Conference feedback-we need your help

I was thinking Sunday that we didn't really have any form of measurable feedback to assess how well received the conference was by those that attended. Most everyone there has posted some form of commentary but I felt we really need to get some honest feedback. So in consultation with Ed Cone, I put together the following survey which will help shape future conferences. Please take a few moments to answer the survey.

Piedmont Blog Conference Survey

Please answer the questions only if you actually attended the conference. Oh, and please do it as soon as you can. The survey will only be active for 10 days from today.

Thanks

Suspect 0

The latest installment in my "summer of movies" occurred post blog conference yesterday afternoon when the wife and I took in "Suspect 0". The new "thriller" with Ben Kingsley.

I believe I told Mrs. Shu as we were walking out that it was "the worst execution of a fantastic story idea" that I'd ever seen. This is the story that M. Night Shyamalan should have directed instead of that god-awful "The Village". In his hands, this would have been a great movie.

How bad was it? It was the first time I've ever seen Mrs. Shu actually fall asleep during a movie at a theater.

It's refreshing

It's wonderfully refreshing to see someone else who gets it.

Ed Cone takes on the "Greensboro Disease"

Optimism breeds optimism. I think it's important to remember what so many forget. City planners across the country will tell you that the majority of economic development in any city comes from it's own citizens in the form of small business.

Yeah, you can wait for the Citicards', the Fed Ex's and the Dell's to come along. But it's the people who are sick of their jobs and think they can do better for themselves that drive economic development. Head on down to the Small Business Development Center for one of their introductory classes sometime. The classes are quite often packed with people who see a better life for themselves and a better Greensboro. That's where your true spirit, pride and hope for the community is coming from.

I know. I've been there. I have my own ideas for a business which is perfect for Greensboro. (And it's a damn good idea too, if I can believe the counselors down there). When the time is right for me, I hope to join the renaissance.

I saw it in action

Two weeks ago I asked "How do you Build a Community?".

I got my answer on Saturday at the Piedmont Blog Conference.

On paper it doesn't look like much. A hastily thrown-together conference with less than four weeks notice. No real panel of "experts" scheduled to make speeches (although there were experts in various fields present to lend sage advice). A turnout of just around 60 "commoners". Even some of the supplies for refreshments were "borrowed" from a certain bagel shop.

So you put 60 people in a room with one common interest...in this case, blogging. You let them bounce ideas and knowledge off of each other for the better part of 3 hours. You let them see each others faces and get a feel for how they think in person and not just on some computer screen or in some newspaper. You throw in just enough break time mingling for people to get to know each other in an informal setting and suddenly something special started to happen.

No great problems were solved. No treaties were signed. No peace accords were arranged. But I'll bet most everyone left that auditorium Saturday with a newfound sense of community. The "un-conference" format gave everyone a chance to speak. A chance to be recognized and voice what was important to them. A chance to belong to a community.

Like it or not, a community was formed on August 28th, 2004. It wasn't that hard. It just gave everyone a chance to feel like they were part of something much bigger.

It makes me wonder why the power brokers in Greensboro can't figure something like this out. Obviously you can't invite 200,000 plus people to an "un-conference". It would be a disaster. But a series of smaller regularly held get-togethers, perhaps in each district in the city, would go a heck of a long way towards making at least some of the population feel like they belong to something.

I know some might say they everyone has that power now. They can go to the voting booth or attend any number of government meetings. But neither one of those options builds a community. A voting booth is, by design, an anonymous thing. And I know from covering hundreds of school board, city council and county board meetings during my days as a reporter, that most people are too intimidated to come before a government body and voice their opinion until something comes along that threatens them or really pisses them off. But put those same people in a room sitting next to their elected officials instead of across from them and you'll build a community.

I think the future of Greensboro depends on the ability of it's people to reverse this trend of separatism. I think a new vision for Greensboro and a new sense of community could come out of meetings like this. The question is, does anyone have the vision, ability and guts to make it happen?

Marlon Brando would be proud

The Blogfather (Ed Cone) and his consigliere (David Hoggard) "made us an offer we couldn't refuse". They offered us a vehicle for a lively conversation about blogging, politics, journalism, and community building, and they delivered. Congratulations, gentlemen, on a well run conference.

