Posts
I'm so fed up with the state of national politics and most notably, our war criminal of a president that it's better for me to not write about national issues, because it gets me too worked up. Plus, having taken part in enough orchestrated protests that have amounted to nothing, marching around in our "protest pens," I fully recognize that these do nothing to change things, even though I had to fight the urge on Sunday, to drag my tired ass down to K'port and shout some slogans towards Walker's Point.
Last night, hearing that Lewis "Scooter" Libby had his sentence commuted by the president, just ratcheted up my level of being "pissed-off" that I usually feel around this time (flag-waving and the 4th of July, with all its subsequent jingoism) of year.
Think Progress has a post on Libby and the subsequent moral bleatings that major newspapers are good for. Periodically, even the disgraced and irrelevant MSM manages to screw up what remains of their moral indignation and fires up their op ed machines. Of course, since no one reads the papers and as long as there's still some petrol coming out of the end of the hose at the gas pump and there's a reality TV program on the flat screen at home, Americans just don't give a rat's ass about anything outside their narcissistic three-foot circle of interest.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Why won't the public sector blog?
New media is no longer considered arcane, fringe, or the sole domain of geeks. Blogging, representing new media's "first wave," has become very mainstream, with businesses and other members of the status quo jumping on board the blogging bandwagon.
Back in 2003, when I took the plunge and launched my first blog, it was a common occurrence to tell someone you were blogging and get the usual, “you’re doing what?” response and the inevitable weird look when you tried to explain the concept. While millions have crossed over to media’s New Jerusalem, amazingly, there are still many that still have no sense of what blogging is about and how it might be utilized as a communications tool. I won’t even start with social networking sites like MySpace, or the metaverse.
Nowhere is this more glaringly obvious than in the parallel universe, better known as the world of government. Apparently, people who populate this world are not fans of the cutting edge, or anything that smacks of the 21st century. In fact, many in government seem better suited for the 19th century, when the horse and buggy ruled the road and quill pens and ink wells were tools of the communicator’s trade.
For the past year, I’ve been immersed in a quasi-governmental world. Opportunities have presented themselves to talk about writing and I’ve shared with a handful of people that I have a blog (in fact, I have two). Yet, I have yet to meet anyone else in this world who has one of their own, or even knows what the hell I’m talking about, most of the time.
As I’ve written before and I’ve shared with others who wanted advice about becoming a writer, having a blog is a wonderful forum for perfecting your craft. If you care about blogging and want people to take your online writing seriously, you have to make time for it. You also should strive to put up as much meaningful content as possible. While it can be taxing at times, particularly when your life reaches a fevered pace (a pace that I’ve been friends with for the past two months), your blog should have enough importance and you should respect your regular and semi-regular readers enough, to regularly update your blog, at least your primary site for your thoughts and ideas.
There are a variety of bloggers out there, including authors and columnists, who find blogging to be an additional outlet for them, beyond the traditional channels of publishing, to share their thoughts and opinions.
One of my favorite books of late has been A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, by Daniel Pink. Pink maintains a blog, utilizing new content that ties in well to the themes that he wrote about in the book. Between his publishing, public talks and article writing, Pink finds time to regularly post at his blog. Most of his posts are pithy and to the point, while bringing to his reader’s attention, trends, products and other ideas geared towards the themes in his latest book and this seems to work well for him.
I was curious to see if there were places where I could get a sense of who might be blogging from the public sector. Are there people in government, either state, or federal that have embraced the blog?
I found a website, which compiled blogs by government. How did I find it? I Googled this highly intuitive phrase—“government blogs.” I was sorely disappointed that my very own state of Maine did not show one active blog by a government agency on the list. Neither did fellow New England states, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island. Vermont appeared to be an active link, but when I clicked on it, the link was in fact dead. Only Connecticut made the cut, with State Senator, Bill Finch putting “The Constitution State” on the blogging map, with his own blog. Finch, to his credit, has been blogging since April of 2005. I must tell you, this impressed me.
