And… it’s up

Today, after approving Melinda’s comment on the post about the Merril College of Journalism’s failure to put up an online giving form as promised, I checked the site. Still not up - a month after I first checked and saw that it would be there “this week.”

So, being the engaged alum and development professional that I am, I wrote an e-mail to the college’s development director. I tried to be kind - “I hate to be a pest, but I want to make a gift to get my name on the wall, and with this being my line of work, too, and my heart being vested in the success of the College, I find the situation troubling.” - but the truth is, if I was working like that here, I would be in hot water.  Like, scarringly hot water (Maybe that’s why we raise three-quarters of a billion dollars a year, easy). One of the basic tenets of this sort of development is that you never, ever put up any roadblock that could stop someone from making a gift, and you spend a lot of time guessing what could possibly be a roadblock. This one, however, was pretty basic. If I can’t access the online form, I’m not going to give.

She responded right away, quite kindly, promising to have the site up by the end of the day. In about three hours, there it was. So, of course, I had to make my gift, and I did.

For my class this semester, Internet Strategies, we are tasked with building a campaign to raise money online using a real organization as an example. Maybe I will use the Knight Hall campaign for the project.

Back to basics

My four years at the University of Maryland were rich, and, now that I find myself in a personal and professional place that is rewarding in so many ways, what isn’t credited to my family and friends goes to my college education. The list is long, but one of the treasures I took away was a degree in journalism that landed me one of the industry’s most sought-after jobs, the first stop on a path that took me on a wild adventure.

So when the Philip Merrill College of Journalism came knocking with a glossy and gorgeous -if flawed - pitch for the college’s new home, Knight Hall, I was ready to open my wallet.

Postcards From Yo Momma

A few months or two ago, I heard about a new blog launched by an old acquaintence from The Philly Years with a keen sense for the ironic. I ignored it because I was drowning in Media Theory, and while I was thinking about agenda-setting, everyone else was reading Postcards From Yo Momma.

So funny. A great commentary on how women grapple with their evolving role as children grow into adults, and wise insight into how people adapt to technology and changes in communication habits.

My mom hasn’t yet picked up on e-mail except for sending forwards about “Christian Ways to Reduce Stress,” but I do have some great material for Postcards From Yo Pop, such as this gem sent right about when I was deciding to purchase real estate:

Nora,

Good to hear from you. I’m in Eastern Europe, still in the Communist empire. Does JHU have any positions overseas? It is a big world out there where the U.S. plays an insignificant role despite the insular attitudes rendered within its borders. You ought to see some of it before you become trapped by posessions and obligations.

Love,
Steve

Thanks, Dad - er, I mean, Steve! By the way, I think he’s right, it’s just a funny e-mail.

Public journalism: A prime example

We all know journalism is changing, and top-of-mind for many journalists or, uh, students of communication is the widening mediascape and emergence of public journalism.

Reading about it is one thing, but today we witness a prime example.

Talking Web 3.0

One day soon, norakoch.com will be reborn as an expert source for calculating emotrics and creating facehooks. Check out this (humorous) list of Web 3.0 buzzwords.

 

The Wiki Workplace: Some beach, somewhere

Bred on AIM conversations and cell-phone obsession, the digital generation stands on a social constitution of independence – yet interdependence, collaboration – yet personal responsibility, and participation – yet privacy. As Tapscott and Williams establish early in their book, “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything,” this new approach to communicating, socializing, and working is based on openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally – the tenets of the new wikinomics.

And as this generation matures into leaders of community and industry, this constitution follows. The principles of wikinomics are integrating into the new business world.

Passion/That’s why we’re here

Check out Johns Hopkins’ new commerical, airing for the first time on ESPNU this weekend during the JHU-Duke matchup at 6:00 p.m.  

The message is clever and the design first-rate, but what I’m most excited about is the university’s first steps into the digital age and full integration. Along with the commercial, the project includes a Web site that mimics film sites with links to Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, as well as a radio spot and a blog. Way to go, JHU!

Wikinomics

When they wrote the book, “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything,” Don Tapscott was in Toronto and Anthony Williams was in London.

And their trans-Atlantic relationship is at the heart of the premise of their book that delves into the evolution and promise of mass collaboration, buoyed by the Internet. They coined the term “Wikinomics” to explain an emerging economic paradigm that combines economics and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, a zeitgeist of our times written and edited by anyone.

Smart Mobs

Remember life before cell phones? I don’t. My first came in 1995, when I learned to drive. For $50 a month, the cell phone plan offered 30 minutes of use - and it was for emergencies only. I had to dial numbers, and it was so hefty I had to store it in the trunk and hardly ever took it out of the car. Pay phones were far more convenient.

Today, cellphones are cheap and pervasive, penetrating deeply most of the developed world. This technology, as well as other network-based technology, has helped create the new smart mobs - a phenomenon that is created when communication and computing come together to bolster cooperation among individuals, according to the book, “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution”, by Howard Rheingold. As technology advances and makes this kind of communication easier and cheaper, it also has implications for social, economic, and political changes.

Technology has not only altered the way people communicate - making it more immediate and allowing people to live in “real time” with others - but also the way they live and think. Rheingold acknowledges the positive and negative aspects of this technology, noting that smart mobs have been created to both promote democracy and civil liberties as well as to coordinate terrorist attacks.

Mobile access - wireless internet, SMS messaging, cell-phones at the ready - allow us to be in constant contact. We can connect quickly over issues and ideas, mobilize and organize, and breakdown and disconnect simply and cheaply. This has great promise for organizing political demonstrations, spreading ideas, and having fun.

Especially as generations grow up into organized adulthood with instant communication technology as much a part of their lives as, say, sneezing, we will see greater implications of smart, mobile individuals and their power to organize and communicate with technology.

Food Fight

Watching the pretzel pummel the matzoh with rounds of sea-salt bullets was funny at first. This is good stuff. Watch it twice.