Superbowl Advertising

NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/01/30/business/20080131_SUPERBOWLADS_GRAPHIC.html?th&emc=th#

Topical because of this weekend and our discussion on MSM advertising’s effect from the cause of on-line advertising. 

Stephanie’s Follow-Up Question on Blog! Discussion Today

I am reposting this: Stephanie asked a question on a different thread, and I wanted to place it front and center.  I’m sorry we didn’t have room for it to come up today in class, but it will be first on our agenda for Monday.  Here’s her post:

(Stephanie writes:) I didn’t get a chance to say what I wanted to say about what we had to read for today, but I really wanted to. On page 249, there was a paragraph that I completely disagreed with. I am looking for more thoughts on this paragraph because I may be interpreting it the wrong way. The second full paragraph talks about blogging your life and how it can benefit you. It suggests that the number of people that go to a therapist “just to talk to someone” might go down. I disagree, there is something to be said about professional therapy. And it goes on to say that “one must assume that the more people appraise and document their lives, the more purposefully those lives will be lived.” That statement makes it sound like that is the case for every scenario. However, I think too much time spent on the computer might have the OPPOSITE effect. What does everyone else think about that? Anyone even notice that paragraph?

NY Times: Yahoo to Cut 1,000 Jobs, and Warns on Growth

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/technology/30yahoo.html?ex=1359349200&en=3de002f22270b958&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

“…The company, however, said it planned to invest aggressively in some areas, like advertising technology and selected portions of its Internet portal, as it tries to capture a larger share of online ad dollars. Since some laid-off employees could apply for new jobs at Yahoo, the net effect on the work force, which recently grew to 14,300, was not clear….”

Is On-Line Advertising Near a “Tipping Point”

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/122/is-the-tipping-point-toast.html

Illegal Movie Piracy by College Students Overestimated

Here’s an article I’d like you to read, and then we’ll discuss as a class.  Illegal file-sharing, digital rights management, and how industries try to control itellectual property.  This article is about how the statistics used to show that college students were stealing movies was wrong:

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/01/29/green

The Movie Industry’s 300% Error

By Kenneth C. Green

“A week ago today, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issued what had to be a hugely embarrassing news release acknowledging that an aggressively promoted and widely cited research report commissioned by the MPAA in 2005 significantly overstated the Internet-based peer-to-peer piracy of college students: “The 2005 study had incorrectly concluded that 44 percent of the motion picture industry’s domestic losses were attributable to piracy by college students. The 2007 study will report that number to be approximately 15 percent.” The MPAA release attributes the bad data to an “isolated error,” adding that it takes the error seriously and plans to hire an independent reviewer “to validate” the numbers in a forthcoming edition of an updated report….”

Read more at article and post your comments here:

No class on Friday (1/25) so you must…

Reply to this thread with a CRITICAL THINKING RESPONSE to the first chapters of our Blog! book.  To earn credit for participation on that no-class day, I expect a thoughtful on-line, blogged discussion of what we’ve covered so far, posted sometime between now and Friday at 5pm.  How can businesses capitalize on blogging?  What about the legal issues with employee blogging?  What are the risks to candidates in politics or corporations in starting a blog?  What are the benefits?  Is blogging all hype?  Or a truly new media that, like newspapers and television news, deserves careful study and protections for those who post?  And let’s hear it:

Blogging for “Fat” People

In the Fatosphere, Big Is in, or at Least Accepted

ON THE INTERNET Blogs that celebrate a larger girth and call for fat acceptance include bfdblog.com, top; fatgrrl.com, middle; and therotund.com.

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: January 22, 2008

For years, health experts have been warning that Americans are too fat, that we exercise too little and eat too much, that our health is in jeopardy.

Some fat people beg to differ.

Blogs written by fat people — and it’s fine to use the word, they say — have multiplied in recent months, filling a virtual soapbox known as the fatosphere, where bloggers calling for fat acceptance challenge just about everything conventional medical wisdom has to say about obesity.

Smart, sassy and irreverent, bloggers with names like Big Fat Deal, FatChicksRule and Fatgrrl (“Now with 50 percent more fat!”) buck anti-obesity sentiment. They celebrate their full figures and call on readers to accept their bodies, quit dieting and get on with life.

The message from the fatosphere is not just that big is beautiful. Many of the bloggers dismiss the “obesity epidemic” as hysteria. They argue that Americans are not that much larger than they used to be and that being fat in and of itself is not necessarily bad for you.

And they reject a core belief that many Americans, including overweight ones, hold dear: that all a fat person needs to do to be thin is exercise and eat less….

more at article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/health/22fblogs.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Social Networking-what is it and who cares?

And I guess what I mean here is the academic study of social networking, including how it works for business, leadership, politics, culture, etc.  It has evolved as a field of study outside of those disciplines, but I would be remiss as an instructor if I didn’t point it out as meaningful to the web 2.0 “revolution.”  Here’s a good link to get us started talking on it:

http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/the_social_graph_issues_and_strategies_in_2008.htm

“One of the hottest topics in the online world in the last couple of years has been the growth of social networking services such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as the addition of a social element to existing user experiences.  Despite riding several waves of hype, it’s now clear that the social networking space will only get hotter in 2008 according to most watchers.  Social software has come fully into its own as of 2008 — for all appearances permanently — and understanding the reasons for this rapid rise as well as figuring out how to leverage it best is the job of everyone who wants to make the most of the Web 2.0 era….”

Let’s have a Facebook Thread

Facebook Friends
After the cartoon, I’ll start with this article.  Ironically, it was found via Facebook “feed”:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

With friends like these …

Facebook has 59 million users – and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won’t catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information – not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking site

Is Enterprise 2.0 Bad for Business?

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/141319/is_enterprise_20_bad_for_business.html

Two business school academics who have disagreed over the viability of social networking in enterprises touched gloves once again during a recent Webcast debate.

Andrew McAfee, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, is often associated with the phrase “enterprise 2.0,” and is bullish on the impact of wikis, blogs and other Web 2.0-era software within a business context.

In contrast, Tom Davenport, the president’s chair in information technology and management at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, has been skeptical of Web 2.0 software’s value on its own, and argues the functionality may not be all that new.