I truly enjoy interacting in person with the local DC/Baltimore Metro blogger scene and I am excited to meet everyone who is new.

If you are here from WordCamp, I sincerely thank you for taking the time and investing your attention in my content.  If you leave me a comment with your link or send me an email using my contact form, I would be honored to return your favor of constructive criticism.  I welcome your feedback on my blog.  Please seek me out on twitter @Scott_Coughlin or @ITThought so we can meet at the conference, too.

WordCamp is a community based "un-conference" where users, developers, and vendors of WordPress, my blogging platform, gather to foster synergy, mutual improvement, and simply socialize.  It is one of the best things about new media, our Information Age, and IT in general.

My IT thought for the day is "What is it about new media and the Internet that produces these intense community based groups seeking nothing more than mutual benefit?"  You can see the same behaviors associated with Linux, Photoshop, and famously the Macintosh platform.  It is one of my favorite parts about my profession.

Why do you think we have this sense of community?  Is it limited to Information Professionals or are there other examples?  Do you like it, too, or are there disadvantages?  Please share your thoughts.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for September 11, 2010 ©Scott Coughlin .

Today’s post alone is licensed under creative commons license.  All are free to share and use so long as credit is given for original or derivative works.

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I wish everyone of my readers, a very Happy Easter holiday. 

For those who do not celebrate this holiday, I wish you joy as other religions celebrate their holy days during this special time.

We will be back tomorrow!

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That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 4, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: About.com

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First, I would like to thank all of you for loyally reading my posts each day.  I am very humbled by your readership and attention.  Thank you very much.

It has been a couple of months since I updated you on the Site’s development.  Here are some highlights:

Highlights:

• Over a year of daily IT Thoughts.
• Some high-profile commenters
• One Digg event!
• One Technorati Influential Post Highlight
• One complete redesign of the home page
• We opened our very own web store!

I would like to remind you that there are many ways to get our posts daily.

Ways to get our content:

• Website
• E-Mail Subscription
• RSS Feed
• Google Reader
• Twitter
• Kindle

I do not intend to rest on my laurels at this point.  Here are some plans that I have that are “coming soon.”

Upcoming Features for the next quarter:

• iPhone Customized Site for Mobile Users
• iPhone Application
• iPad Application

Now, running the site does take some funds for hosting, bandwidth, and storage.  Images also are surprisingly costly.  Here are some ways that you, my readers, can help with that if you like.  For those who have asked, I am sorry, but I don’t accept donations at this time.

Ways that you have help defer costs:

• Click on our ads and support our Google Ads sponsors
• Amazon Affiliate Program. Just use any Amazon link or Search from our page and we get a tiny piece!
• Shop at the IT Thought of The Day Store
• Buy a Kindle from Amazon
• Kindle Subscriptions
• Digg our stories with Digg Button
• Re-Tweet our stories with Tweet This Button
• Tell a friend who may be interested about us – send an email or pass a link to us

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate it!

Here’s to another year of The IT Thought of the Day!

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 21, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: greekshares.com

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1. Mobile Layout.  No matter what I did, the site simply did not look right on iPhone and BlackBerry browsers.  This accounts for nearly 15% of my readership, so was a critical problem.
2. Custom Coding.  The last theme required some custom code adjustments to make the site look presentable.  This was no fault of the developer, but was a result of me trying to make his screwdriver hammer nails for my needs.

So, as you can no doubt tell, I launched a brand new look for The Information Technology Thought of the Day website today!  I know that many of you will no like the change because you have become familiar with the old layout and interface, but a the same factors reported three days ago were still valid.

There are many advantages to the new layout!

1. Cleaner and simpler interface.
2. Fancy new navigation widget on the left near the top.
3. Great new footer full of useful links.
4. Better navigation for pages at the top!

The new theme is the WordPress Mystique theme by digitalnature.  Please give his site a view and if you like what you see here, recommend the developer to your web design friends!

So, please share your feedback on our new layout.  You can use the comments section for this post or use the “contact me” button near the top of the page to give me that feedback.

Thank you for your readership and patience during this second change.

-Scott

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1. Spam. WordPress.com removed my original theme from their marketplace.  The sited the previous theme developer for using their theme to spread spam.  I can neither confirm nor deny that this was happening, but I suspect that they know better than me what the underlying code was doing.
2. Features. My old theme would not play well with Ajax features or Digg.com.  Basically, I was unable to take advantage of many of the newest web technologies and I wanted to be able to do that.  For a preview, take a look at my new extended footer, the area at the bottom of the page.  That is one feature that my new theme provides that my old one did not.
3. Expandability.  As our blog grows up, I have begun to consider paying for a premium theme so that I can work through updates to WordPress (the underlying machine that powers the blog) without changing appearances.  The company that produced my new theme, Themes by bavotasan.com, offers upgrades that I may want to seek in the future.  I am trying before buying.

So, please share your feedback on our new layout.  You can use the comments section for this post or use the “contact me” button near the top of the page to give me that feedback.

Thank you for your readership and patience during this change.

-Scott

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