Life is a water globe. Yes, I'm sentimental.

During my undergrad I had a tendency to overload my schedule. There were so many things that I wanted to do – study engineering, work, run student orgs, etc. So one Christmas break, when things had died down for a bit, I was bored, flipped on the tube (yes, that would be the TV) and started watching soap operas. (yes, I was that bored!) However, luckily for me, one of the characters made an analogy that day that I still carry with me. I’ve elaborated it/changed it up a bit to more fit the point I try to get across though.

Life is like a water globe. You know, the ones that you can shake and watch stuff whirl around in. When life is crazy, the snow is swirling and it’s to busy!! And while it is very beautiful and exciting, you can barely see straight! After a while all you want is for the snow to stop. Make it stop!

And then it stops. The semester ends. You realize that you don’t have to read any more readings, write any more papers, go to any more classes. And for some reason you are so accustomed to all the crazy business, you almost want someone to come along and give that globe another shake… almost..

As we head into a little bit of our summer siesta before tackling our internship and research class, I just want to express what an awesome time I’ve had so far and it is because of the people I got to spend time with during the semester.

Life is this one big cycle. It’s this rollercoaster ride. And while I’m completely happy to be in a little lull right now, I’m looking forward to the next wave, the next drops, turns, and loops that lie ahead.

I've Caught The Twitter Bug

I joined twitter a few months ago. It was one of those things where you see something you want to join/do and in the back of your head you keep telling yourself you’re going to do it even though days and weeks pass by and you’re still not doing it. Then one day (February 14, 2008), I’m not quite sure what was the tipping point, I signed up and the twitter bug bit me. Sometimes I even feel almost twitter obsessed – frantically typing tweets from my mobile phone during what is probably some social or likewise event where being on your mobile phone isn’t exactly welcomed. I think I’ve even had some temptations to twitter during mass!

So what makes twitter so cool for me? One of the main things is that it is so simple – both the concept and the usability. Microblogging is short, sweet, and to the point. It’s so time efficient. I’ve created quite a few blogs over the years, only to see my blog entries grow fewer and far between (and eventually stop completely) because it just took too much time and effort out of my already overbooked day.

Also, being the passive and sometimes passive aggressive person that I am, it's a great way for me to vent and express how I’m feeling, and in some cases in a cryptic way so that I can really express how I feel without having to worry about any type of retribution. On several occasions it’s been my way of virtually sticking my tongue out at several people and saying “you suck” without “really” saying that. It’s a great way for me to vent/worry out loud/share my thoughts in general. And although a initial skeptic (and hugely hesitant) at first on whether or not this would really be something that I would stick to and who would actually read my tweets, I’ve found the most random people to follow online (and some have found me) which in the past has made me want to “exit” other online communities, but in this case, I strangely embrace it.

From a more practical and generic point of view, it’s a great way to receive and project information to the masses as there are many people who use this as a free way to market their products, job openings, campaigns, etc. People also use this as ways to communicate to certain people, using the “@” character to direct messages to specific people. One person even used it to propose to his girlfriend. Is that odd that I thought that was really cool?

I suppose the last straw in concluding that I have drank the twitter kool aid juice came during a good friend’s birthday dinner at Tokyo Delves in NoHo last Friday night. As everyone was eating, drinking, laughing, yelling, and dancing on their chairs, I was the only one doing all of the above while periodically pulling out my cellphone and twittering. My friend Edgar tweeted and said “@rachelrae get a life... Put away your phone!” My reply? I have a life… (and perhaps this is a bit sad/cool/nerdy/etc.) it’s currently on twitter.

Mobile Currency: Leave Your Wallet At Home

Although the mobile movement has been progressing for some time now, it wasn’t until late last year that I started to really come onboard. Being the poor college student and then the poor newly unemployed graduate, I had never chosen anything but the “free” phones when selecting or continuing my cell phone plans. These usually had the small screens with decent (but not optimal) resolution and maybe, if I was lucky, there would be a camera phone included. I chose the most basic plan, opting for a small limited amount of text messages. The data plans cost as much as monthly apartment utilities, so I opted to pay for those instead of a mobile internet connection. I think I even frowned when my husband insisted that we upgrade to the unlimited text messaging plan because he felt he couldn’t stay within our limit. BUT all this changed last November when I got my new AT&T Tilt AND the unlimited data plan. Now, I text carelessly, sending one word responses, images, and audio. I browse the net, check my email, and update my twitter. And to think, this is just the surface of mobile technology.

In a previous CMGT 530 class, Glen had mentioned how he was working on a mobile feature that would use a stored scannable image as a way to pay for L.A. parking meters and tickets. A further extension of this process (which I’m not quite sure if it’s currently being developed, but with the speed of mobile technology these days it is highly possible) would allow all currency to become digital. Each credit/debit card would turn into a scannable image stored on one’s mobile phone. There would no longer be a need for a physical wallet nor cash as well. When checking out, one would only have to pull up the barcode-like image of the credit/debit account that they wish to pay out of, scan, and then voila! the amount would be charged to or deducted from the corresponding accounts. Each image could be password protected for security purposes, or better yet, fingerprint scanners could be added to cellphones and each scan of an account image would require print verification before processing, hindering identity theft. If one opts in for GPS tracking, their wallet could never really be lost. When one applies for a new credit debit card, the bank would just need to send the image to one’s cellphone, no need for plastic, a letter, envelope, or stamp.

