Media

With the Iranian Election protests and the Big Brother governmental control of China, we are familiar with some of the bans of social networking around the globe. But what about in our own backyard? Why are some organizations and corporations choosing to block sites like Twitter and Facebook right here in the US? This is a list of the top five bans that exist today in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

What is a Denial of Service Attack and how did it wreak havoc across the Twitterverse on Thursday AM, August 6, 2009!

Sometimes advertising agencies unintentionally (and intentionally) produce some very creepy commercials. Join me in a glance at some of the most bizarre examples of product pitching ever committed to film.

With Kevin Spacey's "Social Network" movie about Facebook scheduled to start production later this year, was it any wonder that "Twitter, the Movie" could be far behind? The microblogging site that scaled from a podcasting company in the South Park suburbs of San Francisco to changing the world in a 140 characters or less will grace the small and large screens in March of 2010 as a documentary, aptly titled "Twittamentary."

The difficult thing about traveling is finding the right hotel in the right city at the right price! But equally important is securing a hotel you can trust - one that has been recommended by others.

Something has to be up when Google, salt of the Internet decides to use an antiquated form of 'push marketing' (namely billboards) to spread the word? It appears Google is desperate to be taken seriously in the corporate world, where customers remain reluctant to switch from Microsoft’s desktop Office Suite in favour of a cloudier option such as Google Apps. So Google is taking it to the street with outdoor advertising.

Remember the days of 'push marketing', when the Mad Men of Madison Avenue monopolized what messages were beamed out to the public. Feeding us manageable morsels of propaganda about the brands they represented, they controlled a lot of what we ate, drank, and yes... even what we thought.

As legacy newspapers continue to seek out new ways to survive beyond their antiquated twentieth century business model, the Wall Street Journal has strapped on some big guns in an attempt to build a name in the Wild West terrain of Web 2.0. Leaked rumors indicate its jonesing for a mano-a-mano duel with LinkedIn in an attempt to attract some of that business network's 15 million monthly netizens.

The world's first wearable full 1080p HD video camera will provide the best-looking action sports footage that you've seen. Use it to capture all your best skate, snow, water and mountain moments.

Social Media has been used for a lot of things, but fueling the the fire of an ongoing feud is a new twist. A singer and a rapper are using the tools of social media to expose their basest instincts.

While the success stories of brands and social media surface daily throughout the blogosphere, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, there are just as many nightmares that are damaging the reputations of brands regularly.

What bizarre gifts have the magicians of the ad world brought us this month?  From flies to assassinations, this month's installment of Ads to Disgust and Disturb You will surely catch your attention!

Location-based mobile social networking is growing by leaps and bounds. As smartphones proliferate around the world, more and more people are connecting to their mobiles versus their stationary computers to share experiences with others.

Trybe \trahyb\ n. a network of like-minded people Can another social network find the critical mass to grab any one's attention in the already over-saturated social media terrain? Between your followers on Twitter, your friends on Facebook, your professional contacts on LinkedIn, isn't your social dance card already booked up? How does a new entry gain the gravitas it needs to grow a sizable fan base for yet another social network? One with a catchy name like 'MyTrybe' thinks there is enough room to throw its hat in the ring!

Think about living your life the way you normally do. Except now, you re going to be rewarded for even the simplest of tasks, like dumping the garbage. Booyah Society, available free on iTunes is both a social network and a game, and each logged activity of your life will earn you points, which are similar to tasks performed on your favorite video game.

As popular as Twitter is there are still a lot of folks that haven't joined ranks or have registered but dropped off due to lack of interest or understanding. While the benefits of the microblogging platform are varied, it takes users and brands time to feel adept at getting the most out of the system. Now Twitter is addressing that need by launching "Twitter 101" which will get newbies started, while allowing brands a leg-up on as to how to be successful on this social network

Once an innovation on the Web catches hold in the market, there's often a "lock-in mechanism" that freezes out radical changes to that innovation. In the 1970s, Irving L. Janis's book "Victims of Groupthink" described it as  "a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures." In the Age of Social Media, where social networks like Twitter and Facebook have consumed our lives, has Digital Man evolved into the the current version of "Groupthink" or the herd mentality?

Some people throw their trash into a dumpster, others dive right into dumpsters with a big splash. Are they crazy? No! It turns out a few dumpsters have been recycled into dumpster pools by an innovative company really interested, at least for the moment, in sustainable development.

Cameras are getting quite tiny these days.  Take this golfball-sized hands free video camera, for instance.  One of these would have saved me a lot of bruises when I worked in the video industry...