He begins his presentation by stating that it was about 6500 days ago when Berners-Lee created the first web page. The internet began as something which linked computers. Next, web pages emerged and links were shared. Finally, the data within the pages began to become linked with each other. Mr. Kelly describes this process as un-structuring everything in the world down its most elemental form, and then restructuring it so that machines can read it. This restructuring of literally everything in the world and throwing it on the web is what many call “The Cloud.” 

Anyways, the interesting part of the presentation is how Mr. Kelly thinks the next 6500 days will be. When the internet was in its infancy, people were describing it as “TV, only better.” Obviously that is not the case. Mr. Kelly rightly states that when we try to describe the next 6500 days of the web, we would be very foolish to say, “The Web, only better.”

Enjoy the whole video!

Kevin kelly web 2.0

Thanks to The Future of Music blog.

Electronic billboards have been taking some heat lately from officials across the country trying to regulate them more.

Al Tompkins at Poynter Online recently compiled some examples of the issues over these billboards for his Morning Meeting blog.

Business folks like them, some people are concerned about them leading to distracted drivers and still others are seeing them as a revenue source for transportation departments.

I’m not a big fan of the electronic billboards at night but during the day they don’t seem that annoying. I suppose they could be more distracting than your standard billboards. But is anybody even bothering anymore to look away from text messaging to read billboards while driving? (Sorry, it’s hard to make a sentence drip with sarcasm the way your voice can.)

Here in Lansing, Michigan, Adams Outdoor recently started offering up their digital billboards for Amber Alerts issued by local law enforcement agencies. It’s a noble cause, so maybe they’ll get some support through their charitable efforts.

Given that they can do updates so quickly, maybe Adams has a market for some enterprising CEO who wants to link their Twitter posts to the billboard and, voila, tweets 10 feet high!

What’s your take on these billboards now dotting the landscape? Are they helpful technology or an electronic nightmare? Or, maybe, could they serve a better purpose if they were linked to regular updates rather than just being a digital format of a paper message?

]]> http://digitalpivot.com/2008/11/tweets-10-feet-high/feed/ http://digitalpivot.com/2008/11/what-do-you-think-of-ads-in-social-media/ http://digitalpivot.com/2008/11/what-do-you-think-of-ads-in-social-media/#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:49:02 +0000 AlmaGray http://digitalpivot.com/?p=1088 I don’t mind ads on social sites, as long as they’re not spammy in nature. I think the less obtrusive the better. Many would rather have none at all, but this is the real world we live in. I am conflicted as a social media participant and business owner.(I don’t advertise on social sites.) I try to empathize with consumers and treat them the way I’d like to be treated. I can understand how a person can get pissed off at the prospect of a company trying to sell them something when they’re on a social site. I’ve come to find two…

I don’t mind ads on social sites, as long as they’re not spammy in nature. I think the less obtrusive the better. Many would rather have none at all, but this is the real world we live in. I am conflicted as a social media participant and business owner.(I don’t advertise on social sites.) I try to empathize with consumers and treat them the way I’d like to be treated. I can understand how a person can get pissed off at the prospect of a company trying to sell them something when they’re on a social site. I’ve come to find two sides to this issue and I found myself conflicted yet again.(http://tinyurl.com/57pu7y) What are your thoughts?

]]>

So what is it? This social media thing? (Read this article to get a grasp of what I’m talking about: http://tinyurl.com/6bz4×4).I see it as user generated content, a means of communicating. I don’t agree with all the viewpoints in the article, but I can agree that it’s a creation of the people, for the people. I think too much focus is being placed on nailing down a specific definition when what people need to realize is the beauty of social media. It is something that is dynamic/ever changing, and that’s the same with society. What are your thoughts?

The study, started in 2005, had 5000 hours of researchers observing how teenagers interact on sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites.

“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report’s lead author. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”

This is a surprising outcome, and it changes the game for parents. When I was a young girl, my best friend lived down the block. This generation of children are connecting with others that live on the opposite side of the world. It’s helping to foster tolerance and understanding, and it’s exposing kids to other cultures and ideals that they might have only read about otherwise. Learning how to navigate interactions with others will lead to being more comfortable dealing with people in the business world, and with how to make a point without offending anyone.

