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"I think... that when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn't do. All that I might have been and couldn't be. All the choices I didn't make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven't been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed."

• The Other Wind, by Ursula K. LeGuin

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Grow Clean Air: How TIST is Making Transparency in the Carbon Market an Issue

This just in from Grow Clean Air:

Listen to this snippet on Grow Clean Air.

In this brief (2 min 42 sec) Ben Henneke (Clean Air Action) and Vannesa Henneke (I4EI) explain some of the things that make the TIST Program unique.

Three main points are highlighted:

1) TIST is perhaps the most effective carbon project in the world thanks to its revolutionary model for collecting data and presenting it transparently online.

2) TIST is perhaps the only carbon project in the world where you can actually see results as they happen. It is certainly the most transparent program currently in operation.

3) The Small Groups involved in the TIST Program verifiably receive the benefits (local and monetary) for their work.

Offset your carbon footprint at Grow Clean Air.

Nine Newsletters in, Free Language is Going Strong

With the ninth newsletter (below) out, Free Language is moving into language-learning directory status! -->

Welcome to the Ninth Edition of The Free Language Letter.

30 new free resources for 14 languages (4 new!) have been added to the site. There are now 343 resources available for 34 languages.

Quick View of What's Inside

New! English Overview Page
New Languages! Hebrew, Irish, Luxembourgish and Norwegian
New resources for Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Irish, Luxembourgish, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Polish, Russian and Spanish
List of new web feeds including news and podcasts
Online Translation Resources and Mozilla Firefox Addons
Featured Resource: The New BBC Languages
Language Factoid

New! English Overview Page

The latest language to get a shiny new overview page is English. An overview page is basically a single spot where all the resources for a given language are brought together for users to quickly navigate.

English is an Indo-European, West Germanic language originating in England, and is the first language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Anglophone Caribbean. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language throughout the world, especially in Commonwealth countries and in many international organizations.

Visit the English Overview Page and continue reading.

New Languages! Hebrew, Irish, Luxembourgish and Norwegian

Since the last newsletter, four new languages have been added to the site: Hebrew, Irish Gaelic, Luxembourgish and Norwegian.

Arabic

Omniglot.com Abjad Consonant Alphabet about Arabic Script with Images, Example Text and Audio

English

Yolango.com Yolango Learn English Watching Web Videos w/Tags, Categories, Scenarios, Play Activites, Transcripts, Tools
Simple English Wikipedia Free and Open Encyclopedia for Learning and Teaching through Topics Written in Basic English
Deutsche Welle Miro Player for Instant Access to DW's Audio and Video Content in German, English and More
Verbbusters.com Verb Busters Free English Irregular Verbs Quizzes/Tests with High Regard for Privacy
JustVocabulary.com Just Vocabulary Podcast with ESL, TOEFL, SAT and GRE English Words Audio for iPod

French

FrenchPod.com FrenchPod Praxis French Lessons Podcast with Free Educational Resources and MP3 Audio
Loquella.com Loquella Listen, Read and Speak French Using a Free Online Language Tool and the FSI Language Method

German

BBC Languages German
Deutsche Welle Miro Player for Instant Access to DW's Audio and Video Content in German, English and More
OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Languages German Podcast Introduction to Basic Greetings and Key Travel Phrases

Hebrew

HebrewPocasts.com Learn to Speak Hebrew at your Leisure with Free MP3 Audio Podcast Downloads
LearnHebrewPod.com Learn Hebrew Podcast with Free MP3 Audio Lessons for Conversational, Listening and Written Practice
FSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Hebrew Free Audio Lessons Downloads

Hindi

Namaste Dosti: The Learn Hindi Podcast for Grammar and Vocabulary for Beginners
FSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Download Free Hindi Textbook/e-book

Italian

ItalianLingQ.com Italian LingQ Podcast with iTunes MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann

Irish

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Languages Irish Podcast Introduction to Basic Greetings and Key Travel Phrases

Luxembourgish

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Languages Luxembourgish Podcast Introduction to Basic Greetings and Key Travel Phrases

Mandarin Chinese

BBCChinese.com BBC News in Mandarin Chinese
BBC Languages Mandarin Chinese
Loquella.com Loquella Listen, Read and Speak Chinese Using a Free Online Language Tool and the FSI Language Method
ChineseLingQ.com Mandarin Chinese LingQ Podcast with iTunes MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann

Norwegian

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Languages Norwegian Podcast Introduction to Basic Greetings and Key Travel Phrases

Polish

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Languages Polish Podcast Introduction to Basic Greetings and Key Travel Phrases

Russian

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Languages Russian Podcast Introduction to Basic Greetings and Key Travel Phrases

Spanish

Loquella.com Loquella Listen, Read and Speak Spanish Using a Free Online Language Tool and the FSI Language Method

Online Translation

FreeLanguage.com.ua List of Free Online Translators/Translation Websites for Multiple Languages

Mozilla Firefox Web Browser Addons

addons.mozilla.org Experimental and Stable Mozilla Firefox Addons Extensions for Language Support

Commercial Products

earworms MBT Rapid Language line of learn to music audio courses have become a hit!

earwormslearning.com Earworms MBT Rapid Language Learning Products Accelerate Study through Music and Science

Recent News and Podcast Feeds

Below are the most recently added web feeds that Free Language syndicates.

BBC News in Chinese
Hebrew Podcasts' Podcast
LearnHebrewPod Podcast
Namaste Dosti Podcast
One Minute German Podcast
One Minute Irish Podcast
One Minute Luxembourgish Podcast
One Minute Norwegian Podcast
One Minute Polish Podcast
One Minute Russian Podcast

Featured Resource

The BBC has recently updated its BBC Languages resources! The new look and features are a considerable upgrade, making it easier to see all the resources available and get learning the languages you want to learn.

BBC Languages has always been a great place to access self-contained beginner courses in Chinese, German, Greek, French, Italian and Portuguese. There are also tidbits and goodies in other languages.

Recently, the BBC has revamped it's entire website for more flexibility, personalization and ease of use. In the languages section, this means it's easier than ever to find online courses, grammar info, learning games, dictionaries, self-assessment tests, resources for tutors, info about going abroad, photos, tips, stories, audio, video, related links, local class finder, cool/slang words and phrases, etc. It's all there and packed with good content!

Continue reading about the new BBC Languages.

Language Factoid

Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world.

Factoid thanks to Wikipedia.

Slán agat!

Chapman
Free Language
http://freelanguage.org

Free Language Letter Version Seven for Foreign Language Learners

Welcome to the Seventh Edition of The Free Language Letter. Lots has happened since the Sixth Edition.

45 new free resources for 19 languages have been added to the site. See below for language-learning videos, multilingual podcasting, free software downloads, tools, browser extensions, OpenCourseWare, online communities and more.

New! Social Language-Learning Resource Section

Social language learning has become incredibly popular on the web as it has transcended language barriers in previously impossible ways.

For example, right now someone in Russia could be waiting to teach you Russian in exchange for your English skills. Or maybe your native language is Spanish and you want to learn Mandarin Chinese - there's someone out there for that as well! In fact, chances are there are hundreds or even thousands of potential language partners with whom you can achieve your collective language learning goals in a symbiotic fashion...

Visit the Social Foreign Language Learning Resource Section.

Below you will find the most recent additions to the social learning section.

LiveMocha.com Live Mocha Social Language Learning Course and Networking Website
MyHappyPlanet.com My Happy Planet Private Social Language-Learning Community
italki.com Free Skype VoIP and IM Language Partner Community
Dickinson College's Language-Exchanges.org Mixxer Free Skype Language Exchange Community
Lingopass.com Free Global Language Exchange Community
VoxSwap.com VoxSwap Online Instant Message and Voice Social Foreign Language Exchange with Forums and Groups

Spanish Leads the Way

As a new phase of information architecture unfolds at Free Language, Spanish is the first language to have an overview homepage. This is where you'll find a taste of the different Spanish language learning resources on the site in a nutshell.

Visit the Spanish homepage on Free Language.

The other 15 languages currently available on the site will follow shortly.

New Free Resources

Teach English

Our Teach English Section is growing with two new resources added recently.

English Language Learning and Teaching Article on Wikipedia
LanguageGuide.org English Language Guide with Images and Audio Recordings for Learners

Cool Free Tools and Multilingual Resources

We added some cool tools and multilingual resource links, including Firefox browser extensions for improving your productivity in foreign languages online!

Quick Translation Firefox Extension to Translate Single Words in 17+ Languages
Foreign Language Translation Extensions/Tools/Plugins/Add-Ons for the Firefox Web Browser
Langmaker.com Language Maker Website on Auxiliary and Constructed Languages
Word2Word.com Website
The Alternative Dictionary: Slang, Profanities, Insults and Vulgarisms from all the World

Instructional Foreign Language Videos

ExpertVillage.com Instructional Videos on Learning Foreign Languages
YouTube Video Language Lessons at LanguageTube.org

Multilingual Podcasting Resources

SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese
OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian

Language News

United Nations Declares 2008 the International Year of Languages

To see the news in many different languages, check out our syndicated multilingual news section.

OpenCourseWare, Open University and Distance Language Learning

Download Free Open University Courses from MIT OpenCourseWare Foreign Languages and Literatures Department
About.com Distance Learning Free Online Language Courses
open.ac.uk OpenLearn LearningSpace Open University with Free Courses in Modern Languages

Free Language Education Software

BYKI.com Download Free Language Software for Learning 42 Languages!

Featured Resource

Mango Languages is fantastic! Truly one of the top language-learning resources available online. Indeed, it may well be the most user-friendly, feature-rich, well-organized and free resource for learning languages online.

Mango Languages offers an amazing amount of totally free lessons and courses for learning a growing number of languages. At the time this article is going to press, these include Brazilian Portuguese, English for Polish speakers, English for Spanish speakers, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Pig Latin!, Russian and Spanish.

Current Research

I am researching and drafting articles regarding foreign language study in Second Life. This metaverse approach to teaching and learning has amazing potential. Subscribe to Free Language's RSS feed to be sure you get new articles as they're hot off the press.

Language Factoid

Russian (русский) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages.

Factoid thanks to Wikipedia.

Пока!

Chapman
Free Language
http://freelanguage.org

August Free Language Letter

Sixth Edition

Welcome to the sixth edition of The Free Language Letter.

Persian/Farsi Language Resource Section Added

We are happy to announce a new resource section for the Persian or Farsi language!

There is now a total of 16 language sections available on the site.

New Free Resources

71 new free resources for 18 languages have been added to the site.

Afrikaans

Learn Afrikaans Wikibook in English

Arabic

Syrian Arabic Free Illustrated Textbook with Audio Download
Learning Arabic Language from Didactiques Langues Publications

Dutch

Valley Trail Free Online Dutch Courses and Lessons for Beginner and Advanced Students

English

TheEnglishLanguage.org Directory of Websites about the English Language
EnglishClub.com Free ESL Learn and Teach English Lessons, Games, Forums, Quizzes, Chat
Effortless English Podcast Gives Automatic English for the People
Listen to English-Learn English Podcast
English1010.com Free Audio and Written English Lessons Online
BetteratEnglish.com Better at English ESL/EFL Podcast for Real People
Learn about the English Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
itcansay.com Huge Database of Audio Samples for English Pronunciation Practice, Dictionary, Online Text Reader
Englishmate.com.cn English Mate Podcast for Learning English Online with Real Teachers

Esperanto

Esperanto.info Website about the Constructed Language Esperanto

French

Fancy French: Learn to Speak, Read and Write French Online in Total Immersion with Free Podcast Downloads
Learn about the French Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

German

Download Free FSI German Language Audio Courses
Learn about the German Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Hindi

Learn about the Hindi Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Indonesian

Learn about the Indonesian Language (Bahasa Indonesia) at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Italian

Let's Speak Italian Podcast: Learn in Minutes a Day

Japanese

Kanji-a-Day.com Learn Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana Daily Study Aid Website
KanjiQuizzer.com Free Sura Sura Kanji Quiz Web Software Interface

Korean

KoreanPod Learn Korean Podcast on Podomatic
LetsLearnKorean.com Let's Learn Korean Group Blog Website
Learn about the Korean Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Latin

Latinum - The Latin Language Learning Podcast from London

Mandarin Chinese

CSLPod.com Chinese as a Second Language Podcast
learningmandarinpod Learning Mandarin Chinese Podcast and Video Podcasts
Learn Chinese Through Music: Mandarin Language Study through Pop Music

Persian

Persian Grammar Book for Farsi Study on Google Books
Farsi/Persian Language Lessons, Reading and Dialogues for Study Materials
Free Learn Persian Flashcards in Sets from Flashcard Exchange
Free and Easy Persian/Farsi Lessons from EasyPersian.com
The Iran Podcast
BBCPersian.com BBC Persian News in Farsi
Learn about the Persian/Farsi Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Portuguese

Easy Portuguese Website for Beginner and Intermediate Brazilian Portuguese Learners
Learn Portuguese Wikibook for Beginner and Intermediate Learners/Students
Tá Falado Free Brazilian Portuguese Podcast for Spanish Speakers
Loads of Podcasts in Spanish and Portuguese Languages

Russian

Learn Russian Wikibook for English Speakers Learning the Russian Language
langintro.com An Introduction to Russian for the Casual Learner
Learn about the Russian Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Spanish

SpanishRomance.com: A Variety of Spanish Language Content
Loads of Podcasts in Spanish and Portuguese Languages
SpanishSense.com Learn Spanish on Your Terms Podcast
Learn about the Spanish Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Cool Free Tools and Multi-Lingual Resources

We added some cool tools and multi-lingual resource links, including internet TV stations, Firefox tools, recording archives and mobile phone phrasebooks!

Global Internet TV Gateway Portal with Web TV in World Languages
FoxLingo Free Firefox Browser Extension Software for Translating Web Pages
Language Learning Advisor Website for Help Learning Foreign Languages
Learno.com Free Online Foreign Language Learning Books
Verbs-Online.com Study French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, English with Verb Tools
UMN's Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
Newseum.com Free Front Page News from over 50 Countries in Loads of Languages
WordChamp Language Toolbar for Firefox
Wikipedia Language Portal
Free and Open Mandarin Chinese University Lectures from Archive.org
Free Mobile Phone Phrasebooks for French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek and Portuguese

New! English Language Teaching Resource Section

We started a resource database for language educators. Currently, we have resources for teaching English. We will be adding more languages soon!

Teach English

TeachingEnglish.org.uk BBC British Council Teaching English Resources
EnglishClub.com Free ESL Learn and Teach English Lessons, Games, Forums, Quizzes, Chat
TEFL.net Free Resources for English Teachers/Educators with TEFL, ESL, TESOL Help
Internet TESL Journal for Teachers of English as a Second Language
English1010.com Free Audio and Written English Lessons Online
Top ESL/EFL/TESOL/TEFL/TESL and TOEFL Salad Websites
itcansay.com Huge Database of Audio Samples for English Pronunciation Practice, Dictionary, Online Text Reader

Resources for Non-English Speakers

A few resources for speakers of languages other than English were added. This will eventually expand into localized/internationalized versions of the site.

For now, we have a handful of resources for non-English speakers to learn Mandarin Chinese. We figured with the Beijing 2008 Olympics just around the corner, these would be useful to folks out there.

Apprendre le chinois chez chine-nouvelle.com
Aprender chino a chino-china.com
Chinesisch-Lernen.org Chinesisch Lernen und China Entdecken
InfoCina.net Web site per imparare la lingua cinese
A-China.info: um Web site com informação e recursos para aprender a língua chinesa
Język-Chinski.com: Nauka języka chińskiego poznaj Chiny

New Commercial Resources

9 new commercial resources have been added for 9 languages:

English

Rosetta Stone Learn UK British English Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

French

Rosetta Stone Learn French Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

German

Rosetta Stone Learn German Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Hindi

Rosetta Stone Learn Hindi Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Indonesian

Rosetta Stone Learn Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Korean

Rosetta Stone Learn Korean Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Persian

Rosetta Stone Learn Persian/Farsi Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Russian

Rosetta Stone Learn Russian Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Spanish

Rosetta Stone Learn European (Spain) Spanish Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Blatant Self-Promotion

If you have not already done so, please visit our site and use the social bookmark link on the top right side to add us to any of numerous social bookmarking services such as del.icio.us, furl, magnolia, digg, reddit, newsvine, simpy, bluedot, stumble upon and more. Please help us grow!

The Free Language blogs are still the #1 blog on TopBlogArea.com in the Resources Section. We have moved up from #7 to #4 on BlogTopSites.com in their Resources Section.

Our Alexa rating is also improving. According to this rating, Free Language currently holds the spot as the 308,598th most-visited website in the world! This is up millions from when we released Version 2 on February 1st of this year.

Thanks for all the support!

BETA Testers Needed!

If you are interested in blogging about your language-learning experiences, you are invited to join Free Language! All you have to do is request a BETA user account and we'll set you up!

As mentioned in the March 2007 Free Language Letter, when Free Language V3 is launched, revenue sharing for users will be implemented.

Show Us the Resources!

If you have a favorite language-learning resource (or manage a website of your own) that is not listed on Free Language, please let us know by suggesting a resource. This is a simple way to help us get the word out!

Current Languages

Below is a quick list of all 16 languages for which resource sections are currently available on the site. Resources for other languages are also available at the blog.

Language Factiod

Tschüss (also tschüs) is an informal German parting phrase, used in much the same way as "good-bye" in English-speaking countries such as the United States or United Kingdom.

It is derived from Walloon adjüs (the equivalent of adieu in French), and was first taken up into the Low German language. For this reason, the word Tschüss has historically been more common in northern Germany, though it has gained country-wide acceptance. It is also commonly used in Switzerland and Austria, at the very least in Zürich and its outskirts. However, in southern Germany it is more common for the informal farewell ciao or adieu to be used, and the farewell Auf Wiedersehen is considered appropriate in more formal settings.

Factiod available thanks to Wikipedia.

