Testing Facebook Notes

Im trying something new, so bare with me. I’ve never used Facebook Notes, either on my personal account or on my 46alpha page, but am giving it a whirl. What I’m testing right now is importing my blogposts here into my 46alpha Facebook page notes section. It looks as if it imports a number of previous posts right off the bat, so I’ll try and delete most of the previous ones so if you’re reading this via your Facebook account (so your home screen isn’t flooded with ’46alpha’ links). Testing now…

The Language of “Doctrine”

I have been working in an exercise here at CGSC and was told that I  need to try and speak more in doctrinal terms when I brief. The point being that when you brief a 2,3,4-star commander, some of them are sticklers on the use of doctrinal terms when briefing them. Every boss is different, but it is true that many want this when someone is giving a formal brief.

Got it, but why is it hard for me?

Then it occurred to me that my whole job revolves around not sounding like a Field Manual. I am supposed to take Army/doctrinal speak and translate it into something that the rest of the world can understand, whether it is in text, on camera, etc.

When I take someone and prep them for an interview, and tell them to not use acronyms or sound like they are a walking-talking field manual, most people cannot make the switch. So should it be any surprise that it is hard for me to make the switch back into using doctrinal terms when I talk?

The fact is that I understand the point that was made to me, it is basically “know your audience”. When giving a brief to Commanders as a field grade officer, the language I need to use should be more the language of “doctrine” and less Public Affairs-mom-and-pop speak.

For this exercise, I’m acting as a Deputy J5 which means I’m not trying to speak in doctrinal terms about Public Affairs but in terms of future plans for a fictional ‘war’.

I’m well out of my comfort zone in a J5 cell – planning and talking about all aspects of land operations at the CFLCC/Corps level-  but am trying my best to re-learn this language that I haven’t really spoken much in the past 8 years.

Who would you go “off-the-record” with?

Under what circumstances and with whom would you go “off-the-record” or “on background” with?

On the record, on background, not for attribution and off the record: These are prearranged agreements between a reporter and a source, which govern how specific information can be used. These deals must be agreed to beforehand, never after. A source can’t say something then claim it was “off the record.” That’s too late. When dealing with individuals who are not experienced in talking with reporters, journalists should make sure ground rules and potential consequences are clear, and then perhaps offer leeway. Of course, if the information isn’t integral to the story, a reporter can agree not to use it. If you talk to five journalists, you’ll likely get five different definitions for these terms. That’s why it’s important that a reporter clarify the use of these terms with a source before making any agreements.   – NYU School of Journalism Handbook

Here is my thoughts on the matter. The decision to go off the record, on background, or not for attribution all depends on your relationship with that reporter. It amazes me to see or hear of PAO’s who ask to go off-the-record with someone they hardly know, not knowing that persons professional ethics, morals, history, etc. A relationship with a journalist is just like any other personal or professional relationship  - it takes time and some work to establish.

I had the opportunity to work in Norfolk under several U.S. Navy Captain PAO’s, and I noticed some distinct differences between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy Public Affairs experiences. One of the things I took away was that the Navy has (relatively) few large naval bases where one could spend an entire career. What this does for their PAO’s is give them the opportunity to develop relationships with the local Norfolk-based, San Diego-based, Hawaii-based, etc, media representatives over the course of many years. Many of the military corespondents in these towns stay in their jobs and while the PAO may move to different positions within the same location, he or she still maintains those connections.

When my boss went off-the-record, it is because he already had a long-standing, professional relationship with that reporter.

The Army is at a disadvantage because we have so many more bases all over the world that, other than the Fort Bragg’s and the Fort Hood’s, we only spend short amounts of time working with the local media reps before we move on to some other location 12-24 months later. I think the Army is at a disadvantage in this respect because we seldom have the chance to build the types of media relationships that our Navy PAOs do. This may be one of the reasons why some in our ranks seem to use “off-the-record” a bit more loosely than maybe they should – because the experience just isn’t there.

So who would you go off-the-record with? I don’t do it unless I have some professional history with the person and there is mutual trust. It can be advantageous for both parties to be able to go off-the-record or on background, but it’s not something that should be done with any media rep that happens to pass through my location on assignment.

Do you have a different opinion?

Image taken from this link.

Google-only experiment done

So for the last few weeks, I’ve gone completely Google. I rid myself of almost every social media site (except for Facebook and LinkedIn), stopped using Twitter (I used Buzz instead), Gmail instead of MobileMe (which has been my primary email account), Google Reader instead of Netvibes, Google Chrome instead of Safari, Google Profile instead of FriendFeed, Blogger instead of WordPress, and Picasa instead of Flickr. I also used Google documents for awhile instead of Word and Pages.

I always look for stuff that would make life easier…simple. So what’s the verdict? Even though I had everything Google, it still was not optimum. Google’s products feel very disjointed to me. A product over here, one over there, there is no one place to go to see them all. I defaulted to starting at my Google Profile page where I linked in all my sites and went from there.

As for my preferences, let me first say that I am big on User Interface (UI). You may have a good product, but if your UI sucks then Im most likely not going to use it. I always thought Google’s UI’s were somewhat less than desirable prior to this experiment. After using them for a bit, I still feel that way although it doesn’t bug me as much as it did before.

Email – Even though MobileMe gets a bad rap, I still prefer it to Gmail. The push email, calendar sync, bookmark sync, iDisk, all just work for me. You can do all those things via Google, but it just didn’t seem as polished as MobileMe does.

Blogging – WordPress is by far still superior to Blogger. I tried Blogger several years ago and while I found some new updates, it is not nearly as customizable as WordPress is. So www.46alpha.com is now back on WordPress.

Google Buzz – I did like not being limited to 140 characters, and the interaction was a bit more personalized. More photos, more information, but you cant message people. In order to ‘@’ someone like in Twitter, you need to have the persons Gmail account in your address book. Additionally, most people just feed in their Twitter feed into Buzz anyway.

Picasa – Im split on this one versus Flickr and MobileMe’s photo app. I liked that it has a built in editor and it was easy enough to upload photos. No video’s though, while Flickr does short videos and MobileMe can do both.

What I did like:

Google Profile – I’ll keep that, and am redirecting me www.mikenicholson.me to it. It is easier to remember than http://www.google.com/profiles/nicholson.c.mike.

Google Reader – I deleted my Netvibes page and have gone completely to Google Reader. This was a product that initially I thought I didnt like, but after using it for a bit, it really grew on me. It was also easy to use on the iPhone.

So experiment done. I dont think there will ever be one-stop shopping for me in regards to web/social media sites, nor do I think there should be. One company will never, and should never, serve all your online needs but you still should look for ways to make the mass amount of information somewhat simplified.

Now that it’s done, I just need to go back and  re-link some of the photos and links on this site that got jacked up during the migration. Back to work.

Looking for 46alpha?

I’m trying something new and have gone completely Google for awhile. Dont know how long this experiment will last, but you can check it out over at my Google profile.