Information Overload ?

Harris, John ( 2010 ) Is the Internet rewiring our brains ? Guardian G2 Supplement, 02/08/10

Carr, Nicholas (2010 ) The Shallows, Atlantic Books

The Guardian article quotes extensively from Carr whose book is published in the UK next month. It has already caused quite a stir in the US.

Because of the finite amount of time at our disposal we are gathering small chunks of information rather than undertanding the larger picture. ( Wikipedis entries vs biographies )

Moreover online multi-tasking is destroying our capacity for reflection, contemplation and patience.

Too much information a "cacophony of stimuli", encourages "cursory reading", hurried and distracted reading and superficial learning"

And even more worryingly ... it's all addictive. This is easy to measure by counting the number of times we open our e-mail inbox to find ( surprise, surprise ) that nothing new has appeared there...

There are bound to be more reports of this naure when Carr's book is published I anticipate...

A little test

This little video was created using Jing and is only a test and gives an idea of what is to come!!?? Perhaps it's little large....

What does that expression mean ?

The New York Times ( Sunday 18th July ) reports on machines that can conduct teaching by recognising the facial expression of the computer user.

Research at the University of California recognises facial expressions to determine whether a child is enjoying, or understands an activity.

Eyes widen.

Carey, B & Markoff, J (2010) Reading, writing and robots. New York Times ( articles selected in association with the Observer, 18th July )

Dopamine Rush

I'm beginning to really like the New York Times extract in each week's Observer newspaper. This week's insert includes an article which claims that information overload is affecting our ability to concentrate...

In 2008 people consumed three times as much information as in 1960, through e-mail and TV.

Some users check their e-mail 37 times per hour, and of course may do this while watching TV.

All this has, unsurprisingly made it difficult to concentrate on making a cup of tea !

CD Sales and Sound Quality

Those people studying the future of the CD might consider a recent article in the New York Times*. Some youngsters have turned against the tinny and thinner sound of the iPod, and become nostalgic about hard-copy cds...

Fidelity of sound compromised by portability and convenience...

Maybe CD sales are not quite dead yet !

Plambeck, J (2010) In the age of music, sound quality falls off, New York Times, Sunday May 23rd [ insert in the Observer 23/05/10 ]

Glimpse of the future : FT on an iPad

Here is what the Financial Times can look like when you own your iPad. This little video gives you a very good idea of what the experience would be like. Indeed this may apply to all newspapers....
There are some intersting comments about usability of the iPad which suggests that the way forward for the iPad will not be all trouble free.

Social Media Revolution 2

Will you have a business in 5 years time? Not if you don't understand the power of social media! This is a must view!!!

An e-book disadvantage ?

The Observer ( 11th April ) includes a supplement from the New York Times, which has a novel angle on e-books ( ouch )

Seeing a book's cover is often the best way of advertising it ( eg on the tube perhaps )

What about e-books however ? Very discreet if you are reading something dodgy, but no good to advertise the fact that you are reading Proust ( in French )

Depends how much you believe in the power of viral advertising perhaps...

Google Search tricks

Take a look at this : it may show you some new tricks!

Google Search Tricks on Prezi

6 ways brands are using social media

This article - 6 ways brands are using social media for real world action is by Daniel Stein, a digital marketing and consumer engagement expert who founded Evolution Bureau in 2000. Daniel has been behind some of the most viral campaigns in Internet history including “ElfYourself” for OfficeMax, “Ms. Dewey” for Microsoft and “Mind Freak” for A&E.

He says :

"Generally speaking, brands are using social networks in a relatively systematic way:

1) Create an account; 2) Run ads; 3) Collect fans; 4) Provide news, offers and promotions; 5) Repeat.

But the lines of the digital world and real world are blurring, and businesses should start thinking about how they can take their social media initiatives to the next level. This means looking at new ways to mobilize your social media audiences to take action in the real world. Here are six great examples of early adopter companies doing just this."

Social media cheat sheet

Want to know which social media sites to use to make an impact? Imagine you are in business....Depends on your goals, your marketing strategy and more. Suppose you consider :

• Customer communication
• Brand exposure
• Driving traffic to your site
• SEO

This little cheat sheet created by CMO.com ranks the most popular/used social media sites (from the biggies like Facebook and Digg to the less talked about Reddit and del.icio.us) as good, okay or bad for the four goals above.

Eurostat Figures

A very good free source of Industry Information about different European countries.

This is a 448 page document which is likely to be of relevance to Web 2.0 applications as well as many other topics.

Eurostat uses NACE codes, rather than SIC codes which are familiar from the FAME database.

Nonetheless, free-text searching for a particular industry seems to work quite well.

I tried it out for steel, plastics, and tourism and was encouraged by the results.


http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code=KS-BW-07-001

10 Advantages of Social Media for Business

From a recent article on MediaTel Neil Perkin assesses some of the main benefits. For more detail visit his blog

http://neilperkin.typepad.com/

I hope that I've not misrepresented him here.

