What would you do if a recruiter or potential employer invited you to interview in Second Life?

On Oct 4, a USC Business Communication class at the Marshall School will discuss various perspectives in answering this question: What would you do if a recruiter or potential employer invited you to interview in Second Life?

I've been invited to engage the class in a discussion on videoconferencing, videoblogging and online CV's to create awareness of messages and media.

As prior assignment, the students are using these examples and discussion questions for reference:

1. HP Eric Kintz Digital Mindset Blog
“Videoblogging from NYC”
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2007/09/10/4367.html

“Mobile Social Marketing” – How important is Mobile for Social Marketing?
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2007/09/19/4454.html
Winksite and Feed2Mobile

2. TechCrunch: If A Conference Is Held In Second Life, Will Anyone Listen?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/20/if-a-conference-is-held-in-second-life-will-anyone-listen/
BizBlogReview: Is the future of global commerce in virtual worlds?
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-future-of-global-commerce-in-virtual.html

3. The Official Cisco Blog “The Platform” – Alan S. Cohen, VP Enterprise Solutions
“The Next Wave of the Business Internet: The Human Network@Work”
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/09/the_next_wave_of_the_business.html

4. Online CV’s
Colin Rhinesmith
http://colinrhinesmith.com/cv
Nova Commercial - MySpace
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13754983

5. Tuesday, November 28, 2006
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_diamondgeezer_archive.html#116469686556354886

Discussion Questions:

Videoconferencing:
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
2. How can you use the videoconference setup to engage (create rapport) the interviewer more?
3. What unexpected events can happen during a videoconference and how would you deal with them (example: split screens with more than one interviewer)?

Videoblogging:
1. Referring to Eric Kintz’s “Videoblogging from NYC” (1), what are the advantages and disadvantages of using an “interview format” in a videoblog as CV?
2. Referring to Colin Rhinesmith’s online CV with video (4) – do you think this CV works? Why or why not? Do you think this form of CV is the future? What’s your reasoning?
3. If the Nova Commercial serves as a CV, what impressions can it make?

Mobile Social Marketing, the Next Wave, CV’s, and the interview future:
1. After reading “Mobile Social Marketing” (1), TechCrunch and BizBlogReview (2), Cisco Blog (3), and diamondgeezer (5) – What are your thoughts?
2. How do you see your CV’s and interview techniques evolving?
3. What would you do if a recruiter or potential employer invited you to interview in Second Life?

USC CTM Response on Social Media and CR

"I don’t think you will see, nor would it be a good development, standards for structure, content of social media. However, security issues, which is the one that triggered your original question, will most definitely generate demand for standards. Whether those turn out to be industry proposed, which is what is happening in finance industry when it comes to cyber security, or government imposed, which some in Congress argue for, or imposed through third parties such as auditing community remains to be seen. CTM’s sister institute, ICIIP (Institute for Critical Information Infrastructure Protection) has developed one model for such standards, Systemic Security Management, which is being actively reviewed by one of the leading international auditing communities."
Morley

Morley Winograd
Executive Director

USC Marshall
Center for Telecom Management (CTM)

Biography:

Morley Winograd is an internationally recognized authority on the impact of technology on life and work. Prior to joining CTM, he served as Vice President Gore's Senior Policy Advisor in the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Since then, governments in Italy, Mexico, Israel, Costa Rica, and Argentina have asked him to help with their own reform efforts.

His lectures on the topic of technology's reshaping of America have won wide praise in forums as diverse as the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Los Angeles' Town Hall, Harvard's JFK School of Government, and Bologna University's John Hopkins School of International Affairs.

Prior to his work in government, Winograd spent eighteen years with AT&T, retiring as a Regional Vice President for Commercial Markets, having previously served as President of AT&T's University of Sales Excellence, a two-campus corporate training center that he reshaped into a university environment.

Morley is co-author of Taking Control: Politics in the Information Age (Holt, 1996). His innovative approach to corporate training has been recognized in such management training books as Stewardship, by Peter Block, and The Monster Under the Bed, by Stan Davis and Jim Botkin.

