The Air Car!

I came across this article on The Oil Drum where Big Gav was quickly recapping many of the habitual changes I've proposed as a means by which to conserve oil and eliminate fossil fuel use. Observe:

"These [solutions] include expanding mass transit systems, redesigning cities and towns to make them easier to walk or cycle around (or combining both of these approaches in "transit oriented development"), making greater use of electric cycles (or mopeds), using lightweight materials in vehicle construction, and - most commonly - switching to electric vehicles (particularly, in the medium term, plug-in hybrids)."

An emerging alternative, as the article goes on to reveal, is this concept of air-driven cars. I know, I first thought, "Say what?! Flying cars!?", too. No... what this concept proposes is cars driven by compressed air!

To make compressed air, though, requires fossil fuels because, well, how else is the electricity that needs to do the compressing going to get made? This is the same problem as with making hydrogen fuel for cars. It still requires, at this point in time, fossil fuels to make these alternative forms of energy holders. I say energy holders because, like Big says, "it is an energy storage medium, not an energy source." Fossil fuels are the energy source.

The article says that a company is currently building a plant to market and sell a compressed-air driven car. Many question the legitimacy of this company and/or its vehicle. Even if they are able to get cars rolling off the assembly line, a source of compressed air (perhaps one that can presently pump air into tires, etc.) would need to be within 150 km (93 miles) of every location in the US for everyone to be able to use one. So, as with hydrogen, it looks like California shall lead, and other major cities shall follow. Eventually the mountains and deserts will have their compressed air providing utilities as well.

Now if you're a city dweller, driving a compressed-air vehicle shouldn't cause you any problems because you most likely don't drive long distances (or at least no often), and probably aren't too far from a gas station. The cars are slated to be slightly cheaper than gas-powered cars, coming in at about half the price. But, do you get what you pay for?

Apparently these vehicles will begin to be produced in the near future in India, with several emerging countries like Colombia and Thailand following suit. What I failed to previously mention is that these Air Cars can also use gasoline with an apparent range now of 1240+ miles.

This figure boasts "claimed efficiencies of up to 70%."* Whether or not this concept actually comes to fruition is separate from the fact that compressed air is a much safer propellant than gasoline, and as such driving would become a much less hazardous task. Something to think about.

Buy a Car, Gain Weight; It's That Simple

Lynn Sloman, in her book "Car Sick," mentions a study performed by Colin Bell, Keyou Ge, and Barry Popkin in China, which analyzed correlations in obesity paired with car ownership.

The study included 4,700 adults, all who previously hadn't owned vehicles. What Sloman mentions is the findings of the study: "If you buy a car, you will put on weight. You will be twice as likely to become clinically obese, and this will lead inexorably to poorer health."

I've always had mixed feelings about car use. Whilst living in Japan, I would think about the places I needed to go. Because the public transportation infrastructure in Japan is so developed, I could get to literally anywhere via public transportation. Time was a consideration, however. I could drive, spending money on gas, or I could spend my money on the train and/or bus.

I would most always take the public transportation route because, even if it took me longer to reach my destination, I saved carbon emissions and never had to worry about parking. Because of parking costs, I almost always saved money by taking the train/bus.

Back to weight gain, though. I knew that by not driving, I would need to walk between train stations and/or bus stops, to/from my departure/destination places from/to the train stations or bus stops. Let me make this clearer by illustrating a typical journey:

By Car:
Drive for 20 minutes to my destination, pay only for gas, no parking.

Time: 20 minutes
Calories Burned: 10
Cost: $1.50 (¥170)

By Train:
Walk to train station for 20 minutes. Wait for train avg. of 5 minutes. Pay train fare and ride train for 13 minutes. Walk to destination for 20 minutes.

Time: 58 minutes
Calories Burned: 210
Cost: $1.05 (¥120)

Obviously a lot more sweat is exerted by the latter means of transport. As you can see, driving cost more, but required far less effort. Essentially, you're paying for the luxury to drive. But, clearly you'll be hanging on to much more weight by driving. How about the much more sensible solution of bike riding:

By Bicycle:
Ride 25 minutes to destination, pay no parking.

Time: 25 minutes
Calories Burned: 150
Cost: $0.00 (¥0)

This is ideal. Don't pay a penny for gas, parking, tolls, or otherwise. And, you still burn the calories. A bicycle is a much smaller investment than a car; at least you're not going to have to take out a mortgage. Because this scenario took place in Japan, between small towns where you cannot drive too fast, bicycling was almost as fast as driving. In this case, bicycles actually have the upper-hand on cars because they can quickly travel back roads and navigate shortcuts.

Clearly there are much more sensible alternatives to transportation than driving a car. In this case, mass transportation could even be avoided. So why don't more people ride bikes or take the train? Apathy. Not driving means moving more than just your arms for a brief period of time, a task which seems to too many overly burdensome. Hence, the weight gain.

I'm not one to enjoy paying for gas, or even for public transportation on occasion, but calories? That's a price I can pay. Rather, a price I'd prefer to pay.

**If you live rurally, then you're a special case, to which special transportation alternatives apply.

The Geriatric Economy

Someone said to me today, "Old people don't benefit the economy; they should all be shipped to an island."

