Headup

Audee Mirza

Our guest for this week’s interview is Ms. Audee Mirza.
Audee is a self employed graphic designer based in Surabaya, Indonesia. She’s also a loving mother, doting wife, and the founder of “Graphic Identity” – one of Indonesia’s most popular web design blogs.

I learned of Audee’s blog when one of my Google alerts notified me of a review of our widget she’d posted.

After reading the first sentence in her review I knew I had to invite her to star in one of our Weekly Blogger Interviews.

“Why?” you ask yourselves.

Because Audee learned of us by reading the interview I conducted with her online pal Ruhani Rabin (@ruhanirabin) couple of weeks ago, and I love these little reminders one gets ever so often that, although the web is a huge and intricate skein of links and connections, at the end of the day there’s always another human being at the end of the line – a person to connect to, learn from, laugh with…

Mike:
Hiya Audee!
How’s it going?

Audee:
Great! Cool chatting with you.

Mike:
The pleasure is all mine.
I’m often curious as to how people first learned about Headup, but I guess in your case there isn’t much point in asking…

Audee:
Not really – As you know I first heard about you from the interview you did with Ruhani Rabin.

Ruhani’s pretty big in the South East Asian web scene and since we’re friends I try and keep up with his posts and tweets. When he tweeted he’d been interviewed by you, naturally I had to follow the link, and that’s how I first heard about Headup. After I read the interview I decided to give your widget a spin and the rest is history.

Mike:
Indeed.
It still doesn’t give me the deeper background story though.
I guess what I’m really after is how you first became involved with the web professionally?

Audee:
It’s all part of the evolution of my online persona.

Mike:
Now that sounds like a story worth hearing!

Audee:
I don’t know about that, but here goes: Like many, and perhaps even most web designers working today, I never actually learned web design formally. My basic education is a degree in architecture.

Mike:
Sounds familiar so far. I studied Industrial Design myself and got involved with the Web as the Internet evolved all around us.

Audee:
I guess sometimes you just have to follow your passions. Even during my studies I found myself strongly drawn to the Web and Graphic Design, so I began educating myself using online tutorials, books and help from friends – pretty much anything and everything I could get my hands on.

I can honestly say that as far as my graphic design skills go I’m entirely self taught.

Mike:
Do you regret studying Architecture?

Audee:
On the contrary, I think it gave me a wonderfully broad base in the basic theory of design. These basics are pretty much the same regardless which discipline you study.

Mike:
Very true…
So now we know how you got involved with the Web but how did you get into the whole blogging and social media scene?

Audee:
I started blogging in June 2007 and joined Twitter a year later. I saw blogging as a great way to hone my skills, showcase my work, meet people, and promote my business. My first inspiration was the excellent Bittbox blog.

When I first started out I was using Blogger simply because it felt like the easiest way to start a blog. It’s still the platform of choice for Graphic Identity, but I don’t know for how much longer, because since then I’ve become more involved in building sites on Wordpress, which is far more robust and versatile.

Mike:
So when you started out how did you decide what to topics to cover on your blog?

Audee:
Like I said before I was initially looking for a chance to express my abilities and skills. I thought a design niche blog would be a good start. Today I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned and helping other by writing tutorials and posting freebies.

Mike:
Seems your online generosity is well received. You have quite a following!

Audee:
Twitter following is just a number. It means nothing.

What really matters are the relationships you forge. Thankfully I’ve been blessed with a few of those too.

I only wish I had more time to be sociable and have more dialog with my followers.

Mike:
I’m curious as to how you juggle your time. You’re a self employed designer, a mother, and a blogger. What’s you secret?

Audee:
There’s no secret. I’m very selective in whom I follow and I tweet and retweet only things I find to be of value, like Headup.

It actually makes a pretty good example of my flow:
As I mentioned before I learned about you guys by reading Ruhani’s interview.
Since I like exploring new web applications, especially those that include a social aspect, I decided to try you out and write a review.
Knowing that I was committed to giving useful feedback encouraged me to try and get as full an experience of your product as I could, and I’m glad I did because I believe that Headup, and by proxy, my review of it, are helpful for my community.

This interview is a pretty great indication my activities have had value for me too.

Mike:
I think you just gave a very concise and succinct example of the ROI on blogging and social media activities in terms of building one’s personal brand!

Which brings me to my next question – Do you have a particular experience you feel is the highlight of your blogging “career”?