A group of Americorps workers based in New Orleans, going by the name of The Lost Tribe of Green 5, have their own blog. All seven members of the team take turns blogging about their experiences with Americorps and I found the blog to be both informative and worth some time given to reading member’s posts.
Utah came away as our governmental blog champion, with four sites listed. The Senate Site: Unofficial Voice of the Utah Senate Majority, was created by the Utah Senate GOP membership as a one-year pilot in 2005, attempting to “add something meaningful to the way people understand and participate in the policy-making process.” Apparently it’s been a success, as the GOP site is still blogging away, two years later.
What I liked when I read about the blog, was the spirit of bipartisanship and openness they were looking to create with the blog, giving their friends and foes across the aisle the chance to blog, as well as opening it up to guest bloggers from the public.
From the very same Utah Senate site, I learned that not all states are created equal when it comes to blogging.
In the state of Kentucky, rather than viewing new media and in particulary, blogging, as something to be embraced for communication purposes, Gov. Ernie Fletcher (a Republican), who didn’t like being skewered by Democratic blogger, Mark Nickolas, banned access to blogs for 34,000 state workers. Knowing a thing or two about the productivity of state workers, particularly their ability to get things done, I doubt that Fletcher’s decision made a dent at all in Kentucky's public productivity.
While we hear a lot about how tech savvy the millennials are, many 20-somethings that I’ve encountered don’t seem particularly adept at utilizing any of the available technology for much of anything, except navel gazing. Granted, there are a few members of the younger set that understand the implications of what’s available and know how to use it to get out their message. But sadly, these people seem to be in the minority. It appears that it is the "boomers," that seem to be most adept at utilizing the newer tools of communication to maximum benefit.
It's interesting, in light of the content of Pink's book, which details the shift from left brain, to right brain skills and the transfer, so to speak, of the "keys to the kingdom," at least when it comes to information and communication that there is such a paucity of new media activity on the public side of things. If Pink is right (and he makes a very provocative case in the book) in his detailing of the move to the conceptual age, as he calls it, a world of "high concept and high touch," then this lack of participation by those in the public sphere is telling.
Regardless of what forms of new media, social networking and virtual reality are made available, thanks to burgeoning technology, knowing the fundamentals of communication are still essential, in my opinion, if you want to be able to say anything that others might be able to relate to and gravitate towards. Otherwise, it’s the equivalent of one hand clapping.
Back in 2003, when I took the plunge and launched my first blog, it was a common occurrence to tell someone you were blogging and get the usual, “you’re doing what?” response and the inevitable weird look when you tried to explain the concept. While millions have crossed over to media’s New Jerusalem, amazingly, there are still many that still have no sense of what blogging is about and how it might be utilized as a communications tool. I won’t even start with social networking sites like MySpace, or the metaverse.
Nowhere is this more glaringly obvious than in the parallel universe, better known as the world of government. Apparently, people who populate this world are not fans of the cutting edge, or anything that smacks of the 21st century. In fact, many in government seem better suited for the 19th century, when the horse and buggy ruled the road and quill pens and ink wells were tools of the communicator’s trade.
For the past year, I’ve been immersed in a quasi-governmental world. Opportunities have presented themselves to talk about writing and I’ve shared with a handful of people that I have a blog (in fact, I have two). Yet, I have yet to meet anyone else in this world who has one of their own, or even knows what the hell I’m talking about, most of the time.
As I’ve written before and I’ve shared with others who wanted advice about becoming a writer, having a blog is a wonderful forum for perfecting your craft. If you care about blogging and want people to take your online writing seriously, you have to make time for it. You also should strive to put up as much meaningful content as possible. While it can be taxing at times, particularly when your life reaches a fevered pace (a pace that I’ve been friends with for the past two months), your blog should have enough importance and you should respect your regular and semi-regular readers enough, to regularly update your blog, at least your primary site for your thoughts and ideas.
There are a variety of bloggers out there, including authors and columnists, who find blogging to be an additional outlet for them, beyond the traditional channels of publishing, to share their thoughts and opinions.
One of my favorite books of late has been A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, by Daniel Pink. Pink maintains a blog, utilizing new content that ties in well to the themes that he wrote about in the book. Between his publishing, public talks and article writing, Pink finds time to regularly post at his blog. Most of his posts are pithy and to the point, while bringing to his reader’s attention, trends, products and other ideas geared towards the themes in his latest book and this seems to work well for him.
I was curious to see if there were places where I could get a sense of who might be blogging from the public sector. Are there people in government, either state, or federal that have embraced the blog?
I found a website, which compiled blogs by government. How did I find it? I Googled this highly intuitive phrase—“government blogs.” I was sorely disappointed that my very own state of Maine did not show one active blog by a government agency on the list. Neither did fellow New England states, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island. Vermont appeared to be an active link, but when I clicked on it, the link was in fact dead. Only Connecticut made the cut, with State Senator, Bill Finch putting “The Constitution State” on the blogging map, with his own blog. Finch, to his credit, has been blogging since April of 2005. I must tell you, this impressed me.
A group of Americorps workers based in New Orleans, going by the name of The Lost Tribe of Green 5, have their own blog. All seven members of the team take turns blogging about their experiences with Americorps and I found the blog to be both informative and worth some time given to reading member’s posts.
Utah came away as our governmental blog champion, with four sites listed. The Senate Site: Unofficial Voice of the Utah Senate Majority, was created by the Utah Senate GOP membership as a one-year pilot in 2005, attempting to “add something meaningful to the way people understand and participate in the policy-making process.” Apparently it’s been a success, as the GOP site is still blogging away, two years later.
What I liked when I read about the blog, was the spirit of bipartisanship and openness they were looking to create with the blog, giving their friends and foes across the aisle the chance to blog, as well as opening it up to guest bloggers from the public.
From the very same Utah Senate site, I learned that not all states are created equal when it comes to blogging.
In the state of Kentucky, rather than viewing new media and in particulary, blogging, as something to be embraced for communication purposes, Gov. Ernie Fletcher (a Republican), who didn’t like being skewered by Democratic blogger, Mark Nickolas, banned access to blogs for 34,000 state workers. Knowing a thing or two about the productivity of state workers, particularly their ability to get things done, I doubt that Fletcher’s decision made a dent at all in Kentucky's public productivity.
While we hear a lot about how tech savvy the millennials are, many 20-somethings that I’ve encountered don’t seem particularly adept at utilizing any of the available technology for much of anything, except navel gazing. Granted, there are a few members of the younger set that understand the implications of what’s available and know how to use it to get out their message. But sadly, these people seem to be in the minority. It appears that it is the "boomers," that seem to be most adept at utilizing the newer tools of communication to maximum benefit.
It's interesting, in light of the content of Pink's book, which details the shift from left brain, to right brain skills and the transfer, so to speak, of the "keys to the kingdom," at least when it comes to information and communication that there is such a paucity of new media activity on the public side of things. If Pink is right (and he makes a very provocative case in the book) in his detailing of the move to the conceptual age, as he calls it, a world of "high concept and high touch," then this lack of participation by those in the public sphere is telling.
Regardless of what forms of new media, social networking and virtual reality are made available, thanks to burgeoning technology, knowing the fundamentals of communication are still essential, in my opinion, if you want to be able to say anything that others might be able to relate to and gravitate towards. Otherwise, it’s the equivalent of one hand clapping.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Random notes and items worth noting (maybe)
New job for Bush's “poodle”
Lest you shed a tear that Tony Blair has been booted from 10 Downing Street, the former British Prime Minister didn’t even need to worry about updating his resume. Hours after standing down as PM, he was appointed special representative for the peace-brokering quartet of the US, European Union, UN and Russia. His apparent qualilfications—being George Bush’s “poodle” since 2001.
Essayist Tom Fenton writes, “When it comes to dealing with the Arab-Israeli problem, the Bush administration is living in another world. It blithely ignores the realities of the Middle East and seems to make policy in a vacuum. It looks clueless.
Take the decision to back Tony Blair as the new envoy of the international “quartet” on the Middle East, with the mission to strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It makes sense for the United States, the United Nations, Europe and Russia to have a high profile representative, but the outgoing British prime minister has the wrong profile. His enthusiastic participation in the invasion of Iraq and unquestioning backing of President Bush’s failed Middle East policy have stripped him of credibility with the Arab public.”
You think? Just politics as usual on the global stage.
Hated by the world
It’s amazing how quickly some people piss away the goodwill of others. Take George Bush. After the events of September 11, 2001, most of the world was united in sympathy for the U.S., although a new book, by Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes show that resentment towards America was simmering just below the surface.
The Pew Global Attitudes Project is the largest ever series of multinational surveys focusing on worldwide issues. Begun in June 2001 with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the intent was to conduct an international survey on globalization and democratization. However, the events of September 11th changed the focus of the report. The shift became, how is America is perceived abroad and global attitudes toward the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
The project revealed that just one year later, in December, 2002, the image of the U.S. was slipping, although goodwill remained strong towards our country. By June of 2003, with the U.S. firmly entrenched in a global “war on terrah,” the U.S. image was in the toilet. So much for “winning hearts and minds," eh?”
Who needs this life when you can have Second Life?
I’ve been hearing a lot about Second Life, the 3-D virtual world developed by Linden Research. The downloadable program allows users, referred to as “residents, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.
While still in its infancy, Second Life has been showing up frequently in mainstream news stories in USA Today, BusinessWeek, as well as a feature last week on NPR.
I had my first guided tour last night, courtesy of good friend Jonathan Braden, designer and member of the RiverVision Press ancillary family. Sitting on his deck, nursing a couple of Gritty Summer Ales, fireflies flitting around us, it provided an interesting juxtaposition between the real world and the virtual frontier. More to come on that front.
Hotter than a _________ (you fill in the blank)
Even here in the northernmost reaches of New England, we have weather that visitors from southern climes would consider hot—usually, these doggish days occur in late July, or August—not the end of June. Makes one consider mixing a G & T, Wisdom Weasel-style.
Busier week than normal; hope to be back with an extended post over the weekend.
Lest you shed a tear that Tony Blair has been booted from 10 Downing Street, the former British Prime Minister didn’t even need to worry about updating his resume. Hours after standing down as PM, he was appointed special representative for the peace-brokering quartet of the US, European Union, UN and Russia. His apparent qualilfications—being George Bush’s “poodle” since 2001.
Essayist Tom Fenton writes, “When it comes to dealing with the Arab-Israeli problem, the Bush administration is living in another world. It blithely ignores the realities of the Middle East and seems to make policy in a vacuum. It looks clueless.
Take the decision to back Tony Blair as the new envoy of the international “quartet” on the Middle East, with the mission to strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It makes sense for the United States, the United Nations, Europe and Russia to have a high profile representative, but the outgoing British prime minister has the wrong profile. His enthusiastic participation in the invasion of Iraq and unquestioning backing of President Bush’s failed Middle East policy have stripped him of credibility with the Arab public.”
You think? Just politics as usual on the global stage.
Hated by the world
It’s amazing how quickly some people piss away the goodwill of others. Take George Bush. After the events of September 11, 2001, most of the world was united in sympathy for the U.S., although a new book, by Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes show that resentment towards America was simmering just below the surface.
The Pew Global Attitudes Project is the largest ever series of multinational surveys focusing on worldwide issues. Begun in June 2001 with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the intent was to conduct an international survey on globalization and democratization. However, the events of September 11th changed the focus of the report. The shift became, how is America is perceived abroad and global attitudes toward the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
The project revealed that just one year later, in December, 2002, the image of the U.S. was slipping, although goodwill remained strong towards our country. By June of 2003, with the U.S. firmly entrenched in a global “war on terrah,” the U.S. image was in the toilet. So much for “winning hearts and minds," eh?”
Who needs this life when you can have Second Life?
I’ve been hearing a lot about Second Life, the 3-D virtual world developed by Linden Research. The downloadable program allows users, referred to as “residents, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.
