As I work on new media development, I like it when I get to see (hear) a great example of how to package a story. The DoD has something called the Bloggers Roundtable, which provides Podcasts, transcripts, stories, and photos and allows bloggers and journalists to participate in phone interviews to hear more about a story. This particular story and interview is about Capt. Trevor Hall, who flew the first U.S. relief flight to Burma (Myanmar).  You can read a news article about the airlift here and listen to the phone interview Podcast here. There you’ll see a headline that says, “Pilot of First Burma Relief Mission Describes Experience”. Just click play to listen or click the other links for more material.

I’m a fan of the Bloggers Roundtable because it is a way for the DoD to grant more accesiblity to bloggers who are interested in writing about the military. It is the bloggers chance to participate in an event and become part of the conversation. I’m currently the Air Force POC for a new working group with the DoD New Media organization and it is interesting to hear the challenges that the other service branches are facing. We had our first meeting a couple weeks ago with representation from DoD, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard. One particular obstacle we all face comes in the form of security regulations that are imposed on the miliatary computer networks. There is also the issue of explaining new media to older people in leadership and getting approval to work on new projects. Hopefully, the success and examples from DoD will help open possibilities for the rest of us.

Our Social Media class is in an interesting timeframe right now considering 1) the professor wrote a book about the Web as it relates to the race for the White House, and 2) that race is currently being run. So what does it mean? The notion that campaigns are reliant on the Web is lost on people like my parents who still don’t have a computer (believe it or not). But here’s another realization: campaigns now need the Web to reach their audience, but there are still millions of Americans who have no connection to the Internet. According to InternetWorldStats, 69.7% of Americans (approx. 211 million people) use the Internet, with 19.3% of those being broadband users. Now, that’s a lot of people with Internet access, but the percentage that use broadband is pretty low, considering that much of Web 2.0 and rich media requires broadband. And then there are the people who have no access at all.

So what to make of it. Well, I believe that the candidates are really using the Web to their advantage and running the first campaigns of the new era, as discussed in the book. But as powerful as a Web presence is, there will always be the need to press the flesh and run a traditional campaign. The privileged class (in this case I mean anyone who has Internet access) is able to see and hear all the latest and greatest regarding the campaigns and they are able to be participants. They can blog, create and/or watch videos, participate in MeetUps, and make online donations. The rest of the people then must still pack the auditoriums or town hall meetings, make a donation via face to face stumping opportunities, or worst of all, remain oblivious to what is happening. And that is a scary realization because obliviousness leads to complacency and nonvoting.

What it boils down to is that racing to the White House via the Web is important. There is no doubt to that fact. But, and so far it hasn’t happened, the candidates cannot abandon the non-Internet, non-tech constituents and voters. The next election is in 2012. The Web will have boomed even more by then (think Web 3.0 and IPv6), but there will still be millions of Americans without the means, or perhaps the desire, to be connected. And that is why I think that for all the technology that exists, traditional campaigning will always still be of great importance and relevance. We’re just going to see a lot more online tactics in the future. Perhaps a candidate can try to help the unconnected masses get to a point where they too can get online. Hey, we can dream, right? 

So I was checking out the blogs of my classmates and today I came upon a post by my classmate Gregg. It’s about cupcakes. It crossed my eye because I had a cupcake moment last week as well, which is perhaps odd for someone who claims to eschew sweets (I’ll admit to a fondness for a piece of carrot or red velvet cake if offered). My own moment came two weeks ago at brunch. A few of us were discussing the fact that my friend Doug doesn’t like cake. He likes pie, cookies, and other desserts, but not cake. I can understand not liking certain kinds of cake, but to not like cake as a whole is just weird. Anyway, I inquired if anybody had yet been to the new Georgetown Cupcake. He said he had tried to go a couple weeks ago, but the line was down the block, so he went to Baked and Wired instead. I stated that I should try to get there before class. Doug’s wife said that she believe they close earlier than my class time, so it might be hard to do.

