May the Force Be With You

Pumpkin carving was fun! Check out my Vader pumpkin.

I <3 these things...

Things for which I am thankful
Not an exhaustive list by any means…

(Not in any particular order either)

• God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
• Family
• Close friends that truly know you and love you anyway
• Friends that call you out on your "baloney"—but not in front of others.
• Friends that do not assume that they know you better than you know yourself.
• Friends that actually DO know you better than you know yourself.
• People that do not act like they know everything about anything.
• People that know a whole lot more than I do.
• Cool fall weather--I'm so glad you're here!!!!
• Hoodies and sweat pants
• Kittens
• Flowers
• Sonic cranberry limeades
• Smiles
• our government (whether or not we agree with actions individuals in office may or may not take)
• our military
• friends that try to set you up on blind date
• friends that don't get ticked when you're not really comfortable with the idea of a blind date
• frogs, toads and turtles
• music
• sunrises
• sunsets
• the ocean
• friends that are in Louisiana that "knew you when…"
• friends in Ada that "remember that time…"
• new friends in Texas that always rock my socks off
• friends that have moved away but will always be in my top 10
• friends that know I love all of them equally…
• soft, cool grass (freshly mowed)
• the number pi
• asymptotes…they blow my mind!
• hugs (might be in my top 5)
• curiosity
• the word "blarg"…thanks Amanda
• post-it notes
• love
• iTissues (hehehe)
• water and air
• dr pepper...aka Nectar of Life
• the color blue (like the darkest part of an afternoon sky)
• prayer
• two words: ROAD TRIPS!!!!
• my awesome ability to do the robot. :-)
• mascot suits
• ninjas

I love this photo! What memories...

• ridiculously large pencils
• meeting famous people randomly {cough Don King cough}
• my Website Hero mug.

BLARG! yes. I say, BLARG!

If you're in no mood to read about my frustrations and negative mood, then read no further. :-)
I have actually written about some of these before, but after training faculty and staff for a few days straight, my brain is tired and I feel as though I need to vent.

And tomorrow I plan to post a list of things for which I am thankful, the OCT 2008 edition (for those of you keeping track on myspace).

I have been frustrated lately: work, school (although I did get accepted into grad school! woo-hoo!), missing my family, friends—all of these have been on my mind.

I think if I write some things down, perhaps it will allow me to release them and they won't continue to tick me off today.

1. Why has the soda pop industry created a conspiracy to get me to drink 2.5 servings of pop at one time by packaging it in a 20 oz bottle? Or is this actually a governmental conspiracy to make a serving only 8oz? Curse the Nectar of Life...yes, curse thee Dr. Pepper!

2. Why does everyone have to gripe, groan or otherwise complain when they find out that my favorite baseball team is the Yankees or that my second fave is the Cubs? Yes, I realize they haven't won the Series in 100 years. blah blah blah... I don't complain when your favorite song is "Idiot Boyfriend" by Jimmy Fallon…I like this song, too, but come on…Idiot Boyfriend? Really? That's your FAVORITE? Perhaps it's a sign. :-P

3. Why do girls find it necessary to pretend their IQ is about 20 points less than it is to attract a guy's attention?

4. Why do guys fall for this? Or do guys really prefer girls that provide little or no intellectual stimulation? Do guys really just want a girl that thinks anything they say is "awesome" and "so smart"…"oh, you're talking over my head I don't know." Argh!

5. Why don't more people appreciate the humor of a giant pencil? I think they're great!

6. Why do people find it necessary to not only interrupt but "top" your story? Thank you Saturday Night Live for making a skit out of this…I loved every second of it. Really.

7. Where's my other quarter so I can go get a Dr. Pepper?

8. Where have all of my paper clips gone? I don't use them that often. Can someone send me back some papers with a paper clip on them?

9. Email forwards that claim you'll not find your true love if you don't send it to 23 friends in 2 minutes…or claim that it is being tracked by a large company and your friend of a friend of a friend of a friend did in fact receive a check for 1, 345.88 just last week. argh. Need I say more?

10. I read a question on Yahoo! Answers this morning asking about genetic selection and "discarding" the embryos that do not meet certain qualifications. This not only made me sad but really ticked me off! Are you KIDDING me? If you really just want a blue eyed girl with dark hair, go adopt. They need loving families and you don't have to "discard" any unwanted embryos. This sounds to me like a fancy way of trying to accomplish what Hitler was doing—totally unacceptable!

11. mmmm…why is this Dr. Pepper so good?

12. What's the deal with the number 13? I know comedians have stated this before, but I'm not trying to get a laugh from you, I want to know: who do you think you're fooling, Mr. Big Building Floor-Numberer, by calling the 13th floor the 14th? Know what's sad? Many are ok with this..they don't feel so scared.

13.

14. The question formerly known as 13.

15. I love soft carpet not cold linoleum. Who's with me?!?!?!??!

16. My office is messy. I need to clean it.

17. Why do people have to assume that since I'm younger than they are that I know nothing about the job I was hired to do?

18. Why can't we wear flip flops to work? Or maybe blue fuzzy slippers. It would really make my day better.

19. I think I'm a little obsessive. Upon realizing this was number 19 I fought with the question, "should I make it an even 20? Or 21 since I skipped 13. What about 22 since 15 is the artist formerly known as 14?"

Even though my chest tightens and my palms sweat at this moment as I haven't resolved my issues referenced in 19, I thank you for reading this…not even my Dilbert, Tales from Redesignland or Orlando photo can cheer me at the moment…but…can't….look…away….CURSE YOUR HANDSOME FACE ORLANDO BLOOM!

Hey kids, rock n roll...rock on!

So, the HighEdWeb Conference was a blast. I met some folks that I've "known" on some social networking sites for a few months. Here are just a few of the pics from our opening reception.

Get a Clue...shift happens

Gordy Pace, Dir of IT communications Univ of Montana

Reading homework The Cluetrain Manifesto. the premise was that everything would change in the business world w/net. "A powerful global conversation has begun."

The people who look like they know a lot actually have gaps in their knowledge. If have a team, then others can fill in the gaps.

More homework Groundswell. Studies in how people are using technologies.

Consequences:

• balance of pwr has shifted
• control of pr/marketing has been weakened
• your brand is what your customers say it is
• your employees are connecting online, building ideas and discussing your policies, etc.

