Using Social Media In the Workplace
By James Zipadelli
A survey by Accenture says that everyone needs to learn how to use technology and the knowledge that young adults age 14-27 — millenials — bring to the workplace, because the “old” IT rules need not apply.
In, “Jumping the Boundaries of Corporate IT: Accenture Global Research on Millenials Use of Technology” young adults in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific also have a more positive view of technology, whereas in European nations such as Italy, France and the Netherlands, technology is seen more negatively.
The anonymous survey was done over an 18-month period in 13 countries around the world, excluding Africa and Antarctica, says Gary Curtis, Accenture’s chief technology strategist. Accenture is planning follow-up research over the next 18 months and they hope to have new U.S. data by the end of 2010.
Survey findings
- 77 percent of U.S. young adults say, “Technology helps improve the quality of my work.” 62 percent surveyed in Asia-Pacific feel this way and 32 percent agree in Europe.
- 73 percent surveyed in the U.S. say, “Technology helps make it easier to communicate with my peers and supervisors.” 53 percent agree in Asia-Pacific and 34 percent agree in Europe.
- 30 percent surveyed in the U.S. age 18-27 say, “State-of-the-art equipment and technology will be vital in my employer selection.” 65 percent in India agreed with this question.
- Working adults in China spend the most time — 33 hours per week — on social media Web sites, texting or instant messaging. Their U.S. counterparts spend 19.3 hours per week on those sites.
Curtis, 60, says this research has helped him understand the value of technology and social media. ”For example, I wasn’t an active Facebook user prior to research,” Curtis says. “This has real value, I’m a regular Twitter user, but I have found sources that are very interesting. I fly almost 400,000 real miles per year.”
Curtis hypothesizes that there is a correlation between technology and the work/life balance.
“A lot of new technologies extend business availability into personal life. On my Blackberry, the thing never stops giving messages,” Curtis says. “I get 300-400 per day. The fact that I have a device more or less enables me to deal with it. Those things become part of your personal space, they can rob you of personal life balance. These technologies become an extension of work.”
According to Curtis, he does put his Blackberry away from time to time, but not for long.
“I go places where there is no digital service on vacation. Much of Baja [Calif.] does not have digital service,” Curtis says. “I find it to be refreshing but after a few days I find I’m falling behind in my work. You have to make choices in work and life balance.”
‘Millenials’ speak up about technology and work
Working adults DigitalMediaBuzz.com spoke with say technology is very helpful in the workplace. “I use social media websites every day, all day, for work specifically,” says Stephanie Robinson, an associate at R|F Binder, a public relations firm in New York City. “Once I get home I don’t do as much.”
“A variety of my clients are on twitter and Facebook, and I have had the opportunity to advise them on the launch of their pages,” Robinson, 24, says. “We host social media meetings every Friday and help with Twitter chats once per month. We’re looking to partner with mommy bloggers and are always looking for different ways we can promote our clients’ pages. Facebook has been an amazing platform for consumer interaction for my clients.”
Robinson’s colleague, Tara Maroney, 25, says she finds social media websites useful at work. “I use both Facebook and Twitter for clients, and in the past I have also monitored a LinkedIn page for a client,” Maroney says. “Twitter is valuable because it gives me a quick snapshot of what’s happening in the news.”
“I am an avid New York Times follower, and getting instant updates of what’s happening helps me do my job better,” Maroney continues. “I also follow a number of reporters and this gives me insight into the types of stories they are working on and what sources they might be looking for. Facebook I find less helpful from a professional standpoint but I do use it to see what’s going on and to monitor if anyone is talking about my clients.”
Kate Farber, the firm’s director of interactive solutions, says it’s beneficial to use social media to reach out to clients. “No matter the age of us or our clients, everyone is very interested in getting involved with social media and we’re here to help them do that,” Farber, 27, says. “A lot of the Millenials in my company read blogs and Twitter to keep up to date on their areas of expertise. They’re pitching journalists via Twitter, connected with them on LinkedIn, reaching out to bloggers, etc. Social media has really become an integrated part of the PR business.”
According to Farber, personal and professional lives become blurred with technology, so she advises employees of any age to use good judgment while online.
