Every Minute Counts.

Everything we do has an effect. From the toothpaste we use to brush our teeth, to the eggs we eat for breakfast. Whether or not we take the bus to work or school, or walk, or drive individually in a car. Did you pack your lunch today in a paper bag and wrap everything inside in plastic? Maybe you took the time to find a recycling bin for your empty plastic bottle. Do you own a reuseable bottle? Do you try and buy local, keeping more money in the community? Do you separate your trash? Do you choose not to eat processed foods? Do you carpool?

In the face of global climate change, most of us are thinking about these things, choosing to reduce, reuse, and recycle, whether for hipster reasons or more genuine ones. But do you ever stop and think about what the Web is doing to the environment?

The web makes life easy. We get up in the morning, find out what the weather is going to be, check on friends through Facebook and learn more about the world we live in. We keep in touch, work distantly, share knowledge. We explore other cultures, learn from experts, and contribute to collaborative projects. We enhance our lives in a myriad of ways that wouldn’t be possible without the web. And it’s all “green” right? Good for the earth?

Well, not really.

Every minute, every hour we spend connected, we are gaining valuable information… and losing valuable resources. It’s not just our laptops and desktops, but our televisions, our mobile phones, our iPods, our xboxes… any electronic device, really.  And its not just the energy it takes to power your device and the web itself, its also the materials that went into creating the devices and the energy that was used and the greenhouse gases that were emitted to manufacture the device.

We can’t eliminate computers and cell phones and gadgets from our lives, so we just have to learn to be more environmentally friendly about the way we manufacture and use electronics and the internet. We have to learn to be aware, and (please excuse the rhyme…) we have to learn to share, too. We have to tell our friends and family, and not in a preachy way, but in a “did you know?” kind of way.

We need to learn how to conserve energy, not just at home and at work but online too. Which is why I developed InteractiveCarbon.com, a resource for more information and also a handy tool you can use to get others interested in conserving energy too.

Or at least get them thinking about it. Check it out here.

Let’s Party!

It’s OneWebDay (Think Earth Day, but for the Web), so have some cake! Or a cupcake. Or maybe even a whole cake. The point is, if you’re reading this right now, you should be celebrating! You’re part of the 25% of the world that has access to the web.

Astounding, isn’t it, to think that only 1 out of every 4 people in the world can hop online at any given moment? While internet access rates in the United States are high, accessibility issues exist here too. For instance, in North Carolina, only 61% of the population has access to the internet at home. We’re rated 41st out the nation. Clearly, we have some work to do.

And now for a trip down memory lane: Do you remember the first time you accessed the internet? Was it at school or at home? Was it for class work or for entertainment?

Sadly, I don’t. I remember playing with PrintShopDeluxe to make birthday banners and I remember learning to type on Mario Teaches Typing at my dad’s insistence. But I cannot for the life of me recall the first time I accessed the Web. What does that say about the generation born in the mid 1980s? Am I the only one who doesn’t remember her first Web experience? Does the generation before or after me mark this as more of a milestone in their lives?

I can remember my first email account, which was registered with excite.com. I chose them because you could change the colors of your home page, which I thought was super cool way back in eighth grade.

Anyway, I digress. Get out there and have a fabulous OneWebDay! Go watch some video stories here of personal accounts of the web, or leave a comment below with your first World Wide Web memory. I’d love to hear from you!

Here’s to the Dream Job

The web has had a huge effect on how people search and obtain employment.  We no longer need to tediously look through want ads in newspapers, or make telephone inquiries about open positions.  We are not limited to geographical searches.   

The web opens an endless possibility of job postings all over the globe.  Currently the web supports job search companies such as Monster, Career Builder, Yahoo HotJobs etc.  These tools can be helpful if you have a very specific type of profession or physical area you want to work in. 

The unemployment rate is currently at 7.2%, the highest in 15 years.  This is clearly a needed web resource for people today.  How job searching is being conducted has changed as well.  People are playing the numbers game when it comes to employment.  Applying to a massive number of jobs because they know that almost all will lead to dead ends.  While the web has provided the opportunity to search all over the world, it has also created false avenues.  Experienced job searchers know how to recognize these, but if your new to the job search its an easy trap to fall in to.

Social networking has provided a platform for people looking for employment to meet and discuss possible opportunities on the web. Proving the old saying “it’s not about what you know, but who you know.”

This of course has affected employers and how they look for qualified employees.  Instead of posting job openings and descriptions with job employment agencies or newspapers, they are being put on the web.  Many organizations are also posting availabilities in multiple places.  Both on the company web page and on job search engines and of course, word of mouth spread by social networking.     

15 years ago when unemployment levels were just as high but people didn’t have the Internet as such an accessible tool.  Will  unemployment rates lower faster because of such a resource?  In celebration of OneWeb Day, think about those who were able to send their kids to college, buy a house, buy a car and find security, all from finding “the dream job” on the web.

Murdoch to Risk Charging for Online Content

Leave it to Rupert Murdoch to keep us interested in new iMedia developments.

Here is a timely follow-up on our discussions about the possibility that media companies will start charging fees for users to access content.  Murdoch said today his News Corp., which lost $3.4 billion last fiscal year, will move ahead with plans for subscription fees. No details yet on how he would do it. But he has us wondering.

Here is a BBC article on his announcement as well as a blogish piece from an Atlantic Monthly correspondent on the implications.  The New York Times ran this story recently noting that the News Corp.’s only profitable entity this past year was cable TV, thanks mostly to the Fox channels.

For a look at the News Corp.’s news release on its recent earnings, click here. These sorts of information releases — a form of public relations — are prompted by requirements of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates stock markets.  Reporters use these public releases as a primary source of precise information. This is bread-and-butter stuff for media outlets that cover business.

As long as we’re studying writing forms, notice how the BBC article points forward in its lede. You won’t find a time element, though, because the BBC is reaching people all over the world. Hard to use ‘today’ when the person reading the story might actually be in yesterday or tomorrow, depending on placement near the International Dateline. So the article is purposefully vague on the when.

We’ll see much more on this soon — probably an avalanche of articles by the end of the weekend on what Murdoch’s move could mean for the media industry. Keep an eye out.  The story has lots of news value, especially to us:  timeliness, impact, a bit of prominence and a digital sort of proximity. Here the proximity is to the space (online) rather than to place (geography). We might see some conflict/struggle creeping in, too.

Thanks All!

Y’all were great students during our short course. Thanks for the chance to work with you. I’m always interested to confer with you about your projects. Just don’t wait to talk until the night before your deadline.

Do you know the blog had 90 page views on July 27? A few of you must be famous by now. The rest will be.

News item: We’re just back from our son’s summer camp. Remember he had that 104 fever? Well, it returned, and he ended up spending lots of time in the infirmary. We finally drove up to fetch him. He had a good time but is glad to be resting at home. Was totally worn out.

Must be a metaphor or a lesson in that. How about this: Try not to get sick.

A Different View

A group of Elon graduate students received a week of excellent instruction and experience in media writing. One participant came away with more than intended.

Since completing the short course on media writing, the writer has left the with a very different view on the world.

Suddenly there are journalists and reporters in every movie, the evening news report is written in one style or another. The internet is full of junk journalism and very cleverly written piece by professionals trying out new options.

This week was like being trained to look for seashells on the beach. If you know what you are looking at you see them everywhere.

On previous walks I walked down the beach for a while then might spot a particular shell. I suddenly realized I had been seeing them all along the walk but not recognizing them. The world has turned. I will never read the paper, look at a movie or watch broadcast news the way I once did.

A Guide’s Advice: Know How to Use Your Microwave

During the first week of classes her freshman year, Katie Hopkins made a critical decision…to eat a cookie.  A warm cookie seemed like just the thing to comfort her.  Unaware of how the dial on the microwave worked, she set it and forgot it.  Next thing she knew, everyone in Carolina dorm was evacuating the building.  For the first two months of school she was known as the girl who set off the fire alarm.

This is just one of the stories Hopkins tells as a tour guide at Elon University.  The senior has been a guide since her sophomore year and says she’s always wanted to do it.  It’s perfect because she loves to talk and interact with students and their parents.  She has been guiding through this summer as she works on researching how kindergartners adjust to elementary school as part of the Student Undergrad Research Experience.

Being a guide requires a lot of knowledge and coordination.  After training that involves going on at least six tours, guides set off on their own with no more than four families.  They usually take one of two set routes through campus, forward starting at the business center or backward starting at the gym.  To spice things up, the guides have created a new route they call “Magic” that starts at the library.

Hopkins gives tours to high school students and incoming freshmen, explaining the places they should go and what they should bring.  Her favorite part is showing the dorms, because it gives the students a glimpse of what college life is like.  Unfortunately it also gives their parents a glimpse of things they might not want to see.  She recalls a tour when a mother opened a refrigerator to find alcohol in it.  On another tour, one boy’s father asked a student how she got into her loft bed drunk.  She replied, “I climb?”  The boy was mortified.

Hopkins is enthusiastic when she talks about giving tours and it’s something she will continue through her senior year.  By now, she’s mastered walking backward and can avoid the tree and bike rack that snuck up on her in the past.  As long as she can avoid the brick that caused one prospective student to face-plant into mud, she will march through the next year with ease.

Multicultural Ambassador Nneka

Nneka is not only a tour guide on the Elon campus, she is a Multicultural Ambassador.

Nneka Enurah, a junior communications major from Marrietta Ga., has spent her summer working full time as a tour guide on the Elon Campus. During the school year she works fewer hours. She showed her enthusiasm for her work based on her presence during a short interview with iMedia graduate students on Thursday.

Nneka, following a short experience as a tour guide, was asked by Director of Multicultural Programs Kimberly Johnson, to become a Multicultural Cultural Ambassador.

Nneka serves as the hostess for students who have a multicultural interest and wish to attend Elon. Nneka can relate her experiences at Elon to prospective students to make the best decision on attending the University. Nneka said she followed up with all potential multicultural students to assist them, even if they did not choose Elon.

Nneka said there were several opportunities for students wishing to attend campus to visit when multicultural
events were taking place. Two example she gave were the international foods festival and and annual dance event.

Multicultural Ambassador, enthusiastic, and genuinely interested in her work. Nneka is a perfect example of “Welcome to Elon”.

Elon Tour Guide Checklist

Can You Handle the Frontline?

If you can walk backwards, talk with your hands and walk around for hours, then might have a shot at becoming the university mascot. However, if you thought that was all you needed to be a shoe-in as an Elon, campus tour guide? Hang up your dream of being on the frontline.

For junior, Jenna Farley, it was her dream to serve on the frontline. Not as cop fighting crime or a soldier fighting the war, but as an Elon University Admissions student staff member, fighting to preserve the essence of campus each time they conduct a tour.

Farley’s front and center personality; mixed with her absolute love for Elon, solidified in her mind that she had what it took. She was right, but here are some elements you must be willing to weather if you’re considering serving frontline.

1. Handling Drama

How well can you handle drama? Not the educational disciple, but the kind generated by angry parents whose daughter didn’t get it, or whose son didn’t get that athletic scholarship. Being on the frontline is more than being the “face” of campus. A main component involves answering the phones for the admission office. “We screen the calls. We’re the ones that get yelled at,” replied Farley.

2. Handling an Actual Storm

Ironically, while conducting this interview, it began to rain. Looking out the window, you could see a tour group of more than 15 people experiencing the unpredictable North Carolina weather. When asked, do you conduct tours in all weather climates? Farley quickly stated, “ If a tour is scheduled. That’s why I keep a rain jacket in my car.”

3. Can You PC

Not referring to your preference over a Mac, but can you be politically correct. Often times that includes sugar coating the truth. As a dance major, Farley has extensive knowledge of the performing arts programs, and will give tours to those interested specifically interested in that major. Often Farley is faced with the task of being the sugar plum fairy. Farley states, “I was giving a tour, and a mother asked ‘can anyone be a dance major?’” Many might have truthful answered. Being politically correct, Farley put on her game face and polite reminds them “this is a liberal arts institution.”

4. Can You Walk and Talk

“Just cause I’m a dance major does mean I’m coordinated. I tell my tour, please wave if I’m doing to run into something,” Farley jokingly states.  It is mandatory that the tour guides walk backward throughout the entire tour. This could lead to a meeting with a trashcan or two, or perhaps a brush with the pavement. While attempting to cross Haggard with a group of potential Elon students and their families, Farley realized that not all Phoenix stop for traffic.  “ We were halfway through the street, and the guy didn’t stop. I all most got an entire tour ran over, ” Farley apologetically exclaims.