P-people. assess customers' social activities

O-objectives

S-Strategy

T-technology

Too often people jump to the T and just say "we want facebook" rather than looking at what our students are using or want us to use. what are our objectives? then come up with a strategy and then determine what technologies are available.

UPDATE 2:20 PM

more homework naked conversations about blogging

perceptions about blogging may be incorrect.

Aparently text message novels are big in Japan.

Says he started a technology think tank and included a LOT of people. I think there were over 50 depts on that slide!

He's a big proponent of creating a strategic plan.

Having the juxtaposition of a driving force and a restrictive force and understanding those helped in their portal implementation.

He likens web 1.0 to living in the suburbs and web 2.0 to living in the city. :-) but not really the best metaphor but it did open up conversation. b/c some people are scared of the city or just like living in the suburbs.

Keynote--Kyle Ford

Woo-hoo! He did the Xfiles site. I loved the Xfiles. Now he's at Ning. Yay for ning :-)

What is Social Networking?
A set of online tools that allows for content creation and community building. (his def)

tools of sn
forum, video, photos, music, etc.

Even ebay or amazon are social networks.

AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy in the 90's. Then came along Netscape.
Publishing 2.0 in the early 2000's:
Blogger, TypePad, WordPress able to self-publish

Now...2008:
Facebook, myspace, youtube, linkedin you're joining THEIR world --facebooks world.

Ning gives the people the freedom to create your own social networks for anything. Co-creator of ning was also co-creator of precursor to Netscape. Then he sold Netscape to AOL.

Ning means "peace" in chinese.

He's giving us a quick and dirty on how to create your ning network in one minute.

UPDATE 1:00 PM

Showing us examples of ning sites: NKOTB, 50cent, TI, HighEdWeb, Ask a Ninja

can use social networks for language immersion, video conferencing, social notes.

One class can't take paper notes, must use a wiki=social note taking.

Social networking is a 2 way street.

used to be i think therefore i am
now it's we participate therefore we are

likens social networks to calculators. when it comes along it levels the playing field. it would be silly to not use the tools.

Kyle says we should build better soldiers. They learn to use the tools and process the info.

Webcasting

Joel Doepker, Dir of pub relations and communications at Ozarks Tech Community College (OTC) Has won 5 Emmys in News Photography and Editing (his voice is like butter. so mezmerizing. can tell he worked in TV)

Key partnerships for success:

• college admin
• media services (former professionals)
• web services/IT
• Public Relations

Had the MO gov on campus, so wanted a video of visit in a timely manner for web site. Gov on campus Monday, had the video online by Tues. afternoon. working on processes to do that more quickly. sent the video to gov's office so they had immediate feedback from the college for coming.

College events, student profiles, dept profiles, etc. for videos

The college president does a video to keep campus informed on things.

Presenter does monthly video newsletter.

UPDATE 11:00 AM

Public relations submits story ideas, he records interviews, records the video, write and edit script, then post video to website. relies on media services.

Production time=7 hrs. Editing is the biggest chunk of time.

Benefits for college beyond the web site for video:

• recruitment
• community relations
• gov't relations
• internal communications
• media relations

Local tv stations are glad OTC is providing them video content. Sent video with the press release. Was able to provide the tv station with interviews and video footage and was on the 5:00 news b/c the station was too busy to come out.

News organizations are desperate for content for tv AND web sites.

UPDATE 11:10 AM

They make sure they use tech and & equipment for broadcast standard, not just cheap stuff.

Lessons learned:

• work closely with IT b/c video was WAY too big
• student background
• communicate your vision

We can learn from his mistakes. Had a student in video that was on academic probation so not the best representative in a video. Was most popular kid at college, not best rep for "poster child".

Just debuted a foundation video to raise $. (but he says it's 8 mins...I think that may be too long. hmmm...)

Note to self: could be a possiblity for our marketing consultant to work on these.

Wants to integrate more students b/c students want to hear from students. and not all students are 18 or 19 years old.

Q: what resolution are you using? it seems pretty crisp and high detail for online.
A: He's showing us a direct file, not the shrunked file off of their website. it's 3x4 on web, 16x9 here.

Q: do you stick with windows media?
A: yes. we'd like to do something different, but we're working on it.

Q: noticed in your workflow you had transcript. do you provide that?
A: i saw what you did yesterday, so yeah, i want to have the transcription for our videos. and flash applications for it.

Q: Can you do the voiceovers for our videos? (laughter from whole audience...see, told you those following on twitter, voice is mezmerizing)
A: talk to me after. LOL.

Hmm, discussing the video releases and public domain and "gentleman's agreement".

Analytics with Kyle James

Kyle directs us to his blog doteduguru.com says all this info is on his blog.

Says we are important. We could put a redirect to a porn site from the homepage and have more of an impact than any speech the campus pres could give. LOL

Getting students to our school is #1. Other things we have to determine what's important for our site like RSS feeds, video, etc. Must define those before look at any data/analytics.

Terms:
visits, unique visits, etc.

Misunderstood terms:
pageviews--what's good? 3 or 5? pageviews are irrelevant.
time on site--there's no way to know how long anyone was on the last page. the avg time on site doesn't acct for last page
bounce rate--bounce means they come then leave.
exit--they come to site and visit other pages then leave. leaving to subdomain would register as a bounce.
traffic types--direct (bookmarks too), search
benchmarking--Alexa, compete, quantcast are free services
edurank.nucloud.com--Kyle and friends are doing this, is in "alpha-beta" version. :-) says to check it out and let him know of any bugs you find.

UPDATE 9:56 AM

10/90 rule--10% of budget on tools and 90% on people.

Many use google analytics in this session. Can track more than one domain in google analytics.

Sitescan and WASP are recommended by Kyle.

Data overload!!
must segment and filter. Can set up to 100 profiles within google analytics by city or dept.
set up site search within GA.

set up a sandbox profile and a raw data one so can get all raw data.

standardize your data: capitalization, www --to use or not to use. make sure so set up for both.

able to filter subdomains, and exclude IP filter.

UPDATE 10:10 AM

can filter by country, region, city. says the order of filters are important, so will have to play with that to get it right.

full referral URL filter is available

destination URL tagging is important and easy to set up. Great for campaigns. can send to short URL then redirect to landing page so can track the short URL to see how campaign is faring.

Can track links to docs such as a PDF viewbook, or videos, flash. He thinks this report is still a little buggy, but worth paying attention to.

