Posts Tagged ‘myspace’
What will Facebook do with its News Feed patent?
February 26th, 2010
This week Facebook was awarded the patent for the News Feed - a feature common to Facebook as well as other social networks such as Twitter and MySpace, and a number of social media apps and startups.
The patent refers to the method of displaying stories/news items relating to online activities to a predetermined set of viewers, and “assigning an order to the news items”. According to reports, the patent also covers the auto-generation of a user’s activity and the display of that to friends. That means the news updates you get when your friends upload videos and accept friend requests is covered by Facebook’s new patent.
It’s true that Facebook pioneered the News Feed technology back in 2006, and so on the face of it deserves to own the patent…but what does this mean for the rest of the social media industry? Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network, and so if it’s going down the road of seeking patents for its technology, this could really hamper innovation and progress within social media, and render networks such as Twitter useless.
It’s currently unclear what Facebook plans to do with this patent. It could take the hard line and pressure Twitter, MySpace, Google etc into taking down their News Feed features, or at the opposite end of the scale it could choose not to exercise its patent.
The reason why social media has evolved so quickly is all down to collaboration, the mashup of content and technology and the sharing of creativity. Patents are arguably not a good thing in this space, but what can we do to stop them?
At the moment this is primarily an industry story, but should Facebook choose to make use of the patent, it’s likely to reach the attention of a wider audience. Ultimately the power rests with individuals to stop Facebook from agressively patenting its technology - if the business becomes too commercial in its focus, it will lose popularity, and could suffer massively in terms of online PR.
Students can use social media to give themselves an edge in the job market
July 16th, 2009
A warm welcome back to guest blogger and academic Lorraine Warren, who is Director of Postgraduate Education and senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton
It looks like students are going to be facing a difficult time in the job market as the financial downturn continues to take its toll on graduate job vacancies and training programmes. Although the majority of my students graduating this year have fared quite well, those coming through behind them are growing anxious about their chances in an increasingly competitive market.
Some of them feel very challenged by the new business environment; this is hardly unexpected given that they have not seen economic conditions like this during their lifetime. Since the early 1990s, by and large, they have only experienced economic growth. Some of them are starting to realise that the old strategies for getting good employment may not be enough.
In the past, it has never really been the case that being awarded a good degree would inevitably lead to a good job. For a long time, employers have looked for other attributes and activities that convince them that their prospective employee is a rounded person, not narrowly focussed on academic activity alone – that they are capable of working in teams, collaborating and participating in social networks. Students have long recognised this and flag up their sporting achievements or society leaderships in job applications. So what more can be done?
Students know that many employers examine the online presence of job applicants, checking them out using Google and trawling social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. They can see this as a negative process where an embarrassing photo from years ago might be held against them. And in some cases that is so! This can put students off participating in social media, which is unfortunate, because it could be the very thing they need to set them apart from the crowd.
Instead of shying away from online presence, students should, as a bare minimum, have a well-managed online identity that says a lot about their professional potential. A well-designed blog or Facebook site that is rigorously maintained is a good start. But there’s more to it than that. The real power of social media can be seen when it is used not just to join or maintain existing networks, but instead when it is used to create new value.
Students need to be proactive, using social networking sites to rapidly build new networks with high quality connections in organisations or industries they might want to enter. They need to use sites such as Twitter to take advantage of breaking news and current issues to create energy and develop activities in real time: build up a project, set up a charity venture, connect with others on-line who have similar interests, as things are actually happening.
In doing so, they can build up a buzz about themselves, and generate a community of interest in who they are and what they are doing. In showing that they are agile and ahead of the curve, they might create a compelling case for someone to create an opening for them, or make that all-important phone call or connection.
Creating the future – how should we teach social media?
March 4th, 2009
We met our guest blogger and academic Lorraine Warren at a Twestival event recently and had one of those energizing sessions where people who haven’t met before find common cause and bounce scores of ideas off each other. We couldn’t leave it there and asked Dr Warren if she would write a post for our blog – happily she agreed and brings just a few of her key thoughts on social media to this first of, we hope, many entries. Dr Warren is Director of Postgraduate Education and Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton.
