Heaton Park 43

Originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia

Taken at Heaton Park, Prestwich, Greater Manchester, in April 2009.

Horses at Clifton Marina

Originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia

The photo dates back to the summer of 2002 when I visited England for the first time ever.

The comments about FB pages not working began to come in to a discussion board on 13th of March. Complaints were, as follows:

• page updates not showing up in the News feed;
• external RSS feeds not automatically feeding into Pages/Notes;
• updates being sent to fans not as email messages, which understandably diminishes the outreach;
• irregularly updated Insights.

For full thread of comments, go here: Page Updates Not Showing Up In News Feeds.

Complaining issues were also left in Notes application by those who noticed that RSS feeds directed into Notes are not automatically updated.

While this adds to all the problems Facebook has already encountered over the privacy issues and the interface changes, what I find to be the most surprising is the lackadaisical reaction on the part of Facebook to this issue. Or to put it even more bluntly, no reaction at all. Whilst I allow for all sorts of possibilities, what I cannot take in is the fact that the lessons that we, as Social Media people, teach each other and those who listen, are being openly defied. It has nearly been two weeks since 13th of March, but the thread to which I linked above still has not seen a comment from Facebook staff about the reason, the state of the issue, and the plans to resolve it.

I sent a message yesterday to Mark Zuckerberg about this, saying:

I think it really is odd that no-one of your team has yet responded to what seems to be more important in terms of business communication than the changes made to profiles. Pages of different fan base sizes are being affected by the issue, so we would all be very grateful if you could help resolve this.

Now, there is obviously a way for me to update the page manually. Unfortunately, this does not take away the uneasy feeling of things being done entirely at discretion – including publishing the news about potential setbacks of business-related services. Frankly speaking, I may be one of those who do not mind the recent changes, but I do mind the lagging response to the highlighted issues.

So, check if your Facebook Page is working OK,  and if not, consider joining this group: Admins affected by the recent Page to Public Profile change.

Southport – The Old Bank

Originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia

On my recent visit to Stockport, I was both amused and fascinated by the way additional banners were placed on the existing banners at the Old Bank. “The Old Ban” that came out in one instance was particularly amusing.

Princess Street

Originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia

I took this picture in October last year when my friend and I were walking from Manchester Art Gallery towards Castlefield. One thing I never do to my pictures (well, partly because I’m terribly bad at it) is editing them in PhotoShop. Any light, shadows and movement I catch are “original”, and I try and keep the camera settings as “natural” as possible.

In this picture we look down Princess St. One of Manchester’s central streets, it runs from the Town Hall past Chinatown towards the Gay Village. Here I caught it half a month before the Christmas lights went on, so you see the giftboxes hanging down. But I chose it for a different reason. I love the light in this picture, which is anything but autumnal or wintery. It reminds me of spring, and what could be a better way to send the greetings on the first day of spring (or March, at least) to all of you?

OK, it has taken me longer than I myself expected because I thought that I needed to change the DNS settings whereas I actually only needed to cancel the domain forwarding. Now, it is all resolved, and here is the new Avidadollars: http://www.avidadollars.com/. The feed address that you may be very kind to follow is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/avidadollars/New. That place will feature my [expert, no doubt ] views on Online Marketing and Social Media, particularly blogging. The museum articles will also now be appearing there. It also includes an updated CV.

As for the old and much-loved WP Avidadollars, it will continue to have its place under the virtual sun. I started it nearly two years ago, and as you can imagine it would be a shame to lose 2 years’ worth of search history.

Last but not least, many thanks for following me, staying with me, reading me, and sending all the lovely comments at the turn of 2008/2009. See you again!

2008 has seen many well-known platforms notching up their interfaces, and as for me, I’ve moved my blogs around. Some of them went to their own domains. And as I told you before, this was going to happen to this WordPress blog. But, as you know, it hasn’t.

It will happen before the end of this year, but this is what the working knowledge of various platforms gives you: the ability to make an informed decision of whether or not to continue staying at the same home. I have never yet hosted any of my websites or blogs on my own server, and this is unlikely to happen in the very near future. I am still tied to WordPress own hosting platform, but that places strong limits on my opportunities. For one, I cannot use JavaScript analytics tools, and I don’t have access to the CSS. Even a Java FeedBurner isn’t allowed. This may sound like not a big deal – I could only start hosting the blog on my own server. But when you consider that Blogger and LiveJournal offer you free hosting, and TypePad offers free hosting once you purchased an account, one really has to ask why WP couldn’t do the same. Even to move a blog to its own domain is a huge problem: not only do you have to purchase a domain credit, you also have to ensure that this domain is without ‘www’. OK, LiveJournal doesn’t really let you play around with CSS in the same way as Blogger or TypePad do, but the above three platforms do favourably stand out in comparison to WordPress.

The fact that I cannot alter the WP-hosted blog’s CSS or add Java and Flash widgets means that I have no way of seeing the ROI of this portfolio. Fair enough, I don’t earn money from the presented articles (again, even if I wanted to, the way WP operates, I wouldn’t be able to earn a penny unless I obtained my own hosting first). However, the ROI of a non-commercial blog that utilises an RSS consists of a readers’ count, outgoing clicks stats, and of the ability to see and analyse such important metrics, as keywords. I am using an HTML version of StatCounter, which, combined with WP’s internal statistics, can help at unveiling the visitors’ behaviour. But this isn’t enough, and doubtless, very time-consuming, especially when compared to the opportunities of a Java counter.

