kassie says...

China continues to censor the Internet

2008-02-04T16:02:00.000-06:00

With the next Olympics being hosted by Beijing, there was some hope that the Chinese government would begin to loosen their ties over Internet censorship. There is no telling how the international community will react when millions flood into Beijing for the Olympics and are held to the same restrictions as the Chinese people. With that said, it doesn't look like the Chinese government is letting up anytime soon. According to this NY Times article it seems to only be getting worse as the Olympic games get closer.

In an attempt to crackdown on dissent, the Chinese government has now banned YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Blogspot and Wikipedia. These are all websites that arguably have no discernible political content. Because of this, we are seeing a certain type of social resistance that is uncommon in Chinese society. Resistance is taking form in many ways such as in lawsuits against the government to a growing network of software writers constantly working at codes to override the Chinese restrictions.

With the Chinese government going through so much trouble to censor the Internet, I have to ask myself - what exactly are they so afraid of?

In mid-January, Wei Wenhua was clubbed to death by city inspectors when he was caught taking pictures on his cell phone of the inspectors beating villagers who were trying to stop them from unloading trash near their homes. Wei was clubbed for five minutes straight and was dead on arrival by the time he was transported to the hospital.

The blogosphere pinned this "citizen journalist" a martyr. Is this what the Chinese government is trying so hard to keep down? Citizen journalism?

Apparently so.

In response to Wenhua's death, blogger Wang Gongquan wrote "Eternal repose to Citizen Wei Wenhua. In the face of violence and brute power, he lifted a citizen's rights, conscience, responsibility and courage."

Well then, let the resistance rise.

I wonder if Human Rights Watch is all over this?

2008-02-03T16:16:00.000-06:00

This blog is long and gone (at least for school purposes), but when I saw this article I decided to come in here and re-post it. Hopefully some of you are still reading your RSS feeds.

Afghan Student Sentenced to Death After Downloading Report

By Kim Zetter

A 23-year-old student journalist in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death for downloading and distributing a report that is critical of the oppressive treatment of women in some Islamic societies.

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh (at right), who is a journalism student at Balkh University and a writer for Jahan-e Naw, was sentenced last October after downloading a report from a Farsi website that criticized Islamic fundamentalists who misrepresent statements in the Koran to justify the oppression of women. Kambaksh was arrested after someone filed a complaint against him. He is accused of blasphemy for distributing the report to other students and teachers at his school.

He was tried by a sharia court (which oversees Islamic religious law) and was not allowed legal representation, according to news reports. The Afghan Senate passed a motion this week supporting the sentence, according to the British newspaper The Independent.

Other journalists have been warned that they would be arrested if they protested in support of Kambaksh.

The Independent has launched a campaign to support Kambaksh, urging readers to pressure the UK Foreign Office to intervene with the Afghan government. The newspaper has posted a petition online for readers to fill out and submit.

Source: Wired

- - - - -

This is definitely no good.

When did a social network site get so powerful?

2007-12-09T04:49:00.000-06:00

Many of us are on MySpace and if you're not, you've surely been asked "Really? Why not?!" MySpace really put this whole concept of social networking on the map (and don't say Friendster did because I'll take that as a joke), but now its social power and influence on people has reached a level no one ever thought it would.

Last October, 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide after she received hurtful and taunting messages from a MySpace friend she believed to be named Josh Evans. Megan and "Josh" were only online friends and "Josh" had contacted her in effort to make new friends because he had just moved into town. They had developed friendship, so when Megan logged into to MySpace one afternoon and saw the hurtful messages from "Josh" she became upset.

Examples of the messages -

You heard me, I said I don't want to be friends with you anymore because you're not nice to your friends.

The world would be a better place without you.

Megan and "Josh" replied to each other over the course of two days. After Megan showed the messages to her mother on the 2nd day, her mother insisted that she log off and then Megan immediately ran to her room. When her mother went to Megan's room to check up on her 15 minutes later, she found her hanging from her bedroom closet.

