WeSeePeople

Friday, November 30, 2007

Cisco I-Prize, Brings Social Networking, collaboration and teleconferencing together For Super Prize.

Go for your I-Prize, the story itself is a prize. Teleconferencing, social networks from multiple countries bringing together people to form a human network and a super prize.
WeSeePeople: Cisco I-Prize, Social Networking At One Of It's Best Forms.

Cisco I-Prize, Social Networking At One Of It's Best Forms.

I was at a Cisco Blog and I noticed the information about Cisco I-Prize. Cisco I-Prize is created by Cisco knowing that our global community is an amazing resource of creativity and innovation, socially networked brain, sort of. So Cisco going out side of it's corporate walls and accessing this Human Network to identify its next major business opportunity. So bring your brain and join with other excellent ones to win the I-Prize. But before you submit your idea, taking into consideration what problems it addresses, how it's new and different, and who comprises your target market. It must also appeal to the others that are joining the groups.
There are three phases to the program,
Phase I: Brainstorm = October 31, 2007 to January 15, 2008 Innovators register and submit ideas and summary proposals. Other registered participants comment and vote on submissions. Find like-minded innovators and form your dream idea team.
Phase II: Refine = February 1 to 29, 2008 Semifinalist teams collaborate to build their business and technology plan. Define the market opportunity, technology and unique insights that will make this a business.
Phase III: Present = March 15 to April 30, 2008 Finalist teams present their business plans to the final judging panel of industry luminaries and Cisco senior executives using Cisco TelePresence to communicate your ideas, your passion, and your drive.

As teams advance through the phases, the Cisco I-Prize program will ask for more specific information and provide templates for structuring your pitches and business plans.


Cisco will select up to 100 semifinalist teams that will work with Cisco experts using state-of-the-art collaboration tools to build a business plan and presentation. Next, up to 10 finalist teams will present to a judging panel for the ultimate prize: the opportunity to start a new business unit with access to the resources that Cisco has to offer.
Go Get your I-Prize.
Cisco Blog post.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

New NASDAQ Internet Index (sm) is Up For Takes

Although they announced yesterday the new NASDAQ Internet Index (sm) they seem to keep the list hidden. I gave up yesterday after searching for it. I just wanted to see if all the social networking sites are on the list.

But today I found the list, no let me say I found someone who located the list!(Trader Mike), and yes the companies I expected are there but Microsoft is not there!, 1-800 FLOWERS.COM, Inc. starts the list and Yahoo ends it! (China Fire & Security Group, Inc. is listed! may be a block and burn is an Internet access in China.) Following is the News release and now to find out how to get WeSeePeople to that list.


NEW YORK, Nov. 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced it has launched the NASDAQ Internet Index(sm) (Nasdaq:QNET). The Index is a new benchmark designed to track the performance of companies engaged in a broad range of internet-related services including internet access providers, internet search engines, web hosting, website design, and internet retail commerce.

The NASDAQ Internet Index is comprised of securities of companies that are at the forefront of internet technology. They are leading innovators in providing faster internet access, creating more intuitive e-commerce experiences, and developing the second generation Web.

"The NASDAQ Internet Index contains some of the most exciting internet companies traded on NASDAQ and other U.S. exchanges," said NASDAQ Senior Vice President Steven Bloom. "Given the strength of NASDAQ's brand association with innovation and its market share of internet company listings, it is logical for NASDAQ to extend investment opportunities through a new benchmark for this dynamic, evolving sector."

NASDAQ Financial Products (NFP) is engaged in the design, development, calculation, licensing, and marketing of NASDAQ indexes. NFP specializes in the development of indexes focusing on NASDAQ's brand themes of innovation, technology, growth, and globalization. NFP also provides custom index services and design solutions as a third-party provider to selected financial organizations. For more information about NASDAQ's indexes, visit www.nasdaq.com/indexes.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Presidential Race 2.0


ABC News and facebook getting together to injecting a Web 2.0 twist to the 2008 race for the White House. This might be filed under Presidential Race 2.0 in the Politics 2.0 section!.

