Lions and Tigers, and Swine Flu… Oh My!

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. ~ H. P. Lovecraft.

Evidently a lot of people are seriously concerned about the swine flu which has penetrated our shores. The Washington Post gave it a full page of coverage and in one hour yesterday there were 10,000 tweets on Twitter pertaining to the latest details of this potential epidemic. A search on Google News for swine flu revealed more than 33,423 news articles about the potential pandemic.

There may be good reasons for concern when it comes to these kinds of things. The 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic killed more people than World War I which preceded it. In fact, that flu killed more people than the Black Death Bubonic Plague of 1347-51.

Children would skip rope to a nursery rhyme about the flu that went like this:

I had a little bird
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
and in-flu-enza.

The number of actual deaths in Mexico from flu has been less than 200 and only 26 attributed to the strain of flu being called "swine flu." Ironically, while we're telling Americans not to travel to Mexico, the European Union is beseeching its people to forgo travelling to the U.S.

If all this flu news is giving you the blues and you want to keep current with it all, here are some steps you can take to track the swine flu.

I have not lost any sleep over this except to worry a little whether it's possible get infected thru online social networks. Actually, maybe someone will suggest that MySpace and Facebook are helping ameliorate the spread of the disease since we do all our socializing online now instead of face-to-face.

For the record, if you're especially concerned, the Center for Disease Control has a lot of good information available, too. And don't worry about those pork chops in the fridge. They'll be just fine.

To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another. ~ Katherine Paterson.

The New Social Media: It Never Ceases To Amaze

This past year I picked up a book about blogging in which the author admitted upfront that in 2004 he thought MySpace and social media was going to be a passing fad. In three years MySpace was bigger than Mexico in terms of residents. And since late last summer FaceBook now has grown from 100 to 200 million... twice as big as Mexico.

My first foray into blogging was with MySpace maybe five years ago. I didn't get much out of it or understand it or devote any time to figuring out what it was about. Some guy named Tom became my friend, possibly for the purpose of guiding me into what MySpace could do. But mostly there were risque young vultures asking to be my friend only to be kicked out of the MySpace community shortly thereafter.

My daughter was on FaceBook around this time, but I avoided going there because I didn't want to appear to be a snoopy parent.

Plaxo, LinkedIn and other business networks began cropping up, and finally, I got some books and did some research so I could determine where to establish my own blogland real estate. The Google solution is Blogger. I like the price, too. It's free. It was also relatively easy. I hung up my shingle, Ennyman's Territory. Even the ESPN Fantasy game sites are social network communities. You can create your profile, fill in details, interact with others.

At some point in time last year the Twitter phenomenon blipped across my radar. By now, it is on a lot of people's radar. "Should I, or shouldn't I?" people are asking.

After all is said and done, here are a few things I like and don't like about the blogs and social media.

Likes
You can discover and meet interesting people whom you would have never come across in any other way probably, at least not in this lifetime.
It can be a form of cheap entertainment as millions of people share their most interesting thoughts, ideas, links of the day, or favorite quotes, or whatever.
I enjoy being part of something new, curious to see where it all will go.

Dislikes
A lot of these sites can be big time consumers as people tag and interact and play games.
I don't like having to log in to all the different networks in order to interact with people. I would rather do most of it by email me.
Because they are all Internet based, when you don't have Internet access, you're out.
Also, since other people are running the show, they can change things in how they're set up and you generally have no say.

Twitter
Of all the variations of social media, besides maintaining my personal blog, I like Twitter best. It is fast, easy, and influential. It looks to me like an especially great tool for journalists and net-related professions. You have to participate to get a sense of its potential. I intuitively felt it to be a very powerful tool early on.

Yesterday I came across an interesting blog article 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates from this past year. Item 1 was a marriage proposal via Twitter. Interesting, but I can imagine someone doing that. Johnny Cash asked June Carter on stage, in front of an audience.

Item 2 was really unbelievable. Actually, it made me think of The Truman Show. Corey Menscher created a device and a Twitter account, kickbee, which sent out tweets anytime the infant in his wife's womb kicked his mom. Tyler, born on January 19th, 2009, now “tweets” from his new account, minimensch.

