This Past Week at Extreme Writing Now

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

I think we all knew it, but really didn’t want to take the time to correct it. Maybe because we are just as wrong as our children and really don’t see a problem with it. Or do we have ourselves fooled?

Fewer and fewer of our children are actually writing letters.

Nearly half of all UK primary school students polled said that weren’t sure how to hand write a letter, and 1 in 4 between the ages of seven and fourteen said they hadn’t sent one in the last year.

But guess what? Over half said they wrote at least one email or posted on a social networking site in the last week.

Child education expert Sue Palmer may have the best argument as why it is important to actually sit down and hand write a letter:

Handwritten letters are much more personal than electronic communication.By going to the trouble of physically committing words to paper, the writer shows their investment of time and effort in a relationship.

The entire article, Young shun art of letter writing, can be read at the BBC web site.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

I found this fascinating quote today:

Reissman, of Wilmington, was selected from a group of 24 students who submitted writings. The English major, who minored in creative writing, submitted an approximately 80-page portfolio that included academic writing, poems, fiction and creative nonfiction. Some of her work talked about dealing with cerebral palsy.

voices.washingtonpost.com, Del. student wins literary prize, May 2010

You should read the whole article.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

from Mirror.co.uk News

At the grand old age of 24, Lily Allen’s not about to retire – or is she? The singer announced yesterday: “I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record. “The days of me making money from recording music have been and gone.” Oddly, this quote – and all other comments by others on her blog – was later deleted after she complained: “The abuse was getting too much.” It all kicked off earlier this month when Lily started blogging about filesharing music (she’s against it). Our insider said: “Many of Lily’s fans illegally download music but they support her in other ways like buying her concert tickets. “I think they’ve stopped seeing her as a happy-go-lucky pop star and more as someone who would tell you off.”

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

From The New York Times

The Pentagon may have helped invent the Internet, but these days it is vigorously debating just how to use the Web.

In the coming month, the Defense Department, citing growing concerns about cybersecurity, plans to issue a new policy on social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

People familiar with the department’s review expect it will set limits on who can access networking sites from their unsecure military computers. A public information officer, for instance, probably could; a cook on an aircraft carrier might not.

(The Defense Department also maintains a secure network for classified documents that does not use the public Internet.)

The debate is fueled by the increasing number of grunts who use blogs and social media to communicate with friends, family and the world beyond their wire. But it comes, paradoxically, at a time when the Defense Department itself is increasingly using social media for official purposes, including public relations, recruiting and policymaking.

Some examples can be found here, here, here, here and here.

The military has long had a complicated relationship with the Web, in all its freewheeling, nonhierarchical glory. Blogs since the start of the Iraq war have been censored or shut down by commanders worried about security leaks, or poor decorum.

Last year, a popular blog called Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal was taken offline after the author satirized a commanding officer’s attempts to pressure him into taking an unwanted promotion. And in 2007, the Army issued rules requiring troops to submit blog posts and other Web writings for review, a move that was widely viewed as an onerous clampdown on front-line bloggers.

But some bloggers, like Jean Paul Borda, a reservist who has done tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, said that scrutiny varies widely from commander to commander and that troops who avoid discussing sensitive material are usually left alone.

“I had the full support of my chain of command,” said Mr. Borda, who created a Web site called milblogging.com that includes an index to more than 2,400 military-related blogs.

In Vietnam, letters home were often censored. But in the Civil War, they typically were not, and many of those letters were printed in hometown newspapers, providing front-line correspondence for papers that could not afford to send reporters into battle.

Military blogs and other social media serve much the same purpose today, said Terry L. Beckenbaugh, who teaches history at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Matthew Currier Burden, a former Army intelligence officer who started one of the earliest military blogs, BlackFive.net said that military blogs have expanded and diversified, with sites by and for almost every group: parents and spouses, veterans, analysts and troops with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Blogs by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to come and go, thriving and withering with each deployment. Examples can be found here, here and here.