The two organizations have developed an application called "U.S. Politics", (to find the application, search for "US Polotics" once logged into facebook) a child of Facebook technology and editorial content from ABC News. This will provide facebook users new ways to learn about and debate issues of importance in the upcoming primary and national elections, and actually this might bring otherwise reluctant young voters to the front.

More at ABC News.

OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, Give one Get One Program Extended


The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) givw one get one program has been extended until the end of December. Think of this as a good Xmas Gift, to you and someone. Might change a life of some child(ren) somewhere, making ours a better world.
WeSeePeople: OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, is a Social PC

Sunday, November 25, 2007

MySpace Teen's Suicide Spurs Anti-Cyberbullying Law

A Missouri town has passed a law to prevent cyber bulling in response to last year's suicide of 13-year-old school girl Megan Meier after receiving intentionally hurtful messages on MySpace. The new law passed for Megan is prompting awareness of the need for stronger state and federal laws to stop cyberbullying and online harassment.
More than a year ago, in October 2006, a 13-year-old school girl named Megan Meier hanged herself in her home in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri. An investigation initially revealed that Meier, who had long battled depression, committed suicide after receiving some cruel messages on the MySpace.com social networking site. The messages were supposedly from a 16-year-old acquaintance named Josh Evans.
But then the case took a dramatic twist. It turned out that "Josh Evans" did not exist -- he was allegedly the invention of a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of another girl with whom Meier had been fighting. Law enforcement authorities contend that Drew created the online profile to communicate with and harass Meier online.
But there was no case law to try Drew. But the allegation, and lack of action, has bewildered and enraged America. Virtual vigilantism has taken over. Irate bloggers have posted details of Drew and her husband Curt, 51, on the internet identifying their home and telephone number and details of their jobs, his as a manager in a local factory, hers as an ad saleswoman.
But again, there might be a law cowering this kind of behavoir, Parry Aftab, an Internet privacy lawyer and executive director of WiredSafety.org, notes one federal statute that might apply in the Meier case: the telecommunications harassment law. The law, amended in 2005, prohibits people from using the Internet anonymously with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person. Terri Dougherty, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in St. Louis, declined to comment on whether prosecutors could apply the statute in the case.
News Source

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Socialise, Aid And Learn At The Same Time.

Today I came across a site called FreeRice. FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com, and FreeRice has two goals:

  1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
  2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
The latter is provided by having unobtrusive advertisements on the site. I played today and made someone get 3000 grains of rice. I am sure I will go back. One thing that lacks in my educational life is that I learned languages just enough for learning physics. I do not think I ever liked the language classes. But I like languages, I can speak/read at least four languages, understand and read as many. These languages are not only European, but languages like Japanese, Sanskrit. Anyway I always have need to write better and communicate better. This could be done only by learning and having a better vocabulary at hand. So I think FreeRice is a good place to learn and make someone bellyful.
Learning new vocabulary has tremendous benefits. It can help you:
  • Formulate your ideas better
  • Write better papers, emails and business letters
  • Speak more precisely and persuasively
  • Comprehend more of what you read
  • Read faster because you comprehend better
  • Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
  • Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
  • Perform better at job interviews and conferences
  • Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
  • Be more effective and successful at your job
So How many grains are you going to give? Please visit FreeRice and find out.

Is social media disrupting virtually all institutions including business, government, education and the media? EBE07 Question

Shel Israel was asked this question by an attendee of EB07, Evento Blog Espana 2007, keynote speech. But he could not answer because of language barrier. But Shel was explained about the question later and he answered it in his blog. I could not agree more.
If you were wondering why big business' are barking up your tree, reading his post;
My unanswered question at EBE07 might give a short but truthful answer.
Shel is the co-Author of
Naked Conversations, one of my reference books on Social Networking.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

VOIP IP Telephony: Skype and facebook Helps to nab Murder Suspect

Social Networking and VoIP IP Telephony helps to keep law!
VOIP IP Telephony: Skype and facebook Helps to nab Murder Suspect

Facebook Beacon Lets Your Secrets Out

Last night I saw a small TV news clip about facebook and it's new advertising beacon. It involved a couple, a boy and his girl friend, both facebook members. The boy already knew what his girl friend bought him as a Hanukkah gift, a pair of gloves.
She got the present from overstock and through facebook beacon he knew what she bought, where and of course the price she paid!. The surprise factor was certainly lost.
Moral of the story is that advertising 2.0 may not sit well with all the people. So facebook need to some cleaning up of the it's beacon.
Perhaps better to start with how about the beacon is off unless the user turns it on. Or, allow user to mark which purchase is private and which is not!. Whatever the case, find a solution. Otherwise advertising 2.0 might fall on it face!

