A Few Brief Words of Thanks
May 14, 2008 by Ken George
A 411-word discourse on the merits of brevity has inspired me to prove I can be pithy as the next blogger….
This is the kind of email you get when a librarian gets wind of what you are doing:
“I’m such a busybody I’ve been tagging some of the China photos. I especially like the “Sichuan Girl” photo. Although I can tag other peoples photos, I can’t add the photos to groups. May I suggest that you add your China photos to China groups?”
Not being one to discourage unsolicited free labor—and good ideas—I gave Barbara, who sent the email, access to WBUR’s Flickr account. Now she can organize and tag our China photos until her fingers ache. The participatory ethic of “public media” in action!
And while I can’t pay her, I can recommend you check out her fine photography, some of which I have featured on wbur.org (yet another example of how our listeners are now content producers as well).
Thanks, Barbara.
There, that was 173 words by my count.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’ll pick up the pace tomorrow.
Best,
Barbara L. Slavin
Ken- I am thoroughly impressed! One of the best tactics to keeping posts short enough to be interesting, while still maintaining the impact of real content, is to use powerful imagery. As illustrated perfectly above.
This, of course, is another rule I find myself breaking daily… but just thought I’d say good work.
Thanks!
Zach
Thanks Barbara. We owe you big time.
And Thanks Zach. It was hard, but the boss woudn’t let me go
unless I shortened the post. Flickr blesses us with an exhaustive abundance of very compelling visuals.
See you both on Twitter.
Keep it short,
Ken