Week 14 NCA conference

At the NCA conference in New Orleans this year I sat in on a lot of good panels and discussions. two of which were very pertinent to Social media, although many of them related a bit.

The two best ones focused on two ideas, Identity and political impacts. In both discussion there was a great emphasis on the power of social media to give voice to the voiceless. This sea change was agreed upon to being dealt with better than similar explosions of technology giving access to more individuals being heard in the past. But both sides also did not escape being pessimistic how hegemonic instituitions, feeling threatened could use this change to exploit or justify some negative actions.

The Identity people were concerned about how for example we feel it necessary to construct and manage social media identities. Is this a luxury? A burden? A necessity? A privilege? There are more questions than answers right now, but that is what makes this field so very exciting.

The political theorists see it as a great equalizer and are more or less excited about the prospects. However it seems easy to praise this technology when you aren't the institution being challenged. I'd be curious how they would feel similar revolutions growing in the academic field in relation to journal publication and peer review.

I'm excited about what the future Social media communication holds. Hopefully I finish everything this semester so that I can explore it in the future. :-/ So many papers due.

Have a wonderful Winter Holiday season!

The panels attended were called: Changing Identities and Evolving Media

and : New Voices in and about North Africa and the Middle East: Problematizing the Nexus between Technology and Participatory

Democracy

Among any others

Stitcher

For my last original post I was inspired to talk about my favorite app for my iphone by the app presentation and discussion a few weeks previous.

I have personally logged over 1400 hours on it (the app keeps track). It's called Stitcher and it relates back to another area the class focused on - podcasting. Stitcher in my opinion is better than the itunes model of consuming podcasts, and if not, it certainly is its only viable competition. With that being said stitcher may not have the quantity of choices itunes has, but it's easy interface, intuitive build and quality of options makes it invaluable to me.

It categorizes podcasts and suggests ones you might like after you start building your playlist of podcasts you subscribe to. All of the podcasts are free and never miss an update. Most news programs no have a podcast for stitcher. The app will automatically update when a new show comes in. After you have set up your favorite shows you no longer have to worry about anything accept hitting play. Unless of course you want to customize a bit.

Whether you are a podcast veteran, trying to find an audience for your podcast, or trying to find an easy introductory experience you should download stitcher.

New old school approaches

Wow. Talk about saving the best for last. From the beginning of the article i was skeptical of what the author might mean by her sentiment that the more things change the more they stay the same. If you have read any of my blog up to this point you've certainty caught an air of sea change sentiment coming from my direction. I'm not dogmatic about it, but have certainly been vocal that I think we either already or are entering a new era.

It wasn't long though until the nuance of the suggestion that I began to come over to the author's side. She condemns the belief that everything can be managed. This is different she just doesn't acknowledge it as such. Then states, "...it takes a new approach. The old command and control, top down message delivery is no longer an option."

The only thing old school about her theories is the method to approaching measurement and management of what is possible. This is both old and new, and concede that indeed the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This is truly where the paper shines, the author provides a very detailed description as how she sees such an approach could be implemented. If any of the posts I have written interest you I strongly suggest you check out this article. Especially if you are considering a future in the PR world.

Perfect last reading assignment.

Why I refuse to use Bing

This article is the best I've ever found on this incident that occurred earlier this year, and personally I think deserves some sort of outrage. I'm not sure what legal recource their is for google, or even if there should be legal recourse available. But I do know I don't want to use a product that is being produced in a lazy or underhanded way.

I thought sharing this would be great in response to- the search engine optimization presentation we had a few weeks back. You should read it. It clearly explains how google found out and caught bing using it's technology unlawfully and the lack of outrage that resulted.

Mobile apps and virtual markets.

For those that may be unfamiliar a mobile application, also known as mobile app, is a term used to describe software that runs on smartphones and mobile phones.

The presentation in class had a very interesting inforgraphic on the economics and numbers surrounding app stores.

The article about mobile apps, and their ascendance is fascinating. This however is not the first instance of this type of virtual marketplace. Video games have been blazing this trail for a long time, either legitimately though the game system, or illegally selling game items gotten by potentially ill gotten means. I think it was that lesson that pushed the google team to push for their open handset initiative. They could have been learning from games like World of Warcraft that despite Blizzard's attempts to eradicate there is a flourishing underground gold farming market.

