Kersta's Blog

Google What?!

KLM — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:58:17 +0000

If anyone is like me out there, Google Docs may seem very foundational and simple, but even the task of starting a new one seems daunting. For those of us who were once scared, put away your timid side and step into the world of Google Docs.

Although Google Docs templates have been opened up to everyone for about four months, there are a large number of people who don’t know how to start a document template.

A document template can save time and boost productivity and luckily, you can create a template from any existing Google Docs document. You just click new and pick what type of document you would like.

Better yet, knowing HTML or CSS is a good thing here. It allows the user to get “down and dirty” with the program, to help individualize it and make it fit your needs, not the other way around.

I am not sure if this is a downside of not, but other viewers will be able to use your template, right away once you submit it. Google does not screen submissions, so if you’re going to have separation anxiety or are really defensive about your templates, this is not the program for you. If you like sharing, you have just found your match.

Any changes made to the document or template (or both) are automatically saved to your public document. This would make say, college group projects, a lot easier, especially if they are research based.

One can used Google Docs for any type of document: to help manage finances with a budget (gas money, mortgage, utility money, etc.) and can even be spruced up with photos.

Do’s and Don’ts…Rights and Wrongs

KLM — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:07:55 +0000

With many people treating blogs and other forms of new media like they would treat the traditional forms of media, one starts to wonder if there are rights and wrongs with social media.

The blogosphere is a bit of a mystery to many in the tech world, which means to the rest of us, it’s a complete and utter mystery. So that begs the question, how do we know if companies are using the tools available on the internet to the best of their advantage?

Comcast for instance has learned that every blog post they have plants a little seed, whether good or bad, for their company and their reputation on the internet. Valve, a successful games developer and publisher, engages with the community…they respond to e-mails and keep up regularly an interactive blog.

Companies that don’t do this, Apple and Nintendo and potentially even Canon (and I am sure many others) are missing some of these things. I do not think companies realize the potential the internet has, but as I have posted before, this is a 24/7 job.

New social media and social networking means that a company can be as available as it wants to be. For some, they do not want to be and that is what makes a company less appealing to many individuals, especially people around the age of 13-late 20′s who were raised on the internet. Eventually companies are going to have to learn the greatness that is social media. Ignoring it or failure to learn it will only leave them a step behind (at least) the competition and looking ridiculous.

Tis’ the Season…

KLM — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:53:51 +0000

Tis’ the season to give: give to charities, give to those who need and give to the internet.

Maureen Waters was a perfectly healthy 52-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Florida until she got the flu one day and began experiencing chest pain. Doctors said she had an infection that was severely weakening her heart, leaving her with about 10% of its functionality.

Recently laid off from her job and without insurance, Ms. Waters window of opportunity to get a new heart is getting smaller and smaller. So what does her family do to help?

They create a website, a Facebook account and a Twitter account to help the cause. Help Mend a Heart was created to spread information about the infection and draw awareness to Ms. Water’s plight.

In one day, the website helped raise over $15,000.

I think this is simply amazing. In a world where we are trying to figure out what content to put on personal websites and are worried about what kind of coffee we’re going to get at the local coffee shop, there are individual out there who are struggling.

I would not have thought to create a website to help this cause. And the fact that this website, combined with Facebook and Twitter, has flourished goes to show that social media and social networking when combined with the internet and putting yourself out there, so to speak, on the web really can add up to a great and wonderful thing.

Fab or Revolution? The Answers to all Social Media Questions

KLM — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:43:46 +0000

Did you know that by 2010, Generation Y will outnumber the baby boomers and 96% of them will have joined a social network?

According to the video: Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, TV took 13, Internet took 4, iPod took 3 while Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months, iPod Application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months and online students out performed students receiving face-to-face instruction in 2009.

Have you noticed that universities have sent out e-mails less and less? Miami University, in Ohio, started texting services in 2006 as a test run and while they still send out e-mails of campus crime alerts, texting is becoming more and more popular among school officials as time goes on.

According to the video: 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices where people can update anywhere, anytime..YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. That’s right, a user-generated site is operating over (or some may say smushing down like no one’s business) some of the big dog search engines of our youth.

According to the video: There are over 200,000,000 blogs and 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. 24% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.

This means that a product or brand can and will be severely dependent upon whether or not individual who are blogging have a. easy access to that product or brand, b. like that brand, c. will say good things about the brand on their site (meaning something stuck out to them about that particular brand) and d. be willing to be, essentially, the business model for that brand or product. I do not think people are aware of the impact they have on the success or flop of a product and in doing so, are essentially doing business for that company. Companies, I’m sure, have started to develop models and plans that are founded on social networking and how and what people will go about speaking of said product or brand (company).

