We already live there in our minds.

We lampoon the death of newspapers and the rise of the tablet. We exalt media that gives voice to the audience. We salivate upon technology that gives rise to the user.

Content has given way to “social” media. Social has given way to location. And now location is dead, compared to almighty Utility.

We long for Geo-fencing to take hold in our cities, and the ability for our bodies and devices to be assaulted by coupons and notifications when we wander into a shopping mall or entertainment district.

We dream of the day when we can wave the implant in our wrist across the vending machine and automatically be debited for that ice cold bottle of bleach water.

Or how about if the surrounding signage, screens and billboards detect through heat and body scans that you’re pregnant and begin to display advertisements for Target and Babies ‘R’ Us?

For some of us, this world is just around the corner. For some of us (I’m looking at you, Tokyo), this world is already here.

But what good is all this technology if you can’t change for the better, not the world, but individual lives? Where is the chapel in our virtual arcology?

The ecosystem where all commerce is mobile, all content is custom, all media is participatory and all brands are social is, indeed, “just around the corner.” But we still live in a country where 60% of people still own cassette players and 37% still read newspapers. No offense to all you analog, print-lovers.

Saying that the “future is now,” would be like those few hardcore meditators (able to drop into Delta/REM states simply by staring at a wall) saying that the next evolutionary leap in consciousness is “just around the corner” when human rights are still not being embraced (let alone practiced) worldwide. In fact, according to Integral Theory, most people are still at conventional blue and orange levels of development. If the only thing, then, that helps individuals gain greater perspective and awareness is taking the role of other, how do you shift the worldview (or consciousness) of an entire community?

We once thought it a good idea to wire the world’s schools with cameras, so that students could teleconference with each other and learn more about neighboring cultures. But what good is Skype when the city on the other end is a crater? When our financial aid and attempts at education haven’t stuck, because we haven’t taken the time to ask them if they were ready for change? We’ve alienated too many people. We’ve financed too many fences and borders instead of constructing buildings and communities, and we’ve overpopulated the world with too many weapons (or things used as weapons) and not enough medicine. Maybe change is “right around the corner,” but our educational system continues to churn out illiterate, blue-collar gangsters and order-takers and not enough wise, enlightened leaders.

And we might never see this brave new world unless we begin to focus on the interior (or spiritual) side of online communities.

I don’t mean evangelism. Sensational pleas for money are just that, no matter where they originate.

I don’t mean religion. You can attain spiritual growth and discovery through individual prayer, theological study or group worship. Other people need not be present to contemplate your place in the universe.

I’m not talking about Tron or The Matrix. There’s no ghost in the machine.

I mean to say that what’s missing in our modern attempts at addressing the collective is the acknowledgment of the interior (or intention) of every individual in a given network.

Even Kickstarter, who has helped numerous inventors and artists raise over $70 million so far, limits itself to such performance-driven categories as Art, Comics, Games, Dance, Design, Food, Music and Theater. What about Activism, Community, Education and Public Works?

When did talking about how to do things replace actually doing them? Since when does a “Startup” or “Tech” conference in your town create actual jobs? Since when is the facilitation of facilitation considered actual accomplishment? These are high times for social systems and communities. And there are a lot of people making a good living right now touring the country talking about “how to start/grow/foster creativity in your business/audience/city with social media” that haven’t actually ever done a goddamn thing.

TED can’t be the only group that celebrates social innovation and the development of higher consciousness? What about locally? Who in your town is doing their part to change the world? How are they organizing? Please share (in the comments) the names of any life-changing, progressive, socially- and spiritually-driven applications, websites or programs that you know of.

We have the most sophisticated community-building resources and organizational tools at our disposal (for free, 24 hours a day), and we are all guilty (this author included) of wasting them on kittens and cheezburgers.

ou sit up in the middle of the night, suddenly and fully awake. An entire story, song, manuscript, screenplay or idea has come to you, fully-formed, in the black stillness of your room. It has blossomed in your brain – spreading like ink in the water by the grace of God or the muse next door or the residue of the conversation at last night’s party – glowing, burning, aching to manifest itself in the real world. It’s all there – including the title, storyline, dialogue, captions, pull quotes, production timeline, marketing campaign, the whole shebang. All you have to do now is write it down before you forget. Quickly now. Where was that pen? Oh shit, that’s not paper, that’s a magazine. You turn on the light. Wait, what was the name of that character again? Oh, no, it’s fading. What was that part before the last section where … oh, no … it’s gone.

Or worse, you’ve struggled for weeks to meet a deadline and can’t come up with an idea to save your life. Your editor, producer, publisher or label is waiting for your creative output, and the longer you wait, the more time (and money, you are told) you lose. You’ve tried moving your chair, you’ve tried moving your desk. You’ve tried working off-site, you’ve tried working under your desk. You can’t come up with a good idea to save your ass, and you can’t seem to get the ideas that you do have to make any sense.