Ok maybe not, but they certainly were using this initiative as a bargaining chip with cell phone makers on incentive for users not to "jail break" the phones, which was commonly seen in Iphones at the time and zapped any revenue from app stores that user might have provided.

social celebs

I enjoyed the presentation this week over Organizational use of social media, particularly the focus on celebrity's use for branding and reputation. Though the lady gaga example is an excellent another example that seems even more amazing is Tila Tequila. Numerous articles have been written about her ascendance to fame, the short of it is that it was meteoric and it was all thanks to Myspace.

She would readily admit in interviews that her asset was her attractiveness and her ability to spread her message across social media platforms. Her message was I'm hot, so hot I should be a celbrity. And magically it has worked, since this beginning she's starred on multiple reality shows, and I'm sure makes far more money than me.

This ABC article talks about the unwittingly branding, and advertising that can also result with this technology and age.

The future of Advertising and Gamefication

In response to chapter 17 in the Twitter Revolution book -

I like the idea behind contests are the new advertising. I think it is very true that this type of advertising will be the future of advertising. Whether or not it will wholly replace old advertising techniques; I'm less persuaded.

On a more general note, to talk about the origin theoretically of such a model; I think we are seeing a "gamefication" of all aspects of our culture, advertising being one of the earlier adopters.

This idea isn't even new in advertising. The most obvious example is McDonald's Monopoly game every year. Essentially this is the same model as the example in the chapter of the book. Close interest and sales in hopes of winning something. Yes you don't have to buy in the example in the book but both uses the prospect of winning a game to add to buzz and exposure.

I think there are pros and cons to gamefication in society and hope to devote a paper to it in the near future.

PRickipedia

I very much enjoyed this week's article. I think Wikipedia has fascinating impacts on the institutions and structures of knowledge mankind has set up for itself.

On the PR level I think the article's points are clear and intuitive. The ability for the new media forms and outlets to define knowledge and in turn shape consumer opinion is powerful. Methods for attacking new challenges echo the practices I've been arguing are important in any type of dealings with the new waves of technology that almost seems ubiquitous.

More than ever the ideas of two way communication and also proactive forward thinking PR are essential in this age. One now must research what the future holds, what is the world around you saying right now. reaction time must be swift and thorough. A methodical approach no longer can last and compete in this new world order.

I think for most ethical or claims to authority are outdated and going to be proven wrong. Our thirst for knowledge is not just a quantitative one. I have no doubt that in the era of Wikipedia you will see a proclivity to prefer those that vet and thoroughly researches its information. The pen is available to anyone, but so is the red one in equal measure.

Living life in the clouds

This last weekend I experienced a monumental setback that would be considered natural only a few years ago, incredibly annoying in this time, and very shortly may be a nuisance of the past.

I was in Atlanta this last weekend for a debate tournament. Though there isn't much time to work I still ended up bringing the work for my other job, some bills and letters I needed to work on/ take with me. Aaaaaand I ended up leaving it in the hotel. Wah Waaaah. Obviously frustrating in its own right, but what added to the frustration was that how obsolete this whole process is going to be so soon.

I'm so excited about the cloud revolution, if all of my work and bills werein the cloud this would obviously never be an issue ever again. We need to find ways to entice the laggards to adopt it, because until cloud use is ubiquitous it will still have its limitations.

We must teach people to live their life in the clouds.

Virtual Worlds

I loved this week's reading, it actually makes me sad. :( Sad that I haven't followed through with any of my previous academic endeavors in to Virtual Worlds. This topic is fascinating to me, not just because of my own involvement in them in the past. This isn't an early adopter prestige sort of love. I love this topic because it seems to have infinite opportunities for academic research, and new ways of exploiting and understanding the universe around us. Many of the philosophy papers I wrote and research I did as an undergrad involved Virtual or alternate world thought experiments.

I don't think the reading should have been so quick to write off MMORPGs as relevant areas for research when studying virtual worlds. The short complaint isn't entirely clear but it seems to be caught up in rules and goals being so intrinsically linked to the experience if MMORPG. Rules and goals are very much important parts of the REAL world. Why then should they be considered hurdles to insight towards human nature? If anything I think that Sociology or psychiatry could benefit from their unique traits in the virtual worlds community. And regardless where you stand on these questions I defy anyone to find an experience that Philosophy can't find a way to deconstruct to add to our knowledge of our experiences.

