TheNewMedia Byte - 1/27/2012

1. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is planning to develop an application that can crawl the public's postings to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, in order to predict and react to criminal behavior, including public disorder and terrorism. They also want to monitor cybercrime through this tool to manage mass hacktivist attacks like the group of Anonymous. They would also be incorporating Google maps, Yahoo maps and other location based services to get ti know the exact place of the happenings. To read more - click here.

2. Brad Pitt has joined the social media age with Google+. He has skipped Facebook and Twitter. He has joined it to announce his fund raising event 'A night to make it right' to be held on March 10 at New Orleans. The benefit gala will raise vital funds for the completion of 150 environmentally friendly homes. To read more - click here.

The Anonymous (TheNewMedia Byte - 1/23/2012)

Anonymous is a loosely focused group of people which include hackers and other common internet users who work together to the most agreed upon goal of the group. On January 20, 2012 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)  indicted seven people and two companies which ran the file uploading site Megaupload.com. The site, which billed itself as “the leading online storage and file delivery service,” is now offline. In the indictment, Megaupload and a company associated  with it are accused of making $175 million while simultaneously causing approximately half a billion dollars in copyright infringement. Among the indicted are the site’s founder, Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz), who holds residency in New Zealand and Hong Kong. Employees Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, Julius Bencko, Finn Batato, Sven Echternach, Mathias Ortmann, and Andrus Nomm were also indicted.

As a revolt to this Anonymous brought justice.gov down. It attacked CBS.com, Universalmusic.com and twitter accounts like @TheDailyShow and @ColbertReport. There was a video which announced to bring down Facebook on January 28 but later anonymous updated that it was a fake video. 

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/25/2012

1. If you have been waiting to get approval to start using social media effectively. Pope Benedict XVI called the social networks and search engines the starting point of many people who are seeking advice, ideas, information and answers. He believes that the endless conversation online demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import that can offer meaning and hope to their lives. He gives a message of balancing your online and offline lives. To read more - click here.

2. Define yourself under a 'social media user' category. 
The treasure hunters - These users are the online contest competitors and usually win products. They are drawn to the words 'win', 'contest' and 'prize.' They do a lot of sharing of contests and make them go viral. 
The critics - You can spot such people comment and fearlessly take out mistakes. They are brave to give their opinion aloud.
The observers - Such users are into silently 'liking' posts of others or re-tweeting what they like. They usually tell you about the happenings around.
The talkers - They are the expressive lot with expert-opinions on the topic of their choice e.g. photography, fashion and the like. They are prolific bloggers with a good number of followers. They have competitiveness in their nature.
The gurus - The smartest of the lot. They are the early adopters of technology and make others involved in it. Brands take such users seriously because they can influence others. They know how to make their social media usage into profitability.
To read the full article - click here.

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/20/2012

1. Twitter acquires Summify. Summify summarizes content in people's Google, Facebook and Twitter social media feeds and delivers a daily digest via email, on a website or to a user's iPhone. Twitter has not decided how it will use its services but Summify has disabled many features and stopped taking new sign ups. To read more - click here. 


2. After a movie, musical, drink - we have 'Facebook' nightclub in Bolivia. Mark Zuckerberg has many trademark issues to deal with. A new nightclub in Bolivia is entertaining 1200 people on weekends and its unique proposition is that people can share pictures in real time on the internet from the club. To read more - click here.

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/18/2012

1. The Wikipedia has declared a blackout on January 18 for hours in protest of SOPA and PIPA. Wikipedia is not showing any results for the queries, instead they are raising awareness on the bills which are being proposed in the US to be passed as laws. Many tech giants have joined together to show resentment against these bills. Google has created a special page for signing against SOPA and PIPA https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/. 


Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave a statement opposing SOPA and PIPA "The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet. The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet. You can read more about our views here: https://www.facebook.com/FacebookDC?sk=app_329139750453932."


If you are wondering what Microsoft is doing then you can read about SOPA and PIPA here. 


What you have to say about SOPA?

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/16/2012

1. Australians prefer social networks and computer services like Skype for talking to people over their mobile phones. They have adopted the internet services faster that the rest of the world. KPMG polled 3600 people all over the world out of which 300 were Australians. Overall 64 per cent revealed that the computer was their ideal means of voice communication, up from 8 per cent in 2008. Another 6 per cent of those surveyed said that they preferred a tablet, such as an iPad for conversations. To read more - click here.


