tech

Benefits Of Having Your Blog On Your Own Website

kira0030

The benefits of having your blog on your own website are similar to the benefits of having your own website which I listed in my last post. Having your blog on your own website means;

  • you get to choose the blogging software you use
  • you choose the URL of your blog
  • it is more customisable than a free site
  • there are no ads unless you choose to have them
  • you are promoting yourself and your ‘blogging name or business name’ more fully
  • you can back up your blog regularly
  • you are the owner of the content you create – your writing, photos etc.

I use the WordPress blogging software for this blog.  I installed it myself and yes I am a bit of a computer geek but it really isn’t very hard to install.  One of the reasons I love and use WordPress is because I am a supporter of Free and Open Source Software.  Here is a blurb about WordPress.

WordPress is Free and open source software, built by a distributed community of mostly volunteer developers from around the world. WordPress comes with some awesome, worldview-changing rights courtesy of its license, the GPL.

  1. You have the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
  2. You have access to the source code, the freedom to study how the program works, and the freedom to change it to make it do what you wish.
  3. You have the freedom to redistribute copies of the original program so you can help your neighbor.
  4. You have the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. 

'Ich bin ein Blog' photo (c) 2009, Karola Riegler - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
What do you feel are the stumbling blocks to having your blog on your own website?

My next blog post will be, “Installing WordPress On DreamHost With Their One Click Installer”.

Also thanks goes to Fi from Dance Skeletons. Fi uses Wylio – Free pictures for Bloggers on her blog and I was so impressed with her pictures that I had a look at it and decided to use it myself. Wylio provides you with free from cost and free from copyright pictures to use on your blog and it includes attribution to the creator of the picture. A very nice, handy tool.

Benefits Of Having Your Own Website

kira0030

picture of http://www
This blog is part of my own website.  I registered the domain name www.kyliesgenes.com for two years which means that I now own that name for the two years and no one else can use it in that time.  As long as I continue the registration I can continue to use the domain name.

The other thing I did was to find somewhere to put that domain name, someone to ‘host’ it for me.  I chose the hosting company DreamHost.  I have two parts to my website, my blog and my family tree.

Please note – I do receive a payment from DreamHost if someone clicks my link to DreamHost and signs up for a hosting package with them however this isn’t a paid advertisement for DreamHost.  They have not asked me to write this.  I chose to write about the benefits of having your own website and it is up to you to choose who you wish to have host your website  🙂

The benefits that I see of having your own website are:

  • you get to choose your own URL eg. www.aussiefamilyhistory.com
  • you choose your web host and how much you can afford to pay for the hosting (hosting can be paid monthly or yearly)
  • you maintain the ownership of your content
  • you can set up your website how you want it to look
  • it is more professional to have your own URL rather than eg. www.geocities.com/myfamilytree
  • you’re not providing content for someone else and building their business
  • better security and privacy for your data
  • no banner ads unless you want them
  • being ‘your own boss’ – you don’t have to follow someone else’s rules (except for your own Government’s laws regarding website content and your web hosting company’s rules)
  • you can release your data/content under a Creative Commons license if you choose
  • visitors don’t need an account with another entity to view your website eg. a Facebook account, an Ancestry account
  • search engines can properly index your website content

Government House, SydneyI would like to hear from you what things are stopping you from having your own website.  Or simply why you choose not to have your own website.  Please leave me a comment below.

My next blog post will be, “Benefits Of Having Your Blog On Your Own Website”.

Google For The Wise Genealogist

kira0030

I’m currently studying Google For The Wise Genealogist with the National Institute For Genealogical Studies.

Genealogical research is a satisfying pastime for the family historian and a rewarding occupation for the professional genealogist. To support the needs of both amateur family historians and aspiring professional genealogists for reliable and comprehensive education we have designed a series of courses (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Electives) leading to various Certificates in Genealogical Studies with specialization in various countries.

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies in affiliation with the Continuing Education, University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto provides web-based courses for both family historians and professional genealogists.

This week’s module is on Google Maps and Panoramio.  This is a map I created, for my assignment, which shows the possible route my Buring ancestors took when they went from Berlin, Germany to Adelaide, South Australia.  I know that the ship, the Princess Louise stopped at Rio de Janeiro on the way to Adelaide.


View Berlin To Adelaide in a larger map

I never knew before that you could embed a Google map in a blog or website. Yay, I love maps, so you can expect to see a lot more maps in my blog.

Volunteering

kira0030

I take my hat off to all volunteers everywhere!!  Growing up we were encouraged to be involved in our community, it wasn’t viewed as anything unusual or different, it seemed to me that everyone did it.  Mum was involved in the Country Women’s Association, our school things, table tennis club and the local Technical And Further Education College council and probably more that I can’t think of at the moment.  Dad was in the Country Fire Service and heavily involved in the local football and cricket clubs.  He played cricket for years, coached junior teams and then became an umpire.

