Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Dog Days of August: Slow Blogging, Dog Safety, and Other Reflections

Flickr Photo by Beth

 

We're in the middle of the dog days of summer when people go on vacations and it's hot outside. Life slows down.  It is always a sad time of year for me.  Five years ago today, I had to put down my black lab Sadie, at age 15, who was ailing due to cancer.   That's my favorite photo of her. (And, no the car was not on the road, we were parked and the window was open)

The American Red Cross is using the Dog Days of Summer to educate dog owners about pet safety during these days of summer.  There's information about heat safety, pet first aid, and disaster planning.  They are also running a contest:

The  Red Cross is also encouraging dog owners to cool off during these dog days by diving  into the American Red  Cross Pet Photo Pool.  Get your  camera ready and sniff out  these instructions to enter our Dog Days of Summer photo  contest.  Two pet owners will receive a  free copy of the Dog First Aid guide and DVD.

In his post, "Become August," Geoff Livingston talks about using this period to prepare for a busy fall marketing season: "Slow is a mindset, and while there may be vacations, there are also opportunities."    A slightly different take on the concept of slow.

At Blogher Unconference, Leslie Madsen Brooks (who works with university faculty to help them make their instruction more thoughtful and who is also a dog lover) put up a session called "Slow Blogging."   I was bumble beeing between that session and one on social change, but the idea was inspired by Nancy White's Slow Community. (For more on Slow Community, start here, then go here)

Slow blogging, like slow community, is inspired by the slow food movement. What we were really talking about is the need to take the opportunity to reflect and think more deeply which may require a slower writing. It isn't necessarily running with the flow or letting the flow of information run you.

I found this blog from 2006 called Slow Blogging Manifesto

Slow Blogging is a rejection of immediacy. It is an affirmation that not all things worth reading are written quickly, and that many thoughts are best served after being fully baked and worded in an even temperament. 

Personally, I straddle between the two - the constant moving forward through the fire hydrant of information and slowing down - being in the moment with one idea or concept or pattern I've observed.  It takes pulling back, consolidating, and discipline not to bounce.   In order to do that, I have to load up Mozart or other thinking music, and get into the flow.   Sometimes I can dive in deeply, and other times I'm not quite that successful.

I don't think there necessarily has to be a Chinese Wall between the two - moving forward (action) and reflection in blogging.   Is there a way to straddle the two in terms of your blogging - a "reflection in action."   It may be a little of what Tony Karrer is talking about -- social productivity.

How do you straddle between the constant flow of information at a fast pace and making time to digest and reflect on it?

 

What's Your Great Idea to Reinvent America? Rebooting America

At the 5th Annual Personal Democracy Forum this June we will be publishing "Rebooting America: Democracy in the 21st Century," an anthology of essays from leading thinkers and activists (see the complete list of invited essayists here.)  Their essays all respond to this challenge:

When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787, they bravely conjured a new form of self-government. But they couldn't have imagined a mass society with instantaneous, many-to-many communications or many of the other innovations of modernity. So, replacing that quill pen with a mouse, imagine that you have to power to redesign American democracy for the Internet Age. What would you do?

But the collection wouldn't be complete without reading your thoughts on this, too! Submit your essay, tell us how to make America better, stronger, more inclusive and participatory. Up to three winning essays will be included in the anthology.

Also, if you like someone's essay, vote it up, if you don't, vote it down, and we'll take your opinions into account. The book's editors, Allison Fine, Micah Sifry, Andrew Rasiej and Josh Levy, will be making the final decision.

Essays should run from 500 to 1500 words, and the deadline is May 1.

Check the site for more information about how to enter and get started.

 

And the Winner is .. Jaffe's Join the Conversation Book Giveaway and How To Do A Giveaway Contest on Your Blog

Congratulations to Chas Offutt, Social Media Evangelist for American Rivers

Joseph Jaffe offered bloggers a review copy of his boo, Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership.   Since I had already had purchased a copy, I did a book giveaway.

• I got ten fantastic comments too hard to choose a winner in a subjective way.
• So, I used the random.org random number generator and 7 came up.
• Chas was the 7th comment.

If you didn't win or didn't sign up, don't worry.  I plan to do this regularly!

Robin Yap left a comment that he was leaving for Manila to teach social media to educational technology students, so I decided to part with my cherished copy of Dave Warlock's Classroom Blogging.  It's a first edition!  It was the first book I read on blogging.  It thought it might do some good in another part of the world rather than collecting dust on my bookshelf -- I've internalized my learning from the book.

My ultimate dream would be to send  Dave Warlock's Classroom Blogging over to the Sharing Foundation's fledging computer school.  Pictured above is Mam Sary, our head English teacher, who is also a computer geek.  He attended the Cambodian Blogging Summit and received the digital audio recorder to create language lessons for his students (offline podcasts!)   (The video blogging community also donated some video cameras for the school too ..)

Opened in 2006, the school offers computer classes every morning utilizing ten donated laptops and a few older desk tops. Students are picked by lottery and attend daily for six weeks to learn word processing and spread sheets, and see a bit of the internet on the school's one very slow connection, a cell phone.    If we win the America's Giving Challenge, we may be in a position to upgrade the Internet access and possibly, maybe eventually, have a student blogging or video blogging projects in the village or English conversation via skype.  Hey, a girl can dream can't she?  Computer classes are very popular, and these skills are a real help as students look towards future employment.