Depictions of Dinosaurs in Standardized Tests
Posted on 27 August 2010 | No responses
As with many children, I was always interested in dinosaurs and I have kept that love of paleontology with me as an adult. I’m not a paleontologist but just a run-of-the-mill (35yr old) kid who loves dinos and tries to keep up with current trends in paleontology and evolutionary science. So, naturally, it pains me to see out-dated depictions of them, especially on standardized tests, specifically this year’s New York State Grade 8 Science assessment. And while these problems are not directly related to the question being asked, I contacted the New York State Education Department and suggested that the graphics and terminology be updated to reflect a more current outlook on dinosaurs and their evolution.
Where to begin? Firstly, there is a typo: the image and first answer refer to a “theodont”; the correct term is “thecodont“. Unfortunately, “thecodont” is considered to be an obsolete term and all modern paleontologists use the term “archosaur“.
Secondly, the dinosaurs in the associated image are shown as tail-draggers. Most dinosaurs are no longer depicted as tail-draggers, especially since Bob Bakker published The Dinosaur Heresies back in 1986 and a body of evidence points to birds as being the descendants of dinosaurs. Even Charles R. Knight didn’t depict dinosaurs as tail-draggers in his 1897 painting, Leaping Laelaps!
Thirdly, Coelophysis is a distinct species that did not evolve into theropods or sauropods; theropods were well established by the time of coelophysis.
I do have to give some leeway in the depiction of Triceratops, though. John Scannella and Jack Horner have recently shown that Triceratops may be a juvenile Torosaurus (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/02724634.2010.483632) but this paper was published after the Grade 8 Science assessment was administered.
Like I’d said, I realize that the “problems” I see are not directly related to the specific question being asked but, overall, they do reflect a dated outlook on dinosaurs and their evolution. Unfortunately, the reply I received from NYSED says, “Thank you for your comments. The graphic was referenced to a source. Perhaps it was not reflective of current conventions in the dinosaur world! We appreciate the information you have provided”. One can only hope that next year’s assessment — and the textbooks being used in science classes — might be updated to reflect a more current view of dinosaurs and their evolution!
UPDATE: Wet-hopped Calamity Ale
Posted on 9 August 2010 | No responses
I racked the Wet-hopped Calamity Ale to secondary yesterday after only a week in primary. Normally I let my beers sit in primary for a couple weeks just to make sure that the yeast have had sufficient time to do their work and then have a nice rest but, this time, there was almost no activity from the airlock after just a couple days. There was a nice, full head of kräusen the morning after I pitched the yeast, which was gone by that afternoon and the roiling tumultuous fermentation stopped shortly thereafter.
It appears that I the beer has over-attenuated with a current gravity reading of 1.008 (I was shooting for 1.015) but, besides a bit of alcohol “hotness” (that I’m sure will go away as the beer matures, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the overall flavor profile of the beer (at this point). The banana and clove esters from the Trappist Ale yeast don’t seem to be as pronounced as the Dubbel I brewed earlier in the year.
So, while the brew day may have been a complete mess, things could still turn out fine. That’s the wonder and joy of homebrewing: even if you mess-up, all may not be totally lost. You just need to give it some time, relax, don’t worry, and have a homebrew!
How a Brew Day Goes Horribly Wrong
Posted on 2 August 2010 | 2 responses
The last couple of years, I’ve taken time off from brewing during the summer months due to the fact that I have a hard time keeping my fermentation temps regulated when the weather is warm. Sure, I’ve used a swamp cooler but cycling out the ice packs gets to be tedious and and have a hard time keeping the actual temperature below 68°.
Well, with a vial of White Labs WLP500 (Trappist Ale Yeast) sitting in the fridge and just past it’s “expiration” date, I decided to say, “What the Hell” and give a summer brew a chance. We keep the ambient air in our townhouse around 72° and the last time I used the yeast (and tried to ferment it at a warmer temperature), the brew came out great and keeps improving with age. All I’d need to do is swing by the local homebrew shop, pick up some grains and dry malt extract, and then work out the specifics from there.
As I was driving home another lightbulb went off and I decided to take things one step further: why not harvest some of my Fuggle hops and throw them in fresh?
