Formation à l'écriture blog le 03.12.2011 [fr]

[en] Giving a day-long course on blogging (the writing part of it) -- how to write a blog that reads like a blog and not like press release rehash or marketing copy 🙂

Depuis des années qu’on en parle, ça se concrétise enfin: je donne une journée entière de formation à l’écriture blog, le 3 décembre 2011.

Ça se passe à l’eclau, bien sûr, il y aura entre 5 et 10 personnes, et vous repartirez en ayant:

  • appris ce qui différencie le style “blog” des autres formes de rédaction (ou genres littéraires ;-)) — y compris le choix du titre, le formatage, le choix du sujet
  • mis en pratique, appliqué, corrigé, ré-écrit, écrit encore, recorrigé, jusqu’à ce que ça devienne naturel!

Le but: que vous puissiez écrire un blog qui ressemble à un blog “sérieux” (et non à un resucé de communiqués de presse ou de contenu marketing, pour les cas les plus graves ;-)) et que vous compreniez les mécanismes de ce type d’écriture, possiblement pour l’expliquer à de tierces personnes…

Informations utiles:

  • c’est donc à l’eclau, à Lausanne (facile d’accès en transports publics et en voiture — prévoyez un petit moment pour trouver une place de parc en zone bleue)
  • on commence à 9h, on finit à 17h
  • le repas de midi est compris dans le prix (on commandera au Baz’Art, c’est très bon)
  • le prix? 340.- à verser pour confirmer l’inscription à Stephanie Booth, Guiguer-de-Prangins 11, 1004 Lausanne, CCP 17-683449-5
  • annulation d’inscription: 30% jusqu’à 15 jours civils avant la formation, 50% jusqu’à 8 jours, et 80% jusqu’au jour avant (conditions piquées chez quirao parce qu’elles me paraissent très raisonnables)
  • chacun(e) amène bien entendu son ordi (et son blog! ce n’est pas un cours d’ouverture de blog, mais bien d’écriture!)
  • un grand grand merci à Valérie Demont qui me donne un coup de main pour la mise sur pied de cette journée, elle n’aurait pas lieu sans elle 🙂

Des questions?

Si ce sont les médias sociaux en général qui vous intéressent (plutôt que spécifiquement l’écriture blog), jetez un petit oeil du côté des workshops médias sociaux que j’anime au SAWI dans le cadre de la formation de Spécialiste en médias sociaux et communautés en ligne.

Merci de parler de ce cours autour de vous si vous connaissez des personnes susceptibles d’être intéressées! (Il y a un événement facebook que vous pouvez faire circuler.)

Drifting People [en]

[fr] On ne peut pas être ami avec tout le monde, ne serait-ce que pour des questions d'agenda. Je crois que j'ai accepté cette limite, et aussi que l'amitié va et vient la plupart du temps, et que les gens invités dans ma vie ne resteront pas forcément pour toujours.

I like people. I meet a lot of them. I connect easily and make friends. I have lots of people in my life, and not just “business contacts” kept at arm’s length.

At some point these last months, I started reflecting on the fact that I want to count as friends more people than I can cope with, from a purely “calendar” point of view. It’s very frustrating.

Four years ago I wrote a post titled “Too Many People“. I’m not at this level of crisis, at all, though the seeds of this year’s realization were undoubtedly sown sometime then.

I think I’ve accepted that people will drift in and out of my life. I’ve accepted that I cannot pursue every friendship worth pursuing, and that when friends drift out of my life, it is not just my responsibility.

You see, for some reason, I tend to look at things as if I was in charge of maintaining the relationship. But there are always two of us, and when there has been no contact in a year, it is also because the other person has not made a move either.

I’m not thinking of any of my friendships in particular, here. It’s more that I think I’ve accepted something about the somewhat transient nature of friendships and relationships, and the practical limits which mean one can’t be friends with everyone one wants to, and feel more at peace with it.

Sync Multiple Google Calendars on iPhone: Finally Figured it Out! [en]

[fr] Instructions pour synchroniser plus d'un calendrier Google avec son iPhone.

This is something that has been annoying the hell out of me for some time, now. I use at least half a dozen different Google calendars to keep track of my stuff, but when adding a Google account to iCal, all it does is add the main calendar.

I had come upon a hack which consisted in adding each Google calendar in iCal on the computer separately, rather than using delegation. A few weeks ago I was doing some digital housekeeping, and forgot why I had initially done that, and switched back to normal delegation. There went all my lovely syncing.

Let me explain things a bit more clearly:

  1. I have a bunch of Google calendars.
  2. I prefer using the iCal application on the computer and on my iPhone rather than the web interface.
  3. I want everything to sync.

Now, getting Google calendar to sync with iCal on the computer is quite straightforward: add a Google calendar account to iCal following these instructions, and under the “delegation” tab, include any secondary calendars you may have.

It gets tricky with the iPhone. You might think that now that you have your Google calendars in iCal, you will find them on your iPhone if you configure your iPhone to sync calendars with your computer. But no. iCloud or no iCloud, that’s not how it works.

So, you can add a Google account to your iPhone under Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account… > Google Mail. That’s fine if you have only one calendar, but not if you have more than one, because there isn’t anything like the “delegation” function you had in iCal.

So, if you have more than one like I do, here’s what you need to do:

  1. Add your Google account as a Microsoft Exchange account as described here.
  2. Head over to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/iconfig/, select your iPhone (or other device), and choose which calendars you want to sync.

It’s pretty straightforward, but (a) you have to know about it and (b) do not forget the trailing slash in the URL above. I kept getting “device not supported” and 404 errors which were driving me batty until I figured out what was the cause. Almost gave up!

Thanks a lot to @zecege who patiently tweeted to and fro with me while I figured out all this!

Variety is the Spice of Life [en]

[fr] De l'importance de varier les choses que l'on fait pour être heureux, les façons dont on s'organise, et le type d'article qu'on publie sur son blog. La routine ne tue pas seulement le couple. Vous avez d'autres exemples?

I’m in India. I’m reading “The How of Happiness“. The two are completely unrelated aside from the fact they come together to give me the title of this article.

Spice
Photo credit: Sunil Keezhangattu/Flickr

Don’t let the slightly corny title put you off as it did me, The How of Happiness is an excellent, solid, well-researched and practical book.

I don’t want to delve into the details of the book, but just share with you something that has fallen into place for me during the last week. It has to do with variety.

You see, in her book, Sonja Lyubomirsky doesn’t only go through the various things you can do to make yourself happier, or help you pick those that seem the best fit for you: she also insists on the necessity of varying the way you put them into practice.

The example that really made this point hit home for me was the one on “counting your blessings” (yes, corniness warning, directly from the author herself, but don’t let that stop you).

First, the test groups who were asked to write down the things they were thankful for 3 times a week ended up seeing less improvement in their happiness than those that were asked to do it only once a week. Doing it only once a week makes it more of an event and keeps boredom/immunisation at bay.

Second, even then, Sonja Lyubomirsky invites the reader to not do it in the same way every week. By writing, by conversation with a friend, upon certain occasions, about certain areas of your life, or in yet a different manner, so that it remains a meaningful practice. (Page 97, if you want to look it up directly.)

This immediately reminded me of a flash of insight I had one day walking in the mountains around my chalet. I can’t remember exactly when it was, but I can see the road I was on and I remember the insight quite clearly.

Update: I found the article I wrote at the time, it was in 2009!

I was thinking of the different ways in which I had got organized, and how I seemed to become “immune” to a given method after some time had passed. The flash of insight was this: “maybe I just need to keep on finding new ways of getting organized.” I brushed off the idea, because it wasn’t comfortable, and wrote it down to the need to have different techniques for different contexts. For example, there are times when I’m more stressed than others. Times when I have more work than others. Times when I feel productive, and times when I need to kick myself down the two floors from the flat to the coworking space to get to work. Even my recent musings on freeform versus structured work go in that direction.

But in fact, I was right. Just like it’s important to vary “happiness activities/techniques” to prevent habituation (or worse, boredom), I think it’s important to vary one’s organization methods. Or at least, for me, it is. And it could well be because there is a “happiness” component for me in the act of getting organized. I like the feeling of being on top of things, of finding solutions to be productive despite my built-in procrastination engine, of learning how I function, of coming up with strategies to prioritize and get things done. And maybe — maybe — for me, trying to find one method that I can just stick to is a big mistake.

Another area I’ve recently connected “variety is the spice of life” to is blogging. I’ve been hanging out with the communication team at Wildlife SOS these last days, volunteering a bit of my time and expertise to help them make better use of social media.

As I was inviting them to vary the type of article they publish on their blog (at the moment, almost all the stories are animal rescue stories), I realized that this was another example of this theme at work: “variety is the spice… of reader engagement?”

