La Secretaria de Telecomunicacions i Societat de la Informació et convida a la jornada:

	Formació i certificacions: claus per competir

	Basats en l’estudi de necessitats formatives del Sector TIC català, realitzat l’any 2009, creiem important fer un pas endavant i millorar el nivell de qualitat de servei de les empreses del país. Aquesta aposta ha de passar per augmentar les certificacions existents dels nostres professionals i empreses amb un clar èmfasi en la formació i el coneixement. Amb aquesta jornada us volem proporcionar informació pràctica i útil per conèixer quines són les principals certificacions existents i els beneficis que comporten a les diferents empreses  ajudant-les a ser més competitives en el mercat global i a afrontar els reptes actuals. T’esperem a Tarragona el pròxim 04 de febrer!

	Dia: 04 de febrer de 2010		Hora: 17:45 – 20:00h		Lloc:                                                            Sala d’actes dels Serveis Territorials de Cultura i Mitjans de Comunicació (C/ Major, 14. 43003 – Tarragona).

	Ja pots realitzar la teva inscripció a la jornada.

	Programa de l’acte

	17:45 – 18:00h RECEPCIÓ D’ASSISTENTS

	18:00 – 18:20h BENVINGUDA I PRESENTACIÓ DEL PLA DE FORMACIÓ DEL TIC.CAT

	Sr. Jordi Bosch, secretari de Telecomunicacions i Societat de la Informació de laGeneralitat de Catalunya. http://www.gencat.cat Ens comentarà les diferents iniciatives que s’estan duent a terme des del TIC.cat amb l’objectiu de millorar els nivells de qualitat de les empreses TIC catalanes i la qualificació i competències dels professionals TIC.

	18:20 – 19:10h QUALITAT I FORMACIÓ

	Sr. Francesc Piedrafita, expert en qualitat i formació. Ens parlarà durant la sessió sobre les diferents certificacions existents, com utilitzar-les com a instrument de millora per al negoci; de la gestió de la qualitat com a clau per augmentar la productivitat; de quin és el paper que juguen els Models de Qualitat Integral TIC en l’actualitat.

	19:10 – 19:20h L’EXPERIÈNCIA DE L’EMPRESA

Empresa certificada del territori que ens parlarà de la seva experiència personal en relació al procés de certificació.

	19:20 – 20:00h  CLOENDA I CAFÈ NETWORKING

	Sr. Sergi Marcén, responsable del Pla TIC.cat de la Generalitat de Catalunyahttp://www.tic.cat Finalment hi haurà un espai Networking on els assistents a la jornada podran contactar amb el responsable del Pla TIC.cat que els informarà dels instruments que l’administració posa a disposició de l’empresa TIC catalana.

	INSCRIPCIONS L’assistència és gratuïta. Aforament limitat a 70 persones. Les reserves es realitzaran per rigorós ordre d’inscripció, emplenant el FORMULARI o trucant al 902790379.

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• Twitts de la setmana 2009-07-18 (1)
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• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-01 (4)

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• Twitts de la setmana 2009-10-11 (0)

El pasado fin de semana pude asistir a un evento para emprendedores, iWeekend, que se realizó de forma simultánea en 10 ciudades.  Para quien no conozca qué es iWeekend, pasaros por la web oficial y descubriréis de que se trata, pero de forma breve os diré que es un evento donde 50 participantes se juntan para realizar en un fin de semana una empresa de base tecnológica partiendo de una idea elegida por los propios participantes.

Es como un juego de empresa, se realizan reuniones de equipo, brainstorming, se decicen los detalles del diseño, la campaña de márketing, programación, aspectos legales, la competencia, beneficios, mercado potencial, proyecciones financieras… es decir, todos los temas que encontraríamos en una empresa real.

Pude disfrutar del Open iWeekend Barcelona, en las magníficas instalaciones de Barcelona Activa.
A diferencia del realizado en el resto de ciudades, en este caso el evento fue abierto, por lo que se podía realizar más de una idea siempre y cuando consiguieran equipo suficiente.

Cuatro fueron los proyectos que se presentaron en Barcelona, Alertas.de, GoodBuyAmigo, Partido de Internet y Vox Populi, éste último es en el que yo participé.

