This Friday, August 3rd, we will be holding a brainstorming meeting to develop ideas and concepts relating to the future of the digital child as a tool of the Web 2.0 environment. How can the concept be used? Is the digital child limited to pixels only or could it gather data which we could define as a personality? Are there limits to the evolution of this concept? What does it mean for the future of humanity? What does it mean for the future of social networking? We hope to develop this concept into a Facebook application as a starter. Then take it from there. Help us create the future.
Please join us if you can and feel free to invite anyone who is interested in Digital Art, Internet and Digital Evolution, and Social Networks.

Technorati tags: digital children, mike marcus, socia networks, web 2.0, facebook, internet, art, digital

For anyone who hasn’t heard about this yet, Digg has dropped Google as its ad provider in exchange for a three-year exclusive ad deal with Microsoft. Microsoft will be providing the display and contextual advertising on Digg, with traffic estimated at over 17 million unique monthly visitors. The switch over will take place in early August and will impact only US traffic. The two companies also agreed to work together on future technology and advertising initiatives.

“We at Digg couldn’t think of a better partner to get to where we need to go,” said Jay Adelson, the company’s chief executive officer. “They’re a young ad service, they’re innovative, they’re willing to work with us on the cutting edge.”

“We’re now positioned to provide a world-class advertising solution that builds upon Digg’s philosophy of providing a great experience for users and advertisers,” said Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg. “As the Digg audience continues to grow and diversify, we believe that this initiative with Microsoft, and the resources that it provides, will enable us to focus less on developing an advertising infrastructure and more on developing new and innovative features for the site.”

This is pretty hilarious news considering a large percentage of Digg users submit Linux and Apple articles all the time and love to bash Microsoft. I wonder what kind of effect this will have on Digg’s future popularity and whether it will change Microsoft’s dull image.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release on Yahoo!:

“Digg is the first high-profile customer for Microsoft’s adCenter platform since the company signed up Facebook, a popular social networking site, last summer.

Microsoft executives are looking to Digg and the pending acquisition of aQuantive Inc., an online advertising company, to boost adCenter’s appeal with advertisers and close the gap with Google, the leader in making money from search advertising.

“We actually now are in the forefront of what we believe is going to be the next generation of advertising,” said Steve Berkowitz, a senior vice president in Microsoft’s online services group.

Berkowitz said Microsoft is working on technology and design ideas for “bringing users to engage with the advertising more, make them part of it.”

Digg’s decision to defect may not dent Google’s balance sheet, but it’s still a blow to lose such a hot Web 2.0 property, said Chris Winfield, president of social media marketing company 10e20 LLC.

With Digg and Facebook under its belt, Microsoft may be able to seal deals with other social networking sites. For Digg, though, the decision could backfire.

“Linux and Apple have always been two of the most popular things on Digg, while Microsoft, the RIAA, things like that, have been two of the most hated things,” Winfield said.

“For a user, they look at it and say, ‘Now, all of a sudden, you’re doing a deal with the devil?’”

So what do you guys think? Will Digg’s users revolt once more? Will they just leave? Or will Digg and Facebook actually turn Microsoft’s image around?

Since I first heard this Facebook.com Song , I just can’t get it out of my head. Great stuff!

Here are some tips I wanted to share with you on how to ehance your blog and create more exposure to it.

1) Write about stuff that interests you

If you write about topics that really interest you, it will show in your writing. The more you relate to the topic, the better your post will be.

2) Be consistent and update daily

I try to write one post each day. We are all busy people and have a lot to do, but if you don’t maintain your blog on a daily basis, your readership will decline. As Om Malik says: “There are no Sundays in blogging”.

3) Say Something Meaningful

Don’t just write about the latest software and how to use it, but say what you think about it. What do you think is missing? What do you think could be improved? Give your opinion.

4) Always respond to comments

If your readers took the time to comment on your post, the least you could do is show them that you care. Always respond back. Never be rude to anyone. Even if someone disagrees with your views, they may have a point. Turn the discussion into a positive debate.

