Author Archives: Alexa

March 10, 2010

What SXSW Means to Me

Yes, I know some of you are “over it”…. I’ve been reading a lot of “been there done that” lately. Well guess what? This is my first year going to SXSW and I’m practically on the verge of tears that’s how excited I am. For years I’ve wanted to make it down to Austin and due to financial, personal, work-related reasons, the stars just never aligned for me.

Well world, I am officially here! This week I’ll be joined by about fifty of my colleagues from Porter Novelli (disclosure: we’re SXSW’s Agency of Record), helping Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis rock out the blogger lounge and TechSet, recording an episode of Capitalize for Dartboston, and connecting with some of my favorite people in the industry.

I’m slightly worried that VIP lists and secret dinners will create a separation between the “haves” and “have nots” or the “influencers” and the “wannabes”. I do not have VC funding or a hot startup to call my own. I am not an online personality nor do I have an upcoming book deal. I do not have a million Twitter followers or a personal fan page. But what I do have is a purpose.

This year at SXSW, I want to celebrate the following:

Friends – There are people who I’ll be meeting this week who I’ve known for years and some just a few days. There are people who I haven’t met in person yet, but have written emails and tweets to for months. I want to celebrate friendships that I’ve been fortunate enough to have thanks to this wonderful community. I’m a better person because of them.
My job – Do you know how awesome it feels to get to be here because of work? I take a lot of pride in being able to say that I’ve hustled hard over the past four years to get to this point and to know that I’m making a living doing what I love means everything to me.
Serendipity – I ran into @heyamberrae on my flight earlier and we bonded at the airport and over lunch about our similarities, passions, and shared connections. Prior to this run-in, we were just twitter acquaintances who had met briefly at an event in NY. I can now say that Amber is officially on my “watch out world” list and someone who I’m looking forward learning from and collaborating with in the future. This is just one of many serendipitous moments that I hope to have in the days to come. It’s the unexpected, anything can happen, spontaneous nature of this space that keeps me coming back for more every time.

In this vast landscape of social media practitioners, ideators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology titans, to know that I somehow have a piece of the puzzle is something words can’t describe. And even though I officially haven’t slept for two nights straight, I am so alive, alert, and ready to have SXSW kick off my best year yet.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

November 15, 2009

Autotune Effect in Garageband

By Alexa

Jay-Z may have proclaimed the “death of autotune” but I discovered it is very much alive and well thanks to programs like Garageband. If you don’t know what autotune is, it’s a vocal effect that’s used to correct the pitch of a singer.

It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything on this blog… go figure something like this finally inspired me to get something up here. I spent some time hanging out in Garageband and iMovie to make the video below. Let’s just say I had way too much fun geeking out and fulfilling my inner pop-star fantasies.

How to create the autotune effect in Garageband:

1. Pick a song that you like. Find a karaoke version (lots to be found on Youtube or you can try MySpace).

2. Open Garageband. If you’re on a Mac running Tiger, click “Music Project” and set the key of the song you’ll be recording. If you’re running Mac OS 10.5+, just click voice.

3. Make sure your key is set properly. Look at the bottom panel near the play and record buttons and select the project icon. This will pull up a mini screen that indicates the key you’re recording in.

4. Record your track and then locate the little scissor icon in the lower left of panel. Click it and you’ll see a set of preferences come up. Move the second slider “Enhance tuning” to the right to create the autotune effect. Make sure you select the “Limit to key” check box.

That’s it! It’s as easy as that. Now if you don’t have a Mac or this is just too much work for you, highly recommend the T-Pain iPhone app, which is pure genius. It costs $3 at the iTunes store (link), but it’s ridiculously fun. Check out the kiddies testing it out below:

Alright, that’s all I got for now! Let me know what you think and happy auto-tuning!

