The Keyword is “Social” – The Medium is Just the Means
From the study by Boyd and Ellison
We continue our week-long series on Facebook with a brief look at what ‘social media’ means. We make no claims of thoroughness in but one blog post. Indeed, some have taken entire academic semesters to explore the field. What we hope to present here are some common sense approaches to envisioning and contextualizing the social-media phenomenon of the last 4-5 years. In fact, a quick timeline will help put some perspective on the topic: The first widely accepted social-networking site was ‘SixDegrees.com,’ which was founded in 1998 and closed its site in 2000 during the Dot Com Bust. Though similar sites allowing the posting of personal profiles and the searching and liking of others via one’s profile percolated up in the intervening 2-3 years, it was only in 2003 that services like Last.FM, LinkedIn.com, and MySpace.com took off and the so-called ‘Social Media Revolution’ took off. Twitter was still three years away at that time! In other words, we are all new to this medium, and what sites will survive with which services is still an open question. (Time line taken from the scholarly study “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship,” by Danah M. Boyd, School of Information,University of California-Berkeley; and Nicole B. Ellison, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University. Humans wrote on clay and stone for thousands of years before parchment replaced it for many centuries before paper replaced that some 700 years ago. Social media are still in the zygote stage, by comparison, which makes predicting their mature characteristics almost impossible.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Facebook Has 500 Million Users, Not 500 Million Fans
Yesterday we saw some of the early history of Facebook and how that history might be pumped up by the movie “The Social Network,” due out this fall. The CEO and one of the inventors of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, seems comfortably nonplussed about the movie’s sexy spin on his and his friends’ efforts. But other concerns about the future surely do weigh on the young man who recently watched his website and company surpass 500 million subscribers. In fact, one of the awkward facts about Facebook is that it is by far the most used social-networking site, yet it is also the most griped about. Most recently: changes in privacy settings left users requiring to comb back through settings to opt out of new modes of sharing and even opt back out of what they had previously established as hidden information. Numerous consumer advocacy groups have cried ‘foul!’ and are challenging the practice. The movie might only sour further an already jaded relationship between users and the company.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
For The Week: Social Media Focus On Facebook
Are you one of the 500 million?
A purely alpha-betic writing established itself in the eastern Mediterranean about 3300 years ago, which marked a seminal shift away from ‘pre-history’ and towards documentation, institutional memory, and social media. We will not be tracing the evolution of writing from proto-Sinaic carvings or Phoenician tablets to Adobe’s Creative Suite 5, but we would like to look at the evolution (or what many might call a ‘revolution’) of the social-media behemoth that is Facebook. Though not the first social medium (Don’t forget Napster, especially in its pre/extra-legal days!), it has become the king of the hill with its profiles and searches and synergies with so many other networks (like Twitter). Facebook recently broke 500 million subscribers, and it brags that over 50% of those subscribers are on Facebook at any given time. Impressive numbers and a market teeming with customers, clients, donors, and ad-hoc NGOs.
But Facebook has had growing pains as well. Security and privacy concerns for its users, a plethora of competitors (admittedly, many bubble up and fall away at a speed surprising even in the age of the 24-hour news cycle), and even the possibility that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zukerberg does not even own Facebook. All this week we shall be looking at the Facebook phenomenon, as well as offering some tips and caveats for those considering using the social network as part of their personal and/or professional lives. We begin our saga with the recent media frenzy concerning the Facebook biopic/movie, and the allegations of Facebook having been stolen and/or sold away by Zuckerberg.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Corporate Social Responsibility As A Cause For The Deepwater Horizon Disaster?
Are corporations practicing kindness that can kill? Is BP too devoted to appearing green and ‘beyond petroleum’ to get down to the tricky work of deepwater drilling for oil? What about Massey mining concern and the disaster from April? And perhaps Wall Street Banks were too focused on gender equality not to study the bubble they were pumping up? So suggests Chrystia Freeland in a column in The Washington Post this past week. Surely corporate leaders can walk and chew gum, no?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Followup On Friday’s Post About BP’s And Apple’s PR Problems
On Friday we reviewed the ways BP tried/failed to control the messaging about the explosion and blowout of their/Transocean’s/Halliburton’s ‘Deepwater Horizon’ platform. Numerous pundits, as we noted, believed that BP was fighting a losing battle anyway, and should have coordinated a contingency PR strategy. Perhaps one that stated the facts without suggesting either optimism or hubris – and kept the figureheads out of the limelight whenever possible. In that posting, we compared BPs terrible gaffes with Apple’s efforts to get ahead of ‘Antennagate,’ a reference to reception/antenna problems on their latest iPhone 4. Over the weekend, we found a bit more material that bears thinking about concerning these two ongoing public-relations struggles. We stress again: the two issues are entirely different (BP still should be held accountable for the deaths of eleven workers – iPhone users are occasionally dropping calls when inadvertently using the so-called ‘Death Grip‘ of the antenna), but watching two superpowers in their industries wrangle with their public images is informative for the mission-based organization also wanting to present a forthright and optimistic message to the public.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
BP/Haliburton/Transocean Blowout Recapped – What About The PR Blowout?
