On Aug. 30 I wrote a column called “What’s on your schedule?” It covered one of our first year experience (FYE) seminars, taught by Prof. Michael Perlstein. As a follow-up, some of my students have asked me to share information on a special event related to Prof. Perlstein’s class. So I’m turning over today’s blog space to the Venue Team:

After a triumphant Networking Night at Loyola, students from Strategic Event Planning and Management have been working on various projects for their final. One group of students has been working closely with Prof. Perlstein’s freshman seminar class to bring a unique production called Voices of Innocence to Loyola’s campus on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009, in Monroe Hall’s Nunemaker Auditorium at 6:30 p.m.

Organized by Resurrection After Exoneration (RAE), Voices of Innocence helps RAE raise general public awareness on facts and statistics for exonerees. In Voices of Innocence, four exonerees perform monologues that detail their lives and experiences in their own words. These personal stories expound upon the impact that wrongful incarceration has on an individual and offer the audience a picture of the exonerees as complete individuals, and not just victims.  The production also serves as a fundraiser, which helps RAE provide services, such as housing and job assistance, for exonerees.

Louisiana has one of the highest per capita exoneration rates in the nation. When released, exonerees typically only receive a bag of their possessions and $10 from the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections. They have often been denied job training, literacy classes and GED preparation while in jail.  Often, exonerees have lost all of their possessions, housing, loved ones and any connection they formerly had to their community.

To date, Voices of Innocence has been performed at several public venues and universities nationwide. Most notably, Voices of Innocence has been performed at Harvard University, Tulane University and the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana.

RAE’s mission for social justice coincides with Loyola’s mission statement, which pledges to cultivate students to be with and for others.

For more information on RAE and VOI, contact Ora Nitkin-Kaner, program manager at (504) 943-1905 or visit RAE’s Web site at www.rae.org.

Tickets for this event will be $5 for students with a valid ID and $7 for general admission. Presale tickets for a discounted price of $3 for students with a valid ID and $5 general admission will be available on sale in Loyola’s Danna Center from noon until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

You might not have heard of Voice of the Wetlands, a homegrown group – to be precise, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – dedicated to the preservation of one of Louisiana’s most valuable – and endangered – resources. But the members of the fall 2009 Writing for Public Relations class (CMMN A317) do. They’ve taken on VOW as their semester client and are working to develop media materials that will help VOW spread the word about the need for aggressive action regarding the wetlands.

Jodi Forte, Garlyn Gryder, Dominic Moncada, Kelsey Morris, Constance Thompson, Marimar Velez and Dominique Webb can quote statistics and present facts about the wetlands and its impact on people, property and prosperity in Louisiana and beyond.

Here are a few things they can tell you about VOW in particular and the wetlands in general:

Tab Benoit, the Grammy-nominated singer, founded VOW to raise awareness of and interest in the fate and future of the wetlands. Tab, a native of Baton Rouge and long-time resident of Houma, determined that VOW would be a different kind of environmental group, one that brings together not only those passionate about environmental issues but folks from the communities that are part of the wetlands and, perhaps surprisingly to the public, the oil and gas industry.

Louisiana’s coastal area produces $67 billion in oil and gas annually. That fuels not just Louisiana or even the Gulf Coast but much of the nation. Louisiana ranks first in the country in crude oil and second in natural gas production.

VOW partnered with Music for Relief to “Send Dirt.” For each text of the “dirt” to 90999, a $5 donation is made to the cause.

The Mississippi River controlls 2/3 of the USA’s watershed, based in the wetlands, and Louisiana’s commercial fishing comprises 1/4 of the nation’s total fishing industry.

VOW sponsors the University of VOW, an interactive discussion on the need for awareness and cooperation among all the interested parties. Tab Benoit travels to college campuses to get students fired up about the issues, often showing “Hurricane on the Bayou” and singing to bring attention to the cause.

More than 2 million people (more than 47% of Louisiana’s population) live in Louisiana’s coastal parishes. This important geographical area provides storm protection for about 25% of the waterborne trade.

And the list goes on. The class members work every day to learn as much as they can so they can help VOW speak for and about the residents (both human and non), the industries and the concerns related to the wetlands.

One of the projects the class will pass on to VOW executive director Christina Kogos, a Loyola alum, at the end of the semester is an on-campus event that will bring the University of VOW to Loyola. It’s called “The Wetlands - A Disappearing Act.”  Watch for details.

If you want to know more about VOW, visit www.voiceofthewetlands.org.

After an initial look at the newest version of the Google Book Search Project settlement (others have reviewed it in much more detail than I), my impression is that this project is going to be much less than it could have been.

The class of books included in the newest version of the settlement, for instance, seems much narrower than that in the original project goal: to search the world’s books.  And the negotiations regarding access to “orphan” works remain muddled through the necessity of dealing with an arbitrary group of rightsholders created out of nothingness by the Author’s Guild and the Association of American Publishers.  Much more broadly, however, I am disappointed that current copyright and antitrust laws intended to create and promote social value seem to have become, in practice, impediments to achieving that value.

