"Here's the deal with Twitter as it applies to fast-breaking news: All it takes is one person with knowledge of a big-deal news event (in this case, anyone in the NBC building who learned about Russert's death) to instantly blast it out via Twitter to blow apart any notion you may have of holding back the tide for a few minutes." Steve Outing, E-Media Tidbits
Mark Ramsey points us to this LA Times story about Chrysler's plans to offer wireless Internet in its 2009 models. Something we all knew was coming. As always, Mr. Ramsey asks the good questions. Here's one of them:
"What does it mean to be "radio" in a world where audio is fully integrated into an experience that includes video, text, interactivity, and personalization? The attraction to these services will not only be that they're supplemental to radio, but that they expand the definition of radio. And that expansion will benefit only those broadcasters and their partners smart enough to recognize that the advantage of a broadcast tower is non-existent in this context."
Or a satellite channel?
Anybody who tells you they don't check their blog stats is lying. I look for the same reason you look in a wastebasket when you hear a noise coming from it.
I moved from Blogger to Typepad about 5 years ago and it has a little stats page. The metric I find most interesting is Average Page Views per Day. One hundred page views could be ten people looking at ten pages or one hundred people looking at one page. But I sort of figure most folks look at the home page for anything new and move on. Page Views = Unique Visitors.
For the last few years I've hovered around 299 PV per day. Always close to 300, but never quite there. Until today. No idea if this number will hold but it's something of a relief to --even for a few hours-- reach that number.
And now that I have, I'm going to try to think of you as those extremely gay, semi-animated Spartans in the movie "300."
The sales staff of our company's news division held their annual retreat this week. Your basic training/planning/role-playing/drinking/cheer leading get-away. I've attended a lot of them but not this one.
With video getting easier to shoot and edit, they decided to record some of the role playing sessions for evaluation purposes. Super Intern Jon Allison was put in charge of AV chores and he was MORE than up to the task. Check out his 5 minute mash-up (produced in iMovie HD).
In a pre-YouTube world, we would have posted a few still images on the company intranet or sent around some lame-ass PowerPoint (a couple of weeks after the event). Jon had this ready to watch before they came home.
Here's my question for managers: Do you have someone on your staff that can produce something like this? [Photo: Jon with Learfield Kahuna Roger Gardner]
Don't bail before the big finish. Worth the wait. [Thanks, Bob.]
Kevin O'Keefe points to an excellent post by Liz Strauss, an expert in corporate online communications.
Whether they say the words or not, many companies are afraid to let their employees blog. Liz wonders "is the blog the problem?"
"Look to the people. Isn’t the issue one of trust and control? The employer is concerned about what employees might write on the blog.
We let employees talk to customers daily — answering email, answering phone call, answering questions at exhibits, and answering letters at the office. We trust what they write on behalf of our company. We once worried in the same way about the telephone and email.
It comes down to hiring and training employees who make good decisions.
If we trust our ability to choose the right employees and to let them know the values that we hold for our company and our customers, the question of whether we should let them blog falls away as an issue.
A blog is a powerful, customer-facing tool. Like a computer, it’s as strong as the people we choose to use it."
Kevin was told recently of one senior lawyer who was told by the firm that they would not be permitted to blog. 'The firm does not allow its lawyers to blog.'
The lawyer responded with a question. 'Why am I working at a place that does not trust me to talk about what I do - about a niche in the law I am passionate about?'
Somebody at Gizmodo shares some very logical reasons for sticking with Windows.
"But really, when it comes down to it, the main reason I still use Windows is this: I'm stubborn and lazy. I don't want to switch because it will amount to admitting that I've been wrong for the last 15 years or so. And it would be just a huge pain to do it even if I swallowed my pride, having to relearn all the shortcuts and commands and little nuances that make an OS tick. I know all those for Windows already. I am just far too lazy to relearn OS X, and I don't care how easy you claim it is. I've made my choice, and I'm sticking by it. At least until I buy my next computer, because I sure as hell don't want to have to use Vista. I mean, I like Windows, but I'm not crazy."