Shipped to an island to do what? Rot? I think that a lot of industries rely on the older population to be successful. Many drug companies, and cruise line companies, I think would miss a huge percentage of their business if they didn't have customers over the age of 55. So in this sense, the economy is helped. More businesses are able to do more business. Older persons who have saved a lot of money over the course of their life are able to spend it on health care and leisure.

Even today we all save money that we'll spend in our old age. So, psychologically, if there was no old age to look forward to, then we'd all spend our money now rather than later. We save for the days when we're too old to work. Then our life's savings will help us survive. If we have no old age to save for, then we're more likely to spend our money on leisurely pursuits, earlier in our lives, for example on travel, computers, cars, and better housing. So, while different sectors would have greater cash inflow, the economy overall wouldn't necessarily change that much, would it?

Tell me what you think.

Green Shuttles at American University

The American University, with regards to its efforts to become a greener institution and lessen its environmental impact, has begun to address the needs of its shuttle program. Shuttles typically run upwards of 17 hours per day, and multiple shuttles may run at a time. While these buses travel efficient routes and generally move many passengers at once, they do burn a lot of fuel over time.

According to the on-campus newspaper, The Eagle, the University has been exploring the option of biodiesel. Purchasing the shuttles, while an issue of funding, that would have been the main issue should the University have adopted this route, but rather it is the fuel. Because of the demand for the biodeisel fuel, a special, on-campus facility (i.e. a tank) would need to be built especially for shuttle use. Apparently some sort of liability would have been formed, had this facility been created. When people think biodiesel, I think many stereotypically think 'gasoline mixed with vegetable oil.' In a sense, this isn't too far off, however this particular concoction would have been 20% soy, 80% diesel.

So, while the biodiesel option is out, hybrid is not. The University, in fact, recently explored a hybrid shuttle option. A typical AU shuttle costs $320,000, while a new, hybrid shuttle would cost about $500,000. Obviously the extra cost would need to be recouped by savings in fuel costs or an extension in the usable life of the shuttle. A hybrid shuttle boasts the ability to save up to 40% in fuel costs. The University will explore this option, and hopefully they will adopt it as a good first start toward going greener. What's more, the hybrid shuttles can also run biodiesel fuel! So biodiesel is still a viable option, should the University ever choose to revert back to it, or adopt it in tandem with the hybrid format.

I applaud American University's efforts and initiative in going green. Sustainability is what the University promotes, and sustainability it continues to practice. High-five.

The Win-Win: Mass Transportation To/From Major Cities

True, buses use a lot of gas, but they save just as much gas. 45 bus riders save 45 cars' worth of gasoline, and the trade-off? Just one bus worth of gas.

So here's a dilemma that is interesting because of its myriad solutions: traffic congestion. How do you get cars moving again? Well, the simple solution is to build more lanes, right? More lanes decongest the traffic. But... in a few years the same problem will be back. It seems like highways are always being widened because they're never large enough.

Instead of making more lanes, what we need to do is make more public transportation. Now, while this concept is not ideal for long distances, say across the country, think about the places where you really are likely to hit the most traffic: around cities. People commute into and out of cities the most. What most cities don't have, but need, is effective public transportation systems. To the suburbs and back, trains and buses need to run on efficient routes where usage is likely to be high. If effective public transportation systems are implemented, people will be enticed to take them. Assuming they're clean, cheap, efficient, and on-time, there's nothing not to like.

So, as Lynn Sloman, in her book "Car Sick" suggests, why not dedicate a lane, or build a lane, on major roads into and out of cities that are reserved specifically for buses? If a bus can peel 45+ cars off the road, then there's no need to build more lanes for traffic. Less cars will be used, and remaining traffic congestion will encourage people to ride the buses. Not only are there monetary savings, but the dedicated lanes will actually make bus transportation just as fast as it would take for people to drive their own cars into the city for work. What's more, commuters who opt for the public transportation option never have to worry about finding, or paying for, a parking space. Throw in the reduced carbon emissions and, therefore, less pollution, and it's clearly a win-win for everyone involved.

Save Something... i.e. Yourself, Earth, Money

We're addicted to cars and oil in the United States. I say "we," however there are many of us, while a minority, that do not follow the rest of the country's consumption habits.

Essentially, part of the problem that is 'natural resource overconsumption' includes a lack of public transportation infrastructure. Likewise, the spread-out nature of our cities, towns, and suburbs promote the use of individual cars as modes of transportation. For many people, there is no option but to drive your own car. How about those that live in cities, or suburbs that have public transportation available into the city?

It is the responsibility of people who have the ability to go green, by commuting to work via public or shared means, to do so. The world's oil supply is running dry and growing demand from India and China are not going to make the supply any more abundant. Rather than 45 people driving their cars to work, think about the effort, gasoline, frustration, and lack of productivity that those 45 people could save by taking a bus. Think about how much more productive our society could be, given the functionality that Blackberry and PDA devices provide nowadays. By the time you get to work in the morning, there are probably a dozen e-mails awaiting your immediate response. Why not see to them all during your commute, and relieve the stress placed on the rest of your day?

If you can take public transportation, dump your car. There are means of getting around not having a car. Live near a public transportation station, either rail or bus, that can get you to work. Carpool with a friend to work, or drive to the nearest bus/train station and commute from there. When you think about it, you'll definitely save money because public transportation is much cheaper than each gallon of gasoline that you must pump into your car to make it get you to work every day. It is a luxury to drive a car.

