Beyond the Digital Divide: The Participation Gap as the Next American Frontier

By Aaron Thayer Wells, Modern Intelligentsia
SEPTEMBER 2011

The Digital Divide is a term that was coined during the late 1990’s to draw attention to the lack of computer ownership within ethnic cultural populations. Initially it was used as a catch-all phrase to illustrate the disparities that these communities faced, particularly as it pertained to their ability to learn from using technology while inside their households.

While the Digital Divide has allowed the promises of technology to be discussed, it has also crystallized the pervasive deficiencies that exist for those without access. The irony of the former led many to investigate the various implications surrounding those with technological access and those without. Gaining popularity with time, the term eventually landed within mainstream vernacular, with references to the Digital Divide appearing in myriad contexts, from news articles to speeches by politicians such as President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

As the United States entered a new millennium, personal computer manufacturers faced increasingly intense levels of competition, both from US based firms, as well as those conducting business on US soil from abroad. While each jockeyed for their position as the manufacturer of choice, competition within this marketplace yielded slumping sales, declining margins, and prices that have been in a gradual free fall. Despite significant losses for manufacturers, consumers have steadily benefited from all of the former, whereas they now have more choices, an increasing number of manufacturer rebates to benefit from, and a greater emphasis on discounting by retailers.

A combination of the former factors, as well as others (such as advances in Internet technology and wireless networking), has made the Digital Divide less apparent within US minority communities. Many members of these communities have always been forced to do more with less. As a consequence, they have taken the initiative to bridge their technical divide by using less-expensive computer devices designed primarily for email, web browsing, and casual computing, such as cell phones and netbooks. In particular, the use of mobile media devices by African American and Latino youth has surged, so much so that today 51 percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of Blacks use their phones to access the Internet, compared with just 33 percent of Whites, according to a July 2010 Pew poll.

However, gains such as these have been met with yet a new set of challenges, especially as they relate to minority youth using technology to learn. One of the primary challenges that has emerged is that another chasm has formed–the participation gap.

The participation gap is yet another divide between the have’s and have not’s, whereby youth who are familiar with technology use it seamlessly within their lives, and those who are passive technology consumers, on the other hand, use it primarily for social and/or entertainment purposes.

In addition to serving as a college administrator, I am exploring the participation gap and its impact upon the education of minority youth in an increasingly digital, technology-based world as an independent digital media and learning consultant with the United Negro College Fund Institute for Capacity Building. Evaluating the participation gap has brought various questions about the intersection of technology, culture, and learning to light. Specifically, there were a few that spoke to several dimensions of my blog, so I thought I would share.

First, within an online world where things are oftentimes not always as they seem, is there a way for educators to evaluate and monitor what and how minority youth learn from their interactions with web browsing and search engines? Subsequently, perhaps more importantly, can this data be captured without impending on student privacy?

Google is the new library for the large majority of American minority youth. It has replaced the brick and mortar learning institutions of old and provides information immediately at the touch of one’s fingertips. However, the irony within this power that looms within the realm of online learning is that, the same search engine which serves up a civil rights-centric site with legitimate and relevant information such as The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Changeat http://www.thekingcenter.org/ could serve up a seemingly similar domain, MartinLutherKing.org a site that proclaims to provide a Kwanzaa lesson, truths about Martin Luther King, MLK educational videos, a MLK pop quiz, and more! As the layers of the onion are peeled back, one will see that this domain is ACTUALLY dedicated to the proliferation of online hate and racism. There is no real way for a search such as this to be filtered, unless the user is trained to approach web browsing with scrutiny and therefore views all site information with a critical eye.

Additional questions have also come to mind. How can minority-serving institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) design, implement, and deliver curricula that addresses the participation gap? Furthermore, given the large concentration of minority youth with an interest in attending an institution such as one of the former, how can these schools leverage digital media in an effort to teach these students how to leverage technology?

The former are just several of the myriad questions that have elicited over the past several months.
Whereas more people in the U.S. are set to access the Internet via mobile devices than through desktop computers or other wired devices by 2015, the participation gap will only become increasingly significant with time.

If you are an educator, technophile or just would like to learn more about the participation gap, here are several additional resources:

RAISING 21st CENTURY RENAISSANCE CHILDREN Blog of Dr. Nichole Pinkard, University of Depaul, founder of Digital Youth Network

NPR: Closing Digital Divide, Expanding Digital Literacy

National Education Association Conversation with MIT Professor Harry Jenkins

Technology and the Wealth of Nations: Opportunities for Developing Countries

Scottish philosopher Adam Smith first published The Wealth of Nations in 1776 at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This text is widely regarded as one which establishes the foundation of modern economic theory and argues that free market economies are more productive and beneficial to their societies.

Smith saw citizens within societies as economic agents and denoted that “high prices” of any good or service would automatically induce people to engage in its production. Increased production would therefore lead to a greater supply and lower prices. People as buyers would then get more of what they want cheaper. And, people as producers would tend to be earning enhanced wages as a result of producing the formerly high priced good or service. Additionally, Smith saw the division of labor and the extension of markets to be an equation that would elicit an almost limitless possibility for societies to expand their wealth through manufacture and trade.

So, how does this equation change when one considers the promise of technology and its ability to make people and their societies more productive?

Undoubtedly technology is a conduit which allows individuals and their societies to become more productive due to its ability to empower users, lower operational costs of organizations and businesses, and increase efficiencies of local, state, and federal governments. It has allowed millions of Internet users around the world to preview, purchase, and sell products and services, all from the palms of their hands, thus creating a an “Internet economy” where, in a nation such as the United States, an estimated $175 billion is contributed to the US economy annually.

In other lesser-developed regions of the world, technology is a major enabler that has allowed their populations to modernize and progress forward into the 21st century. Due to an increasing demand for the Internet in these regions, migrations from antiquated, land-line technology to current wireless mobile connectivity are occurring.

Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, DakNet, is an ad hoc network that uses wireless technology to provide asynchronous digital connectivity to lesser-developed, predominantly rural areas. It has been successfully deployed in remote parts of both India and Cambodia at a cost two orders of magnitude less than that of traditional landline solutions, thus allowing villagers in predominantly rural regions to leapfrog into the modern digital age. As a consequence, this deployment has sparked an entrepreneurial spirit in India, whereas entrepreneurs are readily emerging in an effort to sell services such as e-mail and voicemail to other rural residents. Having experienced the promise and efficacy of technology, they are now the economic agents for their region who are looking to simultaneously increase the productivity of their population through the integration of technology.

Given the scarcity of the Internet and the current “high prices” of technology-based services due to antiquated infrastructures, these entrepreneurs stand to capitalize on current and future implementations, thereby enhancing their wage-earning potential. If their governments cooperate with their endeavors and permit their seemingly capitalistic undertakings, one can only imagine how productive their societies will become over time. This trend could then be replicated in other developing nations and the positive impact on the productivity of our entire world could be exponential.

Achieving Environmental Sustainability: How US Institutions of Higher Education are Going Green

Achieving greater levels of environmental sustainability is a concept that is being embraced by US colleges and universities. These institutions are not only utilizing sustainable practices and policies as a means to obtain both ecological and financial gains, they are also incorporating them into curricula as options for students to receive interdisciplinary instruction as witnessed in the University of Michigan’s Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute.

In some cases, such as at the Rochester Institute of Technology, students can even graduate with a dual-degree that emphasizes both a core major discipline and a minor in environmental sustainability.

An increase in sustainability-related courses has emerged as an option for students who are interested in supplementing their learning experience though interdisciplinary curricula. These courses are now available in all formats: online through virtual offerings, inside the classroom with an instructor present, and outside the classroom as internships/externships where students contribute to, as well as learn from, local non-profit organizations. While some members of the higher education community view “going green” as merely a phenomenon, due to its reputation for being an initiative that is somewhat expensive to implement, others who disagree are engaging in eco-friendly practices that are equal parts innovative in their design and border-line revolutionary in their ambitions and goals.

