Name: Seward Inc.
Posts by Seward Inc.:
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- This is one of the many scale models of the ship that have been built by the project team.
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- The Jewel of Muscat, currently under construction. The tarps are needed to protect the workers from the sun's 107-degree F (47 C) heat!
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- The ship is currently about half of what its completed height will be. The curved planks of the bow are created using a steam chamber to make them bendable.
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- The outer planks of the ship aren't put together using any modern technology like, say, a hammer and nails. This worker is using rope made of coconut, threaded through holes in the planks, to hold them together.
What We’re Reading – Summer Reading 2011
July 26th, 2011It’s summer, a great time to sit outside at the park or at the beach with a good book. This week, our staff is sharing about books they have read, are currently reading, and/or are planning on reading.
Vicky Frank -
I’ve been mostly stymied this summer for good summer reads. My favorite type of no-brainer read is mystery/suspense, but I’m not a fan of the book churners: James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Patricia Cornwell, etc. I like to find new, less hyped authors. Since Steig Larsson took the world by storm, other Swedish authors have been touted. Lars Kepler is one - well two, really. Lars Kepler is the pseudonym for husband-and-wife writing team, Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril. I rushed to get their debut novel, The Hypnotist. I just finished it, and I wasn’t enthralled. That’s just me, though. Others may like it. To find my next good book, I’ve returned to a resource that has come through for me in the past. TheEdgars.com offers a database of all Edgar award winners and nominees since 1946. I found Gillian Flynn (Dark Places and Sharp Objects) via this search, and she’s terrific. I just ordered John Hart’s The Last Child. Winner of the 2010 Edgar Award for novels, Hart won in 2008, too. Wish me luck!
Melanie Ruda -
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins
Looking for an interesting but light summer read? You might consider The Outside Boy, a coming-of-age story set in Ireland in the 1950s. I enjoyed this book because it is told from the unique perspective of a gypsy boy on the outside of mainstream Irish society. To hear the author talk about the book, follow this link.
David Porcaro -
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Through the last stages of my dissertation-writing I dreamed of the day when I could read something light and fun. What better way to do that than with a Roald Dahl classic. I love children’s literature. It is usually so witty and imaginative and fun. So I ventured into a new stage of my soon-to-be kindergartener son’s development by introducing him to chapter books. Each night we finish one or two of these easily digestible chapters, and he begs me to read one more, and then another, and another until after five chapters I say, it’s time to go to bed. The next day he is so excited to brush his teeth and put his PJs on so we can continue. This book is just like the giant peach in which James and his insect friends travel the world, juicy, sweet, delicious, and unpredictable.
Excerpt: My son couldn’t stop laughing at the song the centipede sang about the foods he’s eaten. Here’s one verse: I’ve eaten many strange and scrumptious dishes in my time/ Like jellied gnats and dandyprats and earwigs cooked in slime,/And mice with rice — they’re really nice/When roasted in their prime/(But don’t forget to sprinkle them with just a pinch of grime.)
Jessica Bryson -
I have always generally preferred to read nonfiction. Most currently, I have been reading The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick. As the title might’ve tipped you off already, yes, it’s about the social networking site Facebook. Kirkpatrick chronicles Facebook from its infancy as a Harvard-only social networking site to becoming a worldwide phenomenon. While I think it is a pretty interesting read, I find the author emphasizes and overpraises all the positives about Facebook and glosses over the negative. Basically, it sounds like Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest fan wrote it; this may be why I’m still in the process of reading it many months later. Who knows though, I have about 10 pages left, maybe the author will finally address some of the not-so-positive attributes and possible risks/dangers of Facebook in those pages, but I have my doubts.
The next two books on my list are Moby Duck by Donovah Hohn, which documents the author’s quest to find out what happened to 28,800 bath toys that became lost at sea in 1992, and Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, which talks about change, why change is hard, and how people might approach change in a way that makes it easier.
Some all-time favorite books of mine are:
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut (yes, this might seem odd given my penchant for nonfiction)
Matt Finholt-Daniel -
Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card
This classic sci-fi novel from the mid-eighties is a beautifully written tale that follows a young genius, Ender Wiggin, as he works through battle school and prepares to defend human life from the only other known form of sentient life (the “Buggers”). Things are not always what they seem as Ender struggles through constant manipulation and being pushed to the limits of the human psyche.