And, after harvesting about 1 1/2 ounces of hops, another lightbulb went off: why not mix the Trappist Ale Yeast with the yeast harvested from the bottom of a couple bottles of Blanche de Chambly? I already had one bottle in the fridge and it wouldn’t be a problem to pick up a couple more for yeast-harvesting purposes.
Oh, wait — another lightbulb! — I could try doing an open-fermentation! (No, I’m not planning on harvesting the yeast but I wonder what effect, if any, it will have on the final flavor of the beer)
So here’s the recipe I started with:
- Wet-hopped Calamity Ale
- BJCP Category: 16E (Belgian Specialty Ale)
- Ingredients
- 2 lb Pilsner malt
- 3 lb Bohemian Pilsner malt
- 8 oz Belgian Biscuit malt
- 8 oz Belgian Aromatic
- 3 lb light DME
- 12 oz light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 oz German Tettnang (5.1%, 60)
- 1 1/2 oz fresh, we Fuggle (~1%, 10)
- 1 tsp Irish moss
- Starter
- 8 oz light DME
- 1 tsp Fermax yeast nutrient
- 1 tablet White Labs Servomyces Yeast Nutrient
- Yeast slurry from bottom of 3 bottles of Blanch de Chambly
- 1 vial White Labs WLP500 (Trappist Ale Yeast)
- Estimated Original Gravity: 1.068
- Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015
- Bitterness: 20.1 IBUs
- Alcohol: 5.45% (ABW), 6.97% (ABV)
After consuming 3 bottles of Blanche de Chambly and collecting the slurries, I had the starter ready to go on Friday night but the real adventure began on Sunday…
Sunday morning started off well with a nice hearty breakfast of pan-fried steak, homefries, and scrambled eggs. In the meantime, I’d started the grill to get a pork shoulder set-up for a slow smoke. Maybe I’d taken on too much when you factor in the brewing but, in my head, I’d planned everything out so that brewing and smoking the pork shoulder shouldn’t conflict with one another. As most homebrewers know, brewing is a long, lazy process punctuated by moments of wild activity. I had everything organized so that the brewing and grilling endeavors should sync right up nicely.
Yeah, whatever.
Right from the start, I realized I had a problem: my mashtun isn’t big enough to hold 6 pounds of grain. As I poured the grain into the container (a converted 3 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler), I thought to myself, “Funny, I’ve used 6 pounds of grain in previous mashes — why won’t this fit?” Unfortunately, I didn’t listen to the little alarm bell going off in my head and I thought that I’d be fine. There wasn’t a lot of extra space at the top of the mashtun but, if I was careful, there would be enough to let the grains expand.
I proceeded to heat up the mash water to 150° and added 1 tablespoon of 5.2 pH Stabilizer and I think this is where the real problems began. Once the water was up to heat, I poured about 1 gallon of water into the mashtun and carefully stirred-up the grain bed to make sure the water was well incorporated. Then I gingerly screwed on the top of the mashtun and sat back to wait. My original plan was to do a 60 minute mash at 150° and then a second 30 minute mash at 160° before sparging with 2 gallons at 165-170°.
After letting the grains mash for 60 minutes, I tried to collect the first runnings. A slow stream of milky white liquid drained from the mashtun and, after I’d collected about 3 cups in a pitcher, promptly stopped. Shit.
I shut the valve on the mashtun, poured the liquid back on top of the grain bed and tried again. Shit. Shit.
Against my better judgment, I tried stirring the grains and scraping the bottom of the mashtun thinking my filters (a converted vegetable steamer and Surescreen) were clogged. Oh, they were but I couldn’t unclog them enough to get any liquid to flow through. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Now I was getting desperate. I figured that, if I could muddle through the first mash and collect something — anything! — I’d be fine. I tried pouring a bit more water on top of the grain bed thinking that might help.
It didn’t.
I tried scooping out a bunch of the grain bed and then poured in more water. That didn’t help, either. I dumped out all of the grain bed, thoroughly cleaned the mashtun with hot water, made sure plain water flowed through (which it did), and then dumped the grains back in to try again. That didn’t help, either.
By this time I was thoroughly frustrated and didn’t know what to do. Looking back at my notes from previous beers, I realized that I’d had similar problems with stuck mashes and sparges whenever I’d used the 5.2 ph Stabilizer. By this time I didn’t really care what the culprit was, I just needed a solution. The pork shoulder was cooking nicely and all of my “careful” planning had gone out the window. A 1 hour process was turning into 2 and I was still on the first mash.
