A cartoon about how we live & work in a digital world
Today’s cartoon is in honour of a friend who’s about to become the CEO of Creative Commons.
Ryan Merkley’s an all-around mensch who works awfully hard on behalf of the open web. I met him in his Mozilla incarnation, and then his Sharp Political Thinker incarnation. This one’s his most exciting yet, and I can’t wait to see what he gets up to.
* * *
Let the record show that these vows are published under a more restrictive Creative Commons license than the cartoon itself.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s a page of cartoons about love. (I’ve tried to balance it pro and con, but I’m kind of a softie.)
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Upworthy gets a lot of grief for its headlines, but one reason they work is that they very often deliver — or come close enough that I’m okay with it.
I really did tear up at 3:12 of that video, even if I didn’t actually cry. I am thinking about poverty a little differently. And I was surprised and impressed, even if I wasn’t shocked and amazed.
It helps that I’m part of Upworthy’s target audience: politically progressive and prone to clicking on things. But as I wrote a year ago or so, a link is a promise to your audience. So far, Upworthy’s been keeping theirs.
And they’re going to try to do even better, with a new algorithm geared to measuring engagement with a lot more subtlety. (Please, please, please tell me this will help to kill slideshows-that-ought-to-be-lists-but-aren’t-because-we-want-to-pump-up-pageviews.)
Over the next several days, I’m posting cartoons I drew for Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World, by Beth Kanter and Katie Delahaye Paine. I blogged about the book a while ago on Social Signal, explaining why I love it and why I think you should go buy a copy right now.
<3 <3 <3
Chapter 10 takes you into advanced measurement, starting with how you measure relationships. Relationships are at the heart of social media; they’re the nucleus around which all else revolves. You can’t make the piñata of change without the papier maché of relationships – and yes, that metaphor is available for re-use under a Creative Commons license. You’re welcome.
But how do you measure relationships, and the value they offer? The book points to the surprisingly straightforward approach pioneered by professors James and Larissa Grunig, and how organizations can apply it to their own relationships. And as for value…
“Make a friend before you need one,” my communications mentor Dennis McGann used to tell me, and two anecdotes from the book bear his wisdom out: one, the online conversation that ensued after the accidental death of a SeaWorld trainer, and two, the way the American Red Cross was able to turn a Twitter misfire into a fundraising opportunity.
The latter incident saw a staffer tweet about getting drunk on Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer. Normally, that would be fine, except the employee used the official Red Cross account, which usually uses hashtags like #hurricane or #relief, and not – let me just check the spelling – #gettngslizzerd.
The organization responded swiftly, deleting the tweet but also explaining it wittily. Dogfish Head, meanwhile, encouraged its followers to donate to the Red Cross. They raised nearly $10,000, briefly crashing the Red Cross server and helping #gettngslizzerd to trend on Twitter.
The lesson is clear: when life gives you lemons, make beer.
(Originally posted at ReadWriteWeb)
It feels like this week’s cartoon should commemorate Steve Jobs.
But in truth, I drew my tribute to him just after he retired from his job as CEO. I shared my thoughts about his legacy a few days ago on my own blog. And by now, there’s very little to say about Jobs that hasn’t been said many times over, here and on other sites.
So rather than restating all of that, I’ll pay a tribute today that actually feels more meaningful than any other.
This cartoon stands on its own; it doesn’t have anything to do with Steve Jobs or Apple. But I drew it on my iPad, and i’m writing this there, too. In a few minutes, I’ll lay the cartoon out and create a thumbnail version on my MacBook Pro, where I’ll also add hyperlinks and send the whole lot off to Curtis at ReadWriteWeb.
Creating and sharing something using the products Steve Jobs introduced to the world: yeah, that feels about right.
The only reason Alex and I didn’t look like this at our wedding is that Twitter hadn’t been invented yet.
Really.