The technology is there for this to happen, I guess the question now is if the market is going to go in this direction and if it will be accepted. I can see where the barriers lie in this type of currency. Card scanners, although in existence, are the in the minority in comparison to their “slide” counterparts. Also, there are many “cash only” businesses. Either they would need to succumb to accepting card (image) transactions or people would still need to carry cash with them. I’m sure credit card and card slide machine manufacturers wouldn’t be too happy about this either. But if one really thinks about it, that is the nature of technology evolution. A year ago, I wouldn’t have thought this would be a feasible idea. But with the accessibility to mobile technology growing and evolving, digital mobile currency seems like a natural progression.

Search Engine Optimization: What "Experts" Are Saying

As promised, here is the link to my Module Paper 2 titled Search Engine Optimization In A Novice Nutshell. As a preface I do want to say that in no way am I an expert or current practitioner. I just read a few sources and learned a few things (ok, so I really did spend a lot of time researching and working on this though). I'll be creating some websites in the coming months and using the findings in the paper. I'll be more than happy to let you know the results. When researching SEO, I found it to be a hugely vast topic. I tried my best to put together and organize what would probably be the most important things for us apoc-ers to know when developing our own future communities. Enjoy:)

mytopia is no utopia

Going through techcrunch.com today I stumbled across their post on mytopia.com, an online social gaming community which works across the major social networks. It doesn't matter if your friend is on Bebo and you're only on Facebook, the two of you can play. It looked interesting, I like the screenshots that they showed, and techcrunch boasted about it. Plus, it had sudoku. Score!

So I went to the site to create an account. I even got my sister to try it out too since she happened to be home for the weekend, in the same room as me, and on a 'puter. Now, during account creation you can create your own avatar. Ok, so I know that this is day 1 of beta testing, but honestly, if the experience of creating an avatar was any indication of how the rest of my user experience was going to be (and it was), I should have stopped right then. You get to choose 7 different aspects of the avatar. I had issues with mytopia's avatars because well, they all looked like guys! The 7 different aspects were lined up across the top from left to right. So logically (most) people will select their background first (because it's the most left), and then they'll choose they're body (because that's what is next). So even though the next characteristics had more feminine options, I was stuck trying to pick a masculine body. There were like 2 girl looking options versus 36+ guy looking options. And just when I reluctantly selected a black tshirt as the body I hear "Heeeey! They all look like dudes! I don't want to be a dude!" My sister was disappointed too. Good to know I wasn't alone.

Once my account was created (my avatar ended up with a black shirt, mickey mouse ears, and an emo haircut. sweet!), I logged in. Then music, reminiscent of the old school mario games, started. It was fun listening to it for a few seconds, then I had to hit my mute button on my laptop because I couldn't find a mute button on mytopia to click on. Lame. (Update: I found the mute button. So that was my bad and I take back that "Lame") So I'm in mytopia, the layout looks cool. It looks like map of a town, where I can click on places like Casino, Card Room, and Bar. But what the heck do I do? Where do I go? What, no welcome? I mean, I know I can figure things out on my own, but what about people who need some hand holding? Some direction? "Uhhhh, what am I supposed to do now?? Where did you go?!?" My sister was lost too.

So, I thought I'd first vist the Town Hall. There's a "Who's Online" option? Cool, I wanted to take a look at everyone else. I take a look and see some cool avatars. One has a cowboy hat, cool shades, and a beard. It looked pretty creative so I looked at that avatar's screenname. It was mine. What?!? Mytopia had overwritten the avatar settings I chose! I yell over to my sister to see if she can find herself in this section. She exclaims in an upsetting voice "Heeeey! That's not me. I thought I could make my own person!" Uber lame. Avatar identification (I think) is kind of a big thing. To give users the option of creating one and then "taking it away" by assigning them something different is so not cool.

Then to top it all off, both of us go to Settings to correct our avatars, hit "Save" and then... "code: unknownerror". Alright, this is starting to get really annoying. At this point my sister just quits. I want to as well, but I feel like if I could just play one game of sudoku this wouldn't have been such a waste. So I click on the "Sudoku" link. It asks me to login... again. Annoying. Are you kidding me? I type in my credentials and then it takes me to the mytopia homepage. I can't even play sudoku. This is beyond lame.

I click back to techcrunch and start reading the comments. There's a mix, but it looks like I wasn't the only one experiencing problems. I don't know if I'll ever go back. I really liked the graphics and the concept, but NOTHING worked for me. As for my sister, she is the college student who spends countless hours on the 'puter every week. She's not highly technical (not a "geek") but she's open to new things and loves spending time chatting and doing crossword puzzles online. And she's an active member in Facebook. I don't know who mytopia's target group is, but I'm thinking that she fits into it. I asked her if she would ever go back to that site. And among her MANY reason's for "no" I can sum them all up in her first one - "it's not fun."

Oh, mytopia. Techcrunch had some faith in you and this is a beta version. But still, I mean... I expected a bit more. I think if you work out your bugs, maybe take a few lessons from Kim's Community Building on the Web (which will greatly improve your user experience) you might be ok. And perhaps, I might just go back (I really did dig the graphics and concept). But probably not anytime soon.

Code is Law Tidbits And Thoughts

Internet technology makes it harder for people to lie and cheat. Ok, so that sounds a bit harsh. How about - Internet technology can hold people more accountable for their actions. There's no grey area in code - just black or white. For example, when an manager unjustly calls out an employee for not turning in a planning document on time, the employee can quickly point to the emails that contained the document with a date and time stamp which says that not only did they beat the deadline, they also sent follow up emails that were unanswered.

I used to work for a software company that created online software that loan officers used to pull a mortgage applicant's credit. For those of you who may not know, when applying for a mortgage, your credit history and score are MAJOR factors. One no-no that brings down your fica credit score is if your credit is pulled too many times. It was not uncommon for loan officers to claim that they had only pulled someone's credit once. I'm not quite sure they knew that code doesn't lie and the logs could should exactly how many time they had pulled credit, which bureaus, what time, etc - EVERYTHING.

