The Strip by Brian McFadden

After the Consumer Electronics Show binge in Las Vegas last week, the guilt and remorse settle in — kind of like the day after Thanksgiving.  Was it too big?  Too flashy?  Why did we collectively gorge on stuff that we don’t really need?  Shouldn’t we reflect more upon the slave labor that makes these toys for us, rather than on the superficial novelty they provide?  (The cartoon above, and Flip The Media’s excellent Your Phone Was Probably Made in a Sweatshop expose this harsh reality).

Then there was the oft-shared Fevered Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter:

There is a hole in my heart dug deep by advertising and envy and a desire to see a thing that is new and different and beautiful. A place within me that is empty, and that I want to fill up. The hole makes me think electronics can help. And of course, they can.

They make the world easier and more enjoyable. They boost productivity and provide entertainment and information and sometimes even status. At least for a while. At least until they are obsolete. At least until they are garbage.

And I couldn’t avert my eyes from the Wall Street Journal’s above-the-fold front-page headline trumpeting the much-anticipated Chinese uprising, but then throwing in the twist: not due to politics, but because of the newly-released iPhone 4s.

Fine.  It’s all true.  And all many of the tech blog post-mortems have concluded that this year’s show as more evolutionary than revolutionary.  However, as I consider what I saw — from fridges, to cars, to TV’s — it’s pretty clear what’s driving this consumer electronics gold rush (this year’s CES after all, had the most attendees and the most exhibits): mobile and social.

Read more…

I’ve been bartending on Capitol Hill for two years. My customers, for the most part, are awesome. But Capitol Hill is a busy place on the weekend, attracting people from all over the Seattle area. Lots of us joke about the hipsters on the Hill, but the fact is, we (they) live here, and so if they want to continue sceneing it up on the weekend they know to display at least basic courtesy. Ask, pay, drink, tip, repeat!

I’ve got a lot of beef with the most recent social media vengeance story currently making the Internet rounds. On Friday night, according to Cha Cha/Bimbo’s waitress Victoria Liss, a customer ordered $28.98 worth of food and beverages, didn’t tip, and scrawled “you could stand to lose a few pounds,” on the bottom of the credit card receipt.

Read more…

If you’re longing for a digital networking space that lets you easily share information with the different facets of your life, then put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list. (Assuming you can wrangle an invitation!)

If you’re longing for a digital networking space that lets you easily videoconference with 10 people while everyone watches (and chats about) the same YouTube clip, then put Google Plus (hangouts) at the top of your “to explore” list.

If you’re longing for a digital networking space that integrates functional email, real cloud-based documents, an attractive photo gallery … and lets you eavesdrop on conversations like Twitter does (no reciprocity required in setting up circles) … then put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list.

And if you long for a digital networking space that will allow you to easily and simultaneously communicate with people inside and outside of the space … then you must put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list.

In October 2009, Google launched Wave. The current launch, Google’s third foray into “social”, is nothing like Wave, except for the clamor to “let me in!”

With Google+, things work. The interface is clean, light, inviting. Engineers have anticipated how we might use existing shorthand (from Twitter and Facebook), such as replying in a comment thread by putting @ in front of someone’s name. They turn that @ into a + automagically and the name becomes a link to the person’s Google profile page. Read more…

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.

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.

Read more…

I first joined Facebook because it seemed like a good way to stay in touch with close friends and family who are scattered across the country (What a quaint idea that seems like now).  But I didn’t get really serious about Facebook until the newspaper I worked for – the Seattle Post-Intelligencer – went belly up in 2009.

Left with no outlet for writing and/or pontificating, I, like everyone else in the United States at the time, started my own blog.  I also started working with the Seattle PostGlobe, an online news startup that was founded by former P-I journalists.

It didn’t take me long to realize that Facebook could help drive traffic to my blog and to the news site, and that the more friends I had, the more traffic I could drive.

So it began – the quest for Facebook popularity. By the time my quest was completed I had thousands of “friends” and every time I posted from my blog or from the PostGlobe, it increased traffic to those pages.

You may have had a similar quest, or you may be on it now.  Maybe you’ve started noticing that all your friends – real ones and those new ones you’re slowly starting to get on Facebook – have way more friends than you do. I know. I know. It can be embarrassing. Read more…

“We talk about technology because there is nothing else to talk about if you want to sound intelligent.” Evgeny Morozov

Evgeny Morozov, author of “The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom,” spoke to a large crowd in Kane Hall at the University of Washington Tuesday night with his twist on a topic that generally accepted by digital missionaries: Does Internet access and social media spread democracy? Morozov says not necessarily.

“Some people have an almost religious approach to the Internet. They hold the internet as the Great Liberator,” Morozov said.

Morozov brings up a number of examples to illustrate his main point: Internet access and social media do not automatically lead to more democracy and less oppression.

Read more…

It was surreal to watch the Egyptian revolution unfold as I sat at my laptop in the Philippines during a recent business trip.  It reminded me how a similar movement, known as People Power 2, brought down Philippine President Joseph Estrada in January 2001 (just a few months before my family moved to Manila).

What made that Philippine revolution unique was that citizens spontaneously organized the mass protest through mass text messaging—the Philippines was an early adopter country.  It was spectacular by all accounts. Within hours 100,000 people had gathered at a popular shrine in a non-violent protest against the president. Within 24 hours, that number had tripled. By the third day, the crowd was reported to have swelled to two million.

A decade after People Power 2 – almost to the day – Tunisians ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, following weeks of demonstrations, fueled by high unemployment and then shared around the country and the world through photos, videos, and updates sent by mobile texts and posts to Facebook and Twitter. The BBC reported that organizing the protest network online worked in Tunisia, because more than a third of the country’s 10 million people are online. Nearly two million Tunisians use Facebook. Read more…