Audience

This week we've been asked to learn more about the potential audience for our Beat Blog and about finding other blogs covering similar or related topics. There were a few steps to the exercise. I've scribbled a bit about what I found below.

I mostly confirmed something that I already suspected - Energy efficiency is not as sexy as renewable, alternative, or green energy and is not a hot topic. It is the cheapest and most sustainable form of energy around, but it is not where the big money or powerful people tend to play. It is mom and apple pie, but is considered less valuable or interesting than capital projects that involve large investments, fancy financing, design and construction jobs, and debate about cost/benefit.

I also discovered that static pages seem to be the communication method of choice for those who are interested in efficiency (i.e. Energy Star program, US Dept of Energy, utilities, ACEEE, etc.). For whatever reason, blogging about energy efficiency is not widespread.

My intial interpretation is that the field may be wide open for someone like me to develop, or that there is a true lack of interest, or that the way to develop an audience for efficiency is to embed it along with related topics like green building or corporate energy strategy. Given the absence of bloggers, it doesnt look like there are many to learn from or to develop relationship with.

If I were to take this topic to a larger scale or make it my "brand", it would be helpful to choose a focus (residential or commercial, efficiency or green energy in general, design and building, etc.). My ideal audience would flow from this key choice.

Some details:

1. Twitter search on blog keywords. I searched on energy, energy efficiency, and energy conservation. Search findings brought up the fact that several tweeters were covering the release of several big reports about energy efficiency and the economy. The reports are interesting and may form the basis of future blog posts and study. A quick summary is that market investment in cost-effective energy efficiency is nowhere near its potential, conservation is the cheapest source of energy and is readily available (around 8% of US energy use or 3 trillion kilowatts. One key impediment has to do with upfront financing. Various scalable finance models are evaluated.

2. Google search keywords to find related blogs. I found this exercise interesting. Searches on energy, energy efficiency, energy conservation, and a few others found many articles, but very few blogs. And the blogs that do focus on energy efficiency, seem to fall into a couple categories

• News about business ventures, funding, and big sales (i.e. " abc corporation plans to install xyz corporation's energy management software, anticipates millions in savings over the next 5 years").
• Blogs of interest to penny pinchers (i.e. "what is the cheapest laundry detergent" might lead to a discussion of how most of the cost of doing laundry comes from heating the water).
• A tiny number of blogs sponsored by utility energy conservation programs.
• A tiny number of blogs sponsored by companies selling weatherization and HVAC equipment.
• Blogs about something else, with a post or two that discuss energy efficiency.

3. Use sites like Quantcast, Alexa, Technorati, and Google Reader to look at their stats and compare to my own. Of these, Technorati was the most useful for my purpose of finding related energy efficiency / green energy blogs and posts.

Week 6 Learning Journal Post

Working on the video was a blast. To do it I had to get past some big challenges. Or at least challenges that felt big until they shrunk down to size.

First off, the technical side was intimidating as hell.

Thanks to some offhand comment Chris or Miriam or somebody made thru class, I discovered Movie Maker lurking in a hidden corner of Windows 7. I was able to get past the tech fear by digging in, plus I actually helped some fellow students learn how to use it after only a half day's worth of experience. The challenges that came up were in the realm of learning a new tool (which I dislike) and coming up with workarounds (which I love) for those (many) moments when vision exceeds skill.

The other major challenge was about content. I had no idea what to do or how to do it. The ticking clock was not helping. I invented and discarded several ideas. I prefer talking about stuff to talking about myself. The idea for Joule and Watt began as an idea about an electric cord, who would have energy adventures around the house. Cord turned into a light bulb because I couldn't figure out how to film him. There was a light bulb that just called out for a moustache to be drawn on it and lo, they were born.

After that, the problem was having too many stories, not too few. I see how an authors fall in love with their characters and want to give them tons of adventures. The editor in me knew enough to keep the story simple. The creator kept adding things. The amount of time it takes to make slides in Powerpoint, get them "right," get them into Movie Maker, then have to do it all over again in order to edit a slide, forced me to settle down and focus. Surely there is a better technique out there. I also chose something that required 2 people to film.

This coming week we will be talking about audience. Thus far, my experience is that getting visitors is kind of amazing and getting comments is like getting little birthday presents. 376 page views as of 10/23,. Mostly via Facebook and Life With Alacrity. 20 each from Rwanda and the Phillipines!! Is that even real? Who are these people? Are they even people??.