Audee:

“Highlight of my blogging career”, hmm…

I guess my best experiences are related to the freebies I create and share, like a series of Photoshop brush sets I released a while back.

It’s very gratifying to see how people appreciate my contributions.

Regretfully it’s getting harder for me to find time to provide these as more and more of my time is occupied with client projects. Still, I really miss playing around with my pen tool and creating vector freebies.

Mike:
Where do you see yourself a year from now?

Audee:
I want to keep up my blogging activity and freelance work and I’m also going to be launching a few new blogs very soon. I guess it would be nice to get more involved in collaborative projects

Mike:
I wish you the best of luck and would like to thank you again for all the support you’ve given us. I’ll be sure to look out for your new projects on your Twitter feed!

Audee:
Thanks!
I’m looking forward to seeing how you guys evolve too.

Mike:

So are we…

It’s been a big week here at Headup. At long last, after months of hard work, we’ve finally unveiled our Headup “Topic Pages“.

What are Headup topic pages?

Headup topic pages are a new and exciting way to help your audience explore the topics you cover on your blog.

How are they generated?

Like the Tabbed widgets you’re familiar with, the new Topic Pages are generated automatically for each of  the topics Headup identifies in your content. They include all the data you’re familiar with from the Tabbed widgets, and much much more.

How are they displayed?

Headup Topic Pages can be linked and launched directly from your content, or connected via a “Snippet” widget, like the one we’ve installed on this blog (mouse-over the annotations in the demo text below to launch a Snippet).

“…For those of you who simply can’t get enough of Tim Burton, we have another treat from Alice in Wonderland for you. We’ve been given some new images which show, process by process how a piece of imagery goes from being filmed to being put onto a finished piece of film. To help demonstrate this, we’ve got progression art for The Knave of Hearts, The White Rabbit and the Red Queen. Alice in Wonderland is to be released by Disney 5th March and the global premier is set to take place in London with The Prince of Wales in attendance…” (Source: heyuguys.co.uk)

To access a Topic Page click the “More” link at the end of the summary in the snippet widget:

Clicking "More" launches a Topic Page

How can they be customized?

Headup Topic Pages can be customized to match your blog’s branding and show your blog’s articles as “Related Articles”.

The Headup publishers’ dashboard enables you to configure your Topic Pages to show your blog’s logo and coloring in the Topic Page header and display your own posts, or posts from any domain you choose, in the Related Articles section:

Topic Pages can be customized to match your branding & show your related posts (click to view full size)

We’d love to hear your feedback!

Initially available only to a select group of Alpha testers, we intend to release this new feature as an option for all Headup users VERY soon, and are eager to hear your feedback so give us a shout out @headup on Twitter, or leave a comment below and tell us what you think…

Ruhani Rabin - the man to know online Malaysia

My guest for this week’s interview has a dream of harnessing the power of the web to help make the world a better place. His name is Ruhani Rabin and he’s an Asian tech blogger whose life story seems at times to border on the fairytale realms of the Arabian Nights.
Rabin lives in Petaling Jaya, the bustling city that serves as a commercial hub for the kingdom of Selangor, one of the 13 federated states that compose modern Malaysia.
Originally born in Dhaka he moved to Malaysia eight years ago after leaving Bangladesh to seek his fame and fortune. So far he’s well on his way to both – last summer Archanid, the independent agency where Ruhani works as Chief Technology Architect, won the award for “Digital Agency of the Year” from Malaysia’s prestigious “Advertising + Marketing” magazine. His next position is even more impressive (but you’ll have to read this interview to learn more about it).
I got to speak to Ruhani about his blogging career just as he’d moved into a new apartment and the only thing he’d unpacked was his PC.

Mike:
Hiya Ruhani, how’s the move coming along?

Ruhani:
I barely have my setup ready yet. Relocation is a mess.

Mike:
I’d have thought that for someone whose shifted countries such as yourself, a move between apartments shouldn’t be a big deal.

Ruhani:
When moving it’s not the distance that counts as much as the number of boxes you need to pack and unpack.

Mike:
Good answer… I’ll remember that one
So tell me Ruhani, how has your relationship with the web shaped your career?

