Education

Fan or Friend? Here’s that handout for the webinar

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I’ve been conducting a series of webinars on social media, and we reached the halfway mark last week. The series was called Passport To Digital Citizenship.

The topics have been:

  • “Hit the Ground Blogging!”
  • “To Tweet Or Not To Tweet?”
  • “Facebook as your Hub”

In this webinar we talked about fans and friends –especially the difference between ‘lower case’ friends and ‘upper case friends.’ How do you engage your network? How do you turn on your hub? And most importantly, how do you get ready for an increasingly mobile user?

If you attended the 3rd webinar, here are two handouts. you may find useful.

I had one participant suggestion –to create a discussion group on Facebook.

Quotes for the week, ending 25 Sept 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / 3 Comments

“Lots of traffic, lots of talking, lots of everything. But listening to each other…”

Title card in YouTube video aimed at the leaders attending the UN General Assembly in New York this week. The video-as-open letter was by RelaxZen, a mood-altering drink –that was shipped to every world leader.

“We’ve also re-engaged the United Nations. We have paid our bills….”

Barack Obama, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, on the commitment of the US to change.

“You are only as relevant as their problem, and your pitch has to be empathetic of their situation.”

Nathan Wagner, Relevant Chews,on selling

“But of course we’re meeting all the time. We’re both involved in all the main meetings and talk all the time.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, responding to claim that Number 10 was snubbed by the White House, with regard to a personal meeting between the two heads of state.

“LookingGlass automatically rates each posting as positive or negative, so the Zune HD team could rank comments according to sentiment and see how customers are responding to the product and the campaign to sell it.”

Microsoft statement about its new image management tool that lets companies monitor, analyze and engage in social media, via its Silverlight technology

“These Squidoo lenses are for sale.”

Ike Pigott, at Media Bullseye, on Seth Godin’s rebranding Squidoo as a social engine that aggregates online chatter about a brand or company.  Pigott also calls this a sinister act of piracy! Squidoo already has “900,000 hand built lenses.”

“Chiggy-Wiggy.”

Soundtrack from the Bollywood movie, Blue, featuring Kylie Minogue and Oscar-winning composer, A.R. Rahman –he of of Slumdog Millionaire.

Digidorm could ruffle feathers!

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

The idea of sharing in a 21st century university is a given. Terms like collaboration, cross-disciplinary, interactive get thrown around. The Open-source movement has also crept into class-room and curricular initiatives.

But what might happen when you take this to its logical conclusion, and invite participation and sharing at a different level? That’s what Digidorm is all about. A sort of a social network for colleges. I know what you’re thinking: isn’t that what Facebook was all about in its early days? It hopes to be more, engaging anyone in the education space –enrolled students, alumni, faculty, parents, employees, and even high school students.

Digidorm intends to tap into the culture and vitality of college life and the communities that sustain any college, mashing up knowledge, providing writing tips, and library info, and college applications.

Digidorm is a bold idea by James Palazzolo, formerlyof ASU. Bold because it compiles some 3000 universities and allows anyone -who registers– to publish writing, video, photographs, and documents.

Interestingly, James did his master’s degree at ASU on this topic, and has the chops to make this work. I’ve known him for years as someone always involved in collaboration and sharing, from wikis to text messaging (before the Virginia Tech incident forced every college to go this route) to live blogging.

Will it ruffle feathers? I can expect this for several reasons.

  • Not only because of the content that will show up there, but because it could become the defacto intranet for colleges that should have created this in the first place.
  • Being a third party space, it will be out of the range of those who must manage a college’s (or an individual’s) reputation. How will a professor dispute an inaccuracy? How could parents request a takedown of an embarrassing photo of a child?

Already people who are trying to cope with keeping tabs on a school’s image (that show up in Facebook posts, videos on YouTube, tweets and vlogs) have their hands full. Digidorm adds one more headache -or opportunity, depending on how you approach it.

CHECK THIS: video that explains how to get started with a contribution.

Quotes for the week ending 19 Sept, 2009

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“We sound like a support group for superheroes. ‘By day I do this, by night…'”

Joe Michels, on the Phoenix iPhone Developer Group, or Pi.

“The more times he is required to write “I will not call the president a liar” on a special blackboard set up in the well of the White House, the bigger hero he will become to a large chunk of the population.”

Michael Kinsley, on the Joe Wilson umbrage against Obama.

“Hello, Kevin Rudd. We are Anonymous. We have been watching you.”

Hackers who sent an anonymous message via a video and a manifesto (on this web site), to Australian Prime Minister.

“Google economist sees good signs in searches.”

Washington Post article on how search is predicting an economic recovery.

“From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point.”

Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman

“My answer is not the answer, it is an answer. If you have a better or different answer, put it in the comments.”

Josh Bernoff, on a post that responds to social netiquette questions he receives.

Quotes for the week, ending 15 August 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“We’ve just had a demonstration of democracy.”

Senator Arlen Specter, after a person attending a town hall meeting shouted at him. The man was escorted out of the room, at a Harrisburg Community College.

“The Obama administration has delivered … a message of tough love. We are not sugarcoating the problems. We’re not shying away from them.”

Secretary Hillary Clinton, summing up her trip to Africa

“The Internet disrupts any industry whose core product can be reduced to ones and zeros ..it is the biggest virgin forest out there”

Jose Ferreira, founder and CEO of education startup Knewton

“Doing sustainability is fine, but being sustainable is where we want to wind up.”

