lex exposita » Creative Commons http://brianrowe.org Open Technology and Open Law - musings on events current, past, and occasionally entirely off topic Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:49:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Best Practices for Blogging http://brianrowe.org/2009/03/27/best-practices-for-blogging/ http://brianrowe.org/2009/03/27/best-practices-for-blogging/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:59:48 +0000 admin http://brianrowe.org/?p=74

Two weeks ago in my International Human Rights Clinic we had a class on press releases without one mention in the readings of how to promote press online.  My critical response for the week focused on how to blog.  Here are the highlights:

  • Add visuals - Visuals draw people to text, they also get you hits from Google image search.
  • Make headlines simple and direct, do not hide the ball with a witty headline
  • Add meta data and tags to increase Search Engine Optimization
  • Use broadcast tools to promote the press release - Twitter, Facebook, Digg, reddit, your blog, your orgs blog, list serves, Slide share, YouTube. In the human rights context use Witness for videos and for legal docs use JD Supra.
  • License your work for others to share your message with Creative Commons Licenses (this blog is under a public domain dedication)
  • Consider using multi media - a cheap 5 min video will get you 10X the number of hits a text post will over the long term
  • Provide links to related works
  • Invite community feed back - open comments
  • Enable community action - do not just give people a story give them a way to take action!
  • Provide links to related articles - see end of post
  • Make it easy for your reader to educate themselves through the press release with links. (to wikipedia or relevant sites)
  • Promote others that are talking about the same topic (see Cory's video at end of post)
  • Keep it short 200- 400 words at most

Cory Doctorow: How to be an uber blogger:

Further reading:
Slate Review of Huffington's guide on how to blog
Four steps to a great Nonprofit Blog by Sarah Davies

Take Action: Start a blog through Wordpress

]]> http://brianrowe.org/2009/03/27/best-practices-for-blogging/feed/ 1 PILF Grant to work at CC this Summer! http://brianrowe.org/2008/04/17/pilf-grant-to-work-at-cc-this-summer/ http://brianrowe.org/2008/04/17/pilf-grant-to-work-at-cc-this-summer/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:16:39 +0000 admin http://brianrowe.org/?p=14
I just heard back for the Seattle University Public Interest Law Foundation and they have decided to approve me for a PILF Summer Grant. This is a $4000 grant for 10 weeks. I will be working at Creative Commons in San Francisco from June 9th through August 15th. This is Great!

Dear Brian:

Congratulations!

You have been chosen to receive a PILF summer grant for 2007. We know that this is unusual in that you were expecting to be interviewed before any decisions were made. However, the committee has selected a few applicants to receive grants based solely on the exceptional nature of their written applications.


The Committee is obviously impressed with your proposal and your commitment to public interest and wishes you good luck with your project. We have selected this procedure in order to make the very difficult decisions we have to make regarding who will be able to take advantage of the significant, but limited, funding available. We believe that this is the fairest way of proceeding in light of the large number of strong applications we received. One of the downsides of proceeding in this fashion, from our point of view, is that we do not get the chance to meet you as we would if we had interviewed you. Should you have any questions regarding your summer project or a career in public interest law, please feel free to contact any of us as we would be delighted to speak with you.

Once again, congratulations and good luck.

Now I just need to find housing in SF.
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