The 3L Mantra to live by!

Get this, after designing this simulation, I found this video on YouTube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDyD4avQAE ==================================================== DESIGN AN ADVERTISEMENT CAMPAIGN THEME: USE PROTECTION Instructions: Create a comprehensive campaign that identifies your 1) main goals for your ads. 2) key message 3) channels & placement of communication-aka radio, internet etc. 4) choice(s) of contraceptives. Step 1 : DESIGN and PRESENT an actual advertisement Step 2: Class analyzes your ad Step 3: Share your strategy with the class ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Group: 1 ( People : Marketing Manager; Press Agent; Advertising Rep; Creative Team) Client: WHO (World Health Organization) Target Audience: Sub Saharan Africa Client concern: Does not want to offend religious sentiment & government Excerpt of Context given to the students: BBC News (17 March 2009): Pop...

I’m a huge advocate of simulations in classrooms. You get students to take on role plays and enact within real life contexts and rest assured, these students will blow your mind away. We have traveled from Brazil to Sudan to China. From addressing the building of a factory in the Amazon to standing for elections in Sudan, these students have risen to the challenge beautifully. For instance, the Brazil case study I designed demanded that each student group represent different interests: Perenco Oil, Ecowatch, the Brazilian middle class, the government and the Survival international Group. This played out on a popular TV show, where I took on the role of “Veronica”, a famous TV show hostess. What we got was “Candy forest” representing Ecowatch battling her way with an experienced VP of Perenco Oil, with the government trying hard to play neutral. What was fascinating was that the attacks were focused on Perenco, leaving the government relatively unscathed inspite of their supportive sta...

Apparently I fit the description of an addict; apparently I’m truly at-risk…or so the New York Times article on Korean bootcamps for cyberaddicts informs me. “They spend at least two hours a day online, usually playing games or chatting. Of those, up to a quarter million probably show signs of actual addiction, like an inability to stop themselves from using computers, rising levels of tolerance that drive them to seek ever longer sessions online, and withdrawal symptoms like anger and craving when prevented from logging on.” Sounds really familiar…of me checking my email every five minutes, of me getting all worked up that I don’t have access to the Net the other day, preventing me from watching the latest SNL spoof…my life had almost come to a stop. I guess my membership to this club should be confirmed then? But 2 hours really? Is there a super-membership as I believe I break a higher bar than that. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/technology/18rehab.html?em&ex=1195621200...

I like the Economist magazine...its not afraid of having a strong opinion. Not that I readily agree with their arguments but no one can accuse them of not taking a stand. For instance, they write about Al Jazeera ( http://english.aljazeera.net/ ), one of the supposedly few independent media networks in the Gulf States as a natural unifier in a region that is seen as much fragmented. It is a fascinating argument of how a media network scales itself across the world now, by creating a sense of unity and identity through its rhetoric of shared Middle East concerns. Of course, the problem here is that the Economist, when it talks of the "fragmented Arab nations" implicitly reinforces such stereotypes of this region in a constant state of flux. Even though we all know that the State is not necessarily a representative of its people, we see this constantly at play when we talk of nations. Middle eastern leaders of States may not be able to work together or be united in a cause perh...

I am an unabashed fan of the series, “The Wire.” It is by far one of the finest “video-ethnographies” I’ve ever seen. It has the potential to offend at a glance…far from being politically correct, it does not seem afraid to break convention and start and continue with a multitude of stereotypes: of African-Americans in the drug trade, their lives wrapped with dysfunctional schools, corrupt politicians, apathy in family life, not so “maternal” mothers, violent teenagers, and deadbeat and racist cops. It’s almost entirely an African American show. Yet, scratch the surface and sit through this show and you will start to understand how this all comes together…it humanizes violence…shows how the violent are victims too; shows how ingenious these children are who in spite of their circumstances learn to survive…it makes you realize that if you were in their position, you would probably be compelled to take to the drug trade, violence, and more..it seems the smartest and sometimes only path a...

Sure it’s more convenient…who wants to carry around heavy books when a kindle would do. Sure its more comprehensive…why go through text in a linear rote fashion when hypertexts allow you to journey through multiple websites, course materials, videos, visuals and more with a click of a mouse?Digitalizing textbooks make sense but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Curriculum is still the same, dictated by the politics of the system. Digital or not, if a book is not engaging on paper, the chances are that its appeal will barely enhance through its electronic counterpart. So let’s not confuse convenience for engagement. Digital euphoria can only go this far…

If only the dead could talk, they would tell us what really happened… and sometimes they do. Rodrigo Rosenberg, a lawyer in Guatemala was murdered on May 10th 2009 by an unknown gunman. However, he continues to talk through YouTube, channeling his blame towards President Alvara Colom and others for his death. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxZptUp9a44&feature=fvst This digital expose of claimed corruption and conspiracy is becoming a common phenomenon. In India, the Tehelka news magazine revealed tapes implicating Gujarat minister Narendra Modi and other politicians for the mass killings of Muslims in the infamous Gujarat riots in 2002 through their taped confessionals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z114wnwXtQ On a less grisly note, who could forget the Mexican Zapatista movement, an armed revolutionary group in Chiapas, Mexico that brought their movement into the international limelight through the strategic use of the Internet. Their desire for indigenous control of their local...

We’re all labeled apparently; income level, sex, age, single, married, children and more. To sum up, we are seen to add up to nothing but a cookie that travels with a click of a mouse. WE are our own worst enemy. Naïve about our journeys online, we have supposedly become a gold mine for the government, advertising companies, and more who want so desperately to get to know us better. We are, literally, worth knowing. Our web choices, our little escapades into online dating and shopping are being tracked and profiled. This seems like our fate. The world is spilling with our data. There are no coincidences anymore. You don’t just happen to see online that there is a sale at Macy in San Francisco or that SRK, the Bollywood king just came out with a new movie. It’s all part of the design of public life online. But before we really get caught up with this Big Brother Orwellian notion, let’s take a moment to think of ourselves in all our complexity. I love Beatles, old Hindi songs, Aamir Khan...

Citations are the lifeblood of academia: who you cite, what you cite, when you cite…it’s the site of all contention, creation, and collaboration. But in this new media age, what happens when you’re examining a web site and its activity only to discover that having referenced it, it may no longer exist. Ah…your word stands alone as witness to a cyber event that perhaps is long gone or migrated to some other nook on cyberspace. Also, it’s painful to reference a webpage without getting into the messiness of copyright…who owns that space? Is it the user, the platform owner, an organization that perhaps the user belongs to or all of the above? It’s the hell of online copyright. And things can get even more complicated. For instance, I need to reference an image online that a user was looking at. That happens to be the photograph of a painting of Mona Lisa. So apparently, even though the original may be out of copyright, the photograph is not. The delightful chase begins…starting with the p...

Cybercafe in Almora, Central Himalayas

Just when we got over our nostalgia for the radio days, it seems to be back with a vengeance. Digital NPR is having its hay day…from iphones to the web; they’re scaling and scaling fast. All Things Considered…24/7 online and offline it seems. Check these stats out: http://www.truemeasure.com/onlineStatistics.php

Facebook warns you that you can choose your Username only once…you’re pretty much stuck with “iWearNeonUnderwearToBed” as a sign in..best of luck on getting that job! As employers, colleagues and friends that you haven’t yet gotten around to de-friend check you out and scrutinize your moves and shakes online, are you forced to live with your mistakes? Really? I see that with the Kodak mafia threatening to make my online photos “disappear” if I don’t order some prints from them..their threats have become part of my monthly routine and yet my photos continue to live a long and supposedly healthy life on their turf. I get it. There’s no free lunch…until someone else comes along to offer you free food? Do threats really work in this online business? If you threaten, you’ve got to see it through otherwise you lose credibility. If this is the new cat and mouse game between online users and producers, what is the prize?

Enterprise Ireland surely knows how to woo you! In little brown conference bags you find Jameson Irish Whiskey to take you through for the rest of the evening in Palo Alto. Mainly Irish and Irish American entrepreneurs and venture capitalists gather to plot and plan how to chase money from pennies to dollars in this economic climate. Some good advice spews forth from a venture capitalist…if someone asks you, “will you be my mentor,” I say “No” …much of this is equated with dating…you don’t ask to get married on your first date, do you? Now that’s good advice. But they also demand face-to-face courtship. What then should we make of all the LinkedIn and Facebook chase that goes on with relative strangers? Does that go far at all? I personally have befriended several researchers, professors and practitioners in my field online. Over the years I would say some of these have become genuine relationships as we exchange Real favors in Virtual settings. So is Venture Capital in Silicon Valley ...

Do corporations now just want to be loved? Is laughter a way to the consumer's heart? CNN Paul R. La Monica from Media Biz complains that getting laughs comes at a high price..in fact, millions of dollars worth of corporate dollars only to find that after the first few chuckles, the consumer walks off not knowing whether you're selling cellphones or dance shoes...yes? But there is something here- entertaining and marketing ..its not really one or the other but really on how to strike a hit with the right churning of the two...I, for one, have become an active promoter of T-mobile dancing...see the video below... but I haven't switched. I currently stand as a consumer of their new media sales but not their products...not exactly what they were looking for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM