Blogs and Feeds

NE Rowing Officials Letter

Today, I sent the following e-mail/letter to all of the NE USRA officials. On March 1, my term on the Rowing Commission begins. This will be a challenging endeavor for me. One of my goals is to keep the lines of communication open for all of us. Here is the text of the letter.

On March 1, I will officially become the NE Rep for the USRA Referee Commission at the close of Bruce Soden’s term. I would like to take this opportunity to begin what I hope will become a working partnership with the referees in the NE, a continuation of Bruce’s fine efforts.

First, I would like to thank Bruce for his service to rowing in NE as our representative to the USRA Referee Commission. His enthusiasm for rowing, his wit, and wisdom have set a high bar. We all owe him a debt of thanks.

Second, I would like to suggest that there are several areas of concern for all referees in the NE. The most pressing are recruitment of new officials and education for all participants – referees, coaches, and crews.

As I stated in the nomination materials, we need to identify, train and develop a larger, more diverse and sustaining corps of officials while improving the overall competency and consistency of all officials. We have all seen our sport grow rapidly. Many regattas started as small local events have rapidly grown very large. We need to have a corps of officials large enough and able to meet this demand. I have asked Bruce Soden to continue helping me with recruitment.

Second, I have asked Mike Siconalfi to continue as our Dean of Education. In this capacity Mike will be working to schedule and staff clinics. If your club or crew would like to hold a clinic send Mike an e-mail, and he’ll work with you on the logistics.

If you have not completed the data sheet using the new online system, please do so immediately. In the future when you can access it on a regular basis, you will find that it takes just a few minutes to log your efforts. I will be working to see that the capabilities of this system are expanded.

It is my intent to invite officials, particularly those who have indicated that they need to attend a clinic, to attend a virtual clinic within the next few weeks. Last Spring, we held the first virtual clinic, a beta test, so to speak. For this clinic all you will need is a phone and a computer. I will send you slides and a conference call in number before the clinic. It was actually quite fun. Do let me know if you would like to participate.

Third, just a reminder, do make sure that your membership dues are paid and that your membership is up to date before the season begins. You must be a USRA member to referee.

Fourth, to enhance communication through out the region, I will be including rowing information in my blog. Don’t be put off at the title of the blog – Blogs and Feeds. There is in fact a category for rowing information, and I expect to be posting to this regularly. If you have digital pictures that you would like for me to post or information about upcoming regattas or for that matter almost any rowing topic that you think we ,as officials ,might find interesting, send it along to me, and I will try to include it. On March 4-6, the referee commission will be meeting, and I will be sure to blog the event to keep you all up to date.

Finally,  may it finally stop snowing, let the ice come off the rivers and let’s get ready for another season.

Blog Tools Market Update

Just read Elise Bauer's Weblog Tools Market - Update. As she notes:

Market share analysis is an educated guessing game, especially when you are trying to determine share with only publicly available data.

But, in the fast-changing blog space, this market analysis is much needed. It should be noted that this analysis is US-centric so it is not totally representative of the entire blogosphere.

As this data shows as ever more tools come on the market it can be anticipated that the early to market leaders will gain momentum against the rest of the pack of followers. This will be particularly the case for those early market leaders with deep market reach such as Google has with Blogger.

I'm very much looking forward to tracking this over the next couple of years. In my opinion the good news with all of the growth is that at some point we will focus our discussions on blogs away from the technology to the actual uses. Yes! There will always be room for the tech-talk, but the emphasis will shift to applications. Blogs offer so much potential for expanding the "conversation" whether personal in a diary, enterprise-wide for project collaboration or market-wide through public blogs such as this.

The one clear picture that has emerged during the writing of Business Blogs: A Practical Guide has been how diverse the uses are already. It is clear that we are still just scratching the surface of their potential. I can hardly wait.

AIM Enters the Blogsphere

The Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM), the interactive marketing subsidiary of the Direct Marketing Association has launched a blog for its councils. The AIM blogs will be fed by the council members. I have been a member of the Search Engine Marketing Council (SEMC) and its co-chair for the past two years and have participated in its efforts to promote ethical practices in search marketing by developing and disseminating best practice documents and offering educational materials and Webinars. All of these efforts can only help grow the stature of search marketing and the understanding of its place in the marketing mix and the effectiveness of this marketing tactic. It will be interesting to see how the AIM blog develops over time.

SES NYC -- Getting Psyched

Getting excited about next week's Search Engine Strategies conference in NYC. I do hope that I can carve out a few moments to get a chance to see the Gates of New York installation. Thus far I've had to be satisfied with a Web tour of the Gates of Somerville. Here are the stunning Feeding Gates. Christo eat your heart out. A site has been set up for a  free for all critique of the Gates of NY project. It is interesting reading.

Why Rowing?

My last post on rowing might seem a bit off topic for this blog on "Blogs and Feeds," but since this is my public blog -- not one of my experimental sandboxes -- I decided to include materials on rowing.

For the past 15 years I have avidly refereed rowing. No! I did not row in college -- crew was not an option. I came to the sport from other sports. For many years, I was a high school basketball and volleyball official, but I was drawn into crew. Now that my wheels (BBall speak for running gear) have given out, I find few leisure time activities more compelling than chasing rowing shells down a serene piece of water.

This year I ran for and was elected to the Referee Commission of US Rowing so I expect to try and use this blog to communicate with those interested enough to read it.

So rowing will not be off-topic but rather on-topic, particularly when the season gets in full swing.

The Charles Is Frozen, But Rowing Is Still Hot

This is the optimistic part of the rowing season -- when the water is still frozen or too cold for rowing, but the regatta planning is in full gear. This is the season when rowing officials, myself included, are forced to make some hard decisions -- just how many regattas can be wedged into an already full schedule.

It seems the organizers are getting smarter year-by-year and recognize that there are just too few of us to staff all of their events so they ask early and often. The sport has grown geometrically and the referee corps has grown less rapidly. Also, with the tremendous growth of masters competition, becoming an official is not the only way to stay active in the sport.

In the 15 years that I have been refereeing rowing, I have had the opportunity to meet some of the nicest people -- athletes, coaches and organizers -- so it makes it very hard to just say no. So each year during this optimistic season, I say yes and yes and yes! It is only when I realize that I have not been home on a weekend for two months that I rethink it a bit, but by then it is too late.

At early Spring regattas, the challenge is to stay warm enough to work effectively. Here in New England it can still be bone-chilling cold until mid-May. Then, in the Summer, the heat and sun are enemies. But, I would not trade anything for the pleasure of getting out on the water.

Web Feeds, Blogs & Search: Search Engine Strategies, NYC

From February 28-March 3, there will be another search industry pow-wow in NYC. The Search Engine Strategies Conferences have become not to be missed events. Whether it is in New York in March, San Jose in August or even cold Chicago in December, there is always something new to learn at these conferences.

Danny Sullivan, who organizes the event, has a gift for developing an array of sessions that will interest not only the long time pro but also those who are just trying to get their grip on the fast-moving search space.

On March 1, I will be speaking on the panel: Web Feeds, Blogs & Search. It should be interesting. This is the third time that I will be giving this talk. I debuted it at the August SES in San Jose, California, revised/revamped it for Chicago and will be delivering a new version at this show. It is a challenge to make sure to have new stuff for each event. In San Jose, I was pleasantly surprised at how rapidly the session appeared on blogs and at how thoroughly it was covered.

Looking forward to New York . . .

Business Blogs: A Practical Guide Almost Finished

This has been a very busy period, which could account for why I have not been keeping this blog up to date. That is about to change. 2005 has brought many changes for me. After a year of limited professional activity, I am suddenly very busy. The good part has been working on a new book on blogging. Bill Ives, a knowledge management expert and I have been working on it for several months. The book is entitled Business Blogs: A Practical Guide. We expect to finish the last bits and pieces this next week or so and then . . . For the book we have interviewed well over 60 bloggers, ranging from well-known A-list bloggers to independent businesses using this medium to promote their own businesses. As we get closer to the actual publication date, I'll be adding more of our findings and how to get copies of the book.