(credit to David Hoggard on the coining the "Blogfather" term)

Media rants

Two things:

1) Will the news media please stop telling me that someone in the hospital is in "stable" condition. As in "Bilbo Baggins is in stable condition at Moses Cone Hospital." Stable is NOT a condition to be used in a news story. You can be in intensive care and be stable or you can be in "good" condition and be stable. If Bilbo is damn near dead, tell me that. If Bilbo is going to be treated and released, tell me that. Telling me he's in "stable" condition tells me nothing at all. Didn't your journalism professors ever tell you this?

2) This is directed at AJ on WOZN (The Zone). If you're going to insist on interviewing people during your afternoon drive show, I suggest you learn how to interview someone. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR GUEST IS SAYING! I can't stand the way you are constantly interrupting them. Not only does it show that you are unprepared, it's just plain rude. Air-check your interviews sometime will ya?

Rant over. Carry on.

My newsreader is getting tired

My poor newsreader. I use the Sauce Reader from www.synop.com. It's a wonderful free program for organizing and reading blogs and newsfeeds. I highly recommend it to those who are just getting started in the world of blogging. Now don't argue with me. There are dozens of other feed readers out there and I've tried quite a few of them before settling with the Sauce. It's my favorite. It may not be yours. That's fine.

You may not know it, but I actually started this blog in July of 2003. I made a couple of entries at that time and kind of set it aside because I wasn't really sure where I was going with it. It just sat there taking up server space at blogspot.com for many months until this spring. When I first started Greensboroistalking.com a few months ago, I explored some other options with a message board and photo gallery and all that. But it never really turned out like I wanted it to. So I went back and revisited this old blog I had started up. Did you ever go back and read some of your first entries? God. Mine were awful. (Not that I've progressed much...lol) Delete. Delete. Delete. That took care of that. That's why my archives now start in May instead of July 2003.

Anyways, I took another look at the blog and started looking around at some of the other blogs out there. Blame frograbbitmonkey for me finding the rest of you. A link on her site took me to HoggsBlog, which took me to EdCone which took me to etc. etc. (The power and importance of reciprocal linking.) This was it. It had the speed I was looking for. I didn't have to mess too much with all that nasty html or php coding. (Believe me I mess with that stuff enough on my "real" site...the Hockey Photo Project) And most of all. I could be my own twisted little self. I soon found out though, that clicking from link to link was a tiring process. Especially on those blogs that don't have a lot of links. This lead me to the newsreader. And now it's tired.

Not that that's a bad thing. It just means that there are now more and more blogs in the neighborhood...many of them coming onboard just in the past two weeks. And that's great. What I once dismissed has now nearly become an addiction. I get a great deal of enjoyment seeing what other people think is important, sad, amusing or just downright off the wall. Time doesn't always allow me to post each day but I do at least glance at everything that comes across. It's almost like have my own little AP wire on my computer. And believe me, after working as a radio news director in my former life, compared to the wire, this stuff is much more interesting. The thought strikes me as I'm writing this that, you are all news directors in your own way. And you are all miniature wire services. That's pretty cool. Take that, AP, Reuters, CNN, Fox and all you media moguls! Bwa ha ha ha.

So if you're still thinking about getting into blogging, get your butt over the the Piedmont Blog Conference tomorrow. And get yourself a newsreader too. You'll thank me for it.

Playing with the photoposting features on Blogger

Playing with the photoposting options. This is a pic I took of the Farmers Market in the City Center Park earlier this summer.

Clang Clang Clang

I was catching up on some reading abou the new ballpark and came across this little gem buried in a N&R story from last week about parking around the new stadium.

A trackless trolley system is being considered, says Mike Bumpass, who in addition to his merchants association role is an official with Downtown Greensboro Inc., which boosts downtown activity.

Trolleys would circulate through the downtown at lunch and on busy evenings, including when the Bats are playing. People could board outside the restaurants and be dropped off at the stadium.

Now that's a great idea. It has all the makings of a fun time downtown. How about a drive downtown, park for free, hop on the trolley with the kids, and spend the evening at a nice new ballyard.

I really hope they pursue this.

Changing the movie fight scenes.

I'm tellin' ya...It's gonna be tough to break these suckers over somebody's head in a movie bar fight scene.

Brewing up a new way to sell its beer

The problem with Iron City Beer isn't the packaging...it's that it tastes like crap. I avoided that stuff like the plague when I lived in Pittsburgh.

Now excuse me, I have to go inhale a shot of Jagermeister.

