Blog Hiatus

Hi folks, this blog is going to take a nap for a couple of months. The existing domain and posts will stay until I am able to return — hopefully that will happen in June. Until then, you can visit me on Twitter and on our newsroom wiki.

Short Video: Twitter in Plain English

Video: Twitter in Plain English | Common Craft – Explanations In Plain English

more about “Video: Twitter in Plain English | Com…“, posted with vodpod

Cool Tool!

Username Check is a free, and fast, web tool that searches by username on over 60 membership websites.

Friday ORB Roundup

• This Week in Scandals. ProPublica tracking of the top five investigative stories of the week.

• Open-government advocates filed a suit demanding Calif. database on bills and lawmakers’ voting records.

• New GAO Reports: Auto Industry, Troubled Asset Relief Program

• Why the stories about Obama’s birth certificate will never die.

Tweet, Tweet

I have been twittering a bit . Twitter, a social media tool, is a fast-growing technology that months ago defied an easy description. That is no longer the case. Twitter found its stride during the election

All election day long,  I, and many others,  were glued to Twitter’s Election2008 stream. Mark Friesen even configured a special Portland election page  that featured feeds from Doug Perry and Scott Nelson, as well as Twitterers across the Portland area who were expressing their election thoughts in real-time.  Mark’s page is still active. The page is no longer election specific but it is still a great place to check out what certain Portlanders are saying. (Think of Twitter as an AP feed for the community.)

Interested in starting your own Twitter account? Check out this great primer by Sarah Evans on building a Twitter community over at Mashable.  She provides tips on how to search, the quirky lingo, as well as, a general how-to.

Native American Heritage Month

November is National American Indian Heritage Month, making now a good time read NAJA’s 2007 Reading Red Report (PDF).  The report is a content analysis of general audience newspapers in circulation areas with high percentages of Native Americans

Also, you might want to check out how some organizations are recognizing the month.

• The Library of Congress pays tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.

• The U.S. Census Facts for Features.

• The National Educators Association compiled a booklist that includes titles ranging from pre-K to grade 9 and up.

• Explore Native American heritage through Native American stories.

Readership is down

23 of the top 25 daily papers lose circulation, including The Oregonian (-8.45%).

Wednesday ORB Roundup

• Automattic (the parent company responsible for WordPress) has acquired PollDaddy. I checked to see if our access to Poll Daddy has changed in any way. It has not.  WordPress.com blogs are now fully integrated with PollDaddy.

• Will there be a democratic wave on Election Day? Stateline thinks so.

• Health Care Reform and the Presidential Candidates.
  

• Hulu is streaming tonight’s debate.

Gender, Parenting, and Work: The debate that won’t let up.

Governor Palin’s addition to the presidential ticket has sparked more “Mommy Wars” among mothers, and in the media. From the past couple of days:

• Do Mommies or Daddies Make Better Candidates?

• Men or Women: Who’s the Better Leader? (OK, this one was published in August)

• To Work or Not?

• “A Nonpartisan Message” to America about sexism in the campaign.

Usable URLs from TinyURL

A few months ago I had a post about URL shorteners that allow the addition of personal nicknames.  TinyURL, the most popular shortening service,  wasn’t on that list. That was then.

TinyURL now supports “custom alias”. The service is optional. Just type in a word or phrase that of your choosing.  You may use letters, numbers and dashes.  Note: If someone’s already used the URL, you can’t use it.