Isabel Walcott Draves

The Problem with Advocacy

I read a great post today that I am referencing even though it's old.  The author writes, "we are all lawyers".  His or her point is that most people these days take a position and argue it, with little regard for the merits of the other side's argument or for the possibility of changing their own minds.  How often have we all done this in our lives?

Marketers do this all the time, to their great detriment.  They advocate their position, and it's rare for them to take either input (incoming information that changes the system) or feedback (response after a change).  Can we all please get on the Cluetrain and have conversations with our customers, and stop "lecturing" our "audience"?

I liked this person's blog, "Only Connect",  but they seem only to have kept it for a short time, and I can't discern who the author is.  Is this a feature, or a bug, in the "everybody publishes" blogosphere?  Is it a coincidence that their blog ended on the day they wrote the "we are all lawyers" post?  Or did that signal their disillusionment with the creative process online?

Has Blogging Jumped the Shark?

The latest New Yorker cartoon about the Internet mocks bloggers:

A twinge of jealousy, perhaps? 

Or maybe they're right, and blogging has jumped the shark.  Now that I am finally blogging, now that mainstream media has finally noticed blogging -- and now that massive PR firms like Edelman, where I work, help their corporate clients with blogging strategies -- have too many people started to blog?  And the first, best, and coolest bloggers are going on to better, cooler, newer things like podcasting and cooking.

By the way, the New Yorker cartoon bank is one of Edelman's clients and Renee is advising them.  So their strategy, whatever it is, appears to be working, since so many bloggers are blogging about the incessant barking cartoon.

What Bloggers Blog

Although only 29% of bloggers blog about the news, 44% read blogs to get fresh perspective on the news.  This from a recent study by AOL published at emarketer.com.

You wouldn't think valuable news perspective was in such short supply, unless you've seen the mainstream media lately.  This should serve as yet another wake-up call for traditional news outlets, that they are having their lunch eaten by the blogosphere. But we knew that.

Eliza Gilkyson

Heard this lovely, simple, homemade song on NPR the other day, and wanted to hear it again.  It's a "Requiem" for tsunami victims, used again for Katrina victims, written by a woman named Eliza Gilkyson and sung by her and her daughter.

A true requiem is a fixed-text mass for the dead; this song does not use the correct liturgical text so the name "requiem" is metaphorical only.  Gilkyson isn't the first to think of this; Brahms made up his own text too.

Impressive Match

Somehow I just found myself examining a new "whitepaper" put out by Match.com: "How to find the right person in 90 days - a step by step guide".  I found it fascinating for two reasons:

1) It was clearly a WHITEPAPER.  The first consumer-oriented whitepaper I have ever seen.  I'm impressed that Match.com has been able to apply this B2B marketing concept to their company, and I think it will work well for them because...

2) They did everything right.  Yes, it's true.  I read it expecting something cheesy and self-serving.  Instead, I found a whitepaper in the best form.  The relationship-finding advice they give is well-written, well-researched, and sound.  It doesn't focus on looking for a mate online; it discusses approaches "competitive" to match.com such as looking to a close friend and going to that party you were thinking of blowing off, rightly including online dating as one thread in a mesh of romance strategies.

So, I'm surprised and impressed.

Afraid of Change

I heard on NPR the other day that although several states that are known as "blue" states offered housing to the displaced citizens of New Orleans, they were roundly rejected (this may explain why we don't have our lodger yet after posting on MoveOn's database).

For many of us, especially during times of trauma, the unfamiliar is terrifying.  But perhaps more so for the very poor, who often have never had the luxury of seeing anything beyond the place where they were born.  I read a quote in the NYTimes from a woman displaced into a military camp near the woods -- she was profoundly scared by all the trees nearby (assisted in her terror by strict camp-wide warnings not to enter the woods).

In the first few days of the disaster, there were multiple accounts of people who said they would rather die than leave their house, even as the water crept up around them.

Who among us takes this fearful attitude toward our career, or a business or divisional strategy?  Or political strategy?  Executives need an "exchange program" that takes them into new territory, to get their synapses firing.

Walden

Over the past few days I have been riding my bike to Walden Pond for a swim.  Even when it is crowded with families and triathletes, it still manages to be peaceful.  A few nights ago it was close to closing time and I was floating on my back as the moon rose and the stars came out.  Swimming is a miracle cure - just ask Esther.

For those with perfect pitch...

Larry sent a recent article today. It announces that a group of researchers have proven that computers can decipher what is being typed simply by analyzing the sounds of the typist.  It works quite well on English.  Yet another reason why China will eventually dominate the globe, I guess.

Tourists in New Orleans

This is a bit late, but Mom just sent a fascinating account that a couple of tourists wrote up after they were trapped at a convention in New Orleans.

• "We are willing to guess that there were no video images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the Walgreens in the French Quarter."

It's September 11th

Lest it slip by unnoticed with everything else we have on our minds, let us observe a moment of virtual silence for those who died four years ago on this day, a day that dawned similarly clear and sparkling and ended in a haze of smoke and ash.

Let's take a minute to stare out the window or put your head down on your desk and, whether or not you believe in god, pray for peace on earth.

There's an amazing website, Storycorps, that has recorded the memories of people mourning their loved ones who died on that day.  You probably won't be able to listen to more than one (I couldn't go on after listening to Richard Pecorella), but it seems like a good thing anyway.