One of the great things about working for Qumana is getting to work from home. After the Lycos deal was announced the local paper was interested in talking to be about blogging, the Lycos deal, and most of all how I've been able to do this from the Island. Here is the full-text of the article ... with the picture scanned in :) .

Attack of the Blog: Islander on home page of Internet craze
Salt Spring-based Tris Hussey rides tech-sector success wave

By SEAN MCINTYRE
Driftwood Reporter
When 36-year-old software designer Tris Hussey first encountered the world of blogging back in 2004, he predicted the new medium would mark a sea change rivaled only by Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

Today he’s turned what started out as a passion for technology and a love of communication into a modern-day tech-sector success story. And he’s done it all from a basement suite on Salt Spring Island’s north end.

“When I first got involved, I thought there was too much information,” he said during a recent interview. “Today, the amount of information out there is explosive.”

For the uninitiated, Hussey added, the sheer volume of data on just about any topic under the sun can trigger information overload. Knowing how and where to draw the line is an integral part of the learning process.

“It’s important to read outside your bubble, but you have to pick and choose who you’re going to read,” he said.

For millions of computer users around the world, the blogging boom is the best thing since, well, real living communities. Not only do blogs provide a space where people with varied interests can meet up, discuss and exchange information with each other, but anybody with access to a computer, an Internet connection and something to say can get involved.

“Blogs give individuals the ability to publish on their own, contribute to other discussions and find a place for their opinion,” Hussey said.

Blogs differ from more traditional home pages in that users can easily upload text, pictures, audio clips and even video to the Internet with only minimal computer knowledge. With help from free blog editing software like Blogger and WordPress, anybody can get in on the game and today’s blogs are published from all corners of the world in virtually every language.

The specific definition of a blog, or web log, is difficult to pin down since the medium is undergoing constant change. Wherever they’re headed, Husssey said, blogs have certainly come a long way from their origins as a collection of personal online diaries kept by small groups of computing enthusiasts.

Among the estimated 75,000 blogs started up on the Internet each day are an eclectic blend of opinions, interests and views on every topic imaginable. From relatively trivial matters such as where and how to drink your coffee, to the recent Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting from the heart of hurricane-battered New Orleans, blogs are here to stay. Even family blogs are popping up frequently as an alternative to the more conventional family album or scrapbook.

Hoping to capitalize on the blogging rush, Hussey, along with a handful of partners across North America, developed Qumana, a piece of software geared to help bloggers blog more efficiently.
Meeting with the company’s other partners via the Internet has not only allowed Qumana assemble a workforce from across North America, but allowed Hussey to work in an ideal environment, his home.

“Working out of my home lets me be flexible and spread things out throughout the day,” he said. “The commute to the office is also a lot shorter when you only have to walk across the room.”
After signing a major partnership last month with Lycos U.S., one of Google’s main rivals, Hussey said Qumana’s next goal rests on helping bloggers make a little money.
The online advertising industry is growing between 20 and 30 per cent a year and connecting bloggers with advertisers is already a lucrative business.

“While the vast majority of bloggers won’t get rich, advertising revenue may help them pay for their Internet connection or feed their latté addiction while doing something they enjoy,” Hussey said.

Tags: Tris Hussey, Gulf Islands Driftwood, Salt Spring Island, telecommuting, Qumana, blogging

Pushing half a million impressions a day (10 million a month) takes its toll on a database.

This weekend we are going to be doing routine optimization and maintenance on the QAds server and database. Intermitently over the weekend the server and ads will be unavailable. We will be timing outages to be during off-peak hours and for as short as possible.

None of your existing data will be lost and reports will be up to date and live Monday.

This, I guess, is just the price of success.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail support AT qumana DOT com and we will get back to you as soon as we can (between biting the ears off our chocolate bunnies!).

Hot on the heels of the announcement of our deal with Lycos, today Blogware/Tucows has announced our distribution agreement with their Blogware resellers.  This agreement allows Blogware resellers to promote Qumana, QReader, and QAds to their customers.

Since several of our blogs (this one, my personal blog, and our Investors blog) run on Blogware we knew that we wanted to build a solid, long-term relationship.  Blogware is one of the leading hosted blogging platforms (one that doesn't get nearly the respect and attention it deserves) and we are excited to be working with Tucows/Blogware and all the Blogware resellers world-wide.

What does this mean for Qumana?  Where are we heading?  It's exciting times for us.  We look forward to introducing more bloggers to Qumana, Qumana Ads and Qumana Reader.  We also hope that these kind of distribution deals will help more people start blogging.  The future?  Clearly we want to keep improving all our products and services.  Everything looked at for places to improve.  Easier, smoother blogging, better RSS reading, better ads for your posts.

I think this is just one of many busy weeks to come.

Tags: Tucows, Blogware, Qumana

Free Downloadable Application Lets Bloggers Publish Content to Multiple Blogs from Desktop;
Gives Users Control of Ads on Blogs

WALTHAM, Mass., April 5 -- Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com), a leading media destination for creators and consumers of quality content, today announced a new desktop blog editing tool, powered by Qumana, making blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers everywhere.

With the new Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor (http://lycos.qumana.com), Lycos enhances the freedom of blogging, allowing users to publish to their Tripod and Angelfire Blogs on Lycos, as well as to other major blogging sites, from the desktop. Additionally, the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor works with Qumana's Q Ads, an integrated ad program, allowing bloggers to insert ads into their blogs, while revenue from these ads is shared with the bloggers.

"If you're an active blogger, the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor now gives you the ability to post to multiple blogs with just one click, extend your blogs further reaching more people, and make more money from your blog content," said Alfred Tolle, CEO of Lycos, Inc. "With this new offering, Lycos continues to reinforce our strategy by offering content creators the tools needed to better showcase and market their independent content."

Key features of the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor include:

• Insert keyword-specific ads in one click and customize ads to your blog

• Edit old posts from any of your blogs

• Offline editing to work at your own pace

• One-click posting to one or more blogs

• Seamless publishing and cross-publishing

• Integration with all major blog platforms

• Easy image uploading

• Spell check and thesaurus

"Qumana is a versatile and powerful personal publishing application that makes creating the content for an online conversation almost as easy as thinking and talking," said Fred Fabro, president of Qumana. "Qumana is being put to use by an increasing number of bloggers around the world, and now this alliance with Lycos puts a free tool in the hands of its millions of Lycos users, helping them blog easily and instantly from their desktop to Tripod and Angelfire platforms."

The new Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor complements Lycos' award-winning BlogBuilder tool first launched in Feb. 2003. With Lycos BlogBuilder, users can create a blog in minutes, with customizable designs, privacy features, mobile posting and the ability to easily add digital photos, video and sound clips.

About Lycos, Inc.
Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. Lycos, Inc. creates and operates search, community and technology lifestyle sites including Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Wired.com, Tripod.com and Angelfire.com. Other Lycos products and sites include Lycos Mail, Lycos Games, Lycos Planet, Lycos Phone and GetRelevant. Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, http://www.daum.net.

About Qumana
Qumana Software, Inc. (http://www.qumana.com) is a leading developer of tools and services for bloggers. Qumana's industry recognized tools include: Qumana, a blog editor for online publishing; Q Reader, an RSS Reader; and Q Ads, an advertising network for bloggers integrated into the Qumana tool. Qumana Software develops tools for every blogger: PC & Mac, experienced & novice, and multi-lingual. Qumana Software is headquartered in Vancouver, BC.

Lycos(R) is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc. All other product or service marks mentioned herein are those of Daum Communications Corp., Lycos, Inc. or their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Contacts:
Kathy O'Reilly
Lycos, Inc.
781.370.3454
Kathy.O'Reilly@lycos-inc.com

Darren Barefoot
Capulet Communications
604.727.5345
darren@capulet.com

Tags: qumana, lycos, lycos-qumana, blogging, web 2.0, deals

Qumana has been reviewed by the editors of PC Mag for their "Web 2.0 Addicts" series and has come out with flying colours!

