More and more scientists are communicating via social media to find, publicise and discuss current research. This trend has been highlighted in two recent papers that look at the influence of social media…
At Facebook’s first annual general meeting since going public last year, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg faced a “barrage of complaints” from shareholders, worried that the value of their investment shows…
Scientists are using Twitter to charge up their impact.
nicolasjon
Social media is no longer a new thing. But to scientists it still might be. There are few who are starting to take advantage of social media for professional reasons. What can other scientists learn from…
Using social media to screen job candidates is a common practice, but recruiters should be wary of the pitfalls.
Image from www.shutterstock.com
Social media has definitely changed the game for job-seekers and recruiters. Traditionally, HR recruiters placed an advertisement, sifted through the responses, and interviewed the shortlisted candidates…
The murder of Melbourne woman Jill Meagher sparked much social media comment, some of which threatened to compromise the criminal trial of the accused.
AAP/Facebook
This week, the Standing Council on Law and Justice (which constitutes the attorneys-general of the Commonwealth, states and territories) published a report on the impact of social media on juries. The…
A recent social media campaign for gay marriage has been criticised as ‘slacktivism’ and spawned a number of spin-offs.
Amanda B/Know Your Meme
Debate over the value of online activism has risen again in the wake of the highly visible Human Rights Campaign marriage equality campaign, which urged Facebook users to replace their profile photographs…
Is photographing dogs dressed in suspenders and stockings just another internet fad or a strange reflection on human sexuality?
Sharp Daily
When I was little, maybe five or six, I got the idea to slip my spaniel’s feet into freezer bags and watch her slide around on the kitchen floor.
Sure, this episode could have sparked in me a yen for…
Facebook “slut shaming” pages reflect deeper problems with society’s discriminatory attitude towards women.
Flickr/Franco Bouly
“Slut shaming” may be the latest cause célèbre to sweep to our shores, but it just looks a lot like old-fashioned misogyny. From the US-based Salon and The Guardian in the UK, to the Canberra Times in…
Technology such as the iPad has been found to affect our wellbeing both positively and negatively.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Digital technologies have made their way into all aspects of our lives that influence our wellbeing – affecting everything from social relationships and curiosity to engagement and learning.
Psychologists…
As a publicly traded company, Facebook faces a responsibility to increase its revenue. But is its revamped news feed a step in the right direction?
AAP
Late last week, Facebook broke the news of another major change to users' news feeds, sparking interesting discussion across the globe. Described by Mark Zuckerberg as your new “personal newspaper,” the…
Does your Twitter account have to die with you?
Image via www.shutterstock.com
Can you believe it’s been a year already? I’m sure we all remember where we were when we heard the terrible news we’d lost Gregg Jevin.
You know, Gregg Jevin? The Gregg Jevin?
Don’t worry if the name…
Raytheon’s “extreme-scale analytics” system can track people’s movements like never before.
c-reel.com
The recent publication of a leaked video demonstrating American security firm Raytheon’s social media mining tool RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology) has rightly incensed individuals and online…
How many likes for news that social networking can increase users' sense of wellbeing?
owenwbrown
We stalk our ex-partners on it, we are friends with celebrities on it, we play games on it, and we post photos of ourselves on it. But what are we really getting out of the time we spend on Facebook…
Does Google’s new map point towards the “wisdom of the crowd”?
Google
News that Google has successfully constructed and published maps of North Korea is stirring the imagination of social media aficionados around the world, but may also stir international political tensions…
Twitter users are using the #auspol hash to pursue allegations against Julia Gillard.
Twitter
Recent opposition attacks on Julia Gillard’s ethics have been underpinned by an unprecedented underground online campaign prosecuted on social media. The questions raised by Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop…
Google Ingress turns walking the city streets into a game of territorial control.
Google
Don’t read technology blogs? Then a new innovation in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs) may be passing you by.
Perhaps, like me, such games have never been of much interest to…
Those who see fit have everything they need to measure opinion, conduct sentiment analyses and sway opinion this way or that.
Ali Ali/EPA
Warfare, as we know, has gone digital, its volleys and counterattacks rattled out 140 characters at a time.
Historically, nation states with superior military prowess have been in a position of influence…
Hashtags embody the “digital” aspect of news.
uwgb admissions
With #PillarofDefense, Israel this week launched the world’s first-ever hashtag-driven social media military offensive in Gaza Strip, followed by action on the ground. In direct response, the defensively…
Gaza under Israeli Defense Forces fire as seen from the Israeli town of Sderot, which itself is the victim of rocket attacks from its Palestinian neighbour.