If you haven’t read Enders Game yet, pick it up. If you’ve already read it, pick it up again. Enders Game is a great summertime read that can be enjoyed by all (including those that don’t generally read sci-fi).
Paul Johnson -
Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini
This book is another fast-paced criminal drama, which is what I typically read. I haven’t read any by this author before, but so far it is pretty entertaining. I wouldn’t call it a literary classic, but the writing style is solid and the characters are fairly well developed. The plot involves a rogue nuclear device in the hands of the wrong people, which isn’t the most original idea, but Martini manages to weave enough twists around this that it doesn’t seem like a rehash of something else I’ve read or seen.
Nick Wanserski -
I’m currently reaching the end of Joe Abercrombie’s “Before They are Hanged”, the second volume of his First Law trilogy.
The novel is ostensibly fantasy, but it’s a low, mean fantasy existing in a world that eschews much of the wonderment and transcendence of popular fantasy genre, replaced instead by cold, hard edges.
While this may sound like dire reading, I’ve been tearing through this book. What it lacks in whimsy or optimism or basic good cheer, it makes up for in fantastic characters. Very human and often contradictory, Abercrombie is deft at fostering empathy in these extremely flawed people. They remain compelling throughout.
A fantastic summer read; that is as long as you don’t mind a few growling storm clouds blackening your sunny day.
Monitors: How many is enough?
September 22nd, 2010A few of us here at Seward have recently been discussing the possibility of adding more monitors to our computer setups. Currently, we are all working with two monitors. When working with multiple documents - or especially spreadsheets - at the same time, it seems much more efficient to be able to see them all at once. If you’re trying to use information from three Excel sheets, for example, it becomes a bit of a hassle to keep closing one in order to open another. Adding a monitor, naturally, gives you the space to view more windows at once and avoid this frustration. Personally, I can tell the difference since moving from one monitor to two. But is a third monitor going to have the same benefit?
I recently came across a post from Ars Technica, exploring this issue and polling readers about how many monitors they use. The writer discusses reasons in favor of more monitors - e.g., “to deal with separate tasks and workflows” - as well as why some people prefer to just have one - to improve focus on a single task. Out of the roughly 11,000 votes they received, the majority (59%) used two monitors. About 26% used only one, almost 11% used three, and 4% used four or more.
This led me to search a bit more, and I found another article called “Multiple Monitors and Productivity,” by Jeff Atwood. I found this one especially helpful (and relevant to our situation) because it specifically discusses the writer’s experience with moving from two monitors to three, rather than just number of monitors in general. He points out some technical concerns that would need to be addressed, such as the requirement to add a second video card - which is something that didn’t need to be done for adding the second monitor, but is needed in order to add a third. Atwood’s post also links to a tool called UltraMon which can help you manage your monitors. UltraMon even has options for “configuring more than 10 monitors”! We may not require this for our three-monitor setups, but it was a great tool to learn about.
Reading these articles has given me a better understanding of not only how we might set up our third monitors, but why we would want to decide on a certain number of monitors. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this as well - how many monitors do you use? What do you think is the optimum number, and why?
Our Favorite Tools Right Now
September 7th, 2010The Seward Inc. staff describe some of their favorite tools they’re using right now to make life and work easier.
Nell’s Pick:
“The Yahoo! Style Guide–The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World,” by the Yahoo! Editors
I love this style guide! Yahoo!’s editors go into the nitty gritty detail of online style, such as form design, headline writing, punctuation, and more. I especially love their section on how to write user interface text, an often neglected area of software and website development. The book’s website has a lot of great content about web writing.
Paul’s Pick:
“Testing Computer Software, 2nd Edition,” by Cern Kaner, Jack Falk, and Hung Q. Nguyen
I bought this book a few years ago to help me prepare for an extensive validation and verification effort and just recently read some of it again for another complex project that involved many test cases. It illuminates many of the problems encountered in software testing and is one of the definitive books on the subject. I would recommend this book to any developer wishing to improve the quality of the code that gets released to clients.
