A Piece Of One’s Own Action

You know what’s a little scary? This is:

While visiting my bank today (and I’m not going to link to them because I truly don’t want to get my “personal” banker in trouble; he’s a good guy) I was surprised to see just how much our bank(s) know about us. And how much data they’re storing. And likely selling to whomever. Or heck, giving away too, to the Justice Department, just like Facebook, Google, AT&T, etc. And those are just a few of the server farms I “contribute” to.

During our sit-down today, my “personal” banker quietly turned his computer screen towards me, so that I could see everything on the screen too, as we went along with a seemingly innocuous bit of business.

Wow! That bank is keeping all kinds of information on me/us. They know a scary amount of stuff about my life over the time they’ve had me as a customer.

And they had a very nice, er, “content management system” for it all too. It’s all just one click away. For anyone with access to that “content management system.”

Dammit! I want a piece of my own action back.

Is Facebook The Right Forum For Asking About Victims’ Names?

UPDATE: The victims of the Alaska plane crash have since been identified in an updated story in the Post and Courier. With attribution of the names given to The State newspaper.

This Facebook post from Charleston, S.C.’s Post and Courier newspaper is an interesting news-and-social-in-real-time case to keep an eye on. As the S.C. newspaper doesn’t yet know the names of the (presumed) South Carolinians who are victims of a plane crash in Alaska. Thus the paper asked for possible names (of victims) in a Facebook post.

Do you know anyone who might have been on this flight? Nine South Carolina residents were killed in a fiery crash at a small Alaska airport Sunday: http://bit.ly/12TpJw6. The pilot also died in the crash. There were no survivors. The plane caught on fire shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday at the airport in Soldotna, about 75 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula. Initial reports indicate the plane crashed on takeoff.

Thus far, there are many “Likes” to a comment posted alongside the Post & Courier’s  Facebook request that to place names on Facebook before any family were notified would be “tasteless.”

If I put on my journalist’s hat I see Facebook as simply another tool of the (news-gathering) trade. I don’t see anything too reprehensible about asking for names of possible victims in a Facebook post.

Do you? (We don’t really know, yet, if family members of the victims have been contacted, or not, at this point. We must assume they have not as, according to the Post & Courier, the identification of all the crash victims could take some time.)

Facebook – Cox Media Farm Slayer

I figure the Cox Media Farm’s AJC will eventually be folded, gradually or maybe not, into WSB. Here’s a great example of the process at work today.

Right now we’re seeing a stage of patronizing redundancy, with two Cox Media Farm products producing like-minded content… on the same page/URL. That too will pass. As the AJC passes into WSB broadcasting, Internet-minded properties.

Why? Cox needs a Bo Emerson (byline on the copy/text stuff) the way I need another Clinique giveaway lipstick. I’ve got six New Shade of Grape in the basket as it is.

Why have a Bo Emerson only banging-out redundant, old-school style text… in a high-speed Internet media kinda world?

Anything he’s alerted us to, in this piece, is readily available on Facebook. Which has 800 million users now. And growing. If you desperately need to ask a question about who got there first (to the park protest tonight, for example) you’d just Tweet ’em.

Even way up in the air in his Gulfstream James Cox Kennedy (JCK) can see those kinda numbers. He’d better make hay with mommy’s money for his family while he can, as soon even WSB properties will be redundant and superfluous. We simply will not need them. Already, plenty of us do not.

But back to the present tense. Can you take a Bo Emerson and make him, say, a video journalist? Hand him a SLR and a tripod? Probably. Especially if he was straight outta J-school. He is not. Bo Emerson is a well-seasoned journalist.

One who’d better start banging out some other kinda media product, e-books maybe in his case, if he hasn’t already. (Trust me, as a seasoned multimedia-ist, it ain’t brain surgery, but I diverge.)

So thus Emerson’s wages are, presumably, already way too high, even though I seriously doubt JCK is overpaying anyone on staff with his mommy’s money.

And with J-schools cranking-out even more eager beaver kids with journalism degrees than ever before, cheap content-churning monkeys are merely… a job board away.

Anyway, James Cox Kennedy (JCK) isn’t the least bit interested in journalism and piddly, cumbersome product such as the AJC. He says as much in this 2002 interview.

Nope, JCK’s a cable/broadcast kinda guy. Although I bet he’s trying to be the best Internet content kinda guy he can be by now. To go with all those Internet supply chains he already owns. But Facebook’s pre-emptied so much of the grand plan of any good old-school media tycoon.

