Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to adopt code of ethics

Yahoo news wrote abou it, others did too, so I guess it's not news for you, my dear readers, still I find it fascinating that those three big names are associated with work on unified code of ethics to promote freedom of speech!

"We seem to be getting more grey areas in terms freedom of expression versus censorship, legal versus illegal and border versus non-border" (Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang)

Apart form the obvious need for a unified code of ethics for the web users in general, we see people like Yang addressing the issue of freedom of speech in talks to US government, as well as in relation to problems in China.

I am glad to see this initiative exactly when Amnesty is promoting celabrations around the 60th anniversary of Declaration of Human Rights.

blogger interview - Monik, 13, Etiole.com

If you remember my interview with Kid Tech Guru and read my comments to it, you will know who Monik Pamecha is. He is 13, lives in Mumbai, studies and runs Etiole.com technology blog. Here's the interview.

Hi Monik, thank you for letting me know you would be interested in this interview. Here are the questions:

Syl: The logo of your blog 'Live the dream'; what does it mean to you? What does stand for?

Monik: Actually living the dream represents my blog Etiole which states to you that to do what ever you ever wanted to do, like I wanted to blog so did it and if you want to do something go ahead and complete it!

Syl: You have mentioned monthly 20k traffic to your blog. How do you do that?

Monik: When I started it was like, quite boring but then as slowly readers started getting attracted to my blog I got even more interested in it. I used many tricks to get into "The first  Result  Page of Google" like some basic url tips , by including some of the keywords in the post url, I will not go into the detail! :), and other traffic bringing widgets like Blogrush , entrecard and so on..  I tried link exchanges and also would like to thank some of my friends who linked to me to, which helped me to get better pagerank (google's way of marking websites). And finally used Google analytics to find out what actually my visitors wanted, by finding out keywords which my visitors like and so I concentrated more on those keywords. I posted some of those tips on my blog too so that my visitors would be aware of it.

Syl: I have seen your mission statement on Facebook: 'We want to have a record breaking traffic - 6,000,000 page views per week!' What tools and promotion do you use to achieve that?

Monik: I mentioned it in the earlier questions that I use tools like Blogrush , Entrecard, Adwords keyword finer tool (to find which keywords have more density in the search engine), and also some Good, new and fresh content. I also love to listen to reader comments and reply to them is also a must, as to make up a reader-author relationship between me and the reader. I also did not want to put up ads on my blog (which helped to increase readers and search engine attention) but to run the blog I had to pay for the domain so I started putting ads. Using feedburner is a very nice idea as you can reach your readers via various other ways.

Syl: Apart from your blog and Facebook, do you have other presences on-line?

Monik: I First Started on wordpress but then shifted to blogger ( I know it's weird ). I love twitter too but got no followers as I joined it recently. I am on technorati too. I am not interested in social networking actually, but just to keep up with friends I am on Facebook.

Syl: You have mentioned you are 13. It's exact lower border age for most social media sites and tools. For instance Twitter does not allow people younger than 13 to sign up for the service. Would you be upset about it let's say a year ago?

Monik: No, this is a age limit set-up by them for our safety so we should actually follow it but when anyone at a young age would he be able to understand the reason, obviously no. But then what is the problem even if you fake your age in your account? It's safe and you can use the service too.

Syl: Do you think 13 years is a reasonable age to begin blogging and other social media presences?

Monik: I can't answer this question, it depends from person to person, just like my brother says we shall not start blogging and social networking before we are 16 but I don't think so. If you want to do something nothing can stop you, nor your brother and nor your age.

Syl: How and when did you start blogging?

Monik: I started blogging a year ago or maybe before than that. I you too first blog on Wordpress , then I shifted to Xanga , then to Weebly , then back to Wordpress and then finally to blogger , you see it's a long journey. Blogging in India when a started blogging was like, What is a blog? , but I saw this man , Amit Agarwal who runs a blog called Labnol, who dared to leave his job a become a professional blogger and I saw his video where he told people how he earned from Adsense, my main aim from there was to setup a blog which would have much more traffic the he would have and also have adsense earnings in 6 digits, but unfortunately I got disqualified from adsense but I just blogged and blogged

Syl: What do you want to achieve with it (apart from impressive readership)?

Monik: I want to achieve some fame. A also want to get some attention and want to start a bloggers community, I already Started A blogging platform and Blog Showcase for it.  I started some other services like Forums, Search Engine (powered by Google API), social networking website (powered by ning)  so that readers can enjoy many other things too and i want to give these services attention too.

