#BirdCam : A Social Media Experiment

On 2011/05/26   /   IT Matters, Social Media   /   6 Comments
#BirdCam : A Social Media Experiment

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Robin and Nest Favorite 1

My kids spotted a robin’s nest in our yard.
It was inside one of our sheds.
Hmm… a light bulb flickered to life.
Wouldn’t this be a great way to showcase what you can do with technology,
websites, and the power of social networking.

Within a day I had a webcam mounted watching the nest and uploading pictures directly to a server.

By the next day my staff helped create an amazing website in record time. (We are all having fun with this.)

The result: http://birdcam.ca/

The website is still evolving with favorite pictures and viewing the photo archives coming online within a day.

Why go through all this effort to do this you ask? Partially because “we can”, also because “it’s cool”, and also it is an “experiment”.

Experiment? How so?

We wanted to see how fast we could create a brand new website, with unique content being generated for us (thank you mother nature), how “viral” could we make it, and see where it leads. Unfortunately much of the content online these days in the social networking world is what I call “noise”. Who cares what you ate for breakfast or what you are wearing. Also many people retweet/republish/repost other people’s content. Noise noise noise. It is difficult to come by brand new unique content.

Robin and Nest Favorite 2

Sites like what we have created have many possible applications. For instance what if we watched the construction of your brand new house being built. You could see it evolve, check on it anytime you wanted, and then a neat bonus with something being built is time lapse videos! Having a picture taken on a regular basis from a consistant location is ideal for compiling such amazing videos.

We are getting recommendations from people and implementing new features as quickly as we can during this experiment. The experiment will be over in the next 3 weeks after the eggs are hatched and the new born robins all fly away. We want to see where things end up at the end of this timeframe and how viral it gets.

Right now I as I write this I am enjoying watching the realtime logs on our webserver going nuts with new visitors and people refreshing their browsers.

Please check out the website http://birdcam.ca/ and invite your friends and contacts to do so as well. If you are on twitter, the hashtag is #BIRDCAM

And check back frequently near June 1st which is the current best guestimate we have on when the eggs may begin hatching.

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How to Protect Yourself from Twitter Scams

On 2011/03/07   /   IT Matters, Security & Privacy, Social Media   /   19 Comments
How to Protect Yourself from Twitter Scams

Tweeting on Twitter is quickly becoming the most popular ‘thing’ to do. Never heard of Twitter? It’s a free Internet service where you can post just about anything you want from what you’re doing now (e.g., “I’m eating macaroni and cheese”) to sharing links to interesting articles. It is also a useful tool for businesses and entrepreneurs. Ensure that your posts are short and sweet as you’re only allowed 140 characters per message. If you do use Twitter, there are some scams that you should be aware of.

Making easy, fast money from home is one Twitter scam. These scams tell you that you can earn money by marketing other people’s products to them. All you need to do is pay a small fee to sign up. Sounds believable, right? Once you sign-up, expect your credit card to be charged $40.00 a month in membership fees. There are real work-at-home jobs, but the scams fail to tell you about the membership fees or they try to hide this vital information. It can also be hard to cancel your membership or get a refund.

The Twitter phishing scam tricks users into sharing their personal information, such as passwords, social security numbers, and birth dates. Scammers set up a link that takes you to a fake Twitter sign-up page where you have to type in your password. Once they have your password, they can access your account and spread more scams quite easily. Avoid sharing your password with anyone and change it frequently.

If you want more followers to follow your tweets, there is a service out there that promises they can make that happen. How? This service identifies Twitter users who follow anyone who is following their tweets and targets users with the same interests as you. This is a Twitter scam. If you purchase this service, you could be held liable for sending Twitter spam and banned from Twitter. Give it time and wait for followers to follow you.

There is a Twitter scam that sends messages attached with a link that sound like they were written by one of your friends or followers. When you click on this link, you are directed to another web page where malware or spyware is installed. Avoid clicking on unfamiliar links and installing applications that you are unaware of.

Twitter performs regular checks when approving applications, but there are scams that attempt to access your information from the Twitter API if you give them permission to do so. Ensure that you avoid granting permission to access your Twitter account. There is an option in your Twitter settings to reject access to certain applications. It’s a good idea to turn this function on to protect yourself from this particular scam.

