Emerging media: what will they think of next?

As the end of my Emerging Media and the Market course draws to a close, I’m left questioning what is next for my blog and for social media. I can happily say that I now enjoy blogging. Nine weeks ago I never thought I’d say that as I spent hours pondering what to write for my first post. I enjoy the freedom of expression here on my blog and I plan to continue my posts if I have a compelling subject to write about or to share experiences, tips or advice for other working / student moms.

So now that you know what’s next for me and my blog, I think we’re all left wondering what’s next for social media? I think it’s currently buried in your jeans pocket or  at the bottom of your purse. Cell phones and mobile media popularity is spreading at a rapid fire pace. From Foursquare to Google’s Buzz , mobile web applications are taking the world by storm. According to Cnet.com, 5 billion of the 6.8 billion people in the world currently own cell phones. The number of mobile Internet subscriptions is expected to exceed 1 billion this year. If you’re ready to toss out your old phone and make the leap to a iPhone or Droid, the eco-ATM may be coming to a retail store near you! The eco-ATM lets you insert cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and other electronic devices and assesses their value. The user then receives a trade-up coupon, gift card, cash or the option to donate the proceeds to a charitable contribution. What will they think of next?

IT makes you happy

A recent study posted on Mashable.com suggests that the World Wide Web is actually making the web a happier place. Information technology (IT) access has been shown to increase a person’s sense of freedom by 15% and increase life satisfaction by 10%. The study is based on information collected from 35,000 people around the world and indicates that women along with individuals with lower-income and lower education benefit most from IT. The article doesn’t explain why women benefit the most from IT, but I suspect it has to do with raising children or health and beauty.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that social media overall is a positive contribution to the quality of life because there are many people who don’t use social media in a beneficial way, I would say that it does provide more opportunities to educate yourself without ever setting foot in classroom. The possibilities for what you can teach yourself by surfing the Internet are endless. I would image there are many self-taught scholars from the Internet. The wealth of information available to us will only continue to expand and grow as social media becomes more and more mainstream.

In the interest of keeping with the theme of happiness when it comes to information technology, I’m including the trailer for a new documentary entitled “Babies” (warning: you can’t watch this trailer without smiling) that I’m very excited to see. The film follows four babies from different countries around the world for the first year of their life and shows how drastically different their homes and upbringings are.

Censorship and property rights online

For my post in class this week, I was asked to answer the question, “What would happen if property rights did not apply to the Internet?”. My first thought was do they really apply to the Internet as it stands today? We live in a world where information can be obtained, copied and pasted with the right-click of a mouse. Often times we have to go extreme measures to protect our intellectual property on the Web and I often wonder if these extreme measures are safe but what would the alternative be, a World Wide Web regulated by the government?

I have a family member currently living in China and was intrigued by the fact that the People’s Republic of China is currently censoring the internet under its administrative regulations. It is estimated that China has more than 30,000 internet police who instantly erase critical comments that are posted to blogs and web sites, blocks web sites and monitors the internet access of individuals. Other countries such as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam also oversee and censor Internet sites.

I wonder if the US will become a country with governmental internet regulations and censorship. How do others feel about government censorship online?

Social media name game

Do you ever wonder what a Wiki is? Where did Twitter get its name? How on earth did the term blog come to be? If you lie awake at night pondering the origin of these names, look no further, just read my blog, or should I say, web log.  According to Wikipedia (don’t worry, I’ll cover Wiki next), the term weblog was coined by Jorn Barger one of the earliest bloggers whose blog Robot Wisdom was an influential pioneer blog. Nowadays blogs take on many forms such as online diaries, video blogs, photo blogs and microblogs or very short posts.

Now on to one of the more favorite social media words to say, Wiki! This term was coined by Ward Cunningham, the first developer of Wiki software back in 1994. Wiki is actually the Hawaiian word for “fast”. Cunningham discovered this term during his travels to he Honolulu International Airport where he took the Wiki-Wiki shuttle bus that runs between the airport’s terminals.

