Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

May 20, 2008

UK Trip 1: From Heathrow to Edinburgh to a Question at City U in London

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:57 am

From Heathrow to Edinburgh to City U

Chris Garrett at the Red Kite 15

My son and I landed at Heathrow on Saturday the 10th. The first part of our journey was by car up to Edinburgh to visit with Joanna Young. On the way, we had a meal with Chris Garrett and his family at a pub called the Red Kite in Wakefield. He sent us up to York for the night.

The next day we traveled on to Edinburgh to meet up with Joanna Young and Amy Palko. Amy left us after a few hours. Joanna housed us, fed us, and educated us as if we were family. Wow! Joanna drove us to the airport Monday evening. She’s now moving far away . . . hmmm.

Tuesday is when business began. We got to the renown Journalism School of City U, signed in, went to the office to stow our stuff. We watched through a doorway as our host, Mary Ann Kernan, worked with masters degree publishing students. She spotted us and made us comfortable as she finished up. Immediately my son and I pulled out our gadgets — my iPhone, his palm — to check for wifi. NONE. We’d been looking to jump online since we’d gotten to that part of the world . . . Joanna’s house had been the only haven.

Mary Ann took us the lounge where we met Adrian Monck, Head of the Journalism School, past investigative reporter, and blogger, who was that day finishing a move of his blog from blogspot to WordPress. You might enjoy this piece he wrote for the Guardian on whether the media can be trusted.

“Blogger’s Studio” at the Cass Business School

We headed over to the Cass Business School — a beautiful building with a wall of corporate partnerships proudly displayed behind reception. Limited wifi — in the library for students and guests with laptops only. No luck for the Strauss family travelers looking to connect with you and others.

City University of London

The event began with informal networking outside a 21st Century classroom — well, 21st Century, except for the wifi thing. Then it settled into an interview / conversation on how City U might respond to the social opportunities of the Web. The format was much like the TV show Actor’s Studio and all was caught on video. The interviewer was the distinguished Director of the Cass Learning Laboratory, Clive Holtham. I was the interviewee. The audience included Adrian Monck, Mary Ann Kernan, Susannah Quinsee, Head of Learning and Development, senior staff and professors, my son, and students from both schools.

The university seems to be particularly concerned with “blogs” rather than “social media.” The blogs I saw and heard about were mostly used for reflection and to extend or supplement teaching. We had some discussion about how to encourage conversation, community, and interaction. One professor came in prepared to be disappointed and was glad he wasn’t. One journalism professor was heartened to hear that bloggers were gaining stature. AND Adrian Monck signed on to Twitter during the session. How cool is that?!!

The best question of the day was: What is a blog’s competition?

How would you answer that one?

More to come about what’s going on at UK universities.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!





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16 Comments to “UK Trip 1: From Heathrow to Edinburgh to a Question at City U in London”

  1. May 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
    Robyn said

    Since bloggers are able to talk from their experiences as they relate to many areas from marketing to writing and beyond, it gives people voice they never had in past. Before people were non-entities in a way, until it’s time to get a vote or sell a product, but now our voices come to the fore in a whole new way and we offer a new side of journalism. :-)

    Great question to ponder, Liz.

    Glad things are going so well for you.

  2. May 20th, 2008 at 11:09 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Robyn!
    It’s a ride that perfectly suits my background and experience. What a great feeling that is. :)

    I agree that our bloggerly voices bring something new and more vibrant to the conversation than previous journalism offered. I’m not ready yet to reveal what I answered. :)

  3. May 20th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
    John said

    A good question on one hand you could argue that other blogs, website and books all “compete” with my site. On the other hand you could argue that without them my blog wouldn’t have as much to offer.

    I certainly don’t view my blog as having competition, instead it is a place for ideas to be shared, some of which will hopefully inspire fellow entrepreneurs.

    I look forward to hearing your answer Liz.

  4. May 20th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi John,
    I like the paradoxical point of your answer . . . we had talked about the nature of co-opetition in the blogosphere during the conversation. So I think that your answer would have held up that point really well. Your blog is indeed inspiring.

    I can tell you that my answer didn’t include blogs or other websites.

  5. May 20th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
    Joanna Young said

    Hi Liz

    I need to think harder about that question. But I think maybe it depends what kind of blog it is - they can perform so many different functions (reporting, conversation, shop front, reflective learning, confidence boosting)

    It was a pleasure to have you and your son stay with me. Although I’m moving further away it’s only an hour from Glasgow, and a bigger house with plenty room for my international friends from the blogosphere :-)

    Joanna

  6. May 20th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
    John said

    Liz, thank you for the kind words about my blog.

  7. May 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
    SpaceAgeSage said

    If I view blogging as business, the competition is any other source of news/info, entertainment, or education.

    Perhaps a blog’s greatest competition is that which keeps us from taking the time to read a certain person’s blog. This might be life, a book, classes, job, care taking a parent … and yes, reading a different blog.

  8. May 20th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Joanna!
    That’s one sharp way to look at the question. Different sorts of blogs would have different sorts of competition. I wonder whether that might have resonated more had I taken that approach to my answer . . .

  9. May 20th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Sage,
    Your response is one that brings more of the reasons we blog into play forward. It would have helped to have it with me. :)

  10. May 21st, 2008 at 6:52 am
    UK Trip 2: Meeting JP Rangaswami, Out to Oxford, and a Question from the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] to come about UK universities. [Check back for my answer yesterday’s question from City U [...]

  11. May 21st, 2008 at 7:51 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    How I answered the question
    When Clive asked, What is a blog’s competition?
    I asked, What is the competition for an axle? Then I paused and thought, imagining a valid response. My answer was a telephone or a roomful of people who know each other very well. I was thinking of SOBCon.

  12. May 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
    Competition for Blogs | SuccessCREEations, Inc. said

    [...] visiting!My good friend Liz Strauss was in the UK recently and shared a little the other day about her experience at City University while she was over there. While she was there she was asked an excellent question. What is a [...]

  13. May 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
    Robert Hruzek said

    Would there be blogs at all if we were all in a room together? Gee, would that suffice? Even though SOBCon did that for us, there was still more bandwidth than the obvious (Twitter conversations, for instance).

    But I like how you stepped back far enough to find the ultimate purpose of the axel. Very nice!

    I’m goin’ with Chris Cree’s answer, too.

    (I tried to come up with an answer to this one, but only ended up with brain freeze! In case you wondered what that column of smoke on the southern horizon was - it was my brain exploding.)

  14. May 22nd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Robert!
    I’m glad you still have enough brain left to write this comment. I need you around to keep me on point and thinking about what I’m really thinking. . . . What would happen if we were always in one room together? I think we’d lose something. Don’t you?

  15. August 5th, 2008 at 9:07 am
    10 Writing Reasons To Take More Photographs | Confident Writing said

    [...] It’s a picture I took in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, of poet Robert Fergusson. He looks like he’s striding through blossom, fixing the picture in my mind at a certain time of year, in one of Scotland’s most beautiful seasons, on a particular day when I was out walking with Amy and Liz Strauss. [...]

  16. August 15th, 2009 at 7:24 am
    Pick Of The Week - 24th May 2008 | Business Opportunities And Ideas said

    [...] Strauss was at CASS Business School answering the question “What is a blogs [...]

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