Weeks after Megan's death, the Meier family discovered that "Josh Evans" was fake and the profile had been created by Lori Drew, a neighbor who lived down the street. Drew created the profile in an effort to get closer to Megan in order to earn her trust and find out what she thought about her daughter. Drew's daughter and Megan had been "joined at the hip" but stopped being friends when Megan transfered schools.

Prosecutors have found no grounds to charge Lori Drew, but her hometown of Dardenne Prairie have now adopted a law that says engaging in Internet harassment is a misdemeanor.

If you're interested, you can read the following news' stories for more details.
Wired
ABC
New York Times

So, what are your thoughts on this story? What can we do to prevent something like this from happening again? Or, is this even preventable? And, what does this say about the power of MySpace in today's society?

Blog Power at a New Level

2007-12-06T03:22:00.000-06:00

Dr. Weisgerber often tells us how many people out there can stumble across our blogs daily without us even knowing it. This type of frequency and the ability to connect with people all over the globe is a unique aspect of blogging. Because of this, there has been an increase in using blogs to find missing persons all over the world.

A new Wired article entitled "International Hunt for Missing Backpacker Harnesses Blog Power" tells the story of Canadian Nicole Vienneau, 32, going missing on a trip from West Africa to Turkey by the way of the Middle East in April. After Nicole failed to make her bi-weekly phone call back home, her brother Matthew began to worry. He expressed his distress though Live Journal posts. When it became apparent that something had to be wrong, he made a desperate plea to readers in the region of Syria (where she had last been seen.)

Eight months have passed now and Matthew's Live Journal serves as a command center for the global search of Nicole. Matthew's connection with readers has helped spur hundreds of volunteers in the region who have been actively helping in searching for Nicole, gathering clues of her whereabouts, and translating articles and flyers from Arabic to English and vice versa.

Matthew told Wired News the following -

This has been a huge thing to be able to do from my office here in Canada. It's like I have physically had hands thousands of mile away in Syria. As I started having problems solved by people who had read the blog, I realized that it was an effective tool in finding out information the police were unable or unwilling to follow up on as quickly as I'd like.

Nicole has yet to be found, but with the help of Matthew's Live Journal the search is still on.

- - -

Stories about people like Nicole are heartbreaking, but it's good to know that blogging can serve as a tool to promote publicity for cases like this and help speed up the process of searching that sometimes oversea embassies and local police officers just can't do by themselves.

So much Facebook talk in the web 2.0 world!

2007-12-06T02:57:00.000-06:00

I won't make a lengthy Facebook post because I've been reading about it all day on my RSS feeds, but I do feel it is important to talk about it at least slightly.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook finally responded back to weeks worth of criticism concerning their Facebook Beacon Ads. It's a lengthy response posted on the Facebook blog, but here are some highlights if you haven't read it yet.

We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.

We were excited about Beacon because we believe a lot of information people want to share isn't on Facebook, and if we found the right balance, Beacon would give people an easy and controlled way to share more of that information with their friends. But we missed the right balance.

Instead of acting quickly, we took too long to decide on the right solution. I'm not proud of the way we've handled this situation and I know we can do better.

Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we're releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely.

Zuckerberg's response is incredibly late, but at least his effort is there. Hopefully Facebook can look at this as a lesson learned and not make the same mistake twice. Next time they add a new feature to Facebook, what do you think they can do beforehand to prevent such a mass of negative criticism?

In other Facebook news -

Next time you get a new Facebook message you won't have to log into the website to read it! This has always been a pet peeve of mine. I love getting notifications of new messages in my inbox, but I hate having to click on the outside link and go through logging in just to read it. Whatever, call me lazy.

Facebook changed that policy tonight. The complete message is now forwarded to your inbox and you can now decide if you want to log in to respond. Yesss! So, happy message reading and replying Facebook users. I don't know if it'll actually make me better at responding, but we'll see.

