In 2017 my Website was migrated to
the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at rjensen@trinity.edu if
you really need to file that is missing
Education/Learning Applications of ListServs, Blogs, Wikis,
Social Networking, and Twitter
Getting More Than We Give
Bob
Jensen
Find comparison facts on most any Website ---
http://reviewandjudge.org/HOME.html
For example, enter "www.trinity.edu/rjensen/" without the http:\\
Economics News
Free of charge as the world turns
Real Time Economics (a Wall Street Journal blog on the changing world
of economics) ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/
I find this more news than opinion, although the comments on postings are often
more opinion than news
Bob Jensen's threads on listservs, blogs, and the social media ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Teach Online Safety ---
https://www.staysafeonline.org/teach-online-safety/
bloggERS: The Blog of the SAA's Electronic Records Section (all about blogs)
---
https://saaers.wordpress.com/
ListServs
Blogs: Accountancy
Professors Just Don't Blog
Social Networking for Education: The Beautiful and the Ugly
(including Google's Wave and Orcut for Social Networking)
Research Networks, News, and Working Papers (SSRN)
Video: The Worst Thing You Can Do in Life is Set Goals
Stephen Fry: What I Wish I Had Known When I Was 18 ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2010/05/stephen_fry_what_i_wish_i_had_known_when_i_was_18.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Social Networking
Twitter (and other Microblogs
competitors)
Deceptions, Hoaxes, and
Fakery
David Pogue's Advice
Giving Stuff Away Free on the Internet
Anti-Social Media (hate groups and language) ---
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/antisocialmedia
Mashable (social media news) ---
http://mashable.com/
"100 Websites You Should Know and Use (updated!)," by Jessica Gross,
Ted Talk, August 3, 2007 ---
http://blog.ted.com/2007/08/03/100_websites_yo/
Note the excellent tutorial course at
http://newmediaocw.wordpress.com/
Video: Learn the new (RSS) way to view the news you are most interested
in from your favorite news sites ---
www.commoncraft.com
has a “RSS in Plain English” video
This great link was forwarded by Mary Jo Sanz
[MSANZ@BENTLEY.EDU]
Also see Nanoscale ---
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/NR/
Feed Demon 3.0 ---
http://www.newsgator.com/
So you want to stay up to date with news from the Boston Globe and the
New Orleans Times-Picayune and 75 other news outlets as well? Feed Demon 3.0
can make it happen. This recently released edition of the popular RSS news
aggregator syncs effectively with Google Reader, and it makes it easy to
update your subscriptions and share items with others. Visitors should also
note the application's compatibility with Twitter feed reading and tagging
features. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 95 and
newer.
dy/dan (mathematics teaching blog) ---
http://blog.mrmeyer.com
No Other Encyclopedia Comes Close to Wikipedia
"Understanding collaboration in Wikipedia," Royce M. Kimmons,
First Monday, December 5, 2011 ---
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3613
Abstract
Previous attempts at studying collaboration within Wikipedia have focused on
simple metrics like rigor (i.e. the number of revisions in an article’s
revision history) and diversity (i.e. the number of authors that have
voluntarily contributed to a given article) or have made generalizations
about collaboration within Wikipedia based upon the content validity of a
few select articles. By analyzing the contents of randomly selected
Wikipedia articles (n = 1,271) and their revisions (n = 85,563) more
closely, this study attempts to understand what collaboration within
Wikipedia actually looks like under the surface. Findings suggest that
typical Wikipedia articles are not rigorous, in a collaborative sense, and
do not reflect much diversity in the construction of content and
macro-structural writing, leading to the conclusion that most articles in
Wikipedia are not reflective of the collaborative efforts of any community
but, rather, represent the work of relatively few contributors.
Wikipedia stands as an undeniable success in online
participation and collaboration. By looking more closely at metrics
associated with each extant Wikipedia article (N=3,427,236) along with all
revisions (N=225,226,370), this study attempts to understand what
collaboration within Wikipedia actually looks like under the surface.
Findings suggest that typical Wikipedia articles are not rigorous, in a
collaborative sense, and do not reflect much diversity in the construction
of content and macro–structural writing. Most articles in Wikipedia are not
reflective of the collaborative efforts of the community but represent the
work of relatively few contributors.
Bob Jensen's search helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm
With all the good, though, there are some negative
aspects to online presences. It’s important to recognize that whatever we write
online is for public consumption, that we are not simply chatting with friends
and family when we post.
Billie Hara
The kind of vocalizations that caused the
above-named individuals to be fired are common in high stress professions, as
they can defuse anger or frustration. Speaking these words can be a way to
commiserate with colleagues, or they can become “in jokes” among friends.
These exchanges can be OK when we are face-to-face with others, as we have body
language and voice inflections to help us understand the meaning and context
behind the statements. Online is a different situation, however.
Billie Hara
"Think Before You Tweet (or Blog or Update a Status)," by Billie Hara,
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/think-before-you-tweet-or-blog-or-update-a-status/30949?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Earlier this week, Miriam Posner, Stewart Varner,
and Brian Croxall wrote “Creating
Your Web Presence: A Primer for Academics.” They
had some terrific recommendations about how to establish an online presence
and how to keep that presence active and positive. Good stuff!
Here at ProfHacker, we’ve written before about the
networking wonders and creative collaborations that can happen via online
forums. We meet people from different disciplines in various parts of the
world, and we connect because we share interests and goals. With all the
good, though, there are some negative aspects to online presences. It’s
important to recognize that whatever we write online is for public
consumption, that we are not simply chatting with friends and family when we
post.
Today I want to veer off their post just a bit and
write about something that might detract from a positive and professional
online presence, a presence that we so meticulously create and maintain,
comments made online that publicly disparage students and colleagues. These
comments can be intentional—meant to demean or criticize—or they can be
random comments made in jest.
Take, for example, the case of
Dr. Gloria Gadsden, an associate professor at East
Stroudsburg University. About a year ago, Dr. Gadsden wrote on Facebook
that she had a good day at school, and “didn’t want to kill even one
student,” adding “Friday was a different story.” She wrote this
comment—surely in jest—in a space that she believed to be private. However,
it wasn’t. A third party read her comment and notified university
authorities. Dr. Gadsden was suspended, and ultimately reinstated, after
the incident, but the hit to her professional reputation is clear.
A few more cautionary tales:
- In the U.K., thirteen
Virgin Atlantic Airlines crewmembers were fired after
they made fun of passengers and jokes about airline safety on Facebook.
- In June of 2010, a
Pittsburgh Pirates’ mascot was fired after
posting a negative comment about the contract extension of two team
managers. Andrew Kurtz, 24, was fired within hours of posting the
comment, “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington
through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to
go Pirates,” to his Facebook page.
- At a Dallas radio station, The Ticket, producer
Mike Bacsik was suspended after making some
unfortunate Twitter comments after a night drinking with friends. The
station noted that Bacsik “had been ‘a good employee’ . . . and [his]
final public communication while a Ticket employee reflected poorly on
the station.”
- Lastly, do you know what it means to be “dooced”?
If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you’ve heard the word.
It’s now slang for “fired.” Heather Armstrong, of the blog
Dooce.com,
was fired from a job she held after she wrote satiric accounts about her
bosses and colleagues on her blog.
The kind of vocalizations that caused the
above-named individuals to be fired are common in high stress professions,
as they can defuse anger or frustration. Speaking these words can be a way
to commiserate with colleagues, or they can become “in jokes” among
friends. These exchanges can be OK when we are face-to-face with others, as
we have body language and voice inflections to help us understand the
meaning and context behind the statements. Online is a different situation,
however.
Continued in article
David Albrecht wrote:
"I don't see anything wrong with Tom's
comments. It is opinion, and Tom's opinion, and Tom's blog. I think
that rumor creation is a valid function for a blog."
David Albrecht
Jensen Comment
If this is what you are going to teach in your CPE session at the AAA annual
meetings in Denver then I want no part of that session. That is an absurd
statement that might fly in a teen's blog, but rumor mongering should be
screamed down by any and all members of the Academy David.
Blogging is now part and parcel to freedom of speech. But with freedom comes
responsibility, especially in the Academy.
It's a violation of the code of ethics of professional journalism to create
rumors that are not verified (usually by at least two independent sources). I
contend that members of our Academy have, at a minimum, a responsibility to
adhere to the code of ethics of journalism. In fact I would hope the we even
have a higher standard in the Academy to name our sources before spreading
rumors, especially rumors about people that can affect their professional
futures as well as guide student opinions.
The higher standard in the Academy is that professors, unlike journalists,
should be bound to cite their sources or to provide normative logic that adheres
to the standards of logic in philosophy and mathematics. That entails
defending assumptions upon which deductions are based.
I also disagree that time pressures of the author are justifiable reasons for
not investigating facts before shooting off at the hip. Tom had ample
opportunity to investigate facts that he simply did not do before letting off a
salvo and naming names.
"In Tom's column, he quotes Edith
Orenstein as saying that the quantity of comment letters should be a
factor. I believe this is not a good idea. There are better ways of
figuring out the prevalence of a particular view, such as sampling and or a
vote."
David Albrecht
Jensen Comment
I think open lines of communication are essential for standard setters, and I
applaud both the FASB and the IASB for issuing exposure drafts before and both
inviting comments and publishing comments before finalizing standards. Having
said this, the standard setters are not responsible for either the quality of
the comments coming in or the strategies (such as cookie cutter comments) of
people from around the world who send in comments.
The standard setters are responsible for studying all comments submitted and
then deciding themselves what comments add value to the deliberations. For
example, if standard setters have overlooked some significant costs of adhering
to parts of a standard then the comment letters helped to correct this
oversight.
Blogging is now part and parcel to freedom of speech. But with freedom comes
responsibility, especially in the Academy.
Anti-Social Media (hate speech, slurs, and lyrics) ---
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/antisocialmedia
How to define the limits of free speech is a
central debate in most modern democracies. This is particularly difficult in
relation to hateful, abusive and racist speech. The pattern of hate speech
is complex, but there is an increasing focus on the volume and nature of
hateful or racist speech taking place online.
This study aims to inform the discussion over free
speech and hate speech by examining specifically the way racial, religious
and ethnic slurs are employed on Twitter.
The download link for the paper is at
http://www.demos.co.uk/files/DEMOS_Anti-social_Media.pdf?1391774638
Jensen Comment
Hate speech can be directed at any ethnic group (e.g., whites, blacks, Latinos,
and Asians) religions (e.g., e.g.g Christian, Islamic), and sexual orientations.
The social media is particularly troublesome in this regard because people on
the Web will often say things that they would never say aloud in groups of
people. Hate speech becomes even more exaggerated when its from anonymous
sources such as anonymous comments following an article. Much depends upon the
filters on hate speech that are in place such as having a blog writer filter the
speech before posting a comment with hate speech.
I think there is also a maturity issue. Young teens will often say things in
messages to get attention, things that embarrass them after they graduate form
college or otherwise put on enough years to to realize how hateful they sounded
back then. Unfortunately there are some offensive people who just never grow up!
Wikipedia makes a concerted effort to filter hate speech, but sites as
massive as Wikipedia can be overwhelmed with massive volume of inputs each and
every day.
One of the long-standing complications of hate speech arises when the source
of a slur is in the same ethnic group being maligned such as the use of "nigga"
being commonly used by African American rappers. Jews can say things or make
jokes about Jews that others dare not whisper. Gays can make jokes about gays
that sound hateful when coming from heterosexuals, etc.
Also there are changing standards over time. I'm sometimes startled when I
hear something in an old movie that would be considered much more offensive in
this era. Of course there are hateful things in 21st Century movies that would
have appalled my parents. Hence, time can work both ways in this regard. For
example the N-word, C-word, and the F-word seem much more common in movies today
than they did in the 1950s. The language of Bill Mahar would've would've
completely appalled my parents, such things as using the C-word to describe
Sarah Palin pr other names we hear people say on television about Bill and
Hillary Clinton. Late night standup "comedy" on television is appalling.
Erika and I prefer mysteries from BBC, because we're just plain tired of the
car chases and repeated use of the F-word that seem to be a necessary condition
for mysteries and thrillers produced in Hollywood. BBC seems to have better
taste.
Bob Jensen's threads on the social media are a t
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
"Social Media Lure Academics Frustrated by Journals," by Jennifer
Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 22, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Social-Media-Lure-Academics/126426/
Social media have become serious academic tools for
many scholars, who use them for collaborative writing, conferencing, sharing
images, and other research-related activities. So says a study just posted
online called "Social
Media and Research Workflow." Among its findings:
Social scientists are now more likely to use social-media tools in their
research than are their counterparts in the biological sciences. And
researchers prefer popular applications like Twitter to those made for
academic users.
The survey, conducted late last year, is the work
of Ciber, as the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of
Research is known. Ciber is an interdisciplinary research center based in
University College London's department of information studies. It takes on
research projects for various clients. This one was paid for by the Emerald
Publishing Group Ltd. The idea for the survey came from the Charleston
Observatory, the research arm of the annual Charleston Conference of
librarians, publishers, and vendors.
An online questionnaire went to researchers and
editors as well as publishers, administrators, and librarians on
cross-disciplinary e-mail lists maintained by five participating
publishers—Cambridge University Press; Emerald; Kluwer; Taylor & Francis;
and Wiley. Responses came from 2,414 researchers in 215 countries and "every
discipline under the sun," according to David Nicholas, one of the lead
researchers on the study. He directs the department of information studies
at University College London.
Continued in article
October 12, 2010 message from Paul Clikeman
Bob,
I would be very grateful if you would look at my
new website
http://auditeducation.info . The site contains
articles, cases, classroom exercises, videos and academic research related
to financial statement auditing. I’d appreciate suggestions for improving
the site and publicizing it.
Paul M. Clikeman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Accounting
Robins School of Business
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173
October 12, 2010 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Paul,
I welcome this exciting new site containing resources for auditing and
the history of auditing. It selectively links to some of the best articles
on an array of auditing topics, including auditing history.
http://auditeducation.info
I linked your site in various Web documents including
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Professionalism
However, until I get my new computer set up at Trinity University, I may not
be able to update these files on the Web server.
I will also announce your site on the AAA Commons.
Hopefully other accounting bloggers will also announce your site.
Good Work
Bob Jensen
Free Open Sharing Tutorials, Videos, and Course Materials
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing lectures, videos, and course
materials from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on free tutorials and videos in various academic
disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Other free online videos and textbooks in various
disciplines (including accounting, economics, finance, and statistics) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
ListServs
Accountancy Discussion ListServs:
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.
Over the years
the AECM has become the worldwide forum for accounting educators
on all issues of accountancy and accounting education, including
debates on accounting standards, managerial accounting, careers,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
|
CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ (Closed
Down)
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of
all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an
unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments,
ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed.
Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L
or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for
a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional
accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or
education. Others will be denied access. |
Yahoo (Practitioners)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA.
This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ
initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA. |
AccountantsWorld
http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as
accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed
assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and
taxation. |
Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag
[RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
|
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB
and the International Accounting
Standards Board on this financial
reporting blog from Financial Executives
International. The site, updated daily,
compiles regulatory news, rulings and
statements, comment letters on
standards, and hot topics from the Web’s
largest business and accounting
publications and organizations. Look for
continuing coverage of SOX requirements,
fair value reporting and the Alternative
Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such
as the subprime mortgage crisis,
international convergence, and rules for
tax return preparers. |
|
|
|
The CAlCPA Tax Listserv
September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as
well as a practicing CPA)
I found another listserve
that is exceptional -
CalCPA maintains
http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/
and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.
There are several highly
capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and
the answers are often in depth.
Scott
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim
Counts
Yes you may mention info on
your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any
CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is
possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not
have access to the files and other items posted.
Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in
top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and
in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I
will get the request to join.
Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage
people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then
via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in
your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the
inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.
We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in
California.... ]
Please encourage your members
to join our listserve.
If any questions let me know.
Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk
|
I must thank Professor Albrecht for the honor.
"Prof Albrecht’s Most Influential," by David Albrecht, The Summa,
August 28, 2011 ---
http://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/profalbrechts-most-influential/
From the Scout Report on August 17, 2018
Global Math Department ---
http://globalmathdepartment.org/
The Global Math Department is an informal network of
mathematics instructors who met online (many blog about their instructional
techniques and are active on Twitter) and decided to create a series of
free, open webinars designed for use by other instructors. These webinars
cover topics such as coding in math class and teaching students to make
mathematical connects. Instructors can participate in live webinars each
Tuesday evening at 9:00 PM EST; alternatively, anyone may view recordings of
all past webinars on this website. To learn about upcoming webinars, one can
check out the website's calendar. The Global Math Department also publishes
a weekly online newsletter that highlights articles related to math
instruction and features digital tools that can be used in the classroom. In
addition to curriculum and instruction ideas, there are also many tips about
blogging and using Twitter on this website.
Question
Have we overblown the importance of social media to business?
Only 36% of the surveyed professionals view
social business as important. It’s double the percentage from 2011, but it’s
still much too low.
Based on MIT Sloan Management Review, in collaboration with Deloitte,
survey of 2,545 business professionals in 99 countries on the subject of social
business ---
http://blog.hootsuite.com/importance-of-social-business/
Jensen Comment
The term "important" might not have been consistently interpreted by
respondents, especially respondents from different industries.
The term "important" might mean a small but necessary factor in performance.
For example, having Internet access is a necessary condition to downloading a
new eBook, but it is only a small part of understanding that book.
The term "important" might mean an unnecessary condition that in some
circumstances might be a convenience or improve performance. For example, having
a cell phone is not a necessary condition for most of us, but it can certainly
be a convenience and probably improves efficiency when trying to make personal
contacts with customers such as when a Sears service driver needs instructions
on how to find my home in the boondocks. Also having an annual car towing
service (such has carrying an AAA Tow Service Card with an 800 phone number) is
not a necessary condition to getting a tow when needed. But along with a cell
phone it is a convenience relative to having to search for towing services when
you have two flat tires away from home in downtown Detroit.
Also subscribing to LinkedIn is not a necessary condition to finding a new
job, but for many subscribers to this social media service it has been a God
send.
Companies are just beginning to suspect that releasing financial information
to the social media may lower the cost of capital.
The term "important" by be connected with the lower end of a learning curve
where the respondent views social media as not being so important at this point
in time but having potential of becoming vital to performance in future years.
In our Academy publishing articles in refereed journals is currently the most
popular way of communicating research discoveries. But each year the the
advantages of communicating research discoveries in the social media are
becoming increasingly evident. These advantages include timeliness (journal
publishing will one day be viewed as horse and buggy) and size of the "audience"
such as having audiences of thousands or millions of people, some of which will
more critically review the research far better than two burdened journal
referees, and the spirit of open-source in general. Knowledge wants to be set
free!
Also the respondents in this MIT Sloan Management Review survey
probably are unaware of the degree to which social media has been a blessing and
a curse at all times and in all circumstances of their companies. The CEO of
General Electric really does not know all the instances the R&D staff discovered
innovative ideas because of their social media subscriptions. The CEO of
General Electric really does not know of all instances where employees are
wasting time in personal conversations in the social media during working hours.
"The Sociology of Academic Networks," by Lincoln Mullen, Chronicle
of Higher Education, July 13, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/the-sociology-of-academic-networks/34691?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
I’m a historian who is spending a month in the
company of sociologists,
studying religious congregations and social change.
In crossing these disciplinary boundaries, I’ve been fortunate to read a
great deal of sociological works that I would otherwise not encounter. Among
these is Randall Collins’s theoretical work,
Interaction Ritual Chains (2004).
Collins’s describes his work as a “radical
microsociology,” meaning that he theorizes about the rituals by which people
interact with others, from large groups, to person-to-person relationships,
to the imaginary conversations that a person engages in his or her mind. I’m
ambivalent about parts of the theory, but I’m intrigued by his central
claims: “occasions that combine a high degree of mutual focus of attention …
together with a high degree of emotional entrainment … result in feelings of
membership that are attached to cognitive symbols; and result also in the
emotional energy of individual participants, giving them feelings of
confidence, enthusiasm, and desire for action in what they consider a
morally proper path” (42). In other words, when people interact their shared
attention trains each other to be in a group with a shared purpose.
Though that theory is dense, I find it powerful for
explaining many things, not least of which is the way parts of the academy
work. If part of the mission of ProfHacker is to make plain the hidden (even
unconscious)
rules of the
academy, then Collins’s explanations of the
sociology of academic networks and of academic writing can be helpful.
I’ll take up Collins’s ideas of academic writing in
a later post, but first let’s look at his ideas about academic networks.
Collins says that thinking is a social process.
(Hint: sociologists think that everything is social.) He observes
that important thinkers tend to be the students of important thinkers and to
have important thinkers as students themselves. He also notes that the best
scholars have personal contacts with the other best thinkers, whether allies
or enemies. These groups are “not merely the clubbing together of the
already famous, but groups of would-be thinkers who have not yet done the
work that will make them famous.” This is not to say that only “important”
scholars move on the work of scholarship, but that the social structure
focuses on such eminent individuals, who “work extremely long hours,
seemingly obsessed with their work.” Perhaps most important, Collins insists
on the importance of direct interaction between scholars, especially
face-to-face interaction. He writes, “What one picks up from an eminent
teacher … is a demonstration of how to operate in the intellectual field of
oppositions. Star intellectuals are role models … but in a fashion that
cannot be picked up at a distance, and only by seeing them in action.”
Collins’s sociology goes a long way towards
explaining the unpleasant side of the academy, such as the emphasis on
academic celebrities and the plight of scholars who are never embedded in
the academic social network. But it also offers ways of thinking about the
academy that can help you hack your own career:
-
Get a mentor. This is hardly a unique
observation, but it bears repeating. Good mentors don’t just teach you
what you need to know to be a scholar, they teach you how to be a
scholar.
- Participate in
small groups—meeting face to face—to refine
your work. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century debating clubs might be
out of style, but writing groups aren’t. Small, frequent gatherings can
provide the kinds of social thinking that produces great scholarship. If
possible, reach outside your own institution when forming your group.
And participating in an intensive, collaborative group, such as the
month-long seminar that I’m engaged in now, will help you generate ideas
that a month of reading and writing alone never could.
- Making a place for yourself at
academic conferences. As universities become
increasingly budget-conscious, there is more and more skepticism that
face-to-face conferences are worth the money. But it is at conferences
where you can discern the social shape of your discipline.
-
Reach out to scholars whose work you admire.
On the whole, senior scholars have been overwhelmingly generous whenever
I’ve contacted them or introduced myself to them. (Forget the few
exceptions.)
- Be the
collegial colleague yourself. This point might
not be as susceptible to
empirical proof as the others. But if
scholarship is essentially social, then you owe it to your fellow
scholars to behave with courtesy and generosity, which will help your
work as it helps others.
Jensen Comment
The AECM listserve is my main Academic network.
My threads on listservs, social networks, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook (See the
Table of Contents above)
Academic networks do not replace refereed journals for communication of
research. Rather they enhance refereed journals in many ways, especially in
expanding those journals like The Accounting Review that for all
practical purposes do not publish replications or even commentaries on research
articles they publish.
Academic networks are also important sources of research ideas where a
networked message can inspire professors and even students to undertake research
projects as well has deepen their scholarship.
I'm active on two accounting ListServs called the AECM and CPA-L, both of
which were formed many years ago by Barry Rice. I was asked recently by someone
close to Barry to comment on these ListServs. Below is my response including why
the medium is much more than the message in the case of a ListServ:
Hi XXXXX,
I did not know
Barry Rice when he started up the AECM and CPA-L Listservs. I got to know
him better by email and met him quite a few years later. Barry is a world
class accounting teacher with administrative skills as well. I now consider
him a great friend.
ListServs are
much like forums except that a forum usually has an assigned leader or group
of leaders with their own agendas. ListServs are totally voluntary and
spontaneous communities. Forums often have invited memberships, whereas most
ListServs can be freely joined by any person on the world’s Internet. When a
message is sent to a forum, the sender generally knows where it is going.
When a message is sent to a ListServ, the sender has some idea of a few
people who will receive it but no idea about all the people in the world who
are lurking for messages.
Off the top of
my head, I would say that a ListServ aids in the following:
-
Communication of news
intended to be of common interest to members (e.g., accounting education
news). Internet links are probably the most common and useful items
shared in those communications.
-
Questions and answers
where one member raises a question and others try to answer either in
private or for all members.
-
Debates that follow
unpredictable paths and are generally interesting until they get too
tedious. Theories are often built and and/or destroyed on ListServs.
-
ListServs make us
humble. Just when we think we know a lot about something, all we have to
do is comment about it on the AECM. Suddenly we discover that there’s a
whole lot we did not know. We learn from a ListServ because of the
scholars who are willing to share what they know and feel.
-
ListServs capture moods
and opinions of members more spontaneously and deeply than formal
surveys.
-
Sharing of research and
scholarship. For example, members may have work-in-progress that they
put at a Website and then use the ListServ to inform members of where to
find this work-in-progress. Members then contribute comments in private
or in public about these works.
-
Archiving of
communications and Web links. This library function makes ListServs more
valuable than telephone and most other forms of communication that do
not have easily-accessible archives.
-
Entertainment
(sometimes communications are off-topic and entertaining with humor and
links to outside topics).
-
Building of friendships
with people in all parts of the world that are not likely to ever meet
face-to-face.
-
Building of reputations
where some participants reveal knowledge, talent, skills, and effort
beyond what would otherwise be known about these rare diamonds in the
rough.
-
Motivating some members
about career choices/changes. On the AECM students get an inside peek at
professors who comment about the beautiful and the ugly aspects of being
in academe.
A ListServ does
not generally do all of the things listed above, although the AECM initiated
by Barry comes about as close as possible to doing all those things
mentioned above. The CPA-L list that Barry also formed is primarily a Q&A
List that does none of the other things listed above. Practitioners on the
CPA-L generally raise a question (often a tax question) and others provide
answers. There’s almost nothing in the way of daily news, debates, sharing
of research/scholarship, entertainment, building of friendships, or building
of reputations.
The AECM somehow
evolved into a multi-purpose ListServ that accomplishes all of the things
mentioned above. Its international success was primarily timing and
leadership and luck. Barry offered up this service when there was very
little else for accounting educators on the Internet. There were at least
three other early competitors, and I honestly cannot say why the AECM
emerged as the main ListServ for accounting educators around the world. I do
think that time is too valuable for people to join in on very many active
ListServs. Hence it’s not likely that all competitors early on would’ve
flourished. Why the AECM emerged as the main general-purpose higher
education ListServ for accounting educators is indeed a mystery. The
American Accounting Association for a time offered another alternative, but
I think bad timing and bad luck destroyed its efforts. The AAA was too late
on the scene. There was also the stigma, not a fact, that the AAA’s effort
was only for members of the AAA.
I have to say
that Barry’s leadership in communicating on the AECM was probably not the
crucial factor at the germination stage. After a very short time Barry
became more of a lurker. It was about a dozen accounting educators who
emerged out of nowhere to make the AECM germinate. Then more leaders and
lurkers evolved like wild flowers in a worldwide field.
Keep in mind
that Barry did not begin the AECM as a general-purpose accounting educator
ListServ. In the beginning it was primarily intended for messaging about
computers and multimedia technologies that could be used in new ways by
teachers of accountancy. In fact the acronym “AECM” stands for “Accounting
Education using Computers and Multimedia.” Today the AECM ListServ is much
more than its title. Why this happened is complicated to answer, but the
title is unfortunate today whenever someone is looking for the main
accounting education ListServ and naively thinks that the AECM is restricted
to messaging about computers and multimedia.
A better name
for the AECM as it evolved is the Internet’s “Accounting Education
Communications Medium.” And the “medium is the message.” I am forever
grateful to Barry for letting the original AECM evolve into what it is
today. He could’ve jumped on every message that was not deemed “on topic” in
the context of “computers and multimedia.” Instead he let the AECM messaging
follow their own serendipitous meanderings. And he forgave us for some of
the dumb things we messaged.
In this regard
we were lucky. AECM participants had the good sense to avoid some turn-off
topics like politics, advertising, religion, and too much humor. But the
messaging did follow many serendipitous paths that were not tied to
computers and multimedia, including topics of accounting theory, fraud,
student cheating, professorial cheating, plagiarism, pedagogy in general,
research methodologies, and learning theories. These evolved into topics
that AECM subscribers wanted to learn more and more about.
ListServs are
fragile things that in general do not work well. Leaders either emerge out
of nowhere and keep a ListServ going or it dies from lack of participation.
Participants must find rewards or ListServs simply fade away. Most
participants in a ListServ are “lurkers” who often “listen in” but rarely if
ever contribute to the membership. This puts the burden on “actives” to
evolve as leaders. These actives can either be terrific and draw new
ListServ members wanting to listen to what the actives have to say or
ListServs can become very tedious and/or boring and causing members to
resign from the ListServ.
ListServs have
interesting behavioral dynamics that emerged with newer technology. This is
an interesting topic to study and needs to be studied in much greater depth.
The medium is much more than the content of the messages.
ListServs
provide wonderful and unique opportunities to make a difference. For
example, an accounting educator and world leader who I supremely respect is
Dennis Beresford. Denny is a popular
Accounting Hall of Fame speaker at academic, business, and
accounting profession conferences. But a speech is a speech and is limited
to a given audience and a given point in time. Denny’s published a lot of
papers, but a paper is a paper that is a bleep at a fixed point in time.
Remember that
“the medium is the message” as discovered by Marshall Mcluhan many years
ago. AECM messages are bleeps that resurface in new and different ways
repeatedly over time on the AECM. Denny has probably had more impact on
changing accounting education via the AECM than in all his speeches and all
his publications combined. His messaging to the AECM is continuous over time
and reacts to concerns of accounting educators around the world. His AECM
audience is unlimited in terms of size and scheduled times.
And we learn a
lot about Denny just by learning when he messages. Keep in mind that I’m
talking about one of the busiest accountants in the world. He teaches at the
University of Georgia full time and is an extremely popular consultant and
on the boards of directors of several worldwide corporations. He’s even head
of the Audit Committee and a Board member for Fannie Mae after this
trillion-dollar company hit the rocks. And yet he seemingly keeps his eye on
AECM communications 24/7. What impresses me most is when I send messages out
to the AECM at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings I have them answered within
minutes by Denny Beresford. Hence I learned a whole lot more about the man
beyond the content of his excellent messages. I also learned that he’s
respectfully a very humble man.
Denny does not
want more money or more trophies. What Denny wants is to make a lasting
difference for the betterment of the accounting profession and accounting
education. And he’s proved this countless times to all of us on the AECM.
Those many other accounting leaders and educators who failed to grab this
AECM brass ring missed out and continue to miss out of the opportunity to
make a continuous and lasting difference.
I’m also a 24/7
AECM active like Denny. And I’m certain that Denny, like me, will say that
he tries to make a difference. But the AECM is so rewarding that in the end
he, like me, got more than he received. That is why we’re on the AECM.
We get more than we give no matter how much we give. That’s because so many
scholars big and small contribute to our learning and loving. The Internet
forever changed research and scholarship and learning. ListServs are a
lasting part of this process.
Bob Jensen
April 5,
2007 reply from Dennis Beresford
[dberesfo@TERRY.UGA.EDU]
Bob,
Thanks for your kind comments below. And thanks to Barry for getting this
whole thing started. AECM is a wonderful learning opportunity for me and
I'm just glad that you and many others are willing to share so much
knowledge.
Denny
With all the good, though, there are some negative
aspects to online presences. It’s important to recognize that whatever we write
online is for public consumption, that we are not simply chatting with friends
and family when we post.
Billie Hara
The kind of vocalizations that caused the
above-named individuals to be fired are common in high stress professions, as
they can defuse anger or frustration. Speaking these words can be a way to
commiserate with colleagues, or they can become “in jokes” among friends.
These exchanges can be OK when we are face-to-face with others, as we have body
language and voice inflections to help us understand the meaning and context
behind the statements. Online is a different situation, however.
Billie Hara
"Think Before You Tweet (or Blog or Update a Status)," by Billie Hara,
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/think-before-you-tweet-or-blog-or-update-a-status/30949?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Earlier this week, Miriam Posner, Stewart Varner,
and Brian Croxall wrote “Creating
Your Web Presence: A Primer for Academics.” They
had some terrific recommendations about how to establish an online presence
and how to keep that presence active and positive. Good stuff!
Here at ProfHacker, we’ve written before about the
networking wonders and creative collaborations that can happen via online
forums. We meet people from different disciplines in various parts of the
world, and we connect because we share interests and goals. With all the
good, though, there are some negative aspects to online presences. It’s
important to recognize that whatever we write online is for public
consumption, that we are not simply chatting with friends and family when we
post.
Today I want to veer off their post just a bit and
write about something that might detract from a positive and professional
online presence, a presence that we so meticulously create and maintain,
comments made online that publicly disparage students and colleagues. These
comments can be intentional—meant to demean or criticize—or they can be
random comments made in jest.
Take, for example, the case of
Dr. Gloria Gadsden, an associate professor at East
Stroudsburg University. About a year ago, Dr. Gadsden wrote on Facebook
that she had a good day at school, and “didn’t want to kill even one
student,” adding “Friday was a different story.” She wrote this
comment—surely in jest—in a space that she believed to be private. However,
it wasn’t. A third party read her comment and notified university
authorities. Dr. Gadsden was suspended, and ultimately reinstated, after
the incident, but the hit to her professional reputation is clear.
A few more cautionary tales:
- In the U.K., thirteen
Virgin Atlantic Airlines crewmembers were fired after
they made fun of passengers and jokes about airline safety on Facebook.
- In June of 2010, a
Pittsburgh Pirates’ mascot was fired after
posting a negative comment about the contract extension of two team
managers. Andrew Kurtz, 24, was fired within hours of posting the
comment, “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington
through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to
go Pirates,” to his Facebook page.
- At a Dallas radio station, The Ticket, producer
Mike Bacsik was suspended after making some
unfortunate Twitter comments after a night drinking with friends. The
station noted that Bacsik “had been ‘a good employee’ . . . and [his]
final public communication while a Ticket employee reflected poorly on
the station.”
- Lastly, do you know what it means to be “dooced”?
If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you’ve heard the word.
It’s now slang for “fired.” Heather Armstrong, of the blog
Dooce.com,
was fired from a job she held after she wrote satiric accounts about her
bosses and colleagues on her blog.
The kind of vocalizations that caused the
above-named individuals to be fired are common in high stress professions,
as they can defuse anger or frustration. Speaking these words can be a way
to commiserate with colleagues, or they can become “in jokes” among
friends. These exchanges can be OK when we are face-to-face with others, as
we have body language and voice inflections to help us understand the
meaning and context behind the statements. Online is a different situation,
however.
Continued in article
David Albrecht wrote:
"I don't see anything wrong with Tom's
comments. It is opinion, and Tom's opinion, and Tom's blog. I think
that rumor creation is a valid function for a blog."
David Albrecht
Jensen Comment
If this is what you are going to teach in your CPE session at the AAA annual
meetings in Denver then I want no part of that session. That is an absurd
statement that might fly in a teen's blog, but rumor mongering should be
screamed down by any and all members of the Academy David.
Blogging is now part and parcel to freedom of speech. But with freedom comes
responsibility, especially in the Academy.
It's a violation of the code of ethics of professional journalism to create
rumors that are not verified (usually by at least two independent sources). I
contend that members of our Academy have, at a minimum, a responsibility to
adhere to the code of ethics of journalism. In fact I would hope the we even
have a higher standard in the Academy to name our sources before spreading
rumors, especially rumors about people that can affect their professional
futures as well as guide student opinions.
The higher standard in the Academy is that professors, unlike journalists,
should be bound to cite their sources or to provide normative logic that adheres
to the standards of logic in philosophy and mathematics. That entails
defending assumptions upon which deductions are based.
I also disagree that time pressures of the author are justifiable reasons for
not investigating facts before shooting off at the hip. Tom had ample
opportunity to investigate facts that he simply did not do before letting off a
salvo and naming names.
"In Tom's column, he quotes Edith
Orenstein as saying that the quantity of comment letters should be a
factor. I believe this is not a good idea. There are better ways of
figuring out the prevalence of a particular view, such as sampling and or a
vote."
David Albrecht
Jensen Comment
I think open lines of communication are essential for standard setters, and I
applaud both the FASB and the IASB for issuing exposure drafts before and both
inviting comments and publishing comments before finalizing standards. Having
said this, the standard setters are not responsible for either the quality of
the comments coming in or the strategies (such as cookie cutter comments) of
people from around the world who send in comments.
The standard setters are responsible for studying all comments submitted and
then deciding themselves what comments add value to the deliberations. For
example, if standard setters have overlooked some significant costs of adhering
to parts of a standard then the comment letters helped to correct this
oversight.
Blogging is now part and parcel to freedom of speech. But with freedom comes
responsibility, especially in the Academy.
"Immersed In Too Much Information, We Can Sometimes Miss The Big Picture,"
by Dave Pell, NPR, August 11, 2010 ---
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/08/11/129127690/too-much-information-can-sometimes-mean-we-miss-the-big-picture
Even in the era of Facebook, this was not a face I
expected to see.
A few weeks ago, I might have argued that it’s
almost impossible to shock members of Generation TMI. I would have been
wrong. I was shocked by a recent Time cover that featured a photo of Aisha,
an 18 year-old Afghan woman who had her nose and ears cut off by the
Taliban.
My first reaction was to look away from the photo.
My second was frustration toward the Time editors who decided to
run the image. But after some reflection, I realized that in order to
understand and form an opinion about the Taliban and the broader issues in
Afghanistan, it was an image I needed to see. As a fellow human being —
especially one living in an environment where my iPhone coverage is
considered a critical issue — isn’t taking a long, hard look at this photo
the very least I owe Aisha?
[Time Cover Picture of an Afghan woman
with her nose chopped off]
Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel
explained his decision to run the cover shot:
Bad things do happen to people, and it is part
of our job to confront and explain them. In the end, I felt that the
image is a window into the reality of what is happening — and what can
happen — in a war that affects and involves all of us. I would rather
confront readers with the Taliban’s treatment of women than ignore it.
While thinking about this issue and its
relationship to social media, I reached out to the cadre of folks who often
advise and assist me before I press the publish button.
None of them had seen the image.
This is in part a statement on the significance (or
lack thereof) of magazine covers in today’s media.
I could imagine folks missing even an image this
arresting in the past. But who would've thought we could collectively avert
our eyes in an age when random videos can get millions of views and we all
know about a Jet Blue flight attendant's creative slide to retirement within
a few hours of it happening.
But that these folks — all of them heavily
plugged-in — missed this portrait of Aisha is also a statement on how we
can collectively repress data that we don’t want to think about. Even though
we are immersed in shared words and images, it’s still pretty easy to miss
the big picture.
In his New Yorker piece, Letting Go, Atul
Gawande laments the fact that doctors and patients have extremely poor
communication when it comes to the difficult topic of end-of-life care.
Two-thirds of the terminal-cancer patients in
the Coping with Cancer study reported having had no discussion with
their doctors about their goals for end-of-life care, despite being, on
average, just four months from death.
Although we find ourselves as travelers in the age
of over sharing, it turns out we remain quite adept at avoiding the really
tough topics.
Google’s Eric Schmidt recently stated that every
two days we create as much information as we did from the beginning of
civilization through 2003. Perhaps the sheer bulk of data makes it easier to
suppress that information which we find overly unpleasant. Who’s got time
for a victim in Afghanistan or end-of-life issues with all these Tweets
coming in?
Between reality TV, 24-hour news, and the constant
hammering of the stream, I am less likely to tackle seriously uncomfortable
topics. I can bury myself in a mountain of incoming information. And if my
stream is any indication, I’m not alone. For me, repression used to be a one
man show. Now I am part of a broader movement — mass avoidance through
social media.
Eric Schmidt followed up his comment about the
piles of information being created with this: “I spend most of my time
assuming the world is not ready for the technology revolution that will be
happening to them soon.”
But in reality, we’re a lot more ready for the
technology revolution than we are for Aisha.
Jensen Comment
With 500 million people using just one social network (Facebook) plus the
millions of others on other social networks and addicted (like me) to blogs,
there is most certainly information overload. In fact, one of the services I
provide to accounting educators is to distill a vast amount of news to find
accounting tidbits that I think will be on interest to accounting educators. But
with so many social networks I cannot begin to cover the waterfront and don't
even try on Facebook. I also only cover a microscopic part of Twitter where I
have only a few selected sources that mostly are like me --- distilling the
ocean of information for accounting tidbits.
What I discovered in the AAA Annual Meetings in San Francisco is that there
are top-name accounting educators and researchers who are lurkers on the AECM.
At least a dozen of them revealed to me for the first time that they've been
lurking for years. We can't seem to motivate them to share their expertise with
us on the AECM or the AAA Commons. I suspect that one of the main reasons is
that they fear having to take too much time engaging in threads that they either
commence or join on the AECM or AAA Commons. They are extremely paranoid
about their time commitments.
Perhaps this is part of the overall information overload syndrome. It
takes some time to lurk over tidbit nuggets, but it takes an even greater amount
of time to engage in conversations about those nuggets.
When you think about it, information overload is probably a job saver for
educators. Our students would be totally lost amongst the trees of the forests
if educators were not handing out Google-type satellite maps of hidden mazes in
each forest. The problem for us is that the forests are becoming so immense in
size and so overlapping between disciplines that map construction is becoming
more and more difficult.
Roles of ListServs, Blogs, and Social Networks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on data visualization (no chopped off noses) are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
May 22, 2010 message from Ramesh and Nadee Fernando
[mferna073@ROGERS.COM]
Dear Prof.
Jensen and list members,
As accounting
is very research focused it would be great if all accountants had access to
other researchers in accounting. ResearchGate has lot's of various groups
from economics to physics.
I created the
Management Accountants group so that there could be access to discussion and
research in management accounting.
http://www.researchgate.net/group/Management_accountants
There is also
a financial accounting group on research net
http://www.researchgate.net/group/Financial_Accounting/
Finally there
is an Accounting Information systems group
http://www.researchgate.net/group/Accounting_Information_Systems/
May I suggest
to this list's members, if you are interested in research in accounting to
please join ResearchGate and become a member of these groups. I might add I
owe it to Economist for finding ResearchGate which mentioned ResearchGate
in their special report on Social Networks.
Regards,
Ramesh
CMA (Canada) Candidate
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
I did not do anything but forward Doug’s request to the
AECM. Hence I’m not personally bragging.
But I do want to brag about the efficiency and
effectiveness of the AECM listserv. After receiving yet another private response
from an AECMer, Doug wrote the following message. What he really means is “thank
you AECM.”
My threads on the history of the AECM are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#ListServs
Professor
Jensen,
Another response
from a colleague.
Your assistance
in this matter has been invaluable and the responses most helpful.
I appreciate your assistance more than I can express in
words.
Douglas McWard, CPA
|
Director, Financial Reporting and Compliance
Corporate - Clayton, MO
|
Office (314) 573-9383
|
Fax (314) 573-9455
|
doug.mcward@graybar.com
www.graybar.com - Works to Your Advantage
An Academic Study of the History of the AECM
"Knowledge Sharing among Accounting Academics in an Electronic Network of
Practice," by Eileen Z. Taylor and Uday S. Murthy, Accounting Horizons
23 (2), 151 (2009);
Electronic edition subscribers can download an copy from
http://aaapubs.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=ACHXXX&Volume=LASTVOL&Issue=LASTISS
Others might be able to access the article from at their college libraries.
SYNOPSIS:
Using a multi-method approach, we explore accounting academics'
knowledge-sharing practices in an Electronic Network of Practice (ENOP)—the
Accounting Education using Computers and Multimedia (AECM) email list.
Established in 1996, the AECM email list serves the global accounting
academic community. A review of postings to AECM for the period January–June
2006 indicates that members use this network to post questions, replies, and
opinions covering a variety of topics, but focusing on financial accounting
practice and education. Sixty-nine AECM members constituting 9.2 percent of
the AECM membership base responded to a survey that measured their
self-perceptions about altruism, reciprocation, reputation, commitment, and
participation in AECM. The results suggest that altruism is a significant
predictor of posting frequency, but neither reputation nor commitment
significantly relate to posting frequency. These findings imply that
designers and administrators of the recently launched AAA Commons platform
should seek ways of capitalizing on the altruistic tendencies of accounting
academics. The study's limitations include low statistical power and
potential inconsistencies in coding the large number of postings. ©2009
American Accounting Association
Jensen Comment
The article above affords an opportunity to comment on the AAA Commons about
Barry Rice and the AECM. I have initiated the posting below at
http://commons.aaahq.org/posts/b7f123c2be
If you are an AAA member it is an opportunity to add comments to the above
posting. You might mention your own reaction to the Taylor and Murthy research
paper on the AECM. Do you agree or disagree with the major findings of Taylor
and Murthy?
It is also an opportunity to thank Barry Rice for what he enabled you to
learn from the AECM over the years since 1996. It is also fabulous that the AECM
archived all this messaging.
The AAA Commons access page is at
https://commons.aaahq.org/signin
It can only be accessed by American Accounting Association members and invited
guests (some students).
"What Do Accounting Professors Talk About?," by David Albrecht, The
Summa, February 1, 2010 ---
http://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/what-do-accounting-professors-talk-about/
… when permitted to leave their offices for
unsupervised free time?
Most questioners ask only rhetorically.
In response to my statement, “What is I do? I’m an
accounting professor,” I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard
__________ (fill in the blank with a much less than flattering comment about
either accounting, accountants, or accounting classes in college).
In response to my statement, “I’m on an e-mail
listserv with 1,000 other accounting professors,” I wish I had a nickel for
every time I heard __________ (fill in blank with a much less than
flattering comment about how little there is to talk about, and what we talk
about must be exceedingly boring).
So, what did the accounting professors really talk
about today?
- “In my opinion the Number 1 disgrace in higher
education is grade inflation.” And student evaluations of teaching are
identified as the causal factor.
- Rankled by Rankings: The problems with the
ranking of best accounting programs, best accounting departments, best
college, best universities in country, best universities in world.
- Stephen Colbert uses an iPad at the 2010
Grammy.
- Designing Corporate Governance Systems
- Canadian Signs of IFRS Transitions to Come in
the United States
- The enduring impact of transient emotions on
decision making – being predictably irrational. I don’t think anyone
believes in EMH (efficient markets hypothesis) anymore, except
economists, economists advising President Obama, and corporate PR
people.
