I have been doing a fair bit of contract work on the campus of Wake Forest University this week. Though I have no interaction with the students, it’s still refreshing to walk through a busy campus and catch a bit of the hope that swirls around.

Everyone is too young to have learned the cynicism of adulthood. It’s easy to let your mind wander and think about the potential that college offers. Of course, it might be a little overly optimistic to believe that education alone will lead to riches. I was in the ivory tower for three years and I’m still broke.

And yet there’s that niggling idea of hope.

These days, when I think about my own options I waffle between trying for an MBA or completing a new masters degree in technology and communication. I suppose having a career to worry about might be a better option than worrying about which masters to get at this point in life, but it’s hard to set aside hope.

Perhaps the best path is go for the education and lose another year’s pay. Ouch. Back to the job search.

I do have a couple of leads on potential jobs these days. They would pay OK. More than I’m getting now. And yet they merely offer more of the same in terms of work.

The job of “professional student” gets more and more appealing.

It’s a simple job. Feeding, watering and collecting eggs . But it got a little rough today.

This isn't the real hen, but the one I'm battling with looks pretty much the same.

A hen was still busy adding her daily contribution to the  egg supply when I came along. She was none too happy with me, and I was none too happy with her for refusing to literally move her butt so I could get the eggs underneath her. I couldn’t even pry her off with a stick. She just kept her bottom planted and pecked at whatever got within range of her head.

Bah. I’ll get the eggs tomorrow.

If you really need more information on egg collection, and the dangers of leaving them in the nest overnight, here’s more detailed information.

At least we’ve got a good supply of fresh eggs for the next while.

UPDATE: Chicken duty is done.

The battle for the eggs did continue, but a bigger stick with a little more leverage resolved the dispute. Yes, the bird had to be pried off the nest, but that ain’t so bad, right?

A deadline is a powerful thing. It’s the point in time when one cannot pass through without setting up a whole new set of consequences. High noon, so to speak. Damnation, where did I leave that single-action.

I doubt I’ll go through with returning to college. I figure that I can learn what I need on my own, and spare the $520. But then there’s the inability to list the new bit of education on my  resume. Is it worth $520, plus 36 hours of classtime each week?

Maybe my time would be better spent looking for employment and studying for a return to university. Thoughts?

UPDATE: I didn’t register, and I got a call this week for another short-term bit of contract work. Oh yeah, and I’ve got another job interview lined up.

The lake has a good reputation for fishing, and it had been a while since I had laid eyes on the place, so off we went. The playground was a pleasant surprise.

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It has a big play set, including a spiral slide that’s probably two-stories tall. Carson, who wasn’t feeling well, got excited when he saw it. I let him loose and he went straight to the steps, running along in his toddler gait.

And I’ll be darned if he didn’t head straight to the high point. He had to creep across the fish-shaped bridge, clinging to one side to avoid stepping on the small holes in the uneven walkway. That was a new one. He has never known shown fear of heights, so I assume that the floor just creeped him out.

He plopped down at the slide entrance, and headed downward using his flip-flops to control his speed. Good thing, because the drop off the slide was likely two feet or so, far too high for a kid Carson’s size.

We stayed for about a half-hour, playing on the rest of the pieces in the playground and then talking a walk on the floating dock. By that point, Carson was flush and I was soaked from the heat.

We’ll be back, and maybe I’ll even take a fishing pole.

The libel complaint filed against MyFacebookSpaceNews.com by David Simmons, 19, of Queens, N.Y., can be defended against.

Simmons claims that he was libeled because a news story about a fatal automobile collision portrayed him as drunk and “stupid.” The complaint from Simmons seeks $5 million in damages.

Simmons’ anger about the article is understandable, given the tragedy and severity of the collision. Simmons is also the vice president of the campus chapter of SADD, Students Against Drunk Driving at Brooklyn College.

Simmons filed his complaint arguing that he was libeled per se. The article indicates that investigators believe alcohol may have been a factor in the collision involving Simmons.

