Tag: Digital Living

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Digital

#charitytuesday

The chief executive of Bullying UK, John Carnell, saw #charitytuesday on Twitter that day (12 May 2009) and decided to back it. He enlisted the support of Bullying UK’s (then) 5,400 followers.

“It’s done absolutely remarkably well,” says Carnell.

“It opens up communication in a way we’ve never really had before.”

The benefits of using #charitytuesday for charities seem substantial.

No one is hassled for money, rather they are asked to contribute to a conversation, or give a show of support.

Rather than targeting potential supporters in the street or by phone when they are busy, charities can simply post information for followers (who they already know are interested) to access when they have time.

Carnell calls it: “The ultimate permission-based marketing.”

“It gives a single day, if nothing else, that we should be on Twitter,” he said.

Read full story.

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Digital

White, Black, Pink with Polka Dots?

Having participated in this a couple of days ago, and seen most of my friends participate, I think most people know what was going on with the colour status updates in Facebook. Having watched a debate go on through a message feed (someone who felt that it was insensitive), I came across this article, which I thought gave an interesting take on it, and referenced us to sites such as a click a day against Breast Cancer. Suzanne says that “The fact that it hit different groups of people who don’t even know each other really shows the power of Facebook and the power of viral marketing”, but that this could have been put to better use with a more serious status update. However, I think it has raised awareness, especially once these associated debates continue alongside, and as Weinschenk points out, if you can get people to commit to a small action, whether consciously or not, they will become aware of larger actions. You’ll never get 100% participation/action, but if you can make a few people more aware, in a fun/relaxed way, it can have a point.

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Digital

The Psychology of Facebook

Facebook

“Given the online forum of Facebook to create whatever public persona you’d like, it would seem logical that people might portray an idealized version of themselves—putting up their most attractive photos, editing down their thoughts to the most clever and pithy before posting them in a status update, carefully choosing favorite books and movies to portray a certain sophistication. Not so, say researchers from the University of Texas at Austin. Instead of using Facebook to create rose-tinted portraits of themselves, more often people’s Facebook profiles reflect their authentic personalities, with all of the quirks, funny faces and moodiness they entail.”

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Academic Digital

Digital Media: Mainstream Curriculum?

iPhone“Under the new curriculum, students would be expected to work with a range of digital media, including computer simulations and audio-video productions.

‘Digital-based media now need to be channelled into the mainstream of academic knowledge production and distribution,’ the paper says.

Professor Fuller added: ‘It’s becoming the most important way in which knowledge is transmitted and produced in society today.'”

Read full story in the Times Higher Education.

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Digital

Blog Action Day: October 15

What a great idea! I was just reading the blog of ‘Socks for Happy People’ (what a great concept in itself, and I’ve been watching it’s development with interest), and I thought what a great use for mass social action. Social Media is still rather in an experimental phase, so it’s interesting to see what works, and what doesn’t work!

‘Blog Action Day‘ was launched in 2007, and last year, with the number of RSS subscribers (and bearing in mind that some don’t subscribe, but just read through, e.g. Facebook links, Twitter posts, etc.) they potentially reached 14 million people – pretty powerful, eh?

So, now, I need to think of an appropriate topic to write about for that day. I saw Al Gore’s film the other week, and we’ve discussed quite a lot recently, so maybe I need to crowdsource information from friends!