The concept and brainstorming stage of the creative process is hard enough. But to make matters worse, this is the stage where you should be thinking about what this published content might look like. Is this a symphony or a short ballad? For journalists, is this a short blog post or a long, investigative piece? Are there any special online features this content will have? An audio portion (bonus interviews) or video? Setting goals before you begin can greatly reduce stress by defining the expectations around the level of research and the proposed outcome.

Keep a pen and paper with you at all times to jot down any fragments or ideas. It may also help to sketch out (or “mind map”) the concept on paper or a dry erase board before you write a single word. Some people use a voice recorder (or even their phone) to record their thoughts as they happen.

What will your content look like?

2. Writing and Research

This part is easy. It’s the actual work. Keep it simple. Write what you know. Check your facts. Take yourself out of the piece. Tell a good story. If it’s a song, it’ll need to be completely fresh, but with a sense of familiarity. You get the idea.

It’s best to carve out a regular space and a time, where you will not be interrupted, and you can allow yourself to channel your creativity. If you don’t allow it the silence in which to surface or the space in which to arise, don’t be surprised when it doesn’t.

UPDATE: For writers, don’t forget the importance of linking. Define terms by linking to their topic on Wikipedia, identify/cite sources by linking to other (previous) coverage, and for bloggers/media, drive traffic to your other content by linking to things on your own site. Don’t worry so much about using (target=”_blank”) tags in your posts. This choice should (and will, ultimately) be left in the hands of the user’s browser settings.

Always be writing.

3. Editing/Co-Editing

Some bloggers rarely edit their posts. Some journalists get their stories up online quickly with just a once-over from the Online Editor, while longer-form investigative stories can take weeks to edit (not to mention fact-check). Most songwriters don’t ask for the opinion of another musician or lyricist when crafting a new piece. And if a song has already been demo-ed or recorded and rehearsed a certain way, the artist may be averse to changes in the arrangement. Self-editing can be difficult since most of us are close to the material or have just spent days or months staring at it. But to have an editor (or a group of editors) close-by, to let you know when you’re being long-winded, trying too hard, over-thinking or straying from the theme, is an invaluable resource. And some of us are lucky enough to have the Editor as our boss.

Sometimes the editing process itself is collaborative, in the instance of musical improvisation (like jazz), and when live blogging or using shared documents, corrections or strikethroughs can be made immediately, sometimes by different people at the same time. Most of the time, though, you rely on your own bleary-eyed hundredth read-through to ferret out any mistakes before you hit “save” one last time. In any case, it’s always best to break down and ask for the assistance of a second pair of fresh eyes.

If your work is longer than 140 characters, ask an editor to take a look at it.

4. User Experience

The Medill School of Journalism has identified over 30 different types of content-based user experience (things like “Makes Me Smarter,” “Entertainment/Diversion,” “Visual,” “Sense of Community,” “Talk About and Share” and more). When writing your story, crafting your headline and struggling to whittle down your summary, take your audience into consideration. Are they looking to learn something practical or meaningful, or take their mind off of work for a while. Is your content a “lean back” or a “lean forward” experience? Will they read it and bounce or return regularly to check on comments and poll results?

Who is the intended audience? What is the intended experience?

5. Publishing (Push)

We rarely anymore stop the presses, recall the defective albums, or pick up the unused reels from the movie house. In our digital age, most content is now published (or distributed) in real time and delivered to myriad devices on many platforms via feeds and applications all customized by the end user. For content with a wider (longer) rate of frequency — an annual print retrospective, a new music release — sometimes more conventional marketing and distribution methods are put in place. But for most writers, once you hit “Submit,” your work is out there for the world to see, read, hear (and sometimes, buy).

If your online content is published daily, your e-newsletter is sent weekly and your magazine is printed bi-weekly, your publishing strategy for one piece of content might have many stages (see the case study below).

We live in a link-based culture. Everything should live online, web-first.

6. Finishing

Once your story, podcast, song or photo gallery is published and available on your website, take a look at it from an audience standpoint. How does the streaming audio sound on different speakers? Do you need to change the bitrate? Maybe your summary description is too long and is breaking your page, forcing an empty space to appear where a link should be. Maybe the image you used as a thumbnail isn’t legible at all at that size, or is being cropped incorrectly. Don’t let your content look like a mistake. Or worse yet, don’t let your content be the thing that breaks other people’s content. Fix it.

Presentation is everything.

7. Sharing – Syndication/Promotion

Now that your content is published (lives somewhere online), the work is over, right? Wrong. Next, we need to get the word out to your followers. Don’t think you have any followers? Think again. They are your friends on Facebook, the fans of your brand, your followers on Twitter, the subscribers to your newsletter, the audience that attends your events. When should you promote or share your content? Here are a few helpful tips.

• E-mail: The magic “read” time for e-mail is Tuesday morning between 8 – 9 a.m. Mornings in general are good for e-mail, and if it’s food-related, try sending just before lunchtime when people are making a buying decision.
• Facebook: The most trafficked times on Facebook are 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. with Wednesday being the day with the highest traffic.
• Twitter: Always write your Tweets. Don’t just paste in a headline and a link. Ask a question, be funny, be conversational. Twitter is like a chat room, and you’ll sound like a robot (and look like spam) if you show up dropping generic links into everyone’s feed.

