It turns out someone has been sending out employment offers around the world promising a job at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum in the UK. The letters are signed “Alex de Carvalho”.

For the record, I am not the Alex de Carvalho in question. I do not work for the Holiday Inn, I do not live in the UK, and I am not related to the person who is sending out these letters.

This 419 scam has been documented at the following links:

http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36023

http://www.419scam.org/emails/2010–02/14/01009521.29.htm

For more information on what a 419 scams and advance-fee frauds, see the following: http://www.419eater.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

And that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

UPDATE: There’s a good thread on Yahoo! Answers about this: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100601231817AAml806

You may also contact the hotel directly:

LONDON KENSINGTON FORUM
97 CROMWELL ROAD
LONDON SW7 4DN
ENGLAND
Hotel Front Desk: +44–871-9429100
Hotel Fax: +44–20-73731448

419, fraud, scam, advance fee, holiday inn, kensington

Trying out a first post using Blog Writer Lite.

I’m giving a quick primer on blogging today at the University of Miami School of Communication.

Please bear with me while I migrate my blog at Tapio to WordPress.

surrender
originally uploaded by alexdecarvalho.

I’m giving back my Mac today.

The contract unequivocally requires property to be returned and so it is that I’m giving the Mac back at some point today. Mind you, about six months ago I’d never used a Mac before and the almost prohibitive price had always kept me at bay. I was the proverbial die-hard PC guy. So when I was offered the Mac — after I’d burned through one and a half of my own personal PCs at work — I gladly accepted it out of sheer curiosity.

In the six months since I’ve had this Mac, I’ve turned on my PC exactly two times; and both times, it was to try out PC-only software. Suffice it to say the MacBook Pro is sublime. What’s not to like? Once you get past the stuff that works differently, you won’t imagine how you ever worked on anything else. I think this applies to more than the creative professions: the Mac has not really improved my photography workflow. Rather, I feel like my productivity’s been boosted across the board. Maybe it’s the more logical OS and UI (and I prefer Tiger to Leopard). Maybe it’s because it crashes much less frequently. Maybe it’s because you can have close to a gazillion tabs open of Firefox and a bunch of other stuff running at the same time and everything still works. Maybe it’s the 3 hour battery life. And maybe it’s also “Spaces”. The combination of these things and more made it a pleasure to open up the Mac in the morning.

As a quick sidenote, I’ve often heard it said that Mac would convert most PC users if they gave 30-day trials.

Besides the obvious reluctance of going back to a Vista machine (ie, “Once you go Mac, you can’t go back”, etc.), I’m now also faced with the time-consuming hassle involved in setting up a workflow that had been perfected on the Mac. Some of it relates to the time it takes to find and install the right extensions for Firefox. Part of it has to do with giving up software that exists only for Mac, like the excellent Skitch. And the other part has to do with software that I had bought and installed, like OmniFocus, and will be unable to use until I get another Mac.

So when will I get another Mac? As soon as I can … and utimately, a brand new Mac trumps a depreciated one.

“… you’ve left me with nothing but I have worked with less.” -Ani Difranco.

Update: My PC laptop won’t start for some reason, I’ll have to get that fixed now and maybe reinstall Vista. I’ll lose a bunch of nice software I had installed, though.

Update 2: I got a new MacBook, which is performing better than the MacBook Pro I was using. Maybe it’s the clean install. I had considered getting a 20″ iMac — they’re amazing — but I really do need something mobile. The MacBook is even more convenient to carry around than the MacBook Pro.

Note: It’s worth clarifying that I’m not associated with Apple or any distributor. Also, I realize in the relative scheme of things, there are many worse things …

On Facebook? Join the Free Burma group

tag: free burma

transition, originally uploaded by alexdecarvalho.

showing how to post to blog from flickr in the social media class at UM

I’m honored to have been invited to teach at the University of Miami as an adjunct professor this fall term. I figure I’ll be busier than ever — what with work at startup Scrapblog and not infrequent travel — but I’m confident that teaching will be a hugely satisfying experience and I very much look forward to it. The beginning of the semester is fast approaching and the first class will be this Thursday. I had prepared a syllabus a few months ago, but recently revised it since some things had already changed in the ‘social media’ space. Here is the revised curriculum, with dates. This may move to a class blog or wiki within the next week.

