Managing & Technology — www.ddmcd.com

Website copyright © 2002-2025 by Dennis D. McDonald. From Alexandria, Virginia I support proposal writing & management, content and business development, market research, and strategic planning. I also practice and support cursive handwriting. My email: ddmcd@ddmcd.com. My bio: here.

School Communications & Emergency Response: What are the Implications for Social Media?

Aug 21

Aug 21 School Communications & Emergency Response: What are the Implications for Social Media?

Dennis D. McDonald

Best Practices, Disaster Response, Emergency, Homeland Security, Policy, , , communications, eGovernment, Security, Communications

I’ve been reading documents from a page of links relevant to emergency planning for schools that is maintained by the Texas A&M University’s Integrative Center for Homeland Security. According to the Center’s blog, the list was started in response to the Virginia Tech shooting. I’m looking for information on the implications of using social media and social networking systems as part of the “mix” of communication tools that are relevant in an emergency.

Aug 17
Aug 17 Why I Changed the Name of My Blog

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Branding, Identity

I've changed the name of my blog from "All Kind Food" to "Dennis McDonald's Blog." This has not required the change in any URL's so all my existing links and feed addresses remain the same (I think).

Aug 13
Aug 13 Facebook: Beware the Rocking Chair Factor

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Change, Demographics, Facebook, , , Web 2.0

My good friend Jeremiah Owyang, with whom I wrote an article in early 2006 that is STILL regularly among my weekly top ten posts (this past week it was number one), has written Web Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Facebook

Aug 8
Aug 8 U.S. Intelligence Community Adopts Social Media and Networking

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Change, Intelligence, Security, Wiki

So you think you have issues with adoption of social media and social networking technologies in your own stovepiped organization? You should listen to this podcast:

Aug 8
Aug 8 Slumming Through My Web Site Traffic Logs, Part 1

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Metrics

I keep track of my web site traffic numbers. Partly I'm just curious about what I can find out about visitors. I'm also interested in what people do when they get here.

More Thoughts on Developing a Social Network "Portable Relationship Map" Standard

Aug 1

Aug 1 More Thoughts on Developing a Social Network "Portable Relationship Map" Standard

Dennis D. McDonald

Definitions, Identity, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Standards, Web 2.0

A couple of days ago I posted Do We Need “Portable Relationship Maps” for Social Networks? There I expressed some skepticism about the feasibility of developing a standard for mapping social and professional relationships, over and above basic personal description or identity data, that could be portable between social networking systems.

Jul 29
Jul 29 Do We Need "Portable Relationship Maps" for Social Networks?

Dennis D. McDonald

Definitions, Identity, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Standards

In Yet another reason why we need a single, trusted, and protected identity system Jeremiah Owyang voices the common complaint about social networks. At one point he writes:

Jul 26
Jul 26 Age, Association Member Retention, and Social Networking

Dennis D. McDonald

Associations, Demographics, , , Strategic Planning, Strategy, Web 2.0

Tony Rossell in his blog post The Ageless Question reviewed a published research study that appears to show that age related differences in professional association membership haven't changed as much over the years as some people have been saying.

Jul 25
Jul 25 Copyright Basics Explained by Disney Characters

Dennis D. McDonald

Cartoons, Copyright, Disney, Media, Pixar

From Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University comes this review of copyright law, explained in super-clever terms using snippets of video and dialog from Disney and Pixar animated films.

Jul 25
Jul 25 DC CopyNight, July 24, 2007

Dennis D. McDonald

700 MHz, Apple, Copyright, DMCA, DRM, FCC, Facebook, RIAA,

We met again last night at a downtown DC bar, a group of policy analysts, bloggers, lawyers, activists, and geeks. I reported on last month's discussion here. Last night's conversation covered several topics:

Jul 19
Jul 19 The FCC's Coming 700 MHz Auction

Dennis D. McDonald

700 MHz, Auction, Disaster Response, Emergency, FCC, Google, Security, Wireless

Soon the FCC in the U.S. will authorize the auction of a huge chunk of radio spectrum. At stake is whether

Jul 9
Jul 9 Why Google Scholar Adding Elsevier "ScienceDirect" Data is Significant

Dennis D. McDonald

Associations, Elsevier, Google, Industry Analysis, Journals, ,

This deal between Elsevier and Google may be further evidence of how disruptive the web has become to traditional publishing, research institutions, and professional membership associations. Web access and the proliferation of systems offering collaboration opportunities via social media and social networking are forcing management to make tough decisions about how much to give away for free and how much to restrict to paying customers.

Jul 6
Jul 6 The Horror! My Tax Dollars are Supporting Microsoft DRM!

Dennis D. McDonald

Alexandria Virginia USA, Copyright, DMCA, DRM, Libraries

I’ve always been a frequent user of public libraries. In fact, I paid my high school and college tuition by working at the Bexley Public Library in Columbus, Ohio. We have a great public library system here in Alexandria Virginia. I’ve been using it steadily ever since my kids were little and we took them to weekly story hours at the Queen Street Branch.