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| Hang Ten! How the History of Surfing Went Digital | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:11 PM | Morgan Rae Berk |
|  For the typical land-locked folk, all one needs to learn about surfing can be found on the Wikipedia entry for surfing. The page is filled with a bulleted history, surfing physics, maneuvers, dangers, locations and of course, a photo of the correct way to make the universal surfing Shaka sign with one's hand. But for a surf enthusiast, this Wikipedia digital surfing history is far from complete. And any other general web search of the term "surfing" nets more news, less history, delivering dissatisfying results for the true surfing historian - until now. In November 2011, Matt Warshaw, 51, the published author of 2003's The Encyclopedia of Surfing made a digital leap in the name of surfing history. When it was first published in print, the book instantly became a standard desk reference, with its 1,600 surfing entries. It was named by Amazon as the number-two sports book of 2003. Hang Ten: From Print to Digital But Warshaw decided to break out of the print publication model and take his encyclopedia digital. He began the process of creating a rich, historical web archive of the sport, a living, breathing document that will survive the shifting digital sands of time. However, his traditional publisher wasn't interested in investing in these digitization efforts. Warshaw -- a former Surfer magazine editor and legendary surf journalist -- recognized a new source of funding: the global surf community that had purchased his print copies for years. Warshaw launched a Kickstarter project for the digitization of the Encyclopedia of Surfing. After receiving explosive social media support from insider surf publications, celebrities and the industry in general, the tight-knit community dived deep into its pockets. Within eight days Warshaw's project had reached its fundraising goal. There are many similarities between the Wikipedia surfing entry and Warshaw's print EOS: formal style, consistency from page to page and finite entries, all qualities which common to traditional reference style. However, only a seasoned industry insider can truly deliver to an audience he knows well. EOS is slightly elitist, which is what the hierarchy of surfing society expects. But Warshaw "made it a point, whenever possible, to lighten things up. An R-rated quote here and there from the surfers, a bit of mild humor, and well-chosen anecdote." Warshaw is nostalgic, though. He loves that, in print, "the sport, for a moment, was kind of set in stone." On the other hand, he understands that in the current digital landscape, a lot of today's information is dated by the time it hits the bookshelves. With the Encyclopedia of Surfing he hopes to feed the true seeker his or her daily digital dose of historical surf culture. A Funding and Community Revolution for the Surf "Creative" Conventionally, creative surf projects have been funded by the larger industry lifestyle brands, but with lower revenues the past few years, the once hefty monetary lifeline suddenly has zero budget to dish out. On the other hand, creatives are starting to veer away from the over-branded corporation support anyway, in favor of more artistic freedom. The independent artists, filmmakers and authors in the surf world quickly noticed Warshaw's success. They've launched a flurry of Kickstarter projects over the past few months, and many have raised the support they desperately needed. Kickstarter projects almost always give tangible objects or value back to donors who contribute to a project. As luck would have it, surf enthusiasts love to collect imagery, film, etc. Merely offering some return value to the Kickstarter donor goes a long way. WAX magazine looked straight to its potential subscribers. It offered donors who pledged $25 or more a free copy of the magazine's first issue. Soon, it had raised the $15,000 production expense price tag needed for the first print, which focuses on urban surf environments. Cyrus Sutton, online entertainment pioneer and founder of Kordoruy.tv, successfully funded his 2012 production budget for an original short content web series. He offers the content -- a surfing meets DIY, health and environmental awareness series -- completely free to his audience, in the spirit of sharing the digital aloha. Taking hints from #WhileWeWatch -- a social media study of Occupy Wall Street -- Thomas Brookins, a self-funded filmmaker who admittedly lost money on his first surf film project, has changed his strategy. Brookins is actively engaging the surf community over social media platforms to pull initial funding for his Kickstarter project, a film called Fire & Water. The documentary details the life of Don "Gums" Eichin, a pioneering surfer of the 1960s who became one of New York City's brave firefighters, and has inspired many surfing souls in the urban playground to take positions of public service. Getting the word out is crucial to all of these campaigns. The surfing community has proven that the consumer is happy to support the livelihood of these digital crafts, especially when the final content created is made available for free. These creative pioneers have taken to social media and Kickstarter to create awareness for their projects, and have netted consistent financial support. Their industry and community have created a funding model that other creative industries should follow. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, EpicStockMedia |