- Could it be that some audit firms take on
fewer clients when risks of negligence lawsuits increase?
- The major problem in accountics research using
statistical inference is the underlying assumption of stationary-state
is the real world where probabilities on constantly in transition.
- Oh, … and how Dave Albrecht uses retesting to
implement mastery learning concepts in his classes. [Hey, I didn’t even
bring it up.]
I love the experience. The discussions are fodder
for the educated mind. It comes at a cost,though. Reading all these
e-mails takes a significant portion of the three hours I daily devote to
e-mail processing. It can take an hour (or more) to craft a reply. My
reply to item #9 will take many hours and be the next blog post (or 2 or 3)
to The Summa
"Is Stupid Making Us Google?" By James
Bowman, The New Atlantis, no. 21, Summer 2008, pp. 75-80 ---
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google
Generally speaking, even those
who are most gung-ho about new ways of learning probably tend to cling to a
belief that education has, or ought to have, at least something to do with
making things lodge in the minds of students--this even though the
disparagement of the role of memory in education by professional educators
now goes back at least three generations, long before computers were ever
thought of as educational tools. That, by the way, should lessen our
astonishment, if not our dismay, at the extent to which the educational
establishment, instead of viewing these developments with alarm, is adapting
its understanding of what education is to the new realities of how the new
generation of 'netizens' actually learn (and don't learn) rather than trying
to adapt the kids to unchanging standards of scholarship and learning.
Jensen Comment
Yikes! When I'm looking for an answer to most anything I now turn first to
Wikipedia and then Google. I guess James Bowman put me in my place. However,
being retired I'm no longer corrupting the minds of students (at least not
apart from my Website and blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
I would counter Bowman by saying that Stupid is as Stupid does. Stupid
"does" the following: Stupid accepts a single source for an answer.
Except when the answer seems self evident, a scholar will seek verification
from other references. However, a lot of things are "self evident" to
Stupid.
Scholars often forget that Google also has a scholars'
search engine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#ScholarySearch
Also see "Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Open Encyclopedia, and YouTube as
Knowledge Bases" ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#KnowledgeBases
There is a
serious issue that sweat accompanied with answer searching aids in the
memory of what is learned ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm
But must we sweat to find every answer in life? There is also the maxim that
we learn best from our mistakes. Bloggers are constantly being made aware of
their mistakes. This is one of the scholarly benefits of blogging.
A prominent librarian utters dire warnings about new media
"Mass Culture 2.0," by Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, June 20, 2007
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/06/20/mclemee
This
month, Encyclopedia Britannica’s
blog is serializing a commentary
on the cultural effects of Web 2.0. The author, Michael
Gorman, is dean of library services at California State
University at Fresno and a former president of the American
Library Association.
About two
years ago, Gorman published a memorable
essay in Library Journal.
In it, he referred to “the Blog People,” expressing doubt
that they were “in the habit of sustained reading of complex
texts.” The immediate occasion for this remark was the
public reception of one of Gorman’s own complex texts, about
which uncomplimentary things had been said by bloggers (some
of them, in fact, being his colleagues in the library
world). “It is entirely possible,” he continued, “that their
intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random
facts and paragraphs.”
There
were other zingers of the same general sort. And so it has
not escaped notice,
much of it sardonic, that his most
recent effort to win friends and influence people is taking
place at a blog. His Britannica series consists of
three chapters, each in two parts. Something of the flavor
of the whole work may be gleaned from the phrases heading up
its various segments. So far, “The Sleep of Reason” and “The
Siren Song of the Internet” have been published, and may be
consulted
here.
The final portion, “Jabberwiki,” will run next week
. . .
The tone of Gorman’s remedial lecture implies that
educators now devote the better part of their day to teaching students to
shove pencils up their nose while Googling for pornography. I do not believe
this to be the case. (It would be bad, of course, if it were.)
But the idea that new forms of media require
training in new kinds of literacy hardly counts as an evasion of the
obligation to cultivate critical intelligence. Today the work of acquiring
knowledge on a given subject often includes the burden of evaluating digital
material. Gorman may pine for the good old days — back when literacy and
critical intelligence were capacities to be exercised only upon artifacts
made of paper and ink. So be it. But let’s not pretend that such nostalgia
is anything but escapism at best.
What really bothers the neo-Luddite quasi-Mandarin
is not the rise of digitality, as such. The problem actually comes from “the
diminished sacredness of authority,” as Edward Shils once put it, “the
reduction in the awe it evokes and in the charisma attributed to it.”
But it’s not that all cultural authority or
critical intelligence, as such, are vanishing. Rather, new kinds are taking
shape. The resulting situation is difficult and sometimes unpleasant. But it
is not exactly new. Such wrenching moments have come repeatedly over the
past 500 years, and muddling through the turmoil does not seem to be getting
any easier.
Continued in article
Accountancy Discussion ListServs:
AECM
(Educators)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc |
CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of
all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an
unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments,
ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed.
Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L
or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for
a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional
accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or
education. Others will be denied access. |
Yahoo (Practitioners)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA.
This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ
initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA. |
AccountantsWorld
http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as
accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed
assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and
taxation. |
Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag
[RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
Blogs/Listservs Versus Scholarly Journals: Bob Jensen's secrets
about blogs and listservs
Recently I encountered criticism that blogs and listservs providing public
information that allegedly is not refereed and misleading relative to scholarly
journals. First I would like to point out that this is not an either/or choice
between blogs/listservs versus journals. Fortunately in this age of technology
we can learn from both outlets.
The term "blog" evolved out the term "Weblog" that is defined more formally
at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
A blog is like a scrapbook of knowledge on a subject that is maintained by an
individual or an entire organization. For example, Jim Mahar maintains an
excellent finance professor blog at
http://www.financeprofessor.com/ .
The University of Illinois Library maintains a great blog at
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Listservs are defined at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Listserv
My advocacy of listservs for scholars can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
Some Advantages of Scholarly Journals
Journals have some comparative advantages over blogs/listservs in that journal
articles published are carefully crafted and generally subjected to blind
reviews by referees that, because they are anonymous, can be quite critical and
demanding. Journals articles are generally time tested in that they're not fired
off without time to reflect and consider many ramifications before publication.
Some Disadvantages of Scholarly Journals
Probably the biggest myth is that referees are independent reviewers. In my
opinion, journal refereeing is often a biased process where all sides of
arguments are not given fair tests. Much of the bias centers on allowable
research methodologies. For example, leading accounting research journals just
do not allow humanities and legal studies research methodologies. Virtually all
published articles have to have mathematical analysis and/or rigorous
statistical inference testing. One example here is The Accounting Review
(TAR), Virtually no Accounting Information Systems (AIS) papers were
published in TAR between 1986 and 2005. The reason is that AIS research methods
generally do not entail mathematical modeling. Virtually all TAR referees have
required mathematical models for over two decades. Jean Heck and I examined all
articles published by TAR 1986-2005 and found less than one percent of the TAR
articles that did not have mathematical equations and/or multivariate
statistical analyses. Our examination excluded a few articles labeled as
book/literature reviews, editorials, and memorials. Thus “…over 99 percent of
TAR’s articles contained complex mathematical equations and multivariate
statistical analyses…” See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm
Another problem is that journal editors have only a discrete set of available
referees. Expertise needed is a continuum rather than a discrete scale. There is
a strong likelihood that for a given submission to a journal, there are no
available (known) referees that are as expert on this topic and methodology as
perhaps 100 or more experts in the world who are unknown to the journal editor
and/or unwilling to take the time and trouble to conduct formal reviews for the
journal. Paranoia thereby enters the journal refereeing process. When assigned
referees are uncomfortable with their own expertise they are often inclined to
be more fault finding and not recommend publication.
Another problem with journal refereeing is that the referees are anonymous
and therefore are not held accountable for their decisions. If a referee is
superficial or wrong, nobody knows except maybe the unhappy author who receives
the rejection notice.
Another problem in some journals, like TAR, is that they do not publish
commentaries such that the public in general has no outlet for writing critical,
supportive, or expansive comments on a published article.
TAR also will not
publish replications ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#Replication
Still another problem in some journals is the long delay between when the
research was conducted and when the paper is finally published. In accounting
this delay can be years. Fortunately some authors provide free working papers or
post the papers on something like
SSRN where readers can purchase non-refereed working papers for a fee.
Advantages of Blogs and Listservs
The advantages of blogs and listservs is that they can and often do overcome the
major disadvantages of the flawed refereeing process and timing delays of
scholarly journals. Listservs open to the general public are best in the sense
that bias is overcome by allowing anybody to comment on a topic or paper. Blogs
are good if the person running the blog will publish comments that are both
favorable and unfavorable with respect to the original blog item.
The biggest myth about blogs and listservs is that they published
non-refereed items. In fact when an article or tidbit is published on a blog or
listserv, the entire world has an opportunity to referee the item. Blogs are
deemed the most successful when their items are not ignored by the public.
Disadvantages of Blogs and Listservs
Probably the biggest disadvantage is that there are so many blogs and listservs
that it is very time consuming to ride heard on all the ones that touch on
topics of interest to you. Secondly, some blogs and listservs post so much
material that readers are apt to get information overload from just one blog or
listserv.
Another problem is that most readers of a given blog or listserv are
"lurkers" who for various reasons are unwilling to submit their own commentaries
like the fewer number of "actives" who submit comments, news items, etc. Hence,
the world may be open to all persons whereas only a small subset of people are
actually willing to share their expertise.
Bob Jensen's Secrets
Since I actively publish what might be termed blogs and actively contribute to
some listservs, I will now reveal my secrets for doing so. This is a message
that I recently sent out to a listserv called TigerTalk at Trinity University.
Hi XXXXX,
Apology accepted. Now I will let you in on my secrets about blogs.
I find it strange that you’re critical of Tidbits from time to
time and, at the same time, brag in public about never reading them. I place
more stock in avid readers who weigh them on balance. Of course that’s a
biased sample since “avid readers” by definition find them to worthy of the
time and effort it takes to read and respond to them. I remind folks once
again that my Tidbits are rarely posted to TigerTalk since I retired.
Readers must seek them out at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm or stumble
upon them while using search engines.
I might add that I receive many, many replies to Tidbits that I
also post in Tidbits when I obtain permission. I might’ve requested
to do so in your case had you found errors in the physics of David’s
technical explanation. In fact probably more Tidbits are accompanied
by replies (critical, supportive, and/or expansive) from readers than the
smaller number of Tidbits that elicit no readership response. In fact, one
of the real advantages of blogs, listservs, and forums in general is that
the whole world can be referees rather than just a few referees that are
assigned in scholarly journals. At the time lapse between publishing and
critiquing is nearly instantaneous.
Secret One
I’ve always viewed my
Tidbits,
New
Bookmarks, and
Fraud Updates "blogs" as my own personal scrapbook archives that I’m
willing to share with the world. My first secret about these “blogs” is that
they’re invaluable to me when answering the many inquiries I get from
students, faculty, and the public in general. When my memory fails, my
searching process almost never fails if I’ve posted tidbits about the topic
in the past.
Secret Two
Now I will let you in on my second secret about why I really publish my "blogs."
My second reason is to learn more about each of the topics. It’s the replies
that make the effort really worthwhile. Instead of having to search and
struggle to learn more about a tidbit, the world sends value-added
information back to me either in public or private communications. For me
it’s a great learning experience, especially for technical topics in
accountancy, economics, and finance.
Secret Three
My third secret that I will share with you is that I sometimes post a tidbit
for purposes of stirring up controversy. My love of academe comes from my
love of watching debates by scholars on opposing sides. I often take a side
I don’t especially believe just to stir up the pot. And I’m not in general
fond of political correctness. PC is dysfunctional to our academic
principles and purposes. I miss those “pink pistol” debates between Glen and
Harry.
It may sound strange but I’m rather glad that you criticized me on
TigerTalk. I’ve long regretted that TigerTalk virtually degenerated to
classified advertising and directory requests. When Larry Gindler commenced
TigerTalk it was intended to be a listserv where faculty and students
actively debated scholarly issues. Sadly there is no longer campus-wide
listserv for scholarly debate. There are some specialty listservs, but it’s
sad that there’s no longer a listserv for debate that spreads across the
entire campus.
David XXXXX who wrote the tidbit that you challenged assumed you were a
student Gordon. I subsequently revealed to him that you are a professor. He
says he would like to write a more technical rejoinder to your criticisms of
his tidbit, but I hope he just lets this one lie.
Having said all this, the May 23 edition of Tidbits (subject to some
tweaking) is up and running at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2007/tidbits070523.htm
I don’t know if I should be happy or sad that you will not be reading any of
these tidbits Gordon.
Bob Jensen
May 22, 2007
May 22, 2007 reply from Paul Williams
[Paul_Williams@NCSU.EDU]
There is a substantial amount of misleading
information in refereed scholarly journals, particularly ours, as well.
Paul
May 23, 2007 reply from Dan Stone, Univ. of Kentucky
[dstone@UKY.EDU]
Good insights gentlemen on blogs vs. scholarly
journals. A few more thoughts:
1. academic institutions are conservative and
increasing in their conservatism. At this point, posting to or creating
blogs brings intrinsic, communitarian rewards to the "poster" or "creator".
But my Dean (and most others, I suspect) cares only about my publications in
a remarkably small number of scholarly journals.
2. given the mission creep (or should this be
"mission crap") of most institutions the end-point of academic scholarship
seems to be that only publications in a single U.S. journal will have
extrinsic (i.e., careerist) value.
3. reforming the creepy, crappy academic
scholarship domain requires bold iconoclasts like Bob and Paul who are
willing to note that the Emporers are frequently severely underclothed.
Dan Stone
Univ. of Kentucky
"The Role of Blogs In Studying the Discourse and Social Practices of
Mathematics Teachers"
by Katerina Makri and Chronis Kynigos, University of Athens
Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 19, no. 1, 2007 ---
http://www.ifets.info/issues.php?show=current.
Added October 10, 2007
There's another level to "Altruism" (of open sharing) in my case that may be
somewhat unique relative to actives on the AECM who do not maintain altruistic
open sharing Websites.
In my case the higher level altruism is a desire to maintain an open sharing
Website with text and multimedia that helps faculty, students, practitioners,
and anybody else around the world. I want this open sharing "knowledge base" to
be as huge and as accurate as possible.
My biggest reward comes in the form of thank you messages from virtually
every nation of the free world. It makes me think I'm helping many people who
have, in some cases, almost no other knowledge base to tap into for such thinks
as derivative financial instruments, fraud history, etc.
Years ago I decided to try to set an example of an openly shared knowledge
base from a professor who, because of the time flexibility given to tenured
faculty, can build such an open sharing knowledge base.
In some cases, the altruism of my Website is rather selfishly served by the
seeming altruism of my daily AECM postings. What I'm looking for are the many
online and private AECM replies that I can then take to my Website to make it
more complete and more accurate. Much of my Website is filled with the great
modules submitted by others who read and reacted to my postings to the AECM.
This is what I mean when I said "I get more than I receive" from any
listserv, and most especially the AECM.
But I don't feel guilty about getting more than I give to the AECM, because I
give it back at my Website. I think the people who supply me with such helpful
replies don't really mind because they like having me archive their replies in
my open sharing knowledge base.
The time sequence of messaging on the AECM is a lot like a general journal.
It's very hard to see the forest for the trees (individual entries in a time
sequence). My Website is more like a general ledger in which the journal entries
have been posted into accounts (categories) that assist in visualizing sections
of the forest.
My sadness is that few, if any, accounting educators have followed my lead in
forming the "general ledger" knowledge base from the blog entries they read and
write. Jim Mahar for a time was doing this in finance, but now he mainly blogs
instead of updating his "general ledger" ---
http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
And my knowledge base is filled with my own commentaries that hopefully have
value added to the blogged entries themselves.
Probably the most rewarding responses to your survey come from those who
almost hate the AECM because reading the messaging takes so much time, but they
read the messaging because so many messages are too "interesting," their word,
to delete before reading.
There might be value added if you made your paper available to the AECM by
posting it at your Website. Then encourage people to give you feedback either in
public (on the AECM) or in private where you can share their feedback as coming
from anonymous sources.
What would be value added here is the folder on your Website where you post
the subjective feedback. Encourage people to give you added thoughts about
enhancing reputation, altruism, etc. Encourage people to state what kinds of
changes to the AECM would enhance its value.
And lastly, try to find someone who will take over the postings of AECM
modules to an open sharing knowledge base. In other words find somebody who will
get the monkey of my Website off my back. Have I sufficiently mixed my metaphors
here?
I have and still do truly enjoy serving up a knowledge base that has value
added. There really is more reward, in aggregate, in giving more than I receive.
Bob Jensen
Blogs
Accountancy Professors Just
Don't Blog
UC Berkeley Blogger Brad
Delong: "I can safely say that I have learned more than I ever would have
imagined doing this."
https://www.bradford-delong.com/2019/12/blogging-what-to-expect-here.html
Jensen Comment
There are hundreds of great bloggers among professors in almost every academic
discipline. Accountancy is an exception. We
never have had many professor blogs, and the few we've had quit blogging. Jim
Martin and I are getting old. Won't some accounting professor commence to blog?
Most of the
faculty bloggers in accountancy dropped out or almost quit, including
some of my favorites like The Grumpy Old Accountants, Accounting Education News, Accountinator, Accounting Cycle, Building Business Value,
Zorba, The Accounting Onion, FraudBytes , MyEMBA, Pondering the Classroom, RandomThoughts (nothing in
nine months), Really Engaging Accounting, Stephen Lynn's Blog, Stategic
Management Accounting, Teaching Managerial Accounting, The Professor's
Perspective, The Summa, The TaxDoc Spot, The Accounting Coach, The XBRL Canada Blog, Thinking
Outside the Box, Tic Marks, Análise de Balanço, Globaliconta, Ideias Contábeis,
and Professor Lopes de Sá.
I suspect virtually every other academic discipline had short-lived blogs by
faculty who burned out of blogging or ceased blogging for whatever reasons. But
in accountancy there are no new bloggers stepping in to replace the departed
bloggers.
The AECM Listserv is a unique forum where accounting educators (and others)
enter into debates as well as add news items. Many of the most active
contributors, however, have dropped out such that there are many lurkers and
only a few actives. I miss some of the former actives who liked to needle me and
egg me on. I also miss some genuine experts who broadened my understanding of
the world (like David Fordham) and some who were outrageous (like David
Albrecht).
You don't have to be a member of the American Accounting Association to join the
AECM listserv ---
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
What is really disappointing to me is that I can't think of an accounting
educator from a prestigious university who blogs. Accountics scientists rarely
stick their heads out of the ground. If I'm missing somebody here please let me
know! They sometimes contribute working papers to SSRN, but the SSRN has a wall
preventing interactive exchanges with authors. It's like they don't want to be
bothered by readers.
I really, really miss the Grumpy Old Accountants because they adopted the Abe
Briloff (Barrons) style of criticizing published financial statements. I also
miss Accounting Education News that kept me up to date on happenings on the
other side of the pond.
Jim
Martin and Bob Jensen are getting old.
Jim Martin's infrequent
MAAW Blog ---
http://maaw.blogspot.com/
Bob Jensen's Three Long-Time Blogs
Current and past editions of my blog called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my accounting education, research, and
teaching cases blog called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
This is the longest-running blog in accounting education history
Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud
Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
European Accounting Association Blog
---
https://arc.eaa-online.org/
One drawback of this blog is that readers are not allowed to comment
Why won't some other accounting
professors commence to blog?
Free blogs
now on the ThinkTWENTY20 Website ---
http://thinktwenty20.com/
Thank you Jerry
-
Eric’s Blog, by Eric Cohen, expert in XBRL,
Blockchain and advanced technology topics,
http://thinktwenty20.com/index.php/blog
-
The Forum, mostly by Jerry Trites, and sometimes
guests, on a variety of contemporary topics related to accounting and
finance. Also contributing is Don Sheehy, CPA, an expert in advanced
technology related assurance issues,
http://thinktwenty20.com/index.php/blog-issues-forum
-
The ESG Blog, by Alan Willis, focusing on
ESG Reporting and integrated reporting matters,
http://thinktwenty20.com/index.php/486-esg
-
Issues in Standard Setting by various
members of the Standards Setting group of CPA underlying Canada (first entry
to be in August), and by David Hardidge, an expert on International
Accounting Standards from Brisbane Australia focusing on explorations of the
issues underlying contemporary accounting standards setting,
http://thinktwenty20.com/index.php/home2-category/67-features/162-standards-roundup
-
Hey, What’s New by Gundi Jeffrey, focusing
on a random collection of news items she selects that should be interesting
to accountants.
http://thinktwenty20.com/index.php/news
Robot Wisdom and How Jorn Barger Invented Blogging ---
http://firstsiteguide.com/robot-wisdom-and-jorn-barger/
http://firstsiteguide.com/robot-wisdom-and-jorn-barger/
How to Start & Create a Blog Today: Step-by-Step ---
http://www.onblastblog.com/
How to Start a Blog ---
http://www.setupablogtoday.com/
Start a Blog ---
http://www.startablog123.com/
Blogging ---
http://firstsiteguide.com/
Faculty Focus: The Teaching Professor Blog ---
http://www.facultyfocus.com/topic/articles/teaching-professor-blog/
Bob Jensen's threads on listservs, blogs, and the social media ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/listservroles.htm
Blog on Math Blogs ---
http://blogs.ams.org/blogonmathblogs/
ScienceBlogs ---
http://scienceblogs.com/
Guggenheim Blogs: Checklist ---
http://blogs.guggenheim.org/checklist/
TechBlog: Upgrade your geek (journalism) with Dwight Silverman
http://blog.chron.com/techblog/
ACRL TechConnect Blog ---
http://acrl.ala.org/techconnect
Top 100 Economics Blogs of 2016 ---
https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/top-economics-blogs-2016/
ScienceBlogs ---
http://scienceblogs.com/
Learning & the Brain blog ---
http://learningandthebrain.com/blog
Wall Street Journal: Law Blog ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/law
bloggERS: The Blog of the SAA's Electronic Records Section (all about blogs)
---
https://saaers.wordpress.com/
Accountancy Professors Just
Don't Blog
UC Berkeley Blogger Brad
Delong: "I can safely say that I have learned more than I ever would have
imagined doing this."
https://www.bradford-delong.com/2019/12/blogging-what-to-expect-here.html
Jensen Comment
There are hundreds of great bloggers among professors in almost every academic
discipline. Accountancy is an exception. We
never have had many professor blogs, and the few we've had quit blogging. Jim
Martin and I are getting old. Won't some accounting professor commence to blog?
Most of the
faculty bloggers in accountancy dropped out or almost quit, including
some of my favorites like The Grumpy Old Accountants, Accounting Education News, Accountinator, Accounting Cycle, Building Business Value,
Zorba, The Accounting Onion, FraudBytes , MyEMBA, Pondering the Classroom, RandomThoughts (nothing in
nine months), Really Engaging Accounting, Stephen Lynn's Blog, Stategic
Management Accounting, Teaching Managerial Accounting, The Professor's
Perspective, The Summa, The TaxDoc Spot, The Accounting Coach, The XBRL Canada Blog, Thinking
Outside the Box, Tic Marks, Análise de Balanço, Globaliconta, Ideias Contábeis,
and Professor Lopes de Sá.
I suspect virtually every other academic discipline had short-lived blogs by
faculty who burned out of blogging or ceased blogging for whatever reasons. But
in accountancy there are no new bloggers stepping in to replace the departed
bloggers.
The AECM Listserv is a unique forum where accounting educators (and others)
enter into debates as well as add news items. Many of the most active
contributors, however, have dropped out such that there are many lurkers and
only a few actives. I miss some of the former actives who liked to needle me and
egg me on. I also miss some genuine experts who broadened my understanding of
the world (like David Fordham) and some who were outrageous (like David
Albrecht).
You don't have to be a member of the American Accounting Association to join the
AECM listserv ---
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
What is really disappointing to me is that I can't think of an accounting
educator from a prestigious university who blogs. Accountics scientists rarely
stick their heads out of the ground. If I'm missing somebody here please let me
know! They sometimes contribute working papers to SSRN, but the SSRN has a wall
preventing interactive exchanges with authors. It's like they don't want to be
bothered by readers.
I really, really miss the Grumpy Old Accountants because they adopted the Abe
Briloff (Barrons) style of criticizing published financial statements. I also
miss Accounting Education News that kept me up to date on happenings on the
other side of the pond.
Jim
Martin and I are getting old.
Jim Martin's infrequent
MAAW Blog ---
http://maaw.blogspot.com/
Bob Jensen's Three Long-Time Blogs
Current and past editions of my blog called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my accounting education, research, and
teaching cases blog called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
This is the longest-running blog in accounting education history
Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud
Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Why won't some other accounting
professors commence to blog?
HASTAC Blogs ---
http://www.hastac.org/blogs
Pronounced HayStack
Nearly 13,000 humanists, artists, social scientists, scientists and
technologists working to "transform the future of learning."
HASTAC’s mission is shaped by the active
participation and interests of our members. Whether authoring one of your
own blog entries, commenting on someone else’s, or just lurking and
learning, blogs are one of the primary ways to interact with, strengthen,
and fully engage the HASTAC network. Below you will find recent blog
entries, as well as some curated entries selected by HASTAC staff. You can
also easily track the latest comments and see what blog posts are generating
the most discussion. Via the buttons in the sidebar, you will also find
HASTAC’s own Cathy Davidson’s “Cat in the Stack” blog, as well as “Where are
the Now” the official blog of the Digital Media and Learning Competition
winners.
Bob Jensen's threads on listservs and blogs in higher education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Teenagers in the Times (learning Blogs) ---
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/teens-in-the-times/
The Edublogger ---
http://www.theedublogger.com
The Edublogger has been set up by
Edublogs — “the largest education community on the
Internet” where you can sign up for
a free WordPress-powered blog
— and is dedicated to helping educational bloggers with emerging
technologies in education, share their own experiences and promote the
blogging medium.
It’s purpose is to share tips, tricks, ideas and
provide help to the educational blogging community.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
This site also is great for education technology news.
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Macro and Other Market Musings (conservative
economics blog) ---
http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.pt
Dan Ariely (cognitive psychology blog that often
answers readers' questions) ---
http://danariely.com/
"Blogging changes the nature of academic research, not just how it is
communicated," by Patrick Dunleavy, London School of Economics, January 2015
---
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/12/28/shorter-better-faster-free/
Academic blogging gets your work and research
out to a potentially massive audience at very, very low cost and relative
amount of effort.
Patrick Dunleavy argues blogging and
tweeting from multi-author blogs especially is a great way to build
knowledge of your work, to grow readership of useful articles and research
reports, to build up citations, and to foster debate across academia,
government, civil society and the public in general.
One of the recurring themes (from many different
contributors) on the LSE Impact of Social Science blog is that a new
paradigm of research communications has grown up — one that de-emphasizes
the traditional journals route, and re-prioritizes faster, real-time
academic communication. Blogs play a critical intermediate role. They link
to research reports and articles on the one hand, and they are linked to
from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+ news-streams and
communities. So in research terms blogging is quite simply, one of the most
important things that an academic should be doing right now.
But in addition, STEM scientists, social scientists
and humanities scholars all have an obligation to society to contribute
their observations to the wider world. At the moment that’s often being done
- in ramshackle and impoverished ways
- in pointlessly obscure or charged-for forums
- in difficult language where you need to look
up every second word in Wikipedia. Some of this is necessary for
condensed specialist communication. But much of it is just unneeded
jargon and poor writing dressed up as necessary vocabulary
- with acres of ‘dead-on-arrival’ data (that
will never be used by anyone else in the world), often presented in
unreadable tables
- and all delivered over bizarrely long-winded
timescales. From submission to publication in some top economics
journals now takes 3.5 years. At the end of such a process any published
paper is no more than a tombstone marking where happening debate and
knowledge used to be, four or five years earlier.
So the public pay for all or much of our research
(especially in Europe and Australasia). And then we shunt back to them a few
press releases and a lot of out-of-date, arcanely phrased academic junk.
Types of blogs
A lot of people think that all blogs are solo
blogs, but this is a completely out of date view. A ‘blog’ is defined by
Wikipedia as:
‘a truncation of the expression web log… [It]
is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web
and consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in
reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). Until
2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of
a small group, and often covered a single subject. More recently
“multi-author blogs” (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large
numbers of authors and professionally edited. MABs from newspapers,
other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups and
similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic.
The rise of Twitter and other “microblogging” systems helps integrate
MABs and single-author blogs into societal newstreams’. [Accessed 29
August 2014]. (Let me pause here to reassure some academic readers who
may be bristling at being asked to read Wikipedia text – I know this
passage is sound since I co-wrote much of it).
Actually the evolution of academic blogs
specifically has now progressed even further, so that we can distinguish
group or collaborative blogs as an important intermediate type between solo
blogs and multi-author blogs. The two tables below summarize how these three
types of blogs now work, drawing attention to their very different
advantages and disadvantages.
Continued in article
I recall that Tony Catanach was at a loss when he was considering a new
blogging platform for The Grumpy Old Accountants blog. Our AECM advice
was sort of ad hoc. The following article may have been of more help.
The 15 best blogging and publishing platforms on the Internet today. Which
one is for you?
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/16/best-blogging-services/
50 Good (not necessarily best) accounting blogs ---
http://www.accounting-degree.org/50-best-accounting-blogs-of-2014/
Accounting Faculty Blogs on Managerial Accounting
MAAW is a great reference site in general. Jim Martin's blog postings
are infrequent, but many of them are postings about managerial and cost
accounting --- his academic specialty.
http://maaw.blogspot.com/
AccountingEducation.com is covers the waterfront on accounting topics, one of
which is managerial accounting ---
http://www.accountingeducation.com/
This was a pioneer blogging site and is perhaps the best site on international
accounting news.
Martin's Accounting Blog ---
http://martinjquinn.com/
Accounting Coach ---
http://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-is-cost-accounting
This does not change much over time.
Bob Jensen's Additions to New Bookmarks arguably has the most postings over
time on managerial and cost accounting, but they are mixed in with tens of
thousands of other postings ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookurl.htm
Many of New Bookmarks blog postings on managerial accounting are archived
at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory02.htm#ManagementAccounting
You might also note Bob Jensen's threads that cover various managerial
accounting topics mixed in with other topics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Threads.htm
China Accounting Blog ---
http://www.chinaaccountingblog.com/
. . .
I am including some Websites here, because the archives of some blogs are
very much like Websites (that can be searched by Web crawlers). For example,
I consider the MAAW Website the most important consideration for most
accounting course syllabi, but Jim's blog is so infrequent I would not list
it as among the most important blogs for syllabi.
MAAW Websote (Tremendous Archive) ---
http://www.maaw.info/
MAAW Blog ---
http://maaw.blogspot.com/
Other Infrequent Blogs
There are many accounting blogs that are terribly infrequent such that I
would not include them for current news. However, you may want to consider
using them for their archives. Some examples (mere samplings off the top of
my head) include:
More Frequent Blogs
Each of the Big Four firms have blogs and/or newsletters
I subscribe to all of their newsletters
Free of charge as the world turns
Real Time Economics (a Wall Street Journal blog on the changing world of
economics) ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/
I find this more news than opinion, although the comments on postings are often
more opinion than news
Bob Jensen's threads on listservs, blogs, and the social media ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Updates on CPA Firm Litigation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm
Updates on Auditor Professionalism and Independence ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm
Deloitte's International Accounting Blog ---
http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm
Accounting Education News (International) ---
http://www.accountingeducation.com/
This blog covers international updates in financial, managerial, and AIS
FEI Daily ---
http://daily.financialexecutives.org/
Paul Caron Tax Prof ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/
XBRL (Eric Cohen) ---
http://www.computercpa.com/
Tom Selling generally has commentaries on accounting standards 9my replies
are on the AECM)
The Accounting Onion---
http://accountingonion.com/
Dennis Elam Blog (often about fraud and forensics) ---
http://www.professorelam.typepad.com/
Accounting Association Blogs ---
http://www.accounting-degree.org/50-best-accounting-blogs-of-2014/
-
Betsy’s Pretty Good Blog: A blog for accountants by the
president of the MNCPA (Minnesota Society of Certified Public
Accountants).
-
AICPA Insights: A blog for accountants from the AICPA (American
Institute of CPAs).
-
CPA Success: Career success tips and advice for CPAs, from the
MACPA (Maryland Association of CPAs).
-
CPA Now: Tips and advice for CPAs from the PICPA (Pennsylvania
Institute of Certified Public Accountants).
-
ASCPA Blog: Tips and advice for CPAs from the ASCPA (Arizona
Society of Certified Public Accountants).
-
I Was Just Thinkin’: Tips and advice for CPAs from the INCPAS
(Indiana CPA Society).
-
TSCPA Federal Tax Policy Blog: A blog from the TSCPA (Texas
Society of CPAs), with a focus on tax legislation and regulation.
-
The Sharblog: Another TSCPA-related blog, from the CEO, with
thoughts on accounting, the IRS and other topics.
-
National Society of Accountants: NSA Blog: Perspectives on
accounting, tax prep, IRS and more, from the other NSA (National Society
of Accountants).
-
NYSSCPA Blog: Views on accounting and related topics from the
NYSSCPA (New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
-
CPA Cafe | Where Ideas Brew: Writings on accounting, taxes, IRS
and other topics from the VSCPA (Virginia Society of Certified Public
Accountants).
Boards of Accountancy Links (most have newsletters and/or blogs)
http://nasba.org/stateboards/
David Albrecht's List of Accounting Professors Who Blog (some no longer
blog) ---
https://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/accounting-professors-who-blog/
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Threads.htm
For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of Tidbits go to
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Bookmarks for the World's Library ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Do you really want to start your own blog?
A blog that is well done will take almost all your time.
The benefits lie firstly in how much you learn by doing
a blog, especially what you learn from other blogs you visit often. You also
learn from replies of other people to your blog. For example, today I naively
stated that Fusion 3 is great for running the Windows OS on a Mac but that it
probably would not run the new Windows 7. In less than an hour my good friend
Glenn Kroeger (geology professor at Trinity University and super geek) set me
straight that Fusion 3 works great on a high powered Mac.
Secondly, giving something back to a world, a
profession, and many friends you meet along the way is a tremendous intrinsic
reward. I discuss this under the term listserv at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#ListServs
The problem with blogs is that there are now millions of
great blogs in the world and hundreds in the field of accountancy. It's
impossible to keep up with all of them.
Grad Life: McGill University Blogs ---
http://blogs.mcgill.ca/gradlife/
Years later, here I am, with a Ph.D. and years of
experience behind me, writing regularly for three different blogs--one of them a
blog of my own. I haven't published a paper in an academic journal yet (for now,
the standard currency for academic credibility) . . .
Liana Silva whose blog at Inside
Higher Ed is called University of Venus
"So You Want to Blog (Academic Edition), by Liana Silva, Inside
Higher Ed, May 12, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/university-venus/so-you-want-blog-academic-edition
When I was a Master's student (almost a decade
ago), I started blogging. It was a messy endeavor: a Blogger site with some
random posts that didn't amount to much. I worked more on the layout than
the content. I didn't get many page views, and I felt no motivation to
continue working on it.
Years later, here I am, with a Ph.D. and years
of experience behind me, writing regularly for three different blogs--one of
them a blog of my own. I haven't published a paper in an academic journal
yet (for now, the standard currency for academic credibility), but I
believe that my writing chops across genres have improved, my voice comes
through my writing, and my awareness of audience is sharper. As a result, I
am invested in my online presence as a blogger, and more broadly as a
writer. Moreover, I believe that blogs can help writers, especially academic
writers, become better communicators.
As an editor for two academic blogs, I thrive off
of helping writers hone their ideas, but more importantly helping them get
their voices online, as clearly as possible. My years of experience working
as an editor and at a University writing center have taught me that writers
need not just someone to clean up their prose (which is the more common
interpretation of editor) but also someone who can find the idea they are
trying to convey. In other words, they need someone who can help make those
ideas crystal clear. For academic writers, this can be tough because of the
supposed conventions of academic writing (even though most of the scholars I
know prefer the kind of writing that is clear, concise, and striking). For
better or for worse, we learn how to write in our disciplines mostly through
example, and the examples we are presented with are most often found in
traditional academic journals.
Academic blogging can coexist with these academic
journals and help writers develop their ideas by taking them for a trial run
with readers before committing them to a journal article. However,
traditional academic writing, with its lengthy paragraphs, heavy footnotes,
and discipline-specific jargon, may not translate well to blogging. Here are
some suggestions (which solely reflect my experience as a blogger and as an
editor for blogs):
You don't have to have an airtight argument. We're
taught to think in terms of arguments, of polished prose. But in blogging,
you can explore a question, and not answer it. The conversation that arises
in the comments section could help you get to an answer. Think about the
length. Technically, a blog post can be as long as you want it to be, but be
aware of when you drone on and on about a subject. Just because you can
doesn't mean you should. Consider whether a post is better off broken up
into two posts--or several. Moreover, some blogs have word limits: here at U
Venus we aim for the 750 word range; at Sounding Out! we tell writers to aim
for 1500 words. Reading does not have to always be an endurance test--and
length does not testify for the complexity of ideas. Consider language. If
you feel comfortable writing in a casual tone, that's alright in a blog
post, even if it is an academic topic. That adds to the voice of the piece.
However, this also depends on the subject. Ultimately, don't feel like your
posts needs to be serious or stuffy because it is an academic topic. Share
your research interests. You don't have to give everything away if you don't
want to. I know a lot of academics have a fear of being scooped, and their
fears are not unfounded: it has happened. Publishing a blog post doesn't
have to lead to that. In fact, it could be a teaser of something you're
working on that could bring more readers to that finished product. It can
also help you make your mark in your field. You don't have to upload your
whole dissertation on a website--if you don't want to. Ask for feedback.
Unsure about the subject? Unsure about the tone? Ask your editor. Editors
are here to help you; some may not have the time to answer. But some may be
able to give you more focused feedback. At both of the blogs I work for we
give different kinds of feedback, but we make sure to give writers feedback
to help them take their writing to the next level. If you're blogging at
your own blog, ask your readers. Share the post with people you hope that
give you feedback. Don't be afraid to ask.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/so-you-want-blog-academic-edition#ixzz2TGiA8BPP
Inside Higher Ed
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on blogs, listservs, and social networking ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
"6 Tips For Building a High Quality Blog Following,"
by Shane Snow, Marshable, January 3, 2012 ---
http://ht.ly/8gu3L
Thank you Robert Harris for the heads up.
Jensen Comment
Keys to success for a Website are somewhat different than keys to success for a
blogging site. For a Website the key to success is content --- lots of it even
if the content is narrowly focused. The reason is that the most hits usually
come for users of Web crawlers like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. For blog posts,
huge-content files can become wearisome.
Bob
Jensen's Threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Threads.htm
For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of Tidbits go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Bookmarks for the World's Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Joe Hoyle has a question for you?
"I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, April 27,
2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-have-question-for-you.html
Jensen Comment
I would never ask such a question about the entries in my three blogs, because
faithful followers would have to sift through over 50,000 postings in my three
blogs that are also posted in various places in my massive Website. Joe has only
166 postings to sift through which is a much more manageable task. But sifting
through my postings for likes and dislikes is out of the question even for me
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
This is not to imply that my stuff has been better or worse than that of my good
friend Joe. It's simply a fact that I'm a more active blogger and Web site
manager.
I also have over 31,000 postings to the AECM and nearly 18,000 postings and
comments on the AAA Commons. Obviously searching for "favorites" is out of the
question. My postings have covered the waterfront for education technology to
learning theory to nearly all accounting topics.
I do have some early-on postings that I'm very proud of in the early stages
of my blog. I was one of the early writers who tried to dispel the myth that
online courses needed to be less interactive and intense with individual
students. When done "optimally" the communications between a student and an
instructor and other students in an online course are more intense than any
onsite course. Of course, online courses are not always conducted with such
intensity just as onsite courses vary to a tremendous extent in terms of
interactions of students and instructors.
But when it comes down to identify the real game changers arising from my
postings I can hardly take credit for most of the game changers since in most
of my postings I'm mostly referencing and quoting articles. I have to give
others most of the credit for seminal ideas. In most ways I'm more of a scout
for new inventions than an inventor. I like to think I've been a pretty good
scout.
What I enjoy most are the debates with such writers as Tom Selling, Stever
Kachelmeier, Richard Sansing, Paul Williams, Patricia Walters, and many, many
others. I've learned immensely from these scholars and hope I returned something
of value to them.
Although I'm a bit more active as a blogger after my retirement from teaching
in 2006, I want to stress that I was nearly as active since the late 1980s when
commenced to blog more and more and then more and more. My point is that
bloggers need not be retired just to make blogging contributions just like Joe
Hoyle is not yet retired and makes many valuable contributions to our craft.
Reply from Joe Hoyle on April 28, 2013
I bet you'd be surprised -- if you simply asked the
question "what have I ever said that you immediately remember," you'd get a
lot of interesting comments. People's memory serves as a pretty good filter.
Almost invariably when people write to me, they start off with "you once
said the following and it has stuck with me." And, it is often something
that wasn't all that important to me. But it clearly meant something to
them. I find that interesting with my students also -- years after they
graduate, they will tell me something that I said to them that impacted
their life and I won't even remember having said it.
That's one of the things that makes this teaching
job so interesting.
Joe
April 29, 2013 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Joe,
Our styles tend to be different and are probably
not comparable. Your blog is more like a personal diary that discusses your
own feelings and beliefs and philosophy.
My postings are full of commentaries on what other
scholars and researchers have written. My style is more like a journal
referee commenting on an article at hand --- pointing out the good and the
bad aspects of the article.
You also focus mostly on your personal teaching
experiences. I cover more of the ball park --- fraud updates, audit
professionalism, communications from standard setters, education technology
(bright and dark sides), tools and tricks of the trade, learning theory,
accounting theory, and on and on and on.
I think we both provide a service to our
professions Joe. We just have different styles and scope of coverage.
Keep up the good work Joe. I still wish you would
join the AECM even as a lurker.
Keep up the good work Joe,
Bob Jensen
By the way, my answer to Joe Hoyle's question about his posting that I like
best is
"How You Test Is How They Will Learn," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog,
January 31, 2010 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-you-test-is-how-they-will-learn.html
An example of a Website helper page that I take pride in is at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's links to similar Website helper pages ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
My Outstanding Educator Award Speech ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/AAAaward_files/AAAaward02.htm
Blogs: The Chronicle of Higher Education ---
http://chronicle.com/section/Blogs/164/
Techmeme Technology News Site from Carnegie Mellon University ---
http://www.techmeme.com/
Thank you Rick Lillie for pointing to this site on the AAA Commons
The site is more extensive in terms of computing news than is MIT's
Technology Review, but TR is carries more science news. Also TR sends me
email summaries.
American Planning Association: Blogs ---
http://www.planning.org/multimedia/blogs/
Accountancy, Tax, IFRS, XBRL, and Accounting History News Sites
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
50 Good (not necessarily best) accounting blogs ---
http://www.accounting-degree.org/50-best-accounting-blogs-of-2014/
Accounting Professors Who Blog
(initial list provided by David Albrecht)
Another Accounting Blogger Calls it Quits (sort of in Adrienne's case)
Adriene Gonzalez appears to be ending here four-year blog entitled Jr, Deputy
Accountant, January 5, 2013 ---
http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com/2013/01/over-it-over-it-over-it.html
For those of you who have emailed and commented
checking in on me the last few weeks to make sure the black helicopters
didn't get me, thanks but I'm fine. I guess.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm over it. A girl can only
yell so much before she gives up. I'm putting my energies into
saving cats these
days. Why not? Sure beats sitting around waiting for someone to realize how
fucked we all are, right?
The can will keep getting kicked down the road. We'll keep pretending like
everything is OK. The Fed will keep pumping out the free money indefinitely.
Why bother?
Give me a good reason and I'll try. Otherwise, it might be time to move on.
Sucks but that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
I'm still here. And maybe I'll feel like yelling some more one of these days
but for now, I'm pretty much over it. No one is listening. It gets old after
four years, you know.
Just know I miss you all at least twice as much as you miss me.
If you miss me that bad, I still have a daily column
over at Going
Concern. Otherwise, I'm not really into much
else... what's the point? No one listens anyway.
Jensen Comment
Adrienne intends, as mentioned above, to continue contributing to Going Concern
where many of her modules deal with the CPA Exam trends and outcomes. I've
never been sure that she herself ever took the exam. That neither matters here
nor there. She still reports interesting trends in the CPA Exam along with
occasional juicy tidbits on Going Concern.
Adrienne has the distinction of having created the accounting blog filled
with the most distasteful four letter words. This has a shock appeal but is just
not too promising when addressing an audience of accountants, most of whom are
not very colorful or get turned on by gutter talk. However, it's unfair to
characterize the Jr. Deputy Accountant's blog as a gutter blog. In the
midst of her colorful language were some very good news items and commentaries.
I'm happy that she will continue to contribute to Going Concern and save
cats.
Adrienne is not the first to give up writing an accounting blog. Larry
Tomassini had one of the first accounting blogs called something with the word
Coach or Coach's Corner or whatever. I think his coaching "blog"
died. This started and ended early on before the terms "Weblog" and "Blog" were
invented. Now Larry does run something that he calls a "Newsletter" featuring a
very old (high school?) picture ---
http://newsle.com/person/larrytomassini/7067146
Nadine Sabai (Fraud Girl) was one of the first accounting bloggers to fall by
the way when she closed her Sleight of Hand Blog ---
http://sleightfraud.blogspot.com/
I suspect there have been other accounting blogs to come and go without my
even noticing that they came and went. More often accounting bloggers don't quit
entirely but just slow way down of blogging frequency. This seems to be
happening with Francine McKenna's re:Auditors blog, although the reason
for this might be Francine's increased frequency of writing about audit firms
(bad news only) for Forbes.
Recently long-time accounting blogger Ed Ketz at Penn state hung up his
"grumpy" blogging shoes, but his grumpy partner Tony Cantanach at Villanova is
carrying on with the Grumpy Old Accountant's blog ---
http://grumpyoldaccountants.com/
I liked the Ed and Tony show because their approach to carry on in the financial
statement analysis tradition of Abe Brilof when Abe was writing for Barron's
Abe had an almost-impossible act to follow, but Ed and Tony took over this act
about as well as anybody else.
