Citizen Brand

It's the Earth, stupid

With apologies to James Carville who helped Bill Clinton win an election in 1992 by making sure his candidate and the campaign stayed focused on the economy with a similar admonition.  Wouldn't it be refreshing if a candidate or candidates running for President in 2008 put the same emphasis on the environment.  Voters will always care about the economy - that is a given.  But it would seem that there is a growing consensus among the vox populi that we had better start paying attention to Mother Earth.  If this is true, the candidates will not be far behind.

Today is Blog Action Day.  More than 15,000 blogs are focusing attention on a single issue - the environment.  My two cents worth is that unless we do begin to take all actions large and small to impact the future of our planet in a positive way, nothing else will matter someday.  Most especially the economy.

 

Andrea is already in the mix today with a simple message from a young man who understands that each one of us can make a difference with our actions.  Another action bloggers can take is to join up with others of us over at Razoo.com and make a difference every day in ways both large and small.  Check it out.  And Alicia and Brady always know of good links when it comes to the environment (and of course fair trade.)  Alicia recommends The Accidental Environmentalist as a place to get good ideas and fresh thinking about taking care of our planet.

So tonight, make sure you turn the lights off when you leave a room; try to use a little less water in the house but make sure your flowers and trees have enough to drink; and, take one less trip in the car each week.  These seem like little things, but they are all doable.  It takes 21 days to form new habits.  Today is a good day to start some for all of us.

Other Barkley bloggers

It's a busy time right now both personally and professionally but I don't like too much time to pass without a comment on something or other.  But since my time is limited right now, how about taking a look at some other bloggers from Barkley.

Enjoy.

99 Bottles

Some people get all the good gigs.  My colleague, Jeff Risley, spoke about social media this week to the Craft Brewers Conference in Austin, Texas.  Nice work Jeff.  Go ahead, have another.

FightHunger.org

I wrote about this incredible project several weeks ago and now the videos to end child hunger by 2015 have been produced.  This one gets my early vote although all the ones I have watched thus far are powerful.  See the rest here.

People are hungry down the street and on the other side of the world.  Donate to your community food bank now and next month and the month after that.  No child should go hungry.

Art at your fingertips

Thanks to Spare Change for pointing us to a perfect way to head into the weekend.  The Painting Journalist is the perfect blend of art, blogging and doing good.  I will be returning to visit here often.

Times they are a changin'

Need evidence change is in the air?

Jeff Jarvis recently told us that television and YouTube are going in opposite directions, viewership wise.

Steve Rubel pointed us to an Associated Press story saying e-mail is officially old school already.  Consider this quote from the article: 

“In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new snail mail,” says 25-year-old Rachel Quizon from Norwalk, Calif. She became addicted to instant messaging in college, where many students are logged on 24/7."

But wait a minute, maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Back at YouTube, as Adrants points out, the days of no control by the 'Tube may be on the wain.  Freedom of the airwaves can only last so long I guess.

Half lives are getting shorter for everything it would appear.

Anyone want a used Blackberry?

Non-profit blogging

What better way for non-profits to spread their good news and the news of their needs than via a blog.  Here's a good piece from Tom Murphy with some helpful hints and great links for help in getting started.

Reading this piece got me to thinking that we need to talk to Tyrone Flowers and Higher M-Pact about starting up a blog.  It could prove to be a powerful way for him and the young men he works with to talk to the community.

Think about the non-profits you are involved with and talk with them about creating a blog to help them spread the word about what they are doing and what they need to do more.

Blogging Papers

I admit it.  I'm a guy who truly enjoys writing this blog but I am also a guy who still likes to read his morning newspaper(s).  The real papers.  The ones with ink.  Oh I read others online as well.  I still like radio and some aspects of television as well.

My point is this.  There are many places to find information today and I'm of the opinion that when new avenues come along, it doesn't mean we have to instantly throw out the old.  So I was very glad to have Jay Rosen conduct this survey with some of his students and demonstrate how the old media (newspapers) are working to figure out how to work in the new media (blogs).

Those of us in the public relations profession are right in the sweet spot of figuring out this convergence of media forms.  We have two of our folks at the New Communications Forum in Palo Alto this week.  Jeff Risley and Andy Woolard will be keeping us posted via their blogs about the Forum and their takes on what is being said there.  I will add my own two cents to what they say from here right after I finish reading my horoscope in the newspaper.