Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

I’m hoping to get started towards getting my Private Pilot’s License soon.

Today, we went from Norwood, MA and followed Mass Pike to gander at downtown Boston, flew over Fenway and Cambridge. Boston ATC wouldn’t let us approach any closer to Boston given the holiday traffic, and we had to stay below 1500 feet when we were in the city.

Fantastic weather, gorgeous day, and beautiful winds. All in all, a great flight!

These days, Social Networking is a buzz-phrase that companies try to milk leverage for all it’s worth.  However, what does social networking really mean for your company’s brand?

While this is not a question that is easily answered, the following visualization is an attempt at conveying the convergence of people and technology through (and across) the various media channels in the pursuit of understanding brand perception.

If you will notice, People and Technology are complementary to each other, and the Digital Divide is what separates the people with the technology “haves” from the “have nots”. People themselves, of course, are products of Individual, Social, and Cultural interactions. On the other hand, in the technology pyramid, Utility, Usability, and ultimately what I call Sociability are what help bridge the digital divide. Decreased Digital Divide is therefore good since it indicates a pervasiveness of technology in bringing people closer together.

The other end of the spectrum consists of Media and Brand, which are also complementary to each other.  However, whereas technology helps bring people together, a variety of channels are shared by both Media and Brand, through which a company’s brand is perceived. These channels are mainly Print, A/V (which includes Television, Radio, and others), and — most importantly — Digital. Brand perception takes place through the level of Engagement of your company (and consequently, it’s brand) with its customers and consumers across the various channels. Therefore, increased Engagement is also good as it is an indicator of the extent to which your consumers associate with your brand across the various media channels.

In conclusion, as technology continues to become an enabler for social interaction, you can leverage the decreasing digital divide for increased engagement of your brand. Happiness (hopefully) ensues.

A Capitalist’s Apology: Free Markets, Freedom, and Development — published on the World Poverty & Human Rights Online website as part of my WPHR class this Spring.

The published HTML version can be found on the site and a PDF version is also available for those interested.

(Cross posted from my International Relations blog.)

Today, I attended a rather excellent talk by Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman on the Obama Administration & The U.S. Foreign Policy hosted by the HEIRC. The event was recorded by PBS, and the video is supposed to be made available to the public. As Chomsky’s talks go, it was dry but good — albeit a little short.

Of course, my little take-aways were a couple of signed copies by perhaps the greatest living intellectual our time.