5) Talk TO your readers - not AT them

Engage your audience in conversation. Never preach to them or lecture them. Ask for your readers’ opinions, suggestions, and feedback.

6) Display your RSS Feed at the top of your blog

Make it easy for people to subscribe to your feed. This way, they won’t need to remember to go back to your site.

Not all people use RSS though. Some people will prefer to receive your posts to their email address. Offer them this option as well.

7) Get involved in various social networks and add widgets and rich media to your site

This will show people that you not only blog, but that you’re active and social on other platforms as well.  Display your activity on the different networks with widgets. This will enhance your blog immensely and show people what you’re interested in besides blogging. Adding rich media such as your Flickr pictures will also improve your blog. Visuals are always effective - as the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. This is why I always add pics to my posts.

8 ) Promote your posts

I usually update my Twitter with my latest posts. Obviously the more contacts you have, the more exposure you’ll get. If you’re really proud of a post you’ve written, then you can submit it to Digg or Delicious. However, do this sparingly. Remember! You are not a member of these communities just to promote yourself. It is always most satisfying of course when you find out that other people found your writing insightful enough to promote it themselves. 

9) Communicate with your readers 

One way to interact with your readers is by adding all those faces you see on your MyBlogLog widget as contacts. This will allow you to build long lasting relationships with them.

10) Interact with other bloggers

If you’re reading other people’s blogs, leave comments on the posts that interest you. This is another great way to build relationships.

I really believe that blogging is a skill that you learn as you go along. Like anything else in life, the longer you blog, the more you’ll know how effectively interact with your audience and increase exposure to your site. I would love to hear from you guys if you have any of your own helpful tips to add.
 

Mike Marcus, the artist whose exhibition I discussed in yesterday’s post, is looking for volunteers to help him create the Facebook application that I suggested. The application would allow you to create digital children with your friends by creating a digital “genetic” synthesis of the two profile pictures. In addition, Mike writes me:

“The interesting thing is, will these virtual offspring be limited to just pixels or could they develop some sort of personality? Is it possible that these beings could somehow be infused with a discrete synthesis of both parents ideas and beliefs?”

This raises an interesting point. What if the application allowed you not only to create a digital image of your child but actually bring him to life by giving him personality traits from each parent. These traits can be identified based on the information each parent gave on his profile regarding his political views, religious views, beliefs, tags, even the applications that he found an interest in adding.

Such a unique application would undoubtedly become very popular and raise a great deal of questions regarding our evolution as a species.

Would love to hear from anyone who wants to get involved in this project.

Technorati tags: digital children, exhibition, breeding, children, digital, art, mike marcus, exogeny, facebook, genetics, virtual, avatar, tags, evolution, social network

Mike Marcus, a 34 year old photographer and digital artist,will soon open his Exogeny #1 exhibition. “Exogeny” referring to the cultural practice of intentionally breeding outside of one’s cultural or ethnic community.

Each of his images displays a digital child compromised of synthetic derivatives from two portraits. Each facial feature is neither from one or the other but a digital “genetic” synthesis of the two.

In Mike’s own words:

“This is the world we now live in. A world where both the virtual and physical are becoming equally real. Where relationships between people do not depend on physical presence or even the ability to speak the same language. Where ideas and concepts exist outside of the brain of the individual in the collective mind of society where we call them memes. It is a world where a digital child is a serious prospect. If people can have cyber sex then why not cyber offspring?”

Yaniv Golan, a social networking expert and one of Yedda’s founders says:

“The concept of digital children is intriguing to us social-network-web-folks. Here is a different, albeit somewhat technical way to look at it: In a world where a lot of our interactions are online, where new relationships are formed in online social networks, where people create avatars and spend their life online in Second Life - it makes a lot of sense to explore the concept of digital children as yet another way to express my online life. Will people living virtual life and making virtual friends want to deepen the relationship and have a digital child with one of their digital friends? ….In fact, I could even imagine a service that lets two folks who have an online (and possibly also an offline) relationship submit their photos and ask the service to create a digital child for them, which they will then post on their profile as one further proof of their relationship.”

