2009: The Year of Twitter and Facebook

The Jakarta Globe

The social networking site Twitter asking "what are you doing?" in Japanese on a mobile phone in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Twitter, fueled by smartphones and online bursts of 140 characters, soared to lofty heights over the past year while Facebook eclipsed MySpace to become the world's leading social network.

"Those are the big winners," said Jason Keath, a North Carolina-based social media consultant and founder of SocialFresh.com, an organizer of social media conferences. "Facebook more or less tripled their size this year."

"Twitter grew immensely," added Keath. "I think they were somewhere around maybe two to four million users at the beginning of the year. Now they're near 40 million."

With 350 million members, "if Facebook was a country it would be the fourth most populous nation," said Scott Stanzel, a former deputy press secretary to president George W. Bush who has also worked for software giant Microsoft.

"Going back one year ago I don't think people would have thought Twitter would have had the influence it's had," added Stanzel, who now runs Stanzel Communications, a Seattle-based public relations consulting firm that offers social media planning among its services.

"It was gaining popularity but it has really exploded this year and it's done so in a way that's become incredibly pervasive," he said.

Twitter has reportedly spurned takeover offers worth hundreds of millions of dollars from Google and Facebook and its influence as a communications and news-breaking tool has been validated in a number of ways over the past year.

In June, the State Department asked Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance on the service because it was being used by protestors angered by the results of Iran's disputed presidential election.

More recently, Google and Microsoft began integrating Twitter messages into their respective search engines, a new feature described as real-time search.

Rampant adoption of smartphones has much to do with Twitter's growth, according to Jack Levin, co-founder and chief executive of ImageShack, an online media hosting company which runs yfrog.com, a service for sharing images and video on Twitter.

"The explosion of smartphones in the United States and many other countries has led to the success and ease of communication between people and Twitter is certainly in the middle of that," Levin said.

"People obviously want to communicate and Twitter is really a communications platform," he said of the service which allows users to pepper one another with messages of 140 characters or less and provide links to the Web.

"It's a hybrid between instant messenger and email," Levin said.

Levin's yfrog.com is one of the thousands of applications created for Twitter by outside software developers credited with fueling the popularity of the microblogging service.

Facebook, which started the trend of opening up to outside creators of fun mini-programs, was also quick to realize the appeal of being able to connect from anywhere at any time.

"The thing they've done and MySpace didn't do is they've really expanded the scope of their network past the initial site," Keath said.

"Facebook Connect is a big piece of that, where you can take your Facebook account and log in from other places."

Facebook and Twitter are popular because essentially they "provide real value to people in their personal and work lives," according to Stanzel.

"You can keep up with hundreds if not thousands just by having a Facebook account or by being active on Twitter," he said.

Stanzel also credited social media tools with "redefining the way in which companies or politicians relate to their consumers or constituents."

"Companies or politicians who have taken to Facebook or Twitter or YouTube are building more of a permanent relationship with their constituents or with their customers because they're engaged in a conversation," he said.

Keath predicted Twitter's growth is "going to slow," saying it is inconceivable the San Francisco-based firm could match this year's meteoric surge in user numbers.

Twitter needs to be wary of spammers "putting out garbage, bad information, trying to direct message everyone in the entire service, porn links and things like that," Keath added. "That would cause people to restrict their networks a little more."

Stanzel warned that if Twitter "starts becoming overrun with advertising or becomes too complicated they might see their growth slow down or even reverse."

Keath suspects Twitter, which has yet to unveil a plan for making money, will seek over the next year to become "more of a marketing tool."

"I think there will be a lot of emphasis on providing more value to businesses and commerce in general," he said.

As for Facebook, Keath said it "looks highly likely that they're going to launch a payment portal, a payment tool.

"There's debate over whether there would be high adoption of giving Facebook your credit card information," he said. "But if they do that they're not only going to have your social network but your commerce too.

"And then they've pretty much locked in most of your activity online."

AFP

Google Releases Experimental Phone to Employees

PC World, By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

Google has handed out a new mobile phone running its Android software to some employees, stirring another wave of speculation that the oft-rumored Google Phone is real.

