Why should it concern me, may you ask? For two reasons: the impact on media visibility of accessible and high-quality science commentaries generated by bloggers, and in general how this crisis is another reminder that certain potentially damaging corporate approaches to crisis management are still alive and well.

Let’s talk about the first concern: researchers (and science bloggers) are a pretty individualist bunch. ScienceBlogs gave bloggers a chance to create a community of high-quality blogs, but it also gave the readers a chance to learn a lot by going to one place… it was the “supermarket of science blogging”. And, given that science and scientists have a notoriously hard time penetrating the mainstream media, this gave them a chance to gain visibility, as well as to organize themselves. I might be wrong, but it felt like it was the nature of the interactions among bloggers at ScienceBlogs that promoted the birth of ResearchBlogging.

What about the second concern? Corporate over at SB made the usual mistake: they wanted a piece of yummy pie (or should I say, pop) and, because of their gluttony, avoided consulting their bloggers (who, I am sure, they knew might have disapproved of their plans). So they just tried to fly things under everyone’s radar, and introduced a full-blown corporate food science blog fully written by PepsiCo as a new ScienceBlog. I am sure that this would have been fine, if only this blog were treated for what it is – a form of advertising.

What surprised me quite unpleasantly is the obvious fracture between the bloggers and their direct SB contacts (the “overlords”, as they are called), and SMG corporate. This would normally not surprise anyone: most corporate structures still think of opacity as a professional value to be upheld, no matter what. However, what is surprising is that they still thought they could get away with this while dealing with a bunch of freethinking, outspoken bloggers – bloggers who are the only reason why SB can exist in the first place! This is not just an oversight, it’s a bad case of cataracts.

Needless to say, I am sure that SB will keep going, just like Bora and other bloggers will. Science blog networks, which were strongly inspired by ScienceBlogs, will keep popping up, even though it is becoming evident that such networks do require a serious investment in IT to run efficiently. But IT is not enough, as managing networks requires a management mentality not fully understood (or even feared) by many corporate hierarchies: it requires true communication, honesty and transparency, especially during harder times.

When it comes to human networks, lip service to communication and transparency just won’t do: we are wired to spot “cheaters” and, if we perceive anyone to be cheating, we will attempt to do what we can to make sure they do not get rewarded for it. Bora and others felt deprived of their credibility, and lost trust in the SB exec: their departure was only the very human and logical consequence of that perception.

Evidence-based decision seems to be having a really hard time climbing up that corporate ladder, even at Science Blogs. How could have this been managed better?

The first step of crisis management is to avoid crisis altogether. You have quality control systems in place, internal/employee communications, etc. All of these aim at avoiding crisis from emerging. Crisis, however, usually emerge because there are opposing interests at work, and one of them is given privilege over the other at all costs. This is an obviously unsustainable way of managing any business. Let’s take this fiasco as an example:

• Bloggers’ interests: transparency, honesty, free speech, and a (small but regular) paycheck, proportional to their blog traffic;
• Corporate’s interests: profit profit profit.

The crisis has a chance to bud when these interests are seen as opposing, not complementing each other. We could make countless other examples where the two interests which are seen as competing are safety and profit (BP and Toyota anyone?), but this is the general idea.

Here is the tricky part: these interests are usually not at odds with each other. However, one might involve an expense in the short term, while the other is mistakenly seen as involving no expenses. Just because your aim is called “profit”, it does not mean that reaching it will not involve any expenses. Moreover, financial profit per se is something that is net of any expenses, not something that does not require any expenses whatsoever.

Before you start saying that what I just said is obvious, think again. This is the thinking that leads to crises:

Expense = expense; profit = earnings – expenses

This is, instead, reality:

expense = expenses, some of which are necessary, and some of which can actually increase your profit in the long run; profit = earnings – expenses (where expenses are necessarily different from zero)

Often one thinks that all you need to get there is one or both of these two things: eliminate expenses (ideally to zero) and increase your earnings (ideally indefinitely). The problem with this is that earnings do not emerge out of thin air (unless you are dealing with derivatives): they are something generated out of someone’s work, something that has a cost associated with it. In a way, that cost is the only reason why you can end up with earnings at all at the end of the day. Maths will not tell you this, as you can have expenses = zero and the equation will do just fine.

