Atta Boy, Blake. You have attracted the attention of WaSP and they posted a nice interview with you. LOVE IT!

“As a student of Interactive Media Design at the Art Institute of Dallas, Texas, Blake Elshire learned CSS as part of his course, then discovered that not all students were quite as charmed by the technology as he was. He shares his thoughts and insights with WaSP EduTF.

At the time of year where many schools are starting a new term, some teachers are still demanding archaic Web practices as part of their syllabi. Whether Web standards is taught at educational institutions is an issue that is no longer new. And yet, it is not uncommon for a student to be penalized for using modern Web techniques. Factors contributing to why we are not yet seeing more valid university Web sites, or why fresh graduates are not more knowledgeable in Web standards, still constitute a multi-faceted problem.

Blake Elshire first caught the attention of EduTF via his comment to our Buzz On Quality Education. We invited him to tell us a little more about his experience as a student in interactive media design. Read the interview“

Chris Ronan spoke on corporate blogging as part of a panel at the NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute) Southwest Region conference in San Antonio, TX last week.

The purpose of the panel session was to explore blogs as an element in today’s corporate communications platforms and identify the key roles Investor Relations Officers (IROs) should play in the development and management of their corporate blogs.

Other panel members included Angela Vargo from Southwest Airlines, Bob Pearson from Dell, Inc. and Paul Arne, an attorney with Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP in Atlanta. The panel was moderated by Carey Hendrickson from Belo Corp.

rd2 also developed a blog for the conference www.niridfwblog.org to demonstrate how the tool can be used to further the organization’s communications. The blog will morph into the NIRI DFW Chapter blog after a week or two. The exercise is interesting because it is showing some of the issues involved with launching a blog. It will also serve as an ongoing example of how this kind of tool can evolve to benefit an organization.

• CopyWrite 2.2
  interesting mac software for managing the copy creation and editing process.
  (tags: software cool mac)

In our panel discussion we mentioned that we would be posting our IRO checklist. It’s really quite simple. It is a nice compliment to the post Kurt made recently to the NIRI blog. The IRO Blog Checklist is as follows:

1. Publish a blog strategy and a blog policy to the organization
2. Train all blog participants to understand their role, authority and responsibility towards their blog communications
3. Make sure internal blogs have adequate security from outside intrusion
4. Monitor blog entries to ensure non-disclosure of inappropriate information
5. Decide who will monitor and approve comments within 24 hours
6. Monitor the blogosphere for entries about your company

• Recent WebKit Features
  WebKit, the rendering engine that powers Safari, has been getting some really nice improvements worth checking out.
  (tags: webkit SurfinSafari javascript xpath xsltprocessor xslt css3 browser via:cgriego)

I am looking for the ultimate travel companion. Or, what I am really looking for is a utility to keep all of my travel companions close to me and readily accessible at all times. Sort of a…travel companion, companion carrier.

My computer bag is used for everything lately. But, it is highly inefficient, because it is heavy and cumbersome. In order to reach for my blue-tooth ear piece, my ipod, a business card or a sundry of other what-nots, I spend what equates to a life time of awkward moments and endless time fishing around for these items. The solution? A fanny pack. That’s right, I said it. FANNY FRIGGING PACK!

Sure, I was made fun of plenty in California this week by my friends at NationPoint. While I love you all, you are ruthless. I have to tell you, don’t knock it until you have tried it! Anytime I needed access to any of my small devices, they were immediately available to me. Life is so much more simple this way. What’s more, I found that I used my ipod, ear piece, blackberry, mechanical pencil and camera to a much higher degree of accuracy and efficiency. Usually if I only have time to listen to one song on my 60 gig video ipod, I would opt to leave it in my bag. Now, it just comes out of my fanny pack, like the perfect ipod holster (ear pieces already attached). I might even listen to half a song, or just a few bars…it really is that convenient.

I am using all of my little devices more because they are right there for me when I need them. The efficiency on a plane is unparalleled. With my fanny pack, now I am “free to move about the cabin.”

Here’s a shout out to all of you fanny pack wearers who have been mocked and ridiculed for ages. Maybe with a little luck, this post will make it through RSS, Technorati, and all of the other socially integrated applications, thus rallying the travel and leisure/fashion market. I hope this spawn a revolution of coolness with respect to all fanny packs. Otherwise it’s just going to be another shameless post, bringing me more grief from friends trying to break me of this organizational wonder.

Today is my last day in the office at RD2 for a while.

I go back this week to Texas A&M for one more year of school.

At some point I’m going to have to write a 20 page paper on my experience at RD2 (so that my internship counts for class credit), but for now I’ll keep it short (mostly because I’m not feeling particularly eloquent today… and also because I’m sure it would start to sound like b.s. quickly).

I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed working with the people here; the atmosphere is definitely unique. I have been thrilled to be a part of some very interesting projects, and have learned more than I ever thought I would get paid to learn. I will continue to be involved as much as I can from school, but (sorry guys!) you’ll have to start answering the phone again.

Thanks, all! It’s been a great summer!

And RD2ers… keep up the blogging or I’ll be hounding you!

Somewhere at the intersection of a very serious SEO conversation and my affinity for Corner Bakery’s after-breakfast 2-for-1 muffins, a discussion developed on the odd things the RD2 website (and more specifically the RD2 blog) ranks highly for in Google.

It’s notable that in all that we do for our clients to ensure search engine optimization, sometimes it comes accidentally. Though it’s not always for expected terms.

These are a few RD2 rankings I got at about 3:30 PM today.

• #1 Starbucks pumpkin scone
• #2 Starbucks pumpkin scones
• #5 Refresh Dallas
• #6 280,000
• #8 CSS holy grail
• #1 cupcakes of deliciousness

In certain situations, it’s not efficient to focus time and money on being number 1 in every search engine. Marketing in many industries is based on other things like word of mouth, references, and the quality and visibility of work you produce. In other instances, it’s very important. It all depends on who you’re selling to and how they find you.

What we know for sure is that if any scone connoisseur looking to build a site searches “web design company pumpkin scone,” they’ll be sure to find us!

• Jonathan Schwartz’s Weblog (CEO of Sun)
  As RD2 prepares a panel presentation on blogging for the Nat’l Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Southwest Regional Conference next week in San Antonio (Chris is a panel member), we are finding good and bad examples of corporate blogs and blog philosoph
  (tags: corporate_blogs Kurt_Fisher)

No, not CEO of Hewlett-Packard Mark Hurd, but they did both go to college in Texas.

There has been lots of talk lately of social networking sites getting people in trouble on the job… and I’m always hearing how recruiters check facebook profiles when considering job candidates.

Mark already had the job when we started looking at his facebook profile. This, of course, led to the posting of embarrassing pictures of him on the internal blog, and some very amused coworkers.

All kidding aside, Mark’s a great guy and we’re glad to have him.

For more on the internal blog, see my post a few weeks ago.