Libel per interpretation is also a factor in the story, as well, because Simmons’ complaint about being portrayed as “stupid” apparently stems from a remark by a passerby, Robin Hubier. The inference of the comment could be interpreted as indicating Simmons is stupid, though the remark was not directed specifically at Simmons.

Hubier presumably had no knowledge that Simmons was the driver of the van at the time when she made the remark, “I think people like that guy are just too stupid to know when it’s unsafe to drive,” was intended as a general statement about drivers involved in crashes. It would be difficult for Simmons to show that Hubier was speaking specifically about him.

In regard to the threshold of libel, Simmons’ complaint would appear to meet four of the six general standards for a successful complaint.

Defamation: The article indicates that investigators believe Simmons may be drinking alcohol before his van collided with the Explorer and Prius.

Identification: The article is a little vague, but Simmons appears to be the drive of the Chevy van involved in the collision. He also is identified as a student at Brooklyn College, where he is the vice president of a specific and notable group on campus. No charges had been filed at the time the story was written, which is problematic should no charges be pursued by authorities, but the story was accurate at the time of publication.

Publication: The story was published by MyFacebookSpaceNews.com. There is no indication that the article was republished, but it’s a likely assumption that the story was read and presumably redistributed by readers.

Injury: Simmons reputation would apparently be damaged if he was found to be accused of drunken driving, given his position as an executive with the SADD group, though his claim of $5 million is blatantly excessive.

However, Simmons libel claim fails to meet two crucial standards.

There is no evidence of malice to support a claim of fault.

The story is based information from an official police source, New York Police Sgt. Rocco T. Ruggiero. It’s likely that the reporter had never met Simmons before, and the reporter has presumably obtained the accident report and possibly viewed warrants that include the specific allegations against the drivers involved.

Also, Simmons is a public figure in the vortex of a legitimate news story because of his involvement in the series of collisions, eroding any protection as a private citizen.

Simmons’ also falls short of showing that the story was false.

If the sequence of events changes as the investigation proceeds, and Simmons is cleared of wrongdoing, then a subsequent story would be warranted, rather than a correction. A correction could imply an admission by the media outlet that its reporting was inaccurate, but that wasn’t the case at the time the first story ran.

In summary, Simmons complaint is unlikely to proceed far in the court system. However, MyFacebookSpaceNews.com needs to continue monitoring developments in the story and publish subsequent stories as newsworthy developments occur.

The legal statement for the Winston-Salem Journal’s Web site, www.journalnow.com, is intended to protect the company from liability and advise readers about what information the company gathers about their visits. The statement combines the legal restrictions on using information posted on the Web site and the company’s privacy policy.

The language of the agreement is fairly standard, written in legal jargon, but it has some quirks. The use of upper-case text warning readers that there is no “warranty” from the Web site and the following section claiming that the newspaper and its parent company, Media General, cannot be held liable for any “damages or expenses” because of information posted on the site is a bit much. The statements basically say that the company has no responsibility for any of the information posted on its Web site. The statement, albeit it a legal one, raises the question about just what the company may be willing to stand behind.

For example, this statement is included: “NOTE TO USERS. MEDIA GENERAL does not

Journalnow's statement on use and privacy.

represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy or reliability of any User Content or endorse any opinions expressed by such users. ANY RELIANCE UPON USER CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.”

The tone continues into the section about the company’s policy on internal links to other Web sites. The company is again trying to protect itself against damages, but why go so far in the section titled “Featured Links and Advertisements” as to say that the links “are provided for your reference and convenience only.” The links from advertisements in particular are purely intended to direct readers to companies that want to sell them a good or service. Why camouflage the intent of the links. It would be better to add a clause saying that “advertising links are tools to more easily connect with companies that advertise on the Journal’s Web site.”

We get it

The point is made, but the legal language and use of  upper-case text comes off as overbearing, especially because the sections denying liability follow a statement titled “Personal and Noncommercial Use” that goes on to say that “The Web site is for your personal and noncommercial use.” It’s a newspaper Web site. Readers understand that advertisers are using the Web site for a commercial purpose. The statement comes off as disingenuous, perhaps even deceptive.

