Can Facebook please all its users all the time? March 29, 2009

I’m starting to think that it’s not Sunday unless the New York Times has an article on Facebook.  This week’s story gives a pretty balanced view of the latest controversies with the young whipper-snapper, the absolute latest being Facebook’s lovely (not!) new layout.

But, first, what’s great about Facebook?  Well, the opportunity to rebuild families, as in the case of Karen Haber, whose relatives were torn apart by the Holocaust; and the chance for someone like a schoolteacher in Denmark to friend his prime minister and then get the guy to come and speak to his class of special-needs kids.

What’s not so great?  The fact that too many users still don’t adjust their privacy settings, leaving their profiles (and virtual underwear) out there for anyone and everyone to view.  What’s wrong with that?  Read the story about the guy who got fired for what he wrote in a status update or the kid who got nailed by his dad for underaged drinking.  (After reading this article, I immediately checked my settings to make sure they were still at “Only Friends.”)

People have to take responsibility for their own reckless behavior on the internet, but a poor vision (in this case, by Facebook itself) just exacerbates the willfulness of some to bare all, even the most mundane: “Chris Cox, 26, Facebook’s director of products and a confidant of Mr. Zuckerberg, envisions users announcing where they are going to lunch as they leave their computers so friends can see the updates and join them.”  I don’t know about you, but most of my Facebook friends would not be able to join me at lunch even if they wanted to because they live in other states!

Sigh.  I would be very sad to see Facebook become a glorified text-messaging system or just another Twitter.  Right now, it’s so much more for me:  I stay in touch with friends and family who are scattered across the US; I can follow my favorite writers as a fan; my blog is seamlessly updated to my profile so friends who wouldn’t otherwise visit my blog, can still read my stuff; and I can follow other blogs.  All in one application.  I just hope that Mr. Zuckerberg doesn’t lose sight of the real utility of Facebook.

Literary Agents Online November 30, 2008

I subscribe to a few literary agent blogs:  Nathan Bransford-Literary Agent, Bookends, LLC–A Literary Agency, and Lyons Literary LLC.  I’m sure there’s plenty more out there, but these suffice for my limited perusing time.  The great part of these blogs is that they are interactive:  that is, their posts encourage lively discussion, and they sometimes offer free critiques which they then post as part of their blog.  They are educational, which is their greatest appeal to me.  Although I’m not yet peddling a novel, it’s never too early to learn about agents, that crucial link between you and publication.

literary agents, literary agent blogs, writing, publication, novels

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Yet Another Glass Ceiling July 27, 2008

We have finally arrived at a point in our maturity as a society that a woman could at least be a serious contender for the presidency.  Women of my generation have had the satisfaction of seeing glass ceilings shattered, from corporate offices to the US Supreme Court.  But where one glass ceiling may be removed, another will take its place.  According to this Sunday’s NY Times, the blogosphere (purportedly a true democratic marketplace of ideas) has its own glass ceiling. The article states that while 14% of men and 11% of women blog, women’s contributions to the web are much less likely than men’s to be noted:  ”Yet, when Techcult, a technology Web site, recently listed its top 100 Web celebrities, only 11 of them were women. Last year, Forbes.com ran a similar list, naming 3 women on its list of 25″ (click here for the full NY Times article).  

Sigh.  Do female bloggers need to use male pseudonyms to be taken seriously, as did our scribbling ancestor George Eliot (nee Mary Ann Evans)?  Consider Techcult’s methodology for selecting the “top 100 Web celebrities”:

“We gathered around 200 potential names and queried them on Google to see how many results they would generate. Some minor adjustments were made, and the 100 names with the highest number of results were profiled [...]” (click here to read the full article).  As someone who works in the social sciences, I had to wince when I read this.  So not scientific!  From whom did they gather 200 names?  If you were not in that first 200, then you were SOL.  Judging from the comments to the article, a number of male “Web celebrities” were overlooked, but, really, only 11 out of 100 are women in this list?  And one of the women is Tila Tequila?

