The Technology Toe Test

I probably didn't explain in my original post why I've created this blog: it's one of our technology assignments. For marks. (No capitals here, you'll notice...but this doesn't mean I 'm not shouting).

We’re required to comment each week on aspects of PR & Technology, but my fellow students, mean age 23 (see that, Derek?), have forgotten more about technology than I’m likely ever to know. Which means the smart move is to leave the more informed, expert critiquing of the subject to them.

I’ve decided my blog’s usp will be to comment on PR & Technology but, from an over-50s perspective. (Strategic approach to study, Derek!) And if this sounds a bit one-foot-in-the-grave’ish, trust me, I ain’t dead yet.

Au contraire, stumbling around the technological maze is proving to be a gob-smacking adventure and, whilst the resulting information overload can be an uncomfortable experience, it beats the hell out of thinking I know everything – which really would be one-foot-in-the-grave territory. Instead, here I am, dipping a toe in the technology pool.

Hackers

So what have I learned this week? Well, I want to thank Manuel Castells (The Internet Galaxy) for changing my view of hackers – which I now realise owed more to reading of the red tops: ‘Hackers sabotage world bank accounts…steal nuclear secrets…create airline chaos’ than it did to reality.

They’re bloody heroes! Brilliant, dedicated, passionate, sharing and co-operative – eschewing financial reward in favour of peer group recognition and embarrassing governments and corporations who aren’t entirely sold on the principle of free speech. Goooo, hackers! (You think this is a simplistic view of hackers? Give me a break – I’m still in my technology honeymoon period.)

Second Life

Moving right along, I step, all unsuspecting, into Second Life. Until this week, I’d assumed that ‘The Matrix’ had been a magnificent figment of some writer’s wild imagination. Now I realise he was just taking the whole virtual world scenario to its logical conclusion, with thousands, possibly millions of individuals permanently logged on and loving it, in a non-existent life.

My first 30 minutes of trawling through SL related websites proved a surreal experience, mostly because high-profile businesses in the real world are fighting for entry visas and some now hold their business meetings in that virtual environment…while posing as nurses and crocodiles. (You couldn’t make it up.)

SL is presently virtually inhabited by 4.5 million people worldwide, who are represented in that world by their personally created alter-egos or ‘avatars’. The residents own the rights to their digital creations, so they can buy, sell and trade with other residents. They can also have sex with other residents (some of whom aren’t even human) any time and anywhere they fancy. Blue Peter it ain’t.

It seems there are lots of great careers to be had in SL; you can be a party or wedding planner, a tattooist, an aerospace engineer, a private detective or a hug maker (don’t ask). And there’s money in that there hugging.

Now for the scary bit. SL has its own currency – The Linden dollar – which can be converted into US dollars at online Linden dollar exchanges. Already, the website supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions – and when a whole 16 acre island can be theirs for just $1,675 and monthly island maintenance is a paltry $295, you can see why SLrs are keen to part with their money. (Did I just type that? Am I going mad?)

Can I see the potential for PR with this technology? Only entirely. When people are willing to buy non-existent islands with real money and blokes murder each other in the real world because of some jealous love triangle that unfolded in SL over a sexy female avatar (whose real-world self is probably a six foot, hairy, knuckle-dragging car mechanic) I can only think this is very fertile ground for any PR who has a message to diffuse and who wants to engage directly with stakeholders. The trick, I guess, will be identifying your publics, since most of Second Life’s inhabitants are working hard to be anyone, or anything, rather than themselves.

Social Media

Removing my docking arm from my portal…I take a little peek (and possibly a poke) at the whirlwind that is Social Media. For a chilling moment, I’m convinced that everything I’m presently striving to learn about PR has become somehow redundant, as I read scathing attacks on the more traditional aspects of this profession. With consummate timing, Derek cautions us that anyone who tells us PR is dead, long live Internet PR…is probably trying to sell us something. Oh…you are so, so right, Derek. For more, read my next post.

Class Act

That’s the PR and Technology bit sorted (marks, please!). I started this blog by describing University life for the mature missus and I think that’s worth continuing…

We’re asked to come armed with cameras to take pictures for our blog. I keep my camera under wraps until the last moment. It’s about 25cms long by 15cms high and it weighs about half a kilo, so you can understand my embarrassment.

But hey – it’s digital. And it’s got a real spider trapped in the viewfinder; so eat your heart out. Actually, the ‘spider’ is, I suspect, a cat flea. But since the girlies in class are already yelping about the spider monster, I feel the flea thing is ‘way too much information.

‘Amazing – it’s got its own hard disk’, says Derek, waving an After-Eight sized wafer in the air. ‘That would once have cost around five hundred quid and I used to seriously desire one’ he adds, popping said disk back into my Canon. ‘Of course, it’s obsolete now.’ How to make a girl feel good….

Hello, Photoshop. Of course I knew it existed. I’d just never used it before. Picture rezising, optimising, gifs and Jpegs. Anything, everything you see on screen, can be copied. So excited that night, I can hardly sleep.

Not nearly so excited by Sampling; and as for Statistics….I know there are people out there who think Public Relations is all about arranging parties and other glam events. There is nothing glam about statistics and quantitative data analysis and nothing sexy about SPSS for Windows. The combination is creating a head-mash of the most serious sort for this particular wannabe PR. I check out the next lecture. Inferential Statistics. Oooh, now I really am all anticipation.