Source: http://www.marshall.usc.edu/web/CTM.cfm?doc_id=3979

USC to the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl - National Championship Competition

The USC Marshall Ethics Team - Chuong Nguyen, Stephanie Crim and Fiona Torrance - headed by Dr. Sandra Chrystal - compete on Thursday, February 22 in the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.

USC Marshall Ethics Team are one of 32 national teams selected to compete in legal, financial, and ethical analysis of 15 cases: http://ethics.iit.edu/eb/Nationalcases20071.pdf. Collectively, students try and find solutions to these vexing modern-day dilemmas by drawing on interdisciplinary learning and the wisdom of philosophers/ethicists.

Dr. Sandra Chrystal is one of the first professors at USC's Marshall School of Business to ever lead business students into this collaborative and interdisciplinary approach of learning applied ethics to business and corporate governance. Information on her classes are available through USC's Marshall School of Buisness Center of Management Communication - http://www.marshall.usc.edu/buco/.

Corporate Blogging at Occidental's SCCUR 2006

On November 18, 2006 approximately 750 participants from 70 colleges and universities participated in Occidental's 14th annual Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) -- http://sccur06.oxy.edu/index.shtml.

"Why is corporate blogging relevant to students?" was one of the entries selected for presentation.

My opening question to the audience was: "How many corporate blogs exist?"

Back in 2004, David Sifry -- Founder of Technorati -- indicated approximately 5000. Most corporate bloggers then were centered in software and media companies.

By 2006, reports by Anderson C. and Mayfield R. of the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki and Dowling G. and Daniels D. of Jupiter Research suggest the following:

• Approximately 35 percent of large companies plan to institute corporate weblogs in 2006
• More than 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies blog externally
• With 34 percent of corporations blogging, a 70 percent total is expected by the end of 2006.

The growth in corporate blogging is visible as the benefits of this corporate blogging tool are weighed and recognized as greater than the liabilities.

When I first started my Independent Study on Corporate Blogs in January 2006, no entries existed on the topic in the Wikipedia. It's exciting to see the sharing of information on the subject in this online encyclopedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog.

Although I've not posted any entries for some time on corporate blogging due to my USC courseload priorities, I will start and build momentum with the New Year.

USC Fall Semester '06 on the Fly!

The Summer came and went so fast, ending my internship with iMedia Connection - http://www.imediaconnection.com/ - and starting afresh the Fall '06 semester with all the thrill of new classes and colorful challenges.

During this period I'm learning new tools in Operations Management, Business Economics, Advanced Strategies for Managing Corporate Communications, and Strategic Management.

What's interesting is that although this undergraduate business degree skims the surface in what's possible to discover in all these disciplines, I'm valuing the pattern I can see in how they fit together -- in how the tools complement each other in an "interdisciplinary" way. Here's the link to our programs: http://www.marshall.usc.edu/web/Undergraduate.cfm?doc_id=3419

I'm looking forward to joining a company or organization where I can research and explore indepth real-life issues, using and developing on these tools I've learned over four years, to seek solutions.

My blog's been on the backburner as time's been short to keep it up, even though it's been my intention to do so. Further blog posts may remain few through November until after the first week of December when my final exams are over. Thereafter, I intend to add content more frequently.

Officially, I graduate from USC on December 13, 2006.

All in a May's work!

What an exciting month May is! May leads the way...

Some of us closed the Spring 2006 semester with final exams in the first two weeks and sealed our degrees with graduation by May 12. To top it, I moved home during this period and am still tackling the boxes!

As part of a prize for USC's Undergraduate Writing Competition [http://angelingo.usc.edu/vol03issue02/uwc.php], I received the valuable opportunity through Brad Berens -- Executive Editor -- to intern for iMedia Connection Inc. [http://www.imediaconnection.com/].

