Converge South 06: Creativity Online

Saturday, October 14, 2006:

The class assignment: blog an event. Why not blog a bloggers convention?  ConvergeSouth 06, to be held at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro fit the bill. The schedule seemed on point, and Paul Jones had bragged on Converge South 05 as extremely relevant to bloggers.

You blog. Don’t you want to do much more: I wandered across advance publicity for ConvergeSouth06 when I saw it mentioned on another blog.  The price was right – free admission and even a free lunch.  The keynoter was to be Elizabeth Edwards.

6:30 am. Leave Raleigh. Men don’t ask for directions: Organizers posted directions to the conference, but I could swear at the time I printed them out they did NOT show which entrance to take or which lot to park in.  In any case I forgot to bring the conference directions with me, just a map from the A&T website. The advance publicity had said to watch for signage, but that part of Greensboro was new to me. I decided to follow the signs that were to be posted, but apparently one got turned 90 degrees so I wound up totally lost on the wrong side of campus.   I eventually found the General Classroom building. 

250 Registered, about 175 attended:  The ConvergeSouth06 webpage allowed (of course) online registration and dynamically allowed users to see who had registered, and a link to their blogs. (The link is now dead). About 250 persons had registered by three days before the conference, when registration was cut off, preumably for facility capacity and budget issues. About 175 actually showed up (I guess the free registration lured some folks to register who felt no stake and didn’t show.) I had a bagel and cream cheese and three cups of the dark roast coffee from the free breakfast buffet to steel myself for a long day.

8:30 am. Ed Cone opens the festivities: Opening session Saturday morning 8:30 am, titled “Greetings, Introduction to the Unconference” was  opened by Ed Cone , who deadpanned ”My name is Ed, and I’m a blogger.” He told the crowd the purpose of “this free conference” is “creativity on the web for all people”, and emphasized that “This is a user conference, not a vendor conference.” That led in to Ed giving thanks to sponsors Pay Per Post and Edelman. “A lot of people hate Pay Per Post, and that’s OK.” said Ed, adding “We planned to make this a small conference, but that didn’t work.” Ed announced ConvergeSouth is being podcast on the Georgia Podcast Network. The podcasts should be up by mid-November. (There is a podcast up already of an interview that MaryAm Scoble did of Elizabeth Edwards during a break at Converge South 06)

Nothing could be finer: Ed suggested “Let’s sing-a-long” to bond the group, and led the crowd in an off-key rendition of “Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the Morning”.  The final instructions from Ed to the group? “No yelling, no selling.”

Fans Sound Off: Carolina Hurricanes Message Boards and Blogs

Assignment: Original writing piece for an organization, the Carolina Hurricanes NHL hockey team (with which I have no affiliation). Site visitors may be those who regularly frequent message boards and are familiar with the written and unwritten rules, or they may be new to the genre and will welcome a FAQ on etiquette. Users might just come once or twice to the site, or may revisit to see updated resources and news about the fan message board universe.

You may be in the capacity crowd when 18,730 fans converge on the RBC Center for home dates for the 2006 NHL Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, but the fun doesn’t have to end when the game is over. You might be a fan from afar, a former Raleigh area resident, or even a resident of another country, perhaps the native land of one of the Canes European-born players.

MESSAGE BOARDS

Hundreds of our fans are using online message boards to share their experiences, commenting on the team and individual players. Tickets are traded, photos posted and shared, and stories told and retold. Here at carolinahurricanes.com we want to let you know how to get in on the action.

Anyone with an internet connection can join the online Carolina Hurricanes world. Message board users can make up their own screen names and stay relatively anonymous, or post with their real names, and even upload avatars like that of Scoreboards message board moderator Jeffbear.

BLOGS

In addition to message boards, the blog phenomenon allows individual fans to set up their own individualized weblogs, posting commentary, with most allowing readers of the blog to chime in with their comments. A good blog will also have a blogroll, linking the reader to other similar sites or resources.

AN ONLINE FAN COMMUNITY

Online fan communities have largely developed on their own, but both national media and the team itself have also hosted message boards or set up blogs. This article will catalogue numerous message boards and blogs that focus on the Canes, as well as give casual fans pointers on using those boards. Message boards can be of two varieties, moderated, and those with standards. Scoreboards moderator Jeffbear discusses differences:

“I think it’s important to deal with the stance regarding moderation and Standards up front. There’s a huge difference between an actively moderated board and a loosely moderated board in terms of what posters can get away with in terms of behavior, and it’s good to make people aware of the rules up front … and then enforce them. All message boards generate their own conventions in terms of slang terms, user handles, avatar pictures and the like. Those things need to be explained in a good FAQ”

GAME DAY THREAD
Fans seem to enjoy the message board game-day thread, where the moderator posts an introduction to the game a day or two in advance, fans make predictions and talk about injuries, and during the game fans listening on the radio or watching on TV post commentary. Fans returning from the game also chime in later. A regular season game might see 100+ postings, while a playoff game might have over 300.

