A place to collect thoughts, share ideas, and spark collaboration.


  • Tag Archives Blogging

  • Read My Tweets…No New News Here

    Posted on January 17, 2010 3:26 am by Jim Comment

    As I’m learning how to use this blog effectively, I’m also learning how to use other forms of communication, too.

    Twitter, despite its initial reputation for the “what I had for breakfast” kinds of communication, is actually becoming the world’s best and fastest real-time communications system.  Twitter has moved FAR beyond most people’s imagination for what a continual, personal form of communication can do.  (I say “most”, because Star Trek fans know this concept well from the Borg episodes.  Tweeters are certainly seeking to be “one with the collective”, though we are far from that.)

    From it’s big jump into the spotlight with horrors following the Iranian presidential election to the continuing story today of the Haitian earthquake, Twitter has, almost overnight, taken over the world of instantaneous news alerts (all in 140 characters or less).

    So, as some may have seen, I plan to use this blog to comment on things that are important to me, to my goal of sharing my learning regarding becoming a quality board member, and toward building community around issues of importance in our schools and our children in a less timely or more timeless way; and I will use Twitter to share news items of immediate importance or relevance, but for which I’m only learning about or have not formed a full opinion regarding.

    And further, in many cases, outside news I repeat here will have been shared via a tweet some time prior,  in real time.

    I encourage you to follow both this blog and my Twitter account.  Retweet what you feel others will appreciate, and send me respectful “directs” on anything I need to know.  I’ll be watching…and Tweeting!

    This entry was posted in Posts and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • The Original PA School Board Blogger

    Posted on December 14, 2009 12:17 am by Jim Comment

    It’s been a busy week, and there is much to share, but I cannot go further without correcting an omission — that of highlighting a key individual in my progress of becoming an effective board blogger.

    It is difficult to overstate the impact of a pioneer. Turning on a light in a dark room brings new understanding, but once shown the light can we ever really appreciate the emptiness and lack of awareness from the darkness that preceded? Can we unring a bell?  In this case, the room is the world of responsible communication on school board activities and the light is a mere blog, but make no mistake, the bell has certainly been rung.

    And the pioneer here is Fred Baldwin, toiling and tolling quietly on his lone state blog, bravely expressing his views on the subject of school transparency, marking out and lighting a path in the hope that someday others would follow.

    I’ve known Fred only virtually, only briefly, and while I cannot speak for his stance on all issues, from our very first communications, I knew we owed him a debt.  I hope you will visit his blog, but I hope you will also learn from his efforts and enjoy knowing that there are board members willing to stick their necks out in a public way and who take the time to share their wisdom and experience with others across the community.

    In addition to his blog commentary on numerous public transparency issues in Pennsylvania, I want to note his efforts to populate the Pennsylvania page on a national wiki dedicated to Sunshine Law information, the Sunshine Review.  This wiki is filled with numerous links to resources within Pennsylvania that are of common interest to residents and the press when researching issues.  This is a great site and would benefit from the efforts of others to provide links to lots of other relevant information.

    It is through Fred that I found Paul Fisher and became more confident that a blog, carefully prepared, can be a source of light in the otherwise dark, mysterious world of school board participation.  I encourage other school board members to join the discussion by sharing their insights and experiences for the benefit of all.

    Thanks, Fred!  Keep up the great work for Pennsylvania and school board bloggers everywhere!

    This entry was posted in Posts and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Why a Blog and Why Blog?

    Posted on November 27, 2009 12:38 pm by Jim Comment

    Two different questions, obviously.

    On the first, my first alternative might have been to start building some email distribution list, so that people could feel like they were “in the know”, but I want everyone to have equal access. I also want information to be available 24×7 and fully searchable. In the world of Knowledge Management (Google that and you’ll be reading for days), a topic I enjoying knowing and learning about separately, this combination of open access and searchability leads to what is called “findability”. Other than knowing the address of this blog, everything on it is findable.

    I could have set up a website, too. They are open, and searchable, but I also wanted to interact and allow others to interact. Websites are typically seen as one-way communication, but a community is two-way, three-way, and much more. I want our District website to be the best one-way source it can be for our community (what do you think?), but for many reasons, interaction is not possible. So, we’ll let the District teach our kids, and you and I can talk about issues and what it means to be a board member here. Are you game?

    And what about Facebook or MySpace or Orkut (name your social website)? Well, they have their purpose and I use them, but frankly, they are not a forum for individual expression in the way that blogs are and they tend to be more about connections than issues. Connections are great, but let’s focus on issues here. Connections will come, I’m sure

    And why keep a log or journal online?  I want to learn from others in an open forum and for others to learn from me if they choose.  I’m comfortable enough in my skin to not fear commentary and in these first days, I’ve found precious little personal, public commentary on what it means to be a school board member.  For many reasons, including fear I suspect, other members may not want to or can’t open up, but my experience leading other volunteer groups suggests that open, honest communications that are respectful and constructive can be very helpful in building a sense of community and helping to maintain cohesiveness and focus.  I blog because I believe I have something to share with others and I hope others will share back.

    In the lexicon of “Ishmael”, let’s be leavers, together, not takers.

    This entry was posted in Posts and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.



©2012 Jim Butt's Blog Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)  Raindrops Theme