kenekaplan Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0

Connecting’s Getting Easier

When I joined Intel in 2000, many people were speaking in code. Not HTML, AJAX or C++, but using acronyms in between other English words. The English words…sure I got most of those, but BMK, FSB, SERP? WTF?!! One acronym I got immediately was that email from Andy Grove with these three letters: NFW. I think a simple no would’ve provide more brevity, yet surely less passion.

We’re all hearing about API and other social computing jargon (that’s what it is for many of us) about how we’ll be able to better interconnect our social media and social networking tools. For me, Facebook started the mad rush. Everyone’s creating applications that allow you to use things like Twitter, WordPress, Clipmarks, Flickr and other programs while you’re inside Facebook. It allows you to syndicate or unify the many Web 2.0 tools you use. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!

That’s why 2008 will be a year where we all find new reasons to use new socially juiced programs and fuse them together so we can aggregrate and feed content, but more importantly…so we can grow our social graph = connect to our friends and contacts through any social computing program we use. Unifying and empowering every tool you use at any particular time. Everything, everyone at your finger tips.  Better connecting, feeding and growing our social graphs.

Here’s a geeky video from Google describing what’s going on under the hood, driving new possiblities thanks to Open Social and the wonders of API (sure, we’ll have to tackle the ethical/privacy issues over time):

kenekaplan Facebook, Music, Politics, Social Media, video

will.i.am Music Video Embodies Best of Social Media, Social Networks

I saw this posted in Facebook from Social Media measurement guru Katie Paine.  This will.i.am music video is a great example of an artist being inspired to create, share and connect with his friends to mash media, skills and passion together into an expression of the times.  Here’s how the video is described by drsmarty08.

According to will.i.am, founding member and frontman of Black Eyed Peas, the “Yes We Can Song” was inspired by Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and especially the speech Obama gave following the New Hampshire primary. He states, “It made me reflect on the freedoms I have, going to school where I went to school, and the people that came before Obama like Martin Luther King, presidents like Abraham Lincoln that paved the way for me. . . .” Dylan says, “The speech was inspiring about making change in America and I believe what it says and I hope everybody votes.”

The music video includes excerpts from Obama’s speech and appearances from several celebrities: Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, and Nick Cannon. “I’m blown away by how many people wanted to come and be a part of it in a short amount of time. It was all out of love and hope for change and really representing America and looking at the world,” will.i.am said.