Syl: I usually post a part of my interview on Bar Mleczny, my other place on-line (promoting Polish culture). If I say Polish, what comes to your mind?

Monik: Since I am Indian I really not aware of Polish Culture but would love to know more about it!

Syl: Do you like to cook? What is your favourite meal? :)

Monik: I occasionally cook, I cant cook more or my mom will assign me a job as her chef ! I love eating Pav-Bhaji , I think so everyone in the world shall not die before having tasted it. I know many people won't be aware of it so if you want to know more just google it and look at the images, your mouth will start watering!

Syl: You are obviously interested in technology. Do you have other hobbies?

Monik: I am interested in sports too. I love playing soccer and badminton too. I love public speaking too so I try spreading awareness on the environmental issues.

Syl: What is your message to other younger bloggers?

Monik: It is not of much concern what your age is, go for whatever you like , not only blogging, may it be your love for soccer or for anything just go ahead and do it. Don't worry for traffic, concentrate on your content because if that is good traffic will already be there reading it!

Syl: Thank you!

Oxford Geek Nights 9

OK, here it is. I am very, very, very happy - I cannot actually express HOW happy I am, that I decided to go to the Oxford Geek Night yesterday.

First of all the place: Jericho Tavern has great history. That is the place where bands like Radiohead started their stage career (although Felix was trying to convince me they actually started in his school?). Jericho is a nice area of Oxford and I was lucky to meet few kind people before the event, who live there - they gave me encouraging ideas about it, so I might consider moving there in January.

Secondly - people: very friendly, very open minded, networking orientated crowd. All you need to do is just step in:) I like this type of atmosphere, simply because I am new to the city.I am happy I met Tom Dyson from Torchbox (sponsoring the event, next to Google, and Moo), who was kind enough to answer few questions and help me out with asking more (yes, I did ask questions, as usual:P). I am also happy I managed to meet @peejaybee. Pity I didn't get hold of @ihatemornings or @benwerd, but hope to do so next time.

Now, when talking about content I will try to avoid my personal feelings (of complete admiration!:)). First presentation delivered by Jeremy Ruston on TiddlyWiki impressed me entirely. Second one was closer to my heart - since I am interested in modern literature. Adrain Hon described his project We Tell Stories and even though the website is quite self-explanatory, it's great to see how the campaign was planned, completed and perceived. (I do not agree with Stumble Upon generated traffic to be called organic, but it's just me being picky - I am actually happy the project was so successful and I hope there will be more to come!).

I couldn't stay to hear all the short presentations, and pity, because when I talked to Martin Chapman, he was quite convinced and excited about their idea of Price Wars.

Anyway, it was good to be there, and I will definitely join the Geek Nights from now on. I strongly advice anyone interested in those topics to come along, it's worth it.

More info, and hopefully soon some pix, here.

blogger interview - Xavier Lur, Kid Tech Guru

Let me introduce you Kid Tech Guru,  Xavier, a 14 year old blogger from Singapore, passionate about technology. In his words 'Currently, I'm only a 14-year-old student who loves blogging and is keen to share his tech knowledge with you all guys via this blog. Running up this tech blog is just a part of his interest and a place for me to kill time.'

Here is the interview:

Syl: Hi Xavier, first of all thank you for agreeing to respond to few questions! When did you start blogging? Why?
Xavier: Since July 2008, I have been blogging at KidTechGuru, with great thanks to Mr Alvin Phang of GatherSuccess.com. One day, when I was reading the newspaper, something eye-catching caught my attention. It was the problogger - Mr Alvin giving a complimentary workshop on how he makes money online. I was inspired by his talk and from then on, I started to set up my blog, but with zero blogging experience!

Syl: I will start with a serious question bothering me a lot since I started to work in business ethics – we usually see that social media sites set up the lower age limit for 13. Do you agree with those policies?
Xavier: In my own view, I don't really agree with that as I feel that everyone be it age 10 or even age 80 can participate in social media sites. As what the authors of 'Wikinomics' - Don Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams says, "mass collaboration is important as it changes everything in today's Web 2.0". Therefore, I think that we should get the kids involve in these social media sites as this will create some interaction between the children and the adults in the online world. However, some strict rules must be implemented.

Syl: I will be honest with you – when I saw your Twitter profile and checked your site (which is how I learned about it) I was very impressed to see that you are 14 years old and so successful. Do people very often ask you how come you started writing your blog?
Xavier: Oh yes, sometimes loyal readers who are curios drops me an email and ask me how and why I created this tech blog. Most of the people who reads my blog are impressed by blogging feat and love what I write about technology (although a minority says that I'm faking my age as a marketing bait for my blog).

