Tag Archives: blogs

by Michelle Lentz

Those good folks over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have updated their Legal Guide for Bloggers. Similar to useful Creative Commons Legal Guide for Podcasters, the guide basically tries to clarify all sorts of things that might get a well-meaning blogger in trouble. The guide clears up things such as online defamation, intellectual property (copyrights!), trade secrets, right of publicity, publication of private facts, and intrusion into seclusion. It also talks about how to deal with online bullies and the wonderful practice of disemvowelling.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help – in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

To be clear, this guide isn’t a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you’re being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.

– EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel, Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Nominee for City Beat’s Best of the City: Vote for My Wine Education under Public Eye > Blog:
http://www.bestofcincinnati.com/

by Michelle Lentz

Seattle has a handle on coffee – and apparently food-oriented web sites. A lot of popular foodie web sites, including Allrecipes.com and UrbanSpoon are located in that fair city, and now they can add Foodista to the list.

Foodista is, at its core, Wikipedia for recipes. I’m not sure how I feel about it. One thing I love about Allrecipes and its ilk is that there are usually several different versions of a given recipe. After all, we all make eggnog differently.

Foodista co-founders are Barnaby Dorfman and Sheri Wetherell. Dorfman is a previous VP of Amazon’s A9 Search group. Additionally, Colin Saunders, a former Amazon developer is involved. The team started building the site in April, creating a rather large repository so that the site would have a nice starting point at launch. (I wish all new sites would do that.)

I signed up for an account and added a recipe for Egg Nog (yum!). It took my basic recipe and prettied it up. That includes adding hyperlinks to each ingredient – you know, in case you want to make your own ice cream for the recipe. Additionally, it allowed me to choose from a selection of Flickr photos related to Egg Nog.

Since I also blogged about nog on my Wine Blog, I was able to link that post to the Foodista entry. Foodista provides a nice link back to my blog post as well, similar to how Urban Spoon links restaurant review posts. I’m a big fan of this convention.

Finally, it has a brief definition of Egg Nog, pulled from Wikipedia, and a comments section, adding to the interactivity.

Now that I’ve entered this egg nog recipe, someone else can edit it, change it, and make comments. It’s an interesting concept. Collaborative recipes are sort of a new thing – most of the chefs I know are rather possessive of their recipes. It’s a neat idea; we’ll see where it takes them.

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology
Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Young. Female. Entrepreneur.

by Marissa Louie

Darlings, throw your effen hands up. I’m proud of you. Not only are you a Silicon Valley Anomaly, you’re probably really hot too. And under 40.

Fotki

Shabooya sha sha shabooya ROLL CALL! Who here is a young female entrepreneur? My fearless darlings, wear your company logo on your chest. Comment on this post and I’m your new girlfriend for life. Or call me/text me at (510) 375-1941 to join the Girl Gang. The Girl Gangster Entrepreneurs.

You know you’re a young female entrepreneur in the Internet biz when:

-TEAM-

-1- You work for The Man The Woman. What could be better?!
-2- You have an office suite in a Milpitas office park, but you primarily spend time in your Nob Hill San Francisco office space with a kitchen, backyard, overhead projector, and wi-fi. No wait, you turn a hip local coffee shop like Sugar Cafe into your third office so you can do Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur Office Hours with other cool people. Because you, honey, are VIRAL by nature.
-3- You’re the CEO but the rest of the team wants to take care of you. You might even be the youngest person on the team, but have no problem managing others who are twice your age. You have experience, balls, or both.
-4- Your venture has a 80-20 ratio of males to females. Out of your 16 core team members, only 3 are female. You make sure the females and males are treated by merit.
-5- Nobody can truly hurt you. But if somebody tries to hurt your team, it’s OVER for them.

PARTIES AND TIME MANAGEMENT-

-1- You sometimes get caught wearing full-on party gear by your Internet biz friends at non-tech events. And you get away with it. Just make sure your reputation is intact and that you have a healthy work-to-party ratio. Transition between being Plain Jane and Janet Jackson effortlessly.
-2- Angels and VCs – real or fake? You can tell a real Gucci purse from a fake, so you should differentiate the genuine investors from the fake. The genuine ones might be able to really help you. But if they really just want to waste your time fantasizing about you over dinner, Filter. Them. Out.

-REPUTATION-

-1- Your Woman Charm gives you home field advantage. Turn it on at the right times, because you are a rare specimen in the Valley. It helps you stand out in a crowd, at a party, at a press conference, during a video interview. It may even differentiate your blog. Advertise yourself and turn that into revenue.
-2- It’s 11pm and you’re at Safeway after the Digg party. You get introduced to a connector VIP like Sanford Barr of Stirr. He asks what you do. He has a puzzled look on his face when you tell him how your company got started, and you just know he’s seen everything in the Valley. Then he says he knows your company’s name. (You think he’s kiddin’ ya.) But then he even knows your last name. Nice!
-3- You are a rogue. A stubborn, fearless, rogue. You often do the stupid thing. It gets you in trouble at work, with family, with friends, and with love interests. If you channel it correctly and you get a little lucky, it can also propel you towards entrepreneurial success.

-LIFE HACKS-

-1- You no longer have to wear corporate raider gear but can wear lifehack gym clothes that pass as business casual all day long.
-2- On the Caltrain from San Francisco to Palo Alto, you ask an engineer from hi5 how old he thinks you are. He sneaks in a look at your website bio via wireless card. He says, “You can’t be older than 38. You’re definitely not 40. Are you 35?” ZOMG what a compliment.
-3- You’ve managed your own life so that you have no kids, no husband, and no responsibilities to run home to, giving you free reign of your time and energy. Ahh. If there is a male in your life, he is helping you take care of the responsibilities. You may want to consider a Massey Prenup if it’s not too late, though.
-4- You know you don’t need an MBA. Don’t waste the precious youth, vivacity, and money you could’ve spent on your startup on a tier-one B-school just to get contacts. If you really want to take the easy way out, work at a country club or SF Tennis Club for $8 an hour, lead gen, and become a trophy wife.