Wiki-Wiki shuttle bus at Honolulu International Airport

According to a New York Times article describing the origination of Twitter, the name didn’t just fall out of thin air and land on a branch. The name comes from vehicle dispatch, as cars and trucks maneuvering around town provide reports or squawks to each other stating what they’re doing at any given moment. John Dorsey looked at these systems through the eyes of the Web and wanted to provide a tool where anyone could “squawk” from anywhere. The name Twitter originally started as Stat.us, but John needed a name that better represented a constant buzzing in your ear so he thought of “twitch” which eventually led to Twitter and alas the social media site was born.

Original sketch for Stat.us which eventually became Twitter

Should BP shake hands on camera or apologize?

I recommend checking out the BP web site where the main page is entirely devoted to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I felt the need to blog about BP’s public relations and social media efforts surrounding the oil spill after reading my classmate’s blog, Adding to the Noise, about how BP has tried to advertise that is an “energy” company versus an “oil” company for several years now.

I was disappointed and disheartened by the video that BP posted of its chief executive, Tony Hayward, visiting the oil spill response efforts. While I do commend BP for using video updates to show the progress of the relief efforts, much of the video focuses on Tony shaking hands with workers and telling us that they are going to win this war. Aren’t they only fighting a war with themselves? Isn’t BP’s oil spill dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean, BP’s only enemy? Why do the majority of photos on the site feature Tony sitting in meetings discussing the issue? Where is the heartfelt apology and the scenes of BP executives rolling up their sleeves and jumping on a boat to have a first hand look at the destruction? Why isn’t BP telling us what we really want to know, how much damage this has caused to the wildlife, our beaches and the livelihood of our fishermen?

BP’s site provides a link to the Deepwater Horizon Response site where you can obtain the latest information and follow the response efforts via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and RSS. Visiting this site was slightly more comforting in that it’s not about executives shaking hands, it’s about people working together to create a solution while providing the latest information to the general public.

RSS Simplicity

The white squiggles in the orange box below appear to be popping up more often on web sites and billboard advertisements. I’ve never quite understood what RSS is used for so I Googled it to find out and I’ve decided to provide an explanation here in my blog for those of you who aren’t in the know (like me!)

RSS stands for  ‘Really Simple Syndication’ according to Wikipedia.com. An RSS is a series of web feed formats used to publish blogs, news headlines, audio files and videos that are frequently updated. RSS is beneficial to readers who want to subscribe to updates from a site or host feeds from different sites in one place. Users can actually subscribe to a web feed by clicking on the RSS icon. The YouTube video below provides a good visual description of an RSS. The video explains RSS as a simple method for having news and updates sent directly to you versus going out to search for new information.

The example used in the video is the option of using Netflix versus going to a video store. With Netflix, you chose what video you’d like to receive and it’s sent directly to you versus leaving your house and traveling to the video store only to find that there aren’t any new releases on the shelf. This is the perfect analogy for Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. I think they’ve even convinced me to sign up for a reader. It’s pretty much a no brainer in terms of obtaining and maintaining up to date information from your favorite sites. There’s even an option for you to click on the RSS icon for updates to my blog!

Flipped out for Flip

Every so often I’ll come across a product that is so revolutionary that I’ll ask myself, “Now why didn’t I think of that?”. Well, the answer usually is because 1) I have no time to dream up these revolutionary new products and 2) I have no money to invest in developing these genius ideas.

One such product that is what I would call a “genius invention” is Cisco Systems’ Flip Camera. I recently purchased the Flip UltraHD camera for my office and it is truly amazing. It’s essentially the size of a small digital camera that shoots about 1 hour and 30 minutes of High Definition video. The beauty of this camera is that there are only 5 buttons and it comes with zero cords or cables. The camera is recharged and videos are uploaded via the USB drive that pops out of the side of the camera.

I highly recommend the Do you flip? YouTube site where you can find funny videos shot with Flip cameras. Below are two videos shot with Flip cameras I chose because of my love for the beach and dream to one day be a surfer chick (hence the name of my blog and my first post). By the way, what is with the latest marketing tactic of having large, impromptu dance parties in public places? Would anyone else be entirely creeped out if a hundred people broke out in a rehearsed dance routine while you were sipping a Mai Tai on the beach?