Thankfully my wife suggested that I try pouring the grains into a grain bag and then putting that into the mashtun as another form of filter. I wasn’t sure it would work but, at this point I was willing to try anything, so I split-up the mash slurry and put 2/3 in the grain bag and then poured another half-gallon of water (at 160°) over the top. Needing a break, I let the whole concoction rest for 30 minutes before continuing.
This time things seemed to work: liquid was running out of the mashtun and I could actually start recirculating and collecting some in the brew pot! Rather than tempt fate, I continued to recirculate the first runnings through a couple times and then just dumped the remaining grains and water back into the mashtun. From there I did a 3 gallon sparge at 170°, stirred in the DME and other sugars, and then topped-off the brew pot to about 7 gallons. Just to be safe from boil overs, I removed about 2 gallons of wort. Since I was planning on doing a 2 hour boil, I figured I’d just add these 2 gallons back at the 1 hour mark.
And on to the boil I went but this is where the pork conflicted with my brewing duties: the wort was getting hot but not too close to boil so I pulled the pork off the grill and started to pull it. One minute I’m happily going at the meat with the cleaver and the next I look up to see thick white foam erupting from the brewpot and getting everywhere. The beer had come to a rolling boil. Hot break was all over the patio and burner, making a complete mess.
By now I was so exasperated that I reduced the boil time from 2 hours to 90 minutes and just wanted to get the whole ordeal over with. I’d already cleaned-up the mess in the kitchen from dealing with the mash and now I was looking at a brewpot covered in schmutz and carbon blackening. I erased most of the brewing notes I’d written down the previous night, replaced it with, “Complete cock-up — brew day was a total mess”, and decided to relax and pop-open a bottle of homebrew. The hops were added at their appropriate times and the wort was cooled and dumped into the fermenting bucket.
This morning I peeked into the fermenting bucket and saw a nice brown head of kräusen so I removed the lid. There was no point in worrying about any problems at this point…the messes were all made and everything is now in the hands of God and his happy Saccharomyces helpers.
Something new is in the works!
Posted on 28 July 2010 | No responses
I realize that I haven’t posted anything here in awhile. Some new and exciting things are in the works so stay tuned!
Utica and Cooperstown Brewery Tour (June 19-20, 2010)
Posted on 22 June 2010 | No responses
Ah June…when a boy’s fancies turn to beer and jam bands. And what better way to celebrate the season than to travel out to Saratoga for Phish concert and stop along at breweries along the way. As we were heading out to Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) for the Phish concert on June 19th, we also took some time to stop at a few breweries (and a cidery) along the way. We had a gorgeouse weather for the weekend and, although there were no real suprises (beer-wise), the drive was trip and one definitely worth repeating.
Matt Brewing Company (Utica, NY)
What can I say other than it was very disappointing. Tours are only at 1pm and 3pm and you can only do tastings if you take the brewery tour. Which we didn’t do. We perused the gift shop for a bit, walked around part of the brewery (from the outside) and then went across the street to have a beer. I have to admit that, for a cheaper beer, I did enjoy Utica Club and will definitely have it again. And everyone from the area is very familiar with the Saranac offerings. Were we to do the trip again, I will not lose sleep over skipping Utica and, from the looks of things, progress and industry have done the same to the poor city.
Cooperstown Brewing Company (Milford, NY)
Small and unassuming, the Cooperstown Brewing Company is actually in Milford NY. The brewery is an old, converted milk house and the staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, despite the tasting room being very busy shortly after we arrived. While Old Slugger is their best-known offering, I found their Nine Man (golden ale) to be my favorite but one should also try their Pride of Milford. All of their beers are open-fermented using Ringwood ale yeast and the English cahracter and fruity esters are readily apparent throughout their line. Needless to say, we left with smiles on our faces and 4 full growlers.
