This short article by Rhea Kelly, published in Campus Technology on 1 March 2008 has some positive things to report about Twitter. (I was struggling to find much of a use for it, too!) She starts by lamenting the trend towards no longer reading books now that it's so much easier and quicker to read online sources such as blogs and so on.
She describes the experience of Dave Parry, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. After using Twitter with his students he suggested that what it IS good for is - "getting a sense of the world (what people around the globe are paying attention to at any moment); tracking language trends (how a word is used from post to post, or how the 140-character limit can affect spelling, grammar and communication); and utilizing a "public notepad"(gaining inspiration from the creativity of others)."
Parry feels that Twitter "can enhance a sense of classroom community". Twittering students came to see their fellow students as real people and not just fellow students they saw for a short time each week. They were more likely to speak up in and out of class and, even when not in class, to continue to discuss isssues raised in class. This, Parry said, reinforced and connected the issues and the real world.
In conclusion, Kelly says she'll be twittering some book recommendations as a way of encouraging people to read, or read more.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Science 2.0 - Is Open Access Science the Future?
Or, to rephrase the question, is posting raw results online, for all to see, a great tool or a great risk?
M Mitchell Waldrop's article discusses how Web 2.0 tools enhance the ability of researchers to communicate, collaborate and cooperate. This article is a very positive look at scientists' use of tools such as blogs, wikis, and so on, and it suggests ways that they will fit with the traditional publication process.
Published in Scientific American Magazine, April 21, 2008.
M Mitchell Waldrop's article discusses how Web 2.0 tools enhance the ability of researchers to communicate, collaborate and cooperate. This article is a very positive look at scientists' use of tools such as blogs, wikis, and so on, and it suggests ways that they will fit with the traditional publication process.
Published in Scientific American Magazine, April 21, 2008.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
HULU & new trends in program distribution
This report on ABC Radio National's Media Report on Thursday 24 April 2008 segues well from the previous post on the future of television.
Anthony Funnell talked to James McQuivey, a senior media analyst with Forrester Research in Boston.
James recently attended the 2008 conference of the National Association of Broadcasters. He came away feeling that the organisation should be renamed something like the National Association of Video Programmers because that's what the so-called broadcasters are now doing - they're getting into internet-delivered television (IPTV).
So what's HULU? Well, Wikipedia already has an entry for it so you can get an idea there of what it's about. It's a combination of shows from multiple broadcasters (with ads, which helps to pay for it). Users can share videos, or just the bits of videos that they want to share. This in turn gets more people interested in the shows and makes them want to look for and try more, and ... viral marketing takes off.
Anthony and James then moved on to the deal between MySpace and a British-based production company that allows users to post their own home-grown videos. The production company then picks up on any that it thinks have potential as the basis of successful professionallly produced shows. It makes them up and then users who've seen the original think, "Oh, there's a show now based on that video I saw? I must try it." Result? Viral marketing takes off.
Anthony Funnell talked to James McQuivey, a senior media analyst with Forrester Research in Boston.
James recently attended the 2008 conference of the National Association of Broadcasters. He came away feeling that the organisation should be renamed something like the National Association of Video Programmers because that's what the so-called broadcasters are now doing - they're getting into internet-delivered television (IPTV).
So what's HULU? Well, Wikipedia already has an entry for it so you can get an idea there of what it's about. It's a combination of shows from multiple broadcasters (with ads, which helps to pay for it). Users can share videos, or just the bits of videos that they want to share. This in turn gets more people interested in the shows and makes them want to look for and try more, and ... viral marketing takes off.
Anthony and James then moved on to the deal between MySpace and a British-based production company that allows users to post their own home-grown videos. The production company then picks up on any that it thinks have potential as the basis of successful professionallly produced shows. It makes them up and then users who've seen the original think, "Oh, there's a show now based on that video I saw? I must try it." Result? Viral marketing takes off.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
TV's uncertain future
"Television and the internet are moving towards an intriguing hybrid", writes Michael Hirschon on the Review section of the AFR on Friday 11 April (page 1-2).
Traditional television viewing is a passive experience - we watch programmes in a sequence that's been decided for us. Yes, we have a choice of channels, especially if we've gone for cable television, but it's still passive viewing.
Hirschon predicts that in the future we'll be able to mix and match our own viewing, and in addition, we'll be able to edit it, 'poke at' it, comment on it, parody it, and rebroadcast it, using the internet to receive and deliver. We'll no longer be just viewers, we'll also be users. So "who gets paid by whom to deliver what to whom"? He cites the example of a friend who has dispensed with the TV and has set up the 20' iMac wide screen as a kind of home theatre, and is feeding it with content from iTunes, various other web-based media services and DVDs.
Will we get web-enabled TV sets that allow us to do all this?
Traditional television viewing is a passive experience - we watch programmes in a sequence that's been decided for us. Yes, we have a choice of channels, especially if we've gone for cable television, but it's still passive viewing.
Hirschon predicts that in the future we'll be able to mix and match our own viewing, and in addition, we'll be able to edit it, 'poke at' it, comment on it, parody it, and rebroadcast it, using the internet to receive and deliver. We'll no longer be just viewers, we'll also be users. So "who gets paid by whom to deliver what to whom"? He cites the example of a friend who has dispensed with the TV and has set up the 20' iMac wide screen as a kind of home theatre, and is feeding it with content from iTunes, various other web-based media services and DVDs.
Will we get web-enabled TV sets that allow us to do all this?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Mouse clique that roars
Published in the Weekend Australian o April 5-6 2008 on Page 6, this article by Lauren Wilson discusses the ways that Generation Y enjoys an 'online culture of resistance and political art. Us baby boomers took to the streets with placards and not a little noise, but the young take to sites such as YouTube to make their points.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Will social networking make money for its providers?
An article in the March 29-30 2008 Australian Financial Review, weekend edition, page 34, reprinted from The Economist, thinks not. Currently most social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, are closed to all but it's own users. To see what someone has said, you need to be signed up to the service too.
So, maybe email, with its address books, calendars, contacts and inboxes that can link to and talk to almost anyone, may yet be the best social networking facility so far.
So, maybe email, with its address books, calendars, contacts and inboxes that can link to and talk to almost anyone, may yet be the best social networking facility so far.
The perils of work-related blogging
An article by Michael Orey in the March 29-30 2008 issue of the Australian Financial Review weekend edition, page 33, relates the sad story of a blogger and his blog, Patent Troll Tracker.
Patent trolls, in case you didn't know (I didn't) is "a derogatory term used to decribe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement."
The blogger described himself as a patent lawyer gathering info about patent litigation, but revealed no more about himself. His blog gained a reputation as a good source of information.
When unmasked, it turned out that he works for Cisco Systems, a company that doesn't like patent trolls. So his viewpoint was in line with company policy though Cisco did not sanction the blog, but now both he and his employer (he still works for Cisco) are on the receiving end of defamation law suits.
The moral of the story is - if blogging about company business, anonymity can lead to trouble.
Patent trolls, in case you didn't know (I didn't) is "a derogatory term used to decribe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement."
The blogger described himself as a patent lawyer gathering info about patent litigation, but revealed no more about himself. His blog gained a reputation as a good source of information.
When unmasked, it turned out that he works for Cisco Systems, a company that doesn't like patent trolls. So his viewpoint was in line with company policy though Cisco did not sanction the blog, but now both he and his employer (he still works for Cisco) are on the receiving end of defamation law suits.
The moral of the story is - if blogging about company business, anonymity can lead to trouble.
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