Archive for December, 2007
Networking For The Second Time, Eu Regulators Approve Sony Bmg Merger
Posted on Dec 23, 2007 05:55:04 PM
Today, European Union regulators gave their consent for the second time Wednesday to the merger undertaken by Sony and Bertelsmann, clearing with no conditions the deal that will create the second-largest music group in the world.
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Software Turnhere Expands Publisher’s Book Network
Posted on Dec 22, 2007 06:05:03 PM
Admin wrote:
TurnHere, the online video service, is expanding its multi-publisher book network, Bookvideos.tv. It’s purpose is to promote videos from publishing houses for which it’s created videos. As with other services that TurnHere produces videos for, it will expand a video’s reach beyond its own network to include YouTube and other media-sharing sites across the web.
So far, partners include Bantam Dell, Doubleday Broaday and Simon & Schuster, to name just a few. And interestingly enough, Simon & Schuster has been mentioned a few times on Mashable in recent months, and it’s becoming clear that the book publishing industry is making a larger push to become integrated into online marketing and social networking as well. It’s got a campaign with MuseStorm, it’s working with FanLib, and has an existing branded channel it launched with the help of TurnHere.
TurnHere recently partnered with HVCB for similar purposes, but with Bookvideos.tv, TurnHere is branching off in a niche direction. It’s all about marketing, and it’s taking a very similar approach that we witnessed with online music marketing tools. With music, artists and labels could create online press kits and work their way into online networks for viral marketing.
This is similar to how Bookvideos.tv operates, and I imagine all those other book communities like Shelfari and BookTours could benefit from a more open approach to their networks that would allow Bookvideos to insert media for added benefits that work for TurnHere and users. On the flipside, Bookvideos has already begun going in this direction, with options for discussing the book on Newsvine, subscription options and more.
Brand New Internet 4cast Podcast #25: Library Web Presence
Posted on Dec 21, 2007 11:35:05 PM
Admin wrote: For years, libraries have been issued the challenge of creating an effective (but not overly invasive) web presence. For many libraries, the extent of this presence can be found in a single location—the library website. This is an excellent start, but what else can libraries do to ensure ongoing virtual visibility in their communities?In this 4cast Podcast, Laura Watkins (OPLIN Library Services Manager) returns from the annual Internet Librarian conference with six tangible ways that libraries can improve their web presence. (Source: The OPLIN 4cast)
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New Actions Metrofunk Is Ning For Trendsetters
Posted on Dec 21, 2007 04:30:19 AM
Admin wrote:
Metrofunk is the latest to create a trend-setting site aimed for the networking of creatives, from fashion designers, to filmmakers and party promoters. The site has not yet launched, but is scheduled to go live in mid-November.
Artists and businesses alike can use metrofunk for self-promotion with the creation of their own, branded networks. The purpose is to offer up channels of distribution, for pushing their own products. The tools for this promotion is what you’d expect: blogs, music, photos, videos, events, etc.
Metrofunk’s part in all of this is to provide a central hub for content being created through its branded networks. It can categorize content according to its four verticals: nightlife, fashion, film and music. As with other sites where you can create your own network, individuals can join your network.
Content is pushed through these networks in a Digg-like voting system, taking advantage of the popularity contest mindset that many trend-setters are born with. Incentives for the creation of your network are monetization opportunities. Dripbook and Behance are other networks for creatives while Ning and MyLifeBrand offer branded social networks. 944life and similar sites aim to bring the forefront of culture to users for promotional purposes as well.
[via centernetworks]
New Updated 15 Years Of Text Messages, A ‘cultural Phenomenon’
Posted on Dec 20, 2007 12:35:18 PM
Today, Billions of text messages fly through the air every day, and they are a bedrock of profit for telecommunications companies. They have inspired their own shorthand, and relationships live and die by them.
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New Scripting Facebook About To Jump Shark?
