Hello Wojo

Creative Director at Corelab

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That time I told Hillary to run for President

…And how she lost my vote

A longtime ago…

It was a brisk fall day in 1998 when I scampered up to Hillary Clinton bubbling with the brilliant certainty of a 21-year-old who has taken full advantage of a full bar.

Hillary was standing with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. HRC grabbed my hand in that warm double grip that John Travolta made famous playing her husband in Primary Colors. “I have an idea for you, Madam First Lady.” Hills beamed back that big grin with those cheekbones blazing, “Okay, I’m all ears.”
“You should run for president.”

Cue roaring laughter…from Hillary. She grabbed Secretary Albright: “Madeleine, this young man thinks I should run for president! Isn’t that hysterical?”

Clearly, Hillary had never considered this. She planned to open a small practice in Little Rock and maybe star in a reality show until that moment. So there you have it. Hillary Clinton is...

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A Tale of Two Flags

The past three weeks in campaigning have been dominated by symbols. One, a symbol of racism, hatred and intolerance. The other, unity, inclusiveness and acceptance. The rainbow flag of gay pride rose high and took over all your friends’ Facebook profile photos. The confederate flag went from hotly debated “Southern heritage,” to an unacceptable (and un-sellable) relic of racism. Massive corporations were updating their websites with rainbow logos while simultaneously removing Confederate flag products.
A_Tale_of_Two_Flags.png
Some activists have rightly cautioned against drawing direct parallels, but the conclusion we can draw is that symbols, icons, brand marks matter. In my humble opinion, the important progressive change-driving groups of our era are lacking this vital component of their identity.

Making the Private Public

Social media definitely played a critical role in the rise of the rainbow flag and...

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The Greatest Country?

greatest-country-newsroom.gif

Here’s something not provocative: my mom is great.

My Mom

She spent 30 years serving the crime victims of Oregon. In many ways she created her position at the Oregon Board of Parole, recognizing that victims of crimes and their families were woefully uninformed about the parole process. They needed an advocate. So she became that advocate.

The state realized how ridiculous her pay grade was compared to the workload and expertise needed to do it well. They were forced to reclassify the position and offer substantially more money to find suitable candidates.

Retirement Gift…Thanks

My mom retired early at 60, mainly due to a recent diagnoses of breast cancer. She caught it early. The doctors are great, she is strong and upbeat; she will recover after a strong course of chemo and other treatments.

Uncle Phil

Does she have such great doctors and an amazing facility to treat cancer...

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Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Here’s How to Write a Link in Markdown

I’ve been pushing my fellow Corelab-ers to embrace Markdown as a better way to write. May is on board thanks to her love of Scrivener, and I’ve been pushing us over to a Ghost -based blog.

So, here’s why it is so great. You are cruising along dropping some truth bombs in your writing and you decide a link is needed to back up your wise words.

If you were actually using Html, it would look like this:

<a href="http://hellowojo.com">Wojo is a genius</a>

Here’s the same link extolling my virtues in Markdown:

[Wojo is a genius](http://hellowojo.com)

But I’m not writing Html like some nerd! I’m writing in Word.

Well, may God have mercy on your soul. What happens when you want to share that copy for review? What if you want to post it somewhere else. Cut and paste? Hell, no. And if you are using Markdown an editor can see where your link points without some awkward hovering and...

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How a technology nonprofit schooled charities on transparency

Imagine this. Your nonprofit is launching your biggest ever fundraiser. You’ve made a compelling video about why people should donate. There is a clear problem and your fundraising page explains how your nonprofit is best placed with the solution. You click send on your first batch of emails wondering if anybody will respond. Will anybody donate? To your astonishment, yes, they do! Their donations meet your goal and just keep going. At the 30 day mark you’ve surpassed that goal by 800%
Ghost-funding-report.png

Fear of Success

Flash forward two years. You are reporting back to those donors and telling them that a key assumption you made when you first asked for their money was wrong. In fact, you are just going to drop that part of your program. Oops!

Will your hands be shaking? Heart racing? Well this success “nightmare” is exactly the situation in which nonprofit blogging platform Ghost found itself. And...

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Pet Elections

The internet was made for animal pics…and getting out the vote.

Evidence

This is a thing.

dogsatpollingstations-_Keyhole.png

So is this…

catsnotatpollingstations-_Keyhole.png

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#ClimateChangeIsReal is Unreal

ClimateChangeIsReal Meme
The launch of Here Now’s ClimateChangeIsReal campaign for Earth Day had us asking an important question in the Corelab studio: “Was the campaign infiltrated by a coal or oil company plant?” The hashtag and subsequent messaging play perfectly to the deniers strategy — pretend that fact is a theory worth debating. RoundEarthIsReal!

It goes to show that big names like Leo and massive budgets can churn out ill-conceived and counterproductive campaigns. Words matter, as our friend and colleague Jeremy Porter points out, and the climate movement has an abysmal track record. The polluters’ strategy is to keep people lost in technical terms: “parts per million,” “carbon,” “emissions.” Why not simply “pollution”?

“Climate change is real” implies that it could also not be real. Republican presidential hopefuls from Rubio to Jeb step into this space to claim, “I’m not a scientist.” A poor...

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The tools we use for team collaboration

We love collaboration, but working across continents with our team and partners means we use several tools to work better together. I’m an early adopter to the point of annoyance (for others mostly). However, there are a few tools that have found a near permanent home with Corelab that we use daily and have even become indispensable.

Before we dive in, here’s a few things we’ve learned at Corelab and with our partners about tools that stick vs those that flounder.

  1. It’s useless without everybody. Tools only work with 100% adoption. There are a few ways to get there without everybody all in at once (start with a team at bigger organizations), but one hold out still sending a Word Doc via email for track changes will throw off the whole experiment.
  2. UX design is key. Like food with good “Mouth Feel” (I’m looking your way Doritos) tools that feel good make you want to use them more. The...

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Why is PBS suing Aereo?

Every U.S. television broadcaster is suing online TV provider Aereo, including PBS. Why is PBS trying to restrict viewers’ access, and are they doing so with our donations and tax dollars?
Sesame Street - L is for Lawsuit

Three Blind Mice

Journalist and author Ken Aueletta’s 1991 book Three Blind Mice charts the decline of the big three television networks. The networks were blindsided by the the rise of cable TV – “Why would anybody ever pay for TV?” they asked incredulously. Auletta continued cataloging the failures of traditional media to adjust to new technology with his 2010 book Googled about Adwords’ disruptive impact on an unsuspecting media landscape.

Though less direct than his previous work, Googled is a continuation of the new vs old, or gatekeepers vs gatecrashers media narrative. The old guard defends their declining standing through lawsuits and rejecting change rather than embracing new technology...

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Thanks David Letterman, From the Freaks

In an era of safe, politically correct comedy, a messy-haired, gap-toothed, chortling buffoon stole my heart and hours of audio tape.
1175px-Dave_Letterman-Smile.jpg

The Tape Recorder

Yes kids, I was born in an era before DVR or Tivo, even before the VCR. The Norman Rockwell scene in our house was my parents on the couch and my sister and I on the floor in front of the TV. I would have been holding an old gray cassette tape recorder, ready to capture any greatness the TV Gods deemed fit to deliver to their true disciples.

My tapes were full of the greats: CHIPs Theme Song; A few Bill Cosby quotes; An entire Charo episode of The Love Boat; some key final seconds of Blazer basketball games; and obviously, The Dukes of Hazzard.

Two special tapes though were saved for my true comedy loves. I kept this practice up into the 90s even after we bought a VCR (still no cable, thanks Dad). Into high school my friends and I...

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