Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Microsoft Shares WP7 Stats, Takes a Few Jabs at Other Platforms” |
- Microsoft Shares WP7 Stats, Takes a Few Jabs at Other Platforms
- LinkedIn Founder: “Web 3.0″ Will Be About Data
- Overwhelmed By News? Summify Picks The Top 5 Articles You Should Read
- Twitter Upgrades Embedded Tweets
- New York Public Library Partners With Foursquare
- Ad Industry Execs: Google’s +1 Could Hold Us More Accountable
- Popular Science Sells 10,000 iPad Subscriptions in First 5 Weeks
- What You Missed at This Year’s Shorty Awards [VIDEO]
- Everything You Need To Know About Google’s +1
- HOW TO: Get Your Fans To Use Their Phone for Good During Concerts
- U.S. Journalist in Libya Finds Audience Via Kickstarter
- Windows Phone 7 To Get NFC Mobile Payments [REPORT]
- 8 Ways Companies Can Contribute to Open Source Communities
- J-Lo Recruits Facebook Fans To Unlock Next Single on iTunes
- Flickr Changes Sharing Options, Cozies Up to Tumblr
- Google’s Answer to the Facebook “Like” Button: The “+1”
- 10 Vintage Visions of the Future [VIDEOS]
- Why Trends & Crowdsourcing Remain Logo Design’s Hot Button Issues
- Exciting Job Opportunities in Social Media Marketing, Sales & Development
- Scaling Instagram: How the Photo Sharing Startup Avoided Catastrophe in Its First Days
- And the Winner of Google’s Ultra High-Speed Internet Is …
- YouTube Video of the Day: Twin Children Discuss Important Matter in Utter Gibberish
- HOW TO: Launch Any Product Using Social Media
- Skittles Faux Interactive Cat Ad Goes Viral [VIDEO]
- Roku Makes Its Way Into Retail Stores
- Google Settles With FTC Over Buzz Privacy Issues
- Major League Baseball Gets a Social Media Ambassador
- Billboard Helps Artists Track & Build Buzz With New Analytics Tools
- The 4 Biggest Stories in Tech, Business & Social Media This Morning
- Google Street View Adds Imagery of the Coliseum & Other Historic Landmarks
| Microsoft Shares WP7 Stats, Takes a Few Jabs at Other Platforms Posted: 31 Mar 2011 02:43 AM PDT      One year after the initial launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft decided to share some stats about the platform on its Windows Phone Developer Blog. Looking at the cold, hard numbers only, the stats look like this: 11,500 apps for the platform (7,500 of which are paid apps) and 36,000 developers (with 1,200 newly registered developers every week). Windows Phone customers download an average of 12 apps each month. It takes 1.8 days, on average, for an app to get certified by Microsoft, and 62% of apps submitted get certified on their first attempt. These figures sound solid but are still far behind Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS – for example, there are more than 300,000 apps for the iOS platform as of January 2011, and over 100,000 apps on the Android market as of October 2010. Even if you count in the fact that the WP7 is younger than these two platforms, it’s still lagging behind; for example, iOS reached 100,000 apps in 15 months. However, Microsoft’s Brandon Watson doesn’t really like the methodology used by some other platforms when counting apps. “We recognize the importance of getting great apps on our platform and not artificially inflating the number of actual apps available to customer by listing "wallpapers" as a category, or perhaps allowing competitor's apps to run on the platform to increase "tonnage." We also don't believe in the practice of counting "lite" apps as unique quality content. (…) Finally, we don't double and triple count apps which are submitted in multiple languages.,” he explains in the blog post. What do you think? Are the numbers of apps on Android and iOS inflated? Please, share your opinions in the comments. [Windows Phone Developer Blog] More About: microsoft, Mobile 2.0, platform, smartphone, windows phone 7, wp7 For more Mobile coverage:
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| LinkedIn Founder: “Web 3.0″ Will Be About Data Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:27 PM PDT   LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman says that the future of the web will be all about data and how we utilize it. Hoffman made his assertion during a fireside chat at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. While he conceded that mobile is an obvious candidate for what will define “Web 3.0,” he said that data will be the platform of the next era of the web. “This is where some massive innovation will happen that will transform our lives,” he told Liz Gannes of AllThingsD on stage. Hoffman, who is now a partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners, says that data will come in two forms: explicit and implicit. Explicit data is data users willingly give to social networks, blog posts and tweets, while implicit data is data collected in the background, such as geolocation. There are also two types of data sets, he said: tightly held sets (passwords, credit card numbers) and open sets. He cited Google as a company focused on the open data set, since in order for its search engine to be functional, it needs website data to be publicly available and indexable by its bots so it can be delivered as search results. All of this data will lead to a lot of interesting products and insights. He cited LinkedIn Skills as an example of how analyzing user data can result in useful insights and reveal trends — figuring out things like which industries are growing the fastest and which skills are related to each other. Hoffman also had a strong opinion of what companies should do with the data they collect. “Good Internet companies do not ambush their users,” he said. Both Google and Facebook have been criticized for their use of user data and their treatment of user privacy. Google in fact settle with the FTC on Wednesday in relation to “deceptive tactics” the company used with Google Buzz More About: Greylock partners, linkedin, Reid Hoffman, w2e, web 2.0 expo, Web 2.0 Expo SF For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Overwhelmed By News? Summify Picks The Top 5 Articles You Should Read Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:06 PM PDT   The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: Summify e-mails users five stories they should read based on what their friends are talking about on social networks. Genius Idea: Making a product so simple it’s impossible to be overwhelmed by it. In attempting to build the perfect RSS feeder, Summify founders Mircea Paşoi and Cristian Strat quickly learned one thing: the world does not need another RSS feeder. Their original product ranked news items in real time based on who in the users’ network was sharing them. In order to promote it, the team sent e-mails to their users with a summary of the top five stories suggested for them at that time. Everybody opened the emails, Paşoi says — but nobody returned to the website. On Wednesday, the team launched a new version of its product, exclusively dedicated to delivering the top five news stories to users based on what their friends shared and liked. “You get your stories once a day or every few hours … and then you’re done,” explains Paşoi. “That’s the feeling that people actually enjoy — that they’re done and there’s not more that they need to read.” Here’s how it works: users connect their RSS feeds, Twitter accounts, and Facebook profiles to Summify. An algorithm takes into account what feeds they follow and what their friends are talking about, and determines what they should read. Stories that are unusually popular on social networks are also accounted for. The resulting list is e-mailed to users directly. By default, Summify sends its users five stories once a day. But users can include as many stories as they want, and change the frequency of the email. Summify isn’t the first company to realize the need to sort out information. My6Sense sends important tweets to the top of your Twitter feeds, and also sorts through users’ RSS feeds and social networks. The Tweeted Times compiles a personal newspaper based on Twitter activity. Zite is an iPad magazine that learns what kind of news you like to read. But none of these platforms has the simplicity that Summify brings to the table. Those services are immersive and comprehensive, by design. With Summify, you can happily ignore feeds of all kinds, and possibly even become productive again. There is no set plan to monetize this simplicity, though advertising and a premium version are both possibilities. Regardless, investors are excited about the Vancouver-based Summify. It announced a seed round on Wednesday that includes Accel Partners, Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield, and FeedBurner co-founder Steve Olechowski.  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kemalbas Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. More About: my6sense, RSS feeds, Summify, twitter For more Startups coverage:
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| Twitter Upgrades Embedded Tweets Posted: 30 Mar 2011 05:26 PM PDT   Twitter has updated its developer tools, making embedded tweets more interactive and functional. The new tweets allow users to reply, retweet or favorite a tweet directly from its embedded version. Twitter introduced embeddable tweets last year — and while the end result has been quite effective, the set-up process involved in actually embedding tweets is more trouble than its worth. Fortunately, plugins like Blackbird Pie for WordPress have made the process less cumbersome. The new functionality of embedded tweets comes courtesy of a developer tool called Web Intents. Users must first insert a script on a page that will use the intent. Those that already use the Tweet button on their websites will be able to start using Web Intents right away. The integration process is still surprisingly cumbersome — especially for users that just want to easily and quickly embed a tweet. But the code itself looks a lot more clean. Already, WordPress.com users can take advantage of Web Intents powered embedded tweets. We imagine that the WordPress.org version of that plugin will be updated soon. There are some cool things about Web Intents. Not only can content creators embed a tweet on their website, they can also embed a pre-filled Twitter message window. Web Intents are mobile-friendly and work with both iOS and Android, which is a nice touch. The fact that users can send a tweet directly from a webpage or retweet messages without having to use a third-party program or extension could make for some interesting possibilities — at least for web developers and app makers that want to add more seamless social ability to their sites. Developers, what do you think of the new Twitter Web Intents? Let us know in the comments. [via ReadWriteWeb] More About: blackbird pie, twitter, web intents, WordPress.com For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| New York Public Library Partners With Foursquare Posted: 30 Mar 2011 03:19 PM PDT   The New York Public Library announced a new partnership with Foursquare Wednesday that gives patrons a special “Find the Future Centennial” badge. The new badge celebrates the hundredth birthday of the library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street. To earn the new badge, Foursquare users can check in at various NYPL locations in the Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan. Users who obtain the badge will get a one-year Foursquare Friends Membership which will provide them with special perks, including photo ops in front of the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Trustees Room fireplace. Additionally, mayors at various locations will be included in a drawing for tickets to LIVE from NYPL events and behind-the-scenes tours of the Map Division. In a press release, Dennis Crowley, CEO and co-founder of Foursquare said, “The NYPL has been a New York institution for 100 years, and it’s pretty amazing to see them starting their next 100 by embracing new ways to reach their fans.” Frankly, we think it’s pretty cool that the NYPL is embracing location-based networks and social media this way. Who knows, maybe seeing checkins at the library will encourage more reading! More About: foursquare, new york public library, nypl For more Social Media coverage:
