October 2009

Mashable Announces 2009 Open Web Awards – Social Media Edition

For the third year in a row Mashable, the popular social media site, is hosting the Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition.  There are 50 nomination categories this year, which is almost double of the amount of categories there were last year.  The Open Web Awards is  an  international online voting competition that covers major achievements in web technology and  in Social Media.  Mashable’s website does say they have extended the voting time by nearly a month and came up with the new categories for voters to reflect on the changes of web culture within the past year. (more…)

Blog Action Day 2009

Blogger’s from around the world today are blogging about climate change and the environment as part of Blog Action Day 2009.  What is considered one of the largest social change events on the web, ever, Blog Action Day is an annual event which finds a world issue and brings bloggers together to not only bring awareness to everyone but also try to find solutions to the problem.  This year over 10,000 bloggers are writing about climate change and the environment for readers around the globe.

Many people around the world are  against the idea of “global warming” and when they hear that studies say the world’s average temperature may rise 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit, they say “what’s the big deal? It’s not that much of a difference.”  But think about it.  Maybe it is a huge difference.  Take the average healthy human for example.  The average temperature for a human is around 98.6 degrees and when our temperature goes up above 100 degrees, we feel sick, start sweating, and don’t fee good.  Well the same concept goes with the Earth.  It is a living thing, so those 2 or 3 degrees could mean drastic changes. (more…)

NASA Offering Launch Tweet-Up Contest

NASA, which has been trying to keep up with it’s social networking is offering a prize of a lifetime. 100 lucky NASA Twitter followers will spend two days at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where they will be able tour of the space center, view the space shuttle launch in a VIP area, and talk one-on-one with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers.

On Friday, October 16, at Noon EST, followers can register online and the first 100 completed applications will be awarded the trip and 50 people will be placed on a wait list. There is a catch however. Winners will have to pay for their own transportation to & from Kennedy Space Center, along with food and lodging. Thousands are expected to register, and those who don’t make it or can’t make it, NASA says not to worry because they are planning other Tweet-Up Events  in the near future at various agency locations across the U.S. (more…)

Facebook Fights Crime

It seems lately that Facebook has become more of a superhero, capturing criminals across the globe. The popular social networking site caught a burglar in September, after the thief, Jonathan G. Parker, 19, of Fort Loudoun, PA. decided to check his Facebook account while robbing a home, and then left it open after he had left with two diamond rings.

This week, another criminal has been captured, and it’s all thanks to who the fugitive was friends with on Facebook.  Maxi Sopo,26, had been living the last few months in Cancun, Mexico after he had fled from the US.  According to prosecutors, Sopo who arrived in the US in 2003 after moving from his native country of Cameroon, and worked in Seattle’s nightclubs selling roses until  he moved on to bank fraud.  In late February of this year, he allegedly drove a rented car to Mexico after learning that federal agents were investigating the fraud scheme. (more…)

Say What? There’s An App For That

Going from Twitter to Digg to your best friend’s blog and searching for what’s happening and trying to keep up with the latest gossip can be quite challenging. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some search tool that would search all the social media sites and let you know what’s happening with topics I was curious about? Well now there’s an app for that. iCrossing, a digital media agency released an application for iPhones on Monday called “Say What?.” The app is easiestly described as a search engine for social media sites and finds the most recent postings for that topic.

The app is actually very user friendly and simple to use. Let’s say you want to know the latest news or gossip on a certain celebrity. Let’s take Taylor Swift for example. You open the app, and up pop’s the search menu, where you’ll type in “Taylor Swift” and then hit search. Within a matter of a few seconds, a list of the latest tweets, diggs, blogs, and comments in forums that have Taylor Swift in their text appears. The app is broken down into the four social media categories where you can go further and not only read more of what that user or blog is saying but also find other tweets, diggs, etc on the same topic, Taylor Swift in our case. If you want to actually read the blog or see more tweets from a certain user that shows up on the search, Say What? actually links you to that person’s page. (more…)

Colorado Offers Free Vacation Through Social Media Contest

If you are in need a vacation and love to use social media sites, you maybe in luck. The Colorado Tourism Office is working it’s way into the social media world by getting tourists to post videos, write blogs and tweet for them. And what a better way to get people involved by handing out a three month all-expenses-paid vacation, three in fact, touring the state.  In addition to having food, lodging and transportation provided, winners will also be awarded $800 a month.  The catch, to enter the contest you must have never seen or touched snow before.

Starting in January, winners will be able to try true Colorado winter activities, including snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing, dog-sledding, and ice climbing just to name a few.  In addition to those activities a sample of five star restaurants, resort spas, and hot springs are also rumored to be indulged.  The winners will then be able to  share their experiences on Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube. (more…)

Social Media The New Search Engine?

It seems that social media sites have become a search engine of sorts. A recent report released by the Nielsen Group has search engines such as Google, wondering if their days maybe coming to an end. However search engines are still the favorite option when it comes to searching at 37 percent, but social media sites are climbing up the chart. 

Jon Gibs, VP Media Analytics for Nielsen, said, “roughly 18 percent of users see [social media] as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure. And as social media usage continues to increase, I can only expect this figure to grow.” (more…)