I'm The Boss @ netmobs, past CEO of b5media, author of Blog Marketing and a hardcore Canadian
May 31 2005
Team 4: Restoration Fire Smoke
URL: http://restoration-fire-smoke.portspaces.com
Overall Impressions
While this probably doesn’t mean anything, I like this blog. It’s a visceral reaction, and it’s hard to quantify. The quality of the posts is fantastic. I have a lot of concerns about the formatting, but overall this is a great blog. Great tone, lots of links, clarity of external links. All the good things. Well done team!
May 31 2005
Here’s the deal. I’ve stopped reading new blogs. No idea why. I’m just not finding many new blogs to read. Basically my staple of new blogs is growing at the same rate of my unsubscribing to crappy blogs.
I want new blogs to read.
So here’s the deal. Leave a comment here with your blog URL (and / or feed URL). I’ll read it for a week. The best new blog (from my totally subjective point of view) gets a brand new iPod Shuffle.
Sound good? Submissions end this Friday (3rd of June). I’ll then announce the winners on the 12th.
May 31 2005
Corante has finally (like, this has been in the works for months kind of thing) launched the SMAShmouth service!
I’m ultra stoked about this, and have a lot to say about the development. But, I’m tired today, and I’m expecting some more related developments, so I want to pool my responses together (they’ll make more sense).
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May 31 2005
Well, it’s been a fun 24 hours. Actually it’s been more than 24 hours since I left home, but with timechanges… Agh, screw timechanges.
The trip across the border yesterday AM (5am local time) was great. I’d visited the border 2 weeks earlier to find out what I’d need to cross to go to the course at Microsoft, and the guy I’d talked to 2 weeks ago was the same guy as yesterday AM. He didn’t even want to see the papers (I guess if you ask permission ahead of time, it’s unlikely you’re trying to sneak in).
It was great. We’d budgeted an hour and only used 5 minutes. Sadly we didn’t really take the time to veg out or anything, as I wanted to get to the airport and get setup and all that jazz. Looking back I wish I’d taken more time with the family. Damned hindsight.
I was flying out of Bangor airport, which is about as big as it gets in Maine. It’s not only the nearest airport to where we are, it’s also about 2/3 of the price to fly out of there if I’m going to a US destination. Might be different taxes, I’m not really sure.
It’s a tiny airport. Cheap (great) food. Very friendly people.
I was hoping to not have to check any luggage (so that I could just walk off the plane), but then I realized I had a razor in one of my carry-ons. I didn’t think you could take a razor on board (sharp object and all). So I packed it and checked that bag.
As I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria, the girl from the check-in counter asked me to come downstairs (she’d come to find me, it was kinda freaky). I got back and the security guy was all flustered. Apparently the fact that my razor has a battery in it (brand new M3 Power from Gillette… Best shave I’ve EVER had by the way) means it can’t be checked. And apparently you CAN take razors in your carry on.
Who knew?
So, both bags comin’ with me on the plane, which was for the best. The flight to Detroit was good. My laptop ran out of juice on the way, but I managed to write 5 pages before it did, which was good. Sadly that’s all I wrote yesterday (and Sunday was a similar output). So, I’m a touch behind, but considering I did 23 pages on Saturday, I don’t feel too bad. Maybe I can crank out 15 more today or something. We’ll see.
Anyways, Detroit has a new airport. It’s gorgeous, well organized, great shops. Great signage. Really one of my favourite airports. I couldn’t find WiFi there, but I have a feeling that may have been a laptop issue. I’ll try it out again on the way home (redeye flight… *shudder*).
I managed to snag my first ever professional massage while at the airport. It then took me half an hour to get lunch, and I only managed to get on the plane by 3 minutes.
Scary stuff.
The flight to Seattle was long. I’d forgotten to ask for an aisle seat up front. And so I was in the back row, squished between two big guys.
Definitely one of my least favourite flights (especially since I had to eat my lunch sitting between them) (or was it supper? Grr… timezones).
Arrived in Seattle. Got to the baggage claim area. Looked around for Lee for ages.
I’m such a dumbass.
He was standing 5 feet in front of me, whistling, grinning like an idiot.
I’m such a dumbass.
It’s a really good thing videoblogging hasn’t caught on yet.
So, I’m in Seattle. I like Seattle. It’s not as hilly as I figured, but it’s quite nice. Great community of folk here too.
After trying some local beer with Lee and his awesome wife (after visiting their drop dead freaking gorgeous house) we headed out to meet with some locals, like Nick (updated link) and Jordan.
Both of them are great. I’m honoured to have met Nick in particular. Great head on his shoulders. One of the people I’d pick to run the moon, if ever such a person were needed.
Jordan recently moved to the area from Texas (and other points). I really enjoyed Jordan as well. I could totally see him working his ass off at Microsoft or Google. Wonder if he’s looking?
We went to see Star Wars last night. Great movie. Best of all of them. I say that as a non-Star Wars geek. The original 3, I’ve always thought, were crap by modern day standards. Situations were crap, effects were crap, plot was weak and limited, acting was AWFUL… Sure, Phantom Menace was weak, and Jar Jar was annoying, but no more so than any other token character in Star Wars.
So, this movie was good. I thought they did a piss poor job of showing that the movie happens over almost a year of time (8 months), so you feel like Anakin’s turning quickly, but really it’s a lot of little and big events over a longer period of time.
Overall, I wasn’t disappointed. I thought it ended weakly, and some of the battles could have been better… But, then, there weren’t really any great battles in the original 3 were, there? I can’t think of any that were as good as even the worst battle in this movie.