“Some of the ‘best practices’ we recommend to our employees and clients alike are to practice full disclosure when engaging in social media - make sure whoever is reading your comments know your connection to the company or brand,” Farber says. “Also, taking the time to listen to what others are saying online is crucial to successfully engaging them. And don’t forget, when you write something online it could theoretically live there forever - clients, employers, the media - basically anyone could read it.”
Robinson says she limits the amount of personal information she posts on Twitter and Facebook. “Even though I have some of my friends on Twitter, and it’s my personal page, I would never write anything inappropriate because I’m still representing the company and still representing the client,” Robinson says. “I will Tweet interesting stories from food blogs or other online sites, which is helpful for my clients and for me. I do accept friend requests (on Facebook) of some of my colleagues, but I don’t go out of my way to friend them considering I still have pictures from high school and college on there.”
2010 API Developers’ Conferences Round-Up
By Ron CallariThis year API developers’ conferences are flourishing as Web and Mobile Platforms are expanding the playing field. From well-attended repeat events like MacWorld and Apple’s WWDC to first-time events like Twitter’s Chirp event, official conferences for third-party developers will cover mobile devices, OAuth, geolocation, enterprise applications and much more.
In layman’s terms, to understand Application Program Interfaces (API) in its simplest form - it’s analogous to relying on others to perform functions that you may not be able or permitted to do by yourself, such as opening a bank safety deposit box. Similarly, virtually all software has to request other software to perform some functions to extend its usage potential.
The practice of publishing APIs has allowed web communities to create an open architecture for sharing of content and data between communities and applications. In this way, content that is created in one place can be dynamically posted and/or updated in multiple locations on the Web.
This year’s round-up of developers’ conferences is listed here chronologically.
360|iDev
April 11-14
San Jose Convention Center
San Jose, Calif.
360|iDev started in San Jose, March of 2009, and will be back in April of 2010. The Silicon Valley is exploding with iPhone development companies and iPhone related startups. After the initial success of their first 360|iDev, 360|iDev San Jose plans to build and expand on that momentum this year. The intent of the conference is to bring the best and brightest minds in the development community together for 3 days of intensive sessions, social interaction, best practices and innovative new ideas.
TWITTER Chirp
April 14-15
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, Calif.
Twitter’s first official conference for developers, Chirp was just scheduled for April 14-15 and will cost developers $469. It’s a two-day event with a conference covering OAuth, geolocation and streaming, among other topics, and then a 24-hour hack day for first-time developers to work with seasoned pros. There are only 800 seats available, so developers who have not signed up yet, are encouraged to do so at the earliest.
FACEBOOK f8 2010
April 21-22
San Francisco, Calif.
According to their fan page, on May 24, 2007, Facebook launched their Facebook Platform alongside 800 developers and entrepreneurs at their first f8 conference in San Francisco. Many developers built the innovative applications which paved the way for future development. Today, there are over 500,000 applications on Facebook.com, and over 300 of those have more than one million users each.
This year will be Facebook’s third f8, to be held in San Francisco on April 21-22, 2010.
Become a fan of their f8 Page on Facebook to get updates and information (including how to register) as they make these announcements. Check out the videos and photos from prior f8 conferences and developers can also share their stories and experiences from the past.
GOOGLE I/O
May 19-20
Moscone West
San Francisco, Calif.
Google I/O brings together thousands of developers for two days of deep technical content, focused on building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Google Chrome, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more.
I/O will feature over 80 sessions ranging from introductory talks to deep dives on the nuts and bolts of a particular technology or product. Fireside chats will also return this year, where you can ask questions to Google engineers in an informal, intimate setting.
The Developer Sandbox, first introduced at I/O 2009, returns this year. The Sandbox will feature over 100 developers who have built applications based on technologies and products featured at I/O. These developers will be on hand to demo their apps, talk about how they built them, answer questions, and exchange ideas.
WEBAPPS ‘10
USENIX Conference on Web Application Development
June 23-25
Boston, Mass.
Since 1975, the USENIX Association has brought together a community of engineers, system administrators, scientists, and technicians working on the cutting edge of the computing world.
Join them for the first USENIX Conference on Web Application Development. WebApps ‘10 is a new technical conference designed to bring together experts in all aspects of developing and deploying Web applications. Web-based applications are revolutionizing both the features that can be delivered and the technologies for developing and deploying applications. The full program will be available at their Web site some time in March 2010. Check out their Web site for announcement details.