Syl: I see that in your about section you receive not only great feedback but also very creative advice. Do you find it useful?
Xavier: Feedbacks and advice from readers are greatly important and useful as you need them on how to improve your blog. For example, when one is a saleman, he needs feedbacks from customers about his attitude, how good is the product, what can be improve, etc.

Syl: Apart from your blog and Twitter so you have other on-line presences? Which one of those is a primary place for you?
Xavier: Besides writing articles about web tools and stuff in my blog and my active presence in Twitter, I do spend quite a huge fraction of my time in the net on Entrecard. For those who don't know what Entrecard is, it is a site which enables users to drop and advertise cards on other sites with a so-called blogging currency - "Entrecard Credits". I find this web service quite interesting as it gives me the opportunity to drop by on cool sites and read their posts. (Let me tell you something which you might not know - the person who created Blogger known as Evan Williams, sold it to Google and founded the microblogging platform - Twitter.)

Syl: Does your blogging affect your private life and/or vice versa?
Xavier: Of course it doesn't! I just treat blogging as my hobby.

Syl: You have posted on Twitter link to the most successful, young entrepreneurs. Are you interested in earning money from blogging?
Xavier: I'm interested in making money from blogging by just selling some ad spaces but not into affiliate marketing. My main objective of this blog is to share my tech knowledge with people around the world and hope they benfit from it. As simple as that!

Syl: Your approach toward blogging is very professional, judging on your content. Do you plan taking in into the next level and work in blogging related industry?
Xavier: As I've said above, I take blogging as my pastime. Hence, I not may not consider taking it to the next level and work in the blogging industry. When I grow up, my main source of income will not come from blogging. My goal is to become a financial investor as I love how the way stocks behave (not the money! lol).

Syl: You mention sports as your additional hobby. Is there something else?
Xavier: Besides sports like soccer and badminton, I'm interested in F1 racing, fascinated by how fast those F1 drivers - Massa of Ferrari speeds on the track! Zoom...!!! Hope I can watch it live and not on TV!

Syl: I am usually posting a part of my interview on my secondary, Polish blog committed to promote Polish culture in the UK (http://barmleczny.blogspot.com/ ) , and if you agree, I would like to post it there too. Hence my question: what do you associate Poland/Poles with?
Xavier: When you ask this question, the first thing that came up in my mind is that Poland is a leading producer of food in Europe (if I'm not wrong). By the way, you have a nice blog!

Syl: My Polish blog is mainly about culture and cuisine. Do you like cooking? What is you favourite dish and drink?
Xavier: I'm greatly excited when you talk about cooking. Although I'm not a great chef, but I enjoy cooking meals for my family once every month. Usually I would cook stuff like bolognese spaghetti and Chinese cusine. My mum is a housewife but I can proudly say that she is a great baker. She loves to bake delicous cheesecakes and chocolate cookies. My favorite food is Passionfruit Cheesecake specially make by my mum and my favorite drink got to be Iced Lemon Tea. I dislike drinks that contain soda.

Syl:I don't want to keep you long, so thank you very much for your answers. Is there anything else you would like to say to my UK, Polish and international readers?
Xavier: If you a kid or teenager like me, try to enhance either your talent or what you're good at doing. It would be great to start young when your brains are working fast and intelligently. But if you're an adult, you can either brush up your skills or do things which make you happy and lead a meaningful lifestyle.

Tunel, Unicum, Zobrowka...websites of alcoholic drinks are not bad

This week on Thursday I was randomly given a bottle of Tunel, looking like this...



and I had no idea what it is. My Spanish speaking friend offered help, but ended up having to Google it himself. Well, it originates from Mallorca, and it's website tells the whole history of it. So, on Friday I knew was I was drinking:)



It made me think about the websites designed for similiar products. They somehow always cought my attention, and trust me, I really am not a heavy drinker (I have a hangover after two glasses of wine:/). Polish website of one of our traditional, and world wide known vodka - Zubrowka, was awarded with Webstar 2007 for the design. Actually I think it's a beautiful site...



If you want to sign a guestbook, you must plant a virtual tree:)



There is one in English too. Not as neat as the Polish one though..

Similarly Hungarian producers of Unicum, Zwack family developed whole range of websites (here's the Unicum one) to promote their range of drinks - most of those in native language sadly, still, worth checking.



At the end of the day it's nice to know what you're given as a present, right?