I was walking through a little thrift store today and noticed something…and it struck me. A pencil sharpener…remember those days? I remember when I was a kid and it was this time of the year. Mom would load us up in the car and take us to the store for school supplies. We had a list of items from our school sent home informing the parents what supplies we will need for the coming year. Notebooks, paper, pencils, crayons, etc. created havoc in the local store where moms and dads were loading up children’s school bags.

I remember getting those brand new pencils. They were freshly packed and un-sharpened. They came in all different types of colors; red, blue, yellow, and green. Sometimes you could buy them with your name on them, especially if you had a common name like Bobby. Remember the first pencil you pulled out of the pack and you could go sharpen the pencil for the first time. It was more fun to sharpen the pencil than actually take part in the classroom exercise. I even remember some of my teachers started the day with the whole class in line, sharpening our pencils before starting the lesson.

Do they still have pencil sharpeners in classrooms? Some schools, maybe…if the buildings have housed generations of students. They are still probably on the walls or bookshelves, well because they have become nostalgic reminders of our yester-years. Public education is changing faster than the technology that is leading the way. Dollars are decreasing, teachers are being laid off, classrooms getting crowded, and some of the best and the brightest are loosing site of the age ole testament…education shapes our future.

Just a few months ago, I bought an iPad from Apple. The new wave of the future when it comes to personal and business computing. It is not only a computing tool but a business class communication tool. As a college instructor at Clemson, we are being challenged to find innovative ways to engage our students and still conserve if not cut costs. I have made a vow to try to teach the whole class this coming semester using just the iPad. I am not sure if I can execute this plan, but I am going to try.

Today’s teaching tools are technologies that are shaping the way we teach and the educational process of our future. At the end of last semester’s class, I asked each student to write a thank you note  to one person that has shaped their future. I asked them to hand write the note, with their signature, and hand write the envelope. Some students were perplexed with the assignment, either not understanding the purpose or the means to execute the assignment. The hand written note is so much more powerful that an email. Think about those hand written notes you receive in the mail. I am hate throwing them away, so I have a place for each one that I receive.

Writing a hand written note takes time, effort, dedication, and thought. If you are writing a two page letter and it is pen…you better chose your words carefully. It is hard to go back and fix something. We now are surrounded by spell check and other grammatical word fixing mechanisms…you know the red and green lines under a word or sentence. They use those colors so we feel annoyed until we fix the error. But they become our crutch. I am a poor speller; by the mere fact that I am not only an educated individual, but one that depends on technology.

So what is the balance? How do we still teach our next wave of leaders, our new knowledge economy how to think like practitioners and not as technicians.  How do we teach them to evolve with the technologies and not be so dependent upon a tool. How do we teach to creatively write and allow the tools to facilitate the process instead if dictating the process.

If we are going to have a bigger and brighter knowledge economy, we have to compete on a fundamental level…in our education system. Yes…it takes dollars, but it also takes a commitment to tomorrow and knowing our past. There are days where I wish I could have a pencil sharpener again, bringing the fun back into the creative process. But I sure do like the iPad as well. But, we have to find the middle ground between age old technology and new innovation to set the stage for tomorrow. We can’t just go lay-off old teachers just because they are going to retire eventually, but we can’t just lay-off the new teachers because of seniority. We need to be selective in who is teaching in our public schools, ones that are going to inspire the next creative class of human capital.

I will leave you with this…have you ever heard of the Call Me Mister Program, housed at Clemson University? The sole purpose of this program is to empower and educate young African-American males to be elementary school teachers here in South Carolina.  To put more African-American males in leadership roles to become role models for our young students. Imagine the opportunity to change the face of South Carolina by changing the image of African-American males from the years of oppression this state has witnessed. Now that is innovation. It did not take technology…it took vision.

Evolution, evolution, evolution. Word of mouth gone digital…and the result, a CIO’s worst nightmare: SQUEEZE MORE IN THE PIPES!

BizReport.com reported in April, 2010 stats that we already know intrisically…7% of all business Internet traffic is going to Facebook and 10% of bandwidth used in a business is getting chewed up with YouTube. Makes sense because YouTube has become the number two search engine below Google.

Let’ look at the Facebook stats:

• More than 400 million active users
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook

WOW…so, we know that people are accessing Facebook at work in some capacity. Let’s look at another statistic that I found interesting: There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices and people that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

Well…if you can’t get it on the company computer then you can pull out that iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc. to access you favorite social media site. I have already tackled the reality of why hospitals and organizations should open up the pipes to Social Media, so I wanted to look at what are the hesitations for corporate decision makers. What are the top two arguments for not opening up the pipes to Social Media: 1) employee productivity and 2) bandwidth.

Infrastructure is a huge issue. Think of it this way. I have a house that was built in the 1920’s. The plumbing in the house was probably re-built in the late 70’s. I have a half-inch pipe servicing my house…so when someone is the shower, you better not flush the toilet or turn on the washing machine. And…do not plan on taking two showers at one time or consider doing the ole Navy Shower routine: turn on water and rinse, turn off water and wash, turn on water and rinse.

So…using this analogy…think of bandwidth in the same regard. Lots of hospitals have the same position when it comes to IT infrastructure. Legacy wiring, switches, etc. to support an ever increasing demand for bandwidth. So imaging opening the flood gates to all social media and other resource intensive web based, community platforms. There is only so much a hospital or organization can support given the current infrastructure. So with the demands of increasing bandwidth needs and access to information…there are policies and procedures that have to be put into place to decide how to allocate resources. The Department of Defense just recently opened up the pipes to Social Media but put into place strict guidelines for use…a “Consistent Policy.” “There has to be since 47 million of Americans visit Facebook daily, which is nearly as many who watch TV daily (55 percent),” states Neilsen.

So how do we get hospitals’ and organizations CIO’s and IT Departments on-board with opening up the pipes for Social Media’s:

• First – Build a team to assess this demand. This includes heads of marketing/pr, IT (CIO), finance (CFO), and service area department heads.
• Second – Build an advisory team built of individuals on the ground level. These are the individuals actively accessing Social Media as brand ambassadors.
• Third – Build policies and procedures for implementing Social Media usage on all levels. Whether it is a patient, visitor, employee, or leadership…all users should have guidelines for usage.
• Fourth – Assess current infrastructure and how the increase in demand of data will affect infrastructure and costs associated with opening the pipes.
• Fifth – Implement a strategic plan for who and when can access Social Media platforms. This is based on access and cost to access data.

Bandwidth costs money, whether if it is the amount of data transfer, the physical pieces of technology that manage the pipes, or the human capital accessing the networks…time and usage is money. So what type of investment should we allocate to this growing demand for information?

Remember the one stat that I mentioned earlier, one that I am sure is making a CIO happy: there are more and more people accessing Facebook on mobile devices. Is this out of necessity because corporate pipes have been locked down or is the mere fact more and more mobile devices have access to fast data and applications. This is diverting the bandwidth issue but raising the problem of whose mobile device is being used to access the Social Media’s? Is the company footing the bill for the device or is it a personal device; regardless, people are accessing Social Media.

People want access to stories and they are connecting with stories via social media’s!

So as I was sitting in the morning church service, there was a piano selection performed right at the beginning. As I was sitting there listening to this beautiful melody coming out of this grand piano; I thought this grand piano has been sitting at the front for a long time but I have yet to notice how beautiful it sounds. The soloist was playing this instrument in a way that brought out the tremendous musical range. The soloist was completely engaged with the piano, focused on the song, the notes, the stanzas. Why have I never noticed this piano before?

The audience was completely engaged in the music, tied to every note, anticipating the next stanza, watching as the soloist’s hands interacted with the keys, playing notes with methodical movements from one to the next. The piano has the potential to play that well…but it is the soloists interpretation of the music selection as she used this instrument to bring the story of the song to the ears of the audience.

