Sarah Granger

February 25, 2011

Rehashing the same old women in tech conversation

Filed under: media,technology,women — Sarah Granger @ 3:30 pm
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I’m sitting here at the Exceptional Women in Publishing annual Women’s Leadership Conference and the keynote panel this morning was all about “women, technology & the female brain.” While I enjoyed the session, I learned nothing new. I’ve been to so many women’s conferences, worked with so many women’s organizations, written and edited so many articles about women’s issues, worked with so many other women in tech on these problems and potential solutions that I feel like it’s time to take the conversation to the next level in those communities. But for women in media, it’s a new conversation and it needed to happen here.

The reason it’s important – other than the fact that women in media can report on the inequities in technology, etc. – is that media companies are becoming far more technology-dependent, on the front end and on the back-end. So while those of us who have been living these problems for 20+ years know all of the arguments and sub-levels to the conversation, a lot of the topics like how girls are educated about math may be new to them.

So I sat there and listened and was reminded about how far we still have to go in this important area. I applaud the EWIP organization for taking on this challenging subject. Just because some communities are talking about it doesn’t mean that we don’t need to keep on talking about it. It just means that 50 minutes won’t do the trick. This is just the beginning, and the more women and men who understand that it’s a problem when only 13% of software engineers are men (or whatever the stat was that they cited), the more discussion we can have on how to attack this problem.

February 21, 2011

Professional Update

Filed under: media,politics,technology — Sarah Granger @ 11:46 pm
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Since I haven’t been blogging much lately, I thought it might be worthwhile to put up a professional update.

In early February, I spoke at the Democratic Science and Technology Summit organized by the California Democratic Party Internet Caucus at Stanford University. As of January, I’m now chairing the USACM Digital Government committee of the U.S. Association for Computing Machinery Public Policy Council.

I spoke on American Public Radio’s “Marketwatch Tech Report” about online password security in mid December. The show was also heard on NPR. Netroots Nation held a one-day event in November in San Francisco just following the election, entitled “Netroots California,” where I provided a social media training. I also spoke about online campaigns and election resources on CBS 5 News in San Francisco three days before the election.

For the 2010 election, I directed nonpartisan political coverage for BlogHer, including featuring women candidates and women bloggers. I also worked with two partners in the Women’s Campaign Consortium with the Women’s Campaign Forum, advising a wide range of women candidates running for Congress on online outreach and getting out the vote through new media. Articles I wrote during the election can be found at The Huffington Post, SFGate, and BlogHer.

I was inducted in June as a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project, where I’m brushing up on global affairs, particularly related to cybersecurity. I was also asked to serve as the communications director for the San Francisco chapter and as the national cybersecurity affiliate group co-chair. Being a part of the Truman community has been a wonderful experience so far – the people are truly top notch.

I’m sure there’s more from last year, but that’s what I had on my site that I thought was worth mentioning. Usually I keep professional news all in one place on my site, sarahgranger.com, so that’s an easy way to keep track of what I’ve been doing throughout the year. I work on a wide range of projects, so it’s nice to have most of it in one place.

January 30, 2010

New media revenue models

Filed under: business,media,new media,women — Sarah Granger @ 4:49 am
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>At today’s Women in Periodical Publishing annual Women’s Leadership Conference, many of the sessions focused on the future of media and how to make money off the media (i.e. how to stay alive, adapt and thrive). Since the speakers were so kind to share what they have learned from their research and experience, I compiled a list.

In no particular order, here are some of the ways (emerging as well as traditional) to make money off of new media in consumer markets:
- advertising – not just banner ads, but used with e-mail, text, video and through third party or localized deals
- sponsorships – special deals where sponsors get extra promotion through events (online and off), articles, ads, buttons, etc.
- micropayments – tips, mini subscriptions, small donations or other crowdfunded models
- virtual goods – creation of virtual products that mimic real life products, sold for small amounts to the consumer for use in virtual environments
- print-on-demand systems – provide a physical publication that’s printed individually for the reader
- mobile applications – iPhone, Android, other – licensed app use to view content via mobile devices
- contests – provide a product or service to winners with sponsors or some sort of fee
- content licensing – paid syndication or other licensing agreements for creative content (posts, articles, photos, video)
- subscriptions or memberships – paid use of content either on the web and/or on tablet devices, such as iPad or Kindle (*note this has been more successful in the Kindle market than it has on web browsers)

Of course the panelists noted that some of these models are typically more successful than others, but it does depend on the content and the audience. For those who have research or more detailed information on which kinds of business models tend to be most successful in their own experiences, I look forward to your comments.

