Biggy Bob is a great listener

I have been reading "Socialnomics" by Eric Qualman.  In book he describes how angry customers would post nasty messages about bad services they had with particular companies.  Good companies search blogs and Facebook and Twitter for feedback on their service.  Biggby Bob, pseudonym for the CEO of Biggby Coffee, is one of the best listeners on the web of social commerce.  I decided to test this posting a message on my Twitter page for sole purpose getting a response.  I stated that "You know: I never had Biggby Coffee, and I have been in Lansing for over a year. And I love hot chocolate!" Biggby Bob responded in about an hour:  "Go to BIGGBY!"  

This is good social media strategy.  Check out his website for more on Biggby Coffee.  

"Socialnomic"s by Erik Qualman

Check out Qualman's blog at http://socialnomics.net/

The above book is written from a marketer's point of view but it does go deeper into how social media is changing citizens'  and consumers' expectations about transparency and communication in personal, academic, and professional levels.  

He basically draws a distinction between two practices organization cant' live without:  listening to the social web for citizens' and consumers' insights and creating a system by which citizens and consumers can offer insights in way that is beneficial to the purpose and functions of that organization.  

He does not however, get into a sense of methodology but simply offers a list of  dos and donts with compelling facts and figures to back it up.  

The next step is to create a methodology (a marketable methodology) for navigating the social web.  In this case, providing organization with a system of listening for feedback and providing organizations with a system that compels feedback.  The former is citizen and consumer side, and the latter is organization side.  

In the creation of these systems, the citizen/consumer becomes a user.  In which, case usability of these system becomes significant.  This is where the professional writer/technical communicator comes in.  We understand how to analyze user needs and create user-centered systems.  So, users accomplish the tasks they wish to accomplish (praising, complaining, recommending, questioning, inquiring, etc.), and organzations get what they need (citizen/customer feedback).

Wired on Twitter

An interesting article on how Twitter is using the open source spirit to construct its business model.  

www.tinyurl.com/twitterwired

"Become a Bike Vigilante"

Boston Bikes is an initiative by the City of Boston, MA to streamline the stolen -bike-recovery system. The utilize Facebook and twitter to use the populace of Boston in Bike Recovery Efforts.

It works this way. A Boston Biker registers their bike with the city. If there bike is stolen, they can log onto the websites and report the theft. An alert is sent to police, bike shops, school securities, and hospitals. In addition, the alert goes out to their Facebook page (402 fans) and their Twitter feed (317 follower). This accounts for hundreds of additional eyes across the city looking for your bike.

On their website, there is a "Follow Us" link. The heading on this page encourages users to become a "Bike Vigilante": engaging citizens to become more active citizens by utilizing citizen media. This blog is partly focused on finding pragmatic uses of social media. The problem with stolen bikes is that there is no system of consilidation. There are not many cities with an underground stolen bike ring with a mob like organization. Incidents are frequent but solitary. And the entity charged with finding that bike, the police, can't spend a week on finding a stolen bike. Or stopping everyone they see with a bike that looks similar to one reported. By using Facebook and Twitter, bike vigilantes are already deployed throughout the city. Tax dollars are not being used to find a needle in the haystack since vigilantes tend to work pro bono. In addition, Facebook and Twitter accounts are free, and the city already pays for someone to work on the city website along with server space.

However, that does not mean they didn't pay for the idea. They could easily have hired or were approached by a consultant who said that they had a low cost way of curbing the stolen bike problems in Boston.

Is Google Turning Into a Social Media Company?

Is Google Turning Into a Social Media Company?: "

Perhaps Google’s stiffest competition in the immediate future is not Bing and Yahoo, but rather it’s Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Just as we no longer search for the news (24 of the top 25 newspapers have shown record declines in circulation) in the future we will no longer search for products and services rather they will find us via social media. Google has made billions by being the masters of the search world. As these new social media players look for potential revenue streams, monetizing search will certainly bubble to the forefront for the executives.

This will occur on two main fronts a) consumers searching for products and services b) companies searching within the millions of conversations and meta data to garner relevant and real-time customer feedback as well as potential leads and sales. One of the most powerful items about Twitter is the ability for companies to go to search.twitter.com and put in relevant brand or product terms and being able to have insight into what is being said about their product or service. This is one of the main drivers behind why Facebook has been adjusting some of their platform to be more in sync with Twitter. Facebook understands there is “gold” in these conversations.

Speaking of adjustments. Google has made advancements in their search algorithm over the years as well as adjustments to other products. However, for the past few years they haven’t been pushed hard by any major competitor and they haven’t made many MAJOR adjustments to their core business. You can’t blame them, why fix something that isn’t broken. As a result they’ve also been able to supply the world with many free tools that we use in our day-to-day lives. However, as a result, search hasn’t advanced as much as it could have if there was a more competitive environment. Also, people care more about what their friend thinks than what an algorithm does and that is where social media has a potential advantage on Google in the future. However Google is looking to close that gap as evidenced by some of their adjustments:

Google Wave: This is Google’s collaboration tool to combat Twitter and Facebook – some have dubbed it 21st Century e-mail. Computer World’s Sharon Gaudin titled in article “Google’s Wave could prove a threat to Facebook, Twitter.” This same article quotes analyst Rob Enderle, “Thus Google, with its marketing clout and good name, may have a good shot at disrupting the likes of Facebook and Twitter, “This represents a displacement threat for everybody,” Enderle said. “Everybody in this space — Twitter, Facebook and MySpace — is nervous at the moment. If they’re not nervous, then they’re missing the memo. The market hasn’t settled and when it’s not settled, then something like Wave could come in and make headway.”

My take: The biggest hurdle here is that it may be too bleeding edge for the masses. If they make it easiest enough to use for Mom & Dad to adopt than they have a home run on their hands. That is what has been one of Facebook’s biggest successes – the mass adoption by older generations.

