Category: social networking

More blogging on the job

It started out with Visions, a blog designed to highlight campus research. Then we tried our hand at using blogs to communicate a name change. And now (cue the Jimi Hendrix, please) we bring you the latest blog sensation from the UMR PR staff, Are You Experiential? Experience this! This latest blog is designed to highlight the activities of our campus’ many student design projects. Have a look and let us know what you think.

Introducing Higher Ed Experts

In addition to running her highly successful niche blog, College Web Editor, and staying busy as a real college web editor, Karine Joly has managed to find the time to launch another online venture, Higher Ed Experts. The new site combines the attributes of a social network with online professional development, and it looks promising.

Higher Ed Experts

Higher Ed Experts is designed to “provide professional development and social networking online opportunities to higher ed professionals working in Web, marketing, PR and admissions.” Karine lists a few of the benefits in her post about the new site. Best of all, registration is free, so why not sign up now and surf around the site a bit?

Disclosure: I’m a member of the advisory panel for Karine’s new venture.

UMR name change update

One reason for the light posting around here lately is because I’ve been busy working on a variety of projects pertaining to the upcoming name change of my employer, the University of Missouri-Rolla, to Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T for short). The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved the name change last Friday. The new name goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

There is much work to do between now and then. A lot of rebranding, a lot of communication to a lot of people, and still a lot of blogging at our Name Change Conversations blog. I’ve been busy there, too, working to transform that site from a forum for discussion about the name change proposal to a forum to inform interested parties about how we’re going to implement the new name, and all that entails.

As a forum for discussing the name change proposal, the blog drew comments mainly from opponents. Does that mean the blog was unsuccessful? I think it was a mixed bag. I believe it was a success in a few ways: 1.) it gave alumni and students an “official” forum through which they could share their views, complaints and occasional expressions of support; 2.) it caused alumni, students and others to — in the words of one commenter — “think more about my alma mater than I have in a long time:; and 3.) the conversations that occurred there also won a couple of people over to the rationale for the name change. I wish more of the alumni and students who supported the name change would have taken advantage of the opportunity to share their views. But I also realize that the most vocal critics of any change will be the ones most likely to take advantage of an opportunity to make their voice heard. That’s the beauty of the blogosphere. Or one of the beauties, anyway.

I’ll try not to bore you all with lengthy posts about the trials associated with a name change. But understand that this undertaking will consume a lot of my time, energy and thinking in the coming months.

onBeing: Washington Post’s video experiment

onBeingJust found out about onBeing, the Washington Post’s experiment with video vignettes from ordinary people. onBeing’s Jennifer Crandall explains the purpose on the site as follows:

onBeing is a project based on the simple notion that we should get to know one another a little better. What you’ll find here is a series of videos that takes you into the musings, passions, histories and quirks of all sorts of people. The essence of who they are, who we are.

There will be a new video every Wednesday, so check back often. In the meantime, feel free to add your thoughts to the comments section and tell us about someone you’d like to see in onBeing. Over time, we should end up with a pretty cool community. — Jenn

I’ve just clicked on a couple of videos, so it’s too early for me to form a judgment. But my overall impression is that the videos, while interesting, are too long. But at least the people at the Post are trying something, so good for them.

Other views from blogdom:

Pro: “All in all, it has a very iTunes-like feel. Totally un-newspaper-like.”

Con: “It’s like some undergrad documentary project that’s not interesting enough to make it onto the 3 a.m. slot of a third tier cable network and not edgy enough to get noticed as modern art.”

Friday Five: Random Play

Five contextless links:

  • Some retailers in the UK are getting more traffic from social networking sites like MySpace than from search engines (Google being the 800-pound exception, of course). Hat tip: BeyondPR, who observes that marketers should “re-evaluate your online spend to include social networks.”
  • Just another crumby marketing ploy? Put your name on a piece of toast. Via Brand Infection.
  • If MySpace were a country it would be the 11th largest and other scary thoughts on globalization. YouTube presentation, via FlackLife.
  • Internet-based alumni relations is the latest entry in Michael Stoner‘s ongoing discussion with Andy Shaindlin, executive director of the Caltech Alumni Association (and blogger at Alumni Futures). The discussion gives new meaning to the idea of “high-tech, high-touch.” Says Shaindlin: “We estimate that on average we reach alumni with electronic ‘touches’ at least 15 times as frequently as we do face-to-face. And electronic contacts outnumber those via print by about 4:1.”
  • While YouTubing for references to our campus‘s annual St. Pat’s festivities, I discovered a fun 3-minute clip of the 1949 St. Pat’s Parade through downtown Rolla, Mo. The parade was shot with an 8-millimeter camera but is in color. The guy who posted it is a UMR graduate (history, 1970) and the film was taken by his father in law. This clip offers a glimpse into an unusual 99-year tradition of our campus. The weeklong celebration culminates with the parade downtown tomorrow.