The Terra Madre Blog is a communication tool for everyone involved in Terra Madre – not just the food communities, cooks and academics that are the focus of Terra Madre 2006, but also Slow Food convivium leaders, Terra Madre coordinators, University of Gastronomic Sciences students and people all over the world who are part of the Terra Madre network. The blog is a way to connect everyone within this network and also allows others following these messages and posts to get to know your work and what Terra Madre is all about.

This is the place to put all your questions, answers, photos, experiences, concerns – anything you wish to share with the rest of the Terra Madre network.

To get started, read on.

User’s Guide to the Terra Madre Blog

The Easiest Way

E-mail your message (and any photos) to tmblog@slowfood.com and we will add them to the blog for you. Just remember to include your name, the name of your food community or convivium and where you are located.

The Easy Way

1. You must be connected to the Internet. Unfortunately, if you do not have a connection, you will be unable to write on the blog (at least for now). On the other hand, you can post from any computer that is connected to the Internet, whether at an Internet café, library or other facility.

2. Go to http://blog.terramadre2006.org/system/

3. Enter the username and password you have been provided and press “Submit�. (If you are a Terra Madre delegate and do not know your username and password, please write to tmblog@slowfood.com.

4. The Blog Editor window will open with tabs (Publish, Edit, Templates, Communicate, My Account) across the top.

5. Select “Publish� to write a blog post.

6. The Publish Form will open. In the “Title� field, enter a reasonably short and appropriate title for your post. [*Note: the “URL Title� field will be filled in automatically as you type your title. You can ignore this field.]

7. Write your post in the “Summary� box. [*If you know HTML and are comfortable formatting blog posts, feel free to use any of the buttons above this box and the “Body� and “Extended text� boxes.]

8. If you have a photo or image to add to your post skip to the section “Photos� below.
If you don’t have anything else to add, proceed to the next step.

9. Check your post for any spelling or grammar mistakes and correct them as necessary.

10. Click “Submit� (in the green box to the right of the Title field).

You’ve just posted to the Terra Madre Blog!
You can view your post at blog.terramadre2006.org.

Photos

1. Click on the icon (which looks like a piece of paper with a green arrow under the “Quick Save� button) in the blue box to the right of the Title field.

2. The File Upload window will pop up. In this window, click “Choose File� and select a file from your computer, then click “Upload� (Don’t worry about the Destination Directory).

3. The File Upload window will tell you that your file has been uploaded.  (Please see “Troubleshootingâ€? below if this is not the case.)

4. Ignore “Resize Image and “Select Your Placement Options� and click “Place Image and Close Window�.

5. In the main Publish window, you’ll see that a long <img src=…> tag. This represents your image. Do not delete this tag or alter it. You can place your text before the tag or after or around it, depending on how you wish the image to appear in your post. (Click “Preview� to get an idea of how it will look.)

6. Go to Step 9 in the section above.

Troubleshooting

• You receive a warning that a file exists with the same name as yours. Please choose a new name for your image to avoid overwriting someone else’s image.

• Your image may not appear or you may see gibberish text in your post instead of your image. This probably means that the <img src=...> tag has either been deleted or changed in some way and now is broken. You must either repair the tag or re-upload your image; click the “Edit� tab in the Blog Editor to do either of these.

• Your image appears distorted. This is probably because “Constrain Proportions� was not selected when you resized your image. Click the “Edit� tab in the Blog Editor, erase the tag <img src=...> in the “Summary� box and follow the Photo instructions again, making sure in the Resizing Image window that “Constrain Proportions� is checked.

• Your image appears twice. This is probably because you clicked the “Place Image� button twice or clicked both “Place Image� and “Place Image and Close Window� in teh Resizing Image window. Click the “Edit� tab in the Blog Editor, erase the tag <img src=…> in the “Summary� box and follow the Photo instructions again, making sure in the Resizing Image window that you click just “Place Image and Close Window�.

Suggestions

At the end of your message, we recommend that you write your full name and your e-mail address so that those interested in getting touch with you can do so easily. To avoid spam messages to your e-mail, you should write your address like this: [username] AT [email] DOT [domain].

Example: tmblog AT slowfood DOT com

You might also want to include the name of your food community if you are a delegate and your locatioin (city, state/region/province and country).

For the Advanced User

Please be sure that any photos you use are less than 100 kb in size and when uploading them, be sure to resize them so that whichever dimension is greatest (either width or height) does not exceed 300 pixels. Selecting “Constrain Proportions� in the image upload window will ensure that the image is not distorted when you resize.

If you are comfortable with blogging and using the Blog Editor, you can ignore most of the instructions given above and enhance your post however you wish. Experiment with formatting and add links as you see fit. You may also find assigning categories (click the “Categories� tab in the Blog Editor) to your post very useful for allowing blog readers to find the posts they are looking for.

If you have any audio or video files you would like to share, please contact for more information. You might want to try using a site like youtube.com or ezarchive.com for such files and linking to files you’ve stored there, but we can also put your files in the “Watch & Listen� section to make them more prominent and easy to find.

Blogging may take a little getting used to if you’ve never done it before, but we’re here to answer any questions or help you in any way we can. If you have trouble with any of these steps, please write to tmblog@slowfood.com

Good luck and Happy Blogging!