1. Fans, even virtual ones, have made a commitment. You have found out who they are...

2. Engaged users ( fans/friends ) care more than searchers

3. Those who interact are advocates ( they tell their mates ? )

4. Search engine weight is improved by having lots of fans.

5. You've found loads of people..now you can target them

6. Interacting with your customers is easier.

7. Different marketing strategies can now be employed

( I got puzzled here about what these might be )

8. Advertising through social media sites will become ever-

more important.

9. Real time feedback ( see no.6 presumably )

10. Your audience awaits ( everyone is on Facebook already )

Perkin, N (2010) Social Media : maximise your business's potential accessed via MediaTel [online] http://library.beds.ac.uk/ on March 23rd 2010

MediaTel

Although we've recently had problems accessing MediaTel, it's an excellent source for finding Web 2.0 Business applications.

There's some interesting news today ( March 19th ) about Twitter becoming increasingly integrated with other social networking sites.

MediaTel now fully operational. Access, as always through the library catalogue, and it should recognise our IP address

Books are the future

If the internet's so important then why is one of the most popular services dedicated to selling books ( Amazon ) ?

This was the opinion of Ian Stevenson at this weeks free UCL lecture Do books have a future ?

For a list of excellent ( and free ) lectures at University College London see :

www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

The rise of transactional advertising

This guest post on Telecrunch is authored by Alex Rampell, the founder and CEO of TrialPay.
He says
"The marriage of brand advertising and free content is facing peremptory annulment. There is no shortage of punditry around “the death of the media company” and whether it is a just dessert or a societal travesty. But that’s looking at it from the media company and consumer viewpoint – what do advertisers think about all of this? Where is online advertising headed and what does that mean for free content?"
This has implications for branding : take a look at the full article here.

Getting the most out of Twitter

Getting the most out of Twitter by C.C>Miller is a short article from New York Times.

"Twitter users write 50 million messages a day. For the holdouts, here are a few ways to make Twitter work for you.

A CUSTOM NEWS FEED By the time Bridget Baker, who works in public relations in Seattle, checks Google Reader while eating lunch at her desk, she has already read most of the articles in her feed because she saw them on Twitter."

More Web 2.0 Integration

This time Twitter and Yahoo ! Users can broadcast tweets while online ( this follows a similar tie-up with Facebook in December. Exact terms of the deal are unclear except that Yahoo ! are keen to get hold of all those social netwwork users...

Watch this space for more deals

( as reported in the Financial Times, 24th Feb - Yahoo tie up with Twitter deepens )

Nectar Points

Another example of advertisers using web 2.0

Nectar and Yahoo ! join forces.

Shoppers can choose to have their historical data stored online. 2000 have already opted-in to the scheme. Sainsburys are then able to target these users...

( Reported Daily Telegraph, 13th February 2010, p13 )

Social media is nothing new and Twitter is like a big cocktail party

Social media is nothing new is a neat little article by Steve McKee in Business Week.
He says :

"Social media has always been with us.Who hasn't recommended a product to a neighbor, received a tip from a colleague, or asked for a referral from a friend? From grocery store aisles to cocktail party asides, the "social media" we've commonly called word-of-mouth or relationship marketing have always been the most trusted form of outreach".

"Take Twitter, for example. It's really no different from a cocktail party (a huge cocktail party, to be sure) and the same rules of engagement apply."

For the full article click here.

Has Google Buzz changed the landscape?

On 9 Feb 2010 Google launched Google Buzz. Does this mean that as this article on Mashable says :
Google Buzz has completely changed the game : here's how ?
Why? Why has it grown so rapidly? Why has it riled up such strong emotions on both sides? Are the privacy issues going to permanently damage Google? And most of all, what does Google Buzz mean for Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the social media world?
The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

Complete Guide to getting the most out of Twitter

Just starting to use Twitter? Wonder what the business or personal benefits might be?
Here is an online guide which will help you get started.

Photo is the new Social Learning Space at Putteridge Bury

Google Wave and Business

Google Wave's Massive Potential for Business is a recent article on Mashable blog,click here by Howard Greenstein, who is a Social Media Strategy and Marketing consultant, and President of the Harbrooke Group.
Wave is hard. There are a lot of features, all bundled together, and it can be intimidating for anyone to just look at it and decide “this is a great project management tool” or “this is the way we’re going to manage our notes about the proposal.”

But taking the time to understand Wave and how it works might be a worthwhile investment for business users.

Online Guide to using Facebook

Mashable have created an online guide to using Facebook, here.
There are sections om :
Basics
Managing your Facebook Wall
Facebook for Business
Facebook applications
Advanced topics

I must find time to go through it.

How to say stupid things about social media

An article in the Guardian by Cory Doctorow here says "Criticising social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook is as pointless as knocking people who discuss the weather". I've met with scepticism about the value of social media when I've been in discussions with friends. Not everyone is into it yet, but it is remarkable how it has spread to all ages within the last year.

Is Social Media waste of employees' time??

Afraid that workplace internet leisure browsing is destroying people's ability to concentrate on real work ?New research from University of Melbourne has shown that social media increases employee productivity by 9% ..... The post on ReadWriteWeb comments that it can increase productivity a great deal more than this, if someone uses twitter, blogs etc. wisely.
As they say :Try using these social technologies for on topic work and you'll see productivity increases that make 9% look like nothing.