Ruhani:
My relationship with the web IS in many ways my career. Over the years I’ve been involved in software, hardware, design, construction, data warehousing and other internet related industries but these past 5 years I’ve been very active on the social media scene.
It granted me the ability to create my personal brand simply by building honest relationships with my audience. My write-ups and blogs have provided me with enough exposure to keep me busy. In fact the last 3 positions I’ve filled were all opportunities that came my way thanks to my social networking activities. I didn’t apply for any of them – they just found their way to me.

Mike:
That’s an amazing testimonial you’ve just given to the power of social media but since I know you’re going to be leading Friendster soon you certainly have some pretty solid proof to back you up. Talking about Friendster, I’m really curious as to any details you can share about the plans you have for the site?

Ruhani:
Yes, Friendster has recently been bought by MOL Global/MOL Access portal (Malaysia). MOL is an online gaming, points system, prepaid and money transaction platform. I’ve been assigned to be Vice President of MOL in charge of integrating social engineering ideas for Friendster. Friendster, as I’m sure you know, is one of the oldest social media platforms around. I feel that what it needs is an injection of fresh and creative ideas integrated into the existing platform.

Mike:
I’m sure we’ll all be hearing more about that in the near future and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Friendster returning to center stage of the social media scene, but I’d actually like to look back for a moment and ask you about your original motivation for blogging

Ruhani:
I blog in order to share the advantages of the technologies I’m exposed to with as many people as I can. I’ve always felt that it’s best to share the knowledge you have.

Mike:
Very true!
How and when did you start?

Ruhani:
I first started with Tech2all.com in 2006, around the same time TechCrunch launched. Sadly I lack the location benefits that TC’s team has…
The name tech2all reflected my sole purpose for blogging which is, as I mentioned earlier, to empower people through technology.
I began RuhaniRabin.com as part of my self-branding and I use it to give my personal perspective on topics I find to be of interest or value. I only wish I had more time to dedicate to my writing.

Mike:
How do you decide what topics to cover on your blogs?

Ruhani:
Tech2all covers and reviews “Web 2.0” topics, products and insights.
RuhaniRabin is more personal and therefore a little more eclectic. The main topics revolve around Social Media, Wordpress, Photography and Open Source tools. Lately Twitter has become a hot topic that influences my writing too as well.

Mike:
It seems that between the two blogs you really cover a lot of topics. I’ve also noticed, and you stated yourself earlier, that you’re heavily involved with social media. How did you first get involved?

Ruhani:
Actually my perspective on Social Media is that it’s all about getting to know, and being able to reach REAL people. The reason being that the knowledge you earn from people is knowledge you can’t find written in any book.
I originally started out on Myspace soon after they were launched. My first experiences were pretty unpleasant – I discovered a lot of dishonesty and deception. Rather than let this initial experience daunt me I moved on to Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, Twitter and a multitude of other social networks, some you’ve probably heard of and others too esoteric to mention. It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had.

Mike:
Quite a journey you’ve had. I think that in light of your experiences it’s especially interesting to hear what your perception of Headup is?

Ruhani:
Headup is a wonderful utility, I started using it slightly over month ago and for me it’s like an on-the-spot jargon explainer. The truth is that as a tech blogger I sometimes use terms that aren’t necessarily easy to understand or explain. Headup is my rescue toolkit for these situations. All my readers need do is mouse-over the keyword, and Headup explains it clearly along with related contents from other blogs, videos and tweets.
I think there could be a good monetization option for the widget.
I’ve taken a peek in the light edition of the widget and loved it too (note: Ruhani has been kind enough to let us test a pilot of our snippet widget on his blog).

Mike:
I’m curious as to what suggestions you have for us.

Ruhani:
I think in future it would be great to give an option to select which widget the blog displays to end users. Adding usage stats to the publisher dashboard would be simply fabulous. I’d love to see the speed improve as well.

Mike:
I’m glad to say that all your suggestions are already well under development and should be released later this month.

Ruhani:
Great!
In my opinion, Headup is a must-have for blogs. It really helps readers understand terms and words without having to leave the blog. Before I had Headup installed readers were often required to Google these topics. Headup reduces this need while simultaneously providing contents such as videos, images and tweets that the reader might not even know exist.
Once the stats are available I think Headup will help authors understand which words and terms are popular on their blogs. I really would encourage bloggers to try it out.

Mike:
Thanks so much for this incredible testimonial and all the support you’ve shown us along the way. Congratulations on your new job and good luck! I’ll be talking to you again soon…