Alison’s Pick:
I’ve recently started using Gmail’s Priority Inbox tool, which rolled out about a week ago. The tool is pretty simple: it takes the concept of spam filtering a step further, by sorting out the “priority” messages that I’m most likely to read and reply to. So, for example, new messages from my mom or best friend would go into the top section (“Important and unread”) of my mailbox; while the poem-a-day emails I subscribe to go into “Everything else.” They’re not spam and I do want to read them, but they’re certainly not as high on the list as personal emails from my friends and family. Priority Inbox also comes with plus- and minus-sign buttons that you can use to mark messages up or down in importance, thus “training” the tool what should go in your priority section. So far it is working nicely for me—but of course, I’ve only had it for a short time. I’m interested to see how it continues to perform over time, and especially how well I will be able to “train” it. Any Gmail user can opt in to use the tool, and you can switch back to your normal inbox view with no hassle if you decide you don’t like Priority Inbox. I’d encourage any Gmailers to give it a try!
Matt’s Pick:
For anybody who gets their hands dirty developing the HTML, CSS, or Javascript for websites, Firebug or Firebug Lite is an absolute must! You can completely bypass the frustrating loop of making small layout code changes in your editor of preference, publishing it to the server, then reloading your web browser by using the real-time HTML and CSS editing capabilities of Firebug. The JavaScript debugging capabilities are second to none, and JavaScript logging is supported directly to the console. As an added bonus, Firebug allows you to monitor the network usage and performance of your page so you can easily track down the offending elements when your page is slow to load. Best of all, its open source and free to use and extend. I can’t recommend this tool enough for anyone that touches the development cycle of a website. If you haven’t already, give it a try!
Brian’s Pick:
Eclipse is an open source IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Originally written for Java programming, it supports an amazing degree of plugins. Different plugins can add support for programming in a wide variety of languages, including C++, C#, Lisp, PHP, and Flash/Actionscript. Other plugins add support for things like version control systems, bug-tracking systems, automated testing tools, etc. It’s so extensible that some people have even written games as Eclipse plugins!
Along with all the plugins comes a host of handy features for programming. Eclipse has very nice code highlighting and autocomplete in the editor window. It has a very nice file browser to help keep track of all the files in a project, and another view has a suite of specialized debugging tools.
All in all, Eclipse is a great programming tool that supports a lot of different programming tasks.
Vicky’s Pick:
This recently announced offering from Google enables you to make calls from your Gmail interface to people’s phones in the US free of charge. The people you call do not have to have a Google account to receive your call. Skype charges for these types of calls. There also is support for free video and audio calls. Like Skype, these are free also.
Nick’s Pick:
While a graphic designer recommending an Adobe product is for better or worse akin to a fish recommending water, Creative Suite 5 is fantastic. Having recently upgraded from CS3, I’ve been greatly pleased with the improvements. Specifically, the improved cross-compatibility between each program has greatly improved my workflow, and I’m impressed with the graphics I can easily assemble from multiple sources.
I’m reluctant to endorse software upgrades that arrive almost annually and at no small expense; but CS5 is woven together from golden thread by magical elves, or at least it seems so with the results I’m getting.
What are your favorite tools right now? We’d love to hear from you!
What We’re Reading: Summer Reading List
July 29th, 2010This week, we decided to take our “What We’re Reading” theme and give it a bit of a fun twist. Here are our picks for Seward’s Summer Reading List.
Nell Kauls’ pick: Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
I am loving this book. From Library Journal: “Hope Clearwater lives alone in a beach house in an unnamed African country, trying to patch together her shattered life. An ecologist, she had come to Africa to participate in primate research and to heal the deep wounds of her marriage to a brilliant English mathematician; but she soon found herself plunged into another crisis, one that threatened not only her career but also her life.”
I am reading it for a bookclub. It doesn’t sound like it from the description, but it is a real page turner.
Vicky Frank’s pick: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfield’s first novel has been described as a gothic suspense reminiscent of Rebecca and Jane Eyre - high praise for sure, but for some this invokes overly sentimental characters stumbling along through dusty and protracted parlor dramas. The Thirteenth Tale is cast as a mystery story, the setting is eerily fun, and the characters are complex (but the females are not weak and weepy). However it’s the choice of words and the use of language that astonishes and elevates this book above so many others. There is a love story to be had here, but it’s not between the characters - it’s between reader and what’s written. Simply put, I loved this book for its words.
