Social networks continue to break new ground in the way that we interact with each other. Thanks to Facebook we have an entirely new category of acquaintances that we would have never had the energy or time to keep up with otherwise. We can have meaningful conversations with strangers on Twitter, and the world appears to be shrinking, as we map the connections between the people we know. Alas, it’s not all rainbows and puppies. Along with all the good, has come an enormous bucket of unprecedented bad, the kind of stuff that we are dealing with now that include legal implications.

Two things happened this week that really brought this to my mind:

1) Megan Meier’s Trial

I have been following this case since I researched it for Grown Up Digital. For those of you who aren’t familiar here are the highlights:

13 Year Old Megan Meier, who suffered from ADD and depression committed suicide after being taunted by a MySpace friend, a boy who was later revealed to be the creation of an ex-friend’s mother.

You read that part right. A grown woman created a fake mySpace account, built a relationship with Megan and then turned on her by saying vile, hurtful things that pushed Megan beyond her limit.  This is the first Cyber-bullying trial to go to court and it started a few days ago.

From the BBC:

Prosecutors say Ms Drew violated MySpace’s “terms of service” that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, using accounts to obtain personal information about juvenile members and using MySpace to “harass, abuse or harm other members”.

The trial is being seen as a landmark internet law case.

It is interesting to note that Lori Drew, the woman being charged in the case is facing the consequences of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, because prosecutors couldn’t find any other law in Missouri to charge her with. She is not on trial for Megan’s suicide.

2) A teen commits suicide on Justin.TV

This sad story broke a few days ago. A Justin.tv user announced he was going to end his life. He wasn’t taken seriously by the moderators who thought it was a hoax. Finally a few hours later people realized he wasn’t moving and called the authorities. It was particularly upsetting for me to read because the people in the comments section were egging him on and saying mean and hurtful things.

A timeline from iReport:

CandyJunkie posts the amount of drugs he’s going to take

Mod[erator]s don’t take it seriously

People egg him on

CandyJunkie posts a copied suicide note

People keep egging him on

He pops the pills and goes to sleep

He breathes for a few hours, people think he’s going to be alright and keep joking and trash talking on his JTV log.

Some time later many people realize he was not moving.

Personal details posted on Misc. by a concerned misc. request people to call the cops.

People tell me he’s a troll and nobody calls. Staberella especially is quite a huge cynic and says that he wasn’t going to die on that kind of drugs, she insists nothing is going to happen and that people should just gtfo of the thread.

Miami Police called, the people there do not take the case seriously and tell to call the sheriff of his county, and give me the sheriff’s number.

post the sheriff’s number on the Misc. thread

jjlee138 calls the Broward County Sheriff’s office and speaks to them about the situation along with a couple of other people. By the time I called, it turns out 3 people had already called them about it.

People wait for the cops to bust in on the JTV cam.

Some people start thinking nobody called the cops, at least 5 more people call the cops, they were told the cops were on it

25 minutes after the first call to the cops, the cops bust in. They cover the webcam

People speculating whether he’s dead or not

At this point of time a lot of people start deleting/editing their posts everywhere.

Friends post messages on his myspace worried about him, no response from him.

His best friend posts a thread on the Misc. and informs the people that he’s dead.

Some people still think its a bluff”

I wonder if any of those people will be liable. Lori Drew was charged because there were no other laws. Maybe this will see the introduction of legislation that starts to map out the digital landscape in an effort to define the boundaries of our online accountability. I think that there will come a time sooner rather than later where a person won’t be able to hide behind a screen name, and will be responsible for how they conduct themselves online.

I also wonder about the responsibility that will be passed on to Social Networks like Facebook or MySpace. How long will their terms of service be enough to shield them from people who would seek to harm others? It also wouldn’t surprise me to see companies become fearful of possible legal action start to crack down on any content they deem offensive, exercising their rights over our data. Especially Facebook who pretty much owns everything you put on their servers.

A lot of people have described the web as the wild wild west, but I think this trial is ushering in a new age of law and order. We’ve already seen the outcome in the battle of Free Speech vs. Potential and Unseen Threat (aka the Patriot Act) so I’m a little apprehensive as to how this one is going to play out.

