usc – Andy Sternberg

BP Oil Spill: When Crisis Management is Compounded by Social Media

Andy Sternberg — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:26:36 +0000

I had the privilege of guest lecturing in Bill Imada’s graduate class at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (my alma mater). The title of the class — JOUR 568– is Critical Thinking and Crisis Management and I was asked to demonstrate the importance of social media in crisis communications and to present a case study. Well it turned out not being so much of a lecture — or even a case study for that matter — as it was a critical review of BP’s [lack of] response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 2010 and the ensuing oil spill that leaked into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly 3 months unchecked.

Click through to the videos in the presentation. Especially BP Spills Coffee. Riotous, no? But there’s truth to every bit of the parody. While BP was too focused on its record-breaking earnings and deflecting blame, it needed to address the reality of what was — and is — a very human tragedy in the eyes and on the active social networks of the public. And BP was way too late to that game.

The U.S. government just approved the first permit for deep-water drilling in the gulf since the disaster and there remains no known fix should history repeat itself. But our consumer culture didn’t get to where it is today out of an abundance of caution. This is where crisis management runs counter to traditional public relations. Organizations cannot wait to get involved on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, they must be proactively engaging and listening to their audiences. Sometimes communication is the only viable regulation.

PHOTOS: LA Techumanutarians Huddle at Crisis Camp Haiti at USC Annenberg School

Andy Sternberg — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:53:00 +0000

Andrew Lih gives a MediaWiki demo to volunteers at CrisisCampLA.
Volunteers discuss their project to help Haiti at Crisis Camp LA.

Chad Catacchio (@chadcat) debriefs Crisis Camp Haiti – Los Angeles
Chad Catacchio (@chadcat) debriefs Crisis Camp Haiti – Los Angeles
Crisis Camp LA Project Managers gather outside for a conference call with DC, Denver, and Silicon Valley.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Andy Sternberg’s posterous

Keeping Track of What we Read in Class

Andy Sternberg — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:07:59 +0000

I was looking all over for the syllabus from a course I was fortunate to take in the fall of 2006 at USC, Set-Top Box: Hollywood’s Secret War on Your Living Room. As if it wasn’t enough to meet weekly with Cory Doctorow, the guests he brought in and the material we read were priceless and it has all stuck with me in many ways. Having tracked down the syllabus in an old socialtext wiki I thought I’d reprint it here so I no longer have to dig and dig and dig to refer back to some of the readings. The class blog and my class project are still online.

Syllabus

PUBD 510 Set-Top Cop:

Hollywood's Secret War on Your Living Room

COURSE DESCRIPTION

An examination of the public diplomacy at work in the international standards, legal and normative mechanisms by which technology is restricted in the name of protecting copyright and other exclusive rights over knowledge goods.

These systems, created at the behest of the American entertainment industry and subsequently exported to the rest of the world, have made great and invisible inroads to every corner of the technological realm. Every device that contains a DVD player is required to be locked down in ways that restrict owner-freedom beyond what copyright demands or even allows. Proposals abound to lock down innumerable general-purpose technologies, from the PC to the Internet, under similar regimes.

These systems have failed and will go on failing to enrich artists or prevent indiscriminate copying. However, they do distort the market, restrict innovation, and punish legitimate users and researchers. This is a vast exporting of the values of one corner of America's entertainment industry, and is directly contrary to the fortunes of foreign entertainment industries and tech industries domestic and abroad.

Set Top Cop will examine the technical failings with use-restriction systems and the legal frameworks for these. It will explore the diplomatic evolution of standards, lobbying, and industry negotiations that have yielded such a restrictive outcome.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Attendance and Participation (10%): Overall attendance and participation in class discussion will be accounted for in the final grade.

Research Project (30%): Students will choose an area from the seminar and conduct an exhaustive review of key literature, presenting a comprehensive overview of the key texts, debates, and issues of controversy. Topics will need to be approved by the course instructor and students will be encouraged to utilize new media and technologies to present their research in alternative formats and in a public forum.

Weekly Assignments (60%): Students will be responsible for a semester-long project which analyzes the history, use, and trajectory of a current Digital Rights Management technology. They will trace and contextualize that technology by completing weekly assignments which track its use and development.

