I'm back to Blogger
Monday, January 29, 2007
Wolfb is back in Blogger. After a year or so in a drupal platform, I've decided to move back to Blogger.
The reasons are simple: I made the mistake of installing 9 blogs in the same Drupal script, which worked fine for a while, but proved unmanageable at the end. And when I decided to move to another server, it was impossible to transfer the database or make any sense out of it.
So I cleaned most of the posts and moved back to Blogger. This blog is not my main one (which is the Spanish language hombrelobo), but I will keep it to post a few ideas from time to time in English and to announce news from the eyeOS project.
Funny, this must be the only blog moving to Blogger ... seems like everybody else is moving from Blogger to Wordpress .....
Stay tuned ... :)
The reasons are simple: I made the mistake of installing 9 blogs in the same Drupal script, which worked fine for a while, but proved unmanageable at the end. And when I decided to move to another server, it was impossible to transfer the database or make any sense out of it.
So I cleaned most of the posts and moved back to Blogger. This blog is not my main one (which is the Spanish language hombrelobo), but I will keep it to post a few ideas from time to time in English and to announce news from the eyeOS project.
Funny, this must be the only blog moving to Blogger ... seems like everybody else is moving from Blogger to Wordpress .....
Stay tuned ... :)
Comparing promotional sites: Digg, Slashdot, Boingboing, Meneame and Netscape beta effects
Friday, June 23, 2006
Focus on Digg, forget the rest, that's the message after looking at this:
alexa website statistics by alexaholic
src="http://www.alexaholic.com/chartlet.js">
Well, OK, also focus on Slashdot if you have a friend that can you a story published .... :)
alexa website statistics by alexaholic
src="http://www.alexaholic.com/chartlet.js">
Well, OK, also focus on Slashdot if you have a friend that can you a story published .... :)
GeoTagging your posts and videos
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
A few days ago I started a new project: a videoblog or vlog in Spanish, called hombreloboTV.
There is only one video so far, but after publishing it, I started investigating about the use of GeoTags, that is, marking the videos with a location marker. Why ? Because that gives you the possibility of looking for the videos in a world map, where you can look at the videos recorded in the place that you like most. I travel a lot, so I plan on having 6 or 7 countries covered this year. So back to geotagging.......
I read a few very interesting articles on the subject, among them some from Vlogsmaps and this about getagging using Microformats. All good but not quite there yet. Different formats are proposed, with no clear benefit for any of them.
Then I found this service: Tagzania, that allows you to mark different points (in my case, URLs) with a free account. The great thing about the service is that allows you to create a Google Map (this is a link to a Google Map of my videos) with all your points and also a Google Earth map (this is a KML link to a Google Earth map of my videos). You only have to create more links to your account and the maps get updated.
The service is very good. Now if they would only allow for clickable URLs .... (I emailed Luistxo from Tagzania and he told me they are working on it). And then, let me dream .... updating my account with my own RSS, so I can add the geotags to my individual posts and my Tagzania account gets updated automatically .... :)
There is only one video so far, but after publishing it, I started investigating about the use of GeoTags, that is, marking the videos with a location marker. Why ? Because that gives you the possibility of looking for the videos in a world map, where you can look at the videos recorded in the place that you like most. I travel a lot, so I plan on having 6 or 7 countries covered this year. So back to geotagging.......
I read a few very interesting articles on the subject, among them some from Vlogsmaps and this about getagging using Microformats. All good but not quite there yet. Different formats are proposed, with no clear benefit for any of them.
Then I found this service: Tagzania, that allows you to mark different points (in my case, URLs) with a free account. The great thing about the service is that allows you to create a Google Map (this is a link to a Google Map of my videos) with all your points and also a Google Earth map (this is a KML link to a Google Earth map of my videos). You only have to create more links to your account and the maps get updated.
The service is very good. Now if they would only allow for clickable URLs .... (I emailed Luistxo from Tagzania and he told me they are working on it). And then, let me dream .... updating my account with my own RSS, so I can add the geotags to my individual posts and my Tagzania account gets updated automatically .... :)
Optimising your site for the Big 3: Adsense, Digg and Google/Yahoo
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
A lot of websites talk about optimising your pages for Google (to gain as many visitors for free as possible). Some others talk about optimising it for Adsense (to get those visitors to click as much as possible in your adds and make as much money as possible).
