Serve a little.

I sit and ponder the ills of the world....

Wrongful Conviction and the Deaf. A man has been in prison for murder since 1994. He has three children who were placed in the foster care system and raised without him. He has a grandson he has never met. He is Deaf. I am 99.9% sure he is innocent. I have been working on his case since January 2007. It has consumed me. I wrote a forty plus-page memo regarding facts of his innocence, what transpired between police officers and this man and deaf witnesses with no interpreter present (leading to awful miscommunications), means by which evidence was hidden and information about who I think actually committed the murder, among other things. I submitted such memo to countless justice/deaf-centric organizations. One has taken interest. Why aren't people clamoring to free this man (and those like him)? Perhaps I am the insane person here--it has consumed me; it keeps me awake at night; I cannot celebrate holidays without thinking about how he has missed so many over the past seventeen years; I think of how much his childrem must have missed out on.... Would you believe that none of the deaf-centered organizations assisted? Nope. Not one.

So many people/organizations talk about equality and justice, and yet so few act to make such ideas more than mere ideas.

I look forward to the day when people match their walk with their talk. Then we can actually bring about the changes we seek that human kind so greatly deserves--especially our historically disenfranchised brothers and sisters.

There is always a place to invest your humanity in humanity.

Wow...

LONG TIME NO BLOG...



So much has transpired in my life since my last post. This will be my personal blog instead of a class blog as I am no longer in university. :d)

I'm not exactly sure where I should begin...

Perhaps, I should begin with the Rights of the Deaf...

Yes. I think that is the perfect place.

My name is TL and I am Hearing. My life's work is to tear down the barriers that exist b/t the Deaf and the Hearing world--to open the world's eyes to the beauty of equality of all audiologies...that sounds funny. Really though acceptance (not tolerance!), equal access and equal opportunity are paramount in the fight for Deaf Rights.

What have I done lately? Thanks for asking!

There's Embracing Lambs, Deaf Community Friends, Deaf Camps Inc., Deaf Blind Camp, my boy's home children, trips to Guatemala, assisting attorneys with Deaf Clients (which I will one day name H.E.A.R.D), and of course, my personal favorite, teaching salsa to Deaf students :d).

When I return, I will expound.

TL

Get Rid of your Surfboard, a Lifevest will be More than Enough!

So get this...You no longer have to "surf" the net, now you can just tred in the shallow end of the kiddie wave pool *laughs*

So my friend in Afghanistan just informed me about a site that takes all of the randomness out of surfing the net. Ironically, it's called StumbleUpon. The user fills in some informaton about their personal interest and then the site actally finds sites/blogs/videoos/etc. that you will supposedly like. It will "learn what you like and make better recommendations." Did you hear that, the website knows what you like "better" than you know what you like!

Upon further exploration, I learned that the site is basically a DeL.icio.us for surfers. The site only reccomeneds sites that have been suggested by other like-minded users.

The whole thing is hillaraious to me. It's like a counter-intuitive oxymoron...LOL. I thought surfing the web designed to be an adventurous waste of time that sometimes allows you to stumble onto a pot of gold, but I guess the idea behind StumbleUpon is to help the user save time while wasting time???

Hmmm, sounds kinda silly, but the 2,302,816 Stumblers (including my friend-go check out her blog abou StumbleUpon) seem to thouroughly enjoy it...

If Uncharted Territory of Social Networking Proves to be Anything Like the F-22....

Chapter Eight of "The Hidden Powers of Social Networking" reminded me of something slightly off topic....

I recently learned about Air Force/Lockhead Martin's plunder with the F-22 Fighter Jet. This jet, was supposed to be the next-generation of air superiority for our military--and at over $350 million per craft, you'd pray that this statement was true!!!! Yeah, well, not so much.

So, the very intelligent folks at Lockhead/Boeing/USAF did not seem to think that the jets would ever cross the International Dateline. They did. And when they did, all the computers in the jet (including navigation) shut down and all communication was lost. Although the Air Force likes to downplay this blunder, six pilots nearly lost thier lives on that day.

I say all of this because it goes to show the humanity behind technology. Often times when we get into uncharted territory and build these grandiose, billion dollar projects that we think are perfect, they are not. Human error is real.

We went from checks, to debit/credit cards, to online banking, to shopping online....All the while, more and more identities were being stolen. When does it stop? When someone who "actually matters" loses their identity. (NOW BEFORE YOU GUYS GO JUMPING DOWN MY THROAT, I'M JUST POSING A QUESTION....FOOD FOR THOUGHT IF YOU WILL). I think privacy/security and technology(all kinds--from online banking to social networking) often find themselves at odds.

