La Chaise Vide

U.S.-Dakota War of 1862

150TH Anniversary of the largest indian mass execution in U.S. history

Contact: Juan Ayala                                                Email:  juan.ayala-ramirez@mnsu.edu
Blog: lachaisevide.wordpress.com                                                                             Contact: This American Life, WBEZ
Email:web@thislife.org                                                                                        Website: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

Mankato, Minn., — In 1862 38 Dakota warriors were hanged “in the heart” of downtown Mankato. The public radio show, “This American Life,” describes this event on its most recent episode titled ” “Little War on the Prairie.” Radio host Ira Glass invited as guest Mankato native John Biewen to talk about this unspoken event that took place at the same time of the American Civil War.

December 26th marks the 150th anniversary of the largest indian mass execution in U.S. history. An barely taught to Minnesota students who arrive to college without knowing what happened there.

Facts of the war and the executions:

• Three men and two women, were killed by Dakotas
• Minnesota’s Governor, Henry Sibley, tricked the Sioux into signing a treaty giving almost all the money away they received to pay off his debt
• Dakota Chief, Little Crow led the uprising in 1862
• August 18, 1862 Little Crow led Dakota Warriors on their assault on a federal outpost
• Lincoln wrote a list of 38 Dakota names to be hanged

“We invent a fake history for ourselves that doesn’t deal with the complexities.There is a delusion at work about who we were.”

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Posted in Twitter

Grading MNSU

The grade Minnesota State University, Mankato got from Marketing Grader was a 75. Although it looks like a low grade, Yale University had exactly the same grade. However, Harvard University had a 94 score. One of the things Harvard is doing right, is interacting with its audience and using Twitter to the fullest, according to Marketer Grader.

Things MNSU is doing right

MNSU is posting new information periodically. Marketing Grader categorizes this information as a blogging. Also, according to Marketing Grader, this blog is easy to find and contains an RSS feed.

According to Marketing Grader, the MNSU website is using SEO correctly. It uses links to other pages and provides images with almost every post. MNSU also provides a mobile version its website.

In addition, Marketing Grader gave MNSU a good review of their analytics. They have a fair amount of unique visitors per month. However, this is kind of obvious since students log in their accounts a high amount of time to their D2L account.

 Things MNSU is lacking

MSNU does possess a Twitter, but it received a low score since it does not Tweet as often as they should. Marketing Grader says they should Tweet more.

Most of the low grades MNSU receive come from Twitter. They are not getting enough mentions on the web.

Going back to the blog, MNSU does not really possess a blog, but it should offer a way to subscribe by email.

Finally, Market Grader recommends having Apple icons for those who have an iPhone or an iPad to access faster their site.

How to use SEO and Google Adwords

How can a journalist or a businessman use SEO and Google Adwords to his advantage?

The most important things in SEO are the keywords you use whether it is on your headlines, stories or links. Keywords are what the Googlebot or any other search-engine software will look for. in the case of Google, the Googlebot, a search software, will crawl and find all those articles that are in the web. He will then group them according to the topic and rank them.

It is important to know how to properly use keywords. Otherwise, no matter how good you content is, it will never be on the front page of a Google search. There are four major points that should be put into consideration when trying to be the number one option for a search-engine software:

• Links: Links that always work are mandatory, but links from trustable sources are even better.
• Good content: Fresh new content with information that constantly being updated.
• Dates: According to Maile Ohye, a Developer Programs Tech Lead for Google, it is easier for the Googlebot to find your content if you put the date between the title and the body.
• Title: Of course, your title matters. If you use overloaded titles with too much content it will be difficult to find and group.

Simple tips can make your company or article be the most popular on the web. It does make a big difference. Ohye also says that creating a Youtube channel is an excellent way to get yourself known.

Having links on your page from other well-known sites is a must and being connected with other people is important as well. Googlebot will take all of that into consideration.

Live-Tweet on Nov. 6

I was not really planning on being part of the group that was going to participate on Twitter, using the #mass330 hashtag. I knew what is was going to be like. Following almost 300 people, I always have a hard time catching up on all the new information that coming through. Could you imagine during the #election2012?

Three years ago I decided not to have T.V. at home because it doesn’t let focus on what I think is important. I assumed that to be part of the #mass330 hashtag of that night you had to have at least a T.V. As curious as I am, I just decided to visit the #mass330 to see what was happening. All of a sudden, I was already involved.

I quickly realized that I didn’t need a T.V. or a radio to follow the elections. I decided to use Twitter and the people I follow to be part of #mass330. I jumped in the link the New York Times was providing that night, but it didn’t seem to work. Arianna Huffington post on her Twitter account a great link that I used to keep updating my tweets.

I spent almost three hours updating information for #mass330. I decided to stay only with one source and then compare it with the rest of the class. I had a great time looking at the different numbers and information that was coming through. The Huffington Post was updating their site every 30 seconds. However, not every 30 seconds the information changed. Probably every two minutes.

Although I decided just to Tweet about one source, I was constantly looking at other sources I follow, just to see what was worthy to retweet. In my opinion, that is also a great wat to live-Tweet.