Invasion of the pie charts

I thought it would be fun to revisit your responses to the Friday polls with the help of a few trusty pie charts (based on responses received up to last night). Enjoy these completely unscientific insights into the Forum membership.

Monday link roundup, 12.28.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Design

• The Book Cover Archive
  "for the appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design." I'm especially loving the cover of You Are Not A Gadget (pictured).
  


• The Color of 2010
  Make way for Pantone 15-5519 TCX

Web

• The Content Strategist as Digital Curator
  "In this way, the content-strategist-as-curator is the invaluable human
  presence. They play the role of the guide (docent) by proposing topics
  for discussion."


• There is no page fold
  A subject about which many feel strongly. Duke it out in the comments.

Query: What are you cooking?

No matter your religious or non-religious leanings, chances are there is a lot of food around you lately.

I am not a prolific cook, so to any given event I'll probably bring one of three things I know I'm good at: chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, black bean dip, or dill and soy burgers.

What are your potluck specialties? Can you share a favorite recipe?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meddygarnet/ / CC BY 2.0

Event Planning Online: 14 Essential Social Media Tools

Here's a cool posting from Mashable about using social media for event planning--from managing the planning of your event to invitations, marketing to enhancing the guests' experience.

Event Planning Online: 14 Essential Social Media Tools
http://mashable.com/2009/12/13/event-planning-tools/

Link Roundup

Every week we post a roundup of interesting articles, links, etc., relating
to communications-focused topics. What have you been reading, listening
to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

I've had design on the mind lately and here are a few ideas moments of inspiration:

The NY Times Opinionator Allison Arieff's posts are great but infrequent.

The SF Gate's Day in Pictures makes me think about composition.

When I want to try some new fonts, I play around something from: Font Squirrel.

Poll: Do you feel secure in your job?

Link roundup

Every week we post a roundup of interesting articles, links, etc..., relating to communications-focused topics. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

 

Here are a few ideas:

E-mail sign-up done right

Brain Traffic's blog talks a lot about content and the Web.

Check out slides from a Mima social media presentation: http://ow.ly/Bd8D.

Celebrities and Grammar

We editors try to conceal it but we are always noticing your grammar flaws! We stop short of correcting your emails using the "track changes" function and then sending them back, but we do it in our heads nevertheless - we can't help ourselves. However, as in the rest of life, celebrities are fair game for open scrutiny, especially when particularly well paid, secretive, or powerful.

The king of the celebrity gaffe was of course George Bush. How we miss him! See a top-20 list.

President Obama's speaking abilities are of course very good but his sentences are not always perfect. Here's one diagrammed for us in the Huffington Post:

Even those of us who following closely the recent trouble in Tiger Woods' family may not have caught this praise for his (or his publicist's) excellent command of grammar under pressure.

Do you have any examples of humorously bad or startlingly good grammar? Dish -- please!

--Ann

Monday Link Roundup, 11.30.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news
and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening
to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.



So I was not very "connected" to all-things-communications over the
break, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite local blogs. What are
you favorites?

I'm a close follower of local music, partly for work and partly for play. Here are my favorite indie blogs, all spotlight both local and national acts.
MFR
More Cowbell
Culture Bully

Deets After Dark - The "About" section does a great job of summing up the hodgepodge of entries, ranging from google search statistics on mashed potatoes to what really is a "tweet."

Mediation - Commentary on media, in addition to funny .jpegs and videos.

Stuff About Minneapolis - All the things that make me love this city are found right here. Enjoy the most recent story on the wild turkey running amok in Brooklyn Park. 

Chronicle: Bad times shape communication from the top

Here's an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education  on how college and university presidents are communicating more, and differently, during bad economic times. They are using varying strategies to talk about uncertainty and cutbacks.

 

Monday link roundup, 11.23.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

• Beats and Tweets: Journalistic Guidelines for the Facebook Era
  
• Good Bloggers Make Good Neighbors, New Survey Shows
  
• Seven roles of the intranet home page
  
• How Consultant and In-House Content Folks Can Play Nice
  

Poll: How's your inbox looking?