If you're not seeing the light yet, consider this: you'll be proactively saving your own life by not driving. The benefits here are multifaceted. Going green by taking public transportation saves gasoline and, therefore, carbon emissions, sure, but do you have any idea the ridiculous number of car accidents that occur each year? It's not a matter of whether or not you will be in an accident, it's a matter of when. A car accident can cost you your life, and in two different ways. Firstly, an accident can be perilous. Secondly, if you're at fault, then you may have committed a serious crime. Therefore, your life is, in a sense, comparably over. Accidents happen, sure, but why take the risk of being in one? A fender-bender is a lot of hassle... especially if someone is injured.

So do yourself and society a favor: take public transportation if/when you can. If you're in a bus and it gets rear-ended, you don't have to worry about being at fault. You can rest assured that all the problems associated with an accident rest with the drivers of the vehicle-i.e. not you.

Take the money you save on gasoline by not driving your own car, and get a Blackberry or an iPhone. Then, during your commute on public transportation, use the device to get work done! You can be very productive! It may get you out of the door earlier at the end of the day, and back home where you [hopefully] want to be. Help yourself take back your life and the planet at the same time. Kiss your long drives goodbye and know that you're saving money, saving the planet, and saving yourself.

*muah*

W00t! Let's Ruin English...

I was just writing today on Tim's blog my true feelings about l337 speak and netspeak.

Well honestly, after stumbling upon "Merriam-Webster name w00t 2007 Word of the Year - English Teachers Weep," my compliment to society's word banks for keeping netspeak at bay, may just have to be revoked. I find it atrocious that, if letting the word "Woot" into the dictionary, it would be spelled with two zeros. Seriously? w00t?

Methinks not.

Associated Content, referring to l337 or "leet" speak, says "This new language, or jargon, was a way for social semi-outcasts to identify with each other and became the secret handshake of the new millenia." They call l337 speak the pig-latin of the typed, digital age.

Kevin Chen takes a more mild-mannered approach when he says, "The internet is, in one sense, a natural destruction and creation of modern language. It has developed its own lexicon, filled with a multitude of words and acronyms."

Kevin's approach is definitely the way most people look at it. I think those people who classify themselves as independents would prefer to assume this position. True, each age is filled with its influences that alter modern language, yet thinking to historical contexts, change in the English language has taken place relatively slowly over the past several hundred years, compared with the revolution that netspeak and the Internet of today are provoking.

Just because Webster's dictionary has decided to accept w00t as a word, doesn't suggest that other dictionaries will also accept the "word." Personally, I don't foresee the Oxford English Dictionary jumping on the "w00t" bandwagon, at least not with two zeros, any time soon.

"Fact or Crap?"

This is a follow-up to my Nov. 16 post, "User Generated Flubb," in which I expressed skepticism toward the validity, verity, and usefulness of user generated content.

In scouring digg just now, I've come across several very interestingly-titled articles:

Is There Really Such a Thing as Time Travel? Creepy! watch!

Burger Kings's Condom Whopper Lands New Lawsuit

Huckabee called homosexuality "dangerous public health risk"

I am not suggesting that any of these articles are not fact-based, credible, and/or a benefit to society.
_____

In considering UGC as a whole, how much is our society benefited by its creation? I wouldn't say that it makes us smarter off... By reading digg rather than a non-fiction book, we end up learning a little about a lot, rather than the other way around. In my opinion, so long as you know a lot altogether and are able to use that knowledge, you're smart. Citizen journalism, micro-blogging, and social networking sites like digg, del.icio.us, and technorati impart on users information. In general, you're going to be informed, but not educated.

A lot of information is no good if there isn't any glue to hold together the pieces. Linking pieces of information together is what creates knowledge. Books link information and impart knowledge, hence my preference for them. However, perhaps the lack of knowledge is what excites readers of digg. The random bits of information are entertaining, and really not much thinking is involved because there's no need to remember anything that's read.

What baffles me is simply why so many people have such a fixation on collecting information in this fashion. I wish there was a way that they could do more than just learn a few facts in an article, but rather actually be smarter off afterwards for having read an article. When citizen journalism and UGC are guaranteed to impart knowledge and even wisdom, then I'll lose much of the skepticism that I have for it.

Ragu... I mean Razoo!

In taking a peak at this article, PR Leap cites Razoo's stated mission as:

"To promote social good and to inspire others to get involved by making giving
and serving fun, easy, and meaningful."

Many people have seen the Ragu (yes, the pasta sauce) commercials. Didn't they try to promote the same type of thing? Inspiring people to get together to have fun with other meaningful people, and enjoy an easy meal by serving Ragu as an easy way to complete that meal. Sounds about right...

But, what's the real premise of Razoo (the social networking site this time)?

Razoo is trying to pioneer a new type of web 2.0 where visitors work together for a shared cause characterized as "good" in nature. It's the beginning of what Paul Lamb of CNET News calls, "Neighborhood social networking." Paul talks about these new sites as a way of learning about people in need, and then actually helping them, all on the go!

While initiatives like this always sound magnificent in theory, there are a few concerns I have:

1) Will enough people actually use it so that an older lady in an Idaho town who needs help, can actually receive the help from someone else located nearby?