UPDATE: Best autotune video ever:

Posted in Random & Silly | Tagged autotune, tutorial | 2 Comments

July 29, 2009

TEDxBoston: Reverse-mentorship and Bridging the Digital Divide

By Alexa

Today I had the privilege of speaking at the inaugural TedxBoston event, hosted by the wonderful folks at Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT). It was an incredible experience full of wonderful people, performances, and yes, “ideas worth spreading.”

My short interlude covered a concept that I call “reverse-mentorship.” While I would love to take credit for the origin of the phrase, it’s something that I believe Barry coined while we were piloting out the idea.

In a nutshell I make the argument that reverse-mentorship, the pairing of digital natives with senior level executives, is the fastest way towards bridging the digital or generational divide. Here’s a summary highlighting my main points:

Meet the Millennials. There is no shortage of words to describe who were are in the eyes of our elders. Some say we’re spoiled, some say we’re naive. We’re most definitely inexperienced and yes, we care about ourselves a lot. To label us the “ME” generation is fairly accurate, however self preservation and pursuit of individual happiness has always been part of America’s cultural DNA.

Who’s in charge? A climate crisis, a broken health care system, a need for education reform, and a recession. For all the negative labels surrounding Millennials today, at least we can say we didn’t create these problems. Previous generations have demonstrated flawed leadership-styles that can no longer be counted on to produce the results we need. It’s time for change.

Reverse-mentorship isn’t about sparking a youth revolution. It’s not about asserting that one generation is better over the other. Rather, this is about expressing an opportunity for us to isolate our flaws, and work together to compensate for them. What Millennials lack in experience, we make up for in our digital aptitude, eagerness to learn, and desire for speed. We can help tenured professionals overcome their lack of technical finesse, in exchange for their knowledge and expertise. Together, we can create partnerships that reinforce organizational systems that are faster, smarter, social, and change-oriented.

I’ve met and worked with enough executives and professionals by now to know that this partnership of generations can work. How it actually plays out in practice…. that’s a completely separate post.

2 AM Thoughts on Startup Life

By Alexa

Since when did public enemy number one equal “the man”? Maybe this is a product of the recession or maybe the fact that I just have adventurous friends, but it seems to me like these days, everyone is in start-up mode.

As someone who’s been at it now for officially 3 months, I can only conclude the following: this isn’t for everyone. We can all fantasize about determining our own hours, avoiding morning commutes, and having the luxury to do what we want on our terms. However, being in start-up mode comes with the burden of doing everything for yourself, relentless multi-tasking, endless networking, and this notion that you’re on 24/7.

There’s that John Lennon quote, “Life’s what happens when you’re too busy making plans,” and I have to wonder if that’s true or not. Will I look back at my 20’s thinking life passed me by or will I embrace this experience as a path to self discovery? Other girls my age are thinking about boys, weekends at the beach, and what to wear. I’m thinking about cash flow, invoices, revenue streams, and how to take over the Internet.

By no means am I an expert on entrepreneurship, but I have to believe that we’re all out of our minds. In order to start a company, you have to be absolutely crazy. You have to be crazy to the point where you love something so much, people are actually willing to pay you to be passionate. You have to be willing to be disciplined and willing to sacrifice. You have to be okay hearing the word no. Most of all, you have to be stubborn enough to fight for yes.

In the words of my wonderful friends at DartBoston, “It’s all about the small victories.”

Posted in Books, Ideas, Personal Anecdotes, Technology, Travel, Work | Leave a comment

May 7, 2009

The Dilemma of Personal Branding

By Alexa

I wrote my last post for fun, but it sparked a few thoughts that I believe have some serious implications for those interested in personal branding. If you take a look at the most well known blogs out there, it’s easy to identify what type of category they fall under. There’s a certain audience they’re speaking to, a finite set of subjects, and certain intentions that go into their authorship (introspection, promotion, thoughtleadership, reporting, etc.)

I concluded that I was a hybrid blogger, someone who had yet to establish a clear sense of purpose in my writing. What I’ll admit to is the challenge that I face every single day – the struggle to answer, “Who am I?” and “Who do I want to be?”

