Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Twitter must give up WikiLeaks data

Last Thursday, a federal judge ordered Twitter to give up information about three account holders, Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp, and Birgitta Jonsdottir, under investigation for possible connections to WikiLeaks.

The case began in January, when Twitter was subpoenaed to hand over private messages between founder Julian Assange and other members of the organization to the U.S. government.

This is a monumental case for online privacy, and those involved are taking to Twitter to talk about it. In a blog post that he tweeted a link to, Gonggrijp stated “there’s not a whole lot you can learn from records that Twitter has on me that you can’t learn from reading my blog. There are bigger principles at stake, though, and this is not a good ruling for online privacy.”

Ashton Kutcher hands over Twitter feed

Last Wednesday night, Ashton Kutcher tweeted “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste” before finding out that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was fired for his ties to the sex abuse scandal at Penn State. He deleted the tweet, but not before receiving massive backlash in the form of angry replies.

Kutcher later admitted he had not heard about the scandal and thought Paterno had been fired due to “poor performance as an aging coach.”

He had to quickly backpedal to manage the situation, tweeting “As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case.” To add context to the situation, Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore run an anti-sex slavery charity.

He also tweeted “As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won’t happen again.” His feed stayed silent, but on Thursday he published a blog post titled Twitter Management on Posterous offering an explanation of his side of the story. In the blog post, he also explained that he has handed the management of his Twitter feed to his team at Katalyst Media.

Salman Rushdie uses Twitter to solve his Facebook problems

On Monday, world-famous author Salman Rushdie found that his Facebook account had been deleted over the weekend.

He sent them a copy of his passport to prove he really was who he said he was, but the passport showed his full name as Ahmed Salman Rushdie. Facebook then reactivated the account under the name Ahmed Rushdie.

After Facebook failed to respond to Rushdie’s requests, so he took to Twitter and his followers to help him. After filling in his followers, he put his faith in them, saying “Am now hoping that ridicule by the Twitterverse will achieve what I can’t.”

He also tweeted lists of other famous and historical figures that go by their middle names rather than first under the hashtag #middlenameusers. Sure enough, within two hours Facebook finally responded and within another hour had apologized to the author. After all was resolved, Rushdie tweeted “Victory! #Facebook has buckled! I’m Salman Rushdie again. I feel SO much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun. Thank you Twitter!”

Like what you’ve read? Click here to subscribe to this blog!

GetGlue: Check-In to Entertainment

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Social media sites are a place to share info about yourself with other people…whether they’re actually interested or not.  People share what they ate for dinner, where they are, and what they’re doing, and there are a lot of apps that facilitate that.  Foursquare lets you “check-in” to locations and see who is nearby.  GetGlue is similar in that you “check-in” to different things, but instead of focusing on location, its focus is entertainment.

With GetGlue, you can share with your followers what TV shows you watch, what music you listen to, the books you enjoy, and more.  Last week, they also added the ability to check-in to magazines, newspapers, and blogs.  Once you check in using their website, a mobile app, or the mobile website, you can rate and comment on the entertainment.  You can then discuss with other users, follow users, and view suggestions for you.  It’s a great way to find new TV shows, movies, games, and books.

GetGlue also has some just-for-fun features similar to Foursquare’s.  Instead of Mayors and badges, GetGlue features Gurus and stickers.  Each item (book, movie, etc.) has a “Guru,” the person who earns the most points commenting and interacting with other users about that item.  You can also earn stickers for certain achievements.  Stickers are awarded for certain actions, as well as checking in to certain shows at certain times.  There are a lot of secret stickers, so it’s always fun trying to figure out how to get them!  The best part about stickers is that they’re not just virtual.  You can actually redeem them and have them mailed to you.  I’m having so much fun collecting stickers and can’t wait until I can redeem them!

Are you a Glue-er too?  Do you have a new favorite book, TV show, or movie because of the site?  Let us know!

Like what you’ve read? Click here to subscribe to this blog!

Exploring and Explaining Google Plus

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

By now, you have probably heard some buzz about Google Plus, but haven’t been able to find out much about it.  In case you haven’t heard of it at all, Google Plus is Google’s social networking site, meant to be an extension of Google and integrated into its other products.  It is still in field testing, so only a limited number of people have been able to try it.  But the fact that I can’t try it myself yet makes me even more curious about it!

