field. But although it has been effective in balancing the workforce numbers where gender, ethnicity and other visual minorities are concerned, it has also caused an unintended negative bias that now colours all these groups: Many people not included in these groups now believe that the groups of people that need affermative action to get ahead are in fact inferior by design and therefore not worthy of their jobs.

What James did was, allbeit inadvertantly, approach the issue in a more indirect way wedging herself into the “good old boys club” to prove her worth. I can’t help but think of her as a covert infiltrator trying to bust up an organization of biggots but that would do her a disservice and paint her peers in an unneccesarily bad light. She just did what she had to to get ahead, and in doing so she proved a point in a way few others could: As a woman she was ignored and underpaid, but as soon as people saw her as a man she was treated as one of the best, because she is. In other words gender trumped quality! But rather than just sit on this astounding and disturbing fact she chose to go public with it. And by doing so she forced her male peers as well as her many thousands of readers to come to an uncomfortable conclusion: Gender really does matter. Way more than it should. Because who amongst us can say that the revelation that James wears women’s panties didn’t immediately change our understanding of her as a person as well as her writing?

In one short essay James succeeded where feminists have failed for decades: She made men identify with her and realize that they are undercutting their female counterparts for reasons that have nothing to do with talent or productivity and everything to do with gender bias and downright sexism. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but one that we can no longer leave on the side of our plate. Now the publishers, editors and readers of the world are faced with a some painful questions: How many of the male writers I read every day are actually females writing under male pseudonyms to be taken seriously? And why  does the gender specification provided in a name alone change my understanding and acceptance of a piece of work so entirely? After all to borrow some words from Shakespeare, what’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Why not so also with the fruits of our creative minds?

Full disclosure here: When we went on our roadtrip I asked the people at Joby if they would supply me with a new Gorillapod that would hold my Canon EOS 5D-MKII and it’s enormous and rediculously heavy pro lens. In response they sent me not one but four different Gorillapods to play around with. Now, a lot of product reviews you find on blogs these days are heavily biassed because the blogger feels obligated to give the product a good review simply because they got the product to try. I’m not one of those people. If someone sends me a product and it sucks, I’ll make damn sure everyone knows just how crappy it is so that noone buys it and the company stops making it. I really hate crappy products. I’m telling you this because I want you to understand that what you are about to read is my professional opinion as a photographer and tech writer, completely unbiassed and without reservation.

The search for proper support

One of the many challenges a photographer faces is proper camera support. As anyone who has ever tried to take a photo in poor lighting conditions or with a large zoom will tell you, without proper support your photos will end up blurry no matter what. Why? Because the human body just isn’t capable of holding a camera steady enough to get the necessary exposure. Though there are many alternatives available, from sand bags to monopods to tripods, photographers (and videographers for that matter) often find themselves on shaky ground because the support they have doesn’t work in the conditions they are in. This is especially true when it comes to placing your camera in an unusual location, be it on an uneven surface, in a tree or on a fence. And if you wanted to hang your camera from something, duct tape is usually the only option.

Gorillapod SLR – my first impressions

I found myself in just such a situation a couple of years back when I stumbled upon this new camera support called Gorillapod. Basically it was a small tripod where each of the three legs were comprised of a long chain of articulating joint. As a result the legs could be bent and shaped to grip, pry or lean on practiaclly any surface. And with that a whole slew of new camera placements became possible. At the time there were only two of these GorillaPods available, the standard one for small point-and-shoot cameras and the Gorillapod SLR for medium sized camereas and small SLRs. I got the bigger one and it turned out to be exactly right for my Canon EOS 10D with a standard consumer lens.

The Gorillapod SLR quickly became a permanent resident of my camera bag and I used it a lot – so much in fact that some of the joints started getting loose. I also lent it to one of my friends when he went on one of those bike rides to raise money for cancer and he used it to strap a Flip video camera to his bike with great success.

