And now a look at the summer semester. The interesting thing about it is that despite only having two classes (versus the three in spring), I felt like this semester was the toughest one yet.

CMGT 540  Research Methodologies

I expected this class to be a look at best practices in research and plenty of practice in that field.  And that’s pretty much what it was.  Heath Row, a Research Operations Manager at Google, taught the class and did a fine job for what I think is the first time he’s headed the course. Most every class broke down as a lecture the first hour, then a guest speaker the second, and a continuation of the lecture the third hour.  Assignments were usually straight-forward and I’m proud to say I did not suffer from the recency effect a class-high two assignments.  In other words, I got a silly certificate twice for turning in my assignment first that week.  We had to choose a research topic early on and despite having some initial second-guessing on that topic, I stuck through with a decent one related to what will be final project for the program. The session in the library helped point me to the many research databases available to the USC student.  EMarketer is one of my favorites, but I just need to remember these resources are available and to take advantage of them while I can.  I’m also now a fan of qualtrics.com for online surveys — they break down the results well and even offer cross-tabulation. The final paper here wasn’t exactly cinchy, but I am not the better student for knowing how to handle a research literature review (or even what one is) and how best to tackle my next research assignment.

This class met on the Westside as did a class of mine last semester.  I didn’t mind going over there again…traffic wasn’t ever much of an issue coming from the Valley, and parking was always readily available.

MKT 530 New Product Development

I had an elective option over the summer and figured a bit of business might help.  This APOC program really is about marketing, even if indirectly, so why not take a marketing course at the prestigious Marshall School of  Business? Not only that, one that focuses on new product development — the exact thing we’ll be doing fall semester with our final projects. And taught by the Dean of the B-School, Professor Badame. First, the good: this course presents proven methods for going about the NPD process and taught me ways to go about it strategically, rather than haphazardly. And that’s something I knew existed, but this cleared the picture for me. Also the occasional guest speaker, as well as case studies, gave me some interesting insight into both NPD success and failures. The moral of the story here? Have a comprehensive NPD plan and follow through diligently and that makes success a whole lot more likely.  Obviously I just over-simplified a complex process, but that’s the gist of it. And now the bad.  The class was four hours long.  That’s just brutal. Sure we had a 10-15 minute break nearly half-way through, but still.  Also, as a communications student, and far-removed from my business school days at CSUN, I had to play a bit of catch-up on all the business jargon and concepts thrown around.  Finally, I’d have preferred a bit less pontification and closed discussion (asking questions looking for a specific answer and ignoring everything else) in the class and a bit more flexibility and conversation in the teaching.  Maybe my CMGT classes have spoiled me a bit in their relatively casual styles. I can appreciate this class for what it taught me and for reminding me I don’t mind some business in my education/work, but I certainly don’t want to remain solely in that field.

This class was held on campus in Popovich Hall.  I liked that building, it’s very, well, business-like (yes, it’s home to the Marshall School of Business). The little cafe in there has decent food and it’s a short walk away from the parking structure.

This was a great show. A sold-out crowd nixed initial plans of sitting upstairs for the performance, but that was for the best. I ran into some friends and enjoyed the pit with a good crowd and great setlist. Faith restored in fun Alk3 shows? Check.

Setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/alkaline-trio/2011/troubadour-west-hollywood-ca-5bd0b368.html

Last week, I wrapped up my first semester as a graduate student at USC in the Annenberg Program on Online Communities (APOC).  I have a brief respite this week from classes (my summer internshipi, however, is already in its second week), so I wanted to put some thoughts down about the the past four months of my studies. The semester began January 10 and kept me pretty busy since.

Classes

CMGT534 Introduction to Online Communities
This class  featured the most guest speakers, and its Westside location made it convenient for many of those guests.  Assignments ranged from readings and blog posts, and the tho big projects involved pitching a new website/online community. I enjoyed the discussions here and the attention to real-world situations involving social media and marketing.

CMGT538 Technologies for Online Communities
I had thoughts of waiving this class as I was already pretty familiar with much of the course material with my experience as a web designer/developer, but after reviewing the syllabus I saw there were a few unfamiliar topics and familiar ones I could brush up on. I enjoyed the technical discussions in here and the guest speakers that came from places like Yelp, Goldstar, and WordPress. There were a few assignmetns and quizzes in this class, followed by a final project and exam.

CMGT530 Social Dynamics of Communication Technologies
This was my small class — only 8 people in the class. This was also my most….interesting class.  It started off pretty hectic with a book-per-week reading pace. Now that isn’t impossible, it’s just a big jump from what I was used to and a bit tough when combined with other classes and life. The discussions were the most engaging of my classes, especially considering they went from games to to communities vs. collectives to internet memes and lolcats. This class had a few reading response assigments and a final project that mostly took over the last third of the semester.

Locations

I was a bit surprised to learn that none of my classes were offered on the USC main campus.  I guess I was also a little bit bummed about that because I wanted that to be part of my USC experience. But really, it wasn’t a big deal. I’ve still been on campus many times over the semester to work on group projects or just grab a beer at the pub.

USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future
This location on the Westside (near Olympic and Sawtelle) was where the Intro class was held. The class was in a conference room, right next to the program director’s office, and supposedly  more accessible for guest speakers as they didn’t have to fight downtown traffic. Street parking was easy, and the room itself did the job, even if seats at the table were limited (there were also other chairs lining the room).

Kerckhoff Hall
Okay, so it wasn’t on campus, but this classroom, pictured below, was pretty darn close. The meeting space here for my other two classes was quite the cozy one — an elegant room in a converted building with plush leather seats and a screen with projector. Extra seats were needed for the larger Web Technologies class, but the setting still maintained an intimate feel.

UCS Kerckhoff Hall

People
There are about 15 people in my program, a good mix of guys and girls.  It’s a great group of students, with diverse backgrounds and interests, but obviously  united by the program. I’ve made a few friends and it’s been fun hanging out with people after class at a downtown bar or just collaborating on projects. Although our final final project, the one where we build an online community website, doesn’t officially begin until the Fall semester, it’s been a recurring topic since the beginning and some of already have a few ideas to hit the ground running come Fall.

Speaking of downtown, I’ve really gotten to know DTLA much better thanks to my USC attendance and proximity.  From checking out a Kings hockey game right after class at Staples Center down the street to discovering one my new favorite burrito joints (Freebirds) to grabbing drinks downtown at Cole’s or The Library to waking the streets of ArtWalk, I love the area and look forward to embracing it even more in the coming months.

Summer semester starts next week.  I’m in the midst of my internship at the Mayor’s Office at City Hall and ready for my two classes. Here’s to another good semester.

Explosions in the Sky with Papercuts
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Los Angeles, California
April 30, 2011

The Appleseed Cast

TAC played in LA on the previous Thursday and unfortunately due to class running a bit late, I wasn’t able to make it over to the Echoplex to catch the show.  I was up around the Bay for a friend’s bachelor party and rolled into town Saturday night in time to catch this performance.

I went with Jennifer and her friend, Mark.  My LA friends gave me an idea of what expect as far as the setlist, and they called it for this show.  A nice mix of songs spanning several albums, and two new songs.  Unfortunately, Fight Song and Steps and Numbers didn’t make the cut.

The sound was great for this show, everything was so crisp.  The more I see of the Great American Music Hall, the more I like it.  There was a disco ball atop the stage and the light was hitting it just right so that it lookd like stars were flying around the ceiling and upper reaches of the walls in the venue.  I liked that effect and so did the band’s bassist — whenever the star show would stop, he’d wave his hand to bring it back.

The Launch stage

I attended  the Launch conference last week in San Francisco and it was a blast (pun intended).  As their website launch.is puts it, Launch is “the best place for entrepreneurs to launch their inventions to the world.”  That is, if your invention is strongly related to the world of technology, the web, and mobile devices.

The conference was divided into two sections: a hall with many vendors showing their latest and greatest, and another hall with a stage for a select few of those attendees to present their products to a panel of judges in competition for grants and awards.

The presentations were limited to five minutes and there were varied approaches to making the best pitch. Some presenters listed features and whiz-bang attributes of their service/product, others the time to give a hands-on demonstration.  Some presenters resorted to silly non-sequiturs to leave a memorable presentation (Justin Bieber dancing), some were presented like an infomercial (several demonstrations of the iPhone case enduring torture tests).  What many presenters failed to do was adequately differentiate their products from similar competitors, leaving the panel to call them out on this.

