contentious.com

Yet another list of interesting content from around the Web that I’d like to share.

TOP OF THIS LIST: UK Guardian political commentaries by Terry Jones, formerly of Monty Python. His latest, published July 7: In Iraq, it’s already July 9th. Here, Jones observes, “…Perhaps the most important lesson to be learnt from the handover of sovereignty ceremony in Iraq is that on no account should any ceremony actually mean anything.” Also, content professionals are especially likely to appreciate First Bomb the Language, Then the Iraqis.

Regardless of which part of the political spectrum you prefer, you have to admit – wouldn’t it be fabulous if more political commentators had the skill and guts to make such poignant, pointed, and genuinely funny remarks? One of the great advantages of humor is that it helps us back away from the inflexibility of deadpan seriousness and thus open us up to seeing the bigger picture.

Find commentaries by Terry Jones by searching the archives of The Guardian and Counterpunch for “Terry Jones” (include the quote marks).

Here’s the rest of this list…

• Information Sharing: It’s all about what you know — and what you choose to tell others, by Chuck Martin, Darwin Magazine, July 2004. An excellent exploration of how styles of sharing information vary based on an organization’s size and culture. Generally, smaller organizations tend to share information more. That’s not surprising, but it is gratifying to hear since I tend to oppose any kind of silo thinking. Martin writes: “In today’s work environment, with the potential for water-cooler gossip and non-productive speculation, it is impossible to overcommunicate and share too much information.” In other words, knowledge is power. (Thanks to Tris Hussey for this link.)

• Agencies criticized for overclassifying information, by Chris Strohm, July 27, GovExec.com. This article points out the danger of silo thinking taken to the extreme. When too much information is deliberately compartmentalized and controlled, dreadful mistakes and accidents can happen. This article notes that the 9/11 report emphasized that “poor information-sharing among federal agencies was a primary problem that contributed to the attacks. The panel …recommends that the overall budget of the intelligence community should be declassified, and information sharing should be stressed over information hoarding.” However, “The report shows that the cost and volume of classified materials has steadily increased since 1996, especially after the Sept. 11 attacks.”

  I think somebody’s missing the big picture on security, here. For more on this topic, read Removing Knowledge by Peter Galison. (Thanks to Secrecy News for these links.)

• Creating White Papers that Drive Sales, by Gwyn Finnell of Salesvantage.com. Earlier today, I discussed How Search Engine Optimization Misses the Point. My main complaint is that often sales- or marketing-oriented organizations shape their online content primarily according to strategies that will yield high search engine placement, rather than focusing on creating quality content that the target audience will value. One way to create quality content that effectively supports sales and marketing is to offer white papers or other informational materials. This article explains how to offer valuable content while supporting sales goals, without compromising either goal. Many of the lessons can extend beyond white papers to FAQs, fact sheets, articles, e-learning modules, and other types of content. (Thanks to PR Machine for this link.)

• 5,000 New Words, CBC News Online, July 26. This article lists a few of the new words just added to the Second Edition of the Canadian Oxford dictionary. This is a useful reminder (especially to the most inflexible and rule-bound editors among us) that language is a work in progress, and we all participate in its creation. This is not to say I believe anything goes in terms of editorial style or linguistic usage. However, I do believe that changes which aid the goal of effective communication are always preferable to ineffective verbal gymnastics using outdated or inappropriate words or rules. (That said, buzzwords which serve mainly to hype and confuse, rather than communicate, do annoy me.)

• Brand Journalism This is yet another buzzword that’s been bugging me. On June 17, e-business expert Seth Godin tackled and pretty successfully deconstructed this buzzword, inspired by McDonald’s head marketer Larry Light. Godin summarized Light’s strategy this way: “Effective marketing should use many stories rather than employing one message to reach everyone. [Light] declared that McDonald’s was abandoning the universal message concept.”

  Godin then remarks, “The marketer doesn’t get to run the conversation. It’s not really brand journalism that’s happening, you see. It’s brand cocktail party! You get to set the table and invite the first batch of guests, but after that the conversation is going to happen with or without you.” This, I think, is going to be a bitter pill for many traditional marketers to swallow – letting go of their illusion of control over people’s perceptions. If they want to appropriate the term “journalism,” they’d better get used to taking and responding to much more direct criticism. (Susan Solomon offers more constructive advice on brand journalism.)

• Webfeeds hit the big time. You can’t get any more mainstream than this: The Wall St. Journal and the New York Times both now offer a series of webfeeds for various news categories. (Thanks to ClickZ for pointing this out.)

