Sorry Albert, didn’t mean to offend. You can come on strong to my brother and return the favor.

I call my brother Gilbert when his real name is Robert. He is going to meet my friend Albert on Saturday night. Albert meet Gilbert, and vice-versa!

Which reminds me of the night I met Alberto’s brother:

After lots of chapagne, swing dancing, and Pirates of the Penzance at my cousin’s big 20th and LEAP DAY birthday, Eric and I went to Pour House. Well I happened to run into my friend Albert who bartends there on Sundays…

 For context: a. I’m drinking free champagne  b. I’m being giddy from dancing with Eric-le-charmer all night

 Albert’s brother-in-law happens to be :

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4510160

 Apparently I was trying to get Mr. Green interested in our program for journalism. Albert called me the next day to tell me I slightly offended his family (sister was there too). I mean, I know you have a kick-ass job, but you’re not Brad Pitt. You should enjoy the attention and intrigue that your job garners.

So for you, Albert, I’m sorry if I offended the fam. But it won’t be the last time I’m offensive in P-U-B-L-I-C. Go ahead and offend Gilbert. I approve.

Drunken Facebook photos? Get over it.

I just friended a former professor on Facebook. She and I sometimes email back-and-forth and she shot me an email mentioning my post I recently put up on my profile about Obama’s photo wearing traditional African garb. I commented something, ending with “What the EFF?” She mentioned that as someone who wants to be a journalist, our opinions can destroy our credibility.

I just have so much trouble grasping that in this day and age. We should be able to express our opinions on Facebook. I realize that it’s much easier to find someone’s profile on Facebook than it is to find them in a crowded mall now and one must protect themselves from the hazards of being so exposed online. But I have had Facebook for a few years now and always felt that I could dump my photos with friends into it without giving it a second thought.  I am beginning to realize that as I cultivate a place in the professional world, I cannot slap on photos or comments that potential coworkers and professors would see and would make their relationships on Facebook more ambiguous than their relationships with me in person. I mean, seeing one of your profs with their Hawaiian shirt and flip flops on in a bar drinking beer and shooting pool was a little disturbing when I was 21 and trying to party at the same bar, but I got over it quickly.

I don’t mean to make anyone I friend on Facebook uncomfortable when they see “drunk photos” or personal photos. We have to accept that we will see more personal photos when we integrate these networking sites into our daily lives.

Collaborating: It’s all about the flesh… oh yeah and the computer

Since our class is focusing more on how collaborating can be so beneficial to organizations and to each other, I will continue blogging about my thoughts on this. Yes, we collaborate and yes, web 2.0 has certainly been the Great Facilitator for humans to come into contact with one another more easily and more often. We are continuing to condition ourselves to rely on our network more frequently and in far more ways. I think that we have created a new importance level that we stay apprised of each other’s lives with feeds on social networks. It is not always crucial that we know what one another is doing every moment, but sometimes the information can give you a more holistic outlook on that person and it helps you gain perspective. Facebook has become one of the most efficient interfaces for keeping my identity consistent with varying “friends.” As friends can see how they are in relation to one another and how others relate to them, they gain more insight into which relationships are more worthy of nurturing. I have learned that as you mature, your virtual identity should align with your professional. I have not reached the level where I need my own website or need to promote my product, but I know that my Facebook profile and any other virtual footprints I may have will have to evolve with my career to a certain level.

I certainly don’t want to be a prude. I think it’s an understood thing that these social networks dump people into one-dimensional relationships that fail to highlight the quality of one relationship over another. I see the feature of explaining how one knows someone else on Facebook has allowed for them to give more color to this relationship but it is rarely used by my friends and me. Overall, Facebook and other sites have captured the element of archiving who you know so if you need to derive benefit or utility– whether it be for entertainment or for human capital– you have it there. My prediction is that as we pioneers of Facebook (whatever demographic that is, but I know I definitely fit into it) age and cultivate careers, we will expect that Facebook grow with us.

 By the way, I am so happy we live in a day where if we lose a business card, we know if that person is worth their salt, they’ll be on Facebook or LinkedIn.