An excellent site that was more focused on behavioral economics and finance
(but rarely accounting) was Miguel Barbosa's Simoleon Sense blog ---
http://www.simoleonsense.com/
I was very sorry to learn that Miguel stopped maintaining this wonderful blog
after losing his job and his significant other.
What I conclude by reading the messages of bloggers who closed down their
blogs is that maintaining an active blog just proved to be too time consuming.
I'll vouch for that even though I still have my "hands on the throttle and my
eyes on the rails."
My Theme Song for Life Slide Show ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AlaskaRailwayRoutes.pps
Bob Jensen's Blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
There are many accounting blogs that carry on, including accounting professor
blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
In spite of the media hype about 9-9-9, I think it's safe to assume there
won't be serious tax reform in the near future.
If tax reform swaggered into a Luckenbach, Texas saloon, it would be "all
hat and no horse"
The ladies of the night would die laughing at that "itty-bitty thang" that
walked in
And it would need a ladder to peek over the top of the spittoon
My point is that you probably should plan your financial future on the
present mess we call the Tax Code. In this regard, you might like to learn about
one of the best helper sites around.
Tax Helpers
October 22, 2011 message from Scott Bonacker (himself a professional CPA tax
expert)
It is hard to prioritize the things that are
important to tax preparers, not the least of which are these: keeping up
with current developments and improving understanding of the principles of
taxation. Single sourcing is one way we do it, and for that reason the
commercial tax services provide
extensive editorial content and regular newsletters and updates.
There is also a considerable amount of information and thought that is
available for free on the internet if you know where to find it. So much,
that it is difficult sometimes to filter the choices to the ones that can
make a valuable contribution.
Email study groups are one way, and blogs are another. One of those is the
21st Century Taxation blog by Professor Nellen.
Professor Nellen is a tax professor and director of the MS Taxation Program
at San Jose State University, and her blog is frequently updated with
intelligent commentary and links to resources.
Her experience as a teacher shows as Professor Nellen will often point out
an event or an article or a circumstance and then describe how she sees it
in relation to current events or professional practice. Her blog posts
provide analysis and links to allow the reader to look into things in more
depth, and many times they close with a question - "What do you think?"
A prolific writer, Professor Nellen maintains a personal website -
http://www.21stcenturytaxation.com/
Professor Nellen's academic page at San Jose State
University -
http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/nellen_a/ is
also a large repository of useful information.
Since most of us are in the business of tax planning and preparation we also
become involved in explaining and discussing relative advantages and
disadvantages of the options that are available now. Then there is also the
potential for future alternatives. Professor Nellen's collection of
articles and analysis of tax reform information can be a very important
addition to the resources available to a tax professional.
I saw an email tagline that said something about experts knowing where to
find answers. First you have to recognize that there may be an issue. What
are your sources of information?
Scott Bonacker CPA
Springfield, MO
Bob Jensen's tax helpers (which are virtually nothing compared to those of
Professor Nellen) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304Taxation
Big Four Blog ---
http://www.big4.com/blog
re:TheAuditors (Francine McKenna) ---
http://retheauditors.com/
re:TheBalance (Jim Peterson) ---
http://www.jamesrpeterson.com/home/
The Accounting Onion (Tom Selling) ---
http://accountingonion.typepad.com/
SmartPros ---
http://www.smartpros.com/
AccountingWeb ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
"Research Blogs and the Discussion of Scholarly Information," by Hadas
Shema, Judit Bar-Ilan, and Mike Thelwall, Money Science, May 12, 2012 ---
http://www.moneyscience.com/pg/bookmarks/Admin/read/343565/research-blogs-and-the-discussion-of-scholarly-information
Abstract
The research blog has become a popular mechanism for
the quick discussion of scholarly information. However, unlike peer-reviewed
journals, the characteristics of this form of scientific discourse are not
well understood, for example in terms of the spread of blogger levels of
education, gender and institutional affiliations. In this paper we fill this
gap by analyzing a sample of blog posts discussing science via an aggregator
called ResearchBlogging.org (RB). ResearchBlogging.org aggregates posts
based on peer-reviewed research and allows bloggers to cite their sources in
a scholarly manner. We studied the bloggers, blog posts and referenced
journals of bloggers who posted at least 20 items. We found that RB bloggers
show a preference for papers from high-impact journals and blog mostly about
research in the life and behavioral sciences. The most frequently referenced
journal sources in the sample were: Science, Nature, PNAS and PLoS One. Most
of the bloggers in our sample had active Twitter accounts connected with
their blogs, and at least 90% of these accounts connect to at least one
other RB-related Twitter account. The average RB blogger in our sample is
male, either a graduate student or has been awarded a PhD and blogs under
his own name.
Resiyrce Link ---
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0035869
"Why Do Accounting Academics Blog Less Than Other Academics?" by Tom
Selling, The Accounting Onion, October 11, 2011 ---
http://accountingonion.typepad.com/theaccountingonion/2011/10/why-do-accounting-academics-blog-less-than-other-academics.html
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The phrase "blog less" has two meanings. One is that there are fewer accounting
professor/student bloggers than in other disciplines. This is largely due to the
fact that accounting is a smaller academic discipline than many of our brethren
in humanities, mathematics, and science.
Second is that there might be comparable number of academic accounting
bloggers who post less frequently than their brethren in humanities and science.
At first blush this is a bit surprising to me since accounting is a dynamic
discipline with many things taking place globally every day in media fraud
articles, news from international and national accounting standard setting
bodies, etc. It could be that we, as academic accountants, tend to rely on a
small number of commercial blogs such as those of the Big Four, the AICPA,
SmartPros, AccountingWeb, GoingConcern, re:TheAuditors, etc. These popular
commercial blogs may reduce the need for more accounting professors to blog or
to post multiple messages daily.
Many academic accountants have come to rely on blog aggregators and filters.
For example, I suspect that the AECM listserv has a larger daily audience
reading a larger number of AECM postings than readings of any accounting
professor who blogs. Also intense debates on the AECM reveal more intense and
enduring debates on issues than the commentaries at accounting professor
blogging sites.
The AAA Commons is also becoming increasingly popular among accounting
academics. For example, it could be that more people frequent the postings of
Rick Lillie via the AAA Commons than frequent his blog. I do not, however, know
this for a fact.
We also must consider the fact that social networkings (e.g., Twitter and
Facebook) reduce the blogging traffic.
Be that as it may, I think there are quite a few blogging professors who have
relatively small audiences. The small audiences tend to discourage new entrants
into the blogging arena. For a listing of some of the academic accounting
bloggers go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
There are too many for me to monitor even on a weekly basis.
Richard Campbell notes a nice white collar crime blog edited by some law
professors ---
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/
To date Nadine has eight modules on accounting fraud plus more modules on
other types of fraud
A woman known as "Fraud Girl" ran a series of weekly columns in Simoleon
Sense. Now Fraud Girl has her own blog called Sleight
of Hand ---
http://sleightfraud.blogspot.com/
Her real name is Nadine Sebai
Now I have two women to stalk in Chicago ---
Francine ---
http://retheauditors.com/
Nadine ---
http://sleightfraud.blogspot.com/
Nadine's accounting modules to date ---
http://sleightfraud.blogspot.com/search/label/Accounting
Big Four Blog ---
http://www.big4.com/blog.html
Musings on Markets (Aswath Damodaran at NYU) ---
http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/
Question
Are you sick of reading your student's blogs?
"A Better Blogging Assignment," by Mark Sample, Chronicle of Higher
Education, July 3, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-better-blogging-assignment/41127?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Update on Lanny Arvan: From SCALE Experiments to Blogs
Years ago economics professor Lanny Arvan directed the famous in a controlled
SCALE experiments comparing resident full-time students at the University of
Illinois taking onsite versus online courses from the same instructors using
common grade assessment procedures. Thirty courses across multiple disciplines
were examined across five years of experimentation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois
In spite of some technology glitches in those olden days, many students tended
to prefer taking the courses online. Typically, many more students moved from B
grades to A grades in online courses. However, there tended to not be much
difference for D and F students, indicating that lack of motivation and aptitude
cuts across online and onsite pedagogies in mostly the same way.
In one of my technology workshops Dan Stone (then from the University of
Illinois) gave us an overview that I still serve up his PowerPoint and audio
files ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
"Teaching With Blogs, by Lanny Arvan, Inside Higher Ed, July
27, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/07/27/arvan
“It is my impression
that no one really likes the new. We are afraid of it. It is not only as
Dostoevsky put it that 'taking a new step, uttering a new word is what
people fear most.' Even in slight things the experience of the new is rarely
without some stirring of foreboding.”
--Eric Hoffer, Between The Devil And The Dragon
I tried the new in fall
2009,
teaching with student blogs, (look in sidebar and
scroll down) out in the open where anyone who wanted to could see what the
students were producing. The blogging wasn’t new for me. I’d been
doing that for almost five years. Having students
blog was a different matter. I had no experience in getting them to overcome
their anxieties, relaxing in writing online, learning to trust one another
that way. Normally I believe what’s good for the goose is good for the
gander. If I could blog comfortably and get something from that, so could
they. On reflection, however, I was very gentle with myself when I started
to blog. As an experiment to prove to myself whether I could do it, for
three full weeks I made at least one post a day, 500 to 600 words, a couple
of times 1,100 to 1,200 words. I didn’t tell a soul I was doing this. There
was no pressure on me to keep it up. It was out in the open, yet nobody
seemed to be watching. After those three weeks I felt ready. In the
teaching, however, at best I could ask the students to blog once a week. I
gave the students weekly prompts on the readings or to follow up on class
discussion. (See the
class calendar for fall 2009. The prompts
are in the Friday afternoon entries.) If I let them blog quietly to get
comfortable as I had done, the entire semester would expire before they were
ready to go public. There seemed no alternative but to have them plunge in.
The uncertainty about how
best to assist the students once they had taken the plunge created an
important symmetry between the students and me; we both were to learn about
how to do this well, often by first doing it less well. Though it was an
inadvertent consequence, of all my teaching over the past 30 years I believe
this course came closest to emulating the
Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education by
Chickering and Gamson. I learned to comment on the student posts, not with
some pre-thought-through response based on what I anticipated they’d write,
but rather to react to where they appeared to be in their own thinking.
(This
post provides a typical example. The student
introduced time management as a theme. My comment aimed to make her think
more about time management.) As natural as that is to do in ordinary
conversation, I had never done it before when evaluating student work.
Indeed, I didn’t think of these comments as evaluation at all. I thought of
them as response. In the normal course of my non-teaching work I respond to
colleagues all the time and they respond to me. This form of online
interaction in the class made it more like the rest of my interactions at
work.
Most of the students were
quite awkward in their initial blogging. Good students all, the class was a
seminar on "Designing for Effective Change" for the
Honors Program, but lacking experience in
this sort of approach to instruction, the students wrote to their conception
of what I wanted to hear from them. I can’t imagine a more constipated
mindset for producing interesting prose. For this class there was a need for
them to unlearn much of their approach which had been finely tuned and was
quite successful in their other classes. They needed to take more
responsibility for their choices. While I gave them a prompt each week on
which to write, I also gave them the freedom to choose their own topic so
long as they could create a tie to the course themes. Upon reading much of
the early writing, I admonished many of them to "please themselves" in the
writing. I informed them that they could not possibly please other readers
if they didn’t first please themselves. It was a message they were not used
to hearing. So it took a while for them to believe it was true. In several
instances they tried it out only after being frustrating with the results
from their usual approach. This,
as Ken Bain teaches us,
is how students learn on a fundamental level.
I'm crustier now than I
was as a younger faculty member. Nonetheless, I find it difficult to deal
with the emotion that underlies giving feedback to students when that
feedback is less than entirely complimentary to them. Yet given their
awkward early attempts at writing posts that’s exactly what honest response
demanded. It’s here where having the postings and the comments out in the
open so all can see is so important, before the class has become a
community, before the students have made up their minds about what they
think about this blogging stuff. Though both the writing and the response
are highly subjective, of necessity, it is equally
important for the process to be fair. How can a
student who receives critical comments judge those comments to be fitting
and appropriate, rather than an example of the insensitive instructor
picking on the hapless student? Perhaps a very mature student can discern
this even-handedly from the comments themselves and a self-critique of the
original post. I believe most students benefit by reading the posts of their
classmates, making their own judgments about those writings and then seeing
the instructor’s comments, finally making a subsequent determination as to
whether those comments seem appropriate and helpful for the student in
reconsidering the writing.
A positive feedback loop
can be created by this process. The commenting, more than any other activity
the instructor engages in, demonstrates the instructor’s commitment to the
course and to the students. In turn the students, learning to appreciate the
value of the comments, start to push themselves in the writing. Their
learning is encouraged this way. Further, since the blogging is not a
competition between the students and their classmates, those who like
getting comments begin to comment on the posts of other students. The
elements of the community that the class can become are found in this
activity.
Since on a daily basis I
use blogs and blog readers in my regular work, one of the original reasons
for me taking this approach rather than use the campus learning management
system was simply that I thought it would be more convenient for me. Also,
given my job as a learning technology administrator, I went into the course
with some thought that I might showcase the work afterward. Openness is
clearly better for that. However in retrospect neither of these is primary.
The main reason to be open is to set a good tone for the class. We want
ideas to emerge and not remain concealed.
Yet there remains one
troubling element: student privacy. Is open blogging this way consistent
with
FERPA? As best as I’ve been able to determine, it
is as long as students “opt in.” (I did give students the alternatives of
writing in the class LMS site or writing in the class wiki site. No student
opted for those.) My experience suggests, however, that is not quite
sufficient. If most students opt in, peer pressure may drive others to opt
in as well. More importantly, however, students choose to opt in when they
are largely ignorant of the consequences. Might they feel regret after they
better understand what the blogging is all about?
Continued in article
Question
Are you sick of reading your student's blogs?
"A Better Blogging Assignment," by Mark Sample, Chronicle of Higher
Education, July 3, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-better-blogging-assignment/41127?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Off the Kuff (Trinity alum) ---
http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=eephmmmebxdfo&paged=470
Disemboweler Jon Stewart Eviscerates Blogosphere (VIDEO)
The Blogs Must Be Crazy ---
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/disemboweler-jon-stewart_n_450715.html
This is an example of how commentaries in blogs often set the record
straight.
"When banks voluntarily do principal reductions," by Felix Salmon, Reuters,
July 11, 2011 ---
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/07/11/when-banks-voluntarily-do-principal-reductions/
So, unusually, Felix Salmon is wrong:
"Accounting is destiny," Interfluidity.com ---
http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/2039.html
So, unusually, Felix Salmon is
wrong:
In order for banks to offer principal
reductions, two criteria need to have been met: (a) they came into the
mortgages via acquisition, rather than writing them themselves; and (b)
they bought the mortgages at a discount… Economically speaking…what the
banks are doing here does not make sense. Either writing down
option-ARM loans makes sense, from a P&L perspective, or it doesn’t. If
it does, then the banks should do so on all their toxic loans, not just
the ones they bought at a discount. And if it doesn’t, then they
shouldn’t be doing so at all.
It makes perfect sense for banks to reduce
principal on loans valued at less than par on their books, and to refuse to
do so for other loans.
Let’s suppose we have a loan whose direct value
will increase if we offer to reduce the principal owed. That’s not a rare
situation. As Salmon writes, “a sensibly modified mortgage is likely to be
much more profitable for a bank than forcing a homeowner into a short sale
or foreclosure and trying to sell off the home in the current market.” Under
these circumstances, one effect of a principal reduction is to increase the
expected present value of the cash flows associated with the loan. Ka-ching!
However, there are two offsetting effects. The most
widely discussed is moral hazard. Banks worry that borrowers for whom a
principal reduction would impair rather than enhance the economic value of
the loan will find ways of getting reductions too, by strategic mimicry or
due to changing norms and public pressure. That helps to explain why (Salmon
again), “principal reductions were being done on many mortgages which were
actually current and in good standing, rather than on mortgages which were
careening towards foreclosure.” Keeping principal modifications something
that is offered only to “our best customers” keeps the practice voluntary.
It preserves banks’ freedom to discriminate between profit-making and
loss-making modifications.
The second offsetting effect of an otherwise
desirable principal reduction is a matter of accounting. If a bank has a
loan on its books valued at par, and it offers a principal reduction, it
must write down the value of the loan. It takes a hit against its capital
position, and experiences an event of nonperformance that even the most
sympathetic regulators will have no choice but to tabulate. If a bank has
purchased a loan at a discount, however, the loan is on the books at
historical cost. The bank can offer a principal reduction down to the
discounted value without experiencing any loss of book equity.
Of course this is a matter of mere accounting.
Whether or not a bank takes a capital hit has no bearing on whether a
principal reduction will increase the realizable cash-flow value of the
loan.
But accounting is destiny. The economic value of a
bank franchise, both to shareholders and managers, is intimately wound up
with its accounting position. A bank whose books are healthy may distribute
cash to shareholders and managers, while a bank whose capital position has
deteriorated will find itself constrained. A well-capitalized bank is free
to take on lucrative, speculative new business, while a troubled bank must
remain boringly and unprofitably vanilla. The option to distribute and the
option to speculate have extraordinary economic value to bank shareholders
and managers.
You cannot understand banking at all unless you
understand that banks must be valued as portfolios of options. You can value
some businesses by estimating the present value of cash flows from firm
assets, and then subtracting liabilities. But banks are more complicated
than that. The value of a bank is a function not only of expected cash
flows, but of the shape of the probability distribution of those cash flows,
and of the diverse arrangements that determine how different cash flow
realizations will be split among a bank’s many stakeholders. A hit to a
bank’s capital position narrows the distribution of future cash flows (by
attracting regulatory scrutiny) and diminishes the degree to which cash
flows can be appropriated by shareholders and managers rather than other
parties. To say that a bank should only be concerned with maximizing the
long-horizon value of its loan book is like arguing that the holder of a
call option ought not object if her contract is rewritten at a higher strike
price, because, after all, changing the strike price doesn’t reduce the
economic value of the underlying. A bank’s accounting situation and
regulatory environment define the terms of the options that are the main
source of value for big-bank shareholders. Accounting changes imply real
transfers of wealth.
Now the value of a bank to shareholders and
managers is very different from the social value of a bank. If we aggregate
the interests of all of a banks’ claimants — shareholders, managers,
bondholders, depositors, counterparties, guarantors — there is far less
optionality. From a “social perspective”, what we want banks to do is to
lend into enterprises whose interest payments reflect real value generation
and then maximize the expected value of those cash flows, irrespective of
who gets what among bank claimants. If we were serious about that, we would
force banks to write down their loan portfolios aggressively, so that going
forward shareholders and managers have nothing to lose by offering principal
modifications when doing so would maximize the cash flow value of their
loans. But if we did force banks to write their loan portfolios down
aggressively, the shareholders and managers with nothing to lose would be
different people than the current shareholders and managers of large banks,
via some resolution process or restructuring. Which is much of why we didn’t
do that, when we had the chance, and why bank mismanagement of past loans
continues to exert a drag on the real economy as we try and fail to go
forward. This very minute, there are homeowners who are nervously hoarding
cash, who are leaving factories idle and neighbors unemployed, in order to
maximize the option value of the bank franchise to incumbent shareholders,
managers, and uninsured creditors.
Also read the excellent comments!
Bob Jensen's threads on the need for more commentaries on accounting
research articles ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
"Reader Poll: Tech Tool You're Most Excited to Take into the Classroom,"
by
Julie Meloni, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 10, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Reader-Poll-Tech-Tool-Youre/26127/
I'm not sure I've ever said this out loud, but
ReadWriteWeb
is my absolute favorite blog in all the blogosphere,
and has been since they began covering all things technology-related
in 2003 or so—it's
the emphasis on critical thinking and analysis rather than knee-jerk
"first!" responses to news and events that makes me respect them so.
Recently, my most favorite RWW author (Audrey
Watters) asked educators for input via Twitter:
what's the tech tool you're most excited to take into the classroom with you
this fall?. Audrey is
collecting responses for use in an upcoming RWW
story, so between now and August 15th feel free to
help her out.
However, I'm interested in your answers as
well. No, I don't aim to write a similar story as Audrey, but I do
wonder about the different answers based on the different audiences.
Audrey's readership comes from the already highly-technologically-inclined,
often found on Twitter. The ProfHacker audience in the CHE is not
necessarily so. In fact, I think it is safe to say that the majority of the
ProfHacker readership is not on Twitter and is more
technology-curious than technology-embedded (or invested).
So, I'd like to hear from you as well. In the
comments, please let us know what's the tech tool you're most
excited to take into the classroom with you this fall? (anything
hardware or software "counts," and I'll even accept analog technologies as
valid answers)
Hopefully, given your responses and Audrey's own
article from (predominantly) her own audience, there will be some
interesting food for thought on the state of technology in higher ed.
Jensen Comment
“Taking into the classroom” is a rather ambiguous
phrase that should probably read “taking into the course.” In the latter case,
something Camtasia is still on my list of important priorities for things to add
to virtually any course whether onsite or online ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/
Camtasia ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camtasia
Camtasia can be used by
students as well as instructors.
Bob Jensen's threads on Tricks and Tools of the Trade ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Reader-Poll-Tech-Tool-Youre/26127/
Accounting Is a Sewer
If you think we're sometimes critical of the accounting profession and the
accounting academy on the AECM, you ain't heard nuthin' until you've heard from
the likes of Adrienne ---
http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com/p/about.html
"Accounting Is a Sewer" ---
Click Here
http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com/2010/12/accounting-is-sewer.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/OVWr+(Jr+Deputy+Accountant)
You can follow Adrienne's posts at
http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com
Mark Schaefer (Marketing) ---
http://www.businessesgrow.com/
From the Scout Report on October 1, 2010
EduBlogs ---
http://edublogs.org/
Started in 2005, Edublogs has grown to include
almost 60,000 blogs started by people all over the world. The Edublogs site
can be used by anyone to create blogs with education content, and most
school filters will allow their software to run correctly. The site includes
a video introduction on how to get started, and teachers will appreciate
that Edublogs includes discussion tools, video embedding, and social media
options. Visitors can customize their blog by using over 100 different
themes to give each one the personal touch. EduBlogs is compatible with all
operating systems, and their site also includes a FAQ section and training
guides.
"Cooley Law School Sues Bloggers and Lawyers," Inside Higher Ed,
July 15, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/15/qt#265103
The
Thomas M. Cooley Law School, a freestanding
institution in Michigan, on Thursday sued four anonymous individuals who
have posted critical comments online and lawyers who have started an
investigation into Cooley's job placement rates. The suits charge
defamation, interference with business interests and other violations of the
law. "With ethics and professionalism at the core of our law school's
values, we cannot – and will not – sit back and let anyone circulate
defamatory statements about Cooley or the choices our students and alumni
made to seek their law degree here," said Brent Danielson, chair of Cooley's
board, in an announcement of the suits.
One of the anonymous bloggers being sued runs a
site called
Thomas M. Cooley Law School Scam "to bring truth
and awareness to the students getting suckered in by this despicable excuse
for a law school." The blog questions Cooley's academic quality and charges
that very few of its graduates find jobs. (Cooley says 76 percent of
graduates find jobs, and that the figure was higher before the economic
downturn.)
The law firm being sued is Kurzon Strauss, in New
York, which ran a notice on the J.D. Underground website stating (according
to the complaint) that it was "conducting a broad, wide-ranging
investigation of a number of law schools for blatantly manipulating their
post-graduate employment data and salary information" to take advantage of
"the blithe ignorance of naive, clueless 22-year olds who have absolutely no
idea what a terrible investment obtaining a J.D. is." The notice
specifically requests information about Thomas Cooley and, according to the
law school, suggested that it was "perhaps one of the worst offenders" in
manipulating the data. Currently the J.D. Underground website features
a posting with some similar language (but not nearly as strong) to that
cited in the complaint, and
another posting from the law firm retracting some
of its earlier statements, suggesting that "certain allegations ... may have
been couched as fact."
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit universities operating in the gray zone of
fraud are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Graying
Jr Deputy Accountant and Going Concern Chosen as Top 50 Fantastic
Accounting Blogs ---
http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com/2011/01/jr-deputy-accountant-and-going-concern.html
Tom Selling also made the list with his Accounting Onion blog.
50 Fantastic Accounting Blogs ---
http://www.onlineaccountingdegree.org/best-accounting-blogs
Jensen Comment
I applaud the sites that made the Top 50. However, I question the bias of the
OnlineAccountingDegree.com site itself. It's sponsored by For-Profit
universities that do not have AACSB accreditation when, in my viewpoint,
students should first seek out online accounting degree programs in
AACSB-accredited universities. In the case of those state-supported AACSB
universities, the cost per credit hour may be much lower and the quality more
reliable than accounting programs linked in For-Profit of the online accounting
courses at
http://www.onlineaccountingdegree.org/
For example, the accounting programs listed in a search of "accounting programs"
does not even list the online accounting degree programs available from AACSB
accredited universities.
It should also be noted that Texas will not even allow candidates to sit for
the CPA examination unless they've had at least five accounting courses onsite
such that graduates of fully online programs cannot even sit for the CPA
examination.
My advice to prospective online accounting students is to first look for
accounting degree programs in AACSB universities such as flagship state
university programs such as those the University of Connecticut, Wisconsin,
Maryland, Massachusetts, etc.
My favorite example of what I consider For-Profit university frauds are the
For-Profit online accounting doctoral programs listed at
http://www.onlineaccountingdegree.org/
If you want to embarrass and online accounting doctoral program, ask who will be
advising the dissertations and look carefully to see if the curriculum is at all
comparable to an accounting doctoral program at an AACSB accredited university
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
The fact of the matter is that graduates of these non-AACSB online accounting
doctoral programs do not face the same academic job market alternatives that are
available only to AACSB university accounting graduates.
In my judgment there is no respectable online accounting doctoral program in
North America and probably will not be one until an accounting program in an
AACSB-accredited university commences to offer an online accounting doctoral
program. There are respectable online doctoral programs in other disciplines
such as education, but there are none in accounting.
I have respect for the "50 Fantastiuc Accounting Blogs" but I've no respect
for the company that chose these winners, OnlineAccountingDegree.com at
http://www.onlineaccountingdegree.org/
Accounting Doctoral Programs
May 3, 2011 message to Barry Rice from Bob Jensen
Hi Barry,
Faculty without doctoral degrees who meet the AACSB PQ standards are
still pretty much second class citizens and will find the tenure track
hurdles to eventual full professorship very difficult except in colleges
that pay poorly at all levels.
There are a number of alternatives for a CPA/CMA looking into AACSB AQ
alternatives in in accounting in North American universities:
The best alternative is to enter into a traditional accounting doctoral
program at an AACSB university. Virtually all of these in North America are
accountics doctoral programs requiring 4-6 years of full time onsite study
and research beyond the masters degree. The good news is that these programs
generally have free tuition, room, and board allowances. The bad news is
that students who have little interest in becoming mathematicians and
statisticians and social scientists need not apply ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
As a second alternative Central Florida University has an onsite doctoral
program that is stronger in the accounting and lighter in the accountics.
Kennesaw State University has a three-year executive DBA program that has
quant-lite alternatives, but this is only available in accounting to older
executives who enter with PQ-accounting qualifications. It also costs nearly
$100,000 plus room and board even for Georgia residents. The DBA is also not
likely to get the graduate into a R1 research university tenure track.
As a third alternative there are now some online accounting doctoral
programs that are quant-lite and only take three years, but these diplomas
aren't worth the paper they're written on ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
Cappella University is a very good online university, but its online
accounting doctoral program is nothing more than a glorified online MBA
degree that has, to my knowledge, no known accounting researchers teaching
in the program. Capella will not reveal its doctoral program faculty to
prospective students. I don't think the North American academic job market
yet recognizes Capella-type and Nova-type doctorates except in universities
that would probably accept the graduates as PQ faculty without a doctorate.
As a fourth alternative there are some of the executive accounting
doctoral programs in Europe, especially England, that really don't count for
much in the North American job market.
As a fifth alternative, a student can get a three-year non-accounting PhD
degree from a quality doctoral program such as an economics or computer
science PhD from any of the 100+ top flagship state/provincial universities
in North America. Then if the student also has PQ credentials to teach in an
accounting program, the PhD graduate can enroll in an accounting part-time
"Bridge Program" anointed by the AACSB ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/conferences_seminars/seminars/bp.asp
As a sixth alternative, a student can get a three-year law degree in
addition to getting PQ credentials in some areas where lawyers often get
into accounting program tenure tracks. The most common specialty for lawyers
is tax accounting. Some accounting departments also teach business law and
ethics using lawyers.
Hope this helps.
Bob Jensen
PS
Case Western has a very respected accounting history track in its PhD
program, but I'm not certain how many of the accountics hurdles are relaxed
except at the dissertation stage.
Bob Jensen's links to listservs, blogs, and
social networks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting news sites are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
PS
One test of any of the "50 Fantastic Accounting Blogs" is to put them to the
test of age, popularity, and Google love (See below):
How do do your favorite Websites rate in terms of age, popularity,
and Google love?
May 31, 2011 message from Emily
Good Morning Dr. Jensen,
Hope you had a nice memorial weekend. I wonder whether
you receive my email sent to you on the 23rd? Did you have a chance to review
our site
reviewandjudge.org? Perhaps it is a valuable resource to your visitors in
your page
www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudreporting .htm under the section Additional
resources?
Please get back to me.
Best Regards,
Emily
Jensen Comment
This is an interesting Website for various things,
including consumer frauds:
reviewandjudge ---
http://reviewandjudge.org/HOME.htm
I don't know just why, but this site also has a link to having any Website
you choose evaluated for age, popularity, and a Google love rating. For example,
I keyed in my home page at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/
Note that for some reason you have to
delete the http:// part of the above URL to get this to work. Thus to make it
work I key in only
www.trinity.edu/rjensen
I got 5.0/5.0 stars for age of the Webpage
(I've been maintaining this page for over 15 years), 3.5/5.0 stars for
popularity, and 3.5/5.0 stars for a Google love rating.
In order to put it to a comparison test, I know that sociology professor Mike
Kearl has one of the most popular academic Websites served up by Trinity
University. When I keyed in
www.trinity.edu/mkearl
the results were 5.0/5.0 stars for age
of Mike's Webpage, 3.5/5.0 stars for popularity, and 3.5/5.0 stars for a Google
love rating.
Either Mike and I are running neck and neck or there's something suspicious
going on here. So I read in Jim Mahar's popular finance professor blog (after
removing http://) at
financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
He is doing much worse than Mike and
me, although I think he has, in my viewpoint, one of the best finance blogs on
the academic Web.
Next I read in the very popular blog maintained by economics Nobel laureate
Gary Becker and famous law professor Richard Posner (after removing http://) at
uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/
Becker and Posner also fared worse
than Mike and me except that they did get a 3.5/5.0 Google love rating.
Next I typed in Lady Gaga's home page (after removing http://) at
www.ladygaga.com/bornthisway/
the results were 4.0/5.0 stars for popularity, and 3.5/5.0 stars
for a Google love rating.
Yikes! Mike and I are doing almost as well with our
dull academic sites as the site that links to many photos and videos of Lady
Gaga in her underwear.
Next I read in the ABC News home page (after removing http://) at
http://abcnews.go.com/
the results were 5.0/5.0 stars for age of the ABC News page, 5.0/5.0
stars for popularity, and 4.0/5.0 stars for a Google rating.
Guess Mike and I
aren't as popular as ABC News, but we're close, and this makes me slightly
suspicious.
Next I read in the Stanford University home page at
www.Stanford.edu
the results were
5.0/5.0 stars for age of Stanford's home page, 4.5/5.0 stars for
popularity, and 4.5/5.0 stars for a Google rating.
Next I read in the Harvard University home page at
www.Harvard.edu
the results were
5.0/5.0 stars for age of Harvard's home page, 4.5/5.0 stars for
popularity, and 4.0/5.0 stars for a Google rating.
The bottom line is that
Google loves Harvard a little less than Stanford, but Google's love for Harvard
and Lady Gaga are identical.
June 2, 2011 explanation of Website ratings were sent by Emily:
The "people" icons
represent an estimate of how many people worldwide visit a website.
The chart
below provides an approximate estimate of how many US monthly users each of the
"International People" represents.
|
"People"
|
Estimate monthly US
users
|
|
0.5
|
1 to 500
|
|
1
|
501 to 1,500
|
|
1.5
|
1,501 to 5,000
|
|
2
|
5,001 to 20,000
|
|
2.5
|
20,001 to 40,000
|
|
3
|
40,001 to 90,000
|
|
3.5
|
90,001 to 400,000
|
|
4
|
400,000 to 1,000,000
|
|
4.5
|
1,000,001 to 12,000,000
|
|
5
|
12,000,001 to
130,000,000
|
READ MORE
The "stars" represent the year a
domain name has been registered.
|
"Stars"
|
Year
|
|
0.5
|
2010
|
|
1
|
2009
|
|
1.5
|
2008
|
|
2
|
2007
|
|
2.5
|
2006
|
|
3
|
2005
|
|
3.5
|
2004
|
|
4
|
2003
|
|
4.5
|
2000/2001/2002
|
|
5
|
1999 & earlier
|
Google's ranking reflects the good
standing of the website in the internet community. Even if you use Yahoo! or
Bing, you can benefit from Google’s opinion of a certain website.
|
"Hearts"
|
Google's "PageRank"
|
|
0.5
|
1
|
|
1
|
2
|
|
1.5
|
3
|
|
2
|
4
|
|
2.5
|
5
|
|
3
|
6
|
|
3.5
|
7
|
|
4
|
8
|
|
4.5
|
9
|
|
5
|
10
|
January 8, 2010 message from David Albrecht
[albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]
A really, really good
blog is CPA Trendlines ( http://cpatrendlines.com). I find it so useful, it is
one of four from whom I'm grateful to receive tweets (retheauditors, feiblog,
compliance week are the others). BTW, thanks to a hint from Francine, I was made
aware of TweetDeck and it is much easier to track tweets.
Anyway, Rick Telberg has
published some really useful stats from BLS.
http://cpatrendlines.com/2010/01/08/accounting-loses-2600-jobs-in-december/comment-page-1/#comment-546857
He summarizes in the
article that accounting is down 44,000 jobs from the start of this recession.
Ouch! There are numerous stories of how many are needing to make what they
perceive as permanent adjustments to their lifestyle. Ouch!
Dave Albrecht
Other accountancy, tax, fraud, and related blogs and news sites ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Canadian accounting blogs done by Golden Practice Inc. president Michelle
Golden
http://goldenmarketing.typepad.com/weblog/accountingbloglist.html
Top
50 accounting blogs ---
http://onlineaccountingcolleges.com/2009/top-50-blogs-for-accountants/
Other Accounting Blogs
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Tech Blogs
Tech Crunch ---
http://www.techcrunch.com/
PC World's choices for the Top 100 blogs on June 25, 2007 ---
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133119/article.html
Interesting Blog on Twitter ---
http://glinner.posterous.com/the-conversation-23
Top 50 Economics Blogs ---
http://bankling.com/2009/top-50-economics-blogs/#more-604
Google Blog Directory ---
http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html
Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Immigration Law News ---
http://www.canadausvisas.com/
Jerry Trites called my attention to the new "Babbage" blog from my
favorite magazine The Economist (I read it cover-to-cover every
week.) ---
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage?fsrc=nlw|pub|03_30_2010|publishers_newsletter
From Trites E-Business Blog on April 1, 2010 (no fooling) ---
http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html
Babbage - A New Blog
The Economist Magazine has launched a new blog
called Babbage.
Named after Charles Babbage, the father of the
computer, our new blog aims to understand the world through the technology
that now impacts our lives and reveals so much about us. Recent posts
investigate the role of geeks (they are now officially cool, running
companies and making millions), mourn the demise of the analog car, and ask
just who Apple's iPad is for. Answer: no one knows, not even Apple.
The blog is at this URL. It's worth bookmarking, as
the Economist is always on point.
Feminist Philosophers Blog ---
http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/ways-women-are-excluded/
From the Scout Report on October 9, 2009
In rules issued this week, the Federal Trade
Commission declares that bloggers must disclose the receipt of free products
and existing financial interests F.T.C. to Rule Blogs Must Disclose Gifts or
Pay for Reviews [Free registration may be required]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html?hp
Bloggers face disclosure rules ---
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bloggers6-2009oct06,0,4733519.story
FTC Tells Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or
Be Fined
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/ftc-bloggers/
FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements,
Testimonials
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm
Concurring Opinions: FTC and Blogger Disclosure
Rules
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/10/ftc-and-blogger-disclosure-rules.html
Google Blog Directory ---
http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html
Why are advertisers paying more money for space on blogs and social
networks?
Americans have been devoting 17 percent of all their
Internet time to social networks like Facebook and blogging Web sites like
Blogger. The percentage for last month is up from 6 percent a year earlier. The
report comes from Nielsen Co. and follows its decision to team up with Facebook
on a marketing program that helps advertisers measure how well their ads work on
the online hangout.Nielsen estimates that ad spending on leading social-network
and blogging sites more than doubled year-over-year, to about $108 million for
the month. This happened even as several industries decreased their overall ad
spending.
MIT's Technology Review, September 25, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/wire/23532/?nlid=2383
A growing number of professors are becoming bloggers
Media studies as a discipline has been quick to
embrace the potentials of new-media platforms as channels for sharing our
research and scholarship. A growing number of junior and senior faculty members
in our field are becoming bloggers. At the same time, media scholars are pooling
their efforts to contribute to larger projects, such as the biweekly webzine
Flow, which runs pieces on many aspects of contemporary television and digital
culture, and In Media Res, which each day offers a short video clip and
commentary by a leading media scholar. These same strategies can be and are
being adopted across a range of academic disciplines, as scholars make a greater
commitment to circulate their findings more broadly and to respond to
contemporary issues in a thoughtful and timely manner.
Henry Jenkins, "Public Intellectuals in the New-Media Landscape,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i30/30b01801.htm
David Albrecht Goes Green
"Questions From A Future Blogger," by David Albrecht, The Summa,
January 14, 2010 ---
http://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/questions-from-a-future-blogger/
Accounting and/or financial blogs are a big deal.
As the world evolves and becomes faster paced, long-lived jobs will
disappear. We accountants will adapt by piecing together a career from many
project-length opportunities. I believe it will be a matter of professional
life or death for accountants to get on top of evolving current events and
stay there. For there to be life, we all need to make life-long learning a
lifestyle.
The ability to think will separate thrivers from
survivors and hangers-on. We accountants will need to think critically
(buzzword for analyze and understand what is going on), creatively
(inventing solutions) and practically (applying cutting edge skills to
implement solutions).
How will we get learn to think these ways and grow
our thinking? Independent blogs commentaries like The Summa, and re: The
Auditors, and TaxGirl. Blogs provide input to fuel critical thinking, seeds
for creating thinking, and energy for practical thinking.
So, I want to encourage accounting/financial
blogging. Then along came this e-mail. from a Summa reader, asking about my
blogging process. Although I don’t reveal his identity, I’m already aware of
his writing and his unifying message. He has a lot to contribute, and I
think he should blog. So, I wrote this blog piece. His comments/questions
are in emphasized green, answers in normal font.
Continued in article
"Blog Comments and Peer Review Go Head to Head to See Which
Makes a Book Better," by Jeffrey Young, Chronicle of Higher Education,
January 22, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2008/01/1322n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
What if scholarly books were peer
reviewed by anonymous blog comments rather than by traditional, selected
peer reviewers?
That's the question being posed by an unusual
experiment that begins today. It involves a scholar studying video games, a
popular academic blog with the playful name Grand Text Auto, a nonprofit
group designing blog tools for scholars, and MIT Press.
The idea took shape when Noah Wardrip-Fruin, an
assistant professor of communication at the University of California at San
Diego, was talking with his editor at the press about peer reviewers for the
book he was finishing, The book, with the not-so-playful title Expressive
Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies,
examines the importance of using both software design and traditional
media-studies methods in the study of video games.
One group of reviewers jumped to his mind: "I
immediately thought, you know it's the people on Grand Text Auto."
The blog, which takes
its moniker from the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto, is run by
Mr. Wardrip-Fruin and five colleagues. It offers an academic take on
interactive fiction and video games.
Inviting More Critics
The blog is read by many of the same
scholars he sees at academic conferences, and also attracts readers from the
video-game industry and teenagers who are hard-core video-game players. At
its peak, the blog has had more than 200,000 visitors per month, he says.
"This is the community whose response I want, not
just the small circle of academics," Mr. Wardrip-Fruin says.
So he called up the folks at the Institute for the
Future of the Book, who developed CommentPress, a tool for adding digital
margin notes to blogs (The
Chronicle, September 28, 2007). Would they
help out? He wondered if he could post sections of his book on Grand Text
Auto and allow readers, using CommentPress, to add critiques right in the
margins.
The idea was to tap the wisdom of his crowd.
Visitors to the blog might not read the whole manuscript, as traditional
reviewers do, but they might weigh in on a section in which they have some
expertise.
The institute, an unusual academic center run by
the University of Southern California but based in Brooklyn, N.Y., was game.
So was Mr. Wardrip-Fruin's editor at MIT Press, Doug Sery, but with one
important caveat. He insisted on running the manuscript through the
traditional peer-review process as well. "We are a peer-review press—we're
always going to want to have an honest peer review," says Mr. Sery, senior
editor for new media and game studies. "The reputation of MIT Press, or any
good academic press, is based on a peer-review model."
So the experiment will provide a side-by-side
comparison of reviewing—old school versus new blog. Mr. Wardrip-Fruin calls
the new method "blog-based peer review."
Each day he will post a new chunk of his draft to
the blog, and readers will be invited to comment. That should open the
floodgates of input, possibly generating thousands of responses by the time
all 300-plus pages of the book are posted. "My plan is to respond to
everything that seems substantial," says the author.
The institute is modifying its CommentPress
software for the project, with the help of a $10,000 grant from San Diego's
Academic Senate, to create a version that bloggers can more easily add to
their existing academic blogs.
A Cautious Look Forward
Mr. Wardrip-Fruin's friends have
warned him that sorting through all those comments will take over his life,
or at least take far more time than he expects. "It's been said to me enough
times by people who are not just naysayers that it is in the back of my
mind," he acknowledges. Still, the book's review process "will pale in
comparison to the work of writing it."
He expects the blog-based review to be more helpful
than the traditional peer review because of the variety of voices
contributing. "I am dead certain it will make the book better," he says.
Mr. Sery isn't so sure. "I don't know how this
general peer review is going to help," the editor says, except maybe to
catch small errors that have slipped through the cracks. Traditional peer
review involves carefully chosen experts in the same subject area, who can
point to big-picture issues as well as nitpick details. He bets that the
blog reviews might merely spark flame wars or other unhelpful arguments
about minor points. "I'm curious to see what kind of comments we get back,"
he says.
That probably "depends on what you're writing
about," says Clifford A. Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for
Networked Information, a group that supports the use of technology in
scholarly communication. "If, God help you, you're writing about current
religious or political issues, you're going to get a lot of people with
agendas who aren't interested in having a rational discussion. Some of them
are just psychos."
Even without flame wars, Mr. Sery equates the blog
review with the kind of informal sharing of drafts that many academics do
with close friends. It's useful, but it's still not formal peer review, he
argues. Carefully choosing reviewers "really allows for the expression of
their ideas on the book," he says. Scholars can say with authority, for
instance, that a book just isn't worth publishing.
Ben Vershbow, editorial director at the Institute
for the Future of the Book, concedes that comments on blogs are unlikely to
fully replace peer review. But he says academic blogging can play a role in
the publishing process.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
This is one of those experiments that is impossible to extrapolate. Blog
comments are totally voluntary and impulsive such that blog comments are going
to be highly variable with respect to topics, errors in the original document,
and extent of the readership in the blog. Few blog activists are going to give
time and attention to reviews that are not going to be widely read.
Peer reviews are likely to be less impulsive since the
reviewer generally agrees ahead of time to conduct a review. But they are more
variable than blog comments. The reason is that peer reviewers spend less time
reviewing manuscripts that are outliers (i.e., those that are so good that there
are few recommendations for change or those that are so bad that there's little
hope for a future positive recommendation to publish). More time may be spend on
manuscripts that need a lot of repair but have high hopes.
The main problem with peer reviews is that there are so few
reviewers. Much depends upon which two or three reviewers are assigned to review
the manuscript. Three reviewers' garbage may be another three reviewers'
treasure. Another problem is that peer reviews are seldom published in the name
of the anonymous reviewers. Blog commentators generally do so in their own names
and get some reputation enhancement among their blog peers, especially if their
are praiseworthy replies on the blog to the blog review. Anonymous reviewers get
little incremental reputation enhancement for their unpublished reviews.
Still another problem with peer reviews is that editors and
their hand picked reviewers may be a biased subset of a scholarly community.
Others in the community may be shut out, which is now a raging problem in
academic accountancy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on oligopoly abuse of
scholarly publishing are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#ScholarlyJournals
On Point [iTunes news from poetry to science]
http://www.onpointradio.org/
BBC: In Our Time [iTunes] ---
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/
U.S. Supreme Court Scotus Blog ---
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/
Business Communications from Business Week Magazine
---
http://bx.businessweek.com/business-communications/
From Business Week Magazine: 4,500 MBA Blogs
View over 4,500 blogs in our MBA Blogs community today!
Share your journey, meet new friends, and expand your network. Connect with MBA
students, applicants and alumni from
Columbia,
Northwestern,
Notre Dame,
and more!
Quoted from a Business Week email message on June 24, 2009
An MBA blog search engine ---
http://jamesyo.mbablogs.businessweek.com/archive/2005/12/08/3vqgp173hxrx
(I was disappointed in the lack of content)
Jensen Comment
Most of these blogs deal with life within a program and/or the dismal job
market.
Sadly, some report
that MBA programs are more about partying than classes, but I think most those
that say this are secretly studying their butts off. Some discuss courses,
including accounting courses. But among the course discussions, MBA students are
more inclined to discuss finance, policy, and marketing courses. If they only
realized how important accounting is to success in either starting at the bottom
of a company and working your way to the top or starting at the top in your new
entrepreneurship.
Business Week reports that many unemployed
MBA graduates are now becoming their own entrepreneurs.
Nothing like starting out at the top ---
Click Here
The partiers who
did not learn much accounting probably will watch their new ventures crash.
It may be surprising to some of
you, but actually Business School is almost more about parties than studying.
There are different parties every night. You have parties with your study group,
your cluster, your year, the cluster from the year above/below you, with other
schools at Columbia, with other schools in NY, with your clubs, with ... But
don't forget you have professors like Toby Stuart who is expecting you to read
120 pages for Strategy Formulation by tomorrow morning, after you have turned in
the spreadsheet and four page writeup for statistics and have handed in the
solution to the case and the spreadsheet for corporate finance - and oh did you
remember ...
http://wulffen.mbablogs.businessweek.com/archive/2005/09/17/k8goqee8pk7a
Jensen Comment
If they were not achievers these so-called "partying MBAs" would've not gotten
into a prestigious MBA program in the first place. Don't associate MBA social
interactions with the sad-case first-year undergraduates who pledged a
fraternity and boozed their way out of college (and maybe even their own lives)
before the end of their first years in college.
From a Brussels' Think Tank
THE FREEDOM NETWORK AUDIO PORTAL ---
http://workforall.net/audio-library-of-economics.html
Audio modules on
Economics,
Money,
Social Security,
Liberty,
Strategy &
Public Policy
From Jim Mahar's Finance Professor Blog on May 31, 2009
Free & Easy Access to worldwide Broadcasts on
Economics, Social Security, Policy and Strategy
THE FREEDOM NETWORK AUDIO PORTAL - Free & Easy Access to worldwide
Broadcasts on Economics, Social Security, Policy and Strategy: "Podcasts on
Economics, Social Security, Strategy, Liberty & Public Policy"
Wow. Amazing stuff. Thanks to Wayne Marr for point
it out.
"Is Stupid Making Us Google?" By James
Bowman, The New Atlantis, no. 21, Summer 2008, pp. 75-80 ---
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google
Generally speaking, even those
who are most gung-ho about new ways of learning probably tend to cling to a
belief that education has, or ought to have, at least something to do with
making things lodge in the minds of students--this even though the
disparagement of the role of memory in education by professional educators
now goes back at least three generations, long before computers were ever
thought of as educational tools. That, by the way, should lessen our
astonishment, if not our dismay, at the extent to which the educational
establishment, instead of viewing these developments with alarm, is adapting
its understanding of what education is to the new realities of how the new
generation of 'netizens' actually learn (and don't learn) rather than trying
to adapt the kids to unchanging standards of scholarship and learning.
Jensen Comment
Yikes! When I'm looking for an answer to most anything I now turn first to
Wikipedia and then Google. I guess James Bowman put me in my place. However,
being retired I'm no longer corrupting the minds of students (at least not
apart from my Website and blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
I would counter Bowman by saying that Stupid is as Stupid does. Stupid
"does" the following: Stupid accepts a single source for an answer.
Except when the answer seems self evident, a scholar will seek verification
from other references. However, a lot of things are "self evident" to
Stupid.
Scholars often forget that Google also has a scholars'
search engine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#ScholarySearch
Also see "Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Open Encyclopedia, and YouTube as
Knowledge Bases" ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#KnowledgeBases
There is a
serious issue that sweat accompanied with answer searching aids in the
memory of what is learned ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm
But must we sweat to find every answer in life? There is also the maxim that
we learn best from our mistakes. Bloggers are constantly being made aware of
their mistakes. This is one of the scholarly benefits of blogging.
On blogs and Web sites, by e-mail and video, the Iraq war is fought on the
Internet
U.S. soldiers return from battle to their rooms or
tents, boot up their laptops and log on to let their friends and family know
they've made it through another day. If their base is large enough, the Internet
service provider offers broadband, and they can make a video call home, watch
news reports on the war or post their own versions of life in Iraq to their
blogs. ''I blog for the same reasons soldiers wrote letters and diaries during
previous wars: to communicate with family and friends, (and) to maintain an
honest record of our daily existence,'' wrote 1st Lt. Matt Gallagher, in
response to an e-mail about his blog
http://kaboomwarjournal.blogspot.com . ''Blogging is simply a 21st century
tool for a new generation of soldiers to utilize.''
MIT's Technology Review, March 18, 2008 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20427/?nlid=945
In April 2007 the blog search engine Technorati reported that it was
tracking 70 million blogs, with 120,000 new ones arriving every day ---
http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html
Technorati ---
http://technorati.com/
Search for Blogs (Weblogs) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#Blogs
Tech Crunch ---
http://www.techcrunch.com/
PC World's choices for the Top 100 blogs on June 25, 2007 ---
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133119/article.html
Interesting Blog on Twitter ---
http://glinner.posterous.com/the-conversation-23
Top 50 Economics Blogs ---
http://bankling.com/2009/top-50-economics-blogs/#more-604
Google Blog Directory ---
http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html
Ace of Spades (irreverent but finds interesting modules) ---
http://ace.mu.nu/
Professors Fama and French operate a very informative Q&A
Blog in economics and financial markets at
http://www.dimensional.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=1&tag=Research&limit=20
It's Been Ten Years Since the Blog Was Born Out of Something Called a
Weblog ---
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
Google has a blog search tool ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#Blogs
I fit into the category of an original NWAL blogger category meaning that I'm
a Nerd Without A Life blogger. Now of course there are millions of bloggers who
also have a life. I'm still stuck in the NWAL category.
New Blogs (at least new to me near the end of 2007)
Rate Your Students (be prepared for four letter words and worse)
---
http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/
Perhaps this to counter RateMyProfessor ---
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/index.jsp
There is also a Professors Strike Back (largely video) site at
http://www.mtvu.com/professors_strike_back/
From the Scout Report on November 21, 2008
Fast Blog Finder 2.50 ---
http://www.fastblogfinder.com/
As its name indicates, the Fast Blog Finder helps
users look for weblog posts that have a particularly high ranking in Google
for a given phrase. It can be useful for research purposes, and visitors can
also make use of it if they wish to attract more traffic to their own
websites. This version is compatible with all operating systems.
Most Popular American Bar Association (ABA) Blogs
Bob Jensen's threads on free online law and legal studies tutorials and
videos ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
Other blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#Blogs
Google's blog search tool is at
http://blogsearch.google.com/
(For example, search "Student Examination" at the above Google site)
(Accountants may want to search for "Accounting" at the above Google site)
(More serious accountants may want to search "FAS 133" or "IAS 39" at the above
Google site.)
Bob Jensen's blogs and various threads on many topics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
To celebrate this tenth "blogiversary" on July 14, 2007, The Wall Street
Journal on Pages P4-P5 ran a special column by Tunku Varadarajan that
highlighted some of the leading blogs ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/onlinetoday/2007/07/14/pursuits-extras-for-saturday-july-14-2/
The WSJ blogiversary highlights the impact of some of selected blogs.
Christopher Cox, Chairman of the SEC, recommends searching for blogs at
Google and Blogdigger ---
http://www.blogdigger.com/index.html
He points out that Sun Microsystems CEO Jack Schwartz in his own blog challenged
the SEC to consider blogs as a means of corporate sharing of public information.
Jensen Comment
But more recently CEO John Mackey of Whole Foods got in trouble with the SEC for
his anonymous blog.
See "Mr. Mackey's Offense," The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2007; Page
A12 ---
Click Here
Christopher Cox, a strong advocate of
XBRL,
gives a high recommendation to the following XBRL blog:
For fast financial reporting, a recommended blog is Hitachi America, Ltd XBRL
Business Blog ---
http://www.hitachixbrl.com/
One of the great bloggers is one of the all-time great CEOs is Jack Bogle
who founded what is probably the most ethical mutual fund businesses in the
world called
Vanguard. He maintains his own blog (without a ghost blogger) called The
Bogle eBlog ---
http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/
Nobel laureate (economics) Gary Becker runs a blog with Richard
Posner called the Becker-Posner Blog ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
Fama (Chicago) and French (Dartmouth) have an economics
and finance blog ---
http://www.dimensional.com/famafrench/
This includes links to their working papers.
Actress and humanitarian Mia Farrow maintains blogs on her visits to
troubles pars of the world.
See
http://www.miafarrow.org/
One of her favorite blogs (not one that she runs) is BoingBoing.net ---
http://www.boingboing.net/
She is also a heavy user of satellite phones ---
http://www.gpsmagazine.com/
James Toranto discusses the powerful impact that blogs have had on
politics and government.
He recommends the following political blogs:
KausFiles.com from the liberal/progressive UK media outlet called
Slate ---
http://www.slate.com/id/2170453/
InstaPundet.com from a liberatarian law professor ---
http://www.instapundet.com/
JustOneMinute.typepad.com ---
http://www.justoneminute.typepad.com/
Jane Hamsher founded a political blog at
http://www.firedoglake.com/
She recommends the following leftest-leaning blogs:
CrooksAndLiars.com ---
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
TBogg.blogspot.com ---
http://www.tbogg.blogspot.com/
DigbysBlog.blogspot.com ---
http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/
General Kevin Bergner is a spokesman for the Multi-National Force in
Iraq and generally gives straight talk a world of distorted and biased media ---
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
Some of his favorite blogs are as follows:
Small Wars Journal ---
http://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php
Blackfive --- http://www.blackfive.net/
The Mudville Gazette ---
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/
Newt Gingrich recommends the following conservative-politics blogs:
RedState,com ---
http://www.redstate.com/
Corner.NationalReview.com ---
http://corner.nationalreview.com/
Powerline Blog ---
http://www.powerlineblog.com/
Dick Costolo is a Group Product Manager at Google. He likes the
following blogs:
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by an
imposter ---
http://www.fakesteve.blogspot.com/
New Media and the Future of Online Publishing ---
http://publishing2.com/
Photo Blogs ---
http://www.photoblogs.org/
Tom Wolfe (popular novelist) grew "weary of narcisstic shrieks and
baseless information."
Xiao Qiang, the founder of Chna Digital Times, recomments the
following blogs:
ZonaEuropa for global news with a focus on China ---
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm
Howard Rheingold's tech commentaries on the social revolution at
http://www.smartmobs.com/
DoNews from Keso (in Chinese) ---
http://blog.donews.com/keso
(Search engines like Google will translate pages into English)
Jim Buckmaster, CEO of
Craigslist recommends
the following blogs:
One of the first tech blogs ---
http://slashdot.org/
Metafilter (a wiki community blog that anybody can edit) ---
http://www.metafilter.com/
Tech Dirt ---
http://www.techdirt.com/
Elizabeth Spiers is the founding editor of the news/gossip blogs
called
Gawks/Jossip and the financial blog
Dealbreaker.. She
recommends the following blogs:
The liberatarian Reason
Magazine blog ---
http://www.reason.com/blog/
MaudNewton blog on literature and culture (and occasional political rants) ---
http://maudnewton.com/blog/index.php
Design Observer ---
http://www.designobserver.com/
How did they fail to overlook the following NWAL blogs?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
New Bookmarks
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's favorite free blogs (other than
major newspaper, magazine, and accountancy blogs that I track):
Aljazeera ---
http://english.aljazeera.net
Commentary ---
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
New Republic ---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse
Inside Higher Ed ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/
The Finance Professor ---
http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
Financial Rounds ---
http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/
Consumer Reports Web Watch ---
http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/
Issues in Scholarly Communication ---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Knowledge@Wharton ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/
Multi-National Force ---
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
NPR --- http://www.npr.org/
PC World ---
http://www.pcworld.com/columns/
PhysOrg --- http://physorg.com/
(Good coverage of happenings in science and medicine)
WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/
Wired News --- http://www.wired.com/
(not as good as it used to be)
WorldNetDaily ---
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ (watch for bias and the mixing of adds
with news)
Y-Net News ---
http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3083,00.html
I will probably be adding the following blogs on
a less regular basis:
The Bogle eBlog ---
http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/
Becker-Posner Blog ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
CrooksAndLiars.com ---
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Small Wars Journal ---
http://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php
Blackfive --- http://www.blackfive.net/
The Mudville Gazette ---
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by an imposter ---
http://www.fakesteve.blogspot.com/
New Media and the Future of Online Publishing ---
http://publishing2.com/
Photo Blogs ---
http://www.photoblogs.org/
Tech Dirt ---
http://www.techdirt.com/
For Newspapers and Magazines I highly recommend
Drudge Links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/DrudgeLinks.htm
In particular I track Reason Magazine, The Nation, The New
Yorker, Sydney Morning Herald, Sky, Slate, BBC, Jewish World Review, and
The Economist
For financial news I like The Wall Street
Journal and the Business sub-section of The New York Times
For Book Reviews I like ---
http://www.booksindepth.com/period.html
Also see the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors ---
http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/
Much more of my news and commentaries comes from online newsletters such as
MIT's Technology Review, AccountingWeb, SmartPros, Opinion Journal, The
Irascible Professor, T.H.E. Journal, and more too numerous to mention.
And I also get a great deal of information from
various listservs and private messages that people just send to me, many of whom
I've never met.
A Blog for Students of
Investment Strategies ---
http://bonasimm.blogspot.com/
Top 50 Economics Blogs ---
http://bankling.com/2009/top-50-economics-blogs/#more-604
Google Blog Directory ---
http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html
Ace of Spades (irreverent but finds interesting modules) ---
http://ace.mu.nu/
Association of Government Accountants Blog
Inside Government Accounting ---
http://aga.typepad.com/
There's quite a lot here on fraud and forensic accounting
Deloitte's International Accounting Blog ---
http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm
Thanks to Paul Pacter this is probably the best site in the world for
international accounting news
A Very Successful Blog
Stuff White People Like ---
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/
"Stuff White People Like," by Evan R. Goldstein, Chronicle of Higher
Education's The Chronicle Review, April 18, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i32/32b00401.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
What do the Sunday New York Times, Barack Obama,
knowing what's best for poor people, having gay friends, and arts degrees
have in common? According to Christian Lander, they are all "stuff white
people like." A mere three months ago, the 29-year-old Internet copywriter
started a blog by that name with a post satirizing white people's affinity
for coffee, noting that they are fond of sayings like, "You do NOT want to
see me before I get my morning coffee" and are happy to pay a premium for
fair-trade coffee because "the extra $2 means they are making a difference."
That item struck a nerve. Stuff White People Like
averages around 300,000 hits a day, and its numbered catalog of the
cultural, political, and social predilections of highly educated,
middle-class, liberal, white people is nearing 100 items. At the end of
March, Random House announced that it had signed Lander, who is himself
white, to a book deal widely reported to be worth around $300,000.
The blog's emergence as a cultural phenomenon has
triggered a wide-ranging discussion about race, humor, and whether Stuff
White People Like is a trenchant critique of white cultural mores — or a
backhanded celebration of white cultural superiority.
Gary Dauphin, writer and blogger: Stuff White
People Like … smells like a classic racial con job. It goes without saying
that the specific entries (Oscar parties?) don't really apply to anyone.
That makes Lander's overall pose — and the uncritical response to it — the
real action. You'd think from the approving hubbub that SWPL had discovered
(white) America or something, but white comedians, academics, and artists
have been thinking and cracking wise about "white" culture since before
Lander was in, well, the short pants he's posted about. Usually even jokey
talk about whiteness has a whiff of danger to it, but SWPL is likely the
safest, most-affable racial satire ever, a loving high-five between friends
passing as critique. (The Root)
Dean Rader, associate professor of English,
University of San Francisco: One more reason SWPL has resonated is due to
its very smart awareness of what I call "Overculture," which is the subject
of my next book. Stuff White People Like is fantastic at mapping the icons
of Overculture — those popular texts that indicate a ubiquity in American
consumer and popular culture. For example, Starbucks plays music heard on
The Wire, which gets written about in Slate, which has an agreement with
NPR, which reviews books available in Borders, which sells coffee and
expensive sandwiches. Overculture is a new kind of cultural map that
circumscribes everything that has hit a tipping point, everything educated
people should either consume or be aware of. (The Weekly Rader)
Gregory Rodriguez, senior fellow, New America
Foundation: As unusual as Lander's site is, it is also part of a
sociological trend among whites who live in increasingly non-Anglo cities
and regions: their transformation into a minority group. Whites used to
think of themselves as standard-issue American — they had the luxury of not
having to grapple with the significance of their own racial background; they
were "us" and everyone else was "ethnic." Not anymore. (Los Angeles Times)
Adam Sternbergh, editor at large, New York: Even as
an admitted yoga-practicing, public-radio-listening, Wrigley Field-visiting,
Wes Anderson-movie-watching, Arrested Development-championing white dude —
i.e., someone squarely in the targets of Stuff White People Like — I don't
feel even mildly chastened about yoga, NPR, Wes Anderson, or Arrested
Development after reading this blog. In fact, all the site's entries, while
superficially chiding, can actually be divided into three very comforting
categories:
1) Entries that don't reflect your lifestyle
choices … and therefore make you feel superior.
2) Entries that do reflect your lifestyle choices …
and therefore make you feel like you're in on the joke.
3) Entries that nod to commonly held comic
stereotypes … and therefore, because you recognize them, make you feel
superior. (The New Republic Online)
David Mills, screenwriter: The No. 1 biggest thing
white people like is pretending to poke fun at themselves. … Here are a few
things that white people don't like:
1. Black bosses.
2. Mexicans.
3. Being told they're wrong.
4. Panhandlers.
5. Black people on magazine covers.
6. Islam. (Undercover Black Man)
Megan McArdle, associate editor, The Atlantic: All
right, let me add myself to the list of white people who don't like Stuff
White People Like. Leave aside the arrogance of declaring "white people" to
be equal to a rather small group of self-satisfied, overeducated, affluent
poverty vultures. And I actively applaud its purpose — my demographic is a
rich vein of humor. One that should be strip mined.
Unfortunately, SWPL just isn't very funny. How can
you take a target as rich and inviting as people who deliberately buy ugly
shoes and produce … a dull thud? (Asymmetrical Information, The Atlantic
Online)
Alex Jung, blogger: Its cleverness is getting stale
because it hasn't exhibited ways to think differently; one can predict the
rest of the posts — white people also like to dress their pets … and watch
Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and think about how "real" it is. [Lander]
recognizes the dumb things white people do, such as believing they know
what's best for poor people, but just as he will still spend 10 bucks on a
sandwich, white people will still think buying a Gap T-shirt will end
poverty in Africa. It's a critique followed by a shrug. (Race Wire,
Colorlines)
I would love to learn about your favorite
blogs!
From The Washington Post on July 23, 2007
What was the name of a technique invented in
the early 1970s that often used reverse-chronological blog-like ordering?
A.
talk.text
B.
.plan file
C.
net.log
D.
.me folder
Anita Campbell's Small Business Blog on the AccountingWeb ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/blogs/anita_campbell_blog.html
Bob Jensen's small business helpers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#SmallBusiness
The latest new finance blog note is titled
Empirical Finance Research, which is intended to (in the authors' own
words):
- Highlight research from the academic finance
archives that may be useful to investors.
- Serve as a venue for the contributors to share
our thoughts and insights with others who enjoy empirical finance
research.
- Act as an outlet for authors or readers who
would like to showcase their latest research.
It's authored by three guys (two of which are
currently pursuing Ph.D.s in finance), and focuses on applications of
current academic finance research. Good job, gentlemen, and keep up the good
work. The world needs more blogs by finance PhDs.
The Empirical Finance Research blog is at
http://empiricalfinanceresearch.blogspot.com/
"Favorite Education Blogs of 2008," by
Jay Mathews, The Washington Post, April 7, 2008 ---
Click Here
Early last year, as
an experiment, I published a
list of what I and
commentator Walt Gardner considered our favorite education blogs. Neither
Gardner nor I had much experience with this most modern form of expression.
We are WAY older than the Web surfing generation. But the list proved
popular with readers, and I promised in that column to make this an annual
event.
Bernstein: The name is obviously a takeoff on the
foregoing. The author of this one occasionally posts elsewhere as well. This
site often provides some incisive and clear explanations of the key aspects
of educational policy.
Mathews: I agree, but have a bias here, too. This
is an Education Week blog, and I am on the board of trustees of the
nonprofit that publishes Ed Week.
My promise was actually more specific: "Next year,
through bribery or trickery, I hope to persuade Ken Bernstein, teacher and
blogger par excellence, to select his favorite blogs and then let me dump on
his choices, or something like that." As I learned long ago, begging works
even better than bribery or trickery, and Bernstein succumbed. Below are his
choices, with some comments from me, and a few of my favorites.
They are in no particular order of quality or
interest. Choosing blogs is a personal matter. Tastes differ widely and
often are not in sync with personal views on how schools should be improved.
I agree with all of Bernstein's choices, even though we disagree on many of
the big issues.
Bernstein is a splendid classroom teacher and a
fine writer, with a gift for making astute connections between
ill-considered policies and what actually happens to kids in school. He is a
social studies teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince George's
County and has been certified by the prestigious National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards. He is also a book reviewer and peer
reviewer for professional publications and ran panels on education at
YearlyKos conventions. He blogs on education, among other topics, at too
many sites to list. He describes his choices here as a few blogs he thinks
"are worthwhile to visit."
· Bridging Differences.
blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/
Bernstein: Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch in the
past have had their differences on educational issues. They both serve at
the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, and this shared
blog is as valuable as anything on the Web for the insights the two offer,
and for the quality of their dialog.
Mathews: I have a personal bias about this blog. I
know Meier and Ravitch well, consider them the best writers among education
pundits today and frequently bounce ideas off them.
· Eduwonk.
www.eduwonk.com/
Bernstein: I often disagree with Andrew J.
Rotherham, but his has been an influential voice on education policy for
some years, and even now, along with all else he does, he serves on the
Virginia Board of Education.
Mathews: I often agree with Rotherham, and my
editors sometimes complain that I quote him too much. But the guy is only 37
and is going to be an important influence on public school policy for the
rest of my life and long after.
· Edwize.
www.edwize.org/
Bernstein: The site is maintained by the United
Federation of Teachers, the New York affiliate of American Federation of
Teachers. They have a number of authors, many active in New York schools,
but they occasionally have posts from others. Full disclosure: I have been
invited to cross-post things I have written elsewhere.
Mathews: A nice mix of both comment on policy and
inside-the-classroom stuff from teachers.
· Education Policy Blog.
educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/
Bernstein: The site describes itself as "a
multiblog about the ways that educational foundations can inform educational
policy and practice! The blog will be written by a group of people who are
interested in the state of education today, and who bring to this interest a
set of perspectives and tools developed in the disciplines known as the
'foundations' of education: philosophy, history, curriculum theory,
sociology, economics and psychology." Most of the participants are
university professors. I am a participant from time to time in this blog.
Eduwonkette.
blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/
Continued in article
Social Networking for Education: The Beautiful and the Ugly
Social Media Revolution Video ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&feature=player_embedded
What is social networking? ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networking
The main types of social networking services are those which contain
category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to
connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a
recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of
these, with
Facebook widely used worldwide;
MySpace,
Twitter
and
LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America;[1]
Nexopia
(mostly in
Canada);[2]
Bebo,[3]
Hi5,
StudiVZ (mostly in
Germany),
Decayenne,
Tagged,
XING;[4],
Badoo[5]
and Skyrock
in parts of Europe;[6]
Orkut and
Hi5 in
South America and
Central America;[7]
and
Friendster,
Mixi,
Multiply,
Orkut,
Wretch,
Xiaonei and
Cyworld
in Asia and the Pacific Islands.
There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the
need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the
FOAF standard and the
Open Source Initiative), but this has led to some concerns about
privacy.
50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher
Should Know About ---
https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/50-education-technology-tools-every-teacher-should-know-about
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Google Terminated Google Wave in 2010
Google Wave ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave
Google Wave is a self-described "personal communication and
collaboration tool" announced by
Google at
the
Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.[1][2]
It is a
web-based service,
computing platform, and
communications protocol designed to merge
e-mail,
instant messaging,
wikis, and
social networking.[3]
It has a strong
collaborative and
real-time[4]
focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example,
spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages,[2]
and numerous other extensions.[4]
Initially released only to developers, a "preview release" of Google Wave
was extended to 100,000 users in September 2009, each allowed to invite
twenty to thirty additional users. On the 29th of November 2009, Google
accepted most requests submitted soon after the extended release of the
technical preview in September 2009; these users have around 25 invitations
to give.
Social Networking Sites and Our Lives ---
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks.aspx
The social media backlash may be starting.
People in their 30s are quitting Facebook and Twitter, and LinkedIn is reaching
down to students. This could just be the start ---
Click Here
http://247wallst.com/media/2013/09/23/is-the-social-media-backlash-taking-hold-facebook-linkedin-twitter-have-to-care/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=SEP242013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter
"Facebook and Twitter Are Converging:
The two largest social networks are becoming more similar, as they borrow each
other’s features, and search for profit," by Tim Simonite, MIT's
Technology Review, September 13, 2013 ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519296/facebook-and-twitter-are-converging/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130916
"Social Media: Ten Things Accountants Should Never Do," by Mark Lee,
AccountingWeb, May 23, 2013 ---
Click Here
http://www.accountingweb.com/article/social-media-ten-things-accountants-should-never-do/221837?source=technology
Anti-Social Media (hate groups and language) ---
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/antisocialmedia
Mashable (social media news) ---
http://mashable.com/
Question
Have we overblown the importance of social media to business?
Only 36% of the surveyed professionals view
social business as important. It’s double the percentage from 2011, but it’s
still much too low.
Based on MIT Sloan Management Review, in collaboration with Deloitte,
survey of 2,545 business professionals in 99 countries on the subject of social
business ---
http://blog.hootsuite.com/importance-of-social-business/
Jensen Comment
The term "important" might not have been consistently interpreted by
respondents, especially respondents from different industries.
The term "important" might mean a small but necessary factor in performance.
For example, having Internet access is a necessary condition to downloading a
new eBook, but it is only a small part of understanding that book.
The term "important" might mean an unnecessary condition that in some
circumstances might be a convenience or improve performance. For example, having
a cell phone is not a necessary condition for most of us, but it can certainly
be a convenience and probably improves efficiency when trying to make personal
contacts with customers such as when a Sears service driver needs instructions
on how to find my home in the boondocks. Also having an annual car towing
service (such has carrying an AAA Tow Service Card with an 800 phone number) is
not a necessary condition to getting a tow when needed. But along with a cell
phone it is a convenience relative to having to search for towing services when
you have two flat tires away from home in downtown Detroit.
Also subscribing to LinkedIn is not a necessary condition to finding a new
job, but for many subscribers to this social media service it has been a God
send.
Companies are just beginning to suspect that releasing financial information
to the social media may lower the cost of capital.
The term "important" by be connected with the lower end of a learning curve
where the respondent views social media as not being so important at this point
in time but having potential of becoming vital to performance in future years.
In our Academy publishing articles in refereed journals is currently the most
popular way of communicating research discoveries. But each year the the
advantages of communicating research discoveries in the social media are
becoming increasingly evident. These advantages include timeliness (journal
publishing will one day be viewed as horse and buggy) and size of the "audience"
such as having audiences of thousands or millions of people, some of which will
more critically review the research far better than two burdened journal
referees, and the spirit of open-source in general. Knowledge wants to be set
free!
Also the respondents in this MIT Sloan Management Review survey
probably are unaware of the degree to which social media has been a blessing and
a curse at all times and in all circumstances of their companies. The CEO of
General Electric really does not know all the instances the R&D staff discovered
innovative ideas because of their social media subscriptions. The CEO of
General Electric really does not know of all instances where employees are
wasting time in personal conversations in the social media during working hours.
Mashable (social media news) ---
http://mashable.com/
"Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Insidious Negative
Effects," MIT's Technology Review, August 29, 2014 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/530401/evidence-grows-that-online-social-networks-have-insidious-negative-effects/
Online social networks have permeated our lives
with far-reaching consequences. Many people have used them to connect with
friends and family in distant parts of the world, to make connections that
have advanced their careers in leaps and bounds and to explore and visualize
not only their own network of friends but the networks of their friends,
family, and colleagues.
But there is growing evidence that the impact of
online social networks is not all good or even benign. A number of studies
have begun to find evidence that online networks can have significant
detrimental effects. This question is hotly debated, often with conflicting
results and usually using limited varieties of subjects, such as
undergraduate students.
Today, Fabio Sabatini at Sapienza University of
Rome in Italy and Francesco Sarracino at STATEC in Luxembourg attempt to
tease apart the factors involved in this thorny issue by number crunching
the data from a survey of around 50,000 people in Italy gathered during 2010
and 2011. The survey specifically measures subjective well-being and also
gathers detailed information about the way each person uses the Internet.
The question Sabatini and Sarracino set out to
answer is whether the use of online networks reduces subjective well-being
and if so, how.
Sabatini and Sarracino’s database is called the
“Multipurpose Survey on Households,” a survey of around 24,000 Italian
households corresponding to 50,000 individuals carried out by the Italian
National Institute of Statistics every year. These guys use the data drawn
from 2010 and 2011. What’s important about the survey as that it is large
and nationally representative (as opposed to a self-selecting group of
undergraduates).
The survey specifically asks the question “How
satisfied are you with your life as a whole nowadays?” requiring an answer
from extremely dissatisfied (0) to extremely satisfied (10). This provides a
well-established measure of subjective well-being.
The survey also asks other detailed questions such
as how often people meet friends and whether they think people can be
trusted. It also asked about people’s use of online social networks such as
Facebook and Twitter.
This allowed Sabatini and Sarracino to study the
correlation between subjective well-being and other factors in their life,
particularly their use of social networks. As statisticians they were
particularly careful to rule out spurious correlations that can be explained
by factors such as endogeneity bias where a seemingly independent parameter
is actually correlated with an unobserved factor relegated to the error.
They found for example that face-to-face
interactions and the trust people place in one another are strongly
correlated with well-being in a positive way. In other words, if you tend to
trust people and have lots of face-to-face interactions, you will probably
assess your well-being more highly.
But of course interactions on online social
networks are not face-to-face and this may impact the trust you have in
people online. It is this loss of trust that can then affect subjective
well-being rather than the online interaction itself.
Sabatini and Sarracino tease this apart
statistically. “We find that online networking plays a positive role in
subjective well-being through its impact on physical interactions, whereas
[the use of] social network sites is associated with lower social trust,”
they say. “The overall effect of networking on individual welfare is
significantly negative,” they conclude.
That’s an important result because it is the first
time that the role of online networks has been addressed in such a large and
nationally representative sample.
Sabatini and Sarracino particularly highlight the
role of discrimination and hate speech on social media which they say play a
significant role in trust and well-being. Better moderation could
significantly improve the well-being of the people who use social networks,
they conclude.
Facebook, Twitter, and others take note.
"How CFOs Can Use Social Software to Add Value in Closing the Books,"
CFO Journal, January 16, 2013 ---
http://deloitte.wsj.com/cfo/2013/01/16/how-cfos-can-use-social-software-to-add-value-in-closing-the-books/
Many organizations are using social business
software to add value, enhance business performance and strengthen
connections with employees, customers and vendors. Social software, however,
has yet to be adopted by many finance organizations, as some CFOs appear
skeptical of its value. A
study conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review in
collaboration with Deloitte found that only 14% of CFOs surveyed view social
tools as important to their organizations, while 28% of CEOs, presidents and
managing directors regard them as important.¹ “There’s still a lack of
tangible measures of the value of social business and CFOs are bottom
line-oriented,” observes Mark White, chief technical officer of Deloitte
Consulting LLP. “They want to know that the money, talent and the time
invested in implementing social business are worthwhile.”
Mr. White says that social tools such as microblogs,
wikis, internal social networks, instant messaging applications and threaded
discussion forums can help CFOs improve finance organization performance.
“The financial close-the-books process is an example of how social software
can drive improvements in finance’s decision-making and processes, by
making the close more transparent, efficient, repeatable and defensible,” he
says.
Closing the books in a timely and accurate manner
can be a challenge in itself, but particularly so when exceptions², such as
errors or other unanticipated issues, occur. Anticipated events, such as
new regulatory guidelines or integrating an acquired business, can also
hamper the financial close. And although the close may eventually reflect an
exception or a new event in a correct manner, the process of resolving these
exceptions today can be highly inefficient, with lots of wasted time, and
the discussions, thinking and decisions that occurred throughout the process
may not have been captured. That could be a critical loss to a finance
organization’s institutional memory, notes Mr. White.
An Example of How Social Business Tools
Helped Shorten the Close-the-Books Process
To illustrate how CFOs can improve close the books
with social software, Matthew Soderberg, a senior manager in Deloitte
Consulting LLP’s M&A Finance practice, points to a technology company that
recently utilized social networking tools to help it close the books within
three days.
Following the implementation of an enterprise-wide
internal social network, the company’s corporate accounting team created a
user group for the finance team members involved in the close and
consolidation processes. Instead of using email to notify the applicable
groups within the finance function when an event in the close process has
taken place to trigger the next step, or when there’s a problem that
requires correction, the finance team can post updates about the close
process and diagnose, explain and correct errors faster because activities
are posted in real time.
Posting updates about the close process has
significantly reduced email traffic and corporate accounting’s role as
middleman, according to Mr. Soderberg. “This company had been working hard
to get to a three-day close. The internal social network facilitated the
finance organization’s ability to achieve that goal with fewer iterations,
and it has made the finance professionals’ lives easier during the three-day
close process,” he says.
Social Software’s Capabilities
Social tools are being effectively deployed by
organizations to enhance business performance in operations, innovation and
other areas, according to Metrics That Matter: Social Software for
Business Performance, a study by the Deloitte Center for the Edge.³
According to the authors of the Metrics That Matter study, social
software provides organizations the capabilities to identify knowledge and
experience, communicate across boundaries, preserve institutional memory,
harness knowledge that may be distributed across geographies and functions,
and discover emerging opportunities.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on blogging and social networking are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
"An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network: Following the collapse of the
social network Friendster, computer scientists have carried out a digital
autopsy to find out what went wrong," MIT's Technology Review,
February 27, 2013 ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/511846/an-autopsy-of-a-dead-social-network/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130228
A study reveals that many Twitter followers might in fact not be human
From the Scout Report
on November 16, 2012
Beware the tweeting crowds
http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/social-media-followers
How fake are your Twitter followers?
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/how-fake-are-your-twitter-followers-8211517.html
Analysis of Twitter followers of leading international companies
http://www.camisanicalzolari.com/MCC-Twitter-ENG.pdf
Status People Fake Follower Check
http://fakers.statuspeople.com/
Twitter Guide Book
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
The Beginner's Guide to Social Media
http://mashable.com/2012/06/12/social-media-beginners-guide/
Bob Jensen's threads on social networking ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
"A Sincere Question About LinkedIn," by George Williams, Chronicle
of Higher Education, November 9, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-sincere-question-about-linkedin/44100#disqus_thread
Here's the reply Bob Jensen posted to the Chronicle for this article.
Do you want your college's students to leave campus
without knowledge of what is, according to Forbes Magazine, "the most
advantageous social networking tool available to job seekers and business
professionals today."
Linked in may not be useful to you if you're not
interested in seeking a job in a non-academic career or in seeking
professional employees for your business or government agency, but that's no
excuse for not letting your graduates and alumni know about this important
site.
Bob Jensen
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen...
The Aspen Institute: Multimedia (and social media) ---
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/video
New Communication Technologies (including an annotated bibliography) ---
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/NewComm
"Use Social Media With Social Grace - Words Of Wisdom From B-School Deans,"
Forbes, July 4, 2012 ---
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2012/07/04/use-social-media-with-social-grace-wisdom-for-the-mba-class-of-2012/
Gamification ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification
"Why Gamification is Really Powerful," by Karen Lee, Stanford Graduate
School of Business, September 2012
http://stanfordbusiness.tumblr.com/post/32317645424/why-gamification-is-really-powerful
Karen Lee is the Social Web Strategist at the Stanford GSB
Last week, Stanford GSB’s
Social Web Strategist Karen Lee attended a Week
0 course called
“How Neuroscience Influences Human Behavior,” co-taught by Marketing
Professor Baba Shiv and Lecturer Nir Eyal. Each post focuses on an
interesting insight from class.
In my
last post, I explained how desire is a fundament
driver of habits and how companies can leverage Nir Eyal’s “Desire
Engine” framework to build engaging,
habit-forming products.
After two days of learning the
fundamentals of how our brain functions and influences human behavior, our
co-instructors Nir Eyal and Baba Shiv invited
Managing Director of Mayfield Fund Tim Chang (Stanford
MBA ’01) and
Founder of Gamification Co. Gabe Zichermann to
provide our class a real-world perspective on the applications and
implications of habitual behavior for customers, businesses and future
generations. They both addressed gamification, which is defined as the
process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage users.
Gamification has become somewhat
a polarizing topic for people, as its grown from a niche technique used in
the gaming industry, popularized largely due to social games like Farmville,
to a popularized approach to engage customers across different industries.
Tim Chang explained that gamification is largely misunderstood because of
the implied meanings in the word “game” itself. People think of gamification
in two extremes, either a hardcore competition or something casual,
frivolous and shallow. The definition of game is actually much wider in
scope. A game is defined by these 3 core elements:
- Goal or objective: system or
user defined
- Score: usually in real-time,
explicit feedback after every action or decision
- Rules: to influence score,
boundaries for play
Through this lens, there are many
goals in life that are like a game. Dating. Landing a job. Hitting a sales
goal. Driving a car. Gabe Zichermann shared how the automobile industry has
embraced gamification to encourage fuel efficiency and engage drivers in a
more meaningful way.
Ford rolled out with a new
dashboard for their their 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrid models.
The “SmartGauge
with EcoGuide” dashboard displays 4 types
of data screens based on what you’re interested in, ranging from the basics
of fuel level and battery charge status to more complex information like
your driving performance and fuel efficiency.
The game objective Ford creates
for the driver is driving efficiency. The driver’s score is comprised of
several different data points (e.g., hills, air conditioning, braking style)
and is presented in the dashboard with multiple displays in real-time . . .
.
. . .
The system’s real-time feedback
acts as personal driving coach on how to maximize fuel efficiency, so the
driver learns overtime how to change the way they drive to improve their
score.
In a slightly different but
related game objective of achieving long-term fuel efficiency, Ford took
gamification a step further by displaying on the right hand side “Efficiency
Leaves,” which is a visual representation of the driver’s efficiency in the
form of growing or wilting leaves and vines. The more efficient a driver
is, the more lush and beautiful the leaves are. It works the other way as
well.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
"Money from Friends: Finding the Right Revenue Model for Social Media,"
Knowledge@Wharton , August 29, 2012 ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=3064
Mark Zuckerberg's honeymoon with Wall Street did
not last long.
Since Facebook's initial public offering in mid-May,
shares have fallen by 58% to $40.8 billion. Last week,
its stock dipped below $20 a share with the expiration of a lockout barring
the company's initial investors from selling their holdings. Mobile games
developer Zynga also has fallen off a cliff since its IPO; the company's
market cap has plunged by 81% from its peak as flaws in its business model
emerged. Groupon,
whose shares have struggled amid questions about its
viability, fell even further -- down 85% to
$3.1 billion. CEO Andrew Mason might be kicking himself for turning down
Google's $6 billion buyout offer.
Investors, it would seem, are giving a collective
thumbs' down to social networks. Yet investors across the board also tend to
move in tandem, often throwing away the proverbial baby with the bath water.
For example, a single piece of bad news about a company can tank shares of
competitors in the same industry -- a malady that has afflicted social
networks as well. While investors might lump Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and
their ilk together, these companies are not replicas of each other. All
offer an element of social networking, but only Facebook is a pure social
network and, with its nearly one billion users, is a unique entity unto
itself. As such, experts suggest caution when making generalizations
regarding the plight of social networks based on Facebook alone.
What is a social network? At its most basic, it is
a group of individuals wishing to connect to each other digitally in order
to socialize. Facebook users want to know what their friends, relatives and
acquaintances are doing. The company's main purpose, as Zuckerberg himself
has often noted, is to "make the world more open and connected." Zynga is a
developer of games that use social networks to connect players. Its main
purpose is gaming, not socializing, although that can occur through games.
Groupon uses the power of the collective to get bargains. But the purpose of
joining Groupon is to purchase products and services, not to socialize.
Twitter is more similar to Facebook, although its follower approach makes it
a quasi-social network. LinkedIn members use the platform to socialize and
network professionally.
Investors might be punishing most of these
companies too harshly for not getting their financial ducks in a row as they
test different ways to monetize their businesses. Wall Street does hate
uncertainty, experts point out. But the decline could be merely a short-term
effect, given that the concept of social networks is fairly new, and
business models are still being fleshed out. "It's clear Facebook and other
social networks haven't figured it out yet," says Wharton management
professor
Ethan Mollick. "Things
are stacked against them in the short term."
The Facebook Model
Typically, the early focus of social networks is to
build up a base of users quickly by offering their services for free. But
once these networks gain traction, costs to serve the users escalate. The
companies then face the dilemma of figuring out how to make money from their
many followers without alienating them with too many ads or suddenly
charging for basic services. It can be a tricky balancing act. "It's a
double-edged sword for these social networks," notes Wharton management
professor
David Hsu. "Once
consumers are used to a revenue model, it's very difficult to change it."
Social networks, Hsu says, should have a
monetization path in mind at the beginning for a smoother transition. "It's
important to think through how to make money from the start," he adds,
pointing to the digital revenue models of The New York Times and
The Wall Street Journal as examples of how tough it is to switch
business strategies once readers are used to a certain model. The Times
faced a consumer outcry when it decided to charge for online content that
used to be free, he says. The Journal, however, has never
faced such a backlashbecause readers have always had to pay to access its
content on the web.
Facebook is attempting to modify its business model
as well. Currently, nearly all its revenue comes from advertising. Can it
stay that way? "It can work, but it is always a good idea to supplement that
with subscriptions," says Wharton marketing professor
Pinar Yildirim.
Whether or not the social network will implement some sort of paid
subscription plan, it certainly has been busy diversifying its sources of
revenue. In 2009, around 98% of total revenue came from ads. But the
proportion fell to 95% in 2010 and got whittled even more in 2011, to 85%.
Last year, users buying digital or virtual goods on Facebook, along with
fees from other services, generated the remaining 15% of revenue, according
to Facebook's registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Continued in article
"'Social-Media Blasphemy' Texas researcher adds 'Enemy' feature to
Facebook," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, March
23, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/College-20-Social-Media/131300/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Dean Terry has 400 friends on Facebook, but he
wants some virtual enemies.
Mr. Terry, who is director of the emerging-media
program at the University of Texas at Dallas, says a major flaw of the
popular social network is that it's all sunshine and no rain: The service
encourages users to press the "like" button, but offers no way to signal
which ideas, products, or people they disagree with. And "friend" is about
the only kind of connection you can declare.
Real-world relationships are more complicated than
that, so social networks should be too, the scholar argues. He's not
alone—more than three million people have voted for a "dislike" feature on
an
online petition on Facebook.
But Mr. Terry has decided to take action,
protesting the ethos of Facebook by literally rewiring the service. Or at
least, adding the ability to declare "enemies."
"It's social-media blasphemy, in that we're
suggesting that you share differences you have with people and share things
that you don't like instead of what you do like," he told me last week. "I
think social media needs some disruption. It needs its shot of Johnny
Rotten."
Here's what he's done. Last month he and a student
released a Facebook plug-in called
EnemyGraph, which
users can install free and name their enemies, which then show up in their
profiles. "We're using 'enemy' in the same loose way that Facebook uses
'friends,'" Mr. Terry explained. "It really just means something you have an
issue with."
The scholar would have preferred to use "dislike,"
but the word is literally banned by the service to prevent developers from
creating a dislike button. Critics of Facebook say the social network's
leaders want to keep the service friendly to advertisers who might object to
users publicly scorning their products.
Mr. Terry wondered if Facebook would even allow his
plug-in application to pass the company's approval process, and even though
it did, he still believes administrators will shut it down if it becomes
popular. The day I talked with Mr. Terry, only 300 people were using it, but
at that point no national media had picked up the story.
Facebook officials declined to talk about the new
app. The only response a spokesperson would give was a one-sentence e-mail
addressing the company's position on creating a "dislike" button: "At some
point we may consider it, but for the time being, we are working on what we
believe are more high-impact features."
Who was Mr. Terry so eager to diss? "One of the
first things I put was the band Journey," he said of his enemy list, "just
because they annoy me, and I thought it was funny." He has also enemied
Deepak Chopra and the color red.
The programming stunt might win Mr. Terry some real
enemies among people who think the best thing about Facebook is its relative
lack of negativity. After all, many online forums are prone to vicious flame
wars that lead reasonable people to steer clear. What's wrong with keeping
an online world like Facebook nice?
To Mr. Terry, that's where his role as an educator
comes in. "What we all do in the program is help our students think
critically about social media," he says, noting that that is the main goal
of EnemyGraph. "On Facebook you're the product—it's commoditized
expression," he argues, and he wants students and others to recognize that.
"I'm not telling students not to use it, I'm just telling them to understand
what's happening when they use it."
A graduate research assistant, Bradley Griffith,
did the actual coding, and he made an even stronger case for the service
than Mr. Terry did. "It's dangerous for us as a society to move in this
direction where everything has its worst qualities removed from it," Mr.
Griffith told me.
Virtual Dissent
EnemyGraph points to a new form of social protest,
one that could only happen in a virtual realm. In the physical world,
scholars calling for social change might write up their suggestions, or
stage symbolic protests, and hope their arguments prompt leaders to make
changes. In online communities, it is possible to promote change by creating
a new technical feature or service.
As Mr. Griffith put it, "academics have always had
ideas about society, but we could only really talk about it, and now we can
do it."
Consider another work of online protest by Mr.
Terry and Mr. Griffith. Last fall they built a searchable Web archive of
Twitter messages that had been deleted by users. The service was possible
because while deleting a Twitter message stops it from being distributed, it
can live on, since in some cases it has already been captured by archival
services that mine Twitter for information. Called
Undetweetable,
the service disturbed many observers, some of whom criticized its creators
for giving new life to comments that users had chosen to remove.
The goal of Undetweetable was to raise awareness of
how persistent anything posted online can be—and how easy it is for
outsiders to secretly pluck those messages to analyze them in various ways.
