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Global Voices Advocacy
When my fellow blogger living in Budapest, Jez Wegierski, posted about attending Global Voices summit somehow I didn’t think about checking the organisation behind that event (even though I AM interested in events). I have just come across this very informative and extremely active portal now, and I must say I am well impressed. GlobalVoices is a large portal containing several sub-projects. Apart from the translation sites, I found the Global Voices Advocacy the most interesting one. It not only contains quite adequate data and insights on free speech online but actually suggests a tool to fight for it in those countries where some sites are banned.
Have a look at their 403 checker – it’s a free to download tool helping to track back what sites were banned on one’s pc. Also, some of those are included in the Access Denied Map. This is the type of info you do not find easily, here publicly available. I like when people bravely talk about issues and face the word with facts! Well done!
So, considering some involvement myself, I have contacted them asking about the aim of the site, and got a response from person called Portnoy: ‘The main goal of Lingua and GV is to balance the world’s information flow biased by MSM and with the help of more than 200 volunteers we have to build a citizen media community based on bloggers around the world.
We tackle the 3 obstacles(censorship, digital divide, and language) toward a true global village with Global Voices Advocacy, Rising Voices, and Lingua. You can read more info here’
That is exactly what social media should do, don’t you think? -
Twitter ratio – restrictions?
One of my new twitter contacts mentioned that there is a ‘secret twitter ratio’ causing certain restrictions – but I do not really know what it means? Is Twitter restricting a number of friends or followers? I looked for the info on different blogs writing about Twitter ratio (ratio of our Twitter followers to our friends) but I cannot see this being mentioned:/ Actually, the ratio and its connection to human behavior idea do reflect mine. I agree that some of use Twitter to chat, some to network, some to do it all and to gather knowledge. Here’s my official Twitter ratio:
To quote Scoble, I belong to those who ‘want to learn more’ which perfectly matches my intentions:) I would like to know though if there are any rules connected to the Twitter ratio which might affect my account… -
Social media and traditional communication
I appreciate social media. I love the speed and globalization of all communication tools. I like to make new relationships based on common respect and knowledge or information share. Those are capable of gestures too – one of my closest friends created a blog especially for me to update me on her thoughts after she stopped writing letters – lack of time, I guess. I am honored and read it, comment on it, use it as our private venue, our common table, and cups of coffee, in a way. Still, we do write letters, we store them, read them again and we do appreciate each of them. I will never move away from the magic of a simple letter. Just as I will never move away from reading books and memorizing the best lines…
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Happy Blog Day everyone!
It’s your day, so accept my best wishes! Happy Blog Day everyone!
I am happy to have the chance to mention my current the best 5, so here they are:)1. Chris Brogan – social media guru, whose tips and advice are crucial for my work and my blogging.
2. Blog Till You Drop – Lolly is not only a friendly person but also a very professional blogger – her insights are always valuable!
3. Cementum – It’s amazing to see Rich not only working very hard on his book but also blogging about the process – it must be so hard to be able to look at yourself and be so disciplined! I am impressed!
4. The Girl – I am very impressed by her work as a blogger and writer too. This one is a must!
5. PR Blogger – a good study of the current situation in PR, very helpful!I wonder how those lists change in one year time:)
Happy BD again! -
New rules of marketing
Just as I have finished ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR‘ written by David Meerman Scott, and was wondering which work-related book should be next I got a Google alert containing a link to this podcast. It’s an interview given by another social media marketing specialist – Andy Sernovitz – whose book on WOM marketing I happen to have on my waiting list. (I am just about to start it now…). Andy’s podcast explains very basics of WOM marketing and to me seems to be quite obvious, but I am happy to see that new type of marketing activities is promoted so wisely!