Official: Bondi Beach Gets Flipped! Towel Surfing – Flip Video Flash Mob

Skimboarding Dog – Flip Video

Is Facebook killing reunions?

Just like video killed the radio star and Netflix is killing Blockbuster, could Facebook be on the verge of killing high school reunions? Out of a class of 370 students, there were maybe 50 or so who attended my ten year reunion this year. When I asked friends and fellow classmates if they would be attending the most common response was, “No, I already know what everyone’s doing because of Facebook.” With over 400 million users, Facebook is at the top of the list for social networking sites.

According to a Time Magazine article published in June 2009, the assumption that Facebook could kill reunions is a faulty one because while the site can connect you with friends it doesn’t offer the same opportunity to kick back and have a beer with your former classmate. According to the article, Facebook is essentially serving as the tool to bring classmates together instead of relying on letters, email or even companies such as Reunited Inc. which tracks down classmates and helps plan reunions.

While I didn’t go to the reunion, I did meet up with a group of friends at the bar following the reunion. Eventually, most of our classmates migrated over to the bar. I guess when I envisioned reuniting with my high school classmates I had this dream in my head that the crowd would part as I walked through the door with my husband (the doctor) on my arm and my former high school crushes would stare with their mouthes wide open and repeatedly tell me that they didn’t even recognize me. This was not the case. My husband couldn’t attend due to work (he’s not a doctor but he is in the medical profession!) and no one seemed especially surprised or shocked by anyone’s appearance. In fact, the phrase I heard repeatedly was, “Yes, I’ve seen your pictures on Facebook.”

If Facebook isn’t  killing reunions it sure is killing the excitement of making a jaw-dropping, grand appearance at your reunion!

Social Media Mama

As a new mom, I often get asked about new products or technologies that are on the market for babies today. One of the products that always gets a good laugh from women my mom’s age or older is the Graco baby swing with the iPod docking station. They are always floored to hear that swings come with built in music or an iPod docking station when they had to hand crank and wind up loud swings, often waking their babies from a peaceful sleep. They also find it amusing that we arrived at the hospital for the birth of our son fully equipt with a hospital playlist loaded on our iTouch and that the hospital sent a digital photographer to our room to take photos of our newborn. Within hours of his birth the photo’s were posted to a web site and I was able to send his picture to family, friends and co-workers around the world from the comfort of my hospital bed.

Times sure have changed and web technology is moving at a rapid pace. My husband and I often joke that our son will someday say, ” I can’t believe you actually had to drive to a store to rent a movie” as Netflix, OnDemand and streaming videos are gaining popularity. While we were twenty years old when we purchased our first cell phone, we now have seven year old neighbors with iPhones, Facebook and Xbox Live accounts. While I think that’s still a little young, it just goes to show how social media gaining popularity with all age groups.

Crackberry

One of my classmates this week wrote about an “unofficial” company web blog found at Crackberry.com. The site offers the latest tools, tips and tricks for Blackberry owners. As a current Crackberry user, I found this site to be fun and informative and it made me laugh because having a Blackberry can some times be  so addictive that you feel a constant need to check for emails, texts and phone calls. It made me start to think about the fact that once you have a Crackberry, you can’t go back to not having one.

At my office, I often hear co-workers say that they would be happy if their Blackberry was taken away but I seriously wonder how they would survive one day without it. According to a recent study posted on HubPages.com, 33 percent of people who use a wireless handheld device like the Blackberry, showed the same signs of addiction as alcoholics and drug addicts.  There are currently 7 million people who use a Blackberry and there are actually companies offering classes on Blackberry etiquette. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to take a class to know when I’m in a Blackberry zone. There’s nothing that drives my friends and family crazier than me checking my blackberry every five seconds and they’re not afraid to tell me. Jerry Seinfield performed a great skit about his wife’s Blackberry usage and unusual behaviors on David Letterman.

He makes a valid point in that we would think it was rude if someone held up a newspaper and read it while we were talking to them but we seem to think it’s socially acceptable to scroll through emails on a Blackberry while someone is talking.