Emergent Futures Tumblelog

May 30th 2012

Reblogged from thisistheverge|41 notes |# Comments

How Google Can Beat Facebook Without Google Plus - The Atlantic

Take some time to read Alexis Madrigal’s take on how Google+ could be winning by building social into what already matters.

(via thisistheverge)

Posted at 1:40pm and tagged with: social media, technology, tech, social,.

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So, where are the neighborhoods where humans are already hanging out? Google has a variety of products that while not explicitly “social networks” could easily be thought of as places that help people “share,” a la Facebook’s mantra. Just think about them all: Reader. Picasa. Scholar. Earth. Books. Blogger. Hell, even Zagat. It’s these already bustling communities that should form the core of Google’s next-level social offering. Take Scholar, which allows users to access research papers. A smallish group numbering in the millions visit the site to find research papers because it works better than academic search engines. It’s pretty clear that Google’s corporate honchos think the site is kind of a drag and they have no revenue model for it. Little has been done to update the service, even simple things like allowing people to sort by the number of citations.

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May 29th 2012

Reblogged from stoweboyd|41 notes |# Comments

- Danica Radovanovic, Phatic Posts: Even the Small Talk Can Be Big via Scientific American

Small talk is big again.

(via stoweboyd)

Posted at 11:56am and tagged with: social, social media, tech, technology,.

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Phatic posts (or small talk) in communication processes online are very meaningful because they indicate and imply social recognition, online intimacy by sharing our thoughts and feelings with others, as well as the sociability in online communities. Phatic posts potentially denote a lot more substance and weight to them than the content itself suggests. We may conclude that, in the phatic communication context, the content itself may not be relevant but the “keeping in touch” signal it delivers is crucial.

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May 29th 2012

Stowe Boyd: Big Data and Data Inequality: Research Is Just The Beginning

Reblogged from futuramb|42 notes |# Comments

futuramb:

stoweboyd:

There was a recent hoo-ha at a scientific conference in France, when Bernardo Huberman was furious when researchers from Google and a contributing university presenting results of social data analysis declined to share the data.

John Markoff, Big Data Troves Stay Forbidden to Social…

This is really an extremely important issue for the future!!

Posted at 8:16am and tagged with: data, social, tech, technology,.

May 27th 2012

Reblogged from smartercities|83 notes |# Comments

A quote from the Forbes article, ‘Pedaling to Prosperity: Biking Saves U.S. Riders Billions A Year’.

(Photo credit: Bicycling Magazine)

(Source: plantedcity)

Posted at 4:27am and tagged with: health, environment, social, economic,.

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New data highlight that bicyclists in the United States save at least $4.6 billion a year by riding instead of driving…

The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is $308, compared to $8,220 for the average car, and if American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the entire year, it would save more than two billion gallons of gas, for a total savings of $7.3 billion a year, based on $4 a gallon for gas.

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May 26th 2012

26 notes |# Comments

Unglue.it Makes Free EBooks Through A Unique Crowdfunding Website

Its asks its users to suggest and vote on existing published works that they would like to see “unglued.” The company then works with copyright holders - be they publishers or authors - to decide on a fair level of compensation in order to create a completely free and open ebook edition. The crowd then pledges money towards that amount

Full Story: Huffington

Posted at 5:28pm and tagged with: ebooks, publishing, crowdfunding, economic, social,.

Unglue.it Makes Free EBooks Through A Unique Crowdfunding Website

Its asks its users to suggest and vote on existing published works that they would like to see “unglued.” The company then works with copyright holders - be they publishers or authors - to decide on a fair level of compensation in order to create a completely free and open ebook edition. The crowd then pledges money towards that amount

Full Story: Huffington

May 25th 2012

Reblogged from courtenaybird|58 notes |# Comments

How Facebook Saved Us from Suburbia (via courtenaybird)

Posted at 9:11pm and tagged with: social media, tech, technology, social,.

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It’s worth contemplating one of the primary factors that drove Facebook’s adoption by (soon) 1 billion people: Loneliness. Americans have less support than ever — 1 in 8 in the Pew survey reported having no “discussion confidants.

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May 24th 2012

Reblogged from futuramb|25 notes |# Comments

Paul Higgins: I am always wary about these sorts of surveys unless they also trcak what happens in reality. We see all sorts of surveys here in Australia about whether people will buy product from Australian farmers even if it is more expensive - 20% difference is often used. The reality sharply differs from the survey data. Asking questions like this is like asking people do they love their mother

futuramb:

People Want Jobs That Make A Difference, Even If It Means A Pay Cut | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

Somewhat surprisingly, current workers said that having an impact job was more important than having children, a prestigious career, wealth, and community leadership. The top two most important things to have for happiness: financial security and marriage. Financial security still matters more than making a difference, but wealth isn’t important for people if they can do some good.

Posted at 8:01am and tagged with: work, social,.

Paul Higgins: I am always wary about these sorts of surveys unless they also trcak what happens in reality. We see all sorts of surveys here in Australia about whether people will buy product from Australian farmers even if it is more expensive - 20% difference is often used. The reality sharply differs from the survey data. Asking questions like this is like asking people do they love their mother
futuramb:

People Want Jobs That Make A Difference, Even If It Means A Pay Cut | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
Somewhat surprisingly, current workers said that having an impact job was more important than having children, a prestigious career, wealth, and community leadership. The top two most important things to have for happiness: financial security and marriage. Financial security still matters more than making a difference, but wealth isn’t important for people if they can do some good.

May 16th 2012

Geektivism: Geeks Trying to Save the World

Reblogged from thenextweb|46 notes |# Comments

thenextweb:

Geektivism is what geeks do when they are fed up with the current status of their environment. Drawing from their resources, they find ways to tackle problems in a creative and engaging way (of course this usually involves games…). In our search for geektivists, we came across five new projects that can really make a difference. Both trying to solve important problems, they turned to gaming and technology to inspire people and help them do something, rather than just complain or click on a form.

Posted at 8:21am and tagged with: social, tech, technology, disruption,.

May 16th 2012

Reblogged from courtenaybird|32 notes |# Comments

Daniel Pink, author of Drive | Wired.com (via courtenaybird)

Posted at 2:46am and tagged with: disruption, social, tech, technology,.

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Disruption is giving the world something it didn’t know it was missing.

”

May 15th 2012

Reblogged from thenextweb|15 notes |# Comments

SMS Monitoring System Aims to Cut African Childbirth Mortality (via thenextweb)

Posted at 12:01pm and tagged with: health, tech, technology, social,.

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With recent statistics showing Kenya’s maternal mortality ratio at 488 per 100,000 live births, a new monitoring system for expectant mothers is set to ease the number of deaths during childbirth. The app ensures the health workers, midwives and the pregnant mothers share health information and care tips using SMS and prepaid calls. The system, which offers prepaid mobile phone credit for checks and health information updates, allows expectant women to call or send SMS to health experts for free, for information on antenatal care and delivery services.

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