Having a Second Life?!

OK, so I think its cool. No, I have never used Second Life, but who doesn't want to go to a virtual island?! But, my questions revolve around the use of Second Life in education. This didn't happen to me until I came to grad school. Someone, please agree with me on this next issue!

I as an MBA student, had to take statistics. Oh the joy.... So I have this professor, nice guy, knows a heck of a lot more then I do. How should he convey that information to me. Well, of course, new Era. PowerPoint. So we move along in our little math world, and I tell you maybe, just maybe twice he wrote on the whiteboard to explain some problems.

How is one supposed to learn the steps in statistics via PowerPoint. I can tell you friends, it wasn't easy.

Sometimes technology hinders our learning.

Eternal Internet

So, I love this lecture by Lawrence Lessig. In case you don't know about it, click here, most of you won't watch it, it is long, but if you are ever stuck inside on a rainy Saturday, it will be worth it...

This idea that data lives forever on the internet is disturbing for me. Yes, yes, I'll be so happy to look up my blog in 30 years and remember this post.

But seriously. Think about all the bad things in the world that happen to good people. I hope to never be one and have my dirty laundry spread all over.

I have this friend, very good person. Got into some drugs a few years ago, hit someone in his car and ran. dumb***! He's in prison, paying fines, getting help, repenting for his sins.

I believe that he should be forgiven.

Isn't that what this country is about, second chances? But, the internet you see, won't allow this. Do you know how many employers Google a person's name before they consider hiring them? I'll just point you here for a couple different stats. The latest average is over 50%. When Googling his name, the top 5 stories are about his hit-and-run. Now I ask you, how is my friend supposed to get a job after this?

The World Revolves Around Linkedin

The world seems to revolve around Linkedin, I just didn't know about it... At least until recently. And I must say, it seems like a pretty cool tool, but, I'm always a sceptic, so I have some questions for the Wonderful World of Linkedin users. Please help me out here. I might even join if convinced.

• There are a lot of people telling me to join, but I've tried Monster and 100k jobs and the just don't preform the way I expect them to. I get emails here and there, I've applied for jobs, but nothing ever comes of my efforts. Is Linkedin really all that different?

• Enhancing your search engine results. I love Time magazine, and I trust them. In one of Times recent editions, there was a whole article about companies not hiring candidates based on information they found on social networking sites. The numbers were staggering! Do I really want to link my blog, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter accounts? I know some people love to do this, but I'm not going to lie, I sometimes post inappropriate things and I would hate for this to ruin my chances at the job of my dreams.

• As far as an HR tool, Linkedin misses the boat in my opinion. Why would companies hire HR directors, if they really could just find everything on Linkedin. My theory is this. People can say whatever they want on these social networking sites. I could be an axe murderer on Facebook, and would you believe this? My point is that to act like Linkedin and everyone on it are using it in a truthful manner is just naive.

And just to be positive for a second. I learned about Linkedin today, and I just might join. It couldn't hurt my job search, or could it?...

Oh How I've Missed You

Ahh...mobile marketing, how I have missed you.

In my previous job, I had this great idea and that was mobile marketing. Yes, what a great, innovative idea for a ski resort. We can offer all of our customers up-to-date information about snow, events, specials, yeah!

I was stoked, of course, it was my idea. Well, hate to tell you friends (and myself ouch!) it didn't go so well. In a whole year less than 500 hundred people signed up for our mobile service. That sucks, considering more then 500 people show up in 1 day to ski and snowboard.

So, I will list some of the reasons I believe it failed, and you can agree with me or add on your own thoughts.

• Relevance- A person (me) had to log onto the system each time to send a text. That meant waking up at 5am to send Powder alerts- fun for me. How about those days off!

• Expense- is mobile marketing really worth it? We really had no way to track the results and for our very small list (I mean really small) to send a text cost more then $1 a person, and that is not including the monthly fee anyway.

• Activation- do you know how hoops a company has to go through just to get the right to send you a text? A lot! More then 3000 people initial sent a first text to the resort, but then never responded back allowing us to continue to text them.

As you can image, this wasn't my brightest plan, but at least I know now.... I'll just keep telling myself that to feel better.

This is hilarious!

8 Reasons Why We're Way Cooler Than You

It really erks me when old people sit around and talk about something they know nothing about.

Then they get in this mentality of, "yes, yes, we are so smart and good and better then anyone before or behind us." LAME! Come on! We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but just because I can, I'm going to tell you why my generation is better!

#1 We find breaking news via the Internet
- All this talk about only looking at Facebook, friends and clothes is not entirely true. We do like those things, but I if you asked a 20-something about current events and compared it to a 50-something you would be surprised by our knowledge.

#2 We read on-line
- One might think that older generations read more, but this is reading in the traditional sense. What ? You don't think on-line reading counts?

#3 Education
- You can't act like older generations are smarter just because they know obscure facts. Yes, knowing Pearl Harbor is important, but who did you interview?

#4 Association
- I agree, a certain group of my peers are proud of their lack of education, but please, don't generalize all of us.

#5 Video Games are Sweet!
- You can't deny that my generation's hand-eye coordination is way better then yours.

#6 Sourcing
- Guess what, you are reading on the Internet now, do you not find this valuable? Or nothing on the Internet is valuable?

#7 Blame the Parents
- Let me give you a lesson. If your kids have to sleep with their technology, you have a problem! Parents, please learn how to raise your kids.

#8 Your just jealous
- You think an oldie could have created something like a Facebook? My mom still doesn't know how to accept friend requests....

Another interesting point

Just For The Sake Of An Argument

I'm in a sorta disagreement with myself. Not like a terrible fight or anything. My two sides are just having a discussion.

The discussion in my head starts like this:

Social marketing has revolutionized advertising! Remember, when you worked at Brighton and they didn't have a Facebook page, a blog or a MySpace? You started all these things, and then people became your friend (ahh) and then your events became amazingly popular and people were always writing to you wanting to know the latest and greatest. See, see! It works!

Well, I don't know about that. I mean you are marketing to a very small group. Most of them already have season passes, so are you really generating more revenue for the resort? Check this out, and all your hopes will be dashed! From a good source and everything. Take that!

Yes, but social marketing makes things possible in advertising that could have never been done before. I mean look at me on Facebook with all my fan clubs. Doesn't that count for something?!

Oh, whatever. You're ridiculous and I can't continue to argue with you. It's just too tiring.

My Thought or Your Thought?

I just have to start out by saying what is really the difference between 1 individual and a group?

I get it. One starts with 'I' and the other with 'G', but they are both Nouns, unless I am incorrect and my grammar has gotten worse since Elementary school. Totally possible.

A group really is just a bunch of individual together. Do they really have different ideas and mentalities? I have done a lot of group work in my day. Yes, yes us MBAs totally have. I like working with people that think differently then I do, but it seems that after time working in a group, we all develop this thing called:

Group Thought.

We all start to think the same, same ideas, same place, same actions. So the idea that a group could some how be threatening, to me, is just silly. Maybe all these people are just worried about not having creative ideas of their own. They have to rely on a group to create their thoughts for them. Here's and idea.

Think for yourself!

You'll be much happier!