The Strip by Brian McFadden

After the Consumer Electronics Show binge in Las Vegas last week, the guilt and remorse settle in — kind of like the day after Thanksgiving.  Was it too big?  Too flashy?  Why did we collectively gorge on stuff that we don’t really need?  Shouldn’t we reflect more upon the slave labor that makes these toys for us, rather than on the superficial novelty they provide?  (The cartoon above, and Flip The Media’s excellent Your Phone Was Probably Made in a Sweatshop expose this harsh reality).

Then there was the oft-shared Fevered Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter:

There is a hole in my heart dug deep by advertising and envy and a desire to see a thing that is new and different and beautiful. A place within me that is empty, and that I want to fill up. The hole makes me think electronics can help. And of course, they can.

They make the world easier and more enjoyable. They boost productivity and provide entertainment and information and sometimes even status. At least for a while. At least until they are obsolete. At least until they are garbage.

And I couldn’t avert my eyes from the Wall Street Journal’s above-the-fold front-page headline trumpeting the much-anticipated Chinese uprising, but then throwing in the twist: not due to politics, but because of the newly-released iPhone 4s.

Fine.  It’s all true.  And all many of the tech blog post-mortems have concluded that this year’s show as more evolutionary than revolutionary.  However, as I consider what I saw — from fridges, to cars, to TV’s — it’s pretty clear what’s driving this consumer electronics gold rush (this year’s CES after all, had the most attendees and the most exhibits): mobile and social.

Of course, this is so intuitively obvious, and may have been for a couple of years with the notable explosion in adoption of devices such as Apple’s iPhone (mobile) and platforms such as Facebook (social).  It’s that synergy, convergence, whatever, that I refer to in the latest chapter to Storyteller Uprising, Inconspicuous, Ubiquitous and Sociable.  For those of us who have smartphones and are connected to online social platforms, we know how useful and convenient these digital technologies can be.  They’re also fun.  But recognize the bigger picture here: we have those powerful, relatively inexpensive, connective devices with us nearly all the time.  And they’re usually on.

Therein lies the opportunity that so many companies and entrepreneurs have grasped: consumers are connected, want access to data and content at their convenience, and value the enhanced utility that these new technologies bring.  As I observed in my recent Mashable article, we are moving away from enteprise-driven digital technology, to a consumer-driven world (something that Apple grasped a decade ago):

It’s all about the consumerization of tech. We’re moving “beyond the PC” as The Economist recently put it, and this will have a far-reaching impact. The enterprise (Blackberry, Windows) once drove tech usage and innovation. Now, how we use our mobile devices begins outside the office.

The “Digital Hollywood” and “Three Screens and Beyond” panels I attended at CES helped drive this realization home.  IBM’s Scott Burnett (Director, Global Consumer Electronics Industry) pointed out that this device and platform convergence and convenience is not just about entertainment and the connected screen.  Rather, there’s application in safety and security, energy management, health and wellbeing.  I saw this first hand when I checked out the in-vehicle technology exhibits.  The key?  We can integrate the functionality, connectivity, CPU power and portability of our smartphone outside of our living rooms and office into our vehicles, kitchens and fitness routines.  It’s a new reality that has yet to truly manifest itself, but as it does, 2017 may be as foreign to 2012 as 1976 was to 1776.  We are just only beginning to experience this massive, ridiculously fast-moving transformation.  I’m convinced it will change pretty much everything, including the relatively molasses-like world of higher education.  Former FCC Chairman (and Colin’s son) Michael Powell said as much during his inspiring Higher EdTech keynote at CES.

So we can question CES’ relevance as we pronounce that the devices at CES individually may not be particularly revolutionary.  But frankly, the big picture trend that I glimpsed in Las Vegas is absolutely a show-stopper.  I’m now trying to find a way to get to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month to continue my headline event intelligence-gathering in this pivotal year.

[Listen to my GeekWire Radio appearance, where I touch on the meaning of CES and more]

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Me?  Well, I’m in an unusual situation.  I’m there to promote the MCDM through Storyteller Uprising (which has a new chapter) as well as cover the event (for KUOW, GeekWire, KING 5, Flip The Media).  But I’m also looking forward to being “covered” as a subject matter expert.  I have interviews already scheduled with Wired, Reuters, PRWeek and the Seattle Times with my take on the show, seen through the optic of Storyteller Uprising and the MCDM.  So I’ve got to look Chic while being practically prepared for any eventuality as would any good Geek.

