Mercury News agreement saves some jobs
Hard bargaining session with union reduces newspaper job losses from 69 to 27.5. As a former union leader I can only imagine how painful this must have been for the negotiators.
The San Jose Mercury News has reached a tentative agreement with the San Jose Newspaper Guild for a two-year contract that significantly reduces the number of layoffs the newspaper was planning.
Save Google Answers Video
I just saw this wonderfully inventive video on YouTube about the effort to save Google Answers. Okay, what is Google Answers? According to Wikipedia this morning:
Google Answers was an Internet search and research service offered for a fee by Google, "answer brokering". It was launched by Google in April 2002, and went out of Beta in May 2003. In late November 2006, Google reported that it planned to permanently shut down the service. As of November 30, 2006, new questions may no longer be asked, but existing questions may continue to be answered until December 30, 2006.
Worth a look at the video. It is a great example of effective multimedia for the web, like your final project for JMC163. Here is a link to the Save Google Answers Blog. If you have a cause you would like to promote (or something you would like to save) this is a great approach!
Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca, New Media, Web 2.0
About The Student Manifesto
There is a revolution going on. It is a quiet revolution. It is the kind of quiet revolution in politics that SJSU J&MC alum Joe Trippi spoke about in the world of politics in his watershed book The Revolution Will Not be Televised. But, it is not a revolution that is limited to politics. It is also a business revolution, like that talked about in business books like The Cluetrain Manifesto and SJSU J&MC alum Robert Scoble's book (co-written with Shel Israel) Naked Conversations. It also a societal revolution and it is reflected in how social groups are interacting as reflected in Howard Rheingold's book Smart Mobs. It is a global revolution, as reflected in Thomas L. Friedman's very long book, The World Is Flat. It is a media revolution as reflected in Dan Gillmor's prescient book, We The Media. On top of these and many, many, many other books, articles, blog posts, interviews, conferences, podcasts and other communications about Web 2.0, the changing nature of society and about that big huge still being defined thing we lump together in a big sticky blob we are calling "new media" add Andrew Venegas's Student Manifesto.
So what is this revolution?
Is it about J&MC, or SJSU, or CSU, or USA? I do not see blood on the streets, what kind of revolution is this? It is a revolution about conversation. It is about the power of ordinary citizens as well as new media journalists to be able to go to their virtual windows to the world and (using their blogs, podcasts, video blogs and other forms of new media) to be able to shout out, "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!" In the fictional 1976 movie Network, Howard Beale from his TV pulpit was able to inspire folks to go to their windows and yell that out. Each individual's voice carried maybe a few houses. It was only Beale's voice that was able to reach across the nation, only Beale had the network. Now we all have a network, it is called the Internet. That is the revolution.
Ordinary folks can have their say and can change things
If the message is compelling enough to resonate, it can spread virally across the Internet and can make the leap from new media to traditional media. The message/story can echo throughout the globe and the course of even the biggest aircraft carriers can be altered. That is what folks in JMC163 saw happen with the Skype story. Folks in that class were not given the power to participate, they were not given the secret software, they already had that, we all do, it is free on the Internet. That is the revolution. Students, taxpayers, customers, employees, citizens all have a say, all have a network, all have global reach. Nobody controls the message. In my opinion that is the revolution, indeed!
Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca, Cluetrain, Scoble, Joe Trippi, Skype, Web 2.0
If Steven G. Sloan is at work, odds are that he will be on Skype. As an information-technology consultant at San Jose State University, Mr. Sloan uses the free Internet telephone service to make long-distance telephone calls and send instant messages to colleagues around the world. In his other job as a lecturer in the journalism school, he uses the service to bring guest speakers from remote locations into the classroom and to record podcasts for the class Web site.
I am in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education
This is way cool and the first time I have ever been in a publication like this. There just a few things I wish had been done a bit different.
Here is a brief list:
All in all I am quite pleased the story ran. I really hope it encourages educators to use Skype in their classes. It has really helped us this semester and I am thrilled to have been able to work with it.
Update!
The reason there is not a link to the story is because it is in a walled garden. The Chronicle only allows subscribers access to their in-print content online. I will have copies of the story available in the Tuesday class.
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Weapon of math destruction hitting traditional media?
We are seeing business models being disrupted in traditional media at an ever increasing pace. Why is this happening? David P. Reed may give us a clue in this post. Oh yes, and higher education as it now exists as a business model is not immune either.
Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca, Web 2.0
More on Skype in the classroom
Today we continued the Skype conversation from last Thursday on the Language Lab Unleashed with another session hoted by Barbara Sawhill that included return visits from Joe Dale, Phil Wolff and myself plus Deborah Cordier from the University of South Florida; Chris Fuller, an MFL teacher in Devon, England; Paul Harrington, an ICT coordinator at Cefn Forest Primary School in Caerphilly, South Wales; and Alex Savage, an ICT teacher at Notre Dame High School in Norwich, England. As stated on their post, "This was an ecclectic and international group!" This is available as a podcast. This is really great stuff and well worth checking out.
The Thursday November 30 session podcast is here.
Podcast From Sunday, December 3
Update: Mon Dec 4 10:26:53 PST 2006
The Sunday December 3 session podcast is here!
Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca, Skype, Web 2.0
Ergonomics and Workplace Safety Seminar
This one hour course on on Tuesday morning for employees includes an overview of preventative ergonomics and safety measures for employees who work in an office setting, and an introduction to the universities injury reporting and workers' compensation program. More info here.
Building an online community at SJSU
SJSU journalism student Daniel Sato has what I think is a great idea, he is talking about building an on-line community at SJSU where students, and I SJSU assume faculty and staff, could vote on blog stories that are of interest to them and possibly the campus community. This would provide an attention stream that could be a great tool for our campus community.
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Podcast: Skype Teaching Tool or Network Nemesis?
In this Skype conversation, hosted by Language Lab Unleashed, a group of educators from across the nation (myself included) and a university network administrator, joined Phil Wolff from Skype Journal in a discussion about the use of Skype in the classroom. Much of the discussion was about the now changed plan to discontinue using Skype at SJSU. This conversation occurred after I got of work yesterday. (So, I am not speaking on the university's dime.) Note the quality of the audio. This group conversation occurred using a free software program, Skype, and was recorded on a low end Macintosh computer and low cost audio capture software.
Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca, Skype, Web 2.0