More Gmail

I was checking my Gmail box this morning and saw the folks at Google have graciously allotted more invitations. If anyone still needs one, post a comment and I'll hook you up. I've got 4 to give away.

Bambi blasters

No hockey. No football. No basketball. But you can go to the coliseum next year and find all the latest gizmos and techniques to blow away a whitetail or two. The coliseum has landed the Buckmasters.

Hey, at least it'll bring some money into the area.

Breathe deep

As if picking up a can of beer and taking a swig was too difficult, now you can inhale your liquor. And it's all thanks to a Greensboro company.

ABC News story

Handy little site

Don Moore over at the Greensboro Sports Board brought this site to my attention the other day. Kinda cool if you want to find out who's giving what to whom and how much.

Opensecrets.org

Now go find out which way your boss is really leaning.

NCBlogs.com

Thanks Lex for pointing this out. Gotta get listed.

NCBlogs.com

Wedding Bells are ringing

Stepson Rick called from Pittsburgh the other night to inform us that he was newly engaged. No surpise really. We knew it was just a matter of time for he and his bride-to-be Erica made it official. They'd been talking about it for over six months already. They've set a date for June of next year.

What was more surprising was last month's call from Stepdaughter Amy. Early last month we got a call on a Sunday morning from her telling us she was sporting a ring also. Her groom-to-be Russ had just returned from Parris Island and a medical discharge from the Marines boot camp and surprised her with a ring and a proposal. This one's gonna take a little more time. Both of them realize they aren't in any type of financial situation yet to start a life together. So the date has yet to be determined.

They're all good kids and I'm just glad they accepted me into their lives. I'm a better person for it.

Beeped

Some clown apparently doesn't want me to vote. Or rather, says I shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Each week I try to spend one of my lunch hours in the basement break room of the courthouse reading (actually more like skimming) the latest edition of The Rhino. Why I do this is beyond me because I usually end up saying to myself..."Well, that's ten minutes I'll never get back." But I digress.

This week's edition has a rather idiotic Beep call (granted most editions do) in my opinion. Forgive me as a don't have a copy in front of me to quote directly from, and this week's edition is not yet online, but you'll get the gist. The caller was ranting about how students attending college here in Greensboro help determine the outcome of local elections thus nullifying the voice of the local taxpayer. The Beep ended with the caller suggesting that "only taxpayers should be allowed to vote in elections."

This struck me as hilariously funny and incredibly ignorant. First of all, to suggest that the college population in Greensboro could seriously sway any local election is almost completely ludicrous. I went to college. I know that most of the time, college kids only show up for elections in a Presidential election year. And most don't know and don't really care about the local races. I'll concede that it is possible that a large number of straight ticket voters could sway an election, but personally, I really doubt it.

But what I find really funny is how the caller apparently is defining "taxpayer." Am I to take that to mean "property tax payer"? I suspect that that's what the caller intended. But just in case, in a very broad sense of the word, everyone in Greensboro is a "taxpayer". Everyone pays sales tax. Everyone pays tax anytime they pull up to the gas pump. Everyone, even those under the legal voting age, who have a job generally pays some amount of income tax. You get the idea. So I'll go with my original assumption that the caller meant "property tax payer".

Let me delve a little further into that. I, like many college students, rent an apartment. Yes it is true that I do not receive a property tax bill. But my landlord does. And so do the landlords of all those students who don't live in campus housing. And you can bet your last sweet, property taxpayin' dollar that at least some of our rent is going towards the landlord's tax bill. So don't tell me I'm not paying property taxes here, Bubba.

This dude needs to go back and read his history books. See topic: Taxation without representation.

Didn't we fight a war over that very idea some 220+ years ago? Oh that's right. The Revolutionary War. Major battle fought right here in Greensboro. Remember it? Dumb ass.

W...Just the way you want him

Build your own president.

Build a Better Bush

Olympic Blogger

How far has blogging come? US soccer player Brandi Chastain (yes, the one who ripped her shirt off in the World Cup a few years ago) is blogging from the Olympics.

Brandi Chastain's Blog

Fun with hockey teams

The folks over at the Greensboro Sports Board are having some fun with possible team names if a WHA team decides to locate in Greensboro. My favorite comes from an acquaintance of mine, Cow Bell Kevin...

Greensboro Magicians

One or two seasons and *poof* there[sic] gone.

