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	<title>Our Latest Discovery &#187; fun</title>
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		<title>More fun with Skype: The laughter chain</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/more-fun-with-skype-the-laughter-chain/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/more-fun-with-skype-the-laughter-chain/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:45:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ivy Wigmore</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/12/23/more-fun-with-skype-the-laughter-chain/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Did you know that 15 minutes of laughter = 2 hours sleep?  Or that a good belly laugh burns 3.5 calories? Granted, you&#8217;d still have to laugh a heck of a lot to incinerate all the festive eggnog and rumballs but every little bit helps&#8230; The Skype laughter chain is a viral marketing campaign that involves watching a [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Did you know that 15 minutes of laughter = 2 hours sleep?  Or that a good belly laugh burns 3.5 calories? Granted, you&#8217;d still have to laugh a heck of a lot to incinerate all the festive eggnog and rumballs but every little bit helps&#8230;</p>
<p>The <a target="_blank" href="http://www.skypelaughterchain.com">Skype laughter chain</a> is a viral marketing campaign that involves watching a video of people laughing and recording your response:</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Qmsh0kRKyB4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]</code></p>
<p>Do you have an infectious laugh? Speaking of things that are infectious/viral, laughter also boosts your immune system &#8212; why not <a target="_blank" href="http://www.skypelaughterchain.com/">give it a shot? </a></p>
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		<title>g-speak: Oblong brings the &#8220;Minority Report&#8221; operating system to science reality</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/g-speak-oblong-brings-the-minority-report-operating-system-to-science-reality/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/g-speak-oblong-brings-the-minority-report-operating-system-to-science-reality/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:21:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/11/15/g-speak-oblong-brings-the-minority-report-operating-system-to-science-reality/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[William Gibson noted recently that the cyberpunk fiction he&#8217;d been writing over the past quarter century has now become science fact. Pattern Recognition and Spook Country are both set in near-futures with technology and social norms that are only a slight extension of the complex technological realities of the present. The neural shunt that jacks [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson">William Gibson</a> noted recently that the cyberpunk fiction he&#8217;d been writing over the past quarter century has now become science fact. Pattern Recognition and Spook Country are both set in near-futures with technology and social norms that are only a slight extension of the complex technological realities of the present. The neural shunt that jacks you into the network he imagined in Neuromancer hasn&#8217;t quite have arrived yet but some <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/31/60minutes/main4560940.shtml">humans now have direct brain-computer interfaces implanted in their brains</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/aboutme.php">Brad Feld</a> appreciates this relationship between science fiction and fact as few others do. As he writes in <a href="http://www.oblong.net/article/084H-PKI5Rb9I4Ti.html">&#8216;Science Fact</a>&#8216; on Oblong&#8217;s web blog, the future of human-computer interaction is looking  breathtaking. And, while the genetically-engineering precognitive humans Philip K. Dick imagined in &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Minority_Report">Minority Report</a>&#8221; in 1956 haven&#8217;t arrived yet, g-speak certainly has.</p>
<p>g-speak is a spatial operating environment from <a href="http://www.oblong.net/">Oblong Industries</a> that combines a gestural interface, DLP projectors and &#8216;recombinant networking.&#8221; It&#8217;s modeled upon the virtual OS operated by Precrime Agent John Anderton in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Report_(film)">Minority Report</a>, the film adaptation of Dick&#8217;s short story.</p>
<p>That connection is no accident. The science adviser that Spielberg consulted for the film, <a href="http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/underkoffler.html">John Underkoffler</a>, has been quietly busy since the film&#8217;s premiere in 2002. A <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/news/6120407.html">few</a> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/23/eveningnews/main792311.shtml">stories</a> <a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/underkoffler-0717.html">have</a> popped up over the years, to be sure, but since   Oblong Industries  was founded in the research in 2006 he and other technologists have advanced the technology  considerably, as you&#8217;ll see in the video below.</p>
<p>Once you&#8217;ve watched it, read    <a href="http://oblong.com/article/0866JqfNrFg1NeuK.html">g-speak in slices</a> and about the <a href="http://www.oblong.net/article/085zBpRSY9JeLv2z.html">origins of Oblong</a> in the <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/">MIT Media Lab</a> to learn  about the potential for this human-to-machine interface and the long road to bringing it into reality..</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2229299" width="555" height="335" wmode="transparent" /]</code><br />
<code></code></p>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/2229299">g-speak overview 1828121108</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user922585">john underkoffler</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>[<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/14/oblongs-g-speak-the-minority-report-os-brought-to-life/">Hat tip</a> to <a href="http://www.engadget.com">Engadget's</a> <a href="http://www.joshuatopolsky.com/">Josh Topolsky</a> and Jamie.]</p>
<p>Embedded below is a 2007 report on g-speak featuring an interview with Underkoffler.</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/WXVNDz9ZabU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]</code></p>
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		<title>I AM a PC &#8212; and my ads finally capture the breadth of human experience</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/i-am-a-pc-and-my-ads-finally-capture-the-breadth-of-human-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/i-am-a-pc-and-my-ads-finally-capture-the-breadth-of-human-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:57:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/09/22/i-am-a-pc-and-my-ads-finally-capture-the-breadth-of-human-experience/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ After two commercials with Jerry Seinfeld that left many tech pundits scratching their heads, Microsoft has finally found a sweet spot with the next two ads: the massive userbase of the world&#8217;s most common operating system. Do these ads make you want to switch over from a Mac? Or upgrade to Vista? The jury may [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> After two commercials with Jerry Seinfeld that left many tech pundits scratching their heads, Microsoft has finally found a sweet spot with the next two ads: the massive userbase of the world&#8217;s most common operating system. Do these ads make you want to switch over from a Mac? Or upgrade to Vista? The jury may remain out on that for a bit, especially given the current macroeconomic conditions in the US, but these ads will likely make you smile. These days, that&#8217;s definitely a win for the folks from Redmond. Make sure to scroll to the end to catch Steve Ballmer making his position on the matter crystal clear. Just turn your volume down a bit first.</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/oWk8ouioXgE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]</code></p>