But I am going to discuss here how to optimise your site for Digg, Google / Yahoo AND Adsense. Why ? Very simple, because they are complimentary, and in the long run your site will be better off working with all of them in mind.
I am going to assume that the objective of your site is to get your voice out to as many people as possible and to get paid for it as much as possible.
Traditionally, you would optimise the site for Google Search, so you get as many visitors from the Search Engines as possible. That would mean using:
- Title and keywords in the metatags.
- In-URL keywords.
- A good title that includes all your keywords (that means, a boring title)
- All this is intented to optimise it for machines, so repeating words and making it boring.
As a second step, some people would also optimise it for Adsense (once they are here, let's make sure they click on adds that pay enough). Again, this means optimising for machines, and involves:
- Looking for high-paying keywords.
- Using those keywords in the title and the text of the pages.
- Mixing the adds with the text, and annoying visitors with very in-your-face adds.
But now we have a new tool: Digg. The difference with the others is that digg:
- Is made of human beings, not robots.
- It has a very short live.
As an example, let's see here the effect of having one story in the front page of Digg.com:
As you can see, it is a very dramatic increase, that fades immediately.
Let's compare this with a "Google effect", when a page gets better positions in Google over time:
The ideal situation would be then to benefit from the 3 of them at the same time. This can be achieved if we do as follows:
- Create great content (no surprises here ...)
- Write for humans. The title has to be catchy and a good summary of the content.
- The first paragraph has to have a lot of information already.
- Include only one or two keywords maximum in the title and first paragraph, to avoid alienating humans and still get robots to index it with those keywords. In order to find those keywords, we have to look for words that generate a lot of traffic (my favorite resource here is Wordtracker) AND also pay a lot per click (my favourite resource here is Keyword Country)
- We send the story to Digg (my experience says best time is Wednesdays at about 09:00 USA Pacific Time)
- We ask a few of our friends to vote for it ... if we don't get enough votes in the first hour, it will disappear forever.
- We pray ?? :)
Good luck, Hope you found this article interesting. If you did, please vote for all my stories at Digg.
But I am going to discuss here how to optimise your site for Digg, Google / Yahoo AND Adsense. Why ? Very simple, because they are complimentary, and in the long run your site will be better off working with all of them in mind.
I am going to assume that the objective of your site is to get your voice out to as many people as possible and to get paid for it as much as possible.
Traditionally, you would optimise the site for Google Search, so you get as many visitors from the Search Engines as possible. That would mean using:
- Title and keywords in the metatags.
- In-URL keywords.
- A good title that includes all your keywords (that means, a boring title)
- All this is intented to optimise it for machines, so repeating words and making it boring.
As a second step, some people would also optimise it for Adsense (once they are here, let's make sure they click on adds that pay enough). Again, this means optimising for machines, and involves:
- Looking for high-paying keywords.
- Using those keywords in the title and the text of the pages.
- Mixing the adds with the text, and annoying visitors with very in-your-face adds.
But now we have a new tool: Digg. The difference with the others is that digg:
- Is made of human beings, not robots.
- It has a very short live.
As an example, let's see here the effect of having one story in the front page of Digg.com:
As you can see, it is a very dramatic increase, that fades immediately.
Let's compare this with a "Google effect", when a page gets better positions in Google over time:
The ideal situation would be then to benefit from the 3 of them at the same time. This can be achieved if we do as follows:
- Create great content (no surprises here ...)
- Write for humans. The title has to be catchy and a good summary of the content.
- The first paragraph has to have a lot of information already.
- Include only one or two keywords maximum in the title and first paragraph, to avoid alienating humans and still get robots to index it with those keywords. In order to find those keywords, we have to look for words that generate a lot of traffic (my favorite resource here is Wordtracker) AND also pay a lot per click (my favourite resource here is Keyword Country)
- We send the story to Digg (my experience says best time is Wednesdays at about 09:00 USA Pacific Time)
- We ask a few of our friends to vote for it ... if we don't get enough votes in the first hour, it will disappear forever.
- We pray ?? :)
Good luck, Hope you found this article interesting. If you did, please vote for all my stories at Digg.
