Become a Fan of the Troy Public Library

With a nod to the car talk guys, this one is from the Shameless Promotions Division of the Technology Department:

Facebook, the social networking site, is now allowing organization pages to use their usernames for their URLs.

What does this mean?

It means that the Library's Facebook page, instead of having some long, hard-to-remember URL (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Troy-MI/Troy-Public-Library/104777508661), will have
www.facebook.com/troylib -- easier to remember and a match for our other social network sites usernames.

The catch? We need 100 of you Facebook users to become a fan of the Library. And why not? What better place around than the Troy Public Library!

Our Facebook page isn't very active now, but as we launch our new website, and roll out some of our other Web 2.0 tools, I promise you that it will be a great source of reliable information.

Take a look. Then become our fan.

The Whole World is Watching the Failure of Old Media

A brief and highly interesting article about the failure of old media and the rise of the Internet as a political/media tool, The Whole World is Watching aka #oldmediafail #iranelection.

The author, Johnee99 writes:

"The revolution is not being televised in Iran, nor is it being covered very well in any “old media” format. Old media in the West has failed. The Internet is now accelerating change in geopolitics, and has officially eclipsed old media as the first source for immediate and actionable information. As our Clinical Director, Dr. Jeff Rohde emailed me yesterday about Twitter: “It's more than a fancy microblog. It's the foundation of free speech in a country that normally denies it.” Powerful."

Internet Smackdown: Google v. Facebook

Fascinating article about the battle between Google and Facebook for Web domination from Fred Vogelstein, in Wired. Vogelstein writes:

"Today, the Google-Facebook rivalry isn't just going strong, it has evolved into a full-blown battle over the future of the Internet — its structure, design, and utility. For the last decade or so, the Web has been defined by Google's algorithms — rigorous and efficient equations that parse practically every byte of online activity to build a dispassionate atlas of the online world. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline. In Zuckerberg's vision, users will query this "social graph" to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire — rather than tapping the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center. In other words, right where Google is now."

Google is my search engine of choice. I also use Reader, Docs, and other services. From my limited use of Facebook, I cannot imagine it replacing Google for me anytime soon.

Read the full story, Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network Network's Plan to Dominate the INternet -- And Keep Google Out.

News of Jackson's Death First Spread Online; Traditional News Sources Lag

From Yahoo! News:

It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online…

The celebrity website TMZ.com broke the news of Jackson's death at 5:20 p.m.

It was a huge scoop for the AOL-owned TMZ, though many did not believe TMZ's report until it was matched by more established news organizations…

Jackson dominated the discussion on Twitter, generating the most tweets per second since Barack Obama was elected president in November.

"We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an e-mail.

The tweeting tripped up Twitter briefly, but engineers quickly responded to keep the service running. At times, Jackson-related search topics were the most popular on the site.

Celebrity users on Twitter — including Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest and ?uestlove of the Roots — posted their remembrances…

So many people wanted to verify the early reports of Jackson's death that the computers running Google's news section interpreted the fusillade of "Michael Jackson" requests as an automated attack from about 5:40 p.m. through 6:15 p.m.

As a defense mechanism, Google's news section responded to requests for information about Michael Jackson with squiggly letters known as a "captcha." Just as online ticket buyers regularly do to complete their purchases, the Michael Jackson searchers had to enter the letters correctly to see Google's new results…

On YouTube, traffic flowed to music videos of Jackson, while thousands posted videos of themselves sharing their thoughts on Jackson.

Others were using Facebook to organize vigils and celebrations of Jackson. One in San Francisco with nearly 50 confirmed guests hoped to recreate the "Thriller" dance.

Within a few hours of the news of Jackson's death, his 1982 album "Thriller" was the No. 1 album on iTunes. Several of his discs were also in the top 10 of the digital store.

VideoHound Offers Movie Lovers New Interactive Website

Do you like movies? If so, you are probably familiar with the VideoHound’s Gold Movie Retriever. This single volume reference book, a standard among movie lovers, has one paragraph reviews of tens of thousands of movies on VHS and DVD, along with a zero to four bones rating for each film.

Now, VideoHound has launched a social site, www.movieretriever.com, which allows you to create a free online account and interact with movie lovers around the world. You will be able to read one of 30,000 movie reviews; add your own ratings of movies and cast members; save movies to your Wag (most favorite) and Woof (least favorite) Lists; mark movies you want to watch; create and share custom lists, and respond to blog posts. You can even purchase movies directly from the site.

