Kept under wraps until today (the release of their beta version), Rockmelt is a Mountain View start-up that Andreesen invested in and advises. The idea is that it is built entirely around social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, making a more social browser.

According to the RockMelt blog:

RockMelt does more than just navigate Web pages. It makes it easy for you to do the things you do every single day on the Web: share and keep up with your friends, stay up-to-date on news and information, and search. And of course, RockMelt is fast, secure, and stable because it’s built on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser. It’s your browser – re-imagined and built for how you use the Web.

After poking around a bit, it seems that the browser looks and feels similar to that of Chrome, which makes sense since Google’s model is their foundation (it even has the Incognito mode). Along the edges of the browser are your Facebook friends and Twitter and RSS feeds, allowing you to chat, message, or check status updates regardless of what site you’re currently on. These are updated in the background and utilize a “push notifications” function that informs you of the messages and updates that are piling up back there. The browser utilizes the company’s cloud service to provide the feed pushing, allowing for faster updates and surfing. Basically, if you’re familiar with these social networking sites, it seems pretty easy to understand and use.

[YOUTUBE] RockMelt: Your browser. Re-imagined.

In addition to being a sharing and networking platform, Rockmelt boasts of its improved ease and speedy search capabilities, its ability to personalize and back up information by the Cloud system (it’s the first browser you log into, unlocking your personal world at any computer you use), and it’s “rock solid” foundation, being built on at a secure and stable core.

You can sign up for your beta version, follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook.

Everyone from the presidential to the parliamentary level is getting involved. According to Tungaraza’s blog, current President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has an official site and Facebook page. Kikwete’s running mate, Gharib Bilal, also has a Twitter account. Not to be outdone, one of the opposition candidates, Wilbrod Slaa, has a Facebook page, although he has fewer fans that Mr. Kikwete.

According to another blogger, Ndesanjo Macha, one parliamentary candidate has stood out as especially social media savvy. Zitto Kabwe, the parliamentary candidate for Kigoma North has utilized YouTube and Flickr in addition to Twitter. Kabwe tweets in both English and Swahili and also shares links to videos of campaign activities on other sites. He also used Twitter to dispel rumors about his death and express concern about armed police presence at political rallies. Kabwe is one of the youngest members of parliament so it’s not surprising that he has been eager to use social media as part of his strategy to engage with younger voters.

It’s yet to be seen whether social media campaigning will have a major impact on the elections since such a small proportion of the population has access to the internet via computer or smart phone. However, Tanzanian bloggers seem hopeful and internet access in the region will only expand in the future.

Photo source: Global Voices Online

Then, some of friends and colleagues (the most emphatic ones), will try to give a more scientific response in order to delete from my face that annoying expression of somebody who is totally disappointed with their answer. They would argue something like: “These are platforms in the Internet where people can communicate, connect with other people, find friends, participate in debates etcetera… By the way Marta, are you kiddin´?” (This can be considered level 1 of social media knowledge – he or she really believes he knows what he is talking about).

To what I argue that No, I am not kidding, I want just to understand how social media is being used as a tool by for profit and non-profit organizations”. In this moment, she or he looks at me with visionary eyes. “Let me explain you, Marta: many businesses are now using this social media as a way to connect with their customers, to have feedback from them…Many NGOs and advocacy groups are also using these new web-based tools to increase their outreach, fundraising, followers… It is the new era of communication!”. This answer might be assigned a level 2 or 3 of knowledge, according to the degree of excitement in the exclamative proposition.

Depending on the level of “on the loop” that he or she is, they might start talking about crowd-fundraising websites as Kiva.org, mass collaboration as Wikipedia or InnoCentive for R&D. Somebody that even took a course about social media could tell me some success stories of businesses and NGOs using this new media: “Didn’t you know that Obama used the social media in the electoral campaigns? Didn’t you hear about how successful his team was in reaching votes and crowd fundraising?”. Levels 4 and 5 of potential “knowldege”. This might be actually my current status: it seems I am on the loop by my real knowledge is still quite empty.

Ok, I surrender. I still don’t know how this social media really makes the advantage.  Probably it is my fault as I am not being very clear in my question. Let’s try again: How did these social media success stories actually work out? How can I go to an NGO and assure them that I will develop a social media strategy that will bring them thousands of fans, followers, and crowd fundraising?

This is going to be my personal goal for the rest of the semester.  I´m gonna explore best practices in the field and learn how to implement them. I am eager to learn the real content and dynamics of the social media.

In this YouTube promo video, a book-loving ape tries to teach a tech-savvy donkey about a “curious object” he calls a book. Flat and rectangular, with a hard cover and soft inside, it baffles the donkey:

What do you have there? the donkey asks.
It’s a book, says the ape.
Can you scroll down?
Nope. You turn the page. It’s a book.
Can you blog with it?
No, it’s a book.
Well, can it Tweet?
No, says the ape, exasperated.
Can it text? Can it Wi-fi? Does it need a password?

The lesson might be parody today, but imagine what it says for the next generation of people that will grow up in our increasingly digital era. Will books become nostalgic, dusty artifacts in a museum? Will our children never know the experience of reading in a chair with a book spread open on their laps? For many people, this notion is inconceivable.

For Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International, it’s “nonsense.” Last year, at the FIPP World Magazine Conference in London, he said, “To those that believe that paper and print will disappear, I have only one word – nonsense.” The crowd roared in applause.

