Short link blogging coming your way this week: our top stories include the NFL – Monday Night Football – trying to control, if not outlaw, tweets by players – George Orwell calling, Facebook’s threat to personal friendships, Twitter finally seeing the writing on the wall – getting ready to generate badly needed revenue, how Google’s behavior-based advertising changes your search results and yet another Windows 7 vulnerability to worry about.

In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: Nikon to Wii via Yahoo! for week 31.
Very useful links: Friendfeed to Berlusconi for week 32.
Very useful links: Trabant to Obama via Copenhagen for week 33.
Very useful links: UBS to Levi’s via CBS for week 34.
Very useful links: Microsoft vs. Facebook vs. SAP for week 35.
Very useful links: Data-theft to tweet-deaths via free tools for week 36.

Not a subscriber yet? Want the scoop first? Just leave your email address in the field below.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES that make a DIFFERENCE
VERY USEFUL #trends2watch => USA => 45 percent of employers use social media 4 screening job applicants | 35 percent have rejected candidate based on SM background

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY Research
#metrics2watch => Education is important – according to OECD - BUT measuring its effects according to money spent on education and people attending university is a bit hard to follow – see WEF World Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 ==> youth unemployment rates would be a better KPI to benchmark nations success regarding educational spending and policy – get the inside scoop including WEF report, OECD Excel spreadsheet and youth unemployment trend #bettergovernance

Social Media BEST PRACTICE
#trends2watch => Why Facebook ruins real friendships…  #trends2watch #tips2follow

VERY USEFUL freemium: deciding what is free and what costs – easy to add features – difficult to remove #tips2follow

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
Why Social Media Marketing is Essential

VERY USEFUL => Popular on commetrics.com via Twitter => re-tweets happen more often, nice #metrics2watch #trends2watch

Social Media FIRST to Move – TRENDWATCH
#first2move – Google personalises AdWords = interest-based behavioral targeted advertising for search results #trends2watch

#SMfailure USA => NFL wants to ban tweeting before during after games – honest => Orwell’s Big Brother returns or just plain stupid?

#trends2watch Twitter, the two-year-old venture capital-backed company that lets people send 140-character messages, is ramping up efforts to monetize its success in the quest for revenue.

2009-09-10 Thursday, it revised its Terms of Service to specify that it may run advertising, thereby keeping its options open.

“The services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the content or information on the services, queries made through the services, or other information,” the terms read.

“The types and extent of advertising by Twitter on the services are subject to change.”

“In consideration for Twitter granting you access to and use of the services, you agree that Twitter and its third-party providers and partners may place such advertising on the services….”

InfoSec
#threats2watch advisory for a zero-day vulnerability in the SMB2 (Server Message Block 2) service that ships with newer versions of Windows; specifically, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Server 2008. Advisory contains a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploit for the flaw.

Actionable Metrics: Standards, Testing and Trends
Best business model: Free to use, pay to play – when will venture capitalists pull the plug on Twitter?

2009 Social Media Calendar – Upcoming Conferences of Interest

• September 14 – 17 ==> Chicago, USA – Social Media For Government: How to engage your employees and citizens by using the latest Web 2.0 technologies to drive communication results.
• September 29 – October 2 ==> Ottawa, CANADA – Social Media For Government: How to engage your employees and citizens by using the latest Web 2.0 technologies to drive communication results.
• September 29 – October 2 ==> Washington, USA – Social Media for Healthcare: How to use the latest web 2.0 technologies to engage your community, improve quality of service and build your reputation.
• September 30 – October 1 ==> Washington, USA – Rethinking Corporate Communications 2009 Conference.
• October 28 – 29 ==> Atlanta, USA – The eMarketing Association (eMA) – eM9-ATLANTA eMarketing Conference: Forum for the very latest trends, best practices, processes and ideas that are transforming the future of marketing.
• November 7 – 10 ==> San Diego, USA – Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) 2009 International Conference: Delivering Value.

What is happening in your neck of the woods? Please share your conference dates by leaving a comment below or sending us an email.

That’s the way we saw things this week; now it’s your turn. Did we miss anything important? Please add it below as a comment, along with a link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Short link blogging coming your way this week – our top stories include Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud or EC2 vulnerability to hacking, 34 free social media tools, Microsoft and Bing’s imminent release of a new, joint feature and how the media shift shows why BBC, AOL and the Guardian are becoming increasingly dependent on social networks like Facebook, Xing and Bebo to get traffic (view chart) and how Twitter may be named in a lawsuit after a driver’s tweeting caused freeway carnage.

In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: White House to Adobe for week 30.
Very useful links: Nikon to Wii via Yahoo! for week 31.
Very useful links: Friendfeed to Berlusconi for week 32.
Very useful links: Trabant to Obama via Copenhagen for week 33.
Very useful links: UBS to Levi’s via CBS for week 34.
Very useful links: Microsoft vs. Facebook vs. SAP for week 35.

Not a subscriber yet? Want the scoop first? Just leave your email address in the field below.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES that make a DIFFERENCE
VERY USEFUL #tools2watch – Social media monitoring wiki – lists 34 free and 60 commercial tools for social media analytics – great help for monitoring your brand.

