The Weekly Debrief: 24 August 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.

@PBSInterns discuss the importance of formatting, from how to make the perfect tweet to the blueprint of the perfect Facebook post. Plus, formatting code behind-the-scenes is equally important. 

Follow the Link Below to Continue Reading

• FYI Friday: Formatting Matters...

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• Happy Labor Day! PBS offices will be closed on Monday, September 3 in honor of the Labor Day Holiday. 
• Last chance to vote for SXSW panels: Check out the list of panels from PBS and stations and vote for your favorite! Voting closes TODAY. 
• COVE Content and Promotions Calendar: See the latest details on programs to be featured on COVE’s general audience video portal this September in the PBS Interactive Station Guide COVE Resource Center. If you have related content we could promote, please let us know. 
• Call the Midwife event planning kit: PBS Marketing and Communications has created a series of assets to help with your event planning for CALL THE MIDWIFE. (requires PBS Connect login). 
• Get a sneak preview of Downton Abbey Season 3: In this short scene watch Maggie Smith the Dowager Countess go head-to-head with cast newcomer Shirley McClaine. Downton Abbey Season 3 premieres on PBS on January 6, 2013. You can link to and promote this video in your own COVE portal by adding Masterpiece to your home carousel. 
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Facebook & Twitter icons available: PBS created a ‘tigertastic’ set of Twitter icons and Facebook profile images of the characters in DANIEL TIGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD. Files for Daniel Tiger, Miss Elaina, Prince Wednesday, O the Owl and Katerina Kittycat have been uploaded to the stations FTP site.

FYI Friday: Formatting Matters

Last week, we offered a grab bag of power tips that explored Tumblr, rich snippets in Google search, and new features in Google Webmaster tools. This week, we discuss the importance of formatting, from how to make the perfect tweet to the blueprint of the perfect Facebook post. Plus, formatting code behind-the-scenes is equally important.

How to Write the Perfect Tweet by Shea Bennett

On Twitter, you have 140 characters to make an impact, so what’s the key to writing the perfect tweet? Shea Bennett points out that you should never sacrifice spelling or grammar to save space, and you should try to leave 20 characters of free space at the end of each tweet. This “magic number” of 20 ensures that users who retweet your content will have a little space to add their own thoughts.

According to Bennett, you should also shorten all links with bit.ly and nothing else, and in fact, some url shorterners may be hurting the effectiveness of your tweets. For more statistics, as well as tips for “selling the headline” of your tweets, check out the full article.

The perfect Facebook post: A blueprint by Katy Schamberger



Since Facebook is the largest social network, it’s important to make sure your posts are compelling. Ideally, every post should have a call to action that points to another Facebook element, website, or blog. The text in the post should be concise and all links should appear within the first 90 characters or people won’t click it. Images and videos are crucial, and each object should be at least 300x300 pixels large and feature people, not logos or other text.

Jennifer Burnham created a nifty infographic to summarize these tips, and Katy Schamberger goes into more detail in the full article about how monitoring conversations is key part of creating the “perfect” Facebook post.

Source: cype_applejuice

On web semantics by Google Webmaster Central

Formatting is important on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s also important on the backend of any website. “Web semantics” is a concept used by web developers to describe markup that is supposed to indicate meaning and purpose. For example, the   < H1 > tag indicates that the phrase in that section is more important than the words in between the < H6 > tag. Google points out that using markup properly will increase the professionalism of your coding, make it more accessible, and keep it maintainable in the long-run.

However, sometimes it can be confusing to keep up with the latest guidelines. Google explains that you should stop using some “presentational” markup like < center >, < font >, < s >, and < u > because browsers won’t support them forever. The blog post also recommends tools for checking the health of your web semantics, including W3C’s semantic data extractor and the Web Developer Toolbar extension for Chrome and Firefox. Check out the full article for a long list of dos and don’ts that will get your coding back on track.

The Weekly Debrief: 24 August 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.

We interviewed Jay Boeding, Station Advisory Council (SAC) Member and Corporate Relations Representative at Iowa Public Television, about his expertise, experiences and ideas for the future.

Jay Boeding also passed along an interesting story on charitable giving. We encourage you to share this with your development colleagues.

@PBSInterns guide us through forcing Google to recrawl your site, a short lesson about the canonical tag, and some tips to guide your keyword research.

Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:

• SAC Member Profiles: Jay Boeding 
• The Geography of Charitable Giving
• FYI Friday: Search Engine Solutions

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• Get a sneak preview of Downton Abbey Season 3: In this short scene watch Maggie Smith the Dowager Countess go head-to-head with cast newcomer Shirley McClaine.  Downton Abbey Season 3 premieres on PBS on January 6, 2013. You can link to and promote this video in your own COVE portal by adding Masterpiece to your home carousel.
• Vote for SXSW panels: Heading to SXSW in Austin next year? Check out the list of panels from PBS and stations and vote for your favorite! Voting closes 8/31 and makes up a large portion of which sessions are offered at the festival.
• iMA Premium Webinar: Is Responsive Web Design a Silver Bullet? Wednesday, August 29, at 2:00 p.m. ET. iMA will explain the practice of responsive design and its benefits, the application development process that incorporates responsive design, as well as the technologies involved in enabling it. Register today.

FYI Friday: Search Engine Solutions

Last week, we explored how formatting Facebook and Twitter messages, as well HTML, can affect your digital goals. This week, we’re looking at how to force Google to recrawl your site, a short lesson about the canonical tag, and some tips to guide your keyword research.

How to Force Google to Recrawl Your Site by Ken Lyons

Normally, Googlebot recrawls a website about twice a year, but sometimes that isn’t enough. Last year, Google updated "Fetch as Googlebot" in Webmaster Tools with a new feature called "Submit URL to Index," which allows you to submit updated URLs that Google claims it will crawl within a day. You first need to submit URLs to the "Fetch as Googlebot" feature and get diagnostic feedback on any problem areas on your website. If Google is able to fetch the URL successfully, you're granted access to use the "Submit URL to Index" feature.

Next, select the "URL and all linked pages" option when submitting for a recrawl because this will spur a recrawl of all internal links on that page, as well as other connected sections of sites. For more details, check out the full article.  

The Canonical Tag Can Save You from the Duplicate Content Monster by Ray Comstock

Computers aren’t people and they can’t understand that similar URLs like www. example.com, example.com, and www.example.com/home are the same thing to a user. This is a problem because only one of those URLs can show up in the results pages and it may not be the optimal URL from a search engine optimization point-of-view. Plus, Google might interpret these multiple URLs as duplicate content, a big no-no that will further hurt your search ranking.

Ray Comstock explains that Google’s rel="canonical" element can help avoid this confusion by letting you specify the exact URL you want to represent each page of your website. Read the entire article to find out the full list of potential duplication issues, as well as why 301 redirects aren’t the same thing as the canonical element.  

Low-Hanging Fruit: How To Identify Keywords That Just Need A Little Help by Anthony Mangia

In a workday with little resources, how can you identify keywords that only need a little push to become fully optimized? To start, Anthony Mangia recommends going into Google Analytics and selecting “Keywords” under Traffic Sources to filter out “non-paid” keywords that don’t drive traffic to your site. Second, put this information into a spreadsheet and the keywords through rank checking software like Rank Checker (a free tool!). When you sort the results, remove all the terms where you already rank number 1 because you’re already on top of the results.

Check out the full article to learn the next steps, including how Google’s Keyword Tool can help determine search volume and other tools you can use to examine competition and link-building opportunities.

The Geography of Charitable Giving

And the gifts from Jay Boeding at Iowa Public Television keep on 'giving!'

Jay passed along an interesting story on charitable giving. We encourage you to share this with your development colleagues.

Here is the story in Jay's own words:

Morning Edition had a story recently about a study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy on charitable giving based on geography. Here's a link to the story:
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/20/158947667/study-reveals-the-geography-of-charitable-giving 

Here's a link to the study: http://philanthropy.com/section/How-America-Gives/621/
Check out the cool interactive maps!: http://philanthropy.com/article/Interactive-How-America-Gives/133709

If you check out nothing else, see how your neck of the woods ranks with the interactive maps! Some fascinating discussing in the philanthropic community on the conclusions from this study...perhaps worth a share with your development folks.   

Thanks for keeping us in know Jay!

SAC Member Profiles: Jay Boeding

Jay leads a group-think discussion at PBS Annual Meeting '12

In this edition of Station Advisory Council (SAC) Member Profiles, a series created to give stations a better idea of the talented and varied leaders who comprise the SAC, we interview Jay Boeding from Iowa Public Television to share his expertise, experiences and ideas for the future.

