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Speaking Out Of Turn – from Citizen Journalists to Whistleblowers

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Some notes and pictures from the Chat Republic event at the American Center, on 13 June.

Organizations are going beyond the ‘blabbing’ phase of using social media, to craft more thoughtful, business-focused strategies for customer / audience engagement.

Dipnote – the State Department – and Dell are good examples of using ‘media’ to different ends. In the book, I feature Dipnote, as one of the pioneering government blogs that dared to use a format and a platform that was not exactly popular in tight-lipped institutions.

Dell, uses a Social Media Listening Command Post to be closer to its customers. It runs a virtual war room, with full-time employees who listen to the chatter.

Many people question social media as if it is some sort of object that comes in a box –and ought to also include a set of instructions. If you like to give it a tangible quality, think of it not as an amplifier, but an antenna. en, Even then, no box will contain it.

I then opened up the topic of podcasting, and how it was different from its old media cousin, broadcasting.

As this was a seminar-style discussion, there were good examples of how print media is using print and digital to create ‘breadcrumbs’ back to the readers. Also in the audience was a member from a grassroots organization I had featured in the book (in one of the Bonus Chapters at the end of the book, and he updated us on the programs involving teaching English and blogging.

And finally, we addressed Citizen Journalism. From Abraham Zapruder, one of the most remember ‘accidental’ or citizen journalists – he caught on tape the Kennedy Assassination. To the brave amateurs who risk their lives to tell a story no one else is privy to.

Oddly enough, even as we were speaking, a larger story was unfolding of someone who has dared speak out of  turn – the Edward Snowden affair. I can see this topic come up in the next two weeks, even though phone tapping is not a social media problem per se. It is, after all, related to the ancillary, hairy issues social media skeptics bring up: too much transparency, and how vulnerable it might make any institution. But that’s not what my book is about. But, hey, I’d be happy to discuss in another forum.

Farmer in the DELL no joke: milk, beef gets labeled, tracked

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

The COOL standard is here. A short press release from the USDA announced that as of September 30th this year, all “covered commodities” involving beef, pork, lamb, goat, chicken, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetable, peanut, pecan, ginseng and macadamia nut) will need to have Country of Origin Labeling.

The idea is to provide us consumers with more information, so we know exactly where the lettuce and the meat on a hamburger came from. Will this be TMI? Apparently 92  percent of consumers wanted this. Might customers adjust their consumption patterns because they would be armed with this information? I think it could lead to new trends in branding, where some smart farms could create the equivalent of an ‘Intel Inside’ signature for making certain menu items more desirable at certain restaurants.

Speaking of smart farms, farming went high tech many years ago, but this story is far out! A cow with an embedded chip, a programmable robotic arm that gets to the udder, and lasers used to test the milk. And you thought a refrigerator that sends you a text message when it senses you have run out of milk, is a crazy concept!

Dell’s green road trip bristling with social media

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Dell is no newbie to new media. I have been tracking them for more than two years, especially Lionel Menchaca’s parlay into social media with the hugely popular DirectToDell, its attention to the blogosphere, its presence in Second Life, the new Digital Nomads effort, and even the use of Twitter for marketing Dell Outlet,

So when I heard Dell’s latest social media effort, a 15-day, 15-city sustainability road trip with non-profit group Grist was headed to ASU and stopping right here at the Decision Theater, it sounded like a program worth writing about myself. On Friday, Todd Dwyer, Dell’s Environmental blogger, came by with Sarah van Schagen, an editor for Grist.

The reason for the visit was to look at ASU’s role in sustainability, with the School of Sustainability, and our work with the Global Institute of Sustainability.

The ReGeneration blog has some interesting features, steeped in social media. There is the grafitti wall, exploiting web 2.0 to get visitors to contribute to contribute ideas to the site. Videos are posted to Quik, and there’s a graffiti art contest with entries like the one on the left.

They have two posts, and two videos worth checking out.

The rest of the road trip is worth following, too!

Dell’s Nomads grab rich marketing space

/ Angelo Fernando / 4 Comments

There’s a Digital Nomad in all of us.

The term came into currency with the book, and soon independent consultants were ditching their desks and cubes finding it convenient to work from “wherever.” Gas prices have been accelerating this trend too, with nomadic workers telecommuting a few days of the week or using Starbucks as their home office.

So Dell‘s move to own the term, albeit a bit late, is extremely smart. I see DigitalNomads.com as a business strategy to capture the mobile space that will ultimately be crowded by not just laptops, Blackberries, and iPhones, but by all the hybrid forms of connectivity we will adopt. Especially when ubiquitous computing gives way to invisible computing.

Not only does the web site connect people with a nomadic lifestyle, but it promotes a slew of connectivity tools and social groups. From Jott (one of my huge favorites) and Adobe Air to LinkedIn and Skype. It’s turning out to be a good place for discussion of the trend.

  • Shel Holtz, the archetypal digital nomad had added a lot more tools to the list.
  • Clint O’Connor considers the need for clear policies of freedom and security when an organization embraces ‘digital nomadity.’
  • Matt Jenson suggests that the term –and the role– of ‘Boss’ will give way to the role of the semi-authority figure, the ‘Mentor.’

Taser hits wrong nerve. Gets wrong kind of Google juice

/ Angelo Fernando / 4 Comments

Taser is not unfamiliar with controversy, even when it comes to students. But yesterday a Taser hit the wrong kind of target –a student being videoed -and the company has started getting the kind of media coverage and social media backlash it never bargained for.

It’s an incident that shows what could happen when you combine rudimentary citizen journalism and the ability to quickly form an online community around an event.

The Facebook group formed in protest is just one way this incident is getting played out, apart from in the media, with online comments, and headlines not very flattering to a company. But it’s not only how it’s played out. It’s how the story gets enshrined. The phrase “Don’t Tase Me Bro…AHHHHH!!!” uttered by the student Andrew Meyer before he went down is used by the Facebook group. It could live on — right next to say, “Die, Press release, Die! Die! Die!” and “Dell lies. Dell sucks” in a Google search.

There are many interpretations of the several videos taken at the incident, eye wittiness accounts, and some calling this an overreaction. The eyewitness who had also been waiting to ask John Kerry a question makes a good point, wondering why Meyer could not have also waited without rushing the microphone. Some called Meyer a jerk, and another said it was justified.

But if you watch the video, you’ll see there were many cameras on the scene. One report suggests Meyer knew his was being videoed.

All this of course doesn’t help Taser. The company recently announced a ‘subtle shift’ in its positioning, from one of protection to “saving lives.” It’s an impressive technology from an impressive company here in Arizona. But it goes to show what a tenuous task public relations is today.