In this case, bloggers are a cost, and their ideas could be perceived as hard to handle. But those ideas are the reason why the business and its earnings exist in the first place! You cannot have those earnings without those bloggers, and therefore those ideas being churned out. Not paying your bloggers and trying to sneak past them is not the way to increase your profits – it is the way to land into a sure crisis. And it is unsustainable in the long run.

Further Reading: a brief roundup of the ScienceBlogs fiasco

• A Farewell to Scienceblogs: the Changing Science Blogging Ecosystem
• ScienceBlogs = ZombieBlogs
• Bora and PalMD leave ScienceBlogs: What to do now?
• Pepsico, Scienceblogs, and the Future
• Pharyngula on STRIKE (P.S. not anymore… but still thinking about what is happening in science blogging)
• Oh, Pepsi, What Hast Thou Wrought?

Related posts (generated)

• No related posts.

I am currently working as the Communications Officer for a professional association, which needs to leverage the skills and interests of its members by recruiting them as volunteers, and this conversation is particularly relevant to some of the things I do as part of my job. If you are trying to recruit volunteers, here is what I think you should know:

Virtual volunteering works, and it will help you find the volunteers you already have.

All volunteer-based organizations are constantly looking for one thing: more volunteers. Sometimes they find them, often they do not. This does not mean that they do not already have a “core” group of committed people running their key committees: it simply means that they still hold on to an idea of “volunteer” that simply does not match reality. However, what it does mean is that they often ignored people within the organization or otherwise involved with it who would be willing to give their contribution if only they were approached differently.

Often, a lack (or perceived lack) of volunteers indicates that you still think of “volunteering” and becoming “a volunteer” means:

• attending all meetings in person
• being responsible for potentially everything at all times
• being responsible for an entire event or initiative, from A to Z
• being interested in every single thing the organization is doing, or planning to do
• attending in person all possible events

Let me break this news to you: this is not what being a volunteer means. In fact, someone who does or is all of the above is one of two things: a hero… or an employee of the organization.

How do you recruit and retain volunteers?

Use mailing lists, groups and e-mails, but do it wisely: do not bombard people with e-mails every week (unless this was something agreed with them in advance). Keep the lists and groups current. Always allow people to unsubscribe, either directly or through you. Keep the lists focused: they should only be for one committee, or even one specific task.

Try to find out what people are interested in doing: in this way, you will already have an idea of who will not volunteer for certain things, and of who you might want to contact directly for others.

Be extremely clear and specific when you ask volunteers to contribute their skills and time: what are your expectations? How long will the task(s) take? What kind of support are you willing to offer? Volunteers like specificity, but they also appreciate some “wiggle room”: the best way to provide both is to write some standard guidelines for your committee, or volunteer task. Circulate these through the groups/lists at regular intervals.

Never think of using volunteers. You are working with them, not using them! Often, organizations think of volunteers as “disposable people” (“we need… pens, pencils… ah, yes, we need volunteers for that event!”), and forget that volunteers are people. And they aren’t just people: you are either asking them for a favor (e.g. if you ask for advice to a consultant), or you are trying to give meaning to what you want them to be involved in, explaining why they should be involved. To do either of these things, you need to demonstrate a keen interest in the potential volunteers and figure out what they might be interested in contributing.

The last point is arguably the most important. If it sounds like a lot of work – you are right, it is. But think about it: if you are desperately looking for volunteers, and you consider them to be central to your organization’s goals, then you are fully justified in investing this time and money in them. And if you are unwilling to spend time on them, why should they invest time in dealing with you?

I like to think and say that volunteers are in fact harder to handle than paid employees and, if you can manage, recruit and retain volunteers, you will have no problems with paid employees: volunteers need to be treated well, understood, consulted and rewarded. Shouting and tirades won’t do; you can’t fire them (they do that themselves); and you cannot trick them. Basically, honesty, personal interest, integrity, passion, vision and consideration (all things which are absolutely needed in a “normal” workplace with paid employees) are fundamental to volunteer management and recruitment. And being considerate involves thinking of volunteers as people with skills, a need for meaning, little time and a whole life to live.

If you do all of the above, you will realize that, along the way, you will finally find all those volunteers you already had.

