All you sucka sci blog networks better REALIZE you play for second place

Bora launched his blog network at Scientific American.  He took his time, did it right.

Don't get me wrong - I love the writing at Wired Science, ScienceBlogs.com, Discover, Scientopia, Guardian Science Blogs, Nature Network, PLoS Blogs, and so on - but Bora was really smart about this. He saw the growth in the niche, looked at what was working best, saw what could improve, and just plain NAILED IT:

Another thing I was particularly interested in was to find bloggers who in some way connect the “Two Cultures” as described by C.P.Snow. Some connect science to history, philosophy, sociology or ethics. Many are very interested in science education, communication and outreach. Some make connections between science and popular culture, music, art, illustration, photography, cartoons/comic strips, poetry, literature, books, movies, TV, video, etc. Several produce such cross-discipline and cross-cultural material themselves – at least two are musicians, two are professional photographers, several produce videos, two are professional artists, a couple are authors of multiple books, some produce their own blog illustrations. But there are also commonalities – they all have strong knowledge of their topic, they strictly adhere to the standards of scientific evidence, they are all very strong writers, and they are all enthusiastic to share their work with a broader audience. 

When I put together this group, with such diverse interests and styles, it was not surprising to discover that, without really having to try hard to make it so, they also display diversity in many other areas: geography, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, personal/professional/scientific background and more. This is something that is important for science, and is important in the science blogging world.

This is brilliant for two big reasons: first, diversity is a source of enormous strength in science and pretty much everything else.  It's the right thing to do.  Second because it makes science immediately relevant to people with diverse interests - music, art, history, pop-culture, sports, education, and so on - the network has the capacity to grow its readership much more than other science blog networks.

My initial reaction is that SciAm's emergence with a large, smart roster may thin the herd of networks a little bit. I notice some writers have left their networks to join SciAm's, and since there are only so many blog posts you can read in a day, readers will go for the quality content first.

I may flesh this thinking out a bit more but here's one prediction/caution for those writing for another network. If you start to get several emails from your editors or managers providing "guidelines" on how to write in ways that generate more traffic like throwing celebrity references in the titles or providing more posts with repetitive phrases, your network is following an unsustainable strategy.  Your editors care more about Google search terms than you.  They want your words but not necessarily your thoughts.  The first network to do this will probably be the first one to go.

UPDATE: PZ Myers is already declaring ScienceBlogs.com "dead" and hinting that he's leaving.  Pharyngula is basically half of SEED/SB's traffic and I notice that the new SciAm network has at least a couple of SB peeps on it. I'm guessing the folks at National Geographic aren't pleased.  Leave it to an evolutionary biologist to tell us what happens when something doesn't adapt to a changing environment...

Best Blog EVAH - Health Disparities Blog at Case Western Reserve University

I found David Porter on Twitter one day and noticed he made a lot of comments about health disparities - something my wife studies in earnest. Turns out he's a Research Project Associate and webmaster for Case Western Reserve University's Case Center for Reducing Health Disparities.

And he puts together an impressive blog.

It's not overwhelming or too shiny; it doesn't suck up bandwidth by throwing a bunch of widgets or huge graphics on the page. It does use some of the basic social media tools that you'd look for in a blog - a really strong delicious links page (you'll notice the blog depends rather heavily on it), some aggregator tools, an RSS feed. You can find some multimedia content (podcasts) in the sidebar and a small but adequate blogroll.

The best thing about this blog is the technology doesn't get in the way of the content. This is a strong example of social media supporting a positioning strategy - it collects some of the best thinking on health disparities and presents it in an accessible way, placing it under the "brand" of Case Western Reserve University. CWRU doesn't necessarily have the reputation of an Ivy League school or a huge land grant school, but tools like this help establish its credibility in a very important - and arguably undervalued - niche. I now know one of the best places to go for information about health disparities is Case Western Reserve University, and journalists looking for a source or notable quotable can go there as well.

My wife mentioned she'd like to see more there on rural health disparities, and I'm hopeful that can be remedied...

The Interview: Amira Al Hussaini

This week's Business Lexington features excerpts from an email interview I got with Amira Al Hussaini, the editor of one of my favorite websites, Voices without Votes. She (along with many of her colleagues at Global Voices Online) represents the kind of global citizen and next-generation journalist the Internet has helped create. To me she also represents a sort of global counterpart to Jacki Schechner, the journalist-turned-activist I interviewed a few months back.

Voices without Votes is, to me, one of the most important collaborative projects on the 'net.

As always, the newspaper column format allows for some of my opinions but doesn't really allow for the whole discussion. So I'll let Amira explain her perspective on this outstanding project in her own words. She was very generous with her time.

Q: First, can you explain to my readers the history and mission of Voices without Votes and perhaps some of the numbers behind it? How many bloggers from how many countries? I've listened to the Open Source podcast that features Christopher Lydon, Ethan Zuckerman and Solana Larsen a few times but I'm wondering if there's anything else we should know.

