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MixedInk is Digg for Collaborative Writers Posted: 07 Jan 2009 05:27 PM PST In private beta until today, the MixedInk collaborative writing platform has launched the public beta version of its product. This is a democratic writing and publishing platform that takes the Creative Commons license to the next level, enabling entire communities to work together on a single document or publication. While this isn’t the first time this concept has been approached with an online tool, D.C.-based MixedInk is using a new angle for automating much of the process, essentially eliminating the need for wikis in the traditional sense, or even editors. As MixedInk promotes a democratic process, each document submitted by a member of the community can be voted upon, which pushes that document up in rank. The user that has initiated the topic for the collaborative document can then take the highest ranked document and use it for their purposes. The other highlight of MixedInk’s service is the way in which a collaborative document is created. Instead of many users re-editing a single document or an editor picking and choosing various aspects of multiple users’ content, any member of the community can mix and match different pieces of all related documents in order to create a single, cohesive submission which can then be voted upon. Such a democratic process also requires the diligence of all its members instead of just the editors, meaning that the community members would need to read all the submissions in order to truly create a comprehensive document that potentially represents the best of all individuals involved. But MixedInk helps you out with this aspect of its democratic process by recommending relevant portions of related documents as you type your own submission or browse through others’. You can highlight the portion of the text that you like, and add it to your notes or a live document being created on the site. MixedInk automatically tracks who’s content is being used where, to stay in line with the Creative Commons licensing attributions. For its public beta launch, MixedInk is also announcing a partnership with Slate magazine, which is using the collaborative publishing platform for a collective Innagural Address. So is this a step towards true online democracy? There are always inherent issues with the democratic process in terms of individual responsibility, not to mention the self-selected users that would join a collaborative platform in the first place. But I certainly think the concept behind MixedInk is moving in the right direction, and such a service can be used far beyond inaugural addresses or newspaper articles to include nearly every aspect of traditional media both online and offline. MixedInk from MixedInk on Vimeo.

Soulja Boy Tell’Em - Social Media SuperStar Posted: 07 Jan 2009 03:29 PM PST CES 2009 (Consumer Electronics Show) - Billboard Digital Music Live Soulja Boy Tell’Em Social Media Success Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em launched himself to success through social media. Soulja Boy is generating tens of millions of dollars in music and online digital revenue based on success achieved in social media. Soulja Boy told his story today at the CES‘ Digital Music Live, to a crowd of traditional record executives and digital media start ups. Soulja Boy started on SoundClick.com at the age of 16, uploading tracks that were downloaded 35K times a day at their peak. His SoundClick success was the result of social media features, where the audience could tag his songs as their favorite, and the audience could see just how popular his songs were by the number of downloads. Soon his SoundClick comments were filled with requests from fans to build a MySpace page. In 2005 he did so with the help of his cousin, and a social media star was born. Soulja Boy accumulated millions of page views, fans and streams that attracted the attention of Collipark and then a record deal with Interscope/Universal Music Group. Soulja Boy then used YouTube to launch highly popular dance moves, music videos, a Soulja Boy Tell’Em channel and a whole hip hop subculture of dress styles and words written on sunglasses. His millions of fans’ created a “whole world” in the social media sphere, that made signing him a no brainer, according to Soulja Boy’s manager. Social Media and Traditional Music Industry Record executives, artist managers and start ups are all asking themselves what the recipe for success is in social media, who should own the rights for communications such Twitter feeds and how they will all profit from the new music industry. It seems that artists will finally all be able to make a living thanks to social media. Artists can be their own “small business owner”, doing their own marketing, distribution and tour promotion online - primarily on social networks. Major record labels were quick to point out that it still takes record label promotions teams to get on radio, which drive traditional CD sales that define the music industry. Soulja Boy is now benefiting from major label marketing and record sales, but his digital music revenues - benefiting him, online partners and his manager directly (outside record labels) are staggering. Soulja Boy now operates and profits from a many digital businesses, including a subscription based mobile media services that receives 30 million callers and has one million paying subscribers - all promoted with a phone number he sings in a song that is distributed via MySpace and YouTube. Social media, 360 deals and Music 2.0 Soulja Boy figured out the secret of success all on his own from his bedroom in Memphis. He used social media - primarily MySpace and YouTube, to create a cultural phenomenon. He parlayed these into record deals, and received a Grammy nomination in 2008. Social media allowed the world to beat a path to Soulja Boy’s door, creating a super star. Labels are all scrambling to do ‘360 deals’ where they get a piece of all an artists revenue - including online sales driven by social media. Do you think social media will define the future of the music Industry?

