SocialTimes.com |
| Should Students be Banned from Social Networks at School? Posted: 29 Jul 2008 02:59 PM CDT According to USA Today, “Congress is considering a bill that would bar children who use computers in public libraries from accessing Facebook and other social networking websites without parental permission.” The law is a measure to protect children from sexual predators. Others are arguing that this interferes with “library users’ privacy and free speech”. I have to agree with those that argue that this interferes with privacy and free speech. While children should be protected from sexual predators, banning them from having access to social networks is not the way to do it. The again, it should be up to the school to determine what technologies students have access to while on campus. For instance should students be able to bring their portable video game system with them into class? There is no doubt that students are not involved in the most productive activities while browsing social networks whether at school or at home. Simply put, even without a plethora of game applications, social networks are about as productive as playing video games: there is really no productive value currently. This may be one of the fundamental issues preventing social networks from further monetizing their platforms. Users of social networks are ultimately not gaining much productive value. The bill being discussed is banning students from social networks at school due to the risk of sexual predators. Ultimately, I don’t think this is the best way to approach the issue. Do you think students should be banned from social networks at school? |
| iPhone App Directory Crosses Milestone Posted: 29 Jul 2008 01:56 PM CDT Today the iPhone application directory crossed the 1,000 applications milestone. It’s a significant announcement for any new platform and the iPhone appears to be racing to the forefront to potentially become the leading mobile platform for developers. One of the most buzzed about platforms recently is the Facebook platform which has, according to Facebook’s statistics, attracted over 400,00 developers. The iPhone platform is rapidly proving itself to be a significant opportunity as well. The most significant challenge for the iPhone platform is user adoption. While Apple was able to sell millions of iPhones, the number of total users pales in comparison to other platforms. That doesn’t mean that the platform is one to sneeze at though. Just last week it was reported that the iPhone Facebook application had been downloaded by 1 million users. While nowhere near the more than 90 million users installed by top Facebook applications, these numbers are still significant for an early platform. Numbers aren’t all that matter though when it comes to comparing platforms. If you take a look at the quality of applications being developed on Facebook versus the quality of applications being developed on the iPhone. On Facebook, most of the top applications are relatively simple (although they have been improving in quality since the initial launch). At launch, the iPhone provided an immense number of applications which have proven to be extremely useful or at least entertaining. Whether I’m using Shazam to figure out what song I’m hearing in a bar or restaurant, or looking to waste some time playing Labyrinth, BubbleWrap or Monkey Ball, there is a huge value offering. Also while I was eating lunch in Miami this weekend, I was able to figure out what we would be having for dinner by pulling up the Yelp application and finding nearby, top rated restaurants. The bottom line is that there is a huge value proposition for the iPhone platform regardless of the number of users that have purchased it. Apple will most definitely fill this gap by continuing to sell out of iPhones for the foreseeable future. As forecasted by many, I believe that the iPhone is the phone to transform the mobile industry in this country and help mobile computing take a huge leap forward. While venture capitalists are warning entrepreneurs not to invest everything in the iPhone, at this point I think it is too large of an opportunity to ignore. |
| Bebo Launches Interstellar Publicity Stunt Posted: 29 Jul 2008 11:09 AM CDT
Given that on this planet there are millions of radio waves floating around on a daily basis, even if the messages do make it 20 light years away, I’m not sure that any living creature will be able to receive it. The concept that other “intelligent life” on another planet has also discovered something called “radio waves” is mind blowing. This experiment is literally “a shot in the dark”. The messages will be sent by Bebo users, celebrities and politicians. When asked about the content of the messages, Dr. Zaitsev said, “I understand that in the majority of cases these messages may be naïve, but I also hope that we will receive a creative and fresh look at the subject.” It sounds like an interesting concept to me but I’m not sure how effective this will ultimately be. While blasting out interstellar messages sounds amazing, the effect of this seems relatively useless. Who exactly will be listening to see if the “intelligent life” 20 light years away beam anything back? Perhaps they will simply shoot back a rocket? For now this appears to be a successful publicity stunt which has attracted the attention of a few blogs. |
| MySpace Application Invites Launch Posted: 29 Jul 2008 09:20 AM CDT Earlier this month MySpace officially announced that they would soon launch application invites. In under a month the invites have finally launched and today MySpace has finally provided developers documentation on how to implement the new feature. Does this mean we will soon see the degradation of the MySpace interface thank to application invite overload? Potentially. Thankfully though, MySpace has placed all notifications in a separate area within the inbox (as illustrated below), placing them away from friend requests (as currently displayed on Facebook). Hopefully this separation will help protect the user experience while providing applications with a little extra virality. According to a number of developers, the MySpace platform has been building steam over the past couple months. The top application though is still left at around 6 million installs in comparison to the largest applications on Facebook which have more than 95 million installs. While the Facebook platform continues to be the leading social platform, MySpace is slowly (and wisely) adding new features that help increase application growth while protecting the user experience. This contrasts Facebook who started off with all the viral channels wide open and have since been clamping down on developers. It will be interesting to see which strategy plays off in the long-run. For now Facebook continues to have the lead but each day MySpace is moving closer to becoming a platform of equals. |
| MySpace Keeps Growing Portal, Adds Classifieds Posted: 28 Jul 2008 07:35 PM CDT
Granted, this is not a new strategy for MySpace who already had a classifieds product. The difference is that there will be new features including search and filtering tools as well as listings from users not on MySpace. This means MySpace will have more content for their classifieds product. While Facebook’s marketplace has not been a highlight of the social network site, MySpace’s classifieds service appears to be more popular among its user base. One thing posing a challenge to MySpace? Craigslist, the leader in web-based classifieds. Also, why does MySpace need to focus on a classifieds service rather than focus on innovating their social network offering? More revenue of course! MySpace has been placed in a position where it has become critical for the company to generate more substantial revenues and this new classifieds offering will help them achieve that. MySpace is trying to group this new classifieds offering as “social commerce” but I’m not so sure I agree with that. While classified transactions are inherently social, it is not the type of social commerce that many industry people refer to. Social commerce typically refers to recommendations and comments from fellow shoppers. Facebook is trying to take that to a whole new level with recommendations from other friends. Whether or not this new offering is actually “social shopping” isn’t really important. What is clear is that MySpace is looking to offer new features that help keep users on the site for longer as well as help MySpace boost their revenue. This new classifieds service should help them accomplish that. |
Jemima Kiss 
In a move mimicking the portal days of yore, MySpace has announced the launch of a new Classifieds service. The new service will be | You are subscribed to email updates from The Social Times To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner |
Inbox too full?  Subscribe to the feed version of The Social Times in a feed reader. | |
| If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: The Social Times, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment