Daum: The siren song of Google+
July 28, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Google+, which launched a month ago to great fanfare, is so far feeling more like Google nonplussed. Reported to have crossed the 20-million-user mark last weekend, the new social networking site is designed to correct one of Facebook’s major drawbacks: the problem of too much information being shared with too many people.
Instead of all social contacts being lumped into one huge group (meaning that your boss and your mother and your best friend from clown college all see the same posts), Google+ lets you compartmentalize people into circles: friends, family, acquaintances and a category called “following,” which appears to be for people whose updates you’re interested in but who you don’t care to have any real life interaction with. You can also create customized circles that narrow your contacts even more: knitting group, people from dog park, people from high school you vaguely remember, people from high school you have no recollection of whatsoever. The possibilities are apparently endless.
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There’s a video-conferencing feature called “hang out,” a group-texting service called Huddle and plenty of other stuff guaranteed to suck even more time out of your day than you thought you had, but so far no one seems to be using much of it. My feed, or “content stream,” (yes, I joined up) shows a lot of people saying, in effect, “Is this thing on?”
Sure, there’s a sense of excitement in being an early adopter and, in this case, an air of exclusivity that comes from the fact that membership, at this point, is “by invitation only” (though invites aren’t too hard to come by). But with so many people’s Web browsers bookmarked with so many different online versions of the high school dance (if Facebook is like homecoming, Twitter is like the prom and MySpace is a freshmen ice cream social that somehow turned into a rave), it’s no surprise that the question that comes after “Is this thing on?” is often “What am I doing here?”
My first instinct is to say that what we’re doing primarily is wasting our time and worse. As my husband wisely points out, there is nothing anyone can post on Facebook that makes you like or respect them more than you did before. Your reputation can only lose luster or remain the same. (Indeed, that is why I have blocked my husband from viewing my Facebook page.)
When it comes to Twitter (which I also initially mocked but ended up joining), I’ve noticed that the more tweets I see from folks in a short period of time, the more I begin to wonder whether they’re receiving the proper psychiatric care. When I see that someone’s on MySpace, LinkedIn or Foursquare, I assume he or she is in a band, have some really boring job or are incapable of going anywhere alone, respectively.
I know these are unfair assumptions, and I know I’m doing some big-time generalizing here (though I have yet to hear a compelling argument for the GPS-driven, friend-locating service that is Foursquare, which seems useful primarily if you want to avoid running into someone). In simpler times we judged people according to the crowds they ran with; we now must form opinions based not only on people’s “friends” but the platforms on which they choose to collect them.
Google+, on the other hand, is so far largely impervious to such judgments. It’s so new that it has no identity and therefore no stigma. I haven’t yet posted something to lower my husband’s estimation of me because, like 99% of people I know, he’s not on it. That will change, of course; users are believed to be increasing at a rate of 1 million a day.
For now, though, I have to admit I kind of like it. There’s mystery and potential here, a little like the allure and do-over possibilities of moving to a new town in ninth grade.
Not that I don’t still think all of these social networking sites are hijacking our lives. Surely even the most ardent Facebookers won’t lie on their deathbeds one day saying, “I should have ‘liked’ more posts.” But given the choice between the homecoming dance and this awkward new dance that is Google+, I’ll choose awkwardness.
Besides, right now all anyone’s doing is getting drunk in the parking lot. And that can be the best part.
mdaum@latimescolumnists.com
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Social media tools to reach larger audience, WEF
July 28, 2011 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
By Emeka Aginam
The World Editors forum ahead of its annual conference in Vienna from 12th through 15th October, 2011 has said with optimism that Editors around the world can use social media tools including Twitter and Facebook to reach larger audience.
The World Editors Forum, with a focus on the new tools of social media to help editors build communities around their newspapers run concurrently with the World Newspaper Congress that will also offer a “Facebook for Journalists” workshop in which Facebook representatives will provide tips and advice on how Facebook can be better used by newsrooms, both to find sources and reach a larger audience.
The WEF session on building communities will feature Jim Brady, Head of Project Thunderdome, the Journal Register Company’s initiative to engage audience and creating content across all platforms and geographies, Matthew Eltringham, Editor of the BBC College of Journalism website, Anette Novak, Editor-in-Chief of Norran in Sweden, and other speakers to be announced.
Meanwhile, more than 1,200 chief editors, publishers, managing directors, CEOs and other senior newspaper executives are expected at the Editors Forum, Congress and Info Services Expo 2011, the annual global summit meetings of the world’s press
Already, Mr Brady, who the Washington Business Journal calls “an online news visionary,” has formerly worked at AOL, washingtonpost.com and the local news site TBD.com. As head of Project Thunderdome, he is responsible for generating and organising common content for the Journal Register’s 18 daily papers and related online publications.
Mr Eltringham is an expert in social media and digital engagement with 16 years inside the BBC’s news operations.
He has overseen BBC News’ use of social platforms as a source of content and as a channel to share its own material and engage audiences.
Ms Novak has been working to turn the 100-year-old Norran into a modern media house with a focus on co-creation, moving the trademark position from “news leader” to “motor in shaping the community’s future.”
Other WEF sessions will include the following:
* After WikiLeaks: the next step for newspapers, featuring Mathias Müller von Blumencron, Editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, founder of OpenLeaks, and other speakers to be announced.
- Paywalls, from the newsroom perspective, which will include Jim Roberts, Assistant Managing Editor at The New York Times, Matúš Kostolný, Editor-in-Chief of SME in Slovakia, and other speakers to be announced.
* Rethinking newsroom integration: the latest experiments in a multi-platform age, featuring John Hillkirk, Editor of USA TODAY, Christian Ortner, Editor-in-Chief of Vorarlberger Nachrichten in Austria, and other speakers to be announced.
-*The steps towards a successful tablet application, with Mario Garcia, CEO and Founder of Garcia Media, Peter Hossli, Editor-in-Chief of the Collection from Ringier, and other speakers to be announced.
*Looking beyond the article, a session dedicated to new storytelling techniques and featuring Scott Klein, Editor of News Applications at ProPublica, Bill Adair, Founder and Editor of Politifact, Justin Peters, Managing Editor of the Columbia Journalism Review online, and Marcelo Rech, Director General for Product at RBS in Brazil.
*What content should print newspapers focus on to survive and thrive?, followed by a session on how editorial initiatives can contribute to print success. Speakers include Simon Kelner, Editor-in-chief of the UK’s The Independent, Shyam Parekh, Editor of DNA in India, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, Editor-in-Chief of Der Standard in Austria, Tom Kent, Standards Editor and Deputy Managing Editor at The Associated Press, and other speakers to be announced.
*Plus much more, including special sessions focused on the Arab Spring, ethics and quality journalism in the wake of the UK phone hacking scandal, the Innovations in Newspapers World Report, and the annual World Press Trends report.
The events, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and hosted by the Austrian Newspaper Association (VÖZ), will be accompanied by a rich social programme, tours, meetings with local and international political, business and cultural leaders, and more.