| Instagram for Android: Advanced Camera, But No Tilt Shift [HANDS ON] | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 5:28 PM | Keith Kaplan |
|  Instagram for Android is finally here -- which is welcome news for Android smartphone owners who waited patiently as Instagram's iOS user base rose into the millions. Will they be satisfied when they install Instagram for Android? We did a walkthrough of the new app in order to find out. "The Android app offers an extremely familiar Instagram experience when compared to the iOS app," Instagram said in its announcement Tuesday. "You'll find all the same exact filters and community as our iOS version." It's true that Instagram for Android has most of the same features as the iPhone version. The user interface on the Android version has the same layout. The five tabs on the bottom of the home screen are dedicated to five key functions in the app. Another feature that has not changed is sharing photos out to the same four platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and Tumblr. There are, however, some notable differences. Instagram for Android uses a new camera icon in the camera view. The app also lacks some of the iPhone version's image editing features -- most importantly tilt shift, which allows you to focus on one area of the photo while distorting the rest of the image. The Android version does have one feature its iPhone counterpart lacks: "Advanced Camera." When you turn this on, it will automatically resize your photo, so you don't have to recrop the image in Instagram's interface. In the iPhone version, you can only resize or crop if you select a photo from your photo library. Instagram for Android was tested on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0. Currently, the Android version of Instagram is compatible with Android 2.2 or higher. You can download the Instagram for Android app for free over at Google Play.. Have you started using Instagram for Android? What are your first impressions? Let us know in the comments below. |
| Facebook vs. Yahoo Round 2: Social Network Files a Suit of Its Own | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 4:33 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  The Facebook-Yahoo grudge match continues. Now Facebook is countersuing Yahoo, denying Yahoo's allegations that Facebook infringed on the company's patents -- and claiming Yahoo is actually infringing on Facebook's patents. Facebook's counter-claim, filed Tuesday, denies Yahoo's statements that many of Facebook's tools and features on the site stem from developments made by Yahoo. Facebook requests that any triable issues be taken to court. The social network also says Yahoo is in violation of some of its patents, including patents the company holds for "generating a feed of stories personalized for members of a social network," and "tagging digital media." Facebook says it plans to fight the original lawsuit. "From the outset, we said we would defend ourselves vigorously against Yahoo's lawsuit, and today we filed our answer as well as counter-claims against Yahoo for infringing ten of Facebook's patents," Ted Ullyot, Facebook General Counsel said in a statement. "While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo's short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation." Yahoo formally went after Facebook in March, claiming the company violated 10 of its patents. Yahoo said it had "a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property." The Twitterverse, meanwhile, showed its support for Facebook. Even Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook's former marketing director, got in on the Yahoo-bashing. "This Yahoo stuff feels to me like the business equivalent of when celebs do 'Dancing With The Stars' in a last-ditch effort to save a career," she tweeted. What do you think about Facebook's counter-suit against Yahoo? Tell us in the comments. |
| How Twitter Got March Madness [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 3:36 PM | Samantha Murphy |
|  After last night's championship win, it shouldn't be too big of a surprise that the University of Kentucky was the most mentioned team on Twitter during the 2012 March Madness tournament. Email marketing provider ExactTarget has put together an infographic highlighting some of the biggest wins on Twitter throughout March Madness, which ran from March 15 to April 2. According to the infographic, "Final Four" was the top trending word during the competition with 466,492 tweets. Meanwhile, the games raked in a total of more than 2 million tweets, with the most popular sent from @SportsCenter with nearly 7,000 retweets about Norfolk State's win over Missouri. #MarchMadness - After Norfolk State's win over Mizzou, there are only 2 perfect brackets left in Tournament Challenge (out of 6.45 million)— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 16, 2012 The Championship game on Monday night especially drew