Monday, November 19, 2007

OpenSocial in Use, one, Newsgator Puts OpenSocial to Use

Although the buzz and hum about OpenSocial from Google is lesser that on it's inetption, it is very much alive. Various Sites are putting it to use or planing innovative ways to make use of it. Noticed first of its use, at Newsgator.
FEEDoTopia: Newsgator Puts OpenSocial to Use

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Social Networking, An Academic Insight, "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship"

The social network phenomenon, that brought out sites like facebook, Mixi , and MySpace, and many other interactive social networks like DIGG, Technorati have been one of the major features of WEB 2.0. If you to dig deep in to the technologies , it is easy to find that those had roots in the academic world. But now that these sites have involved the human factor in to otherwise equations and thesis', those same sites are attracting a lot of academic interest. I found this article on JCMC, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship", by School of Information, University of California-Berkeley and Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, Michigan State University.

Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship

Abstract

Social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena. In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition. We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments. After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research.

Hope Some one, no many will get something out of this for their thesis. I can't because mine no where social able,it is in Particle Physics.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, is a Social PC

I am going to mark this post because, I have a feeling that in near future, OLPC is all over the world, it's own social network that will span nations. Yes I know you like your MySpace (is it yours?) or facebook and says who wants a OLPC Social Network. But When the OLPC Phenomenon started there were many big boys and girls laughed at MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte. But see where it is today. Prof. Negroponte's project was not taken seriously because it was not targeted to make profit, it was born out of the idea of providing a communication and study medium for children from developing countries. I have been a supporter from the beginning and also ever since I have been blogging, the latest being the introduction of Give One Get One. The oldest I think was this one, Hand Cranked Notebook!


But now I would like to tell about the social aspect of the OPLC program and the laptop itself. Right out of the box, the XO laptop’s antennae ears can sense other neighboring XO laptops and connect to them, creating an instantaneous “mesh” network for communal sharing and collaborating. This is important because many XO laptops will be deployed in places where there is little or no external telecommunication infrastructure. If the school or community center in the future has ability to host a supporting a infrastructure or a large one nearby one day that will be able to connect through a something similar to Open Broadband or WiMax network. Before you know there will be a world wide social network. But even a Village wide for starters is a gift. So do not forget to give a gift of knowledge with ability to communicate, this year. The OPLC has multiple ways that you can donate a computer to a child. More we donate, more will be manufactured and perhaps drive the price down. Making it possible to give to more children.
I just ordered my second set. Both my computers have gone to country that is not in the program yet.
give one get one
individual giving
group giving
T-Mobile has generously offered hotspot access free for one year. If you do the math (it is about $350 a year service.) , for about $50, you can give a computer to a child, have one of these fantastic computers for yourself and get one year T-Mobile Hotspot access free! Who knows you might be aiding to bring up the largest social network in the world!

Friday, November 16, 2007

InBox 2.0, your Next Social Network!

Saul Hansell at NY Times has a fine piece on turning your email personalized Portal Pages in to Social Networking medium. Google's iGoogle and MyYahoo at Yahoo has the mother load of users, I included, at both the sites.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Trugo Wants to Pay Your Tuition, $100000.00

Trugo wants to pay your college tuition! That’s right – cash for college and all you have to do is be yourself on video telling us why you deserve to win. It’s easy and fun.

The contest calls for US college students to submit a four minute video explaining why Trugo should pay their tuition. The contest launched this week with a national campus tour and live demonstrations of the Trugo website.