Larry Lessig's Code is Law reveals that code is god - it decides how things work, who can join, who can't, who has access to everything and who has access to just some things - EVERYTHING. And since code is created by people, if you were the creator of a website (as all the APOC students eventually will be), what kind of god/ruler would you be? Two types that came up in the Social Dynamics class were democratic leaders and benevolent dictators. Originally I voted for democracy. Heck yah I wanted people to have a voice and be able to vote! It's working in the U.S. right now, it sure as well can online! However, I have since changed my vote. In keeping with my natural proclivity for compromise (for profit + non-profit = social entrepreneurship), I now want some type of hybrid.

When creating an online community, it might be best to be a benevolent dictator (having this as your backstage behavior), coupled with a appearance of democracy in the frontstage, and occasionally, when necessary, yielding to democracy (but very very rarely) Yes, that sounds deceptive, but if you take a look at most (ok, that's a big claim) sucessful online communities, they either follow that model, or they are ruled by pure dictatorship.

Let's take a look at Facebook, one of the major social networking sites. You can upload pictures and share them – that's great! You can upload videos, create insightful notes, and even create your very own applications – that's way great! But have you read Facebook's Terms? I hadn't (until now) and didn't previously feel the need to. I felt that since there were so many people on Facebook, Facebook wouldn't try and screw anyone over or do something totally uncool... or would they?

“When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.”

Hmmmm. I don't know about... you'd really have to trust Facebook to post proprietary content which you want to commercialize.

We could also always look at the Digg.com hexadecimal posting example. Digg, facing the possibility of legal prosecution, took down user content, locked out accounts – basically exercised they godlike power. Until that is, they faced the wrath of their community which was so substantial that they finally gave in and accommodated their user's will.

What I've observed is that high entrance and exit costs along with allowing user's to have a voice, defines a strong community. Entities like facebook, digg, aol, apple, etc. have all thrived by being the “dictators”. So therefore, I think some hybrid of the two should be just as succssful.

Social Entrepreneurship

When I think of venture capital funding, immediately I think of for profit. Venture capitalists invest and in exchange expect monetary measured returns. Therefore, they are highly geared towards for profit. But what about the nonprofit sector? I suppose that the only type of funding nonprofit startups have is through grants and private donations. I haven't experienced any VCs investing in nonprofit organizations (perhaps I'm wrong?). I wondered this, took my question to google, and stumbled across some cool things.

craigslistfoundation.org
Designed for helping people help, they offer a nonprofit “boot camp” to help emerging nonprofit leaders (I really want to go to the one in NY, but if not, then for sure the one in SF in October) and provide online podcasts and notes from those boot camps. They're Project Entry Point does a really good job highlighting the problem areas in the nonprofit sector, primarily having no central gathering place to fulfill their needs (after spending hours in the past googling on nonprofit issues, I can attest to that) and reveals plans to become that hub. If successful (based off of craigslist.com this looks to be promising) this can be the place where nonprofit startups can come to find non traditional funding opportunities.

Social Entrepreneurship

"In the face of this new reality, an increasing number of forward-looking nonprofits are beginning to appreciate the increased revenue, focus and effectiveness that can come from adopting "for profit" business approaches. Increasingly, they are reinventing themselves as social entrepreneurs, combining "the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination."
-- From "The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship" by J. Gregory Dees.

I have plans to start my own nonprofit and to fund it through traditional means like grants and private donations, but this type of hybrid is becoming increasingly attractive. Which brings me to...

Echoing Green
Echoing Green is a VC for social entrepreneurs. However they seem to differ quite starkly in their application and development processes. When viewing Y Combinator and TechStars, the initial application is just a page, no business plan needed or wanted. With Echoing Green, the application consists of short and long essays, a resume, budget, analysis, and references. The tone seems to be much more serious and the competition stiff. And while both Y Combinator and TechStars very clearly explained how much community and consultant support recipients would receive, it wasn't that clear for Echoing Green. Recipients for Echoing Green, however, seemed to receive more seed money (up to $90,000) versus Y Combinator (rarely over $20,000) and TechStars (up to $15,000). And although Echoing Green showcased their fellows more, I got a more supportive vibe from Y Combinator and TechStars. This is probably due to the type of people they are trying to attract and want to have apply.

And the Recap: Worried about VC seed money for your “greater good” idea? No worries, there are “Echoing Greens” out there.

This week I need copyright law to protect ideas

I was chatting online today with a college friend of mine who had an idea to build a online social network for a major retail store. This kind of relates to last week's topic of Intellectual Property and other regulatory issues. We had a great speaker, Michael Overing, who left me wanting more information about Internet Law. We'll have to wait though for the fall before we get the full course.

But the reason why this is all interesting to me, is that my friend did not want to pitch her idea to the major retail store because she was afraid that they would steal her idea and not give her any credit. She had come up with what was a very good concept for this social networking site and even backed it up with mock-ups! (And they were really good btw) We chatted back and forth excitedly as I helped her develop concepts for community building blocks that I've experienced through 3helix and learned about in Kim’s Community Building on the Web (CMGT 530). But after all that great brain storming, this idea still remains just an idea with no real plan of action because of the fear that this retail store will steal her idea (and seriously, what a shame!). Somewhat ironic because last week I was all about loosening copyright law to allow for innovation to develop more easily. This week, I need it to extend to protecting ideas. Which, I don't think will happen. We'll probably have to think of some creative way to use the current laws for her idea to come through. I guess this just proves a more general point of these laws not providing proper accommodation.

