SOCIAL MEDIA, THE FUTURE OF WORK AND THE SLIPPERY SLOPE

First off...

Guess who's back? Yes.. Me.

This semester, this blog is about e-Public Administration (and do I have some catching up to do!) ePA 591 had made me break my promise not to join twitter nor google+... I also had to sign up for foursquare. I can safely say that I am Year 2011 social media compliant. Signing up for these "groups" was easy,I pray I remember my passwords. I have been told that google+ is user friendly but that has not been my experience and I am still learning the uses of foursquare.

I understand that in this age of technology one needs to be up to speed and be technology savvy but my fear is that this "social media craze" may become a slippery slope if not properly utilized. A case in point is the recent riots in London.

Obviously, there are many benefits of social media but as Malone notes in the future of work, read text here some of us like the Spanish cannot imagine a future different from what we know. The author educates us on how our society once expanded and is now becoming smaller thanks to the decreasing cost of communication, the availability of information to the people and decentralization. David Cameron further expands and explains Malone's points in his TED talk watch videousing the United Kingdom has an example. A lesson I have learned from the readings and videos is that I cannot run away from technology- as Cameron noted, government is about the only sphere that is yet to fully utilize social media-.
Have these readings allayed my fears on why I have to be "out there"? as a public administrator? - No. Do I believe that governments should tweet all they do, release as much information to the public as the public desires? emmm not quite. I believe that if set within proper guidelines and frameworks social media would promote collaboration, citizen engagement and participation in government. The challenge and problem is that in a bid to get governments to flow with the tide, it does not become a slippery slope that takes us back to the times when people behaved as they saw fit.

In conclusion, below is a statement made by "Thompson" in the movie "Adjustment Bureau" on freewill (please read as decentralization or freedom)

"We actually tried free will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman empire, we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. You gave us the dark ages for five centuries until finally we decided we should come back in. The Chairman thought that maybe we just needed to do a better job with teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. So we gave you raised hopes, enlightment, scientific revolution. For six hundred years we taught you to control your impulses with reason. Then in nineteen ten, we stepped back. Within fifty years you'd brought us world war one, the depression, fascism, the holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuba missile crisis. At that point the decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix"... Where I come from, we say that too much of everything is dangerous. 

Deuces
Credits:
1) The Adjustment Bureau
2) Dr Erik Johnston for the link to "The Future of Work"
3) TED for the Link to David Cameron's talk.

IT'S A WRAP

Hi all,
This is my final post and blogging about my internship has been awesome. I have one more week of work and it is mostly going to be dotting my 'i's and crossing mt 't's. I never thought I would enjoy blogging. Working at the IRC has been a wonderful learning curve for me. I am grateful for the exposure and the people I have met and worked with. For the friendships I have developed, I am thankful.
To my fellow 584/484 bloggers- you guys are great! I have learned so much by reading your blogs.
Here's to more great work from us all. To those graduating, wishing you God's best and for those of us left behind... we'll survive.

Enjoy your summer and see you around in school.

cheers

This week is my penultimate week at the IRC and I feel like I am just starting.
In the last few weeks, the focus has been on ESL (English as a second language) training. The response has been excellent as I have seen improvement in some clients in the last two weeks. The new volunteers that teach are just so great and patient.I am glad that the outcomes of the ESL training can be seen so quickly and this would help clients in the job searches because their communication skills would be greatly improved.

Work this week was  interesting- juggling with finals, projects, and work! I was practically running out of the office to school.

Catch you guys later.

Cheers

I am a sucker for hope and happy endings. 

This week has been one of such; more good news than sad news. The news coming from the Mid west is very sad and disheartening but what can one do? I pray for the repose of the souls lost and hope their families and the affected states  can rebuild their lives and communities afresh. Apart from that,  the royal wedding (how many guys watched that?) was magnificent and lovely. That Gabby Giffords could attend the Endeavour launch  (though it did not launch as scheduled) almost made me cry! I really do believe that NOTHING is impossible. Finally, watching the White House Correspondence dinner and the president roasting himself and Donald Trump was a good good laugh but Seth Meyers nailed it! I have not laughed so hard in a long time. President Obama is a good sport.. he should do stand up more...

Here's wishing everyone all the best in their finals, projects, and papers.

Cheers

Hi all.
The semester is coming to an end.... where did the weeks go?
I have some finals to finish up this week and work got really busy. Yes, I have been on about how work has been slow.... well I got an answer to my prayers. The four hours was not enough, had so many things on my plate. Thankfully, three new volunteers have joined  Jeffrey (we run the lab together) and I so the situation did not fall apart. The five of us were able to handle ESL, resumes, and food handler's cards for clients
It felt productive and good to be very busy and to know that yes I can handle so many things simultaneously.

LEARNING ENGLISH IS FUN 2

Hi all,
This is the part where I tell you how the new ESL games we got worked out with our clients. One word..-.wait for it- GREAT.

It was awesome and such a hit. The most interesting game was the one clients had to click and match US states. The games killed two birds with one stone; learning how to use the computer and English. I had fun this Monday in class and the fun continues on Monday.

Have a great Easter.

God bless you


P.S. 1: progress report on learning other languages... so far the only one I am making progress with is Swahili.
P.S.2: If you've not heard about Malcolm Gladwell (google him). He is the author of  Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers -excellent books-. He has a not-so-new- book out: What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures. I highly recommend it.

KIPLING

I love literature and sight seeing (especially historical places).  I could read  books (as long as it is not a school text book)  all day and be happy. Kipling, Grisham, Gladwell, Archer, Frost, Shakespeare, and Tennyson among the many authors and poets I follow (Zzz)

Anyways below is one the poems (using Brady's words) that I swear by. A times, I cry reading this poem.
Hope it touches you as it has always touched me.

Deuces.


If- Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son