A new service that has been developing under the radar.

It's the brainchild of Steven Berlin Johnson, author of Emergence, Mind Wide Open, The Ghost Map, Everything Bad Is Good For You

and ...

John Geraci, a well-know builder of virtual communities

A high-profile investor and lots of high-profile angels and advisers .. in the first camp Union Square (Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham) ... and in the second

We've still got a great list of angels involved as well. Marc Andreessen just wrote in out of the blue to say that he really liked the site, and to ask if he could help out with the financing. Esther Dyson, John Borthwick, George Crowley, and Richard Smith -- it's a fantastic list of people to have behind you. (Along with our other founding investors, John Seely Brown, Mark Bailey, and Andy Karsch.)

Outside.In

Neighbors are registered users of outside.in. Each neighbor has a profile page that shows a bio, photo, neighborhood, website, plus all the stories, comments, and places they?ve contributed to outside.in. (Right now it?s a little tricky to find a specific neighbor, much less communicate with them ? but we?re working on it!)

Stories and Comments are the content you add to outside.in about your area. When you add them to the site, they appear on the home page of the area you specified for everyone to see, as well as on your neighbor pages.

Stories are content that comes from other sites, like blogs or newspaper websites, that you submit to the site via the submit a story link in the right column of the page. Add stories to outside.in that relate to your neighborhood and that you find interesting and want to share with your neighbors.

Comments are content that you write yourself, directly to the outside.in website. You add comments to Places, which are any location or venue in your area. Add a comment to any Place you want, either to point out something you like, or just to talk about something interesting in your neighborhood.

Places can be everything from restaurants to playgrounds to schools ? or even more subjective categories (most dangerous intersection, best spot for winter sledding.) Any story or comment can be attached to a Place. The cool thing about these Place pages is that the become an archive of everything that?s been said online about a given place ? comments from outside.in Neighbors, blog posts, newspaper reviews, discussion threads.

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Posted by wirearchy at 2:09 PM PST

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Two weeks after promising to post more frequently, and only one post.

Well, you know what they say about excuses, but ... first I stalled because I could not find the password to enable my Qumana to connect with this Tripod program, and I have grown so accustomed to Qumana's ease-of-use and great design for the blogging workflow that I couldn't make myself use the alternative Tripod interface. It has a good and comprehensive set of capabilities, but the user interface was just a bit complex for me.

Second, I have been stricken with an awful stomach flu or virus, now on it's fifth day. I keep thinking it's coming to an end, and then it flares up again.

Anyway, at least I am posting again. I found the password, hooked it up in about 15 seconds, it automatically refreshed the Qumana's Corner blog posts, and here I am.

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Posted by wirearchy at 2:51 PM PST

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For Windows users, here's a new and improved version of the Qumana offline blog editor.

The gradual introduction of the new improved Blogger platform coincided with our ongoing search for the best way to make Qumana work effectively.

But .. we are pleased to announce that the most recent version of Qumana for Windows ... available for download here ... now works with the new Blogger platform.

We have more stuff coming along soon, and don't forget to try out the versatile Q-Ads tool, a browser extension for adding advertising content to a range of blog platforms

We're still looking for someone with the appropriate Java 1.5 experience to help us adapt the Mac version of Qumana. If any of you out there know of anyone with great Java and Mac OS skills, please point them (or yourself) our way.

Tags: Blogger, Qumana, better blogging, blog editing

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Posted by wirearchy at 2:03 PM PST

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It's becoming increasingly popular to use a video clip as an integral part of a blog post, and usually to help "anchor" a post's focus and meaning.

Its also becoming clear that advertising can be shaped to fit the ambient or direct subject area of a blog post, and that paradoxically using keywords to choose and place ads gives you more control over the advertising strategy for your blog.

Qumana's tools have been designed to make it easy ... really easy ... to add video clips and adverts to blog posts, as you see fit.

Here's Joe Q. Public, talking about getting paid to blog about a product or a service using PayPerPost.

Re: the video clip ... I surfed over to YouTube, ran a quick search, found this and viewed it. Then, it took me one click to save the embed code, one click to open the Insert HTML function, and one click to say OK ... then finally one more click to publish the blog post.

Content in circulation in various social networks where people are sharing ... video clips, songs, recipes, recommendations ... is what advertisers are after. They are seeking better ways to reach increasingly harder-to-reach niche markets.

Put the tools into the hands of the people who are making and growing the networks, and who are "using" other people's content and mashing it together with their own.

Offer Qumana and Q-Ads to your audiences ... use them to reach into and "shake hands" with your readers, advertising-wise.

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Posted by wirearchy at 11:45 AM PST

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It's becoming increasingly popular to use a video clip as an integral part of a blog post, and usually to help "anchor" a post's focus and meaning.

Its also becoming clear that advertising can be shaped to fit the ambient or direct subject area of a blog post, and that paradoxically using keywords to choose and place ads gives you more control over the advertising strategy for your blog.

Qumana's tools have been designed to make it easy ... really easy ... to add video clips and adverts to blog posts, as you see fit.

Here's Joe Q. Public, talking about getting paid to blog about a product or a service using PayPerPost.

Re: the video clip ... I surfed over to YouTube, ran a quick search, found this and viewed it. Then, it took me one click to save the embed code, one click to open the Insert HTML function, and one click to say OK ... then finally one more click to publish the blog post.

Content in circulation in various social networks where people are sharing ... video clips, songs, recipes, recommendations ... is what advertisers are after. They are seeking better ways to reach increasingly harder-to-reach niche markets.

Put the tools into the hands of the people who are making and growing the networks, and who are "using" other people's content and mashing it together with their own.

