Kine 2.0

As in the real world where people experiences harassment, lack of respect and gets victimised, the internet is unfortunately a fertile soil for these kinds of action, and especially the young ones would be familiar with this on different levels. Cyber-bullying is defined by Wikipedia as to “involve the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.” The National Crime Prevention Council  say that cyber-bullying is “when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.” 

Cyber-bullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels, ganging up on victims by making them the subject of ridicule in forums, and posting false statements as fact aimed at humiliation. From this is obvious that social media can be taken advantage of when it comes to cyber-bullying, e.g. hate groups on Facebook, embarrassing pictures, humiliating messages and gossip written on walls, accounts opened in fake names etc. Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not necessary involve sexual predators.

In school: ”. ..you don’t want anyone to think of you as a “gossip” or someone who says things about other people. Everyone wants to be “nice.” You don’t have to be nice if you don’t want to online.” - 13 year old girl, Edmonton. (Source: Young Canadians In A Wired World Survey Focus, Media Awareness Network, 2004)

This statement makes me sad, and determines the fact that Internet and social media can be a really damaging tool in the hands of people with the wrong intention, this stated by a girl who’s only 13.

Sometimes it feels like the whole world is on Twitter. A great number of celebrities, politicians and social-minded people are signing in.

According to the company Comscore, in the period from February to March, 131 per cent more Americans started using Twitter, and in one year the group of members has grown with around 1000 per cent. But in despite high numbers, the members don’t stay loyal. As much as 60 per cent that is registered on Twitter doesn’t come back the next month, according to a report from Nielsen Co. Only half the percent of the users is referred to as loyal. Maybe the reason for the high growth for Twitter the last couple of months could be of much thanks to the celebrities.

These numbers is supported by a Norwegian trend analyst, Ole Petter Nyhaug, from the company Synovate. The SOON-research that Synovate elaborated explain that  67 per cent of the Norwegian population between 15 and 49 is on Facebook, and compared to this, as few as 2 per cent of the Norwegian people uses Twitter on a daily basis, in despite that a huge amount of people talks a lot about this relatively new social network. Nyhaug doesn’t believe that Twitter become public property at once. He also says that the service cannot replace what you get at Nettby (a Norwegian social network) or Facebook, because Twitter have too little of the social functions that these types holds, and that Twitter isn’t primary for the dialogue between the users, but more as an exchange for thoughts and ideas. “It’s perfect for journalists, but not for them who is concerned about keeping in touch with others and share pictures” –says Nyhaug to Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper.

Nyhaug also believes that even if common people isn’t willing to use this social network, nevertheless Twitter will become an important tool for everybody that wants to follow celebrities or politicians in their daily life. Every celebrity that wants to keep control of and deny false accusations that arises from media could have benefits of using Twitter.

To read more about Twitter in different countries; I recommend the Twitter Facts blog.

At this time of the year its close up to submission of everybody’s assignments, and you can feel the vibes of stress when you are walking into the library at the University. Funny enough this is also the time students, including myself, keeps spending a even more huge amount of time on social networks, instead of concentrating on boring assignments it’s easy to get distracted and rather update your profile and chat with friends online.

Usually this is the end of the final semester for students, but when taking a master degree you are going to spend your summer writing your dissertation. My working title is so far “Women and Management: a study of women in the Norwegian furniture industry.” The aim of the intended research is to find out e.g. what role the women play in the furniture industry when it comes to management, and what problems they are facing when they are seeking managerial jobs.  

Since I actually have submitted all of my assignments now, I have started to do some pre-research to find ten relevant women in middle managers and leading positions, in the furniture industry, that are willing to be interviewed. This is a process that can take up a lot of your time, since you have no guarantee that everybody you ask are willing to be a part of this project, so the clue here has to be to start as early as you can; time management.

The quick speed of what’s happening on Twitter and other social networks can prevent us in feeling sympathy for others. New research shows that the digital daily life has its bad effects.

The constantly updates of our status on Facebook, Twitter and MSN can appear as an endless line of superficiality glimpse into close and familiar friends life situations. Researcher’s fears that the battle of attention online makes us emotional callous.