Are you a searcher or a sorter? Does everything stay in your inbox, or do messages go to folders as soon as possible? I believe e-mail management to be an impressive talent. If you have a good method, leave it in the comments. In the meantime:

U's social networking link page launched

From Kathy Jensen in University Relations:

The U's social networking link page has launched! University units on all campuses are invited to submit their official social networking site links. Over 30 units responded to our initial invitation and we'd like to add more.

To be considered for inclusion on the link page, your social networking site:

• should be your unit's official page (not a page run by a student), and


• should conform to the social networking guidelines

A set of layered Photoshop files are now available from the Images Library (login required). These files can be customized for use as your profile image on many social networking sites.

Please send your link submissions to University Relations and consider adding a link to the Social Networking page on your Web sites.

Are you encouraging conference "tweckling"?

You know how every conference we attend these days has its own hashtag? So we can all tweet about what we're learning and how awesome the event is? Well, there is a dark side to the conference tweet: tweckling. Fair communicators, you can probably figure out what that means.

As event planners and programmers, what can we do to discourage tweckling? Should we? Check out this article from the Chronicle and post your thoughts on this. Oh, the humanity!

"Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back"
http://chronicle.com/article/Conference-Humiliation-/49185/

Monday link roundup, 11.16.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news
and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening
to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Do you need to make a video for your job, but have limited resources to do so?  As a former TV producer, I thought I'd share some simple ideas and Web sites to help you get your work done on the cheap!

There are three things you need to to make a video.  First, you need a camera.  Secondly, you need some type of editing software, and finally, you'll need a place to host your video.  Here are some links to get you started down the path to making great video!

Camera:

Digital Camera Reviews

The Flip Camera-Video Production Tips

Advice on how to use your Flip to shoot video

Editing Software:

PC Video Editing Software Reviews

Top 5 Free Video Editing Software Programs

Video Editing Tips and Techniques

Video Distribution:

YouTube

CLA Media Mill

Other Resources:

In 2008,  UMCF did a program on Using Video at the U of M.  Watch the presentation here.

Colin McFadden from CLA Video Services has offered his advice to UMCF members at past programs and the 2008 Conference.  CLA Video Services rents out equipment to departments.  Contact Colin at mcfa0086@umn.edu if you have any questions.

Poll: How do you get to work?

Tomorrow is World Usability Day

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Digital Technology Center are sponsoring a free program of events on Thursday, November 12, for World Usability Day. The purpose of the program is to promote awareness of the benefits of usability engineering and user-centered design.

World Usability Day was started in 2005 by the Usability Professionals Association and involves 36 hours of usability-related activities around the world in 30 countries.

See the schedule of events on campus. Of particular interest to communicators may be:

• 10:00-10:45 a.m. - "Designing for the Mobile Web"
• 11:00-11:45 a.m. - "Usability and Enterprise Applications: The Case of UM Survey"

Member profile: Jake LaSota

Thanks, Jake!

If you know a member you'd like us to profile, let us know.

Inviting 3-year-olds to strategy meetings

This post by Seth Godin on "The why imperative" got me thinking about the power of that little word why.

The university environment is a fascinating mix of innovation and entrenchment, of cutting-edge ideas and slow-moving systems. University researchers grew a beating heart in a lab, yet a unit's Web site redesign can get stuck in committee for years.

Each unit and department has its own view of "the way we do things." That is important, and I am not advocating change for change's sake. We are lucky to work within a trusted and established brand, and decisions on communications strategy need to be well thought out and supported by research.

I am, however, advocating for us to make sure we have a good answer to why we do the things we do. (And "because that's how we've always done it" is not a good enough answer.)

I'm also proposing we embrace that other favorite question of children: So what?

What would happen if your department's communications decisions had to go through a stubborn three-year-old?

"We need a brochure for our program."
"Why?"
"Because our program is new."
"So what?"
"So we want people to know we exist."
"Why?"
"Because we think the information we have will help them."
"Why?"
"Because it's information we haven't seen anywhere else."
"So what?"
"So we need to get the information to our audience so they can use it."

Now our hypothetical three-year-old has gotten to the real goal. Programs often request an end product without thinking through the problem they want to solve. Our three-year-old has helped us find the objective, so we can work with the program to determine whether a brochure is the best way to achieve this goal.

