Life Moves Too Fast

08-08-08

As I type this, the 2008 Summer Olympics are underway in Beijing. Just finished spending a few hours this morning watching the Tivo’d Opening Ceremonies. What an amazing way to kick off the spirit of the games. For a couple short weeks every four years, we attempt to set our differences aside and as humans, compete for pride and honor. I, for one, enjoy watching the summer games.

I particularly enjoy the swimming, gymnastics and track & field events. The opening ceremonies are particularly memorable. With the host country putting on a mix of pageantry and cultural showmanship, no expense or time is usually spared. The Chinese, passionate about their country, did not disappoint. Hard to believe that just 24 years ago, China re-entered the games after 3 decades of not competing, now they are a host.

The 2008 games have been marred by political indifference’s, media censorship, and environmental concerns leading up to the torches final leg. While I cannot help but ignore some of the injustices, my hope is that these concerns take second stage to the actual competition and athleticism that will fill the media these next two weeks. I do not agree with what some things the Chinese stand for, however acknowledge their ability to be a world-renowned culture that deserves our appreciation. I think the Chinese have a lot of opportunity to showcase to the world their ability to be a welcoming host. With the spotlight cast upon them, maybe more Americans will greater appreciate the worlds largest country. Good publicity could go a long way. I think Beijing was a fine choice to host the games.

So I’ve set the HD Tivo now to record probably a good 30 hours of events, and hope to find time in my schedule to really enjoy some of the coverage. Go Team USA!

St Louis: Are We Loosing Our Spot on the Map?

It was 1900. St Louis was truly the gateway to the west. The city was the fourth largest in the country. We hosted the world at the Worlds Fair of 1904. In the two centuries prior, the cities location on the Mississippi River made it famous. We were a boomtown. Settlers by the thousands moved to St Louis from points east. It was an entrepreneur’s haven. But in the last 50 years, that all has changed.

Anyone who has traveled the world will agree that St Louis isn’t the fairest of them all. We struggle with our identity as a diverse city. Our climate does not fair well to our infrastructure. We suffer from the typical image of a once industrial city - gritty and crime ridden. Efforts are slowly being made to polish her up and revitiliaze its image, but it takes time. I grew up here. St Louis is my home. I have, though, traveled extensively and have considered leaving for greener pastures more times than I like to admit. But nonetheless, I am still here.

Over the weekend, our fair denizens were informed we lost another iconic company who called us home. Anheuser Busch, the worlds largest brewery by volume, has sold out. To the Belgians no less. The talk of the town for the past two months, we are about to loose another status symbol that St Louisans held proud.

As a kid, everyone I knew was somehow connected to McDonnell Douglas here. My father worked for them for almost 20 years. The company was St Louis. But with the changing times, so came buyouts to line the coffers of shareholders when Boeing announced its takeover in 1997. Within a few years, all but a few facilities remain. My father survived thanks to previous mergers, and while our economy struggled, we survived. A few years later, TWA was bought out by American and for anyone that has found themselves flying on a 50-seat jet to Chicago or DC knows, our global reach was severely impacted then as well. I remember as a kid boarding a 747 and flying non-stop to Hawaii and Germany from St Louis. Those were the days.

I won’t deny that I fear for our fair city. As our economy tightens, and corporations merge and move, in just 108 years since we were the fourth largest dot on the map we are being reduced to a spec. As a wordly guy, I am saddened by this.

The A-B news is front page here in town. It is the talk of the local twitterverse. Even the Today Show sent a correspondent to cover the news this morning. For St Louisans who have been through this before, it feels like another nail in the coffin. Fellow twitterer @CosmosGirl even tweeted that, although she is not directly influenced by the brewer, she felt St Louis lost a little more character following the news. That is precisely how I feel. I work for a stable company. My personal economic footprint will change little by the buyout. But my town, my home, will suffer. The philanthropic impact to our city could be the most visible. For a town already with a pockmarked image, we cannot afford less dollars being infused into our infrastructure and revitalization.

We must turn our focus now to all the great plans for the future. We need to understand and appreciate our city even more. Your image of St Louis may be dark, but take a stroll through Forest Park or our History Museum and remember and embrace our town for all she has accomplished. Plenty of corporations will still call this home, adding value every day. Our economy may change and the ‘family business’ practice may be a thing of the past, but if for nothing else, give our city some credit. She’s had a long history and a bright future.

While I routinely think about moving away, for the chance to experience something new, I secretly have deep roots here that no small force can extirpate.

Censorship. Are you yourself online?

I got to reading an article last week in my June 23rd issue of Business Week about China’s war against online content. The long and short of the article covers the highly visible topic of censorship to China’s bloggers and consumers. But what drew my interest is the business behind filtering China’s populace from speaking openly on the Web.

The article speaks of firms within China who pay monitors to scour forums, blogs and Web sites for negative publicity on its clients. They then, in turn, attempt to mitigate a fire storm of opinion by either squashing the issue before it spreads, or engaging the content owner to help solve the issue in question. The Web has long been the portal to free-speech for the western world, so how do you feel about your government censoring what you post or allowing businesses to monitor what you post about them or their customers?

The debate rages worldwide on censoring content available to users. China has been the focus of late, namely due to the spotlight shun upon it for the Olympics. But the problem exists globally. Many muslim countries ban sites they deem as ‘morally harmful’ (Source). The topic of net-neutrality is, for example, routinely being discussed by our presidential candidates and are cornerstones to many platforms in US politics. Freedom of censorship ensures your opinion is protected from slander or prosecution, and that you have access to an outlet to share original content. Censorship has broader definitions, though, including ones’ choice to use the Web as their sounding board, where by saying things he or she would not say in public.

I have long supported the general moral stance that I will only blog (or tweet, etc.) content online that I would just as easily share face-to-face. Blogging, for instance, is used by countless contributors as a venue for sharing views or musings they would otherwise not say in person. I have no grief with this practice, but do those doing so fully understand the risk?

We’ve all heard of the Dooce effect? So apply named for the popular blogger who was fired from her job for blogging about her co-workers. Censorship is most commonly applied to the blogger of today by their employer or institution. Here at our office, we are prohibited from accessing sites such as YouTube, Craigslist or even gaming sites. But do you bloggers who use social networking as your outlet to share your most honest feelings accept the risk that you could easily be ‘outed’ in real life? I once had a co-worker who maintained a secret blog to chastise his marriage and relationship with his wife. Last I heard, he is still married with child.

Censoring your content is by all means the right of the owner. Means exist within most social media tools and sites to restrict who can view your content. But this begs the question, what good is sharing content if you censor your own viewers? As China and other countries and entities continue to block access to user-submitted content, the same number will fight for their right to access the same.

Content generators, just remember your right to a free and open Web is what you make of it. Choose wisely. But know that I will never post something here I would not say to you if I took you out to dinner. Not because I am afraid of the risks, nor because I am an honest individual (lord knows!). It is because I stand behind the principle that despite the openness the Web has given me, I choose not to exploit this venue for the sake of disparagement.

Nuke the Fridge

Time Magazine listed UrbanDictionary.com as one of its 50 top sites of 2008 (source). This site is chock full of sayings and phrases that you may hear uttered around your kid sisters’ high school these days. When we were young, the ‘cool’ new words were spread through day to day use. New words and fads spread quickly, but only by word of mouth and many were regionalized. Today the Web has the power to spread things infinitely faster, across borders, cultures and languages. This has expanded from just words, sayings, or gestures to content and videos. There even is a word for such trends: a meme.

I was reading this morning on Kottke’s blog about a saying that has spread far and wide in just a few short weeks, one that I had not heard of called nuke the fridge:

Not so long ago, on May 24th, IMDB message board participant beachedblonde coined a new phrase: nuke the fridge. Here’s the definition from the Urban Dictionary…it’s roughly equivalent to jumping the shark:

A colloquialism used to delineate the precise moment at which a cinematic franchise has crossed over from remote plausibility to self parodying absurdity, usually indicating a low point in the series from which it is unlikely to recover. A reference to one of the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which the titular hero manages to avoid death by nuclear explosion by hiding inside a kitchen refrigerator.

There are already 16,000 results for variations of this term in Google. There are Facebook pages, t-shirts, and even a Website already set-up to expose this meme. (via Kottke). Internet meme’s are running rampant on the Web. Wikipedia and other sites have now cataloged most of these viral trends for constant enjoyment. Some of my favorite meme’s of recent memory include: The RickRoll, the Dramatic Chipmunk, Leeroy Jenkins, Tay Zonday, and who can forget All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

For that small period of time where each person with a cable modem and email shares that video, or that Website, an entrepreneur is born. Just look at iJustine, the video blogger turned Web celebrity. Her 300-page iPhone Bill video catapulted her to virtual stardom.

So, with the internet able to spread these like wildfire, do you tire of them quickly?

Has Twitter jumped the shark?

Go to Google News and search for Twitter and you will find over 3200 articles. The good news, most are positive reports on the way the social platform has changed collaborative communication on the Web. Lately, however, Twitter has been suffering a meltdown. The good news is they are keeping us informed and being honest about their infrastructure handicaps and what they are doing to fix it. But is it all too late?

Twitter has been around since 2006, but got its kick start at SXSW 2007. Anybody who is anybody got hip to the ability to share their comings and goings in real time. Originally targeted to the mobile messaging market, it quickly took foot everywhere. And that is what some say is causing some of their pains. Some labeled this form of instant messaging a little too voyeuristic for its own good. Others embraced it as the newest channel for news and stories from the interwebs. Hundreds of would-be developers have tapped into Twitter’s API and built a slew of services, from integrated posting clients to tools for running metrics on your tweets. Businesses and journalists are using it as a communication tool. Whatever you think about it, clearly this form of collaboration has changed the way we communicate with our friends online.

Over the past few days, Twitter itself is abuzz with talk of Plurk and Pownce. Plurk seems like the new kid on the block, wooing away twitterati at the rate of a fire sale. It, too, is suffering a bit of the reliability bug, however. Pownce has been on the scene about as long as Twitter but with a little less visibility. That is quickly changing. And FriendFeed has even been touted as the new Twitter, and gaining ground. All in all, someplace will need to absorb the friends-lounge that Twitter has become. I hope that that hangout will continue to be our old friend Twitter.

What Twitter needs now is to stay the course. Users will stick by the Twitter team if they continue to provide ample, trusting communication. We’ve all come to love this little venue to share our life to friends, and strangers, and will stick by the old friend in time of need. What Twitter needs to do, however, is communicate clear plans to how it will improve or risk loosing it’s true supporters to any of the competitors named above. Many sites and tools have ended up in the deadpool because of infrastructure issues, and many more jumped the shark early in their life. Please, Twitter, keep it going.

For what it is worth, you can find me on Twitter here, Plurk here and Pownce here. I’m spreading mah oats, just in case.