MySpace

"You see, Jason was my son, and today is his birthday..." – Pamela Voorhees, Friday the 13th, Paramount Pictures (1980)

Our son is irritated with his grandfather. Wanted to wish him a happy birthday but…he doesn't have a Facebook account…isn't on Twitter…never looked at YouTube. For gawd's sake, he doesn't even have an email address!

Yes, there are people in this whole, magnificent wide world who are...deprived! So his choice was to resort to the old fashioned stuff…a phone call or letter.

Yeah, those early forms of social media are our last resorts too. We were delighted with the next advance – email. This was a whole new solution for communicating with another person. It was "personal" but allowed both of us to use at our mutual convenience.

But like any movie that somehow strikes a cord with millions of people, it needed a sequel. Web 2.0 gave it to us.Read more

We're so proud of some of the fine people in the online world. You were one of the first in line at the Apple store to get an iPhone. First again to get an iPad. Probably have your order in for a Mac Air. You've put them to great use with your personal and company Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube pages. You've got your own blog that "someone" reads. You Twitter constantly – in the office, in the bathroom, on a night out, yes even when you get lucky. No wonder you have so many followers (they used to be known as stalkers but whatever floats your boat).

Looking around for new arenas to mine it's only natural that marketing, communications people were some of the first to claim their corner of the Cloud. Truth is IT folks don't like you very much. You're not doing them any favors by using your own devices for business because they have a tough enough job protecting the company's IP (intellectual property). Your device is just a partially unlocked door to the company's family jewels…and yours.

Let's start with the brutal basics…your passwords probably suck!Read more

"I just stole fifty cars in one night! I'm a little tired, little "wired," and I think I deserve a little appreciation!" – Memphis, Gone in Sixty Seconds (Touchstone Pictures, 2000)

If you pay a lot of attention to your online security, you're probably not reading this. If you pay no attention, you're probably screwed! If you have a normal concern…how bad can it be? Take a minute and go to your favorite sites and search on the subject of online/onphone security.

You'll probably find that:

• there's an increase in the presence of malicious content on trusted sites – including search engines, blogs, bulletin boards, personal web sites, online magazines and mainstream news sites
• there are more than 170,000 new malware apps spotted every month
• more than 800,000 phishing emails were reported in one month at mid-year
• $4.5 bln lost to phishing in 2007
• $740 mln lost in 2 years to e-mail scams
• 1.45% of e-mails sent in May 2006 contained viruses
• 129 mln Americans received phishing e-mails
• 4.57% of Gmail filtered spam is false positive
• 22.5 million different samples of malware were recorded in June, double the year before
• New webpage infections were discovered by Sophos every 3.6 sec (4x faster than last year)

Have you ever posted something that came back to bite you, like extreme political views, racy pictures, or complaints about your boss? If you did, you're not alone, and until now, foolish posts were all your own and only viewed by friends in your social media network and maybe the random high school classmate you decided to friend, the one you barely remember. But what if everyone could see these blunders and more? What if your profile and interests were broadcast to a wider audience?

As you know, recent changes to Facebook's default privacy settings are slipping user's profile info to search engines, and newly proposed features are stirring up controversy in Congress as well as creating privacy concerns amongst users. Retrevo's research earlier this year suggests that people were already getting themselves into trouble by hastily posting content that they find themselves regretting later. Facebook's new privacy settings aren't going to help.Read more

Are your kids scratching their heads, trying to figure out what to get you for Mother's Day? Is this the moment to ask for your son or daughter's Facebook friendship? Is it a good idea? How many parents are FaceBook Friends with their kids? And while we're on the subject, are you okay with your younger children owning their own Facebook or MySpace page to begin with? Should there be an age restriction? And where do you stand on children and texting? Do you find yourself having to police excessive texting? And, if they get out of line, do you ground them or take away their favorite gadgets? If you're like other parents, you're dealing with these issues and more, on a daily basis. In this Gadgetology Report, Retrevo looks at parent/child social media friendship, appropriate age for Facebook accounts, age-appropriate gadgets, and digital age discipline.Read more

Tread Carefully – The industry has made it through a really tough year, and things are getting better; but you'll have to remain alert and move with care. If it were easy, anyone could do it. Source – Comstock Images

Forecasts are a lot like New Year resolutions – a lot of wishful thinking and the idea that you're going to make it; but boy, is the other guy/gal going to be in trouble.

As 12 really sucky months wind down, everyone tries to make sense of the chaos…and the opportunities. Talk to the entertainment people (HW, SW, content) and they're ready for the challenge. Talk to the mobile folks and you'd swear that no one is ever going to be home. Talk to the computer people and it's all business and play. Talk to the cloud folks and you'd swear you never have to touch the ground…ever. Talk to the storage gurus and they're building stuff to stuff your stuff. Read more

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." – Raul, Die Another Day (MGM – 2002)

Our kids do nearly everything on their smartphones or netbooks. Because we're slightly retarded, they use email for us. For everyone else -- friends, schoolmates, relationships -- they max out all of the capabilities, features and benefits of today's Web 2.0 social media. They simply look at us and repeat Graves's words, "I have to live my dreams."

They aren't alone! A recent article in the WS Journal noted that gazillions of people have chosen to communicate faster (IMing), do it more quickly (texting), do it in a more focused/collaborative manner (wikis, SharePoint, etc.), do it every time they turn around (Twitter). And they are able to do it to almost instantly while reaching a wider audience (Facebook, LinkedIn, other social networking sites). They can tailor their reach with specific content (Flickr, YouTube) and just communicate in the way they want to communicate. Whether it's on their smartphone or netbook, they are connected with someone…anyone.Read more