I think Cross and Parker's analysis of "Ethical Considerations" in chapter eight might be the most important of all of the sub-texts. Technology is a very powerful tool. It can be used to help AND it can be used to harm. Often times, like in the case of the F-22, we do not even realized the changes that can come about with the advent of new technology. We need to be very aware of the future impact technology may have on our lives.

Corporate blogging...Now comapnaies really have to Manage Chaos...

So here's the deal. Live television/radio and the internet are synonyms for INSTANTANEOUS. This means that the information dissemenated through any of these means if any company/corporation intends on controlling the message, that message must be controllled before the information is broadcasts.

This is why Scoble's Manifesto clearly states that an individual should talk to his or her boss prior to bloging about the workplace or about the company The mediums of today are not forgiving. With the advent of Web 2.0, the things you say or do can be posted in a forum or on YouTube within seconds. Some would argue that this makes messages more salient. I would argue that messages are much more ubiquitious.

Companies have free reign over their employees. They can and should be allowed to control who they hire and fire. Thus, if you say or write something a company is not so fond of they have every right to make any sort of sanctions against you.

Since we're talking about message control....

I think now's a good a time as any to bring up Mr. Imus' "slip of the tongue."

Don Imus learned the hard way. Sure, he is allowed to have his own opinions. More power to him! BUT the venue in which you choose to express that view must be chosen very, very carefully.

There's a Manifesto for this Stuff!

So, Mr. Kyte taught me much more than I initially thought!

As I reflect upon Scoble's Manifesto in Naked Conversations and Tom Kyte's visit to my class, so many things begin to come together.

First, I would just like to say, who'da known there was a manifesto for this stuff!!!!!

Okay, sorry. I digress...

So, Mr. Kyte mentioned a lot of different things in passing that I think deserve further evaluation (whether or not Mr. Kyte knows it--and he will after this because I'm sure he's following statute number 21 (HI TOM!!!)-- he is the poster child for the Weblog Manifesto) :

1.) He mentioned that he is open and honest when blogging. --Imperative, according to Scoble, when establishing lasting relationships with readers.

2.) He did not exactly say this, but it could be ascertained from the wealth of knowledge that he possessed, and by his reader base (focusing moreso on his corporate blog), that he is the oracle on Oracle.

3.)He mentioned that he was just coming down from his brief hiatus from blogging and that he was focusing on his family life. --Scoble says that readers pick up on even the faintest decay in your writing.

4.)He clearly has the support of his company. They seem to back him 110%, even in the face of insane sueaholics who literally go to the ends of the earth-and back-just to sue him.-Scoble says that the big whigs need to know what's going through your head before you blog about the company. Now, that is not to say that corporate bloggers should be beholden to their employers (that would violater statute number 29 ) But they should think about how much they value their jobs before they post anything insane about the company. Don't wanna end up like Mark Jen!

4.5) He is a firm believer in non-coercive blogging...LOL.--that's all she wrote on this point....LOL!!!

Hmm....what else...(***she's thinking***)
Ahhh yes! (Epihpany)

5.)He responds to his comments!- This is uber-important. His number of readers would dwindle very quickly if he was not so engaged. The frequency of his postings also astounds me.

6.)He's definately got statute number 3 in the bag--Human voice. Come on people, the man is hillarious!

Well, I think that's all for now. I'll add more as I think of 'em. Thanks for coming by Tom. I really enjoyed the talk. Great job Professor Melander!

Virtual Teams...

The most important point I found in Cross' Book (chapters 2&3) was the importance of collaboration across hierarchies. I think that often times people understand the importance of lateral communication in organizations and fail to remember the importance of communication with said chain of command. The smoothness of this process (hierarchical feedback/communication) is a great determining factor to the company's success. If the process is slow, and the staff member can not make a move without feedback from the Manager, and there are three or four links in the proverbial chain, then the company could quite possibly be missing out on all sorts of time-sensitive opportunities. This is the type of problem the military often faces.

Another key point that I thought might be worth exploring is the importance of alliances across organizational boundaries. Stove piping is a problem that can easily be avoided if this sort of cross-organizational communication occurs. We saw this problem with the information given in regards to a substantial portion of the false information feed to the public in regards the the Iraq invasion.

I think "network awareness" is also another key point in the success of an organization. If everyone knows who is in charge of what aspect of business and exactly what everyone specializes in, then processes move much more swiftly. We work in the age of globalized corporations. Most companies set up headquarters in one country and have numerous hubs in different countries (and more often than not, on different continents). It is extremely important to maintain open communication not only within that particular hub, but throughout the entire company at every location. This prevents needless overlap and wasted expenses.


Cross,Rob. The Hidden Power of Social Networks. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.