My boss sent our new media team this article today. Here’s the headline: “Rocky Mountain News plan to Twitter another funeral canceled after staff complaint.” Twittering at a funeral, especially the funeral of a 3-year old is just sick. I’m sorry, I’m all for free speech, free press, new media, etc., but having a reporter Twitter from a funeral just smacks of a huge lack of journalistic integrity.  I’m glad that the editors bowed out of doing it from more funerals. I think that as new and social media press on, people are going to have to define what is appropriate and what is not. If you want to Twitter from an event, fine, but a funeral goes well beyond the pale. Wake up Rocky Mountain News.

So, this blog here had a good point about whether social media experts are the new Webmasters (i.e., on the road to becoming obsolete). Because I missed the dotcom boom and bust, all I can think is, “Dammit! Too late to the party again?” No matter. I think the future will be people who actually remember how to write and speak face to face. We’ll be needed to fight the robots. Interestingly, it appears that social media experts should have jobs for at least a while longer as we study digital campaigning. Consider that campaigns are just in their infancy of Web 2.0. Yes, digital campaigns all began in 2004 with the Howard Dean campaign, and yes, there have been great strides, but seriously, campaigning is barely scratching the surface of what Web 2.0 has to offer.

The current presidential race has embraced digital media, but it was mostly the Democrats who took off with it. The Republicans were slow to come to the party, and that ultimately can be a big factor in the election. If you look at Obama’s campaign Website, he is indeed everywhere. If there’s a social media application to use, he’s using it. As Cyrus Krohn, Director of the Republican National Committee’s eCampaign Division, informed us in our class, “Republican leadership was slow to embrace technology.” Now they’re playing catch-up. There are many tools out there being used for campaigning, and anyone who studies new/social/digital media knows that micro- and moblogging will really come to the forefront in the upcoming months and years. Twitter anyone? Yeah, everyone is using it now. For class, I just created a digital campaign strategy for Mark Begich, Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska. He’s running against Ted “Tubes” Stevens for U.S. Senator. Anyway, Begich, whose digital campaigning is pretty solid, uses Twitter. Earthshattering? No. But consider that a mayor in Alaska is using it for his Senate bid, and think about all the other seats for Senate, the House, local government, etc. Lots of opportunities for Twitter and the rest of Web 2.0. So I think that social media experts will have jobs for a while.

And here’s some fun stuff about Google Maps.

Below are a couple interesting items regarding Web 2.0 that I found interesting today.

1) Humorous look (albeit sadly accurate!) at the maladies of social media addicts.

Seven psychological complaints of bloggers and social media addicts, from the Online Journalism Blog

2) I like this post from daylife, about the impact and trends in social media, because it includes an article from July 16, 2004, when blogging and social media were still in their infancy. Read the article if you have a chance. There is also a link to a study by Universal McCann called, “Power to the People Social Media Tracker. Wave.3″ It’s an 80-page study, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of it, but so far it’s very informative and useful.

3) I’ve been following this news to see what happens next: The Coast Guard is getting ready to “lay out their policy for blogs and other new media.” Read here for more on it. I’m always interested to see how the various armed forces branches, and other government entities, handle social media. I’ve been busy writing new-media policies (blogging, YouTube, and Wikipedia so far) for the branch that flies and it’s kind of an uphill battle. Just when we think that we have a fair policy that abides by OPSEC guidelines, something else changes and it’s back to the drawing board. So I’m curious if the Coast Guard will have a fair shake and if the OPSEC folks there have been reading the Internet discussions about DoD guidelines and the opinions of the people who serve.

Overall, I guess a way to wrap this up is in terms of the article cited above from 2004. We are now in 2008 and people are still afraid of social media. You would think that more has changed in 4 years. Web 2.0 itself has certainly changed, but opinions are still slow to adapt. That makes the successful implementation of Web 2.0 applications a real challenge. Everybody wants to throw around buzzwords and scream out “We need a presence on YouTube!!!!” or “Where’s our MySpace page?????” But when you go in and try to create that presence or page and you are blocked from doing so, isn’t it a bit counterintuitive? I think it is. So perhaps this is my plea to network security admins, OPSEC folks, IA, and anybody else who makes decisions on what to block from a network–DON’T FEAR WEB 2.0!! It’s not that scary and your network will not break. If you’re really worried, allow us to download Firefox. Or better yet, include it on our desktops. And if you’re trying to block information and applications from the rank and file, always remember that we have ways of working around most of the basic blockages with a little creative engineering.

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.