A New Design

Posted by pmarshwx on 2 Jan 2011 | 8 comments

After spending a year using a website layout that I was not thrilled with, I’ve gone ahead and created a layout that I much prefer. One thing I really like is the slider at the top of the home page, which I will use to draw attention to “feature” articles. However, several people have complained that even on a fast Internet connection, the slider takes a while to load. I’ve tried some behind the scenes performance tweaks to try and speed things up. I’d appreciate feedback letting me know

1. what you think of the new design;
2. are you having any performance issues with the website; and
3. what type of internet connection are you using?

Tomorrow will begin the next chapter in the life cycle of the “Ramblings of a Graduate Student” blog! I hope this site will be more interactive in 2011 than 2010. Stay tuned!

Special Announcement: OU’s 2010 Senior Synoptic Class Blog

Posted by pmarsh on 10 Nov 2010 | 0 comments

As many readers know, in all my spare time I assist with the University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology’s Senior Synoptic Meteorology course. As a student of the atmosphere, I love being able to talk about and teach interesting facets of day-to-day weather. That’s part of why I started the 365 project!

One component of the Synoptic Meteorology curriculum is to improve students’ abilities to communicate with various audiences. One of the ways this is being done is through the use of student blogs. The Synoptic professor, Dr. Kevin Kloesel, and I will occasionally give the seniors a topic, typically a forecast problem, to discuss in a 500-words-or-less blog post. The first of these assignments was issued today regarding the upcoming southern plains precipitation event.

Please take a moment to read through some of the student’s blogs and leave comments regarding things you like, dislike, or take issue with. Again, part of this exercise is to have students work on taking complex meteorological information and convey it in such a manner that others can understand. Feel free to challenge them!

You can find the blog posts here: 2010 OU Senior Synoptic Blog. Each student has a unique username to allow readers to distinguish between authors.

@BPGlobalPR Offers Words of Wisdom

Posted by pmarsh on 5 Jun 2010 | 3 comments

For those who began following this blog because of the 365 weather project, this post may seem to be off topic – and it is. The thing is, I use this blog to give my thoughts on matters, in addition to finishing my 365 project. If you would rather I only stick to the weather, feel free to follow the 365 weather project directly, avoiding all other posts, by using this link instead of www.patricktmarsh.com

With that said, I have become a local expert of sorts regarding the use of social media stemming from my utilization of Facebook and Twitter for achieving my Snowshot of America project. (You can also read my blog posts on my Snowshot of America project by reading Day 42, Day 43, and Day 44 from the 365 weather project.) In fact, I’ve been asked to address the American Meteorological Society’s meeting of the AMS Education Resource Agents – a yearly training workshop for educators – on the use of social media and blogs to disseminate information about weather and climate. The overarching theme to take away from the snow project, and most likely my upcoming presentation, is that with the advent of social media, individual users, or even companies, cannot control “the message” once it enters the social media stream. For example, after posting my call for snow photographs on Twitter and Facebook, I did not even have time to alert the appropriate public relations personnel at my work before they were receiving media inquiries from all over the United States. Information dissemination occurs that fast.

What does all of that have to do with the twitter account mentioned in the title of this blog, @BPGlobalPR? This is the Twitter account of a satirical spoof of the public relation efforts of British Petroleum (BP). @BPGlobalPR has been relentless in its attack on BP’s response to the ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico and is reaching an ever increasing audience. As of this writing, over 125,000 followers, including myself, read the funny, witty, and downright chilling posts that almost always appear to have some underlying element of truth to them.

The man behind the account released a statement yesterday explaining his motivation behind the account. I won’t repost the entire “press release” here, but I do want to touch on the advice “Leroy Stick” offers to anyone who thinks he or she can control “the message”:

So what is the point of all this? The point is, FORGET YOUR BRAND. You don’t own it because it is literally nothing. You can spend all sorts of time and money trying to manufacture public opinion, but ultimately, that’s up to the public, now isn’t it? [...] You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand? Have a respectable brand. Offer a great, innovative product and make responsible, ethical business decisions. Lead the pack! Evolve! [...]

So why is it that a simple graduate student in meteorology can learn this lesson, but major corporations with large public relation firms seem to be incapable of learning the same lesson? It is arrogance? Ignorance? Some combination of the two? Something else? I don’t know, and I don’t even have a good guess here. However, I do know that Mr. Stick’s press release should be required reading for anyone who ever wants to communicate to another human being again. (Warning: There is some profanity in the press release. However, in my opnion, it is still a must read.)

So, what does Mr. Stick think BP should do to end this PR nightmare?