I really love the teaching side of life as an academic in the innovation and new technology field. The real driver for me is that students will go out into the world ready to play a part in shaping new futures, not just reacting to what’s already going on around them. I want them to se
e beyond the management of decline, retreat and recession, and instead look ahead to creating value and change around them, to become thought leaders, and to build new futures and opportunities.
As I’m always saying, disruptive innovation creating new markets is always a possibility, but it’s unlikely you’ll get there on your own. You can’t know everything yourself, you have to bring together ideas from a wide range of sources – that’s what open innovation is about.
To me using, the internet is a big part of looking outside what I’m doing today and thinking ahead to what might happen tomorrow – keeping an eye on thought leaders through the use of social media spaces like Twitter, the blogosphere and Facebook, as well as basic stuff like a library of decent RSS feeds: not to get through the day on current projects, but to check out the periphery, to check out what people who think like I do – and more importantly, what people who don’t think like I do are up to.
To build that up in class, I asked my students recently how many of them used Twitter, wrote blogs themselves, or checked out key bloggers, kept RSS feed libraries, or used something like Facebook to create value in some way beyond parties or the social. Very few hands went in the air, despite all the talk of Generation Y!
Later on, disappointed with this cold start, I asked one of the students, Chris Hughes, why this was. In his opinion, people were just so busy getting on with the needs of the day, and their degree, that they just didn’t see the value right now. Things like MySpace and Facebook came and went out of social fashion, and often weren’t used well, getting clogged up with proliferations of spam and poor quality contacts – and then of course, abandoned.
Ok, not a scientific survey, but still a bit worrying if as educators and influencers we automatically assume that everyone is just getting on with this stuff. I know some new courses are grasping the media and marketing part of this nettle, but that’s not the whole answer for me.
I need to think how to bring this kind of futures thinking more into the assessment process, to focus attention, and get away from using the internet purely as an information resource and basic comms device. Practising what I preach – any ideas out there?
Moving mobile social networks beyond MySpace and Facebook
November 12th, 2008
A lively time in Wardour Street last night at the Chinwag event on mobile social networks with feisty (and drink-enabled) characters in the audience providing a testing warm up for the expert panel and chair Bena Roberts (GoMo News).
When things settled (departure of character with the Voice of Reason), it soon became clear at the MoSo Rising gathering that while there are no stellar new performers in the space, with established marques like MySpace and FaceBook leading the charge into always-connected social spaces, there are many positive signs.
Right now though start-up and niche mobile-only social networks are wrestling with the best revenue models, with white-label services a winning play at the moment, as ads and subscriptions largely fail to deliver.
More pressing for many agencies and PRs on the night was the need for clarity on how best to advise companies interested but fearful of mobile/social web. Panellist Alfie Dennen, CEO Moblog, suggested that brands and agencies need to think in more inclusive way, and embrace mobile as part of the communications mix, in much the same way that broadcasters have.
Harry Blunden. Head of digital at ?WhatIf! Digital advised that all agencies
should have at least one mobile savant - the one who could read the current mobile terrain and map out the potential for clients. He and other panel members all felt that many agencies did not understand Mobile but needed to embrace it.
Ron Shelton. CEO Next2Friends also urged agencies to encourage client to experiment with Mobile now, educating them away from the fear of the platform.
The view from the panellists, not necessarily shared by everyone in the Slug and Lettuce, was that digital agencies don’t yet get the mobile space and that a focussed education programme was needed to pull agencies into the new age with clients still very reluctant to put money into mobile.
A positive view on the development of the mobile/social web came from the floor as Conor McKenna, business development manager at mobile search company Taptu who said that growing numbers of people leading quite disconnected working lives used mobile web and social networks to communicate and engage and as a form of escapism.
Bena Roberts added how Polish workers she had met were addicted to social networks on mobile as this was all they had to keep connected with their social groups.