School of Communication

University of Miami

Web 2.0: Social Media for collaboration, community building and citizen journalism

UM CVJ 596

Fall Semester 2007

Alex de Carvalho

Office location: 2013, please request appointment

SYLLABUS

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE:

In a few short years, the Web 2.0 has profoundly changed the communication landscape. With the advent of new social media tools, more and more people are participating and engaging in the conversation online. As former members of the audience become the new creators of content, corporations, institutions and media organizations increasingly lose control of the message. After an overview of how and why we got here, this course will guide you through social networks, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, media sharing, lifestreams, tagging and other social media tools. Effective communication requires using these tools. Since these services are so new and continually changing, students’ prior knowledge about the internet is not relevant.

The course will explore the new media landscape in terms of online expression, social networking, identity management, community building and citizen journalism. We will learn from case studies and invited speakers, new effective strategies and applications of social media tools. Required readings expose students to current readings in social media and provide a base from which to explore their interests. Lectures by the instructor resituate these readings in terms of broader concerns, with specific examples and case-studies of emerging technologies and media.

COURSE PREREQUISITES:

The class is open to all and there are no prerequisites for this class.

MATERIALS FEES:

Students will not be required to purchase any materials or books and all required reading will either be handed out or available online for free.

ASSIGNMENTS/COURSEWORK: 

Weblog — 25% of final grade

Students will start and maintain individual blogs with a minimum of four postings per week, whether text, video or audio or some combination, for the duration of the course.

Content: commentary about a media website. Students will be expected to post comments on each others’ blogs. The blog will be evaluated on

• the quality of engagement with themes of the class
• clarity of expression
• cultivation of community through regular posts and comments.

Instruction in creating blogs and in the practice of blogging will be provided.

Pseudonymous blogging is permitted.

Wiki– 10% of final grade

Each student will edit an entry in Wikipedia and contribute materially to an existing wiki.

Instruction in creating wikis and editing Wikipedia will be provided.

Pseudonymous Wikipedia editing is permitted.

Social Bookmarking – 10% of final grade

Each student will write start and maintain an individual social bookmarking service on either del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com or tumblr, with a minimum of four postings per week.

Instruction in editing social bookmarking services will be provided.

Pseudonymous social bookmarking is permitted.

Lifestreams – 10% of final grade

Each student will write start and maintain a “lifestream” or “microblog” service for the duration of the course on either Twitter, Jaiku or both, with a minimum of four postings per week.

Instruction in editing Twitter and Jaiku will be provided.

Pseudonymous lifestreaming is permitted.

Participation — 25% of final grade

Students are expected to do all the required readings for the course, to attend classes regularly, to have completed the reading in advance of classes and to participate actively in discussion. Recognition will be given to those who demonstrate consistent improvement over the course of the term.

Presentation — 20% of final grade

Students will choose two readings and present the content of the materials to class in a presentation (10–15 minutes). These presentations will summarize the material and then develop additional themes for further discussion. Students will be graded on the clarity of presentation and the level of understanding of the readings under discussion.

Due Date: end of term

TEXTS:

Readings will be as current as possible and the instructor will regularly assign materials. In addition, students will be responsible for keeping up to date with the course’s blogroll which will be presented in the beginning of the semester. Handouts may be provided in addition, in the class and students are responsible for reading assigned materials and the blogroll prior to each class.

COURSE TOPICS OUTLINE

Week of August 20^th, class session August 23rd

Course introduction, overview and objectives. What has changed online, how and why we got here and what it means for the media, for corporations – and for you.

Week of August 27^th, class session August 28th

The read – write web: from consuming media to creating content. Blogging basics, RSS feeds and feedreaders. What information overload? Introducing microblogging and lifestreaming. Creating and maintaining a blog. WordPress, Typepad, Technorati.

