• Get a good look at our Throwback Thursday photos and share your memories each week on Facebook. Who knows? You might even be in one.
• Follow facebook.com/oswegoalumni for the latest news, discussions and events.
• Share your interests on Twitter by tagging tweets with #oswegochat. A growing Twitter list of alumni and the “SUNY Oswego Alumni Daily” digest show you what’s trending among your fellow graduates.
• Get your own conversation started by tagging tweets with #oswego and your class year (e.g. #oswego03 for Class of 2003 or #oswego88 for the Class of 1988.)
• Find the Oswego Alumni Association @oswegoalumni and drop us a line!
• Post a job, share an article or start a discussion with our LinkedIn groups.
• Visit linkd.in/oswegoalumni or our exclusive Graduates Of the Last Decade version at linkd.in/oswegold

Oswego teammates, from left, Nicholas Poorman ’12, Joe Mirizio ’12, Armando Franco M ’13, Joshua Primrose ’12 and Steven Pomerville ’12 took fourth place during the Startup Weekend business competition in November.

The team earned fourth place for developing a plan to start a company called SpecialMenu with a built-from-scratch mobile Web app that finds specials at

nearby restaurants. They were among 17 teams taking part in Startup Weekend, an intense 54-hour business planning and entrepreneurial training event that took place Nov. 4 to 6 in Syracuse.

“We made a business plan, created a presentation and developed a working prototype for our app all in that time,” said computer science major Nicholas Poorman ’12.

As one of the top five, the startup has been promised space in the Tech Garden, which offers offices and conference spaces for developing businesses.

— Samantha Yeh ’12

Oswego’s School of Communication, Media and the Arts is offering a new interdisciplinary graduate certificate in integrated media and social networks.

Courses such as “Video Game Theory and Analysis,” taught by Ulises Mejias — shown here competing with broadcasting major Kelly Fitzsimmons ’11 — are among the options in a new graduate certificate program in integrated media and social networks.

Designed to help professionals gain greater experience and understanding of a burgeoning field and to help Oswego
students make themselves more marketable, the program brings together work in broadcasting, graphic design, human-computer interaction and new CMA courses on integrated media.

The goal was to develop a program where people could gain skills, through theory and practice, in such areas as social network communication, interactive Web interfaces and other emerging areas spanning disciplines, CMA Dean Fritz Messere ’71, M ’76 said.

“We have two tracks available,” Messere said. “One is more rooted in the technical landscape, design and social networks. The other focuses more on best practices and practical applications in areas like multimedia design, digital illustration and video game theory.”

“I’m hoping this certificate will give our graduates a competitive edge,” said Ulises Mejias of the communication studies faculty. “The point is to prepare them to be more than just web designers, content writers, video producers . . . to help them think about applying integrated media purposefully. In this kind of job market, technical skills are not enough. You also need to demonstrate you can think critically.”

Mejias noted that, whether students are hoping to get a job in the new media field or build the next big social network or application, the program’s focus on ethics and privacy makes it stand out.

— Tim Nekritz M ’05

The Oswego Alumni Association has begun offering more of our programs via social networks and through webcasts to reach more of our alumni who cannot attend an event on campus in person.

Oswego Alumni Association Executive Director Betsy Oberst

We have tweeted about Reunion Weekend — and other topics of interest to our alumni — on Twitter; we have networked with graduates on our Oswego Alumni LinkedIn group and we have connected with you on our Oswego Alumni Facebook page.

But, as is the case with so many things, there is the expression, “Everything old is new again”! This past summer, my husband, Jerry ’77, and I had the opportunity, while on a visit to Washington DC, to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History with The Fund for Oswego National Chair Jack James ’62.

As we toured the exhibit, I was struck by the descriptions in the Human Origins exhibit: “… Building social networks helped our ancestors meet the daily challenges of their environments … Expanding social networks led, eventually, to the complex social lives of modern humans.”

“By 130,000 years ago, groups who lived [186 miles] apart were exchanging resources. Social networks continued to expand and become more complex.”

So … everything old is new again — even 130,000 years ago humans were establishing social networks. And now our networks extend to Oswego alumni and friends across the globe, not just 186 miles away!

Beginning in 2011, look for information about our upcoming Sesquicentennial in 2011 as we begin the celebration of our college’s rich 150-year history. There will be special communications and events on and off campus as well as on the Web. And, I’m guessing as we celebrate the legacy of our founder, Edward Austin Sheldon, we will find once again that everything old is new again!

