Dedcucing Your Success to the Strength of Your Network

Planning for the future is an intimidating venture, particularly when you're not sure of where you are now. Such is often the case for students because school can be a very consistent and safe place; you know what's expected of you and what you have to do.

Today, my class of Humber College graduate PR students held and led our own class termed Future Camp. The idea behind the self-led class was to reinvoke the importance of strong social networks. And, what makes the network strong? Durability. A network that is maintained. Today, we organized how we're going to keep in touch with each other in the future so as to keep this meaningful network fluid and constant.


As we're planning, we maintain a live feed on Twitter with #futurecamp as the hash tag and within one afternoon, we trended in Canada in the top 20.

Some of the ideas we came up with were a USB time capsule. Who needs quaint cookie tins to bury in the ground to safeguard timely keepsakes, we've got USB now! It will take away from the tangible qualities of a time capsule but it is reflective of our time period, class content (social and digital media) and of where we are now technologically as students.


So far, these are our ideas to maintain our network:

• We'll maintain our network beginning with a regular, Why Not Wednedays # YnotW, a mid-week watering day and catch-up for us.



• A Facebook Page for us to maintain and update how awesomely successful we become.



• Open the time capsule in 5 years at a swanky party with US as the guests of honour. Venue to be determined.

Success is who you know. Your network is something you take with you, no matter where you go. Therefore, your network can be a reflection of your success. In a world of consistent change something that stays steady are the people you maintain relationships with. This network is as meaningful as you make it. Our PR network formed in a short, sweet four months is tight - and we're all rooting for the other!

In the meantime, peruse what some of the other Future Camp attendees had to say about the future.

Kali said this.

Catherine said that.

And our friend Patrick added...

Freedom of Our Speech, When We Say So

Yesterday at 3:00pm, The Official Google Blog released a damning announcement regarding Google's presence in China with google.cn. The article is brief and describes three seperate instances in to do with Google security breaches in the past year all originating from China. Ultimately, the big wigs at Google, the Information Highway toll booth attendants, the knowledge feeding nest, the "internet evangalists" will confer with the Chinese government and, unless the Quiet Dragon agrees to abide by the Google mandate of free speech for one and all, Google is going to shut down it's Chinese arrangement.

A very bold social statement, indeed, on behalf of Google calling out Chinese authorites and bringing to light what internationally has been a problem for decades, Chinese human rights. Finally, applying sanctions on misbehaving governments does not have to involve the economic infrastructure alone.



Maybe, the effect of a social sanction via digital and social media will engage enough of a ripple effect to make real meaning for the Chinese government. One clear effect of Google publically removing itself from the largest economic environment and population will be the shame attached again to Chinese social conduct.The digital giants are taking matters into their own hands. Matters that not even the international community have been able to adequately address.


Most countries have committed their democratically elected governments to a social contract of fair play. Further, in our global age that contract has extended it's borders to involve an international contract again of fair play. However, unlike our national rules, there are no internatioanlly applicable binding laws against activities that are found unjust, illegal or inhummane. One might suppose that among the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the G8 something involving a binding international rule of law regarding human rights should be codified.

There is a political and social theory so applicable to this story that this commentary should not end without it's mentioning. A principle desireable enough to the masses that it has the ablitity to permeate and undermine what were once great foundations. The Utilitarian, Jeremy Bentham-ian principle of the "greater good for the greatest number of people" is the application of ethics to actions of the state, maximizing actions as determined by their moral worth.In 2006 when Google first launched google.cn, the corporate giant was, not surprisingly, willing to sacrafice a tidbit of it's underlying product of free speech so as to bring a greater proportion of information to China. The rules on this stipulation were transparent and limited and subject to change.


Seems that to Google, the moral actions of sacrificing some freedom of information for more freedom of information was a greater good. Unfortunately, that something was basic human rights and it is not surprising that a corporate giant like Google was willing to auction it with a greater good bid. At least in our society, the freedom of information is a basic human right and although there will be much debate about this news of Google and China,

I say good for Google!

*UPDATE* Google has taken further steps on this contentious issue as published in the
New York Times on March 22, 2010.
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