A: Launched on Super Tuesday, Voices without Votes is a Global Voices Online project, commissioned by Reuters, which is a huge Global Voices Online fan and backer. The idea came to life at a time when interest around the world was picking up about the US elections, and as Global Voices Online focuses on non-US material, we decided it was time to set up a separate project, which will enable us to track and report on what the world is saying about US elections and US foreign policy.

Our mission statement is: "Voices without Votes opens a window on what non-Americans are saying in blogs and citizen media about US foreign policy and the 2008 presidential elections."

It continues: "Americans are the only ones who can elect the United States president, but the 2008 election offers a unique opportunity to harvest global commentary on America's politics and foreign policy and how it affects the rest of the world."

Voices Without Votes highlights conversations in non-American blogs and citizen media, with emphasis on the regions covered by Global Voices: Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East.

The site is really the fruit of cooperation between GVO's volunteers and a few interested bloggers from around the world, who continue to monitor the online conversations in their countries, or the countries they cover, and produce features on what they read. We have volunteers working on the site from practically every corner of the world, from Iraq to Madagascar, and Fiji to Canada, as well as translators who are active in bringing us voices in other languages, such as Farsi, Arabic, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese, to name a few. As the countdown to the elections continue, we are discovering new blogs and websites to add to our coverage, and more people are joining our team of volunteers.

For more about our team of volunteers, please check this page: http://voiceswithoutvotes.org/authors/

Q: Second, could you give me a little information about you and your professional background? I know you're the Middle East & North Africa Editor for GVO - how did you get involved in GVO and Voices without Votes?

A: I am a Bahraini journalist and the former news editor of the Gulf Daily News (GDN) in Bahrain. I started work as a trainee reporter in the GDN in 1991, while I was at my first year in university. By the time I graduated with a BA English (Honours), I swear I must have clocked more hours in the newsroom than the classroom. My career goal was set by then, I caught the bug and wanted to be a journalist for life. I continued working at the GDN, where I was promoted first to assistant news editor and then to become the first Bahraini news editor of an English language daily, until I left Bahrain to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to join my husband who is working towards his PhD, in October 2005. In my career as a journalist, I can claim to have covered every type of story, from business and economics, to human interest and politics. In 1996, I also won the coveted Dag Hammarskjold Scholarship, http://www.unjournalismfellowship.org/node/230, which offered me a three-month fellowship to cover the United Nations in New York. I have since been a frequent visitor to the UN's headquarters, where I covered the General Assembly and Security Council, whenever my travels brought me to the US.

In 2004, I ventured into blogging and embraced online media with the same intensity I fell for mainstream media at a young age. My involvement with GVO started after I came to Canada, as I really needed to maintain my work ethics and continue writing. I consider myself really lucky and have found my match in GVO, as I truly believe in its cause. According to its mission statement:

"Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard."

At GVO, I am the Middle East and North Africa, Arabic Language Editor and Voices without Votes editor. I am also a Board Member.

Not only am I gaining hands on experience in evolving online citizen journalism, learning skills I wouldn't have grasped had I continued in the newsroom, but I am applying my skills and expertise to help bridge understandings, mend fences, and show that it is a small world - and we are all the same in our hopes, aspirations, fears and dreams for tomorrow.

Q: I'd love to know if you've seen any trends from foreign writers. In the Open Source podcast, Ethan Zuckerman made some interesting general statements (I'm paraphrasing here) like "Jamaicans are upset at how Barack Obama is being treated" and "In Israel they're scared of what an Obama presidency might mean for them." What stands out to you about how people outside the US view this election? Do you feel that one candidate is getting more support than the other? Are there particular attributes being ascribed to one candidate or another?

A: I personally am amused at the way the US elections are closely being monitored by bloggers from all corners of the globe and how passionate people are over its developments, especially that they can't vote. Bloggers are actually commenting on developments as the stories break in the US, with commentary coming out as if in competition with mainstream media - and they are really passionate about it. Remember that those are citizen journalists - and are not paid for what they write. What really stands out though is the Obamamania which has taken the blogosphere by storm - making my job as editor and that of my colleagues a difficult balancing act. While it is easy to find international blogs supporting Obama, I literally have to appeal to my volunteer authors to look closely for and report on McCain stories! All the volunteers working on VwV, understand the nature of the project and are trying to portray all reactions as our goal is to rise above the political divisions, evident in US blogs, and reflect what is being said in a timely manner, without taking sides. Our aim is to bring all voices we have access to under one umbrella - and so far we feel we have had a lot of success, in such a short time - thanks to volunteers who have kept the site updated on a daily basis since its inception and voices we wouldn't have had access to otherwise translated and heard. Also, from my observations, people really are looking up to the US as the beacon of democracy and want to see a change - and a different policy from Washington DC which has succeeded in dividing up the world into those who are with us and those who are against us. People all around the world, like some in the US, are tired of instability, wars, and destruction at this day and age and are really rooting for an administration which will correct what they perceive as the mistakes of the current US administration.

Q: Why is Voices without Votes so important? Why should people in Kentucky pay attention to the opinions of people outside our borders on our internal politics?