"Someone said, These are the nicest people who will
ever steal your data," said Mr. Terry, referring to one of the bloggers who
wrote about the service. "Because we're not going to do anything nefarious
with it."
Undetweetable did start a conversation. It
attracted a stream of users after being mentioned by The Wall Street
Journal and popular technology blogs including Gizmodo. It operated for
only five days—until Mr. Terry got an e-mail from Twitter asking that he
shut down the service because it violated Twitter's rules. He complied.
"This is the way you call attention to certain
kinds of things on the Net," he said. "You have to make something that
people can use. Some of these things need to be experienced firsthand."
Alex Halavais, an associate professor of
communications at Quinnipiac University and president of the Association of
Internet Researchers, said he expected to see more of this kind of high-tech
intervention by scholars as more researchers in the humanities gain skills
in programming and comfort using social media. "Increasingly there are
faculty who feel confident doing this," he said.
A Tool for
Cyberbullies?
A social critique is one thing. But what if adding
an "enemy" button leads to increases in cyberbullying, bringing real harm to
users uninterested in the scholars' points?
Mr. Terry believes that the feature will not spark
hateful speech. "It's not necessarily going to make us fight, it's just
going to make us have a conversation," he argues.
Continued in article
"Social Media Gives, but Also Takes Away:: A large majority of
companies are mindful of the potential liabilities associated with using the
massively popular platforms," by Caroline McDonald, CFO.com, July 6, 2012
---
http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/7/risk-compliance_rims-advisen-facebook-twitter-youtube-social-media-
"Use Social Media With Social Grace - Words Of Wisdom From B-School Deans,"
Forbes, July 4, 2012 ---
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2012/07/04/use-social-media-with-social-grace-wisdom-for-the-mba-class-of-2012/
Bob Jensen's threads on social media are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
"52 Cool Facts About Social Media,"
http://dannybrown.me/2010/07/03/cool-facts-about-social-media/
Thank you David Albrecht for the heads up!
"Four Big Questions (and Predictions) for Social Media in 2013," by
Alex Kantrowitz, Forbes, December 28, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkantrowitz/2012/12/28/four-big-social-media-questions-for-2013/?utm_campaign=techtwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
Social media, as we know it today, has not been
around for very long. Both
Facebook and Twitter came into being less
than decade ago and really only gained public consciousness over the past
five years. Ditto for newcomers like Instagram, Tumblr and
Quora,
the oldest of which is just five years old.
The composition of this young social media
ecosystem changes every year and 2013 will be no different. Social media
companies will inevitably introduce new tweaks and features that will
enrage, excite and confuse their users. That’s the nature of this business,
things change fast. As we turn the corner into 2013,
Voted Up
will be monitoring the shifts with a focus not just on
the specific platforms themselves, but the industry as a whole. Here are
four questions we’ll be keeping our eye on, along with some predictions:
Will Twitter keep growing?
Ever since Twitter became more than just a forum to
share updates about everyday life (example: “I’m brushing my teeth”), those
following the platform have wondered it if could move beyond its existence
as an “insider network” and gain mass adoption. It’s getting there. Earlier
this month, Twitter announced that it hit the 200 million monthly active
user mark, an important step towards the mainstream but still just one fifth
of the active users claimed by Facebook. That leaves Twitter in an odd zone
between niche platform and mainstream social media site. In 2013, we’ll find
out if Twitter can continue its impressive rate of growth and shed the
“inside baseball” label for good, or whether it has hit a ceiling and will
remain where it is today.
Prediction: The active user boom
continues.
Will social media lose its magic?
On that note, there has been a lot of talk lately
about what scale, and the demand for it, have wrought upon the world of
social media (further reading: Anil Dash’s
The Web Web Lost). In discussing the problem,
GigaOM’s Mathew Ingram pointed
to an
essay by Digg’s Jake Levine which looks at the
“broadcast-ification” of social media. Levine writes that large social
networks are focusing on creating experiences more friendly to brands,
meaning they’re prioritizing features which enable brands to speak to many
as opposed to working on how to better facilitate conversational
experiences. The changes will lead to more users and more money, Levine
writes, but forsake some core features that brought the platforms to the
dance in the first place. Social media remains a place where seemingly
anyone can have a voice, but a shift towards broadcast and brands makes you
wonder if that “magic” element of it will endure.
Prediction: The magic takes a hit
but stays intact.
Will we pay attention to the way social
media is affecting our real lives?
After the murder-suicide of his
teammate Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Brady Quinn took the
podium to address the media. “We live in a society of social networks and
Twitter pages and Facebook,” he said. “We have contact with our work
associates, our family, our friends and it seems like half the time we’re
more preoccupied with our phones and other things going on instead of the
actual relationships we have in front of us. Hopefully people can learn from
this.” Not to suggest that social media is responsible for Belcher’s
actions, but there is a reason Quinn said what he said.
As we grow more attached to social networks and,
indeed, our phones, it’s hard not to see the impact that easy access to
social channels is having on our lives. Social media brings us together
online but, in some sense, pulls us apart in real life. Try to remember the
last time you were in a conversation with someone and found yourself
competing with a phone for attention. Chances are, it was probably not too
long ago.
With sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
growing easier to peruse and participate in via phone, the temptation to
zone out while in the presence of family, friends and co-workers will grow
even more difficult to resist in 2013. And today, smartphone usage is
surging. Smartphone penetration increased by 24 percent in 2012, according
to the research firm eMarketer, and is expected to grow another 18 percent
in 2013. That’s a lot more smartphones in circulation ready to interrupt (or
cheapen) a lot more conversations. Soon, the effects of this new reality
will be hard to ignore, but will it happen in 2013?
Prediction: No. We won’t pay
attention in 2013, but this issue is not going away.
Will there be a breakout social media site
in 2013?
Continued in article
Google Plus ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Plus
"Google+ Comes Up Short," by Joshua Ganz, Harvard Business Review
Blog, July 7, 2011 --- Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/google_comes_up_short.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
What problem does
Google+
solve for consumers? The answer appears to be:
nothing. And, therefore, it solves nothing for Google either.
As with many of these social launches — an
exception being the ill-fated Google Buzz — the launch of Google+ was
limited. Like Gmail and Google Wave, Google relied on invites to scale
initial users and work out issues before a wider launch. I, somehow, managed
to score access to Google+ from Day One of its recent launch, and I'm here
to report on it. (I should note that
opinions vary.)
What I found upon signing up was a routine to
search my Google contacts and allocate people to Circles. The idea is that
should any of them sign up to Google+ I could neatly organize my friends
according to whatever category I thought best fit them. I could also find
anyone currently on Google+ and choose to follow them. Ironically, I chose
to follow Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook, but I also followed Google's
founders. The latter seem to participate regularly and lots of people
comment on their activities. The former, unsurprisingly, not so much
(although Zuckerberg seems to be
the most followed person on the network).
I then spent a little time filling in my profile
(you can
view it here). You can even follow my Google Buzz
feed from there, a legacy of automatic reposting of
my tweets and shared
Google Reader links.
Having done lots of set-up, I waited to see what
happened. The answer to that was: not much. For Google+ to work, it has to
be populated. Specifically, it has to be populated with people the user is
interested in. As it is early days, that crucial feature isn't there.
This (lack of) network effect could do Google+ in
if it can't get a virtuous cycle going. So the question is whether Google+
has the potential to attract a large enough network.
The reasoning why Google itself
might desperately want this to work out is clear.
Facebook and Twitter are grabbing attention and Google is in the business of
getting attention and on-selling it to advertisers. Add to that the fact
that the type of attention that comes from users providing content and
demonstrating their interest by commenting and subscribing to things, and
Google+ (were it to work) could yield important information that helps
advertisers target consumers better.
Continued in article
"3 Steps Google Plus Must Take to Win Against Facebook," by Zubin
Wadia, ReadWriteWeb, June 29, 2011 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/3_steps_google_must_take_to_win_against_facebook.php
Congratulations to the
Google Plus
team for shipping a
superb
beta under conditions which could be considered equal
parts
turmoil and
FUD.
I absolutely love it. If it had 750 million
users on it right now it would be a superior experience to Facebook.
For starters, it looks more cohesive. This isn't
surprising because it is a blank slate product that did not have to deal
with the technical debt Facebook has accumulated since 2004. Beyond the
interface however, Google Plus will be more engaging emotionally for people
because it allows them to be more authentic with one another.
Why? Because Google Plus establishes intuitive
clarity for my social graph.
"What Google+ (Google Plus) Should Have Been: Bing's Linked Pages," by
Jon Mitchell, ReadWriteWeb, February 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_google_should_have_been_bings_linked_pages.php
Here's one we missed.
Bing launched Bing+ last week, it just skipped all
the unnecessary stuff. (It's not really called Bing+.) There's a
new feature called
Linked Pages
that allows Bing users (U.S. only, for now) to connect
their various websites and profiles to their Bing identities, using Facebook
for authentication. You can also link your Facebook friends to their pages.
Thanks to its relationship with Facebook, Microsoft
has the advantage of not needing to build its own identity provider or
social network. Everyone's already on Facebook. To build good results for
people, Bing will use the same technique Facebook Groups use: get friends to
draw their own graph. Just like with Facebook Groups, if a friend connects
you to something you don't want, you can remove it permanently. We all
thought that feature would suck for Groups, but it worked just fine.
Facebook Groups build themselves, and Bing can build identities the same
way.
Social Network Overkill
The interesting thing is, this is exactly what
Google+ is for, but
the product isn't being pitched that way. Google's
social layer is all about establishing the Google-presence for people and
brands, so they can appear across Google-land, especially in
Search, plus Your World. But Google+ is spun as a
place for "sharing." It has all these pieces of a social network, but
people aren't using them.
It's a shame, because some of these features are
absolutely wonderful.
What could be more social than Hangouts? Google+
is full of great ideas, but it is struggling to bring them together. The
user experience isn't there. And that's all
because Google felt the need to build a full-blown social network itself in
order to act as an identity service.
Couldn't Hangouts have just been a Gmail feature?
Social Search Is All We Needed
There's no need for a new social network, but there
is a reason to put personal identities in search. Searching for
people has always been a terrible experience. It's nearly impossible to find
the person you're looking for, unless they're famous. Search engines need an
identity layer.
Bing is just being honest about that. If you want
to control the way you appear in search, you can connect the sites
and pages that matter to you via Facebook. Your friends can do it, too. When
you use Bing to search for people, now you'll be able to find the content
that's related to them. That's
what Search, plus Your World does for Google, but
Bing does it without requiring this new, extra place to waste time online.
Google could have done that. The Google+ profile
works exactly the way Bing's Linked Pages does, allowing users to
link their outside sites and pages to themselves.
It could have just made a Facebook app, and boom, there are your social
search results. But that's not how the business works. Google and Facebook
can't cooperate. They have to compete for eyeballs around social content,
and
Facebook is winning.
Jensen Comment
I've previously written about why I think Bing Maps is superior to Google Maps.
Sometimes (horrors) Microsoft really does do a better job when it comes late
onto the scene ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Travel
Bob Jensen's threads on Tricks and Tools of the Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
"Projects Aims to Build Online Hub for Archival Materials," by
Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 13, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Building-a-Digital-Map-of/131846/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
In death, as in life, people don't always leave
their papers in order. Letters, manuscripts, and other pieces of evidence
wind up scattered among different archives, leading researchers on a paper
chase as they try to hunt down what they need for their work.
"It can be hugely frustrating—especially when you
make a journey cross-country to an archive, and then discover the piece you
really wanted must be somewhere else (or, God forbid, rotting away in a
landfill)," says Robert Townsend, deputy director of the American Historical
Association, in an e-mail interview. Chasing after distributed historical
records is so common that "any historian who has not suffered from that
problem can't be working very hard," he wrote.
The Internet has made the hunt easier, as more
archives post finding aids for their collections online. "Scholars have at
least gotten to the point where they can search over the Internet for these
materials," says Daniel V. Pitti, the associate director of the Institute
for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, or IATH, at the University of
Virginia. But what he calls "hunting and gathering" persists for
document-seekers, who "a priori have to have some idea, some hunch, of where
to go, because the access systems are distinct and not integrated any way."
Now imagine a central clearinghouse for those
records, an online hub researchers could consult to find archival materials.
That vision drives a project of Mr. Pitti's called
the Social Networks and Archival Context Project, or SNAC. It's a
collaboration between researchers and developers at IATH, the University of
California at Berkeley's School of Information, and the California Digital
Library. The project recently finished its pilot stage with the help of a
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Another grant, from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will support the project through another
two years as it adds millions more records and begins beta testing with
researchers.
Some people have already found the prototype, which
is up and running although not yet widely promoted. The site allows visitors
to search for the names of individuals, corporate entities, or families to
find "archival context records" for them.
"So if I'm interested in a particular person," Mr.
Pitti says, "I can find where all the records are that would be required to
understand them." For instance, a search for Robert Oppenheimer turns up a
link to a collection of the physicist's papers housed at the Library of
Congress, plus links to other collections in which he is referenced, a
biographical timeline, and a list of occupations and subjects related to his
life and work.
A researcher can explore a person's social and
cultural environment with SNAC's radial-graph feature. It creates a web,
which can be manipulated, of a subject's connections as revealed in archival
records. The radial graph of Oppenheimer's network, for instance, includes
George Kennan, Linus Pauling, Bertrand Russell, and Albert Schweitzer, among
many other names represented as nodes on the graph.
Not yet fully developed, the radial-graph feature
supports one of the project's main goals: to visualize the social networks
within which archival records were created. "What you're trying to do is put
together the puzzle, the fabric of someone's life, the people that
influenced them and the people they influenced," Mr. Pitti says. "One could
certainly, in an analog context, piece this together, but it would take
years and years of work. What we're demonstrating is that we can go out
there and gather all that information and present it to you, which would
liberate scholars." Connecting archival data can reveal patterns of
association hidden in disparate collections.
Data Quality Important
To work well, SNAC requires good data. Its first
phase drew on thousands of finding aids—encoded with a standard known as
Encoded Archival Description, or EAD—from the Library of Congress, the
Northwest Digital Archives, the Online Archive of California, and Virginia
Heritage. A newer standard for encoding archival information, referred to as
EAC-CPF, for Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and
Families, was then applied to those records, making them easier to find and
connect.
Archives are idiosyncratic, and it's not always
easy to tell whether a name refers to a particular individual or to
different people with identical or similar names. One of Mr. Pitti's main
collaborators is Ray R. Larson, a professor in the School of Information at
the University of California at Berkeley. He concentrates on what Mr. Pitti
calls the "matching and merging" required to winnow out duplicate names,
find variants of the same name, and so on. To do that Mr. Larson has tested
several approaches, including machine learning, in which a computer is
programmed to recognize, for example, common variations in spelling.
The job is about to get much tougher, though,
because SNAC is about to get much bigger. As part of the second phase of the
project, supported by the Mellon grant, 13 state and regional archival
consortia and more than 35 university and national repositories in the
United States, Britain, and France will contribute records. The British
Library "is giving me 300,000 names associated with their manuscript
collections," going back to before the Christian era, says Mr. Pitti.
The project will also ingest as many as 2 million
standardized bibliographic records, in the widely used MARC format, from the
online OCLC collaboration in which libraries exchange research and
cataloging information. OCLC has its own centralized archival search
function, called ArchiveGrid; Mr. Pitti describes it as complementary to
SNAC. Unlike SNAC, though, "ArchiveGrid does not foreground the
biographical-historical data, nor does it reveal the social networks that
interrelate the archival resources," he says.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on archived databases ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on electronic literature ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
"Social Networking Threats to Security," by Jerry Trites, IS Assurance
Blog, August 25, 2011 ---
http://uwcisa-assurance.blogspot.com/
This article links to
"Social networking security threats by the numbers," IT World of Canada, August
15, 2011 ---
Click Here
http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/social-networking-security-threats-by-the-numbers/143741?sub=1520550&utm_source=1520550&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=TD+
Bob Jensen's threads on computer and networking security ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection
"Thanks to Google Plus, Picasa Gets Unlimited Storage for Photos & Videos,
Also Better Tagging," by Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb, July 1, 2011 ---
Click Here
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/thanks_to_google_plus_picasa_gets_unlimited_storage_for_photos_and_videos.php
With the launch of
Google Plus,
there may be some confusion as to how the photos uploaded to the social
network (Google+) integrate with Google's online photo-sharing service
(Picasa),
especially in terms of storage limits. The answer provides some great news
for Google Plus users - nearly everything you upload to Google Plus won't
count towards your storage limits on Picasa, with the only exception being
videos longer than 15 minutes.
And there's another nifty feature involving
photo-tagging, too - your Google+ friends can now tag your Picasa photos.
Thus far I past my photographs on two Web servers at Trinity University:
Server
One
Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Server Two
More of Bob Jensen's Personal History in Pictures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
"Beware Social Media's Dark Side, Scholars Warn Companies:
Technology festival features academic gadflies," by Jeffrey Young, Chronicle
of Higher Education, March 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Beware-Social-Medias/126813/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of education technology in general
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
The Marriage of SMSS and CMS: Will you take this partner for better or
for worse, in sickness and in health?
"The State and Future of the Social Media Management System Space,"
ReadWriteWeb, March 18, 2011 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_state_and_future_of_the_social_media_management_system_space.php
This post originally appeared on guest author
Jeremiah Owyang's
blog. Social Media Management Systems, like
CMS systems for websites, help companies manage, maintain, and measure
thousands of social media accounts. Although the nascent SMMS space is only
one year old, 58% of corporations have adopted at least one of
these 28 vendors. Altimeter is conducting a formal
research report on the SMMS topic (see
research agenda for 2011), However, I wanted to
give a year-end state, after coining this category 12 months ago and listing
out vendors.
SMMS systems are the next growth market for the
social business category. While saturation is at 58% of corporate buyers,
the average deal size is a meager $22,000 but will expect to grow to six
figure annual deals in coming quarters to meet market demand. This growing
space has low barriers to entry, which result in a flood of clones, but
expect only a handful to remain after a shakeout to serve enterprise-class
buyers.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
It will be interesting to see how the marriage of SMSS with CMS software plays
out. CMS stands for Course Management Systems which includes everything from
1990s versions of Authorware and ToolBook to present revised versions of
Authorware and ToolBook that have been virtually eclipsed by CMS systems such as
Blackboard and Moodle. A summary of the history of CMS software can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm
SMMS will inevitably become part and parcel to CMS since social media is
becoming such a vital part of learning and education and student communications.
But CMS itself will remain important for examination management, course record
keeping, password-controlled serving up of course materials available to
enrolled students but not available to the public in general, chat rooms,
instant messaging, etc.
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"Social Media Lure Academics Frustrated by Journals," by Jennifer
Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 22, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Social-Media-Lure-Academics/126426/
Social media have become serious academic tools for
many scholars, who use them for collaborative writing, conferencing, sharing
images, and other research-related activities. So says a study just posted
online called "Social
Media and Research Workflow." Among its findings:
Social scientists are now more likely to use social-media tools in their
research than are their counterparts in the biological sciences. And
researchers prefer popular applications like Twitter to those made for
academic users.
The survey, conducted late last year, is the work
of Ciber, as the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of
Research is known. Ciber is an interdisciplinary research center based in
University College London's department of information studies. It takes on
research projects for various clients. This one was paid for by the Emerald
Publishing Group Ltd. The idea for the survey came from the Charleston
Observatory, the research arm of the annual Charleston Conference of
librarians, publishers, and vendors.
An online questionnaire went to researchers and
editors as well as publishers, administrators, and librarians on
cross-disciplinary e-mail lists maintained by five participating
publishers—Cambridge University Press; Emerald; Kluwer; Taylor & Francis;
and Wiley. Responses came from 2,414 researchers in 215 countries and "every
discipline under the sun," according to David Nicholas, one of the lead
researchers on the study. He directs the department of information studies
at University College London.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on social networking are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Some things you did not know about the latest technology
Did You Know video ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
While nasty little kids are driving their "fat, ugly, and molesting" teachers
to give up the ghost because of networked and often false insults, their older
brothers, sisters, parents, and misfits (many of whom are foreign enemies) are
bent on overthrowing government regimes. No regime is immune from the
instabilities caused by technologies that have great benefits to societies along
with emerging costs that we'd not anticipated.
Anarchists have never had it so good!
Is this something George Orwell failed to anticipate or is it something that
will ultimately bring on the evils of Big Brother?
Twittering an evil dictator sounds like a great thing until we discover that
a nation may forever be thrown into instability and hunger by these little
"tweets." Twittering may bring wealth and prosperity to Egypt in this decade,
but don't count on it doing so for all the world in the 21st Century.
"Stability's End: Technologies with goofy names like Twitter and
Facebook are replacing political stability with a state of permanent instability,"
by Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2011 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704358704576118754214049490.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t
'Stability" has been the goal of civilized foreign
policy since the dawn of the Cold War and arguably since the Congress of
Vienna, which posited a framework for international relations in 1815.
Stability, whose virtues are many, has had a worthy run. It's done.
Stability is done as we have known it, at least
until political leadership evolves a better understanding than they have
shown during the events in Egypt of the permanently unstable world they've
tumbled into. The man who pitched the curators of national stability into
their current shocked state—evident this week in the streets of Cairo and
before that in the capital of Tunisia and before that in the U.S.'s November
elections—is William Shockley.
Shockley, a physicist, co- invented the transistor.
The transistor replaced the vacuum tube as the central component of all
electronic devices. The transistor enabled Twitter, Apple, Facebook,
Microsoft, an ocean of apps and the unending storm of information that blows
all of us, including politicians, here and there like leaves. Why would
anyone think it possible in such a world for a Hosni Mubarak to maintain
stability with the methods he's used since 1981?
The point here is not to argue again that
information and communication technology (ICT) has caused another colorful
"revolution." Nor is it to overstate the power of these technologies to
enable democratic reform.
My point is merely to describe what is going on in
front of our faces: This new, exponentially expanding world of information
technologies is now creating permanent instability inside formerly stable
political arrangements.
This stuff disrupts everything it touches. It
overturned the entire music industry, and now it is doing the same to
established political systems.
Here is how it works. In 2007, Egypt sentenced a
blogger named Kareem Amer to four years in prison for insulting the
president. Ten years ago, Mr. Amer would have simply disappeared, like all
the others. So what if his family and 15 friends grumbled? Stability.
Not now. Instead, Mr. Amer became an icon of regime
repression. What changed? Instead of 15 friends whispering over coffee in a
café, 15,000 can talk to each other all day and every day via Internet cafés
about who's getting tortured. According to the Open Net Initiative's helpful
country profiles, some one million Egyptian households have broadband
access, often sharing lines.
Think what this means at the crudest level: Huge
swaths of any wired population exist in a state of engagement. Instability.
Before, stifled populations were mostly sullen. Now, all the time, they're
in mental motion.
Even if the Mubarak thugs somehow disperse the
people in the street, they'll return some day because there is no effective
way to cap their ability to share grievances on a massive scale. Egypt
earlier pulled the plug on its entire Internet. So what? No nation will turn
it off forever.
The Egyptian government itself has been responsible
for expanding ICT, even making cheap computers available. Tunisia's
autocrats wired their own nation, with some 1.7 million Internet users in a
population of 10.2 million.
Continued in article
February 4, 2011 reply from David Fordham
Bob, what's old is apparently new again.
Either that, or author Henninger is completely ignorant of history. I agree
with Henninger in general. But it's not new. The same exact argument he
makes about transistorized technology can be leveled against Gutenberg (and
just as deservedly) hundreds of years ago. Anyone who's been to Europe is
aware of the instability which devastated that highly-civilized society
after the invention of the printing press made it possible for radical new
ideas to get into the hands of a wide (and generally unthinking, relatively
uneducated, unenlightened, and catastrophically impatient) audience.
Instead of peaceful discussion, conferencing, give-and-take, diplomacy, and
other less destructive avenues of change, which admittedly take time and are
not as immediately effective, the widespread dispersal of "any man's" ideas
-- happening without regard to the origin, merits, or value of those ideas--
resulted in the very instability Henninger is describing.
Riots, mob violence, millions of deaths, wanton destruction of wealth
(ruination of the fruit of human labor) on an unprecedented scale, complete
destruction of priceless antiquities, disappearance of what we today call
"civil rights", nations appearing, nations disappearing, leaders rising and
falling, polarization of the population... all of this and more can trace
its origins to the widespread dissemination of ideas which upset the status
quo -- new concepts being put to an unprepared populace.
Much has also been written about the impact of the printing press on the
American independence movement, which the English still call "the uprising"
or "the revolt".
I'm sure Shockley would be honored to have the results of his work compared
with Gutenberg. (Alas, Shockley is often demonized because "he called it as
he saw it" after extensive research in genetics and human behavior.) This
is why I'm not a big fan of complete democracy in the presence of
irresponsible "journalism", whether on paper or on a cell phone screen. As
Scar says in the movie the Lion King,.... (click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfSea_Q4WXg
... 15 seconds.)
So I disagree with the use of the word "new" when Henninger says his point
is to "describe what is going on... the "new" exponentially-expanding world
of information technologies is creating permanent instability ..." No.
The exponentially expanding world of information technologies dates from
the invention of writing, and political instability is not "created by"
technology. (tip of the hat and wink to David Coy.) It is created by people
who utilize the technology in a particular way, usually a very ignorant,
short-sighted, and often self-serving way, without realizing the long-term
effect their action has on the human institutions. Today's journalists,
commentators, "pundits", and yes, even some of us old graybeard denizens of
the academy (like yours truly) often spout off ideas which, simply due to
the reach of the technology, like Gutenberg's, will cause others to reach
conclusions, judgments, opinions, attitudes, etc. which the originator
hadn't stopped to think about, and if the originator had, probably would not
have promulgated in the first place.
The author of an old book called Ecclesiastes says there is a time (and
place) for everything. This implies that there is an inappropriate time and
place. I believe it.
Read some articles about the iconoclasts, the resulting counter-reformation,
the inquisitions, and other results of Gutenberg's invention to see what
we're in for if our journalists (and social networkers) aren't careful.
Perhaps one might begin to appreciate some of my acidity, rancor, and
contempt for so much of today's "news". I've been there and although I
haven't "done that", I have seen its effects, and it isn't pretty.
Bottom line: I agree entirely and completely with Henninger's take on
instability, and the widespread dispersal of communication leading to
instability. But this is not new.
David Fordham
JMU
Video: Scar's surrounded by idiots ---
https://mail.google.com/a/trinity.edu/#inbox/12decc30470f9b36
June 5, 2009 message from
Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
ARE LOWER GRADES
LINKED TO FACEBOOK USE?
When doctoral student
Aryn Karpinski's unpublished study connecting students' heavy Facebook use and
lower grades was presented at the annual meeting of the American Education
Research Association in April it created a "media sensation" both in the press
and among academic blogs. Not everyone found her conclusions convincing.
Three researchers
attempted to replicate Karpinski's findings using three datasets: (1) a large
sample of undergraduate students from the University of Illinois at Chicago, (2)
a nationally representative cross sectional sample of American 14– to
22–year–olds, and (3) a longitudinal panel of American youth aged 14–23. They
report (in "Facebook and Academic Performance: Reconciling a Media Sensation
with Data," by Josh Pasek, Eian More, and Eszter Hargittai, FIRST MONDAY, vol.
14, no. 5, May 4, 2009) that "[i]n none of the samples do we find a robust
negative relationship between Facebook use and grades. Indeed, if anything,
Facebook use is more common among individuals with higher grades."
The article is
available at
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2498/2181
First
Monday [ISSN 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to
publish original articles about the Internet and the global information
infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the University Library,
University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday,
c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA;
email:
ejv@uic.edu;
Web:
http://firstmonday.org/
See also:
"Study Finds Link between Facebook Use, Lower Grades in College"
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2009/05/facebook.html
Poster of Karpinski's study
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/facebook2009.jpg
Bob Jensen's threads on
the pros and cons of education technology, including distance education, can be
found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
Education/Learning Applications of ListServs, Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking,
and Twitter in education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
On the Dark Side
For nearly two decades I've updated a Web document called "The Dark Side" in
which I post things that worry me about advances in education and communication
technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Business Week now has a very long cover story that fits right into "The Dark
Side." I don't consider myself a prude or a religious nut. But this trend in
networking most certainly discourages me about how technology sometimes eats
away at morality and good name of technology. This is yet another dark side
tidbit on the evils of technology that goes along with ID theft, malware
spreading, Internet frauds, porn, plagiarism, malicious hacking, and the like. I
was a bit surprised to find this article in Business Week rather than
Newsweek or Time Magazine.
.
The infidelity economy may be "alive, well, and profitable." But so is porn!
Those of you teaching about advances in social networking should also cover
the emerging dark sides of social networking.
"Cheating, Incorporated: At Ashley Madison's website for "dating,"
the infidelity economy is alive, well, and profitable," by Sheelah Kolhatkar
, Business Week, February 10, 2011 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_08/b4216060281516.htm?link_position=link2
Do you want to have an affair?
After hearing an ad on Howard Stern's radio show or
seeing a schlocky commercial on late-night TV, you might find yourself on
AshleyMadison.com—the premier "dating" website for aspiring adulterers. Type
in the URL, and as the page loads a gauzy violet backdrop appears with a
fuzzy image of a half-dressed couple going at it beyond a hotel doorway.
"Join FREE & change your life today. Guaranteed!"
Setting up a profile costs nothing and takes about
12 seconds. First you check off your availability status: "attached male
seeking females," "attached female seeking males," or, even though the
concept of the site is that all users are in relationships and therefore
equally invested in secrecy, "single female seeking males." Next you're
asked for location, date of birth, height and weight, and whether you're
looking for something "short term," "long term," "Cyber affair/Erotic Chat,"
"Whatever Excites Me," and so on. If you're like me, you choose a handle
based on the cupcake you most recently ate—"redvelvet2"—and then shave a few
years and pounds off your numbers.
Once you provide an e-mail address that your spouse
would presumably never have access to, you're thrust into Ashley Madison's
low-tech pink and purple interface. And then, if you're a woman, the
onslaught begins.
Continued in article
February 12, 2011 reply from Francine McKenna
Bob,
Maybe you forgot it was
that terrible Ashley Madison.com site, the one that advertises on CNBC
and wanted to advertise on the Superbowl that lured the poor Ernst &
Young partner into a debauched life of inside trading and illicit love
triangles.
Bad, bad internets...
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/07/insider_trading_as_common_as_f.html
In the fall of 2004, a fortysomething investment
banker named Donna Murdoch logged into Ashley Madison, the discreet
dating website married people visit "when divorce is not an option," and
introduced herself to James Gansman, a partner at Ernst & Young in New
York. The two struck up a relationship, meeting occasionally in hotels
in Philly, New York, and California, and talking on the phone about
their lives: James told Donna about how he was kicking ass at work,
Donna told James about how she was struggling with her subprime mortgage.
Eventually the two settled into a
comfortable day-to-day routine in their respective offices in New
York and Philadelphia, staring at the same Yahoo Finance screen.
Sweet. Bill and Melinda Gates used to do kind of
the same thing when they were long-distance dating. They'd see the same
movies in different places and then talk about them on the phone. We
just though we'd mention that, because that's the kind of information we
have trapped inside our brains, and we hope that by releasing it we can
make room for other things. Anyway, Donna and James's relationship did not go
the way of Bill and Melinda's.
Eventually, their conversations about
business grew more specific.
Mr. Gansman led Ms. Murdoch in a
guessing game about which deals he was working on, she said. "The
game was that I wouldn't be looking and he would give me hints: The
market cap of two billion or market cap of 400 billion, and here's
what they do, and he'd read it to me, and ultimately make sure I
guessed," Ms. Murdoch testified. Before long, the guessing game fell
away. Mr. Gansman told her more directly about upcoming deals of
Ernst clients, she said.
She made $400, 000 off the deal, and the SEC
noticed. He made nothing, and now he's going to jail. The end.
Insider Affair: An SEC Trial of the Heart [WSJ
via Business
Insider]
Francine McKenna
Managing Editor
@ReTheAuditors on
Twitter
312-730-4884
February 12, 2011 reply from Jagdish Gangolly
Bob, Steve,
The forensic practices at the Big 4 are WAY ahead
of the accounting academia in using the technology to cover the dark side of
social networking in e-discovery. We in the accounting academia have been
too busy regressing to take note.
I know of at least two who used it extensively in
fraud examination as far back as 2008. They demonstrated its use to me while
I was designing our fraud examination course.
One commercial product that is popular is attenex.
See
http://www.jurinnov.com/attenex.asp
Jagdish
Bob Jensen's threads on social networking are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on The Dark Side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on Education Technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"Why Most Facebook Marketing Doesn't Work," ReadWrite Blog,
February 17, 2011 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_most_facebook_marketing_doesnt_work.php
For almost four years, since the Facebook Platform
was launched, I have been involved in delivering Facebook apps for top
brands such as CBS, NBC, Lifetime, Universal Music, Visa and more. Here's
what we have learned doesn't work, and more importantly, what does work.
First, deep campaigns don't work. Digital agencies
love deep, expensive campaigns on Facebook, with tons of pages, interaction,
and art. It fits in with how agencies build microsites and websites, and
justifies the $100,000-plus price tag that they like to charge. Examples
include lightweight games, prediction contests, treasure hunts where you
include friends, and such. Unfortunately for agencies and the brands that
drop a lot of cash, Facebook users decidedly don't like deep campaigns.
hey do not like to spend 20 or 30 minutes on a
single brand's page, unless they are consuming innovative, funny, or
exclusive content. So a travel site looking for a long time spent on a page
should not put up a treasure hunt on a world map where you invite your
friends and can together find great prizes after exploring cities. Sounds
good in a pitch meeting, but it results in abysmally numbers of active
users.
Facebook users are very sophisticated, and there is
no way a single campaign is going to compete on game mechanics with
CityVille. If you want to build CityVille, it might work. But, even Netflix
pulled their Facebook app. You're better off putting up a bunch of funny
videos from around the world and leave it at that.
Lots of Apps on One Tab Don't Work
It is easy to think of a Facebook tab like a Web
page, and throw a bunch of features on it - such as a poll, gifting, and
some videos - all on one tab. However, most users do not show up on a
Facebook tab like they do on a Web page. They are usually coming in by
clicking on a page's newsfeed posting ("What kind of traveller are you? Take
the quiz!"), a friend's newsfeed posting ("I'm a cranky traveller! What kind
of traveller are you? Take the quiz?"), or a Facebook ad ("Find out what
kind of traveller you are!").
Now, if after clicking on one of these links a user
is dropped into a Facebook Page tab with eight different things on it, they
are not going to see a quiz immediately and move on. There should only be
one engagement feature per tab.
Sweepstakes Don't Work
After an initial onslaught of Facebook sweepstakes
promotions, marketers are learning that sweepstakes have very low conversion
rates and almost no viral uptake. We're also learning that they attract
unengaged users who are there for the prize rather than a relationship with
the brand.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on social networking are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
So Says Dilbert
"How to Tax the Rich: Try giving them perks and privileges (an extra
vote?) in return, says 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams," The Wall Street
Journal, January 29, 2011 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703293204576106164123424314.html
The president was too polite to mention it during
his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, but here's a quick summary of the
problem: The U.S. is broke. The hole is too big to plug with cost cutting or
economic growth alone. Rich people have money. No one else does. Rich people
have enough clout to block higher taxes on themselves, and they will.
Likely outcome: Your next home will be the box that
your laser printer came in. I hope that you kept it.
Whenever I feel as if I'm on a path toward certain
doom, which happens every time I pay attention to the news, I like to
imagine that some lonely genius will come up with a clever solution to save
the world. Imagination is a wonderful thing. I don't have much control over
the big realities, such as the economy, but I'm an expert at programming my
own delusions. I make no apology for that. A well-crafted delusion can be a
delicious guilty pleasure. And best of all, it's totally free. As a public
service, today I will teach you how to wrap yourself in a warm blanket of
imagined solutions for the government's fiscal dilemma.
To begin, assume that as the fiscal meltdown
becomes more perilous, everyone will become more flexible and perhaps a bit
more open-minded. That seems reasonable enough. A good crisis has a way of
changing people. Now imagine that the world needs just one great idea to put
things back on the right track. Great ideas have often changed history. It's
not hard to imagine it can happen again.
Try to imagine that the idea that saves the country
is an entirely new one. It's too much of a stretch to imagine that a stale
idea would suddenly become acceptable. In fact, that's the dividing line
between imagination and insanity. Only crazy people imagine that bad ideas
can suddenly become good if you keep trying them. So let's assume that our
imagined solution is a brand new idea. That feels less crazy and more
optimistic. Another advantage is that no one has an entrenched view about an
idea that has never been heard.
For those of you with healthy egos—and that would
be every reader of The Wall Street Journal—you can make this fantasy extra
delicious by imagining that you are the person who comes up with the idea
that saves the world. I'll show you how to imagine that. I think you'll be
surprised at how easy it is.
I spent some time working in the television
industry, and I learned a technique that writers use. It's called "the bad
version." When you feel that a plot solution exists, but you can't yet
imagine it, you describe instead a bad version that has no purpose other
than stimulating the other writers to imagine a better version.
Continued in article
MAAW Social Networks Bibliography ---
http://maaw.info/SocialNetworksBib.htm
Cutting-Edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and Blogs, by Charles Wankel ---
http://management-education.net/rmed9/
Mark Schaefer (Marketing) ---
http://www.businessesgrow.com/
"Facebook Checks In to the World of Locations," by Walter S. Mossberg,
The Wall Street Journal,August 19, 2010 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437533304450888.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews
The 800-pound gorilla of social networks, Facebook,
is jumping into the location game.
On Wednesday, it announced a new, optional service
for its 500 million members called Places, which allows you to check in to
various places you go, and share that information with your Facebook
friends, complete with maps and comments and the Facebook thumbs-up "like"
feature.
I've been testing the new service, and found it
easy to use and reliable, with mostly logical privacy controls, an issue on
which Facebook has been bruised in the past.
Companies began to build location-based social
networks shortly after smartphones began to include social-networking apps
and the ability to pinpoint your location.
These services let you and your network "friends"
know if you were in the same area, so you could get together. They also let
merchants entice you with coupons or ads.
Walt Mossberg and Geoff Fowler discuss Facebook's
new location feature called 'Places,' including details about how it works
and Walt's assessment about how it performs. All you had to do was use your
smartphone to "check in" an establishment.
These location-based networks, notably Foursquare,
have grown fast. Especially in a recession, many users appreciate offers to
save money. There also is money to be made by the merchants.
But these networks are controversial. Though most
have privacy controls, they are accused of eroding privacy by allowing
others to know exactly where you are at any time. They also raise issues
about giving such information to merchants.
Fourquare also has turned off some potential users
with a big overlay of game-like features, like earning points and badges for
visiting places, and even the ability to become the "mayor" of, say, a bar
you frequent.
On the Facebook app, you initially can check in to
Places only if you have Apple's iPhone, though you can use a site at
touch.facebook.com
via your browser on other phones and laptops that can
track your location and support HTML 5 technology.
In the past week or so, my colleague Katherine
Boehret and I have used Facebook Places to check in with iPhones around our
home base of Washington, D.C., at stores, bars, restaurants and even our
office. I also was able to check in, or "tag," other Facebook members with
me, like my visiting son and daughter-in-law. All of these tests went well,
but I was surprised by one odd thing: I could check myself into nearby
places even if I wasn't there.
At each location, Places lets you see your friends
and other Facebook members (even if they're not your friends), who are
nearby, a feature called "People Here Now."
Minors are excluded from seeing anyone except their
friends. We couldn't test this "Here Now" feature because, in the
pre-release stage, there weren't enough people with the new service to be
nearby.
These check-ins were posted on our Facebook pages
(though, for this test, they could only be seen by the handful of others
with pre-release access to the service), and people could comment.
One reason Facebook has launched Places, surely, is
to compete with location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Those
services already can link up with Facebook and tap its huge member base, a
potential threat to the larger social network.
Facebook says it is adding Places merely to enrich
the social experience it already provides. The company says its users
already post status messages that say things like: "at Starbucks in Harvard
Square with Susan and Jeff." Now, they can tap a new Places icon in the
Facebook app on their iPhones and do this more easily, complete with a map.
"We're just building a new way for people to share that information in an
engaging way," says one Facebook official.
Facebook says it isn't monetizing the service, at
least not at first, but may consider ways for companies to make use of the
data "down the line."
Users won't receive ads or offers, at least
initially. But if a merchant already has a Facebook page, some will be able
to display your check-ins from the start, though visible only to your
friends. Facebook says it has no plans to add game-like features to Places,
though third-party developers might.
In addition to testing Places around town, I paid
close attention to its privacy features, to judge how much control Facebook
is offering users over who gets to see where they are. My conclusion is that
the controls are decent, but could be a bit better. You can control how
public your Places information is on Facebook's privacy settings screen, in
the Sharing section. The default for Places is "Friends Only," unless you
expressed a preference to share things with everyone. That's a good thing,
in my view. You can change this to broaden it to, say, friends of friends,
or even everyone. Or, you can limit it, so that, for instance, only certain
people can see your location, or certain people can't.
Facebook also allows you to bar others from
checking you in, and lets you hide yourself from others' "Here Now"
listings, though you can't customize this latter setting by, say, allowing
only some people to know you're nearby.
In my tests, these settings worked fine. But I
wished a couple of other settings were available. For example, you can't
keep check-in notices off your Facebook page, unless you broadly block other
kinds of status updates. And you can't block merchants from including your
check-ins at their establishments on their Facebook pages. Also, while
Places omits some annoying aspects of its competitors, like the game
features, it's more stripped down and leaves out some attractive features
others include. Foursquare has a feature that lets you leave suggestions
about a location. And Gowalla has a "trips" feature that lets users string
together places they've been into recommended tours.
Overall, I found Places a good enhancement to
Facebook and one that will likely make the booming social network even more
attractive to some.
"Frontiers of Collaboration: The Evolution of Social Networking,"
Knowledge@Wharton, July 7, 2010 ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2536
Social networking tools such as Twitter and the
emerging Google Wave web application are taking individuals and
organizations to the frontiers of real-time communication and collaboration.
The technology has the potential to make it easier to discover and share
information, interact with others, and decide what to buy or do. But the key
word is "potential": Social networking's evolution is still in its early
stages. What makes the current crop of services more promising than those
that came before? What are the obstacles to further progress?
An expert panel debated these questions at the
annual Supernova technology strategy conference, produced in partnership
with Wharton and held last winter in San Francisco. The 2010
Supernova forum
will be held this month in Philadelphia.
The panel at the San Francisco event was chaired by
David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for
Internet and Society and co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Appearing on
the panel were: Anna-Christina Douglas, product marketing manager at Google;
Laura Fitton, principal of Pistachio Consulting and co-author of Twitter for
Dummies; Paul Lippe, founder and CEO of Legal OnRamp; Jason Shellen, founder
and CEO of Thing Labs, and Deborah Schultz, a partner with the Altimeter
Group. In addition, Google engineers were in the room demonstrating Google
Wave by allowing the audience to post to the social networking service
during the session; their comments appeared in real time on projection
screens near the panelists.
Weinberger began the session by asking panelists
what made the introduction of social networking tools different from
previous technological endeavors to improve communication and collaboration.
One significant issue discussed was how social networking compared with
knowledge management (KM). KM systems first appeared on the scene about 20
years ago and once represented the frontier, embodying companies' most
innovative ideas for integrating internal access to disparate information in
order to improve communication, collaboration and business processes.
KM systems were implemented through technologies
such as web portals, e-mail networks, content management systems and
business intelligence infrastructure. Web portals, which were probably the
most successful type of KM system, allow users to access a range of
information -- including reports, diagrams, catalogs and maintenance records
-- through one interface, rather than many. The portals also include
external information supplied by business partners, government agencies and
news sources. The technology automatically pulls information from the
sources on demand so that users do not have to search for it manually.
Organizations employ KM systems to increase the
value of their "intellectual capital." However, the technology that supports
KM systems has traditionally been difficult to develop and deploy. And the
systems have not been universally successful at fostering real time
collaboration between employees.
According to Shellen -- who was part of the
development teams for Google's blogging program and Reader aggregator
service -- before social networking tools enabled quick and casual
communication, many bloggers in corporate organizations had "some KM tool
where you captured the knowledge in the tool's silo and assigned all sorts
of tags, folders and so on to it. You would then pass the blog to your
manager for him or her to [learn from] what you were writing." Shellen now
heads Thing Labs, a San Francisco-based company that builds web-based
software for sharing content. Social networking is easing some of the
frustration users in many organizations have encountered with traditional KM
systems. Through use of Twitter and other tools, more of the intellectual
capital that KM systems once guarded is flowing freely, in real time, inside
and outside organizations. If an employee needs to find expertise or share
information, he or she doesn't have to work within the rigid confines of a
KM system, or even the confines of his or her organization. Instead, the
employee can use social media to collaborate with others and to find answers
more quickly and put relevant advice into practice.
While there are virtues to being able to
communicate faster and more easily with social networking tools, panelists
agreed that many organizations are struggling to adjust to the spontaneity
and loss of control over information that comes with these tools. Concerned
that organizations will eventually clamp down, Weinberger asked, "Will all
the fun be stripped out of it? Will people become afraid to Tweet about
things that are not strictly business-related?" Fitton, whose consulting
firm focuses on helping companies to use micro-blogging in a business
environment, suggested that companies may find the "messy and random
serendipity" of Twitter and other social networks to be more efficient than
lumbering KM systems and processes. "It brings an infusion of humanity to
business," she noted, who adding that, in her experiences at Pistachio
Consulting, she has observed social networking having an impact on
organizations by leveling management hierarchies, accelerating team-building
across geographical locations, and improving mentoring. She stated that, in
some cases, research to find human expertise that used to take many hours
can happen much faster when queries are "flung out into the commons" to
catch the attention of people who can provide answers more quickly.
Breadth vs. Depth
One of the advantages social networking tools have
over KM systems, experts say, is that they simplify the process of obtaining
information that would be useful to a business or employee. Tools such as
Twitter provide a sort of "KM in the cloud," allowing users to collaborate
with each other and send messages to locate expertise without a company
having to build and maintain a complex and expensive system to provide these
capabilities internally. Social networking tools provide access to a broad
population and employ simple, standardized, techniques to link users to
information. But while social networking offers "an enormous amount of
horizontal power," Lippe said, "most of the hard collaboration problems are
[solved] in vertical domains." His firm, Legal OnRamp, is a collaboration
platform for lawyers that allows information to be collected and shared
virtually. Membership is by invitation only.
Lippe noted that, in the legal field, "there's
already a structure of knowledge, and most knowledge repositories and
structures of the collaborative web have existed for multiple generations.
So, the question is, how do you tap into them?" One core structure is
attorney-client privilege, which Lippe said "has long preceded the
information confidentiality and security regime that we all have now. It
creates the structure of what you can and cannot share." In the legal
universe, he added, the messy serendipity of "horizontal" social networking
cannot solve the hardest problems. "Lawyers have some questions they will
answer for free, and others that they will figure out a way to get paid to
answer."
But the legal field's communication sensitivities
are "a very specific case," Shellen pointed out. He noted that companies
have built private social networks that feature protected blogs and search
engines, and that these tools have proven effective in achieving new forms
of collaboration while keeping information secure. Organizations are now
incorporating use of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social media into
their daily routines, although they are in need of systems that can
integrate and update the information being posted across all of the
platforms. Shellen's Thing Labs produces a reader called "Brizzly" that can
be used to provide that service.
Lippe agreed that, despite the concerns he noted,
large legal firms have an opportunity to use social networking to
reestablish an intimacy with clients that they may have lost as the
businesses grew larger and adjusted to structural changes in the industry.
Lippe wrote recently on his Legal OnRamp blog that social networking tools
can be used to save attorneys from "e-mail and attachment overload" and to
"share existing knowledge or collaborate on new work [including] high volume
work like commercial contracts and high complexity work like major case
litigation."
Office culture plays a significant role in what
platform is used to share information, according to Schultz, a partner with
the San Mateo, Calif.-based Altimeter Group, a technology strategy
consulting firm. She noted that media companies, for example, may be a
better fit for the horizontal nature of social networking. Schultz has been
active in social media and networking for many years and has advised
organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies, including
Citibank and Procter & Gamble. At P&G, she built the P&G Social Media Lab, a
program that enables the company to study the new dynamics of customer
relationships in the age of social networking, and to use social media to
break the mold of standard marketing measures and approaches that were
geared toward older types of media. By encouraging brand managers to pay
close attention to what customers were saying on community sites and other
social networking places, Schultz said the Lab has helped P&G redefine how
it engages, communicates with and uses marketing to influence consumers. "I
see the tools making the roles we have more porous," she stated. "As the
consumer-driven nature of social networking moves into organizations, the
collaboration potential of their use becomes more interesting."
The use of tools like Twitter and Google Wave
"definitely make a cultural statement," said Douglas. The Google product
marketing manager described how Google Wave has the capabilities for
real-time, rolling conversation and collaboration among users that can
include messages, links and attachments. Douglas noted that each
conversation or "wave" can be modified with different editing and replying
privileges so that enterprises can "exercise controls for how people want to
lock down content." The Google engineers demonstrated the application on the
big screen behind the panelists; they showed how users can comment with
links embedded in their messages and also load attachments.
Google Wave could be used effectively for private
communication inside the firewall, as well as for working with a diverse
community outside an organization, panelists said. Previous KM systems did
not easily integrate communication with content management, making it
difficult to use existing tools to access and manage information during real
time conversations. Google Wave and other social networking tools offer the
potential of a much tighter integration between communication and content,
meaning conversations can include richer information sharing and easier
references to content available across the organization.
To Shellen, the most interesting aspect to how
social networking and collaboration tools are used is users' ability to join
ongoing conversations. He said his firm is currently building a "data set on
top of that engagement, where we ask people to explain trending topics on
Twitter." The combination of immediate updates plus access to more in-depth
information can enhance knowledge. "Tools like Twitter make me much smarter
about you," Schultz noted. "And the 'you' could be an entity or an
individual." She said that with the right kind of filtering, people can
collaborate and make more effective use of the information available on
social networks. "Companies can collaborate in real time with customers on
products and even pricing."
But does the 140-character limit for posts to
Twitter enable engagement, or is it "a sign of triviality?" asked
Weinberger. "Constraints breed invention," replied Shellen. Douglas added
that communities using Twitter, Google Wave and other tools are creating
their own etiquette. Panelists agreed that both the creation of etiquette
for particular conversations and the sheer ability to engage in several
discussions at once would be difficult using blogs and older forms of web
content sharing programs.
An Open and Vibrant World
Weinberger asked the panelists whether progress
toward the real-time collaboration frontier is being driven by new
technology or human needs. Speaking to the human needs, Fitton observed that
social networking tools such as Twitter "help us overcome human isolation in
a way that is not brand new but is happening on a different scale." She said
that the collaboration possible on the site is a question of "not just;
'What are you doing?' but, 'What do we have in common?'" Fulfilling that
need is what fascinates her about the phenomenon. Shellen added: "There's
accountability behind it; we now have modes of identity tied to short bursts
of communication that are very much 'you.'"
Continued in article
"Trying Out a Revamped Myspace," by Katherine Boehret, The Wall
Street Journal, December 22, 2010 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703581204576033703049174660.html
Thanks to the popularity of Facebook, it's easy to
assume that all social networks are designed primarily to connect friends
with one another. But many of these networks—think Twitter, Yelp and
LinkedIn—aren't focused on that. Instead, they provide information from
strangers, business contacts and group postings on a variety of topics.
Myspace is now also shifting in this direction after Facebook decisively
overtook it as the most popular social network.
Last month, the company rolled out a revamped
version of Myspace, which is owned by News Corp., publisher of the Wall
Street Journal. I've been testing it to see what has changed and if it's
worth using. Its interface is cleaner than the old version of Myspace and I
found it easy to navigate. It's also inviting for non-members or people
who've long-since given up on Myspace. But I can't definitely say I like it
enough to add it to my large list of social networks.
Step one of this site's rehab was a new focus.
Myspace (myspace.com) was redesigned to serve as a source of information
about entertainment. People who use it can follow five categories—TV, music,
movies, celebrities and comedy—that include more than 100,000 topics. News
about these topics comes from sites all over the Web and is arranged on
users' home pages to show loads of information at a glance. A Discovery tab
at the top of the page shows content related to trends on Myspace makes
suggestions based on a user's preferences and taste. A spokesman said the
Myspace topics can be expanded, but for now, if you're fonder of, say,
books, theater or hard news, Myspace won't be a good fit.
. . .
This week, a Myspace mobile app was launched in
Apple's App Store, and an Android app is due out next year.
Myspace successfully reinvented itself in a way
that could very well get people using it again, but Facebook's more
personalized social network may be more valuable than a rich library of
entertainment content.
Google terminated Google Wave in 2010
Google Wave ---
http://code.google.com/apis/wave/
Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the
web. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost
instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos,
videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a platform with a rich set of open
APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build
extensions that work inside waves.
Developer Preview ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ
Frank Sinatra's Tribute to MySpace ---
http://americancomedynetwork.com/animation.html?bit_id=25239
"The Future of Social Networking," Business Week, July 2, 2009
---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/special_reports/20070618thefutureo.htm?link_position=link24
Eastman’s
Online Genealogy Newsletter – Google Wave
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/05/googles-wave.html
West
Walkabout – Brought Back Google Wave
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Some Preceding Social Networking References
Social Networking
What is social networking? ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networking
Popular methods now combine many of these, with
MySpace and
Facebook being the most widely used in North America;
Nexopia (mostly in
Canada);
Bebo, Facebook,
Hi5, MySpace,
Tagged,
Xing; and
Skyrock in parts of Europe;[Orkut
and
Hi5 in
South America and
Central America;[
and
Friendster,
Orkut,
Xiaonei and
Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.
"First Reactions to Blackboard Buying Wimba and Elluminate," by Joshua
Kim, Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning
Here I'm going on
"Gut Feelings" and my
"Blink" - an approach I wouldn't necessarily
recommend.
I'd definitely read Ray Henderson's
blog post about the acquisition - and the
letter to clients is also worth your time.
I'm sure my reactions contain thoughts that will
piss off everyone …. just remember that
I may be wrong.
Gut Reactions:
--This is Very Smart for Blackboard: The
future of the LMS involves knitting together various functions. Synchronous
meetings, presence awareness, and voice-authoring/collaboration are all
essential pieces of the online/hybrid learning experience. The danger for
Blackboard is that their core product becomes essentially middleware -
performing commodity functions such as enrollment management, gradebook,
etc. etc. Tying the higher value-add services directly into the Blackboard
product (as will happen over time) makes it more difficult to replace
Blackboard with another LMS.
--Elluminate Needs Development: I have
utilized Elluminate for Webinars, and I have to say that I find the platform
lacking as compared to Adobe Connect Pro. Others will disagree - but
whatever your synchronous collaboration tool preference I think you will
agree that all the platforms need significant investment. I wonder how much
better Elluminate will be than Adobe Connect Pro, particularly when the
Adobe product is integrated with Blackboard using the building block. Even
though I've never been wild about Elluminate, I think that the tool offers a
quantum leap of functionality over the atrocious native Blackboard
synchronous tools - and if Blackboard is smart they will quickly fold this
Elluminate into their core offering.
--Wimba Voice/Chat Features Are Great: I've
never quite understood why it was necessary to buy key voice and chat
(presence awareness) tools on top of the LMS - but I think Wimba has been
fulfilling an important need. If I were Blackboard I'd also integrate the
Wimba features into the core - and make the money with services,
integration, etc. etc.
--Bad News for Non-Blackboard Wimba and
Elluminate Clients: I can't see how I'd be happy with this news if I'm
running Moodle and Wimba or Elluminate. Ray is someone I trust - so his
assurances that investments will be made to support and grow the products
for non-Blackboard clients do carry a great deal of weight. Still … if I
were a Moodle person I'd be reviewing my options about now.
--If You Are Worried About Lock-In, You Should
Be: And you should be worried about lock-in, as it will be even more
difficult to leave Blackboard once the core tool is also providing
synchronous meetings and rich collaboration / student authoring functions.
Many campuses will like the pre-baked integration and robust features that
the eventual fully integrated products will deliver. Others will (wisely)
decide to piece together open-source and consumer tools, leaving themselves
with agility and flexibility.
--Kaltura or ShareStream or Ensemble Are Next:
The big piece that is missing from Blackboard now is a way to do curricular
media management. The Kaltura and ShareStream already offer robust
Blackboard integration - wouldn't it make more sense from Blackboard's
perspective if they could offer a full vertical solution - one sales cycle,
one support model, one source for integration and localization?
--Good News for Blackboard Campuses (I Think):
Overall, my gut tells me that this is good news for Blackboard campuses - as
synchronous learning and collaboration will improve (I think) with both
integration and focused resources. Getting rid of the need to have separate
sales teams and back-offices, and combining developer resources, will mean
more dollars and time can be spent on improving functionality. I'm also
worried about lock-in, but perhaps more excited about the robust and
seamless experience.
I'd also say this is good news for our industry. If
I were working at Blackboard this is exactly the deal that I would have
tried to arrange. This deal puts Blackboard in a very strong position in
terms of their long-term relevance in higher ed, and I think addresses much
of the risk that open/community source alternatives like Moodle were
beginning to pose. I also believe that within 3 years time Blackboard will
be acquired by Microsoft or Oracle or maybe even Google - as the education
market will only grow. This acquisition will be seen as a smart move along
the road to that destination.
Bob Jensen's threads on Blackboard are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Blackboard.htm
From the Trites E-business Blog (in Canada) ---
http://www.zorba.ca/2010/02/has-social-networking-run-its-course.html
February 22, 2010
Has Social Networking Run Its Course?
A recent poll - unscientific and all - has resulted
in some 400 readers of Internet Evolution to call for the elimination of
Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. The poll asked the question: "If you could
eliminate one Web service, which one would it be?" Biased, for sure, but
nevertheless food for thought.
There are plenty of reasons why social networking
could run out of steam. It started with teenagers, notorious for social
interaction but - - between themselves. Now that it has gone mainstream, it
loses its appeal to them. Also, the privacy and security implications of
social networking are becoming increasingly evident to everyone. That will
turn off many people - as it already has employers and other organizations.
That said, people are inherently social and it
could be that social networking is just going through a fine tuning stage.
Stay tuned.
For a write-up on the survey, follow this link---
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=188181&f_src=internetevolution_section_466
Other recent posts to Jerry's E-business Blog ---
http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html
Jerry's home page is at http://www.zorba.ca/
Jensen Comment
Jerry is not given enough credit for being a blogging pioneer. He was one of the
first accounting professors in the world to provide chronological blogs. As I
recall he started blogs on E-commerce and XBRL about the same time, and I'm
sorry that I've not tracked these blogs more closely in recent years. Like good
wine, they've improved with age.
2009 Updates on Social Networking Advantages, Disadvantages, and Sites for
Educators and Students
Why are advertisers paying more money for space on blogs and social
networks?
Americans have been devoting 17 percent of all their
Internet time to social networks like Facebook and blogging Web sites like
Blogger. The percentage for last month is up from 6 percent a year earlier. The
report comes from Nielsen Co. and follows its decision to team up with Facebook
on a marketing program that helps advertisers measure how well their ads work on
the online hangout.Nielsen estimates that ad spending on leading social-network
and blogging sites more than doubled year-over-year, to about $108 million for
the month. This happened even as several industries decreased their overall ad
spending.
MIT's Technology Review, September 25, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/wire/23532/?nlid=2383
January 10, 2009 message from Barry Rice
[brice@LOYOLA.EDU]
This is from an excellent
article on the National Education Web site about how educators are using
social networking to build community and collaboration online:
"By now, you've heard the
buzz about MySpace and Facebook, but you may still be wondering what all
the fuss is about. Maybe you're a little mystified by the whole social
networking craze, or you're a little wary about venturing into your
students' territory. But what if we told you it can actually be good for
your career?..."
Barry Rice
AECM Founder
_________________________
E. Barry Rice,
MBA, CPA
Director, Instructional Services
Emeritus Accounting Professor
Loyola College in Maryland
BRice@Loyola.edu
410-617-2478
www.barryrice.com
Are students headed for the Facebook exits?
"Reports of Facebook's Death ... Exaggerated?" by Jeff Young, Chronicle of
Higher Education, August 28, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Reports-of-Facebooks-Death/7856/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Is the Facebook party breaking up? We still hear
that plenty of students and professors are addicted to the social-networking
site, but a
New York Times Magazine article out today
says that even though overall numbers on the site are up, a vocal group is
heading for the exits.
"I have noticed the exodus, and I kind of feel like
it's kids getting tired of a new toy," one writer told the Times in
the very anecdotal account.
An article earlier this month in The Guardian took
note of the trend as well, arguing that the "cool cyberkids" are starting to
abandon Facebook because too many old fogies have showed up on the social
network.
Some professors have been part of the recent group
leaving Facebook. Dan Cohen, director of the Center for History and New
Media at George Mason University, left Facebook earlier this year and talked
about it on his podcast,
Digital Campus.
Will students' interest in Facebook fade this year?
Will professors lose interest? Or are reports of the site's demise greatly
exaggerted?
Department of Defense Social Media Hub ---
http://socialmedia.defense.gov/
I think Twitter stands a better chance of becoming the
world's bulletin board for short messages. It will probably endure the test of
time. But email address books, listservs and blogs will also endure because of
the depth that comes from longer messages, attachments, quotations, pictures,
and videos ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Facebook is more like having pen pals. How many pen pals
can we tolerate if our former students and total strangers keep asking us to be
pen pals? To keep my sanity I've not accepted any invitations to become pen pals
with over 200 people (many strangers) who invite me to
MySpace,
Twitter and
LinkedIn (North America);
Nexopia (Canada);
Bebo,
Hi5,
StudiVZ (Germany);
Decayenne,
Tagged,
XING,
Badoo and
Skyrock (Europe);
Orkut and
Hi5 (
South America and
Central America); and
Friendster,
Mixi,
Multiply,
Orkut,
Wretch,
Xiaonei and
Cyworld (Asia and the Pacific Islands). I’ve even been asked to join social
networks in languages that I do not understand.
I think we’re seeing some of these problems in the AAA Commons. Much of the
research networking depends upon joining each others’ “hives.” You have to be
invited to hives for much of the research networking. But you don’t have to join
a single hive to find postings in teaching and other announcements available to
Commons bees who do not join hives ---
https://commons.aaahq.org/signin
The AAA Commons is really worthwhile these days. It contains a lot of messaging
from scholars who do not subscribe to the AECM (sigh!). I know the frequency of
my messaging on the AECM is sometimes a problem for Commoners not wanting so
many of my AECM messages. But given that I find many things daily that I feel
will be of interest on the AECM, I do try to reduce the space my messages takes
in your email mailboxes. I rarely add pictures and graphics to email messages
and instead only link to those things available at my Website.
My quotations in my AECM messages are often quite long, but this is because
these quotations, such as those from newspapers and magazines, are often only
available for a few days for free. Because there are so many of those
quotations, even the ones that I post on my Website are often difficult to find
even by me. But there are tons of quotations at my Website that are no longer
available anywhere else ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
I
don’t Twitter because I prefer to run at the mouth rather than Tweet.
Blogs, Podcasts and Social Networking Outline (AICPA)
What Social Networking Means to Practicing Accountants ---
http://conferences.aicpa.org/tech08/downloads/30 LaFollette.pdf
Howard Rheingold on Collective Action, Social Networks and Smart Mobs ---
http://www.cio.com/article/29804/Howard_Rheingold_onCollective_Action_Social_Networks_and_Smart_Mobs
"Adult education has class in using social networks," The Ridgefield Press,
June 23, 2009 ---
Click Here
http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30845:adult-education-has-class-in-using-social-networks&catid=46:rfd-local&Itemid=778
Social Networks for CPAs in Maryland ---
http://www.cpasuccess.com/maryland_business_and_accounting_expo/
From the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA)
"How to Leverage Social Networking," The Journal of Accountancy,
August 2009 ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2009/Aug/20091768.htm
July 24, 2009 reply from Tom Hood
[tom@MACPA.ORG]
Bob,
Thanks for the shout out.
For those interested in Social Media for CPAs we
were also featured in these other Journal of Accountancy articles.
Video – Making Social Media Work for You
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Multimedia/TomHood.htm
Accounting for Second Life
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2008/Jun/AccountingforSecondLife
We also have created a free self-guided learning
tool (using a blog) for social media- everything from Facebook to LinkedIn,
Youtube and Second Life. At http://www.cpalearning2.com for educators and
students (although it may be too elementary for them).
I would be remiss if I did not mention my professor
who fueled my interest in technology as a student and later on the MACPA’s
technology committee, E. Barry Rice! See my blog post about Barry here
http://www.cpasuccess.com/2009/02/back-to-the-future-macpa-technology.html
He greatly influenced me and
the Association and we are eternally grateful.
Hope these are useful
Warmest regards,
Tom
Did Facebook begin as a way to pick up women or billions of dollars?
The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, famously
started the popular social network from his dorm room at Harvard University. Ben
Mezrich fills in some juicy details of that story (based on interviews and court
documents but with imagined diaglogue) in his new book, The Accidental
Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and
Betrayal. Mr. Mezrich argues that the student created the site out of
frustration over getting rejected from an exclusive "final club" at Harvard, and
that the social-networking site was his attempt to build a new kind of elite
club online -- one that he could control. As Mr. Mezrich tells it, the student
and his friend, Eduardo Saverin, essentially created the site as a way to pick
up girls. Mr. Mezrich's previous work includes Bringing Down the House, the tale
of a poker-playing team made up of graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, which was made into a Hollywood film last year.
Jeff Young, "Author Explores the Juicy Origins of Facebook, Chronicle of
Higher Education, August 5, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Author-Explores-the-Juicy/7583/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
"Online Social Networking for Educators: Educators build community and
collaboration online," by Cindy Long, National Education Association,
January 2009 ---
http://www.nea.org/home/ns/20746.htm
"There are lots of negative connotations surrounding social networking,"
says Steve Hargadon, an educational technology expert and founder of
Classroom 2.0, a popular social network for
teachers. "But we're showing that it can provide productive professional
development opportunities that were previously available only to those lucky
enough to attend conferences."
. . .
An active community is key, because social networks
are only as good as the conversations that take place within them, says
Hargadon of Classroom 2.0. "The conversations that used to happen in the
hallways or teacher's lounges or at conferences are now happening all the
time on the Web, and the more conversations you can have about your work,
the more you can develop your specific professional interest," he says.
"Putting these tools together in an environment that encourages community
and collaboration creates enormous potential for history teachers, or Latin
, teachers, or music teachers to build a network of colleagues at their
fingertips."
Hargadon recommends that educators take a look at
Ning.com, where you can create your own social network around a specific
topic without having to join the larger networks where your students most
likely spend their time (see sidebar on MySpace/YourSpace). Ning groups can
be as open or exclusive (even invitation-only) as you like.
Dubbles's Ning network, "Video Games as Learning
Tools," is a community of educators exploring the potential of gaming in the
classroom. The network has expanded his professional development in ways he
never predicted. Through the connections he's made on Ning, he's been
invited to write and share curriculum, to speak at major conferences on
video gaming in the classroom, and to participate as a source in a Christian
Science Monitor article on social networking.
Continued in article
Below is a list of several social networks for educators. Share your own
ideas in the comments box below.
The Apple
Where teachers meet and learn.
Classroom 2.0
Steve Hargadon's popular social networking site for educators.
Classroom Earth
A social network for environmental education created in partnership between
the Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation,
submitted by an NEA Today reader.
Educate Interactive
Provides the educational community with opportunities to connect and
collaborate in order to share resources, lessons, and best practices.
English Companion
A social network for English teachers, submitted by an NEA Today reader.
NextGen Teachers
Educators connecting to explore the next generation of teaching and
learning.
Ning in Education
Using Ning for educational social networks.
TeachAde
The Online Community for Teachers
Teachers Recess
A social network developed to provide everyday teaching solutions.
Some Thoughts on Facebook for Parents
The
researcher, BJ Fogg, director of Stanford University’s Persuasive
Technology Lab, announced this week a free, noncredit course he
plans to teach at the university called “Facebook for Parents.” He
has teamed up with his sister, Linda Fogg Phillips, who has eight
children of her own, to teach the course. You have to get to the
university to take the course because the sessions will not be
broadcast online. The instructors have built
a Web site with their top five tips for
parents concerning Facebook. They also offer an online newsletter
that promises future guidance. “With Facebook’s massive growth,
parents really need to be on board with it,” said Mr. Fogg in an
interview this week. He said the goal of the course is to “help
parents understand what Facebook is” so they feel comfortable enough
to try it themselves.
Jeffrey R. Young,
"Stanford U. Researcher Teaches Noncredit 'Facebook for Parents'
Course," Chronicle of Higher Education, January 30, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3585&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
|
Once again that Website is at
http://facebookforparents.org/
Social Networking: The New Addiction
I wonder what would happen if students got extra credit from staying away from
porn for three months
There would probably be more female students earning extra credit
Extra Credit for Abstaining From Facebook
Robert Doade, an associate professor of philosophy
at Trinity Western University, in British Columbia, is among those academics who
believe Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other forms of social media may be
distracting students and causing them anxiety. So Doade challenges students by
offering them a 5 percent extra credit bonus if they will abstain from all
social and traditional media for the three month semester of his philosophy
course, and keep a journal about the experience. Out of a class of around 35
students, only about 12 will try for the extra credit and by the end of the
semester only between 4 and 6 are still "media abstinent."
Inside Higher Ed, July 24, 2009 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/07/24/qt#204245
Are student usages of FaceBook correlated with lower grades?
Answer: YES!
Concerns About Social Networking, Blogging, and Twittering in Education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Jensen Comment
But analysts may be in statistical quicksand by trying to extrapolate
correlation to causality on this one. The students who get lower grades are not
necessarily going to raise their grades by abstaining from Facebook or even
computer vices in general. They are more likely to be "time wasters" who will
find most any excuse not to study. If you take their computers away they will
spend hours arm wrestling, playing Frisbee, playing cards, necking, etc. In some
instances computers and video games are birth control devices.
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
"The Flaws of Facebook," by Alex Golub, Inside Higher Ed,
February 3, 2009 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/02/03/golub
An acquisitions editor of a major university press
was nice enough to buy me a cup of coffee and a brioche and listen patiently
as I pitched him my book manuscript during a recent meeting of my
professional association. Things went well enough until, at the end of our
meeting, he surprised me. On our way out of the café, he turned to me and
asked “are you on Facebook?” “I am,” I replied, nonplussed, “but I, uh,
don’t really check it very often.” “Well I do,” he said, tone heavy in
significance, “so friend me.”
My dislike of Facebook is not based on ignorance or
a knee-jerk academic ludism. I understand exactly what Facebook is – it’s an
Internet replacement service that combines e-mail, instant messaging, photo
sharing, social networking, mailing lists, asynchronous gaming, and personal
Web hosting all in one. Crucially, it allows differing degrees of privacy,
so you can blog safely about the antics of your adorable cat or the
incredible evil of your department chair without either of them finding out
unless you add them to your friends list. What bothers me about Facebook —
the dilemma highlighted by my encounter with the editor — is the particular
problem it presents for academics, whose professional career and personal
goings-on are all rolled up together into one big life of the mind.
Teaching is an intensely public activity in a very
simple way: You spend hours and hours having people stare at you. Over time
this simple three-shows-a-week schedule blossoms into something infinitely
weirder. It does not take long for professors to find themselves walking
around a campus filled with half-remembered faces from previous classes —
faces worn by people who remember you perfectly well. If you teach at a
large state university, like I do, it does not take long before random
waiters and pharmacists start mentioning how much they did (or didn’t) enjoy
that survey class you taught. There are even apocryphal stories in Papua New
Guinea — the country that I study — about a man who more or less taught
every social science class at the country’s university during the late 70s.
He spent the rest of his life never having to stand in line or fill out a
form because he had trained the vast majority of the nation’s civil
servants, who all remembered him fondly.
The public created by your teaching is much larger
than just the students in your class. Whether we lament or rejoice in the
purportedly poor state of teacher evaluation, it does happen. Those forms
our students fill out have strange afterlives and become the source of
evaluation by deans and whispering among the senior faculty. The Internet
unleashes these evaluations as well, allowing our classroom antics to be
shared on Ratemyprofessor.com.
So is Facebook a dream come true for academics — a
private social networking site where professors can finally let down there
hair because you control your audience, in the way that the average “I hate
the world” anonymous adjunct blog cannot? I would say No. In the physical
world professors uneasily navigate the uneasy blurring of their public and
private lives, but Facebook doesn’t allow for blurring — you are either
friends or not. This extremely “ungranular” system forces you to choose
between two roles, private and public, that the actual, uncoded world allows
us to leave ambiguous.
Which of the following people would you friend on
Facebook? A friend from graduate school? Probably — Facebook is, for better
or worse, a great way to take the Old Boys Club online. A fellow faculty
member? If you get along with them, why not? Your graduate students? Hmmm...
well I suppose some people have that sort of relationship with their
graduate students. Your undergraduates? I’ve drawn a line in the sand and
said no to that one.
I think these cases are actually pretty easy —
categories like colleague and student are well-defined, as is the
distinction between a “purely” formal relationship and the intimate
friendships that grow up around it. I’m sure that many of the people reading
this got to be where they were today because a professor in our lives went
beyond the call of duty to become a friend and mentor. Facebook makes
handling the formal and the informal tricky, but in all of these examples a
lot of work has already been done for it because the relationships in
question can all be neatly divided into “formal” and “informal” registers.
What Facebook makes particularly uncomfortable are
relationships in which friendship and professionalism are not clear and
brightly bounded, but are tied to real political economic stakes. As a young
professor on the path to tenure, for instance, acquisitions editors have a
certain ominous power over me that compels me to friend them on Facebook
(and I did friend him, by the way) and might even include small favors up to
and including shining their shoes if the end of the deal includes an advance
contract. On the other hand, as someone with a tenure track job, I am also
in a position of diffuse power over people like adjuncts and lecturers, who
I get along well with in my department, but who do not come to faculty
meetings in which we discuss the budget (read: their pay).
The more widely you friend people on Facebook — and
it is a slippery slope — the more and more your Facebook page becomes a
professional Web replacement on Friendster’s slick Internet replacement Web
site. It becomes less and less a “private” space and more and more a place
to show a public face to a very wide audience. In forcing you to craft a
public persona, it raises uncomfortable issues of power and inequality and
lurk under the surface of our actual world interactions — which is probably
a good thing.
Continued in article
Videos
CBS Sixty Minute Module on Facebook ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cEySyEnxvU
Some Sobering Thoughts ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU
Learn About Facebook (in a pretty good song) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpaxaxEWMSA
Facebook Fever ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHi-ZcvFV_0
Facebook Anthem ---
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Facebook&aq=f
Google Eyed Social Networking
Google tip-toed into the hot market of online social networks with the quiet
launch of Orkut.com
"Google spawns social networking service," by Stefanie Olsen, CNET News.com,
January 22, 2004 ---
http://news.com.com/2100-1026-5146006.html
The search company, which is expected to go public
this year, is flexing its power with its Internet fans by constantly
offering new services, including comparison shopping and news search. Orkut
could be the clearest signal that Google's aspirations don't end with
search.
"Orkut is an online trusted community Web site
designed for friends. The main goal of our service is to make the social
life of yourself and your friends more active and stimulating," according to
the Web site, which states that the service is "in affiliation with Google."
A Google representative said that the site is the
independent project of one of its engineers, Orkut Buyukkokten, who works on
user interface design for Google. Buyukkokten, a computer science doctoral
candidate at Stanford University before joining Google, created Orkut.com in
the past several months by working on it about one day a week--an amount
that Google asks all of its engineers to devote to personal projects.
Buyukkokten, with the help of a few other engineers, developed Orkut out of
his passion for social networking services.
Google spokeswoman Eileen Rodriquez said that
despite Orkut's affiliation, the service is not part of Google's product
portfolio at this time. "We're always looking at opportunities to expand our
search products, but we currently have no plans in the social networking
market."
Still, Google owns the technology developed by its
employees, Rodriquez said.
Orkut is a "trusted" social network, meaning that
you must be invited to join. The service sent out thousands of invitations
Thursday to welcome individuals, according to Google.
Google regularly throws out new products and
services to see if they stick. Google News, for example, began as the
personal project of Google engineer Krishna Bharat in 2002. While Google
still runs news search in "beta" form, it is gaining a wide audience on the
Internet and is prominently promoted on Google's home page.
Continued in the article
CiteULike social networking for scholarly citations
At first glance, it seems like a nerdier version of
Facebook. There’s the profile picture, the list of interests, the space for your
Web site. Most of the members have Ph.D.’s, though, and instead of posting party
invites or YouTube videos, their “Recent Activity” is full of academic papers
and scholarly treatises. Welcome to
CiteULike, a social
bookmarking tool that allows users to post, share and comment on each other’s
links — in this case, citations to journal articles with titles like “Trend
detection through temporal link analysis” and “The Social Psychology of Inter-
and Intragroup Conflict in Governmental Politics.” It’s a sort of “del.icio.us
for academics,” said Kevin Emamy, a representative for the site’s London-based
holding company, Oversity Ltd. It started out as a personal Web project in 2004
and grew organically by word of mouth. Today, it has some 70,000 registered
users and a million page views a month, he said.
"Keeping Citations Straight, and Finding New Ones," by Andy Guess, Inside
Higher Ed, January 31, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/31/citeulike
"Social Search: A new website will offer personalized search results
based on the user's social network," by Erica Naone, MIT's Technology
Review, February 1, 2008 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20138/?nlid=848
People are flocking to online social networks.
Facebook, for example, claims an average of
250,000 new registrations per day. But companies are still hunting for ways
to make these networks more useful--and profitable. In the past year,
Facebook has introduced new services aimed at taking advantage of users'
online contacts (see "Building
onto Facebook's Platform"), and Yahoo announced
plans for an
e-mail service
that shares data with
social-networking sites. (See "Yahoo's
Plan for a Smarter In-Box.") Now a company called
Delver, which presented at
Demo
earlier this week, is working on a search engine that
uses social-network data to return personalized results from the larger Web.
Liad Agmon, CEO of Delver, says that the site
connects information about a user's social network with Web search results,
"so you are searching the Web through the prism of your social graph." He
explains that a person begins a search at Delver by typing in her name.
Delver then crawls social-networking websites for widely available data
about the user--such as a public
LinkedIn profile--and
builds a network of associated institutions and individuals based on that
information. When the user enters a search query, results related to,
produced by, or tagged by members of her social network are given priority.
Lower down are results from people implicitly connected to the user, such as
those relating to friends of friends, or people who attended the same
college as the user. Finally, there may be some general results from the Web
at the bottom. The consequence, says Agmon, is that each user gets a
different set of results from a given query, and a set quite different from
those delivered by
Google.
"We have no intention of competing with the Googles
of the world, because Google is doing a very good job of indexing the Web
and bringing you the
Wikipedia page of every search query you're
looking for," says Agmon. He says that Delver will free general search
queries such as "New York" or "screensaver" from the heavy search-engine
optimization that tends to make those kinds of queries return generic,
ad-heavy results on Google. "[As a user], you're always thinking, how can I
trick Google into bringing me the real results rather than the commercial
results?" Agmon says. "With this engine, we don't need to trick it at all.
You can go back to these very naive and simple queries because the results
come from your network. Your network is not trying to optimize results; they
just publish or bookmark pages which they find interesting." As a
consequence, the results lean toward user-generated content and items tagged
through sites such as
del.icio.us.
Continued in article
"2008 HORIZON REPORT ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES," New Media Consortium,
2008 ---
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf
The annual Horizon Report
describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon
Project, a five-year qualitative research effort that seeks to identify and
describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching,
learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The
2008 Horizon Report, the fifth in this annual series, is produced as
a collaboration between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI),
an EDUCAUSE program.
The main sections of the report
describe six emerging technologies or practices that will likely enter
mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption
horizons over the next one to five years. Also highlighted are a set of
challenges and trends that will influence our choices in the same time
frames. The project draws on an ongoing primary research effort that has
distilled the viewpoints of more than 175 Advisory Board members in the
fields of business, industry, and education into the six topics presented
here; drawn on an extensive array of published resources, current research,
and practice; and made extensive use of the expertise of the NMC and ELI
communities. (The precise research methodology is detailed in the final
section.) Many of the examples under each area feature the innovative work
of NMC and ELI member institutions.
The format of the Horizon Report
reflects the focus of the Horizon Project, which centers on the
applications of emerging technologies to teaching, learning, and creative
expression. Each topic opens with an overview to introduce the concept or
technology involved and follows with a discussion of the particular
relevance of the topic to education or creativity. Examples of how the
technology is being—or could be—applied to those activities are given. Each
description is followed by an annotated list of additional examples and
readings which expand on the discussion in the Report, as well as a
link to the list of tagged resources collected by the Advisory Board and
other interested parties during the process of researching the topic areas.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Key Emerging Technologies
The technologies featured in the 2008 Horizon
Report are placed along three adoption horizons that represent what the
Advisory Board considers likely timeframes for their entrance into
mainstream use for teaching, learning, or creative applications. The first
adoption horizon assumes the likelihood of entry within the next year; the
second, within two to three years; and the third, within four to five years.
The two technologies placed on the first adoption horizon in this edition,
grassroots video and collaboration webs, are already in use on
many campuses. Examples of these are not difficult to find. Applications of
mobile broadband and data mashups, both on the mid-term
horizon, are evident in organizations at the leading edge of technology
adoption, and are beginning to appear at many institutions. Educational uses
of the two topics on the far-term horizon, collective intelligence
and social operating systems, are understandably rarer; however,
there are examples in the worlds of commerce, industry and entertainment
that hint at coming use in academia within four to five years.
Each profiled technology is described
in detail in the body of the report, including a discussion of what it is
and why it is relevant to teaching, learning, and creative expression.
Specific examples are listed there for each of the six topics, consistent
with the level of adoption at the time the report was written (December
2007). Taken as a set, our research indicates that all six of these
technologies will significantly impact the choices of learning-focused
organizations within the next five years.
Grassroots Video.
Virtually anyone can capture, edit, and share short video clips, using
inexpensive equipment (such as a cell phone) and free or nearly free
software. Video sharin sites continue to grow at some of the most prodigious
rates on the Internet; it is very common now to find news clips, tutorials,
and informative videos listed alongside the music videos and the raft
of personal content that dominated these sites when they first appeared.
What used to be difficult and expensive, and often required special servers
and content distribution networks, now has become something anyone can do
easily for almost nothing. Hosting services handle encoding, infrastructure,
searching, and more, leaving only the content for the producer to worry
about. Custom branding has allowed institutions to even have their own
special presence within these networks, and will fuel rapid growth among
learning-focused organizations who want their content to be where the
viewers are.
Collaboration Webs.
Collaboration no longer calls for expensive equipment and specialized
expertise. The newest tools for collaborative work are small, flexible, and
free, and require no installation. Colleagues simply open their web browsers
and they are able to edit group documents, hold online meetings, swap
information and data, and collaborate in any number of ways without ever
leaving their desks. Open programming interfaces allow users to author tools
that they need and easily tailor them to their requirements, then share them
with others.
Mobile Broadband.
Each year, more than a billion new mobile devices are manufactured1— or a
new phone for every six people on the planet. In this market, innovation is
unfolding at an unprecedented pace. Capabilities are increasing rapidly, and
prices are becoming ever more affordable. Indeed, mobiles are quickly
becoming the most affordable portable platform for staying networked on the
go. New displays and interfaces make it possible to use mobiles to access
almost any Internet content—content that can be delivered over either a
broadband cellular network or a local wireless network.
Data Mashups.
Mashups—custom applications where combinations of data from different
sources are “mashed up” into a single tool— offer new ways to look at and
interact with datasets. The availability of large amounts of data (from
search patterns, say, or real estate sales or Flickr photo tags) is
converging with the development of open programming interfaces for social
networking, mapping, and other tools. This in turn is opening the doors to
hundreds of data mashups that will transform the way we understand and
represent information.
Collective Intelligence.
The kind of knowledge and understanding that emerges from large groups of
people is collective intelligence. In the coming years, we will see
educational applications for both explicit collective intelligence—evidenced
in projects like the Wikipedia and in community tagging—and implicit
collective intelligence, or data gathered from the repeated activities of
numbers of people, including search patterns, cell phone locations over
time, geocoded digital photographs, and other data that are passively
obtained. Data mashups will tap into information generated by collective
intelligence to expand our understanding of ourselves and the
technologically-mediated world we inhabit.
Social Operating Systems.
The essential ingredient of next generation social networking, social
operating systems, is that they will base the organization of the network
around people, rather than around content. This simple conceptual shift
promises profound implications for the academy, and for the ways in which we
think about knowledge and learning. Social operating systems will support
whole new categories of applications that weave through the implicit
connections and clues we leave everywhere as we go about our lives, and use
them to organize our work and our thinking around the people we know. As
might be expected when studying emerging phenomena over time, some of these
topics are related to, or outgrowths of, ones featured in previous editions
of the Horizon Report.
Grassroots video (2008), for
example, reflects the evolution of user-created content (2007); it has
been singled out this year because it has emerged as a distinct set of
technologies in common use that has broad application to teaching,
learning, and creative expression.
Similarly, we have followed mobile
devices with interest for the past several years. In 2006, multimedia
capture was the key factor; mobiles became prolific recording devices for
video, audio, and still imagery. Personal content storehouses were the focus
of mobile in 2007; calendars, contact databases, photo and music
collections, and more began to be increasingly and commonly stored on mobile
devices over the past year. Now for 2008, we are seeing the effect of new
displays and increased access to web content taking these devices by storm.
Nonetheless, while there are abundant examples of personal and professional
uses for mobiles, educational content delivery via mobile devices is still
in the early stages. The expectation is that advances in technology over the
next twelve to eighteen months will remove the last barriers to access and
bring mobiles truly into the mainstream for education.
Critical Challenges
The Horizon Project Advisory Board
annually identifies critical challenges facing learning organizations over
the five-year time period covered by this report, drawing them from a
careful analysis of current events, papers, articles, and similar sources.
The challenges ranked as most likely to have a significant impact on
teaching, learning, and creativity in the coming years appear below, in the
order of importance assigned them by the Advisory Board.
-
Significant shifts in scholarship,
research, creative expression, and learning have created a need for
innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy. This challenge
has evolved over the past year and is a crucial one for teaching and
learning. As the gap grows between new scholarship and old, leadership
and innovation are needed at all levels of the academy—from students to
faculty to staff and administrative leadership. It is critical that the
academic community as a whole embraces the potential of technologies and
practices like those described in this report. Experimentation must be
encouraged and supported by policy; in order for that to happen,
scholars, researchers, and teachers must demonstrate its value by taking
advantage of opportunities for collaboration and interdisciplinary work.
-
Higher education is facing a
growing expectation to deliver services, content and media to mobile and
personal devices. This challenge is even more true today than it was a
year ago. As new devices like the Apple iPhone and the LG Electronics
Voyager are released that make content almost as easy to access and view
on a mobile as on a computer, the demand for mobile content will
continue to grow. Recent infrastructure changes have resulted in
increased access areas for mobile devices, and there are clear
applications of mobile technology for public safety, education, and
entertainment. This is more than merely an expectation to provide
content: this is an opportunity for higher education to reach its
constituents wherever they may be.
-
The renewed emphasis on
collaborative learning is pushing the educational community to develop
new forms of interaction and assessment. Collaborative experiences in
virtual worlds are easy to find today compared to a year ago, when this
challenge was first described. The results are encouraging, but more
work is needed on the assessment side before the full potential of these
kinds of activities can be realized. Issues like ownership of
collaborative work and certification of authorship present difficulties
for evaluation. Further development of social networking and other
collaborative tools will continue to facilitate this kind of work, and
opportunities for interaction will only increase; the challenge faced by
the educational community is to seize those opportunities and develop
effective ways to measure academic progress as it happens.
-
The academy is faced with a need
to provide formal instruction in information, visual, and technological
literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with today’s
tools. Webbased tools are rapidly becoming the standard, both in
education and in the workplace. Technologically mediated communication
is the norm. Fluency in information, visual, and technological literacy
is of vital importance, yet these literacies are not formally taught to
most students. We need new and expanded definitions of these literacies
that are based on mastering underlying concepts rather than on
specialized skill sets, and we need to develop and establish methods for
teaching and evaluating these critical literacies at all levels of
education. The challenge is to develop curricula and assessment rubrics
that address not only traditional capabilities like developing an
argument over the course of a long paper, but also how to apply those
competencies to other forms of communication such as short digital
videos, blogs, or photo essays.
These challenges are a reflection of
the impact of new practices and technologies on our lives. They are
indicative of the changing nature of the way we communicate, access
information, and connect with peers and colleagues. Taken together, they
provide a framing perspective with which to consider the potential impacts
of the six technologies and practices described in this edition of the
Horizon Report.
Significant Trends
Each year the Horizon Advisory Board
also researches, identifies and ranks key trends affecting the areas of
teaching, learning, and creative expression. The Board reviews current
articles, interviews, papers, and published research to discover emerging or
continuing trends. The trends are ranked according to how significant an
impact they are likely to have on education in the next five years.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's search helpers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade in education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology (the good and the bad)
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
June 5, 2009 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
ARE LOWER GRADES LINKED TO
FACEBOOK USE?
When doctoral student Aryn
Karpinski's unpublished study connecting students' heavy Facebook use and
lower grades was presented at the annual meeting of the American Education
Research Association in April it created a "media sensation" both in the
press and among academic blogs. Not everyone found her conclusions
convincing.
Three researchers attempted to
replicate Karpinski's findings using three datasets: (1) a large sample of
undergraduate students from the University of Illinois at Chicago, (2) a
nationally representative cross sectional sample of American 14– to
22–year–olds, and (3) a longitudinal panel of American youth aged 14–23.
They report (in "Facebook and Academic Performance: Reconciling a Media
Sensation with Data," by Josh Pasek, Eian More, and Eszter Hargittai, FIRST
MONDAY, vol. 14, no. 5, May 4, 2009) that "[i]n none of the samples do we
find a robust negative relationship between Facebook use and grades. Indeed,
if anything, Facebook use is more common among individuals with higher
grades."
The article is available at
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2498/2181
First Monday [ISSN 1396-0466]
is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original
articles about the Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is
published in cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois
at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward
Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA;
email:
ejv@uic.edu;
Web:
http://firstmonday.org/
See also:
"Study Finds Link between Facebook Use, Lower Grades in College"
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2009/05/facebook.html
Poster of Karpinski's study
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/facebook2009.jpg
......................................................................
LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
"Virtual worlds as
educational spaces--with their three-dimensional landscapes and customizable
avatars--seem so similar to video games that educators may assume . . . that
students will become as motivated by virtual worlds as they are by video
games. However, these same similarities may also lead students to perceive
virtual worlds as play spaces rather than as innovative educational
environments. If students feel that learning opportunities offered in such
spaces are not valid, they are likely to feel that they are not learning."
-- Catheryn Cheal,
"Student Perceptions of a Course Taught in Second Life"
The June/July 2009 issue of
INNOVATE (vol. 5, issue 5) focuses on the theme of virtual worlds and
simulations in education. The papers reflect the maturing of the study of
virtuality in education that grew out of early discussions and the formation
of the League of Worlds, a conference whose mission is to "stimulate and
disseminate research, analysis, theory, technical and curricular
developments in the creative, educational, training-based and social use of
role-playing, simulations and virtual worlds."
The journal is available
http://innovateonline.info/ Registration is
required to access articles; registration is free.
Innovate: Journal of Online
Education [ISSN 1552-3233], an open-access, peer-reviewed online journal, is
published bimonthly by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services
at Nova Southeastern University.
The journal focuses on the
creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes
in academic, commercial, and governmental settings. For more information,
contact James L. Morrison, Editor-in-Chief;
email:
innovate@nova.edu;
Web:
http://innovateonline.info/
For more information about the League of Worlds, go
to
http://www.ubiqlab.org/low/
......................................................................
IP POLICIES AND E-LEARNING
"When we contrast the
face-to-face learning environment with the online
(e-learning) environment,
nearly all assumptions about IP [intellectual property] and copyright are
called into question. Virtually all materials that contribute to e-learning
are (or can be) digitized, retained, archived, attributed and logged. This
single fact raises questions about IP [intellectual property] ownership,
responsibility, policies, and procedures that are newly on the table."