Jay has served  as SAC member since April 2009, but has been in public media since his college days, where he masqueraded as a Canadian exchange student from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. What Jay brings to the council is his years of broadcast and public media knowledge.

The Weekly Debrief: 17 August 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.
 
Developed in collaboration with PBS stations, the Like Drive application is designed to help stations implement their own Facebook Like drive with the goal of reinforcing local brand value, helping audiences articulate why they value their station, and building their Facebook audience.

@PBSInterns offer an assortment of tips and how-to’s that can help you master the basics of Tumblr, create rich snippets for search results, and utilize the new index status feature in Google Webmaster Tools.

In celebration of Julia Child's 100th Birthday, PBS Digital Studios has released their third PBS Icon Remix. Happy Birthday Julia!

What Are Your Training Needs? The PBS professional development program Leading Through Change has been a valuable tool for stations. After two years, it is time to identify a broader training curriculum with additional training opportunities for the coming 18-24 months, and we need your help! Please click HERE to begin a quick 10-question online survey.

The survey closes TONIGHT: Friday, August 17, at 9:00 pm ET. One lucky participant will win a Kindle Fire!  Prize eligibility is limited to PBS member station employees only. 

Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:
PBS Facebook "Like" Drive App-- Now Customizable for Stations
FYI Friday: A Grab Bag of Power Tips
Wordless Wednesday: Keep on Cooking

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• COVE Content and Promotions Calendar: See the latest details on programs to be featured on COVE’s general audience video portal this August in the PBS Interactive Station Guide COVE Resource Center. If you have related content we could promote, please let us know.
• NCME Webinar: Elections: A Hook to Engage Your Community: Wednesday, August 22, 2:00 PM ET. With the presidential campaign gearing up for the final stretch, now is the time to plan how you'll complement your political coverage with engagement. Learn what your peers are doing to engage the electorate and get ideas for your station. Register today.

FYI Friday: A Grab Bag of Power Tips

Last week, we talked about blogging with purpose and improving the reach and impact of your blog. This week, we’re offering a grab bag assortment of tips and how-to’s that can help you master the basics of Tumblr, create rich snippets for search results, and utilize the new index status feature in Google Webmaster Tools.  

11 Tumblr Tips for Power Users by Christine Erickson
Compiled by Anais Cayo, Edited by Ida Rosenthal

Source: albyantoniazzi

If you've started a Tumblr blog for your station, but are looking to learn a few more tricks, Mashable's "11 Tips for Power Users" by Christine Erickson has great advice. For example, did you know that you can rearrange queued posts by clicking the up and down arrows and dragging the content to the correct order? Plus, shortcut keys like “J,” “K,” and “L” will let you quickly go forward, backward, and like a post.The slideshow in the article also describes how to edit many posts at once. And if your layout doesn't have a search bar built into its theme, you can type http://[insert username].tumblr.com/search/[search term] into the address bar as a nifty alternative.

If you’re still on the fence about whether Tumblr is right for your station in the first place, Erickson has written another article called “Should Your Small Business Join Tumblr?” that lists the costs and benefits of joining the microblogging platform.


Rich snippets for idiots. And, er, you. by Andrew Tobert
Compiled by Ida Rosenthal

Source: Andrew Tobert

Yes, the title of this article is sassy, but don’t be put off— the insights are valuable! Using rich snippets, you can ensure that Google can “read” your content, especially if it’s about people, events, or reviews. Plus, it offers a better experience to the search engine user who wants to get as much info at a glance as possible. For example, the screenshot to the left highlights how a search result with show times for a musical (i.e., rich snippets) is more compelling for the user than just the description alone.

How do you create a rich snippet for your content? First, define your content or “item type.” Then, Tobert recommends a website called Schema that will help you fill out all the other info needed to make a rich snippet of your content. For more details, including sample blocks of code and more screenshots of search results with rich snippets, check out the full article.
 

How To Use Index Status in Google Webmaster Tools to Diagnose SEO Problems by G-Squared Interactive
Compiled by Ida Rosenthal

In late July, Google added Index Status to Webmaster Tools to help site owners better understand how many pages are indexed on their websites. What can these reports do and how can they explain data to better understand your site’s indexation? The Index Status reports are under the “Health” tab in Google Webmaster Tools. The default report will show you a trending graph of total pages indexed for the past year, and if there are any usual spikes or valleys, this is a big indication that you’re experiencing indexing issues.

