• How to get started with social media.
• How to write effectively for the  online world.
• How to generate consistent content.
• How you can use new media tools to reach your real-world goals.

This is a hands-on, small format class. By the end of this three-hours, you’re going to have a working personal blog, integrated with Twitter and any other online presence you might have or want to set up.
Most importantly, this class includes two kinds of support and follow-up. First, Patrick will work with you to develop a content strategy and plan so you don’t run out of things to write about.

Class Requirements:
A laptop, an email account and an enthusiasm for new media.

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If you don’t know about Ignite, you should. It’s a collection of short talks, 20 slides, 15 seconds a slide. I defy you to find a better way to spend next Wednesday night. Please come.

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http://bigthink.com/ideas/20807

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Off the top of my head I came up with three other kinds of time. They are:

1) Closing time. ( 15 minutes ahead of the rest of the world )

2) Hammer time. ( 1980-89 R.I.P. ),

3) CLOBBERIN’ TIME! ( measured by the number of stony fist impacts )

What other kinds of time can you come up with?

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http://tinyurl.com/DRSep121

I believe we just entered what I call the Third Wave of Literacy. It’s tough to pinpoint this occurrence exactly – it’s not like anybody blew a whistle – but as I look back from the dizzying technological height of 2010, here are the divisions I can see.

The First Wave

In the first wave, only a very few people could read and write. The ones who could were scholars, priests and magicians. I add Magicians because, if you are in a pre-literate culture, really, what’s the difference between a priest and a magician? (Okay, maybe Magicians get cooler hats.)

The Second Wave

Around the 14th and 15th century the masses started to read. Dante made the very unusual choice to compose the Divine Comedy in Italian rather than Latin. In 1382, John Wycliffe was heretical enough to translate the Holy Bible into English. And to cap it off, in the 15th century, Gutenberg cranked up his printing press.

The Third Wave

As dramatic and world changing as the Second Wave was, it was still limited. Sure, everyone could read, but only a few could publish. As much as communication media have multiplied throughout the 20th century, a few people were in charge of what got produced/published/broadcasted/distributed. Around 2002, that all changed.

We are living in a time when everyone can consume media and everyone can create and distribute media. In essence, a six year old kid is on the same footing as the Pope, the President of the United States and a book editor. The next email you send can be forwarded to everyone in the world in under a second for free.

The opportunities and the perils of communication have never been greater. Welcome to the communications tsunami that is, the Third Wave of Literacy.

Okay, boys, this is the week we knock over the barn.

Uh boss? Why a barn again?

Because that’s where the blue bag is, you idiot. Remember: everyone wear suits, so we’ll stand out in a rural setting. Then we’ll meet up right under the big metal grain chute.

And there it is, “Why a barn again?”  The reason I wrote How to Succeed in Evil was to try and find a motivation for a villain that made a little sense to me.

Many more comic covers and commentary here:

http://www.lileks.com/institute/funny/07/45.html

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Judges 12:6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce [it] right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

This is the oldest example that I know of where the the quality of a person’s language is used to single them out. And as strange and bloody as this passage from the Old Testament is, the use of language as an identifier, or Shibboleth, is still very much with us.

Consider what would happen to a candidate in a job interview who, in deadly earnest, said, “Lemme axe you a question.” Unless the interview is for fry cook at McDonald’s, this non-standard use of language would put a serious dent in the interviewee’s chances. It’s not worth trying to argue with this linguistic prejudice. It exists and we all have to deal with it. We are judged by the way we speak and write.

Sadly, there ain’t much rational about these kinds of judgements. You know exactly what I meant by that last sentence, but, chances are, you had an emotional reaction to my use of the word “ain’t”. To write well requires a sensitivity to these nuances of language. Ya’ll know that. In fact, most of us manage our spoken diction very well. We don’t swear in church. We don’t curse around small children.

I favor a kinder, gentler, more forgiving, New Testament approach to language. I appreciate people who are direct and clear in all of their communications, and try very hard to pay more attention to the substance of any message than the wrapping. To me, that’s the only sane way to look at business communications. In a more perfect world, that’s how I think things would be. People who spoke and wrote correctly, yet had nothing to say would be ridiculed.

But the world is not like that. In fact, I’m not sure people have changed much since Biblical times. Trip up on one of these Shibboleth terms and you probably won’t get killed. But your career might.

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There is a lot of hype about the iPad. I am skeptical for many reasons, but all of my fancy arguments were just trumped by an email Apple just sent me. At the very top was this:

After reading this sentence I have become afraid for Apple. It smacks of sales-ly desperation. Because if that’s the best thing that Apple can say about what’s supposed to be a game-changing product, then they are in trouble. Let’s examine why.

Carl Sandburg wrote, “The I older I get the more suspicious of adjectives I become.” This bit of marketing is a wonderful example of why you shouldn’t trust them either. In this sentence, it’s not clear that the adjectives mean anything. Let’s break it down.

One of the best ways to see if a sentence has any sense to it is to cross out all of the adjectives and adverbs and see what you are left with. If we do that with this gem we have: “Our technology in a device at a price.” Totally underwhelming. Compare this to the words Jobs used to introduce the iPhone, “a new iPod, a new phone and an Internet communicator” — all in one.

If we use this logical structure to describe the iPad it becomes, “a new iPod and an internet communicator.” But that sounds underwhelming, so somebody tried to cover it up with deceptive adjectives. If you want to argue that this is a new category of device that changes everything, I will disagree with you. But that’s not why I’m scared. I’m scared because Apple is scared. And the fear is manifest in those bullshit adjectives. If that’s the best they can do to explain why the iPad is a game changer I’m not buying it.

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