VERY USEFUL Look who follows NoFollow links - test finds that both Yahoo & Google follow the NoFollow links #metrics2watch

#tools2watch – Bing will soon release the new feature “Bing and Ping”, a means to share your search results with friends – you can preview by becoming a fan of Bing on Facebook – that nets you an invite to the pre-party.

Sentiment analysis for online content: Honest? What the benchmarks show: failure. #trends2watch

Sentiment analysis – human scaling #tools2watch

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY Research

Best quality tea prices rose by 36 percent since January, almost twice the 2005 price (see graphic at left) #trends2watch

Discussing Doha – Europe provides $2 a day per cow in farming subsidies – in India 70 percent of population live on less than $2 a day #bettergovernance

VERY USEFUL #things2read OECD’s new report on the well-being of children worldwide

Social Media BEST PRACTICE
Best business model: Free to use, pay to play – when will venture capitalists pull the plug on Twitter? #bettergovernance #trends2watch

VERY USEFUL – Why following the product development diagram could result in failure for your start-up #things2read

Study raises DOUBTS: opt-in Internet surveys’ validity may not hold up against paper-and-pencil and telephone surveys – find the summary and the full paper here.

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
VERY USEFUL => Popular on commetrics.com via Twitter => re-tweets happen more often, nice #metrics2watch #trends2watch

Social Media FIRST to Move – TRENDWATCH
#first2move – North Carolina Department of Transportation providing traffic reports via Twitter: what about risk management - micro-blogging causing accidents by drivers reading tweets while driving?. Traffic reports for motorists and ferry passengers by region or interstate highway. #trends2watch

InfoSec
#threats2watch  RISK MGMT: Stealing data from Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2). Research reports way to attack the cloud using side-channel. (300.5 KiB, pdf)
Amazon not ready to talk about this threat this week, but this is a systemic risk that cannot be ignored by Google, Microsoft or Amazon, since all three offer these cloud services, nor by clients depending on these providers – what if your application is hacked this way? #trends2watch

Actionable Metrics: Standards, Testing and Trends
Best business model: Free to use, pay to play – when will venture capitalists pull the plug on Twitter?

VERY USEFUL social media ROI 67 slides #things2read http://bit.ly/8VDWI BUT operating metrics are more important than ROI….

#trends2watch social network sites bringing much  traffic to media sites such as BBC, the Guardian, AOL News (see graphic below).

2009 Social Media Calendar – Upcoming Conferences of Interest

• September 14 – 17 ==> Chicago, USA - Social Media For Government: How to engage your employees and citizens by using the latest Web 2.0 technologies to drive communication results.

• September 29 – October 2 ==> Ottawa, CANADA - Social Media For Government: How to engage your employees and citizens by using the latest Web 2.0 technologies to drive communication results.
• September 29 – October 2 ==> Washington, USA – Social Media for Healthcare: How to use the latest web 2.0 technologies to engage your community, improve quality of service and build your reputation.
• September 30 – October 1 ==> Washington, USA - Rethinking Corporate Communications 2009 Conference.
• October 28 – 29 ==> Atlanta, USA – The eMarketing Association (eMA) – eM9-ATLANTA eMarketing Conference: Forum for the very latest trends, best practices, processes and ideas that are transforming the future of marketing.
• November 7 – 10 ==> San Diego, USA - Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) 2009 International Conference: Delivering Value.

What is happening in your neck of the woods? Please share your conference dates by leaving a comment below or sending us an email.

That’s the way we saw things this week; now it’s your turn. Did we miss anything important? Please add it below as a comment, along with a link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Short link blogging coming your way this week – our top stories are Microsoft curtailing your freedom, Facebook being forced to improve user-privacy by the Canadians and Putin’s economic policies causing trouble for many… while App Store’s ascent stirs backlash in the Valley and how an Iraqi geologist helped his adopted country Norway to cope smartly with the discovery of oil.

In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: Facebook to Morgan Stanley for week 29.
Very useful links: White House to Adobe for week 30.
Very useful links: Nikon to Wii via Yahoo! for week 31.
Very useful links: Friendfeed to Berlusconi for week 32.
Very useful links: Trabant to Obama via Copenhagen for week 33.
Very useful links: UBS to Levi’s via CBS for week 34.

Not a subscriber yet – want the scoop first, please just  leave your e-mail address in the field below.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES that make a DIFFERENCE
VERY USEFUL #tools2watch social media search engines tracking social media mentions, see list of search engine options.

