infOpinions?

Always seeking new ideas to incorporate online reality into class practice, the first two links below look very promising, to me.

Seero and Ning, alone or combined, could offer a very simple – yet broad and complex – implementation for a class campaign project. Add Utterz, Flickr, YouTube and more into the mix … you’ve got one powerful social network.

A Ning micro network may be built for any local organization. With domain mapping and the ability to turn ads off (for a cost, about $25 per month @ Ning) these sites can be a powerful mix. They even incorporate mobile.

• Barb Iverson shares “Seero: Live Video with a Geo Twist” on Poynter Online – E-Media Tidbits. This is a cool site and service. Applications abound for class and business. Iverson shares journalism ideas, too.
• Ning.com still fascinates me with its ease of use and full blown micro-social network possibilites. I set up this one (minimal, I’ll admit) in about 30 mintues: campascca.ning.com. Now, just imagine what a full group of students could build for a client as a class activity. Of all the social network tools we’ve talked about for so long, this one allows a class activity to incorporate them all in a real-world experience. You can import/aggregate RSS feeds into the community.

Then, there is this rather unfortunate example of a survey used as promotional tool, IMHO.

• A recent survey “by APCO Worldwide and the Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF), the survey sought to determine how bloggers and PR pros can improve working relationships.” Study finds PR-blogger divide – PRWeek US (Subscription required) Problem is, the respondent pool is a whopping … wait for it, you won’t believe it (or will you?) … “The online survey polled 55 senior executives at Council firms and 47 bloggers. APCO and CPRF created a Web site, www.bloggersandpr.com …”

Whoa, Nellie! They survey 112 102 people (once) … and draw conclusions about the entire medium and industry? Hello?

Well, to me this story is a placement for a bit of publicity … and a sad one, at that. Come on, APCO and CPRF … what were you thinking? It is one thing to be transparent … another to be able to see right through you!

Is this really what you folks call survey research? You really want to hang your hat on this? If so, we’re all in deep trouble. The About page tells more, yet raises more questions than it provides answers.

I am so tired of seeing these survey as marketing tool lame examples. To see it coming from an industry group, well … it is just simply sad.

With such a small, insignificant sample, don’t say “59 percent spend more than 20 hours per week (blogging)” [Source for survey sample quote]… rather, say 27 people. Sheesh! I’d fail a student for something like this. Use of percentages to try and make the results seem more credible is simply wrong. No debate on that.