Bye Bye Traditional Debates!

2007-12-05T00:35:00.001-06:00

The new technologies of the web 2.0 world have made all our lives easier and faster, but they have also given us a new outlet in which we can directly connect with those who take part in our national government. Much of the apathy that is found among our nation's youth stems from the fact that we feel we have no voice or relation with our leaders. While this may very be true, it cannot be fixed without active participation. You can't complain if you don't try and do anything about it, right? So, if you haven't been keeping up with the presidential race (since it is a bit far away) there are some new things being tried out this time around.

On Monday night, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain took part in a national town hall event hosted by MySpace and MTV. Different from any type of presidential debate or forum ever held, this forum features only one candidate and questions are proposed through real-time emails, instant messages, and direct audience questions. The email and instant message questions chosen are selected on the spot rather than the typically screened and non-challenging questions prosed to candidates in a traditional debate. This type of candidate forum is more transparent and less controlled and functions as a direct dialogue.

Another unique feature of the MTV/MySpace dialogue is that voters are able to rate the answers given by the candidate. Results are tallied and instantly displayed on the web and in the live debate broadcast. The candidate can hear how positively or negatively his/her responses were taken by the audience almost immediately. What better way to let a candidate know how you feel about his/her stances on issues than this?

So far, only Barack Obama, John Edwards and John McCain have participated in the hosted MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue. I think this says a lot about these candidates no matter how you might feel about their stances on issues. Presidential campaigns are historically paranoid about any type of debate because it puts their candidate out in the open and makes them vulnerable to criticism. I say if candidates can't answer a few hard questions, how are they going to be able to run a country?

With that said, what are your thoughts on the use of social media and the upcoming presidential election? What have you seen by other candidates (or the ones mentioned) that is setting them apart from the rest of the pack? Do you think any of this is really effective? Anything!

If you've missed out on any past MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogues, you can watch videos and read the transcripts here.

Quick Bit

2007-12-04T01:21:00.000-06:00

I religiously read my RSS feeds everyday and I know some of you might do the same. If you're using Google Reader (which you should be! so easy!), Google has recently added a new feature to the Reader. Based on your subscriptions, Google Reader now generates a list of several feeds that might be of interest to you. They take into account feeds you're already subscribed to as well as your web history and location. It's extremely convenient and another thing Google has added to make our lives just a little bit easier.

Oh yeah, they don't break any privacy policy rules either. Take that Facebook!

Google Reader
Google Reader Recommendations

Well-Rounded Communication and Global Studies Student Seeks to Utilize Skills in Future Career

2007-12-02T23:17:00.004-06:00

Kassandra Navarro
St. Edward's University
Communication and Global Studies Student
Email: knavarr [at] stedwards [dot] com
Blog: kassiesays.blogspot.com

Well-Rounded Communication and Global Studies Student Seeks to Utilize Skills in Future Career

Eager to enter a field where I can merge my interests in politics, global affairs, social media, and public relations.

Austin, TX - December 3, 2007

Kassandra Navarro is a senior at St. Edward's University in Austin, TX double majoring in Communication and Global Studies. With an anticipated graduation date of December 2008, Kassandra hopes to enter a field where both her skills and interests can merge and be of use.
Kassandra studied abroad in the summer of 2007 at the Florence University of the Arts. She took two four week courses designed to give students an international perspective on fundamental social and political issues affecting the world today.
Related coursework: Political Communication, Media Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication, Public Relations, Internet & Social Media for Public Relations, Journalism I and II, Presentational Speaking, Rhetoric and Religion, Rhetorical Criticism, American Foreign Policy, Comparative Politics, International Relations, International Terrorism, Strategic Intelligence
Skills and interests: Strong writing and oral communication skills, presentational speaking, bilingual in Spanish, extensive customer service experience, blogging, social media and social and political issues
Computer skills: Microsoft Windows 98/NT/2000/XP/Vista, Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher, Word, Camtasia Studio, Audacity, MAC OSX, Apple's Garage Band, Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.
Kassandra is currently a Fundraising and Development Intern at the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation (TSAHC). Her position at TSAHC has her writing grant proposals and press releases, researching potential donors, updating media lists, and working on the organization's first and future newsletter.
She has held a previous internship at The Onion as an Editorial Intern. Her responsibilities included researching Austin music venues and compiling extensive weekly concert lists.