About a week ago, I had someone question me whether the advent of Flip Video devices would create a drastic reduction in online video production industry? A great question. But as I listened to this soloist interact with this grand piano, I began to think about this question even more. My first response to this individual was simply whether I am using a Flip Video device, a high definition pro-sumer camera, or a $70K Sony HDCAM….it is not the device that tells the story…it is the practitioner who interprets the technology to create and deliver the story.

True practitioners, real storytellers know how to evolve with technology and maximize it’s potential to meet the needs of an audience. I think of a story I produced a few years ago about an Opera Singer on his way to re-merge as an Opera Sinder, my friend Ron Gattis.

Ron Gattis

When I first started working in video production (broadcast video production), I used what was called BetaCAM video devices. The camera weighed 30lbs and was the size of medium size briefcase positioned on my shoulder or on a tripod heavier than the camera itself. We would take the results of the video taping and use two large BetaCAM decks (Two large VCR’s) to edit between in a linear mode. One mistake and there was no going back…time to re-edit. Using that set-up, I won six Emmy Awards and numerous other AP awards for Television Excellence.

I tell this story…and many journalists before me endured broadcast video camera larger than this where the camera was split into two pieces.

Now, I work with a camera less than half the size, half the price, and edit on a laptop. I can deliver my stories to audiences broader than the DMA I was working in during my broadcast television days. I put the video into the laptop and can move the video around, manipulate it in ways that would take a major post-production house of 10 years ago tons of money and weeks of production.

The technology is changing, but I still have to use it appropriately to deliver a high quality story in a manner that allows the audience forget they are watching this story on a screen, remove their peripheral vision. Whether it is a theatre or a computer screen…I want to create that story within an interface that is interactive. You know what I mean, that moment when you are sitting in a movie and you are so involved with the story-line, you forget you are in a theatre. It is all about being in the “Zone” from both an audience perspective and a practitioner perspective.

Do you think that if the soloist was given a keyboard device that was no bigger than a laptop, she could render a melody worth sitting and listening too? Do you think Ansel Adams could render a beautiful landscape using a pin-hole camera that was created from a Quaker Oats cylinder? The ability for a practitioner to tell a story is embedded in our DNA, whether it is a Flip Video Camera or beautiful state of the art Grand Piano.

So next time you hear that beautiful melody/harmony coming from a Grand Piano…think for a minute, is it the Grand Piano rendering those beautiful notes….or is the vision of the soloist interpreting the potential of those keys and bringing you the audience into “their” world. I love telling visual stories!

The big debate and controversy is when people choose to tell the world when and where they are using Social Media. Basically checking in via Foursquare or Gowalla. Beyond this, using the geo-location option in Twitter via updates. So I have been thinking about when to use Foursquare and Gowalla to tell my location, and Twitter to tell what I am doing and where. My thoughts:

When I will not use Twitter, Foursquare, or Gowalla to update my status:

1. When I am home – I will not allow these geo-location media’s to pinpoint my location at my house or say I am home and here it is on a map.
2. When I am working with a client – unless it is used to educate the client via potential use of this technology.
3. When I am at my family’s houses – I will not use geo-location to pinpoint my location. Their privacy is just as important as mine.
4. When I am away from my house for an extended time and no one is there to watch the house. Even when I am on a vacation, I will not update my status using geo-location unless I am sure someone is watching the house.

Why have I sat back and made these distinctions? Well, last year I was robbed at my house in the middle of the night. I had over $13K in camera equipment stolen. The person only stole this equipment specifically and nothing else. They knew I where it was and watched my movements. The only way they knew my movements was based on some Twitter updates stating what I am doing and how I would be traveling. I do not want to disclose anymore, but after lots of research and retracing my movements…I know almost for certain that this happened because of my Twitter updates. I was new to the game and was not thinking through some of my comments and posts. I have learned a VALUABLE LESSON.

Have you sat down and thought through how and when you use Social Media’s and geo-locators? Here are some questions I think you should ask yourself or thoughts to ponder:

1. When will I disclose my location via geo-locators?
2. What places warrant updates, letting the wide world know where you are currently.
3. Do you understand when you are updating your location at one place, you know that it means you are not somewhere else?
4. Do you think there is an audience that can leverage the knowledge of your location to benefit them positively and impact you negatively.
5. How can you benefit from this geo-location service? What benefit does it bring to your routine?