The section dealing with copyright is also a little strong. It warns readers that “transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language or computer language, retransmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photo reproduction, recordation or otherwise), resold or redistributed without the prior written consent of MEDIA GENERAL. Violation of this provision may result in severe civil and criminal penalties.”

This was likely written by someone who was thinking of the print newspaper. The electronic version is too easily redistributed by users. The company even encourages people to e-mail articles to others, and it has a handy tool on the Web site to allow readers to do this quickly and easily. This legal statement is dated.

Privacy protection standards are vague

The company’s statement on its privacy policy is, again, standard legalese. It lays out what information the company gathers in a general sense, and claims that information it gathers does not include personal information, though it cautions that information provided by users is being collected.

The statement does not say how that information is protected, or whether it’s protected at all.

Also, this statement is problematic: “No personally identifiable information about you is shared with such advertisers or merchants. You may choose to opt-out by contacting us in accordance with the information set forth at the bottom of this policy.”

What are users opting out from? And why is so cumbersome to “opt out.” Anyone who wishes to opt out of electronic information-gathering must write, call or e-mail the company’s legal counsel. Why not create a button that makes it easier for readers to “opt out” if the company is serious about allowing personal information to be better protected.

Again, the statement appears dated.

Overall, the company’s policy is intended to protect the company’s interest, but it is a one-sided agreement. There is no provision in the statement to let people easily ask questions or seek further clarification. Because the agreement is written with such a legal tone, it is difficult to wade through the language to understand what the company is saying.

Other media chains, such as the New York Times or The News & Record of Greensboro, do a better job of posting easily understandable legal statements to protect the company.

Muddy water flows under the U.S. 421 bridge over the Yadkin River.

Editor’s note: This is an exercise in writing a news story for a journalism class I’m taking through the University of North Carolina. The story is below a list of points that needed to be addressed about how the article was created:
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Who I wrote this for.
Some of the questions I asked.
Sources I couldn’t reach.
Some of the facts I checked.

WINSTON-SALEM – Swelling after three days of wind-whipped rain from a November nor’easter, the “muddy Yadkin” lived up to its nickname.

The water surging under the bridge for U.S. 421 last week was tainted with red clay from fields and construction sites along its course.

Dean Naujoks says it wasn’t always like this.

“This river is definitely not supposed to be this muddy. It’s rocky.  It’s a fairly clear river. It shouldn’t be mud brown.”

Targeting the sources of muddy runoff is among Naujoks’ biggest jobs in his role as the Yadkin Riverkeeper. Naujoks is the first full-time advocate for the river, which is the last major river in the state to get a riverkeeper. Naujoks marked his first anniversary on the job on Nov. 14.

In his first year, Naujoks has taken on three long-term goals:

• He launched a legal challenge to the water-use permit that allows Alcoa Power Generating Inc. to wield almost total control over the river.
• He sparked a federal investigation into a sewage spill by the city of Thomasville that flowed into the river and High Rock Lake.
• The Riverkeeper joined the fight against a proposal by a company called Fibrowatt to build three generating stations on the Yadkin that would draw water to be turned into steam generated by burning chicken litter.
• And he set about building a system of volunteers and staff to fight for improved water quality in the watershed.

“You’re just not being a single-person riverkeeper. You’re trying to build a whole network,” said Naujoks, who was the riverkeeper for the Upper Neuse River for seven years before taking the job for the Yadkin.

For the Yadkin Riverkeeper organization, Naujoks’ hiring was a milestone that came much sooner than expected, said Zoe Hanes, the group’s president.

Organizing for the riverkeeper organization started in 2007. Hanes credits Hope Taylor, executive director of the environmental group Clean Water for North Carolina, for jump-starting the organizational process.

Taylor organized a series of meetings throughout the Yadkin River basin and brought in riverkeepers from other areas to give presentations in communities along the Yadkin.

“That helped spur interest, and that’s how really it got launched,” Hanes said.

Key grants from other groups and foundations, notably the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, helped the organization hire a full-time advocate for the river.

“A RiverKeeper program was long overdue for the Yadkin, but there was not a group that was formed along the basin to focus on polluter accountability and water-quality protection,” Taylor said.

