Sun, Students, & Cool Stuff Along The Way Laura Davenport's Blog

This week Sun's multimedia team hosted a very informative how-to session for employees on when and how to use multimedia in business.  One nifty tool I learned to use was ScreenToaster, "the easiest way to rapidly create and share tutorials, demos, training and more."

With some coaching from my helpful colleague, Laurent Bridenne, I'm proud to say I've created my first screencast  all from the comfort of my own couch!  No fancy equipment or experience needed.  

So, what's the connection between the screencast - and "my brush with fame" as this blog post is titled? 

On the way to work this morning I was listening to the live call-in program,  Forum, on KQED and was intrigued by the topic of the day, Brushes with Fame.  Host Michael Krasny was inviting listeners to share their stories of celebrity sightings with the live audience.   Having lived in LA and Santa Barbara for several years  - I have definitely had my share of star-struck moments and pondered which of my own riveting stories I would share with Michael and his audience as I drove down 101 south. 

Would I talk about my first trip to Las Vegas - when my friends and I watched Madonna and Warren Beatty play blackjack at the Nugget? Or the time my sister and I chased actor Dabney Colman through Disneyland?  Or, perhaps the time I was politely dissed by ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau?  Hmm...such decisions.

Finally, it came to me.  I'd share the memory of when I met my the one and only Weird Al.  You know, the artist behind Eat It,  Like a Surgeon, and dozens of other hits! 

So, take a listen below as I recount my 5 minutes of fame on live radio - all via my very own, homegrown screencast!

Things in Twitterville are getting more and more interesting.  

Today I heard that the National Football League may soon place restrictions on their players as to when they can/can't tweet.  NFL players are big tweeters and use the medium as a way to get to know their fans.   Take for example San Diego Super Chargers Shawne Merriman, who admits he is a compulsive tweeter.  Evidently, the NFL teams are concerned they will lose control of the game when players start bypassing official channels and traditional means of communicating with the public.

And, now I just read that the US Marines have banned Twitter and other social media sites from its networks.  According to the Marine rep quoted in this article, "The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of compromise.”

YIKES.  That sounds scary.

I'm sure we'll continue to see more and more of these types of stories emerge as new ways of connecting with each other keep coming available.  Definitely makes for an interesting time to be in the field of communications!

For those who think marketing outreach through social media technologies is only for high-tech or young, hipster companies, think again.

I recently received my water bill at home and had to laugh when I saw the ads to follow the SFPUC on Twitter or to become a fan of San Francisco Water on Facebook.  Who would have thought such a traditionally un-cool bureaucratic agency would embrace this cool new way of engaging its customers?!

With an online social media center, the city of San Francisco is probably one of the earliest adopters of this not-so-new way of communicating.  In fact, our mayor, Gavin Newsom, recently announced his run for governor via social media.

For me, this underscores the fact that Facebook is not just for friends and Twitter is not just for tweens.   Both have fast become legitimate venues for engaging customers, constituents and comrades.