Deusto.com: I won the demand at WIPO ..... I won ?
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
I finally got a response from WIPO in the case of the Big Publishing group (Planeta Agostini) that demands my domain. And I won !!! The complete resolution is here (in Spanish only for now, in the future, WIPO will publish it here in english).
But after thinking about it ... what did I win ?? The resolution says that the domain is mine , that I can continue using it .... but it doesn't say anything against Planeta Agostini, who can continue harassing me as they please ..... and nobody pays me for the time and money wasted .....
In any case, I have relaunched deusto.com, with a new design (this time it includes English) to celebrate the occasion. Go visit it and write your stories there !
I would also like to thank my friends Andoni and Jorge at Iurismática, Ramón Pamies and John Berryhill for their help.
But after thinking about it ... what did I win ?? The resolution says that the domain is mine , that I can continue using it .... but it doesn't say anything against Planeta Agostini, who can continue harassing me as they please ..... and nobody pays me for the time and money wasted .....
In any case, I have relaunched deusto.com, with a new design (this time it includes English) to celebrate the occasion. Go visit it and write your stories there !
I would also like to thank my friends Andoni and Jorge at Iurismática, Ramón Pamies and John Berryhill for their help.
More deusto.com - ICANN asks WIPO to correct their instructions
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Unfortunately, I cannot copy all the emails that I am exchanging these days in the deusto.com matter (I am too scared of the lawyers ...).
But one of the nice things is that after exchanging emails with ICANN representatives, my Registrar and WIPO, the ICANN decided to instruct WIPO to change their instructions (the WIPO intructions) towards the Registrars in the case of a complaint being issued against a domain (uff, anybody understands that paragraph ??)
As per the previous instructions that WIPO was sending, the Registrar would be suspending the domain, waiting for a resolution of the complaint. The wording was:
With this, the Registrar would place a registrar hold and lock on the domain name. So effectively, suspending it. That's why deusto.com remained suspended for 7 weeks.
But as I said, ICANN is requesting WIPO to change the wording. It won't help deusto.com anymore, but hopefully, will help other legitimate domain holders in the future. If WIPO listens to ICANN, of course ....
If anybody sees the new wording and wants to share it, please make a comment to this article.
But one of the nice things is that after exchanging emails with ICANN representatives, my Registrar and WIPO, the ICANN decided to instruct WIPO to change their instructions (the WIPO intructions) towards the Registrars in the case of a complaint being issued against a domain (uff, anybody understands that paragraph ??)
As per the previous instructions that WIPO was sending, the Registrar would be suspending the domain, waiting for a resolution of the complaint. The wording was:
....
(7) confirm that the domain name(s) will remain on registrar hold and lock during the pending administrative proceeding (reference is also made to paragraph 3.7.5.7. of the ICANN Expired Domain Deletion Policy, at http://www.icann.org/registrars/eddp.htm);
....
With this, the Registrar would place a registrar hold and lock on the domain name. So effectively, suspending it. That's why deusto.com remained suspended for 7 weeks.
But as I said, ICANN is requesting WIPO to change the wording. It won't help deusto.com anymore, but hopefully, will help other legitimate domain holders in the future. If WIPO listens to ICANN, of course ....
If anybody sees the new wording and wants to share it, please make a comment to this article.
WIPO irregularities - D2006-0036 - deusto.com
Monday, March 06, 2006
This is the email that I sent today to WIPO:
Dear XXX,
I would like to stress my absolute rejection of the way things are being handled in this dispute. As per your own rules,
http://arbiter.wipo.int/arbitration/rules/index.html ,
the language of this arbitration should be English (since the
Registration Agreement was in English and no agreement was made with
the Complainant on the contrary), and surprisingly you have accepted
the complaint to be in Spanish !
Also, today you told me two Spanish arbiters have refused to
take the case, due to conflict of interest. Again, the nationality of
the arbiters CANNOT BE SPANISH, as per your own rules, which I quote:
All this is very irregular, and after two weeks of sending my Response, I
find that an arbiter has not yet been appointed. And that you are still
looking at appointing Spanish nationals as arbiters, when that is
against WIPO's own rules. The rules clearly state that an arbiter will
be appointed within five days after the response is received. I
encourage you to take action as soon as possible, and to do things
according to the rules, avoiding biasness.
And I have to remind you again that my domain remains suspended, in
spite of the emails I sent to the Registar, so I am the only one
affected by all these unnecessary delays.
Sincerely
Dear XXX,
I would like to stress my absolute rejection of the way things are being handled in this dispute. As per your own rules,
http://arbiter.wipo.int
the language of this arbitration should be English (since the
Registration Agreement was in English and no agreement was made with
the Complainant on the contrary), and surprisingly you have accepted
the complaint to be in Spanish !
Also, today you told me two Spanish arbiters have refused to
take the case, due to conflict of interest. Again, the nationality of
the arbiters CANNOT BE SPANISH, as per your own rules, which I quote:
Nationality of Arbitrators
Article 20
(a) An agreement of the parties concerning the nationality of arbitrators
shall be respected.(b) If the parties have not agreed on the nationality of the sole or
presiding arbitrator, such arbitrator shall, in the absence of special
circumstances such as the need to appoint a person having particular qualifications,
be a national of a country other than the countries of the parties.
All this is very irregular, and after two weeks of sending my Response, I
find that an arbiter has not yet been appointed. And that you are still
looking at appointing Spanish nationals as arbiters, when that is
against WIPO's own rules. The rules clearly state that an arbiter will
be appointed within five days after the response is received. I
encourage you to take action as soon as possible, and to do things
according to the rules, avoiding biasness.
And I have to remind you again that my domain remains suspended, in
spite of the emails I sent to the Registar, so I am the only one
affected by all these unnecessary delays.
Summary of the response
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Some of you have been asking me for a summary of the response to Planeta Agostini's demand against me for the domain deusto.com Here you have it:
- Planeta Agostini declared that, since they owned the trademark "deusto", my domain deusto.com was in conflict with such trademark. Looking at the trademarks they actually registered at the Spanish Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas, it can be appreciated that they do not own the trademark "deusto" as they say, but the "deusto as a logo" ("denominación con gráfico deusto"). In other words, a logo with the name "deusto" in it.
- "Deusto" is a toponym, a name of a place, the name of a neighborhood in Bilbao, Spain, and as such, Planeta has no exclusive rights over it. There are hundreds of businesses in the areas with that name (deusto) in their names.
- The website deusto.com has been active and functional for over 8 years.
- They accuse me of putting advertisement of Ediciones Deusto in the website deusto.com. Funny enough, that advertisement is part of a an agreement with Casa del Libro via Tradedoubler. And do you know who owns Casa del Libro ? Well, yes, Grupo Planeta, owners of Planeta Agostini. So they are accusing me of selling their books when I have an agreement with one of their companies to do so .... anybody understands this ?
Defending deusto.com; response to WIPO
Sunday, February 19, 2006
This is the response I've sent to WIPO answering the complaint that Planeta Agostini made against me for deusto.com:
Response to the WIPO on deusto.com
Please feel free to give me your comments, and your opinion on whether I made valid arguments. Thanks :)
And I would like to thank my friends at Iurismática Andoni and Jorge, and Ramón and Arturo for all their help.
Response to the WIPO on deusto.com
Please feel free to give me your comments, and your opinion on whether I made valid arguments. Thanks :)
And I would like to thank my friends at Iurismática Andoni and Jorge, and Ramón and Arturo for all their help.
PlanetaAgostini's complaint has been accepted by the WIPO
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The WIPO has accepted the complaint from PlanetaAgostini against me for the control of the domain deusto.com. After 8 years using the domain and with 1300 pages of content, they challenge my good faith based on a trademark that they made in 2002, 5 years after I registered the domain.
I need the help of all of you. You can read the notification of the complaint here:
Notificacion of complaint
and the demand presented here:
Demand deusto.com (in Spanish)
- UPDATED - Machine translation of the demand, for quick reference
Since the WIPO accepted the demand to be in Spanish (?), I need to translate it first into English so we all understand it. I have prepared a wiki page that you can help me edit and translate into Spanish (you need to register, sorry, but I have to be careful with who edits what):
Translation of the demand to English (wiki)
Once we have the translation, we will have to prepare the response to the WIPO. I have prepared another wiki page with the standard response from the WIPO prepopulated here:
Response to the demand
Do you think you can help me ?? I don't think I can do all this myself. And it was to be presented before the 22nd of February 2006 !!.
