Technology

San Diego station leverages social media in crisis

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Image from KPBS Flickr siteSan Diego broadcaster KPBS, an NPR affiliate and service of the San Diego State University covered the fires in a way that most local stations would –with updates, lists of evacuation sites, safety tips etc.

But it has also embraced social media in a big way. Its stories have links to Delicious and Digg, a Flickr account inviting residents to upload images, and has a Google map embedded with icons to tell residents the status of the fire, and where to locate an evacuation center or animal shelter. For those inclined, there’s also a Twitter feed providing regular updates.

If you’ve ever been temporarily displaced, you’ll know that a phone line becomes a lifeline. Hence the value of Twitter, proving to be an incredible on-demand, up to the minute channel for situations such as this. On Saturday for instance, at 10.01 am, a “tweet” went out to announce that:

” The community of Deerhorn Valley has been reopened to residents only. Residents must enter from the west side of Hwy.”

The station also began using a free wiki from PBWiki that is a quick and easy way to assemble timely information, and allow the community to contribute or update. PBWiki responded by throwing in two free weeks of its Platinum service to KPBS.

FaceBook’s social surveillance

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Facebook is on everyone’s agenda. I am attending a 5-part webinar hosted by HigherEd Experts on everything Facebook. It covers a lot of the basics, but Fred Stutzman, a PhD student-turned-lecturer comes at it with a deep understanding of what’s going on in this space, in terms of offline-to-online socialization, identity production, privacy and that tricky beast called “social surveillance.”

What’s that?

It’s a phrase that has its origins in deep surveillance methods that include location monitoring and data mining. Which is what social networks have a potential to do, when you think about it. Students are using social networks to do more than upload photos of their dorm. They keep tabs on their circle of friends in a form of benign surveillance.

Because of the rapid shift in demographics, there seems to be two Facebooks separated by an invisible line. Tread carefully when crossing over from your domain into theirs. Last year, a group calling themselves “Students against Facebook” created a sort of a backlash – using Facebook! – against its tracking/surveillance feature.

Using Flickr photos: is it social media’s carte blanche?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Interesting story of a controversial use of someone’s Flickr photo by Virgin Mobile.

AdRants reports that the family of someone is suing Virgin for using his photograph grabbed off Flickr for the ad campaign .

Which brings up the question: is it OK to use/link to someone’s picture because it is out there on a Creative Commons license? Or the larger question: Is the model release form in need of a re-write?

I have put up some of my photos here on my blog, via Flickr. I have not deemed them private, and they fall under the Creative Commons license –meaning they could be used for commercial reasons as long as they attribute the source. But I have to be careful. I don’t use pictures of my friends or family in that album. I know some others do.

CC Chapman (above) for instance, the epitome of all things in the new media space, a huge advocate of the commons and networking has loads of pictures up there. Robert Scoble’s photos of family and colleagues are everywhere.

Note, I am not copying or uploading this image of CC. I am simply linking to the URL, using the WordPress “insert image here” field. (I’ve previously used the image upload feature, but apart from it being cumbersome, it’s never seemed fair to copy someone’s logo or image onto my hard drive and upload it without their permission.)

But to get back to Virgin, consider the medium the campaign is promoting: phones. Virgin’s agency could not have been ignorant of the copyright envelope they were pushing. My guess is that it half expected this to happen and like all things Virgin, decided it was just “doing a Branson.”

And just to capture a delicious irony of how a Flickr lawsuit could end up, there’s a picture of a settlement check one photographer received after suing a company that had used her Flickr photo. Yes, that settlement and the check is on Flickr !

On Grammar Girl, content is queen

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I listen to a podcast of one of the driest subjects on earth, grammar. But what makes Grammar Girl, so extremely listenable /valuable /addictive is a lesson for a lot of marketing communications that’s too self conscious. This short, no-frills podcast never reveals the person behind the mike –Mignon Fogerty — who interestingly is from our neck of the woods –Gilbert Arizona.

But I bring this up because of another reason. It’s a good example of why you should pay attention to content, and not get too distracted with format and style. Grammar Girl has no well-produced intros and outros (the intro is simple and memorable.) Just riveting content. She opens with three words that becomes her de-facto signature, “Grammar girl here,” and leaps straight into the topic.

Topics are those you may be too embarrassed to ask about (but rather look it up on Wikipedia) such as when and how to use an ellipsis … the proper use of bring/take, and things you never new existed (“eggcorns“)! She also responds to reader queries, and comes across as the person next door, rather than some snooty English major or language guru. Give it a listen and you’ll see what I mean.

Joost is more than TV on the Net

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

joost_screenshot.jpgI signed up for Joost some months back, and was glad to see they now have a beta worth checking out.

Watch a simple explanation of what it’s all about.

Basically it’s a way of watching TV on line, and chatting with a community using chat programs such as Jabber of Google Talk. because it’s TV delivered in real time, it has rich content on floating screens, giving you some background about the program, other channels etc.

Why sell (or buy) when you can rent?

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

petrental.jpgNetworks, and the ability for people to buy or rent have disrupted many old businesses, and given rise to new business models. Netflix was the epitome of this, taking on the Blockbuster‘s of this world. They had to respond with Netflix-like Blockbuster Online.

But the rental model is blossoming in many unexpected areas beyond furniture, art, office plants and cars.

The weirdest is called FlexPetz if you want to rent, not own a Vet-whetted, obedience-trained pet starting at $49.99 a month (plus an annual maintenance fee). It’s a sort of a time-share model for pets, says Business 2.0.

