ptvGuy

RSS Feed Homepage

Localizing Beyond PBS: An Open Proposal
2006-12-09 17:43:01
Introduction In one of its most brilliant decisions ever, PBS decided to downplay itself as a national entity in favor of extending the perceived reach of every one of its local member stations. (Web: best medium for local/national convergence?) In other words, PBS in Medford, Oregon IS SOPTV, PBS in Redding, Cali fornia IS KIXE, and PBS in your local town or city IS your local station. This doesn't just happen on-air, it extends online as well. When a local station website links to a PBS program site like Frontline or Nova, it uses station-linking code to pass its station identification to that site which in turn dynamically generates a localized version of that page complete with a backlinked station logo and localized broadcast information. The end result for the user is that their local station website and the PBS.org national site (the most popular dot org site on the planet) work together as a single, cohesive unit creating the perception that they are one whole site....
More About: Proposal , Open , Local , Beyond

Please DO Feed the Sites: What Is RSS?
2006-12-09 17:43:01
Before I begin this discussion explaining RSS to you as if I were this fount of knowledge that clearly recognized its value from the very first moment I saw it, the fact is that my initial impression after a cursory look-over several years ago was that it was only useful to blogs and news-oriented sites. Outside of syndicating teasers of news headlines and blog posts, not a single aspect of its current usage occurred to me, and I never expected it to become an indispensable part of standard web development or to redefine the web as I knew it. So, if you can forgive me that incredible oversight, then we can get on with this… To explain what RSS is and why it has everyone so excited, let me just start out on common ground with something we already know, a traditional website. Traditionally, a website contained whatever content may have been put on it and that content may be static or may change constantly. The problem here has always been that a user had no way of knowing ...
More About: Site , What , Sites , Hat , Feed

Please DO Feed the Sites: Introduction
2006-12-09 17:43:01
It's been pointed out to me recently, and rightly so, that although I've been telling everyone how important it is to have and promote and use RSS feeds for their sites, I haven't stopped to explain anything about how one would actually go about doing that. Personally, I recommend the use of RSS Pixy Dust, but, if you don't happen to have that available, it gets a little more complicated. I've decided that the best way to provide a useful explanation that will satisfy the most people is to break the whole thing up into a series of articles that I'm calling “Please DO Feed the Site s.” In this way, people can look for the parts they need, and, if I should miss something, I can just tag it on later as an extra part. Currently, I have it planned as follows: Part 1: Introduction (You're reading it now.) Part 2: What Is RSS? Part 3: Creating Outgoing Feeds Part 4: Using Incoming Feeds If I can get the time (and there's enough i...
More About: Sites

Getting the Word Out On Web Standards and Accessibility
2006-12-09 17:43:01
Let's face it, we live in a world where any high school kid with a semester course in "web design" (if even that much training) and a copy of Frontpage can hang out a virtual shingle calling himself (or herself) a "webmaster." Factor Word Press into that with its five-minute install and innumerable themes and you have a job title glutted with people who don't know the first thing about what they're doing. An amazingly large number of otherwise intelligent business people are entrusting their entire web presence to such as these. The general public's lack of knowledge in this area only serves to exacerbate the problem. Without any foreseeable way to prevent this practice from continuing and growing exponentially, those of us who care are left with the onus of attempting to educate these fledgling webmasters about the need for good coding practices, accessibility, and web standards. I know, many of you have been doing that for years already, but...
More About: Standards , Standard , Access , Anda

Beta Testing and the New PBS Web Modules
2006-12-09 17:43:01
The recent spate of new web content modules coming out of PBS (and beyond) has me thinking about the need for beta testers. For those of you that may never have given it a try, beta-testing is the process of testing something out before it's ready for release to the general public. It can be quite interesting whether it's software or a new web module. It gives you a chance to not only critique someone else's work, but to sharpen your coding skills and offer suggestions for refinement. It makes you a part of the work. The biggest kick for me, however, is getting to play around with all the newest toys before anyone else even gets to see them. There are a few important things to remember when beta-testing PBS modules for your station site. The first and most important of these is to test it on a working version of your actual station website as it would run under normal conditions (although in a nonpublic area protected from search bots and perhaps requiring a passwo...
More About: Beta , Testing , The N , Sting , Test