The Yadkin group is part of the National Waterkeeper Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization that acts as a nongovernmental watchdog for river systems.

Picking a fight

Locally, the biggest battle launched by the Yadkin group in its first year is a legal challenge to a state water-quality permit issued to Alcoa in May. The state permit is part of Alcoa’s application to renew its license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to control the four reservoirs in the Yadkin chain, which include High Rock, Badin, Tuckertown and Falls reservoirs.

The Yadkin becomes the Pee Dee River at the convergence with the Uwharrie River, just north of the South Carolina border.

Alcoa was granted a 50-year license in 1958, to use electrical-generating dams for an aluminum smelter that operated in Stanly County and employed hundreds. The smelter has since closed, and the company now sells the electricity it generates.

Naujoks and Hanes hope that the legal battle over the state permit could eventually lead to the end for Alcoa’s regulation over the river and reservoirs.

“Alcoa does a good job of making it appear that it is their river. It’s not. It’s a public resource,” Hanes said.

Naujoks said that once he relocated to Winston-Salem and began working, he was surprised by the scale of the challenges facing the river.

Sily water flows through downed tree limbs.

“The Yadkin/Pee Dee River, that river system is 18,000 square miles. It’s the second-largest river flowing into the Atlantic. And I never knew about it, so I didn’t really know about the real issues about the river because there was never a group advocating for the river,” Naujoks said.

Sedimentation, the amount of dirt flowing into the river, is the main source of contamination in the Yadkin, but Naujoks believes there are likely bigger problems to be found. Namely,  polychlorinated biphenyls, which are better known by the acronym PCBs.

Naujoks believes that PCB contamination is often more extensive than expected, once more widespread research and testing get under way.

The legal battle with Alcoa isn’t winning Naujoks many friends with groups that have supported the company’s effort secure its federal operating permit. The High Rock Lake Association, which represents property owners and recreational users of the lake, posted a press release in April urging the “self-appointed” Yadkin Riverkeeper organization stay out of the recertification process and suggestions of more widespread pollution.

Gene Ellis, the licensing and property manager for Alcoa, said that the company put considerable effort into talking with groups interested in the Yadkin River, including environmental groups, as part of its relicensing effort.

“Our history is reaching out to people and engaging in constructive conservation,” Ellis said.

The Yadkin Riverkeeper’s opposition to Alcoa came after the state had issued a water-quality permit, and the group would have been consulted earlier if it had existed during the public comment period. Ellis said that company representatives tried to establish a relationship with the Riverkeeper group in the years before it was officially organized, and that he tried to meet with Naujoks before the group filed its appeal, but there was little communication before the appeal was filed.

Naujoks said that when he did meet with Ellis about the company’s plans, he came to the conclusion that the company wouldn’t address a bigger PCB cleanup unless it was forced to.

Ellis argues that PCB contamination is isolated and the company considers the problem resolved. The concentration levels of PCB at the identified sites, near the company’s power-generating facility at Badin Lake, are low and testing has been done by local, state and federal officials.

“If there is a mother lode, you’d think it would be discovered by now,” Ellis said.

Ellis told the Winston-Salem Journal earlier this year that the company has worked with the state for 20 years and spent $10 million to clean up eight sites around the lake that had contaminants.

Tensions building

The relationship between Alcoa and the Yadkin Riverkeeper group has grown testy, prompting battling press releases from both sides.

Naujoks isn’t afraid of a fight, and that’s part of why the group chose him, said Hanes, an environmental lawyer.

“Dean is not the type of person to avoid maybe confrontation. He’s not shy,” she said.

She, too, believes that PCB contamination is more widespread than thought. Alcoa has generated power at Badin Lake for decades before regulations were tightened to control pollution.

The Yadkin River is the second-largest river to flow into the Atlantic.

“Number one, the reason we became involved is that Alcoa still refuses to admit that it has caused any PCB contamination in the lake,” Hanes said.

Naujoks expects it could take years before the back-and-forth of court decisions and appeals leads to a resolution about the control over High Rock.

