Pressure and Creativity

Recently, as happens to everyone at various times in their lives, my work and school schedule seems to be spinning into a rapidly expanding whirlwind, pulling me ever faster and faster. In trying to stay on top of everything, I found myself wondering how creativity is affected by pressure, and found this interesting article by the American Psychological Association that talks about how creativity dissipates under pressure.
A TICKING CLOCK MEANS A CREATIVITY DROP

Poetry and Visual Design

A while back, we touched on my interest in kinetic design, in how movement, reflected by actual motor movement, or visual movement in art and or thorough the use of typography can reflect the will of the designer to create a particular mood and tone in a given work. Lately I have been exploring how music and poetry and the meter of the rhymes expressed in those types of work also can be used to create their own form of kinetic motion. Consider these words from a Stevie Ray Vaughan song:

Caught up in a whirlwind, can't catch my breath
Knee deep in hot water, broke out in a cold sweat
Can't catch a turtle in this ratrace
Feel like I'm losing time at a breakneck pace

Ongoing Communications Projects

It's funny, sometimes, to think of our lives as currency; to imagine if time really were the equivalent of money, how would we spend our time? Well, I've just spent the last two days working on a website that including embedding audio files across a not-always-so-friendly hosting service. I am happy to report a minimum anmount of success, in that the files actually seem to work, even if they are not the prettiest audio files ever embedded. I will include a screenshot of the project, (see fig 1. below) and will talk more about this process, but I actually have to get outside and see some daylight, before we are covered in winter doldrums again.

What did I learn from this project? More about that soon.....

Curiosity in Writing

Ownership?

Whenever I am researching a subject while reading a book, it is easy to understand that the book is the work of a particular author, but when I am searching through the web for the same or similar information/material, the question of authorship often becomes somewhat murky. Respecting the work of others and protecting your own work in an age of plentiful information found on the web is a question that often causes me some anxiety that I might not give proper credit to an author.

How can this be avoided? Does it mean one must constantly redefine the thin line that lies between knowledge that can be considered general understanding, or common knowledge, and that of enfringement or plagiarism?

I believe that one way of evaluating what is proper and acceptable when using information found on the web is through understanding the laws that apply to web use. An excellent resource can be found in the U.S. Copyright Office website, which explains how items in print and items in electronic media are treated, with regards to legal issues.

Abbreviations?

Another element of good writing is the proper use of the the correct abbreviations for a particular word or phrase. Latin was not a major subject of mine, and what little I know and use comes from courses I have taken in the health sciences, but I do know that when the wrong phrase is used or the wrong abbreviations is placed in a sentence, it can act like a set of screeching brakes by interrupting the reader's flow of thought.

So I offer for you another useful site that I found that can be used as a guideline to correct abbreviations - and that site led me to another blog that serves as an acronym finder.

beginnings and endings

During my research process for a recent project on the usefulness of social media tools, I uncovered a great deal of writing and opinion on the transition of blogging, from its origin as a form of social connection in limited special-interest groups, to its present day incarnation, as an integral part of information exchange for both personal and business use.

So, I began to wonder. What is the nature of blogging? Can I look at blogging as an evolutionary form of communication, one created in the human consciousness because of the easy availability of technology, which allows the human mind to explore new possibilities aloud? Or is it a form of retroactive response to the natural flow that is our lives, giving us a much needed outlet to re-hash and process these same events into meaningful interpretations through our blogs?

As a new blogger, still trying to find my own personal style and "public voice" I was stuck by the words of Thomas Griffith, a former police reporter who rose to become the senior editor at Time magazine, who said "Journalism is in fact history on the run," Griffith went on to explain: "It is history written in time to be acted upon: thereby not only recording events but at times influencing them. Journalism is also the recording of history while the facts are not all in."

Although I am aware of the current debate as to whether bloggers are actual journalists or simply amateur writers responding to stories through the lens of their own perspectives, I choose to think that they are indeed journalists, each with a unique expressiveness on their own self-selected topics.

For example, taking this blog as an illustration of that point, I can review my posts over the last few months and see the historical progression of my ideas and understanding grow on the different subjects I have studied, and this growth has been made possible through the discussions I have had with you, the reader. Writing is a form of self expression but it also a process of learning for the writer, with each word building new ideas and each design selected to express a certain tone.

Let's go back to the historical beginning of my blog so I can try to explain what I mean. In starting this blog, I spent a few anxious hours thinking anout the title of this blog, as I wanted it to be unique and yet express my determination to accomplish something that I wasn't very keen on doing.