Perhaps my sister bloggers should take comfort in knowing that at least this list was so unscientifically produced but it’s not worth taking seriously … except that it’s cited in the NY Times, thereby giving it a broader reach than it deserves.  But let’s take heart.  The blogosphere is relatively new, and it is a great tool with which to connect with each other, giving us a strength in numbers that would have been unimaginable in the days of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  We can start by joining networks such as BlogHer.

Blog on, sisters!

Make the Most of Your Freelance Business With These Tips June 16, 2008

Guest blogger Meryl K. Evans at the Writer’s Resource Center has great tips for maximizing your freelance writing business.  No matter how many websites and blogs you’ve read that offer business tips, there’s always someone with a slightly different perspective that needs to be read.  Meryl’s post needs to be read because she offers some rather nuanced tips; for instance, sending “relevant articles to clients, let them know about a relevant blog entry in which they might want to leave a comment, give them names of people when they need a resource, and sent them relevant reporter leads so they can contact the reporter to help out and maybe be quoted in the story.”  This is networking at it’s best because, while you’re acting in the best interests of your client, you’re increasing your social capital.  For more great tips from Meryl, click here.

Blogging is fun! May 22, 2008

My most favorite blogger, John Hewitt, has a delightful post about why he loves blogging more than freelancing. He gives five reasons: (1) he doesn’t have to send out query letters; (2) he can write about whatever he wants; (3) he doesn’t have to answer to an editor; (4) he can get published when he wants to be; and (5) he gets to connect with readers. Read his full post here or click on the RSS feed at the right-hand sidebar and keep up on his posts.

For me, the freedom of blogging is a double-edged sword: it does free me to write whatever I want, but it also takes time away from working on my stories and novel. I have a day job which definitely limits the amount of time I have to write. I often feel guilty (in fact, I feel guilty right now) when I spend time working on a post that no one may read or comment on, time that I could be spending on revising a short story, editing my novel, or brainstorming another story idea.

But I keep blogging because it is fun. Like John, I enjoy seeing my words published without having to go through gatekeepers. And it is still writing. No matter what, I am still writing.

How do you all feel about blogging, if you have your own blog? What drives you to blog? What keeps you blogging? How many of you have day jobs that leave you with precious little time to write? How do you persevere?

Blog tournament May 1, 2008

Check out John Hewitt’s blog tournament on the Writer’s Resource Center. The tournament started in March and you can read all the posts in the archive March Writing Blog Madness. I do regret that I stumbled across this tournament only today, especially since it’s been going on since March. So many blogs, so little time! But I already knew and liked John’s blog, so I really have no excuse for missing this. Some of my favorite blogs got in the tournament, but there’s quite a few I hadn’t heard of. What a fun way to raise their visibility and provide the rest of us with more blog-hopping opportunities.

In keeping with the style of basketball’s March Madness, John proposed to “use rankings to help determine who will enter the tournament and at what level. … The rankings were determined by a simple formula based on the blog’s Google Page Rank and Alexa Site Rank” (original quote). Thirty-two blogs were selected to be in the tournament. I’m not going to say who won–that’s for you to find out at the archive.

It’s a grueling game, and John really puts the blogs to the challenge. His judging criteria (which I’ve copied directly from his post) were:

• Archives: This is the heart of a site. Substance is the key to a good blog. What are the best articles and how good are they?
• Design: Substance is great, but flash does count for something. A site that is pleasant to look at makes a difference.
• Usability and Navigation: This is the second half of the design puzzle. How easy is it to move around the site and get to the best stuff? Can find the best articles?
• Purpose: What is the blog supposed to be about and what is the blog really about?
• Personality: Some sites thrive on the writer’s personality and others stick to the information without giving any hints about the writer.
• Five Most Recent Posts: This category is all about what the blogger has done lately. How good are the most recent articles and how often do they appear.

These criteria are useful for newbie bloggers like myself. I can already see that I have such a long road ahead of me …