As for ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR’ I am once again glad I decided to order a few books related to my current work – they give me insight into both business, as well as the social media. I think it’s crucial to understand how the web and the markets are developing – not only for work but for my own experience too. I find David’s book fascinating and very inspiring. Do read it – you can never tell how a book can change you!:) -
Social media marketing – best practices
Mitch Joel is asking a question about the best social media marketing practices and I must admit it took me a while to decide what is most important in my view…Consistency mentioned on Mitch Joel’s blog is crucial, just as much as ethics of any engagement but I think we need to go back to the basics and ensure we know exactly what we are doing. An agency or any of the team members working on a project related to social media marketing must be well trained and experienced in social media themselves, they should study the audience they aim to target and respect the rules of venues they plan to engage in their activities. The Internet has its own rules and most of them can be understood only by people who actually ARE a part of the blogosphere. My personal experience is very small, but being my own blogging experience (together with the presence in other places, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) proved to be crucial in my work. My commitment to respect people I work with and a great amount of research into the theory of social media marketing helped me so much! We must never forget that social media IS real people with the power to speak up and expect – there is no space for traditional marketing! (Here you go – I tried to be brief:/) I also agree with what Chris Brogan wrote: ‘Learn how to listen. Simple, I know. But it’s a best practice. ‘ and I hope to see more bloggers responding to this challenge! -
Amnesty (again) and Google…and blogging ethics!
There is an interesting article on Amnesty’s activities (mainly in Australia) before Beijing here. It also links to something that we all think about nowadays and touches upon privacy issues – Google Street Mapping. (see Stilgherrian’s post). I would be very interested to hear what you think. On Twitter opinions are skeptical, still I personally have nothing against it – we do live in CCTV age and if I need to loose a bit of my own privacy but gain on my security – I would agree – I think I agreed long time ago, actually. The thought of having on-line view of my flat windows available doesn’t scare me – mine faces one of the main squares of our little town, other one of the main paths. (I would be interested to know what EU and UK law states about privacy in Google’s case though. Any lawyers around?)Browsing around all those Amnesty sites I have found an interesting guide to blogging (fresh, March 2008, great graphics btw) including few notes on ethics written by Dan Gillmor (interested in privacy issues, as far as I can see) , who finds basis for blogging ethics in journalism: ‘There are pillars of good journalism: thoroughness, accuracy, fairness, transparency, and independence.’I think it’s a valid point – according to Fromm, there are two types of ethics – modern ethics (due to the commercialism and tolerance based development of societies this set of rules is based on our subjective judgments, i.e. code of ethics must be agreed on by majority of us) or traditional ethics (set of rules given by superior ‘powers’ – however we define those – always objective). If we want to follow modern approach, we still need traditional (journalistic) point of view at least to start developing our own codes of blogging ethics.
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Podcast on WOM Marketing
Just decided to browse for some audio shizzle (no Colin, not STUFF, but SHIZZLE;)) found interview with Walter Carl, buzz marketing specialist, as a podcast – you can listen to it here, but only if you are interested in the definition and basics of WOM Marketing – very top line shizzle…
Blogged with the Flock Browser -
Cluetrain Manifesto – Old Testament of Blogging
We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.’ – the most striking, since very, very true for our times, statement closes 95 Thesis of Cluetrain Manifesto. All of those are available (together with the whole book online for free – I love the idea!) on Manifesto site. It’s interesting to see how nothing has changed since the times it was written. We know Scoble’s Naked Conversations, we see the lists of Social Media Marketing references. Still, those 95 points remain the same and ethics behind them seems to be grounded in basic blogging experience. I think every one of us, bloggers should have this book on the shelf.Blogged with the Flock Browser -
Twitter ettiquette
I was just wondering – is there any? Are we expected to start following all of our followers? Is it bad if I have the same amount of followers as those whom I follow?
Honestly? I do not care. I find Twitter fun! Also, I think it’s a great tool to communicate new ideas and web tools with the world, and by following web gurus I hope to learn from them.
I think I slowly start getting addicted to it. I do put 140 characters in my head even if I have no phone around to send the message off…how bizarre! I do check it quite often and read like a book.
I am happy to see growing amount of followers and happy to find more interesting facts online.
I am extremely honored when someone sends me a private message saying thank you for following them.
I am annoyed if I start being followed by a ‘deal’ and she/he ‘knows’ I will read the profile, which really is a waste of time.
And time is what Twitter is all about – we can quickly update the world on, i.e. the fact we forgot the promised sweets the moment we sat down at our desk so that colleagues do not kill us without warning;)Anyway, it’s interesting to see how Twitter, in spite basic functionalities, manages to evolve into a social network.
