Nick’s Book Blog

So I've got my RSS life back together and have been keeping up with my blog reading lately. So I wanted to pass along some interesting bits. Boing boing highlights a Pew Center study of blogger demographics. Fairly interesting. A new website that tells you which bike routes are good . HT: Treehugger My guy Glenn Reynolds talks about the long tail . HT: PicoBusiness . Take a look at my review of an Army of Davids , which is mentioned in both places. Bakardo talks about how social networks are killing email. As I read this, I thought how true it is and will become. I know I'm not as good at emailing consistently as I once was, and sometimes I have to make myself remember that people expect responses. I start treating email like an RSS reader. Which is weird. Also, Jeff De Cagna asked me to let you know about his new education programs for the association community

Looks like a good month for the blogoclump in the newest issue of Associations Now . Jeff De Cagna has a big spread on what associations can learn from Google via his interview with John Battelle, author of Search: How Google and its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture (say that three times fast). I have to admit having seen the book at the airports and not having looked at it because it appears with some copycats and I haven't known which one of them to pick up. Batelle is a techno journalist who speaks quite cogently about issues of 2.0 and the like, and applies them to associations. I agree with the conclusion in the article that Google et al represent more of an opportunity than a threat. But interestingly 2.0 means "that associations need to have good answers for questions that might be asked of search engines." Good point, and not everyone is sensitive to these issues. And Ben Martin has a page on how he hates the word orientation. He...

Doing a little research on state-by-state incorporation stuff, and I found these tips from Arizona's Corporation Commission. Their website is really hard to follow, so I've liberally adapted them here. Mind you, I'm not a lawyer, so don't get sued on my account or anything. Keep your corporation from being dissolved 1. If you move, tell the corporation authority. You register an agent with the state. They keep that address on file forever. They won't know you've moved unless you tell them. They'll send all your notices to your old address and you may never know. And they can be unforwardable. This means missed filings and lots of bad stuff. It can also roll over to your communications with IRS which of course we want to avoid miscommunication with the IRS. So go online and fill out your state's form. Also, make sure that if you have a statutory agent that that info is kept updated as well. 2. Know the date your report is due, or if you have one. This is...

I got this tip from one of the listservs I'm on. It's called emurse and it's a 2.0 site that archives your resume, helps you keep it up to date, etc. All I've got to say is where were you when I needed you?

Here's an article from the Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune that talks about a "new breed" of philanthropist. It sounds like an awesome program. He is training low-resource people to be medical assistants, which is great, especially given the local context where the job market for medical services is rather good. A quote from the article "These are people who have learned to solve problems, and they're now bringing their money and the critical thinking skills to bear in the nonprofit sector," said Leo Arnoult, a fundraising consultant and past chairman of the Giving USA Foundation, which publishes an annual report on giving trends. Unlike donors of the past, who were content to write a check, knowing that their money was supporting a good cause, entrepreneurial donors take a more hands-on approach. However, even if rich folks may have taken a hiatus on this style of giving for awhile, the foundations of philanthropy in this country are based on "entre...

I just used this online faxing service, faxitnice.com . I bought some credit for $20, scanned in my sheet and sent off the fax for .18. And it archives your faxes for you, which really brings out my OCD. Finding a fax machine is a drag but many of the online services want you to pay monthlies. This is a good way to do it.

Here is a lovely picture I found. Not that I can be bothered to go down to the mall mind you, but we hope to on Saturday. The sign at the grocery store said 101 degrees today and then it started pouring down rain. That's pretty typical fourth weather I'd say.