Maybe it is just nonsense that books will disappear. Although they can’t compete with the virtues of computers or Kindles, books offer something different — a tactile experience that forces us to slow down and exercise our imaginations.

As Adam Gopnik writes in the New York Times Magazine: “The moral of Smith’s book is the right one: not that screens are bad and books are good, but that what books do depends on the totality of what they are — their turning pages, their sturdy self-­sufficiency, above all the way they invite a child to withdraw from this world into a world alongside ours in an activity at once mentally strenuous and physically still.”

Needless to say that it was not part of the plan for those young scandal instigators to be-first- seen on a national TV channel before-second- hitting the headlines of major newspapers all over the world.

As expected, reactions and comments around the world coming from political leaders, civil society, NGOs, bloggers and even Tsahal officials condemned the behaviors of those immature kids.

“This video finally debunks one of the most persistent Israeli myths – that ours is the only occupying army in history that does not sexually abuse the women of the occupied nation », says Israeli Editorialist Dimi Reider on his blog, Dimi’s notes. »

Besides its political taint, the reaction of the official Palestinian bodies was undoubtedly the most resourceful one.

“With the advent of easy-to-use media like YouTube, the truth is coming to light about a culture of humiliation of the Palestinians,” said a Palestinian official from Prime Minister Fayyad’s office on Tuesday, October 5^th.

Beyond the non-surprising political interpretation of the video by the Palestinian Government, what is crucial in the statement is the awareness of the impact new digital media has on today’s political realities.

The case of Israel is quite telling, as the Israeli IDF has had a long tradition of discretion and control on everything that relates to its communication. Therefore, witnessing a non-amateur army in such an uncomfortable position (to say the least) is blatant evidence of the immense power and tremendous volatility new media have today.

In fact, things seem to have changed for Tsahal, making it harder and harder for the Israeli army to control everything, as this video is not an isolated case for the IDF. In fact, this new broadcast is the third thorn the Israeli army had to deal with after two similar cases had occurred earlier this year, all three happening within a six-month period.

First, exposure of the video came just seven weeks after an Israeli soldier sparked widespread outrage by posting pictures of herself smiling and larking around next to blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian prisoners. The army denounced the pictures as “shameful,” while the Palestinian Authority described them as humiliating, but the former soldier, Eden Abergil, could not understand why the images had caused such offence.

Second, earlier last summer, the video of six soldiers breaking out into a coordinated dance routine in the middle of the street while on duty in Hebron prompted a global outcry that had destabilized Tsahal’s communication. The video was all the more shocking, as Hebron has had a sad and bloody tradition of paroxysmal violence between illegal settlers and local Palestinians.

« Israel has not yet find the weapon against this kind of threats », says Omar Barghouti, a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. No matter how many radars, anti-missile shields,F-15 and M-16 you may have, New Media is stronger than you.

Not an Isolated Case

Yet, Israel and the Palestinian territories are not the only places where new media are changing the rules of the communication/censorship  game.

YouTube was blocked in Thailand because of videos showing people stomping on photographs of the Thai King.

Turkey, on the other hand, is offended by videos that indicate that Ataturk, the founder and first president of Turkey, was homosexual. Turkey wants YouTube to block these videos not only in its own country, but also everywhere else. As YouTube refuses to do so, the site remains blocked there.

YouTube: spearhead of the revolution.

Originally aimed at socializing people through Entertainment videos (music, dance), Youtube has now become a major global actor playing a political role in each and every country.

Ironically on the same day the belly-dancing video hit the web and went viral, Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics at Youtube, came to Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs to have lunch with students, alumni, staff and faculty in the second brownbag lunch of the year sponsored by the IMAC specialization.

“Today with YouTube, you can’t get away from the camera no matter where you go,” he said.

“This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. YouTube was not created to become a public square. But as with a lot of such platforms, it’s most important role can be upsetting the power structure… The old world was a conversation between politicians and news organizations. In today’s world, there’s a whole other layer out there where you have regular people holding their leaders accountable.”

Over the past decade groups around the world have utilized Internet communication technologies during crisis to broadcast their message to local and global communities. Tubes, Code & Content looks at three case studies to see how this has been done. In the process we see that over the years, the ability to harness Internet communications is moving from formal organizations to anyone with actual Internet access.

Case studies include:

• B92, an oppositional radio station in Milosevic’s Yugoslavia;
• Sokwanele, an oppositional group under Mugabe’s Zimbabwe;
• Iran Elections, a mass protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 reelection.

Before we review them though, we explore the the significance of the shear amount of digital content being produced on a global scale. In doing so we learn that 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube per minute and the digital equivalent of a US Library of Congress is created every 15 minutes. What challenges does this present? What does such mass creation signify?

Run time is approximately one hour. Our review of digital creation takes place up to approximately minute thirty. Discussion of B92, Zimbabwe and Iran occur from there until the end.

Both the video and the presentation can be downloaded by selecting the links below.

• The “Media. Communication. Protests.” Screencast. iTouch/iPhone compatible. (160 MB .m4v file)
• The “Media. Communication. Protests.” PDF. Includes active links to sites and sources referenced in the presentation.

UPDATE: Creative Cloud has a post from the other day called If You Printed the Internet. Fun stuff. Includes factoids such as, if the Internet was a book, it would weigh 1.2 billion pounds and measure 10,000 feet tall.