Mediaboss Marketing

Ambient social networking is taking the world by storm as startups such as Highlight are beginning to resonate with people. In case ambient social networking is new to you, it is a location phenomenon that runs silently in the background on mobile devices and notifies users if friends or acquaintances enter their vicinity.

It seems like a subtle thing, but the impact of this new technology is quite profound, said Paul Davison, CEO and founder of Highlight.

As he explained to us, users have been sharing actively by posting a pictures and statuses for a long time. This new concept, which is also known as social discovery, allows users to share passively, which has not been possible before.

All of a sudden, for the first time in history, we can take a little profile of ourselves and just sort of emit it from our phone, wherever we go, said Davison. Its gonna have a profound impact on how we learn about each other and socialize in the real world.

With ambient social networking the hot new trend, and Highlight emerging as the leader in the space, speculations are starting to spread as to whether it could be the next Twitter or Foursquare. Davison told us that, since it adds a new connectivity to the world and helps to create friendships and partnerships, Highlight could very easily be the next big social service.

If you build this product the right way, you can build something that almost anyone in the world will find tremendously useful, he said. It has the potential to be a very big thing.

Could Highlight be the next Twitter or Foursquare? Let us know.

Ambient social networking really took off at SXSW this year, and Highlight specifically, seemed to steal the show. Davison told us that, although it was challenging to build the product, it was rewarding to see how people are finding so many different ways to use it.

For instance, one man was able to hitch a ride to Austin for SXSW after connecting with someone on Highlight. Other people have found that Highlight has helped them connect with old friends and even close business deals.

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Highlight CEO: We Have the Potential to Be the Next Twitter, Foursquare

Saturday, March 24, 2012

"Social networking sites are one of the available means for people to connect to each other. With sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Multiply, people are connected. This trend started with the rise of forums, chat services and file and media sharing sites, and combining these elements to create an integrated experience."

THE Internet, for some people, is the way to live. With a diverse source of information and access to the latest breaking events in the world, knowledge can be attained with a simple click. The Internet, undoubtedly, has profound potential. The global linkage allows us to connect with other individuals and share our thoughts and ideas.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Social networking sites are one of the available means for people to connect to each other. With sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Multiply, people are connected. This trend started with the rise of forums, chat services and file and media sharing sites, and combining these elements to create an integrated experience.

To understand more about this behavior, we can also look into the traits of the Filipinos. Our history books state that Filipinos are born as curious people. Filipinos like knowing and finding new things and talk about it, and social network offer this.

When Friendster became a hit on 2007, almost every high school and college student had at least one account registered. Filipinos, then, moved from simple chat room offered by MIrc and the like to Friendster.

The same thing happened when finally Friendster went down the ladder and got replaced by Facebook and Twitter. Now, majority of people rely their source of information on these social networks, including the students.

Media dependency theory by Martin DeFleur can be used to support more for us to dig deeper in this situation. This theory suggests that since the audiences learning from the real life is limited, so they can use media to get more information to fulfill their needs.

An extensive use of media generates dependent relation in audience and also media can be able to create dependence relationship with target audiences to achieve their goals by using their media power, in this case online social networking sites.

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Sunday Essays: Social networking sites: The students’ raise or fall point

Dries Buytaert is programming wunderkind. He learned to program when he was six years old -- even before he could read.

Today he is internationally famous as the creator of Drupal, one of the world's most successful open source projects.

And it all happened by accident.

Drupal is a free, open source content management system that powers a million websites including some of the biggest or most important like the White House, NASA and Twitter. Nearly 790,000 people in 228 countries contribute to it.

"This was never intentional. I'm an accidental leader. I love what I'm doing but never envisioned this to happen," he told Business Insider.

Although he's been working on Drupal for over 12 years, for most of that time, he never made a dime on it. This changed about four years ago when he founded Acquia in Boston.