No os voy a explicar los proyectos, para eso podéis visitar las páginas de cada uno de ellos o los enlaces que pondré al final del post, os contaré un poco mi opinión:

Cuando llegas al evento no sabes muy bien que te vas a encontrar por mucho que te lo hayan explicado.

Empezamos con un Speed Networking, para romper el hielo y empezar a conocer a los compañeros que tendrás durante todo el fin de semana. Son unos pocos segundos pero te sirven para empezar a explicar qué idea vas a presentar, lo que hace que cuando tienes que exponerla en 2 minutos te sobre muuuucho tiempo. Otros aprovechaban para darte su tarjeta y explicarte que acababan de lanzar un proyecto esa misma semana (todos se pusieron deacuerdo), que le echara un ojo, etc.. pasamos del Speed Networking al Spam Speed Networking. Había un grupo bastante numeroso que intentaban persuadirte para que apoyaras su partido ‘apolítico’, incluso te daban peganitas (despegadas) para que las te las pusieras en la camiseta (me recordó a los que te pegan la pegatina del Cáncer).
Todo fue un poco caótico, ya que cada vez que un organizador daba la señal (@jordi_perez te faltó una bocina) había que desplazarse a la derecha, pero entre el que se despista, el que repite, el que se para a explicar todos los detalles de su proyecto… al final la cosa terminó que hay que intentar mejorar esto para los próximos iWeekend.

Después de un pequeño aperitivo empezaron las presentaciones de las ideas mientras los participantes iban votando entre twitt y twitt.

De todas las ideas que se presentaron se fueron descartando por los propios propulsores, ya que al ser abierto, se hacía más complicado reunir el equipo necesario y no todos conseguirían participantes con perfiles variados.

Una vez creados los grupos y elegidas las ideas, a partir del sábado hasta el domingo por la tarde se trabajó para sacar una beta o algo que enseñar.

Al principio costó arrancar, pero una vez en marcha las ideas iban saliendo, incluso había que ir frenando ya que todo lo que se pretendía hacer era imposible hacerlo en un fin de semana (incluso en un mes).

El domingo fué mucho más intenso ya que las horas iban pasando y había que dejarlo todo listo, y cuando ya el cansancio pesaba, los ánimos de Marek Fodor hizo en el equipo el mismo efecto que un Pit Stop, un momento de relajamiento para escuchar a un experto en su campo, para justo despues pegar la última arrancada y sacar las fuerzas de donde no las había.

Las presentaciones de los proyectos, eran breves, por lo que los powerpoints peliculeros y demos super detalladas no servían, había que explicar el proyecto rápido y su utilidad. Después con algo más de tiempo, dos leones de Internet ( Vicente Arias y Albert Armengol ), deboraban (como buenos mentores) a los gladiadores que intentaban defender sus proyectos.

La sensación final como ya dije allí mismo y tambien comenta Jordi Perez en su blog, era como haber estado de colonias y te despedias de todos hasta las próximas vacaciones. La sensación era extraña ya que gente que no conocias de nada, de repente y en solo dos dias, parece como si los hubieras conocido de siempre.

Respecto a los organizadores, geniales, no pudimos tener mejor trato, y pude darles mi feedback respecto al evento en el aspecto organizativo general para poder hacer que los próximos iWeekend sean mejores aun, y todo esto hay que agradecerselo a Luv Sayal, promotor de la idea iWeekend.

Con la foto del equipo de Vox Populi y las opiniones post-evento os animo a que participeis en el próximo que se realice ya que es una experiencia única.

También hablan de iWeekend Barcelona Jordi Pérez y Jordi Bufí, dos de los organizadores:

iWeekend Barcelona 2009 : Blog de Jordi Pérez

Opinión personal sobre los proyectos de Open iWeekend Barcelona : Blog de Jordi Bufí

Entradas relacionadas

• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-16 (1)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-01 (4)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-07-18 (1)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-10-04 (0)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-09 (0)

Cada intervenció tindrà una durada aproximada de 45 minuts, els 30 minuts restants estaran dedicats a preguntes dels assistents, de les tres seus físiques i també dels assistents per Internet.

