I have made some use, though limited, of the blog feature on both my work profile (that's this one) and my primary profile. This use has not been guided by any real objectives or thoughts about desired audience. But the more that my company talks about social media as a significant cultural trend, and the more emotionally vested I become with both Experience Studio (the day job) and Havik Enterprises (the dance) the more I realize that my presence in the various networks I dabble in needs to blend random personal enjoyment with professional structure.

Hmmmm...as I draft and reread this copy, I realize I'm going through a whole lot of unnecessary hub-ub just to tell you that I made a legitimate foray into the blogosphere. If you are so inclined, check it out at hlherr.wordpress.com. I especially like my very first entry.

For my link-followers, however you happened to stumble across this one...

We (as in my company, Experience Studio) are testing an idea that we are calling one word says it all. We have registered a URL, onewordsaysitall.com, but for purposes of the test we're using our own address, http://exp-studio.com/oneword. It is designed to be an ultra simple way of polling millions of people. The question is always the same: "In one word how do you feel about ....?"

The test question is not intentionally political, we just decided that this individual would evoke strong emotions and would therefore make it easier for people to think of how they feel in one word.

Please visit the one word site and answer the test question in one word...

Also, we are in the process of designing a very cool way to continuously showcase the results of the top ten words at any given moment. I'll post the results in my blog or forward the link in the near future.

If you think this is a cool idea and your interested in helping spread the word, get at me and I'll fill you in.


Thank you!!!

-Heather

Sunday late mornings and early afternoons oft find me loungin' on my couch doin' a little bit of work with the TV tuned to the weekend's NASCAR race and the live leaderboard open in a browser window. I rarely catch the countdown to green and opening hoopla, but as I tuned into the Penn 500 at Pocono today, I caught a music video spliced with race footage. The video in question: Rihanna's Shut Up and Drive.

I've had friends tease me for my relatively recent interest (thanks to my friend Orrin) in the Non-Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks. It has no doubt been a sport for the archetypal regular guy and gal, but clearly, NASCAR is goin' hip hop!

Think the Rihanna video is a one-off occurrence? Think again.

My thoughts on all this... Personally, I am always fascinated when genres are blended and can appreciate a crossover that encompasses a multitude of my own interests. Further, hip hop originated as a subversive form of self-expression and commentary on culture, society, and politics, so the rise of NASCAR drivers to mainstream celebrity definitely places it within the public's and hip hop's lens. Professionally, I question the move because of significant disconnects between the NASCAR brand and the hip hop genre (as a music and a lifestyle). However we live in a society where individual eclecticism is increasingly the norm, no doubt fueled by the ubiquity of the internet. It follows that in order to maintain relevancy, brands will need to follow suit, balancing dynamic market reach with the clarity of brand identity is so critical to success.

Here is the original Rihanna video. If you find the version spliced with NASCAR footage, please forward.




Note to readers: Learning happens through dialogue and I'm always interested in feedback, so please send me a message lettin' me how you came across this blog entry and what you thought about it.

I am in the creativity and ideation business, either by exercising my own creativity or facilitating creativity in others. I believe creativity is much like art, born from imagination, freedom, and a desire for self-expression, whether reflection or commentary or problem solving. Drawing upon that analogy and my mother's (an art teacher') wisdom, I choose to say exercising because creative thinking is not an inborn talent, but a discipline that we either actively develop into a capability or leave to atrophy like an ill-used muscle.

In my (sometimes haphazard) exercise and application of my own creative skills, it is nice to encounter some encouragement along the way [edited for personal relevance, of course].

Sometimes the ideas only start flowing after the pen hits the paper; most people want it to be the other way around, but this doesn't [always/often (take your pick)] work for me.
Yehuda's How I Became a Professional Blogger
via clickstream: Hugh McLeod's gapingvoid