Among all the current trends that are presently shaping the future of the Internet – the copyright revolution, the redefinition of cybercriminality, the dilemma of privacy on social networks, to name a few- there is one that has been underestimated and should be thoroughly reconsidered: the revolution of content. The ongoing euphoria towards social networks (Mark Zuckerberg has just become Time Magazine’s 2010 Man Of The Year) and the recent global trauma caused by Cablegate have played against the exposure of other major trends of New Media that really deserves equal attention.

The revolution of content is clearly one of those.

There is much to say about it but the case of Google speaks volume about the discomfort and concern characterizing the debate about how mass info is and will be apprehended by the system.

The One Trillionth Page Syndrom: When Quantity Prevails Over Quality

In 2008, Google announced it had indexed its one-trillionth page, and that was not going to stop. The new record indexation was presented as a positive evolution, the rationale behind it being that each new page indexed was a new step towards progress . However, though they presented the indexation of their trillionth page as a success, Google engineers themselves realized how monstrous the web had become.

In fact, in its blog, the web search giant claimed its engineers “stopped in awe” when they realized how big the web had become, after the index hit the trillion mark, with the web growing by several billion every day.

« This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States,” Google software engineers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj wrote in the blog.

Going a step further, the same engineers also recognized that the number of pages they had indexed and keep indexing is probably not the best yardstick by which the progress of the Internet should be measured. The idea is quite simple: indexing new pages does not reflect any improvement since that is an intrinsic characteristic of the system where pages- with no regard to the quality of their content- add up mechanically.

« So how many unique pages does the web really contain? We don’t know; we don’t have time to look at them all. Strictly speaking, the number of pages out there is infinite — for example, web calendars may have a “next day” link, and we could follow that link forever, each time finding a new page. »

So, why has Google boasted about that indexation if among the best engineers working for the company, some overtly expressed their concern about it claiming the link between quality and quantity was not proven at all? As Vinton Gray Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the Internet and the inventor of the  TCP/IP Protocal put it once in a famous metaphore, the good news about the Internet is that “the kid is growing” and the bad news about the Internet is that the “kid is growing”.

At the same time that the Internet grows, it Achilles’ Heel gets more exposed too. Therefore, the fact that the Internet is growing is neither good news, nor bad news. That’s purely factual. But what is inauspicious is to realize that the creator has lost control over its creature and that is threatening quality on the web.

“Ninety-five percent of the universe is stuff we don’t understand,” Cerf told WebProNews anchor Abby Prince Johnson.

Is the dice cast? Has the breakpoint been reached already or is it still possible to regain control on content?

To answer this question, the study of how access to music (songs and tunes being the content) has evolved since the far-west style of the democratization of the access shed some light and should certainly be set as an example of what should be done in the future to perpetuate good content and avoid poor ones in other fields.

How Music Content Has Survived The Napster Era:  learning from our mistakes.

I remember the 1998-2002 period when, at that time, the big thing for teenangers and more generally Internet users was the possibility through peer-to-peer opportunities and pirate interfaces to download tons  of music for free. I was impressed.

That was a revolution. It seemed like a new era of freedom had started. Music choices would never be burdenned by economic constraints anymore. I fully took advantage of it, and so did everyone around me.

However, what first seemed to be an incredible step further for the democratization of arts & cultures soon became a nightmare for the music lover I had always been. People would see music quantitatively.  A sentence I still remember hearing over and over again was: “how many tunes do you have?” or “how many weeks of music do you have?” That was the idea, the more music you had the cooler you were.

It didn’t  matter if you could realistically think of  hearing all that music in your lifetime. It didn’t matter if you could list all the music you had. All that mattered was “how many”. And what had to happen just happened.

After a few months,  people around me started to have wild music libraries with hundreds of thousands of untamed playlists . A non-negligible portion of those tunes had not been properly downloaded and became amputated songs. Another significant number of those were untitled or just labeled “song 1”, “title 7”.

Not to mention the poor-quality of almost all the songs, due to the alteration caused by peer-to-peer liaisons. What is more, it was not surprising to find in one’s own library unknown songs that had nonetheless been downloaded.

This era of disillusioned freedom should have given the alert to a system where quantity and easy access started to prevail over quality and selectivity. Artists were not powerful enough to have the tide reversed but collectively, with the help of their majors, they started the change.  Governments followed suit.

Through huge media campaigns and legal packages, it indeed started to change. People realized how detrimental to music incommensurate and illegal downloading could be, and eventually came to the idea that having all the music one wants in a legal framework provided the payment of a small fee had, at least, three major positive consequences: first, it would protect the music industry which, in turn would keep producing talents; second, the downloaded music would be of high-quality and third, it would force them to really select what they really want.

First-In First-Out, The music industry was definitely the very first place where content were threatened and then rescued.