Either way, the loss of life is a tragedy that should be respected both offline and online. Common decency and compassion shouldn’t dissapear the second you activate an avatar. I would rather call the police on someone who turns out to be a hoax 100 times, rather then miss one person really crying out for help.

Whether or not you thought it was a joke, egging someone one who is making a claim of hurting themselves is irresponsible and shameful. There are certain things that will never be funny -EVER-this is one of them.

I find it so fascinating that despite all the advances science has made in learning about our minds and bodies, there are still vast amounts of information that remains unknown. Things that seemed impossible to our ancestors like flying through the sky or curing (now) common diseases are normal for us. I can only imagine what seemingly out of this world things will be commonplace to future generations. I think you’ll enjoy this talk by renown age scientist Aubrey De Grey, who hypothesizes that within the next thirty years, gene therapies will be introduced that will allow us to halt the aging process and life long and extended lives, spanning hundreds of years.

Why You Should Watch:

Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey argues that aging is merely a disease — and a curable one at that. Humans age in seven basic ways, he says, all of which can be averted. He provocatively proposes that the first human beings who will live to 1,000 years old. 

My Favorite Part:

I just love his sense of humor during this whole talk. He’s got a long pony tail and large bushy beard and he looks a bit more mad than scientist, but you just know after listening to him speak for a few minutes that he would be one of most interesting people to talk to.

My Take

I find myself having mixed reactions to this talk. I mean it’s pretty exciting to think about living for 200 years or more, but what if we achieve immortality, which is something he also hypothesizes. That opens up a whole realm of philosophical, theological and moral questions. The points below are pure speculation on my part, and are just some of the ideas that were bouncing around in my mind during this presentation.

Isn’t death natural? - Someone pointed out to me that it’s a little bizarre to pursue this line of research since everything in nature dies. What are some of the implications of circumventing a natural cycle like this?

Can we handle it? - There are already too many people on the planet, what will living forever mean people who want to have children? What will it mean for sustainable business and the resources of our planet? Population control will have to be seriously considered.

What about the afterlife? Now I’m not a religious person by nature, by I know many of my friends are, and they believe that what happens after you die is just a natural progression of human development. So, hypothetically speaking, what if there WAS something really great after death and now we’d never know?

Who will get access to this treatment? At the onset I can guarantee you it will probably be rich people, and I wonder how the world will react if they know there is a treatment available to the elite?

Will we want to live so long? You think working until 65 is a long time, can you imagine your career spanning hundreds of years? And what about opportunity within organizations? 250 years old and still a junior manager? Sucky for you!

What do you think? Where do you stand on the immortality continuum?

If you are in Toronto this weekend you should consider attending a really great event that is being put on my friend Justin Lee. Justin and I were in the same elementary school and recently reconnected through the awesome yet creepy power of Facebook. Incidentally, I also found this incredible blast from the past picture from one of our other classmates. Aww, we were so little and innocent.

Ok, back to the present, so Changing the World is a great conference being put on in Toronto to showcase emerging young leaders who are changing the world.

In brief:

The World’s Premier Conference for Young People

Changing the World brings together the world’s greatest visionaries to
inspire young people to innovate and better our world. The topics covered
include: technology, science, design, entrepreneurship, philanthropy,
and the arts. Among this year’s speakers are:

1 Nobel Peace Prize winner (for stopping nuclear war)
1 Star designer
1 Architect designing Asia’s tallest building
12 Entrepreneurs
1 Giller prize winning author
2 Internet millionaires
1 Engineer who creates $100 laptops for developping nations
1 Girl who was curing Alzheimer’s at age 15
1 Girl who gave British young people the power to vote
1 Scientist who stops human aging
1 Guy who created Mac OS X
9 Technologists
1 Futurist creating blob computers
… and more.

The Format
Each speaker is given 18 minutes to deliver their epic talk.
Every attendee gets the same experience.
One day of rapid fire inspiration.

Innovation for All
As a non-profit organization, we want to provide a world-class conference
to all students regardless of their age, financial background, and past
leadership experiences. We believe that every student should be given
the opportunity to be inspired and to learn from some of the world’s most
fascinating people.

Can we say amazing? It features two of my favorite TED speakers Eva Ventes and Aubrey de Grey, who will be featured on an upcoming segment of TED Tuesdays. The event is $500, which may seem steep but really check out the speaker list and compare with TED’s price tag of $6,000! Also, note that they charge this fee so that they can offer FREE admittance to students and teachers, which is so very cool.

