Posted by Jeremy Scott | 1 Comment

Robots Are Awesome

There’s very little doubt that robots are, in fact, pretty awesome.  And since robots are technology… we figured it would be okay to share this amazing photo gallery of modern robots from Boston.com.

It’s also the perfect time to point out how well Boston.com has done with their blog, The Big Picture–we’ve been singing their praises to anyone who will listen for quite some time now.  After all, Boston.com is a newspaper website for The Boston Globe.  As most newspapers continue to struggle with print sales and wrapping their heads around this newfangled thing called the Internet, The Boston Globe has surged to a humongous lead.  And they did it with a fairly simple concept (a photo blog) combined with excellence in execution.  It is far and away the most popular photo blog online.

Anyway, now that I’m done rambling about Internet marketing and blogging and all that jazz… let’s get back to why we’re all here… awesome robots.  I don’t even want to steal their thunder by giving you a teaser photo… just go check out the gallery and enjoy!

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments

Create Your Own Website Polls With PollDaddy

PollDaddy is a create-your-own website poll service, and we thought we’d take it for a test drive for you.

The core service is free. You can create polls, publish them on your website, and have unlimited responses to them.

If you want to pay $20/month, you can upgrade to a premium package that allows for even more scalability and customization… as well as access to statistics about your poll and the people who took it. (We’re testing out the free version, because we’re cheap and we spent all our money on golf balls).

To give this thing a trial, we decided to ask our audience to help us name our robot.

We recently added a robot to our payroll. He takes care of a lot of the more mundane tasks such as taking out the garbage, cleaning the office, & fixing paper jams in the printer. Oh, he also answers tech questions from our readers in a new online Q&A column over at iSurfSumner.com (Dear Abby for Technology). Right now we’re calling him Arnie the AnswerBot, because we’re not very creative and didn’t want to waste precious time on the robot-naming task.

But we wonder if there isn’t a better name out there for him. Here… before you make up your mind… he looks like this:

Okay, so what does that guy look like to you? A Mike? A Simon? Maybe a Winchester?

Killing two birds with one stone, here is our PollDaddy poll where you can vote to help us name our new robot. Feel free to suggest a name yourself if you don’t like our choices, and vote as often as you like. Take the poll now:

As you can see, the poll is quite slick. It was easy to build and only took about 3 minutes. If you have anything worth letting your readers vote on… head on over to PollDaddy and sign up. Oh, and check back here on our blog to see what kind of name the little robot guy ends up with.

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments

Does Your Business Need A Blog?

This is a blog. This website you’re reading right now. It’s our Keystone Blog. We also have a standard business website here.

But this is our blog. It’s a bit more informal, and we get to have a little fun with it while still delivering to our clients something interesting in the world of technology.

And judging by our blog statistics, many of you enjoy reading it. Thanks a ton, by the way!

A lot of our clients have been asking about blogs lately. Do they need one? Should they get one? Is it easy to use? Can it enhance a business? Is it cost-effective?

All five answers are “Yes!”

For any of our local clients (Middle Tennessee), we’re actually introducing a new Keystone University class this coming Friday, May 9th, 2008… on Blogging & Your Business. We’ll cover what blogging is, how it can apply to your business, how you can market your blog, and much more.

Cost for this class is only $25 (or $30 for the Blogging class and the Search Engine class we’re also having that day… both combined). The Search Engine class is at 10:30 and the Blogging class is at 12:30, with lunch in between (buy either class by itself, and you get a free lunch!), and the venue is the fabulous Lighthouse Events Center in Hendersonville.

All Keystone University participants also receive a free KU T-Shirt!

For more information or to sign up, please see our class schedule here (click “Purchase Now” next to the class you’d like to attend) or call our office at 615-826-3500. Whether you’re clueless as to what this blogging thing is all about or you’re in the know and thinking of starting your own blog… this class is for you. We’d love to see you there.

For another resource on whether or not you should start a blog, we highly recommend this great guide from ProBlogger.

