Date archive for July, 2009
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Twitter 101 for Business: Horizon Realty Edition
When Horizon Realty Group sued unhappy tenant and Twitter user Amanda Bonnen for ‘defamatory tweeting’ they might have avoided giving themselves a global PR black eye if only someone had read Twitter 101 for Business: A Special Guide…released by the microblogging platform just days before the tweet hit the fan.
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Blogging the Thin Blue Line: Second City Cop vs. Chicago Copwatch
A highly popular blog written by and for Chicago police officers, Second City Cop, gives a provocative insight into the world of the Windy City’s finest. Pointedly opinionated and rarely politically correct, reading it may tell you more about the inner workings of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) that you ever wanted to know. Meanwhile, watchdog blog Chicago Copwatch rarely gives the guys in blue a break. So who paints the fairer picture of Chicago’s sworn peacekeepers?
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Silence Isn’t Golden for the W***** Tower
There are bad branding strategies. There are Macy’s-mothballs-Marshall-Field awful branding strategies. And then there’s Willis Group’s hubris- and hare-brained idea to rename the Sears Tower. What do you get when you glue a new name on an old icon whose existing monicker has worldwide recognition? Judging by local blog discussion, a good laugh–and lots of people who say they just won’t bother to say the word W*****.
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A Real Chicago Dinosaur
Like all adopted Chicagoans, from time to time I get told by some other local who doesn’t agree with me to ‘go back where you came from’ if I don’t like the way things are done in the Windy City. It’s an age-old prejudice that claims being born in Chicago somehow makes you a more authentic Chicagoan than a person who moved here from a different time zone. It’s also baloney.
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VIDEO: On Why Chicago Transit Authority President Richard Rodriguez Shouldn’t Be Driving to Work
Chicago Transit Authority president Richard Rodriguez canceled the free-car perq for dozens of high-ranking CTA managers. So why does the president of the nation’s second-largest public transit system continue to drive to work instead of riding his own agency’s buses and ‘L’ trains?
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Sex and the Sneakered Blogger
It’s a sad commentary on my social life when the highlight of the past week comes from sitting on the front patio of hoary Uptown gay bar Big Chicks on dollar burger night, doing Gweilo impressions of contact sheets from AsianPoses.com. On a Monday.
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My Video Interview from CMW’s Making Media Connections 2009
Chicago’s grassroots media training shop, Community Media Workshop, has posted online a multimedia roundup of last month’s Making Media Connections conference. I was among those interviewed regarding the future of columneering and journalism in Chicago.
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The Printed Blog: Dumb Idea Finally Drops Dead
As reported yesterday with far too much column space on Crain’s Small Business Blog, the paper formerly known as The Printed Blog has ceased publication after a short, six-month lifespan. If you’re scratching your head right now wondering what paper I’m talking about, that’s entirely my point.
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Independence Eve Violence Update
Today, as I continue to ask my readers and social-media friends to keep the eyewitness accounts coming, I did what any self-respecting traditional news-gatherer would do. I filed FOIAs regarding the alleged Independenc Eve fireworks violence.
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Following Up on Chicago’s Independence Eve Violence
Yesterday’s post on alleged gang violence during Chicago’s Independence Eve fireworks generated a lot of local attention and concern. That post compared official reports of a relatively ‘peaceful’ July 3rd fireworks display with reports from the blog, Second City Cop, and several Twitter members indicating a sizable gang presence, multiple gang-related fights, numerous guns recovered, and a potential shooting in the vicinity of Buckingham Fountain. Here’s how you can help get to the bottom of things.