Some writers and journalists are fortunate enough to have an online desk (or social media type) that will push their content out for them. But are you responding to your audience personally when they ask questions or comment on these platforms? Are you publishing too much content every day to have to keep a schedule or social media calendar? Maybe you should publish it as you go. Think your audience will re-train themselves around your schedule if it’s meaningful enough to them? It’s possible. But don’t bet your job on it.

Sharing your content should be like dropping ink in the water (read: tell your buddies).

8. Audience Engagement

In 1998, Howard Rheingold drafted the “Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online,” and it remains the definitive document on how to grow and cultivate a sense of online community. As the Medill study has proven, content might be why they show up, but a sense of community is why they stay. As the host, curator or producer of your content, it’s your responsibility to circle back around to the content after it’s published and respond to comments (on your blog, Facebook, etc.), reply to mentions on Twitter, and in general, act as the host of the party, encouraging people to play nice, thanking them for their input, and keeping them engaged with your brand, your website and your content.

It is your trusted voice (or the tenor of the collective curation of voices) that attracted them in the first place, it’s your voice they will expect to hear when they have complaints, need to ask a question or want to participate in the creation of their own content. And in your role as “Community Manager,” along with putting out any fires, you will also need to be able to identify and foster new leaders (and contributors to the process) within your circle.

http://www.rheingold.com/texts/artonlinehost.html

An online host wants to achieve authentic conversations – from the head, the heart, the gut.

9. Corrections/Updates

Have you ever had a student correct your spelling? Ever had a child remind you that you didn’t say “please?”

The flames in your comments section (or worse yet, widespread backlash on Facebook or Twitter) has made it clear that the Internet is a participatory medium. If there are inconsistencies in your story or corrections to be made, simply make them. And always thank the user for their input.

If the World Wide Web is complaining that your MP3s, software or apps are over-priced, then drop the price (while it’s on everyone’s tongue and Facebook wall), and let them know that by popular demand, not only has the price been adjusted, but you’re offering a free code for the first 100 users who re-Tweet the announcement. Consider the alternative: no revenue combined with the perception that you ignored public appeal.

For blog posts and stories, you can either strikethrough the old material and replace it with new, or simply put the word “UPDATE:” or “CORRECTION:” at the top of your post, followed by the new copy. If there is new – and valuable – information added (announcements, vital corrections, additional audio or video content), this is a great opportunity to revisit step 7 above (“Sharing”) and start the process all over again. Consider this a form of “version control.” If there was a new version of your favorite software available, you would want to be notified, wouldn’t you? Information is a virus, and with the correct mechanisms in place, you can still “upgrade” your content, even after it has been consumed by the end-user.

You can’t please everybody. If you update, re-share.

10. Analytics and Reporting

UPDATE: Study the traffic and behavior around your content. When did people download or read it? Should you consider changing the day (or time) of day that you’re posting or releasing content? Was there a larger audience for your content on referring sites like Twitter or Facebook compared to click-throughs from your e-newsletter? Are you wasting resources on maintaining a CMS or infrastructure that your audience just isn’t using? If all your fans are watching your videos on YouTube, why bother embedding them into blog posts that nobody reads? Sign up for a partner account and let YouTube sell ads around your content and cut you a check.

It’s never too late to consider changing your strategy.

11. The Remix

The remix, the mash-up, the tiny URL. If you think your content is your own, think again. Once you publish, especially online, don’t bother trying to maintain control of the brand, the message, the story, even the product. Let go.

Your news will be auto-tuned, your song will be screwed and chopped and that $2,999 dollars you paid to that cyber-squatter in Switzerland for that fancy custom domain name (jimswidgets.com) will quickly be for nothing when the link becomes “http://bit.ly/xy35” on every social network around. Sorry about your luck. Let go.

If you haven’t watched “Rip: A Remix Manifesto,” take a 1 hour and 26 minute break from reading this and watch it now. It’s available for free on Hulu, and it will change your mind.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/88782/rip-a-remix-manifesto

The content is the brand.

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An abridged version of the Content Lifecycle looks something like this:

1. Concept and Brainstorming
2. Writing and Research
3. Editing/Co-Editing
4. User Experience
5. Publishing
6. Finishing
7. Sharing – Syndication/Promotion
8. Audience Engagement
9. Corrections/Updates
10. Analytics and Reporting
11. The Remix*

*A sometimes critical aspect of content management is the ability to manage versions of content as it evolves (see also version control). In software development, authors and editors often need to restore older versions of edited products due to a process failure or an undesirable series of edits.

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CASE STUDY:

Here is a piece of content from Creative Loafing that started out as a blog post and immediately began to receive comments on the story as well as Facebook.

http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2011/05/27/dont-call-it-a-comeback-have-cassette-tapes-returned

1. It was published on Friday, May 27 at 5:05 p.m. and teased on the CL Music Section, the CL Home Page and Twitter (877 followers).

