[english feeder]

Live Chat: More Engagement, More Donations

Live chats managed by Gigya — the same company that did the MTV/Facebook/LG Avatar webcast with James Cameron — will accompany the MTV, VH1 and CBS webcasts.

Gigya told us that MTV Networks is working with them again to recreate the “lean forward” level of participation they achieved with the Avatar webcast. The live chat makes the donating experience public; folks in the chat will probably encourage one another to donate, and people will be more likely to donate if they know they can impress their friends. They’ve found that these webcast chats drive more traffic and more word of mouth promotion, which will in turn lead to a greater volume of donations.

[img credit: iamguilty]

Reviews: Bing, Hulu, MySpace, Rhapsody, YouTube

Tags: alicia keys, aol, att, bet, bing, bruce springsteen, cbs, cnn, coldplay, fancast, george clooney, gigya, haiti, hulu, jay-z, justin timberlake, keith urban, kid rock, mtv, myspace, sheryl crow, sprint, taylor swift, television, tv, tv.com, U2, verizon, vh1, webcast, Yahoo, youtube

(Lire la suite) Samuel Axon

Here’s The Situation: Little Jersey Shore Is a Big Online Hit [VIDEO] par Jennifer Van Grove Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

The cast of everyone’s favorite love-to-hate MTV reality show Jersey Shore is getting shown up online by the juice box-drinking, fist-pumping, club-hopping, over-tanned little guidos and guidettes who star in Little Jersey Shore.

The online spoof comes from Babelgum and Landline TV, and includes adorably orange children reprising the roles of everyone from Pauly D and Snooki to JWoww, Ronnie, Sammy and The Situation. The end result is a hilarious parody that’s already garnered more than one million views in just five days — per NewTeeVee — for the relatively small online comedy shop.

Jersey Shore fans and haters will get a kick out of this clip.

Tags: humor, jersey shore, tv, viral video, web video

(Lire la suite) Jennifer Van Grove

Hillary Clinton: China Should Investigate Google Attacks par Samuel Axon Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s promised speech on Internet freedom took place this morning. Clinton called for China to “conduct a thorough review of the cyber intrusions” that Google implied were conducted by the Chinese government against human rights activists.

A little background: In response to the cyber attacks, Google has said that it may shut down Google.cn and its Chinese offices if it can’t strike a deal with the Chinese government to run an uncensored search engine. The situation might also threaten Google Android’s place in China’s cell phone market.

China is already censoring news reports about the Google situation within its borders. Its representatives have said that it it doesn’t want the conflict between it and Google to be “over interpreted,” and that this incident shouldn’t affect its relationship with the United States. Clinton does not agree. “Countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation,” she said.

Clinton’s speech also addressed several other issues, (indirectly) including Iran’s decision to censor Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the country’s election crisis. She announced that the United States will spend several million dollars on initiatives to protect Internet freedom around the world.

Reviews: Google, Iran

Tags: china, facebook, Google, Hillary Clinton, iran, politics, twitter

(Lire la suite) Samuel Axon

What the Apple Tablet Might Look Like [PIC] par Barb Dybwad Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

There have been a lot of creative renderings of the famed forthcoming Apple Tablet — and we do mean a lot. But Apple Insider reports they have confirmation from inside sources that one rendered image in particular is “strikingly close” to the real thing.

Check out a higher resolution image of said render below, which reflects what inside sources have indicated about the device being “largely redolent of a first-generation iPhone that’s met its match with a rolling pin.” Flickr user Fotoboer.nl’s mockup is only missing “a handful of design elements of the iPhone,” sources say.

The aluminum unibody design, 10-inch display with a black border and thin form factor are reportedly characteristic of the as yet unnamed tablet, which also supposedly includes all the same buttons found on the iPhone. It also includes the same assortment of ins and outs and connectivity features: a 3.5mm headphone jack, built-in speakers, microphone, GPS, 3G and a 30-pin dock connector.

It’s all still officially rumor, so we can’t get too excited yet, but it might be wise to hide your credit cards at this point regardless, just to be safe. Do you think this version looks like a suitable Apple Tablet?

[img credit: Fotobear.nl]

Reviews: Flickr

Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, gadgets, mockups, renders, rumours, trending

(Lire la suite) Barb Dybwad

5 Social Media Lessons the NBA Can Teach Businesses par Jalen Rose Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

jalen_rose_fab_five This post is part of Mashable’s Fab Five series with Jalen Rose, which highlights trends in the social media space. Jalen Rose is a former 13-year NBA star and current ESPN basketball analyst but may be best known for being a member of the famous University of Michigan Fab Five.

