Tag Archive for 'social networking'

IT news - December 3, 2007

Published by Zornitsa Vodenska on December 3, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Pearson Inform, Steven Kirsch’s spam e-mail filter, Microsofts’s acqisition of WebFives, LiveJournal’s acquisition, lawsuit against One Laptop Per Child, Nvidia’s C-compiler, Toon Boom Animation’s new animation program for kids, Amazon’s launch of Askville.com

Pearson School Systems has released an update to Pearson Inform, a data analysis tool for K-12 schools. The new release, Inform 4.2, adds a new Academic Intervention Plan feature for planning individualize and group instruction. – T.H.E. Journal

Twenty-five years ago Steven T. Kirsch crated the computer mouse with optical sensor. Now he believes he has found a way to create a better trap — for spam, not mice. He founded Abaca, a company with a new approach to detecting junk mail and a claim that its product can filter out 99 percent of spam e-mail. — New York Times

Microsoft acquired WebFives, a social newtworking website for sharing photos and phone videos. After the acquisition, WebFives service will stop as Microsoft plans to implement the technology used in the website instead of maintaining the community. — Seattle Times

The owner of LiveJournal, a blogging and social-networking site, agreed to sell the company to SUP, a Russian online media company, in the latest example of deal-making in the social-networking sector. — New York Times

Lagos Analysis Corp, a Massachusetts-based hardware company, is suing the One Laptop Per Child project, claiming in a lawsuit filed in Nigeria that the group reverse-engineered a keyboard designed for foreign languages. — AHN

Nvidia has released a public beta of CUDA 1.1, an update to the company’s C-compiler with a Linux display. More than 20 universities around the world have adopted CUDA for multi-core and parallel processing programming — Campus Technology

Toon Boom Animation, a developer of 2D animation technologies, including Toon Boom Studio, this week released Flip Boom, a new animation program aimed specifically at kids. The software is based on traditional 2D animation principles, focused on teaching the principles of timing and motion in the animation process. — T.H.E. Journal

Amazon.com recently launched Askville.com, a website where users ask and answer questions, and discover answers to thousands of questions on everything from how to buy an HDTV to the best way to lose weight. Askville.com users who share their knowledge by answering questions will receive Quest Gold, which, for a limited time and while supplies last, can be redeemed for $100 or $50 Amazon.com Gift Cards. Askville.com is now available to all Amazon customers around the world. – Financial News USA

Research in the News — November 26, 2007

Published by Zornitsa Vodenska on November 26, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: ebook reader technology, report on k-12 online learning programs, an evaluation of continuing and professional education websites, the relationship between webspace choice and socioeconomic background, and the cost and efficiency of public education

Amazon Kindle - image by Wikimedia
People are talking about the new Kindle electronic reader by Amazon. A blogger gives her personal but very informed, research-backed opinion, suggesting that this kind of technology is perhaps old-fashioned and explaining why we need a version with more of a “digital twist.” – TechLearning

According to Keeping Pace, a new report on K-12 online learning researched and written by Evergreen Consulting Associates, most online learning programs are growing by 25 percent each year, with 42 states running significant supplemental, full-time or combined supplemental and full-time online learning programs. However, the report also notes that the majority of education leaders still lack sufficient policy oversight to maintain student opportunities and demonstrate quality to stakeholders. — T.H.E. Journal

A study by educational consultancy Eduventures reveals that continuing and professional education (CPE) websites do not rank well in some key functionality areas, such as content, search capabilities, and multimedia. According to the report, CPE sites are strong on aesthetics and marketing but lack depth. — Campus Technology

A Northwestern University study suggests that students’ choice of webspace (MySpace, Facebook or Xanga) might be related to social factors, such as race, ethnicity and parents’ education. The findings challenge the ideas about the Web’s potential to improve people’s lives by sidestepping physical constraints. — EurekAlert

The cost of public education in Illinois has increased dramatically over the past 12 years, but has student performance improved? Is the ACT or the ISAT a better indicator of student knowledge level? The author of this article has strong opinions on both questions and backs her convictions with data from research institutions in Illinois and DC. — Chicago Daily Herald

IT News - November 16, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on November 16, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: TIBCO Software Inc., IBM, Facebook, MySpace

TIBCO Software Inc. launched a new academic initiative aimed at delivering a wide range of technology education benefits to colleges and universities around the world. The goal of the program is to help ensure the proficiency of students in relevant, emerging technologies and to generate high-value job skills that are in demand by organizations today. — CNN

IBM and the researchers at the University of Dundee School of Computing (UK) and the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine are collaborating to develop open source software technology tools to accommodate the needs of older workers to help them adapt to and remain productive in the changing workplace of the 21st century. — CNN

Facebook’s unique audience grew by 1.5 million people in October, according to a report released this week by Nielsen Online. That’s five times the rate of larger rival MySpace, which grew by about 300,000. — CNN

IT News - November 12, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on November 12, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: T-Mobile, Facebook, and Google

T-Mobile has invested €3.5 million in Arantech, a Dublin software firm that was this weekend named company of the year by the Irish Software Association (ISA). — Sunday Business Post

