Now that you’re ready to start creating that website you’ve been dreaming about, you’ll need to get web hosting: a place where you can store and modify your website’s content and make it accessible online.

The choice of a web hosting provider is a very personal one. I say this because, for every person who has had a good experience with a provider, you will find one or five or ten who have utter loathing for that exact provider.

I would evaluate a potential web hosting provider based on the following considerations:

• Installing or Utilizing Blog or CMS (Content Management System) Software
  
• 3rd-party Software Installation
  
• Technical Support
  
• Disk Space and Data Transfer
• Video Streaming
• Backup and Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Server
• Transferring Away & Refunds
  

Here’s some more detail about what to consider for each one:

• Installing or Utilizing Blog or CMS (Content Management System) Software

The ease-of-use of incorporating the blogging platform with your provider is what makes the difference when going to purchase web hosting. Even if you don’t intend to open a blog, many blog/CMS software can be used for static websites as well (like WordPress, which I love). Each blog or CMS software has operating system and/or software components required to run, so check with your intended provider before buying hosting and/or the software.

Some providers will give you a “push-button” or “1-click” installation which will automate the installation of blogging platforms. Other providers will provide a hosting solution that gives you access to the more technical side of your hosting environment like executing scripts, setting up databases and modifying your file system permissions. Check to see if the hosting provider lists which blogging software can run on their servers. If you cannot find this information, I strongly suggest writing an email to their tech support with a list of your blog software’s technical requirements to get confirmation before purchasing a hosting agreement (or blogging software). Here’s WordPress’ list of requirements.

• Ease-of-installation of 3rd party software

As mentioned above, if you are not particularly tech-savvy, it’s important that you understand how much the provider can integrate blog or other 3rd-party software into your web hosting. Even if you’re not interested in hosting a blog, you may need a forum, a photo gallery, a wiki or e-commerce software for your site, and many hosting providers can offer these software integrations or at least support their installation.

Many providers will specify how much control you have over your hosting environment and how much you can put your hands on it (if you can run PHP scripts, install a database, modify the .htaccess file, etc.) but the final compatibility, installation and upkeep of the 3rd-party software will be your responsibility. Some providers will even provide a list of which popular 3rd party software is compatible or is available for push-button installation.

• Technical support: Direct Contact available? Guaranteed Response Times?
  

When I first started hosting with a certain hosting provider, they made it very difficult to contact them directly with problems, and I often had to do a down-the-rabbit-hole chase to find the support email address on their web site. Now, they provide an 800 number to talk with a real person.

Other hosting providers will not give you a direct contact, but they may give you a guaranteed response time or an option to escalate and therefore you know how long it might take to get resolution to your problem.

Before it’s really a necessity, you should identify the support methods in case of an emergency: contact email address / website / telephone, and other information needed to contact them like your username or account information. Other important limits to keep in mind are if the provider limits your technical support to a certain number of questions or if they provide a guaranteed response time or service level agreement on resolution of problems.

If you require a certain level of support, investigate first, and also be prepared to pay extra to ensure you can get it.

• Disk Space and Data Transfer

If you’ve read the Long Tail by Chris Anderson (great book!) you know that disk space is quickly becoming a commodity and most providers will now offer huge amounts of disk space for a low cost. You probably won’t come near to using all of it.

Data transfer is related to the transfer and viewing of the information on your website. When a visitor opens a page on your website, your hosting provider must deliver the text and images on that page to their computer. Multiply that for each visitor, and data transfer may become important to your site if you’re having people download a lot of content (like high resolution images, music files or large PDFs) or if you have enormous amounts of traffic.

Most providers will provide you with such a large amount of data transfer that you can monitor in case you experience a jump in traffic, or upgrade if necessary. Investigate how much is provided with each plan, and in case your website gets linked from Digg or CNN, how you can temporarily meet that demand or upgrade

• Video Streaming

Most videos embedded in blogs can be hosted externally to the blog (on YouTube or Vimeo, for example), but if you are planning on having a lot of video content and would like complete control over the delivery and look & feel of that content, check with your hosting provider if video streaming from their servers is included in the hosting plan you’re considering. This may also figure into calculating the data transfer they provide – the more videos you are streaming, the more data transfer you’ll need.

• Backup

Backup is one of the most important things to your online presence. How often does your host back up your data? Daily, hourly? How far back can you get get copies of your data and files, and with which methods can you access your files? Do you need to submit a request to the provider’s Support, or can you be autonomous and access it directly from your administration panel?

If you’re generating a lot of content and/or you have a very active community generating content and comments, you will need to be more sensitive about how often that content is backed up.

Note that with many blog/CMS software, the backup of the database may not be done by the hosting provider but must be done directly by the user and the hosting provider may provide backups of the content that is not in the database (i.e., image and downloadable files).

• Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Server

By default, most basic web hosting plans will be considered shared hosting, which means that other websites and domains will be hosted on the same server as your site. You’ll be sharing resources like the server’s disk space, processor, and RAM. For most site or blog needs, shared hosting will be sufficient, but if your site is very popular, you may need a step up from shared hosting like a virtual server or a dedicated server.

Of course, you probably won’t know you need a more robust solution when you first start your website, but it’s a good idea to see if the host has other options available and what you’d need to do to upgrade when the time comes.

• Transferring Away & Refunds

Pay close attention to the refund policy of the providers. Some offer money-back guarantees if you are interested in doing a trial of their services for a few days or weeks so you can get a feel for the service and the administration panel.

Choosing Web Hosting Providers

I don’t want to make this article about endorsement, though I use both Dreamhost and Yahoo for my hosting needs, as I mentioned above – for every person who has a good experience, there will be 10 more with a negative one. I suggest you Google “web hosting providers,”, read some ratings’ sites, ask your friends with successful sites who they use, and evaluate your own site’s needs before buying hosting.

From Lifehacker’s readers: Most Popular Reliable and Affordable Web Hosts

• DreamHost
• Blue Host
• NearlyFreeSpeech.NET
• 1&1
• GoDaddy
• HostGator
• A Small Orange

Image by Donovan Henneberg-Verity

Photoshop (from Adobe)

Even now the cost of Photoshop is enough to make your jaw drop (from $200 to $1400), and therefore it is quite an investment to use for those that are casually interested in improving their photos or images.

This year, when I switched to a Mac (thanks to the Vista-XP-Windows7 Bermuda Triangle fiasco) the thing I was most reluctant to leave behind was my working copy of Photoshop.

GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free, open source program that is very powerful and in many ways better than Photoshop because it’s free and has a great community behind it. Because it lets you be a powerful graphics editor, too. I started playing with GIMP (or the GIMP as some say) more than a year ago, when I didn’t have Photoshop on my work computer and wanted to see how it worked.

Everyone says GIMP has a steep learning curve. They are right. Especially if you’ve never used Photoshop.

But I will show you how you can do 7 easy tricks you would do in Photoshop for absolutely free using GIMP. Of course, these are not really “tricks” in the sense that they are neither original nor groundbreaking, but after learning them and where these functions are located in GIMP, I guarantee you’ll be comfortable with GIMP and on your way to using a powerful and free open source software within a few minutes.

Here are the tricks we’ll cover:

1. Resize an image
2. Add a guide
3. Rotate the image to correct/straighten a horizon
4. Crop an image
5. Change a color image into black and white
6. Fix blemishes or remove unwanted things using Clone
7. Add a text layer watermark

Note: Menu and toolbar names will be in bold and an indication of a nested menu item will be preceded by “>” (i.e., File > Open)

First let’s take a look at our original image we’re going to work on in GIMP.

It’s not a terrible image, right? It’s got some potential. So let’s get to work.