I think The Wisdom of Crowds, as nap inducing as it can sometimes could be, was great to skim through. It highlights the effects opening up a system to allow diversity but explains the opportunity costs in opening up rather than preserving a more cohesive system of people. The book exemplifies how a company or a person needs to stay ahead of the game because social sciences are tough to conquer and the best way to attempt is by being flexible with the ever-changing demand and reactions in society. It’s all about flexibility and diversity, baby.

Collaborating

Wikinomics showcases the mass movement that we’re facing as a nation and world. The web is not a privilege nor should it be a luxury. Communicating on the web is so crucial to our functioning that any discussions on whether or not someone can thrive without the web should be a nonissue. We cannot thrive without the web in a postindustrial society. Neither can industrial and hardly third world. Furthermore, we cannot thrive without web 2.0 and any other platforms that will enable collaboration in the future. Now that we have the web, we have the ability to communicate, collaborate, and share information all the time and in multiple facets. The paradox of the web 2.0 movement to me is that, as we move toward more collaboration and streamline our ability to communicate en masse, we do not have to physically be around others anymore to interact. Wikinomics referred to blogging as “the world’s largest coffee house,” but I look at it as a virtual cocktail party (perhaps it just depends on which social networking site I’m on). If you consider social networking sites as learning tools for young adults to learn about each other and network, you have more potential for using these sites as a PR hotbed and an equalizer for the underdog. I think of Steve Hofstetter when I think of facebook. This is because about three years ago, I heard about this red-head comedian who was going around “friending” everyone on facebook to have the most friends ever. I ended up meeting and later playing pool with Steve one night in Tallahassee. He’s out in L.A. trying to get big gigs, but he got a foothold in comedy by touring college campuses and using facebook to spread the word. I am happy I caught on early enough that facebook had the potential to not only launch a minicareer for Hofstetter, but it helped people connect who probably could not have with the messaging features and profiles.  I always had a dubious view of wikipedia, but with the progress it has made in the last couple of years, it is gaining more credibility in academia and in business.

In my opinion, it’s all about organizing and creating meaning in the world and creating the most efficient process in doing so. Wikinomics used an example of this early on in the book by paraphrasing the way civilizations advanced by innovation in cultivation and harvesting and creating surpluses of foodstuff. After surpluses were created, it afforded more time for people to pick and choose what skills and trades citizens could hone. Economies began to bud and preferences became more apparent, thus creating diversity, markets, and conversations in the world. The web has gone through an evolution of the same caliber, building click-and-stare websites and later moving on to linky networks. Web users have created networks, blogs, and forums to share in similar interests with others regardless of where they are.

I see that there is a movement that cannot be ignored. I think most are engulfed in the movement and it becomes too difficult to separate oneself and examine the shift in the web and its impact in the world. The books we’ve read, including Wikinomics, have defined this movement better for those who want to swim even faster in and with the current of mass communication and collaboration.

Google Is a Stud

I remember when I first heard of Google. I was walking on Sanibel Island with my dad during either my freshman or sophomore year of high school. I can’t remember what I was looking for, but I had to stop into a local shop and ask a woman if she knew what/where something was. The woman replied, “No. But I can Google it for you.” I said what?

Google has certainly created a dependency to users, but is it a permanent fixture on the web? I can’t help but wonder how much Google will tap into until it experiences what some economists call “the fishing out effect.” This would be the running out of new ideas and a sort of cabin fever for users. The ridiculous growth rate for Google is a sign of its value to searchers and advertisers, but its resourcefulness will continue to be tried in the future. One has to wonder when the growth stops and the plateauing begins. I am selfishly enamored with Google because it has made my emailing much easier with gmail and I continue to find cool apps like Reader and Library. I might add that I LOVE the informational retrieval that is integrated into my inbox. Eh, as much as gchat was really cool, it’s now becoming a distraction at work and I’m facing having to block people because they are breaking what I call the “red light etiquette.”

