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	<title>in propria persona &#187; Twitter</title>
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	<link>http://inpropriapersona.com</link>
	<description>Law + tech + history, from a JD/PhD graduate student in the history of science.</description>
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		<title>Refactoring in propria persona: new design, new code</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/refactoring-in-propria-persona-new-design-new-code/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/refactoring-in-propria-persona-new-design-new-code/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bootstrap]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[framework]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jQuery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inpropriapersona.com/?p=5846</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For almost a year I've been relying on the (quite good) Hybrid framework with my own custom additions based on Twitter's Bootstrap framework--and 30+ plugins to tweak it to be just so. With the newest updates to Bootstrap, I wanted to update everything--but what I had, while functional, was brittle and hard to optimize. The solution? Re-work and re-implement the good; replace the bad, and the slow, and the broken.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/refactoring-in-propria-persona-new-design-new-code/ipp-home-new-screenshot/" rel="attachment wp-att-5858"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5858" title="The New, Solarized Design" src="http://inpropriapersona.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ipp-home-new-screenshot-360x268.png" alt="" width="300" height="223" /></a>For almost a year I&#8217;ve been relying on the (quite good) <a href="http://themehybrid.com/">Hybrid framework</a> with my own custom additions based on <a href="http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/">Twitter&#8217;s Bootstrap framework</a>&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;and 30+ plugins to tweak it to be <em>just so</em>. In fact, I just recently described <a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/my-latest-top-five-tweaks-tips-and-plugins-for-wordpress/">five tweaks, tips, and plugins for WordPress</a>.</p>
<p>With the newest updates to Bootstrap, I wanted to update everything&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;but what I had, while functional, was brittle and hard to optimize. The solution? Re-work and re-implement the good; replace the bad, and the slow, and the broken.</p>
<p>Of the <a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/my-latest-top-five-tweaks-tips-and-plugins-for-wordpress/">five tweaks, tips, and plugins I described earlier</a>, I kept the dynamic layout and infinite scrolling, and still do adblock detection and present a large ad only to search engine visitors. On the other hand, I integrated related post functionality into my theme (instead of using plugins), and switched to a simpler caching plugin.</p>
<p>So enter the new, improved <a href="http://inpropriapersona.com">in propria persona</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>it now uses the <a href="http://www.rootstheme.com/">Roots theme</a>, which leverages Twitter Bootstrap 2.0 and <a href="http://html5boilerplate.com/">HTML5 Boilerplate</a> to bake-in lots of goodness&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;including easy tab creation, progress bars, responsive layouts, and much more;</li>
<li>the similar look is now more heavily influenced by the <a href="http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized">Solarized</a> color scheme, and with the <a href="http://www.readability.com/">Readibility</a> tool;</li>
<li>many plugins have been rewritten and incorporated into he theme itself, including a related posts flyout, social media sharing buttons (fixed at the side), caption slideouts, search-engine optimizations, and more;</li>
<li>much of the &#8220;heavier&#8221; functionality only loads on demand&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;full social media buttons only appear on rollover, for example, and hidden images only load when scrolled to;</li>
<li>as in the old design, the home page uses jQuery Masonry and Infinite Scroll&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;but these are integrated, not included via WordPress plugins;</li>
<li>jQuery is loaded from Google&#8217;s CDN;</li>
<li>CSS is auto-minimized and combined thanks to <a href="http://lesscss.org/">LESS</a>;</li>
<li>a combination of <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/my-websites.html">CloudFlare</a> and <a href="https://www.varnish-cache.org/">Varnish</a> provides caching, with help from Quick Cache (much less complex than W3 Total Cache&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;which I still recommend).</li>
</ul>
<p>Compare the old look&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/my-latest-top-five-tweaks-tips-and-plugins-for-wordpress/mywpedit_image_1331949299-jpg/" rel="attachment wp-att-5705"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5705" title="The old in propria persona" src="http://inpropriapersona.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/myWPEdit_Image_1331949299-300x167.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="167" /></a></p>
<p>&#8230;with the new one. It continues to use <a href="http://masonry.desandro.com/">Masonry</a> and <a href="http://www.infinite-scroll.com/">Infinite Scroll</a>, but shifts to a <a href="http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized">Solarized</a> color scheme for easier reading.</p>
<p><a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/refactoring-in-propria-persona-new-design-new-code/ipp-home-new-screenshot/" rel="attachment wp-att-5858"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5858" title="The New, Solarized Design" src="http://inpropriapersona.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ipp-home-new-screenshot-360x268.png" alt="" width="300" height="223" /></a></p>
<p>Like it? Hate it? Let me know what you think!</p>
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		<title>Facebook and Twitter and Google Plus&#8230; oh my!</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/facebook-and-twitter-and-google-plus-oh-my/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/facebook-and-twitter-and-google-plus-oh-my/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:18:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recommendations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recommended]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inpropriapersona.com/?p=3858</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So now we've got three--well, more like four--big players in the social networking space: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn. Add to that a few other common options--the backyard fence, email, telephone, and carrier pigeon--and the choices of where to share the details on your latest (technology) crush appear insurmountably complex.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wistaston/4703355817/in/photostream/"><img class="alignright" title="&quot;Squirrel gossiping over the fence,&quot; by Flickr user Joseph Swan. Used under a Creative Commons license." src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1294/4703355817_c2e5404cd3_m.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="192" /></a>So now we&#8217;ve got three&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;well, more like four&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;big players in the social networking space: <a class="zem_slink" title="Facebook" href="http://facebook.com" rel="homepage">Facebook</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Twitter" href="http://twitter.com" rel="homepage">Twitter</a>, <a title="Google Plus" href="https://plus.google.com/">Google Plus</a>, and <a class="zem_slink" title="LinkedIn" href="http://www.linkedin.com" rel="homepage">LinkedIn</a> (sorry <a class="zem_slink" title="MySpace" href="http://myspace.com/" rel="homepage">MySpace</a>, <a title="Live.com, from Microsoft" href="http://live.com">Live.com</a>, <a href="http://yahoo.com">Yahoo!</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Bebo" href="http://bebo.com" rel="homepage">Bebo</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Friendster" href="http://www.friendster.com" rel="homepage">Friendster</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="XING" href="http://www.xing.com" rel="homepage">XING</a>, and others). Add to that a few other common options&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;the backyard fence, email, telephone, and <a class="zem_slink" title="Carrier pigeon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_pigeon" rel="wikipedia">carrier pigeon</a>&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;and the choices of where to share the details on your latest (technology) crush appear insurmountably complex.</p>
