A Web 2.0 find...

So, while surfing around the Web trying to find some bookmarks for our project, I found this e-book.  The e-book is completely free and it is on iCrossing.  It is called "What is Social Media?" by Antony Mayfield.

This is a really cool e-book, which I started reading, and it includes information about blogging, wikis, forums, microblogging, Second Life and other social medias.  I think it is a great e-book to use in class because it is easy to read. Mayfield updates his e-book, so his recent versions are also found on iCrossing.

I really like some of the quotes he uses in the book.  From the Forrester Research, Social Computing, "Social computing is not a fad.  Nor is it something that will pass you or your company by.  Gradually, social computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company, in all parts of the world."  It is really cool how true this is.  Social media has affected every role in the company, especially the public relations sector.

I hope you guys read this, it is really interesting.  Maybe you could use this for next semester's class Dr. Weisgerber!

A web video reality

Our class assignment was to make our first web video!  It was a fun assignment and I must admit I had a mini meltdown.  We had to choose a social issue and make a 30-60 second web video/PSA about your topic.  We could use humor if it were appropriate, so I chose to take a funny route.  My web video is about the dangers of reality dating shows.  I used Jumpcut to make this video, which worked really well with everything I had to do.  I was using a different application but found it very difficult at the end, hence my meltdown, and decided to try Jumpcut instead.  It was a perfect match!

I hope you guys like my web video!

Want some Pork and Beans?

I don't know how many Weezer fans we have in the blogosphere, but their song "Pork and Beans" is AWESOME!  This week we have been talking a lot about "viral videos" and I think Weezer's "Pork and Beans" fits our discussions greatly!

According to Wikipedia, Rivers Cuomo wrote this song in response to Geffen's request to make Weezer's music more commercial. He was so angry, he was inspired to write this hit song.  The lyrics reflected this discontent with the "commercial" request:

I'ma do the things that I want to do

I ain't got no

thing to prove to you.

I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans

Excuse my manners if I make a scene.

I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like

I'm fine and dandy with the me inside.

One look in the mirror and I'm tickled pink

I don't give a hoot about what you think.

To match the request of record  executives, the music video captivated this "commercialness".  The video features countless "YouTube celebrities".  Many of the viral videos you have seen have made it into this video to represent the concept of being "commercial".  It really goes to show that people to pay attention to viral videos, even Weezer.  Enjoy watching Chris Crocker, Gary Brolsma, Matt McAllister, Caitlin Upton,  Eepy Bird's Mento and Diet Coke Experiment and the Dancing Banana from Peanut Butter Jelly Time. 

Enjoy!

Social Media Syndicate Show Podcast Episode 1

This is my first podcast episode!!  It was great working with Wiltson, Christine and Shannon.  We talked about the differences between generations y and z/c.  The podcast mainly covers different social media and how generation z/c grows up online.  It really goes in tangent with the PBS movie we watched online.  We touch on various medias including YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, SMS, and Second Life.  I hope you guys enjoy our wonderful episode!

Social Media Syndicate Show-- Episode 1

Podcast Notes

:05-- Intro

:26-- Welcome

:41-- Panel Self Introductions

1:23-- The Hot Topic

1:33-- Shannon discusses generation definitions

1:58-- Shannon asks panel: "What tools do you guys consider to be important in looking at the differences between how our generation, Gen Y, and the new generation, Gen Z/c, use the Internet tools?"

2:09-- Ceci discussed YouTube

3:42-- Wiltson discusses Facebook

5:21 – Christine discusses MySpace

6:04-- Shannon weights in on Facebook and Myspace

6:22-- Wiltson responds

6:46-- Shannon discusses cell phones and SMS (text) messaging

8:16-- Wiltson weighs in on texting

8:49-- Ceci discusses Second Life

10:35-- Shannon responds

11:22-- Wiltson responds

12:09-- Closing

12:20-- Outro

Poverty: The worst form of violence

Walking down the streets of Cameron Park, you smell the stink of rotting food, dirty water, and plumbing systems that are sub-par.  The houses look like one bedroom apartment that needs to fit 7 children, Mom, Dad, Grandma and even the dog.  You dare not walk alone at night because the crime and violence rate have skyrocketed.  The gangs, or clickas, as some call them, own the streets.  Drive one mile the other way and you are visiting a completely different neighborhood or two-story houses with beautiful cars in the drive way.  It is two completely different worlds.  That is the reality of my hometown, Brownsville, Texas.

