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Filed under: communication, online media | Tags: blogging, communication, communities
Today we at Zions Direct, along with a few of our sister institutions, launched our “Think” blog.
Well, it actually begin a few days back with an inchoate posting by yours truly, but today—with more substantial commentary by those who have the expertise to offer it—we can safely say it is official.
I am quite happy with how this has worked out and have great hopes we be able to facilitate better conversations through this medium.
Disclosure:
You may see that I like Zions Direct Auctions. I also work in marketing on that product, which means I may be a bit biased (but it also means I do something that I believe in).
Filed under: online media, politics | Tags: .gov, blogging, Boing Boing, CNN, Flickr, nevver.tumblr, obama, rally, stick, This isn't happiness, Toy Hall of Fame, Twitter
What a week. In case you didn’t know, today it was reported (via Boing Boing) that a stick made it into the Toy Hall of Fame. The cardboard box had already made it.
This isn’t happiness has one of the great pictures of the week:
And I found out today, our President-elect not only has a Twitter page, but also is on Flickr and has just started a .gov hosted blog (of course I know he isn’t posting himself). Times are a-changing.
Filed under: community, politics | Tags: BCS, blogging, communities, Dodge County, Dodge County Independent, editor, ESPN, Facebook, Flickr, Ivan Maisel, Kasson, MN, movements, MSNBC, obama, Randy Carlsen, small towns, Twitter, voting, Wired, youth, YouTube
Last night, I got really riled up for the first time this autumn. No, unfortunately, it wasn’t for anything political. Nor was it for the Cubs total collapse; that just made me sad. No, it was for Ivan Maisel’s ridiculous defense of the BCS. Yes, that shows my priorities. I almost added to the chorus of voices calling him clueless, but then I realized—that’s probably what he was looking for.
So I am instead going to focus on a story that wasn’t simply asking for as much attention. I find it interesting to scan the small town newspapers across the nation, likely because I grew up in a small town and I get a kick out of the activities, opinions, and culture that pervades that type of life.
In the Dodge County Independent (out of Kasson, MN), Randy Carlsen, editor of the Dodge County Independent wrote last month:
Presidential candidates are going after the young vote. They feel that youth will be the ticket to the White House. Try again!
If either of the presidential candidates had any sense at all they would be going after the senior citizen vote.
[...]
When I turned 18 in August of 1973 I was excited about going to the polls and voting in my first presidential election. I think today most young people are more excited about turning 21 so they can go into a bar.
Ouch. Of course, when we see the images of the campaigning and the prevalence of the youth vote in polling stations and political rallies, we may have reason to disagree. Well, it turns out, the candidates did have some sense. MSNBC reported:
Youth vote may have been key in Obama’s win
It is a bit disingenuous to say the youth of our nation are the lazy, unconnected ones. Instead of looking first to this commonly target demographic, consider the fact that after decades of civic isolationist creep, it is the youth that are using blogs (even if they are dead), YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, et cetera to not only connect, but to push ideals and create communities. We are creating movements. A force for advancement that we haven’t seen the likes of in this nation for decades.
That defines the youth of today. I guess there was something else that riled me up.
Filed under: community, innovation, leadership, online media, politics | Tags: Alexander Hamilton, blogging, Christopher Long, communication, critical mass, Firefox, Gandhi, iTunes, NYPD, Patrick Pogan, Ron Chernow, Tienanmen Square, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube
I feel bad for Patrick Pogan. Three weeks on the job as a third-generation member of NYPD and he makes a mistake that he will feel the brunt of for some time. According to Newsday, during Critical Mass, Pogan stopped a cyclist, Christopher Long, and arrested him for:
… attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Long, court papers said, wove his bicycle in and out of the center lane on Seventh Avenue, disrupting traffic, then drove right into Pogan’s body.
[...]
Officer Pogan also said he suffered cuts on his forearms as he fell to the ground.
Perhaps in attempt to stymie Critical Mass, and definitely in an effort to restrain this rider, Pogan made a split-second decision; a split-second decision that landed Long in prison jail but soon after came to bite Pogan and the NYPD after more information surfaced. And, with the wonders of YouTube, you can see for yourself a different viewpoint:
Pogan was able to stop the cyclist, but can he stop the spread of information in a well-connected world? Doing a quick search on Google News reveals with polyglot illumination that this is proving to be quite difficult, whether in Dutch;
De NYPD heeft agent Patrick Pogan op non-actief gesteld. De 22-jarige New Yorkse agent is degene die vrijdag op Times Square tijdens een Critical Mass ride een van de deelnemers een forse bodycheck gaf. Pogan heeft zijn penning en pistool moeten inleveren, en moet bureaudienst doen zolang de NYPD een intern onderzoek doet naar het incident. De fietser blijkt ene Christopher Long te zijn. Hij heeft nog niet gereageerd, maar zijn advocaat zegt dat het filmpje ‘voor zich spreekt’.
Un policier new-yorkais se retrouve dans l’eau chaude en raison d’une vidéo publiée sur YouTube le montrant alors qu’il plaque violemment un cycliste vers la chaîne de trottoir afin de l’interpeller.