Podcast production tips

From time to time I've dipped my feet in to the podcasting realm. Truthfully the time it takes to do it right, and my limited free time always prevented me from being able to see through most of my ideas. This article gives a pretty good overview of ways to improve your sound quality, and make sure your podcast sounds professional. Which is one of the most important things.

For editing you should definitely check out Audacity. Don't go to audacity.com, as a far as I can tell that's just a company that only exists on paper to do some sort of immoral or shady financial transactions.

Also, it should almost go without saying, but once you are ready to put your work out there, you must get on to iTunes, it is the place you must go to get recognized. A personal website will do wonders as well, but without iTunes noone knows you're there. It's free advertising and marketing! Use it!

Fad? Is that a joke?

Chapter 10 has a pretty silly point to be made at the beginning. Of course social media and web 2.0 innovations are more than a fad and are certainly here to stay. I can't believe that anyone would maintain otherwise at this point. One thing that seems to be consistent with all of this new technology is convenience and consistency. These two traits will NEVER be fadish. A fad would sacrifice one of those for cheekiness or niche appeal.

Personal Branding

Branding seems to be as important as ever in today's web 2.0 world. The unique issue that organizations must concern themselves with in a web 2.0 world is branding that can be integrated across multiple platforms. Extra care needs to be taken to make sure that any logos or design campaigns associated with the organization looks as good on a website as it does on a little phone. Any Messages related to branding should probably be short enough to be tweeted, etc. The further technology goes down the rabbit hole the more complex branding will be and the more research and testing will be needed to vet a branding strat.

RSS feeds

The next chapter of pr 2.0 focused on RSS feeds. I have to make a sad admission. I'm a super laggard when it comes to RSS feeds. I'm not really sure why I've been so reluctant to jump in. I think it comes from a feeling of being overwhelmed by all the choices and forms of social media and web apps. I've tried to get started with google reader before, but I always get distracted before I can adequately set it up. Additionally not all of the sites I go to regularly have set up an RSS feed yet. There is something about RSS that had made it feel harder to integrate than it is. I don't know what it is about the presentation of RSS that makes it not feel as inviting as say, facebook or most e-mail services.

Video hosting and Justin.tv

Listening to Veronica's research in to video hosting I wanted to talk about a video hosting site that wasn't mentioned. It's understandable that Veronica didn't mention it when we were talking because, as she said there are literally hundreds of video hosting sites. What few of those sites provide is live video hosting. Slingbox is a way to watch your t.v. from anywhere on the web, but isn't really a social networking site.

Justin.tv allows you to live stream any kind of video content. Anywhere from live conferences to nerds posting there current video game exploits, it's really very interesting. You create a channel and have a schedule so people know when to tune in to see your programming. Literally now anyone can become their own broadcasting network.

Like youtube though I foresee many copyright issues for the future of this site. Until then it's a wonderful new type of social networking. Hopefully they will weather that coming storm at least as well as youtube.

open source

For this post i want to highlight a philosophy that has become more popular the more free form technology and information has become.

Open source programming is the concept of releasing the code for software along with the launch of the software in order to encourage the consumers that use the program to help work on the betterment of the software without having to pay them as employees. This is the same mentality that organizations should adopt when trying to craft a message in today's web 2.o world. PR practitioners should start to view their projects and campaign as not being complete when they are first disseminated. The work isn't over, you should be conscious of how the public is reshaping your message and respond accordingly.

Firefox and open source.

For this week's required reading post I'm gonna nit pick about chapter 8 in pr 2.0. I've talked about the social networking revolution before and will again, so the focus of that in the chapter is going to become dangerously old.

So i'm going to focus on a part of the chapter where the author talks about firefox and open source. I want to devote a future more in depth post about open sourcing but as for now, i'm just going to talk about the chapter's claim that social networking was the key to firefox's success because without social networking, the open sourcing wouldn't have been possible. I don't think this view is entirely accurate. We can see evidence of open sourcing far before the modern day type of social networking we see now. The open source concept is something that gained greater speed with the advent of the internet and social networking on the web. However that is hardly unique to opensource style of innovation.