COURSE READING SCHEDULE

WEEK 1: 8/22
Introduction:
An overview of the course's themes, objectives and assignments.

WEEK 2: 8/29
Security basics:
Lecture, discussions and readings on the basics of information security, from Augustus Caesar to Alan Turing; from the crypto wars to the DRM wars.

Bruce Schneier, Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World, Wiley, 2004, 0471453803
Online copy for students (password required)

Peter Biddle et al, The Darknet and the Future of Content Protection
http://msl1.mit.edu/ESD10/docs/darknet5.pdf

Cory Doctorow, Microsoft DRM speech
http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt

Cory Doctorow, HP DRM speech
http://craphound.com/hpdrm.txt

WEEK 3: 9/5
Reverse engineering:

Speaker: Jason Schulz, EFF Staff Attorney

The legitimate case for reverse engineering in the academy and industry from a UCSD engineering prof whose award-winning work focuses on the use of reverse engineering in pedagogy and as a tool of social analysis.

Bunnie Huang, Hacking the X-Box: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering
No Starch Press, 2003 (1593270291)
Readme.1st, Reverse Engineering Xbox Security, Caveat Hacker
Online copy for students (password required)

Ed Felten, Alex Halderman, Freedom to Tinker (blog)
http://freedom-to-tinker.com/

Feral Robotic Dogs (website)
http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/feralrobots/

Blizzard v BNETD: Legal case notes, EFF http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/

WEEK 4: 9/12
Use restriction: Stories of DRM breaks, from DVD-Jon and the DeCSS break against DVD players to Microsoft's Palladium and Seth Schoen's Owner Override proposal to restore control of "trusted" PCs to their owners.

Mark Stefik, Trusted Systems (article) http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/forum/copyright/stefik1.htm(feel free to access w/ my Atlantic user/pass: revolute/usccpd – Andy)

Jane Ginsburg, From Having Copies to Experiencing Works (article) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=222493

Dean Marks and Bruce Turnbull, Technical Protection Measures: The Intersection of. Technology, Law and Commercial Licenses (article)
http://www.wipo.org/documents/en/meetings/1999/wct_wppt/pdf/imp99_3.pdf

Bruce Sterling, Hacker Crackdown

http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html

WEEK 5: 9/19
Present day DRMs:

Speakers: Michael Ayers, Toshiba DRM licensing attorney

HDCP, AACS, Blu-Ray, DVD-HD, CPRM, Fair Play and beyond.

Seth Schoen, Owner Override paper
http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/NewsBruiser-2.6.1/nb.cgi/view/vitanuova/2002/10/16/4

Seth Schoen, report from WinHeck
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003804.php
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003805.php
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003806.php
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003807.php

Halderman and Felten, Lessons from the Sony CD DRM Episode
http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/pub/sonydrm-ext.pdf

Project DReaM — An Architectural Overview
http://research.sun.com/spotlight/20050919_DReaM-Overview.html

WEEK 6: 9/26
Wrapup: Original research

Speaker: Bruce Schneier

Presentations of original research

WEEK 7: 10/3
History of copyright: The history of copyright and its industrial applications. Critical readings stress the dynamic tension between copyright and technology and the way that they have co-evolved. Class discussion will talk about the role of anti-Japanese sentiment during the VCR wars in setting Zaibatsu lobbying strategy in the US.

Speaker: Wendy Seltzer, Brooklyn Law

Tim Wu, Copyright's Communications Policy
http://ssrn.com/abstract=532882

Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture
Read chapters 1-5:http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Anarchist in the Library
Basic Books, 2005, 0465089852
Read chapters 2, 4, 6 ,7 and 10
Online copy for students (password required)

Julie Cohen, A Right to Read Anonymously (article)
http://ssrn.com/abstract=17990

Pam Samuelson, Towards More Sensible Anti-Circumvention Regulations
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~pam/papers/fincrypt2.pdf

WEEK 7: 10/10
NO CLASS

WEEK 8: 10/17

Speaker: Steven Starr, Revver

Internet-era businesses sometimes thrive in the face of copying. Readings include works on effective Internet-era business-models.