<p>But really, each of these has choices is distinct, and in many cases their use-cases do not overlap. Carrier pigeons, for example, are really point-to-point messaging mechanisms, unless you have a flock&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;and they take time to breed, so they are a poor choice if you have need to keep people updated on a variety of different topics. And unlike the owls of Harry Potter, carrier pigeons go to places and not people&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;so tracking down your significant other in either Greece or Italy&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;why won&#8217;t they call?&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;is out. (You may, of course, find different ways to make these work for you&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;in the digital age, square pegs can be refactored to fit in round holes, after all.)</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 276px"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Facebook.svg"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted" title="Facebook logo" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Facebook.svg/266px-Facebook.svg.png" alt="Facebook logo" width="266" height="100" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image via Wikipedia</p></div>
</div>
<h3>Facebook</h3>
<p>Facebook is the ideal place for keeping in touch with real people I&#8217;ve really met, especially if I&#8217;m likely to lose track of them otherwise. It&#8217;s geographically diverse, lets me share enough to give people a sense they&#8217;ve got an idea what I&#8217;m up to, and (despite its best efforts otherwise) lets me otherwise stay private (with caveats). So who do I connect with on Facebook? Friends (of various levels) from high school, college, postgrad. Friends&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;not professional colleagues&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;from work. Tricky decisions of categorization abound, of course: is this colleague enough of a friend for me to connect with them on Facebook, or do they belong on LinkedIn only? Segregating people into groups with various privacy settings help, of course, as does not sharing things I don&#8217;t want the public to possibly see. Sure, this is friend-stuff, but nothing I put on Facebook would be too embarrassing, or cost me a job. Facebook has been pushing pages (AP, PBS, BBC, business generally) that share non-personal information, but I&#8217;m increasingly finding this a distraction from the reason I use Facebook: people.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 160px"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/linkedin"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted" title="Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0001/1055/11055v8-max-450x450.png" alt="Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru..." width="150" height="68" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image via CrunchBase</p></div>
</div>
<h3>LinkedIn</h3>
<p>LinkedIn has been touted as the professional version of Facebook, but that&#8217;s only partly true. LinkedIn is not really about sharing day-to-day details about me, but rather about highlighting my accomplishments and work. But beyond that, it&#8217;s mostly a Rolodex of up-to-date business cards of people I&#8217;ve dealt with professionally. I will connect with any colleague (or one of my undergrads) on LinkedIn without hesitation, unlike on Facebook. In terms of privacy, well, the point is to be visible and findable professionally. So that&#8217;s what goes up there. No home addresses, no home telephone numbers, just business contact details.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 230px"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twitter"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted" title="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/2755/2755v30-max-450x450.png" alt="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." width="220" height="61" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image via CrunchBase</p></div>
</div>
<h3>Twitter</h3>
<p>Twitter is for link sharing and quick conversations (very quick, and very short) with absolutely anyone I find remotely interesting. I don&#8217;t refollow anyone who follows me, only those I think are interesting. I share things I want to broadcast with the world (but am too polite to get a bullhorn). Sometimes it&#8217;s personal, sometimes professional, but always with the idea that anyone might read it. It&#8217;s great for more distant connections with people I may or may not ever meet, but who say and write about interesting things.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 260px"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/google"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted" title="Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0002/9578/29578v7-max-450x450.jpg" alt="Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc..." width="250" height="99" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image via CrunchBase</p></div>
</div>
<h3>Google Plus</h3>
<p>Google Plus is the new player, but it brings in some of the best of both Twitter and Facebook. Yes, I can put my actual friends in circles and easily limit what I share with just them (so that&#8217;s a bit like Facebook, but more focused). No, not everyone I know on Facebook is on Google Plus (and may never be). Google Plus also lets me follow people I&#8217;ve never met who say interesting things, like Twitter, but it emphasizes longer posts and more detailed, threaded conversations&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;without forcing me to dance with privacy settings as on Facebook, and without assuming these people are actually my friends (even if they could be). In many respects, I&#8217;m finding that it challenges quick-blogging services like Posterous and Tumblr more than Facebook or LinkedIn. It does seem a potential threat to Twitter, which I am finding myself more and more viewing as a social link sharing service as opposed to a discussion mechanism (but it&#8217;s GREAT for that).</p>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>So, here it is in short form:</p>
<p><strong>Facebook</strong>: real people, real sharing of personal (but not too personal) information. If you actually know me in &#8220;real life,&#8221; friend me. If not, go elsewhere. I share semi-personal stuff here (what I had for dinner and who made it).</p>
<p><strong>LinkedIn</strong>: real people doing real business networking. If I&#8217;ve met you in a professional capacity, connect with me. If not, well, tell me why we can do business! I share only professional info here.</p>
<p><strong>Twitter</strong>: on the Internet, no one knows if you&#8217;re a dog, but we do care if you have something interesting to share. If you do, follow me and I might follow you back. If you don&#8217;t, follow me and I won&#8217;t follow you back. I share thoughts and links here.</p>
<p><strong>Google Plus</strong>: real people (for now) sharing what they found interesting today, including articles, thoughts, stories, and photos. If you actually know me, I might add you to my Friends circle; if not, but you are interesting, you&#8217;ll make Following. Please give me commentary with your links!</p>