Here in Austin, you can drive down any street and see a homeless person on the corner asking for money.  Poverty, according to the Austin Food Bank, is "...a measure of cost and deprivation rather than income and an adequate standard of living."  In fact, 15.2% of people in Travis County are living in poverty, which is actually HIGHER than the U.S. poverty rate. 36.6% of unmarried women with children live in poverty and 1 out of 5 children are poor.

So the question is why?  Why are SO many people living in poverty and sleep with hunger pains?  If the United States, alone, produces enough food to feed the entire world more than once, why do people go hungry?  If the whole United States produces so much food, I am sure that Austin produces enough food to take care of the hungry in their own turf.  We are Texans.  We pride ourselves on the bond of the cowboy, the brotherhood.  This bond protects every Texan, every color.  So we need to STAND UP! HELP OUT! Actions speak louder than words.

I have lived my life as a missionary and have helped out the poor and hungry in my hometown, Brownsville.  Eli Broad says "Brownsville is the best kept secret in America. In the face of stark poverty, Brownsville is outpacing other large urban districts nationwide because it is smartly focusing all resources on directly supporting students and teachers."  Brownsville recently 

won $1 million to go to the Brownsville Independent School District, according to chron.com, so

 congratulations Bville!

So what can we do here?  Capital Area Food Bank of Texas is a great way to start!  They take money donations or food donations and they give people living in poverty the food needed to survive.  You can even host yo

ur own food drive!  Another way is to get involved with Toys for Tots, an organization that takes donations of toys and delivers them to needy children for Christmas.  There is a lot you can do, visit Austin Food Bank for more information!

Do your part to end the most unnecessary violence in the world here in Austin.  End poverty because no one deserves it.

Two sides: KXAN vs Time Warner

I have been hearing a lot about the disputes between KXAN and Time Warner Cable that has ultimately resulted in the loss of KXAN in Time Warner's cable line up.  What a bummer!  Say goodbye to Heroes, 30 Rock, The Office, and Law and Order: SVU.  Most importantly, say goodbye to the SuperBowl!!!  Ouch.

So what happened?  If you are like me, you have heard or seen commercials that Time Warner has been advertising.  It directs you to a website to see facts about the dispute.  Time Warner says that KXAN wants to charge customers for the free signal they are receiving.  Because Time Warner really "cares" about their customers, they decided to pull the channel.

But we all know, there are always two-sides to a coin.  So, what's KXAN's story?

KXAN's general manager, Eric Lassberg,  told 

The Austinist in an interview their side of the

 story.  Lassberg states: "Our dispute is about fair and equitable treatment. Time Warner charges its cable subscribers a fee to provide KXAN-TV in its channel line-up. It also charges its cable subscribers a fee to provide cable networks, which cable subscribers may or may not watch. Time Warner shares that fee with the cable networks; however, it does not share that fee with us. In essence, it takes our signal for free and resells it for a profit."

This changes the story a bit, huh?  I think KXAN has a right to be upset, even though I am upset with the decision to pull the channel.  KXAN could have done a better job of advertising their point of view if they had commercials or a website like Time Warner did.  So, the question remains... who's side are you on?

The solution to drailing!!!

It's 3 a.m., you are in a taxi going home after a long night downtown.  It was a good night, you had a couple of drinks and you feel a little happier.  Okay, maybe a lot happier.  Once you have your Whataburger and you are at home with your friends laughing about the night, you might decide it would be a good idea to call you ex.  You know you shouldn't, but something in you has decided to take over.  Next morning, you have a nasty voicemail and apparently you said some things you might not remember.

Been there?