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS:

Download Podcast - Social Media For Non-Profits

Download Web Video Project: Religious Tolerance and the "Golden Rule"

About Kassandra:
Kassandra is originally from Laredo, TX. She moved to Austin, TX in the fall of 2005 to attend St. Edward's University. Previously, she graduated from both J.W. Nixon High School and the Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts in Laredo, TX. She was a Ford Scholarship recipient and won several Interscholastic League Press Conference awards for her articles and column writing in The Magnet Tribune. When she is not spending time with her studies or busy with her internship, Kassandra enjoys keeping up with current events, politics, soccer, going to shows and traveling.

RELATED LINKS:

Blog
LinkedIn Profile

Graduating soon?

2007-11-19T02:03:00.000-06:00

"social media", "social networking", "web 2.0", blogs Job Trends

"social media" jobs - "social networking" jobs - "web 2.0" jobs - blogs jobs

Jobs in web 2.0 are going up! You might be in luck!

Teachers online?

2007-11-19T01:41:00.000-06:00

Megan's post about an intern getting caught by his "social" life and our other in-class discussions about social networks being so invasive have led me to do some web digging. We've all been told to be cautious as to what we post online when we are applying for jobs as potential employers may "google us" and find out information we might not want them to know. But, what happens when we google our superiors? Are there professors or administrators on social networks?

The Ohio Education Association was worried about the same thing. They've recently sent out a memo discouraging any type of online profiles. "While this advice might seem extreme, the dangers of participating in these two sites outweigh the benefits," the memo read, according to the Columbus Dispatch. "Because of the high standards placed on school employees and the risk of job and career loss, the OEA recommends avoiding even the appearance of impropriety."

The memo also pointed out that anything found online about teachers could be used against them at disciplinary hearings. If anyone is found posting too much information online they could risk disciplinary action or even lose their teaching license.

So, what are your opinions?
Should other states carry out similar policies? Or, is this just being made in to too much of a big deal?

Web Video Class Project

2007-11-18T22:39:00.000-06:00

For our final group project, we had to choose a social issue we were all passionate about. We chose to cover the issue of religious tolerance. With some help from Flickr, we used images to make our video collage come alive. We also covered each religion's "golden rule" and showed that despite the variety of practices in all religions, their messages and goals are the same.

The song is "Wisdom" by Delerium.

Religions in order of appearance: Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Native American Spirituality, Islam, Wicca, and Christianity.

So, respect(!) and watch our video.

Is anyone else always stressed out?

2007-11-18T21:41:00.000-06:00

BLOG ROLL TIME!

It's getting close to the end of the semester and we all know what that means - too much work! We all need a helping hand sometimes (and I type this as my floor is covered in books and papers haha!), so as I came across these websites I figured it'd be something to pass along. Ah, the wonders of the Internet! We all spend too much time on here, anyway. Let's make it something productive -

Generally can't get your life together? Visit Lifehack.
http://www.lifehack.org

Good preview articles -
- Force Yourself To Save! 15 Painless Ways To Pay Yourself First
- Attention Management: 7 Tips to Use Your Attention Wisely
- The Art of Balancing Everything

Also, here is a blog geared towards students.
Study Hacks - Demystifying College Success

Good preview articles -
- Ignore Your GPA
- How To Write A Great Term Paper In One Evening
- How To Maintain a Healthy Brain

So, get to reading and don't stress out too much.