Offer Qumana and Q-Ads to your audiences ... use them to reach into and "shake hands" with your readers, advertising-wise.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Posted by wirearchy at 11:45 AM PST

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It's becoming increasingly popular to use a video clip as an integral part of a blog post, and usually to help "anchor" a post's focus and meaning.

Its also becoming clear that advertising can be shaped to fit the ambient or direct subject area of a blog post, and that paradoxically using keywords to choose and place ads gives you more control over the advertising strategy for your blog.

Qumana's tools have been designed to make it easy ... really easy ... to add video clips and adverts to blog posts, as you see fit.

Here's Joe Q. Public, talking about getting paid to blog about a product or a service using PayPerPost.

Re: the video clip ... I surfed over to YouTube, ran a quick search, found this and viewed it. Then, it took me one click to save the embed code, one click to open the Insert HTML function, and one click to say OK ... then finally one more click to publish the blog post.

Content in circulation in various social networks where people are sharing ... video clips, songs, recipes, recommendations ... is what advertisers are after. They are seeking better ways to reach increasingly harder-to-reach niche markets.

Put the tools into the hands of the people who are making and growing the networks, and who are "using" other people's content and mashing it together with their own.

Offer Qumana and Q-Ads to your audiences ... use them to reach into and "shake hands" with your readers, advertising-wise.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Posted by wirearchy at 11:45 AM PST

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Here's how I used to do things before I started using Qumana regularly:

I'd be browsing, and I'd be reading something which triggered a thought and then the desire to blog about it.

I'd leave the page, open my blog page, go to "Post New Entry", which would take me to the blog software's editor (which had taken me a while to learn).

Then, I'd put in a title, and maybe write a sentence or two. I usually quote an excerpt from what I have been reading, so I would have to go back to the web page I was on previously, highlight the excerpt, and then go back to the blog software editor .. where I would paste what I copied.

Then, I write some more to flesh out the post. And then, if I wanted to include some links, I'd have to start the round trips back and forth between the web pages where I would copy the links, then go back to the blog software editor and type in all the <a href> tags, and any WYSIWYG effects such as italics or bold, etc.

And THEN, on top of all that, I would have to preview and proof read, because I am not a hugely accurate typist.

AND THEN ... what if I wanted to include Technorati tags ? I still don't know how to include Technorati tags in a Blogware blog post using the Blogware editor.

Lots of work, demanded lots of concentration ...

Now, using Qumana ... here are my newly developed blogging work habits:

I'm browsing, and I read something which triggers a thought and the desire to create a blog post around the quote.

I highlight what I want to quote, drag and drop it onto the DropPad .. double-click on the DropPad, which opens the Qumana editor.

I add a title, I write some text to flesh out the post. I go back to the quoted page, or surf to another page (leaving the editor open), copy the URL of the links I want to include, go back to Qumana, use the Insert Link function to create the links (it's just pasting the URL into the dialog box).

There' still some back and forth, but it's much easier because the Qumana editor window is open just "over there" on the left.

There's spellchecking, so the final review is much easier (for me).

Tags ? Click on The Insert tags button, type in the Technorati tags you want to include, and click OK. That's it, that's all.

Adding images and video clips is easy .. and will get easier still in the future (it's one of the things we are working on).

If you're a blogger that wants to use advertising on her or his blog, that's easy too .. but just because it's a function available to you in Qumana doesn't mean you HAVE to use that functionality.

I'd never go back to the way I used to compose blog posts ... no way.

Tags: Qumana, easy blogging, content assemblu, personal publishing, blog advertising

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Posted by wirearchy at 3:23 AM PDT

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Have you ever been frustrated by how annoying it is to get images onto your blog? You have to download the image, go to the right tab in your blog, upload it, then stick it in your post. Ick. And if you want it wrapped in any way, you've got your hands full. Way too hard.

Qumana changes all that, starting today.

1. Drag an image straight from a website or your desktop into the DropPad or the editor window
2. Qumana prompts you to upload it with the window below and a preview
3. Choose how you want it to look
4. Click "Upload & Insert"

How easy is that?

The hot new feature of the Qumana image dialogue is the Wrapping Style. This is the first tab you see, called the Basic tab, and here you can instantly decide how you want the image in your post.

Maybe you don't want a wrap, or maybe you want the image to be at the left with the text wraping around and to the right. Just choose your option and if that's it, click Upload & Insert.

Now, if you want to change more things in your image, go to the Advanced tab. Here you can change the size, add alternate text, or any other style elements.

You can insert any image to your post by dragging it to the editor, to the DropPad (double click to open), or by clicking the image button next to the link button on the editor window.

We hope you find the new image dialogue as fun and easy as we do!

Tags: qumana, blog tools, blogging, blog editor, images, photos, pictures

Posted by arieanna81 at 3:05 PM PDT

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Thanks to popular demand, Qumana now lets you change your font and font size.

How to use the font features:

1. Select the text you want to change
2. Use the pull-down menu to change the font and font size

Defaults:

If you leave the font menu as either "Default Font" or "Default Size", your post will use the font choices you have selected in your blog template.

Fonts:

If you choose a specific font, like Arial or Time's New, it will display to all readers of your blog the same way.

If you choose the "serif", "sans-serif" or "cursive" font options, the font will be displayed based on browser preferences - so, with these, the font may appear differently to you than to your readers.

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Where is font color, you may ask? Well, it didn't quite make it in. We want it to be slick - you know, with a fancy color picker and stuff. We'll have it in the next release.

We hope you enjoy the new features! If you have not yet downloaded Qumana, go give it a try.

Tags: qumana, blogs, blogging, fonts, blog design, formatting, blog tools, blog editor

Posted by arieanna81 at 2:52 PM PDT

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