I was happy to see a USC-alum group make the cut of featured presenters at Launch. A group my program’s graduating class of 2010 was there to launch MingleBird, a mobile applications to foster greater networking connections. The idea is sound, but unfortunately the panel had a mixed impression. I felt they didn’t focus on the core  benefit of the app and didn’t capitalize on the chance to demonstrate their product throughout the event setting of the conference, which is something it’s built to do.

The overall winner of the competition was Room 77, a website/application designed to help the traveler choose the best hotel room in a particular hotel.  I think of it a seatguru.com for hotels. The judges were falling over themselves in praise of this new website.  My guess is that they travel frequently and this is something they could easily use.

My favorite entrant to the conference was the one that also happened to win best design — Cabana.  If WordPress makes it easy for the web layperson to create a blog, Cabana makes it easy for that person to create a mobile application. I was impressed by the comprehensive level of customization Cabana gives the user to create a truly unique, new application for iPhone or Android. So long developers? Maybe.

A crowd favorite was Greengoose.  It sort of makes life a game.  Well, more of a game that it arguably is already.  The basic idea is you attach accelerometer sensors to everyday objects like a toothbrush or water bottle.  Brush your teeth the recommended three times a day? Have some points thanks to the sensors tracking the movement of the toothbrush and connecting wirelessly to the network and tallying your new score.  Drink enough water for the day? Your sensor-laden water bottle automatically tracks this and gives you some more points.  I like the idea – it’s pretty neat to have increasingly levels of quantification at your disposal, for whatever benefit that my provide. But I don’t like the idea of having to tape sensors to your everyday objects and having an egg-shaped device to help track these measurements .  Who wants to go around sticking a computerized eyesore to running shorts or vitamin bottle? Now once this technology is embedded into such items at manufacture, that’s when I’ll be interested in this game.

As a technology/entrepreneurial enthusiast, I felt an air of exclusivity at this conference.  Here was all this new technology and web start-ups that most people haven’t heard of, but any one of which could be the next big thing.  Many vendors enticed attendees to sign up for their website/service with exclusive invites while they’re still in the beta phase of the product cycle.

I’m glad I made it to Launch.  As a student in new and social media, I got a good look at what may be in store for me if all goes well with an entrepreneurial project.  And even if that isn’t in the cards, the experience was valuable for keeping abreast of the latest and up coming trends to hit the web 2.0 world.

Streetlight Manifesto

Streetlight Manifesto just always puts on a good ska show. Every venue, every time. I went to this show with Jennifer, Kelvin, Dan, and his girlfriend Erica.  While the Glasshouse is a decent venue, it’s allll the way out in Pomona, so that was a bit of a pain.  And the staff there is rude. But we still enjoyed the show.

I started off in the back just watching then joined the girls up closer the middle of the pack and the front for most of the show.  They played a nice mix of songs and  I liked hearing my favorite, Would You Be Impressed. The SM singer, in his usual polo shirt and hat, mentioned he was a Pomona resident for a while, so it was a bit of a “home” show.

One of my professors co-wrote this book.  The authors argue that we should focus more on learning rather than teaching in the education system.  The idea is that the old instructional methods aren’t as relevant/useful in this new world of information and media surrounding us. That’s not to say teachers aren’t needed, their roles could just be redefined from simply transferring knowledge to setting boundries and allowing students to learn by experience, peer-interaction, provoking imagination, and exploring.  One other idea the book touches on that I’ve maintained is that you don’t need to know everything, you just need to know how to find out everything. That’s easy to do in today’s world.

The book is a pretty easy read and flows in a nice conversational tone.

http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/

A New Culture of Learning

This is a pretty dense book that doesn’t, well, pull you in right away.  I generally agree with the premise of the book that supports the concept of “pull” rather than “push” when it comes to fields like marketing, education and more.  For example, “push” marketing just throws products out at customers and tries to sell them while “pull” marketing works with consumers to develop more target products and is generally more responsive and successful in the market.

It was nice hearing from one of the authors, John Seely  Brown (“JSB”), in class.