—-

http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

January 29, 2010

Advice on Being a Solopreneur

Filed under: media,writing — Sarah Granger @ 11:03 pm
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>I just sat in on a panel this morning at the annual Women’s Leadership Conference produced by Women in Periodical Publishing. Having previously been a speaker on how to be a consultant, I wanted to see how this panel would differ since it was all about being a solo practitioner as a journalist, i.e. freelancer, called ‘solopreneur’ on the panel.

Here are the tidbits shared by the four panelists that I wanted to pass along:
- Most work really does come through referrals or people met directly in person
- Setting personal boundaries is important (like work hours, sleep time, family time, etc.) to keeping sanity and balance
- Make a business plan; make a marketing plan and revisit both often
- Set a rate and aim to stick to it (even when paid by the word as writers, compute how long that roughly takes to write)
- Pro bono work or opportunities that cost money sometimes are still worth it because they can pay back in other ways (networking, perks, education, exposure, etc.)
- “Sometimes you make art, sometimes you make soup” meaning that sometimes you need to work for pay or write not at your best to get jobs done, but sometimes you will make excellent compositions, and it’s important to accept that as reality
- Always start with vision first, set strategy second, and employ tactics third

Speakers: Heather Boerner, writer & editor; Grace Hawthorne, co-founder ReadyMade and consulting associate professor, Stanford Design Institute; Lane Wallace, founder & editor, No Map. No Guide. No Limits.

—-

http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

November 9, 2009

Recap of a busy week – politics, new media, gov 2.0 and more

Filed under: blogging,government,media,new media,politics,sfbayarea,social media,technology,writing — Sarah Granger @ 5:24 pm
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>Last week was a whirlwind on the local level… after Newsom dropped out of the CA governors’ race, I wrote a piece about it that had a pretty good reception at The Huffington Post but was maimed by trolls at SFGate. Having seen this happen before for other writers, I reluctantly decided to remove all comments. I reviewed the problem with other blogger friends who confirmed it’s a common problem for newspapers-turned-online publications.

I put up a detailed response at SFGate explaining the problem to readers and the community there and received a lot of letters via e-mail in support. The SFGate staff also were responsive as well, looking into what they can do with the system that will help solve their comment moderation problem. (IMO it shouldn’t be that hard technically – they’re using Moveable Type – it’s more a matter of budgeting the staff time and having a smart plan in place.)

After spending way more time on that last week, I was able to shift gears back to tech, I finished an article about Twitter Lists for Digital Landing. I’ve been researching Twitter Lists since they first launched, and one of my lists of the Women in Politics & Tech group (WIPT) was put on the Change.org list of Ten Feminist Twitter Lists.

Saturday, I headed to CA Data Camp where I caught up with local government, non-profit and media people who are passionate about open government. We talked about data specifics, data transfer, local applications, data and media and the related national scope. I’ll be putting up at least one post at the Personal Democracy Forum about that. Here’s a great summary at Spot.Us. Meanwhile, I was invited this week to be on two more conference program committees. More on that when they’re official.

Meanwhile, as we were finishing up with the data apps in SF, the House voted on their final version of the healthcare reform bill. It was interesting to follow that on Twitter while in a room full of government software developers. Finally, I was surprised this morning to be on a list of Top 20 Women Political Bloggers (I think the list is a subset of liberal bloggers who are also moms).

This week, I’m working on an article about Google Wave and editing a book on confidential information. I’m also working on a couple new gov 2.0 related projects that I hope to write more about soon.

—-

http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

October 20, 2009

I can’t even keep track any more.

