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This link is to a website on Mashable.com where there is a very cool YouTube video on augmented reality.  The clip talks about an App called Augment, where you can virtually see an object placed in any environment.  The app takes online shopping to a whole new level.  It is a very interesting video and following the video is a more in depth description of the app. 

This article will help teach how to identify appropriate audiences for products and brands, etc.  There is also a short video which demonstrates how the author helps others build effective online platforms.  Without an effective platform to reach the desired audience it can be difficult to branch out and meet the desired goals.  

The expansion of Kopimism, a religion formed from the recognition of file sharing as a virtue. There is an extreme adoration for the greatness of file sharing and many people have changed their lives to dedicate themselves to the idea of free flowing information online.

This article deals with website design and what to make note of when designing, as most first-time visitors will give you less than five seconds to "wow" them, making the aesthetics a vital part of reeling in customers. The website must be both visually appealing to your targeted demographic as well as communicate important things to know.

This article covers website aesthetics. Clara Teoh advises web designers to design their websites with: the preferences of their target demographic in mind, the right tone  to focus on designing the layout of the website to capture the attention of users by choosing appropriate colours and  correctly sized buttons. She also says to compare your site using other successful websites as benchmarks. She goes on to say that site aesthetics even affect variables like conversion rates and sales for businesses.  

This short article takes a critical look at the different types of social media platforms. The author has an interesting take on how social media has evolved over the past years saying that: "Within the last seven years, we have been through three waves of social domination: The publishing wave (with blogs), the sharing wave (with Facebook and Twitter), and the curating wave (with Quora, Pinterest and alike)." The author goes on to place further importance on the type of content users post and how that impacts the evolution of social platforms. Towards the end he also touches on the choosing the right social media for different types of business.

Last week Professor McMaster touched on online ecosystems. If you want to know more about it, this Forbes article clearly describes what a social media ecosystem is. The key image depicts the social media landscape in very compact and useful way. It shows all the different ways users interact with their devices.

This article analyzes the idea of how virality can be influenced by the emotions felt by the audience. For example, the article explains how people who feel emotions such as happiness as result of viewing certain content are more likely to share it with their friends and networks, therefore contributing to it going viral. The article also uses data collected from Fowler and Christakis' study in 2008 which monitored the emotions people experienced when sharing things on Twitter.

This article could be helpful for anyone hoping to work in communications or as an entrepreneur in the future.  It thoroughly explains how companies make money by using free social medias including Facebook and twitter (even providing visual examples).  Due to the increase of people online, and on social networking websites these tips can largely increase profitability and communication clarity of any public company.  They may also help with the media episodes project whilst trying to create and market social media to a specific audience.   

This article speaks to the effects of listening to the radio compared to watching TV, surfing the web, or doing none of the above. Radio, according to this survey, makes people happier and gives them more energy as they go about their lives everyday when compared to people that watch television, people that use the internet, and people that consume no media at all. Could this be because of how engaged it forced us to be? 

This article relates to the prior discussion of "blindness" experienced by radio listeners.  To elaborate, radio is a simple form of media which can thus produce a more intimate relationship between host and listener.  Radio hosts often seem to have more authentic personalities vs those on other forms of media, which makes content more friendly and familiar to listen to.  This article reflects upon positive emotions experienced by listeners vs those experienced by other media.  

I found this article to be very disturbing but hopefully people will realize the clear negative aspects of this and never widely adopt this. In my opinion this prospective technology is very dangerous.

This article clearly points out the three most troublesome aspects of using the internet and social media today.

This article is about the intellectual property law regarding the visual arts where a French photographer is claiming copyright infringement because of another artist's manipulation of the original piece without breaking any intellectual property laws. The exemption of transformative nature allowed for the modification of pieces just as mashups find the loophole in the copyright law.

An article contrasting all that we've been studying about intellectual property rights, accusing Hollywood to be encouraging illegal downloading. The article explains how Hollywood has learned to work with the cards they were given; instead fighting our accessibility to download, Hollywood is teaming up with streaming platforms to give us movies without forcing audiences to pay per video. In attempts to make some profit, the price for music has been lowered to $1 (so we'll be less hesitant to buy it), and TV shows have teamed up with streaming sites like Hulu, who makes their money from ads. Even though there may be many who don't want to pay for entertainment anymore, there are ways around it: whether it be the easy way, or the legal way.

This article is in the perspective of a blogger who decided to switch from Wordpress to Tumblr and his experience with it. The main point of this article is how Tumblr can connect the world with one single social media platform. It emphasizes how little can say much more. It first starts out with Tumblr's current good aspects, and later details the future of Tumblr.

This video explores the benefits of YouTube and how shows such as Dane Boedigheimer's "Annoying Orange" is extremely successful.

Have you seen Brian Sollis' ingenious "Conversation Prism"? If you don't I urge you to check it out and learn how it works. As Solis explains, the goal of any online conversation is to relate back to the user (you). It shows all the ways that a user can connect to the social web. The way I see it, it is complex and interconnected like a spider web.

This dynamic and info-packed Infographic highlights how to design for viral growth. The author, Morgan Brown discusses virality, how to make viral designs, and sums its all up in one neat infographic that is compelling, easily embedded into personal websites, and acts as a good reference sheet. A must to keep in mind when designing content for online promotion.

This short article describes the social media efforts employed by the Occupy movement. It also includes links to some of these social media pages to further arouse the interest by the reader.