Social Media Graffiti

Means of self expression and communication have change through out the ages. At one time cave paintings were the means of communication and in some cases self expression. Cave paintings turned into fine art turned into well you get the picture. Over the past 2 decades we've seen a new form of self expression in terms of social media.

Social media is the term used to explain self expression online whether through blogging, video, networks. It could be executed through popular programs like:

• Twitter
  
• Facebook
  
• YouTube
  

Often the community will part take in these forms of expressions by commenting and rating, whether it approves or disapproves there is an audience which propels the author.

Self expression and opinion has taken on a more grotesque form. Recently employees are assaulting the companies they work for. As in the case of Dominos we saw the YouTube video in which employees violate the integrity of the food made and served at Dominos and the brand.

This form of self expression is social graffiti. Like graffiti seen in real public spaces this form of graffiti is seen online in social networks like YouTube. Whether we like it or not social graffiti is here to stay as part of the freedom of self expression that digital media provides.

What's UP with CBS and Online Full Episodes?

CBS provides the best network online viewing experience EXCEPT they stopped providing full episodes. Why CBS stopped, the fans of Eleventh Hour and Mentalist will never know. Over the past couple of months fans have complained to CBS. But CBS has not responded to fans' postings on the CBS community message board. Which make the situation even more disappointing! How could CBS ignore us? What are the advertisers thinking? They should support online full episodes!

http://www.cbs.com/forum/forums/show/95.page

http://www.cbs.com/forum/forums/show/101.page

Almost 4,000 views on just the subject of "Where did the full episodes go?" but not one response from CBS. 

Eleventh Hour is great and a lot of fans have opted to watch online. I did because of my busy travel schedule and the fact is I don't own a TV.

Well, perhaps CBS will surprise anxious fans by striking up a deal with Hulu, which offers the best online viewing experience. Hopefully in the process CBS will not loose Eleventh Hour fans and the show will remain.

I have one question for CBS "What's UP with online full episodes?"

No Cable TV or TV since January 2007 it's all about Hulu

It started as an experiment ended up as a lifestyle change. I was curious can I enjoy the same television entertainment online that I enjoy through cable TV? Can I get everything that I love to watch on cable TV through online?

Keep in mind my computer is a HP Pavilion laptop originally I was using wireless then opted for cable modem to receive internet access.

My tastes in online entertainment are science fiction, drama, girl tv, science, and cooking shows.

I began the experiment in January 2007. I watch programming on ABC, CBS, NBC online, Hulu, Joost and will buy programming I like through ITunes.

At first it was struggle:

ABC provides the Full Episode Player. ABC recently made enhancements but did nothing to help with jerkiness and shaky access. I was watching Pushing Daisies yesterday the video was not syncing up to the sound. It would grind to a halt making the experience frustrating. HD is nice when it works but all unless you have a lot more bandwidth than the average person it’s difficult to see a complete program.

I don’t like having to click on the advertisement when it’s finished to get back to the program. What I do like about the ads is that they can be interactive.

I watch on ABC online: Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Ugly Betty, The Practice, Eli Stone, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, and Desperate Housewives.

I would not have the time to watch any of these programs if I had cable TV even if I saved the programming to DVR I would not have the time or patience to program it.

CBS originally had InnerTube recently changed format. The resolution and speed are an improvement. The HD version works nicely.

I watch CSI, CSI Miami and CSI NY; just saw The Mentalist and waiting to see The Eleventh Hour. On occasion I’ll watch Numb3rs.

The ads play for about 30 seconds and bring you right back to the program. There are only about 5-6 ads per 45 minute program.

NBC provides video of most of its programming but also makes it available on Hulu. I watch several NBC programs including Chuck, The Bionic Woman, Heros, Medium, and Lipstick Jungle.

The ads stream the similarly to CBS and again is 5-6 ad per 45 minute program.

Hulu provides the best experience for online entertainment as well technology. I watch my favorites like Fringe, (new) Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lipstick Jungle, Heros...and watch older shows like ReGenesis. So far I'm not compelled to buy a TV.

When I can’t find anything I will use Joost and IStore. Joost has some the older programs like Twin Peaks, Crusade, Moonlight and some interesting British programs including HEX. One feature I like about Joost is you can chat with your friends while you’re watching. It reminds of the very early days when Charlene Smith created Orb for Mystery Theatre 2000 for SciFi Channel. If you were a member of ECHO at the time you can chat and your posts would show up on the bottom of the TV screen.

I’ve gone the same with my mobile phone and not having a land line. TV feels constricted and I want to see programs on my time served up when I want it.

Sarah Palin and Good Bye to Education

In my observations of Sarah Palin, she is smart and attractive but something has been nagging me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I started to think from psychology perspective. This is of course is the year 2008, where sex education isn’t a crime. But there are two different types of sex education being taught: total abstinence or total explicit sex education1. The psychology behind abstinence makes it even more tempting to experiment. There is no ignorance to total explicit sex education. At least there is a chance that this knowledge will be used to decide on a method to preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

In the case of Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol, abstinence was taught. Why would Bristol choose to disregard what she learned? Of we could journey down the path of rebellious teen or perhaps a look at this case from a different perspective: Not only was Bristol robbed of the education that could have saved her from unplanned pregnancy but she may have been robbed of self esteem. If abstinence is the preferred education than self esteem must be the first lesson. Self esteem builds strong confidence to either say no or we need to use a form of birth control and sexually transmitted disease prevention.

My observations make me question whether Sarah Palin robbed her daughter of self esteem by neglecting to give her the proper education, knowledge and tools. Keep her ignorant and hope she’ll do the right thing. This is frightfully irresponsible and borders on neglect. To use her daughter as an example is abusive.

Is this what we can look forward to if McCain is elected? Will women be robbed of choice? Will our self esteem as a country be stripped so that things can be done because of our ignorance?