“It’s been a long fight to convince” commanders of the usefulness of the Web, said Mr. Burden, who wrote a book on military blogs titled, “The Blog of War.” “My tenet is: If you restrict it to much, the only ones blogging will be the ones who don’t care about the rules.”

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Social Networks & Blogs Now 4th Most Popular Online Activity
— Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular category online – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to The Nielsen Company’s “Global Faces and Networked Places,” a comprehensive report published today revealing the new global footprint of social networking.

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

LONDON, August 25 /PRNewswire/ — As the global phenomenon of blogging continues to sweep the USA and Europe, online resourcing firm Eazyrecruit is advising both employers and their staff to guard against the potential pitfalls of keeping an online diary.

The warning follows a number of high profile blogging cases both here and in the UK, in which employees were sacked for disparaging their employers on the internet. American flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was famously fired for posting a picture of herself in her uniform on her fictitious ‘diary’ page, while more recently, a bookstore employee, Joe Gordon received his marching orders for complaining about his boss on his personal weblog. With cases like these becoming increasingly common, we can expect to see more and more bloggers paying for their right to free speech with their jobs.

However, as Richard Annington, CEO at Eazyrecruit explains, it’s not just the employees that suffer as a result of their online indiscretions: these types of disputes can prove to be costly and difficult for employers too.

He explains: “As blogging disputes continue to dominate the headlines, it’s not surprising that employers are becoming increasingly worried about incurring the wrath of a disgruntled employee with an online axe to grind. Furthermore, because blogging is a relatively new phenomenon, many businesses aren’t sure what can be done to guard against it.”

According to Eazyrecruit, it is possible to bring a defamation claim against an employee – but this is an expensive and uncertain process. A much more simple and effective method is to update your company’s internet policy.

Richard continues: “There’s no need to put an outright ban on employees keeping online weblogs – after all, what they do in their spare time is up to them. However, it’s perfectly reasonable to introduce a clause in your existing internet usage policy which stipulates that employees who maintain a personal website or online diary cannot use it to make comments about their employer.”

This will make it clear from the outset what will and will not be tolerated. More importantly from the employers’ perspective, if the policy is breached then internal disciplinary proceedings can be initiated without the need for an expensive court case and adverse publicity.

Richard concludes: “Taking precautions before a potentially problematic situation arises is the best solution all round. Employees need to know where they stand and employers should be explicit about what is acceptable behaviour.

“In an incredibly short space of time, blogging has gone from being virtually unheard of to one of the buzzwords of the moment. As the global population becomes increasingly internet literate, we can expect blogging to become a staple method of communication. Businesses which ignore this fact do so at their peril.”

Notes to editors

Eazyrecruit is an online resourcing firm which works with organizations to reduce their cost per hire and eliminate their need to use recruiters, print advertising and job boards to hire staff.
Published Aug. 25, 2009
Copyright © 2009 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

August 28, 12:36 PMSalt Lake City Single Moms ExaminerRachel Tobin

A single mom is blogging her way through her son’s battle win cancer.  Her five year old son, Mio, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, or ALL.

The blog, The Enemy in Mio’s Body, just started in August.  She is telling her story and reaching out for help.  One entry, titled “Setting Things in Motion” she goes into the different fund-raising and organized praying that have been arranged by loved ones:

How do I begin to beg? I humbly admit that yes, we do need your help. I would have wanted Mio to have a normal life and yet here we are faced with the biggest battle. There are warriors putting things in motion and if you’d like to extend your help, no matter how little or how far, it would be an honor for us if you’d bet on my son’s life by participating, sharing the word or simply looking into these projects that Mio’s loved ones are preparing for us.

I encourage you all to click on the blog, with them good luck, and help out where possible.  Any mother would be heartbroken to watch her child battle cancer, and as with most things, that pain is only magnified as a single mom.

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© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.