VERY USEFUL #things2read => Top 10 social media questions ad agency clients are asking (pdf file, 26 pages) #tips2follow

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
US cash-for-clunkers scheme ended 2009-08-24 – lasted barely a month even after funding boosted to $3 billion from original 1 billion, BUT this flash in the pan wasted taxpayer funds – car sales expected to drop Sept. (see graphic at left) #metrics2watch #bettergovernance
Remember: The average US subsidy for Cash for Clunkers is $4206 BUT saving 9.6 miles per gallon AND payback period 7.6 years – what about energy used to scrap those clunkers? Spare parts cannot be recycled – does this make sense? #carbonfootprint

SMEs provide 75 percent of the jobs to China’s urban workforce - that number is now shrinking for the first time in 30 years – stimulus program is focusing on infrastructure instead  (see graphic at left) #metrics2watch #bettergovernance #carbonfootprint

VERY USUEFUL #things2read Iraqi who saved Norway from oil while making a fortune for society #bettergovernance => pushed the government to increase extraction rates ’squeezing the last drop out’ -  the culture of pursuing the ‘last drop‘ brought greater benefits than just money pouring in…

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
Best business model: Free to use, pay to play – when will venture capitalists pull the plug on Twitter? #bettergovernance #trends2watch

VERY USEFUL – Why following the product development diagram could result in failure for your start-up #things2read

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
#trends2watch Social Media Revolution by Socialnomics… MARKETING 101… Not exactly but NICE video…  social media for you – some hype, some facts but interesting.

#first2move Apple’s App Store launched 2008-07-10, more than 10m downlodads on first weekend, 1.5bn (65,000) applications dowwnloaded (available) to date, more than 100,000 developers building applications, available in 77 countries – developers and market regulators are keeping a wary eye on Apple’s growing influence #trends2watch

InfoSec
Less than 2 months until Windows 7 OS release – Free Software Foundation highlights the 7 Deadly Sins, Windows-style #things2patch #bugs2fix #threats2watch

Thank you to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and her crew => forcing #Facebook to change privacy practices + policies to comply with Canadian laws – we all benefit #threats2watch #bettergovernance

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
#crisis Legal reform & curtailing corruption ever tougher with minor officials grabbing assets – Medvedomics requires a jump start or Russians and those dependent on the country’s energy will suffer #bettergovernance  (see graphic below).

#things2read Make sure social media metrics are meaningful #metrics2watch

#ethics2watch SAP caught infringing on 5 of Versata Software’s patents – verdict of patent lawsuit forces SAP to pay $139 million in damages questionable business ethics for sure #bettergovernance

That’s the way we saw things this week; now it’s your turn. Did we miss anything important? Please add it below as a comment, along with a link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Short link blogging coming your way this week – our top story is the US – Swiss deal on UBS and the alleged tax fraud by several thousand US taxpayers.

US clients have the chance to appeal to the Bundesverwaltungsgericht, Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court or FAC (read the English information booklet as published by the FAC).

An appeal would take three to six months, definitely one of the reasons the US insists on having the possibility of imposing other measures if delays stretch too long. What happens if US-based UBS clients win their appeals is a whole other issue, since then the ‘milestones’ in terms of progress in names supplied cannot be achieved on time. This would mean any legal action against UBS would continue.

The two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – Swiss Confederation documents listed below explain the complex deal. Much is unclear and left open to interpretation – a lawyer’s nightmare:

1) Agreement on UBS case – IRS and Swiss Confederation agree treaty request involves up to 4,450 accounts
2) Agreement Between the United States of America and the Swiss Confederation – the DEVIL is in the DETAILS

The Swiss government estimates that the additional work needed to provide the required information to the US IRS will cost Switzerland’s taxpayers Sfr 40 million. Obviously, UBS should foot this bill.

P.S. – Bradley Birkenfeld, former UBS private banker turned informant, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for helping wealthy Americans evade taxes (see image at right).

In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: Qwerty to WEF for week 28.
Very useful links: Facebook to Morgan Stanley for week 29.
Very useful links: White House to Adobe for week 30.
Very useful links: Nikon to Wii via Yahoo! for week 31.
Very useful links: Friendfeed to Berlusconi for week 32.
Very useful links: Trabant to Obama via Copenhagen for week 33.

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
USEFUL US permanent spending cut of 8 percent today necessary to stabilise borrowing in the long run (see graphic at right) #metrics2watch #bettergovernance

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
Citigroup, RBS and Google: Loads in common #bettergovernance #threats2watch

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
#things2read An Update on Healthcare Security Regulations for Email – US HIPAA, 2009 #bettergovernance

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
#first2move Sept 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly => launch of – CBS PepsiMax ad campaign sent to Los Angeles- and New York-area subscribers – will use wafer-thin interactive video screen built into the page to allow US TV characters to speak to them when the page is turned (see image below).

Estimates indicate that running one video ad in 100,000 copies would cost in the low seven-figure range. That would translate into a cost of several dollars per copy. By contrast, a full-page color ad in Entertainment Weekly costs about 9 cents per copy.

#first2move Levi’s stretch jeans used to ’stretch the jeans market’ => 2-month pilot test with an interest-free installment scheme at 10 Levi stores in Bangalore was a success – using this scheme to pay off their $33 jeans results in customers spending 50 percent more than they would otherwise.

NOW deal goes nationwide in India – using Bollywood action star Akshay Kumar, the macho Bollywood action film star for Levi’s billboard campaign. The promotion allows Levi’s to expand down-market by giving Indian customers a chance to purchase Levi’s they could otherwise not afford (Levi’s cost anywhere from 8 to 50 times as much as unbranded jeans, which average only Rs200).

