Cornell Blog on Twitter
After hooligans from Cornell usurped my previous twitter usename–Cornell–and replaced it with a one-line tweet pointing to Cornell_Univ (lame name, eh?), I’ve decided to start integrating with Twitter again. So, I’ve registered the rather plain and boring Cornell_Blog for you to follow!
Cornell University on Twitter is currently limited to the following users:
Cornell Blog (this one) will post its updates!
Cornell Weather – every morning, get a weather tweet!
The Cornell Daily Sun, the only news on campus…
Official Cornell University twitter feed
Please let me know if you have any others to recommend! Hopefully over time, the Cornell twitter network will grow from these four.
What are you reading?
I had a series of interviews with Rob Ochshorn of Kitsch magazine, culminating in the production of an article titled About a Blog: How Elliott Bäck has established himself as a serious news source for the Cornell community. When I read it, it feels like an ego-piece, but Rob’s done an excellent job of distilling the fact and fiction of my blogging experience in the Cornell community. Probably, the most interesting thing I said to him was “Where I do real good analysis only a handful read it.” With this blog in particular, I receive around a thousand readers a day and make $.50, yet it’s the place where every post I write is meticulously researched and written. There’s no place for “linkwhoring” on a University themed blog.
Just over halfway through the article, Rob quotes the former EIC of the Cornell Daily Sun, Andy Guess:
“It shows you what a citizen-journalist can do with just a computer and no other credentials whatsoever,” Guess said. Bäck’s ability to connect real people and events to their ephemeral online parallels can certainly add whole new dimensions a story, as in the cases of Pearlstone and Shorey, but some of Bäck’s most interesting posts combine his curiosity with his formidable computer science background.
That’s more or less what I do. I find that my actually being a Cornell student, aside from spurring my interest in the topic, has very little to do with what I write here, most of which comes from online investigation. And, that is a bit of a sad fact. If you’re a Cornell student with some campus pictures, a decently written and factual rant, or an opinion on the administration, you should send me an email and I’d be more than happy to publish you here. Even if you disagree with things I’ve written, I’m of the “more opinions the merrier” camp.
My personal favorite section is “Strong Response,” which details the controversial nature of what I write, and the responses I receive. From student deaths and sex offenders to slope day, it seems almost everything of interest to me offends someone at Cornell University. You’ll also find I’m not always right, either:
And when Bäck discovered and reported on the Slope Day performers, he also claimed to have discovered their set lists. In fact the songs he found were just songs that the artists were famous for, not songs to be performed, and his mistake was quickly pointed out in his comments first by a skeptical reader and then by the Vice Chair of the Slope Day Programming Board.
When I wrote about the official slope day bands, in my tired state I confused a suggested listening list with the lineup, and was quickly corrected. That’s exactly why I have comments–for when I screw up!
However, while there are hundreds of blogs by Cornell students, there are only a handful of blogs about Cornell. If you run a Cornell-related blog, or are a Cornell student with a blog and an RSS feed, leave a note in the comments. I’m thinking pulling together a 9rules-esque CU aggregator might be useful.
Ojos Inc, Again
You probably remember the old Ojos Inc scandal, where I reposted originally a job posting of theirs and an engineer called me at home to tell me to take it down. Well, Ojos Inc is now Riya, and the saga continues. I wouldn’t bring this up myself, but a reader just emailed me to ask:
I’ve been absolutely amused by your sleuthing work on Ojos. Did you ever get to the bottom of it, e.g. the answer to why they were so concerned about removing most information of their needs from the web? Its been an interesting story to follow, especially as someone who does know the CEO and the great publicity he’s generated basically through episodes like this. I wonder if it was a calculated attempt to build mystique at the best computer science programs to make their recruiting efforts easier.
I’d love to know how this ended up. It has definitely taken a life of its own in the blog world, consistent with the other “PR” efforts of the firm!
My take on the issue is not really that they wanted to generate good (or bad) PR, but probably that they really were in stealth mode and didn’t want information about their jobs out on the web. Unfortunately, as any new firm should know, once facts are in the hands of the public, they will stay that way. Any attempt to stifle speech will only hurt your startup’s name and reputation.
Bloggers are unforgiving. Give them facts, not delete orders.
