www.josschuurmans.com

The hassle of maintaining "about"-info on TypePad

Over the past week or so I've been updating the "About" information on my blog at www.josschuurmans.com and some other Internet destinations where I have a presence.

TypePad has some standard functionality to help members create and update an "About Page", as part of the TypePad user interface.

First, edit the content modules on your Author Profile from:
http://www.typepad.com/account/profile

Then, select the content modules for your standard About Page from:
http://www.typepad.com/account/profile/about

I wanted to not only update my info, but also have a description running on the right-hand column on my blog. So I created a TypeList note to display a summary of my "about"-info. You can create TypeLists from:
http://www.typepad.com/site/lists

Now, my account name on the TypePad sytem, "ojamies", differs from my own name and the name of my blog. I have domain-mapped my blog to www.josschuurmans.com, but it turns out that the default About Page which TypePad generates will not be mapped to the same domain. Instead, it will reside at: http://ojamies.typepad.com/about.html. (whereas my TypePad Profile lives at: http://profile.typepad.com/josschuurmans)

I find this odd.

As you may read below from the exchange I had with TypePad's support desk, re-domain-mapping my whole site in order to include the About Page would change all the URLs of my blog posts.

I find this odd.

The alternative then was to create an additional About Page, just like a normal page, and manually populate it with similar information as goes onto the default page. The new page lives where I would want it to, at: http://www.josschuurmans.com/about.html

Perhaps the "blessing in disguise" in this case was that the manually created page is more flexible, so I can edit and add information that I couldn't select to the default page.

One thing I would have liked TypePad to offer is the possibility to categorize pages. Then I could have categorized my manually created About Page under the "about" category, which now only shows blog posts, no pages.

To recap, I now have more or less the same "about" info in five different places on the TypePad system:

1. In a TypeList on the right-hand column of each page on my blog at www.josschuurmans.com;
2. In the About Page I manually created at http://www.josschuurmans.com/about.html;
3. In the About Page which TypePad has generated at http://ojamies.typepad.com/about.html;
4. In my TypePad Profile at http://profile.typepad.com/josschuurmans;
5. In blog posts categorized under http://www.josschuurmans.com/about;

I find this odd.

Not only is this a big hassle in terms of maintenance; I'm also wondering how it all affects search engine optimization?

Anyway, for completeness, here's my exchange with the kind people at TypePad's support:

[STARTS]

Automated Error

On Jul 30, 2009 2:21 PM, you (josschuurmans) said:

I created a new type list note. After saving it, I clicked the "publish" tab. Then I was presented with 4 destinations: my 3 blogs and my About Page. When I clicked the link to "view" the About Page, this error occurred. I wonder if this means that I don't have an About Page?

On Jul 30, 2009 6:03 PM, TypePad Customer Support said:

Hi, It looks like you entered a URL for a link without the http:// at the beginning. Try entering the URL with http:// at the beginning, as http://ojamies.typepad.com/about.html and that should work better for you. We hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Thanks, Zalary

On Aug 1, 2009 4:50 PM, you (josschuurmans) said:

Okay, I found my About Page at http://ojamies.typepad.com/about.html However, I have domain-mapped my blog to: http://www.josschuurmans.com. How can we arrange this so that my About Page is also domain-mapped, i.e. to: http://www.josschuurmans.com/about.html ?

On Aug 1, 2009 9:34 PM, TypePad Customer Support said:

Hi, If you'd like your About page to use the domain URL, your entire site will need to be mapped. It looks like you currently have the domain mapped to a specific blog. You can delete the current mapping that you have in TypePad and set it up again. Changing the Domain Mapping settings, however, will change links to your existing posts. Instead of changing how the domain is mapped to your blog, you may want to create a new page with your About information. More information is available in the article on creating additional About pages here: http://kb.typepad.com/id/390/ We hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Thanks, Zalary

On Aug 4, 2009 10:31 AM, you (josschuurmans) said:

How would the links to my existing posts change if I domain-mapped my entire site?

On Aug 4, 2009 9:48 PM, TypePad Customer Support said:

Hi Jos, Thanks for the note. If you change domain mapping, the folder name would be added to its URL. instead of your weblog being at http://www.josschuurmans.com/ it would be at http://www.josschuurmans.com/josschuurmans/ instead. So a link like http://www.josschuurmans.com/2009/08/jacob-nielsen-on-social-intranet-software-opening-up-corporate-communication.html would become http://www.josschuurmans.com/josschuurmans/2009/08/jacob-nielsen-on-social-intranet-software-opening-up-corporate-communication.html instead. This will break all outside links to your site, so like Zalary mentioned, we would recommend you use a TypePad Page and create a new About Page within the blog instead. I hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Thanks, Kymberlie

On Aug 6, 2009 11:15 AM, you (josschuurmans) said:

Zalary, Kymberlie, thank you both for explaining! (I'll close this ticket now) Best, Jos

[ENDS]

About me: version 0.9

It's been close to 3.5 years since I posted my previous "About me", version 0.5. Time for a few adjustments - and as this is so damn hard to do, it will be work in progress. :-)

The conversations I wish to engage in (online and in public) are perhaps best expressed by way of the contents of my blog, for example in the category cloud on the right-hand column, or through the RSS feed.

