Long time poster

Once upon a time in America . . . I ran a blog. (Hey, that's this blog -- OK -- sorry, been busy in the last year.) In that blog, well, I told you all so.

"Facebook is the greatest intelligence gathering operation in the history of mankind, and you volunteered for it."

Funny, this 2006 entry . . . and many others in the years since . . . haven't popped up as a "Your Memories on Facebook" entry.

http://doctorbs.blogspot.com/2006/09/read-this-news-feed.html

Social in Hiring

For more than a decade, I've advised students, friends and clients with a simple phrase:

Digital assets are extremely portable, and once posted, can live forever.

That relates to you, and your future.  Whether we like it or not, people will judge us, often out of context, for what you have posted.

And, that enters into hiring.

Read this article from Diverse Education about the pitfalls for the HR folks of using social in the decision making process.  I highly recommend it to you as social media folks -- it raises some important questions.

The Values of Engagement Types

(Finally, my regulars say.  He's not ranting about bikes and talking about digital issues again.  Well ... . sort of.)

Engagement is a powerful tool. The engaged electorate makes changes. Notice there is no value judgment there - they can make changes for the better and worse.

Engagement comes in many forms, and the most prevalent type is behind a mobile device touch screen. Easy to do. Dopamine gratifying to participate in. Envigorating to "tell truth to power."

And at near zero personal investment. Complete social disassociation of consequences when done anonymously (or increasingly with known identity.)

Yes, we can make institution's lives a living hell with the keystroke of a hashtag: #BradsWife.

IRL - we even have a cute little text abbreviation for the difference.

As much as we encourage digital engagement, America isn't the Matrix. We live in the real world, and to move the ball forward we need people to actually attend meetings.  To physically participate in activities.

This is why I'm backing something in my home town called Walk2Worship Weekend.  We have a tremendous disconnect between drivers and active transportation (walking, biking and bus) users.  We have significant quality of life problems. And, the built infrastructure needs TLC.

The best way to engage all three - find an excuse for people to get out and walk.

I gave it a try in the fall as a letter to the editor with low turnout results. This spring, I'll try again.

In the end, both digital and physical engagement are needed to address an issue. Here's to more awareness here in town, and for you with whatever your local challenge is also.

Anyone Got A Brompton For Sale? Pitfalls of Public Bike Share.

Over the course of the last week, I've had the opportunity to sample three of the major providers of urban bike share. Two were epic fails, and the third, initially wonderful, . . . well . . . read on.

Zagster's less than outstanding fleet at Maryland

First up is Zagster, who has been pursuing our institution. A meeting at University of Maryland provided a chance to test drive it. "Just load the app, and you'll be good to go," colleagues said.

The app failed three times at the same point (agreeing to terms of service.) Eventually running out of time, I end up walking the 1.2 miles from the Metro to Symons Hall.  Thinking I was the anomaly, learned from three others attending the same meeting they were unable to get the app to work.  The admin privileges of a couple of Zagster schools got them bikes.

At least this will provide a chance to try out the equipment. Less than impressive. Compared to the bikes used by CitiBike or Bcycle, Zagster's were the poorest quality. The locking mechanism was awkward. The bikes were showing significant wear and the ride quality was bad. I am thankful for the chance to experience the system . . .

Bcycle seemed great at the time (check out the basket)

Earlier in the week I used Bcycle in Fort Worth for two days.  Check in and out was the easiest of all three systems.  No need to reswipe cards and no need to swap bikes to reset time (a MAJOR pain in the ass in NYC).

The Trek-based Bcycle equipment rode well, and had the best basket system for carrying stuff.  While that generous basket was a bit of a challenge on one day with 20 mph winds, it was functional - more than could be said for either CitiBike/Capitol or Zagster.

I'll admit to having history with CitiBike, who from the infrastructure look is the same provider for Capital Bikeshare. Our trip to NYC and the use of CitiBike ended in a horrible overcharge - $36 each for a single day after we got messed over on overages. It was compounded by CitiBike support staff who claimed they would provide a credit, then reneged. After challenging the charges with my card provider, CitiBike again initially agreed to split the charges, then turned around and skunked our credit rating for having disputed the charge.

Needless to say, I checked out the Capitol Bikeshare with some trepidation. First ride was OK, and checking in at Dupont Circle was straight forward. Green light, on to the Mall for a pre-meeting ride.

That is when everything came apart. Arriving at the kiosk, "you have exceeded your number of bikes on this card." Huh?

Snuggly docked . . . but the system didn't read it

Three tries later, time to call customer service.  Emily was able to provide the chilling news. "Your last ride is still open."

All I could envision was some bike thief heading off and me on the hook. So, do I have to go back to Dupont Circle and re-rack the bike?

Nope. We'll "escalate" the problem and you'll be OK in about five minutes.

Great, cause I only have 40 minutes or so to ride.  Feeling better, I killed the five minutes by walking to another rack. "Your card has exceeded . . ."

Maybe I didn't wait five minutes. Check of my phone shows the call was 10 minutes ago. Try again. Same answer.

Calling back, a gentleman now explained that well, you probably should go back and re-rack it. That escalation means they might get someone there to physically check it within an hour, and they have up to 24 hours to deal with this.  He then added an unfortunate echo of my NYC experience: "as long as the ride is open, you are subject to extra fees."

Well great.

Wait a minute, he says.  Oh, I see what the problem is. The dock is jammed. No point in you going back to re-rack, it won't release for anyone bur one of our technicians. Still might be an hour.

Thanks much, that is the end of my day.

Returning to Dupont Circle, sure enough, there's the bike I rented.  In the rack. Secur as could be.  When I get back to my hotel I have a cheery voice mail from Emily. "You're cleared to rent."

Too late, time to get to the meeting. That's $8 - plus potential overages from the "open" ride - for a three block ride.

It all left me with a clear path - in the future, I'm not messing with any of these services except Bcycle.  Then I checked my email. Here's your receipt for additional charges from Bcycle.

So here is my bottom line review of these systems: They all suck.  Period.

Anyone got a used Brompton they want to part with? Over time, I think that might pay for itself.

Do What You Treasure

Mark Twain and I share a book in the park

This morning, I visited Trinity Episcopal in Fort Worth.  Google said it was close to downtown where I'm at for a conference, and it was near an old stomping ground, TCU. Many a trip was spent in the SWC days, including a very memorable one - the night Desert Storm began,

Another trip, another church. Yawn. The rector, Carlye Hughes, launched into a fairly usual Lenten homily. Then, it made a pivot. She began to talk about end of life, and how she's never had a parishioner lament, I wish I'd worked a little more, or bought a little more stuff. No Apple Watch at unction salved a soul.

Take time to value what you treasure, and spend time doing that.

Returning back to the conference, I noticed that "lunch was on your own." OK, how to spend that hour and a half.

I'd done some research to know there was a bike share location, and bike trails near the hotel.  That might be a good way to kill some time.

I'd had the chance to visit one of the local bike shops that was having a sale. Found some tights I'd been looking for, and got them half price. Nice. I'd brought my helmet because of my next trip. Why not? Explore.

Walk out the door . . . its raining. Great.

But, as the blocks rolled by, I find the trail. It is beautiful, and there is no one around. The wetter I get, the happier I'm feeling.

Here is a short list of what I found.

A food truck coral - maybe that is lunch?

A restaurant that on a Sunday morning is absolutely packed - hey, maybe that is dinner.

An awesome couple of jackass signs - FORBIDDEN ZONE!

And then, I found Mark Twain.  Yeah, reading a book. Next to the Trinity River. Time is running down, should get back to the hotel.

Oh what the hell - take the picture. That's the moment I remembered Hughes' sermon.

This is what I treasure. Riding. Exploring. Experiencing a new town. Then telling people about it.  A little over 40 minutes and eight miles later, shower, change, and back to the meetings.

Lent isn't always about what you give up, its also about what you add.

Thank you Trinity & Rev Hughes.

The Great Disappearance

Get ready social media friends . . . your views are about to tank, courtesy of the usual source -- a change by a provider.

This time, it's Facebook.  Read more here.

The key quote: 

As part of the change, Facebook says it anticipates “this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages.”

There is lots more in the article on the "hidden" parts of the mysterious algorithm.  Although, duh, friends and family are priority.

I'd like to know why I'm randomly seeing crap from old connections that -- Mark, are you listening? -- I do not care to see things from, but don't want to completely unfriend.

Why, oh why, can't I get priority to non-humans that I actually have strong interest in?  But I digress

Online Only Marks Milestone

None other than Nieman Labs - more US journalists work for pure online publications.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/06/there-are-now-more-americans-working-for-online-only-outlets-than-newspapers/

Trolling Is Different To Your Face

This is a great piece from the Chronicle today, and it supports something I've said for some time about commenting in social media.  When the angry believe they are talking to a faceless entity, they are a heck of a lot more rude.