Related posts (generated)

• Writing a blog disclaimer (part 2) (25)
• Writing a blog disclaimer (part 1) (4)
• It is time for layoffs – know your rights (2)

There are other tools available for nosy ex-boy/girlfriends and HR recruitment professionals out there. Some of these look to me almost malevolent: Spokeo decidedly targets HR recruitment firms and professionals, offering to go “a step beyond”, and automate “candidate researches across 41 social networks“. Other tools are targeting anyone who would like to feel more in control of their online identity, and therefore see all the information about them in one single place – Profilactic is among them. I do not know how much such a tool would really protect you, regardless of what the name might be implying…

On the other hand, as a reaction to the new generation of social aggregators, other tools are being created to allow you to basically censor anything potentially embarassing or even dangerous that has been posted about you online. The one most easy to find at this point is ReputationDefender. But if you wish that some government records or published materials were removed from the net, you are out of luck.

What does this mean for the average internet user? That you really need to be careful about anything you post on the web – anywhere. You need to be particularly careful about privacy settings in any sites that offer you the opportunity to show public profiles – and, if there is information that would like others rather not know about you, then refrain from posting that altogether. Also, be responsive and fast if someone asks you to remove from the net information you have posted about them. Last but not least, it might help to have a personal website, where people can look for up-to-date information about you, ad where you can effectively manage your online identity (or persona, for that matter).

Further reading: 20 Ways To Aggregate Your Social Networking Profiles on Mashable.com

Related posts (generated)

• No related posts.

I am going to provide an explanation of the main points your disclaimer needs to cover, and then write up a template. If you are very impatient, you can jump off to the template right away.

Here are the main points the disclaimer needs to address, in no particular order:

1. You will need either two separate disclaimers, or one disclaimers but including a section regarding comments. In fact, if your blog is moderated (and that is usually the case) you might be held responsible for what other people have written on your blog. Think of it in this terms: if you owned a newspaper, and you allowed a columnist to continually address a certain ethnic group in a manner that is considered illegal, would you be liable? Yes, you would. Although the law is still quite ambiguous when it comes to blogging, you should consider yourself as a publisher and editor, who is therefore responsible for the quality and legality of everything being published – whether you agree with it or not. However, you should not be held liable if the commenter is committing a crime and you are simply not aware of it.
2. You might want to include some “Terms of use” in this disclaimer, or even consider the disclaimer as a series of sections within a Terms of Use Agreement. When readers use the blog, they agree that the blog comes with no guarantees, and that the content might contain errors. You also want to say something about your abilities and how these affect (or not) the content of the blog (see point 4). They also agree not to use the content (images, files, text – be specific) without your express consent – and if they do that, they will become exposed to legal action.
3. As you are probably “moonlighting” as a blogger, you have to make sure that it is made extremely clear that everything you write is simply your opinion, and not the one of your employer.
4. You need to think of your “clout”: are you a doctor writing about health? Are you a business owner writing about business? Then you have to make it extremely clear that you are not acting as a professional, but as a simple individual. That is, anything you write, and any advice you give, is not being given as a doctor or businessman, but as an individual.
5. Now think of the reach of your blog. If you own a newspaper, you will be writing in a certain language, and catering to a (more or less) local audience. But as a blogger, your blog is potentially accessible from the whole world. However, you do use a certain language, and somehow cater to a certain audience. This implies that you need to make it clear that:
   • You are writing in language A (and B, and C…) only.
   • You are not responsible for any misunderstandings and controversy arising because the reader is not fluent with language A/B/C.
   • If you are writing in language A, but you are not a native speaker, you might also want to mention that, and again remind the audience that sometimes misunderstandings may arise because of this, and that they might not be intentional.
6. Consider that commenters may be writing from countries where what they write is illegal – while, say, it is not in the one you are currently located. You need to clarify that you are based in country A, and that what you are writing might or might not infringe laws in other countries. At the same time, you are not responsible for comments that break the law somewhere else, and not where you are (how are you supposed to know that anyway?).
7. Even with all this, there might be issues that legal representatives or individuals want to raise about the content of your blog. You need to explicitly ask these people to contact you (by e-mail, snail mail, or however you like) in person before bringing forth any legal action. For example, if you write about research articles, you might be asked to pull something down from time to time…
8. This brings us to the part where you need to know where you stand in terms of copyright/fair use. This has to be mentioned somewhere in your disclaimer. Of course, if Fair use does not exist in the country where you are, you will not be able to write that – so you need to enquire as to what the law concerning copyright allows you to do: for example, if you are in Canada or another Commonwealth country, you will need to be familiar with Fair dealing. You have to cover these points:
   • Images and text are under X.X Creative Commons License, or completely (C)author, unless when it is mentioned otherwise. All logos and trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
   • It is the responsibility of the commenters not to infringe copyright in comments.
   • If you are writing about/publishing something that is copyrighted, you need to mention that you are doing it under a “fair use” provision.
9. Something about your content (whatever that is) must be said. More specifically, you will need to mention these points:
   • Content validity: the content might contain errors and not be completely up to date. Errors, when pointed out, might not be corrected immediately.
   • Links: you are not responsible for the content of websites you are linking to (they should have their own disclaimer, don’t you think?).
   • Make it explicit (funny or not, but explicit) that you do not mean to harm, or encourage to harm, anybody. Also, remind your readers that you do not mean to libel/offend anybody, and that they can freely disagree with you – all you write is simply your opinion.
   • Are you advertising for products? Are you writing reviews and getting paid for it? You should disclose this in your disclaimer.
10. Does your blog have multiple users? Who owns it anyway? Mention this, and remind your readers that you are not responsible for what other users are writing. As a suggestion, you might want a company to own a multiuser blog, or if you own it, get them to sign agreements where they state that they are assuming responsibility for all they are writing, and that they indemnify you.
11. Let’s say that you did write a good disclaimer, but somebody with money and time in their hands decides to sue you anyway. When this happens, they will try to attack your finances. Therefore, your blog disclaimer also needs to mention the limits of your financial liability.
12. You want people to read your disclaimer, and to feel that you are approachable to solve controversies. So make the disclaimer legible…and make sure to run a spell check AND proofread it very well. If you are not a “lone poor blogger” but you are working on a company blog, or even blog for a living, you might want to consider having a lawyer go through the disclaimer and fix any holes for you.

