Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley February 3, 2014 Deadline March 2014 Issue Social Media Getting Older, Losing Its Cool Social media are losing their “cool” factor, becoming a part of the largely ignored information static in our daily lives. Automated “bots” dominate Twitter, sending out so many tweets that it takes an effort to find any value. A small group of real, human users remain entertaining and informative, but searching and sorting tweets requires too much effort to be fun anymore. If you follow sports scores, news alerts or special events then Twitter is a wonderful tool. My friends who participate in fantasy sports leagues rely on Twitter for breaking news, at least on game days. They seldom send tweets, except to trade barbs with other “team owners” in the leagues. Twitter was supposed to make “texting” more social and more engaging, but the sheer volume of traffic renders Twitter useless. For most of us, hashtags, those “#WordsToFollow” that need a secret decode...

University instructors have it somewhat easier than K12 teachers: accepting "friend" requests from our students, especially our adult and non-traditional students, isn't much of an ethical quagmire. Still, you have to be careful and have some guidelines or you'll risk trouble. 1) I only accept "friend" requests from former students who are 21 or older, so nobody can claim I have favorites or suggest anything untoward. Connecting to young students is, in my opinion, always a bad idea — especially for male teachers, but we've seen female teachers have "problems" online, too. I explain to students that it isn't that I don't like them or want to be friends later in life, but it is important to maintain professional standing while they are in my courses. 2) LinkedIn is the "safest" social network for teachers to remain connected to former students. It is a professional, career-oriented network that is more about employment ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley April 8, 2013 Deadline May 2013 Issue Tech Etiquette: Why Manners Still Matter As my wife and I watched the actors on stage, the woman sitting beside me raised her iPad and started to record the performance. She waved the iPad, aiming around and above the people sitting in the row below us. I dodged her elbows and tried to ignore this breach of etiquette as best I could. When you attend a live event, unless it is your child’s play or recital, do not try to record the performance with a phone or tablet. The devices are not inconspicuous. A handheld video camera might be small and (slightly) less annoying to other audience members, and I’d still prefer that nobody have one in the audience. Community and college theater companies often record their performances. If you ask, many schools and community groups will make copies of their recordings. Yet, I counted at least a dozen people trying to capture video on phones and tablets during the night. I’...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley March 4, 2013 Deadline April 2013 Issue Getting Social to Build Your Business Facebook, Twitter , Foursquare, Yelp and more. If you want to grow your business today, you need to know the power of social networking. You also need to be prepared to change your social media strategy quickly to keep up with trends. Social networks come and go, as quickly as the “likes” and “trending” data they report. In the late 1990s, I recommended basic Web pages and e-mail addresses to my clients. Today, deciding which types of online presences are best for a business or organization presents a challenge. Whether you focus on business-to-business (B2B) services or retail sales helps determine the best online strategy for your company. The more public exposure your company seeks, the more important a social media presence will be. The basic Web presence still serves a purpose, and inexpensive hosting services cost the same as a stack of good business cards. Bu...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley August 29, 2011 Deadline October 2011 Issue Artists Gather Online: The Valley’s Virtual Art Colonies Not long after the first artist used charcoal and ground seeds to create the first cave painting, the first critic arrived on the scene. Having stated a mastodon could create better artwork, the critic then left the artist alone in his cave. I am certain that within months, a handful of prehistoric artists met around a fire to reassure each other that critics were simply Neanderthals without any artistic abilities. Over the following centuries, artists gathered in various places. Among the more popular settings where author’s met were cafés, restaurants and unemployment lines. Being an artist has never been easy and it is only occasionally profitable. It’s little wonder that artists need to gather and commiserate. After gathering, artists find themselves reenergized. The support of your creative peers makes it a little less terrifying to expose...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley March 2009 Issue Feb 2, 2009 Social Networking and Facebook The “Mommy Revolt” on Facebook earlier this year was evidence social networking has gone mainstream. Members of the social networking site were upset when Facebook employees deemed photos of mothers nursing inappropriate. It was a case of original intent versus user desires. The mothers ended up forming a Facebook group of angry nursing mothers and their “fans.” I’m not sure anyone would claim not to be a fan of motherhood. Facebook certainly didn’t like being perceived as “anti-mom” and soon relented. These women had learned to use Facebook’s social networking features against the company. Facebook’s executives have said they don’t want to lose any “mature” and “responsible” users. The problem is, users have a way of not being serious all the time. No matter what a company might intend when it creates a Web site, visitors tend to determine how the technology will be used. And so, wha...