It’s Homecoming Weekend here at UMR. I’m getting ready to meet with the alumni association’s communications committee this morning, then this afternoon I’ll be helping departments set up tables outside the student center. It’ll be a lovely Ozarks fall day, and I’m looking forward to it.
But you, dear reader, are not interested in that. You have your own Homecoming Weekend coming soon. So, here’s some stuff that’s been clogging my RSS feeds lately — just five of the hundreds of items that may or may not be worth your time. Enjoy.
Findings from A List Apart‘s latest web design survey. This is fresh stuff, folks. “The findings we present here have never been seen before, because until now, no one has ever conducted public research to learn the facts of our profession. This report is not the last word on web work; it is only the beginning of a long conversation. Read, reflect, and let us hear from you.”
How Blog‘s take on Motivating creative types talks about peer recognition. (And they thought we were only in it for the money.)
Generation Q: a new label for college students That’s what NYT columnist Tom Friedman’s calling them nowadays. The “Q” stands for “quiet,” because they’re “the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad. But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good.” Via Brad J. Ward at SquaredPeg, who wonders: “Who gets to name these generations, anyways? … Are they the same people who name hurricanes?”
10 myths to include in crisis planning, from SimpsonScarborough.
Radiohead and the mediocre middle is Seth Godin’s take on Radiohead’s recent launch of its new album online as a “pay-what-you-want” mp3. What he has to say about the music industry — and business in general — connects nicely with the disruptive marketing concepts discussed here last weekend and over at Zen and the Art of Higher Education Marketing. Godin’s point, worth pondering this weekend:
Most industries innovate from both ends:
The outsiders go first because they have nothing to lose.
The winners go next because they can afford to and they want to stay winners.
It’s the mediocre middle that sits and waits and watches.
Could the same be said for education?
Have a good weekend.
Author: andrewcareaga
Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction.
View all posts by andrewcareaga
Andy writes! 
How about having one leg in Mediocre Middle and the other in Outsiders. Thats my current foothold. Great links.
Drew, I’m right there with you — too far in the mediocre middle for my liking, and more comfortable among the outsiders.