Then there are four “advanced” reports including “Total Indexed,” “Ever Crawled,” “Not Selected,” and “Blocked by Robots.” Read more to learn about how each report can help identify SEO problems, plus discover a few cool tips about documenting changes in your SEO strategy.

PBS Facebook "Like" Drive App-- Now Customizable for Stations

By Chris Walz, Director of Brand Strategy

A new PBS Facebook Like Drive app is now available to stations.  The new app is based on the national PBS Facebook Like Drive campaign that encouraged and empowered fans to share statements of support, express their own sentiments for PBS and helped drive new fans to the brand page. By tapping into core brand values, and offering a rewards system for new Likes, users drove over 18,000 Likes to the PBS Facebook page during the seven-day campaign held last fall.

Developed in collaboration with PBS stations, the Like Drive application is designed to help stations implement their own Facebook Like drive with the goal of reinforcing local brand value, helping audiences articulate why they value their station, and building their Facebook audience.

If you are the Facebook administrator for your station and are interested in using the app you can get tips, ask questions and access the app instruction manual and recommended best practices via the PBS Like Drive Admins Facebook group.  To join the group click this URL into your browse. Then click “Join Group” and you’ll be approved by a PBS Like Drive administrator. You can find the instruction manual under the “Files” tab on the group page.

You can also watch a brief tutorial video on how to install:

Feel free to share any of the above information with your colleagues and email Chris Walz with any questions.

Wordless Wednesday: Keep on Cooking

In celebration of Julia Child's 100th Birthday, PBS Digital Studios has released their third PBS Icon Remix. Happy Birthday Julia!

Remixed by John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep, for PBS Digital Studios.

The Weekly Debrief: 10 August 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 
Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.

Listen to your community. Spend time with the public you serve. Ian Hill, KQED Online Community Engagement Specialist, discusses an innovative way to bring together journalists and community members in an open newsroom format.

@PBSInterns explore the close relationship between blogging and social media, the science behind blog timing, and ways to improve your blog content.

We celebrated the launch of #CookforJulia with a brown bag lunch party. While watching episodes of 'The French Chef', we sampled some of her most famous dishes, including Coq au Vin, Reine de Saba, and Beef Bourguignon. Yum!

What Are Your Training Needs? The PBS professional development program Leading Through Change has been a valuable tool for stations. The broad participation and positive response to the program demonstrates the desire of the next generation of public media leaders to acquire the tools and training needed to help evolve public media in the rapidly changing media environment. After two years, it is time to identify a broader training curriculum with  additional training opportunities for the coming 18-24 months, and we need your help! Please click HERE to begin a 10-question online survey.

Your participation takes less than 5 minutes, so don't wait. The survey closes Friday, August 17, at 9:00 pm ET. One lucky participant will win a Kindle Fire!  Prize eligibility is limited to PBS member station employees only.  Thank you.

Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:

• Understanding Your Community: KQED's Experiments with an Open Newsroom
• FYI Friday: Blogging With Purpose
• Wordless Wednesday-- #CookforJulia Party

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• COVE Content and Promotions Calendar: See the latest details on programs to be featured on COVE’s general audience video portal this August in the PBS Interactive Station Guide COVE Resource Center. If you have related content we could promote, please let us know.
• #CookForJulia: Julia Child has left an indelible mark on the food world. Join the world’s top chefs and food bloggers and tell PBS Food how she has inspired you. Here's what our friend Chef Jose Andres had to say:  http://to.pbs.org/Mi9fqF.

FYI Friday: Blogging With Purpose

Last week, we took a look at how nonprofits implement digital strategies through social media, SEO, and Pinterest. This week, we’re exploring the close relationship between blogging and social media, the science behind blog timing, and ways to improve your blog content.

5 Reasons Blogging Grows Social Media by Matt Hamilton
Compiled by Brionne Griffin

Blogs are a great way to promote programs, recap great events, and share insight. But when used effectively, a blog can be the vehicle that drives great social media campaigns and amplifies social reach as well. In a pithy infographic, social media expert Matt Hamilton offers up five reasons why it’s a good idea for you to have a blog in your social media tool belt. Teaser: My favorite tip is “Use blog comments to find relevant people to follow on social networks.”