I think I managed to address most (if not all) of the important points. We can now move on to the template. Remember, I am not a legal expert, and a template needs to be modified (words and all) for your individual needs. So if you use my template and somebody sues you…well, you are still responsible for your own disclaimer!

If you need other resources, or you are just too lazy to read the other post…here are a few useful links:

• Writing a blog disclaimer (The Blog Herald)
• Herche’s Blog Disclaimer (legal redux)
• How to Write a Blog Disclaimer? (Websites Made Simple)

Anyway, here it comes. Change the italics/highlighted parts with your name or the name of your blog, and with different wording, whichever is suitable. You are hereby authorized to use and modify this template, at no cost to you, as long as you post a link back to this page from your blog. Any comments about the template, and suggestions for improvements, are welcome – just write a comment.

Happy (and safe) blogging!

————————————————-

GIOVANNA DI SAURO’S BLOG TERMS OF USE

PLEASE READ VERY CAREFULLY THESE TERMS OF USE BEFORE READING, COMMENTING ON, DOWNLOADING, COPYING, REPRODUCING, ALTERING MATERIALS OF ANY KIND, SUBSCRIBING TO, AND LINKING TO (COLLECTIVELY “USING”) THIS BLOG. USING THIS BLOG INDICATES THAT YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS BLOG.

Introduction. This agreement (“Agreement“) between You and Giovanna Di Sauro (“the Author“) consists of these Giovanna Di Sauro’s Blog (the “the Blog“) Terms of Use (“Terms“). “You“, “Reader” or “Commenter” means any entity identified by its comments, e-mail, registration information or IP address. If You use this Blog on behalf of your employer, organization or company, they shall also be bound by the terms of this Agreement.

Privacy. When You leave a comment, the Author is automatically notified and receives IP, WHOIS, and e-mail information pertaining to the Commenter. This information is not stored by the Author for other purposes than to moderate comments. This information is not being sold or used for other purposes. If you have concerns with the way this information is used, please contact the Author directly to arrange for complete removal of this information. Removal of all personal information will result in the removal of any content the Commenter might have contributed to this Blog, including comments. This Blog is hosted in British Columbia, Canada. Be aware that laws regarding personal information and privacy may differ from Your location.