<p>Maybe next week I&#8217;ll explain how I use carrier pigeons.</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://mbcalyn.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/google-will-be-squeezed-out-of-social-world-says-linkedin-ceo-computerworld/">Google+ will be squeezed out of social world, says LinkedIn CEO &#8211; Computerworld</a> (mbcalyn.wordpress.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://scalableintimacy.com/google-plus-will-hurt-twitter-more-than-facebook/">It&#8217;s Google Plus vs. Twitter, Not Facebook</a> (scalableintimacy.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/2009/08/different-social-networks-for-different-purposes/">Different social networks for different purposes</a> (inpropriapersona.com)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>How I use a blog in my research and writing</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/how-i-use-a-blog-in-my-research-and-writing/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/how-i-use-a-blog-in-my-research-and-writing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 May 2011 01:26:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inpropriapersona.com/?p=3672</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As someone who does not blog to earn money (I like to pay my hosting fees, but that's only because I'm a poor grad student), I thought I'd run through how and why I blog, and why I find it a critical part of my "real" work of academic research and writing. ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7162765@N06/2343135152"><img title="Why I Blog Card Catalog" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/2343135152_1ca34edc02_m.jpg" alt="Why I Blog Card Catalog" width="240" height="147" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image by Jeffrey Keefer via Flickr</p></div>
</div>
<p>There are many (non-exclusive) reasons to blog: money, fame, narcissism, <a class="zem_slink" title="Search engine optimization" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization">SEO</a>, product placement and advertising, journaling, self-discovery, passion&#8230; The specific reasons for blogging are as varied as bloggers themselves, and arguments about <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/05/01/should-you-even-be-blogging/">whether one should be blogging at all</a> are equally diverse, especially since so many bloggers give up in frustration because their audience is so small. But a small audience is only a problem for certain kinds of blogging, of course, most especially blogging for dollars (or euros, shekels, or pounds).</p>
<p>As someone who does not blog to earn money (I like to pay my hosting fees, but that&#8217;s only because I&#8217;m a poor grad student), I thought I&#8217;d run through <em>how </em>and <em>why </em>I blog, and why I find it a critical part of my &#8220;real&#8221; work of academic research and writing. (If you are looking for how to make money blogging, there are <a href="http://www.problogger.net/">better</a> <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/">sources</a> out there.)</p>
<p><strong>Why I Blog</strong></p>
<p>I blog primarily for three reasons, in increasing order of importance: (1) to give me a visible presence on the Internet for my (potential) colleagues and students to see my work;  (2) to get feedback, not all of it visible on my blog; (3) to capture interesting and potentially fruitful Internet finds (i.e., as part of my research&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;which is mostly online anyway these days); and (4) as a rough-draft medium that I can draw on when eventually need to actually produce a piece of writing.</p>
<p>(Oh yes, and because I enjoy it.)</p>
<p>Like many personal bloggers, I sometimes use my blog to capture interesting finds. More often, I try to integrate this with my primary purpose, and turn my research immediately into writing by creating short articles about my finds. That way I have ready-made rough-draft material to work from when I go to write. For those who may primarily focus on this purpose, a so-called &#8220;tumblelog&#8221; like <a class="zem_slink" title="Tumblr" rel="homepage" href="http://tumblr.com">Tumblr</a> or <a class="zem_slink" title="Posterous" rel="homepage" href="http://www.posterous.com">Posterous</a> (both of which I use from time to time) may be the ideal blogging service.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; border: 0px initial initial;" title="Screen capture of my research page" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5104/5673745037_d0c03fdd0c_m.jpg" border="0" alt="My research page" hspace="5" width="240" height="120" /></p>
<p>Making myself visible on the Internet may be a form of vanity, but it&#8217;s increasingly important to &#8220;brand&#8221; oneself today. I want colleagues, students, employers, etc. to be able to find me and get insight into my professional persona easily, and I want them to see what I produce. It also helps connect me to various larger communities, including academics, other bloggers, lawyers, and so on. It&#8217;s a networking tool that doesn&#8217;t need to be awkward or self-aggrandizing.</p>
<p>Feedback is useful, though comments may or may not be. Sometimes this comes in the form of blog comments, sometime in terms of email, and more often it gives me a medium in which to share my drafts with &#8220;real-life&#8221; colleagues. The more readers you have, of course, the more feedback you might potentially get&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;but that isn&#8217;t <em>my </em>primary purpose, so I don&#8217;t care so much about raw numbers of visitors.</p>
<p><strong>How I Blog</strong></p>
<p>My most important reason for blogging (use as a rough-draft medium) has developed into the primary driver of my methodology. So, while I do sometimes simply capture the barest details about new publications or interesting articles, more often I use other tools for that purpose: <a href="http://reader.google.com">Google Reader</a> or <a href="http://tbuzz.arc90.com/">TBUZZ</a> to <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> to <a href="http://delicious.com">Delicious via </a><a href="http://packrati.us/">Packrati.us</a> and <a href="http://pinboard.in/">Pinboard</a><a>, or </a><a href="http://readitlaterlist.com/">Read It Later</a> or <a href="http://www.instapaper.com">Instapaper</a>.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve realized, though, that simply capturing lots of small amounts of information in the blog medium is less useful <em>for me</em> than writing fewer, longer write-ups. Spending more time on each potential source, writing up a more detailed and in-depth analysis or reflection provides me with effective, highly useful material when I need to write an article later.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41596622@N00/5673711767"><img class=" " title="My blog entry on the Fourth Amendment" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5143/5673711767_575c43700a_m.jpg" alt="My blog entry on the Fourth Amendment" width="240" height="120" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image by krisnelson via Flickr</p></div>
</div>
<p>This kind of writing is in-between the quick summaries or reactions of <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> or a tumblelog, but less detailed, analytic, or proof-read than a true article. These are more like the &#8220;reflection&#8221; assignments I give my undergraduates, and are intended not so much for consumption by others as they are to capture analytic ideas and details that may help me later. The focus is not on perfection, which makes writing them easier, but I do try to have an audience beyond myself in mind, which vastly increases their reusability.</p>
<p>What does this look like? Try posts like the following&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;none are perfect, but they&#8217;ve all proved useful later:</p>
<ul>
<li><a title="Judge Noble Hand hints at the move from property to people" rel="bookmark" href="http://inpropriapersona.com/2011/04/judge-noble-hand-hints-at-the-move-from-property-to-people/">Judge Noble Hand hints at the move from property to people</a></li>
<li><a title="An argument for the &quot;Inviolability of Telegraphic Correspondence&quot;" rel="bookmark" href="http://inpropriapersona.com/2011/04/an-argument-for-the-inviolability-of-telegraphic-correspondence/">An argument for the &#8220;Inviolability of Telegraphic Correspondence&#8221;</a></li>
