Trip to Vancouver Island

Orange peel nudibranch
Originally uploaded by Ed Bierman

Here are my stats from diving around Vancouver Island -- it was a pretty good trip. I would have liked the visibility to be a bit better but the boat was great and diving with friends is always fun.


Was too hard to do a table for this so the columns are the following:

• Location/Dive Site Max Depth Length of Dive Temp Notes

1. Pierce Island/Walt's Wall 93 40 46 first dive of trip
2. Pierce Island/Walt's Wall 57 28 46
3. Browning Pass/Browning Wall 66 46 46
4. Browning Pass/Snowfall 73 40 46
5. Browning Pass/Seven Tree 65 45 46 Irish Lords
6. Suwanee 34 42 48 Civil War wreak, 1868 -- not much to see
7. Dillon Rock 69 41 48 great dirona's
8. Dillon Rock 66 39 48 octo and wolf eel
9. Hoddington Island 89 43 46 rock quary with thousands of metridum and chiton
10. Blowhole 76 37 46 best dive of the trip with everything
11. Stubb's Island 76 33 46 very nice wall with tons of fabillina
12. Plumper Rock 63 33 46
13. Plumper Pass 68 41 46
14. Stubbs Island 80 29 46 very tired after a long week of diving

Averages: 70 feet 38 minutes 46 temp.
Total dive time: 9.59 hours

PAMF Involvement with Social Media

Green Fields

What we are focused on:

Facebook:

• Our Facebook page has more than 1000 "Fans."
  
• We post events, links to new articles, photos, videos and podcasts on our Web site.
  
• We focus on sharing valuable health information that might be of interest to people rather than on marketing messages.
  
• We do allow comments - usually they are very positive. We do get a few negatives but nothing mean spirited. Negatives comments are generally passed onto our Patient Services Committee to look into.
  
• Recently we have been spinning off additional Facebook pages from our main one to promote service lines such as Laser Vision or health information sites such as our Teen site. It is another way for us to promote specific services and content. Remember, on Facebook, pages are free.
  
• If you start a page, don't forget to:
  o Add favorites to your page - make sure to favorite PAMF and we'll favorite you back. Mills-Peninsula, Eden and PAMF are all fans of each other. Help each other out.
  
• Post links from each other's sites: we promote My Life Stages, for instance, or what Mills-Peninsula is doing on their site from our page.

YouTube:

• I consider YouTube our greatest success. We have already more than 40 health videos that are well received. We have had over 66,000 views of our videos since 2008.
  
• We have had some really great comments from patients on the doctors who are featured in our videos.
  
• We've hired a new media specialist to take our work to the next level - video is the future of the Web.
  
• Videos are used not only for YouTube but for our own Web 2.0 media center, http://www.pamfpulse.org.
  

Twitter:

• We have a Twitter account but are not yet sure of its potential value.
  
• We have many subscribers to our feed: 405 - many fellow health care systems around the country, a few local and national media outlets. I haven't seen many responses for our postings. We send about 1 post every few days. Postings tend to be of news releases or new material on our Web site.
  
• What I haven't done much of is communicate back and forth. Since I'm not the media representative for PAMF, I stay away from "speaking for" the organization. To be successful with Twitter, I believe you really need a media relations person to be the voice of your organization who has the authority to speak for it.
  
• It's unknown how much time would be required for a spokesperson to take on a more interactive role with Twitter, and whether that is time well spent.

How you might get started:

I believe that you need to dedicate a little time each week - try starting with 1 hour? If social media is going to be an important way to communicate with patients and the community, I think you need to carve out some of your time to learn how it works.

To begin, start you own personal account on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and maybe even your own blog to learn how things work. Doesn't have to be work related, just explore the landscape.

Find out what people are saying about your organization. Some major sources to browse.

• Google Alerts: (http://www.google.com/alerts) - run multiple alerts on your organization, your leaders, and other health related organizations. These alerts, sent daily, will keep you informed on what is being said on Web sites and blogs on these topics.
  
• Twitter search: (http://search.twitter.com/) - search by keyword and see if anyone is talking about you. In a crisis situation, check to see what the word is on the "online street."
  
• Yelp.com: (http://www.yelp.com) - good source for reviews of doctors, hospitals and clinics.

Guide for Quick Starts

• Getting started in social media doesn't have to mean completely creating new material. That article you wrote for print - use it in a blog, a posting to Facebook or share the link on Twitter.
  
• We focus on what is sustainable at PAMF. Written articles, videos and podcasts are created to be used in many different avenues: print, our public site, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or on other social network sites that want to use our material.
  
• Blogs are hard work - We have resisted doing much with blogs. They take time to write, build an audience and market. We aren't in the business of being a health publication office. They take a lot of work to be successful.
  
• Responding to Blogs - On occasion we have responded to other postings. Criteria:
  o How popular is this blog - is it viewed by a large group of our customers? To judge the popularity of a blog look for:
  
• Is it updated often?
  
• How many people are commenting on posts?
  
• Does it have a reputation in the community? Santa Cruz has a blog that is very popular within the community and in the past we responded to an issue that came up for discussion there.
  
  • s it something we want to respond to? Like any other media story, is it something we want to respond to or is it best not to say anything?
    