Blog content. All the contents of the Blog, EXCEPT FOR COMMENTS, constitute the opinion of the Author, and the Author alone; they do not represent the views and opinions of the Author’s employers, supervisors, nor do they represent the view of organizations, businesses or institutions the Author is a part of. The Author is not a medical professional, and you should never substitute information from this Blog for information obtained from a licensed medical professional; always consult your doctor before using any prescription, drugs, supplements, or undergoing any treatments. This Blog is entirely written in English; however, this is the Author’s second language. The content of this Blog is not intended to cause harm, but if You have any concerns about the contents of this Blog, please contact the Author. Disagreeing with the content of the Blog does not constitute sufficient ground for You to ask the Author to remove or modify any parts of this Blog. The Author is not being paid to write content on this Blog or to manage and in any way operate this Blog.

Copyright policy. All the text, images and other content being part of this Blog is property of the Author, unless noted otherwise. All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners. You are not allowed to reproduce, sell, and modify any part of this Blog. You are welcome to link to this blog, and to discuss its contents in a respectful manner. When You quote or link to this Blog, please include the Blog’s name in your link. You are not authorized to use this content for personal profit. UNAUTHORIZED COPYING, REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION, REPUBLISHING, UPLOADING, POSTING, TRANSMITTING OR DUPLICATING OF ANY OF THE MATERIAL IS PROHIBITED. Whenever copyrighted material is mentioned or use, the Author is doing so according to fair dealing practices. Use of material from this Blog according to fair dealing practices requires proper acknowledgment. Simply linking back to the Blog is not considered proper acknowledgment; please provide a link including the Author’s name, the name of the page you are linking, and a permanent link (“Permalink“) to that page.

Comment policy. The Author is not responsible for the content of any comments made by the Commenter(s). The Author is also not responsible for knowing whether the content of Your comment is breaking the law in other countries or jurisdictions. This Blog is a venue for discussion; therefore, the Author will not delete critical comments, or comments portraying a different opinion from the Author’s own. However, the Author reserves the right to edit, delete, or not publish a comment if this is deemed to be potentially illegal (this includes, but it is not limited to comments containing hateful, libelous, and defamatory content). All comments on this Blog have to be written in English. Please do not endanger Yourself or break the law when you comment. Comments intending to advertise and/or off-topic (“SPAM“) will be deleted. The Author also reserves the right to block Commenter(s) who have previously published offensive comments, illegal content, or SPAM.

Forbidden actions. You are not authorized to (i) use this Blog to advertise for products of any kind and for other Blogs, (ii) to infringe the Copyright policy and Comment policy of this Blog, (iii) to attack this Blog using malicious software and/or use this Blog for data mining (iv) to commit any illegal actions while using the Blog, or against this Blog, (v) to restrict access to this Blog, (vi) to impede the normal functioning of this Blog and (vii) to menace the Author with, or cause physical or financial harm to, the Author of this Blog.

Changes to the Terms. The Author reserves the right to change these Terms at any time. You will only be notified by the Blog through posts or syndicated content (RSS), NOT IN PERSON. It is Your responsibility to make sure that you agree with the new Terms, whenever changes have been announced. Changes to the Terms will be effective 48 hours after the notice has been posted on the Blog. If You do not agree with the Terms, DO NOT USE THIS BLOG.

No Guarantee. The Author makes no guarantee regarding the validity of the content of the Blog. In addition, the Author does not guarantee that the Blog will be accessible at all times or during any down time (i) caused by outages to any public Internet backbones, networks or servers, (ii) caused by any failures of Your equipment, systems or local access services, (iii) for previously scheduled maintenance or (iv) relating to events beyond the Author’s control such as strikes, riots, fires, floods, explosions, war, terrorism, governmental action, labor conditions, natural and/or man-made disasters, or interruptions in Internet services to an area where the Author or Your servers are located. Although the Author will try to moderate comments quickly, the Author makes no guarantee to the Commenter that its comments or trackbacks will be displayed promptly, without modifications, or that they will be displayed at all, as all comments will be published to the discretion of the Author.