The SLR can support a camera up to 800g (no, I have no clue what that is in stone, pebbles, liquid ounces or any other archaic imperial measurement) which basically means any point-and-shoot camera and most consumer SLRs as long as they don’t have massive zoom lenses on them. Anything heavier and it’ll just buckle under the weight or the grip will slip if you’re hanging it off anything. In other words don’t use it to hang your $4000 prosumer video camera from a lamp post! It’s fairly small and has a detatchable base plate that you attach to your camera so you can snap it on and off easily. The only downside to this is that the baseplate is not threaded on the bottom so if you want to mount your camera to a different tripod you have to take it off which is a bit cumbersome unless you have a key or a big coin lying around.

Like I said, I used the Gorillapod SLR so much it’s gotten a bit slack in the joints, but it’s still perfectly useable even 3 years later. I would say this is a great buy except shortly after I got mine Joby created a big brother to the SLR called the SLR-Zoom which is a much better buy.

Gorillapod SLR-Zoom

Like the name suggests, the Gorillapod SLR-Zoom is a larger version of the SLR designed to accommodate heavier cameras and especially large zoom lenses. Considering how quickly Joby rolled out this version of the pod after the original SLR I can make an educated guess that a lot of photographers were having issues with the relative weakness of the SLR and wanted something stronger and more sturdy to work with.

The SLR-Zoom is noticeably bigger than the SLR and supports cameras up to a full 3kgs which at least on paper is enough to hold my big clunker of a camera. We’ll get to that in a bit. The SLR-Zoom differs from the SLR in that the top plate is mounted directly on top of the three legs whereas the SLR has an additional articulating joint above the legs. This makes sense because it was that last articulating joint that caused the most problems when I used the SLR with heavier cameras. It ships in two versions: One which is just the pod itself and one which also includes a ballhead that lets you turn and position your camera at angles up to 90 degrees from the plane. The ballhead in turn comes with a baseplate that has a small water level on it to help you balance your camera correctly. This ballhead and water level combo is an absolute must-have and I don’t think Joby should be selling the SLR-Zoom without it.

The combination of the SLR-Zoom and the ballhead is close to perfection when it comes to medium-size camera support. Not only does the combination allow you to position your camera pretty much anywhere (I hung it off a fence, in a tree, on the door frame of our car and even used it to take long exposures of the night sky over the Nevada desert) but it provides rock solid support in a small and convenient package. It’s also light but strong and because it is so flexible it is relatively easy to pack away.

The only problem I had with the SLR-Zoom was that although it is technically strong enough to hold my large camera, it is too light and the legs are too short to achieve a good balance. As a result when using it as a “regular” tripod (rather than wrapping the legs around something) I found myself having to adjust and re-adjust the legs several times to find a position that didn’t either slip or outright topple. I gave it a full week on our trip and took around 100 shots with it before taking the ballhead off and moving it onto the newest and biggest brother in the lineup, the monsterous Gorillapod Focus.

On a sidenote, when I talked to the Joby guys they were unsure if the ballhead would be strong enough to hold my camera. From the pictures and the description I was under the impression that the ballhead would be made of the same plastic material the Gorillapods were made from. That turned out to be wrong. The ballhead is some form of metal construction and is extremely sturdy and resilient. Once I’d positioned the camera in the desired weird angle and tightened the big knob it was rock solid and I never experienced it slipping even once. So either they haven’t done their testing or they are overtly careful when telling people what it can and can’t do. I’m not saying it is the best or strongest ballhead in the world but for the price ($39.95 US on its own) it is well worth it.

Gorillapod Focus

At the top of the foodchain in the Gorillapod family you find the Gorillapod Focus, a massive steel contraption that looks more like something dropped from an alien spaceship than a camera support. I had it stuffed in my backpack when I went to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. and I had to physically take it out of my bag and demonstrate it to the guard before he would let me in.

The Focus is significantly larger in every way and also weighs more than the other pods because all the joints are metal rather than plastic. In return you get support for cameras up to 5kg which means you can strap a standard video fluid head and a prosumer video camera on it without any problems. That in turn means you can now put your expensive video gear up on tree branches, strap it to your car or hang it from lamp posts without worrying that it’ll fall down. Which any videographer will tell you is pretty damn awesome.