• 7 Things RSS Is Good For, July 24, from JD Lasica’s blog New Media Musings. Actually, he lists seven reasons why webfeeds (RSS is only one type) are potentially useful to anyone, plus five reasons why webfeeds are especially useful to publishers and corporations. If you’re a webfeed evangelist on the lookout for succinct, practical ammo to help make your point, don’t miss this article. (Thanks to the Creative Librarian for this link.)

• Researcher links storytelling, math ability, July 29, ScienceBlog. I’m fascinated by what makes good storytelling, and how storytelling can aid various kinds of communication and learning. Apparently, it can also help you work with numbers better, too. Quite intriguing…

• E-Mail Optimization for the Federal Government, by Al DiGuido, July 29. I would not have expected to find an article on emergency communications in ClickZ, but so be it. DiGuido asserts: “An early warning or alert system delivered via e-mail to the public should be an essential element of any DHS communications strategy.” Yes, absolutely, I agree. He goes on to explain how this can work. I know that I often spend hours at a time immersed in projects on my computer, completely ignoring the news – but I do tend to glance at my e-mail regularly. If handled well, this could be a great tool.

• How the federal government should NOT use e-mail. In the journalistic part of my career I cover environmental issues for the SEJ Tipsheet. As such, I receive press releases from a variety of organizations, including the US Environmental Protection Agency. EPA has been issuing its press alerts by e-mail for several years. In that time, the agency has distinguished itself by making every major blunder known to e-mail publishing, several times. I could go on for pages describing their gaffes, but it’s so much more entertaining to experience it for yourself. Subscribe to the EPA press list and see what I mean.

• Conversational Terrorism, by Dean and Marshall VanDruff, 1995. (Yes, it actually bore that title before 2001!) This is an excellent list of examples of how NOT to talk. The power of verbal violence is subtle, pervasive, and drastically underestimated. Yes, words can indeed hurt. I think verbal violence does more than anything else to harm communication and learning across the board. Learn about it, avoid doing it, and point it out when it happens. If you’re really into this topic, read more about Nonviolent Communication.

• Good News India. In the Western world, most of the news we get about India is, frankly, dismal: war, poverty, epidemics, misogyny, open sewers, convoluted politics, environmental devastation, and more. Good News India focuses on the good things that are happening in India: “positive action, steely endeavour and quiet triumphs.” This may sound Polyannaish, but it’s not. These are compelling stories that can broaden your view of that complex land and the people who live there. Yet another example of how there are nearly infinite approaches to “the news.”

• How Thinking Goes Wrong, by Michael Shermer, from his 1997 book Why People Believe Weird Things. This is a first-class discussion of 25 key logical fallacies. Every communicator should know this stuff by heart. Critical thinking is one of the best tools we have to communicate and learn effectively. To learn even more on this topic, don’t miss the book Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking.

• Online Discourse: Past, Present and Future, July 31, from Ulises Ali Mejias’ blog ideant. Rarely does an academic paper make me go “Wow!” This is one of those rare cases when an academic tackles a huge topic and manages to clarify the big picture in a fairly concise way. From the introduction: “The objective of this paper is to provide a framework for evaluating online discourse: its development thus far, the challenges still left to address, and the opportunities still unexplored. …Online discourse, like all other forms of discourse, shapes the development of human thought in particular ways, and therefore affects how we interpret the world.” His language is a bit stilted, but his points are good. (Thanks to Online Learning for this link.)

• 1,001 Iraqi Jokes, by Rod Nordland, May 12, Newsweek. Bringing this list full circle on humor and international events, I’ve always been fascinated with how people use humor to cope with dire situations. This is why one of my favorite books is Is that You Laughing, Comrade?, a collection of underground Russian jokes from the Soviet era. It’s also why one of my favorite films is Life is Beautiful. A good friend of mine, a psychotherapist who often works with trauma or abuse survivors, emphasizes how people can learn to laugh at tragedy. The worse things get, the more people need to laugh at what frightens or oppresses them.

  This Newsweek article examines the kinds of jokes that are making the rounds in Iraq – both among the Iraqis and the US troops. Often the punchlines don’t translate well to English, since they’re heavily context-dependent. That doesn’t matter. Read this article, even if you’re puzzled by the jokes. Get a feel for what the people in this situation are dealing with, which tensions they most need to combat. Black humor is often the most powerful kind.