Every week, since mid-March, I have written news articles for Roger Park (News Editor) and then researched for Rebecca Weeks (Content Director). Brad Berens offered me two terrific learning experiences to review and write about recent Forrester Research Reports:

"Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9630.asp

"Social Computing & Interactive Marketing"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/8765.asp

From this internship, I have learned the difference between writing research papers and writing for an online audience, and about the latest trends in media, marketing, and advertising.

Working with Brad, Roger, and Rebecca is a wonderful experience -- they are a great team -- and I will miss "my iMedia" when this internship comes to a close on May 31.

During June and July, I will be working at USC's Marshall School of Business Center of Management Communication, and on research evaluating student learning with Dr. Sandra Chrystal.

My goal during this period is also to improve Biz Blog Review. Although my Independent Study ended this Spring 2006 semester, my intention is to share what I have learned and to tweak the focus and layout of this blog. [Neville Hobson -- I have not forgotten you!].

In August, I start the last of four classes to complete my degree (BS Business and Communication) and am also applying for the Masters in Communication Management program at USC's Annenberg School of Communication.

Researching the uses and impacts of corporate blogs, learning about online communities, and social computing are areas that I am interested in.

There are so many things of awesome interest out there in varied disciplines with such little time to pursue them. Connecting with people, sharing interests, and deciding on that passionate specialization is key.

What is important to me is that, that "passionate specialization" contributes to positive upliftment of humanity. From this, all else will fall into place.

Studying at USC represents a transformation/evolution to me that is both personal and professional, and I am enjoying every moment of life as it unfolds.

USC Graduation -- Class of 2006!

I celebrated Graduation this past week with some of my best friends:

Graduate Torrance . Dr. Gary Woods

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Graduate Torrance . Professor Yolanda Kirk

I "walked early" for graduation and complete my last classes in December 2006.

Post Break: Final Exams

We are currently in final exams at USC and I will continue more indepth posts after May 9.

Dr. Sandra Chrystal -- We Are Proud Of You!

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Dr. Mark Kann . Fiona Torrance

USC TEACHING HAS NO BOUNDARIES AWARD

(Dr. Mark Kann presents Award to Dr. Sandra Chrystal April 18, 2006)

USC Marshall School -- Top Of The Blog!

Today I received wonderful news -- USC Marshall School of Business, Center for Management Communication, are crafting an upcoming course in Communications Management that will cover online communities and blogging for business!

Also, IPT hosted an open house tonight on "Relevance of Technology to Careers in Business". Although I was unable to attend, I look forward to hearing the outcome of this event.

By recognizing the impact of technology in business and therefore in the classroom, and by tailoring courses accordingly, the Marshall School of Business will prepare students to meet opportune moments with confidence and success.

Dr. Sandra Chrystal from USC's Center for Management Communication is one of the earliest pioneers in the field of blogging, wikis, podcasting, and PRS technology to enhance student learning.

On Tuesday, I presented corporate blogging and the use of my blog to Dr. Sandra Chrystal's Advanced Business Writing classes. Students gave valuable contributions to the discussion -- many of which can be viewed in the comments section of the post: "Non-Traditional Business Communications -- The Blog" posted 3/14/06.

We reviewed a number of the corporate blogs listed in the blogroll of my site -- such as Randy Baseler's Boeing Blog, Ted Leonis of Aol's Blog, and the GM Fastlane Blog -- this exercise proved most useful in identifying differences between the corporate blogs.

But I have specifically focused on Bob Sutor's blog (Bob Sutor is Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM) for a number of reasons:

1. Bob Sutor uses his personal voice
2. He discusses business issues and also personal tales in an appropriate manner for his position
3. His writing style is professional yet relaxed enough for comfortable reading
4. The layout of his site is easy to follow and his entries make sense even to someone from a non-tech background
5. He links to his earlier personal blog sites and this shows his interests, his growth as a human being, and the evolution of his use of the blog as a communications tool -- for personal and for professional use
6. As a reader, you feel a connection with Bob Sutor and therefore with IBM -- this blog is highly effective.
   

