A US consumer poll done in the second quarter of ’08 found that 75 percent of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007.

Adoption rates vary by the type of activity. For example, Forrester found large growth in participation among those reading blogs and writing product reviews. “Spectator” rates jumped from 48 percent to 69 percent. Likewise, those identifying themselves as “critics” increased from 25 percent to 37 percent.

Yet other areas saw more modest increases. Maintaining RSS feeds and tagging Internet content remain far from the norm. Just 19 percent fell into that “collector” category, up from 12 percent a year ago.

Rates of content creation have slowed considerably. Those publishing a blog or personal Web page saw incremental growth: 21 percent versus 18 percent. In fact, blogging grew just 10 percent, well behind the 39 percent growth in starting a social network profile. Still, blogs remain a highly popular form of social media: 48 percent of respondents said they have read one, a nearly 50 percent increase

from 2007.

In another sign that social media has gone mainstream, Forrester found the participation gap narrowing among age groups, though younger demographics still rate higher. Forrester found 35-44-year-olds increasingly entered the ranks of critics, joiners and spectators.

Dragons’ Den left the real value on the cutting room floor for St. John’s-based dataSentinel™

Company offers enterprise solution for protecting highly sensitive, unstructured data files

St John’s, NF, October 27, 2008 - Dragons’ Den left the real value on the cutting room floor for St. John’s-based dataSentinel™, in an episode aired yesterday on CBC Television. dataSentinel™ is not a generic online storage solution. dataSentinel™ is a software as a service enterprise platform that protects sensitive, unstructured data files from disastrous theft, loss or leak. dataSentinel™ is extremely secure due to a patent-pending encryption method and triple-redundancy storage technique. Interested Chief Technology and Chief Technology Security Officers and others are invited to evaluate the technology firsthand at http://www.datasentinel.com/contact.php.

“I would like to thank Dragons’ Den for the opportunity to present dataSentinel™ this week (Monday, October 27, 2008 at 8:00 PM (8:30 PM in Newfoundland) on CBC Television),” said Tom Chalker, President and CTO, dataSentinel™. “Four years ago, I invented the dataSentinel™ solution to help IT and computer security departments securely store highly sensitive, unstructured electronic files. dataSentinel™ is essential for organizations that could fail or be highly compromised if secret files are stolen, lost or leaked.”

The dataSentinel™ solution eliminates the need to store sensitive data files on any vulnerable storage device as backup. This hard-drive-independent enterprise-grade solution provides security conscious enterprise customers with a never-before-available combination of complete data discretion and worldwide user mobility.

About dataSentinel™

dataSentinel™ offers a unique solution to large organizations with their own unique challenges when it comes to data security, sharing and mobility. dataSentinel™ is the world’s first data security system to actually deliver both greater accessibility and portability while also allowing increased security. The patent-pending technology allows files to be accessed by authorized users from any Internet-connected computer, anywhere in the world, while securely locking out everyone else. dataSentinel™ is surprisingly easy to set up and use, and can be configured to meet any company’s operating style and needs.

Company Contact

Tom Chalker, President and CTO,  

877 455 3282, 709 738 7517, tom_chalker@datasentinel.com, www.datasentinel.com

Media Contact

Howard Oliver, What If What Next™ - Web 2.0 PR, 905-709-8582, 2900 holiver@whatifwhatnext.com

Here are some elements which I think would really make these mini-sites work:

Single-issue. Deal with a few topics.  

Reference-friendly. Make your site more linkable. Cover an issue in full, through original content and external links.

Novelty/Simplicity. A single-page website work best. Use a clean, unique and topically relevant site designs will always help.

Viral components. To make people spread the word, encourage them by providing sharing options like an email-a-friend feature or link-to-me banners. Favorite tools that marketers have used include quizzes, videos and polls. Anything interactive.

Link. Use a link to an email list or master site

Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications.

Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.

Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.

Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.

Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.

Would appreciate hearing about your experiences!

Howard

Interesting that Microsoft does not seem to believe in Open Source virtual worlds such as Second Life. 

We see that AVITAR construction is not yet ready but 3D spaces don't  have to be totally immersive counter-culture. In fact they can be just another view of a conventional file system. In that context they would leverage the excellent 3D spatial memory ability of the human brains.

Open source platforms – not "synthetic virtual worlds" – but spaces or rooms seem more likely.

With the right tools, 3D space could be low cost, easy to design, develop and manipulate. It would be a medium where people can architect the presentation of data, collaborate, work on projects, learn and teach, conduct transactions and generally build a sense of community.

BTW - If this is an area that interests you, I have been given access to a new resource to build special environments - open source 3D project spaces, classrooms, war rooms, secure data repositories etc. .

I’ll also be exploring this area in some detail in the coming months – stay tuned

Read the complete article at http://www.pcworld.com/article/151613/real_life_will_trump_second_life_microsoft_says.html

The brightest spot in an ad recession is direct response. As Ad Age noted recently:

"Many analysts now agree that when marketing budgets come under pressure in a stressed economy, those sectors that can best document their connection to ROI, such as search-engine advertising, are far more attractive to corporate chiefs than other kinds of less-trackable traditional advertising."

Our direct response, WebVoyaging™ Campaigns deliver proven ROI and are highly trackable see http://www.whatifwhatnext.com/webvoyage.htm.

Google is delivering on its promise that its online advertising system would do relatively well in an economic downturn. The company exceeded Wall Street expectations, reporting a solid 26 percent jump in net income to $1.35 billion, or $4.24 a share, from $1.07 billion in the third quarter of 2007. The company also said that the number of times users clicked on its ads grew 18 percent from a year earlier, roughly the same rate as in the previous quarter. The results were supported by strong gains in online advertising and cost reduction measures.  

Google makes its revenues from on-search ads, the fastest-growing segment of the market. Marketers use these ads to lure people to their Web sites, and are among the last thing advertisers would cut during a recession. Google’s business model has proven successful because of its focus on performance. In tough times, no one wants to turn away a customer! Advertisers are willing to take all the clicks they can get.

The Web 2.0 PR work What If What Next™ is doing currently to build business development vessels – like the Clipper Ships of the past – that integrate social networks, trade routes, dynamic content, business relationships and commercial transactions is continuing do good things for our clients. We are growing nicely because we are focused on measurable results.

Dimensioning Equipment Optimizes Warehouse Facilities

By Howard Oliver, CEO, What If What Next™

Here are two examples of warehouses ...   more »