It’s so much easier for us to answer the latter question because we can all fantasize about the best version of ourselves. However, what most of us lack is the self-actualization it takes to admit to who we really are.

In the world of personal branding, those that do it best are consistent, confident, and concise. They manage to fine-tune the complexities of their character and simplify. We are all multi-faceted creatures, yet self-marketing pros can usually get themselves down to 2-3 key words. It’s all about keeping it simple.

The Online Dilemma of Gen-Y
What the world needs to realize is that for young professionals like myself, many of us are still grappling with self-identity issues. I’ve had this talk with other peers and pals like Maria Thurrell, Amanda Gravel, and Sandy Kalik before and we constantly ask, “How the heck can we market ourselves when we barely even know who we are?”

Ask yourself what you were like when you just graduated college. Did you have any clue as to what you wanted in life and what you were doing in your career that would lead to where you are today?

I envy a lot of adults who managed to make the transition from student to professional without having someone Google them. I miss the days when I could log into my blogs and write randomly about my life and what I was feeling on a particular day. The internet used to be a place of self exploration for me and now it’s evolved into a place of self-assertion.

Creating a Fluid Online Identity

We live in an unforgiving world of web histories and share this links. The concept of context is virtualy shattered when we exist online and as a result, our personal brands must stay with us from one web property to the next.

It is my hope that the professional world understands that we are the first generation to have what I’d like to call a fluid identity. We have a legacy of High School MySpace profiles, college Facebook accounts, and post-college LinkedIn resumes. We can attempt to sell ourselves under the guise of a personal brand, but at the end of the day, that brand will shift and evolve with every new experience we have as people.

As the Graduating Class of 2009 descends upon the working world, I encourage them to embrace the uncertainty of their identities, revel in the technologies they grew up with, and dismiss this notion of conformity.

I challenge them to answer,”Who am I?” and “Who do I want to be?”, but more importantly, to repeat this process time and time again.

Photo credit: Obensen

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

May 7, 2009

What kind of blogger are you?

By Alexa

In a recent guest post from Michelle Minch on Social Media 101, she wrote about tips that advise bloggers to avoid getting caught up in the theme game. She had some great advice that includes the following:

Simple is better – WP is an amazing platform that has many customization options built right in. I can get almost the same visual effect with my simple theme as I would have gotten with the more complex theme, with a lot fewer headaches.

Your content is way more important that what your theme looks like. Your readers won’t keep coming back just because your blog looks cool. People won’t hire you because they love your blog theme (unless you’re a web designer).

Don’t create drama where there is none. You can change your WP theme as often as you change your underwear, so don’t get stuck when trying to pick one.

Don’t get buried by stuff that really isn’t that important.

As my last post indiciates, a lot of thought often goes into choosing a Wordpress theme. At first instinct, my gut told me to disagree with Michelle’s points because I actually do believe that themes can do a lot for bloggers. After thinking about it more, I then concluded that both our theme philosophies are right, but they cater to different types of bloggers.

If you subscirbe to Michelle’s points, then host your blog at Wordpress.com. Don’t even bother with getting a self-hosted installation because it might lead you down that dark rabbit hole of choices, maintenance, and cost. In fact, you don’t even have to use Wordpress in this case. Blogger is great, as well as the highly underrated LiveJournal.

If you subscribe to my philosophy (see previous post), then you need a self-hosted blog. You want the flexibility to expand, grow, change, and customize. Only a self-hosted blog will allow you the flexibility to do that. However, keep in mind that with great choice, comes great responsibility. You’ll wind up creating more work for yourself that otherwise wouldn’t exist on a non-self-hosted blog.

Regardless of the platform you choose, I’ll leave off with some food for thought…

What kind of blogger are you?

Stephanie Klein managed to land two book deals as a result of her uncensored musings on her blog, Geek Tragedy (stephanieklein.com).