<li><a title="Smallpox inoculation and quarantine in colonial America" rel="bookmark" href="http://inpropriapersona.com/2010/03/smallpox-inoculation-and-quarantine-in-colonial-america/">Smallpox inoculation and quarantine in colonial America</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Obviously, this approach is not right for everyone, but for anyone who needs to produce written work (that doesn&#8217;t need to be secret!), it&#8217;s wonderful, practical, and (relatively) easy.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>So there you go. I blog mostly so I don&#8217;t have to stare at a blank page later, and to a lesser extent so that I can be found online. (Also I like tech.) If you do decide to blog, I highly recommend you think about the <em>why </em>and the <em>how</em> for yourself.</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://inpropriapersona.com/2007/09/10-reasons-for-law-student-to-blog.html">10 Reasons for a Law Student to Blog</a> (inpropriapersona.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://worldmomsblog.com/2011/04/29/friday-question-why-do-you-blog/">Friday Question: Why do you blog?</a> (worldmomsblog.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://kevin.lexblog.com/2011/04/articles/cool-stuff/writing-for-blogs-style-strategy-voice-webinar-recording-now-available/">Writing For Blogs &#8211; Style, Strategy, Voice: Webinar recording now available</a> (kevin.lexblog.com)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Terms of use for application programming interfaces (TOS for APIs)</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/terms-of-use-for-application-programming-interfaces-tos-for-apis/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/terms-of-use-for-application-programming-interfaces-tos-for-apis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:30:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[API]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flickr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inpropriapersona.com/?p=1954</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Terms of use are critical. Most allow for the revocation of access if the API provider decides to do so. If that happens to you, you may have little recourse. Make sure you understand the terms before you build a business on top of someone else's API.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krisnelson/5605131326"><img class="alignleft" title="LinkedIn API TOS" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5605131326_ce4210e01f_m.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="240" /></a>Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are the key to leveraging existing Web services, sites, and data (like <a class="zem_slink" title="Facebook" rel="homepage" href="http://facebook.com">Facebook</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="Twitter" rel="homepage" href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a>, or Google Maps) to create new and innovate services that users want to use. Users benefit from reusing their existing investment, developers benefit from not &#8220;recreating the wheel,&#8221; and business benefit from increased exposure and ubiquity (arguably, perhaps):</p>
<blockquote><p>You see, the goal of &#8220;the cloud&#8221; isn’t simply putting all of your stuff into some stored space for access. It’s connecting your &#8220;stuff&#8221; &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; your apps, data, networks, etc. The how, if, why, when and where of that connecting (you could call it, for lack of a better word, &#8220;glue&#8221;) is wholly dependent on the terms of service around APIs.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/link/apis-tos-and-building-a-hooked-web">APIs, TOS, and building a hooked web | CloudAve</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p>In that spirit, lets review the highlights of some terms of service (Tos), current as of February 15, 2009:</p>
<h4>Twitter</h4>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 230px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/product/twitter"><img title="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/2755/2755v30-max-250x250.png" alt="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." width="220" height="61" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image via <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com">CrunchBase</a></dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p>The main point of the <a href="http://twitter.com/apirules">Twitter API&#8217;s terms of service</a> (which is surprisingly short!) is that you should get user permission first and not meddle with a Tweet&#8217;s content. Perhaps as a result of the very favorable set of terms, many applications access Twitter data, or leverage the Twitter stream.</p>
<h4><a class="zem_slink" title="Flickr" rel="homepage" href="http://www.flickr.com">Flickr</a></h4>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 172px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/product/flickr"><img title="Image representing Flickr as depicted in Crunc..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0001/0830/10830v1-max-250x250.png" alt="Image representing Flickr as depicted in Crunc..." width="162" height="63" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image via <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com">CrunchBase</a></dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p>In contrast to Twitter, the Flickr API has a long and extensive set of terms as part of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/tos/">its terms of service</a>. Like Twitter, none of these are too burdensome, although the pre-approval requirement for commercial apps could make basing a business on access to the Flickr API potentially problematic. Highlights include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Following all other Flickr and Yahoo terms of use</li>
<li>Complying with user/owner terms and conditions (private flags, etc.)</li>
<li>Have your own privacy policy</li>
<li>Commercial applications have specific requirements and require specific approval from Flickr first (and may require payment)</li>
<li>No warranty by Flickr, release of liability, etc. &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; plus some more legal terminology</li>
</ul>
<p>Despite the longer language, most of this is not particularly onerous (possibly excepting the commercial-approval requirement), and there are thus many applications making use of the Flickr API in some form or another.</p>
<h4><a class="zem_slink" title="LinkedIn" rel="homepage" href="http://www.linkedin.com">LinkedIn</a></h4>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 163px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/linkedin"><img title="Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0001/1055/11055v1-max-250x250.png" alt="Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru..." width="153" height="70" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image via <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com">CrunchBase</a></dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p>The <a href="http://developer.linkedin.com/docs/DOC-1013">LinkedIn API terms of service</a> are much more detailed and more restrictive. As a result, I know of very few applications that interface with LinkedIn. In reference to their API terms, <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/link/apis-tos-and-building-a-hooked-web">Eric Norlin writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>LinkedIn is famous in some circles (no names) for not playing so nice with their API. According to their terms, you can’t store anything other than a profile or ID &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; which is to say you can’t store the most powerful/useful thing about LinkedIn &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; the connections. Beyond that, their TOS says that you can’t use their API and &#8220;compete&#8221; (though it never defines what that is). And, to put the icing on top, they gain the right to &#8220;audit&#8221; you if you use their API.</p></blockquote>