Tschüss!

The Free Language Community
http://freelanguage.org

Free Language Updates for August 18, 2007

Below are the latest front page updates (since the last ones).

Of special note is the new section for learning Persian (Farsi).

SpanishRomance.com: A Variety of Spanish Language Content
English1010.com Free Audio and Written English Lessons Online
Tá Falado Free Brazilian Portuguese Podcast for Spanish Speakers
BetteratEnglish.com Better at English ESL/EFL Podcast for Real People
Loads of Podcasts in Spanish and Portuguese Languages
Top ESL/EFL/TESOL/TEFL/TESL and TOEFL Salad Websites
Verbs-Online.com Study French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, English with Verb Tools
Download Free FSI German Language Audio Courses
SpanishSense.com Learn Spanish on Your Terms Podcast
UMN's Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
Newseum.com Free Front Page News from over 50 Countries in Loads of Languages
Learning Arabic Language from Didactiques Langues Publications
Learn Afrikaans Wikibook in English
WordChamp Language Toolbar for Firefox
Persian Grammar Book for Farsi Study on Google Books
Farsi/Persian Language Lessons, Reading and Dialogues for Study Materials
Free Learn Persian Flashcards in Sets from Flashcard Exchange
Free and Easy Persian/Farsi Lessons from EasyPersian.com
The Iran Podcast
BBCPersian.com BBC Persian News in Farsi
Wikipedia Language Portal
Free and Open Mandarin Chinese University Lectures from Archive.org
Free Mobile Phone Phrasebooks for French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek and Portuguese
Fancy French: Learn to Speak, Read and Write French Online in Total Immersion with Free Podcast Downloads
Learn about the English Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Rosetta Stone Learn UK British English Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)
itcansay.com Huge Database of Audio Samples for English Pronunciation Practice, Dictionary, Online Text Reader
Englishmate.com.cn English Mate Podcast for Learning English Online with Real Teachers

Rosetta Stone Arabic and Chinese plus Free Audio Downloads

Latest from Free Language:

Keeping up with the updates... four new resources have been added.

Started to add commercial resources to earn some cash for improving the site. More on this soon.

Here are the latest four additions:

Download Free FSI Mandarin Chinese Language Courses
Rosetta Stone Learn Mandarin Chinese Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)
Download Free FSI Arabic Language Courses
Rosetta Stone Learn Arabic Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

We'll keep on working to make it happen here.

Free Language Blogs are Rolling

Free Language has now got six people blogging on the Free Language Blogs.

There are quite a lots of varied resources there pertaining to many languages.

Have a look. It might be interesting to you.

Podcasts and Video Podcasts for Language Learning

Here is a list of the podcasts:

Learn Arabic Podcasts
Learn Cantonese Podcasts
Learn English Podcasts
Learn French Podcasts
Learn German Podcasts
Learn Hindi Podcasts
Learn Italian Podcasts
Learn Japanese Podcasts
Learn Mandarin Chinese Podcasts
Learn Portuguese Podcasts
Learn Russian Podcasts
Learn Spanish Podcasts

Here is a list of the video podcasts, though not all languages have them yet:

Learn Arabic Video Podcasts
Learn Cantonese Video Podcasts
Learn English Video Podcasts
Learn French Video Podcasts
Learn German Video Podcasts
Learn Hindi Video Podcasts
Learn Italian Video Podcasts
Learn Japanese Video Podcasts
Learn Mandarin Chinese Video Podcasts
Learn Portuguese Video Podcasts
Learn Russian Video Podcasts
Learn Spanish Videos Podcasts

Free Language v2 Released

I am happy to announce the release of Free Language v2. Read the release announcement on Free Language.

This site is a major upgrade from v1, which was mostly just me putting language-learning resources together. The idea behind v2 is that a community will start to form that is interested in learning languages and letting people know about the best places online, methods and resources for this. Soon I will be integrating a voting aspect to the site.

For now it is possible to comment on the listing there, as well as find podcasts, blogs, links, websites and more resources for learning the following 12 languages:

For all the Drupalers out there, the site is running Drupal 4.7 and I used the following contributed modules:

aggregator2
captcha
emailpage
google analytics
insert_block
pathauto (to the max)
poormanscron
simplenews
sitemenu
tagadelic

I am going to upgrade to Drupal 5 as soon as I can get some funds together to commission the upgrade of aggregator2 to Drupal 5. Or perhaps someone will decide to just do it!

Here is a screenshot of the Mandarin Chinese Tags Page:

Quality Web Hosting with HostGator

I have been using HostGator for quite some time now and I thought I would recommend it officially here. They have always been really quick on support, little down time and are available by phone 24/7 - and I have used it and yes they are there!

