Copy editors come together to talk about the future
Delicious.com
The Mid-America Press Institute invited me to speak to its copy editors’ conference today. Forty of them gathered in downtown St. Louis for the conference. The subject: Cool tools they can use in their jobs.
I am mindful they will be reading this post and that I don’t have the benefit of copy editors reading my blog before I publish it. I trust they’ll alert me if there are any copy editing issues. 
That translates into tools they can use to continue making their jobs important and relevant in the rapidly changing future of our business. I focused the discussion on social bookmarking (mostly on delicious.com and Publish2); on RSS feeds; and on Twitter.
Among the points:
>> Social bookmarking can make their job easier by keeping their online resources organized and giving them the ability to collaborate.
>> Beyond that, tools such as delicious and Publish2 can give them another way to help their newsroom by publishing links on there web sites — links to relevant stories, blogs and other content that their readers will appreciate. Example: Dallas Mornings News’ “Dollar Wise” links and STLtoday’s outdoors news links (see the “in the news” section of this page).
>> It surprises me how often I speak to people who don’t know how to use RSS feeds. But once they get it, they’re excited about it. Now they know how to keep their most-read sites closer at hand using sites such as the Google Reader.
>> I think the light went on for most of them when we talked about how Twitter can be an engine for news and feedback on the news. That’s saying a lot, again, as I’ve said earlier: It took me six months to “get it.” And within their newsrooms, copy editors are well positioned to keep in touch with readers they follow through the online “window” into the world that Twitter can help provide.
Overall, my points were about how the tools we discussed:
1. Can help us be efficient.
2. Can provide readers with more information.
3. Continue to make us valuable in our newsrooms.
4. Can get us more engaged with our readers.
5. Are tools many of our younger readers use.
6. Can make our web sites more relevant to readers.
7. And, heck, some of them are just plain cool.
So, as promised, here’s a bunch of ways the conference goers (and, of course, anyone) can get ahold of the presentation I did. Here’s a link to download the plain old Powerpoint. Here’s a link to the document on Google Docs. And I’ve embedded the presentation below as well.
The video won’t work in the embedded version, so here’s “social bookmarking in plain English” by the Commoncraft Show, on YouTube.
Finally, here’s links to some of the other things I mentioned:
Digg.com
Reddit.com
Google News (where you can create RSS feeds of searches)
Google Blog Search (same thing)
Chicago Tribune’s “Colonel Tribune” page.
My blog post on Colonel Tribune.
Related Posts:
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Kurt's Tweets- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
- Just had my first Gmail phone call -- with my parents -- and the quality was fantastic. Wow. http://tcrn.ch/a8GndI
- Another day, another interview. Fingers crossed. (@ Saint Louis Bread Co) http://4sq.com/avGImL
- Helping my son learn the first 20 elements on the periodic table. Disturbed by how many more elements there are since I studied this stuff.
- Giving blood. (@ St. Martin's Episcopal Church) http://4sq.com/aiWuEk
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