Overall, Google’s godlike ability is impressive for turning chaos into meaning. Google packages and delivers the latent content in the vertigo of the web for us so we can begin our stream of clicking without a second thought. And now it’s reading our minds. I feel like Google has a hand on my shoulder and tells me “Let me guide you. Just tell me what you want and I’ll produce.” (In this respect, I hope to find a Google incarnate in my future husband.) Recently when I think of Google, I think of Jimmy Fallon commenting to (who I think was) an E! News reporter that he was married at Necker Island. Necker Island was the destination for Larry Page’s wedding that was scheduled before Fallon’s. Fallon jokingly commented that he will trade the camera charger he found in his hotel room for some stock options.

With the speculation following Yahoo and Microsoft, Google increasingly becomes a focal point for us. The Search was good for showing the underbelly of Google, including its run-ins with both other big tech firms and little businesses that stick their tongues out at Google. Google has created the launching pad for small business to be prime competitors for big business. Interesting to me was the nerve of small business owners to criticize Google for changing their algorithms when they created their sites and developed their sales dependencies on Google’s traffic. I don’t think that relying on free advertisement is the most sound way to secure a steady income but, nevertheless, it does reflect the sound trust in Google by Google users. I appreciated learning the different advertising strategy by Google with AdRank versus the conventional. As I continue learning about the leveling of the playing field in The Long Tail, the “voice of many,” namely bloggers, and even Google, it is becoming more apparent than ever that this is what defines big business in my generation. There is still so much speculation and uncertainty, but we are confident that technology and bright, young minds are the keys to the locks of success and progress by proliferating knowledge. We are definitely getting more socially aware in all aspects of life, if not altogether smarter.

Just as we found out how much our economy can “benefit” off of Britney Spears by creating a subsidiary “Britney Spears industry” of tabloids, TV shows, and websites, I am seeing a general trend that I did not pick up on as much until recently. Google is creating more wealth by giving its clickers an opportunity to find better business to meet their preferences. A chapter in The Long Tail is called “The Aunts Have Megaphones.” Well, they may have been given the megaphones with the web, but Google is giving them steroids. It’s a beautiful relationship. Let’s just face it: Google is a stud.

The reading has piqued my curiosity on another thing:

What kind of impact does Google have on my extended family’s business the RH Donnelly Corp and its future for the Yellow Pages?

I must also admit that I regularly look up my ex who is now on the PGA Tour just for fun.

You know just how cool Google is when you have a really cool author endorsing it. Chuck Palahniuk recommends in his writing tips by his cult that if you’re uncertain in your diction, just Google it to see what comes up.

I’ll end on the note of thanking the mysterious woman in the now forgotten boutique on the salty little island neighboring my hometown of Fort Myers for introducing Google into my vocabulary. Not only is she being blogged about it right now and will never know it, she is forever incorporated into my nostalgia of Sanibel day trips with my dad while growing up.

PS- I just bought a Google t-shirt online.

The Long Tail

The Long Tail captures in words the phenomenon of living in a time of streamlined business, more efficient exchange, and  a time of TMI. The book mentions that geography is no longer an inhibitor to cultivating relationships and finding markets. Affinity has supplanted geography and this is screwing with our heads, old and young. There is obviously a lag in time and a natural aversion to changing our techniques as the web’s acceleration and its externalities have eluded many speculators since its induction to our offices. Like most economic relationships, “The Long Tail” as an idea is captured in a curve. The demand curve shows the relationship between consumers and their preference or demand in a product or service. Most demand curves, Anderson explained, predating the recent upgrades in e-commerce sites show how consumers are influenced by marketing and advertisement to share similar, almost generic, preferences for a thing. This top-down marketing effects a desire in consumers to vie for scarce products because they are led to believe that those products are the prime choice. In a classical economic approach, the prime choice is the high demand reflecting the quality of the thing which has created value in society. This is represented in the peak of the curve, closer to the x,y intersection of axes. A sticky relationship is one of advertisement and consumers, but former economics show that while consumers derive benefit from their choices, they are influenced to act in a certain way and buy certain things because the message is they’re supposed to have it because we say it’s the best.

