One of the first things that I did was engage the conference call gadget, or should I say, Ribit Conference Gadget.  I must have missed this part on the training video, because I was in total shock when I typed in my number, clicked dial or call, and my phone rang.  I was so tickled that I had to experiment with a coworker in a different office who also uses Google Wave to see if I could get her on the phone.  Presto, it worked!  If this catches on, no more charge codes when making long distance calls from work!

As much as I like Google Wave, my enthusiasm for the application tapered off a bit on Monday.  I took my Wave love a bit too far in a meeting that could have benefited from the Wave.  Someone was typing notes and projecting them in the screen.  Of course, the remote staff expressed concern that they couldn’t see what was being typed, and I talked about how if we had Google Wave, we’d all be much happier. That’s when the IT person at the table told us all about the dangers of Google Wave (in terms of Google retaining documents).  Of course, it took me back to The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.  Good reminder that I needed to hear, but I’m still having fun with the Wave.

So how do you establish relationships with millions of people?  Enough to get them to engage in a campaign through online contributions, favorable blog posting, actively reaching out to others online?  I think a lot of that is related to activities offline.  Sure, candidates must  have a solid platform.  But in an age of greater transparency thanks to social media, a solid image is a must.  As we saw with the 2008 election, anything questionable about one’s past, or one’s acquaintance’s past, will more than likely come to the forefront – and then go viral.  So in order to win an election online, candidates can forget about thinking how to respond if something negative surfaces, and need to develop plans for how to respond when this happens.

I think that another factor to winning the election is reaching out to various demographic groups.  By 2012, even more people will be relying on online information than in 2008 (not just digital natives and the digitally courageous).  If one candidate isn’t responsive to a particular demographic on this platform, it’s not the voter that will suffer, it’s the candidate (for example, check out this resource on Baby Boomer’s online presence). 

I also don’t think it would hurt to drive people online with offline tactics.  I was surprised to see televisions in cabs and on the hotel elevator the last time I was in New York.  Ads about the economy that led folks to more information online would be interesting there.  I even watched television at the gas station in Maryland once while pumping gas.  That may have been a good place to convey initial information about supporting state’s transportation initiatives and to encourage people to seek more information online. 

With technology innovation advancing, it’s hard to say what will win the 2012 election.  The only thing that I can say for certain is that a social media presence is a must.

But then one day, Georgetown Connector passengers received word that the folks who operate the Georgetown connector were going to “experiment” with discontinuing the route.  No further explanation was given.  And then one day, the bust stopped running.  And I started driving. 

As someone from  out-of-town, I started wondering, “Hey, why isn’t Georgetown metro accessible anyway?”  I asked around and have two different stories.  One is that  local residents wanted to keep out “undesirables.” The other is that it would have been too expensive to build a metro stop given costs associated with preservation. 

So whatever, the reason, with the discontinuation of the bus service, my job is no longer metro accessible to me.  Sure, I could take a bus up to M Street and then walk a third of a mile down an uneven pathway to my job. But risking the falls (which I have done before on the uneven pathway) and braving the bad weather just isn’t worth the hassle when I can drive into the garage in my building, pull up in my parking space right next to the door, and get to work.  I enjoyed the time to reflect, read, and work when metro was accessible to my job.  But my current transportation option isn’t half bad ether.

Now I must say that the only thing that I really knew about Costa Rica before checking out Global Voices is that the weather will be nicer there in March than it will be here. Here’s a list of what I didn’t know:

1. The ex-president Rafael Ángel Calderón was sentenced to 5 years in prison for corruption charges
2. Oscar Arias is the current president
3. I can take a train from downtown San Jose to Heredia (but that’s not likely)
4. I can meet-up with social media gurus on a Sunday morning in a cafe or park and exchange tips
5. People do a lot of blogging about art on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design
6. I can get all of the latest info on H1N1 from blog postings
7. I can use Twitter and the hashtag #qqsm to interact with local “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” enthusiasts
8. Costa Rica has earthquakes, and I’ll probably have to rely on social media tools to communicate a need for help if one hits due to limited resources

I should have paid closer attention in high school Spanish class, but I’m hoping that Google translate will help me out when accessing online resources in Costa Rica. 

Although there were not very many 2009 posting on Costa Rica on Global Voices, I read enough to know that social media is alive and well there.  After reviewing the site, I couldn’t help  but going to YouTube to check-out video on Costa Rica.  Here’s the official promo:

I sort of regret cancelling my gym membership this past weekend after watching this video, but what’s done is done.

But then something happened, and I got the hang of things, and the process of creating a page became somewhat enjoyable.  I wrote a bio on someone who spoke at a conference that I attended recently (Richard H. Bernstein).  Once I figured out the technical aspect of Wikipedia, I think my biggest challenge was deciding what personal information to include that I found online.  The person that I selected could be regarded as a public figure and a lot of information was available about him online,  but where do you draw the line?  I made a decision not to include the city where he resides, but made  reference to him living in the Detroit metropolitan area. 

When I initially finished my Wikipedia posting, I felt really good about my work.  That was, until I tried to move my page and messed up with the middle initial.  I ended up saving the page as Richard H Bernstein (with no period after the H).  I tried to correct the error without success.  But I visited the page a few days later and viola!  Someone went in and made the change. 

