Category Archives: Weblogs

US State Department’s Official Blog

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The US State Department has an official blog that they’ve named DipNote.  I’m assuming that the "Dip" is short for "Diplomat" but given that to at least one generation of Americans the term "dip" is slang for a stupid person it’s an interesting name choice. 

Anyhow, as Erin Teeling at the Bivings Report points out the folks at State have opted to allow comments on the blog that appear to be un-moderated.  From Bivings:

What I found incredibly surprising was that the blog actually allows comments.
And they don’t appear to be censored.  After a quick scan of the
comments on several blog posts, I realized that both positive comments and comments critical of the State Department or US Government are freely flowing.  Here’s an example–a comment that appeared on a post about Burma.

Roy in Oregon writes:
"Thou hypocrite,
cast first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to pull the mote that is in thy brother’s eye." Luke 6:42

Let me see — You are a political appointee in the most
secretive administration in U.S. history… How is that helping "create a
free flow of information crucial to democratic development?"

— You are the member of an administration which quite
improperly and illegally harvested telephone information without
appropriate judicial warrants…. That doesn’t discourage "free flow of
information?"

— Your President authorized pressuring Internet Service
Providers to release information about legal (but private) citizen use
of the internet… Who can trust this administration to protect the
principles of "freedom of expression?"

Brother, how about first removing the beam (and the
blinders) from your own eye and working to end the murderous cabal
which employs you?  Posted on Mon Oct 08,  2007

Pretty bold.  And the comments are loaded with others very similar
to this one.  It seems like DipNote is actually a legitimate forum for
discussion rather than just a false front.  In an era where so many
media outlets, organizations, and political campaigns are concerned
about "inappropriate citizen content" appearing on their websites, I am
finding the openness of DipNote pretty refreshing.  I have to say, I’m
even impressed.  Why is it that so many newspapers remain unwilling to
open their sites to various types of user commentary, but the US
government appears willing to reduce barriers to two-way communication?

I would love to see all branches of government, at every level from local to federal, engage in this kind of communication.  I think it would go a long way toward bringing more transparency to government and greater participation from the citizenry.

My Kids Let Me Down

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I’ve toiled for years on this blog and quite honestly my kids NEVER read it.  While some might argue that’s a good thing considering how I write and what I often write about, it’s still a bummer when the only time they ackowledge my blog is when they tell their friends in derisive tones that “my dad’s probably going to blog about this” and utter the word blog as if they’re trying to violently expel a loogie.

Little do they know that their future might hang on this darn thing.  You see the grand plan is to work on this tribute to trivianalia (I think I’ve just coined a new word) until some publisher or producer notices it and offers me a mega-signing bonus to produce something gloriously stupid for them.  Said signing bonus will keep us out of the poor house as we swim against the rising tide of costs related to orthodonture, healthcare and wardrobe accessories.

The problem with my plan is exposure, or lack there of.  We need people to see this thing in order for me to get my big break and wouldn’t you know it there’s a PR bonanza to be had if only the kids would pay attention.  The Bloggers Choice Awards is soliciting nominations and votes for blogs in an amazing number of categories and while this blog really doesn’t qualify for any of them my kids could have at least gotten me in the door for “Hottest Daddy Blogger“.  I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t “hottest daddy” imply that one has to be, well, hot?  My reply is that “hot” is subjective and if you look at some of the leading vote getters in the category you’ll have to agree.

Anyway, I’m thinking that the kids should have nominated me and then recruited their friends to stuff the ballot box.  I mean if they truly want a future with straight teeth and clothes manufactured in the 21st century they need to get on the ball, right?  I’m not thinking I’ll get a call from GQ or anything, but I figure it’s only a short amount of time before they come up with a reality show called “Extreme Makeover: Homely Middle Aged Guy Edition” and when they do I’ll be a lock.  I’ll use the exposure from my appearance on that inevitable TV crap to springboard me to worthless celebrity and unearned lucre.

If the kids do nominate me I’ll put up a gallery of pictures displaying my “hotness”.  I’m thinking I could corner the market on sympathy votes based on the following samples:

Photo

Photo

Turd Man Likes Poop Culture

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As long time readers of this blog probably remember I am the Turd Man of Alcatraz.  Luckily I haven’t had to wrangle any floaters recently and our septic system has performed admirably since we had it sucked dry a while back.  My extensive experience dealing with my household’s bowel remnants has engendered an affinity with folks who are all about the dookey, so I was intrigued when I was scanning my Boing Boing feed and saw this item about Poop Culture.

