ss_blog_claim=5f03e3e7fa6ca8c951b6fbd30fa71c10 2008 November | Digital Pivot

Monthly archives

Shedding Light on Financial Darkness

Against the recent U.S. presidential election and the ongoing world financial crisis, we’ve entered a cycle where Internet and digital new media news and information is loudly showing itself equal or superior to its mainstream media counterparts. November began with Nate Silver’s incomparable prediction of the election down to a tenth of a percent at FiveThirtyEight.com. The month ended with Michael Lewis’ superb essay, “The End of Wall Street’s Boom,” at Conde Nast entity Portfolio.com.  Lewis earlier chronicled Wall Street’s excesses in “Liar’s Poker.”  In his current essay, Lewis profiles several honest and decent Wall Street people who tried to expose the credit…

Social media meets Anthropology 101

In one of her best posts ever, the up-and-coming social media maven Shannon Paul has laid out some great thoughts on social media and how to break in to it as a tourist breaks in to any new culture.

Check it out at her Very Official Blog.

Big Tweet

Feeling limited by Twitter’s 140 character limit? Want a simpler way to share a URL without having to go to an external website?

Then BigTweet might be just what you are looking for.

Big Tweet is a bookmarklet that lives in your browser, and that you can use to share webpages and interesting bits of the internet.
Big Tweet differs from most twitter apps in that it allows a user to send tweets larger than 140 characters, by breaking them up into sequential tweets.

Entering your twitter credentials is necessary, but according to the makers of Big Tweet, all the information…

70s TV versus the iPod Era

Tomorrow, here in the U.S.A., is the most traditional of holidays, Thanksgiving Day, and tonight television renewed one of its oldest traditions – the “variety show.”  While still popular in some parts of the world, the mix of song, dance, comedy, and other acts faded from U.S. television in the 1980s except for occasional special presentations.   I found tonight’s “Rosie Live” reasonably entertaining overall.  So I await the overnight and full ratings with great interest.

Host Rosie O’Donnell believes the timing may be right for a variety show comeback because, just as during the genre’s 1970s high mark, the economy is in…

The power of social media

Just read this tweet from @mayhemstudios retweet of @domestic_diva good news. Apparently via a social media campaign to help her find a kidney donor for her daughter, there was an overwhelming international response. Amazing the power of social media. I think this is an example of the true importance of social media in today’s world. Thanks to @mayhemstudios for the tweet and best wishes to @domestic_diva and her daughter.

Got $30,000? Build an iPhone App

So everybody these days have ideas for the next GREAT iPhone app. I certainly have a few. I’ve never really considered building any of these apps, and now that I have seen some numbers on what it would take, I definitely won’t.

But hey, if you’ve got 30K laying around and a great idea for an iPhone app, why not, right?

O’Reilly Digital Media has a recent article which explores the costs of designing and creating an iPhone app. Check it out here!

Careful what you post.

People often forget how easy it is to find out about a person online. Especially job applicants. After reading this article , I must say I side with the employer. I think the employee was rather greedy and got what he deserved. Dishonesty is easily uncovered online. He basically did it to himself–especially in picking monster.com to post his resume on. Not the brightest bulb in the box, so the employer is probably better off without him. Seems anymore what you place online is fair game to just about anyone who is looking.

Microblogging for music fans.

Be a dj, well, at least on blip.fm
It’s as addictive as Twitter once you get started. I guess I’ll have to find a blip.fm addict’s group in addition to my Twitters Anonymous membership. Happy listening.

Turkey Day 2.0

For those readers in the United States getting ready to settle in for a Thanksgiving food fest, help with preparations is now just a click away.

Need any last-minute ideas for recipes? Wondering how big of a turkey you need to feed your family with just a few leftovers? Want help from the live Turkey Talk Line?

This and more is available at the Butterball Turkey web site.

Think of it as the modern version of finding Native Americans to save your hide this Thanksgiving.

crowdSPRING

crowdSPRING is a great place to find creative resources. Here is the concept behind this innovative website:

1.) Post a creative project and attach a cost for what you are willing to pay to the winner.

2.) Creatives contribute actual project work (e.g. logo, widget, website design, etc.)

3.) Pick a winner of the entries: You receive the creative work and they receive the prize money.