EPA/EDI Israel
The hostilities between Israel and Hamas this week are just another sad exchange of munitions of no benefit for anyone, least of all the impoverished residents of Gaza. Rockets go one way, Hellfire missiles…
Obama’s victory tweet set Twitter records.
@BarackObama
It’s been quite a year for tweeters. First we had the Twitter Olympics. Now, Barack Obama’s first impulse, on hearing of his re-election as President of the United States, was to tweet out thanks to the…
You like? You buy? Friends aren’t the only ones you share with.
escapedtowisconsin
Facebook is currently trialling a range of new buttons that could influence how your data is harvested.
The trials have been construed by some observers as a response to the corporation’s anaemic share…
Academics freedom and university reputations are being tested online.
Academic image from www.shutterstock.com
Trying to control your reputation online is a bit like trying to clean up wee in a toddler pool. You are much more likely to get your hands dirty than achieve any kind of meaningful damage control.
Many…
Facebook is no slouch at putting names to faces.
christoph_aigner
It may be time to move beyond Facebook’s assurance of its trustworthiness and specifically restrict the company’s use of face recognition. Changes within Facebook Europe would seem to suggest so.
For…
Personal insight can be gained from one’s use – or misuse – of social media.
Olga Palma/Wikimedia
New research from Dr. Tara Marshall at Brunel University has found that Facebook surveillance of ex-romantic partners may disrupt post-breakup recovery and personal growth.
That’s bad news, because earlier…
We’re with the brand: how do we judge authenticity online with so many fakers hiding behind the screen?
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
I am the FakeMarkRolfe telling you that all FakeMarkRolfes on Twitter are liars. And so is the real Mark Rolfe @Marcjohnr.
I’ve started with a variation of the old liar’s paradox, not to explore logic…
Projects are underway to ensure the Paralympics doesn’t fade into the background.
EPA/Joerge Carstensen
The 2012 Paralympic Games open in London tomorrow morning (AEST). These Games will build upon the successes of Sydney and Beijing in making visible the ability of outstanding athletes. And they are taking…
Axel Bruns updates us on who’s been tweeting what from Australia’s news and opinion sites.
Twitter image from www.shutterstock.com
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
Last week I complained about things getting boring. The previous Australian Twitter news circulation index (ATNIX) – an index of reader engagement measuring how links to Australian news sites are shared…
Julia Gillard yesterday blasted those on the internet for recycling rumours about her, part of what she calls a sexist campaign.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Prime minister Julia Gillard took aim yesterday at the “misogynists” and “nut jobs” on the internet posting about her conduct 17 years ago while working as an industrial lawyer.
The Prime Minister said…
The Advertising Standards Bureau has ruled that comments and photos on the Facebook pages of VB and Smirnoff have breached the industry’s code of ethics.
louisa_catlover
Recently, the advertising regulator has made what have been called “landmark decisions” relating to the use of Facebook by two prominent alcohol brands.
Two weeks ago, the Advertising Standards Bureau…
Danny Boyle and his army of volunteers are to be commended on a stunning television production for the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony. But if you only watched one screen, you missed a significant…
Kristen Stewart engaged in classic oversharing when she admitted to a dalliance with director Rupert Sanders.
EPA/David Maung
Along with Caltex job losses and concerns over whether Our Leisel has thunder thighs, I woke this morning to news that Kristen cheated on R-Patz.
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson – for those not yet…
Does Western media jump on Chinese “censorship” stories with a little too much zeal?
Thomas Hawk
Last week, Chinese internet users noticed the two Mandarin characters for “truth” could not be searched on Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging platform in China.
On July 12,Tom Philips, Shanghai…
It’s time for Australian broadcasters to get smart about how they show live sport. If they don’t, we’ll go elsewhere.
Tim McFarlane
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
The Olympic Games are a fascinating yardstick for how much things have changed in the preceding four years. As Beijing’s fake fireworks beamed across our TV screens, Kevin Rudd was still Prime Minister…
Within hours of launching, the New York Times Sina Weibo account was suspended.
cn.nytimes.com
The New York Times' (NYT) entry into the Chinese media market is off to a seemingly rocky start. Two days ago, the company launched its Chinese website – cn.nytimes.com – and a corresponding Sina Weibo…
Thanks to digital medium such as email and Facebook, privacy is being eroded in the workplace – yet Australians appear to show a worrying lack of concern about this.