Nebraska Attorney General Wants Sex Offenders Banned from MySpace, Facebook Posted: 07 Jan 2009 02:16 PM PST In Omaha Nebraska, Attorney General Jon Bruning is proposing a few legislative changes to increase public safety, and this includes cracking down on the presence of sex offenders using online social networking sites, according to MSN. Bruning wants them banned from sites like MySpace and Facebook all together, making their use of such social networks a crime. This would be pretty difficult to enforce from a legislative standpoint, especially without the cooperation of social networks themselves. The state of Indiana has already banned sex offenders from using social networks, but enforcement is still an issue. And after a slew of threatened and imposed legal action on MySpace, networks (especially MySpace) have found ways in which to work with sate and federal authorities regarding sex offenders that have accounts online. It’s been well over a year since MySpace helped track down several sex offenders using its service, but it looks like such measures won’t suffice for Bruning. While sex offenders’ use of online social networks can be considered a matter of public safety, the anonymity of such networks means that any legislative changes regarding a complete ban would likely require enforced changes to the networks themselves. New prerequisites for registration would be in order, along with a level of tracking and other forms of enforcement. Not to mention, these requirements will need to be standardized to some degree across all cooperating networks. Is this a viable option for either legislation or social networks? It doesn’t seem likely it at this point, or the near future. Similar initiatives have been started for requiring identification verification, especially for sites that are for people that are of a certain age, like 18 or 21 years old. Perhaps a good direction for Bruning to go in is team up with third party services that provide trust scores for individual users across a number of social networks.

Buddy Media Exceeds its Own Expectations in 2008 Posted: 07 Jan 2009 09:07 AM PST Buddy Media has revealed its numbers for 2008, and things are looking good for the “appvertising” company.  When Facebook launched its platform in 2007, many developers and ad networks were surprised but encouraged by the lack of restrictions Facebook imposed for third party applications that carried ads. Despite this seemingly open market for advertising campaigns, only a few have succeeded on a large scale, which includes Buddy Media. The “app-vertisement” company reports exceeding its revenue goals for 2008, with campaigns for 50 brands and a 138% revenue increase from Q3 to Q4 2008.  By working as an application developer alongside major ad networks, and launching an ad network of its own, Buddy Media has grown its two core competencies in tandem.  Buddy Media also experienced growth through a number of acquisitions last year, having taken on AceBucks, a virtual currency application on Facebook, and Crushes.  By also spreading its applications across multiple networks including MySpace, Buddy Media is also expanding the number of places a given advertising campaign can be viewed.  While many are becoming speculative towards the social media advertising market, Buddy Media has shown that there’s still an interest in advertising within the social realm.  And given some attitudes towards Facebook’s own advertising platform, which can be rather hit or miss at times, many advertisers are looking to third party applications as more targeted ways of reaching a specific demographic.  Buddy Media has also taken steps to encourage such targeting through options like the BuddyBrain service, which offers metrics for its advertisers, among other things.  Given the success Buddy Media has experienced in the past year, it’s not surprising to see that the company is looking for exponential growth for 2009.  With over $7 million in funding from Softbank Capital and PayPal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel, Buddy Media has a great deal of support for its particular product and is part of a dynamic experiment regarding third party applications and integrated social advertising in the online media space.