<p>Plenty of chuckles in the comment section on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWk8ouioXgE">YouTube page</a> for the ad noting that the agency that made the spot uses only Macs. <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5052790/microsoft-im-a-pc-ads-were-created-using-a-mac">Gizmodo found that ironic</a>, of course.<br />
Good follow up that riffs on the stereotype meme, too:</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/10mbTUQFVUI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]</code></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s Ballmer. As Gizmodo <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5052680/steve-ballmer-goes-nuts-again-to-sell-windows">notes </a>with characteristic snark, &#8220;we&#8217;re convinced to run out and buy a few copies of Windows Vista (to distract The Ballmer should he charge us on the open plain).&#8221;</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/lVMy0PFr8no" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]</code></p>
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		<title>Rapping about CERN&#8217;s Large Hadron Collider? Not the end of the world as we know it.</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/rapping-about-cerns-large-hadron-collider-not-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/rapping-about-cerns-large-hadron-collider-not-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:19:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/09/05/rapping-about-cerns-large-hadron-collider-not-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Need a breath of fresh air and humor heading into the weekend? Check out this hilarious video of the Large Hadron Rap on YouTube. Hat tip to Cosmos Magazine for the discovery. This leads up to the highly anticipated moment next Wednesday when CERN turns on the Large Hadron Collider over in Geneva, Switzerland. Combining [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span> Need a breath of fresh air and humor heading into the weekend? Check out this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50Z%3Cp%3EssEojtM" target="_blank">hilarious video of the Large Hadron Rap</a> on YouTube. Hat tip to <a href="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/">Cosmos Magazine </a>for the <a href="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2175/particle-physics-rap-a-youtube-hit">discovery</a>. This leads up to the highly anticipated moment next Wednesday when <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci1260653,00.html">CERN</a> turns on the <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1260479,00.html">Large Hadron Collider</a> over in Geneva, Switzerland. Combining humor, science and music, this video brings some geeky fun to the exploration of the fundamental particles of matter, including our understanding of </span><a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci866279,00.html">antimatter</a>,  <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci866279,00.html">dark matter</a> and the elusive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson">Higgs Boson</a>.<br />
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/j50ZssEojtM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]<br />
According to the YouTube shownotes:<span><a href="http://www.katemcalpine.com"> </a></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span><a href="http://www.katemcalpine.com">Kate McAlpine</a>, aka DJ AlpineKat, is the rapper. She works as a science writer for CERN.</span><span></span></li>
<li><span><a href="http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~s9527813/" target="_blank">Will Barras</a>, a </span>PhD student in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh, <span>is responsible for the thumpin&#8217; beats.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span>The images used came from particlephysics.ac.uk, space.com, the Institute of Physics, NASA, Symmetry, and Marvel</span></li>
<li><span>The dancers doubled as camera people, with some work by Neil Dixon.  Stock footage is CERN&#8217;s.</span></li>
<li>The original mp3, lyrics, and vocals can be sampled and remixed from <a href="https://www.msu.edu/%7Emcalpin9/lhc_rap/largehadron.html">McAlpine&#8217;s directory on MSU.edu</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Those lyrics are easily several orders of magnitude more complex than the average gangsta rap. Babes, bling and bluster is replaced by the Big Bang, dark matter and bosons. I posted them below for your enjoyment:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong> The Large Hadron Rap</strong></p>
<p>Twenty-seven kilometers of tunnel under ground<br />
Designed with mind to send protons around<br />
A circle that crosses through Switzerland and France<br />
Sixty nations contribute to scientific advance<br />
Two beams of protons swing round, through the ring they ride<br />
‘Til in the hearts of the detectors, they’re made to collide<br />
And all that energy packed in such a tiny bit of room<br />
Becomes mass, particles created from the vacuum<br />
And then…</p>
<p>LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone<br />
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions<br />
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind<br />
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.<br />
The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead<br />
And the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.</p>
<p>We see asteroids and planets, stars galore<br />
We know a black hole resides at each galaxy’s core<br />
But even all that matter cannot explain<br />
What holds all these stars together – something else remains<br />
This dark matter interacts only through gravity<br />
And how do you catch a particle there’s no way to see<br />
Take it back to the conservation of energy<br />
And the particles appear, clear as can be</p>
<p>You see particles flying, in jets they spray<br />
But you notice there ain’t nothin’, goin’ the other way<br />
You say, “My law has just been violated – it don’t make sense!<br />
There’s gotta be another particle to make this balance.”<br />
And it might be dark matter, and for first<br />
Time we catch a glimpse of what must fill most of the known ‘Verse.<br />
Because…</p>
<p>LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone<br />
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions<br />
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind<br />
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.</p>
<p>Antimatter is sort of like matter’s evil twin<br />
Because except for charge and handedness of spin<br />
They’re the same for a particle and its anti-self<br />
But you can’t store an antiparticle on any shelf<br />
Cuz when it meets its normal twin, they both annihilate<br />
Matter turns to energy and then it dissipates</p>
<p>When matter is created from energy<br />
Which is exactly what they’ll do in the LHC<br />
You get matter and antimatter in equal parts<br />
And they try to take that back to when the universe starts<br />
The Big Bang – back when the matter all exploded<br />
But the amount of antimatter was somehow eroded<br />
Because when we look around we see that matter abounds<br />
But antimatter’s nowhere to be found.<br />
That’s why…</p>
<p>LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone<br />
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions<br />
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind<br />
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.<br />
The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead<br />
And the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.</p>
<p>The Higgs Boson – that’s the one that everybody talks about.<br />
And it’s the one sure thing that this machine will sort out<br />
If the Higgs exists, they ought to see it right away<br />
And if it doesn’t, then the scientists will finally say<br />
“There is no Higgs!  We need new physics to account for why<br />
Things have mass.  Something in our Standard Model went awry.”</p>