Most of Michael Lent's article is very informative. In the interest of full disclosure, he teaches at my Alma mater. Boomer Sooner!

I do think he takes some qualitative positions at times and tries to extract quantitative warrants from those positions. I'm not exactly excited by that. For example when discussing the numbers over how much traffic blogs get. He posits that some of the traffic has to be more personal like close friends and family members. Probably true, it's a fair assumption; but then he puts a number on his qualitative position. He then says that 1 in 20 of people in america spend a serious amount of time with bloggers. Again it might be true, just warrant-less is all.

The most important point that doctor Lent makes is that a company's blog must not be anonymous and must be updated regularly. I think those rules are key. He cautions companies not to jump in to starting a blog, and discourages strategies of implementation until more evidence and research can be done. I'm less pessimistic, I think trying is low risk with big rewards, except in particularly unique circumstances. I think the money of one ad campaign put in to employing a "mascot" blogger for the company. Exactly what kind of personality a company chooses depends on the brand and audience of the particular company. But if done in a smart way I think it can have an impact that is at the very least longer lasting than your average ad campaign.

What's a google?

In honor of Andy Rooney’s retirement i thought I would just rant for once. Usually I think I’m pretty measured about most of my criticisms so this will take a bit of effort.

I recently bought a google chromebook. I could probably be described as a technophile, if not that I am at least admittedly a google fanboy. I really like the products and software google designs, and I like their ethic. They seem to value transparency and make smart socially conscious business decisions.

I swear I have a beef coming up. You see one thing i like about their software is simplicity. they give me the bare bones and i get to choose want I want to add on to it. However there is a consequence of this approach that can be bad. This is a complaint usually lobbied at facebook, but I think with google’s various mediums it should be a bigger concern for them. When you choose simplicity you also make a lot of decisions for the user. Google makes many privacy and setting decisions for you under the hood. A lot of times, because they are under the hood, and google is good at making simple designs it is mind bending trying to know where to turn for a specific issue.

Case in point is with my new chromebook i decided I should set up google calendar. Within a day of setting it up I had some of my high school students making inappropriate events all over my calendar. I was able to delete them, but I have no idea how my students were able to do this. How did they even know about my calendar withing a day of me making it? Where is this information available? Can anyone see or edit my calendar? I am not really sure where to turn, there is no google hotline that I’m aware of. I could e-mail a tech support perhaps but I’m still not sure how helpful that would be. I’m seeing my students tomorrow, I suppose when technology fails the best route is to use old fashioned person to person communication.

The text Machine

I listen to a ton of podcasts. Mostly thanks to an app I have called Stitcher. But I’m going to save the subject of Stitcher for an original post in the future. Merely picking one podcast out of my many and talking about the merits of podcasting wasn’t going to cut it for this entry. Also just grabbing a podcast about social media didn’t seem imaginative enough. So I picked a podcast that has a communication tool that I think is unique, new and could possibly be utilized in other ways for the benefit of PR practitioners.

The podcast in question is a local one, but it is reach is anything but. It’s The Dan Lebatard Show. The show itself if a local radio station, however they have been posting every day all of the show w/out the advertisements that plague sports talk shows. To call the show a sports show would be inadequate at best however. It is more of a commentary show that often focuses on sports. The host will gleefully push topics away from sports and into the realm of how sports’ current events reflect the human condition.

The format of the show is enough to make it stand out, but it is a piece of technology that Dan refers to as “the text machine” that makes the show stands out for public relations discussion. All texts and tweets the show receives are scrolled over Dan and his cohost’s screens in real time. Immediately Dan can judge the reaction of his audience to segments, answer questions and ask for advice. When the show engages the audience they have the means to do it not only effectively but genuinely. It’s through this show I have become confidant that any company that can afford it should have some means to recreate this. I’m not saying all employees need a running ticker on their screen of public opinion. But it couldn’t hurt for at least some employees to have access to this tool.

