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.

Blog Action Day is coming

Blog Action Day 2009 will be upon us later this week — Thursday, Oct. 15, to be precise — and the organization behind the annual event (Change.org) wants bloggers everywhere to post something on the topic of climate change.

I doubt I’ll post anything on that date, because I’ll be contributing to climate change in my own way, by driving 190 miles, round trip, to participate in a social media summit with Brad J. Ward, Michael Stoner, Liz Allen and some other good folks. But at least I’ll be driving in a hybrid, so I’ll be using only half as much fossil fuel for that trip than I would were I still driving my previous vehicle, which was powered 100 percent by gasoline and internal combustion. (As a fellow hybrid driver once said, “I used to emit smog. Now I emit smug.” Now I’m in that club.)

But, I do plan to post something — either right before Blog Action Day (if I get my act together) or immediately afterward.

Are any of you other higher ed bloggers planning to post something about global warming on Blog Action Day? Let me know.

Friday Five: random-access memory

Update – Friday, Oct. 9, 2009: Since I haven’t blogged all week, and I’m too depressed from the St. Louis Cardinals’ loss last night against the L.A. Dodgers in game 2 of the NLCS (Dodgers now lead the best-of-five series, 2-0), I’ll just keep last week’s Friday Five here. Look for a return of regular blogging over the weekend, or possibly Monday.

Random thoughts and links as the weekend bears down upon us:

  1. Anyone got a spare Google Wave invitation? I’d like one, please. If you would give me your spare, I would be forever grateful. I would be your most ardent fanboy.
  2. Sometimes I wish I were British so no one would give me odd looks when I say “bollocks.” Also, I’d feel much more comfortable saying “bollocks” and would say it more often.
  3. Found out this morning that Clay Shirky (author of Here Comes Everybody) is from Columbia, Mo., home of the world’s oldest journalism school, which is also my alma mater. In his latest blog post, Rescuing The Reporters, he analyzes — and literally deconstructs — a recent edition of his hometown paper, The Columbia Daily Tribune, and concludes, “most of the substantive part of that day’s Trib wasn’t locally created, and most of it wasn’t news.” of course, there’s much more to his post that is worth reading if you’re interested in the state of the news business and where it may be headed. It’s worth a read. (Hat tip to Michael Stoner, aka @mStonerblog, for the link to Shirky’s post and the Shirky biographical info.)
  4. Here’s confirmation that I’m not the only one who has to deal with a lack of response to emails. A post on today’s Chronicle Brainstorm blog, Are you E-gnoring me?, laments the lack of response from harried academics, the absent-minded professor types. For me, the chief e-gnorers are administrators who don’t want to deal with my pesky reminders about missed deadlines, etc.
  5. Sometimes I learn things from the most unlikely of sources. Late last week, an administrator on campus sent me a link to the social media revolution video that’s been making the rounds the past couple of weeks. (The video is related to Erik Qualman’s book Socialnomics, which is also the name of Erik’s blog.) This administrator was one of the last people I thought I’d receive such a link from. I was happy to learn of his interest in social media, and we had a nice 30-minute conversation as a result of his sharing that link.

    6. Bonus: I think it’s awesome that Jim Halpert — Michael Scott’s co-manager in The Office — now has his own World’s Best Boss mug. That just goes to show what a great boss Michael Scott is, to give that gift to Jim.

Have a great weekend.