The explosion on 20 April killed eleven workers
BP’s third effort to cap the destroyed Deepwater Horizon well seems to have been successful, as pressure tests have not done further damage to the emergency mechanisms. As of posting (the afternoon of 16 July), the BP Global website stresses the cleanup of the Gulf without immediate mention of the successful capping done yesterday. Discussion of the cap is found via the link “Gulf of Mexico Response Homepage.” Such an improvement in the situation might deserve mention on each and every page of BP Global’s site, but this post is not going to question BP’s website design. Nevertheless, the successful capping of the well (touch wood), serves as a telling moment to skim some of the thoughts that have been shared about BP’s myriad PR blowouts since the disaster happened. Perhaps the best known of those is @BPGlobalPR as led by @BPTerry and Leroy Stick. We have often encouraged our readers to follow them through this disaster, at least to enjoy some black humor (and offer donations) through the crisis. But many in the communications and media arena have responded to the ways BP has tried to marshal the PR gaffes and crises it keeps finding itself in – the most recent of which are allegations that BP influenced the British Government to allow the only Lockerbie Bomber held in Britain to return to Libya in an effort to secure an off-shore drilling contract with Quadafi. What ‘lessons’ can be learned from these fiascoes?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
President Obama’s New AIDS Initiative Posted On WhiteHouse.gov
Yesterday, President Barack Obama shifted emphasis from his predecessor on yet another issue, as he announced the administration’s launch of the “Natinal HIV/AIDS Community Discussions” to be hosted by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). “HIV remains an serious challenge to the American people and I am committed to developing an effective National HIV/AIDS Strategy,” said President Obama. “The National HIV/AIDS Community Discussions will provide an opportunity for members of the public to give their input on how we can best address this crucial issue. With the insights from communities across the country, we will have a strategy that is focused on the goals of reducing HIV incidence, getting people living with HIV/AIDS into care and improving health outcomes, and reducing HIV-related health disparities.”
The change of emphasis pertains to a stress on helping those who have the disease as well as educating those who participate in activities considered likely to spread the disease. The previous administration stressed abstinence, which certainly helps the spread of STDs, but also tended to sweep aside discussions of treatment or care for those who contracted them. Early reactions seem mostly cautiously optimistic.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore Continues To Revitalize Inner Harbor With Residential Park
The revitalization of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor began in fits and starts as early as the late 1950s by Mayor Thomas J. D’Alesandro, Jr. Though technically a ‘harbor,’ the specific area known as the Inner Harbor was always too shallow for ocean-bound vessels, oven those built in the early nineteenth century. The Inner Harbor thus served as a rump of warehouses and cheap housing for laborers who had to travel a couple of miles east to get to the docks holding the big cargo ships. Almost as soon as the last medium-sized ships stopped coming into the eastern/inner harbor in the late 1950s, work went into finding other uses for the space. The first round of improvements mostly consisted of tearing things down and creating open spaces that could be used when necessary, but hardly grounds (no pun intended) for economic vitality. Rebuilding came in the 1980s, with a focus on tourism and attractions (the National Aquarium, Harbor Place Hotels, a myriad of restaurants, and the Maryland Science Center. Most of this rebuilding was along the eastern rim of the shallow harbor, but housing took a bit longer to enjoy a similar renaissance.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Americans Love Bargains, Unless The Bargains Involve Health Care
Few discussions inspire such vehemence as the discussion about health care in the US. We have been wrestling with what to do with it since the Great War, and we tend to talk big about changes every four years that we have national elections before we go back to (grudgingly?) accepting what we have. Such raving leftists as President Harry Truman called for a national insurance plan that would cover anyone who wished to join. Such level-headed and scientifically-minded groups as the American Medical Association denounced it as the thin wedge of Communism. The debate has see-sawed over the decades between a debate about lost productivity to illness and the individual’s responsibility to earn health care. Of course, it was hot campaign issue in 2008, with then Candidate Obama trying to move the debate away from a social-right to an economic necessity. Though health-care ‘reform’ was passed this past spring, opposition was vociferous and most Republicans are still planning to use that opposition as a catalyst for their fall campaigns.
