Spring 2008 Social Media & Web 2.0 - Web Manual 2.0
Social Media
Definition:
Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction,
and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented,
depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and ideas.
Description:
Social media uses the “wisdom of crowds” to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can
take many different forms, including Internet forums,
message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and
video. Technologies such as blogs, picture-sharing,
vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-
,
sharing, group creation and voice over IP to name a
few. Examples of social media applications are
Google (reference, social networking), Wikipedia
(reference), MySpace (social networking),
Facebook(social networking), Last.fm (personal
music), YouTube (social networking and video
sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), and Flickr
(photo sharing):. -Source Wikipedia
This is one of the more explosive and interesting
components of the Web today. Now you can see the direct line between traditional information
distribution mechanisms and what is referred to as Citizen Journalism.
Print/Newspapers - Blogging
Radio - Podcasting
TV - Vlogs
But instead of air waves or news stands, the distribution methodology for this media is RSS. The
collaboration no longer needs to happen in a board room or in a cubicle farm - it can happen
anywhere you can get an Internet connection. As a result, the once exclusive club of journalists
writing for a magazine etc. is now open and available to everyone. Like all things that are open, it can
be a good thing and a bad thing.
The distinguishing factor we are developing is an online reputation.
You are responsible for your reputation and voice and we are moving
into a time when the bloggeratzi are separated from the serious
bloggers/podcasters/vlogers etc., where a trusted source of information
is just that, and the noise generated by the masses will either meet our
social standards for quality or will be relegated to the equivalent of the grocery store check out line
magazine rack. Here you will have your Edward R. Murrow quality media as well as a tabloid style in
social media spaces, but make no mistake about it, the traditional media will be involved and adopting
the new technology just like everyone else.
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Spring 2008 Social Media & Web 2.0 - Web Manual 2.0
Social Media, New Media or Internet Media all comes back to the interactive and collaborative nature
of the new web application platform that is referred to as Web 2.0.
Web 2.0
You may have heard the term web 2.0 before. Some consider it a buzz word while others see it as a
definition or a current iteration of the Internet's evolution. These terms may actually underestimate
the scope of the change in development methodologies when it
comes to creating web sites today. When 2.0 is applied in the
context of versioning software, an implication we are all used
to, from a software engineering perspective Eric Rice says "If it
takes you 10 years to get to version 2.0 of your software you are
so fired!" I also think this is more than a single low level
version change. It is more exponential in scope, perhaps more
web squared than 2.0. Regardless of the semantics behind the
name, this is a shift in how to develop, market, interact, work
and experience the web. We need to know what all this means.
The core component of the distribution methodology is RSS or
Really Simple Syndication. You can think of it as a shift in consumption from going to find content to
having content delivered. It is analogues to the magazine model, you subscribe to content that is then
delivered to you. RSS formats are specified sing Extensible Markup Language (XML) that is read by
an aggregator.
The collaborative nature of this medium is creating some amazing content and what are often referred
to as a mash ups. This mixing of media from multiple sources is generating some really amazing
evolutions of archival media as well as new media created from producers all over the world. This 21st
century cut-up technique would make William Burroughs and the entire Beat Generation proud.
Some of the more common mash ups now involve Google Maps with multiple data sources being
combined to create a new and interesting set of information.
Annotating the Planet
One of the other big initiatives on the web these days is the annotation of the planet earth. This is one
of the phenomena that is really being pushed forward by the user generated content crowd. The
mixing of information and GIS data is happening in very interesting ways, such as using Flickr photos
and Google maps to show where images were taken. We are adding relevant information to maps to
improve our knowledge or ideas in relation to location. User generated reviews of restaurants, bars or
shops are now being tied to
mapping software.
We are also beginning to see this
information pushed to cell
phones that are geographic
information system (GIS) enabled
to allow us to receive virtual post left by our social networks which are Short
Message Service (SMS) messages related to our physical location..
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Spring 2008 Social Media & Web 2.0 - Web Manual 2.0
Gartner Says 80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have A “Second
Life'' in the Virtual World by the End of 2011
Web 3++ The Future ...
Speaking at the Stanford Summit, an annual tech industry conference, the Linden Lab CEO
predicted that a completely-open virtual world architecture – much like the one he’s touting for
Second Life - would result in an online alternate universe several times larger than today’s internet.
”In ten years, virtual access will be more prevalent than web access,” he said, evangelizing alongside
several other virtual world mavens, including the godfather of alternate reality, Berkeley scholar-in-
residence Jaron Lanier.
Considering the massive
amounts of computing
power required by these
3D worlds, Rosedale's
future virtual landscape
would sit atop a
hardware infrastructures
that makes Google's
network of servers look
small.
“Google now has about
100 thousand machines,”
he said. “In ten years,
virtual worlds will have
hundreds of millions.”
But that was hardly the
boldest prediction of the
morning. Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online, said that within “two or three years,” an alternative
online universe like Second Life would provide real-time 3D graphics rivaling the digital effects in
today’s Hollywood blockbusters. “You’ll see the kinda stuff that Transformers is doing today,” he said.
John Anthony Hartman
21965 SW Aldridge Terrace
Sherwood, Or 97140
503.334.2564
http://www.feedia.net
john@feedia.net
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