Neville Hobson, For Immediate Release :: Video Interview from Edelman/PRWeek Academic Summit

Neville Hobson has been following our class digital/social media activities since, well - really the beginning. It was nice to see him again at the Edelman / PRWeek New Media Academic Summit in Chicago.

Neville recently wrote about his Summit experiences in What academics think about social media. Read more

Views from Five Faculty Members on the Edelman PRWeek Academic Summit ‘08

Five of the faculty members attending the Edelman / PRWeek New Media Academic Summit kindly agreed to interviews recently in Chicago. My apologies for not getting more, but this is a fairly representative sample.

The five faculty members come from diverse universities, both large and medium sized. Sorry, I didn’t get any from small schools. My bad.

Enrollments range from 11,000+ (Howard & SDSU) to 22,000+ at Northeastern, while the enrollment is 31,000+ at UNT and 32,000+ at UGA. Two are private (Howard & Northeastern). Three are public (UNT, SDSU & UGA). Read more

Rick Murray :: President, Edelman Digital at the New Media Academic Summit ‘08

Rick Murray kindly agreed to an interview at the recent New Media Academic Summit in Chicago.

Rick Murray shares why Edelman Public Relations has taken a leadership role in helping academia better prepare students for the future of public relations.

This conference is an excellent model for others to follow. We need all the help we can get, folks. I appreciate Edelman’s leadership in this area. The Summit, along with their Bootcamps, shows that Edelman is clearly in the lead. I wish more of these types of opportunities were taking place now. We don’t want to have to catch up, do we?

Video from the Edelman/PRWeek New Media Academic Summit held on June 26-27, 2008.

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Live Blogging the Edelman / PR Week Education Summit in Chicago

In Chicago for the Edelman / PR Week 2008 edition of the Education Summit on New Media and PR.

I brought my laptop with webcam, as well as my Flip camera and cell phone for Utterz. I’m going to try and use the Summit main page for more information.

OK, I admit this attempt at using CoverItLive was sad. :o( Sorry. I found out, upon arrival at the event, that the Northwestern University Law School folks were not giving us access to their wifi. So, bummer.

I do have videos galore and will begin posting them tonight (Sunday, June 28).

It was a great conference and I thank Edelman and PRWeek for putting it on. Hope this has a long running life. We need more of these for edcuators. Edelman & PRWeek are, truly, leading the way in outreach to higher education.

Meet Danielle Warby :: Most Recent Member of PROpenMic

Yes, I’m still focusing on the work we’re doing at PROpenMic, the social network for PR students & faculty. Bear with me for a bit, please.

I’ll admit, all of the people signing up are my favorites. I’m still kinda stunned by the turnout we’ve experienced. We surpassed the 500 members mark in just 3 weeks.

Today, however, a new truly favorite member signed up. Look at her work and her involvement online. She’s remarkable, and I haven’t even met her, yet.

Meet Danielle Warby at PROpenMic (free signup required). But, you don’t really have to go there. Trust me, there is much more out there online.

templatedata - The web at www.usyd.edu.au

“This blog is based at the University of Sydney. It is written by members of the Digital and Print Media team. Other university staff members with ideas for articles are most welcome to contact us about writing for Templatedata. Readers and comments from the general public are most welcome. The views expressed on this blog are those of the respective authors and not those of their employer.”

Oh, to be sure … there’s more: Danielle’s DesignDyke’s bookmarks on del.icio.us, her Flickr: Photos & Video from danyell.com.au, even a MySpace.com account - Design Dyke, not to be outdone … she’s into video, too. YouTube - LesbianIntent’s Channel.

Staff - The University of Sydney

“Danielle is the Web Support Officer for the Faculty of Economics and Business. Danielle’s responsibilities include website content management and production of marketing materials for print and web. Her main interest is in the area of Social Networking and other Web 2.0 technologies such as blogging. Danielle is also a qualified graphic designer.”

From there, we find Danielle engaging in all manner of social media sites, like Twitter / designdyke … Danielle Warby - FriendFeed … and her personal blog at Vox.

Design Dyke at Vox. Danielle is a student, too.

“I’m an independent, creative woman and I know what I want from life but I’m usually too busy enjoying myself to get my shit together. I have my own graphic design/digital marketing business, I work at Sydney University on their online marketing communicatiions [sic] (specifically social media) update a few of their websites and design the occasional logo. I’m studying Post-Grad Marketing at Sydney Uni… all which leaves me with little to no social life but plenty of time in front of the computer. In my spare time I sleep.”

She’s also a business woman. LinkedIn: Danielle Warby. And that brings us to her business. Design.

Yes, I saved, perhaps the best for last. warbyweb: graphic design web design

Visit and look at Danielle’s work. The level of broad interests at work here is quite simply amazing. She’s even “in the process of setting up an online lesbian magazine that focuses on art and design. I am here to check out what the dykes are doing.” (Source: YouTube)

Now, I ask you. When would I have ever been able to meet someone like Danielle without the advent of social networks? Never. I’m very happy we started PROpenMic. Danielle, you’re pretty damn cool. We must ask her to chat with our class next semester. Hope she’ll agree.