The PC Mag review:

Quote removed as per instructions by the legal department of PC Mag. No portion, aside from the title, of the review may be used in any way, even if properly cited under fair use. That's a company that surely understands blogging!

Thanks for the honor of being a part of the list and for such a great review!

And don't forget, the same great Qumana is also for Mac!

Tags: pc mag, qumana, reviews, web 2.0

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity"
- Charles Mingus

This is the #1 goal of Qumana, one we'll always have to keep striving for. A never-ending process of addition, revision, and vision.

Via Dina Mehta

We want you. That is, if you can help us. :)

Qumana is hiring two developers right now, so drop us a line if you live in Vancouver and want to apply. Be sure to indicate which job you are applying for.

Senior Developer

Responsibilities:

• Create written specifications for application modules
• Create development plan
• Implement solution
• Prepare development and release testing plan

Requirements:

• 8+ years in C++/C# .Net Technology
• Good ability to formulate and optimize a SQL Query
• Experience in large-volume operations on the Internet
• Multi-processing and multi-threading synchronization experience
• Ability to calculate performance estimates and optimize a solution for execution speed.
• Solid knowledge of Internet Interface design and implementation (HTML/XML)
• BA/BS in computer science.

Intermediate-Senior Java Developer

Requirements:

• Experience creating cross-platform user interfaces using Swing.
• Experience using the Eclipse IDE.
• Experience using the Subversion version control system.
• Experience using Hibernate for object/relational mapping.
• Knowledge of blogging and the APIs used by blog platforms (Blogger, Metaweblog, Atom Publishing).
• Effective team skills.
• Ability to take direction and work with minimal supervision.

Reminder, there are 12 more days to enter in the Qumana contest to WIN a trip to Whistler or Mexico - a trip for 2, at that!

If you use Qumana already, or have yet to start, now is the time:

• Download Qumana
• Post 20 times. Not hard to do in 12 days.
• Write us one easy post.
• And you're entered to WIN!

Enter Now

Tags: contest, win, vacation, skiing, surfing, mexico, whislter, blog contest, blogging, blog to win, qumana

Have you seen our new blog?

It's called the Qumana 'how to' blog. And it's the new front line for everything in the Q World.

Qumana 'how to' is all about making your blog kick ass: making it rock, making blogging easier, and making money from it all.

What you can expect:

• ‘how to’ use Qumana to make writing to one or more blogs easy as pie
• ‘how to’ use Lektora to manage your feeds and start some rocking posts
• ‘how to’ use our Ad Program to make money blogging
• ‘how to’ make your posts look great
• ‘how to’ tweak your template and design to keep readers, and get them clicking
• ‘how to’ mix ad programs to make the most money
• ‘how to’ write effectively, and interact in the blogosphere
• all the latest updates to our programs - fixes, new features, and new ways to use them

For industry news, breaking items, and analysis of the goings on in blogging, RSS and advertising, tune in here, our main Qumana blog. Tune in here for industry awareness, pop over there for great tips.

The blog has been up for a few weeks now and the archives are just rich with great tips! Ones I particularly like are: Ad Heat Spots, Setting up MSN Spaces, and Setting up Pinging.

Tags: qumana, how to, qumana how to, productivity, q

When we launched Qumana 3.0, we also started a rebranding effort for Qumana. Although we didn't make a fuss about it at the time, we feel it deserves a little post.

Above are screenshots of the Qumana website the day before and the day of the 3.0 launch. You can see not only did we update the content and messaging surrounding Qumana in order to support the beta launch, we also updated our brand.

The Qumana logo has been given a facelift. In my files it's listed as "Qumana Graphics 2.0", which is quite fitting - not only is it the second set of graphics to represent Qumana, it's also expressive of much of Web 2.0 design aesthetics.

