Social Media Working Group Act of 2015

*there are reference and investigation tools listed in the sidebar if  you wish to investigate this further. I'm only posting it because I know many of my readers are interested in this area of activity

Current, and In the Senate:

Passed House without amendment (02/02/2015)
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Social Media Working Group Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a social media working group (the Group) to provide guidance and best practices to the emergency preparedness and response community on the use of social media technologies before, during, and after a terrorist attack or other emergency.

Requires the Group to submit an annual report that includes: (1) a review of current and emerging social media technologies being used to support preparedness and response activities related to terrorist attacks and other emergencies; (2) a review of best practices and lessons learned on the use of social media during the response to terrorist attacks and other emergencies that occurred during the period covered by the report; (3) recommendations to improve DHS's use of social media for emergency management purposes, to improve public awareness of the type of information disseminated through social media and how to access such information during a terrorist attack or other emergency, and to improve information sharing among DHS and its components and among state and local governments; (4) a review of available training for government officials on the use of social media in response to a terrorist attack or other emergency; and (5) a summary of coordination efforts with the private sector to discuss and resolve legal, operational, technical, privacy, and security concerns.

ref:H.R.623
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/623/text

Eight Traits of the (dis)Informationalist

The author of this has a few other lists which make for interesting reading but not exactly scientific level of analysis. Still, since the web site that they were originally written for no longer exists and I can't seem to find contact for him right now, I felt they were too good as "points of interest" to let slip away completely. Also, the observations were interesting to me on other levels, and I'll be referring to these posts when I get around to indulging in those interest areas.

So, again, I didn't write these, nor is their posting on this blog a sign of condoning or agreeing with the body of information presented.

Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act -- All Student Data to be Accessable

Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act

Summary

The Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act would require the [State Board of Education/State Department of Education] to make publicly available an inventory and index of all data elements with definitions of individual student data fields currently in the statewide longitudinal data system

Discovering Mood and Feel through Grammar

Words fascinate me. They always have. If I never sold a article, or novel, I would still be a writer. What amazes me more, is the words we have to describe modes of speech/text.  Like when the restaurant host has reached the point that -- he doesn't care that this is your first date with the love of your life anymore, and comes to your table an hour and a half after he locked the door, to say "You need to leave in ten minutes, we have to close." That has a name. It's called a "boulomaic modality."

boulomaic modality
Definition - A type of modality that expresses what is possible or necessary given someone's desires.

And my recent interest:
Hendiadys: express a single idea by two nouns instead of a noun and its qualifier. The effect of this method is an amplification that adds force.

"He came despite the rain and weather."

-- Instead of --

"He came despite the rainy weather"

The first has a stronger sound. You don't want to use Adjectives anyway. Adjectives, especially the -ly words drag the story down. The sounds actually build up inside the mind like backwash, bogging everything to a dead crawl after a while. Though, to be honest that example has the draw back of sounding a little clunky, so the right words need to be found, and I advise reading your phrase out loud a few times so you can hear the tonality.

"The distinction and presence of the dignitary moved his audience."

By separating the term “distinctive presence” into “distinction and presence” we accentuate the adjective by transforming it into a noun, and giving the 'dignitary' a feeling of greater stature by the amplified feel of the hendiady -- kind of cool huh?

I began my career as a Copywriter under the rules:

1. The Theme: Should be based on two principles -- a man's interest in himself and his interest in other people. 
2. Headlines: "Wife fires cannon off Hitler's Bow" -- make it more interesting than that.
3. The Visualization: Visual yes, Emotional - a must. 
4. The Copy: The introduction can almost always be eliminated. Copy should fit space. It starts In-Action, and moves to the Call to Action without pause or distraction.
5. Adjectives: Once finish, go back and cut all the adjectives. 
6. A Purpose: Never write without knowing who you are selling to and why. No one buys nails. Ever. They buy a smile from their daughter when her picture is on the wall. Who the hell wants a nail?

But like the propaganda I've been discussing, Copy too has become stronger, more challenging and sexier than it was when I started 35 years ago. Details are the dwellings of devils, but we have to go in there none the less.

There are skills you simply have to acquire in today's massive text and content world of Internet and Social Media. Framing is one of them. We never thought about framing thirty-five years ago, but you have to catch your reader, and keep her attention. She's not easy to keep either. She's trained herself to scan thousands of words an evening. For a hesitant breath she will hover over your copy if it looks like you are interesting -- and within that hesitation you either catch her completely, or become invisible.

"Be bloody, bold, and resolute" (Macbeth)

Have to keep up with her expectations

orcid.org/0000-0001-7495-5377

Some thoughts on Political Details

Details, they say, are the dwellings of devils.

I'm always a little amazed at the "vital" particle -- and its slight stature compared to the body of work it brings to life. I have spent days in furious and obsessive search for that "detail" -- which once turned out to be a date:
It was 1987 when Eric discovered the nation was insane. 

and once, a flowering herb:

"Hemlock water dropwort" (Oenanthe crocata) the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. The candidate for the "sardonic herb," a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual killing of elderly people in pre-Roman Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, the herb was given to them as an intoxicant and once in the grip of the poison, they were dropped from a high rock or beaten to death. It was also said to cause rictus laughter from the victim before death.

-- that was such a cool find though.

Details. It is so little we need, but what we need is absolute.

Razor Ready to Parse and Diagnose A Propaganda Message

This article that we are going to take apart and explore is a good sample of the propaganda currently being pushed out into the Internet. It was published back in October, and it is in reference to the College Board Advanced Placement US History course.

The AP History course has had a consistent single complaint. Every year the teachers have voiced this complaint. For the last 20 years, History teachers across the nation told the College Board that the course was too stringently defined. There was no room in the AP Course for "Teaching." 

The course was laid out completely, with nearly an hour-by-hour description. The teacher's felt that they were unable to explore or contribute. "You didn't even need to be a teacher. A recording would have done," said one teacher.

In 2013 the crew at the College Board working on the AP US History, came up with an idea to solve this problem. They defined a Framework, which had in it the main ideas, the concepts and levels of expectation needed for the students in order to take the test with a reasonable chance of passing. 

There was no curriculum. 

The teacher would choose the material, and events of history to cover, as well the people of that era to explore. Everything would be covered by the teacher. Obviously, in order to explain this "building of curriculum" some "sample" data was required as "place holders" in the course manual. Larry Krieger saw his chance, claimed that the Sample Data was the True data, and began a Big Lie campaign in an attempt to get the AP to return to the previous format. 

Since this campaign is now mute, and everyone now understands the swindle by Larry Krieger, Jane Robins, Sandra Stotsky and James Milgram we can explore without controversy.

So, before you go further into this, please read this Overview.

To Verify the overview the College Board has published this document to clearly debunk the confusion spread by Larry Krieger, Jane Robins, Sandra Stotsky and James Milgram.

Once done, let's get into one of the Articles, which was posted as an Editorial on the AP History Problem. Oct 4, 2014