Michael Badger

New Scratch Site

mbadger — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:34:34 +0000

In support of my upcoming Scratch book, I launched a new web site: Scratch Beginner’s Guide. I’ll use it post book updates and support materials, including workshops, assignments, and tips.

For the technically minded, you’ll notice that I settled on Serendipity to power the site. I like it.

Trades Publishing Goes Digital

mbadger — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:34:19 +0000

Print publications dancing on the edge of existence has become common place. See the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Baltimore Examiner, etc.

Jobsitemagazine.com

At the beginning of 2009, Trades Publishing made the decision to stop publishing several of their Jobsite Magazine titles and go all digital. They bridged the gap by publishing a flip book with a third party service, but that’s really just a stop gap measure.

What they needed was a new web site. Recently, I launched the new Jobsite magazine web site through my day job.

Trades publishes Jobsite Magazine for professional contractors. Jobsite is a family of titles that covers the latest products in floorcovering, concrete, hvacr, painting & drywall, plumbing & heating, and a pro version that incorporates all of them.

They weren’t ready to vanish yet, so they contracted MoJo Active (my day job) to convert their six publications into an online magazine. We launched phase 1 that includes content from the most recent issues and the site weighs in with somewhere north of 6000 pages.

We get so many pages partially because there is a lot of data, but we give several different looks at the data by building pages that list products by manufacturer, category, or tag.

The site is a custom designed content management system (CMS) that we built specifically for Jobsite’s business models. They want to sell advertising, publish their product releases, and bring their advertisers and contractors online.

Jobsite is unique in its content because it doesn’t publish lenghthy how-to articles or feature stories. Their customers are busy contractors who want to find tools. Their content features 150 word product releases with a photo categorized by function.

I don’t normally share my day job adventures, but I’m proud of the work that MoJo Active did on this site. As the project manager/account executive for the project, I feel like I just watched my baby take its first steps.

Going digital will be a tough road. I hope to have positive news to report for Trades in the near future.

Scratch 1.4 release candidate available

mbadger — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:08:35 +0000

You can check out Scratch 1.4rc from the Scratch web site. You can read the full list of features on the download page, but here are the highlights:

Support for smaller screens (800 x 480)
Keyboard input via the ask and wait block
String operators (join, contains, length)
Web cam support to import photos
LEGO® Education WeDo™ robotics kit

Here’s a sample project using the new string features.

Learn more about this project

Not that Michael Badger

mbadger — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:47:58 +0000

I am not michaelbadger.com. Though, he has more hair than I do, and that makes me a tinge upset. Search for me, and this other guy pops up selling some secret to life internet riches program.

Not that I care what the other Michael Badger sells.

I’m on the verge of publishing my second book, and if prospective buyers search for me, Michael Badger, the “other Michael Badger” will run interference.

That’s the way internet rolls.

Enlightened Stupid Marketers

mbadger — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:37:13 +0000

Marketers, take a few minutes to laugh at yourself and watch this video. The comparisons to dead-tree marketing to digital marketing are a hoot.

Some of my favorite lines from this video are:

It’s not that digital marketing isn’t proven, it’s that I can’t conduct a thorough ROI. I don’t do ROI on the rest of my media mix. But, that’s because they’re proven.

Why would you give paid search credit for a certain conversion when it might just be a spill over of awareness of a USA Today Newspaper ad – that no one looked at?

Got the video from HubSpot

Scratch Day Keynote

mbadger — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:20:01 +0000

Scratch team members Mitch Resnick and Karen Brennan talk about Scratch Day 2009. Mitch says Scratch provides tools and opportunities for people to express themselves creatively and approximately one new project is uploaded to the Scratch website every minute.

What’s your ideal ebook?

mbadger — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:47:10 +0000

The Packt author site has an ebook survey posted. The question that catches my attention is: "How interesting would each of these eBook services be to you if we offered them at packtpub.com?"

And one of services they list is an option to buy a PDF of individual chapters of a book for $5 each.

To me, that's a brilliant idea, but the question seems to assume the chapters will be available only after the entire book is written, reviewed, and published. That's fine. But what if chapters of the book were available as they were written. That means as I'm writing chapter six, people are buying reviewed and edited versions of chapters three and four.

After I wrote my first book, I felt that it took too long to get a book to market (about 9 months) on a rapidly evolving product such as Zenoss Core. I think that book could have been better served in a serialized, chapter-by-chapter format. At the time I started writing, the project documentation was the recipient of constant criticism. With each passing month, I felt I missed sales opportunities for my book as the project documentation got incrementally better. Of course, this is all hind-sight analysis.

If you believe there's a market for individual chapters of a book, then believing that there's a market for an ebook that's only one, two, or three chapters in sum begins to be a viable way to offer targeted content for less. Readers who are unwilling to shell out $20, $30, or $40 may be more inclined to invest $5 or $10 to see if the content is worth it. As an author, I can commit less time to know if my content is on target and in demand. I can correct course or retreat. If it works out, I write the other seven chapters, call it book, and go fish.

I'd be interested to hear other opinions.

Posted via email from Michael Badger

CPOSC 2009 Needs Speakers

mbadger — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:31:51 +0000

The Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference will take place on October 17, 2009 in Harrisburg, PA. They're currently accepting presentation proposals for talks until July 10.

Last year's event offered a nice range of topics. After listening to Eric Smith's Hardware and Honeybees presentation, I decided to take up beekeeping. In truth, I was already mildly interested, but geeked up honey appealed to me.

Drop me a note if you want to assemble a group from the Williamsport/Lewisburg area to attend the conference.

Posted via email from Michael Badger

Animate your imagination

mbadger — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:07:56 +0000

Do you need to teach your students, your children, or yourself how to program, design, and think critically? Then I’ve got the book you didn’t know you were waiting for. Today, Packt announced the availability of Scratch 1.3 Beginner’s Guide, which is my book. In this book, you will learn to:.

Create interactive stories, games, and multimedia projects that you can reuse
Learn computer programming basics – no computer science degree required
Connect with the Scratch community for inspiration, advice, and collaboration
Provides hands-on projects that help you learn by experiment and play

For more information and to pre-order your copy, visit Packt.

Scratch Book Cover

Posted via email from Michael Badger

Scratchers unite on Scratch Day – May 16, 2009

mbadger — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:24:18 +0000

Teach your kids how to program games and interactive stories the drag and drop way using the Scratch programming language. From the Scratch Day website:

Scratch Day is a worldwide network of gatherings, where people will come together to meet other Scratchers, share projects and experiences, and learn more about Scratch.

I'll be at Scratch Day Pennsylvania in Jenkintown. Find an event near you and discover how you can imagine – program – share with Scratch.

Posted via email from Michael Badger