Monthly Archives: November 2009

Embracing new interactions

I am just now getting the time to catch up on some of my more meaty blog feeds (read:academics) and devote the kind of time I need to their posts.

I was so disheartened by the treatment that danah boyd received at Web 2.0 a couple weeks ago.  It’s hard enough getting over your nerves to speak at large conferences, but a publicly viewable (save by you) backchat seem like a nightmare.  Backchats should be backchats – opt-in discussions, out of public view, not unavoidable speaking accompaniments on public screens.  My heart goes out to her.

I got a chance to read the talk she gave, though.  As is usually the case, danah does a great job articulating many of the abstract and emerging topics in the social media industry.  I especially like her point that we should work on embracing these new immersive forms of communication and social norms that are developing because of (or in spite of) social media.  She posed the challenge to the entrepreneurs and business folk in her audience to focus:

not simply [on]… aggregating or curating content to create personalized destination sites… Instead, [create] the tools that consumers need… that allow them to get into flow, that allow them to live inside information structures wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. The tools that allow them to easily grab what they need and stay peripherally aware without feeling overwhelmed.

As someone who’s path normally leads more toward the content producer side than otherwise, I appreciate the challenge she poses.  I love me some Google Reader, but how often have I looked at my reader and seen the (1000+) on a category and felt disheartened enough to turn away and not catch up.  Is this the semantic web?  Is this a tools set? Maybe a combination?  Not sure, but I will definitely have this in mind as I work on further projects.  It’s especially interesting in the kids space, as they are so quick to adapt and let us know what works and what doesn’t for them.

Thanks danah (and Sara Grimes and Henry Jenkins and… :) ) for keeping us on our toes and not letting us get to comfortable in this new landscape we are pioneering.

Xmas and Ads

I was visiting my mother the other day and, like always, she had her TV on. Thankfully it wasn’t tuned into the normal entertainment “news” show. Although it was on a Lifetime Marathon of sappy xmas movies, so not much better.

One of the many things you can depend on this time of year are ads – lots and lots of ads. On your TV, in your mailbox, your inbox, on billboards, radio – everywhere. Many people abhor these messages, but I kind of love them for what they are; it’s probably the dormant sociologist in me. I see the ads not just as breaks from your show, but as the culmination of months worth of marketing teams working on crafting the perfect message to get you, the lowly consumer, to go out and buy their product or at least remember it’s name.

I think one part of ads that fascinates me in particular is the varying voices and points of view they come from, often times with very careful subtleties. For example, a cell phone ad aimed at a teen is going to have a different look and feel (sometimes subtle, if the agency creating it was on their game) than one aimed at a parent buying the same phone for a teen. Sure the eye rolling and exaggerated clothing (overly disheveled for the teen, overly prim & proper for the mom), but the tone and voice will be different for each ad for the targeted demo.  Think of the 12 year old extolling the various benefits of having a cell phone to the newer ads showing Mom/Dad as the smarties for picking unlimited Family plans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgFw7o5hQtc). Also of note, the Dad character often takes the bumbling parent role or sides with the kids.

Same goes for snack ads that show during a mom-targeted show rather than an afternoon cartoon block. A newer, mom-targeted Pop Tarts ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ZXtRGlegE) done in sleek 3D animation, extolling the nutrition and ease of having your child wake up to a Pop Tart breakfast is much different than the stick-figure, shaky-line animation style with rather bizarre scripts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZEX0q8B50) or the current UGC campaign they have running on YouTube, (http://www.youtube.com/kelloggspoptarts) both of which are targeted at kids.

Worth mentioning, the new and growing crop of esoteric ads makes me very happy. You have seen them – snarky, strange, usually nonsensical on some level (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQL7Xoe9egI or http://milkquarious.com/#/home). They used to be saved primarily for the Super Bowl audiences, but these types of ads are getting more prevalent during mainstream TV each year. They are clearly made for the teen through 30-something set, those raised on a steady diet of Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and Cartoon Network. Of course this is not a new trend, as we were acknowledging the teen set as a purchase power demo 5+ years ago, but the tone of the ads has certainly changed for the better (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spa_l_12cIw). The ads are getting much higher quality each year that goes by. My theory is that, as the younger generations continue to cycle into and rise up in the ranks at the different Marketing and Advertising agencies, we will continue get higher quality ads. Or maybe we are just, culturally, getting stranger. ;)

I always thought that the average person was aware of all of these carefully plotted moves.  But the eye rolling and general quizzical looks from my family and friends when I go off on a tangent of appreciation and/or disgust about this, make me realize I may think about this more than the average person.

Seriously, though, you have to agree, the jewelry commercials this time of year are painful.   Who are those couples? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltA50HKyM14)

Whatever it Takes – Read it

Those of you who have talked to me in the past month know that I am currently obsessed with the book Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough.  It’s about Geoffrey Canada, the Harlem Children’s Zone and the variety of projects the HCZ umbrellas.

I have been a huge advocate for innovation in public schools, both articulated in recent years and in my heart as I was growing up a product of them.  We moved a great deal while I was growing up and I had a chance to see many different school districts across the country.

I spent my post-undergrad years, both subconsciously and intentionally, working on projects and jobs that helped develop programs and spaces for kids to learn in non-school environments.  I care deeply about learning, love to do so myself and I want every kid to have the opportunity to love it as much as I do.

So Geoffrey Canada’s message of opportunity in face of adversity was very appealing to me.  I also really like how he focuses less on cherry picking the talented and driven individuals out of unsavory learning environments and helping them, and more on helping the whole community grow with the stars and the bad apples.  Very inspiring stuff.

But there is more than just that.  I think the book would appeals to:

  • Mothers – cool research on parenting pedagogy
  • Educators – tons of research on teaching to the test and historical sociology of education
  • Race/Class Studies fans – all kinds of research on history of race and poverty studies and how they intersect with education

Great book, plus super easy to read for the layman.  Tear jerker a couple times too with the NPR-esque anecdotes.  I guess that makes sense tho, as that’s where I was first introduced to it, in a “driveway moment” with This American Life.  You should read it.