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Showing posts with label Social Web. Show all posts
Could Romantic Elvis Presley Have Shaped the Social Web Differently from Daring Lady Gaga?
However, the role in the growth and evolution of social web, of pop stars and celebrities like Lady Gaga andJustin Bieber who have enhanced their fan base and interact with their fans through social web, is also undisputable.
But what about Elvis Presley, who sent millions around the world in a frenzy hardly ever stepping out of the US soil and just by singing I can't help falling in love with you, when no one had even heard of the social web? Could he have shaped the social web to be a totally different place from as we know it today?
There is no denying that without the Television neither Elvis Presley nor Lady Gaga would have reached the level of popularity they attained. So the integration of the social web with television by most recent technological advances like social streaming and social DVR, which allows for real time interaction over social media with time shift would have evolved naturally.
However, the popularity of Lady Lady Gaga, who is a singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and activist on the social web is largely based on her daring stage appearances and the issues like bullying and causes like lgbt which the artist actively support.
Her achievement like being invited to speak at Harvard is more of a reflection of her belief and support of the issues she has chosen to champion for. As a result, the technology she sought was some means to interact with her fans on the web on those issues, enhancing her presence among her fans, which created her famous back room chats with her fans and which rendered her role of counselling her fans possible.
But in the case of Elvis Presley it was his talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humour which endeared him to millions, as did the humility and human kindness he demonstrated throughout his life. Known the world over by his first name, he is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth century popular culture. He has been described as the sexiest man of his generation, so manly yet beautiful!
In the words of music historian John Robertson, Elvis was a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold, a tempestuous, dangerous lover, a gutbucket blues singer, a sophisticated nightclub entertainer and raucous rocker.
Years after his death, fans continue to yearn for him with comments like "We will never have someone like him again... Elvis, unique, wonderful, our king forever!!!!"
Obviously, the persona of Elvis Presley, which had no need of a social web for the entire world to swoon for him, might have attracted the entire world to Facebook, if he were to have a fan page!
Given the wild passion and infatuation his fans felt for him as was evident from his concerts, It is conceivable that tactile technologies like the remote kissing devices would have found their place in Facebook much head of simple chat.
May be you could have enjoyed an on demand virtual concert by Elvis Presley singing I can't help falling in love with you, just for you.
Perhaps a new version of the Aloha from Hawaii music concert that was headlined by Elvis Presley, and broadcast live via satellite around the world on January 14, 1973, in which fans could rejoice by touching Elvis, using this invention, wherever they happened to be could have been broadcast through Facebook or whatever name the media would have been called.
There is of course many things one can imagine as was possible. The predominant factors would be the key elements which made Elvis irresistibly humane and accessible to millions. One thing is sure, whatever shape the social web would have assumed, it would have done more to bind people of the world in romance, love, passion and compassion, qualities which Elvis was graced with in abundance.
You Don't Have to Chuck Your DVR in the Bin If You Are Addicted to the Social TV
Here is a relatively obscure snippet of news, which could have made the corporate honchos of the leading makers of DVR like TiVo, Motorola, RCA, Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba and cable companies like Time Warner, Comcast and Cox which offer TV packages that include a DVR, sit up and take note.
DVR Falls Victim to "Social TV"
"Social TV," in which young viewers use cell phones to communicate with friends about shows they are currently watching, is reversing the trend to record shows on DVRs and watch them at some later time, according to a survey conducted in the U.K. by Digital Clarity. According to the study, 80 percent of users below the age of 25 communicate with their friends while watching TV, with 72 percent using Twitter, Facebook or other mobile applications. "Rather than social networks and television competing for attention it seems that young people are happy to embrace both and use one to enhance their enjoyment of the other," the study said. Digital Clarity founder Reggie James suggested that Social TV's actual victim has been the DVR."Social TV has changed this completely by turning programs into online events where you have to watch them as they happen," he said.
If the DVR marketing guys didn't take note, at least their dwindling sales projections should have given the first warnings of the changing trend.
However, ARKTAN, a Silicon Valley technology upstart, which has pioneered the social streaming technology, which enables the Social TV, has seen the writings on the wall and has come up with innovative solutions which allow social streaming to integrate with the DVR technology, which they call Social DVR.