The only real downside of the Focus (and this goes for the SLR-Zoom too) is that the mounting screw has a really weird concave screw slot on the bottom that is too wide for a normal coin and pretty much impossible to use with a screwdriver because it is concave. As a result it is very difficult to fasten things well with it. A twonie actually works pretty well but it’s annoying to have to have a twonie handy just so you can mount your camera!

Like I said earlier the SLR-Zoom fell short when it came to supporting my Canon EOS 5D MK-II and it’s enormous lens so I took the ballhead off and put it on the Focus instead. This turned out to be the perfect combination. The Focus with its longer and heavier legs is more than adequate to hold the camera in any position and against any surface and has now become a permanent companion to my camera. The little baseplate with the bubble level has also turned out to be a great addition to my camera even without the tripod because it helps level my notoriously slanted photos.

The original Gorillapod and Gorillamobile

In addition to the big boys Joby also sent me the original Gorillapod and the new Gorillamobile. They are actually the same Gorillapod but the Gorillamobile comes with a set of different baseplates including a standard screw mount for cameras, a suction cup and two adhesive plates you can stick to your handheld devices.

The pod itself is tiny – about the length of my open hand – and extremely flexible so it’s easy for storage. Like the original Gorillapod SLR it has an articulating joint above the legs which enables you to tilt the camera (or other device) in relation to the base of the pod (just so it’s said, it’s way too small to mount the ballhead on so don’t even bother). The Gorillapod takes up to 325g which means it can handle most point-and-shoot cameras as long as they don’t have massive protruding lenses.

Because it is so tiny and versitile I’d say it is probably the best companion to a point-and-shoot I can think of. With the Gorillapod in hand you can easily improve on the dreaded MySpace pose and also place or hang your camera in places you never could before making for some great angles and shots. As long as noone steals the camera that is.

The Gorillamobile comes in two varieties, the Original and the Gorillamobile for 3G/3GS (because aparently no company is complete without having an Apple-only product). Not surprisingly the latter has specialized grips for the iPhone. Regardless if I was out to buy a Gorillapod for someone with a point-and-shoot I would go for the Gorillamobile just because it allows you to mount other stuff like a GPS or your cell phone to the pod. Why would  you do that? Off the top of my head I can see people using the suction cup to attach their phone or PMP to a treadmill or bike while working out.

Oh and I almost forgot, the original Gorillapod now comes in 7 hideous fun colours (grey, yellow, red, green, blue, pink and orange) just for the hell of it. Mine is bright red…

A Gorillapod could be the perfect gift for your photographically gifted friend

What’s my conclusion? I think it’s pretty obvious: I really like the Gorillapod as a product and I think that if you get the right one you’ll like it too. Here’s how to pick:

• If you have a small point-and-shoot camera and you want a small stand to prop it up when you take pictures with the self-timer of  yourself and your friends/family, go with the Gorillamobile.
• If you have one of the bigger point-and-shoot cameras (weigh it if you’re unsure) or one of those new small video cameras or you want a stand that can do some cooler stuff like hanging from a tree, go with the Gorillapod SLR.
• If  you have an SLR of any size, go with the Gorillapod SLR-Zoom with the ballhead. It may seem like overkill but the ballhead makes all the difference.
• If you have a large SLR camera with a heavy lens or a large video camera, go with the Gorillapod Focus and opt for the ballhead (or another ballhead) to increase the flexibility.

For its use the Gorillapod is the best (possibly only?) option out there and it is well worth the money. So if you have a photographer or videographer on your Christmas list and you don’t know what to get them, a Gorillapod that fits their camera is an excellent option. That’s not me blowing hot air, that’s my honest opinion.

New stuff

Cut straight from the Knowledge Base article, here’s a full rundown of the new features:

Extensibility

Supports add-ins that use the Expression Web object model.

Root-relative links

Supports root-relative hyperlinks.

PHP files that do not use the *.php file name extension

Adds support for Drupal and CakePHP template files. Expression Web 3 SP1 now recognizes .module, .install, .inc, and .ctp as valid PHP extensions.

Application color scheme

Provides an improved black and gray color scheme that better reflects the appearance of the Microsoft Expression Studio 3 family of products. Expression Web 3 SP1 also provides a new Application Options setting that lets you select the Windows color scheme instead of the default color scheme.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 META tag and Web Slice support

Contains new code examples to support features that are specific to Internet Explorer 8. The new code examples include META tags specific to Internet Explorer 8, plus a new Web Slice code example. You can access the code examples by pressing Ctrl+Enter in Code view.

Old fixes

The Service Pack also addresses a bunch of standing issues with the original release. Again cut straight from the Knowledge Base article:

• Fixes a problem in which multiple tasks are undone when you use the Undo feature.
• Resolves a problem in which an invalid link is generated when you drag an image from the Folder List panel into the Code view of a page.
• Enables you to select text in the Design view of a page more easily and more accurately.
• Resolves a crashing issue caused by nonstandard or corrupted fonts that are installed on your computer.
• Fixes a problem in which tags that begin with <?php are renamed after you rename a file.
• Resolves a problem in which Japanese characters are altered.
• Resolves a problem in which the source file is deleted after you copy a file from one instance of Expression Web 3 and then paste the file into another instance of Expression Web 3.
• Restores the ability to drag files into a selected folder in the Folder List panel.
• Enables connections to each destination without restarting the application when multiple publishing destinations are specified on the same FTP server and when only the user credentials are different for those destinations.
• Fixes several problems in the workflow between Expression Web and Team Foundation Server.
• Shows the correct file status in Publishing view after you publish a site.
• Updates the file status and publishing log when you use the Publish Selected Files command to publish one or more files. Additionally, Expression Web 3 SP1 displays the publishing progress in the Publishing Status panel.
• Provides several fixes that make sure that pages accurately display in SuperPreview.

Users ask, the Expression team delivers

The release of Expression Web 3 SP1 comes on the heels of an extensive process where the Expression Web team went out and asked users and MVPs what features they wanted to see added or improved in Expression Web 3. As a result much of what you see in this upgrade is actually based on what we, the users, have requested. Which I have to say is very cool. Two such examples are the root-relative links (which I requested back in the early days of EW2) and the application colour scheme which was removed from EW3 and many MVPs wanted back. More than anything this shows that the team are working hard to listen to the end users and creating the application the end user wants. Which is more than I can say for a lot of other software developers.

Go get it right now (it’s free)!

If you’re running Expression Web 3, go to the website and the the Service Pack right now. It’s a one-click install you can download directly by clicking here. It’s also available in mutliple languages other than English.

The result was ByLandSeaOrAir.com – a WordPress based site with a theme that utilizes all the tips and techniques showcased in the book. Fact is if you go in and lift out all the code and graphics from the new site you’ll see that it matches the final project in the book almost line by line.

So the site serves two purposes: To tell the world of our travels and to show that there really is no limit to what you can do once you understand the principles behind HTML and CSS. Enjoy.

UPDATE: WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

The draw for the Expression Web 3 giveaway were performed this evening by @AnnyChih and @dabblerDOTca. Congratulations to @paladyn as the grand prize winner. The two runners up are @tommyflynn and @mxj1009. A big thanks to the 80-some Tweeters who participated in the contest.

To celebrate the release of my new book Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expresison Web 3 in 24 Hours Design Is Philosophy is holding a contest with some excellent prizes:

1st prize:

• A full working copy of Microsoft Expression Web 3
• A signed copy of my new book Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expresison Web 3 in 24 Hours
• A limited edition custom Design Is Philosophy t-shirt as pictured above (your choice of size and colour – black, blue, green and tan available)

2nd and 3rd prize:

• A signed copy of my new book Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expresison Web 3 in 24 Hours

The winners will be selected by random draw of the twitter accounts that have tweeted the above comment and will take place on Wednesday October 7th at which point I will contact the winners. You’ll have 2 days to get your contact info back to me so check back here and keep an eye on your inbox on Wednesday to ensure that you get the prize if you win.