In a blog post on Saturday morning, Google said the phones are being distributed so that workers can experiment with new mobile features. It did not say the device will be a Google-branded phone.

But in a Twitter message earlier, a Google employee who said she has the phone referred to it as a "Google phone," fuelling the latest speculation.

Since even before Google unveiled Android, onlookers wondered if the search giant would release its own phone. Instead, it released an open source operating system that other hardware vendors can use to make phones.

In the Google blog post, Mario Queiroz, a vice president of product management, said the company gave the phone to employees as a way to test new technologies.

"We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe," he wrote. "This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it."

He said he could not share specific details about the product.

The post appeared to be a response to a Twitter message posted by a Google employee Friday evening, who said she had the phone. The post, first reported by TechCrunch, sparked the new round of speculation.

"ZOMG we had fireworks and we all got the new Google phone. It's beautiful," wrote Leslie Hawthorn, a program manager on Google's open source team.

While the term "Google phone" has been used to describe a device built and branded by Google, many also use the term to refer to any phone running Android. So it was unclear if Hawthorne was talking about a device that will be branded and sold by Google.

A podcast producer for CNET said Friday he had seen one of the phones, adding to the speculation. The hardware is made by HTC and running Android 2.1, the next generation of the software, Jason Howell wrote in a Twitter message. The phones were given to employees unlocked and the one he saw was running on AT&T's network, he said. Because it is unlocked, workers could also choose to use T-Mobile.

"It was thin. Dare I say as if not a bit thinner than iPhone," he wrote. The phone used an on-screen keyboard instead of a hardware keyboard. He said Google was expected to reveal more details in the next few days.

TheUnlockr

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Google Apps Adds Discussion Forums

The Google Apps hosted communication and collaboration suite, which packs e-mail, calendar, office productivity applications and a wiki-based Web site builder, among other applications, is gaining a new component: discussion forums with mailing lists.

CIO.com, By Juan Carlos Perez

WED, DECEMBER 09, 2009 — IDG News Service — The Google Apps hosted communication and collaboration suite, which packs e-mail, calendar, office productivity applications and a wiki-based Web site builder, among other applications, is gaining a new component: discussion forums with mailing lists.

As has been the case with its other components, Apps is fetching this latest application from Google's roster of consumer services -- in this case the Google Groups service -- and giving it the necessary tweaks to make it suitable for a workplace setting, like IT administration controls.

"We're adding a key piece of functionality that really bolsters our enterprise messaging functions," said Rajen Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager. "This is also a great example of the concept of consumerization of enterprise and of giving power to the users to do things they've typically had to rely on IT to do for them."

The Groups application, which will go live on Wednesday, allows for the creation of mailing lists for group members, but also lets users embed other Apps components into the forums, including calendars, word-processing documents, presentations, videos and spreadsheets. Content posted to the forums is indexed in full text and searchable.

Groups is available in the Education and Premier editions of Apps, but not in the Standard edition. Apps administrators need to activate Groups for their domain, at which point end-users can create forums in an ad-hoc fashion without IT intervention. The IT department can establish policies and access rights for groups. Group owners also can manage certain settings for their forums and lists.

Google, the undisputed leader in the consumer search-engine market, is intent on becoming a major player in enterprise software, and Google Apps is arguably its best-known product for workplaces, an up-and-coming rival to established communication and collaboration suites from the likes of Microsoft and IBM's Lotus.

Part of Apps' buzz comes from its cloud computing architecture, which Google maintains is a better option than conventional software that customers need to install and maintain on their own servers. While CIOs and IT managers are warming up to hosted software like Apps, concerns over relying on vendors to maintain the software and store the data haven't fully dissipated.

Launched about three years ago, Apps has traditionally appealed to small organizations, especially via its free Standard edition. However, since the introduction of the enterprise-geared Premier edition, Google has set its sights on medium-size and large organizations. Premier, which costs US$50 per user per year, includes IT management and e-mail security capabilities, as well as support and a service-level guarantee.

One Laptop for One Teacher, One Step Ahead in Indonesia?

