Researching_ICTs_in_context-Ch11-Mortensen-Walker.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Researching_ICTs_in_context-Ch11-Mortensen-Walker.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Global Distribution of Twitter Users

Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Global Distribution of Twitter Users

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: Twitter Tips the Tuna

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: Twitter Tips the Tuna

Comment is free: Corporate power unbound

Comment is free: Corporate power unbound

Comment is free: Is democracy good for everyone?

Comment is free: Is democracy good for everyone?

How main stream media is about to be Twitterized

If you can't write your story in 140 words or less, you better think about what you want to say again. As David Berlind, from ZD|Net suggests, mainstream media is about to be 'twitterized.' In the same way that blogs have disrupted print media (show me a decent newspaper that isn't at least planning to have a blog), Twitter and other micro-blogging sites are turning business logic on its head. So if you have a message for the world, think about how you could write it in the 140 or less characters of a Twitter tweet. In so doing you open up your business to many other opportunities for relationships with your customers that you've probably not yet considered.

If you've already been using Twitter for your business, how has it been working for you?

Twitter - why it's here and what to do about it

Introduction

What is Twitter?

It's a world-wide phenomenon that lets people post short messages of a maximum of 140 characters in response to a simple question - "what are you doing?". Users can send these messages via IM, mobile phone, from the Twitter web site, or via a number of applications that feed and publish tweets.

demo

How is Twitter being used?

• Staying in touch with family and friends. A hybrid between email, IM, and text. Provides a rich context for offline interaction and a sixth sense for what's happening in peoples lives.

• Reporters use it to break news, to announce headlines that may be reported in more detail on the Internet, radio, TV and print.

• Bloggers and businesses use it to promote themselves and create a dialogue with their followers. See Barack Obama and author and tech guru Robert Scoble. Drives traffic to their sites.
  

Why does Twitter exist?

Reasons for Twitter's popularity.

• Attention crash, brevity rules - people want the attention of others - the quicker the better

So having attention is very, very desirable, in some ways infinitely so, since the larger the audience, the better. And, yet, attention is also difficult to achieve owing to its intrinsic scarcity. That combination makes it the potential driving force of a very intense economy.

• Growth of mobile technologies requiring shorter messages - shorter but more often

• Rise in social networking - we filter what we want and don't want
  

• Fascination with the trivial - Perez Hilton

• The speed of life is increasing exponentially with the growth in population. This includes the felt need to stay in touch.
• Stimulation addiction with a twist. Twittering is like the cocaine of blogging or e-mail but refined into crack.

  Substance abuse is something visible. Psychological addictions are caused by wanting to hang onto or enhance positive feelings and stimuli, like winning in gambling, playing computer games or projecting whatever personality you like in chat rooms.

Not everyone's a fan

Some criticisms may be the result of a lack of understanding of the way Twitter works:

dezzychick - hopefully finding something to do tonight. (Good luck! Hopefully one of your friends will Twit “hopefully finding something to do tonight” and then the two of you can see each other Twits and put 1 and 1 together to realize that goodness, the two of you might be able to hang out!)

and

Twitter is a bad, bad thing — not just because of what it does, but because of what it says about all of us and our need to be connected. Twitter's whole existence is based on the premise that we aren't yet in touch with one another quite enough.

And that may be because critics haven't immersed themselves in the technology:

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can't explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends. (Monitoring the lives of total strangers is fun but doesn't have the same addictive effect.)

So what?

• Very low penetration in Australia compared to US - opportunity for students to become an expert in blogging and micro-blogging before the wave hits.

• Once the hype dies down it may simply become useful.
• New features such as grouping (friends, family, colleagues) may make Twitter more usable
  
• How will Twitter respond to competitors such as Pownce, Dodgeball, and Tumblr
• Another part of the confusing web 2.0 jungle - making sense of it all
  

More on blogging

A link in the curriculum in webct is to Blogging thoughts:
personal publication as
an online research tool. It's a useful and interesting read about where how blogging developed and how it's being used. Of particular interest is the way that it's being used by researchers as a research journal and a storage space for links. For this purpose I find blogging very useful, blogging anything I find online so that it can be found later.

What's also interesting in this reading is the quote from one of the founders of blogger, Evan Williams, who suggests that blogging is all about frequency, brevity and peronality.

To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality.
(..) This clarification has evolved over time, but I realised early on
that what was significant about blogs was the format — not the content.1 - Evan Williams

The encouragement here is not to attempt to get blogging right but rather make a start and massage things into shape as you go.

