Update

On August 27, 2012August 27, 2012 By RachelIn article, conference, content strategyLeave a comment

Apparently, it’s time for my semi-annual blog update!

I’ve been focusing a bit more on work-work this year, and dialing it back on some of the writing and speaking. Not entirely, just gathering up my thoughts so that I can continue working on things that are interesting and relevant.

Writing: I’ve continued to post Scatter/Gather, Razorfish’s Content Strategy blog. And I also published some articles elsewhere this year.

Get a clew – content strategy meets linguistics
Content Strategists of the World: Ilona Hiila & Ida Hakola – I started a series of posts on people practicing CS outside of North America and the UK. So far, I’ve done just this one, but there will be more.
Me First. Then Social. – a look at how and where social fits into our digital work
First Principle: Disambiguation – about one of the principles that drives me to do this kind of work (for Contents Magazine)
Tinker, Tailor, Content Strategist – an exploration of what Content Strategy Mastery would be (for A List Apart)
Content Modelling: A Master Skill – a deeper look at one of my favorite CS skills (for A List Apart)

Speaking: This year I got more serious about scaling back on the public speaking. The My Presentations page has been updated with info and links to recordings (when available). Here’s also a list of just the new ones:

Metadata Workshop – Content Strategy Applied, London, UK, March 1-2, 2012 (on slideshare)
Content Strategy: Why Now? – Sisältöstrategiaseminaari 2012 (Content Strategy Seminar 2012), Helsinki, Finland, February 8, 2012 (on slideshare)
Coming soon – I’ll be co-presenting a workshop and giving a talk at Content Strategy Forum 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, October 24-26, 2012
Attending: Even though I’m doing less speaking, I still love the inspiration of going to conferences. I also went to Confab, and soon I’ll be going to dconstruct and XOXO.

Other: One other thing I’ve been up to – I’m serving as Producer on a documentary that Jason Scott is shooting about DEFCON. Here’s a teaser trailer. There’s some other clips, teasers, and test footage on Jason’s YouTube channel.

Still here!

On November 17, 2011November 17, 2011 By RachelIn article, conference, content strategyLeave a comment

Hi, hello, wait, don’t go!

I know, I’ve been woefully neglecting this blog. But here are a few places you can find me and my work:

Writing: I’ve written lots of posts on Scatter/Gather, a Razorfish blog about Content Strategy. Here are some of my recent favorites:

A blog post about a movie about a newspaper – thoughts about “Page One: Inside the New York Times”
How I Learned to Troubleshoot – things I learned from my college Video Professor
Q&A with Colleen Jones – author of Clout
ICC Wrap-up: What’s next? – report from the Intelligent Content Conference
ICC Day 2: What We Heard – report from the Intelligent Content Conference
ICC Day 1: An Appeal for Content Agnosticism – report from the Intelligent Content Conference
SXSW 2011 Q&A: Annalee Newitz – a pre-SXSW interview
User-Generated Chaos – reminiscing about my first professional encouter with the UGC trolls
The Communo-editron™ 2000 – why content can never be 100% automated
No, I’m not a Web Editor – why “content strategist” isn’t just a fancy name for “web editor”
Content Strategy Stories from the Frontline – a wrapup of SXSW 2010

Speaking: I gave a bunch of talks, and I’ve updated the My Presentations page with info and links to recordings (when available). Funny, because it looks like I did a lot of talks in 2010, and just one in 2011. I actually did a lot of talks in 2011, but many of these were panels, or were places where I was invited to cover topics that I had previously discussed elsewhere. Since there was no recording of these talks and the material wasn’t THAT different than what I’ve already posted, I didn’t see a reason to list all of them on the Presentations page, but if you’re curious, here’s what they were:

Make Your Content Nimble (a very brief version of the talk I gave at Confab) – Semantic Tech & Business Conference; London, UK; September 26-27, 2011
Semantic Web Media Summit Panel – Semantic Web Media Summit; New York, NY; Sept. 14, 2011
Nimble Content: Publishing in the Digital Age (a variation of the many Nimble talks I gave in 2010) – UX Melbourne; Melbourne, Australia; June 28, 2011
Empowering Your Audience Ambassadors with Semantic Publishing – Web 3.0 and the Future of Social Media; Sydney, Australia; June 2011 (on slideshare)
Social Media Content Gone Wild! (an update of a 2009 talk I gave at MIMA) – Social Media Club Sydney; Sydney Australia; June 20, 2011
The New Content Ecosystem (panel) – Semantic Technology Conference 2011; San Francisco, CA; June 5-9 2011
Make Your Content Nimble – Confab; Minneapolis, MN; May 9-10, 2011 (on slideshare)
Makers of Geek Documentaries: A Nerd’s Life (panel) – SXSW Film; Austin, TX; March 2011
Intelligent Content Conference 2011 – attended as a guest blogger; Palm Springs, CA; Feb 16-18, 2011
Faceted Search/Semantic Technology (panel) – AAN Web Conference; San Francisco, CA; Jan 28, 2011

Tweeting: Plus, you can always check out my latest thoughts (both profound and mundane) on Twitter – @rlovinger

I’m going to try to make my next visit a little sooner! 17 months is a bit too long.

FEED: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report 2008

On October 29, 2008 By RachelIn article, content strategy, semantic webLeave a comment

Yes, I’ve been neglecting this blog, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been productive. My employer (which has changed it’s name back to Razorfish) has published another book, which contains an article by me about semantic web and user-generated data. You can see the whole, beautifully designed document online. My article is on page 60. Congratulations to my colleagues who also contributed to the book.

Quoted in the New York Times

On August 26, 2008 By RachelIn articleLeave a comment

This doesn’t really have anything to do with central themes of this blog, but I was quoted in a Times article today, about the new walking and seating area that runs along 8 blocks of Broadway (including an area directly in front of my office): Front-Row Seats on Broadway, if You Dare.

My quote is actually the closing comment in the article. I’m not going to spoil it, though, you’ll have to read the article.

Digital Design Outlook

On October 5, 2007 By RachelIn article, design, semantic webLeave a comment

My company, Avenue A | Razorfish, has published a Digital Design Outlook book, and an accompanying blog. I contributed an article providing a user experience perspective on the Semantic Web. I’m excited about the potential for bridging the gap between really powerful semantic technologies and elegant and effective user experiences. I think this is one of the major digital design challenges of the next few years.

For more details, read my article, The Semantic Web We Weave, on the Digital Design Blog.

Re-naming the Semantic Web

On May 29, 2007June 4, 2008 By RachelIn article, semantic web3 Comments

One of the things I heard a lot of people buzzing about at the Semantic Technology Conference last week was whether or not the Semantic Web would be more accessible to people (as a concept) if it were called something else. Apparently people don’t like the word “semantic.” I sometimes forget that, and then I read something like this (admittedly fairly old) article about Tim Berners-Lee in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The framing metaphor – Berners-Lee as Tolkien – is nonsensical. You could swap out any author who invented a culture with its own language and the metaphor would work just as well (or just as poorly). And, it’s ridiculous to imply that the significant factor of the WWW is that it’s based on an invented language; computer programming languages and markup languages have a long history that predates the WWW. In the end, this metaphor does nothing to illuminate the social, economic, and cultural impact of the Web. (It does have a handy subtext, though – apparently people who are interested in the underlying workings of the Web are nerds, just like people who are passionate about Lord of the Rings.)

With frequent references to “futuristc” and “magic” and “special codes,” the Chronicle article starts out by oversimplifying the concepts of Semantic Web and quickly shifts to steeping them in acronyms and dense technical jargon. If this really is the view of the Semantic Web that’s out there, then perhaps it does need a more consumer-friendly name.

Continue reading “Re-naming the Semantic Web” →

Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data

On May 14, 2007May 14, 2007 By RachelIn article, content strategyLeave a comment

What better way to start this blog than with a link to an article I recently wrote for Boxes and Arrows? The article is called Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data. I’ve gotten a lot of response from this article, which leads me to believe that there’s a growing interest in this field and the professional roles associated with it.

Meaningful Data

Category: article