2. On Sunday, May 29, a poll was added.

3. On Tuesday, May 31, the piece was promoted again via Facebook (6,000 fans) and Twitter (877 followers), this time soliciting voting in the poll.

@cl_music Don’t call it a comeback: Have cassettes returned? Get the scoop here.  http://bit.ly/jW0Bzq

4. On Wednesday, June 1, a comment on the blog pointed out an inconsistency in the story.

@cl_music Do you still have a cassette player? Take our poll. http://bit.ly/jW0Bzq #tampamusic

5. On Monday, June 6, the story was selected for the Thursday, June 9 print edition. The author was given the opportunity to revise the story for print, including any corrections or updates, and the story ran in print with a graphic tease to the Web poll, pushing people to interact (possibly for a second or third time) with the online version.

6. On Friday, June 10, the piece was featured as the lead image/story in CL’s “Mixtape Music Newsletter” (4,800 subscribers).

7. Poll results were shared on Facebook (and Twitter) on Friday, July 1 garnering even more comments that the initial post. In a perfect world, the results of the online poll would also be printed in the “feedback” section of the paper, teasing other polls and music content, giving the piece another (third) bump in traffic.

8. As it stands, here is the lifespan of the piece so far, with spikes at 5/28, 5/31 and 6/10. The highest number of pageviews on a single day was 90.

583 Pageviews

512 Unique Views

00:02:56 Time on Page

73.22% Bounce Rate

55.06%   % Exit

50.60%   Entrances / Pageviews

t happens to us all. You are suddenly struck with the most brilliant idea for a project or event, so you spend months (sometimes years) developing and planning. Everyone calls you a genius. You hand out flyers, tell all your friends, you set up a Facebook event, your friends tell their friends. But the media (print, blogs, radio, TV) show you no attention.

Why aren’t they talking about you? Why don’t they support community efforts like yours?

Well, my friend, they do. All the time. In fact, they’re constantly seeking out new stories and content to feature. The hard truth is that (unless you’ve pissed someone off) chances are, they don’t even know you exist.

Learning to write a good press release (and get it to the correct person) is one of the most important things you can do to promote your exhibit, concert, event, human interest story or anything else you want the media to cover.

Newsroom staff are generally very busy so it’s important to do much of the work for them. If they can grab a blurb directly from your release and you’ve already attached a nice, high-quality photo then you’ve got a better chance of getting covered. And increasing your odds and staying top-of-mind is half the battle. The other half is actually creating quality work.

1. Writing the Press Release

Letterhead
At the top, include information about who is sending the release. Use your organization letterhead if possible – If you don’t have letterhead, make some up.

Header
Including 1) the text “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,” 2) Date of the release and 3) Contact Information (e-mail and phone number). If you don’t have a professional email address then get one. FirstInitial.LastName@gmail.com or something similar is fine. If you’ve got a website, make one like press@yourwebsite.com. Whatever you do, don’t use your BigSexyMama@hotmail.com account.

Website
Get a website for the project, even if it just has one image (maybe the poster?) on it. Facebook doesn’t count. If you don’t know how to make a website, ask a friend for help – or better yet, work out a deal with (read: pay) one of the really talented web designers we have in the area. They are guaranteed to have a lot of friends who might also be interested in supporting your project. Or, better still, learn how to do it yourself. The basics of HTML are not that difficult and once you have the skills, you’d be surprised how handy they are, not to mention how they will change the way you perceive most websites. Many free hosting solutions are available (DreamHost and WordPress are two examples).

Date of event
Don’t forget to include this information. Just don’t.

Headline
This is a modified version of your subject line (or vice versa), and can also be adapted when Tweeting or texting. Keep it around 140 characters.

Description
A one-sentence, exciting narrative about the project – If you can’t summarize your concept or event in one sentence then you may need to revisit your concept – it may be too complicated. This is also your “elevator pitch.” Pretend you have a potential investor or sponsor’s ear for 30 seconds. What would you say?

First Paragraph
Begin with the location “Tampa, FL – “ or wherever the project takes place. The first paragraph should contain all of the most important information: Who, what, when, where, why should I care? Date, time, location, what is it, how much does it cost, etc.

Second Paragraph
This is your “sell” paragraph, like your pitch about why this thing you are doing is awesome. It should be written as if you were writing it directly for publication in print – Media people are very busy and if the second paragraph is well written (and relatively objective) they will often grab it word for word. This is an example of how you can make their job easier and therefore increase the likelihood that it will get picked up.

Other paragraphs
Highlight what is interesting. You can even say, “Highlights include:” and provide a bulleted list. A bulleted list is great for on-air personalities (anchors, DJs) who read press releases at a glance and prefer information distilled into easily readable bites. For this reason, don’t use too many big words in this section. This is also a good place to use press or critical quotes, “What people are saying about BLANK:”

Last Paragraph
Include some form of the language, “If you have questions, please contact Your Name at your@email.com or (your) phone-number.” This is for the media, if they need more information or possibly additional photography, but also for people with questions about the event or project. Once you put your phone number in print you will get people calling you with really weird questions – this is unavoidable. Change your voicemail greeting to something semi-professional and short.

