Verizon Appreciation Day @ NMI (Tu, 3/4)

They are like strange amalgam of your parents and your children. They are always setting limits and they keep asking for money. And they can be as difficult to understand as your kid or dad. As you’re calculating your minutes and paying your bills it is hard to feel the love from or for your cell phone provider, right?

But Verizon working hard to win you over. First, Verizon is making life easier for its users. Now they have a calling plan that let’s you talk as much as you want to anyone you want for a single price. No more “in groups” or having to ascertain that attractive person’s wireless service provider before you attempt a committed relationship. And Verizon is pioneering a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy that allows you to use your own phone (within reason) on its network.
Even more important, Verizon is using its time, technology, and treasure to improve people’s lives – and they have been doing it through the New Media Institute. Since October, Verizon has contributed $35,000, loads of equipment, and hours upon hours of their time to support the programs of the NMI. We have used these generous gifts to stage the AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement Project in Philadelphia in November (you can read all about it at http://www.nmi.uga.edu/aids_ppsa/). And we will be using these resources for the National HIV Testing Day Personal Public Service Announcement Project in Atlanta on April 22 and 23 (I promise more on that soon after we iron out all the details). These are wild experimental programs that push the limits of wireless technology to create messages that help people stay healthy. When I first pitched Verizon on the idea for using mobile video and wireless broadband to allow students to travel all around big metropolitan areas to produce cell phone videos in one day, I thought they might laugh me out of their offices. They wouldn’t have been the first to say it was a crazy idea or that it wouldn’t work. But all of the Verizon folks listened, then they got excited. This group of incredibly busy people was jazzed about using their skills and services to help young people to stay healthy. And their company stepped up by providing the cash that every project needs. Verizon made the Philadelphia iteration a success and they are working with us to make the Atlanta version even better. Working with Verizon on this worthwhile project is one of the highlights of my career.

Now it is time to say thank you – at least in a small way. Tuesday, March 4 is “Verizon Appreciation Day” in the NMI. Verizon representatives will be joining us throughout the day to share what they are working on (you are invited to the Digital Brown Bag at 12:30P – you can read more about the DBB below). And, yep, the way that we say thank-you is by making Verizon folks work even harder teaching us about the mobile future. But somehow, every time I try to say thanks, Verizon just does more. Go figure! Thanks.