La vidéo a été tournée vendredi dernier par un touriste lors de l’événement Critical Mass, une randonnée de vélos organisée chaque mois dont l’objectif est de célébrer et de promouvoir les droits des cyclistes.
A New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge on Monday after an amateur video surfaced on the Internet showing him pushing a bicyclist to the ground in Times Square during a group ride on Friday evening.
More and more organizations, governments, and individuals who used to be in power are facing more and more the reality that there has never been a time that the common people have held as much power. And that power to communicate is increasingly becoming more difficult to stop.
Perhaps those in power need to take some old advice. Ron Chernow recorded in his biography of Alexander Hamilton (p 340) Hamilton’s words of advice that members of the newly formed Coast Guard should
always keep in mind that their countrymen are free men and as such are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. [You] will therefore refrain . . . from whatever has the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult.
This “domineering spirit” is increasingly finding itself of odds with the freedom of informational movement. Communication through the press was the linchpin of Gandhi’s movement, this free press drastically damaged the perception of China to the West with the indelible images of Tienanmen Square, and over two centuries ago, through pamphlets and protests the seeds were sown for revolution in the United States.
And today, that power is more than ever in the hands of the common person, and it is more than just a freedom to communicate. It is a power to activate, such as James Karl Buck’s well known Twittering story. It is the power to create, such as seen with Wikipedia, and blogs, and YouTube. It is the power to chose, such as with the auctions product I work with, or with iTunes, or Firefox. Ultimately, it is the power to have a true voice in politics, in consumption, and how you live your life.
Now, try and see if you can stop that.
Disclosure:
You may see that I like Zions Direct Auctions. I also work in marketing on that product, which means I may be a bit biased (but it also means I do something that I believe in).
Filed under: community, leadership, online media, politics | Tags: Animaniacs, Apple, Austin, Bad Idea, blogging, Dirk Diggler, Electronic Privacy Information Center, First Amendment, Good Idea, Human Race, iPod, Larry Godwin, Lillie Coney, Medtronic, Melbourne, Memphis Police Department, MPD Enforcer, Mr Skullhead, Nike, public relations, publicity, Willie Herenton
Mr Skullhead was one of the greatest characters on Animaniacs, and, in addition to his brilliant Hamlet performance, it was his Good Idea, Bad Idea shorts that were among the more brilliant of the show.
Whistling is just one of the many things that you can do well or very poorly. Take public relations. You can do what Nike has done with their Human Race campaign (from the Herald Sun):
On August 31, one million people will run for charity. Twenty-five cities will hold a 10km run – including Los Angeles, New York, London, Madrid, Paris, Istanbul, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Vancouver. Each race will start on the same day, with the first starting in Taipei and the last in LA.
This is a race that is quite simply cool. Not only can you participate in these selected cities, but you can even race on your home street in unselected Boise, Idaho—if you have the proper gear. This effort will build Nike’s & Apple iPod “+” brand, by association and by sales, already culminating into a movement that makes even participating cities feel simply honored to be graced with Nike’s presence.
Or you can be like the Memphis Police Department that is trying to use coercive powers to go after a blog site that has been critical of the internal practices and policies of the department. Of course, this is based on just what I read, and I am sure there is another side. Even so, it is unfortunate for MPD that it appears in the public’s eye (through traditional and nontraditional media) that these officers are happy to protect citizen’s rights, as long as the expression of these freedoms don’t make them look bad. As noted in the previously referenced article:
‘Dirk Diggler’ [...] (the collective pseudonym of the bloggers who write on the site) has posted copies of the subpoena sent to AOL that seeks any and all identifying information for the blogger in question. In another blog post, Dirk Diggler wrote, ‘It pains us to believe that we live in America and a Director of Police Services can use his position (and possibly tax payers dollars) to launch a personal vendetta against this site and the 1st Amendment.’
[...]
If the case proceeds, it seems unlikely that the MPD will be very successful in unearthing the information it wants. In 2005, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision requiring an ISP to turn over the identity of an anonymous blogger who was heavily critical of local politicians.
[...]
Free speech advocates believe that the same principles apply to this case. ‘You can complain about the government, and you should be able to do that without fear of retaliation or threatening actions on the part of the people in these positions,’ Electronic Privacy Information Center associate director Lillie Coney told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. ‘I guess they’ve kind of annoyed them at some level, but you really don’t want to see law enforcement or government resources spent in this way.’
You’d hope that the police department isn’t simply annoyed and trying to silence any dissidents; if this is their approach, that’s really just a bad idea. The government officials are, of course, insisting that that is not the case, as noted on a local site:
Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton said today there are ’serious issues’ behind police Director Larry Godwin’s legal quest to uncover the identities behind a blog critical of the police department.
‘There’s no attempt to try to squash, you know, whistleblowers or that kind of thing,’ the mayor said in response to reporters’ questions during an event at Medtronic. ‘There’s some serious issues here that I think will surface as it moves forward.’
What these serious issues are, it is unclear. Until they come forward, the message communicated again and again is likely a reaffirmation in many minds about the abusive powers of the local officials. Instead of trying to create a groundswell of support (as seen with Nike), they are creating a barrier of negative sentiment that they will have to break through.
