OK… I’m a card-carrying member of the American Library Association, and it’s voting time again. Every year, we vote for a president (and a lot of other stuff). This year, there are two candidates for ALA President – Kent Oliver and Roberta Stevens. Both fine, highly qualified people, I’m sure (though I’ve never met either one).
As a web-centric, social media loving geekboy, here’s what I noticed when I visited their websites:
Roberta Stevens:
- Cool. She has a website.
- Dated design … looks like a fine site from the year 1999
- big fat Donate button (actually the first thing I noticed)
- where’s the RSS feed … hey, wait a minute … why isn’t this a blog-based site with commenting?
- a mish-mash of text links that point to videos, photos, podcasts, webpages, and pdf files
- a link to a Facebook Fan page
- Ah – there’s her blog – one of the many text links points to it.
- Oops – I clicked through to her blog. She has embedded a YouTube video there … but it broke her blog template.
Kent Oliver:
- Cool. He has a website too. A nicely designed site, looks a bit like Obama’s recent campaign site
- it’s a blog – the RSS feed is right there, where it should be (subscribed)
- two quick links to platform and qualifications
- a Donate Now button that blends in with the rest of the site
- an embedded video (used blip.tv – coolness)
- Flickr images, embedded on the main page so I can see them…
- a search box!
- no one’s commented on his blog posts yet (currently displaying big 0’s beside each post)
- Oops – just clicked on Platform. Instead of getting his actual platform, I got two more links… same with the Qualifications link.
Honestly, once I get past all that stuff and take a peek at their actual platforms, it’s all the usual stuff (diversity, more money, support privacy, etc) – nothing that stands out as remarkably interesting to me, a lover of all things web (which is a reflection of ME, not them
).
But – looking at the two lists above … who do you think “gets it?” Who either understands new online media, or at least knows who to ask for help? Will that sway my vote (and the votes of many others)? Probably so.
Yes, understanding “the new stuff” is definitely important, and can make or break a campaign.
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What’s more ironic than Michael Gorman complaining about blogs and wikis on the 



Complainers and Blog Comments
by David Lee King on June 19, 2008
Two more posts from my reading of Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Wb 2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize, and Engage Youth, by Ben Rigby. On pages 51-52, Beth Kanter (make sure to check out her blog) wrote Overcoming the Barriers to Blogging – a between-the-chapters essay, answering some common objections to blogging. One is this: “What if a blog reader complains about our organization so that everyone can read it? What if their complaint is not based on facts or the truth?”
Beth’s answer: “Truth be told, people are going to complain, and complaints aren’t always based on the facts. But isn’t it better that you hear from your constituents so that you can (1) address their perceptions directly and (2) use their comments as an opportunity for free market research?”
My library’s digital branch allows commenting without up-front moderation. We think of it almost like a controlled room – we can listen to all the discussions, and we can correct them when needed. People WILL complain and get facts wrong. If you provide an easy-to-use discussion space on your organization’s blog, you have an opportunity to hold conversations with your customers – and you can correct them and explain what’s REALLY going on when needed. Much better to supply a controlled place to air complaints than to let them be aired elsewhere (like the local newspaper’s editorial section) where you DON’T have any say in the matter, or even in your response.
I’d also go a couple steps further than that, and subscribe to some ego feeds for your organization. I have set up Google Alerts, Technorati searches, and Summize searches for variations on my library’s name. They come to my Google Reader inbox, and I can scan through them and respond or pass the info along when needed. It takes next-to-no time to do, and it’s a way to digitally “meet” your customers in their favorite hangouts.
Real conversations. Real useful. And we can easily respond. This is a no-brainer!
Tagged as: commenting, complaints
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