EXCERPT: “Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes–characters even–caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.”
If your love of reading is based on a love of words and language, don’t read the reviews, just read this book!
Melanie Ruda’s pick: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
This book is a sobering read that argues the case for investing in the health and autonomy of women in developing nations around the world.
Paul Johnson’s pick: Simple Genius by David Baldacci
Sean King returns to solve yet another mysterious crime, this time involving an employee from a think tank found at a CIA facility. I’m not that far into it yet so the verdict is still out, but some of his other efforts had me turning the pages faster. Hopefully this one will pick up.
Brian Thompson’s pick: Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
Occurring shortly after the end of World War 1, this mystery unfolds in a small rural Wisconsin town. The main character, Amanda, returns home after feeling overwhelmed by her work as an army nurse, but she soon finds that her old home is no escape from her troubles. One horrible night, Amanda’s sister (and Ruth’s mother) Mathilda is found drowned beneath the ice in a nearby lake. As Ruth grows up under her aunt’s care, the secrets of that fateful night continue to affect her and the community until the truth is finally revealed in a heartbreaking conclusion.
Our last three picks are a trilogy which, incidentally, has been on three of our Seward staff members’ reading lists lately:
Nick Wanserski’s pick: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
I bought Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for my wife this previous Christmas as it had begun to attract critical attention. She quickly read it and it has been relegated to coaster since.
But the book has become increasingly popular, and as I have not read any of the “Twilight” series, I’m loath to be left out of another literary cultural zeitgeist. I decided to give “Dragon Tattoo” a read this past month.
I’m not much of a mystery reader, largely because I don’t have the analytical mind this genre favors. But I did enjoy “Dragon Tattoo,” even if it won’t make a convert of me. The ‘locked room’ mystery device is given an engaging twist here, as the novel’s central crime takes place on an island inaccessible to the mainland.
And much has already been discussed about the book’s most intriguing character, the heroine Lisbeth Salander. A gothic hacker with Asperger’s syndrome, it’s to Larsson’s credit that he can write her as a fully developed person and not simply a reductive collection of quirky adjectives.
Lastly I’ll say the noir mood is well served by the frozen Swedish setting. Though personally, I find the many references to open-faced egg and herring sandwiches to be far more dispiriting than any description of a bleak, forgotten clime.
Alison Sanders’ pick: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Following up the riveting “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the second book in Stieg Larsson’s trilogy is “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” The story again focuses on the introverted genius Lisbeth Salander, who has now become implicated in three (related) homicides. Mikael Blomkvist, who collaborated with Salander in solving the mystery in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” does not believe she is the culprit, and launches his own investigation into the murders. He and his colleagues at Millennium, a somewhat controversial news magazine, suspect that there may be an even more sinister set of people and circumstances behind the killings.
Much like the first book in the trilogy, I found “The Girl Who Played with Fire” to be a smartly-paced and intriguing mystery. Although it is over 600 pages long, the story impressively manages to avoid any feelings of tedium, and maintain a sharp, easy-to-read style. I enjoyed it greatly, and am looking forward to reading the third installment!
Matt Finholt-Daniel’s pick: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson
As the final book in Steig Larsson’s trilogy, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” is an artfully constructed conclusion to the thread of events initiated in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” The story picks up right where book two left off, with both Lisbeth Salander and her adversary Alexander Zalachenko in critical condition in the hospital. Mikael Blomkvist, in typical fashion, pulls all stops in an attempt to exonerate Salander and to hold Zalachenko responsible for his past.
Like the other two books in the series, I couldn’t set it down. If you haven’t already made time to read these books, pick them up now as you won’t be disappointed.
What We’re Reading: Week of June 29
June 29th, 2010Here are some of our favorite things that we’ve read lately!
From Nell Kauls:
Web Content Strategist’s Bible
Managing the creation and maintenance of this huge volume of web content requires an understanding of not just web writing, but of detailed, well-planned, realistic content development processes. This book by Richard Sheffield breaks it all down for you. Bonus: free deliverable template downloads!
Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson explains how to create and deliver useful, usable content for your online audiences, when and where they need it most.
