Social Media is definately the future!

It should not surprise anyone that I've been inspired by another TED talk.  I mean, every talk on the site is something worth watching at least once.  This one is about social media.  I have been following Andrew Sullivan on his incredible coverage of the protests in Iran, and I have been watching the #iranelection tag on twitter too, and I'm a firm believer that CNN doesn't stand a chance against this type of media.  Sure, the video isn't in HD, and there isn't a reporter editing the footage and choosing which scenes to show you... it's just what is happening.  The real coverage.  It worked in China for the earthquake... it was used to make sure that the schools to replace those that collapsed were actually built to code... and it's the only media coming out of Iran while all the news stations are being cut out of the loop.

     I know you aren't going to get the best quality journalism from this news, but you aren't going to get good quality journalism until after the issue is resolved... the only thing that TV networks can ever offer you is coverage, and any monkey with a camera can do that.  I don't mean to say camera men aren't talented because finding the right shot isn't easy, but most of the difference between a camera man and some ordinary person is that the camera man usually has better equipment.

     This leads me to my next realization, the future of print media.  So, we all know the newspapers are having trouble re-acclimating to the digital world.  When newspapers move to the internet, every article has to carry it's own weight... the atomic unit of sales changed from an entire paper, to an individual articles.  Social media is really good a producing raw unedited footage of what is happening, and initial public reactions, however traditional media has this ability to censer the story, check the sources, and produce good quality media that requires investment to produce.  We must not loose that.

   My question, how do we combine our social media and traditional media into a unit that works together?  I like the concept of free licenses for social media (free as in freedom to reuse or remix the content for non-commercial or at least non-profit use), but the real question is how do you put a price on or handle purchasing licenses to the media?  I feel the creator has more right to profit from their work than some media outlet using the story to attract viewers or sell papers.

Anyway, there is a lot that can be said for the way the world is shifting to the internet.  Blogs, news aggregation, youtube, cellphone cameras, and personal video cameras are changing the way we get out news.  Which I think is fine.  I think that spreading the information is very important, but there is something to be said for the people who come in after the story is over.

The people who follow up the story with quality journalism (the who, why, what happened, and how it turned out.)  The story that is documented for the historians to record, and the story our descendants will learn in school.  We need to make sure that someone checked the score board and made sure they weren't mislead by someone with an agenda.

So, embrace the digital revolution, but don't forget your roots.  Support quality journalism (like PBS.)

A call for opinion!

So, I want to know what everyone thinks of the Wikidot site I'm working on.  I want to know what you want to see on the site.  Right now, it's my super-spam RSS feed, which has all of my activity from Hulu, Netflix, Wakoopa, Twitter, and my blogs all in one place.

The Smart phone competition!

So, over on Gizmodo.com they did a review of the latest and greatest smart phones, and not much to my surprise, Windows Mobile wasn't on the list!  haha.  Ok, I am biased against Windows, which is the only reason I say that; in all reality, Windows mobile is a decent mobile operating system.

iPhone 3.0 VS Android 1.5

Anyway, the review put my favorite phone OS (Android) against my arch nemesis (iPhone).  So I have to bask in this little bit of glory.  Both phone operating systems are nearly the same in terms of highlighted features in the review, with the exception that Android doesn't work with iTunes, Android doesn't officially support tethering (even though the iPhone carrier doesn't support it), and Android supports both background apps and third-party  Apps.  I do have to say that I am disappointed that the review didn't mention that Android supports the ability for user's to add third party video codecs, which iPhone doesn't.

iPhone 3G S VS. HTC Magic

On a hardware level, the iPhone has multi-touch and a headphone port, and I have to admit I would really like to see both of those things added to an Android phone.  The plus side is that anyone can make an Android phone, so one day it is possible to add multi-touch to a phone for Android.  On the Plus side, the magic has a microSD card slot, which gives it the potential for more than 32GB of storage, and the Magic has a 3.2 mega pixel camera, which is slightly more than the iPhone.

Cost

So, both phones are "linked" to a subscription.  The difference in cost between the two phones is fairly significant right off the bat.  With a 2 year contract, the iPhone is either $200 or $300, while the HTC Magic is $150.  The iPhone is permanently linked to AT&T, however the Magic is only linked to T-mobile for the contract, and after your contract, you can take an Android phone to another phone provider that uses SIM cards.  Then in terms of your cost over the next two years, the iPhone's average cost is $290-$390 more than Android, and the maximum cost is $750 - $850 more for the iPhone.  In fact, between the iPhone 3G S, HTC Magic, Blackberry Storm, and the Palm Pre, the average cost for the Magic is less than any other smart phone, and only the Palm Pre offers a cheaper plan if you compare the unlimited everything plans.

So, which phone do you think I'm going to get?  To me it's pretty obvious because I decided I would get an Android phone last year, and I will honestly probably hold off until next year to get an Android phone just because I want to see if Verizon is ever going to jump on the bandwagon.  I honestly have had some bad luck with T-Mobile over the past couple years, and I am holding out for multi-touch and an 1/8" jack.

Anyway, I am biased toward Android, and the iPhone is a really good phone;  That's why they are my arch nemesis.

Smart power outlets? Awesome!

So, I have to admit that this video does kinda seem like it's just promoting a product, but it's a totally awesome idea!

If you aren't there to use power, you can turn your outlets off!

Anyway... just some food for thought.