I read the interesting article by Jeremiah Owyang, the Web Strategist and Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research (Social Computing). He discussed the evolving advertising models that Facebook and MySpace are creating, and it made me think about the work I am doing with my undergraduate students in the Organizational Communication course I am teaching. This article by Jeremiah was all about stakeholder analysis and how the various organizations and populations involved need to communicate their messages while addressing the concerns and issues the stakeholders raise. I thus created an assignment around this article to help explore these issues and relate them to the real-world (as nearly all of my students use FB or MS). We will look at the article and then work and share within small groups / the class what we learn and consider:

1. What is the article about?
2. Who are the stakeholder groups identified / involved?
3. What are the stakeholder issues for each of these?
4. Choose one of the issues, and determine toward whom or what the issue is directed.
5. How may that “whom or what” respond to the issue and that stakeholder?

It is nice when our topic of study in the class can relate directly with things happening in the real world. Isn’t that what education should be about? 

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Jeremiah Owyang, MySpace

I just learned that November 15, 2007, was UNESCO World Philosophy Day, thanks to the Talking Philosophy Blog. What an interesting idea, where, according to the UNESCO website, the purpose of this day is:

Aiming to promote and popularize philosophical reflection, World Philosophy Day in 2007 continues to work towards the fostering of independent thought and dialogue.

Reflection, thought, and dialogue–what can make for a better world? Then again, Analytic folks do not speak with Continental ones, the canon depends upon the school of thought from which you hail, and philosophers are known among the humanities professionals for being more exclusive rather than in-. Perhaps UNESCO means this day as a way to heal the discipline itself?

Technorati Tags: philosophy, UNESCO

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced a new reading study today, entitled To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence. From the limited information they released publicly (i.e., without buying their report), the part that I found most interesting was:

Reading scores for American adults of almost all education levels have deteriorated, notably among the best-educated groups. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of adults with graduate school experience who were rated proficient in prose reading dropped by 10 points, a 20 percent rate of decline.

Hmm, that does not sound too good. It became even more dire when three consequences of this study were described as:

Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension “very important” for high school graduates. Yet 38 percent consider most high school graduates deficient in this basic skill.

American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.

Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic and individual activities – such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events, and exercising.

I have been a reading teacher and adult literacy advocate both professionally and personally over the years, and I have always maintained that, as the slogan goes, reading is fundamental. It seems the more detailed NEA report is issuing more of a dire call to action, with one of the solutions being The Big Read, a national book-club discussion group in local communities. While I started a local book discussion group with a few neighbors, I think gathering people together to discuss great works of literature (by which I mean enduring texts that speak to different generations about issues in the human condition) is a wonderful idea. While reading is a very personal experience, it becomes richer when the interpretations are shared and discussed and minds are opened to different perspectives and experiences. Let us hope that reading (by which the NEA is primarily not discussing magazines, blogs, peer-reviewed literature, or the like) will be more discussed as a result of this report. By the way, I amongst all the Kant, Harvard Business Reviews, blogs, magazines, journals, and peer-reviewed work for a research project I am working on, I am still reading a classic novel by Willa Cather–One of Ours. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1923, by the way, and is even available full-text freely online at Bartleby.

Technorati Tags: readability, National Endowment for the Arts

Thanks to Beth Kanter, I was able to perform a Blog Readability Test on my blog, with the following results: I suppose this is good, as my work in adult literacy demonstrates that the lower the reading level, the larger a potential audience there is. I have heard critics state that having a low readability level “dumbs down” the text, but literacy experts have pointed out that nobody ever asks people to write with bigger and more complicated words. For this blogging service, I just wish there would be some explanation as to what literacy indication test was used (e.g., Fry or SMOG),  who is behind the site (for credibility), and why there was a cash advance link at teh bottom of this image (which I removed, as well as the link to it).  Perhaps this is just a link-baiting scam? I like to think of this as an invitation for a programmer to develop a readability test according to more accurate and evidence-based research. This will then help offer real assistance to making the Web more accessible.

Technorati Tags: Beth Kanter, Readability

I saw the movie Beowulf. Wow! Amazing effects, unexpected shifts in the plot, engaging music, fine acting, mythical content based on some historical works, and did I mention special effects? This was among the more entertaining movies I have seen recently. While not in the spirit of the holidays (the movie is very violent and terrifying at times), it does have the quality of being on a holiday form reality. How better to spend $15?

Technorati Tags: Beowulf, Grendel

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The newest Faculty-Productivity Index in the November 16 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education ranks the Philosophy Department at the New School for Social Research #9. This is a major leap forward, especially for a Continental program with a focus on the European tradition of social research. Congratulations!

Technorati Tags: Chronicle of Higher Education, New School for Social Research, New School University, Faculty-Productivity Index

The Oxford American Dictionary has just released their 2007 Word of the Year: locavore. Yes, locavore! The New York Times reported on this today, and somewhat repeated what is excerpted below from the Oxford blog page:

. . . the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives . . . The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation. “Locavore” was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius.

Great idea, though difficult to do in the middle of Manhattan. Any locavores out there?

Technorati Tags: locavore, New York Times

I watched the Wizard of Oz twice last night, and can’t get this hypnotic tune out of my head:

Ding-dong the witch is dead Which old witch? The wicked witch Ding-dong the wicked witch is dead Wake up you sleepyhead Rub your eyes, get out of bed Wake up the wicked witch is dead She’s gone where the goblins go Below - below - below Yo-ho, let’s open up and sing and ring the bells out Ding Dong’ the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low Let them know the Wicked Witch is dead

Not sure why I like this tune so much. The rhymes? Cleverness? Passion? Humanity? Triumphant? Reminiscent? Triumph over evil? Jubilation of justice? Whatever the case, I hum this tune frequently. I wonder if she was green, too?

Technorati Tags: Wizard of Oz

The New York Times had an interesting article in their Sunday Magazine about Hugo Chavez and how he is using profits from oil to support his vision of a socialistic Venezuela. While the Western concept of oil as belonging to whomever controls the land on which the equipment to get it out of the ground operates, one of the learnings I took from this article looks at it from another perspective. Can any person or company own these ancient reserves, or does it belong to the society itself under whose land the oil is drilled? Does Big Oil control oil since it could afford to lobby or bribe politicians to allow it to drill within state-controlled preserves or wildlife lands? Does oil belong to governments, to use as any other source of revenue? Does the oil belong to the people  (in Venezuela, the slogan states: El Petroleo es Nuestro!, loosely translated as The Oil Is Ours!), and thus nationalizing the oil reserves is a form of patriotism and duty of the govenerment to care for its citizens? Perhaps oil is more like a drug, where anybody who controls it and the potential wealth it brings wants to decide it is whatever is convenient, insofar as it maintains and supports the status quo for those in power? Perhaps oil is itself a necessary evil? 

Technorati Tags: Hugo Chavez, New York Times