Latest WebPub Video Now Online

The latest WebPub Presentation is now available from MIT TechTV and you can download a copy of the presentation slides (pdf). Thanks again to Chris Klaehn and Ryan Evans from Corey McPherson Nash for a great presentation on Social Media!

Video hosted on MIT TechTV

Video posted: Web Apps with Jared Spool

The video from our last WebPub meeting is now online at TechTV and iTunes. Due to some technical difficulties the recording starts a few seconds in to Jared’s presentation, however I’m sure you’ll find the content extremely enjoyable! Many thanks to the MIT HyperStudio and IS&T for sponsoring the podcast.

Here’s the summary of the topic covered:

Web Apps: The Collision of Design and Business with Jared Spool
Who has the best practices for web app design and what do they do to make world-class applications? Jared will share the latest research in the techniques and methodologies that can make a huge difference.

Average teens don’t use Twitter

An interesting post on Teens and what they think/use for social media networks.  Some information is just about teens themselves, but worth a read for the Twitter info…

I was surprised to find that email is deader than ever among teens. As more of their parents and teachers are getting on Facebook (or MySpace), they see little reason to email with anyone. Thus, email is increasingly needed for having an account on various sites and for getting access to or sending attachments. But even when teens do use email for “work”, they do not use it for social purposes.

…Many teens have ZERO interest in interacting with teachers on social network sites, but there are also quite a few who are interested in interacting with SOME teachers there. Still, this is primarily a social space and their interactions with teachers are primarily to get more general advice and help. In some ways, its biggest asset in the classroom is the way in which its not a classroom tool and not loaded this way. Given that teens don’t Friend all of their classmates, there are major issues in terms of using this for groupwork because of boundary issues.

…They don’t use Twitter. When asked, teens always say that they’ll use their preferred social network site (or social media service) FOREVER as a sign of their passion for it now. If they expect that they’ll “grow out of it”, it’s a sign that the service is waning among that group at this very moment. So they’re not a good predictor of their own future usage.

…Do they really care about/use school library websites? Twitter? Pageflakes? Libguides? or only if teacher insists?

Nope, they don’t. All but Twitter are categorized as school tools and are only used when absolutely necessary and Google won’t suffice.

Tinker – a Twitter Events Firehose

I liked this TechCrunch article on a new company called Tinker,

“..a persistent search for multiple keywords on Twitter. Each Event is associated with one or more terms, which Tinker then searches for across all Tweets and presents in a single stream. For example, a Tinker Event for March Madness might present tweets that included the terms ‘NCAA’, ‘Basketball’, and ‘Final Four’…”

“..After creating an Event, users can share the event’s feed using an embeddable widget, which they can place on their webpage or blog. These widgets allow users to both view the feed of an event and to submit their own messages, which can then be sent to Twitter and eventually sites like Facebook and FriendFeed. From an advertising perspective the widgets are also appealing, as they allow brands to pick out ‘trusted’ streams (for example, one with tweets only pertaining to the Oscars) that they’d like their ads to appear next to. Tinker will also post feeds created by trusted partners on its homepage, allowing the most established events to get more traction.”

Social media isn’t a cure-all

I loved reading this post from Ron Bronson about using 2.0 wisely in communicating your message:

Most view their web sites as a tool to recruit new students and perhaps to reach out to alumni and the public at large. What they’ve not be able to understand, is how to communicate to these very different audiences using all of the mediums at their disposal, without compromising their message.

The web is nimble and other mediums are not. The web is immediate, it’s fast and yet, if you’re not clear about who you’re trying to reach and target the message to that audience, it can be even more ineffective than anything else you do (print, radio, TV, etc.) and it’ll reach them and turn them off faster than ever.