April Fools Day roundup

In which I refuse to allow my distaste for April Fools Day spoil everyone else's fun.

• Google Topeka is always my first stop on 4/1.
• Better World Books introduces Better Mars Books
• Scientists discover gene and part of brain that make people gullible :: "a part of the brain called the inferior supra-credulus was unusually active in people with a tendency to believe horoscopes and papers
  invoking fancy brain scans"
• Where does the air that goes into Nike Air shoes come from?
• Even the U's own Alumni Association joined the fun with their news release on a new cold-hardy orange.

Please add your favorite April Fools links in the comments!

Monday link roundup: 3.29.10

These are some articles that caught my eye lately. What links do you recommend to fellow Forum members?

Clients say the darnedest things: How to deal with bad feedback :: "Negative refers to how the client perceives your work. Bad refers to how the client expresses their perception (negative or positive) of your work."

QA on Higher Education Web sites. How to do it and what to look for. :: "Tools and people will come and go, quality on the other hand is the one thing in a web office that is a constant."

The i, b, em, & strong elements :: "While many HTML4 elements have been brought into HTML5 essentially unchanged, several historically presentational ones have been given semantic meanings."

The 100 most funny and unusual 404 error pages :: I have a strong preference for the ones that don't blame the user or use the word oops.

Which leads me to... Avoid this common error :: "I'll be the first to admit planning for and writing error messages is not the sexiest of web writing tasks. But it can be one of the most important."

Link roundup, 3.5.10

I've been putting a lot of miles on my to_read tag on delicious, but have managed to read some good articles lately. What have you been reading, listening to, or watching? Let us know in the comments.

Ten rules for writing fiction (part two) :: I know several of you Forum members are also fiction writers. Here's a refreshingly insightful collection of writing tips from established authors.

Iconic TV ::
"Created out of a love for posters, modernism and television, there
wasn't a client out there to commission such a job so Austrian designer
Albert Exergian wrote his own brief and created this self initiated
series of posters throwing all of the above inspirations into the
creative melting pot."

6 Ways to Optimize Your SEO for Misspellings - And Why It Pays to be a Bad Speller :: "it turns out that a significant percentage of web users are sloppy with their language - particularly when using search engines like Google. There are around 10 million misspelled search queries every single day."

How Much Should I Charge? [PDF] :: Suggested rates for freelance writers based on a survey.

A Little Less Conversation :: "Have you ever invited employees to a meeting just so they wouldn't feel left out? If so, you may be an overcommunicator."

The Brand Quiz :: Two colors, a visual hint, and a cryptic clue.

What Type Are You? :: A video quiz created by the always-innovative Pentagram. Happy Friday, fellow typography nerds.


Finally, who was at Ignite Minneapolis last night?

Link roundup, 1.26.10

From board member Peggy Rader:

Every week we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Maybe you've heard of Stamats as a group that offers seminars and webinars. It also has a great Web site chock full of downloadable articles, how-tos, etc. Always worth a visit when you're looking for specific advice or just have a free 30 minutes.

Another communications group that has an excellent Web site is Ragan's. You have to register for some of this site's content, but it's free. They carry blogs by various members that offer interesting reading and send out a once-weekly e-mail with a summary of what they feel is fresh on their pages. They also offer videos and downloadable papers.

And for all you book lovers out there, may I suggest Shelf Awareness, the Web site for a daily newsletter aimed at independent booksellers. Yes, I know you aren't selling books, so I don't advise subscribing to the newsletter. But the site includes those groovy newsletter features without the boring bits: interviews with and profiles of authors, plus excellent book reviews of books that you may not find in the New York Times columns. The newsletter editor also writes the occasional essay about some aspect of the book business that I always find fascinating and enlightening.

Monday link roundup, 1.18.10

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

I found a couple interesting articles:

• Employers Using Social Networks To Screen Employees


• Social Media and Internet Trends for 2010

Monday link roundup, 1.11.10

It's a quick one this week, so help me out: What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

• How to use an apostrophe -- comic from The Oatmeal
  


• Stop using stock photography clichés -- "We should refuse to use one more photograph of business men shaking hands or ethnically diverse people laughing together."