Much of the controversy surrounding and delaying the resolution of the Google Book Search Project concerns revenues:  either who will receive what portions of revenues from digital books right now, or who will receive what portions of those revenues in the future.  While such concerns are not unimportant, they are also, given current circumstances, indeterminable.  The future of the information marketplace is clearly a target that is moving too rapidly for lawyers and their briefcases to hit.  Yet, even with the consequences of their aim uncertain, the slings and arrows of legalities continue to fly.

Here’s basically what I want to know:  If new technology allows me to search the world’s books, why can’t I?

Could someone at the Department of Justice explain that to me?

The recent PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) banquet might have been mistaken for a Loyola mass communication reunion.  Lots of folks in attendance were alums, with a few current students, faculty and staff adding to the head count.

Loyola pretty much hogged the limelight at the banquet, beginning with a welcoming speech by PRSA New Orleans president and Loyola grad John Deveney. His agency, Deveney Communication, walked away with a handful of awards.  Jeffrey Ory, a past president of PRSA and another Loyola grad, announced that John has been named a PRSA fellow, the first from the NOLA area.

We heard from alum Christine Albert as she accepted a number of awards for Touro.

The Loyola 2009 Bateman team added to their list of accolades. Sure, they’re the current national champs,  continuing Loyola’s tradition of success in the PRSSA competition. And now the team – composed of Janine Sheedy (account executive),  Vicki Voelker, Ashley Sutton, Sarah Mackota and Heather Miranne – has a Silver Anvil award for their campaign, “The Bling Starts Here.”

Lourdes Fulton, a current Loyola PR major, won the PRSA-Nia Robertson scholarship. Robertson, who died in 2007, received a master’s degree in mass communication in 2004 from Loyola.

The crowd was on their feet as Dr. Cathy Rogers was given the Preeminent Plate Spinner Award. Dr. Rogers, head of the PR sequence and adviser to the Loyola PRSSA chapter and the Bateman team, has in the past received the PRSA New Orleans Great Ball of Fire Award.  Her latest honor is one given to “a practitioner and leader who goes beyond their work and makes a difference,” according to John Deveney. Of course, those of us who work with her know she’s a genius at keeping those plates spinning, and she makes us look good by association!

Congratulations to all the PRSA award winners, with special kudos to the Loyola associates who continue to make us proud.

1.  At the core of digital communications is something called packet-switching.

In brief, packet-switching takes messages that were once indivisible and divides those messages into tiny little “packets.”  Once messages are in these packets, it’s lots easier to send those messages over telecommunications networks, like, for instance, the internet.

The Sandman is the personification of packet-switching.  (That’s the Sandman in Marvel Comics, by the way, not the Sandman in the Roy Orbison song).  The Sandman can dissolve into little particles of sand — packets — and these little particles of sand can then go wherever they want to go.

2.  In the olden days when I bought a newspaper…

…I got news and sports and editorials and this and that and (once upon a time) lots and lots of advertising.  Somewhere in there was probably what I wanted to read — but it was locked inside an indivisible newspaper package.

Currently, when I get on the packet-switched internet and Google the news, I don’t have to deal with newspaper packages. Instead, I deal with news “packets.”  Maybe one of those packets, for instance, is the New York Times.

And then, when I go to the NYT website, I find more little packets — headlines, they call them.  So I click on a headline, and I read what I want to read.

And I say yay for the NYT, because I didn’t have to buy a package to read a packet.

3.  Some people think newspapers are packet-switched too much.

These people think the NYT is nuts.

These people would like for the NYT to continue to sell you a newspaper package — because that’s what newspapers have sold you for a long time, and that’s what some people are still trying to sell you.

4.  Some other people think newspapers aren’t packet-switched enough.

If the NYT can “packetize” their news, these other people ask, why can’t the NYT packetize the price of their news?

If I only read Malcolm Gladwell’s articles in the New Yorker, for instance, why shouldn’t I pay just for those articles instead of paying for the whole New Yorker magazine package?

“Packetized” payments for individual articles — or even individual words — are called micro-payments.

And some people think micropayments are a really good idea for newspapers like the NYT and magazines like the New Yorker.

Others don’t.

5.  But, before the Sandman becomes the Micropayment Man…

…he gets to bust up Rupert Murdoch and the newspaper packaging cartel.

Shouldn’t take long.

With all the rain we’ve been having (30 consecutive days, at last count), I’ve had quite a few days of wanting to just lay on the couch and do nothing. So I got to wondering, “What do other people do on rainy days? Is everyone as lethargic as I am?”