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| Ad Industry Execs: Google’s +1 Could Hold Us More Accountable Posted: 30 Mar 2011 02:59 PM PDT   Is Google's +1 feature likely to be an online ad industry game changer? Ad experts were split on whether Google's new recommendation system will catch on, but if it does, it's likely to further an existing move toward marketing transparency. Voicing the most pessimistic view on +1 was David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer. He notes that search is more a utility than a social activity, making recommendations an odd fit. "It's not a medium where people spend time," Hallerman says. "It's a tool that people use." But as DeepFocus CEO Ian Schafer suggests, +1 could make search more social, changing behaviors in the process. “When someone is searching for a piece of information about a product, a review, or insightful commentary, it is typically a very insular activity," says Schafer. "But being able to place a 'seal of approval' next to a search result may have the effect of making a typically insular activity more collaborative -– hopefully improving the 'algorithm' through the quality of your connections.” Alisa Leonard, director of strategy and planning at iCrossing, expressed doubt that people on Google Contacts were as influential as Facebook friends. "In Facebook, my social graph is highly qualified and much more intimate," she says. "On Google, my contacts may be less intimate and less qualified." If +1 gains currency, however, there's a strong possibility that marketers will begin trying to collect +1s the way they currently try to accumulate Facebook likes. "It encourages that kind of behavior — the gamification of marketing," says Josh Rose, executive vice president and digital creative director of ad agency Deutsch LA. "This will definitely play into those hands." On the other hand, +1s are likely to provide another advertising metric, and that could have some value. "It will definitely be interesting to see if ads with a lot of +1s perform better," Rose says. If +1s aren't gamed too much, Rose and others see the new recommendation aspect of search as a positive force, holding brands and their advertising more accountable. Leonard points out that if the +1s contribute to a marketer's Quality Score, they will pay less for advertising than others with lower scores, giving consumers a new way to, in effect, vote on a brand. A large number of +1s could raise expectations about a product, Leonard says. More About: 1, advertising, Google For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Popular Science Sells 10,000 iPad Subscriptions in First 5 Weeks Posted: 30 Mar 2011 02:55 PM PDT
That might be only a sliver of the 1.2 million print subscriptions Popular Science has maintained to date, but it’s a promising start. Since its launch in April 2010, the magazine has been selling an average of 10,000 to 12,000 single issues per month at $4.99 apiece, the same as its basic newsstand cover price. Although the app itself has received largely positive reviews from press and consumers, the latter were frustrated by the price. “The problem was that readers could subscribe to the print version of Popular Science and get a discount, but they couldn’t on tablets,” Hano explains. “When Apple decided to offer up a subscription model, we [finally] found a way to give consumers what they want,” he adds. Popular Science began offering subscriptions on February 16, just one day after Apple enabled publishers to do so. Subscriptions are priced at $14.99 per year, $2.00 more than the price of an annual print subscription. (Not incidentally, the extra $2.00 covers about half of Apple’s standard 30% cut.) Single copy iPad sales have since declined to a steady 2,500 per month, a spokesperson says. It’s not yet clear, however, if iPad subscriptions are cannibalizing print sales, or if most of the 10,000 iPad readers are first-time subscribers to the magazine. To the chagrin of many publishers, Apple does not share subscriber data. However, Popular Science does give iPad subscribers the opportunity to share their information if they so choose, and will begin collecting subscriber data when it starts selling bundled print and digital subscriptions on its site in the near future. Hano suggests that the bundles could include not only subscriptions to both the magazine’s print and iPad versions, but also to archival and breaking news content. [via AdAge] More About: ipad, magazines, media, popular science For more Media coverage:
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| What You Missed at This Year’s Shorty Awards [VIDEO] Posted: 30 Mar 2011 02:22 PM PDT The third annual Shorty Awards on March 28 recognized the “best producers of real-time content” not only on Twitter but also on Tumblr, Foursquare and Facebook. The show was hosted by The Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi, with presenters such as actor Kiefer Sutherland, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and comedians Jim Gaffigan, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. "It has grown tremendously," said Greg Galant, the co-founder of the Shorty Awards. “I think this is a sign that the medium has finally evolved to that point that it can really affect culture and really affect the world." Recipients of Shorty Awards said it felt great to get some real-world credit for their online activities. "It was definitely cool to take something physical away from this virtual space," said comedian Baratunde Thurston, who won the Shorty Award for being the “Foursquare Mayor of the Year.” Watch the video for more about the Shorty Awards. More About: facebook, foursquare, shorty awards, social media, tumblr, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Everything You Need To Know About Google’s +1 Posted: 30 Mar 2011 02:04 PM PDT   Google's announcement that it’s adding a "+1" button to incorporate sentiment into its search results raised a lot of questions not addressed in the company's official announcement. We spoke with Google rep Jim Prosser about +1. Here are some of our questions answered. What other questions do you have about the new product? Why is Google doing this? Will the number of +1s affect search rankings? Who are these contacts we're seeing next to the +1s? Will we see Facebook friends giving +1s at some point? What about Twitter? What about using data from other social networks? When will we start seeing the +1s? Will +1 be incorporated into banner ads? Can marketers game the system by running "check +1 to enter" promotions? Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JLGutierrez More About: 1, facebook, flickr, Google, quora, twitter For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| HOW TO: Get Your Fans To Use Their Phone for Good During Concerts Posted: 30 Mar 2011 01:49 PM PDT   Usually, the dude standing in the front row during a show, cellphone in hand, is considered a musician’s arch enemy. Even if he’s taking snaps, he’s not actively listening to the music, which is the whole point of attending a show. Not so with the fans of Chicago-based band Umphrey’s McGee, which will soon be holding its second, hyper-interactive UMBowl. The first UMBowl was held last April, at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. The five-hour show comprised four quarters — like its namesake, the Super Bowl — all of which harnessed the power of tech to interact with the audience, letting it text to decide everything from the songs the band would play to how the songs were arranged. The idea itself by was inspired by the band’s Stew Art (or S2) series, which launched in 2009. S2 is basically a series of 50-person shows during which fans can submit ideas for songs by texting words, phrases, etc. to a screen on stage, after which the band improvises a new jam. “We wanted to take that concept and turn it into a full-fledged event where the entire night was based on music played by the band based on fan-driven choices,” says Kevin Browning, the band’s soundman. Hence, UMBowl was born. Browning tells us that this first experiment (which sold out in a matter of minutes) was a huge success, with 98% of those surveyed following the show saying that they would attend again. “Going into last year’s event, I was actually a little nervous about it because there was a lot of technology that was being used and we had to make sure that things would go well and work right,” says Joel Cummins, keyboardist for the band. “But as the event went along, and everyone was loving it, it dawned on me: ‘This should make sense, because we’re taking all the things they really want to hear and we’re playing them. They’re going to be excited because of that.’” This year, the band and Browning took feedback from fans to create a new conglomeration of quarters. “Each theme is different enough that it’s a show in its own,” says Browning. “So there’s something for everyone.” The event takes place on April 2 at Chicago’s Park West. The first quarter puts the fan in the role of the quarterback, allowing him or her to choose which song will open the show. The choices will appear on a series of screens throughout the venue, and fans can vote via text (using text platform Mozes). Votes will be tallied in real time. Fans can then decide from an array of songs to finish out the set. The second quarter brings the band’s S2 series into the mix, allowing the fans to choose themes, ideas and more for the band to riff on. The third quarter brings a new element (lacking from last year’s show) into the mix, letting the audience decide what instrument each band member will play. Finally, the show concludes with the fourth quarter, during which attendees can request any song they want — from hits, to rare tracks, to new arrangements. Currently, the event is sold out, but fans can catch a live stream from iClips (they can’t participate couch-side, however). Umphrey’s McGee is just one of a growing group of musicians tapping into tech to make their live shows a more engaging experience. Last year, singer-songwriter Ben Folds busted out Chatroulette during a show and improvised songs dictated by the people he saw (after being compared to mysterious Chatroulette piano player, Merton). And then there was the Arcade Fire’s stunning “The Wilderness Downtown” video, which prompted viewers to write postcards to their younger selves, which were then integrated into the band’s live shows. “The technology itself isn’t the game changer,” Cummins says. “If you’re a good band, you’re a good band. If you’re a lousy band, you’re a lousy band. The technology only allows you to communicate more efficiently about how good or how terrible you are. But it gives us a whole new set tools to interact and communicate and to play with the audience in a way we have never been able to before.” Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Bliz More About: Mobile 2.0, music, social media, Umphrey's McGee For more Media coverage:
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| U.S. Journalist in Libya Finds Audience Via Kickstarter Posted: 30 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT   What if independent journalists were funded directly by their readers and viewers? Rachel Anderson, a 26-year-old journalist from North Dakota, is using Kickstarter to find out. Anderson is asking the site to help fund her stay in Libya, where she is releasing weekly videos on the lives and struggles of Libyan rebels, revolutionaries and artists. It’s a task made possible through social media and the generosity of her Libyan friends. The Kickstarter campaign, “Libyan Youth in Revolution,” aims to raise $30,000 in one month. That money will go to Anderson’s bare necessities like food, shelter and protection as she ventures into more dangerous areas of the country. A multimedia journalist with a degree from the University of Nebraska, Anderson is documenting the revolution through a series of weekly broadcasts to be shared with her donors. Anderson was in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution and then shipped to Libya. But once the U.S. withdrew its ground support, Rotary International also withdrew its scholars and, with it, funding for Anderson’s trip. She negotiated the right to stay as a separate, self-funded entity, receiving support from One Day On Earth to go back to Libya for eight weeks to continue her documentary work. One Day on Earth, a multimedia organization dedicated to sharing stories from across the world, helps post and produce Anderson’s weekly videos. The goal is to turn her eight weeks of footage into a longer-form documentary. As with all Kickstarter campaigns, different donation levels receive different updates. On top of the video updates, donors can get a newsletter, photos and the chance to ask Anderson and locals questions — an unusual opportunity to get a look into what is happening on the ground during a revolution. Her broadcasts feature a band of Libyan rappers and freedom fighters as well as Ahmed Sanalla, a British Libyan who started shooting video to show the international community what was happening in his home country.  Anderson met Sanalla on her first trip to Libya. “I traveled from the [Egyptian] border with some Libyan-Americans who came back basically because their parents were part of the opposition,” Anderson said. “They came back without telling their family they were coming. I traveled with them to the border and they introduced me to some of their friends and through that I actually met [Sanalla].” The Libyan community is tight and almost like a rumor mill. Once she had an in, Anderson said it became easier to meet revolutionaries in Benghazi.  The Libyan people also welcomed her. “I was nervous the first time coming [to Libya],” she said. “I didn’t have a visa and it was right when [Muammar] Gaddafi said that any journalist caught without a proper visa would be treated as Al Qaeda … but the Libyan people waved me in, clapping, asking if there was anything I needed.” Anderson has found locals to help with translating and finding sources. “A lot of time people are giving their time and you have to be aware of that and be patient and understand what they’re going through,” she said. Anderson has also partnered with Small World News, a media company that helps train and provide tools to citizen journalists. Anderson dedicates about 10 hours a week to teaching a class of 15 Libyan men and women how to report on the revolution around them. The group functions as a make-shift newsroom, responsible for finding, filming and editing original stories. The goal is to create a self-sustaining citizen journalist movement that continues reporting after Anderson and other Western journalists leave Libya. Those stories are what the project is all about, Anderson says: “I grew up in North Dakota and the whole reason I went into journalism in the first place was to bring back stories to people that might not be able to get access to them. No matter where you are in the world, there are people that want to know and that care.” Image courtesy of Rachel Beth Anderson More About: journalism, Journalist, kickstarter, News, one day on earth, rachel anderson, rachel beth anderson, small world news, social good, social media, video For more Social Good coverage:
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| Windows Phone 7 To Get NFC Mobile Payments [REPORT] Posted: 30 Mar 2011 01:29 PM PDT  Microsoft has joined Apple and Google on the list of OS providers rumored to be taking steps toward enabling mobile payments. The company plans to include the short-range wireless technology NFC (Near Field Communication) in new versions of its Windows Phone 7 operating system, Bloomberg Business Week reported Wednesday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the plans. NFC enables devices to collect data from other devices nearby, and is seen as a useful payment mechanism. Users would simply wave their phones in front of a special cash register in order to purchase products. While most phones have yet to be equipped with NFC, rumors about the payment technology aren’t hard to find. Apple hired an NFC expert in August, while leaked patents suggest that the iPhone 5 may support NFC. Google, which released the first NFC-enabled Android phone in December, has reportedly teamed up with Mastercard and Citigroup to create a contactless mobile payment system for Android phones. Adding NFC functionality to its OS would make sense for Microsoft on several levels. For one, the company recently announced a partnership with Nokia that makes Windows Phone 7 the default OS on future Nokia smartphones — and Nokia announced last year that all of its new smartphones would be equipped with support for NFC, starting in 2011. For another, smartphone OS developers, smartphone manufacturers, credit card companies and even mobile network providers are all scrambling to figure out where they fit in the impending mobile contactless payments space. It’s about time Microsoft got a rumor out there. More About: apple, Google, microsoft, nfc, windows phone For more Mobile coverage:
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| 8 Ways Companies Can Contribute to Open Source Communities Posted: 30 Mar 2011 12:37 PM PDT   Dr. Nic Williams is VP, Technology at Engine Yard where he is responsible for its large Open Source program. You can follow him on Twitter @drnic and read the Engine Yard blog at engineyard.com/blog. Open source software (OSS) is recognized for the cost savings it delivers when compared with proprietary alternatives. As enterprises continue to adopt OSS, the open source communities, mostly made up of volunteers, have been calling on enterprises to make contributions and donations with the aim of fostering open source software innovation and growth. With more that 1,000 open source communities in existence today, enterprises have many options when choosing where to contribute. With each community potentially delivering enterprise-grade technology, large companies have many reasons to keep open source alive and well. How can enterprises evaluate which communities to work with and how to get involved? Here are some suggestions. Why Companies Should Care and ContributeOpen source has had a direct impact on a major aspect of how we live today in an Internet-driven economy. Everyone from Amazon to Google to Twitter to IBM to Microsoft has been impacted in some way through open source software. As an example, who would have thought any smartphone could overtake the iPhone in handset sales? The leading smartphone operating system is now Android, an open source project by Google. Taking a look at history, in the 1990s, the great innovations of the web were open source software — Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl — that radically reduced the software costs of developing web applications. Lower costs enabled massive innovation. Ruby on Rails is the latest example of free software that also reduces the human cost of developing web applications through its advanced MVC framework. It's clear that most major businesses are using some open source, whether they know it or not. Every Mac has open source bundled with it. Linux servers and desktops are open source. The Android phone software is open source. Microsoft even uses OSS while also viewing it as a competitor to its own products and platforms. Is there a business or enterprise that claims to be “open source free”? Another example is my own employer, a Ruby on Rails hosting platform provider, which employs seven developers to work on open source projects full time and run an OSS Community Grant program. The reason that we make these investments is to ensure the health and success of the Ruby and Rails communities who form our core customer base. One of the massive benefits of using open source within your organization or your core applications is that you are able to debug and improve these shared libraries/projects. These projects and their communities are your enterprise's primary avenue for contribution. Permit (freely encourage) your developers to engage with the OSS community around each project. They, and your company, will get two primary benefits: You will gain a more intimate understanding of the projects, and you will have social and productive relationships with the other core developers and contributors in the community. It's easy to ask a friend to help solve a problem. The first step is to contribute to their project; friendship and partnership will follow. What if an OSS community does not want your contributions and assistance? Select a competing/alternate project. The true power of open source is the OSS community that forms around ideas and projects. The Impact of Contributions to OSS CommunitiesCorporate contribution to open source enables highly productive communities. There are two types of communities: Those with a large corporate sponsor and those with grassroots support. The Android smartphone operating system or the Java language and runtime are examples of OSS projects that fostered large communities of users and developers and had corporate sponsorship. The Ruby community is an example of a grassroots project. Of the 20+ core committers, none are full time developers on Ruby. In fact, the success of the Ruby on Rails web framework was another separate grassroots community which fed code contributions and grew the user base of the Ruby language itself (though it could be argued that 37Signals, the originators of Rails, was the corporate sponsor). The important thing to remember is that