2) People will abuse the system by either a) volunteering and never appearing, or b) subsequently stalking persons they help out.

From these concerns, word of mouth with thine friends sounds just a bit more promising, and safe. What's more, you're essentially soliciting anonymous helpers by inviting anyone who wants to help to contact you. Each site of this kind works differently, but I think an entire-address-book-mass-e-mail is a better idea.

User Generated Flubb

Thanks, Derek Powazek, for putting the phrase User Generated Content (UGC) into some context for us:

"User: One who uses. Like, you know, a junkie.

Generated: Like a generator, engine. Like, you know, a robot.

Content: Something that fills a box. Like, you know, packing peanuts.

So what's user-generated content? Junkies robotically filling boxes with packing peanuts. Lovely."

Lovely, indeed! When you use Google, you expect that you'll be able to find anything you're looking for. What about all the useless, trashy pages that come up instead of what you really want?

Or, how about the home pages of people that ramble on about their opinions regarding any and everything, offering not even a link to something factual. Lee Odden mentions, however, that it's costly to ensure that UGC is actually relevant and useful. True, it's impossible to moderate what anyone posts, but it's becoming increasingly more difficult to filter out what is credible/factual from what is not.

Perhaps opinion is what you're looking for when you need the chemical formula for benzene, but is the mass amount of UGC being produced every day going to help us out further, or will it start getting in our way?

(It's C6H6, by the way - thanks Online Encyclopedia)

Facebook Changing Politics...?

Is facebook going to revolutionize the face of politics in the United States?

I doubt it. All the side-bar facebook advertisements with politicians' faces on them in the world wouldn't sway me to vote one way or the other. For me, it's about fundamental beliefs and provocations...what their face looks like doesn't matter to me. I've long heard that the younger, college-age generation has the most power to sway elections. Why? Well, we can organize in mass to vote, we're more likely to want to vote because we believe it will make a difference, and our demographic has special voting habits (tendencies) that can exploit one party or the other.

In South Korea many politicians use Web 2.0 services, namely blogs, to help get their campaign and image out to the public. For that society, such a technique has a measurable impact. I believe that it's yet to be proven that political blogs have an impact here in the US.

As far as making other impacts goes, these two teens were able to raise several hundred thousand dollars for their campaign to support Darfur. Being invited to Capital Hill to speak definitely implies that your social networking efforts have had an impact on politics. However large or small, you've done something.

Web 2.0 efforts have the ability to revolution specific causes, and have an even greater chance of getting a huge outpouring of participation when the day comes when US citizens can vote in elections online. In my nine-thirty post, I discuss the pros and cons regarding online voting. It's something that I think the US should do. With current Web 2.0 technologies, a non-biased facebook ad encouraging me to vote would do a great job of reminding to perform my civic duty. By eliminating the need to physically travel someplace to vote, apathy will no longer be an excuse for political inactivism.

The Word "Gullible" is Written on the Ceiling

So I found myself blog surfing, and came across a comment on someone's blog post that starts like this:
_____

hi,I am a Nigerian, I live in Osun state.Don't think for a minute that my invitation is spam and I'm a spammer.
_____

I'll let you make your own conclusions.

On a separate note...

I was reading through the US Postal Service's handbook on mail fraud a few weeks ago. A little light reading for the AU shuttle ride, nonetheless. Inside, I came across a few interesting topics.

First was the concept of unsolicited packages. Say for example, a package of cheese and sausage arrives at your doorstep. You definitely didn't order it, but it's got your name and address on it, as well as a bill attached requesting payment. Well, perhaps you feel some obligation to pay for this package, thinking you may have forgotten about ordering it, or something. My take on the law, per the USPS's handbook there, is that unsolicited packages are yours to keep, and not return, if you so choose. If you want nothing to do with it, then simply write "return to sender" on the outside and leave it for the post man. However, should you actually open the package with your name on it, and inside it tells you that you must pay for the package you just opened... then you're actually not obligated to pay for it. You can keep it. Obviously there are some caveats and restrictions that apply, but that's the general gist of it.

Unsolicited packages addressed to you are yours.

Next I got to the part about letter scams requesting help in foreign countries for a small fee. I wrote several months ago in The Nine-Thirty about scams similar to this, but in an online context:

"It's just like e-mails from fraudulent people trying to convince people to input their bank information in an online form to confirm that they're still patrons of a certain institution. Hundreds of examples like this exist. Yet, still, high-faluting lawyers, and even congressmen (I believe he was from Florida) get conned, and have their identities stolen."

Well, if you get one of these things, it may constitute an act of mail fraud. So what do you do? Well, you can turn it into the authorities, but I think most [non-gullible] people choose to open and read them, have their laugh, and then throw them away.

Whatever floats your boat.

The Eight-Thirty

One could call it a title-downgrade from The Nine-Thirty, but The Eight-Thirty has a lot of interesting posts containing my opinions on numerous topics having to do with Social Networking and its interaction with Business. Business is quickly growing into a more online world, and social networking in that world is bringing business people together. Learn about it as well as find interesting commentary, links, and references to printed materials all having to do with social networking and business.

Also, if you have any interest in Mocial Networking (Mobile Social Networking) and all the really exciting, emerging technologies that it's beginning to feature, then check out this post at http://eight-thirty.blogspot.com/.