According to the video: 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations…14% trust advertisements. This goes back to my above point. Now, more than ever, companies need to be focused on how to get these bloggers and social media ‘people’ involved in their new product or brand to create a whole new thought to “word of mouth.” They need to not only get these technologically ‘advanced’ individuals on board with their product, but also get them to talk highly of their product, essentially doing wonderful advertisement for them.

According to the video: We no longer search for news, the news finds us. Soon products and brands will find us via social media. RSS feeds and things of the like help individuals get the news sent to them yes, but it also helps them to cater the news and products to the individuals needs, something a newspaper cannot do (at least not a literal newspaper, an online one potentially yes).

According to the video, social media is not a fad but a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It seems to be that it is that yes, but it is also a different lifestyle that many individuals are starting to adopt and that will change the way the internet works and change the way companies (brands and products) run their business effectively.

“Bye Bye Bye” dusty bookshelves

KLM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:53:23 +0000

No more dusty bookshelves for books, according to Google.

As of November 9th, Google had until the 13th of November to submit a new plan on how to drain copyright law to let Google build a digital library.

Working on this digital library is Google and a coalition of authors and publishers.

A federal court judge granted an extension to Google Books in order to create the library. The Justice Department, however, have asked district court Judge Denny Chin to not approve the settlement unless major changes were made.

Monopoly concerns were the main reason why Google Books’ proposal was rejected the first time.

The main issue as of right now is Google Book Search, which calls for ongoing digital scanning of millions upon millions of books from university libraries around the nation.

But what about the books that are out of print? While Google Books cannot show the entire book, they would offer snip-its of the book, which might cause more problems than aid.

Some individuals say that this would be very, very helpful for research and simplicity in reading a novel or even finding a novel while others find it annoying and unhealthy, calling it a way to ‘googlize’ the world.

Since we were just talking about this in class and how libraries have changed so much in the past years, I find that there are two different ways (I’m sure many more actually) to look at a technology such as this. I think that this would be a good idea, partially because one of my majors is English Literature, I can also see why this wouldn’t be such a great thing to do.

First, I think it would help in our literacy, which seems to be lower than it was years ago. It would definitely help the accessibility of books, which might (especially with children now growing up on the internet) increase the amount that children and young adults read.

I can also see this taking a very long time, as having a digital library cannot be a quick thing to set up or maintain with the rate that authors are cooking out books. Also, some books that are extremely old or are in special collections in libraries are too old to be scanned in, and while newer novels are wonderful, the classics and the ‘canon of literature’ are extremely important to society as well.

Fortune 100′s lost in technological mess

KLM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:38:29 +0000

Many companies around the world have embraced the idea that technology is changing and with that comes trends that once did not exist. The question is..do they understand it?
Most would say, “No.”
73 out of 100 companies, according to a study done by Weber Shandwick, have at least one Twitter account. This is up from 54 (from a study in August) when a majority of companies were not using Twitter effectively.
Using Twitter effectively involves engaging followers, tweeting often and displaying personality in tweets.
Most of the companies in this study had either less than 500 followers OR their accounts were not being used at all OR they had no personality involved in their accounts (this includes profile pictures, design of the page, tone of the tweets, etc.).
Although I sit here and think about my unused Twitter account, mostly because I do not see the point, I can understand the importance from a business standpoint. Having a Twitter account with personality, someone to upkeep it daily or hourly, someone who can engage other Tweeters will truly help the reputation of the business, or so it seems.
Some individuals call mis-used or unused Twitter accounts a “missed business opportunity.”
Looking at some of the comments for this article, many seem to think that Twitter for customer service has been something that is very helpful. I would argue this is only helpful, quite obviously, if someone for the company is constantly on Twitter. If they treat Twitter as they have been, then there really is no point to having your customer service, or business for that matter, on Twitter.
This would add a whole different aspect to businesses, since it would really be a 24/7 type of job as opposed to the traditional 9am-5pm. Offering customer service, or any service that is built on consumers, requires a lot of work.
It would also limit the consumer net, at least as of right now. Many individuals are not on Twitter, especially older individuals and therefore the businesses would have to be geared toward those who are on Twitter. People may potentially miss out if they do not have a Twitter account or better yet, they do not want to have one and therefore, the business would have missed the opportunity anyway.
I suppose I just never thought about the business side of social networks, or at least from what we talked about in class, but I can see how important it would be not only to schools and individuals, but also to businesses and people trying to actually build a consumer base off of social networks.