A: At this time and juncture in history, I feel that VwV is a witness to history in the making where you can find international reactions to a breaking news story under one roof, offering us an insight to how the world feels, thinks and reacts to the most fascinating race to the White House ever. Why should anyone in Kentucky or the US for that matter care about what the world thinks? My question would be why shouldn't they? The US doesn't exist in a vacuum and as the world's only superpower, decisions taken in Washington DC impact not only the people of Kentucky, but those in South America, the Middle East, Asia and the rest of the world. And why shouldn't we all listen to each other? Why can't we open our ears to what people in the Caribbean, Iraq and the Far East, to name a few, have to say? They are just talking but you will be casting the ballot come November 4. The power is in your hands and the least you can do is listen to what they have to say.

Q: Turning the tables a bit, should people in Kentucky be paying closer attention to elections taking place in, say, Ghana or Morocco? Why or why not?

A: Why shouldn't they? The idea abroad is that the US is insular and cocooned on itself and that is not right or fair - not for a country people travel across the world to study in its institutes of higher education. While almost any student from any Third World country knows the world map and can pinpoint at least which continent any country you throw at him is on it, I can't say that is true of many people in the US - even the officers guarding the country's very own borders. In my travels to the US, I have had officers asking me: "Bahrain? Is that in the Bahamas?" - and Bahrain is only the naval headquarters of their Fifth Fleet. http://www.cusnc.navy.mil/history/index.html

Why should the US be the butt of jokes - when it comes to geography and general information about the rest of the world?

Yes, while I don't expect all Americans to be well versed in every aspect of foreign policy, a little understand and knowledge of the world around us is essential. With access to information being easier than ever, thanks to the Internet, what has anyone of us got to lose?

Q: Has the growth of communications technology, and specifically the growth of the blogosphere, changed the way you think about global politics? If so, how?

A: Of course it has. It is so easy to remain abreast with the latest developments by programming your computer to pull the latest headlines and compile them in a neat basket for you.

We also learn new things everyday, about ourselves and the way we interact with the world and reflect on global politics. The biggest lesson I have personally learned is to listen. Yes, I have my ideas and opinions, but I need to also listen to and understand what others think and feel.

Q: Finally, I'm also very curious about your visit to Kentucky and the Idea Festival. (The 2007 archive for the IF website appears to be down.) What did you speak about? Did you have any time to look around Kentucky or meet anyone from here? Any reactions or thoughts? It's always nice to endear the source to the readers by including a quote that says something nice about the Bluegrass... ;)

A: I was invited to the Idea Festival, in Louisville, Kentucky, last year, where I witnessed the Southern charm and hospitality for the first time in my life. The idea behind the festival itself blew me away - and I was touched by the compassion, understanding and brilliance of everyone involved with IF, starting from organiser Kris Kimel and including all the friendly faces I saw there, whether organisers or panelists or attendees. At IF, I was on two panels - one discussing world peace and the other shedding light on the work we do at Global Voices Online. Being involved in IF was both exciting and enriching to me - both as a journalist and a human being. IF provides a truly stellar line up of speakers and Louisville acts as charming, warm and friendly backdrop to this explosion of ideas. I have made many friends who I am in touch with over the Internet and would have loved to have spent more time exploring the place and interacting more with the people there. Perhaps some other time, when I travel wearing my tourist hat!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgiap/sets/72157601997048549/

Here are some of our photos from the Idea Festival, taken by my colleague Georgia Popplewell, who is the Managing Editor of GVO.

Beyond Bizlex, Part II: AAEP's Dr. Jennifer Selvig

Yesterday I posted my Business Lexington column's full Q&A with Sally Baker, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the strategic vision behind AAEP's blog, Out of the Starting Gate.

Today I'm sharing the Q&A from Dr. Jennifer Selvig, a first-year equine veterinarian and the voice of AAEP's blog. In addition to her obvious skill in equine veterinary medicine, she's a strong writer and an excellent strategic fit for the blog.

Why did you agree to participate in the blog?

I was originally asked by one of my vet school mentors, Dr. Julie Wilson, who serves on the AAEP student relations committee. She is a great advocate for students, and thought I would be well-qualified for this. I'd like to think she is right - I have always enjoyed writing. During undergrad and vet school I worked at The Minnesota Daily, the largest completely student-run daily college newspaper in the country. I held lots of different positions, including editorals & opinions editor and copy desk chief. So I suppose it was an opportunity to use a skill I have to reach out to future veterinarians.

Did you know much about blogs or social media before you started this project? What have you learned?

Only in the sense that I knew basically how they work and that they existed. I never thought I'd be a "blogger" - I'm not a good creative writer; I'm a much better technical writer. I don't really follow any other blogs consistently. I have learned it can be hard to keep up with demand - when I get "writer's block," people start to wonder what happened to me! It's actually a pretty big responsibility.

Do you think you’ll continue working with blogs and social media to share your stories and experiences with young people?

I hope so! If I have the opportunity and the support of a great community like the AAEP, it's relatively easy. I'm not sure about the long-term plans for this thing - it's kind of taken on a life of its own, but it seems to be popular, so I'm happy to keep going with it as long as it's entertaining and useful to people.

