Social Networks' Influence on the big players

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This article talks about the influence social networks like MySpace and Facebook have had on Google and Yahoo. Yahoo and Google have decided to give up on creating social networks in the U.S.

I think this is a wise idea. Instead, they plan on utilizing Web 2.0, and to gradually introduce ways for their users to interact with one another. As long as they don't try to do too much, I think they will have success. If I can use google for my news, email, and a toned down version of a social network that would be really convenient. Personally, I think MySpace has way to much fluff and garbage I don't need, and facebook is starting to do the same. I think it's fair to say that a lot of people are waiting for a better alternative to what is currently widely used.

Social Cameras....not going to happen

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This guy has an idea to have cameras that can seamlessly share photos with those around them through bluetooth or wifi.

This idea just would just never work in practice. I don't know about you, but I think the photographs I take are personal, and I like the ability to selectively share them with who I want to, when I want to. Some things are not meant to be shared with everyone, or at least not right away, and photographs is one of them. Even with privacy settings this product would still be headed for disaster, as we all know having privacy settings is not a cure-all by any means.

Aside from privacy issues I just think theres no need for the product. First of all, how often do you send picture messages from your camera phone, especially the iphone which already serves this purpose to begin with? Also, there's enough photo-sharing web sites out there that allow you to share your photos quickly and easily, with whom you wish.

GPS on our mobile phones...I sense a backlash

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GPS technology on our mobile phones is becoming more prevelant and cheaper to produce. At first glance, this seems like great news. Who doesn't want to be able to see where they are?

However, this technology can bring dangerous consequences. This article in BBC news talks specifically about Targeting advertising. Basically, advertisers can potentially have access to where you are and create ads based on this. The scary part is this could be used in combination with social networking sites. I don't know about you, but I don't trust advertising agencies. Someone is going to cross the line and there will most likely be a huge backlash. People have already been revolting against MySpace and Facebook for this reason, and it's only going to get worse. Combine that with knowing your exact location? I just don't think people are going to be comfortable with that.

Does the internet politically divide us?

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After reading an article about this issue, I have to say I disagree with the author. I believe that overall, the internet serves to inform us, and therefore allows us to make better informed decisions. This way, people aren't basing their opinions from their parents or certain traditional mediums, such as the newspaper or cnn. This may end up contributing to a nation already polarizing itself, but it certainly is not the cause, or root problem.

I think the reason our country has been so divided for the last number of years has been because of political reasons and the decisions our leaders have made, not the internet. Yes, the internet is a medium for political opinion, however I believe the this country would be just as divided with or without the internet.

Technology Links fans to march madness

http://aueagles.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/amer-m-baskbl-body.html
March madness....my favorite time of year. Ever filled out a bracket? I do every year. I used to fill them out on a sheet of paper and give them to my friend who was running the competition. When is the last time you've seen someone's bracket on hard paper? I don;t think I have seen one. These are done online these days. The games are watched online now too.

In this article, it is mentioned how people are watching the games online and trash talking to each other with web cams over the internet. Now peopel are using PDA's to track the status of their brackets and pools as well. The internet is changing how we watch these games. How do you follow march madness??

Open Source News....Reliable?

Open Source news is an interesting subject. Theoretically, the more people that contribute to a story, the more informative it would be right? We'll see.....Wired News is attempting this. I think this idea is a good one, however it requires A LOT of filtering. To the point that it might be too much. Everyone has an opinion, or what they believe to be the truth. Everyone's motivations for contributing are different, some of which are not based on good journalism. I don't believe open source is a good idea for something like news. It has had success with tech projects because often the only people interested are those that are truly interested or want to help.

picture taken from: www.opensource.org/.../opensource-400x345.png

Telepresence.....it's really cool

I was in San Francisco last week and was lucky enough to visit Cisco Systems national headquarters. I got to check out their tele-presence technology first-hand. It was really cool. Honestly, for most routine meetings, it is definitely sufficient, and it allows you to project documents and power-points, etc. When you look at someone they know it, and so does everyone else. If you look at your phone, everyone can see you, its crazy. Cisco even had a virtual secretary that greeted us on telepresence. Cool huh?

I asked an expert what kinds of issues different cultures had with this technology, as you must be sitting down to use it. Turns out the Japanese for example have issues with it because they stand often in meetings. These virtual technologies will adapt to different cultures as well as other needs that come up. Overall a really cool product. FYI it costs $300,000 to equip a room with it.