[Shot Of Jaq](https://www.shotofjaq.org/) is a ten minute, twice-weekly technology and Open Source podcast that is specifically designed to be the *start* of the conversation. We have taken care to build an environment optimized around conversation and discussion, and the *Shot Of Jaq* community is growing at a rate of knots. I just wanted to provide a few updates on the show.

If you want to check it out, here are the last three shows:

* [Has Skype Won The War?](https://shotofjaq.org/2010/01/has-skype-won-the-war/)
* [Nexus Is Born](https://shotofjaq.org/2010/01/nexus-is-born/)
* [Jaqback, Issue 2](https://shotofjaq.org/2010/01/jaqback-issue-2/)

Shows come out every Tuesday and Friday, with Jaqback shows (special community shows where read out your emails) coming out about once a month on a Wednesday.

Remember, each shot is just the *beginning* of the conversation, so do join in to the discussion. I look forward to seeing you there. 🙂

## Shot Of Jaq Fan Goal

For the last half week we have been running a campaign to get our [Shot Of Jaq Facebook Fan Page](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shot-Of-Jaq/255694367792?ref=ts) filled up to **1000** fans by Thursday. We are at *921* right now, so we are looking to you good people to get us up there. A great first step to help here is to join as a fan and then click the *Suggest to friends* link on the page and pass it on to your friends. The more fans, the more conversation, and the more fun for everyone involved. 🙂

Another great way of helping is to pop a badge on your website. Doing this is dead simple. First go to [this Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/fanbadges.php) and you should see this:

Select *Shot Of Jaq* from the *Select a Page* drop down box and the second box will have code you can take to plonk on your website.

[Don’t forget to join the Shot Of Jaq Facebook Fan Page here](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shot-Of-Jaq/255694367792)!

## Shot Of Jaq Scratchpad Launched

The whole point of *Shot Of Jaq* is to build a conversation and collaboration driven community around the show. As we re-iterate in every shot, we are the *start* of the conversation: ten minutes of short, sharp and fun discussion that we hope leads to continued conversation on [www.shotofjaq.org](https://www.shotofjaq.org/).

Since the show started, some community members have been looking to have a place in which they can work together on projects in and around *Shot Of Jaq* and we have not had such a resource available. We didn’t want to just throw up a wiki, disconnected and disjointed from the main *Shot Of Jaq* website…we wanted to re-think it. We now have a solution: the [Shot Of Jaq Scratchpad](https://www.shotofjaq.org/scratchpad).

The scratchpad works a little like this:

* You can go to the scratchpad and without having to register or login, type in a name for your page into a box and a page will be created for you.
* There, you and other *Shot Of Jaq* fans can work together to share information, collaborate an otherwise be fun community people. There are plenty of options for adding markup, tables, images and lots more to make your page as rocking as possible.
* Discussion about your project and page is integrated in a special way: when you create the page it will also generate a hashtag (e.g. `#soj_h`) which you can use on Twitter and identi.ca. All messages on Twitter and identi.ca containing the hashtag will appear in the sidebar on your scratchpad page. Sweet, eh. 🙂

The *Shot Of Jaq Scratchpad* provides a simple way in which you can create content, work together and projects and discuss said content and projects on Twitter and identi.ca and have it all integrated together, right here on [www.shotofjaq.org](https://www.shotofjaq.org), and none of it require frustrating user accounts, sign-ups and more.

So, with our new feature ready to roll, what kind of content and projects can you use it for? Here are just a few ideas:

* Spreading The Word – we are really keen to help share each shot far and wide. We want people to join us in the conversation, but we need you folks to help spread the word. A page on how to publicise each shot would be awesome, with tips and tricks for our community members to use.
* Transcriptions – for our deaf *Shot Of Jaq* fans, it would be fantastic to have transcriptions, and fortunately because shots are so short, they are not too much work.
* Outreach Project – we have talked in the [Shot Of Jaq Chat Channel](https://www.shotofjaq.org/chat/) about coming up with some stunts and ideas to spread awareness of the show – the scratchpad is a great place to scheme about this kind of thing!
* Resources – want to create *Shot Of Jaq* website buttons, banners and other material? Add them to the scratchpad!
* Your ideas go here…!

So ladies and gents, rock out with your pad out. 🙂