<p>But the Higgs – I still haven’t said just what it does<br />
They suppose that particles have mass because<br />
There is this Higgs field that extends through all space<br />
And some particles slow down while other particles race<br />
Straight through like the photon – it has no mass<br />
But something heavy like the top quark, it’s draggin’ its ***<br />
And the Higgs is a boson that carries a force<br />
And makes particles take orders from the field that is its source.<br />
They’ll detect it….</p>
<p>LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone<br />
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions<br />
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind<br />
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.</p>
<p>Now some of you may think that gravity is strong<br />
Cuz when you fall off your bicycle it don’t take long<br />
Until you hit the earth, and you say, “Dang, that hurt!”<br />
But if you think that force is powerful, you’re wrong.<br />
You see, gravity – it’s weaker than Weak<br />
And the reason why is something many scientists seek<br />
They think about dimensions – we just live in three<br />
But maybe there are some others that are too small to see<br />
It’s into these dimensions that gravity extends<br />
Which makes it seem weaker, here on our end.<br />
And these dimensions are “rolled up” – curled so tight<br />
That they don’t affect you in your day to day life<br />
But if you were as tiny as a graviton<br />
You could enter these dimensions and go wandering on<br />
And they&#8217;d find you&#8230;</p>
<p>When LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone<br />
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions<br />
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind<br />
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.<br />
The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead<br />
And the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Bizzwords: Business lingo describes the state and style of the information age</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/bizzwords-business-lingo-describes-the-state-and-style-of-the-information-age/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:42:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/08/19/bizzwords-business-lingo-describes-the-state-and-style-of-the-information-age/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Isn&#8217;t it amazing how the business lingo of the times reflects the technologies, anxieties and energies of a period? My local NPR station, WBUR, featured a terrific episode of On Point this past June, hosted by one Tom Ashbrook, that was all precisely this topic, discussing and poking gentle fun at business lingo. You can [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/116351288_d7291050fc.jpg?v=0" align="right" height="175" width="320" />Isn&#8217;t it amazing how the business lingo of the times reflects the technologies, anxieties and energies of a period? My local NPR station, <a href="http://wbur.org">WBUR</a>, featured a terrific episode of <a href="http://www.onpointradio.org/">On Point</a> this past June, hosted by one Tom Ashbrook, that was all precisely this topic, discussing and poking gentle fun at business lingo. You can <a href="http://odeo.com/episodes/23126363-Business-Lingo" target="_blank">listen to it on Odeo</a> or head over to the <a href="http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/07/the-new-buiness-lingo/">New Business Lingo</a> at OnPointRadio.org.</p>
<p>[Image Credit: <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/despotes/" target="_blank">Despotes</a>]</p>
<p>There are some wonderful &#8220;bizzwords&#8221; in the show, along with some historical perspective. As the show description notes:</p>
<blockquote><p>Every walk of life has its lingo. Its buzzwords and catchphrases. American business has its own colorful menagerie of slang, and always has — from bulls and bears, to bootstraps, and 800-pound gorillas, and fish in a barrel.</p>
<p>But buzzwords and catchphrases change. They turn over and make way for newcomers.</p>
<p>And when they do, in American business, they may tell us something about where we and our economy are headed.</p></blockquote>
<p>If you lived through the business world of the 80s, you no doubt encountered a consultant or executive who talked about &#8220;re-engineering business processes&#8221; or finding &#8220;synergies&#8221; between different products.</p>
<p>Cube farmers could be depended upon to be seen &#8220;prairie dogging&#8221; when something happened around the office. Networking at cocktail parties was hot.  Blamestormers might be Dilberted. Seagull managers might fly in to observe their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs">microserfs</a>, make     a lot of noise, poop over everything and then leave.</p>
<p>If you worked in technology, you probably had a PC. As a hacker, you might have laughed about clueless users needed treeware. Everyone worried about career-limiting moves (CLMs) that might result from a bad click or command, propagating in an <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213674,00.html">ohnosecond</a>.</p>
<p>And of course, like, ya know, everything was, like, totally rad, dude.</p>
<p>In the 90s, couch potatoes turned to <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci342275,00.html">mouse potatoes</a> as office workers all jumped on the Information Superhighway. Wired happily documented it all in its <a href="http://www.wired.com/search?query=jargon+watch">Jargon Watch</a> column. By the end of the decade, i-everything and e-anything created one of the great tech bubbles.</p>
<p>Everyone wanted to go IPO. A few years later so one of the great crashes. Dotcommers became dotgoners and dotbombers. The 80/20 rule defined actionable moments after careful cost-benefit analyses. If something could be outsourced, it was. Viral marketing zipped off into email distribution lists, moving through word of mouse.</p>
<p>In the late &#8217;00s (naughts), the Web 2.0 bubble has replaced the Internet bubble, as social networkers expand their <a href="http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/overheard/overheard-tim-berners-lee-on-social-graphing/">social graphs</a>, exposed to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infotisement">infotisements</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertorial">advertorials</a> as they blog, edit wikis and surf the blogosphere with <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci1242047,00.html">RSS readers</a> on iPhones. Online marketers are accountable for the <a href="http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid182_gci214270,00.html">ROI</a> of every campaign. We&#8217;ve crowdsourced many actions and processes, whereever feasible, bending to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds">wisdom of the crowd</a> and selling to the long tail.</p>
<p>Google is both a verb and a noun, along with nearly every conceivable form in between. Despite the company&#8217;s best efforts, google has even escaped proper noun status in many communities. The President calls it &#8220;the Google.&#8221;  The senior senator from Arizona talks about &#8220;a google.&#8221; The junior senator  from Illinois  (and his search committee) Googled potential vice-presidential candidates. As billions of revenue from search adverstising each quarter streaming in to the Internet giant, it&#8217;s clear we&#8217;re a culture of Googlers googling each other, <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212040,00.html">egosurfing</a> away.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re also <a href="http://actiongeekblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/frazzing.html">frazzing</a>, dangerously close to overload by switching from email to cell phone to IM to text messages to meetings to <a href="http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/06/15/what-is-twitter-is-this-distributed-microblogging-platform-ready-for-the-enterprise/">Twitter </a>and the Web.</p>
<p>Steeped in media from satellite and cable news networks, DVRs, DVD-players, on-demand programming and Web video, there&#8217;s even a danger of what sociologist Emile Durkheim might have identified as a kind of digital <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie">anomie</a>, colorfully described as &#8220;Dorito Syndrome&#8221; &#8212; a persistent feeling of dissatisfaction and emptiness, regardless of consumption.</p>
<p>No matter how much <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/jobs/09wcol.html">screensucking </a>you do, there&#8217;s always more. Lisa Belkin wrote about a number of these in the New York Times in 2006 in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/jobs/09wcol.html">Overly Wired</a>.</p>
<p>Widgets are <em>everywhere</em> now, of course, and may be anything from a small gadget to an embeddable module in an iGoogle page to a downloadable desktop application or even (gasp) an esoteric mechanical device. (Guinness drinkers have their own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget_(beer)">version</a>, of course.)</p>
<p>The green computing wave spurred by skyrocketing energy costs from power-hungry data centers has spawned many biologically-themed terms.</p>
<p><a href="http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid11_gci1272594,00.html">Greenwashing</a>, <a href="http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid11_gci1225340,00.html">astroturfing</a> and <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci1310975,00.html">blacksurfing</a> have all entered the lexicon. Every product seems to live in its own ecosystem.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2006/03/my_favorite_bus.html">Freemium</a> business models now may promote <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coopetition">coopetition</a> between fierce competitors, perhaps using <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/telepresence-room-.html">telepresence rooms</a> that are far too expensive for standard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_tap">percussive maintenance</a>.</p>
<p>Under such conditions, &#8220;matadors&#8221; (people skilled at dodging assignments or responsibility) have little chance of scraping by, as the <a href="http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid186_gci556911,00.html">presence technologies</a>, <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid7_gci759337,00.html">pervasive computing</a> and &#8220;status message culture&#8221; adopted by the millenials puts &#8220;slacking&#8221; firmly into the lexicon of decades-past.</p>
<p>And, of course, we&#8217;re all increasingly <a href="http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid26_gci1287881,00.html">computing in the cloud</a> now.</p>
<p>As we near the end of this decade, the buzzwords of the &#8217;10s have yet to be coined and collectively sampled, savored and entered into the lexicons maintained by Merriam-Webster, the Oxford Englsh Dictionary and, of course, the <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com">best online IT encyclopedia</a> online. (Shameless plug).</p>
<p>Some will end up as <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci506044,00.html">sniglets</a>, humorous oddities of cultures past. Other words will always remind the culture at large of a certain time and place.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s hoping we can improve on vlog, blook and webinar.</p>
<p>If you have an idea of what lingo might define the next decade of business, let me know at <a href="mailto:ahoward@techtarget.com">ahoward@techtarget.com</a> or leave a comment.</p>
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		<title>A digital nursery rhyme for online gurus and clever children of the Internet</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/a-digital-nursery-rhyme-for-online-gurus-and-clever-children-of-the-internet/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/a-digital-nursery-rhyme-for-online-gurus-and-clever-children-of-the-internet/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:32:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[creativity]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[humor]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Silicon Valley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social bookmarking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[songs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vista]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web applications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[word meanings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[YouTube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/07/08/a-digital-nursery-rhyme-for-online-gurus-and-clever-children-of-the-internet/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Amit Agarwal posted the clever, useful graphic below over at his Digital Inspiration blog. The graphic has been making the rounds online; if anyone knows who originally created and uploaded it, please let me know so that I can properly credit him or her. If you&#8217;re a geeky parent, this might be an upgrade on [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Amit Agarwal posted the clever, useful graphic below over at his <a href="http://www.labnol.org/home/kids/techie-parents-teach-kids-english-alphabet/3841/">Digital Inspiration</a> blog. The graphic has been making the rounds online; if anyone knows who originally created and uploaded it, please <a href="mailto:ahoward@techtarget.com">let me know</a> so that I can properly credit him or her.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re a geeky parent, this might be an upgrade on &#8220;A is for Apple.&#8221; Oh, wait. That part doesn&#8217;t change.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.labnol.org/wp/images/2008/07/teachingabcalphabets.png" alt="online alphabet" height="559" width="465" /></p>
<p>Most of these should be familiar to most <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci212636,00.html">netizens</a> but, just in case you&#8217;re mystified, here&#8217;s a digital nursery rhyme to help you remember:</p>
<p><strong>A is for <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci1002515,00.html">Apple</a>,</strong> user-friendly as can be</p>
<p><strong>B is for <a href="http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid40_gci211680,00.html">Bluetooth</a></strong>, which connects printers to me</p>
<p><strong>C is for <a href="http://searchwincomputing.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1230772,00.html">Core Duo</a></strong>, a faster computer chip</p>
<p><strong>D is <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a></strong>, a social bookmarking trip</p>
<p><strong>E is <a href="http://www.emule-project.net/">eMule</a></strong>, a file sharing client</p>
<p><strong>F is for <a href="http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2007/08/27/facebook-a-social-network-evolves-into-a-social-utility/">Facebook</a></strong>, a social networking giant</p>
<p><strong>G is for <a href="http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid183_gci809856,00.html">Google</a></strong>, which searches most knowledge</p>
<p><strong>H is for <a href="http://www.hit.ac.il">Holon</a></strong>, an Israeli college</p>
<p><strong>I is for <a href="http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid40_gci1238379,00.html">iPhone</a></strong>, a touchscreen smartphone</p>
<p><strong>J is for <a href="http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid26_gci212415,00.html">Java</a></strong>, a language well-honed</p>
<p><strong>K is <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid7_gci895243,00.html">Kazaa</a></strong>, another file sharing service</p>
<p><strong>L is for <a href="http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid39_gci212482,00.html">Linux</a></strong>, an open source OS</p>
<p><strong>M is for <a href="http://www.msn.com/">MSN</a></strong>, Microsoft&#8217;s portal</p>
<p><strong>N is for <a href="http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid182_gci214513,00.html">Napster</a></strong>, which made record companies mortal</p>
<p><strong>O is for <a href="http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/tag/office-2007/">Office</a></strong>, for presenting and writing</p>
