Quotes for the week ending 18 Dec, 2009

December 19, 2009December 19, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“engagement zombies.”

William Paarlberg on creating a strategy for understanding lurkers in social media.

“I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios”

Fede Alvarez who uploaded his short film”Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featuring giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo. He was offered a $30 million contract to make a film.

“It’s not inconceivable that some creative hacker could use Twitter to get into a key business application at some juncture …The more Twitter focuses on the business market, the more it will have to focus on security.”

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet

“Fencing the internet is not going to help anybody”

Andrea Servida, deputy head of unit at the EUs Information Society and Media Directorate General, on the Chinese proposal to meter international web traffic.

Quotes for the week ending 12 Dec, 09

December 12, 2009December 12, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“However Mr. Jobs, now that you got into this mess …You are the only person who can get our APPS ‘everywhere.’ despite the fact that their MAPS have blanketed the country.

Commenter named Gary of Chicago, on the Advertising Age story on how Verizon Wireless created buzz for the Droid phone –a distinct shift in the way a carrier is advancing the popularity of a handset.

“And, the warning? Don’t read too many blog posts like this.”

43 Folders, on NaNoWriMo

“Living Stories,”

Google’s experimental project to save newspapers, featuring content from New York Times and the Washington Post

“Our role is actually stronger than ever, because we are more than just a magazine … to promote travel around the state.”

Robert Stieve, editor of Arizona Highways magazine

“When you’re using search engines, you’ve got to be diligent. You can’t trust that just because it’s Number 2 or Number 1, it really is…”

Jim Stickey, on how fake web sites trick search engines which become ‘unwitting accomplices’ of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

“Industry Listening Program”

One of the four recommendations by Rohit Bhargava, who advises companies on easing into listening via social media by keeping an eye on keywords rather than brand mentions

There are Flip cameras and there’s the Blackberry Storm

December 11, 2009December 11, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I often carry my Nikon D90 to events. But a camera bag, podcast recorder and laptop creates clutter.

So while holding off on a Flip video camera –for now– I use my trusty Blackberry Storm for the odd video. Turns out it does very well, especially when I want to cover an event live using a few social media elements.

This one was taken at a class on Social media for Realtors. I was there with a friend who is just getting into the space, and wanted to check out what Jerry Fischer, the instructor, was offering.

Click to view a few seconds of video.

What I found:

The picture quality is really good for a phone. The audio quality, better still.
Sending it to Twitvid is not easy – slow uploading. But the app I had downloaded for this made it one-touch.
You really need a tripod when you do this. It is less distracting to the instructor, too.

Not that Jerry would have minded. He was also showing real estate agents how easy it was to video with Facebook.

Incidentally the audio recorder on the Storm also produces stunning quality. Saves carrying a bulky recorder everywhere.

This must be the dumbest use of email

December 8, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

You can’t make this up. But people actually think they can use digital communication to have their way.

If you are one of those who give airport security a hard time, take some time to sympathize with them after reading what they are up against.

“What was she thinking?”

(As an added bonus, read the comments to this post. A lot of anonymous people talking about unrelated things.)

Did DARPA’s network challenge tell us anything we didn’t know already?

December 7, 2009December 7, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Last Saturday’s experiment baffles me.

The idea of the Defense Department trying to understand network effects is understandable. DARPA (which stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sent up 10 of these across the country.

Balloons to study social networking how information travels across the Net seems like a bit odd. Sure DARPA did invent the internet, but…

Why use a large object in the sky? On Twitter people resort to “wide area team-building and urgent mobilization” without any interest in a reward. Just ask Tiger Woods, and (you knew this was coming, all you balloon fans, didn’t you?) the dad of Balloon Boy.

Here is how it was handled: Teams were asked to take part in locating ten moored weather balloons at fixed locations in the US. They were visible from roadways (spottings here) and accompanied by DARPA representatives –hopefully not inside the balloon, as that would have been too much like the Falcon incident.

They went up at 10 am (Eastern) and supposedly stayed there until 4 pm on Sat, Dec 5.

Attached (hopefully not to the aforementioned rep) was a $40,000 prize “to the first participant to submit the correct latitude and longitude of all ten weather balloons.”

I have an idea, DARPA: Why don’t you do this once a month, and then ask the winner to give half of the reward to someone who’s lost a job? The network effects of this would be huge since there could be 15.4 million people (the official unemployment figure as of Nov 09) Tweeting, talking and Facebooking this. Larry King would love to cover incidents like this and regularly point to the bottom of his screen to show us his Twitter address.

Or maybe you could hire a few people to increase the network effects of your Facebook page –which had only 19 people leaving nice messages about this.

OK, enough of having a bit of fun at DARPA’s expense. Let me say what I liked about:

I like the fact that an organization like this is not sitting on its laurels, but trying to learn how this thing they created works, and morphs. (Watch this vid, below) as Peter explains.
I like the idea of encouraging collaborative efforts. Throwing it out to the hoipolloi. Nerd Fighters took up the challenge, and though they didn’t quite win, their efforts were very impressive.

Not enough organizations take risks like this. It’s time many did send up some trial balloons, red or otherwise.

Quotes for the week ending 5 Dec, 2009

December 5, 2009December 5, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“The general consensus about my hair, among our team and the client, was that it was distinctive and instantly recognizable — a characteristic we ad people long for in our campaigns, but it sounds funny when we’re talking about my hair.”

Andy Azula, the guy in the U.P.S. whiteboard commercials, in a Q & A with Stuart Elliot. He has a Wikipedia entry!

“Once you start restricting access on the websites, if you have content that can broadly be found somewhere else, then you really restrict the number of people coming to websites.”

Emily Bell, Guardian’s director of digital content, on a regional British newspaper publisher charging for online news content.

“She’s more caustic than a manure lagoon.”

Paul Shapiro, senior director of the US Humane Society Factory Farming Project, on Kerry Trueman, a contestant for the Huffington Post contest for citizen journalists. One person will be chosen to report from the Copenhagen climate change summit next week.

“Most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote.”

Farhad Afshar, of the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland, com

And speaking of symbols…

“It’s that image that has been shattered, sort of like the back window of his SUV, but maybe I’m pushing another metaphor too hard.”

Bill Saporito, on Tiger Woods’ apology

“I realize there are some who don’t share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one’s own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”

Hoipolloireport

Angelo Fernando's blog since 2004

Quotes for the week ending 18 Dec, 2009

William Paarlberg on creating a strategy for understanding lurkers in social media.

Fede Alvarez who uploaded his short film”Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featuring giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo. He was offered a $30 million contract to make a film.

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet

Andrea Servida, deputy head of unit at the EUs Information Society and Media Directorate General, on the Chinese proposal to meter international web traffic.

There are Flip cameras and there’s the Blackberry Storm

This must be the dumbest use of email

Did DARPA’s network challenge tell us anything we didn’t know already?

William Paarlberg on creating a strategy for understanding lurkers in social media.

Fede Alvarez who uploaded his short film”Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featuring giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo. He was offered a $30 million contract to make a film.

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet

Andrea Servida, deputy head of unit at the EUs Information Society and Media Directorate General, on the Chinese proposal to meter international web traffic.

Commenter named Gary of Chicago, on the Advertising Age story on how Verizon Wireless created buzz for the Droid phone –a distinct shift in the way a carrier is advancing the popularity of a handset.

43 Folders, on NaNoWriMo

Google’s experimental project to save newspapers, featuring content from New York Times and the Washington Post

Robert Stieve, editor of Arizona Highways magazine

Jim Stickey, on how fake web sites trick search engines which become ‘unwitting accomplices’ of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

One of the four recommendations by Rohit Bhargava, who advises companies on easing into listening via social media by keeping an eye on keywords rather than brand mentions

Emily Bell, Guardian’s director of digital content, on a regional British newspaper publisher charging for online news content.

Paul Shapiro, senior director of the US Humane Society Factory Farming Project, on Kerry Trueman, a contestant for the Huffington Post contest for citizen journalists. One person will be chosen to report from the Copenhagen climate change summit next week.

Farhad Afshar, of the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland, com

Bill Saporito, on Tiger Woods’ apology

Tiger, having dealt with his ‘transgressions’ in a 6-paragraph apology, on his web site.