Day 1--Jeff Cole

Wow. What a week! Starting my final semester as an undergrad at USC, embarking on a new journey with the APOC program, and finally beginning work at what may turn out to be a dream job of mine (Fox Sports) has made for an exciting but exhausting week. I never expected myself to be in this position (masters program and internship), but I am really happy with how everything has gone so far. What's more exciting to me is what the implications of my current situation are for my future. I'm intrigued to see how all this plays out. Will I continue to work at Fox Sports once my internship semester is over? Will I start my own online businesses with the knowledge I gain in this semester at the APOC program? Will I pass my last undergrad class so I can graduate? (joke--I hope). I guess time will tell. But if everything goes according to plan, all of the above will happen.

Back to the program itself.

The first day of class was pretty awesome. Getting an idea of what exactly to expect, meeting my peers, getting connected with old APOC students, and hearing from Jeff Cole were all very cool aspects of the first day. In particular, I was intrigued by what Jeff Cole had to say. While I found him to be just as interesting as the first time I heard him in my class last semester, I was able to pick out and take away different aspects of his speech this time.

Based on his knowledge about communication media and how it is evolved, whether it be radio, tv, dial-up internet, or broadband, I found it particularly interesting that he was so convinced that social networks and online communities were not just a fad. To me, as a dedicated user of these tools, it is hard to distinguish whether I am just part of a temporary trend, or if this new source of communication is here to stay. He explained that lives are so fully interwoven and connected to the fabric of social networks that it would almost be impossible for them to disappear.

However, while he explained that social networks are permanent, he also explained how they would change. As he so comically described, once the un-cool kids (or parents) start showing up to the party, the cool kids will want to leave. He may be right. However, when I received a "Friend Request" from my Dad, it was laughable. I hit "Ignore" and told my Dad to forget about it. But it was that simple. Because all deciding power is in the hands of the user, this may not be as big of an issue as Jeff may have stated. Put simply, the cool kids don't have to let the un-cool kids into their party if they don't want to. As a result, it is likely that they wont feel the need to leave.

On another note, I loved Jeff's description about the "Twitter effect" on entertainment. The movie industry is going to have a hard time getting away with releasing "crap." Once upon a time, word of mouth actually took some time to spread info. And that was just to a few people at a time. Now, one status update can reach, hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands (celebrities).

This instantaneous reach is intriguing to me from a marketing standpoint. This is free, unbias information. If one is able to grapple with this technology in order to promote their product subtly, it will garner unparalleled success.

I can't wait to continue to learn about these aspects of the social network landscape, and look forward to receiving comments about the opinions I shared above.

Have a good one,
Brian