Although I feel like her idea is a great one and should be implemented right away, I understand her hesitancy. I know of one of my friend's (from last year's cohort) pitching an idea to a HUGE internet conglomerate only to later have his idea "stolen". My friend's boyfriend's cousin (Don't you just love 3 person removed stories? I give this one the benefit of the doubt, though) pitched a huge movie/television/everything company an idea about a certain blue pet from outerspace that would later be adopted as a dog to help a certain little hawaiian girl cope with the trials in her life. The company said they had no use for the character. Yet 2 years later, the movie came out. Makes a person like me very wary about pitching ideas to a big companies. I suppose if you look at the big picture, in the end final products are produced and people in general benefit from these new products. But what about the idea person? Is that right to just cut them out of the picture?

As for my friend’s idea? I’m ready to be all in to help her. But first I need to either do more research or wait to take that Internet Law class. Then we’ll know how to approach this idea and hopefully pitch it. Who knows… if you see a social network developing in the future with a red dot and a circle around it, at least you’ll know where it started from.

I couldn't use my original title for this blog because it was copyrighted

Before this week's readings my stance on intellectual property was that even though paying royalties feels like an unwarranted hassle sometimes, producers of the property should receive recognition and payment for copies of their work. Those lines for me, however, are usually blurred. There are situation where I know it is a clear violation of copyright. And there are times where it’s blurry. But in any case, when someone’s intellectual property is being copied, it should given royalties.

Let’s use some examples. Person 1 has burned their favorite cd for christmas stocking stuffers. They bought cd, bought the blank cds, and used a legal cd burner to make copies. They then distributed the cds to a small limited amount of people and made no money from it. They wanted to share their favorite music. Now people who haven’t paid for those songs have those songs and can enjoy them. Person 2 has a ton of gigs of songs and then distributes those gigs to their friends who transfer those songs to other friends,etc. Person 2 wanted to share music and let’s face it, when people do mass p2p sharing its to save money. Now people who haven’t paid for those songs have those songs and can enjoy them. Both of these people were wrong and I believe both can be prosecuted. Both of these people should have paid royalties for their distribution.

After reading Lessig’s Free Culture (ch. 10), I feel like Person 1 should not have to worry about being prosecuted or paying royalties. Ok, so both people under my argument should be safe, I just feel more inclined to argue for Person 1. Copyright protection in its original purpse did not stifle noncommercial publishing or transformation. It has changed over time to accommodate the changes in technology, but I don’t think it’s maintained a fair balance between producer rights and consumer rights. I honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with noncommercial publishing or transformation. If you’re not making any money from it, where’s the harm? And if you are making money from it, then you should pay royalties. For example, I watch tv shows on YouTube all the time. I’m rarely availabe to watch the shows at the time they air and I hate watching commercials. Some of these shows are from Viacom. If YouTube is making money off those videos, then they should pay royalties to Viacom. (If that royalty fee trickles down to me I'll probably stop watching, I only watch because it's free)

And what’s the deal with targeting copyright circumvention technologies? I understand the repurcussions of putting out material that has the possibility to lead to copyright infringement, but to prosecute the possibility and not the action? I know that I’m on the consumer end of this and not the producer end, but that really doesn’t make sense to me. I think I’m going to sue the guy driving next to me on the highway that’s going 70 mph because one day he might just hit someone. *shaking my head and throwing my arms up with a perplexed look of confusion on my face* The emergence of techonology, especially Internet techonology has caused copyrighters to freak out. Isn’t techonology supposed to enable people and not hinder them? I mean, in the case of circumventing techonology, doesn’t that just mean the producers now have to make a better product? When you enable technology doesn’t that drive innovation so that better techonologies develop? Isn’t that better for people as a whole?

Whenever new technology emerges, people look at them with glossy eyed feelings thinking ”this is the answer we’ve been looking for” (think CMGT 530 telegraph and initial internet feelings). The Internet, for example, was supposed to be this free utopian world, without regulation from the “real world”. But as in Grimmelmann’s Virtual Borders, web designers are now having conflicting feelings about real world regulation in the online world. The original feeling was that there should be none. But now, as technology and online content and capabilites are changing, some real world regulation isn’t looking so bad. But real world regulation I think is taking it’s time in developing. Which is a good thing, because if it develops too fast, or if opposing sides are not represented well enough, it may turn into another copyright situation. Yes, I think intellectual property is very important but I think the regulation of it needs to be a compromise and not so one-sided. And what I gathered from both these readings is that there needs to be a compromise, a balance, a working relationship between the two factions and arguments.

And the Recap: Before: copyright is good. After: If you’re not making any money, where’s the harm? If you are, pay royalties. Stifling circumvention technologies stifles innovation. Copyright needs more balance to accommodate both consumers and producers.

Adapt or Die

I remember the first time I started blogging. It was spring of 2003 and I started xangaing as a way to communicate feelings which I felt I could not explicitly say out loud. It was a way for me to sort things out, analyze the reasons why, and just plain state what was on my mind. I was such a religious blogger, creating an entry each day (sometimes twice or more a day!) and reading and commenting on other people’s xanga. It was exciting to have such access to people’s thoughts and to also reciprocate my own. Back then, I saw blogging primarily as a online personal diary. And although this new type of communication was exciting to me, I was one of those people that thought blogging was just one dimensional in purpose, fun for now, but eventually its popularity was going to die out. I didn’t see the potential in the content a blog holds. But as I’ve learned, new media/ technology/tools (basically, new anything) displaces older/current media/technology/etc. The “newest” thing doesn’t just die for no reason. It is replaced – if not entirely, but for the most part. So even if I had felt that blogging was a passing phase, I should have acknowledged that there would always be an online application like that present. But the blog is still around today, stronger than ever. It wasn’t replaced, it evolved. It took on newer creative purposes.