Just click!

Mocial Networking

It's Social Networking on steroids. The latest wave of technological advancements involves taking social networks mobile. I was very excited when I coined the term Mocial Networking (Mobile Social Networking), until I discovered this website where someone seems to have coined it before me. There's also another site that has adopted the word "mocial."

I'll elaborate on my understanding of mocial networking, as I've defined it. Mocial networking is web 2.0 but on an extremely mobile platform. The best way to engage in mocial networking is to have a GPS-enabled cell phone. With that, you can use sites like Kakiloc, Trackut, Socialight, Fring, and Bliin. Altogether, these sites allow you to place geo-specific digital sticky notes with text and pictures that provide information or opinions about specific locations, and are permanent to the specific location from which the user uploaded it. Also, these sites allow friends of yours to track you in real-time as you travel anywhere in the world.

People you designate as your friends can receive permissions to track your whereabouts at all times using Google Maps. The sites mentioned above can even tell your friends the speed and direction you're traveling, as well as where you're going if you designate your destination ahead of time. Of course, you do have control at all times over who you want to see what...

This is very awesome technology, however there are concerns about people abusing it. For example, tracking gullible minors (or even adults) for purposes of abduction.

Regardless, Stef Kolman from Bliin says that the risks associated with mocial networking aren't any greater than with traditional social networking (1.0/2.0) methods.

What do you guys think? How likely are people to abuse this new, exciting technology?

SPAM - Part 2

About a month ago I wrote a post highlighting how much I dislike receiving spam, and how large a problem spam really is. If you have 2 minutes 4 seconds, then watch this video that Google's spam-czars put together. It highlights ways that Google software engineers are able to filter out so much spam. From the chart on the original blog post, it looks like 67% of the e-mail that enters Google's servers is spam. But, look at how improving the Google spam-fighting algorithm has paid off over time! Hardly any spam actually makes it through the filter any more.

'Not'working

In reading the short post here, I was surprised to view this recruiting ad for Yahoo on Craigslist. Many companies, especially in India, recruit a substantial portion of their new hires through internal networking means. This means that current employees of the company, will refer someone they know as a candidate for a job at that company.

I would think that an online empire like Yahoo would have the social networking skills and connections to recruit recently graduate college students for hire. People have friends, but Yahoo has Craigslist. I don't think this makes Yahoo look very good. In a sense, online marketing for hires like this is good thinking, but in my opinion, it's not good enough. A nice little "I'm for Sale" tag goes up in my mind on anything that I see on Craigslist. Yahoo is simply saying, "we're too socially inept that we can't think of any better way to recruit hires than on Craigslist." How's about putting the recruitment ad on... YAHOO?? Perhaps on the Yahoo careers page?

This site talks about one's blog as fulfilling the role of their new resume. Your blog represents you. Well, I'd like to relate this back to the Yahoo faux-pas mentioned above. Job postings, in my eyes, are, as the blog reads, "serious business," "represent[ative] of you [i.e. Yahoo]," and "the unedited version of yourself." So, then, is Yahoo's recruiting techniques to say "we're cheap, not serious, and unoriginal?" It certainly appears this way. This reminds me of when an Army recruiting ad accidentally appeared on a gay social networking site.

I believe that how an organization recruits is reflective of the company's nature, style, and operation. What I am suggesting in this post is that my professional opinion of Yahoo has lessened slightly.

I Don't Want to Show ME Off

This week's reading was about professional networking. I read a few articles that talk about networking, professionally, via online means. See, it's one thing for me to hand out a copy of my resume to prospective employers, or to e-mail a copy to someone with whom I'm trying to network. Posting it for everyone to see is entirely different. While it's less effort for me because I don't have to send my resume to individual people, it's also much more revealing of myself. It's trading laziness for security.

I'm very stingy with my facebook profile, for it does not reveal my address, phone number, or other personal information at any time. Even the little amount it does reveal, I am able to control who sees. The header of my resume contains my phone number and address. If I'm so stingy with my facebook profile, what are the chances that I'll be in a hurry to post my resume? Very small.

Do I want people to be able to google me? Realistically, no. It would be a little too invasive of my privacy. It's nice to be able to have an online persona that is recognizable and easily findable, but at what price? In my opinion, the price is too high. As a humungous fan of face-to-face interaction, I would rather use other peoples' online information to track them down, to have a face-to-face conversation with them. I have no problem connecting and interacting with people online, it's actually the people that I don't want to interact with, who I'll ultimately end up interacting with because they've tracked me down, that keep me from publishing a back-door to my life on the internet (sometimes literally).

Everything I see says that networking is the most important thing that you can do. I think that becoming the most dedicated, educated, and hard-working person will be enough to set you apart from everyone else. Having a niche that makes you so special will have employers either seeking you, or refusing to turn down employment to you. I plan to have a very specialized career track where I know exactly where I fit, and where there will always be room.

Social Networking on Steroids, Speed, and X

Yes, you read that correctly.

Take 21 seconds to read point #6 of "Working Together...When Apart."

I am the Project Manager for Kogod's class KSB-252: Washington Initiative [Instructor: Allison Holcomb]. The goal of the class is to execute an AU-wide marketing initiative surrounding the Help the Homeless Walkathon, which is sponsored by Fannie Mae and takes place on the National Mall on November 17th.

Our team of 8 meets once weekly, and as such it is my responsibility to make sure that everyone is doing their jobs outside of the meetings. Each member of my team has a lot to do, and my job is essentially 8-fold in trying to keep up with it all. I require my team members to produce finite results for every meeting, and as such I am able to keep them accountable to the group.

I also take ITEC-200 with Professor Melander. You'd better believe that there's a wiki page for that course too. Blackboard, in my opinion, is not the best tool for keeping a class organized. This is why I commend Professor Melander so much for using the wiki pages. I had no idea the things that were possible with wiki's. Likewise, the blog for Brendan Monaghan, our guest speaker two classes ago, featured an awesome video about making a wiki page for a team or an event. My team needs to be able to edit documents together, and collaborate on our project. The above sources [i.e. Professor Melander] inspired me to make a wiki for my team. So, I created ksb252.wetpaint.com. Wetpaint is another site that hosts wiki's, although it does have advertising.

My team members have been responsible for editing several pages, and making noticeable contributions each week in preparation for meetings and events. As a result, our team is very connected, both in and out of the boardroom (we meet in the Kogod boardroom). Our client is very happy with our presentation, and our team is able to get things done in a no-excuse [online] environment that I feel promotes punctuality and cooperation.

So, when I read point #6 above, it made me very excited because for my e-connected team, this is something that I had actually done. And, I was able to related to the article instead of taking it with a grain of salt and much skepticism.

Thank you, Professor.

Stalker

First, let me be very candid in saying, "There are a lot of sick people out there."

Now, if a long lost friend of mine wants to find me, they're more than welcome to search for me on facebook, and send me a message to see if it's me. They wouldn't be able to see any of the very little information in my profile unless I accept their friend request. And that, is not guaranteed to happen.

If a stalker wanted to find out more information about me, they could also search for me on facebook. What would they get? A picture of my head that's about 10 pixels wide. That's about it. I'm very restrictive with the information that I put up online, because I never know who's looking at it. Even with Google Analytics which lets me see where the people that view my blog are from, doesn't tell me who, exactly, they are. Anyone could be snooping... even a prospective employer.

In this way I feel that I have a good balance. People who know me can find me and contact me before finding out more info. People I don't know, don't get any info, but still have the opportunity to message me if they feel so inclined. As I build my life online, including website with that catacomb my work over the years, both professional and collegiate, I want to be able to control who sees and uses it. I feel that someone checking me out online, is practically the same thing as if they were looking through my window at me. It's just as creepy when you find out someone's there, because you don't know what they've seen, or how they've interpreted what they have seen. The online world is a fun and magnificent place, but it can get very scary, very fast when "a motivated person," as Lenhart and Madden describe, hunts you down. These two authors tell us that 63% of teens with online profiles think they could be found. Imagine how many are in denial... imagine how many actually can be found. It's a daunting thought.

http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=211 - "Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace."

SPAM

No, not the faux-meat. As much as I don't like SPAM the faux-meat, I dislike e-spam even more. Hearing from the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of AU last year, 95% of the e-mail that comes through AU's servers is spam. I'd say 95% of the e-mail I receive in Gmail is spam too... thank goodness for the spam filter! I believe that spam has become a great detriment to the system of e-mail, because in some cases, it simply cannot be controlled.

Howard Rheingold, in "Smart Mobs" (See Below), talks about having signed up for a text message service in which members of specific groups could send mass text messages via cell phones to other members in their group, all at once. The groups had specific purposes, like celebrity sightings in NYC, or terrorist attacks, pop-star fans, etc. After reading about this kind of service, in my mind I immediately dismissed it as almost entirely pointless. If you ask me, someone who is a real jerk is bound to sign up for the service and spam everyone's phone with useless messages that either contain false content or don't at all relate to the group. If your cell phone plan does not afford you unlimited text messages, then your monthly bill is going to be huge, in addition to the separate monthly bill for just belonging to the groups service. Talk about a waste of money!

Rheingold mentions (on page 167) that he joined a group of a Lil' BowWow fans. He says he received a text from "a fifteen-year-old lil bowwow fan in Brooklyn [that] just got out of school." Honestly, who gives even the slightest hoot? Rheingold also mentions that he had to switch over to receiving e-mails rather than text messages, which most likely was because of the quantity or [lack of] quality of the content he was receiving. Talk about a waste of time and technology.

If, in the case of the terrorism group, you only receive one text message every three months regarding a very widespread (and not isolated) incident that may actually impact your life, then I can see this system being useful. Otherwise, I don't see the point in wasting my time and money on a service that will, in my opinion, make me dumber for using it.

"Smart Mobs" by Howard Rheingold: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780738208619&itm=1. His personal page: http://www.rheingold.com/.

Lecond Sife

The popularity of Sceond Lfie will grow, I feel, to the point where it will attract the same amount of press that WoW and Everquest once did. The latter two games attracted attention on Wall Street because of the massive profits they reaped. They attracted mainstream media attention, however, because people were beginning to die playing them. Secnod Lief is quickly becoming as widespread as WoW and Everquest once were, while being equally addictive.

It's fantastic that someone can become a literal millionaire playing an online game such as Seocnd Flie, but is it worth the 2 1/2 years of 70 hours per week of vegetation? Guys, think about how much hair you'd lose.