Can tag audience segments and is great for email marketing campaigns. Says he hasn't used this one, but if anyone has he'd like to hear about it.

Site Search Report can help you to see where the search was started and how many times they had to redfine that search can help you know what is difficult to find on your site. These things may need to be made more apparent.

Also helps with terminology: residence halls vs campus dorms. Can see what users are calling things. Can tell if they got frustrated and bounced after trying to search.

Can tell what search engine used outside and what keywords or pages are brining in lots of traffic.

UPDATE 10:15 PM

page titles are important for SEO. referring sites report is helpful.the 404 error page report is great. can add some code to those page.

"It's all about your user, guys."

Can track more than our site. Facebook or even offline campaigns. When send out URLs on offline ads, can track what is effective and track which URLs are being used.

Tracking blogs: Feedburner and ShareThis
Can monitor social media to see what's being used: facebook for college kids but myspace seems for those that don't go--his experience anyway.

Always test.
Don't get caught up in numbers, look at the trends.
Set up a reporting schedule and track key metrics.
Set up goals.

UPDATE 10:25 AM

Q: How to help marketing people understand the data in the reports?
A: Audience member: we provide a custom report that makes sense to them. Kyle: can have a report scheduled to send to particular people on specific dates

Q: how to get tracking code?
A: Kyle: adds it himself. Can drop the code into the template near the footer tag

Avatars...

Monica spent a year away from her husband, and was a fan of Star Wars Galaxies. Was able to have a virtual reality with each other while away at university. Had a "house" in the game.

Term avatar comes from Hindu mythology where it describes a god decending into a human being and taking it over.

Second life is one place in the "metaverse". Games such as World of Warcraft are part of the metaverse as well as social places like second life.

UPDATE 8:40 PM

Identity exploration is good for learning. When we're allowed to create our own identity, we are able to embody that identity. She says when we think about something it can be like actually doing it.

She's showing a video of roller coaster from a first person perspective. Says that if we watch it, we might have the experience of embodiment...like we were riding the roller coaster.

Research done with babies. Motor awareness of crawling vs walking and how babies learn. They had to experience falling before aware of an apparent gap (with plexiglass over it) before became wary of the gap. Had to relearn the awareness of the gap when began walking. Walking and crawling were two different embodiement experiences.

Watching a video about a science school in second life. Able to animate a cell or organ and can "travel" inside it.

UPDATE 8:47 PM

Oregon Community Colleges (17 cc) have an island in Second Life, funded in part by the state.
Says it takes a lot of coordination. "The Starfish and the Spider" is a book she recommends.

Says there is a big negative that the line between adult content is easily crossed, but you are able to filter out PG only content as well as education only content in SL.

I don't know if it's me or what, but this doesn't seem cohesive...

Says you can get an acct for free. Talking about economy in SL and buying a really nice house for cheap in SL. SL money (Linden) can be traded for US dollars.

There is a ning group RezEd for more info.

Q: Any one academic area that want to participate?
A: no, it's all over the board. many academic areas

Q: using as a community space or building models?
A: it's what they want to do/use.

Q: what's been the cost to use it?
A: to get an island and sustain it was about $7K and $3K to keep going. but also have to have personnel so asked for $50K from the state for her consulting services, etc. Cost to students is free.

Small Change in plans

Slight medical emergency. :-(

Will resume liveblogging my conference sessions Tuesday morning.

Web Managers Roundtable Discussion

I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep up with all Q & A during this session, but will do my best. :-)

Right now just some introductions.

UPDATE 2:12 PM

Panel still introducing selves. might be taking up too much time. :-(

UPDATE 2:18 PM

Ok. now we're getting to Qs.

Q: who manages web policies at your school?
A: Bob: meetings, arguments about policies and web links. They "slog through it". They view the web as community property so they argue about links etc.
A: Rachel: independent authors so it's hodge-podge
A: Luke: they use their mission and fact that are a christian school, they use those as guidelines. seems to be a self-policing situation...don't use "hammer" approach. don't squash all that comes along.
A: Sri: marketing team sets the style and what goes on public web site. They are having the portal vs web site debate.
A: Doug: "our policies stink" {LOL} They don't have anyone to turn to in order to write policies or anyone driving the effort on their campus.
A: moderator: policies control what people can do and what's acceptable. style guide is a little different.

Q: how are you addressing social media?
A: Doug: they built their own social network for accepted students. only for admissions and recruitment strategies. nothing for current students.
A: Luke: no written policy as to how to use for admissions, but in PR he's picked up a twitter acct and a flikr account. They're hands off...more grass-roots. He did get a uni page for them on facebook. They're holding b/c if they get all these networks, who will manage it? They're getting mixed reviews: students=stay away from facebook; alumni=yeah, this is pretty good.
A: Bob: they're looking into some open source platforms to build several social networks from student to almnus.

Q: pros and cons of adopting google apps
A: Bob:
A: rachel: using google analytics at uni of iowa. that's all for now
A: Luke: some students in pilot program using gmail.
A: Sri: no longer using lotus notes and one option was google and gmail, but they chose microsoft in the end.
A: moderator: had some switch, but having probs with gmail switch for students. they're not getting all emails.

Q: are any of the panel involved in e-communication--newsletters for example.
A: Doug: his office creates templates for e-newsletters and emails for alumni office, admissions,etc. all use template created by web services office. His office sends out a quarterly e-newsletter.
A: Luke: they run a listerv and have several newsletters on campus. they send plain text emails with link to newsletters
A: Rachel: they use constant contact for newsletters. some set newsletters and some adhoc, such as homecoming.
A: Bob: fac/staff newspaper was redesigned in WordPress.

Q: use of video? what are the demands from depts? do you have the infrastructure?
A: Bob: they had a $10 million donation from a microsoft principle that should help with quality video and pushing it out.
A: Luke: youtube, google video that school pushes out, some are produced by students, but how can it be used? lots on facebook and all that but do you want others to see it? some have great content, but poor quality b/c are put out by students or are in bad file format for web. They're working on 2 minute videos.

Now discussing iTunesU. Bob says his overall data transfer went up 4x after being on iTunesU. Doug says on ning they have a place for students to upload own video. Is very popular on campus. Was done cheaply and low quality, but those were some of the best ones. Alumni liked b/c saw what students are doing on campus.

