This is something that can be tricky when creating a business, but is vital to your success. If you look at companies that have succeeded in their industry you notice that they are generally companies...
For several years, I’ve been in dire need of some new gadgets. My PDA is so old it died of shame. My TV is an old hand-me-down donated by a friend when my previous TV, which I’d purchased for US$10 at a garage sale eight years ago, went kaput. My home stereo, if you can call it that, is a 13-year-old boom box that was outdated when I got it. And so on. What’s keeping me from updating my tech is not desire, knowledge, or even money—it’s fear of early obsolescence. Long ago, I went through the process of replacing all my 8-track tapes with cassettes, and then my cassettes with CDs, and then my CDs with MP3 files, which now seem quaint compared to some newer digital audio formats. The same is true of all those videocassettes, floppy disks, and many other assorted media that used to seem so valuable to me but are now unwanted trash. So if I buy a new PDA or digital camera today, will the memory cards or computer interface it uses be obsolete tomorrow? If I buy a new TV, will it support next year’s higher-definition video standard? I know that all gadgets, and all media, have a finite lifespan, but I’m tired of having to convert massive amounts of information into new formats every few years. And so I keep putting off purchases, thinking that maybe the next generation of devices will give me confidence that the standards they support will stick around for a while.
It’s Dead, Jim
When a type of media can no longer be decoded, displayed, or presented readily, it’s said to be “dead.” So 8-track tapes, for example, have been dead for a long time. Even though you can, with some effort, still locate a working player, new media is not being created in that format, and the existing media is deteriorating—sooner or later it will be completely unusable, even if you have the necessary equipment. This process is not unique to modern times. Media formats have come and gone regularly for as long as humans have had the ability to communicate. But although technology must march on, we still lose something valuable every time media dies: the words, images, sounds, or ideas it contained.
This may not seem like much of a problem when it comes to bad pop music from the ’70s, but think about older media. Computer punch cards. Wire recorders, which predated tape recorders. The wax cylinders used in early phonographs. Stereopticon images. Magic lantern slides. Over the millennia, thousands of varieties of media have been used to record and exchange information, and as many of those media have died, the information has slipped from our grasp too. Never mind that modern media are quantifiably better in almost every respect; if the only recording of someone’s voice, say, from over 100 years ago is in a fragile and rapidly disintegrating medium that can only be retrieved with nonexistent equipment, that does us no good today—and yet it’s clearly something of tremendous historical interest.
Book of the Dead
In 1995, well-known science fiction author Bruce Sterling presented a manifesto called “The Dead Media Project: A Modest Proposal and a Public Appeal” at the International Symposium on Electronic Arts in Montréal. Sterling described the urgent need for someone to catalog all the forms of media humanity has created and then allowed to die off, documenting their successes, failures, and all the elements—cultural, political, financial, and technological—that may have contributed to their demise. This project would not only provide an important historical record, but crucially, would help technologists of the present and future to avoid the many mistakes of the past. Every medium in use today will surely be superseded or replaced someday. New media are appearing (and disappearing) at a shocking rate, and this is only likely to continue. Perhaps paper books will still be around long after DVDs are no more than a faint memory; perhaps blogs and other Web sites will survive for decades or centuries. But sooner or later, the world will move on to new ways of communicating.
Sterling proposed, specifically, that someone undertake the task of writing what he called The Handbook of Dead Media—as he put it, “A naturalist’s field guide for the communications paleontologist.” And as a tiny incentive, he offered a crisp, new $50 bill to the first person or group to produce such a book. He even offered his own notes on the subject for anyone to use freely, and started an email discussion list and Web site called the Dead Media Project where members of the public could contribute their own information about dead media. All this data was there for the taking, royalty-free, for anyone willing to sit down and do the research, track down all the relevant facts and images, and produce a nice coffee-table book that could be used as a reference for people like Sterling, who imagine future technologies for a living.
What Don’t You Know?
As Sterling admitted, such a project is full of ambiguities. What counts as media, anyway? Does it include, for example, delivery mechanisms such as carrier pigeons, pneumatic tubes, or the telegraph? Does it include ephemeral means of communication, such as Native American smoke signals? What about media production devices, such as unusual typewriter designs? Or particular methods of encoding information—say, obsolete computer file formats? For that matter, what does it really mean for media to be dead? Are there degrees of deadness? If media can still be recovered somehow, does it make the cut? If a few scattered hobbyists actively use a medium that’s otherwise dead, should it be included? If the Vatican uses smoke signals to indicate the selection of a new pope, does it mean that medium is still alive? The questions, to which there are no definitive answers, go on and on. One could spend months simply trying to define the scope of the project.
Now, ten years later, The Handbook of Dead Media still does not exist. The Dead Media Project itself is, if not dead, barely kicking—the Web site hasn’t been updated since mid-2001, and the mailing list no longer functions. Other programs and Web sites devoted to the preservation of old media, especially early audio recordings, are in operation, but as yet, I’ve seen no signs that anything approaching the scope of Sterling’s manifesto is even in the works.
Needless to say, I myself find this project enormously interesting and inspiring—linguistically, historically, and technologically. Compiling The Handbook of Dead Media would be right up my alley, a project I could really sink my teeth into. And if I ever become independently wealthy with absolutely nothing to do for a year or two, I’ll get right on it. The problem, of course, is that there’s almost certainly not enough money in such a book to reimburse an author for the time required to research and write it. That, like the death of media, is a great pity. —Joe Kissell
Permalink • Email this Article • Bookmark at del.icio.us
Categories:Commentary, Decay, History, Language & Literature, Music & Sound, Society & Culture
This article was featured in Carnival of the Infosciences #45.
The first place to go for information on dead media is the Dead Media Project Web site, which includes Sterling’s manifesto, an FAQ, and notes on many media that readers submitted before the site seemingly went into hibernation. You may also enjoy reading Bruce Sterling: the Dead Media interview by Alessandro Ludovico at neural.it or Dead Media list tracks forgotten revolutions by Elizabeth Weise in USA Today.
A similar project, also called the Dead Media Project, is being run by students of the Vancouver Film School-Multimedia. It appears to be slightly more alive, but has far less material.
NPR’s award-winning series Lost and Found Sound covers (and broadcasts) many examples of audio recordings that would be considered Dead Media. For more information on old sound recordings, see The Sound Recording Technology History Site.
Phil Sandifer at the University of Chicago proposed a Dead Media Taxonomy Model.
Did you find this article interesting, entertaining, or useful? If so, please consider donating a few dollars to the author to support the ongoing development of Interesting Thing of the Day. [Donate via: Amazon.com Honor System | Other/More Information]
℗ & © 2005, alt concepts, inc.
Usability Tools Podcast: Useful Web App Usability Techniques, Part 2
Recorded: January 25th, 2007 from the studios of UIE
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 22min | File size: 12.5 MB
[ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.]
[ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ]
Each week in our Usability Tools Podcast, we will be sitting down to discuss tips and tools for improving your site’s user experience. The goal of our weekly podcast is to share some of the most important findings from UIE’s research on web design and usability.
In this weekâs podcast, Brian Christiansen and I continue exploring usability techniques for web-based applications. Web-based applications are different from content-based web sites because the users are involved in a transaction. When weâre researching the usability of a content-based site, weâre focused on how users will find and react to the information. However, with web-based applications, there are many other considerations that we need to account for.
If you missed the first part of the show, you can listen to it here:
Usability Tools Podcast: Useful Web App Usability Techniques, Part 1
This week, we explore the usability technique toolbox, focusing on those methods that help us with web-based applications.
In this episode we start with the basic usability test, move onto variants, then talk about field studies. In each case, we explore the web-app specific advantages and talk about how we get the information we need to make informed design decisions.
Brian’s compiled a nice list of UIE resources that could also be helpful when thinking about testing your web app:
We talked about several books in this episode:
As always, we’re very interested in hearing from you. Do you have questions or comments about this episode? We love to create shows based on your questions. Please leave a comment below or email us directly at mailbag@uie.com
UIE’s Latest Research: If you’re interested in the topics we discuss in the podcasts, I highly suggest you sign up for our free newsletter, UIEtips, to read our latest usability and design research as soon as we publish it. We’ll also notify you in UIEtips when we publish new podcasts.
If teachers expect students to achieve - they need to encourage them to reach for a future that includes college. Teachers spent more time during the week with the students than parents do - and it is...