Time shares of course were the classic rental business, more specifically fractional rental. Riffing on that model is FlexCar, a way to rent a car for a fraction of the day. You sign up online, pay your fees, and receive a magnetic key in the mail. Then when you want a car you reserve one online, or on the phone, and pick it up at one of the locations. One neat features is you don’t pay for gas; the cars are refueled (by the renters.) How so? There is a gas card in the car that can be used at Arco, Costco etc.

To serve a completely different need, there’s BookSwim that works like NetFlix.

And it gets more creative, with a handbag and jewelery rental site, perfectly named BagBorrowSteal.

Take time to ask. Take time to get to know.

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

As a freelance writer I get pitched a lot. I don’t hit the delete
key unless it’s totally irrelevant. But I have to say there are several
people who do take the time to ask if whom they represent is relevant,
and they do their homework.

I had a pitch from a PR firm in the UK recently that really stood
out. He promised he wouldn’t flood my inbox, and offered an RSS feed as
an alternative –something I opted for.

On a macro scale, how do you get to know an organization, its
priorities, its strategic goals?

On Wednesday I was asked by a local firm
to speak to a group of incoming account managers about strategic
thinking and solutions selling. I used an example of how as
‘transparent’ as it may seem, a company’s web site is the last place
you’ll find that kind of useful information. A Google search would be a
hit or miss, unless you find a corporate blogger giving the inside
scoop. Nor would a site map reveal the inner working groups, the nodes
and the unofficial networks. Taking time to get to know this
“inner-net” means putting our digital smarts aside, and falling back on
our analog skills. I use the phrase “Think digital, act analog” (first
used by Guy Kawasaki, I believe) to illustrate the point.

A good article on this also appeared in Fortune magazine
last month (titled “The hidden workplace.”) “There’s the organization
chart,” it said. “And then there’s the way things really work.”

Bottom line: Take time to understand the analog networks. These power brokers, access points, nodes and human routers may not have a LinkedIn profile, but they sure make things happen!

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Is it live, or is it on ShootLive?

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Liveearth
What technology would PR companies, the police, and the paparazzi want to get their hands on?

It’s delivery that basically sends raw images from a video camera direct to the consumer. It is a service from ShootLive,  news agency for the digital age based in Nottingham, UK. The ShootLive service was used in the coverage of David Beckham’s game in July.

Why does this change the game? Because of the need for speed. In journalism and in PR, or even in law enforcement, seconds make a difference. The scoop, the intervention of a criminal, the ability to relay instantaneous pictures of a tragedy such as an earthquake can impact lives.

Images from camera are streamed (as an XML feed) to a mobile phone in less than 60 seconds, the company says. What I like about all this is it doesn’t make the end-user jump through hoops to receive it. Images could arrive as a multi-media text alert.

What could this do for marketing? Apart from the obvious ones that ESPNs of this world will jump onto, and be able to monetize, marketers could get users to opt-in to premium content. Think: Olympics, stage acts such a Live Earth, and even regional ones. The McDonald’s and IBM’s could sponsor XML feeds . Down the line when the genie is out of the bottle, cell phone carriers will use the technology too. Already, AT&T has a similar service called VideoShare where subscribers could stream video with a camera phone to another phone –while talking! These are both low-end ($29.99 and $79.99) Samsung phones not some souped-up smart varieties.

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Stories in PR and social media

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Summing up a few interesting stories last week.

1. The walled garden of Times Select may soon open up to the rest of us who don’t want to part with $7.95 a month.

2. AT&T ‘censors’ Pearl Jam’s words. they didn’t want to to get Dixie Chicked, for supporting an anti-Bush band.

3. A company called Fatdoor has come up with an interesting way to use social networking to get to know the neighbors. It’s a mashup of public information, a wiki, maps etc. Good explanation here. 

4. A very cool idea from Edinburg, England. Using a camera phone and text messaging to detect art.

5. Taking story #3 to its logical conclusion, how about using a social network to get to know your dog’s owners? Technology Review magazine had a story about how your dog’s FaceBook-like page (called a PetWork, I kid you not!) could enhance your social life.

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And when I die would you Twitter my buddies?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

A story in the Arizona Republic
yesterday about a Tucson company creating graveside memory capsule may
seem a bit awkward, but the technology got me thinking. If you could
make a digital tribute downloadable at the grave, it opens up many
other possibilities.

Indeed John Stevenson’s product is more low tech than the
competition, which the article says, is a digital headstone that plays
a video. A sort of a flat screen atop one’s final resting place.

Ten years ago, we would have never thought the media or digital
content would visit this fine and private place but let’s get real. If
we use digi-formats to preserve everything we do while we are around
(Flickr family albums, Facebook profiles, digital photo frames, and
people who Twitter about everything they do in life) someone might as
well put these profiles to use after we have hit the final escape
button. It seems to me these are opportunities waiting to be tapped.
Some free advice:

1. MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Plaxo memorials

2. Turning expired (no pun intended, honest!) domains into permanent
markers that redirect to online memorials. Perhaps an idea for GoDaddy.

3. Archiving of Google search results for a person’s name as a legacy (OK, vanity) item to stuff into the graveside memorial.

4. Preserving tweets from a heavy Twitter user.

5. WiFi for cemeteries. I bet this exists.

6. Bluetooth connectivity on headstones –to download those digital
memories. Right now one needs to bring a laptop and cable to the grave.

7. The ability for people to text message condolences to the family from anywhere and turn these into a card or book.

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