LinkedIn – My Connection Addiction

Honestly, I never got Facebook. Sure, I created a page and Friended a bunch of real friends and then some other people who would only qualify as friends in a strange new virtual universe. Every time I touched on social networking in front of a group and casually mentioned that I had a Facebook page, a flood of new requests to connect would come in. For a fleeting moment the new widespread interest in being my friend seemed salve my childhood slights of being picked last for every team and not being invited to some key birthday parties (the “lost in the mail” fib instilled a misplaced early distrust of the postal system). But the growing list of my “friends” didn’t really make me feel more loved. So I maintained a tepid relationship with my Facebook account and the associated friends.

My main difficulty could be summed up in a single word, “Why?” Why would I really want to be connected with these people? And then I made the big leap of thinking that social networking itself held little value.

Then I found LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/). LinkedIn has been described as a grown-up Facebook. But I don’t think that is really fair. It isn’t about age or even maturity. It is matter of orientation. LinkedIn is about business, jobs, careers, and professional networking. No apps sending kisses. No beach pictures of people I really don’t want to see in bathing suits. Job titles, work experience, and references are the stuff of LinkedIn.

OK, it sounded a little boring to me too until a couple of weeks ago. That was when I created a UGA New Media Alumni Group (http://www.tinyurl.com/NMAlum). In just an hour, former students started joining. It was great to see what they had accomplished, where they were working, and who else they knew. Then the trouble started. In the middle of something important, I would get an alert that another alumni had joined the group. I would go on to send them a message catching up. I started searching for UGA grads. I began cajoling the group into ratting out other Alum so I could harass them to join. And I began to hear from the members about how the economic uncertainty is affecting even the new media. Then I loaded the LinkedIn app onto my iPhone. When my wife caught me building my network in bed, she told me I needed help. And when she mentioned an intervention to address my LinkedIn stalking, I knew I needed to change.

So I am learning cope. Cold turkey won’t work. But I only check my invitations 15 or 20 times a day. The UGA New Media Alumni group is over 100 strong now. And you wouldn’t believe all the cool places where our students work and all the wild things they have done. It really makes me proud. And all this networking is actually a lot more fun than actually working.

This DBB (Tu, 2/24, 12:30P) Bill Hoffman, WSB-TV

Television stations are changing. The days when you just had to throw up an antennae and a 6’clock newscast to get an audience are gone. Now local television is leading the way in exploring the role that hyperlocal information plays in people’s lives. Our guest for this Digital Brown Bag (Tuesday, 2/24, 12:30P, Room 412, Journalism) is Bill Hoffman, VP and General Manager at WSB-TV. He will be exploring with us how technology is changing the face of broadcasting. And he has questions as well as answers. Join us.

NMI Orientation Sessions – 2/24 & 2/25

This Tuesday (2/24) and Wednesday (2/25) at 6P in the NMI Lab, we will be holding an orientation to the NMI and its programs. If you want to find out about the New Media Certificate, you need to attend. And you want to get into the first NMIX class on the way to the Certificate, NMIX4110 New Media Production, you have to attend – and make sure I know you are there. RSVP for one of the times at
http://www.mynmi.net/programs/certificate/CertificateInfoSp09.php
And don’t worry, I promise that the whole thing will be painless and quick – under 30 minutes.

NMI PODs – sign up for them.

If you are interested in getting a POD for any NMIX class (other than NMIX2020 Intro to New Media – you don’t need a POD for that class), you have to go online to request it. Here is the link.
http://www.mynmi.net/courses/Fall09PODs.php/
Do it now – we are going to be giving out PODs very soon.

New New Media Capstone Class Added

To cope with unprecedented demand for the NMIX 4510 New Media Capstone, we have added a second section of the course in Fall 2009. Yep, this is the first time we have ever taught two sections of Capstone. And in order for us to minimize class conflicts we have shifted the times. So now we will be teaching NMIX4510 at 3:30P and 5:00P on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you have applied for Capstone in Fall 2009, you need to go to this form
http://www.mynmi.net/WhichCapstone.php
to tell us which section you want to enroll in.

New Edition of New Media Update: Origins online now

The latest installment of the New Media Update – the video – is now online at
http://www.newmediaupdate.net.
See why we live by WIBCI in the NMI! Check it out.