by Rosemari
Hollaback is a cool digital platform that combines online and mobile technology in hopes to end street harassment.
Yet another example of how mobile technology can provide a virtual voice for those who couldn't "holla back" IRL (in real life).
I can't imagine how many inappropriate remarks I would have collected if I had been keeping track of every time I was harassed on the street since I was, say, 15 years old. I'm so glad that today's 15 year old (and everyone else) can track it and take action.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
For the Love of Oprah
by Karrin
Oprah Winfrey has captured the attention of the world. When her last episode aired on Wednesday, she stood before her studio audience as a global citizen with a global impact.
Oprah Winfrey has captured the attention of the world. When her last episode aired on Wednesday, she stood before her studio audience as a global citizen with a global impact.
When Oprah first came on TV I remember how she was nice, polite and always articulate. As the years have gone by we all have come to know Oprah from the inside out. It is not until the end of a project or persons life do we really get to see the big picture of who they are.
In the beginning Oprah was very conservative, but so was the nation. Speaking about gay rights, factory farming, and sex were not welcome conversations in those days. Oprah slowly began to attract an audience that was willing to tackle more personal issues than ever before.
As the years have passed we have come to know Oprah in more and more intimate ways. We saw her lose and gain weight. We let her teach us about nutrition and exercise with the help of experts. Her weakness became our strength. Over time Oprah share with us her traumatic childhood memories. We have grown to understand her struggles with food, sex, relationships, race, family and beef. People love and appreciate her life story as she shares her ups and downs with the world. Never before has someone with such influence been so open, raw and vulnerable while in the public spotlight.
After years of experience and amazing opportunities Oprah 's message to the people of the world is to live your purpose and be grateful. Oprah has great hopes and belief in the human spirit. She loves people and it shows. People love her back.
To love and be loved in return is perhaps the greatest and profound gift one can offer this world. Oprah Winfrey has opened our minds and hearts giving us all many moments of gratitude and the promise of a bright future.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Digital New World
by Rosemari
The impacts of digital technology has changed the way our society receives and participates with news and information on a daily basis.
These developments provide the connected individuals access to an abundance of information and, for the first time, its dissemination is completely free. According to the Pew Institute’s Internet and American Life Project report, “In this new multi-platform media environment, people’s relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory.”
The Center for Social Media at American University in Washington D.C. examines the deeper ideological roots of such theories. “A healthy democracy includes spaces and tools for members of the public to have informed conversations about issues of public significance and what to do about them.”
Digital optimists, including Clay Shirky in his 2009 book Here Comes Everybody, tout that this that the new abilities to share information will harvest an evolved world based on this democratic standard. As long as an individual has access to the Internet, he or she can learn, share and grow, regardless of some of the socio-economic factors that have historically set limitations for specific individuals or groups of people.
And organizations like The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy have formed to level the digital playing field as part of this step towards social equality. “The advent of the Internet and the proliferation of mobile media are unleashing a torrent of innovation in the creation and distribution of information. Those who possess and know how to use sophisticated computing devices interact ever more seamlessly with a global information network,” according a report released in 2009.
So, how does this impact a community?
In the Aspen Institute report, The Rise of Collective Intelligence observes that “online communities often are rich sources of innovative ideas, specialized knowledge, timely and sophisticated market intelligence, and niche consumer demand…this decentralized value-creation is occurring online—and therefore is widely available—it is capable of diffusing rapidly and disrupting entrenched institutions and societal practices.”
Shirky discusses the implications for political organizing, “The power to coordinate otherwise dispersed groups will continue to improve; new social tools are still being invented and however minor they seem, any tool that improves shared awareness or group coordination can be pressed into service for political means, because the freedom to act in a group is inherently political.”
More recent research from the Pew from January 2011, found that “it is hard to underestimate the impact of social media and Internet use on group engagement.” This relationship is confirmed in regression analyses when other important factors such as age, education, income, personal efficacy, religiosity, and trust are controlled.
In fact, among all of these key predictors of online behavior and group involvement, being a social network site and Twitter user and daily Internet use are among the most powerful predictors of whether people perceive the Internet as having a major impact on their ability to find groups that match their interests, bring others into their groups, keep up with the groups they belong to, organize group activities, contribute money or volunteer their time, and even create their own groups.
The impacts of digital technology has changed the way our society receives and participates with news and information on a daily basis.
These developments provide the connected individuals access to an abundance of information and, for the first time, its dissemination is completely free. According to the Pew Institute’s Internet and American Life Project report, “In this new multi-platform media environment, people’s relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory.”
The Center for Social Media at American University in Washington D.C. examines the deeper ideological roots of such theories. “A healthy democracy includes spaces and tools for members of the public to have informed conversations about issues of public significance and what to do about them.”
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| Here Comes Everybody Cover |
And organizations like The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy have formed to level the digital playing field as part of this step towards social equality. “The advent of the Internet and the proliferation of mobile media are unleashing a torrent of innovation in the creation and distribution of information. Those who possess and know how to use sophisticated computing devices interact ever more seamlessly with a global information network,” according a report released in 2009.
So, how does this impact a community?