Group Podcast: Social Media for Non-Profits

2007-10-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

The JenKasMeg Show – Social Media for Non-Profits

:28 sec – Jennifer: Social Networking

3:44 min – Megan: Blogging

7:08 min – Kassie: Twitter

This podcast is the result of a class project for our "social media and internet for PR" class. This podcast was made in Audacity. The song we used is called "Move Your Body" by miyoshimasato.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST

Can social media make us dumb?

2007-10-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

When blogging first became a phenomenon, mainstream media complained about how open it allowed the public to be with their ideas, opinions, etc. (It seems as if corporate media does not like the idea of a free press. Blasphemy!) Blogging has been dubbed the "New Media" because whether mainstream media likes it or not, many people use the blogosphere to shift through the discourse of corporate media. People want a media that flows in two directions allowing ordinary citizens to voice their concerns. Blogging does just that.

Journalists argue that "journalism requires journalists," but that's highly arguable when you see the type of coverage that happens to make some mainstream news' networks. Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) released a study last month in which they compared mainstream media news coverage for one week with that of a host of user-news sites (Digg, Delicious, and Reddit) for the same time period. Here's how the study was conducted:

PEJ took a snapshot of coverage from the week of June 24 to June 29, 2007, on three sites that offer user-driven news agendas: Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit. In addition, the Project studied Yahoo News, an outlet that offers an editor-based news page and three different lists of user-ranked news: Most Recommended, Most Viewed, and Most Emailed. These sites were then compared with the news agenda found in the 48 mainstream news outlets contained in PEJ’s News Coverage Index.

A total of 644 stories from the three user-driven sites and Yahoo News’s three most popular pages were coded for the study and then compared to 1,395 stories from the same time period in PEJ’s News Coverage Index. The report first compared the content of the user-sites to that of the mainstream press. Next, it compared the three user-sites to each other. Finally, the study looked at the three user-oriented pages on Yahoo News, comparing them to Yahoo’s editor-selected news page, to the other user-sites, and to each other.

There were some interesting results. The most popular stories on the three user-driven sites never appeared on the news agenda of mainstream media. There also seemed to be no follow up on stories. Most stories appeared once on the user-driven sites and never repeated again. In seven out of ten stories, the type of sources most commonly found on the user-driven sites were the likes of YouTube and WebMD, sites that do no focus on news. In the analyzation of Yahoo, users' top stories rarely matched those of news professionals.

These results give way for easy assumptions that the public is disinterested, apathetic, and unknowing of current day events. I'd argue that the public is constantly bombarded with the same issues over a course of a few months that they are disheartened at hearing the same viewpoints and coverage. I know there are some days after turning off CNN and hearing about the incredible trillion dollar deficit the Bush administration has burdened the American public with, I might want to come on the internet and read about Apple IPhone hacks or how Britney Spears continues to make a mess of her life. For me, that seems like a reasonable exchange. I'd also argue that those who want to keep up with the news will do so. They will find appropriate outlets. And, a lot of the time these user-driven sites can give way to telling news' stories. Not everything is about YouTube videos.

The study goes further in depth and for more results you can go here.

So with all that said, what are your thoughts? Can social media really make us dumber or just give us better outlets to screen the news we're actually interested in?

Steve Rubel = lifesaver

2007-09-27T02:29:00.000-05:00

Rather than try and summarize all that is great in the following links, I will just leave you with them. I will say that if you're a Gmail lover, you'll want to read up.

Turn Gmail Into Your Personal Nerve Center
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2007/02/transform_gmail.html

Turn Gmail (or any E-mail Account) Into a Social Network Hub
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2007/09/looking-for-the.html

Tumblr

2007-09-25T17:06:00.000-05:00

Blogging isn't for everyone. Some people don't like sitting in front of a computer and writing out long entries. I've been told by numerous people that blogging almost feels like it's too much work. So, what's the alternative? Tumblelogs!