Michelle Bernhart, author of “The Rules of the Game” in an upcoming edition of IABC’s Communication World magazine, interviewed by Natasha Nicholson.

“FriendFeed, in my mind, is the new RSS reader.”

Robert Quigley in Old Media New Tricks

“Macaca Day, for those of us who make our living from video on the Internet and elsewhere, is a holy day – the day that marks the birth of YouTube politics, and reminds us that citizens with cellphone cameras and a YouTube account – or at least an election.”

Dan Manatt, at Tech President, on the infamous comment by senator George Allen during the election campaign

“Google Voice “is merely symptomatic of that larger question.”

Ben Scott, public policy director of Free Press, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group in Washington, on the investigation on whether the carrier (AT&T) and handset maker (Apple) had anything to do with banning Google’s voice application from the iPhone.

“This is a decision based upon consumer experiences, child protection and our strategic investment to build up MSN Messenger.”

Geoff Sutton, GM of MSN Europe, on the decision to shut down Microsoft chat rooms in 28 countries.

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Quotes for the week ending 20 June 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Students sell their internet access to their neighbors and they also do the same in public offices …”

A BBC report on blogging in China, Vietnam and Cuba, and how Cubans find creative workarounds to poor internet access.

“I wouldn’t know a twitter from a tweeter but apparently it is very important”

Ann Curry, quoting HClinton re: #iranelection

“”In California we vote on everything including whether we have to keep voting on everything.”

Joel Stein, TIME magazine

“We do a whole lot of tweeting during the Chapter 11 … we’re their ears.”

Chris Barger, Dir. of Communications for GM, in The LA Times

“Why hang out with celebrities when I can spend time with people who make me one?”

President Obama making fun at teh Broadcasters’ annual dinner.

Lessons from live blogging a social media event

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

Last evening, I live blogged an event at work, trying out a service called CoverItLive.

Check it here

What was interesting to me was that the event itself was steeped in social media. Basically it was the unveiling of a student-created wiki for sci-fi author, PJ Haarsma, who writes books that are connected online  games, using feedback loops and wiki-interaction to promote better reading habits across America.

To get back to CoverItLive, it’s a great tool, because it lets you update your posts  created on the CoveritLive interface, to any blog. Of course being the first time I used it, I think I messed with the time-zones and as a result, it was not updating. Plan B rolled out! I copied and pasted the posts into the blog. Which defeats the purpose, I know!

But the experience was valuable; it’s only by experimenting with social media tools like this can you get past that learning curve. The very frustration and the mistakes make a lot of other similar social media apps coming after this, easier to master.

Features: What’s neat about CoverItLive is that the audience does not need to refresh the screen — the text keeps streaming onto your blog. Also very valuable, is the ability to conduct a poll while posting.

Recently we looked at using Polldaddy as a sidebar to a live video being streamed via BitGravity, and toyed with the idea of live-blogging and tweeting the event. I love Polldaddy, but application clutter can be distracting. One interface that pulls a lot of other apps together in one box is what I am always looking for.

So the 3 things I learned about live blogging:

  • Always conduct a dry run. It seemed to work in a test, but I never went live. If no time for a dry-run, always have a Plan B.
  • Work as a team. It’s tough to take photos, record audio and live blog! We did this at the Obama visit a few weeks back.
  • Gather media in advance -videos, photos, links etc. Fortunately I had some some homework on this event, so I knew what YouTube video to link to etc

There are two other boxes to check:

  • Make sure of the wi-fi connection
  • Charge your batteries, and/or sit close to a power outlet

Quotes for the week ending 23 May, 2009

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“It’s an interesting use of technology, but I can’t help but feel a bit ‘eeewww!’ about this.”

Twitter user on hearing about surgeons in New York tweeting through a kidney surgery

“The word “campaign” has become the pariah of social marketing. Preferred alternatives include terms like “program,” “initiative,” or even “conversation.”

David Berkowitz, in MediaPost, about the word (borrowing from George Carlin) that will “infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.”

“Think of it as an early warning system.”

Dan Greenfield on a new tool called Tweet Cloud he has developed for PR and marketing, to make better use of Twitter

“As if there is a lick of difference between those split hairs.”

Arizona Republic editorial on Nancy Pelosi.

“I really hope we don’t get shut down.

Ross Luippold, editor in chief of Texas Travesty, about a fake Twitter Account the student humor magazine had created on behalf of University of Texas at Austin president, William C. Powers Jr.

“1 billion applications served, 35,000 applications available and more than 30 million devices in market.”

Advertising Age on how mobile advertising –app-vertising– is going to change.

“I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by. So far I’m only 1 for 2 as President.”

President Obama, at his second commencement address this year, at Notre Dame University, with a snide reference to his visit to Arizona State University last week.

Quotes for the week ending 16 May, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“I’m OK.”

Roxana Saberi, Iranian-American journalist who reported for NPR, who was freed from Iranian prison this week.

“But the president I worked for always wanted it short. He thought about people sitting in the audience on a hot day…”

Mark Salter, who has written commencement speeches for Senator John McCain, commeiting on on what president Obama’s speech at Arizona State University would be like.

“It was a shock … we knew the list was coming, but we didn’t think we would be on it.”

Regina Alexander, whose parents own a Chrysler dealership, on the news of the closure of five Arizona dealerships.