“Chic”: dark blazer, polished boots, dress shirts, make-up, brushes, spot removal wipes. I’ve even got a business card that actually doesn’t have a telephone number.  But it does have four URL’s, a QR code for journalists to download my e-book, my e-mail address, and of course, my Twitter handle.  Which means of course, that we’ve already moved into the “Geek” section of this post (considerably longer than the “Chic” one!):

I don’t have to worry too much about the gear, which is a relief.  I’m traveling with my colleague (and former student) Filiz Efe who’ll be capturing the show (and me) through a Canon 5D with a fancy Zacuto add-on viewfinder, and a multiplicity of microphones.  The MCDM’s new Program Manager, Ashley-Rose O’Mara will be our enforcer as she manages my interviews and schedule, while she makes friends for our degree program by handing out brochures and copies of my book.  We’re also supported through our terrific partnership with public relations firm Weber Shandwick Seattle.

But I’m forever the backpack journalist and I’ll be the only one in the team who’ll have access to certain events.  So I’ll be filming with my Galaxy Note “phablet” in 1080p video mode (read Todd Bishop’s feature on my mammoth conversation starter of a phone), which will probably be announced for the American market this week.  I’ll also have an Olympus XZ-1 point-and-shoot (with external mike setup), a Macbook Air, a backup mobile broadband hotspot (T-Mobile, how congested could that network be at CES?), and a plethora of cables. Another first for me?  We won’t be editing in Final Cut, but rather with Adobe Premiere.  It’s all a sign of the times.

Follow me on Twitter (@hrhmedia) for my latest #CES reports.  I’ll also be filing on Storyteller Uprising, and here, regularly.

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According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a consulting firm, the global video-game market was worth around $56 billion last year. That is more than twice the size of the recorded-music industry, nearly a quarter more than the magazine business and about three-fifths the size of the film industry, counting DVD sales as well as box-office receipts (see chart below). PwC predicts that video games will be the fastest-growing form of media over the next few years, with sales rising to $82 billion by 2015.

I don’t love video games. I’m not good at them. But I’m so enthralled by Raiders of the Lost Ark-like cinematic experience of games such as Uncharted: Drake’s Deception that I’ll play them on “Easy” just to get to the next reveal. It’s also why I’m more wedded to the PS3 console, because of story-centric exclusives such as Uncharted, and the just-announced I Am Legend-inspired horror-apocalypse game, The Last of Us (trailer below).

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ll temper my excitement about The Last of Us (due in late 2012, early 2013) until I hear whether it’s in 3D or not. Yup, you heard me. I didn’t think much of the blockbuster Avatar — as a movie, or as a 3D experience. I’ve resisted the urge to get a 3D TV because the glasses strike me as anti-social, unhealthy for young children, and hardly worth the investment especially with companies like Toshiba developing 3D technology that doesn’t require eyeware.  But when it comes to interactive cinematic entertainment such as Uncharted (and now Batman Arkham City, which I’ve just started), I’ve discovered that 3D makes the story experience that much immersive. It’s akin to introducing home theater 5.1 surround sound into the home after a lifetime of mono television. It helps that Sony just released an accessibly-priced 24″ 3D monitor that works for both PS3 and Xbox (already reduced to $399 — glasses, game and HDMI cable included – $299 this week at Best Buy for American residents).

I’m also willing to believe that 3D might make it beyond fad to fixture if game companies see it as a worthwhile feature. But $299 is about as far as I want to go to experiment in the third dimension for now.

Meanwhile, I just might continue to devote more of my entertainment dollars to immersive, story-rich video games, rather than Hollywood movies — which could be the way the industry goes as well.  After all, Activision’s 2010 video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops was the “most successful launch of an entertainment product ever” observed The Economist, grossing $1 billion one month after its release. The British publication went to press before the world discovered last week that the follow-up release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (not produced in 3D) grossed the same amount in 16 days, besting the previous record, set by a movie – Avatar. As we all know, the real name of the game is “follow the money.”

“We’re trying to move the medium of video games into an area elevated in the same manner of respect of film,” [Naughty Dog co-president Christophe] Balestra says. “We want to redefine what our medium is even called. ‘Video game’ is not an accurate name anymore. It is not necessarily a game with rules and a winner and a loser. It’s an experience.”

source: USA Today

Originally posted to Storyteller Uprising

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Click here to view the embedded video.