Brewery Ommegang (Cooperstown, NY)
Our next stop on the tour was the beautiful Brewery Ommegang, nestled in rolling hills and located on a 140-acre former hop farm. Being familiar with their beers, Colleen and I took an informal tour of the grounds and then headed in for a tasting. Undoubtedly, we enjoyed each of the beers we tasted (Witte, Rare Vos, Hennepin, Abbey Ale, and Three Philosophers) but I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t offer any of their rarer brews (Ommegeddon, Chocolate Indulgence, etc.). Still, the stars of the show were the local foods they offered along with the beer tastings. We didn’t purchase any beers at Ommegang (since we can find them at local vendors like Wegmans or Beers of the World) but did buy some fudge (made with Chocolate Indulgence) and mustard: horseraddish and maple (yum!)
Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard (Fly Creek, NY)
Just north of Cooperstown, the Fly Creek Cider Mill and Orchard screams “tourist trap” and, in the fall, I can envision busloads of pensioners and families running around the mill petting the animals, tasting the many apple-related products, and snapping pictures of the well-groomed orchards and grounds. Their hard ciders are a bit cloyingly sweet (for my taste) but, for those who prefer syrupy, fruity wines (like a Finger Lakes riesling) then you’ll definitely like the ciders and fruit wines available here. The outstanding star of the mill — and a definite reason to return again — is their cave-aged, 5-year-old cheddar cheese. One block alone would be worth fighting through a crowd of apple-addled geriatrics!
Web Design Woes
Posted on 16 June 2010 | No responses
This latest addition to the “Historical Perspective” section was originally inspired by a post on a fellow Web Designer’s site. Originally posted on September 5, 2003, some of the content may be a bit dated but the overall concepts and intent are timeless. In trying to revive Anthurian, I’ve been questioning my intentions and sensibilities, both creatively and as a content creator.
I am a person who spends an inordinate amount of time surfing the Internet and I clearly recognize that my design and implementation of any new site is highly influenced by that fact. My designs may be overly-influenced by the Web to some extent — I have pictures of Jakob Nielsen hanging around my desk at work and love reading essays by Edward Tufte, but that does not mean that I’ve been successful at implementing any of the things that they advocate. I’d like to believe that my designs are accessible, usable, intuitive, well thought out, and (somewhat) pleasing to the user — but there is no guarantee that my adventures in objectivity will end with the results I desire. Web developers (of all veins: designers, programmers, architects, etc.) are all a product of their environment and the way in which they have chosen to perceive the Internet. I find myself leaning heavily towards the Web Standards, Usability, Information Architecture, and “Content-Is-King” camps and I try to push some of what I have learned about those topics into my designs. In many instances there is a certain amount of success that comes from bringing all of these things together for a site while, in other cases there are serious limitations to approaching a project from such a perspective. I tend to view a Web site as only a conduit for information and ideas — ideas and information that need to be presented in an intuitive, useful, AND visually-compelling manner. So it seems that the real task is to learn how to view the world from outside of the environment that you have made for yourself. Even though the Internet offers a lot of possibilities for us to come in contact with new (and different) concepts and philosophies, it is a terrible “educator” on those philosophies. Usually, there is little incentive for us to break out of the comfort zone we have constructed for ourselves. It is very easy to develop a site based on the principals of Usability or Web Standards but one must be careful that the site doesn’t fall prey to focusing on only one philosophy. As Adam points out, the CSS Zen Garden offers a glimpse into what can happen when all of the various Web philosophies out there converge. Another convergence comes with Macromedia’s (relatively) recent vow to make their products more standards-compliant, usable, and accessible. Prior to them making this shift Dreamweaver, their WYSIWYG Web development program, and Flash were two of the worst culprits as far as Web-philosophy myopia went. Dreamweaver was notorious for writing “bloat-code” that would bring a creative developers idea to life but which was totally impractical from a code-view aspect. The HTML that Dreamweaver output contained line upon line of extraneous code that increased the files overall size thereby slowing it’s download time for end users. There was also the fact that this auto-generated code was not easily readable by any human and, if a creative developer did not truly understand HTML or how the Web works, there was a serious chance that they could produce a site which would “break” when released into the wilds of the Internet. Add in Flash to this equation and what ended up evolving were thousands upon thousands of sites which had a useless intro movie (Remember? The ones with the “skip intro” button somewhere and the pounding techno soundtrack?) which would then direct users to a Home page that, although beautiful aesthetically, was extremely difficult to navigate and often buried actual content behind pointless graphic treatments. Thankfully, things have changed and we have started to see a shift in