Plus, if you sign up for a free account by August 31, you could win a Sony Home Theater System with Blu-ray Disc Player and Bravia 40” Flat-Panel LCD HDTV.

Once you have logged on and found some movies you cannot wait to see, come by the Library and check them out. We have over 25,000 VHS and DVDs waiting for you to take home.

Using the Virtual World to Improve Our World

Virtual environments and social networking websites have become valuable tools for elearning and distance collaboration, often being used as a means for urging social change.

On June 3, the University of Michigan-Dearborn will host a free conference to discuss new and innovative approaches for using these applications to address societal issues. The conference, Using the Virtual World to Improve Our World, will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the UM-Dearborn campus and simultaneously in the online virtual world of Second Life. The event is sponsored by Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services.

Conference attendees will hear from guest speakers working in industry, non-profits, government and universities who are using various forms of technology to change society.

“This forum and discussion will provide for the exchange of best practices and innovative ideas that can accelerate the pace of change,” according to Bruce Maxim, associate professor of computer and information science at UM-Dearborn, who is coordinating the conference.

Those interested in attending the conference should register with Deborah Stark-Knight at 313.593.3403 or dstark@umich.edu by May 28.

Tweeting the Tech UnConference at MSU

Along with some of my coworkers, I attended a Technology UnConference at Michigan State University Main Library on May 15.

What is an unconference?

You know how people say that the best part of going to a conference is the networking? Not that prepared workshops aren’t informative, but it is always valuable to make contact with a colleague from a different workplace who is dealing with a similar situation as you are.

Well, imagine an entire conference of networking. No prepared presentations. No main sessions with limited discussion. Just 50 or so librarians coming together and sharing ideas, in greater or lesser detail, depending on each one’s particular interest.

That was the Technology UnConference. And it worked surprisingly well.

At the UnConference, as is said, "there is no agenda, until we make one up." We spent a few minutes brainstorming technology topics of interest. Nine ideas were put forward, including using content management software for websites, teaching technology to the public, and integrating social network sites into our work. Then, for the rest of the day, we divided and redivided into different small groups at different times, to discuss these ideas. The main sessions – save one – consisted not of a panel of experts, but report backs from the groups and further discussion.

This structure – or unstructure? – allowed for a maximum number of voices, experiences, and lessons to be heard.

One of the most interesting things to me was that several of us posted our thoughts about the UnConference on Twitter, the microblog site, tagging our tweets with #techuncamp.

For me, this meant two things. First, by reading other attendees’ tweets in real time, I felt like I was in several side conversations. This meant that I didn’t have only my own reaction to what I was hearing, but I could read others’ reactions. Oftentimes, these were insightful, informative, or just plain funny. This enhanced my experience as I felt like I was constantly engaged at different levels of discussion.

Second, by using the tag #techuncamp – which is searchable in Twitter – we made sure that our tweets were kept together. I can now search #techuncamp and find a record of all the side discussions, packed with tips, websites, and good people to follow. Or you can search #techuncamp and do the same, almost as if you were there.

The Technology UnConference was time well spent.

If you use Twitter, follow The Tech Desk @tpltechnology or me @pjkwik.

Guatemalan Protests Organized and Covered on Social Sites

Social network sites – blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – are again being used both to report and to create breaking news, this time in Guatemala.

On May 10, attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg was assassinated in Guatemala City. After he was killed, a video was released on YouTube in which Rosenberg said he feared he would be assassinated, and that if he were, those responsible would be operating at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.

Now, social network sites across the Central American country are calling for Colom's impeachment and trial. Anti-Colom protesters are using the sites to livestream demonstrations and other actions against the government.

As in Mumbai last November, and in Moldova in April, social network sites are central to how fast-breaking, current news is created and delivered.

[via BoingBoing]

Twitter Users Don't Last Long: Revisited

Recently, I wrote about a Nielsen Online study which reported that 60% of Twitter users stop using the social network, micro-blog site within a month of joining. That study received a fair amount of criticism from the Twitter community. Tweeters believed that the study underestimated the size of their community because it failed to measure applications and other websites that feed into Twitter.

In response, Nielsen redid the numbers, taking into account more than 30 websites and applications that feed into Twitter including: TweetDeck, TwitPic, Twitstat, Hootsuite, EasyTweets, Tumblr, and many others.

The results, according to Nielsen's Vice President of Primary Research David Martin, "verified our initial findings: about 60% of people on Twitter end up abandoning the service after a month. The year-long retention curve looks very much the same as the one for just Twitter.com."

Twitter Users Don't Last Long

This from Yahoo Tech!:

Today's Twitters are often tomorrow's quitters, according to data that questions the long-term success of the latest social networking sensation used by celebrities from Oprah Winfrey to Britney Spears.

Data from Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, found that more than 60% of Twitter users stopped using the free social networking site a month after joining.

"Twitter's audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month's users who come back the following month, is currently about 40%," David Martin, Nielsen Online's vice president of primary research, said in a statement.

"For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30% retention."
San Francisco-based Twitter was created three years ago as an Internet-based service that could allow people to follow the 140-character messages or "tweets" of friends and celebrities which could be sent to computer screens or mobile devices.

Twitter, as a private company, does not disclose the number of its users but according to Nielsen Online, Twitter's website had more than 7 million unique visitors in February this year compared to 475,000 in February a year ago.

But Martin said a retention rate of 40% will limit a site's growth to a 10% reach figure over the longer term.

Martin said Facebook and MySpace, the more established social network sites, enjoyed retention rates that were twice as high and those rates only rose when they went through their explosive growth phases.

Both currently have retention rates of about 70% with Facebook having about 200 million users.

Men and Women Use the Internet Differently

Men make up a minority of the overall Internet population – those who access the Internet at least once a month from any location. There are 95.9 million men online (48.2%) and 103.2 million women online (51.8%).

However, according to eMarketer, men go online more often; are more active on social networking sites; read and write more blogs; listen to more podcasts; stay on for longer; and are not as bothered by "websites cluttered with ads" as women are.

The U.S. male Internet population is evenly split between those under and over the age of 35, with the largest group falling between 35 and 44. "Marketers may be overlooking a valuable demographic if they target only 18-to-34-year-old males. Advertising messages steeped in college humor and sex do not resonate with the millions of male Internet users who are researching products and services — and jobs — while shopping and connecting with friends and family," writes eMarketer.

This report confirms earlier reports on how men and women use the Internet differently. In 2008, four reports compared the behaviors of men and women online:

• Nielsen Online found that men prefer user-generated video sites (like YouTube) while women take more of a liking to video streams of TV shows (such as those offered from Hulu);
• social web search company Rapleaf put out a report saying that men are more likely to use social networks for business while women use them to build personal relationships;
• men are also more likely than women to share their writings, photos, videos, and other creations online, according to Northwestern University; and
• men think they're the kings of Internet security, even though they're equally affected by security threats as women.

[via ars technica]

55% of U.S. Adults Used the Internet to Participate in the 2008 Presidential Election

More than half of U.S. adults used the Internet to participate in the 2008 election – the first time that threshold has been crossed – according to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Some 55% searched for political news online, researched candidate positions, debated issues or otherwise participated in the election over the Internet. Among the findings:

• 45% of Internet users watched online videos related to politics or the election;
• 33% of Internet users shared political content with others;
• 52% of those on a social network used it for political purposes.

The Internet has grown steadily as a source of political news since 2000, when 11% of voters went online to keep up with political developments. That figure now stands at 26%. Among young voters and those with broadband connections the Internet has eclipsed traditional media like television, radio and newspapers, the survey found.

Read the full report.

[via Yahoo!Tech]

New Social Networking Site for Unemployed

The University of Michigan’s School of Information and the United Way for Southeastern Michigan have teamed up to create Neighbors4Neighbors, an interactive website that uses social networking technology to connect unemployed workers with each other.

Visitors to the site can get and give advice on the things that matter when someone loses a job. The site has two components, an online discussion forum that lets people share advice with each other, and a “widget,” or online program that can be put on partnering websites that have information for the unemployed. Questions and comments that are created via the widgets on partnering sites will be mirrored on the Neighbors4Neighbors discussion forums.

“This site demonstrates an efficient, low-cost application of social computing,” Professor Paul Resnick, the primary architect of the site, explains. “Many sites already aim to help unemployed workers find information or job leads, but they don’t have a way to connect everyone who is visiting the page. Neighbors4Neighbors pulls people and information together to create a community.”

Neighbors4Neighbors is a project of Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm’s Keep Michigan Working Task Force.

A Twitter Revolution?

For three days last week, students in the Eastern European country of Moldova protested against alleged voting irregularities by the country’s Communist party. The protests ranged from massive demonstrations to violent takeovers of federal buildings and battles with police.

According to several online news sources, the protests were organized through social networking sites, especially Twitter. From TechCrunch:

"In the last 48 hours, students from Moldova have been tweeting, trying to rally others into demonstrating against the communists… you can see the tweets about the demonstration coming in a rapid pace. There are also videos on YouTube of the protest...

Twitter has long-been been a popular platform for breaking news, but this adds a new twist to the powerful capabilities of the micro-blogging service. The protests no doubt would have happened anyway and it is not clear how may of the actual protesters in Moldova are on Twitter. But it seems to be helping both as a coordinating tool and as a way to disseminate information about the events that are unfolding to the rest of the world.

An article on Wired, on the other hand, is more skeptical about the impact of social sites in this event:

"Daniel Bennett, a researcher on new media and conflict, offers a contrarian view on the influence of Twitter. After studying the evidence, he concludes that Moldova's Twitter community is quite minuscule, and its role in organizing the protests has been overstated. "As it stands," he argues, "the Twitter revolution is a myth."

The Moldovan government, however, was worried enough about the impact of Twitter that it charged activist Natalia Morar, one of the Twitter organizers of some of the activities, with “calls for organizing and staging mass disturbances.”

Does Tweeting at Work Make You More Productive?

Here is one to tell your boss next time you are tweeting on Twitter or friending someone on Facebook while at work:

According to a study of 300 workers conducted by the University of Melbourne, Australia, those who surf the Internet for personal reasons during office hours are about 9% more productive than those who do not.

Brent Coker, of the University’s department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," helped to sharpened workers' concentration.

"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker explained on the university’s website. "Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity."

Among the most popular workplace browsing activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

[via wired.com]

How Big of a Mess is the Internet?

Is the Internet a mess that needs government regulation to clean it up?

Or does it function just fine the way it is?

Read a commentary from the American Library Association TechSource blog that argues the first point: "Like the economic crisis, the Internet is... a giant mess that no one really understands... In the United States, can we point to any government or private agency that is truly in charge of regulating the Internet? Is anyone truly charged with the task of preventing online piracy, identity theft or child endangerment that can come from Internet use?"

What do you think? My thoughts can be found in the comments section of the ALA post.

President's Online Town Hall Meeting a Good Use of the Technology

I watched part of President Obama's online town hall meeting this morning. In all, 92,933 peopel went online to submit 104,077 questions and cast 3,605,999 votes on which questions should be answered by the President. Five questions were chosen.

Though there were no new policy announcements made, the online meeting was an interesting political event. It was well-choreographed and excellently streamed, and a nice use of social networking media.

While I would have preferred a real-time online meeting, I think that the Administration made good use of the technology. If this will lead to more openness and transparency in government, it will be a good thing.

Baby Boomers Are Adopting New Technology Faster than Others

A new Consumer Electronics Usage Survey from Accenture indicates that Baby Boomers (those over 45 years old) are adopting consumer technology nearly 20 times faster than younger generations. Meanwhile, use and adoption by Gen Y (18-28 years old) seems to have leveled off.

According to the report, Boomers:

• increased reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67% year over the year; nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1%);
• posted a 59% increase in using social networking sites — more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2%);
• increased watching/posting videos on the Internet by 35% — while Gen Y usage decreased slightly (-2%);
• accelerated playing video games on the go via mobile devices by 52% — 20 times faster than Gen Y (2%); and
• increased listening to music on an iPod or other portable music player by 49% — more than four times faster than Gen Y (12%).

[via iLibrarian]

Ten Social Sites to Improve Your Resume

Looking for a job?

Here are ten social sites with features that let you create your own resume-like profile, edit your resume online, get it reviewed by experts, print it, and share it on social networks.

[via mashable]

Improve Your Vacation with Social Networking Sites

Now that summer is coming soon -- it is, right? -- I am sure you are starting to plan your summer holiday.

Mashable has some suggestions for how to use social media to make the most of your next vacation.