Before you join an affiliate program, you need to ask a few questions. Be sure to do some research on the program that you intend to join into. GET SOME ANSWERS, because the first few programs t...
Many new online marketers think that earning cash online is as easy as one, two, three. In reality you need a system that has been developed specifically for this. Unless you are the Einstein of inte...
Whether you are interested in using affiliate marketing as a complimentary supplement to your already existing business or you are planning to break into money making online with it, it's going to pay...
Tara was a 16-year old single mother of two in the Central California Valley. She defied the odds and completed bachelorâs and masterâs degrees in psychology at California State University. She lost 60 pounds, left an abusive marriage, and graduated from the Berkeley School of Law.
As a 25-year-old single mom, Tara hadnât worked in three years and had only $3,000 to her name. Nevertheless, she triumphed in the expensive real estate market and successfully purchased her first home. Today, Tara is a successful attorney, real estate broker, and business owner, and Author of ‘The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook’.
Our featured guest in this episode of Small Business Trends Radio is Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Chief Visionary of (RE)ThinkRealty.com Tara provides inspiration and tips on how to become a successful mompreneur.
For instance, did you know that:
With her personal experiences to pull from, Tara-Nicholle Nelson offers inspiration and mindset strategies that assist women in tapping into their leadership qualities to reach their aspirations - and become the successful mompreneur they are already naturally programmed to be.
Gain access to Tara’s valuable insights by clicking the player below to listen to the full interview.
Affiliate Marketing is the greatest and easiest way to start an online business. Read on to find out the who, hows and why of it all.There are some articles on affiliate marketing that says in orde...
Bharatbook.com announces a new market research report "Structured Credit Products Handbook 2007/08" (http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=6562)This new Handbook will discu...
I usually don’t say this, but thank god for Paris Hilton. The indulgent, fame-starved, sex-positive celebutantes that have dominated our headlines in recent years have had a positive effect on everyone. Despite their obvious shortcomings, women like Paris Hilton have brought us into the 21 century simply by exposing some of the taboos about sex. People like her make being a whore seem glamorous to America’s rich and elite.
Gay men seem almost prudish by comparison. Almost.
I’d like to think we’re in a “SLUT-CHIQUE” era. It’s fun to take pictures of yourself looking or acting whorish. Even the President of Russia does it! When everyone gets a little more relaxed about sex and thinks of it as fun to be seen as a tramp, our world becomes a little more egalitarian. The lines of rich and poor are blurred and even queers become part of the conversion.
Now, it wasn’t always like that. Just pick up a copy of the “Preppie Handbook” by Lisa Birnbach to see how uptight and materialistic we used to all be. This 80s cult handbook puts into words our collective desire to be part of America’s upper-class, to emulate aristocratic culture. It was a time when everyone except the richest, most conservative people were included, gays were an abomination and the role of women was severely limited.
On today’s show we’re talking to writer and playright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa about his brand new play “Good Boys and True” that deals with a sex scandal at a boys prep school unveiling a world of shame, privilege and arrogance of wealth.
Listen as we chat with Roberto of what it’s like to go to an all-boys prep school, how gregarious celebrities like Paris Hilton have changed aristocratic culture and what it’s like working on some of the most beloved comic books characters Sensational Spider Man, X-Men (Wolverine) and Marvel Knights 4.
Why do gay men identify with comic book heroes so much?
Roberto represents a new generation of successful, highly skilled and openly gay men working in film and television who bring in their gay experience to enrich the fantasy genre and take on a fresh perspective on our favorite themes.
Be sure to check out “Good Boys and True” now playing now playing at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago until February 16, 2008.
Marc and I give this play a “must see” review and urge you to take your parents to see the show. Be sure to stick around afterwards for the stimulating conversation with the audience.
The podcast that opens up a parallel universe of fabulousness- Feast of Fools.
Featured Music:
Jann Klose - Reverie: iTunes | Site
RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE VIA iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE VIA: GOOGLE | PODZINGER
CONTACT US DIRECTLY
On the January 19 broadcast of the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh Show, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar and director of economic policy studies Kevin A. Hassett explained the lack of unionization at Wal-Mart by falsely claiming that "workers at Wal-Mart haven't voted to be unionized." In fact, meat cutters at a Wal-Mart store in Texas voted for union representation only to see Wal-Mart eliminate their department less than two weeks later. Moreover, Hassett's claim ignores the aggressive -- and often illegal -- campaign that Wal-Mart has used to discourage unionization. According to The New York Times, from 1998 to 2002, Wal-Mart racked up 10 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings against its anti-union tactics, while NLRB attorneys filed dozens of complaints against Wal-Mart alleging anti-union practices.