How to enter

Putting your name in to win the big prize is incredibly simple:

1. Follow me on Twitter
2. Tweet the following message:

Win an Expression Web 3 package incl software, Teach Yourself xWeb 3 book + Tshirt from @mor10. Details here: http://bit.ly/VEG6R

If you’re not already on Twitter it is easy to join: Just go to Twitter.com, enter your credentials and start tweeting. Twitter is an excellent social networking tool where you can find and connect with people from all walks of life including other Expression Web users and experts. Chances are if you have a problem, suggestion, question or concern you’ll find someone on Twitter who has an answer or a tip to get you on your way. While you’re there make sure to follow these other Expression Web tweeters: @MSExpression, @expressionweb, @tinaclarke, @patgeary, @XStudio, @cdwise.

Click here to download the free WaveFront theme from the WordPress Theme Directory.

The WaveFront theme is a free generic WordPress theme designed to replicate the looks and features of the two custom WordPress sites Stop Living in the Past and AnnyChih.com.

WaveFront provides calm yet stylish layouts customized for basic CMS functionality with several custom page templates including a no-sidebar front page (Front Page template) with three bottom boxes. The theme also has a list of hidden features and extra content that can be turned on and off by editing the template files.

For a full rundown of WaveFront’s features and customization options please visit the dedicated theme page here.

Just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

The above video, called Social Media Revolution is spreading like wildfire through social media circles and is being used by social media advocates as futher proof that social media is be all and end all of news, marketing and the internet in general. And there is truth, at least statistically, in the message the video brings: Social media technologies, be it blogs, forums, social networks like Facebook or micro-blogging systems like Twitter are changing the way we find, ingest and understand information and the world. It’s not exactly ground breaking news to people who spend their living and working days tethered to the world wide web but it provides a sobering picture of a new and emerging reality in which people turn away from established news and media outlets as their primary source for information and understanding of current events.

I find this profoundly disturbing.

When we were kids my parents spent a lot of time teaching my brothers and I that critical thinking should always lie at the core of any decision. They hammered home the sentiment that just because you don’t agree with something doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And it’s stuck with me through the years. I guess that’s why I’m so alarmed by what I’m seeing in the societal discourse in general and social media in particular. Anyone looking in from the outside will agree that the so-called open discussion and flow of information that permiates through the internet these days has little to do with critical thinking and more to do with opinionated rethoric, deliberate disinformation and outright lies. And this is the new and glourious foundation we are supposed to build our future society on? If so, it’s not one I want to be a part of!

Trading news for opinion

Earlier this year someone told me “In a couple of years mainstream media will be dead and people will get all their news from social media”. I have to say I agree, at least in part. No matter what happens I’m hard pressed to agree that all mainstream media outlets will buckle and disappear any time in the forseable future. But we are already seeing a shift in societal behavior away from established media outlets and toward social media as the chosen go-to news source. What people fail to realize (or choose to ignore) is that this shift means a shift from objective accountable news reports toward subjective and often heavily biassed opinion pieces. The trouble is that unless people are aware whether their source presents agenda-driven subjective opioions or fair and balanced reporting, the former can easily be mistaken for the latter. And when that happens, truth, reality and objective reason goes out the window.

Just because you say it does(n’t) make it so

The current health care debate in the USA is a perfect example of just how dangerous this trend has become: As of right now the majority of information floating around social media networks and blogs regarding the health care reform is what journalists and rethoric experts alike would describe as conjecture, hyperbole, spin and good old fashioned rubbish. In fact you’d be hard pressed to find any truly balanced and unbiassed reporting on the topic even in the mainstream media. But this is because just like everyone else, the media organizations have jumed on the social media bandwaggon without really taking the time to look at what that means for objective reporting. And because in the USA there is no fairness doctrine so the news outlets are free to present biassed and unbalanced reporting as fact without danger of reprisals.