The AAEP blog is making you a bit of a celebrity and an ambassador for the profession. How does it feel to be AAEP’s answer to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta?

This part is kind of surreal. I have been to a couple of continuing education events since I started this and it's weird to be recognized by people I don't know, even if only by name. America's Horse, the AQHA magazine, published my first blog entry as a feature, complete with a gigantic picture of me with two of my horses, and it was very odd to have clients and friends come up to me and say, "Hey! You're famous! I saw you in this magazine that goes out to thousands of people across the country!" When I finally got a copy of the magazine, it was pretty weird to see that spread. At least all the feedback I've gotten has been positive!

As far as being an ambassador for the profession - I guess mostly it's daunting to be held up that way when I'm really just a first-year veterinarian. I graduated from vet school less than a year ago - by a lot of people's standards, I don't know anything yet! I just try to do right by the profession and the horses, practice good medicine and keep learning. I hope the more seasoned members of our organization see that.

Part of the way this blog has taken off is with non-veterinary students and non-veterinarians. The original intent of the blog was to give veterinary students considering a career in equine practice a little window into what their first year out might be like. But now it seems my audience is so much broader - so I have to try to balance writing for my original intended audience and remembering that, apparently, a lot of other lay-people will be reading it too. I don't know about being on CNN, though!!

What do you have to say to young people considering a career in veterinary medicine?

My ultimate goal is to balance my career with my life. I have a fiance - I'm getting married in June - and three horses to ride. I want to show the profession it's possible to have a good work ethic and put your time in without burning out, and still practice good medicine. I worked really hard to get where I am - every would-be veterinarian has to work hard. But it IS worth it. Even though you're scared to death the first time you have to make an honest-to-goodness critical decision for the life of a patient, it's still worth it.

My biggest piece of advice for students thinking about vet school: Make sure this is what you want to do - if your reasoning is that you want to be a vet because you like animals and not people, you're heading in the wrong direction. Veterinary medicine is a very human-oriented profession. And then get experience. Work at a clinic cleaning and walking dogs or doing barn chores - it's how I started. You never know when they'll need an extra set of hands to help with an interesting procedure. And it's never too early to start networking and building a reputation as a hard worker.

For the equine vet students, my advice is: Go after the job you want. If that's a prestigious internship, go for it. I was fortunate to have made the connections I did early that allowed me to get a job I love. I have a classmate who turned down a prestigious internship for a job on the other side of the country because he didn't feel right about it - and he's having a blast in the job he ended up with. There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to go after graduation - look for something that makes you happy and fits in your life where you're at, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You won't practice good medicine and you won't learn anything if you're not enjoying your job.

"Think Grey's Anatomy, but with horses."

This is the first time a Best Blog EVAH has preceded a Business Lexington column. The American Association of Equine Practitioners is not a huge trade association, but they're using some of the same innovative communications tools that the big guys like the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are.

But here's the thing: I actually like AAEP's blog, Out of the Starting Gate, a little better than the others because it personalizes the profession. And I think the leadership at AAEP, particularly director of marketing & PR Sally Baker, have been really smart about this. They identified a strategic communications need FIRST - attracting young people to the field of equine veterinary medicine - and saw a blog as a tool to help them meet that need. Then they found a smart young voice for the blog that again filled their strategic need. They're starting simple and then they plan to build more multimedia into the blog as they grow more comfortable with the medium.

I first met Sally Baker when she invited me to speak at the local PRSA chapter. She told me about their blog and asked me to take a look at it. It doesn't offer much in terms of bells & whistles and it doesn't update often, but the content is very strong. That's the most important thing.

Sally was gracious enough to answer a few questions as I put together the column. Here's the complete Q&A.

I. First, please tell me about AAEP – who you are, what you do, your mission.

The AAEP is the world’s largest professional association for equine veterinarians. Our most important mission is protecting the health and welfare of the horse, and we accomplish this through helping our members stay current on the latest advances in equine medicine and educating horse owners about the important role they play in keeping their horse healthy and happy.

The AAEP also works within the equine industry to promote policies that are in the best interest of the horse, and we have served as a catalyst on diverse issues ranging from medication in the racehorse to the plight of the unwanted horse.

II. Many Lexingtonians know a bit about who you are, and that you’re in town, but little else. What do you want your neighbors to know about you?

First, when I tell someone that we have a membership of over 9,000 veterinarians and veterinary students, they are surprised to learn that there are so many veterinarians who do equine work. Many people also assume that most of our members are based in Kentucky, especially since Lexington is the Horse Capital of the World. And while the AAEP does have nearly 350 members in Kentucky, our membership is international, with representation in 64 countries and in such distant places as Iceland, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. (Horses are everywhere!)

III. What was the strategic thinking behind starting a blog? When did social media begin to look like a good communications option for AAEP?

A significant percentage of our membership is under 30 years of age - 28 percent of our DVM members have been in practice five years or less and we have over 2,000 veterinary students as members. We know from the general cultural shift in communication as well as our own surveys that these groups are heavy users of our Web site and e-communication.

