Ever since someone gave me an overview of RESTful web development in the same week that someone else gave me an overview of the Atompub protocol, I've been hooked on the idea.

I've tinkered around with starting implementations of both a client and a server on my own ever since. Part of that activity was because there weren't very many tools that supported Atompub. That actually makes doing that kind of development a pain.

That's because you're trying to do both ends of a client-server implementation without having either side ready to work. It's always much easier to work on one end of such a system when the other end is already in place.

While there have been tools for testing Atompub servers, some early servers, etc. out there, but most required quit a bit of yak shaving before you could work on the other side.

Fortunately, that's starting to change. While I still am pursuing my own implementations, I now have adequate implementations to work with on both sides: Windows Live Writer on the client side and Wordpress on the server.

One of the things I'm aiming for in working with this whole chain of tools is a central repository of content that I create: notes, bookmarks, articles, documents, images, etc. all in one place. From there, the content can be pushed out to the various sites I want it on.

Anyway, one of the things that I wanted to do as part of this was to get a copy of all of the content from this site as individual Atom documents. This would give me a large test set of posts that reflect my own real usage.

So, I wrote a bare minimum export to get all ~900 posts. One of the secondary reasons I wanted to use this is that this site's installation of Wordpress is chronically messed up.

Accordingly, a real implementation should actually query the service for the list of posts instead of just looping through the list. For whatever reason, this site's setup, that didn't work, hence the for(i) loop. But, that means some 404 errors in the middle from deleted posts.

Regardless, in just a few lines of C# code, I had a nice directory containing all of my posts. The code follows.

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Photo: Duchamp

I'm about as big of an advocate of the use of Creative Commons licenses for my creative work as you'll find. Nearly everything I make online is licensed under either the most permissive of the Creative Commons licenses (for things like articles, photos, documents, etc.) or one of the most permissive software licenses (for code and software), like the BSD license. That enthusiasm with a shared pool of resource led to my recent Photos from the Commons project and really drives much of my online activity. There has, however, been a longstanding problem with Creative Commons licenses that is probably going to get worse before it gets better. This problem exists on one of the axes on which Creative Commons helps people apply copyright license control. Those axes are:

• Attribution. If you republish, repurpose or create something from my work, you can't claim it as your own. My name needs to be attached. All of the licenses include this protection.
• Keeping the work free. The ShareAlike axis determines whether any changes you make to my work must also be licensed in the same way. This is often called a "viral" nature in license like the GPL and works similarly in Creative Commons.
• Commercial use. This is where things go from nice and black/white to a nasty shade of muddy gray.

That tricky axis of commercial use is specifically why I am steering entirely clear of any photo that includes a NonCommercial clause for the photos project. The problem, articulated in a much better way than I would do here, is that no one can really agree on what exactly *constitutes* commercial use. That can lead to really nasty confrontations that I want no part in. Adding to the confusion is the fact that for photos, there's an additional dimension wrapped up in the commercial use that could actually get messed up even if the use is non-commercial. The actual reproduction of a photo is covered by copyright. If you wanted to make prints, posters, etc. you needed a copyright license. However, if your chosen photo contains recognizable people (and sometimes inanimate objects as well), and you're using it as part of packaging or advertising something else, you also need a model release. This is illustrated by an episode of Friends (which is scary to realize is now nearly 15 years old) where Joey had a photo taken only to discover it on a billboard with a caption along the lines of "This man doesn't even know he's got herpes". That issue has caught a few businesses using Creative Commons photos for advertisements, even though the photos in question weren't restricted from commercial use. Fundamentally, these are the kinds of problems where rapid changes in how the law works along with a massive increase in the number of people now affected collide. Unfortunately, changes like automatic copyright and extensions with no registration, while partly intended to handle the influx of work under copyright without additional staff at the copyright office actually amplified the problem by creating enormous piles of copyrighted works by people who have no idea how copyright works. Alas, I'm certain it will get much, much worse before it starts to get better.

Photo by: Bob Jagendorf

Back at the beginning of 2007, I had an idea to highlight some of the amazing photographs that are added to The Commons every day. In my zeal for the idea, I jumped right to trying to do a "Best of 2006" book, but didn't start until January of 2007. Thus was the project doomed to the inevitable interference of life.

Fast forward to early this year and I got the itch to revisit this project. However, fully aware of how easily a grandiose book project could get pre-empted, I instead let it brew for a while before just jumping in where I had left off.

What I've seen works best for side projects like this idea is when things are built up out of small components. Those small components or small tasks lend themselves well to an hour here and there generating actual progress and usable results. There is no grand churning in the background with a final product emerging at the end.

