On the eve of the biggest release since Lewinsky, nerds of all stripes seem to be sitting pretty. They’ve got a nice little web trend going (that whole 2.0 thing), Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica are back with a vengeance and–hang on, was that the sound of 6 million thumbs cracking?–Halo 3 comes out tonight.
That’s right, almost exactly five years after Halo: Combat Evolved was released to go along with the X-Box, the third and final game in the series by Bungie hits shelves at 12:01 Tuesday morning.
Much of the series’ massive popularity has to do with its online play, which is the kind of technology making a whole new generation of computer science majors rich, in theory. But while social interaction has crept into more and more technologies and online fora, some nerds stick to the good old-fashioned handing-down-of-smart-ideas-from-atop-an-ivory-tower method.
Take, for example, the professional queer studies majors over at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation who conducted this study.
Apparently, only about 1.1 percent of characters on scripted network shows are gay this season. That’s down from 1.5 percent in 2005. But cable seems to be picking up the slack, with 40 series regulars being attracted to their own gender–a 60 percent increase from last season.
So when will the nerds at GLAAD and the nerds at Bungie (and Ubisoft and Rockstar and EA, etc.) get together and start including each other. It’s probably safe to say there are few, if any gay characters in video games now, but it’d be nice to see GLAAD prove that.
Facebook, in conjunction with Comcast’s Ziddio, has had a new project in the works since February: Facebook Diaries, a weekly series of episodes made up of user-generated content edited professionally. According to New TeeVee, the series will finally launch tonight around 9 p.m.
Judging from previews hosted on Ziddio and Comcast’s VOD platform, the video diaries will largely feature content befitting a college-centered social networking site - heartbreak, drama, and personal stories about users’ adventure creatively edited together. At present, the series is set to stretch eight episodes long, with the pilot, “Who Am I,” already waiting here.
Considering Facebook’s success and the success of social networking in general, it seems likely that these Facebook Diaries, the newest in the tradition of partially candid series (think lonelygirl15), has a good chance of attracting steady viewers. It may even have a chance of ending up on cable TV, which would be just one more feather in the cap of user-gen content’s online success. In the end, is there anything we like better than our own work?
(Source: New TeeVee)
As of July 30th, Netflix has joined the social networking craze. Tech Crunch reported yesterday that the video rental portal has added a new community aspect to its Web site, replacing its former “Friends” page with an entire section dedicated to user interaction.
Most of the community features added seem fairly standard for a site centered around movie downloads. Users can now view peer reviews in real time, see love/hate movie lists on their friends’ pages, get suggestions for movie rentals based on their previous title choices, and find formerly unknown users on Netflix who have similar taste in movies to their own.
There are also a few more unusual features, such as a “Friends’ Quiz” designed to test your knowledge of other users’ taste in movies and a list that shows your friends’ recent Netflix activities (renting, returning, etc.).
Adding a social networking aspect to Netflix isn’t likely to hurt the site at all, though the popularity of some of the features is questionable. Is there really a lot of interest in knowing when friends are returning their rented flicks? It remains to be seen whether social networking will increase Netflix’s traffic and user interaction, or whether there’s little call for community features on a primarily rental site.
(Source: Tech Crunch)
Content consumption now accounts for half of users’ Internet time
The Online Publishers Association today released a study stating that consuming content (reading news, watching video, social networking, etc.) now accounts for 50% of the time users spend on the Internet. This would mean that the time spent consuming content online has increased 37% over the last four years.
Pam Horan, president of the OPA, cited “the online transition of traditionally offline activities, such as getting news, finding entertainment information or checking the weather” as part of the reason for the increase in consumption. The popularity of social networking and video streaming sites may also be affecting this change in time demographics.
Considering how many networks have invested in online video recently, along with the outpouring of social networking, the idea that half of users’ time online is spent consuming content doesn’t seem so far off the mark. For the next generation, online media may even replace books, TV, and newspapers as the norm. Scary thought?
(Source: Online Video Watch)
Duels.com merges RPG battles with community
Andrew Busey, formerly co-founder of the startup Pluck, is taking social networking in a different direction. Duels.com, host to a new online RPG, crosses the classic adventure of Internet gaming with a community forum site. The result is asyncronous play - since you choose how you want your character to fight but aren’t actually at the dueling controls, your character can accept challenges from other users even when you’re offline.
The social networking aspect of Duels isn’t lost, either - in addition to the option to challenge opponents of choice and list them as rivals (or allies), Duels hosts a forum area for players to discuss strategy, character tracks, or anything else that catches their interest. And of course, each user has a profile that displays their avatar, fight history, stats, and any comments other duelists might make.
According to Tech Crunch’s review, Duels is both “addicting and fun,” even though the site’s newness means there are few opponenets to battle. If you’re into online gaming - or if you just want to check out how Facebook and Warcraft combine - Duels is always waiting for more challengers.
(Source: Tech Crunch)
How social networking is giving bloggers even more clout
What’s the fastest way to spread your opinion across the Web, and catch as many ears as possible while doing it? If you answered blogging, you’re only half right.