So all those, who don't want to miss the fun of sharing what they watch in the privacy of their homes, with their friends on the social web, don't have to really give up their DVR just because they can't share their joy, excitement or anger with their friends on the social web unless they are glued to a telly.
With groundbreaking stuff like Social DVR, anyone can have his cake and eat it too! You can have the fun of watching your telly with social web and the convenience of a DVR when you want it, when you are ready for it and not as dictated by a channel's pre-determined schedule.
Keeping all the exciting features of DVR like pause, fast-forward, add, skip, etc. in tact, the Social DVR, with its time-sync capability is a technology enhancement that brings you the convenience of the DVR with all the fun and excitement of the social web. If you were at work and missed that climax of your favorite serial or a clinching moment your favorite team missed a goal with your friends, as and when it happened, you can still enjoy the moment as if you were with your friends, with SocialDVR bringing you their live tweets, comments, etc. as it happened at that moment.
So how do such amazing features become a reality? For a start, the developers have already successfully implemented their social streaming solutions with integration and curation technology for various platforms like social TV, celebrity homepages and curated social hubs.
TV shows like Dallas and Falling Skies and interactive web presence of celebrities like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and a host of others, powered by this social streaming technology implemented by media groups like UMG, place this technology provider ahead of the pack.
The developers have simply added additional features like time sync and support of additional functions, so that you don't have to mess with a second remote control, to robust APIs which allow you to capture and curate real-time social web content and conversation from multiple social platforms
Good news for those who are always on the move is that the time-syncing feature and social DVR capabilities are available for live and on-demand videos of TV shows and video programming playbacks across all platforms, including mobile.
If you are excited and want to know when this technology will be available to you, the website of Univision, is powered by both Social Streams and Social DVR, is live from October 2012. The site has already registered millions of viewers and thousands of videos on demand.
Apart from delivering the fun of live media with live social media, the effect of this technology might be far reaching. For example, reactions to events like the tragic gang rape in New Delhi or the Sandy Hook school shooting could be wider and spread over days, with decisive impact on shaping public opinion as more people will be sharing the impact of events.
Least of all, the enormous effect on an industry which will otherwise be facing a downgrading due to a product no one wants any more cannot be under estimated.
Fortunately, with Social DVR everyone can keep on smiling and hoping for better times both on the telly and on the social web.
How Long Will You Give GOOGLE Before Everyone Scoop.it? A Year, Two, a Decade?
This is not mere Google bashing which has become very fashionable these days. It is not about the deterioratingsearch quality of Google everyone is starting to notice or why Microsoft's Bing is any better.
It is really about how the cyber world is changing and shaping the needs and expectations which have evolved beyond mere key word search and how services likeScoop.it will meet those because Google won't. Pretty soon the question will be "have you scooped it?" rather than "Have you Googled it?"
With the exponential growth of speed and capacity of the internet and cloud computing, the cyberspace has witnessed unprecedented creation and sharing of knowledge, especially through Blogging. If we used to search for information by punching in a keyword in to Google 5 years back, now everyone is searching for actionable knowledge and trickles of wisdom they can rely up on.
Mere information or the meaning of or explanation of something one doesn't know no more satisfy human mind. Thanks to the abundance of global information instantly made available through information technology and big strides in education, we are much better tuned to analyse, compare and judge before accepting anything.
In other words, we are likely to be looking for expert advice, guidance, opinion or recommendation we can trust on what we are searching for, even if we have no intention to use it right away. And there are plenty of those in the Cyberspace. Only problem is Google's search juggernaut can't deliver such 'condensed' knowledge. You need to wade through web page after web page, Google's powerful search machine will flash in front of your eyes even before you type in exactly what you are looking for. Who needs such boring and arduous labour anymore?
When it comes to human nature the observation of Bill Gates is so canny.
I will always choose a Lazy person to do a difficult job because definitely he will find an easy way to do it.