In the meantime, the battle has focused the attention of the media and the public on the Yadkin River, which Naujoks considers to be the ultimate goal of his job.

He’s won some powerful allies. Ryke Longest, the director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke University, recently agreed to help the Yadkin Riverkeeper group in the legal fight over the relicensing application.

State Gov. Bev Perdue has also weighed in. The administration is calling on federal officials to not renew Alcoa’s federal permit. Among other issues, the governor says that the state could find it tougher to manage water resources in the future if it can’t control the flow through the series of dams in the river system. The state wants to take control over the dams and reservoirs.

Some state legislators sided with Perdue earlier this year and tried to pass a bill that would have created a “Yadkin River Trust” to take control of the dams. The bill failed by a narrow vote.

“If we win on this issue and we capture the Yadkin River for the interest of the people, that’s a huge win,” Naujoks said.

Who I wrote this for.

Return to starting point

I wrote this as if I was a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal.

The city draws its water from the Yadkin River, and the chain of lakes to the south is a popular recreational destination.

The relicensing effort by Alcoa has been controversial for years, with various stakeholders entrenched either in support or opposition to the company’s plans. This story has been in the news for many communities in central North Carolina, so I assumed a general level of awareness among readers.

Some of the questions I asked

Return to starting point

I didn’t use a list of specific questions for this story. Instead, I had a series of issues in mind that I wanted my sources to address.

Zoe Hanes:

What did the Yadkin Riverkeeper expect to achieve after hiring a full-time advocate for the river?

Were the club’s goal’s met?

What problems developed?

Why get involved with the Alcoa relicensing application after it had been approved?

Why was the Yadkin the last major river in the state to get a riverkeeper?

Dean Naujoks:

What goals did he expect to achieve in his first year? Was he successful?

What happens in the years ahead?

What does expect will happen in the legal fight with Alcoa? (He expects the riverkeeper’s group will win, though it may take eight to 10 years.)

What surprises did he encounter once he started working on the Yadkin?

How often is he physically on the river?

Hope Taylor:

Why was the Yadkin the last major river in the state to get a riverkeeper?

How did the group get organized?

Gene Ellis:

How has the creation of the Yadkin Riverkeeper group affected the company?

Has there been much communication between the two sides? Why has there been so little?

Is there a common ground between the two?

Why did Alcoa appeal the state water-quality permit?

Sources I couldn’t reach

Return to starting point

Ryke Longest, director of the environmental-law clinic at Duke University.

I wanted to ask him why the clinic was joining the appeal of Alcoa’s water permit?

We exchanged a couple of e-mails, but he said he was too busy to talk.

Larry O. Jones, president of hte High Rock Lake Assoc.

I wanted to ask him about his group’s criticism of the Yadkin Riverkeeper, and why the association supported Alcoa’s relicensing effort.

Phone messages weren’t returned.

Some of the facts I checked

Return to starting point

Name spellings.

Naujoks’ professional background.

Zoe Hanes professional background.

The history of the Yadkin Riverkeeper, as well as the state and national organizations.

Lake names.

Information about Alcoa’s relicensing application.

Information about the Thomasville spill.

Information about Fibrowatt’s plans.

Technical terms, such as sedimentation and pcb.

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Where to hook up in Chapel Hill

Wikipedia work

I edited the entry about Long Point, Ontario, on Wikipedia. Most of the changes I made were fixes for grammar and awkward sentence construction, but I also added a

Aerial photo of the eastern tip of Long Point along the Ontario shore of Lake Erie. Photo by Tim Hagen.

quote from a study from the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve organization pointing out the importance of the point to migratory birds.

The entry was last updated in July, but there is a lot more information to be added. It’s more than I can tackle.

Long Point is a sand spit that juts into Lake Erie from the north shore. It’s located directly across the lake from Erie, Pa. The point, the bay and the wetlands around it are environmentally valuable because the point has so far remained largely undeveloped because of its geography. The point is hit hard by gales in the fall, winter and spring, making development a difficult proposition.