I remember being in an Internet "Cafe" in South Korea.** They sold Snickers bars, Coca-Cola, and Juice for 75 cents a pop. I talked with a guy who had been playing Everquest and Counter-Strike for 2 1/2 days straight. No sleep. They guy's eyes had blood vessels popping out. He acted like a zombie and said he'd only consumed Snickers bars and cans of Juice for every meal, for the previous 2 1/2 days. Keep in mind, they also have to pay for the time they spend on the computer. I imagine the cafe offers a "day pass," which is probably 50 bucks for 24 hours of play on your own private computer terminal.

I was very glad to hear about WoW instituting a "rest" policy by which your character is helped when he/she is not active. This encourages players to stop playing... but still, until the companies begin to limit online play to 4-6 hours per day, I'm not sold. Likewise, I refuse to purchase such games, especially considering that I'm a little familiar with the ridiculous markup of those games. What a rip! You get ripped at the Store, in your Life, and you might even DIE.

**For those of you who aren't techies, South Korea is one of the largest gaming server/internet hubs in the world. Online games require a great internet connection, and in SoKo, it's blazing. When I lived in Japan, I'd always play my online games on South Korean servers, and never on Chinese, or, heaven forbid, Japanese servers. They couldn't keep up.

And yes, I intentionally misspelled Secodn Lief everywhere in this post. It's one of many ways I rebel against the system. :P

Tomorrow We Ride...

Oh please, please interrupt my dinner by cold-calling me and attempting to solicit goods that you know for a fact I do not want. Interruption marketing.

Let's try this again: If I am hanging out with a friend and that person tells me about a wonderful product they've encountered, I am much more likely to check it out. Word of mouth has the power to accomplish anything. Random, meal-interrupting phone calls are much more likely to attain the 2% or less positive response they seek.

In the last few months of my senior year of high school, some students sought to organize a "senior skip day," in which all the seniors would show up at the school parking lot one morning, and then proceed to carry out an unauthorized field trip to some of the more trendy and risquee districts of Tokyo (I was living in Japan for my latter high school years). Some students had an examination and could not attend, but 76 of 78 graduating seniors failed to show up for roll call that particular morning.

Did any of us know what facebook was? Being in Japan, we just didn't use it. Nor did we use AOL Instant Messenger. Some people used Yahoo or the more popular MSN messengers... but not many. How did 97% of our class find out what day "senior skip day" was, when to meet, and how much money to bring/where we were going? Good question. The same way Firefox had 25 million dowloads in its first 99 days of existence. (As Scoble tells us in Naked Conversations, pg. 36) Word of mouth!

The day before this planned coup against the administration was to take place, the student council president gave very detailed instructions to a few notoriously bad students, concerning the procedure for the following day's events. Before the end of the school day, everyone knew when and where we were meeting, how many Yen to bring, what to tell their parents, how to write a phony note, etc. The detail was incredible. The two students that did not attend our jaunt had an examination. Funny thing: The school staff and administration were completely blindsided- through all the word of mouth, not a word reached their ears.

The moral of the story is that if one person had sent a mass e-mail to all the seniors, the word "sketchy" probably would have well characterized everyone's thoughts regarding this proposal. But the fact that everyone told his and her friends made it personal. Your friend was skipping, so you were going to as well. It was a chain reaction. "I don't think I can..." was just not an option. It was legitimate; it was going down tomorrow; your friend was not coming to school: That's all there is to it. This is how ICQ, AIM, Firefox, and Skype have found so much success: Everyone wants to have the coolest, latest thing to lighten up their lives. In my case that was ditching a single day of school after 12 hard years of work. : )

Get "With It" ~and~ (Hardly) Be Yourself!

Well first I will say that I was a bit disappointed to find out in the "Naked Conversations" intro (pg. 1) that the book did not in fact feature "middle-aged white guys talking in the nude."

The blacksmith analogy made in the aforementioned introduction explains exactly how I feel about businesses that do not adapt quickly enough to the rapidly changing industry (and way of life) that technology is. I recently ordered a headset for ITEC-200 (also w/ Prof. Mel) and the shipping tracking displayed as follows:

Clearly the scanning device was reset. And, most likely, December 31st, 1969 is the default begin date. Now, the device used for scanning the packages cannot be more than 5-6 years old. Therefore, why would the software programmers even allow the device to register a date earlier than, say, 2001? This is the kind of silliness that I despise, and Scoble and Israel agree with me in saying that companies like this will not find themselves with work for very long.

---------------------------------------------------

On a related note, those companies that are technologically "with it" have an active blogging force who contribute to and maintain the corporate blog. I can see a lot of confusion arising with regard to proper conduct of a company employee in a corporate (or even personal) blog. How far is too far? And, how active or inactive, passive or aggressive should one be in defending or advertising their company?

To see an actual, well-though out manifesto of proper corporate weblog conduct (NC, 190) really filled me with excitement. I found the gist of this passage to be along the lines of, 'be yourself, but to an extent.' Having a thick skin, and posting frequently and with passion are advocated, yet we are reminded that we do not have free speech, and that lawsuits can ensue if we are not careful. I feel that there are noticeable contradictions in this set of guidelines, but it's also the most thought out (and therefore best) start toward establishing a standard for corpblog activity that I've yet to come across.