Geo-location is fun especially when checking into Starbucks, getting a badge, and then getting a discount. It is fun to find friends and others via geo-locators…it is like “being in the in-crowd.” But, can this fun new tool cause you more harm than good? I have learned and will continually learn how to leverage these fun tools and create a system of checks and balances for my daily use.

I know this is a business blog with business related topics, specifically storytelling, video, new media, and social media. But tonight I am at an interesting crossroad. This is a post about technology. You know I love my iPad and all of it’s relevant uses. About a month ago I received my iPad 3G in the mail. Ever since then, I have found so many uses beyond just content creation. From reading books, social media, games, drawing, mapping, even writing blog posts.

One of the uses I am looking forward to this fall is using the iPad  to teach my Business Writing class at Clemson University. I will not only be able to download the books but also attach it the overhead projector and interact with the class as well.

But here is the cross road, I also use my iPad to read books that I like including the Bible. I have downloaded the Bible HD application that has this most popular text in numerous translations and version. I also take part in a class before I go to the church service. Some call it Sunday School, well we do not. It is one of those unspoken classes during the traditional Sunday School time period. It is kind of hidden away and we like to discuss religion from a whole new lens. I am probably to youngest person in this class…actually my wife has that claim. All of the other members of the class have 30 years minimum on us. Our class is known to many as the Heretics. We call ourselves the seekers.

Dictionary.com defines heretic as a professed believer who maintains religious opinions contrary to those accepted by his or her church or rejects doctrines prescribed by that church.

Right now we are reading “The Soul of Christianity” by Huston Smith. It is not trying to counter or be skeptical of the past but Huston Smith tries “to show how the first-millennium Christianity can surprise the present with new life.” Great book and it makes me think.

Why am I writing this? Because I am debating whether to take a piece of technology into a Baptist church, as a reference to the Bible and this book we are reading. Walking into a class of 20 others where we are the youngest by 30 years with an iPad to take part in a discussion???Hmm…Martin Luther pissed off the Catholic Church by mass producing the books of the bible for others to read. He used technology to mass produce Bible for others to read.

Jesse J. Anderson in his blog talks about “How the iPad Will Change the Church” in his utilitarian explanation of how each piece of functionality will enhance the church experience. Jesse Orndorff in his blog post entitled “iPad for the Church?” talks about how he sees this tool helping pastors and the church. He talks about sermon research, media creation, and he says this “…now imagine what you can do with a iPad app. Embed full size video, sermons, notes, and bible verses. This could be really big for churches in this area.”

So I am torn. I do not want to be flashy yet unassuming. I am learning to use this piece of technology based on utilitarian opportunities. But, I do not want to piss off a church whom might be opposed to something they may not understand. Bringing technology into a southern church will be interesting. It is one thing to take into the class, but how about a southern church sanctuary.

What does this iPad represent? The changing role of technology? What has Apple brought into our lives? Just the other day I watched a movie with people walking around with thin like screens, thin as paper that represent portals of information. Will these mobile pieces allow us to educate and empower tomorrow’s quest for understanding? I will let you know after church tomorrow! I am still seeking…regardless of the technology.

So I was asked to shoot aerials of the GoogleOnMain event and capture the tremendous turnout for the event. Here is a short part of all of the footage that was aquired during the event!

I want to extend a big ole “hats off” to Aaron von Frank with all of his efforts to bring this event to fruition. Aaron along with Russell Tripp at Infusion Web &Video  will be putting together a final presentation/proposal to submit to Google. This aerial footage will be a part of the package.

Check out the website for this campaign! http://www.wearefeelinglucky.com/

Did you ever think what it takes to turn on a light in your house? You walk into a room, flip the light switch and magically the light in the center of the room comes on…WOW. Think about the centuries of innovation and the many miles of connectivity from the house to the grid. How does this happen? How long did it take for us to trust the fact that flipping a switch in a wall will turn a light on about the room.

