So you’ve amassed a crowd of well over 100,000 on the National Mall for a rally to poke fun at incivil discourse and the shrieking, sensationalized media that’s degrading our political process.  What do you do when it’s all over??

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The media buzz here in DC is all about the new website TBD and how it may (or may not) succeed as a customizable, all-you can-eat type of local news site. Launched by the same publisher who created the hugely successful Politico, the new news site will set itself apart by including news links with other local blogs and outlets.  Risky, or extremely smart?

My bet is on the latter.  I personally don’t have time to go searching for all the blogs that have been created to share news about my neighborhood here in Arlington, Virginia. So I find setting up an account on TBD, even if it means I have to share a little personal information, highly valuable.  It means that I can go one place to read the news I want.   (more…)

Fascinating sign-of-the-times piece in the NYT today about how “the Internet-connected class worldwide faces growing pressure to cultivate a personal brand.”

In short:

“The rise of the personal brand reflects changing economic structures, as secure lifetime employment gives way to a churning market in tasks. It suggests a new unscriptedness in institutions as we evolve from the broadcast age to the age of retweets. It augurs a future in which we all function like one-person conglomerates, calculating how every action affects our positioning.”

Is social media helping younger women become more assertive about getting ahead in the workplace?  That’s the interesting argument that True/Slant’s Sara Libby makes in a recent post.

Responding to a recent blog post by NYU Professor Clay Shirky about how women are less willing than men to speak up about their professional achievements, rendering them less often rewarded and promoted, Libby writes:

… despite being an expert on social networks and technology, [Shirky's] assessment was curiously absent of any mentions of generational shifts brought on by social media – the ultimate realm of self-promotion. … It wasn’t until Shirky told of a female professor who finally, after seeing a request from a magazine writer, suggested her own work for praise in the publication, that I saw the generational disconnect. Once she spoke up, she got the story. It’s this kind of self-promotion and media savvy that I believe comes much easier to 20-somethings today. Self-promotion has morphed into something not just practiced in business and academics; it’s a full-blown pastime. Before we’re ever required to write cover letters or submit work samples, we’re already telling the world what our favorite movies, quotes and books are; bragging through photo slideshows about what we did over the weekend or vacations we took; and besting one another in quizzes or games.

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