Tumblr desribes it as -

To make a simple analogy: If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create.

Wikipedia says -

A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary.

Pixelspread says -

A tumblelog is a stream of consciousness. A series of images, links, videos, quotes, and short blurbs that don’t necessarily share a common thread, but can collectively be pieced together to form a personality. If a conversations exists, it doesn’t exist on the tumblelog itself, but throughout the entire internet. If I expect to see feedback anywhere, it’s on someone else’s site.

I'm a recent fan of tumblelogs. I actually found out about them while I was researching for information when we first all began our class blogs. I love it because it gives me an outlet to share with my friends videos, news stories, pictures, or anything else I've found all in one place. There is not a comment feature, but I kinda enjoy being able to just post things freely. There are other venues if people want comment features i.e. Blogspot.

Oh, and sharing anything on Tumblr is fairly easy. All you have to do is place a button on your browser bar and hit it whenever you find something you'd like to share in your tumblelog.

Tumblrs you should check out-
Mine! haha
tumbl.us - This belongs to the owner of Pixelspread. His tumblelog is initially what got me interested in getting one myself.
Steve Rubel - He organizes all his online stuff through a tumblelog.
Macro.org Tumblelog
Blogable

Enjoy!

Technorati

2007-09-25T11:41:00.001-05:00

Technorati Profile

Another heads up

2007-09-25T10:31:00.001-05:00

Are you everywhere on the web? Do you have trouble keeping up with everything you're apart of? Well, another new product has come to our rescue. Fuser, which was launched today, is aiming to make our webbie life all too easy. Best part - it's all really simple.

Simply give Fuser access to your accounts and it will organize all your messages in one place. No more bouncing back between different sites to manage them.

TechCrunch has already reviewed the site and had this to say-

Once you have loaded your accounts, messages from all of them appear in one collective inbox. It’s impressive to see posts to my Facebook wall displayed like email messages next to my actual email messages.
Not only can you view messages from all of your accounts together, you can also reply to them as with a normal webmail client. If you want to reply to a Facebook wall post, you can hit reply and either leave a note on your friend’s wall or send them a Facebook message. It’s quite surprising how much of Facebook’s functionality Fuser has been able to extract out of that social network’s website.

That's enough to convince me. I'm about to make my account and see if it's too good to be true.

ThinkMTV

2007-09-24T18:22:00.000-05:00

You might've seen these ads or ads like them on MTV over the past year or so.

Climate Change

Renewable Fuels

These ads are for MTV's new social-networking community for youth activism, ThinkMTV. The site has been up for as long as the ads have been running, but it wasn't until last week that a full beta version of the network was released. Now, before I went to check out the site, I tried to put all my preconceived notions and opinions of MTV on the back burner. I still have bad memories from their Rock the Vote campaign and their use of P.DIDDY to promote youth involvement. Was I the only one that couldn't take that seriously? So before I said "No thanks, MTV" I signed up for an account on the site and did a little research.

In an interview with CNET.com, MTV representatives explained that their inspiration for ThinkMTV came from a study called "Just Cause" in which MTV found that 80 percent of the young people surveyed were interested in social and community action, but that only 19 percent were actually involved in any type of activism.

ThinkMTV takes on issues such as poverty, disease, relationships, sex, education, discrimination, war, human rights, and more. In each issue's section, you can find news' stories and videos in relation with the issue and find ways to connect with other members who feel just as passionate as you do about the issue at hand. My favorite part is the "Take Action" link on every page that gives members suggestions on how they can be involved. For instance, the Take Action link on the human rights page gives information on how to start and maintain a local human rights group and/or street team.

One of the more promising and unique features of the new ThinkMTV site are their "Action Badges." From think.mtv.com-

We're creating a Badge system that rewards you for your good work. You can accumulate Badges in Think for actions you take on the site and in the real world. Not only will Think's Badges make your profile sparkle like a diplomat's passport, they'll also unlock new community features and hook you up with all kinds of prizes and honors.