I also cleaned up a paragraph dealing with the history about a historic “cut” through the point. A storm cut a channel across the point in the 19th century. I may go back and add more to the entry once I get more comfortable working on Wikipedia. I am still rather unfamiliar with the editing interface.

I chose this entry because I spent a lot of time at the Bay over the years. I hope to be up there in mid-November to spend some time with family, and we’ll no doubt head to Long Point at some point.

Where else would someone want to be in the middle of November, other than at a cold, windswept point in Lake Erie?

An uprooted tree lodged into the sand along the Lake Erie beach of Long Point. Photo by Tim Hagen.

Where to hook up in Chapel Hill

Return to starting point

Map shows wireless access points

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Mistakes made
Tough start
The live blog

That was fun.

Live-blogging was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated. I went to the presentation of a multimedia project on the Galapagos Islands that was put together by journalism students at the University of North Carolina.

I was planning to go to a speech at Wake Forest University about H1N1 and human immunology, figuring that it would be newsy and current. However, when I called a contact in the news bureau at Wake I got worried. The speaker is a physician and the discussion was going to be technical.

I could see myself madly looking up medical terms rather than having time to write the blog.

Fortunately, I saw a posting on Facebook from a former colleague about the

The main page for the Living Galapagos multimedia project.

event at UNC. I used to work with one of the photographers who was a coach for the student photography teams.

I gave him a call, and he filled me in about the project and the presentation.

Frankly, I was surprised at how nervous I got once I set up my laptop. My friend, Jason Arthurs, sent a message to everyone who had participated in the project to let them know that I was blogging live, and he included the link.

I thought I might have a real, live audience, but I didn’t get any responses.

Mistakes made

Go back to starting point

In hindsight, I made some rookie reporting mistakes. I didn’t prepare enough ahead of time. I had looked at the Web site and read the press releases about the presentation, and I even spoke with the fellow who coordinated the project and was going to be the main speaker.

But I didn’t get a list of the names of the other speakers. I figured there would be a program for the presentation that would list the speakers. There wasn’t, which I didn’t realize until the presentation began.

Not having the names of the speakers meant that I was limited to using only the names of the speakers as they were introduced. The UNC Web site made it easy to get the names of the two people I really needed, but the Ecuadorian speakers were tough to identify. I had difficulty with their accents.

Luckily, the Ecuadorians were brief.

Tough start

Go back to starting point

I struggled with the first blog posting. I knew that I had to let readers know where I was and what I was doing, so I started with that idea. I didn’t have much of a lead in mind, though, so I just started with the first workable idea I had.

It’s cold and dreary outside, but it’s sunny with optimism inside the Mandela Auditorium at UNC-Chapel Hill.

I hate weather leads, by the way, but I just wrote one. Ha!

The bad lead at least got me writing, and thinking. I knew enough about the project that I was able to dash off an opening thought and then think about how to fill in holes.

I added links to Wikipedia entries on the islands, and I linked to the UNC bios about the two main presenters.

Another oversight in my preparation was to grab some photos from the multimedia Web site to illustrate my blog. I didn’t have any art. I used bold-face on the times to break up the test, but I didn’t take the time to write heads so that I could focus on the content.

The speeches by Pat Davison and Steve Walsh were the newsiest parts of the presentation. None of the material I’d read in advance dealt with how and why the team from UNC had become involved with the Galapagos Islands.

The multimedia was an extension of a broader collaboration between UNC and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito to study climate change and other big challenges to the ecosystem of the Galapagos.

I wish I had known about the extent of the connections beforehand, because I would have focused more on tracking down the Ecuadorians and talking with them.

But at the end of the night, the tension had passed and the exercise really was fun. It was the closest thing to reporting that I’ve done in months. And reporting really is the best job in the world, even if the pay is terrible.

Image from Sunset at Playa Mann slideshow on Living Galapagos Web site. Photo by Courtney Potter.

The live blog

Go back to starting point

Green with Galapagos envy

Live blogging from UNC

7 p.m.

Wow, no questions from the audience. Lots of applause, but no questions. Everyone is ready for the reception outside, where the questions likely will be asked and friends will catch up with each other.

