Social Blogging

Filed under: IM, nptech, RSS

California Attorney General candidate Rocky Delgadillo doesn’t just have a long list of endorsements on his side - he’s got new web tools going for him as well.  Delgadillo’s campaign just launched a new service offering for supporters wanting to keep up with the campaign - RSS to IM notification from immedi.at. 

The letters RSS don’t appear anywhere on the site, in fact there’s not a link to subscribe to news from the campaign in a feed reader - but there is a link that allows you to plug in your IM username and get instant notification of new developments that can be passed on to others.  Timely updates have an excitement that may be more likely to spread by word of mouth.

Delgadillo’s “vision” page begins with the sentence: “As I look around our state today, it’s not just crime and violence that threaten our families.  It’s also the greed and arrogance of corporate power run amok.”  Sounds interesting enough to me.  I wonder how extensively the campaign is using RSS to IM internally.

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Sponsored by: Userplane Apps: Live communication applications powering the world’s leading online communities.

Filed under: citizen media, podcasting, aggregators

The international blog aggregation community Global Voices Online has released its first edition of the Global Voices Podcast, a compilation of clips from podcasts around the world.  The first episode manages to fit in satire from South Africa about the visibility of queer people, coverage of bloggers’ take on an upcoming election in Mexico (in Spanish) and clips from Jamaica, Israel/Palestine, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.  Set to music from Creative Commons label Magnatune, the whole thing fits in 17 fast paced minutes!  It’s hosted by the very charming Georgia Popplewell, from the Carribian Free Radio podcast (an Adam Curry favorite).

The show reminds me in of a more grass-roots, web 2.0 version of the Global Shortwave Report, a fantastic, long running weekly 30 minute compilation of international shortwave news in English. 

Global Voices recently received funding from Reuters.  Its primary function is to aggregate content from bloggers all around the world.  The project has long published interesting interviews with people from around the world, but this newest foray into the news and culture serialized audio space wil be interesting to watch.  Many Global Voices participants are aspiring mass audience journalists as well, so whether new mainstream media stars emerge from this space or whether it thrives as a niche media project will help make the history of Web 2.0’s impact on media.

Found via David Weinberger.

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Sponsored by: Userplane Apps: Live communication applications powering the world’s leading online communities.

Filed under: social networking

MySpace and youth social software expert danah boyd has released the full text of an email interview she and Henry Jenkins, Co-Director of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, recently did with the MIT News Office on MySpace and the proposed Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA).  Lots of good detail and analysis here, a great example of the usefulness of email interviews.  Helpful in understanding the proposed legislation, MySpace and youth social software in general and the public work of two prominent voices on these issues.  Both boyd and Jenkins are funded by the MacArthur Foundation to do academic work on these topics currently.

Here’s how boyd explains her work:

“For my doctoral dissertation, I am investigating why and how youth are engaging in digital publics like MySpace, how this affects identity development and how youth socialization has changed over the last century. This work is being funded by the MacArthur Foundation to help understand the nature of informal learning. Understanding why moral panics emerge when youth socialize is central to my research.”

Jenkins says about his work:
“[My work] seeks to identify the core social skills and cultural competencies young people need in order to become full participants in the cultural, political, economic, and social life of the 21st century. In doing this research, we are reviewing the current state of educational research surrounding participatory culture and examining how teachers are currently deploying these technologies through schools. We want in the long term to develop new curricular materials which help parents and teachers build a more constructive relationship with new media.”

Both provide some useful thinking and talking points in regards to the much maligned sector of youth-oriented social software. 

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Here the best 2008 media literacy tools and resources hand-picked from George Siemens's weekly Media Literacy Digest published here on MasterNewMedia Photo credit: Dawid Krupa and t_rust mashed up by Robin Good In this collection you will find the best resources and hundreds of tools relevant to your personal growth, learning and educational resources, as well as to social media, video and business that Dr. Siemens has picked, collected and reviewed for you. Here this unique collection:

In this first 2009 issue of Media Literacy digest George Siemens focuses on cloud computing, connections in social networks, changes in education, and on a cool resource for education technology-related conferences. Photo credit: Cyprien Lomas And to make 2009 an opportunity for personal change and innovation, George Siemens has decided to experiment a new way of dealing with his everyday tech life by embracing the cloud computing lifestyle. What does that mean? Cloud computing is a way of referring to using software and data that do not reside locally on your computer, but which reside on public commercial services accessible from anywhere you have an Internet connection. So, no need to be confined to your own machine to access your data, you just can use any computer connected to the Internet et voilà, you're set. The jump to cloud computing is often much smaller than one would think as many have already adopted web-based software and tools which are now integral part of their workflow. Take Gmail, Flickr or YouTube; both the software and the data in these cases are all in the cloud. And if you are not quite ready yet for the dive into the cloud, you can still go home with some cool new tools to try out immediately. Dr. Siemens features in fact to a brand new software list by Jane Hart with the likely-to-be top tools you may want to consider for adoption in 2009. To dive in, is the only wise step if you want to make you greater sense of the disruptive changes that our society is facing. Here all the details:

