Google’s Response To Censorship: End Piracy, Not Liberty
Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.
Students’ Lives are Mobile and Social
Click to enlarge the infographic
Surveys show students want learning and schools to follow suit.
The challenge:
How can schools harness this social force for learning while attending to some persistent concerns?
Americans and Their Cell Phones
by Aaron Smith for the Pew Internet and American Life Project
Mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information seeking and communicating—83% of American adults own some kind of cell phone.
- Cell phones can help stave off boredom – 42% of cell owners used their phone for entertainment when they were bored.
- Despite their advantages, some cell phone owners just need an occasional break – 29% of cell owners turned their phone off for a period of time just to get a break from using it.
- With advantages comes frustration – 20% of cell owners experienced frustration because their phone was taking too long to download something; 16% had difficulty reading something on their phone because the screen was too small; and 10% had difficulty entering a lot of text on their phone.
- Cell phones can help prevent unwanted personal interactions – 13% of cell owners pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them.
Text messaging and picture taking continue to top the list of ways that Americans use their mobile phones—three quarters of all cell owners (73%) use their phones for each of these purposes. Other relatively common activities include sending photos or videos to others (54% of cell owners do this) as well as accessing the internet (44%).
Among teen social media users:
- 93% have an account on Facebook
- 24% have an account on MySpace
- 12% have an account on Twitter
- 7% have an account on a Yahoo site
- 6% have an account on YouTube
- 2% have an account on each of the following: Skype, myYearbook, and Tumblr
- 1% have an account on Google Buzz
Read more in our recent report: Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network sites.
Source: pewinternet.org
The Rapid Rise of Social Blogging
by
In four short years, Tumblr has grown from relative obscurity to start-up darling to international microblogging network. The platform has grown a staggering 900% in the past year and eclipsed platform competitor WordPress, largely due to its global reach and brand-building potential.
Those under Tumblr’s influence are fiercely loyal — with 2% of users making up 43% of total visits — and they log in from all over the world.
Take a look behind the scenes at Tumblr’s influence on the web, including top tags and fun facts, in this handy infographic.
Building a Mobile App Is Not a Mobile Strategy
by Jason Gurwin originally published in the Harvard Business Review
Everyone wants their own mobile application. In the last year, I have heard this consistently. In fact, mobile analytics firm Distimo claims 91 of the top 100 brands have their own mobile app (up from 51 just 18 months ago).
On the surface this sounds great, right? I can use my big brand name to get people to install my application, and then I can market to them via the palm of their hand whenever I want. If you’re a big brand, I have no doubt you will get a ton of downloads. But downloads are a vanity metric; they don’t measure success.
Most brands treat their mobile applications as an advertisement. No one wants to download an ad. I’ve seen it with grocery stores through my experience building a mobile grocery coupon company, Pushpins. They often underinvest in mobile and choose a form-fitted application — a cookie cutter white label that gets the job done but isn’t a great solution for their consumers — to quickly get their brand in the hands of shoppers. Then they think it’s enough.
Building a mobile strategy is more than just having your own application. It means working with third-party mobile apps, mobile ad networks, and using offline marketing to drive further use in mobile.
Here are four things to remember as you consider a mobile strategy — and some reasons why you should expand your mobile strategy past just your mobile app…
Your digitalDNA™: Be Forewarned and be Forearmed
Beware, digitalDNA™ is much more permanent than your biological DNA
by Chi Modu
I originally wanted to title this piece, Protect Your digitalDNA™, but I soon realized that this is even more difficult than protecting your personal DNA. When law enforcement wants to acquire a sample of your DNA to prove your guilt or innocence in a case, they still need to get a judge to issue a subpoena in order to force your cooperation in the event that you don’t provide it willingly. If you stay clear of the cotton swab or avoid leaving a coffee cup that you drank from or a sprig of your hair behind, it is quite difficult to acquire your DNA without your consent or without you being forced to submit a sample.
Physical DNA samples are easily contaminated and don’t always hold up in many court cases. A new form of DNA that many submit willingly, albeit unknowingly, is their digitalDNA™.
Your digitalDNA™ is a unique digital profile, of you, that is created over time from the gathering and analysis of the patterns and habits of your interaction with the technology universe. This universe consists of various devices including computers, smart phones and a combination of mobile and home web browsing tools. To not get into too technical of a discussion, I’ll keep this as simple as tracking where you go, where you’ve been and how you get there in the digital arena…