John Buckman, Magnatunes Manifesto
http://magnatune.com/info/why

Neil Leyton, FadingWays manifesto
http://www.fadingwaysmusic.com/mission.html

Cory Doctorow, Introduction to electronic edition of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
http://craphound.com/someone/000363.html

Tim O'Reilly, Piracy is Progressive Taxation
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/12/11/piracy.html

Debian social contract

http://www.debian.org/social_contract

Neil Stephenson, In the Beginning…Was the Command Line
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html

Tim Wu, Copyright's Authorship Policy
Unpublished,
Online copy for students (password required)

Long Tail readings:

The Long Tail, Chris Anderson, Wired, Oct 2004
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

Long tail and copyright, Chris Anderson
http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/02/long_tail_vs_le.html

Death of the Blockbuster
http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/02/death_of_the_bl.html

Life-Expectancy of Bestsellers

http://www.lulu.com/static/pr/05_19_06.php

WEEK 9: 10/24
Speaker: Jamie Love, Consumer Project on Technology

Wrapup: Original research

Presentations of original research

WEEK 10: 10/31
Standards and treaties: The actions of international consortia, treaty bodies, and standards groups have far-reaching effects on law, technology and commerce. Yet the action of these bodies is obscure and little-regarded. Recent activist participation in these bodies has shone the first light into their activities. This is public diplomacy for the rest of us, storming the gates of the UN.

Cory Doctorow, et al: DRM: A Failure in the Developed World, a Danger to the Developing world http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/drm_paper.php

Access to Knowledge treaty draft
http://www.cptech.org/a2k/consolidatedtext-may9.pdf

Geneva Declaration
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/genevadeclaration.html

Declaration on the Development Agenda
http://www.wipo.org/documents/en/document/govbody/wo_gb_ga/pdf/wo_ga_31_11.pdf

Adelphi Charter
http://www.adelphicharter.org/

WEEK 11: 11/7
Laws: How copyright and related laws get made and passed.

Speaker: Fred von Lohmann, EFF Head IP Attorney

EFF's Annotations to the MPAA Broadcast Flag FAQ
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000148.html

MPAA Content Protection Status Report
http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/content_protection.pdf
http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/mpaa_june.pdf
http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/mpaa110702.pdf

RIAA/CEA exchange on digital radio

http://cryptome.sabotage.org/RIAA-CEA.htm

DMCRA
http://www.house.gov/boucher/docs/dmcrahandout.htm

Jack Valenti 1982 Congressional testimony on Betamax
http://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm

Lehman Report to the 1995 National Information Infrastructure commission
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/doc/ipnii/

Pam Samuelson, The Copyright Grab
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/white.paper_pr.html

WEEK 12: 11/14
Command and control dystopia: What it could mean to live in a world of ubiquitous command-and-control devices that respond to others' wishes instead of your own.

Speakers: Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow

Richard Stallman, The Right to Read
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

Cory Doctorow, 0wnz0red
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/

Ed Felten, Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue (transcript)
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/copyright/felten.html

Wendy Seltzer, The Broadcast Flag: It's Not Just About TV

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/uploads/510/06-TheBroadcastFlag.pdf

WEEK 13: 11/21
Speaker: Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, Xbox hacker, founder of Chumby
Wrapup: Original research

Presentations of original research

WEEK 14: 11/28

Modern copyright and technology: Technology restrictions in practice — Broadcast Flags, next-generation DVDs, Coral and other DRM consortia. Critical readings stress the unintended consequences of these laws for competition, innovation and freedom of expression.

Speaker: Seth Schoen, EFF Staff Technologist

Joint Report of the Chairs of the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000128.html#000128

EFF response to above
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000116.html

CPCM Blue Book
http://www.dvb.org/technology/dvb-cpcm/a094.DVB-CPCM.pdf

Coral Alliance site
/coral-interop.org/

Fred von Lohmann, Unintended consequences
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php

Tom Giovanetti, IP Blog

http://www.ipblog.org/

WEEK 15: 12/5
Conclusion: New issues arising during the semester (Bluray v DVDHD final specs; new lawsuits over DRM)

Readings as appropriate

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The Annenberg School for Communication is committed to upholding the University's Academic Integrity Code as detailed in the campus guide. It is the policy of the School of Communication to report all violations of the code. Any serious violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student's expulsion from the School of Communication.

