communication. community. cognition.
You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark…
At times we grope and we strain against hope in “finding something to write about.”
That link leads to a Google search, which turns up more than a quarter of a billion entries.
You could read 100 of those links a day, every day, for the next 6,931 years, and still have 18,500 links left unread.
That’s a lot of reading to do, in order to find an inspiration.
Why not go outside and go for a walk?
Spark Naked [Read more...]
Electronic publishing, in all of its varied forms, has freed us from the tyranny of packaging. How much longer can the remaining tyrants hold on to their traditions?
Unlocked Locks
Keisa Sharpe and I have been professionally woven since 1996. We were part of the startup ABC affiliate in Birmingham, and worked together for nearly eight years. I left for the Red Cross, and three years later she joined me in the regional office, where we served five states with communications counsel. When those field offices were in danger of being wiped out in layoffs, I tipped Keisa off to a position with Alabama Power, and landed another one there for myself. We’ve been here together for two-and-a-half years, and it’s been a blast working with her. However well we got along, Keisa always kept some parts of her life very close.
Early in 2009, there was a problem, and I didn’t know about it for a long time. I just knew she was missing work. It was much later that I found out about The Accident. [Read more...]
What Makes the Good Stuff "Good"?
Quality is a hard thing to wrangle. (Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was an attempt to figure it out.)
We know it when we see it, but getting from A to G either takes a leap of faith, or relies on assumptions we never truly examine.
So I am challenging them. [Read more...]
o120
Sam is a friend of mine from college. He sent me a rant the other day.
I think most news outlets WAAAYYY overvalue their internet video content. For the record: I HATE IT. I never willingly click on a news video. Ever.
I’m looking for information, not some ****-***-slow-to-load or streaming content barfed on me by some D-list talking head du jour. I want to click and read in two seconds, not wait ten or thirty seconds or more for some stupid intro to the actual information (or worse, a 15-30 second ad before the “story”). And I don’t want to disable all of my advertisement/malware blocks to see the stupid video.
Anyway, I’m just bitching because I accidentally clicked through to what I hoped was an article, but was just a stupid ******* video I did not want to wait to load. I’m an old fart, back from when people would actually read things and think through the information, and not just glaze over video content of the quick and easy and meaningless version.
If ever there were a case of the customer being right, this would be it. [Read more...]
Content is king.
It started with a Tweet by Jeremy Meyers, that said the following:
“Ironically, content about how “Content is King” is not an example of good content.”
“If Content were King, then Pink would have stayed dry.”
I was referring, of course, to Pink’s performance at the Grammy Awards, where she sang partially suspended and spinning in the air, then was dipped in a pool of water, where she came up spinning dripping and still singing pitch-perfect.
It was stunning.
It is also a clear example, to me, of where you can draw a significant line between Content and Presentation.
Her song is the same, whether she sings it in a studio, on stage, or in an S&M harness. What differs is the Presentation.
If there were no difference between Content and Presentation, then Iron Chef would not have points for “plating.” It’s a different experience, one that is separate from the content.
My blog engine – WordPress – makes a significant distinction between Content and Presentation. I’ve changed themes a few times in the last three years – but the content remains the same.
That’s why this post seems a little naked – I’ve taken much of the Presentation away.
It’s a very different experience. Yet my words are the same. My argument stands just as valid on its face – exactly the way it would appear in most RSS readers.
Yet here – through the Presentation of this one post – I have communicated more about the difference between Content and Presentation.
Content is King – but Presentation can make it more palatable. Style without Substance will leave you lacking. Substance with no Style will send the readers packing.
Long live the King!