I was NOT a Windows power user (even after all those years) so the switch was easier for me. But completely understand why someone wouldn't.
But for moi, a day doesn't go by that I don't discover some useful new feature in OS X. Or some amazing Mac application that makes my life easier.
Crazy Driver Nearly Killed By Train - Watch more free videos
No matter which direction I point my office webcam, or the time of day or season, it surprises (and delights) me with tiny, empty moments in time. I got all creepy last time I posted on this so I won't do that this time.
This is what my webcam sees, hour after hour. This particular image brings to mind a hospital room in the wee hours. The patient can't sleep and listens to the awful sounds of a hospital floor. Now and then a nurse or orderly passes by. But mostly it's the empty corridor. (shudder)
Man, I gotta aim that thing out the window.
"The professional news tribe is in the midst of a great drama. It has over the last few years begun to realize that it cannot live any more on the ground it settled so successfully as the industrial purveyors of one-to-many, consensus-is-ours news. The land they were living on--also called their business model--no long supports their best work. So they have come to a reluctant point of realization: that to live on, to keep the professional press going, the news tribe will have to migrate across the digital divide and re-settle itself on a new ground, or as we sometimes call it, a new platform."
Professor Rosen has hit upon a pretty good metaphor. You can read his full piece here.
If I were a young person interested in doing journalism, I'd find a wagon train with a good wagon master (like Ward Bond) and a good scout and get on board.
I'm not much on symbols. Like the endless array of ribbons you can stick on the back of your car. Or the little red Fight AIDS ribbons that were so much in vogue. And flag pins for your lapel. Senator Obama caught a lot of shit because he sometimes didn't wear one. So he must not love his country, right. Uh huh.
I sometimes wear a little computer mouse pin in my lapel and it drives people nuts trying to figure out what it is. Sometimes a button that reads: Never Shake. The actual reference is to babies, but I choose to use it as a warning not to shake someone my age (we pee very easily).
I debated pin or no-pin for my photo with Senator Obama a couple of weeks back but finally opted to show my support for Gnomies everywhere.
Feeling a little stiff these days. Muscles don't have the elasticity they once did. So I decided to take a yoga class. A couple of the volunteer instructors are regulars at the Coffee Zone. So I decided to check it out.
There were only five of us in tonight's class and the other four were too polite to laugh out loud when I made little mewling sounds. But I must say I enjoyed the hour and plan to go back. My Christmas card will be me touching my toes.
I've just received the green light to publish the new sales training video we use here at Learfield. Part I above and Part II here.
And for those of you pressed for time in your lives, just skip smays.com and go directly to The J-Walk Blog.
God, how I would have loved to have been in the editorial meeting that generated these stories. Click any headline above to get to The Onion.
If you have an "issue" with weight, skip this post. You won't find it amusing, insightful or nostalgic. It will only piss you off. (Are they gone?)
If turning 60 was a milestone, this week I passed one of far greater significance. I outgrew my Levis. First time.
I've weighed 155 pounds since high school. I've worn the same size Levis --34" inseam, 32" waist-- for more than 40 years. And I have some jeans that are 20 years old. The same age as some of our summer interns.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
I've gained about 5 pounds in the last 6 months, enough to make all of my comfortable, fashionably warn jeans just a little too snug. Oh, I can lie down on the bed, like some supermodel and get them buttoned but they just aren't comfortable any longer.
So this weekend I purchased some new jeans, with a 34 inch waist. Talk about Passages. On the up side, it's a hell of a lot easier to find 34x34 jeans than 32x34, although I'm not sure why.
Still in the last stages of denial, I came home and tried on --one final time-- all my dear old jeans. Only a couple made the cut. The rest are in suspended animation in a big Tupperware crate in the basement.
I have no doubt they could fetch a couple of hundred a piece on Rodeo Drive (assuming straight leg jeans ever make a comeback). But you can't put a price on knowing Jessica Alba's little keester was packed in a pair of my old Levis. Sigh.
