The video was inspired by a new tactic used by Texas law enforcement, a tactic which is very controversial. A slide show was created with dramatic music to instill controversy.

In an article by the Austin-American Statesman,

"According to court records in the Tarrant County case, Johnston, a waitress, was arrested and charged with drunken driving Dec. 9, 2005. She was not offered a breath test and refused to voluntarily provide a blood sample. Officers obtained a warrant for her blood, court records said.
"The defendant offered some resistance and was unruly," court records said. "She kicked her feet and moved around, and they secured the defendant's legs to the legs of the chair and secured one arm to the arm of the chair. After the defendant had been restrained, she calmed down and offered no further resistance."
To the Tarrant County judge, McDaniel argued that state law says that only a "physician, qualified technician, chemist, registered professional nurse or a licensed vocational nurse" may draw the blood of suspects. He said that the two police officers who drew Johnston's blood were not "qualified technicians" under the law.

Travis County wants to certify officers to take your blood, How do you feel about this, what about your rights??

In an article by in the Social by Caroline McCarthy,

"On April 17, the day of the show--when CEO Evan Williams appeared on-air and Winfrey herself began Twittering--a whopping 37 percent of visits to the Twitter.com homepage were new visitors. That's a high number even for the fast-growing Twitter."

The PR guru has done it again. Whatever she promotes makes it big. Talk about pitching stories just send it to Oprah and she will get it out there. I swear she could support genocide (of course she wouldn't) and still have millions of eager followers. This kinda scares me because her endorsement of Obama seemed to be quite the political stunt, and her not willing to interview Sarah Palin added to that controversy.

Besides the point here she is again promoting another product, a product that seems to promote itself quite well. I mean if you can draw that many visitors, than you deserve a position, forget if she is "social media savvy", she is socially savvy.

This sort of "hit phenomenon" generally happens when something is pitched to a popular blogger or a service intrigues that blogger. The next day or even that day you see the "hits" out-of-the-park.

What do you think about this? I mean one has to wonder how many different things are being tossed at Oprah everyday.

i just wanted to add one thing. When spell check corrects a word like Oprah, you have got to be an influencer, I mean with Sarah Palin it tried to correct it to Sarah Plain.

Social Media Power

Deltina Hay gave a presentation the other day and she had some insightful information to share. First she recommended the essentials,

"RSS feed or blog
Social networking and micro-blogging
Social Bookmarking and Crowd-Sourcing
Media Communities"

She emphasized that these are key practices you should adhere to getting your name, product, or service out .
"Blogs are not just political rants," Hay said. "These are the essentials." Building social media newsrooms. Widgets and gadgets. Tags are essential and having your tags correlate well is good, its how you keep yourself relevant. Tag images and a social portal is the desired approach for someone who cannot manage 2-3 blogs a week (e.g. me, most all AARP members). You need to engage with others and integrate your tools. One image upload to Flikr and your image can be everywhere else you have a presence.

I personally think these are all great ideas. It is important not only to get your service out there, but to make sure your message is the same across all these mediums

For a musician on facebook, "make a profile to link your facebook page" Keep things manageable!!

This is helpful because maybe now they cant steal your content if you make your page and say you are a business.

Squidoo- a squidoo lens can bookmark your favorite subject. It can be used for personal use or your business

This is just one of the many sites I would really like to learn how to use. Not to say that I don't already have a thousand sign in names and passwords that differ. What made the presentation interesting were her personal accounts and experiences. I completely understand the fact that these old business people do not know how to use the Internet, let alone how to use social media sites. If I showed this to some of my parents friends they would just laugh because they do not understand the significance of the Internet and emerging social media.

"The Power of One"

"The Power of One" is a very interesting chapter in Citizen Marketers. It entails an anectdote about some brothers who shook the Apple tree at its very base. What i mean by apple tree is the company Apple and the firecracker video posted by disgruntled consumer Casey Neistat.
It all started when he noticed that his iPod battery suddenly died on him after the warranty had expired. He of course, contacted apple support and the apple store, but he was told that the battery replacement would cost more than the iPod itself. Neistat, a 22 year old took matters into his own hands by creating a video which caused a huge ruckus on the Internet. It was such a ruckus that the people at Apple were beginning to get worrisome. The video was called " iPod's Dirty Secrets" and it underlined the replacement problem.
In what some say apples response is a battery replacement program which would cost $99, but was later reduced to $57.
This is just one of the many ways that the average citizen of the Internet can get across their problems.
I feel personally that a lot of people do not understand that if they focus their complaint to the public it might get more recognition than your average corporate response, which is generally neglect. I know that there are plenty more types of these videos for the future, everyone has a whistle with the Internet and if it is bl owed just right you might solve something.

For all my Bloggers! (Facebook gets credit for yet another miracle)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7983725.stm

The above link is an article in the BBC news about a boy who was trying to commit suicide. The boy apparently was over-dosing and at the last minute decided to get help. He sent a private message to a girl in Maryland saying something along the lines of harming himself. The girl told her mom, who according to the article,
"who called local police. The police called a "special agent" at the White House, the British Embassy in Washington and finally the police control room in Abingdon."
"Staff narrowed down his location to eight possible addresses, and officers found the teenager at the fourth house they tried. He had taken an overdose, but was still conscious."
NOW this is PR!!! Facebook has dozens of stories like this where in one way or another their networking site saved a life or dozens of lives. Their PR is perpetual and seems to be both constant and self-creating

Second Life

People who use second life should get back in touch with their first life.
I mean honestly why would you want to have your school present on second life?
Oh I know so you can teach classes right?? Not! it has been tried before, and the problem, with it is that you have to teach the whole class (except one person) how to use the thing. And then after you can try to have a class. And the benefits are that you can be at home or across the world, yet present on the Internet. Well I Don't BUY IT! This is just another BS excuse for wasting the university's money, and every ones time. It is like teaching someone how to play golf, when all they really want to do is play tennis. It requires you to learn another Internet language that is only useful within the confines of the network. It is no wonder I couldn't get a straight answer as to why its beneficial for student life, and just because other universities have it does not make it necessary for ours.

In my opinion Second Life has sailed and i don't think it is practical anymore. Their are far better networks to be communicating with, networks that don't make you pay to play a silly game to get your serious point across. I don't know how this got approved for financing, but i do know we nee more important updates like putting our school newspaper online to extend reach and readership. Now that is something educational, and who knows it might help us receive future funding.

Face to face interaction is important. That is the kind of education we should be hearing about. I have heard about second life for the third and final time at St. Edward's. I'm starting to think that it serves more as a course filler than an educator.

Facebook is HUGE

If you haven't heard yet facebook has doubled its size in 8 months from 100 million to 200 million. It is clearly one of the most powerful social networking sites and is constantly evolving and updating itself to keep up with Twitter.

"Facebook has also become a vehicle for broad-based activism — like the people who organized on the site last year and mobilized 12 million people to march in protests around the globe against practices of the FARC rebels in Colombia."

This is just one example of its multiple purposes. A recent conern for people my age 18-25 is that their parents are starting to use Facebook. This is a problem for many users who joined the network when it was just for college students. Now it is an international goliath.
My question is where is the virus that will take it all down?? It is becoming an important target as bussinesses and personal info is flooded through the gates of Facebook.