That bloggers have an influence on the tide of opinion surrounding companies or products is nothing new. A blog with a lot of regular readers can reach as many people as a TV or magazine spot, and the blogger’s opinions can spread much quicker than broadcasts in traditional media. Still, the nature of bloggers’ influence is shifting, becoming what Thomas Hawk calls “bifurcated”: split between the blog itself and other parts of the Web.
Largely, this second kind of influence is based around social networking, which can be used to get even more attention for your blog or a particular post. By using social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Pownce and others to advocate your blog - or to advocate streams on other social networks themselves - you can get your posts more attention, higher ratings, and greater influence overall.
In the ever-changing Web 2.0 landscape, one form of communication can be dropped as soon as a faster, better way comes along. By taking Thomas Hawk’s observations under consideration, on the other hand, bloggers don’t have to abandon their media: they can use the newer, faster, better ways of communicating to strengthen the blogs they’ve worked on, and extend their overall influence at the same time. Who doesn’t want that?
(Source: Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection)
Stars use the Web to make direct connections with viewers
Publicity has always been an important step on the road to success for a movie – a step that has gotten easier with the recent explosion of Internet culture. Now, stars and directors alike are getting directly involved with the promotion of their films, using the Web and online communication to stir up interest, set rumors straight, and relate their personal experiences to millions of fans across the Net.
Celebrity involvement ranges from Bruce Willis’s defense of “Live Free or Die Hard” in an Ain’t It Cool News chat room to Leonardo DiCarprio posting the trailer to “The 11th Hour” on his personal MySpace page, which earned so many views that the page’s counter began to run backward.
Among those making publicity efforts, Michael Moore’s “Sicko” may be the most extensive. Notices of media appearances, requests for personal stories, and YouTube posting are just a few of the ways Moore has capitalized on viewer involvement, ending with 5 million page views for MichaelMoore.com in the last month.
Direct contact with the fans can also help celebrities get a realistic impression of how their film is being received, if they’re willing to hear impressions from both sides of the audience. “Clerks” director Kevin Smith had this to say about balancing fan opinions:
“You have to keep in perspective that you can’t believe the enthusiastic positive stuff or the shitty horrible soul-crushing stuff. The truth is between the two.”
(Source: Variety)
Christopher Soghoian, a security researcher, announced Tuesday that there is a critical flaw in the privacy feature of Facebook pages. Although Facebook members have the option to mark their pages as ‘private,’ which restricts access only to specified users, these pages will not remain hidden if a blanket search is made based on religion, relationship status, or sexual orientation.
Unless the user’s privacy options are specifically changed under their page’s ‘search’ options, Facebook members who are also part of a group that user belongs to – such as a school, a location, etc. – will be able to find their hidden pages through the search option. Ryan Singel of Wired gives the following example:
For instance, if you are a Facebook member of your college, you could run a search to see all the people who are Christian women who are lesbians, all the women interested in women or all the Muslim men into other men. Your search results will likely include people who thought they marked their information as private, but didn’t also change their search settings. (These links all require a valid Facebook account.)
On Wednesday, a Facebook representative told Wired that the network had changed its privacy settings to solve the problem, so searches should no longer reveal private pages. It remains to be seen whether any further holes in Facebook’s privacy system will be discovered, but users should now have greater control over their visibility in searches.
(Source: Wired)
MySpace TV offers alternative to YouTube
Starting this Thursday, MySpace will expand the video-sharing capabilities of its social network to a whole new Web site, myspacetv.com. Viewing and sharing video will be open to everyone, regardless of whether they hold a MySpace account or not, and the site will also allow MySpace users to integrate videos more easily into their MySpace profiles.
According to Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and chief executive of MySpace, the change is meant to bring the current MySpace video-sharing system up to a higher level of quality.
We haven’t really freshened up our video offering since we launched it. We wanted to highlight the fact that we have a video destination on the Web with all this great content that we’ve acquired.
Unlike the user-generated videos that form the majority of content at most video-sharing sites, MySpace TV intends to focus on professional video. This professional content will include the Sony “Minisodes,” five-minute versions of sitcoms from the 1980s, of which MySpace last week became the exclusive hosting site.
(Source: NYTimes)
Widening market keeps social network site moving
In an online era dominated by Facebook, veteran social networking site Friendster saw an unheard of 40% increase in page views in May. Although, the startup still ranks fourth in the social networking hierarchy Facebook, MySpace, and Hi5, Friendster is quickly gaining momentum.
Web 2.0 talking head Michael Arrington, attributes the dramatic rise to users’ unwillingness to give up their old profiles as well as a steady increase in broadband and social networking site use in highly populated countries like China and India.
Friendster growing is good for the entire Web 2.0 industry. There can be no downturn without a broad decline in user numbers across many sites. Friendster proves that despite strong, and some would argue superior competition, there’s still room for any Web 2.0 startup to grow, even in a crowded vertical marketplace.
(source: TechCrunch)