I’m hoping that someone else takes over Star Wars and:
1. Does some pre-prequels
2. Does an in-between movie between these 3 and the original 3
3. Does some post movies where Vader gets his ass kicked
There’s more than enough material in the licenses Star Wars books to make 20 more movies.
Ah well.
So yeah, great first day here. Lee and his wife have been rocking. And I’m gonna go pick up Marc Orchant at the airport in a couple of hours.
For now, I’ve got faster-than-broadband web access, and I’m gonna enjoy it!
May 30 2005
Team 3: Restoration Residential
URL: http://restoration-residential.portspaces.com
Overall Impressions
My overall impression is that there is a good mixture of original content, quoting, opinion, news information and other great pieces of industry info. Categories are solid, and posts are well written.
I would like to see who has written each post, and a greater consistency in terms of fonts, linking, etc. In fact, linking is fairly sparse on this blog, which isn’t bad, but it could certainly be better. The variety of information, and the fantastic use of formatting (even if it isn’t always consistent) makes this blog very readable.
Grammar could use some work. There are lots of questions and areas for readers to respond in this blog, which is great. Well done. Also, the use of the link at the end of many of the posts is very helpful, as most of the other blogs assume that users will click on the post title (which isn’t what users are trained to do with blogs, necessarily.
Overall this is a great example of a blog, and the students are using the medium very, very well.
May 30 2005
Team 2: Restoration Commercial
URL: http://restoration-commercial.portspaces.com
Overall Impressions
The immediate first impression is that not only are the categories much better, there is also a lot more solid information here. Add to that that authors sign their names, and this blog is already looking up.
Overall this blog is just about as good as any professional blog that’s been written for quite some time. Grammar’s good, sentence structure is good, there are lots of links, great titles. I really don’t have anything to nitpick at. In terms of scores, it’s 4/5’s all around. Really, well done to this team!
May 29 2005
Team 1: Restoration Catastrophe
URL: http://restoration-catastrophe.portspace.com
Overall Impressions
Looking back through the earlier postings, it’s obvious that this team’s grasp of blogs has improved over the last couple of weeks. The first half dozen entries are all short, lack personality and lack decent titles. As time goes on, though, the length, tone, titles and writing quality improve. I’m a bit concerned with the formatting issues (particularly lack of spacing between paragraphs and differing fonts on certain entries), but those are minor points.
Reading the entries, I’m a bit perturbed that Cleanfax is mentioned in 3 different posts, but that could just be me.
Overall this is a quality blog. My gut feeling is that the categories could be put to better use (suggestions include: “Restoration Resources”, “Coach’s Commercial Restoration” and “Industry Knowledge”).
Evaluation Points
Formatting: 3/5
The team gets points for using visual stimulations such as a variety of links and bullet points; however there are a variety of formatting issues as well. They may want to consider using italics or bold in place of exclamation marks as well. Overall the formatting’s “good”.
Linking Practices: 4/5
Almost every entry has several links. This is fantastic for finding out exactly what the students are talking about. They should be commended for this behavior.
Authority: 3.5/5
The students are obviously trying to learn while also trying to blog, and this comes across. Some posts are authoritative, while others are almost shy. Overall they’re doing a great job, considering this is likely a new industry for them.
Authenticity: 3/5
The students are obviously students. While that is good, it occurs to me that perhaps the ideal restoration catastrophe industry blog might want something that sounds more professional.
Writing Quality: 3/5
There are numerous grammatical, sentence and punctuation issues scattered throughout the blog. It’s difficult to know if this is confined to one author, though, because author names are generally not included.
Frequency of Posts: 5/5
Most days have 1-2 posts. This is fantastic. Generally they are striking a good balance between content levels, content lengths and varying kinds of content. Great job!
Length of Posts: 3/5
Initially posts were too short. If I had to evaluate the first day or two of blogging, I’d give this a 2/5. However, more recently the length has been fantastic. I’d give the most recent week’s worth of postings a solid 5/5.
Relevance: 4/5
The only thing that irked me was the reference to CSI. I’m not sure if this is the kind of thing individuals in this industry would be expected to watch or not. It could be an entirely appropriate for this industry, in which case I’d give this a 5/5. I would like to see more “industry news” style information though.
Variety of Writers: 2/5
It’s simply too hard to tell who is writing where. I can hear different tones. I’m not sure if there should be identifiably different writers or not, given the type of blog this is. I’m sure people could argue it either way. However, some posts do have names, and others don’t. This is confusing.
Quality of Titles: 3/5
As mentioned in the overall review, later titles are better. Earlier titles aren’t as good. I’d expect this to improve with time. Overall, a great first few weeks on the titles front.
Total: 33.5/50
May 29 2005
Over the course of the next 2 days, I’ll be posting a variety of reviews of student blogs for the University of Michigan’s course on the subject led by Bud Gibson. Feel free to either ignore these, encourage the students, take them to heart, whatever.
There’ll be 6 of them though, so get ready! I’ll publishing them over the next 3 days (2 per day, so it doesnt’ flood the rest of the content).
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May 28 2005
That’s right! I wrote the Acknowledgements and Dedication today!!!
Whoo, go me! 
May 28 2005
I’ll be in Seattle Monday, and then at Microsoft until June 3rd. The trip’s fairly busy, as Marc Orchant and I will be participating in the physical beta of our first course on time management. But, if you want to get together, drop us a line.
On Monday I’ll be going to see Star Wars with a bunch of folk at Cinerama at 7pm. Feel free to join us!
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