1. Resize an image

The first I usually do when working on an image for my blog or for sharing online is to resize the photo. You won’t need an image that is 3000 pixels across if you’re posting on Flickr or something similar – usually 1000 pixels in width is a safe bet to do a quick resize. Note, this is not a crop – I am not removing anything from the image, for now.

After opening the image, navigate to Image > Scale Image to get the resize dialog box.

And here’s the dialog box. Note that the “chain link” is linked by default, meaning that GIMP will retain the proportions of the image (i.e., an image that is originally 200×100 will reduce to 100×50, etc.) If you need to resize to a specific size (i.e., 100×37) you’ll want to click on the chain to remove the proportion constraint. Also pixels is the default denomination – you can also choose inches or percent to reduce the image by 50%, etc.

Insert the new Height or Width, press your enter/return key and the other measurement will update automatically if the proportions are linked. Once you have entered the measurements you desire, click “Scale” to resize the image.

2. Add a Guide

Guides can be useful to mark the halfway point of an image, when aligning text or different layers or to help correct a horizon. In this example, we’re going to add a guide so we can do the last task.

Go to Image > Guides – then you can choose to add a guide in several ways: by percent (50% horizontally, 10% vertically, etc.), arbitrarily (by pixel) or from the selection – for this example we’ll use a simple guide by percent.

I’ll put the horizontal a little lower than the middle of the image, at 60% horizontal.

Here you can see the guide on the horizontal.

3. Rotate an image (in this case, to fix a horizontal)

Sometimes a picture needs to be rotated because the photographer wants to give it a different look, or feeling, or sometimes you’d just like to straighten up the picture a bit. To rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise/counter-clockwise/or 180 degrees, you can easily do that with Image > Transform and then by choosing the method you’re interested in.

But what if you need to rotate the image just a little? Just a few degrees, or 10, or 45? It wasn’t completely intuitive for me to find how to rotate an image just a little bit. In GIMP you can rotate a layer just a little bit, which is why I suggest doing any rotating to the original image before adding text layers or other modifications.

To rotate the image, access it at Layer > Transform > Arbitrary Rotation:

The dialog box give you the opportunity to enter the degrees the image needs to be rotated, use a slider to rotate it arbitrarily, or you can do it directly on the image by clicking and rotating. This particular photo only needed about 2 degrees of a nudge to straighten it up.

4. Crop an image

Now the image has been straightened, but there are some “gray areas” since now the image doesn’t fill up all the rectangular space. So we need to crop it!

To crop, I usually select the area I want to keep, and then crop. First, select the Rectangle Select Tool in the Toolbox in the upper left. I like to use an additional setting to help me keep the crop in proportion with the original image – in this case it’s a vertical photo so I’m going to select “Fixed Aspect Ratio” on the lower right of the Toolbox and insert 36:54 (width:height) for my image (or 2:3). [Note: this ratio will not work for images from every camera - check your own image ratio]

Then I select the image that no gray/empty area is included in the selection. After selecting, you modify the selection by hovering the mouse at any of the four sides of the image and GIMP will let you extend/decrease the size.

Then, select Image > Crop to Selection.

Now I have an image that is straight and correctly cropped.

5. Change a color image into a black and white image

Sometimes a black and white photo can add some austerity, increase the drama of a photo, or sometimes it’s just something you want instead of the color original. There’s no need to take photos in black and white originally because you can always use software after to turn them black and white.

In GIMP there are actually two different ways to change a color image into a black and white one – by changing the mode to grayscale, or by desaturating it.

To change the mode, go to Image > Mode > Grayscale.

To change the desaturation, go to Colors > Desaturate. I usually compare the different shades with “Lightness” “Luminosity” or “Average” to see which effect I like better.

6. Remove unwanted blemishes from a photo with the Clone Tool

Let’s not turn the photo black and white just yet. Perhaps you didn’t notice that little duck in my original photo (see it there in the middle right?) or that sun glint on the water surface on the bottom left, but we’re going to remove the little guy and that glare to show you the potential of the Clone tool. Let’s take a closer look:

First select the Clone icon (the little stamp) in the Toolbox, and then the Brush size (lower in the Toolbox) you’ll need to use – if it’s a small detail, you’ll need a finer/smaller brush, if it’s a larger area, increase the size of the brush.

Then, select an area using Alt+ click or Option + Click that will be your base/reference area for the cloning. You may have to move this several times to get the effect you want. Bye bye little duckie!

And now we have a cleaner picture:

7. Add a text layer watermark

You may not like watermarks on photos, but I think it’s a simple precaution that many bloggers and photographers do today. You can create a watermark that’s more stylish or beautiful, but to start with, you can just add a text layer to the image and reduce its opacity so that it appears translucent.

Click on the Text Tool (A icon) in the Toolbox, then click and drag on the image where you’d like to put the text box. In the text dialog box, insert the text you want to use as your watermark – for example, your name, your domain, or your blog name.

Then, click on the layer in the Layer Toolbox and reduce the opacity from 100% to an opacity that is comfortable for your watermark. Voila!

And now my picture is ready to be saved and put online! What else would you like to know how to do with GIMP?

Here are some other GIMP tutorial sites, and information on free alternatives to Photoshop:

• 11 Outstanding (Free) Alternatives to Photoshop
• GIMP.org Tutorials
• Gimpology Tutorials
• Open Source photography pool on Flickr
• Open source software for photographers using Linux

image by yohann.aberkane

Sounds confusing, right? It’s really not.

What you need to know about WordPress is that it’s an easy, powerful, and very flexible platform for blogs AND static websites.

What you may not know is that the WordPress community is very large, which means you’ve got a ton of information, documentation, and helpful people (like me) ready to get you started with WordPress.

Note: I am referring to an installed/self-hosted version of WordPress (available at WordPress.org), not the free, hosted sites on WordPress.com

Ready to get your hands dirty with WordPress? This is what you’ll need:

1. Web hosting selected (with needed minimum requirements) and purchased
2. A domain name selected and registered
3. A backup / export of your current blog’s content (optional)
4. A theme / design for your new blog (and pertinent files)
   
5. FTP client software and/or web FTP access to your hosting server
6. WordPress installation files and instructions
7. Bonus: Importing content from existing blog (optional)
   
8. Bonus chapter: not so quick, but very dirty: Modifying old URLs and Images for the new blog

That’s it! You’re ready to go.

Let’s break down each piece:

1. Web Hosting Selected (with needed minimum requirements) & Purchased

WordPress has some minimum requirements to run, and most hosting providers will give you this information in the FAQ area or possibly specify if they are WordPress-compliant. If you don’t see this information, don’t hesitate to email the provider before committing and purchasing your web hosting. Some providers may even offer WordPress as a “pushbutton” or “1 click” installation which means they are not only compliant, they’ll walk you through the installation! Read server requirements for Hosting WordPress so you know what requirements your web hosting provider has to have to run WordPress. {Read the WHT article about How to Choose Web Hosting for your Site}

Really quick & dirty: buy web hosting from one of WordPress’ web hosting partners

2. A Domain Name Selected and Purchased

For the purposes of this example, I’m assuming you’re moving from a free blogging platform with an existing (free) URL like myblogname.oldblogsoftware.com, and you’re interested in moving to a hosted WordPress installation on your own domain. If you don’t have a domain yet, read the {WHT article: How to Buy a Domain and What to Do With It}. In this case, as mentioned above, you want to buy web hosting for your domain.

Really quick & dirty: most domains can be purchased directly from your web hosting provider and you can do it during the setup of your web hosting account or directly after.

3. A Backup of your Current Blog’s Content (Posts and Pictures!)

WordPress can accept just about any blog’s content on the planet. Your job is to find out how to export the content of your particular blog and save it to a safe place on your computer.

Here are some shortcuts for the most popular blogging platforms – if you are given a choice, you’ll want to export in XML format:

• Export content from Blogger: Dashboard>Settings>Blog Tools >Export Blog or read How to Export on Blogger’s Help Forum
  
• Export from TypePad: Export/Import on Six Apart’s knowledge base – (they actually go into quite a bit of detail about moving from TypePad to WordPress)
• Export from Movable Type: Exporting content from Movable Type
• Export from LiveJournal: Log into LiveJournal’s Export page
  
• Export from Posterous: it has the functionality available via their API, but someone still has to write an exporter (Nov 09)
  

You’ll also need to download pictures and other content you’ve uploaded in your current blog. If you’re using Flickr for your images, and you embed the HTML code directly into your posts, you won’t need to do anything.

Really quick and dirty: Pay a friend to do this for you. Or dinner works, too. But not pizza – don’t be cheap, man!

4. A Theme / Design for your New Blog (and pertinent files)

I could write several posts about choosing a theme, but for now I will keep it simple: visit blogs (if you’re reading RSS feeds, click through!) and start noting which sites make you sit up and take notice and what you don’t like. Then start to understand what kind of design you’re looking for with your new blog (2 columns, dark, rotating header image, red, etc.) and then go here to narrow down your choices: WordPress Themes

I suggest downloading at least 2-3 blog themes that you like, so after you get your content imported and the themes uploaded, you can switch from one to the other if you find your favorite theme doesn’t suit your content. You may also consider paying someone to make you a custom design, but for now let’s just concentrate on a clean free design for the first iteration of your WordPress blog!

Really quick and dirty: Use one of the 30+ free themes that are automatically included in your WordPress basic installation, accessible via the Administration panel : Appearance > Themes.

5. FTP Client Software and/or Web FTP Access to your Hosting Server

You’ll also need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client software so that you can transfer files from your hard drive to your web hosting server, including most of the WordPress installation files (if you don’t have assisted installation through your web hosting provider) and your blog’s content like themes and photos. I suggest FileZilla FTP Client – it’s open source!

Really quick and dirty: Your web hosting may provide a web interface to upload files via web FTP, so you won’t have to install anything additionally, but you may find an FTP software to be easier and faster.

6. WordPress Installation Files and Instructions

You can always find the latest version of WordPress at: http://wordpress.org/download/ – you’ll need to save this to your computer. Then you’ll want to get started with Installing WordPress. You’ll especially want to have the detailed instructions page as well as the Famous 5-minute installation pages open.

Really quick and dirty: Use one of the WordPress hosting partners with 1-click installation for WordPress. Otherwise, you’ll definitely want a friend who’s installed WordPress before to help you with this – bribe them nicely!

7. Import Content from Existing Blog (optional)

Now you’ve got a working version of WordPress with some default content. Now to import your content. After you’re logged on as administrator, Click on Tools to expand the submenu on the WordPress administration panel. Next, scroll down if necessary and click Import to show the various import options. Next, click your previous blog’s type and follow the directions. Read more about Importing content from other blogging software into WordPress.

Geek Tip – only for the adventurous: If you have a large blog, you may get an error uploading your content as the uploader times out. MAKE A COPY/BACKUP of the original import file you downloaded from your previous blog interface. Then take the file and divide it into two or three pieces (you’ll want to make sure you cut off before the <ENTRY> or <POST> XML tag)

Really quick and dirty: It can’t get much quicker or dirtier than this. Be content.

That’s the end of the quick and dirty guide to Getting Started with WordPress. Below is a bonus chapter that has to do with cleaning up after yourself and your move.

8. (Bonus) Modifying Old Internal URLs and Images for the new blog

Chances are, if you’re a decent blogger, you’ve linked to yourself at some point, or often, within your posts. While WordPress will change the structure of your posts’ permalinks (URL) from oldblog.oldblogsoftware.com/mypostname to www.newdomainname.com/mypostname when you import your content, it will not change any internal references to your content. Oh dear, what’s a blogger to do? If you’ve got a friend who is comfortable rooting around in your database (MAKE A BACKUP FIRST BEFORE ANYONE PLAYS!), they can do a find and replace in your wp_posts table and do a partial replace (find: oldblog.oldblogsoftware.com substitute with: www.newdomainname.com).

If you don’t have any friends like that, or you prefer not to take chances, I can only say you’ll just have to go in by hand to each post, update the URL and save the post again. I suggest starting with your 10 most recent posts (more likely to be seen with random “Older posts” browsing) and your top 10-20 most popular posts and update the URLs.

Geek Tip: You’ll want to understand permalinks well when you import your blog – if your old blog post URLs were structured oldblog.oldblogstructure.com/day/month/year/postname, and your new blog’s URL structure is www.newdomainname.com/postname, you’ll have to pay attention when updating your URLs.

Anything I’m missing from the Quick and Dirty Guide? Let me know.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonoob/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Hopefully I don’t need to spend a lot of time convincing you that backup is essential to anyone that has digital data. And who doesn’t these days? Some of the benefits for backing up are avoiding data loss and gaining data independence from your physical computer and therefore, being more prepared for an eventual failure or crash.

• What to Backup
• Different types of Backup
• Backup vs. Archiving
• Scheduling and My Backup Setup
  
• Backup Software, Online Backup Services and Google Docs
• Resources

What to Backup

In short, anything you have on your computer you can’t bear to lose.

I backup what I consider to be the most important documents to me: my photos, my writing, organizational and university documents, and archives of important orders or noteworthy digital receipts. Anything I can’t replicate easily, or whose historical value means something to me. I also backup my ebooks, music and films I’ve purchased as some sites don’t provide you with a bookshelf or a way to re-download the media after purchase.

I often download files, programs and installation files to a specific folder (like C:/downloads) so that I can find the exact program later and re-install if necessary. Backup your installation files if you’ve downloaded them from the Internet, especially if they aren’t easy-to-remember program/website names.

If you’re using an email client that downloads mail directly to your computer, you’ll definitely want to have a backup of those email, too.

Different types of Backup

Backup is generally divided into two methodologies: file-based and image-based backup.

Image-based backup or disk imaging is like taking a snapshot of your computer’s current state and configuration. It will make an exact copy of your operating system, programs and drivers in that moment, useful for restoring at a later date. The entire backup is saved as a single file that is not navigable / explorable because it’s a complete package – you won’t be able to just restore a particular file or driver. If you’ve ever seen an installation CD for your favorite software, the data on the CD is usually in an .iso format which means it’s a disk image.

Image-based backup can be helpful to capture a particular state of your hard drive, installations, or system settings and is more popular for servers that are in a production environment, or a commercial setting. Most end users will not need to make an image backup. If you have a disk that is partitioned (i.e., on C:\ you have all your programs and operating system, and on D:\ you have just your data) you may decide to image the entire data drive instead of selecting particular folders.

File-based backup is based on selecting files, folders or even file types for backup. This is the most common usage of backup and allows you to have clear control on what exactly is being backed up. To allow for some flexibility, I select high-level folders (like C:\mydocs) where I save all my personal data. Centrally saving your data and downloads so you can easily locate them later is a good practice to get into – try to override any default settings in programs to save in their particular folders.

Doing a backup by file type (like all images: .jpg, .gif, etc.) can be useful to someone who just wants to back up photos or a particular type of document they have on their hard drive. Backup by file type can be limiting, though, especially if you’re not sure what kind of data you’re going to be producing in the future or if you don’t regularly check your backup settings to see if something needs to be changed to be more inclusive.

Backup vs. Archiving

Archiving is different from backup. Backup means that a file is copied to a secondary location where it will reside until it’s needed to replace or restore the version on the primary device. With archiving, the primary copy of the data is on a secondary device (like an external hard drive), and the original copy is deleted from the primary device (i.e., your laptop hard drive). Archiving a file means future versions of this file will not be synchronized to the secondary device and/or if the file is deleted from the primary device, the archived version on the secondary device is not affected.

Be careful that you don’t mix up the terms backup and archiving when looking at backup software and online services. Most software and solutions available today are based on synchronizing or backing up your computer’s actual state and files and are not archive solutions. If a file is deleted from the primary device, then a version of the file is available from the last time you backed it up on the secondary device. But if a file is deleted/changed/lost, and then a synchronization is executed before recovery is attempted from the secondary device, that file will be deleted/changed/updated on the backup repository and therefore non-recoverable.

Scheduling and My Current Backup Setup

With scheduling, you can really harness the true power of doing a backup – being able to schedule your backup automatically. Depending on your data generation/modification habits, I would suggest scheduling a backup once or a few times a week to keep your backups fresh and relevant.

My Backup Setup

For fun, I’m going to share the backup and archiving solution that I use at home. Perhaps you might feel I’m a little cautious with a lot of my failover, but it definitely goes back to the benefit of backup – feeling independent from my computer. My laptop is 4 years old, but I don’t worry anymore about the day that it might break down. My laptop drive is so small that most of my new content can’t fit on it anymore.

• A. Primary device – laptop 60GB
• B. Backup drive 1 – 250GB
• C. Backup drive 2 – 750GB
• D. Online backup services – MozyHome

On A, I keep some personal documents and photos, which I then back up to B. On B, I now also have some photos and original content which only exist on B (and not on A). These documents and photos from A & B are backed up onto D, my online backup service. Then the entire contents of B (backed-up files from A, and primary content on B) is backed up to C. On C there is some primary/original content that is not backed up, and for now I’m ok with that.

Backup Software and Online Backup Services

There are many options for online and offline backup, many of which are listed in the articles at the end of this post. If you already have an external hard drive you back up to, you still might need software to help the scheduling or synchronization process. I use Synkron which is an open source software that synchronizes folders which works pretty well. If you don’t have an external hard drive, what are you waiting for? They are getting cheaper every day – pick up a Western Digital or Seagate drive.

If you’re running Windows, you may not have to buy anything. Microsoft XP comes with its own backup software = Windows XP Backup – installed automatically on XP Pro and available to XP Home users, too. I’ve never used it so I can’t vouch for its effectiveness, but it appears you can select what to backup and even schedule it. Read more about how to set up Windows XP Backup.

As far as online backup options, there are so many. I have been using Mozy (Pro) for my online backup more than a year, and while it’s a little slow, I’ve been generally happy. If you feel like giving me a little love, you can sign up for Mozy using my referral link – but that’s up to you. Here’s also a clean link to Mozy with no referral.

Another popular solution for online backup is Dropbox. We use it often at work to share files and folders among members of a virtual working group. Similar to Mozy, you get 2GB free and they have other, more robust options for pay.

Worth mentioning, and one you might not have thought of is Google Docs, an online document service that will actually import files into their online versions. If you’ve got text, presentation or Word files that you’d like to be accessible online, this is a great way to have a copy of them online, but it’s not a good solution for continuous backup. Note that Google Docs does NOT have a guarantee for users so it’s possible that some day your documents could be lost or they could turn off the service.

What concerns or issues do you have when it comes to backup? What’s your setup like?

Resources

• 10 Data Backup, Storage and Sharing Solutions from Smashing Magazine
• CNET’s list of backup software
• List of backup software on Wikipedia
• List of online backup services on Wikipedia
• Best online backup services by PCMag
• Synching your files with SugarSync by NYTimes

(img by zebble)
Note: There are affiliate links in this post which are clearly labeled.

Part 1: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books

• What are eBooks?
• Why aren’t eBooks more popular? Tactile Loss and the eBabel problem
• ebooks are Great! Here’s Why

Part 2: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and Applications

• eBook Formats
• How to Read an eBook: Devices and dedicated eBook readers
• Applications to read eBooks on the iPhone / iTouch

Part 3: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• Where to Find and Buy Ebooks
• Where to Find Free Ebooks
• Learning Resources

Where to Find and Buy Ebooks

Intersted in finding popular, rare and current books? You have a lot of choice, and it’s growing every day. For more information on each of these formats, make sure you read How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and Applications

• Fictionwise.com – Secure Mobipocket, eReader, PDF formats. Multiformat books, which are usually non-DRM books. A list of supported formats and devices. Note: Fictionwise was bought by Barnes & Noble in March 2009.
  • eReader.com – eReader is actually powered by Fictionwise and is a separate site carrying only eReader /.pdb files.
• Barnes & Noble – they bought Fictionwise (above) but books are also available through bn.com – eReader/.pdb files.
• Books on Board.com – a mixture of EPUB, Mobipocket and eReader formats. Check Books on Board supported formats.
• Diesel ebooks – Adobe, Mobipocket, eReader, Microsoft formats.
• Mobipocket.com – Mobipocket format (owned by Amazon).
• Amazon.com Kindle Store (Kindle format only)
• eBook Store from Sony (Sony format) – Sony is also teaming up with Google to offer a half million of public domain books for the Sony Reader.
• www.ebooks.com – Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, Adobe Digital Editions (secure EPUB) formats – they have a handy Reader comparison table.
• eHarlequin eBooks (U.S.) and Mills & Boon (UK) – only romance, but someone to watch since they are often cutting-edge with free book offerings, embracing technology and experimenting in the “e” category.
• Penguin – eBooks (U.S.) and Penguin eBooks UK – in the UK they are supporting the secure EPUB format, while in the US eBooks are available in Microsoft Reader, Adobe secure PDF and secure eReader.
• WHSmith eBookShop (UK) – books in secure Adobe EPUB, secure Adobe PDF, secure Mobipocket, secure Microsoft Reader.
• Waterstones (UK) – for Sony Readers, utilizes secure Adobe Digital Editons (EPUB).
• Wizz-e.com is a site that focuses on electronic books for children.
• EPubBooks.com – a list of places to find EPUB format books.
• O’Reilly eBooks – the classic technology publisher embraces eBooks and offers DRM-free(!!) bundles of their books in three formats (EPUB, Kindle Mobipocket and PDF) so you’ll have some mobility amongst your devices.

Where to Find Free Ebooks

There are several places to find free books which can be downloaded in various formats and converted if necessary. Many of them will be “the classics” – books that are in public domain, but converted and released in different formats.

• Project Gutenberg mentioned above is a great site with more than 27,000 books available in the public domain. Classics from Austen, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, even the Kama Sutra!
• ManyBooks.net – 23,000+ books, and they’re all free! Multiple formats available for download.
• FeedBooks.com – more free books, compatible with most mobile devices and Kindle / Sony / iPhone, it supports the EPUB format.
• Google Book Search – use “Advanced Book Search” and select “Full view only” for some creative commons / public domain books.
• Free Kindle format books – a great list of free Kindle format books from Kindle 2, Kindle Books Reader 2.0 – Amazon Kindle 2 Review
• Kindle Formatting is offering a few free books during Read an Ebook Week.
• Suvudu – a new science fiction portal Suvudu from Random House which has monthly free books to download. You can sign up for their newsletter to get notified when new titles are available.
• Girlebook.com – “free ebooks by the gals” -  classics and titles by lesser-known female authors, all free.
• F+W Media offers some free ebooks to those that sign up for their newsletter.

Learning Resources

Still want to know more about eBooks? Here are some resources to continue your quest. Send me your questions as well via my Contact Page.

• TeleRead.org – a blog all about eBook news and eBook readers
• Three Open Source E-book Readers Worth a Look from OStatic
• A very useful E-book Reader matrix from MobileRead
• ePub Resources and Guides – O’Reilly Labs
• Dear Author.com – a blog mainly about romance books, but check their ebook technology category for some very informative posts including device comparisons and some hot eBook topics. After all, romance readers are one of the most powerful reading markets – we read a lot, we buy a lot, and we are pushing the eBook market to get their act together. Some posts to jump straight to: Dear Author’s 2nd Annual Buying Guide, Parts 1 and 2 – How to borrow eBooks from your local library using the Sony Reader, and 2008 eInk Readers
• How to Choose an Ebook Reader from Wired.com
• International Digital Publishing Forum – proponents of the EPUB format, statistics and news regarding the eBook market.
• MobileRead – information for reading digital content on your mobile/cellular phone, but lots of crossover with the format wars in general.
• Read an E-Book Week – March 8-14, 2009.
• Read Write Web ebooks category

What doubts or questions do you have regarding electronic books? Leave them in the comments, or send it to me via Ask the Geek.

Image from gi

The second part in the series A Guide to Ebooks series for Read an Ebook Week.

Part 1: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books

• What are ebooks?
• Why aren’t ebooks more popular? Tactile Loss and the eBabel problem
• ebooks are Great! Here’s Why

Part 2: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications

• Ebook Formats
• How to Read an Ebook: Devices and Dedicated Ebook Readers
• Upcoming Ebook Reader Devices
  
• Applications to Read Ebooks on the iPhone / iTouch

Part 3: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• Where to Find and Buy Ebooks
• Where to Find Free Ebooks
• Learning Resources

Ebook Formats

As mentioned in part 1 of the Guide to Ebooks, since there is no universal ebook format and 25 formats to date (Apr 2009), there are many ebook formats that compete with each other. Some are formats created specifically for ebooks and others like text and HTML are formats that can be adapted to on-screen reading.

Note that when considering each of these formats there are at least two versions of each format: a “secure” version that has some kind of DRM (Digital Rights Management) attached to it and a non-DRM version, i.e., Adobe Secure/DRM PDF, secure EPUB, etc.

Note: As of now, almost all commercially-released books are released in secure versions of ebook formats with DRM or security attached. When reading further about readers and devices that support non-DRM file formats, remember that most of this non-DRM content is either documents/ebooks you create yourself or with non-DRM versions available online (like Shakespeare), etc., and not most commercial books. Hopefully this will change.

There are also many software that will convert files into different file formats for reading on dedicated readers from Sony/Amazon, etc., but often they assume you are starting with or require the use of a non-DRM file (i.e., converting a non-DRM Adobe PDF into Mobipocket or eReader).

Here are some popular eBook file formats – in part 3 of the Guide to Ebooks I’ll tell you where you to buy them:

• EPUB / .epub – This is the proposed “universal” format from the IDPF that is having trouble taking hold with dedicated readers and mass-market book retailers. A few retailers ((Note: August 2009, Sony declared it will support EPUB by the end of 2009) have started offering books in secure EPUB, but it is not widespread. www.epubbooks.com is a great directory of where you can purchase or download EPUB offerings.
• Adobe EPUB – Adobe EPUB files are often synonymous with Adobe Digital Editions which is actually a software offered by Adobe that is used to read EPUB files, and these are also readable on several different ereader devices (note: Jan 2010 – there is no clear way to read Adobe EPUB files on the iPhone)
• PDF / .pdf – Adobe’s format “portable document format”, available in both secure and non-secure formats, is widely available and readable on several types of devices, but users report some problems formatting and re-sizing text as documents are created with “pages” that are pre-set and therefore more difficult to re-flow for different screen sizes.
• eReader / .pdb – Originally developed by Palm, eReader software is available for a ton of devices including the iPhone/iTouch. eReader/Fictionwise was bought by Barnes&Noble in 2009.
• Mobipocket / .prc/.mobi – another proprietary format, and is now owned by Amazon, life has become even more confusing in that Mobipocket-DRM’d files do not work with Amazon’s Kindle (*remember my note about most popular books are released with DRM). Mobipocket is available to be read on several devices.
• Microsoft Reader / .lit – Microsoft’s ebook format which is readable on several types of devices.
• Device-specific formats:
  • Kindle / .azw is based on Mobipocket technology. Since March 2009 Kindle books can also be read on the iPhone (below) and in November 2009, you can read Kindle books on your PC, too. Both options are available without having to actually buy a Kindle.
  • Sony Reader / .lrx/.lrf (BBeB Book) format works as imaginable, with Sony Readers. (see note above in EPUB re: Sony format)
• Non-Commercial Formats:
  • Text / .txt : no special formatting available, these files are plain text with line breaks. Some use CAPS or special characters (**) to help with readability.
  • Rich Text / .rtf : more formatting available than plain text.
  • HTML / .html : can be read in web-browsers, and some special formatting can be used. The concept of pages is not easily embedded or utilized with HTML ebook files.
  • Others: Windows Word Document .doc, JPG Image .jpg, Portable Network Graphics / .png, Bitmap / .bmp

How to Read an Ebook: Devices and Dedicated Ebook Readers

Ebooks are small files since they are mostly text (for now) and therefore you can have hundreds and hundreds of books and not make a dent in your hard drive space. Most files range from 200KB to 1MB or so, which is small considering many mp3 files are from 5-10MB. I have more than 200 books that are the disk space equivalent of 12 mp3 songs (less than a single music album!)

Reading eBooks on devices falls into three main categories: computers, multifunction/Smartphones, and dedicated readers.

• Your Computer. A simple solution since almost all ebook formats have software that is installable on Windows and Mac operating systems. While you might hate the idea of sitting at your computer for hours reading, it may work to sneak in a few pages here and there, or if you’ve got an ultraportable computer or netbook, it may even be comfortable.
• Multifunction/Smartphone: this group is perhaps the most interesting because chances are you already have one of these devices in your possession and it will take you very little to be set up to read eBooks. Blackberry, Treo, iPhone (and ipod Touch) are all examples of Smartphones. Many of the major formats listed above have ways to read content from your smartphone.
• Dedicated E-book readers: There are a lot of e-Book devices out on the marketplace now. The feature that characterizes these devices is that most of them are utilize E Ink technology, which is a non-backlit electronic display that simulates text printed on paper – here are a few of the most well-known:
  • Amazon Kindle (Kindle Wikipedia entry), now in its third generation, Kindle DX released May 2009 (larger reader has a 9.7 inch screen and adds support for PDF, and increases storage for up to 3,500 books), it is appreciated above all for the ability to buy and download books wirelessly. In October 2009, a Kindle International version was made available for use outside the U.S.A. (but with a cost for wireless access). A large selection of books is available in the Kindle format mentioned above, with support for other non-DRM/secure formats like HTML and TXT. As of March ‘09, you can buy and read Kindle-format ebooks on the iPhone/iTouch without having to purchase a Kindle (below).
  • Sony Reader (Sony Reader Wikipedia entry) – the PRS-700BC is the most recent version with a touch screen, displays Sony’s ebook format BBeB (.lrx / .lrf), secure PDF and EPUB, and other non-secure formats like HTML and TXT. Sony and Google will make a half million public domain books available for the Sony Reader soon.
  • Barnes & Noble “Nook” – B&N, who bought Fictionwise/eReader in 2009, released the Nook in October 2009 for pre-order. E Ink® but also with a color touchscreen for the controls, with 2GB space and expandable for more, it supports eReader formats and EPUB. Kudos to B&N for not only supporting an existing format (Amazon, you screwed us with Mobipocket books) but for supporting EPUB, too!
  • iRex Iliad (Iliad Wikipedia entry) – secure Mobipocket and other non-secure formats like HTML and TXT.
  • Bookeen Cybook – (Cybook Wikipedia entry) – secure Mobipocket and other non-secure formats like HTML and TXT.
  • eBookwise is one of the first dedicated readers I saw, though it does not use electronic ink technology and therefore has a backlit screen. It is from the company Fictionwise,  but it has its own dedicated ebook store, www.ebookwise.com. Formats include Rocket Book (.rb) files and other non-secure formats like HTML, .doc and text.
  • Foxit eSlick Reader – one of the cheaper options available using e Ink (under $300), it seems to only support PDF and TXT formats.
  • Cool-ER – a reader using e Ink made in the UK it supports JPEG, PDF, or TXT document, or any EPUB formatted eBook.
  • Skiff Reader from publishing company Hearst will launch in 2010. Its 11.5″ E Ink display will be the largest so far, and will have full touch capability. It will have its own content delivery platform which (*shudder*) makes me think they will also have their own format. No supported formats currently listed on the site (Jan 2010).
  • Plastic Logic QUE proReader will be sold through Barnes & Noble stores in mid-April 2010, and will be able to view and annotate Powerpoint, Word, Excel and PDF documents [source]. It will also have its own proprietary format QUE truVue standard (blech!).