So I conducted a completely unscientific, totally unreliable survey that asked the question, “What’s your idea of the perfect way to spend a rainy day?” My respondents were whoever was in the hall when I passed out the papers. (My thanks to all those who filled out the green sheets!) Here’s what I learned:

Watching TV is a popular pastime. But nobody watches Masterpiece Theatre or the History Channel. Sure, some people listed TLC, Bravo and the reality realm (cooking, decorating, fashion). But most of the favorite rainy-day viewing centered around sitcoms, which makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. A rainy day is sooo depressing; laughing makes it better. So it’s no mystery that responses included SpongeBob SquarePants, Sex & the City, The Simpsons and Gossip Girl.

Movies are also a popular rainy-day activity. Now that Netflix has movies you can watch instantly, on TV or computer, you don’t even have to wait for them to be delivered by your friendly mail carrier. What movies do people watch, you ask? Well, the comedies rule there too. Disney is a big favorite; that’s no surprise.  What lifts a sagging spirit more than singing candlesticks or dancing dwarfs?

It wasn’t all sweetness and light, though. Casablanca, Indecent Proposal and Fiddler on the Roof made the list too.

Some people actually read on rainy days. Responses varied from The Pelican Brief by John Grisham and The Stand by Stephen King to a collection of short stories by Shirley Ann Grau and trashy novels.

In all fairness, the people answering the survey questions were mass comm majors, so it’s not so bizarre that most of their answers centered around media activities. (In all honesty, most of the questions dealt with media anyway!)

As you can imagine, SLEEP was a very popular response. And seriously, isn’t it really the perfect way to while away a day that’s too nasty to venture out into?

What is New Orleans? The Center for the Study of New Orleans wants you to know.

If you haven’t heard of the Center for the Study of New Orleans it might be because it’s new. And when you’re looking at a city that’s nearly 300 years old, there’s a lot of ground to cover.

You’d think studying New Orleans would be a no-brainer.  We don’t need passports or lengthy plane rides.  No booking a hotel room months in advance.  And maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we believe the only things worth studying are ancient and away from us.

Well, Dr. Leslie Parr begs to differ. In fact, she’s said, “New Orleans is one of the few cities in the world that can sustain such intense study.” And aren’t we lucky? We’re already here!

Dr. Parr, director of the Center, is well known to those of us in the School of Mass Communication. She’s our photojournalism faculty member and holds the Shawn M. Donnelley for Non-Profit Communications professorship. Through her efforts, the Center has become a reality and will host its second event Wednesday, Oct. 21.

In trying to determine “What is New Orleans?” a distinguished panel – moderated by Loyola English professor and playwright John Biguenet  – will ask, “How do you define a city?” While we might all have our own answers to that, the Center has invited Susan Saulny, a New York Times reporter and New Orleans native, Larry Powell, professor of history at Tulane University, and Richard Campanella, a Tulane University geographer, to weigh in the past and present, the geography and people that make up the Crescent City.

Like the Center’s first program, “An evening of Jazz and History” held Sept. 3, this event will take place in Nunemaker Auditorium (Monroe Hall) and is free and open to the public. It starts at 7 p.m.

But the Center’s work won’t stop there. Already there are plans for a third program, “New Orleans in the ‘60s” scheduled for Jan. 20. And on tap is a new minor for students wanting to take a more in-depth academic approach to learning about New Orleans.

If you want to know more about  the Center for the Study of New Orleans just visit www.loyno.edu/csno. And we’ll see you Oct. 21. BYOB (Bring Your Own Beads).

Anyone hanging around the School of Mass Communication over the past few weeks has heard about Networking Night at Loyola, right? If you haven’t, you probably aren’t spending much time on the 3rd floor of the Communications/Music complex. Networking Night at Loyola is an opportunity for mass comm students to meet and mingle with media and communication professionals from the New Orleans area. While its intended purpose is to facilitate connections for possible internships and mentorships, it’s a great opportunity for students to find out who’s who in the media world and develop relationships that might eventually lead to jobs.

Networking Night at Loyola is important for students looking for spring and summer internships. As the internship coordinator for the SMC, I encourage anyone even remotely considering the possibility of an upcoming internship to stop by Studio A on the 4th floor on Tuesday, Oct. 13 (6-8 p.m.) to meet, greet and eat. (Yes, there’s food. There’s ALWAYS food!)Wear your business casual, bring resumes and get your 30-second elevator speech ready.

Don’t know what that is? According to Barbara Gibson, ABC, a communications consultant in the UK, a 30-second elevator speech is two or three sentences “that describe who you are, what you do and the kind of contacts you hope to make.” That way you can introduce yourself to those who are there are find good interns, mentees or possibly even coworkers.

Networking Night at Loyola is also an opportunity for students in this semester’s Strategic Event Planning and Management class (CMMN A394-002) to show off their event planning skills. The 17 members of the class – who come from Loyola and Tulane, mass comm and other majors – have worked since the first day of the semester on planning and executing this event. Any one of those 17 will be quick to tell you that event planning is fun, but it’s hard work, too. And they’re being graded on their performance at the event, as well as their planning and the post-event follow up.

Everyone involved in Networking Night at Loyola is looking forward to a great turnout. We hope to see you there.