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How Many Friends Do You Have? Not As Many As Me! Posted: 06 Jan 2009 11:47 AM PST This afternoon I was reading an article by Julian Sanchez which describes the scene yesterday as Republicans debated the future Republican National Committee Chair. One of the most memorable segments of the debate is highlighted by the Washington Post: “We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today,” Duncan ventured. “Let me just say that I have 4,000 friends on Facebook,” contributed Blackwell, putting his hand on Dawson’s and Anuzis’s knees. “That’s probably more than these two guys put together, but who’s counting, you know?” Acknowledged Saltsman: “I’m not sure all of us combined Twitter as much as Saul.” Anuzis claimed he had “somewhere between 2- and 3,000″ Facebook friends, which prompted Blackwell to remind the audience that he has 4,000 friends on the social networking site by waving four fingers behind Anuzis’s head. What was interesting is how some of the leading members of the Republican party could not help but exchange in a friendly debate over who has the most friends on Facebook and Twitter. It’s amazing the power that the number of our friends in social networks has in the general perception of our social status. Many of the top Facebook users boast proudly of their “whale” status (users with 5,000 friends on Facebook are also called “whales”) and I regularly find myself engaged in a conversation about the number of friends I have on Facebook. Even my mother discusses it and it almost sounds like a sign of weakness when she has says that she has has 50 friends on the site. I regularly have conversations over instant message during which the number of friends each user has is brought up. This digital status drives even the most mature adults to act like children as they try to find compete with others for more friends. There are many other digital measures of social standing that we use on a regular basis. For example bloggers tend to count the number of RSS subscribers they have while others compare the number of unread emails in their inbox. Categorizing, classifying, and organizing groups into lists is a classic strategy used by media companies to gain attention. Just take a look at the magazine stand at any local marketplace. Cosmopolitan magazine uses this strategy religiously on every single cover. We love grouping others and then ranking them and the number of our social network connections is just one public form of ranking. The number of social network friends has typically been a competitive focus among the younger generations but after reading the Washington Post article, it’s clear how ubiquitous social networking has become. One thing that is also clear is that just because the older generations are on the sites doesn’t mean they are familiar with the terminology. Hence Duncan’s statement “We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering.” So how many friends do you have? Do you find yourself engaging in conversation regularly about the number of friends you have on Facebook or other sites?

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College Kids and Parents Connect Online. Is This Bad? Posted: 05 Jan 2009 12:46 PM PST A new study from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in the United Kingdom reports that more British parents are using newer technology to stay connected with their children away at school, according to AllHeadlines. Now, my mother and I weren’t always the best of friends, but while in college I still called her every Sunday afternoon. Back then, I called her on her landline. She rarely used her cell phone and had no idea how to send or receive text messages. Things have changed in the past few years, and my mother now happily embraces her Blackberry, email and LinkedIn. But how much easier would things have been if my mother had been on an online social network when I was in college? Even text messaging with my mother would have warranted increased communication between the two of us, as I was always on my way to class (not the best time to use up daytime minutes on the mobile), studying, or out and about with friends. While my mother and I aren’t British, the study is still relevant on this side of the pond. As more mature adults from the baby boomer era adopt mobile phone applications and online social networks, it’s easier for them to relate and connect with their children that are of the age demographic which has more readily adopted such technology. Whether there’s causation to this particular correlation or just a natural consequence of technology usage across major populations, the result remains the same. And it’s most likely for the same reasons as anyone else connecting via mobile phone or online social networking–it’s passivity makes it easier for two-way communication between people. If I send my mother an email, she can write back when she has time. That way the message is still conveyed without having to wait for a time when the two of us can speak on the phone. It’s a system that works across several applications and devices, from SMS to IM, email to writing on one’s Facebook wall. But how do college-age users feel about their parents connecting with them online? I’m closer to age 30 than 21, and my mother still reprimands me for using “improper” language on Facebook photo comments. Were I still in college, I might even feel like my mother were joining Facebook just to keep an eye on me. So for those in college now, I wonder how many modify their online behavior as a result of their parents’ watchful eyes. Whether this means curbing the use of profanity or deciding not to post those beer pong photos, or merely taking advantage of privacy settings such as those instituted by Facebook for separating your professional, personal and “family” lives, it would b interesting to see a deeper study of the types of relationships manifested between parent and child on a social network.

