urbangraphics

Twitter, keeping it real

Bill Thomson who writes for the Technology section on the BBC News website is impressed by the sense of “being there” offered by Twitter.

“Most of my friends seem to twitter from the web or a client called Twitterific. I prefer Twhirl, which works nicely on my Mac, but thanks to the open API there’s a lot of choice.

When I’m out I can even get Twitter on my iPod Touch thanks to Hahlo, which offers a particularly clean and usable interface.

And when I want to follow a particular topic, like SXSW, I use the Tweet Scan website, which searches public updates.

You can choose to keep your tweets private, of course, though there is something about telling the world just what you’re up to in 140 characters or less that becomes strangely compelling after a while.

Like many fast-growing services Twitter is far from perfect. The site sometimes creaks and falls over under the load, the interface can be confusing and sometime tweets don’t get through.

It is also a dangerous distraction from work, encouraging micro-conversations and followups and witty rejoinders when articles have to be edited, code checked and projects planned. ”

Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet.

Source and full story: BBC News [How Twitter makes it real]

Blogging boosts your social life

Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face, new Australian research has found.

The research, from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, found after two months of regular blogging, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who did not blog.

Researchers James Baker and Professor Susan Moore have written two papers investigating the psychological benefits of blogging, regularly updating personal web pages with information that invites others to comment.

The first, published in the latest issue of the journal CyberPsychology and Behaviour, compares the mental health of people intending to blog with that of people not planning to blog.

Moore says the researchers messaged 600 MySpace users personally and directed them to an online survey. A total of 134 completed the questionnaire - 84 intended to blog and 50 did not.

“We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships and they felt less socially integrated, they didn’t feel as much part of a community as the people who weren’t interested in blogging,” Ms Moore said.

“They were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping.

“It was as if they were saying ‘I’m going to do this blogging and it’s going to help me’.”

And it seemed to do the trick, as the researchers’ second study shows.

This study, which is yet to be published, was conducted two months later.

The researchers sent out questionnaires to the same group of MySpace users - this time 59 responded.

Bloggers reported a greater sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people and feeling more confident they could rely on others for help.

All respondents, whether or not they blogged, reported feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months of online social networking.

“So going onto MySpace had lifted the mood of all participants in some way,” Ms Moore said.

“Maybe they’d just made more social connections.”

Source and full story: ABC News [Blogging boosts your social life: research]

“There’s something in the air”

Well perhaps not the MacBook update I was looking for but here’s the new MacBook Air.

Past MacWorld’s

With all of the rumours and hype surrounding Apple’s MacWorld 2008, and me waiting for a new MacBook Pro design announcement the BBC News website takes a look at announcements from years past to see what all the fuss is about.

Apple’s annual MacWorld event has become a cult event for fans and they have come to expect the announcement of exciting and ground-breaking new products.

The fact that announcements are shrouded in secrecy, coupled with Apple’s Steve Jobs natural ability to entertain an audience, add to the buzz.

Source and full story: BBC News [Apple's parade of technology]

10 Years of Bluetooth Technology

10 short years ago:

• Titanic was the highest grossing film of all time – raking in US$580 million
• Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack
• The Clementine moon probe found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony
• France defeated Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup
• The world population was 5.918 billion
• The number of Bluetooth devices in existence was ZERO

A mere ten years later there are nearly 2 BILLION Bluetooth enabled devices in the world’s hands. The technology that was just a twinkle in eyes of some wireless visionaries in Sweden has now become the global standard for short range wireless communication.

Source and full story: Bluetooth [10 Years of Bluetooth Technology]

Wikia Search

Billed as an open source search engine Wikia Search launched on 7 January backed by Wikia, the commercial wiki hosting company started in 2004 by Mr Wales.

Like its older sibling Wikipedia, the new service will be run by a community of users.

For many Google, has solved the problem of searching the web. But not everyone is happy with the way it works and the results it gives.

Source and fully story: BBC News [Open source search effort starts]

Australia to filter the Internet

Australia is planning tough new rules to protect children from online pornography and violence.

The new Labor government wants internet service providers to filter content to ensure households and schools do not receive “inappropriate” material.

Civil libertarians have condemned the plan as unnecessary, and say it will erode the freedom of the internet.

Concerns have also been raised that the government’s filters could slow down access to the net, in a country where connection speeds are often below international standards.

Source and fully story: BBC News [Australia plans tough web rules]

Should Yuwie join?

Social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace have been among the most successful business ventures of recent years.

Facebook alone has 50 million members worldwide and is now valued at £7.5bn.

Inevitably, imitators have sprung up with variations on the theme, eager to tap into this lucrative market.

One such company is American networking site Yuwie.com, whose unique selling point is that it promises to “share wealth” with its members.

In what could be the first example of social networking meeting e-commerce, Yuwie’s founder Korry Rogers says he will give members more than half of the site’s advertising revenue - just for logging on and inviting their friends.

“The whole goal of Yuwie is for people to get paid for what they’re doing already,” he told the BBC News website.

Mr Rogers, 33, says some of Yuwie’s members are earning between £200 and £250 a month, although payments “fluctuate”.

“Yuwie users get paid every time they log on, send a message, upload a picture or invite someone to join.”

“If someone only refers three of their friends, who refer three of their friends through 10 levels, that one person will collect a percentage of advertising revenues from about 88,000 end-users, which could be about $8,800 [£4,427] per month for that person.”

Some say this is little more than a technological version of the reviled pyramid scheme.

However, Mr Rogers, a web designer from Oklahoma, disputes this because he says he does not charge his members, unlike traditional pyramid schemes.

He insists he does not want people to join Yuwie just to make money.

“I want people to join because it’s a good networking site not because I’m paying them.

“I just think it’s a cool idea to pay the users who are providing all the content,” he says.

The site is certainly proving popular for those who do not mind lots of pop-ups and flashy graphics.

Yuwie users apparently love adverts, though, because “they know they will share in the revenue”.

Since launching in July, Yuwie already has 344,444 registered members, with nearly 50,000 joining in December alone.

Source: BBC News [Should you get paid to Facebook?]

• Bebo
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Yuwie

Web site, website, e-mail, email

While updating my curriculum vitae for this website, I pondered for the first time, the actual spelling of the word “website”. A quick search on Google lead me to the two following articles on Wikipedia.

• Email
• Website

Weblogs 10 years old

The word “weblog” celebrates the 10th anniversary of it being coined on 17 December 1997.

The word was created by Jorn Barger to describe what he was doing with his pioneering Robot Wisdom web page.

The word was an abbreviation for the “logging” of interesting “web” sites that Mr Barger featured on his regularly updated journal.

Not all blogs are now about what people find online. Many people, artists, industry figures and professionals, use them to keep people up to date with their movements or thoughts.

The rising popularity of social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo has arguably grown out of the blogging phenomenon.

A decade on and blog-watching firm Technorati reports it is tracking more than 70 million web logs.

Source and full BBC news story.