communities can grow faster and drive more innovation when they receive contributions. OSS communities are a composite of skills (novice to expert) and of commitments to the project (users to core contributors). A community will have intermediate users helping novices, and experts helping intermediates. A community without any consistent, core contributors may mean that novice and intermediate users and developers cannot access education and assistance. They may move away from this OSS community and choose alternate projects. There is an important funnel within OSS communities that needs to be fostered: Novices become intermediates who become experts, and users become developers who become core contributors. The benefits of corporate assistance can be to ensure the community has consistent access to intermediate and expert assistance for users and developers. The net goal of an OSS community is self-sustenance for the project's problem space. Not all corporate assistance serves this net goal. For example, if the core contributors are experts and cover all needs of the project in their role as developers, there may be no motivation for users to evolve to become developer contributors. Also, if an OSS project's brand and identity is too aligned with a specific company, the project's users may not identify as members of the OSS community. In each case, users may have fewer reasons to join the OSS community and to contribute to it and share it with their peers. The OSS community growth is stunted, the funnel is poorly balanced with only non-committed users and company-sponsored experts, and few participants in between. With this point, there is one recent, high profile, real world example. The Jenkins CI (formerly Hudson CI) community is large, and recently demonstrated it was loyal to the community of Jenkins, not the trademark holder of “Hudson” (Oracle). When Oracle, a relative newcomer to managing open source projects and communities, attempted to enforce rules and restrictions on the Hudson CI development team, a community decision was made to fork the project and rename it Jenkins CI. The community of plugin developers and users quickly followed, forking and renaming their projects. It's important to remember that contributions to open source communities do not necessarily come with absolute control. Eight Ways to ContributeThe growth of OSS continues unabated. New platforms, new languages, and new frameworks all encourage developers to create and contribute OSS and the OSS communities around the projects themselves. None of the open source software used today would have made a dent if it weren't for contributors. Contribution to OSS communities is always appreciated and drives innovation and growth. Contributions can range in activity from the most simple to the most complex. Here are eight ways that companies can contribute to the open source community contribution:
Staff developers are increasingly demanding that they be allowed to contribute to OSS communities as part of their daily job. Salary and perks may be less important to many developers than the chance to contribute and participate with peer developers around the world. The opportunities for enterprises and their staff to participate in OSS communities is only just beginning. Your enterprise's success or failure to navigate OSS communities and utilize OSS may enable or bottleneck its success.  Interested in more Business resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.Image courtesy of Flickr, matthileo More About: business, developer, Lists, MARKETING, open source, OSS, social media, Web Development For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| J-Lo Recruits Facebook Fans To Unlock Next Single on iTunes Posted: 30 Mar 2011 12:09 PM PDT   Jennifer Lopez is making fans work for her next single. To snag the song “I’m Into You” from iTunes before the official release date, enough fans have to “Like” the tune on her Facebook Page. Lopez and her label, Island Def Jam, announced the campaign Wednesday with a custom tab on the artist’s Facebook Page titled “Like for Love?” The page includes a 30-second clip of the song, featuring Lil Wayne, and a call to show J-Lo love by clicking “Like.” So far, the song has received around 2,000 Likes (2% on J-Lo’s “Love Meter”) — but fans have until the official release date, April 5, to “Like” the jam. Fans can also share a link to the page in order to win an autographed copy of Lopez’s new album, Love — those who get the most clicks on their links will score the goods, and those who share the link and “Like” the song could win a trip to see the American Idol finale in Los Angeles (Lopez appears as a judge on the show). This is hardly the first time an artist has leveraged the Facebook Like to offer a song. In fact, Lil Wayne premiered the first single off of his new album exclusively on Facebook (with a call to “Like” to unlock), and Jay-Z and Kanye West launched a dedicated Page on the site so that fans could get a first listen of “H.A.M,” off of Watch the Throne. Still, Lopez and Co. have added another layer of interactivity by recruiting fans as a virtual street team, asking them to spread the word in order to gain access to the song early. We’ll just have to wait and see if her fans can rally enough support to reach their goal. More About: facebook, island-def-jam, jennifer-lopez, lil wayne, love, music For more Media coverage:
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| Flickr Changes Sharing Options, Cozies Up to Tumblr Posted: 30 Mar 2011 12:03 PM PDT   Flickr has just introduced some interesting features for sharing your photos around the web. One of the most significant features is the addition of Tumblr to the roster of social sharing destinations. Flickr says today’s changes should make it easier to get uploaded photos to all corners of the web — wherever those corners happen to be and even when you’re not a logged-in Flickr user. “We've added Tumblr as a share destination and are retiring native support of some existing blogs,” Flickr’s Zack Sheppard wrote on the company blog. “You can always check out the App Garden for other ways to get your photos out there on the Internet!” “Upload one, share everywhere” is the idea behind the new features. Sharing options will take a prominent new place on your photo pages, and you’ll be able to share groups of photos — including sets, collections and entire photo streams — to several social sites as well as sharing them via email. The service also now allows users to share non-public content and grouped photos to Facebook. Public photos can also be automatically shared to Facebook as soon as they’re uploaded. And you can now share photos to Twitter and Facebook even when you’re signed out of Flickr. Here are screenshots of the new sharing options:
More About: flickr, photography, Photos, sharing, social media, tumblr For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google’s Answer to the Facebook “Like” Button: The “+1” Posted: 30 Mar 2011 11:26 AM PDT   Google is making a big new push into social with a feature called "+1" that is similar in purpose to the Facebook "Like" button, but integrated directly into the world's biggest search engine. Starting Wednesday, users who opt into the +1 button experiment (and soon everyone else) in Google Labs will start seeing a +1 icon next to each link in Google search results. Google defines this action as a "public stamp of approval," and it is exactly that. When you +1 something, your name becomes associated with that link "in search, on ads, and across the web," according to the company. It also shows up in a feed on your Google Profile, which is required to use the product.  The move builds on a number of social features that Google introduced in search earlier this year, such as the ability to see which friends have tweeted a given link in search results. Today's move, however, is clearly something much bigger. Beyond showing up in search results, Google plans to offer to publishers a +1 button that lets readers +1 something without leaving the publisher's site. Facebook has a big head start here with its Like button — some 2 million sites and counting have it installed — but Google's button will instantly have a lot of appeal, given the company says +1 data will directly influence its market share dominating search rankings. Similarly, we have to imagine that +1 is more bad news for content farms, whose content is less likely to be shared. In another twist, users will also be able to +1 ad, which essentially adds a “recommended by friends” component to AdWords and AdSense. as the company explains on the AdWords blog. The video below explains +1 in more detail; we'll have further analysis on Mashable later today. More About: Google, Search, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| 10 Vintage Visions of the Future [VIDEOS] Posted: 30 Mar 2011 11:26 AM PDT Did you expect to be living The Jetsons’ lifestyle by now? All flying cars, robot maids and all-in-one slinky jumpsuits? Us too. And part of the reason for our high-tech expectations is because of the supposedly scientific predictions shown to us in far-fetched film footage. We’ve found 10 vintage videos that offer a glimpse of a future that, in many cases, never quite existed. From space age kitchens to high tech hospitals and far out fashion, these clips show both bizarre visions of what might have been as well as some fairly spot-on predictions for tech we use today. Don your sparkly jumpsuit with pride and head on through the gallery. Let us know what you were hoping to see in your 2011 daily life in the comments below. 1. Tomorrow's World: Home Computer TerminalCan you imagine a "home computer terminal" in every house?! 2. Kitchens of the FutureThese two clips from the '50s offer a glimpse of what the average housewife thought she had to look forward to in years to come. 3. Telephone Innovations in the Early 1960sThis footage from the '60s predicts a push-button phone in every home and a primitive way to page someone. 4. Clothing in The Year 2000Is this what you were wearing in the year 2000? Thought not. 5. 1967 Future PredictionThose "video screens" sure look useful! 6. 1950s Car of the FutureThis short clip imagines machines we can still only dream of today... 7. Disney's "House of the Future," Circa 1957This footage begs the important question: Why did motorized cupboards never take off? 8. Telecomms in the 1990sMade by the UK's Post Office Research Labs in the 1960s, this dares to dream of a future with video phone calls. 9. 1950s Hospital Of The FutureBabies in drawers never really took off, either. Can't imagine why. 10. The Astounding World of the FutureFinally, if you were thinking this style of video is ripe for parody, then here's an amusing tongue-in-cheek take from Scott Dikkers.  Interested in more Video resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics. More About: gallery, history, List, Lists, retro, video, Video Lists, videos, vintage For more Video coverage:
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| Why Trends & Crowdsourcing Remain Logo Design’s Hot Button Issues Posted: 30 Mar 2011 10:32 AM PDT
