JOE PATERNO, LONG TIME COACH AT PENN STATE, DEAD AT 85

STATE COLLEGE, PA – January 22, 2012 – Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 until 2011 died of lung cancer Sunday at age 85.

Paterno died at 9:25 a.m. of “metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung.” as detailed in a statement released by Mount Nittany Medical Center. Surrounded by family at the time of his death, Paterno had an exceptional career which included more wins than anyone in major college football. He won 409 games and took the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl games and two national championships. More than 250 of the players he coached were drafted to the NFL. (espn.com)

"He will go down as the greatest football coach in the history of the game," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said after his former team, the Florida Gators, beat Penn State 37-24 in the 2011 Outback Bowl. (espn.com)

His family, though requesting privacy, released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death:

"His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled…..He died as he lived," the statement said. "He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community." (espn.com)

Paterno’s career ended controversially after he was fired from Penn State following the aftermath of a child sex abuse scandal.

For inquiries, please contact Erika Gore at erika.gore@snhu.edu

Social media tools

A few social media tools I've tried or participated in include blogging, mobile, online collaboration tools, photosharing, social networking sites, social bookmarking, Twitter, video games, texting, and RSS feeds. For this specific post, I've decided to post examples of my engagement in blogging, video sharing/video games, and social networking. The links to my examples of each are below:

• Social Networking: my LinkedIn profile
• Video Games/Videosharing: my gaming page on YouTube
• Blogging: Rawr Nail Cosmetics - the blog that supports my home-made nail polish hobby/venture

In my opinion, the social media resources that would most impact audiences or be most successful are video sharing, mobile device integration, and a combination of RSS Feeds and social networking. I feel that social media is so big and encompassing now that it almost needs to be simplified and directly reach the audience rather than rely on them to identify or find what interests them. This is why mobile has been so successful, and continues to be, because it reached people in real time, wherever they are, no matter what they're doing.

I chose video sharing because individuals in general are bombarded by information and I've found that people are more apt to click on a video than they are to read through a full article or blog post. This helps cut out some of the noise, reduce the time commitment of the audience, and makes the content more relevant and direct. Society is becoming increasingly more visual so video sharing strongly supports that.

Lastly, I chose RSS feeds integrated with social networking. According to aids.org, 584 million people are using social networking each day. An RSS feed alone is a great strategy to deliver content and convey messages to audiences in real time and in a relevant manner, but integrating that with a "location" or "site" where they are inputting valuable information about their likes, dislikes, preferences, network, resources, etc. is only a huge benefit to not only the individuals included in the feed but the designer of the feed itself. Having access to this data will increase the ability for the feed to deliver targeted content to the audience but will also increase the level of use and visibility among audiences.