Dissabte, 28 de novembre

• 08:30 – 09:00 Recepció dels participants
• 09:00 – 09:30 [Tortosa] Inauguració.
• 09:30 – 10:45 [Tortosa] Copons 2.0 (Ricard Espelt).
• 10:45 – 11:15 Descans amb Networking
• 11:15 – 12:30 [Tortosa] Mobile Learning EOI con HTC Android (Tíscar Lara).
• 12:30 – 13:45 [Tortosa] qrcode.es Convirtiendo la tinta en bits (Jordi Hernández i Edu Bada).
• 13:45 – 17:00 Descans
• 17:00 – 18:15 [Tortosa] Turisme 2.0 (Albert Barra).
• 18:15 – 19:30 [Tortosa] Videoblocs (Joan Planas).
• 19:30 – 21:00 [Tarragona] Periodisme (Cava & Twitts).
  • 19:30 – 20:15 Moment Twitt (Taula rodona)
    • Modera: Marc Cortés
    • Participen:
      • Cinta S. Bellmunt
      • Esther Celma
      • Jordi Salvat
  • 20:15 – 21:30 Moment Cava

Diumenge, 29 de novembre

• 10:00 – 11:15 [Tortosa] Biblioteques i web mòbil (Natalia Arroyo).
• 11:15 – 11:30 Pausa amb Networking
• 11:30 – 12:45 [Citilab] Web semàntica i mobilitat (Dolors Reig).
• 12:45 – 14:00 [Citilab] Clausura del Congrés de la Cibersocietat (Enric Senabre).
• 14:00 – 14:30 [Tortosa] Clausura de les jornades.

Entradas relacionadas

• TICtarragona organitza la seu a Tarragona Ciutat de les “VI Jornades àtic 2a” (27)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-11-29 (0)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-11-15 (0)
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l’Esdeveniment d’Atictes, que fins ara no havia sortit de les Terres de Ebre, fa un salt endavant, i per que no dir-ho, pot ser que nosaltres donéssim alguna espenta, per transformar-se en un espai virtual amb tres seus físiques.

L’experiment es molt engrescador, donat que enceta una nova manera de portar esdeveniments llunyans a la ciutat sense necessitat de desplaçar-se. Esperem que aconseguim que s’assenti el sistema en un futur.

A Tarragona Ciutat la seu serà a la Sala de Graus del Campus Catalunya de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Av. Catalunya, 35.

En aquesta seu, es podrà assistir a totes les ponències que es celebraran al Campus Terres del Ebre de la URV i al Cilitab a Cornellà, a demès del Cava & Twitts que farem a Tarragona el dissabte al vespre.

l’Horari serà:

• Dissabte, 28
  • Matí: de les 8:30 a les 13:45
  • Tarda: de les 17:00 a les 21:00 aproximadament, donat que acabem amb una copa de cava amb networking
• Diumenge, 29
  • De les 10:00 a les 14:15

Informacions d’interès:

• Nota oficial pels mitjans de comunicació

• Programa

• Ponents:

• Natalia Arroyo

• Cinta S. Bellmunt

• Esther Celma

• Marc Cortés

• Ricard Espelt

• Oriol Miralbell

• Joan Planas

• Dolors Reig

• Albert Riba Trullols

• Jordi Salvat

• Enric Senabre

• Crèdits de lliure elecció pels estudiants de la URV

• Inscripció (Ull!!! inscripció obligatòria)

• Per qualsevol altre informació de les altres seus, ho podeu veure al lloc de les jornades atic2.cat

Per anar a la Sala de Graus, entreu per aquí i la trobareu a la primera entrada a ma esquerra, a la mateixa planta baixa:

Entradas relacionadas

• Twitts de la setmana 2009-11-15 (0)
• VI Jornades àtic 2a: Programa (16)
• 2on. PodCamp Barcelona, un gran èxit (18)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-11-29 (0)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-01 (4)

Es tracta d’una sèrie de xerrades de lliure accés amb l’objectiu d’afavorir el networking entre els socis de l’ATI.

En aquests actes, ATI convida a personatges destacats del sector TIC de Catalunya, que ens faran una breu introducció d’un tema rellevant relacionat amb el àmbit TIC per, posteriorment, continuar la conversa d’una forma més distesa compartint un refrigeri.