  • Who is going to respond and how quickly?
  
  
• Responding in social media means you need a plan. PAMF is looking to include social media into our communication planning.
  
• Who are your spokespeople? Remember, they should have accounts already created for popular media sites like Twitter, Facebook and others so they can respond to comments.
  
• Very important: transparency is a must. A response needs to clearly say, My name is ______ and I represent PAMF and here is our response.
  
• How quickly can you respond? Social Media means responding within hours, news is viral on the Web and spreads quickly. Read "Now is Gone," Brian Solis (PR 2.0, http://www.briansolis.com/).

Some recent diving

Sunflower Star
Originally uploaded by Ed Bierman

Haven't said much on here in a while. Clock is going down on the big dive trip to Vancouver. I can't wait -- not looking forward to coming back to a ton of work but I'm not going to worry about it. Been doing some diving. Had two days at Point Lobos but only did 1 dive each day.

1. Day 1 was with scubadivergirls, someone I met from Twitter who has a women divers group. they were so much fun.

2. Day 2 was with friends on a boat but the waves were high, we went to the great pentacle, at depth it was nice but only felt like one dive.

Visiting Cemeteries

Wyatt Earp and Wife
Originally uploaded by Ed Bierman

A favorite photography outing for me is to visit cemeteries, big or small. There are so many stories and interesting objects to take photos of when you go to them.

Yesterday, Margaret and I went to Colma to visit a couple of the large cemeteries there. It is going to be several trips to really visit everywhere.

Our first stop was Hills of Eternity, Jewish Cemetery. The most famous grave there is Wyatt Earp and his wife. The photo in this article. Was Wyatt Jewish -- no, and there is an interesting article about it. Here is a great article: http://www.ajhs.org/publications/chapters/chapter.cfm?documentID=279.

His wife was Jewish and they are buried together here in Colma. You see the stones and other items on the grave -- there were pennies, poker chips, front and other little "offerings" left. Also, I looked at the grave of Levi Strauss -- a big domed mausoleum builiding. There are about a dozen family members buried there.

Interesting thing at Jewish cemeteries is that stones are on the graves. Where does that come from?

"Q: Why do we place stones on a grave when we visit?

A: The custom of placing stones on a grave or gravestone may hearken back to the biblical custom of erecting a pile of stones over a grave as a marker. It may also reflect the importance of visitation to the grave, with the stone indicating that someone has been to visit.

Rabbi David Wolpe suggests that in ancient times, a Shepherd counted his sheep at the beginning of the day by carrying the corresponding number of stones, and these were used to ascertain that the same number returned at night. Rabbi Wolpe then suggests that thestones may symbolize how precious each soul is to God, who, as it were, 'counts" each person in the world.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Rabbi Richard Hirsh. All Rights Reserved."

The second cemetery we went to was Holy Cross Cemetery where we paid our respects to Joe DiMaggio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edbierman/3396594656/, which sports a basket of baseballs, assorted bats and other baseball offerings. Makes for an interesting collection of items. I took over 80 photos in a hour.

Thornback guitarfish

Thornback guitarfish
Originally uploaded by Ed Bierman

Was very happy to get back in the water this weekend after my heart thing last month. Did great without any problems. Went to Lover's 3, which I hadn't ever really done and I loved it. Lots to see and you don't have to go deep. Did 2 dives:

24 feet for 62 minutes
23 feet for 42 minutes

The second dive I saw a Thornback guitarfish for the first time. Frank, my dive buddy spotted him and we spent a lot of time photographing. My dang camera had some problems with with adjusting the F stop so I couldn't adjust to take shots further away.

But it was good to get into the water and back to it. Looking forward to more diving soon.

My Favorite Books And Authors

Here comes the sun
Originally uploaded by Ed Bierman

Was working on a list for Facebook and thought I would post it here -- photo is just one I liked that I posted this week:

Most of my list is around the best of SciFi and Fantasy. Also, I like series of books -- large stories that I can enjoy for a long time

What would be on your list?

Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov and any book in all series based around it
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Ordinary People, Judith Guest
Dune & Every Series created around it
Harry Potter Series, J. K. Rowling
The Narnia Chronicles, C.S. Lewis
Space Triology, C.S. Lewis
Eragon Series, Christopher Paolini,
Any Terry Brooks book
Any Robert Silverberg book
The Family Crucible, Augustus Napier, Carl Whitaker
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Wayward Bus, Steinbeck
Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
2001 A Space Odessey, Arthur C. Clarke
Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller
Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
Hyperion Series, Dan Simmons -- any other boook by him
Lord of the Rings Series, J.R.R. Tolkien

Dive Class

Dive Class
Originally uploaded by Ed Bierman

Finished up with my dive class of co-workers this past weekend. I had to turn over the ocean part to another Wallin's instructor, thanks Ted. It was hard not to be in the water, it was so nice. But my class was in good hands and I helped on the shore with the briefings and paperwork.

The weather was very nice and Margaret came along. We had a really nice dinner at a place called Cibo. The ribeye and mash potatoes were great -- love the bread as well.

Hoping to get clearance for diving in another couple of weeks. Things have gone well so far.