Martin Hofmann

a personal blog about technology, communications and other stuff that interests me

English

JAlbum update

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I love JAlbum. I downloaded it a few weeks ago because I wanted a better way to put photos on my website. Now I finally got around to trying it out. It is a fantastic program. And it is free (users can donate money if they like). JAlbum comes with the option of choosing different skins for the albums, and there is a whole “ecosystem” of people who design skins.

I have used the Fotoplayer skin for my new galleries (to see an example click here). Fotoplayer.com has a free trial version and can be upgraded to a Lite version and a Pro version, which even includes online shop capabilities for professional photographers. For a snapshot photographer like me, the trial version is enough, although I may upgrade to Lite at some point.

I keep reading about Flickr and Bubbleshare, which are easy to use and have great blog integration. What I like about JAlbum are the features, flexibility and design options. Blog integration would be nice. The Fotoplayer skin already comes with an RSS feed, so who knows what features may get added next. I also like that I can keep the photos on my own website, and don’t have to store them on Flickr or Bubbleshare. But I can see the attraction of their services. Now if the people behind Fotoplayer and JAlbum got together and offered a hosted online version… well, just a thought.

Links of note – April 7

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Do PR people need new media skills? – Good post by Tom Murphy on “what skills and knowledge do practitioners need to effectively communicate with their audience(s) using traditional and new media tools”.

Media Relations Measurement System launching – David Jones announces the launch of a new “Media Relations Rating Points system” in Toronto on April 20. The system has been created by by the National Measurement Committee of the Canadian Public Relations Society. More info will be available on the new MRP blog.

Being nice goes a long way

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Rick Segal wrote a post about his experience with Canadian immigration officers at the airport: “More often then not ‘Welcome back’ or ‘Welcome home’ is the norm when rolling into Canada.”

It reminded me that last week was my sixth anniversary as a landed immigrant and permanent resident in Canada. When I arrived at Pearson Airport in March 2000 with my immigration papers in my hand and a lot of nervousness in my eyes, the customs officer grabbed the papers and shook my hands while shouting “welcome to Canada, glad to have you here!” Could anyone ask for a better beginning to a new life in a new country?

Rick Segal says just being nice is a good start. I agree. And it can help others get off to a great start. 

Want to build an online community? Start the printing press

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OpinioI like what my German hometown paper NGZ is doing. They have embraced blogging and are taking it a step further in a  back-to-the-future kind of way. NGZ and sister publication Rheinische Post launched a “reader-to-reader” portal called Opinio in early 2005. Readers can post their own articles about a broad range of topics. More than a year later, they have contributed 14,000 articles.

The kicker is that editors select the best articles and publish them once a week in the print edition of the newspapers and every two weeks in a dedicated magazine supplement. The prospect of having their own words and photos appear in print seems to appeal to many people, and is an additional incentive to join the Opinio online community.

Opinio was developed by Boogie Medien for Rheinische Post. If you know of other newspapers with similar ideas let me know. Here in Canada, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the National Post all do something or other with blogs on their sites now, and all three employ journalists who have started personal weblogs related to their beat. But it would be interesting to see a Canadian newspaper launch a blog-to-print portal like Opinio.  

 

The Sleuth’s surprising online success: it’s no mystery

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Just reading through the March edition of The Merchant of Menace, the newsletter of Toronto mystery bookstore Sleuth of Baker Street. It includes an online success story of its own. The Sleuth started an online store a few months ago. According to the newsletter, the owners were surprised about the number of non-mysteries that people ordered through their online shop.

Being a Sleuth customer myself, I think there’s a simple reason. The Sleuth is a great specialized store with outstanding customer service, which includes staff with passion, real knowledge and insights about the authors and books they sell. Those qualities are hard to find in the age of mega bookstores and online-only retailers, and they deserve support. Buying non-mysteries through the Sleuth’s online store is easy and convenient, and an additional way for happy customers to support an independent book store.

The online shop is powered by Canadian software TBM BookManager, which – according to its website – helps more than 400 bookstores across Canada and internationally. The first version of the point-of-sale software came out in 1986, and twenty years later it has a database of more than four million titles and added functionality that lets independent book stores create their own online store.

It may not be the type of Internet business that gets Web 2.0 enthusiasts excited. But to me, this is what much of the power of the Internet is really about – making self-service easy and simple for the interests of individuals and niche markets.

There’s an interview with TBM BookManager founder and president Michael Neil in the March print edition of book trade magazine “Quill and Quire”. I’ll see if I can pick up a copy next time I am in The Sleuth.