UPDATE 2:40 PM

Q: what is your web team structure? how do you handle rogue depts?
A: Bob: need more people, but those with the money need to be on board. rogue depts? he non-chalantly says he'll have to let the higher ups know about their "rogue-ness". New Q: do you have students work on the web? Bob says they try to use students for web 2.0 things, not so much for web developement.
A: Karen: have about a dozen people that contribute. used to be 70% communication 30% IT, now it's mostly IT b/c of budgeting, but she works with communication. They've hired a student that can use Dreamweaver. "we won't use contribute anymore."
A: Luke: They report to advancement office. has a coworker with a journalism background. need more developers, hoping for new position in web services. Does have a student worker. Says that students have a lot to bring.
A: Sri: they just went under a re-org. says content collaboration has taken a hit. they're working to address it. They do have student workers, even a programmer student worker.
A: Doug: reports to the CIO. grown from 2 to 10 people in the web office. the marketing people on their campus are trying to get them in their office.
A: moderator: Doug has done a good job of getting more dollars and more positions in the office. He makes a good business case for it and then delivers when he gets more resources. Doug: you have to make the case afterward as well.
moderator: Don't think about students as programmers. Content is king. Says can find good student writers.

Keynote--Jeffrey Veen

Man, this guy's resume is impressive!

Said the #heweb08 on twitter was hottest thing going on twitter this morning. WOOT!!!

Correlating web to the intricate choreography of the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics this year.
Giving a humorous bit of history starting in 1974 with watergate, gas price spike, and now discussing musical shifts, etc. Broke up the monopoly of telecommunications. Used the word internet for the first time in 1974 in a white paper. PONG! Tells of first time he saw a "tv with a glass top that he could control". With games came the ability to participate and create. Showing nice pics of old games/computer parts. :-)

IBM released first hard drive. It's about the size of a kitchen counter and cabinets. In today's dollars it cost about $100,000 per GB. now with Google can get storage for $0.15 per GB.

Every minute of the day at YouTube 13 HOURS of video are uploaded. {gasps}

UPDATE 1:05 PM

Showing how using some design and usability guidelines, can make a table of data more useable. "Fine line between information and decoration." You can lose the meaning if over-decorate the data. Spent 15 months at Google to work on google analytics on the dashboard.

Wow...looked at stuff from 1854 for design ideas:

• Cholera outbreak. 1 of 3 people had it and died. Dr. John Snow, one of first anastheisiologists. Mapped the cholera deaths in neighborhood of SoHo. convinced city council for London that the outbreak was being spread by water, not air. He took a drawing from a sewer engineer and edited it for his use. He used visualization to help prove imperical fact.
• Charles Joseph Minard had a chart of Napoleon's march. The graph shows 6 different variables. He wanted to create a graph so people wouldn't have to think in order to understand the data and see the patterns.
• Harry Beck worked for London underground. He drew a map of it in 1930's. he was an engineer so used that knowledge to create a very useful map. Users of the underground only care about where does it stop and what side of the river am I on?
• Jeff was watching Indiana Jones and got some inspiration for a chart on GA. Had a dream that Indiana flew his plane over the data. LOL
• Thought of ways to gain perspective. ex: 2 billion pennies. how to visualize that many pennies? Using images to gain perspective can help. Megapenny.com
• Chris Jordon, artist. uses small images on a large scale to create impact. chrisjordon.com. Point here is to find the story in the numbers and portray that on the web in a visual way.

UPDATE 1:20 PM

Talking about how designers for paper had a change in perspective when had to design for web b/c had to give up control. Control of size page, typography, had to be flexible. One of these designers started csszengarden.com

Realizing we can give up control of design. We can find the story in the data and help it with visualization, but giving the control to users so they can extrapolate what they want, to find their own stories in the data is powerful.

UPDATE 1:30 PM

Wow, he's such a dynamic speaker. Very engaging, knowledgeable and very timely.

Seems like he's saying that on the web we have control in that we create ways to allow the users to control their own data and create their own story or glean what they need/want from a system.

They provided filters to enable clarity. Ex: gapminder. This seems amazing. Note to self, I need to check this out.

New York Times has a casualties of War timeline that has just continued to run.

We need to not only tell stories, but allow discovery. Provide interactivity and allow filtering, not just our providing editing. Web 2.0 is collaborative, collective knowledge.

Teens have a different idea of private vs public.

Veen's fave example of meeting users' needs: us dept of ag: need hay or have hay? LOL

key pts: know yourself and understand the user.

http://veen.com/heweb08.pdf

E-cards

Assist. Dir of Admissions and manager of Web Design & Support are the presenters.

Giving us the stats about Southeast MO State Univ.

E-cards. Really? :-) His words, not mine. haha

quality and detail can promote your brand: mediocre idea executed excellently better than great idea poorly exectuted.

Southeast offers publicly avialable designs for holidays, university occasions (move-in, commencemnt) and activities. This seems easy to make them cool with the use of their mascot. We don't have a mascot at TCC, so would take some brainstorming to get ideas to make them great.

Q from audience: Are these for marketing dept to send out or just for public use to send to each other?
A: we offer both. we'll get to the ones sent to prospective students later.


UPDATE 10:59 AM

If you offer the public versions, have to make sure people know they're available. They use their website landing pages to market the postcards.

Admissions E-cards:

• personalized greeting cardes from each of the counselors
• use cards to inform students of upcoming events: visits to high school by college counselor, freshman orientation, high school guidance counselor training
• "feel good" like h.s. graduation to those that have accepted southeast as their college of choice

UPDATE 11:06 AM

They use professional photographer for Ecards b/c want quality images. They also use their own staff in the photos so students recoginze the staff when get the Ecard as those they've seen at their h.s. or orientation or a campus tour.

The admissions counselors get feedback from the ecards via email since the ecards are sent by the counselors to each student.

Greencard Pro is what they use. Form fields then cards are automatically generated to web pages with persistent URLs. They can separate cards by categories. E-mails are plain text and contain link to image.

Will allow HTML formatting. Can imbed jpg, png, gif flash

Q from audience: isn't imbebedding flash a problem for IE?
A: again, the emails are text only with a link. The link takes them to their persistent URL for the actual card. Exception to this is one dept at their school that "steals" the artwork and sends emails with imbedded jpgs, but that is just that one dept.