While still in its infancy, Second Life has been showing up frequently in mainstream news stories in USA Today, BusinessWeek, as well as a feature last week on NPR.
I had my first guided tour last night, courtesy of good friend Jonathan Braden, designer and member of the RiverVision Press ancillary family. Sitting on his deck, nursing a couple of Gritty Summer Ales, fireflies flitting around us, it provided an interesting juxtaposition between the real world and the virtual frontier. More to come on that front.
Hotter than a _________ (you fill in the blank)
Even here in the northernmost reaches of New England, we have weather that visitors from southern climes would consider hot—usually, these doggish days occur in late July, or August—not the end of June. Makes one consider mixing a G & T, Wisdom Weasel-style.
Busier week than normal; hope to be back with an extended post over the weekend.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Black Fly Loop
[Mt Abram Regional High School]
[Sugarloaf; where the beautiful people come to visit; also, one of the area's major employers]
[A Logging truck, sans his load]
[One of many "swamp donkeys" you'll see in your travels in N. Franklin Cty]
[Downtown Rangeley; another popular four-season tourist destination]One of the best parts of my job is the unique, passionate people I get to meet and partner with, working in the context of workforce development. Secondly, the five counties that I cover in Area III are some of the most beautiful and also some of the most interesting rural areas in the state.
Franklin County, which most people know from driving through Farmington, on their way to ski areas in Rangeley, or Kingfield, is like the flyover country of the Midwest. People think of it as merely territory on the way to a destination, or a place to get gas or a quick bite. Rarely do these visitors care to understand the complexities that make up rural counties like Franklin, or really get to know the people who live and work there.
In my own work life, much of my focus in Franklin centers in Farmington and I rarely get much further north than the county’s largest town and center of commerce. Friday was different, however.
I first met Gary Perlson when we were panelists at a MELMAC conference forum, last fall. We had the opportunity to chat briefly and find out that we both were parents of Wheaton College graduates. In talking with Gary and hearing him present, I made a mental note that here was one passionate dude, with an obvious vitality and energy that is immediately obvious when you meet him.
Gary has been one of the driving forces behind the Franklin County Community College Network, bringing community college classes to Franklin County. In addition, Gary is also the Director of Adult and Community Education at MSAD 58/Mt Abram Community Education Center, in Salem Township.
I have been given an opportunity, in my role with the Local Workforce Investment Board, to write a semi-regular feature in a new publication for Franklin County, called The Daily Bulldog. My first article in the monthly print edition (they also produce a daily online edition capturing what’s happening in one of Maine’s more vibrant rural counties in the state) was on the WorkReady Credential Program, of which I’ve been active partner in various collaborations since last fall. For my next assignment, I am going to tackle the network that is helping to expand educational opportunities for all of the county’s residents, by offering community college classes, in partnership with Central Maine Community College.
To many folks, particularly those who live in Portland and points south, Farmington would be considered rural Maine personified. As a true Mainer, let me tell you, Farmington is not rural and in fact, to many other residents of Franklin County, Farmington receives far too much focus and represents an “elitist” element that isn’t representative of the rest of the county, particularly the northern regions of Franklin County.
Both Gary and Kirsten Brown Burbank, Gary’s Assistant Director, were very gracious hosts for my Friday visit. Gary and I spent time talking about the genesis of the network that has become Franklin County Community College Network. He also spent some time talking about Mt Abram Regional High School, where the Community Education Center is housed.
It was apparent in speaking to Gary and hearing some of the stories about the school and the work that he and Kirsten do that this is one of the top high schools in Maine and not only Maine, but the U.S. Not only that—it may have one of the prettiest locales of any high school anywhere.
MSAD 58 was formed in 1966, comprising the communities of Avon, Kingfield, Stratton, Strong, Phillips, Eustis and unorganized townships, like Salem, a result of the last major wave of school consolidation, stemming from the Sinclair Act. The current building that houses the school was officially ready for occupancy in November, 1969.