It's the drunk dial.  It is, for some of us, some of the biggest mistakes of our social lives.  Yet, there is another trend rapidly growing and its called "drailing".  Have you heard of it?  Well maybe you have experienced it.  Let's take the following scenario and instead of calling your ex, you opt to send an email.  That's drailing, or otherwise known as drunk e-mailing.  In class, we have talked about the fact that "e-mail is forever".  The moral of the story was that you might want to think twice before you click send to that nasty e-mail, most especially if its your boss.  Help is on its way!

According to the Associated Press, Google has just developed a new feature that is being used in G-mail that prevents drailing. "Mail Goggles" takes effect late at night and on the weekends.  Jon Perlow, the designer of the Goggles, has designed this feature to ask you to solve some simple math problems before allowing you to hit the send button.  This feature trusts that you will know these simple problems sober.  So, if you passed elementary math, Goggles will save you... from yourself!  Make sure to thank Google in the morning after you treat your hangover!

I think this is a great idea!  It is an effective to solution to a big problem.  Although it is still in its testing phase, I encourage you to try it out and leave a comment telling me about your experience and if YOU think its effective or not!

Que se oiga la gente, la Raza, MI GENTE!!

Juntos las voces de la Raza Latina se van a unir y sera UNA VOZ, UNA GENTE, UNA RAZA!

SI SE PUEDE!!

Translation: Together the voices of the Latin Race will unite and we will be ONE VOICE, ONE PEOPLE, ONE RACE! YES WE CAN!!

Yet another tool reaching out to the youth vote, except this time it is targeting Latinos.  Voto Latino is a non-profit, non- partisan, youth-driven organization that wants to reach Latino youth and educate them on the issues facing our country.  Voto Latino wants to give voices to the silent.  There is a website, blog, Facebook group and Myspace group dedicated to this organization and it is great.  They state that although there are currently 7 million registered Latino voters, over 8 million are still UNREGISTERED.

That is huge.  Latino's are not the minority anymore and we need to lift our heads and speak up.  Voto Latino is endorsed by countless celebrities including co-founder Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama, Perez Hilton,  Vida Guerra, Daddy Yankee, Cameron Diaz, John Leguizamo and Jennifer Lopez.

Dawson says that Voto Latino strives to get people registered and to serve as a reminder of when to vote and where to vote.  Voto Latino does NOT intend to sway your vote.

There have been various PSA's and a REALLY FUNNY series of short episodes featuring Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama, and Nick Zano. New episodes are to appear soon featuring Perez Hilton. Voto Latino recently won the Myspace Impact Award on September 24, 2008.  They also have their own blog with a Twitter widget reminding readers of registration deadlines.

This is a really great organization and I encourage everyone, all races, to visit the site!

Si se puede con el Voto Latino!!! 

Iphones for Obama

Can you smell what Barack is cooking?
More election news coming to you straight from the cexi blog! Technology has been a pretty big influence in this election year. If you read my previous post about the debates being on Myspace, then you would get a better understanding of that. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has done very well in keeping up with the latest social media trends like Facebook and Myspace. Terrence O'Brien from Switched.com reports Mr. Obama has just hopped on the train to one of the biggest trends these past years have seen. Can you guess?

Yep, the Iphone! Apple has provided Barack with his own application to help rally supporters and organize volunteer. It even comes with a handy dandy "Donate" button!!!

The application has an election day countdown and information about Barack Obama's platform.  Pretty neat, huh?

I think this was a very smart move by the Obama campaign because they are associating themselves with a "hip" brand, Apple, and a "hot" item, the Iphone.  It is a good way to get younger voters more interested in what the campaign is doing.  I give them four thumbs up on this marketing technique.  Very nice.  I also like how Terrence O'Brien closes his post by writing:

"The McCain campaign responded by asking: 'What's an Iphone?'"

He earns points for his LOL effect!  Good post Terrence and good campaign strategy Obama!

DON'T VOTE!!!!!!

EVERYBODY LISTEN UP: DON'T VOTE!


