Chatroulette's Viral Growth

We have all seen this past year how the internet has acted as a prominent vehicle for celebrity news, gossip, status updates and essentially every form of communication. It is almost as though the idea of going viral on the web, has gone viral itself. The rapid pace of social media and social networking on the internet has not slowed down, and new sites are gaining popularity through the use of others in record times. There is no speed limits on the internet, and people and sites are traveling faster and faster each day.

Over the past few months there has been massive media coverage on the new and popular site Chatroulette. This site connects people for online face to face communication by connecting webcams. The 17 year old founder of this site Andrey Ternovskiy, Said that when he first created the site he had 20 users and then all of a sudden the numbers just doubled and tripped every day. He didn't use any advertising or promotions, this was a purely organic operation, so how did this happen? Well, other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter helped to spread the word about Chatroulette. Within a few months of creating the site he had 30 million users. This is drastic! It is crazy! It took social networking sites like Facebook around three years to have 30 million uses, so i'd say three months is rather astonishing.

"These new media have made our world into a single unit. The world is now like a continually sounding tribal drum, where everybody gets the messages all the time"-- Marshall McLuhan

I think this quote is really important as it illustrates how social media has really brought people together to this massive online world (the internet) where pretty much everything can be done. News, gossip, status updates, comments, videos, online dating, online chatting.. and the list goes on. Being connected to the internet allows everyone to get the same messages all the time. This is how the popularity of the site Chatroulette grew. It is extremely rare in the OFFline world for a company or business to become so popular with no promotion or advertising. Actually i'd say its nearly impossible. But on the internet, this site was able to rapidly gain popularity through OTHER social networking sites discussing them. I think it is so fascinating, and really makes me wonder how many more companies and businesses will be posting their products and services to social networking sites. So many corporations are already on twitter, I can see a strong future for this. Everyday the internet seems to amaze me, the power of the internet is so extreme, and I feel really good about it because our generation has really been around and has prominent roles for the beginning of a lot of social networking that will only continue to develop and grow in years to come

Until Next time,

The active Citizen

March Madness on Social Media

Slam Dunk! March Madness has made quite the presence on social media so far. This month the NCAA college basketball tournament is the talk of the town, especially among sports fans. Powered by CBS sports, the March Madness tournament is available on demand athttp://mmod.ncaa.comand with the new NCAA March Madness on Demand Iphone App ($10). Check out this article in the New York Times, describing this new Iphone App which allows users to enjoy live video of every game in the tournament, anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection of course. March Madness on the iPhone - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com. I think it is so crazy that you can simple purchase and download an application that will stream live video footage right to your phone, which you can take with you and watch on the go pretty much anywhere. Technology is so fascinating, and Apple always seems to be a step ahead coming out with the most innovative applications.

Other social media such as Facebook, Blogs, Podcasts, Twitter and Youtube also have tons of citizens actively posting, commenting and interacting with one another all surrounding the hype of March Madness. You can find absolutely anything you needed or wanted to know about the NCAA March Madness tournament all on these social networking sites where people are constantly updating their statuses, blogs, and videos. The NCAA websiteNCAA.com – The Official Website of NCAA Championships, is really well organized and has links for all of these social media right at the top. For example, take a look at some of the recent blogs providing information on statistics, standings, and players etc. NCAA.com - The Official Website of NCAA Championships - Blog.

I have never really been a basketball fan, but with all the available social networking sites I have definitely taken a stronger interest in this tournament, as there are so many people who talk about it daily and I feel I need to be in the know. I think the collaboration of people who are using these social networking sites to discuss and hype up sports and this tournament in particular is really exciting as it allows people like myself who don't know much about the sport to be involved, and learn from others. Tennis is my favorite sport, as it is really the only one I still play (and golf) and I look forward to contributing and participating on these social networking sites come time for the French Open, Wimbledon and The Masters!

I hope you have all enjoyed keeping up to date on this exciting March Madness Tournament, I am sure some even have the Apple Iphone App, what a great idea!

Until next time,

The Active Citizen

Google Bomb Much?

I am really interested in the popular discovery that bloggers are finding useful and very fascinating, that being "google bomb". Google Bombing involves modifying HTML pages to increase the chance that websites that are placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned.

Google bombing is a great attraction for bloggers as it is a way they are able to get their blogs known and their names known, a way of creating an awareness to spread their voice. Google bombing allows bloggers to post specific links to specific postings that were designed to include popular words that google users would commonly use. Google bombs are successful when they bump the link to the ranked number one for each google key word typed in. Google bombing can be great to create awareness for bloggers wishing to spread a voice, and it can also be useful for google users who like to be immediately linked to sites that may spark their interests. It is a form of collaboration in a sense as one word links you to a various number of different links that may be of interest to you, and allow you to learn about more than you could have thought you would. Helpful tool I would argue!