Writing in Time Magazine, James Poniewozek has an interesting take (The Beltway-Blog Battle) on the passing of Tim Russert.
"...the press lost its most authoritative mass-market journalist, just as it is losing its authority and its mass market."
The New Meida vs. Old Media argument got tiresome a long time ago, but Mr. Poniewozek offers a fresh take. A few paragraphs to wet your whistle:
"In their original division of labor, the old media broke news while the blogs dispensed opinion. But look at two of the biggest stories of the Democratic primary: Barack Obama's comments that working-class voters are "bitter" and Bill Clinton's rope-line rant that a reporter who profiled him was a "scumbag." Both were broken by a volunteer for the Huffington Post website, Mayhill Fowler.
Traditional reporters were aghast at Fowler's methods--the Obama meeting was closed to press (she got in as a donor), and Fowler did not identify herself when speaking to Clinton. But mainstream media had no problem treating the scoops as big news; if she had overheard both quotes in the same way but told them to a newspaper instead of publishing them, that would have been considered a coup.
The case against Fowler, in other words, was about process and credentials, not content. If sources stop trusting us, reporters asked, how will we do our jobs? But however sneaky her methods, Fowler's stories prove that one reason sites like Huffington have an audience is the perception that Establishment journalism has gotten better at serving its powerful sources than its public. Fiascoes like the Iraq-WMD reporting gave many the impression that the old rules mainly protect consultant-cosseted public officials who need protection least."
[For more on the Mayhill Fowler story, here's a bit of audio with Arianna Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media's internal Future of Journalism event on 18th June 2008.]
Mr. Poniewozik poses this rather rude question regarding MSM: "...if 3 million people read Drudge and 65,000 read the New Republic, which is mainstream?"
This I Believe is "a national media project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values and beliefs that guide their daily lives. NPR airs these three-minute essays on All Things Considered, Tell Me More and Weekend Edition Sunday."
This morning's essay was by Paul Thorn, a singer-songwriter raised in Pentecostal-type faith in northeast Mississippi where "The people who were trying to get me to God used fear and intimidation like a hammer, beating into submission anyone who dared to question their brand of absolute truth."
Mr. Thorn's essay has a happy and hopeful end. Audio runs just over 5 min.
Guardian.co.uk: "The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago. Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in "dozens of US cities". The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor."
I'm a bit bothered by "aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources." This suggests (to me) that a HuffPo editor in St. Louis, should they expand to that city, would link to stories from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website. Or even our statewide news network, when we do a story with St. Louis relevance.
Which is way the web works, of course. I'm not quite sure what about this plan bothers me. Maybe it's: What can a single Huffington Post editor provide that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website cannot?
Is it a matter of putting an editor in each of the top 50 markets... have them aggregate stories and links to local news sources... and building an online audience that is smaller while accomplishing all of this at a fraction of the overhead?
Or is it that the people behind the Huffington Post just get the web better than most of the other guys?
A St. Louis firefighter attends to a victim of a motorcycle accident after a collision with a pickup truck in St. Louis on Saturday. Two people on the motorcycle were seriously injured. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt)
Sometimes, standing at the pump, I fantacize about getting a little scooter. But then an image --not unlike this one-- forms in my mind and I crawl back in the 4-Runner.
And is Barb right, you don't have to wear a helmet in Missouri now?
"In the history of filmmaking, there is only one movie that Marines like, and that's the first 20 minutes of Full Metal Jacket," Sgt. Eric Kocher says, slicing into a medium-rare steak in a midtown New York restaurant. "After that, it all goes to shit." 
You know I loved The Wire. Probably best series ever. And Band of Brothers gets my vote for best mini-series of all time. We won't be taking evening calls for those seven nights.
It's always fun to showcase talent from "down home." Neal E. Boyd is from Sikeston which is just up the road (from Kennett, MO) in Sikeston, where he's an insurance salesman.
