Disqus - Latest Comments for Sheila at Family Travel

Re: What is the Value of Video Like This to a DMO?

Sheila at Family Travel — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:49:37 -0000

"the DMO is interested in getting full Rights to the whale video so they can cut and edit it and use it for advertising."

The minute they moved beyond "featuring" it as local amateur video (with full credit byline and a link back to the person who shot it) and started talking about getting full rights so they can play with it themselves....that's the minute that they should pay for it as they would any videographer.

That is not necessarily easy footage to get, so it has particular value. Even if the person who shot it is simply excited to have it featured on TV, and doesn't expect to be paid if they sign away rights, or they don't even know that rights exist, that doesn't make non-payment the correct or ethical answer.

This is a tricky area and we are all breaking new ground.

I had an immediate reaction to the above situation, yet when I upload a photo to the city-run Flickr group pool for my Texas hometown of Round Rock, I know from the fine print that it might be used in promotional material and I won't be paid. I'm OK with that, but then again no one is asking me to sign away full rights to it....I don't think....geez, now I have to go look at their fine print again. :)

It's hard to be on the bleeding edge, isn't it?

Re: Travel Bloggers – a different breed of media

Sheila at Family Travel — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:14:35 -0000

Thanks so much for your post, Todd. I hope we can continue to add to the ongoing discussion of how tourism organizations can best navigate the new publishing world. Most simply need to remember that it's all about connecting and telling stories (no different than it's ever been) but now we have powerful tools to do it.

Re: Travel Blogging Podcast: a conversation with bloggers about their craft

Sheila at Family Travel — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:10:34 -0000

Hi Todd,

Thanks very much for the opportunity to chat with you and Pam, and I hope our discussion provided some helpful insights for tourism professionals and CVBs.

Re: The world of Twitter

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:35:29 -0000

Yeah, so true, I get some strange looks when I just talk about blogging, to say nothing of Twitter!

I think it was Chris Brogan who wrote that instead of answering the canned Twitter question, "What are you doing now?" it's better to tweet about "What's on your mind right now?"

Depending on which crowd I'm with, I'm either hopelessly retro/vintage or the most wild-eyed, bleeding-edge techie in the world. The key thing is to keep moving around in different crowds so I never forget that I'm confused. :)

Re: Kai David Nordquist arrives

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:41:48 -0000

What a sweet photo, and I'm so glad everything turned out OK for both of you. Congratulations!

Re: Lessons I have learned by watching Cartoons

Sheila at Family Travel — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:25:41 -0000

This was a fun read (I'm an Underdog fan, myself.) I'm so glad for cartoons like SpongeBob that are inane enough for kids and funny enough for adults. Every time I see the "Sailor Mouth" episode come on, my children point at me. :)

Re: Brag to the network Friday

Sheila at Family Travel — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:58:39 -0000

Hey, I'll help rip off McCray! :)

I've begun to build my personal blog, Sheila Guides You To The Good Stuff, in an effort to develop something that is not anyone else's template, not on anyone else's network and is not a collaboration with anyone else.

I'm still happy to keeping doing most of my other bloggy stuff, but now that I'm focusing more on the intersection between travel/tourism/economic development and the social Web, I want my own home.

It's only a little guy just yet, but click my name and leave a comment somewhere to say Hi! Thanks for your support, Todd.

Re: How Does a Bestseller Happen? A Case Study in Hitting #1 on the New York Times

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:18:41 -0000

Hey Tim,

Just wanted to say congratulations; I've been following your successes since we met earlier this year at SXSW, and it's no surprise to me that you've done so well. Hope to run into you again soon!

Re: Personal Branding and Social Media

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:45:06 -0000

Hi Chris,

Great to meet you at Blogtoberfest, by the way.

Part of my personality has always been to pick up rocks and look under them, or point out the 800 lb gorillas in the room. I don't do it to be a jerk; I'm just curious.

I'm very new to a lot of the social media apps, but it seems that not very many of my travel writer buddies are talking much about them beyond blogs. If I Google the topic, I get a bunch of links from travel companies and travel PR firms that are trying to figure out how to make money from it, but not many from straight-stick travel writers.