DISABILITIES
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to the instructor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Murray Fromson Blogs Again

Andy Sternberg — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:04:13 +0000

One of my pet projects over the past few years has been to get Murray Fromson to blog again. I met Murray at USC, he was in his last year teaching journalism and even though I never had a class with him I spent time talking sports, politics, newspapers, Internet, and even broke fast at his place a few Yom Kippur’s ago.

A couple years ago I migrated his blogspot (blogger) blog to wordpress and retrained him for quick and easy posting, but it wasn’t until this week, after he took me to California Wok, that he’s finally kicked his blogging senses back into gear. Apparently he was busy traveling the world and finishing up a book on Lincoln or something. I encourage you to keep up with his posts — they’re great and insightful — and in the near future look for his entries to appear in the Huffington Post.

Check out this colorful intro to Fromson’s well-informed perception of where the Obama campaign stands now, tainted, most naturally, by the general bitterness in the Southern California air surrounding Sam Zell (and company)’s dramatic mismanagement of the LA Times. Then click on and read the rest of the post:

So Barack Obamaâ€s early life was scrambled by his fatherâ€s abandonment. Havenâ€t all of us who endured a similar trauma? It takes years to get over. I know. But is that story worth frontpage treatment plus six columns across half of an inside page of Thursdayâ€s Los Angeles Times? Iâ€m not purposely feeding red meat to Sam Zell who wants to be rid of anything serious running in the diminishing quality of his newspaper. But, as they say, letâ€s get a life when it comes to campaign coverage. The nationwide decision to print or broadcast every morsel of information about Barack or his confused opponent in the midst of summer is just plain idiotic. Who really cares? Regardless of the bloated news cycle inflicted upon us, canâ€t we be given some relief? Thatâ€s the way things were done in the days of back room politics that I used to cover, and it worked pretty well. Barack should go on an extended vacation, preferably to one of the distant islands of the Pacific that would be deemed to be too far away and certainly too expensive for the cable suits to try and keep up with the erstwhile Democratic candidate.

It’s Not Me, It’s You

Andy Sternberg — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:28:13 +0000

Ann Coulter is disgustingly skinny. So, when I heard her speak last night at USC, I couldn’t help myself but to replace the word “liberal” with “fat people” — at least in my head — the dozens of times she berated the intellectually beefy. Her new book would probably be quite a hoot if only it were titled “If ~~Democrats~~ Fat People Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans.”

Click here to read my account of her “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” presentation complete with photos and video at LAist.

Oh, and happy Leopard Day Mac users!

USC Center on Public Diplomacy Awarded MacArthur Grant

Andy Sternberg — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:00:40 +0000

The New York Times just broke the news that the Center on Public Diplomacy won a generous MacArthur grant to further its research, presence, and to produce future events in the Second Life virtual world. Josh Fouts and Doug Thomas are the co-principal investigators on this $550,000 grant.

Check out the first MacArthur / CPD event at 9 PT this morning. more info here.

(Disclosure: I have been the Center’s Web editor since 2005.)

photo from the public diplomacy flickr stream.

LA Times’ Steve Lopez Speaks at USC Annenberg Commencement

Andy Sternberg — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:20:29 +0000

The inspiring and occasionally hilarious Points West columnist delivered the commencement address to graduating undergrads and graduate students of USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism last Friday.

Graduate With Grace

Andy Sternberg — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:23:18 +0000

Days away from walking out of LA with a graduate diploma in Online Journalism. More on that later. Today, I send you to my LAist post in which I rip apart Nancy Grace.

Previous Grace-bashing here.

Small Print Project Wins Award at USC Webfest

Andy Sternberg — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 22:35:30 +0000

I was both honored and surprised to learn that The Small Print Project, a Web site I created as a class project, took second place in the Academic category at the University of Southern California’s annual Webfest.

They gave me a certificate at an awards banquet at which Mimi Ito gave a short presentation, and, I’ll even be receiving a cash award, believe it or not.

The project lives on although submissions are only trickling in at this point….

Thanks to Cory for his support on the project (which I did for the class he taught).

Daily Trojan Picks up my Perez Hilton Gripe

Andy Sternberg — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:18:10 +0000

Hah! Color me hair pink!

check it

Original post here.