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by Bud Parr on July 01, 2010 | permanent link

Most passwords suck. They're often based on things like kid's names or so short and simple a hacking program could figure them out in no time flat. 

I understand the need for simplicity when we have so many log-ins for so many Websites. I have about 200 different log-ins, so I've have had to deal with this issue. But it doesn't have to be hard. Here are some simple strategies:

First, let's look at what the National Cyber-Security Alliance suggests and then we'll put them into a couple of easy, usable rules.

• Use passwords that have at least eight characters and include numerals and symbols*.
• Avoid common words: some hackers use programs that can try every word in the dictionary.
• Don't using your personal information, your login name, or adjacent keys on the keyboard as passwords.
• Change your passwords regularly (at minimum, every 90 days).
• Use a different password for each online account you access (or at least a variety of passwords with difficulty based on the value of the information contained in each.

The one rule here I concede to the needs of simplicity is the second, using common words. However, what I do to is to combine two words so that together they make one non-word. I typically add a non-alpha character between them and, if I want to be difficult, I'll make one random letter uppercase. Here's an example to show you that this is easier than it sounds:

Say I like elephants. And say when I think of elephants I think of their big trunks. So maybe a good password would be

elephantrunks

That's a start, but maybe I can make it better. I'll make "trunks" into "chunks" since chunks don't go with elephants, but is close enough in sound to remind me what it might be.

elephantchunks

Nice, but let's complicate it just a bit.

I find the * symbol easy to type, so I use that.

elephant*chunks

You could stop there and have a pretty secure password, but if you wanted it more secure, change p to P

elePhant*chunks

Now, that's a secure password. I read this technique somewhere and the author figured it would take billions of years for a bot to figure it out, and his was simpler than mine.

If you don't want to go through those creative hi-jinks, you could also break words up in unexpected ways, by putting a hyphen or other character in-between words.

This is an even more secure password: elePhant*ch-nks But could be many variations.

The key is to figure out words that are not directly related to you (I use animals) but you'll remember. I find the funnier the better, but I won't reveal to you mine!

The Cyber Security Alliance also has a suggestion that is worthwhile:

"One way to create a strong password is to think of a memorable phrase and use the first letter of each word as your password, converting some letters into numbers that resemble letters. For example, "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck" would become HmWc@wC."

Equally good. These are all tactics to help bridge memorability and security, so whatever works for you personally is best.

The last two rules the CSA gives are pretty difficult to do, but here I use priorities. The passwords you have for more critical functions, like on-line banking, should never be the same that you'd use for something like signing up to a magazine's Website.

The reason might not be as obvious as it seems. First of course, you don't want to compromise banking passwords in any way (these too are the ones you should certainly change periodically), but not all password storage is the created equal.

Lastly, there are good ways to manage passwords. My favorite (seems like I couldn't live without it) is "1Password" by Agile Solutions, but I think that's a Mac only application.

*8-12 characters is usually a good length, although 12 seems to be a sweet spot for hacking difficulty. Some programs don't allow for very long passwords, although very often you can go as high as 32.

Helpful Links

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/choosing-smart-password.html
http://www.staysafeonline.org/content/top-cyber-security-practices-tip?page=5
http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/gc_1158611596104.shtm

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So finally books are getting some love on the internet, Youtube style. There are several sites, like Scribd and Issuu that allow you to publish anything by uploading a pdf file. It displays like a page-flippable book or magazine and allows readers to share and embed. We like Issuu because it

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by Bud Parr on September 01, 2009 | permanent link

So finally books are getting some love on the internet, Youtube style. There are several sites, like Scribd and Issuu that allow you to publish anything by uploading a pdf file. It displays like a page-flippable book or magazine and allows readers to share and embed. We like Issuu because it has a great presentation, even if the audience there is smaller than at Scribd (as a friend put it, Scribd is like Youtube, Issuu is like Vimeo – one is nicer, the former gives you more eyeballs). So here’s an example of an embed that we created, along with Coffee House Press, for Laird Hunt’s new novel Ray of the Star.

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The Reckoning on P.O.V.

I want to take a moment to let you know about a project that I’ve been involved with that I believe is important and that you might find of interest. I bring it up now because the film that this project surrounds will be aired tonight in the US on PBS’s POV program. Click this link

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by Bud Parr on July 14, 2009 | permanent link

The Reckoning on P.O.V.

I want to take a moment to let you know about a project that I’ve been involved with that I believe is important and that you might find of interest. I bring it up now because the film that this project surrounds will be aired tonight in the US on PBS’s POV program. Click this link to find your local listing.

The Reckoning is a documentary film about the battle for the International Criminal Court. The idea behind the court is simple: To end the repeated mass atrocities of the 20th century that continue today, perpetrators of crimes against humanity – no matter how powerful – must be held accountable for their actions.

However, putting that idea into action has not been so simple. Despite the need for international concerted action (109 countries have ratified), the court has had an uphill battle. The Bush administration was openly hostile to the court and the fact that it can issue arrest warrants but has no police force has left the court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to struggle to put law into action.

When I went to the New York premier of the film at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Ben Ferencz, who was on the prosecution team at Nuremberg, was in the audience. His presence, which was met with a standing and emotional ovation, truly brought home the roots of the evils that the court stands against.

