The Start Of A New Year

IT’S THE start of a new year, a new decade. A chance to review the last 365 days and plan, or attempt to plan, for the next.

Sure enough, there’s a lot I’m going to do this year between work, theatre, travel, music, business as usual really.

What I missed throughout the year was a regular sense of blogging, something I’ve thorougly enjoyed over the past five years and something I plan to return to with much more vested interest in 2010.

For now, it’s the first day of a new year and those reading this I will assume are both alive and well. That’s the way it should be

To each and all I hope the new year does you well and you the same. Get up and get out, get on with your projects, turn your hobby into something new, open new doors and meet new faces. All the time while you’re doing it, have a blast as well.

K

Blogging For Beginners Hits The Spot(light)

Last May I was asked to give a Blogging For Beginners course to a number of ArtLinks members, the primary focus being on blogging from an arts perspective.

While the meat of the day was in the actual talking and conversation part (as more often than not is the case), I had put some slides together as a handout for the eighteen or so who attended. Cathy Fitzgerald has been working away on getting the ArtLinks courses online over Christmas and the Blogging For Beginners presentation on Slideshare is currently the featured presentation in the careers section.

You can view / download the slides here.

Another one on ‘Getting Ahead In The Music Industry’, a talk myself and some of the KKM crew ran in Wicklow in November 2007 should be making its way online in the next few days.

Some of the presentation may indeed be dated at this stage but will get a revamp soon enough.

Wordpress 2.5 Is Live And Wild (Plus Popularity Contest Notes)

Update April 5th: Download patched version of plugin here.. Note you’ll still need to make the database changes if you don’t have the tables already in place.

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The long awaited Wordpress 2.5 has been released. In fairness, some of the advances in WP2.5 are as great that it could well have been labelled Wordpress 3.0 but who’s to argue with version numbers.

Before rolling out upgrades across a number of my own blogs and blogs I manage for others, I’ve been doing the precautionary thing of testing WP2.5 locally with a variety of homemade themes and some of my regular plugins.

Plugin Issues

So far I’ve only found an issue with with Alex King’s Popularity Contest plugin – if you try to activate the plugin under WP2.5, for the moment, you’ll see it triggers a fatal error. This can be fixed as outlined here

Open popularity-contest.php and scroll down to line 59. Replace require(’../../wp-blog-header.php’); with require(’../wp-blog-header.php’);

However, in running the plugin locally I found that after making the changes in order to get the plugin to activate, it wouldn’t create the two tables needed in order to run, so these had to be entered manually (via phpMyAdmin). To create the tables, you’ll need to run the following SQL queries.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `PREFIX_ak_popularity` (
`post_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`total` int(11) NOT NULL,
`feed_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`home_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`archive_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`category_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`single_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`comments` int(11) NOT NULL,
`pingbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
`trackbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
`last_modified` datetime,
KEY `post_id` (`post_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `PREFIX_ak_popularity_options` (
`option_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`option_value` varchar(50) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

Note that PREFIX refers to your Wordpress table prefix, in most common cases it is simply wp_ unless you’ve got multiple copies of Wordpress running in the same database.

Initial Impression

Love it. I downloaded the latest SVN version only yesterday in the office though never got around to playing with it (of course not knowing the full release would hit today). The admin interface is much smoother, I’m liking the customisable dashboard (I used to edit the admin index and strip out everything bar the ‘write a post’ link and stats) and the overall colour scheme is much more appealing. I was never a visual editor user before (and won’t change in a hurry), but I do like the changes they’ve made, including the full screen option for those intensive blogging moments.

I’ll have a full play around with the gallery / media functions yet as well as making sure my other preferred plugins (sitemaps, podpress etc.) are all up to working order before doing a widescale upgrade.

You can download the latest version of Wordpress 2.5 right here. You can also see a full list of new features right here.

Blogging For (Creative) Beginners

I’ll be giving a half day beginner blogging course in Kilkenny in May under the ArtLinks banner. With details being finalised just before the weekend and rolling out with the new ArtLinks business courses being promoted for the summer, I’ll have to say I’m looking forward to giving the course and working with more creative types in Kilkenny.

That said, the course will be promoted to creative practitioners working within Kilkenny, Carlow, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow and should attract a good blend of visual artists, musicians, writers and the likes. This will be the second course I’ve been involved in putting together for ArtLinks, having facilitated a “Getting Ahead In The Music Industry” day (my 90 minute talk focusing on effective use of the web for musicians) in Wicklow last November.

For musicians who are new to blogging and don’t want to wait until May for a chat, have a gander of Kyra Reed’s recent blog post for TuneCore on Why Every Artist Needs A Blog.

It is also nice to see that the Kilkenny Arts Office have also started the ball blogging about their Artist In Residence programme at the gallery at 72 John Street.

Irish Blog Week? It’s A Busy One

The first week of March is being considered “Irish Blog Week”. Though unofficial by nature, the scheduling of some of the country’s biggest web and technology events for bloggers and podcasters alike have created one very busy week for the start of March.

Kicking things off on the first of March is the third annual Irish Blog Awards. Damien Mulley is in the driving seat again on this year’s awards show to be held in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin. The Alexander was a great venue for the awards last year and whether you’re nominated for a category or not, it makes for a great social and networking occasion. Let the hair down, have a few drinks and mark a date in the calendar that recognises the quality of bloggers of all genres in the country.

Also on the day there’s a “Ladies Tea Party” being organised by Sabrina Dent and Ina O’Murchu. This takes place in The Market Bar, about a 12 minute walk from the Alexander and is an open invite to all female bloggers in Ireland to have a gathering pre-awards show. Drop in for a few hours from 4:30pm on March 1st.

Not only is there a tea party on the day, but Red Mum is organising a meetup for photo bloggers as well, something I might try and get along to, depending on how early I can get out of Kilkenny.

On Sunday March 2nd you’ve got the third WebCamp event, to be held in Cork at the Kingsley Hotel. With talks in the morning and breakout sessions in the afternoon, the topic for the day is social network portability. Workshop fee is €50 for early bird registrations and €60 at regular cost. Full details can be found here.

If you’re hanging around Dublin after the Blog Awards then you might be interested in a gourmet brunch being organised by Deborah a.k.a. The Humble Housewife. Starting from 1pm in the Ely Wine Bar on Custom House Quay, the event is for food bloggers, fans and readers of food blogs and friends. RSVP by February 1st to lay claim to a place at the brunch.

The week continues over Monday and Tuesday as BlogTalk 2008 hits Cork, the fifth international conference on social software. Speakers include John Breslin, Gabriela Avram, Anna Rogozinska, David Cushman, Salim Ismail, Rashmi Sinha and many more.

Forward to the end of the week (Saturday March 8th) and CreativeCamp takes place in Kilkenny. Following the success of PodCamp in Kilkenny last September, it’s nice to see another event on my home soil, and another event I’m directly involved in organising alongside Keith Bohanna and Tom Corcoran. Two of the talks on the day have been confirmed so far and registration is open. You can sign up to attend here (free) and sign up to talk here (we’d love to hear you).

There’s also rumour of a bloggers’ dinner taking place in Kilkenny on Friday 7th, more on this as and when it is revealed.

Track it on Jaiku or keep up with all the links above!

Mark All As Read

I’m gearing up for a Christmas period without internet use. Podcasts will wait, blogs will wait and the world will keep on spinning.

So, over lunch today, I pressed the lovely ‘mark all as read’ button in Google Reader. Sure, I went through all my Irish blog subscriptions, skipping daily links, browsing over the meaty posts and at the end I abandoned every one of my tech blogs, podcast blogs, football blogs, music blogs by pressing that nice grey button at the top of Google Reader.

At least now maybe I’ve a chance to catch up with stuff, or keep abreast of new blog posts. I’ve been swamped in the last fortnight, flat out busy in all directions. I’ve started blogging about Euro 2008, I moved and revamped Liverpool Access (which got re-ranked on request) and behind the scenes I’ve been working more with some local bands and putting spare time into getting a plan of attack together for Devious Theatre next year.

And all the time, the unread messages count in Google Reader keeps climbing, and climbing.

It is likely that the same will happen over Christmas, a week’s worth of activity from some daily news sources can mount up. Not finding the time to pour over all my subscriptions of late I’ve been using Google Alerts, while keeping a daily eye on activity in the land of Jaiku (where I can filter subscriptions people publish).

I’m sure the mobile text alerts will keep me going over the holiday period. While I’m telling myself I’ll nip into town over Christmas for some coffees and an hour or two on the laptop, I’ll likely be more inclined to spend some time on the lake with my new kayak (arriving this Saturday) or spending time in the pub catching up with the McGuire clan.

Mark all as read – just a good a feeling as cleaning your desk before leaving the office for Christmas.

And The Blog Turned Two

I’m marking two years of kenmc.com as a blog. That in itself means I’m blogging around the two year mark overall, or actively blogging, whether through kenmc.com or any number of the other blogs I have run / am running at present.

I’ve met some terrific people over the past two years due to blogging and interaction with the blogging community in Ireland and I’ve had my eyes opened to many an experience, service, thought or otherwise as a result. I’ve been to BarCamp (Waterford), PodCamp (Kilkenny) – mind you I’ve yet to make it to an OpenCoffee – but these events I wouldn’t have heard about or become involved with if it wasn’t for blogging.

As a result of PodCamp I’m now back producing the Playlist Mix podcast, the sixth episode of which went out earlier this week. That in itself, reviving the podcast, has provided more opportunities and contacts for me musically.

To everyone who reads the blog (past and present), to new readers and to the entire Irish blogging community – thanks for continuing to inspire me to blog, to try, to test and to enjoy letting go in one of the most creative and easily accessible means of communication there is!

Now, I’m off to get a can of coke with my breakfast, do something a little different for the morning.

I’m 91% Addicted To Blogging

I answered 14 questions on Mingle2.com and it looks like I’m 91% addicted to blogging. When I look at it, its possibly a fair assumption. Found via Life Without Toast.

If its not blogging about something, its thinking about blogging about something, helping someone put together a blog or just having a general discussion about them – including last night pre gig in Paris Texas (I’m now playing music every Wednesday night in Paris Texas in Kilkenny if anyone is around for the summer) though last night’s discussion was more about the blogging future and development of KilkennyMusic.com as a music news / PR source, but that’s something for another Saturday discussion to be had.

91%…. Take the test for yourself…

Marking One Year Sports Blogging

One year ago today I launched LiverpoolAccess.com. Certainly my biggest earner in terms of ad revenue, Liverpool Access marks its first birthday today and I’m delighted to see it get to the year mark. There was one point I reached where I thought “this is too much” but enjoy blogging about the club I’ve supported since a wee lad.

Liverpool Access was born out of World Cup Access, my first soccer-related blog which covered the 2006 World Cup in Germany last summer, live blogging every single game. Once the World Cup was finished I needed something to jump into and so launched Liverpool Access in its place, World Cup Access having closed its doors completely in recent weeks following months of no activity.

Thus far on Liverpool Access I’ve managed to average just over a post a day, I’ve live blogged games, shared videos and over the course of the year been able to refine my blogging approach from more of a news-based style to personal opinion-based style which I feel is working better for me. My thanks to those who continute to read LiverpoolAccess.com on a daily basis and if you’re a Liverpool fan and not already familiar with the blog then give it a look, let me know what you think.

Intermissions This Week (I’m Away)

The blogging this week is a little stop-start. For those of you reading via RSS and who haven’t seen the note running at the top of kenmc.com or been tracking my tweets from during the week, I’m on stage every night this week with The Devious Theatre Company for our second run of Heart Shaped Vinyl in as many years.

Its been going great so far – the last two nights (public) sold out and tonight’s show is also sold out also leaving some tickets for Saturday’s run. I cut myself off from the internet around 4pm to get down to the theatre. I’ve also taken the mad step of deleting the internet profiles on my phone so I’m not tempted to check in, send emails, all of that kind of thing. Coupled with the RSS diet I started a while back its affording me some nice time to switch off! You’d sometimes forget just how much work there is in running a theatre production!

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