I’m working on some major changes around here on this blog but before discussing them, I thought I’d post a note explaining that nothing but the front page of this site is visible right now. Go ahead, try to find another page – you will just come back to the beginning again! It’s a form of insanity, I think. In this case the insanity is caused by an unknown technical problem, which I described on the WordPress support forum here: http://bit.ly/jkUw7.

It’s interesting, I had loads and loads of people trying to help me on Twitter with it – but none of the proposed solutions have worked! It’s quite confounding. Since a whole lot of help on Twitter didn’t fix the problem yet, we’ll see what the WordPress support forum does for me.

Anyway, things are going to be very different around here – just as soon as everything works again!

Update:  Now that I had WP 2.8 installed, I got to do the handy automatic re-install and it appears to have solved my problem!  Way to go WordPress!

Facebook announced the imminent availability of vanity URLs today, meaning I could soon become facebook.com/marshallk or some variation. Chris Messina’s take on this is a must-read. Or I’ll just give you the short version:

I don’t need a Facebook vanity URL because I already own Marshallk.com. That’s a heck of a lot better. I can be found on Facebook by searching for my name, or via the breadcrumbs of conversation that I occaisionally drop there.

More importantly, you can also find me at Twitter, at FriendFeed (if you really want to find me on LinkedIn, Delicious, StumbleUpon or Flickr, it’s all listed at FriendFeed too) or you can call me on the phone. My phone number is listed on the side of Marshallk.com. I spend most of my days at ReadWriteWeb. I also have a physical body that occasionally makes an appearance in public.

The point is, I’m in charge here at Marshallk.com and that’s the way I like it. I know who makes the rules, so there probably won’t be any new ones I don’t like. I cannot say the same about Twitter or Facebook, not at all. Anything could happen over there, and if that’s the only connection that you and I have – it’s quite possible that connection will be broken in time. I’m here at Marshallk.com to stay. That means I’m going to stop telling people about my serf’s address at Twitter when I introduce myself, and I’m not going to promote my special link on Facebook (if I get one) – I’m just going to send people to this page if they want to find me, and then they can find where ever I happen to be hanging out through here.

I know most people don’t have their own domains registered, but for those of us who do, maybe we should reclaim some of the control that comes with ownership of digital identity. Just a thought.

I’m excited to announce that I just published ReadWriteWeb’s first premium report for businesses, the RWW Guide to Online Community Management. It’s a 75 page PDF filled with the best advice we’ve curated and written about and a companion online site that works like a little “Techmeme for community management articles.” It took me and a team of 4 other people more than 4 months to complete and it’s getting great reviews so far.

We’re selling it for $299, which you’ll know is a great deal if you are familiar with the world of premium reports.

There’s a free sample and lots more information about the report over in this post on ReadWriteWeb. I hope you’ll check it out.

I’m speaking to a Mensa gathering this Spring about the internet and was just sent some interview questions for the local chapter’s newsletter. Pretty strange, huh? After I took the time to reply to the questions, I thought I’d take a page from Dave Winer and post my replies here. Perhaps you, dear readers, can let me know if you think I am wrong, too obnoxious, or otherwise in need of different replies to such questions.
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If you’re looking to engage in online conversations with a wide variety of people in different circumstances, it’s important to recognize that the playing field is not level. Though blogging software lowered the technical barriers to participation, there remain substantial political and cultural issues that complicate adoption of these kinds of technologies by people with particular life experiences.

Two important opportunities to learn about these issues are in the news right now. Please check out this article on Silicon Alley Insider (and follow the links) and check out the Blogher conference, which will kick off a week from Friday.

Racism and sexism are two of the issues that many people face online. On a strategic level, to draw the lowest kind of analogy, failure to recognize the race and gender realities different people face on and offline is like trying to design a web page without recognizing that different browsers render HTML differently. (Forgive me for the clumsy analogy.) Though users may have free choice between browsers, and people have some choice about their response to race and gender politics, people who are not white and male don’t have much choice about those circumstances. And being “other” than white and male is not “a problem” like using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox – it’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that. Enough with that analogy then.

I bring this up just to say that no matter what your political views may be, trying humbly to understand where other people are coming from will make you a more effective communicator. There are millions of people on the web with millions of different experiences, but the types of experiences we can learn about by paying attention to this conversation and this conference are ones that a large number of people have had. Even if you don’t think it’s a matter of justice, fairness and human goodness (I do), consider learning respectfully how people in different circumstances understand their own lives so that you can be more effective in communicating with them. That will make you more effective at working online.

I’ve agree to participate in a launch event for the desktop video conferencing service Oovoo on Monday. If you’re interested in meeting, perhaps discussing a thing or two briefly, I’d love it if you’d join me. Sign up and download of the Mac client is at MyOovooday.com. There’s a charity angle and it should be fun. Why would you use a desktop app to do live video chat? Privacy and file transfer are reasons I’ve thought of.

Ooovoo is pretty nice, and I might end up using it in some situations – but I’m not sure. Come check it out with me if you’d like to and we’ll have a chance to say hello. Limited spaces are available and I don’t know how the whole plan is going to work. To be honest, the marketing here seems too involved for me but whatever. Let’s get out of it what we can, and when you’re talking about seeing each others’ faces and hearing each others’ voices – that can be a lot.