One of the biggest misconceptions in sports is that the fans in the stands are the only die hard fans, when sometimes, the “true” fans are stuck watching the game at home. In this economy, there are fans who can’t afford to pay for tickets, parking, and concessions, but still follow their team very closely. The NBA is doing a good job reaching out to these fans using social media.

Here are 5 ways the NBA is succeeding with social media:

1. Engage Fans

The NBA realizes the importance of engaging their fans and has done a good job accomplishing just that. The league has a Twitter account, Facebook Fan Page, and an RSS feed that fans can follow for up to the minute updates and breaking news. On their website, they also link to popular Twitter feeds from NBA players, personalities, and all of the teams.

Lesson: Businesses can learn from the NBA’s example. Business owners can and should set up their own social media accounts to connect with their fans and customers. Also, they should make it easy for customers to find them by having links on their website and other relevant places (such as email signatures) to their social media accounts. It can really only be an asset for them.

2. Calls to Action

The NBA has numerous outreach initiatives through their NBA Cares program, and recently hosted a Martin Luther King Day social media initiative, which I participated in.

With the help of the NBA, on January 18, Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network engaged the nation in an MLK Day Virtual Town Hall – an online, interactive dialogue that looked to bridge social, economic and cultural diversity by exploring innovative ideas for how service can bring us closer to Dr. King’s dream of one community. Many dignitaries and NBA players participated and promoted this event which engaged the nation in impactful service events and meaningful conversation around Dr. King’s vision.

Lesson: Participation in the NBA Cares event was easy – it was all done through Twitter. Small businesses and personal brands can follow this approach by getting their community involved in their outreach initiatives through social media, which lowers the barrier of entry for participation. Sometimes, it doesn’t take physical action to lend a helping hand.

3. Give Fans a Voice

Blogs and forums have been around longer than Twitter and Facebook, but they are still an important part of getting the fans involved. The NBA offers their fans an endless list of blogs from NBA analysts, players, and teams, and even features NBA Fantasy Blogs. The blogs and forums offer a bit more information than the Facebook and Twitter updates we often see. This can be engaging for the fan who wants more to the story and would like to potentially get into an extended discussion about a posted topic.

Lesson: Business owners should definitely offer blogs and forums to their customer base as a way to communicate with them and receive in-depth feedback. Twitter is great for interaction, but both blogs and forums give the chance for more substantial engagement.

4. Filter, But Don’t Censor

The NBA is doing a good job filtering their players’ social media platforms, and while I believe that players should be able to enjoy their freedom of speech, the league does have restrictions on what the players can and can’t say through their social media accounts. Players who don’t follow the league protocol can be fined.

I think the NBA should continue to monitor these comments, but they should remain uncensored so the fans can relate to the athlete in a real way by hearing their real thoughts (whether good or bad) about a situation.

Lesson: Similarly, customers should always be able to freely voice their complaints or share their opinions. While a small business or personal brand may not be happy about receiving negative feedback, those comments may be what spurs a change that improves that brand’s business and customer satisfaction.

5. Spread the Word

The NBA is doing a great job of spreading the word about their social media outlets. You can’t watch a sports broadcast without one of the broadcasters or analysts dropping their Twitter or Facebook URLs to try to get the word out. The great thing about it is that the NBA and media outlets aren’t discouraging this self promotion, but encouraging it. Everyone realizes that the promotion is for the greater good of the sport.

Lesson: Businesses need to make sure they spread the word about their social media platforms in any way possible. By promoting their social media initiatives, and encouraging employees to do so as well, they will have the opportunity to have more customers participating on one level or another.  

More business resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Take Advantage of Social Media in Your E-mail Marketing
- HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy
- 18 Online Productivity Tools for Your Business
- HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized
- The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: advice, fab five, jalen rose, Lessons, List, Lists, MARKETING, NBA, small business, social media, sports

(Lire la suite) Jalen Rose

Google CEO: We’re Hugely Optimistic About the Internet par Adam Ostrow Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

Google’s been investing heavily in its future over the past quarter, both in the form of major acquisitions and new product launches.

Today, the company is out with its most recent earnings report, with the results indicating that the economy may indeed be recovering, and the company’s CEO Eric Schmidt painting a bullish picture on Google’s future prospects.

