One great thing about our seventh-floor offices are the big windows and the views we have of changing weather. I took this photo a few minutes ago — it was around 2:00 P.M. in the afternoon, but it looks like night due to the severe weather moving through Nashville. For those familiar with Nashville, this is (looking west) the junction of I-440 and West End Avenue:
Our new People pages are quickly becoming a very popular part of Hammock.com — and certainly the most history-making. Today, for example, editorial director Jamie Roberts posted a fascinating item about how she interviewed her father recently at the award-winning family-history recording project StoryCorps, which now has a booth at the Nashville Public Library. Hammock editor Bill Hudgins wrote about his speech today regarding American Spirit magazine at a Franklin, Tenn., chapter of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. And speaking of historic events, Hammock president/coo John Lavey posted his first post ever — as in anywhere. Will wonders never cease?
Last night’s post-primary coverage reminded me of something. Actually, it reminded me of many things. But, the first thing that came to mind was November 8, 1994. It was the mid-term election and for an association client of Hammock Inc., a group of us helped coordinate an online election-night forum on CompuServe — a quaint little online service that used to make buggy whips. A hundred or so participants from around the country — all watching TVs at home — were chatting away about the coverage they were viewing and their response to it.
That experience led me to appreciate the enjoyment individuals have in experiencing live events in a shared-way — even if it’s from the cheap seats way up in some dial-up text-only bleachers. That night, I realized that a news event — or any type of event, say a sporting contest — is no longer merely the topic of water-cooler talk the next morning, it’s a potential real-time community gathering. A giant couch filled with friends and foes who are witty or idiotic, but who all together give an additional dimension to the event.
Since 1994, I’ve participated — and hosted — many such online gatherings, primarily among a small group of friends or colleagues. Often the gathering is done via Instant Messaging or Internet Relay (IRC) if the group is comprised of tech-savvy participants. In the past, I’ve discussed on Rexblog.com, how live events can be experienced in a completely new way when such “back channels” are available so that friends — or even strangers — can interact with one another about what they are both observing or participating in.
Last night, I had an I-see-the-light moment on Twitter when I realized that it has become — for a small segment of the world, at least — a giant real-time peanut gallery for experiencing events. I’ll admit, my additions to the conversation were mostly goofy or rude comments about what was taking place — sorta like watching the State of the Union Address on Comedy Central, but not funny. Others, however, were providing insightful and informative data (@patrickrufinni, for example).
While I’ve occasionally used Twitter for comments about sporting events, this is the first time I’ve jumped into the deep end of posting tweets on Twitter at a blistering pace. (Which is something I often un-follow people for doing.) My tweets were not worth reposting here as they — this can be said about Twitter in general — lose their meaning out of context.
However, I do know this. Using Twitter sure beats screaming at the TV.
Sidenotes: Twitter sure could benefit from having a feature that allows the creation of “groups” for topic-specific tweets. Also, the folks at Politweets.com are using the Twitter API to isolate and display tweets that include the names of candidates. A little bit glitchy but a very creative example of how Twitter can be used for something other than a confusing stream of unrelated chatter.
Yesterday, we flipped the ‘on switch’ for a new Hammock.com format. That’s rather obvious to anyone who has visited this site before.
As part of the site, we have these new “People Pages” that are blog-like things but we didn’t want to call them blogs because we’re going to have several new blogs rolling out on the site as well and our planning structure of the site was getting a little confusing.
Typically, when I start a new blog (or something like a blog) , my first post is simply the word, “Test.” However, I’ll make this one a little longer.
Creating a website like this takes lots of effort by lots of folks — in this case, by nearly everyone at Hammock. Giant props to Laura Creekmore, Patrick Ragsdale, Barbara Logan and Kerri Davis who headed up this effort (with way too much interference from me). Additionally, lots of atta-boys (however, non-gender-specific atta-people might be more appropriate) for our editors and designers who are doing lots of fine-tooth combing on the site as we roll it out — they were especially brutal (and I thank them for being so) on copy I wrote*.
We started on this project a year ago — and, frankly, it was not about a website when we started. John Lavey and I spent countless hours with different groups of people in re-thinking what our business is all about — and how we present that story to the world. In other words, there’s lots about creating a website like this that has nothing to do with technology — but is all about figuring out more important things.
