I have been toying with the idea of having a weekly webinar to help people with blogging and social networking. It wouldn't necessarily be a discussion about autism; it would cover blogging best practices, social networking and how to use the site. Just the basics to help people get a better understanding of how this stuff works.

It would be a weekly ongoing thing, at a set day and time every week and you could join in if you want or simply ignore it if you are not interested. I would use Webex, which allows you to see my screen, and there would be a conference call that everyone could dial into for questions, etc. This would all be provided free of charge.

I run a few other social networking sites, so there would be people from other niches on the webinars as well. If I get enough positive responses I will put this together.

Would anyone here be interested in anything like that?

When posting information to Autism Blogger, there are two simple things you can do to greatly improve where your posts will show up in the search engines. Yes, this information does come up on Google. If you type in "Autism Blog" on Google this site is number one!! We rank number one for several other terms as well, which is huge.

• Category - Select a category for your post. This will keep information organized and it will help others quickly find information. This will also help the search engines identify what your post is about.  Every type of content has categories to select from. You can put items into multiple categories if you wish.
• Meta Tags - Sounds like something geeky and scary, but it's not. A meta tag just tells the search engines what your post is about. You can enter multiple words seperated by a comma (autism,asd,autistic,pdd). Every type of content has a spot where you can enter meta tags.

These two small steps will really help the search engines as well as other members find your content, and if more people find your content, more people will become members.

Please take a moment to update your profile page. You can click on this link to Edit your profile. Once there, you can add your location, photo, personal information, child's information, manage newsletter subscriptions, and more. Only members can see profile information, anonymous users cannot view profiles. Share us much as you feel comfortable, rule of thumb...if you don't want people to know it, don't put it in your profile.

More information about your profile can be found in the help section.

Autism Blogger now has a monthly newsletter. The newsletter will basically be about what is happening on the site as well as some other odds and ends. If anyone has any items they'd like included in the newsletter, please let me know. The newsletter can be read online or you can subscribe to receive it in your email. There is a Newsletter block in the left hand column towards the bottome of the page, you can subscribe or click the link to read previous issues (if you are a member). I recommend anyone interested in staying informed on Autism Blogger, please subscribe.

We are moving away from forums and onward with blogging. Please put all new posts, threads, discussions as blog posts. Blog posts are more versatile, organized and easy to manage. Sorry for any inconvenience. 

On the CBS Evening News tonight on the second round of cases that went to court  today alleging a causal relationship between child vaccination and autism cases.  We've got some preliminary interviews and content up on our site now and  the final piece will air tonight at 6:30 EST (check local listings).  We  would love some help in getting the word out so people can see this  story.

Here is the link to what we have on the web -
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day! Hope everyone is having a great day.

That reminds me, I need to go call my mom... 

I'm sure you've seen those little orange buttons everywhere, but weren't sure what to do with them. I'd like to help, because RSS can be a great thing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Basically, it’s just a feed of information that you can subscribe to. The idea is, you get a piece of software called a feedreader and install it on your computer. Some programs have them built in now such as Thunderbird and I think Internet Explorer 7 has feed reading capabilities. Email programs that include feedreaders are awesome, you can add your favorite RSS feed to your email client and your feeds come in just like email.

The idea is when you subscribe to a feed, you will get notified in your feedreader anytime there is new content. This saves you the time of visiting that site daily. You can even subcribe to the comments, anytime there is a new comment, you'll get notified.

So let's say that you are on a site that you want to subscribe to, click on the orange RSS button, it will take you to a funky looking page. Copy the URL (address at the top) into your feedreader. That's it, now when that site has new information, you'll see it in your feedreader.

RSS feeds are great. You’re definately going to be seeing a lot of exciting stuff happening with RSS in the future.

I have also be posted a video which breaks it down into very easy to understand terms.

I hope this information is helpful?

The Online Autism Community is trying to build up our links page. In 2008, we are trying to gain as many links to other autism sites as possible. We would like our links page to be a powerful resource for people looking for information on Autism.

If you have a site that is Autism related, please let us know. We'd love to swap links with you. It's a great way to build traffic for both sites, as well as helping your readers find great Autism related information.

Come on, let's swap Autism links!!

It is really exciting to see how much this community has grown in the last couple of months. We have several new members and several people posting regularly. I hope that this community is a place where all can feel comfortable sharing and asking others.

If you know of anyone who might benefit from this site, please let them know. Share the link with other parents, support groups, classes, etc. The more people we have, the stronger the community becomes. So, please invite your friends and family to join in on the discussion.

The University of Minnesota is setting up an autism research/treatment center that seems as if it will earnestly study biomed interventions like gfcf and chelation, and implement what they can discern might be working for children. It sounds like they are actually interested in finding out about what is going on in the bodies of our children, and what is working to make them healthier.

You must register to get the full functionality of the site.

The first thing to do is to register if you haven't already.

If you have registered then just need to login. You can have the website remember you so you don't have to login each time. The Login link is located at the top of the page.

Once you login, please fill out your profile.

Personal Information - Share as much information as you feel comfortable. Help us get to know you.

Content  read more »

After years of claiming a preservative in vaccines causes autism, families were finally getting their day in court. Nearly 5,000 families are watching nine test cases that could mean money from a federal vaccine injury fund.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims will be taking a serious look at autism and what some argue causes the condition. For Kansas Citians Keith and Georgia Mueller, it's been a long time coming.

Their son Calab Mueller, had changed from fully functioning at three-years-old to verbally and socially impaired, they said, overnight.  read more »

I just found out today that celebrity Jenny McCarthy has a child with autism. She writes for a site called Indigo Moms. I haven't had a chance to really check it out myself. So I'm not exactly sure how good the information is, but it's another resource.

Autism comment sparks backlash - George Osborne landed in hot water with the National Autistic Society yesterday after he was accused of suggesting that Gordon Brown was faintly autistic.  read more »