Another First Blog Post

So I am following suit and posting to our blog.  I've always been hesitant because I feel that, with all the internet traffic, who needs another blog? Who cares?

A friend of mine gave me a fully prepared blog site as a wedding present a couple of years ago.  I didn't quite know what to do with it and she said we could do a wedding blog.  Or a pregnancy/baby blog.  Still, I was nonplussed.  Aren't there already a few hundred of those, with only a few of them having content worth following?

And that's what stops me.  Content--or rather, content worth reading.  After all, there's only so much time in the day for leisurely reading or even serious reading, and one has to consider the sheer magnitude of the blogging phenomenon.  According to Technorati's 2008 State of the Blogosphere, there are 184 million blogs that have been started world wide.  Consider as well that those are old numbers; with even greater accessibility that number's probably higher.  (More stats aren't available on their recent SooB.)

Having enrolled in this class has brought me to a new perspective, one from which I hope to gain a clearer understanding of how and why to create meaningful impact via social networking and digital media.  I've included an old clip (2 years old!) that I think demonstrates why it's important to get on the merry-go-round, and why I'm even in school:

XPLANE/Dachis Group created these as easy visualizations as to why education is so important today; their older, 2008 clip is probably better known.

It's true that we're living in exponential times, and that things are shifting rapidly.  And we ARE the internet, and we are the machine.  So, who cares? Hopefully, you do.  And you.  And YOU.

The New York Times released an expose yesterday, January 26th, on the human costs of manufacturing electronic devices in China (read it here). While the Apple iPad was the device spotlighted in the article, the journalists also mentioned that Dell, Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others are also guilty of enabling mistreatment of workers through their production in China. You can read Apple CEO Tim Cook's response here.

How do you think this fits into Simon Mainwaring's ideas about re-purposing the ideas of profit and creating sustainable capitalism? If the very devices that are supposed to give us access to the social media tools that will allow us to hold corporations responsible for their behavior through our purchasing decisions are compromised, can we still make "good" choices about what to buy?

In a related question, how many of us make buying decisions based on where something is produced? How realistic is it for us to imagine buying everything we consume from manufacturers located in countries where there are reasonable standards for workers and workers' rights?

Finally, can you connect any of these issues to what you're doing with your organization?

GuSu

Dreams

While wasting some time on Facebook the other day, a friend had posted a quote by Walt Disney as their status; “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them”. As cheesy as that may be, it got me thinking about what my dreams are and how I can make them realities. One of my academic/professional dreams is to be successful in my particular field of Professional Writing. I would argue that to be successful in our profession is a dream that most of us would share.

However, how do we realize this dream? We are all taking perhaps the most important step of furthering our education, but what else needs to be done? I decided to do a quick internet search to see what kind of advice was out there. I found a great article on UpMarket that deals with many aspects of a career, from knowing your value as an employee, to asking for a pay raise and how to get a better job. My favorite piece of advice from this article was “Always remember that the secret of success is passion. Always think big. Spread love & joy. You'll have blissful years ahead.”

The article can be read here.

With my internet search, I wasn’t completely satisfied so I decided to make a short list of my own ideas of how to be successful in your career.

Here are my ideas:

· Take advantage of opportunities. This could be anything from picking up an internship, volunteering to provide services or using your writing talents at your current job.

· Network. Build relationships with professors and classmates. After all, your classmates will be future professionals as well!

· Hone your craft. Spend time developing your talents. Keep a journal; write as much as you can. The more you write, the better.

· Learn your tools. Writers need to know more than writing. Today we are expected to have an eye for design, an eye for photography, and software skills, as well as many other things. Spend time learning the tools to help you in these areas.

While some of this list may be specific to professional writing and my own journey, I encourage you to think on this topic, come up with a list of your own and begin to realize your dreams. I would love to hear what you all come up with!

And to leave you with some intelligent words, here is the late Steve Jobs speaking about dreams…

Dream on!

Celia

Meditation

What is Meditation?   Why Meditation?

Many people have different view of meditation.

Buddhist may think about a group of monks sitting together in silence and keep on following footsteps of Buddha.  

Christian may think to use meditation to get closer to God.  If you never try to it, you may still be wondering “Why meditate?

Meditation is a means of transforming the mind. 

•  There are many things in life that are beyond our control. 
• We learn to turn our focus within and stop our minds jumping around. 
• Meditation is the way to develop wisdom and insight; we need a calm, clear and concentrated mind.

• We can learn how to transform our mind from negative to positive and from disturbed to peaceful.

Let's start with a simple meditation technique

Meditation for Beginner

Read more information: http://meditation.dmc.tv/

roaming around blogger and my mind

I'm roaming around our blog spot and learning stuff by bumping into it. This bumping feels uncomfortable and clumsy, but I get thrilled when I figure something out.