<p><strong>P is for <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci1231064,00.html">Playstation</a></strong>, for gaming that&#8217;s exciting</p>
<p><strong>Q is for <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci212854,00.html">Quicktime</a></strong>, used for videos large and small</p>
<p><strong>R is for <a href="http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid8_gci813358,00.html">RSS</a></strong>, syndicating to us all</p>
<p><strong>S is for <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1235244,00.html">Second Life</a></strong>, the 3D metaverse</p>
<p><strong>T is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata)">tagging</a></strong>, creating folksonomies of verse</p>
<p><strong>U is for <a href="http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid183_gci214166,00.html">USB</a></strong>, the universal connection</p>
<p><strong>V is for <a href="http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid1_gci1140209,00.html">Vista</a></strong>,  Microsoft&#8217;s OS correction</p>
<p><strong>W is for <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci967853,00.html">Wikipedia</a></strong>, an online encyclopedia</p>
<p><strong>X is for <a href="http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/tag/windows-xp-administration/">XP</a></strong>, the standard OS selection</p>
<p><strong>Y is for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a></strong>, of online video fame</p>
<p><strong>Z is for <a href="http://www.popcap.com/games/free/zuma">Zuma</a></strong>, a free silly game.</p>
<p>Now that you&#8217;ve relearned your ABCs,  next time won&#8217;t you sing with me?</p>
<p>Happy naptimes, future digerati.</p>
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		<title>What is the single most downloaded software application in a single day?</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/what-is-the-single-most-downloaded-software-application-in-a-single-day/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/what-is-the-single-most-downloaded-software-application-in-a-single-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:02:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[applications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buzz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[downloads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[event]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freeware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fun]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[geek]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[open source]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software development]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Web applications]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[If Mozilla&#8217;s social media and other online marketing campaigns pan out, the answer to that question will be Firefox 3. Starting at 1 PM EST on June 17, 2008 (today!) the newest version of the popular open source Web browser will be available for download worldwide. If you want to add to the record, check [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/files/images/affiliates_banners/dday_badge_fox.png" align="right" />If Mozilla&#8217;s social media and other online marketing campaigns pan out, the answer to that question will be <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/firefox-3.html">Firefox 3</a>. Starting at 1 PM EST on June 17, 2008 (today!) the newest version of the popular open source Web browser will be available for download worldwide.</p>
<p>If you want to add to the record, check out the <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord">world record page at SpreadFirefox.com</a>, pledge to download the app and then head over to the Mozilla homepage and <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/">download Firefox</a>. More than 1.655 million people have already made a pledge worldwide.</p>
<p>If you just can&#8217;t wait, Digital Inspiration has blogged that <a href="http://www.labnol.org/software/download/download-firefox-3-mozilla-ftp-servers/3603/">Firefox 3 is available on on Mozilla&#8217;s FTP and Web servers</a>. Here are the paths:</p>
<ul>
<li>FTP Mirror: <a href="ftp://mozilla.isc.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0/win32/en-US/">ftp://mozilla.isc.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0/win32/en-US/</a><em> </em></li>
<li>HTTP (Win): <a href="http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&amp;os=win&amp;%20lang=en-US">http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&amp;os=win&amp;%20lang=en-US</a><em> </em></li>
<li>HTTP (Mac): <a href="http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&amp;os=osx〈=en-US">http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&amp;os=osx〈=en-US</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Keep in mind, however, that if you download the application from the FTP mirror, it may not count for the record. And really, can&#8217;t you wait a few hours more?</p>
<p>Happy World Download Day!</p>
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		<title>What is Twitter? Is this distributed microblogging platform ready for the enterprise?</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/what-is-twitter-is-this-distributed-microblogging-platform-ready-for-the-enterprise/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/what-is-twitter-is-this-distributed-microblogging-platform-ready-for-the-enterprise/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:27:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[aggregator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[applications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[buzz]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/06/15/what-is-twitter-is-this-distributed-microblogging-platform-ready-for-the-enterprise/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Given that I&#8217;ve become an avid user of Twitter, I&#8217;m frequently asked what, exactly, Twitter is and what in the world it&#8217;s useful for. Isn&#8217;t it just it a presence messaging on steroids? What about a free global SMS addressbook? Or a hyperlink-enabled persistent chatroom? To be fair, I don&#8217;t hear that last often, but [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Given that I&#8217;ve become an avid user of Twitter, I&#8217;m frequently asked what, exactly, Twitter is and what in the world it&#8217;s useful for.</p>
<p><img src="http://assets1.twitter.com/images/twitter.png?1213327761" align="right" height="49" width="210" />Isn&#8217;t it just it a presence messaging on steroids? What about a free global SMS addressbook? Or a hyperlink-enabled persistent chatroom? To be fair, I don&#8217;t hear that last often, but summing up what Twitter is and what it does is challenging &#8212; especially in 140 characters or less. Twitter&#8217;s own &#8220;social messaging utility where people can communicate in real-time&#8221; comes close.  Twitter&#8217;s creators know better than most what they&#8217;ve created and how it works.</p>
<p>Other takes on Twitter range far and wide:</p>
<ul>
<li>Caroline Middlebrook <a href="http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/twitter-guide-1-what-is-twitter/">described Twitter</a> as &#8220;an incredibly powerful marketing &amp; community building tool.&#8221;</li>
<li>In a long post that describes <a href="http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/twitter_tips_th.html">how he discovered Twitter and how SocialText is using it</a>, Ross Mayfield called Twitter &#8220;mobile social software that lets you broadcast and receive short messages with your social network&#8221; aka, &#8220;Continuous partial presence.&#8221;</li>
<li>Wendy Boswell <a href="http://websearch.about.com/od/blogsforumssocialsites/qt/twitter.htm">writes </a>that Twitter is a &#8220;mini-blogging platform that you can use to send messages of 140 characters or less to family, friends, or just the general Web community.&#8221;</li>
<li>Dave Winer <a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/07/27/whatTwitterIs.html">explains Twitter</a> as a network of users on a microblogging platform with its own open-identity system and ecosystem.</li>