A strategic issue for the profession right now is how to attract more students to a career as an equine veterinarian. We then took what we knew about our members’ communication habits and applied it to how we could encourage more veterinary students to practice equine medicine. Reaching this group through a blog seemed like a natural fit.

IV. What do you hope to accomplish with the blog?

We ultimately want those considering a career as an equine veterinarian to view the profession in a positive way. I think Dr. Selvig’s accounts keep readers hooked to her experiences and are a great vehicle for attracting potential horse doctors. The first year of practice for a new veterinarian requires a lot of hard work and includes many wonderful experiences and a few bumps along the way (think Grey’s Anatomy but with horses), and we thought this would be a fascinating time of life to capture through a first-person experience. We wanted potential equine vets to hear from someone who is living the life.

V. America’s Horse, the official magazine of the American Quarter Horse Association, featured a post from your blog. What kind of feedback have you gotten from people who cover the equine industry? How about people in the industry?

The interest in the blog beyond the veterinary community was not anticipated but is a very welcome surprise. Many horse owners are extremely devoted to their animals and want to get as much information as possible. Because Dr. Selvig’s entries really give an insider’s perspective on horse health, we’re hearing from horse owners that they appreciate her candid accounts and her compassion for the horses she helps. Dr. Selvig is very compassionate, and that trait is resonating with horse owners.

VI. How did you choose Dr. Selvig as the “voice” of the blog? How do you think she’s done with it?

Once the purpose of the blog was defined, I turned to our student chapter advisors at the many colleges of veterinary medicine for their recommendations on new grads who were dynamic, enthusiastic and, based on their personal knowledge of the new grad, knew the new grad would click with this type of project. Dr. Selvig was suggested by our chapter advisor at the University of Minnesota, and it was apparent from my first communication with Dr. Selvig that she was the perfect fit for the blog. Dr. Selvig is a rising star in the profession. She was the AAEP student chapter president at Minnesota, she attended every AAEP annual convention when she was in school and was in constant pursuit of ways to become an outstanding veterinarian. It really was just a bonus that she has such strong writing skills. Her ability to weave a story is key to the blog’s success.

VII. The bog seems like a great tool to introduce “lay people” to the industry. Is this a consideration?

As I mentioned earlier, the bog’s appeal to the lay public was not expected. But we’re finding that in addition to the horse owners who read it, the bog is prompting high school students to contact Dr. Selvig and ask for advice on how to become an equine veterinarian. She is definitely inspiring the type of action that we hoped would occur with potential vets, but we initially thought this would take place primarily with current vet students.

VIII. What’s next? Will we be seeing other features for the blog, such as pictures or video, or maybe bookmarking? Will there be other contributors?

Now that the AAEP has dipped its toe in the water of social media, I am realizing how much more we can do with Dr. Selvig’s blog. We now have the ability for her to add photos to her entries, and one of our goals is to post a few short video clips of Dr. Selvig “in action” as she cares for her clients. She has really become an ambassador for the profession, and we can promote that aspect by bringing her physical presence to the blog as well.

Since we are now comfortable hosting a blog, I believe it is something that we will continue if it makes sense to do so. Our initial goal was to support our need to attract more veterinarians to the profession, and if another blog makes sense strategically, we’ll definitely pursue it. Hopefully we can keep Dr. Selvig hooked and she’ll continue to share her experiences as her career evolves.

Sally was also kind enough to ask Dr. Jennifer Selvig, the voice of Out of the Starting Gate, to answer a few questions from me as well. I'll post those tomorrow.

Best Blog EVAH - Out of the Starting Gate

A few weeks ago I gave a brief presentation to the Thoroughbred Chapter of PRSA about social media. I was invited by president of the local chapter, Sally Baker of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. (When I moved to Kentucky I learned "equine practitioner" was a smart way of saying "horse veterinarian.")

At the presentation Sally told me about AAEP's blog, Out of the Starting Gate. It's relatively new, and Sally said they were still finding their way with it, but I was immediately impressed when I read it. The blog follows the progress of Dr. Jennifer Selvig, a 2007 graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

From a technical perspective, and even from a social media perspective, the blog isn't all that sophisticated. Not a lot of bells or whistles. Just some dated (and fairly long) entries, displayed one at a time, confined to the AAEP website's content management system. The only social components currently available are comments and an RSS feed.

But anyone who knows the history of "Best Blog EVAH" knows I don't recognize blogs because they're shiny or full of distracting web2.0 tools - the Best Blogs EVAH tend to be relatively low-tech, simple options that perform a single function very effectively. Don't let your goals get tripped up by technology - the strategy is more important than the tool itself.

AAEP's blog does one thing very, very well - it personalizes the profession. It does this by providing very strong content. Dr. Selvig is a solid writer, and while the posts are a bit long and spaced out over time, she's clearly found a voice.

The blog provides AAEP with a useful marketing, promotion, and recruiting tool. The blog has already been featured in America's Horse (the official magazine of the American Quarter Horse Association), and I'm looking into highlighting it for Business Lexington.