This morning, I woke up and walked to the front porch where the wife was on the phone with her sister in Charleston. I noticed she was irritated and as soon as I open the front glass door…I learned every quickly. Her cell phone conversation had stopped, and started over and over because of some dropped calls.

It was time to get on the phone with AT&T. So I went to get my iPhone and noticed that my visual voicemail was not working. I dialed the phone number for AT&T and after navigating thru the menu system, I am speaking with a very nice lady. I was actually thinking, this lady has a nice pleasant voice…then halfway thru explaining my issue, the phone call dropped. BLAH

Now it is time to go grab the land line to call AT&T. Note…we just added this land line a month ago after being completely dependent on mobile service for three years. So I call the 1800 number and reached another nice, pleasant voice with AT&T. Pleasant helpful voices are nice. After explaining my issue…I was off to be transferred to a technical support representative.

****I realize this is a timeline of events…I will get to the point of this post****

My new technical support friend told me of some Voice Network Issues in SC & NC. He also told me that they (AT&T) are in the process of upgrading the 3G service in Clemson and Anderson, to expand the service beyond the Clemson area. He also explained that the voice service works off of a completely different tower than the data service. WOW. It take multiple towers to provide one phone multiple services in just one location, we have not even began to talk about moving from one location to the next.

As my AT&T technical friend was sifting thru my account, where our phones are connected, and diagnosing our tower issues…he made a statement that made me think. He told me that we really TRUST technology to do what it is supposed to do, that when we flip the light switch we TRUST that it will turn on. We do not think about the technology necessary to turn that light on to brighten a room. Think about the amount of TRUST we have when we dial a phone call while driving down the road on a cell phone. The technology to connect that one phone, in a car, while driving down the road at 65 mph to someone in a completely different zip-code. We really TRUST technology.

Has our TRUST continuum for technology shortened each time we accept a new technology? Or do we even realize that we might not trust a technology…we merely do not recognize a technology is not working and check later when it is back up and running again. How long did it take for us as a society to trust that electricity is going to provide the energy necessary to luminate a room. How long did it take for us as a society to trust cell phone calling as a technology as motorola made the first successful call in the late 60’s. How long did it take for us to trust that we could connect to the Internet via a mobile device? Is there really a situation that makes us distrust a service provider like AT&T, that makes us switch providers to experience the same issues with the next provider because the technology is just technology.

HMM…well, I know this: I may pay a lot of money each month to AT&T to provide a service, but I am still amazed that I can talk to my mom while driving down the road at 85 mph in SC and she is driving down the road at 85 mph in another state. Technology is kind of cool.

I met with a very cool guy this afternoon as he was working with our group to do some updates on his site: http://digitalliteracyconference.com – his name is Bill Sheskey of Sheskey Learning Solutions.

We started talking about social media, finding new ways to build a tribe/ecosystem around your “cause”. What I found it that he is just as passionate about how we empower and educate “our future” with the skills necessary to be competitive in tomorrow’s workforce…to become the leaders of our tomorrow.

It is more than just writing a book report, a paper, or even a proposal. It has become, how do we use digital literacy to tell stories through visual communication, digital communication, sounds, etc.

I had a breakfast meeting this morning with Dr. Victor Vitanza who heads up the PhD Program at Clemson for Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design. He was talking about some of the PhD Candidates are creating dissertations that bring writing, art, video, and design in one paradigm to illustrate points and build a argument.

I teach a Business Writing Class at Clemson (ENGL 304) and I teach it from an entrepreneurial spin using digital communication tools. The new professional that will come out of the K-12 and collegiate education tracks are embarking on a whole new journey with a set of skills that are far more advanced when it comes to communication.

I think about my sister-in-law who is a student at the College of Charleston, and I sit and watch here multi-task in-front of her laptop. She is surfing the web, watching video on YouTube, listening to music, updating Facebook, while writing a paper for class. The new student is a multitasking student with digital skills that far surpass where I was when I was her age.

Has digital literacy brought to the surface attention span issues that were normally suppressed before this brave new Internet World? What does this mean…or are we having to evolve with the communication strategies of tomorrow?