Impressions:

• High calibre of work from “students.” I just spoke with my photographer friend, Jason Arthurs, and he says the editing often lasted until 4 a.m. while they were on the islands. He was one of three coaches assigned to the teams in the Galapagos. Another coach for the Web site worked from Chapel Hill.
• The quality of the editing was remarkable, but so was the level of technology deployed for the project. The videos were broadcast
  

  Students give their best impersonations of the wildlife.

  quality. The slideshows were top shelf.

• There isn’t a lot of text on the Web site. It is a multimedia project, but I found myself reading a lot of background material to better understand the overall context of the graphical presentations.
• Personally, this was a harsh reminder that my reporting skills are showing a lack of practice. My fingers are too slow on the keyboard, and I should have been better prepared with background material, such as the names of the speakers, before getting here.

6:50 p.m.

Some of the interviews make use of 360 panoramic cameras, much like the Google streetview images. It adds a sense of place to the people who are being interviewed.

Some cool underwater video is also available.

Lots of spectacular photos throughout.

6:40 p.m.

Pat Davison, who teaches multimedia, just explained the intentions for the project.

UNC has a multimedia team that produces local projects, but they also have taken on two international projects over the last few summers.

Davison learned about UNC’s ties to the Galapagos after he was referred to Steve Walsh, the geography professor doing work in the Galapagos.

“I began to realize just how little I knew about the Galapagos Islands. I, like many people, think it was still a pristine wilderness,” Davison says.

Walsh explained the challenges facing the islands, and Davison says that led to the idea to tell the story about the human impact on the islands. Much has been written about the islands animals, plants and ecological diversity, but he says he found little about the people who live there and how tourism and immigration is changing the islands.

Another peg was that the project coincided with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin‘s birth.

Davison visited the islands last year and met with a colleague from USFQ who  helped him create a preliminary story list, which led to last  summer’s trip.

The students were divided into three groups to cover the three main population centers on the islands. The students would go out each day to take photos, shoot video and gather data and information about the people they met. They would get together at the end of the day to begin producing.

“Every day at 5:30, we’d go watch the sunset and the sea lions and then we’d go back in and work ourselves to the bone,” Davison says.

The design team decided to use a map interface to divide the content into four sections: Video documentaries, people, places, and then a section for infographics and data-driven reporting to give context.

The site is also available in Spanish, and it will automatically detect the connection speed of users who view it. A low-band-width version was developed so that people in the Galapagos could see the project.

6:10 p.m.

The opening preview from the Web site is being played. Questions to follow.

6:05 p.m.

I missed posting this earlier. It’s a link to the Wikipedia entry about the Galapagos.

The islands are along the equator in the Pacific Ocean off Ecuador. Pat Davison said that it took two days of travel to reach the islands.

5:45 p.m.

Steve Walsh, professor of geography, is the opening speaker and is going an overview of how the project came about. Tonight’s presentation is focusing on

Sunset photo from livinggalapagos.org

the multimedia project, but it’s clear that the relationship between UNC and Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) is more extensive.

Walsh said that the relationship began after he was invited to the Galapagos to study invasive species, and he met some colleagues at the USFQ. He said that initial trip led to a broader effort between the two universities “to articulate the challenges to the historic flora and flauna that make the Galapagos such a unique setting.”

Participants from the USFQ have been in Chapel Hill since Friday. They even went to Saturday’s UNC football game. I wonder what they think of American football?

5:15 p.m.

It’s cold and dreary outside, but it’s sunny with optimism inside the Mandela Auditorium at UNC-Chapel Hill.

I hate weather leads, by the way, but I just wrote one. Ha!

I’m in the auditorium waiting for the presentation on Living Galapagos, a Web-based project by 30 21 journalism students at the University of North Carolina. They spent 26 days on the Galapagos Island gathering information and stories this summer or what they believe is the first multimedia effort focusing on the islands.

I spoke briefly with Pat Davison, the instructor who coordinated the project, as he rehearsed his speech. He has something to proud of. The Web site is engaging and informative. It tells the story of the people who live on the island and how modern development threatens the islands’ ecosystem.