At least that is what this new YouTube video is "telling" us. Featuring countless of celebrities, including Leo DeCaprio, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Aniston, Forrest Whittaker, Sarah Silverman, will.I.am, etc. etc., this new viral video is catching a lot of attention. It is actually an AWESOME video. It does have some dirty language but the message is a positive one.

So how is DON'T VOTE, positive?


Well, they are saying don't vote if you don't care about the issues. If you do care, if you are a responsible citizen, then you SHOULD DEFINITELY VOTE. Jonah Hill and Sarah Silverman bring a lot of comedy to a very serious message. Their call to action is to send the video to 5 of their friends and it would snowball from there. This is how this video becomes viral.

We talked about viral videos in class and the effects of them. I think this video will send out a positive image to citizens everywhere!

So... DON'T VOTE... if you don't care.

But you know you should!


Check out registration places!


WARNING!!! this video contains explicit language, a positive message, and A LOT of funnies!

StumbleUpon Addiction

I never really knew what social bookmarking was until last week in class. I brushed it off like it was just another thing and actually thought that this was limited to the very talented "computer geeks". It was then that I read Shannon and Analee's blog really praising StumbleUpon for it's unique way of sorting your interests and I was interested. But even then, I was very determined not to write ANOTHER blog on this subject trying my best to think "outside of the box". After I wrote my previous blog, I couldn't think of anything interesting to write about so I decided to pay a visit to StumbleUpon.

I created an account, my username is anaceci if anyone would like to add me, and I read what this new program was about. I checked a few boxes about my interests and clicked on the Stumble button. The first page I saw was a drawing page. It was entertaining but not entertaining enough. As I kept clicking the button, I ended up finding a handful of fun websites that I would have not even known about if it weren't for StumbleUpon. Minutes really turned into hours and I have spent approximately three hours stumbling.

I agree with many who blogged about social bookmarking when they say it is a fun tool to use and will ultimately be very helpful when conducting research or writing a paper. If anything it might help you find your "true match" better than EHarmony.com. Finding people with your exact interests might bring about a potential love connection. Maybe StumbleUpon should think about advertising this side of the social bookmarking... it could be called... StumbleUpon Love. Jaja, wow.

Here are my top five sites that I have stumbled upon!

Have fun!

5. Singing Horses
4. Taste Spotting
3. Games for the Brain
2. Optical Illusions
1. Musicovery

The Myspace Debates

Cue presidential music: dum, dum, dum,dum, dum, dudumdudumdudum dum..



Please play this video while reading the remainder of my post for comedic effect... Thank you.


The Washington Independent has reported that the Commission on Presidential Debates will air the presidential debates on the social networking site, Myspace. Along with the airing, users will be able to access a toolset from MyDebates.org powered by Myspace. Below is a screenshot:




Okay this is actually SUPER COOL! You can take a quiz about issues you care about and it will match you up with your candidate, either McCain or Obama. It will rank your issues on importance and if you choose the "I don't care" button it will skip to the next issue. If you read both stances and do not know which to pick, it will mark it with a question mark and say you need to watch the debates to hear them both out. Cool ehh?

Another cool feature, guys! It actually has surveys and graphs of what other Myspace users think is important. You can check the map to see who is winning the Myspace vote, Obama is beating John McCain by an overwhelming amount. I believe there were four states for McCain, 6 undecided states, leaving a WHOPPING 39 states for Obama!! WOW! To be critical, though, Myspace does not offer the amount of people surveyed and if there were an equal number per state. But that aside, I really liked this new feature Myspace has added!

Final cool feature... you can actually send in your questions to the website and some lucky people will actually have them answered by the nominees! WHATT? That is soo cool! This is a GREAT digital media marketing tool to increasing the ratings among young adults to the debates. This election has been pretty wild, and many people are voting for personalities and not issues. Myspace and MyDebates have brought us back to the issues. The Commission is really trying to hook on to the most popular website on the Internet right now. I think this is a very smart move and will see good results.

This just goes to show how cool Web 2.0 can be. I am looking forward to the debates! The first one airs Friday, September 26!!! Visit Myspace.com/mydebates.


I will leave you with my FAVORITE music video this year called "Yes We Can".