<li>Ed Kohler <a href="http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2007/05/what_is_twitter.html">posted</a> that Twitter is &#8220;a social networking site based around text messaging.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://whatistwitter.com/">WhatIsTwitter.com</a> is addressing the question by hosting a contest that asks you to explain Twitter in 140 seconds. (It runs through 6/23/08, if you&#8217;d like to enter.)</p>
<p>When I tweeted the question to the Twitter community, Robbert <a href="http://twitter.com/robberthomburg/statuses/835288826">replied</a> that Twitter was &#8220;a great way to get in touch and &#8216;meet&#8217; very interesting people!&#8221; and Liz <a href="http://twitter.com/nwjerseyliz/statuses/835289296">tweeted</a> back that &#8220;Twitter is a window into other people&#8217;s worlds. Scholars can get insulated so it is nice to hear the ups &amp; downs in other fields.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the end, however, I think a shade on Wikipedia&#8217;s current <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter">definition</a> comes closest: a free distributed <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci942884,00.html"><span class="mw-redirect">social networking</span></a> and <a href="http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid40_gci1265620,00.html">microblogging</a> service that may be updated from the Web, IM, cellphone or a desktop client.</p>
<p>The question of what, exactly, you can DO with Twitter is something else altogether. The session at Enterprise 2.0 devoted to microblogging addressed exactly that question. The discussion was lively, both in person and on Twitter itself, as we could all see on the screen as Laura Fitton (<a href="http://twitter.com/pistachio">@pistachio</a>) Twittered about the event.</p>
<p>Even though at least one member in the audience questioned the etiquette of such an embedded distraction, with respect to her engagement with the rest of the panel, the bulk of the conversation between the other Twitterers in the audience and those present was inquisitive, supportive and engaged. You can see the various streams of conversation around the session and the conference in general at <a href="http://twemes.com/">Twemes.com</a> by using the hashtags <a href="http://twemes.com/e20">#e20</a>, <a href="http://twemes.com/en20">#en20</a> and <a href="http://twemes.com/ent20">#ent20</a>.</p>
<p>With the notable exception of <a href="http://www.lorenfeldman.com/">Loren Feldman</a> from <a href="http://www.1938media.com/">1938Media</a>, the panelists supported the idea of Twitter or something like it (call it &#8220;X enterprise microblogging platform&#8221;) being both useful and present within an enterprise in the near future.</p>
<p>So what&#8217;s the story? Have I lost you yet? Do many of the terms above need further explanation? A colleague looked at me recently with a quirked eyebrow and asked me if I seriously expected her to ask conference-going IT professionals to &#8220;Tag their tweets on Twitter&#8221; and all I could do was grin.</p>
<p>Like so many emergent services and ecosystems on the Web, Twitter has evolved its own lingo. I&#8217;ve <a href="http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/index.php?s=twitter">blogged about Twitter for WhatIs.com</a> before,  of course, but it&#8217;s worth reviewing the basics. Here&#8217;s a quick guide to get you started and give you some of your own&#8221;Twitter-fu.&#8221; <a href="https://secure.techtarget.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://whatis.blogs.techtarget.com/index.php?s=twitter" target="_blank"><br />
</a></p>
<p><strong>The Basics: For the novice Twitter user</strong></p>
<p>By now, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/business/yourmoney/22stream.html">story</a> of <a href="http://blog.obvious.com/2007/04/twitter-inc.html">how Twitter came to be</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/mar/15/media.newmedia">has</a> been extensively <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jackdorsey/182613360/">documented</a>, so I&#8217;ll leave it to others to tell the tale. Check out this great video from <a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/">Common Craft</a>, Twitter in Plain English:</p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ddO9idmax0o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]<br />
</code><br />
You can update Twitter from Twitter.com, which is how the majority of users access the service, from instant messenger or by texting to &#8220;40404&#8243; with a cellphone registered with the service. If you do use a cellphone, remember that there may be associated charges for text messages of .10 or .15 per message. Early adopters of the Twitter and the iPhone discovered to their chagrin that thousands of texts got quite expensive. If you&#8217;re planning on using your cellphone to tweet, seriously consider investing in an unlimited text messaging plan.</p>
<p>No matter what, you&#8217;ll need to register first. Choose the username that fits you, your brand, your company, service, product or simply your whim. Try to make it as short as possible; you want to reserve as much space as possible for others to use in replies, since they&#8217;ll need to include your username in a reply.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s where one of the conventions that Twitter has introduced into the Web comes into play. Instead of remembering both a username and a domain name (johndoe@yahoo.com), all you have to do is remember a username (@johndoe). Just type in go to twitter.com, add the user name to the url and click &#8220;follow.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you want to publicly reply to a tweet from another user, just include @johndoe in your message and he or she will automatically see it. Just click &#8220;replies&#8221; on your Twitter page to see how has responded to you. You can also direct message another user by typing &#8220;d johndoe&#8221; &#8212; but only if they are following you. This is quite useful for conversation you don&#8217;t want the entire Web to be involved in.</p>
<p>There are other etiquette concerns, paralleling <a href="http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid183_gci212635,00.html">netiquette</a> on the rest of the Web; read Chris Brogan&#8217;s post  <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/considering-social-network-etiquette/">Considering Social Media Etiquette</a> and Grammer Girl&#8217;s <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/twitter-style-guide.aspx">Twitter Style Guide</a> to get a flavor of the conventions at play.</p>
<p>Ready to go? Start at the <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter homepage</a>, which includes a useful <a href="http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&amp;id=26">Twitter FAQ</a> <a href="http://twitterfeed.com/"> TwitterFeed</a>. Each time you post to Twitter, it&#8217;s called a &#8220;tweet.&#8221; Each tweet has its own URL, just like a &#8220;normal&#8221; blog post has a permalink. Twitter&#8217;s 140 character limit means that brevity is crucial, so using URL shorteners like <a href="http://tinyurl.com">TinyURL.com</a> is a must. You can make your first update just like a blog post on Blogger or WordPress. &#8220;<a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci927707,00.html">Hello World</a>&#8221; would work, if you&#8217;re stuck for inspiration.</p>
<p>Twitter isn&#8217;t much fun, however, if you&#8217;re just twittering into the ether. To get the most from the service, you&#8217;ll need to find some friends or find interesting feeds to follow, like <a href="http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix">@MarsPhoenix</a> or <a href="http://twitter.com/BarackObama">@BarackObama</a>.  <a href="http://twitter.com/MCHammer">MC Hammer</a> is out there too, by the way. You can always just search for people you know on Twitter or go to a user&#8217;s profile page if you already know someone you want to &#8220;follow.&#8221; Once you get rolling, you can use a service like <a href="http://whoshouldifollow.com/">WhoShouldIFollow.com</a> to find more friends.</p>
<p>Following means that you&#8217;ll get all of that person&#8217;s updates, so choose carefully. If you choose to follow top Twitterers, expect to see a lot of messages. This is a great way to discover interesting new people, however, so even if you don&#8217;t follow <a href="http://twitter.com/scobleizer">@Scobleizer</a>,  <a href="http://twitter.com/leolaporte">@LeoLaporte</a> , <a href="http://twitter.com/JasonCalacanis">@JasonCalacanis</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/kevinrose">@KevinRose</a> or other A-list bloggers or &#8220;cewebrities,&#8221; make sure to check their profiles to see who they&#8217;ve discovered. You can always unsubscribe if someone posts content or links you don&#8217;t want to see in your feed.</p>
<p>The other symbol you&#8217;ll see often is the hashtag, which is the Twitter version of a social bookmark. Think of them as a way to  add your tweets to niche conversations, specific events or around products or services. Learn more at <a href="http://twemes.com/beatla">hashtags.org</a>. I mentioned them earlier when I listed the various hashtags for the Enterprise 2.0 Conference. By adding a # sign and then a series of numbers and letters afterwards (try <a href="http://twemes.com/beatla">#beatLA</a>, for Celtics-lovers) your tweets will be aggregated into the great conversation.</p>
<p>Twitter has opened its application programming interface (API) to  the development community , which  has responded by creating many desktop clients that you can use to update the service, manage your messages and friends.</p>
<p>To use my favorite client, <a href="http://www.twhirl.org/">Twirl</a>, you&#8217;ll need to download <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/air/">Adobe AIR</a> and install Twirl as a desktop client.   Twirl includes a URL shortener and many other features that, in my humble opinion, richly enhance your Twitter experience. Twirl can also be configured to post automatically to <a href="http://pownce.com">Pownce</a> and <a href="http://jaiku.com">Jaiku</a>, two other popular microblogging services. If you use a Mac, <a href="http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific/">Twitterific</a> might be a good fit, too.</p>
<p>Rafe Needleman has posted a terrific &#8220;<a href="http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9697867-2.html">Newbie&#8217;s Guide to Twitter</a>&#8221; over at Webware.com, which I highly recommend if you&#8217;re still having trouble getting started.</p>
<p><strong>Getting into the conversation: For the intermediate Twitter user</strong></p>
<p>Now that you&#8217;ve gotten your feet wet, here are some more services to expand your horizons.</p>
<p>You can monitor whatever keyword you choose, like your name or your company&#8217;s brandname, at <a href="http://www.tweetscan.com">Tweetscan</a>. Even if you don&#8217;t choose to use Twitter actively, this is an important component of brand and reputation management.</p>
<p>You can see threaded conversations with <a href="http://www.quotably.com">Quotably</a>. This is a useful tool if you want to see an entire back and forth between users in one place.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="http://summize.com/">Summize</a> helps you track Twitter conversations in real-time.</p>
<p>Use <a href="http://m.twitter.com/home">Mobile Twitter</a> if you have a BlackBerry, Treo or other smartphone with a browser or try out <a href="http://hahlo.com">Hahlo.com</a> if you have an iPhone.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a dedicated BlackBerry client called <a href="http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/">TwitterBerry</a> too, which is worth looking into if you&#8217;re a &#8220;CrackBerry Addict.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.anthonyburns.co.uk/quakk">Quakk</a>, <a href="http://www.tinytwitter.com/">Tiny Twitter</a>, <a href="http://dalelane.co.uk/page.php?id=1047">TwitToday</a> and <a href="http://www.infinitumsoftware.com/twobile">Twobile</a> all work as clients for Windows Mobile 5.</p>
<p>Facebook has a <a href="http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/">Twitter application</a> that embeds your tweets in your profile and allows you to tweet from within the social networking environment.</p>
<p>You can display your latest tweets automatically on your blog with an embedded widget, like this <a href="http://www.velvet.id.au/twitter-wordpress-sidebar-widget/">Twitter widget for WordPress</a> or the <a href="http://twitter.com/badges/blogger">Twitter Widget for Blogger</a>.</p>
<p>Or, if you want to hook up your blog&#8217;s feed to Twitter, <a href="http://twitterfeed.com/">Twitterfeed</a> will be helpful.</p>
<p>Watch <a href="http://twittervision.com">Twittervision </a>to see a mashup of a global Google Map and location-specific tweets.</p>
<p>Use <a href="http://twitpic.com/">TwitPic</a> to share photos on Twitter.</p>
<p><strong>For the Advanced Twitter User </strong></p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve gotten this far and have been nodding your head all the time, waiting for something new, congratulations: Your Twitter-Fu is strong. The <a href="http://twitter.pbwiki.com/">Twitter Fan Wiki</a>  should be your resource of choice, where  new applications, services and software is aggregated and vetted by a strong user community. If you&#8217;re an alpha geek, make sure to check out the <a href="http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Scripts">scripts page</a>, which is chock full of geeky goodness.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m far from the first to try to explain what Twitter is an how it works, of course. Make sure to check out <a href="http://tweeternet.com/">Tweeternet.com</a> for an excellent explanation and outstanding list of Twitter tools.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve mastered the basic and intermediate tools and technologies, consider the following ways that Twitter has been put to good use:</p>
<ul>
<li>As a social justice tool, where people in critical situations can get the news out quickly</li>
<li>As a crisis response and management tool (check out <a href="http://twitter.com/RedCross">@RedCross</a>)</li>
<li>As a presence tool for emergency workers or individuals in a natural disaster zone</li>
</ul>
<p>If you have questions, thoughts, additional resources, uses or any other response to this post, please use the comments.  And, of course, Twitter about it. Do you think Twitter &#8212; or a client like it &#8212; is right for your business or enterprise? Let us know!</p>
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		<title>Better Education Through Open Source Robots</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/better-education-through-open-source-robots/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/better-education-through-open-source-robots/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[academics]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Heather Johnson is guest blogging at WhatIs.com this week. Heather is a freelance writer, as well as a monthly contributor for OEDb, a site that helps students select among accredited online schools. She invites comments and freelancing job inquiries at heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com. There has been a lot of talk about open source hardware lately and its [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal"><em>Heather Johnson is <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/07/19/guest-blogging-101/">guest blogging</a> at WhatIs.com this week. Heather is a freelance writer, as well as a monthly contributor for <a href="http://www.oedb.org/">OEDb</a>, a site that helps students select among <a href="http://www.oedb.org/">accredited online schools</a>. She invites comments and freelancing job inquiries at <a href="mailto:heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com">heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com</a>.