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admin has written 20 articles so far, you can find them below.

What Does a Super Bowl Fanatic Look Like? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Filed under Infographic by admin on 3 February 2012 at 12:17 {no comments}

In honor of an incredibly epic Super Bowl coming up on Sunday (GO GIANTS!), and the always important advertising that goes along with it, here’s a great infographic from BlueKai, courtesy of Mashable. Some background:

Just two NFL teams will remain after Sunday’s league semifinals, setting up a final showdown for Super Bowl XLVI glory. But the Super Bowl isn’t just a huge event for the players, coaches and fans involved. It’s also make-or-break time for the television advertisers who pay a premium for the right to reach an audience of more than 100 million rapt viewers.

But exactly who will these advertisers target? And what will they spend to do it?

The infographic below shows that sales professionals, fans of science-fiction movies and people interested in buying Sony and Vizio products are “very likely” to tune into the game. Golfers and owners of sport utility vehicles have an even higher likelihood of watching, and people looking to buy an Amazon Kindle are probably big fans of the Super Bowl as well.

But reaching those football buffs won’t come cheap — 30-second spots are expected to top out at around $3.5 million each for the 2012 Super Bowl. Last year, advertisers spent some $200 million to run their messages on Fox during breaks in the action. The record, however, was set two years prior when companies spent a total of $213 million to advertise during NBC’s broadcast of the game.

From 2001 to 2010, total ad spending on Super Bowls topped a reported $1.6 billion. During that period, the parent company of Budweiser beer led the rush by shelling out a whopping $235 million, while PepsiCo was well over the $100 million mark as well.

Forbes Women highlights the 10 Most Interesting Women of 2011

Filed under Girls in Tech by admin on 31 December 2011 at 14:45 {no comments}

Please note that the title is “Most Interesting”…. they’re interesting for better or worse reasons than others, but it’s still a good list.

Some of my favorites:

Cannot go wrong with Leymah Gbowee, the influential women’s peace activist from Liberia who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman (two equally as amazing women).
Adele has an amazing voice, no questions asked.
The Tiger Mom herself, Amy Chua tells us what to do – and not to do – with our children.

There are a couple of others on the list. Also check out Danielle Smith’s commentary on it for some additional thoughts on what “interesting” means….

New exclamation point guidelines, as proposed by Entrepreneur

Filed under Thoughts by admin on 29 December 2011 at 21:39 {no comments}

While I can’t claim to never use exclamation points, I can claim to cringe every time I over use them, and certainly cringe more when others overuse.

That’s why I appreciated so much this handy chart from the January edition of Entrepreneur magazine, which was part of their overall clip on email etiquette (also well worth the read!). [I'm on the go, so apologies for not including a direct link. Google can help.]

The Role of a Social Media Communicator During a Crisis: A conversation with @Chrisbrogan

Filed under new media, Questions, Thoughts by admin on 18 November 2011 at 18:30 {2 comments}

Chris Brogan brought up a good question on his blog earlier today – using myself and our SU social media team as an example. “What’s the role of a social media communications team during a crisis situation like alleged sex abuse scandals? What do you think is an appropriate amount of content about a story that obviously has national attention right now versus the “go back to business as usual” approach?”

You can read his full response here, but this was my comment:

Thanks for bringing up this issue, as it’s a good one. I’d like to take a few sentences (ok… more than that) to let you know how we and the rest of the social media team thought through this situation.

One role I played was to make sure my team had direction in terms of how we should be moving forward as the day progressed. I highlighted several things to the team at the beginning of the day, some of them specific to this issue: This will be at the forefront of the SU community’s mind today and we shouldn’t try to gloss over it, or pretend that it’s business as usual, and; we need to be very careful with what content we put forward, as there is still a lot of unsettled information flying around out there.

In other words: Let’s try to use internal communications that have been vetted by the people closest to the situation and remember that this is by far the issue of the day.