The Freudian – You spend the majority of your posts pontificating life’s big questions, writing about your parents, and maybe even divulge your many relationship escapades. Some of my favorite bloggers who fall into this category: Stephanie Klein, every teenager who blogs on MySpace

The Rant-a-holic – We all like to vent, but some of us do this better than others. Rant-a-holics spend the majority of posts complaining or criticizing, but not simply for the sake of standing on a soapbox. Rant-a-holics are passionate, uncensored, and have strong points of view. I find that the demographic of bloggers who do this best – Mommies. Some of my favorites: Queen of Spain, Dooce, etc.

The Commentator / Analyst – Everyone aspires to fall into this category. This upper echelon of bloggers create content that is fairly balanced, thought-provoking and well-sourced. They deliver on a regular basis and tend to have loyal audiences. Bloggers who fall into this category: Seth Godin, Jeremiah Owyang, etc.

The Self-Promoter – Online marketers today are some of the best self-promoters around. They’re constantly plugging a new project, event, and always seem to have some “big announcement” right around the corner. It’s easy to hate on this group, but at the end of the day, they’re the ones making money doing this whole online thing. Bloggers who fall into this category: A lot of social media “rockstars” or “experts”
It didn't surprise me when Jim Storer and Rachel Happe, two of the best Community-ccentric professionals out there, announced their new endeavor, aptly titled, The Community Roundtable (@theCR on Twitter).

The Community Evangelist - These bloggers specialize in creating community-based content, meaning they’re all about promoting others. They write about friends, colleagues, what’s going on in a particular industry or setting, and they are all about sharing the positivity. Some of my favorite people who do this: Aaron Strout, Jim Storer, Rachel Happe, etc.

The Executive – Business leaders are giving this blogging thing a try because it provides another channel to communicate. The execs who do this best publish content that isn’t a rehashed press release, but rather a candid, honest dialogue about what’s going on with their company and industry. Some of the best: Jonathan Schwarts (Sun Microsystems), Tony Hseih (Zappos), etc.

The Reporter – This category can easily be called “Citizen Journalists,” or people who often write thoughtfully and serve as helpful resources for information (both biased and unbiased). I would also place the collective group of contributors to media platforms like Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Mashable, etc. here. Some people who do this well: Steve Garfield, Chris Penn, ProBlogger, etc.
The girls of NonSociety.com have made it their business to tell the world "TMI."

The Exhibitionist – Your lifestreamers, video bloggers, and web celebs all fall into this category. They have no problem taking what they ate for lunch and posting it on a flickrstream for public consumption. They divulge minutiae that seem meaningless to most, yet have audiences still wanting more. Masters of this: NonSociety girls, iJustine, etc.

The Fan - These are some of the most fun bloggers because their passion is evident in every post. They manage to take their choice subject and write about it over, and over, and over again. Readers don’t mind because chances are, they’re fans too and revel in the shared experience. Some blogs that do this incredibly well: Perez Hilton (celebrity gossip), Over the Monster (Red Sox fan blog), Green Blogs, Food Blogs, etc.

If you’re like me, you probably don’t fall into a clear category. I feel like my breakdown on this blog is 50% Freudian, 10% Rant-a-holic, 15% Promoter, 15% Community Evangelist, and 10% Commentator. I have other web properties that are 100% Fan and I’d say that the majority of my online activities fall under Exhibitionist.

It’s a fun little exercise to ask yourself where you fit in, and something that I think will affect your blogging strategy down the road as well as impact how you style the presentation of your blog.

If you care to share, leave your blogging breakdown below.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

May 7, 2009

Getting Started on Wordpress

By Alexa

Getting started on a self-hosted Wordpress blog is literally like shopping for the perfect outfit or maybe even as extreme as a highly detailed car. You can literally spend hours searching for what you want, and a life time accessorizing, collecting, and maintaining. In order to get going, there are a series of questions that you’ll have to ask yourself, ones that will determine the investment you’re about to make, both in terms of time and money.