Module 8 – Assignment 1: Semiotic Analysis

Assignment: Write a post or two that explores how semiotic analysis might help us plan our content, Web pages and sites.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign …

Signs take the form of words or images, but have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning (Chandler) The metaphor adds to communication by providing the association of meaning (Sherson).  Analyzing signs can help us get “value added” from using graphic images to convey meaning.  A good website can “brand” itself by having a consistent use of images, signs, and logos throughout. This can help keep the user on the site, and also recognize the site when it may be referenced elsewhere.  Web designers who might have an international audience have to make sure that the images they use do not have negative meanings in other cultures.

Signs of Google

Google, for example, uses its trademarked logo (blue, green, yellow, blue, green and red lettersalways in the same order) in large typeface for its main websearch function,

 

 with the sub brands for video, image search, news, maps, book search, and groups always in smaller letters below the standard large head, and always in the same color for all letters in the subbrand, although each subbrand has a different color.

 

Froogle, isn’t that a Saturday morning cartoon show?

  Froogle, its shopping brand, does not use the word “Google”, but the letters appear blue, green, red, yellow, blue, green, and red, a similar pattern to the main Google trademark. 

 

The comparable color pattern on Froogle helps the user understand that it is a Google branding.

Consistency

Consistent use of images and signs in the websites we design will help users find their way, identify the site, and encourage others to visit.  Unlike a book or newspaper, where the reader has more intuitive guides to where to go, web users can be gone in a mouseclick.

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new graphic added 11/12/2006 courtesy the New York Times via Professor Carroll:

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new graphic added 11/27/2006

Module 8 – Assignment 2: Detailing online content

Assignment: write another post detailing online content you will create for your organization or publication outlined in Module 7. Identify the topic or angle of your proposed piece, making sure the topic is relevant and timely.

 Online fan communities (usually in the form of message boards, blogs, or fan sites) have largely developed on their own, but http://www.carolinahurricanes.com has also attempted to host a message board. This writing for the site will attempt to catalogue fan message boards and blogs that focus on the Carolina Hurricanes, so as to drive traffic in both directions and increase fan interest in the team. The catalogue will include commentary on each board and blog.  Site visitors may be those who regularly frequent message boards and are familiar with the written and unwritten rules, or they may be new to the genre and will welcome a FAQ on etiquette.  Users might just come once or twice to the site, or may revisit to see updated resources and news about the fan message board universe. It will be written as a how-to feature for the website.

(NOTE: I have no actual connection with http://www.carolinahurricanes.com, this assignment will be written hypothetically for that site)

Module 11: Blog something (ConvergeSouth)

Assgnment for week 11: Blog something – an event, trip, conference or meeting. Take the rest of us there. (due November 5)

Saturday October 14, I’ll be at ConvergeSouth. Watch for my post in week 11.

http://www.convergesouth.com

schedule at: http://www.convergesouth.com/schedule.html

keynoter will be Elizabeth Edwards (go buy her new book Saving Graces)

Module 7: Online content begins

Assignment:

1.  Identify a publication, company or organization for or about which you will create online content. It should be one with which you have or want to have some connection or affiliation, one with which you are familiar.
2. Tell as much as you can about the point of view you will be taking and about the organization.
3. Tell about your audience.
4. Indicate your style guide for online content. 

1. http://www.carolinahurricanes.com Official website of the NHL Carolina Hurricanes.

2. The Carolina Hurricanes are a for-profit hockey club in the National Hockey League. It earns revenue from admission tickets, merchandise sales, and broadcast rights. Developing a fan base is an important part of revenue maximization. Online fan communities (usually in the form of message boards, blogs, or fan sites) have largely developed on their own, but http://www.carolinahurricanes.com has also attempted to host a message board. This writing for the site will attempt to catalogue fan message boards and blogs that focus on the Carolina Hurricanes, so as to drive traffic in both directions and increase fan interest in the team. The catalogue will include commentary on each board and blog.

3. The audience will be hockey fans from around the world. While most hockey players and fans are from North American, a large percentage of hockey players are from Europe, and the players may have significant fan bases.  Carolina Hurricanes players hail from the Czech Republic, Sweden, the Ukraine, and Brunei. Attention must be paid to the types of browsers and connection speeds worldwide fan users may have, as well as any cultural details.  In addition to fans, media covering the team can be expected to frequent these sites in search of information and commentary. At peak times during the season, fans from other teams will also visit.  Site visitors may be those who regularly frequent message boards and are familiar with the written and unwritten rules, or they may be new to the genre and will welcome a FAQ on etiquette.  Users might just come once or twice to the site, or may revisit to see updated resources and news about the fan message board universe.

4.  My style guide for online content will be Wired Style, Revised and Updated, first edition 1999.

Module 6 – question 4: write 3 headlines for a lede

Assignment: for a story lede in the course book, write an eight-word headline, a six-word headline, and a six-word headline with an eight-word subhead

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