Web Writing, Projects, Theories

I’ve never heard a good answer to this question, but I’ve known the answer must be simple and logical.

I searched around and found a good answer, until I found this. It’s a very simple site but has accurate and reasonable information.

So what I learned: very small businesses with only one person or a sole proprietorship probably don’t need to incorporate, although one benefit is you get to make yourself look more established by putting LLC or Inc. next to your name.

The times when it does become important are when you have employees and more diversified liabilities, then you will want to protect yourself personally, although this corporate layer isn’t going to protect you from being a moron.  You could still get sued and be liable in some cases.

Another reason for small businesses not to incorporate - you’d have to pay fees and/or operate your business in a way that complies with the regulatory laws of that state, which you might not want to do. However, I also found out why Nevada and Delaware are populare incorporation states from two other websites I read. Although this second link charges extra because they’re more of a service, not sure that I would ever want to use them, but maybe.

Good things to know!

Last month Back in December I mentioned that I built a new Chicago Metra Schedule web site for myself and others to use. So far its gained some good traction, and I’ve worked little by little to improve its usefulness to myself and users who are willing to provide feedback on it.

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The plan is for it to always be under development, listening to users and implementing changes that I think make the pages more useful.

I’ve been using it because I use the Metra a lot, and it’s an easier interface for finding schedules, station locations, and all the information that metra provides on their site, I just reorganized it and linked to some useful maps.

As far as development goes, the next steps are to add station map links for all stations (not just the two lines currently supported) and then I would like to branch out into other topic areas about chicago that I can provide local resources and my own take on. This will all be eventually by housed at ChicagoJourney.com and TheChicagoMetraTrain.com, each site holding its own catalogue of stuff.

Google now puts recipes using the canned meat Spam next to your Gmail spam box. You must have the Web Clips feature turned on in your Gmail settings to see this.

Have fun making Spam meals!

Conventional wisdom says that if there are 3 people voting your vote matters a lot, and if there are 4 million people casting votes, it matters little. I’m here to say that you can override this math, right now.

In Florida’s 2008 Democratic primary the votes actually did not count because the Democratic party declared the state’s primary invalid. This is weird, and Florida voters must feel cheated out of their voice. However, these days the web and easier communication allow our voices to become more than only the physical vote punched in the card. I’m not saying that our vote is any less important, but now we have the ability to supplement and back it with more.

Conversation, web presence, and motivating others around us to think in small new ways empowers you to pass on the ingredients that made up your vote. These ingredients produce more thoughtful votes, maybe more votes like yours. To get maximum bang for your vote: don’t let up on this conversation and push the quality and questions that increase a dialogue’s intelligence. The aggregate of this effort becomes your true voice.

I’ve heard it intelligently and strategically argued that a person could “talk like I’m voting for one candidate, but actually vote for another so that indirectly I help my candidate more.” This logical flaw channels your energy toward gaming the system. I suggest pouring all your effort voice behind your choice and your decision-making method. If you renounce the idea of gaming your vote, others will follow suit. If everybody actually voted for what they wanted, we would have truer elections.

How can we do this? Maintain a blog about your topics of interest. Integrate the issues into peaceful, disciplined, discussion -based conversation. Seek to learn about other people. Leverage the power of the web to help you link, bookmark, and reach out to diverse audiences.

Last week Google announced a new service called Google Knol, and Seth Godin from Squidoo was obviously jilted.

Here’s the way I see the landscape of things - we have Wikipedia (articles), Facebook (social profiles / networking), and then Squidoo which seems to blend both. I’m not saying those are the 3 big players (they’re not) but they’re just the 3 I want to look at.

Squidoo’s community allows articles to be tied to the author, which is important because the source of information validates it. But Squidoo doesn’t limit itself to the article format, it allows people to create profiles about anything - there are profiles of people who are huge Harry Potter fans etc., so this kind of capability broadens the scope. Squidoo is not defined, it relies on its users to define each page and link to the pages to build that community.

Here’s what I think is good about Google’s Knol. The name “knol” itself is smart as it functions to market and define the product. It’s in reference to a “mol”, the standard unit of measure for a molecule, atom or anything in Chemistry. Not only does this carry on the scientific culture in Google’s naming of products and services (Google references googol), but it accurately and concisely describes Knol’s purpose. Based on the Google blog post, a knol is a unit of measure for a piece of knoledge. Clever, descriptive, and reinforces Google’s culture.

Now how does Knol fit into the landscape of the Wikipedia, Facebook, Squidoo trio I mentioned above? First I think that Google recognizes areas where Squidoo falls short. Squidoo in its current form suffers from a lack of direction and definition as far as what its community is supposed to be. Is it a social network or an authoritative article network? I think users think of the two as different and its difficult to combine the two like Squidoo tries to do. It’s too open ended so people don’t know what to do with it. Also it has Adsense ads on it in places that cause it to suffer from a usability perspective. The Knol screenshot does not have (intrusive) ads. If Google did implement ads, they would probably be less intrusive, such as how ads are integrated on Google Groups.

Then Google tried to make a mark in this space to make it better. It is smart to tie the writer to the article and that’s what Squidoo does well - it gives the article greater authority and a higher likelihood that it will be linked to. Google Knol is taking advantage of Squidoo’s inability to define itself to an optimal point. Knol looks like Squidoo with a Wikipedia article touch.

So here’s my reccomendation to Squidoo - take this moment of change to respond and adapt. If I were them, I’d divide the site into two components and brand / adjust them accordingly - a social side and a knowledge article side. This way you have the Facebook group feel of the social lenses, and the authoritative article feel of a Google knol.

I just built a web site that’s still under development, but I wanted to post about it here. It is located at www.writershore.com/chicagometra and it’s an easier interface for finding schedules, station locations, and all the information that metra provides on their site, I just reorganized it and linked to some useful maps.