Mt Abram Regional High School is Maine’s only high school located in an unorganized township and serves an area that is half the size of Rhode Island (without any traffic lights, btw) and the average student will travel 60,000 miles during his/her four years of high school attendance.
Why Rural Schools Matter
While the state and specifically, the governor, insists that all of Maine’s budget woes will be solved by combining school districts and at least on paper, he has made a passable case for it, those of us who try to understand rural issues know that it won’t be painless, nor will it benefit all areas of Maine, particularly places like northern Franklin County.
As I’ve written before, one of the key aspects of rural schools, beyond the quality education that most provide, and often, much more cost-effectively than more populated school districts, is the community component that they represent. In rural Maine and other rural areas of the country, the local school is the community rallying point and glue that brings together folks separated by distance and remote locales. An apt illustration of this will be Mt Abram’s role in helping the area communities pay their final respects to a former student and hero, Richard Parker.
Parker, a 26-year-old soldier, from Phillips, was killed in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated as his unit’s convoy passed. The Army National Guardsman graduated from Mt. Abram in 1999. The school gymnasium will provide a place for a community visitation on Monday and on Tuesday afternoon, 300 people will gather for a full military funeral ceremony. When I visited the school on Friday, the chairs and gymnasium had already been set up, somberly awaiting Monday night’s visitation.
If you close a school like Mt Abram, or if Mt Abram were to consolidate with Rangeley, would the sending towns and their students in the northern reaches of the county still receive the high quality education in a combined school?
Mt Abram is one of eight high schools in the state selected as part of the Great Maine Schools Project through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Mitchell Institute. 85 percent of Mt Abram students go on to higher education. Currently, the school has 11 students (out of a student body of just over 200) that are involved in a trades pre-apprenticeship program, learning welding and other manufacturing-specific training. Perlson and Brown Burbank have instituted an effective Pathway Partners initiative at the school, which helps raise aspirations, skills, and attitudes of MSAD 58 students and helps build a future for the area communities, as well as the local economy.
Partnering with area businesses, government and organizations like the Maine Mentoring Partnership, the MELMAC Foundation, America’s Promise and the United Way, this program provides a seamless transition from school life to a successful career/life path for every student.
What ultimately drives home the importance of the school (as if one needs any more evidence after spending time with Gary, Kirsten, or talking with the school’s principal, Jeanne Tucker), is experiencing the size of the district, or even part of the district, as I was able to do when Gary took me around the “Black Fly Loop.” The Loop took us east to Kingfield (and Sugarloaf), then north to Stratton and Eustis. We then headed southwest on Route 16 to Rangeley and then east on Route 4 through Madrid, ending at Hillbilly’s, at the Avon Mall for lunch. After enjoying good local grub at the former Beanie’s, we headed back to Salem Township, passing through downtown Phillips, before ending up back at scenic Mt. Abram.
My time with Gary and Kirsten fit very nicely with some of my recent writing and presentations that I’ve been giving. As I’ve been trying to help business leaders understand the crossroads we are at with training the current workforce, as well as tomorrow’s workers, I recognized that a small rural high school, located in Northern Franklin County is doing exactly what I’ve been talking about for the past year.
I don’t know how everything will shake out regarding school consolidation. If history is an indication, the needs of the local communities for quality education and preparing their students for the 21st century are probably at the bottom of the list. Hopefully, maybe this time, the focus will shift and end up giving precedence to the needs of local, rural people, not scoring political points and creating positive media spin for the administration in power.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
A playhouse and some berries
I remember the fun we used to have, as a kids, when we’d inherit an old appliance box, or other large cardboard container and design our own funky, make-believe playhouse. Apparently, even in the midst of a plethora of gadgets, games and techno-driven toys, playhouses are still in vogue.
Kids Crooked House, a Maine-based company, located in Windham, has been building playhouses for kids since 2004.
From the company’s website, we learn that “in 2004 cousins Glen Halliday and Jeff Leighton went on a quest to find a creative playhouse that was more than a shed and less than $10,000. They found nothing. After a little research and hours of cartoons, Glen drew up the plans for a playhouse that looked like it was built by a cartoon character. The drawing had angled walls, crooked windows, and a twisted roof. Many angled cuts later, the first Kids Crooked House was born."