The resulting documents will have a Creative Commons license, so anybody will be able to benefit from them. Remember that tomorrow it could be you.
Thank you for your help !!!
Eduardo Perez Orue
hombrelobo
wolfb - defend your domain
I need the help of all of you. You can read the notification of the complaint here:
Notificacion of complaint
and the demand presented here:
Demand deusto.com (in Spanish)
- UPDATED - Machine translation of the demand, for quick reference
Since the WIPO accepted the demand to be in Spanish (?), I need to translate it first into English so we all understand it. I have prepared a wiki page that you can help me edit and translate into Spanish (you need to register, sorry, but I have to be careful with who edits what):
Translation of the demand to English (wiki)
Once we have the translation, we will have to prepare the response to the WIPO. I have prepared another wiki page with the standard response from the WIPO prepopulated here:
Response to the demand
Do you think you can help me ?? I don't think I can do all this myself. And it was to be presented before the 22nd of February 2006 !!.
The resulting documents will have a Creative Commons license, so anybody will be able to benefit from them. Remember that tomorrow it could be you.
Thank you for your help !!!
Eduardo Perez Orue
hombrelobo
wolfb - defend your domain
Big Publishing Group demands my domain, PART 2
Sunday, January 29, 2006
This is a continuation of my post: Big Publishing Group demands my domain.
I have been exchanging emails with the WIPO regarding the complaint from Planeta Agostini demanding my domain deusto.com. They presented the complaint in Spanish, which I challenged. The WIPO, in principle, decided that because the Registration Agreement I had was in English (I registered the domain while I was living in Belgium in 1997 via a US based registrar), the language to be used would have to be in English, as stated in their own rules and regulations.
But, for some reason, they reverted that decision. Planeta Agostini argued that the reason for me to ask for the complaint in Spanish was to delay the whole process. Also, that I am living in Spain, and that previous communications had been in Spanish. After these argumentations, the WIPO decided to accept them the complaint in Spanish !!! They also added that I could reply in English if I wanted to do so, and that later on, the Panel would decide the language of the proceedings.
I replied over the weekend again to the WIPO, absolutely confused with their decision. First, the language of the proceedings has nothing to do with the place where I am living now, according to their own rules, unless both parties agree to it, or to the language or previous communications, which never existed, since I never talked to them (although I had a lawyer for a while that talked to them in Spanish, and that I cannot afford to use anymore). And secondly, the delay would only affect me, because I am the only one with the domain suspended !!.
I feel defenseless if the claim is accepted in Spanish, as I told them. If the claim is accepted in English, I know I can resort to thousands of net users and fellow webmasters to help me write a response in a wiki that I have ready to start. And I've already got several lawyers offering their services free if the wiki doesn't work. But if the complaint is accepted only in Spanish, I know the number of people willing to help will be much less. I have had only one Spanish lawyer offering his help for free, and with the condition of remaining anonymous (you know who you are and I thank you). I guess people in Spain are concerned about helping me in this matter because the other party is a big company, very influential in Spain. They control a dozen publishing houses, a couple of newspapers and one of the country's biggest TV channel.
I am waiting for the response from the WIPO on my request to only accept the complaint in English. I guess they have to do it, as per their own rules. I will let you know what happens. And once I have the official complaint and it is accepted, I will posted in my page so we can all prepared the response jointly.
Thank you very much to all of you for your support. This is becoming an amazing ride.
To be continued ....... :)
(I keep explaining this fight in English in http://wolfb.com
and in Spanish in http://minilobo.com, and I have to do it after my day job)
I have been exchanging emails with the WIPO regarding the complaint from Planeta Agostini demanding my domain deusto.com. They presented the complaint in Spanish, which I challenged. The WIPO, in principle, decided that because the Registration Agreement I had was in English (I registered the domain while I was living in Belgium in 1997 via a US based registrar), the language to be used would have to be in English, as stated in their own rules and regulations.