Flaxley where I grew up

The tiny locality of Flaxley where I grew up

My sister and I played netball, table tennis and tennis and our brother played and umpired football and played tennis and table tennis.  I don’t remember if he played cricket or not, I’ll have to ask him.  In playing these sports we were involved in the helping out too.  It was just a natural thing, I don’t remember talk about voluntary jobs and paid jobs being different things.  My sister and I were in St John Cadets also.  As a result I’ve always been involved in ‘helping out’ and it’s grown to be a passion in my life.

Flaxley Methodist Church

Flaxley Methodist/Uniting Church, our youth group was often involved in helping out too.

I love working with an amazing bunch of people at Teen Challenge SA Inc, we’re all volunteers, with a great sense of purpose and calling to do the work we’re doing.  Teen Challenge provides residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation for young people as well as a range of other programs including – housing, community centres, youth programs, work programs, emergency financial assistance, counselling and more.

One day a week I run a community program through Teen Challenge which is open to people of all ages – I teach art classes and will be teaching computing again soon too and we have a shared lunch.

In genealogy I like to help people where I can.  In July I’ll be running a two day workshop, with my sister, about online genealogy and next school term I hope to be running some regular classes on online genealogy too.  I use the BillionGraves app on my Android phone and photograph headstones which are uploaded to the BillionGraves website for everyone to access.

I don’t tend to classify things in my mind as paid and unpaid.  If it’s something that I’m passionate about, such as helping people, and I can make a real contribution, then I’ll do it.

I didn’t want this to be an ‘I do this and I do that’ kind of post but just to highlight the great work done by volunteers everywhere and that we were raised to ‘do our bit’.

Software I Use For Genealogy

kira0030

I use PHPGedView for my family tree website.
http://www.phpgedview.net/

PhpGedView is a free, collaborative genealogy program that allows you to view and edit your genealogy online. PhpGedView has full editing capabilities, full privacy controls and support linking to multimedia files such as images and videos. Your latest genealogy information is always available online for others to see.

http://www.kyliesgenes.com

 
This blog is made using the WordPress blogging software.
wordpress-logo-notext-rgb
http://wordpress.org/

WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine.

Although I used Blogger for many years I actually find WordPress easier to use as the WordPress dashboard has ALL the configuration settings there in the one place.  It’s also easier to teach new bloggers how to use it too.

 

PicasaPicasa_logo
http://picasa.google.com/

Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website.

I use Picasa to download the photos from my phone and digital camera, it has some quick and easy photo editing options which I like and I can upload to my Picasaweb albums too. I currently have two Picasaweb albums of headstone photos. If you scroll down the page you’ll see the links to these albums in the right hand side column.

 

I’ve written about Billion Graves and Family Bee before, these are both apps I use on my Android mobile phone.

 

The Gimp

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

I use GIMP for many graphics tasks – repairing old photos, pasting screenshots, editing scanned photos, creating graphics for web pages and this blog, and experimenting with pictures and photos for my art work.

 

PHPGedview, WordPress and The GIMP are all what is known as free and open source software or FOSS.  FOSS is also sometimes called freedom software too.  Users of FOSS are encouraged to use, modify, copy and distribute the software. This differs greatly from proprietary software where it is illegal to do those things with it.  In genealogy, as in all things I do, I want to use software which has similar ethics to mine.  I encourage people to freely share their genealogy knowledge, databases, and time as much as possible.  We are stronger and more effective when we work together!!

The Dawn – A Journal For The Australian Household New On Trove

kira0030

I’ve been interested in the Digitise The Dawn project from the time I first heard about it.  This newspaper is a historian’s and genealogist’s delight.

Louisa Lawson

“The Dawn” was published monthly in Sydney, Australia from May 1888 until it’s final issue in July 1905. Touted as a journal for the Australian household, it was filled with recipes, dress patterns, beauty advice and household hints, much like you might expect in any women’s magazine. It also contained articles on more serious matters of women’s right to vote, their struggle for equal pay and divorce law reform. But in an age where women around the world were struggling to gain the right to vote, and ask for equal pay for equal work, what set “The Dawn” apart was the fact it was produced, printed and published by an all woman team, under the leadership of the formidable Louisa Lawson.  Taken from an article by Donna Benjamin, you can read the rest of the article here.

Today all the issues of The Dawn are available on Trove in honour of International Women’s Day.

Article From the Front Page of the First Issue

I’ve read a few articles and done some searches but haven’t found anything relating to my ancestors but it has given me a greater understanding of the times they lived in.  I will certainly be reading and searching some more!