After a discussion around noon today (several hours into monitoring and gauging sentiment) we choose two specific “other” pieces of content to put out: The results of our Class Presidential race (something the specific candidates have put a lot of work into and ARE focused on today) and welcoming a large group (500+) of prospective students to our campus who are here on a weekend visit. I’ll also note the tone of each of those responses as they were carefully chosen (and well so I might add, but I’m biased and think I have a rocking team underneath me). Everything else we’ve placed on the back burner.

As for my own account, my role depends on a lot, and I think it should be looked at carefully.

I’ll say – and this isn’t an excuse – few people in my circle on twitter know of my current position, and the general SU community is only slowly learning of my position. Therefore, I know the eyes are all at @syracuseu for this information, and very few will be turning to me (and this is something I hope will shift over time, but it’s the fact right now).

Even with that in mind, I was very mindful of my tweets today. Obviously I wanted (and needed) to post the Chancellors comments, especially since I was the one up and available at the time, and I also RTed one of our student team member’s posts concerning Boeheim’s reaction to the situation. I answered you in between a flurry of phone calls, and I chose to respond to one particular off-subject tweet, but, because it’s not obvious, I’ll highlight that those two people are both Syracuse employees and currently living through the same thing the rest of the SU community is…. I felt it was actually quote fitting to connect with them on that level during this and I’m glad I did (many people on my feed may not have recognized that, but my goal was to connect with them directly). And as for foursquare… well, let’s be honest, you just don’t like people linking foursquare to Twitter

So that one doesn’t count!

Other than that, I WILL tell you one big role that a social media manager has, and that’s to make sure their team, the ones who are actually the voice of the organization, has the tools they need, and my time today was much more valuable working internally, and continuing in my overall role (scheduled meetings, future goals etc)….I simply didn’t have a whole lot of Twitter face-time today…..and I’m not sure that if I had had more time I would have necessarily flocked to Twitter…. however, this is a very interesting issue…. should that channel now or in the future be part of the higher strategy of communication and how do you prioritize that? As I mentioned, if I begin to be seen as more or a voice for SU communications in general, this will and should shift, but right now, the already well-established channels held my focus for the day….

Again, great conversation, I’m happy to chat more with you about the process, and would love to hear what others think. Sorry if this was a little….wordy

Cheers,

Kate

What Is a Social Media Communicator’s Duty in a Crisis? (chrisbrogan.com)

Thanks for bringing up this issue, as it’s a good one. I’d like to take a few sentences (ok… more than that) to let you know how we and the rest of the social media team thought through this situation.
One role I played was to make sure my team had direction in terms of how we should be moving forward as the day progressed. I highlighted several things to the team at the beginning of the day, some of them specific to this issue: This will be at the forefront of the SU community’s mind today and we shouldn’t try to gloss over it, or pretend that it’s business as usual, and; we need to be very careful with what content we put forward, as there is still a lot of unsettled information flying around out there.
In other words: Let’s try to use internal communications that have been vetted by the people closest to the situation and remember that this is by far the issue of the day.
After a discussion around noon today (several hours into monitoring and gauging sentiment) we choose two specific “other” pieces of content to put out: The results of our Class Presidential race (something the specific candidates have put a lot of work into and ARE focused on today) and welcoming a large group (500+) of prospective students to our campus who are here on a weekend visit. I’ll also note the tone of each of those responses as they were carefully chosen (and well so I might add, but I’m biased and think I have a rocking team underneath me). Everything else we’ve placed on the back burner.
As for my own account, my role depends on a lot, and I think it should be looked at carefully.
I’ll say – and this isn’t an excuse – few people in my circle on twitter know of my current position, and the general SU community is only slowly learning of my position. Therefore, I know the eyes are all at @syracuseu for this information, and very few will be turning to me (and this is something I hope will shift over time, but it’s the fact right now).
Even with that in mind, I was very mindful of my tweets today. Obviously I wanted (and needed) to post the Chancellors comments, especially since I was the one up and available at the time, and I also RTed one of our student team member’s posts concerning Boeheim’s reaction to the situation. I answered you in between a flurry of phone calls, and I chose to respond to one particular off-subject tweet, but, because it’s not obvious, I’ll highlight that those two people are both Syracuse employees and currently living through the same thing the rest of the SU community is…. I felt it was actually quote fitting to connect with them on that level during this and I’m glad I did (many people on my feed may not have recognized that, but my goal was to connect with them directly). And as for foursquare… well, let’s be honest, you just don’t like people linking foursquare to Twitter So that one doesn’t count!
Other than that, I WILL tell you one big role that a social media manager has, and that’s to make sure their team, the ones who are actually the voice of the organization, has the tools they need, and my time today was much more valuable working internally, and continuing in my overall role (scheduled meetings, future goals etc)….I simply didn’t have a whole lot of Twitter face-time today…..and I’m not sure that if I had had more time I would have necessarily flocked to Twitter…. however, this is a very interesting issue…. should that channel now or in the future be part of the higher strategy of communication and how do you prioritize that? As I mentioned, if I begin to be seen as more or a voice for SU communications in general, this will and should shift, but right now, the already well-established channels held my focus for the day….
Again, great conversation, I’m happy to chat more with you about the process, and would love to hear what others think. Sorry if this was a little….wordy
Cheers,Kate