Google SearchWiki: In Google’s words SearchWiki is a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you prefer to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. My take: Too much burden placed on the user to supply relevant input that can easily be leveraged by other searches. I believe you also need a Gmail account for this to show up. Also, hardly anyone knows this exists. The beauty of a tool like Facebook Connect is that it easily resolves a problem (people don’t want to have to enter logins/personal information for various sites) with limited effort on the user’s part.

Google Hot Trends: Similar in concept to top Trending Topics on Twitter this functionality or box shows up whenever you type in a search term that is one of the top searched on items in the past few hours. “Trends is all based on a different kind of tweet. Instead of the 140 character tweet, it’s the 20 to 25 character tweet, the keyword search. And those come in much faster than tweets do. In our view, that’s the highest fidelity information for trending topics,” said RJ Pittman, director of product management for consumer search properties at Google.

My take: Yahoo had a similar, less robust concept with Yahoo Buzz several years ago. I just find it interesting that Google is perceived (whether it is true or false – I’d argue false) by the public as following Twitter (no pun intended) with this offering. Great article by Danny Sullivan can be found here

Google Sidewiki: In Google’s Words, “Google Sidewiki allows you to contribute helpful information next to any Web page. Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page. Instead of displaying the most recent entries first, we rank Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed. More information on Google Sidewiki

My take: This is a game changer. There are other companies that have been trying to tackle these “layers” on sites, but with Google now in the game it signals that Google is really getting serious about social. Websites aren’t going to like this loss of control, but it should be a big win for the user if done properly. To make it truly social it should allow the user to highlight or bring to the front specific individuals that they trust. Look for social media companies to get more search oriented and look for Google to continue to get more social.

Erik Qualman is the author of Socialnomics which has made the Amazon #1 Best Seller List. Click here to order Socialnomics.

"

Listening

http://www.radian6.com/blog/2009/10/how-much-time-does-it-take-to-listen/

Listening is an interesting issue when dealing with Social Media since it deals with two different forums:  forums created by the company in which users/stakeholders can offer opinions on the state of the organization and forums created by the users/stakeholders, who determine the purpose and function of the forum.  Listening in the former sense can be routine since responses can be controlled.  For instance, mystarbucksidea.com is owned by Starbucks who has set the discursive purpose:  give you ideas to Starbucks.  It is based on additive measures to improve the company and its practices.  And Starbucks has a hold on that discourse in that forum.  

Then of course, there is stopstarbucks.com, which is blatantly out stop Starbucks.  Ooh!  Don't forget starbucksunion.org, which is bent on uniting Strabucks employees to help maintain fair treatment for employees.  These blogs our out of Starbucks' hands.  

Not all independent forums are negative, they work well to illustrate the point.  Fighting against independent Forums is nonsense.  Creating indipendent forums out of benefit for your company instead of rallying against naysayers is smart.  Each type of forum requires a different approach:  MyStarbucksIdea, listening is expected since Starbucks owns the space.  In the other forums, customers have to be convinced that Starbucks is listening.  Engagement is crucial and must be active other wise, the users of these alternative sites may be alienated and be discouraged from taking part in any Starbucks forum, including buying coffee in their store.  

The Social Media Organization

The Social Media Organization: "

I have a tendency of over simplifying things in my head. It makes life easier that way. Below is a list of what I call a social media organization and represents various job functions in the enterprise, with one or two phrases describing each. Here is a more thorough description of each of the social media roles.

• Social Media Strategist: defining strategy, little to no execution


• Community Manager: Customer facing,direct engagement with end users, face of the company


• Social Media Manager: hybrid role; and may define strategy as well as execute


• Public Relations: influencing external bloggers, blogging


• Social Media Metrics: measuring social media, both on & off domain, reporting


• Legal: ensuring FTC laws or followed, providing guidance on user generated content on corporate domain


• Privacy/Security: protection of online corporate assets, privacy law enforcement


• Customer Support: respond to customer issues on the social web


• Ad Sales: selling ad space within a social network or community


• Employees: social participation on behalf of a company, not measured and done in the free time

Depending on the size and culture of the organization many of the above job functions may be shifted around. Does this make sense?  Am I over simplifying it?

"

Social Media Jobs

Allison Driscoll is a blogger for Mashable.com, and an interactive copywriter (still not sure what that is) and a social media consultant.  Particularly, she focuses on both Facebook and Twitter.  According to her bio on Mashable, "has parlayed her love of writing and fascination with Facebook into a career as a social media blogger and online strategist."  Well shit.  Isn't that what I'm trying to do?  

Inappropriate language aside, there is a professional network out there that values understanding social media as a tool to be implemented professionally.  There are people out there who are going into work places, pitching social media strategies, and then getting paid.  And they all are blogging.  At least they better be.  Recently, I have been posting links to interesting social media articles on my Twitter feed.  After my first post on social media, I acquired a new follower:  dreamsystems (Dream Systems Media), an online communication consulting firm.    

The word consultant seems to be the magical word.  It seems to have the perfect combination of ambiguity and pragmatism.  It seems like the perfect identity for a post-graduate professional writing major.  Professional writers (not necessarily technical writers) have a large body knowledge about communication and networks (not to mention equipped with the ability to write very clear and effective prose) that can be applied in multiple environments.  The problem often is we really can define what we do in a concrete cover-letter like manner without a job opportunity to provide context.   That's why I love the flexibility of the word consultant.  

Social Media Consultant seems to be a great way to define what we can do.  In addition, with the state of the web, online communication consultants are having to no less and less about coding (which is still helpful).  So, professional writers, who lack the coding knowledge of information architects and the technical knowledge of computer engineers or HCI specialists, can find their niche in a less technical web that requires sound communication practices.  

10 SEO & Social Media Posts To Read Before MIMA Summit

10 SEO & Social Media Posts To Read Before MIMA Summit: "

2008 MIMA Summit at The Depot

In just under a week the annual Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association Summit will be held downtown Minneapolis at the Hilton. With keynotes from Seth Godin and Jackie Huba as well as a collection of local and national subject matter experts ranging from Greg Swan of Weber Shandwick to Scott Monty of Ford, it should be a veritable vortex of interactive velocity.  I apologize, that alliteration was so bad.