And that makes a Bo Emerson, and even Gal With The Pink Faux Chanel Jacket, well, superfluous. Cox Media Farm too, come to think about it.

As should we need to tune-in fresh media from the Occupy Atlanta movement tonight at 6pm we need only click, once, to its Facebook page… or those of its 4K-plus followers.

And we’ll do so with our Apple product and some (free if we can find it) wi-fi, not some big fat TV that comes complete with a whopping cable bill.

APS Embraces Social Media. Finally.

I’ve been watching everything the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) social media person has been doing with their social media outreach via their Twitter/blog/Facebook over the last few critical weeks.

I even met the APS social media person at the governor’s press conference to announce the results of the state’s investigation the other day. We set-up media shop next to each other, coincidentally. 

And WOW what an amazing transformation their social media game has undergone! Just in the last two weeks alone.

Suddenly, they are very responsive to the world around them. To their community here in Atlanta. They’re even dabbling in transparency and straight-up honesty too.

The live Tweets from @APSUpdate during a public forum with the new super Davis last week were very candid. And full of helpful and useful information.

• The APS blog is here.
• Facebook here.
• Twitter here.
• YouTube channel here.

What a difference a criminal investigation can make, eh? But the thing about social media, as any serious practitioner can tell you, social media is a garden; it only produces when meticulously tended.

Let’s watch and see. And participate, cultivate, in this transformation too.

Social Media and the Growing APS Mess

This particular social media swirl is playing out on my territory, and promises to challenge me to TRY to keep up! But you know I’m the woman for that job.

So, let’s over-simplify until I can do a full (video) report on this matter: Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is in a big brewhaha of a mess. It’s a two-prong mess. I won’t go into full mess details here, as that’s the AJC’s job. But first is the CRCT cheating scandal, and second is the APS board’s probationary status.

All could come to a lovely head of face-to-face steam at tomorrow’s APS board meeting, open to the public at 4:30pm, FYI. At APS. (Stay tuned for that live eventing. I may live-stream here. Haven’t decided yet if I want to venture out from behind the laptop yet though. And come early to sign-in. Who knows what APS might do about the posted times.)

What’s fascinating, in that horrible fascinating way, is being able to watch the social media tactics and approaches (I’m loath to call them *strategies* as it’s all rather amateurish right now) present… almost in real time. Even I may not be able to follow it all. But I’m sure gonna try.

Let’s explore, with a handy scoring system, where we are so far:

1.) APS social media scorecard – 1. And they get a score of 1 (out of 10) only because they have at least established a Twitter feed for their sunny-side-up bits. Sorry, APS. But you haven’t even touched your Facebook page since the summer of 2009. Not much going on your website. And APS Superintendent Beverly Hall’s letter explaining the accredidation probationary status APS is now operating under arrived at homes via the Backpack Network. Call Hermione for a better spell soon, APS. Or you’ll be overwhelmed. If you’re not already.

2.) A Facebook Group called Atlanta School Board: Step Up or Step Down already has 266 members, and was pointed out to me by an APS teacher, so seems some APS teachers are banding together with APS parents. And heating-up neighborhood discussion boards and email chains and petitions. That’s good. I give ’em a 6. They’ve got a’ways to go to keep up with this other group that’s sprung from the PR mess though.

3.) ReCallAPS, so far, is posting fewer Facebook friends than the above group, but I’m certain they will catch-up and surpass. They’ve got a blog going already, and a Twitter feed; Twitter being what will fuel the fires the fastest. Their message seems wishy-washy though, so I’m just giving them a 5. For right now.

For what it’s worth, social media is everyone’s field to play in for communications – crisis or otherwise. Have at it. Make it work for you. Just know it’s a game you don’t want to be on the sidelines merely watching.

Carol Porter Is So Kim Kardashian

No, Carol Porter has no signature fragrance. I doubt she’s worn much bling out on the relentless, red-clay Georgia campaign trail for Lt. Governor, either. However, she is doing something just the way Kim Kardashian does it – Carol Porter is synching her real-time social media seamlessly into her online campaign presence.

Go to CarolPorter4GA and you are immediately connected to Porter herself – not to a static, processed appeal for donations as most campaign websites tend to present. Porter’s Facebook updates are presented as fresh, updated content on the homepage.

Porter works her Facebook updates very seriously, posting info and news of her day ahead by 6am that morning. You’ve got to be a seriously early riser to keep-up with Carol Porter, whether in social media or out on the grueling campaign trail. There are busy women; then there’s Carol Porter.