Health care is about as personal-yet-public a topic as one can imagine. Health seems like one of those things we will sacrifice anything to retain, and putting mere dollars on our wellbeing seems tawdry. By the same token, the business of America is business. And health care is a business – to the tune of some 17% of GDP in 2009 (though the percentage probably reflects an overall reduction in GDP rather than a ballooning of health care expenditure). What do we pay? And what do we get for what we pay for?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Charitable Giving In US Shrinks But Does Not Collapse In Face Of Recession & Oil Spill
Americans give over 1.5% of GDP to charitable organizations, according to International Comparisons of Charitable Giving by the ‘Charities Aid Foundation’ in England. Such generosity is almost double the next nation’s rate of giving: England with .73%. Such willingness to give to those less fortunate is a wonderful quality about America, and surely stems in part from the fact that ours is a nation that was built by peoples moving into new territories with unproven technologies and with religious motives to help neighbors in the grand experiment. Moreover, the incredible wealth generated by the US (the present economic crises notwithstanding) has given opportunity for many to give back – the incredible sums given by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in recent months being only the most talked about. England’s coalition government, on the other hand, is trying to spur charitable donations from among the country’s richest to help offset the drastic cuts required in the government’s budget over the next few years.
Though Americans’ willingness to give, even during hard times, is one of the ways we have been able to keep working toward a ‘more perfect union,’ experts are warning that charitable donations will get knocked down severely as the Great Recession continues, and as the full economic and environmental costs of the BP/Haliburton/TransOcean disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are realized.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Constitutional Balance of Powers Helps Avoid Tyranny of Majority (and Minority)
The framers of the US Constitution wanted to establish a number of levels (the document assumes local governments and outlines the national government’s inability to interfere in the jurisdictional prerogatives of the states) and branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial). One of their ideals was to avoid the sort of monarchic or aristocratic amalgamations of legislator/judge that ruled in early modern England. The design was also meant to try to ensure that no individual institution within the government could unilaterally act. Such a system has launched a good number of debates and conflicts (oh, and a Civil War). And we are about to have another one that will have a significant influence on the specific issue of (illegal) immigration and on the general issue of which level of government is responsible for which kinds of policies. The US Justice Department is suing the State of Arizona over its recent law requiring the enforcement of federal immigration laws and the expedited deportation of any suspected illegals (SB 1070). The argument is that immigration is the purview of the national government. What is the background to this dispute and who will win?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
States Key To Speeding Up Citizens’ On-Line Connectivity
Welcome back from the Independence-Day Weekend. We hope yours was a festive and safe one to celebrate the birth of a new nation striving for ‘a more perfect union.’ Not perfect, but ever striving. This week, we will look at a few of the ways we might be heading toward ‘more perfect union’ and ways we might be letting ourselves down. Today: High-Speed Internet
“The Pew Center on the States” has recently published a report on how states might be the most important lynch-pins to build a ‘national’ high-speed internet network. The report can be found at the website FoundationCenter.org. The report begins by pointing out the problem to be solved, despite the fact that the sheer numbers seems impressive. “Today, broadband is available to about 95 percent of Americans. But that figure masks wide geographic, economic and demographic disparities, and many experts say both the quality and speed of service in the united States need to be improved to keep pace with other nations. and only 65 percent of Americans actually have broadband at home. The remainder— approximately 100 million Americans—say they cannot afford it, do not know how to use it or believe it is irrelevant to their lives, among other factors.” We would suggest that ‘irrelevant to their lives’ is the thorniest of possible issues, as it suggests people believe they need not access information. Imagine, in another context, 45% percent of people in the 1910s not seeing why newspapers might be relevant?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Happy Fourth of July! May You Have (Only) Monday Off
We wish you a joyous and safe Fourth of July weekend holiday, with plenty of family, friends, fireworks, and good eats!
