Dear anonymous

Just as webinars are not quite the same as a face-to-face workshop, online conversations are less satisfying than diner chats and backyard fence conversations. Aside from the lag time between comment and reply, and the absence of facial expression and body language, a lot of people neglect to introduce themselves. That would be you, dear Anonymous. On NCPR blogs and at other visitor comment locations, fully 45% of the conversation is posted by you.

While creating a certain air of mystery has its appeal, and some people have legitimate reason to conceal their identity, I can't believe that nearly half the people who comment need to do so anonymously. Or is it one person typing maniacally through the night? Who can tell if Anon 9:14 pm is the same as Anon 3:27 am"

Why does it matter? Folks who follow the conversation need to be able to tell one voice from another--even if they don't know who it actually belongs to--so they can reply specifically and intelligibly. So please, unless you want to be not only unidentifiable, but indistinguishable from all the other unidentified, don't click "Anonymous" on the comment form. Instead select "Name/URL." Name can be anything you like, from "G" to "greatsatan2012," and the URL (web address) can be nothing--it's optional. Just as with "Anonymous," you don't need to register anywhere or log in to use this option. And for those of you comfortable with using your real name, please do so. I always do; it makes things more friendly.

Almost like being there

I just got off my second Go-to-Meeting webinar of the week--the first as a presenter, the second as an attendee. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, a webinar is a conference held via computer. The presenter's computer screen shows up on everyone's screen, and you call in for the audio on your phone, or use a headset and microphone connected to your computer. You can text in questions, and you can kibbitz with your virtual neighbors via chat. It has, in short, all the disadvantages of in-person business meetings, combined with all the disadvantages of not seeing who you are talking to, and having no doughnuts to pass around the table.

But the upside is substantial, too--you get together with colleagues more often than you would if you had the expense and time committment of travel, plus nobody can tell if you are asleep, in your underwear, neglected to shave, or are playing trash-can basketball with your crumpled up handouts. As a presenter, you hope to keep everyone's attention; as an attendee, you know better.

The gold standard for human interaction is--and will always be, I hope--being in the same room, breathing the same air. To my loss, I am finding that I am scoring less gold--talking more on the phone instead, chatting online, sending email, posting on Facebook, writing on blogs. In a way, it is a step back from the mobility revolution of the 20th Century, when the confluence of cheap high-speed travel and increased leisure time brought out the nomad in people in a way that hadn't been seen since the Neolithic era. This feels more like the 19th Century in some ways, when travel was arduous and expensive. In those days, we sent our words to one another via post, instead of getting together. The lag time is a lot less in modern communication, but it is isolating in the same way, even though I suspect many letters were also written by unshaven people in their underwear. But the literary charm of the writing is no longer as high as it once was, and it is not almost like being there.

Big Web Pow-Wow, part 2

Thanks for weighing in last week about where NCPR should be going in exploring new online platforms and future online strategy. The main takeaways so far from listeners encourage us to go slow, to think more deeply about our real strategic needs, and to not lose sight of our core mission as broadcasters. You can read all the conversation so far at this address:
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/blogs/brainclouds/2010/02/big-web-pow-wow.html
Last week's post was pretty "top-level" in its approach. I'd like to ask you to weigh in now on some specific areas we are talking about exploring.

First is a new approach to the front page at ncpr.org. We propose to make page one more "newsy." Right now, news is available only in headline form there. We'd like to move the news one click closer--putting at least one story onto page one in full, with photos and direct audio links. We'd like to include more timely content about network programs, rotate new features through the home page more often, and make page one run deeper--including some NPR blogs, as well as NPR and other national features. The numbers driving this decision tell us that the average NCPR visitor is coming to the site only twice a month. A more news-heavy approach, starting at the home page, we hope, will encourage more people to put ncpr.org onto their daily news beat.

Second is a different approach to social media such as Twitter and Facebook. To date, our presence there is primarily driven by feeds that automatically put archive NCPR news and blog content into the social media space. We propose to move the clock ahead a little, giving more info about what's coming up instead of what's gone by. And we hope to use these platforms to engage the audience in story and program incubation, and to build such features as our winter and summer reading lists. And we hope to get more of the NCPR staff engaged with these platforms to post about what's happening in their areas.

Third, we hope to reorganize our approach to the music and arts of the region online, creating a more lively and two-way conversation about local music, regional arts, and cultural life--using new blogs, social media, and listener-submitted media in a more interactive way.

