I have gained semi-notoriety this week because of my online-based apology tour, having said stupid things, apologized and my idiocy was well-documented and forgiven on CareerDiva.net, the New York Times, and I even did an interview yesterday with the Washington Business Journal (no link yet because it will be a couple of weeks, but you can count on my self-promotional side to pimp that too).

I have a semi-foul mouth, which has been curbed only through my parenthood, but for those of you who have read this blog, you’ll note that when I become particularly exasperated by something that I think is inane, my usual response is:

“Jesus.”

Well, now I have either an outlet for that, or an e-portal which may just ensure my eternal damnation.  Tech Crunch reported recently on the launch of Gospelr,

…a microblogging platform for people who want to share thoughts, ideas, words of encouragement, prayer requests, daily scripture readings, and oh so much more.”

I am honestly not here to praise or condemn this, but one of the questions that I get asked frequently and was asked yesterday during the interview was “What is the next BIG THING?”  Some people B.S. (there’s that foul mouth again), their way through this, but my answer was simple:  Anyone who tells you what the NEXT BIG THING is is lying.

An example of this is the fact that Gospelr is based upon the Twitter platform and represents a segmentation of the Twitter audience.  A year ago, who predicted that Twitter would launch, crash (literally), an then crawl back into our waiting arms?  And what about that stupid whale?

I think that Gospelr represents the fact that microblogging has now become so intertwined with our lives, we’ll begin to see more and more platforms that are targeted towards a particular segment of the of the  population who share common interests.  Now THAT’S interesting.

I’ll avoid all other commentary as to minimize the flaming comments that are undoubtedly headed my way.

Mark

I had always hoped to be in the New York Times, but perhaps under somewhat different circumstances.

I wrote about it last week “I Was Wrong – Sorry Eve,” but the New York Times’ Marci Alboher picked up on the email blogging exchange that Eve Tahmincioglu and I had, which ended up with my feeling like a lunkhead.

Marci wrote a balanced, fair piece:

All this transparency and accountability led to a happy ending. Mr. Story did a follow-up post of his own, calling his original post a “cheap shot” against Eve (as support for this, he admitted that some of his own readers agreed with Eve’s original premise) and apologized to her. Eve included his apology in her follow-up post.

In addition to learning a few lessons about taking ownership for your words online, I also discovered a possible cure for social networking overload in Mr. Story’s original post — social networking aggregators, a new type of site that has sprung up to help people keep up with multiple social networking communities at once. Clearly, I have to get acquainted with these sites.

Thank you, Marci for providing balance and a measured tone — both of which would have served me well a couple of weeks back.

Mark

Forgive me for those of you who are a bit squeamish, but below, I have posted a You Tube video clip from the Maryland-Cal football game last Saturday (which Maryland, my alma mater, won, by the way).

Quick synopsis: Kevin Barnes, a defensive back for Maryland, hit Cal’s Jahvid Best so hard that Best laid on the field and later threw up.  As further proof that social media is weaving its way into our social fabric, one chunk at a a time, this phenomenon made its way onto the front page of the Washington Post sports section.

Here are some fascinating facts:

• Before the game ended, the clip was on You Tube.
• As of yesterday afternoon, six versions of the hit garnered a total of more than 50,000 views, which surpassed the number of spectators (49,527) who watched the play live at Byrd Stadium on Saturday.
• When Barnes visited a local restaurant this weekend, at least 40 customers approached asking him about the hit. Some with iPhones replayed the hit so everyone could watch together.

Sure, some guy hit some other guy who threw up on the field.  But when you consider the speed and reach of people sharing the clip, now THAT is bone-jarring.

Clip is below;  quality is not good (and please do not watch is you do not want to see a football player throw up).

Mark

P.S. – I have gone this whole post without a joke, but I’ll remind you that Maryland’s head football coach’s first name is “Ralph.”

..and what it’s like to do it for a living.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow night.

Mark

I am so fortunate in this life to get know know smart and talented people who connect me to other smart and talented people.

I won’t divulge her name because she has not given me the ok, but one of my amazing students from last semester (who while studying at Georgetown and another institution of higher learning trained for and completed the Boston Marathon) has virtually introduced me to Jim Long.  Jim, on his “about page,” says:

We stand at a tipping point in the media world. Existing media models, weighted on the side of big corporations, big finance, big hits, and big stars are crumbling around us. The pendulum has swung. Now, trend spotters, micro-celebrities, and the new influencers are using the power of social networking, syndication, and online distribution to aggregate audience and leverage their value.”

True ‘dat.

And as usual, other folks find smart statistics, that I, um, “appropriate.”  The one below is from Jim’ post “Trendspotting-Finding Opportunity in Career Uncertainty.”  I urge you all to visit Jim’s blog, but he succinctly makes the point in the chart and subsequent paragraph:

See that blue line on the graph? That represents jobs data for the TV news industry according to Simply Hired. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a network news cameraman by trade, still clinging on to rapidly diminishing fortunes. The more appealing green line represents job data results for “Social Network”. So as that downward job trend continues across legacy media, I still believe there is tremendous opportunity in social media.”

Looking forward to meeting you, Jim.  And thanks, person-in-this-space-who-will-go-unnamed…

Mark