So now that the baseball postseason is over and the St. Louis Cardinals are World Series champs for the 11th time in their history (#gocards, #11in11), I can’t use that as an excuse for not blogging anymore. So I thought I’d ease back into the higher ed blogging scene with a Friday Five recapping some of the things that have made higher ed news while I was distracted.
1. HighEdWeb 2011 happened in Austin, one of the coolest cities in the universe. This is old news for all of you, I’m sure. In fact, you were probably there, right? It seems like most of the higher ed marketing community was there, judging from my Twitter stream. But if you missed it, you can catch the highlights from many of the sessions via Link: The Journal of Higher Ed Web Professionals, which recruited a phalanx of bloggers to cover the conference. Some really good stuff there. If you’re looking for additional context, check MeetContent‘s summary of content-related takeaways from the conference, or read what Tim Nekritz, the Geddy Lee of the higher ed marketing world, has to say about what a Johnny Cash cover band can teach us about project management.
2. Meet the Innovator, a new video interview series from Higher Ed Live, will make its debut next week. Unlike HEL creator Seth Odell’s (mostly) weekly live broadcast, Meet the Innovator will consist of a series of pre-recorded interviews “that will highlight education innovators and spotlight the impact their work is having on our industry. From start ups rethinking the digital delivery of educational content to classroom instructors and higher ed administrators making transformational changes in their fields, this series will introduce the industry to thought leaders and influencers who are making a difference and fueling the change our industry so desperately needs.” I’m looking forward to this one.
3. Why the fuck should I choose Oberlin? came down the pike and captured a lot of attention. At first, my inner 15-year-old said, “Fucking brilliant.” Then my 51-year-old kicked in and shook his jaded head. The site is obviously unofficial and based on other popular sites that drop the F-bomb into their titles. Georgy Cohen first brought this site to my attention earlier this week with her post A dash of WTF FTW, and with her followup post, Georgy dissects the site in the context of “the real Internet.”
When I see WTFSICO, I see a reflection of any number of popular single-serving sites that come down the pike, go viral (like, legitimately viral) and spark a huge amount of sharing, conversation and attention. In short, what I see is the real internet. I don’t see a time-delayed facsimile that has been vetted by committees and upheld by established best practices, and in the process had all the life, authenticity and relevance wrung right out of it. I see a real-time cultural echo.
In higher ed, we far too often call that a risk.
Well stated, Georgy. Darn well stated, even.
4. Social media success, Aggie-style. A story from Texas A&M’s news site discussing the university’s success with social media.
5. Overcoming “insecurity work” — good stuff from FastCompany about how our data-driven, report-driven work creates insecurity and can harm productivity, via @johntlawlor.
Andy writes! 
“The Geddy Lee of the higher ed marketing world” is one of my favorite compliments ever. Wildly inaccurate, but still much appreciated.
Tim – I was going to call you the John Entwistle of the higher ed marketing world but was afraid many readers wouldn’t catch the reference. The same could be said of Geddy Lee. Anyway, it was fun watching you play bass in those clips from #heweb11 and I hope we get to jam together sometime.