Anyway, TopRank has been asked to participate in the “Migrate” themed event on the topic of search engine optimization and social media convergence.

After writing, presenting and most importantly: being a paid consultant and self-practitioner of SEO (12 years) and Social Media Marketing (5 years) respectively, I thought it would be a good appetizer for next week’s presentation to highlight some of the most popular blog posts covering SEO and social media marketing from  Online Marketing Blog.

Top SEO and Social Media Marketing Posts from Online Marketing Blog:

(by traffic in the past 12 months)

1. 25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips (Apr 27th, 2009) – This popular post offers specific advice on justifying investment in social media strategy, how to decide on tactics and measuring success from in-house social media marketers including: Dell, Comcast, HP, Wells Fargo, Intel, Best Buy, General Mills, Ford, UPS, Home Depot, Cirque du Soleil and a mix of SMM consultants/agencies: Altimeter Group, Crayon, Ogilvy 360, Future Works, Doe Anderson, New Marketing Labs and others.

2. Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR (Nov 15th, 2007) – Excerpt: “The key with Twitter is not to look at microblogging as individual posts, but think of the overall impressions and value that can be created over time. Each 140 character or less entry serves as a seed of an idea for an overall objective. Over time, you’ll build a footprint and brand of influence within the Twitter community”. This post also includes tips from other early adopter Tweeple including:Andy Beal, Todd Defren and Michael Gray.

3. Best and Worst Practices Social Media Marketing (Feb 12th, 2009) – Many marketers are unsure about the difference between best and worst practices when it comes to commercial participation on the social web. Identifying best and worst practics is a work in progress of course, as communities develop, grow and change.  This post outlines the basic best/worst practices that will hold true for years to come. Internet years that is.

4. 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog (Jun 15th, 2006) – An oldie but goodie, this post contains many of the fundamentals for creating search engine friendly blogs and has been cited by over 14,000 web sites including Search Engine Land, Copyblogger, Mashable, Stuntdubl, SEOBook, Duct Tape Marketing a and HubSpot.

5. What is Your Social Media Marketing Strategy? (Mar 25th, 2008) – Social media is hot, every body’s doing it. But the question needs to be asked: why? This post offers several good business reasons why companies should invest time, money and resources into social media.

6. Top Ten SEO Tips for PR Professionals (Apr 29th, 2009) – After presenting these ten tips at a public relations conference, I blogged the presentation and wrote another blog post detailing each of the ten tips. It should have been an ebook, but I decided it would reach more people as a series of 11 blog posts.

7. 16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited (Aug 4th, 2009) – A follow up to a post originally published in 2006 that defined a new marketing category, this 3,117 word article by TopRank’s Adam Singer offers an update that resonated well with Online Marketing Blog readers. Is social media optimization still relevant and why?

8. 5 Link Building Tips for New Websites (Mar 20th, 2009) –  KISS, as in Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s sage advice for many things, including blog posts. This link building basics post from TopRank’s Dana Larson hit the nail on the head for many new web site owners in search of those ever elusive first links to boost search engine rankings.

9. Lowdown on Press Release Optimization (Oct 24th, 2005) – One of the first really popular blog posts we ever published, still gets new links every week from sites like WebProNews, Bruce Clay, Techipedia, LED Digest and Yahoo.

10. SEO Basics: 6 Tips for Google Webmaster Tools (Apr 7th, 2009) – Google set the stage for formal search engine support of the webmaster community by developing Webmaster Tools (thanks Vanessa Fox) and TopRank’s Thomas McMahon wrote up this popular tips post highlighting some very useful features.

BONUS!  While not one of the most popular posts overall in the past year, a few recent entries made on Online Marketing Blog speak specifically to the presentation I’ll be giving at the MIMA Summit next week:

SEO & Social Media Roadmap – How do you plan for a social media strategy? How do you leverage the Yin/Yang benefits of both SEO and Social Media for objectives, tactics, specific tools and measuring goals? This post attempts to answer those questions specifically.

Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success – This post was published over at Mashable and focuses on making the most out of combining SEO insights with social media marketing tactics through development of a roadmap.  Like any digital marketing effort, a combined SEO and social media program is most effective that identifies a target audience, specifies measurable goals and a strategy to guide implementation of tactics.

Hopefully your appetite has been stimulated enough to come to our  MIMA Summit SEO/Social session right after Seth Godin’s keynote. If not, you’ll definitely have actionable tips you can use in your SEO and Social Media Marketing efforts today.

Session Details:

The Intersection of SEO and Social Media

Oct 5, 2009 – 9:45 am

Tactics Track, Salon C

Hilton, Minneapolis

Session Overview:

Successful social media efforts build community, better connect brands with customers and can influence both media coverage and increased sales. Yet implementing a social media marketing program without optimizing content for search is literally “leaving money on the table.” Useful social content (blog, video, images, audio and applications) that cannot be discovered via search is a lost opportunity to reach audiences that are looking.

Why do so many companies fail to leverage their participation on the social web for SEO? This session will provide specific “Do’s and Don’ts” of social media optimization and provide attendees practical examples of how companies can leverage SEO and social media content to improve their search marketing performance.

If you like video, here’s an interview with Phil Wilson of Minnov8 & myself talking about SEO/Social and what I’ll be presenting at MIMA Summit.

Win a Free Pass to the MIMA Summit!

Want to attend the sold-out MIMA Summit in Minneapolis next week but didn’t get your ticket in time?  Or maybe you’re a Seth Godin fan and just can’t stand the fact that you’ll miss hearing him speak in person.  Well dear readers, we just might have the solution to that problem.  TopRank Online Marketing has one extra ticket from the corporate table we purchased for the MIMA Summit and we’re going to give it away.

All you have to do is leave a single comment below with a creative and/or compelling reason why we should give YOU a free ticket to next week’s MIMA Summit ($595 value) OR if you Tweet a similarly creative link to this post, that will show up in our comments too. We’ll pick one lucky winner on Thursday Oct 1st.