He's also a competitor on American's Got Talent, the show I've (never watched) but always thought of as the poor man's American Idol. Neal sings opera.
And from our Small World File, Neal attended choir camp at Arkansas State University under the direction of my old friend Viretta and he sang at the Christmas Eve service of the Presbyterian Church in Kennett a couple of years back. A gig made famous by frequent appearances by Sheryl Crow. [Thanks, Nancy]
Personal Democracy Forum/techPresident: "Starting tonight, a designated representative of both of the major presidential campaigns are going to participate in a free-wheeling debate on technology and government, moderated by Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox and channeled via Twitter."
This is probably one of those ideas that sounds more interesting than they turn out to be. But I'll be following along, just because I have the hots for AMC.
It isn't simply streaming your current morning show. Or putting it online for download. Mr. Del Colliano lays it out -- in ten easy steps -- on his blog. #1 gives you the setup and #7 and #8 my favorites.
1. Start ten morning shows (other than the one that is airing on your terrestrial station). The content should aim at one demographic that is desirable to sell. Example: women 25-54. Ten shows that don’t air on the radio.
7. Hire the right person(s) to host this 45-minute show – not, I repeat, not anyone from your airstaff. Podcasting is not to be confused with broadcasting. You may be a professional broadcaster but it is not in your best interest to make these podcasts son of what is already on your air. Give the host a piece of the show and lock him or her into it for the long term. As it develops it will be a moneymaker for you and for your talent.
8. Do not include traditional spots in the podcast. Commercials have seen there better days. Young people don’t listen – but consider the “live read” approach that goes over very well with young people. If they are hooked on a podcast then they will listen to a “live read” by the host(s) if it is sincere and keeping with the overall approach of the show.
Mr. Del Colliano concludes his post with a bit of insight into Generation Y:
(Gen Y) went through childhood without a love for radio, unlike baby boomers or Gen X. They are attached to their iPods and smart phones – their new radio. If you still want to be in the content business when the last baby boomer passes into The Hall of Fame, learn about the new radio – podcasting.
The "ten morning shows" had me puzzled at first. But I'm guessing you need this many, all aimed at the same demo, to reach the numbers that will be attractive to advertisers. The advertises cares about reaching the demo (Women 25-54 in the example above) and not so much about how many shows he sponsors to reach them, assuming the price makes sense.
So let's assume we have a 25 minute commute to Jefferson City (from Columbia or Loose Creek). Would I be willing to produce five, 25-min podcasts a week for a piece of the show? I would if Mr. Del Colliano was managing the station.
That phrase came to me in a dream last night. People of a certain age might remember it from a Saturday morning TV show (1955-1960) called Andie's Gang, starring Andy Devine.
It's a little difficult to explain the phrase, and Froggie. Someone off camera would say the words, "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggie," and a rubber fog, about 10 inches high, would appear in a cloud of smoke.
I had a Froggie. There was a little noise maker in the heel of one shoe and when you squeezed Froggie, he made a cool croaking sound.
I only mention because the phrase would make for a good T-Shirt. And maybe we can become the number one hit from a Google search (since there are only 6 hits at present).
I checked this a couple of years ago with the same results. The reading level of smays.com is elementary school, according to this website. The high end of the scale goes up college (maybe grad school?) and I think elementary school is the low end (do pre-schoolers read?).
I know it doesn't sound like it, but I think it might be a good thing to write at a level that third graders can follow. I assure you, I'm not trying to write down to anyone. The words you read are the ones in hear in my head. Hmm. See smays blog. Blog smays, blog.
I was talking with a co-worker about Lara Logan's (CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent) recent appearance on The Daily Show. She posed the question, "When was the last time you saw a dead American soldier on TV?" She was making the point that media in the U. S. has been MIA on the war in Iraq (except for that victorious march into Baghdad).
My co-worker's take was: "The only reason to show a dead American soldier would be to turn someone against the war."
Or maybe that war is news and death is part of the story?