It is true that Wal-Mart has successfully hindered the work of labor organizers, who have had little success unionizing Wal-Mart. In some instances, Wal-Mart employees have indeed voted to reject union representation. But Hassett's assertion that "workers at Wal-Mart haven't voted to be unionized" is false.
In February 2000, employees of the meat-cutting department at a Wal-Mart store in Jacksonville, Texas, voted to be represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers union. As The New York Times noted in a June 16, 2003, article, "Eleven days later, Wal-Mart announced plans to phase out meat-cutting operations and use prepackaged meat in that store and 179 others." According to that article, Wal-Mart reassigned the meat cutters to positions as meat stockers and declared that it no longer had to negotiate with the union. The New York Times further reported that in June 2003, an NLRB administrative law judge "ordered Wal-Mart to re-establish the store's meat-cutting department until the company finished bargaining [with the union] over the effects of closing the store's meat-cutting operations."
While the Jacksonville meat cutters are the only Wal-Mart employees who have successfully organized for union representation in the United States, a similar situation occurred in Canada after a majority of workers at a store in Jonquière, Quebec, signed union cards in August 2004. At the time, the Jonquière store was North America's only unionized Wal-Mart store. According to a March 10, 2005, New York Times article, Wal-Mart closed the store in February 2005, claiming, in the Times' words, "skimpy store revenue and escalating union demands."
In a November 8, 2002, article, The New York Times reported that over the previous four years, NLRB attorneys (who are independent from NLRB administrative law judges and board members) had "filed more than 40 complaints against Wal-Mart, accusing managers in more than two dozen stores of illegal practices, including improperly firing union supporters, intimidating workers and threatening to deny bonuses if workers unionized. Of those, the board found illegal practices in 10 cases; 8 cases were settled and the rest are pending."
A November 23, 2003, Los Angeles Timesarticle reported that "dozens of times in the last four years, attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board have claimed that the company infringed on the supermarket union's legal right to organize." The Los Angeles Times noted that some of the NLRB attorneys' complaints were thrown out but also pointed to cases in which NLRB administrative law judges ruled that:
In a May 4, 2004, article, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that an administrative law judge found Wal-Mart "liable of illegally confiscating union literature at the Henderson [Nevada] store and telling employees to destroy or disregard such literature. The company was also ordered to post a sign informing employees that despite the company's anti-union policy, the company cannot remove union literature or stop employees from organizing a union."
An Associated Press article published on January 19 -- the same day that Hassett appeared on The Rush Limbaugh Show -- noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ordered a lower court to "rule on a lawsuit by Wal-Mart workers alleging that the world's largest retailer unfairly threatened to withhold benefits from employees who unionize." According to the AP, Wal-Mart had distributed an employee handbook containing a clause that "said unionized employees were not eligible for profit sharing, 401K and health plans." In 2003, an administrative law court ordered Wal-Mart to remove the clause, which, the court said, was intended "to ensure, to the extent it (Wal-Mart) could, that its employees were fearful of losing their benefits, and thus continued to reject union representation."
Hassett previously addressed Wal-Mart's lack of unionization in a December 19, 2005, Bloomberg column titled "Unions Wage Vicious, Misguided War on Wal-Mart." Referring in that column to union-affiliated organizations such as Wal-Mart Watch and WakeUpWalMart.com, Hassett wrote, "The high-tech goons the unions have sicced on Wal-Mart are employing exactly the types of tactics that have given unions a bad name."
From the January 19 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
HASSETT: The fact is that the Democratic politicians are basically all resonating the sound bites that -- that are emanating from these NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] that are funded by the unions. And it's a very, very creepy campaign to smear America's largest employer. You know, and if you wonder -- why is it that unionization has declined over time? Well, the reason why Wal-Mart's not unionized is that the workers at Wal-Mart haven't voted to be unionized. And would you vote to let the people in who were basically spending all this money smearing your company? Would you want to have them organize your workplace?
