Janetnews.com Blog

42% say they don’t know what Social Networking means…

Across the 17 global markets surveyed, 42% of people know what online social networking is, says Synovate. The Dutch were most likely to know the term with 89% answering ‘yes’, followed by Japan at 71% and Americans with 70% answering in the affirmative. 26% across the markets surveyed are members of social networking sites. This peaked with the Netherlands at 49%, United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 46%, Canada at 44% and the US at 40% (though keep in mind that’s 40% of a huge population).

Here’s a neat site that lets people with different viewpoints debate:

Opposing Viewpoints

Google a controversial topic and you will be swamped with blogs and message boards filled with readers’ thoughts, some insightful, others biased or not factual. Russell Fine hopes to provide an alternative with Opposing Views, a Web site that went live in July. It presents debates between two experts on either side of controversial issues, along with reader responses.

“Our basic mantra is to focus on issues people really care about, the things that keep you up at night, and our goal is to provide you a way to become educated and well-informed,” Mr. Fine said.

I just read this article from Newsweek about if it matters if John McCain is computer literate. Andrew Romano made a good point when he said most of us are computer savvy because we work with computers in the workplace, but when you’re a Senator or even President, Internet surfing is left up to staffers and legislative assistants. In fact, a computer is not even in the Oval Office for security purposes. It’s not that one does not want to learn, it’s all about the necessity to use the computer for daily activities… here’s what Romano had to say:

McCain Can’t Use ‘a Google.’ So What?

The only problem? This line of reasoning is misleading. For one thing, McCain’s computer illiteracy doesn’t reflect a lack of curiosity–it reflects a lack of necessity. Over the past 10 years, most adult Americans have encountered and explored computers primarily in the workplace, where the ability to communicate and find information on the Internet has gradually become a required skill. But McCain’s job in the U.S. Senate–where all communication and information has to be filtered through staffers–has actually made fluency more difficult to achieve (or at least less necessary). When aides are responding to your messages and briefing you on every imaginable subject, the incentive to get online sort of disappears.

I know that I would not want the President of the United States to fall for any phishing scams nor get Spam for Al Qaeda. I would rather see the President work less on his MySpace page and work harder at bringing down gas prices,bringing a peaceful end to the War in Iraq, and finding a cure for cancer.

NYTimes.com reports that Ad Industry is becoming sensitive to our needs. Why do I find that HIGHLY unlikely?

Ad Industry Bans Targeting People With Cancer; Ads to Widows and Orphans Allowed

If you’ve got AIDS, cancer or erectile dysfunction a group of big advertising networks are going to promise not to remember that you read sites about those topics and remind you (or others using your computer) of your condition with ads for related drugs as you surf the net.

But if you have Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure or warts, the ad companies have decided it may well be acceptable to keep track of your interest in medical subjects and fill your browser with ads for helpful products from pharmaceutical companies.

Advertising to people who are dead may also be acceptable, the group said.

Interesting article about Bloggers and stress in The New York Times.  Some bloggers have gained 30 pounds and had heart attacks.  I think I’ll stick to my day job of becoming a professor.  Professional blogging may be too dangerous for me.

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

Bloggers at some of the bigger sites say most writers earn about $30,000 a year starting out, and some can make as much as $70,000. A tireless few bloggers reach six figures, and some entrepreneurs in the field have built mini-empires on the Web that are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Others who are trying to turn blogging into a career say they can end up with just $1,000 a month.

Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else’s post on the subject will bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue.

“There’s no time ever — including when you’re sleeping — when you’re not worried about missing a story,” Mr. Arrington said.

Live! Primary Night Talking Web Heads (And Some You Can’t See)

 

 

 

There is no better sign that we have entered an era of total media convergence than the decision by the Washington Post and Newsweek to host live video broadcasts on the Web of the presidential primary results.One of the great benefits of being a print reporter is that you don’t have to vamp while trying to cover some event live when nothing is happening. Even with the immediacy of the Internet, when you can liveblog or near-live blog, you don’t have to update a post if there is nothing to add.

Here’s an interesting take on how Hillary is being portrayed on the Internet: 

 Politics 2.0 

Check out my new Web site for the classes that I teach.

http://www.virtualrhetoric.com

Library of Congress Advances 2 Digital Projects Abroad

PARIS, Oct. 17 — The Library of Congress announced an ambitious plan on Wednesday to digitize a collection of the world’s rare cultural materials — artifacts ranging from a photo collection of a 19th-century Brazilian empress to a crackly recording of the 101-year-old grandson of a slave.

The library also signed an agreement with Unesco in Paris to move ahead with the World Digital Library project, which is in the testing phase and will not be available for public use until next year.

Other national libraries appear poised to cooperate in the venture, which is modeled after the Library of Congress’s vast American Memory project that has posted millions of original items on the Web, including Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Grandma and Grandpa have their very own social networking sites! 

New Social Sites Cater to People of a Certain Age  

Older people are sticky. 

That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.

The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook — with wrinkles.