My heart be still: an entire book and a blog about poop and its accoutrements!  And I have to say that www.poopthebook.com is the greatest domain name I’ve come across.  It’s descriptive, yet action oriented. As for the blog, check out these recent posts:

and my favorite:

I might never get any work done.

What’s My Responsibility? What’s My Role?

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There’s an ongoing issue at Lewisville Elementary that I’ve written about a couple of times (most recent here).  I could be wrong but I think the comments on those posts are the only real ongoing public dialog about the situation, and the evolution of those comments have caused me to question my role or, more accurately, the role of my blog in the community.  Let me explain. 

So far I think the commenters on the posts have been polite, and the comments not particularly confrontational.  I honestly think that the commenters have the best intentions and even if they may come from different sides of the issue they also want the same things: better communication from the school and the conclusion of the investigation of the teacher who has been suspended.  That said, here are my concerns:

  • This blog is a personal endeavor of mine, something I do for fun and to feed my writing jones.  Normally most of the stuff I write about is inconsequential and goofy, but when issues like this arise I feel compelled to write about it.  Is that something better left to "mainstream media"? 
  • So far I think the comments on the posts have been good and in some ways helpful in revealing the viewpoints of some folks within the Lewisville School community.  But I worry that the comments could turn cruel or vindictive and that I’d be facilitating more harm being done.  Do I have that right?   I would certainly delete any bad comments as soon as I saw them, but the cat would be out of the bag for the few people who might see them before I do so.  I could also change my blog’s setup so that I moderate all comments before they’re published, but somehow that just doesn’t feel right.  I’ve never had cause to worry about it before, so this is new territory for me.  And here’s the key question: if someone does write something really negative am I responsible, are they responsible or is it a shared responsibility?  I’m not talking in the legal sense, but in the moral sense.
  • As a member of the community I’ve heard lots of rumors and different sides of the story.  All of this information comes from sources I trust and in a private conversation I’d feel fine in sharing it, but I wouldn’t feel right sharing here.  Am I being overly cautious or is this the right approach?
  • I’ve been thanked on more than one occasion for providing this outlet for people to write about the issue.  I’m glad some see it that way, but I worry that others might think I’m doing a disservice to those involved in the issue.  The last thing I want is to add fuel to the fire and I hope that’s not what I’m doing, rather I hope that by having a forum to look at this situation we are illuminating it.

The funny thing to me is that when I started this blog I figured maybe some friends and family would read it occasionally. I never dreamed it would be read by others or that it would be used in this way.  On the one hand I’m glad that it is, but on the other hand I’m humbled by the prospects.

Fec Obviously Married Above Himself

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I’ve met Fec and his wife so I can attest that he did indeed marry above himself, as have I.  From his blog:

The Wife and I ran outside this
morning in response to cries for help and screams from a dog. We
arrived in the street beside our house to find an elderly neighbor
walking his small dogs. A large tan pit bull was attacking a small
white terrier. The Wife pulled the pit bull off the terrier. I got
between the pit bull and the neighbor as he and his pets returned home.

The Wife dialed 911 and a GPD officer arrived momentarily. He called
in an Animal Control Officer. These two brave souls armed with a
shotgun entered the yard and had the owner barricade the pit bull in a
fenced patio behind the home…

BTW, heroic behavior from the Wife is nothing unusual. I approached
at a trot as the Wife sprinted past me. I was wondering which forearm
to sacrifice for the terrier. Apparently, no such thoughts plagued her,
as clad only in a kimono, she was on that Pit Bull and it was over
before I arrived.

The Wife once rescued a swimmer caught in a riptide and has
successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver several times. God only
knows how often she’s saved me from injury or death without my
knowledge.

So You Want to Put Your Google My Maps on Your Blog

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So you’re a geek like me and you’ve started using Google’s My Maps function and you think, "Gosh darnit I want to put one of my maps on my blog" but you don’t see one of those convenient "embed" buttons like they have on YouTube and other Web 2.0 sites.  What to do?

Well, you can visit My Maps Plus, sign up for a free account and before you know it you have your embed code.  One caveat: when you update your Google Map you need to go back to My Maps Plus and update it there too, but until Google adds the embed feature themselves I think this is the best you’ll be able to do.