In 2010 Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), the largest historically black college and university in the United States with over 12, 000 students, 156 buildings, and nearly 4 million square feet, entered into a partnership with Siemens to reduce their energy consumption which will encompass an upgrade in lighting, pipe insulation, and steam trap replacements at their campus’ central plant. The contract is valued at 2.4 million dollars and Siemens has guaranteed that the university will receive energy savings immediately and predicts a cost savings of more that 4.1 million dollars over a subsequent ten year period.

Going green is clearly no longer an afterthought for these universities, whereas their faculty, administrators, students and staff are all actively engaged in learning more about sustainability and making their campus operations more eco-friendly and cost-efficient.

If this trend holds steady, more campuses throughout the United States will join the environmental sustainability revolution, as they readily invest in their infrastructure and adopt policies and mandates which combat environmental change through action.

Social Media: Sexual Appeal as Taboo for College Athletes?

Twitter is a social media Web 2.0 application platform that has created an ability to interact like never before. In 140 characters or less, one can give periodic updates on what they are doing at any given point throughout their lives. It creates a system of communication where anyone with an Internet connection can communicate with and learn about the ideas and thoughts of another in real-time by sending “tweets.”

Facebook is another social media application that also creates a system of communication by allowing one to connect and share with people in their lives through a virtual platform. From posting updates on your wall, sharing photos and videos with friends, to instant messaging, newsfeeds, events, and collaborative gaming with others around the world, Facebook empowers users through a virtual medium that has become ingrained as a way of life for over 600 million people.

Harnessing the power of social media to reach millions of fans, many college athletes now consistently maintain double lives: one in the physical world and another in the virtual world. For those that can’t make it to their games, they provide first-hand perspectives on what their lives are like as students and athletes, from the adrenaline filled ambience of gameday all the way to their interactions with the media and other classmates around campus. Most have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and use them readily.

If their lives in the physical world as student/athletes are overseen and perhaps comprised by the NCAA and their governance, shouldn’t college athletes maintain the right to conduct their virtual identities as they please? If they are truly “STUDENTS” first, and athletes second, shouldn’t they be able to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, just like their classmates, family, and friends do?

As rumors swirled in late December that Ohio State football players were involved in NCAA violations, OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor took to the world of social media to claim his innocence, tweeting “I paid for my tattoos. GoBucks.” Yet, the day later, he and several of his teammates were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling awards, gifts and university apparel and receiving improper benefits.

Fearing that his tweet might receive unfavorable attention from his coaches, the NCAA, and others, he quickly moved to delete the post. The NCAA has made its stance on this issue public and clearly demonstrated that they will also intervene in the virtual world, very similar to the physical world.

This incident is only the tip of the iceberg. The next major obstacle will occur when beauty enters into the equation. In a nation where sex appeal equates mass marketing opportunities, hence potential dollars in the pockets of athletes, and, of course, additional intervention by the NCAA, will athletes who possess sex appeal be able to profit off of their identities in the virtual world, or will they receive further scrutiny for their use of social media?

Skylar Diggins, an exceptionally attractive athlete on the Notre Dame women’s college basketball team, is just one example where sex appeal could be leveraged. After her team made it to the semi-finals in the NCAA women’s college basketball tournament, she dropped 28 points and six assists on the heavily-favored Connecticut Huskies, sending the Fighting Irish to the national championship game against the Texas A&M Aggies. Subsequently, her name has become a household one. According to Yahoo!, her Twitter follower count jumped from 6000 to more than 56000 since the tournament began and searches for her name jumped 2700 percent following the game. Also, rap superstar Lil’ Wayne sent her a Twitter tweet personally, stating, “”Good lukk to my wife Skylar Diggins and the Fighting Irish.”

One can only imagine how many opportunities she will have, now that her name is indeed a household one, since bursting onto the national scene due to her athletic prowess and sexual appeal. Perhaps only time possesses the answer to the former question; yet, given recent trends, it seems as if things may stay the same and somehow, some way, form or fashion, digital age athletes will see these opportunties readily come available and subsequently become under investigation by the NCAA.

Let’s hope that the NCAA begins to think outside of the box sooner than later, before more and more of these sort of “issues” emerge. They should create policy that allows athletes to be athletes while they are at “work” and permits them to leverage their freedom of speech via social media in their spare time as students and Americans. If they stand to profit from their endeavors, God-given talent, abilities, and even beauty, then that’s nobody’s business but their’s.

No, We’re Not Just a Bunch of Dumb Jocks…We’re Just a Bunch of Financially Unfit Athletes: The NCAA and the Dire Need for Revenue Sharing in College Athletics

The NCAA is a non-profit organization with tax exempt status that governs and administers all Div I, I-AA, II, and III college athletic programs in the United States. As its mission states, “THE NCAA’s CORE PURPOSE IS TO govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.”

It was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices . Over a century later, it has morphed into a $757 million dollar revenue-producing business annually that administers and governs the multi-billion dollar revenue-producing enterprise of college athletics.
HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” recently did a special report on the NCAA to investigate the manner in which they run their organization. Several staggering financial facts were revealed. First, it revealed that the latest tax filings for the NCAA in 2009 shows a top tier of 14 executives making an average salary of over $425,000 annually. Secondly, while both the NFL and NBA player associations have agreements for their athletes to receive 57% of all revenues, the NCAA hasn’t even considered the creation of a similar policy.

For example, from 2005-2008, the University of Alabama Div. I football program generated 125 million dollars in revenue. If a similar agreement were put in place for college athletes, the Alabama football players would stand to make $500,000 in annual salary and roughly 2 million dollars over the duration of their careers. A staggering figure that is still nevertheless dwarfed by the current annual salary of their head football coach, Nick Saban, who makes over 2 million dollars per season.

So, with all the revenue being generated, shouldn’t college athletes be entitled to some form of profit or revenue sharing?

Most have seen the latest public service announcement of the NCAA, which matter-of-factly plays on the stereotype that all athletes are nothing more than a collective of physically fit and mentally inferior folks, by questioning their audience if they “still think we’re just a bunch of dumb jocks?” This perspective is intriguing, given the fact that the NCAA treats athletes just like a group of dumb jocks who are too stupid to recognize the massive amount of dollars that are being created from their activities. While no one in the NCAA directly participates in the events that actually generate these astronomical amounts of revenue, their executives don’t care because, after all, the dumb jocks will never realize what’s going into our pockets and not into their’s.

The college athlete is the true employee of the NCAA enterprise. They are the dedicated souls that rise at the crack of dawn in an effort to prepare for upcoming seasons, the large majority of which don’t even have enough money to buy themselves a meal after their workouts. Their minds are oftentimes weary and their bodies typically hurt from the constant stress and strain, yet they remain dedicated to furthering “the win at all costs” agenda that is shared by their coaches, university administrators, and alumni, all in an effort just to keep their scholarship and stay in school.

The regimen of the college athlete never stops, it just continues, as they are forced to train and train and train, workout after workout after workout, while the NCAA administers and governs from their executive offices and their coaches scream and yell from the sidelines. Don’t get me wrong–I completely agree with the existence and purpose of the NCAA. Without it, unethical activities involving college athletes would probably grow exponentially. Yet, for it to become nearly a billion dollar enterprise without their staff becoming direct participants, while athletes, the “true” employees, many of which who come from disadvantaged, impoverished neighborhoods, aren’t paid a single penny, is corrupt and perhaps borderline criminal.

How can the blood, sweat, and tears of athletes equate to billions for another and absolutely nothing for themselves? Yes, these athletes do receive free tuition, room, and board, but this pales in comparison to what the NCAA, colleges, universities, coaches and staff all receive.

If an NCAA executive can make nearly half a million, a coach can make 2 million plus annually, and universities can make billions, why shouldn’t their be a policy in place that mandates some form of revenue sharing with athletes? It’s as if only the privileged few are allowed to further their wealth while the disadvantaged thousands remain just that–financially disadvantaged–with no other option than to train harder, jump higher, and run faster.