How do you build a community?

I got to wondering about something a few nights ago. I was stumbling around the Greensboro Sports Board and came across this post. The post was about Fox Sports' ranking of the 368 best cities for sports over the past 12 months.

According to the article, Greensboro comes in a whopping 197th. That's a few steps below those sports hotbeds like Wilmington, NC (155), Davidson, NC (157), Itta Bena, Miss (166) and Cullowhee, NC (191). But wait...be proud Greensboro! We're still a step ahead of the bustling metropolis of Boone, NC (198).

My head is swimming at this point. How can this be? I figure they must be crazy so I start digging into the criteria.

"To be included in these rankings, a city must have at least an NCAA Division I basketball team or a Class A minor league baseball team, or it must score in select other categories upon which we base our rankings. Those other categories include being the site of a training camp for a major league or NFL team; a NASCAR Nextel Cup race; an NCAA Division I-A bowl game; a PGA Tour tournament, or a Triple Crown horse race."

Check. Check. We have the Bats and a PGA Tournament. We're qualified. Let's go on.

"Once a city meets the minimum criteria, we take a 12-month snapshot, roughly from July to July, of the sports atmosphere, putting a heavy premium on regular-season records (from the most recently completed season); playoff berths, bowl appearances and tournament bids; championships; applicable power ratings; quality of competition; overall fan fervor, as measured in part by attendance as a percentage of venue capacity; sports atmosphere and fan knowledge; abundance of teams, though we reward quality over quantity; stadium/arena quality; ticket availability and prices; franchise ownership, and marquee appeal of athletes."

Ah...It all comes clear to me now. Greensboro has missed the boat on most of this. Yes, we have the venues. We have the largest coliseum in the country without a permanent tenant, i.e. no hockey, basketball or indoor football. We will have a bright, shiny new baseball stadium. We have a newly remodeled Forest Oaks Country Club. But we don't have what it takes to pull it all together. I know I'm talking sports again...but sports is part of the bigger picture.

This really got me thinking and lead me to a conclusion. Greensboro is a city. Guilford is a county. Neither are communities. There is nothing...I repeat...NOTHING...that makes us a collective community. There is nothing that brings us all together. Nothing we can unite behind.

Sure there are little "communities" here and there. There are pockets of neighborhood communities around the city and county. There are other smaller sports groups, church groups, arts groups, civic groups, etc. But where is the glue that brings us all together. What is it aside from living in the same geographic region that unites us?

In my life, I've had the privilege of living in several different what I would call "communities". I grew up on a dairy farm in northeastern Wisconsin. The area was settled in the 1800s primarily by Belgian immigrants. They brought with them a tradition called the "Kermiss". A kermiss is what many folks would call a harvest festival. Once a year, the entire area around each little unincorporated town would come together to celebrate the year's harvest. Everyone came to the kermiss. And the next weekend, you went to the adjacent town's kermiss and so on. You knew your neighbors and everybody talked about the Green Bay Packers.

I lived in Sheboygan, Wisconsin for two years. In terms of the landscape, the similarities to Greensboro are striking. You could be driving down the street in either town and not notice the difference. But yet, Sheboygan and its civic organizations, with a population with less than half of that of Greensboro, puts on not one, not two, but four major festivals a year which bring tens of thousands of residents together. You could talk about Bratwurst Days to anybody and get an opinion.

I lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for nearly eight years. Pirates, Penguins, Steelers, Pitt. It didn't matter who you ran into, depending on the season, "How about those Bucs, Pens or Stillers?" was always a conversation starter. And you always got an opinion too.

When I meet someone in Greensboro for the first time, what do I say? How about those Bats? I'm just as likely to get a four letter word response as I am to get a real opinion. Or worse yet, "Who are the Bats?". Same went for our dearly departed hockey team....and our indoor football team. Somehow starting off a conversation with "How 'bout that Billy Yow?" just isn't the same.

Funny thing though, while the city's teams struggle, promotional support is cut off or doesn't exist at all. Never, EVER, in over three years of living here, have I seen a banner hanging from a light pole downtown with a Generals, Prowlers, Bats or Dynamo symbol on it. Most of the time the frames are just hanging there empty. I work downtown. I pass by them everyday. It's really kind of sad.

