Facebook Freed

I decided to go Facebook free for an undetermined about of time today. The decision came about after speaking to a family member who opted to try it for the duration of Lent (she's Catholic). I've flirted with the idea before, but never had enough commitment to go through with it. However, after hearing her narrative last night about how she found herself to be much more productive, I'm decided to give it a try.

Google Docs and Event Registration

I am hosting a debate co-op this summer on campus. In order to make sure I can organize all of the students that will be attending, I needed to find an efficient way of organizing the information. Additionally, I needed to make the information readily available to both Curt and myself. Google Docs has served me well thus far in being both easy to use and professional in application.

All you need to start is a Google account. From there, you click on the documents link at the top of the page. Next, you click on "Create New" on the top right side of the page and select form. The creation of the page is very self explanatory and requires no previous knowledge of webpage programing. Here is the finished result and the registration page for the Drury Co-Op:

Registration Page

The program allows you to create questions with numerous different types of responses. Additionally, after someone completes registration, their information is filtered into an excel sheet that you can view/edit. Here is a picture of what the spreadsheet looks like:

It has most of the functions that you would find using any standard office product. Additionally, you can share the file online with other Google Account users. You can also specify if the other users can view or edit the information.

Overall, I've found the use of Google Docs to be easy and effective for what I need to accomplish and would recommend it to anyone who needs to create some sort of registration page for an event.

YouTube Video Post

This video is called Ryan vs Dorkman 2. Its a semi-amateur fanboy video of a lightsaber fight. I decided to post it because it is a good example of the benefits of online videos can yield for people.

The two actors in the video, Ryan Wieber & Michael Scott, where both amateur film makers when they started. After seeing the video, the visual effect artists at LucasArts offered both of them jobs. Wieber went on to work on Star Wars Episode III and Scott is now working as an independent film maker. While this video could be discussed in the context of cultural and art, the professional applications (and story) tie into what we discussed last week in our memo.

Plus, this is by far one of the cooler YouTube videos I've come across.

Importance of blogging in new-media landscape

Being that my undergraduate is in political science, that is typically the lens I default to when I approach and understand media. The section in chapter one concerning blogging and lobbyist spoke to me the most. The blogging aspect was critical during the Health Care debate that recently concluded. I was researching for debate and some lobbying groups during the past few weeks. This made the blogging updates from staffers and insiders all the more critical and timely. However, outside of academic games and competition, I worked as a lobbyist this summer in DC on health care. Examining and analyzing the aforementioned blogs were critical to understanding positions to specific members of Congress. The use of blogs allowed us to create more pointed arguments and better deployed strategies when attempting to lobby individuals. Blogs offer a unique insight from each individual which allows people in the lobbying field to break out of working within the traditional norms of "liberal vs conservative" or "democrat vs republican" and gives individuals the ability to have an identity outside of traditional groups.

On a time issue, blogs offer a faster update than publishing a news story on something like politico, but offers the ability for more analysis than twitter.

Interesting Blog(s)

-Obama Blog
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog

-Politico Blog
http://www.politico.com/blogs/