The Rise of Micro-microblogging, and How to Use It | Social Media ...

Traditionally the internet has been characterised by a small percentage of online content creators and commentators, and a majority of spectators. The Forrester Social Technographics Ladder has been a well documented visualisation of this. A small proportion of creators have been shaping the face of consumer content online, but are we beginning to see a shift?

Twitter in particular has helped to turn non-bloggers into bloggers (and effectively creators), at a micro level. The 140 character limit, platform flexibility, and scope for sharing images have all helped to make it a popular and easy way for people to collect and share online content.

But with the majority of today?s connected adults being time poor, and attention being split across a mass of social and media channels?not to mention devices?we?re seeing an increasing appetite for platforms and situations that are enabling even quicker action. We might term this emerging behaviour ?micro-microblogging.?

The take-off of photo sharing and photo tagging platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram, particularly among women, is proving to be one of the biggest drivers of micro-microblogging. What?s interesting about this is that it?s encouraging a form of semi-creative online behaviour. Not only are people viewing and liking images, but they are also taking, publishing and tagging their own photos. They are becoming content creators and commentators, and this is happening almost without people realising they're doing it. As a result, online behaviour around images in particular is getting more and more granular; people are showing a desire for getting closer to the pixel. We are in the midst of an image explosion.

It goes without saying that images are often the most eye-catching and valuable piece of real estate on a web page but they usually remain un-interactive, unexplored and underused. For brands, this can be such a missed opportunity, particularly in light of the shift towards micro-microblogging behaviour around images. A new study conducted by ROI research found that users are 44% more likely to engage with brands and companies if an image is involved. Furthermore, we remember pictures about 1.5 times more often than printed words. Have we reached a point where brands should be thinking more carefully about the way in which they are using online images, opening up ways for consumers to interact with their visual content in a richer way?

In this micro-microblogging era, where attention and time are at a premium, image tagging platforms create the ability for individuals to share and interact with snippets of information within an image. For example, you are reading an article online, and a detail within an accompanying image jumps out at you. Maybe it?s a Gucci handbag that you know your girlfriend would adore, and you want to quickly share just that part of the image with her via Facebook, tagging her within it.

We are entering an era where people crave the ability to do increasingly more interesting things with online images. Humans are very visual, and respond positively to imagery. A recent Harvard Business School study suggests that Facebook?s new Timeline layout has contributed to the fact that as much as 70% of all Facebook activity is based on photographs. Engagement rates on Facebook for photos averages 0.37% where text only is 0.27% (this translates to a 37% higher level of engagement for photos over text). The use of photographs in a company?s social interactions can directly increase customer engagement ? that means brands ignore the phenomena at their peril.

For brands, thinking about how they can encourage their customers to do small things with an image, is paramount. We?re already seeing a paradigm shift in how some brands and publishers are using images within their website to create more of a journey of discovery, keeping their visitors on their site for longer. Additionally, as time goes on we?ll see brands showing a greater preference for real life models and situations, to help promote their brands more honestly. The rise in micro-microblogging is placing brand images under even deeper layers of user scrutiny and interpretation.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Photoblogging particularly is set to get even more granular over the next 12 months and beyond, and before long brands will need to be thinking carefully about their ?image strategy? and how this connects with their wider social media strategies. No longer can images exist in isolation. Bringing them into the slipstream of internet content will be the next big paradigm shift that we?ll see in this rapid evolution of the internet.

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Authored by:

Fraser Robinson

Fraser is founder and CEO of Taggstar.com, a platform which lets publishers add layers of content to their online images, making them interactive and shareable.

Prior to founding Taggstar, Fraser was Managing Director ? Commercial & Media at lastminute.com, one of Europe?s leading online travel and lifestyle businesses, for six years. During his time at lastminute.com, Fraser built the ...

See complete profile

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/fraserrobinson/982676/rise-micro-microblogging-and-how-brands-can-be-embracing-it

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Songwriter Diane Warren's music optioned for stage

NEW YORK (AP) ? The big hooks and soaring melodies of Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren are heading to Broadway.

Tony Award-winning producer Dede Harris tells The Associated Press on Thursday that she has optioned Warren's entire 2,000-song music catalog with an eye to getting her hits into a musical. The creative team and a timeline for the project will be announced at a later date.

A formal announcement was to be made later Thursday.

"We're starting with a blank canvas and the beauty of the development of this process is that we can let our imaginations run wild," Harris said Thursday. "We have so many different songs that we can pull from and create a story from so many of her songs that it's just too early to say."

Warren's writing credits include Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me," Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart," LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live" and "I Was Here" for Beyonce.

She's scored multiple Academy Award nominations and has won a Grammy and a Golden Globe award. Warren is the first songwriter in the history of Billboard to have seven hits, all by different artists, on the singles chart at the same time.

Although Harris has her favorite songs, she says she won't insist on their inclusion. "Obviously we want to put in her more popular songs, but we're not going to do it just to do it. It has to work with the story," she said.

Harris, who declined to say how much the catalog cost, has produced such hits as "Hairspray," ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "A Raisin in the Sun." Her recent hits include "One Man, Two Guvnors," ''War Horse" and "Clybourne Park" and she's producing the upcoming "Hands on a Hardbody."

Warren, who also has expressed interest in writing new songs for the project, would be the latest rocker to lend their music to Broadway-bound projects, joining the likes of Sheryl Crow, Glen Ballard, Cyndi Lauper, Dave Stewart and Melissa Etheridge.

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Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/songwriter-diane-warrens-music-optioned-stage-171824583.html

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Teen charged as adult in killing of Colorado girl

By NBC News staff and wire services

GOLDEN, Colo. -- A teen who allegedly confessed to the dismemberment killing of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway also sexually assaulted the Colorado girl, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Police say they arrested Austin Reed Sigg in connection with Jessica Ridgeway's death.

Austin Sigg, 17, was charged Tuesday as an adult with 17 counts in the Ridgeway case and in an attack on a jogger. They include four murder charges, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.

Sigg didn't speak during the brief court hearing in Golden, Colo., and didn't look at his six relatives in the courtroom, including his mother, Mindy Sigg.?His relatives sat silently as the charges were read, unlike a hearing last week at which Sigg's mother sobbed audibly. She was the one who called police on her son.

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Family members of the slain child?also watched the proceedings. Each wore purple, the?girl's favorite color.

Defense attorneys anticipate asking the judge to send the case to juvenile court. If convicted as an adult, Sigg faces up to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. If he is tried as a juvenile, Sigg faces a maximum of seven years on each conviction, which, if ordered to be served consecutively, would put him in prison for decades.?

AP file

Prosecutors said Sigg acted alone in kidnapping, robbing and sexually assaulting Ridgeway. The robbery charge involved the girl's backpack and water bottle, which were found in another suburb three days after she disappeared while walking to school Oct. 5.

"Austin Reed Sigg unlawfully and feloniously, acting alone, committed sexual assault, and in the course of or in furtherance of that crime, caused the death of Jessica Ridgeway," according to court documents.

He is also charged in an attempted?abduction of a 22-year-old woman near the girl's home months before the Ridgeway killing.?Police said the jogger reported being grabbed from behind by a man who placed a rag with a chemical smell over her mouth. Police have not revealed whether the rag was soaked with a chemical meant to subdue the woman.

Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com?

Police arrested Sigg on Oct. 23. His mother told The Associated Press that she called police and her son turned himself in.?

Ridgeway?lived on a quiet street about a mile from where Sigg lived with his mother. The subdivision features an elementary school, a high school, small parks, greenbelts, open space and a lake.

Sigg is being held without bond at a youth correctional facility. The charges filed were four counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, sexual assault on a child and robbery in Jessica's abduction and slaying, as well as attempted murder, attempted sexual assault and attempted second-degree kidnapping in the attack on the runner. Prosecutors also charged Sigg with six counts of crime of violence.

"There's DNA evidence, and the evidence is overwhelming," prosecutor Hal Sargent said, arguing that Sigg should be held without bail despite having no criminal record.

