Twitter Got Gold

London’s Olympic Stadium will have many athletes in it this Friday. Twitter, is kicking off an Olympics events page that will contain tweets from athletes, their families, fans and others. Twitter is getting ready to join an Olympic relay that it hopes will help it gain ground on Facebook. Twitter has partnered with NBC Universal. With the partnership, Twitter hopes to use the Olympics as a launch pad into a more sustainable business. This is one of the first times Twitter will serve as an official narrator for a live event. NBC will be directing viewers to the Twitter page.

Twitter, which allows people to post 140-character messages, has built up more than 140 million monthly users.  Twitter has also become a resource for people to find news. The executives at Twitter decided they want the 6 year old service to find a larger audience and a serious money maker. As a result, Twitter’s Olympics bet is crucial. “This is a way for new users to sample Twitter,” said Chloe Sladden, Twitter’s vice president of media.

“There’s no way of knowing exactly how much advertisers will spend on Twitter during the Olympics, but there is no doubt they will be jockeying for ad space during some of the key events of the Games, when traffic on Twitter will explode,” eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.

Twitter has prepared for the Games for months. The company has already performed dozens of promos with athletes and national sports associations to “sell” them on using its service. Twitter has requested that companies should buy ads on Twitter to spread their Olympics marketing messages.

 

Advertisers said Twitter has pushed itself to them as an effective marketing vehicle. Twitter will be visible offline, on television and online. The London Eye, a giant Ferris wheel dominating the skyline, will light up each night based on the sentiment of Olympic tweets, although Twitter said that isn’t part of its campaign. Once a night, the London Eye will light up in a pattern that reflects the prevailing sentiment about the games among Twitter users that day. Positive tweets will turn the thing yellow, negative ones purple.

Google ESP

Is Google becoming an extension of your mind?

GoogleNow, Google’s voice-powered digital assistant compares favorably to Apple’s own voice-powered digital assistant, Siri. To anyone who has used Siri, Voice Assistant will feel familiar. You ask a question, and a female voice responds and displays a response on screen. Google Now is a different beast altogether, and you must opt-in to use it. Google Now shows just how much and how useful it can be. The feature follows some of your activities and uses them to provide information before you ask. 

Google Now presents information in "cards". Google Now automatically creates and presents a series of “cards” that try to organize your life by presenting information Google thinks you’ll need at that particular moment - based on the information it’s collected via how you use various Google services - in a context that it hopes you’ll find useful. Google Now aggregates the information Google already collects about you on a daily basis: accessing your email, your calendar, your contacts, your text messages, your location, your shopping habits, your payment history, as well as your choices in music, movies and books. It can even scan your photos and automatically identify them based on their subject, not just the file name!

It tells you today’s weather before you start your day, how much traffic to expect before you leave for work, when the next train will arrive as you’re standing on the platform, or your favorite team's score while they’re playing;  all of this happens automatically. Google Now is designed to draw on information such as calendar entries, Google Maps navigation, and search history to anticipate information that a person will find useful -- something basic like a weather forecast or more sophisticated like a timetable to get to an appointment by foot, train, and bus.

"Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards.",  quoted by Steve Ballmer.

An Oracle of Media

Oracle is serious about hitting the social media scene hard. On July 10, 2012, the company announced the purchase of Involver (a company specializing in the development of customized social media campaigns).  This will be the third social media purchase Oracle has made in the past two months. In June, they purchased Collective Intellect (a company that assisted companies in monitoring the amount of buzz they generated in the social media world) and in May they purchased Virtue (a company that made the management of all different social media sites easier).

They already provide a cloud-based software service. Oracle is a clear and well-positioned leader in public and private cloud computing. Building upon its market leading commercial-off-the-shelf enterprise software, Oracle has enhanced its hardware, software and management capabilities through investments in innovation, strategic acquisitions as well as key partnerships. Soon, they will offer consumers a range of social media services, as well as, the cloud-based software services. 

Oracle adheres to three principles. Adhering to three principles has saved Oracle more than $1 billion in operating costs so far. With these principles, which are incorporated into the design of their software, they have coordinated and streamlined their business processes worldwide:

1. Simplify: Speed information delivery with integrated systems and a single database.
2. Standardize: Reduce cost and maintenance cycles with open, easily available components.
3. Automate: Improve operational efficiency with technology and best practices.

Social media marketing tool providers have become prime acquisition targets lately. This is due to the growing influence of social media such as Facebook and Twitter on customers' lives. Oracle has now become a social media powerhouse that will be hard for companies to push to the side, especially when they are craving a slice of that social media pie. Organizations operate in a new era of the “empowered consumer” where customers are more in charge of their relationships with brands than ever before. In this new era, customer experience has become the most important and defensible differentiator and driver of business value.

The e-Book Bible

For a two-week trial period, the Hotel Indigo in Newcastle has replaced hard copies of the holy text with electronic versions accessible through the Amazon e-reader. Yes, they replaced the paper Gideon bibles, the ones we are used to finding in the drawers of hotels and motels, with Amazon Kindles. It is the first in Britain to offer the service, which includes the ability to download any other religious texts that costs 5 British pounds or less, for free! Other downloads may be done, but they will be at regular price for the consumer.

Adam Munday, general manager of Hotel Indigo Newcastle, explained why the hotel chain made the swap: “Every Hotel Indigo draws inspiration from its local area to give guests an individual experience.” Newcastle was one of the largest print centers in England in the 18th century. The area is also home to the Literary & Philosophical Society -- the "largest independent library outside London" -- which houses more than 150,000 books and and extensive music collection. “We wanted to reflect this literary history in a very contemporary way”, stated Adam Munday. For the right reasons, going digital is a good choice for the city.

If other hotels take up the idea as well, it will obviously be good news for travelers who left their Kindle or paper books behind. On the other hand, a 2008 report by CNN revealed some hotels are taking extra measures to cater to their diversified consumers without doing away with the Gideon Bible. Some chains provide guests with other religious texts, including the Quran, the Book of Mormon, the Hebrew Bible and some Buddhist literature. This trial period at Hotel indigo sounds exciting and interesting; however, I think a lost or damaged Kindle will probably be a hefty charge on the hotel room bill. More details, in regards to this blog, can be found at CNET News.

Somebody Call 9-1-1

Fiber Optic Cable Cut

A Century Link fiber line was severed near the junction of N.D. Highway 1 and Interstate 94, west of Valley City on June 14, 2012. A contractor was plowing the ground in the area and cut a fiber cable. The damage caused disruption on landline telephones, cellphones and internet across the region. The outage lasted roughly 7 hours.

Once again, the same Century Link fiber line was severed on June 23, 2012 by a farmer. Internet, long distance and 9-1-1 services were disrupted in Stutsman County. Officials had to establish alternate ways for emergency services to be accessed. 9-1-1 calls were rerouted so they could be answered by State Radio in Bismarck. This was the second outage in 10 days.

Both breaks in the cable caused disruptions to 911 services in Stutsman, LaMoure and Barnes counties and the ability to make long distance calls from some landlines. The outage also affected Internet service with some businesses reporting they could not process credit card transactions. The two incidents of cut fiber optic have officials looking for answers. “We’re still investigating the first cut,” said Brian Kalk, member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission. “In the past three years we’ve had a renewed emphasis on call before you dig and those things are usually easy to sort out.” “Construction companies are required to call NorthDakota One Call before digging,” Kalk said. “A construction company that does not do this can be subject of fines of from $500 to $5,000.”

Talk about “lack of communication”. My cell phone wouldn’t allow me to call anyone, but 9-1-1, my work landline wouldn’t allow me to make any outgoing calls and I could not access the internet. Many employees left work early. Some of the them left due to inability to reach their children or other loved ones, some left because they couldn’t perform their job due to inability to access the internet and operate machinery and some left to help others that were struggling with their businesses due to lack of services.

Blinders and Frog Juice

Published on June 19, 2012 in the New York Times is this story, Latest Illegal Drug for Racehorses: ‘Frog Juice’. Recently, more than 30 racehorses have conditionally tested positive for dermorphin, a powerful performance-enhancing potion drawn from the skin of a frog, native to South America, called Phyllomedusa sauvagei. For months postrace testing could not find the substance, a painkiller far more powerful than morphine. “We hear about some pretty exotic stuff,” said Dr. Steven Barker, who directs the testing laboratory at Louisiana State University. “Frog juice — this is exotic.”

Many people observe horse racing as an innocent sport in which the animals are willing participants who thoroughly enjoy the adventure. The hidden truth is that, behind the scenes, lays a story of immense suffering. Through my research, aapproximately 50% of foals born actually go on to become a racing horse. The horses that do not make the grade may be slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands and may become a case of neglect. Many of the horses, who do go on to race, are raced to death every year.

Behind its alluring mask, commercial horse racing is a ruthless industry motivated by financial gain and prestige. Animal cruelty - you can bet on it! Betting on a race became so much easier as all you needed to do was get online and get betting.

The horse racing industry has made some efforts to provide for the horses and horse athletes, but not enough. Changes need to be made to protect the horses in the industry and they need to happen much quicker than they have been or currently are. When will “they” take their blinders off?

For documentaries on "horse stories", watch these videos:
Disarray at the Race Track, Part I
Disarray at the Race Track, Part II

Media Up In Smoke?

Since June 8, 2012, firefighters and volunteers have been fighting wildfires that have spread quickly in the dried forests of Colorado. The fire spread 31-square-miles within about a day of being reported and now has consumed 80-square-miles.



“The fire is very large, unpredictable and aggressive. It was moving at 20 to 40 feet per second or about 1 mile an hour -- fast for a fire," reported by a firefighter. The fire has sent up heavy smoke, obscuring the sun and creating an eerie, orange dusk in the middle of the day. The smell of smoke drifted into the Denver area and smoke spread as far away as central Nebraska, western Kansas and Texas. Crews are working to build a fire line around the blaze. While lower temperatures, slightly calmer winds and higher humidity were offering some help to firefighters, the fire was entirely uncontrolled Monday morning. More than 100 structures had been damaged or destroyed; it is unknown if they were homes, sheds or other buildings. The fire has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes, leaving the majority of their worldly possessions behind.

Even though many forms of media will be destroyed by fire, many lives will and have been saved by the media. The media (television, radio, print and internet) can help inform and educate you, your family, neighbors, co-workers and friends about the location and status of fires. Some people have received verbal warnings, phone calls, texts or messages warning them to be ready to evacuate. Due to technological advancements today, many more lives have been and will be saved. "These folks are doing everything they can, but Mother Nature is running this fire," a sheriff stated. Even when Mother Nature is in control, we have so many resources available to protect and help save lives through the many methods of communication we have available.

Example of an advanced notification that saved lives: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/colorado-wildfire-forces-evacuations/2012/06/14/gJQAulKDdV_video.html