Obama’s ‘Body of work’ speech gags critics

May 16, 2009May 17, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

This video is worth watching, if only to see how the president of the United States put an overblown media controversy to rest –giving that phrase a new context, now.

For those not familiar with this flap, ASU had not intended to give the president an honorary degree –an old college custom lavished on commencement speakers. It was a policy that had been in place for years. But a statement by the university raised the ire of some, exacerbated by media chatter. The statement had the phrase “his body of work is yet to come” and attracted headline such as “ASU stiffs Obama.”

ASU didn’t change its policy; it created 2000 ‘Obama Scholarships’ instead.

So it was interesting to see the pres weave in that phrase many times, to take it to a different level. In the vein of any parent, any teacher that tells a young person ‘you never stop learning,’ and ‘don’t sit on your laurels…’ he stressed sacrifice and finding greatness that lies within. “Don’t stop adding to your body of work!”

The entire speech is here.

Twinterview with ASU’s Nina Miller Kulhawy

May 14, 2009July 24, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

Yesterday i took part in a large social media exercise that allowed us to cover the visit of president Barack Obama to ASU, where he spoke at the commencement.

To follow up, I am doing a series of podcasts and Twinterviews. Continuing where I left off.

This afternoon, I will be live posting responses from Nina Miller Kulhawy, principal graphic designer at the Office of The President. Watch this space!

AF: You’re a Graphic Designer heavy into web design. What got you into social media here at ASU in such a big way? #twitview09 #asugrad

NMK: I went to web 2.0 conf 2 yrs ago, it clicked with me. Human connections have always fascinated me. #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: I think universities need to engage with people as individuals, and I see this as a way to do that. #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: Few people know u are an improv actor. Does relating 2 a real audience have lessons 4 communicating w/ virtual peeps? #twitview09 #asugrad

NMK: Yes! Improvising and dealing with a live audience in person doesn’t differ from what is needed online #twitview09 #asugrad

NMK: Listening skills apply in both, not just always producing content, but hearing what others are saying #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: Let’s get to Obama’s visit May13. What part did social media play in your job? Was it even in your job description? #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: It fits under “other duties as assigned.” I was tweeting as @asugraduation for the day w/@JulieEspinosa #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: I was part of the planning committee, worked with Melissa Werner & @tiffapiffa to build the event site #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: You were tracking many Twitter feeds answring questions in realtime. Without this tool what would u have had 2 do? #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: I can’t imagine what I would have done. One woman in dublin was shocked when I answered her question #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: This is the only tool that I can see fitting the needs of that kind of communication #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: Any neat example or success story in the social media newsroom y’day at the Sun Devil Stadium? #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: I think the running out of water rumor being addressed was one basic needs win. Photos really helped that #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: The biggest win was everyone bringing their expertise to the table, doing their thing. The collaboration #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: For an audience not familiar with the water issue, can u explain? #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: There was a report that we had run out of water at the water stations on the field, it was incorrect. #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: How long did it take for the rumor to disappear? I saw one reporter rushing 2 the exits to check this #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: It seemed to be diffused pretty quickly in person because there was water #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: but it was important to report that online so people that weren’t there didn’t think we were careless #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: Got a link to that picture of the water station?#twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: RT @asugraduation: RT @emersunn: Contrary to reports, there is plenty of water. #asugrad09 http://twitpic.com/54i4y #twitview09

(this is the message she re-tweeted at that moment. Click image left to enlarge)

AF: I noticed several mainstream media folks following our tweets. Any collaborations or exchanges with them worth noting –online or off? #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: I can’t really think of mainstream media collaboration from yesterday #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: No problem. I was sharing images with a photo journalist -he was basically shooting 4us. talk about Fair Use! #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: Our collaboration with ustream.tv managed by @dotguy was especially helpful. Featured on their home page. #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: on the media, I wrote 2 Anderson Cooper who continues 2 paint a wrong pic- he let it slide #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: Going forward how might ASU use the groundswell of social media users across our 4 campuses? Any big ideas? #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: I think if we continue to use it as a listening tool, it will be a great way to connect with individuals #twitview09 #asugrad09

NMK: The conversation and interaction is the most important part to me. #twitview09 #asugrad09

AF: Thanks, Nina. Great lessons for all of us. #twitview09 #asugrad09

Using blogging, tweeting, GIS maps to monitor health emergency

May 1, 2009May 1, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

What a week for social media!

I’ve been doing a lot of data-gathering on the swine flu since we were alerted to the outbreak last Friday. We are a visualization center and decision-lab that happened to hold pandemic flu exercises, so while we are not public health experts, we know a thing or two about emergency planning.

Apart from talking to the media, managing new media efforts and outreach, my work involves being the eyes and ears of the Decision Theater.

A few years ago this would have taken an enormous amount or work. Today, time-crunch notwithstanding, being plugged into social media has made it easier to stay on top of things. It’s all about being connected to the sources and monitoring the monitors.

Is it live, or is it ‘public?’ Sometimes when I brief the media on a story, what I assume to be public knowledge, is not. When the WHO raises a threat level, when a state epidemiologist confirms a new case, when the governor releases a new document or the state health officials hold a web conference … all these go public as they hit the wires. But unless we have an effective monitoring mechanism, or have hired a media monitoring agency, critical data can get buried in the clutter –and chatter. I subscribe to some news services via SMS, and of course follow a few organizations, on my phone via Twitter. I can now ping a reporter using the Twitter with direct message to confirm something.

Direct from the source. I know, all this tweeting, re-tweeting, Facebooking and blog angst (some of which I have referred to) is precisely what adds to that chatter. But rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I think that we are better off with more information, if we know how to use it well. Many who have good data are now not limited to squeezing it through the old pipes (cable) and intermediaries (wire services). They do issue press releases, but they also give us a direct feed. And we are better off for that.