So what do you think? Do you see us evolving in this direction? How long will it be before we start living completely virtual lives? Will it all start with a new Facebook application that allows you to create digital children with your friends? And if such an application did come out, would you add it? You know you would…

Technorati tags: digital, photography, art, painting, exogeny, exhibition, digital children, breeding, virtual, yaniv golan, mike marcus, social networking, yedda, avatars, virtual world, second life, facebook

A couple of people have already asked me regarding the import of my blog from Blogger to WordPress and how easy or difficult it was. Therefore I thought it would be helpful for you guys if I outlined the steps I took.

I recently purchased my own domain and received a WordPress blog with my hosting package. When I tried to find out how I could import my Blogger posts there, this is the information I received from WordPress:

“Users of WordPress 2.2 and above can import from Blogger. Earlier versions cannot import from Blogger because “New Blogger” was released by Google, invalidating all the old importers. Only WordPress 2.2 and later has support for “New Blogger”.

If you haven’t already, you must be using New Blogger and a Google Account on Blogger. If you are still using Old Blogger, the importer will not work.

To start the importer, go to Manage → Import → Blogger and follow the directions.”

I did have the New Blogger, yet it was an older version of WordPress that I received with my package (of course! I got the 2.1.0 version), and therefore I couldn’t just automatically import my Blogger posts there.

Therefore what I did was, I opened a “dummy” account on wordpress.com (which of course had to be the most recent version) and imported my posts from Blogger to that dummy account.  The only problem I experienced in the import was that all the videos didn’t transfer. I had to add them all back manually. Also I had to add a 5 pixels margin left and bottom to all my pics which now appeared almost on top of the text in the posts.

Then I exported all the posts from the “dummy” WordPress account to my real WordPress account by going to: Manage → Export → Download Export File. I then logged in to my real account and clicked Manage → Import → WordPress. There you’ll need to upload the export file. The only problem I experienced in this process was that the names of those who commented did not transfer for some reason. I needed to dig into the code and fix that. I also needed to categorize all my posts now because they were not categorized in Blogger.

I then redirected my old site to my new site. In order to do that, follow these directions.

All in all the process was not as easy as it could be, I think. I am not sure if the problems I experienced were only specific to my case or that they happen quite frequently, but I think that both companies could try to work harder at making the whole transition a lot smoother. There is no reason for me to go and have to manually change stuff myself.

I must add one thing before I finish. I did enjoy my time on Blogger and probably would not have left it if it wasn’t necessary. Even though I have heard some people complain about it, I found its platform very user friendly and intuitive.

I hope this post was helpful and will make your import a bit smoother than what I experienced.

Matt Danzico, a reporter, has recently announced that he is going to travel around America 2.0 style. He has created this website and is asking all the people watching his video to spread his message:

“Around the America in 2.0 is an Internet-based film project created to explore trust and connectivity. The primary objective of the project is to rely solely on users of video sharing websites, such as YouTube, for food, shelter, and transportation during a trip around the United States.”

On July 16th of 2007, a brief video clip was spread throughout the Internet community asking viewers to transport Matt Danzico from one online user to the next across the entire country within a period of 80 days. During the trip, which begins September 15th of 2007, Matt will create a weekly online television program documenting both his experiences as well as those of the volunteers participating in the experiment.

The purpose of this trip, as Matt says:

“We also hope to disprove the notion of a lack of trustworthiness amongst America’s Internet community. We here at Around America in 2.0 strongly feel that the news media’s insistent concentration on negative aspects of American society has had a substantial affect on Americans’ perceptions of each other, not to mention the rest of the world’s perception of Americans.”