I have spent endless hours trying to find out as much as I can about the new project and taking the interactive tours, so that when I finally get my invite I can jump on-board and immediately get the most out of the project.  While it is Google’s answer to Facebook, it has a very different user interface and can at first seem very confusing to people that are used to Facebook.  So while I’m sitting here waiting for my invite, I’ll break down some of the features that make Plus so innovative and different from Facebook.

  • Circles: Organize your friends into circles, similar to friend lists on Facebook and Twitter but much easier to manage.  While it takes many steps to add a Facebook friend to a friend list, you can simply drag and drop friends into Circles.
  • Hangouts: Hangouts let you video chat with a group of friends and let others know where you are so they can stop by.
  • Sparks: This content recommendation system lets you select topics you are interested in and recommends articles, pictures, and video that you can share with friends.
  • Photos: This feature allows you to upload photos and, unlike Facebook, actually edit them right there.

What do you think of Google Plus?  Will you be trying it out or are you perfectly fine sticking to Facebook and Twitter?

Like what you’ve read? Click here to subscribe to this blog!

Social Media and the Vancouver Stanley Cup Riots

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

In game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, the Vancouver Canucks lost 4 to 0 to rivals Boston Bruins last night in Vancouver. The die-hard hockey town erupted in fan riots in the streets, all of which was documented via social media sites.

Just imagine: glass bottles and shoes flying through the air, cars burning in the streets, smashed store front windows, and a truck turned upside down while demonstrators jump on its upturned belly. Actually, you don’t have to imagine this violent scene because it was all caught on camera and posted on sites like Twitpic, YouTube, yfrog, Facebook, and Twitter.

In addition to the photographic online documentation, there was of course a flood of status updates and comments publicizing the scene. This particular video of the riots is getting comments every second from angry and disappointed viewers. Both Americans and Canadians are describing the event and those involved deplorable, disgusting, pathetic, repulsive, and disgraceful.

What are your thoughts on the reaction to the Canucks loss?

The positive impact that social media is having on the city of Vancouver is the Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr groups that are urging people to help clean up the aftermath. As of 10:00 am today, the Facebook group “Post Riot Clean-up – Let’s help Vancouver” has over 12,000 attendees willing to aid in the effort.

Creators of the movement posted this message on the page: “Once the embarrassing rioting has ended in Vancouver let’s all show the world what Vancouver is really about by helping rebuild and clean up so it is better than it was before. If any city can bounce back from an embarrassment like this it is Vancouver!”

Social media is also playing a role in assisting the police in identifying and finding those “bad apples” leading the riots. The Twitter account @vancouverclean and the Tumblr blog “Vancouver 2011 Riot Criminal List” are utilizing photographs and the public to find and arrest rioters.

So, if you are able to identify anyone in these disturbing images, please contact Vancouver police.

Like what you’ve read? Click here to subscribe to this blog!

Athlete’s Double Edged Sword: Social Media

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

In today’s world, if you can make a normal process instant–Americans can’t help but feel that warm fuzzy feeling inside. Americans love the new, faster Ipad 2, Barack Obama gained clout over the public forums on Facebook for real-time, two-way communication, and now more athletes are joining the quick, social networking sites.

With the Detroit Red Wings on the verge of making history, defeating the San Jose Sharks for the third game in a row, fans feel much more unified on Facebook.  Conversing with a few friends may stimulate interesting conversation, but interacting with 400,000 users who “liked” the Detroit Red Wings Fanpage seems more involved.

The diverse and rich posts from facebookers across the nation creates a wealth of information and opinion. One Detroit Red Wings Fan said in excitement, “The Detroit Red Wings goals are like hotcakes at IHop, they keep stacking up.” On the sport team’s fanpage, large volumes of witty posts fuel a stronger fanbase and sense of pride for the Red Wings.

Although, on other social media outlets such as Twitter some athletes suffer the candid scrutiny of their fans. Reggie Bush tweeted on the touchy topic of the NFL lockout when he said, “Everybody complaining about the lockout! Shoot I’m making the most of it! Vacation, rest, relaxing, appearances here and there! I’m good!” As a result, electrifying debate ensued among the Twitter world and many lost respect for his unprofessional attitude.

In addition, Darron Gibson received a barrage of not-so-flattering tweets during his two hour debut on Twitter. Fans and reporters speculate his ego could not tolerate the fan’s anathema towards him, so he consequently deleted his account.

The new age of news dissemination for athletes creates an exciting world where stardom can be acquired. Beware, professional athletes who indulge on twitter, truthfully expressing your opinion may be interesting, but the response of fan’s tweets may hurt your ego!

Like what you’ve read? Click here to subscribe to this blog!