Davison says that 50,000 people live on the islands, with a mix of natives and immigrants. He says that the island even have a problem with illegal immigration.

I had heard of the project through a photographer I used to work with at the Winston-Salem Journal. He was part of the team who went to the island. I’d say he made better use of his summer than me.

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Local needs

A hospital is more than a building.

It’s a place filled with emotion. Many of our happiest memories will involve a hospital. So will some of our saddest.

There is a special connection between a hospital and its community.

High Point Regional Health System has benefited from this relationship over the last decade. The number of services the 104-year-old hospital offers has expanded, and the sheer size of the downtown campus has grown.

A hospital is ultimately about people, and people are increasingly going online to communicate and find information they need. The hospital’s Facebook page already has more than 200 members, even though it was created as a pilot project to share information with the hospital’s legion of volunteers.

So, High Point Regional is going online in a big way. This is the first in a weekly series of blog postings to share information about what’s happening inside the hospital.

The number of blog offerings will grow over time as more staff members get interested.

• We’ll soon be rolling out a new Facebook page and Twitter profile. For those who aren’t familiar with them, Facebook and Twitter are basically tools to easily link up with people you know. For the hospital, it’s just another way to keep you posted about services, calendars and notable developments.

The people who work here have stories to share, and the patients and families who use the hospital may well also have something to say. Some of the discussion might not favorable, but that’s OK.

Eric Fletcher is the director of marketing for the hospital. He was part of the group behind the hospital’s online evolution.

He chuckles now when thinks back to concerns about the hospital creating a forum for people to air complaints on the Web.

Many hospitals “are too scared of it” to allow patient complaints to be publicly discussed, but Fletcher said that administrators at High Point Regional understood that people already have plenty of ways to share bad experiences or complaints on the Web, so the hospital might as well get involved in the discussion.

What am I getting into?

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If you’ve been visiting the hospital’s Web site in the last few years, you probably know about the patient blogs created a few years ago. They are consistently among the hospital’s top-5 most popular sections and the number of blogs will expand.

The patient blogs were developed because the hospital realized that people want to see real-world experiences about the care they’ll undergo.

The three areas chosen for the patient blogs focused on weight-loss surgery, child birth and cancer as a marketing experiment. Those services are the kind that people will do a lot of research before choosing a place to go for care and treatment.

“What happens through their blogging, you get a  feel for what the cancer treatment is like,” Fletcher said.

High Point Regional Hospital

Thanks to the Web, people can now search out the best places for treatment just about anywhere. Not to toot our own horn, but the hospital’s surgical weight-loss program has drawn patients from Canada, Kenya and The Canary Islands.

At least two of those patients said the patient blogs were factors in their decisions.

Locally, there lots of facilities to choose from in the Triad. Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro is doing something similar to High Point Regional by expanding its online presence.

The hospital is also on Facebook and Twitter, and a blog for the hospital’s board of directors is in the works.

Tommye Morrison is a High Point native who used to work at the High Point Enterprise. She is now responsible for Cone’s Web site. She said the hospital has been using Facebook to alert people about specific events, and it’s working.

The hospital held a fundraiser recently for the Mammography Scholarship Fund. More than 200 people quickly joined the Facebook page and turnout was good.

Local needs

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Most of the people who come to High Point Regional live nearby, whether in High Point or neighboring cities in Randolph, Forsyth and Davidson counties.

• Through Facebook and Twitter, we’ll make it easier to alert you about things you need to know about. For example, scheduling changes caused by bad weather will be distributed as cell-phone alerts, Tweets and Facebook postings.

We’re brainstorming about what else we can do to give you more information long before you ever come through the hospital doors, whether it’s for an emergency or a planned day surgery.

You probably have already noticed the large amount of information available on the hospital’s main Web site, under the “Your Health” tab at the top of the page. You can find information about medicines, illnesses and treatments there.

We’re also working on some ideas for videos and graphics to add to the Web and give people more ways to find out about health concerns.

Let us know if you have any other ideas to share what needs to be shared with the community.