There are many things I haven't yet figured out, like: why my photo won't load in our blog area. Somehow I ended up in my Google account settings and loaded my photo there, thinking I would find it on our blog page. Well, it didn't show up on our blog page. I have no idea where it is showing up. I was able to navigate back to it, and I tried to delete it, and couldn't. When I find my patience, I'll return to my Google account settings, find the help icon, and ask it how to delete my photo.

(Andrew, I'm wondering if there will be any type of in-class, hands-on demonstrations for Twitter, etc. )

Jud, Celia, Jake and I met with Chris to discuss our project. I left our discussion feeling overwhelmed. I'm wondering if we're supposed to discuss our project on this blog site, or develop another one. Or maybe I should just email them my thoughts and concerns. Team, I'll email you sometime tomorrow. It was a great meeting and I'm looking forward to working with you.

Despite my grumbling about bumping into things, I am really excited to learn how to use social media as a tool for advocacy. And I did learn how to post a blog today!

~Lucy

1/21/2012 Citizen Alumni Group Exercise

January 21, 2012 Group Exercise (Citizen Alumni Group)

1.  Traditional marketing was about advertising through network media with a broad based statement about a company's product.  Scott recommends using plugged in bloggers with smaller and more targeted audiences for a company's specific product.

2.  Marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment than an audience needs it.  The convergence of the marketing and PR departments is a concept that reaches buyers directly.

3.  Our reliance on oil and gas is a major example of the "Me First" capitalism we see.  Our oil prices are relatively cheap in comparison to European Countries and most of America continues to mindlessly waste oil as we continue to complain about increasing oil prices.

4.  Finding the balance between self-interest and greed.  We can use social media to promote awareness of greed and the negative effects it has locally, nationally, and internationally.  Using our personal social media sites that we use to connect with others, we can promote awareness.

5.  The particular need of our organization is to connect with alumni within the community to bridge a greater sense of community.

Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment

A newbie writes a post

Hmmmm.  I'm a newbie at this myself so let's just see how this looks.  I've got a blog idea in my head but nothing that would be useful in this class.  Mine is about travel and sharing the in's and out's of flying that I've learned about working PT for Delta Airlines.  The secret to easy travel is to not over pack.  Just saying : )

A Work in Progress

This is the first blog entry that I have ever written.  To be completely honest, I am not entirely sure what a blog is.  I do know that it's a web-based journal.  I am confident that I'll know more by the end of a few more classes.  I hear words like blog, wiki, podcast and tweet everyday.  I know the basic function or use of these things but putting them to use for my own educational success is something very much new to me.

I'm not an old, grumpy man longing for the days of the typewriter and the rotary telephone.  I am 34 and use Facebook to keep tabs on my Army friends that are all over the world.  Twitter to me is something for famous people.  I am open to learning more about Twitter and its purpose.  I do grow tired of texting and the very annoying and lazy acronyms that are widely used with social media.


 This class will hopefully help me navigate through the world of social media and its positive and constructive uses.  I hope to build skills that will enable me to communicate productively and with purpose.  My social media skill level right now is limited to "checking in" with friends and family.

What I am hoping to learn/gain from this class

What I am hoping to learn/gain from this class: COMM 485 – Communicating with New Media

As I understand it, we are supposed to have a minimum of six blog posts for this class.  I am not sure if we are supposed to begin our own blog page, or if we may post here…

I am trying to make a habit of getting a jump on things when I am moved to… and this morning I was ‘nudged’ by Andrew’s  words yesterday about a blog post… so here goes.

I have created one blog before (this past November) http://printheuk.blogspot.com/ and I post to it irregularly. I have not exactly stuck to the subject matter for which it was created… and I hope to change that with time, experience, knowledge and focus.

So, for this class…

I am excited to learn about the variety of new media tools that are available to us as communication professionals.  I hope to learn how to take a message (or messages) supporting an idea or cause, and develop, shape and channel that message into the specific media in which it will be dispersed.

I have not extensively used a wiki before to communicate, but more importantly, to consolidate thoughts, words and ideas from different people into a single coherent message.

I am interested in:

·         Learning how to begin, maintain, and develop a blog into a solid, focused tool for communication. 

·         Developing a better understanding SBCC and the participatory paradigm.

·         Beginning with a nearly non-existent, unknown organization/project, and finding out how far we go in the development of a campaign of advocacy in 16 weeks.

·         Learning how to effectively communicate and idea online, and how to change/shape the form of the message based upon the media in which it is presented and the audience to which it is directed.

·         Find out how to effectively use Twitter (as it seems to simply be Facebook in shorthand).

Just some thoughts as I begin a day of studying and project work.

Great day all!

Nik