While every brand obviously needs a logo that speaks to contemporary aesthetics, not all trends are good — in fact, once a trend becomes just so overused, watching it pop up again and again in new company logos can be downright painful. And crowdsourced design, design “contests,” spec work and brand-in-a-bag design marketplaces have proliferated on the web and sparked new conversations about quality and ethics in the field. To discuss these issues, we’ve rounded up a few experts. Our panel includes UK logo designer Graham Smith, designer and logo-design blogger Jacob Cass and Raj Abhyanker, CEO of Trademarkia, a firm specializing in trademarks and logos. Read on for their advice, and designers, please share your own experiences and opinions in the comments section. The Good, Bad & Ugly of Trendy LogosCass gets to the crux of the matter succinctly: “A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message. If your logo can do this, then you shouldn’t worry about your logo being considered ‘trendy.’” Smith says trends can be inspirations, but they should never be followed blindly. He says, “In terms of trends, I personally try not to get sucked into them. For me, a trend in logo design is sort of an oxymoron. For the most part, we strive to create timeless logo designs, yet the trend is typically a short-lived event.” Smith also notes that the benefits of trendy logo design, such as attention-grabbing and ego-bolstering, are equally short-lived. So how do you go about getting inspiration from current trends without slavishly following them? “It’s worth reminding yourself that you are ultimately designing for your client,” says Smith. “They are the ones paying and putting their trust in you. Design with the brief in mind, and only then look to current trends to see if there are any aspects that can be worked in to enhance the design for the right reasons.” The “right reason” is a case in which the overall execution of the idea is solid and there are deeper meanings and associations tied in with the design — then a subtle inspiration by a trend can work out really well. Abhyanker comes at the issue from a more practical angle. A logo that follows a common trend “associates the brand with a more popular company than yours,” he notes, “and can appeal to a hip crowd.” But this is a blessing as much as it is a curse. “Likelihood of confusion” and “confusingly similar” are terms commonly used in trademark law, and if your trendy logo looks a little too much like Brand X’s trendy logo, you might be setting yourself up for a federal lawsuit. He also notes that these “trendy” logos, because the same trends proliferate everywhere seemingly at once, end up looking generic rather than interesting or unique. Crowdsourcing, Contests & MarketplacesSmith calls the matter of spec work and design contests “the loaded question.” “A risk of false economy; that’s how I would typically sum up the crowdsourcing route. It may seem financially attractive — if you have low funds, the lure of hundreds of designs from thousands of designers with a worldwide catchment area is certainly compelling.” But in some cases, the results from a crowdsourcing site will be less that hiring a reputable designer. The overused and relevant phrase “You get what you pay for” is more than valid here, according to Smith. Smith cites some of his own clients who had selected him to do logo design work after bad experiences with crowdsourcing sites. At that point, the clients had already invested time and money, but they were still in need of a usable, professional logo after the crowdsourcing process was done. “They can often end up paying double — sometimes more than double — and it’s a real shame. It’s certainly a lesson learned in these cases, but it’s a bitter pill to swallow for these clients,” he says. Still, if you’re convinced that a crowdsourcing site is the best or only option for you, Smith says, “Putting up a healthy reward will increase your chances of walking away with a sound design, and it injects more enthusiasm into the designers.” When it comes to design contests, Cass has a harsher approach. “Don’t get me started on these contest sites,” he says. “They should be avoided at all costs. There are no benefits to anyone; and in fact, you could be doing more harm than good to your business by using these contest sites. Make your choices wisely,” he says. Cass holds a strong — and not uncommon — position on spec work, that is, work done free of charge as part of the bidding process. Also called free pitching, this kind of work is the result of a company broadcasting the message, “We need a logo, someone design one for us and we will pick the one we like.” Cass says design contests are the most common form of spec work these days, and for clients, he says the downsides include the possibility of plagiarized material, inferior quality, limited or no revisions, no relationship with the designer and worse. As far as the concerns about plagiarism, Cass’s fears are echoed by Abhyanker, who says that logos obtained this way may be recycled from other designs or may later be reused by the designer, leading up to “potential trademark litigation” later. “It does seem like many of the designers of these sites reuse the same basic designs for various contests — they just keep re-submitting them. You really need to look at the contests they have entered in the past and what else they have submitted for those,” Abkyanker says. “It is quite possible that the mark you choose is nearly identical to a mark that another company is using or about to use, and this could lead to infringement cases down the road — or, in a more immediate sense, a need to change your logo so that you are not simply a copy-cat of another company.” As for marketplace-type sites where smaller, newer companies can purchase all-in-one packages with branding collateral (including logos), URLs, web templates and more, Smith says these sites can be a lifesaver for companies that are pressed for time. Chime In & Stay TunedWe’ll have more from these experts in the weeks to come, but in the meantime, we’d love to get your feedback in the comments. Designers, how would you have answered the questions we posed to the panel this week? You can also take a look at the first post in the series, which focuses mainly on logo design for startups. Series Supported by Rackspace  The Web Development Series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why. More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
image courtesy of iStockphoto, TommL. More About: design, graham smith, jacob cass, logo design, logo design series, startup design, trademarkia, web design, web development series For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Exciting Job Opportunities in Social Media Marketing, Sales & Development Posted: 30 Mar 2011 10:19 AM PDT
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable‘s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter. But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable‘s job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards: Mashable Job PostingsExecutive Assistant at Mashable in New York, New York Marketing Intern at Mashable in New York, New York Community Intern at Mashable in New York, New York Ruby on Rails Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, California VP Product (NYC or SF) at Mashable in New York, New York Editorial Intern at Mashable in New York, New York Events Content Coordinator at Mashable in New York, New York Events Sponsorships Manager at Mashable in New York, New York Regional Sales Director at Mashable in New York, New York Regional Sales Director at Mashable in San Francisco, California Mashable Job Board ListingsVP of Technology & CIO at The Washington Post in District of Columbia Front End Programmer at White Lion Internet Agency in Austin, Texas Sales Development Manager at Everyday Health, INC in New York, New York Back End Programmer at White Lion Internet Agency in Austin, Texas Web UI Developer at Riverbed Technology in San Francisco, California Direct Marketing GENIUS! at Mind School Media – Eben Pagan in Santa Monica, California VP Consumer Website Systems & Interactive Production at Cablevision in Bethpage, New York Account Supervisor, Digital at Weber Shandwick in San Francisco, California Senior Java Engineer at Proust.com in New York, New York Android Developer at Nextive in San Francisco, California Senior Web Developer at Cecil College in North East, Maryland Senior Publicist and Social Media Editor at WNET New York Public Media in New York, New York Senior Web Editor at WNET New York Public Media in New York, New York Founder at Gether, LLC in El Segundo, California Director of Client Service at futurethink.com in New York, New York Software Engineer – PHP, MySQL at PR.com in New York, New York Social Media Intelligence Intern at Whispr Group in New York, New York Web Marketing Manager at Kyriba Corporation in New York, New York Marketing Specialist at Kyriba Corporation in New York, New York Developer With Skills at Still coming up with it in Austin, Texas Associate Marketing Manager – Accountemps at Robert Half International in San Ramon, California Online Marketing Coordinator at Atlassian, Inc. in San Francisco, California Community Manager at Savings.com in Santa Monica, California PHP Web Programmer at Digital Motion Web in Bohemia, New York Creative Director at Trevco Inc in Troy, Michigan Social Media Marketing Intern at Likeable Media in Boston, Massachusetts Web Developer at MTV Networks in New York, New York Code for America Fellow at Code for America in San Francisco, California Social Media Marketing Intern at Likeable Media in New York, New York Technical Product Manager at Edelman in Districk of Columbia Community Manager at Personal Democracy Forum in New York, New York Chief of Technology at MM Flex in Los Angeles, California Director, Digital and Social Media Communications at NASCAR in Charlotte, North Carolina New Media Programs Manager at Power Balance in Laguna Niguel, California Social Media Sales Consultant | Account Executive at One Social Media LLC in Atlanta, Georgia ASP.NET Web Developer at TriZetto Group in Union, New Jersey Digital Marketing Manager at Global Impact in Alexandria, Virginia Digital Strategist or Account Executive at Porter Novelli Public Services in District of Columbia Digital Marketing Project Manager at Teach For America in New York, New York Account Manager, AppConnect Partner Program at Constant Contact in San Francisco, California Production Manager at Sesame Workshop Digital Media in New York, New York Freelance Producer at Sesame Workshop Digital Media in New York, New York Mashable‘s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out here. Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace). Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang More About: jobs For more Social Media coverage:
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| Scaling Instagram: How the Photo Sharing Startup Avoided Catastrophe in Its First Days Posted: 30 Mar 2011 09:58 AM PDT
