Posts Tagged ‘julie d andrews’

Moderator of the Medill Club Ethics Panel 2012, Professor Jack Doppelt with alums Joyce Hanson and Sally Fryberger

Brian Moylan, an editor at Gawker Media (and self-proclaimed “Gawker shit talker” on Twitter), remembers a recent spate of 20 minutes that seemed like the longest ever. He couldn’t click the refresh button on enough browsers fast enough. Having just spotted a Tweet on Billy Crystal’s feed announcing the nine-time Oscars host would be emceeing the Academy Awards yet again in 2012, he posted the news.

Moylan then realized the Academy had not yet confirmed the information—and anxiously awaited confirmation hoping the post would not have to be taken down (or crossed out and amended).

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This year, editor in chief of Black Enterprise, Derek Dingle, started Tweeting. It wasn’t during a press conference. It was during a boxing match. He was watching Bernard Hopkins, who was about to become the oldest heavyweight champion ever, cheering him on through the social network.

Readers joined his playful oldies-take-on-young-bloods banter. “Yeah,” one of his followers responded. “We’re going to show those young guys.”

“I was getting an immediate response from readers,” says Dingle, “developing connections with individuals, and a network.” In a flash, he got it.

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The social media site started by three entrepreneurial moms and geared toward kids younger than 13 years of age, Everloop.com, announced a new partnership today with two globally recognized kids’ brands, National Geographic’s Animal Jam and Mattel’s Monster High.

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The data-hungry among you may have noticed that Google Correlate, the research tool released by the Google team for experimentation in May 2011, has just graduated from Google Labs and can now be found on Google Trends.

The newfangled research tool finds search patterns, ready for analysis, that correspond with real-world trends (think Bird Flu).

According to the Google Blog, the idea for Correlate stemmed from a wish-list request made by researchers “who wanted to be able to enter the trend of some real-world activity and see which search terms best matched that trend….they wanted a system that was like Google Trends but in reverse.”

Correlate allows you to upload your own data series. Then, delivered to you promptly and magically is a list of search terms that have popularity to match the trend.

In one Google experiment, a few years of flu activity data from the CDC was uploaded. It yielded the finding that people searched for the terms “cold” and “flu” in a pattern that mirrored the actual flu rates. Very cool, no?

The masterminds at Google went on to use the correlated terms they discovered to build Google Flu Trends.

It’s worth mentioning that you can also use the Correlate research tool to identify which pattern of activity across the US matches the activity in your own state or the state you are studying (search terms can vary in popularity according to state).

“Search activity is an incredible source of data that may lead to advances in economics, health and other fields,” reads the Google blog, “but we need to handle that data with privacy controls on mind.”

Well said. As per the usual, new technological developments bring a whole new slew of challenges along with the nifty discoveries. And while relationships can be identified using Correlate, the tool is not able to determine causation (we’re nodding to you, scientists).

Go here now to try Google Correlate for free.

All eyes in retail (not to mention social media) darted to Walmart, dubbed the world’s largest retailer, in April 2011, when it surpassed competitors and forged into the social-commerce sphere by purchasing social commerce start-up Kosmix (now called @WalmartLabs) for a reported $300 million.
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Yelp , the popular city-guides website fleshed out with user-generated reviews of local business, including restaurants, bars and shops, is about to get a run for its money.

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Image courtesy of 1059sunnyfm.radio.com

The desolate loneliness too often accompanying the toil of growing old may soon vanish.

Or, in time, the burden may at least lessen. Thanks, that is, to social media and its power to connect people.

Some older men and women, well into their 90s and on into their 100’s, are now being taught how to use Facebook, Twitter and blogging platforms, and the tech know-how is transforming their existence, reports Aylin Zafar in a superbly reported and researched piece recently published in The Atlantic in conjunction with a MetLife Foundation Journalists on Aging Fellows Program.

Classes on social media, being taught at some senior centers and assisted living facilities, are helping isolated older adults better connect with loved ones, young and old, as well as make new cyber friends.

Many of the classes focus specifically on social networking, reports Zafar, namely “How to Use Twitter”, “How to Use Facebook”, “Internet Safety”, and YouTube tutorials.

Among several research studies Zafar cites in the article is mention of a soon-to-be-published study authored by Sheila Cotten, PhD, finding that older adults who used the Internet are 30% less likely to experience symptoms of depression.

Some of the older research participants cited in the piece by Zafar said, after being exposed to newer social media technologies, that they were “no longer feeling left behind” and that “the world” seemed “bigger.”

If that doesn’t warm a techie’s heart, we’re not sure what would. Hm, perhaps some do-gooder techie out there reading this right now (could it be you?) may feel so inspired as to check in with your local senior center to see if it may be in need of volunteer social-media instructors.

We’re just saying, or, okay, we full-on admit it, nudging.

The ever popular social network for business, Yammer, launched in September 2008, recently announced that it is extending its platform across the network by unveiling Yammer Connect.

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L-R: Joanna Coles, Randi Zuckerberg, Barbara Walters, Chelsea Clinton, Amy Guggenheim Shenkan

ESPN journalist Erin Andrews didn’t plan on becoming an advocate for stricter Internet security.

Then again, she never expected to be filmed in the privacy of her hotel room, either, by a complete stranger, who was holding a cell phone up to a peep hole, in the sick hope she’d walk by. (It was later discovered he had been stalking her and had creepily caught 14 additional women on tape).
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