Don’t compare Facebook’s new ad system to anything you’ve seen on Google, television, or any other advertising medium you can think of. Compare it instead to Amazon.com (Charts, Fortune 500) or eBay (Charts, Fortune 500). That’s because, while advertising as we know it today may very well be a good profit engine for the social networking company, its new Facebook Ads program is also about e-commerce — that is, selling. — CNN

Google’s mobile plans, announced earlier this week, failed to generate the kind of consumer buzz and media frenzy that the iPhone launch did. Unlike Apple’s sleek, all-touchscreen device, Google’s Android isn’t a phone — it’s a mobile platform. — CNN

U-Debate.com Creates First One-on-One Video Debating Community

Published by XplanaZine on November 11, 2007 in Tech Trends. 0 Comments

New service expands the opportunities for video blogging

Nashville, Tenn. - U-Debate.com will launch on Nov. 6 as the first online community for one-on-one video debating. Further evolving the video blog, U-Debate gives users the ability to post a video discussing their views and virtually debate any thought, idea, or topic with another U-Debate member. From the election to Britney Spears, U-Debate.com is providing the video forum that challenges people to “Prove Your Point.”

U-Debate can be used in a variety of ways. Members join the site for free and upload or embed a video discussing their views, then either challenge a specific opponent or post it in the general forum to wait for someone to challenge them. Once two members have decided to debate a topic, they have unlimited opportunities to rebuttal each others’ views while earning support from other users. Members can choose to support a debater by adding video comments, text comments, or adding their counted vote for who they agree with. Debates are won by a debater’s choice to forfeit or failure to rebuttal within one week of their challenger’s latest post.   

“There are any number of issues that can be discussed on U-Debate.com and there are ,sure to be some heated debates,” says U-Debate co-founder Jack Behar. “We really tried to pick up where sites like MySpace and YouTube left off, and further improve people’s ability to interact with each other. People want to express themselves, and this will be the place that takes the pulse of society.”

Be sure to visit http://www.U-Debate.com and see for yourself!

For more information, comments or interviews, please contact  Jennifer Padgett at jpadgett@cubedmonkey.com or 615.347.4253.

IT News - November 8, 2007

Published by Zornitsa Vodenska on November 8, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Facebook’s social ads, Microsoft’s server farm, Interwrite’s donation, Nokia and Vodafone’s web services, Yahoo’s mobile advertising strategy, AMD’s new high performance chip, Sony Ericsson’s new phone with Google maps and RSS feeds

Facebook has unveiled plans to target advertisements by injecting them into its members’ conversations, and now the popular online hangout must persuade its users to embrace the initiative. In addition, companies can now create their own pages on Facebook for free and tailor their pitches to the activities of users’ friends. – CNN

Microsoft will invest $500 million for a new “server farm” data center in a Chicago suburb in the latest investment to enhance its Internet services business, planning to include an element of Web services in each of its business divisions. – Reuters

Interwrite Learning donated 30 Interwrite Pads, Bluetooth-based wireless pads used in interactive classroom instruction, to support distance learning for teacher professional education in Southeast Asia. – T.H.E. Journal

Under a new agreement, Nokia’s Ovi platform–which includes music, maps, gaming and social networking–will be introduced on handsets for Vodafone next year. Handset giant Nokia will also produce a number of devices exclusively for mobile operator Vodafone. – The New York Times

Yahoo unveiled its strategy to make advertising on mobile phones as big a market as computer-based web browsers. The company will rely on three-way partnerships involving device makers, network operators and web services. — ZDNet

AMD is introducing a high-performance chip package that uses a technology commonly found in graphics processors, called parallelism, and applies it to general purpose computing. Called the FireStream 9170, the chip package is aimed initially at high performance computers (HPCs) like those used for climate research and oil exploration. But it could also be used more widely for tasks like video-editing and security tasks. – PC World

Sony Ericsson has introduced a “world standard” 3G USB modem, and has extended its relationship with Google by announcing its first mobile phone with Google Maps and RSS newsfeeds as standard. – PC World

Awards in the News – November 8, 2007

Published by Zornitsa Vodenska on November 8, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Vanderbilt University wins Information Security award, TakingITGlobal.org receives Tech Museum Award

The Information Security Executive (ISE) announced winners of their security award for 2007. The winner in the academic category is Mark Johnson, Chief Information Security Officer, Vanderbilt University & Medical Center. – Marketwire

TakingITGlobal.org, a free multilingual online platform that employs Web 2.0 community tools supporting youth creating change in their communities and around the world, received the Tech Museum Award for Technology Benefiting Humanity in the area of Education. – Ad-Hoc News

IT News - November 6, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on November 6, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Engadget, Gizmodo, Permission TV, Harvard Business Digital, Yahoo’s Kickstart, IBM’s new security, and First Alert System Text

In the consumer-technology blogosphere, the rivalry between Engadget and Gizmodo is as lively as a big-city tabloid war. This article explores the history of these two blogs and their creators. — CNN