Social media marketing, ad management and optimization, diagnosing AdSense revenue drops, the brand ambassador model, are just some of the hot topics included inside this showcase of the best advertising and internet marketing articles published this year here at MasterNewMedia. Photo credit: Giuseppe Ramos If you want to monetize your blog site, attract potential advertisers, improve your advertising revenues, or deploy efficient market strategies, you can find most of what you need to know right inside this small collection of in-depth guides and reports. Check it out. Here all the details:

A look at the future of technology and trends in this issue of the Media Literacy digest. Photo credit: Jay Cross In this issue: George Siemens deals with changing paradigms in education, a new report about the Twittersphere, two interesting studies on the importance of video games in online learning, and a top ten of everything that's going to be hot in 2009. What seems to be crucial for Dr. Siemens, is the access people have to educational resources. Media trends and technology role in our lives are the bread and butter of this weekly digest. Here you can find education-related pointers and tools that may help you make greater sense of the deep changes that new technologies and media are bringing. Here all the details: Intro by Daniele Bazzano

If you want to get some ideas and inspiration about how you could use online video to significantly increase your company social media marketing impact, look no further. I have collected here for you the very best video marketing examples of some popular corporate brands. Photo credit: Elizabeth Engle Video marketing on the web is positively one of the most effective ways in which companies of all sizes are taking up the social Web as their preferred marketing channel. Though, there is not an official set of categories for videos used as social media marketing vehicles, I have divided the set of video examples I have selected here for you, in three different categories that differentiate the video format and typology of use:

a) Video Tutorials: Tutorials explain in a short video what your company / service / tool is about, and how it works. There is nothing like a short, immediate video to communicate effectively with your customers. b) Viral Videos: Maybe these should be labeled, "wanna-be viral videos", as there is no way to tell if a video is going to get "viral" before having published it. These are generally funny, spectacular or ironic videos that rapidly gain a huge popularity on the Internet by the sheer power of word of mouth and linking from other sites. c) Commercials: These are the classical video ads, sometimes with a sprinkle of new ideas and designed to have a long shelf life on both traditional TV and the Web. d) YouTube Channels: These are video company channels to collect all their TV commercials and any user-generated videos or feedback from passionate customers.

Media analyst and social media marketing expert Peter Kim has grouped on his own web site a terrific collection of social media marketing examples, providing a list of companies that use social media marketing to sell their products and services on the Web. Among the many cool examples available in Peter Kim's huge list, I have personally selected the very best online video examples that have been recently used by commercial companies. Here all the details:

Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch suggests a new possible scenario for your online identity. Google and Facebook may soon be the only companies controlling the way most of you are going to identify yourself on the Web. Photo credit: kaipata Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect are two new and competing services which provide you with the ability to login into your favorite social network, as well as to access an increasing number of your preferred content publication and distribution services: from YouTube to Delicious and more. The key new thing here, is that by adopting one of these online identification systems you can log into all of these web-based services by using always the same credentials. For example: popular site TechCrunch has already started using both Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect to allow its readers to login into the site social community by using their own Facebook and Google credentials. Similarly, the commenting system Disqus has also been thinking about integrating these two same services by the end of the year. But is this really a cool thing, from all standpoints? As George Siemens points out in this Media Literacy digest issue, Facebook and Google already own the majority of the digital content you share on the Web. Your e-mail, photos, music, contacts, are all mostly stored on their servers. Given this situation, how smart is it to allow these two companies to be able to also start monitoring all of your moves and actions online? Should they be the ones to control your access to your social network, blog comments, and to everything else you do online? This, along with other hot technology issues and new interesting media and education-related resources, makes up for another rich media literacy digest, showcasing the deep and disruptive changes new media technologies are bringing into your lives, and the good questions you should ask yourself before fully embracing them. Here all the details: Intro by Robin Good