<p>Neither Flickr nor Twitter explicitly limit your ability to &#8220;compete&#8221; if you use their API (though Flickr might, since they reserve the right to deny &#8220;commercial use&#8221;), nor do they limit storage of the data you pull via the API. Certainly from a business perspective, it makes good sense for LinkedIn to take this approach &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; connections are the core of their offering, really, so allowing a competitor to leverage those connections via their API is a concern. Nonetheless, setting firm limits on use by <em>everyone<em>, </em></em>potential competitor or not, severely limits the potential innovation of 3rd-party developers.</p>
<h4>Facebook</h4>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 255px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook"><img title="Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/4561/4561v1-max-250x250.png" alt="Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru..." width="245" height="100" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image via <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com">CrunchBase</a></dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p>Facebook has detailed, relatively easy-to-understand policies use of its APIs. Most of the complexity emerges from the fact that there are multiple ways for developers to interact with Facebook. Nonetheless, there are extensive examples and explanations provided by Facebook. There are a variety of limitations placed on developers, but this hasn&#8217;t hampered rampant Facebook application development. The biggest limitation &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; similar to LinkedIn&#8217;s restriction &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; is that Facebook data cannot be stored for more than 24 hours.</p>
<p>Unlike LinkedIn, commercial application development is clearly encouraged, although there are extensive limitations on how those applications can interact with Facebook. Like Twitter, Facebook&#8217;s stream is now available, and applications are starting to leverage it. But like LinkedIn, connection data cannot be stored, even if it can be accessed while a user is connected.</p>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>Despite the extensive limitations of Facebook, it is one of the #1 platforms for which 3rd-party developers write applications. LinkedIn, by contrast, has not developed the same number of application developers. Twitter, which has very loose terms, has extensive developer support.</p>
<p>In my opinion, developers write for Facebook because (1) that&#8217;s where the users are, first and (2) commercial applications are allowed and even encouraged. Developers write for Twitter because (1) it has users and (2) terms of use are straightforward. Similarly, Flickr has rich content and access is straightforward. LinkedIn, on the other hand, has a complex API and terms of service that appear limiting, especially when it comes to commercial use.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NYSE-floor.jpg"><img title="The floor of the New York Stock Exchange." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/NYSE-floor.jpg/300px-NYSE-floor.jpg" alt="The floor of the New York Stock Exchange." width="300" height="197" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution" style="font-size: 0.8em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NYSE-floor.jpg">Wikipedia</a></dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<p>Terms of use are critical. Most allow for the revocation of access if the API provider decides to do so. If that happens to you, you may have little recourse. Make sure you understand the terms before you build a business on top of someone else&#8217;s API.</p>
<p>What does this mean in terms of &#8220;actually building things&#8221;? For <em>software</em> developers, not much. Technical utility of the API itself is much more important. For <em>business</em> developers, they can mean the difference between a neat toy and a profitable venture.</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles by Zemanta</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com/2010/01/30/35-apis-in-7-days-facebook-flickr-foursquare-google-twilio-twitter-yelp-and-youtube/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%253A+ProgrammableWeb+%2528ProgrammableWeb%253A+Blog%2529">35 APIs in 7 Days: Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Google, Twilio, Twitter, Yelp, and YouTube</a> (programmableweb.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.inpropriapersona.com/2009/12/making-a-personal-site-more-dynamic/">Making a personal site more dynamic</a> (inpropriapersona.com)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Want clients? Be helpful and do good</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/want-clients-be-helpful-and-do-good/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/want-clients-be-helpful-and-do-good/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:05:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[employment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Avvo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin O'Keefe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inpropriapersona.com/?p=1524</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["Be helpful and do good" is a deceptively simple strategy: just go out and help people, and clients will find you. (Just don't forget to make it easy to be found!)]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="Cat Rescue  009  [3]" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14095975@N04/2455004844/"><img class="alignright" title="&quot;Cat Rescue 009&quot; by Flickr user zzilch, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 license" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2410/2455004844_abaf2379c9_m.jpg" alt="Cat Rescue  009  [3]" width="240" height="180" /></a></p>
<p>Reflec﻿ting on <a class="zem_slink" title="Avvo" rel="homepage" href="http://avvo.com">Avvo</a>&#8216;s Internet marketing conference for lawyers, <a href="http://kevin.lexblog.com/promo/about-kevin//">Kevin O&#8217;Keefe</a> of <a class="zem_slink" title="LexBlog" rel="crunchbase" href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/lexblog">LexBlog</a> writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>I started on the Internet at AOL. I answered people&#8217;s injury, medical malpractice, and worker&#8217;s comp questions. The more questions I answered, the more work our firm got and the more successful we became. The more I listened to others and the more engaged I became, the more I enjoyed myself and the more people who contacted me to help them.</p>
<p>I discovered that Internet marketing was not all about me. It was about what I, as a lawyer, could do to help other people. Rather than buying cheesy yellow page ads and running expensive TV ads, I could get good legal work by helping people.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://kevin.lexblog.com/2010/01/articles/law-firm-marketing/for-lawyers-is-the-world-really-all-about-google-rankings-/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+KevinOKeefe%2FRealLawyersHaveBlogs+%28Real+Lawyers+Have+Blogs%29">For lawyers is the world really all about Google rankings? : Real Lawyers Have Blogs</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p>The lesson that good connections with people &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; arising from providing good quality content on a blog, helpful commentary in forums, useful information and replies on <a class="zem_slink" title="Twitter" rel="homepage" href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a>, to name just three <a href="http://www.inpropriapersona.com/2009/05/six-small-marketing-steps.html">examples</a> &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; is the core of effective marketing is often lost.</p>
<p>You might call this &#8220;un-marketing&#8221; or &#8220;non-marketing&#8221; to distinguish it from frantic SEO, blaring billboards, or extravagant banner ad purchases. It&#8217;s deceptively simple: go out and help people, and clients will find you.</p>
<p>Taking this kind of approach does not mean foregoing an online presence. How can you put yourself out there and be helpful if you don&#8217;t join <a href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a>, don&#8217;t blog, and don&#8217;t contribute to forums? And once you start seeking out people to help, how can they and others <a href="http://www.inpropriapersona.com/2009/06/5-social-networking-sites-for-legal-job-seekers/">find you</a> later if you aren&#8217;t on <a class="zem_slink" title="LinkedIn" rel="homepage" href="http://www.linkedin.com">LinkedIn</a> or don&#8217;t have your own Web site?</p>