Sound easy? Sound doable? Then get to it.  If you comment, be sure to enter your email address so we can contact you. If you Tweet, be sure to follow @toprank so we can DM you. We will ONLY contact you if you win and will not rent, sell, post, hack or do anything unsavory or sinister with the information you provide.

Obligatory Q and A:

Q: Does it include gratuitous coffee in the morning before Seth speaks?

A: If MIMA provides it with the corporate table tickets, then you get it. Pretty sure they’ll be offering coffee. Maybe even some bacon.

Q: Does it include lunch?

A: Pretty sure lunch is included. If not, I’ll buy you lunch.

Q: Does it include door to door pickup service from my home in Ham Lake to downtown Minneapolis with sidetrips to Starbucks on the way there and Lucia’s Wine Bar on the way home?

A: I don’t think so.

Q: OK, what about cab fare?

A: Nope.

Q: Transit pass?

A: Not going to happen.

Q: Bus fare?

A: That would be, ah, no.

Q: Schwag?

A: MIMA Summit events and sponsors have been amazing with their schwag generosity. Can’t imagine this year will be any different.

However, we might bring a TopRank mugs. We’d bring the TopRank Old English Sheep dog, but he has a sinus infection and believe me, you don’t want to be around when a 90lb sheep dog sneezes.

Any other questions? Please Tweet them to @toprank or email seo at toprank dot org

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"

Developing a Methodology

Looking at Social Media communication plans as a dealing with interacting genre sets can help create that plan.  In combination with activity theory, there could follow an effective set of practices for implementing a social media plan and for measuring its effectiveness (more on this later).   

The plan for this project would be to develop a methodology for implementing and maintaining and social media plan for any particular organization.  The next step would be to analyze an organization actual uses of social media and determine their strengths and weaknesses.   

Genre Systems and Health Care

I'm sure everyone has seen the numerous videos on YouTube of the Tea Party's, the town hall meetings, and other responses to current politcal and cultural environment of the United States.  This post is not here to offer sentimentent on any side of the debate.  Rather this post is an attempt to state a methodology for tracing these complex genre systems that seeming arise out of thin air without any sense of control or discourse.  

Besides videos, you can live the discontent on Facebook (Nation Wide Tax Day Tea Party, Americans Against Obamacare, Universal Health Care),  blog posts (The Obamacare Story you Won't Here, Obamacare and Redstate Democrats, America's Re-Tea Party, Ezra Klein), and even Wikis (Conservapedia on Obamacare )

The idea is that this discourse is bloated and chaotic. There are so many forums in which texts are produced that having some sense of control over the issue is near impossible. Don't forget, I tapped the tip of the surfaced part of the iceberg with the examples that I presented.

So, the issue is this: how does one create a an effective social media plan for any instance with any company or organization knowing full well that putting information on the web is like throwing a message in a bottle and dumping it in the ocean with the expectation that you can choose who that message goes to and how it will be read and used.

In addition, when information is put online, anything could happen to it. Even if an organization does months of research into creating a social media system, that does not mean they will have complete control over the system (how it functions, what media will be used, and so on), and they will not have control on how the information will be transplanted in other online systems.  

Part of my research will include how an organization can create an effective genre system that works for them instead of against them. More posts on this later.

The Trouble with "The Trouble with Twitters"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

If you refer to a previous blog post--http://walkingcharley.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-am-under-impression-that-memex.html

--you will see that new technologies that offer new way of recording and transformating information take a while to be learned by users.  Essentially, they are forming new literate practices.  The user must do cost benefit analysis to determine if learning the new practice is worth it or not.  

In the case of Twitter, users began using the system in different ways to fit their needs.  You can see this entry for detail on this matter:  http://walkingcharley.blogspot.com/2009/05/web-20-usability-and-participatory.html.

But users must also discover how the system can be useful.  As the video illustrates, this can sometimes be hard to discover.  But, tell the voters in Iran that Twitter is not useful.  So far, it has been the fastest news source ever.  When there were gas shortages in the Carolinas,  people would let others know which stations had gas on Twitter.  At this point, we just getting to the point seeing how blogging and social networking technologies will be useful to the individual.  

"Age of Rhetoricality"

John Bender and David E. Wellbery in their chapter "Rhetoricaaity:  On the Modernist Return of Rhetoric." in The Ends of Rhetoric:  History, Theory, and Practice explains that rhetoric is no longer practiced as it was in antiquity.  They argue that "modernism is an age not of rhetoric, but rhetoricality" (25).  He argues that rhetoric was maintained within a specific "set of limitations" relating to a particular purpose and goal, topoi.  In modern times, rhetoricality is defined by not fixed point of discourse.  There are no viewable set of limitations in defining rhetoric as a pragmatic art.     Instead well formed institutions, we have decentralized points of power and overlapping discourses.

And this was true of the modern era until the time of  web 2.0.  Web 2.0 in effect turned everyone into a meaningful orator who could potentially influence a discourse on a substantial level.  The economic concept of the long tail illustrates how marketing has turned into creating a band wagon to creating smaller yet numerous communities of stakeholders who have considerable amounts of power in the smaller discourses.   

Bender and Wellbery affirm that his plurality does not allow for a single definition of rhetoric that classical times allowed.  However this is not to say that today's rhetoricians do not possesses a specialized set of literacy skills that allow them to function in the production processes of knowledge and meaning.

As the video in my previous post showed, a majority of people who have access to these technologies are voicing their ideas within the limitations of the genres the are using and the discourses in which they function.  Rhetorics seemed to be a more appropriate term when describing the current idea of rhetorical studies today.   There are still a specialized skill set needed in determine one's ability to take any particular rhetoric and be effective with it.      

"Social Media Revolution"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Digital Medical Records

Dr.  Paul Felden, a primary care physician stands amid his labyrinth of patient records, isolated in his offices in Mount Laural, NJ (picture taken from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/technology/19patient.html).