Posted on Dec 19, 2007 01:15:11 PM
Today, Via Phil Bradley, this article from the New York TimesFacebook began selling ads that display people’s profile photos next to commercial messages that are shown to their friends about items they purchased or registered an opinion about.For example, going forward, a Facebook user who rents a movie on Blockbuster.com will be asked if he would like to have his movie choice broadcast out to all his friends on Facebook. And those friends would have no choice but to receive that movie message, along with an ad from Blockbuster.Like Phil, this seems like a bad idea to me. As he says: I don’t actually think it’s going to work that well - I have several groups of friends on FB - some of them are work colleagues, some are friends from science fiction conventions and others are friends from different places. This is NOT a homogeneous grouping of people. Sure, some may be interested in some of the things I like to read or buy, but not all of them will.It’s also going to work the other way around as well - if friends start pumping adverts through to me… I’m still going to get the spam… and they’re not going to stay my friend for long.Including brands in FB is fine; there’s been some interesting discussion about creating library ‘brands’ (on TameTheWeb, among other places). Something that lets an individual connect with brands or organisations that they like? Fantastic. A way for people to discover others with the same interest, all voluntarily. But something that imposes those connections on that user’s friends? Not so great. Seems like a good idea with a less than ideal implementation. There’s also a final question: are these brands who they say they are? Which one is the real Manchester United? (sorry Phil, no Everton). (Source: VALIS)
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Scripting Crossloop Funded, Releases Version 2.0
Posted on Dec 19, 2007 01:10:04 AM
Admin wrote:
CrossLoop’s screen-sharing service has received $3 million in funding, and has made some major changes to its product. The biggest change is a pretty important improvement for CrossLoop–you can now create accounts. While the service was always free to download and use, there was previously no way to track your sessions, or login to a profile. That’s all changed with CrossLoop’s latest updates, and it appears to be geared specifically for those that utilize screen-sharing functionality for business purposes.
For example, a business that specializes in offering tech support will want its employees to be able to track each session, for a number of reasons: billing time, feedback, employee stats, etc. And CrossLoop takes most of this into consideration. That tech support employee can upload a picture, and promote himself on a public profile page where customers can see his areas of expertise and the number of sessions he’s had. Additionally, this information can be viewed in a badge that you can place on your website or blog.
After a session, both parties are able to leave feedback, which is applied to that employees stats and ratings. However, only a customer that is logged in will have their stats applied to the tech support employee. As the employee, you could encourage your customer to create a free account, but it may not hold as much value to that customer if they use it only one time. Hopefully CrossLoop will be able to find some way to extract feedback to be applied to ratings without having a customer need to create an account, especially for those business-oriented clients that CrossLoop is now going after. See here for more tools similar to CrossLoop.
Brand New Tutorial Vodafone Wins Round Against Iphone In Germany
Posted on Dec 18, 2007 08:11:56 AM
Today, T-Mobile will have to offer the iPhone to everyone, even without the 24-month contract that it has required for buyers of the cellphone, since it first went on sale in Germany.
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Brand New Tutorial Ibm’s 6th Iforum - 2010 Cio Outlook By Roo Reynolds - Metaverse Evangelist
Posted on Dec 17, 2007 01:25:02 PM
Today, One of the major highlights from the IBM iForum event taking place last week was certainly the networking bit going on all over the place with customers, business partners and IBMers talking about bringing innovation into the next level. Still remains one of the main reasons why I got to conferences and why I enjoy them so much! Without the networking taking place I doubt I would be going to most of them. Thus one of the things I was surely looking forward to was to be able to meet up again, in the same year, with the one and only Roo Reynolds, Metaverse Evangelist (How cool is that for a job title, eh?!?!). He was actually due to speak a couple of times during the course of the event, and this blog post will just briefly cover the first one of the speaker sessions he did. It certainly was great being able to catch up with him and keep the conversations going from the various social software tools we both hang out in. It just feels like we know each other forever and some of the conversations we had with various other people together were incredibly inspiring on keeping the dialogue going around the subject of social computing: challenges, adoption hurdles, how different businesses are opening up to social software, etc. etc.So when I saw he was speaking on the first day of the iForum event around the subject of "2010 CIO Outlook" I knew we were off to a great session and it surely was. One of the things that I enjoy the most from Roo’s presentation style is how well prepared he is with each and everyone of his pitches. So much so that he makes it very easy for us, attendees, to get the most of the session. And if not take a look. He did the presentation last week and way before the slide deck was available on his own blog. …
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New Software Confirmed: Facebook Caves, Changes Coming To Beacon
Posted on Dec 16, 2007 09:05:04 PM
Admin wrote:
It looks like Facebook has listened to the outcry from users and privacy groups about Beacon. Nick O’Neill has received word from the company that they will be making updates that will make user’s much more aware of information that could be published to their feeds based on actions they take on third-party sites.
Here’s the statement from Facebook:
Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly.
Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.
If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click “OK” to publish or click “remove” to not publish.
Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.
Clicking the “Help” link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process.
While it falls short of the global opt-out feature that our readers seemed to think Facebook would announce in today’s poll, this seems like a reasonable change that will make Beacon much more transparent. On the other hand, as Beacon adds more partners, being notified of all of these actions each time you login to Facebook could be a huge nuisance.