Co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger knew immediately that they had to rework everything, and fast — especially if they were to be ready for the onslaught of weekend photos. Today, just six months later, Instagram’s nearly three million users are regularly sharing north of four to five photos a second each weekend — Valentine’s Day usage peaked at six photo uploads per second. Impressively, the startup has been successfully supporting all of that activity on less than one hour of downtime per month. In an interview with Mashable, Krieger details how he and Systrom went about scaling the service to meet the enormous and unexpected demand from users. Avoiding Catastrophe Co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger moved Instagram to the Amazon cloud with the help of a six pack of Red Bull. They took this photo during the all-nighter. Day two for Instagram was an exciting one. Krieger called his dedicated server representative to inquire about getting a new machine — he was quoted a two day turnaround. Instagram, already fast-approaching 40,000 users, would need something much sooner to meet the weekend demand. “We needed to be on a platform where we could adjust in minutes, not days,” says Krieger. So, Krieger, a former UX designer at Meebo with admittedly no experience scaling a startup, walked around the Dogpatch Labs coworking space in San Francisco — the locale of Instagram’s first office — and queried other startup founders about what to do. Officemates suggested that Instagram move its service to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Instagram officially went from a local server-run operation to an EC2 hosted shop in the wee hours of Saturday morning October 9, 2010. Doing so was much like open heart surgery, according to Krieger. “It was a really rough night,” says Krieger of all overnight, Red Bull-fueled local-to-cloud move. “The hardest part was the database transfer — the database was the heart and soul of the app.” Since the switch, Krieger says that Instagram keeps up with the pace of service activity by adding machines to the Amazon cloud when needed and preemptively troubleshooting the app and system activity. Making the Most of Machines “Amazon can make you lazy,” says Krieger. “We made a lot of dumb mistakes early on. Now the science is going in there and analyzing individual actions, diving into exactly what’s going on.” Krieger talks of no longer throwing more machines at scaling problems. Instead, the startup has learned to improve application activity efficiencies in an effort to maximize the machines already in use. Instagram set up data-logging graphs for nearly every in-app activity or system process using the open source package RRDtool. The graphs are tracking everything from network speed between actions, CPU activity and memory status to how long it takes for an Instagram user to “like” a photo. “One thing that we’ve been doing over the past couple of months,” says Krieger, “is taking pieces of the system and running them through deep analysis.” The goal, he says, is to figure out what may be slowing down any given process. The startup has always possessed this obsession for fast, especially since it launched with a remarkably speedy photo upload process — a calculated endeavor, according to Krieger. “It pains us when anything is slow.” Friends in High Places Instagram has also turned to its social network friends for advice on how to scale. The startup has reached out to people at Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Meebo for tips on how to avoid deadly downtime. “Everyone has been super generous with scaling advice,” says Krieger. The most instrumental piece of advice Instagram received, according to Krieger, was to match its Amazon machine selection to its exact needs, instead of just making the assumption that bigger is always better. Also, the startup was instructed to separate different tasks from each other, so that there would only be one role or task per database. Staying Fast“The last thing we want to do is look back and think, our app used to be really fast,” Krieger says. To avoid that fate, the startup refuses to get cocky about its lack of downtime. It will continue spot-checking all elements of the service and plans to communicate openly with users via Twitter about service expectations and issues. Series Supported by Brother  The Scaling Startups Series is supported by Brother International. Brother's Inkjet All-in-One printers are loaded with powerful business features, including 11″x17" duplex printing and scan glass. Tell us how 11"x17" capabilities will help you achieve your bigger picture for a chance to win a $10,000 business grant. Visit www.shareyourbiggerpicture.com! Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Trifonov_Evgeniy More About: Amazon EC2, amazon web services, instagram, Scaling Startups Series For more Startups coverage:
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| And the Winner of Google’s Ultra High-Speed Internet Is … Posted: 30 Mar 2011 09:38 AM PDT   Kansas City, Kansas, will be the first city to receive Google’s experimental high-speed Internet network. The announcement Wednesday ends a year-long process that sparked a heated nationwide competition between more than 1,000 U.S. communities. The search giant first announced its intention to build an experimental fiber network with speeds 100 times faster than the typical U.S. Internet connection — an astounding 1 GB per second. Google’s goal wasn’t to become an Internet service provider (ISP) that would compete with the likes of Comcast but rather was to help push broadband and Internet delivery forward. After Google’s initial announcement, dozens of cities started their own campaigns to persuade Google to bring its high-speed network to their cities. Most famously, Topeka, Kansas, briefly changed its name to Google, Kansas, but other cities went to great lengths to get Google’s attention. Now, a full year later, the technology titan has chosen its winner: Kansas City, which has already signed a development agreement with Google to start the project. So why did Google choose Kansas City, a city with a population of 145,000? Here is the company’s explanation:
If your city wasn’t chosen, don’t fret; Google says it is “looking closely at ways to bring ultra high-speed Internet to other cities across the country.” If Kansas City turns out to be a success, then don’t be surprised if Google Fiber starts stretching its way from coast to coast. That’s good news for Topeka, Kansas City’s neighbor sixty miles to the west. More About: Google, google fiber, Google Internet, High-speed internet, Kansas, Kansas City, Topeka For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| YouTube Video of the Day: Twin Children Discuss Important Matter in Utter Gibberish Posted: 30 Mar 2011 09:15 AM PDT Although I’m generally of the opinion that children don’t really count as real people, the boys in this video appear to be having a conversation of great importance. Buzzfeed is already out with an amazing interpretation of the above video, which imagines the sibling spawn discussing the escape of the Bronx Zoo cobra. Let us know your translations in the comments. Here’s one YouTube commenter’s interpretation: “Get away from me you clone! You stole my sock!” Can you do better? More About: bronx-zoo-cobra, twin-boys, video, viral video, viral-video-of-day, youtube For more Video coverage:
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| HOW TO: Launch Any Product Using Social Media Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:58 AM PDT   Guy Kawasaki is the author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. On March 8, I introduced my tenth book. There are few processes that I enjoy more than a product introduction, and this one enabled me to try many social media techniques and online tools and services. After only a week, the book was on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. I have to conclude that at least some of that success was due to the promotional techniques I employed. Here, I’d like to outline the 12 things that I did to launch my new book, including information about costs and vendors I used, as well as analytics. Though my “product” is a book, the methods I used can apply to product introductions in general. Hopefully this post will provide marketers with ideas for how to launch just about anything. 1. FacebookA Facebook Fan Page is the quickest and easiest way to get a web presence for a new product. These pages are very valuable for building community and spreading the word because Facebook offers built-in capabilities such as commenting, liking, sharing and uploading photos and videos. Fan Pages are not as flexible as websites, but implementing social features is much easier. The challenge with Fan Pages, and websites of any kind, is to attract visitors. One thing that I did was to offer a PDF version of my first book, The Macintosh Way, to anyone who “Liked” the page for my new book. (The rights to my first book had reverted to me, so there was no cost.) There were a few costs involved. I used Hyperarts to design my Fan Page, which cost about $2,500. I used OfficeDrop to scan The Macintosh Way, which cost in the between $100 and $200. 2. WebsiteAfter two months, I revisited my decision to rely primarily on a Facebook Fan Page and supplemented my existing website with materials about my book. The resources I wanted to provide would have overwhelmed my Facebook Page with tabs. I wanted a way to provide my bio, pictures and bookstores without Facebook membership requirements. No matter how many people are on Facebook, it doesn’t have all the people in the world. Facebook is also a private business, which means they can (and often do) unilaterally make major changes with little warning to users. The lesson here is that while a Facebook Fan Page is great, its flexibility and capacity are limited. You’re also subject to the whims of the company. My goal with the website was to make it as easy as possible for reviewers to obtain all the background information and pictures necessary to review my book. I even supplemented the picture page with photos of enchanting people (e.g. Queen Latifah), places (e.g. Istanbul), and things (e.g. 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang) to provide a subtle reference to the title (Enchantment). I contracted my buddy Will Mayall to make the book website, and you should expect to pay around $2,500 to create a simple brochure site from scratch. In addition to resources for reviewers, I added audio and video to my website. Because I do many speaking engagements, it was easy to amass a collection of video and podcasts about the book. I provided them for two reasons. First, they are selling tools for potential readers. Second, reviewers can embed them on their websites and blogs for their readers. I used Craig Hosoda to edit my videos, which you can expect to cost a few hundred dollars per clip. When you’re speaking, if an organization is already recording your presentation, you won’t have to pay for a crew. If you have to pay for a crew, however, it will cost $1,500 or so, plus editing. 