Not to mention that they have really good plans for great prices.

Thus, if you are in need of web hosting for a Drupal site (or any other, for that matter) give HostGator a try.

SynthWise Launched

I have launched SynthWise, a site that syndicates web content regarding synthesizers and sound design. The easiest way to get to the info that interests you is to check out the tags.

The site uses Drupal to work its wonders.

Have a look!

IBM DeveloperWorks Article on Using Open Source Software to Design, Develop, and Deploy a Collaborative Web Site

IBM DeveloperWorks published a nice article in which they explain why they would choose Drupal to "design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site" when compared to may other options such as Ruby on Rails, Mambo, Textpattern, Moveable Type, WordPress and others.

Read the aricle here.

ServerWatch Tip of the Trade on Drupal

A "Tip of the Trade" was released today on ServerWatch.com regarding Drupal. I thought I would share it here:

"Deploying and using it may not be completely painless, but Drupal is a great content management system (CMS) framework that is lightweight, modular, and not too difficult to navigate. There is nothing exotic or excessively "creative" in its construction — it's just a nice sensible implementation of PHP and either PostgreSQL or MySQL on the back end. What can you do with Drupal?

For starters, see it in action at such large and demanding sites as, Kerneltrap.org, CafePress, and The Onion.

The Top Drupal Sites page demonstrates what people are doing with Drupal. In a nutshell, anything that can delivered over the Web can be managed with Drupal: standard HTML pages, RSS feeds, blogs, threaded discussion forums, polls, software distribution, image galleries, multimedia, documentation ... you name it.

Although Drupal works just fine for a lone control-freak administrator, it is designed to allow many people to contribute and manage content. Its appearance is customizable. Don't be one of the lazy ones who doesn't bother to change the logo when setting up a Drupal site. Presumably, you want visitors to see your identity, not Drupal's.

Drupal even comes with tools to help the site survive a Slashdotting, should you be so "fortunate" as to be discovered by the Slashdot crowd. It makes clever use of caching and throttling to keep the site alive until the tidal wave retreats.

Because of Drupal's modular design, you can start small with just the core features, then add or create more as you need them. Visit Drupal.org to find downloads, excellent documentation, and a busy, helpful user community."

View the original article here.

Why Use Drupal for My Website?

Intended Audience

This article is intended for people interested in having a powerful and flexible web presence, but with little knowledge of how to do so. Many of the people that will benefit from this article won't even know what Drupal is... yet.

The intended audience may be interested in creating or updating a website, or in having one deployed by a qualified Drupal developer. Both will benefit from the information and concepts that follow.

I have chosen not to put links throughout the whole article in order to avoid distraction. Instead, I have put links at the end of the article that will help readers find more information regarding the content.

I have added clarifications for potentially new terms throughout the article. Simply hover over the words with a dotted line underneath (like these words) to reveal the additional information.

Preliminaries: Covering General Concepts

In order for the reader to understand why Drupal is a wonderful solution for creating "powerful and flexible" websites that will excel in today's web world, some general concepts must first be addressed. Without a basic understanding of the concepts that follow (which might be as basic as knowing that they exist), it is impossible to grasp how Drupal can be of service when creating a web presence.

We are in the Era of Web 2.0: The Interactive Web

Web 2.0. There are lots of explanations of what this means, but the (very) basic concept is that the web is transforming into something driven by the users themselves. This means anyone surfing the web. You. Your aunt. Your neighbor. A kid in China. And so on...

Times are changing and it is no longer simply the "webmasters" or website owners themselves that are controlling the web. The web is an interactive world.

Web 2.0 is the world of web syndication, podcasting, tagging, social networking, photo sharing, social bookmarking, blogs and wikis galore... and, yes, much more.

Web 2.0 Is An Ally

It is advisable for you to be familiar with (and hopefully even care about) these concepts because as you prepare to release a website into this world, you want to be releasing something that will not only fit in, but also stand out.

Websites that stand out keep the interest of their users.

Websites that keep the interest of their users stand the test of time.

Not only that, but word about and links to these sites circulate more quickly and effectively. For example, if a user likes a page on your site and wants to share it with others, your site will provide tools for them to not only share that article (through social bookmarking or social networking services), but also to syndicate the entire contents of your site with only a few clicks. Once syndicated, your site will start to receive hits from places you never imagined, your traffic will increase and your smile will widen.

Drupal Is Your Friend

Drupal is your friend for many reasons.

Drupal and Web 2.0

The wonderful world of interactive Web 2.0 can be harnessed with a flexible web software such as Drupal.