As someone who often makes theme recommendations and installs a few Wordpress sites myself, here’s the process I take people through (think of me as your personal shopping partner or concierge)…

What is the occasion?

Whether you’re going on a first date, going to prom, or interviewing for a new job, I’m a firm believer that presentation can mean everything. A blog’s theme, just like an outfit must come with a purpose. Decide whether your blog is going to be for personal use or professional use first. In the world of social media consultants and personal branding, this can often mean a hybrid of the two. However, it’s important to determine first whether you want to emphasize one over the other.

Here are some examples of extreme ends of the spectrum…

Non-Blog/Business Showcase: Ford Motors (autoshows.ford.com)

Personal Blog: Justine Ezarek (iJustine.com)

Professional Services: Stephanie Agresta Consulting (stephanieagresta.com)

Magazine/Media Platform: Mashable.com

Artists/Portfolio: Josh Baptista (joshbaptista.com)

What are your best and worst assets?

Some people have great legs, while others have great smiles. Some look to hide their bellies, while others look to flaunt them. When thinking about a Wordpress-based website, you really need to do some heavy introspection. By that, I mean that you need to think about your best and worst assets and what you want to really emphasize. I know that my buddy Chris Brogan is one of the biggest pimps when it comes to the Thesis theme, but guess what? He’s a great writer and a prolific blogger. His strength is in his writing and therefore he has a theme that showcases that. For photographers and video bloggers, a text-ccentric theme like Thesis isn’t the route I’d take. Instead, something that has a gallery and is heavy on the visuals will help emphasize what you do best.

Blog where focus is on the text: Chris Brogan (chrisbrogan.com)

Blog where emphasis is on video: Sukhjit (sukhjit.me)

How’s it made?

Wordpress is by far my favorite CMS (content management system), more so than Drupal and Joomla. I find the user interface easy to teach newbies and I love the developer community which is constantly creating new themes and plugins. That said, I’ve found that the themes themselves have varying standards when it comes to their backend. A lot of people think that the way a theme looks in a demo is the way it’s going to appear once it’s installed on a blog. WRONG. I have purchased and tried too many themes to name that have left me customizing CSS and PSD files for hours. When evaluating a theme, check for the following:

Does it require plugins?
Does it come with .PSD files to make the images easily customizable?
Does it have a support forum?
Have people left a bunch of comments on the blog or forums complaining about features working?
Does it make mention of custom fields? (I consider custom fields to be something that most beginners don’t understand on hosted WP blogs)

By evaluating those questions before hand, you’ll have a pretty good sense of how much work is going to go into the styling of the theme you choose and the degree of difficulty when using it.

How much does it cost?

If you want to be a serious blogger or have a site that offers you the flexibility of customization and features, then it is not a free endeavor. There’s a built in cost to most basic blogs and that’s a host and domain. Hosting packages can cost anywhere from $7.99 – $10 a month while domains usually are purchased for around $8-$10/year. There are tons of great free themes out there to use, but some of the best cost a premium. Unlike shoes and dresses at the mall, you can’t try these themes on, and all sales are final.

What a lot of beginners underestimate is that even with a premium theme, your blog is still going to require a bit of setting up. Most premium themes don’t just look good out of the box. Ask yourself if you are familiar with the following: working with an FTP client, a text editor, photopshop, and CSS and PHP files. If any combination of those phrases scare you, DON’T WORDPRESS ALONE!

Here’s where the real cost comes in. Most people who want to get a blog set up will actually need to pay someone like me to get it going. At a bare minimum, you’ll have to invest at least $100 into this (domain/hosting). Then there’s the issue of time. I’m convinced anyone can teach themselves how to Wordpress like a pro, but it’s a process that you’ll spend hours on. If you want a Wordpress blog set up with some basic customization and training, it can cost anywhere from $150-$200. If you’re serious about having a full-scale Wordpress powered site for a business, anticipate spending anywhere from $500 – $4000. I personally am not the right person to ask when it comes to creating custom themes, doing full Wordpress integrations into static sites, etc., but I know developers who do. Their rates can cost anywhere from $75 – $100 / hour, which is why when added up, some people wind up spending close to $4k on their Wordpress sites.