Kompas, MONDAY, 7 DECEMBER 2009 | 12:11 PM

KGI will endeavor for an affordable laptop for every teacher (installed with teaching programs) and to give computer trainings to teachers

SURABAYA, KOMPAS.com — East Java has been chosen for the "One Laptop for One Teacher" piloting program. If successful the program will be applied to all teachers in Indonesia.

Intel Indonesia Manager Budi Wahyu Jati stated, Sunday, Surabaya, that Intel is cooperating with several parties to execute the program. East Java has been chosen for piloting because the idea originally came from the teachers and education office from East Java.

"In Indonesia, Intel is cooperating with Tera data Indonesia, the distributor of Axioo, to provide laptops to every teacher. If we're successful here, then the program will be applied nationally."

In East java the project's name has been shortened (in Indonesian) to 'Sagusala'. The Indonesian Teachers' Club (KGI) that came up with the program endeavors to provide an affordable laptop for each teacher.

"But quality must be maintained," said Budi. Tera Data Indonusa CEO Singgih Halim stated that his company will cooperate with a bank to provide computer credits.

The credit will be given collectively. "The bank will provide cheap credit if there are many buyers. We will follow the bank's scheme."

For optimal usage, the computers will be equipped with some programs. The teachers can utilize them for teaching purposes.

KGI head Satria Dharma stated that so far there are a number of teaching programs that are ready to be installed into the teachers' computers. The teacher can choose the appropriate program according to needs. KGI wil also do routine trainings so that the teachers can use the laptops optimally.

Solar Storm Could Zap Power Grid in 2013: NASA

Data center managers will need to keep an eye on the solar weather, because a geomagnetic storm (now predicted for May 2013) could knock out electric power.

(Solar and Heliospheric Observatory - website)

CIO.com, by Mitch Betts

MON, DECEMBER 07, 2009 — Computerworld — Alarmist news reports earlier this year warned that solar storms coming in 2012 will cripple electric power, GPS equipment and communications systems for months, creating an electronic apocalypse not dreamt of since the days of pre-Y2k hysteria. Those reports then spread throughout a blogosphere already saturated with hype about the Hollywood disaster flick 2012 .

The truth is more complicated.

Solar storms bombard the Earth's magnetic field with bursts of radiation, which can in turn disrupt the power grid and satellites. In fact, "the great geomagnetic storm of March 1989" zapped northeastern Canada's Hydro-Quebec power grid, leaving millions of people without electricity for up to nine hours, according to a National Academy of Sciences report.

In a worst-case scenario, a solar storm could cause $1 trillion to $2 trillion in damage to the world's high-tech infrastructure, the 2008 report said.

But the severity of the next solar storm is unclear, as is the timing.

Several years ago, NASA predicted that the peak in the next cycle of solar weather would occur in 2012 -- a date that coincidentally aligned with other forecasts of doom. The space agency's more recent prediction (made May 29) said the peak for sunspot activity will be in May 2013 -- though additional revisions are expected.

So data center managers need to keep an eye on space weather, just as they keep an eye on terrestrial weather. Check out the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center at www.swpc.noaa.gov.

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California and Google launch tool to visualize the effects of climate change

Examiner.com, December 5, 5:19 PM Climate Change Examiner Tony Hake

This image from the Google Earth tour released by California and Google portrays some of the dangers manmade climate change are thought to bring to the state. You can watch the complete video below. (State of California)

The state of California and Google have been considered at the forefront of the fight against manmade climate change and the two have come together to help the state’s residents visualize the effects of global warming. The new interactive tool, dubbed CalAdapt and part of the Google Earth software, portrays a dismal future for the Sunshine State unless steps are taken to stem man’s effect on the earth.

Narrated by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the tour begins by zooming in and out of the state and highlighting the steps it has taken on its own. Investments in renewable energy, its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels and the state’s green building program are all featured.

Graphic representation of the effects of manmade climate change are meant to drive home the dangers California faces. From a less reliable water supply to more frequent and more intense wildfires and rising sea levels, the state faces a number of risks according to the video.

The unveiling ceremony was held on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The significance of the location was not lost on Schwarzenegger who said, “Within a century, Treasure Island, this place where we are right now, could be totally under water.”

