The same thing as Smith College, Global Post, and Starbucks have:
My Facebook Wall status updates.
Social media is changing the way we see the world, helping us make connections with other people in ways that inform us, allowing us to go places we couldn’t otherwise. What we do with that information, how we filter and exchange it, helps us be better citizens of the world, open to the exchange of ideas.
Antarctica: I get FB updates from Smith College, my alma mater. The college posts notices about what alumnae and faculty members are doing, and today they included a link to Christina Arrison’s blog from McMurdo Station in Antarctica: http://iciest.wordpress.com/
Arrison graduated almost thirty years after I did, so Smith is our only connection. Without it, I wouldn’t be enjoying her enthusiasm and insights about living in such a remote area. I have no intention or inclination to ever live or work there, but I like knowing about it.
Water Buffalo: I took two journalism courses at Harvard University Extension this past fall, one of which was taught by Andrew Meldrum, an internationally known and respected journalist. He was the last foreign correspondent in Zimbabwe, and has written a book about his experiences, Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe (Grove Press, 2006). I highly recommend it, particularly as Mugabe continues to be in the news.
Meldrum is currently a senior editor at Global Post (www.globalpost.com), an online international news agency which relies on citizen journalism to report on world events. Many U.S. news organizations have closed their foreign bureaus and have curtailed their budgets for international correspondence, so Global Post is providing much needed coverage.
Today’s Global Post FB update did not mention water buffalo. Instead, it highlighted an article about “Avatar” and accusations in Russia that it had been plagarized - falsely, it seems. Yesterday, a FB friend had posted a link to Peter Sagal’s blog commenting on the movie, which I have not seen, so I clicked on the link to find out more about it.
One thing led to another on the site, and I found myself checking out an article about water buffalo. I’m allergic to cow’s milk, and love buffalo mozzarella because it has significantly less allergens for me, so I like cooking with it. I’m also interested in multimedia - since I was assigned to do one for Meldrum’s class - so I was interested to see the one that accompanied the article: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/italy/090717/making-buffalo-mozarella
Break Dancing: I’m a fan of Starbucks coffee, and get the FB updates for coupons and special offers. Starbucks does more than post about its products. It also posts about social issues it supports. Today, the post had a link to a video about break dancing and youth activism: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=261232040814&ref=nf
Checking out the video got me interested in the organization behind it, Youth Venture. That led me to the organization behind Youth Venture, Ashoka. And now, I can let you know about them, too: http://www.ashoka.org/story/6472
This is viral marketing at its best.
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