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The Curse of the Shiny Object Posted: 03 Jan 2009 11:18 PM PST The past year has been an incredible one but over the past few months I’ve begun to lose sight of my vision and things have become increasingly unclear. What once started as an inspired attempt to build a successful blog, turned in to a never-ending daily grind, the exact thing I was trying to avoid when this all began. I increased my daily blogging volume from one post a day initially (back when I was writing TheWebpreneur.com), to eventually 10 to 12 posts a day at my max. It’s clear why I was doing so. When I started blogging two and a half years ago I started after reading people like Mike Arrington, Pete Cashmore, Om Malik, Richard MacManus, Robert Scoble, and the numerous other thought leaders in the technology blogging space and said to myself “I can do that!” Ultimately I think I’ve proven to myself that anything is possible and I’ve also learned some important lessons from following this industry obsessively. The Shiny Object Phenomenon When Frank Gruber talks at conferences now, he regularly does a talk on “shiny objects”. Frank was actually the person that helped me get AllFacebook off the ground by giving me one influential hyperlink which drove hundreds of people to my site in its first day of operations. I’ve also had the opportunity to see Frank speak at conferences and he has significantly revamped his talk over the past 12 months (seems like a lifetime in internet years). The point of this is not how much Frank has improved his speaking capabilities (which you can see for yourself when I speak with him at SXSW later this year), but about his “shiny object” idea that he has talked about over the past 12 months. In this space everything can be boiled down to a shiny object. Every single day there are numerous shiny objects that we read about. Being the ADD people that all social media enthusiasts are, we try it out and frequently give lots of praise about the product before forgetting it weeks later. There is no possible way that any individual can possibly take advantage of all the technologies being written about in Techcrunch, Mashable, Venturebeat, Read/Write/Web, etc in their daily lives though. It’s simply not possible. The shiny object also represents hope for many of us. Some of us hope that some technology will come about that will solve all of our problems. We constantly seek closure through many of these objects but unfortunately none of them ever provide closure. Something else is bound to eventually come along and “change our lives for the better.” I tend to take only a slightly different approach and obsess over the shiniest objects for a longer period of time. The first thing was blogs and the most recent one was Facebook. I decided to eventually expand that to “social media” in general but regardless, the point is that I have my own shiny objects as well … we all do. It’s not that we are all only focused on the shiny object as many of us are focused on real innovation. Unfortunately though, it is all to easy to get sidetracked thanks to the curse of the shiny object. A New Beginning As I said, the shiny object for me was initially blogging. My entire life has become dedicated to it for the most part and day after day I try to churn out more articles so that my traffic numbers go up. It’s an endless grind that inevitably can result in little payoff (comparatively speaking). I also believe that many times I’ve sacrificed the quality of my writing simply to get out another article, or get a few more visitors to the site. This habit has mostly driven me astray and now rather than striving to truly provide value, I’ve built something that is based on volume (see AllFacebook.com if you don’t understand what I’m talking about). It isn’t all bad content fortunately and that’s why this isn’t the worst scenario but as of tonight, I’ve decided to make a change. The change may not be immediately apparent but the decision to change has been made and the transition will take a short amount of time. When I started blogging on TheWebpreneur.com I was trying to find out how to become “successful” in the world of social media. Whether it’s building a web startup, creating a popular blog, or building a successful business that harnesses social technologies, the aim was to explore success. I’d like to return to that vision in part. Rather than just exploring the shiny objects tirelessly, day after day, simply to obtain a little more search engine juice, I’ll be exploring how to leverage social media for success. That can be success in life, success in your business, or even success within social media. It can be on Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, or anywhere else, the main point is that it’s about success, not just the technology behind it. What Does This Mean for You? Thankfully this is not a goodbye letter. This is simply a heads up that things may not be the same on this site or AllFacebook as they have been for the past year. Yes, you may still see an occasional article that doesn’t seem to fit my vision of “success through social media” but hopefully that will decrease over time. I would like to explore further what success through social media means and provide more value to the readers as a result of my research. Hopefully this will build more lasting value for the readers and myself. I’m working out what exactly the right balance is and how to keep people informed about what’s going on while providing valuable insight. Unfortunately there is a trade off between those two things: insight and news. I have some ideas and welcome any feedback as the transition takes place. Blogging and running my business has been a great experience so far but it’s time to build lasting value. Thank you for taking the time to read this site and here’s to an amazing 2009! Diamond image from Squidoo

