This week seemed a drop-kick at first. I mean, obviously I was going to use the popular “Sh*t Seattle people say when it snows,” right? It was hugely popular this week, and was made by one of our own MCDMers (Hi, Paolo!).

Only problem is, it’s been done already. So, back to the drawing board for me.

Luckily, there’s been another video that has been going the rounds on my feeds. Not only does it feature snow, but a cute animal, too–which means that it is obviously destined for glory on the interwebs…

Stay warm, stay safe, and enjoy!

Last year, I stumbled into mainstream Internet recognition in Seattle. Actually, I drove into it.

My wife and I got stuck in a terrible storm from Seattle to Tacoma, where we live, and in the boredom of our 10-hour “#snomg” commute I tweeted about everything that came to mind, with little filter. As a result, I flooded the stream on Twitter and gained some very minor celebrity (I mean, levels below even Kathy Griffin) during the event and a few days after.

This year, I had no plans to produce media around the impending storm, but then MCDM colleague Madeline Moy suggested in a Facebook thread that someone parody the “Sh*t Girls Say” meme with “Sh*t Seattle People Say When It Snows.” I found inspiration in it and got started. I filmed for a couple hours after work and dropped the first video that evening on YouTube, just to entertain my Facebook friends.

That first video took off. I thought it’d get 1,000 views at the most, but by the time I woke up the next morning I was well into five-figure views. I had plenty of shots left over, so I edited Part 2 and posted that, too. The two videos received many great comments in 48 hours, so I “replied” to them with Part 3 just earlier today, featuring many of the suggestions viewers provided.

So, how in the hell did this work out so well?

In digital media circles, we often talk about content and distribution models, but we rarely talk about newsworthiness — a more common discussion amongst PR flacks. Even great content — and I think I produced amateur content — needs a reason. To go viral, and I don’t think the “Sh*t Seattle People Say When It Snows” videos have hit that hockey stick growth quite yet, content needs more than a business reason or approval of an inner circle of friends. It has to appeal with reason and context for a broader audience to “get it.”

This year’s snow was my perfect storm, pun intended. I knew that a) people like to talk about the rare snow in Seattle, b) Seattlites have plenty of free time on snow days, and c) everyone likes a good laugh. Madeline’s request reminded me that there was a familiar and popular meme format to leverage.

It has been all Seattle snow jokes since.

Coming on the heels of yesterday’s organized internet blackout where several major sites went dark to protest the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA  (Protect Intellectual Property Act) bills from becoming law, it seems that another mini internet war has sprung up this afternoon.

It was announced, without any real provocation, that popular online downloading site Megaupload.com was seized and shut down by the Department of justice. According to the federal indictment, the Justice Department claims that Megaupload.com, which is run by rapper/producer Swizz Beatz (pictured below), has generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and costs copyright-holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated movies, albums and other materials. Thus as of this morning, the site was shut down and several people connected to the Hong Kong-based downloading giant were arrested and charged with copyright infringement and other crimes.

This has happened before with other music downloading sites (many connected to the hip-hop world) when the internet police decided to lay down the hammer.

But alas, those of us in favor of free media have internet goons on our side as well.

This afternoon, global computer hacker group Anonymous went on the offensive in direct response to Megaupload.com being axed and quickly shutdown Universal Music Group’s website along with other major sites such as the RIAA.org (Recording Industry Association of America) and Justice.gov. A spokesman for Anonymous has stated that the group hacked and shut down those websites today in defense of Megaupload. This actually has the potential to get worse.

For starters, the fact that Anonymous was even capable of shutting down the Justice Department’s website and Universal Music Group’s is a big deal. Because both of those organizations are in support of SOPA/PIPA and want to stop online piracy at all costs, having a group like Anonymous crashing their websites is no small feat. Let’s be clear: UMG and RIAA’s websites being targeted are one thing but totally shutting down the Justice Department’s website is a huge blow and rather embarrassing!  Of course, neither of these major players in the SOPA/PIPA battle will take kindly to being shutdown today and will likely go after even more sites that they feel are guilty of piracy. If and when that happens, Anonymous will likely retaliate again.

There aren’t any clear winners or losers in all of this but it is good to know that the Department of Justice now has to think twice about probable retaliation before they seize another website. It’s not clear what will happen next but with President Obama announcing that he no longer supports the SOPA bill and 19 Senators joining him in that statement, those who truly oppose online piracy will have to go back to square one and draft all new legislation if they want any bill to clear the House and the Senate.

Join MCDM Administrators and fellow students this Sunday January 22nd at noon in Communications 126.  MCDM Director Hanson Hosein will be joined by other faculty in answering questions about the present and future of the MCDM program.  Pizza will be served.

Event registration can be found here:  http://mcdmtownhall2012.eventbrite.com/

As this story goes to post, Wikipedia is four hours from going dark to protest SOPA and PIPA.  Wikipedia is certainly the most public and probably largest internet property to take the unprecedented step of shutting down their service to protest the impending legislation.  Wikipedia follows other well known tech entities like Reddit, I CanHazCheeseburger Network, O’Reilly Media and WordPress.org in shutting down on Wednesday.

Wikipedia is planning on replacing their standard interface with information about SOPA and PIPA, protest links and phone numbers of U.S. Representatives and Senators.  Other protesting sites will also be providing similar information on their homepages.

SOPA/PIPA reaches deeply into the MCDM curriculum.  We teach the content authoring skills that SOPA supporters are trying to protect.  We teach the ethics and practices of free and unfettered internet access.  MCDMers are at the vanguard in strategizing to content monetization.  Its hard for many of us to take a confident definitive stance on SOPA because the legislation is like a house of mirrors when it comes to what we do here at the MCDM.

In the spirit of innovation and debate, we at the Flip ask you to weigh in on the issues.  Do you support SOPA/PIPA?  Are you vehemently against SOPA/PIPA?  Are you confused by SOPA/PIPA?  We want to here from you.  Let us know what you think about these pressing issues.  Please comment below.

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.

Read more…

The holidays are over. People have packed up the decorations, and a new year has started. But January isn’t only about resolutions and back-to-work doldrums. For many sports fans, January means one thing, and one thing only:

Roller Derby.

That’s right–tonight, I’ll be suiting up as Amelia Dareheart when Everett’s Jet City Roller Girls have their first bouts of the season.  And in Seattle, Rat City’s first bouts are on the 21st.

Thanks to the National Post News, here is a handy infographic to help those unfamiliar with the sport understand what they’re seeing:

Click the image to see the large-format version

Read more…

This past Fall Quarter I taught the MCDM course, “Leadership in the Digital Age: Establishing Authenticity Through Story.” I couldn’t have asked for a more dynamic news cycle to accompany the class: the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the Penn State scandal involving Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions football program, and internally, a heated debate involving UW President Michael Young and the UW Provost appointment. Each of these events provided rich case studies in accountability, transparency, and leadership style.

Beyond the discussions of personal story and individual leadership, the class also tackled issues related to the collective. Namely, the platforms and tools that are inherently social and can have profound effects on the way organizations engage internally and externally, and furthermore, the impact they then have in their communities. For one of the final assignments, an original film featuring 21st century leaders, MCDM Cohort 11-er Shanna Christie took a unique approach and featured her home of West Seattle, and in particular how the leadership of the hyperlocal West Seattle Blog has created a stronger sense of interconnectedness and involvement in the neighborhood. Shanna’s film is entitled West Side Story: A Tale of Technology:

A natural bookend to the themes presented in Shanna’s film is my subsequent piece this December in the 30th anniversary issue of ARCADE magazine, Found In My Own World: Leadership and Community in the Digital Age. In this article I argue what Shanna reveals to be her experience in West Seattle: the interplay between virtual and place-based communities not only strengthens the community overall, but provides new leadership structures that are less formal, but arguably just as effective.

While my Fall Quarter course has ended, my immersion in the topic has not. Starting on January 17, I will be part of a UW Communication Department delegation to South Carolina, including Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist David Horsey, covering the lead up to the South Carolina GOP primary on January 22. This partnership with the Seattle Times involves a blog that will be very dynamic in the next week and beyond, so keep a close eye on it. While the story from the 2008 election was the Obama campaign’s ability to leverage new media, four years later we have a transformed landscape where all campaigns are savvier with the digital tools. Therefore, I’ll be paying particular attention to the life stories the candidates share—and what tools they use to engage communities—and the pictures those stories paint about their leadership style.

Finally, speaking of stories and leadership styles, I’ll be posting more of the student films on the MCDM website over the next few weeks. The films spotlight leaders from across sectors and industries, each with a unique approach to the question of leadership in the digital age.