Greetings From Boston (Continued) 

Here are links to a collection of  posts from the Fall 2011 Communications Network Conference in Boston, Sept. 21-23, 2011.  Click here for additional conference posts.

Yankee Ingenuity, but What About New England Frugality?
by Adam Coyne, Mathematica Policy Research
The ingenuity is in full swing with this group. It was upon reflection that I realized we didn’t hear a whole lot about frugality. This kind of surprised me…(full post)

Fall in Love with Your Audience
by Stefan Lanfer, Barr Foundation
After her prepared remarks (including song, stories and unmistakable authenticity) the first question Ambassador Swanee Hunt faced was an awe-filled, “How did you do that?”…(full post)

Google, Facebook and Information Junk Food
by Lucas Bernays Held, The Wallace Foundation
Pariser has a point that “personalization” of online search could amplify our worst tendencies to roll around in the mud puddle of our own prejudices – in the way that the pricing of the large Coke just a hair above the medium seduces us into gluttony… (full post)

Online Engagement, “Der Fisch” and the Nervous Foundation
by Chris Wolz, Forum One Communications
Two observations from Communications Network conference: exciting opportunities to effect social change using online engagement make many foundations nervous, and the old German expression “Der Fisch stinkt vom Kopf her” has new applicability in this online age…(full post)

Passion and Stories and Passionate Stories
by Larry Blumenthal, Open Road Advisors
Two thoughts struck me while listening to America Ferrera tell the Communications Network crowd this morning of her rise from meager circumstances to a life as an actress and philanthropist…(full post)

A Check on My Google Love
by Stefan Lanfer, Barr Foundation
I’d heard before of echo chambers and the general bemoaning of these times in which we are getting our news more and more from people who think just like us, getting what Pariser called the “dopamine hit” of having our preconceived notions reinforced. But surely not do-no-evil Google, right?…(full post)

A Filter by Any Other Name…
by Adam Coyne, Mathematica Policy Research
Filtering is good. But filters have a bad rap that’s going to be tough to overcome. So consider this blog the beginning of a viral rebranding effort for ‘filters’ and ‘filtering… (full post)

How Can Social Sector Information Avoid the Filter Bubble?
by Jeff Stanger, Center for Digital Information
Why don’t social policy researchers and foundations get in on this? They should. Foundations and their grantees have piles of data on a wide array of important social issues… (full post)

What Does the Network Mean to You?
by Adam Coyne, Mathematica Policy Research
This is one of my favorite events of the year. Sure, the speakers are top-notch and the topics are spot-on with what’s happening right now in our field, but I could get the gist on twitter, or the blog, or on the website later and I wouldn’t have had to stomach airport food. What gets me truly excited…(full post)