En aquesta ocasió parlarem de programari lliure i comptarem amb la presència de:

• L’Eulàlia Formentí, responsable de la Càtedra de Programari Lliure de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

• Jordi Vilanova, Vicepresident de CatPL (Associació Catalana d’Empreses per al Programari Lliure).

Aquesta activitat és gratuïta i oberta a tothom.

Dades generals de l’acte

• Data: dijous, 19 de novembre de 2009.

• Horari: de les 18.30 a les 20 h. (18.30-19.00: exposicions / 19.00 – 20.00: networking).

• Lloc: Sala d’actes de la UPC School. Edifici Tech Talent Center, carrer Badajoz, 73-77, 08005 Barcelona (mapa)

Inscripcions: 93 412 52 35 / secrecat@ati.es

- Per veure un resum de la primera edició dels Picnic4Working, feu clicaquí.
- Per obtenir mes informació sobre els Picnic4Working, feu clic aquí.

Organitza:

ATI Catalunya | Via Laietana 46, pral. 1a. | 08003 Barcelona | 934125235 |secrecat@ati.es

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• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-01 (4)
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@marcoting A ver si puede ser la próxima… in reply to marcoting #

Ja s'han acabat Repartim 8+5=13 (-13=0) invitacions a Google Wave http://bit.ly/2VOXAx #

@laurasophya Lo siento, se han acabado, aunue se tenían que solicitar con un comentario en el blog, no por twitter. http://bit.ly/2VOXAx in reply to laurasophya #

Preparant una sorpreseta per la "refredée" (Via @Grasset) Twitts&Beers de novembre http://bit.ly/3Unq6F #

@LesleyDewar We reply your tweet: http://bit.ly/1gMoq6 [XD= )))] in reply to LesleyDewar #

RT @LesleyDewar: #protip If you think you are being spammed, check it out! … it can be totally innocent and good for you. #

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• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-01 (4)
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• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-09 (0)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-10-11 (0)

Entradas relacionadas

• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-01 (4)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-07-25 (2)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-16 (1)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-08-09 (0)
• Twitts de la setmana 2009-07-18 (1)

Social media has become an integral part of modern society.

There are general social networks with user bases larger than the population of most countries.

There are niche sites for virtually every special interest out there.

There are sites to share photos, videos, status updates, sites for meeting new people and sites to connect with old friends.

It seems there are social solutions to just about every need.

In this article, we’ll review the history and evolution of social media from its humble beginnings to the present day.

Precursors to Social Media

BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems)

The first BBSs came online in the late 70s. Originally these were primarily hosted on personal computers and users had to dial in through the host computer’s modem. Only one person at a time could gain access to the BBS.

While there were legitimate BBSs, most were at least somewhat involved in illicit, illegal, or other shady practices. Adult material, virus code, information and instructions for hacking and phreaking (phone hacking), and materials like The Anarchist’s Cookbook were commonly hosted on BBSs.

But BBSs were the first type of sites that allowed users to log on and interact with one another, albeit in a much slower fashion than we currently do.

Online Services

After BBSs came “online services” like CompuServe and Prodigy. These were the first real “corporate” attempts at accessing the Internet.

CompuServe was the first company to incorporate a chat program into their service. Prodigy was responsible for making online service more affordable (CompuServe had been prohibitively expensive for many, with charges of $6/hour plug long-distance fees that often made the service run $30/hour or more).

AOL started as an online service too and made great strides at making the Internet more universally accessible in the U.S.

IRC, ICQ, and Instant Messaging

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was developed in 1988 and used for file sharing, link sharing and otherwise keeping in touch.

It was really the father of instant messaging as we know it today. IRC was mostly UNIX-based though, limiting access to most people.

ICQ was developed in the mid-90s and was the first instant messaging program for PCs. It was at least partly responsible for the adoption of avatars, abbreviations (LOL, BRB) and emoticons. Other IM clients soon followed.

Dating Sites

Dating sites are sometimes considered the first social networks. The first dating sites started cropping up almost as soon as people started going online. They allowed users to create profiles (usually with photos) and to contact other users.

Early Social Networks

While many people consider dating sites or sites like Classmates.com to be the first social networks, they don’t really fit the definition.

Dating sites rarely allowed you to keep a friends list, neither did Classmates in its early years (and profiles were severely limited). The following sites were the first true social networks.

