Learning How to Filter...

When I was about 10 years old, I started to take an interest in driving. I was ready to hit the road. Watching my mother drive, I was amazed at how she managed to keep track of everything around her, stay on the road, read all the signs, including the car gauges such as the all important speedometer. (Once I even tried to count the white road lines - impossible)

There was simply too much information for me to digest in real time... and when traffic was bad, forget it.

Years later, when I did get my chance behind the wheel; along with rules of the road, I learned how to ignore irrelevant activity and information (noise). When I began to teach my own children how to drive, I remember teaching them what to watch for... the small child playing on the curb as you drive by... basically what I felt was relevant when driving.

With all the resources online today, we hear a lot of complaints about information overload. I'm sure we have all felt overwhelmed at times, just as I did in my first driving lesson. Our challenge is to learn how to filter information.

If you think about it, we have been doing this all our lives. I was reminded of this fact when reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon.

Chapter 181. I see everything

if they are in the countryside, it might be

1. I am standing in a field that is full of grass.
2. There are some cows in the fields.
3. It is sunny with a few clouds.
4. There are some flowers in the grass.
5. There is a village in the distance.

...

and I notice these things

1. There are 19 cows in the field, 15 of which are black and white and 4 of which are brown and white.
2. There is a village in the distance which has 31 visible houses and a church with a square tower, not a spire.
3. There are ridges in the field, which means that in medieval times it was what is called a ridge and furrow filed and people who lived in the village would have a ridge each to do farming on.
4. There is an old plastic bag from Asda in the hedge and a squashed Coca-Colo can with a small snail on it, and a long piece of orange string.

...

Remember the first time you visited a very large and busy city? Didn't you feel overwhelmed? In time, you became more comfortable with your environment. Why? Because you learned how to filter out the noise and pay attention to those things which are relevant to you. We do this every day.

The Internet with all its services, information and technology can be very overwhelming, but in time, you can become both comfortable and productive once you begin to filter information in a meaningful way. Of course this requires that you participate. You can't develop filters without participation. It also helps to have tools which assist you in this process.

For me, this is one of the real payoffs for social networking. Good social networking tools help me filter information with people who share my interests both personal and professionally.

Another challenge for those who are in the business of publishing information is to make our content "filter friendly". What are the best filter tools? We have always talked about being "Google friendly". And while that is a must, we also need to consider how to become filter friendly in many new enviroments where people work and play.

Photo by Kyle May

Advertising in Singapore

I spoke with my daughter in Singapore this morning via Skype. It worked very well. I'm sure you will be happy to know she is happy and doing well... I know I am. :)

She showed me an image of the advertising on cigarettes being sold in Singapore. Evidently everyone smokes all the time in Singapore (not Emily, yeah). Not sure the advertising is working...

Amazing... buy our product, enjoy, relax... oh and yeah, it will kill you. OK, thanks.

Marketing, Engagement and Content

For years we have been learning about managing content and how to build effective websites.  Or at least we thought we were.  Actually, we have learned a lot, but the landscape keeps changing and we find ourselves using old and ineffective strategies.

I think we need to consider separating the following elements of an online presence as we develop strategies for implementation.

1. Content.  I would suggest that content is comprised of educational units - FAQ, procedures, research findings, supporting data, reports ... - information relevant to our audience.

2. Context.  In the past, context was supported by site navigation.  This approach does not scale well, is hard to distribute, not very flexible nor very dynamic.  I'm beginning to believe content should be managed in a flatter structure, tagging would provide a more flexible and scalable approach for navigation and posting articles can tie together content (internal links) more effectively for context.  What's relevant and timely (context) and how do we support it (content).

3. Marketing.  Simply put, what are our campaigns?  What message is important now?  What services do we provide?  Marketing strategies should take advantage of context as well as our networks (thinking of Kevin's comment about "Page rank being the ultimate measure of online influence).  

4. Engagement.  How can we and how do we want to engage our audience?  Be selective.  Not every area should have feedback, nor does feedback necessarily provide effective engagement.  Keep in mind that web 2.0 is more than just giving your audience voice... it should be about employing that voice to increase the value of your services.  Also, engagement should be about people and trust.  

The challenge is to define an approach for connecting these four elements into a coherent and sustainable model.  

Who is doing this right?

 

Phone Call for Mr. Davenport

On Saturday, my wife and I headed down south to do some shopping... when she suddenly realized she had left a sweater which she wanted to return (part of shopping I'm told).  Seeing an opportunity, I turned left to work my way back to our home through uncharted territory.  How fun.

We came through Kelly Iowa... a very small town just south of Ames.  One street... a post office (which I'm not sure was open) and right there on the side of the road... a phone booth.  A phone booth?  No way.  

Way.  But that's not all... a working phone booth.  Sweet.  

