I read a blog post today that recommended people forget what they learned in school about writing, and instead, write like they speak, and from the heart. It went on to suggest throwing out the rules of language, not worrying about grammar and spelling, and more. used to work at an artificial intelligence company that made foreign language translation software. Many of our software developers were, understandably, language experts, and a couple were PhDs. loved to argue with them as to whether language was prescriptive or descriptive. Common Russet Potato. Guess which school I am from.). MORE >>

Or: The Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation. The combined effects of social media and a down economy are ruining the PR industry. Here’s how. Companies have slashed both staff and budgets across the board, and public relations is no exception. Still, companies will outsource PR as they always have. But if they were once reluctant to pay EVP/SVP hourly rates of $200, $300, or more, then they are today completely unwilling to do so. Instead, they are pushing their agencies to use more junior people at lower hourly rates. This saves money, but has several undesirable side effects. MORE >>

I went to journalism school, which just might make me a “better” blogger. Here’s why I think so. First of all, I learned to write in the “inverted pyramid” style , which says “start with a lead that exposes the most important elements of the story first, and then work down the page to aspects of the story that are of decreasing importance.” It’s a simple way to organize my writing. also learned how to properly use attribution , something which, when done wrong (by my standards) drives me crazy and is borderline dishonesty and/or theft. And by the way, Rosenberg is on to something. MORE >>

What if the preferences for your favorite social network allowed you to pick one or more “blackout days” during which you could not log on? Could you get by for a full 24 hours, or more, with no access to Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or any of your other favorite social media tools? And you can’t cheat and use TweetDeck to access Twitter. The API would be shut down, too.). Recently I’ve had a handful of big projects and some “real world” interruptions and have been spending very little time online. And I don’t miss it all that much. And seven years ago I got fed up with TV and canceled cable. MORE >>

Location-based services — applications that “know” where you are and can use that information to connect you with people, places and things — are one of the hot new classes of social media applications. Basically, a location-based application allows you to check in almost anywhere on the planet and broadcast that information. Generally you can post a note, or a photo, at the same time, associating it with the location. You’ll also have the option to “cross-post” such that your location and message is published both within the application and to your Twitter or Facebook account. MORE >>