Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Links

It's been a rough week. So, I wanted to post, but I'm being a bit lazy. I'm just posting some links.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37713095@N00/
- I updated my Flickr photos

Seriously?

The Tudors is an awesome show...the Showtime network has really stepped it up in the past few years

Google Health - no ads

Overheard in Athens

Oye

Anyway, I'm very excited about the Edelman Digital Bootcamp (#edb) this weekend! Looks for updates from me on Saturday.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Another SNL Funny

Here's Tina Fey discussing Hillary Clinton on Weekend Update. (Please note foul language is used).

Edit: Ok...YouTube had to take it down. SO here's NBC's site. It's a little more than halfway through.

Enjoy!

Grady College Pride

I wanted to share a few points of pride for the Grady College. The students at the Grady College are constantly achieving wonderful accomplishments.

New Orleans Trip Audiovisual Presentation
- Product of the Health & Medical Journalism course last semester

Safe Kids Athens
- Product of the undergraduate Bateman PR Case Study Team (undergrad students working on real world problems, producing real world solutions)
- See the video here - http://www.youtube.com/group/safekidsathens

Project for UGA Office of Security & Emergency Preparedness
- Undergraduates in Dr. Sweetser's Research Methods course investigated perceptions of the university during a crisis

Don't forget to register for the Edelman Digital Bootcamp (both undergrads & educators)! It's less than 6 days away.

Friday, February 22, 2008

The Huck on SNL

I thought this skit was rather entertaining from last night's Saturday Night Live.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Thoughts on the Election

I just love the pictures they select on DrudgeReport...they love Hillary :-P

Anyway, many people have been asking me about my thoughts on the Presidential Election and wondering who I actually voted for in the GA primary. I've been reluctant to share because at heart I'm an academic and we really should manage to stay objective in our thinking. It also aides in our viewing of election materials, articles, and various other mediums we choose to study. I am by no means saying that I don't have an opinion, but I choose to exercise that opinion privately.

With that said, I would like to share some of my objective thoughts about this election season thus ar. I will refrain from making predictions because I'm neither a pundit nor an fortune teller for the American voter. I like to leave it up to the process...that's what it's there for.

The number one trend I'm most thrilled about in this election is the shear amount of involvement, discussion and engagement with politics. I love to hear people discussing politics around campus, on the bus, in coffee shops and elsewhere. No matter what you think about red and blue states, we as a nation need to continue this engagement and educating ourselves on the political process. I was so happy to see more explanations of the delegate system and how the political process works. These thoughts may be my idealism showing, but I don't think I'm in the minority either.

Another trend I think is related to the engagement is the overall lack of negativity between candidates. Though there have been examples of classic attack including the "war of words" (interesting article about that: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=cp_fpfs1pmkq14&show_article=1) and McCain's most recent comments about Obama's inexperience. However, overall, the candidates have attempted to put themselves up for election without taking down their opponents. A student asked me during a recent lecture about political advertising about how the lack of negativity would play as we went forward. My thought is cynical because I don't see it lasting as we go into the general election period. The party loyalty is important right now, but once it is Republican versus Democrat...we will most likely regress back into the typical negative attacks.

As the primaries go forward, especially with the Democrats, I think it's now important to concentrate on policy differences between Clinton and Obama. Yes, there are a lot of similarities, but also differences. These are what should make the difference...not gender, race, etc. On the subject of change...as Clinton stated in one of the debates, no matter which candidate you choose on the Democratic side, there will be change. [No bias intended].

As for McCain, I do not think he should be attempting to influence the Democratic primaries. He should work on maintaining party loyalty and focus on his choice for a VP. Also, come up with solid plan for Iraq, other than another 100 years of occupation. [A joke...no more]

In other news...I'm thrilled to see that the first search result that comes up when you Google my name is this blog :)

MTV Street Team Quote

I forgot to post this earlier, but I thought it was great to meet Shelby Highsmith at SoCon08. He then interviewed me for his weekly post for the MTV Street Team 08. Highsmith is the Georgia state representative for the Street Team.

Quoted (it's towards the bottom)...

http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF0098A04C00080098D195/User/Blog/BlogPostDetail.aspx

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Smart Cities

America's Smartest Cities...

http://tinyurl.com/2rep6h

Source: Forbes

Monday, February 11, 2008

SoCon08

This post is way too late I know, but it's been a rough week.

SoCon08 was great this weekend. I met a bunch of great folks in various industries, doubled my Twitter followers, and got some research ideas. It is always interesting to talk to people who are just as excited about technology, especially social media as I am. Sometimes when I'm talking to someone who's not as interested, I find myself feeling a little crazy.

Friday night was a great dinner at Maggiano's (wonderful eggplant parm), where I sat with the political people and were told we were the most engaged in our conversation compared other tables. We made a couple of predictions, analyzed the Super Tuesday results, and pondered the influence of technology on the Presidential election. We also discussed the voting procedures in Georgia, using DieBold machines, and not having a paper trail when voting. I'm generally a proponent of a paperless systems because it's better for the environment and more convenient. However, we agreed that it would be nice to have some sort of receipt would make us feel more comfortable about the process. Mainly, the receipt would be for auditing purposes.