YES WE CAN!

Celebrity Blogging

One thing we have talked about in our Social Media class is personal PR or personal branding. Handling your own image is made possible today through blogs. Recently, I have noticed that more and more celebrities are beginning to keep up with their blogs religiously. A classic example is with Kanye West. Mr. West is not a big fan of the paparazzi and was arrested for "vandalism" after attacking a paparazzo and shattering his camera. Soon after, he posted a blog saying he would "rant later". We have seen much ranting on his blog about MTV and other issues, but why? Why would he care so much to leave a blog? After all having millions of dollars and bazillions of fans must give you something to do right?

Well it turns out that celebrities are taking their image out of gossip mags and sites hands and putting it back into their own. This is a classic example of personal PR or branding. After a story or picture is posted on Perezhilton.com or other gossip sites and they don't agree, they will post on their blog their side of the story and try to clear their name.

In Paul Gilin's The New Influencers, he writes that people "exert influence by aggregating the thoughts and opinons of others whom they trust" (pg. 27). Celebrities can influences millions of fans through their blogs because it is a direct conversation with them.

Many celebrities are using this power to promote their political beliefs. For example, Lindsay Lohan and, rumored partner, Samantha Ronson posted a blog on LiLo's Myspace page about John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. She writes, "Is our country so divided that the Republicans best hope is a narrow minded, media obsessed homophobe?" She goes on to offer a piece of advice, "Oh, and…Hint Hint Pali Pal- Don’t pose for anymore tabloid covers, you’re not a celebrity, you’re running for office to represent our, your, my COUNTRY!"

LiLo knows she is a NEW INFLUENCER (to tie in our textbook). She uses this influence to be a responsible CITIZEN MARKETER (ha, another one) and make her beliefs known to her fans and maybe they might listen.


Disclaimer: My computer has short-circuited 6 times so I am blogging through my Sprint Treo. This is the reason for the lack of links and pictures but I promise to add them as soon as I get my new computer! Thanks!

Results 1-10 of about 562,000 for Ceci Garcia (0.15 seconds)

We have all seen the classic movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarves where the Evil Queen asks the Magic Mirror her famous question:


"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"


In this day and age, I think it would be more appropriate to ask:


"Google, Google on the computer screen, what juicy and incriminating information can be seen?"

Clever... I know.

When reading Pew Internet Study on Our Digital Footprint, I kept seeing the word "footprint" being stressed over and over again. So, what is this footprint and how the heck do I get rid of it? According to this study, a footprint is any personal information or activity that is archived on the Web and can be found on a search engine.

WHAAAAAATTT?!?!

I thought wire-tapping was bad, now we are being "web-tapped" too? If that isn't bad enough, we have to worry about digital-resumes screwing us over at interviews for potentially life-changing jobs. Yep, that's right, companies are now replacing interviews and references with Google. (At this time, please search through your Facebook profiles, as well as Myspace profiles, and delete any incriminating information, thanks.)

This has gotten a little scary. Before this Web 2.0, predators would actually have to work to track us down. Now, it is all through a couple of clicks on the Internet. The worst part about it is that we may be setting ourselves up for these culprits. Social networking sites are painting such a perfect picture of us, that we don't people stalking us to know where we will be and when. All people need to do is check our status or our events to try and find us.

I agree with the authors of that Pew study when they say that PRIVACY IS DEAD! It is gone. Poof! Bye-Bye! Yet, we as responsible "citizens" must try and filter the content of what is getting on the Web. So, the moral of the story is... maybe people don't need to know where you are every second of the day and maybe you should reconsider tagging those pictures from downtown Thursday. After all, it might come back and bite you in places where you don't want to be bitten.


Disclaimer: So, it took pretty long to post this blog and I apologize for the lack of links and pictures but my computer has short-circuited a number of 6 times since yesterday and the computer techs at school can't seem to find what is wrong with it. I have been writing this blog on my Sprint Treo, which makes it hard to add in these fun touches. On a lighter note, I will be getting a new computer next week so I will fix this blog then.