lot of buzz, as nearly 150,000 tweets mentioned the winning team. Its opponent University of Kansas was mentioned 97,000 times. Kentucky's star Anthony Davis -- a freshman who won the coveted Final Four's Most Outstanding Player Award -- was the most discussed athlete during the Championship game, while John Calipari (also from Kentucky) was the most mentioned coach. SEE ALSO: 20% of March Madness Traffic Comes From Smartphones, Tablets/a> "Just as we saw in the Super Bowl, Twitter has become a consumer's channel of choice to amplify and extend the fan experience," Kyle Lacy, Principal Marketing Research and Education at ExactTarget, told Mashable. "Throughout March Madness, we saw the frequency of tweets increase with every round of the tournament, topping more than 745,000 tweets during Monday's game alone." Although Kentucky dominated chatter on Twitter during the final game, Ohio State University received the most mentions in the Final Four (3,923 tweets), followed by University of Kansas (3,861), University of Kentucky (3,408) and the University of Louisville (1,736). Ohio State had the most tweets (15,034) for a single non-Championship game during March Madness when it played Syracuse University in the Elite Eight, bringing in 15,034 mentions. Syracuse had the most mentions during the Sweet Sixteen, while Lehigh University had the most in Round 2 and the University of Missouri was the most buzzed about in Round 1. For a more in-depth look at how well NCAA teams fared on Twitter, check out the infographic below. Thumbnail via University of Kentucky |
| 3 Twitter Rumors and What They Could Mean for Brands | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 2:01 PM | David Clarke |
|  David Clarke is CEO and co-founder of BGT Partners, a 2010, 2011 and 2012 Ad Age Top 15 Best Places to Work in the U.S. honoree. BGT creates interactive marketing and technology solutions for global corporations that strengthen brands, develop more engaging relationships and transform businesses. With increased competition for ad dollars, Twitter is making a big push this year to become more attractive to advertisers. It has invested in a redesign, as well as brand pages, but that may not be all the social network plans to unveil. According to a recent Ad Age report, the company is looking to add new experiences to its platform, in the hopes that the move will entice brands to spend more ad dollars. Although Twitter hasn't officially confirmed these rumors, it's worth taking them seriously. See below for the three possible changes, and what each could mean for brands. SEE ALSO: 6 Successful Twitter Hashtag Campaigns 1. Open Platform Facebook and Apple transformed their businesses by opening their platforms to third-party developers. The move allowed independent developers to create new ways for consumers to engage with brands. As a result, we now have multi-million dollar businesses built around these apps. If the rumors are right, Twitter is heading in the same direction by opening its platform to developers. An open Twitter platform would allow brands to create deeper interactions with consumers through custom experiences. This would not only be an opportunity for developers, but also for brands -- especially those with strong Twitter presences. For example, if you're using Twitter as a customer service channel, then a customer service app could potentially streamline the way you handle customer support. That said, apps on Twitter will face inherent challenges. The Twitter stream is the main attraction, and most people don't visit brand pages directly. Plus, popular Twitter browsers such as TweetDeck and HootSuite are built around the Twitter stream, which deals another blow to the power of brand pages. Perhaps custom apps can find a way to drive more traffic to brand pages, but it seems doubtful. 2. T-Commerce Social commerce was hailed as the next big thing in ecommerce. Several brands developed ecommerce integration on the Facebook platform, hoping people would want to purchase while on Facebook, but it never really took off. Gap, JC Penny, and Nordstrom closed down their Facebook shops because customers preferred to shop on the main websites. This probably had more to do with the poor Facebook ecommerce user experience than with Facebook itself. Most of these early f-commerce attempts were simply developed without an understanding of how Facebook could add value to the shopping experience. Now, Twitter is rumored to try its luck with social ecommerce for brand pages. Will it be successful? Fundamentally Twitter has to succeed where Facebook failed. Twitter ecommerce, or t-commerce, has to create a significant added value to make it more compelling than shopping from a traditional web store. It's likely that Twitter's ecommerce solution will include a deep integration with Square, the mobile payment company Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey established in 2009. It's possible that t-commerce will be a mobile-only service that uses location-based technology and one-click payments with your Twitter name. That would add significant value to Twitter's mobile user base, especially when you consider that 50% of Twitter's users are accessing Twitter on mobile devices. 3. Contests and Sweepstakes Lastly, Twitter is rumored to introduce contests and sweepstakes for brand pages to create deeper brand engagement. That said, brands have been pushing contests and sweepstakes on Twitter for some time, and given the viral capabilities available with retweeting and hashtags, it will continue to happen. Will an official change by Twitter be groundbreaking? Probably not, but it's likely that these changes will allow brands to more efficiently manage and execute campaigns on this social network. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, matspersson0 |