From Vicky Frank:
Newser is a news aggregator - there are many of them out there, but this one aggregated by “Latest”, “Popular” and “Pick a Date”. One of the problems with some news sources is they only report today’s news and you and you can’t go back in time to read an article of interest. Newser also has a section called “Newser by Users” that invites readers to summarize and post their own stories. And for those who are interested in “Gossip” (nobody here!), there’s a section for that. Newser has an iPhone app that has just been updated for OS4.
Pronounced “Crank”, QRANK is a trivia game with a great twist: many of the questions are ripped from the latest breaking news. It’s one of the reasons I pore over the news aggregators so that I can study up for QRANK. QRANK also has an iPhone app and it just got updated for OS4. The interface is a bit like Jeopardy, with easier questions with lower scores at the top and harder questions/higher scores at the bottom. Responses also are timed, with higher scores awarded for faster picks. It’s a great brain trainer with a current events twist!
From Alison Sanders:
HighTalk.net: Conversations about PR, Media & the Social Web
This blog by George F. Snell III contains some really interesting posts about social media, web content design, and information technology. Thought-provoking topics such as “Social Media’s Staggering Influence on Journalists” - info and stats on how journalism is both utilizing and adapting to the growing presence of social media; “5 Reasons Why Businesses Struggle With Content” - how to address some common challenges in creating online content; and “Attack of the Fake Twitter Accounts” - inspired by recent events, an exploration of social media satire.
From Nick Wanserski:
I came across this blog accidentally, but am quite glad I did. Noupe contains a strong balance of tutorials and portfolio collections. Noupe is presented largely from a visual designer’s perspective, which is nice for those of us who have little experience coding.
The site also balances out the very helpful tutorials with some levity, interspersing a handful of strange articles to keep things light.
From Brian Thompson:
InsideRIA covers a variety of topics of interest to Flash and Flex developers. It also has a number of articles touching on topics relevant to more general web development.
From Matt Finholt-Daniel:
Exactly as it’s titled, Free Tech Tools For Teachers is an online directory, in blog format, of technology-related resources that teachers can use free of charge. Both domestically and internationally, a resounding theme in our discussions with teachers is that they desire to engage their students more through online technologies but that they don’t know where to find them. This site is an excellent resource and worthy of regular visits.
From Paul Johnson:
This site is a repository of interesting blogs searchable by topic. This is a great place to go when you’d like to search the blogosphere directly versus doing a more general Google search. Technology and social media are both well represented here, and there is also wide variety of leisure material.
CENTSS Innovation Award - Call for Entries
April 13th, 2010The Center for Transforming Student Services has announced its Call for Entries for the 2010-11 Innovation Award in Online Student Services.
CENTSS is dedicated to helping educational institutions optimize their student services by combining the power of technology with the personal attention of traditional services. High-quality student services are a vital component of student retention and satisfaction, and online services can offer students an effective, easy-access option.
Because we recognize the importance of student services, we want to give recognition to student services professionals who have used tools, creative strategies, and fresh thinking to produce great results. CENTSS is looking for entries from a variety of student service areas - including student communications, registration, admission, advising, career planning, financial aid, legal services, disability services, and more. Entries are accepted at centss.org/services/innovations.html through July 15, 2010.
Winners will be announced on October 15, 2010, and their innovations will be publicized to the higher education community through press releases and conference presentations. Winners will also receive a plaque to commemorate the award, a CENTSS Innovation Award badge for their website, and a trend report from the CENTSS database.
For more information about CENTSS, visit www.centss.org .
The First 4,000 Words License Giveaway
December 8th, 2009The First 4,000 Words is a program that Seward Incorporated has developed for first- through fourth-grade students to help build vocabulary for struggling readers and English Language Learners. The web-based lessons use interactive reading activities and games to teach the 4,000 most frequently used English words. The site can be licensed to individual teachers, or to an entire school, for classroom use.
Minnewashta Elementary School, a Minnetonka Public School in Minnesota, has recently adopted The First 4,000 Words for their 370 students in 1st-4th grade. Principal Cindy Andress says, “We have the technology at our fingertips to use an online tool. The First 4,000 Words program will be engaging for students and easy for the staff to set up and use in a way that will make a difference in the life of our students.” Teachers participating in field tests have also reported that the program was engaging, easy to use, and appealing and fun for students.