And we're not talking about those junk stuffed animals that you drag out of the claw machine at the arcade. These Badges can potentially win you everything from access to exclusive MTV Events, to Think homepage exposure, to video cameras, to meetings with celebrities or social activists, to publicity for your cause in a nationally published magazine.

Kids can get rewarded for things such as simple as giving blood or posting a video on the site to organizing a street team. No action is without reward. This feature is not part of the initial launch, but will be introduced in the following months.

So, give this site a try. ThinkMTV is certainly trying hard to get the youth involved and I can't negatively speak out against that. Our society needs that push and sometimes you have to take it from wherever it comes from.

And, once you've signed up - tell me what you think!

Sketchcasting

2007-09-24T16:54:00.000-05:00

A new way to blog has just hit the internet world. Sketchcast was launched just a few hours ago and it seems to be an interesting venue. According to TechCrunch, "it’s a tool for bloggers and others to create a presentation to express an idea using a sketchpad and (optionally) a †sound recording, and then embed it into a website. Sketchcasts can also be subscribed in iTunes and RSS readers via a feed."

Here's the demo-

This is just getting easier and easier.

2007-09-19T22:01:00.000-05:00

Web 101: Understanding Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking, and Mobile Internet

There is no excuse to not completely emerge yourself in the whole web 2.0 experience now with this how-to guide. It's almost like a Web 2.0 for Dummies series. The video is made by Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Students for the journalism school at Columbia University.

Easy way to make a wiki

2007-09-17T16:26:00.000-05:00

http://jottit.com/
Build a website instantly.

Blog and make money?

2007-09-16T19:13:00.000-05:00

Sina aims at Baidu with blogger ads

Commentary: Portals raise stakes for for online franchises

By Paul Waide

SHANGHAI (MarketWatch) -- Look for more from China's leading portal Sina, private deals to keep flowing in strange directions, and IPO hopefuls to put their house in order.

Sina Corp. (SINA) operates China's biggest news portal, making it the go-to site for news from celebrity gossip to takeovers. As of Oct. 1 it could become the most profitable platform for Chinese bloggers. Sina plans to launch advertising services on its blog pages next month and will give half of any advertising revenue earned to the blogger, according to Sina's editor-in-chief Chen Tong.

Bloggers that become members of Sina's blog advertising program will earn approximately RMB 20 ($2.66) per 10,000 page views. Initially the program will only be open to 3,000 of Sina's top bloggers but it is expected to be open to all by the end of the year.

Sina's move to monetize its massive blog page view inventory (more than 200 million page views a day) puts it on the same playing field as Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU), which has been building its "Ad Alliance," sites that run Baidu advertisements.

Baidu is reported to be making a move on one of Sohu.com Inc.'s (SOHU) more successful verticals. Sohu acquired online game portal 17173.com back in 2003 and has grown it into one of the most successful online franchises in China. Baidu is expected to have its own game channel up and running up within two months -- one of 17173's co-founders was rumored to be in discussions to join Baidu.

Still on games, Shanghai-based online game operator Nineyou International Limited, known as 9you, could make it to a public market before year's end. Nineyou has resolved a dispute with Korean game company T3 Entertainment regarding licensing fees for online dancing game Audition that scuttled its plans to list on Japan's Osaka Stock Exchange back in July. NineYou is expected to announce whether it will list in Japan, Hong Kong, the mainland's A-shares market or on Nasdaq this week.

rest of the article...

Links

2007-09-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

So, I've been searching the web looking at sites that possibly we all might have interest in. I've visited some of these sites myself and I never noticed they offered some of these things. It seems like everyone is trying to expand into this new web 2.0 world.