What I do is probably best expressed through my company, Cluetail Ltd.

Here you can see where I am and how you can reach me.

Below I've listed some elements of who I am and what I value:

• I am a man, a boy, a husband, a lover, a friend, a father, a son, a brother, a son-in-law, a brother-in-law, a cousin, a nephew, an uncle, a neighbor, a colleague, an acquaintance.


• I am an entrepreneur, a participatory media strategist, a blogger, a seasoned journalist, and an aspiring coach. Cluetail Ltd., (introduction, blog category), my company, is the vehicle through which I actualize my professional identity. See my LinkedIn profile for more on my professional background.


• To name a few other properties: I am also white, Dutch, a victim of a Roman-Catholic upbringing, a small-town child, a foreigner in my current country of residence, 41 years of age, a gamma type student, an MBTI (Wikipedia) type INTJ or INTP (undecided), part of a transnational creative class, a music lover, a humanist, a proponent of progressive taxation and the Nordic welfare model, and I believe that we need state institutions to promote tolerance, non-discrimination, solidarity and equal opportunities for all disregarding race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, or functional ability.


• I haven't worked out how to tolerate the intolerant.


• I value happiness, health, love, respect, humanism, democracy, equality, solidarity, intellectual freedom, honesty, selflessness, socially and environmentally responsible behavior, good food, music, literature, design, and a fierce but fair debate.


• I am interested in the art of happiness, because ultimately this is what makes life worth living. Happiness is a function of many things, including most of the other items in this shortlist.


• Nurturing a healthy mind in a healthy body is essential to the pursuit of happiness. Good health contributes strongly to quality of life.


• Some material security is a prerequisite for happiness as well. Only after establishing the means to support oneself and one's loved ones, when things like medical care, housing and education are well in place rather than a daily struggle, can one focus on added value, such as cultural and political engagement, creativity and innovation.


• Physical environment, location, mobility, location-independence, tele-connectedness. These all belong together. For example, I greatly value living in the healthy and beautiful Finnish countryside while being connected to a global community, both socially and professionally, through broadband Internet access and wireless communications. I am concerned about environmental issues.


• Life-long learning. The world is changing at a staggering speed. I've always been news-driven, curious, hungry for knowledge, a trend watcher, analyst, innovator, eager to understand how the world turns. This is not just about nurturing one's value on the job market. Learning and understanding represents a broader human need. The prospect of "not getting it", of becoming alienated and detached from modern life, is just too frightening.


• Philosophy, wisdom and intellectual exchange are also important if one yearns to stay engaged.


• As are social, cultural and political participation and discourse.


• Last but not least: purpose and meaning. My wife has coined a phrase for it, which I'd like to borrow:

"What's the world, and why are we in it?"

Not sure if one can ever find the answer during this life on earth. My best thesis so far is that the pursuit of happiness is what makes life most worth living. Additionally, there is meaning in voting with your feet, your money and your mouth, by offering moral support to people and organizations that share humanistic values, people and organizations who sincerely attempt to make a positive difference.

(Please see: http://www.josschuurmans.com/about.html)

[UPDATED, August 3, 2009:

For my bio and contact information, please see: http://www.josschuurmans.com/about.html]

Meet version 0.5 of "About me"

[UPDATE, April 30, 2009: About me, version 0.9]

Been trying to improve the "About" info on my blog, because I felt that it wasn't very precise and could be more relevant.

Until now, I had stated my profession, hinting at my employer, and listed a bunch of keywords to reflect my interest areas.

This is what it's been saying:

[STARTS]

Contact

Website: http://www.josschuurmans.com

One-Line Bio

I'm an editor, content manager and concept developer of corporate communications solutions with a leading mobility company.

Interests

Mobility, communications technology, moblogging, new journalism, interactive publishing, human-computer interaction, usability, UI design, information architecture, knowledge management, content management, project management, organizational renewal, leadership, negotiation, information society, international relations, international political economy, history, sociology, philosophy, literature, film, music, canooing, cross-country skiing, nordic walking.

[ENDS]

After writing my entry about 'FOAFing the Semantic Web', I started thinking that, if matching like-minded people via machine-readable content is ever going to work, their interest profiles, or rather identity profiles, would have to be quite precise.

So, instead of contemplating my hobbies and interests, I had a go at jotting down what makes me me. What defines me.

A modernisation theory for blogging

I believe that blogs often follow a typical, staged development. I have this idea of a "modernisation theory for blogging", which I'd like to work out in more detail some day.