For the same reason, I cannot display a FeedBurner RSS icon, hence I have no idea how big the readership is. I could turn a blind eye to this insofar as this blog has been a practically static website. But as I am planning to use it more for blogging and marketing myself as a copywriter, translator and Search Engine Marketing consultant, I therefore need access to this statistics. The fact that my Twitter posts don’t get displayed also puts me off. I cannot register this blog to BlogCatalog that has been a good source of traffic and connections for me. In addition, although I have been using Akismet Spam protection since 2007, the amount of spam comments I’d received on WordPress is staggering in comparison to either Blogger or TypePad. In short, however, the impossibility of using JavaScript and Flash widgets in WordPress-hosted blog is the reason why I decided to move to a TypePad-hosted blog.

However, I chose not to move the entire site, as the majority of content has been here for nearly 2 years. In addition, it’s good to stay in tune with the happenings at WordPress, and this is generally not possible without a working blog account. So, I will republish the work-related pages to a new website and create a comprehensive list of backlinks to the articles on this blog. I will continue using avidadollars.wordpress.com, probably as a photo blog. But otherwise my copywriter/translator/SEM professional’s home will relocate to TypePad.

I will keep you posted re: the new blog’s address.

In the first week of December I went to Birmingham, and one my destinations was the Birmingham Musem and Art Gallery that houses the works of some leading Pre-Raphaelites. Taught by experience, I asked about the photography. Yes, I had to fill out the form again, but this time the rules were set out in more detail, although once more there is a clause or two that may potentially be difficult to interpret even for the staff themselves:

1. Any copyrights (including publication rights) created in the photographic materials produced under the conditions stated below are reassigned to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

2. Any photography is for personal reference only. No permission for any reproduction rights of any kind is granted or may be assumed. Permission for reproduction rights should be applied for, in writing, to the Picture Library. Each case will be evaluated independently.

3. Any work, which is protected by the artists’ copyright, may not be photographed without the permission of the copyright holder.

4. Any works on loan, including temporary exhibitions, may not be photographed.

5. Flash photography is permitted unless otherwise specified.

6. The use of professional photographic equipment is prohibited. Tripods and monopods may not be used under any circumstances.

7. Video cameras or camcorders may not be used under any circumstances. Filming is prohibited.

Fair enough, reading these rules may put an intrepid visitor off taking pictures in the gallery altogether. However, the first two points just further reinforce what I have highlighted in the previous post on the question of reproduction. The problem is seemingly not only about a picture’s commercial use, but about the multiplicity of such uses. Naturally, if the photo is included in a book, it will be reproduced as many time as the book. For this, it is essential to apply for a permission to a museum.

Regarding the 3rd point, my feeling is that this needs to be discussed with the copyright holder before their work actually gets to be displayed. This is something that many professional artists’ and photographers’ websites tend to lose the sight of. By creating a website and making it public, they by default agree that this information can be shared. It is the same as with the printed word: if it was printed, you cannot stop people from quoting it. This is not to say that their work can be reproduced for commercial purposes by other people, but this should mean that a blogger may wish to not only write about them and give a link to their website, but also to include an image in the post, to illustrate why it would be good to visit the website at all.

Likewise, when an artist is displaying their work at the museum or gallery where photography is generally permitted, they have to be aware that a visitor can upload a taken photo online. It makes every sense to restrict this, on the one hand; but, on the other hand, the world has grown bigger with the Internet, and this potentially means that artists, especially young, may find it more and more difficult to compete with other artists and to assert themselves in the world. Social Media tools, and particularly photosharing, will facilitate this to an extent.

With loaned works and temporary exhibitions, I feel the galleries would need to spare some resources to clearly display the permission signs in such spaces of the gallery. As more and more often galleries intercept the regular display with a temporary exhibition, it is difficult for a visitor to understand where a photography permission ends and where it resumes again.

Regarding the specialist photography permission, this is a good point and the one that I think can be reinforced to avoid the taken photos being reproduced to a commercial end. This is how the Brooklyn Museum defines their stance on photography in the gallery:

Photography and videography are allowed in the Museum so long as the images are taken using existing light only (no flash) and are for personal, non-commercial use. Photography and videography are often restricted in special exhibition galleries.

Add to this also that many paintings are displayed under the glass, hence the photographic image of a painting in the gallery space can be far from ideal for reproduction.

A different take on photography and videography in the museum comes from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. As you need to purchase tickets to view the collection, you can also purchase a permission to make photos or videos in the museum. The website explains that there are warning pictograms in the halls where it is not permitted to take photos or to use flash. I did use this permission once myself in 2002, and this was great to show the museum to my parents who happened to have never visited the Hermitage.

The question rises, of course: why would I film, and not buy a video cassette or a DVD? Well, we all count our pennies, and on my memory even 6 years ago it was cheaper to pay for a photography pass rather than to buy a DVD set. I have been taking a notice of what people photograph and film, and I have never seen any of them making a complete record of the collection. If any of the readers have been to the Hermitage, they vividly imagine the sheer grandeur of the place: you would not know what to photograph because there is too much to see, and all too splendid! They say it takes 5 hours to quickly run through the entire Hermitage (i.e. only stopping at a few paintings), so imagine the weight of this on your photo- or videocamera. But what the Hermitage achieving with this is very valuable. On the one hand, they allow people to create a personal record of a visit to this art depository, a historic monument, and one of the most beautiful sights in the world altogether. On the other hand, by asking for a small fee for a photography permit they also bring in money to the museum.