There’s a lot you don’t see on this site because of the hard work by people at Hammock. That’s because a lot of the work that takes place when developing a site is focused on simplifying things. Creating a simple website is way more difficult that creating a site that has everything — and every feature — everyone wants to include.
We have lots more things that are really, really close to being added to the site: Lots of video, for example. And I wish you could see this crazy-cool flash thing that will be at the front of the site and I can’t wait to explain how it works. But we decided to make this a rolling launch — and, frankly, a never-ending launch.
We’ve got about a year’s worth of cool stuff already in the creative pipeline. We are also going to be throwing things on the site in a laboratory, experimental way — just to see how they work. I often do that on my blog and have found it to be a great way to really understand how something works — not just how something sounds like it will work.
Without giving away all of our secrets, Patrick, Laura and others will be using our People Pages to write a lot about subtle things taking place behind the curtain on Hammock.com. (And aggregating all those posts into one stream is on the to-do list.) There are already some cool content and geeky tricks on the site — and even more cool things lined-up to be added over the coming weeks and months.
I can’t wait to share those features with you.
*However, the editors don’t proof my People Posts, so please don’t judge them by my typos.
Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends today posted an interview with Rex about SmallBusiness.com, a giant wiki-model project the conversational media folks at Hammock have built and host. If you are interested in the creation of collaborative, wiki-model media, you may find some helpful things in Anita’s interview. Or, if you just want to know what the heck SmallBusiness.com is, it will be insightful. Thanks, Anita.
Warning. What you’re about to read is filled with pride. It is an unabashed and completely shameless exercise in self-promotional shout-outs. But forgive me: I am very proud of some folks at Hammock Publishing and, well, I’ve warned you.
There’s a saying that if you want something done, give it to a busy person. When we recently got the opportunity to revamp and relaunch a magazine for a new client, The Marine Corps League (founded in 1923 and the only federally chartered Marine veterans organization), I “volunteered” several already busy people: an editorial team led by Bill Hudgins and creative director Susie Garland. Designer Kerri Davis (and the rest of the design squad: Lynne Boyer, Carrie Wakeford and Sandy Mueller Shelstad) charged into the project, as well. Also, intern Matt Kelley — a recent Vanderbit graduate — was drafted into service when we learned that he’d spent a year in Navy ROTC and has an encyclopedic knowledge of military history. (John Lavey and I we’re cheerleaders from the peanut gallery.) The team produced the first issue of the magazine in just seven weeks, from creative presentation to rolling off the presses.
I can’t say enough about how extraordinarily helpful Mike Blum, the League’s Executive Director, was. He repeatedly spent all the time with us we requested in helping us understand what the League is all about, and, more critical, to school us on the Marine Corps and Marines. Collaborating with Mike and sitting down with Marine Corps League members was critical to the process. Mike also challenged us with a healthy dose of skepticism — a not unfamiliar skepticism we often greet with new clients. He didn’t think a bunch of non-Marine publisher-types could ever “get it” enough to produce a magazine that would ring true with League members. Especially, this fast. I kept telling him that the key to producing a great magazine was for us to listen and absorb and listen more — and then not only “get it,” but, more importantly, to get out of the way of the conversation taking place among the only folks who matter: the members of the Marine Corps League.
(Left: The “before” magazine.)
Within moments of our first meeting with officials at the League, we heard the expression we’ve heards hundreds of time since: “Once a Marine, Always a Marine.” The more we listened and learned, the more we saw that the League and its programs embody that. Bill Hudgins and I mentioned the project and that motto to a number of veterans from services other than the Marines. Every one of them said something like, “You are a Marine for life. I wish we had something like that.” After that initial meeting, the crucial question in our minds and in Mike’s was how we could get out of the way of that message, one of pride and loyalty that knows no bounds.
