The editorial calendar is created from the events and “special days” of the library. I’ve put out a call to the staff to let me know of events and programs they are working on for next year so that I can come up with 12 themes to base my posts upon. Each month, I’ll focus on the event or special occasion and work that theme into the majority of my blog posts. Of course, that won’t work for everything that needs to be posted over the course of the year, but it will give me a starting point when I’m staring at that blank editing box in WordPress.
My question is – what are other people doing when they need to blog for their organizations? Are you doing something similar? Flying by the seat of your pants? Something in between? While my decision to pursue the editorial calendar might be the best for us (and I don’t know that yet – only time will tell if this will work), I know that there are other methods out there that are being used – successfully. Tell me – what are you doing?
Update: David Lee King just posted a “how they do things in Topeka” post on his blog that is pretty much related to this one – go check it out for more ideas on work blogging!
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The week in Tweets
- @dullroar Mine has been zero for almost 30m. Don't tell anyone, though, 'cause they'll just email me to irritate me… in reply to dullroar #
- Google doesn’t make you go to Google to Google. Google brings Google to you. http://bit.ly/aX0vLc Once I wrapped my head around that I <3 it #
- How To: Quickly Enable Social Logins with JanRain Engage http://ff.im/pZxOJ #
- Never Hand Out Your Password Again: Twitter Goes OAuth http://ff.im/pZxOL #
- Using Your iPad With Your Mac / PC – to Help You Focus | The Brooks Review http://ff.im/pZxOI #
- GR-TJ04-01 World Bank [pic] http://ff.im/q1ZGt #
- CIMG0020 [pic] http://ff.im/q4Ulj #
- Good morning, my social network friends! Today I'm wrestling with PowerPoint, working the desk and closing the library this evening. Fun!!! #
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Screen and distractions
Earlier this week, I read a post on Lifehacker that got me thinking.
When new people come to my apartment there’s usually a point in the visit where they stop and ask, “wait, how many screens do you have?” (from http://lifehacker.com/5625890/why-technology-is-so-addictive-and-how-you-can-avoid-it)
I started wondering how many screens I had in my house! First, though, I had to define a screen because there are some gray areas. For my purposes, a screen is anything that displays information digitally (even just time information) but is not a digital clock. That would have sent my numbers soaring… So, the cable box is a screen as it displays the channel I’m watching, but the digital clock next to it is not. Clear as mud? Yeah, you may want to re-work that definition If you decide to do this…
For me, I came up with 21 screens in my house. Considering that I have 6 rooms (not counting bathrooms), that’s kind of crazy. We have TVs in four of those rooms, a desktop computer with 2 monitors in one and laptops, e-readers and cell phones sprinkled throughout. Is it any wonder we get distracted and sidetracked so easily? In my living room alone, I found 9 screens from the entertainment center, to the Harmony remote to the two laptops, iPad and Kindle that tend to live in there while getting charged up. These are, admittedly, decidedly first world problems, but it can be a problem.
I’m a reader, I love to consume books in any format and fashion that I can get ’em. Even though most of my reading these days takes place on a screen (Kindle or iPad), I still don’t read as much as I used to because there is nowhere in my house where I am not presented with the distraction of a screen. I could go outside – we don’t have a yard TV yet – but if the weather isn’t cooperating (and I live in Missouri – the weather rarely cooperates) that isn’t all that comfortable.
These are not just passive screens, either. Some are – the TVs don’t generally turn themselves on and beg to be watched – but some, such as the cell phones or the iPad, have reminders, alerts and various other ways they try for our attention. (Also – I just realized I’d not counted our land-line phones, all of which have screens to display the caller ID information. That’s three more, for a total of 24 screens – and I bet I’ve forgotten a few others!)
I’m the last person to argue for fewer techie toys (did you notice I have both a Kindle and an iPad? I’m a gadget whore….), but I do wonder what all these screens will do to the attention span and distractibility of our upcoming generations? There are some interesting comments at Lifehacker’s post, so if you haven’t read that one yet, go check it out.