More Details:

Buy Ticket

Speakers

FAQ

I’m going to be there live blogging some of the sessions and hopefully capturing some videos of the events, so if you can’t make it be sure to tune in here, or follow my mini updates on twitter.

I just got back from North Carolina and I am simultaneously revved up and exhausted at the same time. I’ll have a lot of exciting news to share in the upcoming weeks. This is just a baby post since I’m working on a few longer pieces that will be up later tomorrow or Saturday.

Patrick White from the Globe and Mail did a piece recently about some of the Canadians who worked on the Obama campaign and I wanted to post it.

You can read the story here.

Welcome to the first ever Ted Tuesday! I have been a huge fan of TED for a long time, and I’m happy the response to discussing various presentations on The Foush was so positive- thank you for your tweets and emails! Looks like I’m not the only one craving some idea juice. I wanted to pick my favorites because some of them go back to 2006 and I wanted to make sure that you knew about these videos. I’m hoping that this will be a two way exchange, that you will in turn share with me your favorite Ted Talks and we can put them up here and talk about them too!

Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity — are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. It’s a message with deep resonance. Robinson’s TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006.

My Favorite Part:

When describing the conversation between a doctor and the mother of a girl who been brought in because she was having trouble paying attention in school.

Doctor: Mrs. Lynn, Gillian isn’t sick - she’s a dancer.

My Take:

I loved that line. I always wonder how many kids were medicated out of their true talents because they didn’t quite fit into the system? How many employees fall through the cracks in an organization because they are stifled by boxy job descriptions. How many of us know or feel what are calling is, but get talked out of it? I remember talking to my guidance counselor about post-secondary options. I wanted to be a writer, I said. I want to write novels, movies, poems, plays, anything with words and I wanted to be a part of it. Do you know what his response was?

“Do you know how hard it is to get published? It’s nearly impossible. Writers don’t make a good living, you’ll be poor for the rest of your life. You’re better off going into something else. Something more useful.”

I never forgot that conversation. It was part of the reason I applied to business school in the first place, that unspoken shame that by wanting to pursue a creative avenue, I would somehow be committing myself to a life of poverty.

Why is it that the arts aren’t as respected as other institutions?  The Arts are the backbone of culture, the lense through which we express the joys and hardships of our times. It is the Arts that endure to tell our stories when business is nothing more then a paragraph in a history text.

I truly believe that each of us are born with a calling, and that unfortunately by the time we get through the educational system we have been so systematically programmed to regurgitate information on command that we forget what it’s like to listen to our hearts and do the things that truly bring us joy. The irony being that often time, by following our joy we actually enjoy a greater prosperity. (As in the case of Gillian Lynn, but you have to watch the video to hear how she thrived!)

Your Turn:

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? What was your favorite part?

I can’t believe it’s been two months since I put my life on hold and traveled down to Chicago to volunteer on Barack Obama, oh excuse me, President-Elect Obama’s campaign. This has been one of the most thrilling and satisfying things I’ve ever been a part of and I will treasure the experience forever.

It feels so foreign to be sitting on my couch on a rainy Sunday afternoon leisurely drafting a blog post. I’m really looking forward to getting back to my old routine and blogging up a storm. So for those of you who have been patient with me during this time, thank you! Your emails and text messages of support during the last two months energized me and I am grateful!

I will be uploading some more pictures and videos soon, so stay tuned!

You know, I have never seen the entire world get so engrossed in a political campaign before. It seemed as though all eyes were on the United States. I watched the election results come in from the campaign’s national Headquarters in Chicago and the mood was tense. I was hopeful going in, but all day I was reading reports of voting problems and machine issues off of the Huffington Post and started to really worry that another election was about to be stolen. When the first polls closed, we got Vermont, and McCain got Kentucky, and the news anchors started to show the results coming in from Virginia and Pennsylvania and they were tight. Too tight. For a second I wondered if we had overestimated the loyalty and commitment of voters. The mid-west gave McCain more electoral votes and at that point I couldn’t even watch the screen anymore. And then, something incredible happened, Fox News was one of the first stations to call Ohio for Obama. That was like the floodgates opening up, and the results starting pouring in!