InfoSec
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) vulnerability being exploited using TCP Port 42 thereby allowing remote code execution attacks via specially crafted WINS replication packet to an affected system running the WINS service.

The August 11 patch known as MS09-039 fixed this vulnerability – are you protected?  #things2patch #bugs2fix #threats2watch

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
#metrics2watch => Wall Street bonuses cut by about 40% in 2008 BUT beginning to bounce back in hot areas such as fixed income – if we forget to align risk with pay we might repeat past mistakes.

Fixed or guaranteed pay-packages do not represent good governance but were prevalent before the #crisis – do we need a repeat performance? (see graphic below).

#things2read Wall Street déjà vu – it is as if the current global crisis never happened #bettergovernance

That’s the way we saw things this week; now it’s your turn. Did we miss anything important? Please add it below as a comment, along with a link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Short link blogging coming your way this week – interesting material to gain insight instead of hindsight.

In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: Wiki to YouTube for week 27.
Very useful links: Qwerty to WEF for week 28.
Very useful links: Facebook to Morgan Stanley for week 29.
Very useful links: White House to Adobe for week 30.
Very useful links: Nikon to Wii via Yahoo! for week 31.
Very useful links: Friendfeed to Berlusconi for week 32.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
Corporate blogging for the bottom line - Lessons 14 – 17: Authenticity and quality are key and Lessons 18 – 20: Improving blogging effectiveness #tips2follow

Will Twitter and Facebook save UBS? #trends2watch

Trendwatch - WHITE PAPERS
Copenhagen Consensus urges cost cutting – states that overambitious CO2 goals of 450 parts per million result in unreasonable costs. Means => 12.9 percent of global GNP = $68 tax per tonne of CO2 worldwide from 2010.
Critics of report say early emissions cuts would be cheaper or even have negative costs. Plus, taking action NOW is easier than removing carbon from the air or carbon-intensive infrastructure later #carbonfootprint #eco-footprint

EU carbon emissions trading will add €1-2 Zurich-Amsterdam air ticket price & €20 for a London-Singapore ticket (see chart at right) #metrics2watch #carbonfootprint #eco-footprint

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
#first2move Monday Aug 8 => 225 GM dealers & Ebay join forces for sales drive in California to regain market share (in Calif market share = 13 percent compared with 19.5 percent nationally) => buyers may now haggle with dealers online – promotion runs until Sept 8.

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
#trends2watch US healthcare reforms – this is a hard sell BUT spending increases are a serious problem that must be tackled => 1960 (4.8 percent of US  GDP spent on healthcare) - 2007 (16 percent of GDP spent on healthcare costs) #bettergovernance (see chart at left). Still, most protesters know little about the reforms and have no intention of rectifying their ignorance = uphill battle for Obama.

Trabant – once derided as a drab symbol of Communist inefficiency, set for comeback – launch of battery-powered version at Frankfurt’s international motor show in September.

Global benchmark for orange futures pushed above 110 cents/lb 40 percent higher since beginning of July on concerns for Florida’s crop (see graphic at left) #trends2watch

InfoSec
Google marks your domain as malware risk - what you can do – we wuz hacked – Twittercism #threats2watch #bugs2fix

Okay, now it’s your turn. Did we miss anything important? Please add it below as a comment, along with a link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Short link blogging coming your way this week – interesting material to gain insight instead of hindsight.

In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: OECD to Twitter, Google via Coca-Cola for week 26.
Very useful links: Wiki to YouTube for week 27.
Very useful links: Qwerty to WEF for week 28.
Very useful links: Facebook to Morgan Stanley for week 29.
Very useful links: White House to Adobe for week 30.
Very useful links: Nikon to Wii via Yahoo! for week 31.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
#trends2watch => #tools2watch search Google Twitter WolframAlpha and Flickr via heaper view results for search #metrics2watch – it works quite well indeed.

#tips2follow #tools2watch REPLACE FRIENDFEED – Set up your own custom Lifestream page with LifeStream Wordpress Plugin.

Will Twitter and Facebook save UBS? #trends2watch

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
#trends2watch => online media advertising – Facebook’s share is going up against MySpace (see graphic at right).

#trends2watch – 1-800-Flowers, Sears & Threadless (T-shirt seller) let users add items to their shopping cart on Facebook see graphic here.

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
#trends2watch – Japan: # of working age (20-64) people per person aged 65 or above => 1950/1975/2000/2025/2050 = 10/7.7/3.6/1.9/1.2 #aging #retirement – a growing burden on fewer shoulders.

Total Fertility Rate – children per woman TFR – Japan 1.37, China 1.77 – prospect of retirement age rising as high as 70+ #trends2watch #metrics2watch

Country’s Dependency ratio = proportion of children & retirees to working population – worsening trend is getting China to consider a partial rollback of its one-child policy (see chart to right).

#things2read 30% (08=55% [40%] to 50% [46%]09) of UK adults (15-24 [25-34] yr olds) have online profile (e.g., Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, etc.) OFCOM study reports. 12% use Internet for phone calls. #trends2watch

#trends2watch Teens care about their real-life & online friends => use Facebook, Bebo and MySpace but NOT really Twitter, which is not really news – user stats confirm teens do not tweet.

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
#Bettergovernance => Cash for clunkers distorting car prices could scupper any nascent recovery in car markets Who pays for what & how much (see graphic at right)? #trends2watch

WSJ reports some Big Apple coffee shops are pulling the plug on laptop users who nurse 1 cup while surfing the job boards to make room for the lunch crowd. – #trends2watch

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
#metrics2watch => House prices rose as much in Europe during the boom as in the UK – just slower but now dropping – see graphic below.

Cash for Clunkers average US subsidy $4206 BUT saving 9.6 miles per gallon AND payback period 7.6 years – what about energy used to scrap those clunkers? Spare parts cannot be recycled – does this make sense? #carbonfootprint

Global benchmark for sugar pushed above 20 cents a pound highest in 20 years beating previous peak of 19.73 cents in 2006 (see graphic at left) – will the sugar laborers get a raise? DOUBTFUL. #trends2watch

InfoSec
MICROSOFT flags UAC flaw with Windows 7 as malware – but refuses to fix it – WHY!? #threats2watch #bugs2fix

Humor/Satire
Snapshots from Berlusconi’s and Putin’s summer vacations – what a difference (see image below)! #things2view

What corporate bloggers should watch out for – final two posts coming your way August 12 – meantime, please brush up your skills here:
- 1) Lessons 1 – 4: Starting your blogging off on the right foot (2009-06-03)
- 2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)
- 3) Lessons 8 – 11: Whatever domain, home you choose – beware
- 4 – Lessons 12 – 13 – getting the basic SEO issues right

Okay, now it’s your turn. Did we miss anything important? Please add it below as a comment, along with a link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Short link blogging coming your way this week – interesting material to gain insight instead of hindsight. In case you missed the last six weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: George Soros to US Homeland Security for week 25.
Very useful links: OECD to Twitter, Google via Coca-Cola for week 26.
Very useful links: Wiki to YouTube for week 27.
Very useful links: Qwerty to WEF for week 28.
Very useful links: Facebook to Morgan Stanley for week 29.
Very useful links: White House to Adobe for week 30.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
#tips2follow: Twitter’s search archive doesn’t go very far back in time => Solution: Use Friendfeed instead.

VERY USEFUL Nikon case study – learn from it: Nikon’s antisocial media relations at BlogHer ‘09 #trends2watch

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
- weak hardware sales suggest price cuts on Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 to stimulate market (see graphic at left) #metrics2watch #trends2watch

TOP 100 funniest one-liners:  #humor

VERY USEFUL Top 10 Things the Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Changes for SEO #trends2watch #metrics2watch

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY

- Chapter 9 bankruptcies, which cover US municipalities, are rare and usually involve small towns. Such filings can be disadvantageous => a Detroit bankruptcy would be a whopper & set a disturbing precedent => VERY USEFUL – Motown – Detroit: population trends 1890-2008 – unemployment 25% compared to NYC, LA, etc. (see chart above) #metrics2watch

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
- The Exploding Internet 2008 (click here for expandable graph) BUT besides Mandarin, Russian and Hindi => English, French, German, Spanish & other languages will be used…

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
– #metrics2watch => Yahoo! stockholders were alarmed that it may be surrendering its technology position while gaining $275 million in cash flow – far less than the anticipated annual savings of $1 billion (see image at left) #trends2watch #bettergovernance.

- US video game sales dropped drastically from June 2008 to 2009 (see graph to right)  #trends2watch #metrics2watch

- Testing Twitter: profile foto + targeted following => people are more likely to follow those similar to themselves than others #metrics2watch

InfoSec
- Hackers can launch iPhone, Google Android or Windows Mobile attacks via SMS => attacks will likely be used to send spam #things2read #threats2watch

Okay, now it’s your turn. What important links to insights discussed in a blog post this week did we miss? Please add it below. Thanks much.

BlackBerry users take advantage of cloud computing by having their emails routed to and from RIM (Research in Motion) servers in North America and the UK. However, a bungled attempt by the United Arab Emirates’ largest telecommunications operator to install surveillance software on subscribers’ units has shown how problematic the new system can be.

What’s the big idea?
Cloud computing has many definitions.

Imagine a world where most of the functions of our personal computers – running applications, communicating, and storing data – would not take place on those computers but rather at massive computer server farms located in remote locations and linked through high-speed networks. This is not the stuff of science fiction but rather ‘cloud computing’, one of the hottest Internet and computing trends. Michael Geist – The Race Toward Clean Cloud Computing (2008-02-11)

But that merely describes a business model in which software is delivered as a service or computing based on the utility model.

More importantly, this is not a new insight: Google CEO Eric Schmidt already described cloud computing during a 2006 conference presentation.