Why was I so excited?  Certainly my wife didn't understand when I pulled the car over, jump out, tested the phone and had her take my picture. :)

I guess it is the same feeling I get when I put a 40 year old album on my record player... good times.  If only I had my superman outfit.

Now where did I put my old 8 Track player.

 

I've been Tagged

Really I got double tagged... by my friends Brian Webster and Becky Nibe - and I've been really slow to respond. So here goes...

What was I doing ten years ago?
Pretty much what I'm doing now only in Illinois. At that time, I was an Assistant Director for Information Technology and Communications Services (ITCS) for Extension and the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois. A few things have changed... my kids are older and pretty much out of the house. I started swimming again instead of just running. And I feel like I'm more into management than doing the hands-on technology work.

Five snacks I enjoy:

1. Dark Chocolate (not sure what Brian is thinking)
2. Mixed Nuts (not hot on cachews)
3. Cookies
4. M&Ms
5. Corn Nuts

Five Things on My To-Do list today:

1. Move son into the dorms at ISU
2. Send daughter a gift box
3. Get car fixed (struts and AC)
4. Learn MS SharePoint (been on my list for a long time)
5. Work on Accountability presentation (wish me luck)

Five Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Take care of the debts for my family
2. Help others (not sure who, but wouldn't it be fun)
3. Change my name?
4. Beach property
5. Feel guilty

Five jobs I've had:

1. Paperboy
2. Pizza boy
3. Garbage man
4. Air Force
5. Programmer

Five bad habits:

1. Procrastination (note late post)
2. Staying 0rganized
3. Poor diet (see snacks)
4. Good intentions (which can get you in trouble)
5. I need to read more
   

Five places I have lived:

1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Missouri
4. Colorado
5. Illinois

Five random things:

1. I've been married to a wonderful woman for 23 years.
2. I have two children, as different as night and day. I love them both. One is currently in Singapore and wants to see the world. The other would be happy living in my basement.
3. I love to swim and do so about three times a week - wish I was better.
4. Tall buildings scare me (just not right)
5. I love good southern seafood.

Swimming Endures

I'm so happy to see how well the U.S. swimming team performed at the 2008 Olympics! It was amazing and inspiring - with a number of spectacular swims. While Michael was the star of the competition, there were other great swims by Natalie, Katie, Jason, Rebecca, Dara... and all the other U.S. swimmers.

I hope their performances will inspire and excite more young people around the country to consider swimming as a sport. And I really hope it will also inspire more athletic directors around the country to support swimming as a sport.

Unfortunately, while Americans are extremely proud of our U.S. swimmers and the swimming events took center stage, I'm afraid that pride and interest will quickly fade. I'm just amazed at the quality of swimming in the U.S., we continue to be a powerhouse of swimming.

In 1978, I was a senior in high school and part of a winning swimming team - winning our state meet all four years. I wasn't a great swimmer, but I loved the sport and was considering my options for college. This is when I learned first-hand about the decline of swimming programs around the country. Oklahoma State, my first choice, dropped its swimming program that year. In the end, I decided to attend Southeast Missouri State University and continue swimming for this small Division II school. SEMO dropped its program my second year in school. As an example of the decline in swimming programs, believe the Big 12 now has only three men's teams remaining.

Just in case you think you know where this post it going... I don't believe the problem is with "Title IX". I think Title IX has been used as an excuse to close programs and in fact, if it weren't for Title IX, we would have probably lost most of the women's swimming programs as well.

While I would like to put the blame on athletic directors who can't see past football and basketball, it really isn't about blame (OK, I still blame them). America has great professional sports, and I believe it is their success that overshadows our amateur programs.

So, I'm not sure there is a real solution, but I'm very thankful to our Olympic swimmers who have certainly inspired me to get back into the pool.

Reaching New Audiences

One of the primary objectives of our recently "on-hold" portal project is to reach new audiences, primarily the under 40 age group. This may sound fairly straight forward using technology, but it has raised some interesting questions.

I can think of three target audiences to meet this objective.

• Individuals who would be interested in the services you provide, but are unaware that you exist - a marketing issue in which the online environment may help you engage some of this audience (the segment which is online and should include the under 40 target).
• Individuals who know you, but demand new models of engagement; non-traditional communications. Again, you might expect this to include the under 40 age group.
• Individuals who are looking for new services/products, possibly not your target audience, but also possibly a relevance issue.

In the context of an online audience, specifically under 40 years of age, I will suggest that audiences #1 and #2 can be combined. My reasoning is that techniques and technologies to reach both these audiences will be the same, each are non-traditional audiences.

I'm willing to ignore audience #3 at this time since it suggests that we are in essence "selling Cadillacs" when we should be "selling hybrids". If this is the case, I would hope that audiences #1 and #2 will give us this feedback.

The next question is "how to engage these individuals?"

Over the next couple of months, we are going to attempt to answer this question, hopefully in partnership with the program teams.