Flickr/Nathan O'Nions
The development of digital monitoring and surveillance has increased dramatically over the past decade and pervades all aspects of everyday life, to the extent that most people don’t even notice it.
In…
China’s citizens are catching up to the government-monitored web.
Mike Licht
In part four of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, John Keane takes a look at the Chinese regime’s troubled relationship with the cyber world.
Global challenge 4: How can genuine democracy…
Bodies are prepared for a mass funeral at Houla, Syria on the weekend.
While the photos currently coming out of Houla look like scenes of an apocalypse, anyone with Syrian friends or connections has seen equally horrifying videos and photos circulating on Facebook or Youtube…
Syria crisis: the violence mapped by the UN.
FreedomHouse
Web 2.0 tools and mobile technologies have lowered the barriers not just for people to access the internet but to create and share content. Through open-source, collaborative programs such as wikis, the…
The Convergence Review came close to understanding the nature of user-generated content but not quite.
Flickr/Bruce Clay, Inc
The Australian Federal Government’s Convergence Review, released yesterday, had a mammoth task. It was trying to establish just how to regulate the future standards, conduct, and technical aspects of today…
The latest instalment of the saga of the Kony 2012 movement, “Cover the Night”, launches this evening.
Comedian Aamer Rahman summed up the rise and implosion of the Kony2012 campaign when he said people…
Director James Cameron at the launch of the 3D version of Titanic.
EPA/Franck Robichon
Trending on Twitter this week has been Gen Y shock and awe that Titanic isn’t just the name of a film. Apparently someone has accidentally stumbled onto the fact that the Titanic story was a tad more than…
Censorship has now caught up with new social media and technology in China.
Flickr/bfishadow
This week’s temporary suspension of comments on China’s two largest micro-blogging services Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo highlight the ruling party’s discomfort with social media’s growing popularity…
People have always sent each other letters, but now they can be worth “triple words”.
Brandice Schnabel
They are everywhere: people in cafés or supermarket queues, staring at their smartphones with determined concentration, occasionally shuffling yellow tiles of letters to use all of them in a killer move…
Sydneysiders are spotting – and “status updating” – urban cockatoos.
chris jd/Flickr
Loud, large and lovable, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has become a well known inhabitant of Sydney. It has always been present around the fringes of Sydney and west of the Great Dividing Range, but over…
The Kony campaign is not as accessible as it makes out.
BellaSalsaa
Much has been said about Invisible Children’s video campaign to rally awareness towards the atrocities of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony.
But more important is what Kony 2012 means in our ongoing relationship…
Newman and Bligh face off in real life, but how do they fare online?
AAP/Dave Hunt
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
With every recent election, in Australia as well as elsewhere, parties and politicians are adding further to their arsenal of digital campaigning tools.
In the 2010 federal election campaign, my colleagues…
Pinterest’s tasty layout is only part of its appeal.
Pinterest
“I’m still trying to understand the whole thing but there must be something to it. It’s really popular!”
That’s my sister-in-law writing on Facebook in late January about Pinterest – one of the real up…
Kony2012 seemed to be everywhere, but attention has now turned to the makers of the video.
Reyhan Dhuny
There have been enough social media disasters of late to make one thing clear: manipulating sentiment through social networks is next to impossible.
The McDonald’s #McDStories campaign in January was…
Would you have recognised this man before today?
chris shultz
“Kony2012” is trending worldwide on Twitter.
Really, people? Why couldn’t we just stick to making tweets about the Kardashians, Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie’s leg and sexist hashtags?
Snark aside, I…
Coles is among a number of companies that have misjudged social media campaigns.
AAP/Alan Porrit
My central problem with branded clothing is my reluctance to actually be branded. Why on earth would I pay to advertise someone?
When a Kiwi can make a motza from auctioning her buttock flesh to a strip…
Some 67% of organisations offer no training on social media use.
Phillie Casablanca
Almost half of all businesses and organisations in the private and public sector in Australia and developed Asian countries are now using social media, according to research by KPMG. A new term – “the…
Tweet success and sweet success increasingly go hand in hand.
Scolirk
In the brave new world of contemporary sport-watching, the goalposts have moved. Watching the big game (once a simple matter of grabbing a beer and some chips and settling down in front of the television…
Comments posted by the writer have seen Twitter sued for defamation.
Mosman Library
By Peter Black, Queensland University of Technology
Twitter is being sued for defamation by a Melbourne man who was wrongly identified as the author of a “hate blog” directed at writer and TV personality, Marieke Hardy.