I talked to a local IT manager recently about his library’s planned migration to Google Apps. He’d emailed me late last week, saying he’d read my article on the subject and wanted to discuss it with me. We talked for quite a while and, during the conversation, they brought up the fact that Gmail may be E-rate eligible. I had not even considered this – even after learning that Amazon’s cloud services may be eligible.
This is one of the great things about being willing to share what you know – I, at least, always learn something from the people I’m ostensibly teaching or providing knowledge to. I’d like to say that my willingness to share what I know is purely selfless – a true act of generosity, but in reality, it benefits me as much as it does (hopefully) the people I share with!
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The week in Tweets
- @cclibrarian Recipe and pattern storage – if you have the Evernote client on your phone/netbook, you have everything with you when u travel! in reply to cclibrarian #
- @wawoodworth Customer service. in reply to wawoodworth #
- Oops, I'll try again… Customer Service #andypoll What training would you want every staff member to have? Go. Answer & RT! #
- Alex and his band uniform [pic] http://ff.im/pFsyf #
- @dullroar It is utterly amazing what these kids can do while beating on a drum. Marching on a wall is child's play… 😉 in reply to dullroar #
- @mstabbycat Yes. Will I be able to? Probably not. Alex has a thing on Saturday in St. Louis that I should go to… in reply to mstabbycat #
- It is a gorgeous – truly gorgeous – day outside. Coolish, lovely breeze… you know what that means, right? Yep I'm off for the day!! #hooky #
- @lilaclee Notes – Soundpaper and SundryNotes, text/spreadsheet Office2 HD for docs in Google and Dropbox storage. RDP for remote PCs #iPad in reply to lilaclee #
- Q&A: Janrain's CEO Discusses OpenID in the Federal Government http://ff.im/pLaXv #
- Step-by-Step: Creating Your Blogging System http://ff.im/pP5RM #
- Lunch – especially when Mom pays – is always a good thing! (@ IHOP) http://4sq.com/3VZ8ds #
- A little wine, a little knitting & a little people watching. Little Hills Cobblestone White = yummy (@ Little Hills Winery) #
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The importance of disaster planning
Friday night we had a big storm come through Jefferson City. Power went out in places, tree limbs were scattered about, that sort of thing. At the library, we must have gotten some kind of power surge that knocked out one of our Universal Power Supply units and did some damage to its connected server. This is when I’m glad to have done the work involved in creating a disaster plan!
The server is still functional – it’s handing out IPs and such, but I can’t log into it at all, which means that if I didn’t have a disaster plan which lays out the hardware, software and network configuration of each server, I’d be hurting right now. As it is, I’m pretty lucky. It works well enough that I don’t have to rush configuring the replacement server and I just happen to have an extra server around, so I don’t have to order one.
As disasters go, this one was pretty mild. A fast trip to the library on Saturday morning to reroute the electrical connections and restart, then everything was going again. Heavy duty work can wait until I have time to do it this week. That’s nice – and it’s all due to my disaster plan!
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The week in Tweets
- @AgriBlogger LOL – I've almost done that! I'm sure I will actually finish the transaction someday and then wonder where my file is… 😉 in reply to AgriBlogger #
- DON'T GET Plants vs. Zombies for the iPad!! I would have wasted my whole weekend playing, but my son kept stealing it to play it himself! #
- FF is down. I came here and had a moment of panic when I thought Twitter was down. I was shaking, but now I can tweet and I'm all better. #
- Whew. There for a minute, I thought I'd actually have to do my homework! #
- @lilaclee Yeah!!! – yours came really fast, didn't it? #iPad in reply to lilaclee #
- @lilaclee I got my accessories first, too. I thought that was just mean, personally. That keyboard dock staring at me, but no #iPad .. #
- How People Are Signing In Across the Web [STATS] http://ff.im/praXb #
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