Ironically it is this very tendency of the mainstream media in the US to be biassed that started the Social Media Revolution for real: People were fed up with being served what was more often than not biassed reporting and decided that they would be better proponents of the truth than the media outlets were. And this, combined with the relative anonymity of the internet, meant that anyone and everyone could become a reporter, an opinion maker, a true participant in the social discourse without fear of reprisals. The problem with this theory is two fold: Unlike journalists, bloggers and other social media contributors have no vested interest in staying on the straight and narrow so to speak. Whereas a journalist who publishes an opinion as fact or distorts the truth to the point where it borders on a lie runs the risk of losing her job, a blogger that does the same runs little to no risk. At the same time because of the very nature of social media – an information exchange where everyone participates on an equal footing – there is nothing that prevents social, political or corporate entities from presenting their own distorted versions of reality as truth to the masses as fact, often under false alisases or through independent agents, thus changing the public discourse on false premises.

I follow a lot of random people on Twitter and I keep seeing postings saying things like “Socialized health care kills people” and “The Canadian health care system is a failure”. These postings often link to blog posts where in the extreme socialized health care is compared to Nazi death camps and Stalinistic gulags. Any reasonable person should agree that these statements are little more than paranoid outbursts or outrageous lies. After all, there are no death camps for the elderly in Canada or Norway. In fact most countries with socialized helath care have a higher life expectancy than the USA. But looking at the apparent number of “concerned citizens” putting their worries in hypertext one can start to wonder if there isn’t some truth behind the claims. The problem is that unlike a normal debate, on the web you don’t know who is actually talking, and you don’t know if the 1000 latest comments actually came from one person or organization rather than 1000 independent minds. But this lack of transparency is invisible and in the end people are likely to listen to what they percieve as a vocal majority. It all boils down to a simple fact: In public forums, the person that shouts the loudest usually gets her message across. And since social media by definition is completely unregulated it is easy for organized groups, political parties and corporations to flood the social media airwaves with biassed and inaccurate information drowning out the objective reality in the process.

Social Media: Tunnelvision for the Masses?

An uncomfortable and embarrassing trait of human nature is that no matter how much we claim to be fair and balanced, we hate being wrong. So much so in fact that given the oportunity we will chose to ignore any information provided to us that doesn’t fit with our current belief system. The role of mass media in society has always been to present unbiassed facts and report the objective truth about news and events. And because mass media was the only real source of information, we would get the good with the bad so to speak. And whether we liked it or now we’d be presented with facts and figures that did not match our own understanding of the world and we’d be forced to at least reflect on our own stance and realize we are not always right.

With the introduction of wide spread social media all of this changed. All of a sudden you could chose to ignore what the mainstream media said turning instead to people who were of the same mindset as yourself to give you only news and opinion that you agreed with and nothing else. With that a shift from news as it happens to news you agree with occurred. A subtle shift with serious and dangerous ramafications. When people are given the ability to filter news and opinion to hear only what they want to hear, they lose the ability to think critically. Which is bad enough. But it gets worse:

When people start trusting filtered opinion over objective reality, they become easy targets for manipulators and lose the ability to form their own understanding of the world. This is why the freedom of the press is such an important part of our society, why cross-media ownership is frowned upon and downright banned in many countries and why journalistic ethics commisions exist. But none of this applies to social media and as a result people, organizations and corporations with hidden agendas, evil intentions and broken moral compasses are able to present their distorted world view as fact with noone except other social media contributors standing against them. And as we’ve seen with the health care debate, the global warming debate and many others, in the end it’s the people with the most money that usually win simply because they have the means to keep the pressure up and quash the opposition.

That is why, whenever I hear people talk of social media as a revolution that will save the world and make it a better place, my critical mind cringes. It’s not what the social media evangelists want to hear, but like my parents said: Just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean it must be wrong.