The Long Tail still supports that there is a heavy demand in scarce, or popular products. Although high demand creates a marriage of popularity and scarcity, there is a long tail on the right side of the graph of the demand curve which represents something perhaps less popular but cumulatively very powerful. The lower demand for a product is becoming more represented on the web because the barriers to entry are fading and transaction costs are lowering for those who want to jump into a market and exchange information and things, no matter how esoteric the information or obscure the thing. This is a beautiful thing in economics because it is snipping the search costs for responsible consumers and offering unprecedented diversity. It is also permitting people to create and share more easily.

I do think my generation is tackling the duality of virtual interaction and physical relationships with grace. We are finding a new respect for the web’s capabilities and we are learning that it’s OK to let go of the former and adopt to the new more easily. The sooner we embrace the new- not because it’s new but because it’s more efficient, the smarter we get. While reading I was reminded of my very short-lived internship at an antiques and art gallery while I was an undergrad. I would work the Friday night auctions as a display girl, but during the week I was an official e-bay lister. Smaller items that did not sell were put into plastic bags and labeled as “lots” and were usually things like costume jewelry. E-bay listing was not a bad job, although other pressing goals of mine, including writing some, swept me away from this potential career. During the Friday night auctions, we were told to watch the bidders carefully. I presumed we were to watch bidders who were looking to slip something into their pockets, but we were told to watch bidders’ legs and feet carefully. This was because bidders would walk around the auction house in search of the computer wires so they could “accidentally trip over the wires” and unplug the computers. I was later informed that we had webcams and computers to tape the auctions live and host them online for an interactive auction open to bidders inside the auction house and bidders anywhere in the world. Bidders inside the house were competing with bidders who could be living in New York and England, making for higher bids and a more competitive auction. The bidders sitting inside the house were not only competing with more people wanting the same thing, they were competing with people who could have stronger currency and higher standards of living. This was my first sampling of what the internet is doing to consumers. Hopefully I find myself on the side of embracing these options and not scowling over my losses by someone who outbid me from Long Island.

We have more information thrown at our eyes than ever before with the internet. Google and the TV Guide Channel have both shown that we depend on them for their sorting out of our confusion, but they have capitalized on our time and have brought about even more things that occupy us while we’re searching. If this is not a witnessing of the transformation and the democratization of information, I do not know what it is. We have more freedom to choose and it’s a nice thing. We can also get rid of things and put them into the hands of someone who values them more. That’s economics at its best. Today my father told me he e-bayed a Rolls Royce driving manual he had laying around the house from when he had his 1970’s Corniche back in his days of tight jeans wearing and driving around Palm Beach with my mom. He sounded amused that he found a place that bought old driving manuals for Rolls Royces in England and he made a quick 40 bucks.

As I continue my blogging adventure, I see the Long Tail effect in everything from Pandora to PerezHilton. The book nudged me a little more to see the benefits of not only the web, but of blogging. I am enjoying learning about so much by peering into windows of information, whether it’s on fashion or politics. The Long Tail started to lose me by page 113 (ok kind of admit I am nurturing myself right now from last night’s grand tour of D.C. night clubbing), when Anderson tried to exemplify the top blogs as top picks in groceries. I realize the analogy was actually meant to show it’s hard to see what “top” means unless you’re looking at comparable niches. My only point on the whole technology blogs being one of the top is that there are probably some confounding factors within that correlation considering techies started blogging first.

And as boring as I think I’m beginning to sound, I think I’ll end with my thoughts on podcasts. I listen to podcasts all the time, but since we had to specify for this entry, I’ll say I recently listened to the Harvard Business Review podcast on Generation Y’s need for immediacy. Basically she’s saying we’re products (Gen Y) of the Boomers and we’re worthy of study. We don’t want your lame old job working a number of years to win some respect in the corporate arena and then finally getting a bone as a mid-level manager with a lame window adorned office. Oh yeah, we’re impatient and we want to do our own thing.

