My New Course: Technology, Communication, and Culture

A new class that I've prepped for the summer. It is the first new class I've proposed and with the help of my chair, Dr. Amber Kinser (who I cannot thank enough for making sure this new faculty member knows what he's doing) this has been a pretty darn smooth process.

Now the only question will be if it 'makes.' If it makes, that would be the first step into getting into the Communication Department rotation. Here's hoping!

Thoughts on Twitterville by Shel Israel

Twitterville by Shel Israel

Good little book here. While there is much to learn, this is not a How-To book.

So I’ve only started using Twitter with abandon over the two weeks or so. Sure, I opened an account a few years ago, but was too busy working on my dissertation and then getting settled in at Mizzou to spend any time playing with it. At that point I saw no need to use it. After all, I was busy condensing my life. I closed my Yahoo account. I ended my relationship with MySpace. I figured Facebook and LinkedIn would be enough for me. I was wrong.

There’s something about Twitter that has captured my imagination. I cannot pinpoint it, but I like the ‘real-timeyness’ of it, as compared to FaceBook and LinkedIn. While all are communites of a sort, there’s a difference. LinkedIn I use for my professional persona, looking for places that might need my skills talents and abilities. It is business first. FaceBook no longer seems to be the small community it once was. It is akin to a megalopolis or megaregion: there’s a hugeness to it now. Twitter is somewhere in-between the two.

Perhaps that is why “Twitterville” as a name fits so well. It takes a village to raise a child and there are village idiots running around out looking for other village idiots. Twitter fits between the seriousness of the one endeavor and silliness of the second.  

Twitterville covers the history of Twitter. Yes. Ho-hum. More than that, it is a compilation loaded with stories, exemplars and parables. If narratives and stories are one of the most important ways we make sense of our world, than Israel does a great job of ‘making sense’ of Twitter, removing some of the ambiguity and equivocality. Karl E. Weick is just as applicable online as off.

He delves wonderfully into Twitter culture. That’s not an easy thing when looking at a village as broad and loosely connected as Twitter is. He shows clients or customers contacting businesses with complaints and bravos and how those businesses reacted. (Most of the time: FAST!)

He gives due warning about trolls and spammers and scammers and other undesirable PITAs you may come across and what to do about them.

There are tips for both organizational and personal branding scattered throughout the book. So, if you are someone longing to make yourself into a brand, there’s a lot here to discover and become motivated. And it's a heck of a good read too. That alone makes it a pleasure and makes it stand out amongst boring business books.


You could become the next Miss Destructo!

On Having the “Six Million Dollar Man Syndrome”

I’ll admit it. I feel like I am moving in slow motion, even when I am chugging along at a rapid pace. I call it the “Six Million Dollar Man Syndrome” (SMDMS). 

You remember the show “Six Million Dollar Man.” Astronaut Steve Austin (played by Lee Majors of Lee and Farrah fame) crashes and they replace his damaged parts with bionic appendages.  In the show whenever Steve Austin ran using those bionic limbs, he was usually presented in slow-motion, accompanied by an electronic grinding-like sound effect. Slow-mo to give the appearance of speed.

That’s how I feel. I feel like I am moving as fast as I can, but I am not getting anywhere. I am a half step behind. I am misplacing things, after I know where I put them. I am forgetting things. I am sleeping, but getting no rest.  When I am awake, I am half asleep.  When I am sleeping, I am half awake. I go to my blog, but with nothing to say.  I find myself standing in a room, with no idea what I am supposed to be doing in that room. I start to work on my book and am just blank. I start to read a magazine; I’ve lost interest a paragraph in.

I am not the only one feeling this at the moment.

This is not me.  And I am not sure where I went.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the two nightmares I had last night. Sometimes the mind hides things and you have to figure out what dreams mean. Sometimes dreams are just right up front and there’s no interpretation needed.

Blogger! Protect Thyself!

There’s No Protection in Cyberspace.

Ok, let’s face facts. The law is slow. Slow. Slow. Slow. The law has not caught up to the vast technological change over the last 20 years. This is fairly obvious when you hear what people in high places say about technology. However, the law (and exploitation of the law) is catching up. Blogger be aware and beware. 

Dr. H is here to help.

The good news on this front is that on August 10 President Obama signed the “Speech Act,” protecting American journalists, publishers (both print and online) and bloggers from libel tourism. A good thing.

I am going to assume you are not stupid enough to threaten to kill President Obama, VP Biden in your blog. So don't be a dope like this guy. Don't threaten judges! Buh-bye!

And where there are judges, there are lawyers. And where there are lawyers, there are…well…let me not defame the entire profession. Let’s just say they are a smart bunch who can make you pay and pay and pay.  For example you can be sued for re-posting articles without permission….even if someone else posts them in your comments section. Sometimes even if you add a link to an article! The LV Sun is keeping tabs on the lawsuits.

Best bet: keep away from Stephens Media. Period. 

Oh...

...and if you are in Philly you might want to move to NJ because the City of Brotherly Shove wants $300 for your business license. Yes. $300 to blog. As a Jerseyite - and a Mets fan - I have no problem hating on Philly. Thanks for making my job easier!

Last but not least:

You are not considered a journalist.  So watch yourself.  You don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of a defamation case. Anonymity is no protection either.

So here are the basics on defamation:

Some categories of false statements are so innately harmful that they are considered to be defamatory per se. In the common law tradition, damages for such false statements are presumed and do not have to be proven. "Statements are defamatory per se where they falsely impute to the plaintiff one or more of the following things":

Allegations or imputations injurious to another in their trade, business, or profession. So don’t call a plumber you did not like "a delirious unscrupulous drunkard."

Allegations or imputations of having a loathsome disease (historically leprosy and sexually transmitted disease, now also including mental illness). So calling the professor who gave you a bad grade “a herpes infested retard” is a no-no.

Allegations or imputations of unchastity (usually only in unmarried people and sometimes only in women): See previous, but make it “herpes infested retarded whore.”

Allegations or imputations of criminal activity (sometimes only crimes of moral turpitude).  So calling your Congressman a thief or a crook or a swindler fits here.

Of course if your professor is one and your Congressman does, then by all means tell the world, but you must make sure you can back that up with facts and evidence. If you cannot, a lawsuit will be coming your way. Sure, it is hard for anyone to actually win a defamation suit against you, but that might not be the point. They just might want to get your money and shit you down.

If you want to Blog like an ethical professional, read this and this.

That is all.