We're especially curious to hear what kind of technological innovations people are experimenting with in their unions, and what kinds of problems you all are having with new technology.
So if you are a union member, staffer or officer, and you have a free member account here on Communicate or Die, you should think about sharing some of your experience with everyone else - good, bad or indifferent.
If you don't have an account, by all means, please sign up for one now over on the left hand side of this page.
As to what, specifically, you can write about (or add an audio or video production if that's your fancy), there's a lot that would work well here.
First, make sure that your submission deals with both the labor movement and web-related technology. Those are the areas we focus on here. If you want to talk about the labor movement in general, you can check out any number of labor-related blogs and websites. A good place to start would be CorD member Richard Negri's UnionReview.com site. If you want to talk about technology absent any discussion of labor, or technology with no application on the internet, there are thousands of places to do that on the web. So many, in fact, that there's little point in listing any here.
Second, always try to back up whatever you talk about with useful examples and links to whatever is being discussed.
Third, we encourage people to talk about their personal experience with technology in the labor movement; so considering starting off by talking about technology that you've worked with directly. We can't stress enough how much we (and likely everyone else here) wants to hear more about what is happening in the field - with a particular focus on what technology and techniques people are finding useful in union organizing drives.
Fourth, analysis is great, just be sure not to bite off more than you can chew in one post - there's always another day.
So, give posting to CorD a try today (well, maybe not today on New Year's Eve, but after the holiday is over), and if that seems too daunting, try responding to existing posts. Because the most important thing we can do here is to get good dialogues going between labor folks around the country and around the world. That kind of cross-fertalization is priceless. Remember how fast word of sit-down strikes spread from city-to-city in the 1930s WITHOUT the internet, and you can imagine the effect of a really good idea in the current era.
We never know where the next big idea in the labor movement will come from. It could be some kind of direct organizing method, or it could be some technological advance, or it could be some big legal change like the Employee Free Choice Act. Who can say? But the more people talk with each other on sites like this one, and share their vast experience with each other, the better.
So I'll leave you all with that thought. Have a great New Year's Eve, and a Happy New Year. And, hey ... let's be careful out there (glug, glug, glug ... that's right, my brothers and sisters know what I'm worried about tonight ... I know how much everyone works hard and plays hard in the labor movement ... so try to play safe if at all possible ...).