Drupal does things out of the box that allow you to quickly and easily accomplish such feats as managing a blog or online journal (or several), dishing out a podcast, using keywords to tag your information, syndicating and being syndicated and (you guessed it) much more.

Of course, all of these options might not be interesting to you. You don't have to use them all! Drupal lets you pick and choose what you want to use, and what you don't. That's part of the beauty.

Drupal Adds Loads of Goodness to your Website

Drupal makes lots of things a lot easier.

Structuring your site's content.
Optimizing for search engine compliance and friendliness.
Allowing your site to be indexed and searched effectively.
Allowing multiple users to edit your site.
Localizing your site for multiple languages.
Managing discussion forums.
Implementing polls for user feedback.

This is only a (very) partial list of the out-of-the-box functionality that Drupal has. This doesn't even take into consideration the loads of contributed modules that enhance this core functionality.

Below is a small partial list of what these can allow you to do.

Create image galleries.
Use Google AdSense and Amazon.com for revenue generation.
Manage an online store.
Maintain an ongoing list of events.
Use a basic wiki within your Drupal site.
Create printer-friendly and emailable pages.
Manage a project or projects.
Enable enhanced site statistics tools.

Drupal is Dynamic

Content in Drupal is powered by a database. Look-and-feel, or design, is stored separately as files. This in an important separation because it s flexible, fast and "dynamic". Your content can be updated without worrying about design. Your design can be changed without touching the content.

This differs from the "old way" of doing things (which is still used quite a bit) which stored both of these in the same place: on a file. This mean that if you wanted to update the design of the whole site, you had to change every page! Or if you wanted to restructure some of the navigation bars or content, you had to restructure every single page!

Drupal's separation of content and design allows for a level of power and flexibility that puts websites in a category of their own.

Drupal Does Not Lock You In

Since Drupal is so widely used and so many individuals and firms are familiar with it, you are not locked in by a custom website that nobody but the person who designed it knows how to run.

This means that if your web developer decides to retire to an isolated island in the South Pacific, your website can easily be taken over by anyone else familiar with Drupal.

With thousands and thousands of websites using Drupal (and more being released all the time) and a substantial development and user community behind it, you have plenty of available resources to find others capable of handling upgrades, customizations and other web development tasks for you.

Drupal is Your Webmaster's Friend

If you you are not interested in managing your site yourself once it is launched, Drupal will make the life of your webmaster much easier. All of the features above add up to a site that is easily-manageable by people who wouldn't even consider themselves "webmasters".

Updating your site can be as easy as logging in, clicking, writing and clicking again.

Drupal is Your Web Developer's Friend

You might want to set up and configure Drupal yourself. Then again, you might not! Drupal is used by web developers around the world to implement world class websites that manage loads of content and serve a multitude of users.

Drupal is friendly to your web developer (and to you!) because it is truly Free Software.

Drupal is Free Software

Drupal is released under a license call the GNU General Public License. Very simply, this license protects and empowers a software because it is owned by the general public and free to be examined and altered at all levels. Drupal can be truly understood and implemented by web developers because they not only have access to the code at its source, but are also free to modify and enhance it.

Basically, this means that you can do anything you want to the program itself to make it what you need it to be.

This is good for your web developer because s/he can truly customize Drupal for your specific needs.

Not only does Drupal have all of the core and contributed functionality listed above (and much more) but - because of its license - it also allows for customization at all levels.

Drupal has been developed from the start with the idea of flexibility in mind. This means from the inherent flexibility of its very license to flexibility in function and design.

Drupal Knows What You Want/Need Your Website to Do

Most people have an idea of what they would like their website to do. That is why they are looking for a website or a website upgrade in the first place.

Many of my clients come to me with lots of ideas. They usually walk away with a lot more!

All I do is take them through a few of the things that Drupal can do for them... their eyes widen, their synapses fire and they walk away with a new idea of what their website can be.

The community that is constantly working on Drupal knows what people need their websites to do. They are not employees designing an abstract system. They are people who have websites themselves. They are people who needed an extra feature that Drupal didn't have, so they wrote it and contributed it to the community. Then others came along, liked it, used it and improved it.

This approach means that Drupal does more than what people thought they needed and wanted their website to do. Its very design opens up new doors, sparks new ideas and leaves people with a versatile website with a long shelf-life.

Speaking of this...

Let Drupal Do Future Planning For You

You most likely have a general idea about what you want your website to do now, but there are certainly things you'll want or need in a year or two that you don't want or need now. Planning for something you don't know you want or need is quite nearly impossible.

Then again...

