But the teacher in me sometimes just sighs and rolls my eyes.

Yesterday, the head of our Employee Activities Committee (EAC) forwarded a draft communication from another employee regarding an upcoming treat for employees. Let’s just say that the rough draft was more rough than usual:

If I TRIED to pack as many grammar and punctuation problems as possible in a three-line communication, I would be hard-pressed to top this.

I would be even more challenged to write a persuasive statement linking a) the national holiday that commemorates the deaths of millions of armed services personnel with b) the consumption of hot dogs (or Hot dog’s) in the company cafeteria.

The creator of the above email attempted to make the connection by including two images side-by-side: A hot dog with many trimmings (minus ketchup) and a soldier facing a military cemetery, with the U.S. flag superimposed behind the words, “Memorial Day.”

Yes, looking at those war dead makes me salivate in anticipation of the hot dog that awaits me!

I assume that the head of the EAC thought about editing this email, then threw up her hands. Her transmittal note to me was the kicker:

“May I please”? Okay, it’s time to stop complaining and to earn my pay.

May you please comment on the quality of writing you come across in your role?

No one in their right mind, which must not have described former ESPN freelancer, Sarah Phillips, who was terminated Tuesday after Deadspin identified her as the ringleader of a scheme that allegedly conned popular web producers out of rights to their content.

You can read the account published by Yahoo! Sports blogger Chris Chase.

No, I don’t have to remind anyone that being called “undeniably shady” isn’t good for one’s professional image. I thought this article was worth pointing you to because it can be a caution against the lure of quick gain.

Phillips aggressively accumulated the Twitter followers of others as part of her plan to build an artificially inflated following from which she hoped to benefit professionally. In the process, she tricked unwary individuals who signed over their accounts and associated followers on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook in exchange for a stake in a non-existent sports comedy venture. They were hoping for quick monetary gain, she was banking on quick social media fame. All involved lost.

I’ve been well-served by this chestnut of advice that remains as true in the Intranet Age as it did in the Garden of Eden: “Something that seems too good to be true, probably is neither.”

Why should anyone attend the June 24-27 IABC 2012 World Conference in Chicago, and how can someone make the most of the experience? Tom Keefe, ABC, recently posed those questions to two leaders of the IABC World Conference Hospitality Task Force Marketing Team. Maryellen Thielen, ABC, and Stephanie Sheppard shared specific ideas and tips that will be useful to anyone from a World Conference newbie to a seasoned attendee whose name badge ribbons hang all the way to the ground.

As local IABC/Chicago Chapter members prepare to mingle with their communication colleagues from around the globe, they can benefit from the information contained in this podcast interview.

00:40 – Why did you volunteer to help market the conference?

01:47 – Why should people attend the conference?

03:00 – Early-bird pricing and other ways to trim the cost

05:02 – As someone who has attended past World Conferences, what advice do you have for first-timers?

07:20 – What should out-of-towners know about coming to Chicago?

08:15 – More about what people will learn at the conference

11:10 – Is there one session that everybody should attend?

12:10 – Final thoughts

• Scope out Conference Connections at http://iabcwc11.ning.com
• Follow the conference on Twitter, hashtag #iabc12
• Register at http://wc.iabc.com

(cross-posted from IABC/Chicago)

IABC/Chicago members, led by Tina Korecky Bowness, have planned several events and activities that will help attendees enjoy and explore Chicago. Tina is serving on the 2012 IABC Hospitality Task Force as hospitality coordinator.

In this 10-minute discussion with Tom Keefe, ABC, Tina shares some of the plans for attendees, and provides information that will help attendees schedule their time while visiting Chicago.
The music at the beginning and end of the podcast is from a Brian Hartzog song, “Alright to Drive,” available on Mevio.com.

(cross-posted to the IABC/Chicago podcast site)

Recently, I hoped that would change for the better when Blackberry announced its long-awaited update to the Blackberry Playbook tablet operating system: OS 2.0. I hoped that the upgrade–which Blackberry touts as “reinventing the Blackberry Playbook”–would fix some of the annoying aspects of the Playbook.

OS 2.0 hasn’t made the Playbook more useful to me, and I’m currently working out two technical glitches that have actually made it LESS useful.

