Archive for April, 2009

If you’ve been following my microdrivel lately, you know that I’ve been actively fundraising for the Photographic Resource Center at BU. On Monday, we (by which I mean all my donors and I) hit the $2,000 goal. This is a big step, achieved ahead of schedule, and I wanted to take a moment here to recognize that.

Thank you to all 40+ donors. There were several gifts of $10 or less and some of $100 and more, and some came from people whom I know are out of work right now. I’m also especially grateful to those who gave even though I didn’t email you specifically, probably from a referral or a tweet or facebook status message.

A special shout-out to some of the businesses that donated. If I’ve missed yours, drop me a line.

• Ziplens, online rentals of Canon and Nikon lenses
• Frame 38 Studios
• Brilliantpictures photography and Brilliantplaces (real estate in JP and beyond)

If you gave – or are about to – and work for a company with a corporate matching program, I encourage you to take advantage of it. I know that many of my donors do, notably those at Ipswitch and Firstgiving. You’ll need the PRC’s EIN, which is 04-2610466.

Persistence and some use of social media paid off, but mostly it’s all about people’s generosity even in tough times. $2,000 will make a difference at the PRC but more is needed there and elsewhere. I’m going to keep the fundraising page open at least through my next birthday, and will continue to offer print raffles at every $1000 raised. I hope that limeduck readers will be generous and also visit the Photographic Resource Center and enjoy its programs.

It’s not every day you go to a social media event in a cargo container sponsored by a shoe company and hear somebody invoke Thoreau when talking about Twitter. Today was just such a day.

But first, I’ll back up to last night, when J (have I mentioned lately that she has an excellent food blog?) joined me at an Earthwatch.org’s shidig at Puma City. (Puma City is a batch of cargo containers assembled into a retail and party space in a temporary “village” set up in South Boston to celebrate the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race and it lacks indoor plumbing) We sipped melon puree and watched the sunset while listening to Earthwatch CEO Ed Wilson talk about the state of the world’s oceans. The event was well-attended and raised money and awareness for Earthwatch’s programs. Also, they served tasty but lukewarm mini open-faced cuban sandwiches and raffled off some cool prizes. Having already won a gift card at Four Burgers that day, I couldn’t be too upset at missing out.

Barely 12 hours later, I returned to Puma City for Social Media Breakfast 13, Rocking the Boat. Founded by Bryan Person and recently organized by the estimable Bob Collins, SMB has reliably been one of the better live events for those who live online.

The first presenter was Dan Schwabel, a young man who has the admirably meta occupation of promoting his personal brand as “the guy with a personal brand.” He observed at one point that he chose marketing because he was “creative and not that great at math,” which I think sort of sums up much of what’s wrong with marketing these days. I bet Dan isn’t really that bad at math, but I also think that people like FM Days are trying to rescue marketing from the folks who are afriad of or (perhaps willfully) ignorant of the numbers.

Next up, George Grattan, Marketing Strategist at Earthwatch took the stage. I use the term, “stage” loosely, as the sight lines inside a space made of cargo containers are a little rough. Anyway, George talked about Earthwatch’s social media strategy, which includes a lot of Facebook and Eons (because their target is a little older) and no Twitter yet. Grattan quoted Thoreau on the subject of the transatlatic telegraph wire to explain this choice:

We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.

The idea being, until Earthwatch has something to say on Twitter, they will remain quiet. I just hope George has grabbed the username. As I’ve discussed and as I’m sure Dan would agree, you have to register your brand on every network you can, even if you’re not going to use them, just as a protective measure.

I’m skeptical that Earthwatch really has nothing to say to the people of Twitter. After all, they are actually somewhat older that the Facebook generation and probably closer to Earthwatch’s demographic. But more to the point, how different is what Earthwatch has to say on Twitter from what they have to say on Facebook or on their blogs? (They do have blogs, don’t they? George, call me!) With tools like Ping.fm, Friendfeed, and Twitterfeed, you can syndicate content you already have into all kinds of channels at minimal extra cost or effort. Sure, that’s not the level of engagement that your customers really want and deserve, but isn’t it better than nothing? You can start building your Twitter following by pushing your Facebook status and blog updates there, so when you are ready for full-on Twitter engagement, you’re partway there. To use an ironic metaphor, Earthwatch should fish where the fish are.