You simply register for free and upload a video telling us all about you, your college experience and what the future holds. There are a total of ten (10) cash scholarship prizes available to be won in the Contest as
described below:

First Prize : a cash scholarship prize of $30,000

Second Prize : a cash scholarship prize of $20,000

Third Prize : a cash scholarship prize of $15,000

Fourth through Tenth Prizes: cash scholarship prizes of $5,000 each


and Judging will be based on;

Relevancy of the Video to the Contest theme (Why should Trugo my pay college tuition and how will I use my education for my future vocational aspirations?) (33%)
Creativity of the Video Performance (33%) Originality of the Video Performance (33%)

How do you do all this?

  1. Register for a Free Trugo Account here (If you already have not done so.)
  2. Go to video.trugo.com to sign in
  3. After sign in, click on the Upload button to launch the video upload page
  4. Enter any description and tags that you want associated with your video. Please remember to check the box beside "Please Submit this Video to the Contest Website" before uploading your video
  5. Your video will be available and can be viewed and ranked from the college tab at video.trugo.com
  6. You are now ready to start garnering support from your friends and other Trugo users to rank your video

All entries must be uploaded by 11:59 PM PT on January 15, 2008 to qualify. Entries received after the close of the Contest Entry Period will be disqualified.

What are you waiting for? Submit your video for your chance to have your tuition paid for.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Bebo Unveils Open Media, For Advertising and Entertainment

Bebo, one of the strongest social networks in Europe (it is seeping in to US and other countries as well), will let brands videos advertise on site and generate ad revenues. This means additional videos and might become a challenge to niche video sites, like Joost and Babellgum.
Find the news release here.
"New York & London (PRWEB) November 13, 2007 -- Bebo, the global social network, today unveiled Open Media, a radical new vision for social media and entertainment that gives media companies free and open access to Bebo's 40 million users worldwide and the Bebo community free and open access to thousands of hours of premium entertainment content from some of the world's best known media brands."

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Studywiz Spark Launches LearnSpace for Students, Teachers and Parents

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 13--Studywiz Spark, the first and only Dynamic LearnSpace for K-12 education, today launched in the United States. It gives teachers a place to easily manage, personalize and distribute 21st Century content and curricula. Studywiz Spark offers students a place to safely explore and learn, and gives parents a place to engage in their children's education. Furthermore, it provides administrators a place to secure a return on their investments in technology and learning. Studywiz Spark is developed and marketed by Etech Group.

"As students continue to take advantage of new technologies and content, we are providing them with an environment that leverages these exciting 21st Century tools," said Bob Longo, Etech's Executive Vice President. "Forward- thinking schools recognize this need, and have expressed resounding enthusiasm for a LearnSpace that will enhance student learning in a safe and well managed context. It is also important to note that Studywiz Spark was exclusively built for K-12, with a keen understanding of their unique day-to-day challenges."

"We're very pleased with Studywiz Spark," said Jeff Mao, Coordinator of Educational Technology, Maine Learning Technology Initiative, Maine Department of Education. "Our goal is to provide our students with a collaborative place where teachers are empowered by 21st Century management tools. We believe our students are benefiting from the easy access to technology-enabled, rich content, while interacting with their peers and teachers in the safe learning environment. Our teachers are especially enthused by the system's capabilities that support student achievement, like the built-in assessment tools."

Studywiz Spark, deployed globally in more than 15 countries, including Great Britain, Australia and China, provides a place that creates an enriched learning environment for students. It helps make educational content more dynamic by enabling personalized learning, active communication and real-time assessment. Using Studywiz Spark, teachers, students and parents can take advantage of capabilities to enhance learning, including: RSS feeds, iPod synchronization, podcasts, eLockers, eBulletins, multi-media galleries, messaging, chat, discussion, online polls, testing and reporting. Studywiz Spark provides access to a Dynamic LearnSpace using any device, from any place, at any time.