Even if as a reader, animal rescue stories are my favourites, I will actually enjoy them more if they stand out against other types of articles. And for another reader, the favourites might very well be “behind the scenes” articles or “get to know the team” ones.

By publishing only one type of “top post”, one turns it into the “average post”. Add a sprinkle of intermittent reward to the mix, and you’ll probably positively influence the way readers perceive your content. Isn’t it more exciting to head over to a blog which might or might not reward you with a new article, which might or might not be the type that moves you most?

Now think about relationships: don’t we say that routine is the biggest love-killer? Oh, some habits are nice — but you also want new stuff, changes from the habitual, different way of being together and relating to one another. Surprises. The unexpected. This is nothing new.

So, let me summarize. Variety is the spice of life. Not only should you flee excessive routine in your marriage or relationship, but also in the following areas:

  • activities that make you happy
  • how you get organized (work, and probably life too)
  • the kind of content you publish on your blog

Can you think of other areas where it’s a little counter-intuitive, but it actually turns out to be really important to add variety to the way you do things?

Ada Lovelace Day: My Middle-School Maths Teacher [en]

[fr] Cette année, la femme que je voudrais mettre en avant pour Ada Lovelace Day, c'est simplement ma prof de maths de 8-9e, Mme Niklès (en espérant que j'écris son nom juste -- je ne me souviens plus de son prénom). A l'époque, j'aimais les maths, et j'avais décidé d'aller faire le gymnase en section X ("maths spé" comme on disait). Peut-être que le fait d'avoir une femme comme prof de maths a contribué à m'encourager à investir cet intérêt. Qui sait?

I’ve been wondering who to write about for today’s Ada Lovelace Day. Trying to think back to women who’ve influenced me as far as my interest in science and tech goes, there aren’t that many. I’ve had role-models, of course, and female role-models, but not so much in that department.

One person who does stand out a bit, though, is my maths teacher in 8th or 9th grade. I wouldn’t exactly call her a role-model, but she was my maths teacher, and she was a woman. I’d always liked maths, but it was around that time that I decided that I was good at it (it’s when we started algebra) and was going to go for the special maths class in high school (well, it’s called “Gymnase” here and the name of the class was “section X”, but that’s only of interest to locals who understand what it means).

Anyway, though she was maybe not the teacher I liked the most, or looked up to particularly, she was a perfectly good teacher. And looking back, I wonder what role having a female maths teacher at that stage of my life played for me — maybe without me realizing it. It’s an implicit way of sending the message “hey, girls do maths too”. We were an all-girl class, by the way, so there wasn’t much “boys vs. girls” competition around more traditionally “boyish” topics.

So, here’s to Mme Niklès (I hope I’m spelling her name right), who quite probably played a role in encouraging me to be a geeky maths-y sciency girl, simply by being a maths teacher who also happened to be a woman.

It's Ada Lovelace Day Today — Participate! [en]

In 2009 and 2010 Ada Lovelace Day took place on March 24th. Not, as many thought, Ada’s birthday, but a random date that just happened to be that one. This year (and the next ones!) Ada Lovelace Day is taking place on October 7th, today, that is.

In 2009 I wrote about Marie Curie, and in 2010 about my friend Suw Charman (both articles are in French). I also seized the occasion to write about women travelers on the ebookers travel blog: Ella Maillart and Sarah Marquis. I’m very honoured that a few people chose to feature me in their Ada Lovelace Day blog posts (our sadly departed Jean-Christophe amongst them).

Ada Lovelace Day is about showcasing women in science and tech (STEM). Girls need same-sex role models more than boys do, and ALD is about making them visible.

Who are you going to write about today? I’m personally not sure who I’m going to write about yet. I know a pile of great women doing great stuff in social media, and it’s hard to choose between them, but I’d like to find somebody to talk about outside my direct industry.

You’ll have the answer as I write my post later on!

 

One a Week? [en]

[fr] Tant d'articles à écrire. Un par semaine, peut-être? Histoire d'avancer dans le tas? Suivez les liens si vous êtes impatient...

Hello there! Another of Steph’s “grappling with blogging” posts. I’m starting to have a pile-up of “posts I need to write about cool stuff” but that I don’t get around to writing because of course, paid work and need for downtime tend to be more of a priority these days.