Actually, I didn't have a response. I can understand that view coming from W or Rumsfeld (back in the day). But how many citizens feel the same? How many would rather not to see the bloody reality of war on their TV screens?
By this logic, we also shouldn't be seeing the critically wounded at Walter Reed. Or can we translate missing limbs to a "don't-let-their-sacrifices-be-in-vain" message?
So I'm asking myself why we saw more dead troops during the Viet Nam war, and it came to me. We had lots of reporters on the front lines in that war. But not so many on the mean streets of Baghdad.
In the old days, you could make a career filing reports from the front lines. Sure, you could shot, but you weren't likely to wind up the star of a YouTube beheading video.
Naw, American journalism took a pass on this war. Better to let the Brits cover this one.
One more cool thing found on the J-Walk Blog. The Detroit Free Press website is Freep.com. I like that. Click here or the image above to get the 360 view.
More at TVinJapan. [via Boing Boing]
This is one of the reasons I've always owned my own laptops (and most other work-related) toys. Even though the company would have probably provided some of these. I take the "carpenter's tools" view. I know that all hammers are not the same. I want the best.
That was part of a promo I heard on MSNBC tonight. First time I noticed the phrase, "embed video." Even the networks are figuring out it's a good thing to have your video embedded in millions of blogs and websites.
I'm sure there is still a lot of "...no, no! We want them to come to OUR website!" But the web IS the network now and your affiliates are are all those blogs.
The Gizmodo caption for this photo was better than the NY Times': "Last Tuesday, Lori Mehmen looked out her front door in Orchard, Iowa and this is what she saw. She had a digital camera handy, and somehow managed to take this photo before crapping her pants and taking cover. This, my friends, is why always having a camera nearby is helpful." [NY Times]
This NYT story reminded me one of my favorite management stories (The Cleanest Tastee Freeze in Town). A couple of grafs in particular:
"No state was more important to his candidacy than Iowa, but when (Senator Obama) arrived there for campaign visits he stopped aides who tried to give detailed accounts of developments."
“I’d get in the car with him and talk a mile a minute,” recalled Paul Tewes, who was the campaign’s state director. Mr. Tewes recalled that on the candidate’s fifth visit to the state, Mr. Obama interrupted one of his detailed updates, saying: “You know what, Paul? All I want from you is for you to do your best, and I trust you and you know what you’re doing.”
In the years that I reported to Clyde Lear, I heard him say (to me and others) almost those exact words, more times than I can count. I've heard many talk the talk in this regard, but only a few that could walk the walk. Nice to know Senator O is one of them.
Interesting little post at Slate on how people read online (and how to write for them). Readers tend to be "selfish, lazy and ruthless." When you arrive on a page, you don't actually deign to read it. You scan. If you don't see what you need, you're gone.
Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson got all Rottweiler'y on the local press recently and among his complaints, anonymous bloggers:
"On top of that, we have this Internet thing that's going on now, this blogging stuff. Used to be, if you wanted to say something, you had to put your name it ... now, there's this anonymous character assassination that's encouraged, in order to sell newspapers or other media outlets."
It's been a while since I heard/saw "this Internet thing." One of my favorite expressions. But His Honor and I do agree on the anonymous blogging issue. He has no way of knowing if the blogger who is ripping him a new one is his opponent. And we have know way of knowing if the blogger who supports his every action is his press secretary.
An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.
"The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't "the worst of the worst." From the moment that Guantanamo opened in early 2002, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White said, it was obvious that at least a third of the population didn't belong there."
Stories like this one -- and the way those accused respond to them -- raise a troubling (to me) question about American journalism. Why can't we have one news organization that everyone can agree is factual and fair. Just one. "Truthiness" is no longer a joke.
Somewhere in the White House and the Pentagon, men and women are figuring out ways to discredit this story and the people who reported it. I won't try to list the tactics they employee because we are all too familiar with them.
And those who chose not to believe stories like this one need only the flimsiest excuse ("There goes the Liberal Media again." or "Fox News says it's not true.").