"Southgate has used Studywiz Spark for two years, and it has been an amazing experience for the students, teacher and parents," said Kathleen Alessandro, parent and technology committee member for Southgate Community Schools, Mich. "No longer do the teachers need to patch together solutions - they are able to incorporate RSS feeds, podcasting, real-time polling and other multi-media components into their teaching, with one place to organize it. Parents appreciate being more in touch with their student's day-to-day educational experience through Studywiz Spark."

News at Web site: http://www.studywizspark.com/

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Is facebook Ad System Illegal?

Today a multitude of experts are telling us that facebook's advertising program, that Mark Zuckerberg equated to a revolution that ads you see on Facebook will be attached to the names and photos of your friends, the products that they like.
Well it seems that facebook will be adding stuff to your own profile in the background and create it's own Matrix that could be used help you aid you and make money off you. Could I say use you? But what ever it is, It may be illegal under a 100-year-old New York privacy law, according to NY Times Post. The statute says that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages. Moreover, such a use is also a criminal misdemeanor.
William McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School looks at it in a broader scope. I will let you go there and read it, but do not short sell your self.
Mark, change the system a bit, share the income with users, and most people will sign in if they something to gain.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Tie It All Together With TWINE.

But you got to wait!, unless you are a beta invitee. You also could register at site for an account and you might get an invite.
The Twine was introduced at WEB 2.0 last month and it is a promising venture according to what I have read so far. I do not have an invitation yet though I have asked for one already. I have done some research on Twine, 'cos I like one of my favorite VC people, Peter Rip, has to say about it.
So far I know that it is a knowledge based social experience. Other social networks or over blown address books does not contain knowledge mining. I would like to know, what I am doing, when I am planing it, while I am doing it and after I have done it. Everyday I spend most of time following above three and if there is something that would aid me, I will certainly grab hold of it!
From the about page of Twine;

In Twine you can safely share information and knowledge, and collaborate around common interests, activities and goals. Twine helps you better leverage and contribute to the collective intelligence of your network. Use Twine to share more productively with friends, colleagues, groups and teams.

Twine provides one place to tie everything together: emails, bookmarks, documents, contacts, photos, videos, product info, data records, and more. And, because Twine actually understands the meaning of any information you add in, it helps you organize all your stuff automatically. Finally, you can search and browse everything and everyone you know, about anything, in one convenient place.

You are like a snowflake – you are totally one-of-a-kind. Twine recognizes what makes you special: your unique interests, personality, knowledge and relationships, to help you find and discover things, and be found by others, more relevantly.

I will wait to find out!

The Lyceum 1.01 released

The Lyceum, Lyceum is a stand-alone mutli-user blogging application, designed for the enterprise. Utilizing the fantastic, intuitive WordPress blogging engine at its core. I have been testing using it since April Last year. Even Weseepeople started over there.
But I have deployed it in two internal projects, hosting closer to 20 blogs in each site. If you are familiar with wordpress, then this is a piece of cake, just add Multiuser to wordpress.

Get it via SVN or as a .tar.gz from the downloads page.

Report bugs and feature suggestions on trac.

Get help on the support forums, email lists, or IRC channel.


OpenSocial, Advertisements and Friends lists according to Mark Zuckerberg

Jeff Pulver has been able to witness a interview of Mark Zuckerberg by David Faber at Foursquare 2007.
Does this say something to you?
"“Why did you choose not to be a part of it?” He said “Who said we didn’t choose not to be a part of it?” “Well, we really didn’t find out about it until the end…maybe an hour after it launched…We have to see how it works and evaluate...we will evaluate what is the right thing to do…it is conceivable...if it does well, then it is something we will want to participate in.”"

I thought so as well....
Read more at Jeff's site.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Social Ads at Facebook, Coming your way tonight!

WeSeePeople News
NEW YORK — Facebook Social Advertising Event, Nov. 6, 2007 — Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg today introduced Facebook Ads, an ad system for businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want. Through Facebook Ads, these users can now learn about new businesses, brands and products through the trusted referrals of their friends.

“Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online,” Zuckerberg told an audience of more than 250 marketing and advertising executives in New York. “For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

The keynote opened the Facebook Social Advertising event, which also featured senior executives from landmark partners including Blockbuster, CBS, Chase, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Sony Pictures Television and Verizon Wireless. More than 60 major consumer and Internet brand partners were highlighted at the launch of Facebook Ads.