The Rise of the Big Media Three – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

I once made a ton of media at the beginnings of places like Kyte.tv and uStream and Vimeo and iReport. And strew that media around all over those places. Maybe others too I’ve forgotten all about by now. I was kinda surprised that some sites, such as Kyte.tv, are still going.

Honestly, now if it’s not Facebook, YouTube or Twitter (and my personal fave Twitter photo/vid upload app – TwitSnaps) I never even bother with tinkering around in the garages of other media sharing platforms.

With the rise of the Big Three I’ve gotten far less experimental, if at all, with the many other assorted media platforms out there. And that’s a pity, but it’s far more convenient to stay on three farms rather than dot the landscape with dozens of wee media sprinkles here and there that in a couple of years you forget all about.

I’m anxious now that I’ve always had, for reasons unknown, a superfluous two YouTube channels. And I stay awake thinking one day, soon, I simply must consolidate those into one. And then brand-out a separate corporate channel too. And be sure to put some Shout on that nice new skirt after that soy sauce spill. And the dog needs a flea med refill…

Oh woe is me. How the multimedia chores never end! What new media sharing platform are you liking that I should try to not ignore?

Top Three Demands For What Websites Should Do. Easily.

I’m at the Atlanta Business of WordPress Conference.  Twitter hashtag is: #thebizofwp. Francine Hardaway, neat lady, is the keynoter. She says the Top Three Things People Want From Their Business Website are these:

1. Content Management. “I want to get into my site easily and change it!”
2. “I want people/customers to get to my site from Facebook.”
3. “I want mobile access for my site.”

There you have it. And WordPress sites can do all the above. Easily. So you can too.

Emory Student Gives Journalist Her Facebook Login Info

While it’s ugly and disgraceful that Atlanta’s Emory University has been the scene of on-campus incidents of obvious intolerance between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students, what’s almost as distasteful is the thought of giving a journalist, of any stripe, one’s user ID and password info to one’s personal Facebook account –  just to prove a point.

But this Emory student felt compelled to do just that for Atlanta Progressive News:

Saba Khalid, 20, a junior at Emory and an activist, told Atlanta Progressive News she believes she knows who three out of four of the perpetrators are, and that they include student leaders of pro-Israeli groups at Emory.

Atlanta Progressive News obtained copies of Facebook messages between Khalid and another Emory student, Eddy Goldfarb, which appear to show Goldfarb implying that he was involved in the incident and saying he knows the identity of all the participants.

After receiving the copies of the messages, APN confirmed their authenticity by obtaining the password to Khalid’s Facebook account from Khalid, logging in to Khalid’s account, and verifying the conversation in Khalid’s inbox. With Khalid’s permission, APN also reviewed what appeared to be, by all indications, Mr. Goldfarb’s public Facebook page.

Full story here.

CNN Live With Facebook For Inauguration

What’s better than being on The Mall in Washington today for the Inauguration? Watching live streams from CNN.com with all your Facebook friends… warm and cozy at home with a hard-wired DSL line. This just freakin’ I-rocks!!!!

Social Media and The Mayor

Careful what you Twitter. Now that all of Atlanta seem to be using social media tools, such as Twitter and Facebook, you will easily get what you are after. This was the case during Mayor Shirley Franklin’s annual luncheon talk with the Atlanta Press Club on Tuesday, January 13, 2009.

Between bites of the sliced chicken salad, I sent out a Tweet via my iPhone’s Twitter application that asked, “Any questions for Mayor Franklin?” Immediately, I had droves of questions to choose from, thanks to my carefully cultivated, personal Twitter/Facebook network, plenty of them peppered with salty expressions not suitable for for re-printing on this blog. (FYI, you can sync Twitter to Facebook.)

Alas, Mayor Franklin was taking questions from those in attendance during the Q&A portion only if they were written down on a slip of paper and passed to the front, then read out loud to the Mayor by APC Board Chairman, John Boswell. So old-school!

No matter, as I would never have had a chance to eat my Commerce Club banana pudding if I’d hand-written every Twitter/Facebook response/question on a piece of paper, nor would the Mayor have had time to answer them all. And when presented with Commerce Club banana pudding priorities fall right into place.

I did manage to scratch out one question on a paper slip that was soon read to the Mayor. That question was, “Were you (Mayor Franklin) aware of the role Facebook played in organizing citizens during the recent (perceived or otherwise) intown Atlanta crime wave?”

