Recently in Editorial Note Category

If somebody wants fresh, juicy content in their e-mail inbox, you can now subscribe to CISV From The Balcony by e-mail. (You'll receive one e-mail per post, nothing else.)

I've also switched the RSS-feeds to Feedburner, which gives me a little more feedback on how many people are following and reading posts through an aggregator. So if you are subscribing already, please redirect your RSS-reader to the following feeds:

Posts: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CisvFromTheBalcony
Comment Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CommentFeedForCisvFromTheBalcony

I may discontinure the old feeds in the future. (Evil me!)

All links can be found further down in the far right column, for future reference.

I'm almost back in cold, cold Europe from exile, so you can expect some new juicy content from next week on. Until then, please consider Martha's suggestion for a new CISV tagline:

I've switched location from our balcony-less appartment to a wonderful wifi-less appartment in Valle Grand Rey, La Gomera for the rest of the month. I hope you all had a good start into the new year, but don't don't expect too many exciting posts in January. Be sure to check back in February - until then my focus is on the sunsets...

Editorial Note.

Most CISVers that you hear giving presentations at meetings or read articles from in one of our publications are people in a position. However, I have the feeling that some wisdom and insights people usually only develop after they retire from their official role. It may even take some weeks or months to analyze and evaluate one's involvement, and take a look at things "from the balcony" rather than from within the crowd. Hence - in the spirit of this website - I decided to start a new series of interviewing people, who have recently left an official position in the organization. 

I've just finished the first interview of this kind, and I'm excited to present it here shortly.

Editorial note.

For the last months I have been eagerly trying to stick to a rhythm of two posts per week here at FTB. There have been evenings, where ideas just kept flowing, and I would pre-edit something like 5 or 6 posts ready to be published. Sometimes, I just couldn't wait to get my ideas out "to the public". Recently I'm realizing that FTB has lost a tiny bit of its initial fun, and even stressed be a little, when I had other things on my mind. So....I've decided to pace it down just a little bit, so that I don't get stressed and I still enjoy it. So, from now on, please don't expect more than 1 long article per week, which will usually be posted on Mondays.

However, to keep the page alive, you'll be finding more short posts, such as links, or pictures, or "thoughts" that I find interesting, without the usual "bling" = pictures, references, etc.

Also, I've contacted a few people, that I value for their views and ideas, and asked them to contribute, whatever they had in mind. So, I'm excited to present the first "Guest Post" shortly, and welcome anybody who wishes to "air" something that fits this webpage to send me an article.

Editorial Note.

When I started the FTB-project, some people thought I was insane to start a blog about CISV. With the ton of positive feedback I've got so far, apparently it is well received. Good.

But the strongest motivator for me going on, are your comments. So, please, if you read a post - and have any kind of feeling or opinion - good or bad - please don't hesitate to leave a comment (if possible on the website, but on Facebook is just as fine). Even if it's just a single word or a sentence. I've received feedback on some articles weeks later, through e-mail or face-to-face contact, and never realized how many people appreciated (or even disliked) what I said.

Thanks.

During the past few posts I've noticed that I've started applying a standard rhetoric here on FTB, that always starts with a look into the past, continues with some recent development, and ends with a suggestion how to change things for the better. I hope it doesn't get to boring, because it seems the most logical style.

Also, thanks to everybody who promoted my project here at AIM, I've noticed tons of visitors from Guatemala. Hopefully the upward trend continues.

The facebook group now counts 198 fans, which is great. Some people seem to read the posts completely in their facebook accounts, which is ok. However, it's a bit weird, that some people comment on the original website, and others in facebook. I'm not sure what to do about it, because obviously, I'd like to have all comments united. Obviously not everybody has a facebook account, so "open commenting" will be the main focus. Even if I do respect that people prefer posting comments "behind the facebook walls" instead of in "public", I'd prefer if you guys were posting to the open website.

*Sammelsurium is German for miscellaneous.

After trying for almost an hour to integrate the posts of this website on Facebook's group page, I created a "Facebook Page" instead, where new posts will appear automatically. The Group will be deleted soon, and if you like, you can become a "Fan" of the FTB-page at Facebook. Also I made a little badge in the sidebar...

Suddenly FTB is famous...? The Facebook group now has 81 members (from 18 a week ago), and the last two days 150 visitors stopped by (usually just 10/day). Great.

Every American president is granted a first 100 days to prove himself - but then his performance is rated in the most critical way.

CISV from the Balcony officially started January 1st 2009, so today it's time to look how well the blog has performed - I'm using American school marks from A+ down to D to grade different areas. The grading is 100% subjective, of course.

Technology B+

I installed Movable Type, a blogging software on my server - it's the first time I'm using it to this extent, being somewhat of a Blogger addict. So far I'm content, yet not overwhelmed. Basically it's doing mostly everything I wanted it to do. Just...that I don't really like the design template so much, but can't be bothered to change it - for now.

Reception B



Google Analytics tells met that there's an average of more than 100 people visiting per week. That is not bad, given that I only promoted the website through the Devil's, the T-shirt page and Facebook. I still don't want to promote it anyway, except by hoping that people are interested in reading the articles, because the quality is good. I do have to admit that I guess there aren't that many people around interested in this stuff.

Effort vs. Fun A-

I never thought I'd be the kind of guy, but apparently writing posts is fun. I enjoy doing it, even if I know that the audience is small. So unless I lose interest, I'm going to keep doing this.

Topics A+

I think I've covered a wide variety of topics in and around CISV, so that anybody with a deeper interest in the organization should find some interesting stuff. It's a bit cocky to award myself with an A+, but I retrospectively, I didn't think that there would have been so many interesting things to write about.



Discussion C+

Hmm. As with CISV Devils the CISV community just isn't made for online discussion. I'm happy though, for Hani, Teo, Nano and Marcos et al. who keep giving feedback -  thanks. Maybe people will feel more comfortable to share their views online in the future.

Summary

All in all CISV from the Balcony is a project that I do at least 50% for my own pleasure: To dig into CISV's history, structure and philosophy, come up with interesting statistics - and take the freedom of commenting on it. In that view, I'm more than happy. FTB will be around for another while. Any feedback, comments, wishes, please leave a comment.