But, for some reason, they reverted that decision. Planeta Agostini argued that the reason for me to ask for the complaint in Spanish was to delay the whole process. Also, that I am living in Spain, and that previous communications had been in Spanish. After these argumentations, the WIPO decided to accept them the complaint in Spanish !!! They also added that I could reply in English if I wanted to do so, and that later on, the Panel would decide the language of the proceedings.
I replied over the weekend again to the WIPO, absolutely confused with their decision. First, the language of the proceedings has nothing to do with the place where I am living now, according to their own rules, unless both parties agree to it, or to the language or previous communications, which never existed, since I never talked to them (although I had a lawyer for a while that talked to them in Spanish, and that I cannot afford to use anymore). And secondly, the delay would only affect me, because I am the only one with the domain suspended !!.
I feel defenseless if the claim is accepted in Spanish, as I told them. If the claim is accepted in English, I know I can resort to thousands of net users and fellow webmasters to help me write a response in a wiki that I have ready to start. And I've already got several lawyers offering their services free if the wiki doesn't work. But if the complaint is accepted only in Spanish, I know the number of people willing to help will be much less. I have had only one Spanish lawyer offering his help for free, and with the condition of remaining anonymous (you know who you are and I thank you). I guess people in Spain are concerned about helping me in this matter because the other party is a big company, very influential in Spain. They control a dozen publishing houses, a couple of newspapers and one of the country's biggest TV channel.
I am waiting for the response from the WIPO on my request to only accept the complaint in English. I guess they have to do it, as per their own rules. I will let you know what happens. And once I have the official complaint and it is accepted, I will posted in my page so we can all prepared the response jointly.
Thank you very much to all of you for your support. This is becoming an amazing ride.
To be continued ....... :)
(I keep explaining this fight in English in http://wolfb.com
and in Spanish in http://minilobo.com, and I have to do it after my day job)
Big Publishing Group demands my domain
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
I registered deusto.com in 1997. Now, eight years later, Planeta Agostini, one of the biggest publishing groups in Spain and owner of Ediciones Deusto, sends me letters via its lawyers demanding me to transfer them the domain, because they registered the trademark "deusto" in 2002 (I repeat, I registered the domain in 1997).
Now, after I refused to transfer them the domain, they have presented a complaint to the WIPO and the domain has been suspended.
The website (a website for Spanish writers to publish their stories and now moved to http://literatura-digital.com), has, over 8 long and difficult years, reached 80,000 visitors a month, 1250 stories have been published and has 3300 subscribers to the newsletter.
Deusto is the name of a neighborhood in Bilbao, Spain, where there is a University of Deusto (http://deusto.es), a bakery called Panaderia Deusto, a consulting group called IT Deusto, etc.
Planeta Agostini has a big law firm in Spain working on the case, and I cannot afford a lawyer. Is this fair ? Are they going to get the domain because they are bigger ?
By the way, Planeta Agostini doesn't have neither deusto.es, deusto.net, nor deusto.org. And deusto.biz and deusto.info are not even registered ! Wouldn't it be that they are after my visitors and they want them for free ? No, of course not, they only want to protect their brand !
If you want to give me your opinion or you can offer help, please visit and leave a comment in http://wolfb.com
Eduardo Perez Orue
htttp://wolfb.com
minilobo@gmail.com
Now, after I refused to transfer them the domain, they have presented a complaint to the WIPO and the domain has been suspended.
The website (a website for Spanish writers to publish their stories and now moved to http://literatura-digital.com), has, over 8 long and difficult years, reached 80,000 visitors a month, 1250 stories have been published and has 3300 subscribers to the newsletter.
Deusto is the name of a neighborhood in Bilbao, Spain, where there is a University of Deusto (http://deusto.es), a bakery called Panaderia Deusto, a consulting group called IT Deusto, etc.
Planeta Agostini has a big law firm in Spain working on the case, and I cannot afford a lawyer. Is this fair ? Are they going to get the domain because they are bigger ?
By the way, Planeta Agostini doesn't have neither deusto.es, deusto.net, nor deusto.org. And deusto.biz and deusto.info are not even registered ! Wouldn't it be that they are after my visitors and they want them for free ? No, of course not, they only want to protect their brand !
If you want to give me your opinion or you can offer help, please visit and leave a comment in http://wolfb.com
Eduardo Perez Orue
htttp://wolfb.com
minilobo@gmail.com
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