July 2008
20 posts
The Mobile Web
Trent Gilliss
There is a concensus that in the coming five years a dramatically larger number of people will be using their mobile devices to access our content. Is the question: Will these same people be interacting with us through these devices?
Chris wants to better understand what this platform looks like and how these devices are used.
Whether or not it’s one of our activities to...
Becoming anthropologists
Julia Schrenkler
Team Leader Mike Reszler challenged us to become anthropologists in order to understand who our audience will be in 3-5 years.
Reversioning the visioning
Julia Schrenkler: Here's a break down of our wordsmithing. Are these things different?
Old terminology: Complete an assessment / audit
New terminology: Provide an inventory of our current online interactive activities
Old terminology: Competitive analysis
New terminology: Identify external case studies
“I want to be able to let our younger audience members txt us.”
– Julia Schrenkler, capturing a quote from MPR News Director Chris Worthington
“Who are our competitors?”
– Trent Gilliss
Chris asks and Jana responds. We’re engaged in the tough question about who we measure ourselves against. Is any entity off-limits? Ooh la la. My read is that it’s daunting with varying levels of execution. Do we need to have some quantitive data and/or to what extent do...
The value of an assessment
Julia Schrenkler
Wrestling the question…
What value would a full interactive audit bring to APM | MPR?
AMP Director Sheila Kim challenged us to turn our ideas completely around and to explore the dreams we want to pursue.
MPR News Director Chris Worthington wonders is there any downside of any portion of us pursuing it?
I’ll hang up and listen.
Sidebar: Should We Even Be Involved in Social...
Trent Gilliss
After discussing potential projects of engagement and questions we’d like to put to the senior management group, Brendan, Wade, Julia, and I debated where the organization is at — where we’re at — when it comes to being involved in social networking.
Some are asking whether it’s valuable to revolve, to engage in those spheres. I’ve already made...
Sidebar instead of ice cream bar
Julia Schrenkler
During the break some folks nabbed an ice cream bar others of us had a discussion where we compared our understanding of one comment:
“Should we be involved in online social engagement?”
Quick poll on whatyouthinkthismeans:
[] Of course.
[] No, aim for media extinction! (competitor special!)
[] The question may help APM reflect on the terminology and possible...
H0, H1
Julia Schrenkler
The Online Engagement group is determining the difference between action, recommendation, and pursuit. Team Lead Mike Reszler pushed us to consider our action list as an opportunity to do some hypothesis testing.
Other departments: I’m open to your suggestions for rigor and communication on that.
“Where’s the commonality?”
– Julia Schrenkler
Mike Reszler inspires us to find the commonalities in our own ideas. I’d love to see the same action around the idea process as done - independently - in APM | MPR’s various departments and from the public.
ETA: The ideas and questions we captured? They’ll be...
Structured brainstorming
Julia Schrenkler
Traditional brainstorming seems to be more about storming and less concerned with the brain. It is open, noisy, and usually enjoyable. Today our Team Lead (MPR.org’s Managing Online Editor, Mike Reszler) charged us in something I’ll loosely call comparitive brainstorming. He asked each team member to quietly write one idea of what we should do and to capture one question we’d...
Vision, the verb
Julia Schrenkler:
As the media landscape changes, so do media companies. My employer, American Public Media, opened a visioning group as part of the strategic process. Translation: APM | MPR decided to drive its own evolution, instead of letting change reshape - or worse, eliminate - itself. All day Wednesday I’ll be part of the Online Engagement team and will liveblog it here. We’ll [enjoyably...
What Makes Us Feel Good Rather Than What Benefits...
Trent Gilliss
Brendan and Jeff both articulated a challenging question that gets to the heart of the matter regarding digital technology and applications. Do we get caught up in creating really cool applications that don’t engage the audience for how much developing the game/tool/app really cost? Is this what the audience considers really fun and learning? Do we do things that are too...
Commenting Across All Stories
Trent Gilliss
Wade poses an interesting question that’s ongoing within many industries, including the journalism business. Do we allow the audience to comment on anything, and how do we moderate it?
“Infiltrate social networking”
– Lindsay’s provocative statement about what we might do as a company in which we don’t just have a presence but that we participate fully, including through widgets, tools, advertising(?), etc.
To What Extent Are We Willing to Disclose?
Trent Gilliss
As we try to figure out what it means to engage our audiences through content, membership, funders, colleagues, and audience, we’re wrestling with a group as to how much of the “sausage-making” part of the process do we want to share with our co-workers and our public audience.
The jury is out within our own group. There’s a delicate balance here. How do we...