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Q: Why are you looking
for business writers,
journalists and former executives to participate in the
site?
A: (and more sorts of
people than that!) CONTENT!
Quality content is needed in the world. There are fine
systems but the copy that rides those systems is sometimes pretty
awful.
As Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun
MicroSystems put it in a recent CEO blog – something
like this:
“content-access
opportunities are surging world-wide. The PC and laptop
are only a small part
of it.”
He would say it better.*
People everywhere search-out and find new paths to
content
– to entertainment, news, information, culture. The
search is on: from MP3 players, car navigation systems,
car on-board engine-management computers, mobile phones,
touch screen terminals, audio books, and the Internet in
all its facets.
Reaching out to a device
to provide content is literally roaring along as a 21st
Century consumer demand.
Writers and artists are content producers of the world.
At
Professionalword.com
we open a new, active hub through which you will find
fresh
ideas and assistance, (coaching, in fact) that will benefit you as producers
and through you, ultimately, your clients - the
consumers of your content. To do so, we
have positioned ourselves right where business-communication and the
arts merge. WHY?
-
We want to
produce ways to help more content producers like you
to face the empty page every day and get going on
content - whatever content you choose to make. We find
that thinking sideways, out of the normal rut, works
wonders.
-
We reach out into a universe of fresh
content and ideas, stories, sights and sounds to
stimulate your creativity
while helping guide your effective communication. This
has hardly begun. We need
old and new
professionals
to consider coming on board (probably on an unpaid
basis at first) to enjoy helping us provide the
material for the readers to kick off with.
-
We will also look back at content providers
of the recent past who had something to tell us
…something that we might have missed or didn’t feel at
the time was relevant to us!
Footnote: * One reason
Sun MicroSystems (as I understand what they say) has
chosen to offer its software openly and freely, is: “so
that more people can access content.” Their business
goal is to make content more accessible and to assist
developers and their co-development partners to
participate in the
growth of content-systems’ infrastructures. That is a
mouthful but it is worth
thinking about.
Q:
What is the practical meaning of "merging business
communications and the arts?
A: It's
looking side-ways, thinking sideways - using the results
from that process to stimulate good writing, devising
material that impacts and performance that convinces and
sways receivers of a message.
(From
Shakespeare and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt,
thinking sideways
to a
speech-writing effort for your next product roll-out;
for Robert Frost's verses for Mending Wall
to a memorandum content draft; from a description of
town from White Town Drowsing by Ron Powers.)
Q:
"Some say that nothing is more vivid or memorable
than a picture. We disagree. No visual image is as vivid
as the image created by the mind in response to
words." - Norman Cousins
Do
you agree with the conclusion there?
A: In
part. The
performance is vital;
it gives wings to the words - makes them effective. That
is one aspect we deal with, and an approach that we have
not seen elsewhere, apart from in books by Pasty
Rodenburg, a famous voice trainer who works with
Shakespearean actors. We will recommend Patsy's books
for bringing business writing to "performance."
Testimonials
re:
Neil McPherson Site Director
Comment:
After leaving Australia in late 1998,
to write freelance in southern France, I travelled
around Europe without any great swag of old books,
neither my old notes, relics nor the other impedimenta
of a long professional life. I carried very few examples
of my old work as a writer, broadcaster, teacher,
business man and have only two testimonials; (one might
call them).
These items (below) are the sort of
comments that one would like to think describes the
realisation of one's best aspirations and work efforts.
Both writers, fortunately are still around.
I am glad I kept these testimonials,
and I offer them now, for your consideration - as I
continue with Operation Space Cowboys.
Mal Booth is a senior executive of
the Australian War Memorial, (AWM), one of the most
prestigious war museums and national memorials in the
English-speaking world. The Memorial is central to an
understanding of Australian life and culture, and in
fact, is located in central Canberra, opposite the
national parliament.
The museum is the stopping place for
all overseas VIPs and more than a million visitors each
year visit its top-class exhibition galleries and
memorial areas. Thousands more attend the major
commemorative events there, at the end of the ceremonial
axis of the national capital.
It is highly regarded by the heads of
the Imperial (British) War Museum and other research
centres, archives, galleries and museum institutions
world-wide. Major-General Steve Gower is the Memorial's
Director.
Mal Booth wrote:
"I am the People Management and
Development Manager at the Australian War Memorial,
both a museum and commemorative institution in Canberra,
the Australian Capital Territory. I was also the project
manager for the Memorial’s recent Internet web site
upgrade project. It was in this capacity that Neil
worked for me as the Web Manager during this major
redevelopment of our web presence.
Neil's job during the redevelopment
was to coordinate and deliver a revitalised and
professionally developed web site for the Memorial. This
he did with a great deal of drive, perseverance,
dedication, enthusiasm and above all, creative vision.
He was very determined to see the project delivered and
was willing to make compromises where necessary to meet
resource and time constraints.
Along the way, he was required
to balance the needs and demands of various
stake-holders, content providers, consultants, managers
and users and he did this superbly. He gave the site a
sound an easily navigated structure, selected
appropriate content and coordinated and arranged a
modern and suitable design for this unique institution.
The result of his efforts can be seen online at
www.awm.gov.au
Late
in 1998, less than six months after completion, this
site was awarded the Telstra/Australian Financial
Review’s Best Australian Government Website Award.
I have no hesitation in recommending
the services of Neil McPherson in virtually any creative
endeavour. If you require more specific information I
can be contacted at:
Mal Booth Manager
Head Information Services
Australian War Memorial
Canberra ACT Australia
16 March 1999
Mal was formerly head of Personnel
at the Memorial`
AWM Director, Steve Gower wrote:
Doubtless
you have heard of the Memorial's success in the
Financial Review/Telstra web site awards. It was a great
achievement to win the Government category, and might I
express our appreciation of the valuable contribution
you made to the project. It certainly is one you can be
very proud of
With kind regards,
Steve Gower
My father
once said to me: " If you don't blow your own bugle,
no-one will do it for you." As with many of
his sayings, I puzzled over it, and ultimately
half-understood it.
Neil
McPherson.
MICHAEL
CUNNINGHAM writes to me!
Let me
explain.
Well...
here is
a "sort
of" testimonial that could fit anyone who does this:
writes and tells another writer he's/she's done great
work: after I wrote to Pulitzer Prize author
Michael Cunningham to tell him what a
buzz it was to have The Hours open in
front of me, while listening to him talk about the movie
adaptation (on DVD) Cunningham replied by mail:
" A
letter like yours goes a long way towards making the
whole effort of writing feel worthwhile. Thank you for
writing. Michael Cunningham"
Sure it
was a probably a standard letter. But how many business
writers ever feel that way after getting a fan letter?
That is the feeling we will strive to give you here at
Professionalword.com
It
has to come: appreciation for hard work well done, in
business communication.
If you want to
discuss these comments more, contact us now. The benefits
of what we are trying here lie just
at the border of the imagination.
As a potential
contributor of your skills and lifetime experience to
this site, or in whatever other creative capacity you
want to provide suggestions - feel free to contact
us.
Feel some of the
excitement that you may have lost along the way ands...
join
us!
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