Here’s an example on Triad Eats, a new blog we’re developing to subsidize our rather ludicrous eating out habits.  FYI, if you’d like to be a correspondent for Triad Eats just shoot me an email at jon.lowder AT gmail.com.  We don’t pay but if you feel like sharing your opinion on area restaurants we’d love to hear from you.

Is it a Blog if You Call it a Blog?

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The Winston-Salem Journal just launched a new Harry Potter "blog" called the Muggle Report.  I put quotes around the word blog because I really don’t know if I’d call this thing a blog.  I’d lean more towards calling it a micro-site rather than a blog for two simple reasons:

  1. It doesn’t have an interactive feel to it.  No comments enabled, at least that I could find, although they do have entries from a contest they ran asking kids to write an article predicting how the book series would end.  That’s pretty cool but not really a function of the "blog".
  2. To me a blog is something more than a static information site.  It usually reflects the personality of the folks posting information and has a dialog (see above) within its walls.  This site feels like a one-off tied to a big event (the release of the last Potter book and the release of the latest Potter movie).  I suspect that it will have a short life and will then be archived, which to me says its more of a special interest site.  A real world analogy would be the difference between a magazine that is run in every Sunday paper and a special insert like the Pro Football preview that is inserted in the Sunday paper at the beginning of the football season.

Now is it that big a deal what they call it?  Probably not, but just like I wouldn’t call Time magazine a book I wouldn’t call this site a blog.  Of course if it grows legs and keeps going, with the writers and readers engaging in a constant dialog about all things Potter (think of it as a Potter Book Club debate) then it could definitely be termed a blog. 

Blog or no blog, I’m still left wondering why no comments?  I’m willing to bet they’d get a bunch of traffic from that younger audience that every paper in America is pursuing.  They might even get their average reader age south of the AARP line.

Measure Your Personal Brand

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Want to know what your personal brand ranking is online?  Check out this calculator at Career Distinction
and see how you do.  Like most online calculators this one really takes
something complex and simplifies it, but it’s still a nice way to get a
general idea of how extensive your personal brand is online.

If you have a low ranking and want to raise it I have a couple of suggestions that might help:

  • Start a blog and stick to it.  Success will not happen overnight,
    but over time you’ll find yourself being referenced more and more
    often.  I know, most people don’t like to write and don’t feel they
    have time to do it.  Here’s the dirty little secret about blogs: you
    don’t have to write much if you don’t want to.  Simply share links to
    resources, stories, columns, data, etc. that you find interesting.
    You’re sharing your knowledge and people respect that.  And don’t be
    intimidated by the technology because services like Typepad are as easy to use as Microsoft Word and cost next to nothing to use.
     
  • Comment on blogs that are relevant to your industry/career.
    Comments are indexed by search engines so you will be riding the
    coattails of others within your industry.  Obviously you’ll also get
    the attention of anyone reading that blog and so your expertise will be
    on display to your core audience.

Cross posted on LowderEnterprises.com

If You Don’t Believe Me Then Believe Smitty’s Readers

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A little while back I wrote that Esbee’s Life in Forsyth is the best blog in Winston-Salem or about Winston-Salem.  It seems that the readers of Smitty’s Notes, THE online resource for all things related to having fun in Camel City, agree with me.  They voted Life in Forsyth the best blog and a blog I’d not yet heard of, alphabitch.org, came in second.  Yours truly pulled in an honorable mention along with Otterblog, UrbanPlanet (The NC Triad) and JoeJon.

Since I didn’t even know that Smitty was running the contest I’ll have to thank whoever voted for me since it wasn’t me.  If I’d known about it I’d have had every living or dead being I know stuff the ballot box, but alas my chance to behave like a Chicago mayor has come and gone.