It just so happened that my husband and I were watching a Little League World Series game, at the same time I was setting up my outline and looking at various designs for the blog. I kept trying different titles but none seemed quite right, and then I heard an announcer describe a player on one of the teams as a kid who just keeps on "plowing the river." I thought he was referring to a kid who just hit a line drive, right past everyone, up the middle of the field, but my husband thought he was referring to the sheer energy of the kid who was pitching at the time. (My husband based his belief on the fact that the announcer for that game was Orel Hershiser, a former pitcher. I based my belief on my own preferred interpretation, so my husband was probably right on that one. )

But no matter who was correct, I decided I liked that title, and that I was pretty sure that I had heard that statement or a similar one used before, so I went to my friends Google, Bing and Ask to see if I could find the original quote. I found that river boat captains used that phrase to describe difficult journeys when they had to pilot their boats to break through obstacles and junk to find their way through (an appropriate description of my mindset, at the time) and I found a similar statement by Simon Bolivar, who said "Whosoever works for a revolution is plowing the sea" a statement born out of his frustration in his fight for independence. As I considere myself a fighter for the independence of new ideas, this too, felt appropriate.

I share that story with you to illustrate that this is when I began to reach my first understanding of how any blog, even my blog, can be used to maintain an allegiance to discovery of truth and tribute to the past, as a way of creating new directions of meaning for the future; made possible by using the experiences of ourselves and others to share meaning that is filtered through our own interpretations.

Continuing my exploration of my blogging style by reading through old posts, I can see that in my earlier posts, my writing was more formal and distant, and I believe this grows out of my natural reluctance to relinquish my privacy by revealing personal information in my blog. I still think that there should not be very much of that in a blog that is designed to look more outwardly than inwardly for new discoveries in areas associated with technical communication.

Continuing to read from the beginning of my blog, I also note several changes in design as I read through each new post, along with a growing comfort using new media tools to insert text, html, create style changes and adjust the appearance of the blog. As I move into more recent postings, my blogging style has become less formal in some posts, at times even dipping into over-casualness with the reader. I am not sure I want to do that too much, so I will have to remember to monitor that tendency.

In summary, I was reluctant to begin blogging because I thought that it would take time away from my learning process and reveal too much of what makes me - well - be me, to the outside world. But, what I discovered is that it has added to my learning process, and has instead revealed more of myself to me.

Up until a few weeks ago, I thought that I would probably abandon this blog as being too time-consuming, but after making these self-discoveries, I am rethinking that idea. After all, if I found out this much in the past three months, who knows what I could discover in the future?

Projects and Research and Work

I recently completed an exhaustive but very interesting research and evaluation of a project that involved pitching a proposal to another company on the topic of social media market expansion. At the end of this post, I would like to present a short copy of the basic research proposal I wrote for XYZ, Inc. and I would appreciate any comment or suggestions on how to improve it.

But first, let's talk a little about the development process of a project. I have always loved research and I have to admit, it is my favorite part of any project . And, I thought I knew a fair amount about social medial applications and website trafficking, but allow me to just share with you a little of what I learned during the last few weeks.

I learned that there are so many social media tools, applications and sites that it is virtually impossible to keep track of all of them. Do you doubt me? Take a look at some screen shots from a really interesting site called Web 2.0 Tools and Applications, found at Go2Web20.net

Pretty cool, huh? I spent way too much time on just this one site playing a game with myself, by trying to see how many sites or icons I recognized, and if I didn't recognize them, whether or not I could guess what they were Well, man, I was twelve pages deep into this game before I realized that there were another 54 pages to go!



I think that just that one site really brought home to me how vast and how fast social media outlets are developing and changing.

Another interesting thing that was fully confirmed for me during my research was the realization that each of these technologies have a personality, a style all of their own, and in my proposal development, I started to think about how to fit the right tool to the right person or company in order to promote the type of image that is desired. I think I might take up that challenge in a later post and try to define as many of the social media tools that I can in terms of image and really, in terms of their own branding strategies.

Other interesting facts that I discovered during my during my proposal development process were some great examples of the power of social media technologies to influence marketing and brand appeal.

Of course, I thought I knew that the right comination of tools would bring traffic and exposure to a site but take a look at the following video, see what you think of it, and then I will share something with you that I found amazing:

After viewing a youtube of Will it Blend with an iphone as target of the blender, social media news aggregators and sharing networks have had over 100,000,000 hits on that video - That's right, one hundred million. It became so popular that iPhone even now has an app for Will It Blend?

According to a interview on the subject with Ben Wills, social media networking alone drove the website traffic to Will it Blend up 650% as a result of the traffic generated by the hits to the video.

Watch the Cool Interview about the impact of social media...

Now, let us shift back to the topic of constructing effective proposals. What I found confusing about the proposal writing process was all of the advice I found that warned against being too specific in social media proposals. The reasoning behind it seems to be that prospective clients are not necessarily interested in hiring social media consultants and instead seem to be more focused on having the consultant give them free strategies that they then make their own.

So, I tried to do maintain a general tone in my proposal but found myself conflicted, as it felt as though I was keeping the outline too general; so I am concerned that a prospective client would not have a clear enough picture of the strategy I was proposing. Please take a look at an abbreviated version of my proposal design and see which position you would take -

XYZ Proposal

Presented by
Phoebe Del Boccio
New Visions Partnerships


BACKGROUND

Social media technologies began to emerge in the late 1990’s through the use of community building sites, as simple web places where users could meet and talk about issues of interest to them. As technology became faster and more affordable, new tools began to emerge that allowed larger and more diverse groups to begin to form their own communities, and the world began to see a shift away from the more traditional view of the large conglomerate’s dissemination of message delivery to the public and back into an even larger dissemination of the message from the public to the large conglomerates. This 180 degree reversal of the traditional way of doing business, as the power of the corporate message was now being formulated by the public consumer, has created powerful new methods of information delivery that can reach millions of people within minutes, and is capable of multiplying exponentially with each passing minute.

OBJECTIVES

My goal is to help XYZ, Inc. reformulate their image from that of an established media presence into a fresh new image, as a producer of new media approaches for companies seeking to take advantage of the Web 2.0 social media strategies, as these strategies have rapidly become an integral part of the way in which business is conducted today. To this aim, I seek funding for the development of a customized business strategy that will allow defero to achieve its objectives of generating new business and establishing the company as a leader in this field.

PLAN

My plan will be distributed through the use of podcasting technologies embedded within a website to allow for a visual and auditory connection with the ideas being presented. Please continue to http://www.xyzxyz.com/ to view and experience the presentation for this proposal.

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE

I plan to use a laptop computer to record the podcast, and podcasting software that allows for voice quality editing, background noise reduction and compatible formatting for wide distribution of the delivered media. Podcasting technology will allow for greater portability and distribution of the message, as it eliminates the need for cumbersome and expensive video presentations or personal appearances, allowing me to reach and accommodate customers without inconvenience to them.

ASSESSMENT
The primary measurement of the success of my proposal will be evidenced by the successful reformulation of defero as a leader in new B2B AND B2C social media design technologies, which can be easily measured by the number of new customers XYZ, Inc., acquires through this reformulation.

PERSONNEL

I will record the implementation program and conduct interviews with the officers and with the technical and support staff of defero in order to select which specific tools will best serve XYZ, Inc., in the successful realization of the new strategies presented in this proposal. I will continue to develop training and strategy reinforcement podcasts as needed throughout the development and implementation of the performance strategy to ensure compliance with, and understanding of, the goals that defero intends to achieve.

BUDGET

The funding I seek will be used to purchase computer equipment, recording and editing software, and Web site space and the bandwidth necessary to record and disseminate the podcasts that I produce. As each podcast will be developed to address a specific audience and to deliver a specific message, my hourly and project rates will be included in our final negotiated contract.
.
Item
Explanation
Cost
One laptop PC (Sony Vaio)
16.4 inch, 2.53 GH Intel Core Duo, 4GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, ATI graphics,
$1,200*

Audio & Video Software


Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server 3.5 upgrade

$400.00
External microphones (2)
Sennheiser MKH 416 P 48 U 3 – microphone with built-in filters and cable
$1,199*
Office expenses
Paper delivery of proposals, adaptations, tracking expenses.
$200
Traveling expenses
Fuel and mileage for travel within the greater New York-New Jersey for implementation of services
$500
Additional podcasts and deliverables
Any podcasts and/or other deliverables that are not included in the original proposal will be negotiated at contract rates
*
Total expenses
$3,100*

TIMELINE

After our contract for services is completed, I can start the initial interview and analysis stage of my proposal immediately. This process is expected to take two weeks to one month for completion, and is dependent upon the availability and schedules of your SME’s in management, technical and support staffing.
After phase one is completed, the assessment of needs report and the development of the podcasting strategies (and any additional agreed upon work) is expected to take two – three weeks. Training and support provided to XYZ, Inc., by New Visions Partnerships during the strategy implementation phase will take two weeks per 50 employees.

CONCLUSION

I am confident that your vision and my expertise can bring XYZ, Inc. into the forefront of technology strategy leaders in the Web 2.0 business world. I look forward to working with you in this venture and helping you to realize your goals. If you have need of any information not contained in this proposal or if you have questions that pertain to this proposal, please feel free to contact me via the telephone numbers of email addresses that are provided in my curriculum vitae.

REFERENCES

Available upon request (issues of confidentiality for this blog post)

Project Collaboration

When considering the topic of collaboration in the workplace, and before I try to evaluate my own recent personal experience with collaboration, I found an interesting video that helped me form a framework for exactly what effective collaboration should be. I hope you enjoy it and find it as useful for contextualization as I did.



Collaborate/ collaboration... The more I think about this word, the more I like it. According to Merriam Webster, the word collaboration comes from the Latin word collaborare meaning "to labor together," and has three common meanings:

1 : to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor
2 : to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one's country and especially an occupying force
3 : to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected.

Although the second definition is not very positive, numbers 1 and 3 definitions are just beautiful, aren't they? Thinking about collaboration as an evolutionary desirable trait, we can recognize how every successful country/government/movement or organization depends upon collaboration to bring people together in order to more easily and effectively accomplish a shared goal.

In fact, history and popular culture are full of expressions which reflect our views about collaboration, or the lack thereof. Consider the expression attributed to the English dramatist, John Heywood - "Many hands make light work," or the contradictory common saying "Too many cooks spoil the broth." When reflecting about my recent experiences with teamwork and collaboration on various projects, I believe it is fair to say that I experienced varying degrees of interaction with my team members on many of our projects, ranging from frustrating to enlightenment.

For example, Steve and I tried to work out a collaborative arrangement via email exchanges on podcasting for a start-up venture, but due to time constraints and individual workloads, we were unable to successfully complete our ideas. In the glossary contributions, the items submitted by many of our colleagues inspired me to look for and find complementary ideas that I found to be personally compelling, so I suppose you could say that the glossary contributions led to an indirect collaboration through shared ideas.

The same holds true for my writeboard and co-ment experiences, as I was able to read and respond to the many ideas and writings of my colleagues. I found that their thoughts and comments inspired me to explore different avenues than the ones I may have chosen of my own volition.

As for the scheduled chat sessions, I was not able to take advantage of any of them due to my work schedule, which is, admittedly, a disadvantage for me in this program. I am required to perform varied hours shift work, and often work 10 and 12 hours days, frequently until 11pm or 12 am. In each section of this program, including this segment, the preferred meeting time for chats chosen by the majority always seems to be around 7-730 pm, which keeps me from participating in the chats. Even when I try to work around it, my work schedule is too unpredictable to allow for equal participation in projects with my colleagues via chat.

In another instance of attempted collaboration, Lauren was kind enough to give several of us invites to Google Wave, an online collaboration tool, and we tried to set up a time for several of us to get together to create a commentary that we could use in this project, but even though I timed it to use my break-time at work, I was unable to load the site using my blackberry, and we are not allowed to use the work computers for personal reasons, so Lauren and Isao were able to work without my contributions. (See our initial attempts, examples below)



The one area where I felt we were able to collaborate effectively, albeit asynchronously, was in the forums, where we were able to share discoveries, ask questions and receive clarification from each other on many topics. I always feel that collaboration is worthwhile, because when working with others, each endeavor is as unique as the individuals involved, and shared work often develops organically from the contributions of the team. I would welcome the opportunity to fully develop a project using an interactive teamwork environment, where the team could create the project and modify it from start to finish. I am looking forward to the final project that develops from our joint contributions, because after all, human agency depends upon collaboration, and provides such rich rewards that it is doubtful whether people could have survived without it.

In summary, collaboration is a vital part of our lives, from both a personal perspective and a professional one, and although most of us would like to believe that we alone are the masters of our own destinies, the truth of the matter is that we depend upon the collaborative work of others from the moment we are born until the moment we die. Nearly every act we are capable of has been possible because of the work of others, and nearly everything we do is for the agency of others as well. The better collaborators we become, the more successfully we navigate our way through life.