Facebook wants to turn every member into a spokesman for its advertisers. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the superhot social network, today announced what the company calls “social ads.”

The ads expand what has been one of the most powerful features of Facebook, the news feed, where members see a list of what their friends are doing — photos from their parties, new friends, favorite bands and so on.

There’s a lot of talk about how google and a bunch of other social networking sites have teamed up to create OpenSocial.

Live from WebbyConnect 2007
part 1
part 2
part 3

I’m so glad they had the time to do this

More people are watching video online and I’m sure that has to do with the proliferation of content that is available (both legally and illegally). I know that I watch a lot of shows online that I can’t get on TV and it’s high time that this is embraced. Google has announced that on YouTube they’ll be implementing a new system that tracks illegally uploaded content. I wonder if this will make YouTube less popular or if it will start bringing in money for the site.

TechCrunch has summed up what Google’s new approach will do:

Copyright holders, such as Time Warner, Disney and CBS (who helped Google test the new identification system), upload full digital copies of their content to YouTube. These copies are not distributed by YouTube at all. Rather, they are stored privately by YouTube so it will know how to recognize copyrighted content.

The copyright holders who upload their content then indicate whether they want YouTube to automatically remove uploaded copies of the same content, or whether they want YouTube to forcefully display advertisements on top of uploaded copies of the same content (revenue from which will go into the copyright holders’ pockets).

The Webby Connect conference has a lot of smart people attending it, and that’s putting it mildly.

Today’s lineup of events started with looking at commercially generated content to increase brand exposure and ended with Ariannia Hufifington expressing her views on the sad state of American journalism. Don’t worry she has hope for the future – and rightly so!

As far as the digital divide and today went, there was some interesting things said. When discussing online brand strategies there was a lot of talk of using online video. The popularity of YouTube and other video sites has clearly shown that people want to watch streaming videos (particularly user-generated videos). After the talk, I went up to ask a few of the panelists if they ever thought about broadband constraints.

“I haven’t heard anyone bring up broadband concerns in like two years” was one reply. Indeed, it marked the attitudes for the rest of the day – to those in the industry broadband access is not a concern anymore. I suppose those with enough money have broadband access to make it worthwhile.

That being said, it is without a doubt easier for people to connected to the internet than even a few years ago. Beth Higbee from Scripps Network Emerging Ventures sees that this new technology allows for great disruptions in current business strategies (which translates down to cheaper and easer products). Her approach to creating disruptive innovations I think can be applied to ICT projects. In fact I’m sure that telecentres already do this.
She summarized disruptive innnovations using “the WRENCH”:

Who: unsatisfied consumers
Reasionable: good enough solutions
Easy: simple, convient, accessible or arrofortable
Nons: ignored customers, overlooked situations (untapped markets)
Cheap: low cost with iterations (find partners until something succeeds)
Holes: competitive weaknesses, blind spots

Huffington didn’t speak to broadband issues, but she did tell me after her talk that at least having access to the internet is a concern. Sure enough, broadband is not such a concern for The Huffington Post as their content is text. Huffington is a fan of the OLPC and told me that we shouldn’t be thinking it has a device only for the 3rd world as it can be equally as useful in the USA.

This, in a roundabout way, brings us back to why we should have faith in American journalism because it is actually related to the digital divide. Huffington believes that the future of journalism lies in blogging. She cited cases that bloggers have ousted mistakes in the more acclaimed old media. Bloggers allow for a more diverse group of people speaking “the truth” that they gather from “evidence”. First though, Huffington admits, there is a need to increase media literacy so more people can be included with the conversation. Her faith in blogging as a panacea seems idealistic (and that’s not a bad thing) which means that she inherently supports more access and increased media literacy on the internet.

green.tv is a web TV channel dedicated to the environment. The aim of green.tv is to raise awareness of environmental issues, especially climate change. We try to do this by collating watchable, engaging films and publishing them online.

It’s too bad that they don’t have embedable videos because I would have loved to put one here.

Originally posted on my good news site

MyChurch is a a MySpace clone but for church communities. LOL!

Facebook is Fastest Growing Social Network in Europe

Good selection of mac software

Sites that Pay Filmmakers and Video Producers

Helpful web stuff:

Website SEO Grader

99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free

Great ways to promote websites!