An In-Depth Look at The Science of Blog Timing by Kristi Hines
Compiled by Ida Rosenthal

If “timing is everything,” when is the best time to post your blog post in the hopes that more people will see and share it? According to Kristi Hines, 70% of web users read blogs in the morning, and more specifically, the largest traffic to blogs happens at 11AM. The average blog receives the most traffic and inbound links on Monday, but the most comments on Saturday. For more stats, plus advice about when to share your post on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, checks out the full article.
Source: Earls37a 

8 Steps to Getting the Most Out of a Blog Post by Kylie Jane Wakefield
Compiled by Barry Blitch

You’re taking the time to maintain a blog, but how do you make content that gets your readers’ attention? According to Kylie Wakefield, blogging shouldn’t be a one-way soapbox for your station; remember to make the post generate some kind of conversation by asking questions or responding to comments. A post doesn’t have to be all things to all readers. It’s better to focus on one message and make it stick through clear titles, writing, and organization. Also, pageviews are 94% higher on sites with images, so don’t be afraid to post pictures that reinforce your point. As we know from Wordless Wednesdays on the SPI blog, images can be quite effective and entertaining.

Understanding Your Community: KQED's Experiments with an Open Newsroom

By Ian Hill, Online Community Engagement Specialist, KQED News

Listen to your community. Spend time with the public you serve.

Sure, that sounds like a simple philosophy. But it can seem like a challenge to many media organizations, particularly news outlets. Newspapers and broadcasters are trying to get by with fewer journalists, and the demands placed on the remaining reporters have increased. As a result, journalists are finding that they have less time to spend in the neighborhoods they cover, and a gap of understanding has opened between news organizations and their communities.

That gap needs to be bridged for a news organization to be successful. Before working in public media I’d been a reporter at local daily newspapers for about 12 years, and I had always pursued stories that I thought would impact the community I was covering. But those stories rarely materialized until I had devoted time to meeting local residents, hanging out in their neighborhoods and understanding the challenges they were facing.

Given the realities of the modern news business, how does a reporter get to know their community today?

One possibility is to set aside time in reporters’ schedules specifically to meet the residents they were covering on the residents’ home turf. A model for this has been established by the Center for Investigative Reporting, an organization that partnered with my employer, KQED News.

They call it an open newsroom. Think of it like a meetup or a mixer for journalists and the community. Reporters tell residents they are going to be at a coffee shop in their neighborhood at a specific date and time, and any resident is welcome to come and chat.

Wordless Wednesday-- #CookforJulia Party

 

We celebrated the launch of #CookforJulia with a brown bag lunch party. While watching episodes of 'The French Chef', we sampled some of her most famous dishes. These delicious treats included Coq au Vin, Reine de Saba, and Beef Bourguignon (top left). Yum.

To learn more about #CookforJulia, check out this blog post and archived webinar. 

The Weekly Debrief: 3 August 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.

You’ve probably heard the “agile” buzzword tossed around in the digital sphere and can reasonably guess the general meaning. However, like “synergy,” it may still be a bit fuzzy. Learn more about how PBS Interactive uses the agile framework.

From Operation Smile to Goodwill and The Salvation Army, nonprofits can seize a number of opportunities with Pinterest, other social media tools, and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. @PBSInterns explore how a handful of nonprofits are using the Internet to meet their goals.

Interns joined employees and their kids to celebrate PBS KIDS Day, complete with face painting, cotton candy and a brigade of PBS KIDS characters.

Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:

• What is Agile?
• FYI Friday: How Nonprofits Implement Digital Strategies
• Wordless Wednesday: PBS KIDS Day

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• Second Distribution of Prosper Funds: Prosper checks, for the period January 1, 2012 through June 31, 2012, were mailed this week to all stations that have received Prosper donations during this time. Checks are being sent to the person listed as your station’s Accounts Receivable point of contact.  If you have any questions about your statement, please contact us immediately.
• PBS Facebook Like Drive App Introduction Webinar: August 8, 2:00 - 3:00 PM. PBS has produced a customizable, easy-to-use Facebook application for stations to implement Facebook "Like Drives." The Like Drive application is designed to give PBS stations a turnkey way to produce their own Facebook Like drive with the goal of reinforcing local brand value, helping audiences articulate why they value their station, and building their Facebook audience. Register for the webinar to learn more.
• COVE Content and Promotions Calendar: See the latest details on programs to be featured on COVE’s general audience video portal this August in the PBS Interactive Station Guide COVE Resource Center. If you have related content we could promote, let us know.
• #CookForJulia: PBS Food is hosting a multi-platform content and promotional initiative celebrating the life and influence of PBS chef and pioneer Julia Child, who would be celebrating her 100th birthday on August 15, 2012. Watch the archived webinar to find out how your station can get involved.

FYI Friday: How Nonprofits Implement Digital Strategies

Last week, we shared some videos worth watching, and this week we’re looking at how a handful of nonprofits are using the Internet to meet their goals. From Operation Smile to Goodwill and The Salvation Army, many nonprofits can seize opportunities with Pinterest, other social media tools, and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

3 non-profits using Pinterest to drive real social change by Arik Hanson
Compiled by Paul Lopez
Pinterest is the third most visited social media site behind Facebook and Twitter, but are you using it to its fullest capabilities? Operation Smile, for example, uses Pinterest as a way to promote visually stunning images in the hopes of fundraising. By showing users how funds can be used to change people’s lives after facial reconstruction surgery, Operation Smile managed to increase awareness, and hopefully, donations. Check out the full article to see how National Wildlife Foundation and Heifer International use Pinterest to promote content, raise funds, and spur engagement.


3 Non-Profit Social Media Case Studies by Arik Hanson 
Compiled by Brionne Griffin 
The main problem with most social media case studies is that they are primarily sourced from consumer-based companies, so what’s a nonprofit with limited resources and budget to do? Goodwill, for example, does an excellent job of finding bloggers, organizations, and people who are talking about them, promoting them, and then in turn, highlighting such work. Publicly recognizing these people and saying we value you and your hard work, increases the chances of these people donating again or volunteering more time.


SEO For NonProfits: SEO Analysis of The Salvation Army, Feed the Children, & ASPCA by Bill Ross
Compiled by Ida Rosenthal
Bill Ross analyzes three nonprofits to examine the strengths and weaknesses of their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. For example, he looks at image names as well as alt text attributes to evaluate whether Google could “see” them. He also examines the quality of title and description tags, plus the quantity and quality of external links are connecting to nonprofits’ websites. To see the results of his analysis, check out the full article to see how The Salvation Army, Feed the Children, and ASPCA stacked up. 

What is Agile?

By Barry Blitch, PBS Interactive

Agility—it's not just for the dogs

You’ve probably heard the “agile” buzzword tossed around in the digital sphere and can reasonably guess the general meaning. However, like “synergy”, it may still be a bit fuzzy. To find its origins, let’s travel far back to 2001, when the Agile Manifesto was created by a group of smart developers. These founding fathers summarized their fundamental beliefs as:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan 

In this way agile is a framework and approach more than a prescriptive work regimen. Every team implements agile differently. To find out how agile works at PBS Interactive, I spoke to Julie Moore, Director, Product Management-PBS Interactive.

The team starts with a backlog of tasks that are broken down into manageable parts and assigned “story points” based on complexity and the amount of time to complete. A planning meeting is held every two weeks in which members ask questions to determine their next mini-project. In this way agile allows for empowerment of the team, Julie says.

The chosen mini-project is the group’s focus for the next two-week “sprint”, or iteration. During the sprint, the team has daily “stand-up” meetings, meant to serve as a quick check-in. At the end, a retrospective is conducted to determine what worked and what didn’t. Because agile emphasizes demoing and testing every step of the way, the benefits and drawbacks are easier to pinpoint.

To Julie, agile is all about being flexible, trying new things, and not letting perfection get in the way. Because things turn on a dime, it’s important to take baby steps with projects so the team can pivot and change directions quickly. Once a product or method proves truly useful, more time and energy can be invested.

This doesn’t just apply to product development—stations can implement an agile mindset as well. Julie recommends “conducting small experiments” around a project. Often, stakeholders can’t define a desired result, but can easily provide feedback when presented with a semi-working prototype. Ultimately, Julie emphasizes, “don’t be afraid to fail.” Taking on a project in short bursts ensures that you aren’t wagering too much, but will eventually get a great return.

Wordless Wednesday: PBS KIDS Day

Interns joined employees and their kids to celebrate PBS KIDS Day, complete
with face painting, cotton candy and a brigade of PBS KIDS characters.