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Facebook Sues Power.com for Not Using Facebook Connect Posted: 02 Jan 2009 01:59 PM PST Just last month Brazil-based Power.com launched a social networking aggregator that brought together your activity from across Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, and Hi5, to name a few. But just weeks after revealing its putlic beta, Power.com is being sued by none other than Facebook itself. As a social networking aggregator Power.com doesn’t appear to be doing anything wrong, but the way in which it’s accessing Facebook user data is non-compliant with Facebook’s terms. According to The New York Times, Facebook has spent over a month in discussions with Power.com to try to reach an agreement in regards to accessing user data, but no agreement could be reached. As a result, Facebook has filed a complaint against Power.com in Unied Sates Disctrict Court in San Jose, California, for copyright and trademark infringement, unlawful competition and violation of the computer fraud and abuse act, among other charges. So far, Power.com has removed Facebook as one of the accessible social networks through its service, but the issue of privacy and user data access remains. As Power.com requests Facebook users’ login information and allegedly saves this data, along with sending messages to users through its service and making them appear to be coming from the Facebook Team, Facebook insists that such actions compromise privacy and security measures that are supposed to protect users and maintain Facebook’s own integrity. But one aspect of Facebook’s complaint against Power.com is particularly interesting, as it asserts that Power.com is participating in unlawful competition with the popular social network. In our initial coverage of Power.com’s beta launch, we asked the question “is Power.com too late to compete with Facebook Connect?” Facebook’s own platform, Facebook Connect, offers a way for third party services and applications to combine the activity of both Facebook and their own site for an integrated and social way in which to use existing information a user has already entered on Facebook. So taking advantage of Facebook Connect seems like a pretty simple solution to Power.com’s problem. However, the well-funded startup looks to integrate your Facebok activity even deeper than what Facebook Connect already offers, providing application updates and more for an overarching access option to nearly all of your Facebook activity–not just a two-way news feed. And while none of the other available social networks like MySpace seem to be complaining about Power.com’s tactics for enabling users to sign in and access certain data, losing the support of Facebook could really hurt Power.com’s appeal to global users. Other Power.com competitors such as Flock have already gained the support and partnership of some social networks like MySpace.com, instituting Flock as an accepted third pary option for end users. If Power.com loses the cooperation of the social networks, it could really end up being left in the dust.

LinkedIn InApps - 2008 Review Posted: 02 Jan 2009 08:18 AM PST LinkedIn launched its Intelligent Applications (InApps) developer platform on October 28th, 2008. InApps is widely considered to be LinkedIn's "answer" to the Facebook Platform. AllFacebook covered InApps from its initial rumors. We have eagerly followed InApps' evolution as an important member of the OpenSocial initiative whose successes would also help Google, MySpace, Hi5 and others in their efforts to compete with Facebook's third party developer platform. As 2008 comes to a close, we don't believe that the current incarnation of InApps will help LinkedIn truly compete with Facebook user engagement and third party developer participation. OpenSocial developers who created applications for InApps did not innovate based on LinkedIn's core strengths relative to Facebook, and LinkedIn itself seems hesitant to truly follow Facebook's lead based on potential conflicts between InApps and its established business model. We would like to share with our readers our review of LinkedIn' InApps as 2008 comes to a close. We also provide an overview of LinkedIn itself to provide our Facebook audience with context for our analysis. Immediately below are highlights for the casual reader: SocialTimes’ 2008 review finds that InApps has: Tame Networking: Current applications don't leverage LinkedIn members' ability to discover people based on three degrees of separation and to forge relationships via LinkedIn's industry leading tools. Limited Virality: InApps seemed promise to implement the viral messaging channels defined in OpenSocial, but we find little evidence of this becoming a reality. Developer Drawbacks: LinkedIn selected a limited number of launch partners whose apps operate on the surface level or completely behind the scenes, and the InApps launch is characterized by technical challenges. How can we judge "InApps 2008"? It may seem unfair to judge InApps for "2008" based on its two months live. Please keep in mind that LinkedIn has been working on the InApps platform in a high profile fashion since 2007. LinkedIn's efforts and marketing related to InApps caused a major buzz in the OpenSocial community. LinkedIn holds the promise of a 30+ million member social network that will pioneer a new class of utility apps - all built using the OpenSocial 0.8 specification. InApps' release, although it occurred towards end of 2008, should be reviewed as the result of a full year of effort on the part of LinkedIn and the OpenSocial developer community the social network is seeking to create.

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Social Media Takes Center Stage in Gaza War Posted: 31 Dec 2008 08:43 AM PST Israel is going for a more informative tactic with its coverage of the war its fighting against Hamas militants in Gaza, and its using social media as one of its main forms of increasing its transparency, reports Times Online. After receiving a great deal of flack from not doing so during the 2006 attack on Hezbollah strongholds in Southern Lebanon, Israel realized that the Internet too can be a powerful weapon. At least in the realm of PR and global perceptions. Days after sending aircraft out to strike Hamas militants in Gaza, the Israeli government is launching a curated channel on YouTube and multiple Twitter streams in order to participate better in the blogosphere. Yesterday, followers of “israelconsulate” on Twitter could view live coverage updates of a citizen press conference held in order to further disseminate information regarding Israel’s stance on the war. Another Twitter stream tracks where Qassam rockets are falling in Israel. Since online social media has become a powerful platform for citizen journalism and nearly every other form of published media including traditional journalism, many factions of governmental institutions have taken to the blogosphere and social networks for the same reasons of getting the word out. There are countless examples of political leaders, such as Barak Obama, leveraging YouTube, Twitter and even MySpace for gaining support and spreading a message. But can social media be used by Israel as more than just a PR move? When engaging in conversations with the likes of Twitter followers, it’s evident that Israel not only cares about sending out its message, but answering as many questions as possible. PR move or not, such interaction (albeit virtual) can have a strong effect on attitudes citizens have towards a government entity. As Twitter is already a very powerful tool for spreading news in real time, thanks to all the Twitter users that share news as they receive it themselves, I think it’s rather important for the government and political leaders to take advantage of the conversations that are already taking place. Even with today’s Twitter coverage of the press conference through “israelconsulate” it’s clear that Israel is turning to social media not just to spread information but to answer questions and participate in the existing conversations that run so rampant on Twitter and other social media platforms. Not all efforts have come from Israel though. A less organized group of individuals have been active on Twitter, reporting from Gaza about the impact on Palestinian residents. There has also been some support from Al Jazeera who has set up their own Twitter account for reporting Twitter activities as well. It’s clear that the PR war is fierce no matter what way you’re trying to spin the story. Last time around, the opinion appeared to fall in favor of those against Israel. This time both sides are leveraging social media heavily to try to win the war over public opinion. It will be interesting to see how it pans out this time around.

SGN Settles Mob Wars Dispute Posted: 31 Dec 2008 07:23 AM PST Mob Wars, one of the supposed million dollar a month applications, was at the center of a dispute between SGN and David Maestri. According to SGN, the application was developed when Maestri was working at Freewebs, the Silver Spring based internet company that gave birth to what is now called Social Gaming Network. As Dan Kaplan explained back in August, Almost any tech company makes its employees sign agreements guaranteeing the company the rights to any intellectual property they produce while employed. Freewebs was no exception. And so, in a claim filed on August 11th in Maryland (where Freewebs, is legally registered) Freewebs and SGN have hit Maestri with a litany of charges, including breach of contract, breach of duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and interference with business relations. If the case goes to court and Maestri loses, he may have to surrender not only the rights to Mob Wars, but all the money he has made from its success, as well. Today, it was announced that the two parties have settled the dispute for a cash settlement. Dave Maestri gets to keep ownership of the application, but this most definitely has been a costly experience for the developer. Mob Wars continues to be extremely popular, experiencing growth in traffic over the past month after a short decrease. For SGN, the battle must have been fierce as it would be the company’s largest application if they had obtained ownership of application. For now it appears that the battle over the application is over and both parties can return to business as usual. One clear risk as a result of this settlement is that SGN will create an identical application. Zynga has already done so and now has more active users than Maestri. Could there be another lawsuit in the pipeline for Maestri?

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