If I was fortunate enough to be a part of “the privileged few,” after its all said and done and I was on my deathbed awaiting the afterlife, I’d be pretty nervous about whether or not the Man Upstairs would permit me to walk through His pearly gates!

Shadows of the Great Recession: The Modern State of the US Housing Industry

Homeownership was once the primary driver for personal wealth in the United States. Widely acclaimed as the framework from which American Dreams began, many purchased homes without worry due to the presumed security elicited from a belief that the value of their asset would only grow with time.

Homeownership

We have all heard the stories and phrases that presented a house as the “best investment” that one could possibly obtain, given the tax advantages and long term benefits of appreciation. “Home prices will always go up with time” is another wildly popular statement that has been told to many of us throughout our lives, and, until recently, we would be insane to think or believe otherwise.

However, with the downturn of the economy in 2008 and subsequent housing market crisis, many have now began to think otherwise, as many homeowners struggled and paid their last dimes to purchase assets that, in turn, have only lost tremendous amounts of value over the past several years. The hands of these homeowners are now tied, whereas many of their homes were well overpriced when they were initially purchased and now only return negative equity that may decline even further with time. In many cases, this negative equity has been so drastic that thousands upon thousands simply decided to let their homes go into foreclosure and cut their losses before they became worse.

The current health of this housing sector provides insight into the direction of the overall US economy. Despite some gains since the crisis, recent data suggests that the housing market is still far from being out of the hole. In fact, recent data suggests that things are only getting worse as many more mortgages look to be headed further underwater.

Yahoo! Real Estate claims that the housing market is “three times worse than we think” reporting that sales of new homes hit a record low in February 2011 and “shadow inventory” (foreclosed and distressed homes that have yet to hit the markets), are looming over the horizon.

This has prompted construction to slow to its lowest point in over a decade and shadow inventory only reveals additional challenges that will only further delay any sort of recovery. Currently the unofficial shadow inventory stands at roughly 1.8 million homes. When combined with the nearly 2 million homes listed as “severely underwater inventory” (homes where owners have lost 50% or more of their equity), the future outlook for the industry only gets worse. The impact of the former, when combined, could lead the National Association of Realtors’ 8.6 month official backlog to triple to more than two years.

The silver lining in this depressing scenario is that many more may be able to purchase homes at depressed prices. Perhaps they will now be able to obtain the American Dream of owning a home; yet, one can’t help but feel sorry for the millions of lives that the housing market has negatively effected.

Our America as we know it has changed due to the Great Recession. Only time will tell how much things will continue to change in the housing industry. Let’s just hope that the change somehow turns for the better, and not for worse.

Satyagraha: How the Teachings of Gandhi Could Inspire Better World Relations

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was the most important Indian political and spiritual leader of the 20th century. After an arranged marriage at the age of 13, he traveled to England six years later and attended law school at the age of 19, before returning to India to practice in his new profession.

With an unsuccessful first year as a practicing attorney, Gandhi was offered a job with a Indian businessman with interests in South Africa and relocated to this region to assume the daily responsibilities of his new occupation. While there he witnessed the severity of racial discrimination, as many Indians had lost all civil rights to European colonists, who unabashedly referred to them as “coolies” and treated them as if they weren’t “full” human beings.

Subsequently, Gandhi became a leader within the Indian community and pioneered “satyagraha”: a political movement of non-violent protest against the oppressive rule of the British.

Gandhi developed satyagraha (pronounced SAHT ya GRUH ha) into a national movement, stressing passive resistance, nonviolent disobedience, boycotts and, on occasion, hunger strikes. As his life’s work, he utilized satyagraha as a framework for peaceful protest and played a major role in the 1906 Zulu War, World War I and II, as well as in helping India gain its independence.

Gandhi has influenced many great political leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, both of whom incorporated non-violent resistance into their own life’s work as a means for progressive change and social liberation.