Remember how skeptical the world was of the claims by German citizens that they didn't know what was going on in the concentration camps?
"Whoa! Hold on there smays.com! You aren't comparing Guantanamo to Auschwitz are you?"
No. I'm talking about what we, the American people, allow our government to do on our behalf. If we've been holding hundreds of innocent men for five or six years and --in some cases-- torturing (I know, I know... water boarding is not torture) them, will our best explanation be, "We were at war."
Ich bin beschämt
The Kansas Audio-Reader Network is "a reading and information service for blind, visually impaired, and print disabled individuals in Kansas and western Missouri. Services are offered free of charge to anyone in our listening area who is unable to read normal printed material."
Here's an example of the service they provide (about 6 min).
Download/Listen (5 min.MP3)
This would seem to be an invaluable service for those who cannot read a newspaper. I wonder what impact, if any, the Internet is having on services like this. I understand that not everyone has a computer and access to the web but that number is shrinking daily.
I assume the blind or visually impaired can have the text on any web page translated to spoken audio. While this would give the user more control over the information she consumes, it might be more... entertaining? ...to have a human read it aloud. Or why not have both.
UPDATE: Matt points us to similar service in Missouri.
Our news networks in Iowa and Wisconsin have been scrambling to cover the flooding in those states. Unlike newspapers and TV stations, we don't have photographers and videographers to supply "pictures" for the stories we post to our websites. And a flood is a very visible event.
I didn't have to look long on flickr to find literally thousands of photos (and video) of flooding in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. I pinged one of the photographers (James Lewin) for permission to use some of his images and he graciously agreed.
This is a small example of how reporting might happen from this point on. A loose collaboration of professionals and non-professionals. The news organizations that understand how to tap into these "citizen journalists" will be the winners.
And I'm not sure why. I didn't "know" the man but, like many of his faithful viewers, felt as though I did. NBC devoted the full half-hour of the evening newscast to memories of Tim ("Mr. Russert" doesn't feel right).
Maybe it's my new-found interest in politics... or Father's Day rolling around again... but I'm reminded of my pop, who died six years ago.
Dad was not the "family man" Tim Russert was reported to be. At least not demonstrably so. But he had his passions and radio was one of them. One I shared.
So, in memory of Tim Russert --and my dad-- I share this interview I did with my dad shortly before he retired from radio.
Reporters for our ag radio network (Brownfield Ag News) were recently issued Casio digital cameras. They've been using them for still images for the most part but Dave Russell got a minute-and-a-half of first-rate video showing flooding and erosion in an Indiana corn field.
Dave is new to the world of hand-held point-and-shoot video but notice how he gets in a few questions (recorded on the Casio) while panning across the field. I have no doubt we'll be seeing more good video from Dave and his fellow reporters.
My friend Jeff couldn't make it to the Obama fund raiser but got caught up in my Child of the Sixties meme and decided to Photoshop himself an "Obama and Me" pic. Which made me realize I didn't have to be satisfied with my somewhat startled expression. The caption almost writes itself.
If I had it to do over, I think I would have added a touch of "street" to my ensemble.
And if I'm going to doctor the photo, why not turn back the clock a few years?
Last week I posted that I had decided to avoid discussing politics. In the next paragraph, I said that I would continue to post on political topics, I just wouldn't be having pointless --often strained-- debates with friends.
As if to confirm my decision, I quickly heard from a couple of readers who observed, "THAT didn't take long!" ...referring to my next post dealing with politics. And they were miffed that I sometimes turn off comments on a post. It's not that I don't care what you have to say, I'd just rather read it on your blog.
And while I haven't entirely eliminated politics from smays.com, I try to put most of that stuff on Politix. Again, it's a journal... not a debate or even a conversation. I suggest Fox or MSNBC for that stuff.
One final point. The company I work for owns a number of news networks, in several states, but I have no editorial input or oversight for those newsrooms. I help with maintenance of their websites but that's it. Nobody reports to me, I am a staff of one.