Nowadays, blogs have taken on multi-dimesional purposes. People still have online journals, but the topics which they cover are now more diverse, their purpose much more niche. They are more than just personal online journals, they are a way to market, publicize, inform, and brand. It’s mind boggling to think that a seemingly little online tool like a blog is now changing the way businesses do business. And it’s not just the big guys that are benefiting from the blog’s evolvement. Because of the options you now have when setting up your blog, instead of being just a “blog” (write, read, comment) it now can be a fully functioning “website” (domain name forwarding and hosting, ads, tip jars, etc.). Tom mentioned that Blogger has become the “poor man’s website” and the way I see it, it’s actually the “smart (wo)man’s website” in terms of price and up-time reliability when creating a simple website where you don’t have to be an expert designer or developer. Like Cory mentioned, if your hosting a website yourself, and all of a sudden you receive an unexpected huge wave of readers, if your site goes down, your screwed. But if it’s hosted/maintained/supported by a bigger provider, the outcome will most likely be different and more favorable. The way the blog has evolved allows it to stay relevant to the online community. In my opinion, it’s also given everyday users a way to create mainstream websites which primarily in the past you had to hire website producers for.

And the Recap: Blogs adapted to the changing dynamics of the web. They embody the spirit of technology: adapt or die. Pretty cut throat, but oh so true.

Keeping up with technology

The past few weeks have been quite hectic in my work life due to the preparation for the Institute’s annual summit. So I thought this post would be a great opportunity to put together all these thoughts that have been popping, swirling around, generating in my head – they range from various related topics but all have one thing in common. There was an issue or topic that was brought up in class that at some point resurfaced in my everyday when an event or thought made a connection between the two. And as I am very fortunately typing in my hotel room with the lanai door wide open and the ocean slowly rolling against the night’s midnight blue, I will try to pull everything together and wrap it up with a nice bow (try being the operative word).

The summit had a 3 plenary panels today (proceedings link to be posted soon). Its theme was “The DNA of Collaborative Innovation: Collaborative Models for Innovation & Global Health” and the last plenary panel was titled “New Models and Platforms for Collaboration and Co-Creation”. I had the opportunity to catch the tailend of the plenary where Lisa Galarneau from the New Zealand University of Waikato had her presentation on virtual worlds and I made several observations. The age group of the summit participants while older and more mature than mine (think of older PhDs, MDs, etc) were fascinated and taken with the notion of using online technology and communications for collaboration and community purpose. There was a consensus that this was an emerging medium that is and will be quite a factor in current and future research due to its limitless possibilities of distilling information across distance with very little cost compared to traditional venues. Training, collaboration, curriculum development – these all could be be experience and possibly expedited through the use of the internet.

So here comes the “But” part. Among this group of people, the issue of trust is one of the biggest if not biggest. And as an outsider looking in at times, I also see a sort of technology gap between an older and younger generation. The issue of trust was easier to handle with FtF communication versus using CMCs (think CMGT 530) which I think is due to the cues that this group of people have relied on for decades. To change or transition into a new way of communicating takes away years of subconscious self training in filtering cues to decide who they trust or not when deciding to collaborate and innovate. The diffusion of innovation in this case, has researchers thinking “I’ve done things this way for so long and although the notion of using CMCs and virtual collaboration appears to be quite promising, there is an unfamiliarity with it that I just can’t shake off”. I see this all too often. People excited about technology and there are many cases of researchers utilizing new media and technology, but the majority I feel are either scared (and sometimes won’t admit it) or slightly hesitant to fully take advantage of it

And as the web is hurled through new developments at what can seem like the speed of light due the capabilities it now has versus even several years ago, it is traveling so fast, that if you don’t stop and step outside its world, you won’t even notice that it’s leaving people behind. MMOGs, fandom, the whole Microsoft wanting to acquire Yahoo and Google throwing a hissy fit about it – from the point of view of many people, it’s moving too fast for them to efficiently process and integrate this new media into their everyday lives in order to expedite collaboration and innovation.

Technology makes life faster. When I think of this, Gemeinschaft and Gesselschaft communities and the continuum (more CMGT 530) between the two comes to mind. And surprisingly enough, I think more often than not, that possibly the Amish have got it right (Shockingly surprising, isn’t it?). As communities grow, there becomes this need for more a “state-like” community, governed by state enforced laws. And while there is no real “government” in cyberspace right now, the gravitation toward a pull model, this new era of user generated content and media, have taken advantage of the breakthroughs in internet technology, making life, from my point of view, quite fast. The online community is growing at such a fast rate, I feel that on some level, there now is a need for some governing.

On the flight to Hawai’i, as we were nearing Oahu, I looked out onto the Pacific Ocean (yay for window seats), and I felt this calming peace slowly drift down upon me. Mainland life is very quick paced to me, especially LA. The Hawaiian lifestyle I think is more gemeinschaft or at least on the continuum I feel it is closer to gemeinschaft and that there is an internal struggle to keep it that way or move even more towards that way (traditionally it was heavily gemeinschaft – think Hawaii monarchy). I look at the mainland, and in comparison we are more toward gesselscaft and while I see the many benefits and things I love appreciate and about that type of community, life is so fast.

Things are changing quite quickly on the Internet these days, creating shifts in how businesses do business and in the roles that people have played as users of the internet. There are times that I’m like “Yay! Cool! This new *insert new web tool/technology/way of doing things* is grrrreat!” And there are times, where I’m like “Whoa, hold on here, this is a bit much to process at once.” And perhaps that is how researchers and gemeinschafters (ok, I made up that word) view what’s currently going on. The younger generation may be connecting online more and producing content, but there is still value in what people on the sidelines have to contribute. I’m just not quite sure how to fully get them into the game. I think it can be done, though. I’m sitting in bed right, with the lanai door wide open, looking out into the midnight blue, listening to the crashing waves, and typing up my blog. I think it can be done.

Recession?

The first blog that I really ever became addicted to was irvinehousingblog.com. This was mainly due to an interest in purchasing a house in Irvine, CA in 2008. A friend said that if I wanted to buy in Irvine, this blog was something I definitely would be interested in. So I clicked on the link she aimed me and just like that I was pulled in. I love the way they profile houses on the market and analyze real estate data. The comments by the readers are relevant and because real estate has become such a touchy issue nowadays, comments are opinionated, argumentative, and the conversations are just plain cool to read.

Reading this blog however, made me feel like the economy was on the verge of a recession, creating caution in my desire to purchase a house which turned out to be a good thing because although housing prices are low right now, everything being projected through the media gives the impression that we are far from the bottom. Anticipating a recession makes sense though, housing prices are falling, foreclosures are becoming common. This coupled with the news that the dollar was still falling seemed to provide framing to the notion that yes, a recession appears to be inevitable. But the NY Times article, Is It a Recession? Marketers Seem to Think So (reading material for the Social Dynamics of Communication Technologies class), states that "a recession is defined traditionally as two straight quarters of contraction — and officially, there has not even been one." So why do I feel all this economic pressure?

The article goes onto say how the marketing industry through their recent slogans and sayings are creating a need to save instead of spend. That seems contradictory until you think about Walmart's "Save Money. Live Better" or Quiznos new $2 Sammies sandwich. Or how about North Folk Bank's “Uncertain times call for a very certain rate”. There's a whole slue of them in the article.

*Tilting head to the side while stroking chin*... Hmmmm... Interesting. Maybe Bush is right... our economy is still pretty good right now and we are not on the verge of a recession. *Shudders* Ok ok, well I highly doubt that, but it still makes you think. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next two quarters. My bet is that there will be two quarters of economic contraction (it might take 3 quarters to get there due to that pesky stimulus package - you gotta admit, it seems like a nice gesture, but it's like putting a band aid on a gunshot wound). If anything, whether there's a recession or not, I will have tried out the new Sammies sandwich, seriously considered shopping again at Walmart (it's so hard to morally stay away when those prices are always falling!), and taken a look at recent CD rates. Marketing industry takes this round. American consumer - it's your move.

Tanget (yet somewhat related, perhaps tagged in a future blog): I did a case study on Walmart during college, so I am a hard core loyal Target shopper. But the article Target Tells a Blogger To Go Away makes me angry! Is Target not as forward thinking as I thought they were? I don't really agree with what the blogger said - but that doesn't mean Target can disregard new upcoming types of media as irrelevant! However, Miss von Walter, a Target spokewoman said "we are reviewing the policy and may adjust it". I wonder if that they're just saying that or if they really will look into this more seriously. Oh, Target. *shaking head disapprovingly*

A New News

In the Can Newspaper Be Saved? article, Rich Gordon breaks down Newspaper Next’s suggestions on how a newspaper can stay relevant in the face of declining subscriptions due to online media increasingly fulfilling the modern day reader’s need for obtaining news. Newspaper Next states that the print industry has been blind to its competitors. Newspaper is a form of communicating news that has been around for centuries. It has withstanded news radio and television news, but is rapidly declining in its popularity with the introduction of the worldwide web. And although the web has been around for decades, it feels like the newspaper industry simply disregarded that medium as a non-competitor in terms of being a platform for a new way of presenting traditional information, like news. Much to the newspaper industry’s surprise, the web has become more accessible and integrated into people’s everyday lives. It has and is producing websites that fulfill a newspapers purpose – like blogs (see Shifting to Blogs), wikis, ad sites, etc. With the emergence of internet technology breakthroughs in the early 21^st century, the web has catapulted into becoming a more convenient and favored way for many people to obtain their news.

In the Newspapers use YouTube video previews to attract readers article, featured on the USC Annenberg Online Journalism review website, two newspapers - the Dallas Morning News and the St. Petersburg Times are profiled in their relatively new and unconventional use of youTube as a marketing outlet. Both newspapers used youtube to market their investigative reports, citing it as a new way to attract readers and evolve in this new medium. Both newspapers had positive feedback on the effect of using youTube, but unfortunately were unable to accurately quantify just how much of an affect the youTube videos had. The Dallas Morning News videos had a few hundred hits a piece, while the St. Petersburg Times has had over 200,000. However, both newspapers did not track http referer addresses, post links, or conversion rates. This is understandable at first, especially if newspapers do not have the resources to do extensive website tracking. However, gathering tracking data is helpful, if not crucial, when testing out what method of marketing is going to work in order to stay relevant in on the web.

Being creative and learning from their competitors will be a few of the keys to attracting and keeping online readers. Gordon’s article mentions that newspapers now need to be portfolio driven, making it a goal to provide different medium choices to meet consumer expectations. I think this rings especially true with smaller newspaper competing with the New York or Los Angelos Times. Small newspapers may not have the financial means or manpower to create websites which have the latest widgets or technology to attract and keep viewers. So following in Dallas Morning News and St. Petersburg Times’ footsteps and utlizing already popular online venues like youTube is a great way to call attention to articles and give more variety in how their content is distilled. It’s not about trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s about how you can creatively partner with other resources and what ready made tools you can use to more efficiently reach your audience.