Now, let's discuss nap time...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vauvau/ / CC BY 2.0

Metrics, Part 2

In September, we presented a program that introduced analytics and measurement. Next month, the Program and Change Management Collaborative is running a program that goes more in-depth on the subject. The PCMC is a professional group for project managers here on campus.

Reporting and Metrics

Thursday, December 10, 2009

3-4:30pm

101 Walter

 

Understand how reporting and metrics can help support and
further your project. Come learn how to identify the concepts needed to measure
a project, design a strategy to collect that data, refine a measurement
instrument to collect data, select analysis techniques, think through how to
present that data visually, and then how to incorporate visual presentations
into written communication about a project.

 

Peter Radcliffe is the executive director of planning andanalysis for the University of Minnesota system and is responsible for
gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information to support evidence-based
decision-making, ensure data integrity, demonstrate accountability, and enhance
the University's analytic capacity. He has oversight for the office of
Institutional Research, Service and Continuous Improvement, Measurement
Services, and Space Management. His work assists senior University leaders in
making management and policy decisions.

 

Peter has served on a number of institutional committees,
task forces, and project teams. He is active in organizations of data analysts
and institutional researchers, and helped found the University of Minnesota
Analysts Group. He recently chaired the steering committee for the Association
for Institutional Research in the Upper Midwest (AIRUM).

To book, visit the PCMC's website at http://pcmc.umn.edu/ and log on to Moodle using your x500.

Monday link roundup, 11.9.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Web

• You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners
  
• Don't lose your identity - Create an effective print style sheet
  


• Microformats: What, How, and Why
  

Other

• Obama's first job: Newsletter editor
  


• Periodic table of typefaces
• Good information design is Interesting, Easy, Beautiful, True
  

Poll: When did you join Twitter?

Tonight: First Thursday Mixer at the Campus Club

When Cicero said, "We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race," I'm pretty sure he was talking about happy hour.

Join fellow Forum members tonight from 4:30 to 6:00 at the Campus Club for some laid-back networking with like-minded souls. You don't need to RSVP, and you don't need to be a Campus Club member to attend.

New internal communications resource

Another update from our busy friends in University Relations. In the Faculty and Staff section of the University's site, you can now find Resources for Internal Communications. The page includes information on things like U of M audience segmentation and which University units to contact in different situations. There are also updates on the Reinventing Internal Communications initiative.

At the bottom of the page, you'll see information on the Internal Communications Network. I attended the kickoff meeting last week and am looking forward to the group's accomplishments (view the meeting recording here). The Communicators Forum has been and will continue to be in close contact with this new network to make sure we're clear about how the two groups fit together.

Send your social networking pages to U Relations

Kathy Jensen from University Relations has the following request. A great opportunity to share your work!

Hello, social networkers,

University Relations is gathering links to official social networking pages developed by University colleges, departments, centers, and units. Our goal is to provide a single Web page, like a directory, that will allow our visitors to quickly find and link to all the great social networking pages that the U has to offer.

If your unit has developed an official social networking page, please send the name of the page and the link to webdepot@umn.edu. We will publish this social networking directory page (we're working out just where) and link to it from the newly created social networking standards page on the eCommunication Standards site.

Resources for getting started in social media, from Cari Hatcher

At last week's Web 2.0 presentation, Cari Hatcher offered lots of tips for getting started with social media. Here is her list of online resources.

• Brand Awareness: It's all a 'Twitter' (PDF)
  
• "Get on Twitter" is Not a Social Media Strategy (PDF)
  
• NSO to Try Beethoven's Tweet Suite
  
• Facebook Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations
  
• Online Communications that Don't Suck
  
• Using Facebook for Your Nonprofit
  

Thanks, Cari!

Monday link roundup, 11.2.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Web

• HTML5: The Basics
  


• Confusing menus and links: the web's biggest challenge
• 12 Cool Ideas from Event Apart Chicago 2009
• Reunifying duplicate content on your website
  

Social networking

• A sharecount button for Facebook
  


• I'm loving the new Twitter Lists feature

Writing

• The Art of Persuasive Writing ...based on bank robbers' notes
  

My reading (and thus my links) lacked subject-diversity this week, so tell us about what you've been reading in the comments.

