Yesterday, for reasons unknown to me, Gmail added me to their beta list to try our their new Priority Inbox. It’s pretty interesting and if there is a day when I get a lot more email I think this will be helpful. My only concern is that Gmail needs to tread lightly with how many new widgets and nifty little additions before my inbox starts looking like my old Myspace page.

I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot. Digg, if you care, has a new design. I don’t really care. The only time I ever venture to Digg is if I’m really, really bored and I’ve gone through my social networks, rss reader and there’s no one to chat with. In any case, when I loaded up the site yesterday this is what I saw. It’s working now, but I thought it was at least a little humorous—maybe a prophecy?

I tried it this morning. It didn’t work. So I guess Skype is safe for at least a couple days until they’ve got this all sorted out.

This my second workshop/presentation with Alberta Magazine Publishers Association. I guess the first one went well enough because they want me to do another. This time it’s going to be less presentation and more workshop.

If you’re a magazine publisher or editor, this might be a great way to be part of an open discussion about how to proceed with your website and how to focus your online goals and targets.

Here’s the blurb and registration details:

Maximizing the Potential of Your Web Presence

By now, most publishers, big and small have a web presence of some kind. But is it meeting your goals? Are you taking full advantage of the latest tools and techniques for building audiences at minimal cost? Is there more that your site could be doing in order to effectively sell subscriptions, build brand awareness or even (gasp) create revenue?

As part of AMPA’s Digital Learning Series, Rhett Soveran—web editor of WestJet’s inflight up! magazine—will show you how to maximize your Web 2.0 potential. During this three-hour session, he will go through case studies of publishers who are working the web, highlighting what is possible at different budget levels and for different goals. Rhett will also provide personal and interactive analysis and advice on websites you provide as audience members, answering questions you have about maximizing your web potential.

Date: Thursday, September 16, 2010 
Time: 9:30am-12:30pm
Location: The Kahanoff Centre, Room 202
1202 Centre Street SE, Calgary
Coffee and light snacks will be provided

Price: Early-bird rates for registration by Tuesday, September 7:
$20 for AMPA members/ students; $30 for non-members
Registration rates after September 7:
$30 for AMPA members/ students; $40 for non-members
To register, email ampa@albertamagazines.com or call 403-262-0081.

In a world of premium WP themes, I’ve been thinking that there aren’t many people still making high quality free themes. I consider myself to be someone who keeps up with WordPress, but there are quite a few themes here that I’ve never seen or heard of and they look great. This is a solid list if you’re looking for a free WordPress theme.

This blog was poorly maintained for far, far too long, so I’ve moved it to Tumblr as a means to do more light-weight posts on all web and writing related topics on the net.

This will be my “professional” blog and house all my professional thoughts. Welcome, welcome.

I think this is an interesting article and I think you might answer slightly different depending on which camp (Google or Apple) you find yourself in. Or you might change the graph entirely.

No matter what, there is an obvious shift towards apps, but whether or not that actually means the web is dying or just diversifying is probably still up for grabs.

But, just in case, I should probably change my job title and remove “Web” from it.