how the Web looks. Today there are more and more sites which combine philosophies successfully, marrying the perspectives of their developers in a way that doesn’t exclude any one point of view while not focusing to strongly on another. On the other hand though, there are sites which focus too highly on accessibility or information architecture, for example, and forget the real people who are visiting the site. While these sites are usually wonderful examples of the philosophy that they promote, they forget about the fact that there is a human on the other side of the screen. I know that I haven’t achieved perfection in my designs but I’m willing to learn and grow. There are enough resources on the Web to keep me busy for quite awhile, but the Web is still only one medium and we are confronted with so many mediums that focusing on one limits our possibilities. Habits can be broken, and some should be, but there are other habits which evolve based on what we are exposed to. Our job is to get out and expose ourselves to those new, different, and influential resources which cause us to grow. Posted on 14 May 2010 | No responses Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood was an OK film that lacks the lightness of other previous versions. As Michael O’Sullivan, critic for the Washinton Post put it, Robin Hood is less about a band of merry men than a whole country of really angry ones. Compared to other films by Scott, this one is not an epic (like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven) or a game-changer (like Alien or Blade Runner) or a faithful period piece (like The Duelists). The film is definitely not one of Scott’s best but is saved by the wonderful acting of Russel Crowe, Cate Blanchett, and Max von Sydow. Rotten Tomatoes only rates the movie as 45% Fresh and, reading the reviews of others, it seems that many of us share the same view. The movie is a prequel and, as such, it ends where most other tales of Robin Hood begin. One major saving grace for the film is that there isn’t a dopey Bryan Adam’s song! My main problem with the movie is my knowledge of English/European history and the overwhelming number of anachronisms and Hollywood-esque conveniences that stretch my credulity and give trouble when trying to suspend my disbelief. For instance, horse-drawn plows weren’t introduced into Europe until the 16th Century; there’s too much use of glassware instead of a more time-period correct pottery, and; the use of 12th Century “Higgins” landing boats by the invading French army (ala the storming of Utah Beach in Saving Private Ryan). The movie even has trouble sticking to its own sense of inner reality: we’re told over and over again that England is bankrupt and the armies cost too much but, throughout the film, we find the infantry and archers riding on horseback. While this is a wonderful and expedient way to get masses of men from one side of England to another quickly, it doesn’t make much (realistic) sense. Still, I expect the movie will do fairly well at the box office based on its star-power alone. I would not call this a definitive Robin Hood movie but it’s not a bad one, either. I liked it better than the Kevin Costner version (which only has a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) but won’t be rushing out to add this to my collection once it hits DVD. It was a good flick but will be over-played on basic cable in a few years. Posted on 16 April 2010 | No responses While I’m posting this article to the “Historical Perspective” section, I do not know if I’d ever actually posted it to Anthurian. So, while some of the content may be a bit dated (“Firebird”, anyone?!), it’s points are still very relevant and valid for me today. Despite having access to sites like Delicious, I still struggle with managing and maintaing my bookmarks. Currently, there are 8869 bookmarks in my Delicious account and I still have the problem of training ot maintain 2 sets of (offline) bookmarks between my work and home computers. And, this morning, I’ve started with 8 tabs already open in Firefox. So, while the technology has advanced and the options have increased, Is still seem to be in the same place I was over 6 years ago. OK folks, I’ve officially got too many links to read and am starting to get a bit of information overload! I’m trying to get through it all so that I don’t just drag the hyperlink to my desktop and forget about it. Unfortunately, out of the 12 tabs I have open in Firebird, I’ve only read 2 of the articles. Of course, that’s not counting the pile of bookmarks that are starting to clutter up my desktop. Personally, I would love to find a better way to collect up, archive, and collate all of the links to “interesting” information that I find during my travels on the Web. Mozilla/Firebird’s bookmark sidebar goes a long way towards providing me with some of the functionality I want, but I would like some more options. Ideally, I’d love to have these options as an integrated part of my browser but with some limitations. For instance, I don’t want the bookmarks options to be overwhelming or the cause of unneeded bloat. For those reasons, I’m not totally opposed to looking at third-party options as a solution — should the right solution come available. To Mozilla’s credit, the various third-party Extensions that I have installed have never hampered my Firebird browsing experience, they have actually made it better, causing me to look to this community of developers for answers. I’m not so sure what that system would look like but here are a few of the items on my wishlist: My biggest worry about a bookmark tracking application or plug-in