You heard of storytelling in project management.

Let's refine the idea.

PM as journalism.

Rebecca Blood:

A reporter tries, to the best of their ability, to construct the whole story by seeking out a variety of witnesses and experts, and to convey that story as accurately as possible, for a general audience. 

Project journalism.

PMs cover a beat.

As journalists, PMs interview and research. Their sources are project members and external resources and stakeholders.

PMs verify information, find trends and patterns, dig up urgent and important news.

Reporters use notebooks and tape recorders. Use blogs to organize your notes and sources.

You write status reports, exception reports, issue reports.

You get to the heart of the story, wading through mundane, picking through the information overload.

You communicate clearly. Terse, unbiased, using your voice.

You tailor and route messages to each audience, frugal with their time.

You write headlines with impact, that drive decisions.

You tell stories that create project cohesion, that explain the visions, the plot twists. The truth.  

If that's not journalism...

Mike Wilson rants from his pulpit at The Universal Church of Cosmic Uncertainty. The sermon: 24 things he wants from his blog desktop. He wants it to be a fat client so he gets local storage, integration with other desktop apps and voice mail, tickers.

A few quotes:

4. To use a blog ... for a personal desktop heads-up-display console from which I work at all times.

5. A contact-management system that would make Harvey MacKay faint from information overload.

19. Built-in mind-mapping and diagramming toolkits for charting ideas and representing them textually once the "virtual whiteboarding" session is done. (Not to mention the automated post-session analysis and discovery phase designed to extrapolate on behalf of the participants.)

A great wishlist. Thinking really big. And he's gonna build it. Want to help?

J.D. Lasica introduces RSS readers in News That Comes to You, an article for the Online Journalism Review. via WebWord, who suggests "Why not use RSS feeds to keep customers aware of new products and services?" 

Absolutely.

The only drawback?

99% of your customers don't have newsreaders.

A solution?

1. License a newsreader client.
   
   Should be near free.
    
• NewzCrawler (PC)
• AmphetaDesk (PC, Mac, Linux)
• NetNewsWire (Mac OS X 10.1)
• FeedReader (PC)
• Userland Radio (PC or Mac)
• Headline Viewer (PC)
• Aggie News (PC)
• Other news readers
   
2. Add your brand.
   
   Customize the launch screen, add links to your home page, logos, etc.
   
3. Add your content as a starter. More on this.
    
4. Distribute it for free to your customers, suppliers, and partners.

Be creative with your feeds.

Hey, Blockbuster!

Three parts...

Narrowcast your website content.

• Movie news
• Star rumors
• Movie reviews
• Follow genres
• Follow people (actors, musicians, directors, writers)

Get local

• New releases at my branch
• Top rentals at my branch
• Staff picks at my branch
• New promotions, specials, sales
• Job openings at my branch

Get personal

• My latest rentals
• Tailored recommendations
• Reminders for returns

Hey, Adecco!

Narrowcast your content

• Corporate news
• Staffing industry news and analysis
• National and regional economic trends

Get local

• Updates on my branch
• New major contract announcements
• Weather forecasts (what to wear)
• Traffic forecasts (when to leave)
• Class schedules 
• New training and testing
• Top 5 scorers on tests this month

Get personal

• Articles for hiring managers in my industry
• New assignment and job listings tailored by my profile
• My updated activity stats and other reports
• Reminders for follow up based on my goals
• Articles for HR, procurement, and staffing pros who place orders

You can deliver this via email. But while RSS readers are new and novel, you'll have the opportunity to imprint yourself and get your messages read.

Does this sound right?

Looking through my referrer log, I came across what I first thought was a Pillipino reference to lumpia, a great fried dish. I was wrong. The link was from the Polish lumpiata blog, citing my moblogging posts. I don't read or speak any http://www.poltran.com/pl.php4  so, in the spirit of the two-way web, here it is...

zastosowanie moblogów

Trafi³am na kolejnego ciekawego bloga, a w³aściwie - jak autor (Phil Wolff) sam o nim pisze - kloga. Nie jestem pewna, czy dobrze rozumiem ten skrót. Z tego co widzê, "tamtejsze" blogi dziel¹ siê na k-logi i j-logi, czyli knowledge blogs i journal blogs. Te pierwsze, jak sama nazwa wskazuje, s¹ bardziej skoncentrowane na zbieraniu rozmaitych ciekawostek ze świata nowinek technologicznych, komputerów i internetu.

Phil przedstawia kilka ciekawych pomys³ów zastosowania moblogów w pracy.

Wszystko opiera siê na za³o¿eniu, ¿e natychmiastowy obraz (zdjêcie) jakiejś sytuacji mo¿e byæ zyskiem dla firmy z punktu widzenia obni¿enia kosztów i przyspieszenia wykonania us³ugi. Tak w handlu (zdjêcia z zachowania konsumentów i natychmiastowa reakcja odpowiednich dzia³ów), jak w logistyce (wizualizacja kolejnych etapów kana³u dystrybucyjnego), czy te¿ w szkoleniach (śmieszny pomys³ by robiæ zdjêcia ka¿demu uczestnikowi prowadzonych przez siebie szkoleñ, aby mieæ tak¹ dodatkow¹ pamiêæ o poznanych ludziach).

Ciekawa bardzo jestem, czy i jak szybko ludzie przystosuj¹ siê do tego nowego zastosowania technologii - natychmiastowe przes³anie obrazu z dowolnego miejsca na świecie do Internetu.

Jeśli klasyczne blogi s¹ zagro¿eniem dla gazet i dzienników (a tak niektórzy twierdz¹), to moblogi mog¹ siê szybko staæ konkurencj¹ dla telewizji.

Po co p³aciæ za abonament Canal+ jeśli mogê mieæ relacjê na ¿ywo z meczu w Internecie?
Po co siê mêczyæ nad telenowel¹ "przedszkolandia", tak bardzo ustawion¹ i wyre¿yserowan¹, jeśli mogê po prostu daæ dziecku komórkê (lub videokomórkê)?

A¿ siê sama śmiejê ze swoich pomys³ów. :-))

[a klog apart klogs]

I love how Kevin puts a group of related photos on his randomentality blog as one post. Each group conveys an idea, an emotion, a sensibility. Often subtle, sometimes poignant. This is thinking visually in a deep, rich, and personal way. It goes beyond iconography. And the collections, posted four or five times a month, reveal something of Kevin's inner life passage.