The rest of the time you might see a banner for the ACC tournament at the coliseum. That's fine. It's an event that brings in $20 million to the community. Never mind the fact that Greensboro's own residents are very unlikely to have the chance to go to it. Never mind the fact that every time it comes to town, it further promotes other cities and their towns. Let's just take the money and run with that one.

It's not about promoting sports, it's about pride in our community. It's about giving people something to rally around. A few groups are trying. The the little known Greensboro Sports Commission is trying. The Jaycees are trying. The downtown business owners are trying.

But who is going to put it all together? How do you get 230,000+ people who are used to going their own ways to come together and work toward the same thing. I think everyone wants Greensboro to be a better place. A place to be proud of. The question is who can do it and how? How do you build a community?

It's an election year. I wonder if any of our elected officials or candidates want to tackle this question. Heck, I'll even offer an open invitation to post the responses unedited. My email address is at the top of the right-hand column. Fire away if you've got the answer.

How does this stuff keep finding me?

He asks himself as he finds another website that is either totally annoying or totally funny.

ZOMBO

Make sure your speakers are on.

If you really must have an excuse to wear a skirt...

Remember...real men don't wear anything under their kilts!

Triad Highland Games

They're famous

Cone and Hoggard are famous. Congrats, gentlemen, on getting the word out.


Weblogs offer folks place to vent, chat

Makes me wonder if Cone's conference room is gonna be big enough for the demand.

Too good to pass up

I'm not much of one to poke fun at politicians...ok...yes I am. But I just couldn't pass this up. I got this in an email called "Where's Dustin Hoffman?"

You decide.

Details on the blogging conference

Ed Cone has all the who, whats, wheres and whens.

The PiedBlog Conference

I've been scrambling lately so I haven't posted much. The hockey site has been getting much busier (thankfully) and with added responsibilities from the Generals Booster Club, I haven't had much time to update, but I did want to mention the PiedBlog Conference (or so the name has been suggested).

If you have your own blog or are thinking of starting one, this could be the thing for you. Check out Hogg's Blog for the details. Nothing is set in stone yet, but it sounds like fun.

Hope for hockey?

The local fishrap is reporting that there may be hope for hockey in Greensboro this season after all.

Hockey league courts Greensboro

The question that comes up is...Will Greensboro and the surrounding area support it? You're looking at ticket prices that will be 2-3 times more expensive that what the Generals charge. Now granted, should the WHA come to pass...and that is still pretty iffy at this point...in an NHL lockout season, you may get some interest from Raleigh, Charlotte, Winston-Salem and all the rest of the surrounding areas. But what happens when the NHL returns to business?

The Triangle money will be gone, the NHL fans in Greensboro will be traveling to Raleigh again or back to the comfort of their own living rooms watching all the games on digital cable. And once again, Greensboro will be faced with a struggling hockey team.

I will support any team that comes to Greensboro. But I'm not so sure that this stop-gap measure is in the long-term best interest of the city.

If I had my druthers, I'd say let the coliseum sit this winter, come back with a strong local ownership group next season (and little birdies are telling me that there are strong local groups already in talks with the coliseum and ECHL) and build toward the future in the ECHL.

I'm skeptical of the WHA, but if it happens, you'll still probably see me at most of the games.

Sad Day

I was kinda bummed yesterday. I got home from work and saw a letter from the City of Greensboro. My first thought, naturally, was, "Oh crap, did I get another parking ticket"? But then I opened the letter and saw that it was a check for the deposit I put down for season tickets for the Generals.

The reality hit home. There will be no hockey in Greensboro this winter. I've been holding off on posting anything here about the Gens because I really didn't want to believe it. I guess I'd been holding out some slim hope of someone coming in at the last minute and giving us hockey for this season. But it's not to be.

I was further incensed this week reading the sports article about the Gens in the GGO (still no online link). I'm crafting a response to it and should have it up here later this week.

Bless me Father for I have missed my tackle

Have you ever cringed like I have when the game-winning athlete is interviewed and all he can do is "thank the Lord" for helping his team beat the other team?

Well now those players are going to get a boost. SportsFan Magazine posts an AP story about the Vatican is now going to start getting involved with sports.

God help us.

I stand corrected

These guys really have too much time on their hands.

Don't forget to play the game.

Cats. Cameras and too much time. Oh my!

Got a cat? Got a camera? Get in line.

The Infinite Cat Project - Cats watching cats watching cats. Hey! It's a concept!