Many of us heard that news of the Mumbai terrorist attack broke first on Twitter. There have been other big stories in which Twitterers were first to break the news as well including a Continental Airlines crash in Denver and an earthquake that rocked China.

Obama used Twitter to his advantage during last year's campaign. Lots of other high profile persons are using Twitter. I've seen John Cleese and Richard Branson there. You can find Demi Moore and Twitteraholic Guy Kawasaki. My guess is that the Apostle Paul would have been tweeting from that Roman jail cell if he'd had access, but I doubt that Twitter was what Jesus had in mind when he told His disciples to "Follow Me," ...though this line of inquiry does raise the question WWJT? What would Jesus tweet?

Web 2.0

At some point in the last year or so I began noticing a new buzz word in business periodicals and other places. Web 2.0

What's that all about, I wondered. The history of the human race seems to involve people naming things, from Adam on down to the present day. Planets, technologies, species of plants and viruses of all kinds began as unnamed entities at one time. The lands we inhabit had no maps or names. Even our own names were once simple. Leif, son of Eric. William, son of Kyle. (As opposed to Mary Kantor-Carpenter.)

So, when a new buzz word emerges, I often ask if it is a real thing that needed naming, or simply a namer seeking to make a name for him or herself by being first to identify and label something truly new.

Well, Web 2.0 is useful and does indeed describe how the internet has evolved. The best way to understand Web 2.0 is to compare the interactive blogger world to the more old fashioned websites that were essentially posted for viewing. For example, compare how you get around on my personal website at http://www.enewman.biz/ with Twitter and Blogger and MySpace. Yep, there seems to be enough difference to call it a new generation of webwork. I created my personal site in '94/'95 using Adobe PageMill and HTML. Today, there's a whole host of tools, gizmos and widgets for developing your modern virtual landscape.

YouTube is another of the new communities of Web 2.0... For entertainment, nothing beats it right now. Comedy sites online are bombing while comedy and humor on YouTube is burgeoning. (Speaking of bombing, the Unabomber Ted Kacynski would probably never have had to go to the New York Times if he'd had access to an audience through the internet like today.)

YouTube is also a practical tool with businesses putting training videos online to not only tell how to do things, but show it as well. I just replaced a toilet this weekend using a half dozen YouTube toilet installation how-to vids, each not more than three minutes in length, produced by people as diverse as a Brit plumber and the Home Depot.

RSS feeds, Atom and Feedburner enable new content to be delivered directly to inboxes when properly configured. On and off switches, re-directs, blog posting via cell phones... it's all evolving for sure. There is even a virtual world called Second Life where you can create a character and live, go to malls, preach on street corners, whatever. I once read that Hillary went there (as a virtual Hillary) as part of her campaign efforts.

I took an interest in blogging from two directions. First, in order to understand the marketing potential of social media as part of what I do for a living. But second, I am an artist and creative person and like stand up comics and public speakers, most artists and writers produce not for an empty room but for an audience.

If you're really interested in understanding the new media, the emerging arena of evolving cyberspace, the best thing is to learn by doing. When you hear about podcasting, try it. When you read about blogging, see what it's about by doing it. Maybe you can start at the library or a book store and fetch a good book to help with initial decisions (like costs and where to plant your space) but in general, the web itself has more answers than you can shake a stick at.

Be sure to watch the new generation of young professionals who have grown up on all this stuff. For example, Desarae Veit is a Twin Cities Web professional seeking to maximize the power of social media for companies moving into Web 2.0 and co-founder of a new Wiki called Sniki.org. Follow her connections, and they lead to more connections. Find the right guide and you can move fast though the hoops and over the hurdles. (Meet Desarae here)

These are all uncharted seas, to be sure. And as noted in another post businesses have not necessarily figured out how to take advantage of the commercial aspects of it. But hasn't that been the philosophy of the internet from the beginning? Pre-world wide web there was still an internet, and it was not populated by Neanderthals. These social parts of the internet have proven vital in an increasingly high tech world. You Digg?

Thus spake ennyman.