-HAPPINESS-

-1- Strangers, friends, and your family are proud of you. Except if you have rich a$$ relatives, they might not be so supportive (to which you pay no mind – just look at Paris Hilton versus the Hilton Hotel Family). Accept the good vibes, but don’t embrace it too much lest you get lazy. Don’t let it feed your short-term ego too much either. Because you might be future President of the Billionaire Girls Club and can give back to society for OPK (other people’s kids).
-2- You’ve come to love pain. Because you turn negative into positive like no other, and nobody can break you. You are fearless, fun, female, and you rock. The bounce in your step shows it.
-3- You could cast an entire Les Miserables play with your unhappy yuppie friends. A 5 year run, plus. But you, darling, are passionate and happy.
-4- You just do it. These are your dreams? D@mn the consequences. F**k the naysayers. Because you know that for every year that passes, your risk tolerance as well as your je ne sais quoi diminish. REVOLT! REBEL!

Young female entrepreneurs, if any of this rings a bell with you, JOIN THE GIRL GANG by texting me at (510) 375-1941 anytime because I don’t sleep.

Marissa Louie is the Founder and CEO of AD Village (http://ad-village.com) which helps bloggers monetize and advertisers optimize. If you liked this post, you might also like 10+ Funniest Angel and VC Blog Posts and The Future Co-existence of PR and Advertising. She also announces Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur office hours via Twitter.

by Marissa Louie

Has the current economic climate caused our dear angel and VC friends to be delectably off-humor in their blog posts? Or are they merely giddy at the thought of becoming VC billionaires in the downturn?

10 Funniest Blog Posts by Angels and VCs this month:

-1- Brad Feld: It’s Monday. Do you know what your VC is doing?

“This doesn’t mean sit around with your thumb up your ass.”

-2- Dave McClure: Fear is the Mindkiller

“If you are running an existing startup, you are probably going to have to cut spending, cut hiring, and you may even end up firing people / doing layoffs.  And then you pay taxes and then you die.“

-3- Guy Kawasaki: Guy’s Index of Absurdity: The Top Ten Ways to Tell If Things Are Really Bad

“Pierre Omidyar starts selling stuff on eBay.”

-4- RRE Ventures: RRE Bikini Bottom Franchise

“Another way to think about the team at RRE.”

-5- Dave Winer: Flirting Her Way to Victory

“At least three times, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience.”

-6- Jeff Nolan: Display Ads Gone Wild

“Apparently there is a new television show on CBS….”

-7- Fred Wilson: SWOT Analysis on America

“Your country is extremely lucky that it will have as a President someone who is universally acknowledged as the “deepest thinker to ever get in the Oval Office” “

-8- Mark Cuban: The Only Mavericks that Matter

“Anyone know of any decent players named McCain and Obama that I can sign for the preseason?”

-9- Jeff Clavier: One of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web. Moi?

“It is obviously very nice to share the investor spot with peeps like Peter Thiel and Paul Graham.”

-10- Christopher Griffin: “Sabers Up!” — Peter Thiel’s Criteria for Quality Entrepreneurs

“Create an internal drive to succeed unmatched by hopping from Ivy League to Wall Street to Stanford to employee #80 at successful startup X.”

**The black shih-tzu**

-11- Larry Chiang: Nine Biggest VC Mistakes in a Downturn

“Sell something you don’t own.”

**Honorable mention**

-12- David Cowan: Militant Avamparists are So Irritating

“Paschalepist – one who believes that on the Sunday following the full moon closest in time to the vernal equinox, a fluffy white mountain hare (of the species lepus timidus) hides chocolate eggs.”

**Your turn**

Suggest funny angel and VC blog posts through Halloween (you know these are going to be ridiculous!)

Marissa Louie founded AD Village (http://ad-village.com) to empower bloggers to maximize their ad space monetization and to enable advertisers to improve their audience targeting. She has written 10 Types of Ad Targeting, Top 10 Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Blog, and dabbles in blog poetry like *I REVOLT* (A Blog Monetization Poem). She is one of the Geekgirl GFs (The Gigis) and gets esoteric on Twitter.

by Michelle Lentz

Well, actually it’s more like some nips and tucks

Twitter made some cosmetic changes last week and this week it’s Alltop. Alltop is Guy Kawasaki’s site that lists the “top” blogs in a category. As there are now 200+ categories, it was time to redesign the site and make it easier to find things.

My wine site is on Alltop. The day I got the email from Guy Kawasaki (I realize that it might have been an intern just signing his name), I jumped up and down. I don’t often see emails from famous tech folks in my inbox you know. How are the top sites determined? According to Alltop:

We rely on several sources: results of Google searches, review of the sites’ and blogs’ content, researchers, and our “gut” plus the recommendations of the Twitter community, owners of the sites and blogs, and people who care enough to write to us. Let us declare something: The Twitter community has been the single biggest factor in the quality of Alltop. Without this group of mavens and connectors, Alltop would not be what it is today.

The site now includes a handy topic search as your entry page. You can now search by keyword, view by category, and view by topic name. The site is only 180 days old (give or take a few days), so its growing by leaps and bounds. It’s had over 5 million page views during that time.

My favorite thing about the new redesign? The tutorial. The trainer in me is thrilled with their fun video on how to use Alltop.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.