I am tickled the subject is “Managing Gen Y-ers”: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/hbr/hbr_ideacast.jhtml

Naked Conversations Ch 10-13

 

 

Honestly, if I were to play word association with the title Naked Conversations, I would have to say the first thing that comes to mind is “Pillow Talk.” I realize that Naked is referring less to exposed human flesh and more to an emerging paradigm of PR and consumer blogging and the more lucid relationship that is being created between the two. The independent PR firm Edelman has a website with podcasts highlighting how trustworthy Edelman is as a business to people. The firm’s namesake, Richard Edelman, has his own blog called 6 AM where he writes his take on things like what to expect from China in the New Year to the bad press by Financial Times reporter James Mackintosh whose article reported that Edelman was not meeting the guidelines as part of the UN Global Compact. Mr. Edelman explained that his company actually met the guidelines, but the UN did not have a record. This blog entry was insightful for reasons explained in the chapter Blogging in a Crisis (13). Although Edelman does not appear to be a frequent blogger, he followed the blogging savvy of communicating on his blog that this mishap was due in parts to lack of follow up and disorganization. He was candid that his Edelman people should have followed up with a phone call to double check that the UN had their report (duh). Instead of being closed-lip about the bad press, Richard Edelman subdued potential naysayers on the CSR of Edelman by communicating to his readers the back story on why the FT reporter wrote what he did. Edelman blogged about this to defend his company, but it is also helpful to see how journalists can print misinformation because of the way things appear while doing investigations. It’s always good to call for background, especially when you’re reporting on big names. Edelman’s blog gave another perspective, despite its stance, for his stakeholders and consumers of the media so that consumers could know the truth.

 

It’s apparent that a blog like this is an extension to the main focus of a profit-making company for web-using consumers to see a human side to companies like Edelman. Edelman posts the apology letter on his blog from George Kell, the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. Toward the end of the letter, Kell mentions, “See you in Davos!” What’s held in Davos? The World Economic Forum’s annual conference. Since reading chapters in Naked Conversations, I can now tell you that Robert Scoble, Richard Edelman, George Kell, and Israeli techie Yossi Vardi were in Davos at the WEF this month.

 

I knew of Edelman’s work with Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty and wanted to find out more about this marketing strategy. Personally, I am surprised that not more big brands are using “real beauty” for their advertisement. While looking into how marketers are slowing deciding if advocating for size 12’s is effective, I ponder what else I can find in the blogosphere. It is certainly an economy of information, full of niche blogs. I found an interesting woman named Jessica Weiner who has made a career out of being an advocate for women’s self esteem. Weiner has a number of different blogs on body image for girls. She has given expert advice on the Tyra Banks Show, she is on the Dove’s CFRB Advisory Board, and she has a blog called jess’s body peace blog for Seventeen Magazine. I’m going to follow up on her enterprises, especially as a blogger for women. Note: Although I am interested in body image issues as a young woman, I’m also interested in how she incorporates blogging into her career that endorses healthy body images to hit her market of mostly young women.

 

Article on Sanibel Beachfront Property

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080110/RE/80109055/1014/RSS02

Let’s Face It

Democrats Facing the Change — You might be able to look to the news to find out where the Democratic candidates stand, but you can certainly count on some good coverage of the Clinton-Obama face-off. There’s the clip getting all-too-familiar of HRC shifting her weight, a furtive glance over to Obama while he speaks and Obama with his pointed finger and equally pointed gaze into the audience. They might as well be fifth graders in a cafeteria dodging soggy fries and hiding behind Cloroxed tables. Both of them call each other by their first name. I wish Obama would sing “Hillary, I’m rubber, you’re glue…” A clip of one of their debates ends and the talking heads begin: How did the issue of race get used today? Radio Personality Michael Reagan said on Hannity and Colmes that the Hillary team could join the WWF the way they’re tag teaming him. Reagan is referring to one of Bill Clinton’s recent remarks, inflated by the media, about Obama while Bill spearheads his dual role of husband and campaigner to Hillary. The bottom line for all conversations is that Senator Obama is change. But then so is Senator Clinton. What I do not see is the issue of Clinton’s sex being brought up so carefully as is Obama’s race. It seems that when Hillary is being examined as a woman, she is often getting kicked or hailed. Sure, Obama gets called an inexperienced, junior-senator. Obama also gets the lofty appellation of Visionary. She’s not so much Senator Clinton in the media as she is the former First Lady, or perhaps the future Madam President. Most times it’s just Hillary.