This blog is great for AAEP. It's great for Dr. Selvig. And it's great for anyone who wants to learn more about what it's really like to be an equine vet. If AAEP chooses to leverage a few simple tools such as multimedia or bookmarking, I really think this could take off. There's some real potential here.

Introducing Virtual Vantage Points

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday because I was helping my company, APCO Worldwide, launch their first major foray into the blogosphere - Virtual Vantage Points (VVP).

VVP is a unique and unprecedented approach to examining the blogosphere. We identify the leaders in specific online communities and examine their discussions to see what themes and issues keep pushing to the forefront. Then experts in policy and industry from APCO examine those discussions and help explain why they matter to people, both online and offline.

I'm helping to identify online communities and the leaders in them, and reaching out to them. I'm also working with our developers to refine the tools we create and use, like the "community cloud" generator we're using on the blog this week. But the real value isn't simply in a nifty cloud generator - it's the ability to look at the discussion from a group of community leaders and to apply some top-level analysis to those discussions. The people leading that effort are amazing.

They include Craig Fuller, who was Chief of Staff to then Vice President George H.W. Bush and the former head of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Darren Murphy is a former special assistant to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Trevor Neilsen worked in the Clinton White House, led the communications effort for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a time, and is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board. And Bill Pierce was a Deputy Assistant Secretary and chief spokesman at the US Department of Health and Human Services. We have more contributors joining us soon, and with the help of readers we'll be identifying and refining more communities.

I thought Bill Pierce's introductory post was a perfect example of how this tool is so valuable. Bill took a look at ALL the communities we're tracking so far - 15 and counting - to see who was driving the political discussion about health care. He saw who WAS talking about health policy issues: health policy analysts (obviously), doctors to some extent, and interestingly, politically-oriented moms. Who WASN'T talking about health care to any great extent? Top-tier political bloggers on the left or the right:

On the minds of policy bloggers are issues surrounding patients and doctors, research, information and data – and money. But no where to be seen is talk of SCHIP or Medicare, both hot topics on Capitol Hill. It’s no surprise that political mom’s are talking about health care, since most health care decisions are made by moms. But look at what else pops up, people, passion, outreach, movement, political and advocate, which combined with issues like health, school and war gives you a strong sense of their frame of mind. I’d pay attention to this group.

Doctors sound a little like health policy bloggers, but in no surprise, very focused on their profession, their craft, care and disease and importantly their patients.

Very little of this is heard on the campaign trail or in the halls of Congress. Perhaps this means some of our politicians are going to have to serve some time in the “hot box.”

This is exactly the kind of analysis I hoped we'd get from this project. It was something my colleagues and I discussed months ago. It shows political people where they can go to participate in the meaningful discussions on the issues people care about most. It gives people some direction - not the definitive word, but direction -on what issues and ideas communities want to explore. It's just a beginning, but it's a great first step.

VVP is a work in progress and hopefully always will be. I hope everyone has a chance to check it out and participate in the discussion about the discussions.

Crossing over

The latest example of political people going beyond political blogs:

Democratic US Senate Candidate Al Franken talks to Green Options' Maria Surma Manka.

(via twitter)

Social media is NOT for cowards

I hear complaints from companies all the time about how angry bloggers say mean things, and they're not interested in entering online discussions because someone says something mean about them and it's uncomfortable. I tell those folks that you have to pay attention to everyone that talks about your issue or your brand, but in the big picture, the angry blogger is sometimes not much different than the village idiot. In some cases, people realize he's a one-trick pony and there's no need to engage there.

However, there are some rather uncomfortable yet incredibly important discussions happening online that deserve and demand attention from everyone. These discussions are being led by brilliant people with real challenges in their lives - and they've taken the courageous step of using blogs and other forms of social media to confront stigma and bias.

So if you're in social media, marketing, policy, or communications generally, you need to read, learn from, and embrace Real Mental. THIS is social media in action, and it's being driven by some very courageous people who are sharing their stories and their talents.

The communications tool isn't sophisticated - it's just a group blog - but it's perfect for the content. When you have content as strong as this, you shouldn't let it trip over technology. All the sexy new social media tools we love to swoon over wouldn't convey these stories as powerfully. Heck yeah, this is a Best Blog EVAH. I have nothing but respect for people with the guts to write like this.

The real question now is what companies and their flacks do with Real Mental - will we stay at arms length, or will we engage? Do companies who care about mental health have the guts to tell the writers of Real Mental that they're listening? Will they enter the discussions that everyone knows we have to enter, or will they let their discomfort with the subject matter or the fact that there's an occasional f-bomb here dictate their actions?

I suspect the payback will be huge for the company that transparently and respectfully engages first. In this case, engagement may just take the form of saying "we hear you and we support you." But it may be more than that - I think that's up to the writers of Real Mental.

Best Blog EVAH: Technology, Health & Development

What happens when you bring academics together from different fields to talk about an important global issue?

Technology, Health and Development. From the authors:

We want to bring together public health advocates, teachers, engineers, computer scientists and business/technology experts who may not normally interact in order to combine forces. Our goal is to document solutions and exchange ideas on innovative projects in global health.

I found TH&D when I was doing some online outreach for Africa Malaria Day and put together a conference call with bloggers, academics, business leaders and government officials.

