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.