"The geeks are inheriting the earth...."

After scanning through more than 2500 articles in the Communication and Mass Media Complete database in the Texas State Library, I have pulled more than 25 articles for further review. And none of it is light reading. "The Mediated Moderation Model of Interactivity" is an example of the research that I will be reading over the next couple of weeks. There is a lit review in here somewhere. I feel bad about the tree carnage....I have printed all of these articles and have them stacked in a huge spiral notebook. I was a slacker over Spring Break on this front and now feel a little behind. Last night I began reading in earnest and will do so daily until I plow through this stuff. There is a lit review in here somewhere.

I need to stay focussed on my reading list for the semester as well...still have not finished "Social Media is a Cocktail Party." There was an interesting passage in the chapter I read last night worth passing along:

"Keeping up with social media trends can be a fulltime job. A chief marketing officer can't keep up. That's why more than ever the marketing types and IT types have to work together... To get done what you need done in social media, you will need to partner with people who have a strong knowledge of web technology... The further you go down the social media path, the more clear the need for IT understanding will be...."

The geeks are inheriting the earth (says the author, a self-professed geek, not me!)

Get to work.....

Ok, it looks like I have narrowed this thesis idea down. I will be tracking the first year of participants in the Texas Outdoor Family program, which should be close to 500 families. I will do an initial survey after August 1. I will get baseline data on their media and outdoor recreation habits and then will follow this group for the next three years or so. As we add social media tools to our website we will track their useage and determine what impact it has on their outdoor recreation habits.

I met with Chris Holmes and Walt Dabney this week, both were very enthusiastic about the idea. Chris told me they have good e-mail addresses on all participants (they send an e-mail after the event thanking them for participating...that's good). He also told me he's got an intern that is going to set up a facebook page for the program...that's good too.

Carter Smith was also very supportive. It's so nice to get such an encouraging word from the boss. It means a lot and reminds me how important it is to convey encouragement and support.

This semester I will work on the survey instrument and do a literature review. I need to figure out which communication theory will be the foundation of the paper. Both Royal and Rao suggested interactive theory. When I tried to pull that up on Texas State research database I got more than 7,000 abstracts! I tried several ways to narrow that down, to no avail. Will try again today and will seek further counsel if needed.

I also plan on reading lots of books on the topic. I am currently reading "Social Media is a Cocktail Party" and it's very good. Signed up to follow one of the author's blogs. (Yet more info to consume!)

So I now know what I will be spending a lot of free time on over the next couple of years. So now it's time to get to work.

Does anyone find it odd that for someone who makes their living in the outdoor recreation field, I have very little actual time to spend in the outdoors???

Life's Better Outside.....when you are not inside working or doing homework!!!!!

Maybe this is it.....

I have been struggling with an idea for a thesis that will be fairly simple to execute, will explore some aspect of social media and will be useful to TPWD.

Perhaps this is the research question to explore:

Participants in the Texas Outdoor Family program who utilize social media tools on the TPWD website will become more active in the outdoors than those who do not (as measured by future camping patterns in Texas State Parks.)


I can pull together a database of those who have gone through the workshops from July 2008 - March 2009 and then follow them over time. We know exactly who they are.

The initial survey can gauge media habits and outdoor recreation habits. Then as we add these social media applications to the website we can let them know those tools are there and encourage them to use them.

Then we track over time. We can find out which of the tools are most useful to them and which we should not bother with. We can check our state park database and fine out which of them are coming back to state parks to camp, etc.

Hmm...perhaps this is it. I will discuss with the marketing folks and with Dr. Rao at Texas State and then get on with it....