Newspaper Page Text
INSIDE MOREHOUSE, MAY 2011
KEEPING IT VIRTUAL
Just What Is ‘Going Viral’?
By VINCE BASKERVILLE
I f you’ve ever wondered what going viral’ really means, think about
Antoine Dodson.
He is the man whose responses to a reporter’s questions about the
attempted rape of his sister was turned into the “Bed Intruder Song,” an
auto-tuned, music video by the Gregory Brothers that became an Internet
cult classic.
Within 30 days, Dodson became a star, The Video had more than 10
million views on YouTube, and iTunes versions of the song and Dodson T-
shirts became big sellers.
Among the plethora of buzzwords regarding the Internet, the phras
es ‘going viral’ and Viral marketing’ are popular, but also abused in
many conversations. Most of the times the terms are used with loose, if
any, context.
The term is taken from the literal concept of a virus — its ability to
begin with a small footprint and become a widespread infection that
replicates itself rapidly. Viral applies this notion as taking some type of
promotional material and watching it grow feverishly through various
social network mediums, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo
and Digg.
Basically, going viral’ means the ability to spread awareness quickly -
no strategy meetings, media buys or special online advertising; just organ
ic viewership.
It also means surrendering control. There is no special formula for
creating instant viral hits. Organizations try different ways, but
whether they’re professionally polished, humorous videos, unpolished
“faux-personally” recorded videos or stunts, they usually fail.
For something to go viral, it must spread from each individual
voluntarily, be self-sustaining and spread without incentive. If you
have to spend more time on the project to promote its growth, it’s not
viral. If you’re paying influential people to help spread your ‘viral’
piece, it’s not viral.
If any of these are successful, what you have is a triumphant marketing
campaign - not viral marketing. However, if you can set it and forget it,
and if it spreads like the common cold, that is going viral.
After all, it worked for Antoine Dodson and the Gregory Brothers. ■
Vince Baskerville is the multimedia developer in the Office of Communications.
2011-12 Miss Maroon and White and Her Court
The newly crowned Miss Maroon and White, Lauren Wicker,
an economics major from Stone Mountain, Ga., poses with
her court: 1st Attendant Ashley Calloway, an economics
major from Los Angeles, and 2nd Attendant Jessica Williams,
a political science major from Baltimore, Md. The ladies, all
rising seniors at Spelman College, will represent Morehouse
for the 2011 -2012 academic year.
Morehouse is
Michael Myers, project director in the Office of Campus Operations
and Sandra VariTravis, the College’s environmental and health safe
ty officer, write about the Colleges environmental efforts.
n February 21, 2010, President Robert Franklin ’75
signed the American College and University
Presidents Climate Commitment, aligning
Morehouse with more than 600 institutions committed to
reducing carbon emissions. Morehouse is to develop and
adhere to a comprehensive plan towards climate neutrali
ty. The College must initiate at least two tangible actions
to reduce our green house gas emissions. We must report
our Green House Gas Inventory plan and periodic
progress to the Association for the Advancement of
Sustainability in Higher Education.
The momentum is building, our plan is in motion and
with the help of the campus community, we look to
reduce our carbon emissions 20 percent by 2015, aiming
for complete climate neutrality (having a net zero carbon
footprint) no later than 2040.
Leading efforts like the carbon reduction plan, the
Morehouse College Sustainability Committee looks to
raise environmental awareness, promote best practices
and evaluate programming implemented by the College.
The Sustainability Committee works with groups across
campus in researching, implementing and evaluating sus
tainable energy and recycling programs that lower energy
consumption, waste accumulation and effects of green
house gases. These programs, managed by our
GOING GREEN
Environmental Health and Safety Officer, Sandra
VanTravis, require coordination campus-wide, as well as
daily support from student government.
Creating a sustainable environment requires an
understanding of the roles our natural resources play in
improving our daily lives. The Sustainability Committee
will lead our campus in a sustainable transformation,
promote and support sustainable initiatives while serving
as a resource, and ensure sustainable practices become
the standard. Comprised of students, faculty and staff,
the Committee looks to meet the College’s Strategic
Planning Goal of investing in a greener campus, creating
a culture of environmental responsibility to produce real
and lasting change.
We want Morehouse to be a leader and model of sus
tainability among all colleges and universities.
The Morehouse Green Building Policy requires the
College to follow Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) quality standards in all new construction,
in the hopes of one day having a campus comprised of all
LEED certified facilities. The Ray Charles Performing
Arts Center is our first attempt at environmentally friend
ly development, featuring locally manufactured materials,
installing high-efficiency fixtures and planting low main
tenance vegetation for water efficient landscaping.
Morehouse has committed to improving campus
wide energy efficiency. We are managing efforts to
install energy efficient light bulbs, heating, ventilating
and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and windows
throughout campus. We completed HVAC upgrades in
at least seven buildings and identified potential cost and
energy savings throughout the remaining buildings.
The Office of Campus Operations, in partnership
with Dining Services, recognized a reduction of water
usage upon implementing conservation efforts like
installing energy efficient dishwashers and tray-less serv
ing of food. The installation of a new ventilation system
in Graves Hall speaks to our efforts to improve the
indoor air quality of our buildings.
With the combination of our composting and single
stream recycling programs, the campus has reduced accu
mulated waste of 45,000 pounds, while composting over
eight tons of food wastes that are used by local farmers
and manufactures of gardening products.
By adopting environmentally friendly policies and
committing to sustainable efforts, these projects will lead
to the sustainable transformation President Franklin envi
sioned and the environmentally friendly campus commu
nity defined in the College’s strategic plan. ■
: \