APPLE
World Wide Developers Conference 2010
Moscone Center, San Francisco
June 28-July 2
According to a Wikipedia listing, the WWDC 2010 venue is unknown at the present time, but the conference will, in most likelihood, be held in California as an Apple “corporate event” has been scheduled at the normal WWDC venue, the Moscone Center, for June 28 through July 2. Information on last year’s event can be found at their 2009 event website.
MICROSOFT
Microsoft Professional Developers Conference
(No venue or date scheduled at the time of this posting)
Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (or PDC) is a conference for Windows developers.
It covers new and upcoming technology from Microsoft, and so only occurs in the years when there is something new to talk about. The conference is typically hosted by the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) is Microsoft’s premier gathering of leading-edge developers and architects. Attendees come from around the world to learn about the future of Microsoft’s developer platform, exchange ideas with Microsoft technology experts, and network with fellow professionals. This is the conference you need to attend if you want to stay ahead of the curve, and get a head start on planning your company’s products and technology investments.
Microsoft’s PR department has indicated that interested parties can learn more about the future conference dates, industry-leading speakers and registration info by visiting their website.
BLACKBERRY Developer Conference
September 27-30
Marriott Marquis
San Francisco, Calif.
Stay up-to-date on what’s coming up at the 2010 BlackBerry Developer Conference. The conference is a dedicated forum for the developer community to immerse itself in all aspect of creating consumer and business applications for the BlackBerry platform.
What you’ll take home is some of the following:
- The inside scoop on developing for the BlackBerry platform and the very latest in software, hardware and tools from RIM and its partners
- Invaluable information directly from RIM experts who will personally share their expertise
- First-hand experiences from developers who have successfully created, integrated and managed wireless applications
- Best practices from industry leaders to shortcut development cycles and drive new applications to market
For readers who have been involved with any of these conferences, feel free to provide us with your feedback. And if there are any Developer Conferences not listed here that you feel are significant, please comment on that as well.
Facebook Forages for Talent With Fellowship Program
Image courtesy of Facebook
By Dave Fidlin
Hoping to capture insight from the best and brightest minds in the area of social Web and Internet technology, executives at social networking company Facebook have announced a fellowship program for graduate students.
The Facebook Fellowship Program is open to students seeking a doctorate during the 2010-11 school year in such areas of study as Internet economics, cloud computing, social computing, data mining, machine learning, systems operations and information retrieval.
The opportunity comes with several perks beyond the obvious practical, hands-on opportunities that come with a fellowship. Facebook is offering chosen students a $30,000 stipend that will be paid out during the nine-month stint.
The company also will doll out $5,000 toward a personal computer and a $5,000 allowance for conference attendance and related travel. Additionally, tuition and fees will be paid for the academic year. When the fellowship ends, participants will have an opportunity to apply for paid summer internships.
While Greg Badros, Facebook’s director of engineering, is quick to admit the company has a staff to address technical glitches that erupt, the idea behind the fellowship program, he says, is to tap the minds of graduate students studying the many facets of Internet infrastructure. “Not every technological problem is something our engineers can solve in isolation,” Badros says. “The academic community has given us so much, and they are key to funding some of the breakthroughs that have taken place.”
Badros says Facebook, like most Internet companies today, is an ever-evolving operation. The goal is to make the growing social media site better and more efficient for the millions of users who log on each day to connect with friends, he says.
More recently, Badros says his team has addressed such issues as creating a more efficient photo storage system for users, as well as better crowdsourced translations and an enhanced distributed computation system.
Once fellowship participants are named, Badros says he will have a better sense of what specific issues related to Facebook’s infrastructure will be addressed in the future. “It’s really up in the air at this point,” he says. “I don’t have any good sense of specific details. The proposals [from applicants] will likely vary widely.”
Badros says the fellowship program is especially tailored toward students working toward a doctorate in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system architecture and other related areas of study.
In addition to being a student working toward a doctorate, Facebook has outlined a number of other conditions for eligibility into the program. The fellowship website has specific details about the criteria, which includes submission of a detailed curriculum vitae.
Chosen candidates also will have to submit at least two letters of recommendation, one of which must be from a faculty sponsor, in addition to a research summary, one to two pages in length, that outlines how the applicant’s coursework is applicable to Facebook’s operations.
