Coach Your Inner Competitor

Competitive Content

2009-01-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

The importance of original content for a fledgling website is vital. Without original and unique content, any site is forgotten about in the search engine results. The work required to maintain a site in the search rankings can be significant. What are you options if you are not a content writer? Some are touched on in this article.

Content sites such as Daily Content, or E-zines permit people to purchase article or articles written in the genre of a given site. The prices vary by quality, word content and intent. This is a great way for a new site to get set up. Content purchased from sites such as these often allow the purchaser to own the rights to the articles. This is helpful in that you are permitted to distribute the article at will, on any of your websites. Should you need to put something in print, it would be from here that you could reasonably purchase an article for that purpose. Often the information contained is general and varied. With this in mind, you may find a writer you enjoy and can follow through with another recommended option.

Seek out a bid site and post a content writing job for your site. This will permit you to be flexible in the budgeting, and put out a request for the entire site, just site content, or product descriptions, ect… A writer qualified in the area you are seeking information written about often looks at various bid sites for work. Here you will learn what the general turnaround time would be and potential cost. Once you budget is in place and you have selected the writer you would like to work with, they can create tailored articles and content specific to your needs and web sites target audience. With everything in mind, this will facilitate the original content needed for your website to be found by the search engines. Couple this with the experience of a writer in your area, and you have keyword rich articles that will post high in the search results.

You can always look for free content. It is not uncommon that such searches result in people not speaking the language attempting to write for you. Such will provide you with poor quality, and often-unintelligible work. Even with keyword rich work, this is not the best route to go, when trying to rank high in the search engine results. Additionally to cut costs you can write the content yourself. This option is and can be time consuming, if you are concentrating on the production of the website itself. This will enable you to create content that is specific to your design. The trade off may make this option prudent for you. It is recommended that maintaining the site content be done through one of the above methods, as managing a site, especially if it is for commerce of some kind, will be an arduous and often daunting task.

Political Mediation (yes I said I wouldn't get political, I know)

2008-12-31T10:29:00.000-08:00

In the end, Israel and Hamas both know that there will be a cease-fire in Gaza. Its timing and terms will be "negotiated" in bombs and bloodshed in the days ahead; it will be mediated by a third party or a combination of third parties; and it will be shaped by a complex regional power game involving an array of competing Israeli politicians, the rival Palestinian leaderships of Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt, Syria and even more distant players such as Turkey, Iran and, of course, the United States. The victims of this "negotiation", needless to say, will be scores of ordinary Palestinians, and a handful of Israelis. And at its end, the fundamentals of the Gaza standoff will remain largely unchanged. x

read the full story @ http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869122,00.html

What is interesting to note here is that the consensus is (by reading the last sentence above) is that the mediations will not change anything, but they are doing it anyway. Like other forms of what one could call "micro mediation" or mediation between a smaller group of people, there is a competition in place, peace and understanding are only possible if there is no "power game", as the article states. Now there can be a political power game as easily as there can be a personal one in just a dyad of two people or any small group. There is the tendency for people to have a dichotomous view of their situations; right/wrong, winner/loser, good/evil, etc... A person will go into a power game with that label ready to pounce. Except in the cases that I have talked about in previous posts, where a criminal must prepare him or herself to be "wrong" and "evil" while the other side of the mediation table is full of the supposed faces of "good" and "right", other people will simply stroll into mediation, wanting to win, wanting to prove they are right, and believing they are "good" and the other "bad". There has to be a gray area, there has to be a right to be different without a total focus on what makes others different, but rather what makes them the same. There is trouble when people feel like they are not being totally PC and not recognizing differences, but it seems obvious that rivals KNOW they are there (differences that is). But, from The Art of War comes the obvious strategy for rivals. Respect your enemy. People fight over their differences, they can only respect one another is they can see their similarities. So, I guess we can see how this mediation goes. It should be interesting.

Disadvantages of Criminal Mediation (from Associated Content)

2008-12-30T10:01:00.001-08:00

I found this very interesting article regarding some problems with criminal mediation, authored by Christine Cadena~~~italics mine :)

Disadvantages of Criminal Mediation
Issues Arising Out of Public Defender Shortages

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/438499/disadvantages_of_criminal_mediation.html?cat=17

In many states, the staffing shortage associated with public defenders often results in long delays before many individuals can be acquitted or convicted. With criminal court dockets increasing at phenomenal rates, many states are turning to alternative methods to resolve cases without public defender access. For individuals who are awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges, there is a growing trend among many jurisdictions involving mediation. With shortages of public defenders at issue, many victims and alleged criminals are entering into mediation as a way to resolve relatively minor criminal offenses. One advantage to victim and offender mediation is the degree to which open communication is permitted. In the mediation process, often, the victim and offender are afforded an opportunity to meet with one another and express their sufferings and why the events occurred the way they did, from each side's perspective. In this setting, the victim is permitted to speak directly with the offender, something that is not often offered in a courtroom. Of disadvantage to the mediation of relatively minor criminal acts, is the degree to which one party may have leverage over the other. This is often referred to as bargaining power. While we can say in most cases there is an unequal balance of power, when that balance may affect the outcome of mediation then mediation may not prove effective. Another rather significant disadvantage is the loss of confidentiality protection. Under the Uniform Mediation Act (UMA), information discussed in the mediation, as it pertains to the criminal offense, is not protected from discovery at future hearings or trials. Should the victim not settle the criminal issue through mediation, and the case heads for trial, all conversations and issues discussed in mediation can be disclosed in a courtroom setting. Often, not to the advantage of the person charged with the offense. X

If you were wondering what mediation has to do with competition, by the way, we can see that when words and phrases like --leverage, unequal balance of power, disadvantage, and bargaining power-- are used, it is obvious that mediations can be looked at as competitions in some cases. It should not even be called mediation when there is not an equal medium and the "offender" has more to lose by opening up and "sharing his or her feelings and thoughts" only to have them used against them....