Implementing something like this has been tried before with varying success. One common theme of it being successful is assuring your customers their voice is being heard. No one likes to feel that they are not being heard, especially when given a platform in which they thought they could be. This means a dedicated effort, not to respond to everything but to take regular time devoted to keeping the conversation two-way. This means being candid. This may not be a job most C.E.O.s can fill, but maybe this isn’t a position for the top. However if it is someone lower on the totem pole they need to have access to information and answers from the proper vehicles in the company. What makes the text machine work is that Dan responds to the texters. Not just once in a while, but often and candidly. Dan has some very strong positions that are in contradiction with the majority of his listeners and their traditionalist sports ideology. But they don’t need someone to agree with they need someone to communicate with. If companies kept a constant dialogue rather than one only in response to crisis I think you would see an increase in brand loyalty and forgiveness for foibles.

Keep in mind this does not mean everything must be responded to. Anonymity brings out the worst in many people and frankly you need thick skin and an objective look at life to be someone responsible for wading through the sea of questions and comments especially if you are initially successful. Just as well Dan can choose to just ignore the machine, preventing this technology from taking over the program. It takes some experience that ultimately can only be gained through practice and research in to your audience.

It seems that a twitter account itself can function in a similar way, but I am often discouraged by how one way most twitter accounts are towards their followers. If one goes the twitter account way they must remember that they need a personality or voice to talk back and discuss with the followers.

New Facebook!

For this week’s original post I’m going to go over a subject I’m sure most of the class will eventually touch. New Facebook! I’m not going to talk about New, new Facebook, mostly because I’ve only seen the intro video; they haven’t actually changed my account yet. Instead I’m going to talk about the transition from old facebook, which coincidentally is NOTHING like facebook even 2 years ago, to new facebook. That point about old facebook not in actuality being by any stretch of the imagination old is one that seems to be easily forgotten. I am consistently amazed by how visceral people’s reactions to facebook changes always are. It is a reminder of how tightly people cling on to what they are used to. Almost everyone complaining about this new change of facebook didn’t even have a facebook five years ago. Yet they act not only mad but as if they have been betrayed anytime the site makes some changes. I personally applaud facebook’s handling of these situations. Frankly change is important, and change is necessary. This is especially true for a social networking site like facebook. The only way to stay relevant is to adapt to trends and advancements in technology. Web 2.0 and beyond will make the way social networking connects with its users and if facebook doesn’t try to keep up they will get left by the next hot thing in social networking. That doesn’t mean just add more, and more, often the innovation needed is a format that can streamline and make the content and presentation appear to do less but do it more efficiently or clean.

A friend of mine’s status on the day of transition highlights my next point. She wrote, “New facebook, and same complaints about it changing, I’ve seen this song and dance before, many times.” Despite the inevitability that facebook will change many people's indignation appeals to surprise. It's time to wake up people; things not only inevitably change but they change at a more rapid pace than we have ever encountered.

I don't really want to take a side on is old or new facebook better than the other. I don't see much of what was wrong with the changes but ultimately I don't care. Facebook will always try to innovate and be relevant. As long as I have friends on facebook it will hold value to me, and I'd be surprised to watch facebook lose users in mass from some feature changes. If you want to send a message to facebook. delete your account. Don't hate it that much I suspect.

My feelings were summed up well in my facebook status that day.

"To everyone complaining about New Facebook: You sound like you're 80"

1.0 to 2.0 cleanly

Probably the most stark realization I gathered from this week's reading out of Breckenridge's PR 2.0 is how important consumers are to the proliferation and advancement of technology in corporations and companies. Not to sound facetious but most of the lessons taught and learned by PR professionals about PR is something that any teenager with a curiosity about the internet could easily teach oneself. Not only can this happen, it does happen every single day. Young people are always more adaptive to change but computers and the internet seem to have an even greater symbiosis than some technologies of the past. 5 years ago a veteran of PR may have struggled to explain and maybe even understand the extent to which the internet changed the PR game. The y generation on the other hand uses phrases like, viral, blogs, threads and advertising with an awareness unlike any of their predecessors.

If any lesson can be learned from the introduction of web 1.0 it is that adapting is not as important as innovating. It seems as if professionals in the field were caught off guard not only by the meaning of the change in their world but also the rapidness to which it changed. Many companies in its inception tried to emulate what they've seen and use their formal models to create an unholy combination of the two.

This does not mean adding every new buzz and whistle that comes along with web 2.0 or whatever comes after 2.0. Quite the contrary being innovative does not always mean more, but sometimes means using the new tools of a technology to do "more" with less. I will always contend that what helped Google's rise in their beginnings just as a search engine was the cleanliness of its technology. It sported some of the most advanced and innovative technology in their field (search engines) but the page was not cluttered with attempts to catch the next lightning in the bottle that felt like desperation and indecisiveness. (yahoo, askjeeves and later bing, etc.)

So to sum two easy steps to help your transition to 2.0

1.) Be innovative not adaptive

2.) Use your audience as a resource in more ways than just consuming your product. (feedback)

Is Dropbox social media?

Oh my god! I know how far I am behind in these blog posts I feel really bad about it but two jobs, both of which have one of their most frantic times of the year this month have been keeping me more than busy. Once I get caught up I will keep up. Hopefully the quality of the posts will outweigh their late start? :-/

Hope so

For this week’s original topic I thought about looking in to what exactly social media entails and how easy is it to define. The example I want to bring up, and ultimately question is Dropbox. Dropbox is a tool that I use for debate to make it easier to share files and research. Though there are not pictures and status updates on Dropbox, it does allow a lot of information that potentially could be personal (though usually isn’t). At its core what a social media site other than a portal to share information with others.

Dropbox is a very simple idea in concept that is probably more impressive in terms of coding than I could give credit to. With a dropbox account one can invite others to join a “dropbox” that acts as a shared folder on the computer. You can access the folder from anywhere and it seamlessly will update anytime you are connected to the internet. To use the debate teams as an example I am not only able to edit, work on and share files from anywhere with my whole team, but I am able to separate both of my debate teams and have individual folders for each team. Not only does it improve my efficiency but organization is much easier than copied paper evidence could ever hope to be.

I know this doesn’t seem like what we imagine as social media but I’m not sure it isn’t at least capturing some aspects of social media. I am updated with a small unobtrusive notice on my taskbar any time someone updates a file and though there is not necessarily a signature just from communication between the group and what types of things people would want to work on you can usually have a good idea who has done what. It doesn’t have a messaging system, but it could be used as one theoretically. And everything you share on traditional social media sites can be shared through folders on Dropbox.

I thought this was a good original post because it could introduce you to a program you may have not already known about and could make you question your definition of social media.

So is Dropbox a form of social media, or is it something else?

Evolution of two way communication

I’ve often thought about what impact the increasing speed of technology spreading and being accepted has on society individuals. In the Chapters read for our class this week in Citizen Marketers they gave historical context to the change created by new technologies beginning with the Guttenberg printing press all the way up to blogging. Generally the theme set forth by Citizen Marketers is that with more voice comes more choice and freedom. Although as different technology has made access to ideas easier this is also true for institutions of power. The chapter itself is very conscious of this fact. When getting to the present date it would continually remind its readers to be aware of the importance communication with the consumers. Capitalism still tries to homogenize the way many institutions look at the effects and resistance created by more access to information and being heard. It is true that unlike any time before it companies now have to be conscious of and consider two way communications. No longer can companies afford to yell slogans directly at their audience they now must communicate with them. The book uses the example of the “Dell Hell” blog that in many ways is a good analogy for the necessity of companies to adapt to this new flow of information or be lost in its wake.

#firstworldproblems

In can totally relate to this article about social media I just read. I began linking all my social media statuses but only after a few status updates I quickly saw the problem. All of my social media personas are slightly different. That isn’t to say that I am a different person while using them, just I put various creative filters in place when thinking about what I am going to post. Think of it as knowing your audience. For example Facebook immediately became my semi-professional social media outlet when my mom joined the party. I only say semiprofessional because I have the luxury in my profession of being allowed to be pretty outspoken. But When I started working with Minors on a regular basis the filter became even thicker. I decided to let them friend me on facebook, because then maybe they would be placated and not spread to my social media outlets that are less self-censored. Of course this didn’t always work to perfection but I was satisfied facebook was professional. Twitter, though public I could claim a certain amount of plausible deniability of who is seeing it as long as I didn’t go too far; and then google+ for my friends with less consequence of my lack of filter. The feeling described as the James Bourne problem I began to forget who I’d let in to each club. The worst result of this was when I tweeted my frustration over what I viewed as some very selfish and stupid opinions in a meeting. When I got home it dawned on me that one of the two people I tweeted about followed me on twitter. I quickly rushed to delete it. 5 minutes later I received an @ from the person. I’m not going to say what it said, but he definitely read the tweet before I deleted it. :-/