Life before the U-where did you work?

ROI and social media

Check out these slides breaking down how to identify ROI for social media: http://www.slideshare.net/thebrandbuilder/olivier-blanchard-basics-of-social-media-roi

Good food for thought!

Monday Link Roundup, 10-26-09

I feel lucky that my work in the College of Liberal Arts allows me to dig into current issues in the arts, humanities and social sciences. In particular, I get to interact with faculty working in ethnic studies, human rights and global cultural literacy, among many others. Therefore, I try to keep up on higher ed issues that intersect with the lives and work of our faculty. Some picks:

The Academy Speaks: Current Affairs and Issues in Higher Education and its partner Web site, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

I also like to follow blogs that connect me to media and public relations practitioners, with an eye to both best and worst practices. Being a typical snarky Gen Xer, I especially enjoy Bad Pitch.

And writing! It's true when they say in order to get better you just have to keep doing it. I
think these are great:

You better be reading Writing Matters! We've had Leslie O'Flahavan of E-Write here for our conference, and we loved her!

Copyblogger: Copywriting tips for online marketing success

10,000 Words: Where Journalism and Technology Meet

Staying connected on vacation

I've been known to sneak a peek at my email while I'm on vacation, what about you?

Communicating for good

Saturday is Make a Difference Day, one of several events throughout the year aimed at getting more people to volunteer. It got me thinking about the ways we as communicators can use our talents for good.

Finding a way to volunteer your skills can be as easy as contacting non-profits you support and asking if they could use your assistance. Or, maybe you'll find like-minded people in these networks:

Proofread for good: I've been volunteer proofing for Distributed Proofreaders for a while and found it to be a well-run and supportive network. Volunteers go through scanned-in text of public domain works to help convert them to e-books for sites like Project Gutenberg.

Account plan for good: Planning for Good is a network of account planners who volunteer to solve problems for causes and non-profits.

Design for good: There are many volunteer design opportunities posted on sites like VolunteerMatch and HandsOn Twin Cities.

What volunteering have you done? Are there other sites or networks you recommend?

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livealittle/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Today: The U celebrates National Day on Writing

Now here is a mid-October holiday I can get behind! National Day on Writing, founded by the intrepid National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), celebrates writing of all ilks and advocates for us all to be better writers.

The University's Center for Writing has some sweet stuff planned, including an opportunity to celebrate this oft-private activity in front of webcams in... the Writing Pod [see photo on right for how I am picturing this...]. If any of you Forum members go into the pod, please take pictures to share!

Also, any UThink entries tagged dayonwriting will be pulled into a special Day on Writing blog set up by the good (and patient...hi Shane!) people at UThink.

Links to more info:

• Events happening throughout the day on campus
  
• National Day on Writing at NCTE
• UThink's Day on Writing blog
• U of M Gallery of Writing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brostad/ / CC BY 2.0

Update: I HAVE BEEN TO THE POD!

Monday link roundup 10-19-09

Every Monday we post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. Here are a few I was intrigued by.

This is an interesting article about e-mail usage: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html  

A friend posted a link to slides from an MIMA presentation on Web content: http://www.slideshare.net/rlovinger/content-gone-wild

Check out this article on social networking and gender. Interesting stats: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/stephanie-schomer/write/more-women-use-social-networking-sites 

Need a break -- check out music news, etc... at: http://pitchfork.com/

 

What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Poll: How many browser tabs do you have open?

I used to think I used a lot of tabs, but I've since met some truly epic tab users. So, no cheating:

Interview: Office of Classroom Management site redesign

Office of Classroom Management (OCM) is one of the many units with recently redesigned Web sites. I talked to Toni Pangborn, OCM support manager, about the process.

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?

Our original site was put together as our department developed and expanded services, and we considered the site "home-grown." Over time, we added sections and new content within a basic design shell, but had not developed objectives regarding specific architecture on how best to present our content. During the same time frame (8 years) the visitors to the site also evolved, and the information they needed was not easy to locate. Since we had written and added the content, we could find the information, but often the users could not. We also did not do a good job of introducing what was available on the site, or how our organizational units worked to support them. They often could not find the solutions to issues that we knew were included on the site.

