Hitting the Breaks on Texting While Driving

We all know that texting and driving is a huge issue around the world.  According to Edgar Snyder and Associates, a law firm that represents injured people, texting while driving makes a driver 23x more likely to get in a car accident and 3,328 people were killed in cell phone distraction-related crashes in 2012.

EdgarSnyder.com

I recently found an article on The New York Times about a man trying to put an end to this problem.

New York Times article

Scott Tibbitts, a chemical engineer who built a company that made motors and docking stations for NASA, knows that texting and driving is a serious issue that needs to be resolved.  Over the past five years, Tibbitts has teamed up with American Family Insurance and Sprint to invent a gadget that may eliminate texting and driving related car crashes all together.  This gadget is designed to block all incoming and outgoing texts and phone calls directed to and from the driver.

American Family Insurance is now using telematics to measure driver behavior.  For example, telematics can determine if a driver consistently speeds or slams on the brakes.  They also send a wireless message when the car is in motion, as the phone sends a message to locate the car: both messages sent to the servers of Katasi, Mr. Tibbitt’s company.  This system is also used to identify the driver of the car.  The system is capable of blocking calls, email and other data, but initially the plan was to block texts.

With the rapid advancements in technology, telematics will likely be used in cars in the future. According to this article, “Ernst & Young predicts that by 2025, some 88 percent of new cars will have telematics and thus become so-called connected cars” (NY Times).

Unfortunately, due to the behavior problem of people not wanting to follow the “no texting while driving rule,” as well of mounting costs with unclear returns, Sprint was hesitant on agreeing to the deal with Tibbitts.  ‘”The technology works; the technology is there,” said Walter Fowler, a spokesman for Sprint. ‘It’s a matter of working out the legal issues. The legal uncertainty — that’s the major issue.’ The project, they said, is stalled, maybe indefinitely” (NY Times).

In the meantime, Mr. Tibbitts still pushes ahead, pursuing other cell phone carriers to invest in this revolutionary product. “It’s so hugely frustrating,” he said. “I’ve put five years of my life into this; we’ve put in millions. I’m convinced there’s a great business and convinced it will save a bunch of lives” (NY Times).

"Share This" Part VII, Chapter 26: Here Comes Web 3.0 and The Internet of Things

In the last part of “Share This” (Chapter 26), Philip Sheldrake talks about the massive transformations in the social Web and communication technology innovations.  The author uses the example of George W. Bush’s inauguration for his second term in January of 2005 to show how much has changed in this short amount of time.  Not one YouTube video was uploaded during this historic event.  Or, when Italy beat France to win the FIFA World Cup Final, fans did not Tweet, or mention this on Facebook.  Events like these would blow up the social Web if they were to happen today.  Even with how useful social media technology is today, we can only expect it to advance faster and further in the future.

In this chapter, Sheldrake also introduces the so-called ‘Web 3.0,’ and the ‘Internet of Things.’

“Web 3.0 is the common name for a technology known as the Semantic Web.  Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, describes the Semantic Web as the Web becoming a universal medium for the exchange of data, information, and knowledge.  The Web itself ‘understands’ the meaning of all that Web 1.0 content and Web 2.0 social participation (Sheldrake, 233).”

According to the book, “the phrase ‘Internet of Things’ refers to a network of objects not historically connected" (224). The Internet of Things is necessary in public relations because it provides data that may influence opinion and behavior.

            As I concluded from this chapter, data is one of the most important things for PR practitioners to get their hands on.  Web 3.0 and The Internet of Things allows PR practitioners and other contributors of the organization to access this massive amount of data.

            This book gave me a better understanding of social media and how it is navigated.  It taught me about the impressive upbringing and benefits of social media, which I now appreciate much more than I did before reading this book.  Now, we must develop the skills as PR professionals to navigate through all that the great World Wide Web has to offer.

The Importance of Being Earnest Review

Today I went to see Ohio Northern University’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest.  The talented Happy Anderson, who I recently interviewed on this blog, directed the show.  I must say of all of the straight plays I have seen at this school, this was definitely my favorite.  I was extremely impressed with everyone's performance and the outcome of this fantastic show.

“Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece “The Importance of Being Earnest” focuses on two bachelor friends, upper-crust dandy Algernon Moncrieff (played by Patrick Plucinsky) and the most reliable John Worthing J.P. (played by Chase Zimmerman), who lead double lives to court the attentions of the desirable Gwendolyn Fairfax (Sydney Walton) and Cecily Cardew (Molly Moreau). The gallants must then grapple with the uproarious consequences of their ruse and with the formidable Lady Bracknell (played by Sarah Kuene)” (onu.edu).

onu.edu

I was especially impressed with how well the actors portrayed their characters.  For being in the theatre department at Ohio Northern and being pretty familiar with these people, I could most definitely tell they did their homework for this show.  Their hard work combined with Happy Anderson’s brilliant direction handed this show some pretty terrific results.  Chase Zimmerman kept me laughing throughout the entire show with his countless quality facial expressions.  He and Patrick Plucinsky were a dynamic duo and constructed the comedy of the show.  Sydney Walton and Molly Moreau's characters were charming joys to watch and Sarah Kuene’s “boss” attitude definitely kept the audience on its toes.

This show was incredibly entertaining to watch and I hope the entire cast and crew is proud of their successful run.  It is a shame many of the plays and musicals at the Freed Center get overlooked and many people do not get to experience watching fantastic shows such as The Importance of Being Earnest.  Shockingly, I know some students did not even know this show was going on this weekend. If you are a student here at Ohio Northern, be sure to support the theatre department and go see these amazing shows.  A lot of people put a ton of hard work, time and energy in these shows and their talents should be recognized.  I promise that once you go, you will not regret it!

Share This Chapter 15: Media Relations Modernized

Chapter 15 of "Share This" talks about Media Relations Modernized.  According to the book, the fundamentals of good media relations practice are “relevance, authority, engagement and relationship” (129).

PR practitioners play a number of important roles in relation to social media such as “acting as a change consultant-advising, guiding and training the different parts of the organization in effective and coherent social media engagement to ensure associated risks are managed and that there is consistency of approach” (129).

In this chapter, they refer to media relations as influencer relations because in the world we live in today, the goal of a PR practitioner is to “influence.”  At one point, the main forms of media connection were only through email and telephone.  While these are still used commonly today, we now have more forms of media, such as Twitter, to engage conversation relating to the media as a whole.

 

“A recent study found that over 80% of journalists maintain a Twitter profile and the number one reason for doing so was so they could share their stories more widely” (130).

Some main points that I took away from this chapter were the many ways to identify relevant media influence on Twitter:

• Get Involved: being active on Twitter by sharing information and engaging in discussions
• Look up current contacts: research contacts that you already know to discover which social media channels they are using themselves.
• Search: use tools such as Twitter Search or Twitter Mention to find people relevant to you
• Curated lists: sites like Listorious and PeerIndex show lists of Twitter accounts that have already been curated into groups by other people

In a world where news often breaks, media influencers must listen and engage in conversation as much as possible.  Twitter provides an excellent source for keeping active in social media.  The importance of Twitter in terms of communication is concluded in the book pretty well:

“PR practitioners must therefore ensure that they have invested the time in identifying which significant media influencers to their organization’s objectives are among them, and ensure they have the skills, knowledge and systems in place to effectively listen and potentially engage with them in this dynamic medium” (135).

Thoughts of a 20-year-old

As the clock strikes midnight tonight, it will officially be my 20^th birthday!  As happy as this day is for me, it also forces me to look back on my life and reminisce on memories, accomplishments, mistakes and every moment, person, place or relationship that has made an impact on my life.

Knowing that I will no longer be a teenager after tonight is a thrilling yet terrifying experience.  Most people (especially college students) look at age 20 as a year’s countdown to the big 21.  I have to admit that I, too, look forward to my 21^st birthday and being able to drink legally and go to bars and all that fun stuff, but I also view being 20 as a new milestone in my life.

We often count in groups of 10.  When we are learning to count as young children, we get excited when we reach the numbers that are multiples of 10.  There are 10 commandments in the Bible.  I would say 10 individuals in a group usually make up a decent group.  10 is a powerful number.  In my mind, I like to think years 1-9 marked the first chapter of my life, as years 10-19 marked the second chapter.  Now, as I am so close to crossing chapters 1 and 2 out of my book of life, I could not be more excited to see what chapter 3 has in store for me.

When you have a birthday coming up, keep this in mind as you look at the year ahead:  Everything you have done and seen in thus far has led you to be the person you are today.  All of those memories you look back and smile at, all of those goals you set for yourself and finally accomplished (even if it took longer than you hoped), all of those mistakes you bounced back from and were able to learn from have made you the person you are today.  All you have left to do now is take those significant moments and add to them in the next chapters of our life.  Make more memories, set more goals and make more mistakes.  Ultimately, your book of life will only get as exciting as you wish.  Make this chapter a good one. ;)