5. Are You a Phanatic

This is the one job on campus where your job is to love Elon, and show it on a daily basis. With college selections being so competitive, Elon campus guides have to constantly have their game faces on while on the frontline. On each tour Farley does just that. “Honestly, I want them [prospective students] to take away that Elon is spectacular and special. A place you have to experience for yourself.”

Another Phoenix Rising From The Fire

Another tour goes by.  The oak trees are full of leaves and squirrels as they tend to their nests and collect their bounties from the grass below.   The latest patches of flowers are in perfect bloom, the sun is highlighting the innumerable bricks on campus and I can’t help but reflect on my first visit to Elon University 15 years ago.

I was just finishing up my senior year at high school and Elon College, as it was called back then, was the last of the four schools I would visit.  As I began my tour and continued tripping on the uneven bricks of the path we were walking, I kept asking myself, “how does she do this without falling and making a fool of herself?”  By she, I am referring to one of the many backwards walking tour guides employed by the school.  These are a special breed of Elon students with eyes in the back of their heads that provide a glimpse of what life would be like at Elon to prospective students and their parents.

What does it take to be one of these highly talented guides in addition to learning how not to fall on your keister?  Meet Kate Hopkins, an energetic and outgoing student from the class of 2010.  She comes to Elon from Alpharetta, Ga. and is studying human services and psychology.  Perfect compliments to her job as a tour guide.

Hopkins has been working for Elon’s Admissions Office as a guide for the past two years, but this is her first time guiding the summer tours.  She chose to stay in Elon this summer to conduct research for her major through the Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program which provides grants to fund student research.  She is one of 25-30 guides that are available this summer to help promote Elon to visiting high school juniors and seniors and their parents.

During the summer she herself gives one or two tours a day, following one of three specific routes around campus.   Each route has been given a unique name such as, “Magic which is the newest tour route that starts at the Belk Library” which Hopkins mentions this with an hint of relief as if things can get understandably mundane, following the same routes day in and day out.  While the regular school year is in session, Hopkins says she works about four hours per day, twice a week leaving her ample time for her studies and activities off campus.

When asked about campus life on tour, Hopkins says, “I try to speak to the students directly instead of their parents” indicating that while parents have a strong interest in what Elon can offer their children because they are the ones paying for most of the tuition but also because they are parents and want the best for their children, it’s the students that will be experiencing the college life and what they get from the tour is most important.  It’s proof that these tour guides remember their first visit to Elon and what they wanted to know about the school, so they make sure that they are providing the best information to the student visitor.

According to popular belief these tour guides are put through extensive training to learn how to weave their way around campus and avoid obstacles, all while walking backwards.  However, Hopkins informs us that is not the case at all.  “They don’t teach us how to walk backwards.  I once ran into a tree and another time, a bike rack.”  Training for guides consists of shadowing an experienced guide for three tours, conduct three tours with the supervision of an experience guide and then they are on their own.

It gives a lot of insight to the way Elon University likes to do things.  They seem to want their students to not only learn from the wonderful faculty but also learn from themselves and each other.  And that’s exactly what the guides do.  They have gathered all the information they present for the tour from their own experiences and educate the visitors with only that knowledge.  Visitors don’t get the public relations jargon you would find in a textbook, they get real life experiences from real students.

Hopkins says the one story she may hesitate to tell visitors but gets a chuckle from, was the time during her freshman year when she attempted to heat up a cookie in her dorm room microwave.  “It was one of those old microwaves with the dial and it didn’t have any numbers on it so I set it for too long and the cookie caught on fire.”  This resulted in the fire alarm going off and evacuation of the dorm.  It was yet another one of those life experiences we all at Elon love to learn from, just as the guides learn not to fall backwards.

Elon Tour Guides Not Telling What They Know.

The campus tour guides at Elon University can’t talk about everything they know.

Nearly everyday, these friendly ambassadors can be seen leading groups of visitors in and out and around Elon’s charming, delightful campus. Each guide will happily pitch features of the state-of-the-art library, the well-equipped classrooms and the historic dormitories festooned in ivied, Georgian style. They will be sure to point out how every part of this compact layout is always ready for the nervous pace of a vital academic community. And yet, something will remain unsaid, something among the carefully manicured lawns and flower gardens, something amid the clean, invigorating fountains and giant shade trees. Something that is simply not talked about.