Also during this time, Web site search tools were becoming more enhanced, and U Relations was more proactive in determining what each site should, or should not include. It was within this context that we started a project to redesign the site.


What kind of user research did you do?

In addition to candid comments from staff and users via direct communications or survey results, we gathered data from our post-service incident reviews. (A service ticket is created for any classroom issue that requires repair or additional action. Upon resolution, we complete a post-service review with the original caller.) We also invited faculty to participate in a focus group in which the web site was the only topic of discussion.

Armed with user feedback, we researched web site resources and obtained good information regarding best practices, and then melded this with the course work our lead staff member completed.

How were keywords and navigation chosen/developed?

Navigation is through a combination of functional and organizational outlines. Keywords are from customer/user feedback and staff experience. In keeping with the project objectives, we wanted the headers and the navigation to use the wording that our customers use.

What did you learn from the process?

We needed to have strong web programming resources available to make the desired changes. Without this we'd have a great plan, and wonderful content, but we wouldn't be in a position to implement it. In order to get this done well, the additional ASR resources were a key part of our team.

Another learning moment was that it took much more time to implement than we originally expected. In order to apply the new University templates, we would not be simply modifying the current pages, and the new design meant a much longer process was required.

And lastly, not everyone on the team had the same definition or impression of "good writing" or "good design." Our layouts and content was revised more than once, but by having the project plan established at the beginning, we were able to steer decisions back to the original objectives and stay on track.

Thanks, Toni! Readers: What is your experience with site redesigns? Discuss in the comments.

Also, if there's someone you think we should interview, or a project we should feature, let us know.

Monday link roundup, 10.12.09

From board member Tricia Conway:

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications
news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading,
listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week. This week, I'm escaping reality
through writing and though I'd share some sites I've found. Happy
writing!

Writing links

• National Novel Writing Month


• Writing.com


• WritersCafe.org

What are you reading?

• Herta Müller

Helpful link

• The Loft Literary Center

Member recommendation

• Forum member Jake LaSota recommends Prezi, saying "It's like powerpoint...on crack." Thanks Jake!

Query: How do you relieve stress?

A quick pulse check on campus tells me that this is a busy time for communicators and students alike. A quick look in the mirror tells me I have not escaped this stressful week unscathed.

So, are you feeling stressed? What do you do to relieve it?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundazed/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Monday link roundup, 10.5.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading, listening to, and watching? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Time management

• Email management: 10 rules for taking back control of your inbox
  

Web

• Things to ask before you redo your website
• Using named anchors to identify sections on your pages
  

Social media

• Who blogs?

Fun

• The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Poll: How Networked Are You?

We've been discussing the importance of social networking related to work, but I'm curious how networked you are personally?  How important is your online social community to you?  Have you made friendships that started online, but now exist in "real life"?

Member profile: Cheryl Reitan

Brave Cheryl agreed to be featured in our first video member profile. Make sure you praise her in the comments...






Know a member who should be profiled? Let us know.

Are you getting through to your audience?

Is my publication worth the
money we spend on it? Measuring the effectiveness of communications products is both an art and
a science. Our September program, the first of the 09-10 year, was about tools and resources that can be used
in this search for information, and the experience of one communicator who recently went through this process.


Rhonda Zurn of the Institute of Technology wanted to find out whether
her college's print magazine was doing its job of reaching out to alumni. She was
prepared for the answer to be no, but a thorough, well conducted survey
determined that it was.

Andy Merrill of the U's Office of Measurement Services
talked about his office's ability to conduct research into the effectiveness of
websites, print pieces and other communications efforts at a discount to
outside firms. OMS has a unique perspective on University-wide communications
efforts and how each project fits in. In case you missed the program, you
may view the recording below.






In October, don't miss our program on Web 2.0: When is it
worth doing? Watch for details, coming on this blog soon.

Monday link roundup, 9.28.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Art

• Horrifically bad software demo becomes performance art Live software demos often go awry, but what happens when the mayhem is intentional?
• The Difference Between Art and Design The subject of what separates art and design is convoluted and has been debated for a long time.
• This Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear fan video has been posted for a couple months. One of the hundreds of comments is "I'm gonna throw up this is too good."