Music
Last.fm - http://www.last.fm/ "Social Music Revolution"
I'm sure most of us are familiar with Last.fm, but if you're not it's basically an application you can add to your Itunes and/or Ipod and it "scrobbles" the music you've listened to. This is a great application for all music lovers. You can see what other people are listening to and are given suggestions on bands you might like based on the music you have listened to. On top of that, it allows you to add and edit the tags on your music, recommend music to friends, create your own radio station, and see what artists are rolling into your city. Check out mine - http://www.last.fm/user/kassien/

FUSE - http://www.fuse.tv
Fuse probably has the most interactive website out of all the major music (And, I say MUSIC because we all know MTV doesn't play music) channels. Fans are an essential part of the "music experience" and it seems like there is nothing left out.
- Blogs - http://fuse.tv/blogs.php
Blogs for every show, some bands and tours, and even photo blogs.
- WIKIs - http://wiki.fuse.tv/?t=anon
Fuse encourages their viewers to make Wikis or add onto already made Wikis for their favorite bands. Record labels must love this because it constantly keeps fans engaged and interested in their artists.
- Podcasts - http://fuse.tv/feature.php?id=419
Weekly podcasts

FUEL - http://www.fuel.tv/
Fuel TV is probably my favorite network. Action sports and music - great combination! They also keep a news wire on the site. I really like this feature because it shows as a network they care about other things as well. Keep the kids informed. Unfortunately, only some cable carriers carry Fuel and I'm not aware of any Austin cable companies carrying it. I have it back home and it's basically all I watch when I'm there.
Blogs - http://www.fuel.tv/blogs
Blogging about everything.

MTV - http://www.mtv.com
I don't feel like I should speak about Mtv. I'm jaded about their existence. haha

Sports
NBA - http://www.nba.com/widgets/
Cameron blogged about the Houston Rockets widgets, so this is initially what made me scope all the different sports. It turns out every NBA team has their own widget that allows you to keep track of your favorite team 24/7.

MLB - http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/blogs/index.jsp
This site allows fans to post their very own blogs or check out blogs from MLB insiders. Great if you're a big MLB fan and can't get enough of your favorite team.

MLS - http://web.mlsnet.com/sights/podcasts.jsp
I'm a huge soccer fan, so I've actually listened to quite a few of these. haha

NFL - http://www.myiphonefootball.com
Got an IPhone? This NFL application allows you track schedules, scores, and more. I couldn't find anything else on the NFL website in relation to blogs, podcasts, etc. It's a busy site so I might have just overlooked it. Let me know if you visit and find anything.

Photos
Different companies/organizations/younameit have also branched into the photo world using Flickr. I, personally, love Flickr as well. Great social tool to share pictures, bring attention to a cause, or just see what everyone's into. Check out these-

Adbusters - Read this religiously. You might recognize some of their stuff from Dr. Mitchell's classes. If you haven't heard of them, here's a description of what they're all about from their website.

"A global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century.

To this end, Adbusters Media Foundation publishes Adbusters magazine, operates this website and offers its creative services through PowerShift, our advocacy advertising agency."

Their Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/groups/adbusters/

Social Media Club - Mentioned SMC in my first entry. Here is their Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/socialmediaclub/

More examples later!

What's this all about?

2007-09-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

Wikipedia defines social media as “the online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs.”

- - - -

With that said, I've been looking around the net to get some more information and find some interesting things to post. I don't want to start off with something too boring!

So, Dr. W has talked about how new the whole concept of Social Media is in the PR world. I googled it and found this group of PR professionals who are trying to lead the front and develop it into something substantial.

Social Media Club
http://www.socialmediaclub.org

They're involved in and do everything we've talked about so far - wikis, social bookmarking, second life, and RSS feeds. They're even starting their very own broadcast over at Blog Talk Radio. Anyhow, it's a good website to get a good overview of how social media is being used in the real PR world.

Oh yeah, they're also trying to establish a Microformat standard to replace the traditional press release. Big stuff? Looks like it.

Well, that's all for now. Ciao!