Corporate blogs -- their various uses, their styles of writing, their networks, their presentation of the corporation's culture, and the executives personal voice -- is such an enriching and unique mechanism for student learning.

Students can discover and compare corporations through this medium and either determine a suitable fit for career objectives, or prepare projects in line with a specific corporation's interest. The corporate blogosphere platform presents an ocean that students can dive into and learn from.

Because it's a new medium, even corporations are testing the waters. Some more hesitant than others. Corporate blogging is learning in evolution -- for business, for schools, for faculty, and for students.

Here are some tips to get started:

1. Take time to research our doubts about blogging -- is what stops us recognizing the value to a business blog legitimate?
2. Speak with a blogger about corporate blogging
   
3. Determine our blogging objective -- what will the blog represent/what is its use?
4. Research, get help, decide on the engine (e.g. Blogger/Typepad) and on the look/layout
5. Take the time to set it up and consider preferences such as comment moderation
6. Solicit feedback on the initial blog layout and function
   
7. Update the blog at least once a week with posts relevant to the blog objective/use
8. Respond as much as possible to comments or feedback on the blog
9. Copy and paste your template (html) in a Word Document in case something happens to your blog
10. Interact with other bloggers with blogs relevant to your objective by commenting on their posts and linking to their sites
    

Go For It!

Professional / Corporate Blog Training Need

The blog is a legitimate business communications tool that impacts our current social computing environment. Corporations need qualified professionals that can recognize challenges in this evolving environment, that can support corporate blogging needs through this transition, and that can successfully communicate corporate goals via the creation of an effective online presence -- the corporate blog.

Corporations use blogs as a platform to present and project a specific business goal -- internal, external, or both -- to generate on-going dialogue between businesses, employees, customers, and the general public.

Internal blogs serve internal corporate purposes, such as knowledge management, employee motivation strategies, or simply to reduce email. IBM's DeveloperWorks Blogs and Hewlett Packard Blogs are examples of corporate blogs used for internal purposes.

External blogs serve external corporate purposes, such as promotion of products or services. The Club Siemens blog is an example of such a corporate purpose. The corporate blog may also be used as a "press" platform to make announcements to businesses, customers, and the public about partnerships or organizational change.

Corporate blogging is a means for corporations to create a presence in the online community. But their success depends on their bloggers and their management of corporate blogs. Because few educational institutes actually train students to blog appropriately, effectively, and in a socially responsible manner, corporations rely on employees or independent-type contractors to meet their needs. Microsoft's hiring of Robert Scoble as an "Evangelist" is an example.

Corporate executives that blog have difficulty keeping their blogs current and responding to streams of questions and comments because they need to focus on other business objectives. Two particular executives have mentioned this:
1. Mohammed Amin of PriceWaterhouseCoopers wishes to blog weekly but is only managing fornightly posts.
2. AOL's Ted Leonis mentions having a flood of email originating from his blog to respond to.

Clearly, a niche market exists for professionally trained bloggers. Bloggers that can identify with specific corporate goals (internal or external) and tailor their blogging prowess to present those corporate goals via the corporate blog platform.

If business schools are not preparing business students to use the blog as a legitimate business communication tool, then corporations rely on training their own employees or contract with independent companies for these services.

Today -- at USC's Experimental Learning Lab (ELC) -- a team of students from BUAD 307 pitched a BizBlogRecruitment marketing plan to promote the services of a business blog recruitment [training and consultancy] company. The target audience being corporations that blog, those that plan to blog, and those not blogging. Included in the target audience are professional writers and bloggers. Here is the introductory slide:

Our goal through this exercise is to show corporations that accepting and adapting to change, such as creating a tailored corporate blog, empowers them to maintain a competitive edge and connect with powerful online communities.

Although, as a team, we developed a marketing mix and plan for this service, we -- as business students -- have no formal classes in corporate/business blogging as a legitimate business communications tool on offer at our school.