3. Review Copies Most publishers send out 100 to 200 galleys/books to reviewers (this number will vary depending upon how well known you are, if you’re a first time author, the size of your publisher, etc.). These promotional copies go to recognized book reviewers and A-listers in a segment. I decided to target a different review audience. I own a site that aggregates RSS feeds from about 20,000 bloggers. I offered a review copy to all 20,000 people no matter what their blog topic; 1,300 requested a copy, and we sent one to anyone who asked. I also used eCairn to identify the key social media bloggers and offered a copy to them, too. Because I wanted broad adoption of the ideas in this book, my goal was to get reviews in as broad a spectrum of blogs as possible, instead of only the usual book review and business blogs. All told, we sent out approximately 1,600 copies. This resulted in approximately 150 interviews and 200 reviews before the book was available. These reviews appeared in blogs that covered areas ranging from beauty products to dog training. The amount you can expect to pay for something like this depends on how you count the cost of a galley or a book plus shipping. A good estimate is $10 per book or galley including shipping, so this cost $16,000, but my publisher paid for this, not me. I also compiled all the reviews on a webpage for two reasons. First, to create the overwhelming impression that reluctance to read the book was futile. Second, to acknowledge all the reviewers for their hard work. The lesson here is to cover the earth with as many product trials as possible. Don’t focus on only the A-listers — “nobodies” are the new somebodies in the flattened, social networking world we now live in. You never know who’s going to make your product “tip.” 4. EmailI’m a big believer in email marketing. It cuts right to the point. People either open the email or they don’t. They either click through to a page or they don’t. They either buy or they don’t. Every step is measurable. On the day that my book hit the stores, we sent out 160,000 emails; 130,000 of those email addresses came from thirty years of making contacts, and 30,000 came from AlwaysOn, as a favor. Building a quality pool of email contacts is clearly something anyone can replicate, but it takes time. Of the 160,000 recipients, 3.75% clicked through to the order page. Email may be old school, but it’s cheap and effective. We used Emailvision to do the mailing, which costs $1,000 per month for the service, plus a $4,500 setup charge. It was no cost — other than time — for the email addresses. 5. Pay Per ClickTo tell you the truth, I don’t understand the black magic of pay per click (PPC), so I relied on a buddy from my Apple days named David Szetela. He ran a six-week program on Google AdWords, Facebook ads and Twitter (Promoted Tweets) for search terms such as “Dale Carnegie.” In addition to obtaining several hundred pre-orders, the Twitter campaign for Enchantment caught the We used Clix Marketing to manage the campaign, plus Google and Twitter placement fees. You can expect to pay as little or as much as you can afford on PPC marketing. You can create the campaigns by yourself and pay a few hundred bucks for the ad placements, or hire an agency and pay thousands for their fees and expanded ad placement. The lesson here is that PPC may seem like black magic, but it’s worth trying for a few thousand dollars to see if anything will stick. 6. Photo ContestIn order to generate awareness of my book, I ran a photo contest. I used a Facebook app that enabled people to submit pictures in five categories, and a popular vote determined the finalists. I selected the winners. The prizes were five Nikon 3100s and an Apple iPad. That contest resulted in 1,150 entries, 35,000 visits, 70,000 entry views and 10,500 votes. What I learned was that people love photo contests. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to build buzz. Beware, however, the people who are professional contestants and people who game the system. At the end, manually pick the winners and don’t depend solely on popular votes. Also be wary of local contest laws, which may govern the types of contests you can run and the value of the prizes you hand out. I used Strutta to design the contest app, which can cost about $2,000. The prizes (in this case a few Nikon cameras and an iPad) bumped up the costs about another $4,000 or so. 7. QuizzesThe quiz started as a final exam in the book, but I also wanted an online version so people could determine if they should to read the book. I created online versions for both Facebook and my website. At first, I had only a Facebook version, but similar to my Fan Page, I realized that there are people on the planet who weren’t members of Facebook yet, so I also created a standalone website version. Here’s a mind blower: Approximately 700 people took the Facebook version, and 2,900 people took the standalone website version, even though it came out two weeks after the Facebook version. This is something to think about. Don’t focus all your energy on Facebook. I used Wildfire, which costs about $400 per month, to create a self-serve quiz. I hired Electric Pulp to create the website version, something that costs in the neighborhood of $3,000. 8. InfographicI love infographics because they can communicate so much in so little space. I wanted to create an infographic that would provide an overview of the book and act as a resource that bloggers could embed in their reviews. Many bloggers did in fact use the infographic I had made as part of their review. To make the graphic, I hired Column Five. Good infographics can cost up to $1,500 to 2,000, but it’s worth the return. Lots of bloggers like to embed infographics and they have the potential to go viral. 9. Badges, Buttons, Banners and Stickers I created badges, buttons, and banners so that people could declare that they are enchanting. These badges aren’t exactly ads for the book — they’re more like a “seal of approval” that people can display. They do, however, link to the book’s Facebook Fan Page and allow people to promote the book. I also included the badges on other websites that I own and operate — essentially advertising one of my products on another. In the first few weeks, there were approximately 100,000 impressions of the badges around the web. Lesson learned: People like to embed badges and wear them on their clothes. This is a cheap way to gain exposure. I used Samuel Toh and Ana Frazao to design the badges and banners. You can expect a cost of about $50 per badge for something like this. I liked the website badges so much that I asked Sam Toh to design a sticker for SXSW. Then my buddies at Walls360 printed 2,500 of them. You can see them in action here. These are no ordinary stickers. They are printed on fabric so you can use them over and over, which means they come at a premium and cost about $1 each. Disclosure: The author is an adviser to Walls360. 10. WallpapersOnce you have an infographic and badges, you might as well go all the way and create wallpapers too. These wallpapers enable people to have book-themed desktops and homescreens on their computers, phones and iPads. I don’t expect many people to use them, but what the heck, right? I used Ana Frazao again for this project, and you can expect to pay about $400. 11. PowerPointIf the topic of enchantment proves popular, organizations will pay me 50 times a year to give a speech based on the book. Therefore, skimping on a PowerPoint presentation or trying to make it myself made little sense. Joshua Bell doesn’t use a cheap violin and Yo-Yo Ma doesn’t use a toy cello, so why should I use a crappy PowerPoint presentation? Ana Frazao was my designer of choice on this project, as well, and the price for this can be around $3,600. But remember: A slide presentation is a window into your soul. Do you want your soul to look cheap and unprofessional? 12. Thank You SlideshowIt takes a village to finish a book: publisher personnel, book designers, beta readers, web designers, graphic designers, and more. You would be amazed. I tried to list all of them in the Acknowledgments section of my book, but that felt very 1.0. So I asked my buddies Brad Jefferson and Andrew Jacobson at Animoto to create a thank you slideshow for the team behind my book. You can expect to pay up to $50 per month if you use the professional version, with which you create your own slideshows (Brad and Andrew did mine as a favor to me). However, for the small amount of trouble of collecting pictures and laying them down to a music track, you can show some gratitude to the people who helped you launch your product. It’s worth the time and expense! ConclusionWhile my new product is a book, you can apply these ideas to almost any product introduction. Every one of these vendors did a great job for me, and I would use them again in a second. Of course, when I’ve provided cost estimates in the past, there are always people who say, “You paid that much for that? I could have done it for a third of the price!” Yeah, well, there are two things to consider. First, I’m providing ballpark numbers for what people should expect to pay — I didn’t necessarily pay all of these prices. Second, and more importantly, even if I did pay these prices, I didn’t have the bandwidth or desire to shop around, check out vendors and negotiate. Time is money and I was plenty busy making three speeches a week around the world, parenting four kids and being interviewed three to five times per day. And there’s a lesson in that too: If you try to optimize every decision and you define optimization as doing things as cheaply as possible, you might end up with a steaming pile of crap. The big picture is to launch a product as big and fast possible and to succeed — not save the most money. Interested in more Business resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.Images courtesy of Flickr, Shutterhacks, Easternblot. More About: business, MARKETING, product launch, social media, social media marketing For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Skittles Faux Interactive Cat Ad Goes Viral [VIDEO] Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:48 AM PDT Skittles is at it again. The candy brand, which long ago stopped talking about product attributes and instead has released one increasingly bizarre avant garde/Dada 30-second skit after another, appears to have a hit on its hands with "Skittles Touch: Cat." The video combines fake interactivity, cats and a weird guy in a cat suit. Since it debuted on YouTube on March 28, Skittles's video has gotten more than 180,000 views — possibly because it features that staple of Internet memes: a cat. The video follows other equally strange ads of late for the brand, plus an extreme social media makeover of its site in 2009 that replaced the usual corporate page with a Twitter stream, and a campaign last summer in the U.K. that aimed to bury a man in a vat of the candy. Is Skittles’s out-there positioning working? Perhaps the best proof is that other candy brands are copying it: notably Kraft’s Stride Gum, which last year introduced a talking ram on Twitter speaking “Ramglish,” among other stunts. More About: Skittles, viral videos, youtube For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Roku Makes Its Way Into Retail Stores Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:27 AM PDT   The Roku XD player is finally making its way to brick and mortar retailers, with the Internet-connected settop box now on sale at Best Buy, RadioShack, Fry’s Electronics and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Until now, the only way the Roku player has been available is via online retailers or