February 14, 2005 – 8:06 pm
As you might imagine, in my work as a content and communication consultant I often get asked for research and statistics on various topics in my field. I’ve gotta admit, I dread those questions. First of all, research and statistics are practically useless when it comes to demonstrating the value of good communication practices — since that value is generally realized in ways which, while significant, is not easily quantifiable or traceable. Secondly, most of the research and statistics I see getting tossed around in this realm are of specious quality or relevance, once examined closely. Today I had an exchange with my colleague Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing that touched on this issue. Here’s what she asked me…
February 14, 2005 – 10:45 am
In keeping with my plan to make this my “Comment Week,” this morning I visited a great blog, “Knowledge Jolt with Jack” (by Jack Vinson). There I found a link to an intriguing Feb. 8 posting by David Weinberger. I left this comment there…
February 12, 2005 – 11:46 am
Here are several items on the topic of how we categorize information (labels and metadata) which caught my attention today. TOP OF THIS LIST: D’Arcy Norman’s Feb. 4 audio post on “loosely bound metadata.” I’ve heard the neologism “folksonomy” floating around in various circles lately. It sounded vaguely interesting to me, but since I’m already suffering from chronic learning overload, I’ve been pushing it off my radar screen. …Until I listened to what Norman had to say on the subject, that is. Now I’m totally jazzed and motivated to learn more about folksonomies. I even decided it was time to create a new CONTENTIOUS category called labels and metadata (this grab bag is the first entry in that category). Here’s a brief excerpt from Norman’s audio post which got me all worked up… (Read that excerpt, and the rest of this list…)
February 11, 2005 – 6:31 pm
I’ve been listening to an interesting series of short audio posts called “The Business Blogging Field Guide,” by Christopher Carfi over at his weblog “The Social Customer Manifesto.” In this series he defines several common types of weblogs offered by organizations or independent professionals in order to directly or indirectly market themselves or influence their field. I just finished listening to the fourth installment in this series, “The Maven.” When Carfi started discussing the “maven” blog (a term borrowed from Malcolm Gladwell’s classic book “The Tipping Point”), I recognized CONTENTIOUS. Yes, I guess that’s mostly what I’m doing here, mavening. And although Carfi didn’t discuss it directly, I realized that I’m probably not the only independent professional who’s not getting optimum marketing mileage from an otherwise-successful maven blog…
February 11, 2005 – 4:26 pm
A few days ago, I decided to close the comment function on all CONTENTIOUS postings more than 30 days old. This is because I was getting slammed with nearly 500 comment spams daily, almost all of which were aimed at older postings. Even though I can delete comment spams en masse before they appear on the site, it was getting to be too much of a hassle to deal with that volume. I still had to look at all the spams to fish out the real comments. Here’s how you can post a comment to an older CONTENTIOUS article…
February 11, 2005 – 4:11 pm
Lately, I’ve been missing out on an important part of the online world: I’ve sharply curtailed the amount of weblogs I’ve been reading. This has not been a deliberate choice – I’ve just been very busy lately with client projects, and I’ve also been felled by two colds and a stomach virus so far in 2005. Any spare time and energy I’ve had has gone into writing for CONTENTIOUS and my personal life. (Yes, I do have one.) However, I miss reading blogs as much as I’d like. Also, being a blogger, I know how important comments are to online culture. Comments help keep bloggers motivated. Psychologically, they’re more valuable to bloggers than site statistics. They’re what makes weblogs so conversational – by enabling a real conversation to occur, publicly. So next week I’m going to use my blogging time a bit differently. Here’s my plan…
February 11, 2005 – 1:20 pm
Back on Jan. 10 I mentioned that “Earthwatch Radio” (an excellent online radio show produced by Wisconsin Sea Grant) should be podcasting, too. At the time they were almost podcasting because they were posting the MP3 audio files for their shows on their web site. However, they lacked a feed that would deliver their shows directly to people who subscribed in “podcatcher” programs such as Doppler. Well, I’ve just heard from Earthwatch – Their podcast feed is now up and running…
February 10, 2005 – 4:16 pm
Now that I’m finally recovered from a despicable, tenacious headcold, here’s another audio edition of CONTENTIOUS. This is quick recap of what I’ve been covering in my “Handling Online Vermin” series, with some thoughts on the role of compassion in dealing with online vermin…
February 8, 2005 – 3:19 pm
“Skewers” have a special gift for warping the fabric of online communities. They routinely skew (misrepresent) the words, actions, perspectives, or opinions of others through misstatements, leaping to conclusions, or ignoring context. When someone twists your words, your first response (as with all online vermin) should be to PAUSE! Evaluate the situation carefully. Ask yourself these questions…
February 7, 2005 – 4:47 pm
Today I’ve added a couple of new female hosted/co-hosted shows to my Women in Podcasting List. The total number of shows on that list is currently 37 podcasts, plus one videolog. Also, I was pleased that Adam Curry, probably the world’s most popular podcaster, briefly mentioned my list in his Feb. 6 Daily Source Code show , and included a direct link to my list in his show notes. However, I was a bit disappointed with the way he seemed dismissive of the issue of women in podcasting. Here’s what he said…
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