And as a mark of (vaguely) good news to roll into the weekend, the unemployment rate fell in June from 9.7% to 9.5%. The fall is the result of a unique trade-off, as over 200,000 jobs were lost as those temporarily hired by the Census were released from their positions. But the private sector also added 83,000 to bring about the slight reduction in overall unemployment. Though good news, arguments over continuing unemployment benefits, in the midst of other budgetary concerns, might prove to be the debate of the next couple of election cycles: what IS ‘small government’?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Sad News From Two Nonprofit Groups
Nonprofits have felt the strain of the shrinking economy, as we are all aware. And usually such stresses are felt with a curtailment in giving and/or the trimming of services. Of course the ripple effect to those most needing the work of the given nonprofits and charities are perhaps the most troublesome results. Nevertheless, we have come across two sad news stories concerning charity groups who must deal with stresses of different magnitudes caused by different crises.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore Finding Ways To Urban Renewal That Do Not Adversely Dislocate
In so many ways Baltimore spent much of the second half of the twentieth century as a city that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory: A vibrant industrial and trading city with a notable financial sector as well (in the decade after World War II), a city of some 2 million people who enjoyed the second most extensive trolley-car network in the US, a city with a pennant-winning baseball team (Yes, it was that long ago…). But by the late 1960s, the city was riven with racial violence, ‘white flight,’ and the secretly organized dismantling of much of its public transport for the sake of union jobs in a GM plant (now greatly reduced and outside the city). Needless, to say, the Orioles remain comfortably buried in the cellar of the AL East. Fortunately, he most recent efforts to revitalize the city, with the overwhelming input of Johns Hopkins University (disclaimer: the blogger is a graduate of said institution), are drawing support, ever-growing funds, and even praise — all of which deserve our attention.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Grants and Funding, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
BP Appoints New Public Face Yet Continues To Pump Out The Sludge
No, we are not returning to @BPGlobalPR and its efforts to keep the BP/Deepwater Horizon/Haliburton disaster at the forefront of our minds and our punchlines. BP is doing a fair job on its own. Most recently, The Wall Street Journal got hold of the BP’s own internal newsletter “Planet BP” and its efforts to spin the spill as something of a lifeline for the non-fishing sector of the economy: “Much of the region’s [nonfishing boat] businesses — particularly the hotels — have been prospering because so many people have come here from BP and other oil emergency response teams,” another report says. Indeed, one tourist official in a local town makes it clear that “BP has always been a very great partner of ours here…We have always valued the business that BP sent us.” So far so good for them…
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Elizabeth Warren Still Fighting For Consumer Protection
Almost a year ago, Elizabeth Warren began a focused campaign to bring consumer protections to the discussion about financial and credit reform. She is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University, and (yet?) chose to introduce her position on such protections via the following YouTube video:
That was a year ago. Where is she now and how is she reaching out with her ideas? More importantly, how goes the move to create such an agency?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Tweet This: USA! USA!
Landon Donvan sends the US to the next round of the World Cup
For the first time since 1930 the US national soccer/football team won its World Cup qualifying group with a dramatic, last-minute, 1-0 win over Algeria. Soccer skeptics might immediately assume yet another yawning 1-0 match. But if those skeptics are also baseball fans, they might assume a great pitchers’ duel. In this instance, we had a great goalkeepers’ duel as Tim Howard of the US and Faouzi Chaouchi of Algeria were both kept busy with shots against the posts and breakaways. Indeed, it was as exciting and flowing match as could be hoped for. And as we predicted, social media kept the excitement flowing to ever widening audiences.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Jobs Report Suggests Slight Or Slighter Growth Depending on Source
The release of the government’s jobs report this past week was cause for about as much speculation as Apple Inc.’s World Wide Developers’ Conference is this week. And just as people pretty much knew about Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone weeks ago, so people were pretty sure what the jobs report would look like before it was made official. The jobs report needed contextualization within the economic disasters we have endured for the last three years. We will leave contextualization of Apple’s WWDC and new iPhone for another post.
Job Losses and Gains Since Jan. 2010
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
“BP Cares” About Public Relations, Though ‘Public’ Seems A Sticking Point
Like we said, the great satire of @BPGlobalPR forces one to hesitate before laughing or crying, unsure which is the proper response. Leroy Stick continues to lambast people’s mushy responses to this little setback. I mean, “So YOU want to see pictures of dead animals covered in oil and WE are the bad guys!? Sick bastards. #bpcares” (3 July). Yes, BP continues to fumble its way to a solving of the oil gush, and the stories that are beginning to leak out about how BP continues to fumble the publicity statements are almost as alarming. Unlike the faulty deep water well, we have the technologies and experience to handle press releases, do we not?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Remembering Memorial Day
Remember the Fallen
First and foremost, let us take a moment to remember those who have served in the country’s armed services. Whatever your politics, whatever your position on US foreign policy, whatever your position on the contentious issues of Afghanistan and Iraq, surely you will agree that our service men and women sacrifice a lot – if not their lives – so that most of us can kick back, have a day off, and openly complain about or praise our politics, foreign policy, and interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As for the day itself: The first Memorial Day was on May 30th, 1868, though it was called “Decoration Day.” The holiday was declared by Civil War General John Logan. General Logan wanted the day to help mend the relationship between the North and the South after the Civil War. He stated that he chose May 30th for two reasons: First, it was a day that no Civil-War battles took place. Second, he was confident that flowers would be in bloom all over the United States by the end of May.