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There has been a lot of talk about <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1280910,00.html">open source hardware</a> lately and its potential effects on research and education. <a href="http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/content/home">ETech 2008</a> showcased many examples of open hardware and offered an <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/03/open_source_hardware_etec.html">insightful presentation</a> [<a href="http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/pt/osh_etech08.pdf">PDF</a>] to those who are new to the emerging technology. Likewise, popular sites like <a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/23/1721256">Slashdot</a> and bloggers like <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/31/open-source-hardware-dinner/">Scobleizer</a> have been discussing the growing movement.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The increasing popularity of open source software has already had a tremendous <a href="http://oedb.org/library/features/how-the-open-source-movement-has-changed-education-10-success-stories">influence on education</a> and the world as a whole. Not only are many schools now <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/141732/schools_to_increase_spending_on_opensource_software.html">making the switch</a> to open source programs, leading universities like <a href="http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Fall2005/665.html">UC Berkeley</a> and <a href="http://www.fluid.cs.cmu.edu:8080/Fluid">Carnegie Mellon</a> are involved with developing large open source software projects.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://www.roboteducation.org/old-site/images/scribblerwithbluetooth_small.jpg" alt="A Scribbler Robot with Bluetooth" align="left" height="180" width="240" />However, we have yet to see open hardware really take off. Ryan Singel of <em>Wired</em> feels that 2008 <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/03/etech_hardware">could be the year</a> and I second that opinion. Leading the pack seems to be open source robotics, which has been embraced by several major universities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Just last month, <a href="http://www.willowgarage.com/">Willow Garage&#8217;s</a> Steve Cousins gave a <a href="http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/schedule/detail/1685">keynote speech</a> at ETech 2008 about open source personal robots, which has brought more attention to the subject. Willow Garage is a privately funded lab that experiments with various robotics platforms.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This open source robotics movement can be felt on many college campuses as well. <a href="http://www.news.com/Robots-for-the-rest-of-us/2100-11394_3-6179532.html">Carnegie Mellon</a>, which I previously stated is involved with open source software, is also building OS personal robots. The university has recently formed a joint project called the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (<a href="http://www.roboteducation.org/">IPRE</a>).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The IPRE is a joint project between Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr College, with sponsorship provided by Microsoft Research. Its purpose is to help advance robotics research and computer science education. The IPRE is currently <a href="http://www.georgiarobotics.com/roboteducation/products-1.html">selling</a> open source robot kits, which are geared toward educators and can be integrated with computer education curricula.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Instructions can be found <a href="http://www.roboteducation.org/old-site/guides.html">RobotEducation.org</a> if you are interested in building your own educational robot.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">[Image credit: <a href="http://www.roboteducation.org/old-site/images/scribblerwithbluetooth_small.jpg">RobotEducation.org</a>]</p>
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		<title>Video: Exploring presence technology with tele-immersive dance in cyberspace</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/video-exploring-presence-technology-with-tele-immersive-dance-in-cyberspace/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/video-exploring-presence-technology-with-tele-immersive-dance-in-cyberspace/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:46:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GuyPardon</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Often the title of a video alone raises an eyebrow. Today&#8217;s video selection certainly does &#8212; it&#8217;s a presentation from two tele-immersion labs, one at UC Berkeley&#8217;s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the other within the University of Urbana-Champaign Computer Science Department. According to the IEEE Computer Society, [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Often the title of a video alone raises an eyebrow. Today&#8217;s video selection certainly does &#8212; it&#8217;s a presentation from two <span>tele-immersion labs, one at UC Berkeley&#8217;s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (<a href="http://www.citris-uc.org/">CITRIS</a>) and the other within the University of Urbana-Champaign Computer Science Department. </span><a href="http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/co/&amp;toc=comp/mags/co/1999/12/rztoc.xml&amp;DOI=10.1109/2.809253"><span>According to the IEEE Computer Society</span></a><span>, tele-immersion is when</span> &#8220;collaborators at remote sites share the details of a virtual world that can autonomously control computation, query databases, and gather results.&#8221; It might be a stretch but I see tele-immersion used in that was as an advanced version of <a href="http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid186_gci556911,00.html">presence technology</a>, in which an application make it possible to locate and identify a computing device wherever it might be, as soon as the user connects to the network.</p>
<p><span>As it&#8217;s a dance performance, both labs worked in close collaboration with the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, and the Dance Department and Intermedia Program at Mills College. The video quality admittedly isn&#8217;t great &#8212; and you may want to skip ahead to 11:30, when the actual performance begins, or to 20:00, when the dancing starts &#8212; but the concept itself is noteworthy for its aspiration to bridge the gap between real and virtual environments.</span></p>
<p><code>[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/C2HqMAtQMsY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]</code><br />
From the show notes on YouTube:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Resonance Project Dance Group performed for a very large crowd in the Hearst Memorial Mining Building at UC Berkeley. The performance was a blend of live, modern dance with live tele-immersed dancers from University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Using a large network of cameras and computers the dancers were able to span the geographic distance and mingle in cyberspace. The computers merged three-dimensional video images of the dancers onto a single projection, which was broadcast alongside live dancers.</p>
<p>The Resonance Project is a team of choreographers, dancers, computer engineers, and visual and sound artists who are investigating concepts of presence/remote presence and corporeal and code interactivity within live and media based performance. Unique to the project is the use of a &#8220;performance as research&#8221; model, within which scientists and artists collaborate to explore a re-visioning of cyber culture and corporeal presence.</p></blockquote>
<p>The nature of the performance has a close conceptual relationship with <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1257594,00.html">CAVE</a>, a tele-immersive environment used for learning in a wide variety of disciplines, and the <a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1256851,00.html">CAVEman</a>, the first 4-D human atlas.</p>
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