CRUSH: The End of Anonymity
CRUSH - Bringing you the latest in social media news in four minutes or less. And in our own exciting news - we've gone HD, making our crushing capabilities that much clearer. Enjoy! Don't forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter, and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com Facebook took center stage this week with its annual developers conference, F8. What were the biggest announcements? Although Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg displayed a dozen new tools and widgets, the most significant announcement to prepare for is the "open graph platform". Open Graph plans to connect all corners in the web in order to "create a Web that's smarter, more social, more personalized, and more semantically aware". As one element of this platform, website owners will have a chance to place a "Like" button on their pages, allowing Facebook to then publish whatever a user likes directly to their Facebook profile.
Of course the privacy police have already stated concern over the new development, and with good reason. When does sharing data on what we read, view, listen to, and interact with on the web become invasive as opposed to interactive? Stay tuned to CRUSH for latest in what is sure to be an upcoming battle over personalization versus privacy.
In honor of the recent celebration of Earth Day, we encourage you to fly on over to the "We Love Birds" community on Ning. Hosted by NRDC and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, "We Love Birds" is one of the best uses of Ning we've seen yet. View some of natures' finest yourself with the over 7,000 stunning photos.
While social media sites continue to innovate at a crushing speed, the honorable justices of the US Supreme Court seem to be experiencing technical difficulties. The divide between "the hip justices and hip-replacement judges" was made painfully clear during this week's court discussion over sexting and privacy rights. Embarrassing highlights from the case:
- Chief Justice Roberts asks what the difference was between email and a pager
- Justice Kennedy wondered what would happen if you were sent a text the same time you were sending one to someone else - "Does it say: 'Your call is important to us, and we will get back to you?"
- Justice Scalia's confusion on service providers and concern of whether they can be shared by printing them - "You mean (the text) doesn't go right to me?"..."Could Quon print these spicy little conversations and send them to his buddies?"
In other online sex news, we would like to commend Apple's decision to trash nearly 6,000 sexually suggestive iPhone apps. Refreshing to see some leadership within corporate America, and hats off to Steve Jobs for refusing to chose profits over the objectification of women.
And that brings us to our CRUSH OF THE WEEK - Our story this week truly reveals the power of social media, as Mayor of East Haven Connecticut donated a kidney to a Facebook Friend, Carlos Sanchez, after seeing the status update Sanchez posted saying his friends and relatives had all been tested but were not a match. Making the Mayor a hero in our books, and Facebook her loyal sidekick.
CRUSH: Stella!! (Artois)
This week saw some very cool new media news including Chirp, "How to run a government from your iPad", why Steve Jobs caused the Iceland volcano, the new budget deficit video game (MA), Glee: the app, and of course Stella Artios - The Movie (starring you). All this and more. Watch the video:
Twitter held its first developers conference, appropriately called "Chirp", this past week and revealed the following key announcements: it has surpassed 100,000,000 users (with more than 300 thousands users signing up a day), the site boasts more than 180 million unique visitors a month, and that twitter will be releasing every tweet to be archived in the Library of Congress. Up next in the spring conference circuit is Facebook, which is preparing to display its latest news at F8 this Wednesday.
In international news, various social media tools covered the latest British debate between the leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative parties, providing instant snapshots of the country's reactions into the debate. More than 184,000 tweets were sent during the debate and Facebook saw even more action - with over 45,000 people joining the Democracy UK page, which featured a "Rate the Debate" app. However, Facebook crushed under the pressure as the swarm of traffic caused the app to fail during the event.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was among the thousands of unlucky individuals whose travel plans were delayed due to the volcano that erupted in Iceland and created an ash cloud that caused the closure of European airspace. However, Stoltenberg is also one of the 450,000 people who own an iPad, which is how he has been running the Norwegian government from the United States.
Congressional deficit Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles is hoping that technology will be the key to balancing out our national debt. Bowles has asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to develop a game that will solve the national debt crisis, signaling both a new way to gain the interest of public, and opening up the possibility of fresh ideas by "crowdsourcing".
In other game news, if you are a Foursquare geek you will enjoy this new web series "Foursquare cops", brought to you by HubSpot and featuring the new police force the game has sent out to patrol the streets for cheaters.
Speaking of geeks, Glee fans are singing praises for the new "Glee" app, recently released and available for the iPhone, iTouch and iPad. The special "sonic network" adds a slew of interactive elements, making it more than just a music app. Users are able to not only sing and record their favorite show songs, but also share recordings, join people in their performances, and start Glee clubs.
And that brings us to our Crush of the Week, featuring another company who hit a high note with their innovative use of social media, the Belgian beer maker Stella Artois. But we don't want to ruin all the fun by just telling you how they did it, so check out their recent promotion to see it first hand.
What if all environmentalists could work together? Introducing Environmental Countdown (Video)
Environmentalists are like worms. Yep, earthworms. Our individual work breaks down the waste around us and churns out more healthful substances. We each cover a few square inches of our earth, and sometimes a great number of earthworms can transform a much larger patch of land. According to Charles Darwin, no living thing has had such a profound impact on history as has the earthworm.
What humans have that earthworms don't: brain power. And what many humans have that one human doesn't: collective brain power, and potential for coordinated action.