There are more areas where we are looking for change, but these three ought to be plenty for today. Give us your thinking in a comment below.

Big web pow-wow

Sorry for being a day late with the Listening Post this week. Yesterday NCPR had an all-day retreat to have a big think about our future in online media. This is the first time since ncpr.org was launched almost ten years ago that we have all gathered together around these issues. A lot has changed in the intervening years. The most important top-level changes have occured in three areas:

1. The notion of a single web site as a destination toward which the audience is directed is outmoded. An online media operation must now be able to function across multiple sites and platforms--to go to where the audience goes--as well as to bring the audience to where the media operation lives.

2. The notion that an online media operation is one that "talks" while others "listen" is outmoded. People have the expectation of two-way communication and active participation. Instead of being the folks that own the microphone, we are members of a social network comprised of NCPR and "the group formerly known as the audience."

3. The notion that the online media operation creates the content and the audience talks about the content is outmoded. Part of a public service mission online is to put tools in the hands of citizens to create media directly, or to collaborate in the process by which online media is created.

There is a lot of tactical thinking involved in addressing these new realities. We are hoping that Listening Post readers can help us with that thinking. Where do you expect to find an active NCPR presence? What kinds of interaction do you want to have with the NCPR community? What is missing from our service that you think should be within our "wheelhouse?" What are we wasting time on that doesn't well serve the community? What questions are we forgetting to ask? Let us knows what's working or not working for you in what we offer on various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and mobile devices, as well as at ncpr.org.

More at Big web pow-wow, part 2

Smarting

Being at the epicenter of a lot of news and public affairs programming here at NCPR, and being reasonably well-educated, we tend to think of ourselves as pretty well-informed, pretty--you know--smart. Turns out that a lot of what we think we know ain't necessarily so. A couple of Pew Research news quizzes made the rounds of the station this week, and most of us took a stab at them. On the whole we did pretty well on the political quiz:
http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php
with all handily beating out the average score of 6 correct out of 12 questions.
But once the topic moved beyond our borders into the global quiz:
http://pewglobal.org/quiz/iq/questions/
it was a walk of shame. None of us did better than 50%. I scored 3 correct out of 12, exactly as well as a chimp pushing the buttons at random would do. Not only that, I tied for low score within the station. Now I can only think of myself as the smartest guy in the room if I am alone in a one-seat outhouse. Ouch.
If we're at all representative of an American average in knowledge of how the world sees itself and the US, this can not be a good thing. Policies that are not based on knowledge can only succeed by chance. The odds do not favor it. Take a stab at the quizzes yourself and let us know how you do, and what you think it means.

Permission to play

I notice as I get older that the weekend just ain't what it used to be. I'm more inclined to stooge around the house doing nothing much. Or I'm more likely to let work flow over into the once-sacrosanct space of recreation. I find I need a little encouragement to leave the week behind, to disengage from the opinion machine driven by downbeat talking heads. I need permission to relax, kick back, and do something fun.

Which has me a little excited about our new Friday night music line-up. A good weekend needs a good warm-up act and a high-energy soundtrack. If you've had a chance to hear Jonathan Brown sitting in for other music hosts, you should enjoy his new rootsy smorgasbord, Cutaway. Then two hours of the program that has been telling you the news is done for the day--it's time to come out and play--World Café. Then an hour of The Latin Alternative, to remind you that even though you may be bundled up in your parka, you could still be doing the rumba. And then taking you up to midnight, some of the most joyful noise anywhere, Afropop Worldwide with Georges Collinet.

After midnight? Well--I'll probably be in bed. But I won't be grinding my teeth in my sleep, and I expect to get up Saturday ready for a proper weekend.

Where's the Wowser?

Americans used to love American technology. In the '50 and '60s, the rollout of the new Detroit car models topped the news programs. We were excited to have a new car, or even to see one for the first time. They touched our fantasy life, as well as our family life, and we could hardly wait for what comes next. Americans mostly hate their cars now, settling for anything with a wheel on each corner that will get them down the road with regularity and reliability.

The last vestige of that old familiar feeling probably goes to boutique electric carmaker Tesla, whose slam-you-back-in-your-seat roadster arouses a tech-lust that few have the depth of pocket to indulge.

We build little of what we once did--cars, appliances, gadgets, ships, consumer electronics. We travel to the International Space Station in a 1970s model space shuttle--having gone from "live TV from the surface of the moon" to "your father's Oldsmobile" in a single generation. What little we do design and/or build doesn't stand out from our world competitors in any way that elicits the "Wowsers!" response.

