Group items tagged

"There's two things you can do right now to lose most of your privacy. Share everything that comes to mind on Facebook and search everything that comes to mind on Google. I don't want to single out Google or Facebook but they're the best representatives of two common ways for online companies to commercialise you."

A summary of the October 17, 2012 Facebook Q&A about preserving your treasures. Great for the DIY archivist in us all.

A different concept that is part of a concept (and Facebook app) called a "Social Book," Thomas More's "Utopia" is put online with all the versions, notes, and commentary, and users are encouraged to write--whether to add commentary, notes, or rewrite the book in portions. I see this being a good utility for "deep thinking" or classic works (War and Peace, The Republic, etc.) but I note there doesn't seem to be a versioning system or method to track edits, and ultimately no way to lead a discussion or system of debate, and in some ways it's like a repackaged wiki. Lastly, outside of scholarly works I could imagine it devolving into a sort of fan fiction or endless rewriting to suit people's tastes.

A generally positive article, notable that reading is a prominent part of the 16-29 age groups lives. Further, over half have used a library in the past year and consider eBooks not as a replacement for print but a supplement to their general reading habits.

The chart in this article shows an interesting anomaly. Initially it appears that print ads only take up a small amount of a user's attention, yet the money spent on those ads is considerably more than all other media. However, another chart shows the revenue per user for newspapers is almost 10 times that of Google and 50-100 times that of several websites, so there's a convincing argument that advertisers still see print as a viable medium.

An interesting read even if it is the familiar territory of user surveys. Some results that stood out is 85% of users were consider "light" technology users. Also, Facebook time during study crunches is more like a yawn or break than anything facilitating networking. Another concerning result was that only about 11% used scholarly research databases.

Kind of like a Facebook poke for education-except nudging sounds useful and not annoying.

This was an app I initially gave the benefit of the doubt to, but decided it falls more into gimmick territory. Essentially it tracks a person's movements and phone use, and from there decides if a person is facing health problems. I see too many false positives or deductions that would have to be made--a person could be using their phone less from both not feeling well but also from working out and not having it with them. However the general concept is sound--especially if it becomes connected to a device that monitors and reports a patient's vital signs.

We have to get these! We can create our own little MOBIUSbots!

http://littlebits.cc/ Ayah Bdeir is from the MIT Media Lab. I love the Media Lab - it produces the coolest of cool ideas. I'm not sold on using these to make a bot, but I'm definitely going to get some for Freya.

Wow, I cannot wait until Henry is old enough to play with these!

Is the Social Web being integrated into our public libraries? This installment in ReadWriteWeb's Social Books series aims to find out.