Now, these Maine entrepreneurs are finalists in Yahoo!'s Ultimate Connection Contest, after being chosen from among 9,000 entries. If they win, they’ll receive a marketing makeover worth over $100,000. Don't forget to vote for the Maine guys!
While Haliday and Leighton’s business is on the way up, another local entrepreneur seems to have fallen off the map.
Susan Eminger, creator of the immensely popular dessert-stuffed berries that led her company, Eminger Berries to be featured on Paula Dean’s Home Cooking, on the Food Network and in Dean’s son’s cookbook, is closing down her Auburn operation and moving to Texas.
According to this morning’s Lewiston Sun-Journal, a city official, who spoke to Eminger on Wednesday, stated that Eminger Berries has “closed and, she (Eminger) is moving to Texas.” The official refused to give a reason for the closure and move, “out of respect to her.”
Eminger was one of eight local entrepreneurs on a panel I moderated back in March, at the Afox Small Business Conference. Like many of the entrepreneurs on the panel, which included Fuel’s Eric Agren, Eminger was very forthright in sharing with the audience the joys and also the pitfalls of entrepreneurship and life as a small businessperson.
The Sun-Journal article spoke with Jeremy Usher, from Firefly, in Damariscotta who said that a Google trends report on June 3rd listed Eminger Berries as 15th as the most searched phrase on Google. The 14th most-searched phrased happened to be “The Soprano’s Last Episode.”
Usher is quoted in the article as saying, “She seems to have vanished without a trace to most people.”
Entrepreneurship is fraught with pitfalls. Building a brand and delivering a product, even after reaching that elusive goal of popularity and success, doesn’t necessarily mean that things get easier.
Kids Crooked House, a Maine-based company, located in Windham, has been building playhouses for kids since 2004.
From the company’s website, we learn that “in 2004 cousins Glen Halliday and Jeff Leighton went on a quest to find a creative playhouse that was more than a shed and less than $10,000. They found nothing. After a little research and hours of cartoons, Glen drew up the plans for a playhouse that looked like it was built by a cartoon character. The drawing had angled walls, crooked windows, and a twisted roof. Many angled cuts later, the first Kids Crooked House was born."
Now, these Maine entrepreneurs are finalists in Yahoo!'s Ultimate Connection Contest, after being chosen from among 9,000 entries. If they win, they’ll receive a marketing makeover worth over $100,000. Don't forget to vote for the Maine guys!
While Haliday and Leighton’s business is on the way up, another local entrepreneur seems to have fallen off the map.
Susan Eminger, creator of the immensely popular dessert-stuffed berries that led her company, Eminger Berries to be featured on Paula Dean’s Home Cooking, on the Food Network and in Dean’s son’s cookbook, is closing down her Auburn operation and moving to Texas.
According to this morning’s Lewiston Sun-Journal, a city official, who spoke to Eminger on Wednesday, stated that Eminger Berries has “closed and, she (Eminger) is moving to Texas.” The official refused to give a reason for the closure and move, “out of respect to her.”
Eminger was one of eight local entrepreneurs on a panel I moderated back in March, at the Afox Small Business Conference. Like many of the entrepreneurs on the panel, which included Fuel’s Eric Agren, Eminger was very forthright in sharing with the audience the joys and also the pitfalls of entrepreneurship and life as a small businessperson.
The Sun-Journal article spoke with Jeremy Usher, from Firefly, in Damariscotta who said that a Google trends report on June 3rd listed Eminger Berries as 15th as the most searched phrase on Google. The 14th most-searched phrased happened to be “The Soprano’s Last Episode.”
Usher is quoted in the article as saying, “She seems to have vanished without a trace to most people.”
Entrepreneurship is fraught with pitfalls. Building a brand and delivering a product, even after reaching that elusive goal of popularity and success, doesn’t necessarily mean that things get easier.
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