Second life in Org Comm

For the past week Stephanie Poole-Martinez's Organizational Communication class has been meeting in a virtual classroom in Secondlife during our scheduled class time. The classroom looks a lot like any other physical classroom does with desks a podium and even a place for you to upload power points in the virtual world.
Though this concept is new and exciting here are of course several kinks that need to be worked out. It is hard for Stephanie to get the classes attention at times because students are flying around and experimenting with gestures like dancing and bowing. Another issue associated with the virtual classroom is that the way to communicate with everyone is set up much like a chat room where there is one large conversation going on but you also have the capability to privately message people in the class one on one. Which at time makes the conversation hard to follow and easy to miss out on important information. One last thing that I found distracting was that if classmates "teleport" in late they land in the middle of the classroom disrupting the class.
There are also many benefits to the virtual classroom, for example being behind a computer I noticed that my classmates that are generally on the shyer side felt more comfortable speaking and contributing to the class discussion. Another upside to the virtual classroom is the freedom that you can accesses it anywhere. People who work or have a family or even disability or dont feel well wouldnt have to miss class because they can access it from their own home, office etc.

Keep Austin Weird

This is our viral video promoting the "keep Austin weird" campaign
that focuses on buying from and utilizing local businesses and services
Hope you like it

The PR podcast

http://myweb.stedwards.edu/aunderw/PRCast.mp3

embarking on second life

http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/steve_rubel_on_second_life_public_relations/
Rubel analyzed the concept of implementing public relations tools into the world of second life. Getting in on the ground floor so to speak would allow PR professionals the ability to experiment their tactics in second life without suffering any repercussions which would occur if professionals divulged into more popular mediums.
http://www.thestreet.com/newsanalysis/second-life/10324949.html
Justin Bovington, who controls the in-world character Fizik Baskerville is a pioneer using second life as a way to spread his public relations tactics. Justin Bovington is and executive of a Public Relations firm that is based out of London called a River Runs Red. Bovington has found success with the ability to hold conferences with partners as well as clientele through second life . He continues to speak about the success of a conference held in second life with a company based out of Los Angeles.
Second life has seen success in many different aspects. Through my org comm. class (where we are required to sign up for and attend second life class) I have been able to on my own explore this "virtual world." For the most part creating and accessing a second life identity is fairly simple. Once your avatar (character chosen by the user to represent themselves) has completed the brief orientation session you are at your own will to explore places all over the second life map. You can venture into seminars and classes (if the institution allows) and meet other avatars and have conversations

Cambodia no lights but they love blogs

Blogging has begun to reach even those areas that have not evolved to be completely up to date as far as technological standards are concerned. The average Cambodian household still remains without electricity but that has not kept the bloggers from emerging. Even though Cambodia continues to be for the most part an underdeveloped country, the new trend of blogging has rapidly flourished amongst the youth and technologically savvy.
Bloggers are using their new outlet to express themselves through online diaries and discuss issues that plaque their country.
For a country that was only introduced to e-mail a little over ten years ago in 1994, they have quickly evolved to blogging as a favorite past time.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/24/cambodia.blogs.ap/index.html

Ikea case study

The point of the America at Home campaign is to globally involve Ikea consumers by encouraging to participate in a "movement." The movement is basically a video or pictorial diary of the consumer and or his or her family in their home. The movement is intended to capture the emotion of home.
I think that the Home is the most important place is a beneficial theme because it directly targets the heart strings of all people specifically Americans. Based on the consideration that our world has become a place where families have little or no time to do more than cohabit ate under the same roof. the days of the daily family supper have been replaced with fast food and football practice. the home is the best place in the world directly targets those who are missing out on that enjoyment through guilt tactic.
The UK campaign differs slightly in its approach. While the US campaign encourages everyone its target audience seems to me to be families. The UK campagin is focused on keeping your house. not selling, but settling into your house for a long period of time. Instead of creating a pictoral diary of you in your home the UK version wants to celebrate memories and loved stories of ones home.

Dove

It is no mystery that Dove has launched a campaign to empower women through their advertisement campaigns about "real women." This is their latest video that I came across that is geared towards effecting mothers emotions about their daughters being exposed to the thin media images that frequent the covers of magazines, movies, television, etc. However the way that I stumbled across this video was from a news story that discussed how Doves parent company does not uphold the same image and "moral value" that Dove adheres to when advertising and campaigning. The parent company in fact uses images of women chasing after men because they are attracted to the way they smell (the ax bodyspray for men commercial )
kind of ironic