First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

Have a great weekend,

daisy, Team Vox

In my last Team Vox post, I let you know that we're aware that the Amazon conduit is broken and that we're working to fix it. Many of you want to know when it's going to be fixed and I'm so sorry I haven't gotten back to you about that sooner.

Unfortunately, I don't have an exact date to give you, but rest assured, the Amazon conduit will be fixed in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I'm about to finish my latest book and I could use a few suggestions as to what to read next, so... if you don't mind, let me know in the comments what's on your nightstand and/or what book you think I absolutely must read next.

Thanks! :)

daisy

Some of you may have noticed that right now you cannot add books from Amazon to your Vox library. Giving people a glimpse into what's on your night stand is important to many of you, so I just wanted to reassure you that we are doing our best to get this bug fixed. I'll keep you posted.

So sorry for the inconvenience.

Hope you have a great weekend!
daisy

Ah, I've reached another end in my life. Today is the last official day of Summer of Solutions Worcester 2009.

I'd like to tell you all about how much we've gotten accomplished in just these two past short months. I focused mostly on the Green Jobs messaging campaign and the Weatherization Team's first Energy Barn-Raising in Worcester.

In the Green Jobs project team, we created a Green Jobs Zine for Worcester, check it out at the link below: http://www.summerofsolutionsworcester.org/green-jobs-project/Worcester%27s_Green_Jobs_Zine_1.pdf?attredirects=0

We took this as an opportunity to start the creation of our Green Jobs materials in a more informal way to get the creative juices flowing. We had a mixture of collages, articles, fun facts, sketches and doodles, and bullet points, and much much more! This was my first time making a zine, and it was really fun to do it in a collaborative way. We then distributed this zine to different locations around Main South (Worcester). We are currently working on a more professional-looking brochure, which I can probably post when we have completed it. We've decided to seek a local printer who uses recycled paper to print our brochures.

In the Weatherization Team, we held the first Energy Barn-Raising in Worcester! I spent a lot of time flyering and emailing blasting to publicize the event all along with other teammates. My position in the team was Volunteer Coordinator so I was in charge of organizing the volunteers and being their contact person. The day of the Barn-Raising I was the overall go-to person, I went around to all the working teams to make sure everything was going smoothly, saw if they needed any thing like tools or some water to drink, and tried to be a good time-keeper. However at the end, it was a bit difficult to get everyone finish working at the same time.
 I am now including a copy of our press release so you can understand more about our event:

Saving Energy Money and the Planet - All in a Day's Work 

50 Local Volunteers Gather for an Energy Barn-raising at the Father Brooks House

 Worcester, MA – On July 25th, 50 people from local schools,

organizations, and neighborhoods gathered at the Father Brooks House

on Arthur St to learn skills, save energy, and have fun with the first

energy barn-raising! Yet there were no barns involved in this event,

and the main goals were to make a real and immediate impact

on the environment all the while encouraging a collaborative effort within the

community. Approximately 50 volunteers broke into nine different teams

to learn and work on different tasks, including sealing air leaks,

insulating the hot water heater, measuring the energy use of different

electronics and appliances, and replacing  inefficient incandescent

bulbs. Through hands-on work, participants learned new skills to take

back to their own homes in order to save energy and money. And after

the work was completed, everyone celebrated the success with food,

music, and fun!

The day began with an orientation in which the organizers explained the

origins of the idea for a Barn-Raising, how the project was planned by a small team of volunteers, 
and how volunteers could stay involved after the event. Staff and

residents from the Brooks House spoke about the organization, what it

means to them, and how the energy barn-raising will bring benefits to

their programs  by providing energy savings and a more comfortable,

efficient home. This project was an exciting collaboration that

provided hands-on educational opportunities for all participants and

real energy and monetary savings for the Brooks House.

After the orientation, volunteers then chose which tasks they would like to

be involved in and the teams dispersed throughout the house. By the

end of the day, the groups had successfully insulated the hot water

heater, caulked many  leaks, weatherized three door frames, and did major

construction in the attic sealing off the enormous heat leaks. Among

smaller things, they installed faucet aerators to help conserve water

– reducing the flow from 2.3 gallons per minute to 1.5. However, the

biggest change that could be calculated immediately was the installing

of 50 energy-efficient CFL bulbs; an act  alone  that

will prevent over 8 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save the

Brooks House over $2,600 in electricity costs over the next 10 years!

The energy barn-raising in Worcester was modeled after that of the

Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- a

cooperative movement inspired by the team-work that takes place

during barn-raisings in the Amish tradition. The emerging group in

Cambridge has had enormous success reusing this historic model of

local collaboration, hands-on work, and post-work celebration as a

model for climate-change solutions at the community level. These

events offer an immediate and rewarding step towards resolving this great crisis

of our times, while also serving to  reawaken our need to connect and

collaborate with our neighbors, something that many agree we need to

do here in Worcester.

Worcester's first Energy Barn-raising this past Saturday proved to be

a  great success as 50 people, ranging from age 12 to 60, and coming

from  as  far as Beverly to Worcester, gathered together to help make

these  major improvements. In summary, it  is what the organizers

hoped it to be and showed we can do something at the grassroots level

about climate–change. Thanks to all who were involved!

If you are interested in participating in a future Energy

Barn-Raising, check out www.EnergyBarnRaising.org (yes we have our own website as well!)

Here is a link to the awesome article that was written about us in the local newspaper the Worcester Telegram and Gazett

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090726/NEWS/907260458/1003/NEWS03

The night before, Ashley and I spent a few hours making some bad-ass capes so that 
Team Leaders could be easily identified and feel super-cool the day of the barn-raising:

And here are some other photos from the day!

We had a major success! Last night we met post Barn-Raising with people outside of our working team to discuss the future of Barn-Raising in Worcester. We will meet bi-weekly and hopefully if enough interest is there and we get another place to hold a Barn-Raising we will have one in mid-Septemeber. Otherwise, we are aiming to have one on

24 October 2009 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION (check it out here for more information: www.350.org)

Also last night, we finally held our Zero Gravity Open Mic. It was a great way to start ending the week with a huge variety of performances, tea, coffee, and not to mention desserts! We had people perform their own songs, other people's songs, read their own and others poetry, have lots of kazoo playing, spoken word from the Medical Encyclopedia, and an impromtu karaoke session.

Today is our BLAST OFF DAY! We are going to have lots of fun games on the Clark Green, a period of reflection/ice cream social, and a huge cook-out in one of the Community Gardens that has been worked on by Summer of Solutions Garndening Team. Right now it is raining, but I really hope it gets better!!!

Hang in there world!