25 of 365 - there's a little Carlton Banks in all of us by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
25 of 365 – there’s a little Carlton Banks in all of us by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
So, I decided to break with the design principles and do something kind of fun today. My friend Justin Hoenke, a fabulous librarian and one of my favorite humans ever, posted the selfie you see in the first quadrant. I recently saw a meme using Carlton Banks (of Fresh Prince fame), and decided to use Justin’s fun pic to do my own Carlton meme. I missed my post yesterday, so another will be coming soon today.
In the GIMP, I opened Justin’s picture, and sized it down to a quarter of the original image size. I brought it in again as a layer, sized it down less, moved it into place, and added a layer mask by selection for the second quadrant so that the rest of the picture was not overlapping any of the other quadrants. The same for the third and fourth, except that I started to munge his iris together to prepare you for the appearance of Carlton in the last quadrant. For Carlton, I added an elliptical selection the size of Justin’s iris, and made it into a layer mask, then played with layer styles and transparency until it looked like Carlton was inside Justin’s eye. Without the stamp tool to munge the iris, Justin’s pupil would have obfuscated parts of Carlton’s face.
Brand is not a logo by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Brand is not a logo by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Today, I had the pleasure of a return visit to Rossmoor, a gated community near Monroe, NJ. In the past I’ve talked about the Chromebook, Social Media, and graphic design at this 55 plus Computer Users Group, but today I talked about something more akin to Psychology or Business meetups than computer groups: Organizational and personal branding. I was a bit worried about how it would be received because I have only given the talk to more brand minded groups, but figured that if I really believe that brand is universal, which I do, that the talk would be appropriate.
It was received very well. The people there talked about their communication methods, their platforms, their keywords, and discovered their brand. We discussed abstraction and concretia in branding, such as the idea of loving as a keyword versus technology as a keyword. We talked about how everyday meetups and conversations are opportunities for branding, and that even though not everyone is familiar with their brand, that everyone has one and that it is beneficial to become familiar with it, shape it, and strengthen it.
Thanks very much to Rossmoor, Paul, and Gano for the kind reception, patient ear, and engaged responses.
19 of 365 - Comparison design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
19 of 365 – Comparison design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Comparison as a design principle takes into account the effect of illustration of differences in a controlled system. Comparison is most effective when it is benchmarked against standard systems, enforced by fact and citation, and when apples are compared to apples. It is easy but not recommended to create a false reality by manipulating scale, standards, and perspective through selective framing.
In this illustration, I decided to compare both the populations and land masses of the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania to emphasize that the population difference is far smaller than the land mass difference, which underlines the crowded experience that many New Jerseyans feel in this state. .
I was fortunate to be asked by Sophie Brookover and Library Link NJ (visit them at http://librarylinknj.org/ for great Library resources, insight, and help, especially for New Jersey Libraries) to co-host a Facebook Forum on effective Social Media for Libraries, and in the post-show we had a discussion about other topics for future events. We discussed a few things, but one interesting topic that came about was the idea of the ways that we had worked together to plan and collaborate for the Forum. In case you want to see the record of the forum, please visit the status update where that discussion lives.
Facebook logo Español: Logotipo de Facebook Français : Logo de Facebook Tiếng Việt: Logo Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At any rate, in planning for the event, we used five communication/collaboration channels, all interesting and useful in their own right. I’m writing this to organize my thoughts for the potential future products we talked about, and to give you some insight into our process. I talk about each of these in increasing order of communication channel richness. In other words, as we progress in this document, the capabilities for more sensory information increases.
Facebook discussion
In Facebook, each status update has a discussion attached to it. There, we can have a social gathering complete with links, pictures, video, text and other media types. If you can digitize it and produce a link to it, it’s fair game, though Facebook does a very good job of presenting the visuals right inline in the discussion. The key reason that we used it was because we wanted it to be open, sharable, publicized, fairly rich, archived for posterity, easy to use and join, and able to join people from all over. One unexpected benefit was that Sophie and I were both kind of sick with colds, coughing and sniffling, but no one had to suffer through our potentially contagious presence!
Since the forum is run on inquiry and discussion, we needed a planning document, and Google Drive provided a perfect platform for us to write our questions, rules, and reminders together both synchronously and asynchronously. Since Sophie and I both have and use our Google accounts, it was no effort or question. Plus, we got to see what each other was writing as we wrote it, discuss the changes by phone, add links, quotes, formatting, and photos. We would have lost the ability to format properly or keep easy track of the document if we used Facebook messaging or statuses, for instance, and the privacy settings of the document are quite flexible.
by-Phone
Car Telephone (Photo credit: bjosefowicz)
Because writing in text makes it very difficult to emote, and writing planning documents and discussions can easily trigger miscommunication, missed messages, and general confusion, we opted to talk by phone as we planned our Forum. Even though our voice based communication was sparse as we typed, it allowed for easy and quick clarification, justification, and suggestion with the added benefit of those temporary notes not being archived and cluttering our documents. We also had the ability to smile, laugh, end our sentences in a question tone, and show other emotions to underline our feelings as we spoke.
