Mobile Messaging and Tesla’s Foresight

I start this post by pointing out that many of the posts (if not all) over the past several months have been in the “COMM-7970 Social Media” category on my blog as they were a part of the requirements for a graduate class on social media that I have been taking.  This post, however, is not in that category, as the requirements of the class have been fulfilled, but I hope to make it part of a continuing trend.  I want to keep writing on social media, and I hope my readers will hold me to that.

Now, on to the actual post.  I wanted to touch on the subject of mobile messaging again, and @kennysmith happen to direct me through a tweet to a great inspiration for a quick post on the subject: Nikola Tesla’s predicted mobile messaging in a 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics (link to GearLog.com post).

Let me repeat that previous statement: Nikola Tesla, the great pioneer in electrical engineering and wireless communication, visionary inspiration in both robotics and countless science fiction mainstays, predicted the rise of mobile messaging just over a century ago.

Jamie Lendino of GearLog.com writes:
Tesla “imagined such a hand-held device would be simple to use and that, one day, everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it,” and that this “would usher in a new era of technology.”

I have to wonder what Tesla would think of Twitter, Facebook, and iTunes.

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Twitter

Over the last couple of years, a new player has risen to prominence in the social media arena.  Twitter started as a small idea put together by members of a podcasting company looking into new possibilities.  What emerged was a simple idea that is changing the world.

Dom Sagolla (@Dom), author of 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form and one of the founders of Twitter, posted a brief history of the company on his site.  Sagolla tells how the simple idea was born of adversity: “we were facing tremendous competition from Apple and other heavyweights. Our board was not feeling optimistic, and we were forced to reinvent ourselves.”

In the process of reinventing themselves, they reshaped the social media landscape.  To give an idea of the impact of Twitter today, Here is an info graphic published by TheNextWeb entitled “Twitter on Paper“:

While Twitter is a simple idea at its core, using it and just getting used to it can seem overwhelming.  The social media blog Mashable.com has a comprehensive Twitter Guidebook for new users still trying to wrap their heads around the complexity that can occur in a simple 140 characters.  And it’s worth getting to know and understand this social media forum, as BBC’s Newsnight’s Economics Editor Paul Mason stated in his “Ten theses on Twitter”:

Twitter does not create new trends, ideas or news but amplifies the speed of their adoption, refines their accuracy through collective criticism, reduces the ability of mainstream media and censorship to suppress them and mis-represent them. More users + bigger numbers of followers = more rapid amplification of trends. [And that's just one of his ten points!]

If you still need more reasons why Twitter is worth your attention, Tuttoaster offers “Five Reasons Why Twitter is the Best Social Media.”  And if you still need more convincing, it was only just recently announced that the Library of Congress would begin archiving Twitter’s public timeline (an explanation/FAQ from LoC’s Matt Raymond is offered here).

In short, Twitter has become a big deal, with major implications for any and all organizations that attempt to communicate online.  And the discussion is 24/7.  I’m in (@collimd), are you?

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News Release 2.0

This post is about the idea of the social news release, and the title is meant as a metaphor.  The social news release is an upgrade of the news release that not only mirrors the evolution of Web 2.0 but also capitalizes on that evolution.

For those unfamiliar with what a social news release is, Todd Defren of PR-Squared.com has published a description and examples of social news releases.  Essentially, the social news release is at its core a traditional news release that is augmented with Web 2.0/social media content.  Looking at Defren’s example, the release is literally structured so as to have the content of a traditional news release in the center of the social news release.

The key to the social news release is the web content that gives it its dynamic nature.  Just as when the dynamic and interactive nature of Web 2.0 began to replace the static state of HTML, the social news release provides more opportunities for recipients of the release to receive up-to-date information with the release as well as offer multiple channels through which to obtain more content from the releases author/source with little to no effort on their part.

The social news release isn’t a new item, but the augmentation of a tired-and-true public relations tool with new web content formats.  It is, in a way, a poetic reflection of the adaptations public relations practitioners will need to make (and some already are) as the field of communications continues to evolve.

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Mobile Apps

While they haven’t been around all that long, smart phone mobile applications are already becoming indispensable. I’m sure most TV viewers have seen one of the iPhone “There’s an app for that” commercials, but the slogan is quite true.  To try an list all of the apps available for smart phones now would be next to impossible, and such a list doubtless would be out-of-date within a few hours.

Even a list of the types of apps available seems daunting: geo-location apps, reference apps, entertainment apps, blogging apps, media apps. The Associated Press has apps both for browsing news content and to use its AP Stylebook. Internet radio and audio streaming sites such as Pandora have apps to let smart phone users take advantage of their services on the go. Blogging sites such as Blogger.com and WordPress even offer mobile apps to edit and post to your blog from your mobile device. And I can’t forget FourSquare.com‘s mobile app, which is the heart and soul of the FourSquare experience.