In the final passage, Jobs is reflecting on mortality and concedes that he’d like to believe in an afterlife.

“But on the other hand, perhaps it’s like an on-off switch,” he said. “Click! And you’re gone.” He fell silent for a very long time.

Then he paused again and smiled slightly. “Maybe that’s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices.”

Much can be observed about the late Steve Jobs from this statement: his obsession with simplicity as he oversaw the design of Apple’s remarkable devices, his lifelong connection to digital technology (from pioneering personal computing to creating a market for the “fourth screen” of tablet computing), and how he integrated his soul with the devices that he created. He wanted to make a “dent in the universe” and at least in our gadget-infused, content rich world, he did.

Jobs’ products made a huge dent in my world as a visual storyteller: when I acquired a Powerbook in 2003 with its integrated content creation tools (Final Cut Pro, DVD burning, soundtrack production) I suddenly believed that I could become a filmmaker. Perhaps, I had entered Steve Jobs’ so-called “reality distortion field,” because against all odds, his technology did transform my creativity into a viable content that made its way to the masses.

He’s said to be our generation’s rendition of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or even John Lennon — a “magician genius” who built our era’s “most creative company.” That reality distortion field allowed him to will a world that he wanted to see, into existence. But as the narrative arc of this biography reveals, that same sense of self-belief that brought Jobs his awe-inspiring success, may well have also contributed to his demise.

“Cancer does not work that way,” Isaacson writes. Jobs decided he didn’t want surgeons to cut him open. So with the hope that he could maintain the integrity of his body, he opted for dietary and homeopathic remedies which did nothing to stem the advance of his pancreatic cancer. “Had they operated nine months earlier, they might have caught it before it spread.”

So now that he’s gone, and I’ve finally finished the book, I’ve asked myself whether Jobs’ reality distortion field will endure. In other words, was he as “insanely great” as he wanted to be, and as many of us are proclaiming, even as we continue to grieve his demise, an irreplaceable genius? Or are we somewhat blinded by that distortion field, unable to see that giants as big as Jobs, still walk the earth?

Click here to view the embedded video.

I couldn’t help but consider this, even as I plowed through the book. Jobs’ complicated relationship with Microsoft’s Bill Gates is somewhat testimony to this issue.

Gates was good at computer coding, unlike Jobs, and his mind was more practical, disciplined, and abundant in analytical processing power. Jobs was more intuitive and romantic and had a greater instinct for making technology usable, design delightful, and interfaces friendly.

One of my favorite eulogies to Jobs is Malcolm Gladwell’s Steve Jobs’ Real Genius. Gladwell concludes from Isaacson’s biography that Jobs “was a bully:” a man abandoned by his father who denies paternity, parks in handicapped spaces, screams and cries at subordinates, and even fires 67 nurses before he finds the three he can settle upon to care for him until he dies.

But even more damningly (and perhaps more honestly), Gladwell concludes that Jobs was less of an inventor, and more of a “tweaker.” That his obsession with perfection inspired him to take already existing creations and “ruthlessly refine” them. In other words, he was a tremendous editor: from the Macintosh to the iPod, iPhone and iPad. There were other graphically-based operating systems, other MP3 players, smartphones and tablet computers, but Jobs’ tweaking of these systems is what really made them massively popular, thereby changing our worlds.

Bill Gates, by contrast, “resisted the romance of perfectionism.” Indeed, Jobs even belittles him by telling Isaacson, “Bill is basically unimaginative, and has never invented anything, which I think is why he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.”

Well if you agree with Gladwell’s premise, Jobs himself wasn’t an inventor either, and was prone to ripping off others’ ideas as well. Indeed, my sympathy (and appreciation) for Gates deepened as I contrasted him to Jobs even as I read Jobs’ biography. Perhaps I have entered Gates’ own “distortion field” having recently met the man, and spent some time at the new temple to philanthropy that he and his wife Melinda have constructed in the heart of Seattle. But I would have to agree with Gladwell when he writes:

It’s true that Gates is now more interested in trying to eradicate malaria than in overseeing the next iteration of Word. But this is not evidence of a lack of imagination. Philanthropy on the scale that Gates practices represents imagination at its grandest.

Then I reflect upon Seattle’s other titan as I continue to consider Jobs’ legacy: Jeff Bezos. After all, I read Steve Jobs’ biography largely on the iPad’s Kindle app. Fortuitously, Wired magazine published its profile of the Amazon founder this week, contrasting Jobs’ vision with Bezos, especially as the new Kindle Fire device is set to do battle with the iPad this holiday season.

The release of the Fire showcases how forward-thinking Bezos has been. After 15 years near the top of the tech heap, he doesn’t have the same outsized profile of other Internet innovators. But that may be changing. People are slowly beginning to realize just how much of the Web is powered by Amazon’s cloud services. And industry observers see Amazon’s entry into the tablet sweepstakes as further evidence that Bezos may well be the premier technologist in America, a figure who casts as big a shadow as legends like Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs.

In fact, Wired’s Stephen Levy goes as far as to pit Apple against Amazon, dueling visions of Job’s “post-PC” world and Amazon’s “post-Web” one (streamed content in a cloud-centric world is king, the OS and the device themselves are insignificant).

Bezos comes off as a man who delights in disrupting industries — publishing, music, movies. Indeed, if Steve Jobs’ devices facilitated my becoming a professional multimedia storyteller, Jeff Bezos’ platforms and retail channels enabled my media entrepreneurship. You can buy my Independent America DVD on Amazon, I published Storyteller Uprising to Kindle in February when it was a mere two chapters; now it’s a larger book-in-progress that you can find both on Kindle and is a “made-to-order” softcover thanks to Amazon’s CreateSpace service. My other Rising from Ruins film is not on Amazon, but you can watch it on Netflix.  The connection to Amazon?  The media streaming giant hosts all of its content on Amazon Web Services.

While Bezos is as obsessive as Jobs was and believes in simplifying Amazon’s products for the customer, he admits that his business focus is different: low margins versus Apple’s exceptionally high margins.

We were determined to build the best services but to price them at a level that customers couldn’t match, even if they were willing to use inferior products….We really obsess over small defects. That’s what drives up costs…Our version of a perfect customer experience is one in which our customer doesn’t want to talk to us. Every time a customer contacts us, we see it as a defect.

Bezos declared that Steve Jobs “was a teacher to anyone paying attention, and he’s gone way too soon.” But when Levy points out that other big tech CEO’s from his generation are disappearing, Amazon’s founder inadvertently brings us comfort, even as we worry about who’ll be the next Steve Jobs.

“Don’t worry, they’ll make more,” Bezos said.

UPDATE:

Thanks for your comments. I recommend folks check out this excellent rebuttal of Gladwell’s piece by John Gruber at Daring Fireball.  Gruber’s position:

Bringing the concepts of a $100,000 networked workstation to a $2500 standalone mass market personal computer is, I say, radically innovative. The Macintosh was no “tweak”. Pixar was no “tweak”. The iPod is maybe the closest thing among Jobs’s career highlights that one could call a “tweak” of that which preceded it — but it’s hard to separate the iPod, the device, from the entire iTunes ecosystem in terms of measuring its effect on our culture and the way everyone today listens to music. Does anyone really think Apple’s entry into the music industry was a “tweak”? A “large-scale visionary” is precisely what Steve Jobs was.

Originally posted to Storyteller Uprising.

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At the Great Wall (Badaling Section)

Thousands of people flooded around me. I stared in exasperation at the sign. Yet, I knew that it had to be emblematic of something about my week-long trip to Beijing — my first to China. True to my personality, I had tried to go against the tide by trying to enter the Forbidden City from the less popular north gate. But as of July 2^nd, the sign informed me, visitors to the very much once “forbidden” home of the Emperor of China, had to enter from the south, and leave by the north.

I had been happily using my Garmin GPS watch to track my weekend pedestrian expedition in Beijing.

But the thought of trudging back to the south end, only to end up back where I was presently, and then have to do it all over again to get to the subway seemed like many steps too far.

So what did I do? I skipped visiting the Forbidden City – a treasured UNESCO site – altogether. Rather I content myself with a deep hangout at Beihar Park, and then Tiananmen Square. And I spent all day using stodgy Internet connections through Beijing to download a rental of the Academy Award-winning “The Last Emperor” from iTunes for my return flight to Seattle. Bertolucci’s famed exclusive access to the Forbidden City for his film would have to suffice.

