Running to reduce stress!

Last night I was thinking back of my first years at university: it seems my life wasn’t so stressful back then. Things were much easier. No team work, no new deadlines in my diary every week, the only calendar I had to worry about was my social calendar. Now, I have to prioritize and make to-do lists: school, projects, blogs, team meetings…. Making the transition from being a student to being a young professional isn’t that easy apparently. The trick to reduce the stress level is to find an activity that calms you, for some of us that’s dancing to a favorite song, for others it’s reading a good book, for me it’s jogging. I have set myself a new goal. I’m going to run the 10km of Ghent. In 10 weeks I’ll run 10km in 1 hour. Who’s with me?

The internet in figures

The internet is a vast country. 247 billion e-mails per day, 126 million active bloggers, 27 million tweets per day. 30.000 servers to store your idiotic Facebook Fan Pages.
And that's 2009. 2010 is bound to break all those records!

The American web agency Jess3 collected different statistics into The State Of The Internet.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Source: Focus Knack

BBDO Argentina, Sake and Nike+ tweet while running 10k

Responding of the current trend – set by Nike+ – of massive running events, BBDO Argentina and Sake invited 5 Argentinean celebrities, who would be running The human race 10k, to blog on their experience – live!

Nike+ Human Race 10K LIVE from the INSIDE from BBDO argentina on Vimeo.

They were wearing an iPhone, strapped to their arms and an earphone. By hitting a button they were able to share their thoughts orally, while running the race. These voice messages were turned into text messages which were published at thehumanrace.com.ar/envivo, in their Twitter accounts and various other websites.

To prove that the satnav-hype has still not yet reached its peak, the runners positions and points of messages were shown on a Google Maps map. The fanemka-team believes that within a few years everyone will constantly have a personal satnav with them in their smartphones, like digital cameras are nowadays even found in the cheapest cell phones.

Source: Vimeo

Switch to a Pitch for Free Publicity!

Promoting a new and innovative SNS surely sounds expensive. However, it can be extremely cheap and easy if you are willing to invest time in making yourself and your business visible on online PR networks. PitchRate.com is an online service that offers free publicity and connects journalists with experts and publicists for free media coverage. You can join the site for free and pitch yourself to journalists when you think you’re right for an incoming request or a source needed by a journalist. When you make the pitch, all of your contact info will automatically be sent as well. After that, all you have to do is wait to be contacted by the journalists who made the request for an interview and free publicity to promote yourself and your online business! Want to learn more? Visit http://www.pitchrate.com/.

Sources:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8114-Internet-Business-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Internet-Business-101--How-to-get-free-online-publicity
http://www.pitchrate.com/

Sociology and social media, two case studies

Recently, a lot of voices have risen saying Facebook, Twitter or other social media are used to utter hateful ideas about other people. Since its rise, social media have been applauded for their democratizing and emancipatory potential. Now, however, its users are often considered cold, harsh or cruel for voicing shocking opinions, hurting wishes and even death threats. With every new mediatic hype, a Facebook group and ante-group is created. Instead of invigorating debate on social issues, this phenomenon disembogues into a noise of shouted slogans.
Two case studies from recent Belgian media hypes are exemplary: journalist Linda De Win's envied streak of victory in De Slimste Mens, a Woenstijnvis quiz on Flemish broadcasting station één; and referee Luc Wauters' giving Club Bruges soccer player Ronald Vargas a red card. Both got stuck in the eye of a (social-)media-storm when people created several hate-groups around their person. The events were hyped on radio and television and in Belgian/Flemish newspapers. Society watchers were invited to vent their ideas on the matter and people condemned first the groups and later Facebook's giving people the ablity to spread hatred.
Obviously, what happened to mrs. De Win and mr. Wauters is intolerable. Yet, would the things said remain unsaid if Facebook or Twitter did not exist? They would still be uttered in bars, on busses, at the hair dresser's - which means they would be kept hidden or difficult to find for sociologists and academic moralists. The widespread availability of world wide fora does not create new social or moral standards, it merely gives people the opportunity to spread their immoral ideas more effectively.
Instead of convicting sites like Facebook, researchers on human traits should praise them for easily and freely externalising what goes about in society.

Sources: De Standaard, Knack

'Hidden Facebook' has much more 'users'

Even though you might not have a Facebook account, mind you that Zuckerberg’s team knows who you are! The idea behind it is as simple as it is terrifying. When a new Facebook user signs up, he is requested to automatically let Facebook find friends. He can upload his address book which is then scanned for known Facebook users. But next to them, also people in his adress book without a Facebook account are saved in the Facebook archives. Also, names that are searched for, even if they don’t have an account are saved and analysed. That way the system can create your personal web of friends just as if you were on Facebook. The advertising possibilities are ample.

One might feel assaulted by this, but Facebook puts the responsibility for breaking people’s privacy with its users. It says this quite clearly in its terms of use. The thing is; who reads those?

Sources: T-Zine

Microsoft and Google deal makes Twitter profitable

Like many other SNS'es, Twitter was not profitable from the start. It is only after three years that the microblogging site will be able to pay out dividends to its share holders. This is announced by BusinessWeek who is aware of Twitter's financial situation.

Because of a huge deal with Microsoft and Google, 25 million dollar could be added to Twitter's 2009 earnings. In return for the money, Twitter makes its tweets accessible to Google and Microsoft's Bing.

With 58 million users, visiting the site via the web or their cell phone, Twitter is one of the fastest growing websites in the world. Although this is nothing compared to Facebook's 350 million, Zuckerberg's project won't be profitable for the next few years.
Analysts had feared Twitter would never be profitable. However, because of the deal, the SNS now has a stronger negotiation power allowing it to further cut back telecom expenses.

Sources: De Tijd, Wikipedia, Newsweek