Offering someone free water at home for one’s lifetime should not be an incentive to leave the tap open 24/7. Free water doesn’t mean drinking water and people should underdstand that it is always better to pay a small charge for clean and drinking water rathen than have it for free at any quality.

SeeClickFix, launched in beta in March 2008, is an application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android that allows citizens to report issues happening in the public streets to the City Hall, working like a collaborative 311.

The user takes a picture and gives a brief description of what needs to be fixed or tackled. It could be a pothole, a graffiti, a broken streetlamp… The application recognizes the geographic point where the picture has been taken and sends the Authorities the specific address, together with the picture and user description.

In the website, there is a map where the new reports pop-up as they are sent by citizens. This is useful to see the nearby reports to one´s neighborhood, and then to send the own report tackling those same problems, applying pressure by coming all together, to get the problem fixed.

This application is transforming the relationship between urban authorities and citizens. There is a new dialogue that starts, a constructive channel of public feedback. SeeClickFix fosters social commitment, empowering citizens in front of the Government. The application operates in thousand of American communities, including some big cities such as Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco. Local Governments fostering “Gov 2.0″ (also called “e-government”) are employing social media and mobile technologies, such as SeeClickFix, to build a more responsive, collaborative, and effective government to respond to a more engaged society with a richer civic commitment.

I was so surprised to read that the Obama administration (and Obama himself !) called Wikileaks a criminal organization. Logically speaking, if Wikileaks is a criminal organization, then the New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and The Guardian are too (they have been working with criminals) and should be blamed for complicity. Is this relevant or just ludicrous ? The problem here is not WikiLeaks, it is about the “politics of naming” that should force those who lead those policies to be consistent from the beginning to the end. Amateurism…

I was surprised to hear that the US State Department has required all its staff and employees not to read the disclosed documents. Not only does this information sound like a revival of old forms of conscience censorship, but it is also so ridiculous given that the State Department still call those documents “confidential” and “Top Secret”.

I was surprised by French Minister of Telecommunications Eric Besson saying this week-end that he wants to take action to try and block Wikileaks from being hosted by French Server/Host Owni on the Internet. The Internet is so liquid and volatile that any attempt to block a website’s content from being hosted by another website could only be  a waste of time: if Besson succeeds, no wonder then that Wikileaks would always manage to  be hosted by another guy.

Why are our officials so incompetently appointed? The problem here is not WikiLeaks but the lack of though and judgment of some people applying “real life” measures to what should be once and for all understood as a complex new digital age.

I was very surprised to receive an e-mail email from OSA (Office of Students Affairs) sent to SIPA’s entire body warning students not to discuss the wikileaks fiasco in any online forum, lest students interested in pursuing careers within the State Department would put their future in jeopardy. This directive seems odd considering that last year, the head of the State Department’s new e-Diplomacy was talking at SIPA. It was about need-to-share and transparency policies…

My only consolation last week came from T.Friedman’s new Op-Ed in the New York Times. The author wrote a fiction piece called « From Wiki China » where he imagines : « What if China had a WikiLeaker and we could see what its embassy in Washington was reporting about America? ».

A Must Read. Enjoy !

Since the last decade, Universities, schools and other academic institutions aiming to provide us with the necessary skills for professional success are changing their approaches to the educational experience. Developing organizational skills and learning to work in groups have become key goals; in many cases as relevant as learning the specific contents.

As a graduate student I have had the chance to acquire deep knowledge about the main challenges when working in a team. I also have had the chance to make extensive research about the best e-tools for team projects.

Are you involved in a six-member team project? Do you have to share and co-edit the same final report among the six? Do you need to arrange team meetings, tracking the evolution of common tasks and actions? If you try to tackle all these actions by using the e-mail (and by attaching documents to it), I can already assure you that it will be a nightmare.

Thanks God the new Web 2.0. is creating wonderful tools to help us. It is remarkable that Google has taken the leadership in this field, and has created very powerful tools that serve both to Google e-mail users and non users. Here are the most interesting web-apps for team-working:

- Setting a team e-mail address: to create a common e-mail address, Googlegroups is the leading option. However, as we will see later on, there are other new tools thought to avoid the saturation of emails.

- Tracking common tasks: Googlesites.com provides with interesting e-tools for team projects. It allows you to share and co-edit a common list of tasks and actions, including the status, the due date, the % completed and the persons responsible for developing the task.

- Sharing a common calendar: Googlesites is also very appropriate for this purpose. It allows the team to co-edit the calendar, and it also sends reminders to all users for the common meetings. Googlesites.com is thought to be a team project management tool. It actually creates a project website where the team installs the apps that will be useful for the specific project. However some of the applications are not so efficient as other options. For instance:

- Sharing documents and files: Dropbox is one of the smartest apps to use in groups. Dropbox is a software that synchronizes your files online and across computers.  This application creates a Dropbox folder in your computer where you can create sub-folders and include files up to 2GB for free. You will then have access to your files online, from whichever computer you use. And you will be able to share your folders with your project team. What is amazing is that it any modification of your files done online or off-line will be reflected in the Dropbox folder of your computer. As I mentioned, Googlesites also has an application for sharing documents. However, having used it, I think it is not so complete and useful as Dropbox.

