Newspapers are Dying Because They are Inefficient

I was listening to Iowa Public Radio as I was out getting lunch yesterday. The show on was Talk @12 and Steffen Schmidt and Arne Arneson were on talking about politics.

They were discussing the decline of newspapers. Steffen Schmidt told a statistic that something like 80% of 18-29 year olds don't think newspapers will be around in 10 years. Arne Arneson then told a story of her father, a social studies teacher, giving current events quizes each week and making his students read the newspaper and follow the news. Arneson then said it was a shame people don't value information anymore.

To me this was a glaring example of the generation gap. Newspapers aren't dying because people no longer value information. Newspapers are dying because they are an inefficient way to distribute information.

The other weekend, I wondered how busy the opening day of the Des Moines farmer's market was. So on that Saturday afternoon, I went to the Des Moines Register's website and found pictures and a small writeup about the farmer's market (The Register's online version provides great local information and should be a model of how newspapers can tranistion into the digital age). The next day I went to dinner at my grandparents and skimmed through the dead tree version of the Register to see the same pictures I saw the day before and pretty much the same story.

Why should I wait until the morning to read day old information in the newspaper when I can get online, do a search, and read it now?

Century of the Common Iowan Turns 3 Years Old

I glanced at the clock and saw there was just 5 minutes till midnight. I had forgotten that Monday marked the 3rd birthday for Century of the Common Iowan and I only had 5 minutes to put up a post to sum up those 3 years. Yeah right.

Well here's what I got written in an hour...

As I look back, it is interesting how the focus of the blog has evolved over those years. In the blogs first year I wrote a lot about issues such as the rising cost of college tuition and Iowa's Brain Drain, immigration, and the need for a trade policy that protects American jobs. Year two was all about the Iowa caucuses. The following year I was able to sit back and watch the primaries play out and lead up to the general election. With the 2008 elections behind us, I have been able to write more about policies and topics such as the emergence of Millennials, social media, education, and the need to invest in a creative economy.

3 years, 2,226 posts, and over 132,000 visitors later and here we are in the best of times, in the worst of times. Our current economic and political situation find us in a situation where remarkable change can take place (and if it doesn't, it's because we didn't make them do it) . It is time for big ideas. In the coming year I hope to focus on the big ideas that desmoinesdem laid out that I wrote about last month.

• Clean elections
• Promoting clean energy solutions
• Local control of hog confinements
• Passenger rail
  
• Rural broadband.

These are not new issues. Many I have written about since I started this blog, but now is the time to stop talking about these issues and start seeing real action. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama told the story that one voice can change a room, one room can change a city, one city can change a nation. It is my hope that over the past 3 years, I have been able to change 1 person's viewpoint on these key issues and encouraged 1 person to take action on these key issues.

I'd like to end by repeating what Rekha Basu wrote about activism that I posted about earlier today..

Still, it takes courage to be an activist. It requires putting yourself out there in public, daring to take the unpopular position and getting hostile feedback... But those who understand history know well the role activism has played in winning rights and making a more just, humane and accessible America.

Join in. Post comments. Attend your local Democratic central committee meeting. Call your State Legislators. Get active in a community group or city board. Start your own blog. Heck, run for local office.

It's time to make a ruckus. Let's go!

What's Behind Twitter's Explosive Growth?

To continue my posts about Twitter, I thought I post this TED talk by Evan Williams, the founder of Twitter.

Don't be a Twittidiot, Join Twitter!

Over the past few weeks I have written some about social media, including Twitter. Members of Congress were Twittering Barack Obama's speech last week.

If you are wondering what's the big deal, here's a really good beginner's guide to Twitter that explains what the basics of Twitter are.

Sure, sure, you could also just Google "beginner's guide to Twitter" and read a any number of other guides that have been written. Problem is, I feel like most of them focus on two niches: how to be a fanatical Twitterer, and/or how to be a really obnoxiously popular Twitterer. What I'm aiming for here is more for people who want to experiment a little and connect with other folks on a pretty direct level. We'll talk later about different ways you can participate, but for now, let's just get the basics down.

They end with two key points...

• Twitter should be used how you feel most comfortable using it– don't let anyone tell you that you're doing it wrong.
• It takes a while to get the feel of Twitter. Commit, if you can, to trying it a couple times a day for two weeks or so. At the end of your little trial period, assess how you feel and how you think you'll use it.

Washington DC Top Twitterers

Last week I wrote about my Twitter page and since then I have gained 11 followers.