And you were afraid I'd embarrass myself. Please. [Larger image]
Cheri Kitoman was on her way tot he grocery store last Saturday (in Milwaukee) when she heard a ka-boom. A 300-pound manhole cover could not withstand the water and air pressure from the bulging sewer below (lots of rain and flooding) and the blast lifted up the rear end of the van some five feet in the air. The right rear wheel blew clean off with part of the axle and suspension still attached. The van returned to earth, flipped around facing the opposite direction and wound up on someone’s front lawn. [JS Online. Thanks, Jackie]
If you missed this story on NPR's Morning Edition last week, it's worth a listen (4 min). Seems the market for web site domain names is on the rise. Last month, the name Gasprices.com sold for $300,000.
Back when we registered Legislature.com, we could not believe it was still available. I mean, ALL one-word domains were gone by that time. But for some reason, not Legislature.com. We jumped on it. Would we sell it? In a New York minute. Dot com.
Another "plain English" video from the folks at Common Craft. Previous installments in this series were dead-on. RSS, Blogging, Podcasting... all clearly explained. I think the concept of social media is more challenging. I think you might watch this one and still be fuzzy on just what social media is. You just have to use it to grock grok it.
UPDATE: Thanks to Dr. T. Everett Mobley for catching my misspelling of grok. I had to work hard to remember the "c" in "Barack" and it just slipped in. What would I do without you, Doc?
Remember the first time you had your picture taken sitting on a pony? Or in Santa's lap? Or that first prom photo? That's exactly what it was like getting my picture taken with Senator Barack Obama at last night's fund raiser in St. Louis. Assuming of course that you waited in line for two hours with 250 other kids and paid two grand for that pony picture.
This was my maiden voyage in the world of political fund raisers and I had no idea what to expect. My friends Henry and Lorna were there too, all of us first-timers. In fact, a lot of the people I met and spoke to were first-time contributers. I thought that was interesting, given that it cost $2,300 for the privilege of having your photo taken with the man that that might be the next president of the U. S. But these were true believers and everyone seemed happy to pony up. (no pun intended)
It's just a guess, mind you, but I figure they took in more than half a million from the VIP'ers and --at $500 per-- another $200,000 from those that heard Senator Obama speak but didn't get to shake his hand. Closing in on 3/4 of a million dollars. Not big by GOP standards but not too shabby for a couple of hours.
So, what do you say to the man you hope will be your next president when you have about 10 seconds with him? I had narrowed my remarks down to three possibilities:
"O. Kay Henderson says hey"
Kay is the news director of Radio Iowa and interviewed Senator Obama numerous times during the early days of the campaign for the Iowa Caucuses. I imagined the senator responding with something like, "You know Kay Henderson? No shit?! Tell the girl hey back."
"I've been waiting all my life for a president with a good jump shot."
I scratched that one quickly given the racially charged atmosphere of this campaign.
"In the sixties we thought we'd change the world. You've made us believe again that we can."
"You did, you did change the world" was the senator's response. At least that's what I heard. I confess I was pretty star-struck. Which surprised me a little.
The aides hustled us through the line quickly and in a couple of days we can go to a website and download that pricey photograph. We'll share it here, of course.
I guess I'm really "all in" now, as far as campaign contributions. And I'm glad I had last night's experience. There was a very exciting vibe in the room throughout and I kept trying to imagine a John McCain event sparking the same tent revival feel that pervaded the evening. I think they're gonna need a lot of swift boats.
PS: Henry (retired MD) gave Senator Obama a tip on how to stop smoking. Not sure what Lorna said. Lorna reports she said, "I hope we're not sucking your energy." A nice thought but kind of risky in such a noisy room.
PPS: I didn't get any good photos because I didn't want to move around or risk a cavity search by the Secret Service guys. Here's the VIP line before it got long and rowdy. If you look closely you can see the "x" taped on the floor so the Senator would know where to stand.
UPDATE: Leading Democratic fundraisers predict that Sen. Barack Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign.