The deadline for submissions and all accompanying paperwork is Feb. 15. Badros says chosen candidates will receive an acceptance e-mail March 29.
Fellowships will begin in August or September in accordance with the start of the student’s academic school year.
Dave Fidlin is a Milwaukee-based freelance journalist and feature writer. He can be reached at dave.fidlin@thinkpost.net.
For Mobile Gaming’s Success, ‘Constraint is the Mother of Innovation’
By Alan Smodic
When the Facebook platform went live in May 2007, Zynga’s Bing Gordon says it changed everything about the social gaming industry.
“Its developer APIs were as solid as any video game console development tools, and it achieved mass market penetration much more quickly (Facebook apps are estimated to have reached 40 million users in just 12 months),” he wrote.
Social games, like Zynga’s Farmville and Mafia Wars, burst onto the scene and never looked back in the last two years, which led to the rapid growth of the industry. Zynga alone sees about 230 million monthly active users on Facebook.
But as the realms of social media move away from the computer and onto mobile platforms, more specifically to those of the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices, the young industry must adapt with it.
On the developer’s end, that hasn’t been too much of a problem, especially in terms of Apple’s iPhone. “The iPhone apps development environment has also proven to be enormously productive,” Gordon says, “and the iTunes Apps store is clearly a new ‘killer app’ for mobile computing.”
However, things begin to get a little trickier when other platforms come into the mix. Translating game play from the Web to fit onto numerous devices running either Android, BlackBerry, iPhone or even Windows Mobile takes time. And money.
Foursquare, which recently launched a beta of its BlackBerry app to about 5,000 testers, stated before that it ramped up its BlackBerry development only after it secured more funding. Gowalla, Foursquare’s biggest competitor, has yet to implement BlackBerry or Android native clients.
“As soon as we felt good about the financing going through, we hired our friend Pete to start working on it,” the company says in a press release.
Even then, it took another four months before the beta released. Meanwhile, iPhone and Android users were already growing well accustomed to their apps thanks to what many developers consider a better programming experience.
What has slowed down the applications more, though, (other than the opinionated arguments behind the SDK, API and IDEs) is the lack of ability to transition all profitable elements of the gameplay from the Web.
Each major social gaming company has admitted that they are tinkering with the elements that make them profitable. But most have found success through virtual currency, which hasn’t fully optimized yet on the mobile platforms.
For instance, Zynga reports that purchases of virtual currency account for most of its more than $100 million in revenue in 2009. That says a lot for its necessity to be included in all versions of its games to be successful.
It’s these limitations, or others that may surface as the industry continues to grow, which will only help it flourish, according to Scott Jon Siegel, a former iPhone lead designer for Zynga who now works for Playdom.
Playdom boasts more than 20 million monthly active users and possesses the no. 1 game on MySpace, Mobsters, which recently launched on the iPhone.
Siegel likes to work with a personal slogan: “Constraint is the mother of innovation.” ”As a game designer, I refer to this principle on a daily basis,” he writes. “Whether working on a brand new title, or making improvements to an existing one, the best ideas are born out of limitations - boundaries which designers must work around to achieve their goals.
“Easy problems are simply those with too many solutions. It’s when our options are severely limited that we begin to look in new and exciting directions.”
Playdom’s CEO and co-founder, Dan Yue, takes it one step further, stating that sticking to his company’s values of relying on user feedback and metrics to understand exactly what players want and expect will make social games successful on any platform.
“As long as we continue to respond to our players, we’re confident our games will be successful on new platforms and as player expectations evolve,” he says.
Alan Smodic is a freelance writer and Web administrator. Follow him: @alansmodic.
Twitter to Compete With Ever-Expanding Facebook Connect
By: fastcompany.com
Facebook’s Connect system, the unseen code that makes logging in to many other Web sites much easier, marches on–it’s just reached MySpace for example. But Twitter isn’t planning on being left out, and it’s improving its own version.
Be Honest: What’s Your Real Twitter and Facebook ROI?
By: adage.com
Facebook and Twitter are, of course, increasingly trying to prove that they can be real, self-sustaining businesses with meaningful revenues, and maybe even consistently positive cash flow. Good for them!
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