Pew Internet & American Life Project researcher Amanda Lenhart reports in Adults and Social Network Websites that the number of adult Internet users who have taken up social networking has more than quadrupled since 2005. (Chart from USA Today.) This isn't surprising if you consider the way conversations have moved toward social media as a marketing tool in lieu of a mere social connection with friends. Networks have properties that defy traditional linear ways of thinking about market reach and targeting users, so growth should follow exponentially. In October, another Pew researcher reported on how the Internet and cell phones have become central components of family life. It's not possible to have digital connectivity central to family life without adults engaging in digital networks. We can think about media devices as a progression, using a lifespan approach to technology adoption. First you crawl, then you walk....Cell phones may not be the first thing that comes … [Read more...]
The Lifespan Approach to Social Networking Tools
Twitter Vote Report: Experience of Democracy
Twitter Vote Report is a non-partison network of people working to capture the experience of voting—long lines, broken machines, errors in registration, etc. It works by having individuals all over the country report on their experience. You submit a report a number of ways: By Twitter: Post a tweet that includes the hashtag #votereport. More tags. By Text Message: Send a text message starting with #votereport to 66937 (MOZES). By Phone: Call the automated hotline at 567-258-VOTE (8683) or 208-272-9024 with any touch-tone phone. By iPhone/Android Phone: Download the iPhone App or find the "votereport" app in the Android marketplace. The result is live montoring of collective experience. How cool is that? So don’t forget to vote, and when you do, report on it! … [Read more...]
Twitter, YouTube, and Another Man’s Shoes
Two things came across my RSS feeds today that show how technology is impacting our information environment. First, YouTube has added a News Manager (Olivia) to promote Citizen News content: Second was a blog entry by CNET's Dan Farber on Twitter as a viable means of spreading information. (See Jon's last entry below, too.) I am simultaneously excited by the prospects of such a wide range of information and the complications of it. How do I find the interesting and important stuff? (Certainly not always the same thing. Think Mentos and Diet Coke.) How do I manage the information flows that meet the interesting or important criteria? And a perhaps cautionary concern (or call it cynical) of how I can perform due diligence on all this stuff? How do I determine quickly enough to be useful what is reliable, objective, white-washed, agenda-laden, mean-spirited, or just plain wrong? We see errors enough in the official reporting establishments that suggest this is no … [Read more...]