The problem is many patients see more more than one doctor, each with their own isolated room of medical records.  It is a very Web 1.0 world in the medical field.  Intertextual between doctors is complex and cumbersome.  A cancer patient who receives care, consultations, and treatments may interact with a number of health care professional including doctors (primary care and specialists), nurses, psychiatrists, insurances reps, and so on.  All of them may be looking at isolated medical records that could only show pieces of the puzzle.  

Not to mention the trouble for doctors.  In aforementioned article, journalist Steve Lorh writes "Dr. Paul Feldan, one of three doctors in a primary care practice in Mount Laurel, N.J., considered investing in electronic health records, and decided against it. The initial cost of upgrading the office’s personal computers, buying new software and obtaining technical support to make the shift would be $15,000 to $20,000 a doctor, he estimated. Then, during the time-consuming conversion from paper to computer records, the practice would be able to see far fewer patients, perhaps doubling the cost." 

Recalling a previous post, new digital recording technologies come with an inherent cost vs benefit analysis.  Is the time and money used in learning and installing the system into the everyday practice of the worklplace actually worth it?

The idea is getting more traction with recent attention on Health Care Reform.  Parts of the bill may include tax breaks for doctors who switch to digital records.  Right now, not many are arguing against the need for digital records.  They arguing over who is going to pay for it.  

But, there are still questions about how this system will look, work, and feel.  I believe questions of interface and functionality have to be addressed before these plans go on ahead.  There is some suggestions that digital records will exist in a cloud-based system that has records on the internet, which will elements of genre system.  

In fact, web 2.0 culture beckons the idea that collaboration has to occur for production to be effective and collaboration has to be accomplished through a system of genres.  So, and I'm just speculating here, we might see patient records that include, shared videos and photos, comments, and discussions between different doctors over treatments and procedures.  A 2nd opinion will look less than helpful compared to 3-4 doctor discussion on your medical records.         

Genre Systems and Social Media

I hope to now switch the blog to a particular focus on genre systems in the web 2.0 culture.  With the advent of web 2.0, discourses have interacting on a regular basis and texts and meaning are being processed through a carefully and organically constructed system of genres.  Viral Videos, Blogs, Mini-Blogs (Tweets), Photo Sharing, Social Networking Groups and Pages, Websites, Wikis all constructing meaning for one set of social actions.  

Multiplicity hasn't all of a sudden taken over.  Genre systems have existed for a while.  Web 2.0 has however, made these systems much more transparent.  The Iranian Elections and the Health Care debate all beckoned texts that were created out a system of multiple genres.  

This blog will hopefully reveal some examples of these genre systems, and how professional writers must learn to construct and interact with these systems to create effective, pragmatic, and humane communication.  

Twitter as Usability Tool

Recently, columnist David Pogue of the New York Times, asked his Twitter followers what new gadgets they would like to see on the market (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/your-favorite-uninvented-gadget/).  And he got some interesting responses.  Someone asked for self charing batteries, waterproof cell phones, wireless power for laptops (somebody beat you to it:  http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html), solar panels for lap tops and so on. 

But the significance to technical communication has to do with usability studies.  People have been using the web for feedback on products since the internet BA (the internet before amazon).  The fact is consumers have been involved in the marketing process since social media went Google.  However, product design has largely been in the hands of the companies not the consumer.  Now, good companies did usability testing and read consumer reviews before then.  But with social media, consumers are voicing the problems that prevent them from completing necessary tasks on large forum like Twitter and Facebook.  And these users are coalescing.  Groups of users rambling their discontent on the wonderfully democratic internet.  Users are moving from being simply discontent about how their products are designed to demanding a more user-centered process of production.  And the forums on which they can shout are free and many.        

I am under the impression that Memex machine looks like Orville's time machine.  Both are from the same desire for omniscience in having all knowledge packaged adnd recallable before your finger tips.  A network of documents is created leaving behind an evolution of meaning.  It is a roadmap of how we got where we are. 

Today, we have digital tools such as the internet that allows memory to be stored and recalled in digital form drawing a clear connection between memory and invention.

The recent article "Distributing Memory:  Rhetorical Work in Digital Environments" attempts to to show that connection.  Derek Van Ittersum takes this to the next level by memorizing literate practices.  He analyzes the graduate students ability to integrate the use of One Note into their note taking and recording practices.  Some of these students are in the process of writing their thesis.  He looked at the One Note as a digital memory devices that also work as invention tools.  

The main question:  Is the labor required in learning the new practice worth the overall benefit.  This questions builds a interesting and complex relationship between literacy and memory.  

How should we quantify effort vs. effect in examining the usability of these tools? 

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Development, Collaboration, and Production

For the most part, on this blog,  I have using unquestioningly glued the concept of user-generated content to Web 2.0.  There is no doubt that user-generated content is essential in a Web 2.0 network, but there is not need to treat them like conjoined twins.  It is true that one of the great industrial movements of this young century has been the shift in the means of production to the user and the raise in the value of information production and processing.  

Two outstanding examples of these user-generated Web 2.0 sites are www.Housingmaps.com and www.Wikipedia.org.  The former is referenced by William Hart-Davidson in his article for Interncom magazine (September October, 2007) entitled "Web 2.0:  What Technical Communicators Should Know."   HousingMaps is considered a mashup.  The creator, Paul Rademacher (a user of Google Maps and Craigslist), found out that if you feed adresses from Craigslist into Google's mapping system, then you could track the reality graphically.  The user, Rademacher, produced this system and provided a new, more effeicient way (at least for people looking for a place to live) organize information.  The user has the ability to control production and information.  

Wikipedia, on the other hand, is a organic metaphor of the idea that knowledge produced through efforts of an entire community versus through the efforts of an  individual who holds the power with access to knowledge.  On Wikipedia, users (thousands of users) work to write and edit articles creating this amolgom of human experience.  A process of recording history that used to take decades at the hands of few scribes is now being done by thousands of knowledgeable writers on an hourly basis.  Not to mention, Wikipedia is a shining example of user collaboration.  In the Web 2.0 production process, users often collaborate on projects via Web 2.0 application to produce a product. 