Admit it. You love her. I know you do. Yeah, and a bit of jealousy, too, I think. Yep, I hear ya’.

Social Network for College & University PR Students and Faculty :: PROpenMic.org

One place for all PR students and faculty to meetup and mashup ideas about emerging digital media. That’s been my dream.

Sure, we’ve been creating our blogs and podcasts. We’ve been following each others writings and media. All fun. All good. But, there really hasn’t been one place for everyone to do a meet and greet … until now.

PROpenMic.org is the place.

PROpenMic? A metaphor. Step up and speak your mind. Our goal is to be the social network for PR students and faculty worldwide. We have common interests, goals and certainly can learn from one another.

The site is open to practitioners, too. So, if you’re interested, please come and join in the discussion.

We can share documents, audio, video … a music / podcast player, forums, blogs & photo albums for each member … RSS feeds, photo albums, and more. Already people are blogging and four forums have begun - PR Syllabi & Resources, PR / Marcom Pros, Faculty and Students. We can start more, too.

Connect & Collaborate

I love sharing and learning. No better way to do that than to interact with your peer groups, right? So, my hope is that we can all come together - from around the world - and connect in this community.

The site is built upon the Ning.com platform, so it has a sort of Facebook-like appeal. The difference? No ads. No apps sending you numerous emails. Just PR people. Hey, I like Facebook for connections, but to do what we wanted to do … a mashup of content in one place … we had to have our own platform, in my opinion.

Meetup, Mashup & Share

Already, in one day, we have people signing up. Blogs, forums & video sharing are already seeing a bit of activity. We want more, though. Interest has come in from Asia, Europe, North America & Australia. How about you? and your students?

I realize that starting this at the end of a semester isn’t the ideal time. But, I had an epiphany on Sunday night and just started building the site. By Monday morning it was essentially ready to go, so I shared PROpenMic.org in Twitter and through an email to about two dozen people.

Please Join

I’m seeking your support, please. Share PROpenMic.org with your students, fellow faculty, PR/Marcom colleagues and more. Sign up yourself and there is a very easy “invite” process for you to use. Thank you.

Note: PROpenMic.org will never sell or share your email address or personal information with anyone else. You choose what to share on the site. This is a nonprofit academic project, primarily for the benefit of our students. No cost. No ads.

And, just so you’ll know … This is for real, too. No April Fool’s silliness, here … unlike this one from Google. Hat tip to Brett Pohlman for that one.

Latest Thought For A Class Project :: A New Loveliest Village Social Network

For the longest time, it seems, we’ve been doing projects for clients in our Style & Design class, as well as Campaigns, PR Writing and Survey Research.

I had a thought. Yes, I know … that’s often a dangerous thing.

Why not take our ongoing blogging and podcasting activities and fold them into a real, honest-to-goodness, social network?

So, here ya’ go … LoveliestVillage.org will now become … TheLoveliestVillage.org.

From now on, part of our ongoing projects will be — grow the network. It isn’t enough to just practice the art of writing for an online audience, or preparing podcasts, or dabbling in graphics and layout. All of that means bupkus if you don’t also know how to develop the network (audience) for your project. D’oh?

It is such a simple natural progression on what we’ve been doing, I wanna kick myself for not having done this sooner. Perhaps it is my new infatuation with ASCCAFriends.org and the power of Ning, but this seems like a pretty fun idea. I can see students becoming fairly engaged. A little competition between groups as to which one lands the most signups … huh? Ya’ think?

After all, the students (depending upon the semester and # of classes / class size) combine to crank out 140 to 300+ videos and 240 to 500+ blog posts each semester. To keep it sane, we can limit participation in the ‘open’ social network to the almost 1,000 students in our department and select outiders/alumni. Then, as we learn, perhaps open it up. (Don’t know about that.)

Now, if we can’t build a network of Auburn students and fans around all the video podcasts and blogging we’ve been doing - while letting the network members blog & post, too - well, I’ll feel pretty goofy. (More goofy? goofier?) I’m even thinking about doing some Facebook Ads (just among Auburn students) to get it rolling. Don’t worry, we won’t spend much. The process of creating and launching the ads alone, is worth the cost.

Not foresaking the traditional bread-n-butter PR practices, we build in the traditional elements such as research, media relations, press kit … well, we will have to decide what fits.

So, whatta’ ya’ think? I’m liking this … but, as always, crave feedback and critiques.

I’m thinking that any college, university … any school, could create such a network.

EDB @ UGA :: Fun and Valuable Conference for Students and Educators

The Edelman Digital Bootcamp was an enjoyable experience.

Many thanks to all of the very kind people at UGA for hosting my students and many others from various colleges and universities around the southeast. UGA’s Kaye Sweetser (so this is mass communication?) and Karen Russell (Teaching PR) had their students in top form putting on this conference. Also, thanks to Phil Gomes, Erin Caldwell and the many Edelman PR pros that came all the way down to help us all.

I took seven Auburn students and I’m thinking they had a pretty good experience, too.

The UGA students did a wonderful job putting on the project. Didn’t see a glitch or hiccup in the whole day’s events. Congrats!

During the conference, class activities for students were discussed. Podcasting (both video & audio) was one such experiential activity. The video and audio below are examples I created yesterday.

First, the video was recorded with an inexpensive video camera from Flip Video and features UGA PR student Jenny Reid.

Second, there are two audio podcasts using Utterz. I like their easy-to-use podcasting service.

Utterz is a simple free process which allows you to call a number (1-712-432-6666) to make a recording. Your account recognizes your phone number and posts your recording to your account. You may also send videos and photos to your account by emailing them to go@utterz.com.

To see the three examples of podcasts (2 audio, 1 video), check out the rest of the post … Read more

Lindsey Loughman :: UGA / Edelman Digital Bootcamp

It is UGA Week at infOpinions. Our recent interview with Ashley Beebe led to a pitch from Lindsey Loughman to do a podcast about the upcoming Edelman Digital Bootcamp. I will be attending, along with some Auburn students, and very happy to oblige Lindsey’s request.

After all, students out there pitching and working on a campaign … hey, ya’ gotta pitch in and support them.

The Edelman Digital Bootcamp is taking place at UGA on Saturday, March 1, 2008. Details are available here, at their Web page. Lindsey shared that, as of this recording, several non-UGA student slots are still available. Also, several more faculty slots are open. The registration fee is very reasonable and the benefits are, in my opinion, quite worth the trip.

Our own alum, Erin Caldwell, is the lead for this conference - a joint effort between Edelman and UGA’s Grady College. Erin is a Senior Account Executive in the Edelman Washington, D. C. office. We’re quite proud of her.

To get you up to date on the event, here are a couple of good links for you:

• Edelman Digital Bootcamp (EDB) — Agenda & Other Resources
• Blog for the Edelman Digital Bootcamp
• Kaye Sweetser, UGA - so this is mass communication?
• Karen Russell, UGA - Teaching PR
• Twitter / EDB_erin
• Flickr: Photos from edelmandigitalbootcamp

Lindsey was a joy to interview. She’s active in many blogs, just check out her Blogger profile to see them all.

Photo: From a previous project (not the EDB project), Lindsey is pictured above, second from the right. That undergraduate research team included (l-r) Kristen Smith, Amy Chandler, Laura Jakstadt, Rachel Turner, Lindsey Loughman and Heather Wrye. (Source: Grady News)

The interview is below. It is 18.9 mb and runs 19:45.   We’ve upgraded to the latest Podpress software, so … click the Play button below (and a player will appear) or Play in Popup, or download it. Whatever makes ya’ happy.

The Real Driving Force Behind Social Media :: Might Surprise You

Previously, I mentioned the question I received during the HighEdWebDev conference. I was asked the always difficult question, “So, what’s next? What is the next thing on the horizon?” Again, if I knew (if any of us knew), we’d invest in it and reap the rewards. I did not have the answer, because I don’t know what is next.

It did remind me of something that I’ve thought about for a long time. The relatively unsung true driving force, in my opinion, of social media’s growth. Surely, the overall contributors are the users. But the initial force was (and continues to be) a relatively small group of young people that had an idea, a lot of curiosity, and the ability to write code.

The developers of the various open-source platforms would be excellent candidates for honors as The Real Driving Force Behind Social Media. Most were college students when they spawned their ideas.

I’m talking about the people that launched WordPress, LiveJournal and CivicSpace, for instance. Aside from Tim Berners-Lee, who did start it all, these people have been the agents of change: Matthew Mullenweg of WordPress, Brad Fitzpatrick of LiveJournal and Zack Rosen of CivicSpace Labs (blog) are the best examples.

Another is Drupal. and the remarkable story of then-student, Dries Buytaert. Read more

New Rules of Marketing and PR :: Students Feeling A Buzz

Fall semester brings more blogging and social media exercises to my classrooms. This semester, as with all in the past, I’ve tried to do something new with the hope of catching the imagination of each student.

I have a story, but first - some background.

The PR Writing class is reading David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Then, they are writing about it in their Fall 2007 class blogs. Along the way, the students are also exploring social media releases, online release portals and more. You’ll be happy to know that they are doing a lot of other writing, too. Releases, features and more are weekly exercises. Finally, they will create an online newsroom for a nonprofit client … a real client.

I’ve never said, and never will say, that social media will replace tried and true public relations practices. It does offer a new way, sometimes a more appropriate and successful way, of serving a client’s interests and those of their stakeholders. And, developing an understanding of online release writing and delivery is certainly useful.

So, the story is that - as usual - many students are skeptics. Jackie is was one of them. But, she recently had an ah-ha! experience. Read more

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