Oddly, for someone as shy as I am, the idea that I can actually make more audience happen is very motivational. It is nice to practice here until the time that my "brand" is ready for prime time and my writing is stronger.

Week 5 Learning Journal - Copyrights and licenses

I spent several years on the Board of a small farmers market. We were really into developing the market into a community gathering spot - more than just a place to shop. We welcomed local bands and music education programs as a way to help them, help the market, and help the overall community.

Bands loved playing for us, and we loved having them. They would skip bigger markets, larger audiences, and gigs that did more than pay gas money just to join us. After a short time, we had more bands vying for spots than market days. The variety, especially for a smaller community, was pretty cool. It included variations on jazz, swing, rock, blues, string quartet, opera, country, fiddle, ska, and more. We even hosted music school recitals and tryouts.

Then came the letter.

Sony/BMG demanded that the market purchase a venue license or face threat of lawsuit. Long story short, if a piece of music is subject to copyright, users must pay a royalty. Since Sony/BMG owns most of the copyrights, the argument was that if a band played a cover song or even if they played an original song that is owned by Sony/BMG, then the market owed them money. It sounded too ridiculous to be true, but we did the research, and sure enough, the wording of the law supports them 100%. They offer a tiered system of licenses ranging from concert hall to nightclub to one-time concert - nothing geared to a non-paying audience that meets outside on a Saturday morning while they are shopping for groceries at a nonprofit venue.

The two 45-minute sets that took place each Saturday from April to October were considered to be 28 individual concerts. The cost would wipe us out. Plus it would only include Sony/ BMG music. Technically we would need separate agreement with all the other owners.

It turns out that markets across the country were being threatened. Noone could figure out a rhyme or reason as to why one market got a letter, but another nearby, did not. Many markets banned all music as a result.

At mine, we figured out that pre-1922 music was not subject to copyright. Most of our bands were regulars, and we worked with them so that they agreed to play only old-time, pre-1922 music, or original compositions not subject to licensing fees. Some bands, especially the ones who did rock, blues, and country covers, dropped out. Others took up the challenge to bring original, local and old-time music that was a good match for our farmers market, which is a very small town, locally-focused kind of place. We came up with an answer that worked. It means that audiences miss out on tons of favorite music. But we did get to keep our music program alive, and we get to encourage and build audience for the old Americana in American.

I hoped to learn enough about this in my Social Media class to confidently post and share content on the web without fear of a Sony/BMG moment. And - to be fair, also to make sure that artists and creators are fairly attributed and compensated for their work, as I know that our enahnced ability to copy and share makes that a big issue.

I did learn more than I started with. But, unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately), allowable uses are vague enough to seem like "eye of the beholder" kind of standards. For instance - I can comment on a creation and quote it in part. I can use a part of a song, but not to create a mood. I can capture copyright material incidentally as long as it is not a primary focus, but I can use it to launch a discussion or to recombine it.

Confusing. It is easy to see how disputes happen.

Social Change Videos

We've been asked to find some good examples of social change videos and share them here. There are tons of great videos out there on all sorts of topics. I chose to focus on environmentally themed videos with a sense of humor. Yes, they really do exist.

Enjoy.

My all-time favorite...Polluter Harmony (3:06)




Canvas Bags by Tim Minchin, (3:14)



Store Wars (this one runs a little over-long, IMHO, but it is adorable)

http://www.green.tv/store_wars?set_location=en

I also found a couple nice bits about energy efficiency. I will post them on my Beat Blog.

Week 4 Learning Journal

The readings about strong and weak links caught my attention. The strong links in my world are easy to understand and value. Where the readings made a difference for me was in shifting my understanding of weak links. In some ways I have been turned off by the idea of assigning the term "friends" to people I barely know, or who are only connected because we know someone in common. It feels phony and dis-connected from reality.

The readings helped me to shift my focus away from the odd choice of words to a more powerful concept that describes varying levels of interconnection, how group size impacts trust and leadership, and the actual power of weak links. I don't have the answers, but it could be interesting to lead a discussion about intentionally cultivating weak links to enhance social change or personal goals. Is all the fuss about LinkedIn really worth paying attention to?