In the Aspen Institute report, The Rise of Collective Intelligence observes that “online communities often are rich sources of innovative ideas, specialized knowledge, timely and sophisticated market intelligence, and niche consumer demand…this decentralized value-creation is occurring online—and therefore is widely available—it is capable of diffusing rapidly and disrupting entrenched institutions and societal practices.”
Shirky discusses the implications for political organizing, “The power to coordinate otherwise dispersed groups will continue to improve; new social tools are still being invented and however minor they seem, any tool that improves shared awareness or group coordination can be pressed into service for political means, because the freedom to act in a group is inherently political.”
More recent research from the Pew from January 2011, found that “it is hard to underestimate the impact of social media and Internet use on group engagement.” This relationship is confirmed in regression analyses when other important factors such as age, education, income, personal efficacy, religiosity, and trust are controlled.
In fact, among all of these key predictors of online behavior and group involvement, being a social network site and Twitter user and daily Internet use are among the most powerful predictors of whether people perceive the Internet as having a major impact on their ability to find groups that match their interests, bring others into their groups, keep up with the groups they belong to, organize group activities, contribute money or volunteer their time, and even create their own groups.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Online Advertising: The David and Goliath of our time?
by Rosemari
“If we had to do it over again,” reflects Josh Koster in his article Long-Tail Nanotargetting about Al Franken’s online advertising budget in 2008, “we would have spent more on Google and Facebook and much less on local newspaper placements.”
“If we had to do it over again,” reflects Josh Koster in his article Long-Tail Nanotargetting about Al Franken’s online advertising budget in 2008, “we would have spent more on Google and Facebook and much less on local newspaper placements.”
The power of online advertising is the honed by the ability to pinpoint your target audience. Online advertising not only allows you to get the most bang for your buck, it also gives you a greater opportunity to engage with individuals who have the most potential to buy your product, vote for your candidate, support your cause, listen to your band’s music, attend your event, and organize your rally.
You may not have the biggest budget or the widest audience, but it the right online tools and savvy, you can make a serious impact. The power of microtargeting online can be the catalyst for a David-and-Goliath style smack down. And that’s super exciting.
Peter Greenberger’s article The Digital Playbook: Can online ads move polls numbers, draws similar conclusions based on a case study from RESOVE: The National Infertility Association. Grennberger’s article compared the impressive ROI RESOLVE’s online approach had to their public service announcement (PSA) for the same campaign that lamentably left their target audience with no measurable impact.
Koster’s anecdote about removing Lou Dobbs from CNN’s roster was particularly inspiring and a testament to the importance of online strategy for impacts in mainstream media and our society at large. It made me feel like the playing field had finally been leveled. The best ideas (and not the biggest budget) win! Or do they?
Before I get out my pom-poms, Koster reminds me, “like all digital success stories, [Al Fraken’s] case study is not about reinventing the wheel, but about modernizing a strategy that has always worked.” And while David may be the first jump on the online advertising bandwagon, history tells us that Goliath is not far behind.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Participatory Consumers On and Offline: We should demand more
by Rosemari
In my former life, I often organized large-scale events for local government. During the planning, my boss would always suggest that one of the top administrators give the opening remarks at these events. I think she wanted them to see the great work we were doing and make sure that they felt important. She wanted to feed into their notions of own power and prestige.
In my former life, I often organized large-scale events for local government. During the planning, my boss would always suggest that one of the top administrators give the opening remarks at these events. I think she wanted them to see the great work we were doing and make sure that they felt important. She wanted to feed into their notions of own power and prestige.
However, the old school approach of power and prestige is changing. And I would argue that this change has, for the most part, started online. Online, consumers are interactive, participatory, and often the key determiners of what power and prestige looks like. Online, it’s not enough that you have a seemingly important job if you don’t have anything to say or can’t say it in an intriguing and engaging way.
Digital politics guru Alan Rosenblatt (my professor at American University’s School of Communication), discusses how this new level of participation raises the bar and creates potential among consumers in his four part series titled Dimensions of a Digitally Networked Campaign for Politics Magazine. He writes,
“Because activists and voters can talk to each other, produce and share their own media content, create local and national counter-campaigns (even from within a campaign’s own website or social network page), they can take the campaign in directions all of their own making.”
And as online consumers are able to transform campaigns for advocacy, I think that consumers should be able to call for the same level of engagement, critique, and quality offfline. The point that my former supervisor missed is missed by many organizations both on- and offline.
Offline, your title shouldn’t matter if you are too afraid to be authentic in your opening remarks. Or if your public speaking are worse than an unironic Ben Stein calling roll in Ferris Bueller. Online, Colin Delany provides sobering (but much needed) advice about how to avoid getting caught up the old methods of what’s important to the consumer in his nitty gritty primer Politics 101:
“If your site structure looks like your organization tree, stop to think about someone coming to your site who’s never heard of you before. Not only do they not care about the welcome message from your president (unless he or she is famous, hot, unusually charismatic or is a candidate for office), the information they’re trying to find is probably buried somewhere deep in your press section, if it exists at all.”
Furthermore, we need to understand the responsibility we have when we create both on and offline platforms. When we provide these soapboxes it’s important that we keep the target audience on the forefront of every programming decision we make. Understanding how empowered and participatory consumers are taking their online power offline can guide us through those decisions.
While it’s easy to want to tout our programs to the brass, like my former supervisor wanted, it’s not worth it or useful. Consumers demand more. And so should we.
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