So as for my feelings about Wikipedia now, I appreciate the project much more than I did before.  And I guess that in a sense, I feel empowered having contributed.  I have been seeing stories in the news recently about fewer and fewer people contributing to Wikipedia.  I guess it’s up to new-comers like me to step-up to the plate and help keep the project going.

How could Wikipedia be better set-up to better provide accuracy?  Perhaps accuracy would increase if users were required to register in order to edit material (and not just to post original articles).  Contributors may be more inclined to check their fact and post accurate information if information could be tracked back to them.  Making the process for locking certain sites easier could also contribute to the accuracy. 

Should Wikipedia be open to everyone or just verified “experts”? Everyone, for sure!  After all, what would the process of verifying experts look-like?  How long would it take? Plus,  there are a number of articles, like those on people, hobbies, or small towns, that probably wouldn’t even be picked-up by an expert encyclopedia.

Learning about crowdsourcing made me curious about the potential of crowdsourcing.  I don’t have a dog, but I’ve been thinking about getting one.  If it got lost, I’d probably be pretty sad.  Can crowdsourcing help?  Absolutely.  I’d just register my dog here, upload a photo and state my reward.   I started thinking about how young I feel, but my gray hairs that I try to keep covered tell a much different story.  Can other people tell my age?  If I had the courage, I’d submit my photo here to see what others thought. When I was little, I was really into stories.  I would have spent all of my free time on this website, reading and contributing to stories if the Internet were widely available back then.

Crowdsourcing is evident within my profession.  I’ve been meaning to provide feedback on the National Education Technology Plan, but haven’t gotten around to it.  I thought that soliciting feedback online was a great idea.  But it wasn’t until class that I realized this was crowdsourcing. 

So what are my thoughts on crowdsharing as a concept?  I think it’s ingenious.  Sure, the application can get hokey depending on the site.  But it provides a platform for real people to provide real input and expertise on various issues and experiences.  What’s really interesting about crowdsourcing is that it transfers power from hot-shots to common folks (many of whom have a lot to offer). Now, anytime I need something, the first thing that I’ll do is look online to find a crowdsourcing site for help.

I used Delicious before enrolling in the class, but only to keep track of information online that I identified.  During the search for the field report, I came across bookmarks for Vicki Davis and Tony Karrer.  Both of these Delicious users track online resources that are of interest to me and my project work.  Clicking through their tags provide more relevant results than any EBSCO search I’ve conducted (although the results are not as scholarly).  I  never really thought of one individual’s Delicious bookmarks  as having the potential to benefit a community of users before the field report.  It certainly has changed how I get my information. 

Although the field report and required readings have kept me away from my blog over the past three weeks, I never, ever thought that I’d get in to blogging.  I created my blog, separate from the blog for the assigned postings, shortly after class began and look forward to returning to it when time permits. 

I’ve learned a few things that have been a huge help to me at work.  I may be a bit more anxious to learn more about applied skills than most students because I enrolled in the program just to enhance my skill set for work (the credential won’t really buy me anything with my current position, plus a credential means the end of PD).  I’m hopeful that I’ll learn more strategies for using social media that will enhance my job performance before the end of the semester.

I was also surprised by how much time people spend gaming.  I found the chart below at this site:

All I can say about this is Wow!

What surprised me most is that retailers experimented with marketing in games, but based on class discussion, I got the impression that this approach hasn’t worked out as well as some may have expected.  With all of the time that folks spend gaming, it seems as though this approach would be successful.  But now that I think about it, I guess that its hard to get the gamers away from their computers and in to the stores.  I wanted to learn more about messaging in gaming, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and found great article on in-game advertising.

As for playing MMOGs, I’ve never done it before.  I’m not an experienced gamer, but I began my gaming experience with Pong.   I eventually graduated to Pac-Man.  Pac-Man used to cost a quarter in the machines in the arcade.  Maybe I played it on my Atari 800.  I just can’t remember.  But I was surprised to find out that you can play Pac-Man online for free now.  The only game that I was ever really into was The Golden Axe.  I actually learned how to win it using the little old guy, but spent way too much time figuring out the process.  Now that I think about it, I guess I was sort of addicted to gaming at that phase in my life.  Not trying to go there again, so will definitely stay clear of the MMOGs.

As helpful as these sites are, I’m just now coming to realize how Google’s algorithm for feeding me information can help shape my views.  Sure, it seems harmless now, but who knows how information could be used in the future. And with Google Maps, it looks like we’re already at the point of concern.  I was horrified to find my exact address and a map to my house based on campaign contributions that I’ve made over the last couple of years.  I mean, it’s bad enough that the world knows how I spend my money.  Do they really have to know where I sleep at night, too (links intentionally omitted from these last few sentence – Google doesn’t need any help from me to give-up my address). 

Then, there is the targeted advertising.  I have no idea how this has influenced my spending patterns.  But what’s troubling to me is that this was not even a consideration of mine before this week.  Now, I’m going to be overly cautious about the ads that I read and the links that I click (which will interfere with my online experience of engaging with information that Google deems appropriate for me).

Now I’m reconsidering my relationship with Google.  I quit eating meat and drinking alcohol when I became afraid of their effect on me.  No withdrawal and no regrets.  But in all honesty, I think that giving up Google would be much more of a struggle.  This probably isn’t going to happen.  So should we be afraid of Google?  If not afraid, then very cautious.  Even though Google has a code of conduct that prohibits evil, I can’t help but wonder about future acctivity.