If more societies followed satyagraha and believed in the premise of peaceful protest, international relations around the globe could actually improve. For a country like the United States, one overly consumed with both race and war, imagine how impactful boycotts could be? A nation mobilized as a collective behind this belief could drastically alter the demand for products created by others by just saying “we won’t buy.” This would also perhaps alter their perceptions simultaneously, given the financial pain this notion would cause.

If this strategy was successful, it wouldn’t be long before other nations bought into this philosophy and way of living, and followed their lead. Maybe thoughts such as these are somewhat idealistic, given we live in a world where nuclear missiles and money talk, and “all else” walks; nevertheless, the concept is itself very interesting and equally promising if it were explored and adopted by others.

What’s your opinion? Is peaceful protest no longer a viable solution for the modern world that we live, or could it possibly work and ultimately serve to create more self-sustainable, nonbelligerent societies around the globe?

A Glimpse inside the Modern Scientific Revolution: Will robots eventually become leaders within societies?

Modern science fiction is fixated on the the premise that robots will overcome humans some day in the future and rule the world. When this notion is explored and dramatized by Hollywood producers with megamillon dollar budgets, stories such as I-Robot, Robocop, and Terminator, just to name a few, arrive at the screen, ready to entertain us as they play on our collective fear.

This collective, universal fear stems from the belief that the human race will one day become “sheeplike” nomads that roam the Earth without the ability to reason, while robots become the leaders of societies and make executive, judicial, and legislative decisions which in turn lead our lives.

As the field of robotics continues to expand through the use of networking and Internet technology, can this really lead to robot-led societies that relegate human beings as outdated, useless, and inefficient pieces of flesh, while elevating their robotic counterparts as the societal norm.

Preview Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group and you’ll see some alarming, yet spooky progress being made, right before our very eyes.

In particular, I found the Gizmo Gremlin-looking project Leonardo Robot to be almost incredible, yet realized that it’s just the inevitable direction that technology is leading (taking) us. Leonardo has 69 degrees of freedom — 32 of those are in the face alone. As a result, the robot is capable of near-human facial expression (constrained by its creature-like appearance). It also uses facial recognition technology. So, once you interact with it, it can recognize your face as well as the face of others whom are introduced to it via memory. Leonardo also is being developed with a synthetic skin capable of detecting temperature, proximity, and pressure. When these features are combined, this makes Leonardo the most expressive robot in the world today.

The Automated Experimentation Journal recently published a paper indicating that robots could indeed replace the function of some scientists in the future, indicating that a system has been created which “uses techniques from artificial intelligence to automate all aspects of the scientific discovery process: it generates hypotheses from a computer model of the domain, designs experiments to test these hypotheses, runs the physical experiments using robotic systems, analyses and interprets the resulting data, and repeats the cycle.”

The derivative of the system are two robot prototypes called Adam and Eve.

Adam, in operation since 2005, “has recently proven the potential of such systems by identifying twelve genes responsible for catalysing specific reactions in the metabolic pathways of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae” and, because the work was “formally recorded in great detail using logic, ” perhaps greater than the means of a human, several scientists make the claim in their paper that “the reporting of science needs to become fully formalised and that Robot Scientists can help achieve this.” While Eve is still under development, she’s designed to demonstrate the automation of closed-loop learning, feeding the conclusion of each experiment back into her experimental models. According to Popular Science, “when Eve is ready, the two systems will be combined so they can cross-experiment with one another” and bring the field of science “the real benefit of autonomous, robotic experimentation: formalization.”

The combination of Adam and Eve presents stark realities for the future of laboratories and their use of emerging technologies, each of which leads to the fact that humans are perhaps unable to formalize processes to the extent that a robot can. In essence, the ability of robots to produce scientific logic far outweighs that of the capacity of human scientists.

Can this process be replicated in other scientific experiments? MIT sure believes so and others do as well. And if so, does this imply that robots are inevitably poised to become the leaders of the scientific revolution and, as a consequence, of societies around the world? While many ethical arguments are still in place for the capacity of humans, the terrifying truth is that they seem to be already on their way.