Six Degrees

Six Degrees was launched in 1997 and was the first modern social network. It allowed users to create a profile and to become friends with other users.

While the site is no longer functional, at one time it was actually quite popular and had around a million members at its peak.

In 2000 it was purchased for $125 million and in 2001 it was shut down.

AsianAvenue, MiGente, BlackPlanet

These sites cropped up in the years following SixDegrees’ launch, between 1997 and 2001.

They allowed users to create profiles and add friends (generally without needing approval to add people). Users could create professional, personal and dating profiles on these sites.

While they were some of the earliest social networks, there were few innovations among them.

LiveJournal

LiveJournal started in 1999 and took a different approach to social networking.

While Six Degrees allowed users to create a basically-static profile, LiveJournal was a social network built around constantly-updated blogs.

LiveJournal encouraged its users to follow one another and to create groups and otherwise interact. It was really the precursor to the live updates we see in social networks currently.

Major Advances in Social Networking

The early 2000s brought some huge developments in social networking and social media.

Friendster

Friendster was really the first modern, general social network. Founded in 2002, Friendster is still a very active social network, with over 90 million registered users and 60+ million unique visitors each month. Most of Friendster’s traffic comes from Asia (90% of it).

Friendster operated by allowing people to discover their friends and then friends-of-friends, and so on to expand their networks.

Its goal was to be a safer place to meet new people than in real-life, as well as being faster. Friendster was, in part, a new kind of dating site.

Instead of matching complete strangers based on shared interests, it operated on the assumption that people with shared friends and acquaintances would have a better chance than those who had no shared connection.

Friendster was most popular with three different groups: gay men, attendess of Burning Man and bloggers.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and was one of the first mainstream social networks devoted to business.

Originally, LinkedIn allowed users to post a profile (basically a resume) and to interact through private messaging. They also work on the assumption that you should personally know the people you connect with on the site.

Gradually, other features have been added, including groups, question and answer forums, and advanced profile features, including real-time updates.

MySpace

MySpace was founded in 2003 and by 2006 had grown to be the most popular social network in the world.

MySpace differentiated itself from competitors by allowing users to completely customize the look of their profiles. Users could also post music from artists on MySpace and embed videos from other sites on their profiles.

Originally MySpace allowed communication through private messages, public comments posted to a user’s profile, and bulletins sent out to all of your friends. Blogs are also a big part of MySpace profiles, with each member automatically getting a blog.

In 2006 MySpace introduced MySpace IM, an instant messaging client that lets users chat with their friends.

Other recent additions to MySpace’s functionality include the addition of real-time status updates and a news feed showing friend activity.

Facebook

While Facebook started out as a Harvard-only social network back in 2004, it quickly expanded to other schools, then to high schools, businesses and eventually everyone (by 2006).

In 2008 Facebook became the most popular social networking site, surpassing MySpace, and continues to grow.

Facebook doesn’t allow the same kind of customization that MySpace does. Facebook does, however, allow users to post photos, videos and otherwise customize their profile content, if not the design.

Facebook has added a number of features over the past few years, including instant messaging/chat and apps (and their developer platform).

Users have a few different methods of communicating with one another. Private messaging is available as well as writing on another user’s wall. Wall posts are visible to that user’s friends, but usually not to the general public. Users can easily change their privacy settings to allow different users to see different parts of their profile, based on any existing relationships (the basic privacy settings are “only friends”, “friends of friends”, and “everyone”).

Users can post notes that are visible to all of their friends. Users can also comment on or, more recently, “like” the posts of their friends, and conversations often occur within the comment sections among multiple people.

Niche Social Networks

As social networking grew, niche sites began cropping up for specific interest groups. There are now social networks for virtually every hobby, passion, interest, industry and group that you could imagine.

Ning

Ning is a platform for creating niche social networks. Networks are hosted by Ning but can take on their own personality and can even pay to have their own branding instead of the Ning brand.

New users can either create social networks for any niche they choose or join any of more than 1.5 million existing networks.

Ning was the first widely-used social networking platform. It’s biggest advantage in the market was that it made it incredibly simple for even non-technical users to set up their own social network.

While most other social networking platforms required coding and programming knowledge, Ning required neither of those.

Company-Sponsored Social Networks

A number of niche social networking sites have been developed by corporations in all sorts of industries.

Authonomy is one example; it’s a writers’ network hosted by the UK division of Harper Collins that has attracted thousands of hopeful writers from all over the globe, but plenty of other companies have created their own networks.

While some of these have active groups, many do not, and end up being shut down due to a lack of activity.

Media Sharing

Social media isn’t just limited to social networking sites. Sharing photos, videos, and other multimedia content is also a popular social media activity.

Photobucket

Photobucket was the first major photo sharing site, launched in 2003.

Photobucket allows users to share photos publically or in password-protected albums. They allow users 500MB of storage (lowered from 1GB in August of 2009).

Pro accounts get 10GB of storage (lowered from 100GB to 25GB in July of ‘08 and then to 10GB in August of ‘09). Photobucket also hosts video content.

In 2007, Photobucket was purchased by Fox Interactive Media (a News Corporation subsidiary). It was rumored to have sold for as much as $250 million, though terms of the sale were never disclosed.

Flickr

Flickr has become a social network in its own right in recent years. They claim to host more than 3.6 billion images as of June 2009.

Flickr also has groups, photo pools, and allows users to create profiles, add friends, and organize images and video into photo sets/albums.

One of Flickr’s major advantages is that they allow users to license their photos through Creative Commons, as well as retaining all copyrights.

Flickr has also recently launched a collection called “The Commons”, which features archived photos and images from a variety of museums and other institutions under a “no known restrictions” license (basically meaning the photos are believed to be in the public domain).

YouTube

YouTube was the first major video hosting and sharing site, launched in 2005.

Users can upload videos up to 10 minutes long and share them through YouTube or by embedding them on other websites (social networks, blogs, forums, etc.).

YouTube now allows users to upload HD videos and recently launched a service to provide TV shows and movies under license from their copyright holders.

YouTube’s major social features include ratings, comments, and the option to subscribe to the channels of a user’s favorite video creators.

Revver

Revver took a slightly different approach to video hosting and sharing.

While YouTube, Metacafe, and most other video sharing sites let you post videos for free and didn’t pay content creators for any advertising revenues their videos generated, Revver has been sharing revenue from the start.

Revver splits the revenue generated by a video 50/50 with that video’s creator. Some other video sharing and hosting sites are moving in the direction of revenue sharing, but Revver still remains the primary one that does it with all content on the site.

Social News and Bookmarking

Sharing photos and videos wasn’t isn’t the only kind of information sharing happening with social media.

The advent of social news and bookmarking sites in the mid-2000’s brought about a whole new way of see what’s going on in the world and discovering interesting content.

News became more widely available thanks to sites like Delicious, Digg, and Reddit, who allowed users to share any news or other content they found interesting with a much wider audience than they might have otherwise had.

Delicious

Delicious (aka, Del.icio.us) is a social bookmarking site founded in 2003. It allows its users to bookmark any content they find online, tag that content, and then share it with other users.

Users can search for bookmarks or browse for them via tags. Delicious also allows users to view the most popular content among other users, as well as up-and-coming content, not unlike most social news sites.

Digg

Digg was founded in 2004 by Kevin Rose, Ron Gorodetzky, Jay Adelson, and Owen Byrne.

Digg users can share links to anything online and other users can vote that content up (”dig”) or down (”bury”). Users can also comment on content posted by others and keep a friends list.

Digg has undergone a lot of controversy in its day, including criticism about the power the top 100 Digg users have over what becomes popular on the site.

The “Digg Effect”—when content makes it to the front page, thereby sending a huge influx of traffic to that site, often overloading its servers—is also well-known and often frustrating to those unprepared for the sudden popularity.

Reddit

Reddit is another social news site founded in 2005. Reddit operates in a similar fashion to Digg, allowing users to vote content up or down.

Users can view popular items, new items, and “controversial” items (presumably those items that have received a lot of both up and down votes). Reddit, like Digg, also allows users to comment on posted items.

Real Time Updates

Real-time updates have become the new norm in social media. With the advent of Twitter in 2006, status updates have become the new norm in social networking. Virtually all major social networks now allow real-time updates.

Twitter

Twitter was founded in 2006 and gained a lot of popularity during the 2007 SxSW (South by Southwest) conference.