Fonts
Although it might not look as fancy, you should always use ‘Web-safe’ fonts in your release. Web-safe fonts are standard on all computers, so using them ensures that the documents will look the same no matter who opens them. You can do a google search for a complete list of Web-safe fonts but some standard favorites include Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana.

The total length of your press release should be one page if possible, but certainly no more than two.

2. Email Procedures

Include the words ‘PRESS RELEASE’ in the Subject Line

Attach and Paste
Sometimes companies will not let their employees download attachments in their work email for security reasons, or attachments get omitted when replying/forwarding, or they’re simply overlooked. It’s good practice to always paste the text of the press release in the body of the email as well as include it as an attachment (PDFs are best, as most platforms can read them and it maintains any formatting). Keep the entire message to under 5MB.

Press Photos
Attaching a good press photo makes it easier for calendar and events editors to have a pre-packaged blurb and photo that they can drop online or into an issue, again increasing your likelihood of getting press. Choose a colorful or dynamic image that conveys the theme/tone of your event, and make sure you have permission to use the photo in print before including it, especially if you did not take the photo yourself. You may need to credit the photographer as well. This can be done by changing the filename of the photograph to “Art_Show_Photo_by_John_Doe” or something similar as it pertains to your event.

If the image requires explanation, include a photo caption at the top of your press release. For example “(Photo caption): Local author Joe Sixpack reads from his latest book during opening day festivities at Fancy Pants Literature Festival 2011. Credit: photograph by Jane Sixpack.”

Images should be between 200 and 300 dpi – this is the resolution generally required for print, and no smaller than 600 px wide. There are a number of tools available online that can help you determine and/or edit the resolution and size of your photo. Make sure you keep an eye on the size of the file – with a little tweaking you’ll be able to provide print-ready images that fit under the 5MB email limit.

BCC:
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. In this day and age people are very protective of their email address. Having all of the addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field means that no one can see who else you’ve sent it to. Place your own address in the “TO:” field, and everyone else in the “BCC” field. Not doing this simple step is a mistake made by amateurs and puts your database at risk of being appropriated (and spammed) by other groups.

Press Database
Creating and maintaining a press/public relations database is important. If you’re starting from scratch, ask around to see if anyone has a basic list that you can use as a starting point. Then, make a list of all of the media outlets you would like to receive your release and spend time on their websites. For print, you are looking for the editor of the section you want to cover your project – Music, Food, Arts, Movies, etc. You may end up with more than one list (by type of media or category) or you may work from one master list. Usually websites have an ‘About’ or ‘Staff’ link at the bottom of the front page. If you can’t find the email, try and figure out the company’s email naming convention. It is usually something like First.LastName@companyname.com. Try googling “@companyname.com” (including the quotes) and see what comes up. If you know the editor’s name and the company’s email naming convention you can figure out their email this way. Or simply call the front desk and ask.

Timing
In Tampa you can get away with the initial release or announcement going out six weeks prior to the event. If you’re looking to get coverage in magazines that only publish monthly you will need to back out your timeline. Four weeks (follow-up release), then two weeks (second follow-up), then week of (final release, just in case). Each release should have the same format and same “sell” paragraph but should include the most current information, with any new programming announcements toward the top and in the subject.

Etiquette
Unless you know an editor or writer personally, you should never reach out to them on Facebook or Twitter in lieu of an official e-mail. There are, of course, exceptions, but use common sense. Social media is a conversational tool based on personal interests. Would you walk up to someone on the street (or in the supermarket) that you’ve only met briefly and start hard-selling them on your concept? Or would you introduce yourself and maybe suggest meeting to discuss the project at a later date? Be yourself.

SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE

Subject: “Refractory” Transforms Tampa’s Armature Works Building on October 15 [Press Release]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — September 23, 2010
Contact: T. Hampton Dohrman — 813.784.2972 — thdohrman@gmail.com

REFRACTORY — www.refractorytampa.com — October 15, 2010

New Media and Installation Art Show Transforms the Beautiful Tampa Armature Works Building

(Photo caption): Local author Joe Sixpack reads from his latest book during opening day festivities at Fancy Pants Literature Festival 2011. Credit: photograph by Jane Sixpack.

Tampa, FL – REFRACTORY will take place Friday, October 15 at the former Tampa Armature Works (also called the Trolley Barn) building in Tampa Heights (1910 N Ola Ave). This special, one-night-only show runs from 8PM – 11PM. Admission to the show is a suggested donation of $5.

For one night only, an abandoned factory on the Hillsborough River will be transformed into a kaleidoscope of moving images and media art in an exhibition that engages the historic nature of the building and explores the interstitial space between. This beautiful industrial setting will be the backdrop for more than a dozen local and national new media and video artists. Add to this the installation of the largest Dream Machine ever constructed and you’ve got an amazing visual experience and artistic product that may be the most exciting art event of the Fall season.