Upcoming Ebook Readers

• Fujitsu FLEPia – the first color reader with a touch screen, and made with their proprietary “e-paper” technology, similar to eInk. Available April 2009 in Japan only. Will read XMDF and .book formats.
• Samsung Papyrus – a 5″ touchscreen to be launched this summer in Korea. No word on formats supported.
• BeBook 2 was shown at CeBIT and will be released towards the end of 2009.
• txtr reader – planned release for the 3rd quarter of 2009, will have “broad document support” – PDF, HTML, Office, ePub and more; plans to use watermarking in place of DRM
• Borders UK will release an alternative ebook reader to the Iliad “in a few weeks.” (March ’09)
• LG will be coming out with a solar-powered device, currently listed as “Solar Cell e-book.” Besides the fact that they refer to the reader as an ebook, and not an ebook reader, the focus is on the display and not formats or what it will support. (Jan ’10)

Not an ebook reader, but worth mentioning is Calibre, an electronic book organizer software that’s free to download and will even convert non-DRM files into other formats.

Applications to Read Ebooks on the iPhone / ipod Touch

Since I read books mainly with my Apple ipod Touch, I thought I’d share some free applications available through the Apple App store that you can instantly download and use to read eBooks on your iPhone or ipod Touch. Many of these are also available for mobiles / smartphones.

Note: I am unable to verify the availability of each of these applications in every iTunes Store in every country – some may not be available. Also, check the availability of the content you’re interested in, and whether you can purchase it from your physical location, directly on the application’s website.

• eReader – released almost immediately for the iPhone, you can download books directly from your eReader.com, Fictionwise.com, and Manybooks.net bookshelves. eReader format .pdb only, or Multiformat (unencrypted) eBooks from Fictionwise, but they also give you 25MB of upload space “Personal Content” to upload eReader PDB books from other retailers/locations.
• Barnes & Noble eReader – since acquiring eReader.com and Fictionwise.com, they have come out with their own iPhone application that requires a bn.com account to use and supports eReader formats purchased on their site.
• Kindle App – works like the name says, with Kindle-format books bought on Amazon. You do not need to own a Kindle to use this application or buy books. You cannot buy books directly through the app but can use Safari on iPhone/iTouch or through a normal internet connection and then download them wirelessly through the iPhone/iTouch. Special feature to sync last-read-page across your Kindle and iPhone.
• Stanza – an alternative to eReader since they support more formats, they have an Online Catalog with books from BooksonBoard, O’Reilly, Fictionwise, All Romance, Random House and others to download secure PDB files to your iPhone or iTouch. They also read DRM-free/unprotected Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, EPUB and PalmDoc, as well as Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, HTML, and PDF. Go directly to the Stanza supported formats page.
• Bookshelf – mostly for public domain books and non-DRM versions of PalmDoc/PDB files. Requires use of their client-side software and wifi/Edge/Apple’s Bonjour (connectivity) service to transfer books.
• Wattpad – iPhone app released on March 8th, this community coined the “YouTube for eBooks” is based on sharing stories, essays and jokes that’s been in existence since 2006. “User-generated ebooks.” Content should be uploaded in Text format. [iTunes app link]
• ScrollMotion’s Iceberg Reader – books are purchased and downloaded as individual apps through the iTunes store.
• Kobo (was Shortcovers) – used to be Shortcovers, Kobo can be used on a number of devices like the Blackberry, iPhone, and your PC. You can purchase books from within the iPhone app if you create an account. Format seems to be Adobe EPUB, but unclear.
• Text on Phone – a web-based application accessible from iphone (go to www.textonphone.com with Safari) that will cache-ahead pages so there’s no delay. Mainly open-license books, but you can upload your own .rtf books using a login.
• Readdle – Actually a document and file management solution, it also has a document viewer which can be used to view Word documents, PDF and text files. Needs internet connection to load book/doc initially. [Apple web apps link]
• Reid Minion by Minion Software – not a free app (currently $2.99) allows you to read your own Google Docs and free ebooks through their book server. They support HTML, txt, rtf and whatever Google considers a “document.”

Missing something? Let me know in the comments or via email!

Stay tuned for the next part in the Guide to ebooks series, Part 3: Where to Find and Buy Ebooks and Learning Resources!

Image by Leo Laporte

Part 1: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books

• What are Ebooks : Electronic Books?
• Why aren’t Ebooks more popular? Tactile Loss and the eBabel problem
• ebooks are Great! Here’s Why : Advantages of ebooks

Part 2: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications

• Ebook Formats
• How to Read an Ebook: Devices and Dedicated Ebook Readers
• Applications to Read Ebooks on the iPhone / iTouch

Part 3: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• Where to Find and Buy Ebooks
• Where to Find Free Ebooks
• Learning Resources

What are Ebooks : Electronic Books?

The official definition of an ebook is:

“ebook. noun a book composed in or converted to digital format for display on a computer screen or handheld device” – Merriam-Webster.com

“e-book. noun a book that is published in electronic form, for example on the Internet or on a disk, and not printed on paper” – Cambridge.org

At least two well-known spellings ebook and e-book and countless other versions (eBook, Ebook) exist but the term ebook now is often used when referring to the methodology of reading just about any mid-to-long-length electronic document that is viewable on a screen, including research papers, short stories and even magazines.

For the purposes of this guide we’re going to talk about ebooks in their pure version: the electronic equivalent of any book or novel formatted for on-screen reading.

Why aren’t ebooks more Popular? Tactile loss And the eBabel Problem

Why aren’t ebooks more popular? The arguments seem to fall into three categories:

• Tactile loss : I like the feel and smell of paper / I can’t read on a screen
• Lending loss : I want to lend my books to who I want
• Library loss : I want a library that will last forever

While the first two are considerable arguments, the tactile loss argument is probably the most obvious and passionate argument longtime readers have, but the least serious technologically. I also feel that it’s getting outweighed by the convenience factor and the fact that we are reading more and more material everyday on a screen.

We all remember the discussions when mp3s started becoming popular and people insisted “they’ll want the album notes – they’ll want the physical CD.” Then Apple came along and introduced the iTunes Store and multiple copycats followed so buying electronic music was even easier and became mass-market through support of major record labels.