<p>Whatever you call it, the core message is to be helpful and do good, and the clients and customers will seek you out in return.</p>
<p>As a do-gooder, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization">SEO</a>, ad buys, and similar strategies should be done to be <em>helpful. </em>That is, such strategies should make it easier for people to <em>find</em> you, and for you to be helpful in return. They are secondary strategies, not primary ones.</p>
<p>For a do-gooder, primary strategies involve getting out there and providing utility to others: answering questions, being a resource, advocating positions you believe in, sharing your experiences and knowledge.</p>
<p>Doing good and being helpful isn&#8217;t a new marketing strategy. It&#8217;s just an old way of showing the world your worth, updated for new mediums. It takes Google&#8217;s &#8220;don&#8217;t be evil&#8221; and goes one better: <em>go do good, </em>and the clients will come (just don&#8217;t forget to make it easy for them!). It takes &#8220;add value&#8221; and takes it further: <em>go be helpful!</em></p>
<p>Has this kind approach worked for you? Have better ideas? Think it&#8217;s crazy? Let me know in the comments.</p>
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		<title>Different social networks for different purposes</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/different-social-networks-for-different-purposes/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/different-social-networks-for-different-purposes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:39:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inpropriapersona.com/?p=812</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Different social networks serve different purposes. Keep them straight, but always remember that what you post online could end up anywhere and post accordingly.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 255px"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twitter"><img title="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0005/4561/54561v2-max-250x250.png" alt="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." width="245" height="250" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Image via CrunchBase</p></div>
</div>
<p>Soren Gordhamer at <a class="zem_slink" title="Mashable" href="http://mashable.com" rel="homepage">Mashable</a> has a good reminder of the differing purposes and uses of <a class="zem_slink" title="Social network" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network" rel="wikipedia">social networks</a> &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; in this case, <a class="zem_slink" title="Facebook" href="http://facebook.com" rel="homepage">Facebook</a> vs. <a class="zem_slink" title="Twitter" href="http://twitter.com" rel="homepage">Twitter</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is growing body of people who actively use more than one social network, and do so with quite different purposes. Though on the surface many social networks seem similar, to use them skillfully it helps to better understand the different roles they can play in one’s online activity.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/08/01/facebook-vs-twitter/">When Do You Use Twitter Versus Facebook?</a></p></blockquote>
<p>A quick summary:</p>
<ul>
<li>Twitter for connecting with someone you don&#8217;t know.</li>
<li>Twitter for breaking news.</li>
<li>Discovery and new learning on Twitter.</li>
<li>Facebook for local news and events.</li>
<li>Facebook for connecting with someone you know.</li>
<li>Looking for help on an issue? Soren prefers Facebook.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Mashable tips are useful, although leave off other social networks, particularly <a class="zem_slink" title="LinkedIn" href="http://www.linkedin.com" rel="homepage">Linkedin</a>. Nonetheless, they are useful tips. Here are my additions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Linkedin for professional networking, as long as I&#8217;ve interacted with the person previously.</li>
<li>Facebook for personal networking &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; and professional contacts I would consider closer than acquantances</li>
<li>Twitter for broad-based networking with those I may or may not have met, but want to keep up with</li>
<li><a class="zem_slink" title="FriendFeed" href="http://friendfeed.com" rel="homepage">Friendfeed</a> as a supplement to Twitter</li>
</ul>
<p>The more you mix professional and personal contacts, the more careful you need to be with your posts. So while I do add professional contacts to Facebook on occasion, I always remember they may see my status updates, and post accordingly &thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp; but remembering, too, that Facebook is personal in tone, while Linkedin is professional. (Twitter is somewhere in the middle). And I always use Facebook groups to segregate types of connections.</p>
<p>Finally, I always try to remember that, regardless of segregation, any of my online posts could be read by anyone. So I make sure to moderate my postings, just in case.</p>
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="border: none; float: right;" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=af8f99bf-b713-4125-b194-a76d7e07efe8" alt="" /></div>
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		<title>5 Social Networking Sites for Legal Job Seekers</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/5-social-networking-sites-for-legal-job-seekers/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/5-social-networking-sites-for-legal-job-seekers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[employment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[job search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plaxo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inpropriapersona.com/?p=600</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today's legal job market is tough. To succeed, you need to use all the tools you can. Some of these tools require new rules, although all build on old-fashioned approaches, like networking and building a reputation. Here are five tools to bring your job search into the world of online social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, and JD Supra.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today&#8217;s legal job market <a title="Jobs for new lawyers are hard to come by" href="http://www.inpropriapersona.com/2009/04/jobs-for-new-lawyers-are-hard-to-come.html">is tough</a>. To succeed, you need to use all the tools you can. Some of these tools require <a title="Technology and social media alter recruiting and job seeking" href="http://www.inpropriapersona.com/2009/06/technology-and-social-media-alter-recruiting/">new rules</a>, although all build on old-fashioned approaches, like networking and building a reputation. So here are five tools to bring your job search into the world of online social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, and JD Supra.</p>
<h2><a href="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</a></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook"><img class="alignright" title="Facebook" src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/4561/4561v1-max-138x333.png" alt="" width="138" height="56" /></a>Facebook is a social networking Web site focused on connecting people with each other. Many of us have now experienced the joy (and occasional pain) of (re-)connecting with people from high school, college, or law school through the site.</p>
<p>Many people have decried the negative aspects of Facebook in the job search, primarily the ability of potential employers to find personal information (such as drunken party photos, political/social leanings, etc.) out about you through the service. Although this can certainly be a problem for a naive individual, it should not keep you from using the service, provided you: (1) do not post photographs (or better yet, do not participate in situations) that you would derail your chances of employment (drunkenness, drug use, etc. &#8211; this is particularly true for legal professionals) and (2) keep your personal life confined (through various Facebook limiting mechanisms) to those who know you. If in doubt &#8211; don&#8217;t put it online.</p>
