Sean McManus's Blog
10th birthday update: accessibility, affiliate marketing and more
11 February 2007
This site celebrates its tenth birthday round about now and to mark the occasion I've given it a spring clean. Some content has been removed, but nothing you're likely to miss (do tell me if I'm wrong - perhaps I'll bring it back again). I've improved the design, particularly the navigation. It should be easier to explore and find what you're looking for now.
I've also added lots of new/old stuff from my archives.
I wrote, I think, the first big story in a UK web design magazine about accessibility, published in Internet Magazine in 2000. Today any decent website designer is aware of accessibility, but back then few people were interested. The editor at another magazine turned down a pitch on the subject, saying it was a minority issue of no interest to businesses.
Over the years, awareness of accessibility has increased. But I know many people still struggle to understand why they should and how they can create a more inclusive website. And I know a lot of designers can't be arsed, and their clients, who are ultimately responsible for the accessibility of the sites they buy, let them get away with it.
I've now added some of my later articles explaining accessibility to my webmaster tutorials. I hope that they will inspire more people to consider users with disabilities in their website designs, and will provide some helpful guidance on eliminating the biggest barriers.
The accessibility stories (new and old) are:
- Jakob Nielsen on why accessibility matters
- 17 Steps to an accessible website
- Access? That'll do nicely
- Making Flash accessible
- Accessibility Excellence - case studies of three accessible websites
- Tesco launches visionary website
In the journalism resources section, there's a new article about writing for the web.
The quality of the scans of rock and pop photos has been dramatically improved, and this is now reflected where they are used in the music articles too. My list of places where you can promote your music has also been refreshed.
Finally, there's a new gallery of photos of Sydney, Australia. One of my pictures of the Opera House was part of an architecture exhibition in Paris last year. There's a much cleaner scan of that too.
If you want to see what the first version of this site looked like, there's a screenshot of this site from 1997 here. It would have looked right at home on geocities.
Here's to the next ten years. Cheers!
Labels: photography, site news, webdesign, writing
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Happy Christmas
21 December 2006
Ho Ho Ho! Well, it's nearly Christmas, so here are the links to the two Christmas games I made for my advent calendar for those who missed them:
The advent calendar will stay online for a bit, and you can go back and browse any days you missed.
Thank you for supporting this site during 2006. I wish you a happy Christmas and hope to welcome you here again next year.
Labels: site news
New: RSS feed
02 November 2006
I've added an RSS feed to this site, so that you can keep up with this blog from the comfort of your own news reader. RSS readers enable you to gather headlines and content from different sources in one place. The latest version of Google Reader is free and well worth checking out.
JournalismCareers.com: Author promotion article plus discount coupon
13 October 2006
Following my talk for the Society of Authors in February, I've written an article for the society's magazine 'The Author' (Autumn 2006 issue). It's a beginner's guide to setting up a website, aimed at authors. It includes links to helpful resources and some guidelines on the cost of operating a website. The emphasis is on simple, cheap and practical tools. You can read it at the JournalismCareers.com website now.
For a limited time, readers of this blog can benefit from an exclusive discount of 25% off my ebook 'Journalism Careers - Your questions answered'. The ebook answers 64 top questions I've been asked about working as a journalist by visitors to my websites. Spread over 108 pages, it includes plenty of practical advice for those starting out or looking to switch careers. It's designed for comfortable reading on screen but can also be printed. Bonus material includes time planning sheets, a commission checklist, and a 19-point article quality checklist. The ebook usually costs £8.95 or US$15.95 before the discount (sales tax may apply). To benefit from the discount, enter the code SEAN-2F1Q when prompted. The coupon expires on 12 November 2006. This is the only price discount that has ever been offered on this ebook and it is not available through other websites.
Wild Mood Swings relaunched
30 July 2006
Way back in 1998, I created the first version of 'Wild Mood Swings', a toy that lets you pick your mood and then whisks you off to an appropriate website for that mood. I relaunched the site in February 2003, with its own website at www.wildmoodswings.co.uk. It's been described as like a mini-Stumbleupon by users of that popular social bookmarking site and has surprisingly been bookmarked with the tag 'Web 2.0' at del.icio.us. It's also been submitted to digg a couple of times without me noticing.
Those proper Web 2.0 sites are great ways to discover new online experiences. The difference with WMS is that it has one editorial voice, and the moods used to reach the websites don't always describe them. If you're feeling sad, for example, you're more likely to be taken to a site to cheer you up than a site full of misery. There's also a high standard of quality control, so that all the clicks should be worthwhile in some way.
I've just refreshed the site, introducing over 65 new moods and online experiences. I've also changed the mood attributed to some of the older experiences that are still in there, so if you're a regular visitor you might spot what appears to be duplication for a short time. There's a new Google search box on the page too, so it's more suitable for setting as a browser start page.
Wild Mood Swings: How do you want to feel today?
Labels: site news
Copyright matters
25 March 2006
I'm going to stick my head over the parapet now and write something unpopular: Copyright matters.
I know it's trendy nowadays to be all loved-up and say 'hey, man, let the data flow free like a river'. I have great respect for the work of the open source movement, and for the work of the Creative Commons. But just because some people choose to relinquish some of their legal rights, it doesn't mean everybody else should be forced to.
As you might know, I'm pretty defensive of my copyrights. In this post I'll explain some of the reasons why.
Creators should choose how stuff is used
One of the issues that is often overlooked is one of choice. Even a Creative Commons licence gives you a choice over which rights you give away. You can, for example, say content is free to use provided it's not modified or that it can be used only in non-commercial projects.But a problem with the Creative Commons model is that it assumes you want to assign permission based on usage, and not on who is making that use. I'm pretty politically aware, and there are some organisations that I would never grant permission to use my creative work. I would never want my work to be used against the causes I believe in. There are even individuals with whose views I disagree to the extent that I wouldn't want to actively help them. The law gives me the right to choose on a case-by-case basis who can and can't use my work.
This has nothing to do with free speech, by the way: Just because I respect and defend your right to express your views, it doesn't mean I should help you express them.
Time matters
Anyone want to mow my lawn for free? Go on. I'll tell everyone you did a great job. I thought not.Time is the scarcest resource we have. Some of us will have more than others (we won't know how much until the end), but we've all got the same number of hours in the day, and days in the week. Working out how to spend it is what life's all about. Respecting how people spend their time is respecting their lives.
Over the last (nearly) ten years, I have spent a lot of time making content and building this website. Content is quick to consume, but slow to create. Writing games takes days. Writing an article can take half a day, once research is factored in. Even taking and scanning photographs is a fairly big job, even before we've factored in the time taken travelling to places to photograph. And let's not even start talking about how long it takes to write a book.
Don't get me wrong - I love it. That's why I do it. But if I've spent my limited life force making things instead of watching TV, it seems only fair that I choose who benefits from that. The law gives me the right to exercise control over how my work is used.
Derivative works are just that
A derivative work is when you take one thing, and then build upon it to make another thing. It's a more creative endeavour than just copying something, and the people who create the derivative work often add value. But they often cause problems too, and I have a right in law to decide who can and can't make derivative works from my material.There are corners of the internet where people are still cursing me in a foreign language following a dispute over an unauthorised translation of one of my articles. I know that the translator who broke copyright law was only trying to make some ideas more widely available, but the end result could be the exact opposite. Now that I've had the exclusive translation rights stolen from me for that language, I can't license a major publisher to use it (which would have potentially communicated the ideas much more widely). For the record, I tried to reach a compromise where I published the translated version on this website but the translator was unresponsive. The article has been pulled from circulation.
Derivative works also restrict my creative freedom. If I make something, I'm free to adapt and modify it how I like. If somebody else independently alters it and makes new works, I'm having some of my creative options taken from me. Either I can't then do what they've done, or there is another work out there with which I must compete despite creating the original source material.
I do respect the time that people spend in creating derivative works, but request that they also respect the time that I spend in creating source material. If you're interested in translating content or creating derivative works, please contact me. I'll work with you if I can, but reserve my legal right to say 'no'.
Let's talk business
Just because you're not prepared to pay for something, it doesn't mean it doesn't have a value. While many people can and do set up websites for free, I actually write cheques to keep this website online. I also incur real money costs creating content (software, hardware, training). I've put over 300 pages of original content online and nearly all of it is free for you to read.This is made possible by advertising, and the products I sell, including licences to use my copyright material. By charging people who want to make certain uses of my content, I'm able to publish lots more content for free. If I let people put my work on other websites for free, I end up competing with my own work for the traffic that helps pay the bills. That's the economics of it.
You might think I could avoid all that by just giving the content away, so that other people pay to host it. I can see how this might work for certain types of content. I've allowed unmodified copies of my websafe colour palette program to be circulated freely. But we come back to the control issue again (see above), so I don't allow my other work to be copied in this way.
In certain cases, I will grant a free licence to use my work. In other cases, I will make a charge. You might be surprised at how friendly I am, if you drop me a line.
Copyrights do have a commercial value and they are a part of my wealth. Anyone taking my copyright material is stealing some of my livelihood.
Credit where it's due
It's a buzz when someone says they like what you've made, or that they found it useful in accomplishing their own goals. Knowing the identity of the creator of a work also changes your perception of it. The law gives me a right to be identified as the creator of my creative works.There are a couple of common web practices which interfere with this right:
- Linking directly to images on another server. This is particularly bad because it means someone else is paying the hosting bill for images to appear on your website. At the same time, it looks like you own the content or at least like it appears there with the consent of the creator. It's not smart from the point of view of managing your own site, either. The image host can change the image that appears on your site to something unsavoury. Explain that to Mum.
- Framing content. There's a lot less of this goes on nowadays, but in the old days people used to frame other webpages, which could create the impression they were part of the same website.
I really appreciate people linking to this website to help spread the word, but please link to a HTML page and don't use frames. Don't make it look like you own my content. Ask if you don't understand or you're not sure.
Fair use
I'm not trying to restrict your rights here - just assert my own. So I don't have a problem with people reproducing short excerpts for the purpose of comment provided they're accompanied by a link to the original source. I don't have a problem with people using images from this site as their windows wallpaper on their own computer, although I do have a problem with them passing those images on to others. You're welcome to print out any material here for your own use, but not to circulate it without permission. If you're not sure what's allowed, please drop me a line.Discussion
If you've got any comments, please email me. I'll update this article with them later.For the avoidance of any doubt, none of the above and nothing in the comments grants you any rights in relation to my content. If you want to make use of my copyright material, you are required to contact me first.
There are lots of 'contact me' links in the above, because I get particularly annoyed when people don't ask. I'll negotiate if you ask. I won't, if you don't.
Labels: business, games, photography, site news, webdesign, writing
JournalismCareers.com relaunched
22 December 2005
I've relaunched JournalismCareers.com, including a new edition of the ebook which answers 64 of the most commonly asked questions about journalism. The relaunch includes a fresher design and new content (including some fun stuff).The new edition of the ebook comes with bonus content to help you put some of the key ideas in the ebook to work. For a promotional period, the ebook price has been discounted by a pound.
I set up JournalismCareers.com as a response to the many questions I was receiving by email from people who were researching journalism as a career. The site first launched in August 2003.
Virtual Newspaper updated
26 October 2005
I've updated the Virtual Newspaper. As well as having breaking news from the BBC and IT news site The Register, it's got a new dictionary search and a daily sudoku puzzle.
Labels: site news
Radio Sean.co.uk launches
23 October 2005
I've lost count of how much time I've spent lovingly creating mix tapes over the years and it recently occurred to me that the idea could be extended online. What if I could create a compilation of great online music I've found, and enable it all to be accessed from one place using a simple Flash interface? With today's launch of Radio Sean.co.uk, I've done just that.
Listeners benefit because they can listen to a consistent programme of hand-picked music, skip tracks they don't like, and discover new acts. There are links to all the band websites so listeners can get more music by acts they like. There's no DJ banter, so the listening experience is much like playing a CD.
Bands benefit from extra exposure and from being played in a radio-like context where the idea of listening to the programme has already been sold. They don't have to convince anyone to download anything to hear their music.
You'll need Macromedia Flash Player for it to work and broadband for best results.
As of now, there are ten tracks from eight acts with a few more pencilled in to be added. All the acts included have given their permission.
Why not pop over and have a listen and tell me what you think?
I've also posted Fifteen top music promotion tips today.
Virtual Sean updated
17 July 2005
In December 2000, I wrote an article for Internet Magazine about creating virtual helpers and avatars for your website. Since then, Virtual Sean has been chatting with visitors on this site, using both on-screen text and a free speech plug-in.
The cartoon I drew of myself five years ago doesn't look very much like me any more, and I've always wanted to return and improve the interactivity. Now I've given Virtual Sean a makeover using graphics from Janina Norn's South Park Studio. I've also added in animation and given his language skills a boost.A blog is born
26 June 2005
There are two reasons for starting this blog.
Firstly, the Blogger tool will make it easier to make quick changes to this site. Cutting the time spent on maintenance will free up more time for content creation. Which, at the end of the day, is the whole point of having a website.
Secondly, a blog is an ideal 'dustbin' for all the ideas and postings that don't have a more natural home to go to on this site. This includes short opinion pieces and 'what's new'. It will also enable me to document work in progress on bigger projects.
Although the comments section can be the most dynamic part of a blog, I'm not accepting them at the moment. It's too open to abuse and spamming and I don't want the burden of checking everything, otherwise the first reason for creating a blog will have been defeated. I hope to enable comments at some stage in future.
Labels: site news