The Problem with Mediation

2008-12-28T20:15:00.000-08:00

As I look through some interesting blogs regarding conflict, conflict resolution, and mediation..I am stunned by the simplicity of the advice and answers given to alleviate issues between people. Many of the "experts" invite you to use their services and/or buy books to figure things out. Now, I myself feel conflicted as to the sincerity of people claiming to want to help people AND I am feeling competitive, because I like to think that I have taken angles that others have not measured out in their little triangles and graphs......

But, first off I will just deal with my issues with mediation and its use in the courts. As a community activist, I have seen that programs that sound good and have a positive goal sometimes have negative effects that are not reported and discussed (after all--then WHERE would the funding come from?) This goes into mediation in civil court and I can tell you (from experience) unless you live in a municipality that requires mediation in a family issue (i.e. divorce/custody) the big bucks rack up without mediation and instead its countless motions and money for motions and the cycle goes on and on and on. So, it would seem that mediation would be the answer to this money trap many people find themselves in, but when looking at the impact of mediation in some criminal cases (and making a beeline back to civil cases).....maybe it isn't the best answer.....here is why.

#1. You are expected to come to a "resolution" in a specific time period, not in your own time, most people if left out of the "system" can and will figure out how to resolve their own issues...if they can't- maybe they are "constitutionally incapable" of doing so with or without mediation.

#2. Sometimes there is only one victim and sometimes both parties are victims. If a teenager is beaten up by his dad everyday (or close to it) and decides to take his anger out by vandalizing his neighbors car, the teen may be forced to apologize to his victim and never receive a resolution to his own issues....*this is a good example of the types of cases that go into mediation, minor property crimes, petty theft, public intoxication, etc...*, from what I have seen more major cases don't go into mediation where these programs are available. This does not mean that the "offender" doesn't need more understanding than the victim, because his or her problems may be more major than the crime.

#3. Having said that only minor crimes usually go into mediation, it must be noted that some people may react more severly to seemingly minor incidents for different reasons. Some people can get smacked in the face and simply say "what a jerk!" and get over it. Lets use an example of an older, recently widowed woman, who has her purse and other items stolen from her car. The offender may be an addict that only wants money for drugs. This woman has been living in a "fairy tale" kind of life without any worries about drugs, crime, or personal safety. This incident rocks her whole foundation and she is, for the first time, afraid of the world she lives in. She is supposed to resolve her conflict with the addict, but how can you resolve her new mindset that severely diminishes her quality of life? Not everyone reacts to and can be expected to react the same way to circumstances, and some issues can be worsened by mediation for some.

#4. If you pay enough money and go to various licensed 3-day mediator programs/classes ---BAM---you are qualified to mediate. Again, this goes back to how simple people make things out to be. Conflict resolution is serious business and people should not be able to mediate with such meager training.

This is what I have against mediation in criminal proceedings....I had some classmates, who worked with local mediators in the court system and heard from them how it was. We, also, as an entire class in Applied Sociology had mediators come in and tell us how they were saving the world one mediation at a time. I was not impressed. I have, also, heard the nightmarish stories of people, who were forced to deal with their unstable exes (or soon-to-be exes) in civil cases, in a closed room, where they were forced to resolve their "differences". Sounds like torture to me!

But, the next obvious question would be "so what is there to do instead?"

Cut me some slack, this is only post #2, we'll get to that!

fyi image can be found @ http://watdawat.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/simplicity.gif

Welcome

2008-12-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

"Intellectual Competition" by Andrzej Dudzinski

www.hoover.org/.../acquisitions/9925072.html

Hello all!

I am aiming in writing this blog to foster a better understanding of people in relation to conflict and competition. I have an MA in Applied Sociology and am an avid fan of sports. I believe that with this knowledge, I can help people realize that competitiveness is a part of our human nature and there are ways to channel this in a good direction. If you look at my profile you will see that I have just recently started another blog "Total Chaos....", in this blog I attempt to dissect and shed light on social movements that do not recieve media attention (or not enough). I have worked as part of the "media" and I use this term very loosely for some time now and realize that many important world events are ignored. As a competitive person, myself, I feel the need to talk about some controversial stuff...maybe I have a "dare me? double dog dare me?" attitude and thats fine. But this blog will attempt to stay away from the political and deal more with the personal. Many people are ready and willing (as the other blog illustrates) to do some direct action to change their political world, the conflict to them is obvious. But, we all have our conflicts and competitive natures. If we want to truly live in peace, we must acknowledge this and learn how to deal with it.

My plan? Well, here is where I want to take my own direct action. I wish to start perculating ideas in my own little think tank that will help others to feel better about themselves...more purposeful and less put-down. If you want to do some political stuff...be my guest to see what is on other blogs, if you want to learn how to live in peace without the protest, stick with this blog...after things have perculated, I hope I can do some outreach "stuff" to save the world from "psychobabble'. I am a huge proponent of good health and mental health, as well (of course), I am just put-down and pretty po'ed with what I have had to deal with in the psychology community, so there must be another way. Let's find it and in perfect time for New Year's resolutions!

Thanks for the visit :)