Have a happy and safe Memorial Day.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Kicking A (Housing) Market While It’s Down
We are not a glum group at MKCREATIVE by any means. We just believe ‘forewarned is forearmed.’ Yesterday we discussed the local (read: Baltimore-Washington region) housing market, which did not enjoy a notable bubble and (thus?) has not suffered a violent bust. Nevertheless, the region is seeing a striking deflation in home values as foreclosures bite into more and more families. Anecdotal and personal evidence has seen not a few houses go from lived-in to empty to for sale in a few months, victims of foreclosure. In this region’s case, the problems stem not so much from over leveraged home loans made to people told/believing the market would never again shrink but from the fact that the Recession and unemployment (or worse, the terrible and larger problem of underemployment) continue to erode people’s savings and thus their abilities to keep up with their mortgages. Two years into The Great Recession has left many at the end of their abilities to pay, so their homes join the growing list of foreclosures (as reported yesterday, 35% of the homes for sale through April are foreclosed, compared to 22% from last year in Baltimore alone). A short-sold home gives no relief to the home owner from creditors, of course, as creditors get to buy back the house on the cheap and hold it until the market improves so they can sell it again.
Ah, but when will that happen?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Panera Restaurants Want to Give Back; Follows The Music Industry (But Where?)
Pay What You Can, In Some Places
Bruce Horovitz of USA Today Newspaper has reported on the conversion of a Panera/St. Louis Bread Company Café (the original name of the store that became the Panera franchise) to a pay-what-you-can enterprise:
A sign at the entrance says: “Take what you need, leave your fair share.” Customers who can’t pay are asked to donate their time. The cafe opened Sunday and will operate seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
While the store does have cashiers, they don’t collect money. They simply hand each customer a receipt that says what their food would cost at a conventional Panera. The receipt directs customers with cash to donation boxes (there are five in the store). Cashiers do accept credit cards.
The founder of the Panera chain, Ron Shaich (who just stepped down as the company’s CEO) hopes to create a non-profit ‘Panera Foundation’ with such cafés in each of its markets across the country. From Mr. Horovitz’s interview: “It’s a fascinating psychological question,” says Shaich, who says he’s dreamed of doing something like this for years. “There’s no pressure on anyone to leave anything. But if no one left anything, we wouldn’t be open long.” So Shaich is trying his hometown first, then taking what he learns throughout the franchise. Though some are betting against the plan.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Deadline Approaching To Register For IRS’s New Tax-Exempt Status
On 17 May many smaller charities might find themselves in post-tax-exempt status as the IRS reconfigures its guidelines and filing expectations for these groups. According to Grant Williams at ‘The Chronicle of Philanthropy,’ “Nobody really knows for sure how many organizations will target=”_blank” lose their tax exemptions, but several research groups estimate that more than 300,000 organizations listed on the Internal Revenue Service’s rolls ultimately could be affected.”
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
BP’s Oil Spill in Gulf Looks Like Déjà Vu All Over Again
Cleaning Efforts in the
Gulf of Mexico
No, we are not referring to the many other oil spills and cleanup operations that have happened in recent memory. We are talking about the dance the BP Corporation is leading to get around being blamed for the spill, and the righteous indignation Congress people are getting themselves lathered up to look like they will make BP suffer the consequences. Just as they did a week ago when Chairman Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs was the whipping boy as Congress people needed to look like they were going to do something about their contributors’ greed. Did we mention it is a midterm election year?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Consumer Protection Agency Drifts
From Public Discourse
The media (with good reason) have concentrated recently on the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the pseudo-grilling Goldman Sachs got by Congresspeople desperate to look tough to their constituents, and the British election that has resulted in a hung Parliament. Discussion of the formation of a Consumer Protection Agency has drifted off the radar, which we believe is unfortunate. Indeed, yesterday’s plunge-and-slight-recovery on Wall Street surely argues for the need of such an agency because so much of our economy runs on our faith in trades done in traders’ computers on our behalf. The notion of such an agency is hardly foreign to our economy. Every state has has one form or another of a CPA ready to hear appeals and offer services. But will the states lead the way to the federal level, as California did for car emissions?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
The Bailout of Greece, E.U. Monetary Policy, And You
Only six years ago Greece seemed to have returned to its golden age: Host of the Summer Olympics and European Nations’ Cup Champions in football (er, ‘soccer’). But the bill has been delivered, and no one seems willing or capable of paying. The economic and political unrest turned violent recently, as the government continued to impose tax hikes and slashes on public spending. Greece’s debt, ranks it as the 16th most in-debt nation as measured against its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (170.5%) (the US is 20th with 96.5% debt-to-GDP and Ireland tops the table at 1312%. No, we did not forget a period in that number. But then why is the Greek problem the one grabbing the headlines? And what might it have to do with you?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
End-of-Week/Quarter Economic News:
Glass Half Full Or…?