No Warranty or Condition; Links. The Author makes NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. If you choose to access the Blog, you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK. To the extent links and external content are based on or displayed in connection with the Blog, THE AUTHOR SHALL NOT HAVE ANY LIABILITY IN CONNECTION WITH THE DISPLAY OF SUCH LINKS AND SEARCH RESULTS, whether this external content is breaking the law in this or other jurisdictions. YOU AGREE TO USE THE BLOG AT YOUR OWN RISK, and that You will not consider the Blog’s content to be a suitable substitute for professional advice.

Limitations of Liability. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES, AND THE AUTHOR’S LIABILITY TO YOU UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR ANY CLAIM IS LIMITED TO THE GROSS MONTHLY AMOUNT PAID BY THE AUTHOR FOR HOSTING SERVICES DURING THE ONE MONTH PERIOD IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE DATE OF THE CLAIM. Each party acknowledges that the other party has entered into this Agreement relying on the limitations of liability stated herein and that those limitations are an essential part of the Agreement. Without limiting the foregoing, the Author shall not have any liability for any failure or delay resulting from any condition beyond the reasonable control of the Author, including but not limited to governmental action, labor conditions, power failures, natural and/or man-made disasters. The Author is not liable for the content of any comments the Commenter might leave on this Blog (see Comment policy).

Obligation to Indemnify. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold the Author, its agents, and applicable third parties (collectively “Indemnified Person(s)“) harmless from and against any and all third party claims, liability, loss, and expense (including damage awards, settlement amounts, and reasonable legal fees, brought against any Indemnified Person(s), arising out of, related to or which may arise from Your use of the Blog and/or Your breach of any term of this Agreement. In Québec, this will include judicial and extra-judicial costs and fees; elsewhere in Canada, legal fees on a solicitor and its own client basis.

Applicable Laws; Venue. The Author operates the Blog from British Columbia, Canada, and makes no representations that materials in the Blog are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Access to the Blog from any location where the content is illegal is prohibited. Any claim related to the use of the Blog or to the Blog materials shall be governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia. Any action related to the access, use, content, or existence of this Blog shall be filed only in the appropriate court located within British Columbia. The use of this Blog constitutes Your express permission and consent to the jurisdiction of the provincial and/or federal courts of the Province of British Columbia for purposes of such actions.

Legal notices and Contact information. If You are intending to carry out legal action of any kind against the Blog or the Author, you are required to contact the Author SEVEN BUSINESS DAYS before any legal claim is made. Please remember that the Author means to DO NO HARM to You or anyone else by writing this Blog. If You feel that your rights have been infringed, please contact the Author, and allow seven business days for the reply to be received. The Author will do whatever possible to address Your concerns.

Related posts (generated)

• Writing a blog disclaimer (part 1) (4)
• How to find the volunteers you already have (1)

Xubuntu is a version of Ubuntu catering specifically to older computers. By older computers I do not mean Commodores, but computers with at least 128 Mb or RAM, 1.4 Gb of space on your hard disk, and a decent processor. My old computer has about 253 Mb of RAM, 20Gb hard drive, and an Intel Pentium III processor.

You can install Xubuntu without uninstalling Windows first, and you can even keep Windows on a partition of your computer. You can choose one of two CD options for installation, a Live (or Desktop) CD, and an Alternate CD. Only run the Live CD if you have about 200 Mb of RAM or more – use the Alternate one otherwise. Because of my specifications, I used a Live CD, and I will go over the installation procedure for Live CD users.

First of all, download the appropriate CD image from one of the mirrors provided on xubuntu.org. If you are running Windows on an Intel machine, you would pick the one called PC (Intel x86) desktop CD. At this point, your computer will start downloading an ISO image. Once the image is downloaded, it is advisable to check whether the file is corrupted before starting your installation. To do this, you can use a freeware, such as WinMD5Sum, which will calculate the checksum of the file, and compare it with the official checksum. It turns out that the official checksum for Xubuntu 8.04 is not really easy to find…so I will report it here to make things easier for you:

c83b84dc02b9e5480d64d2accdd9f3bb *xubuntu-8.04-alternate-amd64.iso
4f398cd35eaf297347f18634a5be5d77 *xubuntu-8.04-alternate-i386.iso
0fb2297b036d9d1bf4cc0a13a4d82f76 *xubuntu-8.04-desktop-amd64.iso
665bcc283e131be4cb71ecb2bf0e3794 *xubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso

IMPORTANT: if the hashes provided here did not work for you the first time, try again! I had the wrong hashes on this post (they were for Ubuntu, not Xubuntu). Now I have corrected them, so please try again!

