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It always amazes me how people are finding new ways to communicate with out another. Changing the name of your wi-fi network to passive-agressively tell off your neighbour - hilarious. Just shows how much communication takes place on a virtual platform.

Justin Trudeau talking social media at the Facebook Summit in Toronto - and it's impact on elections. 

On Saturday evening, Iceland took an important first step toward rewriting its constitution, as the majority of population of the small island nation voted in favour of using a crowdsourced draft as the basis its new constitution.

A cool infographic that explains how to promote your blog.

Hi everyone, Given the PEW study we just read that highlighted the use of mobile phones, I found this article particularly interesting and relevant. Published by the World Bank, it explains how access to mobile phone use has reached to 3/4 of the global population. Pretty mind blowing stuff.

A light read, but a really great insight into wireless networks in Canada. Funny how the market is "functioning well," yet there are still so many accessibility issues related to internet access which need to be adressed, especially with regards to rural communities. The issue of access was touched on in Dijk's readings.

Gangnam Style is an example of what can be achieved on the Internet by offering the right content for the right audience at the right time.

Interview with Gareth Kay, Chief Strategy Officer at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners as part of "The Brand New Series" operated by Think with Google. Interesting comments on struggle of meaningful corporate communication with digital media from a industry insider. The Think with Google is certainly worth poking around on for a few minutes

Interesting article about Microsoft's latest IE package. Comes with a "do not track" option to deflect advertising companies from potentially tracking your online browsing history. Interesting to see how this may affect ad-sponsored sites...

This article discusses high broadband costs in Canada

We were discussing Obama's Reddit appearance in class last week and I brough up this article. It discusses how reddit is a "terrible platform for extracting information from a politician." Here is a link to the AMA too: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states/

This article is written by Jason Cassidy from this year's graduating MPC class. He touches on how social media platforms are becoming more visually focused. Also, there is an increasing "mobile-first strategy" mentality - that websites and applications are being developed on mobile platforms before a compatible desktop version is available. "Images get consumers thinking, stimulate conversations and motivate actions and purchasing decisions."

While writing my blog, I found this article which backed up an opinion I had about the use of technology. This is a blog written by an elementary school teacher in California. He writes about using technology in the classroom -- that it should be for learning and not for technology's sake. He brings up some interesting examples and scenarios.

It's amazing that we repeatedly face this debate. Educators at all levels are continually facing a technologically determinist position from the public, technology companies and policy makers. But the writer of this post illustrates really well, that it's how technology is used that's important. Thanks for the great post.

I mentioned Myspace a lot in the discussion for next week. Here is an example of a social media that essentially died but is trying to come back. Aggressively. The interface seems to highly draw upon Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest... Will the redesign work? Do we want a Twitter-Facebook hybrid? Or do users like having them separate? What will the new Myspace mean for communicators who use social media?

It's not much of a surprise when China tops a "world's most" list since it does, after all, have the biggest population. It is, however, intriguing that a new study discovered that China is the most active country for Twitter, as the service is blocked there. I find this interesting because they have Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter (which I use to follow Asian public figures), and yet they choose to go the extra length to use a platform that is blocked in their country. It's surprising that (according to the article) China and India have more Twitter users than the US.