So, for this idea, I think it makes much more sense to use the domains I bought for the project (fromthecommons.com and .org) and the subdomain I set up for the photo version specfically (photos.fromthecommons.com) to do smaller highlighting of great Creative Commons photos on a daily or weekly basis using a blog format.

A later book at the end of the year would thus be much simpler as all of the nominated photos would already be chosen.

So, I set up Wordpress on that domain and modified my tools for finding great photos from The Commons and it's up and running. Because I plan on putting ads up, I'm currently limiting the photo selection to those that are licensed Creative Commons Attribution. While I think that there's clear freedom to also use some of the other licenses, this one is clear and there's no shortage of great photographs to choose from.

The theme I'm using isn't exactly what I want for the long haul and I need to change the photo template HTML a bit, but those are tweaks that can come as things progress. In the mean time, if you enjoy good photography and are interested in open source creative expression, it's probably a site you may want to watch.

A while back, Dave Slusher started mentioning a conference he was working on. What actually caught my attention was the approach they're taking. Conferences (even the ones about participatory culture) tend to set themselves up with experts up on a platform conveying their expertise to crowds of various sizes.

CreateSouth is at least aiming to do things a bit different:

The idea of the conference is that if there is some project you want to do but haven't tackled because the learning curve is too high, you should walk out of the conference knowing where to start and maybe with an email address or three of people that can help you if you get into trouble.

One of the things that keeps me from attending many conferences is my tendency to scale the learning curve on topics quickly. Basically, if I'm interested in a topic to any level above casual, I dive in and get myself to a pretty good level of understanding.

That's resulted in a situation where, if I'm interested in a field enough to want to attend a conference on it, I find little of value in the panels and presentations.

I know, I know. Everyone says that the value in attending conferences is in the hallway conversations. And, for the conferences I've attended, that has been the case.

However, I don't do well in crowds and do really poorly at *starting* those conversations. I've found that if I don't take measures to compensate, I tend to find myself accompanied mostly by silence.

One of the compensations I've found particularly useful is *being* one of those experts. That's not because I'm particularly worthy of being called an expert. Rather, I've found some of the greatest joy in life by sharing what little I *do* know with others.

Doing so on a panel or in a presentation is often enough of a catalyst in the situation to help conversations find me.

However, in an environment like the one that Dave and the others behind CreateSouth eliminates the need for that particular crutch. When everyone is there to share what they know and help others, then the conversations really DO happen on their own.

All of that is to say that I was excited about the idea of attending CreateSouth and looked seriously at being there. Alas, the realities of life in all its aspects have rendered that decision for me in the negative.

When I realized that, I did some thinking about it. Prior to making that decision, I had been willing to pay $600 for a flight, another couple of hundred on a hotel, money for food and a day of lost consulting revenue. I had wanted to do that for a mixed desire to help others and to receive and enjoy the experience.

So, when Dave mentioned that they were looking for sponsorship, I dropped him an email. Sure, by not being able to attend myself, I'm unable to get the benefit of the receiving portion of the equation. However, there's no reason I couldn't still help.

It wouldn't be the same contribution as being there in person, helping people with their blogging or other new media skills. However, I figured I might be able to help defray some of the infrastructure expenses.

So, on Monday, I sent a check over that I know that Dave and crew will put to good use. Hopefully that ensures that there's a 2nd annual CreateSouth and I can actually attend that one.

This morning, I awoke to a white blur outside my bedroom window. As I put on my glasses, the white came into focus and I could see that snow was clinging to every surface in sight.

The heavy, wet snow of an early spring storm was stacked on every branch and twig; all of the horizontal surfaces had 6 inches of the sticky stuff on it. This happens only a few different times each year and it's always truly beautiful to behold.

Unfortunately, most of the time when I am greeted by this sight out the window, I'm getting ready to go to work or otherwise obligated to move on with my day. By the time my obligations are fulfilled on those days, the snow has melted in the spring sun and the opportunity to enjoy the scenery is gone.

This morning, on the other hand, was a weekend.

I showered, threw on my hat, coat and boots and grabbed my camera for a trip to the closest park: Lake Palmer. It's a combination of forest and wetlands that is just 5 or so minutes from my house.

This being Minnesota and above freezing, I wasn't alone in enjoying the park. However, all of that snow muffled all sound but my own breathing and the wet crunch of snow under my boots. That deep quiet emphasized just how noisy and chaotic life has been for the last 3-4 months.

I wandered for about a half hour, taking pictures as I followed the trails, leaving them whenever I saw something interesting.

The cattails were particularly interesting, with ice and snow layered over the exploded fluff of the tips of the plant.

That time alone with my thoughts, taking pictures of the natural beauty surrounding me was some of the best time In recent memory and a great way to enjoy the warm weather.

The photo highlights from that session are here.