This has got to be one of the most original 2.0 ideas I have heard in a while. It plays on extending online relationships to offline ones and seeing how much these online relationships are actually worth in reality and what online communities really mean to us, the users. 

I wish you much luck Matt!

Here’s Matt’s video:

Many people have recently mentioned that they no longer see the value in being members of LinkedIn now that they have Facebook.

Jeff Pulver writes:

“This morning I made the decision to focus all of my professional business social networking contacts to be on Facebook. That means that I am no longer going to accept new LinkedIn requests. After spending the past few months using Facebook, I no longer see the value of LinkedIn. Why use a static site where the fun stops at the profile when there is a wealth of opportunity for vibrant interaction between users and groups of users on Facebook?”

So I asked myself, do I still see the value in LinkedIn? My answer is yes. I see LinkedIn as my professional network. I connect with members there on a professional basis. Through LinkedIn members can see a lot more information concerning my professional experience and background.

Here are three things LinkedIn does better than Facebook according to Chris Brogan:

“Sorting Contacts- I found myself needing to find someone in NYC to offer a couch for a friend. In Facebook, I searched around the Friends tab and couldn’t find a way to sort. Turns out, the way to sort friends is you go out to the main page, to the search bar, click Advanced Search, and then search your network and friends by the criteria you want.

In LinkedIN, you go to Contacts, click Advanced Search, and click sort by location. Done.

Passing Through Mail- Facebook sends my email account a message that says, “Rod Begbie has sent you a message.” And then I have to go log into Facebook to read it. LinkedIN sends me the whole thing, and then I can go log in and respond later. And Facebook doesn’t have FORWARD. I can’t send mail elsewhere. It’s not that I really want to use the in-system mail platform. It’s a little redundant. But if you’re going to give it to me, make it full-featured.

In LinkedIN, you get the straight email sent to your inbox, and you CHOOSE to go to LinkedIN to respond.

Reputation Management - If I’m using Facebook to manage my social network, there’s nothing there that tells a new visitor to my profile page if I’m worth engaging in a conversation. You can read my Wall (where people leave messages). You can view my friends. But that’s it.

In LinkedIN, there’s a recommendation system with a good sense of detail and authority.”

I agree. I think that professionals see LinkedIn as a far better channel to find potential business partners and employees. It may not be as exciting as Facebook, but it accomplishes its purpose.

Through Facebook I have also made some great professional contacts however the interaction process was  very different. To me Facebook is a social platform where I connect with people on a much more personal basis. I share my thoughts with them, my favorite applications, and my causes. Members get to know more about me as a person rather than only view me on a professional level.

I do think that LinkedIn is probably well aware of this situation and will try to do everything in its power to maintain its exisiting users by offering perhaps a more dynamic platform in the future. What surprises me, as Jeff also pointed out, is that someone hasn’t already created an application for Facebook that offers users LinkedIn-like functionality. Then LinkedIn would probably really freak out

I am one of the officers of a group called The Grasshoppers on Facebook. This group was built by Chris Brogan and its purpose is to create a meaningful network of people willing to be helpful.

Know of available jobs? Want to offer your services? Want to sell your old computer? Want to promote a cause? Want to give advice on fun places to visit in your area? Post it all on the discussion board. You can add whatever you think will be helpful for others. Even if you have nothing to add yet, Grasshoppers provides you with a wonderful network of colleagues for future collaboration.

So far we have 720 helpful members from all over the world. This group is basically a tool that can be helpful on many levels. As I’ve figured out (and probably you have as well), Facebook is not just another social network. It provides a platform for you to create a vibrant network of colleagues, use the tools provided by adding different applications, and do something meaningful such as creating a group like this one or recruiting people to support a relevant cause such as helping to stop global warming. I recommend to you all: Visit the group’s page and consider joining. Someone who needs your help today may help you in the future. Helping others comes back in good ways to everyone involved.

Technorati tags: grasshoppers, facebook, chris brogan, help, jobs, causes, advice, network, collaboration, social network, tool, global warming