Acquia is already wildly successful. It provides technical support for Drupal, has a Software-as-a-Service program similar to WordPress.com and does web hosting via a service called Drupal Gardens. The company has nearly 2,000 customers, with Drupal Gardens hosting over 100,000 websites including huge sites like Arabic news network Al Jazeera.

Acquia has raised $38.5 million in venture funding, backed by North Bridge, Sigma Partners, Tenaya Capital and Tim O'Reilly's O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

"We've grown from two people in 2008 to over 200 people today. We're looking to add another 100 to 120 people," he says. That makes Acquia one of the fastest-growing startups in Boston and named to Forbes most-promising list.

Because Drupal and Acquia isn't enough, Buytaert also has a second startup, Mollom, a comment spam blocking service for use with Drupal sites.

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Dries Buytaert's Software Powers A Million Important Websites — And He Built It From His Couch

The judges for this years Pulitzer Prizes in journalism are getting set to vote which means its time for the latest installment of The Associated Press year-long bash of the NYPD.

And sure enough, the wire service yesterday popped up with a 1,500-word hit-job that said, well . . . not much at all.

The AP story points to a 2008 internal memo that it says shows that undercover New York cops attended meetings of liberal political organizations and monitored even lawful activities.

Ooh sinister: Cops spying on liberals.

(Translation: Hey, Pulitzer judges: Pick us!)

AP

Ray Kelly

The truth isnt even close.

For one thing, calling them liberal political organizations makes it sound like the NYPD was snooping on everyday people in mainstream groups that happen to be on the left. Think: the local Democratic club.

In fact, the groups under surveillance included extremist outfits that have either supported, or sometimes worked with, global terror groups, such as the International Solidarity Movement and the International Action Center.

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More AP Piffle

THAMER al Shanfari, the mega-rich former chairman of Cayman Islands-based mining company Oryx Natural Resources (ONR) believed to own the Glen Lorne house where crack units drawn from the police, immigration, Central Intelligence Organisation and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority flushed out two suspected diamond and gold dealers before deporting them, has threatened to use financial muscle to shut down the Zimbabwe Independent for reporting on the story which has angered him.

The Independent last week reported two senior Zanu PF politburo members, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Didymus Mutasa and his Indigenisation counterpart Saviour Kasukuwere, were linked to Israeli and Russian underworld gold and diamond dealers who were recently deported after a raid on their hideout in Harare's Glen Lorne suburb. The house is believed to be owned by Shanfari.

Mutasa and Kasukuwere confirmed going to the property located at Number 57 Follyjon Crescent during the January 3 raid. Mutasa however said he was only visiting, while Kasukuwere said he had gone there to meet some South African investors who wanted information on the indigenisation programme.

But those involved in the raid said the ministers were called by Russian national, Alexander Filegon alias Alexander Filatov and an Israeli Mike Raslan, who were accused of being diamond and gold dealers, to rescue them.

The story incensed Shanfari. In reaction, his lawyer Gerald Mlotshwa of GN Mlotshwa& Company Legal Practitioners initially called last Friday to complain but it was agreed that Shanfari, who was not part of the story besides mentioning that he owned the house and providing his background, wouldbe interviewed to give his own side of the story.

The Independent on Tuesday contacted Mlotshwa over the issue and it was agreed the interview would go ahead. However, midstream Shanfari dramatically changed and in subsequent conversations he exploded and threatened to close the newspaper.

Shanfari, instead of giving his own side of the story given the overwhelming public interest in the matter as shown by the involvement of two ministers, chose to threaten to close the newspaper and go after its journalists.

"You don't know who I am and what I do. You are fighting the wrong person and I will make sure your newspaper is closed," said Shanfari. "Do you know who I am? I'm going to go after you (Independent),"

He was particularly angered by a picture of his house which appeared in the paper showing part of his property which was raided by the police. He accused the Independent of being unprofessional for taking pictures of his house and "tarnishing his image".

"You guys are very unprofessional. Why did you take pictures of my house? I have reported you to the police," he said. "I will make sure your newspaper is closed."

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Zimbabwe: Tycoon Shanfari Threatens to Close Independent