In "Intellectual Property
Policies, E-Learning, and Web 2.0:
Intersections and Open
Questions" (ECAR Research Bulletin, vol. 2009, issue 7, April 7, 2009),
Veronica Diaz discusses how online learning has necessitated revising IP
policies that were created for face-to-face instructional settings. She
notes that higher education IP policies need to go beyond the assumption
that "e-learning is contained within an institutional system" as Web 2.0
technologies and social networking expand the reach of the learning
environment.
The report is available
online to members of ECAR subscribing institutions at
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ecar_so/erb/ERB0907.pdf
To find out if your institution is a subscriber, go to
http://www.educause.edu/ECARSubscribingOrganizations/957
ECAR (EDUCAUSE Center for
Applied Research) "provides timely research and analysis to help higher
education leaders make better decisions about information technology. ECAR
assembles leading scholars, practitioners, researchers, and analysts to
focus on issues of critical importance to higher education, many of which
carry increasingly complicated and consequential implications." For more
information go to
http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=4
......................................................................
NEW JOURNAL COVERS HIGHER ED
INFORMATION LITERACY
The NORDIC JOURNAL OF
INFORMATION LITERACY IN HIGHER EDUCATION, published by the University of
Bergen, is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal created to encourage
"research-based development of information literacy teaching within the
educational programmes of universities and higher education colleges" and to
establish "a forum for the investigation and discussion of connections
between information literacy and general learning processes within
subject-specific contexts."
Papers in the inaugural issue
include:
"A New Conception of
Information Literacy for the Digital Environment in Higher Education" by
Sharon Markless
To provide an information
literacy (IL) framework for a virtual learning environment, the author
considered the "relevant principles of learning, the place of student
reflection when learning to be information literate, what IL in higher
education (HE) should encompass, the importance of context in developing IL,
and the influence of the digital environment, especially Web 2.0."
"Google Scholar compared to
Web of Science. A Literature Review" by Susanne Mikki
According to the author,
"Google Scholar is popular among faculty staff and students, but has been
met with scepticism by library professionals and therefore not yet
established as subject for teaching." In her paper, Mikki makes a case for
including Google Scholar as a library resource by comparing it favorably
with the more-highly-regarded Web of Science database.
The journal is available at
https://noril.uib.no/index.php/noril
Nordic Journal of Information
Literacy in Higher Education (NORIL) [ISSN 1890-5900] is published
biannually by the University of Bergen Library. For more information,
contact: Anne Sissel Vedvik Tonning, University of Bergen Library,
Psychology, Education and Health Library, PO Box 7808, N-5020 Bergen,
Norway; tel: +47 55588621; fax: +47 55884740;
email:
anne.tonning@ub.uib.no;
Web:
https://noril.uib.no/index.php/noril
......................................................................
NEW JOURNAL ON DIGITAL
CULTURE
DIGITAL CULTURE & EDUCATION
is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to analyzing the "impact of
digital culture on identity, education, art, society, culture and narrative
within social, political, economic, cultural and historical contexts."
Readers can interact with the authors by posting online comments on the
journal's website. Paper submissions can include scholarly reviews of books,
conferences, exhibits, games, software, and hardware.
Papers in the first issue
include:
"Revisiting Violent
Videogames Research: Game Studies Perspectives onAggression, Violence,
Immersion, Interaction, and Textual Analysis" by Kyle Kontour, University of
Colorado at Boulder
"Look at Me! Look at Me!
Self-representation and Self-exposure through Online Networks" by Kerry
Mallan, Queensland University of Technology
"Playing at Bullying: The
Postmodern Ethic of Bully (Canis Canem Edit) by Clare Bradford, Deakin
University
Digital Culture & Education (DCE)
[ISSN 1836-8301] is published as an ongoing journal with content added to
the journal's website as papers are accepted. For more information, contact:
Christopher Walsh, Editor;
email:
editor@digitalcultureandeducation.com;
Web:
http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/
......................................................................
HELPING COMPUTER-LITERATE
STUDENTS BECOME RESEARCH-LITERATE
"While college students may
be computer-literate, they are not, as a rule, research-literate. And
there's a huge difference between the two."
In "Not Enough Time in the
Library" (THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, May 14, 2009), Todd Gilman,
librarian for literature in English at Yale University's Sterling Memorial
Library, offers faculty suggestions for partnering with their campus library
staff to help their students become research-literate learners.
Some of his tips include:--
have a librarian conduct a session on effective search strategies that help
students "avoid frustration and wasted time."
-- provide an assignment that
applies what the students have learned i nthe session, one that will
"incorporate a component that challenges students to evaluate the quality of
information they find."
-- schedule library tour that
takes students beyond the study areas and into the reference and stack areas
The article is available at
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/05/2009051401c.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
(Online access may require a
subscription to the Chronicle.)
The Chronicle of Higher
Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published weekly by The Chronicle of Higher
Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel:
202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033;
Web:
http://chronicle.com/
......................................................................
TWO VIEWS OF ONLINE
INSTRUCTION
"The Excellent Inevitability
of Online Courses" by Margaret Brooks
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION May 29, 2009
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i38/38a06401.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
"Within our lifetimes,
technology has fundamentally changed the way we get the news, make
purchases, and communicate with others. The Internet provides a platform for
learning about and interacting with the world.
It should be no surprise that
students line up for courses that make the best use of technologies that are
so integral to their lives. It's not just the economy. It's not just the
convenience. It's the integration of technology within society that's
driving the development of online courses."
"I'll Never Do It Again" By
Elayne Clift
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, May 29, 2009
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i38/38a03302.htm?utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
"I trained for it, I tried
it, and I'll never do it again. While online teaching may be the wave of the
future (although I desperately hope not), it is not for me. Perhaps I'm the
old dog that resists new tricks. Maybe I am a technophobe. It might be that
I'm plain old-fashioned. This much I can say with certainty: I have years of
experience successfully teaching in collegiate classrooms, and online
teaching doesn't compare."
......................................................................
RECOMMENDED READING
"Recommended Reading" lists
items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found
particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and
websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to
carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in
this column.
"How People are using Twitter
during Conferences"
By Wolfgang Reinhardt, et al.
http://lamp.tu-graz.ac.at/~i203/ebner/publication/09_edumedia.pdf
(Draft version. Originally
published in: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION COMPETENCIES ON THE WEB,
Hornung-Prahauser, V., and M. Luckmann, (Ed.), pp. 145-56.
No Cheers for Pornography and Gambling Sites and Addictive Social
Networking
This may seem a bit off topic, but it may be one of the most valuable links
you can forward to students and others. Besides being a social disgrace,
pornography sites are one of the most dangerous sources of malware that infects
computers along with gambling sites and sites offering malware protection just
after they've infected your computer. In the case of pornography and gambling
users are being infected in multiple ways.
These sites want your money, your I.D., and your mind.
"Pornography and You," by Rebecca Hagelin, Townhall, September
22, 2009 ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/RebeccaHagelin/2009/09/22/pornography_and_you
According to Dr. Manning, the type of porn viewed
today, by both adults and children, is "deviant, vile and graphic. Young
people are witnessing rape, torture, and all kinds of degrading material."
Why would anyone gravitate to such horrible inhumane depictions? Dr. Reisman
has carefully studied and documented the effects that exposure to
pornography has on the brain – it acts like a drug and can easily capture
the “casual observer” and result in serious addiction, causing the user to
crave greater quantities of ever more perverse images.
If you suspect someone in your family has a porn
problem, arm yourself with truth. This column is much to short to delve into
all you need to know in order to protect your family. Visit
www.SalvoMag.com
where you can order the "Silent Bondage" issue and equip yourself to combat
pornography's stranglehold head-on.
If you have a pornography addiction, please get
help. At
www.VictimsofPornography.org you can connect with
counseling resources and hear the victory stories of others who have
overcome their bondage. It’s critical to understand that consuming porn is
never just “harmless entertainment.” Your use warps your view of women and
of common decency. It breeds selfishness and unfaithfulness. You might as
well be having an affair with every woman you gawk at in the glow of the
computer or while privately viewing that hotel room porn flick.
Your wife may be silent about your usage, but she’s
probably dying a little each day inside. I’ll never forget the
heart-wrenching words of a wife whose husband regularly viewed porn: “It was
like my husband had a mistress in our home.”
If you use pornography, you use people. You have a
problem. Get help.
"QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF COMPULSIVE GAMBLING AND THE G.A.
RECOVERY PROGRAM," Gamblers Anonymous ---
http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/qna.html
"How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting. And why
that's dangerous," by Emily Yoffe, Slate Magazine, August 12, 2009
---
http://www.slate.com/id/2224932
Link forwarded by Jim Mahar
Seeking. You can't stop doing it. Sometimes it
feels as if the basic drives for food, sex, and sleep have been overridden
by a new need for endless nuggets of electronic information. We are so
insatiably curious that we gather data even if it gets us in trouble. Google
searches are becoming a cause of
mistrials as jurors,
after hearing testimony, ignore judges' instructions and go look up facts
for themselves. We search for information we don't even care about. Nina
Shen Rastogi confessed in
Double X, "My boyfriend
has threatened to break up with me if I keep whipping out my iPhone to look
up random facts about celebrities when we're out to dinner." We reach the
point that we wonder about our sanity. Virginia Heffernan in the
New York Times said she became so
obsessed with Twitter posts about the
Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest that she spent days
"refreshing my search like a drugged monkey."
We actually resemble nothing so much as those
legendary lab rats that endlessly pressed a lever to give themselves a
little electrical jolt to the brain. While we tap, tap away at our search
engines, it appears we are stimulating the same system in our brains that
scientists accidentally discovered more than 50 years ago when probing rat
skulls.
In 1954, psychologist James Olds and his team were
working in a laboratory at McGill University, studying how rats learned.
They would stick an electrode in a rat's brain and, whenever the rat went to
a particular corner of its cage, would give it a small shock and note the
reaction. One day they unknowingly inserted the probe in the wrong place,
and when Olds tested the rat, it kept returning over and over to the corner
where it received the shock. He eventually discovered that if the probe was
put in the brain's lateral hypothalamus and the rats were allowed to press a
lever and stimulate their own electrodes, they would press until they
collapsed.
Olds, and everyone else, assumed he'd found the
brain's pleasure center (some scientists still think so). Later
experiments done on
humans confirmed that people will neglect almost everything—their personal
hygiene, their family commitments—in order to keep getting that buzz.
But to Washington State University neuroscientist
Jaak Panksepp, this supposed pleasure center
didn't look very much like it was producing pleasure. Those self-stimulating
rats, and later those humans, did not exhibit the euphoric satisfaction of
creatures eating Double Stuf Oreos or repeatedly having orgasms. The
animals, he writes in
Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions,
were "excessively excited, even crazed." The rats were
in a constant state of sniffing and foraging. Some of the human subjects
described feeling sexually aroused but didn't experience climax. Mammals
stimulating the lateral hypothalamus seem to be caught in a loop, Panksepp
writes, "where each stimulation evoked a reinvigorated search strategy" (and
Panksepp wasn't referring to
Bing).
It is an emotional state Panksepp tried many names
for: curiosity, interest, foraging, anticipation, craving, expectancy.
He finally settled on seeking. Panksepp has spent decades mapping
the emotional systems of the brain he believes are shared by all mammals,
and he says, "Seeking is the granddaddy of the systems." It is the mammalian
motivational engine that each day gets us out of the bed, or den, or hole to
venture forth into the world. It's why, as animal scientist Temple Grandin
writes in
Animals Make Us Human, experiments
show that animals in captivity would prefer to have to search for
their food than to have it delivered to them.
For humans, this desire to search is not just about
fulfilling our physical needs. Panksepp says that humans can get
just as excited about abstract rewards as tangible ones. He says that when
we get thrilled about the world of ideas, about making intellectual
connections, about divining meaning, it is the seeking circuits that are
firing.
The juice that fuels the seeking system is the
neurotransmitter dopamine. The dopamine circuits "promote states of
eagerness and directed purpose," Panksepp writes. It's a state humans love
to be in. So good does it feel that we seek out activities, or substances,
that keep this system aroused—cocaine and amphetamines, drugs of
stimulation, are particularly effective at stirring it.
Ever find yourself sitting down at the computer
just for a second to find out what other movie you saw that actress in, only
to look up and realize the search has led to an hour of Googling? Thank
dopamine. Our internal
sense of time is believed to be controlled by the
dopamine system. People with hyperactivity disorder have a shortage of
dopamine in their brains, which a recent
study suggests may be at the root of the problem.
For them even small stretches of time seem to drag. An article by Nicholas
Carr in
the
Atlantic last year, "Is Google Making Us
Stupid?" speculates that our constant Internet scrolling is remodeling our
brains to make it nearly impossible for us to give sustained attention to a
long piece of writing. Like the lab rats, we keep hitting "enter" to get our
next fix.
Bob Jensen's bookmarks on social science tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
Research, News, and Working Paper Databases (SSRN)
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) ---
http://www.ssrn.com/
Tech News
Yahoo Tech ---
http://www.yahoo.com/tech/
TechCrunch ---
http://techcrunch.com/
Techmeme ---
http://www.techmeme.com/
The Pogue Review ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tagged/the-pogue-review
Nate Silver 5:38 ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/
ReadWriteWeb --- http://readhttp://readwrite.com/
"How CFOs Can Use Social Software to Add Value in Closing the Books,"
CFO Journal, January 16, 2013 ---
http://deloitte.wsj.com/cfo/2013/01/16/how-cfos-can-use-social-software-to-add-value-in-closing-the-books/
Many organizations are using social business
software to add value, enhance business performance and strengthen
connections with employees, customers and vendors. Social software, however,
has yet to be adopted by many finance organizations, as some CFOs appear
skeptical of its value. A
study conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review in
collaboration with Deloitte found that only 14% of CFOs surveyed view social
tools as important to their organizations, while 28% of CEOs, presidents and
managing directors regard them as important.¹ “There’s still a lack of
tangible measures of the value of social business and CFOs are bottom
line-oriented,” observes Mark White, chief technical officer of Deloitte
Consulting LLP. “They want to know that the money, talent and the time
invested in implementing social business are worthwhile.”
Mr. White says that social tools such as microblogs,
wikis, internal social networks, instant messaging applications and threaded
discussion forums can help CFOs improve finance organization performance.
“The financial close-the-books process is an example of how social software
can drive improvements in finance’s decision-making and processes, by
making the close more transparent, efficient, repeatable and defensible,” he
says.
Closing the books in a timely and accurate manner
can be a challenge in itself, but particularly so when exceptions², such as
errors or other unanticipated issues, occur. Anticipated events, such as
new regulatory guidelines or integrating an acquired business, can also
hamper the financial close. And although the close may eventually reflect an
exception or a new event in a correct manner, the process of resolving these
exceptions today can be highly inefficient, with lots of wasted time, and
the discussions, thinking and decisions that occurred throughout the process
may not have been captured. That could be a critical loss to a finance
organization’s institutional memory, notes Mr. White.
An Example of How Social Business Tools
Helped Shorten the Close-the-Books Process
To illustrate how CFOs can improve close the books
with social software, Matthew Soderberg, a senior manager in Deloitte
Consulting LLP’s M&A Finance practice, points to a technology company that
recently utilized social networking tools to help it close the books within
three days.
Following the implementation of an enterprise-wide
internal social network, the company’s corporate accounting team created a
user group for the finance team members involved in the close and
consolidation processes. Instead of using email to notify the applicable
groups within the finance function when an event in the close process has
taken place to trigger the next step, or when there’s a problem that
requires correction, the finance team can post updates about the close
process and diagnose, explain and correct errors faster because activities
are posted in real time.
Posting updates about the close process has
significantly reduced email traffic and corporate accounting’s role as
middleman, according to Mr. Soderberg. “This company had been working hard
to get to a three-day close. The internal social network facilitated the
finance organization’s ability to achieve that goal with fewer iterations,
and it has made the finance professionals’ lives easier during the three-day
close process,” he says.
Social Software’s Capabilities
Social tools are being effectively deployed by
organizations to enhance business performance in operations, innovation and
other areas, according to Metrics That Matter: Social Software for
Business Performance, a study by the Deloitte Center for the Edge.³
According to the authors of the Metrics That Matter study, social
software provides organizations the capabilities to identify knowledge and
experience, communicate across boundaries, preserve institutional memory,
harness knowledge that may be distributed across geographies and functions,
and discover emerging opportunities.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on blogging and social networking are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
SSRN's Accounting Research Network (ARN) Directed by Ross Watts ---
http://www.ssrn.com/arn/index.html
Jensen Comment
Many accounting professors still think of SSRN as simply a database of working
papers, many of which are now free --- although they may not be the latest
versions that were eventually published by journals that are not free.
However, there are some other services now available that we don't often
think of as being available at SSRN. For example, the ARN subsidiary of the SSRN
posts academic accounting job openings ---
http://www.ssrn.com/update/arn/arnjob/arn_job.html
These are more focused on R1 research universities and, as such, do not cast
quite as wide a net as the job postings at the American Accounting Association
site.
The SSRN also posts announcements with the primary focus being on forthcoming
conferences. Here the net is wider than the conference postings of the American
Accounting Association.
There are various other free and fee-based ARN services listed at
http://www.ssrn.com/arn/index.html
Even more importantly there are similar subsidiaries of SSRN available in
other business, law, organization behavior, philosophy, and social science
disciplines ---
http://www.ssrn.com/
Note the column on the far left.
Bob Jensen's links to accounting news sites ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's links to accounting blogs, listservs, and social/professional
networking sites ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Social Networking
Social Media for Teachers: Guides, Resources, and Ideas ---
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-resources-educators-matt-davis
Teach Online Safety ---
https://www.staysafeonline.org/teach-online-safety/
MediaSmarts: Teacher Resources ---
http://mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources
Journal of Digital and Media Literacy (journalism and the social media)
--- http://www.jodml.org
AIS Professor Julie Smith David at Arizona State is the moving force
behind the AAA Commons. She recently posted an enthusiastic tidbit about
software called Delicious ---
http://commons.aaahq.org/posts/b5382ec151
There are so many great tools available that it's
incredibly hard to keep up with them... So I (Julie)
thought I'd share one of my favorites with you - and
ask for your insights into the ones that you find most helpful.
Here's my problem: I find a lot of great web sites
as I'm browsing, but remembering that great site might be more difficult
when I actually need it. I used to try and track sites using my bookmarks,
but then they got LONG, and I'd forget what folder I had stored a site in.
Does that sound like you? If so, the solution I like is delicious, and just
click here to learn more http://commons.aaahq.org/posts/b5382ec151
Jensen Comment
Since many of you do not have access to the Commons, I will take you to directly
to "Delicious Social Bookmarking." I should note that I've not yet tried this
software myself ---
http://delicious.com/
In the top blue rectangle click on the link that reads "Learn more." That will
take you to the following page:
http://delicious.com/help/learn
I suggest that you first go to YouTube and enter the term "Social
Bookmarking" --- http://www.youtube.com/
Watch several videos until you get the idea.
Don't necessarily watch the bookmarks starting with the first video.
I suggest that you only consider the five-star videos
in this case, because they do a better job of explaining Delicious.
For example, try
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGXElviSRXM
Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob4.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on social networking are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
What is social networking? ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networking
The main types of social networking services are those which contain
category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to
connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a
recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of
these, with
Facebook widely used worldwide;
MySpace,
Twitter and
LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America;[1]
Nexopia (mostly in
Canada);[2]
Bebo,[3]
Hi5,
StudiVZ (mostly in
Germany),
Decayenne,
Tagged,
XING;[4],
Badoo[5]
and
Skyrock in parts of Europe;[
Orkut and
Hi5 in
South America and
Central America;[7]
and
Friendster,
Mixi,
Multiply,
Orkut,
Wretch,
Xiaonei and
Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.
There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the
need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the
FOAF standard and the
Open Source Initiative), but this has led to some concerns about
privacy.
Google Wave ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave (now defunct)
Google Wave is a self-described "personal communication and
collaboration tool" announced by
Google at the
Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It is a
web-based service,
computing platform, and
communications protocol designed to merge
e-mail,
instant messaging,
wikis, and
social networking.[3]
It has a strong
collaborative and
real-time[4]
focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example,
spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages, and
numerous other extensions. Initially released only to developers, a "preview
release" of Google Wave was extended to 100,000 users in September 2009,
each allowed to invite twenty to thirty additional users. On the 29th of
November 2009, Google accepted most requests submitted soon after the
extended release of the technical preview in September 2009; these users
have around 25 invitations to give.
"3 Steps Google Plus Must Take to Win Against Facebook," by Zubin
Wadia, ReadWriteWeb, June 29, 2011 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/3_steps_google_must_take_to_win_against_facebook.php
Congratulations to the
Google Plus
team for shipping a
superb
beta under conditions which could be considered equal
parts
turmoil and
FUD.
I absolutely love it. If it had 750 million
users on it right now it would be a superior experience to Facebook.
For starters, it looks more cohesive. This isn't
surprising because it is a blank slate product that did not have to deal
with the technical debt Facebook has accumulated since 2004. Beyond the
interface however, Google Plus will be more engaging emotionally for people
because it allows them to be more authentic with one another.
Why? Because Google Plus establishes intuitive
clarity for my social graph.
Dan Ariely (cognitive psychology blog) ---
http://danariely.com/
Jensen Comment
It may surprise you that I'm really not into professional or social networking
yet. After getting over 700 requests from former students and friends to join
their professional networks (like LinkedIn) and social networks (like Facebook)
I decided that I just do not have enough time in the day to do what I do now
plus join in on so many social and professional networks. And I don't Tweet.
What I like best is sticking with the listservs like the AECM for accounting
educators that I've contributed to actively for years. And I add messages daily
to the AAA Commons and put out my newsletters on a regular basis:
Bob Jensen's Blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
But I am seriously considering Delicious Social Bookmarking.
Julie is really an exceptional AIS professional educator, and I highly respect
her opinions.
The Whole World is Tweetable: Updates on
Twitter and Stocktwits Microblogs
Twitter ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
"What Twitter Changes Might Mean for Academics," Chronicle of
Higher Education, September 8, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/what-twitter-changes-might-mean-for-academics/58035?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
March 10, 2009 message from Roger Debreceny
[roger@DEBRECENY.COM]
Gerry Trites asked about Investor
Relations on Twitter. I follow his countryman, Dominic Jones (http://twitter.com/irwebreport
and
http://www.irwebreport.com/) closely. He points to
much going onTwitter. See, for example,
http://preview.tinyurl.com/amw98y on “eBay’s
lawyers are wrong to delete earnings call information” and
http://preview.tinyurl.com/avv4yl on “SEC
disclaimers in the age of Twitter”.
BTW, if you want to see your
portfolio bump around rock bottom in real time, you can get stocktwits at
http://stocktwits.com/ ..
Of course, you can also follow me
on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/debreceny and see very important,
indeed earth shattering, information such as “OMG I fractured my big toe and
can’t ride my bike for a month” and “Yeah, my toe is OK and I can ride
again!” <Bg>
Regards
Roger
"CPAs are Aflutter About Twitter," by Kristin Gentry, SmartPros,
August 10, 2009 ---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x67355.xml
"CPAs Embrace Twitter Brief messages leave powerful impressions," by
Megan Pinkston, The Journal of Accountancy, August 2009 ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2009/Aug/20091828.htm
149 Interesting People to Follow on Twitter (but I don't have time to follow
them) ---
http://ow.ly/1sj5q
"50 Ways to Use Twitter in
the College Classroom" Online Colleges, June 6, 2009
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/
"How to Start Tweeting (and Why You Might Want To)," by Ryan Cordell,
Chronicle of Higher Education, August 11, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/How-to-Start-Tweeting-and-Why/26065/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Social Media and Political Engagement ---
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Political-Engagement.aspx
Top Ten Tweets to Date in Academe
Keep in mind that none of these hold a candle to such globally popular
twitterers such as Britney Spears
"10 High Fliers on Twitter: On the microblogging service, professors and
administrators find work tips and new ways to monitor the world ," by Jeff
Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i31/31a01001.htm?utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
1. Sarah Evans, director of public relations at Elgin Community
College. Tweet: "Looking for a job in PR? Follow @PRSAjobcenter and turn on
your mobile alerts. Good stuff."
http://twitter.com/PRsarahevans
Followers: 18,762. Posts: 10,509.
Many college public-relations offices have set up Twitter accounts, and
communication leaders have been enthusiastic tweeters. Ms. Evans set up a
feed for Elgin Community College where she posts news about the institution,
but she also runs a popular personal feed where she shares her thoughts
about the use of social media in public relations. She told me that she
regularly pitches stories to journalists via Twitter, and she believes that
watching the feeds of journalists helps her build personal relationships
with them.
Microblogging can be a way to connect with students as well. "At the
beginning of the school year, we had a student who tweeted to our Elgin
account worried about her uniform coming in for her culinary class, and I
was able to help get it to her," she said. Ms. Evans speaks frequently at
public-relations conferences about the use of Facebook and Twitter in her
job, and she is a guest blogger for the popular technology blog Mashable,
which focuses on social media.
2. Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York
University. Tweet: "'I had thought of Twitter as a broadcast tool, but it's
become far more valuable to me as a listening device.'
http://is.gd/pGV2 Exactly."
http://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu
Followers: 13,054. Posts: 6,265.
Mr. Rosen posts about 25 times a day, mostly musing on the future of
journalism and on how Twitter and other technologies are changing the
profession. "It's journalism education for anyone who wants to sign up," he
told me in a telephone interview. But the real value of Twitter, he says, is
what he learns by watching the other messages coming in — from college
students, venture capitalists, journalists, and others he follows. "The fact
that they're watching the news for me, scouting the Web for me, and editing
the Web in real time — that's the value of it," he said. He started using
the service more than a year ago after he was encouraged to do so by his
friend, the journalism blogger Jeff Jarvis. Mr. Rosen says it complements
his own blog, PressThink, letting him reach new audiences and interact with
more people.
3. Howard Rheingold, a lecturer at the University of California at
Berkeley teaching virtual communities and social media. Tweet: "http://www.stickam.com/
multiple live video chat windows looks interesting, may try with my classes"
http://twitter.com/hrheingold
Followers: 8,644. Posts: 6,189.
Mr. Rheingold has been a pioneer in online communities since the 1980s
(before most people knew there was such a thing), and he remains on the
forefront of social media and networks. He spent most of his career as a
writer (his latest book is called Smart Mobs), but he started
teaching at colleges a couple of years ago. He was an early user of Twitter,
and he says he often turns to it for teaching advice. "As a relatively new
teacher, Twitter is really my main connection to other educators who are
using Web technologies in their teaching," he told me. "I use it to find
suggestions of things to do, and to bounce things off people." He also uses
it to have a public conversation about trends in social media. He argues
that Twitter isn't for everyone — and that users have to post regularly so
that people will be reading you when you want to turn back to seek advice.
"I'm not selling it — you have to see whether it works for you," he said.
"If you want to share information in small bites with a group of people who
share your interest, that's what it's for."
4. Amanda French, an assistant research scholar and
digital-curriculum specialist at NYU. Tweet: "I'm planning to Twitter my
dissertation, did I tell you? 453,546 characters including spaces &
notes=only 3240 tweets."
http://twitter.com/amandafrench
Followers: 1,336. Posts: 3,937.
Ms. French starts each day by reading her Twitter account at the
breakfast table from her cellphone, in search of what's new with the 200
people she follows. "It has really replaced the newspaper for me, I have to
say," she said. She says she developed a large following on the service
somewhat by accident. She called in a question to a popular technology
podcast in 2007 and mentioned her Twitter name, and suddenly hundreds of
people started tracking her. "It's a bit like academia — someone who's
prestigious or well read cites you in their book, and that's going to
increase the attention to what you've done." She mixes clever comments about
her daily life with observations about technology and digital archives, and
several people I talked to recommended her feed as one that is useful but
also fun.
5. David Parry, an assistant professor of emerging media and
communications at the University of Texas at Dallas. Tweet: "Someone just
told me to look in the Sunday newspaper ... uh what's that? can I get that
on my iPhone?"
http://twitter.com/academicdave
Followers: 1,701. Posts: 3,891.
Mr. Parry was one of the first to try Twitter as a teaching tool — we
wrote about his experiments last year (The
Chronicle, February 29, 2008). He has gained many followers of his
Twitter feed, where he shares his experiences using technology for teaching
and research.
He led a panel about microblogging at the annual conference of the Modern
Language Association in December, which he organized via Twitter. "Rather
than giving the standard 15or 20-minute papers, we actually limited each
speaker's paper to like five to seven minutes and had respondents in the
audience ask questions, but we didn't let them ask long-winded questions
that sometimes happen at conferences," he said. "The idea of Twitter is
there are very strict limits, so you naturally have to converse instead of
monologue."
6. Dan Cohen, director of the Center for History and New Media at
George Mason University. Tweet: "It's good to finally see some interest in
digital humanities at Yale:
http://is.gd/pooB"
http://twitter.com/dancohen
Followers: 849. Posts 1,484.
When I called Mr. Cohen in his office the other day, he was reading
through the printed conference proceedings from an event held by the
Smithsonian Institution about the impact of the Web on museums. He said he
felt like he got a better record of what went on at the event by reading
Twitter messages posted by people who attended. "You get conversation among
the attendees and questions from people outside the conference," he said.
Twitter is becoming more popular at academic conferences, where if you are
sitting in a boring session, you can look at Twitter and see if anyone is
raving about another session that they are in. "You can get up and leave the
boring panel where someone is just reading off their paper, and go to that
interesting one," he said. "A killer application of Twitter is conferences
and conference reporting."
7. Paul Levinson, a professor of communication and media studies
at Fordham University. Tweet: "My avatar's interview in Second Life--about
the evolution of social media--full video
http://blip.tv/file/475397"
http://twitter.com/paullev
Followers: 822. Posts: 1,477.
Mr. Levinson not only studies social media, he lives the digital
lifestyle he studies. "I have four podcasts and three blogs and who knows
what else going," he told me, adding that he has about 2,000 friends on
Facebook. Oh yeah, and he's writing a book about Twitter and other social
media. "I am fascinated by the evolution of media and how media in my view
has been evolving for a long time into greater human expression," he said.
"What Twitter does is it humanizes our existence by keeping us in touch with
people who we're interested in."
8. Scott McLeod, an associate professor at Iowa State University
and director of the university's Center for the Advanced Study of Technology
Leadership in Education. Tweet: "College students are online more AND
reading more?
http://snipurl.com/eko4k"
http://twitter.com/mcleod
Followers: 1,307. Posts: 1,190.
Mr. McLeod argues that professors have been too slow to adopt Twitter.
Academic discussions online often take place on closed e-mail lists, he
says, when they should be happening in public forums like Twitter, so that a
diverse group of outsiders can join in. "I think academics are actually
missing a lot by not being involved in more of these social tools," he told
me. "There are a lot of academics who think, 'If it's not coming from some
other academic it's not worth a damn,' and that's not right."
He admits that some of the messages on Twitter are banal, such as people
describing what they had for lunch that day, but he said such notes are part
of what makes Twitter such a powerful way to feel connected to far-flung
colleagues. "It's like those daily interactions you have with your
neighbor — sometimes they're highbrow and sometimes they're lowbrow, but
after a while you really get to know the person."
9. Michael L. Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural
anthropology at Kansas State University. Tweet: "CBS Sunday Morning setting
up shop in my office for an interview about YouTube"
http://twitter.com/mwesch
Followers: 2,958. Posts: 257.
Several people told me I should follow Michael Wesch, who has become
something of a rock star in the world of academic technology. He's best
known for his creative YouTube videos. One of them, "The Machine Is Us/ing
Us," has been viewed on YouTube nearly a million times, stylishly showing
the promise of social networking. Mr. Wesch won a Wired magazine Rave
Award in 2007, and he was recently named a professor of the year by the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education. On Twitter, he often highlights his
favorite multimedia and points to other interesting posts he has seen on the
service. "I don't use it for broadcasting my daily life, but for sharing
interesting links, knowledge, and ideas," he wrote me via e-mail. "This is
great for studying or following events as they unfold, but it is also useful
for more traditional research if you can form or tap into a good network."
10. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University. Tweet:
"Preparing for commencement tomorrow. Our graduates are full of promise and
ingenuity, and we are launching them into the world just in time."
http://twitter.com/presidentgee
Followers: 528. Posts: 25.
The only college president we could find on Twitter was Mr. Gee, one of
the nation's best-known (and best-paid) college administrators. He has only
been posting for a couple of weeks, but he said he is enjoying it so far. I
caught up with him by cellphone this month — he was posting a message to
Twitter while on a layover at the airport. He said he joined Twitter hoping
that it would help him demystify the job of college president by sharing
details from his daily life. "It shows that you're not just living in a big
house and begging" for money, he quipped. "You do get out and work."
He has posted about alumni events he has attended, about being eager to
hear students' spring-break stories, about the university's recent
commencement, and of course, cheers and best wishes for the university's
basketball teams as they played in the NCAA tournament. He said he's not
worried that posting about his comings and goings and thoughts will invade
his privacy. "When you're president of a large university, you have no
privacy anyway, so why not?" He has signed up to follow the Twitter feeds of
Lance Armstrong, whom he knows personally, and some of his favorite writers,
including Malcolm Gladwell and Thomas L. Friedman.
"How Twitter Could Bring Search Up to Speed: Some
say that Twitter may be as important to real-time search as YouTube is to
video," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, March 11, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22272/?nlid=1848&a=f
When Twitter was
introduced in late 2006, asking users to post a
140-word answer to the question "What are you doing?," many criticized the
results as nothing more than a collection of trivial thoughts and inane
ramblings. Fast-forward three years, and the number of Twitter users has
grown to millions, while the content of the many posts--better known as
"tweets"--has shifted from banal to informative.
Twitter users now
cover breaking news,
posting links to reports, blog posts, and images. Twitter's search box also
reveals what people think of the latest new gadget or movie, letting
visitors eavesdrop on often spirited conversations and some insightful
opinions.
Earlier this week, on The Charlie Rose Show,
Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, was asked directly whether Google might be
interested in acquiring Twitter. He responded, somewhat coyly, that his
company was "unlikely to buy anything right now."
Nonetheless, as Twitter grows in size and
substance, it's becoming clear that it offers a unique feed of real-time
conversation and sentiment.
Danny Sullivan,
editor of the blog
Search Engine Land,
compares this to the unique real-time feed of new video content offered by
YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, and says that Twitter could help
improve real-time search. Notably, says Sullivan, this is something that
Google
isn't particularly good at. Even by scouring news
sites, Google simply can't match the speed and relevancy of social sites
like Digg and Twitter, he says.
Twitter's ability to capture the latest fad is
evident from its "trends" feature, which reveals the most talked about
topics among Twitterers. At the time this article was written, Twitter users
were discussing topics including National Napping Day, DST (daylight savings
time), and the new movie Watchmen. A quick search also reveals that
five people within the past half hour have posted tweets about last
weekend's Saturday Night Live skit called "The Rock Obama." The
most recent tweet includes a link to the video and was posted just three
minutes ago.
Bruce Croft, a professor of computer science at
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, says that Twitter search could
perhaps help make news alerts more relevant. "If you could search or track
large numbers of conversations, then there would be the possibility of
developing alerts when something starts happening," he says. "And, of
course, it's yet another opportunity to do massive data mining on people's
activities to learn even more about what they are doing and when they are
doing it."
Continued in article
March 12, 2009 reply from Steven Hornik
I use Twitter in my Financial
Accounting class. I have an account set up just for that course:
http://twitter.com/acg2021 I use it for sending
out extra credit questions randomly throughout the week so that they receive
about 1 tweet per chapter. Here is an example of the latest tweet I sent
out:
In a period of rising inventory costs, Gross Profit will be __
(higher/lower) under LIFO because COGS are __ (H/L) than under FIFO.
In the tweet I tell the students when they must get the answer to me and I
award extra points for the first n responses. I find the students really
enjoy this and it forces them to keep up the material or bring their
textbooks with them wherever they go! The concept behind it is to have
students thinking about accounting all the time!
Hope this is helpful,
Steven
PS I also have a regular twitter account:
http://twitter.com/shornik if you wish to follow
me. I'm not sure my tweets will be as exciting as Roger's broken and now
healed toe but feel free to follow.
_____________________________
Dr. Steven Hornik
University of Central Florida
Dixon School of Accounting
407-823-5739
Second Life: Robins Hermano
http://mydebitcredit.com
yahoo ID: shornik
August 18, 2009 reply from Steven Hornik
[shornik@BUS.UCF.EDU]
I recently created a wikipage for the CTLA workshop
I did at the AAA in NYC. Its short and sweet (I think) so if anyone is
looking for more info about twitter (terminology, links to applications, a
few use cases) feel free to check it out at:
http://reallyengagingaccounting.wikispaces.com/Twitter
Dr. Steven Hornik University of Central Florida
Dixon School of Accounting 407-823-5739 Second Life: Robins Hermano
http://mydebitcredit.com
Yahoo ID: shornik
Interesting Blog on Twitter ---
http://glinner.posterous.com/the-conversation-23
"Four Big Questions (and Predictions) for Social Media in 2013," by
Alex Kantrowitz, Forbes, December 28, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkantrowitz/2012/12/28/four-big-social-media-questions-for-2013/?utm_campaign=techtwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
Social media, as we know it today, has not been
around for very long. Both
Facebook and Twitter came into being less
than decade ago and really only gained public consciousness over the past
five years. Ditto for newcomers like Instagram, Tumblr and
Quora,
the oldest of which is just five years old.
The composition of this young social media
ecosystem changes every year and 2013 will be no different. Social media
companies will inevitably introduce new tweaks and features that will
enrage, excite and confuse their users. That’s the nature of this business,
things change fast. As we turn the corner into 2013,
Voted Up
will be monitoring the shifts with a focus not just on
the specific platforms themselves, but the industry as a whole. Here are
four questions we’ll be keeping our eye on, along with some predictions:
Will Twitter keep growing?
Ever since Twitter became more than just a forum to
share updates about everyday life (example: “I’m brushing my teeth”), those
following the platform have wondered it if could move beyond its existence
as an “insider network” and gain mass adoption. It’s getting there. Earlier
this month, Twitter announced that it hit the 200 million monthly active
user mark, an important step towards the mainstream but still just one fifth
of the active users claimed by Facebook. That leaves Twitter in an odd zone
between niche platform and mainstream social media site. In 2013, we’ll find
out if Twitter can continue its impressive rate of growth and shed the
“inside baseball” label for good, or whether it has hit a ceiling and will
remain where it is today.
Prediction: The active user boom
continues.
Will social media lose its magic?
On that note, there has been a lot of talk lately
about what scale, and the demand for it, have wrought upon the world of
social media (further reading: Anil Dash’s
The Web Web Lost). In discussing the problem,
GigaOM’s Mathew Ingram pointed
to an
essay by Digg’s Jake Levine which looks at the
“broadcast-ification” of social media. Levine writes that large social
networks are focusing on creating experiences more friendly to brands,
meaning they’re prioritizing features which enable brands to speak to many
as opposed to working on how to better facilitate conversational
experiences. The changes will lead to more users and more money, Levine
writes, but forsake some core features that brought the platforms to the
dance in the first place. Social media remains a place where seemingly
anyone can have a voice, but a shift towards broadcast and brands makes you
wonder if that “magic” element of it will endure.
Prediction: The magic takes a hit
but stays intact.
Will we pay attention to the way social
media is affecting our real lives?
After the murder-suicide of his
teammate Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Brady Quinn took the
podium to address the media. “We live in a society of social networks and
Twitter pages and Facebook,” he said. “We have contact with our work
associates, our family, our friends and it seems like half the time we’re
more preoccupied with our phones and other things going on instead of the
actual relationships we have in front of us. Hopefully people can learn from
this.” Not to suggest that social media is responsible for Belcher’s
actions, but there is a reason Quinn said what he said.
As we grow more attached to social networks and,
indeed, our phones, it’s hard not to see the impact that easy access to
social channels is having on our lives. Social media brings us together
online but, in some sense, pulls us apart in real life. Try to remember the
last time you were in a conversation with someone and found yourself
competing with a phone for attention. Chances are, it was probably not too
long ago.
With sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
growing easier to peruse and participate in via phone, the temptation to
zone out while in the presence of family, friends and co-workers will grow
even more difficult to resist in 2013. And today, smartphone usage is
surging. Smartphone penetration increased by 24 percent in 2012, according
to the research firm eMarketer, and is expected to grow another 18 percent
in 2013. That’s a lot more smartphones in circulation ready to interrupt (or
cheapen) a lot more conversations. Soon, the effects of this new reality
will be hard to ignore, but will it happen in 2013?
Prediction: No. We won’t pay
attention in 2013, but this issue is not going away.
Will there be a breakout social media site
in 2013?
Continued in article
Please Don't Shoot the Messenger This Time (I'm not forwarding this tidbit
for political debate or to make a political statement)
With all due respect to my good friend and poet Neal Hannon, the Harvard
Business Review published an item from a somewhat condescending Haavud
media "expert" who does not think so much of AskObama
I don't think Haque's criticisms have anything to do with liberalism versus
conservatism in this particular instance since Haque's Harvard Media Lab most
likely is more liberal than conservative or it would be driven out of that side
of the Charles River. Haque calls this Twitter stunt "digital
dumbification.."
"AskObama Is a Meaningless Marketing Stunt," Umair Haque, Harvard
Business Review Blog, July 6, 2011 ---
Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/07/askobama_is_a_meaningless_mark.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
So, what are you asking President Obama? Why not
more stimulus? Why did he choose to bail out the banks? What about the
deficit, China, the euro, youth unemployment, and the future? All worthy
themes for today's
Twitter Townhall.
But perhaps you should reconsider. Me? I'm asking
him nothing. Consider it a tiny one man protest. Maybe, just maybe, AskObama
is less 21st century transparency — and more like a tiny dose of digital
dumbification.
I find the exercise cynical at worst, and at best,
even if nobly well-intentioned, a tiny symbol of exactly how and why the
20th century's stopping the 21st from being born. I'd say that the Obama
team, a little bit panicked with the growing sense of disappointment,
disenchantment, and just plain outrage amongst the general populace, that
decision-makers decided to mortgage the future of pretty much everyone worth
less than $5 million not for, for example, tomorrow's moonshots, great
achievements, or grand public works, but to save the skins of zombie fatcats
and vampire investment bankers (sorry, did I say "save the skins of"? I mean
"bestow fortune upon", because the super-rich have actually, while most
people have gotten poorer, gotten richer during this great crisis) — headed
off to hurriedly, nervously confer with their skinny-jeaned,
sunglass-wearing, spiky-haired marketing droids. Who smoothly said something
like: "Duuudes. Chillax! If you want loyalty, you need engagement. You know
what's a killer move to build engagement with 'the digital consumer' (we've
got that poor sucker's brain in a jar in our lab, and we've already scanned
it into our MacBooks)? You know what really builds marketing synergies, and
drives brand equity? Social media!! We've got it--let's let people ask
President Obama questions!! On Twitter!! Look: think about it: it'll only
take a day, and you'll be seen as a hero. It's perception over reality — and
that's what it's always been about."
I hate to rudely interrupt this pulsing brainwave
of an amazing epiphany with a hard dose of duh, but, well, I'm really sorry.
You can't buy my "engagement" for a few bucks, you certainly can't have my
"loyalty" (because though I might be a mutt, I'm not a pet). And you sure
can't win my respect with lowest-common-denominator marketing "stunts" that
makes the predictably tedious not-so-creative output of Madison Avenue's
glorifiers of toxic, dispiriting, self-destructive, mass-made junk look like
John Lennon met Michelangelo in the fifth dimension and they had offspring.
Why not? Because (welcome to the 21st century)
you've got to earn it.
Now, it could be that my telling of the tale's
totally, completely wrong. Maybe Obama dreamt the whole thing up himself, or
maybe the Dalai Lama or David Hasselhoff did. Who knows? My point is that
without a working, viable, lasting, participatory link to the who, what,
when, where, and how of policy-making, the event is just that: a one-off
marketing stunt, with little enduring significance or meaning.
Nearly every aspect of our democracy is in
danger of being broken. Voters are apathetic, the judiciary seems
toothless, the press rarely uses its much-vaunted freedom, checks and
balances don't seem to check or balance much, the two parties that exert
iron-clad control over Washington have about as much meaningful difference
between them as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, our fiscal situation is blowing a
hole in our future, and we fail, over and over again, to invest in stuff
that matters most.
It's marketing over substance, hype over reality,
spin over reform — as usual. The dismal truth is that pretty much all of
yesterday's institutions — from banks, to "the corporation," to credit
ratings, to schools — are just as broken as our political institutions are.
And I'd say using the very, very awesome Twitter to solicit "questions" from
citizens in this environment is a little bit like earnestly running a focus
group about the best color for your next pair of $2000 loafers — while your
boardroom's on fire.
Yet, all is far from lost. Here's the good news.
While our democracy might be in disrepair, we're also the pioneers of a set
of radically disruptive tools that have the power not merely to repair or
restore it — but to reimagine and reinvent it.
It's not that we don't have the tools to reinvent democracy. If you can
trade stocks from Kathmandu on your iPhone, my guess is we've barely
scratched the surface of what's possible for 21st century democracy. Given
today's panoply of powerfully disruptive social technologies, it's within
the realm of the possible to create polities that slash coordination costs,
erase information gaps, achieve a thicker consensus, build shared values,
amplify audience costs, forge more imaginative policies, and heal
yesterday's festering wounds. Sure, it's not going to be easy,
straightforward, or automatic. It will take focus, effort, investment, and
time. But perhaps for the first time in human history, it's possible to
envision something like a real-time, organic, decentralized, sophisticated,
multiparty, multipolar democracy — instead of the lumbering, plodding,
top-heavy, simplistic, monolithic monster that's chasing us straight into a
Great Stagnation.
The promise of social technologies is to fundamentally reimagine and reboot
yesterday's crumbling institutions (and disempower the bumbling
beancounters who run them). In political terms? They should be used — right
now, right here, right this very second — to build a deeper democracy, one
where via deliberation, citizens have a bottom-up impact on policy-making,
which as it stands today is totally disconnected from and unresponsive to
the general populace and unable to do much of anything about anything. They
should be used to help ignite an authentic prosperity, by redrawing the
boundaries of political freedom for the underprivileged and the powerless —
and to blow apart a polity that protects and props up the privileged and the
powerful.