Here are a few of the highlights:

- Google’s revenue for the quarter jumped 17% year-over-year to $6.67 billion.
- Google grew its cash position to $24.5 billion — up from the $22 billion it reported last quarter.
- Google’s headcount increased slightly during the quarter to nearly 20,000 employees worldwide. That’s significant given the company was forced to make the first cutbacks in its history during the worst of the economic downturn.

As for the 2010, Schmidt offered the following statement: “We remain hugely optimistic about the Internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider web.” With $24 billion in cash, expect those investments to include more acquisitions, as well as further spending on massive projects including handsets, the Chrome OS and even potentially tablet computers.

Wall Street doesn’t seem to be sharing Schmidt’s optimism, however, in the immediate aftermath of the numbers — shares of Google are trading down about $30/share after hours, or about 5%.

[Img credit: Charles Haynes on Flickr]

Reviews: Flickr, Google

Tags: eric schmidt, Google, money

(Lire la suite) Adam Ostrow

YouTube Launches Music Video Suggestion Tool par Brenna Ehrlich Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

YouTube took another step toward conquering the entertainment sphere today with the launch of YouTube Music Discovery, a Pandora-esque music video suggestion tool courtesy of the video service’s program lab, TestTube.

The video-sharing website has been taking several strides as of late into the realms of both music (with Vevo, a music video website it launched along with Universal) and its recent foray into movie rentals. Now, YouTube is giving sites like Pandora, Songza and Last.fm a run for their money with Disco.

Disco, much like streaming music sites, finds videos by your preferred artist, and then suggests similar musicians. I tried it out with a recent fave, The Black Lips:

Although the design leaves something to be desired (in short, it’s just plain ugly), YouTube did find an impressive selection of videos by the artist, seemingly filtering out fan-made vids in favor of official versions.

My main qualm, however, was that the majority of the videos suggested were from the Black Lips. If this is truly to be a music suggestion tool, I feel like it should, well, suggest more music. Still, I feel like this had to do more with my music selection than anything else. When I tested it again with Eminem, I was given more suggestions — still, said suggestions included three Soulja Boy Tell Em videos in a row, so I’m still dubious.

All in all, this promises to be a rather intriguing tool. Also, I can wager that instances like OK Go’s recent embedding fiasco will become more and more common as people get hip to Disco. Clicking through the Black Lips’ vids, I noticed that the majority had embed codes (legitimately, too — they’re signed with Vice Records). As music videos become easier to find — and share — I can see more record labels wanting their slice of the money pie.

Reviews: Pandora, YouTube

Tags: disco, music, video, youtube

(Lire la suite) Brenna Ehrlich

Foursquare BlackBerry Client Launches to the Public par Barb Dybwad Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

We had a chance to check it out in private beta, but today sees the official public launch of Foursquare’s mobile client for BlackBerry users.

The client will work on any BlackBerry device with a trackball — essentially 8000 and 9000 series handsets, plus the Storm — although a special client built for its touchscreen is separately in the works as well.

It’s still officially considered a beta version, so be prepared for perhaps a few rough edges here and there. But as we saw in the private beta, the app is generally stable and provides the typical expected functionality Foursquare users on iPhone and Android have come to know and love. Still, Foursquare says new features for the BlackBerry client are still in the works, so if you’re a BB user keep an eye on snagging the latest builds as they come out.

Have you checked out Foursquare for BlackBerry yet? What are your impressions of the app?

Reviews: Android, Foursquare, iPhone

Tags: blackberry, check-ins, foursquare, lbs, location, social media

(Lire la suite) Barb Dybwad

NBC Pulls Web Clips of Conan’s Most Expensive Bit Ever [VIDEO] par Jennifer Van Grove Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

NBC has gone on the offensive and pulled the web clips of Conan O’Brien’s vengeful “Bugatti Veyron” sketch from Hulu and NBC.com. The move was made to avoid costly fees associated with Conan’s decision to play “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, for his own satisfaction.

The controversial $1.5 million comedy sketch begins with COCO taking pleasure in the fact that even though his show is about to go off air, “we can do whatever we want, and they [NBC] have to pay for it.”

To prove it, O’Brien introduced a new Tonight Show character — the Bugatti Veyron mouse — while playing the iconic Rolling Stones hit “Satisfaction” in the background as the mouse’s theme song. The Bugatti Veyron is most expensive car in the world, just dressed up as mouse, and because of O’Brien’s song choice, the sketch that it stars in will be most the expensive bit to date.