A research project conducted by the University of Southern California have looked at how long time the brain uses to register feelings, and what relationship the empathy has in the social-digital era.

When spending time on our computers, we are distancing ourselves in a great deal away from other people. When there is no personal contact between yourself and the one that needs your empathy one might get, to the utmost consequence, an experience a weakening like the research refers to. However, it isn’t surprising that people is disappearing in the crowd. On social networks, like Facebook, many people have over 400 friends, it’s obvious that it will be difficult to understand and have the knowledge of what each of them is doing in addition to have empathy for all of them.

In the beginning of this semester, each group got assigned a topic to present for the rest of the class e.g. Social & B2B Professional Networking, Video Sharing, Wikis, Social Micro blogging etc. and my group and I got Audio & Podcasts. Through this post I want to share some of the information from our presentation.

Apple explains podcast as “a free video or audio series, like a TV or radio show, that you download from iTunes and play on your computer, iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.” In other words according to Wikipedia, podcast is “a series of audio or video digital media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.” A podcast is distinguished from most other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added.

The term is a portmanteau of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”, the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed. As more devices other than iPods became able to synchronise with podcast feeds, a backronym developed where podcast stood for “Personal On Demand broadcast”. However, such a definition would create a misnomer, because podcasts are not available “on demand”. This definition would more accurately describe a direct download or streaming media.

Podcasting’s initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own radio-style shows. The market for podcast consumption is growing rapidly, and currently there are over 6000 podcasts being produced. The listener market that consumes these podcasts is currently estimated at over 6 million and is quickly growing.

The typical Podcasting scenario:

The high use of social network sites at the workplace is a growing concern for the employer; some have even considered dismissing employees who used e.g. Facebook in the work hours.

According to a new study, done by the University of Melbourne, shows that workers that were allowed to use the Internet for leisure became more productive.

The author of the study, Dr. Brent Coker, looked at the results and considered them in relation to the importance of taking a break from work, if you do so, you give the mind to rest itself and increases the productivity when you go back to work again. “People need to take a break to get the concentration back,” says Coker in a statement, in the press release on the university’s homepage.

However, this has to be within a reasonable limit. “People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” Coker says.

Facebook, YouTube and reading news papers online were web pages especially mentioned in the study, these are also web pages several employers have chosen to block. “Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.” But it’s important to remember that people are different, and it’s important to emphasise that it is the people that uses less than 20% of their total time online that is productive, however, some employees can be in a position to have an addiction to these services, and if this is the case, the productivity will be lower.

Should companies allow Internet surfing for fun to increase the productivity? I think this is a difficult topic and question to answer. In many ways it depends on what company you work for, some is more dependent on using the Internet than others, and can you really expect that your workers will not take a break and use the Internet for fun?

Google’s search engine is old fashion; this is among others claimed by scientist Stephen Wolfram. In May 2009 he will be launching a version of his own search engine Wolfram Alpha, a computational data engine with a new approach to knowledge extraction and an easy-to-use interface. This is supposed to give the users the opportunity to ask questions in a whole different way than Google does. Because of this, Google has announced a new technology that steer searches in a more semantic direction. This new technology could be a big step in the future of online searching.

Semantic mean to understand what you really are searching for, the language, not just the words. With this technology, users should then ask the search engine questions, and get answers.

Google announced, on their Official Google Blog, that they now allow identifying and connecting the search inquiry with concepts and other related concepts. With this, the search result extends with other type of link in addition to the known answers.

For example, a Google search for ”principles of physics”  gives a immediate hit on subjects like “big bang”, “special relativity” and “quantum mechanics “ and are related terms that could help you find what you need. But when it comes to search like e.g. “What kind of medicine do I need after an eye surgery” one have to understand the whole meaning and the relations between the words. In other words, understand the questions.

 – quote, the Official Google Blog by Ori Allon and Ken Wilder.

I assume most of you got the new Facebook layout last week, so what do you think?