The new logo is very clean. The font is simple and bold. It embraces white space and clean lines. Additionally, the iconic representation of the "Q" is multi-purpose - it's part of our DropPad, it functions as the Mac dock button, mimics the button shapes inside Qumana, and adds graphic punch to our logo when stacked, horizontal or on its own.

More than just the look and feel as a logo, we think this new Qumana brand ties in more with our "simple is better" mantra here at Qumana. It's a mantra that has driven us to constantly redesign the look of our product - to constantly strive for a seamless user experience. People tell us that Qumana is "easy" and "simple", so it befits our graphics to have the same expression.

A big thanks is due to Simon Darby, who designed both the logo and website. Simon has worked closely with us to understand where Qumana is going and has done great work to express that in a powerful visual statement.

What do you think of our new brand?

Tags: qumana, branding

Hillary Johnson picked up on yesterday's post here on RSS, and really expanded on my commentary in her post on her Kerabu blog (also cross-posted on the Engagement Alliance blog ... wonder how she did that ;-) ).  The basis of my post was that readers and users don't really care about the underlying technology as long as it's easy and it works.  Hillary turned the tables on me and pointed out that while Qumana has been derided by some for it's simplicity--that it's dumbed-down--that's what she likes most about it.  Yes!  She hit the nail on the head!  Here is some of her commentary:

I find Qumana to be extremely smart where it counts--which is in streamlining the small, repetitive motions involved in posting to my blogs. When I click the link button in the WYSIWYG editor bar, the field auto-fills with the last thing I cut and pasted. This may not sound like much, but when you are writing a post with a half-dozen links, cutting the number of clicks per link in half and reducing the mouse-mileage by half as well is absolutely brilliant. Qumana creates exactly this kind of gestural economy throughout. In Typepad, the category default is set to a single category; selecting multiple categories is a chore. In Qumana, you check the categories you want, with no control key to hold down, and no false distinction between single and multiple categories. SixApart should have corrected this annoying hurdle long ago. Guess they're just not "dumb" enough.

   It takes a pretty dumb bunny to think that complicated = sophisticated. There are three reasons to write your blog posts in html: it's faster; you can do more stuff; you think it makes you one of the cool kids.  I've had about enough of this geek chic mentality--it fosters bad design. Good design is sleek, user-transparent, dumb as dumb can be.

Well if dumb is cool, and dumb works ... you know, I'm okay with that.  See, when it comes right down to it, while I know how to code, while I don't mind tweaking things, I'm way too busy to fuss with tools that make things too hard.  I'm all about fast and easy.  Simply complex, complexly simple.  That's what we're going for with Qumana.  Looks like we're on the right track.

Tags: Qumana, blog editors

With the new Qumana v3 out we've seen a few folks having this problem again with MT blogs so a little blast from the past ...

Recently we've been receiving some questions about having problems getting Qumana to work with MoveableType (MT) 3.2 installs.  We didn't think it was us and we were right.  MT has implemented some additional security measures for remote posting.  Here's the answer straight from the Six Apart Knowledgebase:

http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/kb/external/invalid_login_w.html

To provide enhanced security when using third party clients, Movable Type now provides for a separate API password (rather than forcing you to use your normal author login password). Here's how to set up this new password:

• Log into Movable Type.
• Click on your username in the top navigational menu to go to your profile.
• Scroll down to the bottom where you see API Password.
• Input a password of your choice and save. For security reasons, it should be different from your normal author password.
• Use the new password in your client software.

Hope this helps everyone.

Technorati Tags : Qumana, MT, MoveableType

We've been hard at work on this new beta for months.  And longer than that (over a year) we've been working on the original Windows-only app.  The problem is that we don't toot our own horn enough.