That's why we're launching and spreading the spores for Environmental Countdown. It's been in development more than a year, and with 300+ members has reached maturity. ECountdown is like a central nervous system for the environmental activist body. It allows individual activists to literally see what is happening so the right and left hands can work in concert.
A web portal that can coordinate the munching plan for earthworms? If only earthworms could clap! On this site, grassroots activists and environmental organizations alike can:
- Share videos and pictures documenting your work on environmental causes with everyone else who is dedicated to similar work across the planet - Team up with other activists for conversation, idea sharing, planning, and action - Share best practices - Be inspiration, be inspired - Get and give resources - Earthworms that have banded together to form organizations can create their own profiles on the site and ECountdown will host and market your media for you.
In a brilliant example of this portal's power, the US Environmental Protection Agency wants to hear from earthworms like you:
Videos such as this one addressing environmental racism have already responded to the call to action. Are you a teacher? Work in the classroom? There's more where this came from.
Really, it's a platform for collaboration for all the earthdwellers that want to improve the health of this patch of ground that we all share. It's free, reliable, and environment-only. It's pro-munching, pro-digestion and open to all earthworms. So come get your dirt, put your own few inches of dirt onto the map, and be a part of this united, global effort to achieve authentic sustainability from the grassroots up. If you have a great environmental video, put it up. Spread the word. A new day is dawning on fresh dirt for environmental impact.
CRUSH: The Great New Media Migration
CRUSH - Bringing you the latest in social media news in four minutes or less. Become a fan on Facebook and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the massive lines outside the Apple store have been for the much anticipated, release of the iPad. With over 450,000 sold, it appears that having the iPad will be as commonplace as the iPod. But while there are already 3,000 iPad-specific apps available, there is one thing noticeably absent - Adobe Flash. Apple has banned flash from any of its iPhone and iPad apps, instead choosing only programs developed in HTML5.
Another media mogul Apple is taking a bite out of? Google. Apple is challenging Google's online advertising dominance with the introduction of the iAd platform, which allows advertisers to develop interactive ads within another application. Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs has concluded it won't be able to compete with Google's search advertising, he is hoping Apple can become the leader in the mobile advertising sphere.
The war on climate change is heating up as the NRDC Action Fund rolled out its new media campaign to one-by-one get the 68 Senators who are not actively pushing for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation to get in the game. And Senators, if you think they aren't serious, just look at the recent activity towards target number one, Scott Brown of Massachusetts...
While the NRDC Action Fund works on the Senate, fifteen-year old Parker Liautaud is showing his commitment to the environment by skiing to the North Pole. His expedition, funded by none other than General Electric, is in hopes of becoming the first person to check in at the North Pole on Foursquare, which will earn him the coveted "Last Degree" badge.
Freedom of speech has been not only a liberty our country holds with pride, but also the source of controversy when it comes to media. Most recently, the forces for a free and open internet have been dealt a blow by the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C., taking away the FCC's power to move forward in it's plans to get more Americans connected to a faster and cheaper internet, and potentially allowing Internet service providers to block internet content they don't like. Luckily this future isn't set in stone, and a majority vote of FCC commissioners could give the power needed to both protect consumers and close America's digital divide. Go to savetheinternet.com to lend your support to this important cause.
The latest news from Twitter is bringing applause from the business community, as the site's plans for a huge redesign shows a greater emphasis on data. Hopefully this will allow better insight into solving the riddle that has plagued many of us, Tweet R-O-I.
And the quest to solve new media riddles brings us to the CRUSH of the Week, where we highlight a number of individuals who are moving up in the world after making the leap from old to new media. Proving once again that the future where new media rules the day, well, is now.
Can Act.ly keep Sen. Brown Green?
If you are someone who regularly makes your views known by participating in petition campaigns, and are also someone who tweets, chances are you have heard of Act.ly. It is a brilliant use of twitter to allow people to not only tweet to sign petitions, but also to allow the person they are petitioning to respond. Case in point: The new Senator from Massachusetts, @ScottBrownMA.
43 tweets tweeted Scott P. Brown : Stand with Mass. and pass the climate bill #Brown2Green
In addition to a letter campaign, the NRDC Action Fund has launched the act.ly petition urging Scott Brown to stand up for clean energy legislation currently pending in the Senate.
Fact is, when he was in the Massachusetts legislature, Brown was a part of Republicans for Environmental Protection, and he voted for Massachusetts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a pact among Northeastern states requiring power plants to reduce emissions or to buy credits from cleaner industries.
At the time, he said:
"Reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Massachusetts has long been a priority of mine. Passing this legislation is an important step...towards improving our environment."
However - his recent comments are cause for some concern:
"It's interesting. I think the globe is always heating and cooling, It's a natural way of ebb and flow. The thing that concerns me lately is some of the information I've heard about potential tampering with some of the information.""I just want to make sure if in fact ... the Earth is heating up, that we have accurate information, and it's unbiased by scientists with no agenda. . . Once that's done, then I think we can really move forward with a good plan."
So is Brown green? At the time of writing, scores of his constituents and several large national environmental advocacy organzations await his response on Act.ly. If you haven't yet, join in posting on the Senator's facebook wall, and pile onto the Act.ly petition.