Our mission had several objectives: Transition from the current publisher, increase frequency, revamp the editorial mix, redesign the publication. We also made a recommendation to do something rather radical: to rename the magazine Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League,” after the Corpsﾕ motto, Semper Fidelis — “always faithful.” Mike, who uses the expression in all correspondence and to end each conversation, was supportive of the recommendation and helped us tweak the exact wording of the title. He also guided our incorporation of “Once a Marine, Always a Marine” into a theme expressed throughout the magazine.
A highlight of the process was Mike’s approval of our attempts to “get it” in our meeting to present him our recommendations. After seeing our ideas, he declared: “Welcome aboard and OOORAH!” ﾑ- an exclamation not often given non-Marines. We were humbled. We were also highly ﾉ motivated. Our press date was only seven weeks away, and we had three other magazines and a host of newsletters moving through at the same time. It was truly all-hands on deck! The Hammock team burned a lot of midnight and weekend fluorescent during those seven weeks. Colleagues from other projects pitched in to help when they had spare time. Editors and writers roughed in some layouts to make it easier for the real designers to work with accurately trimmed copy. Our ace circulation and office management staff juggled multiple circulation and distribution challenges. The production team solved numerous printing and production issues, and pre-pressed the layouts into shipshape files that would require minimum if any tweaking at the printer.
Despite the pressure not only to meet deadlines but to refine designs on the fly and polish copy until it shone like a pair of boots at inspection (I apologize for the military metaphors). Despite the tension that always accompanies the launch of a magazine — and despite the inevitable glitches and computer hiccups — everyone worked in close harmony. Challenges arose and the team here met them head-on. They thought we were busy before, but they fit Semper Fi into our workflow brilliantly.
Mike Blum gave us another “Oorah!” when he saw his first copy, and as the issues arrive at members home, we’re hearing from them, too. Mike spent a lot of time and effort alerting members to the change, and from the early feed-back, it is a welcome change. It makes us proud to now be a tiny part of the history of this storied fighting force and to be exploring its rich traditions and extraordinary camaraderie.
And it makes me proud to work with such a great group of folks.
Some ‘internal’ messages at Hammock (we have a cool intranet) should be shared with a bigger audience. Here’s one that was posted this morning:
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court today decreed that Hammock Publishing must immediately free up to 50 percent of the contents of its office refrigerator to make room for refreshments currently in a cooler in the back of Bill’s car.
Writing the majority opinion for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia-Lite – sorry, Joseph Alito – opined that nearly empty containers of hummus and cottage cheese, as well as browning pieces of celery and wilting fruit “may well be at substantial risk of further decay and after a long weekend will present an increasing level of grossness to others who must occupy this same environment.”
The case has been handed back to local authorities to take prompt action if the offending material is not removed “within a reasonable number of hours.”
The landlord here at Hammock HQ holds a fun fire drill a couple of times a year. Fun? Sure, they even provide ice cream. Here’s a set of photos that proves how fun it is to have a Hammock fire drill.
The ever-insightful eastwikkers are 25-days into a roundup of the 33 best practices in wiki-based collaboration. Look through the entire list if you want to get a sense of some of the amazing things being done with wiki tools and approaches that aren’t the best-known example. Around here, we’re especially proud of yesterday’s #24 review on the count-down, Smallbusiness.com:
“Great name, great look (dead simple), and a great number of resources (volume is sometimes important). There are a number of commercial sites that target the huge and amorphous small-business market, but this is the only site doing this in a truly collaborative fashion. The value to this approach? As a partner at an independent PR agency, I can tell you: there’s no substitute for knowledge that comes from people who have actually “been there, done that.” This site taps the collective wisdom of an expert group and serves up useful, practical information in areas such as law, management, finance, marketing, HR, state-by-state resources, and much more.”
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Congratulations to to the MyBusiness editorial teams at Hammock Publishing and our client, the National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB, for receiving the top editorial honor in the business-to-business publishing field. Today at a ceremony in New York, MyBusiness Manual, a feature in each issue of MyBusiness Magazine, won the The Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for “Best Department” in the large-circulation category. The Neals are the industryﾕs most prestigious and sought-after editorial honors. Established in 1955, the Neal Awards recognize and reward editorial excellence in business-to-business publications. MyBusiness has been published by Hammock Publishing since 2000 for the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s largest and most influential association of small businesses.
Link: American Business Press press release.