Tavianna Williams is one of several dozen, well-trained and practiced student tour guides. Entering her junior year in strategic communications, Williams, 21, has been working as a tour guide since the fall semester. She loves her job and gets compliments on her enthusiastic and well-prepared tours. Williams reveals, “I always ask my group what their interest is before the tour. You have to be ready to adapt each tour to what the parents of the student want to focus on.” Because of the intensive training manual that each guide must learn and practice, Williams admitted that along with her own positive experiences as an Elon student combined with the expert training provided, it is a unique skill to adapt each tour stressing the special differences and programs that separate Elon from other schools. Nevertheless, there is still an important part of what Williams now knows that is never spoken on tour, never hinted at, never mentioned.

Selling a university to prospective students is not too different from the business of pitching consumer products. Customer’s want and need to know the benefits and companies rely on their sales department, like Elon’s tour guides, to demonstrate how their product is better than the competition. Good businesses listen to their customers and Elon’s tour guides are really the front line, they get to hear all about the things that are missing from Elon; features, programs, schools that just don’t seem to stack up to the competition. These are real complaints and concerns delivered in real time; not suggested in any artificial focus groups. As a university, Elon can learn a lot about how to offer improved product by simply listening to what these touring sales managers have learned and heard. All of these features and benefits that Elon doesn’t have are things guides just can’t talk about to the next tour that’s walking up to them right now.

Friendly Frontliners

It isn’t everyday you meet someone who is living their childhood dream. Also, it isn’t everyday you meet someone whose childhood dream is to be a tour guide. When people think of tour guides, they often associate them with a wealth of information, museums, and Universal Studios. Sounds glamorous right? Wrong.

Jenna Farley, a student tour guide at Elon University, illustrates that being a guide on this campus is anything but flashy. Jenna loves to talk and teach, and it was her dream to share her knowledge with other people. Her dream has come true at Elon, but maybe now she’s reconsidering.

To be a tour guide at Elon, you must be able to walk backwards for an extended period of time. “I am a dance major and not nearly as coordinated as I should be”, Jenna explains, “just the other day I tripped over a brick and crashed into a trash can.” It hardly seems reasonable to ask someone to walk backwards for almost an hour without break while lecturing a group of people, especially with the hazardous bricks on Elon’s campus. Jenna points out that it’s just part of the job, and it’s something she’s going to have to accept. She has also led a group into moving traffic and even been howled at by passing men. It would be difficult not to feel vulnerable on this job.

It isn’t everyone dream to have to deal with parents on a daily basis, particularly when they are not you’re own. Nothing drives Jenna crazier than when she is asked what she says is a dumb question by a parent, Oh, you’re a dance major? Does that mean anyone can do that? Jenna finds it hard to be honest, yet tasteful, when coming up with a response, “I just want to tell the mother no. I mean, I guess anyone could be a dance major, but if you can’t dance then it wouldn’t be wise to major in it. It just baffles me that someone would ask that question.” Jenna has a point here. I can almost never remember to carry the 1, so why would I be a math major? It seems that Jenna is referencing more frustrating aspects of the job than positive ones.

Other jobs on campus receive benefits through their organizations. If you work for Campus Rec. you may be invited to participate on one of their intramural teams. If you’re a resident adviser your cost of housing is lowered. If you’re a tour guide? “Well I guess we get these Elon polo shirts with a name tag pinned on them.” Jenna says unconvincingly. I don’t think she had ever thought about this. It became clear that her mind was racing for something as her eyes shifted back and forth for a response. She continued to advocate the fact that being a tour guide makes you a better public speaker and will prepare you to interact in the business world. I think this is a thought that helps Jenna sleep at night.

After several minutes of talking, Jenna realized that she was speaking of all the faults in the tour guide program. I don’t think she felt comfortable about degrading her dream job. “What people don’t recognize is that we are the frontline for Elon” she said in a strong voice, “we really have to impress these people and sell the school well. Not everyone can do that.” She is right. Being a tour guide isn’t just projecting your voice and having a nice smile, it is believing in your product.

Jenna loves Elon, there is no disputing that, the only thing in question is if her childhood dream has lived up to expectations. A question I am sure she is asking herself during every tour.