The other part of the project is IJCentral. A Website that brings together information and discussions on international justice. There you can take action too. Currently, the Obama Administration is deciding whether to support the International Criminal Court. At IJCentral you can weigh in to urge Obama to recognize the court. Click here to support the court.

Below you’ll find the trailer for the film and a synopsis. The links again are:

PBS’s POV page on The Reckoning
Local Listings
Actions
IJCentral

Late in the 20th century, in response to repeated mass atrocities around the world, more than 120 countries united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC)—the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators (no matter how powerful) of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. The Reckoning follows dynamic ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and his team for 3 years across 4 continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur, challenging the UN Security Council to arrest him. Building cases against genocidal criminals presents huge challenges, and the Prosecutor has a mandate but no police force. At every turn, he must pressure the international community to muster political will for the cause. Like a deft thriller, The Reckoning keeps you on the edge of your seat, in this case with two riveting dramas—the prosecution of unspeakable crimes and the ICC’s fight for efficacy in its nascent years. As this tiny court in The Hague struggles to change the world and forge a new paradigm for justice, innocent victims suffer and wait. Will the Prosecutor succeed? Will the world ensure that justice prevails?

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Dallas Hudgens' Website

If you’re an author, you know that there are times for writing and there are times for getting out to promote your writing. Those times don’t always coincide. What happens when your readers go to find you on the Web when you’re working on the next book? There’s nothing

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by Bud Parr on March 03, 2009 | permanent link

Dallas Hudgens' Website

If you’re an author, you know that there are times for writing and there are times for getting out to promote your writing. Those times don’t always coincide. What happens when your readers go to find you on the Web when you’re working on the next book?

There’s nothing worse than a Web page with nothing but whitespace; no one likes to waste their precious click only to find “No events here, check back later.” Bad.

Dealing with a lot of authors we’ve figured out some ways to manage this. First, we create events sections to automatically show future events only. You don’t have to go back in and clean up old events so you don’t have to worry about your Web page showing that you last gave a reading when the Berlin Wall was still standing.

For those with a lot of events we do display past events when there are none in the future, but these are shown as an orderly archive. That helps by showing activity and setting up expectations for something to come. For some we combine news and events so when events disappear there’s news on the page.

But what if you’re spending most of your time writing right now? Dallas Hudgens is a writer with two novels to his credit. He had a blog once but really wanted to spend his time writing fiction. We created a site for him to showcase his books and the great reviews they received and even though he’s not out doing events right now, we wanted the site prepared, so we created places for news, events and other writing.

Fine, but what to do with those sections when they’re not being used? We hid them!

We told the code to say “if there are no future events hide the events page and the menu item leading to it.” If you’re technically inclined you know that this could cause problems with search engines, but we managed that by telling the code to say “if there’s no content on this page then tell the search engines that this page doesn’t exist.”

When there are events or news, they show up (in Dallas’s case both in the menu and in the about section) and you don’t have to do anything.

Click on the image above to see a screenshot of the front page of Dallas’s site if he currently had events and then visit his site to see what it looks like now. This may not be the solution for everyone, but we feel it works here. For every author we consider their individual situation and build the site based on a strategy for them. We also work closely with publicists when appropriate to make sure that the site fits with their strategy too.

Got ideas for the perfect author Website? Share them because we’re continually working to build sites that help your audience find you and help you not to worry about your Website.

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by Bud Parr on February 13, 2009 | permanent link

The Center for Social Media recently published a report on how documentary filmmakers are using new tools to reach out to the public on the causes their films address. The report by Barbara Abrash, “Social Issue Documentary:  The Evolution of Public Engagement,” lauds the creators of State of Fear among others,  for how they’ve used innovative technologies to engage their audience.

Skylight’s excellent film about Perú‘s healing after years of devastation by terrorists, both the Shining Path and the state-supported terrorism on the part of the Fujimori government, is subtitled “The Truth about Terrorism.” The film has struck a nerve with audiences all around the world (it was broadcast in over 150 countries), but perhaps no where as strongly as with Peruvians themselves.

While Skylight fully engages the world with social media and things like good old face to face outreach meetings (incredible to be a part of), the EDMQuechua (Estado de Miedo) project brought State of Fear to the Peruvian interior where the Quechua language dominates. Paco de Onís, Skylight’s producer, sent out a bunch of easy to use Flip video cameras to human rights workers in Perú and had them film testimonials at screenings.

For our part of the project, Sonnet Media built a micro-Website to locate screening information on Google maps, pull in news feeds from the trial of Fujimori (which got underway about the same time), photos from screenings and most importantly video and written testimony from those at the screenings. Technically speaking, we created a simple form for users to submit their videos or commentary, all of which became part of our database for use on the site.

It’s a great pleasure to work with a group of people who not only change the world, but also who embrace new means to engage their audience, putting social media to great use. In fact, embrace puts it lightly; Paco drives the use of social media and Skylight Pictures as a whole pushes every tool at their disposal to make their message heard. We’ve been consulting on their latest audience engagement project, IJCentral, and will have more to report on that soon.

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