On Saturday, we had a full day of activities starting with breakfast in the morning. With my bagel, I got a sales pitch from a entrepreneur talking about his new website with small education modules for people to learn at their own pace. After that we headed into the auditorium for a discussion of the trends over the past year, important factors to consider in social media's evolution, as well as comments from the participants about their success using technology. The whole time, they were switching between the conference's Twitter page, the websites of participants, blogs, and Power Point up on the big screen. It was great because I picked up a laundry list of new links to explore...in all of my free time :)

When we took a break, we signed up for our afternoon breakout sessions. At lunch, I found myself again discussing politics, but also about Utterz and some other sites I had not heard of before. After lunch we went into our breakout sessions. I choose to go to an effective writing session and one about incorporating social media in the classroom. The most interesting parts about the sessions was just talking with other people about their perspectives and experiences with social media.

After we finished with the conference, Connie and I decided to stay another night. So we secured a room and then went over to the after conference drinks and pizza. Ok, first of all, Mellow Mushroom pizza is awesome & so are their soft pretzels. With that out of the way, we started to talk about non-business items and the beer flowed freely. It was a lot of relaxed.

Once we had our fill of pizza and beer, Connie and I headed over to our hotel. We got an awesome room (after being upgraded for free) with plenty of room, a big bed, and amazing TV. After saying we were going to work before going to bed, I think we pretty much vegged out before passing out.

All in all, the conference took a lot more energy than I had anticipated, but it also yielded more than I thought it would.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Great Links From Today

Jobs in SM: http://www.socialmediajobs.com/

Entertaining Blog: http://www.dooce.com/

Atlanta Business Reviews: http://www.kudzu.com/

Discovering the Internet: http://favebot.com/

Quilting Network: http://www.qnntv.com/aspx/qnn/default.aspx#

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/wallstrip

Multitasking Women: http://multi-taskingwoman.com/

I want this: http://www.nseries.com/index.html#l=products,n95_8gb

SoCon 08


Greetings,

I'm blogging from SoCon 08 at Kennesaw State University at Marietta, Ga. Last night we had a wonderful experience of networking with many social media folks, including politics.

Listening to a presentation:

5 Big Events that changed our lives in the last 12 months - in technology of course


<- A pic of me from last night


Watch for updates as the day goes on!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Super Tuesday!

Here we are...Super Tuesday. We have reached the most important day of the 2008 Presidential Election. Some people were excited about LOST coming back last week, others are anticipating a resolution of the writer's strike, but I have been teeming with excitement waiting for today's primary elections.

No matter what the pundits or polls say, it's up to the American people to choose who the candidates in the Republican and Democratic party will be this Fall.

If you are one of the following states, get out & vote: California, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts.

Polls open in Georgia at 7 a.m. and stay open till 7 p.m.!

I look forward to updating later today :)

Monday, February 4, 2008

The Internet as Information Source

Good Morning,

I received this in a weekly newsletter put together by a Lecturer and Media Consultant at Grady. I thought it was interesting and not too surprising.

DIGITAL SUPER FUTURE: The Internet has officially taken over as the most important source of information – at least among Internet users, according to a study by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication. But even among Internet users, there is still a question of trust and reliability. With the number of hours spent online rising a full hour per week from 2006 to 2007 to an average of 15.3 hours per week, four out of five Internet users (80%) consider the Internet to be an important source of information for them. That’s up dramatically from 66% the year before and is significantly higher than television (68%), radio or newspapers (both 63%). Yet less than half (46%) say that ‘most or all’ of the information online is generally reliable, although the same people say their particular, favorite Web sites are reliable by a margin of 83% and almost the same number (80%) say the established media websites are reliable.

The study which is in its seventh year found that more than half of the Internet users (55%) who are members of an online community feel as strongly about their online communities as they do about their real-world communities. That’s an increase from 43% just a year ago. And membership in online communities has more than doubled in the past three years. Of course that’s only 15%. More than half of the online community members (56%) reported meeting their online counterparts in person, but they also said they have an average of 5.2 friends online whom they have never met in person. Despite this, Internet users report spending slightly more time per week socializing with friends and family in person. When they are online they are buying things, with 60% saying they have bought something (usually under $100) online, and that they make an average of 36 purchases a year online; and yes, they do say it comes at the expense of retail stores.

And in a sort of good news, bad news cliché, the good news is that three out of five Internet users (60%) report looking for news online. Of course that’s still lower than the percentage (71%) who say they are just surfing with no specific destination. The bad news, at least for my newspaper brethren, is that one in five (21%) report they have stopped a subscription for a newspaper or magazine because they can get it, or related content, online. Some consolation comes from a new question in the poll which showed that half (52%) said they would miss the offline edition of the newspaper if it was no longer available while a quarter (27%) said they would not. Another new question in the poll showed that somewhere between a quarter and a third (29%) of Internet users say they have time shifted their TV viewing, using either a VCR or DVR.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Welcome

Greetings,

My name is Kristin English and I'm a PhD student who has a love and passion for learning, politics, communication, and technology. My main research area campaign communication (political, health, and public relations) through emerging technologies. I did my master's thesis on campaign blogs in the 2006 midterm election, examining how the technology was being used in U.S. Senate campaigns. My purpose with this blog is to share my view on various topics, including technology, politics, and communication. I look forward to discussing on the topics with whoever wishes to comment.

Best,
KE