Content summary: FIR Book Review of "Reality is Broken" is up, another book review coming this week; News That Fits: Klout gears up for brand pages and social media dominance; Ragan promo; information control at the London Olympics 2012 vs ambush marketers (and activists); Michael Netzley's Asia report from Singapore; listener comments including John Cass on CREWE; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; Dan York reports on experimenting with SoundCloud, and more; your next conference can … [Read more...] about The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #649: April 30, 2012
Archives for April 2012
Content-scraping is theft, pure and simple
Jim Connolly posted a link on his Google+ page to "No Such Thing As A Good Scraper" by AJ Kohn, who writes a pretty good analysis and summary of what content scrapers often do with your written content. You're not wholly sure what content scraping is? The Wikipedia definition of a scraper site will help you understand it, which starts thus: A scraper site is a spam website that copies all of its content from other websites using web scraping. In the last few years scraper sites have … [Read more...] about Content-scraping is theft, pure and simple
Google Cube game brings fun to learning
A very neat idea from Google - a game to raise awareness of, and educate you about, Google Maps. Cube runs in your browser (ideally Google Chrome). You play it by completing levels that set you navigational challenges in various cities around the world. I just completed the first level, navigating to a bowling venue in New York city. When you complete a level, you get a link to learn more about a particular feature of Google Maps. Fusible has a concise but good description of the game … [Read more...] about Google Cube game brings fun to learning
How to report Twitter hashtag spammers
One of the most useful features of Twitter for events like conferences and tweet chats is the hashtag. A hashtag - a keyword preceded by the '#' symbol - enables conference-goers, the event organizer and anyone else interested in the event to see all tweets that include the hashtag. It enables anyone to listen to the conversation and easily participate. As Twitter explains it: People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets … [Read more...] about How to report Twitter hashtag spammers
FIR Book Review: Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal
FIR co-host Shel Holtz reviews Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken, which argues that the principles of game play can lead to better results than the routine approaches we take to problem-solving in the real world. From the book's description: "In this ground-breaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, McGonigal reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world. Drawing on positive psychology, cognitive science, and sociology, Reality Is … [Read more...] about FIR Book Review: Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal
Twitter can’t be gagged, even in France
The first round in the French presidential election ended yesterday with the result that Socialist Party challenger François Hollande narrowly edged in front of incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy by the slim margin of just over 1 percent of the vote. Both men will compete in a second round run-off, due to be held on May 6; the result will determine who will be the next President of France. As you'd expect, the country was abuzz with commentary, opinion and talk of every type. Non-stop media … [Read more...] about Twitter can’t be gagged, even in France
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #648: April 23, 2012
Content summary: Pinterest update cont'd: Pinterest is now losing users says Business Insider; Neville speaking at PRII annual conference in Dublin on April 26, Bernie Goldbach there too, FIR Tweetup Dublin on April 25; FIR Book Reviews of "Reality is Broken" and "#FAIL: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screwups" coming soon, FIR Interview with Causes.com coming soon; News That Fits: How can members of the European Parliament be credible "middle men" to citizens and not be cut out of the system … [Read more...] about The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #648: April 23, 2012
Aviva Investors, the uncaring employer
It's probably just as well that Aviva Investors talks only about its markets and its clients on its website home page, and not its employees. According to a report in the Telegraph, the HR department at the asset management firm fired all 1,300 employees on April 20 - by email, and by mistake. [...] There was a stunned silence at the London headquarters as staff across the division read the unsympathetic memo - intended for just one employee. It instructed all Aviva Investor workers to … [Read more...] about Aviva Investors, the uncaring employer