This is my last post on In Search Of, an Eastwick blog. On June 2, I’ll be returning to life as an independent contract writer (which is how I’ve spent most of my adult life). I’ll continue to work with several terrific Eastwick clients but will also be hitting up friends and colleagues for leads on new projects – I’m sure you can’t wait!

I began working with Eastwick as a contractor in 2002, but in 2004 I jumped at the opportunity to work more closely with Elaine and Barbara, Eastwick’s principals, and the incredibly talented – and fun – people they had assembled. I appreciate the opportunity to have worked with and helped some amazing clients, from past ones like Azul Systems, Business Objects, Mercury Interactive, and Netli, to the current crop that includes Fujitsu, ShoreTel, TradeBeam, and Purisma. I’ve had a great time, worked with some extraordinary people along the way, and learned a lot.

Now I’m looking forward to having time to focus on my own projects. The first two: a new blog, That’s Write, where I’ll continue writing about communications, and The Writing Wiki, a resource for my UC Extension students and any other writers who want to participate. I hope you’ll join me there.

All the best.

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Here’s a first for me. I got an automated call from the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce announcing the availability of important roadwork information on a website. No phone number for more information, no explanation of how to access the information for those without access to a computer. Just a website.

While it goes to the heart of the value and pervasiveness of web access, there are elderly folks in my neighborhood who don’t have computers and others who rarely use them.

Has this happened in your community? Is it common in Silicon Valley? In communities outside the Bay Area?

communities, Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, Technology

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A trip to Emeryville’s shopping hub was the least interesting part of my weekend until the following ad, painted on the entire side of a building, caught the eye of my kids (8 and 10 years old):

“Be not ashamed of thou love of shoes”

Few signs have generated as much discussion: religion, materialism and consumerism; the role of advertising; and even grammar (thy/thou). Not surprising, it didn’t make any of us want to spend more money. It didn’t make us feel better about ourselves, the economy, or a house full of things we don’t have time to gather up and donate. Just the opposite. Like “don’t look at the sun,” “be not ashamed” compels you to do what it’s telling you not to do.

I expect the sign will disappear soon, but I hope the next one is also poorly thought through and grammatically challenged, providing entertainment for those who would rather not be shopping.

advertising, Emeryville, grammar, language, materialism, religion, Shopping, Writing

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Heard a promo on CNN yesterday morning about the “Democratic primary war.” I’m all for the use of metaphor, but given that part of the debate is over how to deal with a real war that is killing kids and destroying families, and given that the Democratic candidates are very close on the issue, the use of “war” to dramatize their sniping once again illustrates a media far more interested in the horse race than the issues.

Left turn: We have become very good readers of bad writing (and listeners of bad speech). We consume so much of it we simply ignore a lot of what’s confusing and do the hard work ourselves, guessing at what the writer must have meant. This is dangerous because we can easily guess wrong and completely misunderstand the intent, and because our ability to read without demanding sense often leads us to write the same way—with no regard for the precise meaning of the sentences we actually write.

Right turn: To become better writers, we need to become better readers and listeners. And that includes reacting to the tortured way ideas and issues are framed (consciously or unconsciously) to meet a less important goal (ratings) at the expense of a more important one (informing on issues). Yes, “important to whom” matters—in CNN’s case, the accountants or the viewers—but that’s why we need to pay close attention. Whether from incompetence, carelessness, selfishness or maliciousness, the meaning and import of what we read is often hidden, and only by demanding sense can we get past the surface and find them. And the better we are at demanding sense, the better we will be at making it.

cnn, Communication, Democratic, language, metaphor, politics, Writing

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That’s Wired’s plan according to Jon Friedman (thanks Britney).

Ah, the rules of the online road. One guide we can all agree on and follow. Hmmm.

I like the idea and it should prove useful in many respects, but I expect it will do little to unify our approach to the use of technology terms. Some will stay loyal to the AP Stylebook, no matter how antiquated it is, some will disagree with Wired’s approach on principle, and some will object to it just to object to it (unless it follows AP, which I often object to). Not to mention that broad adoption of new usage continues to accelerate and outpace our ability to nail down one form (Web Site, Web site, Website website).

Still, I plan to get it, and to the extent it helps me and the agency communicate effectively, I’ll use it.

AP Stylebook, Jon Friedman, PR, Technology, Wired, Writing

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When I taught my first writing workshop for UC Berkeley Extension in 1980, I had no computer or cell phone. If I was stuck in traffic or there was a riot downstairs (true story) or God walked into my classroom (true story – he seemed ready to take vengeance on his enemies, but offering him a cigarette got us a pass) there was no way to call anyone. And if I couldn’t remember something during class, I was out of luck.

Last Saturday as I began a workshop on grammar (the power, not the rules) I referred students to a page in my workbook only to find that the E.E. Cummings poem I’d had there for years was gone. I’d taken it out for copyright reasons (which I didn’t have to do) and now I missed it. Not wanting to misquote a single word or rule breaking, I took out my mostly functioning Moto Q during the break and successfully Googled the poem.

Apt for a grammar workshop, here’s the complete poem:

****
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis
****

I can’t teach writing or grammar without remembering always that “feeling is first.” And when it comes to writing for PR and trying to understand communications in social media, we’d be wise to keep this poem handy.

Communication, e.e. cummings, grammar, Moto Q, PR, since feeling is first, Social Media, UC Berkeley Extension, Writing

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More great insight from Seth Godin.

When you blog, are you writing for people who already know you or those first encountering you?

Writes Godin:

“I think this dichotomy of experience raises the level of responsibility for the reader. Without knowing who you’re reading, it’s hard to judge the tone of voice of what you’re hearing. More important, it changes the posture of the writer.