Even though you can stay connected to Oswego through all of our social networks and on the Web, please come back and see us soon in person. You can check out all of the amazing new improvements on campus.

— Betsy Oberst, Oswego Alumni Association Executive Director

1. Using blogs as living, breathing resources for the stuff you love.

shuffler.fm

People are calling it a combination of StumbleUpon and Pandora for music nerds.

Shuffler FM is a fun way to navigate through thousands of music blogs. The web is your player and bloggers are your DJs. Double bonus: You can share any song that you like on Facebook and Twitter.

2. Bloggers becoming gurus.

bajillionhits.biz

Comedian, seasoned blogger and Internet enthusiast Alex Blagg has founded a new digital agency and he is making quite the splash. By poking fun at the thing he loves/hates the most (the web and the people who work on it), his company, Bajillion Hits, might be the future of digital marketing, in my opinion.

3. Google is going to take over the world and I love them for it.

goo.gl

google.com/reader/play

They just made their own URL shortener public. Much like bit.ly, but with the ability to sync up with any Google Analytics accounts you may have. Viva la Google!

And if you are obsessed with your Google Reader, but have little to no time every day to sift through [choices], this is an amazing solution courtesy of Google, Google Play. It’s like Google Reader Express!

— Rommel Wood ’07

Rommel Wood '07 works in social media marketing.

Today she’s on the cutting edge of technology in a field best described as social media marketing.

Wood spends a good portion of her work days logged on to Facebook and Twitter, but you can be sure she’s not tending a virtual farm or sounding off on the day’s “trending topics.”

Wood is a social media planner and what she does online — working with various companies on their digital image — is strictly business. Her employer, GyroHSR, is a primarily business-to-business marketing agency specializing in Web 2.0 strategies.

“I’m looking for something that is a predictor: ‘OK, I see a lot of people are updating from their phones, maybe I should get that app and see what it’s all about,’” explains Wood, who got her start as the social media eyes and ears of the Showtime cable network. “People are using this for a reason. How can I connect that app to a brand that is trying to get its message out in a unique way?”

Social media has changed the way people — lots of people — live, learn and work in a relatively small period of time, says Dr. Ulises Mejias, assistant professor of communication studies.

“Before, perhaps, it used to be thought of as the domain of young people,” he says. “It’s really become a much more general social phenomenon.”

“It’s a revolution that’s here to stay,” says Mejias, whose “Introduction to New Media” course debuted this semester.

Touting millions of users and making just as many headlines, Facebook and Twitter have emerged as the most visible social networking services. But, there are many others out there, says Wood.

MORE: Three things to love about the Web

Essentially, they are all platforms that allow people to share cool stuff — either content or thoughts — with other people, like friends, family, fellow fans of said stuff and even professional peers. It’s also becoming a great marketing tool.

“Social media’s kind of a question mark right now and people are still skeptical,” Wood says. “I think it’s really important that brands start using this space with more purpose.

“Clients are curious and they want to know what best practices are,” she adds.

The Oswego communication studies major broke into the social media niche with Showtime, where she used blogs and other digital spaces to collect fan feedback about the premium cable channel’s shows. She also maintained more than a dozen Facebook pages and Twitter feeds for the network.

It sparked a personal obsession of sorts with being connected, she said. Today the girl who was a “late adopter” of mobile technology now monitors her iPhone constantly.

“It’s that weird kind of tribal need to know what’s going on,” Wood explains. “I think it’s become an occupational hazard.”

But maintaining her own online presence and embracing new technology has helped further her young career.

“It’s all about knowing how to use it,” says Wood. For example, she uses Twitter — a micro-blogging service that allows you to share links and thoughts in 140 characters or less — and sites like Tumblr — an emerging site that allows users to share various pages they find interesting with others — as listening tools.

“I’m passionate about a lot of things, this lets me [connect with them],” says Wood. “I love to absorb information, I love researching things and understanding why and how. I always have to know a little bit more.”

For consumers, that means staying closer to and knowing more about their favorite brands. With Facebook fan pages becoming a given in any marketing strategy, Wood finds ways to make the most effective use of them and the numerous other tools constantly coming on line.

“Mobile and iPad technology are huge points of interest for marketers right now,” says Wood. It’s the ubiquity of such technology that is blurring the line between digital and traditional marketing.

“I’m proud of my field,” she says. “I want to make a name for myself in this field. I want to be a pioneer.”

— Shane M. Liebler