Now, the serendipitous moment for me came last Tuesday, just a few days after that whole cupcake discussion. I was again reading classmates’ blogs and I happened upon the a post from my classmate Shari, stating that she had tried Georgetown Cupcakes. So the cakes went into my mind again. I checked out their Website to see exactly where it was located and what their hours are. It was a very warm day, so I decided to walk home instead of hitting the gym. On nice days I like to walk from my office in Ballston to my house in Georgetown. A walk outside beats a walk in the gym any day. As I got into Georgetown, I decided to see where the cupcakery was located and was surprised to find it open! So I got a couple treats and tried the Chocolate Coconut, which I found to be very tasty. I was impressed that they make a little dent in the top of the cake so that the frosting goes down a bit rather than just sitting on the surface. As it turns out, the place is open until 7:00 PM on most weekdays.

And there is why I’m writing about cupcakes. I actually believe that higher powers make me think about cupcakes more frequently than I would figure. All day at work or home I listen to a listener-supported radio station (KEXP) from Seattle. Cupcake Royale, a Seattle cupcakery, provides sponsorhip of the radio station, which means I frequently hear ads for them. One of these days I’ll try their cakes and let you know how it goes.

Any proper discussion of the burgeoning Web 2.0 scene has to include a discussion of politics, especially in light of the current election year. We are discussing online politics and the affect of new technology on campaigning in class right now. Our class is taught by Garrett M. Graff, who was a driving factor in creating Howard Dean’s web presence during Dean’s push for the 2004 presidency. Graff wrote a book entitled “The First Campaign” about that race. (Garrett, do I get extra credit for shilling your book??!!) Anyway, the details of the Dean campaign are relevant because it is amazing to see how much of the presidential race is run on the Internet. The 2004 campaign was a great start to what has become one of the most important politicking tools.

One thing that amazes me is that I only vaguely remember the Dean campaign’s online push (sorry, Garrett!). It’s not that I don’t rememember it, I guess it’s that it seemed so logical that it would be online. I guess if I try to think back to 2003, everything seemed to be online already. Napster had come and gone, blogs were getting somewhat popular, and MoveOn.org was a major force and a source of political information. The big factor though was that you could see every move that happened as it happened. And I think that’s where the online political movement really shined. The fact that people could mobilize for a cause was also a huge consideration. The use of MeetUps meant that people could rally together simply by checking out a Website. That kind of speed and organization was never available in previous campaigns.

I remember one of my co-workers showing me Dean’s site at the time. This guy was about 6 or 7 years older than me and was just starting to come into his own technologically speaking. But I remember when he told me how happy he was that he could donate to Dean’s campaign and get his news online. A few weeks later he received his campaign materials in the mail (bumper sticker and whatnot) and he was so pleased! I nodded my head and probably went back to reading up about Phish (who also had a very important Web presence). See, the problem is that I’m one of the most apolitical people I know. I just take so little interest in American poliitics that it kind of boggles even my mind. Hell, I have a B.A. in Political Science for Christ’s sake!! One would think I have more interest, but no. Anyway, the notion of indifference has gotten me thinking as we study online politics. 

So, can all the new technological bells and whistles help people take a more active roll in and care more about politics? I’m not sure. To an extent, yes, but I also think the people who want to be reached will be reached. Those who don’t will still be inactive. Because of a constant barrage of online news about the presidential campaign I do read more about politics, so maybe the bigger picture will help people like me take bigger steps later down the road.

After recently writing about the time suck factor of Web 2.0, Jenny from the Farm brought up my reluctance to sign up for Twitter. She joined recently and just registered her phone and here’s what she had to say about the experience:

Because of my new found love for Twitter, I went ahead and added a 250 message/month plan to my cell phone plan. I thought, 250, yeah that should be enough. Well, I recently checked my usage and I was up to 270, and the billing cycle wasn’t over yet. But, I think I like Twitter so much that I’ll upgrade even further to unlimited messaging. And then there’s the time I spend reading text messages and responding to them. It seems like there are some afternoons when my phone does nothing but alert me to a new message.