Featured artists include Robert Chambers, Genesis P. Orridge, Negativland, Spanky and Maureen Hudas, Richard Kern, Gerhardt Gruen, James Johnson, Clem Crowder, FaFa, Gean Moreno, Michael LeMieux, Kurt Piazza, Robb Fladry + Aaron Hutcheson, Brian Taylor, Noelle Mason and Ellen Mueller.

Some highlights of REFRACTORY include:

Dream Machine Installation  A stroboscopic flicker device pioneered by the late artist Brion Gysin comes to life in massive proportions. While originally designed as a table-top meditative device, this version is a giant pillar of moving light that creates a striking visual display.

Negativland The collective known as Negativland creates music, video, fine art, books, radio and live performances using appropriated sound, image and text. Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland re-arranges these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. Over the years, Negativland’s “illegal” collage and appropriation-based audio and visual works have touched on everything from pranks and media hoaxes to advertising the bizarre banality of suburban existence.

Genesis P. Orridge  Recently retired from his involvement with Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle, musician and artist Genesis P. Orridge is a contemporary of Brion Gysin and William S. Borroughs and has spent recent years focusing on art and writing. Orridge is represented by New York gallery Invisible-Exports.

Robert Chambers  Best known for his contemporary sculptural installations, the art of Robert Chambers has been exhibited across the country at locations including Miami, Philadelphia, and New York. He has been featured in Art in America, artnet and Arte al Dia and has work in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

Sound Installation by Tetromino  Sound artists John Russell and Yousef Danak team up to create a site-specific sound installation piece based on the cut-up technique of William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and other Beat Hotel-era artists.

REFRACTORY is organized by a collaborative of well known Tampa Bay cultural activists including Ken Cowart, Joe Griffith, and T. Hampton Dohrman with assistance from Adam Kitzerow, Gregory Green and Ellen Mueller. This event is made possible through the hard work and generosity of ASD, Experimental Skeleton, Hampton Arts Management, SuperTest and The Heights of Tampa.

For general inquiries, please contact T. Hampton Dohrman at thdohrman@gmail.com or 813.784.2972.

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f you are a business owner or work anywhere near media, marketing or branded content, listen up. Many of you are still loading up your “content shotgun” and blasting it out (in one-to-many fashion), blindly connecting your Twitter feed to your Facebook wall, posting updates or links to blog posts and not ever returning to interact in a conversational way with your audience (the people who follow you). Those of you (yes, you), now officially have two options. 1) Quit what you’re doing, because not only are you doing it wrong, but you’re probably pissing people off, or 2) read Medill’s 2011 study on Media Engagement and learn how to do it right.

There is no longer an in between.

If you’re like me, you have a healthy ‘suggested reading’ list and have to decide which book recommendations (Amazon or otherwise) make it into your wish list or shopping cart. Titles like McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage, the classic Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, the oh-so-trendy Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives and Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations pop up for me daily.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with these titles. They provide a range of humor, encouragement and education, and if you’re a small business owner who has moved their entire advertising budget from print and (God forbid) radio to paying a college student to maintain your Facebook page, they’re probably telling you what you need to hear. And if you’re growing your lists (and your bottom line) and sleeping better at night, then more power to you. The problem is that all these titles tell you ‘you should engage,’ and not enough tell you how or why. These books state the well-educated opinions of their respective authors, and while most are entertaining (and some are even well-written) none of them are necessarily wrong, and this is where they succeed. If someone thinks you should engage your audience, you could try to debate them, but you’d lose.

What sets the 249-page Medill study apart from many of the self-help new media best-sellers is that it is crafted around volumes of rich, empirical research and data – a collaboration between Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, the Readership Institute and the Medill School. To give you a sense of the history Medill has with the subject, George Gallup (author/creator of the Gallup Poll) instructed a course called “Reader Interest” at Medill back in 1931.

It is, at its worst, a “textbook” – using big words (like “receptivity”) and speaking sometimes too directly to larger businesses or media companies. At its best, it is a comprehensive, 21st century map of how we interact with media that obliterates once and for all the line between concepts like “news” and “entertainment.” It is the new media bible, a definitive resource for those attempting to understand and succeed in audience engagement and other than your own market research and case studies should be the only book you grab in the event of a fire at the office.

For the purpose of the study, media “engagement” or “experience” is defined as a “set of beliefs that people have about how a media brand fits into their lives.” The touchy-feely terms like “Reading this newspaper makes me feel like a better citizen” or “I get good ideas from this website” are nicely broken down into visual experience/sub-experience structures that fit nicely alongside or as a layer to other integral maps, behavioral or personality type systems, etc.