Member Blogs Create New Issues for Non-Profit Managers

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Cara Michele Forrest is a member of the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County and also happens to be a blogger whose blog, Chosen Fast,
deals mostly with her advocacy for the homeless.  A link to her blog
was included in her profile on the HPCGC’s member page, but now that
someone has complained to the president of the coalition about her blog
they’ve decided to remove the link.  Cara Michele shares the email
exchange between herself and the Coalition’s president Karen Bridges here, but I’m pasting most of it below for convenience:

—– Original Message —–

From: Cara Michele
To: Karen Bridges
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 4:57 PM
Subject: Re:

Karen,

The only place that my blog is linked on the HPCGC web site is on
the member list. My blog is my web site for the homeless advocacy that
I’m involved in. Other members have their web sites listed, as well. Is
my web site the only one that is a problem? What was the nature of the
complaint? If you want my web site removed from the member list, then
you can remove it and provide an explanation for why you’ve chosen to
do so.

Please be advised the all correspondence will be blogged.

Michele Forrest
ChosenFast.com

—– Original Message —–

From: Karen Bridges
To: Cara Michele
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:27 PM
Subject: Re:

You are the only individual member who has a personal link on the
HPCGC website, all others are service providers. And yes, your website
is the only one that is causing problems. The HPCGC website is not the
place to share your personal opinions and thoughts, particularly ones
that are contrary to the success of the Coalition. No one’s trying to
stop your advocacy, Michele, but you need to use the proper channels.

kb

—– Original Message —–
From: Cara Michele
To: Karen Bridges
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:56 PM
Subject: Re:

Karen,

I may be the only individual member who has a web site.  There shouldn’t be a penalty for that.

I am an advocate for the homeless in Greensboro. If telling their
stories and telling the truth about homelessness is “contrary to the
success of the Coalition,” then you have a much bigger problem than my
blog.

Has it occurred to any of you that I’m not the enemy? If you’ve
actually read my blog, then you know that I haven’t written about the
most damaging things that I know. I’m not your enemy. Perhaps you
should stop acting as though I am. I thought that the goal here was to
serve homeless people. Why don’t we stop the pointless posturing and
backside-covering and shananigans? I’m weary of it.

Michele

This case points up an interesting new conundrum for non-profits:
what to do when a member or volunteer has a blog, links to it and then
other constituents find it offensive?  There will always be
disagreement between the various constituencies within a non-profit’s
community but until recently there wasn’t really a platform that
individuals could use to easily get their viewpoint out there in the
public domain for all to see.  Now you have blogs (and wikis and
Facebook profiles, etc.) that individual members can include as part of
their contact info.  What kind of policy, if any, should a non-profit
have to deal with this?

Ed Cone, another Greensboro blogger, posted about Cara Michele’s dust-up
and in his post and in the comments to his post there are some
interesting points made about the appropriateness of Cara’s blog in
this case in particular, but those same points also highlight the
considerations that should be made when thinking about whether or not a
member should be allowed to link to her individual blog.  From Ed’s
post:

Bridges is correct that the Coalition site is not the place for
Michele’s personal opinions and thoughts, and if Michele was using the
Coalition site thusly the HPCGC would have a legitimate complaint.

But such is not the case — Michele merely links to her own site as
part of her personal identification, much as member organizations
include links to their sites.

Ed’s absolutely right.  While the coalition owns its own site and
should police it, if one of their members chooses to link to her blog
as her form of identification then they should honor that.  In his
comments, Ed continues:

It seems to me that there are two issues in play here.

One involves politics within the community dedicated to helping the homeless and fighting homelessness.

The second involves reasonable standards and expectations for links and other details of online publishing.

The second issue is one where common ground might more easily be
found, and one that applies in a far broader context than the HPCGC and
its members.

The politics drove the second subject into public view, but perhaps
the issue of linking can be resolved independently of the political
particulars — and any such resolution can provide a context for
addressing some of the politics as well.

Again, Ed’s correct.  Invariably non-profit’s will have members,
board members, volunteers who don’t see eye to eye and in some cases
literally dislike each other.  The key for those running the non-profit
is to create a level playing field and to treat all constituents fairly
and equitably.  Along those lines the proper approach for the Coalition
would have been to inform the complaining parties that Cara was allowed
to link to her blog because that is part of her contact information and
they are welcome to do the same.

This case is fairly straightforward in that Cara Michele’s blog is
applicable to her role on the Coalition.  It may not have been as
straightforward if her blog had been about her pets, her travel plans,
etc.  Still, as a policy it would probably be best to just say that
blogs are the same as a person’s email address or a company’s website:
it’s a point of contact and if that person wants her blog to be her
point of contact, no matter how inane that blog may be, then that’s her
choice.

Cross posted at Lowder Enterprises, LLC