I need to write about my kindergarten classmate Kris Di Giacomo who does lovely children’s books illustrations. I need to write about Skeeble, my friend Xavier Bertschy‘s “painlessly create your smartphone app” service, which recently got significant local funding. I need to write about Horse Coaching, which I discovered last week thanks to an invitation from Valérie Demont, one of last year’s students from my SAWI social media course. I should probably also talk about the “learn to write for a blog” training day she’s helping me set up for December 3rd (in Lausanne, in French). I have a pile of articles waiting to be written about my trip to Morat (thanks to Fribourg Région). I want to write about what I’m doing to try and make something of my childhood passion for animals and their behaviour, amongst other things by offering to volunteer at Wildlife SOS while I’m in India in a few weeks.

So, I’m thinking that maybe I should be “modest” (ha! ha!) in my ambition and put one of these posts on my to-do list every week. And do it.

LeWeb'11: Open For Official Blogger Applications [en]

[fr] Comme chaque année à cette époque, vous pouvez demander une accréditation "blogueur officiel" pour LeWeb.

Thanks to your recommendations, we’ve started inviting bloggers and podcasters to LeWeb’11 as “Official Bloggers“.

From now on, you can of course also simply apply to be an Official Blogger. Arne and Fred will take care of reviewing applications.

Please read the introduction instructions (those given for recommendations are worth a read too) and fill in the form carefully, as it makes it easier for us to deal with the hundreds of applications we get each year in a timely manner. Thanks in advance!

Applications now closed.

Linkball [en]

[fr] Une pile de liens, encore!

So, here’s another bunch of interesting links I’ve found and read. Again, blame Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook (and falling down the blog-hole), I’ve lost my sources for most of them. So, a big warm thanks to all the people I follow someplace or other — it’s thanks to you collectively.

W.L. Gore: Lessons from a Management Revolutionary (via johntropea): you’ve all heard of Gore-Tex, right? The company behind it, Gore, sounds very much like a “company of the future” when you read about how it is run (“self-run” is a better term).

My Family’s Experiment in Extreme Schooling: off to Russia from the US (and into a Russian-medium school…)

ZOMBIES, RUN! Running game & audio adventure for iOS/Android: on Kickstarter, a game that will make you run in real life to survive the zombie attack inside the game. If you’re trying to back the project and Amazon doesn’t let you — happens with some non-US accounts, this workaround works.

Nobody Asked For A Refrigerator Fee: how fridges and electricity killed Stockholm’s largest employer a century ago. An example of innovation making business models go bankrupt. Sheds interesting historical light on the uproar around the demise of certain industries brought on by the internet.

A Jobs Plan for the Post-Cubicle Economy: how the work world is changing, and how our migration from office to freelancing is similar to migration from farm to factory.

SEO for Non-dicks: couldn’t have said it better. Read this if you’re concerned about search result placement.

Facebook Scare: Uncheck Comments and Likes: have been trying to fight the epidemic of “please uncheck comments and likes” copy-paste madness on Facebook by spreading this article. Scoop: your comments and likes have always been visible. They depend on the visibility of the status you’re commenting or liking. Only now, you actually get to see if the status is public or not (before, you had to guess). Don’t panic. Go and review your privacy settings instead. And get ready for Timeline, which is going to turn Facebook upside-down for you, whether you want it or not. (God save us all. I can already see the wave of panic, rumors, protests and bunched-up panties that is going to hit us.)

It’s the end of the web as we know it: I keep seeing articles that remind us of the importance of owning our data. Have you noticed how you’re reading this on Climb to the Stars, on my own domain, hosted on my own server, run with my own WordPress installation? Yup.

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? Excellent article on schools and education. Failure, we needs it. Parents who feel compelled to shield their progeny from all the ills of the world, read this fast — you might be depriving them of valuable opportunities to learn critical coping skills. (This is not to say you should be a hard-hearted bastard. Find the right balance.)

Interesting Articles You Should Read [en]

[fr] De la lecture. (Il y a un article en français. Sisi.)

A little link-dump, I’m sure you don’t all follow me on Twitter or read Digital Crumble. I stumbled upon a few really interesting articles lately (or less lately). Here they are. (Don’t have sufficient energy to comment, but not doing perfect should never be an excuse for not doing at all! Oh, and of course 90% of the time I don’t have the faintest idea how I found them — thanks to all the people I follow on Twitter, Facebook, G+, and the random encounters of hanging out online.)

Enjoy!