Yesterday, Politico made a list of Washington DC's top Twitterers. Iowa's Chuck Grassley made the list at #7.

Whereas McCaskill’s (Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)) tweets are personal in a spunky sort of way, Grassley’s are personal in an Iowan way: friendly but dry.

This 75-year-old sometime farmhand Republican has developed quite a following (2,000-plus) with his plain-spoken, Midwest Twittering style: “On way bk to frigid waterloo. Will my car start at airport.” “I didn’t stay up to see Ball drop. I will watch Hawkeyw ftball. Otherwise read. Not a very exciting new year celebration but tradition forme.” “6 inches snow in New hartford last night. I missed it bc of senate session. Lucky we finished corn harvest last wkend.”

Salon’s Mike Madden, a regular reader and big fan of Grassley’s tweets, says the senator “sounds just like the elderly pig farmer he is.”

Grassley doesn't seem to be the type of Senator that would be on the social media bandwagon and not as the #2 ranked Senator on Politico's list.

Come join the fun at Twitter and see what all the talk is about.

Here Come the Boomers!

Watch out, here come the Baby Boomers!

More and more Baby Boomers are getting online, participating in social networking, and blogging.

A new report from Forrester Research revealed some surprising information: apparently Baby Boomers aren't exactly the technology Luddites that people think they are. In fact, more than 60 percent of those in this generational group actively consume socially created content like blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums. What's more, the percentage of those participating is on the rise.

In 2007, the percentage of Boomers consuming social media was 46% for younger Boomers (ages 43 to 52) and 39% for older Boomers (ages 53 to 63). By 2008, those number increased to 67% and 62%, respectively.

The number of Boomers responding to content posted online, as opposed to just passively consuming it, is also going up. For example, the proportion of older Boomers responding to content doubled from 15% in 2007 to 34% in 2008.

Follow Common Iowan on Twitter!

Yesterday, I wrote about the only way to get comfortable with social media is to just dive in.

As of Wednesday morning, I have 97 followers on my Twitter page. I post quick links on my Twitter page that I don't have time to blog about, but want to share, and I use it to bounce ideas for future posts.

Take the plunge and be my next follower. I hope to have over 100 followers by the end of the day.

Dive In to Social Media

Yesterday, a coworker of mine told me that over the weekend he took the plunge. He joined Facebook, started a blog, and joined a ning about using technology in the classroom.

When I got home I read this post at Creative Class called Social Media in the Workplace. The post discusses a presentation made by Lois Kelley, a social media researcher at Beeline Labs.

In a presentation she gave to the Conference Board last year, Kelly described many of these Fortune 1000 social media strategies as focused on connecting with customers. But some are oriented toward engaging employees and changing the workplaces.

Here are some reasons employee-focused social media strategies in today’s workplaces might succeed or fail (inspired by her article “10 Ways to Make Social Media Matter to Skeptical CEOs“).

1. Innovation and productivity today often comes from listening to both employees and customers. Social media is about conversations. Attempting to use social media to control a message from the top, rather than listening to those who work with the corporation’s products and services every day is not what it is for. Moreover, if employees don’t believe that their opinion is valued, they won’t participate so it will fail.

2. Employees or customers want to hear a CEO’s point of view (or that of a senior manager) - not just data about the latest product, new acquisition, etc. They want to know what he or she thinks about economic challenges; new developments in the industry; or even the local sports team. And, they want to be able to enter into a dialog on these issues.

3. Success of a social media strategy should be measured by involvement, engagement - the numbers actively participating in a dialog (not just how many clicks a message receives). In fact, involving employees in a good internal social media community sounds like a great retention strategy.

4. Corporate social media strategies often involve a leap of faith - or courage, as Kelly calls it - when the c-suite gives up full control of the message. As she ends the essay:

One last point that resonated at that skeptical CEO meeting, I played the new Paul McCartney
song, ”Fine Line,” whose lyrics are “there’s a fine line between recklessness and courage.” Not
… letting go of some control is reckless because it puts a barrier up between you and your customers [or employees], I reminded the execs. Change that makes a big difference, however, requires just a small bit of courage.

From my experience, the only way to learn about using social media is to dive in and start. I signed up for Twitter, but it took a couple months of lurking around before I really got into it. I am just now starting to get what Twitter has to offer.

So consider this a challenge. Go out and dive in to social media. It could be Facebook, Twitter, starting a blog, or even just commenting on your favorite blogs. It doesn't matter what you do, but you won't begin to see the possibilities of social media unless you start. If you are reading this, you've already taken the first step.