Damn! 270 texts for a partial billing cycle!!?? Yowza! I’ll get to the text charges momentarily, but first off, I don’t think I can handle my phone going off nonstop with friends telling me that they just ate a biscuit or used 3 sugars in their coffee instead of 4. Thanks to a post by Saxby’s Fifth Avenue, I read a few tweets that people post on Twitter and discovered that is some of the stuff people post. The other problem is that I’d be the idiot telling everybody else all the minutia of my life. Trust me, I’d tell you if I was just in the hopper. Does anybody want that? No.

Now then, onto the texting charges. Up until 6 months ago I didn’t even pay for text charges and I was quite pleased about that. I was getting free unlimited texting from Verizon as part of a class action lawsuit (I LOOOOOVE class actions!). Once the terms of the agreement expired I noticed a huge jump in my phone bill. I realized, “DAMN! Texting is expensive and suddenly everybody is using it more and more.” So I just kept on with my charges and bitched about it regularly and did nothing else. Finally, it was time for a new phone a couple weeks ago and I asked the lady what they have for text plans. I got some deal that gives 100 texts a month for $5. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay much more than that for texting! So another reason that I would not sign up for Twitter is that it’s not a free service if you factor in the cost of texting. Plus I think the names Twitter and tweet are really stupid. Honestly. Hell, I don’t particularly care for the word “blog.” That’s technology for you.

We had a pop quiz in class this past Wednesday. Garrett announced it in the morning via Twitter. Does that kind of advance knowledge make Twitter worthwhile? Nope. Not even with announced pop quiz capabilities! 

And on a final note, Garrett, what is with the chocolate milkshake addiction? (Click the link to Saxby’s above to see what I’m talking about) As someone who has suffered the indignities of lactose intolerance, I guess I just don’t understand milkshakes. So be it.

So a big buzz blog going around currently (oh daaaaaamnnnn, did you feel that alliteration? Awwww yeah. . . ) discusses how much time social media takes out of your day. (The intial post I read on the subject was on ReadWriteWeb (click above), and it referenced the original post.)  According to the post, I am a Community Director. While I feel I’m not qualified to direct traffic (which I actually did for a summer in Connecticut), I guess the amount of time I put on Web 2.0 does make me a director of sorts. I’m the technology lead for our new media group at work and I start new Web 2.0 applications from scratch. That’s directing, right?

Here’s the main thing though. Between the hours spent working Web 2.0 for work and personal time, it really adds up. As an example, today I was researching Wikipedia for work. Between checking various entries on the site, reading policies and other information, and emailing other people I know to get their opinions on the subject, 3+ hours had passed. And I’m still not done. Damn! I’m supposed to be cleaning my desk to move to a new office tomorrow! The time suck that Web 2.0 can create is staggering. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it, but I’m scared of any new technology at this point because I can’t handle any more commitment. That’s part of the reason I haven’t signed up for Twitter yet. I just feel that Twitter would really begin to take my time.

To that end, I’ve always wanted to list for myself the various ways I connect online or in some electronic way. Without further ado

1. Work email
2. Company email (different than work)
3. School email
4. Yahoo email
5. Second Yahoo email account
6. Google email (rarely used)
7. Yahoo chat
8. Work chat (rarely used)
9. Facebook
10. LinkedIn
11. MySpace page for work
12. YouTube page for work (x2)
13. Wikipedia page for work
14. Blogs (x2)
15. del.icio.us entries
16. Communities of Practice at work (x5)
17. Work Website for which I’m the Webmaster/Content Manager
18. Text messaging on Cell phone
19. Discussion boards (x2)
20. Internal work wiki

I feel like it’s confessional here! These forays into Web 2.0 (and other general technology) barely scratch the surface for some people. But as you can see, Social Media, New Media, Web 2.0, whatever you want to call it, all takes a lot of time. And it gets harder and harder to figure out how to plan that time accordingly.