The Illusion of Accelerated Dialup
2006-12-09 17:43:01
BEWARE: Web developer letting off steam. Read at your own risk. Okay, I've had it. I'm tired of telling people that what they're seeing on their screen isn't really what my site looks like. I'm tired of explaining to site users that I did not populate my site with sucky graphics. In point of fact, I'm sick and tired of the entire concept of "Accelerate d Dialup " that ISPs have been selling for years. It's a myth, an illusion people; it doesn't exist. Now, I realize, of course, that my audience here is primarily web developers and that this isn't anything they don't already know, but I just can't stand it anymore. I'm sure you understand my need for a rant here. I'm over at a friend's house or a get-together or something. Someone walks up to me and says something like, "I just heard that you handle such-and-such website." I straighten up and get prepared to receive the unsolicited commendations I'm...
More About: Illusion , Sion , Rate

Internet Explorer 7: Is Your Site Ready?
2006-12-09 17:43:01
Potentially more exciting than the arrival of a new phonebook is the planned automatic update of Microsoft's web browser, Inter net Explorer. If you haven't already heard about it–and I'm sure that most of you have–Microsoft is planning to release the first major upgrade to Internet Explorer since IE6 in 2001. With many new features, security upgrades, and changes to the core software itself, it's a totally new browser that will suddenly be the primary browser of a good 70% or more of your audience. Is your site ready for that? If you don't know for sure, now's the time to find out. Those of us that routinely use other browsers or check our sites out in multiple browsers will find a lot of very familiar things integrated into IE7. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm happy for the changes and improvements they've made, but on the other, I find it annoying that a majority of non-technically-oriented web users will thi...
More About: Site , Your

Frontline's Frontline Video
2006-12-09 17:43:01
It was a turning point in Internet history, and it happened in October of 1995. Front line had been investigating the 1993 Waco siege for an upcoming report when David Fanning, the Executive Producer of Frontline, made the decision to put a good deal of the material derived from their research and reporting (photos, FBI surveillance audiotapes, reporting notes, interviews) on the web for everyone to see. It was their very first website and done with a staff of just two people. That single act not only created the concept of open (or transparent) journalism but forever changed the way we look at and what we expect out of the World Wide Web. You may be wondering what this has to do with your local station website. After all, it's been a while since we've had Frontline content available to us as local web content–not counting RSS feeds. The original Frontline Video module that some of us once utilized on our local sites was a rather short-lived experiment, and even t...
More About: Line

KIXE Redesign: Frontpage and the Anal Coder
2006-12-09 17:43:01
I apologize to everyone for having been too busy to post anything here for the last month, but many of my projects will be coming your way as new station web content very soon. However, to get back into the swing of things, I bring you the KIXE redesign. I have maintained the KIXE website (such as it is) for several years now with a complete redesign always pending but never approved. It's horrible design and coding has always been a thorn in my side and, with the launch of their new logo and look, I've finally gotten the go-ahead. There are a number of challenges to be met in getting KIXE's site up to standards. There's the usual content rescue wherein I have to find all of the actually useful content and extract it from the coding nightmare that it's currently buried in. There's the fact that it's hosted on a Windows 2003 server with a number of other sites, and I don't have the usual server control that I've been getting so spoiled on. Th...
More About: Design , Page , Desi , Code , Sign

Please DO Feed the Sites: Creating Outgoing Feeds
2006-12-09 17:43:01
Are you tired of all the geek bullies kicking virtual sand in your face, flexing their apps, and getting all the URLs? Have you ever looked at your site on the monitor and wished that you too could bulk up like the big geeks? Well, now you can. Presenting Outgoing RSS Feed s: They're quick. They're easy. They keep working even while you sleep. No special diet. No exercise. Whatever your coding preference, we've got the plan for you. Whether you'd rather pop it right out of the bottle or create beautifully hand-crafted feeds we've got you covered. Order now, supplies are limited (only by your imagination.) Sorry, folks, I just couldn't resist that. Basically, the fastest way to begin putting an RSS feed out from a standard website is to convert already existing HTML pages to RSS XML. This works especially well if you're already separating content like event announcements and program highlights into separate files and using SSIs to pl...
More About: Site , Eating Out , Sites , Creating

