Haiti Relief Effort Marks a Tipping Point for Mobile Charity

"Today is a huge day for mobile giving".- Says one Tony Aiello, CEO of mGive in this article on USNews. Mobile giving is set up through this company. It means that someone can send a text message or post a Facebook status about a certain cause and this company teams up with other companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, to make sure that once people do post these things to their site, that a monetary donation is made to a cause. This has been called a hoax by critics about Facebook and Twitter but the text message giving is very easy to calculate and watch. Twitter and Facebook are easily used to spread the word about these mGive movements but the real money is coming from people texting a certain word to a phone number and the money that they choose to give is being charged to their cell phone bills. This is a great way to raise awareness and help foreign countries and it only takes a second.  In one week, this company, mGive, had raised over $2 million for the Red Cross efforts in Hati. This would not be possible if it weren't for Facebook, Twitter, cell phones, text messaging and new communication technologies. I think that this effort is great and the fact that all of these social media outlets have been used to benefit such a great cause, that many other institutions should look into something like this to help raise money for their own causes and relief efforts.

Covering Disaster

"Information flows must be two-way to be effective—from the external world to the affected community, but
also from those affected to the agencies seeking to help them in useful ways."
In this article, this is one part that stuck out to me. A lot of times, people dont see information as a two-way flow between parties. Many times, people see their message as a one way street. That they only want to get the information that they want to get out there and then they expect nothing in return. People also dont understand that oftentimes, their messages are much more widespread than they think. When people use the world wide web, they oftentimes do not understand the reach that they have. In regards to the introduction of this article, in Iran, protesters are looking for information from websites that Iranian officials are also posting false information on. This is very interesting. People look for information on trusted websites, as the executive summary had mentioned. Another part that I found interesting was in the introduction, they mentioned that new technologies are used for people to help prepare for, respond and recover from major disasters. This is very popular now with social media. Twitter, Facebook, email, and Youtube are all used to help raise awareness and also raise funds for countries experiencing major disasters.
New communication technologies are also used for early warning systems. Technology of detecting these disasters has become much more advanced and so has communication technologies. People are able to know much sooner that something is going to happen or has just happened because of cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This technology could help with so many different issues in relaying messages because so many people are tuned into them that the message can be reached by a giant audience in a very short period of time.
I think that communication technologies is an amazing concept and I'm very glad that we have it today.

From Innovation to Revolution

THIS article goes right off of the other article.
The question it poses is "Do Social Media Make Protests Possible" and this is exactly what I mentioned in the previous post.
Organized protests are hard to get together but recently, it has been come increasingly easier for people.
Innovations in communication technology have solved the problem of trying (and failing) to organize protests on a large scale. As Shirky said "Digital networks have acted as a massive positive supply shock to the cost and spread of information, to the ease and range of public speech by citizens and to the speed and scale of group coordination."
This quote shows exactly what I mean about how social media has made it easier for people to organize, express their opinions and to make everything go on such a large scale.

The Political Power of Social Media

The first thing that stuck out to me while reading this article was the photo of the Statue of Liberty. In one hand she carries her torch and the other, a cell phone. This conveyed so much information and put a lot of things into perspective at the same time.
Very interesting to see it portrayed in such a manner.
"The public's ability to coordinate such a massive and rapid response -- close to seven million text messages were sent that week -- " This is very impressive especially because it was back in 2001. The numbers have only increased since then. 
We're seen this happen more and more often since new communication technologies are becoming more and more prevalent in the world of politics.
This article shows how much technology has changed the face of organized politics.
Theres no way to touch on this subject and not bring up the fact about organized protests in Madison, WI against Gov. Scott Walker. SO many people have organized groups on Facebook and Tweets on Twitter about the action at the capitol dominate the Twitter Tweet Stream.
This just shows how much these social media outlets have influenced politics.

Courntey Lowery has brought up many different ideas about Twitter in this article called An Explosion Prompts Rethinking of Twitter and Facebook. The biggest thing that I found that she points out is that Twitter opens many new possibilities for journalists. She talks about how the building explosion in Montana and how reporters used Twitter to convey messages quickly and efficiently. They even used the photo capabilities of Twitter to help explain what they were trying to say about the explosion. This was the only means of communication covering the explosion in Montana and for Twitter to be used so effectively shows how much new communication technologies are taking over the world of journalism. 

This isn't the only time we've heard about Twitter being used to report the news and I'm sure this isnt going to be the last time. 

Jim Disrude's Presentation

The effects of Teacher Self-disclosure via Social Networks on Teacher Competence.

Using Facebook as a “narcissist” view: This happens all the time. I know from personal experience. There are many times that we find ourselves stuck on how we look. I think that this happens more and more often. Especially when it comes to being “bored”. When there is no one else that is interesting enough to look at, we turn to ourselves and past events we’ve been involved in.

Is narcissism a successful track for a campaign? In regard to the Shaun White ad, it has been. Many companies are turning the focus onto the purchasers to make a profit. If they’re putting people in the light of their own purchases, it makes sense that the items are selling better because people are using them for personal factors.

Facebook profile pictures of professors:

He went and tried to find out what professor is more informed, qualified, intelligent, valuable, expert and reliable.
Created a Facebook page for both “professors”.

Out of the both, the “fun” professor got better ratings.

This is very interesting because the professor that I would have thought to get a better rating was the more well dressed and professional professor. Most people in the class thought that it would have gone the other way. That the professor that looked more professional would have gotten better reviews.

Coming down to self disclosure makes for opportunities to make yourself who you want to be. Disclosures can be risky. People need to be careful what they put on Facebook and how they disclose information about themselves.

To be a good teacher, you need to be competent, you need to have character and you need to be caring. These are a few things that you cannot find out until you know a professor. This brings up a thought about a website that many college students use: MyProfessorSucks.com. Many students rate their professors after taking classes with them so that others can learn from their experiences. The biggest problem with this is that most of the time, only negative comments are on the site about professors.

I think that these positive characteristics should definitely be important to professors. If they do not care about their students, they shouldn’t be allowed to teach. The same goes for them being competent. Character is very valued as well but how are these things supposedly measured? It makes it difficult to know so much about one person before you actual meet them.

Method: Used 48 undergrad students – 21 female, 28 male. Randomly selected to be part of different profiles. Were allowed 5 minutes to formulate an opinion about the professor.

Both profiles had the same education and same work experience and the levels of competence were VERY close to being the same. All of which, the “fun” looking professor scored higher.  

Do professors that do the same things but are different ages going to get a different score? Or what if they are of different races? Or Sex?

I think that it does make a difference. There are so many stigmas and expectations for everyone in order to be credible and reliable at the same time as being fun and interesting.

This presentation has made me think a lot about how I look at people and the images they put out for others to see on Facebook or other forums. 

Tweet with Care

Mis-tweets happen. Facebook messages are sent accidentally. But nothing beats corporations messing up with social media. This is an article I read about how Chrysler's Twitter admin made the mistake of tweeting while angry. People dont understand the consequences of Tweeting angry especially when they are an administrator of a major company. This just goes to show that people need to use Twitter with care.

Social Meda Bermuda Triangle

Anyone Using Social Media Can Appreciate “The Bermuda Triangle of Productivity”

by JD RUCKER on JANUARY 29, 2011 · 9 COMMENTS

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Sometimes, it doesn’t take complex infographics or digital mastery to convey a very clear visual message. Sometimes, the message is clear and slaps you in the face.

Such is the case with this illustration by Fuchsia Macaree. Nothing more needs to be said. If you use social media for or at work, you’ll understand. Enjoy.

Click the image to enlarge.

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Tagged as: art, Facebook, gmail, infographic, productivity, Social Media, Twitter