The only US company that seems to consistently have the old magic is Apple Computer. The unveiling yesterday of their new tablet computer, the iPad, had all the sizzle you could want. Ever since the introduction of the first Macintosh during the Super Bowl in 1984, new Apple products have lit up the "Hot Donuts Now!" light in American brains. The Mac, the iPod and the iPhone were transformative technologies--not because they were the first of their kind, but because they were the first to get it right-- to combine function with usability, sleek design with smart, even hip, marketing. They make you want it--and heaven help me--I do.

In a Name

When Shunryu Suzuki (one of the earliest teachers to bring Zen Buddhism to the US) came to California his English was very poor. He asked a passerby in a San Francisco park the question in my poem below. The straightforward reply encouraged him that here was fertile ground for Zen.

Suzuki Roshi Discovers America

What do
you call
that black
bird there?

Blackbird.

Most of the names of NCPR programs follow a similar pattern: The Eight O'Clock Hour, Music for a Monday Afternoon, FM in the Morning, etc. I could say it was due to our advanced spiritual state, but no, we just can't come to consensus on anything clever and exciting. Coming up with good names is hard. No doubt Eve vetoed many of Adam's "best" ideas, when he legendarily named the animals. "Platypus? Really?"

NCPR has a new program in the works, and rather than settle on some pedestrian in-house pick, we have decided to reach out for suggestions. Jonathan Brown, known to most of you as our All Before Five host and news reporter, will be launching a new hour-long music program leading into the weekend. Regarding format, Jonathan says, "I'll play rock, folk, blues, R&B, soul, alt-country and roots from the '60s to new stuff. Each set will mix more well-known (and probably older) tracks with newer songs that listeners may not be familiar with."

So, what do you suggest, besides The Rock, Folk, Blues, R&B, Soul, alt-Country and Roots Hour? While you're at it, feel free to suggest alternatives (by preference non-scatological) to any of our other generic program names.

Going Vogue

As a high-tech web kind of guy, you might suppose that I was down with all the latest gadgets. For example, if you saw me pacing in the hall, waving my hands and apparently ranting into the air, you might think I was having a lively discussion over the blue-tooth headset tucked into my other ear. But no, sometimes I just go off like that. In fact, I use the cell phone in my pocket more often as a worry-stone than as a communications device, and I'd be just as happy if it had a rotary dial and plugged into the wall. I text frequently--but I do it at my desk with an extended keyboard. It's called email, I believe.

Nine years after the introduction of the iPod, and five years after I started podcasting NCPR programs and stories, my first personal iPod was under the Christmas tree this year. What finally put me over the edge was the latest feature they built into it--an fm radio. I sure have missed my old Panasonic pocket transistor from the '60s. In honor of that antique mobile device, I have loaded my iPod Nano up with Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, the Beatles, the Byrds and Bob Dylan.

But time does move on, and even if I don't adjust too nimbly myself, the rest of the world is going mobile. NCPR needs to go along for the ride. This week, we finally worked out most of the kinks to get NCPR's broadcast stream, newscast and podcast news audio onto the NPR mobile platform, which makes it available to users of iPhones, Nokia phones, Android and other mobile computing devices. If you are so en vogue as to possess one, you can find us in your mobile device browser at this address: http://m.npr.org/stations/show/WSLU

Buzzing

 Each year brings a new crop of buzz words that so saturate public speech, one is tempted to have a New Year's resolution not to invent any new ones during the coming year. Place your right hand on the thesaurus and repeat after me…. Grant Barrett, co-host of A Way With Words, submits the following from 2009: "aporkalypse" (undue worry in response to swine flu), "death panel" (doctors and/or bureaucrats who would decide which patients receive treatment, ostensibly leaving the rest to die), "gay-marry" (to marry someone of the same sex), "tea party" (an organized gathering of antitax, antigovernment and/or anti-Obama protestors), and "wise Latina woman" (a term used by Judge Sonia Sotomayor in a speech before she was a Supreme Court justice).

At Lake Superior University, they have compiled their 35th annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness." Among this year's candidates are shovel-ready, czar, friend (used as a verb), teachable moment, toxic assets, too big to fail, and bromance. The Houston Chronicle begs to include funemployed, tramp stamp, recessionista, new normal and deficit neutrality.

IMHO, we should have a crackdown and drain the swamp of such locutions. That's my mantra. This post can be taken as the run-up to that crackdown.