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What You Should Never Share on Your Social Networking Site

On 2010/11/01   /   IT Matters, Security & Privacy, Social Media   /   23 Comments
What You Should Never Share on Your Social Networking Site

Almost everyone is on at least one popular social networking site, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Myspace. These social networking sites provide you with an easy way to share all the details of your life on the Internet.

Posting pictures of your friends and family is questionable, depending on the nature of them. What you want to avoid is sharing the kind of personal information that may result in having your insurance canceled, or even worse yet, placing your home at risk of a break-in.

Avoid sharing your birth date and place on your social networking site. These small, simple details may seem harmless, but they could provide identity thieves with a way to access your social insurance number and apply for credit in your name.

Announcing your vacation plans on the Internet is an invitation for thieves to break into your home. Try not to let your excitement of going on holiday get in the way of common sense. Only your close friends and family should know about your travel plans.

Providing your full home address online is another way for thieves to potentially break into your home. Remember to leave out any personal information that gives away where you live and when you.re not home. If you do need to provide your contact details, sharing your email address is your safest bet.

Negative opinions about your job or boss are best kept well away from your social networking site. Posting a malicious comment or lie that relates to your professional career could result in some serious consequences, such as losing your job and damaging your professional reputation.

Some online accounts ask you to supply answers to specific security questions before you log into your account. Avoid providing your answers to these security questions on your social networking site because cyber thieves could use this information to hack into your account.

Sharing your love of high-risk activities that may include driving motorcycles, hand gliding or car racing is something that you shouldn’t boast about on your social networking site. Life insurance companies, as well as other insurers, are searching personal websites to determine how much of a risk their clients are. They also raise their rates according to what they find about you online.

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Did You Know 2.0

On 2010/10/26   /   IT Matters, Social Media, Technology   /   7 Comments

In a past posting I made (December 2008) I had come across a great video that was done by PromoMMX for SonyBMG Rome 2008.

Since then many Did You Know derivatives have been spawned on the Internet, some not so serious, some with numbers you cannot trust, but some appeared to be well done. Here is one video that raises some great questions and provides thought provoking numbers.

If you are unable to view the link above, here is the script:

Did you know?!
In the next 8 seconds…!
34 babies will be born!
India 5 China 4 US 1!
What will the world be like…!
For them?!
Name this country…!
– Richest in the world!
– Largest military!
– Center of world business and finance!
– Strongest education system!
– Currency the world standard of value!
– Highest standard of living!
Great Britain In 1900!
2006 college graduates!
U.S. 1.3 million India 3.1 million China 3.3 million!
How many college graduates in India speak English? 100%!
In 10 years, it is predicted that the number one English speaking country in the world will be… China!
Who would have predicted this 60 years ago?!
Who would have predicted this 40 years ago?!
Who would have predicted this 20 years ago?!
Did you know?!
According to the U.S. Department of Labor!
1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer!
Less than one year!
1 in 2 workers has been with their current employer!
Less than five years!
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learners will have!
10 to 14 jobs… by their 38th birthday!
Many of today’s college majors didn’t exist 10 years ago!
New media Organic agriculture e-business Nanotechnology Homeland security!
What will they study 10 years from now?!
Today’s 21 year olds have: Watched 20,000 hours of TV!
Today’s 21 year olds have: Played 10,000 hours of video games!
Today’s 21 year olds have: Talked 10,000 hours on the phone!
And they’ve sent and received 250,000 emails or instant messages!
More than 50% of U.S. 21 year olds have created content on the web!
More than 70% of U.S. 4 year olds have used a computer!
Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million Radios 38 Televisions 13 Computers 4!
Number of Internet devices in 1984: 1,000!
Number of Internet devices in 1992: 1,000,000!
Number of Internet devices in 2006: 600,000,000!
Did you know?!
We are living in exponential times!
The first commercial text message was sent in December 1992!
The number of text messages sent and received today…!
Exceeds the population of the planet!
The Internet started being widely used by the general public in early 1995!
1 out of 8 couples married in the US in 2005… met online!
Revenue for eBay in 2006: 6 billion eBay was founded in 1996!
There were more than 2.7 billion searches performed on Google… 2,700,000,000! …this month!
To whom were those questions directed B.G.?!
(Before Google)!
MySpace visitors!
More than 230,000 new users signed up for MySpace…!
today!
If MySpace were a country…!
It would be the 8th largest in the world!
YouTube visitors since September 2005!
Did you know?!
There are more than 540,000 words in the English language…!
About five as many as during Shakespeare’s time!
widget web-surfer blog dot-commer e-learner Internet!
More than 3,000 books were published… today!
The amount of technical information is doubling every two years!
By 2010, it’s predicted to double… every 72 hours!
New information!
Third generation fiber optics has recently been tested that push 10 trillion bits per second
down a fiber!
That is 1,900 CD’s or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second!
It’s currently tripling every six months!
The fiber is already there, they’re just improving the switches on one end…!
which means the marginal cost of these improvements is effectively… zero!
Nearly 2 billion children live in developing countries
One in three never completes fifth grade!
In 2005 the One Laptop per Child Project (OLPC) set out to provide laptops to these children!
The first shipments should be in mid-2007!
Kids who have never held a textbook will now hold the world!
And be connected… to you!
Predictions are that by the time children born in 2007 are 6 years old,!
a supercomputer’s computation capabilities will exceed!
that of the human brain!
And while predictions further out than 15 years are hard to do… 2049!
a $1,000 computer will exceed the computing capabilities!
of the human race!
What does all this mean?!
shift happens!
We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist…in order
to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.!
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.
-Albert Einstein!
Did you know…!
There are students in China, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh and the USA who!
remember understand apply analyze evaluate create communicate collaborate on projects everyday!
Ask your kids: Are you doing this in school?!
Ask your Principal: How are you helping my child become literate in the 21st century?!
Ask your School Board: Are you providing the resources and training necessary to prepare
students to be successful in 21st century society?!
Ask your Elected Representatives: Now that you know all this, what changes should be made to
current education legislation?!
What’s your vision?!
Did you know…!
The original version of this presentation was created for a Colorado (USA) high school staff
of 150 in August of 2006!
to start a conversation about what our students need to be successful in the 21st century!
By June 2007 it has started more than 5 million conversations around the world!
And now that you know, we want you to join the conversation!