It starts with the premise that the data services and architecture should be on servers. We call it cloud computing – they should be in a ‘cloud’ somewhere. And that if you have the right kind of browser or the right kind of access, it doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a Mac or a mobile phone or a BlackBerry or what have you – or new devices still to be developed – you can get access to the cloud… quoted by Donna Bogatin – Google CEO’s new paradigm: ‘cloud computing and advertising go hand-in-hand’ (2006-08-23)

Since late 2007 a different definition has gained prevalence.

Cloud computing means scaling up one’s application by deploying it on a large grid of commodity servers. Each server or computer is an exact image of the other. Hence, the same system is installed on each machine, thereby assuring that each box behaves like all other boxes. Critical is the load balancer, which forwards a request to any one box and it is processed in a stateless manner. This means that the request is followed by an immediate response and no state is held by the system.

Challenge: Who owns the data?
However, the above definition does not address ownership: traditional data storage on your server or PC makes the information yours at the access point, but cloud computing complicates everything. Google or Amazon may have a legal responsibility to remove data from a server or client device under laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US.

As demonstrated by their remote removal of 1984 from all Kindles, Amazon has the power to control information on client systems. To avoid being exposed to liability when illegal copies of the book started to appear, the company went for broke: once customers connected to Sprint’s Whispernet, it deleted the book from all units.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos quickly posted an apology to customers:

…Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles… we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward…

Nevertheless, the question remains: who owns the digital content on your Kindle – you as the customer or Amazon as the data facilitator? The Kindle maker has failed to outline what will happen next time, but it seems probable that Amazon will react similarly in future, violating users’ rights.

Bottom line
Storing data using cloud computing (like Google Chrome OS does) means there is no local storage, so nothing can be owned, only rented. The only way around this problem is to download data and images to one’s PC.

New cloud computing-based platforms hammer home an uncomfortable lesson. To evade liability, Amazon can – and will – use its power to control information on any Kindle, thereby overriding the owner’s wishes, even though the customer bought and paid for the unit. What stops Google from blocking Chrome OS users from accessing their data?

Worse, servers can be located anywhere around the globe no matter where the customer is, so which laws apply and under what circumstances? As a user it is impossible to be completely prepared, since some data may be stored in country A today, while the rest is in country B tomorrow, something all user agreements clearly stipulate. The devil is in the details.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Would you have responded to any of these issues differently and if so, how? Did we miss something? Agree, disagree, shout with joy, cry with pleasure… please share your thoughts.

P.S. – If you still trust Kindle to store your digital content, then Robin Broitman has a great post: 80+ Social Media eBooks for Your Kindle.

Short link blogging coming your way this week – interesting material to gain insight instead of hindsight.

In case you missed the last five weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: George Soros to US Homeland Security for week 25.
Very useful links: OECD to Twitter, Google via Coca-Cola for week 26.
Very useful links: Wiki to YouTube for week 27.
Very useful links: Qwerty to WEF for week 28.
Very useful links: Facebook to Morgan Stanley for week 29.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
#trends2watch => LinkedIn Recommendation brings liquidity and transparency to reputation economy => US maybe? EU NO Way José - #sillyness

White House has official Twitter accounts but Twitter blocked on official White House computers – press secretary explains: ‘waste of taxpayers’ money’

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
#trends2watch => TV Guide and Business Week: Twins? both struggle but… serving a need NOT necessarily – social media failure

YouTube – Carbon Footprint – using Twitter, YouTube, Xing does not help your #carbonfootprint either – your Coke can takes more than 50 years be careful

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
Iron ore spot prices forge path to $100 – China iron ore imports make up 52% of world imports – watch graphic  #metrics2watch #trends2watch

VERY USEFUL – deficits in state budgets – troubles across US – interactive graphic #bettergovernance (see chart to the right)

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
#trends2watch – A survey found hedge-fund assets risen by $100bn, 2nd Q 2009. 1st Q increase in a year. The rise was mostly because of an improvement in investment performance rather than an injection of new capital. Investors withdrew $43 billion from the industry in the quarter; in the final quarter of 2008 they redeemed $152 billion #crisis

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
Porsche VW corporate soap opera builds up to cliffhanger Wiedeking departure paves way for two carmakers to integrate

Porsche Wiedeking’s financial engineering results in failure BUT gets €50m payout & earned €150 during last 2yrs #bettergovernance

InfoSec
Adobe confirms zero-day vulnerability for Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat AND Adobe Reader, > Application Flaws  – #threats2watch

BUT above Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat AND Adobe Reader ‘zero-day vulnerability is eight months old | is this a responsible vendor or one being plain stupid or just irresponsible? #bettergovernance  – #patch2do #bizethics

Microsoft plans to issue 2 patches next week – will fix vulnerabilities => Internet Explorer browser & Visual Studio developer suite that allow attackers to remotely execute malware – critical -  #patch2do

Videos
-  2nd My.ComMetrics.com instructional video uploaded on our ComMetricsLive channel on YouTube - how to claim your blog made easy – tracking your performance#things2view

To see how well your blog measures up using actionable metrics register your blog with My.ComMetrics.com.

What corporate bloggers should watch out for:
- 1) Lessons 1 – 4: Starting your blogging off on the right foot (2009-06-03)
- 2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)
- 3) Lessons 8 – 11: Whatever domain, home you choose – beware
- 4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right

Okay, now it’s your turn. What important links to insights discussed in a blog post this week did we miss? Please add it below. Thanks much.

Short link blogging coming your way this week – interesting material to gain insight instead of hindsight.

In case you missed the last five weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: Insight versus hindsight for week 24.
Very useful links: George Soros to US Homeland Security for week 25.
Very useful links: OECD to Twitter, Google via Coca-Cola for week 26.
Very useful links: Wiki to YouTube for week 27.
Very useful links: Qwerty to WEF for week 28.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
#trends2watch => Canada privacy watchdog warns Facebook ===> 1st  its explanations of privacy are confusing and incomplete, 2nd giving application developers access to private info where it is not necessary AND 3rd when one de-activates one’s account Facebook still retains personal information #bettergovernance

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
#trends2watch => Microsoft vs. Google neither one will offer you KISS for your computing needs because…

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
-  US Dep. of Energy expects wind to reach 4% by 2030, from 1.3% now #trends2watch #metrics2watch (see chart to the right)

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
Canada privacy watchdog warns Facebook -  privacy policy is in contravention of Canada’s privacy law PIPEDA #bettergovernance

How teenagers use social media and why they hate Twitter – download the 3page report by a 15-yr Morgan Stanley intern that shook the City for nothing #trends2watch

InfoSec
#metrics2watch Microsoft Faces Zero-Day Vulnerability – #threats2watch

Videos
-  2nd My.ComMetrics.com instructional video uploaded on our ComMetricsLive channel on YouTube - how to claim your blog made easy – tracking your performance#things2view

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
To see how well your blog measures up using actionable metrics register your blog with My.ComMetrics.com

What corporate bloggers should watch out for:
- 1) Lessons 1 – 4: Starting your blogging off on the right foot (2009-06-03)
- 2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)
- 3) Lessons 8 – 11: Whatever domain, home you choose – beware
- 4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right

Okay, now it’s your turn. What important links to insights discussed in a blog post this week did we miss? Please add it below. Thanks much.

Short link blogging coming your way this week – interesting material for gaining insight instead of hindsight.

In case you missed the last four weeks’ best links:
Very useful links: Insight versus hindsight for week 24.
Very useful links: George Soros to US Homeland Security for week 25.
Very useful links: OECD to Twitter, Google via Coca-Cola for week 26.
Very useful links: Wiki to YouTube for week 27.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES, Best practice
- Increasing blogging effectiveness: why have a blog besides Twitter & Facebook because your blog is your social media hub #tips2follow

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
- Study Twitter Users 53% have no followers, 56% not following anyone + 55% have never even tweeted #trends2watch

- Twitter vs Facebook = 11,000 vs. 52,000 applications – success for sure but…   #metrics2watch #trends2watch

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
- #Crisis => euro strength vs $ = forcing EU firms to step-up cost-cutting to compete with US firms CHARTS -  2006-2009 incl. default rate comparisons => #trends2watch

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
- #things2remember => Qwerty keyboard = known for 1st 6 English letters – left to right on keyboard – 1868 created by newspaper editor Christopher Sholes – he called it “Type Writer”

- #things2read => Download #WEF Global Enabling Trade Report 2009 #policy2watch

VERY INTERESTING -  Second Life data shows how “Social Influence and the Diffusion of User-Created Content” happens - research report (1.8 MiB) #trends2watch

InfoSec
Prosecutor: Cloud computing is security’s frontier #threats2watch

ZeroDay Vulnerability in Microsoft Msvidctl Direct Show Security … – #threats2watch

Videos
#WEF Global Enabling Trade Report 2009 top 10 nations aiding trade are Singapore, HongKong … vs those hindering  trade … #policy2watch

-  2nd My.ComMetrics.com instructional video uploaded on our ComMetricsLive channel on YouTube - how to claim your blog made easy – tracking your performance#things2view

Actionable Metrics and Standards – Best Practice
To see how well your blog measures up using actionable metrics register your blog with My.ComMetrics.com

What corporate bloggers should watch out for:
- 1) Lessons 1 – 4: Starting your blogging off on the right foot (2009-06-03)
- 2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)
- 3) Lessons 8 – 11: Whatever domain, home you choose – beware
- 4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right

Okay, now it’s your turn. What important links to insights discussed in a blog post this week did we miss? Please add it below. Thanks much.

Short link blogging coming your way this week. Often much fewer than 140 characters (a bit similar to Twitter) and gain insight instead of hindsight from the links to interesting material.

In case you missed the last three weeks’ best links:

Very useful links: Insight versus hindsight for week 24.
Very useful links: George Soros to US Homeland Security for week 25.
Very useful links: OECD to Twitter, Google via Coca-Cola for week 26.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES
- VERY USEFUL - Planning & Sustaining Wiki-based Collaboration Projects (in companies) => http://bit.ly/dNt9n #tips2follow

- Creating dialogue: Tweet or talk? Sound advice in this one!

