Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

January 23, 2010

Haunted by Facebook: The Smoking Baby!

A very old saying goes along this line: “Every coin has two sides“.

Although I don’t entirely agree that this applies all the time, I must admit that I have faith in its meaning on more than one level and that it does really apply in many different situations. The argument of this post is definitely listed under those situations!

Social Media: Into Play

Since the emergence of social media, its tools, sites, ideas and influences, many things have changed such as:

  • The way people interact with each other.
  • The loose approach towards privacy.
  • The amount of information we share.
  • The way people handle their own personal feelings.
  • The reactions of people towards different crisis, problems or even causes.

In return, these newly adopted trends have created a gray area for wrong and right thus influencing our abilities to make well-studied, worthwhile judgments and, consequently, decisions as well!

[read full article >>]

January 13, 2010

10 Social Media Concepts You Should Follow [video]

The Intersection Consulting blog brings to you a simple and fresh visualization of 10 social media concepts including social capacity, social media tools, social media strategy, engagement and social listening.

The main purpose of this video is meant to arm you with some of the necessary knowledge and know-how about using social media to best suit your needs and interests.

Here is a list of my thoughts and humble analysis of the points mentioned in the video above:

1. There is a vast difference between the “rush” to use a certain media tool, as opposed to the actual “need” for it.

[read full article >>]

December 29, 2009

We Make Love and Creative Commons

Okay, these are real buttons, but web buttons look similar

Okay, these are real buttons, but web buttons look similar

We’ve all seen the cute little CC buttons all over the nooks and crannies of the World Wide Web. We’ve seen them on Flickr, blogs and Obama’s campaign website. You might have even seen them beyond the screen, on a CD cover or a movie.

But what the hell are the Creative Commons, exactly?

Just about the most brilliant idea on earth. Let me explain…

Creative Commons is a set of copyleft (as opposed to copyright) licenses for creative works such as movies, music, images, essays, research papers, and of course, websites. Using copyleft, an author may, through a copyleft licensing scheme, give every person who receives a copy of their work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work as long as any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same copyleft licensing scheme. Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright – all rights reserved – and the public domain – no rights reserved. The content creator and you can decide whether you want your publicly published images to be remixed, sold, shared, credited, locked up in a drawer, or none of the latter.

[read full article >>]

November 10, 2009

The Self-Destructing Worm: Crawling into an iPhone Near You!

Within a few days of publishing an article entitled “The iPhone is the worst phone in the world“, the iPhone self-destructing worm came into play. Is Flora Graham clairvoyant? Or is it just that the iPhone is simply going downhill just like any other ex super-hyped, highly-priced technological device about to hit the gutter?

Around 8 months from posting her article: How I learned to stop worrying and love the iPhone, Flora Graham brutally attacks the iPhone in terms of dropping calls, data gaps, poor overall design, relatively short battery life and so on. I am curious here: What brought about this hate after what seemed to be a deeply entrenched “love” relationship built on trust and respect for the phone’s features and the tools it provides?

Ikee iPhone Wallpaper

Ikee iPhone Wallpaper

Personally, I never was interested in buying an iPhone; the Blackberry was more appealing to me due to its highly facilitated and flexible access to e-mails. However, I keep up with the latest technology news and reviews and have never yet, up until the past week, come across such negative reviews about the iPhone then all of a sudden, boom, the iPhone’s fairly good reputation starts heading down hill!

The 21-year-old hacker, Ashley Towns, has written a worm – a type of self-replicating computer program similar to a virus, that changes the iPhone’s wallpaper to show a picture of 80’s pop singer Rick Astley and displays the message “ikee is never going to give you up“.”

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, to what extent are we really safe with technology? And how long can we depend on our phones and even computers to keep our information intact and safe from hacks, spam and / or theft?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts down below :)

Filed under: Web News — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Beirut @ 8:47 pm

October 27, 2009

“The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0″ [video]

Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” William Pollard. I agree and I’m sure that most of you do as well!

Take a look at the following video; my analysis will follow right after.

After viewing the video and reading the quote above , I am only inclined to think about the following issues with rather serious concerns and heavy hesitations: Is it wise to push for information to be handled solely by machines speaking to each other with minimum human interference? What is the degree to which privacy is compromised when utilizing semantic technologies? And do we have enough backup capacities to secure information in case of electricity cuts or natural disasters?

What do you think?

August 28, 2009

What Does Your Twitter Avatar & Background Say About YOU?

Do you think your Twitter avatar and background have an impact on how your current and potential followers view you? Can using an “inappropriate” avatar or background actually  be a reason to lower the number Twitter users interested in following you or even attract the “wrong” type of followers?

A few introductory words…

There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “Don’t judge a book by its cover“. But how else would you judge a book if you can’t really see what’s inside of it in terms of content originality, uniqueness, usefulness and/or creativity? The same applies to interaction over social media channels, especially in the case of Twitter!

Regardless of which follow technique you’re using, you will eventually evaluate those you are planning to follow based on one or more of  these elements:

  • Activity (number of tweets).
  • Engagement (number of retweets).
  • Following to followers ratio.
  • Profile name.
  • The avatar (and sometimes the background as well).

Taking that into consideration, I guess it’s safe to say that your avatar and background can say something about you!

What do you want them to say?

Each of us uses Twitter for a certain aim and tweets for a different reason. Therefore, it is highly essential that your avatar and background are able to clearly corroborate the message you’re trying to communicate.

Below, you will find the top 5 ways how your Twitter avatar matters followed by another list of top 4 ways how your twitter background matters …

5 top ways how your avatar matters:

  1. Recognition: It has been proven that human beings are wired in a manner which allows them to recognize and remember faces. Therefore, if you use a picture of your face in your avatar, you have a higher percentage of being remembered by your followers.

    Mashable: An Avatar People Will Remember!

    Mashable: An Avatar People Will Remember!

  2. [read full article >>]