“Sometimes, the web is more of a cocktail party than a club meeting.”

I love this image. I’m at an event and strike up a conversation with a stranger (rare but it’s happened), but before I can get past the name, friends of the stranger join us. They start chatting away, completely ignoring the fact that I don’t know them or what they are talking about. I have a choice, I can interrupt them and ask lots of questions because I really want to get to know these people, or I can excuse myself.
Readers who want to join an online conversation in progress can patiently pay attention until the exchanges begin to make sense—hoping the time was worth it—or they can take the time to review the history of the discussion to get up to speed faster. Or they can simply abandon the conversation without having to make any excuses.

Bloggers have the advantage of using links that provide the needed history to include new readers, but Facebook and Twitter create a completely different environment. These conversations can’t possible carry forward sufficient background for those who missed the beginning or haven’t been paying attention. Still, keep in mind that the more shortcuts, slang, jargon, in-jokes, and unlinked references you make, the more exclusive these new inclusive platforms become.

Blogging, Communication, Facebook, language, Seth Godin, Social Media, Twitter, Writing

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Started another UC Berkeley Extension writing workshop last Saturday. Great group of students with much to contribute. A hot topic was the writing style generation gap. Some of the older students are shocked by the emotional content and other style errors in the writing of their kids and younger colleagues.

Those of us watching the evolution of social media aren’t surprised—dismayed maybe, but not surprised. Is it going to wreak havoc with business communication? Or is it an evolution toward a more democratic, more direct form of communication that will seem completely natural, even in business, to those who grow up with it?

The answer is both. Our language continues its steady drive toward informality and greater emotional content, and the most formal of us today would be labeled as far too informal by the conservative standards of two generations ago. Good article here on the social media generation, which seems to prefer raw and authentic to edited and polished.

But the problem today really isn’t the evolving style. It’s the refusal to adjust the style for the needs of different readers. Most of us easily adjust our behavior—our personal style—as we move from client meetings to internal meetings, to networking events, to being with family. But many of us—both young and old—are unwilling or unable to adjust our writing style to fit the needs of different readers, which causes problems whenever the intended readers include members of different generations.

For communications professionals, the message is clear. Stop complaining about the evolving style and start understanding it. This huge new group of readers is only going to get bigger and more economically powerful.

business communication, Communication, generation gap, language, Social Media, social media generation, UC Berkeley Extension, Writing, writing style

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The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives (an Eastwick client) held a conference on the business benefits of social networking. I watched the first hour or so on Ustream (another Eastwick client), during which Ross Mayfield, CEO of SocialText (yes, another Eastwick client) and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester (no, not a client) provided terrific insight into how companies are deriving value from social networking and how other organizations can get started. Wish I could have stayed on for the whole conference. A couple of takeaways:

From Mayfield: four solution areas to define the use of social networking: collaborative intelligence (instead of email to exchange information), participatory knowledge base, project management, business social networks.

From Owyang: the POST approach. Understand the People first, then define the Objective, then develop the Strategy, and only then decide on the Technology. Also understand the real objective of a social network: listening, talking, energizing, supporting, embracing.

Owyang’s slides are available on Slideshare.

The entire presentation will be available on Ustream.

communities, Forrester, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives, Jeremiah Owyang, POST, Ross Mayfield, Slideshare, Social Media, social networking, SocialText, Ustream, Web 2.0, Writing

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I’ve written before about the need to find trusted sources on the net, including here and here, and the good news is it appears to be the trend.

In Revenge of the Experts, Tony Dokoupil of Newsweek, writes:

“In short, the expert is back. The revival comes amid mounting demand for a more reliable, bankable Web. ‘People are beginning to recognize that the world is too dangerous a place for faulty information,’ says Charlotte Beal, a consumer strategist for the Minneapolis-based research firm Iconoculture. Beal adds that choice fatigue and fear of bad advice are creating a ‘perfect storm of demand for expert information.’”

Dokoupil quotes another expert, Jason Calacanis: “‘The wisdom of the crowds has peaked,’ says Calacanis. ‘Web 3.0 is taking what we’ve built in Web 2.0—the wisdom of the crowds—and putting an editorial layer on it of truly talented, compensated people to make the product more trusted and refined.’”

But Dokoupil seems to put a dark spin on this: “It comes, after all, during dark days for the ideal of a democratic Web. User-generated sites like Wikipedia, for all the stuff they get right, still find themselves in frequent dust-ups over inaccuracies, while community-posting boards like Craigslist have never been able to keep out scammers and frauds. Beyond performance, a series of miniscandals has called the whole ‘bring your own content’ ethic into question.”

As if democracy and expertise are mutually exclusive. As if expertise and elitism are the same thing. As if any real democracy exists in an ideal state. As if anything less than an ideal Wikipedia model, with contributions by anyone on any topic (which was never really the case), is undemocratic.

The article’s brief history lesson notwithstanding, it’s counterproductive to equate democracy with unlearned, uncontrolled, unmediated, and without a fee. For democracy to flourish, there must be controls and trust to prevent tyranny from the one or the many. And there must be trusted experts who delve deep into and report on topics the rest of us don’t have time for. And whether it’s a mountain of inaccurate information or manipulated search results, we have as much to fear from an absence of expertise and trusted sources as we do from elitism.

The desire for expertise and trust shouldn’t be seen in any way as a failure of a democratic web or even of the wisdom of crowds, which I never thought referred to a single crowd of all people with Internet access. Communities are alive and well on the web, and just as they have served democracy well offline, they can serve democracy well online.

Charlotte Beal, communities, Craigslist, democracy, elitism, Iconoculture, Jason Calacanis, Newsweek, politics, Social Media, Tony Dokoupil, trusted sources, Web 2.0, Wikipedia

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