Google Hangouts
During the Forum itself on Facebook, Sophie and I used Google Hangouts as a rich backchannel to add all the benefits of phone communication with a video layer on top. Seeing a raised eyebrow, a smile, or a shake of the head during discussion added yet another layer of communicative understanding to our backstage work. I noted that it was a bit strange for us to use such a rich method for our backchannel of two participants while using a relatively thin channel in Facebook for the real event, when typically thin channels like Twitter are used for backchanneling while the main event is fairly rich. In this particular case, though, it was absolutely perfect. She and I were able to note changes to each other, clarify responses before typing, and give insights into the participants’ history and experience without anyone hearing our chatter in the public facing Forum.
In-Person
Before the first planning event, Sophie and I happened to both be presenting at the NJLA Adult Services forum and we got to see each other, greet each other, reinforce our in-person friendship and camaraderie, and have a rich discussion in real space. It was convenient that we both happened to be scheduled to speak and had the time to talk for a few minutes, because although this is by far the richest collaboration and communication channel it also represents the most effort. She and I probably both had to drive for 40 minutes to get there, spending time, gas, money, and planning, and if we hadn’t been going to this event anyway, we likely would not have had the opportunity to meet. In fact, while I list Sophie among my most valuable and respected colleagues, I have probably only been in the same physical space with her a handful of times. This shows the value of our other methods here, for sure.
How about you and your collaborators?
What methods do you use for communication and collaboration, and what benefits do they bring? Are you using email, Facebook messaging, Twitter DMs, or other methods to work together? What has worked best for you and what was the context of that success? What might Sophie and I have done instead of this and still get all the benefits of these various channels? List your answers, feedback and experiences in the discussion below!
I had a genuinely fantastic time meeting new friends and discussing social media, libraries, branding, and mobile devices today at Gloucester County Library’s staff day retreat. Melissa Brisbin was kind enough to cover the breakouts on mobile devices, Brian at GCL took on the Facebook breakouts, and I did the breakouts on Pinterest. In between the breakouts, I had the privilege of discussing library branding and social media best practices with the kind, attentive, and patient staffers using the presentation linked below. We did it through Library Link NJ’s onsite presentation program, and I do not think it could have gone better. Special thanks so much to Ralph at GCL for his moderation, Anne at GCL for reaching out, and everyone else at GCL for their attention and care. Here’s the presentation for today’s talk, which discusses Social Media best practice, questions about organizational brand, mobile devices and adoption, the power of emotion in branding, the difference between visual branding and brand proper, and a lot more.
“Making Sense of the Google Chromebook” Free Computer Program September 3
Color study (Photo credit: lemasney)
Ewing, NJ: “Why would I want a laptop that only runs a browser?” This is the critical question New Jersey technology consultant and graphic designer John LeMasney will explore when he presents The Computer Learning Center’s newest, free Computer Tips and Tricks program on Tuesday, September 3. “Making Sense of the Google Chromebook” will begin at 2 p.m. in the Ewing Senior and Community Center at 999 Lower Ferry Road. It will be preceded at 1:30 p.m. by a question and answer session during which the audience can direct computer questions to the CLC’s all-volunteer faculty. Both programs are free and no prior registration is required. “Come learn why I stopped carrying around my MacBook Pro and exchanged it for a Chromebook, Google’s low-cost laptop that runs just one application,” says LeMasney. “Chrome begins to make a lot of sense when you look at several converging factors, namely, the increasing availability of high-speed connectivity, the emergence of applications and cloud-based services for real-world functionality, and the ability to stay connected in rather light ways. I plan to look at both why the Chromebook works for me and the incredible power of this platform, but also why keeping a MacBook around still makes sense for some things.” John LeMasney describes himself as an artist, designer, technologist, and consultant whose passion is to help people use technology in sensible ways to enhance their work and life. His career most recently included work as Manager of Technology Training at Rider University where he assisted faculty, staff and students in integrating technology into their work, classroom, and extracurricular activities. A Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership with distinction from Rider University, as well as LPI Level One Certification in Linux Administration. The non-profit Computer Learning Center at Ewing, which sponsors the Computer Tips and Tricks programs as a public service, also offers a variety of PC and iPad computer skills courses for adults in central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. For further information about the September 3 program, courses or directions, call 609-882-5086, 609-883-1776, Ext. 6205 or visit the CLC website at www.clcewing.org.