The key line from Marney White's column:

Perhaps online trolling and less extreme forms of public criticisms are just that: a failure to recognize that there are real people at the other end of the attacks.

Indeed.

Your Golden Hour is Just That

Harped upon to the point of you not listening in this space, but another report today with up-to-date 2016 numbers that you must respond to your fans and customers.  I've preached and preached that the Golden Hour is literally that -- at best -- on social. (Couple past blogs for links: It comes fast | Earlier basics)

The shocking new takeaway:

A total of 90 percent of the 1,000 consumers surveyed have used social sites to communicate with a brand in some way. What’s more, consumers reach out on social before all other methods, including phone or email, when they have a problem with a product or service. Messages requiring responses also increased 18 percent over the past year, which indicates that more consumers are shifting to a social-first mentality.

That means this slide I use in social media crisis management needs updating.  Look at the progression among major consumer response studies:

Read more at Social Times: Ignore customers on social at your own peril

Download the entire Sprout Social report here.

Once Digital, ALWAYS Available

In my talks with social media users, I use the early Facebook era story of a varsity athletic team at a major university (no, not UA or A-State) where the players had a private group in which they shared, well, everything.  All the pics of pre-season parties, opinions of the coaches, etc.  It was all fun until the one walk-on, non-scholarship team member walked off the team.  And shared screen caps with the head coach.

That was 2006.  This week, national attention is turning to Saint Louis University after some less than acceptable running commentary among baseball team members was reported to the university and then to the general public via social media.

No commentary offered on what was said or the university's current response.

What I do want to re-emphasis is how this happened.  Your personal security depends on your friends.  That is what unraveled University of Oklahoma and a fraternity party video.  This time it was a Group Me screen capture of comments among members of the team.  Shared with a soon-to-quit the team player.

A year ago.

Read more here in the River Front Times.

Algorithms vs Words

Friends, would you share if you are seeing this problem.  In the past month, the number of followers shared images with text is running an order of magnitude below photos on most of our Facebook pages.  Similar content, similar times of day -- an infographic is doing several hundred; the straight photo several thousand.

What concerns here is this:  everyone in athletics is consumed with using services, etc., to generate social media content with numbers and scores.  As InstaGram declares their allegiance to the algorithm and Twitter tries . . .  the industry is wasting a ton of time and money on messages no one will see.

Before I sound a general alarm, who else is seeing this?

A not so ideal side-by-side example below as the graphic on left ran for about 36 hours compared to the photo on right's 24.  Didn't get the 24 vs 24 hour comparison, because item on left was hovering around 800 reach.

Social Media and the Hiring Process

Since the beginning of this blog, I have warned students, friends, faculty and staff of the impact of their social media upon their future employment.  Again, I do not care what laws may or may not be in place in various states -- we deal in reality here.  Whether legal or not, it happens.

Here's a reminder from the New York Times today in case you forgot.

The key quote is the last line:

In other words, social media has to be treated with the same nuance as real life — because these days, that’s what it is.

A Big Brother New Year

Active shooters, bowl game and holidays . . . apologies my dear friends for the dearth of posts.

Today, I've got one to ask you all about.  Have any of you experienced the following:

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I had the opportunity to send three emails to Elle Mohs at KTHV in Little Rock. All related to a story she was working on about A-State's hover board policy.

I've never searched her name on-line.

I've never looked for her (or even her station) on Facebook.

This morning, look who is at the top of my "friend suggestions."

Now I've seen this kind of crossover during that past couple of months -- a podcast subject searched for on iTunes appearing, some personal email interactions suddenly bringing those friends back to higher frequency in my Facebook feed, new people added in Twitter popping up in Facebook.

So I'd chalked a lot of that up to coincidence or obvious data sharing (the searched Christmas gift items as a prime example).

But this was my work email -- which is in no way tied to my social accounts by design -- that has led to a "random" appearance as a potential friend of someone I have extremely weak social graph ties to.

And at the top of the list.

Where For Art Thou, Dan Gillmor?

An essay in today's Chronicle email belaboring the lack of "journalism" training for the masses reminds me of the work of one of this blog's patron saints, Dan Gillmor.

Dan predicted the technology shift that would force closed door events like the Olympics to open up in the face of what would become social media.  His last book, We The Media, covered what Jennifer Brannock Cox found dismaying in 2015.  He did it in 2004.

