Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Newspapers die. Journalism lives.

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So everyone knows the social web is killing the traditional newspaper, but the flip side of that is its potential for facilitating and encouraging investigative journalism. It gives amateurs the impetus to investigate authority and uncover wrongdoing. grass roots efforts are given much needed exposure and journalists are even able to recruit readers as ad hoc assistants.

In this Article Mashable notes many more ways the social web is nurturing the future of investigative journalism.

http://mashable.com/2010/11/24/investigative-journalism-social-web/

Cash, cheque, credit or tweet?

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When it comes to monetizing your social network we had a peek when Burger King offered whoppers in exchange for sacrificing facebook friends, but not much since.

In the case of "pay with a tweet" the larger your network the greater the value, and hence the more expensive things you can use it to pay for. Time to rethink those friend requests from old classmates perhaps.

http://tiny.cc/8h8z9

PSFK takes this monetization of social networks further with the concept of social scoring:

http://www.businessesgrow.com/2010/11/22/get-ready-social-scoring-will-change-your-life/

Path. The personal network

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Aparently we have too many facebook friends to keep track of and the whole point of it is being forgotten.

Here comes Path, intended to be a more personal social network where we interact with only our closest friends and loved ones. It operates on Iphones only so updates will mostly be about Angry Birds.

RockMelt. A social browser

(download)
Interface programs like the the upcoming Internet Explorer 9, Tweetdeck and now RockMelt are helping to seamlessly merge the search and social web and get more out of our various social networking tools. Anyone managing an online community will love this.

Introducing the First Dropper

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Thanks to the pervaisiveness of digital communication in our lives today we are exposed to and able to follow more interests and fads than ever; so everyone is an early adopter of at least something. This undermines the notion of the Early Adopter as a consumer shaman, and the article below suggests this role is now filled by the "First Dropper". The First Dropper is a consumer who (like everyone) adopts trends and fashion but has a shrewd sense for detecting when something has ceased to satisfy thier needs. Think young adults a few years back who dropped their land line for naked broadband and a mobile.

http://tiny.cc/k2itw