Communication Skills

• 
  Master the Art of Listening and Watch All Your Relationships Thrive by Gail Brenner, Ph.D.

People

• President Honors Nation's Top Scientists and Innovators National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation are the highest honors bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists, engineers, and inventors.
• Twenty-four innovators in art, science, writing, and more are 2009 Winners Of MacArthur 'Genius Grants'.

University of Minnesota

• U of M College of Design Mentor Program Mentoring pairs create action plans which help students with career exploration, experiential
  learning, networking, and skill building. Time commitment is two hours per month.
  
• U of M showcases its new-media research resources MinnPost article on the University's Institute for New Media Studies

Web Lists

• Five Tips to Strengthen the Design of Your Nonprofit's Website by Jessica Teal, Design Manager for the Obama presidential campaign
• 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines was #1 on popacular.com (a list of the most popular bookmarks from delicious.com)
• 13 Web-Safe Fonts at the Core of Web Typography List of fonts installed on over 90% of computers
• 1000+ Drupal web sites with case studies

This week's poll

Is your unit actively employing social media (Facebook, Twitter, blog,
etc.)?

Member profile: Pamela Vold

Ed. note: Pamela is our newest board member, having recently joined as Program Committee co-chair. We are thrilled to have her!

Job title: External relations coordinator for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Which means: I'm the one-stop shop for marketing the department.

I have been at the University since: 2008, just finished my first year, and it's been a great change from corporate marketing in San Francisco the previous 8 years.

I love being a Forum member because: For people like me, who are the only communications person in their department, it's a great way to meet and learn about what other communicators are doing and resources on and around campus for doing communications work.

Hobbies: Cultivating the silly side of my almost-4-year-old son, Henry. Making, talking about, writing about, listening to and seeing live rock 'n' roll with my husband, Will. Finding new and excellent bakeries. Tell me about your favorites!

Favorite time of day: Weekend breakfasts. Not only do I get to drink coffee with my favorite people at leisure, I also get to eat a meal that is, essentially, dessert.

Cat or dog person? Cat, though I'm very envious of people who get to walk their dogs.

Random fact: I have never accepted a job that required me to commute to work by car, even though I enjoy driving, probably because most of my patience is used up by my son.

I am passionate about: Music, city living, walkable communities, supporting small and local businesses, getting to know your neighbors, sweaters, and dessert (can you tell I have a sweet tooth?)

Grammar refresher: compose, comprise; continual, continuous

Compose, comprise. From the University's Style Manual: "The whole comprises the parts; the whole is composed
of its parts. The parts compose the whole and are comprised in it."

Continual, continuous. Also from the Style Manual: "Use continual when
you mean action that is intermittent or repeated at intervals (the continual
reminder of gunfire in the distance). Use continuous when you mean
uninterrupted action in time or unbroken extent in space (a continuous stream
of marchers)."

Monday link roundup, 9.21.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Productivity
Now that students and faculty are back in action, do you feel overwhelmed and overburdened? Don't let the demands of your work day get the better of you. Use your time at work more efficiently.

Marketing/Branding
Does branding pay off for Colleges? Harvard thinks so.

PR
Do you think Kayne's outburst at the VMAs was a publicity stunt? This expert does.

Social media

Brands are strengthened (or damaged) based on the experiences they provide. And in an increasingly social world, those experiences are no longer created for people but with them. On this blog you will find articles and insights about the opportunities and challenges created by rapidly growing and evolving Social Media.

Twin Cities Twitter (Shout out to Jessica Franken, our rockin' Blog editor) for sending this my way.)

Graphic Design
Looking for Photoshop and Illustrator Tips/Tricks? Check out Pixel Perfect on Revision 3. You can download episodes via ITunes or watch right on the Revision 3 Web site. Side note: Revision 3 is an amazing resource for all things technology. Check out Tekzilla if you are a geek like me!

Fun stuff
Myna is
sort of like Garage Band in your web browser.

Query: Is multitasking unethical?

It's tempting to try to do everything at once. Multitasking was all the rage for a while, but its effectiveness is increasingly being questioned by research (see NPR and BBC). A recent article in BusinessWeek went even further, arguing that since "multitasking interferes with the ability to do one's job well," it can be considered unethical.