Don’t send hundreds of temp workers to the gulf to put on a show for the President. Hire those workers to actually work! Don’t dump toxic dispersant into the ocean just so the surface looks better. Collect the oil and get it out of the water! Don’t tell your employees that they can’t wear respirators while they work because it makes for a bad picture. Take a picture of those employees working safely to fix the problem. Lastly, don’t keep the press and the people trying to help you away from the disaster, open it up so people can see it and help fix it. This isn’t just your disaster, this is a human tragedy. Allow us to mourn so that we can stop being angry.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Snow Shot of America Website

Posted by pmarsh on 18 Feb 2010 | Comments Off

Thanks to the hard work by Carnegie Mellon Civil Engineering student, Nick Doiron, I am pleased to announce that a method of efficiently moving the 1000+ photographs from email to Google Maps has been found!  The website that will host all of the Snow Shot of America photographs can be viewed here: Snow Shot of America.  Please know that we are still debugging and testing things so expect some problems in the short term.  With this said, photographs should begin to start appearing in the coming days.  It will take a while to get through all of them, but through the website above, people can start to view the photographs just as soon as they have been uploaded.

If you have any suggestions or notice any problems, please don’t hesitate to let me know via the comments!

Lastly, Laban West of Yukon, OK has provided me with this overview image displaying photographs from each state in a single image.  Thanks, Laban!

A BIG THANK YOU!!!

Posted by pmarsh on 14 Feb 2010 | 3 comments

I have received compliments about the success of this project from all over the world. However, the truth is that something of this magnitude could never have happened alone. I am forever indebted to the individuals across the United States who, in the midst of these trying times, took time out of their busy lives to take a photograph and send an email to someone they probably have never met and quite possibly never will. To those who have contributed, or merely just wished me well, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much. If we ever cross paths in the future, please consider taking a moment and introducing yourself. I really would like to meet as many of the individuals as possible who have helped make this project a success.

As much as I would love to take credit for coming up with the idea behind Snow Shot of America, I would be remiss if I did not share credit with Missouri based photographer, Alexis Norin.  She first mentioned how cool it would be to get a picture of the snow in all 50 states.  It was this comment that inspired me to try and make that a reality.  This was the birth of what has now become the Snow Shot of America project.

Also, Tom & Matt Geballe, Greg Warren, and Dan Birchall deserve a ton of credit for their willingness to trek down the side of Mauna Kea’s steep north slope to document what snow remained from November and December snows in Hawaii.

I owe a big thank you to my lovely wife, Sarah, for putting up with me these past 48 hours.  Only someone with your kind of patience could have dealt with such a stressed and frazzled husband.  Thank you.

Lastly, thanks must be given to each and every person who helped spread the word about this project.  Without your help, the rapid dissemination of information regarding this project that had to happen for it to be a success never would have happened.  This truly was/is a country-wide project.

Now that I have photographs from all 50 states, I am being asked, “What’s next?”.  To begin, I have put together a slideshow containing at least one photograph or webcam picture from every state and that can be viewed here.  Next, I will begin what I imagine will be a relatively slow process of processing all the emails I have received of snow from all across the United States. At last count I had received almost 875 unique emails (this does not count replies and multiple emails sent with the same subject) and am still receiving more as I type this.  As I go through the emails and download the photographs (not to mention attempting to give as much credit to the individuals who took the photographs as possible), I hope to be able to respond personally to everyone who submitted a photograph.  This will take some time, so if you submitted a photograph, please do not take offense if it takes a while to hear back from me.  There is only one of me, and hundreds of you.

I still plan on trying to put all of the photographs into some sort of apparatus that would allow people to see where each photo was taken.  Initially, I intended this to be a Google Earth KML file, but based on the number of photographs I have received, this file would end up being very large and take a very long time to download.  I’m still trying to work out the exact logistics of the final product, but I promise to give periodic updates on the progress.  I will certainly make an announcement when major milestones are achieved and when the final product is completed.

The Snow Shot of America project has been a huge whirlwind for me. What started off as a single Tweet on Thursday has grown into a project that has touched all 50 states, our nation’s capital, Canada, Europe, and Australia.  I have learned a lot of valuable lessons from this project such as to respect the power of social media, especially Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs; to appreciate the value of public radio in reaching a wide audience; and to stand in awe of the countless citizens of this country who will help a complete stranger achieve his or her goal.  However, of all the lessons I have learned from this project, the most important lesson is to never completely give up hope when you believe in something.  If there is a will, it will find a way – and there will be others along the way to lend a helping hand.

Thank you.