Did You Know?

Did You Know?


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Did You Know 2008

On 2008/12/05   /   IT Matters, Social Media, Technology   /   9 Comments

Tecently I was provided with a link to a fantastic 4 minute video that really makes you think. It is IT related but is great for anyone to watch. It was done by PromoMMX for SonyBMG Rome 2008. Lots of research went into this.

If you are unable to view the link above, here is the script:

Did You Know?

If you’re one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you.
China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world.
The 25% of India’s population witht he highest IQ’s is greater than the total population of the United States.
India has more honors kids than America has kids.

The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist
using technologies that haven’t been invented
in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38
1 in 4 works has been with their current employer for less than a year.
1 in 2 has been there less than five years.

1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online.

There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace.
If MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th-largest in the world (between Indonesia and Brazil).

The #1 ranked country in Broadband Internet Penetration is Bermuda (USA is #19, Japan is #22).

We are living in exponential times.
There are 31 Billion searches on Google every month.
In 2006, this number was 2.7 Billion.
To whom were these questions addressed B.G. (Before Google)?

The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992.
Today, the number of text messages sent and received everyday, exceeds the total population of the planet.

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million
Radio 38 years
TV 13 years
Internet 4 years
iPod 3 years
Facebook 2 years

The total number of Internet devices in 1984 was 1,000
The number of Internet devices in 1992 was 1,000,000
The number of Internet devices in 2008 is 1,000,000,000

There are about 540,000 words in the English language.
About 5 times as many as during Shakespeare’s time.

It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0 x 10^19) of unique information will be generated this year.
That is more than the previous 5,000 years.

The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.
For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn will be outdated by their third year of study.

NTT Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber.
That is 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second.

It is currently tripling every six months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years.

By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain.
Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species.

In 4 minutes
67 babies were born in the US
274 babies were born in China
395 babies were born in India
694,000 songs were downloaded illegally.

What does it all mean?

————

Every company needs a website. Though make sure you do a good job and keep it current as many people judge you by your site. You website from 3 years ago is already outdated. It is something to think about.

If I want to look up a phone number or a physical address, I open my web browser. I rarely use a phone book anymore.

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