Well, in the search for easy grabbing of curated knowledge, that is exactly what the lazy world has done. They have encouraged a host of services like Scoop.it to pop up, which are ready to cull information and dish up curated knowledge on everything you wish to know.Services like Scoop.it depend on a community of millions of hard working experts who wonder what to do with the wealth of knowledge and wisdom they have accumulated in life and are happy to share it if there is an easy way to make any good of it for fellow humans. Thankfully there is also an army of lazy, time constrained and content hungry, bloggers too to lap up what the experts can share.
Scoop.it in fact is a lot of fun. If you have ever cherished being an editor and creating a colourful magazine like Hello everyone will go gaga about, you can do it easily with Scoop.it. If you have enjoyed cutting and collating things in to your scrap book in school, you already know how to use Scoop.it and what you can do with it.
In fact the power of Scoop.it is in its capability to pull together visually appealing web pages rather than inanimate links to the urls which hide the information behind them.
The way Scoop.it will help you build your powerful magazine is simple. Once you chose the key words you are interested in and like to curate, and you christen your magazine, Scoop.it will scourge the social web tocollate a list of web pages, tweets and comments etc and will present to you the latest of them every time you visit your dashboard. All you need to do is to literally drag what is relevant in to the column and curate by adding your bit of endorsement, comment of approval, disapproval etc.
It is a win-win situation for everyone. You give extra traction to the publisher of the web property you select to add to your little magazine, you add your stamp of little satisfaction to it and dish it out to someone who trusts your views or expertise. Everyone is happy with Scoop.it.
At the end of the day, Scoop.it, which is free, is the right answer for information seekers and providers as well as the experts who like to show off their expertise.
A happy meeting place where the cyber world is fast moving in to at the cost of Google!
Article first published as How Long Before You Will Scoop.it Instead of Google It? on Technorati.
Do You Wish You Could Drive Your Blogging on Steroids? Try Triberr Today.
What is most interesting about Triberr is the friendly approach of its creators Dino Dogan and Dan Cristowho understand the pain and peril of bloggers and are willing to help. A lot of what they have put together and are giving away could be highly commercialised, yet Triberr offers all of those to needy bloggers, in the warmth of a tribe around a bonfire.
This is not to say that everyone you meet there has given up his or her nasty and selfish human streaks to become a friendly tribal.
To put it bluntly and to save a lot of words, Triberr adds the power of Multi Level Marketing to your blog. But the comparison ends there because Triberr has none of the 'shades' of the "dirty picture" MLM is associated with. If you rush to join Triberr hoping to make a quick buck or a Platinum membership you will be thoroughly disappointed.
In fact Triberr imbibes the most natural process of "survival of the fittest" by bringing the best ofcontent to widest of audience by personal endorsement, a process millions of bloggers who have no access to financial or other resources to publish their material, hope existed.
Triberr is organised around a theme of tribes, so you come across strange sounding terms like, tribes, bones, bonfire and so on which are all synonyms for popular terms on the social web you know about. There is excellent explanation of all of these on Triberr.
Despite the complex appearance, reaping the benefits from Triberr is simple for bloggers who are already active on the social web with membership of Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and StumbleUpon. Triberr brings you a stream of blog posts of other bloggers whose groups you join or who join your group, as and when they are posted on the individual blogs. You can curate and approve the posts you like, which will then be broadcast to your followers in a scheduled and systematic way.
Naturally, your personal stamp ensures that the content you recommend is really worth it for your followers to spread the word.
Triberr is still under development and all of its potential power is yet to be realised. For now you can schedule your tweets about an approved post, but you must post manually to Facebook, Google+ and StumbleUpon.
Some of its very interesting features are currently available only through Triberr Wordpress plugin and only for self hosted Wordpress accounts. These include reading the posts and commenting within Triberr before you approve or ignore the posts. A floating comment system lets you comment instantly. The reblog facility allowing you to import a post in to your blog, with all accreditation in tact, makes guest posting very easy. This feature can get your posts published in endless number of blogs if you are lucky, much like a syndicated news item.
However, the branding feature for the Tweets you send out from Triberr, available now, is the best of the freebees Triberr offers to bloggers. This allows you to insert a link to your blog in every tweet you send out increasing the link density vital for SEO.
