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    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

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    Using Google Groups to share a Gmail account

    The TED (Technology Entertainment Design) logo...
    Image via Wikipedia

    So right now, I’m part of a committee to bring about 100 people together to celebrate a TED styled event in Princeton. Up until now, the committee has been working very well together using a Google Group. The way that it’s set up is pretty locked down. We only have committee members in the group, and it’s not advertised. We have other tools for that, such as a WordPress blog, and a Gmail account, with which people can contact us, exchange ideas, and offer sponsorships, etc.

    The only problem is that no one person on the committee really deserves the burden of solely being responsible for the Gmail account. It’s about to get very busy, since we’re about to start advertising heavily for our upcoming event. So, wouldn’t it be great if the Google Group that we all already subscribe to and get emails from could just be posted to by anyone? Well, no, not exactly — some of the back and forth on our Google Group really needs to be behind closed doors — no one makes soup for the first time in a crowded room, if you get my meaning.

    But we all wanted to be able to get the messages from the Gmail account without having to remember to login, remember the account info, remember that it’s not just us, etc.

    It turns out it’s easy — I’m not sure why I thought Google would block the action:

    1. Sign up your Gmail account on the Google Group as a posting member.
    2. Forward a copy of your Gmail account’s incoming messages to your Google Group email account, which only members can post to.
    3. Everyone on the group starts seeing messages to the Gmail account along with other group activity.

    1 caveat I’ve found so far: replying to the email will send a message back to the group and back to the Gmail account, but not to the original sender, as one might expect. You’d have to do a teensy bit of copy/paste, or as my mom likes to call it, magic!

    Know of a better way to do this, without adding any caveats? Let er’ rip on the comments!

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28

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    Hivemind: great photo on canvas printing/storefront solutions?

    Hey, all.

    I’m enjoying working on a secondary primary project at http://365sketches.wordpress.com where I’m posting a sketch a day in 2010 using Inkscape, the open source illustration application. It’s going very well, so well in fact that some of my friends and followers have begun asking how they can purchase prints and framed versions of some of the creations. This is a great problem to have, but it’s still sort of a problem, since my printer is a black and white laser. :P

    prevail-whale

    Image by lemasney via Flickr

    So, I’m asking the hivemind here: is there a fantastic web service out there that does one or more of the following exceptionally well:

    • photo printing from uploads
    • sizes varying from very small (think 1 inch x 2 inches, like moo.com) to very large (like 20×30, available from vendors such as staples.com).
    • varied formats and orientations but essential for this project is the square format. 12×12 will be my most used format.
    • printing on framed canvas (popcanvas.com is a great example)
    • storefront capability (like cafepress, but really focused on prints)
    • preferably free, but I’d be willing to pay either directly (like zenfolio) or as a portion of purchases (such as cafepress)
    • A very reasonable price for consumers (this is a friendly venture — I’m not trying to get rich, or make others poor). I have seen most 12×12 prints on canvas priced at less than $50 USD after shipping.

    Serious contenders as an outlet for http://365sketches.wordpress.com include

    But, since I have all of you out there, I’m wondering — do you do this? What service do you use? How would you solve this problem?

    Let me know in the comments. and thanks in advance!

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21

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