On Sunday me and some friends were eating out, and then someone suddenly said “so, what do you think about the new Facebook?” Not actually shocking that this has been a hot topic the last week, and as always, we all have different opinions. I will admit that my first impression was that it all looked a bit messy, but I will think that’s a normal reaction when something has completely changed overnight. However, I don’t see the changes as a big deal, spending so much time on Facebook, I’m sure I quickly will learn to use the site and get a better overview. But like last time, lots of people really don’t like the new look, and I have been getting invited to several groups that is “protesting”. I come over a page someone has made on Facebook, where you could actually vote for or against the new layout, and most of the comments are not surprisingly, negative; “It seems to be a desperate attempt to head off Twitter. Realise it’s not a competition...” 

I think the conclusion that could be drawn from this is that people just don’t like changes, and that’s not something new. But why doesn’t it seem like much of people don’t understand that changes is a way in improving and trying to make things better, without this there wouldn’t be any development.

“A blog is a user-generated website on which the writers (bloggers) enter their remarks in journal style, which then appear in reverse chronological order” - Weber (2007)

My blog “career” started with Windows Live Spaces (MSN Spaces) and I was very active for a while. It was especially something I enjoyed doing while studying in Bangkok, to share my thoughts, adventures and pictures with friends back home in Norway, from everything that I experienced there, a sort of travel diary. Somehow it felt more “safe” to write a personal blog where I could actually “control” whoever that had access to read it, choosing friends from my MSN list. But when I came back to Norway, the purpose with the blog didn’t seem so necessary or interesting anymore, as a reason from this, my blogging started to slow down. When I moved to Leeds I thought about starting up the blog again, now to share experiences from living in Leeds…but for some reason it never happened.

If it hadn’t been for the PR & New Media module, I don’t think I actually would have started to blog again. This time is a bit different, though, since this blog is about me, but with a “twist”. I’m supposed to write my personal experience and views, but now relate it to New Media, PR and/or Marketing areas. So far, I’m enjoying the new blog experience, and every time someone has dropped a comment on my post, it gives me a good feeling, knowing that someone actually find my views on the things I write interesting enough worth commenting. It makes it more fun and inspiriting to write. But like we have been tough, the basic rule: you have to give to receive, and note to myself; I have to be better commenting more on other people’s posts!

I hope the rest of the PR & New Media students are enjoying their blogging experience as much as I do. I know some days it can be very hard to write a post, but I really enjoy reading other blogs and sometimes this gives me inspiration to write my view on things I have read.  

According to PRblogger, Stephen Davies, blogging has gone mainstream, and blogging is here to stay. It’s fascinating how huge the interest of blogging has become; now 41 % of the total UK internet audience reads at least one blog in a single month (comScore).  Richard Bailey wrote a blog post “Blogs are Boring”, and I think what he writes is true, it isn’t just about having a blog, but if you want to attract readers and stand out from the rest of all the blogs, you have to make it interesting and differ from the rest. Combining your blog with other social media applications is one way to do it. However, I don’t want to stuff my blog full of videos from YouTube, unnecessary links etc., just to attract readers, without any purpose, it has to be related with the certain topic.

The question is: will I keep up writing this blog when I’ve finished the module?

As we all know by now, Twitter allows users to send updates in 140 characters or less. PRblogger Stephen Davies in his article “Blogging has gone mainstream”, in CIPR Profile Magazine (issue 70), describes Twitter in 140 characters (or less): “A public SMS for the web. You follow other people to receive their updates and they can follow you too. Makes no sense in the beginning” I thought this description was a bit funny and wanted to share this, since this is how I first felt about Twitter, as I wrote in a previous post.

Last month Facebook could celebrate their fifth birthday, and this month, the 11^th of March, they are launching a new design and are announcing new profiles for public figures and organisations, maybe you can say that they are trying to be more like Twitter?

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg writes in his Facebook-blog that some of the new changes are just as you connect with friends; you will now also be able to connect and communicate with celebrities, musicians, politicians and organisations. The changes on their homepage will let you see everything that’s shared by your friends and connections as it happens. And for many of us, I reckon that the opportunity to actually provide more control is good news. This allows you to choose exactly who you see among the people and things you are connected to, e.g. you can decide you no longer want to get updates from friends you rarely talk to etc. But on the other hand, why can’t you just remove them..?

Last time Facebook did introduce different changes, many people joined different groups to protest about it, but now Mark Zuckerberg gives everyone the opportunity to check out the new homepage before the changes, and to give feedback on what you think.

