When people from different cultures collaborate, there are often communication problems, which can be exacerbated when using online platforms. A working knowledge of how different societies use context to convey meaning can help avoid misinterpretations and confusion.

Anthropologist Edward Hall refers to high context and low context communication to indicate how much speakers rely on things other than words to convey meaning. High context societies place more value than low context societies on how something is said rather than what words are used. Many online platforms rely on low context communication; it’s important to keep this in mind when using these tools to share information with a global audience.

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As go-to sources for innovative content, amateur bloggers have been teaching mainstream media professionals some new tricks. Once considered the sideshow of journalism, blogging has taken the center ring. Even traditional media outlets have joined the fray, bolstering blogging’s reputation. But for amateur bloggers not writing for a trusted brand, establishing a trustworthy reputation remains important. For Justin Carder of Capitol Hill Seattle, consistency is key: “You do the same good stuff day in and day out for long enough, and you become trustworthy. It’s a function of effort as much as anything.”

In addition, here are five tips for gaining your audience’s trust, and writing like a pro—even if you aren’t one:

1. State your credentials: When positioning yourself as a blogger, you must inform your audience of your qualifications. Credentials inspire confidence, and the term does not exclusively apply to professional degrees. For instance, if a blogger is an experienced ballet instructor and writes about ballet’s emotional benefits, her opinion has merit, even though she is not a licensed behavioral professional.

2. Write what you know: When you write about subjects you have in-depth knowledge about, your insights are richer and more authentic than when writing about a topic requiring extensive research. “Because I care about what I write, I can help my audience by making useful suggestions, interesting observations or just making them chuckle a little at what happens to me,” explains Candy Martin, author of the Seattle P-I reader blog Mother of Style.

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Poster for the movie adaptation of the cell phone novel "Sky of Love," which sold 1.3 million copies in three weeks.

A recent issue of The New Yorker had an interesting article on cell phone novels in Japan. Popularized about five years ago, these novels are posted to the Web by authors who write them on their phones, constrained by the limitations of the medium. The most successful of them are published on paper in a format that mimics the cell phone experience. Some are adapted into manga comic books and movies. And the form might be poised for success in America as well. Read more…

While recently catching up on my traditional media, I came across this book review of David Crystal’s “Txtng: The Gr8 Db8” in the October 20 issue of The New Yorker. Among other things that interested me was the idea that there’s a debate about texting, great or not. I caught as much of the Presidential debates as I could, but somehow missed the text messaging debates entirely. Read more…

Don’t have a blog? Don’t bother starting one.

Go Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

This from Wired Magazine correspondent Paul Boutin in a recent post.

“Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

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Today, when I was browsing through the weblog: http://asianfanaticfans.blogspot.com/2008/10/jay-chous-leaked-new-album-being-dealt.html, I found a very interesting news article that I think might worth our attention.

One of the latest album “Capricorn” of Jay Chou,  one of the most popular singers and musicians in Taiwan,  has been leaked online before its formal releasing. The record company, JVR Music, obviously got angry and announced that it was actually a case of piracy.  They are going to find out who did it and will sue this sneaky guy. Meanwhile, the record company is encouraging Jay’s fans to “boycott the thieving actions of those people, and respect the intellectual properties of artists and support original music”

This article got my attention because I was wondering who the record company is going to sue. The sneaky “rat” who leak out the album, or Jay Chou’s  hundreds of thousands fans who downloaded from each other’s blog, YouTube and Kugoo, and then spread the album further through social media platforms?

Who to blame?  It is really like a question of the sneaky “rat”, community and technologies, who should be sued?  It is up to you.

As a young kid, back when I had a pre-Internet attention span and actually enjoyed reading words of ink printed on paper, I went through a phase of reading ‘A Boy and His Dog’-genre stories. Which kind of made sense, since I was a boy, and I had a dog.

One story in particular that sticks with me to this day is “Where the Red Fern Grows”. A key plot point in the story revolved around an odd yet apparently true fact about raccoons: To trap a raccoon (the kid in the story hunted raccoons, which I did not…and, in retrospect, yuk) you drill a hole in a log, drop in a shiny object like a ball bearing or a quarter, and then pound in a serious of nails around the circumference of the hole in the log, all pointing inwards, at an angle, towards the Shiny Thing.

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Mark and I were discussing Twitter pros and cons the other day and agreed one positive aspect is it forces people to be concise. As I was catching up on my RSS feeds, I saw Craig Stoltz beat us to the punch.

The summary, “Writing substantial Tweets teaches a key journalism skill: Make every word count.”

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