HONK honk HONK

KLM — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:44:30 +0000

The moment you’ve all been waiting for: social network and car buying finally team up to offer you Honk, a social platform for car buying.
While most of us go to close friends, or even relatives for advice when it comes to car buying, now one can turn to Honk, a site dedicated to organizing opinions.
Deemed not a social network, Honk wants to use other social networking sites such as Facebook and myspace to collect and gather opinions that might actually aid in the car buying process.
You would use Honk similar to how you would use Carsoup.com or other car buying sites, selecting whether you want to view new or used cars, what make and model however, with Honk, you also select from some demographic information such as whether you are single, have a family, what stage of life you are in, personality type, etc. This helps Honk generate recommendations for cars that fit not only your budget and likes, but your personality and lifestyle.
Honk also allows the viewer to check which manufacturers they like and would like to view cars from. The only real complaint people seem to have with Honk is the fact that it doesn’t remember, like many “social networking sites” people’s preferences.
Personally, I think Honk is a useful tool to finding a car. It offers the chance for people to recommend and comment about a car through Facebook, a social networking site that is known throughout the world Finding a way to tap into huge social networking sites is a huge success of Honk.
While shopping for something as important as a car online freaks me out a bit, I would say it’s fair to think that Honk would be a reliable site that has the potential to grow into something very useful to the general public.

Convert, Zip and Download

KLM — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:43:33 +0000

Sharing information just got a whole lot easier in the cloud.
If an individual wanted to take files (powerpoints, documents, spreadsheets) off of the cloud, they would have to take them one document at a time.
Today however, Google announced the “Convert, Zip and Download feature on Google Docs that faces this challenge. With this feature, one can pick one document, all documents or anywhere in between in your preferred file types and zip them in one package you can download and save onto your desktop.
The “export” tab will help people convert files into whatever people’s preferred format is, whether it be pdf, .sla and .doc.
For businesses, or people with many files I guess, this would seem to be an effective addition to Google Docs. It offers a possibility to organize many files into one place while offering them up in an organizing way to everyone participating in the ‘cloud network.’
One main concern after reading the comments would be security. Many people were worried about the potential of stealing business ideas or any other type of documents from the shared network.
So while this new technology may have some quirks, it seems to be an overall good thing, and a good day to share documents.

Scandal in the office..

KLM — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:10:27 +0000

Just kidding, it’s only social networking. Little did we students know that this is something that has been discouraged in offices around the nation for a while now. Heads are just now starting to turn around the idea that social networking might actually help their business.
Businesses not only discourage, but have also blocked access to social networking sites in the office.
It was found that many workers might actually feel more involved, valued and part of a community if allowed to be a part of social networking sites at work, which would boost over moral in the office. And no, I’m not kidding people.
There is an argument that not only would this make for a better work environment, but social networking in the office might lead to better enterprise technology. This would mean that businesses would be free to build upon foundations already created for them (like apps for Twitter that are not found on Twitter.com, just for the workings of that business).
Not only would it create something for the business, it might create a whole new business all together. If tech companies were able to harbor some of what people want out of social networking sites at the office, a whole new band of social networking sites might be available in the future.
Personally, I think not being allowed to socially network at the office is absurd, especially since I am an up-and-coming journalist. Not being a part of a network that would provide me with what is happening not just in my community but around the world is nuts! I could understand distraction from work and inability to get the task at hand done (perhaps why you are at work in the first place) but completely banning it from work is a whole different cup of tea, and one that I am not too fond of quite frankly.
With all that social networking in the business world could do for the business world, I do not see why they would stray away from it any longer. Even the CIA is doing it. I mean come on people, this is one bandwagon that is worth jumping on and riding for all it is worth.

Libraries open ALL their doors

KLM — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:01:30 +0000

A recent panel on the role libraries can play in supporting current and future public-access moves to research found that such a thing is “inevitable.”
Given that we have talked about research in the last few classes, most of which involved the library, I found this article to be not only pertinent to class but also very important to what many libraries around the country are facing as a drastic move.
Having open access to research would mean many arguments from scholars and colleagues alike. Many fear copyright infringement and the peer review process.
One alternative to this, or even one way to look at the open-access model would be to create a forum, like arXiv (being housed at Cornell University), where researchers are able to share findings through such forums. The importance of the peer review process is vital and must be maintained, according to many different scholars quoted in the article.
I think the idea of a forum is a good one, but how would the ‘regular’ public be able to access data? Better yet, should they be able to?
It seems like this forum would be an open space for scholars and researchers, a “killer app” is what it is called in the article, that would offer a place for researchers the means to “dig past metadata and do full-text searches while using useful tools to understand context and retrieve text intelligence, quotations…”
REaching across so-called ‘data-domains’ is one thing and would be a great thing from what I gather from the article, but again this leaves the question about the general public. How would we access information? Would the forum be open to us? Would that ruin the creditability of the forum?
I think it might, especially if I commented on such information as mentioned in the article. If full-text documents were open to the general public but only could be edited and peer reviewed and contributed to by specialists and professionals, we might be coming up with something really, really good.