Dr. Neil Hair

Every time one of the UPS whiteboard ads comes on I say to my wife - 'that's brilliant.' And it is brilliant. A simple concept, with a simple background, a bloke (that's British for an average guy) making some pretty simple statements about UPS and what it can do for you as a shipping company. Brilliant I say. It's brilliant because I think we're getting tired of complicated marketing messages. We're tired of picking through the rubbish to find meaningful messages, and we're tired of complex CRM solutions for complicated mass markets that we try to make friends with. Complex ads using complex management speak? Enough already. Enter UPS again, picking up on some of the real key issues facing managers. Shipping overseas. Shipping on time. Shipping EARLY. Small business? Got em all. Simple ads. Oh and in my humble opinion far better than those now tiresome Apple ads that denigrates itself to the position of taking cheap shots at 'poor' 'old' 'pc' - instead simple messages that place UPS in a non aggressive but ultimately effective light.

One of the all round frustrating issues surrounding the provision of online learning is the limitations the medium places on hearing impaired students. Streaming video has to be captioned so that it is inclusive, audio bridges between students is considered discriminatory and entire classes have to adopt text based communication as the primary means of learning. The end of this conundrum may at last be in sight. Washington University has developed a system of streaming sign over limited bandwidth. This is likely to represent a paradigmatic shift in the ways in which deaf students can be part of and party to a richer forum of communication. With this technology in place deaf students will be able to request signers who can interpret in situ live conversations between students using regular tools such as breeze live or Web-ex. Of course this wont help those students who are part of the wider cultural shift towards captionists and cochlear implants as the preferred means of communicating, but it's a step in the right direction.

Susan Barnes from the School of Communication and I are currently working on an innovative class offering for 2008. Online Advertising will be offered and co-taught by both of us in a traditional format (class lectures) and in the worlds largest growing virtual community (SecondLife). We are currently pursuing efforts to gain funding for the venture and course content is expected to focus on the following deliverables: An online advertising campaign for a local organization as part of a team, a personal branding campaign for the individual student, and of course a much loved research paper exploring some of the issues of identity and self in this new world. Classes will be taught 50% in SecondLife and 50% in a traditional setting with the aim of exposing students to the developments in a land that is still experiencing exponential growth amongst the adult population. We will be working closely with online learning at RIT to help us deliver the best experience. I'm really excited about this as it helps RIT establish a name for itself in this area whilst equipping students with the tools to promote themselves and other organizations exclusively online. Students who have sat my internet marketing or b2b e-marketing classes will be right at home with this advanced class. I'm looking forward to developing and teaching it!

Updates: Given the record responses we've received from participating students Vic and I have extended the period of initial data collection. We will close round one on Sunday 18th before setting out on the second round of questions. Thanks for your Patience! It will be worth it!

Last week I posted a research invitation to all my former students on the nature of value in social networks. The results have shocked me. First off Ive had well over 100 responses ranging from a paragraph in length to over three pages of detail. Similarly I've been shocked by the viral nature of the research where responses have started to come in from others who have heard about the work and wanted to get involved. Two further rounds of research exist for those who have participated in the first - both email driven. I look forward to posting the wider results for dissemination in due course. In the meantime, if you want to participate you still can, direct yourself to the research invitation link at the top of this page…

Updates: Given the phenomenal response and the fact that we're still getting emails for round 1 - we're extending the time frames for this research. Please feel free to get involved if you have not already!