1. Workplace Ethics: The High Cost of Compromise

Kirk O. Hansen recently made some interesting observations about the ethical challenges that will face new college graduates. Facing the current, difficult economy, Hansen claims, will "make ethical decisions even tougher."

Because it has been difficult this year to land any job, new graduates will be less likely to resist, less likely to put their new position at risk in order to do the right thing. And that threatens to undermine the ethical character of this year's graduates at the outset of their careers.

John Constable, Detail from Seascape Study with Rain Cloud (c.1824)

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There's an interesting write-up on the Brand Builder blog about the very funny case of @BPglobalPR.

If you haven't been following along, since May 19th, someone on Twitter has been publishing updates under the @BPglobalPR handle.

Here is their very first update:

Then things get funny:

He describes the downsides of having a large online audience, where social networking breaks down. The key insights: large networks can hinder conversation and stifle the exchange of ideas, because socializing doesn't actually scale.

"After all, the world’s bravest and most important ideas are often forged away from the spotlight — in small, obscure groups of people who are passionately interested in a subject and like arguing about it. They’re willing to experiment with risky or dumb concepts because they’re among intimates."

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I recently came across Jeff Clark's portfolio, which features a ton of solid data visualization tools and projects, including a couple of nice applications for Twitter.

Twitter Venn (created using Processing and Twitter Search) takes a set of terms and creates a Venn Diagram showing the rate of tweets containing the each of search terms and combination of the search terms. Twitter Venn also shows a tag cloud for each regions with other common words. Look at the Twitter Venn for design, less, better:

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Josh Peters wrote a nice little post about an experience he recently had on Twitter. In the process of being spammed by Twitter user Liquid4Health, he noticed that the user's logo was a somewhat shoddy rip-off of the Mozy logo.

Comparison of Twitter Avatars for Mozy and Liquid4Health

Interestingly, Liquid4Health is a marketing account on Twitter for a company called GBG. GBG's logo is not the same as the Twitter icon in question. This seems to imply that the marketer who created, designed, and uses their Twitter account is making a series of unethical (or at least unpleasant) design and marketing decisions on behalf of the company. The lesson here? Keep a leash on your social marketers. This Twitter account is driving brand value down and attracting negative chatter on the internet. (Go ahead and Google Liquid4Health: the Josh's article is already on the front page.)

Funnily, one of the three taglines on GBG's homepage is "driven by ethics." One more lesson that design ethics is not a spectator sport. You've got to actively ensure that your brand is ethically represented, otherwise, as Josh says, it'll come back to haunt you.

1. iStockphoto to Sell Logos

Big news this week from iStockphoto: the site plans to offer logos for sale in the near future. Commenters on their forum seem to favor the deal, while designers are (not surprisingly) much less enthused.

To their credit, iStockphoto is trying something different with the logos they plan to sell. Logos will be unique items, only sold once apiece. In addition, they will cost much more than stock photos. Whereas a decent sized image might run $7-$10, a logo could run $100-$750.

But tell me, who is going to buy these things and who is going to supply them? Is there really such a thing as a stock logo? I think we know the answer...

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1. Webtrendmap

The top slot this week goes to the Webtrendmap beta. Essentially, it aggregates the top re-blogged stories from trusted sources, so you get only the cream of the crop.

I like it so far because the trusted sites seem to be weighted towards designers and, in the limited time I've spent with the site, their picks seem pretty good.

Also, the interface is unique. As I understand it, you can make your own "maps", plotting trends across two axes or even locations. I confess, I'm not sure how that part works, but it's intriguing.

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1. Measuring the quality of visitors rather than the quantity

Marketing blogger Helge Tennø raises an interesting question: in the age of social media, what are we missing from our current web analytics?

It is easy to measure page views and sales, but that still leaves a lot of room in between. How do we track the number and activity of different user types that make online communities work? There's no good answer yet, but it's something to chew on.

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