The Blogoclump

Let’s keep the focus where it belongs.

Read & discuss at jeffpi1@gmail.com (Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation LLC, the association community's leading voice for innovation!)'s blog.

Watch what’s going on around Hurricane Gustav and the power of social media for connecting news sources and “real” people.

Andy Carvin creates a Ning group for alerts and information. It includes the latest news, traffic cams, a twitter feed, and much more.

Here’s the associated Facebook group.

Here’s the main Twitter feed.

A Gustav wiki is built based on the Katrina wiki’s format, with up to date information. From the site; “It’s intended to be centralized site for links to information everywhere else on the web; please publicize it far and wide.” It includes lists of aid agencies, helpline numbers, animal rescue info, even an IRC channel. And a list of relevant Twitter resources.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez is on Twitter and on the case. He’s freely quoting from Twitter, Facebook and Myspace messages during his newscasts on CNN (which I was watching for part of the afternoon) - as well as citizen journalist videos such as this one that I just found off the twitter feed.

Hurricane Gustav In my Back yard from Uway folife on Vimeo.

It goes without saying that all of this has come together in a matter of days (if not hours). Amazing. If I am ever in any kind of disaster, natural or otherwise, Twitter will be the first place I turn.

Read & discuss at Maddie Grant's blog.

There is an unusually active conversation (not quite a debate) about strategic planning at Acronym.

Check it out.

Read & discuss at AEM's blog.

Using MeetingWizard (a free meetings scheduling program I love) to set up a Board of Directors conference call, I accidentally set a meeting start time as 9PM instead of 9AM. About two hours later someone noticed so I sent a corrected meeting time. And then several people complained that they liked the evening time much more than the morning time.

I’ve always tried to be flexible around volunteer president schedules - and in the pre-email days when there were lots of phone calls and live meetings - might often meet/call early morning (6AM) or after business hours (8PM) - if that was the preference - so that person didn’t have to schedule so much of their “real jobs” around the association president position needs. But what about all the other Board members …. and volunteers?

Maybe we could attract an entirely different group of volunteers if association activities weren’t always during business hours? And maybe there are association executives who are most productive at night anyway (e.g., most of my association e-newsletters are written around midnight) - and would welcome more (or any) evening options for volunteerism?

Read & discuss at CindyAE's blog.

This blog turned one year old nine days ago, on August 21. And what a year it’s been!

So once again, I just wanted to use this blog-day post to say THANK YOU to all who read this blog, everyone who has commented, who has challenged me, who has made me think things through more carefully, who has linked to me, who has supported me (and voted for me!) and helped me build a community.

I can’t do any of this stuff without you guys.

You know I like mottos, and have a bunch, so here’s an oldie but goodie by Hugh MacLeod that I thought would be a good mantra for the next 12 months.

Enrich, then simplify.

That’s what I’m going to try and do. Explore, then analyze. Walk to the edges, then come back a bit. Add layers, then peel them back. Play with all the shiny toys, then put some away for future use. Shoot on straight ahead, then circle back down the winding path. Connect people, then get out of the way. Work damn hard, but remember to stop and pay attention to my family every day. Find the biggest hunk of rock, then chip away until the sculpture appears. Mix all the elements together, then distill. Suck it all in, then filter.

Listen to everyone, then make up my own mind.

Enrich, then simplify. Rinse and repeat.

Thank you for coming along for the ride.

Read & discuss at Maddie Grant's blog.

Read & discuss at Jeffrey Cufaude's blog.

Spending time with friends and family. Just left the Great Allentown fair now grabbing some dinner. A really great way to end the summer. #
Blog Post: Stream of Consciousness (2008-08-29) http://s3nt.com/m8v #
@alistbloggers I’ve put in place a few new protective measures on the http://www.alistbloggers.org site. You should notice a change soon. #
Getting used to my new MacBook. The first Mac I have ever owned but definitely not my last. Simply amazing. Glad to be enlightened. #

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Read & discuss at desabol's blog.

Enjoy the conversation!

Read & discuss at jeffpi1@gmail.com (Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation LLC, the association community's leading voice for innovation!)'s blog.

The MacArthur Foundation and UC Irvine, Duke, HASTAC are giving away $2million in awards for the following:

* Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards will support projects that demonstrate new modes of participatory learning, in which people take part in virtual communities, share ideas, comment on one another’s projects, and advance goals together. Successful projects will promote participatory learning in a variety of environments: through the creation of new digital tools, modification of existing ones, or use of digital media in some other novel way. […] Winners will receive between $30,000 and $250,000.

* Young Innovator Awards are designed to encourage young people aged 18-25 to think boldly about “what comes next” in participatory learning and to contribute to making it happen. Winners will receive funding to do an internship with a sponsor organization to help bring their most visionary ideas from the “garage” stage to implementation. […] Winners will receive between $5,000 and $30,000.

Press release is here.

Sound like something your organization is doing? Check it out. These groups are doing really fascinating stuff.

Read & discuss at Maddie Grant's blog.

Read & discuss at Hilary's blog.