There are a ton of free applications out there that run based on PHP and MYSQL technology however, some people find it very hard to install everything you need in order to run them. If you ever wanted to play with PHP applications XAMPP is a great tool to help you out.
XAMPP is a application stacks which takes all the common tools you need to deploy many open source application without having to know how to install the core applications.
Check out XAMPP at http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Building a sucessful community
In my 10 years experience in building communities I have come across a lot of things that work and many things that dont. While working for a software company who built collaboration tools I have seen many companies look to deploy "Community" on their websites. I think the biggest issue I've seen is that fact that people think that if they place a message board or a chat room on their website that people will just flock to it.
Socializing in a community is the biggest factor in what makes a community successful. You can go out and buy the most expensive software application for putting up a community but if you cant get people to socialize amongst themselves the investment will never pan out.
Here are some tips that I think are important to anyone who wants to establish a community.
1. The tools do not really matter, it is the people using the tools. Most community usage is from repeat users not new members.
2. Promote socializing. The more groups you can form in your community the bigger it will grow. 3. Use the tools yourself. If your employees are contributors to the community people will flock to them. Everyone wants to be at the party with the popular people.
4. Put the time in. It can take years to establish community on the internet. Unless you have a ton of $ the chances are it will take time to grow.
5. Set reasonable expectations for community growth. If you grow 1% a month that is a huge milestone. Most website have les then 1% of their total membership using the tools at any given time.
brodle
Socializing in a community is the biggest factor in what makes a community successful. You can go out and buy the most expensive software application for putting up a community but if you cant get people to socialize amongst themselves the investment will never pan out.
Here are some tips that I think are important to anyone who wants to establish a community.
1. The tools do not really matter, it is the people using the tools. Most community usage is from repeat users not new members.
2. Promote socializing. The more groups you can form in your community the bigger it will grow. 3. Use the tools yourself. If your employees are contributors to the community people will flock to them. Everyone wants to be at the party with the popular people.
4. Put the time in. It can take years to establish community on the internet. Unless you have a ton of $ the chances are it will take time to grow.
5. Set reasonable expectations for community growth. If you grow 1% a month that is a huge milestone. Most website have les then 1% of their total membership using the tools at any given time.
brodle
Friday, April 28, 2006
Electric Sheep!
Electric Sheep has to be one of the coolest screensaver programs I have ever seen. The best part of it is it is also free.
http://electricsheep.org/index.cgi?&menu=download
Electric Sheep is an open source screensaver that uses the community to build morphing abstracts. You can vote for an abstract you like and it will be added to the list of favorite abstracts.
The concept of sheep is that every time your computer kick on the screen saver or the computer "sleeps" it goes out and grabs sheep to generate what the screen saver will look like.
Download it and check it out!
brodle
http://electricsheep.org/index.cgi?&menu=download
Electric Sheep is an open source screensaver that uses the community to build morphing abstracts. You can vote for an abstract you like and it will be added to the list of favorite abstracts.
The concept of sheep is that every time your computer kick on the screen saver or the computer "sleeps" it goes out and grabs sheep to generate what the screen saver will look like.
Download it and check it out!
brodle
Friday, April 21, 2006
Adding a chat room to your website.
Part of the success of our site over the last 8 year is because we offer websites the ability to embed one of our chat rooms on their own website for free.
Our chat applets are embedded on more then 5,000 website around the world. Each applet points to a chat room on our system that is controlled by that website.
Adding a chat room to your website is easy. Visit this link to generate your chat room applet and paste it into your website code.
http://www.everywherechat.com/addchat.asp
brodle
Our chat applets are embedded on more then 5,000 website around the world. Each applet points to a chat room on our system that is controlled by that website.
Adding a chat room to your website is easy. Visit this link to generate your chat room applet and paste it into your website code.
http://www.everywherechat.com/addchat.asp
brodle
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Being safe in a chat room.
We at EWC do our best to provide a safe chatting environment for everyone. In the 9 years we have been running this site I can say that we have provided one of the safest environments that we could possible offer. What I am sad to share is that as much as we do around here it will never be enough. Technology allows us to filter, hide personal information and even block many of the harmful things on the Internet however what it does not prevent us from doing is keeping people from sharing personal information.
If you watched the news lately you will probably see quite a bit of talk around sites like Yahoo Groups, mishaps and many other community based website. There is a big "WhoHaa" about how much personal information is stored in chats, message boards and blogs on the internet.
It is IMPOSSIBLE for us to prevent you from sharing personal information over a real time chat room or message board.
Our recommendation is to never share personal information over the Internet with anyone you do not personally know. Even then information said in a public chat room can be seen by anyone. It is best to leave sharing personal information to the real world. We understand the friendships you form and we always here the "that's not going to happen to me" but trust us it can.
If you follow these few tips using community sites like EverywhereChat.com and many others will be a safe experience for everyone.
1. Never share personal information, even in private chats. You do not know who is watching and it is safer to use the Internet strictly as recreation.
2. You should run a firewall to protect your computer. Windows XP has one and it should be turned on. You can make sure by going to Start - Control Panel - Firewall
3. Run an anti virus program. AVG Anti Virus is FREE, yes FREE so install it if you do not have an anti virus or your antivirus doesn't update cause you need to buy the updates. A link is available http://www.everywherechat.com/downloads.asp
4. Do not accept files or attachments from anyone you do not know. These could be viruses or some other harmful program.
5. Don't share your email or phone number in public chat rooms. Robots scan public chat rooms for email addresses and phone numbers all the time. Luckily we filter and ban most of the these bots but it is impossible to ban them 100%.
6. Report anything you think is wrong to the staff in #support. We will help you if needed.
We hope these tips help you have a safer experience on everywherechat.com or any other website. Any questions feel free to contact us.
- brodle
If you watched the news lately you will probably see quite a bit of talk around sites like Yahoo Groups, mishaps and many other community based website. There is a big "WhoHaa" about how much personal information is stored in chats, message boards and blogs on the internet.
It is IMPOSSIBLE for us to prevent you from sharing personal information over a real time chat room or message board.
Our recommendation is to never share personal information over the Internet with anyone you do not personally know. Even then information said in a public chat room can be seen by anyone. It is best to leave sharing personal information to the real world. We understand the friendships you form and we always here the "that's not going to happen to me" but trust us it can.
If you follow these few tips using community sites like EverywhereChat.com and many others will be a safe experience for everyone.
1. Never share personal information, even in private chats. You do not know who is watching and it is safer to use the Internet strictly as recreation.
2. You should run a firewall to protect your computer. Windows XP has one and it should be turned on. You can make sure by going to Start - Control Panel - Firewall
3. Run an anti virus program. AVG Anti Virus is FREE, yes FREE so install it if you do not have an anti virus or your antivirus doesn't update cause you need to buy the updates. A link is available http://www.everywherechat.com/downloads.asp
4. Do not accept files or attachments from anyone you do not know. These could be viruses or some other harmful program.
5. Don't share your email or phone number in public chat rooms. Robots scan public chat rooms for email addresses and phone numbers all the time. Luckily we filter and ban most of the these bots but it is impossible to ban them 100%.
6. Report anything you think is wrong to the staff in #support. We will help you if needed.
We hope these tips help you have a safer experience on everywherechat.com or any other website. Any questions feel free to contact us.
- brodle
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