UPDATE 11:17 AM

Q: Can you track click-thrus?
A: No, we do get a notice if it's been opened, but that doesn't tell us about click-thrus

Q: Students don't use email that much, so have you looked at using the cards in Facebook?
A: Ecard software not the important part, the point is the personal touch, so you can set this up in Facebook, too. He's not trying to sell Greetingcard Pro, just the idea of sending personal "cards" to your prospective students.

Q: If you don't have click-thru data, how do you justify the time resource if you don't know how many are using them?
A: It only takes an hour or two to design, so it's worth it to them if even have 5 students view it. From the admissions standpoint, they focus on personal communication. They used to send hand written cards, birthday cards, notes so this is more cost effective and they're able to continue the personal communication.

Q: Asking Qs about the actual software but he inherited it, so not sure of costs, etc.

Q: Other than for admissions, how has it been used; alumni, foundation, etc.
A: Those depts are the ones that "steal" the artwork and send them out on their own. Fac/staff use the public ones.

Q: Are the ecards sent one by one?
A: Birthday, yes. admissions counselors used to do those by hand anyway, but can include multiple email adresses if want, but then the email will be generic such as "Future Red Hawk".

UPDATE 11:25 AM

A particpants' school--Univ of New Mexico--does virtual gifts (burgers, bobble-heads, etc). Most popular item was an aggies' voodoo doll (their big rivals).

Social Networking - The Game Changer

I'm curious to see where this one is headed since the presenter is from a vendor: OmniUpdate. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt though, they gave us some sweet mugs. :-) Not to mention that one of their guys said he likes my blog last night...yep, I'm famous. hahaha.

Ok, I'll start adding updates once we being, but on a side note, I hate that I'm missing LOL cats with santa, I mean Tony Dunn. ;-)

UPDATE 8:30 AM

Lance Merker of OmniUpdate tells us he's not here as a vendor. :-) He read my mind. hahaa

Social networking born around a campfire with the cavemen. Taking us thru a brief history of technology, starting with the wheel, maritime innovations, shipping, trains, planes, automobiles. and then the telegraph, phone, tv...communications innovations. broke loose with the digital age.

UPDATE 8:38 AM

Three killer apps on the net:

1. email
2. web
3. social networks

With social networks, the game has changed. Social networking to only get bigger. How did the students/prosp. students get so involved w/social networking? How'd we get here?

UPDATE 8:48 AM

Going thru a sample student: Ami. Born after net was invented, grew up with it, had a cell phone at middle school. Had own pc/laptop before high school. Best texter ever. haha. Can do under her desk. Has over 400 facebook friends. To her it's nothing new. It's just something she uses.

Giving us bits of the Pew: Teens & Social Media study.

• those that use social media, 91% to communicate w/friends
• 49% to make new friends

email is still a killer app, but how has its use changed? death reports of email are greatly exaggerated. only 14% teens use email daily IF using a social network.

• social networks are the new killer app.
• not just web-based (twitter, iphone, loopt)
• both private and public
• replace email
• replace chat
• replace blogs
• replace photo & video sharing

UPDATE 8:54 AM

Discussing public vs private social networks. Facebook: institutions have "pages" and "fans" not friends.
Can have rss feeds for your institution page on facebook.

Ning is getting huge for private social networks (highedweb2008.ning.com). Showing us some private ning sites for colleges. **note to self: free if has google ads. 20 bucks a year to take ads off.

UPDATE 8:59 AM

How can we have our students engage with our students? Old ways of advertising aren't sufficient: print, radio, tv, mailings, web...

What can we do right now?

1. assign responsibility: someone HAS to do it--marketing and managing it
2. participate.
3. connect everything. Lance says he'll show us how to do that...

UPDATE 9:03 AM

Magic of RSS feed. Use it to publish to facebook, homepage, blog, media, portals, sms text

Doing a demo, then says will have Q & A.

Using fake school Gallena University to create a facebook and ning page.

UPDATE 9:10 AM

Hmm...I have to say, no real "aha!" moments here. I think we understand everything he's told us so far. I guess I would have preferred more data, something to use as ammo when talking to admins/faculty about social networking, its importance and how we can get buy-in to have a central management for it. Don't get me wrong, he seems to be a champion for all of the above, but he's preaching to the choir. :-) We need to know how to convey this message to our admins and they respond to numbers.

He's setting up a Ning acct right now and tying all his sites together with rss.

HighEdWeb Conference Liveblogging

Gonna go ahead and do this...if anything it will serve as my notes. :-)

Blogification

Well, I haven't blogged in month. :-P Just had too many other things going on, but now's the perfect time to get back to it: HighEdWeb conference is under way!

So far, it's been a bit of an experience. My friend and coworker is here, too but has had a bit of medical difficulties. She scratched her eye {winces}. I felt so badly for her yesterday. She could barely open it...all red and watery. We ate dinner in the hotel lounge (actually pretty good chicken sandwich). She then went to bed early and I met up with my old college roomie, Ang. She's in grad school here (what luck!)

So this morning I went with Ang to church and while I was away Cacy first texted me to go find and buy an eye patch. The next text read, "I'm gone to the urgent care clinic" :-O

So after we tracked her down this morning, we found a renewed Cacy: the doc numbed her apparently scratched cornea and gave her a 'script for some eye antibiotics.

Now that Cacy is feeling better and Ang has homework to do, we're ready to conquer the conference. :-)

I'll post from the conference, but since my readership aren't "in the biz", I'll post the OTHER side of the conference. I hear that Michael Fienen is going to live blog over at SuperSatellite for anyone interested in actual conference-topic blogging.

Hurricane Gustav

I wanted to give an update on my family for those interested.

First, as of Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., my parents and sister are ok. I heard from my mom on Monday night, but didn't hear from my dad until Tuesday. He's been busy working on the clean-up. He does tree work and has been working until 2 or 3 a.m. getting trees off power lines.

Now, I shall get on my soapbox. Stop reading if you don't wanna hear it. hahahaha.

When hurricane Katrina hit and people were stranded in the flood the entire country was in an uproar. I won't rehash that storm, but just wanted to remind us all of how mad we were after Katrina hit.

When Gustav was passing over Cuba, the gulf coast took notice and took action. The largest evacuation in the history of Louisiana took place. Not only did they get 2 million people out, they had a plan! It was done in an orderly fashion. The cooperation of several states made this possible. State and LOCAL governments from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama (more..??) all coordinated to get buses, trains and planes ready to evacuate those who could not otherwise leave due to illness, incapacity or lack of transportation or money.

No money for the gas to leave? That's ok, meet at these designated points and a bus will get you. Not only will it get you, we will drive you to safety. You, your children and your PETS. Yes, pets. Then we will feed you. House you. Engage you in games, provide television, etc.

When Gustav was out over Cuba, it looked to be a monster storm. Ok. Let's be honest, ANY hurricane is a monster storm. But this one was shaping up to be really bad. So everyone took action. In the New Orleans area 90% of the people heeded the mandatory evacuation. WOW! That's a large undertaking.

While watching the coverage from my safe home in north Texas, I was nervous: was my family ok? What about friends in Louisiana? In the midst of my fear was anger. Anger at the news reporters that almost acted disappointed that more doom and destruction didn't occur...and these were the reporters in New Orleans. The ones near Cocodrie, Houma, Morgan City, Baton Rouge didn't quite feel the same.

As great as our technology is, we cannot always predict every nuance of a hurricane or tornado or earthquake. Gustav gave a few surprises by moving a little west. The winds also died down a bit. Made landfall as a category 2. {Oh, no! You said it would be a 3 or 4. Did you cry wolf?}

NO! Guess what? When Katrina made landfall, the max sustained winds were approximately 120 mph. Gustav made landfall with max sustained winds of about 115 mph. Those few mph difference were the difference between a cat 3 and a cat 2...but what does this mean? {Oh, Gustav was only a cat 2. You evacuated us for nothing...} Let's be clear. A lot of damage was done in this storm. The major damage wasn't in New Orleans, but people lost homes! No electricity! I can't even call my parents! No landlines, no power to the cell towers! NOTHING! No email! I have to cling to the 4 or 5 minutes I talked to my dad on Tuesday!

ARGH! I'm guessing that if an evacuation hadn't taken place and people lost lives from falling trees or flying debris we would be saying the authorities didn't do their jobs once AGAIN. And how bad this storm was. But now, everyone is out and SAFE and yet we're questioning whether the authorities cried "wolf". So infuriating. The people were safe. Isn't that what we demanded from Nagin? Bush? FEMA? Governor Blanco and now Jindal????

While I'm on the topic, let me address some of the things that I saw happening here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I saw a large metropolitan area come together to assist our fellow human beings from the gulf coast. Bus after bus and car after car arrived to north Texas to find all of our digital signage on the highways directing them to either an intake/staging center in Mesquite or if they made it all the way to Fort Worth, the signage directed them to the appropriate shelters.

The staging area in Mesquite was at a football stadium. Red Cross and city officials were there early Saturday morning. This wasn't the beginning of the preparation though. Three years of planning led to the orchestration of thousands of evacuees finding shelter and food here in north Texas.

Some had been on buses or cars for 24 hours...making stops along the way. When they arrived in Mesquite they found medical care for EVERYONE, water for EVERYONE, restrooms for EVERYONE. Then the buses would take them directly to a shelter. No guesswork. Will the shelter be full? Where will we stay? None of that! Orchestrated like a grand symphony.

I will say most of the gulf coast guests were thankful. Tired, scared, but thankful. There were a relative handful though that complained! Complained that the food "tasted like prison food" and that after a while the restrooms were dirty. WHAT!?!?!?

Hmmmm...I think "prison" food is better than NO food. I also think staying at the Dallas Convention Center was EXPONENTIALLY better than what went down at the Superdome in 2005.

I cannot begin to explain how unbelievably frustrated I am. As a nation we demanded Louisiana and the Feds do a better job. They did, and now we complain. How ungrateful!

I have never been more proud to have been from Louisiana as this weekend, to see everyone work together and for all of the planning to work. I have never been more proud to now be a part of the DFW community, to see so many reach out to those in need.

I have also never been more ashamed to come from the same state as those that were complaining about how tasty a meal was or wasn't at the Dallas Convention Center.

By the way, while those at the Dallas Convention Center were eating prison food and using a dirty bathroom, my dad stayed behind, working in the storm to remove trees from your homes and the roads so you could return. He is now working 20 hours a day to remove trees from power lines so you can have the hope of getting electricity in the next month. All while eating cold canned food. I think he'd give 20 bucks for a hot prison meal right now.

Apples and Oranges

I know many of my peers and friends are lovers of any and all products of Apple: the mac, iMac, iPhone, iTunes, and now iTissues. ;-P

While I am not knocking those that are brand-loyal to Apple, I have not joined the lynch-mob, I mean bandwagon. I am kidding about the mob, but I do have plenty of friends that are trying to pressure me into all things Apple. Seriously, I get harassed continually for not getting an iPhone. I have not felt so much peer pressure since eighth grade.

I am told the iPhone will change my life. Really? Maybe I'm not ready for my life to change. I just moved to a new state and started a new job 6 months ago. Those are two huge deals. I may not be ready to rock the boat just yet with this new-fangled device you call "the iPhone".

One of my coworker/friends that has been trying to convince me brought me the Apple sticker last week and told me, "Here. You can put it on whatever you want." I think he wanted me to have the logo stare me in the face every day to further cement the idea in my brain that I, too, should get--no, NEED--the iPhone, or whatever.

In a calculated twist, I used that {skies part, rays of sunshine pour down} sticker on my box of kleenex. I then sent the photo you see here to all of my Apple-washed friends and told them about my new iTissues. I think one of them gave pause and might have believed it was true. She emailed back and asked, "So cool! Are they soft and techy?"

I bet if Apple did make some iTissues, many would buy...even if they were the cheapest, yuckiest tissues ever. Really. Although, I do realize that they would not be the cheapest, yuckiest ever. They'd be the best. Yes. The best. But maybe I'm just not ready to buy them.

And as I told someone on the forum earlier, they have about a 10 hour battery life. ;-)

I bet many of you loathe me now for not loving all things Apple, so here's the coup de gras: I don't even own an iPod!

LOL...

Lovin' my new...

Today is rainy and markedly cooler here in the DFW area. Such a change, in fact, that our a/c must still be set to "it's hotter than hoobithou outside, so crank 'er up!" because we're freezing in our cubicles today. We all pulled out our space heaters to keep our toes from getting frostbite. (Not sure if it would affect how my one toe looks. I broke it yesterday and it's purple...actually, it looks neat. hahaha)

Luckily I am able to warm up with a nice cup of hot chocolate (coworkers are opting for that devil called "coffee"). My hot chocolate tastes super yummy in my new mug...oh, wait. That's my same East Central University Alumni mug...