Since part of my brand is to provide practical travel info, I decided to take a swipe at it myself. Last night, I wrote a Perceptive Travel blog post 6 ways travelers can use social media.

It's laughably basic stuff from a tech expert perspective, but it's very new to many of my readers, so I don't mind looking dumb.

That's how I used social media to extend my brand, aka "Sheila who looks at the weird stuff." :)

Re: Who is Technorati Trying to Reach

Sheila at Family Travel — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:34:44 -0000

When people would ask me how to find "good blogs," I used to suggest a search on Technorati to get them started.

Now, I send them to Alltop.

Re: Alltop- Encouraging the Mainstream

Sheila at Family Travel — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:45:16 -0000

Chris, thanks for your emphasis on Alltop's utility for the 98% of the world that doesn't know and doesn't much care how to find an RSS feed or sign up for one.

When I talk about social media/Web 2.0 with folks like that, they know very little about any of it besides blogs, and they often ask how to "find the good stuff" quickly. They do not want a tutorial on Bloglines vs Google Reader.

I used to send them to Technorati, but now I send them to Google Blog Search and Alltop. With two travel blogs on Alltop, I'm biased towards the site, but I do like its ease of use and catholic approach to selecting blogs across topic areas.

Re: A Sample Blogging Workflow

Sheila at Family Travel — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:17:57 -0000

Nice post, Chris.

I'm glad you mentioned an editorial calendar. It is standard procedure at magazines and newspapers, and most all-print writers are quite familiar with organizing their workflow this way, but too many bloggers haven't heard of the concept (they just know that there's GOT to be some way to organize their idea/post flow.)

I also recommend the concept of "zero-ing in" on a topic. For example, I tell travel bloggers that a broad overview of, say, Paris, is a nice post, but you can also get tons of posts and blogging mileage if you zoom in to those little details and nuggets that make a place special. Post about a single great baguette bakery, a single Paris Metro line that has interesting stops, a single piece of music that you heard in a Paris bistro that added to your enjoyment, etc.

Here's an example from one of my travel blogs: a post about a small brewery near my former home in the Netherlands - nothing earth-shattering, but was fun to write and literally gave a flavor of the region: Dutch daily life: swing by the brouwerij (brewery.)

Viewing something through a restrictive "soda straw," rather than looking at the the big picture all the time, is the "staff of life" for a writer/blogger.

Re: Tourism Bureaus and Bloggers

Sheila at Family Travel — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:23:08 -0000

Thanks so much for this post, Chris. I'm a writer specializing in travel, and one of my personal missions is to highlight the "small and unusual" places and events when I travel.

A blog is perfect for that, but as others have mentioned, the tourism industry as a whole is only now waking up to what we can do for their destination. I just returned from a major travel media conference (got to meet 3 of the 4 Traveling Mamas there, yay!) and you could count the bloggers in the room on, well, maybe a hand and a half. Most seem to know that "something" of value to them is "out there," but they're so worried about trolls and silliness that they don't engage.

One thing I've done for outreach is offer tourism bureaus a chance to write a guest post about their kid-friendly attractions for my Family Travel Logue on BootsnAll. I've had ONE office take me up on it - the Iowa Tourism Office - and Jessica O'Riley from there did a super job and really enjoyed interacting in the comments.

Crickets chirp as I wait on the rest, but kudos to the places like Philadelphia PA that are active and engaged all over the Web.

Re: Small Town Superheroes

Sheila at Family Travel — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:53:36 -0000

Thanks for this, Chris. When I blog about travel I do like to include local businesses, but it frankly hadn't occurred to me to write about any where I live, in Round Rock (just north of Austin.)

I see an opportunity, though - a new coffeeshop sort of place is opening soon on Round Rock's nice little Main Street (Friar Tuck's Pantry - http://www.friartuckspantry.com/) and I've spoken with the owners about doing some weekly Jelly Coworking there once they're up and running. Now I'll think about a good blogging angle, too. Thanks!

Re: I’m a “lactivist”

Sheila at Family Travel — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:59:02 -0000

Wow, I decided that I've been blogging long enough to start reading Scoble, so I just subscribed to your feed and find you in the throes of new fatherhood and the great nursing flapola.

