With SOPA & PIPA behind us, the next potential threat to the internet we know and love is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA may go much further than SOPA or PIPA ever could have. These agreements have been negotiated in secret between many countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, the European Union and more. Combined efforts to halt invasive legislation that harms all internet users succeeded once and they can succeed again. When you are done enjoying this blog post visit these sites to learn more about ACTA and decide for yourself whether or not opposition is needed:

-          http://www.stopacta.info/

-          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

-          https://www.eff.org/issues/acta

-          http://www.ustr.gov/acta

To honor those who stood up and joined the fight on January 18^th 2012 we thought it would be fun to document the different anti-SOPA/PIPA blackout web pages that we could find. The events of January 18th, 2012 go to show that when people band together a difference truly can be made. What an incredible world we could create if the online community stood together to make a change in other important matters.

Without further ado…

941mediaproject.com

This was my favorite by far.  I think it speaks for itself.

 

theoatmeal.com

This one made me laugh. Here’s a very creative set of images that I hope will make you laugh too.

Click to laugh - http://theoatmeal.com/sopa

 

wikipedia.org

 

wordpress.org

Find a list of all anti-SOPA related Wordpress plugins that were available at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/sopa.

 

wordpress.com

Joining its sister site, wordpress.com provided a nice mock-up of what the internet could have looked like under the proposed SOPA / PIPA legislation.

 

wired.com

 

 

imgur.com

 

minecraft.net

Minecraft had one of the brighter and more distinct designs of the day.

 

icanhascheezburger.com

All sites in the cheezburger network had theez light boxes displaying their distaste for SOPA & PIPA.

 

mashable.com

 

reddit.com

 

boingboing.net

The near blacked out screen of boingboing’s homepage was symbolic of the blacked out internet resulting from the SOPA & PIPA legislation if it had passed.

 

urbanspoon.com

Our favorite restaurant finder had a tasty little morsel of anti SOPA propaganda for us on their sidebar.

 

mozilla.org

Mozilla went a bit further than most and gave us some tidbits of info on the who, what, where, when & why of the SOPA & PIPA legislation.

 

moveon.org

 

craigslist.org

 

sopastrike.com

The nice people over at sopastrike.com also created this template for anyone to use.

 

vimeo.com

 

This great design was created by Zach Johnson and was shown on his website zachstronaut.com where it could be downloaded by all. A few of the bigger names to use this template were postsecret.com, michaelmoore.com and greenpeace.org. Check out the cool shadow & light effect!

 

digibase.ca

The good people at Digibase Operations, a non-profit technology research and development organization, took it ACTA as well as SOPA and PIPA.

 

 

vladgorenshteyn.tumblr.com

Vlad Gorenshteyn had the most adorable anti-SOPA / PIPA website. Just look at the eyes of that future little social networker. Stop SOPA for the children! It’s for the children!! 

 

 

rawstory.com

 

www.ccianet.org

The Computer & Communications Industry Association got in on the blackout.

 

gamepolitics.com

 

eff.org

 

nvca.org

 

namecheap.com

 

dotsub.com

 

moveon.org

 

vanillaforums.org

 

red5studios.com

 

torproject.org

 

webhostingbuzz.com

 

ragemaker.net

 

destructoid.com

Another great image from Destructiod...

 

asofterworld.com

 

identi.ca

 

majorleaguegaming.com

 

crypto.cat

 

colossalmind.com

 

bitbucket.org

 

infospace.ischool.syr.edu

The only school I found taking part (although there were probably others) was the Syracuse University School of Informational Studies.

 

nomacs.org

 

computerhope.com

 

spursofthemoment.com

 

shorttraveltips.com

 

freeinternetpress.com

 

youn00b.com

 

popculturemadness.com

 

celebritymagnet.com

 

americancensorship.org

Check out this site if you want to learn more about who was behind all the fuss on 1/18/2012.

 

occupybirmingham.co.uk

All the way from the good ol’ UK. Thanks for your support!

 

turkreno.com

This page was both informative and fun to read.

 

thetaoofpooh.com

The Tao of Pooh website had the ultimate minimalist anti-SOPA page.

 

jameswadeweaver.com

 

sopablackout.org

 

rockandwater.net

Nothing here? Look in the top left corner.

 

elderscrolls.wikia.com

This Elder Scrolls wiki had the most official looking design. This could have been what your favorite website looked like if SOPA and PIPA were passed.

 

rockkit.com

 

ronbercume.com

 

jazzsequence.com

 

plaguemusic.com

 

theskaterrack.com

 

whitehouse.gov1.info

This fake White House website got in on the protest.

 

memphisghost.com

 

thegeekychic.wordpress.com

 

Bluefirestudios.com, mgtrepair.net and many others displayed this template created and shared with mutual dislike of the proposed regulations.

 

travelswithdavid.wordpress.com

Travels with David had a welcoming personalized message for all of his readers informing them why his site was blacked out due to the protest of the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

 

stormchaser1.net

 

twitpic.com

 

cdt.org

The Center for Democracy & Technology had a cool slideshow which we have gracefully captured just for your pure viewing enjoyment. I don’t have a cool slideshow for you but I do have screenshots of a slideshow...

