IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING, THE 'MINORITY REPORT' IS HERE.

Smart signs using facial recognition software are
scheduled for introduction in three cities this month.  (credits: Immersive Labs)

I was already concerned about my privacy before I read this article in the NYTimes, "Face Recognition Makes the Leap From Sci-Fi"

As this excerpt explains, "As SceneTap® suggests, techniques like facial detection, which perceives human faces but does not identify specific individuals, and facial recognition, which does identify individuals, are poised to become the next big thing for personalized marketing and smart phones. That is great news for companies that want to tailor services to customers, and not so great news for people who cherish their privacy. The spread of such technology — essentially, the democratization of surveillance — may herald the end of anonymity."

"SceneTap, a new app for smart phones, uses cameras with facial detection software to scout bar scenes". This app has been rolled out to the excitement of 20-somethings, hoping to successfully hook-up on their night out on the town.

Facebook is also incorporating this facial recognition software to assist in ‘tagging’ friends in photos (see FB article: http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=467145887130).

The article states, “When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software—similar to that found in many photo editing tools—to match your new photos to other photos you're tagged in.”  However, this FB practice is drawing fire from both governmental agencies and users alike so it is doubtful that this new feature will be the success that FB originally had in mind.

Facebook inspires grumbling...

As we await the new layout for Facebook to launch for the public in a couple of weeks, more and more people will continue to grumble. I personally am not bothered by the changes. Technology will always continue to change and adapt to the ideas of people. Facebook runs the internet, they will continue to change and modify themselves in order to standout on top of the social media world.
This article on the changes for Facebook gives a rundown on the new improvements and why people dislike or like the change.

My Virtual Neighbor

My Virtual Neighbor is a social media site aimed at neighborhood homeowners hoping to fight crime in their locale. Founder Amit Mehta claims that this new social website has reduced neighborhood crime by a large percentage. Mr. Mehta claims that this site is the cornerstone of "National Night Out", which, as a member of a HOA, I've known about for years. In my own neighborhood, we have used a Yahoo® Groups for years and it has been helpful in keeping up with events in the neighborhood.

A case study was done in Houston, Texas, for a period of ten (10) weeks and, apparently, Mr. Mehta has the stats to prove an 80% reduction in crime. Although my neighborhood moderator (of our Yahoo Group) does keep the homeowners well informed, many of us tend to ignore postings that look like complaints or robo-messsages from the association managers (a separate business) and sometimes miss really important messages (like local murders, utility shut-offs, etc. and other frequently occurring events that happen on the East side of ATX).

The article goes on to state that users have more privacy controls than Facebook® or Yahoo by allowing the users to be the moderators as well as the users. This feature encourages homeowners to feel safe when becoming acquainted with their neighbors, with the end result being a more secure neighborhood. For neighborhoods that do not have a virtual network in place for homeowners, this would be a good option.

To read more, visit http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/28/3945100/new-social-media-my-virtual-neighbor.html#ixzz1ZHbfLdlt     Posted by Michele Myette at 2:58 PM

My Virtual Neighbor

My Virtual Neighbor is a social media site aimed at neighborhood homeowners hoping to fight crime in their locale. Founder Amit Mehta claims that this new social website has reduced neighborhood crime by a large percentage. Mr. Mehta claims that this site is the cornerstone of "National Night Out", which, as a member of a HOA, I've known about for years. In my own neighborhood, we have used a Yahoo® Groups for years and it has been helpful in keeping up with events in the neighborhood.

A case study was done in Houston, Texas, for a period of ten (10) weeks and, apparently, Mr. Mehta has the stats to prove an 80% reduction in crime. Although my neighborhood moderator (of our Yahoo Group) does keep the homeowners well informed, many of us tend to ignore postings that look like complaints or robo-messsages from the association managers (a separate business) and sometimes miss really important messages (like local murders, utility shut-offs, etc. and other frequently occurring events that happen on the East side of ATX).

The article goes on to state that users have more privacy controls than Facebook® or Yahoo by allowing the users to be the moderators as well as the users. This feature encourages homeowners to feel safe when becoming acquainted with their neighbors, with the end result being a more secure neighborhood. For neighborhoods that do not have a virtual network in place for homeowners, this would be a good option.

To read more, visit http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/28/3945100/new-social-media-my-virtual-neighbor.html#ixzz1ZHbfLdlt

CRAIGSLIST on TWITTER! (or How to Spend $0 on Books for College)

Well, not exactly, but pretty close. According to an article posted by TechCrunch,
a new, free e-trade site was launched during a recent TechCrunch ‘Hackathon’ (http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/11/watch-the-techcrunch-disrupt-hackathon-live-2/).

This newly launched Twitter business, @Shopr.com, coordinates those hoping to sell and those looking to buy in specific regions or cities, similar to Craigslist. A quote from the article states, “The service’s founders tell me that in their initial research currently around 7,000 Tweets per hour relate to commerce and people looking to buy and sell items (over 5,000 selling-related Tweets are sent every hour).”

As an avid Craigslist user myself, I love free advertising and no commissions. I’ve paid for most of my required books for college by buying and selling all my books at discount rates. I shop around on such sites as Half.com, Craigslist.com, Amazon.com and Textbooks.com to buy my books and I sell them as soon as I’m done using them. All in all, I’ve pretty much broken even, give or take thirty dollars. This is far cheaper than buying e-books or renting books and both leave you with nothing tangible to sell.