The change in temps here have also come a change in my sinus activities. I've been sneezing like crazy all morning. Good thing I have my iTissues. (See photo and wait for story to come in a day or so.)

So, some of you will find this hilarious...I think. hahaha. Many of you have seen me when trying to either bid on something on eBay or on Bargain World.

hahahaha. Enjoy.
This was especially true then trying to obtain Jared's Mitch Hedberg poster. hahaha

Czech This Out!

What a whirlwind of trips back and forth to Oklahoma. The past three weekends I've traveled over 1300 miles, but they were all well worth the effort. I've visited old friends, canoed, gone to one of my best friend's wedding and polka danced.

I highly recommend getting your polka on if you ever have the chance. The polka is not just for the chicken dance (but that was fun, too). We long, long, short, short, long stepped. We even short, short, short, long, long, longed. I think we've determined our motto for the evening was, "when in doubt use three-count". It worked. Except for the seven-step, which is its own beast! Oh, and the Mexican hat dance. I was not aware that this one qualified as a polka, but we did it. I think many of us thought we'd have a coronary by the end of it, but we all survived! I wondered if the band only kept going and going (with each instance getter faster and faster) to see if we'd pass out.

If you're in the OKC area, go czech out the Czech Hall. It's easy to find. It's in Yukon (just west of OKC) off I-40. Take the Czech Hall Road exit. :-)

More on the canoe trip later. And I'll post pics when I heist them from my friends. ;-)

What a maroon...

Hello friends (old and new),

So, I thought you all would appreciate my stupidness. A true story for your enjoyment...

Back in May Shonda and I went to a Rangers game. You know how they're usually giving stuff away when you walk in? One time a tshirt, one time a program deal, whatever. Well, this time they were handing out "yearbooks" (no, I did not go around to get my signed...but should have! ha hahaha)

Not being a die-hard Rangers fan, at this point I do not know anything about the players. None of them. No name or face recognition. So after the game, Shonda and I went to the shop behind center field. I wanted a pennant for my sports room. A cheap pennant, too. None of that $30 business for me. I'll take the $3.95 one. Thanks. Upon checkout, the clerk asks, "would you like to purchase a ball used in tonight's game?"

My response was, "uh, no. well, how much are they?" :-) $35 bucks, no way!

So on our way out, there's a man in a baseball uniform looking all sweaty sitting in a folding chair by the door of the store. He's holding a sharpie. I look at Shonda and ask, "Who is that?" She's not sure. So I ask him, "How are you?" and smile. He says, "Exhausted." in a really exhausted sort of way.

So what am I to do but..."oh. can you sign this?" And I hand over my pennant. I guess my compassion for his tiredness was nothing compared to the fact that I wanted his autograph...

Again, I have no clue who this is, but he has on a uniform and he's sweaty. :-)

When we get outside and are walking to the car, in the dark, Shonda and I are trying to figure out who he is with our brand new "yearbook". The only thing we have to go by is his scribbly name (something with an M) and a scribbly number (twenty-something????). And why would a player be in the store after a game and not in the locker room showering up?

And ever since then I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out who it is. We went to another game, and still no luck. And of course by now I recognize names: Michael Young, Milton Bradley, on and on...but it wasn't either of those guys! (too bad, huh Jared?)

Well, Saturday, we went to the game. And a thought had been gnawing at me. Really, it was a joke, but I asked Shonda, "What if that guy was the mascot?"

We looked at each other like the skies had parted from a thunder storm and the glorious rays of heaven shone upon us. (Which, it was storming at the game Saturday, but the parting and rays didn't really happen.) :-)

So, now we're waiting for the horse to turn around so we can see his jersey....doh! almost! ACK! just turn around!!!

And sure enough, he was # 20-something (maybe 23 or 25). Huh. So I have the mascot dude's signature on my Rangers pennant. Which I guess I could play off as normal since I was a mascot, but let's be honest, I was an idiot. I wonder how many other idiots have his John Hancock hanging on their home-office wall?

And Jared, I'll do my best to get a Michael Young autograph for ya...really, man. I'll try!

Hip-Hop Web Standards

I just had to share this video. Those web people out there will enjoy. HOLLA! :-)

Warm fuzzies and spicy crawfish

Woo-hoo for holiday weekends, and an extra high-five for Fridays off in the summer (although the long Monday thru Thursdays stink).

With a four day weekend, I made the trek back home to Louisiana to see my parents and sister. And her fiance. What struck me immediately upon exiting the Baton Rouge airport was the heat. And humidity. And the sweater I wore.

My mom likes it when I dress nicely, fix my hair and put on a little make-up. I did these things early Friday morning before I left for DFW just for her. My outfit looked nice, and was all well-and-good for the car and subsequent plane ride (I usually freeze on the plane), but not the walk to the car in BR. When she saw me, she commented on my outfit and its inevitable fortune of being removed from my body due to its uncomfortable nature. I told her I suffered for her and that the rest of the weekend would be spent in my comfies: pj pants and a t-shirt. :-)

Saturday was great! We had a crawfish boil--my favorite! It was a good time and a great visit with my sister. We kidded around like when we were younger.

It felt different though, as she no longer lives at home with the folks. I was able to spend a lot of time with mom and dad (all to myself). So we made the most of it and vegged out, watched movies and talked. We 'member 'niced. ("reminisced" for those outside the fam).

So here's a toast (as I raise my can of Dr. Pepper) to pj pants, tshirts, blue fuzzy slippers, yummy crawfish, and family.

Forgiveness, Friendship & Fatigue

It's amazing to me how many things we push to the back of our minds. What's even more notable is that these things can weigh us down. Without understanding why, we may go through our days with the uneasy feeling that we're carrying a backpack full of undetermined contents--weighing about 150 pounds.

I thought that my pushing my anger to the back recesses of my "medulla oblongata" (don't know what part of the brain that actually is, I just remember it from The Waterboy) and pretending the receiver of my anger did not exist would make everything ok. And thusly I have lived the past few months of my life. Although now that I pause to think, I bet I've done this before with other things...hmm...food for thought that I'll save for after dinner tonight. I wonder how much those items weigh?