The site is an authoritative clearinghouse on global health topics that focuses on solutions and invites participation from the private sector. They've done an outstanding job recognizing the importance of the private sector in global health, and they're helping to create a constructive communications environment for businesses to discuss the things they do.

The authors have solid credibility and they aren't afraid of tackling tough issues. They've also assembled one of the best global health and development blogrolls I've ever seen.

In putting together the blog, the authors have also strengthened their positions as advocates and leaders in their fields, and more importantly, they've made the research and the work they do more accessible to a broader audience. TH&D is a great example of how people use blogs to harness the perspectives of diverse groups.

Green Options: taking the road less traveled (without leaving a huge footprint)

Shifting gears from all things mommy-blog for a moment to take a look at trends in the green-o-sphere.

The news is out that Discovery Communications has purchased uber-enviroblog Treehugger, with its ultra-efficient global staff of 50 and 1.4 million readers per month. The site will no doubt be the online anchor for the network's Planet Green channel. And kudos to Discovery for scooping up some excellent talent and providing an enthusiastic audience with a wealth of choices to get branded content.

Of course, the news may have other enviroblogs wondering if there are enough green eyeballs to go around. Of course, competing with big media companies is not a new thing for blogs, but Discovery/Treehugger will make a strong claim to advertisers that they have the audience. How will other green blogs survive?

My favorite, Green Options, is aggressively moving into more grassroots social media channels to actually build an audience. Within days of the Treehugger deal, GO had a facebook group, a squidoo lens, and a makemesustainable group up and running. These steps, of course, cost virtually nothing. I'm sure they have a few other ideas as well.

As logical as this sounds to many of us in the social media crowd, It's clearly not considered a tried-and-true method by mainstream communications folks yet. Two roads are diverging in a wood and Green Options is taking the road less traveled. We are about to witness two competing promotion strategies of similar properties (in terms of content, not size) and we're in a position to mark a baseline for each and chart progress. I have nothing against Treehugger or Discovery, but I'm rootin' for my Best Blog EVAH. We'll see how it goes.

Best Blog EVAH: 38 Pitches

In honor of Jon Lester's inspirational comeback, I'll recognize one of his teammates for a Best Blog EVAH - Curt Schilling's now-famous blog, 38 Pitches.

OK, this one was easy, and now I look like just another homer 'sox fan who's crushing on Curt Schilling. (full disclosure: go sox, and I freakin' LOVE Schil. he works hard and he cares, so give the man credit.) But 38 Pitches is another great example of a person who has a brand and has used the blogosphere to protect that brand from perceived inaccurate or unfair treatment from the traditional media. It's a great case study.

Schilling follows in a long and proud tradition of Red Sox greats with sports columnist rivals. Curt Schilling's arch nemesis isn't someone from the Yankees, it's a Boston Globe columnist named Dan Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy has opinions about Schilling that aren't always flattering and has plenty to say about it in his columns. I doubt Shaughnessy was the only reason Schilling decided to speak for himself rather than through the media's filter, but I'm sure he was a big one.

But here's the thing: Schilling isn't the first athlete with a blog. He's not even the first baseball player with a blog. Why is his blog, and not others, a BBE?

First, it's authentic. Unlike some athletes' "official sites," you can tell his posts were written by him and not a PR flack like me - and it's not covered with flashy ads saying, "buy something with my name or number on it." (he has a link to a business of his on the site, but it's really not over the top.) He's also using wordpress, which also gives him some street cred with the open source techie crowd. So, CEO crowd: if Curt Schilling, who's legendary for the amount of time he takes preparing for games, has the time to blog, so do you.

Second, and this is big - it's a conversation, not a lecture. There are positive as well as negative comments on his blog and that's ok with him. He's interacting with his fans, much more than any sports columnist can in their given media. Companies can't panic every time a comment isn't 100 percent positive and lock down a blog, or they'll look like they're putting up walls between themselves and everyone else.

Finally, it's strategic. He started this blog for a reason - to get his unfiltered thoughts out - and he's stuck with it. He hasn't vented once or twice. He hasn't kept this out there as a defensive, crisis communications tool. He's doing exactly what he set out to do. Blogs aren't everything, but they're great when used for the right purpose.

It's also nice that he uses his celebrity and his online space to support his favorite charities, SHADE and ALSA.

When Dan Shaughnessy learned about 38 Pitches, he mocked Schilling. Now print is declining while online is ascending. I'm a huge sox fan and I read 38 Pitches more than Shaughnessy's column now. Since I live in Kentucky, I really can't get a paper copy of the Boston Globe. So if Shaughnessy decides he needs to write a blog to keep up his readership, he has to eat some crow first.

I guess we mock what we don't understand.

Of course, when Schilling or some other social-media-savvy player (or fan) decides he wants to twitter from the dugout, will MLB crack down like the NCAA did against bloggers?

Best Blog EVAH: Green Options

Green Options is the latest entrant into the "meta-green" blog genre where Treehugger currently dominates and tech-centric but still diverse Worldchanging and Ecogeek also play important roles.

