Rachel Metz is the IT editor of MIT Technology Review.  She specifically reviews things related to web and social media.  For 5 years, Rachel has served as a reporter in the technology industry at the Associated Press.  She’s also written freelance for the New York Times about technology and crime.  Rachel isn’t just a reporter, she’s also a hacker.  In 2003, she discovered a security hole in Palo Alto Unified School District’s wireless network.  She was able to see sensitive and confidential information about student’s records.  Since then, Rachel has been hooked on technology and writing about it.

In a recent article, Rachel discusses a new app called by Google called Ingress which is available on Android.  The Augmented Reality game requires players to join either the resistance or enlightenment.  Once on a team, players must “hack” portals which are located by points of interest within a city.  These can be something like a landmark, statue, or plaque.  Players can also link portals and create a territory for their team.  The game requires players to physically be at the location and get outside and explore their town.

A new Augmented Reality games fuses reality and video games.

When I first read this article, it reminded me of Harajuku Fun Madness from Little Brother.  Marcus and his friends played a game that would force teams of players to actually go on a scavenger hunt in the real world.  It also made me think of the monitoring the DHS would do based on people’s clipper cards and Fastraks.  Like the DHS, Google is probably also tracking user’s information and data.  While in Marcus’ world this information was used to breach privacy, this will probably be used for advertising purposes.  As users spend more time on mobile, location based advertising will likely become more and more important.  Google will most likely use the data collected to drive ads based on your location.  Let’s just hope Google is as innocent as they seem or else they Marcus’ story might become a reality.

In a recent Wired article, Ryan Tate explains how Facebook users have eliminated their own right to democracy on the network.  Ryan Tate is a senior writer for Wired and enjoys journalism, technology, and culture.  He has even released a book, The 20% Doctrine: How Tinkering, Goofing Off, and breaking the Rules at Work Drive Success in Business.

In Tate’s article, he describes the history of Facebook and the policy to make changes.  In the past, any time Facebook makes a change to the user agreement, users have the right to vote on whether or not this change happens.  Unfortunately, Facebook requires at least 30% of Facebook users to vote in order for it to be valid.  This week, Facebook let users vote on whether or not a vote is required for future changes.  The majority of voters voted against this; however, 30% of the Facebook population did not vote so it was not counted.

Facebook has taken away the right for users to vote on upcoming changes.

While I think it is unfortunate that Facebook users have lost the “democracy” the social network once had, I do not agree that there ever was a democracy there.  In the past, no Facebook vote has ever had 30% of users vote.  It has never even come close to being 30%.  I believe this isn’t a coincidence.  Facebook does very little to publicize such voting events.  For everything else, Facebook isn’t afraid to pull out all the stops to publicize something.  I believe this is a way to take away users opinions while being able to put the blame on users.  I think the future will hold a lot of interesting changes on Facebook, and they probably won’t be benefiting users.

The article, The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions, discusses the role Twitter played in the 2011 rebellions.  The authors, Gilad Lotan, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce and Danah Boyd researched and wrote the article.  In this article, the researchers gather public tweets for 2 weeks in January of 2011.    The data was then categorized and examined based on context such as whether the person posting was an activist, journalist, celebrity, etc.  

The Twitter breakdown by category of users.

Twitter’s Role

Twitter emerged as a key source for real-time logistical coordination, information, and discussion among people, both within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and across the globe. This was especially true in Tunisia, where, prior to the uprisings, few mainstream media organizations had a formal presence or staff.

 The researchers concluded that most people involved in the social media conversations about the topic fell into 3 categories.

1) People directly connected to the incident

2) MSM that wanted to update with live coverage

3) Interested readers

 It seems to me that Twitter was not the cause of the rebellions, but the catalyst that helped organize rebels.  By examining how Twitter was utilized, we are able to better understand social media conversation and the role it plays in modern journalism.  The researchers described the modern shift in journalism and the users that spread it:

If, historically, objectivity has represented an ideal that a story or piece of information stands on its own regardless of the reporter, our data suggest that, within these Twitter networks, individual journalists were sometimes more effective disseminators of information than organizations.

 

Egypt 2011

Jakob Nielsen in a web usability consultant with a Ph. D. in human-computer interaction.  He attended the Tecnical University of Denmark.  Nielsen worked at Sun Microsystems where he focused on developing standards for web usability.  Nielsen currently writes a newsletter available for free called Alertbox.

In How Users read on the Web, Nielsen mentions that most internet users do not even read word by word.  The majority, skim and scan the page.  Nielsen also covers important tips to have a useful site.  One of these suggestions is having high quality graphics so users find the site to be a reputable source.

In F Shaped Pattern for Reading, Nielsen talks about the standard habit of user’s scanning.  Typically, readers scan the article in a pattern resembling an F shape.  Several studies have tracked user’s habits and found these to be universally true.

Website users read in a F shaped pattern

Henry Jenkins is a professor at USC, instructing Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts.  Jenkins often researches and discusses the intersection of media and pop culture.  He has also authored 12 books on this topic.  Jenkins also works on projects such as the New Media Literacies, which prepares students working with new media.

Henry Jenkins III, Author and Professor

In a blog from 2007, Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube, Jenkins discusses the place YouTube holds in the current culture.  He describes YouTube as a new way to capture and share things that might not have otherwise been spread.  He also finds YouTube as a place where amateurs can become newscasters.  He also discusses the voice behind these videos and ways of expression.  Jenkins mentioned the You in YouTube might not necessarily echo the ideas of a single person, but rather the collaborative cultural community.    Of the nine propositions set by Jenkins, his fourth point resonated with me:

YouTube’s value depends heavily upon its deployment via other social networking sites — with content gaining much greater visibility and circulation when promoted via blogs, Live Journal, MySpace, and the like. While some people come and surf YouTube, it’s real breakthrough came in making it easy for people to spread its content across the web. In that regard, YouTube represents a shift away from an era of stickiness (where the goal was to attract and hold spectators on your site, like a roach motel) and towards an era where the highest value is in spreadability (a term which emphasizes the active agency of consumers in creating value and heightening awareness through their circulation of media content.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2yt1ooLQGo

This point that Jenkins discusses reminded me of the UPular remix created by Disney Pixar.  This video has spread across the web for years now and was part of the advertising for the movie Up.  The company put money into creating a video that doesn’t focus on the trailer or plot of the movie, but rather a video that has the power to go viral.  This kind of viral marketing has become popular by advertisers and is becoming a more and more important factor as a way to expose products in today’s world.

Lawrence Lessig is an author of several books discussing copyright law and a professor from Harvard University.  In Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, Lessig discusses copyright laws and how current technology has changed the way these laws should work.

Lessig breaks our society into two cultures –Read-Only and Read/Write.   The first group, Read-Only, resembles the model created by iTunes.  This model keeps the digital rights to the creator and requires the music to be purchased.  The second group, Read/Write, describes people that remix works.  Lessig mentions bloggers as large proponents of this culture.  The issue with our current state is that the majority of people are Read-Only.  In order to be literate, someone must be able to read and write.  Because our culture and copyright laws are so outdated, we are headed to a time when users become more and more illiterate with less emphasis on “creating”.  I found  a TED talk with Lessig where he further describes his points.

Larry Lessig: TED Talk

Engadget is a blog that posts reviews on technology, companies, and gadgets.  My favorite thing about Engadget is the consistency and how up to the minute the posts are.