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 2 Comments

Just Born: GuildCraft Blog

Guildcraft Inc. is a Vacation Bible School craft supplier based in Buffalo, NY. You can see their main website here.

They’ve recently decided to start maintaining a blog about crafts and Vacation Bible School activities–an idea we thought was fantastic. We were thrilled to be asked to help design their blog to compliment their corporate website, and the project was really very smooth. You can visit their blog here.

From their new blog:

This blog is managed by Guildcraft Arts & Crafts and is dedicated to the special events of children’s ministry such as Vacation Bible School, fall festivals, Easter celebrations, Advent, and more. Our goal is to give you fresh ideas and planning tips. We’ll also strive to share the lastest curriculum and craft news.

The people of Guildcraft have long been great to work with, and that includes this most recent project. We hope you’ll check out their new blog and share it with anyone you know who enjoys the world of VBS and children’s crafts.

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Now the Department of Transportation is Blogging T...

Not to be outdone by the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration), the U.S. Department of Transportation (the DOT) has now started a blog. 

Is this how we know when something is officially passe?  When our government entities jump on the bandwagon, maybe it’s a sign that blogging is no longer cool. 

I mean, what’s next… a MySpace page for Fed Chair Ben Bernanke?  “Just upt intrst rate 4 fun. LOL!”

Anyway, back to the point… The DOT now has a blog, which you can see here.  Wonderful. 

The U.S. Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, has decided the DOT needs to step into the technology age.  From her first-ever blog post:

“After all, if I’m going to insist on 21st Century solutions for our transportation system, I better communicate in a 21st century way!”

Right on, Mary!!  Blogs are the one thing that can instantly make you modern and hip.  I mean, governemnt agencies starting blogs is a bit like my mom getting a Facebook page. 

I think it’s important to know that some elements of this blog will be censored.  From the article:

“Comments are reviewed to make sure they’re free of personal attacks, slurs or inappropriate language. If a topic attracts hundreds of comments, an agency spokesman said a representative sample of them may be posted instead.”

So, if you use hate speak or attack anyone personally, or use slurs, or swear…. your comment may be deleted.  But if you ask me, “inappropriate language” is a pretty vague thing to pinpoint.  So, don’t be surprised if readers of that blog start complaining that they have a criticism comment that’s been censored. 

Also, it appears they may censor comments if they simply get too many of them, which is weird.  They’re going to post a “sampling” of them instead–yeah right… a “sampling” means “the nicest and most complimentary comments only.” 

See, the whole point of a blog is that it builds discussion… builds community… encourages dialogue.  But censoring comments simply because you already got a hundred others seems strange and counter-productive.  “Oh, there’s just too much discussion going on here… we’re putting a stop to that.”  Bizarre. 

According to Wikipedia’s page on the DOT, their mission is:

“to serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future.”

They may need to ammend that mission statement now to include some mention of their new 21st century tactics.  Maybe just a “… by blogging” at the end of the mission statement.  That should cover it. 

Or maybe not.  Seems that the DOT is also going to be starting their own YouTube channel.  Wow.  Talk about riveting!  DOT officials talking about transportation issues?  Sign me up now!  Where do I subscirbe? 

Right now I seriously can’t think of anything more boring than DOT’s YouTube channel.  Perhaps if the Department of Housing & Urban Devleopment started Twittering… maybe then that would be more boring. 

So do we give the DOT props for at least trying to be relevant and hip?  I guess we have to.  At least they’re trying.  I mean, what technological advances has the Department of Agriculture embraced?  Yeah, that’s what I thought. 

Anyway, you can view the DOT’s official site here, which is badly in need of a makeover.  Or go straight to their awesome new blog here–which appears to have been specifically designed to look like a blog from 1999–stealthy.  Looks like one of their first orders of business was to let Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley write a post, which is WAY less boring than you might think.  Or not.

Am I being to hard on them?  Probably.  Is mocking them too easy a thing to do for me to resist it?  Almost certainly.  I guess I’m generally in favor of government agencies embracing cutting edge technology and communication tools, but it feels so forced, and more than a little behind-the-trend. 

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