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Blog Panel This Thursday

I’m speaking on a VPTC panel this upcoming Thursday lunchtime at the Omni. It’s $30 for VPTC members, $40 for non-members. Here’s the blurb:

When the Web exploded on the scene in the 1990s, it changed everything. Suddenly, anyone with a computer and modem could disseminate information to a mass audience. Mainstream media conglomerates were put head-to-head with the little guy.

Now, weblogs, or blogs for short, are having the same effect, but with a new twist. Simply put, blogs are websites, but they can connect to each other. So, someone posts an article on their blog. Other bloggers see it, and link to it on their blogs. Or they comment on it, and link to that. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide an easy way for people to subscribe to content they want to keep up with.

Now, there’s a whole lot of people and ideas networked together. There’s a name for this new networkGuv,!vDjkjthe blogosphereGuv,!vDjkjand ideas can travel very, very quickly to a very large audience.

Podcasting is taking audio and video content in new directions, enabling anyone with inexpensive equipment to become a broadcaster. Using RSS, listeners can subscribe to and download content on demand to either a computer or portable device. Users can now access content when it’s convenient for them, rather than having to attempt to catch their favorite shows when they were originally presented.

A recent study by comScore Media Matrix shows these startling statistics:

* 50 million U.S. Internet users visited blog sites in the first quarter of 2005. That is roughly 30% of all U.S. Internet users and 1 in 6 of the total U.S. population.
* Five hosting services for blogs each had more than 5 million unique visitors in that period,and four individual blogs had more than 1 million visitors each.
* Compared to the average Internet user, blog readers are significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and connect to the Web on high-speed connections.
* Blog readers also visit nearly twice as many web pages as the Internet average, and they are much more likely to shop online.

Blogs are fundamentally changing the way companies are marketing their products and services. Come and learn how your business can benefit by using these new tools.

On November 17, a panel of experts will define and discuss exactly what these new tools are, how they are changing the way companies interact with their customers, and present some fascinating scenarios describing what’s happening in the blogosphere right now.

The panel includes:

Moderator: Jerry MacLean – PERCC Research

Sean Tubbs, Charlottesville Podcasting Network
Waldo Jaquith, CVilleBlogs and CVilleNews
Edward Cossette, ExploreLearning
Michael Prichard – Willowtree Interactive

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Wake-Up Call: The Ethics of Advertising and Marketing

How do we know for sure that advertisements in newspapers and in broadcast are accurate and not misleading? On this week’s installment of WNRN’s Sunday Morning Wake-Up Call, a panel discussion on the role marketing plays in business competition. Guests include Hawes Spencer of the Hook, Pamela Peterson of Sammy’s Snacks, and Pam Fitzgerald with the Ivy Group.

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Subscribe to the podcast!

Do you have iTunes, version 4.9 or above? If so, then click here to add the Wake-Up Call podcast to your music library. This will allow you to download every episode through iTunes. Or consider odeo.com to search through thousands of podcasts from all over the world.




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Sorensen training Virginia’s next leaders

Now that the election is over, attention in Richmond will now turn towards starting the next chapter in Virginia’s political history. For the past dozen years, the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership has been giving staffers and elected officials detailed courses on how to be civil while navigating the ins and outs of the capitol. Each year, 35 people from around the state are chosen by the non-partisan Sorensen to attend a ten-month program on becoming a political leader for Virginia.

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91 Seconds on Film: Ben Nuckols reviews Jarhead

Jarhead, the film adaptation of the book by former U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford, is reviewed in this week’s installment of WNRN’s 91 Seconds on Film.

NEW: Do you have iTunes, version 4.9 or above? If so, then click here to make sure you get every edition of 91 Seconds on Film delivered to your music library and iPod. Subscribe for free once you get into the music store.



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Tom Morgan Talks the Roots of Jazz

Hurricane Katrina displaced over a million people all around the country, the nation’s greatest diaspora to date. One man who fled the Crescent City was Tom Morgan, a former Charlottesville bartender and WTJU jazz host. He’s the author of several books on the roots of jazz, and also a radio fixture in New Orleans. After Katrina, he was able to produce his program for WWOZ, thanks to the Internet.

Morgan spent part of his exile from the damaged city in Charlottesville, a place where he began his quest to become a jazz musicologist. Dave Sagarin from George Loper’s website interviewed him on October 15, shortly before he went back home.

This podcast was sponsored by George Loper’s website, which focuses on local issues, be they political, social, economic or religious.

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Along the Rivanna Trail with Diana Foster

The Rivanna Trail loops around Charlottesville and Albemarle county, almost exclusively along privately-owned land. Hikers trek across pathways cared for by a couple hundred volunteers. The rustic trail is the best place to get away from it all without leaving the city, a fact that is increasingly recognized by developers, landowners, and government officials.

That’s a far cry from the early days of the trail, according to Diana Foster. She’s the past president of the Rivanna Trail Foundation, which runs the 20-mile pathway. Currently about 18 miles of the loop have been built, with another five miles of companion trails.

Every November, Foster leads a one-day trek around the trail to draw attention to the natural beauty of the urban wilderness. I recently took a much smaller trip with Foster through a small section of the Rivanna trail from Jordan park in southeast Charlottesville, to Fifth Street near the Willoughby section of town. I asked Foster to tell me about the ultimate goals of the Rivanna Trail Foundation.

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Fry Springs Neighborhood Reacts to 2008 Bridge Closure on JPA Extended

Residents of the Fry’s Spring area of Charlottesville are up in arms about the Virginia Department of Transportation’s plan to temporarily close Jefferson Park Avenue Extended near Fontaine Avenue, beginning in 2008, to repair and widen the bridge that crosses the railway tracks. City officials say the plans have been on the books for several years, but many residents argue they’ve been caught by surprise. And they’re not quite sure why the plans call for the conversion of Todd Avenue from a thru-way to a cul-de-sac.

On October 26, about three dozen people attended a meeting of the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association to ask questions of Jim Tolbert, Charlottesville’s director of neighborhood services development. The meeting was moderated by Mike Farrugio, former president of the group. CPN is pleased to bring the meeting in its entirety, and will be following up with a feature on this topic in the near future.



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Audio of October 10, 2005 Campaign Forum for the Jack Jouett District Seat on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors

I am posting this on November 11, 2022 but back dating it. This is a recording I was paid to record by the Free Enterprise Forum. I had thought it was on cvillepedia already but it’s gone. It’s a bit of history, though maybe not anything anyone would really want to know. Yet, here it is.

 

 

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Debate: Should Charlottesville switch to an elected school board system?

Should Charlottesville switch to an elected school board? Currently, the City Council appoints the seven members of the school board, but a group of concerned parents has managed to get a city-wide referendum on the ballot to ask citizens if an elected board should be adopted. On Saturday September 17, the Charlottesville Democratic Party held a debate on the subject at the offices of the Jefferson Area Board of Aging. Moderated by Assistant U.S Attorney Timothy Heaphy, the panel consisted of current school board member Muriel Wiggins, City Councilman Kevin Lynch, U-V-A History Professor Jeffrey Rossman, Albemarle County School Board member Steve Koleszar, and U-VA Urban and Environmental Planning Professor William Lucy. The program runs for an hour and a half.

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