<p>From a job seeking perspective, Facebook will not find you a job. It is not Monster.com or similar job search site. Instead, it is an extension of old-school networking &#8211; meeting people, connecting with people, sharing with people. Use similar approaches on Facebook that you would use in person, but remember: Facebook is focused more on personal connections that professional ones, so treat it accordingly.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Do not</strong> attempt to &#8220;friend&#8221; business connections who you barely know via Facebook. (Save those for LinkedIn, next on the list).</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> let your actual friends know via Facebook that you are looking for a job.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> search for people you may know who do work like you wish to do, or who work where you want to work. You may be surprised that you actually know someone who can put in a good word for you.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://www.linkedin.com">LinkedIn</a></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/linkedin"><img class="alignright" title="LinkedIn" src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0001/1055/11055v1-max-138x333.png" alt="" width="138" height="63" /></a>LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals, minus the games, the sharing, the pictures, and everything else that makes Facebook so &#8220;sticky.&#8221; But these limitations are its biggest asset, because they turn it into a truly professional zone. Everything you put on LinkedIn should be professional, with only a passing nod to your personal life (to make you real). In terms of posting information to LinkedIn, it is best to think of it as an in-depth, network-enhanced resume. It is not for arringing to meet friends at the movies, nor for sharing your vacation pics to Cancun.</p>
<p>Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is the perfect place to connect with business acquantances who you do not know well. In this sense, think of LinkedIn as your social Rolodex of business contacts, with recirocal connections, recommendations, and easy searching.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Do</strong> connect with those you meet.</li>
<li><strong>Do not</strong> connect with people you have never met, unless you arrange an introduction (supported by LinkedIn). To do otherwise is to invite trouble and do your reputation more harm than good.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> update your status on LinkedIn with <em>professional</em> information related to your job search.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> search for companies and look for people you know there.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> pay attention to &#8220;friend-of-friends&#8221; who you may be able to be introduced to through LinkedIn. This is a very valuable part of LinkedIn networking!</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> get recommendations from current and former co-workers. A LinkedIn profile of an active job seeker with no recommendations is potentially problematic, as it suggests that no one wants to recommend you!</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> keep your profile updated with current information.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://www.plaxo.com">Plaxo</a></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/plaxo"><img class="alignright" title="Plaxo" src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/3880/3880v1-max-138x333.jpg" alt="" width="138" height="47" /></a>Plaxo is in some ways like LinkedIn and Facebook: it connects people with each other. It has a more professional bent than Facebook, and in that way is more similar to LinkedIn (including an online profile hat is more like a resume than Facebook&#8217;s, for example). Its current incarnation is more focused on &#8220;lifestreaming&#8221;: gathering up and synchronizing your online life in one place:</p>
<blockquote><p>Plaxo is about synchronizing all that’s important to you in one single place. It’s about staying in touch with all those who you care about… your family, your friends and your business contacts. With Plaxo’s Pulse, we keep you up to date with what your friends, family and Business contacts are up to.</p>
<ul>
<li>You can Share photos, videos, reviews and more…</li>
<li>You can share content from the websites you use like Flickr, YouTube, Digg and a growing list of activity stream sites you can activate.</li>
<li>You can represent yourself on the web with your own profile.  Choose what to share and with whom.</li>
<li>And with the Plaxo Address book, get the information you need for the people you know and Sync it to places you already use.</li>
<li>You Plaxo calendar syncs with Yahoo!, Gmail, Outlook, Mac and a growing number of sync points to make sure you don&#8217;t forget what you&#8217;re doing.</li>
</ul>
<p>Plaxo is all this in one place and that’s why it’s the most efficient and fun place to be in. And most important of all, you decide who gets to see what.</p></blockquote>
<p>It is worth it to establish a Plaxo profile while job searching, and keep it updated. (Not having recommendations on Plaxo is also less of a problem, as long as you have them on LinkedIn.)</p>
<p>Plaxo&#8217;s aggregation support for your online activities is powerful, but has the potential to mix your personal and professional lives together. Thus, be <em>very careful</em> of this.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Do</strong> establish and maintain your profile.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> use the aggregation and synching tools, if they are useful to you.</li>
<li><strong>Do not</strong> mix personal and professional updates.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> use Plaxo&#8217;s tools to contain your personal updates to your personal friends.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twitter"><img class="alignright" title="Twitter" src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/2755/2755v28-max-138x333.png" alt="" width="138" height="38" /></a>Twitter is a newer contender to the social media landscape. It permits posting short status messages, which may include links to articles, blog posts, pictures, etc. In a professional context &#8211; remember, you are job seeking &#8211; these status messages should stay away from &#8220;crazy party last night&#8221; and steer more towards the &#8220;excellent article, I recommend you read it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo, connections in Twitter are one way: you can follow people, or they can follow you, but reciprocity is not required.</p>
<p>To find useful people to follow, look for those in your field. A good place to start is <a href="http://www.lextweet.com/">LexTweet</a>, which aggregates legal Tweets &#8211; consider joining as well and participating.</p>
<p>My recommendations:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Do</strong> read about how others are using Twitter professionally.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> keep your postings professional.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> mix in some personal updates to be &#8220;real,&#8221; but remember &#8211; a potential employer may be reading them, so be judicious.</li>
<li><strong>Do</strong> &#8220;add value&#8221; by Tweeting useful information.</li>
<li><strong>Do not</strong> use tools to mass add followers, or similar &#8220;spammy&#8221; behaviors.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://www.jdsupra.com/">JD Supra</a></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/jd-supra"><img class="alignright" title="JD Supra" src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0003/7718/37718v1-max-138x333.png" alt="" width="138" height="49" /></a>JD Supra is a different alternative to the above sites. Unlike the four above, it is focused exclusively on the legal community:</p>
<blockquote><p>As a <strong>legal professional</strong>, you <a href="http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentHandler.aspx">post your court filings, decisions, forms and/or articles</a> to JD Supra’s database, a free tool for legal research. You also <a href="http://www.jdsupra.com/profile/createProfile.aspx">create an in-depth professional profile</a> that is freely available simply by browsing or keyword searching, or via link from any of your posted documents.</p></blockquote>