The one big difference between the music and ebook markets is there is no “mp3″ of ebooks – there is no universal ebook file format, what is often referred to as the “eBabel” problem, much like the Tower of Babel. So unlike when you bought .m4p files from Apple (their proprietary format), you could also load in mp3 files from other sources and create mp3s from your own CDs. Devices just had to read .mp3 and perhaps an additional proprietary format. With ebooks we’re still playing a format-device game and there will be no way to load in electronic versions of paper books you already own.

Lending loss is a problem that I feel less as I didn’t and don’t often exchange books with friends. In fact, I often re-read books I like so I appreciate keeping them in my library. But for other people, the fact that they can’t lend paper books to other friends, re-sell or even buy used books is a disadvantage. In some cases ebooks can be authorized for more than one device, so perhaps you and your best friend can still share books, but for now ebook sellers are determined to keep you from sharing your ebooks.

We’re in an exciting and ugly time for ebooks. There are so many formats, and each one is determined to succeed. Remember the VHS and Beta fight in the 1980s? Only one survived. This time, there are more than two major players so not only must the author and publisher decide which format(s) to publish in, and they rarely choose all formats available, now you as a consumer are forced to make a decision about where to get your content and which format to buy it in.

And what if you’re wrong? You could lose your library.

Underlying all of this is the major problem of DRM – Digital Rights Management, which I’ll talk more about when examining the ebook formats available. That’s a risk everyone is taking now buying formats that are tied to specific devices, or even a particular format in general. Almost all major books are being released with some DRM attached to them. Some format providers are seeing the benefit of being separate from a device, and are offering cross-compatibility on several devices.

Ebooks are Great! Here’s Why : Advantages of ebooks

So are there any advantages to ebooks? As I mentioned in my editorial announcement about this ebook guide, I love ebooks for several reasons: mobility, saving space, convenience, saving money and time, and ease-of-use. Here’s why:

Mobility

• Carry your entire library in your pocket: With disk space quickly becoming a commodity, and the size of portable device hard drives getting bigger and bigger, it’s conceivable to think that you could have your entire library with you and have it accessible to your fingertips.
• Backup a copy of your library with an online backup service: Backing up your entire library online or locally won’t require much space and it’s something that would be impossible with a physical library, and no more worries about fire-proofing your books.

Saving Physical Space

• Your Library is as Big as your Disk Drive: As a bit of a nomad, I’ve changed house several times in my life, and each time I’ve had to give away parts or all of my library. Your library can grow as big as the disk space you have available and will be relatively small compared to walls and walls of bookshelves. And, due to disk space becoming a commodity, it’s safe to say you’ll probably never run out of space to store your library in your lifetime.

Convenience

• Keep it? Throw it Away? It’s just Bits: Ever read a book you hated so much you wouldn’t even recommend it to your worst enemy? Now, you won’t have the guilt of having to give away or throw out that paper book you couldn’t finish. Keeping an electronic book will take up so little space you’re allowed a few mistakes, and hopefully it will allow you to experiment with different types of authors and genres.
• Your Next Book is just Moments Away: Bringing hundreds of books with you wherever you are means you never have to plan ahead for that long trip or even the bus ride across town. When you’ve finished one book, quickly browse your library and start another!

Saving Time & Money

• No Shipping Costs or Wait Time: This is a much easier argument for me to prove living as an expat with book prices being astronomical in a non-English speaking country. But, remember that when you eliminate the need for shipping that book to where you physically are, there will be some cost benefits.
• Save Gas, Save Time: Also, buying electronically will inevitably save you gas by not going to a physical bookstore, and time as from selection to purchase and reading an electronic book can be done in mere minutes.

Ease-of-Use

Not all ebook software is exactly the same, but many of them have similar settings and features that are common:

• Adjust Font Size for any Eyes: Adjust the font size, type and background color of your electronic book per your preferences.
• Add Notes, Bookmarks or Highlight: Instead of earmarking pages or marking up your paper copy, electronic copies allow you to add and delete bookmarks and notes at will and as many as you see fit.
• Searchable and Linkable Text: The text is searchable and can be hyperlinked, you can jump back-and-forth between chapters or the glossary.

Stay tuned for the next part in the Guide to ebooks series, How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and Applications!

image by chrishoward.author

If you follow me on Twitter (@rosso) or read my food and travel blog, Ms. Adventures in Italy, it’s possible that you’ve heard me talk about ebooks, also spelled e-books or eBooks, which are electronic books.

I love Ebooks. Yes, really.

I’ve been reading exclusively “E” for more than three years now. Part of it has to do with being a bit of a nomad, having moved across the country and the world a few times. I realized quickly that I can’t take it all with me, and when I left California I had to give away several hundred books. I’m also a speed reader, and I read about 100 new books a year (and I re-read who knows how many of my library) so my library becomes more and more unmanageable every year.

So eBooks fit the bill for me when it comes to mobility, saving space, convenience and saving money. Yes, saving money. Especially living out of the US, English books are quite expensive, yet I can buy them online in a number of genres not available in most international bookstores, and on the day they are released. Talk about instant gratification!

Next week, March 8-14 is Read an Ebook Week and in honor of that, not only will I be reading a LOT of eBooks, I will posting several posts in the next few days that will be a Guide to Ebooks. I’ll be talking about advantages and disadvantages, formats, devices and applications to get you going on ebooks now, and I’ll update this post so it becomes a table of contents.

If you have any questions, put them in the comments, or send them to me via email and I’ll make sure to answer them in the content of the guide or in a readers’ questions post at the end of the series.

• Part 1 of A Guide to Ebooks: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books
• Part 2 of A Guide to Ebooks: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications
• Part 3 of A Guide to Ebooks: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• What is Copyright?
• What is Creative Commons?
• Types of Creative Commons Licenses
• How to Use Others’ Creative Commons Content
• A Video Introduction to Creative Commons
• Copyright and Creative Commons Resources

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a way to protect the “original works of authorship” of published and unpublished work, usually expressed in a tangible way. On a high level these types of works are protected:

• literary works
• musical works, including any accompanying words
• dramatic works, including any accompanying music
• pantomimes and choreographic works
• pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
• motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• sound recordings
• architectural works

Several of these categories are directly applicable to content made available online. When you create something truly original: a song, a photo, a story, a blog post or a video, you automatically have an all-rights reserved copyright for that work.

Note that copyright is different from a patent, which is attributed to an original method of doing something, a process or a physical invention; or a trademark, which is almost exclusively a visual combination of a logo, slogan, and/or image.

There is no “international copyright” though most countries respect and protect copyrights through international agreements such as treaties and conventions. Copyright is a delicate issue and if you are serious about protecting your rights you might want to speak to an intellectual property lawyer in your country.

But what if you’d like to make your work available for people to enjoy, share, re-use, adapt or modify?

Let’s look at something that is being used all over the world, and in fact is being translated and adapted to local countries’ legal requirements: Creative Commons.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons, while a relatively new term since its birth in 2001 is by definition is a non-profit organization, but the name is more widely associated with the concept of Creative Commons as a way to extend copyright to promote legal sharing and modification of original works. Here’s the goal of the organization:

increase  the  amount  of  creativity  (cultural,  educational,  and scientifc  content)  available  in  “the  commons”  —  the  body  of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use repurposing, and remixing.

Creative Commons is a way for you to take your intellectual property – original content like photos, writing, designs, videos and more, and assign rights to it to be shared with the community and the world. It is not an alternative to copyright: it works in parallel with copyright.

Creative Commons licensing can protect the original copyright and level of permissions the author chooses. It can also perpetuate these rights (or not, depending on the author’s choice) and encourages and facilitates re-use and sharing. Most importantly, it helps the author retain rights if they so choose, and it helps the user to know exactly what the author wants done with his content and how they can utilize it. As CC calls it, “Some Rights reserved.”