The traditional way of communicating news is becoming less relevant. The newspaper industry will have to more versatile and accepting of change if they want to stick around. And if they want to gain back their marketshare they will have to evolve into a new way of presenting news through the web.

Shifting to Blogs

This week’s reading Next-Generation Media: The Global Shift, provides insight into the Internet’s progression to becoming a new platform for conventional and traditional forms of medium. Blogs, a type of online journal, provide users an outlet to publish their own content. Essentially making everyone who participates amateur journalists a.k.a bloggers. They are relatively easy and inexpensive to start and maintain and are a popular and successful form of individual expression where anyone can create and interact in. The topics of blogs are limitless, providing even the smallest or most unique niche to have a voice online. They encourage and foster participation versus just a presentation. They are pioneering a new way to spread information. And they are giving traditional established print media a run for their money. Ultimately, blogs have given regular people a voice and provide them with a wider variety of content from traditionally unlikely sources.

So what makes blogs so popular? So successful? Perhaps it is my technical background which never required me to produce many papers (if any) during college or writing material for any of my work experiences. So when I read print and online material, content falls into two categories for me: easy to read (conversational with easy to slightly elevated language) and not so easy to read (slightly elevated to highly elevated language). I think that for the most part, the average person tends to fall into the first category. And any above average person can understand that level of reading as well. Blogs tend to fall into that first category. So because they are typically written by regular people (non-journalists) and you usually read blogs written by writers who share a common interest with yourself, it adds to a sense of “we-ness”; Not only can you understand and maybe even have a common language, you identify more with the writer and have an initial feeling of community which may lead you to reading that blog more often, suggesting it to other people, and adding your own comments. This type of identification and interaction provides a more intimate and personal relationship with the process of content creation and consumption.

In contrast, traditional print media when compared to blogs can sometimes appear to be “from the establishment” and create a detachment from the reader. Certain media producers can be associated with specific views with possible persuasive undertones. And while newspaper and magazine articles are written by journalists who take great care to produce a well written piece, presenting their writings in a platform where there is no opportunity for the reader to participate interactively stops short of what the present day reader has had a taste of online and now craves.

Yesterday, I read a New York Times article which linked to a blog that I was interested in reading. It was about a man who went to Iraq to write about what was going on there. He never intended to be a journalist or even a blogger, but it appears he has become both. So what drew me to his blog? Common interest about what is going on in Iraq. What made me trust him initially? He was former military, in the middle of the action (literally) and appeared to be critical of everyone, taking no sides. I have read many articles about Iraq, primarily in the first year or two of the U.S. being there. But reading his personal stories (particularly this older post), seeing the graphic photos, and reading his take on things, resonated more with me because of my personal experience with this topic. He was an ordinary person, sharing a common interest with me, presenting it in a way that appealed to me, and provoked me to think… and think… and think. This is something traditionally done with established print media. But during the next media global shift, a blog written by a common person, in common everyday language, is accomplishing just as much, if not more with very little startup funding (if any) and a low maintenance. If the print media is to stay relevant, they will need to put their thinking caps on, go online, and perhaps, start a blog of their own.

War of the Wikis

This week, I took a look at several wiki websites where you can sign up and voila! have your very own wiki. Now, as to forewarn you, I am profiling these wikis based on being an extremely busy full time worker who wants a simple site where people can gather to read and participate. No big thrills needed at this time (perhaps in the future). Translation: I need something quick and easy! But I don’t want to compromise functionality or a good look and feel. So I ended up trying to create the same wiki on 4 different wiki sites to see how easy (or hard) it would be and how the end result would look like. Also, take into account that I'm the type of person who doesn't like reading directions or FAQs unless I really need to. I'll rate the Initial Impression, Ease of Wiki Creation, Overall Experience, and Overall Satisfaction of each site on a scale from 1 - 5. 1 meaning "this wiki site is so not worth it". 5 being "king of the wikis".

seedwiki
I quickly disregarded seedwiki. Their website was just too busy for me. And although they have a cool feature where they have links to their wikis with the size of the link based on how much activity there is (the more activity, the bigger the link and vice versa), after clicking on a few, I couldn’t find one that was visually appealing, and most I couldn’t even understand.
Initial Impression: 1
Ease of Wiki Creation: didn't bother
Overall Experience: 1
Wiki Link: none

wikispaces
And then after taking a look at wikispaces, although I liked the clean look, I wasn’t sure if this was the right one for me. They have a basic plan that is free and then if you want more features you can upgrade and pay a monthly fee. Since 2 of my 4 criteria included quick and easy, thinking about which plan I wanted seemed like time better spent looking at my other 2 choices.

Then, after exploring wetpaint and pbwiki, I went back to wikispaces, feeling like there could be a better wiki out there and that this might be it. Creating the wiki was relatively self-explanatory. It also follows a menu creation like that of pbwiki. But what I really like about wikispaces is the look. It's very clean. Translation: no ads. However, I only signed up for the Basic plan, which is supposed to have ads. Perhaps, they will be there tomorrow?
Initial Impression: 3
Ease of Wiki Creation: 4
Overall Experience: 3.5
Overall Satisfaction: 3.7
Wiki Link: http://workexperiences.wikispaces.com/

wetpaint
The first thing that catches my eye is a video titled “see how it works”. Score! I don’t even have to read to find out information about this one. Just click and watch. The explanation is easy to follow and I can also look at other people’s wikis from the homepage for examples. Their website content is very also conversational, which adds to the ease of use. Signing up was easy enough, however towards the end, there is a widget to import contacts from your email client so that you can notify people of your new wiki and encourage them to participate. Well, it didn’t work for me which caused some slight irritation, causing me to forgo that step. Then editing the pages itself seemed like it was supposed to be more intuitive that it actually was. I finally got the hang of it, finished my wiki setup, and then stepped back to take a look at the page. Not too bad, considering it was free. But I do have to say, compared to the other 2 wikis I signed up for, the ads on wetpaint seem more obtrusive.
Initial Impression: 5
Ease of Wiki Creation: 3
Overall Experience: 3.7
Overall Satisfaction: 3.5
Wiki Link: http://workexperiences.wetpaint.com/

