In the home stretch

Hi everyone,

It's hard to believe, but we're closing in on the home stretch for class. We will be meeting in the lab at Springfield Hall tonight to go through the basics of how the Web works.

A few other thoughts as we're wrapping the class up:

• This week's memo: A few of you have asked what I meant by "mobile platforms." What I'd like you to do is think about how you might use mobile platforms as a communication mechanism for your organization. How many people are coming to you via mobile? What types of applications might you develop for smartphones? Are there location-specific technologies that might be useful for you? Do you need to develop a text-alert strategy? How much should you devote in resources to creating a mobile strategy?
• This week's "blog": In lieu of a blog post, I'd like you to do five tweets on Twitter and digg five stories. I'd like to make sure you're comfortable with these other media as well as the Blogger platform.
• Your group presentation: Because we have several groups, the 15-minute presentation time is firm. I expect you to hit within a minute of that target. As I mentioned in the assignment sheet, these should be professionally prepared.
• Your individual papers: Most of you are tackling the media strategy for your organization or professional brand. Here's the rough structure I described in class last week with some added suggestions:
• Introduction: About a page or so to serve as an executive summary. Outline the overall mission of the strategy and your targets for measuring success.
• Addressing the new new media technologies: Be sure to consider the technologies we've discussed in class, and feel free to go beyond into others we haven't discussed in detail (Google Buzz, Foursquare, etc.). 
• Use research/polls to support points 
• Goals: What are the goals of your strategy? How will each technology help you meet those goals?
• Resources: What time/financial/human resources will be necessary to execute the strategy? How do you justify expending these resources? What type of return to you hope to get?
• Timeline: A proposed outline for execution
• Assessment: How will you gauge the success of your efforts?
• Conclusion: Summarize your overall recommendation. Don't just repeat what you've said before; this section should synthesize all of your arguments to end your case on a persuasive note.

Let me know if you have any questions.

jg

Geeking out with SPSS

For those of who tempted by the taste of SPSS, the Web offers a number of online resources to help:

• University of Central Michigan (Thanks, Jeff!): Great SPSS tutorials and how-tos.
• Everything you ever wanted to know about statistics (but were afraid to ask), courtesy of UCLA.
• Pew datasets for mining

See you Monday,
jg

Sample-size calculator

Thanks to Jeff (Random Man) Riggins for finding an online sample-size calculator. It allows you to enter the confidence interval and population size to find the proper sample for your surveys.

I look forward to reading your blog posts and memos this week!

Have a great weekend,
jg

Watch your e-mail

Hi everyone,

A few bits of housekeeping before tomorrow's class:

Memos: You'll be getting your memos this afternoon via e-mail with some feedback from me. Because it's the first assignment out of the gate, I gave everyone full credit. A second number in parentheses shows what your score would have been, had I graded it regularly. I give a base score (for quality, content, research, and persuasiveness) and then deduct a half point for every grammar/spelling error.

You will also get a list of "writing bugaboos," a roundup of pitfalls to avoid based upon the issues I noticed in the first batch of memos.

Your memos should offer a recommendation about the medium/technology in question. Be sure to back up your recommendation with specific research and examples. How can you apply the lessons from other sites to avoid those mistakes in your context?

Blog posts: For your blog posts, I want you to highlight interesting and unusual content from the corners of the Web. What are some sites, blogs, videos, etc. that you think your class colleagues might not be aware of? How does it illustrate a key point we've discussed in class? Why do you think it succeeds as online content?

Readings: We'll discuss surveys tomorrow and move into section on media effects. We'll be in Shewmaker 221.

E-mail me or come by my office if you have questions.

See you tomorrow,
jg

The Evolution of Dance

An oldie but a goodie: Comedian Judson Laipply made his name with this YouTube video that's been viewed more than 140 million times.

Class in the lab tonight

We'll be meeting in Springfield Hall, Lab A again tonight and will be digging a bit more into Blogger. We'll also be talking about media research.

The blog post and memo are not due until Wednesday.

See you in class,
jg

Getting started

Hello everyone!

I see most of you are navigating your way successfully through the initial batch of Web technologies. Don't worry if you felt a little lost; this class is designed to help you and calm your online fears. Please bring any questions or issues with you to class on Monday, and we'll work through them together.

Remember, we'll be meeting in Springfield Hall, Lab A (the big computer lab) so we can experiment with some hands-on experiences in class.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions before then.

And if you're wondering what I think is a good blog, check out Baseline Scenario, a financial/economics blog written by some smart economists.

jg