In our hectic, public social lives, there's always Facebook, a gated community where you can let it all hang out with your friends. What you say or show on Facebook is safe from those outside forces that might otherwise ruin the experience: your … [Continue reading]
The hot new handheld
Location-based services about to blossom
So what's hot in social media today? Location, location, location! That's right, location-based services appear to be gaining critical mass. This trend is driven by the proliferation of handsets with built-in GPS receivers, including the iPhone, … [Continue reading]
Mash up and share feeds with Wiffiti
Wiffiti is a tool for capturing a feed and displaying it in a dynamic screen, which can be published in a variety of places.The National Communication Association is currently meeting in Chicago. Attendees are using the Twitter hashtag #NCA09. A … [Continue reading]
Google Dashboard and online privacy
The Russian comic Yakov Smirnoff famously said, "In Soviet Russia, TV watches you." Today, he might say, "on Internet, Google watches you." Indeed, Google is like Santa Claus: it sees you when you're sleeping. It knows when you're awake. It knows if … [Continue reading]
More criticism of the FTC disclosure ruling
Here's a hilarious video review - with disclosures aplenty - of the book "Inbound Marketing," by Steve Garfield. Meanwhile, Ron Hogan at MediaBistro takes the ruling apart in equally funny fashion (courtesy of Maggie Bronny, student at Loyola … [Continue reading]
The FTC and blogola: here comes trouble
Last week, the FTC issued a ruling that will have the effect of cracking down on bloggers who write about free products without disclosing that they were, in fact, "compensated" for the post.Disclosing payment is one of those "things you should have … [Continue reading]
Lessons from the Netflix $1 million prize
This week Netflix announced a winner in its contest to improve its movie rating software. A team of seven computer engineers, statisticians and machine learning experts, Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos, won $1 million for creating an algorithm that … [Continue reading]
Sprint CEO throws down the sword
Sprint Nextel President and CEO Daniel Hesse has his share of problems bringing his company out of the doldrums, but he has a nice asset in the Palm Pre. The Pre, which runs on the Sprint Nextel network, has received solid reviews. CNET gives it 3.5 … [Continue reading]
Respecting copyright on your blog or social media page
It's a new semester, and that means students everywhere are jumping in to digital publishing, either for fun, self-expression or as part of a classroom assignment.While student work may seem to have limited scope, at some level it's no different from … [Continue reading]