Author: Angelo Fernando

Quotes for the week ending 17 Jan, 2009

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“Steve Jobs a ‘national treasure”

BBC, on the news that Jobs is taking an leave of absence for health reasons.

“We hav 2 prtct R ctzens 2, only way fwd through neogtiations, & left Gaza in 05. y Hamas launch missiles not peace?”

Tweet used by Israel government during press conference

“The blogosphere and new media are another war zone.”

Maj. Avital Leibovich, the head of the Israeli Defense Forces’ foreign press branch.

“Sea of Culture,” Gulf of YouTube,” Bay of Angst”

Areas named on a new map of the world.

“I am not ready to leave journalism; journalism is leaving me”

Former Tribune journalist, Dennis Welch, on starting up a blogger-meets-mainstream journalism site, Arizona Guardian.com, that will fill the gaps in how news is reported,covering more of the ‘why’ not the ‘what’ in news.

“The rebooting of our democracy has begun.”

Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum and the TechPresident blog.

“I just watched a plane crash into the hudson rive in manhattan”

Someone Tweeting on Thursday.

“There are people standing on the wings as the plane sits half submerged in the hudson”

His follow up a few seconds later

“True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say ‘I would die if I had to live here!'”

James Andrews, VP of Ketchum, who tweeted when he got off a plane in Memphis for a presentation. The client he was pitching to, wasn’t absolutely positively happy.

Will slim newspapers survive? Yes, No and Maybe!

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My local newspaper, The Arizona Republic,  has slimmed down so much it’s a ghost of what it used to be. I adamantly continue my subscription since I like the idea of getting my news both ways –in analog and digital formats.

Sure, I have my RSS feeds –to save time visiting all other sources I trust– but I wouldn’t let that replace my magazines and how I relate to information off  the printed page. Yesterday, as the story broke about the US Airways crash landing on the Hudson in  NY, new, new journalism sprung to action. I followed the incident on Twitter and Flickr –not CNN– even though the story was available in our lobby just a minute away from me. But that does not make the old model completely irrelevant. The Tweets provided real-time coverage, but not enough background. For that, we had to wait for reports like this and this.

Kathleen Parker, syndicated journalist for the Washington Post Group, had an interesting observation last week about the relationship between Big Media and Social Media.

“What, meanwhile would Twitterers and bloggers tweet and blog about if news organizations no longer provided the meat on which most chew?”

What, indeed! (Her column in my paper got me started.)

We could all have different opinions of this. But before you take a side, here’s something to ‘chew’ on. Parker’s column, carried in many newspapers across the country, got printed under some interesting headlines.

WashingtonPost.com used “Mainstream media on life support”

The Arizona Republic used: “Big Media still kicking”

The Topeka-Capitol Journal used: “Journalism will survive media’s evolution”

The News Tribune used: “Death of manistream media greatly overstated”

Inauguration’s pitchman uses media to promote media

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Of course, based on what we saw in the campaign,  we expect the Obama administration to use a slew of new media going forward. But I was amused to find that Obama recorded a video for YouTube just to communicate just to kick this off.

This includes:

  • Personally telling us about the short code to which people could send a text message —56333, with the word “open” in the subject line — for those who need transportation updates etc at the inauguration.
  • Talking up the live webcast, and plugging some of the networks

Seldom does your CEO ask you to blog

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But what if the ‘CEO’ was the Prime Minister of the country?

The PM of Kazakhstan, who was once the communist party boss, is reportedly forcing his ministers to blog. The reason? He has his own!  And why not? British PM, Gordon Brown has one, too.

The point is, not often does the request or exec order come from this far up the chain of command. I happen to be in a good place –my executive director refers to social media as the way to communicate. While I used to hear “let’s issue a press release about that” in many previous organizations, I now hear “why don’t we blog that?“

You’re never too old to use social media

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At the IABC conference last year we heard Bill Marriott opine on the value of a blog, and how he does it. I called it a ‘cool way to tell stories.’

But I have to say that the storytelling function of the blog only scratches the surface of the value of  social media. What’s happening is not just the communicating but the connecting.

“Who says the Internet is only for young people?” That’s the provocative statement made by the Red Cross.

“At age 126, the American Red Cross loves the Internet … is becoming a leader in adopting social media.”

It’s using Twitter to get information out fast, such as publishing links to a shelter or evacuation area during a fire or storm. People need to connect to organizations like the Red Cross because that’s often the first –if not only- way to get important information at that time.

Just last month we saw how PSNH (Public Service of New Hampshire) turned to multiple new media channels from Twitter and Flickr to YouTube to keep in touch with its customers.

And how old is PSNH? It was born a year before the first transatlantic telephone call  was made between New York and London! So don’t let anyone in your organization tell you you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

One more reason to enter Gold Quill

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I have to admit I have been avoiding entering for an IABC Gold Quill for some time now. I have my standard response: “I am not an awards-type person.” But having listened to a webinar this morning by Towers Perrin, with folks like Jennifer Wah on the panel, makes me want to give it a shot.

Three things resonated with me. Maybe it will inspire one of you too.

  1. Jennifer boiled it down to this: “Think about telling your story.”
  2. What grabs a judge’s attention is your audience description –if you show that you *know* your audience, then you have a better way of framing your solutions to fits the objective.
  3. There is an entry this year for Social Media work.

#2 sounds pretty basic, esp for most of us who wear a marketing hat, and preach to others about knowing thy audience. But I guess that’s often overlooked –the shoemaker’s children effect –when you’re working on your own project.

Interested? Here’s a good place to start. Entries close 9 Feb.

That’s like 16 working days from today! Get sprinting!

Rivers of data, visualized

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Visualization is the big part of what we indulge in at the Decision Theater. It’s not the most important part of the decision-making, but it certainly can change the way you see –think of– a swath of ones and zeros that make no sense on a spreadsheet.

So the message in this video, of a river of data, specifically communications data, in Britain is hard to ignore. It tells a story of the value we place in information today, as “chatter” –calls, text messages, video streams- fill our data pipes.

Murdered editor pre-wrote his last editorial

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The BBC and other major media have not covered it yet, but they soon will.

The editor of the Sunday Leader in Sri Lanka who was murdered last week wrote his last editorial, which was published yesterday.

In it there’s damning evidence and information, but the editorial reveals his calm acceptance that he will be killed, standing up for the truth.

“I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.”

He ends with the fitting quote from German theologian, Martin Niemöller that Wickrematunge says inspired him during his youth.

“First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”