<p>A profile on JD Supra provides a useful addition to your LinkedIn and Plaxo profiles &#8211; but that&#8217;s not the core value of the site. The main point is to <em>demonstrate </em>your value to potential employers (and clients, for that matter) by sharing your work via JD Supra: filings, briefs, articles, etc.</p>
<p>At first glance, it may seem like you are giving your work away for &#8220;free&#8221; &#8211; but in reality, you are receiving value: respect. Your value as a lawyer, after all, does not come through directly selling your prior work &#8211; but rather in using your prior work to sell yourself.</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles by Zemanta</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/103285">A Brief Guide to Personal Branding using Social Media </a> (socialmediatoday.com)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.lateralattorneyreport.com/2009/06/using-social-networking-in-your-job-search/">Using Social Networking in Your Job Search</a> (lateralattorneyreport.com)</li>
<li><a href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/05/22/mm_social/">Social networking your way to a job</a> (marketplace.publicradio.org)</li>
</ul>
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="border: medium none ; float: right;" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=d82f7f65-01ea-412d-8575-4fd589458879" alt="" /><span class="zem-script pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script></span></div>
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		<title>My Current Top 5 Favorite WordPress Plugins</title>
		<link>http://inpropriapersona.com/my-current-top-5-favorite-wordpress-plugins/</link>
		<comments>http://inpropriapersona.com/my-current-top-5-favorite-wordpress-plugins/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:30:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristopher Nelson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recommendations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BackType]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IntenseDebate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[StumbleUpon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WP Super Cache]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zemanta]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inpropriapersona.com/?p=512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are many, many WordPress plugins out there. Here are my top recommendations for the blogging lawyer/law student.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are many, many <a class="zem_slink" title="WordPress" rel="homepage" href="http://wordpress.org">WordPress</a> plugins out there (WordPress has instructions on <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Managing_Plugins">how to install plugins</a>). Here are my top recommendations for the blogging lawyer/law student:</p>
<p><strong>1. <a class="zem_slink" title="BackType" rel="homepage" href="http://www.backtype.com/">BackType Connect</a> / <a class="zem_slink" title="IntenseDebate" rel="homepage" href="http://intensedebate.com">IntenseDebate</a></strong> &#8211; BackType incorporates <a class="zem_slink" title="Twitter" rel="homepage" href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> mentions into your comment stream.</p>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 265px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/backtype"><img title="Image representing BackType as depicted in Cru..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0002/3718/23718v1-max-450x450.jpg" alt="Image representing BackType as depicted in Cru..." height="78" width="255"></a></dt>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>It unfortunately is not yet compatible with another favorite plugin of mine called <a class="zem_slink" title="IntenseDebate" rel="homepage" href="http://intensedebate.com">IntenseDebate</a>, which adds comment threading and other useful tools to the default comment functionality in WordPress. It can also synchronize with the basic WordPress system, so it is easy to turn on and off.</p>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 160px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/intensedebate"><img title="Image representing IntenseDebate as depicted i..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/4126/4126v3-max-450x450.png" alt="Image representing IntenseDebate as depicted i..." height="51" width="150"></a></dt>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><strong>2. <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/db-cache/">DB Cache</a> + <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hyper-cache/">Hyper Cache</a></strong> &#8211; DB Cache speeds up database access by caching common queries. Hyper Cache makes static versions of Web pages (like <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/">WP Super Cache</a>, but I&#8217;ve found it more focused and streamlined in its approach). The combination excels at reducing server resource consumption and serving the maximum number of visitors with the minimum resource use.</p>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 220px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/product/twitter"><img title="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0000/2755/2755v2-max-450x450.png" alt="Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun..." height="49" width="210"></a></dt>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><strong>3. <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweetable/">Tweetable</a></strong> &#8211; Automatically sends your new postings to <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a>, with the nice bonus of adding your blog name to each post. So, for example, my postings say &#8220;via in propria persona.&#8221; It also integrates Twitter into your WordPress dashboard, allowing you to easily Tweet from within WordPress.</p>
<p><strong>4. <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box/">WP Greetbox</a></strong> &#8211; Adds a message automatically to the top of your postings to encourage visitors to subscribe, Stumble, etc. Visitors from <a class="zem_slink" title="Digg" rel="homepage" href="http://www.digg.com">Digg</a> get an encouragement to &#8220;Digg this,&#8221; those from <a class="zem_slink" title="StumbleUpon" rel="homepage" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/">StumbleUpon</a> to &#8220;Stumble this,&#8221; etc.</p>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<div style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
<div>
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 216px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/zemanta"><img title="Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun..." src="http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0001/6433/16433v1-max-450x450.png" alt="Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun..." height="73" width="206"></a></dt>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><strong>5. <a class="zem_slink" title="Zemanta" rel="homepage" href="http://www.zemanta.com">Zemanta</a></strong> &#8211; While not perfect, this is a must-have plugin that makes it easy to add contextual information to your postings: pictures,&nbsp; tags, and related links.</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles by Zemanta</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/backtype_connect_plugs_in_to_wordpress.php"> Backtype Connect Plugs in to WordPress </a> (readwriteweb.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://dbzer0.com/blog/of-wordpress-caches-and-fast-phps">Of WordPress Caches and Fast PHPs</a> (dbzer0.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://openmode.ca/2009/02/recommended-wordpress-plugins-for-new-bloggers/">Recommended WordPress Plugins For New Bloggers</a> (openmode.ca)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.smtusa.com/blog/posts/Top-Five-Wordpress-Plugins.html"> Top Five WordPress Plugins </a> (smtusa.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.blogherald.com/2009/04/27/5-wordpress-plugins-i-never-blog-without/"> 5 WordPress Plugins I Never Blog Without </a> (blogherald.com)</li>
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