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on hand as well to plug his company’s contribution. Schmidt said, “It allows Californians to see what's happening to our wonderful and beautiful state." Google has pushed a number of green initiatives and consulted with Al Gore on some issues.

The Google Earth tour and its corresponding website are part of the state’s Climate Adaptation Strategy, a 200 page document that outlines impacts and makes recommendations to help the state adapt. The governor also created a 23 person board comprised of leaders from the public and private sectors that will advise the state on how to adapt to climate change.

You can watch the tour below or, if you have Google Earth (free), you can download the file that allows you to play it in the software from the CalAdapt website.

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Complete Examiner.com coverage of the effects of climate change

54 Percent of CIOs ban Social Media At Work

Small Business Trends, by Lisa Barone, October 13, 2009

An interesting new study shows that social media still can’t get no respect in the workplace. According to a study by Robert Half Technologies, 54 percent of CIOs prohibit any social media use in the office. That’s a serious number.

Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology (IT) professionals on a project and full-time basis, conducted phone surveys of more than 1,400 CIOs from companies across the United States who employ at least 100 employees. CIOs were asked one question:

Which of the following most closely describes your company’s policy on visiting social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work?

Their responses:

• Prohibited completely: 54%
• Permitted for business purposes only: 19%
• Permitted for limited personal use: 16%
• Permitted for any type of personal use: 10%
• Don’t know/no answer: 1%

I have to admit, in the age of Zappos, Comcast and Dell, I was a bit surprised to learn that more than half of CIOs have banned social media inhouse. Executive Director of Robert Half Technology Dave Willmer noted that the reason for the ban may be due to social media’s tendency to “divert employees’ attention” away from pressing work priorities in favor of communicating with friends. He’s right. It probably does to some degree. But it can also be an incredible customer retention and sales tool. And frankly, the folks misusing social media are probably the same ones checking email all day. Ifthat’s the reason you’re shying away from social media, you’re not competing in today’s world.

Something that also caught my eye was the division between using social media for business use vs using it for personal use. Because they’re pretty much the same thing. The goal behind social media is to make your business personal. And if you don’t understand that, you’re going about it the wrong way.

This sentiment was also noted in a post by Heidi Miller where she shows how social media isn’t about the companies. It’s about the people behind them. Comcast isn’t on Twitter. Frank Eliason is. All the Dell representatives you meet have actual names and faces. We get the tidbits of their lives right along with the company agenda. That’s what people fall in love with. It’s the people behind these companies that make them interesting and make customers engaged and want to do business with them. By trying to separate business from personal, you lose a lot of that sentiment. You take the heart out of it.

I think in the next few years, we’re going to see social media being more and more accepted into the workplace. Truth is, there’s no greater customer relations tool out there.

The survey also offered some tips for protecting your professional reputation while on social media, including:

• Know what’s allowed
• Use caution
• Keep it professional
• Stay positive
• Polish your image
• Monitor yourself

I think it’s about talking to employees, instilling responsibility in their words and tweets, educating them on how to use social media correctly, but then also giving them room to be human. No one is positive all the time. No one is that polished. I don’t think employers should be leashing every single one of their employees into the world of social media, but there is a solid place for it and simply banning it from the workplace is not the way to go about it. Educate; don’t lag behind.

Google to limit free news access

BBC News,

Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced.

The concession follows claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from online news pages.

Users will be routed to payment or registration pages

Under the First Click Free programme, publishers can now prevent unrestricted access to subscription websites.

Users who click on more than five articles in a day may be routed to payment or registration pages.

'Gaining' revenue

"Previously, each click from a user would be treated as free," Google senior business product manager Josh Cohen said in a blog post.

"Now, we've updated the programme so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing."

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch had earlier accused firms such as Google of profiting from journalism by generating advertising revenue by linking readers to newspaper articles.

Some readers have discovered they can avoid paying subscription fees to newspaper websites by calling up their pages via Google.

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said the concession was relatively minor but Mr Murdoch might see it as vindication of his decision to take on Google.

Google users may start seeing registration pages appear when they click for a sixth time on any given day at websites of publishers using the program, according to Mr Cohen.

25 Million Chinese Phones Will “Die” Tomorrow

mobilemarketingwatch.com, by michael on Nov 30, 2009

India will effectively “kill” some twenty-five million Chinese cell phones beginning tomorrow, December 1st.

India’s Department of Telecommunications has given the order to operators to “block cellphones” without a valid IMEI number. The move leaves millions of Chinese using mobile phones without IMEI number with only two options: buy a new phone with a valid IMEI number or get the number implanted in your current phone using available software through the Cellular Operators Association of India.

India’s Ministry of Communications remains concerned that, if not handled appropriately and swiftly, these anonymous phones could fall into the hands of unsavory characters and potentially be used for terrorism.

If it seems that this news of this program has come out of nowhere, you’re not alone. Chances are, millions of subscribers in China may similarly be unaware of the service interruption they may experience beginning overnight. The customer service component of this switch is enough to make one’s head explode.

But ready or not, the change is coming.

Related Article:

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Tories attack leaked five-year IT plan as 'unambitious'

BBC News,

Labour and the Tories both believe computing costs can be slashed

A leaked document setting out the government's IT strategy for the next five years is "complacent" and lacks ambition, the Conservatives say.

The paper details plans to save billions through greater use of social media and innovations such as an online "apps store" for civil servants.

It also predicts that by 2020 new software will allow computers to do tasks currently carried out by humans.

The government said it did not comment on leaked documents.

The Conservatives, who obtained the document, have set up a website, makeitbetter.org.uk, where it is published in full, with a facility for people to comment on it.

The document, entitled Government ICT Strategy: New World, New Challenges, sets out how the government plans to harness computer technology to save cash and improve public services up to 2015.

'Cloud infrastructure'

It includes plans for an online government applications store - to enable civil servants to share and re-use computer programmes.

At the moment, there are more than 10,000 unique applications - computer programmes designed to carry out specific tasks - being used by public sector organisations, the report says.

The new applications store will be launched early next year. The report says it will save an estimated £500m a year by 2020.

But the bulk of the planned savings - £1.6bn - will come from the development of a government "cloud infrastructure" - a way of pooling computer systems which is meant to cut costs and energy consumption.

The government plans to launch a prototype of what it calls the "G cloud" early next year, with a standard model to be introduced by the end of 2010.

The document also outlines plans to develop 10 to 12 strategic data centres, which it says will bring together "existing public data centres into highly secure and resilient facilities", which it claims will save £300m a year and cut power consumption by 75%.

'Systemic failures'

It also proposes a common desktop strategy, which will involve 80% of government PCs using a shared utility service by 2015.

Looking further ahead, the report predicts the use of semantic technologies, which potentially allow computers to handle tasks that currently require human intervention.

It also highlights the development of human/computer interaction in hospitals - removing the need to use a keyboard or pointing device.

Government sources told the Financial Times the leaked document was an "early draft" which had not been signed off by ministers.

Ministers are expected to publish details of their IT strategy ahead of next week's pre-Budget report.

The Cabinet Office said it did not comment on leaked documents, but a spokesman said: "As part of our commitment to making government more efficient and effective we're looking at ways of reducing our ICT spend without affecting the excellent digital services we now offer.

"We will shortly be publishing a new public sector ICT strategy that, as called for by the Operational Efficiency Programme, will deliver savings of more than £3bn a year."

The Conservatives say the government plans lack ambition, compared with their own plans to break up large IT projects into smaller components and encourage more use of "open source" software, ending the government's reliance on a handful of suppliers.

On the makeitbetter site, the party claims the government has spent £100bn on IT since 1997, but it quotes a recent study which says 70% of recent projects have failed.

It says the report fails in its aim of showing how the government can get to grips with the "systemic failures in public sector IT procurement over the past decade," such as the "calamitous" NHS database.

It adds: "Not only is it possible to develop a more ambitious, cost-effective and transformative vision for government IT, but we believe that it's also possible to pursue a completely different approach to making policy.

"Rather than the traditional closed approach to policy making that this report typifies, we want to throw open the process and allow people to contribute their ideas on how policy should be designed.

"In the post-bureaucratic age, we believe that crowdsourcing and collaborative design can help us to make better policies - and we think this approach should begin now."