So, yes, user-based production is an obvious aspect of the current internet.   

But, as I mentioned before, the field of techncial communication and professional writing should not over look the concept of Community Development and Web 2.0.  From this inexperienced observers point of view, development creates stakeholders.  The more stakeholders an organization holds, the more power they command.  That makes the key question how do you build a network of stakeholders?  A better question might be, how do you create a system through stakeholders can collaborate to accomplish the goals of the organization?

The Genetics Alliance, a non-profit organization that seeks to educate the public on the benefits of genetic research in the Health Care industry, created WikiGenetics to act as an open forum that spreads knowledge of all things Genetics through the effort of various, independent, and volunteer contributers.  This Wiki falls into the same purpose as Wikipedia--create lengthy articles that have true educational depth.  Such length and depth, which reverberates through the entire site, can intimidate some users limiting their interaction with and relationship with the parent organizations (and their causes).  

With this, the stakeholders are clearly defined:  those affected by genetics ailments and research in some way.  There are other situations where stakeholders and their relationships are ambiguous.  The recent turmoil in Iran has spawned an organic coalescence fueled human compassion and our fear of death.  Twitter is abuzz with action.  Iran's regime feared the genre so that it was banned.  I guess it is something like a virtual book burning.  YouTube had a similar fate (though the block was not completely successful).  Except, the stakeholders were not reading content, they were producing it.  Should a technical communicator who helps create and implement a Web 2.0 system with chaos in mind?  Should we prepare for organically unexpected uses of our systems?  

But what about WikiGenetics, that was created or pitched by some communication specialist, who had a mind for genre and ecology.  They knew a Wiki would service their needs effectively.  The interesting decision in this process has to do with delivery.  How will the information be presented without having a vague conception of what hte information will be?  The information will be generated by the user.  The method of delivery (genre) is decided by the technical communicator?  

This post has progress long enough.   

Modemless Users

Is health care a right?  That  was a hot-button issue in 2008, and much of the angst has boiled over into 2009.  During his campaign, now President Obama spoke whole heartedly about providing health care for the citizens of this nation.  He also spoke about greater government transparency using internet, specifically Web 2.0 products like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.  His campaign even utilized many application used by sites like these.  But, not everyone was involved.  Numerous homeless citizens could not participate in online dialectic over American Policy.  But this is beginning to change.  

"You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper," says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. "But you need the Internet."

The quote above is from a recent Wall Street Journal article by Phred Drorak.  The article shows that the homeless men and woman are finding ways of making their presence online.  Some of the individuals cited in the article are fairly successful bloggers.  But, this raises another issue.  Internet access is limited to people like Mr. Pitts.  They hang around coffee shops and anyplace else with free Wifi.  Some shelters are installing computers with access to the internet.  In light of this, Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing.net made a prediction:

"in five years, a UN convention will enshrine network access as a human right (preemptive strike against naysayers: "Human rights" aren't only water, food and shelter, they include such "nonessentials" as free speech, education, and privacy). In ten years, we won't understand how anyone thought it wasn't a human right."

So, how does this affect usability?  The call for universal connection is increasing around the world.  Rising Voices is an example of such an organization.  You can read about them on my other blog, Drowning Out Silence, and their website.  Programs like One Laptop Per Child are committed to providing disadvantaged youths with laptops and access to the internet (You can also read more discussion about OLPC on Drowning Out Silence).  Many of those laptops have found their way to disadvantaged youths in the U.S.  The point is that access to the internet is becoming less and less exclusive.  Along with this, production on the web is becoming less and less exclusive.  Users in masses are building the digital world through communication and innovation.  This may be a little Marxist but, that is besides the point.  

The point is the individual user now has considerable production power and that power is no longer sitting in middle class suburbs.  It is moving to every nook of humanity seemingly regardless of class, creed, or color.  What will social networking mean in a universal network?  How will copyright be effected in world where production overtakes the product?  How will we create a usable network for a billion people?  

Independent Study

This independent study is focused on studying the relationship between the professional writing and web 2.0.  There has been some study into how users' roles are changing with advent of online spaces that foster user-generated-content and user cooperation.  Professional writers who work to create web communication portals are now contending with the user who is now more apart of the production process.  Web based communication products are being created within this participatory culture.  The information age is turning into the production age.  Web spaces are not just used to search and gather for information, but also help generate content or generate  web-based products.  There are individuals out there creating spaces online in this participation age.  Essentially, they are doing the work of technical writers, who have long been focused on usability, user-centered design, and efficient communication processes.  

Part of this independent study is working with individuals who design Web 2.0 products for users who have different ideas about how they should be using these sites.  So, this independent study will take the next step in inquiry into Web 2.0 application design and usability.  It moves from the analysis of the user and impacts of usability to an analysis of the user-centered design process.  This study will be conducted via readings (scholarly articles, news stories, case studies) and interviews of individuals who design these products.   The readings will not go beyond my own research of various journals and books.  

The final product of this study will yield an article for Intercom magazine on how technical writers on are working with Web 2.0 tools.  I will also turn this into a proposal for ATTW as well (this will be a joint proposal--I have joined with other students on this project).  Last but not least, I will design a functional online system using Web 2.0 tools.  During this project,  I will act as a technical communicator who has been asked to implement a usable communication system utilizing Web 2.0 tools that foster user collaboration and user-generated content.   

It just so happens that I am doing this work at my current internship (more details about internship later).  But, I designed a social media outreach campaign in an urban minority community.  In this campaign, I proposed using Facebook, Blogger, and YouTube.  My job was to fathom how these communication portals would be used.  In addition, I was also asked to implement social media for all of our clients at my internship (all clients are either non-profits or government entities).  This may provide the perfect opportunity to work on this project.  

Web 2.0 Usability and Participatory Design

I came to some conclusion for these questions about Web 2.0 Usability.  I read an article from Clay Spinuzzi called the "The Methodology of Participatory Design."  Participatory design calls for an open relationship between designers and users in the development of a product.  This methodology indirectly affected the on-going design of Twitter (and other Web 2.0 products) as it moved from an application that enables users to broadcast to a application that allows users to broadcast, network, and have dialogue.  These developments of Twitter came through user influence as I detailed in previous entries.  Basically, users and designers developed this weak partnership to optimize the application.  Spinuzzi calls for strong partnerships between users and designers in Participatory Design. In Web 2.0 dynamics, there exists this sense of "weak cooperation" among users, who upload and content on these applications (YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, etc.) (Aguiton and Cardon, 2008).  In the case of Twitter, this weak cooperation has grown not just among users but among users and designers.  The objective seems to be to create a sustainable system of use.  

One thing to think about is the affect on Professional Writing.  Organizations are often looking to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, etc. for market outreach in communication with their stakeholders.  I will write about these examples as we go along.  Professional Writers may be asked to organize this Web 2.0 outreach.  But, there is a difference between Professional Writers who are asked to use these Web 2.0 tools and those who are asked to create an application.  In the latter, the Professional Writer can act as a designer and has control over the tool and the system.  But, in the former, the Professional Writer has influence over the system of communication and production but not the design.  In this situation, analysis of the user's objective is important in choice of the appropriate tool.  

Aguiton, C. and Cardon, D. (2007). The Strength of Weak Cooperation:  An Attempt to Understand the meaning of Web 2.0.  Communications & Strategies. Retrieved April 6, 2009, from General BusinessFile ASAP.

Spinuzzi, C. (2005).  The Methodology of Participatory Design.  Technical Communication.  52(2). 163.

   

Major Project Revision: Why 3

Downstream, I hope this study effect the way we think about user contexts as technical writers in the user-centered design process.  Web 2.0 is not just about user interactivity, but it is about beckoning the user to take part in the production process itself.   The user is gaining a familiarity with Web 2.0 technologies that is creating a context in and of itself.  The user context is being created by the discourse of products.  Academically, this is adding on to the discussion of Barbara Mirel who argues that we cannot ignore user contexts in which they complete their tasks.  But this study argues that user context cannot be ignored because the users’ experiences with the technologies are creating a context of its vey own.  At least, Web 2.0 applications are building user expectations about how these products should look and act not just based on tasks they perform but the ways in which these products are determining the types of tasks that are possible and how that carries over from new product to new product.  

Major Project Revision: Why 2

To answer these questions, I plan to write a research design that outlines methodologies to use in data collection and a literature review to build a theoretical framework for analyzing technical writing for users who are literate in Web 2.0 products.  The research design will outline the ways in which I can collect information about the ways in which users learn how to use new Web 2.0 applications, what expectations they bring with them, and what happens when those expectations are not met?  To argue that this is something that technical writing has to take into consideration, I hope to analyze case studies in which technical writers are forced to accommodate a product to a user who is well versed in the product family (Web 2.0 genre).  The Twitter case may be an example of this.  Now, the literature review will begin to build a framework of study for these concepts.  I will be looking in large part at user centered design studies particularly focusing on the work of Barbara Mirel and her analysis of the user in a particular context that influences their expectations of how the products should work.  John Carroll can also offer a strong discussion through his book Minimalism Beyond the Nuremburg Funnel.  This study will also draw on the work of Clay Spinuzzi and his focus on activity and genre theory in technical writing.  

Major Project Revision: Why 1

How is Web 2.0 culture and discourse affecting technical writing and user-centered design?  Specifically in the creation of web apps like social networking sites.  Looking at Twitter, users played an integral part in how the product currently functions.  When it was first released, some of the key features were not present until users attempted to recreate their genre expectations in this environment.  It was the idea of users to create a syntax in Twitter feeds to show that they are responding to another feed.  Also, users are creating third party applications that run in relation to Twitter.  Another question for this study:  how is the user’s prior knowledge of Web 2.0 applications affecting the ways in which they adapt and change newer applications?  What is the accommodation process?  

The Blob: Moving Genres and the People They Eat Along the Way

So, Twitter has come under recent scrutiny for its part in Obama's recent speech to a joint session of Congress. Many senators and representative were Twittering while Obama gave his speech. Now the biggest criticism has been focused on ridiculousness of using Twitter at an event of such magnitude. Here is the lead to an article by Dana Milbank printed in the Seattle Times: "President Obama spoke of economic calamity and war Tuesday night in that solemn rite of democracy, the address to the joint session of Congress. In response, lawmakers whipped out their BlackBerrys and began sending text messages like high-school kids bored in math class."

The text messaging is referring to the Tweets. You are only allowed so many characters in one entry so the size and style of the tweet is similar to text messages. Now Twittering did not grow out of governmental discourse. It was the defected college Facebook crowd that made it big when they began moving from Facebook to Twitter. It was originally just a way to explain what you were doing at any point in time. But young people can't resist advocacy, and it quickly turned into a mini-blog (becuase you can only type a minimal amount as compared to a standard blog) where individuals were offering sharp, quick cultural commentary.

Now, this form eventually became so popular it expanded beyond the holds of the discourse that originally saw it to fruition. This was most visilbe in Obama's digital campain with his Twitterfeed, which reached the very same young people who made Twitter popular to begin with. Now President Obama currently has over 300,000 people following his Titterfeed (he has not updated since Dr. Martin Luther King Day). Sarah Palin now has a Twitter account. Governer Bobby Jindal has a Twitter account, on which he reminded his followers to watch his response to Obama's speach.

The possibilities for politicians to be more transparent about thier ideas are more wide open than ever before due to all the communication avenues being generated in the digital exapansion. So, why so much negativity about a Tweeting Congress? Well some of it has to do with people writing idiotic messgages. Take this example from the same article: "Then there was Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, in whose name this text message was sent at about the time the president spoke of the need to pull the country together: "Aggie basketball game is about to start on espn2 for those of you that aren't going to bother watching pelosi smirk for the next hour." A few minutes later, another message came through: 'Disregard that last Tweet from a staffer.'"