What are your thoughts on multitasking? Do you aim for it or try to avoid it? Do you think it's something that is valued and expected of you at work?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derb/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Writer's block? 3 quick tips to get back in the flow

When stuck on a writing project, you may have been advised something along the lines of "don't force it" or "let the words come to you." If you do get inspired like that, I envy you. Most of the writing I do requires a good amount of force and simply wouldn't get done otherwise. If you've stalled out on a piece, maybe these methods can help:

Go off-brief. Way off-brief. Say you're writing an article on new genetics research for your alumni magazine. You know the copy tone of your publication, and you know your audience. Good. Set that aside for a second. Write a paragraph of the article for a completely new audience, using a different tone. How would you tell the story of this research to readers of a literature magazine? A Web site for teens? An overseas press release? A couple things may happen: you may stumble on an idea you can use for the real article, or you may just succeed in shaking out the sillies. Either way--progress.

Kneesocks, parlay, cucumber. Grab the nearest book, open it and blindly point to a word. Take a sentence you're struggling with and rewrite it using that word. Do this twice more. Now throw these out and tackle the sentence with fresh eyes.

Walk it out. I knew a writer who would swim laps, keeping a notebook at each end of the pool to scribble ideas on after each lap. Sadly, you're probably stuck at the office. If you can, grab a notebook and pen and get out of there, if only for 15 minutes. Write as you walk. A brisk walk outside or even a few times up and down the staircase will make you more alert and, most importantly, get you away from your computer. If anyone looks at you funny, just send them to me.

Image: sxc.hu

Collection: 16 rock concert posters

Ugh. Tuesday morning. Let's start the day with some creative defibrillation in the form of a completely subjective collection of concert posters.

Clear!

Monday link roundup, 9.14.09

Every Monday we'll post a roundup of interesting communications news and articles from the past week. What have you been reading? Add a comment or suggest a link for next week.

Accessibility

• Ten Tips for Creating Usable and Accessible PDFs

Web

• Operators of .Edu Domain Plan to Boost Security


• Wireframes for the Wicked - Presentation from SXSW


• See what your site looks like in various versions of Internet Explorer or in a text-based browser.

PR

• 10 online resources for today's PR pro

Social media

• Ning Apps Launch Across 1.5 Million Ning Networks
• 10 People You Won't See on Twitter Anymore - good riddance, squatters and spammers!
  


• How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live - a few months old, but good

Fun

• The Rather Difficult Font Game
• Cheese or Font? - hat tip to Lisa Marshall
  


• Tiny Art Director - His art director is four years old.

Query: What jargon bothers you the most?

Next week is national Plain English Week...well, in New Zealand. To celebrate, take a moment to vent about your least favorite corporatese, academese or other convoluted speak.

For me, low hanging fruit is like nails on a chalkboard.

What about you? What jargon drives you crazy?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-is-a-photo/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Upcoming area events that look awesome

First of all, there is our own forum program for September, Analytics and Measurement: Are My Communications Effective? Go register for that then come back and check out these other events.

Learning Lunch: Communicate Better with Improv
Minnesota Women in Marketing and Communications
September 15, 11:30 a.m.
Women's Club, Minneapolis

What is news now?
Weisman Art Museum
September 17, 7 p.m.

2009 New Media Research @ UMN
Institute for New Media Studies
September 18
Coffman Memorial Union

Verena Gerlach lecture
MCAD
September 22, 1 p.m.

U of M Events Calendar Preview
September 22, 1:30 p.m.
VoTech 285, St. Paul Campus

Patrick Coyne lecture
College of Visual Arts
September 22, 7 p.m.
Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

Communications Arts Magazine 50th Anniversary Exhibition
College of Visual Arts
September 23 - October 17
CVA Gallery, St. Paul

U of M Events Calendar Preview
September 25, 10:30 a.m.
Vincent Hall 207, East Bank

2009 MIMA Summit
MIMA
October 5
Downtown Hilton

The Show
Ad Fed
October 23, 5 p.m.
Epic Night Club, Minneapolis

 

What am I missing? What other events are you looking forward to?

Image: sxc.hu