Here is a Wikipedia overview of interpersonal ties, including mention of Granovetter's finding that most job referrals come thru acquaintances rather than strong links. The link is tagged BGIMGT566sx on my Delicious page as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_ties

Beating the Beat: Title & Keywords Post

I am late coming up with a Title and Keywords for my BGI Beat Blog and my personal brand. Instead of leaning into Fail Forward Fast, I find myself zipping around the hamster wheel. As in doing a lot of work, without moving forward.

My big tent topic is about energy efficiency. It allows room for the rest to develop. I am mentally building posts about my personal efforts to create a lighter footprint. At the same time I'm getting closer to a related goal of promoting and better understanding businesses and people that bring together all the good things about food and community and good energy. Writing is a great tool to help me gather my, as yet, scattered kernel of an idea together.

I admit that the title piece has me stuck (At least until I'm not). I have lists of personal attributes, plus related words and phrases. Or is it words and phrases with related attributes? Aack! Conscious. Evolving. Elegant. Resilient. Imagine. Next. Integrity. Compassion. Natural. Deep. Strategic. Passionate. Real. Vision. Meaningful.

(edited to add: "Here's Tamara. Now with new and improved Authenticity features. Get yours today"

Am I mixing up Brand and Beat? In any case, the Title has me stumped for the moment. I hereby set it aside for a bit so the rest can continue unfolding. And I welcome you, readers and fellow students, to share ideas. I'd love to capture something about the beauty and elegance of living consciously and in sync. Points for catchy and funny too.

On the bright side, the Branding assignment, while still at the baby steps stage, already inspired me on the journey toward right livelihood. Spent the morning revising the intro to my resume and it is already reading so much better.

Proposed Beat Blog Keywords: BGI566sx, BGI, energy, efficiency, home, sustainable, business, green, alternative, resilience, lighting, retrofit

Week 3 Branding

Phew. From where I am to where we are headed with branding feels like a long ways to go. Am a little overwhelmed.

Week 3 Learning Journal Post

Credit to Chris Allen for finding this awesome image. Leave the computer and come back a day or two later, only to find 500+ RSS feeds, not to mention whatever else is piling up. Even without a pressing reason to read them over, my desire to stay up to date, along with the stress that I might be falling behind, gives my a heart flutter. And not that good flutter we all know and love either.

My new practice. Scan - Focus - Act

First. Take a deep breath. I don't have to choose between reading everything and deleting everything. Just scan the list and star the ones that seem to be worth a second look.

Second. Take another run thru and read the ones that look interesting. Decide whether to bookmark them to Delicious, share with a friend, or share them using Google Reader's star, like and share features. Spend time on what is of value to me right now, in this moment. Save or ditch the rest.

Third. Delete the rest, and have a fabulous day.

Hmmm. This scan approach really puts a lot of focus on enticing headlines, titles, and lead sentences.

To follow up on a couple of suggested topics for this post...

1. Questions, Ideas??? Sometimes we get an instruction like "invite people to your blog" or "share and comment on other student's Delicious links". It would sure help if tasks came with instructions (especially given how many assignments we must complete in so few days). I imagine each of us is struggling with, and discovering tricks and tips about the services on our own, some more successfully than others. What could we create that would be an effective, inviting, and short way to help each other out? Or, maybe better, can we find and share existing resources that do a great job?

2. Quotes from readings or the wll eereb..I'd be happy to lead a discussion about our own feelings and experiences of what is too much tech, or inappropriate tech. A few example quotes on the topic of tech addiction...

Tweeting before bed and accessing Facebook the moment you wake is indicative of obsessive compulsion.

* If you find yourself paying more attention to your Blackberry than your dinner companion, you may have a problem. New research suggests that as technology addiction takes hold, our ability to empathise diminishes.

* A genuine feeling of panic when your phone loses its signal or runs out of battery may indicate the beginnings of a dependency, psychologists say.

Retrieved from: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/tech-addict-when-you-just-cant-switch-off-2006769.html

Here is a quote backed by scientists, though science doesn't add anything new in this case. This describes my experience to a T. I am aware that it is a bit of a problem. Is that so bad?

According to New York Times article, Scientists say "our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored." Richtel, M (2010, June 6 Web 2.0 Expo, New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html

(edited a bit)