Museum of Paper

It's Tuesday, So Try Doing One More Thing

Try It Tuesday is a website that sponsors the idea of setting aside at least part of every Tuesday to do a project that they explain each week.

Illustration Friday, Inspire Me Thursday and now Tuesdays are tempting me too. So many ideas and so little time!

I thought that was a cool idea until I started realizing that priorities start to get lost at some point when we starting adding more and more things to the "to do" list.

The upside of Try It Tuesday is that you could do something in a new way or learn something new.

Print Your Own Money at Home!

BIAM, the International Bank of Art Money, which I spoke about in the newest Art Money story has issued some guidelines which can sometimes make my brain cells hurt when I read it. I'm pretty sure that it is only because he's not a native English speaker and so the thoughts come out a bit jostled about. In any case, I'm never quite sure that I've got it right.

He first says:

"Any artist may apply for registration in BIAM in order to issue art money. BIAM will excersise censurship and reserve the right to reject an artist based on viewing the three art money recieved. It is up to the individual applicant to define “artist”, and any medium will do."

I'm OK up to this point.

1. Only certified BIAM artists may issue art money.
2. The quantity of art money issued by a single artist must not exceed the value of art or services provided by this artist.
3. Each art money must be original art. Measure 12x18 cm. Clearly show serial number, year of production, artist nationality, artist name, artist original signature, and BIAM web address: www.art-money.org .

Inside Scoop: Fonts That Make You Look Lame

I know I always - or, regularly anyhow - gush about the scoop I get from Get-Known Guru Suzanne Falter-Barnes. But it's true - she never ceases to deliver the goods.

While pointing me to a quiz about - ready? - whether I'd make the cut as a guest on Oprah ( HA - as if! ) I got the bonus of finding Fonts That Make You Look Lame. written by Sheila Parr for the Greenleaf Publishing's Big Bad Book Blog.

Of course no blog would be worth its salt if it didn't tell us something about who writes it and about Sheila we learn:

Her favorite things are fine point Sharpies and breakfast tacos.

Funny. So their tone loudly announces that it doesn't take itself too seriously - as you probably figured out from the title of the Lame article - um - I mean the article about not looking lame.

Part of what Sheila posts is:

"Some fonts scream TACKY and others whisper amateur, but if you’re not a designer you probably have no idea if you’re committing a font felony.

"To protect yourself from snotty judgments about your taste and experience level, follow these two simple rules in all typed work: manuscripts, emails, proposals, and, of course, books."

RULE #1: Avoid the following five fonts at ALL costs,

1. Comic Sans. Unless you are writing a comic book or materials for a film adapted from a comic book (i.e., Sin City—great design) don’t use it.

 

Artist Tags, a New Rage?

by contributing author, Mai Liis Peacock

Just as in clothing and home furnishings, paper arts are subject to fashion.  Just why this phenomenon of "everybody is doing it!" comes to fruition is a mystery.

In the paper arts, unlike in clothing or furnishings, there are no design or color councils which publish "trends"....thereby whetting every ones interest.

We artists are a passionate bunch, and we are always interested in exploring new ideas.  It is the popularity of one form of paper art over another which I wonder about. 

For a while, everyone was making cards, lots and lots of cards!

Public Knowledge - Creator's Primer What About Copyright

From the Public Knowledge Blog comes information about more on Copyright, and it seems as if it was written especially for us.

The PK blog describes it this way:

The Empowering Creators Project, sponsored by Public Knowledge, has released the primer: “So What … About Copyright?”.

The primer, in plain and accessible language, provides the creator with an overview of copyright law — from a historic understanding of copyright law as conceived by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution to current policy issues that may affect you, as an artist, and your work.

“So What … About Copyright?” is a series of essays written with the artist in mind.

This book presents the basics on copyright, trademark, fair use, and the public domain. Chapters for filmmakers, visual artists, and writers explain how creators can best understand, benefit from, and follow copyright and trademark laws.

A printed version of the primer can be ordered from Lulu at the following URL: http://www.lulu.com/content/171535

The primer is also available for free as a PDF download. Now that's good news.

  Public Knowledge - Creator's Primer - So What ... About Copyright.

Answers to Questions: My Take on Trackbacks

Question: Could you explain TrackBacks, please???

I've been asked this question half a dozen times today, and twice by people at my lunch table. It's clearly time to tackle TrackBacks.

I'm pretty sure that the explanation here at Plasticbag.org will do a better job at this than I can, but I'll give it a shot.

I have to admit that truthfully I did not understand how it worked until I had actually DONE the pinging/trackback notifying a time or seven.

So here goes. The TrackBack system was designed to provide a method of notification between websites (blogs or non-blogs): it is a method of person A saying to person B, "This is something you need to know."

To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B.

--------------------------------

Example One
* Ann has written a post on her own weblog that covers the same subject - for example "Wedding Singers in Arlington VA"  that was also covered in a post in Beth's weblog. This article might be:

1. just a comment about something Ann read on Beth's site;
2. Ann may disagree or agree with the original article and talk about that;
3. she may expand on the first article;
4. or she may refer to the opinion in Beth's ( the first ) article as a way to back up or emphasize what Ann is saying

This way, in order to more fully develop the idea or give his take on it, Ann writes about it instead of simply posting the comment directly on Beth's weblog,

Ann posts it on her own weblog, then sends a TrackBack ping to notify Beth that there's buzz about her article. And oh my, how bloggers NEED buzz to survive.

Ah, the power of the TrackBacks. It's a goooood thing

Example Two

Alex has written a post on the breakup of Ben and Jen, which is a topic that any number of people are interested in for some unknown reason. Two thousand twenty-five other people also write about the same thing.

Each person writing "pings" technoratti to say that they have posted, listing "Ben and Jen" as their topic. An hour later when I search technoratti for this topic (in a fit of madness or for some odd reason) I get a list of all the posts about that topic.

 

Caveat - I can not tell you HOW it works. I just know that it does and you need to use it to get yourself some of that Buzz I keep talking about.

I can't tell you how computers, phones or electricity work either, but normally they do and that's enough for me.

Note:
Ben and Mena have a detailed description with examples at http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/beginners/

Wikipedia host a series of articles on TrackBacks at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback

And Robin Good has an outstanding article about the subject in an article at Trackback as an Authority Building Tool

Included in her observations:

. . .  I thought of adding my view and up-to-date understanding of what TrackBacks are and how they can be best leveraged. This includes some relative innovative way of looking at what they do and what you can get done with them.

Trackback should be considered a facility that allows you to:

a) Create a collection of articles references. When you post anew article trackback other relevant articles and in the future your TrackBacks will appear as additional references to consult. See for example the use of TrackBacks at the bottom of:
http://robingood.typepad.com/commagents/2003/07/learning_suppor.html

b) Adding your content as an official reference to someone's else posts/articles.

c) Calling attention of someone else to your post. By way of trackbacking other articles you inevitably send signals to the author of the trackbacked article saying: "Hey, look what I had to say about your post!".

One could then say that Trackback allows you to get links from authoritative resources on-demand. If there is an authoritative Web site out there and you send a trackback to one article on that site, you automatically get not only a physical link from that site to yours, but also but all of the indirect exposure and reach of that very site itself.  By trackbacking that content you add yourself to the related resources for that article in the blogosphere.

How powerful if well used!

I'm surely with her on this one. It is a powerful and amazing resource.

Weblogs & Art - Copyright Rights and Wrongs and In Betweens

A bit ago we had some discussion about copyright.  Anyone who gives an opinion feels sure that they have accurate information and as a result lots of semi-truths and misinformation is bandied about in local art leagues, yahoo groups and journal communities. And these opinions come from all over the map.

Opinion givers include those who feel that

• when a magazine publishes your card or bookmark or whatever the publication holds copyright to your image
• copyright is only for things like commercial designs, not paintings or drawings
• you can't copyright things published on a weblog
• the courts won't enforce copyright if somebody doesn't realize that copying your work is illegal
• whatever it is that you make, it's not protected until you register it
  
• copyright must include the name of the work but not the artists name
• copyright must include the name of the creator but not the title of the work
  

Obviously it's not a good idea to take everything you read at face value. And copyright law can be complex.

No kidding, huh?

And it's not easily understandable when the law is written like gobbledygook, like:

"In order that the author of a literary or artistic work protected by this Convention shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be regarded as such, and consequently be entitled to institute infringement proceedings in the countries of the Union, it shall be sufficient for his name to appear on the work in the usual manner."

Now I'm looking for information on the term "in the usual manner."

So what does that mean?

In my practice, copyright format looks like this:  © 2006 Susan Reynolds or Copyright 2006 Susan Reynolds.

And again, the way I format it includes the above which is normally preceded by the title of the piece.

For online content I've found you can get a free license to use a script from Alderman & Alderman Attorneys  which will generate an automatic copyright notice for your blog or website.

The notice will link to a page at Alderman & Alderman containing this - among other - information:

Copyright : You Made It - You've Got It

Do you sometimes wonder about copyright?

I've been involved in lots of chatter and questioning about it lately, especially since I'm publishing under what's called a Registered Use License*.

For those who are boggled by copyright issues in general, not to mention stuff like Registered Use, it might help to know that at least some of it is straightforward.

For example:

• You have "it" - copyright - on anything you paint, photograph, write or whatever - starting the moment you create it.
• You do not have to register each of your creations.
• But there is a registration process that you may decide to use to make your copyrightmore "formal"

There are a bunch of resources online that are fairly easy to understand, including