Full disclosure: Green Options is not a client, but I've pitched them a few times on behalf of big corporate and non-profit clients with varying levels of success. I appreciate the fact that the writers and editors at GO are very good at responding to emails. And since I covered energy and trade issues for a US Senator for a number of years, I have a personal interest in the issues covered by the writers there.

I think they're still tinkering with design issues and may not yet be satisfied with the look and feel of the site. It's changed a few times over the past several weeks. But I'm hooked on GO because I think they're the next generation of news network that Richard Stacy approximated when he commented here way back when:

...the really big thing that has changed is that it now costs virtually nothing to distribute content whereas previously it cost a huge amount of money. The old media model therefore had to be a mass model. Now you don't need to be mass to be media - and this has turned the whole economics of the media on its head. There still will be a demand for mass content - but there is now a huge new competing media space which is based around the needs of, and produced by, the individual. This is a fundamental, game changing shift.

While individuals will certainly drive most of the content, I think the news network of the future will be specialized and feature globally dispersed groups of talented freelance contributors. Content will be community-focused, and it will take many forms. Overhead will be almost zero. To learn about the future of media, just look at Green Options today.


Green Options maintains a large stable of independent contributors who often write their own blogs and cover their own beats. Maria Surma Manka covers "alternate" energy such as solar power. Philip Proefrock is an architect who writes about green design and construction for Green Design for EcoGeek and GO. Brady Swenson and Alica Erickson write about global trade issues and have their own fair trade business. These writers obviously add value to the group blog, but they also use GO to promote their own writing and financial endeavors.


GO isn't just an "online magazine." They offer an "e-course" to help people adopt a sustainable lifestyle without feeling like your entire life is made of 80% post-consumer content recycled cardboard. Podcasts? Yup, they got'em, thanks to GO's senior statesman, Max Lindberg. (and let's be honest, a green-podcasting septuagenarian is reason enough to be named Best Blog EVAH. Go MAX!) They've got a forum for readers to express opinions and ask questions, and they're busy building a community. It looks like they're developing an agreement with EcoGeek to maybe start a little cross-polination as well.


It looks like GO is building sustainably for the long term.

Number 12 with a bullet

Ain't this a hoot.

Last week I name Paul Levy's Running a Hospital as my first "Best Blog EVAH," which I hope will be the first of many case studies of efficient and effective online communication I highlight here.

Then Kami Huyse, proprietor of My PR Pro and author of Communications Overtones weighs in:

Thanks to you I found Paul's blog and added him to the Heathcare100, a new blog ranking engine for healthcare-related blogs that one of my clients put together. I look forward to seeing where he ends up on the list.

Running a Hospital debuts at number 12.

So while Running a Hospital is a Best Blog EVAH, Kami is also a PR SUPAHSTAH.

Best Blog EVAH -- inaugural edition

If I'm going to rant, then I have to back it up. So I'm going to introduce an occasional feature here called "Best Blog EVAH" (in homage to my hometown) where I showcase someone who's doing online right. It won't always be the techiest example but it will always be something I think is effective and consistent with a clearly defined strategy. I'm going to change my "leading the discussion" link list to include the Best Blogs EVAH. I'll keep three links from the existing group - Communication Overtones, Marketing Roadmaps, and the Beta Stage - because they actually provide the case study examples I rant about. So my links will now be a library of case studies, not just blogs I want you to think I read all the time. If the site I showcase is a client, I'll say so, but this isn't intended to be a self-promotion exercise. The inaugural BBE is NOT a client.
My first Best Blog EVAH -- Paul Levy's Running a Hospital.

This is a really simple blog. No bells & whistles, just a guy writing his observations for all to see. The guy just happens to be the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He writes regularly, he has a well-organized list of links, and he's really authentic. The blog is registered with Technorati so it can be found relatively easily, but there isn't a lot of effort in promotion here. There doesn't have to be.

When Levy started this job he had a great resume in managing large organizations but he didn't really have a background in health care. He needed to introduce himself to what must have been a skeptical audience of new employees and colleagues. So he started a new blog by writing:

My first comment is this: I am new to health care, and I have never worked in a place where people are so consistently caring and devoted to alleviating human suffering caused by disease. It is, in many ways, a beautiful place to work. But many of the forces facing hospitals, doctors, nurses, and others make it really hard to do the job well.

Reading the blog you understand just how authentic Levy is. He's not the unfeeling CEO of a massive bureaucratic organization. He has profound respect for health care providers. He's also not afraid to take on tougher issues or even dish out a little snark every now and then.

Levy's a really smart guy with a lot of respect in Massachusetts, but the blog gives Levy a chance to provide "official" commentary without being too formal, and it helps him strengthen his position as a thought leader. He'd probably have earned that reputation before too long, but the blog is an important tool in that regard. Now he gets attention from health care providers and policy experts across the world he'd never have without the blog.

This one is fun for me because I actually had the chance to meet Levy once, more than 20 years ago. He was running the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and I was a teenager in Winthrop. My mom brought me to a public hearing he was running, and it's really the first time I was exposed to public affairs and participating in the political process.