Tweets trippled during the conference, from 20k per day to 60k. Twitter has developed a cult-like following and has a number of famous users (Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Soleil Moon Frye, MC Hammer, Oprah, Martha Stewart, and many, many more).

Twitter has also spawned a number of third-party sites and apps, turning it into more of a platform than a single service. There are Twitter clients for updating and managing followers; services that track Twitter trends; and services for posting photos and videos directly to Twitter.

Other Services Adopt Real-Time Updates

As mentioned before, virtually every social networking site now allows for status updates. Facebook has incorporated status updates into their interface for years. MySpace adopted the practice more than a year ago. And most recently, LinkedIn has started to allow users to update their status.

Real-time updates allow users to stay connected to their friends and family on a constant basis and often improve relationships between people.

When you constantly know what’s going on with friends and family, it’s easier to discover shared interests, activities, and other information that might never have come out in real-life conversations. This can lead to stronger relationships offline.

The iPhone’s Role in Real-Time Updates

The iPhone can be largely credited for the rise in popularity of real-time updates. Prior to the iPhone’s launch, mobile browsers were clunky at best, and virtually unusable at worst.

But the iPhone made it easy and even fun to browse the web from a mobile device. Add apps for virtually every social network to the mix and it became possible for users to update anytime, from anywhere.

Other phones have followed suit and there are now mutliple devices available that let users easily update their status on the go (including posting photos and video updates).

The iPhone has taken such a huge role in social media that there are now social networks only available on the iPhone. iRovr is a social networking app specifically for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

It allows users to post photos, updates, links (including to YouTube videos), create polls, subscribe to RSS feeds and more. It was launched in 2007 and is still going strong two years later.

Lifestreaming and Lifecasting

Real-time updates have led to an increase in the number of people who are now lifecasting or lifestreaming virtually everything they do. While some opt to lifestream by aggregating their online activities in a single place (such as with FriendFeed).

Ustream.tv

Ustream was founded in the summer of 2006 and has become the streaming video host of choice for celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Soleil Moon Frye.

While most Ustream users only go live occasionally, there are channels that are live around the clock (mostly security cameras, animal cameras, traffic cameras, and other stationary feeds).

Ustream allows viewers to post comments and ask questions directly to the feed host during live broadcasts, and this interactivity often engages users to a greater extent than other video sites where videos are posted after they’ve been filmed instead of being streamed live.

Justin.tv

Justin.tv is a streaming video host founded in October 2006 that lets lifecasters and live show creators to broadcast to hundreds or thousands of Internet users.

iJustine is probably Justin.tv’s most public user, lifecasting practically her entire life on the site at one time (she appears to be lifecasting a bit less recently, though she’s still very active on the site).

There are more than 400,000 channels on Justin.tv, and they get more than 41 million unique visitors each month.

FriendFeed

FriendFeed, which launched in 2007 and was recently purchased by Facebook, allows you to integrate most of your online activities in one place (Twitter, RSS feeds, and Flickr, among others).

It’s also a social network in its own right, with the ability to create friends lists, post updates, and otherwise communicate.

Other Lifestreaming Sites

There are a number of other lifestreaming sites out there that people are using. Most can be integrated into your blog or website to show your visitors all of your activities around the web.

There are even some dedicated blog plugins for lifestreaming. WP Lifestream is one such plugin, specifically for WordPress. It lets you integrate your profiles from Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm and Wordie right out of the box, and you can add additional modules for integrating more feeds.

Profilactic.com is another lifestreaming application that lets you integrate feeds from 190 different websites, including Blippr, Delicious, Digg, deviantART, Dopplr, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, LiveJournal, MySpace, Pandora, Revver, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Tumblr, and more. Sweetcron is a similar app, though it’s opensource and you host it on your own servers.

Social Everything

It seems that nowadays there are social and user-generated sites for just about every activity you can imagine. There are social shopping sites. Social financial planning sites. Sites for getting book, movie, app, and other reviews. Sites to share your goals and meet like-minded people. Sites to plan your travels and share them with others. And sites to help you make decisions on just about anything.

Social media has become a huge part of the lives of millions of people worldwide. Whether it’s something as simple as looking up reviews of movies from real, live people (instead of professional movie reviewers) or getting advice on major life decisions, there are social sites out there to provide you with the information you seek.