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
NICE What are the most popular car colors – DuPont data 2008 shows what drivers choose in Europe, US and elsewhere – GRAPHIC ==> CHOOSE wisely – re-sale value

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
Most banks will suffer writedowns on toxic assets BUT investm. banks increase revenue 1st Q CHART #metrics2watch

-  USEFUL => S&P 500 index the trend is not always your friend 200-day moving average CHART http://bit.ly/4548jp #trends2watch

- #trends2watch – The S&P/Case-Shiller index house prices in 20 American cities – fell modestly in April 09 ==> Dallas notched up the most by 1.7% – 2007-2009 view CHART

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS- #things2read – avoid car crash = choose best color when purchasing next car- safest car color – 2003 survey research says: SILVER cars are least likely to be hit by other drivers – download pdf PAPER

#trends2watch => Apple App Store > 50000 apps=pay US$1,875/day advert get iPhone app into Top 100 STUDY

InfoSec
- Google Analytics Hack Detector - compromised site hosts – not Google’s fault  #tips2follow

- My.ComMetrics.com
-  2nd My.ComMetrics.com instructional video uploaded on our ComMetricsLive channel on YouTube - how to claim your blog made easy – tracking your performance#things2view

To see how well your blog measures up using actionable metrics register your blog here:

My.ComMetrics.com – benchmarking your blog – sign up for FREE

Join our team - IT – be part of the excitement

More bookmarks: delicious.gattiker.name, or
Connect via: facebook.gattiker.name, friendfeed.gattiker.name, naijapulse.gattiker.name, twitter.gattiker.name

Okay, now it’s your turn. What important links to insights discussed in a blog post this week did we miss? Please add it below. Thanks much.

My main reason for writing these weekend reflection posts is to provide you with links of important insights I came across during the week while browsing the blogosphere. Some people call this short link blogging — often way fewer than 140 characters (a bit similar to Twitter).

In case you missed the last couple of weeks’ best links for the week:

Very useful links: Insight versus hindsight for week 23.
Very useful links: George Soros to US Homeland Security for week 24.

Social Media TOOLS and GUIDES
- VERY Useful # Wordpress 2.8 Plugin Compatibility Checker

- ALERT | Google launched community service volunteerism search engine – alpha version | tools2watch

- Good read – a week without Google Search vs. Bing – there done that #things2read

Social Media MARKETING BUZZ
- why Twitter does not matter for people in Iran – much ado about nothing

- VERY refreshing | You might be a cool blogger, but for product advice, people listen to their real life friends more |

- VERY INTERESTING | Will Digg Users Bury New Digg Ads System? #things2read #trends2watch by @simonowens

- VERY USEFUL from @kottkedotorg about Twitter litter why QUALITY MATTERS

- VERY HELPUL from @simonowens in response to @kottkedotorg s post – TWITTER LITTER =>  #trends2watch

Economic CRISIS AND POLICY
- YERY USEFUL defining ecological footprint ?…it is a resource accounting tool… 5m video #eco-footprint

- VERY USEFUL | US copyright holders form cartel with Google | what will US regulator do? #policy2watch

- Swiss National Bank - better international  framework required to regulate big banks more effecively in order to reduce systemic risks #bettergovernance

- VERY USEFUL => #OECD WG on Bribery reaffirming commitment to enforcing OECD Anti-Bribery Convention #bettergovernance

-  OECD secretary general Angel Gurria => video/interactive graphics =>the crisis will wipe out 3% of rich countries’ output for ever -
==> get press material => the social impact of the global crisis is expected to be long-lasting #trends2watch

Trendwatch – WHITE PAPERS
- #things2read – STUDY ONE Third of brand’s most loyal US consumers defected from 2007 & 08. 07= 16% of all consumers or or 48% of highly loyal consumers remained highly loyal in 08 (see chart to the right)  ==> WORST is 33 % of these highly loyal consumers stopped buying the brand BUT purchased cheaper versions in the same product category instead.

- VERY USEFUL tables/charts – TRENDS EU27 tax ratio at 39.8% of GDP in 2007 = ca.12% > than US or Japan BUT this does not seem to have protected the region from the recession

- US 2009 State of the Nation’s Housing Report = home equity > important to households than stocks – #trends2watch

- #things2read – download 2009-06-24 -  OECD Economic Outlook 2009 - Preliminary Edition – #trends2watch

- READING – Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter PLS Comment #things2read

InfoSec
- Orwell watch NOT? – Nokia/Siemens Networks sold technology to IRAN BUT it does not allow the monitoring of data and voice on communication networks ==> Wall Street Journal failed to check its facts before publishing the wrong information

My.ComMetrics.com
-  1st My.ComMetrics.com instructional video uploaded on our ComMetricsLive channel on YouTube #things2view

To see how well your blog measures up using actionable metrics register your blog here:

My.ComMetrics.com – benchmarking your blog – sign up for FREE

Join our team - IT – be part of the excitement

More bookmarks: delicious.gattiker.name, or
Connect via: facebook.gattiker.name, friendfeed.gattiker.name, naijapulse.gattiker.name, twitter.gattiker.name

Okay, now it’s your turn. What important links to insights discussed in a blog post this week did we miss? Please add it below. Thanks much.