Hardy posted a tweet last year to…
There’s no turning the tide when it comes to Twitter.
Rosaura Ochoa
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
The release of Sky News UK’s Twitter guidelines for its journalists – or rather, the Guardian’s not entirely disinterested commentary on those guidelines – has caused a bit of a stir across social media…
Going public is not without its risks, even for internet giants.
Peter DaSilva/EPA
Facebook announced overnight that it’s going to sell US$5 billion of shares in its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). Company executives filed the official paperwork to get the IPO process underway…
Curtis Stone and Normie Rowe in a Coles ad that has attracted the ire of a fake Chopper Read.
It is a very 21st century story. A Twitter account purporting to be that of noted Australian criminal Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read takes offence to an ad featuring ageing singer Normie Rowe and uses his…
Meeting requests, endless CC lists … is it time to try something new?
Travelin Librarian
Email has moved from being the internet’s first killer app to being a productivity killer. You can make news by claiming to hate it, ban it or kill it. But the problem with email is not the technology…
Ilya Zhitomirskiy, left. To his right is Dan Grippi, one of the four Diaspora founders.
Flickr/campuspartymexico.
Diaspora co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy passed away over the weekend.
The 22-year-old was one of four former NYU student developers of Diaspora, an open source social network platform that has been the…
Electronic tools can help advance research into rare diseases through creating virtual registries.
Gautheron
Pretty soon, not being involved in social media will be just as implausible as not having a telephone. If my 80-year-old dad is on Facebook and women over 55 are the fastest growing demographic on the…
We need to make sure quality is more important than quantity in our online engagement.
Flickr/joshfassbind.com
Social media provokes some of the most voluminous and heated responses in two key areas of contemporary society – democracy and privacy. Promoting the first and threatening the second, social media is…
The major social network sites have recently been touting improved privacy settings to allow users to customise post audiences. Google+ Circles, Facebook lists, and now Unthink’s branches are engineering…
Unthink is positioning itself as a force of “emancipation”.
Unthink.com
On October 25, Unthink invited public beta users to put aside their YASNS (Yet Another Social Network Site) fatigue. Since then, it claims to have attracted more than 100,000 registered users.
The site…
Many of us live our lives through our online identities using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But what happens when we die?
Uncomfortably for some, our digital lives have the potential…
It’s hard to know what to think about Google these days. Financially, the company is booming, but its reputation has suffered following the lukewarm reception for Google+, and an embarrassing outburst…
The scorecard for Google+ to date shows pluses and minuses.
Birgerking.
Features are not friends. That’s the simple message to Google+ from 40 University of Queensland students after using the system since its invite-only launch in July.
To say the service’s fortunes to date…
Have the #occupy protestors been gagged?
AFP/Timothy A. Clary
In the age of social media, if we’re able to get online, engage with a few tools and connect our ideas to others who sympathise, we’re able to initiate social change. Or that’s the theory.
The world begins…
Barack Obama’s web campaign helped him win the presidency. Parties should learn from it.
Flickr/Scorpions and Centaurs
The increasing spread of information and communication technology has changed just about every aspect of Australian society – except democracy.
The opportunities to engage citizens in the democratic process…
What we tweet, and when we tweet it, gives insight into global mood patterns.
joelaz
I know my mood over the course of a day and so, it seems, does Twitter.
Over the years there’s been a lot of work on mood cycles. Much of it has been based on neurochemicals such as serotonin and dopamine…
Zuckerberg’s big pitch is in, and it could make Facebook millions.
AFP/Kimihiro Hoshino
The world is currently embroiled in on- and offline discussions about changes that are affecting the lives of millions.
The subject is not climate change, the global financial crisis, political upheaval…
The numbers in Manhattan streets are far outnumbered by those on social media.
Don Emmert/AFP
On Saturday, hundreds of protestors congregated in the Wall Street area of New York at the start of a protest dubbed #OccupyWallStreet.
The aim? To “flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens…
It’s getting harder to know where home starts and the office ends.
webtreats
This week, the American National Labour Review Board ruled to reinstate five workers fired for complaining about a co-worker on Facebook.
The board decided writing about work on Facebook was equivalent…
Is it time for the world’s dictators to “friend” online communications? (Headdesk)
AAP
In the euphoria following the downfall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, Wael Ghonim, the so-called “hero” of the revolution proclaimed:
“Technology played a great role here. You know, it helped keeping…
A battle is raging over search and serendipity online.
AndYaDontStop
The latest salvo in the internet attention wars has come in the form of figures from StatCounter.
A relatively small content driving service called StumbleUpon drove more than 50% of all social media…
The UN is protecting your right to express yourself in social media.
Flickr/-lucky cat-
General Comment No. 34 on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may sound like something from a bureaucratic nightmare, but it drags your right to freedom of expression into the digital…
Social media is helping, not hindering, police efforts in the UK.
AAP
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
There’s a colourful and evocative term among regular users of social media: “headdesking”.
It’s what you do when somebody says or does something so stupid that your instant reaction is to smack your head…
The suspension of Google+ accounts has raised questions about the company’s aims.
yuichio.sakuraba
The phrase “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” was coined by American computer programmer Eric S. Raymond to distinguish two different approaches to the development of software.
The Bazaar was likened to the…
Can social media temper growing public antipathy towards political parties?
Mandel Ngan/AFP
On Tuesday, the ACT government held Australia’s first virtual community cabinet using Twitter. Four ministers faced a barrage of tweets in an hour long question and answer session held with the electorate…
Some users have been automatically suspended from all Google services.
halilgokdal
A fresh storm has blown into Google’s new Google+ service. The company has been suspending accounts because they contravene Google’s Community Standards – ostensibly to stop fake or spam accounts being…
Organising the information gathered during crises is key to better responses.
Lindsay Hallam/AFP
With new technology comes new ways of communicating with one another in times of crisis. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow important information to be shared widely and instantaneously.
But…
The way we communicate is changing and Al Qaeda have been ahead of the curve AFP PHOTO/DoD.
The nature of influence is changing, yet Governments, particularly in Australia have yet to absorb it. Influence is no longer wielded by pronouncements through traditional media sources. New media has…
Not sharing your password is one of the basic rules for online safety.
Michael Reynolds/EPA
On July 4, a hacker took control of one of the Twitter accounts of US broadcaster FoxNews.com and sent out several tweets announcing President Obama had been shot.
Because it was a national holiday and…
Women should be allowed to have fun, without the media judging them.
AAP/Jack Tran
Wilding, a word seldom used outside of sociology, describes compounded acts of immorality. Of teenagers, apparently, running amok. In packs usually, with rage and ribaldry in their eyes.
I was thinking…
Health promotion has a lot of catching up to do on social media.
Steve Kay
Smokers who quit with the assistance of a text messaging service are nearly twice as likely to be smoke-free six months later than smokers with no support, according to a study published this week in The…
Google+ faces an uphill struggle to win hearts and minds.
Google
Google is hoping that the saying “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again” will work out for them with Google+.
Launched as a private beta version on Tuesday, Google+ is the search giant’s latest…
Your Facebook snaps now come with a hidden catch.
rishibando
Around 2 million photographs are uploaded to Facebook each day. As of this week, every new image will be processed by automatic face recognition software, designed to identify the people in the photographs…
Knowing me, knowing you: there is nothing we can’t view.
tonechootero/Flickr
Advanced surveillance and social media might seem like strange bedfellows. Until you look a bit closer, that is.
Technologies developed for surveillance applications are typically designed with robustness…
Are privacy concerns irrational in the era of Facebook and Twitter?
qubitsu
It’s hard to discuss public surveillance without immediately being asked about privacy issues. As technologists working on computer-based surveillance, it’s tempting to say this is outside our area of…
Far from “outsourcing your brain”, social media allows you to build different relationships.
AAP/Tracy Nearmy
The executive director of the venerable New York Times has come out fighting against Facebook and other social media.
Bill Keller has joined the conga line of commentators decrying the end of friendships…
Where we are says a lot about who we are.
tulja/Flickr
PRIVACY – Your location is arguably more personal than your genetic profile; even identical twins can’t be in the same place at the same time. In terms of value, it’s on a par with your medical records…
Facebook is a key tool for the modern revolutionary.
AAP
Facebook, with more than 500 million members, has now reached superpower status. If Facebook were a country, its supporters often say, its population would rank behind only China and India.
But there…
The works of a great writer precipitated the astonishing events in Egypt in February.
EPA/Misam Saleh
We are living in extraordinary times. People are using social media to campaign for freedom from their governments, but their ideas are built on a much more powerful medium: literature.
Protests have…
Do you trust Facebook as much as you would your best friend?
Karen Bleier/AFP
Unless you’ve been chained to a fax machine for the past seven years, you’ll have noticed that Facebook is immensely popular.
Users numbered 641 million by February of this year.
Making and maintaining…