I have always thought that the very notion that people would pay for content in this manner as ludicrous. For a few reasons I have thought this, and this transition to free content from the Times does not shock me in the slightest. Still, the fact that such a stalwart of old media has made this shift marks a turning point I’m sure.

That being said, I am kinda shocked that they have opened part of their archive:

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain.

The newspaper said the TimesSelect project had met expectations, drawing 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating about $10 million a year in revenue.

Quantum Shift TV is challenging students from grades one to twelve across the United States and Canada to participate in the Be the Change! Share the Story! School Video Contest. Students are invited to work on a social or environmental project of their choice, and document their progress in two short videos to be uploaded on the Web. In addition to making a difference in their community, students have an opportunity to win up to $50,000 in prizes for their school.

Through this contest, Quantum Shift TV is building an online community focused on socially conscious, solution-oriented videos. An entertaining puzzle game woven into the contest stimulates cross-pollination of ideas by encouraging youth to watch each others videos. Teams receive points for social network activity as well as viewer ratings of their videos.

Were harnessing three powerful cultural forces: youth social action, Internet gaming and the explosion of online video and digital storytelling. says Hugo Bonjean, the founder and CEO of Quantum Shift TV. As weve seen with YouTube, Web video has a powerful ability to engage audiences, particularly youth, around the world. Quantum Shift TV is using this power to inspire students to take action on the social and environmental issues of the day.

Projects can range from volunteering at a homeless shelter to educating the community about human rights, measuring a schools carbon footprint to building a hospital in a developing country – anything that addresses an environmental or social concern in a positive, solution-oriented way. Student teams will execute their project and document their progress in a series of two short videos. The first video, introducing the teams project, must be uploaded to QuantumShift.tv by December 15, 2007. The second, reporting on the projects execution and results, is due by March 31, 2008.

Teams will be ranked based on Web metrics such as number of views on their videos, viewer ratings, puzzles completed and social network activity. In May, the 25 top-ranked videos in each age category – Elementary (grades 1-6), Junior (7-9) and Senior (10-12) – will be reviewed by a panel of celebrity judges who will select the 3 finalists in each age group and invite the public to choose the winners. Judges include bestselling author and environmentalist Paul Hawken, actress Pleasant Wayne, skateboarder Bob Burnquist, executive-with-a-cause John Wood, Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel and Nigerian womens rights activist Hafsat Abiola. Winners will be chosen based on community involvement, project execution, video quality, and overall social and environmental impact.

To provide project ideas and resources for both students and teachers, Quantum Shift TV has partnered with key organizations like UNICEF, Free the Children, Room to Read, TransFair, NAAEE, TakingITGlobal, The Pembina Institute, New Global Citizens, Sierra Youth Coalition, Rainforest Action Network, Care and Oxfam.

Bonjean anticipates that this contest will mobilize some 100,000 kids across the United States and Canada to act on thousands of social and environmental projects. This contest will serve as a catalyst for youth engagement and activism as youth learn from and are inspired by each other, he added. For teachers and educational professionals, Be the Change is a project-based tool to teach their students about social and environmental issues that can easily be incorporated into curricula.

Students and educators can find out more and sign up for the contest at http://www.quantumshift.tv/schools .

Online Journalists, be aware that sample videos including embed code, images, and other digital assets are available in our Electronic Press Kit at http://quantumshift.tv/schools/press , and downloadable at http://quantumshift.tv/schools/press/EPK.zip

Quantum Shift TV is a 21st Century storyteller renewing the cultural values of community, care and interconnectedness via a quality citizen journalism platform that integrates Web videos with games to create an active and engaging experience for its audience. Founded in early 2007, Quantum Shift TV is based in Calgary, Alberta, with a virtual team of experienced filmmakers, journalists, and entrepreneurs spread across Canada and the United States .

C|Net has all the information and then some on this site that is clearly made by and designed for teens.

It’s also in a sweet spot for online marketing. Its audience is primarily between the ages of 13 and 22, and nearly all are from the United States.

By next year, Cook hopes to turn MyYearbook into the largest teen media company online, buoyed by a new user-generated magazine and tools that let high schoolers challenge each other to voting duels on topics like best-looking senior. While she’s plotting online domination, she will also be studying international business and marketing at Georgetown University this fall.