JavaCityWarehouse: Wholesale Consumer Electronic Suppliers
Wholesale Consumer Electronic Suppliers ...
Here are five things that you NEED to know about trading:1. If you don’t know what you’re risking…you’re all in!2. Three easy steps to develop consistent, confident trading3. Trust y...
| Online Business Podcasting Expo Jan 19-21, 2007 Offers Seminars For Overcoming Challenges for ADHD Entrepreneurs, Quickbook Training, Outlook Tips, Podcasting, and more. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Business Podcasting Expo is an Online Audio/Visual Business Conference with seminars including ADHD Challenges for Entrepreneurs, Quickbook Training, Outlook Tips, and Installing WordPress. The BizPodExpo also offers introductory classes on Podcasting, and how to increase your search engine ranking using this audio/video social media. There will be thousands of dollars worth of giveaways and prizes, and a Data DVD of all recorded seminars is included with full Admission. The event is sponsored by Co-Op World and PodcastDirectories4Sale.com (PRWEB) January 15, 2007 -- The Online Business & Podcasting Expo will be held January 19-21, 2007. All that is needed to attend is an internet connection and speakers, and a microphone for verbal interaction. All of the audio/visual seminar classes and networking events are recorded on data DVD for shipment to full admission attendees. View the Schedule here:  Join us on January 19-21, 2007 at the Online Business Podcasting Expo (BizPodExpo.com).This will be an online Business Conference, with introductory courses about Podcasting.All you need to attend is an internet connection and a headset microphone.  Scheduled seminar speakers and subjects include:
To get your unlimited access ticket PLUS a Data DVD of all recorded events for only $49.95, CLICK HERE.Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hospitality field has become one of the popular career fields that grow rapidly recent years especially in Restaurant & Culinary areas. Competition is now fierce for well paid culinary and restaurant ...
To get advance notice of upcoming guests, first notice of new shows posted, and random free goodies, join my radio show mailing list to the right. >>> Welcome to another episode of Success Unwrapped with Heather Vale, the weekly talk show that unwraps and reveals the secrets successful people use -- and you can too! This week's guest, Jim Donovan, is a motivational speaker and internationally acclaimed author, whose books have been translated into seven languages and released in 18 countries. His books on success include Handbook to a Happier Life and This is Your Life, Not a Dress Rehearsal. He is also an expert in publishing, and has helped countless people publish their first books with his excellent programs, How To Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, and Successful Self-Publishing. Jim wasn't always a success. He was broke and living in a dive before he picked himself up and turned his life completely around. In this interview he gives tons of tips on how to be happier and achieve greater success in life, citing his own experiences and what he has learned on his journey. ACHIEVE EVEN MORE SUCCESS WITH THESE E-BOOKS! Get 14 FREE e-books on success by signing up for Heather Vale's FREE 5-Part Success Unwrapped e-course! To subscribe, send a blank email to SuccessUnwrapped@GoldenReports.com OR just fill in this easy-response form:
Got a minute? Be a success with Heather Vale's daily podcast, Today's Success Minute, on PodcasterNews.com.The AUDIO for this episode has now been archived But it is available for purchase at only $3.95 To purchase archived audio, please use the PayPal link located near the top right of this page Under Comments, put the Episode Name: Success Unwrapped #012 - Jim DonovanWe hear it more and more every day. Parents say, "My kids never stick to anything.""My son started playing soccer and he didn't like it, so he quit.""My daughter began gymnastics...
Affiliate Marketing is the greatest and easiest way to start an online business. Read on to find out the who, hows and why of it all.You need to remember, this is a business. Treat it like such, st...
Paid Surveys Etc.. #1 Survey Site
Insane Conversions With New Sales Copy... Must See. ## Http://www.p...
