Month: November 2012

Inbox zero: email techniques for more efficient knowledge workers (like reporters) [VIDEO]

For anyone who traffics in ideas, relationships and  communication (and reporters are certainly that), “one of the most important soft skills you can have is handling a high-volume of email,” said Merlin Mann in his well-trafficked 2007 “Inbox Zero” Tech Talk.

The idea here is that time and attention are irreplaceable, finite and the most valuable resources of knowledge workers. So, as silly as it sounds, managing efficiently your email is a major skill.

Yet we all get overwhelmed by the fire hose that is our email inbox (and don’t put any workforce development time to this). For an industry that needs to keep our sources organized and be able to manage relationships (and do so by emailing better), that’s a sin. As I’ve brought on a couple reporters, I’ve found myself working with my cofounder Brian James Kirk, a true student of email productivity, to coach them on better email practices.

Continue reading Inbox zero: email techniques for more efficient knowledge workers (like reporters) [VIDEO]

When content partnerships (still) don’t work

Content partnerships do not work, my colleague Sean Blanda posited last year.

From the very first conversations we’ve had that led to his post, I’ve wanted to prove this wrong. In truth, I do believe in the future, the expectations and roles will be sorted out, and content partnerships will be understood and successful.

But, for now, content partnerships still don’t work.

Continue reading When content partnerships (still) don’t work

When a group of technologists got together to talk about July 4, 2026

Last year, on November 29, 2011, I was able to host a group of civic-minded creative class technologists and entrepreneurs for one of a dozen parlor sessions that Philadelphia civic leader Sam Katz led to garner feedback for USA250, an effort to begin planning for July 4, 2026.

The initiative publicly launched this summer.

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Jimmy Quinn Memorial Basketball League in Fishtown

I hit the final free throw to put my team up four points in the last few seconds of the final championship game of the inaugural Jimmy Quinn Memorial Basketball League in Fishtown.

Including a playoff game and a best of three championship series (we won in two games), our team went 7-2, through September, October and November (lost one game due to a week of bad weather as we played outside at the Fishtown Rec before the playoffs inside at Shissler).

The league featured an active Facebook group, on which one of the league coorganizer’s wrote weekly wrap ups of the first few games before the contributions slowed, though they were fun while they lasted. Naturally I plucked some of the wrap ups below:

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Relationships are currency

Relationships are a currency.

They’re worth something — friendships, acquaintances, colleagues, sources. They enrich our lives and, yes, they are integral to any success. Things get done by people who have relationships, to help guide, support, advise and strengthen goals.

This goes for everyone, but there are surely some industries that need them more than others: construction and development, politics and government and, certainly, reporting and community building. So I think a lot about the connections and people who make up community in all of its forms.

If relationships are one of the most valuable resources we have, why do we so often ignore their impact and why do three types of people so often abuse the role of connection?

Continue reading Relationships are currency