According to contributing editor Bobby Calder, “Experiences are created by contact points – moments in which the consumer experiences the brand in a way that clarifies or distills the concept.” This conveniently allows for all media experiences to fall squarely along content (or channel) lines, and on all monetizable platforms (print, online, TV, radio/podcast, event). See previous post

It’s worth noting that in the world of news media, this type of research is not new. What is new, however, is that the study doesn’t revolve around the product or the standard media colloquialisms (cover story, features, listings, prime time, directories, talkers, pilots) so much as how the media product feels in its various forms and is perceived by the end-user.

Some of the user experiences (based on some 20 years of study) are as follows:

1. Anchor/Editor Camaraderie – “I feel like I get to know the people writing the articles.”
2. Civic – “Reading this paper makes me more a part of my community.”
3. Community-Connection – “I’m interested in input from (or would like to meet) people who visit this site.”
4. Co-Producing – “I contribute to the conversation on this site.”
5. Entertainment/Diversion – “Once I start surfing, it’s hard to leave.”
6. Identity – “Reading this paper is a little like belonging to a group.”
7. Makes Me Smarter – “It’s educational and addresses topics of concern to me.”
8. Talk About and Share – “I share things I’ve read with other people (discussions/arguments).”
9. Timeout – “I feel less stress after reading it.”
10. Utilitarian – “It helps me find things to do or make decisions.”
11. Visual – “I look at pictures/video even if I don’t read a story.”

The study also explores Ad Receptivity (“I look at the ads as much as I look at the articles.”) and also touches on negative (or disengagement) experiences – Lack of Focus, Negativity, Overload, Political Bias among others.

But what actually motivates someone to engage with a media company (or business)?

Medill provides the following “participation drivers”:

1. Anticipated reciprocity – Receiving information in return
2. Increased reputation – Becoming known as an expert
3. Sense of efficacy – Making an impact or difference
4. Attachment/commitment – Brand loyalty/pride

Consider your audience (there are no wrong answers).

How are you interacting with them on the platforms or touchpoints that they engage with?

Are you simply promoting yourself or are you growing a community?

What would it take to change your behavior in order to leverage an already content-hungry crowd to participate in more conversations per day?

For those on the fence, this book is recommended for anyone producing content (online, in print, or otherwise) but if content is your business, it is an indispensable game-changer.

Thank you, Medill, for shaving an hour or two off my next focus group.

Was I ever in for a goddamn shock.

My chauffer (Ms. Gorzka) and I arrived at the lobby of the Business building around 8:45 a.m. (a good 15 minutes before we were supposed to “go on”) only to find there were no session names listed anywhere at eye level. No speakers’ photos on display on flimsy wooden easels. No moderators assembling their notes and tending to their panelists. No sense of order whatsoever. Worse yet, my name and photo was not on any programs, collateral materials, table-top placards or imprinted plastic lanyards that I could take home and hang on my bookshelf. There was no catered breakfast or VIP area for the scheduled speakers. There were no speakers, there wasn’t even a schedule. I was in a tailspin. Julia had lied to me!

“What is this place? And what the hell is going on?,” I thought.

The unwashed masses – the public, for God’s sake – were simply being allowed to sign up (first come, first served) and create topics of discussion on the spot, organizing panels on subjects ranging from iPhone development to e-commerce to online publishing with whomever happened to be hanging around. It was a fucking uprising! I’m not even going to talk about the “hula hoop thing.”

Here’s a video from that morning, obviously taken before I’d had my morning coffee. (I’m at around the 4:42 mark).

Barcamp Tampa Bay 2009 Intro from Gavin Stark on Vimeo.

Barcamp calls itself the “un-conference,” a sort of open-source approach to workshops, allowing panel discussions to self-organize around attendees (a typically healthy showing of marketers, developers, programmers and designers). The events originated in 2005, as an answer to Tim O’Reilly‘s stuffier, invitation-only “Foo Camp.” (Foo. Bar. Fubar. Get it?).

Barcamp 2010 will be held at K-Force in Ybor City on September 25 and 26. Attendance is free. And a word of warning, for those accustomed to the conference scene, don’t come to Barcamp expecting the speakers to drop a bunch of knowledge on you from their wooden risers and plastic podiums. Come prepared to take notes and participate in an open discourse with your fellow tribe members, community peers and a group of natural leaders. You might just “un-learn” something.

A big thank you to everyone at SXSW for having me (and my Creative Loafing compatriots) out to Austin for the 2010 Interactive Conference.

Check out this clip, featuring Blondie, Klaus Nomi and others.

Considering the sensation of “reality” television and our thirst for new, voyeuristic experiences, “TV Party” was definitely ahead of its time. The only thing to my knowledge that predates it is William Greaves’ legendary film Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.

I’ve been thinking a lot about “TV Party” lately. I’ve been thinking that with the advent of social networks and microblogging, the freaks (and geeks, and small businesses) have once again taken over the airwaves. But I also can’t get the layoffs out of my mind. Companies like Richmond, VA-based Media General – which owns the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com have gone through massive rounds of layoffs. Their building is now a hulking shell of a place with hundreds of employees, now separated by hundreds of empty desks. That same huge, half-empty building also houses a newspaper, a Web media company and a TV station – three entities that haven’t yet figured out how to effectively share their resources, but that’s another story.

What could your business do if allowed to rent their studio during off-hours, for two hours a week? Hell, getting a bunch of local business owners drunk in the podcasting studio alone would make for some great radio.

I say we storm the sonofabitch tonight and take back the airwaves. I say we show those fools how to use their equipment to make art. I’ll run the titling machine. Who’s with me?

Fox’s keynote was primarily about the scalability of social media forms. She presented three types of known media – owned, paid and earned – and an easy-to-remember scalability formula, “Earned + Paid x Owned = Scaled Social Media.” Some good background on this concept – and some visuals – can be found here (courtesy of Dave Fleet). The model allows businesses to leverage content (owned); advertising (paid) and reviews, articles and awards (earned) to achieve a true social media mix.

For small business owners, the creation of content is rarely a top priority, what with the daily tasks of running the actual business. However, Fox (and plenty of others over the course of the day) asserted that all companies are now media companies, and should start thinking like one.

Some takeaways were:

1. Channel-style thinking: Gone are the days of setting up a microsite for a product or campaign, and then shutting it off when the campaign is over. Businesses must begin to publish their content to silos or verticals. A fertilizer company, whose primary customer was a golf course, determined a need to publish regular golfing content to that segment of its database. A non-profit that held regular (weekly!) fundraisers (wine tastings, family events, silent auctions, sport/music events) had burned their database by blasting them with information too often about events that weren’t relevant. Treat all your content like a TV station treats a new show – pilot it, test it, if it gains traction with that audience, assign more resources to it.

2. Regular auditing: Conduct studies of your social media mix. Where is the conversation happening? What are they saying? What platforms are they on? Based on your findings, where do you need to be?  And just like a media company, the curation of your content is the value proposition here. Inject a little personality, have a trusted voice and be a leader in your community.

Twitter was, again, the primary buzz word among all the sessions, but Twitter is a community (a glorified chat room, at best) and everyone agreed that if a business is not prepared (or staffed) to take advantage of the immediacy and customer service features of the platform, to stay away for now. Some time was spent discussing newer applications like Foursquare and possible marketing opportunities like rewarding frequent “check-ins” or giving “mayors” special rewards or discounts, ideal for bars and local restaurants.

At the “Branding Within Social Media” panel, USA Today‘s Brian Dresher encouraged marketers to concentrate on “ROIII” (a return on not only investment, but influence and interaction) and to have Twitter accounts (or content feeds) at the brand level, but also at the show/personality/employee level, hosting regular training on new platforms, to stay on brand and share best practices.

“Small Business Roundtable” moderator Andi Kuhn (Big Sea Design, Local Shops 1) told small business owners wanting to “ease in” to social media practices to try a low-impact, 5-10 minute regimen every morning (login, browse searches and filters for your business or keywords, re-tweet or share interesting stories or links, logout). The relationships and conversation that starts to happen from these few simple steps usually leads to opportunities for new business.

Conference attendees included Creative Loafing blogger Miss Destructo and representatives from CNN, HSN, FKQ, Tampa Tribune and Brand Tampa. Social Fresh travels to Portland on March 29 and hopefully returns to Tampa sometime next year.

“If you do this,” I told her, “you risk hurting their feelings.” Like she had done the night before when she chose to sneak off with her boyfriend in the aisles of the library (don’t get me started) and utterly ignore her cute little French friend that had tagged along.

“Say you’re playing a game for two people and a third friend shows up. What do you do?” I asked.

“Play a different game,” she said.

“That’s right, and sometimes you can still play the same game, but change the rules of the game to allow more people to play – so that everyone feels included.” (The veiled lesson in social responsibility was working like a charm!)

She seemed to understand. But then she started to crunch the numbers.

“So, if 15 people show up, we have to change the rules 15 times?”

“No,” I said, “you change the rules one time, making it a 15-player game. Now, give me an example of a 15-player game.”

“Hide and seek?” she answered.

“Great idea.” I said.

“What about zero players?” she asked.

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as a zero-player game,” I cautioned.

“Yes there is,” she said confidently.

“Give me an example of a zero-player game,” I demanded.

“Sleep.”

The line for “Disaster” wound through an outdoor hangar and had tons of airplane wreckage to “ooh” and “aah” at and take pictures of. The Simpsons ride had a 107 minute-long wait, but it was the most talked about ride of the day and conveniently, had a “Kwik-E-Mart” next door where we could do some shopping. The “Revenge of the Mummy” had pieces of the sets and costumes (as well as original artist sketches) on display and also featured a video loop which told a cute little story of the “curse” that followed the crew while filming the movie.

The actual rides were intense, shook you around a little bit, and were great fun – and in the case of “The Mummy,” shook you around a lot and was only 10% of the total experience.

Whether it’s a 5-minute purchase or a 2-hour read, is your customer experience programmed to be worth the wait? Most importantly, does it spit the user out the other side, satisfied and motivated enough to want to brave the 107 minute-long wait all over again?