Prosecutors say Colorado teen has confessed to Jessica Ridgeway slaying

Former high school classmates painted a picture of the 5-foot-6, 160-pound Sigg as an intelligent teen who often wore black and complained about school but who would stay late sometimes to work on computers. Sigg was interested in mortuary science and was taking forensics classes, according to classmates.

Sigg enrolled in August at Arapahoe Community College, which offers the state's only accredited mortuary science program. The school said Sigg didn't have enough credits yet to apply to that program.

Sigg had left Standley Lake High School in July after finishing the 11th grade and later earned a GED. School officials said they didn't know why he left.?Former schoolmate Sarah Morevec said Sigg had been bullied for having a high voice.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.?

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/30/14810679-colorado-teen-charged-as-adult-in-killing-of-jessica-ridgeway-10?lite

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How does the brain measure time?

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) have found a small population of neurons that is involved in measuring time, which is a process that has traditionally been difficult to study in the lab.

In the study, which is published October 30 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, the researchers developed a task in which monkeys could only rely on their internal sense of the passage of time. Their task design eliminated all external cues which could have served as "clocks".

The monkeys were trained to move their eyes consistently at regular time intervals without any external cues or immediate expectation of reward. Researchers found that despite the lack of sensory information, the monkeys were remarkably precise and consistent in their timed behaviors. This consistency could be explained by activity in a specific region of the brain called the lateral intraparietal area (LIP). Interestingly, the researchers found that LIP activity during their task was different from activity in previous studies that had failed to eliminate external cues or expectation of reward.

"In contrast to previous studies that observed a build-up of activity associated with the passage of time, we found that LIP activity decreased at a constant rate between timed movements," said lead researcher Geoffrey Ghose, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Minnesota. "Importantly, the animals' timing varied after these neurons were more, or less, active. It's as if the activity of these neurons was serving as an internal hourglass."

By developing a model to help explain the differences in timing signals they see relative to previous studies, their study also suggests that there is no "central clock" in the brain that is relied upon for all tasks involving timing. Instead, it appears as though each of the brain's circuits responsible for different actions are capable of independently producing an accurate timing signal.

One important direction for future research is to explore how such precise timing signals arise as a consequence of practice and learning, and whether, when the signals are altered, there are clear effects on behavior.

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Citation: Schneider BA, Ghose GM (2012) Temporal Production Signals in Parietal Cortex. PLoS Biol 10(10): e1001413. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001413

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org

Thanks to Public Library of Science for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124935/How_does_the_brain_measure_time_

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Mexico City Journal: Axolotls, Mexico?s Mythical Salamander, Struggle in the Wild

Rodrigo Cruz for The New York Times

Biologists are trying to preserve the axolotl, a creature that is one of the few natural links Mexicans still have to the Aztecs.

MEXICO CITY ? Aztec legend has it that the first axolotl, the feathery-gilled salamander that once swarmed through the ancient lakes of this city, was a god who changed form to elude sacrifice.

But what remains of its habitat today ? a polluted network of canals choked with hungry fish imported from another continent ? may prove to be an inescapable threat.

?They are about to go extinct,? said Sandra Balderas Arias, a biologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico working to conserve axolotls in the wild.

The loss of this salamander in its habitat would extinguish one of the few natural links Mexicans still have with the city that the Aztecs built on islands in a network of vast mountain lakes. Its extinction in the wild could also erase clues for scientists studying its mystifying traits.

Despite their precarious future in freshwater, axolotls (pronounced axo-LO-tuhls) have long flourished in aquariums. They have been bred successfully behind glass over the past century, raised as exotic pets or as laboratory specimens for scientists investigating their extraordinary ability to regrow a severed limb or tail.

The Mexican axolotl is an odd-looking salamander with a flat head and spiked feet, unusual because it often spends its entire life in the so-called larval stage, like a tadpole, without ever moving to land. ?It grows and grows in the same shape, and has the capacity to reproduce,? said the biologist Armando Tovar Garza. ?We don?t really know why it doesn?t change.?

Its gaze seems to captivate as its gills slowly beat. In Julio Cort?zar?s short story ?Axolotl,? the narrator is transfixed ? ?I stayed watching them for an hour and left, unable to think of anything else? ? and experiences his own metamorphosis.