Social interaction isn’t the only thing that has changed the way our youth matures. Being able to access any information, by simply searching for it, has changed the level of intelligence and competence in teenagers. If a young boy wants to learn how to upgrade his computer, or play the guitar, or what the most popular rock song of all times is, they merely have to google it. I know that when my kids ask me a question, if I don’t know the answer, or if I think they need to learn more than I can share with them, I tell them to look it up. Finding knowledge on your own is much more likely to be retained than something just spouted off after a question.

I think the most important thing to remember is that, as a parent, you need to monitor where your kids are frequenting online, and who they are having contact with.

This news comes at such a morbid time in the world of print media. National Geographic seems to be making moves to reach out to its younger readers. Instead of just watching things deteriorate, the picturesque magazine is putting forth some innovative effort. Who knows what the developers have in store, but I can imagine game plots ranging in anything from escaping the Amazon to leading a nation in a strategy based scenario. 

Thanks to Digital Media Wire.

The magazine, which was started in 1982, has a storied history, but its print base eroded over the years as its core brand of journalism—news you can use while shopping for computers—moved online. It cut back from bi-weekly to monthly earlier this year.

The site will still be called PCMag.com, but the sub sites will be renamed and reorganized into one division, PCMag Digital Network.

There have been concerns about whether or not the issues will still be published as a digital edition. It will be, as explained here.

It arrives in your e-mail automatically. Just click the link to either download the latest edition, or to view it entirely online.

It is portable. Once you’ve downloaded the issue (which takes a matter of seconds), just power up your PC and view it anywhere, on an airplane, in your hotel room, wherever.

It looks like the PC Magazine you’re familiar and comfortable with. I know why you’ve stuck with us all these years. You like the magazine and you enjoy the format. Our digital platform makes it possible to deliver that same magazine experience on your PC. So you can “turn” the pages and view our features and departments as you do now.

It’s lively and interactive. Our digital edition will eventually offer rich media options within a magazine format. So, for example, next to the product review you’re reading in First Looks, you can easily view a slideshow of that product. Or while you’re reading a Solutions article on Microsoft Outlook tips, our PC Labs experts can walk you through the steps of some of those tips in a video.

Yes, you can print it. You can print as many pages of the magazine as you want.

It’s searchable. Here’s something PC Magazine print cannot do. Enter a search term and PC Magazine Digital will fill all the related pages.

A live TOC: The table of contents is not only a place to find out what’s in this month’s issue. You can use it to navigate directly to the stories you want to read.

It’s Green: You can actually feel good about the amount of paper, ink, and gas we’ll all be saving by not producing and consuming a physical magazine.

If you are a current subscriber, and they have your email address, you don’t have to do anything, they will convert your subscription to the digital edition. If they don’t have it, you can go here,http://go.pcmag.com/subscriberservices and follow the direction to have your subscription converted.

While both sites offer virually the same concept, they each have different features, some of which might help you to make up your mind about which service works better for your needs.

Yelp.com says real people, real reviews drive their site. It works better for larger, metropolitan areas. I searched my local area, and there are some reviews on the site, but many of them are random and there are only a handful of restaurant reviews for my area.

Yelp offers the option of receiving weekly emails detailing what is hot in your area, as well as ways to connect with other yelpers in your area. Their mobile site is basic, but very reliable,

CitySearch.com is another review site, and the standard experience is very similar to Yelp. CitySearch, though, has released a Beta version, which rolls out its Facebook Connect  tie in. The beta draws the search down into neighborhoods and also all which allows Facebook users to review and participate without creating a CitySearch Id.

They’ve alo rolled out a way to balance the reviews between users and businesses. This will allow reviews to be voted up or down.

The mobile experience has been modified as well. It is using Google Gears for anyone using a phone with Windows Mobile 5 or higher. This will customize the content to be more relevant to the current users location.

TroopTube was developed as a way for troops to upload and share videos and information, from where ever they may be.

TroopTube is the new online video site designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart. The site is designed for easy use, so you can quickly upload videos and share the simple joys of each day with each other, either privately or with the whole world.

This is a quick and easy way for families to stay in touch, and for troops to share videos about whatever might be happening near them. It will be especially useful this holiday season when so many family members are separated by so many miles.

To learn how to rick-roll someone in your life, check out what Twilio has to offer.

Twilio’s information says that it allows Web Apps to make and receive phone calls. This has the potential to be awesome, and I think the idea of rick-rolling someone on their cell phone is hilarious, as long as it’s done to a person with the right sense of humor.

This shows that sometimes having a sense of humor and a willingness to annoy someone can often work in getting the word out about your idea or service. Don’t be afraid to take a chance.