This is my own video on the future of education, that completes and extends what I was able to deliver this past Wednesday at LeWeb in Paris. Photo credit: Giorgio Montersino Here below you can see two videos. One is the original recording from my LeWeb presentation and the other one extends and completes what I did not say on stage. I contend that we are about to see a deep change in how we look at education and learning in the coming years. The deep changes we have been witnessing in the worlds of mass media, advertising, marketing and communication in general, and much of what we have been labeling under the 2.0 title needs to be harmonized with our educational approach to schooling inside society. If we have come to appreciate the value of collaboration, sharing, co-creation, mashing up, bottom-up contributions and grassroots media creation, as well as those of listening to customers, of starting true conversations, of opening to critical feedback, and to suggestions from all your clients, we must also be able to see that these same principles and approaches can be transposed and utilized effectively in delivering a more valuable educational experience to our kids. a) Teaching is not learning, b) What are the things we really need to learn, c) What is the context and resources in which a new educational paradigm can emerge, are the key issues that I bring forward in this video presentation. I must thank once more LeWeb organizers Loic and Geraldine LeMeur for having provided me with this great opportunity. Here the video:

Virtual worlds offer exciting opportunities in online learning. A virtual world is a fully customizable 3D environment on the Internet where people can meet, talk, and interact with each other as if they were in the real world. The big deal is that you're not just a screen name or a still picture, but a three-dimensional individual that you can personalize as you want. Photo credit: h-l-n If you have ever attended an online seminar or a virtual university lesson you may already know how this works. You join a virtual room, the presenter / teacher shares his screen and his voice with attendees, and you can enjoy a presentation, a course, or a panel without leaving the comfort of your own place. What is less fascinating about the whole learning-at-a-distance process, is that you usually end up being just a screen name or a still picture, and you can't really interact with other people in the room like in the real world. The opportunities for any interaction among participants are very limited because there's not your whole "persona" sharing its experience with other people. That's exactly why virtual worlds, and their most popular platform Second Life, can be venues to effective virtual learning approaches. Since in a virtual world the opportunity to interact with other people becomes fully immersive, and it is not just limited to screen-sharing or videoconferencing, a virtual environment constitutes a potentially much better alternative for educators and learners. In Second Life you have a fully-customizable projection of your "alive self", not just a screen name or a picture. You can perform many actions in a fashion that is very similar to what you normally do in your everyday life. Walking, talking to other people, visiting places, attending events, and more. And it's very easy to understand how the whole thing works. George Siemens is an educational technologies and media expert who strongly supports the use of virtual worlds for educational purposes. In this weekly media literacy digest, he strongly disagrees with those academic environments who find the use of Second Life too complex to be considered as a valid resource for online learning. But, as every week here on MasterNewMedia, Dr. Siemens also provides you with other pointers, facts and resources that can help you and me to make greater sense of new emerging technologies and their impact on the way we learn, understand, and deal with the world in these fast-changing times. Here all the details: Intro by Daniele Bazzano

Microsoft and Apple believe that your digital life is as important as your real one. That's why the two companies are betting time and resources to develop a technology to help you manage all your personal information across different devices. Photo credit: lumingopereira The goal of Live Mesh and MobileMe is to have all your personal data privately stored in a virtual environment, the "cloud", which takes care of syncing all your content across your mobile phone, your laptop, or your PDA. Say you have a calendar appointment planned in your home computer, but not on your mobile phone. These virtual platforms "see" that appointment is missing, and add it to your mobile calendar, so that you don't have to worry about synchronizing all of these different devices together. Learning, education and media technologies scholar George Siemens analyzes such technology-driven trends to understand what issues we may have to confront with in the near future and how to best prepare yourself for them. In this weekly digest, George Siemens brings back many interesting news stories, facts, and reports about new technologies, helping those seeking to get the opportunity to get a broader and more comprehensive understanding of the disruptive changes our society is going through. Here all the details: Intro by Daniele Bazzano

Is our worldwide education system ready to prepare for the unpredictability and fast changes that the 21st century will be serving? Photo credit: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith Education isn’t only about creating employees. It’s about empowering individuals to become individuals with the ability to manage effectively the increasingly faster transformations of a complex world like ours. This is why, one should measure education by looking at how tangibly such goal is achieved rather than by measuring the number of tested and certified students the school system is capable of producing. True education, when successful, must essentially prepare its students for dealing with greater and more complex problems. But not those served in a neat and sanitized math test, but rather those emerging from the clash of the multidisciplinary realities we inhabit. Learning how to handle uncertainty, as well as how to rapidly adapt to fast changing environments is the real blockbuster formula to an education approach that provides the mental tools to cope with whatever can come your way, rather than pre-emptying you with static notions and arid, reality-isolated formulas.. Here all the details: