“The Church of Kopimism” was recently accepted by the Swedish government as a formal religion. The founders, who are associated with the Pirate Bay/Bit Torrent services, define their mission as follows (roughly translated from Swedish):

“Copy and share. All knowledge to everyone. If the laws of technology enable it, we should not limit the reach with legalities.”

The so-called Church of Kopimism has established organizations in several countries including Russia, Denmark, France, Canada, India, Rumania, Italy, New Zealand, Japan and the Unites States. But Norway is not one of them.

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Last week Hari Sreenivasan the Director of Digital Partnerships at PBS and at PBS NewsHour correspondent appeared at a special event hosted by Seattle’s KCTS 9 public television station.  Held a stone’s throw from the Space Needle–Seattle’s iconic architectural monument to progress–at the small station’s studios, this was a special event for students in the University of Washington Master of Communication in Digital Media program and was followed by an interview and event with station donors.

A video of highlights from the conversation with MCDM students and a complete transcript are available on the KCTS 9 website.

According to Sreenivasan, who is a proponent of the growing “slow news” movement, “The value of breaking news is going down faster than you can post it.”
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A Consumer Reports study from May 2011 shows that an estimated 7.5 million U.S. kids under 13 are on Facebook, and about 5 million of those are under the age of ten. Yet federal regulations concerning the collecting and sharing of personal information of minors puts the age cutoff for having an account on Facebook at 13.

What’s the big deal about letting young children onto Facebook? Isn’t it just natural for these digital natives to connect with their friends and share information and updates with each other online?

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg thinks it’s a great idea to let kids into the online community. In an interview following the Consumer Report, Zuckerberg said to Fortune Magazine that it would be a great “educational experience” for kids to be on Facebook.

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Eli Pariser, author of “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You” is on a book tour and made a stop at the KUOW 94.1 studios in Seattle on Tuesday.

According to the former Moveon.org chief, web services like Facebook, Google and Yahoo! News aim to personalize content and maximize the likelihood of the user clicking on sponsored displayed links. On KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds, Pariser talked about what troubles him about these practices.  His main concern is that the practice of steering viewers to specific content is not transparent. This is what Pariser calls the “The Filter Bubble,” which he fears can increase polarization and limit engagement across ideological lines. While convenient for individual users, this is not always in the best interest of the public as a whole. As he explained in the New York Times editorial on May 23, 2011, Pariser sees this filtering of news and information as a direct threat to democracy because it limits exposure to content with differing viewpoints and increases content that already jives with users’ typical behavior and preferences. Read more…

It is a jungle out there in mobile communications. The mobile application markets are particularly chaotic. How do you know which Sudoku app is right for you when there are literally thousands of Sudoku apps out there? Thousands on each mobile platform: iOS, Android, Windows Mobile 7. Thousands.

With every seemingly insurmountable online/mobile/content challenge that has emerged over the last two decades, smart entrepreneurs have recognized a corresponding opportunity. Google? Google emerged out of a need to sift through and evaluate the deluge of internet content developed during Web 1.0.

AppStoreHQ homepage

In mobile applications this is where market research, filtering technology and social networking come in. Instead of an anonymous algorithm, researchers are turning to your social networks for inspiration–finding out what works from people in your network that you trust. It seems like a natural and healthy progression. In an age when consumers are increasingly leery of advertising and have many channels to turn to in avoiding commercials, these consumers are also increasingly connected to each other.

This is the third article in a series exploring social network trends in online commerce and how some Seattle companies are navigating the landscape. Read more…

E-commerce in the (social) networked environment is different from e-commerce in the past. We are all familiar with being bombarded with commercial messages, through online video commercials, banner ads and pop up windows.   We have learned to avoid, deflect and tune out most of these marketing strategies.

Increasingly, If we are looking for something, we will shop around, consult user reviews and ask friends for advice. More and more these conversations are happening online and marketers are angling to be a part of these discussions. This is the second article in a series exploring social network trends in online commerce and how some Northwest companies are navigating and even changing the new landscape.

The ancient method of people making recommendations to each other for products and services using word of mouth is suddenly the hottest advertising strategy on the Internet. Facebook and other social media networks are giant marketing tools. But so far, most consumers have lacked a way to buy products or services without leaving the site. For the founders of aptly named DIY Media in Seattle, this conundrum seemed like a great business opportunity.

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Consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising, more likely to trust peers for product recommendations and completely networked – and as the digital natives move out of the dorms and into the business world, this trend is only going to get stronger. What is the impact of these networked consumers on the marketing landscape?

E-commerce grows up. Social is the new currency.  Established companies adapt to a new reality, and new companies have surfaced in the wake of social media – entirely to capitalize on social network marketing.

This is the first article in a series exploring social network trends in online commerce and how some Seattle companies are navigating the landscape.

It is interesting to note that some of the most successful new technologies don’t actually invent anything new: peer-to-peer advertising is in fact the oldest variety around. It precedes any mass medium. New technologies, however, make peer-to-peer recommendations more efficient, faster and with a broader footprint than the cave-man version.

According to Kathy Savitt, CEO of Seattle based Lockerz, 73 percent of “Generation Z,”–those born after 1992–purchase products based on recommendations from friends. Lockerz is a member-based web community that rewards users for listening to music, watching videos, answering questions and sharing photos. They base their whole business model on peer-to-peer social networking and “word of mouth” marketing strategies. Read more…

Every manufacturer and OS developer out there seems to want a share of the next huge thing in consumer technology – and everyone seems to think that the next revolution is the tablet. Of course, the Apple iPad was the first to put the tablets in the hands of consumers. Accordingly, Apple pretty much defined the industry standard and currently “owns” the market.

Will every other tablet – Android or other – just become a “me too” product in a world defined by Apple? Read more…