The impact that technology has had on war is profound. And massive. Think about the first Iraq war way back in 1991. Remember watching images of it on TV? I sure do. Remember where you watched the second Iraq war? OK, TV again; but a lot of what you saw probably came from online sources as well. Blogs, video clips, on-air interviews from overseas, embedded journalists. The war is on 24-hours a day, all day. And what you see or read is much more meaningful than anything that Dan Rather can report to you. The questions for class this week are: “Is seeing and reading about war a good thing or a bad thing? Should we have this much access to the front lines?” My answer is yes to both. As a defense contractor, I’ve been a strong proponent for ensuring that military personnel have unfettered access to blogs and also working on blogging policy (I’m with that branch that primarily flies planes). After a post in DangerRoom about the AF blocking access to blog sites, I talked to some co-workers who had blogged while deployed and learned a lot about the challenges they faced in getting their material out there, and more importantly learned what blogging means to them.

The people I spoke to cited the same similar reasons for wanting to blog while deployed: 1) It is a great mental outlet to be able to put into words the things they see, 2) It is a way to let their loved ones know what is going on and that they are alright, and 3) It is a way to get news from others who are living the same experience. We, the public, are beneficiaries of this front line access. If you are interested in reading about war, then you have thousands of soldiers to hear. If you don’t want to hear about war, then you can also read the thousands of sites dedicated to criticizing the war. Everyone wins. And even though it is not always easy for airmen and soldiers to access their blogs, they have creative ways of posting. To protect the guilty, I won’t post those here.

After reviewing some of the sites that were assigned for class, I went back to read an email that I had received a few months after starting my current job. Two of my co-workers (JV-a photographer, and JW-a writer) were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan when I started my job, so at the time I knew them only by name. In June 2007, their team came under mortar fire in Iraq and the broadcaster (not from my office) was badly injured (he received the Purple Heart). JW kept a blog while deployed and wrote an incredible story about the incident that our director sent to everyone in our division. I had read milblogs before, but this was the first time that a stronger human feeling was attached to it. Although I didn’t yet know JW and JV, the fact that they worked in the same office as me and that my other co-workers knew them made it personal. The detailed account transported me to that tent in Iraq and actually made me choke up (and anyone who knows me knows that I only get choked up during It’s a Wonderful Life!). It was real account of real life for airmen and soldiers. And now that I know JW and JV, it makes it so much more meaningful because you realize what could have happened that night in Iraq. I recently read some of JW’s other entries from her deployment last year and they still resonate strongly with me. They also make me look at other milblogs with a more personal touch even though I don’t know the writer.

From left to right: JB, JW, one of the Air Force joint tactical air controllers, and JV at a forward operating base south of Baghdad. Two days after this photo was taken, they got mortared. The team was underneath that tent shown – JW was laying on the green cot shown. The mortar landed next to that green bush behind them.

The emotional aspect is why I think that having ready access to the war is a good thing and military personnel should be allowed to tell their stories. There is no spin, no propaganda, no scripted version of the truth that you might find on a network news story. Milblogs are not about the debate between pro-war and anti-war. They are about humans. You can hate the war if you want to , but you can’t argue with the fact that it’s a human writing the blog entry.

My officemate will be deploying for Iraq on April 15 as part of the Joint Combat Camera Center and I’ve convinced him to keep a blog. I think that the stories you hear from the front line are one of the most valuable resources available to really learn what is happening out there.

Last Wednesday’s episode of South Park spoofed YouTube and the viral video phenomenon. Remember the sneezing baby panda, and the Chocolate Rain guy, and a bunch of other geeks? They’re all here. The episode is available in its entirety here.

It’s interesting in a way because the story goes that South Park itself actually started as a viral Christmas card. A Holly wood somebody asked Parker and Stone to create a video Christmas card to send to his co-workers. I believe Mr. Hanky had his first appearance in that video and the Hollywood guy sent it around to all his friends and so on and so on. Viral at its finest. Next thing you know, you have a show that’s been on for over 10 years and is still relevant and funny. That’s an accomplishment in itself.

