Writing Blogs for All

A great tip from DT.

Copyblogger, everyone's top writing blog, has released their Top Ten Blogs for writers. You will find the tips and inspiration you need to take your writing somewhere new.

Simcoe: Ladies of the Lake

Anyone interested in supporting the Lake Simcoe cause might be interested in the Ladies of the Lake.

Collaboration Tools: When to use them

With all the talk about Wikis and Plone I found a great Slideshare on tips for using collaboration tools.

Rama: Imperial Circus of China

I think the Imperial Circus of China will be at Rama when we are there.

Twitter

In an effort to share the topic I thought I would post this generic version of the discussion.
Internally we have a good resource for these subjects : Commom Craft's Twitter in Plain English

My own opinion is that Twitter already has taken off. While somewhat sketchy in terms of availability I'm told it is because it took off too fast and they couldn't keep up.

It seems to me that more and more politicians and corporate leaders are getting on this bandwagon. It is good for their image and a good way to reach out. It makes people feel in touch with them. I'm not so sure about using it in government. Partly it is a resource issue. Being socially available takes a lot of effort. I'm with introverted BP. I usually have to let stuff pile up so I can do it all at once. There are too many competing resources to be on all the time.

My guess is that Twitter and many other social networking techs allow me to feel in touch with the head honcho while really being in touch with an aide.

It would be interesting to follow someone sho is working on a breaking news story -- like a fish kill or something -- but I think that might be too much risk.

You would really need to know your audience to understand who they would want to follow on Twitter.

sp

________________________________________

That is strange… ;)

I thought I heard something about Barack announcing his running-mate via text message? Talk about reaching out to young voters!

Oh, and I think Twitter was the first of its kind, which is one of the only reasons it’s still so popular because it crashes very often (it wasn’t originally built to handle so many users). Another option you might like is Pownce.

Cheers,

introvert

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From: Abbey
Sent: August 25, 2008 5:02 PM

Holy smokes, who knew communications staff were so eager to not communicate?

:-)

I totally get it.

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From: ew
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2008 5:00 PM

I don’t have a cell phone either except for work (which I only use when I’m out-of-town or at a conference.

This twitter thing sounds like it won’t be a winner. Too many other technologies do the same thing.

And Facebook you can control. Just don’t answer. Like I do at home with the phone

ew

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From: Abbey
Sent: August 25, 2008 4:57 PM

Wow, someone else besides me who does not have a cell phone????????

But I must confess I enjoy Facebook. I have hooked up with some old friends from grade and high school as well as university. Very fun.

My point in sending this was the use of this as a marketing tool. Barack seems to like it. :-)

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From: Introvert
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2008 4:09 PM

Microblogging? Repent! Repent! Haha, I stay away from Twitter for the same reason I refuse to by a cell phone or use Facebook: I’m a surly hermit! ;)

I’m usually an early adopter of these kinds of things (I was on MySpace before Tila Tequila got big) but over time my introverted tendencies creep to the surface and I cancel my accounts.

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From: Abbey
Subject: an interesting example of new media: Twitter

Twitter is an online service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers (known as tweets) to one simple question: What are you doing?

Barack Obama is using it. :-)

http://twitter.com/BarackObama

World of Warcraft

Hey folks,

I have a co-worker who has a sideline business of making clothing for sale in World of Warcraft.
I thought she would be an interesting speaker. Not sure if it would fit in with "Web2.0" or "intergenerational" topics but she said she would be happy to do a little talk on it if we were interested.

Just a thought.
Steve

Why people do what they do...

I'm fascinated with studies about why people do what they do. James L. Pease, PhD, is a neat guy that I heard speak at the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (NWRA) annual conference in Chicago.
He is the director of Iowa State University's Wildlife Extension.

His talk was focussed on the qualities of individuals that make them more, or less, likely to participate in hands on conservation practices. He has some of that research online and you can read about it in papers like Why Landowners Restore Wetlands: A National Survey (PDF).

As I try to find similar journal articles at the library I recall a conversation with my old director. I asked her what types of university research communications people go back to school for. I had noticed that quite few science staff were working on masters degrees and wondered what communicators go back for. My background is in environmental policy and ethics as well as sociology. I then went back for programming and design. I never took formal communications training. She said "Their MBA"? ♦

I'm now wondering what the favourite academic journals are for communications staff. A few of mine are Alternatives Journal and the Journal of Political Ecology.