pbwiki
Just like wetpaint, pbwiki had a Getting Started video. And setting up a wiki here was ridiculously easy. I had to get used to their method of adding new pages and creating a menu (like wikispaces). It's doesn't have a hierarchy like wetpaint does where you can created a main wiki page with a sort of sub wiki pages. And the initial look of this wiki is functional but not that flattering. I took a look at other pbwikis and it's definitely doable, but it will require some time.
Initial Impression: 4.5
Ease of Wiki Creation: 4.5
Overall Experience: 4
Overall Satisfaction: 3.7
Wiki Link: http://workexperiences.pbwiki.com/

And the Recap: seedwiki - bad. wetpaint - easy to setup, ads crowd the page. pbwiki - easy and functional but not initially flattering. wikispaces - tied with pbwiki for king of the wikis (for now)

YouTube, widgets, and paidContent.org

One of the class assignments to start perusing and joining online community websites. I had created a YouTube account a while back but never had the time or felt the priority to have an account to upload videos or make comments. It was so easy to just visit the site, search, and watch videos (basically be on the sidelines) that creating an account seemed like a hassle because I'd be creating yet another login and password and adding to the long list of logins and passwords I had already created.

Tangent: Honestly, I wonder what's the average number of logins and passwords and how many websites people have people signed up for. There's probably a method of keeping track of all your logins and passwords (like using the same one or writing them all down in one place) but alas, I have yet to follow one.

The great thing about YouTube is that it is so user friendly. It's so easy! Search, sort, click, and watch. And it doesn't stop there... when the video is finished there's suggested related videos to watch, more videos from the same user, and comments. Great way to keep users engaged and coming back to the site. I'm pretty sure it's a common experience to spend hours watching what people have posted on YouTube.

Usually I go there to watch TV shows I miss. This week was the premiere of American Idol Season 7. Well, I think we're on 7 now. I was a die hard fan of Season 1 and 2... after that it was pretty much downhill for me. So searching for last night's episode actually led me to this young lady. She started by posting her vids on YouTube, she gained some recognition, has her own site now, has sang with quite a few big name singers, performed on Oprah, opened for Justin Timberlake... you get the picture. I dug her performance so much (you have to admit - it really is tough to sing live and without and voice/studio/digital enhancements) I watched more of her vids and even visited her website. And as Ed has asked for an example of a widget, I thought I'd embed her YouTube vid here:




I think before last night's class I had a limited view of what a widget was. Perhaps this was due to Facebook terming these as Applications or how I always thought of them from a programmers perspective and thought they were way more complicated than how they like look from the end user's end. But that's just another great thing about YouTube - copy then paste and wham! you got a widget. So easy! The only downfall tonight was that they were doing updates so I couldn't login and comment and all that good stuff.

I also took a look at paidContent.org. I first found out about the site a little while ago from Karen but always felt so set in my ways with reading google news that it never became too popular with me. I'm mentioning it tonight because there was an article on Facebook's Scrabulous and I know there are many fans of this application. Basically Habro and Mattel are trying to shut it down. I'll profile paidContent.org more in a later post I think I'm stretching the limits of website attention spans right now.

And the Recap: YouTube - it's so easy and free marketing; Widgets - easier to use and view than to program; paidContent.org - Scrabulous is going down

Intro Night

So tonight was the first class for the Introduction to Online Communities. It's being taught by Cory Ondrejka, Karen North, and Clinton Schaff. Talk about big names, experience, and know-how. We had an Orientation the previous Friday, and the awe of how diverse our cohort is in terms of backgrounds (journalism, web/tv production - even occupational therapy and karate!) spilled over into tonight's class. It does, though, makes sense to me that this program would draw people from all types of sectors because online appears to becoming the new universal language for communities. The potential of this group and program is enormous.

We also had Andrew Schrock do a brief overview of the Technologies for Online Communities class. And although initially I thought I would opt out of this class due to my bachelor's degree in computer engineering and background in digital arts, after going through the syllabus it appears that this would be a great refresher class. The internet and technology is constantly changing and updating itself. If you want to be in this industry you're going to need to know the most recent information.

One of the odd things I'm finding out is that there's a lot things that I come into contact on a daily basis in my work for the Institute that actually have formal terms, language, and protocol. For example, since I'm a go-between with the client and developers, with the client being the Director, head honcho, final decision maker person, I find there's a big challenge of having a creative front end with a strong back end to support it because there's only so much time for development due to hard deadlines. I guess this can be seen as the content vs. platform issue. The Institute has great ideas for what they want in terms of look, tools, etc. The challenge comes in implementing all that in an efficient way through programming. And with each new page that is added, each new tool and database that needs to be created, means having to do all of this and have it not affect the user experience in a bad way (slow loading pages, errors, etc.). BTW, the term user experience is another example of something I've been talking about and describing for such a long time and never knew the right term for it. Weird that I never knew the term; Cool that I finally learned it.

I also do a lot of brainstorming, mock-ups, meeting with developers, and bug/user interface testing when working on the Institute websites. And it looks like this will be more formally explained in the technologies class. So I guess I'm looking forward to learning how to do my current job with the Institute better and in way that will make me more versatile with future clients.

And the Recap: Intro class - good, Cohort - cool people, Techonologies class - looking forward to it.