Breezing over the crime-related portion of the question, Mayor Franklin answered that she (or her office I must assume) was not on Facebook, but that she knew Cobb County, for instance, was using social media tools to communicate with its citizenry.

Maybe Mayor Franklin should be on Facebook. And soon. Within days of its creation, the Facebook Group called Atlantans Together Against Crime and Cutbacks, had signed-up almost four-thousand members. Four thousand. In less than a week. That’s a whole lot of ATL citizenry one could immediately, and easily, start communicating with.

Come to think about it, when the traditional press bunched their hulking dino Beta cams around Mayor Franklin after the luncheon to roll on a few choice mayoral media morsels for their five-o’clocks (see photo above), had my own $120. digital camera’s battery not died  on me (the one that also shoots HD video) at that particular moment, I could have held a one-woman press conference, taking questions via Facebook and Twitter in real time and directing them to the Mayor.

But that’s this new media for you. With so many people on board social media in Atlanta now, provided your power supply holds, anyone can hold a virtual press conference – wherever, whenever.

NYT Proves Teens Are Boring. And A Pitiful Source of Juicy Dirt

From today’s NYTimes… about how to waste time on Facebook:

NOT long before the election, The Times published an unflattering front-page profile of Cindy McCain, inspiring a new round of accusations that the newspaper was biased against her husband. Some critics were especially angry about one of the reporting tactics: Trying to find sources for information about Mrs. McCain, a reporter reached out to 16- and 17-year-olds through Facebook, the social networking site.

(NYT reporter Jodi) Kantor was trying to find creative ways around the public relations shield that protects a political wife like McCain, an intensely private person. Kantor did not misrepresent who she was or the story she was working on. She asked for leads to adults and did not ask the teenagers directly to say things, good or bad, about McCain. By sending a Facebook message, she gave the students the opportunity to consult with their parents or ignore her; in fact, none of the messages produced useful information.

The whole article that’s making me snort all morning is here. Anyone with half a nose for dirt need only read the National Enquirer or visit InsiderAdvantage’s many fine poltical news products. Elitist Ivy League media sure take the pointless road to Nowhere Fast.

Stop The Classical Madness At WABE!

I can’t take it any more… 6 hours of classical music programming a day at WABE = 6 too many. Apparently I’m not the only one. So I started a Facebook Group called 6 Hours A Day = 6 Too Many! Please join the group if you’re on Facebook. And let’s let WABE know, by Fall Pledge Drive time too, that we’re very unhappy out here on the receiving end of the airwaves with being held hostage to 6 hours of tedious classical programming a day… especially when we could be hearing some news and talk and other more timely and progressive PUBLIC programming.

Not a dime out of me over there at WABE until things change around that media plantation!

Contact info for WABE is here:
740 Bismark Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
(678) 686-0321

NOTE: Anyone who would like to donate a far better graphic/logo to 6 Hours = 6 Too Many! campaign, please do so! Send to spaceygracey at bellsouth dot net, and I’ll get it up on the Facebook Group page right away.

Facebook & Twitter Have Got Me Now

As I’m morphing to a Facebook/Twitter online existence, today’s blog post is a video on Facebook. Find me and my endless wonders there if you dare. Blogs are unattractive and uncoordinated. Like the 24-hour news cycle… soooo last century.

If Facebook Was, uh, Real

WebChallenge Winners Announced!

I’m busily using the WebChallenge winners’ (Weber School duo) Facebook app, I Recommend It. To recommend the stunning re-design of the Georgia Podcast Network. Love ’em both!

The Wired Politician

Atlanta City Councilman, Kwanza Hall, not only created a Facebook profile, he updates it throughout the day with what he’s doing on behalf of his constituents. Via his cell phone. Now that’s your Best Web 2.0 Practice Of The Day!

Cross-posted on PP.

“The During” – What Economists Can Learn From Facebook

From Slate today:

As any undergraduate student of economics knows, both microeconomists and macroeconomists tend to describe change in the same way that an advertisement for dishwashing detergent does: “before” and “after.” When oil cost $20 a barrel, the economy looked like this; now that oil costs $100 a barrel, the economy looks like that. Quite how the process of change occurred—or how quickly—is a problem glossed over in the textbooks and most journals.

That is worrying. Perhaps it does not even make sense to compare two static “before” and “after” states; perhaps “during” is everything.

Full story here.