UF Social Media Scholars

Note not only the growth of boradband but the surprising number of people who still don't have it.

"Home broadband adoption stood at 63% of adult Americans as of April 2009, up from 55% in May 2008. The latest findings of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project mark a departure from the stagnation in home high-speed adoption rates that had prevailed from December 2007 through December 2008. During that period, Pew Internet Project surveys found that home broadband penetration remained in a narrow range between 54% and 57%."

"Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential elections on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications."

Some interesting statistics about Ning sites circa March '08.

Changing list of the most popular social networks created on Ning.

Nice basic article on Ning, viral networks and the economics of SNSs from Fast Company

2007 tour of Ning by Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning

Marc A describes Ning and what their mission is ...

Short, basic interview with Marc Andreessen on Ning and social networks.

Wall Street Journal's take on the #cnnfail event.

"When thousands of Iranian citizens flooded the streets to protest the controversial results of last Friday's presidential election, news viewers in the U.S. rushed to Twitter to protest what they saw as a lack of coverage of Iran on CNN."

A good how-to on doing specific kinds of quieries in Twitter's search to yield the kind of results stream for a specific topic.

"Using Boolean Searches to Follow Iran Election and More on Twitter."

In 10 questions or less, Hunch will offer you a great solution to your problem, concern or dilemma, on hundreds of topics. Hunch's answers are based on the collective knowledge of the entire Hunch community, narrowed down to people like you, or just enough like you that you might be mistaken for each other in a dark room. Hunch is designed so that every time it's used, it learns something new. That means Hunch's hunches are always getting better.

I've overdone this metaphor, but I really do see the panoply of sources we have about Iran as an intelligence service to the masses.

special coverage by Global voices of the Iranian election

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Ok, this video is even funnier. It pretty much encapsulates all the ridiculous things about Twitter.

This site is hilarious- great videos about technology.

Cartoon video depicting Facebook, Friendster and Myspace applications

"Created by the non-profit Grass Commons and jump-started by a grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust, Wagn has been quietly honed into a tool that breaks new ground in collaborative software. What makes Wagn special is that it takes the wiki that you know and adds database structure and functionality. Also a simple CMS, Wagn can handle data like no wiki you've ever seen."

"'hanging out with people online' is supposed to the be promise and the potential of social media today, not something from days gone by...so what's going wrong here? Have the trolls ruined social media for good?"

Make sure you don't get left behind by incorporating some of these educational and fun ways that Twitter can be used in the college classroom.

"It's difficult for some industry observers to see a comeback for MySpace, the large online social network that has seen its popularity flatline and its hipness surpassed by younger sites like Twitter and Facebook in recent months."