What I find intriguing is as a young woman I see two individuals who, regardless of the presidential outcome, are harbingers of the progress of leadership in the West. It’s like America is going through a sort of puberty to allow a precedent of leading opportunity for all people. The issues of gender and of race are growing pains. Obama’s poise and eloquence complement his nifty ability to reassure many people who were just learning his name a year ago. Both candidates are different from the “meat and potatoes” presidential dish of old white guy. What I have observed and am not as comfortable with the media’s coverage of HRC is their love-hate stance on Hillary as a woman. Can we ever get over the aversion of woman-in-charge? I am not trying to generalize that all men cannot handle a female president. It could have been worse if the sexist disruptor at one of Hillary’s New Hampshire Primary speeches yelling “Iron my shirt!” ended up getting his name out there to influence those that may share his fallacies about women. Chris Matthews does not yell out primitive or enslaving demands, but his quick comments about Hillary’s voice sounding like fingernails on chalkboard and her success as a senator whose popularity is garnered by her husband’s infidelity echo a man’s need to assert his superiority in pre-Feminism times. It’s true that Hillary as a frontrunner for president will get smacked by the camps of opposition. She is a lawyer who, once upon a time, served on the board of directors for Wal-Mart. Bill is quick to defend her ties to Wal-Mart by casting her in the light of pioneer in the corporate world as a woman in the male dominant board and as an undertaker of environmental initiatives. As a former researcher assistant to two economics professors on the effects of local economies with entries by Wal-Mart, I can tell you that there is no black or white on the big box employment doubly responsible for the economic giving and taking away. Hillary’s association with the negative of anything Wal-Mart may be the new flavor for non-supporters, but why does her sex have to be a point to defend it?

How on earth are we going to deal with black voters and women for supporting candidates that share the same skin color or reproductive organs with them? We can be thankful that all of our votes retain the same value, but this obsession with change has changed the value of political dialog between black Obama supporters and women, especially white, Clinton supporters into occasional vapid conversations about demographics. A radio D.J. casually talks about Obama’s name being one letter away from the most-wanted Muslim terrorist. A blogger mentions Hillary’s dark circles under her eyes while he watches her on T.V. as she gears up for a speech. I am worried that we are not getting enough reliable information on the candidacies’ platform on national issues because we’re drinking too much of the race/gender Kool-Aid. I am a proponent of responsible discourse on these once-taboo issues because they have arrived and they need addressing. At a former internship, I was taken aside by an older male colleague to be informed that I should be aware that what I wear could be distracting to men at my workplace. He reasoned with his observations that I’m young, blond and tall. A frequent choice of outfit for me following that un-welcomed meeting: turtleneck and slacks. I still often wonder why a man I used to work with felt like it was his duty to forewarn me that I may attract some males in the office because they would consider me attractive when I had never walked in wearing short skirts or low cut tops. I do not think that it is my problem to quell a man’s attraction to me. Neither do I think Hillary is awaiting some kind of validation from men on whether she can serve as a president based on how soothing her voice is or her daily complexion. Some university textbooks on organizational behavior studying leadership approaches have created nouveau topics on the differences between men and women leaders. What I learned from one of these textbooks is that women are more nurturing and likely to say sorry more often than men. The climate for discussing men and women leaders has certainly changed, but are women on display for males to cast their values and judgment on attributes that are inalienable to females? I am reminded of an excerpt of Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali explaining why women should cover up in a conservative Muslim nation. Of course, it’s to not distract or flaunt their sinful parts, you know, like a woman’s wrist. Let’s make sure Muslim women feel remorse for their daintier bone structure and their abilities to stimulate the most primal responses from a man. Ideally, the media should inform us and boost our autonomy to choose a leader for their actions and promises, but it is also informing us on just how black Obama is and how important it is to know that Hillary is not a man. On NPR’s Kojo Nmandi Show on January 24, Kojo ran a segment on the many faces Obama has to his black voters, his white voters, and those in-between. But no matter how many faces Obama has to black or white voters, something he does not have to worry about is whether the public will scrutinize the black circles under his eyes or where the neckline rests on his chest.