On user generated content

Social network sites like Myspace and Facebook have become popular destinations for user generated content. Some people may question the value of that content (and the same judgements hold true for any communication media, by the way) but the popularity of such sites shows no sign of diminishing.
An interesting site featuring user generated content is teachbyvideo.com, a site [...]

On the top 25 websites to visit for 2007

I don’t usually pay too much attention to these things but I couldn’t resist this list from the UK magazine, Webuser: your top 25 websites to visit in 2007. Not a bad list, just quietly!

On storytelling

One of my favourite novelists was the American writer, Wallace Stegner (1909-1993). My favourite Stegner novel is Crossing to Safety, a beautiful story about an academic writer at the University of Wisconson, Madison, and the important relationships that he has throughout his life. Stegner also wrote On teaching and writing fiction, and from that work comes [...]

On wikis

At the NSW KM Forum this evening, James Matheson from Saikore gave a presentation on wikis. James gave two case studies. The first looked at how wikis were introduced and accepted at Motorola via a grassroots, viral approach. The second approach was a structured, top down strategy at an Australian publishing company. He made some useful comments [...]

On KM Australia 2007

One of my good friends alerted me to the upcoming KM Australia Conference 2007 scheduled for 23-25 July.
The conference program features none other than Dave Snowden (Cognitive Edge) and Etienne Wegner, well known for his work with communities of practice. Helen Paige from Advanced Knowledge Networks will also be there to give us a taste of the Gurteen knowledge [...]

On business and Web 2.0

I was reading the latest McKinsey Global Survey on how businesses are using Web 2.0. While senior executives claimed to be supportive of collaborative technologies and interaction, less than half the respondents were actually using or considering social networking (37%), RSS (35%), podcasting (35%), wikis (33%) and blogs (32%). The McKinsey report said that “more than one-third labeled [...]

On social capital

I attended my first UTS Alumni event last night at the University of Technology, Sydney. Paul Vorbach from Academy Global gave an excellent presentation on social capital. He cited seven effective steps needed to build social capital:
1) define your goals (helps concretise what you want and how to say it effectively)
2) strategise (think about who [...]

On content management

Speaking of content management, the  Spring 2007 CM Pros Summit is being held in San Francisco, USA, on the 13th April. The program looks very interesting. Keep this one in mind.

On writing for the web

I attended the Wireless World exhibition in Sydney yesterday. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the conference. However, talking to vendors at the exhibition made me realise how the communications revolution has evolved in such a short space of time. Remember when PC’s were introduced 20-odd years ago and what they were capable of back then? Today the [...]

On channels

I was at an information seminar this evening for an introductory presentation about the new online Fairfax Media digital product to replace some key Fairfax business publications currently available from third party vendors. Registration for the new beta service is currently taking place. Fairfax are the publishers of the Australian Financial Review and other business related publications like [...]

On Photography

Photography is one of my favourite activities and interests me both visually and in terms of words and language. One of the intriguing aspects of photography is the words and language we use to describe the image, either to ourselves in the silent monologue inside our brains, or in conversation with other people.
I was lucky [...]

On Marketing

Marketing is one kind of medium that uses words and images in particularly structured ways to communicate a message. In that sense, marketing is a really interesting space to watch how words are used and presented. Marketing will be one topic that I will look at in more detail later. At this stage, I am [...]

On words

I have been following the use of words in different contexts for some time. For example, I have been fascinated by the words used by spin doctors in politics to fabricate different meanings out of pretty damning events or behaviours. The Iraq War is a classic example. More on this in later posts.