Resources:

If you want to get started on Wordpress, spend some time getting familiar with what’s out there. Here’s a list of sites I frequently browse that showcase various themes (these lists feature themes that are compliant with the most recent 2.7 release of Wordpress)…

List of Free Themes

List of Premium Themes

Developers

(I’ve worked with these two firms before and they’re great)

Conclusion:

There’s really no perfect formula to Wordpress because it works differently for everyone. Spend time thinking about your goals, your technical aptitude, personal style, and budget. When you’ve done that, do some research and then get started. I’ve been using Wordpress since 2006 and I’ve been having fun with it ever since. If you’re reading this and think you might need some extra Wordpress guidance/help, shoot me an email: alexa.scordato@gmail.com. Happy blogging!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

April 23, 2009

The Right to Earn A Living: Why I Don’t Believe in Unpaid Internships

By Alexa

We all know that the professional world is changing. Brands are on Facebook, executives are blogging, and young professionals like myself can find jobs using Twitter. However, some things will always stay the same… or so I hope.

In the early 80’s, my mom came to America as an immigrant from the Philippines. She believed that this country afforded her the luxury that her home country did not – the right to earn a living. She believed that through hard work, networking, and perseverance, she would have the opportunity to not only take care of herself, but to give back to those whom she loved.

She believed in the American dream.

My mom, along with the countless others who came before and after her, made a choice to find success in this country. As immigrants, they did not come expecting charity or aid from the government. They came with no sense of entitlement. Instead, they came with purpose and a work ethic. They knew how to save money because they couldn’t afford not to.

Where is the American dream today?

When I look at the world around me, I see the fibre of America unraveling.

Adults are losing their jobs while soon to be college graduates are applying for internships.

College admissions is more competitive than ever, and the cost of a four-year program at most tier one schools is a $200K investment.

Students are graduating with more credit card debt than in years past thanks to an adult world that has done a pretty awful job of demonstrating how to manage personal finances.

Young people in this country no longer understand how to save as a result of living in a world defined by excess and loans.

* * * * * * * * *

I was prompted to write this post after reading a comment from John Cass who expressed that “sometimes you don’t have to pay for interns, gen y will throw themselves at you.” After expressing my belief that employers must reward workers, I got the following responses directed towards me:

In my opinion, employers can afford to mentor AND pay their interns ($10-$15/hour or $500-$2000 stipends for the semester). What I don’t think we can afford is to tell young people that it’s okay to not have a source of income. I understand the value of professional networking and I understand the value of learning from experienced professionals. However, I also understand the burden of being young.

To put things into perspective, when you’re in college, it’s not enough to have tuition and room and board taken care of. Chances are, you need some kind of suplemental income in order to pay for things like a laptop, books, and lab fees. If you’re in an urban setting, it’s virutally impossible to resist the temptation of eating out once in a while or purchasing a monthly subway or rail pass. For those at rural schools, having a car is usually helpful and travel home during the semester can really add up.

There are leisure and recreational expenses to account for, things like spring break trips, movies, sporting events, fraternity dues, dance classes, and maybe the occasional beer or two (*sarcasm*).

Given these expenses, how can we justify an unpaid internship? John was right in that I know tons of students who would jump at the opportunity to work for free. However, the debate isn’t whether students will work for free or not, but whether they should.

In my opinion, free labor is the antithesis of what makes us Americans.

* * * * * * * * *

In the end, we’ll all make choices for our own personal reasons and find ways of justifying either side. Some students will choose unpaid internships while others will choose to work in jobs like retail, bartending, or mailroom envelop stuffing. The former will benefit from corporate networking and training while the latter will benefit by working towards financial independence.

If you were a student or recent graduate in today’s recession, which route would you choose?

Photo credit: emdot

Posted in Work | Tagged americanisms, internships, jobs, students, Work | 13 Comments

March 27, 2009

Be the Change

By Alexa

I came to Mzinga last June looking to understand the business behind the social media industry. In the process, I found myself deeply changed.

Working side by side with Barry Libert, I learned about the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurship, the unpredictable outcomes of risk-taking, and the one fundamental lesson that will stay with me throughout the entire duration of my professional career: have passion in everything you do.

With these lessons in mind, I’ve made the difficult decision to resign as a full-time employee from Mzinga in pursuit of fulfilling my personal passions. I will still remain a Social Media consultant to the company and a long-time friend to the many individuals I’ve been lucky enough to work with.

To anyone reading this thinking, “How can you leave a full time job in the middle of a recession?” the answer is simple: I’m 22 and I have a mission.

I won’t go into the details of that mission just yet, but it’s ambitious.

We are living in really difficult times, but those of us who can afford to take risks need to use this as an opportunity to invest, not just in ourselves, but in each other.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Ghandi

Posted in Personal Anecdotes | Tagged barry libert, ghandi, mzinga, passion, recession, transitions | 14 Comments

February 23, 2009

The Digital Parent’s Terms Of Service

By Alexa

My friend Jim Storer brought up a really great topic of conversation on his blog recently about online transparency and whether lifestreaming presents offline threats to those who frequently disclose their whereabouts. While I could go into a number of ways that I could easily stalk a stranger (use of IP addresses, public records, physical following, etc) the reality of the situation is that today’s digital natives don’t have many options in terms of erasing points of entry into their personal lives.

I know a lot of people who are up in arms over the most recent Terms of Service modifications on Facebook because they worry about not having ownership over content that is uploaded online. While it’s a relevant conversation to today’s Internet world, I can’t help but look ahead towards future Internet users who have no say in the matter at all.

The Digital Parent’s Dilemma

There are times when I see pieces of user-generated content floating around my timeline – Flickr photos of families, Saturday soccer games, Twitpics of birthday parites, Qik videos of toddlers running around in their diapers. All the while, I keep thinking about the kids being documented and I just tell myself, “Thank goodness my parents didn’t have access to this stuff when I was three.”

There are betamax videos of myself taken when I was little that will never be on Youtube. There are awkward school photos of myself that will only ever be displayed on my family’s fireplace mantle. Lucky for me, I became an adult before the Internet gave rise to the social web. Consequently, I always had the ability to choose when I would create an online presence for myself and what that would consist of.

For many children of the digital age, they simply won’t have the choice.

Parental Terms of Service in a Web 2.0 World

As the child of a digital immigrant, you are subject to the following Terms and Conditions (upon birth):

“You hereby grant your parents an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), content featuring you. This content may be (i) Posted on or in connection with the websites and social networks that will (a) enable other users to post on other properties and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the services or the promotion thereof.

[modified from Facebook's new terms of service]

Realistically, I don’t think many kids will care when they see that they’re Google-able before age five, but this raises important questions regarding the future of parenting and privacy. Is it okay for parents to share their kids online without their consent? I know tons of parents who have already made this choice (some even pick baby names based on domain name availability) and I often question whether kids will grow up feeling a little bit violated. I went through my phases of teen angst in middle school and I can only imagine what kind of backlash parents are going to feel when their teens come locked and loaded with statements like, “You put me on Youtube and my friends found the video! I hate you!”

With sites like baveo and totspot, which both offer social features for expecting parents, the rise of the digital fetus is certainly upon us. Hopefully for parents, it won’t mean the rise of the angry teen.

Are you a digital parent? If so, how do you decide what goes up on the web and what doesn’t?

Posted in Ideas, Technology | Tagged nextgen, parenting, privacy, web | 5 Comments

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