The last two presenters, Roger Wu and C C Chapman deserve blog posts of their own, and I’m sure many others will provide. In short, Roger’s company Klickable.TV is doing some cool stuff with videos that you can click on and the data that those generate. (Roger, does Rachel Ray know you’re clicking on her like that?) CC is a social media fixture for good reason. Check out his site, blogs, podcasts and so forth whenever you can.

This weekend I blunched with fashion blogger A at the eccentrically capitalized LiNEaGe restaurant in Coolidge Corner.  We were both a little shell-shocked at the sudden heat and immediately ordered up pomegranate Bellinis.

While discussing the next Crisis in Denim post – it’s not up yet but I can tell you it’s about an establishment dear to my heart and has far-reaching economic implications – we pondered the brunch menu.  I ordered the sweet shrimp omelet with toast and home fries, and A opted for the grilled vegetable sandwich with a side salad.  Also tempting were the brioche french toast and classic bacon and eggs.

The omelet was runny in the right places and the toast was dry, which I appreciated.  The grilled sandwich was done just right with an assortment of veggies and cheese.  LiNEaGe was relaxed, a calm and cool place to talk blogs and watch the Harvard street pedestrians parade by.  The also offer wine dinners and something called “bivalve replacement therapy” – happy hour dollar Duxburies.

As I often do as laundry day approaches, I dropped into the Gap to buy some black t-shirts the other day. While there, I also picked up some socks and underwear. The smallest purchase, the underwear, came with a disturbing array of packaging waste: a cardboard band, a plastic hanger, a piece of cardboard inside, a cardboard label on the waistband and a sale sticker.

I put the paper and cardboard stuff in the paper recycling, but I seem to have no choice but to throw away the hanger. At least when I get a shirt or pants with a hanger, I can use it in my closet, and when I get too many wire hangers from the cleaners, I just bring back a bunch of them. I also was guilty of taking a plastic bag (15% recycled plastic) rather than buying a reusable bag (kudos to Gap for stocking them, jeers for not asking me if I wanted to buy one at checkout) or bringing my own. Unlike the hanger, I will reuse that plastic bag once or twice.

So the Gap has some awareness of environmental issues and waste, but not enough to reduce the amount of paper and plastic that comes with a single pair of shorts. On the womens’ side, panties were arrayed on a table or in plastic boxes, with nothing but the price tag, so we can deduce that it is possible to sell underwear at least to women without the excess packaging. Maybe some men need their boxer briefs to be hanging on a hook to buy them, like stuff in the hardware store.

I’d expect better from a store selling that product(red) stuff.

Last week, I dined with professor M at Mu Lan, an unassuming looking Taiwanese restaurant not far from Kendall square in Cambridge.  We ordered #54, sauteed shrimp with asparagus and #133, soft bean curd with green mustard and some brown rice.  The shrimp and asparagus were mild and done just right.  When #133 arrived, I at first thought we had received the wrong dish.  The tofu came as sheets, not the silken chunks I expected, and the mustard greens (we assumed they had transposed the words in an imperfect translation) were chopped finely and mixed with whole soybeans.  The waitress confirmed that it was what we ordered and we tucked in.  I can’t say that the tofu sheets had much flavor but they were more interesting texture-wise than the usual kind, and much easier to eat with chopsticks.  The greens (and I’m still not 100% sure they were in fact the “mustard greens” you find in southern cooking) were tender but still crunchy, lightly seasoned and redolent of fresh-cut grass. There are lots more Taiwanese dishes on the menu that you don’t see at the typical Cantonese or mainland Chinese places, so we’ll have to go back sometime. It was a very satisfying dinner – we even brought back leftovers – but at the same time, I can’t help but feel cheated by the Chinese lesson on the back of my fortune.