So, are you all ready for some new Facebook changes, to “stalk” celebrities and find out what President Obama are doing, thinking and sharing right now?

“I’ve lived my whole adult life talking about my life. The only difference is that I’m talking about my death now. It’s OK. I’ve lived in front of the cameras. And maybe I’ll die in front of them.” - Jade Goody

Jade Goody could be seen as a celebrity who is using the modern media to the bitter end, willing to do almost anything to make money for herself that they have made out of her. But could you really blame her? In the end she is just making sure that her sons will grow up with security, comfort, opportunities and education even if she can’t be there for them. It is the media who writes the stories, and if she could have benefits from this, why not?

The more frequently important causes are mention in the media and fronted by celebrities, the more aware the ordinary people gets and interesting enough, this engages people. In the case of breast cancer, the disease gets a face, and this probably increases the awareness about the illness. After Kylie Minouge went public with her breast cancer there was a 40% raise in breast screening after her announcement. Since Jane Goody was diagnosed in August 2008, 20% more women across Britain have had cervical smears. So if you read the second paragraph again, would you now say that she is using the media selfishly?

In Norway there has also been a rapid change in the way people, especially the young ones that tend to be early adopters and innovative users of new technology and media, use new social media, such as YouTube and Facebook. Norwegian social networks are also very popular, and you could say that the web community has exploded in Norway. Knut-Arne Futsæter (TSN Gallup Norway, 2007) explains about this “phenomenon” in his presentation about the “Increasing use of social media and decrease of traditional media in Norway.”

In 2007, Blink was Norway’s largest web community and was launched by Dagbladet.no (a Norwegian newspaper) on 1 February 2002. In January 2007 Blink had over 316 000 members, which means around 7 % of the population in Norway have a profile on Blink. Members of Blink.no can write their own news and blogs, participate in debates and upload photographs and videos to share with others. It’s free to sign up and become a member, but some of the accessory device you have to pay for.

On 14 September 2006, Norway’s largest website launched Nettby, along many of the same lines as Dagbladet’s Blink.no, and by January 2007 Nettby.no had 329 000 citizens and were growing by 15 000 members each week. That is quite impressing when you think of the population of Norway, 4.8 million people by the end of 2008, and together Blink.no and Nettby.no have acquired more than half a million people.

It seems like Norwegians want Norwegian produced content in a local setting. But will Norwegian social networks pass the foreign equivalents like e.g. Facebook and Twitter in Norway? Futsæter belives so, but I’m not that sure.

Blogging and various discussion forums are also another type of user created content that has become really popular in Norway, as in other countries, there is a wide spectrum, ranging from private diaries in plain text to advanced blogs with graphics, audio and video.

My own experience with social media started with mIRC, a popular Internet Relay Chat, then I “upgraded” to The Microsoft Network (MSN) and Windows Live Spaces (MSN Spaces). Now there is Facebook who embarrassingly enough takes a lot of my time, beside trying to figure out Twitter and writing this blog. In future blog posts I will write more about social media that I used before, the ones I use now and applications I consider to exploit in the future.

 - Talking about really letting people know what is happening at every second in your life…Some weeks ago soul singer, Erykah Badu, and her boyfriend, Jay Electronica, let more than 4500 followers know about their child’s birth in real time on Twitter.

Twitter is described as a service for friends, family and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? As I’m a person who rarely updates my Facebook status, I have some sort of problem with getting too excited over Twitters possibilities. However, reading some of the comments from those who selected Twitter as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2008, maybe I have missed something?

Like Facebook, Twitter is a social network page, but for me, more sort of a place I would add my parents etc., just to give them quick information about what their daughter is spending her time doing while she is in another country. If my parents had joined Facebook; I think I also would do as my classmate Anette writes in her blog, give them limited access, since I actually can’t control everything other people post about me.

But I think I shall try to be better on this twittering thing…since there are a lot of people just loving it…maybe I will understand this sort of phenomena little by little…follow me at http://twitter.com/kinehd and see how I’m making my progress!

In the meantime, you could have a look at “The 50 most popular celebs on Twitter”, enjoy!