O estado da blogosfera 2008

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O artigo
State of the Blogosphere / 2008

Welcome to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, which will be released in five consecutive daily segments. Since 2004, our annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, we resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. For the first time, we surveyed bloggers directly about the role of blogging in their lives, the tools, time, and resources used to produce their blogs, and how blogging has impacted them personally, professionally, and financially. Our bloggers were generous with their thoughts and insights. Thanks to all of the bloggers who took the time to respond to our survey.

Day 1: Who Are the Bloggers?
Day 2: The What And Why of Blogging
Day 3: The How of Blogging
Day 4: Blogging For Profit
Day 5: Brands Enter The Blogosphere

in Technorati

Segurança online

Quando criamos uma conta de e-mail ou o acesso a um serviço na Internet, nem sempre temos consciência da facilidade com que essa conta ou esse acesso pode ser utilizado por outros, nomeadamente hackers. O segredo está nas perguntas de confirmação.

O artigo
Those Crazy Internet Security Questions
By Kate Pickert Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2008

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Think carefully before you answer. The question above is from the password retrieval system for Virgin America's Elevate frequent flyer program, one of several a user may be prompted to answer in order to verify his or her identity. But it's not just Richard Branson's own quirky take on the standard "What's your mother's maiden name?" query, widely used for verification purposes by many banks and e-mail services. These days, security questions are getting more creative because they have to. As we make more and more personal information freely available online via our blogs, Facebook profiles, Flickr photos and Twitter, security questions based on biographical data are becoming less and less secure.

in Time

Estarão os mais novos a ficar desatentos?

A utilização do computador alterou, sem dúvida, o quotidiano de muitas pessoas. E, na opinião de uma prestigiada neurocientista britânica, Baroness Greenfield, poderá mesmo afectar o nível de atenção dos mais novos que, cada vez mais cedo, estão durante várias horas a interagir com essa ferramenta informática. Esta ideia não é ainda consensual e gera polémica no meio.

O artigo
Is computer use changing children?
By Marc Settle
Reporter, BBC iPM

As the age at which children start to get familiar with computers and the net gets ever lower, questions are starting to be asked about what that exposure is doing to our children's brains and their ability to concentrate.

These questions are ones which eminent neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield says needs to be confronted. The director of the Royal Institution says the "sensory-laden environment" of computers could result in people "staying in the world of the small child".

Professor Greenfield has spent a lifetime researching the physiology of the brain, and now thinks that there could be a link between the attention span of children and the growing use of computers.

In an interview for Radio 4's iPM she said: "The last 10 years have seen a three-fold increase in the prescription of the drug Ritalin, a drug used for Attention Deficit Disorder. One asks why?

"Why suddenly is there greater demand for a drug for attentional problems?" she asked. "This might, and I stress might, be something to do with the increased exposure of young children to unsupervised and lengthy hours in front of a screen."

in BBC News - Technology

O sexo dos blogues

As "Mommy bloggers" é o novo fenómeno da blogosfera. Cada vez são mais e reúnem-se em comunidades como a BlogHer para unir forças. As mulheres podem ser o sexo forte da Web 2.0 e, consequentemente, é preciso mudar as estratégias de marketing e publicidade.

O artigo
The power of female blogging
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

The message was loud. It was clear. It was simple.

"Take the money."

Spelling it out was Gina Garrubbo, executive vice president of BlogHer, which claims to be the biggest online community for women who blog.

Ms Garrubbo made her comments at Blogher's recent conference in a session that aired concerns mommy bloggers have about selling out by displaying adverts on their sites or testing out products.

"Everyday I talk to Fortune 500 companies and they care. They care about supporting you on your terms. It is your opportunity. Build the business. Write the rules," said Ms Garrubbo.

in BBC News - Technology

Vem aí o Estado da Blogosfera 2008

Os resultados do Estado da Blogosfera 2008 serão divulgados em Setembro pela Technorati. Entretanto, pede-se a colaboração dos bloggers para dizerem como blogam.

O survey
Technorati has been tracking the Blogosphere for the past several years through our State of the Blogosphere study. This year we have decided to expand our study beyond the sheer size and characteristics of the blogosphere in order to hear more from you, the bloggers. How, when and why are you blogging? Is this a side business, full time job or something you do for fun? Our goal is to analyze the growth of the field as well as understand the people who make the space tick. Help us and join the study of the ongoing global conversation!

Click here to take the survey! http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/mmc/mmc08001

We hope you will find this survey enjoyable. It should take just 15-20 minutes of your time, and your responses are entirely confidential.

The Technorati Team
http://technorati.com/

Redes sociais dentro e fora do ecrã

Quando acedemos a uma rede social ou ao IM, temos uma série de amigos ou contactos que podemos interpelar, nomeadamente se procuramos uma informação. Qualquer um pode responder, mesmo que não esteja próximo ou não o conheçamos bem.

Contudo, como funciona uma estratégia semelhante fora do ecrã, por exemplo num contexto profissional? A quem vamos interpelar? Que rede é formada com a organização e execução das tarefas da sua equipa de trabalho? Um estudante do MIT apresentou uma modalidade alternativa para estudar a interacção de grupos designada reality mining.

O artigo
Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends'
By Clive Thompson 07.21.08

Benjamin Waber has a grim piece of news for managers and CEOs: You're out of the loop.
Waber, a PhD student in MIT's Human Dynamics Group, studies the way groups interact socially — based on who's talking to whom. But unlike most social scientists, who simply ask people about their behavior, Waber and his colleagues measure it. They outfit employees with special badges that work with base stations to log all conversations between employees, including location and duration. With this data, Waber's team can plot exactly how information flows inside a firm.

Almost every time he analyzes a group, Waber discovers that the super-connector — the crucial person who routes news among team members — isn't the manager. "The manager is almost always peripheral," Waber says. "It's some random guy." And that person is usually overworked and overstressed. He isn't given enough support to fulfill his role, because nobody in the firm knows he's doing it in the first place. If you study the org chart, the higher-ups are in control. But if you study reality, those same managers barely know what's going on.

This type of research has evolved into a new field called reality mining. By tracking people using location-aware devices like mobile phones or electronic badges, scientists are revolutionizing our understanding of how social networks function.

in Wired.com - Tech Biz

A leitura na era digital

Recentemente fiz um trabalho sobre os hábitos de leitura dos portugueses e interroguei-me pessoalmente sobre esta questão de qual o papel e o lugar da leitura na era da Internet e das mensagens escritas. Gostei das respostas que obtive, mas parte de mim receia que o prazer da leitura de um bom livro possa passar a ser descoberto mais raramente. Agora quem levanta mais questões sobre o tema são especialistas americanos.

O artigo
Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: July 27, 2008

BEREA, Ohio — Books are not Nadia Konyk’s thing. Her mother, hoping to entice her, brings them home from the library, but Nadia rarely shows an interest.

Instead, like so many other teenagers, Nadia, 15, is addicted to the Internet. She regularly spends at least six hours a day in front of the computer here in this suburb southwest of Cleveland.

A slender, chatty blonde who wears black-framed plastic glasses, Nadia checks her e-mail and peruses myyearbook.com, a social networking site, reading messages or posting updates on her mood. She searches for music videos on YouTube and logs onto Gaia Online, a role-playing site where members fashion alternate identities as cutesy cartoon characters. But she spends most of her time on quizilla.com or fanfiction.net, reading and commenting on stories written by other users and based on books, television shows or movies.

Her mother, Deborah Konyk, would prefer that Nadia, who gets A’s and B’s at school, read books for a change. But at this point, Ms. Konyk said, “I’m just pleased that she reads something anymore.”

Children like Nadia lie at the heart of a passionate debate about just what it means to read in the digital age. The discussion is playing out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world, and within groups like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association.

in The New York Times - Books