2. The Facebook IPO seems to have delayed by a month to May this year. Google started showing Google+ results in search from beginning this year, could prove to be a disadvantage for Facebook. Read the full article here.


3. Here's info on online workshop to provide a crash course to get beginners to speed up the use of the major social media sites. You can check their website for details on the program starting from January 19th - http://www.mediabistro.com/socialmedia101/

The Evolution of Web Search

Let's take a look into a short video on how search evolved and what we have ahead of us. Learn how the 11 September, 2001 changed the idea of search with news being added to it. Not to miss what search has ahead for us - Google wants to focus that the search engine gives you answers to complex questions which require analysis.

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/9/2012

1. The UK's TV platform Sky has integrated Anthony Rose’s Zeebox technology into its suite of tablet and smartphone applications. It will be providing social TV to all the Sky users. Zeebox makes it possible for friends to connect with each other around TV shows, find out more information about what is available to watch, and purchase products that relate to their favourite shows. Sky customers will be able to use a zeebox powered Sky app to access their Sky+ box on the move, so they can manage their Sky+ recording remotely, as well as using their iPhone or iPad as a remote control for their Sky box, creating a comprehensive and fully integrated companion TV experience. To read more - click here.


2. Here's is an excellent review on the new race for Facebook apps which many companies are adopting for their social media strategy. The article talks how every application needs to be 'social by design' and well integrated into the larger social media strategy. To read more - click here.

How to handle your online existence after death?

Death is a reality of life which cannot be denied. Physical beings end but their digital lives remain alive until somebody takes charge. People have started thinking how to end their digital assets when they are gone. Here are a few services which are created on these lines. 


Entrust is a site where you can create your account to decide your digital legacy. You can create your account and then add your email accounts, social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook etc., blogs, photo accounts, internet banking information etc. and then assign each account a digital executor. You can even add your lawyer to this account. You also have a choice to get your account deleted if you don't want to assign it to anyone.

Legacy Locker is another site which provides you a similar service in which you have to set up a beneficiary of your online assets  and you can also feed your legacy letters which will be automatically sent as farewell messages. 


Deathswitch is a service that periodically prompts the account holder to provide a pre-determined password to ensure they’re still alive. If that person doesn’t enter a password on multiple occasions for a period of time, it deduces that the person is either dead or critically injured and begins sending out personalized pre-written messages to chosen contacts. The service can be used in many ways, but according to the site, some of the more common uses include sending passwords, financial information, final wishes, last words, love notes, and funeral instructions.

Maybe all you want is to send emails to your loved ones greatgoodbye.com  provides you with this service.


Assetlock is a service that at focuses on mass storage of important information that may be crucial for others to know after a death, including information on financials, estate planning, insurance policies account passwords, e-mails and final wishes and directives. It has the capacity to store letters to be sent after a death, as well.

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/7/2012

1. London Olympics Organising Committee (LOCOG) has banned the volunteers not to get involved in the details of the games on social media. They would only be able to retweet the official Olympic tweets. Olympics are being held in Lodon this year in July and August. With such restrictions online activity is going to be very tight. Read the new article here.  

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/5/2012

1. Yahoo Inc has a new CEO, Scott Thomson, the co-founder of paypal. His non-media background has been a concern with the investors of the company and the shares were down by 2% after they announced the new CEO. To read the full article - click here.

2. Klout officially declares that it will be going in for another round of funding. Klout’s main product is a scoring system that measures people’s influence and reach on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ — something that social media marketing types pay a lot of attention to. Click here to read more.

Wikipedia raises $20 million through donations

The San Francisco-based non-profit group that maintains Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, officially closed its annual fundraising drive on Tuesday. The total amount raised: $20 million. That’s a record, and a step up from the $16 million Wikimedia raised last year during a nearly two-month-long fundraising effort. In the given environment the amount raised is notable.

The drive garnered some big-ticket donations, such as $500,000 from Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife’s foundation. But according to Wikimedia, the majority of the pledges came from more than a million ordinary folks coughing up donations in the $20 range.