My walk through Beijing

After all, I had accomplished what I had set out to do: to get a glimpse of China for the first time, especially from a digital media perspective. My vehicle in was as a participant in transmitCHINA, where I hobnobbed with entrepreneurial digerati from both the Middle Kingdom and the New World.

Even better, the event was held at a resort by the Great Wall of China. This afforded me two opportunities:

My walk along the Great Wall of China

(1) I got to walk along a secluded, non-touristy part of the Wall. Once again with Garmin GPS breadcrumbs to show off to the folks back home. I was actually surprised to get accurate tracking, I had expected that the signal would somehow get scrambled by the Chinese government.

(2) To experience the Great Firewall of China firsthand. No Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube (some conference participants agreed with my hypothesis that this was partly for political reasons, partly to shelter homegrown Chinese platforms from global competition). Thirty thousand government employees sit and monitor for the use of the “three T’s” – Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen. I even searched “Great Firewall of China” on both Google and Bing and got hung up indefinitely. Once old China hand explained to me that an attempt to access the wrong kind of site would usually result in a “digital slap on the wrist” from the government – no access to the Web for a few minutes, just so you knew you had done wrong.

Still, I was prepared for government blockage, having signed up for a Virtual Private Network (with VyperVPN) before I left the USA. I was able to divert my computer’s internet connection to IP addresses in the USA (Netflix!!), the UK (BBC iPlayer for Torchwood and Doctor Who!) or the EU and Hong Kong to access Facebook and Twitter to my heart’s content. And I found this Wikipedia entry of the Great Firewall, which also includes a concluding, pithy quote from my brother, Dr. Gus Hosein’s colleague at Privacy International, Simon Davies.

Now I thought I was being sneaky and decidedly a bad guest by using the VPN. But then I saw a few other participants (even locals) also had their own VPN access. So I didn’t feel so bad.

Indeed, I’ve read that the Chinese government tends to go in waves when it comes to clamping down on VPN use (it continues to shore up the Great Firewall with the latest in monitoring technology). It recognizes that unless it’s a particularly sensitive time politically, people do need a release valve for pent up frustrations. Better they do so online than in person at Tiananmen Square (there’s a heavy police presence there, by the way).

At Tiananmen Square

I was told on several occasions that they’re actually afraid of Sina Weibo, the Twitter microblog equivalent. There are 195 million microbloggers in China, which dwarfs Twitter’s worldwide user count. And they use platforms like these to complain about government officials, which can sometimes result in a prompt response.

Tracking the transmitChina Weibo stream

During my short time in China, I came across these stories in the local English-language paper that demonstrate the contradictory, sometimes chaotic nature of the use of digital media:

- An official in Henan province was dismissed after his temper tantrum against a school principal was caught on video and distributed online [link].

- A man had complained for two years on his blog about “mistreatment” at the hands of his doctor. [link] He ended up confronting and stabbing the doctor.

- Yao Chen, the “Queen of the Microblogs” has 11 million followers on Weibo. The B-movie actress is the third most popular microblogger in the world after Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. This summer she posted a story about her mother’s cousin who tried to commit suicide because she had received unfair compensation after her land had been requisitioned. [link]

A fairly literal translation of the Chinese saying

China is a 5,000 year-old civilization that presently feels as if it’s the center of the universe, with the money and youthful presence to back it. I suspect this is what Paris might have felt like in the 1920′s, or London in the 1880′s — both major cities at their magnetic peak.

During my time at transmitCHINA, I made some valuable connections with Asia experts from the University of Oregon and the University of Toronto, which may lead to more serious relationships in the region. I also experienced an innovative roundtable approach, the antidote to the dull as doornails panel presentation method that we eschew at Four Peaks.

During one such session, I had the opportunity to define “disruptive innovation” with a small group of people. When I explained that part of this phenomenon is to find opportunity in chaos, Kaiser Kuo, the head of international PR for Chinese search giant Baidu said, “There’s an ancient Chinese expression for that, ‘in chaos, heroes arise.’”

I was quite taken with this, which led me to spend more time chatting with Kaiser. I quickly found out that in addition to his high profile position (his unofficial title he told me was the “Minister of the Suppression of Barbarian Lies”) he was responsible for the rise of heavy metal to China in the 1990’s with his group Tang Dynasty.

