LOL,

Indeed, I am laughing out loud at my own cleverness for title selection. And now that I’ve lured you here, I should probably tell you what this equation is all about..

It’s like this: DiggDigg the online community/news publishing site, which has proven to be succesful and very useful for those with great content and little resources for spreading said content online, has announced that in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, (elite meets underground..in case you missed it) they have created an interview for Secretary of Treasury of the United States, Mr. Timothy Geithner.

See, I told you it would add up.

Although Digg has parterned up with The Wall Street Journal on this, they’ve kept true to their roots of social communication and have allotted users to suggest questions, of which users can “digg” or vote upon, those questions that are “dugg” the most will go on the questionnaire for the interview adding a 2.0 spin to a mainly mainstream and usually elitist journalistic endeavor.

So why has the Wall Street journal undertaken in this shift all of a sudden?  ”The Journal is partnering with Digg as part of the Web site’s Digg Dialogg series.” These initiatives by Digg, who according to Compete is 40 million unique users strong, are focused upon putting the power back in people’s hands as to what they deem as important and relevant. Essentially giving decisive power to the masses. So, perhaps The Journal is making steps to create a community of the sorts and thinks Digg is a great place to start. We can’t be sure of their intentions, all we know is that this is an intelligent move for both parties involved.

If the success of this joint venture can be traced then I have a feeling this will be a model that most major newscasters and print medias are going to adopt in the future.

So, watch your mic’s press, the people are coming to take over. Atleast for one interview.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

When you think of social networks and social media in general you don’t quite conjure up an image of Albert Einstein and Sir Issac Newton gushing laughter and tweeting away about their uber productive days. The image tends to create itself in a (let’s say) less advanced light.

However the days of social networking are evolving, in the least likeliest of places.

A recent endeavor funded in part by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) could be the beginning of something that will benefit and connect the greatest minds of the 21st century.

Known as myExperiment; the new forum will essentially be a social networking site where scientists can share information and make connections with other scientists.  The site was developed in a joint venture by  Professor David De Roure and Professor Carole Goble and their goal is simple, to facilitate and aggregate information in a digital community.

‘We are introducing new approaches to make research more reproducible, reusable and reliable…‘Research Objects are self-contained pieces of reproducible research which we will share in the future in the way that papers are shared today.’ as said by Professor De Roure.

myExperiment will be synced with other established e-science sites already in use; Eprints which is a research repository in Southampton University and the new e-Scholar institutional repository from Manchester University.

Although it may seem a bit strange at first, it’s not surprising that the worlds most brilliant minds are using the new mediums of communications to possibly save the world.. and do that other amazing stuff they do that I can’t even wrap my mind around without having a stage 5 panic attack i.e. space time continuums, black holes, and such.

Transmitted via Southampton School of Electronics and Computer Science

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

Arising from smoke, ash, and fire, Daniel Tumiwa had to tell someone about what had just happened to him, terrified and confused, he did the first thing that came to his mind after witnessing several bombs go off in Indonesia yesterday.. he tweeted.

According to ABC News (Australia) TwitterTwitter was the first to report news of the deadly Jakarta bombings yesterday and altogether it doesn’t come as a surprise to many of that us that have seen current events issues published throughout the entire known web space, with Twitter being the culprit behind the viral spread. The Hudson River plane crash, the controversy behind the Iranian elections, and Michael Jackson’s death where some of the few outstanding occurrences Twitter has documented before anyone else. And this tragic event further reiterates the possibilities of the viral effect the Internet undoubtedly has..

According to ABC News the events occured as follows:

“He quickly followed up with more details.

“2 boms go off at marriot hotel ad ritz carlton jakarta.”

“2 boms go off inside Ritz Carlton and Marriott coffee shops! Not kidding. Am here.”

“Left location. Shocked. Lots of blood. Breakfast meetings at coffee shops while bombs went off.”

“Thanks for all the concern. Back home. Safe. Shocked. Blood…smoke…glass…everywhere…prayers to the victims….” ”

As tends to happen the news hopped around from Twitterer to Twitterer, every social network picked up on the news, until eventually it reached the actual press and the major publications began the in depth reports.

In another part of the story The Marriott Hotels Group is spreading their message of condolences and empathy for the victims and the loved ones of their victims through Twitter, and their blog.

Their use of online PR is notably one the best examples of corporate social media usage seen to date, their message is humane, and they’ve made it a priority to inform travelers of their efforts to enforce security. They covered their bases and have tried their best to come out of this event strong. I especially think that the kindness expressed through social media can be transcendent and particularly necessary and positive at this time. Even Bill marriot blogged about the event, and honestly to see a CEO write a public blog post about his feelings and concerns about any event, was pretty much unheard of in the PR world, until today, today now, today social media existed.

Our deepest condolences to those who suffered in any way, shape, or form in this event. May you somehow find peace at this time.

Sheila

Social Media Specialist @ The Re Agency

For the past few days the only thing anyone seems to talk about is the passing of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, seemingly the most important topic of discussion on TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook, and CNN. But how did the news of his death spread? How did speculation become fact over the course of a few minutes throughout the social networks?

Who reported first?

To begin with, i think its particularly interesting to note that his death ratified the fact that social media is quickly building itself up as a news source. Remembering of course the US Airways plane that was forced to land in the Hudson River some months ago and more recently the out pour of multimedia sent through Twitter, YoutubeYouTube and other social networking sites during the massive blockade of journalisim and communications after the Iranian election.

However Michael Jacksonmichael jackson reviews out shined them all, logistically speaking.

Below I’ve included the way speculation of his death spread through a series of linked social networks traveling throughout the internet from network to network until eventually reaching your ears and the mainstream news stations as well.

1. The Celebrity Gossip site TMZ publishes a blog post at 4:30 PM EST stating that Michael Jackson had been transported to the hospital via ambulance due to a cardiac complication.
2. Twitter users who read TMZ start circulating the story, from there it spreads to Facebook and several other blogs.  Speculation and mass circulation begins.
3. At exactly 5:02 PM EST TMZ updates that Michael Jackson had passed away.
4. The story becomes the focus of every social networking site, and blog in the world. Servers from Twitter, Facebook, and Google nearly crash from the overload.

Curiously enough none of the major news channels like BBC and CNN informed the public of his death until well after 7 PM. They had however given vague details about the possibility of Mr. Jackson being comatose, which wasn’t received until after 5:30, which had you noticed TMZ had already confirmed his death 28 minutes before. Once again we see citizens’ journalism beat out the major broadcasting networks with a simple tweet.

However, this type of journalism has yet to evolve and strengthen to become more reliable. While on Twitter the news story of the moment was the passing of Michael Jackson, there were also rumors about the supposed death of actors Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford, which goes without saying are not true.

The analytic data impact that the Michael Jackson news story generated throughout internet media: According to the company of logistic and analytical inter studies Compete, on the day of his death the words Michael and Jackson where searched more than 9,981,000 times.

And even more shocking was the user participation on the official Michael Jackson site displaying more than 423,000 messages from fans all around the world from the time of his death to the moment this post was being posted.  Indicating about 10 posts per minute, some with a few brief words and others extended to lengthy paragraphs.

More importantly than deep analytical research in this particular case it’s important to mention the participation of the users who left commentary on the digital wall for the late musician and entertainer,  messages whose number relied on nothing more than the need of fans to express themselves.

Proving once again the vanguard nature of Social media and its shocking possibilities to communicate globally to and from the masses.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @The RE Agency