Cox was dismayed at some of her social media classroom experiments led to very unintended consequences.  Her "commenters"  spent more time in snark than expanding the discussion.  She comes to this as one of her major points:

Unfortunately, social media is not the most reliable source of reporting, and our "journalists" are not trained. When anyone can post anything any time without restraint, the perpetuation of false and subjective information is inevitable.

Back in his transition from Cal to Arizona State, Gillmor made a huge point that one of the future cornerstone courses of media education should be just that:  a gen ed course on media that talked as much about how to consume it as how to generate it.

Cox's essay brings that right back to the forefront.  To which I ask the question of my media & comm colleagues: are you creating that course?

From the past is prologue school, another golden oldie from Dan.

Is Social Media Commentary Next?

In a ruling that should catch the attention of all employees of state agencies, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that former Georgia State psychologists didn't have a case against their employer over a memo they wrote critical of a policy change and reorganization of their student services clinic.  Inside Higher Ed's story has this key passage:

A district court found, and the appeals court affirmed, that the memo the psychologists wrote was "employee speech" related to their duties and thus not protected by the First Amendment.

Keep in mind, this was a memo to the employer.  Point being, if they'd decided they weren't getting a hearing internally and took to social media, would they have had more - or less -- First Amendment standing?

Well Intentioned, but Dangerous

The Chronicle notes today the petition of over 70 groups to require colleges and universities to address the anonymous harassment from sites such as YikYak.

The key in the story:  failure to monitor anonymous social media and to pursue online harassers as a violation of federal civil-rights laws guaranteeing equal educational access.

YikYak in particular, and most social websites in general, do not provide the level of anonymity promised, particularly when the free speech crosses the line into terroristic threatening or other legal areas (fake bomb/violence threats).  Neighboring student at UCA becoming the latest to learn that lesson the handcuffs way.

However, to require universities -- or public agencies in general -- to be the police of the internet is at best futile and at worst draconian.

By no measure do I condone or lessen the real issue here -- I've seen it up close.  Does this extend to RateMyProfessor reviews?  Does it include message boards like Topix -- the ancestral cesspool of these mobile-enabled platforms like 4chan and YikYak?

We are asking our universities to become larger and larger police agencies.  I might add, an unfunded mandate of the first degree.

This is a "Dear Colleague" with the best of intentions, but it will be little more than the Internet Monitoring Full Employment Act if pushed to its conclusion.

Soak It In

One last bit of data from the Pew Research Center's report on where generations get and from whom they trust their political news.  The graphic says it all:

Because That's Where the Recruits Are

So why do we strategically spend time placing our news in social media formats?  Because studies continue to show that millennials find their news in social media, and contrary to the Twitterati's over-attachment with their platform and news, more millennials find news in Facebook.

You can read the Pew Research Center report that is behind this and many traditional news stories recently at this link.  Something to keep in mind, this was by brand, not "social media".  Twitter, for example, had about the same usage across generations.  It was Facebook -- the one that "none of the kids" are on any more -- that had the generational shift.

Why?

My theory:  It's their internet.  The Gen X grew up with websites, and they live in the domain name world.  The Boomers tuned to a channel, either over the air or on cable.

But the Millennials?  Just like they wouldn't begin to know how to use an 8-track, they grew up inside social media.  Sure, they socialize more on the newer mobile platforms -- Snapchat, InstaGram, etc. -- but they get their information from their reference point.

I've argued for some time that websites are now used as almanacs, the Wikis of our enterprises, because no one uses a printed reference anymore.  News doesn't come in a paper, it arrives in email or social.

That's not to say we don't use all our operative platforms, but the old Willie Sutton meme reigns supreme here:  because that is where they are.

Limits of Academic Freedom

Regardless of where you land on the spectrum of what is protected speech, today's Chronicle article is a solid primer in the recent cases where professors got into trouble.  Pay special attention to the case of a student who recorded a classroom exchange.

They Do Read News

Tip of the hat once again to PRSA's daily Issues email for this one, an interesting study reported in TIME about the news habits of millennials.  One could argue, that's a bit self-serving - a news organization that says counter to stereotype that millennials are into news.

In some ways, its generational biased, both ways.  Of course a minority of any group is keenly aware of the news -- a "surprising" finding by TIME.  But I can dig up stories from the 1940s where the current generation was worried about the lack of knowledge of the generation fighting the war.  Or the 1960s.  Or the 1990s.

The one constant:  Kids these days.  Get off my lawn.

And, here's a little something from Pew that speaks to that consistency . . .