Stories covered and special features in This Weeks edition: 01. Hams assist as ice storms move across the mid-western United States. 02. Severe winter weather hits Hawaii as hams provide emergency communications 03. Washington state amateurs provide communications durling high winds and mass flooding. 04. Consolidated Edision pulls the plug on DC power in New York City. 05. The Radio Club of America honors Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD. 06. German television broadaster shut down the last 50 megahertz transmitters. 07. NASA delays the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis until January. 08. The FCC writes to an amateur regarding his vanity callsign. 09. California adopts a rather strange policy for its new vanity license plate 10. The FCC releases the 2008 edition of its EAS Handbook. 11. World record pedestrian communication attempt fails to take the record. 12. Amateurs successfully bounce signals off the International Space Station. 13. Technology News with Leo Laporte: Congress may end free WiFi. 14. WinLink system proves to be a reliable mode in emergency situations. 15. Tower Climbing and Antenna Safety with Greg Stoddard, KF9MP. 16. Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO. 17. KZEY-AM is fined by the FCC for operating omni-directionally. 18. More Musings with Will Rogers, W4WLR. "Boat Anchors" 19. WYSL-AM files its second complaint with the FCC regarding IBOC interference. 20. The FCC adopts new regulations for Low Power FM Stations, and finds that HD radio is not too popular with non-commercial stations. 21. TWIAR QSL Cards are now available. Write in for yours today! 22. Special event station listings. 23. The Gateway 160 Meter Net Report with Vern Jackson, WA0RCR. 24. Weekly propagation forecast. 25. Spain jumps on the D-STAR bandwagon as EA3RCC comes on the air. 26. INDEXA announces it has launched its new web site. 27. TWIAR International is on WBCQ 7.415mHz each Saturday afternoon at 16:00 eastern time. 28. The Random Access File with Bill Baran, N2FNH. "Kids and amateur radio" 29. ABC radio is set to broadcast anywhere anytime in disaster situations. 30. The Radio Club of America elects its new Board of Directors. 31. Foundation for Amateur Radio scholarships are now avaiable. 32. Inventor James West is asked to find a new way to communicate text to the blind community. 33. U.K. regulator OfCom sets its 2012 Olympic RF allocations. 34. National Institute of Standards releases research on promoting WWV.
Internet Marketing is EASYAbsolutely not true, internet marketing takes time and effort, and anyone who suggests otherwise is trying to scam. With an internet marketing Business there's no inventory...
Affiliate Marketing is the greatest and easiest way to start an online business. Read on to find out the who, hows and why of it all.To make your internet marketing career easy with a lucrative aff...
So you're a great public and you want to make money doing it. Well without credibility it doesn't matter how great a speaker you are. Potential clients inevitably look for a proven record of success, ...
Recently I was listening to one of my absolutely favourite people, someone that I aspire to, his name is Jack Canfield.He's done a ton of work in the personal development field which for me personal...
Stories covered and special features in This Weeks edition: 01. Hams assist as ice storms move across the mid-western United States. 02. Severe winter weather hits Hawaii as hams provide emergency communications 03. Washington state amateurs provide communications durling high winds and mass flooding. 04. Consolidated Edision pulls the plug on DC power in New York City. 05. The Radio Club of America honors Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD. 06. German television broadaster shut down the last 50 megahertz transmitters. 07. NASA delays the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis until January. 08. The FCC writes to an amateur regarding his vanity callsign. 09. California adopts a rather strange policy for its new vanity license plate 10. The FCC releases the 2008 edition of its EAS Handbook. 11. World record pedestrian communication attempt fails to take the record. 12. Amateurs successfully bounce signals off the International Space Station. 13. Technology News with Leo Laporte: Congress may end free WiFi. 14. WinLink system proves to be a reliable mode in emergency situations. 15. Tower Climbing and Antenna Safety with Greg Stoddard, KF9MP. 16. Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO. 17. KZEY-AM is fined by the FCC for operating omni-directionally. 18. More Musings with Will Rogers, W4WLR. "Boat Anchors" 19. WYSL-AM files its second complaint with the FCC regarding IBOC interference. 20. The FCC adopts new regulations for Low Power FM Stations, and finds that HD radio is not too popular with non-commercial stations. 21. TWIAR QSL Cards are now available. Write in for yours today! 22. Special event station listings. 23. The Gateway 160 Meter Net Report with Vern Jackson, WA0RCR. 24. Weekly propagation forecast. 25. Spain jumps on the D-STAR bandwagon as EA3RCC comes on the air. 26. INDEXA announces it has launched its new web site. 27. TWIAR International is on WBCQ 7.415mHz each Saturday afternoon at 16:00 eastern time. 28. The Random Access File with Bill Baran, N2FNH. "Kids and amateur radio" 29. ABC radio is set to broadcast anywhere anytime in disaster situations. 30. The Radio Club of America elects its new Board of Directors. 31. Foundation for Amateur Radio scholarships are now avaiable. 32. Inventor James West is asked to find a new way to communicate text to the blind community. 33. U.K. regulator OfCom sets its 2012 Olympic RF allocations. 34. National Institute of Standards releases research on promoting WWV.
