Category Archives: Arranging IdeasSscornelius, via Flickr (CC license)
Maybe what journalism education really needs is to start over from a new foundation.
Well, there’s been a ton of great discussion lately on the theme of what kind of education and preparation today’s journalists really need, given the changing landscape of opportunities they’re facing. (Thanks to Mindy McAdams, James Ball, Paul [...]
Amy Gahran
In your own home, you get to put the couch where YOU want it. Who cares if that’s not the living room?
Here’s another reason why learning to use a feed reader is a cornerstone skill for truly succeeding in online media today:
It’s not about your site anymore.In fact, it hasn’t been for at [...]
I keep having this vision. I hope it will come about someday. There’s no way I’m the only person who’d want this. (UPDATE July 31: Nope, I’m not — Jack Vinson chimed in on this theme.)
The problem: Most of the content I’ve created does not live on my computer. It’s all over the web — [...]
A couple of weeks ago, when we both spoke at the Da Vinci Institute’s Blogging Bootcamp seminar, my colleague Dave Taylor made many good points (as he often does).
Of course, I disagree slightly with something he said there (as I often do).
In a nutshell, Dave explained that he doesn’t like to feature a date/timestamp prominently on his weblog postings. He thinks that tends to diminish the perceived long-term value of the content. He encouraged business bloggers to generally follow suit: to focus on providing “evergreen” content, and to play down or possibly even omit the date/timestamp on their blogs.
Personally, I think Dave’s approach puts the blogger’s desires ahead of the needs and reality of the weblog audience – in a way that could be a problem for many blogs, and their readers. Here’s why…
I’ll admit… thanks to my chronic state of learning overload, I haven’t yet gotten around to fully exploring and implementing a much-touted tool called Technorati tags. I know, I know, I should have been all over this one months ago… but life and paying work intervened.
Anyway, today I was gratified to learn that in a recent Social Customer Manifestoblog posting and podcast entitled “The newvoices Tag: Throwing On The Floodlights,” PR/communications guru Christopher Carfi highlighted and graciously complimented my weblog CONTENTIOUS. (Thanks, Chris!) I think this “newvoices” tag strategy is intriguing and worth a shot. So I’ll bite the bullet, learn more about Technorati tags, and give it a try. However, I have a couple of reservations and questions about Technorati tags in general…
“Content” is what you have to say, however you say it. Whenever we communicate we rely on content to convey our message. It’s how we package our thoughts and observations. In turn, content is wrapped in context — which is only partly determined by your intention behind the message you’re sending. Ultimately, you have surprisingly limited influence over the meaning someone receives from your content. This makes trying to accomplish goals, connect with others, and express yourself a tricky business… (NOTE: This posting is part of am ongoing series on content strategy.)
Need to overcome “Blogger’s block?” Try Michael Pollock’s “Book Meme 123.5″ method: 1) Grab the nearest book. 2) Open the book to page 123. 3) Find the fifth sentence. 4) Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. 5) Don’t search around and look for the “coolestâ€? book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you. …OK, here goes my attempt…
I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that my current approach to providing lists of interesting links (via “grab bag” articles) is not sustainable. I’m forever behind. I’m serious. In my Furl archive, my CONTENTIOUS-to-do category was up to nearly 225 items! Also, while it helped simplify presentation to group items into topical lists, that approach also has disadvantages – namely, I could only assign categories to the list as a whole, not to specific items in the list. My goal with my grab bags has always been to enable my clients and readers to learn from my never-ending learning process. However, it simply takes too much time to write a blurb on every item I discover that’s worth sharing. If I fall too far behind in noting useful items, some of them lose the value of timeliness. So here’s my solution: del.icio.us – an amazingly useful online tool I’ve long overlooked…
In this weblog I talk quite a bit about the importance of context – how context allows us to create meaning from facts and opinions. Context is what allows each of us to evaluate information from a variety of perspectives, decide which angles are most meaningful to us, and then decide what (if anything) we wish to do or say in response. Today in Washington DC, the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is debuting President Bush’s proposal for the FY 2006 US federal budget. I realize that sounds like a bunch of boring numbers wrapped up in posturing – and to some extent, it is. However, I’d like to use this as an exercise to examine how context can create meaning…
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