Online Communications

“I challenge you to tell a great story on Twitter.” The challenger: Chris Sullivan of MYNorthwest.com. In his recent article, “The Art of Storytelling in a World of Technology,” Sullivan wonders if technology has impeded our ability to tell stories, to grab readers and immerse them in narrative: “Technology might have made communication easier, but is it killing the art of story telling?” he asks.

Helmbrecht bases Splashlife on her college experience when she faced her own uncertainty as a student at American University. She often stood outside the Eastern Market Metro Station in Washington, D.C., begging people for spare change in order to finish her college education. I must admit it is hard for me to imagine such a dynamic individual begging for money at a Metro Station.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Ask For It acts as a representative on behalf of its users and works to bring user requests to the attention of the corporation, organization or individual who can create change. Users can see trending Asks in real time, view Asks segmented by categories, and receive status updates on their own Asks on the site.

“I challenge you to tell a great story on Twitter.” The challenger: Chris Sullivan of MYNorthwest.com. In his recent article, “The Art of Storytelling in a World of Technology,” Sullivan wonders if technology has impeded our ability to tell stories, to grab readers and immerse them in narrative: “Technology might have made communication easier, but is it killing the art of story telling?” he asks.

The social media tool is based on the difficulty of paying for a higher education. It is a key reason many college students fail to graduate. Past studies have shown that upwards of two million college students don’t apply for any of the nearly $70 billion in financial aid the government distributes each year, and that almost two-thirds of students find the process of applying for financial aid difficult.

A recent article in The Globe and Mail reports that Canadians are about to find out whether or not 140 characters can make or break a political campaign. Globe columnist Bill Curry writes that by mid afternoon on Sunday, “more than 14,000 tweets had been sent out during the first day-and-a-half of the campaign.” Canadians will vote on May 2nd to elect their new government representatives. “If there was ever a question before, it’s clear now” Curry writes, “Canada’s first social media election is under way.”

Cyberpsychology research project out of Ireland needs interested participants to gather findings on internet personalities.

Now this is a story of performance artistry at its finest. “Peter Coffin is a loser” is a blog post authored by internet personality Xiaxue. On her blog, Xiaxue provides us with a biased background story behind our Coffin character: “[Coffin] is an American douchebag dude doing Youtube videos and the videos are like mostly lame parodies or something.” The blog goes onto tell of a Twitter fight that took place between Xiaxue and Coffin.

Michael Mills believes this application will break down the walls of social media communication and allow users to create voice messages for all to actually hear. “An application like BabbleOn is the next step in the social media arena, and will certainly revolutionize the way we communicate online.”

Available in the cloud at no cost, GoLiveCampus.com allows parents, students and teachers to safely search for relevant videos. The site dynamically pulls content from YouTube and social networking sites through a robust safe search. The search removes comments and ads and gives students access only to clean, appropriate videos.

One example, I like, features Ashley Argota of “True Jackson, VP” and Gage Golightly of “The Troop” suggests signing off the computer and don’t reply to a hostile messenger. They also suggest blocking bullies from access and make a copy of the message to show to an adult you trust.