And in Hungary, people in villages who had not heard of broadband were using their mobiles as web/social media access tools.
The key messages I took away from a thoughtful evening were that MoSo is only just starting as is going to be a greater part of the mobile, always connected web with massive opportunities for all the players: operators, service providers, brands and agencies. While “always on” mobile is maybe 5-10 years away, there are great opportunities for brands to engage with their customers and for agencies to build business.
At the moment, brands can harness Mobile by playing to its current strengths, keeping it simple and direct but also thinking creatively about how to use the at present limited functionality. It’s not just about delivering ads and brand messages one way.
And the simple questions for agencies and brands to ask around Mobile: “What do we want users to do? How do we create real value that engages?”
The Hoff sees the value of social networking
August 18th, 2008
The Hoff might the brunt of many jokes but he obviously takes his social media very seriously -
His Myspace profile says,
Hi Guys! I have started my own social network and website. HoffSpace, located at www.davidhasselhoff.com. This is my new and official home. I won’t be interacting much more on MySpace, so come on over and join the fun on HoffSpace. It’s fun and safe. Peace,
David
To check out his new offing Hoffspace click here.
The site itself seemed a bit bland to me, and I would have liked to see more associated colours, e.g. the red and yellow of Baywatch and of course the black of Knight Rider!
Another thing that struck me was the level of links going to the Hoffs product range of posters and gifts - hence the VALUE in my title.
Check out this official poster, he looks like a reincarnation of the joker.
Along with the Andy Murry on Twitter story it seems like celebrities and are starting to realise how powerful social media techniques and tools can be. Hopefully marketing managers will catch on too!
November 22nd, 2007
Check out this hilarious Frank Sinatra take on social media.
Just remember, 10,000 friends ain’t no rat pack!
Google strikes back with OpenSocial
November 2nd, 2007
Google has announced that MySpace and Bebo are onboard with its OpenSocial platform, which promotes a common set of standards for software developers.
The OpenSocial network already includes Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning and the blogging network SixApart, as well as the software makers Oracle and SalesForce.com. It gives developers access to a standard software kit that will allow their applications such as games, video players and photo albums to work across multiple social networks.
Google says it has invited other social networks, including Facebook, to participate in the spirit of openness.
Facebook showed the way forward by opening up part of its code to encourage the multitude of applications that are evident on its network today. It has replied by saying that Facebook will respond to Google’s invitation once it has had a chance to evaluate the OpenSocial network.
I think it’s safe to say that beyond ‘openness’ -OpenSocial represents Google’s ambition to sell more advertising on participating sites, similar to the $900 million advertising partnership it already has with MySpace.
Microsoft took a small but expensive stake in Facebook to secure ad rights just last week, but if OpenSocial is successful, Google could really mop up the ad opportunities in social networks. Furthermore, if Facebook does decide to join the OpenSocial movement, it could set up a battle of the heavyweights with Microsoft and Google rubbing noses on Facebook.
Whatever the motive, Facebook are still sitting pretty, enjoying being courted by the big boys.
The BBC has the full story.
Technorati tags: opensocial, google, myspace, facebook, bebo, microsoft, social+networks
October 8th, 2007
The blogosphere is a wonderful place for circulating rumours, and today news that Facebook is looking to launch an artist platform to compete with MySpace is spreading like wildfire.
According to reports, the social network is planning to integrate with iTunes enabling users to buy music through the Apple store, as well as offering special profiles and widgets for bands wishing to promote their music and tour dates within the Facebook interface.
However, according to NME.com, counter-rumours are claiming that Facebook is infact planning to launch a competitor to iTunes.
Music has always been a great differentiator for MySpace, and Facebook has a big challenge ahead if it wishes to seriously compete in this space.
However, should it prove successful at securing an exclusive album launch, along the lines of the Radiohead initiative last week, then the tables could turn more quickly than we think.
I’ll keep my ear to the ground and let you know if I hear more!
Technorati tags: facebook, myspace, music, nme, itunes, apple, radiohead