- Co-editing documents: Dropbox might be useful when the team needs to co-edit documents. It also allows the team to recover old versions of the documents. For easier projects, Googledocs might also be a valid e-tool. However, the editing tools are quite limited, specially for word documents.

- Sending updates: to avoid sending e-mails with the recent news and information that the team needs to know, Googlesites offers the possibility to include recent updates in the project website.

What I have not found yet is an easy application that could serve the team to vote and obtain general consensus or absolute majority of fast decisions that are usually suggested in e-mails. Questions such as: “should I send the final draft to the professor?” “Should I respond “yes” to the client?” will normally require the answer of the whole team or the majority of it. When each member of the team answers by e-mail, the inbox just gets too saturated. Some of the applications above described could be used for this purpose. However, I consider a nice specific tool for this purpose would be strongly appreciated!

In this post I would like to share my findings about the best websites to find an apartment or to sublet yours when you or your roommate goes on holidays.

TO FIND AN APARTMENT FOR RENT the best source available (at least by August 2010) was Craiglist. In that moment, there were already some other interesting options such as Renthop.com.

Renthop has the great advantage that shows available flats  in a map. By using Googlemaps, the website allows you to visually identify the oportunities for rent. However, Renthop was not functional at all, since the apartments were not filtered or ranked by date published. This made the website almost unuseful, since one of the most relevant features for a successful research is to look only at the most recent publications. Craiglist has a lot of filters that make the research extremely accurate. I have just been doing some “googling” and found that there is a new website (housingmaps.com) that embeds the Craiglist rental publications  into Googlemaps. Congrats: the best of Renthop and Craiglist all together. Still, there are some limitations in the filters they offer. But we have improved!

TO SUBLET YOUR ROOM OR APARTMENT the best option found is Airbnb.com. This relatively new website is very interesting (and very profitable for its founders!) as it incorporates the best available e-tools to find or offer temporary stays. Airbnb uses Googlemaps, offers all the necessary filters and allows to pay and be payed through easy and new methods as Paypal (it does not even require to have a Paypal account for the payer). The payment methods offered are extremely helpful, quick and efficient for both the guest and the host: from the moment the guest does the reservation (and pays to the website), the apartment or room available will be blocked to other users until the host decides to accept the offer (within 36 hours). On the other hand, the host does not need to worry about the payment anymore, since Airbnb will be paying directly to his Paypal account or bank account in the first day of the guest stay.

Of course Airbnb gets a small commission from both parts! But still it is worth it (specially for the host), as the website allows you to offer your apartment using the Euro currency (the website is mainly thought for European tourists), what makes the operation really profitable for the host offering an apartment in US.

Moreover, there is some other aspect that makes Airbnb really much better than Craiglist: it allows its users to chat, send messages, develop a profile and get recommendations from previous guests/hosts, from Facebook friends. This friendly interactive e-tools allow the guest and host to “meet” each other before doing and after doing the deal. This builds trust with each other and makes the outlet a better and more secure experience.

Finally, Airbnb allows you to find outlet options not only in apartments, but also in villas,country houses,tree-houses and castles, expanding their business towards “life experiences” sales. Smart website!

No other expression best applies to what happened to me while I was  reading one of this week’s class readings: Social Media Can Open Door to Philantropy’s Future, by Larry Blumenthal.

In his Op-Ed, Larry Blumenthal describes a workshop he led for staff from a variety of foundations to convince them that there were no such thing as Social Media. To him, engaging with Social media is tantamount to fostering collaboration, openness, transparency, timeliness, sharing work in progress, embracing and learning from failure. In this respect, the author believes, any person claiming that Social Media does not seem relevant to his or her work is–to say the least– totally wrong!

Little by little, Blumenthal’s arguments started to convince me…I was seduced. Actually, I believe i wanted to be convinced.

Such an easy thing:all I had to do was to  keep reading his piece to the end and say to myself “He is so right! I should not be concerned anymore with spending hours a day on facebook/twitter/flickr and youtube while studying at the same time, that is actually good for me! This is a better way to stay informed! This is a tool that can help me do what I am already doing, only more effectively”

But that couldn’t unfold this way and that is exactly what happened: It didn’t unfold this way…Just like rain brought itself to a week-end that had started with the sun, my friend Yoel’s message had to distract my attention from Blumenthal’s mess.And not in a insignificant way.

I open Yoel message. It was entitled “Reda, you’ll love that!”. Let’s have a look at the message’s body. Nothing but a link.