Please DO Feed the Sites: What Is RSS?
2006-11-18 23:33:01
Before I begin this discussion explaining RSS to you as if I were this fount of knowledge that clearly recognized its value from the very first moment I saw it, the fact is that my initial impression after a cursory look-over several years ago was that it was only useful to blogs and news-oriented sites. Outside of syndicating teasers of news headlines and blog posts, not a single aspect of its current usage occurred to me, and I never expected it to become an indispensable part of standard web development or to redefine the web as I knew it. So, if you can forgive me that incredible oversight, then we can get on with this… To explain what RSS is and why it has everyone so excited, let me just start out on common ground with something we already know, a traditional website. Traditionally, a website contained whatever content may have been put on it and that content may be static or may change constantly. The problem here has always been that a user had no way of knowing ...
More About: Site , What , Sites , Hat , Feed

Getting the Word Out On Web Standards and Accessibility
2006-11-12 10:48:02
Let's face it, we live in a world where any high school kid with a semester course in "web design" (if even that much training) and a copy of Frontpage can hang out a virtual shingle calling himself (or herself) a "webmaster." Factor Word Press into that with its five-minute install and innumerable themes and you have a job title glutted with people who don't know the first thing about what they're doing. An amazingly large number of otherwise intelligent business people are entrusting their entire web presence to such as these. The general public's lack of knowledge in this area only serves to exacerbate the problem. Without any foreseeable way to prevent this practice from continuing and growing exponentially, those of us who care are left with the onus of attempting to educate these fledgling webmasters about the need for good coding practices, accessibility, and web standards. I know, many of you have been doing that for years already, but...
More About: Standards , Standard , Access , Anda

Beta Testing and the New PBS Web Modules
2006-11-12 10:48:02
The recent spate of new web content modules coming out of PBS (and beyond) has me thinking about the need for beta testers. For those of you that may never have given it a try, beta-testing is the process of testing something out before it's ready for release to the general public. It can be quite interesting whether it's software or a new web module. It gives you a chance to not only critique someone else's work, but to sharpen your coding skills and offer suggestions for refinement. It makes you a part of the work. The biggest kick for me, however, is getting to play around with all the newest toys before anyone else even gets to see them. Test ing is a process of executing a program or application in the intent of finding errors. With that in mind, testing can never completely establish the correctness of arbitrary computer software. In other words, testing is criticism or comparison, that is comparing the actual value with an expected one. –Wikipedia, Softw...
More About: Beta , The N , Sting

The Illusion of Accelerated Dialup
2006-11-12 10:48:02
BEWARE: Web developer letting off steam. Read at your own risk. Okay, I've had it. I'm tired of telling people that what they're seeing on their screen isn't really what my site looks like. I'm tired of explaining to site users that I did not populate my site with sucky graphics. In point of fact, I'm sick and tired of the entire concept of "Accelerate d Dialup " that ISPs have been selling for years. It's a myth, an illusion people; it doesn't exist. Now, I realize, of course, that my audience here is primarily web developers and that this isn't anything they don't already know, but I just can't stand it anymore. I'm sure you understand my need for a rant here. Here's the scenario: I'm over at a friend's house or a get-together or something. Someone walks up to me and says something like, "I just heard that you handle such-and-such website." I straighten up and get prepared to receive the unso...
More About: Illusion , Sion , Rate

Internet Explorer 7: Is Your Site Ready?
2006-11-12 10:48:02
Potentially more exciting than the arrival of a new phonebook is the planned automatic update of Microsoft's web browser, Inter net Explorer. If you haven't already heard about it–and I'm sure that most of you have–Microsoft is planning to release the first major upgrade to Internet Explorer since IE6 in 2001. With many new features, security upgrades, and changes to the core software itself, it's a totally new browser that will suddenly be the primary browser of a good 70% or more of your audience. Is your site ready for that? If you don't know for sure, now's the time to find out. At some point during the next few months (the fourth quarter of this year,) Microsoft will be rolling out this upgrade as a high-priority, automatic update. That means that most Windows XP users will simply be online one day when they'll receive a popup alert from the system tray saying that updates are ready for their computer. Virtually overnight, you'll ...
More About: Site , Your

KIXE Redesign: Frontpage and the Anal Coder
2006-11-12 10:48:02
I apologize to everyone for having been too busy to post anything here for the last month, but many of my projects will be coming your way as new station web content very soon. However, to get back into the swing of things, I bring you the KIXE redesign. I have maintained the KIXE website (such as it is) for several years now with a complete redesign always pending but never approved. It's horrible design and coding has always been a thorn in my side and, with the launch of their new logo and look, I've finally gotten the go-ahead. KIXE is a small-market station based in Redding, California and serving an incredibly huge geographic area covering most of the northern end of the state–ten counties in all. This area runs the gamut from rural to mountainous to desert to farmland to just plain sparsely populated. Many of the people served by this station live in small towns and isolated communities, and home-schooling is quite common. If ever there was a place that cou...
More About: Design , Page , Desi , Code , Sign

Localizing Beyond PBS: An Open Proposal
2006-11-12 10:48:02
Introduction In one of its most brilliant decisions ever, PBS decided to downplay itself as a national entity in favor of extending the perceived reach of every one of its local member stations. (Web: best medium for local/national convergence?) In other words, PBS in Medford, Oregon IS SOPTV, PBS in Redding, Cali fornia IS KIXE, and PBS in your local town or city IS your local station. This doesn't just happen on-air, it extends online as well. PBS localization has added to the perceived value of the local station site as a community resource. It extends the perceived reach of the local station into vast resources and archives of information that no one station could ever achieve. Basically, PBS was a Web 2.0 resource long before anyone conceived of such a term to describe that kind of online interaction and interconnectedness. Now, while the rest of the web tries to catch up to even that level, the time has come for us to extend this even further. Individual stations acro...
More About: Proposal , Open , Local , Beyond

Accessibility: WCAG 2.0 and You
2006-11-12 10:48:02
We interrupt our irregularly scheduled series on web accessibility for a not so late breaking news flash (sans Flash, of course.) It seems that the W3C is on the verge of releasing a whole new set of Web Content Access ibility Guidelines called WCAG 2.0. With numerous changes in place, it now seems that the whole set of guidelines that many of us have worked so hard to implement are all kind of up in the air. In many ways, the discussions about the document reflect the disparate philosophical positions within the community on what "accessibility" means. – Bruce Lawson WCAG 2.0: when I want a beer, don?t give me shandy Whether this new set of guidelines is the incredibly forward-looking, non-technology-dependant vision of accessibility it claims to be or whether it's a backsliding, meaningless bunch of drivel meant to pander to corporate interests is currently the subject of much debate across the Internet by people far smarter and better informed than I. Per...
More About: Bili , Accessibility

Movable Type: An Interview with Angela Jordan of WTIU
2006-11-12 10:48:02
For any of you that may not be familiar with it, Movable Type is a blogging tool–one of the first, in fact–used to run a blogging website. Therefore, I was rather surprised recently to stumble across it "powering" a public television station website, specifically WTIU in Indiana. So, I contacted their web developer, Angel a Jordan , and asked her if she wouldn't mind answering a few questions for all of us about the use of Movable Type to power her station's website. She agreed, and, frankly, it's always good to yield the floor to someone smarter than me. ptvGuy Hi, Angela, and thank you for agreeing to talk to us. Angela Jordan Hi Tim, I'm happy to get the chance to discuss this with you. ptvGuy Well, as you know, the main reason I asked to talk to you was to find out more about your use of Movable Type, essentially a blogging tool, to power your station's website. Frankly, it's an idea that just never even oc...
More About: Inter , Interview , With

Please DO Feed the Sites: Introduction
2006-11-12 10:48:02
It's been pointed out to me recently, and rightly so, that although I've been telling everyone how important it is to have and promote and use RSS feeds for their sites, I haven't stopped to explain anything about how one would actually go about doing that. Personally, I recommend the use of RSS Pixy Dust, but, if you don't happen to have that available, it gets a little more complicated. I've decided that the best way to provide a useful explanation that will satisfy the most people is to break the whole thing up into a series of articles that I'm calling “Please DO Feed the Site s.” In this way, people can look for the parts they need, and, if I should miss something, I can just tag it on later as an extra part. Currently, I have it planned as follows: Part 1: Introduction (You're reading it now.) Part 2: What Is RSS? Part 3: Creating Outgoing Feeds Part 4: Using Incoming Feeds If I can get the time (and there's enough in...
More About: Sites