PermissionTV, a leading interactive Internet video technology platform provider, announced today that Harvard Business Digital, the online unit of Harvard Business School Publishing, is using PermissionTV to serve new video content featuring thought leaders and business experts on its website www.HarvardBusiness.org. — Market Wire

Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com), the consumer-friendly wiki for collaborating and publishing online, today announced it will offer ad-free, no cost wikis to qualified educators so easy online collaboration can extend into any classroom. — Market Wire

Just how many social networking sites do we really need? At least one more, according to Yahoo. On Monday, it unveiled Kickstart, a sort of LinkedIn for the college set that aims to hook up students and recent grads with alumni and potential employers. — CNN

IBM is tackling security in a big way. Late last week the company unveiled a new strategy encompassing five broad aspects of security and launching new products, services, and research designed to address everything from data threats to physical vulnerabilities. — Campus Technology

First Alert System Text (FAST) has launched a new grant program for colleges and universities, offering no-cost implementation and service for its text message-based emergency notification system. Through the Secure Campus Grant program, 100 higher ed campuses in the United States will be awarded the notification system. — Campus Technology

IT News – October 30, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on October 30, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Oracle, Asustek Computer, Google, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Cybook, Web 2.0

Oracle Corp., the world’s third-largest software maker, may land BEA Systems Inc. without raising the $6.7 billion hostile bid rejected by its California rival. BEA’s board says it wants more than $8 billion, and let Oracle’s offer expire Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. New York time. Because no other suitors have emerged, Oracle may renew its bid or offer a lower price than its $17 a share proposal, said Peter Goldmacher, a Cowen & Co. analyst in San Francisco. — Bloomberg

Asustek Computer Inc., whose customers include Sony Corp. and Apple Inc., reported profit rose 21 percent to a record in the third quarter on sales of notebook computers under its own brand. Net income increased to NT$7.44 billion ($230 million) from NT$6.13 billion a year earlier, Asustek, the world’s largest maker of boards connecting computer parts, said today. — Bloomberg

Google Inc., owner of the world’s most-used Internet search engine, received approval from the Australian government for its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. The purchase by Mountain View, California-based Google is “unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the country’s Web advertising market, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement on its Web site today. — Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, agreed to buy programs and other assets from closely held Global Care Solutions, a Bangkok-based provider of products that manage medical information for hospitals. — Bloomberg

T-Mobile USA Inc., seeking to boost wireless e-mail and Web access revenue, introduced a mobile phone designed to ease consumers into using online features. The T-Mobile Shadow, a pocket-sized phone that slides open to reveal a keyboard for typing e-mails, uses a custom version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile software. The handset, which can also connect to Wi-Fi wireless Internet networks, is the first in a line of Shadow devices. — Bloomberg

Cybook’s Gen3 lightweight, high resolution e-book reader is now available to purchase around $350. It has a 6 inch Vizplex E Ink screen, revealing more contrast than the older E ink technology with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. It also comes with a 2.5mm stereo headphone jack, a 64MB of storage capacity and an SD expansion card slot for an extra memory boost. Furthermore, it has a battery life of 8000 page flips between charges. — Softpedia

As increasing numbers of enterprises climb aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon, it’s more important than ever for software developers to keep security in mind during the development process. The two top vulnerabilities affecting Web 2.0 applications today are cross-site scripting (CSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). — Campus Technology

IT News – October 25, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on October 25, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Oracle, Cisco, IBM, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, iRex Technologies, Apple

Oracle announced that several leading U.S. colleges and universities recently purchased or implemented Oracle(R) Applications and infrastructure software to help standardize data campus-wide, increase operational efficiency, build stronger, more personalized constituent relationships and gain an advantage in today’s fiercely competitive higher education environment. — CNN

Cisco is responding to the trends of Web 2.0 and interoperable communication that are sweeping college and university communities as educators and administrators strive to meet the needs of students accustomed to a media-rich, mobile lifestyle, while at the same time working to strengthen campus security. — CNN

IBM has provided grant funding to three universities that are using the company’s Jazz collaboration solutions for software development. The universities–including the University of California at Irvine, the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria–received Jazz Faculty Grants from IBM. Jazz is a joint project between IBM Rational and IBM Research to build a scalable, extensible team collaboration platform for seamlessly integrating tasks across the software lifecycle. — Campus Technology

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is beefing up its data security with a new identity management system designed to centralize and automate security processes across multiple systems. The university worked with security service provider Mycroft to develop and deploy its security strategy based around Oracle tools, including the Identity and Access Management Suite. — Campus Technology

Jak Boumans, a principal consultant with Electronic Media Reporting, looked critically at the history of e-reader technologies in the Netherlands to anticipate the future of the newest e-reader from iRex Technologies, the iLiad. — Buziaulane.blogspot

Apple has created a new suite of development resources tailored specifically for the iPhone. Dubbed the “iPhone Dev Center,” the service provides a range of resources, including guidelines for optimizing Web apps for the iPhone, sample code, video tutorials, and other reference material. — Campus Technology