As corporations need to recognize the changes in the social computing evironment and evolve their operations accordingly so that the organization and employees are prepared for interactions within the online environment. Similarly, business schools need to recognize the changes in the social computing environment and evolve their courses accordingly so that business students are prepared for the post-college online environment and developing business opportunities.

A Window into My Marshall

Being a student at the Marshall School of Business at USC is a thrill! And it’s a thrill for a number of reasons: the Profs are treasures; the Courses are puzzles; and the Opportunities are oceans.

The Profs are treasures

Here’s a little about my current professors because each of them contribute to the expansion of my thoughts and how I apply my thoughts to this Independent Study on Corporate Blogs -

Professor Sandra Chrystal (Center for Management Communication):

• Is as passionate in teaching as the chocolate she loves
• Takes the mind beyond the most zealous yoga pose
• Offers opportunities where only dreams are thought to reside
• Empowers students through community realizations
• Steps on fear to for technology's sake
• Helps students find their own unique voice
• Guides student success beyond expectation
• Connects students to their personal purpose
• Provides local, national, and global encounters through projects, cases, competitions, publications, and presentations
• Infuses students with the ethics she lives and breathes

Professor Reginald Hubbard (Center for Management Communication):

• Impacts the mind powerfully in silence, in word, and in deed
• Guides the end to any identification crisis
• Awakens the mind to global thought
• Is humane, compassionate, empathetic, culturally in-tune and on time
• Expresses a rainbow intellect
• Leads students beyond the textbook stepping stone - across the river - ready to explore and discover what lies on its banks

Professor Rex Kovacevich (Marketing Department):

• Remember Dr. Snuggles’ Time Machine – all those devices? (Each lecture is an invention that houses the most intriguingly intelligent and funny moments)
• Transforms students' minds with wonder and sensation – just fab!
• Nurtures honest, hearty, and happy humans
• Never lets sleeping minds lie (wear sun glasses & don’t snore) nor lets critical thinking die

Professor Bert Steece (Advanced Statistics):

• Sensitive to student’s individual levels and needs
• Attentive, patient, and positively productive
• Repairs rusty regression and fills in the blanks
• Tolerates outlier questions and aptly answers them
• Is always available for office hours and loves candy (tootsie rolls)
• Teaches the meaning of learning and gives statistics a life
• Passionate about improving condition through inference (its catchy)
• Loves art! Always draws the picture.

Treasured Profs for all times

Professor Yolanda Kirk (Center for Management Communication):

• Is a strikingly sharp individual – intuitive and wise
• Fosters diversity in all its dimensions from cacti to the sea
• Instills the importance of strategy yet ever mindful of simplicity
• Puts opportunity in reach and gives the hand over the hurdle
• Teaches students how to write, write, write – right!
• Ignites the mind to explore beyond the word
• Strives for the best but remembers the rest
• Foregoes public credit for inner delight
• Gives all to her Marshall, mighty not small

Professor Steve Posner (Center for Management Communication):

• Directs and inspires experience through multi-colored and multi-purpose dimensions
• Transmits telepathic exuberance that inspires the mind to explore infinity
• Coaches and supports every student need
• Takes truth out of its sugar coated wrapping and tells it as it is - whatever the truth may be
• Flies to see students every week because he wants to not because he has to
• Bares and shares a contagious spirit to learn
• Validates students' ideas
• Is genuine and kind

More of the Marshall Window to follow ...

Why is blogging relevant to students?

• Blogs create a published history by individual bloggers that can be used 'for' or 'against' them in the present or future.
• Blogs are used for business purposes other than for social networking.
• Blogs provide students with career information, interaction, and choices.
• Blogs may be introduced into the classroom as content or as delivery mode.
• Students need to learn how to discern between blogs in terms of quality, credibility, and authenticity.
• Student bloggers need to be aware of blog policy,liability, and ethical issues.
• Student bloggers need to learn modes of blogging to succeed in business communication.