How much is Facebook worth?

This article raises some important questions.  Would you invest in Facebook if it were to be privately traded?  What if it goes the way as mySpace or some other hospice-residing, has-been technology.  I’m sure dot matrix printers were all the rage when they were introduced, but they had little staying power in a setting where technologies are constantly becoming outdated and replaced.

The example of dot matrix printers is a good one, as I argue the companies that manufactured dot matrix printers sold them like hot cakes, and then moved on to the next generation of printers and did fine financially - which would be my qualm about Facebook: It doesn’t manufacture anything; it isn’t a tangible item; and it doesn’t rally host any product or service (compared to a Web site with a function, such as TD Ameritrade or eBay or Craigslist or Travelocity, et al.).

Facebook is user-generated pages filled with information and pictures and movies and such - where is the value in Facebook - other than communication, networking and data-mining - and more importantly, does Facebook have staying power? What would Facebook have to do to stay relevant for a sustained amount of time?

2011 (#)
19/Jan
Permalink
Posted at 11:10pm

A couple funny entries from the Fake AP Stylebook

Pay wall - Method used by newspapers and other publications to keep online readership down to low, manageable levels.

Citizen journalism - a good way to save $25,000 on an editor for the online edition.

Permalink
Posted at 10:41pm

Keep blogging

If you keep blogging diligently, good things could happen?

1 note
Permalink
Posted at 10:18pm

A study of Twitter

I hope we can find more useful ways to use Twitter in this class.

Also, isn’t this stuff free to use (with reasonable expectation of data-mining)?

I agree there needs to be an analysis of news judgment (why is this in the ‘Entertainment’ section, ABC?).

Permalink
Posted at 10:12pm

The power of Facebook

This is an interesting story about how quickly news can spread around the internets (not to mention what you should & shouldn’t post, although it sounds as if this teen was crying out for help and perhaps wanted to get caught).

Maura told me about a “This American Life” podcast that covers a similar topic.  Here it is, “The Right To Remain Silent.”

Here is another cautionary tale of Facebooking gone wrong.

This college needed a Facebook intervention.

When using foursquare, be smart about it.

More trouble with getting fired for FB updates/Tweets

Permalink
Posted at 10:06pm

This is a gallery of photos I took on my iPhone during the winter ‘10-‘11.

2011 (#)
18/Jan
Permalink
Posted at 11:41am
This is a photo of Rose Hill Cemetery in Evansville, Indiana.  I live in the house, which you see in the background, with my mother and 12-year-old German Shepherd.  We have been the sextants, or caretakers, of the cemetery since 2007.  I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, but my ma moved back to Evansville, her hometown, a few years after my parents divorced; now I split my time between Chicago & Evansville. High-res

This is a photo of Rose Hill Cemetery in Evansville, Indiana.  I live in the house, which you see in the background, with my mother and 12-year-old German Shepherd.  We have been the sextants, or caretakers, of the cemetery since 2007.  I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, but my ma moved back to Evansville, her hometown, a few years after my parents divorced; now I split my time between Chicago & Evansville.

2011 (#)
13/Jan
Permalink
Posted at 1:09pm

I posted this video to raise awareness about The Exponent, Purdue’s daily independent student newspaper.

Once a semester, The Exponent hosts a callout for all to attend.  The Exponent hires not only writers, copy editors & photographers, but also Web designers, graphic artists, videographers, advertising representatives, and board members.

I have worked at The Exponent since 2007 and have regretted nothing except that I didn’t join in 2006.  The callout is at 6 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2011, in EE 129.

Permalink
Posted at 12:52pm

The President and The First Lady led a moment of silence this week for the lives affected by the shooting massacre at a Tuscon, Arizona, grocery over the weekend.  The attack targeted Blue-Dog U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, in yet another attack on a political leader in our nation’s turbulent history.  The shooter’s motivations are under scrutiny.

I chose this video because I thought a moment of silence was more dignified a way to honor the fallen of this rampage than another speech challenging the nation to come together, forget our differences and all that.  Good work, Obamas.

Permalink
Posted at 11:39am

A C-SPAN producer talks about a new service on C-SPAN’s Web site allowing folks to listen to audio recordings of presidential phone calls from presidential libraries.  From C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But hey, it was new media 13 years ago, right?)

Permalink
Posted at 11:35am
Played 0 times

Our Podcast. Enjoy

2010 (#)
26/Oct
Permalink
Posted at 12:15pm

Photo Galleries

I really liked the landscape shots in this Newsweek gallery.  It’s called “100 places to remember before they disappear” written by Fareed Zakaria and filled with photos from Getty. Check it out.

I thought this photo gallery was interesting from the Courier & Press, a Scripps publication in Evansville, Indiana (also my current hometown).  The photos are solid, but the most intersting part about it is that it has a feature in the photo gallery where users can rate the gallery as a whole out of five stars and can rate individual photos out of five stars.  I guess it is the newspaper’s way of getting reader feedback on what readers are looking for in a photo gallery.

2010 (#)
25/Oct
Permalink
Posted at 9:57pm

What an age in which we live

Mashable has an article up called “5 ways to get a job through YouTube.”  I think it’s pretty interesting the all-over-the-place nature of these tips; Mashable recommends being very impressive in a business sense or just being Justin Bieber.  It sounds easy to get a job through YouTube.  Check it out.

Permalink
Posted at 9:03pm

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird of Washington, D-District 3, shared his views on the discourse and rhetoric around terrorism earlier this week.  In this clip he asks fundamental questions about the definition and justification for terrorism and calls out those who use rhetoric for political gains when it comes to complex issues, calling out former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich by name.  It is a very interesting lecture, and while the whole thing is over three hours long, this is an interesting introduction on the topic.

His speech, anyway, reminded me of when comedian Bill Maher was fired from the ABC Network, where he used to host the late night talk show “Politically Incorrect,” for remarks he made about the 9/11 hijackers, saying the hijackers shouldn’t be called cowards because standing up and dying for a cause, in this case flying an airplane into a building, required something other than cowardice.

Baird even remarks on comitting political suicide for asking if there is another perspective than the “us vs. them/good vs. evil” viewpoint of terrorism.

2010 (#)
14/Oct
Permalink
Posted at 11:10pm

The Curious Case of Shirley Sherrod

I remember when the Shirley Sherrod story broke over the summer.  I was working that day and listening to the news on satellite radio.  A story broke that a USDA employee had been accused of racism and subsequently fired – the talking heads applauded the move, supporting that there is no room for racism anywhere, let alone in our government.

However, as more details unfolded, such as the video demonstrating her purported racism being a number of years old (before Sherrod even worked for the USDA, but rather for the state of Georgia); the video having been edited (or at least having been cut short); and Sherrod having been fired as quickly as possible (saying herself on the cable news circuit the next day that she was made to pull to the side of the road while driving back to Washington and resign over the phone, apparently to resolve the issue before the afternoon pundits hit the airwaves).

It demonstrated the power, and fear of that power at the hands of our government, of afternoon cable shows and talk radio.  What this instance showed as much as that is the power one blogger can have.  From just Andrew Breitbart’s one blog post, within hours his video had gone viral and had become a sensational news topic that is still talked about now, months after the fact due to the gravity and severity of the incident.

Even though the truth came out that this video had been used outside of context and without the full document having been shown, the power of one blogger was demonstrated.

Permalink
Posted at 9:53pm

Things I like

Pages