I think all companies with blogs should give their blogging employees this list, and instruct them to abide by it as their Constitution and their code of conduct. Likewise, companies who don't presently blog should use this manifesto as a foundation for success in the blogging community. It's much easier to start a new blog and follow these rules, than to try and reform an old, beat-up, and dirty blog that's been around for several years.

Naked Conversations: http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Conversations-Changing-Businesses-Customers/dp/047174719X. The authors' blog: http://redcouch.typepad.com/.

link

Rubbish!

Charles Kadushin, in his article about Social Network Theory, raises the point that many people are probably more than six degrees apart because of their environment.

Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qXJ1DAfYBA.

Now, I believe that it's safe to say that we here in the US are no more than six degrees away from anyone else who is from a nation as developed as ours. The map at this link: http://web.ges.gla.ac.uk/~mshand/africawww/Image7.jpg, will show you how Internet connectivity on the African continent has progressed in recent years. This map is deceptive, however, because after much further research, I've discovered that much of the continent is still disconnected due to geographical issues and a lack of funding to cope with it. With the continent being so disconnected, how can one say that someone in the western plains of Cote d'Ivoire is only six degrees of separation from myself? It is possible, surely, but very unlikely. Only the most modern cities would have sufficient connectivity and the infrastructure to support a man hunt of this kind.

The Six Degrees theory emerged in 1967 at a time when America had no Internet connectivity. Supposing the theory was applicable then, most Americans at this point cannot be many more than 3 or 4 degrees away from one another.

Environment takes its toll, however, because once someone from this country tries to link up with someone from another, language barriers will likely begin inhibiting the ultimate success of this task. For instance, how would you locate someone in Karuizawa, Japan? 丁度 ("exactly").

Many barriers, including social, cultural, geographic, and financial exist that make the theory of six degrees more applicable to today's society more than ever before, however I retain my skepticism that this theory held truth in 1967. Only in small application has it yielded positive results. Six Degrees may work for you, but only if you and your target fit into the right 'category'.

Kadushin: http://sixdegrees.wikidot.com/local--files/reading-history/kadushin.pdf

Do you ever...?

Do you ever write out things you've already done on a day planner, just so you can cross them out?

Or, for the more techy in nature: Do you create digital sticky notes on your desktop just so you can delete them? Or, elongate the note on a sticky, right before you delete it?

I get an ever increasing feeling of satisfaction when I can see tangible notes be crossed out or thrown away. Something about it necessitates that I procede in such a fashion until I have achieved a supreme level of satisfaction through this means.

A bit on Kevin Bacon and his glorious six degrees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPB8L_sFMaM&mode=related&search= Bacon talking about his charity.

http://www.sixdegrees.org/Default.aspx Bacon's charity website.

The Exponential Value of Social Networks

Howard Rheingold in "Smart Mobs" discusses the laws by Sarnoff, Moore, Metcalfe, and Reed, that concern technology and social networks. I would never have thought to combine any of these laws to form my own postulate, simply because I do not generally associate social networks with the Internet. I think of the Internet as a place where commerce thrives and a means by which individuals communicate not only on a personal basis, but a business one too.

Adding e-mail addresses to the CC: or BCC: line of an e-mail doesn't initially strike me as social networking because the communication is essentially one way. At least until a reply is made. Even though, however, individuals rarely "Reply to all." Rheingold reckons that the laws concerning the growth of microcomputer abilities can also apply to people. The notion that two computers separate from each other are much less efficient than if they were linked to each other, coincides with Americans' belief that "two heads are better than one." For this reason, it is not hard to understand why an entire website of socially entwined people could offer endless possibilities in the way of organization and efficiency. With everyone linked together, information can be disseminated much quicker, and if a filter is applied, with great accuracy too. Likewise, interaction between individuals, whether for social or commercial purposes, is made much easier.

Rob Cross, a professor of Commerce at the University of Virginia makes note that oftentimes people collaborate with many others, using technology of all shorts, in an effort to get their work done. In theory, this notion would further Rheingold's claims that using technology to create social networks is the key to opening an infinite number of doors leading toward success. I remain skeptical of this theory, though. In the case of e-bay, this concept works marvelously. However, in real-world office environments I feel that, while some collaboration is good, preferably through means of face-to-face speech, using advanced technology that makes collaboration faster and easier can actually be more a burden than a help. If it's faster and easier to communicate, then people will likely do it more frequently, and the above theory ends up proving to be a detriment to the office environment. The effects are exaggerated if a key collaborator goes missing from the framework of social collaboration for that environment. Then individuals so graciously supported before are left to fend, and more importantly think, for themselves.

It's hard to say what is right and what is wrong in the massive realm of online social networking. My belief is that such a phenomenon is good for speedy communication, but I remain skeptical as I have yet to see such means of instant communication effectively regulated, so as not to induce inefficiency, the very thing that all of this is striving to prevent.

"Smart Mobs" by Howard Rheingold, pp. 56-61: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780738208619&itm=1

"First Hand: Connecting to Collaborate: An Interview With Rob Cross," featuring Rob Cross: http://www.csc.com/cscworld/012006/dep/fh001.shtml

The First Post

I am an American University student taking the course ITEC-333: Social Networking and Business. This blog and its contents are for said course. On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own. More to follow----