Here's a recording of a panel I was on at the 2013 Earlham School of Religion Leadership Conference, where we talked about marketing with integrity:
And here's a video of me speaking at 2012's TedXRichmond (Indiana) event, about being stuck, getting unstuck, and some related thoughts:
Mostly for my own reference, but also to invite comments about what others are doing, I'm taking stock of how I use (and don't use) various social media tools today in my personal life.
Twitter is probably the social media tool I post to most frequently. With close to 700 followers and 700 people I follow, I enjoy the quick and easy perusing of other people's tweets, the sharing of interesting / useful / important links, and the witty repartee that can result. Since joining in 2008 and initially making fun of it, I've come to embrace the challenge of saying something meaningful or interesting in such a small number of words.
I've found a good mix of Twitter accounts to follow that both give me access to articles, ideas and resources I know I'll find interesting, and accounts that challenge me to think differently about the world. I try to follow at least one link every day to a resource/site/article that I know I'll profoundly disagree with.
In September of 2006 I announced the launch of ProgressiveWayneCounty.org, a website dedicated to promoting and chronicling the progressive efforts of individuals, organizations and businesses in the Wayne County, Indiana area.
I'm shutting the site down here in April of 2013 for a couple of reasons:
For one, it's been over a year since the last content update to the site. Some of the old content has even become confusing to users looking for recent versions of past events. Over the years I've tried various methods for keeping the site up to date and current: trying to post a lot of stuff myself, soliciting area organizations to post content, asking volunteer editors to write posts, paying people to write for the site, and others. That's not to say that there weren't times when the site was chock full of useful info, but just not in a sustainable way.
This blog post is serving as a bookmark for the recently deactivated podcast and website at RichmondNewsReview.com, which I used to produce and maintain.
In 2006 I created a podcast called The Richmond News Review. It consisted of 15-30 minute shows where I commented on news and events in and around Richmond, Indiana, sometimes interviewing newsmakers, politicians and members of the local media. The show ran weekly at first, and then less frequently, until the last episode in 2008. After leaving the website dormant for a couple of years, in the fall of 2012 I decided to take it down.
Producing the show was an incredible amount of fun for me. I got to blend my writing and blogging about news and politics with my interest in audio and video production. I gained a new appreciation of the time and effort that goes into creating a podcast that people would actually want to listen to (let alone content that is compelling). I added a new voice and perspective to some interesting community discussions. And based on the feedback I got from listeners around the community, I provoked some useful dialog.
I still have the final published MP3 files from the podcast, if there's an episode you're interested in hearing.
If you're like many people, you've renounced the joys and complexities of face to face socialization in favor of robotic and impersonal displays of feigned consideration on Facebook.
Wait, that didn't come out quite right.
If you're like many people, Facebook plays some part in your daily engagement with friends, family, coworkers and/or your surrounding community.
That's a little better.
Well, this website now has a public Facebook presence that you can add to that engagement.
My blogging has obviously been a bit scarce lately, certainly a long ways off from the target frequency I'd set at the beginning of the year. I continue to compose blog entries in my head and the list of topics I'd like to cover grows weekly, but I've not made the time to do the most important part, actually sitting down to write.
It will make me feel better to acknowledge that here, so: my blogging is paused right now.
I plan to resume a regular schedule later this summer. I'm still tweeting, although with less frequency there too. Make sure you're subscribed to my RSS feed or e-mail subscription so you know when I start up posting again.
Thanks for tuning in!
Welcome to my first blog post of 2010. I didn't expect that my hiatus would be over a month long, but here I am in mid-January.
Thanks to those of you who took the time to complete my blog feedback survey at the end of 2009 - it was really helpful in understanding how my regular readers see the blog. From the responses I received, here are the highlights:
I'm doing some planning for the future of this blog, and I'd like your feedback. Of course, you're always welcome to leave your comments in the comments section below, but I've also created a survey with some specific questions that I would appreciate your candid responses to.
It's only 10 questions, most are multiple choice, and if you do take it by the end of the year, I'll put you in a drawing to win $25, either for any business in the Center City business district in Richmond, Indiana or for Amazon.com. (And if you don't want to identify yourself, that's fine too, you just won't be in the drawing.)
Thanks for your feedback.
I tried a little experiment with Twitter last week. I see lots of folks talking about how to make money with social media exposure like Twittering, but hadn't yet seen anyone talking about how to give away money via the same. So on Wednesday I put out a challenge that for each new Twitter follower I got on my account between then and 5 PM on Friday, I'd donate $2 to the Boys and Girls Club of Wayne County.
What happened?
All bloggers do it at least once in their blogging career. It's remains pretty faux pas in my opinion, but here I am anyway. You know what I'm talking about, don't you?
It's the blog post that only exists to note that I haven't been blogging much lately. Gasp.
Sometimes it can be a sign of a dying blog, or a lack of personal creativity, but I assure you that's not the case here. No, I think we all get to have at least one of these kinds of posts once every few years or so. I think my last one was in 2005, so I'm due.
For now, talk amongst yourselves, and check out my inane procrastinatory ramblings on Twitter.