What Is a Social Media Communicator’s Duty in a Crisis? (chrisbrogan.com)

New Role: Chief Marketing Officer for Girls in Tech Global

Filed under Girls in Tech by admin on 25 November 2010 at 09:41 {3 comments}

I’m really excited to announce that I’ve taken on a new role as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Girls in Tech.

I’ve really enjoyed my time working with the organization, and can’t wait to continue working with the great team we have at Global, as well as all of our 57 (and growing!) chapters.

Book Review of Good Boss, Bad Boss – Robert Sutton

Filed under Business, Guest Posts, Thoughts by admin on 1 September 2010 at 11:29 {one comment}

I was honored enough to get an advance copy of the soon-to-be-published book Good Boss, Bad Boss, by Robert Sutton. I’ve read Bob’s “stuff” (his “Work Matters” blog, his last book The No Asshole Rule, and many other great pieces of content).

Since it’s going to be out on September 7th (that’s next week!) I thought I’d take the next few days to write a series of posts on some of the parts that hopped out at me, make a few comments, and wrap it up with my overall assessment.

Good Bosses Take the Middle Ground

One of the major summary items that I walked away from with this book was that, in many ways, being a good boss means moderation. What do I mean by that? Good bosses don’t necessarily display extremes of certain qualities, like charisma or power. Instead, they’ve learned to balance aspects of several characteristics that help them drive their team forward.

Examples [Note: when I use "vs" I mean "balanced with."]

Big picture vs. Details
Patience vs Urgency
Competitive vs Submissive
Aggressive vs Passive
Harmony vs (Constructive) Conflict
Top down vs Shared leadership
Directing vs Listening/allowing
Personal goals vs Team goals

Bob does a really great job of explaining why being a boss doesn’t have to mean that your leadership skills are visible. In fact, as an illustration, he says “savvy bosses travel through their days in search of the sweet spot between interjecting too little and too much, keeping a close eye on when more or less pressure, nagging, and intimidation is needed to get the best out of their people (and for provoking respect and dignity rather than contempt).”

This is really important I think. Many people think you can “spot” a good boss. But Bob argues the exact opposite. Good bosses are good because they’re undetectable. The results – a well-run, motivated team – are where you can detect a good boss….