Here are examples of what Blackberry has stated are benefits of the new operating system for its tablet, along with my experience to-date:

Enhanced communication

Marketing Pitch: OS 2.0 allows users to access calendar, contacts and messages apps seamlessly from within the PlayBook.

My reality: Although the menus to access my various email accounts are easily spotted on my Playbook, a glitch in the software has rendered my Blackberry Bridge email inaccessible. Whenever I launch the email from the Bridge link the screen flickers and flashes endlessly, preventing me from seeing my email. This only occurs with the Bridge email, so fortunately, I haven’t lost my access to the calendar, memos and contacts through Bridge.

Leave the laptop behind

Marketing Pitch: OS 2.0 allows a user to “Pack more productivity into your day with access to your business applications and productivity tools.” This includes the ability to edit files on the Playbook with Documents To Go®. Blackberry’s marketing copy adds, “With powerful QNX technology, the PlayBook is ready to work at a moment’s notice.”

My reality: One of the downsides of the Playbook remains its onscreen keyboard. I need a real keyboard to efficiently type and edit files. Early on I realized that my “fat fingers” made typing on the Playbook a constant aggravation. The purchase of a stylus has allowed me to tap keys better, but it hasn’t overcome a simple, yet infuriating design flaw of the Playbook’s online keyboard layout.

Unlike a traditional QWERTY keyboard that contains both letters, numbers and basic symbols including @, #, $, & and >, the Playbook forces a user to constantly tap to access THREE different keyboard layouts: one for letters, and two separate screens for a combination of numbers and some symbols, and some additional symbols.

You have to experience this to really understand the sense of irritation that occurs when you have to tap between at least two keyboard menus just to enter, for example, a simple email address. I’ve often found myself tapping between the letters and numbers screen by accident, when I really wanted to tap the shift key on the letters menu to make a capital letter–I just got confused tapping so many screens.

Why wouldn’t Blackberry have copied its own smartphone’s feature of capitalizing a letter if that letter is pressed for more than a second? Why give LESS functionality to a new product and its “upgraded” operating system?

A second glitch is an apparent change in the Playbook’s wifi configuration that has prevented me from accessing my company’s guest network. I have to enter a guest wireless user name and password to access my company’s wifi account. The earlier version of the Playbook OS allowed me to open the Playbook browser, and load the screen that provided the dialog boxes for entering my guest wireless login name and password.

But ever since I upgraded to OS 2.0, whenever I try to launch the browser at work, I’m immediately taken to a screen that tells me that I need to purchase a tethering plan through my smartphone service provider. No thanks, guys; I’ll continue to access the web via the Playbook browser–everywhere but at work, where I spend half of my waking hours during the week!

Hours of entertainment

Marketing Pitch:Enjoy games, music, apps and more. Whether it’s a long road trip or a short wait in line, you’ll never be at a loss for some on-the-go fun.

My reality: I don’t play many games anymore–just don’t have the time–so this isn’t an enticement to me. I did see that I could download “Angry Birds” for free. Of course, they’re hoping that I get addicted and purchase newer versions of the game at about $5 each.

My expectation that this would finally replace my long-dead and missed Palm T/X was soon shattered. Turns out that the Playbook doesn’t offer a contact/calendar feature that I thought would be standard on these tablets.

No, to get those, I would need to use the Blackberry Bridge software to add the contacts and calendar items from my Blackberry smartphone.

Trouble was, I didn’t have a Blackberry smartphone. Neither does 99.9% of the world’s population. This seemed like either a real oversight by Blackberry, or a misconceived plan to attract tons of new business on the strength of the Playbook’s appeal.

In my case, it kind of worked. Rather than hand my new Playbook over to my teenaged daughter, I looked into my AT&T contract, and saw that, for an $18 fee and 2-year recommitment, I could get a refurbished Blackberry Pearl smartphone.

So I did that this morning, and expect the “new” Blackberry Pearl to arrive sometime next week.

I hope that Blackberry hasn’t gone out of business by then, based on the bad news that I read later.

This is another reason why Apple continues to dominate. Its competitors keep shooting themselves in the foot, while Apple methodically churns out nice products that people buy in droves. Unless those people get stuck with the leftovers, like me.

