The irresistible change of 2007
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on December 31st, 2007
Tagged as: Me
Hot on the heels of Richard’s end-of-year wrap up and well-wishings, I feel morally, professionally and compassionately compelled to do the same.
For all his generosity, consistency and more-than-welcome attention though, Richard has been unable to overcome those barriers that confine me and this blog to the dreaded but unquestionably deserved “occasional writer†category.
Yet his is the sort of support that keeps you afloat, and so if there is anyone I must thank for encouraging me to take this medium further, it is him.
2007 has been a watershed in my career as a copywriter or, as I commonly refer to myself, the IT world’s biggest ghost-writer.
I have always been out of the spotlight, whisked secretly into meetings with high-level management to help put sense to the latest initiative/product/idea and get the message out.
And this year I’ve written for occasions, launches, announcements and anniversaries that were once beyond the scope of my wildest dreams and aspirations. Now I’m churning out a couple a month.
But in 2007 with the arrival of the kind of relationships possible through blogging that this blog can only claim to scratch the surface of, everything I do and stand for changed ever so slightly but enough to raise questions. No longer absolute and unquestionable, it became relative.
There is a wonderful passage in Sir Ken Robinson’s book, Out of Our Minds, in which he says:
The dynamics of culture result in an irresistible process of change. Contemporary ways of life are not only different from those of the Victorians, they were largely unpredicted and essentially unpredictable. Cultural change is rarely linear and uniform. It results from a vortex of influences, which is hard enough to understand with hindsight and impossible to plan in advance.
I think the relativity of blogging is a pretty damned good example of the vortex of influences Sir Ken refers to and the accountability of thoughts, opinions and most of all ideals leads to the irresistible process of change he mentions at the beginning.
How far we’ve come is easy to measure. We all use the New Year to join the dots. I personally can claim a small victory in changing the way my biggest client sees itself in relation to the outside world and believe me that’s no mean feat.
But like Sir Ken infers, how far we as a community are going to take it is anyone’s guess.
I for one have a few things I’m going to try out in 2008. After all, if it’s irresistible, why fight it?
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Left for dead? Not a chance!
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on December 6th, 2007
Tagged as: Language Is Free, Me, Projects, Runaway Parents
It’s been how long?
Wow. I’ve lost all momentum. Kids are the perfect excuse but they’re not the only things that can stop a good party.
Every now and then a manic idea sweeps through the corridors of power on Planet Acer and I’m left to come up with concepts, ideas, and best of all speeches in the blink of an eye. I’m very excited about what’s going down as there’s nothing like a major event to give a dreary copywriter a big, fat, creative kick up the arse!
Good job I’m good - and fast 
There’s a breath of fresh air heading in my direction. It dawned on me yesterday as I was reading a really interesting interview about Gary Vaynerchuk and his take on the video blog platform.
What Gary has done is take the technology out of the medium and has replaced it with good, old-fashioned personality. Duh!
This is the kind of vibe I’ve been wanting to model my own initiatives on and may well borrow from it for the online language course I’m in the middle of developing.
Speaking of projects, the new, improved Runaway Parents site is nearly up and running and I really can’t wait to get my teeth into it. This project started out as a way of getting my wife involved in what I do (writing, blogging) and we’re now opening a company that’s going to transform it into a cute little niche site.
So while I’m here I might as well plug what it is we’re going to do: If any of you know of a romantic getaway or restaurant in your neighborhood no matter where you are in the world and/or would like to get involved as a parent who loves getting away from it all, drop me a line. I’ve modeled ad revenue sharing into the site design and have an affiliate system for advertisers so you’ve got nothing to lose!
Does anyone know anything about community video publishing on YouTube? I’m going to start the ball rolling by publishing the first few lessons on the free online language course I’ve got on the boil but what I really want is an open environment where other teachers are free to join in and publish their own lessons (viral teaching???). Again, ad revenue sharing will be built into the site structure so we all benefit but I’m wondering if YouTube is the best medium. I know Blip.tv and Viddler are pretty sharp but they seem to be more suitable for single-user sites.
On Wine Library.TV, only Gary’s doing the videos. How would he organize it if he let visitors upload their own videos?
Plus I know it’s old(ish) but look at YouTube’s popularity.
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