Good boss, bad boss – a review of the new book (@work_matters) (medrants.com)
Review of Bob Sutton’s “Good Boss, Bad Boss” (mcgeesmusings.net)
Book Review-Good Boss, Bad Boss (workplacepsychology.net)

Yes, opinion should be part of journalism and news reporting

Filed under Thoughts by admin on 8 July 2010 at 08:23 {no comments}

TechCrunch had a good post today on how there needs to be more room for opinion in news reporting (“We Need More Opinions in News, Not Less,” TechCrunch, 8 July 2010). A few thoughts.

Other Publications are Already Doing It

It might be good to take a cue from publications like the Economist. I quite appreciate when they put opinion into their reporting. They usually identify their stance within the first two paragraphs – “It’s the opinion of this magazine that…..” – and then they continue reporting.

Get the Juices Flowing for a Better World View

When I get hit with opinion, I welcome it. It offers the reader an immediate starting point and helps them identify where the reporter is coming from. All the complaints about the difficulty for the lay reader of filtering news content, and such and such a publication or newscast being biased. This is actually a perfect way to give the reader their own filter before they start reading. “Ok, I’m reading something from an author who has this lens on. Therefore, what I hear may be affected by that.”

In my opinion, this opens the door for much more robust thought processes and discussions on the events and issues happening around us.

Note: This may not be entirely fair or realistic, as I’m trained to do the above, and many people haven’t had that opportunity and may not know to apply this filtering process. All the more reason to be blatant about where the opinion is, and then offering them opportunity to think further about it in their mind.

Be a Good Professor

I’ve been through my fair share of education – one undergraduate and two graduate programs – and I think the best professors I’ve had have been those that can clearly and comfortably state “what side” they’re on, get the facts out, and encourage us to think further – in whatever direction – about what we’re learning. They’ve pushed their students past the point of consumption, memorization etc, and really gotten them analyzing, having meaningful conversation and getting to the meat of things, while still being able to convey “just the facts.” I don’t think they could have accomplished all of that if they kept all opinion out, both theirs and ours. They allowed room for opinion in a forum that was meant to inform people about what’s happening around them, and the experience and takeaways were much more valuable because they did that.

Keep Op-Ed and Editorials Where They Are

Should journalism turn into opinion writing? No, it shouldn’t. Opinion pieces – which usually contain a smaller number of hand-picked facts amidst the opinion – should stay opinion pieces. If you muddle opinion too much, you start losing the facts.

But there should be room for opinion. It forces thinking and opens viewpoints. So bring it.

Guest Post: What Open Data Means to Marginalized Communities – Joshua Goldstein

Filed under Digital Activism, Guest Posts by admin on 9 June 2010 at 12:38 {no comments}

This is a guest post by Joshua Goldstein, an incoming technology policy PhD candidate at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he will be working with the Center for Information Technology Policy. He’s also a former Fletcher classmate of mine and working on some really neat stuff (you can find his full bio here). Make sure to follow him on Twitter. The original post can be found on his blog, In an African Minute.

Two symbols of this era of open data are President Obama’s Open Governance Initiative, a directive that has led agencies to post their results online and open up data sets, and Ushahidi, a tool for crowdsourcing crisis information. While these tools are bringing openness to governance and crisis response respectively, I believe we have yet to find a good answer to the question: what does open data means for the long-term social and economic development of poor and marginalized communities?

I came to Nairobi on a hunch. The hunch was that a small digital mapping experiment taking place in the Kibera slum would matter deeply, both for Kiberans who want to improve their community, and for practitioners keen to use technology to bring the voiceless into a conversation about how resources are allocated on their behalf.

So far I haven’t been disappointed. Map Kibera, an effort to create the first publicly available map of Kibera, is the brainchild of Mikel Maron, a technologist and Open Street Map founder, and Erica Hagen, a new media and development expert, and is driven by a group of 13 intrepid mappers from the Kibera community. In partnership with SODNET (an incredible local technology for social change group), Phase I was the creation of the initial map layer on Open Street Map (see Mikel’s recent presentation at Where 2.0). Phase II, with the generous support of UNICEF, will focus on making the map useful for even the most marginalized groups, particularly young girls and young women, within the Kibera community.