The money will help Wikimedia — whose more than 20 million Wikipedia articles are written and edited for free by volunteers — pay for the technology and infrastructure necessary to keep the service growing, develop new features for the website and bolster its legal defense fund.

There is something that we must remember that even this amount is not enough to cover the operating budget of the company. They are confident that they will be able to get more money through donations and grants in the following months. 

Wikipedia says - Thanks!

Tubalr - A fantastic You-Tube's Playlist Manager

Cody Stewart, a 23 year old software developer in Atlanta has developed a playlist manager in which the YouTube videos of a particular artist will play without any interruption. This is a free website and Stewart has created as his project to be a part of his resume. “I was surfing YouTube and found some amazing HD music videos,” says creator Cody Stewart, “and I thought it would be a cool idea to play those back to back without having all the other stuff I didnt find interesting — mainly the 10,000s of comments about cats and dogs.” 

So far about 124,000 searches have been completed by 2,000 user on the app. Not bad for a project that started as resume fodder. If you happen to be a music lover, you are going to love it.

I like tubalr.com!

TheNewMedia Byte - 1/3/2012

1. The collective analysis of user generated data usually becomes trends. Google has been a leader of such analysis and now we have a company 'Klout' which is planning to work on social media trends. 'Klout' as of now gives scores to people, Twitter accounts and lately retailers on how influential they are. There was a discussion if resumes would carry klout scores.


They are working on a predictive analytics tool in which they want to look for patterns to get at the next viral message on social media. To read more - click here.

2. Iranian political activist, Tabarzadi, sends out a video on YouTube to tell the tortures they are undergoing in the prison. He says that Iranians deserve a democratically elected secular government that will respect the rights of all citizens. This shows that social media gives the activists in Iran a free will to spread their views because other media is heavily censored. To read more - click here.

3. Indian Prime minister, Manmohan Singh, express his views on Indian media. He stands against paid news and sensationalism, and stresses on the need of media to be in consensus for publishing objectively. He said this while issuing a postage stamp in the honour of late Puran Chandra Gupta, founder of Hindi Dainik Jagran newspaper. To read full article - click here.

Never miss your gym again!

Here's an interesting application for the all the people who want to go to the gym but are not able to do so. There are so many times that you want to regularly go to the gym but something keeps coming up and you have to miss it. Your gym membership money seems to be pinching you all the time because you are not making full use of it. 

Gympact is a mobile application for world wide users which helps you commit to your gym routine by putting your money on stake. You make a pact on the number of days you want to go to the gym and set your stake how much you are willing to pay if you are not able to go to the gym. If you hit your target you get the money as an incentive and you haven't been able to hit your target you pay out. This way you are able to overcome the obstacles that you used to have earlier.


Get over all the excuses to go the gym and incentivize your exercise. 

Facebook Kidney Donation

Allie Carr, 26, has become a hero by donating her kidney to a stranger. Carr donated her kidney to a man she met just five months ago on Facebook. The man’s name was Dan Garrett – and the page read simply, “My husband needs a new kidney.” After testing family and friends for kidney donation which didnt seemt o match, Megin Garret resorted to Facebook. She created a page which read 'My husband needs a new kidney.' As soon as Allie found this page on Facebook, she wanted to donate her kidney. She named her kidney 'Paul.' 

"She's (Carr’s) really amazing, to go to a stranger to give someone a piece of yourself literally and she's given me and Dan a chance to have a normal life, a honeymoon, having children," Megin Garrett said. Carr has been modest about donating their kidney. "I wanted to do something meaningful, and if I could give this to them, then I think that everyone should consider it."

The latest post on the Facebook page 'My husband needs a new kidney' reads this. It is January 1st and Dan has been walking around the hospital like a champ! He is feeling better every day and is excited to be up and around more. Our nurses and doctors have been wonderful and deserve more thanks than we could ever give them. I am amazed at how kind they can be!

Allie is doing well at home. She has been telling me that she is feeling much better. She is playing games on her couch and spending lots of time with her fantastic family. We miss having her so close to us at the hospital, but are thankful she is healing and is home. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are honored by all the support and kind words! I read Dan all the new posts and tell him about how many people like this page every day and it makes him really happy to hear. So, as always, thank you!

God bless you, Dan and Allie.