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Jeff Barrett: Don’t Be Afraid to Use the F-Word in Social Media

See on Scoop.itM-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

We all tiptoe around the f-word. Failure, that is. Though, if you haven’t failed in business, you haven’t tried.

Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:

This is an interesting perspective on how to view social media, and it’s definitely worth reading. I think we’re all afraid of failure–I sure am–but there are some things to keep in mind when measuring successes versus failures. This article talks about that, especially in the view of social media exposure. My goal, as he summarizes, is to connect outside of social media, but use social media as the conduit to make that happen. Take a look at this article. 

–techcommgeekmom

See on blog.hootsuite.com

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The Anatomy of an Influential Blog

See on Scoop.itM-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

Tweet TweetIt might seem an odd thing to talk about so frankly, but if you want to monetise your blog in any way, including through working with brands or if you want your blog to make a meaningful impact through […]

Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:

I found this article thanks to Guy Kawasaki on Google +. I am glad to be reading more and more articles that talk about the quality of a blog instead of the analytical quantity of a blog. This article talks about influence over analytics. The three main points listed in this article are three things that I try to achieve with my blog for the long-term. This is definitely worth a read for anyone who is thinking of blogging. 

–techcommgeekmom

See on www.brandmeetsblog.com

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Sayonara, TechCommGeekMom

This post is to announce to the tech comm world that TechCommGeekMom, which has been a tech comm blog running for two years now, is closing its book. I’m just burnt out trying to come up with original articles and spending my time curating relevant information to include on it. It’s time consuming like you wouldn’t believe. Since this was a labor of love—well, the love is lost now. I want a divorce. In fact, I’m leaving tech comm altogether, if I’m going to be forthcoming. Why? I’ve just had enough of it all. Sure, I was all revved-up when I got out of grad school, ready to go and share all my ideas and knowledge with the world, but the world is fickle and unkind. Decent tech comm jobs are hard to come by. My blog was an extension of me showing what I know beyond my resume in the tech comm field. Well, after going to several conferences and working in the field now, it turns out I don’t know too much, and I don’t think I’ll ever catch up. I’m not cut out for this, so I’m quitting while I’m ahead.

Instead, I’ve chosen to fall back on topics that I feel more comfortable with, and I’m pursuing those. I’m going back to what I originally majored in during my college years—history—and I’ve been accepted at Princeton University to pursue a PhD in British History. I’m rather excited about it all. It’s been eating away at me for years that I never followed up my initial studies to transcribe the works of Algernon Sidney beyond his Discourses Concerning Government work and write about them. To supplement my income, now that I won’t be working in tech comm during my studies, I’ll be working during the week at the NJ State Library helping amateur genealogists with their research digging through old newspapers and census records. Once I receive my PhD, I’m hoping that I can go get a job working at the Tower of London or the British Museum, cataloging antiquities or something like that. Maybe working at Debrett’s Peerage would be even more ideal. I’ll need to work weekends too, so I’ll be working at the local yarn shop helping other knitters. Providing knitting help should be interesting, since I can’t even knit beyond your basic knit and purl stitches. It’s an important life skill knowing the difference between merino wool, cashmere wool, and knowing what’s made of acrylic instead, after all.

Yes, getting back to basics will be good for me. It’ll be busy, but it’ll be less stress, less tech. Just what I need.

So, thanks, tech comm, for the kicks and giggles. It was good while it lasted.

Oh, and I hope to see a bunch of you at the 2014 STC Summit.

(Update 4/1/14 at 11:14 PM: Happy April Fool’s Day. Read my post tomorrow afternoon.)

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Versal

See on Scoop.itM-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

One idea can launch a million more

Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:

I saw this on LinkedIn, and thought this was cool, new LMS/course creation tool. While it’s a  free tool for now, I’m sure in time it might have a cost, since this is still in beta. But it looks like it’d be rather flexible. Time will tell! 

–techcommgeekmom

See on versal.com

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Reigniting The Flame of Women in Tech

See on Scoop.itM-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

Did you know the first computer programmer ever was a woman? Yet in recent decades, things have changed—today, men far outnumber women in computer science majors. Nowadays, only about 10 percent of computer science majors are women but that wasn’t always the case. New Tech City host Manoush Zomorodi spoke to professors and students about why more women don’t pursue computer science majors and how we can change that.

Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:

This is an interesting phenomenon…oddly enough, when I was in college, most of the computer science majors I knew were women who were deep into math. I wasn’t, but in retrospect, I probably could’ve learned programming just fine. Times have changed in 30 +/- years. Perhaps many who would’ve been programmers are technical communicators instead? Who knows…but there are plenty of us techie gals out there. We just have to encourage more techie gals to not be shy, let nothing hold them back, and pursue STEM careers like computer science. 

–techcommgeekmom

See on www.thetakeaway.org