From the monthly archives: July 2011

A Poem Ain’t a Poem Until It’s Been…

By On July 30, 2011 · 4 Comments · In Writing

While many book publishers and academy types might argue otherwise, poetry has always been an oral form, first and foremost. A poem on the page is theoretical, incomplete; like a promising idea not yet vetted. Reading your work out loud is also one of the best forms of editing, and not just for poetry, but straight fiction and non-fiction, too.

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Three Valuable Lessons from Forbes’ Digital Shift

By On July 28, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Publishing

“Editorial control” is a four-letter word in my book. It’s a legacy of the pre-participatory era, and journalists, editors, authors, etc. who fight to maintain it, or the illusion of it, are spitting into the wind that should be filling their sails. Credibility is more important than control, and that comes from your community.

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It’s the CONTENT, Stupid! (And the Community.)

By On July 25, 2011 · 2 Comments · In Publishing

While Wall Street and technology pundits continue to devalue those who create and curate content professionally in favor of dumb pipes, content aggregators, and social media pyramid schemes, the fact is, at the end of the day, it all starts with good content. Without it, the digital business is a cork floating on the publishing stream, and the new shiny devices are little more than electronic bricks sinking to the bottom at varying rates of speed.

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Social Media Overload! What to Unplug?

By On July 6, 2011 · 6 Comments · In Personal

Google+ is an intriguing mash-up of Facebook and Twitter, but its use of “circles” does a better job of reflecting and managing the variety of solid and permeable walls that exist in real-life networks, and when it comes to privacy, I trust our robot overlords a slight bit more than the new kids on the virtual block.

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