I had a moment of serendipity just now as I realized I’m listening to Wo’Pop with Derek Mazzone (a worldbeat, global music show on KEXP) while I do research on international blogging on Global Voices Online. ”Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online.” The site is pretty cool and its aim is to bring attention to what people are saying in other countries, which many of us rarely hear. Usually the farthest I get in terms of a blog is Canada or the UK. So onward!

Since I’m half Polish, I decided to check out blogs from Poland on the GVO site (I’m also half Italian–a very common mix in Buffalo. Those are also my favorite kinds of sausages. But I digress). A few quick observations about the global bloggers I visited: 1) those who write in English do it impeccably (yes, some are Americans living overseas, but many are native to the country), 2) Their photos are very poignant, and 3) their postings are more journalistic and detailed than most of what I see in American blogs.  

I found it very easy to get lost in the postings of people either in Poland, or elsewhere in Eastern Europe writing about Poland. I find Eastern Europeans to have a very reverential view of politics and the political leaders who helped shape history in those areas. Often there is some kind of revolutionary overtone and/or some kind of relevence to the Holocaust.  It’s also fun to get lost in the archives of previous posts. For example, where else you can get this kind of news?

Either the law turns a blind eye to it or it’s perfectly legal for employers to discriminate against people on the grounds of age and sex in Poland: “shopgirl wanted,” “waitress wanted,” “male receptionist wanted,” “woman aged 30 to 40,” “men aged 18 to 40″… and so on. Some clown in Warsaw is looking for native speaker English teachers with a “good accent.”

So what is the point of reviewing foreign blogs? Well, for starters, this is the “worldwide” web, meaning it covers the world (blew your mind, didn’t I?)  and it’s important to hear what is happening in the world in a context other than what you read in the paper or watch on TV. There are real people writing about what they see. Poland may not be the most controversial country, but I’m willing to be that some blogs from places like Israel or Iraq would be real eye openers.  Imagine if you were able to read a blog from somebody in North Korea? That would be incredible. Even what you see from people in a place like Iraq is pretty amazing (now that I’m addicted to Global Voices Online, I’ve been looking at all kinds of countries).  Anyway, as bloggers and Americans, we should definitely see what is happening in the world in the words of the people living there. There is far more news than the media can handle and blogs help provide that outlet.

For the WikiScanner project, I checked out information about the US Air Force and af.mil. While researching changes on the actual AF page on Wikipedia, I was surprised to see that the majority of edits were fact-based research and structure corrections. I figured that I would find a lot of criticism, but there was not much at all.   The most significant, or scandalous, change was from somebody who vandalized the site by removing all of the material and changing the Wikipedia entry to simply say “sex”.  

Then somebody “blanked” the page

Then somebody fixed the page

 Another interesting change is shown hereOriginal text read: “The USAF is widely considered to be the most technologically advanced military air power.” 

Changed to  

The USAF is the most technologically advanced military air power 

Commentary states: “The qualification “widely considered to be” is unnecessary and even misleading, as it implies that there is another point of view that is credible.” 

People on Wikipedia certainly have a sense of humor.  I also reviewed some of the topics that came from af.mil IP addresses. For example, after reviewing what came from Air Force Material Command, San Diego, I was surprised that the largest amount of Wikipedia changes related to video games. Gamers are fervent fans, so maybe it’s not surprising.  

My favorite discovery also came under the Material Command IP http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/f.php?ip1=137.240.136.0-255&ip6=132.24.93.0-127.255&nolimit=1 Somebody made changes to the Wiki page for Buffalo, NY, by adding these interesting facts about the city

”’Buffalo”’ is home to the next fashion models of America. Here in Buffalo, they master the art of looking at women’s underwear. They also tend to glance at mens as well but only when they are feeling fruity. Day-to-day life consists of walking on the catwalk, listening to strange music, and wearing pink polo shirts.” 

Hm. Being from Buffalo, that’s news to me.  Overall, I think WikiScanner can be beneficial to a company if they want to make sure that falsities or rumors are not spread on their wiki page. It’s also fun to see who is posting what from where.