O’Brien states:

“Let me ask you a question. Is this appropriate music for a car that looks like a mouse? No! Does it add anything at all to this comedy bit? No, it doesn’t! Is it crazy expensive to play on the air — not to mention the rights to re-air this clip on the Internet? Hell yes.”

And that’s just it. NBC is hoping to avoid those pricey track fees associated with online views of the bit. So should you wish to relive the oddly comedic moment on NBC’s official online properties, however, you’re out of luck. While copies, like the YouTube one below, still abound online, NBC’s version of last’s night show is absent one Bugatti Veyron mouse.

At this point all we can do is wait anxiously for the next show to see what O’Brien still has left up his sleeve.

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: bugatti veyron mouse, celebrities, conan, conan o'brien, media, nbc, rolling stones, trending, tv

(Lire la suite) Jennifer Van Grove

Google Wave Gets More Business-Friendly With Read-Only and Restore Options par Jennifer Van Grove Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

In its current state Google Wave is decidedly not ready for the masses, but two just-launched features — read-only participants and restore from playback — will certainly make it more appealing to business users.

Should you create a wave, you can now grant either full access or read-only access to participants you invite to join. You can make the change by clicking on the user’s avatar at the top of the wave panel and using the drop-down menu to adjust his read/write status.

Thankfully read-only privileges extend to groups, which means you can now finally make a public wave read-only as well. This should help eliminate the chaos that public waves tend to create, and make them all the more useful to businesses and power users looking to share their always-updating waves, without compromising wave quality.

In addition to the read-only update, Google Wave users with full access to a wave can now also restore that wave to a previous version using playback mode. The new feature is akin to reverting to a previous saved version — a feature in most word processing programs — but with the additional granularity of being able to pick an exact moment in time over the coarse of the wave’s entire history.

According to Google’s announcement of the new features, you can also soon expect to see a reply-only access level, which will let those users add blips but not edit them, and Google Wave interface tweaks to simplify bulk permission changes.

The preview product is becoming more useful as it matures, but it’s also losing its luster at the same time. According to Compete data, unique visitors to Wave’s web interface have been on decline since November 2009. We don’t expect these two new features to create a significant traffic bump, but they are likely to be embraced by Wave’s core user base.

Reviews: Google, Google Wave

Tags: Google, Google Wave, social media, software

(Lire la suite) Jennifer Van Grove

Touchscreen BlackBerry Sighted, And It’s Not the Storm [PICS] par Samuel Axon Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

These images of a touchscreen BlackBerry with a physical QWERTY keyboard but no trackpad or trackball showed up on Twitter courtesy of Cell Guru. We’ve got bigger pics below.

Research in Motion has already employed touchscreen technology with its BlackBerry Storm line, but the Storm uses a touchscreen technology that employs both capacitive tech and something the company called SurePress (which is improved somewhat in the Storm 2) that many folks didn’t find as smooth as the capacitive tech used by the iPhone and the Nexus One. The Storm smartphones also lack physical keyboards, which many people prefer to on-screen keyboards for quick e-mail and texting.

RIM has been working on a new line of phones codenamed Dakota. Dakota is based on yet another line called Magnum, which never saw the light of day. CrackBerry claims that this is actually an abandoned Magnum prototype.

It’s still interesting, though, because Dakota is the next evolution of this idea, so we can see here roughly what RIM is planning. We’re happy to see that it looks a lot more practical than the Storm; BlackBerry users are usually all about the practical, not so much about the style or flash.

UPDATE: When we first ran this story we said that the BlackBerry Storm utilizes resistive touchscreen technology. This was not accurate. Rather, it is capacitive with an additional, pressure-sensitive technology called SurePress which a subset of users and reviewers aren’t fond of. Sorry about the slip up, and thanks to the folks who commented pointing it out.

Reviews: iPhone

Tags: blackberry, blackberry bold, touchscreen

(Lire la suite) Samuel Axon

Star Wars Opening Scene Rendered Entirely in HTML [VIDEO] par Barb Dybwad Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

What you are about to see is not done in Flash or Quicktime or any other video technology. It’s the iconic Star Wars opening scene — where the backstory text scrolls by and recedes away from you — rendered entirely using the HTML and CSS standards that are used to build the vast majority of web pages you see online.

Guillermo Esteves built the scene using cutting-edge features of HTML5 (the standard YouTube just launched support for), which supports advanced 3D transformations and animations using CSS. As such, you can only view the actual creation in the limited selection of browsers that support these features: Safari 4.0.4 in OS X Snow Leopard and the WebKit nightly build.

If you don’t have either of those browsers, fret not — Esteves rendered a YouTube video of the scene playing back in the WebKit nightly build so anyone can see the results. It’s definitely more proof of concept than utility, but Esteves himself said he did it “just wanted to see if it could be done.” It shows off some of what’s going to be possible when HTML5 support becomes more widespread, and by using web standards instead of Flash or Quicktime, there’s less bandwidth occupied and less draining on the battery life of whatever device you’re watching from.

Check out the video below and let us know what you think. Have you seen any other cool HTML5 projects yet?

[via The iPhone Blog]

Reviews: Safari, YouTube

Tags: 3D, animation, CSS, html, HTML5, safari, Star Wars, video, web standards, webkit

(Lire la suite) Barb Dybwad

YouTube Makes Major Changes to Video Pages [SCREENSHOTS] par Ben Parr Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

YouTube has just launched a complete redesign of its video pages and its video player, emphasizing simplicity and video discovery, including the removal of the five-star video rating system. Currently the new design is opt-in, but over time it will become the default.

We had the chance to learn more about this new redesign in a conference call with YouTube earlier today. First, though, here’s a full screenshot of the new design, a screenshot of the old design for comparison and details about what has changed:

New YouTube Video Design

Old YouTube Video Design

Details: The New Changes to YouTube

- The first thing you’ll notice is that this thing is really stripped down. Many menu items and options have been removed.
- The video description has been moved from the right-hand side to under the video. You can click on the description to bring up the full text.
- Emphasis has been placed on “finding more great videos to watch.” You subscribe to a channel above the video and can bring up a ribbon with videos from that channel with a single click. The right-hand column is a long list of related and recommended videos.
- The actual player has changed as well. No longer is there an “HD” button, but the option to choose your resolution, from 480p to 720p or 1080p HD.
- There is no longer a five-star rating system. There is now a “like” and a “don’t like” button, which YouTube says better reflects how users interact with their videos.
- Many of the options are now under the video. You can save items to playlists, share to your social networks and flag the video.
- If you click on the viewcount, YouTube video analytics will appear below. This was available before, but a lot more people should find this feature.
- Comments have been simplified and cleaned up.
- The “Broadcast Yourself” tagline has been removed from the logo, although the final decision on whether to remove it has yet to be made.

More Changes: Search, Ratings and More

The philosophy behind the whole redesign is that, in the past, there were way too many things competing for your attention, which hurt click-through rates, video views and time on site. The new design focuses on getting you to watch more videos, no matter what.

For example, search has been dramatically altered, and for the better. When you perform a search on these new video pages, you will not be taken to a results page. Instead, your video will be minimized (without being interrupted) and the right-hand column will display search results. It makes perfect sense and makes the search experience seamless.

I asked YouTube about whether past videos will keep their five-star ratings. The answer: No, although it’s not yet determined just how the ratings will be transformed. Most likely, the ratings will be transformed into “likes” and “dislikes” based on the old votes.

In the beginning, YouTube will make this opt-in as it adds new features and optimize current ones. As it gets more user feedback, it will get closer to a full rollout of the design, which YouTube hopes is in a timeframe of weeks, not months.

If you want to change your YouTube account over to the new design, visit this video (Note: You must be logged into YouTube). You can always change back to the old YouTube with a link that appears on the top right corner.

What do you think? Is this a good move on YouTube’s part, or do you prefer the old design? Let us know in the comments.

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: Google, redesign, video, web video, youtube

(Lire la suite) Ben Parr

How Social Media Creates Offline Social Good par Melissa Jun Rowley Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

aid image There is no question that maturing web technologies are bolstering online giving and social action. Seizing the power of social networking, many websites, streaming tools, and mobile platforms have increased fundraising and humanitarian relief efforts.

A new level of insight about corporate social responsibility, environmental concerns, political contributions, and international issues can be accessed through content-sharing communities across the web.

But what happens to this digitally activated momentum when our laptops and smartphones are powered down? What are “offline” individuals to do in order to affect change?

A growing number of organizations are successfully channeling online interest into offline activism. Here are a few great examples.

1. Changents.com

Reaching people on every continent, Changents connects agents of change with online backers. According to the site, the change agents, “the people who put it on the line every day to get it done,” share their causes and their stories with the Changents community. Members who want to support the activists can join a change agent’s team through virtual volunteerism or by assisting in the execution of an online or offline task.

