Archive for May, 2007

Social media

May 21, 2007 at 4:24 pm · Filed under reading

IBM’s Philippe Borremans had an interesting perspective when it came to using social media in a company setting. It seems like for a big company like IBM it would be easy to get trapped into making a lot of requirements for blogs and podcasts, but it seems like IBM employees have a lot of leeway when it comes to information sharing. By having general guidelines, employees have a better understanding of what the company finds acceptable and by keeping social media “social” the company allows employees to be creative and move the company forward.

Probably one of the reasons that IBM follows the trends of their employees is because they would not be able to keep up if they tried and would probably hamper progress by trying to do so. I think Borremans is wise to realize this. He also realizes that pushing people to use the available platforms does not help people progress. If employees are using social media it is because they see a use for it in the work that they are doing. By trusting the employee to make a judgment on what tool they use to convey a message, they are also giving the employee more responsibility and thus more is at stake for the employee with regard to the company’s future.

 Boremanns also makes a good point in saying that not every company will have the same needs when it comes to social media. Some may have stricter security concerns that make wikis impractical.

Besides internal communications, however, there are also external communications. Stuart Smith says that social media can help build a trusted dialogue with consumers. Employees are the best ambassadors of a company and providing the channels to communicate will help employees’ voices be heard.

Discussion questions:

1. How can smaller companies use social media?

2. Are there drawbacks of using social media tools such as wikis and RSS?

3. Should social media be monitored? If so, who should monitor it?

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Reflection on credibility online

May 20, 2007 at 1:38 am · Filed under discussion leader

In general, I think people have become increasingly savvy online consumers. While this is good for companies looking for a market, businesses must realize that they will only succeed as long as they are credible and trustworthy.

With e-commerce, consumers are very aware of the dangers of buying online such as credit card fraud and problems with merchandise. Most customers won’t buy anything from a company they do not already have a relationship with – either through a friend’s recommendation or by a physical presence offline. Even on auction sites such as eBay, reputation goes a long way. If two sellers are selling similar items, the buyer will pick the seller with the best reputation – often even if the product costs a little more.

The look of a Web site also goes a long way to gain credibility among users. A poorly designed site reflects poorly on the company. If a site is well-designed then the company is more likely to be legitimate since they took the time to really work on the site.

Online news sites that are associated with an offline company tend to be viewed as more credible than online-only news sources. It was interesting that younger people were more critical of online information in general, according to the BELO survey. I wonder if this is because they have constantly had teachers telling them to be cautious when using online sources or if it’s because they are used to using MySpace and Facebook and looking at news sites based on popularity where the news might not always be factual.

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Discussion leader abstract and links

May 15, 2007 at 1:54 pm · Filed under discussion leader

onlinecredibility.ppt

Abstract: Online news organizations must consider how they can improve and maintain the credibility of their sites to keep the trust of their readers. While the Internet allows organizations to post information almost instantly, the accuracy of that information must also be taken into account to maintain readers’ trust. Organizations must also consider where they are sending readers outside the site with hyperlinks and must be aware of how advertisements on the site can affect the perceptions of readers. Many organizations have yet to develop standards with regard to multimedia elements on their sites.

Belo Interactive. “Online Credibility Survey.” Dallas News (2004), http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/credibility/

Finberg, Howard I. “Report: Online News Widely Accepted as Credible.” February 1, 2002.

Tucher, Andie. “Why Web warriors might worry.” Columbia Journalism Review 36, no. 2 (July/August 1997): 35-36.

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Online news credibility

May 11, 2007 at 3:32 pm · Filed under discussion leader

I wanted to add another source as well that I found helpful:

Tucher, Andie. “Why Web warriors might worry.” Columbia Journalism Review 36, no. 2 (July/August 1997): 35-36.

http://proquest.umi.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/pqdweb?did=12975226&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=8991&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Finberg, Howard I. “Report: Online News Widely Accepted as Credible.” February 1, 2002. http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=3509

I thought this gave some good examples of the issues online raises for credibility in journalism. From http://poynter.editme.com/ethicsonline the Poynter ethics wiki:

Credibility & Accuracy, Transparency and Multimedia

 In a world with multiple sources of information, much of it indistinguishable one from another, credibility is our most precious asset. Credibility is earned over time by continually delivering on promises of accuracy, transparency and fairness. We consider listening and participating essential tools to achieve credibility. We intend this document to be useful to anyone publishing — or consuming — information in any medium.
Issues

  • How do we handle corrections?
  • How do we handle links?
  • How do we make sure we provide adequate context, including the presentation of conflicting views?
  • How do we decide when to edit and when not to? Before publishing, afterwards, never?
  • How much do readers and viewers care about the values of the people producing the content?
  • What value do anonymity and pseudonyms have in emerging media?
  • What standards should be applied to multimedia content? What levels of authentication should be required before posting raw video? To what extent should professional journalistic production standards be applied to multimedia?

If you are interested in further information, see the online news credibility survey at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/credibility/

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The appeal of gigabit networks

May 7, 2007 at 4:25 pm · Filed under reading


  1. Should the U.S. try to catch up to countries with better infrastructure? If so, how?
  2. How important is symmetry? Will people need faster uploading speeds in the future?
  3. Does UW have user-owned initiative?

One of the eye-opening facts that I knew before reading this article, but which still catches me off guard, is how far behind the United States is when it comes to telecommunications infrastructure. “Providing ubiquitous gigabit networks in the United States,” an IEEE-USA CCIP paper, points out that the U.S. “seriously lags in satisfying the needs of the world’s strongest economy.” Like most developed nations, the U.S. has become an information society, with our economic well-being based on our ability to acquire and send information quickly. It seems like the government would want to foster development of this information in whatever way it can to promote economic stability.

Right now, it is still expensive to have a high-speed connection. When communities make high-speed access more readily available, more people have the opportunity to improve their standard of living through educational opportunities and access to information and health-care delivery. Individual communities have been able to make some headway where the national government has failed. Downtown Spokane has wi-fi available to everyone and companies such as Boeing have a corporate gigabit network. I think user-owned initiatives will eventually lead the way in bringing Internet access to communities as a whole.

While it’s important that private companies such as Verizon are experimenting with fiber, I think there need to be more incentives for installing fiber so that it won’t just be the wealthy who are able to have the benefits of fiber connections. The speeds that this paper talks about are mindboggling to me, but I can see where they will be needed in the future with the increasing popularity of video and other applications that need a high-speed connection. The importance of symmetry also becomes apparent when I look at the popularity of sites such as YouTube, that people use to upload their own video. These sorts of sites will only continue to grow in popularity and it will be important for users to be able to upload information as fast as they can download it.

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