This weekend I added another title to my database: social communicator.
Entries from March 2009
What’s in a Title
March 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Categories: social media
Tagged: leadership titles, social communitor, social media titles
Is Social Media Leaving the Underprivileged Behind?
March 8, 2009 · 1 Comment
Yesterday was social media day in Memphis. SocialCamp Memphis brought together social media novices and pros to talk about…um, social media. I sat in on a session about the future of news gathering in the era of social media. As everyone talked about time was the only thing standing between social media’s overtaking traditional media as the most prevasive source of news and information, there was one very poignant question rasied: “if all the news moves online, what does that mean for those less fortunate not to have an internet connection nevertheless a computer?”
As newspapers are continued to be threatened my market pressures and fail, how do those underserved learn what’s happening in the world around them? Of course, I referenced my earlier post about not printing six issues a week, but then started to wonder about not everyone having access to the news. We discussed how important a newspaper was to the community it served. Someone mentioned people running to the library computers to get the news. Another brought up the demographics endangered of falling behind were youth, elderly and poor.
And because there were a bunch of geeks in the room, the discussion turned back to technology, more specifically, the emergence of mobile devices. The emergence of smart phones hopefully will neutralize this emerging media. I brought up some demographics of iPhone users and may have misspoke, a little, so I wanted to claify:
Here are the household income and growth percentage stats from comScore’s iPhone 3G launch study over June, July, and August 2008:
- Under $25,000 – 16 percent
- $25,000 to $49,999: 48 percent
- $50,000 to $74,999: 46 percent
- $75,000 to $99,999: 3 percent
- $100,000 or more: 16 percent
A Rubicon survey entitled ‘The Apple iPhone: Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry’ looked at the profile of iPhone users. They found that:
- 50 percent of iPhone users are under thirty, and 15 percent are students.
- Half of the iPhone users replaced conventional mobile phones (commonly the Motorola Razr) while 40 percent replaced other smartphones (such as Blackberrys and Windows Mobile devices).
- 60 percent of users browse the internet at least once per day
- Three quarters of users do more web surfing on the iPhone than on their previous device.
So, this post doesn’t necessarily offer up any solutions or answers to this digital divide, but I did find these stats of the mobile web (iPhone usage) interesting.
I want to know what you all think about this divide. Curious to hear your thoughts about this gap in the online haves and have nots.
Categories: social media
Tagged: digital divide, social media, socialcamp memphis
Remember the Alamo
March 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment
One of the most historic battles in U.S. history took place on March 6, 1836 – The Battle of the Alamo. Fighting against a huge Mexican army, a couple hundred Texans and volunteers stood up in a bid for independence. As a kid growing up in San Antonio I can remember the mission being larger than life. As an adult, I look at the men who fought and the cause for the fight– and realize they were much larger.
March in Texas is an amazing time. The history, the music, the arts and the landscape. God Bless Texas.
Categories: Uncategorized
SF Chronicle Reads The Displaced Texan…Maybe
March 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I really, really don’t want to do this, but I will. Over the weekend I wrote a post about what I would do if I was a newspaper man entitled, Stop the Presses. In that post, I said if the Chronicle was smart they would have cancelled print editions long ago and that they should start a wiki to get the public’s perspective on its reporting. Well, tonight I discovered the PostChronicleWiki.
Not exactly what I had in mind, but you can see where the Chronicle knows that as a community paper, it will need the community to help it survive. “Post” doesn’t have to mean its demise. Post could just be the paper in a different form than it is today.
Pretty exciting stuff me thinks. I didn’t predict this obivously, just glad to be apart of the conversation.
Categories: social media
Tagged: future of newspapers, future of print, sf chronicle, stop the press, wiki
John Stewart talks about…hold up I have to Twitter Real Fast
March 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Stewart talks about America’s sweeping love affair for and dwindling attention spans on Twitter.
Twitter is becoming more and more mainstream, but have we thought why? People are confused with the chaos we’re living in and we’re reaching out hoping for others to make sense of the world.
Part broadcast, part listening, part market intelligence, Twitter represents the need to downsize information after years of verbose and exaggerated content creation. Sort of a nice metaphor for the economy. Just give me what I need to know without the imaginary value.
Categories: Uncategorized
Happy Texas Independence Day – A Day Late
March 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
While it’s sad to not be living in Texas, it can be fun to be a Texan living in a far away land. I tell everyone here in Tennessee just how great the Great State of Texas is. I talk about its many cultures, the food, the music, the people, the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. Some call it arrogance, I call it pride. Texas truly is a world in of its own, but before it became a frame of mind, it was a republic.
My son wore his Davey Crockett coon-skin hat to school and I walked around telling everyone happy Texas Independence day. I had an insanely busy day, yesterday and wasn’t able to give this post justice so it’s a day late, so on the second day of the 173rd year of the Texas Republic, I thought I’d share a little about Texas.
- Texas delcared its independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836
- Many of the great heores that helped Texas fight for its independence do in fact come from Tennessee
- Some reasons for the fight for independence include:
- Political rights to which the settlers had previously been accustomed, such as the right to keep and bear arms and the right to trial by jury, were denied.
- No system of public education had been established.
- The settlers were not allowed freedom of religion.
- Sam Houston is the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two
different states, Tennessee and Texas, be a President and State senator
I could go on and on about Texas, I always do, so I’ll just leave you with the lyrics of one of my favorite songs, What I Like About Texas, from Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TEXAS
You ask me what I like about Texas
I tell you it’s the wide open spaces!
It’s everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande.
It’s the Llano Estacado,
It’s the Brazos and the Colorado;
Spirit of the people down here who share this land!
It’s another burrito, it’s a cold Lone Star in my hand
It’s a quarter for the jukebox, boys,
Play some songs by your favorite Austin Texas band!
You ask me what I like about Texas
It’s the big timber roundneck Nacadoches
It’s driving El Camino Real into San Antone
It’s the Riverwalk and Mi Tierra
Dancing to the Cotton-eyed Joe
It’s stories of the Menger Hotel and the Alamo!
(You remember the Alamo!)
It’s another burrito, it’s a cold Lone Star in my hand!
It’s a quarter for the jukebox, boys,
Play some songs by your favorite Austin Texas band!
Hey, you ask me what I like about Texas
It’s Blue Bonnet and Indian paint brushes
Swimming in the sacred waters of Barton Springs
It’s body surfing at Freo
It’s Saturday night in El Paso!
Driving across the border for some cultural exchange!
It’s another burrito, it’s a cold Lone Star in my hand!
It’s a quarter for the jukebox, boys,
Play some songs by your favorite Austin Texas band!
It’s another burrito, it’s a cold Lone Star in my hand!
It’s a quarter for the jukebox, boys,
Play some songs by your favorite Austin Texas band!
Yee-Hoo! That’s what I like about Texas! Yehaw!
Categories: Uncategorized
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
March 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Just wanted to share and catalog a the cool Google search art commemorating Dr Seuss’ birthday yesterday, March 2. I came to love Theodore Geisel as a child and later admired him for being a SigEp. Dr. Seuss taught the world to read, and how to have fun. And it’s fun to have fun, you just have to know how.
Categories: Uncategorized