If you are using the Live CD for Intel chips on old computers, the checksum you need is the fourth one for the top. Now, run the checksum product, and paste the official checksum in the space provided to see if they are the same. If they are, you are good to go. If not, you will need to download the ISO image again.

If you are fine, now you need to write the ISO image to a CD. Do not be tempted to just drag it…open your CD/DVD writing program, and pick an option to write ISO images to the CD. I downloaded CDBurnerXPro, and picked the option (from the File menu) to “Write Disk from an ISO File”. Use the slowest writing speed available – this step might take about 20 minutes, but it will lower the chance of creating copying errors, and corrupting the installation files.

Once the CD is ready, you now have an official copy of Xubuntu Hardy Heron. It is completely free, it comes with free 3-year Long Term Support, and you can copy it and give it to anybody else you want.

Before you start the installation, make sure that all hard disk partitions have been defragmented. If you want to try out Xubuntu without installing it right away, stick in the CD, and the loading screen (first image from the top) will appear. On the other hand, if you want to install it, you need to change the booting order for your computer. To do this, you will need to get into your BIOS. According to the brand of computer you are using, there are different keys that, pressed very early on during startup, will allow you to enter the BIOS. You can find the most common keys here. In the BIOS, you need to go into Booting Devices (or similar), and set your CD drive as the primary booting device, your hard drive as the secondary one.

Now your computer will restart. Insert the Live CD in the CD drive, and wait. Xubuntu will now load from the CD – this might take some time, as the system will have to be loaded to the RAM. Once Xubuntu is loaded, a screen asking you to pick the booting language (second image from top) will appear. Choose the language, and choose to install Xubuntu.

Now the CD will load and you will be asked to choose your favorite language – and there are tons of supported languages.

After you have picked the language, you will be asked to configure your keyboard, and choose a configuration that is used with your language. You can try out the configuration by typing a few special characters in the text box provided (try something like $£&?^@# and other special characters you see on your keyboard). After this, Xubuntu will set your clock and time zone. You can even look for your city/town, if that helps you simplify the process.

At this point you will need to decide whether to keep your old Windows system running in parallel with Xubuntu (on a separate partition) or whether you want to wipe your drive(s), and keep Xubuntu as your only operating system. If you are comfortable with picking partitions in Linux systems, you can do this manually. If you are not, and especially if you only have one partition under Windows, I suggest you use the Guided option (that’s what I did).

This will probably take a few minutes, as Xubuntu needs to analyze your disk, and try to figure out what partitions to make. If you are not planning to keep Windows, you will be able to choose an option to use the whole disk in one of the following screens – choose that one, and Xubuntu will be your only operating system.

Once your disk(s) is ready, Xubuntu will start with the installation. You will be asked to type in your name, username and password. These are important, because the username and password will be used at login, and the password will need to be entered, for security reasons, every time you will perform an administrative task (such as installing new programs and system updates). The installation will proceed, and in the end you will be asked to restart your computer.

Do that, and make sure to take the CD out as soon as the computer is rebooting (or it will reboot from the CD!). I do this once, before changing the booting order again, to see if everything is in order with the hard drive. If all is fine, after seeing some code, you should be able to see the main Xubuntu loading page. After loading, you will be prompted to type and enter username and password. Once you have done that, Xubuntu will load. And it will look something like what you see in the last image of this post.

Nice and clean, don’t you think? If you are connected to the internet, Xubuntu should be able to activate the connection right away, and you should be able to download updates soon. Now go under Applications (top left corner), go to Help, and check out the documentation, where you will find more information on how Xubuntu works, and how to stay safe while using it. And…ah, do not forget to change the booting order again the next time you restart/shut down the computer!

What about safety on the net? Xubuntu comes with ufw, uncomplicated firewall, which you can set up through the Terminal. But if you do not want to do that, I suggest you download Firestarter. How do you do this? Super simple – Xubuntu has an Add/Remove application panel! And you can simply search for application using the search bar in the Add/Remove window, and download them directly from the web – which is what happens with Firestarter.

I have been now using Xubuntu for a few days and I have noticed some good things. Most importantly, my computer is significantly faster than it used to be when running Windows XP. Also, Xubuntu is quite easy to use.But there are a few things you need to get used to: sometimes you will have to go through the Terminal, and type in some commands, or even edit code, to fix things. Which means, you might get to know the Ubuntu Forums quite well while setting up your computer. And sometimes the computer will get stuck, apparently for no reason at all. On the other hand, you are now getting a much safer system than whatever else you were running before.

Sources: Open Source Tutorials and Build Your Own PC.

Post Scriptum: The newest edition of Encephalon is up, and it even includes one of my own posts. Check it out!

Related posts (generated)

• A roundup on the credit crunch (0)

While blogging becomes more and more popular, so do trials and legal hurdles against bloggers: in some countries bloggers will face outright censorship leading to jail time, in others they might be attacked if their posts are considered denigratory in nature, libelous, or if they republish/discuss copyrighted materials, even when they were not meaning to make any profit from them and they are using them under “fair use”. Much blogging starts resembling journalism more and more, but bloggers are still not protected by laws aimed at the protection of journalists. And what’s worse, bloggers are often easy targets, as many might not be acquainted with the law, and the legal consequences of their online activities. Last but not least, bloggers might be risking losing their current job, or jeopardizing their future career, if they do not consider the legal implications of blogging seriously.

For all these reasons, and many more, I have started looking into writing a blog disclaimer for myself. I looked around the web for good sources that could point me to

1. a template for a blog disclaimer
2. what points must be addressed in a disclaimer, as well as
3. some good examples of blog disclaimer. It turns out that it is not very easy to find them.

While in the process of writing my own disclaimer, I am going to collect resources, good examples, and even some “disclaimer humor” I find along the way, in the hope that this will help me, as well as other bloggers, to come up with decent disclaimers, protecting ourselves from the risk of litigation, and “internet bullies” who might want to use litigation as the means to “extort” money from you, as well as find a subtle way to censor you.

In this first post, I will list links to some useful resources, and in my second one I will publish a disclaimer template with all the main points that need to be covered in a disclaimer. I am not a lawyer, so I do not guarantee that the template will be “fool-proof”, but I hope it will be useful to me, as well as to other fellow bloggers contemplating whether, or how to write their own blog disclaimer.

First of all, one of the best resources for bloggers (especially in the US) with regard to legal matters pertaining to blogging and digital rights is EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is a non-profit organization based in the US, whose aim is to defend our digital rights. The EFF has prepared a useful Legal Guide for Bloggers, which can be freely accessed through their website. The only caveat to this guide (unfortunately, not a minor one) is that it is based on US law only. However, it is still a useful resource for international bloggers – as I can imagine that you would still need to consider how your blogging is seen under US law, especially if most commenters, readers, and news you discuss pertain to, or are located in, the USA. In addition, international bloggers should consult some additional resources.

At this point, I still wanted to look for something to address my needs a little more quickly – going through the Legal Guide takes some time. I found three useful posts for bloggers intending to write a blog disclaimer: “Does your blog need a disclaimer?” and “How to write a blog disclaimer?“, as well as “Crafting the perfect blog comment disclaimer“. However, these still fall short of providing what a blogger really needs: a short, step-by-step guide/template on how to write your own personalized disclaimer.

The problem is also just how “personalized” a blog disclaimer should be. In fact, we do not all work for other blogs, news sites, and similar. I expect that most of us would not be able to have this kind of disclaimer on our blog. At the same time, I doubt that a “blanket-style” option like Herche’s Blog Disclaimer would really be considered valid for legal purposes. However, this last one is worth checking out because it points the finger to the spreading of a “litigation culture” aimed at maiming our freedom of expression, as well as to some of the main points that need to be covered in your own personal disclaimer.

In my next post of this series I will publish a disclaimer template; in the meantime, I hope you found these links and resources useful. If you have suggestions for more resources that you think should be included in this list, you are welcome to them in the comments.

Images courtesy of EFF, sxc.hu, and their authors

Related posts (generated)

• Writing a blog disclaimer (part 2) (25)
• How to find the volunteers you already have (1)