What do the South African government officials who hired the "fake" sign language interpreter for Nelson Mandela's memorial have in common with U.S. military commands charged with contracting communication firms for information operations (IO) and strategic communication efforts? Apparently, hiring people without the necessary expertise because they have no background in the area. According to a fascinating report by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. … [Read more...]
Archives for 2013
Visualizing the Disruptive Power of ICTs
December 6, 2013 by
Here's a graphic showing why information and communications technologies (ICTs) represent the power to influence behavior and affect large-scale change at a reasonable price for the first time. The graphic's four cells show how ICTs represent a disruptive technological shift to public communications: Cell 1: Until recently, most traditional advertising and public communications campaigns used the approach shown in Cell 1. Because stakeholder groups were … [Read more...]
3 Ways ICTs Remove ‘Classic’ Barriers to Action
November 30, 2013 by
Using public communications to get people to change their behaviors and routines can be hard. If it were not hard, there would be no smokers, drunk drivers, overweight people, new HIV/AIDS infections, etc. But thanks to information and communications technologies (ICTs), some of the barriers classic communications theories pointed to as repressing behavior change are today smaller or, in some cases, eliminated. Here are three ways ICTs make affecting change a … [Read more...]
Facebook’s ‘Simplistic’ Analytics Failing Marketers?
November 4, 2013 by
Claiming "Facebook is failing marketers," a report by research firm Forrester unleashed a social media firestorm this week. The report documented the results of a survey of 395 marketers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The marketers were asked to rank the business value derived from digital marketing opportunities from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to onsite ratings and reviews to branded communities and blogs. They rated Facebook dead … [Read more...]
Crowdsourcing USAID Monitoring and Evaluation
October 28, 2013 by
Crowdsourcing! Big Data! International Development! A recent Washington Post article on future U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities in Afghanistan piqued many of my interests. According to the article, after coalition forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year, only 20 percent of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars will be in areas safe enough for U.S. officials to visit and … [Read more...]
Taking a Break from Blogging
October 2, 2013 by
As many readers of this blog may have noticed, I am taking a break for a while. There are two reasons for this. I've been really busy—work and family comes before blogging (and the level of social media engagement necessary to promote a blog). More importantly, however, it's time to adjust eVentures in Cyberland's focus. Many of the things I started blogging about back in 2009, such as social media messages going viral, are hardly news any more. Other emerging … [Read more...]
Top 3 Disruptive Trends to Track in 2013
January 29, 2013 by
Rapidly changing technologies continue to keep the field of communications in flux. Communications practitioners are under pressure to keep pace with the changing ways people use technology and adapt their communications models to a world where information flows in real time. Besides social media (old news at this point), here are three of the biggest disruptive trends to track in 2013. Mobile Mobile Mobile This year mobile devices will pass PCs as the most … [Read more...]
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