Created for Creighton's EdD course Technology and Leadership, with topics at the intersection of Leadership and Technology.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Onward
I commandeered the somewhat unusual complimentary close "Onward," from my former high school band director (now a long-time friend, mentor, advocate, and colleague), who signed most of his correspondence to me that way. I find it captures a positive, forward-looking spirit and optimism, in both good times and bad. I use it frequently when signing emails and letters. It seemed the appropriate title for this first post-class post.
I guess I have decided to keep this blog going--we'll see if it retains any readership, but, ironically, I have learned that that might not always be the point:
I came across a TED talk recently that sparked my interest and seemed so relevant to some of the privacy, ethics and values discussions that our cohort of classmates pursued over the course of our eight-week study of Technology and Leadership: if the class were still in session, I would share it as a topic for commentary. I've decided to share it, anyway, and invite commentary and discussion from, as Dr. Watwood refers to it, "the open web."
Social scientist Jennifer Golbeck shares her take on the phenomenon that "liking" curly fries on Facebook proved to be statistically correlated with high intelligence (a phenomenon of homophily, and a random, intelligent, early curly fry liker) . Reflect on the ramifications of that. The business model for social media includes data mining more nuanced and more subtle than you might think. This is a significant part of our new inter-connected reality--and connections that might not be obvious.
Interesting post. I have known (and used) the Godin/Peters clip many times, but had not seen Golbeck's TED Talk. She suggested an informed, educated user base. I would suspect that many companies have a business model that relies on the opposite.
Britt, thank you so much for continuing to read and comment! (I do suppose "filter" will have to kick in at some point as you keep adding sections of the course. (Did I mention how highly I thought of it?))
Yes, I hate to say, perhaps the majority of companies, high-tech companies and other kinds, and governments, like P.T. Barnum rely on decisions made by the uninformed, the misinformed, and the apathetic.
Interesting post. I have known (and used) the Godin/Peters clip many times, but had not seen Golbeck's TED Talk. She suggested an informed, educated user base. I would suspect that many companies have a business model that relies on the opposite.
ReplyDeleteBritt, thank you so much for continuing to read and comment! (I do suppose "filter" will have to kick in at some point as you keep adding sections of the course. (Did I mention how highly I thought of it?))
DeleteYes, I hate to say, perhaps the majority of companies, high-tech companies and other kinds, and governments, like P.T. Barnum rely on decisions made by the uninformed, the misinformed, and the apathetic.