It is the new world order…how can we continue to empower our students for tomorrows careers, today? How can we continue to reform our educational system to push digital literacy to the next frontier? I don’t know…I guess I am asking myself?

Well…according to John Warner on SwampFox.ws, it is defined as:

“In the annual InnoVenture conference’s sixth year, the economic storm is raging all around us, wrecking havoc with organizations trying to reinvent themselves and launching out very talented people looking to create new ones. In addition to the Innovation Hall with dozens of exhibits by major corporations and universities, and fifteen entrepreneurs making elevator pitches, InnoVenture also features an awesome line-up of global thought leaders.”

Wow…now that is a loaded answer. It is true, the economic storm is raging all around us, and yes organizations are trying to reinvent themselves. How about organizations, entrepreneurs inventing themselves…Innovating and collaborating in one forum, one place, one hall, with many conversations.

How does that conversation happen, well for every action there must be a reaction. How about Dissoi Logoi (a Sophistic writing by an unknown author) – the words are “Greek words for ‘different words.’ The phrase really carries the meaning of contrasting words, and it refers to the ancient rhetorical practice of arguing both sides of an issue. ”

This leads me to think about the first part of InnoVenture…Inno for Innovation. There will be people from all walks of business talking innovation in their contexts. Whether it is Sustainability, Advanced Materials, Entreprised Systems Management…or digital media, social media, logistics, medical devices, or just being an entrepreneur. Different people from different disciplines, different walks of life coming together with their own “rhetorical argument” seeking conversation of opposing thoughts.

We are all a part of innovation by merely walking through the doors at the Carolina First Center in Greenville, SC. Why? Well, it is like being a part of a fraternity, people that you can connect with who understand what it means to push the boundaries, broaden the mind, and engage in a conversation. A concersation that might lead to an idea that has not been considered…listening to those “different words”, words of innovation.

We are “people looking to create new ones”, new ideas, new thoughts, new conversations…we are looking to innovate. I know I am! I hope to engage!

Ever thought about using online video to promote, raise awareness, or distribute a message that is important to a target audience? Well, the experts think you should embrace online video as a professional means to spread your targeted message to your targeted audience.

Video Sharing Market
The market is huge and continually growing. 14.3 billion videos were viewed online in December, 2008 and increased by 13% in February 2009.

“For both startups and Fortune 100 companies, getting on board with online and mobile video is increasingly key to attracting and engaging a fickle audience. The next generation of big-time consumers (those under 18) are already more likely to be watching video on a computer or mobile phone than they are on a traditional television set.”

“Deliver content consistently. There should be a predictable pattern to retain and grow your audience. Sign up for long-term deals, so your audience doesn’t find that you dropped their favorite video content from your site.”

“For both startups and Fortune 100 companies, getting on board with online and mobile video is increasingly key to attracting and engaging a fickle audience. The next generation of big-time consumers (those under 18) are already more likely to be watching video on a computer or mobile phone than they are on a traditional television set.”

Know, engage, and interact with your audience. Understanding exactly who you are targeting with your video content and what their needs are in terms of information or entertainment will help you make a compelling proposition to potential advertisers and ultimately sell ads, especially if you cover a niche topic.

Record year for video content consumption
“How could it not?! Video consumption continues to grow at an astonishing rate. As of October 2008, 13.5 billion videos were watched online. That is a 45% rise on the number watched in October 2007. The availability of super high speed broadband along with more HD video content will drive more people to consume more video online.”

Video monetization becomes reality
“Professionally-produced content, targeted to specific audiences, will see a burst of excitement as advertisers will see this as a safe bet to put their money on. In response to the influx of advertising dollars, video publishers will need scalable platforms with a wide range of performance metrics.”

“The good news is top notch content should eventually stand out from the marginal stuff. And the vast majority of Web content would probably fall into the marginal category, if that. So it’s important to put some extra time and effort into consistently creating good stuff — the kind of content that will turn heads, lead to conversations, and eventually build long lasting relationships. And that’s really not so bad after all, now that I think about it.”

Sources: Mashable.com, Clemson University’s Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurship, and Inc.com Technology