It's clear that most traditional education is directed toward preparing students for a job environment.High schools have tracks that prepare a student for either college or some vocation. Once in co...
What is ‘Internal Communication’?
Note: this is cross-posted from theForward blog and is a follow-on post from my recent vidcast and podcast on employee communication. You can listen to some fantastic podcast interviews I recorded with great internal communicators, and there are more to follow…
Internal communication is a subset of effective business communication, which is built around this simple foundation:
communication is a dialogue, not a monologue.
In fact, communication is a dual listening process.
So Internal Communication, in a business context, is the dialogic process between employees and employer, and employees and employees.
So many times that latter process is forgotten by strategists and PR professionals - it should always be remembered that communication between employees is very often far more powerful than any communication from employer to employee.
Whereas the ‘top-down’, employer-driven communication is great for setting a communication agenda or discussion point, it is the peer-to-peer employee communications that determine the tone of the response back to the employer.
So, to sum up, ‘Internal Communication’ is the conversations that businesses have with their staff and those staff have with each other.
What activities and tactics are traditionally used for internal communication?
Over the years there have evolved various ways of communicating internally.We started with informal and formal one-to-one and one-to-many meetings, where ‘the boss’ would communicate in a highly one-way fashion with employees.
Of course, the employees would then informally discuss with each other their views and opinions, out of earshot of ‘the boss’.
Communication then evolved to include printed materials for formal, top-down message transmission - newsletters, annual reports, memos, and so on.
The advent of digital technology, and in particular the internet, introduced email into the business setting and with it the nature of communication radically changed.
No longer did a communication take a little while to produce, allowing for a period of reflection and consideration. Now anyone could ‘bang off an email’ at a moment’s notice, often without consideration of the impact of the message. Those who were unskilled and untrained in the art and impact of communication suddenly found themselves causing more angst than they realized.
Training took place amongst senior managers in the more enlightened organizations to show them the effects of poor communication habits.
Today, digital technology has evolved to the point where not only can employees and employers freely email each other, forward messages without any editing (showing the whole conversational trail), and forward those messages outside of the corporate walls, but also employees and employers can use these emails to bring about grievance procedures, litigation and dismissal.
Equally, employers now find themselves at the mercy of employees who may email each other with libellous comments about competitors or fellow employees. Deleting these emails from personal inboxes has proven to be no defence against litigation and investigation by external regulators and legal agencies.
Today there are a plethora of techniques and technologies used to communicate, both up/down and side-to-side within an organization:
What’s the importance of internal communications? Why do smart organizations spend so much time on it?
Smart organizations recognise that employees will always talk with each other, so it is better to set the agenda and informal discussion points than have them dictated by an uninformed staff.
This is no different from external communications, where the role of the PR practitioner and business communicator is to engage with and reflect the position of the employer or business to that employer or business’ larger group of ‘publics’ - that is, anyone who may have any impact on or be impacted by the organisation.
A large number of studies by both professional management groups and professional communications bodies consistently finds that ‘communicating with employees’ is a useful and powerful way of engendering greater ‘engagement’ - the propensity of the employee to want to come to work and want to contribute to the success of the company.
Some professional employee consultants argue that ‘engagement’ is at a lower level now than, say, twenty years ago (mostly due to the changes in job security, the shifting demographics of the workforce and the more fluid requirements of businesses to be able to change to meet the demands of their rapidly changing marketplaces).
Smart employers realize that in environments where employees are able to move from one employer to another with relative ease, it is in the company’s best interests to retain the smarter and more productive employees; doing all they can to communicate with them, inform them, influence them and enter into some sort of psychological contract with them is a wise move.
Equally, in environments where employees have less chance to move, smart employers recognise that an unhappy and trapped employee is a potential liability.