Don’t call us stupid. We know it’s the economy. It is of central importance to our political, philanthropic, aesthetic, and working decisions. So for the end of this week MKCREATIVE tapped into the bright minds at The Atlantic Magazine as some of its economists commented on the recent numbers released for Q1 2010. The numbers beg for the rhetorical question of whether the glass is half full or half empty, for some of the numbers are wonderful, though, as Derek Thompson also points out, we are still dragging a ‘heavy anchor,’ namely, the housing sector.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Public Option in Health Care Still On The Table, Because We Aren’t Getting What We Pay For
The Atlantic Magazine sponsored a forum on health care on Monday in Washington DC, at which Henry Waxman gave the keynote address. According to the write-up of the moderator, Atlantic editor Joshua Green, the public option remains the go-to strategy if the current plan of establishing insurance exchanges does not create the sorts of health-care coverage and competition demanded. Mr. Green also pointed out that such monumental legislation takes on its own life, which means it needs constant monitoring and reconsideration as the US healthcare environment changes. To assist in that monitoring, Gerard F. Anderson and Patricia Markovich of Johns Hopkins University (with support from The Commonwealth Fund) have recently posted a statistical report entitled “Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2008.” Though statistical, the report presents a series of easy-to-grasp comparative charts that compare spending and outcomes of a number of advanced western economies/countries.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
UK Election: Three way clashes in historic TV debate
Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Gordon Brown in TV Prime ministerial debate
Gordon Brown and David Cameron have clashed over spending cuts, tax and political reform in the UK’s first prime ministerial TV debate.
The Labour leader went on the attack against Mr Cameron during the historic 90-minute encounter, accusing him of “airbrushing” planned spending cuts.
The Tory leader accused Mr Brown of trying to “frighten” voters.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said neither of them were being “straight” about the scale of cuts needed.
BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson said the biggest impact of the contest will be the insertion of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats into the nation’s consciousness but nothing the other leaders said had fundamentally altered the general election debate.
The abiding memory of the contest could be “the other leaders saying ‘I agree with Nick,” he added.
Two opinion polls taken immediately after the debate, by YouGov and Populus respectively, suggested Mr Clegg won.
The debate on ITV1 was the first of three over the coming weeks, in the run up to the general election on 6 May. (more…)
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Written by: Marco K.
A (Giga)Bit More on Net Neutrality Debate In Wake of Appeals Court Ruling
The decision from the Federal Appeals Court continues to reverberate within the news cycle, as debate continues about the viability (or mythology) of neutrality in the marketplace and how sternly the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should oversee the industry. For those of you wanting to hear a lively discussion of the issue, a bit of its history, and proponents from both sides of the decision, may we recommend today’s one-hour discussion on The Diane Rhem Show?
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Conference/Congress, Marketing, National/International, Opinion, Politics, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Net Neutrality Loses (First?) Appeal
The MKCREATIVE blog has posted on issues of net neutrality, network infrastructures, and the impending Google gigabit network for some fortunate community in these United States. So our antennae were twitching as the decision/appeal concerning the FCC’s statute of ‘net neutrality.’ And the court has decided that the FCC’s statutes are unconstitutional. Here is a nice introduction from The Wall Street Journal (including the fact that the pundits interviewed do not expect the Obama Administration to spend political capital appealing the appeal:
Of course, the issue is not resolved (any more than health care is ‘resolved’).