There is also a facility to "push" a worthy post, approved by Triberr, to the type of audience you decide for a payment. You can also earn points for marking posts good or bad which can offset what you spend.
Most important is the system is entirely transparent with each triber's status accessible to all members, also with access to Google analytics of clicks on individual posts.
If all of these sound very technical, there is plenty of help available. Every aspect of the process isexplained through info graphics in simple terms and step by step instructions.
One thing you don't get with Triberr is instant success or recognition. You get attached to a tribe you can choose from a list when you join, but membership of a tribe is only by invitation. You can create any number of your own groups and invite other bloggers to join. The forums offer possibilities to get invited and invite others but this is no sure way of getting other bloggers in your group.
Still, if you care about your blog and quality content, Triberr is the best platform today to help you achieve popularity for your blog, like steroids for athletes and body builders. Unlike steroids, Triberr is entirely legal.
Article first published as Triberr Looks to Help Bloggers Pump Up Their Content on Technorati.
This is not to say that everyone you meet there has given up his or her nasty and selfish human streaks to become a friendly tribal.
To put it bluntly and to save a lot of words, Triberr adds the power of Multi Level Marketing to your blog. But the comparison ends there because Triberr has none of the 'shades' of the "dirty picture" MLM is associated with. If you rush to join Triberr hoping to make a quick buck or a Platinum membership you will be thoroughly disappointed.
In fact Triberr imbibes the most natural process of "survival of the fittest" by bringing the best ofcontent to widest of audience by personal endorsement, a process millions of bloggers who have no access to financial or other resources to publish their material, hope existed.
Triberr is organised around a theme of tribes, so you come across strange sounding terms like, tribes, bones, bonfire and so on which are all synonyms for popular terms on the social web you know about. There is excellent explanation of all of these on Triberr.
Despite the complex appearance, reaping the benefits from Triberr is simple for bloggers who are already active on the social web with membership of Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and StumbleUpon. Triberr brings you a stream of blog posts of other bloggers whose groups you join or who join your group, as and when they are posted on the individual blogs. You can curate and approve the posts you like, which will then be broadcast to your followers in a scheduled and systematic way.
Naturally, your personal stamp ensures that the content you recommend is really worth it for your followers to spread the word.
Triberr is still under development and all of its potential power is yet to be realised. For now you can schedule your tweets about an approved post, but you must post manually to Facebook, Google+ and StumbleUpon.
Some of its very interesting features are currently available only through Triberr Wordpress plugin and only for self hosted Wordpress accounts. These include reading the posts and commenting within Triberr before you approve or ignore the posts. A floating comment system lets you comment instantly. The reblog facility allowing you to import a post in to your blog, with all accreditation in tact, makes guest posting very easy. This feature can get your posts published in endless number of blogs if you are lucky, much like a syndicated news item.
However, the branding feature for the Tweets you send out from Triberr, available now, is the best of the freebees Triberr offers to bloggers. This allows you to insert a link to your blog in every tweet you send out increasing the link density vital for SEO.
There is also a facility to "push" a worthy post, approved by Triberr, to the type of audience you decide for a payment. You can also earn points for marking posts good or bad which can offset what you spend.
Most important is the system is entirely transparent with each triber's status accessible to all members, also with access to Google analytics of clicks on individual posts.
If all of these sound very technical, there is plenty of help available. Every aspect of the process isexplained through info graphics in simple terms and step by step instructions.
One thing you don't get with Triberr is instant success or recognition. You get attached to a tribe you can choose from a list when you join, but membership of a tribe is only by invitation. You can create any number of your own groups and invite other bloggers to join. The forums offer possibilities to get invited and invite others but this is no sure way of getting other bloggers in your group.
Still, if you care about your blog and quality content, Triberr is the best platform today to help you achieve popularity for your blog, like steroids for athletes and body builders. Unlike steroids, Triberr is entirely legal.
Article first published as Triberr Looks to Help Bloggers Pump Up Their Content on Technorati.
Is It The Social Web That Gave The Verdict In Oscars Vs Baron Cohen?
The independence of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and of the United States of America is admirable. The sheen on its prestigious Oscar awards night, as the second most watched event in the US, has only got brighter in recent times. However, it looks like the social web can now influence how the Oscar award ceremony is conducted and will continue to do so in the future.