If instead you prefer to give up all rights to your work, it becomes “No Rights Reserved” and part of Public Domain in which no law restricts the way the works are used. Public domain is more commonly attributed to works whose copyright licenses have expired, usually dozens of years after the author’s death. Each country has its own laws and validity lengths for patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Here are the Creative Commons licenses. The licenses are iterations of “living licenses” that are updated frequently and the version of the license attributed to that work will be depicted with a number like 2.5. Attributing the most current form of the license available is always recommended.

Each license has three components:

• a “Commons Deed” which briefly explains the rights and rules of the license
• the “Legal Code” which should suffice as legal backing in the case you need to go to court and is available in several languages
• and the accompanying license image “button” that you can display on your site or where you’re publishing your content.

The most basic Creative Commons license chosen by authors is that of “Attribution” – being credited for the work if it’s re-used. Other attributes are then added and mixed depending on the author’s desire.

Here are those elements directly from the Creative Commons license page:

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

For example, an author combining the desire to make work available for non-commercial means but would like others to continue sharing their creations as well might offer choose the following license:

• Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

Be sure to read and understand the full list of Creative Commons licenses made by combining the elements above.

Ready to choose a Creative Commons License?

• Not sure which license is best for you? Use the Creative Commons License builder to help you figure that out.
• Once you’ve decided which license you’re interested in, get that license’s image button and copy the HTML code
• and insert the code on your website or where you’re publishing the work.

How to Use Others’ Creative Commons Content

Not publishing any work to be shared through Creative Commons, but you’d like to utilize, share or build upon others’ work? Here are a few tips:

• Look for Creative Commons Licenses: Most authors that are using Creative Commons will know you know – here are a few key places to look: in the sidebar, at the bottom of the page, in the About page, or even on the Contact page. If you don’t see the information you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to write the author about the type of license they have on their work. They will appreciate your respect and effort.
• Understand the License Details: You found the license, but make sure you understand each component of the license by clicking-through and reading the details of the license so you know the work’s opportunities and limitations before you start using it.
• Re-use, Modify and/or Distribute Accordingly: The author has gone to the trouble to select and display the ways their work can be shared and modified, now respect it! Make sure to re-distribute the work with the same license that was given to the original if “Share Alike” is specified.
• Let the Author Know: Let the author know with more than just a link back or listing their name – tell them you enjoyed their work and appreciated the fact that they made the available to the community.
• Make Your Own Work Available: Now that you’ve shared or modified someone else’s work, why not contribute to the cycle by distributing some of your own work via Creative Commons?

A Video Introduction to Creative Commons

Still want to know more about Creative Commons? This video is a great introduction to it:

Copyright and Creative Commons Resources

• Wikipedia’s entry on Copyrights
• US Copyright Office : What Does Copyright Protect?
• EU Single Market Copyright
• Creative Commons Licenses on CreativeCommons.org
• Search Creative Commons content on CreativeCommons.org
• Google enables Creative Commons image search
• Flickr Creative Commons images
• Mashable’s 25+ Sources for Creative Commons Content
• Search Google using Advanced Search and filter by Usage Rights
• Follow @CreativeCommons on Twitter
• Track your online Creative Commons content with FairShare – via RWW

The three basic steps are:

1. Find an Available domain
2. Decide what to Do with the domain
3. Register your Domain

Find an Available Domain Name

For the purposes of this article, I use the term “buy a domain” interchangeably with “register a domain,” but a domain is something that can be assigned to you but is not technically your property: you must continue to pay the registration fee for as long as you want it to be registered to you.

Though people have been buying domain names for almost 20 years, there are still many names that aren’t taken. You’ll need to see if your domain name or a variation of it is available before you can start building grandiose dreams of your future site.

There are many tools you can use to find available domain names without having to buy the domain in that instance. Keep in mind that if your domain is available at the time of searching, but you decide to buy it later, it may not still be available.

The most popular domain extension (the last part of the domain after the “dot”) is .com, but it’s not a requirement or necessity  to buy a .com domain for every website. Some specific extensions may require proof of residency or tax ID for some country extensions, and some extensions are limited to certain types of organizations: for example, only accredited schools can use .edu and non-profit organizations can use .org. Here’s a list of Internet top-level domain extensions that you can consider for your domain.

Here are some tools you can use to find domain names. Note that most are linked to domain provider / buying services but I am not endorsing any of them, and you are not required to buy the domain while searching for an available name.

• www.Domize.com, Whois.net Domain Lookup, Domains.com, Domains by Yahoo, Go Daddy Domain name search, Register.com, Domai.nr, Domaintyper.com,

Decide what to Do with the Domain

Once you buy a domain, you’ll have to decide where to address or point it, and change the DNS if you desire. {Read WHT article : What is DNS? DNS in Plain English} So take a moment to think about your options before you actually start the process of buying the domain. There are several things you can do: Domain Hosting, Domain Redirecting / Forwarding, Domain Mirroring / Masking, Domain Cloaking, and Domain Parking.

Some of these terms are explained in more detail in specific articles on When You Have Time, but they are briefly explained below:

• Domain Hosting / Web Hosting
  

Hosting implies that you buy space and bandwidth from a provider to store and serve your site’s files and images. Most likely, your domain name will simply be used for a new site you have in mind and hosted. You can also buy your domain from a domain registrar but host it with a different provider altogether, or you can buy and host the domain with the same provider (i.e., Yahoo, Dreamhost).

• Domain Redirecting / Forwarding

The domain is forwarded or re-directed to another existing domain. The user will type in www.yourdomain.com and the browser will forward them to www.otherdomain.com To effectively use domain redirecting, a 301 redirect should be utilized.

• Domain Mirroring / Masking {Read WHT article : What is Domain Masking? Domain Masking in Plain English}

Domain mirroring is a way to map/point more than one domain to the same content / files hosted somewhere. www.yourdomain.com is actually showing the homepage and contents of www.otherdomain.com, for example. Make sure you read the article linked above to know why I do not recommend using domain masking.

• Domain Cloaking

Similar to domain mirroring or masking, usually domain cloaking is different in the technical method it uses to seem like another site. Cloaking uses an iframe or embedded frameset in the HTML to show the content of another website. I also do not recommend using domain cloaking.

• Domain Parking

The domain is not utilized immediately, and is “parked” which means the user usually accepts a default page furnished by the domain provider of ads or a “coming soon.” Domains are often parked by people who want to sell the domain for a higher price to an interested party or are still developing the website to be put online and don’t want to pay for hosting until they are ready to go live. To park a domain, there is usually no additional cost above the registration price of the domain.

Register Your Domain

Now that you’ve decided what to do with the domain, you can decide where to buy it and if it makes sense to buy with a certain provider rather than another.

For purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that you’ll want to buy web hosting, as many of the other services provided above are included in the base price of registering domain. Note: Each domain registrar offers different services, so if you’ll need a specific service, it’s best to check before registering your domain.

Now you’re ready!

• ICANN’s Accredited Registrars List

This list is the top 15 domain registrars in July 2009, according to RegistrarStats and listed on Wikipedia.

1. Go Daddy
2. eNom
3. Tucows
4. Network Solutions
5. Melbourne IT (a.k.a INWW.com)
6. 1&1 Internet AG (a.k.a. Schlund.de)
7. Wild West Domains (reseller brand of Go Daddy)
8. Register.com
9. Moniker Online Services
10. PublicDomainRegistry.com (a.k.a. ResellerClub and Directi)
11. Key-Systems GmbH (a.k.a. DomainDiscount24)
12. Xin Net Corp
13. OnlineNIC, Inc.
14. Fabulous.com Pty Ltd

Next, read about How to Choose a Web Hosting Provider for your Site or Blog!

image by oberazzi