would be the potential for misuse and abuse. One thing that I would have to insist on would be a strong privacy and security policy. Not only because of the demographic information that could gleaned by tracking a person’s interests and habits, but also because of the fact that this system would integrate with the browser — possibly one of the most-used, yet least-understood, pieces of software available to the end user. Posted on 14 April 2010 | No responses This latest installment to the “Historical Perspective” section may be a bit dated in terms of me needing to use Netscape 4.8 but the overall theme is timeless. If I were to write this article now, little would need to be updated. This was originally posted to Anthurian on November 11, 2004. Much to my chagrin, I am currently in the middle of downloading Netscape 4.8 to install on my Home computer. Yes, I realize that I’m taking a huge step backwards but, in order to do some general administrative work for my job, I’m unable to use Mozilla or Internet Explorer. You see, we have a Time Entry System that was developed to run on Internet Explorer 5.5, which is the standard company-wide browser most employees have installed on their workstations. Unfortunately, the developers didn’t make any exceptions and the System has problems running on Internet Explorer 6 and won’t function at all if accessed via Mozilla. The issue? Java and the Microsoft implementation (or lack thereof) of the Sun JRE. At work I am using IE 6 and have no issues using the Time System but, when I installed the latest JRE, I made sure to exclude IE so it doesn’t use Sun’s version of Java but the default, Microsoft, version. There are others who weren’t so lucky and have had to install patches, jump through hoops, and balance a ball on their head, in order to get things working correctly. Of course, I use the term “correctly” very loosely, not knowing what had to be kludged together to fix their issues. At home I’m not quite so lucky — despite uninstalling and re-installing all Java-related software and following the same steps I did at work, I’m unable to use a system that is, supposedly, meant to be Web-accessible. At first I considered the Google Toolbar (which is installed on my work computer) thinking that it’s pop-up blocking was hindering my efforts but, after allowing site pop-ups for the Time Entry System, found that wasn’t the culprit. Now the Time System just crashes IE 6 if I attempt to use it and, like I said, Mozilla is completely out of the question as an alternative. Therefore, after banging my head against multiple walls, I’ve been forced to find a solution to a problem that would not have arisen if some foresight and planning had accounted for the myriad of browser and operating system combinations that exist outside of a closed corporate environment. Sometimes, because of time and budget constraints, I’ll find myself falling into the trap of throwing something together quickly without allotting for testing on multiple browser and OS configurations but, like Jiminy Cricket, the implications of such hasty development often slows me to the point where I can take a more objective view of my current approach and its possible shortcomings. Being human, we’re all bound to make mistakes but that is no excuse for consciously scorning users, their operating system, browser, or personal taste and preferences. Coding for an environment like the Web invariably drives me to seek the most compatible and accessible solution available. Yet there are those who still cling to the (shortsighted) belief that all systems and environments should be the same. When working on any Web-related project, such an approach ultimately dooms both the creator, support team, and users to either simple frustration or (at worst) a more serious and damaging outcome. Personally, I’ve seen numerous instances of developers coding only for their local environment and personal preferences, leading to numerous incompatibility issues. Sometimes these issues can be handled by simple fixes, updates, or (frustrated) support staff but there are times when serious animosity arises, leading to a nasty conclusion: users find another way to accomplish their goals and, if the system is revenue-generating, another place to spend their money. Does this monoculture mentality stem from an inability to understand the differences of others? Certainly there are some who lack the ability to put themselves in the shoes of the user; developers who, having found their comfort zone, have lost the capacity to empathize with others who may not work and think like they do. Certainly such a condemnation can’t apply to all developers and there are plenty of groups and individuals who are making it their mission to bring technology to the masses regardless of personal preferences or medium (and for many, their preferences and medium are dictated by disabilities beyond their control). But, for most users, I would guess that their comfort zone is a strong dictator of what and how they interact with anything computer-related and restricting them, based on your comfort zone, is a sure-fire set up for some disaster. Maybe it will be something small and you can release a patch or fix, but then you’re assuming your audience will actually get that fix. In a closed corporate environment, changes can be rolled out and applied company-wide whereas on the Internet, once you’ve left a bitter taste in a users mouth, the chances of them returning disappear and, if the problem egregious enough, so could your employer. In a corporate environment developers have some freedom to relax and enjoy the fixed variables of an environment