Google proposes global privacy standard

Possibly as a result of Google's proposed acquisition of Doubleclick - a move that could have far-reaching implications for net privacy, Google is proposing a new minimum world privacy standard. But the weak part of their standard is their suggestion that a breach of privacy should only be considered serious if it involves actual harm to a user. Just what that means is uncertain, but there's plenty of human rights organisations up in arms about the proposal. Privacy on the net is a much bigger issue than many realise and it's wise not to swallow the corporate line too quickly.

Google proposes global privacy standard | CNET News.com

How law enforcement uses Google Earth

If you thought that Google Earth was all fun and good times then think again. Reports out of the US has shown how the Google master piece has helped law enforcement officers arrest a pot farmer. And whilst it's great that something's being done about the drug problem, think again before you decide to build that patio on the back of your house without council approval. Big brother is watching.

YouTube conundrum for vintage acts | CNET News.com

The problems created by the current state of digital rights management is highlighted by lawsuits being filed against Youtube by aging artists, Prince and the Village People. Perhaps these old musos just don't get the net yet, or perhaps they don't understand that any publicity is good publicity. It seems crazy that they're willing to spend millions on agents, TV advertising, and old-fashioned distribution models but cry like babies when someone sees them on the net without paying. Grow up kids.

Read more YouTube conundrum for vintage acts | CNET News.com

Does Google compromise human rights through self-censorship?

News that access to Youtube was blocked earlier this year by the Thai Information and Communication Ministry, appeared to many foreign commentators as an over-sensitive reaction to what many Westerners would consider to be plain vanilla free speech. Claiming that some videos on Youtube were offensive to His Majesty, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Thai communications Minister advised that, until all offending videos were removed from Youtube, his government would have no alternative but to block all access to Youtube in the country.

Quite predictably, many media rights groups were quick to attack the military backed government, claiming that the move was nothing more than over-zealous censorship and a danger to free speech. However, Thai Minister of Information, Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, countered that he was supportive of free speech and in no mood for a lecture on the subject and that, until the offending videos were removed, he would have no alternative but to keep the embargo in place. However, Google-owned Youtube was quick to respond to the potentially damaging loss of Internet audience numbers by creating filters which stopped Thai's from accessing any video clips which may be offensive to the monarch. Furthermore, some clips were removed by their owners and still others were removed by Youtube claiming they breached their terms of service.

But to imagine that the censorship of Youtube is a Thai government initiative alone significantly understates Google's role in the scenario. Clearly, Google and its subsidiaries have significant commercial interests in opening up, and maintaining new markets and audiences. And these commercial interests can, and do, place the company in conflict with consumers on the issues of privacy and censorship. After all, the Thai Youtube scenario is not the first time Google has agreed to censor content as a means of gaining or maintaining access to a market. Google actively censors search results in China to ensure various blacklisted sites are not displayed. In addition, the company censors some search results containing reference to various Wikipedia content, replacing links to information with a censorship warning. Similar censorship is undertaken in Germany, where websites containing displays of Nazi emblems and holocaust denials are removed, as are some pornographic websites, including popular porn 2.0 site Youporn.com. So what does Google's self-censorship mean for the average Internet user?

For most web surfers, a search that fails to display a link to a porn site or a video vilifying the king of Thailand would hardly be the end of the world. Other information would be found or the website or video in question could be located in another manner. But to dismiss the issue of censorship so easily misses the important point that Google is putting a price on free speech. Although one could argue that Google's actions amount to being the greatest good for the greatest number, their actions also show that they are willing to trade free speech and human rights for profits. It makes it ever more important for human rights advocacy organisations to maintain a close eye on developments and keep up the pressure on the company to protect and nurture free speech through their

10 Steps to Success on the 'Net Without SEO

There's no need to piss everyone off by being fancy with your SEO efforts. Here's some practical steps to take to improve your website, and your net success without resorting to black hat SEO tactics.

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10 Steps to Success on the 'Net Without SEO

Google wins half the battle for an open mobile internet

As reported on this blog previously, Google has proposed to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) an intention to bid on a conditional basis for the rights to the 700 MHz mobile telephone and data spectrum. This initiative demonstrates a clear indication of a core part of Google's corporate strategy which is intimately connected with mobile devices connected to the Internet. With Google's size and market influence, it may be worthwhile revisiting some of the underlying issues behind these strategies to help make sense of these events.

That Google sees the mobile market place as important is evidenced by their development of a mobile-phone friendly internet search application and Google Maps for mobile phones. But these developments are just the tip of the iceberg. Google recently released Google Adsense for mobile devices (note the term mobile devices as opposed to mobile phones) which contextually delivers text based ads to mobile websites. Although only available in a handful of countries, including Australia, it won't be long before this new money-making initiative from Google will roll out across the globe. Why? According to their own press room, Google is well aware there are more mobile devices in the world than the combined number of televisions and computers. And with people using these mobile devices as a way to source and access information, Google's strategy to bundle search, mapping, and advertising makes sound business sense.

It is this monetisation model which provides the motivation for Google's push to have the FCC demand that operators of the 700 MHz spectrum open their devices, applications, networks, and services to ensure maximum competition. Google and other software companies know full well that, to take on the entrenched duopoly of telephone companies and cable operators that dominate access to the Internet in the US, they must get free and open access to maximise their opportunities. The news, therefore, that the FCC granted two of their four wishes, demanding that licensees provide open applications and open devices, would have met with the company's approval. What this means is that consumers will be free to switch between networks, with little or no switching costs, and they will be allowed to access any desired software application without restrictions from the company through whom they are accessing the Internet.

Undoubtedly, the FCC has played into Google's hands by insisting on open applications which will give them the company confidence to proceed to the creation of a mobile content search engine. A search engine of this type would seek out mobile ready content and applications - particularly mobile phone ring tones - and with Google being the first point of contact for consumers, the monetisation opportunities this creates for the organisation is immense. Whether Google decides to proceed with a bid for the 700 MHz spectrum, despite the FCC only agreeing to two of their four conditions is yet to be known, but it appears certain that it would be in their interests to do so.

Google set to launch mobile phone handset?

News that Google plans to announce the release of their own mobile telephone handset has Internet columnists scrambling to confirm one of the most talked about events since Apple launched their i-Phone in June last year. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, engadget, and CrunchGear, Google will go head-to-head with Apple by producing a touch-screen handset that is rumoured to include a yet-to-be-seen Linux-based Google operating system, a GPS compatible version of Google Maps, and access to Google's Gmail and calendar applications. To add credibility to the rumours, these news outlets report Google being in advanced stages of negotiation with touch-screen mobile phone manufacturer, HTC, who they claim will manufacture the handsets which will be available for sale at around USD$100 - a fraction of the cost of the rival i-Phone.

This news will no doubt excite many technophiles keen to see newer, faster, cheaper products hit the shopping malls. But for others, this news is indicative of a disturbing trend to the Google innovation juggernaut. Their concerns spring from the manner in which Google is piecing together the jigsaw of a monopoly position on the Internet; particularly in the mobile Internet market place. According to ZDNet, Google has advised the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of their intention to lodge a minimum bid of USD $4.6 billion for the acquisition of the 700 MHz mobile phone and data spectrum in the US. With control of the handset, the mobile phone spectrum, and the manner of delivery for much of the content to the consumer, pundits see this a way for Google to own the mine, the railway line, the plant, and the port - the standard recipe for the reduction of competition and higher prices for consumers.

Whilst the fear of Google becoming a predatory monopoly is understandable, it may though be unfounded. Google's undertaking to make a bid for the 700MHz spectrum was made contingent on the FCC agreeing to impose strict conditions on the granting of any licences. These conditions were aimed at ensuring that applications, devices, services, and networks remained open to all market entrants, thus encouraging and maximising competition. Whilst Google's rhetoric undoubtedly contains more than a little self-serving grandstanding, their strategy has received the blessing of human rights advocacy organisations who maintain that open digital standards and protocols provide the greatest opportunities for innovation and competition, and therefore greatest benefits to consumers.

It is small wonder therefore that rumours of Google's foray into the world of telephone hardware is receiving so much attention, and is being greeted at once with so much apprehension and excitement. However, regardless of the accuracy of these rumours, they bring attention to important issues about the neutrality of the Internet, the manner in which legislation shapes and interacts with society's use of the Internet, and the manner in which large corporations can use their influence to shape the future of this important technology.

The corporate blog manifesto

If you're wondering what factors to consider before starting a corporate blog, here's your starting point. Robert Scoble, blogging guru from Microsoft, sets out some of the key points to consider before you go public with your thoughts.

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger