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Everyone and their (blogging) brother is going to Las Vegas this October 15 to 17. Why, you ask? Well, it’s only the single most important expo and convention in the (Blog)World, it appears.

Ok, we admit, we’ve never been to the BlogWorld Expo before, so we can’t really talk from experience. We DO know that some big names of the blogosphere will be there, and there’s been some considerable buzz lately throughout the industry. But here’s what we learned from the official website:

 

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is a trade show and conference for the industry of blogging and new media, the only one of it’s kind to date. It will give participants the strategies, tools and technologies they need to stake their claim in the blogosphere.

So, it’s our TRADE SHOW

The BlogWorld exhibit floor will provide an extensive selection of products and services for the experienced and first-time blogger alike. Companies will include publishing platforms, design companies, web/blog/podcast hosting companies, aggregators, add-on services, plug-ins, widgets, computer hardware & software, wireless services, podcasting products, wireless & high speed ISPs, VOIP companies, on-line advertising networks, news readers, RSS/syndication services, search engines, consulting companies, affiliate program partners, new media products and services … and many more.

• Sounds like the type of stuff we deal with on a daily basis.

They have the CONFERENCES (if you have the $$)

Experts in all fields of the blogging and new media industries will be on hand to share knowledge, techniques and advice. Industry gurus will be sharing their experiences as well as networking with participants in seminars and moderated panels. Topics will range from high-end experienced blogger, podcaster, broadcaster and social media themes to novice “start-up” topics.

Then there will be The Social Media Business Summit(TM). This is an exclusive pre-show conference focused on corporate blogging, podcasting, social media and use of new media technology in business environments. Offerings will enlighten experienced corporate bloggers and new media executives as well as individuals who aren’t really sure what blogs, podcasts, vidcasts and social media can do for their company.

WHY YOU HAVE TO BE THERE

If you blog, dabble in new media, are a full time digital communications junkie … or just dream of getting your feet wet in this phenomenon with a 6,000% growth rate … you have to be at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas, October 15-17, 2009.

Yes we know, unfortunately it costs money. If your interest in blogging and social media is more than a hobby, if it is your business model of choice and you are serious about growing your business, then it is a solid investment into your future.

There you have it. Can you afford to not go?

Incidentally, Chef Keem and I were wondering if enough Squidoo fans would be there to warrant the first ever Squidoo Meetup? Looks like a good question for another…

SquidLog Reader Poll

[poll id="3"]

We are aware that it might pose a considerable expense for our marketing budgets. But if enough Squidooers are willing and able to commit we would consider organizing some sort of package deal.

Please vote in the poll above and let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

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Or is it? Yes, it happens.  Someone comes along and copies your online material – the writing you worked so hard to craft and did rightfully and with care.  Through either ignorance or laziness or lack of ethical character, someone has stolen your work and passed it off as their own.

The minute you document your creation (on paper, online, in Word), you own the copyright to that work. You do not have to register your copyright.  Doing so, however, may be required to pursue legal action but can be accomplished online at the Electronic Copyright Office at any time after creation.

So what does one do when they find their online content has been stolen?

It’s possible the misuse is an innocent mistake and a simple email to the site administrator will suffice.  If not, though, wiping out the thief isn’t as difficult as you think – partially because these online thieves aren’t overly bright.

• Gather documentation. Check the page source for the offending website and get copies of their Page Source code.  To do this, click View on your browser and Page Source and you’ll get all the CSS, HTML, and content viewable for that page.  You may find that the offender is even linking directly to your pictures through your server or has obviously copied your material from the Page Source of your own site, including your exact formatting, alt tags, and post comments!  That’s pretty strong evidence on your side…and so darn easy to snag.

• Find the hosting company. Use a  whois lookup service to find the owner of the domain and the hosting company. If the website owner has invoked any privacy from their hosting company, this will simply show the hosting company name.  That’s fine because that’s really all you need.  Go to the hosting company’s website.  Under their Terms of Service, you’ll find their rules about copyright infringement.  Almost all hosting companies forbid their customers to use their product in violation of copyright laws.  Terms of Service usually contain an email address to which you can send a copyright complaint regarding a website they host.

• Submit a complaint to the hosting company. This can include copies of your blog post showing the date and time stamp you published the material, any statistical logs or tracking showing dates and times when your material was indexed or spidered, along with any Page Source information you may have collected.  Most hosting companies will eventually shut down the offending website with sufficient proof of copyright infringement.

• Notify the offending site’s advertisers. Note the offending website URL, and provide supporting documentation of the copyright infringement.  Inform the advertiser that you will continue to pursue your rights under applicable copyright laws and that you are certain that the advertiser does not want to intentionally do business with someone who is willfully violating those laws.

It’s advised that you not post a comment out of frustration on the offender’s blog nor provide a link to them from your own blog. Don’t give them any additional visitors or backlinks.  They don’t deserve the traffic or the Google plug.  Granted, there are times someone uninformed may not have realized they were in the wrong and a simple email request to them can have the issue corrected.  Others are blatantly copying material, know it, and try to cover their tracks.  An email isn’t going to stop them.  (On a current example, for instance, the administrator has turned off comments on the website and left the About Me page in default mode.  Waaaayyy too busy copying and pasting to deal with visitors.)

WordPress users, if you happen to catch the thief in the act and grab their IP address, use this WordPress PlugIn to ban the IP from being able to visit again.  Not that they can’t find a way around it, but you can at least make them work at being a criminal.  (Can you see them sighing at the end of a long day of copying and pasting and hunting for IP addresses to use?  How was work today, honey?  Ugh.  I’m exhausted.  Creative website owners kept blocking my every move making it so difficult to rip them off.  I swear, thieves today just don’t get any respect.  What’s for dinner?)

I actually feel some pity for them, those Copy/Edit/Paste professionals, because the rest of us are capable of coming up with our own, great ideas, but they are obviously not able to do the same.  They either think it is okay to steal written content from others (which means they’re sadly uneducated about online rights and copyright laws), or they do it on purpose (which means they have no moral code and don’t mind breaking the law).  In either case, they deserve our sympathy because it means they’re likely to learn ALL of life’s lessons the hard way.

Refer to these two excellent blog posts for more on dealing with the theft of online content:  What To Do When Someone Steals Your Content and  What To Do When Someone Steals Your Blog Content.

(This material is copyright protected.  If it shows up anywhere other than SquidLog, then it was copied without permission.)

[ratings]

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Caught a whiff of this on Twitter: A new search engine set to put Google outta biz!

Nonsense.

WolframAlpha is completely different and it boggled my mind, at first. I’m not a math guy, or a science guy – and the first impression told me, I’m in the wrong place here. But wait – there’s more!

Start playing with this baby and the fun begins. Initially, I put “squidoo” in the search field and hit the return key…this is a partial screen shot of the result:

Then, I asked for the distance between Austin, TX and Munich, Germany. W00t! It told me all about miles and kilometers and even gave me the flight time.

Then I asked: seth, megan (hit return). Turns out, “Megan” is way more populare than “Seth”, plus other interesting trivia.

Then, I wrote “blog” and got slapped with some serious mathematical formulas. Moving on…

“Chef”…wow, they make that much money in the US? Maybe I should get off of my lenses more often!

Enough. Even Drifter would get my drift by now. Go play…

WolframAlpha – Computational Knowledge Engine

[ratings]

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My heart is pounding. Palms are sweating. Hair is frazzled. No, I didn’t just wrestle my eight hundred pound bike around some wicked ‘twisties’. What I did was look at the calendar. Egads!

I have seventy-three days to create eighteen lenses. Don’t get your calculator out, that’s one lens about every four days. Oh yeah, I also have to make sure all the others are up to snuff as well. If I can swing the June 30 deadline, I’ll be able to wear the Squidoo Giant badge with pride.

Having a self imposed deadline has transformed my thinking. I will not violate my own personal standards on what I think are quality lenses, but I’m now looking at shortening up my creations. Cutting to the chase, this means I have to sell what I’m cooking in shorter recipes without diluting my craft. Can I do that? At this point it is not a matter of I can, because I will.

You may ask why is my heart pounding, my palms sweaty, and my hair frazzled if I am confident that I’ll make it? There is still that glimmer of hopeless fear when I work under a deadline. Every minute I spend looking for data I cannot find, or stumbling over a word, or maybe discarding a graphic I spent some time on could be the first minute of days without clear thought where to go next.

That fear and my horrible typing are my banes as a wannabe writer. I have to work on the spark, the emotion of the current thought. If I stumble away from what I am writing, it is dang hard for me to get that river flowing in the right direction again. So, I push myself.

When I get to June 30 and I’m happy with that journey, I’ll have two huge thanks to give. One is the awesome cheering thread in the So You Want To Be A Giant Squid discussion area at the SuidU Forum. That thread is my resource for motivation as I watch talented lensmasters that started Squidooing well after I did catch up and pass me. This is not depressing to me, no it is charging me. I will not be left behind.

The other help is coming from my Twitter pals. Sure, I have reaped a lens idea or two from the chatter, but more than that they are helping me keep my focus on who I am. Keeping me grounded, and that is the real quality in my lens art. My voice through the written word is all that really matters and my pals are helping me keep it real.

At the moment, I’m kind of stuck and it is starting to rain; so I can’t ride this one out. I think I’ll comb my hair, wipe off my palms and grab a beer.
[ratings]

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This is a chronicle of daily Squidoo activity. Who said what, when and where? Lensmaster announcements, resources and everything else under the sea of Squid.

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