Congrats on the baby, and hang in there. I nursed my daughter for almost a year and my son for a year and a half while on Navy active duty (it was shore duty at the time, but still.) The first few weeks can be kinda rough, but be pig-headed and stick with it. It's best for the baby and best for Mom, and the convenience can't be beat.

Check out www.motherwear.com for great nursing tops that make the whole process quite discreet and comfortable. The average guy I ran into while nursing my baby in public never had a clue what I was doing; they just thought I was holding a sleeping baby.

Re: Steve Ballmer still doesn’t understand social networking

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:07:45 -0000

I'm the least "early adopter" person you'll meet, but jumped right into blogging at age 45 and just drank the Twitter Kool-Aid last month at 46.

Ballmer is missing the boat, big-time. I know it must pain you as a former Softie. :(

Re: Irish coffees with the Irish tech entrepreneurs

Sheila at Family Travel — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:32:32 -0000

Can't make it to SF, but I have visited the Flying Boat Museum at Foynes, and had one where it was created. :)

Re: More asshat posts in 2008 coming…

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:44:41 -0000

I think most of the buzz about the Gawker memo is not about asshat posts; it's about whether Gawker bloggers should put up with an asshat boss, whatever the pay scale/bonus structure.

So, Robert, just don't be an asshat. :)

Re: How is technology changing the world of Washington D.C.?

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:17:40 -0000

Thanks for this, Robert. Enlightenment is slow but it's coming, and meantime I had great fun discussing ANWR drilling last night on Twitter with @johnculberson - democracy is a wonderful thing.

Re: Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:57:04 -0000

Thanks for your thoughtful commentary, and for reaching out to your readership.

I've only begun reading your blog and following you on Twitter within the last year, but so far, you have intro'd me to Kyte and Qik (so I can tell others about streaming from a cell phone although mine can't do it,) you've told me about Sifry's Offbeat Guides (I just ordered one yesterday for Grand Rapids, MI - there's a beta test!) you've told me about FriendFeed and why you like it so much (I'm not that into it but thanks to you I can understand the appeal of better threading, like Plurk) and I've downloaded the Microsoft telescope thingie but just haven't had time to look at it, though I know it'll be great when I do. Finally, I met Rocky because of you, and now I can say Hi to him occasionally on Twitter and keep him updated on drag racing news.

I'm a "regular Joe" writer with a busy life who likes having you out there "on point" for me - you're my own personal tech scout.

You bring enthusiasm and kindness to a medium that is too often in danger of snarkifying itself. The fact that you sit back and think out loud about self-improvement like this is testament to your professionalism and genuine regard for your readers.

Thanks for what you do - keep writing and I'll keep reading.

Re: Walk on the wild side at Florida's Paynes Prairie State Preserve

Sheila at Family Travel — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:32:40 -0000

I used to live in Gainesville FL, and my first big travel writing break was an article about this part of North Central Florida. Paynes Prairie and Micanopy are wonderful; thanks for highlighting them!

Re: Top 10 Books for Writers - Seeking Your Nomination

Sheila at Family Travel — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:35:32 -0000

While I second the noms for "The Renegade Writer" and anything by Marcia Yudkin, I'd go with Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird."

She is screamingly funny and self-deprecating, and it's so nice to know that she, too, writes "Sh**tty First Drafts" (one of the book's chapters.)

Re: Local Link Journalism: Pulling Together The Threads Of Local Blogger Reporting

Sheila at Family Travel — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:59:22 -0000

Sigh.

On the one hand, I'm very happy to read about journos figuring out the value of links and relevant, well-written blogs to their work. Great post, Scott.

On the other hand....duh. "Link journalism" as a term stuns me; any Web-savvy writer does it without thinking. It's our DNA.

Yes, although I blog extensively and have an absurd number of RSS feeds, I read my local dead-tree paper in Austin, AND the Round Rock TX thrice-weeekly "Leader." I like a local angle, and I want to read at the kitchen table, not at my laptop, as I eat my breakfast.

I think I'm the only one on my cul-de-sac who walks out to get a paper off of the driveway every morning. Wake up, news guys; you're toast in future years unless you figure out the Web.