Ok, I click on the link. “The Top Ten Ways Workers Waste Time Online”. Funny coincidence, isn’t it?

I scroll down and discover a list of ten things allegedly making people waste time online and lose productivity, especially when they are working. All that Blulmenthal’s Social Media Improvement Thing was supposed to avoid.

The website looks really serious.After quickly scrolling down to have a general sense of what that page was all about, I started to read it from the beginning. The verdict just killed my enthusiasm:

Number 1: Social Networks – 1.24 hr/week

“Social networking has come to dominate Internet use.  Nucleus Research, an IT research firm, found that 77% of employees who have access to Facebook from work check it at least once a day.  Of course, other large and fast-growing social media sites such as Twitter also contribute to the loss in productivity.”

Here is one example of a magic picture with this app. I took this picture this Summer in Costa Brava (Spain)

The views were really nice by themselves, but I would have never realized I was in such a mysterious and wonderful place were it not for this magical application.

This application allows iPhone users to take pictures with their devices obtaining a similar result to that obtained with the Lomo cameras. For those unfamiliar with the new “hipster” trend (please, click!) of recovering the old-fashioned Lomo cameras, I should just write another post. To make a long story short, the Lomo cameras were invented by the USSR and had a very different technology from the American ones. They almost disappeared when the Soviet Union fell, as many other technologies that they had developed. The American technology was more advanced, but the results were not as beautiful. That is why Lomo cameras survived among those who prevail beauty over practicality, and why the “hipsters” are nowadays fostering its revival.  You just need to have a look to the gadgets offered in Urban Outfitters to discover that Lomo cameras are among the favorite option for a birthday present. There is also a very nice shop in Greenwich Village called Lomography where you can find all types of Lomo cameras.

For those who do not want to spend a minimum of $50 dollars for such a toy, we have the cheap option of Hipstamatic, which also allows you to play with different type of lenses.

Before I start feeling like a sales representative I am going to make the point of this post: I am totally amazed by how this iPhone app can make people look so beautiful and nice! It gets out the secret beauty inside every human being. My belief is that it photographs the souls of people and things. For instance, here there is a photograph of my soul:

And here is a last example of the magic of Hipstamatic: Don´t we look like very nice, sensible and harmless girls?

Thanks to companies such as HireVue and InterviewStream, more employers are now turning to virtual interviews in order to pre-screen job candidates. This means before you get called in to meet the boss, you may be asked to record short video answers online, or participate in a live virtual interview.

Maybe employers really do learn most of what they need to know about a job candidate in the first 60 seconds of an interview. But can a video recording truly replace face-to-face interaction?

HireHive co-founders David Albert and Nick Bergson-Shilcock sure think so. They launched their company just last month, and like their competitors, say they developed the application to address the needs of companies that increasingly find the resume-and-cover-letter system outdated and inefficient.

According to an article in Canada’s Globe & Mail, some managers say “they prefer the way video responses help them screen out the not-so-serious candidates. Others appreciate how the technology allows them to ‘meet’ long-distance candidates without the expense of flying them in for an interview.”

As for job-seekers, many see it as an opportunity to be creative and stand out among a sea of applicants. Though some people don’t like the idea of submitting webcam close-ups to prospective employers.

Regardless, the virtual interview allows recruiters to get a taste of an applicant’s personality from the get-go, rather than take up precious time interviewing hordes of candidates who simply look good on paper.

As unnatural as it may seem, this technology is revolutionizing the way we communicate in the workplace. “Good on Video” is about to become the new “Good on Paper.”

To ace your next virtual job interview, check out these essential tips.

Here are a few quick links on how NGO’s and nonprofits can utilize social media to engage constituent audiences. Nothing too profound but good to browse through in case there’s an item or two that captures the imagination.

• 10 Things Every Nonprofit Should Know About Social Media and Online Communications (via frogloop)
  

  From grassroots advocacy staffers to Hill staffers and PR folks, the same questions arose… what are the top social media tools to use to spread an organizations message and how does an organization effectively use online communications tools.

• Five Simple Ways Nonprofits Can Measure Social Media ROI (via NonProfitOrgs)
  

  Recent studies have revealed that the vast majority of nonprofits do not know how to measure ROI (Return on Investment) from utilizing social media. Below are 5 simple, low-cost ways nonprofits can measure ROI with a minimal time investment of only a couple of hours a month.

• Social Good (via Portfolio.com)
  

  Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and blogging are helping nonprofits get the word out about their causes in ways they never could before. And many initiatives are bringing in valuable cash donations and helping companies find much-needed support among younger people.

• 13 Prominent Social Media Activities Implemented By the Top 200 Non Profits (via Infinity Technologies)
  

  So what are some of the best practices and uses of social media as displayed by the top 200 US NGO’s.