Well he had me there, and we soon discovered that we had a mutual, unhealthy love for the group Rush. Wow, China was turning out to be even cooler than I could have imagined it. As Kaiser and I began our bromance, we met for coffee back in Beijing a few days later (after his lunch with Charlene Li, whose books Groundswell and Open Leadership have both been required reading in my class). One thing led to another, and he invited me to attend a show featuring his AC/DC cover band “Dirty Deeds.”

Kaiser Kuo on bass with Dirty Deeds AC/DC tribute band

Around 150 expats (more than 1% of Beijing’s 16 million residents are foreigners) and some Chinese showed up. The bar’s Internet connection was the fastest I had experienced yet in China (which allowed me to download the rest of “The Last Emperor” to my iPad). I was thinking that this was a pretty free-flowing Western experience when one of the band members pointed out that there was a surveillance camera by the bar with a direct connection back to the local police station.

I recalled my tourist experience at the Forbidden City the previous day. Even as China opens its gates, there are still certain immutable realities when it comes to command and control.

I got one last reminder of this upon my departure as I tried to login to the airport wi-fi. I had to scan my passport into a machine (which registered my name and passport number). Out spat a small receipt that read “According to Ministry of Public Order No. 82 Passengers online should authenticate by real name.” As I would soon discover, it was hardly worth the surrender of my personal information; the slower-than-dialup connection got me nowhere fast–which might be the best description of negotiating China’s confusing digital landscape.

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This unusual feeling (it is for me!) began to develop late last month. At a Department of Communication faculty meeting, my colleagues enthusiastically supported our request to kick off a national search for a new MCDM assistant professor, who would bring further rigor to our one-of-a-kind program. It was a vote of confidence during a tough time for the University of Washington, as severe budget cuts and hiring freezes descend upon the entire institution.

We haven’t been immune; we’ve been asked to streamline our own staff and faculty over the last year as we continue to prioritize how to provide excellence to our community while keeping a close eye on finances.

But the university also sees us as inspired, slightly hyperactive regional and global ambassadors for the higher education business model-in-transition. They’re full supporters of our schemes, experiments and expeditions, from faculty hires to Four Peaks to our show on UWTV.

Still, my current state of “happiness” is much more aligned to the intrinsic state of the MCDM.

As we wrap up the first week of our summer quarter, we also welcome the newest members of our community, MCDM Cohort 11. Each year the MCDM draws more diverse and exceptional applicant pools. We offer a degree unlike anything else in the world and it shows—our yield rate for those offered admissions is an impressive 92%.

Cohort 11 is composed of 60 students, from the United States, India, Australia, China, and Thailand. We drew students domestically from Maine to California, and from Georgia to New York.

As with all MCDM cohorts, part of their strength is the diversity of experience and background. Some of the members of Cohort 11 have been in their fields for nearly two decades, others are on the beginning trajectory of their careers. Over half finished their Bachelor’s degree seven years ago or more.

The cohort boasts individuals from across fields and sectors: Nokia, Seattle Police Department, Wizards of the Coast, REI, WorldVision, Microsoft, Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and the Gates Foundation are all represented, not to mention the entrepreneurs who run their own operations.

A good number of them have elected to take three of our most cutting edge classes that we have yet to offer (we tend to try new classes out in the summer): The Health of Networks, Transmedia Production and Distribution, and Marketing and Storytelling in the Anyscreen Era.

Our curriculum, as always, is permanently beta thanks to the ever-shifting subject matter that is digital media. However, we’ve worked closely with our faculty and renowned Communication Department Principle Lecturer Lisa Coutu over the last year to develop a common standard and vision to the classes that we do offer. Indeed, I take great pride in quoting from our remarkable, and first-ever, Faculty Handbook (also completed this week), as developed by Anita Verna Crofts and Heather Werckle to summarize that vision:

The Four Peaks [innovation, entrepreneurship, community, story] are the core elements that all MCDM students must now draw upon if they wish to engage with trust and persuasion in this noisy digital age. They imply the creation and curation of compelling stories in partnership with communities of interest, as our students explore connective technologies that by their very nature challenge their ability to entirely control the process. MCDM students learn to manage the risk and rewards of these technologies, in order to achieve Return on Investment in this communicative interaction. It all begins with getting someone’s attention; it lives on through a sustained level of multi-platform engagement. This is our guiding MCDM curricular philosophy.

What do we hope to accomplish in the year ahead?

- An even more compelling curriculum in line with our philosophy above (including revamped foundational classes).

- A strong lineup of organizations to partner with our students as part of our Community Scholarship initiative.

- An ever-more robust, high profile edition of our Flip The Media channel, along with other conduits for sharing our students’ best work with the world.

- The creation and funding of the MCDM Summit Corps (our very own fellowship program).

- A fundraising campaign for a robust scholarship program.

- A wholesale refresh of our web properties.

- An expansion and rebranding of our highly successful UWTV show (considered the station’s flagship program).

- A signature Four Peaks event early in 2012 on the scale of our 2010 TEDx Seattle gathering.

- First Friday Happy Hours hosted by key community members, similar to the one we had with Wexley School for Girls in April.

We also want to build upon the triumph that was our first annual Screen Summit a few weeks ago (orchestrated by Beth Koemans and Scott Macklin, programmed by Heather and Anita).

Next year will be bigger and bolder: we’ll showcase more graduating students’ work, which Anita will cultivate throughout the year. Scott and I intend to take our Anthony Giffard “Make The Change” Award national, recognizing digital disrupters from far and wide, much like the Webby Awards. And we’re brainstorming how at that same event next spring, we can recognize superlative student members of the MCDM community who contribute so much in and out of the classroom.

In other words, we have much with which to welcome our Cohort 11 students. They will benefit from the collaborative energy of their predecessors (read Cohort 8 Jeff Hora’s parting blog post for inspiration for those who are beginning their own MCDM journey), even as they find creative new ways to contribute to both the subject matter and to the ever-evolving nature of the program.

Have a great summer everyone.  Rest up!

Hanson

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“To give you a sense of the strong personalities that populate our Master of Communication in Digital Media, one of our graduating students updated (Brook Ellingwood) his Facebook status with this today.

Today, after years of struggle and hard work, I will at last achieve my lifelong dream: To wear clothes based on what priests wore in the 12th century.

Our students appreciate and respect the institution that is granting them this well-earned accreditation today.  But we also recognize the seismic changes that are occurring across every institution as technology continues to disrupt business models.

Including the time-tested business model of the university.  Maybe that’s why I’m wearing a suit instead!

The MCDM is a rigorous master’s degree for accomplished communication professionals who want to navigate this disruption and seek out the opportunities that are emerging every day.  The graduating students who will walk across this stage represent the very best of their fields and have exerted true blood, sweat and tears to earn this degree.

During their time in the program, they’ve produced social media strategies for non-profits like the United Way, video campaigns for the Pacific Science Center, strategic communication plans for startups.  They’ve pushed themselves intellectually to understand where communication is going with regards to mobile platforms, gaming and in emerging markets.  They are leaders in every sense of the word, and we applaud them wholeheartedly for their achievement today.   Especially during this tumultuous time.

Indeed, just today, we announced that we will recognize two Puget Sound-based initiatives of national impact that embody our philosophy of disrupting traditional communication models with innovative digital solutions.  One is Starbucks, for its innovative new Digital Network, which is in essence a media outlet available to everyone who frequents their stores across the United States.  The other is Dan Savage and Terry Miller for their groundbreaking “It Gets Better” Campaign on YouTube, as a beacon of hope to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teenagers.

We’re granting each of these initiatives the Anthony Giffard “Make The Change” award.   And that’s exactly what our graduates have done by achieving this degree, and what they will do as they engage the world with their talent and vision.  They will all, “Make The Change.”

Join me now as we recognize the largest graduating cohort in the history of the MCDM.  My colleague Anita Verna Crofts will read the names.  Scott Macklin will capture the digital media.”

Tomorrow, at our Screen Summit event,  we’ll be honoring Dan Savage and Terry Miller for their “It Gets Better” campaign to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender teens (connecting to two of our Four Peaks of “Community” and “Story”). See our Flip The Media post with Savage last year.

And after hosting Adam Brotman in our Strategic Research class last fall, we recognized the “game-changing” nature of his Starbucks Digital Network (representing our Peaks of “Innovation,” “Entrepreneurship”).

We intend to seed our nominees earlier this coming year, and hope to engage our community in the process as we move ahead.  Until then, join us in congratulating our award winners. GeekWire just published their story, and thanks to our relationship with Weber Shandwick, we’ve pushed out this press release throughout the state:

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