Customers Move Online = Bad News for News in the Internet Age
Online news increases in popularity, online advertising grows, and an iPad newspaper pure-play exists — why does this all seem like bad news?
Researchers And Social Media: Uptake Increases When Obvious Benefits Result
A study of social media adoption hides some sensible lessons within a jumble of other signals.
Should Our Information Experiences Be Dependent or Independent?
John Battelle wonders if we’re painting ourselves into a corner with crude tools of identity. Instead, is there another way?
Is the Medium Still the Message When the Medium is Pervasive?
McLuhan posited “the medium is the message.” Is it still? GenY might teach us a thing or two.
Anchoring Communities and Trust Markets — Advantages Shift to the Users
While losing distribution and production advantages might have hurt our businesses, losing our roles as anchoring and trust centers might cut deeper.
The Wrong Approach: Harrisburg University Bans Social Networking to “See What Happens”
A provost sees multi-tasking in his home, and decides to make his university suffer — all because he took the wrong lesson to heart.
The “Me at the Center” Expectation — A New Consumer Mindset and What It Might Portend
The world should present itself relative to me = the emerging expectation. What that means for broadcasters and publishers? Get ready to be shared.
The RIN Report on Researchers and Web 2.0: If You Build It . . . Well, You Know the Rest
The Research Information Network’s new report on researchers and Web 2.0 offers a similar set of results to previous studies: uptake is relatively low, and the trustworthiness and quality of online resources are suspect. The report offers contrary evidence to common myths about “digital natives” and some useful advice for anyone looking to build social media.
The Pepsi Syndrome: Did ScienceBlogs Sell Out, or Was This Just Business As Usual?
The science blogosphere erupted in a furor this week, when Seed Media’s ScienceBlogs announced a new blog–Food Frontiers, a paid, sponsored blog about nutrition written by employees of PepsiCo. Multiple bloggers either suspended their blogs or quit ScienceBlogs altogether over their concerns that adding this blog undermined the credibility of the platform and their credibility as individual writers. Eventually, ScienceBlogs caved under the pressure and removed Pepsi’s blog. Did ScienceBlogs sell out to commercial interests, or was this just a continuation of what they’ve always done?
Monkeys vs. Robots: The Mysteries of Identity in the Age of Facebook
Facebook continues to try to redefine identity as an addressable single element for its business model. Should we monkeys allow it?
Facebook, Diaspora, Public, Private, and the Fork in the Road
Can Diaspora restore social networking to personal control?
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?
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.
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 Big Web Site Build: Are We Approaching the End of an Era?
With Google, Twitter, Facebook, and email doing most of the work, why are we building big, expensive, multifaceted sites? Are we being strategic? Or are we in a rut?