Tuesday 31 January 2012

Michael Geist on the behind-the-scenes campaign to bring SOPA to Canada
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6257/125/ 

Justice system must figure out social media: top judge | CTV News

Justice system must figure out social media: top judge | CTV News

Interesting article about the interaction between social media and the justice system

At Twitter, The Future is You!


Twitter has put up a video to recruit employees to its team.
I found it very entertaining and clever at the same time.
Although people show mixed feelings towards the video.



Sunday 29 January 2012

A new way to "subscribe" to your favourite newspapers

Is facebook the new frontier for modern journalism? 
A sample study shows that the interactive user-friendly format found on this sites very popular among readers.
Is this something you'd "subscribe" to? 

"What Works?
So of the content that journalists are sharing, what actually works? There are several types of content that seem to produce above-average feedback from subscribers:
  • Commentary and analysis on current events and breaking news receives 3x as many likes and 2x as many shares as the average post. Also, highlighting controversial stories on debatable subject matter can double the number of likes and shares the post receives.
  • Reader shout-outs can increase in feedback by as much as 4x. Also, asking for recommendations can lead to a 3x increase in comments above an average post.
  • In-depth analyses on global issues can yield a 1.5x increase in likes and 2.5x increase in shares.
  • Powerful photos can yield an increase of a 2x inengagement (likes, comments and shares). Also, behind-the-scenes photos resulted in up to a 4x increase in engagement (likes, comments, shares).
  • Humor in posts or a humorous picture can yield a 1.5x increase in likes and almost 5x increase in shares. Humor often shows the lighter and more personal side of the journalist, which is likely why it results in higher engagement. "



https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-journalists/how-journalists-are-using-facebook-subscribe/352565928088761

http://marketingland.com/facebook-subscribe-button-journalists-4588

Saturday 28 January 2012

To tweet, or not to tweet.



"Twitter is rolling out a new version of its interface today, shuffling around all your information and compartmentalizing it into four distinct elements: Home, Connect, Discover, and Me. The interface is completely redesigned on the web, and comes along with updated versions of the company's mobile apps. It's clear that this marks a major initiative for the company to bring together disparate parts of its service, not only in web views, but to connect the dots between its online and app presence."

What do you think about the new layout?

The Social Media Revolution 2012

the growth of social media.


Thursday 26 January 2012

Get Involved


What Facebook And Google Are Hiding From The World - A TED Talk



Very interesting TED Talk I came across a while back about how Google and Facebook control the flow of information for their users and how these corporations' algorithms decide what we see on the Internet. The end of the video also speaks to the importance of today's internet for information transmission.

A Day in the Life of Social Media

Tuesday 24 January 2012

R U Really Reading?

The Future of Reading
Published: July 27, 2008 
  
              Although this article is only from 2008, the sites mentioned are already a bit outdated. Yet, the article still brings up an interesting point. Even though we are constantly inundated with "text" on the internet, how much of what we actually do online can be classified as reading?  What is the impact of these technologies on future literacy levels and "what does it means to read in the digital age"?  Does our constant use of SNS effect our reading practices if future generations spend more time "liking" Harry Potter on facebook than actually reading the books?
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all


Social Media Explained

My friend re-posted this on facebook. I'm guessing it was first found taped to a washroom stall. Funny how the topics of bathroom graffiti have changed.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Glossary Of Key Terms For The Digital Age

Stumbled upon this a few days ago, I found it amusing how they defined technologies and such not necessarily by their prescribed uses but by the effect they have on modern interactions in the digital age.
Hopefully you'll find this as amusing as I did! 
Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glossary Of Key Terms For The Digital Age « Thought Catalog

We live in exhilarating and confounding times. Mostly confounding. Here’s a concise glossary to help you make sense of it all without having to talk to anybody or subscribe to Wired magazine.
Jan. 12, 2012
A.D.D. An increasingly common developmental disorder characterized by shortened attention all passengers, attention all passengers, please show your ticket stub to the conductor as he passes through.
blog. A daily or weekly web diary maintained by an individual with a grossly over-inflated sense of insight.
carbon footprint. What zombies will leave in the charred earth after Kim Jong-un torches the place.
chat. Once a casual conversation using the mouth; now a drunken conversation using the fingers.
ebook. A type of book invented by a group fiercely opposed to paper cuts.
email. A very short ebook that typically lacks any truly intriguing plot points.
Facebook. A social networking service that enables individuals to create a public record of their internal monologue.
green. An adjective placed before the word “initiatives” to help corporations create the illusion that they give two sh-ts about the planet.
iPhone. One of six acceptable responses when asked to describe what you do during the waking day; others include iText, iFacebook, iDownload, iConsume, and iCry.
Kindle. An electronic slab that fell on and flattened Borders.
Luddite. A person who doesn’t own an iPhone 4S.
Mac. Porn enthusiasts’ protection against computer AIDS.
MySpace. A dating site that died and was reincarnated as a musicians’ site that died and was reincarnated as a storage facility.
reality TV. A mode of entertainment starring individuals whose mothers couldn’t kick meth or crack during pregnancy.
Ritalin. Flintstone vitamins for children who were born after 1990.
SMS. An acronym forShort Misspelled Sentences.”
smartphone. An apparatus clung to by humans to camouflage stupidity.
social media. A set of web-based and mobile technologies that have changed the face of marketing, entertainment and pedophilia.
tablet. A special computer for people who think Herpes comes from keyboards.
text. A noun that mysteriously turned into a verb after Y2K.
Twitter. An online extension of Ashton Kutcher’s ego.
Vicodin. Heroin for wussies.
Wikipedia. A pseudonym for the author of 95% of book reports and term papers written since 2001.
YouTube. The closest to porn that PC users can get without contracting a disease. TC mark

Thursday 19 January 2012

If facebook and twitter were real life...



Greetings Fellow SMC300-ers,


Welcome to our fabulous blog! Here we will post our own thoughts on the course as well as videos, pictures, rants and links to things we find interesting that we stumble upon in cyberspace! 

Happy lurking!!!

Caleigh Alleyne, Seo Cho & David De Medicis