But what is all of this good for? To put is simply, apps add tremendous functionality and adaptability to smart phones and provide the opportunity for services online to be more directly delivered to users. Why wait for a printed copy of the paper when you can get your up-to-date news on your phone? And apps like Google Maps enable smart phones to even replace GPS navigation devices.

It won’t be long before the tech trends become less about the new and special gadgets and more about the new and specialized apps that let mobile devices do what all our other hardware used to do.

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YouTube & community

Since it’s introduction, YouTube has often prompted a reaction from those unfamiliar with it (a shrinking demographic) of “Ok, so what do we use this for?”  And it’s a valid question.  What is YouTube for, other than the obvious answer of providing an online medium for posting video.

Michael Wesch and his students have been studying YouTube in this scope.  In 2008, Wesch presented his thoughts and observations of YouTube through the anthropological lense (note, the presentation is almost an hour long):

Prior to watching Wesch’s presentation, I really hadn’t thought of YouTube in the sense of communities that form around its content.  But as I listened to Wesch’s explanation of his work and observations, I was reminded of what could be a good example of such a community: Anonymous.

Strictly speaking, Anonymous is not limited to YouTube as a community, it didn’t even start there.  But YouTube became an important tool for the community’s discussions and distribution of its messages, particularly in its campaign against the Church of Scientology.  Simply put, YouTube did not create the community or serve as its primary forum but did help the group present its public face (or lack there of) and enabled more communication between the group and the general public.

Another example of a little more interest to me is AgChat, which actually began as a discussion group on Twitter (#AgChat). While it began as a group discussion the use of social media to promote agriculture, it has now grown into the AgChat Foundation. AgChat makes use of YouTube to share a rich set of content with its members and the general public, augmenting its weekly Twitter chat.

AgChat is using YouTube, along with other social media channels, to not only promote discussion of and education about agriculture with the general population on the web but to also help agricultural practitioners learn how to better use social media to promote themselves, their products & work, and agriculture in general.

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Podcasting

Welcome and thank you for visiting A Social Media Compost Heap and particularly for coming to listen to my first podcast through this blog.  As with my other posts in the COMM-7970 category here, this is part of a series for my social media class at Auburn University.

For those not familiar with podcasting, the term is a combination of and reference to the iPod as a representative of mp3 players in general and broadcasting.  The basic idea is that a podcast is a “broadcast” for mp3 players which can be downloaded or streamed so users my listen or watch the podcast at their convenience.  If you’d like a slightly more in-depth yet easy-to-digest explanation, I recommend visiting CommonCraft.com for their tutorial on the subject.

Obviously, podcasting is not limited to use with Apple’s iPod, though it is one of the most commonly used mp3 players and Apple’s iTunes is an excellent and heavily used outlet for subscribing to podcasts.  I myself use iTunes for subscribing to podcasts which I load onto my BlackBerry or listen to from my laptop.

The beauty of podcasts is in how they combine the ability to control when you watch or listen to content, much like a DVR on your home television, with the mobility of mp3 players and smartphones.  In short, you can listen or watch when and where you like.

As some of my classmates have pointed out, a great example of a media outlet embracing podcasting is National Public Radio.  Many NPR, PRI, and APM podcasts are available both through their own websites as well as through iTunes.  While the “public” nature of public radio does make it more conducive to freely distributing content as podcasts in addition to traditional broadcasting, many commercial outlets also make use of the practice.  As the CommonCraft.com overview points out, through podcasting, listeners and viewers are less likely to miss out on programing.

I’ll close out this inaugural podcast with this YouTube installment of Ask A Ninja on podcasting, which somehow has something to do with whales and apple pie… Don’t ask me, I don’t know either.

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Internet Forums (why are we still using them?)

Orignially, this was supposed to be a class post about internet forums and their usefulness, however as I wrote it, I realized my cannot help but let my own opinions bleed through.  I’ll start by quoting a more impartial definition on internet forums from Wikipedia:

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. It originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content.

I tend to speak negatively of forums mainly because I used to use them quite a bit and have come to regard them with contempt.  This is not to say they aren’t useful at all, but to me they have become archaic and inefficient for the purpose they are intended to serve.

Forums have been used for quite a while to host online discussions of any topic imaginable. Users can add to an existing discussion and start a new topic thread.  On busier forums, discussions could have dozens or hundreds of responses on a single thread.  And while this does allow all users to participate in the discussion, it can be very cumbersome trying to wade through a high volume of responses.