Welcome to the Calehouse

So for my first blog post I’m stealing an idea from Diego and decided to just talk about myself. Just seems to make too much sense, if anyone was to read this blog, they might be interested to know where the voice of it comes from. My name is Cale Halley and I’m in my second year of Grad School studying for a master’s degree in Communications. I studied as an Undergrad at the University of Oklahoma double majoring in Philosophy and Film and Video Studies. Boomer! While at OU I competed and was an assistant coach for the debate team. Now, in addition to my studies I’m also the assistant debate coach for the University of Miami. Debate is something that goes way back for me. I did it all four years of high school. But ultimately competing has always been a big part of my life. I played at the national level in High School baseball and played poker and was on official pro tours for other card games before graduating high school. I may not be the most stereotypical social media or public relations writer, but being in generation Y and making a living off of managing relations as either a coach or to persuade competitively I hope I’ll at least give some unique insight in to at least one of the fields.

w00t! whether you're reading this for pleasure, or more likely as a requirement for a class or dare i hope it is at least vaguely entertaining.

And since this is a social media blog I suppose I should include my Facebook, Twitter, and google+

Privacy and Social Media

I struggled with how to structure an introduction in to my first discussion of a news article for this social media blog until I realized that my struggle itself is a part of this discussion and this was the point of the article all along. Unlike any other time in history the human race has given the potential for any voice to become global and that has increased the relevance and importance of everyone's unique narrative.

This social media megaphone has brought greater significance and happiness for those broadcasting, but the Times article I recently read is also quick to point out that those speaking and expressing are not the only ones who benefit. The article begins with a story about a girl who uses youtube as an outlet for expression, but believes it's the insight in to other's lives from which she derives the most benefit. In her own words, "You have people from all walks of life wanting to share a piece of their life with you," Leila says. "The feeling of togetherness is unbeatable. It's a beautiful thing." I think it's easy to relate with this for anyone. I know personally I have a much deeper experience and relationship with music then I could ever had hoped to have in an age without the internet. I have managed to have conversations with artists and academics I otherwise would have maybe never even been exposed too.

Of course, as with any innovation or technology the consequences aren’t always positive consequences. Privacy is the obvious issue and the Time article uses the Mark Foley incident with congress. But that story only scratches the surface. Mark foley’s indiscretions were hardly private to anyone who knew him, but it wasn’t until the internet’s ease of access to the rest of the country that Foley’s life got turned upside down. And that’s kind of the real story. Like never before people all around the world have to be ever conscious of their privacy. Maybe before protecting your precious documents or letter was all one had to concern themselves with, but now that private knowledge is constantly at risk, there is no way to digitize your imprint on the internet. If someone has the resources, and wants to, they can find out more about where you are and who you are then ever before. Because of my beliefs and opinions most people would probably immediately assume that I would be blind with rage over the potential for such ubiquitous, egregious and subversive threats to our privacy, especially from governments and corporations. Maybe it is because I am a member of generation Y and just looks at the world a bit differently than the thinkers I’ve admired before me but I like my technology. I suppose when it really comes down to it I am willing to have to be a little more open than the generations before; especially if that means that society as a response too will have to become more open. And why wouldn’t it? Society when you look past the institutions and spectacle is ultimately the shared values and beliefs of individuals. Society as an organism must change if its DNA mutates. Indeed I think the Arab spring and all protests and revolutions in this twitter and youtube age is evidence of that fact. With the veil lifted people like never before feel the protection to speak freely, change the world and fight for peace. That is what keeps me optimistic even in the face of threats of Orwellian big brother societies, totalitarian regimes, and corporations against our privacy. It is those institutions whose privacy is truly at risk. What keeps people complacent is hiding the truth from them. That is how humans can enact genocide and ecocide. But when the people see the truth complacency gives way to action.