Today, Facebook Ads launched with three parts: a way for businesses to build pages on Facebook to connect with their audiences; an ad system that facilitates the spread of brand messages virally through Facebook Social Ads™; and an interface to gather insights into people’s activity on Facebook that marketers care about.

More than 100,000 Facebook Pages Launch Today
Zuckerberg detailed how Facebook Pages allows users to interact and affiliate with businesses and organizations in the same way they interact with other Facebook user profiles. More than 100,000 new Facebook Pages launched today covering the world’s largest brands, local businesses, organizations and bands.

“The core of every user’s experience on Facebook is their page and that’s where businesses are going to start as well,” explained Zuckerberg. “The first thing businesses can do is design a page to craft the exact experience they want people to see.”

Just like a Facebook user, businesses can start with a blank canvas and add all the information and content they want, including photos, videos, music and Facebook Platform applications. Outside developers have created a range of applications to enhance Facebook Pages, such as booking reservations or providing reviews of restaurant pages, buying tickets on a movie page or creating a custom t-shirt. Companies launching applications for Pages include Fandango, iLike, Musictoday LLC, OpenTable, SeamlessWeb, Zagat Survey LLC and Zazzle.

Distribution through the Social Graph
Advertising messages will gain distribution through what Facebook has termed the “social graph,” the network of real connections through which people communicate and share information. When people engage with a business’ Facebook Page, that action will spread information about that business through the social graph.

Users can become a fan of a business and can share information about that business with their friends and act as a trusted referral. Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page by adding reviews, writing on that business’ Wall, uploading photos and in any other ways that a business may want to enable. These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed, Facebook’s popular products that allow users to share information more efficiently with their friends.

Unique Ads with Social Actions
“Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people,” said Zuckerberg. “It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions to build a new kind of ad system.”

Facebook’s ad system serves Social Ads that combine social actions from your friends – such as a purchase of a product or review of a restaurant – with an advertiser’s message. This enables advertisers to deliver more tailored and relevant ads to Facebook users that now include information from their friends so they can make more informed decisions. No personally identifiable information is shared with an advertiser in creating a Social Ad.

Social Ads can appear either within a user’s News Feed as sponsored content or in the ad space along the left side of the site.

Insights about Brand Presence and Promotion
Facebook gives marketers valuable metrics about their presence and promotion on Facebook. Facebook Insights gives access to data on activity, fan demographics, ad performance and trends that better equip marketers to improve custom content on Facebook and adjust ad targeting. Facebook Insights is a free service for all Facebook Pages and Social Ads.

Protecting User’s Privacy
Facebook has always empowered users to make choices about sharing their data, and with Facebook Ads we are extending that to marketing messages that appear on the site. Facebook users will only see Social Ads to the extent their friends are sharing information with them.

For more information about Facebook Ads, please visit www.facebook.com/ads.

Tags: , ,

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Make Free Phone (VoIP) calls on Facebok

Tom Keating tell you about how facebook users can talk with each other anywhere in the world for free. I am going to check this out tomorrow as I need to talk to someone in Japan who is also on facebook tomorrow, which I usually do over my Asterisk servers, here and Japan. Read the whole article, free calls on facebook.

Friday, November 02, 2007

OpenSocial is Open, Come on Down!


FotoFlexer is one of the demo Apps
After writing, waiting then clicking, writing again, then clickng and waiting again, finally the API site and the OpenSocial Blog is out of the womb for all to see.
The web is better when it's social
is the first article on the blog;
"OpenSocial is a set of common APIs that will work on many different social websites, including MySpace, Hi5, Ning, orkut, and LinkedIn, among others. In addition, this allows developers to learn one API, then write a social application for any of those sites. Learn once, write anywhere, if you will. And because it's built on web standards like HTML and JavaScript, developers don't have to learn a custom programming language.