1 Zimmerman, Jonathan. September 4, 2008. Poverty, not sex ed, key factor in teen pregnancy. SF Gate

A Second Life – To Live to Not to Live?

I find the challenges of living the dirt world life are very satisfying, but I find virtual worlds to be fascinating. I’m no novice to “Second Lives”. In 1989 I embarked on discovering what the world of BBS’ would bring me and found the WELL. I loved the CONNECTING to folks in the Bay area until my boss discovered my dialing-up from the office was costing the small marketing company I was working for a few hundred a month for me to connect online. After I sadly said good bye to friends on the WELL I discovered ECHO, the East Coast Hang Out founded by Stacy Horn. I learned so much about the virtual world! ECHO was my life savor when I briefly left New York to go to a very remote part of the country – Chandler, AZ back in 1993. For me Chandler was the end of world, dusty, disconnected, not one conversation about politics, lots of conversations about Christian religion none of which I was interested, and of course no flame wars, everyone in Chandler was the same. What was this New Yorker suppose to do? I took ECHO with me and was able to feel fulfilled while living so far away from the rest of the world that being New York.

Virtual connections for me were a way of life. What of these virtual worlds? Of course in 1995 I was fascinated with 3D Worlds of Worlds-Away and 2D World of ThePalace. I lead a life on ThePalace for 2 years. I enjoyed ThePalace because it was easy to use. I could create any kind of avatar I wanted. My avatar was having more fun in the virtual world than I was in real life. I had a family, friends, played chess day and night, among other things. There were very few rules inhibiting this world. We were all turned on by Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” and “Diamond Age”. As with any open society the “freedom” in ThePalace led to a decline in community.

Its 2007, we’re on the third generation of virtual worlds. There’s Second Life, Cyworld, World of Warcraft, and for kids there’s Club Penguin and Webkinz. There are changes to these virtual civilizations economic systems and laws have been added. Second Life has a complex economic system based on Linden Dollars. Commerce is taking place there. Second Lifers are buying property building homes and living there. What else is there to do? Like any society there’s shopping in SL you can shop for latest style in skins for your avatar. Earn Linden Dollars by answering questionnaires. Perhaps attend virtual conference. What else is there to do? Gambling is no longer acceptable and is banned. Perhaps make friends. In the case of Aliza Sherman, who is living in Alaska, Second Life is a great way to keep in touch with the main land and explore. In the case of my avatar I took to flying and really enjoy flying. Right now my avatar is stuck somewhere and I’m having a hard time teleporting back to main areas.

All is fascinating but what about the waste that is found in Second Life? According to TreeHugger blogger, Celine Ruben-Salama, second life avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians. That’s a lot of power being wasted? There are several corporations who have built on second life and are confronted with little or no community support. I haven’t visited American Apparel, IBM or other corporations who have built on Second Life. I question if corporations are building what they have in dirt world or are creating innovation in Second Life. For instance can I buy American Apparel clothes for my avatar? Is IBM supplying some kind of cool innovation such as enhanced teleporting capabilities in SL? Can I zoom around in a 1964 Mustang by Ford? Corporations always are so caution probably won’t risk being innovated and adding something new to SL civilization this is why dirt world corporations will fail in the virtual world.

I give SL credit for pushing the virtual envelope and moving virtual world into virtual civilization. As this third generation of virtual worlds begins, to take shape, it will go through its own life, dead and rebirth cycles.

Sources:
Author Unknown, (2007). “Second Life”, Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

A glimpse inside the Metaverse

TerraNova

Everything Your Brand Wants to Know About the Social Media, but Was Afraid to Ask

Social media has made the millennium what it is today. It's not just about the tools is about the connection the Human Connection. Please indulge me and read my paper on Social Media you’ll find it Siegel+Gale.

eHarmony why bother?

I've been trying out eHarmony. Sold on the idea of their special matching system works I decided what the heck I'll give it a try.

Based on their information on their site which convinced me a year membership would be the best and most economical choice. I signed up for the year membership. Hope the gratification would come sooner than a year. I would find that special someone.

First task fill out long laborious form which asks similar questions like Myers Briggs. Got through that after an hour or so only to be told after I paid it would be difficult to find a match for.

Thinking back on that day I wonder if this was the legal way of getting out of the special matching system to work? Perhaps it’s all smoke and mirrors.

Match after match just did seem to fit. Most matches though seemingly nice men on paper were geographically undesirable.

All the while eHarmony kept asking for feedback I kept giving feedback about the matching system not working.

The engagement process between the potential matches and I was long a lengthy process. There were very matches that reached the 4th point which is open communication. The behavior of most candidates was to drop off before they reach the final phase. When we finally were engaged by open communication there was no mystery. There was not one face to face meeting. I’m a very disappointed customer in regard to the service. Additionally when I called to speak to customer service they told me because I agree to use eHarmony for the year regardless of how poor their service was I had to pay.

By the way this is my second attempt with eHarmony. The first time I tried eHarmony there were so many bugs with the system I became very frustrated and left the system. This time I was sold on good advertising because I believed eHarmony could find my match, but I think they are very good at selling vapor.

Customer service offered no service. They did not want to hear about my complaints about the system nor was I allowed to talk to a supervisor. They told me they are going to continue to charge me even through their service hasn’t done fulfilled their brand promise.

Incidentally, I did a quick search and found there are people who are equally disappointed with their membership. There are 39,000 keyword using eHarmony sucks.

Here are some quick links:
eHarmony_Consumer_Complaints
Reviews for eHarmony
Beware: eHarmony sucks...
Why does eHarmony think I am destined for a life of loneliness?

This YouTube eHarmony spoof is not so far from what you really get on eHarmony:



tags: eharmony sucks