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This year’s relations between Google and the Chinese government seem to have hit a significant bump. After four years of compliance with China’s “Golden Shield Project,” a set of censorship standards often referred to as “The Great Firewall of China,” Google has announced that they will no longer permit censorship on the Google.cn (or any other Google) site.
It begs the question: how much do you trust Google? Or Yahoo!, or Bing, or your ISP for that matter? Google’s stance earlier this year seems to be a positive step towards network neutrality and freedom of information. Do you think it is important that these service providers maintain neutrality in their services? Or, perhaps you would prefer a certain level of non-user applied censorship? Furthermore, do you trust them with your information? For years the people of China didn’t get the same information that those here in the United States were privy to. Google, in that time, was a willing participant in shielding millions of people from information that was otherwise available to the rest of the world.
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As advances made in the technological sector are happening rapidly, so are changes being made in the way that legal decisions and precedents deal with the advances.
Every day, the legal system, both here and abroad, is adapting to the most recent breakthroughs and changes in defining legalities, property rights and even what “is” the law.
A legal (and security) issue that has become a major concern in the last year is the download and use of false internet security programs. Symantec recently estimated that as many as tens of millions of internet users have downloaded and legitimately paid for any of the scores of fake security programs online.
The sad irony is that many of these programs are, in themselves, malware – programs designed to pilfer information from and breach the security of the users’ computer. It is always a wise step to research a computer security program online before downloading, installing or even visiting the site of any such program.
Have you ever done something you wish you could undo? Wouldn’t life be grand if, at the touch of a button, we could unsay that embarrassing remark, unmake that last minute u-turn or uneat that double cheeseburger? Of course it would. It is empowering and oh-so delightfully passive aggressive that you could publicly, but with no direct interaction, terminate the friendship with any person that displeases or offends you.
This dream of being impervious to the actual consequences of ending a relationship has brought rise to the term “unfriend”. In 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary named this little public breakup the word of the year.
For those not in the know, the term refers to the action of removing a contact, or friend, from those amassed in any online social network a user has joined. For example, if an old eighth grade schoolmate of yours happens to profess their love for John Mayer and you do not like it: One click – Unfriend. You just let the masses know “I hate John Mayer and all of his minions,” and you’ll never hear about it again. At least not from that guy. This action of unloading folks from your digital social circle is applicable across most social networks.
Social media is becoming more ingrained in our world, and national peace organizations are finding the medium good for more than just a casual conversation.
On October 28 through October 30, a Global Forum will be taking place in Bangkok, Thailand. The forum is centered on building peace through communication and information. The conference is facilitated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.
Media Genesis President Antoine Dubeauclard is one of the speakers at the conference. He will be presenting a social media platform and how it can be used to exchange information and create discussion relating to peace. He is presenting the platform along with Abdul Waheed Khan, assistant director-general for communication and information, UNESCO, and David Nostbakken, UNESCO consultant for The Power of Peace Network.
“Utilizing social media is a great way to start motivated and intelligent conversations on peace because of its ability to be discussed on a global level,” Dubeauclard said. “People can interact with issues relating to their local area and also learn about what other countries are facing. Better global understanding can create unity to work toward common solutions.”
Would you take your business to a place where you’d have to work alongside a garage sale, a pyramid scheme, a kid who modifies Xboxes, a speed dating table and a lot of profanity?
The prospect might seem crazy, but every day thousands upon thousands of employers and would-be employees do just that. The place where they lay it all on the line is Craigslist.org. Craigslist is best described as a collection of online classified ads. It is simple, free (for the most part), expansive and almost completely unregulated. With the ability to reach so many people and search for so many services and products, Craigslist might seem like a no-brainer for your office.
The mega-site has a jobs listing section that absolutely dwarfs the likes of Monster.com or CareerBuilder. However, with a community that is controversially nefarious at times, it would be understandable to not want to job hunt or search for talent on Craigslist. You can find out plenty about the popular online community and uncanny founder Craig Newmark, but we are here to tell you that this site can and does work as a professional resource. Like all other things online, you just need to present yourself professionally and know what to look for.
To give you an idea of how functional or dysfunctional Craigslist can be, we posted an anonymous job posting as well as tried to ask for employment as an inexperienced individual to see how honest the web would be to us.
You’re afraid the average Internet user – a slightly attention-deficit, click-happy web surfer – will never pick up on what your website is all about. Their eyes are dashing around, judging whether or not your site is worth their time.
Unfortunately, this fear leads to the desire to cram every bit of significant information onto the screen as it pops up. A bit of classic newspaper journalism terminology, above the fold refers to exactly that – the content area above the creased fold of a printed newspaper.
As humanity continues to trend away from such oddities as spending time with each other, a new trend is emerging. No longer is television the undisputed king of making people sit idle. In fact, companies in Great Britain are actually spending more money online for advertising than they are for television. Yet, at least in America, online advertising is down.
So what does this mean for you? Online advertising isn’t even remotely trending toward being useless. You don’t even have to be smarter about it; a lot of that decrease is probably due to capacity cuts and huge expenditure decreases more generally. That said, more profit is good, and, with keywords costing more and more on Google, greater bang for your buck may be had in the social media realm. Nielsen reports that advertising on social media networks is up 119% from last year. The same study says people are spending 17% of their time online on social networks.
Think about that. When people are on a social network, what state of mind are they usually in? They might be using it for work, sure, but most of the time they’re bored and just killing time. Not exactly busy, you could say. Add to that, they put their demographic information in their profile. Does this get easier?
Bottom line: Strongly consider allocating more of your online advertising budget toward social media advertising. Depending on your demographic, this could be a no-brainer.
The Roaring 2000’s was exactly that: ROARING. The 2009 Media Genesis summer extravaganza was a great success. Party goers enjoyed local brew from Atwater Brewing Company and appetizers served by the Whitney staff. The weather was wonderful for ringing in our 13th year in business.
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Corporate blogs are common enough to be found on websites of Fortune 100 companies, and simple enough to be executed by small, family-owned businesses. The concept of a company directly communicating with its customers online and having a personal voice has taken off, and with good reason. But it’s not as intuitive as you may think, and there are tips that should be kept in mind when publishing your company’s blog.
Smile and have fun – Blogging is known for being more personable than other company communications, so show the fun and interesting side of your company. Take a cue from Kodak (1000words.kodak.com). Their chief blogger tries out new products and writes about her experiences, instead of just trying to market them. Which brings us to the next point…
Converse, don’t market- Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is the place for advertising slogans and generating testimonials. Let your customers tell their stories with your products, like Carhartt does – blogs.carhartt.com/blog/carhartt – by letting its fans post pictures of their kids in Carhartt, or tell stories about their tough jobs. Blogging is not always about what you have to tell your customers; that’s what traditional advertising is for.
Accept criticism - We know it’s a scary thing when you open up your blog for comments. There is the possibility that people might have a complaint. But don’t shy away, instead listen to what your customers have to say and let them know you’re listening.
Not only are social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter becoming part of our everyday culture, but now blog posts, pictures and tweets are beginning to seep into our courtrooms. They are even becoming a norm when it comes to evidence in a lawsuit. In general, social networks in general have brought about a whole new way of keeping in touch and expressing ourselves. With the ability to post comments, pictures and status updates, you can virtually get a minute-by-minute play of what your friends are doing at any given moment. But with the ability to share so much information there comes a catch – the information you just posted is now out there in cyberspace for anyone to see.