Google bombing is also commonly used as a form of manipulation to change the way people can view a corporation or a political leader. This can be very comical, and rather interesting if you ask me. In 2000 George Bush was targeted on Google Bomb. The words "dumb mothafuka" were typed in and users were directly pointed to links of George Bush related merchandise. Take a look at this google bomb for example. 369539947_e3f05b50e5_o-766849.jpg 450×301 pixels. This is what comes up when you type in "miserable failure" Links to George Bush's presidency and what a failure it was. I found this neat blog that shows some of the best ten successful google bombs, take a look, some of them are pretty funny. : 10 Successful Google Bombs : PingPongPie. Google bombing is yet another really creative and neat function of citizen media that allows individuals to spread ideas through linking key words to the most popular search engine that is used daily. I am really interested in it for some of the humorous content I can find with google bombs (witty people creating these I'd say). In addition, it provides bloggers and online activists with another opportunity to get their names known and their voices even more easily accessible through ONE key word. Many people will find links to other blogs or political or social activist sites that they maybe never would have thought of before google bombing. It kind of reminds me of being on facebook, when there are ads on the side of your column that are targeted at you. With google bombing you are directed to many links that may pertain to your one word that YOU chose to type in, offers you with a diversity of information, and I see no harm in this. Google bombing provides us with a fast way to link to various voices and new ideas. After all, the more voices and options, the better for citizen media

Until Next Time,

The Active Citizen

Where do you go when you're gone?

Today I was thinking about new social media, and how individuals interact in virtual communities through creating profiles on social networking sites. I then got to thinking, what happens to your personal profile when you pass away? Would I want my profile to remain active in the public sphere? Death is obviously not something people like to think of when they are creating their accounts, or actively using them, however, nobody lives forever, and this is an important question that needs to be addressed.

When thinking about this I asked a few friends what their opinions were on the matter. My question to them was "If you passed away, would you want your social networking accounts such as Facebook and Twitter and E-mail accounts likeHotmail, G-mail etc. to be taken down?" I received three different responses. The first response was a definite yes. She said "I think it's weird to have people look at my profile and post stuff if I'm gone. Somebody could make a memory group but I wouldn't want to have a profile." My second response was "I'm not sure, thats a tough question. I think it is a nice way for friends and family to post comments and memories. At the same time, I think if you're gone, it is a bit strange to have an active profile." Finally, another response was "I wouldn't want them taken down right away, I guess it depends on how old I was when I died though. Like if it were to happen tomorrow I'd want my accounts up for longer than if it happened at 85." Personally I think this is a tough question. I shared these responses with you because they were all different and quite interesting. Personally I think I would want my account taken down. There is something slightly morbid about having an active profile of me when I no longer am around. Although it is nice way for people to remember me, I think if I was close to you, I would want you to remember me for our face to face interactions, not my Facebook account. I think if I had a Foundation/Scholarship set up in my honor/name then that should have its own webpage. I would want to take down my social networking profiles and replace it with this webpage. That way if people wanted to write, there is a forum to do it there. But where do you go? and Where does your information go? These are definitely concerning questions.

I found an interesting blog written by Paul Silver, which talks about what social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and E-mail accounts like Hotmail,G-mail and Yahoo mail do when you pass away. Death and Social Media « Paul Silver's blog. Interestingly, Facebook keeps the profiles open for a period of time to allow for people to post comments. They used to take the accounts down, however, after the Virgina Tech shooting friends wanted to be able to leave comments in a form of communication they were used to and comfortable with. The Facebook Terms illustrate this is more detail. With respect to Twitter accounts, if you do not have access to the person's e-mail address and password, you will not be able to access their account. There is just the option to tell the network about the death, then they may be able to tell the person's friend's by changing the status of the account. Hotmail the free version will delete an account if it has not been logged in to for 120 days. G-mail will provide access to the deseased account if you provide them with a copy of a death certificate or a letter from a power of attorney. On the other hand, Yahoo Mail will not give you access to somebody else's account as they say it "breaks the data protection act." This is an issue that most people do not commonly think about, however, a rather important one. Social networks are placed in a difficult position as they want to be considerate to family who have lost a loved one, as well as friends and people who communicated with that individual through these sites. My main question of concern is where do I go when I'm gone? What happens to all of the personal information trapped in my account? It is naive to think it just gets deleted. Nothing is "just deleted" off the internet.

If I were to ask you the same question I asked my friends earlier today, what would your response be? I think this is a very intriguing question that can fuel an interesting conversation. Where would you want to go when you are gone? and Where do you think you go?

Until next time,

The Active Citizen