Four essential elements of successful internal communications:
If you ensure that your internal communications have taken into consideration the following four elements, you can be assured that your message will have a very high chance of not only being noticed, but actually achieve its communication goal:
Books of note:
 | Holtz, S. Corporate Conversations: A Guide to Crafting Effective and Appropriate Internal Communications. Buy this book and you will possibly have the only book you will ever need on this topic - seriously! Shel Holtz is a master writer who quickly and easily transports you to the nub of internal communications. A brilliant book. |
 | Styles, C. and Ambler, T. ‘Brand Management’. In The Financial Times Handbook of Management. Pitman. 1995; pp581-593 Do not forget that a brand needs managing externally as well as internally. Employees need to have their expectations and conscious and unconscious ‘messages’ about their company’s products, services and processes managed. A great chapter in a superb management tome. What - you’re not interested in other aspects of management or business? Then you are destined to be a middle-manager at best. Do yourself a favour and learn how to read a company balance sheet. It may seem as boring as⦠well, vanilla icecream, but trust me - every senior communicator and ‘C’ level business person can read a balance sheet; those who can’t don’t rise to the top. |
 | Decker, C. Winning with the P&G 99: 99 principles and practices of Proctor and Gamble’s success A fascinating look at the internal processes of one of the world’s most successful companies, including their internal communication processes - did you know that memos are still their preferred business proposal and ideas communication channel? Read the book and find out why. |
 | Parrish, M. The Grouchy Grammarian: A How-Not-To Guide to the 47 Most Common Mistakes in English Made by Journalists, Broadcasters, and Others Who Should Know Better. New York, Wiley, 2002 The title says it all and if you are serious about communicating you need this book at your side. |
 | Toogood, G. The Articulate Executive. Because good communication is not just good copy; delivering speeches is an important part of business communication and this book outlines some fantastic ways of communicating in person, in groups and on video. |
| Bridges, W. Creating You & Co. : Learn to think like the CEO of your own career New York : HarperCollins. 1997 and Peters, T. The Brand You 50. These two books should be essential titles in your personal and professional bookshelf. In the next decade you will be passed over for promotions and opportunities if you are just a ‘plain vanilla’ communicator. These two books will help you move out of the ‘vanilla’ level of communication and help you stay employed. As the Institute of Future Studies in Copenhagen notes (and they are not alone in predicting this), in the decades to come there will be two types of worker: ‘creative’ and ‘non-creative’. First-world non-creative work will increasingly be outsourced to low-cost ‘factories’ (the third world, perhaps?), leaving only ‘creative’ workers in place. Creative workers will live with uncertainty, tumultuous change and a portfolio of jobs and clients at any one time. The ‘creatives’ will be the consultants (either internal or external to the organisation), leading to a situation where you will either be a creative worker, or unemployed |
Bloggers of note:
Ron Shewchuk - master internal communicator and a ‘must read’
Steve Crescenzo - equally impressive and equally a ‘must read’
Shel Holtz - covers the whole spectrum of strategic and tactical PR, including internal communications
Les Potter - master internal communicator
Steve Crescenzo - possibly the most brilliant internal communicator currently giving roadshows and seminars. Certainly the funniest, if his blog is anything to go by!
IABC Employee commons - the premier online meeting place for skilled internal communicators
Other Resources:
The Epic 2015 multimedia presentation. A perfect example of how to create a presentation that knocks the competition for six whilst delivering the information in such an easy-to-process manner that its power and message still resonates months later. Everyone that has ever seen it has gone very quiet and eventually whispers “wow!”
A presentation I gave to PR students at UniSA presentation in late 2006 (pdf) / (powerpoint show with movies - zip)
Ragan Communications - North America and Canada’s leading communications professional development company. Like Melcrum below, they are always running workshops, seminars, webinars and forums. Like Melcrum they too have a series of journals and magazines for specific elements of the business communicator’s life.
Melcrum - leading (particularly in Europe and Australasia) communication research and development organisation with a vast range of resources, including journals, for the communicator who wants to be more than just ‘entry level’ for the rest of their life.
IABC - the International Association of Business Communicators. Invaluable networking, professional development and career planning and guidance.
Powered by Zoundry
Whether you are interested in using affiliate marketing as a complimentary supplement to your already existing business or you are planning to break into money making online with it, it's going to pay...
Learn how to create a winning business plan. Writing a business plan will force you to objectively develop and evaluate your tactical and strategic plans. This will give you the answers to the most po...
Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document.