Here are a handful that do a good job of it. An expanded list is on our Decision Theater Blog, Lightbulb Moments.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is using Twitter for emergency alerts, and has a YouTube Channel
The World Health Organization has an RSS feed for disease outbreak updates
Homeland Security has a blog
FEMA has Twitter Media advisory, and a FEMA feed
Of course there’s always Google Alerts. Cranky at times, but useful.
HealthMap, which is a great way to track global disease, also has a Twitter account

The latter is worth elaborating on. HealthMap is an interesting project. The two people behind it (John S. Brownstein, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Clark Freifeld, a software engineer) grab several feeds and lay them out to help us make sense of all that data.

TMI? We can deselect categories in HealthMap if we so wish. In an emergency, few seem to complain about too much information. If at all, there would be an uproar had any organization inadvertently held back some information.

Blogging workshop wrap up

April 29, 2009April 29, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

The blogging 101 workshop, at Jobing.com on Monday was quite an experience. As always, I ended up having a great learning experience myself. More on that later.

The topic, Using Blogging and Social Networking to Support Your Job Search, comes with a bunch of disclaimers. At the risk of seeming repetitive, I have to say that a blog will not and should not replace a resume. It may enhance your resume, but better still it gives you a way to rethink how you work on your resume. Or your reputation out there.

A resume, after all is a way to capture your reputation system on a sheet of paper, which is an odd thing to have to do in this day and age. That sheet of paper needs to become a living document, and not something that lives in a folder.

I happen to think that a blog is easier to maintain than a resume. Certainly much easier than a web site. (A few people in the audience had personal web sites. I do, too, and it’s a royal pain to update.) Indeed, a blog requires more care and feeding at the initial stage, but once you set up some good blogging habits, use a few simple tools and tricks, it’s not a huge chore.

Once you compare how limited you are with some of the existing tactics you use to define who you are, and what your potential is, a blog becomes a no-brainer.

: Comparison between different reputation ‘tools’

Big thank you to Pat Elliott for getting me involved with the Scottsdale Job Network.

Too many swine flu experts hyping it up?

April 28, 2009April 28, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

I have seen a flurry of responses to the outbreak of swine flu over the past few days, and have to wonder if our ability to monitor and repeat information often overstates the situation /crisis. Or exploit it.

I can say this with some confidence since:

(a) I work at a the Decision Theater, where we have conducted three pandemic flu exercises –the last of which was in February this year.

(b) We have to caution many people who ask, because everyone’s in reactive mode, not realizing that this is still an outbreak, not an epidemic, and still far from being declared a pandemic.

I suppose we could hype up the situation, and claim to be ‘experts’ in the field, just to get media attention. But we won’t go there. It is not in the public interest to add to the uncertainty.

Down-playing. Sort of. If at all, I have had to tell media who call that guess what, Arizona was recently ranked the most prepared state as far as pandemic plans. I also sat in a meeting where one researcher in this field noted that Mexico has some of the most advanced epidemiologists, and that their health care monitoring system was not to be doubted.

I have seen communicators jump into this space. Some in a good way. But as Evgeny Morozov of the Open Society Institute noted, “too many Twitter conversations about swine flu seem to be motivated by desires to fit in, do what one’s friends do (i.e. tweet about it) or simply gain more popularity.”

Here’s a short list of how some in the industry reacted:

On Sunday, while I was monitoring the information on the outbreak (at 10 pm Mountain Time), Gerard Baud pinged me about how his outfit is looking at the crisis, with a short podcast. Unfortunately it was an ad for a tele-seminar that you would have to pay for. I would have preferred if the response, in the public interest, was a free ‘seat’ at the teleconference for at least one person in the organization.

Melcrum today published a short but intelligent piece in the Melcrum Hub about an effective crisis communications plan. One of the points they raised seemed so pertinent to the present situation: Stick to the known facts. It’s so easy to go on anecdotal evidence –as in stuff you saw online, repeated by someone who thought she had heard it from a ‘source.’
Ragan Communications also published a good piece on it but unfortunately they too have connencted it to a webinar that will cost you $99.

Happy to note that IABC is making a teleseminar available free. Details here.

Bottom Line. I know times are tough. But people are also getting sick. There are lots of cities, school districts and healthcare systems who have plans but will like to see what else they could do. I don’t think at this time they should pay for learning about better communications to help their local community and their country.

Hey, that’s just me.

Decision Theater as a learning space

April 15, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

While I was away for two weeks, Educause, an organization promoting intelligent use of information technology, published a video I produced with a student last month.

It’s yet another way to see what the Decision Theater is all about, and what exactly goes on in a facility that is less theater and more laboratory.

Mortgaging, squeezing, railroading: running out of metaphors to describe education budget cuts

January 28, 2009January 29, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Laurie Roberts’ analysis of Arizona’s education cuts by myopic legislators, for once puts things in perspective. It also adds to the pile of colorful ways to describe what Arizona faces if it goes through with the proposed budget cuts.

Sure, everyone’s trying to do more with less, but more powerful than the metaphors is how a writer can put things in perspective:

“Put another way, the state would be supplying $358 less to educate today’s college student than it did 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, the state is kicking in roughly half of what it contributed 20 years ago.”

Of course she also notes that “the ripest, juiciest and most available budget that can be squeezed” has always been the universities.

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Angelo Fernando's blog since 2004

Education

Obama’s ‘Body of work’ speech gags critics

Twinterview with ASU’s Nina Miller Kulhawy

Decision Theater as a learning space

Mortgaging, squeezing, railroading: running out of metaphors to describe education budget cuts