Industry Group Sponsors College Course To Create Fake Blog 124
Scott Jaschik writes "At Hunter College, professors are debating the ethics of a course in which an industry group paid for a class to develop a fake student who would write a fake blog to discourage other students from buying knockoff products. The controversy involves both commercial interference with academic freedom and the ethics of 'guerilla marketing.'"
An 'actual' fake blog? (Score:1)
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Fake Blog, Fake Student- (Score:2, Redundant)
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Re:Fake Blog, Fake Student- (Score:4, Funny)
Dropped some whitewash in my eye
I'm a big kid, I won't cry
I'm just glad elephants can't fly.
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White dust the poor rich Barney lay its eggs in the eyre? HONK Delay. You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
Ref: soup-through-nose computer humour from the Nixon Administration - punch-card era stuff, remarkably visionary. Firesign Theatre, "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus". Very strongly recommended.
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Re:Fake Blog, Fake Student- (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a problem that's crept up on them for the last few years. Frankly, I'm shocked that corporations are struggling to look authentic and original.
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Which is pretty funny considering what a bunch of sheep the youth demographic is.
Re:Fake Blog, Fake Student- (Score:5, Interesting)
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Somewhere in there is a good joke, but I'll leave that to those whippersnappers messin' around on my lawn.
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Respectfully, I disagree. I think they are more sheep-like and that their "entitled" attitude stems from that sheep-like lack of critical thought. They have been completely sold on being consumer entities and not having to work to get the consumer items they want.
Re:Fake Blog, Fake Student- (Score:4, Insightful)
You two probably have different personal experiences with "youth demographics" as well.
Personally, I'm 23. I have a full time job, pay for school on the side, and pay my own mortgage. While I think some commercials are funny (Chuck Norris Old Spice comes to mind), I almost never buy that product. Most of my friends feel the same way.
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Actually, I was really referring to all of the above. I'm a jaded, cynical old fart of 41.
"Personally, I'm 23. I have a full time job, pay for school on the side, and pay my own mortgage. While I think some commercials are funny (Chuck Norris Old Spice comes to mind), I almost never buy that product. Most of m
Re:Fake Blog, Fake Student- (Score:5, Funny)
Once they work out how to fake authenticity, they'll crack the youth demographic wide open.
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Oh come on now, let's be serious. Any youth who is original is picked on by the rest of the herd. Anyone who displays product labels prominently as a means of self expression is not being unique, no matter how "authentic" all the other youth claim it to be. The youth demographic is all about peer pressure and fitting in with a group, even for the statistical outliers (goths, emos, hippies, punks, and other counter-culture). T
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Seriously. Once you can fake authenticity, you've got it made.
(Apologies to George Burns.)
Maybe this was a class about irony (Score:5, Funny)
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Most of them have already been employed.
They're all over in this [slashdot.org] discussion explaining how Vista isn't really slow and annoying.
What a screw up. (Score:4, Insightful)
I love the brag [iacc.org]. The Industry Conclusion is correct, though not the way they want it to be.
Conclusion:
The campaign will live beyond the event as the Web sites will remain live, and students will be reminded by the giveaways to Break the Chain of harmful of harmful events that can result from counterfeiting.
They are going to have a hard time living this one down. Fake blogs, with more than 300 myspace friends, including Justin Timberlake! What they have managed to do is indelibly link their brands to fake. Hyped, expensive fake regardless of real quality. How do they expect anyone to trust them again? Their stuff is better why? Because they spend money on BS like this? Because the "real" stuff comes from a sweat shop with a sharper whip? It's hard to imagine a better example of the harm imaginary property does and they festering pile of lies that supports it.
Well, they now admit it (Score:5, Interesting)
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Um... I don't think that's a persona...
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I won't get that damn song [lyricsfreak.com] out of my head all afternoon now, you insensitive clod!
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Oh, my, god. "Heidi", look at her "counterfeit product". ... "poor"!
It is so "fake". *scoff* She looks like,
one of those "stereotypical group" girlfriends.
But, you know, who understands those "stereotypical group"? *scoff*
They only talk to her, because,
she looks like a total prostitute, 'kay?
I mean, her "counterfeit product", is just so "fake".
I can't believe it's just so "low quality", it's like,
out there, I mean - gross. Look!
She's just so
I like big "knockoffs" and I can not lie
You other "slashdotters" can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an "counterfeit product"
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung, wanna pull out your "trademark"
'Cause you notice that "counterfeit product" was "copied"
Deep in the jeans she's wearing
I'm hooked and I can't stop staring
Oh baby, I wanna get with you
And take your picture
My "lawyers" tried to warn me
But that "counterfeit product" you got makes me so horny
This Public Service Message brought to you by the Nudist Front Group Foundation to Stop Stealing the ideas of others by wearing clothing, or by making clothing, for that matter.
Ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
Counterfeiting of goods does suck, but this does not seem to be the way to get people on your side...
Do as I say, not as I do (Score:3, Informative)
Ho hum. Just another case of corporate hypocrisy, move along, move along....
OUTRAGE! (Score:5, Funny)
Educational Standards? (Score:3, Insightful)
If students are so dumb that they need to be told basic smarts by a blog (fake or otherwise) then they should not be in University.
Re:Educational Standards? (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps you are referring to a willingness to choose the "real" product over the knockoff. Here you are on unstable ground. In some cases (heart surgery, car parts, etc), the quality of the product is not immediately visible to the buyer and can't be divined by inspection. In that case, there is a strong argument to be made that avoiding knockoff products is good sense. You can't eyeball a hydraulic line to see if it will fail catastrophically. In the case of DVD's, CD's and purses, the need is less severe. There isn't a buyer safety issue. if your knockoff version of Rush Hour XXVII sucks, then it isn't the end of the world. the people who suffer are the industry (because they can't sell you a copy of something you already have) so it is THEIR interest that is being protected here, not yours.
Which part of this is common sense?
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Sure. The knockoff is cheaper.
Everything else is knowing when it pays to spend more and get quality. People generally know what is and is not worth paying more for -- and your examples to the contrary are things they have no control over (because they're paying someone else to fix their brakes, or because their health insurance w
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Can you tell me the difference between a knockoff of windows XP and the real thing?
Bad example. "Counterfeit" copies of Windows are (almost always*) simply "unlicensed" copies (mistakenly called "pirated") and are identical to the real ones. The only difference being Microsoft and retailers did not authorize their distribution and get money off them.
* It's possible for counterfeiters to change the Windows CD producing a non-identical copy. I can think of no good reason for this other than allowing them to add their own advertising, spyware or such nastiness to the junk Microsoft puts
Why (Score:1)
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If I had to choose between this class and Intermediate Macroeconomics as a filler, I would probably choose this course.
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I never understood students who choose filler. There are so many interesting courses, I was struggling with fitting them all in. With the exception of a foreign language, I never had to take any class I did not want to take. And yes, a foreign language is a good thing to know, but I found it extraordinarily difficult.
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1. Prereq's: I don't want to take into to biology in order to take a zoology course. I don't want to take (this is probably a bette
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The trick most people miss out on is planning ahead. Start on day one with the list of classes you need to take (for your major/minor). Then start filling in classes around it that look interesting. You might not be able to take everything you want to, but that way, if an interesting class you were interested in shows up (since not all classes are given each semester), you'll keep an e
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Okay, I understand this. Personally, I always tried to get the prereqs waived, but sometim
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Another thing we have to consider is that going to school isn't the only thing people do. This is similar to
bah (Score:1)
Check your latin mate (Score:1)
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They should be debating the ethics of high book... (Score:2)
Re:They should be debating the ethics of high book (Score:2)
Re:They should be debating the ethics of high book (Score:2)
Stop the lies! (Score:5, Funny)
Then I started reading up on that and discovered that software counterfeiting is invariably linked to crime and even terrorism. Wouldn't somebody think of the children! Be a broken link in the chain and stop software piracy! Most importantly, don't undermine american capitalism by using free software that is anyway full of stolen code and patent infringements!
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Read the full article (Score:5, Interesting)
The professor in question voiced real ethical problems with the course but was basically told to shut up and teach--because he didn't have tenure that was pretty much his only option. The job market for PhD's without tenure isn't exactly robust.
Never mind that this was basically taxpayer subsidized indoctrination.
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The school engineered the course to teach the industry viewpoint and ensured (via industry observers) that the professor did not deviate from the talking points. when the story initially broke, the school decided that it was an internal matter and didn't merit any outside scrutiny
The professor in question voiced real ethical problems with the course but was basically told to shut up and teach--because he didn't have tenure that was pretty much his only option. The job market for PhD's without tenure isn't exactly robust.
I don't think the professor deserves nearly the same amount of blame as the administrators and the IACC, either. The course sounds like it was designed by a fascist regime than any American company, which is ironic, since the list of IACC members is a who's-who of American conglomerates: [iacc.org] Abercrombie & Fitch, AOL Time Warner, and The Walt Disney Company, to name just a few.
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The departments are individually given a fair amount of latitude. The article mentions that this was a "Media" course. When I went to Hunter I had a few friends who took some media courses, on web design, because they wanted to get some "practical" experience that they didn't get in the Comp-Sci department.
Its a pity, but this seems more like a case of "What do you expect when you let Marketers teach technology".
On a side note, the Professor heading the committee investig
Re:Read the full article (Score:5, Insightful)
ethics
severity
continuum
contradiction
proportionality
Don't strain yourself.
It's obvious (Score:2)
Also, why are professors debating the ethics of the course? Was the course created knowing that some company was going to pay the students to make a fake blog? Seems to me this issue should have been de
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A fake student... (Score:1)
Is this a problem? (Score:1)
What's that you say? There wasn't a disclaimer? The student gets an F.
Double Dipping & Possible Sunshine Law Violati (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds to me like this is a case of double dipping. The school gets the corporation to pay for the class, and then they turn around and get the students to pay for the class as well. I'm sure every University and College would love to be paid double for each class they teach. Sounds like this is more about the greed of the school, than it is about actual teaching.
Also where is the state on this? I don't know about their state but the state of Missouri has Sunshine laws. Basically if you take state or government money, then everything has to be open and clearly detailed about what you do with the money and everything associated with it. You can't have secret board meetings, or secretly spend the money on anything. Everything in the school has to be open and transparent, even school groups that receive money from the school, since they get it from the government.
Sounds like a *HUGE* violation of the "Sunshine laws" to say that this whole review, etc. is an internal school matter. It certainly would not be the case in Missouri.
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I'm pretty sure that the school administrators should have known better. New York does have Sunshine Laws, but I don't know the precise details, IANAL,JSGOSWHSBDRW. (....,Just Some Guy On Slashdot When He Should Be Doing Real Work)
Fake blog is Ok... (Score:2)
http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=545 [zdnet.com]
No worries (Score:2)
rj
IACC members link (Score:2)
For anyone interested in complaining to the member companies about this... here is a link [iacc.org] to their membership list.
Some members are no surprise and don't care if their customers hate them (RIAA, MPAA). Others are more likely to respond to bad press (Apple, Microsoft, Vivendi). Other sponsors are directly responsible, such as the government agencies (many in the USA and Canada) and the states of North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Send a letter or e-mail, maybe this crap will not happen again, at least not in aca
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Backlash experiment? (Score:2)
This makes me wonder: Was this whole thing (or at least part of it) an experiment to gauge the intensity and duration of our bac
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The backlash inherent to astroturfing is not someth
Guerilla Marketing, Astroturfing, and others... (Score:2)
Honestly, if we had an F.T.C. with any balls in this country, they'd spent a lot more time coordinating with the Fraud division of Justice Department and stop this kind of crap, plus all the damn astroturfing, and that stupid "guerilla marketing" stuff. It's all fraud, pure and simple.
With any sensible reading of the fraud and deceptive marketing sections of the law (sections under US Code Title 15, plus others) surely covers all the tactics used in this kind of activity. Remember, we're talking commercia
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The corporations can't do anything without our money, and the more informed people there are, the fewer uninformed purchases to finance dumb projects like the one we're discussing here.
This is not new (Score:1)
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If the problem is "outside" course content, this is done on a regular basis. Textbook publishers do this often.
Also, not to belabor this, an adjunct, in other words a temp, has absolutely no authority to change course content. Obviously some F/T faculty member in the department did.
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Only one class I was in ever allowed Visual Studio building. Everything else was either Sun or Redhat Linux, due to the command-line handin program for machine problems.
I don't remember ever using MySQL in a single computer science. We used Oracle/JDBC for a databases course (MySQL probably wouldn't cut it, from a technical "look at the guts" point of view). The graduate level
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Not a real marketing course (Score:2)
There are productive and mutually beneficial ways that industry and university can help each other. Many science and engineer
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Professors teach courses outside of their departments all the time, sometimes without any expertise. I work at a university and have been told this-- I've had the same concern. It comes with job. As for the curriculum, well, many are already set up by the textbooks and their publishers just by virtue of selecting the text. Some professors are too busy and will just review a text, make sure
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PS. What collge do you teach at? I want to be sure my children don't go there since "Professors teach courses outside of their departments all the time, sometimes without any expertise."
I put up with this at H.S. due to shortage of qualified teachers, but it's ine
This is what happens... (Score:2)
Pretty soon, everything is a potential topic and departments find they can be talked into anyth
Shameless Anti-capitalists (Score:2)
If you're going to show such complete lack of respect for Adam Smith's ideals, it is unreasonable to ask the government to abide by them. Once you decide to stand
Let me get this straight... (Score:2)
Isn't this the same scam they run on tv ads? (Score:2)
I've used BioFlex, and I have rock hard abs. Of course, I earned mine through lots of situps, but I did use BioFlex for a minute before they paid me a lot to be a model on this commercial.
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unbelievable ads (Score:2)
Did anyone else check out the fake blog/pages? There was a banner ad for a service where you can rent designer purses so you can show them off and then return them without having to pay the full price. It seemed to be a real service. The fact that such a company can stay in business is probably a sign of the apocalypse. Does anyone really know anyone who is so obsessed with designer brands that they would do such a thing? I can actually understand buying a designer product if you believe they actually make
I doubt it would read as genuine (Score:2)
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100% infomercials are naturally easy to spot, but what about product placement in regular programs? That bottle of Coke(r) that your favorite star just drank? Or even movies like The Island, with over-the-top-obvious Microsoft-placements, but only if you're a geek? A random person might just think that that Xbox-thingy looks
The damage done (Score:2)
by guerrilla marketing to the social fabric vastly outweighs any possible social benefit it could bestow. People practicing it should be wiped out of business without mercy or restraint. For society to work, we have to routinely extend a certain level of trust to people we don't know personally. When that trust is abused by people trying to sneak their products in front of your face with lies and misrepresentation, one of the pillars of society is undermined.
I always thought if I was one of the people
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No, I'm New Here (Score:2, Funny)
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Also....why are you quoting a dictionary to suggest that legal trouble is afoot?
you mean something like... (Score:3, Funny)