 

And last but not least… Google

Not that you really need a link Google but I just out of principle I can’t give you one because nearly 1/5 of all the keywords in my analytics are (not provided). No love from you = no love from me. L

 

Here is an article on how Google slowed down spiders to avoid penalizing blacked out sites (this still doesn’t make up for all the (not provided)’s in my Google Analytics). - http://techland.time.com/2012/01/18/google-slows-down-spiders-to-avoid-penalizing-blacked-out-sites/

Click here for a cool infographic from the big G - https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Hello everyone!

First off, hope you had a fantastic holiday and start to the new year. Also, a HUUUGE thanks to everyone that made it out to our party on December 16th -- it was such a blast! We hope you had fun as well. To those that couldn't make it: you really missed out, but you were there in spirit. Thank you all for the love and support you've given us. Bonsai wouldn't be where we are today without it. We're hoping for even bigger and better prospects, clients, contracts, and consequently, parties in 2012 =D

Does it ever seem like I'm the only that posts in here, by the way? I guess we're the only department at BMG to do anything noteworthy... Or maybe I just like tooting our own horn. Regardless, another site has been designed by our awesome Creative team and developed in Umbraco by the development team. 

We've worked with Seattle Nutritionist Michelle Babb for a while on SEO, but to really push her rankings and conversions to the next level, she had to get a new website. Below is a screencap of the before- and after-shot of her website.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

We modernized the look and feel of the website with more color and interactivity. Plus, with the website in the Umbraco, Michelle can update the content at will. This website should last her for the next three to five years. So, if you are looking to upgrade the design of your website OR want to convert it into a content management system, contact us or give us a call -- we'd be happy to help in any way. If we can't meet your needs, there are lots of people in our network we know and trust that can help. Thanks and to a great 2012!

 

 

Hello all

Ever since we got certified back in June, we've only been developing sites in Umbraco. This is news of another one! Lo and behold, Kelley Ross! Thanks to our awesome design team for flexing their creative brains in making an amazing design.

 

Part of the power of Umbraco is that multiple websites can be managed through one backend, so we developed Kelley Ross' two other sites.

 

 

I had an idea to also include a screenshot of the Umbraco backend so you guys can get a look

 

So as we've mentioned, any non-technical person can go in and change the content of their website.

Anyway, we've been pretty busy around here. The rebrand party where we unveil our new website is next week. Plus we're starting to build our reputation and getting to work with bigger and bigger companies. Kelley Ross had been our largest contract at the time of signing, but we recently signed some other big names. Again, stay tuned because Bonsai is definitely going places, and that place is up! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Last week we launched the website for Project Bionic, a social media management company. We've partnered up to help them with their clients by developing custom Facebook landing pages. They needed a website and the ability to change content and images at a whim, so immediately we thought "Umbraco!" Ever since getting certified a few months ago, every proposal we've submitted has Umbraco in mind -- it is our default and preferred platform. All our current web development projects are Umbraco-based. Stayed tuned for those updates and launches. You could say we're Umbraco-crazy =D I digress though...

We managed to integrate Facebook and Twitter to Project Bionic's website and brand it appropriately. Though Twitter allows customization of the colors of their feed, we took it one step further. Thus, we don't have the standard Twitter and FB format, but we kept Project Bionic's retro, 50's, Area-51-ish theme. I must admit things weren't as perfect as I wouldn't liked, so we already have a list of version 2 changes =D Anyway, screenshots below:

 

What do you guys think? Appreciate any comments. Thanks everyone and have a great evening!

Congrats to Phil and Jason for getting certified!

Staying ahead of the curve, Bonsai Media Group takes a step forward by getting certified in one of the most powerful content management systems available.

 

Seattle, WA - Bonsai Media Group has set their eyes on new ventures for their web development team. Becoming the first Umbraco Solutions Provider in Seattle is the correct choice for the business. CEO Jason LaBaw explains, “It is very important to Bonsai that we are consistently improving our services by staying on the cutting edge of web development.”

 

For some time they had been aware of the limitations of some of the more popular content management systems. These limits have concerned both the developer and the end user when building websites. For the developer other content management systems have a lot of extraneous back-end code that can make websites slow. Umbraco does a great job of separating content from how it looks which is paramount in web development. Finally it's really flexible and extensible, without getting too complicated. For the user other content management systems can be complicated and an inexperienced user can actually affect the layout of the site that may need an experienced developer to fix. Umbraco is very simple and capable of doing more than other content management systems, it gives the final editor more control when making updates and changing content.

 

Having an easily maintainable website that business owners can update and change is very important. Umbraco is for anyone that would like to build a website that is both functional and easily maintained.  

 

About Bonsai Media Group

 

Bonsai Media Group is full service internet marketing agency based in Seattle, WA. Service offerings include search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay-per-click, web design, and web development services.