What we have in mind is quite simple: add massive amounts of data to the map around 3 categories (health services, public safety/vulnerability and informal education) then experiment with ways to increase awareness and the ability to advocate for better service provision. The resulting toolbox, which will involve no tech (drawing on printed maps), and tech (SMS reporting, Ushahidi and new media creation) will help us collectively answer questions about how open data itself, and the narration of such data through citizen media and face-to-face conversations, can help even the most marginalized transform their communities.

We hope the methodology we develop, which will be captured on our wiki, can be incorporated into other communities around Kenya, and to places like Haiti, where it is critical to enable Haitians to own their own vision of a renewed nation.

Girls in Tech Post: Greg Mortenson and thoughts on women

Filed under Girls in Tech, Thoughts by admin on 5 March 2010 at 08:49 {no comments}

[This post was originally written for the Girls in Tech blog]

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Greg Mortenson speak. Greg started a campaign 16 years ago to increase the number of rural schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has since grown into the Central Asia Institute (among other initiatives). I could say a lot more about him, but I’ll let you catch up with his bio. PS I might as well tell you to read at least one of his two books, because they have a lot of really great insight (I’m sure many of you have actually read Three Cups of Tea).

There were several points during the discussion that made me think of Girls in Tech and some of the philosophies and missions we support. I’ve listed a few of the below.

The importance of empowering young girls. One of the major foci of Mortenson’s work is not only to increase the educational opportunities of children in these areas, but specifically of young girls. His idea is if you educate a girl, they effect a whole community (based on various factors such as the fact that they don’t leave for rural areas, they are nurturers, and they are generally the teachers of families, and thus communities).
The importance of listening to your elders. This wasn’t specific to young girls per se, but when Mortenson asks young kids whether they have regular discussions with and learn from their grandparents, maybe 10% of the kids in the US raise their hands. It’s 80-90% in countries like Pakistan and Afhganistan. My first thought? That’s so awesome.
The importance of women in terms of peace. I spent a summer in graduate school researching the Bangladeshi “terrorist scene” with the goal of identifying the threat to the US of terrorism that may or may not be coming out of the madrasa (school) system. As I’m reaching the time for the conference report of findings, it was becoming clear that the threat to the US was in fact quite low. However, what was more clear was that there was still domestic unrest, hostility, local acts of violence and distaste for the government…. All good ingredients for terrorism. However, one of the most promising ways in which that could be combated based on the current system in place was to educate and empower the women in the community, who were not only the family leaders but often the teachers in these schools. This alone could be powerful enough to quell several types of violent outburst. Mortenson used the example of jihad: when an individual wishes to declare jihad of any sort, they must get the approval of their mother. When the mother is more educated, they are much less likely to give that approval. Enough said.

So much of this rings for Girls in Tech. Empowering the next generation of women is a very important part of our mission, whether it’s locally or internationally, but also gaining valuable knowledge from the generations before us. Both of these apply no matter what your age. I know one of my goals in the Boston Chapter has been and will continue to be to get the involvement of all age groups, from young girls to grandmothers, because there’s so much that can be done when you can capture everything that’s in that span.

And lastly, in terms of number three, I mean, it’s simple. Women rock in a serious way. And the more we can all do to give them the means to rock, fantastic. Isn’t that why we’re all here?

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Today and Tomorrow

Where I was, where I am, where I'm going.

About admin

What Does a Super Bowl Fanatic Look Like? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Forbes Women highlights the 10 Most Interesting Women of 2011

New exclamation point guidelines, as proposed by Entrepreneur

New Role: Chief Marketing Officer for Girls in Tech Global

Book Review of Good Boss, Bad Boss – Robert Sutton

Yes, opinion should be part of journalism and news reporting

Guest Post: What Open Data Means to Marginalized Communities – Joshua Goldstein

Girls in Tech Post: Greg Mortenson and thoughts on women

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