To introduce The First 4,000 Words to more schools, teachers, and students, Seward Incorporated is now giving away 100 free teacher licenses and 10 free school licenses. Teachers can learn more about the program and enter to win at www.thefirst4000words.com/contest .
What We’re Reading This Week
July 14th, 2009We love when there’s content on the internet that we can actually use in our work! Here are some blogs and sites that have captured our attention in the last week or so:
Great Websites are Boring to Manage
In this blog post, Gerry McGovern helps you analyze, “Who is your website for?”.
This post on Colleen Jones’ More Than Words blog offers guidance for user experience professionals to rediscover real communication.
The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines
This Copyblogger post by Brian Clark offers tips for writing attention-getting Twitter headlines. Find out about his 4-U approach.
Results for Internet’s “Next Big Thing” Survey
Survey answers from asking what was the “Next Big Thing” on the internet that would change our lives. About 100 digital visionaries from different online groups and platforms answered.
Wolfram|Alpha is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research. It is an online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data — rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer, as a search engine might. It was announced in March 2009 by Stephen Wolfram, and released to the public on May 15, 2009.
Online PR: Top 40 Ways to Get Noticed Online (Apart from Twitter)
Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Ning, Squidoo, Furl, Tubearoo, Wikihow, YouTube, Magnolia, LinkedIn, eCademy, Ryze, Y or Z, Xing, Facebook, Care2, Gather, Meetin.org, Tribe, Ziggs, Plaxo, NetParty, Networking_for_Professionals, Groovy, Mixx, Teako, Small Business Brief, Sphinn, BuzzFlash.net, Hubspot, SEO Tagg, Wikipedia, Newsvine, 43 Things, Wetpaint, Frappr, Yahoo Answers.
How MySpace Fell Off the Pace (Los Angeles Times)
A great analysis of how MySpace lost its edge to Facebook.
MarketingCharts: Charts and Data for Marketers in Web and Excel Format
Found via Hubspot blog article. MarketingCharts is published daily; examples include Top Google Advertisers, Top 10 Online Retailers, and Top 10 Social Networks.
How Do You Convince Executives that Social Media Marketing, Blogging, and SEO Are Important?
Hubspot blog article with great data on time commitment, usage, and benefits of social media.
Adventures in Oman
April 22nd, 2009Currently, several members of the Seward Inc. staff –including blog contributors Greg Sales and Vicky Frank—are in Oman. They are working in cooperation with the Omani Ministry of Education and staff of Sultan Qaboos University to prepare a course on Child-Centered Methods for future teachers. The end result of this project will be a pilot course offered to English Education students in the fall of 2009, as an alternative to the traditional Methods course.
Although of course they have been busy with planning, meetings, and seminars, Greg and Vicky also took some time out to explore an intriguing historical project taking place in Oman (and, luckily for us, to snap a few pictures!).
In 1998, the remains of a ninth-century ship—now known as the Belitung Wreck—were found accidentally by a fisherman off the coast of Indonesia. The governments of Oman and Singapore are currently involved in a joint effort to authentically reconstruct this ship and sail it along the historical trade route from Oman to Singapore. Target date for sail is early 2010.
Located in the coastal village of Qantab, the re-created ship is known as the Jewel of Muscat (www.jewelofmuscat.tv, and Vicky got some great photos of its construction in progress! National Geographic is also developing a documentary about the project. To see more, check out our Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sewardinc/.
What We’re Reading This Week
March 9th, 2009As any blogger, social networker, or internet aficionado in general would probably tell you, the web is full of great resources if you know where to look. In recognition of this, we’ve decided to share “What We’re Reading This Week.” These posts will feature content that we’ve found to be useful, enlightening, or just plain interesting. For this week, we’d like to begin with the Blogs We’re Reading:
1) ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb is a popular weblog that provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis. It is the lead blog in the ReadWriteWeb Network, a growing network of blogs about web technology.
2) Conversation Agent
http://www.conversationagent.com
Conversation Agent recognizes the new marketplace as a conversation, one where content producers, delivery channels, and customers define the future of work and the creation of meaning.
3) Mashable, The Social Media Guide
Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news. With more than 5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web.
4) Web Strategy by Jeremiah
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog
Discussions of web tools enable companies to connect with customers.
5) Econsultancy
Reports, research and guides on digital marketing and ecommerce.
