Social Media

A funny cartoon, but it also raises some interesting questions. How much effort do we put into carefully crafting an image on social media sites? Are there ‘rules’ guiding what sort of content is appropriate for sharing in particular social media sites? If so, do these rules evolve and change over time? In response to [...]

A recent survey conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation brought to light gender discrepancies in female participation on Wikipedia.  According to the survey, 87% of contributors to the site are male. Another recent study conducted a more fine-grained analysis of female participants in Wikipedia in order to evaluate whether or not they are representative of the [...]

Aunque tengamos a David Laniado en nuestro grupo de investigación, un experto en materia de la Wikipedia y la producción social y conversacional del saber que además está a punto de acabar su tesis doctoral sobre “Social production of knowledge by online communities”, al final hablamos demasiado poco sobre este tema que promueve tanto interés, [...]

A recent Pew Report examined trends in patterns of charitable donations made to Haiti after the devastating earthquake that shook the country in January of 2010. Their results indicate that the ability to make donations via a mobile device represents a powerful fundraising tool. Previous research conducted by Pew’s Internet & American Life Project revealed [...]

En un reciente artículo en WIRED, Bill Wasik retoma la polémica que se inició hace más de un año entre Gladwell y Shirky con el título “A Year Later, Scoring the Debate Over Social-Media Revolutions”. Todo empezó con el artículo de Malcom Gladwell en THE NEW YORKER (publicado en Octubre del 2010), argumentando que se [...]

The new hot site social media site that everybody´s talking about is Pinterest. It first emerged in 2010 in a beta version, and quickly gained a strong following among early adopters. Now, it´s starting to garner some mainstream attention, with major corporations (e.g. Whole Foods) starting to develop a presence (albeit a subtle one, as blatant [...]

A recent Fortune magazine cover featured a comical depiction of Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page battling one another in kung-fu style, under the headline “Facebook vs. Google! Battle for the future of the web”. (Particularly interesting is the formal attire of these notoriously casual tech gurus – Zuckerberg in particular is known for his standard [...]

En el 2011, Wayra –una nueva iniciativa de Telefónica en el ámbito de la innovación– ha tenido un arranque fulminante con el propósito de “acelerar tus ideas”. Se celebraron Wayra convocatorias en Venezuela, Brasil, Perú, Argentina, México, España (Madrid) y Colombia. Actualmente, quedan dos convocatorias abiertas: Wayra España Barcelona 2011 (cerrará el 8 de Enero [...]

A recent report published by the Pew Research Institute provides insights into global trends in cell phone and social network usage. The majority of people in the 21 countries surveyed own cell phones, and among those cell phone owners, the median rate for sending text messages was 75%. Levels were roughly equivalent across both developed [...]

Se acerca el final del año y con él la elección de la persona del año por parte del Time Magazine. Después de elegir “You” en el 2006 y Mark Zuckerberg (el co-fundador y visionario de Facebook) el año pasado, ahora el Time otorga este premio a “ The Protester”. Lo justifica de la manera siguiente: “Massive [...]