But some congress men and woman were offering decent commentary. So what is the problem? Well this is a genre that grew out a different discourse community with different agents (young people-upper level college student to young professional just out of college) with different values with different ideas about legitimate ways to communicate and connect with people. This gerne was not matured by the older generations represented in Congress. Instead, was literay forced upon then by popular demand. It is reasonable to susspect that they would not know what do with the power of instant connectivity and response. So, there were a few mishaps (news for enterntainment sake). But Twitter as a genre has the ability to engage people in conversation and call attention to certain issues. It puts ideas out on a wide market in an instant, quick accessible, and readable manner.

Take this comment from an article by Andy Carvin, NPR's social media strategist, "Flash forward to 2009, and I'm standing on the National Mall filing from Barack Obama's inauguration using tweets and text messaging, interacting directly with people around the world in real time. So it was appropriate that we spent a lot of time talking about Twitter, given how it's become perhaps the fastest tool for people to share news with the world."

"Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering" by Dorothy A. Winsor

First and foremost, this article is a very nice example of an easy-to-read discourse analysis. Winsor traces the means of text production within Engineering starting with the text itself and moving backwards to the shared ideologies that guide the social actions of these Engineers (well one in this study). These shared ideologies (beliefs about knowledge) beget shared ideas of how knowledge is created (shared methodology) and how knowledge transmited (shared rhetoric or shared genres). In the article, she points too Data sheets, graphs, progress reports and technical reports. To choose which genre is used when, situational rhetorical decisions are made to determine the best modes of delivery and style. So, the discoures determines the available means of communication (appicable rhetorics and thier corresponding genres) and then situational rhetoric specifices the choice.

This is the process through which Phillips wandered when faced with a presentation to give at an Engineering conference about an engine (go figure). So, there were certain things to consider about Engineering when this process all started. First knowledge for the report had be constructed. So their was a certain methodology for creating this knowledge that would be accepted in the discourse community of Engineering. In this case lab testing and certain procedures for collecting and recording data. The data was then recorded (memoria) in a data sheet (an acceptable genre for recording data). But it is not an acceptable genre for transmitting data. So, to present the knowledge gained, he turned to graphs and Progress Reports and Technical Reports (344). But, he had to only choose the best genre for transmitting the data. The decision was made based on a situation analysis: they used all three. But they used each one in specific way for a specific end.

So it seems the flow goes like this: ideology, discourse, methodology, rhetoric, genre, text.

Winsor also throws agency into the mix. She says that Engineers refelct and reaffirm their own agency as engineers by participating in these ideological, discursive, methodological, and rhetorical processes. Also, she comments on how Engineering as a discourse is reaffirmed through these processes due their repititon and they manners in which that repitition is stored as knowledge.

Works Cited

Winsor, Dorothy A. "Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering" in Central Works in Technical Communication. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Major Project Review

This research revolves around the idea that the user is more technologically savvy than in past years due to the increasing rate of replacement of products with updated versions.  Cell phones are an ideal example, but this concept can also be applied to video gaming systems, web browsers, email programs, Web 2.0 products.  But, the question is how is technical writing as a professional discipline responding to a user who may very well be already be equipped enough to use their product.  How is the prior knowledge of the user being considered in the design and accommodation process?

With this research, I hope to create sets of usable data about how users are becoming accommodated to the products and the ways in which technical writing are creating documentation for these users.  But I am also arguing that user-context can no longer be ignored because their prior knowledge of the generation of products and their expectations of future upgrades are directly linked to their ability to the most updated version.  

Hopefully, this study will expand the scope of usability testing and the ways in which documentation accommodates the user to the technology.  The benefits of this study are mainly professional.  The field seems currently stuck in the debate on how to create useful products, what role do users play in that production, and what does the user-context have to do with the design and accommodation processes.  The goal of this research is to approach these questions from user-centered design theory, activity theory, and humanistic conceptions of technical writing, while designing an ethical and efficient research methodology for collecting usable data.  

Therefore, the final form in which I see this study taking is a research design with an embedded literature review that maps the theoretical frameworks of user-centered design, activity theory, and humanistic rhetoric.   

The Discourse of Digital Locality

I am at my desk at 1:00 in the morning.  I teach first year composition at 8:00 in the morning.  The pigeons are nesting on my air condition unit and shitting all over my deck.  Normally, I'd scare them off, but its storming and I have an amazing sense of my own guilt.  

There, I have located myself in more ways in than necessary.  Despite all the extras, the fact is that I am at my desk and the pigeons are on the air conditioner (wall-unit by the way--the outside part).  But it is this awareness of the relationship between myself and other agents around (the closest are the pigeons for sake of example) my physical location that seems to be creating a new discourse of locality.  

In Mathew Honan's article in Wired 17.02, titled "I Am Here," he explicitly calls to attention this new discourse.  The article focus on smart phone applications that run on GPS based systems.  So, for instance, there is an application that allows you instant message someone in the vicinity who happens to be logged into the same app.  There is one in which lists Wikipedia articles about local attractions and histories.  There is another that shows the twitter feeds of everyone in your current zip-code.  The point is our locality is now some discursive action that is broadcast to agents in the local discourse community.  

But there are some interesting aspects of this yet to be explored.  For instance, Honan was constantly updating his location on various apps and social networking cites.  He comments "This is new territory, and there's no established etiquette or protocol" (74).  So essentially we are seeing the birth of discourse or a genre within a larger discourse.  I guess this somewhat similar to the birth of text messaging and the formation of text-speak.  Now the genre is fairly entrenched.  As portals to this new genre become cheaper (smart phones) I think we will begin to see standard acts of behavior like we saw with the genesis of social networking sites.  This will be an interesting thing to follow if you like genre theory, discourse analysis, and information architecture.

This last one is particularly interesting because we are putting out tons of data by just having a GPS based app read our location and turn into communicable information.   

So, since I do have a Smart Phone, I am locating myself at my computer, on my blog, next to the pigeons who are shitting on patio.  And to be an agent, you gotta be located.