Week of August 27^th, class session August 30th

What are wikis and how do they work. Wiki basics and wiki editing. Case stuides and examples of wiki use for reference, for nonprofits and for the media. Wikipedia overview and discussion.

Week of September 3rd, class session September 4th

Lifestreams overview and discussion. Peripheral vision, presence and introduction to object-centered sociality.

Week of September 3rd, class session September 6th

Media-sharing overview and discussion. How and why YouTube and Flickr got so popular. Case studies, controversies and future directions. What is Pownce and will people use it?

Week of September 10th, class session September 11^th

Social Bookmarking overview and basic notions. The role of Firefox and open source extensions. Creating a del.icio.us or tumblr account. Discussion on crowdsourcing and how and why people collaborate.

Week of September 10th, class session September 13^th

Social Networking overview and discussion. The Social Graph and social network portability. Mini-feeds. LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Flickr. Future directions.

Week of September 17th, class session September 18^th

The F8 developer platform and Facebook applications.

Week of September 17th, class session September 20^th

Other forms of online collaboration. IM, SMS, VoIP, shared documents and mobile social software. Online Identity, reputation, pseudonimity and privacy discussion. OpenID, ClaimID, Ziki. Social network portability revisited.

Week of September 24th, class session September 25^th

The rise and rise of Social Media and what it means for corporations, institutions and the mainstream media.

Week of September 24th, class session September 27^th

Community building online: case studies from individuals, companies and the media.

Week of October 1st, class session October 2^nd

Social Objects and object-centered sociality. What is Social Object? What makes for a good social object and how to create sociality around objects.

Week of October 1st, class session October 4^th

Community building: is this the new, new marketing? What is community management? Why is community management important … or can we do without it? Case studies.

Week of October 8th, class session October 9^th

Community building: social media tools for building better and more engaged local communities. Social web tools and services for non-profits, for disaster relief and for local news reporting.

Week of October 8th, class session October 11^th

The new world of media: is online the future or is it already here? What are the current winning models? How is mainstream media affected by the social web?

Week of October 15th, class session October 16^th

The new world of media: case studies from new initiatives as well as from the mainstream media

Week of October 15th, class session October 18^th

The new world of media: best practices, resources, collaboration and ethics in online journalism. Mashups and Open Source.

Week of October 22nd, class session October 23^rd

The new world of media: initiatives in citizen journalism. Case studies on Now Public, Newsvine, OhMyNews and other sites.

Week of October 22nd, class session October 25^th

The new world of media: opinion leaders and influencers. Other initiatives in citizen journalism.

Week of October 29th, class session October 30^th

The new world of media: online collaboration in gaming and mmorpgs. What lessons can be applied to the world of work.

Week of October 29th, class session November 1^st

The new world of media: case studies in mobile services and tools for citizen journalism.

Week of November 5th, class session November 6^th

The new world of media: open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

Week of November 5th, class session November 8^th

The new world of media: continued open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

Week of November 12th, class session November 13^th

The new world of media: continued open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

Week of November 12th, class session November 15^th

The new world of media: continued open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

Week of November 19th, class session November 20^th

Student presentations and class discussion

Week of November 26th, class session November 27^th

Student presentations and class discussion

Week of November 26th, class session November 29^th

Student presentations and class discussion

FINAL EXAM PERIOD:  Thursday December 6^th 8:00–10:30pm

I have not blogged in a long while … Our member base has grown significantly since the relaunch of Scrapblog in early April and the role and tasks related to community evangelism have grown accordingly (check out Jeremiah’s new “community of community marketers” group on Facebook). I have found it much easier to update Twitter and Facebook and to post photos to Flickr.

So I always feel a momentary shock when I return to my blog: “is that really what it looks like? Nah … can’t be!”. Thankfully styling doesn’t come through in RSS feeds!

Even though I’m not a designer, my way back to blogging has always been to fix the CSS first to something I can feel comfortable with for the next half year.

So if you’ve happened to visit here, please bear with me while I shape up the styling … and I already know where my weekend’s going to be spent!

By the way, what’s with all the recent spam on Typepad? I wish there were Akismet … one more reason to migrate to WordPress one day …

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