The article goes on to state that sellers can tweet their wares on their own site and go on about their day. @Shopr mines data from Twitter and matches the two parties, notifying the seller if an interested buyer tweets similar or matching information. If the seller hopes to have the item found by @Shopr, the seller must clearly describe the item for sale, where it’s being sold and the asking price. However, the seller can also post their items directly at #!/shoprsell.

Buyers can go to #!/shoprbuy and post items they are searching for or simply tweet about the item(s) on their own page, again listing particulars. Buyers, too, can also go directly to @Shopr’s site to poke around.

Unbelievable as it sounds, my television died the day before the Superbowl® one year. Need I say more? Thanks to Craigslist, by the end of the day, we had a TV (which, as we all know, is cheaper than a divorce). It will be interesting to see how Twitter’s @Shopr competes against Craigslist as both platforms use the same process. Ultimately, it boils down to how quickly the seller would like to make a sale and how quickly the buyer needs the item.

(From TechCrunch) http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/11/shopr-connects-buyers-and-sellers-on-twitter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Social media + Business Services

"I believe people, in general, aren't naturally aggressive. We're passive in person, but we're aggressive online," Scott Stratten author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging. That's exactly what people are doing. We have all seen them or heard of the crazy videos on youtube, for example one on how a toddler was served a margarita at a resaurant or about the guy making a series of videos on his guitar after it was broken on flight with United airlines. This video went viral after he spoke out about the lack of customer services he had received to resolve the issue.

Almost anything can be posted to the web with a single shot or video from a cell phone then in an instant posted to a social media site for the world to see. Business are understanding how important it is to make sure they aren't pulled into something that could end very badly for them. Wendy Cukier said it best, "You have to operate your organization as if any employee at any time could be on the six o'clock news," when it was reported an employee was spotted urinating in a laneway near Runnymede station.

Keith McArthur, vice-president of social media for Roger Communication has his employees address concerns from customers online. Lets face it, more and more are using social media as an outlet not just calling a representative at a call center and chewing them out for 30 minutes. McArthur goal is to have his team respond to as many tweets as they can within an hour addressing issue in concerns in a polite and respectful manner.

You can read more about this article here.

10 Animals With More Social Media Fans Than Major Media Outlets

Who doesn't love really cute animals faces? How about ESPN? Your Twitter followers votes are in and with over 1 million tweeple: Sockington the really cute animal face wins with 1,484,398 Twitter followers vs. ESPN with 1,426,705 Twitter followers.




These social site aren't just for people anymore, " ...animals have been tweeting with more than just their beaks", as stated on an article from Mashable.

Animals have been going online after you've falling asleep updating their Facebook and Twitter accounts, now they have more friends than you do.

Social networks like LOLcats, Upside-down dogs and many others have been getting more and more downloads, likes, tweeps, mobile apps downloads than several popular media outlets.

The top 10 Animals with more social media fans than major media outlets is as follows:

1)@Sockington 1,484,398 Twitter followers vs ESPN 1,426,705 Twitter followers

2)@BronxZooCobra 236,919 Twitter followers vs @bbcnews Twitter followers


3)Maru 138,118 Youtube Subscribers vs currentTV139,948 Youtube Subcribers

4)Boo 1,331,870 Facebook fans vs People Magazine 1,243,705 Facebook fans

5)@nyannyancat 123,179 Twitter followers vs @msnbc 105,630 Twitter followers

6)Beast 143,699 Facebook fans vs Forbes 133,369 Facebook fans


7)@common_squirrel 29,029 Twitter fans vs @SFGate 28,465 Twitter followers

8)@JFKTurles 8,333 Twitter followers vs @newsday 6,745 Twitter followers

9)Raccoon Willie 6,962 Youtube Subscribers vs RadioLab 4,221 Youtube Subscribers

10)@toasterpup 3,948 Twitter followers vs @SavannahNow 3,367 Twitter followers

Now we can see where some of our priorities go when it comes to social media site, cute animal faces.

Who's the bad guy in social media - Government versus Citizen

We often hear complaints about the government trying to track are every move. We also hear complaints about “big brother” invading our privacy and stepping on our rights. These complaints stemmed from known issues such as the government tapping our phones and hiding hidden cameras on certain neighborhood streets. Now, people are complaining about the government doing the same thing trough the medium of Social Media. There have been countless conspiracy theories of how the social media sites are used by the government to see who is connected to whom so that they can track people and find out with whom those people associate with. However, this particular article points out that it is not always the government doing the spying and prying, but it is oft times the citizens.

In this article the author discussed how social media has helped to cause a in the fabric of our society. People worry that social media is beginning to make families and individuals un-social. People according to the article implications are spending more time instant messaging and tweeting than they are having face to face communication with one another. Some also use the social Media to take the law into their own hands. The Vancouver Vigilante started finding people that were part of the June 15th riot that occurred after the Boston Bruins game on his own. He then posted video of them on his social media pages to help speed up the prosecution. The catch is though is that the people that he was posted on his page are people that were bragging about turning over cars and looting. One of the problems with that is that minors, teenagers and innocent bi-standards are in those videos as well. It could be a security or safety issues. Not to mention, it would scare some people from testifying in court if needed.

The question was is this fair use of social media? Furthermore, is this legal use of social media? Well, the courts deemed that it was legal. The video was of public streets and people just happened to be doing their things in those public streets. It was not necessarily of the people. Also, there are laws against recording private conversations of people without permission. There are not laws in that area preventing places of public domain where privacy is not expected from being recorded. Nevertheless, with citizens taking the law into their own hands, a question is posed. Is it really the government that are acting as the invaders of our privacy with social media or is it us the citizens?

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20110713/COLUMNIST04/107130309/Gerald-Ensley-vigilante-finds-new-home-online?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE