As a recent convert to the iPhone world, I’ve been thinking a lot about whether we will be saying goodbye to paper products in our near future. I can tell you already that I’ve chucked my post-its (which I love) out the window and downloaded my first e-book, which I adore.
I thought I would always be a paper reader, but the iPhone has changed me and after downloading the Kindle app for the iPhone I started thinking about the Kindle itself. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an e-reader created by Amazon. Basically, it’s main purpose is to have digital copies of your books (up to 1,200 of them) with you at all times. But, as I recently found out from a blog posted a few months ago, the Kindle also allows you to download and subscribe to newspapers and magazines for a fee as well as providing access to text only or text heavy websites at no additional cost. That means that once you buy the Kindle, someone else pays the internet usage bill. Of course, purchasing one will cost you almost $400. Which brings me back to the iPhone. Why pay $400 for just a reader when you can pay $300 for a phone that does the same thing plus hundreds of other tasks? I think I’ll be sticking to my phone for a long while until the price goes down on the Kindle.
So what do you all think, will the world begin to actually get their news in the same format but digitally like in Minority Report? Or will we continue to leave a paper trail?
If you don’t feel like you’ve gotten enough already, Birmingham City University in the UK is now offering a one year master’s course in social media. The course description details possible job placements which include “becoming a social media consultant” and contributing to the “social media industry.” An article in the Telegraph explains its purpose and details some of the backlash from students.
Two freshman congressmen, Jared Polis and Jason Chaffetz embarked on an experiment a few weeks ago when they began documenting for the world via CNN what it was like to be new to Washington. Their series, which can be found here, show the guys working with committees, sleeping on cots (at least one of them does) and working with constituents.
They also employ other means of social media including Twitter and YouTube. And of course with Twitter, anyone can follow Jason or Jared.
Here’s one of Jason’s additional YouTube videos.
The two men couldn’t be more different. Jared is a Princeton educated democrat from Colorado and the first openly gay man elected to the House as a freshman while Jason is a republican from Utah who played football for BYU in the late 80’s and is now married with three children.
Both Jason and Jared keep diaries and tweet daily so their followers know what they’re up to. Also, if you’re interested in finding out if your congressman is on Twitter, check out this website which lists all the members who are!
We’ve been posting back and forth on this blog about twitter. Is it worthwhile? What does it have to offer? Etc. With all of that aside, some people have taken to using twitter to communicate in some not so traditional ways.
Take the National Post reporter who took his tweets towards a disgruntled marketing consultant to the next level.
Or how about this video that features surgeons who took to informing others about the surgery they were performing in real time.
Even the Tennessean featured a story just a little while ago about Twitter’s new growth, pun intended, in which plants “talk” to their new owners.
Though some more nontraditional uses, like how the metro in DC uses it to update its users of disruptions, might be weird, they are undeniably useful.
So, with those examples under your belt, why don’t you try a new website and record your thoughts so that I can respond. Leave a comment with the link!
Here’s an interesting article on the many uses of twitter for classrooms from Tom Barrett.
I’m not so sure how I feel about some of them. While college students might appreciate the humor involved with limiting historical person’s biographies to 150 characters, I’m not so sure I would want my child’s first encounter with George Washington to occur in “tweets.” Or that I want my child’s teacher tweeting about what’s going on in her classroom instead of teaching my child how to read.
It would be interesting though to have a discussion based thread of tweets where students have to limit their responses to 150 characters. That would provide a nice control for a debate topic.
However you feel about Twitter aside, it’s interesting to see how far people are going and how much time they’re spending making sure people know that Twitter is an important media tool.
On my (new) daily jaunt to Pressthink.com, I discovered something I didn’t expect. Along with a White House that (almost) welcomes the press, we also have a President who thought it necessary to keep a blog, or rather, someone in his administration did. It’s an interesting concept none the less.
Or drop a line at the Office of Public Liaison.
Jay Rosen’s blog offers some advice to the new President which could basically be summed up in three quick tips 1) write it (everything) yourself, 2) welcome the press and 3) have the capacity to communicate to the press effectively.
Sound like good ideas to me.