Strangely, he didn’t think to include himself, but I’m doing that anyway.

I went to the White House website and the websites of my two state senators and left versions of the following.

I agree with President Obama’s statement last night that, “The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government.”

Now you, my elected senator(President), need to take a page out of the President’s book—from his work with the automotive industry—and stand strong on a deficit-reduction bill that will make a real difference. Support John Boehner’s bill that only lifts the debt ceiling by $1 trillion, while imposing $1.2 trillion in spending cuts.

I recall President Obama’s steadfastness, when dealing with the automotive manufacturer’s bailout. He refused to let those automotive leaders avoid reality or do things the “way they always been done.” His team required real change in attitude, planning and focus.

That real change is needed in this debt-limit crisis.

Stop letting the nation’s long-term economic health deteriorate as you tremble at the thought of making tough decisions that groups of Americans will oppose. Do what is right for the long-term good of this nation, not what is least damaging to your political base.

Support the Boehner bill that takes action NOW, and requires cuts greater than the additional debt burden you are placing on me, my children, and my children’s children.

Sincerely,

Tom Keefe
(phone and email)

Yes, they probably never will actually read this, but one of their staff members might. Will it change the course of history? Not likely.

But the President asked us to speak up, and our elected representatives need to remember that they are being paid to make choices that are best for our nation. Those choices aren’t always clear, but who in their right mind thinks that adding trillions to our debt will be good for our nation?

On June 29, 2011, I joined a group of professional communicators from across North America in downtown Chicago for the “Writing Across All Media” Workshop presented by Steve Crescenzo and Jim Ylisela.

This was a very practical, and very engaging, seminar in which Write (Steve) and Jim (Rewrite) explained how to:

1. Transform your communications department from a funnel pumping out every content request to a filter making good decisions about what to write, how to write it – and what doesn’t make the grade.
2. Create a “news desk” to decide which channel a piece of content belongs in – print, online, social media, audio or video, e-mail or face to face.
3. Change your web (or intranet) writing style to adapt to dramatic changes in the last two years.
4. Compose an effective blog that will draw readers and inspire comments.
5. Master the art of Print 2.0 – and give your publication new life.
6. Make the best use of Twitter’s 140-character limit – it still demands good writing.
7. Write for podcasts and other audio channels, which are fast becoming the most popular corporate communication tools.
8. Write for video, to create stand-alone video stories that go beyond “talking heads.”
9. Draw a crowd around typically boring corporate topics and initiatives by telling those stories across various media.

Listen to this 5-minute post-event interview of Steve, attendees and even Scout, the young daughter of writer David Murray. Scout didn’t attend the workshop, but she did attend the Chicago Cubs game afterward, along with her parents.

So we’ll just have to enjoy this video of a fabulous fireworks display that I and my family recorded on July 3, 2007 while vacationing in South Dakota, U.S.A. One of the better fireworks displays available was scheduled for July 3 of that year at the historic Mt. Rushmore National Park.

Dry weather had threatened to shut down the fireworks display that day, but we were blessed by a sprinkling of rain that sufficiently lowered the risk of brush fires. The event was about one hour in length, including opening singers and a flyby by Air Force fighter jets. The actual fireworks display was 20 minutes long.

One of the BEST fireworks displays that my family has seen in-person. There’s just something about watching and hearing explosions of light and sound, emanating from the stony likenesses of our four most famous U.S. presidents.

Weiner resigns in wake of sex photos scandal
By KAREN ZRAICK and ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press
NEW YORK – Seared by scandal, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner announced his resignation from Congress on Thursday, done in by lewd photos he took of himself, sent to women online and then adamantly lied about after being caught.

Weiner finally feels some of the professional consequences of the choices he made. My hope for him and others is that they learn the value of considering consequences before making decisions or taking action.

His scandal also highlights how social media has changed the world, by speeding the dissemination into the public eye of comments, thoughts and mistakes that, a couple of generations ago, could have been downplayed or contained.

I wish Weiner and his wife well. I wish he had learned from the mistakes of others before him. That just doesn’t seem to occur as frequently as one might wish.