Filed under: media,politics,technology — Sarah Granger @ 6:52 am
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>I’m involved in a lot of really incredible projects and have been over the past few years so much that I don’t even have a running list, it all moves so quickly. But every once in a while I like to log some of it here for the few people (mostly friends & colleagues) who peruse my blog from time to time.

Recently, I joined the San Francisco Chronicle online “City Brights” local luminaries at SFGate.com and I’m really enjoying writing there. I wish I could duplicate myself and write there every day, but it’s not in the cards quite yet. For Netroots Nation, I co-organized three panels. I’ve also been continuing to write for The Huffington Post, Digital Landing, BlogHer, MOMocrats, the Personal Democracy Forum (& techPresident).

I’m doing less right now for WomenCount due to the economic climate, but I’m still very involved. Through our radio show, I interviewed Marie Wilson, founder of The White House Project, and Christine Pelosi, California Democratic Party leader and daughter of Nancy Pelosi. Vivanista profiled me in their “Quintessential Careers” column in June. And as of September, the CRAVE SF Guide is out, a book featuring great women-owned businesses in the Bay Area including SFBayStyle, one of my projects.

As policy has been an ongoing theme, I’ve had the opportunity this year to be involved with 3 pretty major pieces of legislation nationally and at the state level. And although I only provided input on small pieces of each bill, I feel that I was able to help on some level. (Of course none of it has passed yet; let’s wait and see.) Nationally, I reviewed cybersecurity legislation through the U.S. ACM Public Policy committee, I helped finalize Congresswoman Speier’s bill to create a new presidential commission on women via WomenCount, and I worked through the Jr. Leagues of California State Public Affairs Committee that will help educate new mothers and their families on postpartum depression and related problems.

CFP 2010 will be in my neighborhood this year, so I’m looking forward to participating on the program committee however I can. It should be a great conference. In a few days, I head to the Web 2.0 Summit. I just recently helped tech review edit the Gov 2.0 compilation book being published by O’Reilly which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have another couple of potential book projects in the works as well. No official news yet there.

I’ve had a few new media clients through PublicEdge, and some new speaking engagements. I have been doing a lot of trainings to women’s organizations on how to use new media for social good. I’ve also been working on a few iPhone apps helping with strategy in terms of new media as well. And I have some exciting meetings planned in Washington, D.C. that I hope to be able to write about soon as well.

Meanwhile, I continue to study and read and learn about technology and government, politics, policy, security, and all of the other areas that interest me. I never seem to have enough time to read all of the articles and books I’d like to read, but I try to stay on top of the most important issues.

I’m sure there’s something else I’ve forgotten, but again, it’s a lot to keep track of pretty much all the time. Cheers!

—-

http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

July 26, 2009

Top Twitter Tools List

Filed under: blogging,business,media,new media,social media,technology — Sarah Granger @ 2:13 am
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>In working on my article for Digital Landing on how to make the most of Twitter, I researched dozens of great applications. Since I couldn’t write about them all in my article there, I decided to post the list of what I looked at here, so anyone can have a look. Of course there are more that are not on this list, but I have other resource lists where those can be found at the top.

Is there something great I’m missing on the list? Add it in the comments or email me at sairy(at)sairy(dot)com – or just tweet to @sairy.

Overall Twitter resources:

  • Twitter Fan Wiki – Everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter
  • Alltop Twitter Page – great blogs all about Twitter and related apps
  • @Twitter_Tips – great fed of all kinds of Twitter tools
  • @TweetingTools – more good tips on Twitter, with random quotes to boot 

    Twitter search and display:

  • Twitter Search – official Twitter search
  • Twitterfall – view tweets via subject as they “fall” like a waterfall down the screen 

    Multi-account and multi-user applications:

  • Tweetdeck – desktop & mobile apps (Mac, Windows, Linux) that allows for groupings and advanced features; top favorite of all apps
  • PeopleBrowsr – highly configurable, full featured web-based series of apps for Twitter use – includes search and configurable groupings apps
  • Tweetie – multi-account viewer for the Mac
  • Cotweet – multi-user twitter, ideal for businesses; the standard-bearer in business Twitter use
  • Twhirl – multi-account viewer for Windows & Mac (based on Adobe Air)
  • Tweetvisor – browser-based Twitter that allows for viewing tweets, @replies and DMs all at one on a quick interface
  • Nambu – robust viewer for the Mac
  • HootSuite – sleek, web-based multi-account Twitter interface; also comes with a Hootlet toolbar mini-app that works with Firefox, Safari and IE
  • Twibble – desktop app for Mac, Linux and Windows, supports multiple accounts
  • Seesmic Desktop – well reputed desktop app for Mac or Windows (based on Adobe Air)
  • Seesmic Web App – very clean UI for single-account Twitter view 

    For the iPhone:

  • Tweetie – easy-to-use, full-featured multi-account application
  • Twitterific – multi-account Twitter, but minus a few features
  • Tweetdeck – multiple accounts, syncs, works with yfrog and Twitpic, URL shorteners; configurable
  • Nambu – fairly sophisticated app for single-Twitter use, integrated with FriendFeed, pic.im and tr.im
  • Twitterfon – basic, clear interface
  • Seesmic – iPhone app coming soon
  • Birdfeed – clean app with local caching and timestamps 

    For the Blackberry:

  • Twitterberry – most popular Twitter updating software for Blackberry
  • Twibble – mobile version of desktop app integrated with Twitpic
  • UberTwitter – full featured app; integrated with Google Talk 

    For Windows Mobile:

  • TinyTwitter – basic app for using Twitter (note: entire site optimized for mobile devices, not traditional browsers)
  • ceTwit – full featured client that works with Twitpic and Ping.fm
  • Quakk – open source Twitter app 

    Twitter Feed Tools:

  • Twitterfeed – efficiently feeds blogs to twitter, allowing for added text configuration and timing
  • FriendFeed – view multiple twitter & other social media feeds
  • Posterous – posts to blogs and twitter feeds on a wide range of platforms; recommended by Guy Kawasaki
  • Lazyfeed – allows for blog feeds (like a feed reader) as well as input to personal feeds; similar to FriendFeed but a more professional UI 

    Stats & Analysis:

  • Twitter Grader – gives grades based on a 100% scale, based on number of followers, power of followers, number of updates, update recency, engagement level and follower/following ratio
  • Twitterank – ranking algorithm built by a Google programmer, rates percentages of accounts
  • Twitalyzer & Twitalyzer Pro – analyzes overall influence, retweets, references to and mentions of the account, with Pro features showing top influencers in your network
  • Twitterholic.com – tracks followers, friends and updates over time
  • Socialtoo – allows for surveys & stats but have to pay for Twitter stats
  • Twitter Analyzer – has nice graphs of usage by keyword, hashtags, etc.
  • TweetStats – graphs tweets per hour, month, etc.
  • Tweet Counter – sends reminders when users are close to major milestones like 100, 1000, etc.
  • twInfluence – provides sleek graphs of usage by interface, @replies, RT’s, by month, days of the week, and time of day 

    Follower Management:

  • Twerp Scan – “anti-fool contact management” system; can manage by followers or those being followed and is quick to add/subtract – much more efficient than follower management in Twitter
  • Mr. Tweet – recommendation engine
  • WeFollow – adds users to searchable threads
  • SocialNewsWatch List of Top 237 Twitter Users Who Will Follow You Back – what it says it is, based on number of followers
  • Tweet Friends – compares 2 twitter feeds for common friends added over past 24 hours (or so) 

    Browser Plug-Ins:

  • Twitter Friend Bios – plugin for Firefox browser
  • Shareaholic – drop-down plugin for viewing multiple social networking feeds
  • Twitbin – sidebar plugin for Firefox 

    Marketing & Advertising Tools:

  • EasyTweets – cost depends on number of feeds, accounts, and continuous searches; posts automatically to Twitter
  • Twittad – affinity network that connects twitter feeds with advertisers; works on mobile devices
  • TweetROI – tweet about whatever you want (from their list of advertisers) and get paid for it
  • Magpie – embedded ads into user timelines
  • Izea – boasting 25,000 advertisers and 250,000 bloggers, they produce “sponsored conversations” 

    Payment Engines:

  • twitpay – allows for Twitter payments via PayPal; for all kinds of purposes via RT2Buy system
  • tipjoy – makes it easy to pay other Twitter users or to let them pay you with a simple ‘p $x @user’ command 

    Twitter Backgrounds:

  • PrettyTweet – creates twitter backgrounds 

    Images & Videos via Twitter:

  • yfrog – enables image & video sharing
  • Twitpic – sends photos to Twitter, view photos posted by others
  • pic.im – photo URLs and stats, usable with Twitter 

    Assistive Tools:

  • Twitwoop – allows you to record tweets by voice
    —-

    http://www.sairy.com/

    ….. by Sarah Granger

    • July 20, 2009

    Wassup?

    Filed under: blogging,business,media,politics,writing — Sarah Granger @ 5:09 pm
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    >A lot’s been happening lately for me – elsewhere… so here’s a bit of a summary for those who are curious. Also, I keep recent news of what I’ve been doing professionally updated typically at my professional website, SarahGranger.com.

    My new media consulting (via PublicEdge) is going well. I’m working primarily with WomenCount as their director of new media. It’s been wonderful working with elected women and women candidates on the blog, the radio show, and via Twitter. I’ve also been helping some online publications, start-ups, nonprofit and other political organizations.

    In March and April, I received two awards. March’s was a collective writing award given to an issue of Bay Area Parent where I wrote an article about gifted children (what it’s like to have one, and what it’s like to be one). In April, I received a new media award from the California Democratic Party, which was entirely unexpected but felt nice to be recognized for my political new media work.

    I’ve been speaking at a ton of conferences lately. In February, I spoke at Fem 2.0. In March, I was at South by Southwest Interactive. In April, I provided a couple of trainings on social media and then I spoke at the Nonprofit Technology Conference on 3 panels. I also spoke at the Netroots Nation New Media Summit and at the 140TC conference. All three of those were in the Bay Area. I organized 2 other panels for the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in June. Then in August, I’ll be speaking on 3 more panels at Netroots Nation. I’m looking forward to a break from conferences for a while after all of that.

    Recently, I was featured in Vivanista’s “Quintessential Careers” column for my work with SFBayStyle, and I was interviewed for an Entrepreneur magazine piece about social media as well.

    —-

    http://www.sairy.com/

    ….. by Sarah Granger

    February 4, 2009

    My Afternoon at the White House

    Filed under: government,media,politics — Sarah Granger @ 6:46 am
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    >
    Me behind the podium in the White House press briefing room today.

    I arrived late to the press briefing, but luckily the Press Secretary was behind schedule as well. After I settled next to the wall (where apparently CNN would catch me on TV anyway), I tweeted the press briefing. Then I spoke with press staffers about some stories I’m working on, talked with some other reporters including Katie Couric, who was there with other major anchors to interview President Obama. After that, on my request, someone from CNN took my picture and convinced me to stand behind the podium for the shot. It was a fun afternoon.

    —-

    http://www.sairy.com/

    ….. by Sarah Granger

    December 10, 2008

    Join Me at South by Southwest Interactive

    Filed under: advocacy,blogging,film,media,music,technology — Sarah Granger @ 5:22 pm
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    >March 13-17, Austin will be buzzing with web and new media professionals and enthusiasts for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference, part of the entire SXSW festival which includes music and film and spans over a week of events.

    I found out a couple of days ago that I will be leading a Core Conversation that I proposed a few months ago. It’s entitled “Whitehouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government.” What that means is I’ll be primarily operating in the role of facilitator for a discussion about how the new national administration can provide more open dialogue through new media and use of the Internet.

    Here’s how I described the session in my proposal: “The 2004 and 2008 campaigns’ use of collaborative tools, blogs and social networking have shown citizen activism and online communities can wield powerful influence. In 2009, our challenge becomes how to harness these tools in order to reopen the policy-making process.”

    I hope to produce a report of the recommendations that come out of the discussion to submit to the new administration and I’m looking forward to getting as many people involved with this as possible. Please join me at SXSW in Austin!

    (Cross posted from the FutureCampaigns blog.)

    —-

    http://www.sairy.com/

    ….. by Sarah Granger

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