Two important new entries for our first anniversary and a proposal to enhance the value of these conversations… what do you think?

With this post, our blog celebrates its first anniversary since the time of its inception under the original name of Toni’s Blog.
Six months later (by my choice) it morphed into PR Conversations, which included the added dynamic and definite value-add of including a collective of contributors drawn from around the world. Heather Yaxley from the UK and Benita Steyn from South Africa being the most recent welcomed members….
I decided the best way to celebrate this first anniversary was to invite my blogging colleagues, our highly appreciated regular and occasional commenters, plus any of those readers who enjoy the dialogue, to provide suggestions on how we can tackle a challenge that is clearly before us and simply can’t be ignored:

there are a number of issues and past posts that have proved highly popular, such as licensing; “black pr”; measurement; strategy; directions for a new global framework; PR and social media….
Over the past 12 months, we’ve gathered together quite a wealth of resources—opinions, descriptions, historical data, stories, and so on. In addition to our collective and valued materials, we’ve also determined that in many cases these same topics and cross-discussions have been made even richer by postings and conversations on other blogs and websites. This, of course, is one of the principal merits of social media, the unlimited opportunities for the extension of debates.
Now then, what do we do with all of this information, which is also spread across several host platforms?
Search engines can help, of course, but it is well worth considering the possibility of being proactive about these emerging resources and taking steps such as:
– identifying recurring and popular issues
– collecting the related materials that have appeared here…and there…as a consequence of here
– rationalising the debates
and
– eliminating the overlaps.
Following those steps, could we envision creating and posting short sort-of-instant- e-books?
They would comprise reference materials, drawn not only from the PR Conversations archives, but also (of course with the agreement of blog authors and web administrators) from other platforms and related discussions.
We think these e-book resources would prove a great help, not only to students but also to scholars. Better yet, to PR practitioners and related professionals, who are always in dire need of attentive and intelligent selection and research.

So, what I’d like to propose to aid us in this task (if believed relevant of course by you) is the recruitment of some volunteers, in particular (but not exclusively) post-secondary students from any country or institution, writing their capstones or essays or papers. The primary role of these interns would be to:
– carefully and creatively collect all the materials related to an issue
– edit the document (using proper English)
and
– prepare a concise paper that:
a- defines the issue, its background and relevance for our profession
b- describes and summarises the opinions posted here and there
c- outlines the options to move forward.

As an incentive, each of these papers (prconversations1 on……; prconversations2 on…..; pr conversations3 on…..; and so on) would provide suitable attribution to the research intern, as well as to the individual(s) who made the compilation possible by writing their original posts, comments and references, no matter where the original source.

We believe this project could take PR Conversations to the next level in being a valued and long-term resource. What do you think? Other suggestions?

3 Replies to “Two important new entries for our first anniversary and a proposal to enhance the value of these conversations… what do you think?

  1. Hi Toni,

    There is of course a sense of great joy for this achievement and you are to be congratulated on the first place. It has been my pleasure to participate in this team and to be able to learn so much from PRconversations and from you.

    I think the application of some content analysis techniques to the blog would not only serve the purpose of the e-books but also the purpose of understanding what’s hot in PR. We have gone through a number of discussions (including how will PR look like in a couple of years and what should the industry associations do)that anyone worried about the current state and future of our profession will certainly find it fascinating to seach this blog for inspirations.

    But perhaps these loose contributions and rough estimates of the future could be gathered in a form of a white paper on tendencies for the PR field as viewed from PRconversations. This resource could naturally be spread through our networks and serve the purpose of attracting more concerned visitors to the blog. Lurkers are, of course, very important, but active expression of opinions is what makes blogs interesting.

    Congratulations once again,
    JD

  2. What I think, Toni, is that you are amazing. May PRC go from strength to strength. I am thrilled to be part of it. (Already PRC is vying with my Inbox to keep me company during early morning coffee).

    I am sure we will be able to work something out with our students. Already PRC has been ‘prescribed’ to students from South Africa to Singapore to New York as required reading. They will probably also be thrilled to become part of it.

    David, it is wonderful to see you here! Judy and I just said to each other last night that you have been a real gentleman when a few of us from PRC “gatecrashed” your blog. (I don’t think any post on PRC has ever attracted 30 comments!)
    BS

  3. Toni, congratulations on your first anniversary. I’m a brand new reader, but from a quick look at recent posts, I see I have a lot of catch-up reading to do here. And I’m sure I’ll now be a regular visitor.

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