Nor have we countered some ads online head on.  But being both Canadian and reasonable people, we'll still take the highroad.  Is Qumana the "smartest" offline editor out there?  Who knows.  How do you define smart?  We were the first to have one-click Technorati tags.  That's smart.  We were the first to let you post to multiple blogs without closing a window.  Smart too.  We were the first to allow you to earn money, inserting ads into your posts using a free tool.  Now that rocks.  We're still the only one with a DropPad that let's you drag and drop content from not only your browser but pretty much any other application.  Oh and we've got a pretty spiffy blog manager too.  And did I mention that we're still free and we can help you earn money.

Oh and we're the first, and only, to have a contest to send you on vacation.  Yep, vacation.  Sun or snow.  Hot cocoa or mohitos.  You choose.  How?  Easy ... just blog.  With a free tool.  With a free tool that can also earn you money.  Rules?  You got them ...

To enter:
• download the new Qumana beta
• use Qumana for your next 20 posts (minimum entry amount, across any number of blogs, min 50 words to our discretion)
• show off the “powered by Qumana” footer on each post
• write a creative post about your blogging landscape
• send us [info@Qumana.com] the URL for your post and any blogs you’ve written on

The post:

Using Qumana is qualifying criteria. The winner of the Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation will be chosen based on a blog post to be written about your “blogging landscape”:

What tools are in your blogging landscape?

Tell us, as creatively as you can, what makes your blogging experience easier, and perhaps even more profitable. Whether its your digital camera, a set of plugins, or your browsing pattern, tell us what makes you a productive blogger and you could WIN

When you’re done, simply send us [info AT Qumana DOT com] your URLs (of your post and of the blogs that qualify you).

The prize:

The winning blogger will have the choice of a Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation:

• 5 days in Whistler, BC, Canada including hotel and ski passes & rentals for 2.
• 7 days in Mazatlan, Mexico all inclusive for 2. Mexican destination may vary.

Both prizes have a maximum travel amount of $600 to the destination specified, unless a flight & stay package is obtained for less than $3000 CAD. Equivalent travel options are available.

So ... save your money ... Rocket over and download the new beta.  Come on ... Scoble even tried it and he said it looked nice.

Tags: Qumana, blog editor, contest, Mexico, Whistler

Some Qumana 3.0 users have been having problems when posting to Wordpress blogs. After clicking on "Publish Post" a dialog with a message about an XML-RPC error is displayed. The post is published but no categories are set.

We've identified what the problem is and have implemented a fix. We'll be releasing a new version of Qumana 3.0 that will solve this problem soon.

Today at Northern Voice we're announcing the launch of Qumana 3.0.

It’s the announcement we’ve been waiting months to make – Qumana has developed a *NEW* Qumana 3.0 Beta for Mac and PC. That’s right, Qumana now supports Mac.

Instead of building a separate Mac Qumana, we took this as an opportunity to start fresh and make some improvements to how Qumana works. So, we would like to introduce you to a brand new Qumana - one that takes the essence of our current Qumana and makes them better - for both Mac and PC users.

If you want to get started right away, hop on over to download the beta.

As well as all the Qumana features you know and love, the new Qumana beta has some high demand improvements:

- a "blog manager" that locally stores your drafts and published posts
- support for trackbacks and pinging
- improved editor with valid XHTML, plus ability to view and edit code
- a way to refresh the editor ('New Post') - to clear away published material and start a new post instantly
- improved image dialogue, including preview and auto upload trigger from Drag & Drop
- and more…

At this stage in development, you're likely to encounter a few glitches. Please contact us with any feedback or bugs, and stay tuned here for regular update announcements.

We're also launching a new blog - Qumana 'how to' - which will cover tips on using Qumana 3.0, Lektora, and AdGenta, along with great productivity tips for blogging.

CONTEST

As a part of our launch, we're having a contest. A big one. It's the QUMANA Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation CONTEST - that's right, we're giving away a vacation for two - and all you need to do is blog!

Thanks to all our pre-beta testers for helping us get this far, and thanks in advance to everyone for downloading the beta and passing back feedback to help us continue to develop the best Qumana experience possible. Download the beta here.

Tags: qumana, qumana3.0, offline editor, blogging