NFL Lockout: Fears are mounting but Chad Ochocinco “Ain’t Trippin’ “…

With the NFL lockout in its infancy, yet looming with an unidentifiable ending, professional football players, team owners, and league management remain caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty and confusion.

The NFL generates $9.3 billion in revenue and the players don’t have the slightest clue why the owners still want such large concessions.

As an organization, the NFL is experiencing unprecedented success. This presents the ideal scenario for them to reward their players, yet this did not happen, prompting the player’s union to dissolve themselves and pursue legal action. At least 10 players, including leading quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, Friday filed antitrust lawsuits against the NFL to attempt to halt a lockout, but it has still occurred. The harsh reality is that the potential outcome of the lockout will result in a shortened or suspended 2011-2012 NFL regular season.

With the lockout now in place, several NFL players are considering pursuing new careers. Baltimore Ravens safety, Tom Zbikowski is investigating furthering his career as a professional boxer, while Minnesota Vikings’ former defensive end, Ray Edwards, is looking to pursue a new career in boxing after making arrangements to have his first match in April.

A six-time NFL pro bowl selection, known for both his dominance on the gridiron, as well as his out of control ego and celebrity status off the field, Chad Ochocinco is not taking the lookout lightly either. Just like many others, he is focusing his interests elsewhere and pursuing other opportunities. First, he had his first Major League Soccer tryout day on March 23 with Sporting Kansas City. Initial evaluations of Ochocinco’s talent in playing soccer were that he was “rusty”, citing that his ability to join a team would be extremely tough since he hasn’t played since high school.

However, most (including myself) applaud his initiative. And with 40 reporters showing up on an off day at a MLS training facility, many others also applaud Ochocinco for creating a media buzz around professional soccer–a sport that desperately needs attention in the US marketplace.

If the lockout threatens the NFL season and Chad Ochocinco doesn’t make it in the MLS, chances are he won’t worry too much about finding another avenue to enter. An avid entrepreneur, he may actually flourish. While playing football for the Cincinnati Bengals, he has been able to have his own VH 1 reality show, The Ultimate Catch, participate in “Dancing with the Stars”, garner nearly 2 million followers on Twitter, amongst a host of other endorsement deals.

Aside from soccer, television, and other endorsements, perhaps the most intriguing venture that Ochocinco is now looking to enter is…none other than…the music business! Many who hear this song will say that he is definitely “trippin’ “…but I bet that many many more will surely get a good kick out of it!

One can only imagine what Chad Ochocinco might do or try next, especially if he doesn’t have football anymore. If he was asked this question, I’d venture his response might be something like, “Child please….I’m about to rule the world!!!”

Regardless of his response and whatever he decides to do, I’m sure that whenever we hear the name Ochocinco attached to something, we’ll all tune in and enjoy the entertainment!

Social Media and the Disaster in Japan: Lessons Learned

Given the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that has occurred in Japan, it may be hard to envision any sort of positive social derivative eliciting from the disaster that the island has experienced.

However, in the midst of the dark clouds hovering above resounding chaos below, one silver lining in the Japanese crisis has emerged, as it that relates to both their culture’s inherent tech-savviness and their ability to remain resilient throughout a disaster.

Students in the United States are working tirelessly with others in Japan to gather urgent information from social networking websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to help create a map pinpointing crisis areas across the island nation.

Their “virtual” crisis mapping has been tremendously helpful in assisting victims and agencies with ground-level logistics. Not only have these actions delivered key information to those that desperately need it, they have also been instrumental in the overall relief effort by bringing a “human face” to the tragedy.

Social media has also led to financial contributions from citizens in countries throughout the world. To date, Yahoo! reports that over 106,000 contributions have translated into an excess of 6.6 million dollars.

It is great to see these students from separate countries utilize social media in an effort to mobilize around the disaster in Japan. We can only hope that their pain and collective struggles soon come to an end.

If you are interested, here are several ways to help this nation as it struggles to return to normalcy.