commbasics

 Today I... Helped a young entrepreneur in Qatar refine his executive summary on a social media app designed to help charities raise money. ( Linkedin ) Conducted a staff meeting ( Skype ) and reviewed documents and reports with the team in Boston and Austin ( Dropbox ) Encouraged a young friend in Washington state who was in a sudden moment of crisis. ( Facebook ) Finished editing a series of videos to help local voters work their way through the California ballot without using divisive campaign rhetoric. (Youtube) Helped someone adjust their security settings on Facebook so she wasn’t blasting everything about her life to everyone on the web. (Facebook) Suggested several candidates for a senior communications executive to a major semiconductor company identify. (Talent.me) Put the early workings together for a fund raising project to help teacher take care of their cars. (Causes.com) Set up a video channel to broadcast my daughter’s wedding to people who cannot attend. (Ustre...

Continuing on with our discussion on what makes good content, I want to give a big shout-out to Don Tuite from Electronic Design who provided, in a comment with an outstanding example of what it takes to make a good technical news story. Don pointed out that when he does a piece, he does a fair amount of editorializing, but that is tempered by a lot of information from many sources.  That speaks to the issue if truth in content.  An opinion is not necessarily untrue and passes the test when it is backed up by information from both sides.  To get to that point, however, requires a helluva lot of work. Don's outline of his process took not only days of research and discussion, but time to put it straight in his own head and then write down his perception of reality.  If lucky, he gets to do that 20 or 30 times a year.  There are about 5 editors in the industry like Don so we can count on about 150 stories with that kind of effort over the course of a yea...