The Aztecs and their descendants consumed axolotls as part of their diet, and the amphibians are still stirred into a syrup as a folk remedy for respiratory ailments.

But in their only home, the canals of Xochimilco in the far south of the city, the axolotls? decline has been precipitous. For every 60 of them counted in 1998, researchers could find only one a decade later, according to Luis Zambrano, another biologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Gliding on a flat-bottomed boat through the canals where the Aztecs once farmed floating gardens, but where cinder block houses now dump their waste and students toss their beer cans during parties, Mr. Tovar described the threats. ?The axolotl is suffering on two fronts,? he said, as pounding music and the smell of sewage filled the air. ?One is the water quality. It?s not improving.?

Then, as dimples appeared on the still surface of the canal, like raindrops before a deluge, another researcher leaned over and the axolotl?s second challenge became evident. ?See how the water is moving? All of those circles?? asked the researcher, Leonardo Sastre Baez, who monitors fishing. ?Those are the tilapias.?

That resilient fish was introduced over 20 years ago, along with carp, in an effort to support Xochimilco?s fishermen. ?The government thought, ?If people can?t work, at least they can eat,??? Mr. Sastre said. But the tilapias reproduce faster than they can be caught, and they feed voraciously on the plants where the axolotls lay their eggs.

Mexicans? taste for axolotls has endured, generating some strong reactions from Europeans over the years. The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt wrote in the 19th century that the Mexicans he observed lived ?in great want, compelled to feed on roots of aquatic plants, insects and a problematical reptile called axolotl.?

Others would disagree with the interpretation.

?Have you ever eaten frogs?? asked Roberto Altamirano, president of the fishermen?s association, who ate axolotls as a child and is now working to save them. ?Well, that?s what it tastes like. Somewhere between fish and chicken.?

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/world/americas/struggle-of-axolotls-mexicos-mythical-salamander.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Yacht commissioned by Steve Jobs launched

Workers put the finishing touches to a yacht docked at the wharf of ship building company Royal De Vries in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012. Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Workers put the finishing touches to a yacht docked at the wharf of ship building company Royal De Vries in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012. Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Workers put the finishing touches to a yacht docked at the wharf of ship building company Royal De Vries in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012. Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A yacht is docked at the wharf of ship building company Royal De Vries in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012. Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A yacht is docked at the wharf of ship building company Royal De Vries in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012. Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? The sleek, white superyacht glistens under a gray autumnal sky, a posthumous testament to the design aesthetic of Steve Jobs.

Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater.

Looking like a floating Apple store, it bears all the hallmarks of a new Jobs-inspired creation ? crisp white lines, polished metal, glass. And secrecy.

Late Tuesday, shipbuilder Feadship announced it had launched the "78.2-meter (256-foot) all-aluminum, full custom motoryacht Venus" at its yard in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, on Sunday.

Starck said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that he is "proud of Venus as he feels it reflects Steve Jobs expectation and vision."

The superyacht has a long white hull with a row of circular portholes just above the water line and two glass-walled cabins on the top deck, one on top of the other.

Starck said Jobs asked him to design a boat in 2007 and approved his design at only their second meeting to discuss the project.

"The project never changed during the process of five years dedicated to a rigorous work on details, driven by the famous eye and genius of Steve Jobs," the statement issued by Starck's design house said. "This work was directly done between Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck."

Walter Isaacson described plans and models of the yacht in his biography of Jobs, who died, aged 56, on Oct. 5 last year.

"As expected, the planned yacht was sleek and minimalist. The teak decks were perfectly flat and unblemished by any accoutrements. Like an Apple store, the cabin windows were large panes, almost floor to ceiling, and the main living area was designed to have walls of glass that were 40 feet long and 10 feet high,"Jobs' biographer wrote. "He had gotten the chief engineer of the Apple stores to design a special glass that was able to provide structural support."

Isaacson wrote that Jobs, who long battled pancreatic cancer, was conscious of the fact that he may never see the finished yacht, but wanted it completed anyway.

"I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half built boat," he said, referring to his wife. "But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-30-Netherlands-Steve%20Jobs-Yacht/id-44f94886edfc4a1eac8f5ce908dad458

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