| 20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week [CHART] | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 1:49 PM | Stephanie Buck |
|  After Justin Bieber was presented with the prize for "Favorite Male Singer" at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday, he was literally slammed with slime. And it didn't help that actor Will Smith held Bieber down to prevent his escape. Now, we're not talking any old wimpy slime bath. Bieber was pummeled with gallons upon gallons of slime from every angle of the stage. The slime explosion was so fierce that nearby fans got soaked, and even first lady Michelle Obama jumped out of the way to prevent slime from ruining her youthful, sparkly outfit. Those watching the KCAs took to social media in response to Nickelodeon-crazy events like this. The awards show topped the charts with 1.6 million social mentions across the networks. The data below is compliments of our friends at Trendrr, who measure specific TV show activity (mentions, likes, checkins) across Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and Miso. To see daily rankings, check out Trendrr.TV. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, subjug |
| How Facebook Search Could Be a Gift to Google | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:55 AM | paidContent |
|  Facebook’s reported move into search may one day prove a mortal threat to Google’s advertising business. But in the short run, the social network’s new project comes at an opportune time for the search giant. For Google, the impending arrival of Facebook Search presents a much-needed opportunity to beat back the legions of antitrust authorities circling all around it. Regulators appeared at the end of their ropes when Google announced “Search Plus Your World” and related privacy changes in January. The FTC chairman soon after described the changes as a “binary and somewhat brutal” choice that forced consumers to give the company yet more of their personal information. On a legal level, the privacy changes also fueled critics’ complaints that Google was violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act by abusing dominant market power. The company is the subject of multiple investigations in the U.S. and Europe. The arrival of Facebook could help Google say it is not dominant after all. Google, which controls 60%-70% of the search market, has long tried to refute antirust charges by saying competition is “just a click away.” Google may need this argument more than ever now that it has jettisoned purely objective search results in favor of promoting more social forms of search. In the past, Google has argued that objective results proved it wasn’t abusing its market power — this argument no longer holds water in light of the recent search changes. The arrival of Facebook in search could provide Google with a regulatory reprieve but, in the long run, it could also spell trouble. Google makes nearly all its money from advertising and it stands to lose out if Facebook can capitalize on a market for ads based on friend recommendations. Facebook’s own executives have in the past said that such ads are worth three times as much as ordinary ads. BusinessWeek reported last week that Facebook had hired a former Google engineer to develop search based advertising. A Google spokesperson declined to comment for this article. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, youngvet |
| Social Media Disconnect Challenge: Did Our Participants Survive? | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:43 AM | Keith Kaplan |
|  Can you imagine what life would be like without social media? In order to find out, Mashable selected five brave readers to disconnect from all social media for two whole weeks. The goal of the challenge was to discover how social media has impacted our everyday lives today. Halfway through the challenge we checked in with the participants to see how they were dealing with the disconnect. At the time, most participants reported they were having a hard time disconnecting, but all were eager to continue for the full two weeks. Ultimately, all the challenge participants prevailed and completed the two week span without logging on to social media. Most of the participants reacted positively toward their experiences, and one person even admitted that the disconnect helped him realize the silliness of Facebook. Vincent said, "As a result of this experiment, I have no motivation to tweet, post a status, or check-in anywhere. It all feels quite pointless. Maybe I'll warm up to it again further down the road, but right now it's taken a complete backseat in my life and I'm fine with that." We contacted each participant via email for a reflection on his or her experience. Here are some of their reactions. Why Would You Ever Want to Disconnect? Every participant said he or she wanted to partake in the challenge because it would be an opportunity to see how social media affects their lives today. Andrea wondered how she would spend her time, and what she could learn about herself from disconnecting. Every participant was also an active user of social media in one form or another. Vincent described himself as someone who is more aware of his Klout score than the current date. By the end of the first week of the challenge, though, he realized that his Klout score began to drop -- and he couldn't care less. Natalia originally worried that the challenge would feel like dieting. She writes, "I thought that I would try to stay busy so I wouldn't think about that chocolate bar I was going to crave -- the chocolate bar being a quick look at my news feed." Age Matters in Social Media Each challenge participant had a different experience during the disconnect. Andrea writes, "I think what was the biggest highlight for me - seeing how our age and life experiences will color our thoughts on disconnecting." She hypothesized that the younger generation of finalists would have a harder time disconnecting because they were accustomed to various social platforms while they grew up. Javier, who falls into this category, reported a difficult time disconnecting from social media because his job as a community manager revolved around being online. However, he found he was able to perform his job successfully. "Ithis by resorting to non-social means, such as traditional, online media and other digital spaces where I could share information and receive insight in return through email, in a less constant and immediate manner, but without missing the essentials." Realization That the World Is Connected During the disconnect, each participant was able to experience what life was like without social media. This allowed them to see just how deeply social media is ingrained in our society. Andrea writes, "Not having my face glued to my phone's screen allowed me to really see how disconnected things can be out here in the real world, face to face." Vincent had a different realization. He understood how trivial Facebook was after he reconnected with social media. "For most casual users as myself, looking at Facebook is like looking at an old high school yearbook and reading everything people wrote in it, including those people you weren't really friends with," he says. People Missed Me Jaime reported that her family and friends missed her when she disconnected from social media. Prior to the challenge, she used photos, Facebook messages and video chat to stay in contact with her sister-in-law and their children, who are on the other side of the country. Andrea realized she has two types of friends: friends that missed her personally (the people that text, call, email) and friends that missed her personality (the group of people that only interact with her online). Activities During the Disconnect Jaime made a separate challenge for herself each day during the disconnect, for instance, she decorated an area of her house, volunteered at a neighbor's office, took a small road trip, and visited a new place she had not been before. Javier told us he was finally able to watch a movie completely through, because he wasn't engaged in social media during the film. "It was both funny and amazing to go see a movie and not miss several seconds of it because I was sending a reply or simply tweeting about the movie I was supposed to be watching in the first place," he says. Many participants reported a better understanding of how to utilize and balance social media in their lives today. "This challenge confirmed for me that social media isn't at odds with real life; it's a way of doing real life. Often, it's the preferable way," says Jaime. Javier summed up his experience by saying, "Through this experience I learned that you don't need to be connected every single second of the day in order to stay on top of things." How do you think your experience would be different if you disconnected from social media for two weeks? Let us know your thoughts and predictions in the comments below. |
| What If 'The Facebook' Was Invented in the '90s? [VIDEO] | | Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:15 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Imagine if Facebook had come to the World Wide Web back in the 1990s. Think of all the fun you could have pointing your Netscape browser to it and using Alf as your avatar. Well, imagine no more. A group of wags at Squirrel-Monkey.com have created an approximation of what Mark Zuckerberg's might have looked like if it had been introduced circa 1995. It's basically the same thing, only with crappy graphics, but looking through the '90s lens affords Squirrel Monkey a chance to riff on odd things we've all noticed about Facebook, like the fact that you have to express condolences by "liking" a friend's announcement about a death. As a bonus, here's another video from Squirrel-Monkey positing what Twitter would have been like as a 1980s creation: |
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