We headed over to Grant Park, and by the time we got  there, the crowd was going completely insane, turns out we had gotten Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. We arrived just as the countdown for the West Coast polls was going on and everyone started counting down together. They were projecting the election results on a huge screen and a graphic appeared saying “Barack Obama is President.” Everyone went wild, hugging each other, crying, screaming, jumping up and down. At that point, I was still in shock. Had we actually done it? It felt so weird, having poured my heart and soul into this goal for the past two months, not sleeping, not eating, not doing anything else but working and hoping.

When President Elect Obama took the stage, I got goosebumps. I huddled with the rest of my team, our arms around each other ad we watched him give one of his best speeches. The entire crowd started chanting “Yes We Can!” and looking around at my friends’ faces, it finally started to sink in. We had done it! We had just helped elect the 44th President of the United States!

It wasn’t until the next morning that it fully hit me, I heard the “Yes We Can” song by Will.i.am on the radio and was overcome my emotion.

I have so many stories to share, but I’m going to unpack my two gigantic suitcases and start drafting a post for the inaugrual Ted Tuesday next week!

As many of you have noticed, I haven’t been able to keep up the same level of blogging since I’ve been in Chicago. Rest assured as of November 11th I’ll be back home and getting back into the swing of things. I was actually surprised to realize how much I miss regularly blogging, it had become such an integral part of my daily routine! Still, these days I’m lucky to steal a few minutes of down time to post something of relevance, so thanks for checking back for content!

Anyway, I did want to share a little habit that I’ve picked up since I have been in Chicago, one that has really added a lot of value to my life. Every day, as I journey to and from the city on the Brown Line I have started watching the TED talks on my iPod.

TED is one of the best conferences in the world, and it stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Started back in 1984 (the year I was born, clearly a sign, lol) it has brought some of the most fascinating thinkers and doers to share their ideas with the world. I have heard people who have attended these gatherings speak about experiencing life-altering revelations. So I was beyond thrilled to see TED release footage of the talks for free online! You can download them off of iTunes( both video and audio), watch on Youtube or at the Official Site.

TED is famed for their 20 minute presentations, the perfect length (in my opinion) to introduce a new idea. I watch two of those videos every day, one on each leg of my commute. I have been surprised to find how much of an impact it has had on me. You can hear everyone from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates cover all sorts of fascinating topics, and for an information junkie like myself, it’s the highest quality of information you’ll probably ever consume.

1. It really sets my morning off on the right foot. Listening to people share their stories of triumph and discovery just helps focus my mind, and I feel more empowered and hopeful. I definitely notice a change in my mood when I don’t get a chance to watch a segment!
2. I’m learning so much about such a diverse range of topics- medicine, engineering, physics just to name a few.
3. When I’m feeling bone-tired on my way home it helps me keep going as I am reminded that struggle is sometimes a necessary state when trying to accomplish something that makes a difference.

A New Foushy Segment!

SO, what’s my point? My point is I want you to watch them, but more importantly I want to discuss what I’ve seen with people! So far that has been the one draw back, I learn about all of these interesting topics and no one is around to talk about them. So here’s what I want to do. I’m going to start picking some of my absolute favorites and blogging about them on the FOUSH. I’ll post the link to the videos and a short summary of why it inspired me, and I would love to hear your thoughts! I think I’ll start doing once a week and see how it goes. TED Tuesdays? or TED Thursdays? I’m excited already!

I am so happy to announce that Don Tapscott’s latest book “Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is changing your world” is available on Amazon! As a collaborator, I am very proud of the finished product, and ecstatic that this book is hitting the shelves.

I was fed up with the negative attitudes people have expressed towards our generation. A few weeks ago, I did an interview on the CBC withauthor Mark Bauerlein about his book “The Dumbest Generation.” He wrote:

For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture available to young people and the impact it has on their futures. At the dawn of the digital age, many believed they saw a hopeful answer: The Internet, e-mail, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and intellectually sophisticated children. The terms “information superhighway” and “knowledge economy” entered the lexicon, and we assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital era.

That was the promise. But the enlightenment didn’t happen. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite effect. According to recent reports, most young people in the United States do not read literature, visit museums, or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount basic American history, name their local political representatives, or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. The Dumbest Generation is a startling examination of the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its consequences for American culture and democracy.

Drawing upon exhaustive research, personal anecdotes, and historical and social analysis, Mark Bauerline presents an uncompromisingly realistic portrait of the young American mind at this critical juncture, and lays out a compelling vision of how we might address its deficiencies.

Lazy, uneducated and apathetic was how he summed up my generation, and I took a lot of offense to that categorization. You can listen to the interview, and read my response to Mark here.

I’m pleased (and relieved) to say that Don’s research yielded more encouraging results. Based on a $4 million research study, Don surveyed more then 11,000 “Net Geners,” and quickly realized that The Net Generation is the world’s first global digital generation, and we are collaborating, creating and innovating in unprecedented ways. We are impacting every institution from government and education to the workplace and the marketplace. Everything is changing.

Grown Up Digital reveals:

How the brain of the Net Generation processes information

Seven ways to attract and engage young talent in the workforce

Seven guidelines for educators to tap the Net Gen potential

Parenting 2.0: There’s no place like the new home

Citizen Net: How young people and the Internet are transforming democracy

Watch Don’s video, “Hey Moron” since he can probably tell it better then I can!

UPDATE: Thanks to all of your votes, Jesse nabbed the number #1 spot on Current.com’s leader board!  Congratulations Jesse!

Jesse just made this awesome video essay profiling a Canadian man named Norman and his particular involvement with the American presidential election. I think it’s fabulous, I’m giving it my Foushiest endorsement.

If you like what you see, please go HERE and vote it up. If you don’t have a current.com account you might need to register for one, but it’s painless and easy.

Jesse’s video is currently in the #5 spot, if he moves up they’ll broadcast the video on Current’s network! How exciting! Let’s help him win!

The slow but steady adoption of Twitter into the mainstream continues to fascinate me.  As the microblogging site continues to get  news coverage and more corporate accounts pop up, it’s pretty safe to say that Twitter has enabled companies to engage in  deeper and more personal conversations without being overly imposing. For the companies that do it right, it has become a powerful tool to connect to consumers and promote brands, one tweet at a time.

The problem with Twitter…

I was intrigued to see and Ad for Twitter Moms on one of my recent internet jaunts. As I curiously poked around the site, I quickly realized that this community, (I’m sure the first of many) has popped up in direct response to one of Twitter’s biggest flaws: figuring out who to follow.

Currently Twitter lets you search for contacts you already know who are either on one of your other social networks, or who you can invite via email. Which is fine, but what about the great people out there who you don’t know, the friends you just haven’t met yet?  The majority of people on my list are people that I’ve never met in person but who I’ve discovered to be funny, intelligent and generally all around wonderful. Since the technology industry has some well-established names, I found it easy to build up a base list. For non-tech enthusiasts who just want to meet new friends with similar interests, I can see the current system as being a huge barrier to adoption.

An end-user solution

Twitter Moms fills this void by allowing users to search for other moms based on interests ranging from motherhood to fashion, technology and business. Hosted on Ning, the community already has grown to over 2,300 members. Members gain access to groups, discussions and events. They even have a growing collection of videos that cover everything from humerous youtube videos, to technical tutorials for members who want learn more about web based tools.

I think it astutely addresses the intimidation factor of randomly following someone you don’t know by giving users the opportunity to ease into a new digital relationship, for example by contributing to a group discussion or commenting on  site content. That way, by the time you follow each other on twitter you’ve already established a burgeoning online friendship that lays the foundation for future dialogue.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and I can definitely see similar communities emerging as more and more people start microblogging. I hope Twitter improves their search data base. Write now you can search via terms in people’s bios, but I still don’t think that’s enough. I mean if i search for “technology” I get hundreds of users, but how do I know which ones would be a good choice to follow?

Corporate Application?

I think organizations will see tremendous value by participating in these types of communities. I mean if you market to moms, you should definitely be watching twittermoms.com.  There will be great opportunities to build relationships through sponsorships and marketing. I mean if I marketed stuff to moms, I would probably give away tons of free products to this group: they’re tech savvy, on twitter and like to engage with other moms online. A good product experience can go a long way, and it would provide plenty of opportunities for feedback and improvements.

The Final Word…

I like how social media empowers people by giving them the tools they need to fill in the gaps in their favorite services. Kudos to the founders of Twittermom who recognized a need and then went ahead and addressed it themselves.