Its a Data-Driven World...I prefer BMW's.

"I had discovered, early in my researches, that their doctrine was no mere chemical fantasy, but a philosophy they applied to the world, to the elements, and to man himself."

-W.B. Yeats, Rosa Alchemica

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Happy Saturday everyone. I hope your three-day holiday weekend is off to a good start. Its actually fairly mild here in DC at the moment, but the forecast is calling for a temperature drop and rain tomorrow so bollix to that.

The meat of this blog will contain weekly reaction to various subject matter within the sphere of social media/networking. Please feel free to agree, disagree, or go completely off the reservation with your own comments. Let's get started.


Visualizing the US Senate by Social Graph
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8I5iMa_VV0)

I'd like to disclaim I am not as knowledgeable about our beloved political system as I should be. It always seemed like such a bore to me growing up that I never really bothered to learn much about it. That said, ever since the last election, I've been anxiously trying to educate myself about all things political. Not just issues, mind you, but actually how our government functions and "gets things done." So anytime I find a tool that helps me better understand how things operate, I get very excited. I am definitely a visual learner as well, so this video explaining the Social Graph tool is pretty darn interesting. You really get a sense for how the Senate voting structure fluctuates around different periods of time and issues.

What I will be interested to see is how the voting structure looks after the mid-term elections are finished (they start November 2). I've noticed a lot of chatter recently about how a bunch of democratic seats are in jeopardy of being lost to republicans due to the lack of policy passed since so many promises were made during the election.


Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends'
(http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-08/st_thompson)

This article was spot-on and refreshingly unapologetic in its assessment of the corporate world. The fact is, managers really don't know what's going on all the time. That's definitely a blanket statement but based on my experience, very true. I will deviate from the author's notion that the reason involves overworked and overstressed managers. I think a more common reason is the fact that managers don't want to know what's going on all the time because:

1. They're lazy and content to sit back and delegate.
2. It gives them someone else to blame if something goes wrong ("Well they never told me this...")

But would this 'reality mining' actually help companies? I'm mixed on the idea. Yes it might tighten a network, but I think most people would feel uneasy about the data collection process and might not act like they normally would. I know I wouldn't.

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So I'd like to end each section with a question of the week. The best response will be featured in the following week's blog posting. Have a great weekend everyone.

When you graduate from Kogod, assuming the stars align, the salary is right, and everything is good in the world...what would the title of your dream job be?