Hola devoted readers! We’ve been remiss in bringing you the dish from the south — not to mention from the South By Southwest Interactive Conference — in a timely manner. But have no fear, your gossip needs are going to be satisfied beginning … right … now !

Read more…

The recession may be hurting the pocketbooks of people and businesses, but a new study shows that few companies that currently spend money on social media plan to cut back next year. The 2009 Tribalization of Business Study by Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research reveals that 94 percent of the 400 companies surveyed intend to maintain or increase investment in their communities.

Read more…

Not that long ago, media companies were easy to define. A media company could be a movie studio, television network, newspaper or magazine publisher, radio station or really any company that controlled a means of distributing content. But technology has brought about an enormous shift that many companies don’t yet recognize. Most companies are now enormously invested in media as a part of their everyday business, but few of them realize it.

Read more…

Following the recent debacle in which Facebook freaked out a large percentage of its user base with a clumsily-handled change to its Terms of Service, I was surprised when this showed up on my FB home page today:

Terms of Use Update

Today we announced new opportunities for users to play a meaningful role in determining the policies governing our site. We released the first proposals subject to these procedures – The Facebook Principles, a set of values that will guide the development of the service, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that governs Facebook’s operations. Users will have the opportunity to review, comment and vote on these documents over the coming weeks and, if they are approved, other future policy changes. We’ve posted the documents in separate groups and invite you to offer comments and suggestions. For more information and links to the two groups, check out the Facebook Blog.

Read more…

With Obama now officially President, the White House site has been redone to reflect the new administration’s priorities. Of special interest to those of us in MCDM is the Technology Agenda page. While it’s filled with important information, two things that jumped out right away for me were:

1. Protect the Openness of the Internet: Support the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.
2. Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Work towards true broadband in every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives. America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access.

These two combined can help ensure that Internet continues to be an incubator of innovation and the jobs innovation creates. Good policies for media professionals.

A recent issue of The New Yorker had an interesting article on cell phone novels in Japan. Popularized about five years ago, these novels are posted to the Web by authors who write them on their phones, constrained by the limitations of the medium. The most successful of them are published on paper in a format that mimics the cell phone experience. Some are adapted into manga comic books and movies. And the form might be poised for success in America as well. Read more…

http://mcdmwiki.mootkat.com/

One of the nice things about Wikis and other social media platforms is that lots of times they can be launched within minutes of someone saying “We need a wiki.”

I seeded it with some suggested topics to try to get things going, but didn’t add any real content. Consider this your Wiki and jump in to add anything you think would be useful to your fellow MCDM students or anyone else who comes to the site. Depending on how successful it is, the hosting and URL may change in the future.

Once again, I’m learning of some cool work being done by here at UW. Today’s Seattle Times (which my family still subscribes to in print form, just for the sheer Ludditeness of it) contains an article entitled “Inflexible Security? Lighten Up” by technology columnist Brier Dudley. The piece describes Friendbo, an access-control system being developed by students and professors at the U. Thanks to a technology transfer grant, Ph.D candidate Michael Toomin has taken Friendbo from a classroom project to a company set to soon release a Facebook app. Read more…