In my personal experience, discussions on forums tended to not be of the high quality.  And this is not an observation limited to myself, as Godwin’s Law addressing this very concern was formulated in 1990.

“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” – Godwin’s Law

Regardless of the quality of discussion, the very structure of forums is clunky and outdated in today’s web when users have the options of wikis, social networks, and microblogging.  But for those wanting to facilitate online discussions, forums can be easier to set up, or at least I hope it is even the frequency with which they are still used.

Like I said, I normally don’t use these posts to rant, and I will aim to avoid this in future posts, though I will stop shrot of guaranteeing it.

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Social networks and their use

I can remember back when I was an undergraduate at Auburn and word started circulating about the thing called “thefacebook.com” and how people were joining it and “friending” people they knew (or sometimes didn’t know). I wasn’t sure what to think of this thing or how it would be useful, be it seemed interesting, so like far too many other students at Auburn and other campuses around the country, I signed up… I still don’t want to know how many hours of my life were lost to this time sink of a social network, but needless to say, I, like many of my Facebook friends, spent way too much time on the site doing nothing of particular importance.

Of course, the social network landscape has changed considerably since, and continues to change. Facebook is no longer just for college students (for better or worse), the start-up MySpace is now part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, and a slice of cyberspace that seemed relegated to mostly meaningless socialization is now becoming more heavily integrated into the mainstream media (I can’t count how many commercials I see each night with references for following on Facebook and Twitter).

Social networks have come along way, and when I think about how I should be using them, there are the personal and professional ramifications to consider.  There are several good journal articles over at FirstMonday.org on this topic, including an article by Ferdig et al (2008) which examines how medical students were presenting themselves through social networks.  Increasingly, individuals online face the reality that their personal online presence can have professional consequences.  Notably, college and professional athletes have meet with potential and real disciplinary action from their teams or leagues in response to personal actions (recommended reading: When Social Media Gets Athletes in Trouble on Mashable).  Mashable also reported on a recent survey of people’s perceptions of friending one’s boss and similar topics.

But despite the concerns, there are clear advantages to being connected with friends and colleagues.  And that’s the purpose of social networks.  While I wouldn’t recommend connecting with your boss over Facebook or using MySpace at all, there are networks where such connections are am asset, such as LinkedIn.com, which provides a network for posting one’s resume and professional credentials as well.  One of the cardinal guidelines for using a social network is to remember what purpose the network is intended for.

As for my uses, I do tend to use Facebook as a social outlet, though I use it far less than I used to, and I’m beginning to use LinkedIn more as I further my professional pursuits.  But, as I touched on earlier, any social network presence will likely affect my online presence as a whole, no matter who is looking at it or for what purpose.  My online presence and social network participation are my presentation of myself to the world for those who have not or cannot meet me in person.  Anyone using social networks cannot simply view them as their own presentation of themselves, however; it is important to also use search engine and networks’ own search features to see what is on the networks already.  This is the same idea as Googling yourself; everyone should know how they are being represented online, both by themselves and others.  No matter their particular niche, social networks serve to connect users and allow them to construct and manage the online presentation of themselves.

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RSS, your cyberspace paper boy

Web feed icon, often used to represent a link to an RSS or podcast feed.

With all content generated on the web, it can be hard if not nearly impossible to keep up with everything you may want to read/view/listen to.  There are several options to make this easier, especially if there is a particular site or publication you want to keep up with.  In this entry, I’ll discuss RSS; we’ll get around to podcasting and sharing links through Twitter later in the semester.

RSS stands for “rich site summary” (per Wikipedia), but is more commonly referred to as “really simple syndication.”  The folks at CommonCraft.com have a short video that explains the basics of RSS quite well (clicking the link will open the video in a new window).  This gist of RSS is that it allows a user to have new content delivered to them (or at the very least notification of the new content) without be required to visit each and every site from which the content originated.

But the RSS feeds the send the content are only half of the equation. A user must also employ an aggregator, which serves as an inbox of sorts for the RSS feeds they want to follow.  An aggregator could be built into an email client, such as MS Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, or users may employ an online aggregator such as Bloglines or Google Reader.

Here’s the CommonCraft.com explanation/how-to for Google Reader:

For those new to a lot of the content delivery methods now available online, RSS feeds are a good start for getting used to how content they be delivered to you the user directly.  Look for a post in the coming days on utilizing RSS feeds through mobile devices.

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Ack! WordPress.com failwhaled!

WordCast has info on the WordPress.com outage (which is obviously over now).

Update: The official WordPress.com downtime summary.