Popularity: 1% | Category National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Recent Developments in MA Show Economic Opportunities and Pressures on Community Housing
The Neighborhood Housing Service of Springfield Massachusetts has recently sponsored the building of low-income modular homes in their Old Hill neighborhood. The project is notable for at least two great reasons: First, the Springfield NHS built the homes on what had been ‘trash strewn vacant lots,’ so the entire community enjoys aesthetic and economic boosts. Second, the modular buildings used for the homes have inspired the NHS board to “work strictly in modular … we’re very pleased with the quality of the work.” Thus even low-cost housing will include bamboo-wood floors (bamboo being easily sustainable/replaceable) and central heating and air. A growing market in such modular housing could help keep prices down, even as further improvements are made.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, News and Current Affairs, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Saving Money, Reducing CO2, and Getting Profitable IS That Easy
Shut down your machine!
The Ford Motor Company did not require the same sorts of bailouts that the General Motors conglomerate did last year. Its family-run structure likely kept its owners, managers, and designers on their toes because they had their own ‘skins-in-the-game.’ Now TreeHugger.com posts a story about how the company went ahead and saved another cool $1.2 million by, uh, turning off the computers at its headquarters at night and on weekends. The decision is rewarded thusly, according to TreeHugger: “By centrally controlling the power settings on the company’s computers, they are saving an estimated $1.2 million annually and keeping between 16,000 and 25,000 metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.”
Popularity: unranked | Category Automobiles, Climate Change, Community, Conference/Congress, Greening, News and Current Affairs, Site Administration, Sustainability, Technology, Urban Farming | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
ACORN Shuts Down and/or Breaks Up
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now closes national offices.
The board of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now announced today that its national organization was shutting down operations, though state-level community organizations may (and surely will) continue to function. The move likely was, as Frank James at NPR‘s blog put it, a “mercy killing.” The national organization faced charges of bending rules on early elections leading up to the presidential election of 2008, and its situation got only more precarious after the infamous ‘pimp’ video apparently showed ACORN employees assisting a self-proclaimed (albeit undercover former employee) pimp get a mortgage loan for a single-family home he wanted to turn into his brothel.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
We Know You Know, But: Health Care Reform Passed Last Night
It has proven to be about as contentious as whether to override the Articles of Confederation in 1788-1789 into a federal constitution, but laaaate last night H.R. 3590 by a vote of 219-212. The vote was exactly party partisan. President Obama responded with reference to the Constitution and to Franklin D. Roosevelt:
Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests. We didn’t give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges. We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.
John Boehner, Republican Representative from Ohio and House Minority Leader responded with calls for fear:
Americans are out there are making sacrifices and struggling to build a better future for their kids. And over the last year as the damn-the-torpedoes outline of this legislation became more clear, millions lifted their voices, and many for the first time, asking us to slow down, not try to cram through more than the system could handle. … In this time of recession, they wanted us to focus on jobs, not more spending, not more government, certainly not more taxes. But what they see today frightens them. They’re frightened because they don’t know what comes next. They’re disgusted, because they see one political party closing out the other from what should be a national solution. And they are angry. They are angry that no matter how they engage in this debate, this body moves forward against their will. Shame on us. Shame on each and every one of you who substitutes your will and your desires above those of your fellow countrymen.
Popularity: 1% | Category Community, Healthcare, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Homeowners Getting Federal Help
- Image via Wikipedia
The mortgage bubble that Wall Street players were puffing up and were betting would break has, of course, brought down almost everything else with it (save investor bonuses). The fallout was one of the many catalysts for the sweeping political change of the elections of 2008. One of the loudest political debates was over whether federal recovery and stimulus money should go to banks and investment houses who could not expect repayment on their loans or to homeowners whose hastily purchased and heavily leveraged houses were suddenly underwater. Though the debate continues, many of us seem already to have accepted the inevitable: banks and investment houses have lobbyists, home owners have bills. But some efforts to improve the situation on the ground can be found.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
More Seminars Coming Our Way
- Image by new economics foundation via Flickr
We have gotten still more notices about various seminars in the region pertinent to the greening and mission-based sectors of the economy, so we wanted to continue to share the details on some of the news. The Big Picture remains the opportunity to build networks and gain new skills while the economy might be slowing your daily internal projects.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Conference/Congress, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Technology | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Educating Ourselves To Expand Opportunities
Optimists often argue that a recession might move many out of work, but that time can be used advantageously by investing in some education and training in new skills. Certainly the present economic environment offers (too) many the opportunity to get trained for new work or to expand networks within their chosen fields. So let’s get a head start on the recovery by looking at a couple of seminars and networking events that have come to our attention. If folks get involved in similar such events in their own localities, we might find that we have all given the economy a decent push to start the recovery we’re training for…
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Conference/Congress, News and Current Affairs | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Studies on Health and Family Stability Thru Recession
The ‘Great Recession’ has been with us long enough now that medium-term information is giving policy makers and think tanks information to discuss long-term changes in the American economy and society. We have already reported on a few of these, and more will becoming out over the coming months. Today we look at a report (PDF) by HealthyAmericans.org and a recent article in The Atlantic Monthly magazine. Chilling reading, to be sure, but being well educated on the subject should be a goal of everyone because we are all responsible for our own health and how our health care demands affect others.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Banks Back to Profitability (& Bonuses) But Homeowners Still Drowning
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) likely kept the banking industry afloat, and few doubt the necessity to keep the banking industry solvent for the sake of functioning markets and businesses. The bailout began under the president who encouraged the housing bubble in the first place, and was accepted by the Obama Administration as a necessity, albeit an unpleasant one. But over the past couple of months, the present administration has spent much of its ‘political capital’ trying to explain the value of the $700+ billion dollar program while trying to move toward direct help to the very people the TARP was originally claiming to support: homeowners whose houses were mortgaged beyond the (falling) market value (thus, ‘troubled assets’). What issues confront the homeowner at this time?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Like Rome Before the Fall? Not Yet.