Roku.com. That hasn’t stopped the company from pushing more than 1 million units in the past few years. Roku has managed to build a loyal fanbase, thanks in part to its wide support of streaming content services, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, MOG, Rdio, Vimeo, NHL GameCenter Live, NBA Game Time and the MLB. The device also has a relatively low price point, starting at $59.99. Just yesterday, Sony’s Crackle video site launched a new free ad-supported movie service for Roku owners that brings users full-length movies, including titles such as The Da Vinci Code and Ghostbusters to their connected device for free. The only catch is that users have to watch ads pre-roll and every 10 minutes or so. The verdict might still be out on connected devices, but a big part of making these devices — and the various streaming and subscriptions services — part of the mainstream is nationwide retail availability. The fact that customers can now buy a Roku XD at Best Buy may just help the streaming video revolution take off. What do you think of connected devices like Roku? Are you more willing to buy something in a store than online? More About: best buy, connected devices, connected tv, roku For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Google Settles With FTC Over Buzz Privacy Issues Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:15 AM PDT   Google has agreed to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that its social network, Google Buzz, violated the company’s own privacy policies and used deceptive tactics when it launched in 2010. The proposed settlement, announced Wednesday, requires the search giant to implement a privacy program and undergo regular privacy audits for the next 20 years. The FTC’s main complaint is that Google used information collected from Gmail users to generate and populate Google Buzz. It automatically enrolled users in some features of the network regardless of whether they opted out, and an auto-follow option automatically added Gmail users’ most-emailed contacts as publicly visible friends on the network. Within four days, complaints about these features had persuaded Google to make significant privacy changes, and the company later settled a related class action lawsuit lawsuit for $8.5 million. Google’s privacy statement at the time said, "When you sign up for a particular service that requires registration, we ask you to provide personal information. If we use this information in a manner different than the purpose for which it was collected, then we will ask for your consent prior to such use." The FTC alleges that Google violated this policy by misrepresenting its opt-out option. Even those users who responded that they didn’t want to use the service or used a “turn off Buzz” option were enrolled in some features of the social network. Similarly, a “How do you want to appear to others?” section falsely indicated that consumers could control what information was shared when the auto-follow option made their Gmail contacts public by default. Wednesday’s settlement requires Google to establish and maintain a “comprehensive privacy policy” that will stipulate methods for protecting its users’ privacy and data. The company will also be required to hire an independent auditor to examine those efforts every two years for the next 20 years. “Essentially Google must demonstrate how it will maintain reasonable privacy protection for each piece of information they collect from consumers for the next 20 years,” explained Jessica Rich, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a press conference call. This is the first time the FTC has mandated such a program. In addition, Google will be required to ask users to opt-in every time it makes a change to one of its products that may result, as Google Buzz did, in sharing their data with third parties. If the company violates any of these terms, misrepresents its privacy policies or misrepresents its compliance with the U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Framework, it will be fined $16,000. That penalty might not sound like much for a company with a current market cap of $187 billion, but in the past, the FTC has counted each consumer affected by a company’s violation or each day the violation occurred as a separate violation. “This is a legal agreement and goes beyond voluntary compliance,” Rich said. More About: FTC, Google, google buzz, privacy For more Social Media coverage:
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| Major League Baseball Gets a Social Media Ambassador Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:03 AM PDT   On the eve of Opening Day, Major League Baseball is redefining itself in social media via a guy named Mike. The league today unveiled the MLB Fan Cave, a 15,000 square-foot location in New York City (on 692 Broadway, where Tower Records used to be) that is the temporary home of a man named Mike O'Hara. O'Hara beat out 10,000 other applicants for the MLB Dream Job, in which the MLB pays him to watch virtually every game on 15 Sony TVs and tweet about it. MLB worked with ad agency Hill Holliday on the effort. O'Hara, a 37-year-old Yankees fan, will symbolize the formerly faceless MLB in social media, appearing in online videos with Ryan Wagner, his 25-year-old sidekick, and offering his thoughts on Facebook and a blog on MLBFanCave.com, in addition to his tweets. The two (pictured — Mike is on the right) will also interview people on the street and post the interviews on the site. The Fan Cave will also host players from the league, parties and other events throughout the season. Because of local zoning laws, the two won’t sleep inside the Fan Cave, but at an apartment nearby. Tim Brosnan, MLB vice president of business, says this is an attempt to reach fans who are already on social media and engaging in what he calls "the electronic water cooler" to discuss MLB activities. "MLB has dipped its toe in the water of social media in last couple of years," Brosnan says, "but this is our first full platform." The idea of using a regular Joe to act as a stand-in for a brand is a relatively new idea in social media marketing. For instance, Blue Cross Blue Shield has recruited a man named Scott for a similar 30-day program — The Human Do.ing — running right now in Minneapolis's Mall of America. Scott, who is about 30 pounds overweight, lives in a glass structure outfitted with a webcam and offers his thoughts about changing his eating and exercise habits on Facebook and Twitter. Jeffrey Gorder, director of business development for Mono, the agency that created the Blue Cross effort, says MLB's idea is intriguing. "It's approachable and authentic," he says. "I'm glad they're taking risks." MLB isn’t the only major sports league to realize the value of social media. The National Hockey League, for instance, has hosted tweetups around the Stanley Cup Playoffs and created Twitter lists of NHL fans affiliated with their favorite teams. More About: Major League Baseball, social media, twitter For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Billboard Helps Artists Track & Build Buzz With New Analytics Tools Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:45 AM PDT Music industry mainstay Billboard recently announced the launch of Billboard Pro, a paid service for up-and-coming bands and those who work with them. The service, which has been in beta since January, lets artists track their fan activity (both online and off), sales and other metrics, as well as provides them with relevant editorial content. When it comes to charting activity, the service will feature Billboard “Uncharted,” a recently introduced ranking of bands that have not yet appeared on one of the site’s many other charts. This chart provides bands with a Heat Score, which is calculated using online sources such as MySpace Music and Next Big Sound. Billboard launched the “Social 50″ chart in December. It also uses Next Big Sound to measure online buzz. What’s particularly interesting about this service is that it also hopes to give new artists a boost when it comes to exposure. Bands will get the chance to be mentioned in the Billboard Bulletin, could have their music featured on a weekly playlist on the Billboard website, and could even be selected to play at events and conferences such as SXSW. Right now, interested parties can sign up for a four-week free trial, after which it costs $99 per year. What do you think of this new service? Will Billboard‘s cache as a brand help unknown artists get their names out there? Image courtesy of Flickr, pokpok313 More About: Billboard, billboard-pro For more Media coverage:
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| The 4 Biggest Stories in Tech, Business & Social Media This Morning Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PDT   Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on four particular stories of interest today. Salesforce Acquires Radian6 for $326 Million Enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce has acquired social media monitoring platform Radian6 for approximately $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, the companies have announced. Google Releases In-App Purchasing for Android Google has released in-app billing for Android, finally giving mobile developers a much-needed source of revenue for their apps. Google Promises Fewer, Better Ads in Gmail Google is changing up its Gmail ads to increase their relevancy and decrease the number displayed. Ev Williams Hints at Life After Twitter Twitter co-founder Ev Williams broke a long silence in a blog post Tuesday, confirming that Twitter is "no longer [his] day job" and that he will be launching a new venture. Further News
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59 More About: android, ev williams, first to know series, gmail, Google, radian6, Salesforce, twitter For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Google Street View Adds Imagery of the Coliseum & Other Historic Landmarks Posted: 30 Mar 2011 06:43 AM PDT   Google has added imagery of a number of historic sites in Italy and France to Street View. The integration with Google Maps includes 360-degree displays and a street-level view of locations all around the world. The new imagery includes the interior of the Imperial Forum and the Coliseum in Rome, Santa Maria del Fiore and Ponte Vecchio in Florence, and Château d’Fontainebleau in France. Check out the full list of freshly included sites in Google’s blog post. Although Google’s Street View service attracted a great deal of controversy when Google’s vehicles collected unencrypted data from private Wi-Fi networks — a practice Google ended awhile ago — one cannot deny the appeal of having historic landmarks such as these at the tips of your fingers. This is not the first time Street View gave users access to historic landmarks. In December 2009, Google added the ancient Pompeii ruins to Street View, and in February 2011, Google launched the Google Art Project, which lets users explore the interiors of 17 museums around the world. More About: Colliseum, france, Google Maps, google street view, historic landmarks, italy, street view For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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