Every year the controversies around the award night, which surface both before and after the gala event, generate more interest and discussion than the event itself.
Every year the controversies around the award night, which surface both before and after the gala event, generate more interest and discussion than the event itself.
This year it was the turn of Sacha Baron Cohen to kick up the storm and grab his share of attention by intending to appear in the outfit of his role in his upcoming movie "The Dictator" with an urn of the 'ashes' of his friend, the real world dictator Kim Jong-il, even as many people felt that it was too much self serving and the Academy threatened to refuse him admission
Proving how the academy worried about the disruption to the biggest event in the industry and the fall out in its reputation, the Academy President Tom Sherak has issued a statement dismissing the speculation that the Academy was somehow in on the whole stunt of Baron Cohen.
"I'm telling you the truth, this is not a stunt that we were involved in at all. We can have another conversation about how things happened and whether we overreacted - but trust me, it was not like we helped make this up."
That raises the question why did the Academy object to the request of Sacha Baron Cohen to appear in his now famous uniform in the first place? Judging from his contribution to the motion picture industry and the record of box office success of his films, the Academy had only reason to welcome him as an honoured guest, especially as a cast member of Hugo, which received several recommendations and was considered a front runner for the top award.
It seems his reputation as a 'Controversy's child' and his Jewish origin have more to do with the reticence of the Academy than a mere intention to let his pranks annoy the guests and ruin their show. As mentioned in a piece on the Wiki about Baron Cohen:
"Aside from the comic elements of his characters, Baron Cohen's performances are interpreted by some as reflecting uncomfortable truths about his audience. He juxtaposes his own Jewish lineage with the anti-Semitism of his character Borat."
No doubt, the character of Admiral General Aladeen could have had unpredictable reactions in a world unsure about the gentle breeze of the Arab spring, which the Academy was in no position to judge and perhaps causing nightmares to its members who were trying to foresee the repercussions.
No doubt, the character of Admiral General Aladeen could have had unpredictable reactions in a world unsure about the gentle breeze of the Arab spring, which the Academy was in no position to judge and perhaps causing nightmares to its members who were trying to foresee the repercussions.
The Academy also has failed to reckon the genius of Sacha Baron Cohen, who perhaps unintentionally, has blunted any adverse reaction by releasing his famous clip but certainly meant to underscore his main theme of ridiculing dictatorship by the act of spreading the ashes of Kim Jong-il on the famous red carpet and thus send his real message to the whole world.
However the 'viral' and positive reaction to his clip of objection released on the web two days before the Oscar night must have given as much relief to the Academy members as the pressure of negative world opinion, if he were to be banned from the event for his prank which more and more people were ready to accept as such.
It appears that, after all the showing up of a "Dictator" for the Oscars could be a funny prank and nothing objectionable, thanks to the collective wisdom of the social web, which has the sea change in attitude towards dictatorship the Arab world has recently witnessed to its credit.
Baron Cohen was not alone to get an admission to the Oscar 2012 night thanks to the power of the social web. Uggie, the ten year old dog who was refused an entrance to the event on grounds many people will consider frivolous on the part of the Academy, finally got to share the Oscar and the stage with his co actor Jean Dujardin. The appearance of Uggie on various shows like the TMZ live before the night prompting public appeal on TV and the public outcry on and off the web has earned Uggie the fame and place in history he so well deserved.
With sentiment analysis tools like Wisewindow, which can listen in on the 'chatter' on the social web and analyse with natural language algorithms, is now possible to gauge what the world thinks and how it intends to act on various issues.
Applying such sophisticated tools on the social web allows you to anticipate the winners, taking some of the surprise and excitement from the award night gala. But, more importantly, the social web is also silently changing the politics and morals of the Oscars.
There are in fact plenty of reasons why the Academy should listen to the voice of the world.
There are in fact plenty of reasons why the Academy should listen to the voice of the world.
Article first published in The Huffington Post as Has the Social Web Tamed the Oscars if Not Sacha Baron Cohen?
Follow Sreedhar Pillai on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lastingrose
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