Article by Piers Brendon. Originally published in the New York Times.
Vice President Joe Biden complains that he is being driven crazy because so many people are betting on America’s demise. Reports of it are not just exaggerated; they are, he insists, ridiculous. Like President Obama, he will not accept “second place” for the United States. Despite the present crippling budget deficit and the crushing burden of projected debt, he denies that the country is destined to fulfill a “prophecy that we are going to be a great nation that has failed because we lost control of our economy and overextended.” (more…)
Popularity: unranked | Category National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Marco K.
The Social Costs of the Housing Crash: Hispanic Communities in NYC
A foreclosed home in Jamaica Plains, NY
84% of all homes in area in similar danger
Last week we posted a couple of reports pointing to the relative stability in the housing market that Baltimore has ‘enjoyed’ and how the faltering economy seems to have spurred growth in the non-profit sector. Today we are reminded of how important the qualifier ‘relative’ is. Optimists and bank executives largely believe the economy has bottomed out, but the social ramifications (and, likely more of the economic ramifications in the commercial real estate sector) are still to be dealt with. Many of the social tensions that the economic crisis has wound up do their worst damage on those communities already strained by marginalization: recent immigrants and the working poor.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, News and Current Affairs, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Google’s portfolio now to include electricity distribution
Wow. Whether it was the boom & bust of Buzz! (and probable resurrection), the Request For Proposal to establish a gigabit fiberoptic network (NPR news story), or the latest move for Google to purchase and resell electricity, the search giant has been inspiring tweets and blogs of all stripes the last few weeks. Our blog has reported some of these developments, and the most recent Googlegrowth deserves mention as well. What might the distribution by Google mean for the non-profit and mission-based sector of the economy?
Popularity: 1% | Category Greening, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Technology | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore’s Crisis: Is a Sustainable Resurgence Possible in 2010?
The community/public-service website LiveBaltimore.com recently announced a free workshop entitled “Is Now The Right Time to Buy a Home?” The website then had to announce that the tsnownamis of 2010 have forced postponement. Keep an eye on the site, as LiveBaltimore will soon post the rescheduled event. Which begs the question, IS now the right time?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Google’s Experimental Fiberoptic Network: Coming to Your Community?
Google, makers of Android, Chrome, GMail & GMaps (merely touching the surface), has announced plans for a 1 GB/sec fiberoptic network, and the company has petitioned for communities to present Requests for Information (RFI) by 26 March. According to Google’s press release, the company has been working with federal agencies since last summer to channel ARRA (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) monies into developing fiberoptic cable, and are now striking out on their own to develop a test-case. Could your community be that beneficiary? Town and city governments are encouraged to apply, of course, but the site also points out that individuals can nominate their communities as well:
Popularity: unranked | Category Hardware Review, News and Current Affairs, Technology | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Voting against our interests
Last week the BBC posted an intriguing synopsis of the tendency of a majority of Americans to vote against their economic interests. A classic example (though not referred to in this particular article) was the general support for the Bush Administration’s tax cuts, though less than 4% of the population directly benefited from them. Though we all periodically act “against” our own self-interest, analysts are wondering about the political fallout of such decisions at the national level.
Popularity: unranked | Category National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D