Etiquette and the Electric Friendship Generator
This film from the early days of Facebook illustrates the perils of poor etiquette with online friendship generators.
Twitter’s Business Services Enter Beta Testing, Focus on Commercial Uses for Short Messages
One year later, Twitter’s business services plans seem to be rolling out.
Creating an Incentive: Can Social Media Offer Enough Carrots to Entice Scientists?
Scientists seem uninterested in participating in social media offerings, as the rewards offered are generally of insufficient value to warrant the effort required. Instead of just hoping that scientists will suddenly see the value in your product, why not offer incentives for participation?
Can New XML Technologies and the Semantic Web Deliver on Their Promises?
I recently read a paper from Los Alamos National Labs (LANL), “Using Architectures for Semantic Interoperability to Create Journal Clubs for Emergency Response.” Without diving too deeply into the technical weeds, what the paper describes is: [A] process for leveraging emerging […]
Is Facebook Eroding Privacy? Or Does Social Media Require Us to Lower Our Expectations?
Facebook argues that its erosions of privacy reflect changing social norms. But is what it’s doing just plain wrong?
Thank You for the Webby Votes!
The Webby Awards’ People’s Voice competition is now over, and our little blog made a respectable showing, thanks to all your support.
Mobile Devices and Privacy — Why It’s So Easy to Swap Personal Information to Satisfy an Itch
Mobile computing is the norm, but it also creates easy trading ground for our privacy. Is this just the new normal?
How to Vote for the Scholarly Kitchen’s Webby
A quick overview of how to vote for the Scholarly Kitchen’s Webby Award nomination. Help shine a light on scholarly communications around the world.
Traffic Isn’t Revenue: Twitter and Ning Reach Different Crossroads
Twitter and Ning are both tremendously popular online tools-but popularity does not immediately translate into revenue. While the two companies are in decidedly different positions, each is trying to find a way to monetize all that traffic.
The Creative Deadline — A Video of Post-it Notes
Creativity transcends technology, even if you’re on a deadline.
Clay Shirky’s Collapse of Complexity — Does It Also Require a Collapse of Quality?
Clay Shirky reflects on the end of complexity. He’s right, but can simplified systems produce quality? Can other approaches also survive?
Rules of Thumb for Social Media in Science
As science publishers, we hear a lot about the potential for new technologies. Often this comes in the form of a pitch from someone looking to sell you on either the technology they’re offering or on their expertise. In trying to see through the salesmanship, it’s important to have some general rules of thumb for approaching the integration of social media as tools for the research science community.
The Future of Publishing: Do We Have It All Backwards?
Clever, clever, and oh so worth watching through to the end:
Visualize This: LinkTV and Sunlight Labs Move to Put Data Into Action
Two major open data initiatives pose the same questions — Are data inherently useful? Can sites connect data with an audience of users to make it matter?
Science Blogging as a Public Outreach Tool — Unfulfilled Potential or Unrealistic Expectation?
A recent study points out that science blogs are failing to provide much in the way of community outreach and education to the non-scientist public. Is this really a failure, or is it an unrealistic expectation?