Perhaps most interestingly, we will see social capabilities move into new contexts. OpenSocial will also work in non-traditional social contexts, such as on Salesforce.com and Oracle. With a common set of APIs, it will be even easier to extend social functionality. Beyond the many fun and entertaining social applications we already have seen, we think we'll see a number of social applications emerge in business contexts.

Lastly, the web is global, and so is the scope of OpenSocial. When you add up the current websites who have committed to implementing OpenSocial, you realize that a developer building for OpenSocial has the chance to reach over 200M+ users in dozens of countries. So over the course of the next few months, we're going to continue laying the foundations of OpenSocial to enable this common dream for a more social web.

So get started today. First, sign up for the Orkut sandbox so you can begin building and testing. Next, take a look at the OpenSocial API docs. Finally, start thinking about the possibilities given all of the websites that are implementing OpenSocial."

Finally an Official News On Google MySpace and OpenSocial.

LOS ANGELES / MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. (November 1, 2007)—MySpace, the world's largest social network, and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that they are joining forces to launch OpenSocial— a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. The partnership spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications. Today's announcement underscores MySpace's commitment to supporting standards that foster innovation in an increasingly social Web.

"Our partnership with Google allows developers to gain massive distribution without unnecessary specialized development for every platform," said Chris DeWolfe, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of MySpace. "This is about helping the start-up spend more time building a great product rather than rebuilding it for every social network. We're pleased to collaborate with Google to establish a landmark standard for social applications."

As a founding member of OpenSocial, MySpace will provide critical user mass and platform guidance. The OpenSocial standards are designed to evolve through contribution from the open source community and as new features are developed by various partners. Global members of the OpenSocial community include Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

"As the most trafficked website in the country and the most popular social network in the world, MySpace is one of the leading forces in the global social Web," said Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Google. "We're thrilled to grow our strategic relationship with MySpace by joining forces on this important initiative."

"As an application developer, we're excited to see MySpace adopting the OpenSocial standard for social application development," said Joe Greenstein, CEO of Flixster. "Application developers have been working with MySpace for a long time—this takes what we can do together to a whole new level. The sheer scale of MySpace makes this extremely exciting for us."

"We're all citizens of a larger Web—no network is an island onto itself," said Aber Whitcomb, CTO of MySpace. "We look forward to continuing to develop great technology with Google and all of the OpenSocial participants. It's exciting that social networks are getting social with each other."

The launch of OpenSocial is the first release of technical details for the forthcoming MySpace Platform. Starting tonight, developers can start writing applications for OpenSocial at http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial which the MySpace Platform will support at launch.

Official Press Release


Thursday, November 01, 2007

Is Connected Home a Part of Social Networking?

Cisco SP360, Service provider Blog has a very nice article on "Connected Home", which I think has many implications on Social Networking.
Connected Home

MySpace Goes OpenSocial (Aka MySpace is in Google's Fold)

After Opening up OpenSocial APIs and getting Socail Networking websites to join, Google has scored again. This time it has got assurance that MySpace will join the consortium.
It's not entirely surprising, given that Google's ad deal with MySpace, any other business deals, if there are any, the deal is a win for Google's plan to stake out a place on the social Web as well as MySpace to hold on to the it's space against incoming onslaught from Facebook. MySpace recently made a fact with Skype too, to provide VoIP services to MySpaceIM. "OpenSocial is going to become the defacto standard for developers instantly out of the gate," MySpace cofounder Chris DeWolfe declared at a press conference at Google today.
Currently MySpace has 70 million activen users worldwide, still more than Facebook's 51 million.
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the two companies have been working together on this fact for more than a year. Most recently, Schmidt met with Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp., to seal the deal. "The Web has moved to its next stage," Schmidt says--the social Web.
Besides MySpace, other sites that have signed up for Google's OpenSocial platform include software distributor Salesforce.com and blogging software firm Six Apart, which runs TypePad and LiveJournal. Application developers who are working with OpenSocial include iLike and Slide, travel site SideStep and payment firm PayPal.

gOS and gPC comes before the OpenSocial


Post by Geemodo tells us about a gPC and gOS. VoIP IP Telephony carries desktop picture. I going to checkout the developer site known as Thin gOS.