Drupal can help with this! I don't mean the web software alone, I mean the greater Drupal community that is constantly and consistently upgrading, patching, searching for new concepts and ideas to integrate, implementing new modules for the latest and most desirable features on the web, updating tired themes to incorporate the developing web standards, and so on.

This is more than any single person or web developer can possible hope to achieve. Yet this is what a living, breathing, free software web application community is doing right now. In fact, Drupal has most likely been improved since you started reading this article!

It sounds amazing because it is amazing.

You want Drupal because Drupal constantly works on and improves itself.

Links for Further Information

Free Software Links

GNU Website
Free Software Foundation
Free Software on Wikipedia
The GNU General Public License

Drupal-Related Books

Net Neutrality

eBay, Google, Moby - they are all acting to prevent what could potentially damage the quality of the Internet in the USA.

The issue is called Net Neutrality.

SavetheInternet.com covers the basics of what it is about and why it is not a good idea.

If you are from the States, you can let your voice be heard in a number of ways, including petitions on MoveOn.org and FreePress.net.

If you feel so inclined, do act now!

Lullabot.com Podcast - Drupal Help is Here

As I am familiarizing myself with Drupal 4.7, I am finding the Lullabot Podcasts to be most valuable. Not only do they provide great information, but they are also well done! Bravo!

For instance, you can catch a video podcast on how to update to Drupal 4.7, listen to a recent podcast that talks about the new Content Construction Kit (CCK) or if you're a newbie to Drupal, learn how to install Drupal 4.7. There is a lot more there, too.

This is all great info!

Well, Folks, It's Been a While

I have been traveling around Central Europe for a month, then moving back to the States for a while. Thus, I have not been posting info here lately. I left the aggregator going, though, for fresh info to be on the site. ;)

At any rate, I figure I owe those people out there who are interested an explanation about what is happening with cmanifestations.net and all the other sites that I have in this network including freewiki.info, freemusicsoftware.info, freelanguage.org, freethesounds.org, anonymousphoto.com, mandarinchinese.info, woodriff.org, freereality.org and mychinablog.com. Not to mention the many more that I have in the works and have no released just yet.

Well... here goes.

I am going, little by little, to update or just plain start over, with each of the sites using the newly updated and really sweet Drupal 4.7 content management system (galore). I want to keep up the work with putting lots and lots of information out on the web for free - info that has to do with the things I am most interested in. I think that if it works out to make a living by putting free information on the web, researching what I love and having a few (unobnoxious) text ads and affiliate-encoded links throughout the quality info, I will be a happier person that I already am. :)

For the time being I am working like mad to release a drupalized version of the Heart of the Initiate website. The folks over there are wonderful beings and we are working together to get their site brought up the speed with the wonderful world of Web 2.0.

Until I get that site up and running - and it is a big one - I will be putting off the upgrades of the cmanifestations sites.

No worries though! The new sites will be released in a timely fashion, as well as the old ones to be upgraded.

In fact, I am really looking forward to it.

So please do keep checking in as I will be leaving some notes of progress as I move along.

If you have not already done so, you can keep up easily by signing up for my Feedburner RSS/XML Feed.

ESLPod.com and TOELFPod.com added to Free Language

I recently added two great podcasts for ESL and TOEFL to Free Language:

ESLPod.com ESL Podcast
TOEFLPod.com TOEFL Podcast

To visit the websites for these podcasts, see:

ESLPod.com
TOEFLPod.com

I also added a new category for podcasts:

TOEFL Podcasts

Wisdom from Kurt Vonnegut's Speech to Ohio State University

This article from Peace and Justice dot org is a sort of summary of some of the top points of Kurt Vonnegut's speech to Ohio State University.

It seems that this speech was the last paid speech Kurt will do.

Read it here.

Working with Technorati and Some General Info

Today I spent quite a while working with my account on Technorati. I claimed five of my blogs (Free Music Software, Anonymous Photo, Free Wiki, Free the Sounds and Free Language).

It takes a while to do it all properly, but I am hoping that this will drive traffic to my sites - traffic that will be people looking for this info that I provide! So it works all around.

It is a good idea to use this sort of service because it is free and it can considerably improve both your placement with the search engines, as well as driving relevant traffic to your site.

I also worked quite a bit on the new Free Reality, which I will release this week and which will use Drupal instead of Geeklog. This is the last site to migrate over to Drupal!

Other sites are in the works, but I have to continue updating the current ones before I get too involved in new ones.

Tomorrow I am going to claim My China Blog, add another software to Free Music Software and add a bunch of stuff to Free Language. Also, I will write some here about the benefits of Feedburner, which is free.

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