Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

So I’m all, ‘gg’

02.02.2009 by David Murray // 5 Comments

My football coach sends me a text message on Sunday morning, asks if I've got time for some coaching over the phone.

Foggily, I try to text him back.

But I don't know how to text.

All I get out is "gg" before accidentally pushing whatever button makes it send.

He writes back immediately. "Not familiar with gg."

I holler for my wife to text him back and let him know I can talk on the phone. We don't clear up "gg," and let him go on thinking he's out of touch with the latest texting slang.

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Yes, your organization ought to have a blog

02.01.2009 by David Murray // 2 Comments

Last week Shel Holtz held forth on his blog:

About 18 or 19 years ago, scorn was heaped upon me when I insisted
that pretty much every company would need to adopt email and provide
employees with email addresses. I got the same reaction 12 or 13 years
ago when I proclaimed all companies would require a presence on the
World Wide Web. Today, email and a website are a de facto requirement for most businesses, large or small.

Today, I’m taking the same stand on corporate blogs (a reversal of
my earlier position, which suggested that a corporate blog was a
strategic decision):

Every business should have an authoritative, official corporate blog.

As one of the prominent scorn-heapers he refers to—Shel and I have gone at it hook and tong about communication technology over the years, with me usually playing the role of provocative gadfly and Shel getting to play the genius visionary—you'd think I'd have a shovel-full for Holtz's latest pronouncement.

But I don't. Despite my deep skepticism of most organizations' ability to create readable blogs and my confirming observation that most corporate blogs suck like a bucket of ticks, I think I agree with Shel's thoughtful and elaborate reasoning, and his conclusion that every organization needs a blog.

Do you?

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Which side are YOU on?

01.30.2009 by David Murray // 8 Comments

Boots readers are aware of my plot to put communicators in charge of the government.

A few years ago I supported Joliet, Ill. English teacher Pat McGuire for Will County treasurer, a position in which, among many other achievements, he has scrubbed hundreds of standard taxpayer communications clean of mumbo and free of jumbo.

And of course I've been claiming Obama is the best presidential writer since Lincoln (it has come to my attention that Teddy Roosevelt might be in there too), and throughout last year I urged my readers to "Vote the Communication Ticket."

Apparently, many of you did!

Well, there's a new candidate on the communication, ticket. My friend, Chicago writer and labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan (that's pronounced "gay-gan").

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The writer of a number of significant books on labor and the courts and a nationally known political comentator, Tom is running to fill Rahm Emanuel's vacated seat in Illinois' 5th District, on Chicago's north side.

Here's what The New York Times said about his Tom's first book:

“Thomas Geoghegan’s Which Side Are You On? is a quirky, brilliant
career memoir of a man who attended college in the late 1960’s and
moved on to Harvard Law School, but  who did not follow the natural
course and rise into the upper ether of government service or the
wealthier law firms. Instead, he plunged downward, because of
1960’s-type ideals and   a romantic mishap, into the smoky pit of union
politics. He joined a campaign to overthrow a corrupt leader of the
United Mine Workers union. The truest thing of all in his book is the feeling of open, ardent
love that he expresses for ordinary working people who try to help one
another out—which is unionism’s main principle."

How can you not like a guy like that?

I like the idea of Tom's candidacy because I think Obama's concilliatory, centrist instincts require thoughtful pushes and prods and reminders from principled guys like Geoghegan, who's in daily touch through his law practice devoted to such homely cases as one he's working on now, to protect poor people from predatory payday lenders.

The thing is, 5th District race is split a hundred ways and the special election primary is rushing up March 3. Tom needs visibility and visibility demands dough. You can learn more about Tom's campaign here if you're moved to contribute you can do it here.

And if you live in Chicago and would like to meet Tom and hear him speak, I'm co-hosting a campaign event next Sunday.

It'll be interesting, and so would U.S. Rep. Tom Geoghegan (D-Ill.).

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