Would have could have

What should I have talked more about this semester? What could I have talked less about? Recently I went to the Sunlight Foundation's Transparency Camp I was inspired by ideas of open-government, hacking and journalism all working together, access to information, and self-organizing. Should I have included this? Should I have talked more about Facebook? Should I have talked more about the idea of Facebook as a platform? At Transparency Camp, after all, I learned how in the country Georgia, some people just get the Internet to go on FB, and that some restaurants don't have Websites, they just have FB. So the country has literally leapfrogged past the Web. Which concerns me... Privacy? Did we do enough on privacy? What do you think we could have talked about more?

Admittedly confused

So, Google tells me that I have to migrate blogs. I don't really remember my blogger username or password. That's how connected it's always been to everything. Am I part of the new blogger already? Help me! Help me! There is no way to recover my username that I have found. #technologyfail It always sucks when it is YOUR job to understand all sorts of social media, and you can't figure out how to fix this one thing. I'm just hoping all my blogs don't disappear and I don't have to start all over. They do seem to be in the new blogger? Maybe they've migrated already? I have no idea. Help someone! This is my cry. That is all.

Occupeep and MemePeep

Admittedly it's a little after Easter for this post, but I thought I would draw upon something quite appropriate to this class: the Washington Post's annual Peep diorama contest.

This contest combines the physical with the virtual. Take something like Peeps: apply the principles of convergence culture (remix big media: Peeps, Media, with creativity) and then make it shareable -- all via the Post Web site.

Now, of course, the Post gets to decide which of the THOUSANDS of Peep dioramas it will select for final peep viewing, but consider this: the user is invited to be part of the process. Big media is opening the gates to user production. It's silly but it's a great example of ordinary people getting involved in something that we might be able to consider civic participation. The Post gets to continue to be authoritative, even if it's just putting forward a Peep contest, and we might see the act of making a Peep diorama as an act of citizenship.

What I really loved, though, were the social media inspired Peep dioramas. Of course, we can all have our own thoughts about Occupy Wall Street, but to some degree, it was facilitated through social media.

So here's the winner:




I also love Meme Peep, inspired by the meme. My sense was that the Post could not pick this as a winner because not everyone was a meme follower on Facebook.



Yes!