Even on general-purpose social networks and social media sites like Twitter there are thousands of ways to get input on just about anything.

Instead of using Google the next time you have a question about something, try asking on Twitter. A lot of the time you get better information from the crowd there in less time than pouring over pages of search results.

Social Media Concerns and Criticism

As social media has grown in popularity and become mainstream, it has been faced with growing controversy and criticism.

The main criticisms seem to fall along a few lines: Social media can be used by stalkers; Social media can be used by child predators; and, Social media sites open up privacy and security concerns.

While there is only so much social media sites can do about the first two, there is a growing trend among many sites to bolster the privacy policies and make users feel more secure.

Social Media Used by Stalkers

Facebook and other social media sites have come under attack for making it easier for stalkers to track their victims or even to find new ones. This kind of accusation is not entirely unfounded.

Many social media users don’t take advantage of privacy settings and leave their entire profiles public. While this is often a good idea for professional profiles where you want to make connections with people you don’t necessarily know, personal profiles can benefit from hiding some information from public display.

Social networks make these privacy settings available to users to help prevent stalkers and predators from being able to see their updates.

But they can’t force users to use them, so in the end much of the responsibility falls to the individual users, not the networks themselves.

Social Media Used by Child Predators

MySpace is the most publically attacked social networks accused of being a haven for child molesters and pornographers, but the site, and other social networks, have made great strides in protecting the identities and information of minors using their sites.

Again, this is one of those situations where much of the problem came from users not making their profiles private.

MySpace took a major step to prevent predators from friending underage teens by requiring friend requesters to know the email address or another personal identifier in order to send a friend request to a minor.

They also require the profiles of teens under the age of 16 to be private, not allowing non-friend users to view them. Other sites have taken similar steps.

Privacy Concerns

Facebook recently came under attack for changes to its privacy policy that were worded ambiguously enough to effectively grant rights to Facebook to use any of your content, private or public, for their own purposes (such as advertising) even after you’d delected your profile.

While the company maintains that was never their intent and it was simply unfortunate wording, the backlash was severe enough that Facebook changed their privacy policy back to its previous version and then solicited user input for revisions. It was a harsh lesson in how concerned many users are about the information they provide online.

When you consider that many people post information about all aspects of their lives online, mostly on social media sites, it’s no wonder many are concerned about what companies can do with that information.

Social networks and other sites have to rapidly respond to user concerns over privacy and security. With the information in an average social media profile, it would not be inconceivable for a hacker to illegally gain enough information about a person to steal their identity or otherwise cause problems.

Security concerns have also cropped up as average people have found their profiles hacked and embarrassing information posted about them.

While this type of thing was once relatively confined to celebrities and well-known people (or people who had a personal vendetta against them), it has become more widespread and it’s not unheard of for regular people to be targeted (such as this woman on Facebook recently).

The Role of Social Media in Pop Culture

Social media has, in the past year or two, become a mainstream online activity. In 2007, social media activities overtook pornography as the most popular online activity in the U.S. (the two industries continue to battle it out, alternately gaining or losing ground on a monthly basis).

Celebrities now use Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks on a regular basis. And it’s not just their publicists—stars are updating their status themselves and interacting with fans on a daily basis.

It’s not uncommon to see Twitter-inspired t-shirts, and there has been at least one “fail-whale” tattoo (I’m sure there are more out there).

When Twitter and Facebook both suffered a DDOS attack in early August ‘09, there was a real sense of loss among many users until the sites were back up.

Social media has become an integral part of how people communicate, stay in touch, keep on top of new developments, and otherwise connect with the world around them.

The Evolution of Social Media

Social media has come a long way since the days of BBSs and IRC chats. And social media continues to evolve on a daily basis.

With major social networks and social media sites making changes and improvements on an almost daily basis, it’s sure to keep evolving in coming years.

The one thing we can be pretty sure of at this point is that social media is not just a phase, and likely won’t go away any time soon…at least until something better comes along.

Further Resources:

• A Brief History of Social Media
• The history of social media in a blink
• Mashable: The Social Media Blog
• Wikipedia’s Social Media article
• 6 of the Best Lifestreaming Solutions
• Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

Where do you think social media is heading and how do you use it? How much influence does social media have in your life?

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