Archive for the ‘Tech & Web’ Category
Police Use Taser on Hispanic Homeowner and Female Relative, Four Electroshocks, Excessive Force, Caught on Video
A joyful baptism celebration at a Hispanic household in Woodbridge, VA was abruptly interrupted by police who reportedly barged in requesting immigration documentation from the homeowner – the night ended with the tasing (shock with taser gun) of two adults and their subsequent arrest. Relatives of the man and woman that were arrested claim to have caught this all on video. The incident occurred on July 25, 2009.
This story is still very much in development, I heard it on the way to work this morning while listening to the local Spanish-language radio station, El Zol. Relatives of the man and woman who were arrested came on the morning radio show to tell their story. Read the rest of this entry »
Fundraising with Social Media: Facebook ‘Causes’ and Others
The Facebook application ‘Causes’ has just been slammed by a Washington Post article that labels the app as ‘inneffective.’ This is an opinion of course, and many organizations have attained a positive Return on Investment from Causes…
yes, it is effective -> case study: SIDS Research
Sids Education Services’ cause page for ‘Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Research” has over 258,000 members.
- There are 996 comments on its Wall dating from June 2007 (probably around the time the Cause started);
- There are 129 media items posted – photos/videos/web links
- 258,000 members potentially = huge list of qualified email recipients
- $1,746 has been donated by the Cause’s membership
If you’re looking at these stats and thinking, ‘what in the world, they only raised $1,746 in two years!’ then you’re doing it wrong.
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Facebook Spreads Virus, Corporate Management: ‘Told You So!’
With over 175 million users Facebook has become an ideal place to proliferate and spread ridiculously potent viruses. The only solution is to completely block social networking websites from the workplace. The newest of the viruses is the ‘Koobface‘ worm – it phishes its way onto user computers by getting users to open messages that appear to be sent from their Facebook friends.
Facebook in the Workplace
Facebook users and internet marketers have been pushing, often staunchly, for the privilege to use the social network while at work. Management didn’t really care about the harm to their IT infrastructure, for the most part they worried about the potential (and later observed) decline in productivity associated with allowing access to the website.
Cause-Specific Websites: The Flood Gates are Open
A couple weeks back I introduced the new nonprofit social startup Causecast.org. I have since learned of two great websites that put Causecast back in the ‘contender’ category – because they have been around a lot longer and both enjoy a substantial amount of members.
In fact, SocialVibe.com and Ammado.com share many of the same ’causes’ . Both websites provide visitors with a wide selection of nonprofits to follow. SocialVibe wins my vote as the most efficient, usable, and well-designed website. The website allows you to ‘join’ as many causes as you wish – once you join a cause you can contribute to the nonprofit’s SocialVibe community by submitting donations, uploading multimedia (photos, videos), writing in a cause-specific forum, and finally, you can share the nonprofit’s SocialVibe page on other social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.). The ‘One Laptop Per Child’ cause has a well-utilized page on SocialVibe.
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Youtube launches ‘In My Name’ video project for poverty elimination
Today, Youtube launches a new philanthopic effort aimed at addressing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) to end global poverty. Starting today, through November 1st, site visitors throughout the world will be able to submit videos of themselves addressing a local and/or global poverty-related issue.
If executed effectively the ‘In My Name’ project will prove to be one of the most effective povert-related campaigns ever executed, both online and offline. Youtube’s massive reach (estimated 73.5 million per month) is the main reason for the campaign’s inevitable success. Today’s teens and young adults are spending more of their free time online than watching tv and reading magazines – if any youth-focused marketing campaign is to prove effective it must have a substantial online component. The youthful and tech-saavy demographic that accounts for the majority of Youtube’s daily audience is a huge plus on its own.
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Introduction to: Craigslist.org, Bizrate.com, and Sneakers.com
Craigslist.org
Craigslist.org appears to be using a Classified Advertising e-business model – perhaps in the simplest form possible on the net, requiring little to no viewer information input and minimal user information input – it should be noted that Craigslist has been intended as a non-profit site, and the creator has established a non-profit programming and developing community.
The “Best of Craigslist” section of the site is a snapshot of the average Craigslist user. User is defined as the person posting a classified ad onto the site and viewer, alternatively is the person viewing that ad. The average user on Craiglist is someone that has been using the internet for over 1 year and has relied on e-mail for communication; in addition, most users are familiar with internet marketplaces and they tend to be between 30 and 45 years of age.
The owner of Craigslist is a computer programmer that had an idea for an easy-to-use website that would allow people to exchange classified ads similar to the ease of picking up a newspaper. This simplicity is the very strength of Craigslist.org – there are a plethora of ‘paid’ classified advertisement websites – eBay is an example – but obligatory registrations and entry of credit card details sway many from getting involved with those paid websites.
Bizrate.com
Bizrate.com is a marketplace of sorts – but classifies most accurately as an affiliate type e-business model. Businesses give Bizrate.com a catalog of goods they would like to make searchable through the site’s search engine, when a prospective customer clicks on a product they are redirected to the corresponding merchant’s website, if a purchase is made this click-through and purchase resulted from the listing on Bizrate.com, so the merchant will be billed a fee (sort of an agent/finders fee in the brick and mortar world). Note that Bizrate.com has changed to Shopzilla.com – it is still accessible through the original domain name. Read the rest of this entry »