that is either under their control or relatively stable but, for any Web application, such a luxury is not only shortsighted but close-minded. If your system or application cannot be supported by the user’s abilities or their OS environment then you’re removing them from their comfort zone. You’re pushing them to find workarounds or quick-fixes which, while a solution, are bound to lead to user frustration. If you’re lucky they’ll overlook these shortcomings and learn to live with a few quirks. If you’re unlucky, you’ve lost a customer and an influencer — dissatisfied and fed-up, it won’t be long before your reputation slips and takes earnings with it. Posted on 7 April 2010 | No responses Continuing my “Historical Perspective” series, this article was originally published on August 27, 2003 at a time when more and more PR professionals were starting to take their first steps into the Blogosphere. This was before the Global PR Blogweek and at a time when corporations were starting to realize the potential (for better or worse) of participatory journalism and the Long Tail. In case you aren’t aware, PR professionals are making their way into the blogosphere and they are slowly becoming aware of the potential that blogs represent. I have to admit that I have been pulled into this myself but I would like to remain objective, I want to remain an individual, first and foremost. This is an interesting time for the Web: corporations are realizing that there is more to the Internet than just e-commerce, they are starting to wake up to the fact that one person’s words can make or break their image and a successful, traditional PR and marketing campaign may flop completely when brought Online. Personally, I’m not one who wants to promote a product or company simply because I’ve been hired to sell a product, clean up someone’s sullied image, or try to sway market opinions in favor of a distasteful product (like the campaign to change “prunes” into “dried plums”, for example — whatever you call them they still taste like crap and give you the shits). Blogging, for me, is about personal expression and the freedom to write what you feel. Bloggers are going to have to come to the realization that, as more corporations and their lackeys increase their proficiency with all things Web, the “little guy” is going to be lost — the universal democratic hopes of the Internet will fade in favor of targeted messaging and over-arching branding campaigns. Blogs are already becoming more specialized in their focus as each one attempts to gain a minute toehold in blog readership; this trend is apt to continue to the point where, excepting a few instances, blogs will not be the domain of the individual but of the collective, controlled by a few key players. Let me point out that by “few” I am speaking in Internet terms — this “few” may represent a thousand or more Web sites which are run and controlled, either directly or indirectly, by collectives such as PR firms, a marketing agencies, or corporations. What I am envisioning is the death of the blog as a medium of individual creativity, in favor of gangs of “brand supporters” who all work together to increase a company’s brand recognition or help increase the marketability of a product. For example, let’s refer back to the dried plums that I spoke of earlier: what I see are any number of “bloggers” set up to write about how wonderful the product is. These “bloggers” are hired by an agency to shore up the image of a product and they write about it in the informal way used by blogs. In one day’s entry they may discuss (in scientific terms) the physiological benefits of dried plums, point to a study about how wonderful dried plums are for the digestive system, and then (anecdotally) expound upon the health wonders dried plums. In the next day’s entry they may discuss another client and how wonderful their product is (say Firestone tires). By creating a realistic online identity, with a few foibles and personality traits, and alternating between a few key client messages, each individual blogger will develop a personality that is both believable and authoritative. Tie a number of these together and you have a high-powered reputation machine. Marketers and PR professionals who blog should aim for transparency — the public shouldn’t know you are selling something until it is too late. Successful PR campaigns will no longer need to be based upon the tired, old press release and more on the behind-the-scenes, guerrilla propaganda that a blog entry can provide (press releases will still have their place, they will just be supplemented by the informal writing style of a blog). Think about it terms of ROI: why take the time to write a single press release that has to be marketed to journalists (who may have absolutely no interest in what you are discussing) versus having a team of PR professionals with blogs who can tirelessly discuss your product with few to no restraints. The largest impact for such “gang” PR blogging would be in the ability to trackback, ping, and cross-link to the blogs of others. By doing so, one increases their “trust-factor” with their audience. Your claims may be scientifically unproven or brazenly untrue, but your simple reference to the writings of others will add to the believability of your story. Most people on the Internet take the information that they find at face-value and don’t delve any deeper than one or two links. By cross-linking to others in your “gang” who are providing similar information, each blogger contributes to the collective “truth” until there is mass buy-in.
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