Monday link roundup, 12.28.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Design

• The Book Cover Archive
  "for the appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design." I'm especially loving the cover of You Are Not A Gadget (pictured).
  


• The Color of 2010
  Make way for Pantone 15-5519 TCX

Web

• The Content Strategist as Digital Curator
  "In this way, the content-strategist-as-curator is the invaluable human
  presence. They play the role of the guide (docent) by proposing topics
  for discussion."


• There is no page fold
  A subject about which many feel strongly. Duke it out in the comments.

Monday link roundup, 11.23.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

• Beats and Tweets: Journalistic Guidelines for the Facebook Era
  
• Good Bloggers Make Good Neighbors, New Survey Shows
  
• Seven roles of the intranet home page
  
• How Consultant and In-House Content Folks Can Play Nice
  

Monday link roundup, 11.9.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Web

• You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners
  
• Don't lose your identity - Create an effective print style sheet
  


• Microformats: What, How, and Why
  

Other

• Obama's first job: Newsletter editor
  


• Periodic table of typefaces
• Good information design is Interesting, Easy, Beautiful, True
  

Monday link roundup, 11.2.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Web

• HTML5: The Basics
  


• Confusing menus and links: the web's biggest challenge
• 12 Cool Ideas from Event Apart Chicago 2009
• Reunifying duplicate content on your website
  

Social networking

• A sharecount button for Facebook
  


• I'm loving the new Twitter Lists feature

Writing

• The Art of Persuasive Writing ...based on bank robbers' notes
  

My reading (and thus my links) lacked subject-diversity this week, so tell us about what you've been reading in the comments.

Monday Link Roundup, 10-26-09

I feel lucky that my work in the College of Liberal Arts allows me to dig into current issues in the arts, humanities and social sciences. In particular, I get to interact with faculty working in ethnic studies, human rights and global cultural literacy, among many others. Therefore, I try to keep up on higher ed issues that intersect with the lives and work of our faculty. Some picks:

The Academy Speaks: Current Affairs and Issues in Higher Education and its partner Web site, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

I also like to follow blogs that connect me to media and public relations practitioners, with an eye to both best and worst practices. Being a typical snarky Gen Xer, I especially enjoy Bad Pitch.

And writing! It's true when they say in order to get better you just have to keep doing it. I
think these are great:

You better be reading Writing Matters! We've had Leslie O'Flahavan of E-Write here for our conference, and we loved her!

Copyblogger: Copywriting tips for online marketing success

10,000 Words: Where Journalism and Technology Meet

Monday link roundup, 10.12.09

From board member Tricia Conway:

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications
news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading,
listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week. This week, I'm escaping reality
through writing and though I'd share some sites I've found. Happy
writing!

Writing links

• National Novel Writing Month


• Writing.com


• WritersCafe.org

What are you reading?

• Herta Müller

Helpful link

• The Loft Literary Center

Member recommendation

• Forum member Jake LaSota recommends Prezi, saying "It's like powerpoint...on crack." Thanks Jake!

Monday link roundup, 10.5.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Time management

• Email management: 10 rules for taking back control of your inbox
  

Web

• Things to ask before you redo your website
• Using named anchors to identify sections on your pages
  

Social media

• Who blogs?

Fun

• The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Monday link roundup, 9.14.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Accessibility

• Ten Tips for Creating Usable and Accessible PDFs

Web

• Operators of .Edu Domain Plan to Boost Security


• Wireframes for the Wicked - Presentation from SXSW


• See what your site looks like in various versions of Internet Explorer or in a text-based browser.

PR

• 10 online resources for today's PR pro

Social media

• Ning Apps Launch Across 1.5 Million Ning Networks
• 10 People You Won't See on Twitter Anymore - good riddance, squatters and spammers!
  


• How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live - a few months old, but good

Fun

• The Rather Difficult Font Game
• Cheese or Font? - hat tip to Lisa Marshall
  


• Tiny Art Director - His art director is four years old.