What we don't need is more of this:
"People tuning out? Great — instead of actually improving stuff, hit 'em
with some marketing!!"
Sorry, Mr President: you've got the pundits,
talking heads, and powers that be right where you want them (judging from
the response you've gotten so far), but little old me? I'm not buying into
your latest "campaign." I'm not a "target." I'm a citizen of a generation
whose future is going up in smoke faster than you can say "credit default
swaps." And what you're really telling me is this: in some parts of the
world, social tools can fuel the revolutions that topple dictators. Here, in
the nation that invented them? They're used for marketing stunts.
Continued in article
\
With all the good, though, there are some negative
aspects to online presences. It’s important to recognize that whatever we write
online is for public consumption, that we are not simply chatting with friends
and family when we post.
Billie Hara
The kind of vocalizations that caused the
above-named individuals to be fired are common in high stress professions, as
they can defuse anger or frustration. Speaking these words can be a way to
commiserate with colleagues, or they can become “in jokes” among friends.
These exchanges can be OK when we are face-to-face with others, as we have body
language and voice inflections to help us understand the meaning and context
behind the statements. Online is a different situation, however.
Billie Hara
"Think Before You Tweet (or Blog or Update a Status)," by Billie Hara,
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/think-before-you-tweet-or-blog-or-update-a-status/30949?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Earlier this week, Miriam Posner, Stewart Varner,
and Brian Croxall wrote “Creating
Your Web Presence: A Primer for Academics.” They
had some terrific recommendations about how to establish an online presence
and how to keep that presence active and positive. Good stuff!
Here at ProfHacker, we’ve written before about the
networking wonders and creative collaborations that can happen via online
forums. We meet people from different disciplines in various parts of the
world, and we connect because we share interests and goals. With all the
good, though, there are some negative aspects to online presences. It’s
important to recognize that whatever we write online is for public
consumption, that we are not simply chatting with friends and family when we
post.
Today I want to veer off their post just a bit and
write about something that might detract from a positive and professional
online presence, a presence that we so meticulously create and maintain,
comments made online that publicly disparage students and colleagues. These
comments can be intentional—meant to demean or criticize—or they can be
random comments made in jest.
Take, for example, the case of
Dr. Gloria Gadsden, an associate professor at East
Stroudsburg University. About a year ago, Dr. Gadsden wrote on Facebook
that she had a good day at school, and “didn’t want to kill even one
student,” adding “Friday was a different story.” She wrote this
comment—surely in jest—in a space that she believed to be private. However,
it wasn’t. A third party read her comment and notified university
authorities. Dr. Gadsden was suspended, and ultimately reinstated, after
the incident, but the hit to her professional reputation is clear.
A few more cautionary tales:
- In the U.K., thirteen
Virgin Atlantic Airlines crewmembers were fired after
they made fun of passengers and jokes about airline safety on Facebook.
- In June of 2010, a
Pittsburgh Pirates’ mascot was fired after
posting a negative comment about the contract extension of two team
managers. Andrew Kurtz, 24, was fired within hours of posting the
comment, “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington
through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to
go Pirates,” to his Facebook page.
- At a Dallas radio station, The Ticket, producer
Mike Bacsik was suspended after making some
unfortunate Twitter comments after a night drinking with friends. The
station noted that Bacsik “had been ‘a good employee’ . . . and [his]
final public communication while a Ticket employee reflected poorly on
the station.”
- Lastly, do you know what it means to be “dooced”?
If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you’ve heard the word.
It’s now slang for “fired.” Heather Armstrong, of the blog
Dooce.com,
was fired from a job she held after she wrote satiric accounts about her
bosses and colleagues on her blog.
The kind of vocalizations that caused the
above-named individuals to be fired are common in high stress professions,
as they can defuse anger or frustration. Speaking these words can be a way
to commiserate with colleagues, or they can become “in jokes” among
friends. These exchanges can be OK when we are face-to-face with others, as
we have body language and voice inflections to help us understand the
meaning and context behind the statements. Online is a different situation,
however.
Continued in article
David Albrecht wrote:
"I don't see anything wrong with Tom's
comments. It is opinion, and Tom's opinion, and Tom's blog. I think
that rumor creation is a valid function for a blog."
David Albrecht
Jensen Comment
If this is what you are going to teach in your CPE session at the AAA annual
meetings in Denver then I want no part of that session. That is an absurd
statement that might fly in a teen's blog, but rumor mongering should be
screamed down by any and all members of the Academy David.
Blogging is now part and parcel to freedom of speech. But with freedom comes
responsibility, especially in the Academy.
It's a violation of the code of ethics of professional journalism to create
rumors that are not verified (usually by at least two independent sources). I
contend that members of our Academy have, at a minimum, a responsibility to
adhere to the code of ethics of journalism. In fact I would hope the we even
have a higher standard in the Academy to name our sources before spreading
rumors, especially rumors about people that can affect their professional
futures as well as guide student opinions.
The higher standard in the Academy is that professors, unlike journalists,
should be bound to cite their sources or to provide normative logic that adheres
to the standards of logic in philosophy and mathematics. That entails
defending assumptions upon which deductions are based.
I also disagree that time pressures of the author are justifiable reasons for
not investigating facts before shooting off at the hip. Tom had ample
opportunity to investigate facts that he simply did not do before letting off a
salvo and naming names.
"In Tom's column, he quotes Edith
Orenstein as saying that the quantity of comment letters should be a
factor. I believe this is not a good idea. There are better ways of
figuring out the prevalence of a particular view, such as sampling and or a
vote."
David Albrecht
Jensen Comment
I think open lines of communication are essential for standard setters, and I
applaud both the FASB and the IASB for issuing exposure drafts before and both
inviting comments and publishing comments before finalizing standards. Having
said this, the standard setters are not responsible for either the quality of
the comments coming in or the strategies (such as cookie cutter comments) of
people from around the world who send in comments.
The standard setters are responsible for studying all comments submitted and
then deciding themselves what comments add value to the deliberations. For
example, if standard setters have overlooked some significant costs of adhering
to parts of a standard then the comment letters helped to correct this
oversight.
Blogging is now part and parcel to freedom of speech. But with freedom comes
responsibility, especially in the Academy.
"Checkout Our “The Best Of “Twitter Lists – Love Your DM or RT," The
Big Four Blog, November 9, 2009 ---
http://www.bigfouralumni.blogspot.com/
Twitter just released its latest exciting functionality - Twitter Lists,
and we think it’s awesome and very timely.
It allows us to curate who we think are the most appropriate Tweeters to
follow in our niche space of The Big Four Firms, accounting, finance, tax,
jobs and related topics.
We have already created some list, which we are calling “The Best Of”. We
rather like this name, but we’ll evolve as lists get more ingrained, and may
change.
For example after our search, all the Twitterers we think are most
relevant to follow for Deloitte happenings in the Twitter universe, we have
added to our “The Best of Deloitte” list.
This is our subjective selection, and we think it's a pretty good one.
That’s not to say that we have completely covered all the bases, so if there
is someone that just needs to be on or off any of these lists, please DM or
shout out to us @big4alum. Thanks in advance.
Also, we’ll continue to refine and add/subtract to this list over time,
but our intent is to keep them highly relevant and focused. We see that some
of our list already have some followers and no doubt this will pick up as
Twitter Lists get more ingrained and Twitter itself allows tweets and
Twitter Lists to be retweeted.
So, here are our lists – follow us or follow the lists, and keep that
feedback going!!
All The Lists
---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/lists
Best of Accenture ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-
Best of Capgemini ***
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-capgemini
Best of Deloitte ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-deloitte
Best of Ernst & Young ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-ernst-young
Best of KPMG
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-kpmg
Best of PricewaterhouseCoopers ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-pwc
Best of Accounting ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-accounting
Best of Finance ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-finance
Best of Tax ---
http://twitter.com/big4alum/best-of-tax
Bob Jensen's threads on Twitter ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#Twitter
Stocktwits ---
http://stocktwits.com/
Roger Debreceny Tweets ---
www.twitter.com/debreceny a
"CPAs
are Aflutter About Twitter," by Kristin Gentry, SmartPros, August 10,
2009 ---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x67355.xml
"CPAs
Embrace Twitter Brief messages leave powerful impressions," by Megan
Pinkston, The Journal of Accountancy, August 2009 ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2009/Aug/20091828.htm
"50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom" Online Colleges,
June 6, 2009
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/
Top Ten Tweets to Date in Academe
Keep in mind that none of these hold a candle to such globally popular
twitterers such as Britney Spears
"10 High Fliers on Twitter: On the microblogging service, professors and
administrators find work tips and new ways to monitor the world ," by Jeff
Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i31/31a01001.htm?utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
"How Twitter Could Bring Search Up to Speed: Some say
that Twitter may be as important to real-time search as YouTube is to video," by
Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, March 11, 2009 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22272/?nlid=1848&a=f
Bob Jensen's threads on blogs and listservs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Daily News Sites for Accountancy, Tax, Fraud, IFRS, XBRL,
Accounting History, and More ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Google Buzz ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Buzz
Yahoo Buzz ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Buzz
"Why Google Pushed Buzz Out The Door Before It Was Ready," by Erick
Schonfeld, TechCrunch.com via The Washington Post, February
29, 2010 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR2010030100008.html?wpisrc=nl_tech
When
Google
Buzz launched three weeks ago, the product
wasn't ready. There were
basic privacy issues that still needed to be
hammered out (and were quickly addressed by Google), but beyond that Google
Buzz simply did not work smoothly enough to
force feed it to 175 million Gmail users without
any warning. (MG
covered some of the usability issues last
week).So why was Google Buzz pushed out the door too soon? I have three
interrelated theories:Google still wants to buy
Twitter,
and putting Buzz into Gmail might be enough of a threat to bring Twitter
back to the table. Buzz did not launch in some
Google Labs backwater. It is placed front and center in Gmail. Buzz is
Google's strongest effort yet to
enter the stream. If
Buzz can gain traction it would certainly help Google's negotiating position
with Twitter.Independent of any pressure it may place on Twitter, Google
needs to have its own realtime micro-messaging communications system. The
micro-message bus is just a more efficient way to
communicate than email for many types of messages so it makes sense to add
it as a layer to Gmail: broadcast your public messages via Buzz, and keep
private ones on email or chat, all from the same place.The other reason
Google needed to establish its own social stream pronto is that links passed
through social sharing are beginning to rival search as a primary driver of
traffic for many sites. Part of Google's prowess stems from the fact that it
is the largest referrer of traffic to many other Websites. It doesn't want
to lose that status to social sharing streams such as Facebook or Twitter.
Already, Buzz is helping to
boost sharing through Google Reader. While Google
doesn't benefit directly from that traffic (yet), simply knowing what links
people are sharing and clicking on is valuable data which can help it
improve its search results.Google needed to get into this game as fast as it
could, even if there were bumps along the way. The question now is whether
Buzz can keep building.Photo
credit: Flickr/ChelseagirlCrunchBase
InformationGoogle BuzzTwitterInformation provided by
CrunchBase
"Firms Take to The Tweetable Business Model," by
Kim Hart, The Washington Post, March 9, 2009 ---
Click Here
Twitter, that microblogging tool that caught on
with teens and twentysomethings using it to tell loyal followers what
they're doing at any given time -- in 140 characters or less -- is now
becoming part of the business strategy for a wide range of brands, from
Skittles to Fairfax County.
As exciting as it may be to hear about what your
friends, or total strangers for that matter, ate for breakfast, some
companies are realizing that a more effective use of Twitter is to mine it
for clients, recruit employees and answer customer service questions.
To that end, some businesses are starting to host
Twitter tutorials for employees.
Network Solutions, a Web-hosting and online
marketing company based in Herndon, held a brown-bag lunch session last week
to teach staffers how to sign up for a Twitter account, how to send messages
to individuals and how to search for people who may be talking about the
company in messages, or "tweets."
Twitter is an easy way to create buzz for a new
product launch or to alert customers to a service outage. Earlier this week,
the Skittles Web site directed visitors to a Twitter search for the term
"skittle" to see what people were saying about the candy. Attendees at
conferences and other business-related gatherings already use the service to
relate details on an unusually interesting session or to share news
announcements.
For example, at a conference focused on global
health last month, philanthropist Bill Gates released a jarful of mosquitoes
into a room to make a point about the spread of malaria.
"And people found out about that first on Twitter,"
said Steven Fisher, community and social media manager at Network Solutions.
Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solutions' social media
swami (yes, that's his real title), organized the tutorial, attended by
about 30 people. He's a more prolific Twitterer than most, posting anywhere
from five to 15 tweets per day about anything from his daily routine to the
news. Big companies such as Dell are active in the Twitterverse addressing
customer service issues, he said.
Fairfax County government is also experimenting
with Twitter, sending out announcements about snow-induced school closings
and county board meetings.
Companies are now accustomed to monitoring blogs
and other consumer-generated content for mentions of brands -- in fact,
companies such as Arlington-based New Media Strategies have made a
profitable business out of it. Similarly, Bellamkonda wants Network
Solutions employees to take notice of any questions, complaints or other
mentions of the company that pop up on Twitter.
W. Roy Dunbar, the firm's chief executive, said it
is even more important to communicate with customers during an economic
downturn. He said he gives his social media team free rein to experiment
with new tools.
"Next time, we'll conduct the meeting entirely in
tweets," Bellamkonda said.
It may be a short meeting.
Rediscovering the Internet
The crusade for government transparency and open
data -- two of the biggest buzzwords in Washington since President Obama put
them on his agenda -- has gained momentum over the past week.
Vivek Kundra, the District's chief technology
officer, was officially named as the federal chief information officer
Thursday, ending months of speculation about what the brand-new job entails
and what it means for how government agencies use technology.
While the answers to those questions are still
unclear, the announcement prompted a collective cheer from some local
developers. As an example of what Kundra may do with federal technology
projects, many of them point to the contest he held last year called Apps
for Democracy, which challenged independent Web developers to come up with
interesting ways to use government data.
District-based Development Seed, a Web consulting
group, mashed together government data and other online resources to create
DC Bikes, a site with information about bike thefts, popular bike trails and
other information for local bike enthusiasts.
Continued in article
I doubled up laughing at this headline. I don't know whether it was
intentional or not.
DePaul U. J-Schoolers Study Breaking Tweets
The university is offering
what is apparently the first college journalism class devoted entirely to the
Twitter windbreaking platform.
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/J-Schoolers-at-DePaul-U-Study/7904/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads (down wind) on breaking
Tweets ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Deceptions, Hoaxes, and Fakery
"Open-Access
Publisher Appears to Have Accepted Fake Paper From Bogus Center,"
by Paul Basken, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 11, 2009 ---
Click Here
The medical-research industry is
under
growing
pressure
to improve its ethical standards. Similar pressure has extended to
peer-reviewed medical journals, after Elsevier, a publishing leader,
admitted to
publishing at least nine fake journals from 2000
to 2005.
In other words, it’s an especially bad time for a
medical journal to be duped by an author who, say, submits a fake
computer-generated research paper from a fake institution he named the
Center for Research in Applied Phrenology — or CRAP.
And yet that’s exactly what appears to have
happened.
The deception was the work of Philip M. Davis, a
doctoral student in communication at Cornell University who serves as
executive editor of the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s
Scholarly Kitchen blog.
Mr. Davis said he had concocted the plan after
receiving numerous “aggressive” unsolicited e-mail messages from Bentham
Publishing, which finances its line of 200 open-access scientific journals
by charging authors a publication fee.
Mr. Davis and the blog’s editor in chief, Kent R.
Anderson, submitted two research papers that were created by a
computer program
at MIT called SCIgen
that describes itself as generating random text
intended to “maximize amusement, rather than coherence.”
One of the papers was rejected by Bentham, and the
other — a nonsensical five-page report with footnotes and graphical charts
that purported to describe an Internet process called the “Trifling Thamyn”
— was accepted after the publisher said it had been peer-reviewed. Mr. Davis
reported that an invoice for $800 had been issued by Bentham, without any
evidence that the article was actually peer-reviewed.
The publications director at Bentham, Mahmood Alam,
told The Chronicle by e-mail that, “to the best of our knowledge, we
have not published any article from the Center for Research in Applied
Phrenology in any of our journals.” Mr. Davis said he had written to Bentham
to withdraw the paper after its publication was approved.
Bentham’s subscription manager, Pradeep Menon,
reached by telephone at the company’s headquarters in the United Arab
Emirates, said he was aware of the accusation but had no further details and
could not offer any other company official to comment.
“It’s the first of its kind because we never had
such an insinuation charged against us,” Mr. Menon said. “All of our
journals are peer-reviewed — that is 100 percent sure.”
Similar scammers have
had success in
the past, most notably the
hoax published in the journal Social Text in
1996 by Alan D. Sokal, a physicist at New York
University.
The “popular conception” that open-access
publishers rely on publication fees, meanwhile, may not even be true,
according to Stuart M. Shieber, a professor of computer science at Harvard
University. Mr. Shieber, in his blog,
The Occasional Pamphlet, said he had devised a
program to pull data out of computerized medical-journal listings and
concluded that only about 23 percent of open-access journals charge
publication fees.
Jensen Comment
Various hoax papers have been discovered in leading magazines and journals. It
would seem that perpetrators of hoaxes are liable to the extent that damages can
be proved by the publisher or the readers. Hoaxes are especially dangerous in
medical journals.
Another problem is faked portions of articles, books, and documentary movies
where the author neglects to separate fact from fiction in the writing itself.
For example, Al Gore used fictional scenes in his movie "Inconvenient Truth" ---
http://www.zimbio.com/Global+Warming+Hoax/articles/22/Al+Gore+Used+Fictional+Scenes+Inconvenient
Whether or not a journal is open access is mostly irrelevant to this particular
issue of a faked publication. It is only slightly relevant in that open access
journals that are not printed in hard copy can be created more cheaply and,
accordingly, might have less oversight by people (such as dues-paying academic
association members) who put up the money for the journal.
I always remember, while still a doctoral student, when Les Livingstone came
into my office and pointed out that The Accounting Review had just
published an article that was entirely (meaning word-for-word) plagiarized from
Management Science. The article itself was not a
hoax, but this illustrates that reputable journals with reputable referees can
be deceived.
You can read about some hoaxes at
http://www.articlesbase.com/article-tags/hoax
Both Snopes and Wikipedia have search categories for "suspect items" that
have a higher likelihood of being hoax items but reviewers are not certain about
whether or not each item is a hoax ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Suspected_hoax_articles
Wikipedia depends heavily upon readers to detect hoaxes. This is why articles on
very obscure entries that have almost no readers are more likely to be
misleading than popular readership items. Some companies pay staff to search
Wikipedia for entries containing false or misleading items about their
companies. World governments also pay workers to check Wikipedia entries.
Note that according to Snopes "Urban Legends" may
differ from "pure fiction" ---
http://www.snopes.com/info/faq.asp
Also see the Glossary at
http://www.snopes.com/info/glossary.asp
I have repeatedly warned Internet searchers to beware of items published by
individuals and organizations that may not be reputable. This is a special
problem with blogs. I seldom pass along a module from unknown individuals and
organizations. It is a bit more of a problem when a generally trustworthy source
links to an unknown individual or organization. Here I must use judgment. If a
reporter for a major newspaper or magazine links to an article by an unknown
source, I tend to trust that the reporter checked out authenticity. I'm less
trustworthy of blog entries even if I know the blogger. There are of course
exceptions such as when I trust the WebMD blogs or the Chronicle of
Higher Education blogs.
David Pogue is one of my
technology heroes ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pogue
Vidya Ananthanarayanan called my attention to his recent keynote speech at the
Pennsylvania Educational
Technology Expo and Conference
"Five ways to improve
technology in education," by Todd Ritter,
DownloadSquad, February 12, 2008 ---
Click Here
Stay informed
Use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to keep up with technology news and
events. To use RSS you'll need an RSS reader like
Google Reader,
NetNewsWire (Mac), or
FeedDemon (Windows) to read RSS feeds. An RSS feed
is basically a dynamic link that updates your RSS reader when new content is
posted to a website (click the "RSS Feeds" button under our search bar to
see examples).
You can also subscribe to technology newsletters, and talk to students about
websites and web services they use on their own. A majority of teachers do
not know what
Stickam or Meebo
are, yet these sites are used daily by many of their
students.
Focus on the
learning process, not the end product
When little Susie uses iMovie to create a video of her class field trip to
Cape Canaveral, she should be evaluated on what she's learned through the
creative process, not how many wipes and sound effects she used in her final
movie file. The quality and relativity of the still pictures she took by
learning how to use a digital camera, or video footage from a well-designed
storyboard are better barometers of a successful project.
Work with IT professionals who understand
education
I work on the IT side of education daily, and I know it's important to
unfetter technology at a school to stimulate the learning process. IT staff
must be willing to bend on certain security measures and trust students with
equipment so that they can be creative and not boxed in. We let students
take laptops home to work on approved projects, which ultimately motivates
their peers to do the same. We also have a dedicated instructional adviser
who helps teachers integrate technology into their lesson plans. This often
helps ease the teachers' modification of antiquated lessons.
Become a user
Make a Facebook
account so you can understand the allure of
social-networking sites. Add some information about yourself. Locate former
school pals. Join some groups. This will let you see sites like Faceook from
a student's perspective.
To collaborate and share course materials, you can create a
Moodle site for your class, or start a class
blog. Students
benefit more from teachers who collaborate and less from teachers who
force-feed lectures. Also, it's much easier to teach about something that
you've actually used in depth. It's time to break the stigma of "those that
can, do; those that can't, teach."
Don't be afraid of change
Some teachers think that upgrading from Office 2003 to 2007 is using the
latest technology. However, a Word document is still words and formatting
meant for someone to read. Instead of being satisfied with word processing
in a new version of software, why not let students create a school
"newspaper" on something like
Joomla. The news could be updated in seconds, it
could be interactive (comments, updates, etc.), and it could be include
user-submitted media.
Google Earth
could be used to give an elementary student global
perspective by flying in from a world view down to the roof of his home.
Jensen Comment
There are other things that I would recommend. I think joining listserv of other
educators is important, especially educators in your discipline ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
It is exceedingly important to know what knowledge is being freely shared by
professors and universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
I hope that you will one day share your own knowledge with us.
I think becoming a user of important technologies is important, especially
video recording using Camtasia ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
Also see the 50Camtasia.ppt file at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/EdTech/PowerPoint/
Following the tools of technology in education in general is important ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Giving Stuff Away Free on the Internet
A Special Tribute to My Open Sharing Friend Will Yancey ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Yancey.htm
"Thanks to Google Plus, Picasa Gets Unlimited Storage for Photos & Videos,
Also Better Tagging," by Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb, July 1, 2011 ---
Click Here
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/thanks_to_google_plus_picasa_gets_unlimited_storage_for_photos_and_videos.php
With the launch of
Google Plus,
there may be some confusion as to how the photos uploaded to the social
network (Google+) integrate with Google's online photo-sharing service
(Picasa),
especially in terms of storage limits. The answer provides some great news
for Google Plus users - nearly everything you upload to Google Plus won't
count towards your storage limits on Picasa, with the only exception being
videos longer than 15 minutes.
And there's another nifty feature involving
photo-tagging, too - your Google+ friends can now tag your Picasa photos.
Thus far I past my photographs on two Web servers at Trinity University:
Server
One
Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Server Two
More of Bob Jensen's Personal History in Pictures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
Question
Why does Bob Jensen devote so much time to messaging on a listservs and blogs
and the AAA Commons?
Answer
In truth there is a lot of altruism as found in the research of AECM subscribers
by Taylor and Murthy:
"Knowledge Sharing among Accounting Academics in an Electronic Network of
Practice," by Eileen Z. Taylor and Uday S. Murthy, Accounting Horizons
23 (2), 151 (2009) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#ListServs
But it's common in altruism of all kinds that the giver strangely gets more
than he/she gives when the final scorer comes to write against our names.
I admit that when I give a lot to others on listservs and blogs that, besides
feeling good about helping others to learn, I probably receive more than I give
in return. First there is the learning that I receive searching for answers to
questions raised by others. They inspired be to do the search, and I'm more
knowledgeable for having tried to answer their queries.
Second, there are others on a listserv like the AECM who may also search and
share their answers, thus advancing my knowledge with almost no effort on my
part.
Third there are those who privately expand my knowledge even though they
prefer that I not share their messages with others. I had such a message
yesterday from a former executive partner in a Big Four firm who told me things
about his firm that I never knew before, but he asked that I not broadcast what
he confided. He would never have communicated with me if I had not pursued a
particular path in my public messaging on the AECM.
Fourth it is possible to greatly enhance a professional reputation by being a
blogger and a listserv messenger. I would never have known about Steve Hornik
(Professor Second Life), Rick Lillie (Professor Learning Tech), and Francine
Mckenna (with her stiletto heels in the backs of the Big Four) if these AECM
subscribers did not send out messages to the AECM. Since I'm retired and my
resume is too long for anybody to ever want to read, I'm not reputation
building. Denny Beresford and I are more interested in changing the world than
in building up our reputations and resumes.. But I don't want to play down the
fact that it's possible for younger folks to greatly enhance their reputations
by open sharing their scholarship.
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at
http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Fifth it's wonderful to watch David Albrecht's scholarship mature in his blog
and messaging to the AECM. At one time David used to put himself down quite
often in messaging to the AECM. After he commenced to blog, I sense a renewal of
his scholarship, leadership, confidence, and enthusiasm. He's risen above being
a follower to becoming that of a leader in this academy. I also admire David
because, like Paul Williams and David Fordham and Richard Sansing, he's willing to
yell out that the Emperor isn't wearing any clothes.
Don't forget that David Albrecht had some advice for a future blogger ---
http://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/questions-from-a-future-blogger/
I have a lot more to say about advantages and disadvantages of being a
blogger and an active contributor to a listserv at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#ListServs
I think Scott Rosenberg and Joshua Kim found what I found --- we would
probably blog if we only blogged to our dogs
"Online Education and Blogging," by Joshua Kim. Inside Higher Ed,
January 25, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning
A book that has a big impact on my thinking is
Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters,
by Scott Rosenberg. Have you read it? One of
Rosenberg's main arguments is that a blog mostly benefits its author. People
who are able to blog consistently do so for internal motivational reasons,
rather than for extrinsic rewards. Writing a daily blog helps me sort
through all the information around learning technology that crosses my
screens. Any discussion that takes off around a particular blog post is a
wonderful bonus, I always learn more about the issue from reading comments
and other blogs, but the discussion is not the prime motivator. I'd blog if
my only audience was my dog.
Which brings me back to online learning and
blogging. My hypothesis is that people who enjoy online teaching and online
learning may also enjoy blogging. Teaching and learning in an online format
may be good preparation for blogging, or at least for practicing the art of
brief persuasive writing. On-ground and hybrid classes can also take
advantage of the collaborative LMS tools such as discussion boards and blogs
to provide students with opportunities to practice, and receive feedback on,
short persuasive writing. The advantages teaching online should not be
restricted only to online courses.
I don't want to pretend that there are not costs as well as benefits to
blogging and broadcasting on a listserv. I read fewer books from cover to cover
because of tradeoffs that I choose in terms of time devoted to deep scholarship.
I now spend a lot more time speed reading than deep reading. I'm a mile wide and
an inch deep on a lot of issues that I just don't have time to pursue in deep
scholarship.
Thirty years ago I spent a lot of time wandering the stacks of huge
university libraries. Now I take shortcuts to, gasp, Wikipedia and Google and
Bing and Simoleon Sense.
I also have some advantages over young bucks in this game. After over 40
years in some of my specialties where I used to teach (financial accounting,
statistics, and operations research) and 20 years in newer specialties
(education technology and learning), I can often recall things that the young
bucks never knew about the past. They weren't even born yet and never met people
face-to-face like Abe Briloff, David Solomons, Bill Cooper, and on and on.
I just want to thank all of you who contribute so much to me in private and
in public over the years, including but not limited to Paul Pacter, Denny
Beresford, Paul Williams, Jagdish Gangolly, Scott Bonacker, Amy Dunbar, Richard
Sansing, Pat Walters, David Albrecht, Will Yancey, Ed Scribner, and on and on.
And lately I want to thank Steve Kachelmeier who has taken time out his very
busy schedule to let me in on some things I did not know before. I often do not
agree with Steve but, unlike most current accountics researchers actively
publishing in TAR, JAR, JAE, and CAR, he's willing to go round and round with me in private messaging (most of which he will not allow me to quote for you
because he wants to more carefully word craft his public messaging).
Which leads me up to my last point in this message. Word crafting probably
does more bad than good in terms of scholarship. Our journal editors and
referees are absolutely paranoid about word crafting. The main reason I don't
write articles to submit is that there's just not enough years left in my life
to be wasted on how to word craft my ideas. When I have something I think I
would like to say, I just write it down as a first draft and hit the send
button. To hell with spending another two hours or two days or two months trying
to fancify it.
It 's very easy to revise Web documents time and time again long after they
were released to the public domain at my Web site. For example, at least 20
times in the past 10 days I've revised the document at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
Some changes were requested by Steve Kachelmeier and some things were
added because I myself found new things to add.
If I wrote the above article to submit to The Accounting Review, it
would take me months to perfect it to where it might have a ghost of a chance of
being published. And if it was published it would be frozen in time. By having
the above paper at my Website, I can maybe add to and revise it 6,373 times
before I die. It's a living document rather than a dead fish in published in a
journal.
I plan to stick around for quite a few more years --- sorry Steve!
And I apologize to all of you for the many times I've written their when I
meant there, to when I meant too, etc. It probably comes as no surprise that I
despise proof reading.
January 26, 2010 reply from Francine McKenna
[retheauditors@GMAIL.COM]
What a great testament this is to
the power of the written word, to sharing, and to how our lives have changed
in the past year, five years, ten years, twenty years due to technology.
I was just telling a brother a
few minutes ago that three years ago, 2007, when I went to my first
Compliance Week Annual conference as "media", no one there admitted to
knowing what a blogger was, except the very supportive publisher Scott
Cohen. This past June, I shared the front row with dedicated bloggers and
Tweeters from the Compliance week publication as well as some others that I
had met along the way on line and was glad to finally meet in person. What
a difference even a few years has made.
I am grateful for the invitation
to share with this group and to learn from you.
One of my favorite poems sums up
how I feel when I dwell too much on this subject.
And Bob...No one wants you to
start writing you thank you notes for a good life just yet... :)
I Have Started to Say
by Phillip Larkin
I have started to say
“A quarter of a century”
Or “thirty years back”
About my own life.
It makes me breathless
It’s like falling and recovering
In huge gesturing loops
Through an empty sky.
All that’s left to happen
Is some deaths (my own included).
Their order, and their manner,
Remain to be learnt.
My Outstanding Educator Award Speech ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/AAAaward_files/AAAaward02.htm
Bob Jensen's threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
From the Author of "Dilbert"
"Giving Stuff Away on the Internet," by Scott Adams, The Wall
Street Journal, November 1, 2007; Page A19 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119388143439778613.html
I spend about a third of my workday blogging.
Thanks to the miracle of online advertising, that increases my income by 1%.
I balance that by hoping no one asks me why I do it.
As with most of my life decisions, my impulse to
blog was a puzzling little soup of miscellaneous causes that bubbled and
simmered until one day I noticed I was doing something. I figured I needed a
rationalization in case anyone asked. My rationalization for blogging was
especially hard to concoct. I was giving away my product for free and hoping
something good came of it.
I did have a few "artist" reasons for blogging.
After 18 years of writing "Dilbert" comics, I was itching to slip the leash
and just once write "turd" without getting an email from my editor. It might
not seem like a big deal to you, but when you aren't allowed to write in the
way you talk, it's like using the wrong end of the shovel to pick up, for
example, a turd.
Over time, I noticed something unexpected and
wonderful was happening with the blog. I had an army of volunteer editors,
and they never slept. The readers were changing the course of my writing in
real time. I would post my thoughts on a topic, and the masses told me what
they thought of the day's offering without holding anything back. Often
they'd correct my grammar or facts and I'd fix it in minutes. They were in
turns brutal and encouraging. They wanted more posts on some topics and less
of others. It was like the old marketing saying, "Your customers tell you
what business you're in."
At some point I realized we were collectively
writing a book, or at least the guts of one. I compiled the most popular
(mostly the funniest) posts and pitched it to a publisher. I got a
six-figure advance, and picked a title indirectly suggested by my legion of
accidental collaborators: "Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey-Brain!"
As part of the book deal, my publisher asked me to
delete the parts of my blog archive that would be included in the book. The
archives didn't get much traffic, so I didn't think much about deleting
them. This turned out to be a major blunder in the "how people think"
category.
A surprising number of my readers were personally
offended that I would remove material from the Internet that had once been
free, even after they read it. It was as if I had broken into their homes
and ripped the books off their shelves. They felt violated. And boy, I heard
about it.
Some left negative reviews on Amazon.com to protest
my crass commercialization. While no one has given the book a bad review for
its content, a full half of the people who comment trash it for having once
been free, as if that somehow mattered to the people who only read books on
paper. In the end, the bad feeling I caused by not giving away my material
for free forever will have a negative impact on book sales.
I've had mixed results with giving away content on
the Internet. I was the first syndicated cartoonist to offer a comic on the
Internet without charge (www.dilbert.com). That gave a huge boost to the
newspaper sales and licensing. The ad income was good too. Giving away the
"Dilbert" comic for free continues to work well, although it cannibalizes my
reprint book sales to some extent, and a fast-growing percentage of readers
bypass the online ads with widgets, unauthorized RSS feeds and other
workarounds.
A few years ago I tried an experiment where I put
the entire text of my book, "God's Debris," on the Internet for free, after
sales of the hard copy and its sequel, "The Religion War" slowed. My hope
was that the people who liked the free e-book would buy the sequel.
According to my fan mail, people loved the free book. I know they loved it
because they emailed to ask when the sequel would also be available for
free. For readers of my non-Dilbert books, I inadvertently set the market
value for my work at zero. Oops.
So I've been watching with great interest as the
band "Radiohead" pursues its experiment with pay-what-you-want downloads on
the Internet. In the near term, the goodwill has inspired lots of people to
pay. But I suspect many of them are placing a bet that paying a few bucks
now will inspire all of their favorite bands to offer similar deals. That's
when the market value of music will approach zero.
That's my guess. Free is more complicated than
you'd think.
Mr. Adams is the creator of "Dilbert" and author of "Stick to Drawing
Comics, Monkey-Brain!" (Portfolio, 2007).
I'm active on two accounting ListServs called the AECM and CPA-L, both of
which were formed many years ago by Barry Rice. I was asked recently by someone
close to Barry to comment on these ListServs. Below is my response including why
the medium is much more than the message in the case of a ListServ:
Hi XXXXX,
I did not know
Barry Rice when he started up the AECM and CPA-L Listservs. I got to know
him better by email and met him quite a few years later. Barry is a world
class accounting teacher with administrative skills as well. I now consider
him a great friend.
ListServs are
much like forums except that a forum usually has an assigned leader or group
of leaders with their own agendas. ListServs are totally voluntary and
spontaneous communities. Forums often have invited memberships, whereas most
ListServs can be freely joined by any person on the world’s Internet. When a
message is sent to a forum, the sender generally knows where it is going.
When a message is sent to a ListServ, the sender has some idea of a few
people who will receive it but no idea about all the people in the world who
are lurking for messages.
Off the top of
my head, I would say that a ListServ aids in the following:
-
Communication of news
intended to be of common interest to members (e.g., accounting education
news). Internet links are probably the most common and useful items
shared in those communications.
-
Questions and answers
where one member raises a question and others try to answer either in
private or for all members.
-
Debates that follow
unpredictable paths and are generally interesting until they get too
tedious. Theories are often built and and/or destroyed on ListServs.
-
ListServs make us
humble. Just when we think we know a lot about something, all we have to
do is comment about it on the AECM. Suddenly we discover that there’s a
whole lot we did not know. We learn from a ListServ because of the
scholars who are willing to share what they know and feel.
-
ListServs capture moods
and opinions of members more spontaneously and deeply than formal
surveys.
-
Sharing of research and
scholarship. For example, members may have work-in-progress that they
put at a Website and then use the ListServ to inform members of where to
find this work-in-progress. Members then contribute comments in private
or in public about these works.
-
Archiving of
communications and Web links. This library function makes ListServs more
valuable than telephone and most other forms of communication that do
not have easily-accessible archives.
-
Entertainment
(sometimes communications are off-topic and entertaining with humor and
links to outside topics).
-
Building of friendships
with people in all parts of the world that are not likely to ever meet
face-to-face.
-
Building of reputations
where some participants reveal knowledge, talent, skills, and effort
beyond what would otherwise be known about these rare diamonds in the
rough.
-
Motivating some members
about career choices/changes. On the AECM students get an inside peek at
professors who comment about the beautiful and the ugly aspects of being
in academe.
A ListServ does
not generally do all of the things listed above, although the AECM initiated
by Barry comes about as close as possible to doing all those things
mentioned above. The CPA-L list that Barry also formed is primarily a Q&A
List that does none of the other things listed above. Practitioners on the
CPA-L generally raise a question (often a tax question) and others provide
answers. There’s almost nothing in the way of daily news, debates, sharing
of research/scholarship, entertainment, building of friendships, or building
of reputations.
The AECM somehow
evolved into a multi-purpose ListServ that accomplishes all of the things
mentioned above. Its international success was primarily timing and
leadership and luck. Barry offered up this service when there was very
little else for accounting educators on the Internet. There were at least
three other early competitors, and I honestly cannot say why the AECM
emerged as the main ListServ for accounting educators around the world. I do
think that time is too valuable for people to join in on very many active
ListServs. Hence it’s not likely that all competitors early on would’ve
flourished. Why the AECM emerged as the main general-purpose higher
education ListServ for accounting educators is indeed a mystery. The
American Accounting Association for a time offered another alternative, but
I think bad timing and bad luck destroyed its efforts. The AAA was too late
on the scene. There was also the stigma, not a fact, that the AAA’s effort
was only for members of the AAA.
I have to say
that Barry’s leadership in communicating on the AECM was probably not the
crucial factor at the germination stage. After a very short time Barry
became more of a lurker. It was about a dozen accounting educators who
emerged out of nowhere to make the AECM germinate. Then more leaders and
lurkers evolved like wild flowers in a worldwide field.
Keep in mind
that Barry did not begin the AECM as a general-purpose accounting educator
ListServ. In the beginning it was primarily intended for messaging about
computers and multimedia technologies that could be used in new ways by
teachers of accountancy. In fact the acronym “AECM” stands for “Accounting
Education using Computers and Multimedia.” Today the AECM ListServ is much
more than its title. Why this happened is complicated to answer, but the
title is unfortunate today whenever someone is looking for the main
accounting education ListServ and naively thinks that the AECM is restricted
to messaging about computers and multimedia.
A better name
for the AECM as it evolved is the Internet’s “Accounting Education
Communications Medium.” And the “medium is the message.” I am forever
grateful to Barry for letting the original AECM evolve into what it is
today. He could’ve jumped on every message that was not deemed “on topic” in
the context of “computers and multimedia.” Instead he let the AECM messaging
follow their own serendipitous meanderings. And he forgave us for some of
the dumb things we messaged.
In this regard
we were lucky. AECM participants had the good sense to avoid some turn-off
topics like politics, advertising, religion, and too much humor. But the
messaging did follow many serendipitous paths that were not tied to
computers and multimedia, including topics of accounting theory, fraud,
student cheating, professorial cheating, plagiarism, pedagogy in general,
research methodologies, and learning theories. These evolved into topics
that AECM subscribers wanted to learn more and more about.
ListServs are
fragile things that in general do not work well. Leaders either emerge out
of nowhere and keep a ListServ going or it dies from lack of participation.
Participants must find rewards or ListServs simply fade away. Most
participants in a ListServ are “lurkers” who often “listen in” but rarely if
ever contribute to the membership. This puts the burden on “actives” to
evolve as leaders. These actives can either be terrific and draw new
ListServ members wanting to listen to what the actives have to say or
ListServs can become very tedious and/or boring and causing members to
resign from the ListServ.
ListServs have
interesting behavioral dynamics that emerged with newer technology. This is
an interesting topic to study and needs to be studied in much greater depth.
The medium is much more than the content of the messages.
ListServs
provide wonderful and unique opportunities to make a difference. For
example, an accounting educator and world leader who I supremely respect is
Dennis Beresford. Denny is a popular
Accounting Hall of Fame speaker at academic, business, and
accounting profession conferences. But a speech is a speech and is limited
to a given audience and a given point in time. Denny’s published a lot of
papers, but a paper is a paper that is a bleep at a fixed point in time.
Remember that
“the medium is the message” as discovered by Marshall Mcluhan many years
ago. AECM messages are bleeps that resurface in new and different ways
repeatedly over time on the AECM. Denny has probably had more impact on
changing accounting education via the AECM than in all his speeches and all
his publications combined. His messaging to the AECM is continuous over time
and reacts to concerns of accounting educators around the world. His AECM
audience is unlimited in terms of size and scheduled times.
And we learn a
lot about Denny just by learning when he messages. Keep in mind that I’m
talking about one of the busiest accountants in the world. He teaches at the
University of Georgia full time and is an extremely popular consultant and
on the boards of directors of several worldwide corporations. He’s even head
of the Audit Committee and a Board member for Fannie Mae after this
trillion-dollar company hit the rocks. And yet he seemingly keeps his eye on
AECM communications 24/7. What impresses me most is when I send messages out
to the AECM at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings I have them answered within
minutes by Denny Beresford. Hence I learned a whole lot more about the man
beyond the content of his excellent messages. I also learned that he’s
respectfully a very humble man.
Denny does not
want more money or more trophies. What Denny wants is to make a lasting
difference for the betterment of the accounting profession and accounting
education. And he’s proved this countless times to all of us on the AECM.
Those many other accounting leaders and educators who failed to grab this
AECM brass ring missed out and continue to miss out of the opportunity to
make a continuous and lasting difference.
I’m also a 24/7
AECM active like Denny. And I’m certain that Denny, like me, will say that
he tries to make a difference. But the AECM is so rewarding that in the end
he, like me, got more than he received. That is why we’re on the AECM.
We get more than we give no matter how much we give. That’s because so many
scholars big and small contribute to our learning and loving. The Internet
forever changed research and scholarship and learning. ListServs are a
lasting part of this process.
Bob Jensen
April 5,
2007 reply from Dennis Beresford
[dberesfo@TERRY.UGA.EDU]
Bob,
Thanks for your kind comments below. And thanks to Barry for getting this
whole thing started. AECM is a wonderful learning opportunity for me and
I'm just glad that you and many others are willing to share so much
knowledge.
Denny
An Academic Study of the History of the AECM
"Knowledge Sharing among Accounting Academics in an Electronic Network of
Practice," by Eileen Z. Taylor and Uday S. Murthy, Accounting Horizons
23 (2), 151 (2009);
Electronic edition subscribers can download an copy from
http://aaapubs.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=ACHXXX&Volume=LASTVOL&Issue=LASTISS
Others might be able to access the article from at their college libraries.
SYNOPSIS:
Using a multi-method approach, we explore accounting academics'
knowledge-sharing practices in an Electronic Network of Practice (ENOP)—the
Accounting Education using Computers and Multimedia (AECM) email list.
Established in 1996, the AECM email list serves the global accounting
academic community. A review of postings to AECM for the period January–June
2006 indicates that members use this network to post questions, replies, and
opinions covering a variety of topics, but focusing on financial accounting
practice and education. Sixty-nine AECM members constituting 9.2 percent of
the AECM membership base responded to a survey that measured their
self-perceptions about altruism, reciprocation, reputation, commitment, and
participation in AECM. The results suggest that altruism is a significant
predictor of posting frequency, but neither reputation nor commitment
significantly relate to posting frequency. These findings imply that
designers and administrators of the recently launched AAA Commons platform
should seek ways of capitalizing on the altruistic tendencies of accounting
academics. The study's limitations include low statistical power and
potential inconsistencies in coding the large number of postings. ©2009
American Accounting Association
Jensen Comment
The article above affords an opportunity to comment on the AAA Commons about
Barry Rice and the AECM. I have initiated the posting below at
http://commons.aaahq.org/posts/b7f123c2be
If you are an AAA member it is an opportunity to add comments to the above
posting. You might mention your own reaction to the Taylor and Murthy research
paper on the AECM. Do you agree or disagree with the major findings of Taylor
and Murthy?
It is also an opportunity to thank Barry Rice for what he enabled you to
learn from the AECM over the years since 1996. It is also fabulous that the AECM
archived all this messaging.
The AAA Commons access page is at
https://commons.aaahq.org/signin
It can only be accessed by American Accounting Association members and invited
guests (some students).
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing and open courseware ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen
Emeritus Accountancy Professor from Trinity University
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone: 603-823-8482
Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu
As you might have guessed, the topic I have been asked to speak on is IFRS adoption in the U.S. Later in the day, I will participate in a panel discussion on the same topic with a very senior partner from the KPMG's "Department of Professional Practice" and the current FASB Academic Fellow, Terry Iannaconi and Lynn Rees, respectively. I go way back with Terry and Lynn, and I am looking forward to being on a panel with both of them.
So as not to steal any 'thunder' away from my talk, I'm going to try and keep a lid on my criticisms of IFRS adoption until then. But, I will say that I plan to provide a point-by-point rebuttal of the latest arguments for IFRS adoption, which were made by its paid promoters, Hans Hoogervorst and Harvey Goldschmidt, at the latest AICPA-IASB love fest.
What I would like to address in this post, though, is a question that I have asked myself for a long time now, but now seems like the right time to write a post about it: why are there so few academic accountants who blog?
I decided to blog soon after I took early retirement from academia because it had recently emerged as an extremely convenient and direct approach for generating web content that might lead others to learn about the professional services I could provide. Back in 2007, blogging wasn't nearly as pervasive as it is now, and I was certain that my early mover advantage in the competition for visibility would soon dissipate. Surely, other accounting academics wanted to write about their own pet peeves, or to use the medium to have more of a role in important questions facing the profession and our students.