Cutting to the chase, communication was once lost was re-established between me and one of my close friends. The minute I heard back I felt as though the 150 pounds were instantly lifted off of my shoulders. Things may not be the way they once were, but the weight is gone.

I now think it was by no accident I felt the weight there. I thought my friend had forgotten me. And while I may have pushed this dear friend of years out of my conscious thought, he found his way to the imaginary backpack I carry everywhere I go. All 150 pounds of him.

The whole experience has given me reason to think about things in a new way. I wonder how my actions (or non-actions) are affecting those whom I love. Does anything I do affect my family, my friends? If so, is it a positive way? I'll be thinking about this rather diligently for awhile.

What a Tuesday!

Hello gang. I got to thinking that with my being gone, I'm not sure ECU has that one person on campus that seems to have trouble follow her. You know, Murphy's grandchild, "if it can go wrong, it will..." This morning was quite....hmmm....what's a good word? Frustrating? No. Disheartening? No. Adventurous? Not quite, but we'll go with it.
(Jared, warning...this will require some reading...hahaha)

I thought I would share my Tuesday morning story with you all. While it was happening, it was not the least bit funny, but once I made it to my office, I had to laugh. :-)

When I woke up, I just knew today would be an awesome day! I woke up at 6, and it was raining hard and thundering (my favorite way to sleep) so I reset my alarm for 7. (This is not a story about being late for work, the extra hour of sleep was the good part! hahaha)

So, I work downtown. My parking permit is for a garage a couple of blocks down the street from my office building. And yes, it is now storming worse than it was at 6 or even 7. No worries, I have an umbrella. Once I got to the parking garage, I got to thinking that I didn't want to ruin my work shoes (some black flats if you want a visual). Lucky me, I have some flip flops in my car. New ones from Old Navy. So i put those on and put my work shoes in the Old Navy bag, gather my lunch, purse and umbrella and set off.

When I make it to the street and the cross walk I realize a couple of things: 1. my feet are already soaked, but I don't really care. (when else do you have an excuse as an adult to walk in the rain and get your feet wet?) and 2. man, that's like a river there on the road.

And it was, sort of. There was water rushing down the street. The "creek" was about 4 feet wide (no lie). As I'm standing there waiting for the red flashing DON'T WALK to turn into that white light up man running...er...walking, a car goes by and....yep...drives THROUGH the "creek". I am soaked from about the thighs down. I look down at myself, then over to the business man that just walked up. He saw it happen. He looked at me in a compassionate way and says, "oh! and now we have to jump across that." Thanks, sir. I hadn't already contemplated that very thing. As you all know, I'd be lucky to just have that much of a leg span on a dry, sunny day with my Air Jordans on. Yes. Thank you, sir.

So the "run for your life" light comes on, and I do attempt the jump (with umbrella in one hand; purse, bag of shoes and bag of lunch in the other). As I am in mid-air, my right flip flop comes off. (Now is when in the movies it would turn to slow motion...) As I land (in the middle of the "creek") I turn in time to see my shoe floating down the road. Nooooooooo......Good-bye shoe. I stood there in the middle of the road for about 30 seconds trying to figure out a way to get my shoe. But short of dropping all my possessions and diving for it, there was nothing I could do. I slowly turned around to see a car waiting on me to get out of the road. Sorry, ma'am.

All this and I had another wide "creek" to cross on the other side of the 4 lane. I'm not jumping. My pants are already wet anyway. So I walk through. Once I'm safely on the other side I have a decision to make: do I walk to work (2 blocks) with one shoe or do I put on the work shoes--and ruin them? I opt for the hobo look.

This walk is generally a beautiful walk as it is the block that contains the Water Gardens. Not so beautiful today. As I passed the mini-physical plant operations of the Water Gardens, all the workers are huddled in the control room with the door open. They seem to be having a meeting. As I approach, they all stop, stare, then notice the one shoe. They whisper. What am I to do but smile and wave with my handful of purse and bags?

I continue on to my building. Almost there. One more street to cross (another "creek", albeit a much smaller one). Then our security guard sees me and comes out with his huge umbrella. He walks me up to the building and noticing my soaked pants says, "You need a bigger umbrella." I assure him that would have made no difference. He then notices the shoe. The one shoe. He says, "Uh...what happened to your shoe? Is that the only one you have for the day?" I told him the other one floated away. He just looked puzzled. When I got inside the foyer of our building and began putting on my nice shoes, he just shook his head. I told him, "This will be funny once I get upstairs. I just know it." We both laughed.

Sure enough, once I made it up here and told this story to my coworkers, it was funny. As we're all in stitches, my supervisor asks (very innocently) "Why didn't you call one of us to drive down and get you?" (See, three of our staff work 7:30-4:30)
My reply, "Yeah. I didn't think of that until JUST NOW." As I stood there soaked we all laughed again.

What a morning. Luckily, one of my suite-mates likes the temp to be about 63 degrees at all times and our secretary just bought me a space heater. It works quite well in drying out pants and sweaters. And feet. And bad moods. :-)

I know this ended up a little long, but wanted to write it so that you might picture me telling it to you.

I miss you all so much! I hope you have an awesome Tuesday.
Love,
Sue

Abuse is a serious thing

Sometimes when watching the news, reading the paper or hearing about things going on in friends’ lives, I pause. While many things tug at my heart I thought I’d pass on information about abusive relationships.

I am saddened to admit that there will be men and women that abuse their spouses/significant others and there will always be the victim that allows it.

Abuse does not have to be merely physical beatings or sexual in nature, emotional abuse is very real and damaging as well. Helpguide.org gives some information on abuse as well as lists of sorts that give warning signs. I found the following to be most interesting:

SIGNS OF AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP
Does your partner:
• act excessively jealous and possessive?
• control where you go or what you do?
• keep you from seeing your friends or family?
• limit your access to money, the phone, or the car?
• constantly check up on you?
This is just one section of many. I think sometimes we may just chock up this type of behavior to being a little jealous or controlling, but this constitutes abuse.

I don’t know if anyone reads my blog, but if you do, please take the info found on the helpguide site to heart. Take stock. Pass on the info to your friends (not just female friends either). We have this wonderful tool at our fingertips, let’s use it to educate ourselves and our friends/loved ones.

Visit http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm
For more info.

Much love,
Susan