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Web Clip AboutUs items
8 November 2007
Visitors to our home page probably know about our "presence" meters which list the people who recently have been active on our site as well as the most recently edited WikiPages on AboutUs.
Well, using a cool function in Leopard's Safari web-browser, you can create mini "Web Clips" from any website that become little widgets in Apple's Dashboard. You can use this function on nearly any website, and AboutUs is no exception.
Some of us at AboutUs have already started playing with this feature, making Web Clip Dashboard items from such things as calendars on AboutUs, favorite Portals, lists of AboutUs pages we're working on and more. But the most common and interesting use case for an AboutUs Web Clip is the aforementioned "presence meters". Because the Web Clip in the Dashboard is dynamic, it gives you a birds-eye view of what's happening on AboutUs at any particular moment, letting you easily check to see if a user in online or see what pages have been edited. (And although you have to use the Safari-browser to set up the Web Clip, once it's in your Dashboard, links clicked on will open in your default browser like Firefox or Camino.)
Steps
1. Load AboutUs.org into your Safari web browser.
2. Find something to turn into a dashboard widget. The "Currently Online" or "Wiki pages just edited" on the home page make great widgets to keep up on what's happening on AboutUs.
3. Click the Web Clip icon in the upper left hand corner of Safari.
4. A little box appears. Highlight the AboutUs content you want to turn into a AboutUs Web Clip.
5. Adjust the box to get everything you want.
6. Click "Add" and wait a few seconds. OS X Leopard will open up the Dashboard and your AboutUs Web Clip will appear momentarily.
Adjusting
Sometimes boxes on AboutUs change their shape or location. If you need to make slight adjustments to your Web Clipped dashboard item, Apple makes it easy for you.
1. Access the Dashboard on your Mac by clicking the F12 button.
2. Click the "info button" on your dashboard clipping and click the "Edit" option.
3. You can now expand or collapse the web clipping's window just like any other window.
Removing
1. In the Dashboard (F12), click the plus sign at the lower left of your screen.
2. This will change the "+" to an "X" and add "X"s to all of your Dashboard items.
3. Just click the "X" on the item(s) you wish to remove.
4. Click the "X" at the lower left hand corner to exit the "manage widgets" mode, or just use F12 to get out of the Dashboard.
Contibutor: TakKendrick
Another WikiWednesday tomorrow (Nov. 7)
6 November 2007
It's that time of the month again for WikiWednesday, an opportunity for people in the wiki community and those interested in learning more to gather at various locations around the globe to discuss, meet and socialize.
This month, the Chicago WikiWednesday group has their first meeting, which follows an impromptu first meeting last month in Ann Arbor, MI; those of us in the wiki community are excited to see this list growing and growing:
- In the San Francisco Bay Area, they'll be meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Socialtext co-working space, 695 High St, Palo Alto, CA 94301. more info
- The Chicago kicks off their first meeting at 6 p.m. at Cosi, 116 S. Michigan (near Monroe), Chicago, IL 60603. more info
- In London, they'll start gathering a 6:15 p.m. for a 7 p.m. formal start at the Sun Microsystems London Customer Briefing Centre, Regis House, 45 King William Street, London, EC4R 9AN. LondonWikiWednesdays.com
- The Ann Arbor WikiWednesday meeting will be at a 8:30/9 p.m. at Rendez-Vous, 1110 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. more info
- The Portland WikiWednesday group's meeting will again be held starting at 5:30 p.m. at the main AboutUs office, 107 SE Washington Ave Ste 520, Portland, OR 97214. more info
(all events are being held on Wed, Nov. 7, times are local)
To see a list of upcoming WikiWednesday events each month, check out the Wiki Wednesdays page on Socialtext.net.
Contibutor: TakKendrick
Venture Northwest 2007 a showcase for Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial moxie
25 October 2007
Each year, the Venture Northwest conference is an opportunity to show off the region's entrepreneurial might, with new and emerging companies in Oregon, Washington and throughout the Pacific Northwest presenting before a collection of the region (and country's) Venture Capital companies and other sponsors. This gives all in attendance a chance to learn about and celebrate the region's hot new companies in addition to meeting potential investors.
Presenters at this year's Venture Northwest 2007 include: Brammo Motorsports, Brain Candy, Daverci Solutions, Inc., END Outdoor, Escapia, Inc., Formotus, Healionics Corp., iSense Corp., Lagotek Corp., Lumencor Inc., Phoseon Technology, SynerG Software and Versis as well as AboutUs.
Contributor: TakKendrick
Universal Wiki Edit Button version 0.1: a work-in-progress
19 October 2007
How cool would it be if there was a shared symbol on every wiki, where people got to know that any place they see this symbol, they can click it and edit the page? How great would it be if we came to agreement on such a symbol in a bottom-up, wiki-way? We can have such a symbol.
The idea of a Universal Wiki Edit Button began at RoCoCo in Montreal. This inter-wiki project to first adopt version 0.1 involves participants from several wiki communities and wiki engines (more are welcome!). We think version 0.1 will define the metaphor to use, and that subsequent versions will expand on the visual appearance of the icon. If individual wiki communities can come together, with some symbolic unity (a common brand, in a way), intended to makes all stronger. More than that though, through shared actions and decision-making, the larger wiki community can become more self-aware. The strength of this larger community is also demonstrated though our ability to self-organize for a common aim. The following two sections are from the actual work-in-progress UniversalWikiEditButton document. Please join us!
Purpose
Just like the weblog community has the orange "radio waves" RSS icon
, we want an easily-recognizable universal Edit This button. This is a movement to start the ball rolling. When this process succeeds, the participating wikis will include this edit button in some way. Just as the RSS icon evolved over time (
...
...
Principles
The following principles guided our selection of the 0.1 UniversalWikiEditButton
and will inform our selection of version 0.2
- Compatible
- Language-independent
- Wiki-engine-independent
- Evocative of Edit
- Metaphorically Rich
- Professional
- Simple
- Skinnable
- Re-taskable
Sunday, 21st through Tuesday, the 23rd of October is WikiSym, an ACM conference co-located with OOPSLA in Montreal. WikiSym will be an ideal place to work further on the UniversalWikiEditButton, to unleash some wiki-creativity to move the process forward, hopefully concluding with a v0.1 UniversalWikiEditButton that wiki developers can add to their wikis.
Contributors: TedErnst, Obed Suhail