Essentially playing matchmaker, the Changents website introduces change agents who have specific needs with users whose talents align. A change agent who needs publicity for running a marathon, or any other fundraising activity, would be paired up with a public relations specialist. A benefit concert producer would be introduced to local musicians. An after-school program director would be referred to mentors and tutors.

When 25 year-old change agent Nate Bastien developed the Street Pack, a backpack that doubles as a water-proof shelter for homeless people, community members and major organizations rushed to give him online and offline support. The bags, which are made from materials discarded in landfills, were tested by homeless individuals in Providence, RI. In addition to receiving feedback from the very people the Street Pack was designed for, Bastien teamed up with a green manufacturer to produce the first batch of the versatile gear.

Changents CEO Deron Triff says the site wasn’t originally designed for this to happen.

“We’d assumed most of the volunteering would be online,” said Triff. “But once the users started getting hooked by the change agents’ stories, it turned into this whole offline movement. At the end of the day, if the story is moving enough, people are going to dig in and help.”

2. WhyTuesday.org

Founded in 2005, the non-partisan political group Why Tuesday strives to increase voter participation and political action. This think tank’s election reform video blog captures commentary from presidential candidates and other politicians on how our voting system can be improved, as well as reactions to the widely overlooked question: Of all the days of the week to vote, why Tuesday?

Why Tuesday co-founder and correspondent Jacob Soboroff found that none of the Congress members he interviewed two years ago knew the answer.

In case you’re wondering, the Tuesday voting tradition was enacted in 1845 by Congress to make the process convenient for farmers, who at that time made up the majority of the population. Agrarian workers who traveled by horse needed at least three days to take action –- a day to get to the county seat, a day to vote, and a day to return home for the Sabbath. People couldn’t travel midweek because Wednesday was market day. This left Tuesday as the only option. Back when the United States was primarily an agricultural economy, voting on Tuesdays made sense. However, today the rule tends to discourage participation.

In 2008, political leaders in Washington D.C. began to take notice of Why Tuesday, and started asking themselves the question. As part of Why Tuesday’s call to action, Congressman Steve Israel, who put forth the Weekend Voting Act, acted as a special correspondent to instigate change.

“It’s hard because election reform isn’t sexy,” says Soboroff. “We use social media to remind people that voting is the one right that gives us all of our other rights. We use our video blog to get politicians on the record about election reform and hold them accountable for changes that need to take place.”

3. Online Social Action Hubs: TakePart.com, Causecast.org, & Care2.com

Created with the same story-driven motivation as Changents, these three social action networks serve as meeting grounds for users and activists to collaborate and parlay what they learn online into offline change making.

Participant Media’s cause-based platform TakePart provides users with tools to contribute articles on important issues, start online groups, and create actions that people can engage with upon reading the information. Some featured actions on the site include hosting a night of nets for Malaria prevention fundraising, and of course, participating in relief efforts for Haiti via the Internet and in real life.

Like TakePart, Causecast keeps members informed about current issues and connects individuals to a diverse selection of causes. Partnered with a group of non-profits and promoted by action leaders who range from celebrities to human rights pioneers, the Causecast community encourages users to take a stand and make their own voices heard online through videos and blogs, and in the field.

In March 2009, Causecast helped mobilize thousands of activists to join the Rescue for Invisible Children campaign to advocate for young people in war-afflicted regions. On behalf of forgotten child soldiers of the war in Uganda, the Rescue campaign required its traveling participants to rally in multiple cities in protest of the injustice, and refuse to leave until a public figured rescued them.

Care2 encourages people to create online petitions for social issues they want to see solved. In three easy steps, users can publish petitions that have a proven track record of delivering results.

In 2004, David Goldman’s wife took their son to her native home Brazil, and subsequently informed David that she was divorcing him. She conveyed that he would never see their son again unless he signed over custody.

The incident led to a five-year battle. Fortunately, a Care2 petition garnered over 59,000 signers, and helped put an end to the family saga. Supporters were invited to rallies, while call-ins were held with elected officials in support of HR 3240, the International Child Abduction Prevention Act of 2009. This led to hearings before the Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives. After five years, David and Sean were reunited on Friday, Jan 8th 2010.

More social good resources from Mashable:

- How Non-Profits and Activists Can Leverage Location Based Services
- 4 Social Good Trends of 2009
- Why Social Media Is Vital to Corporate Social Responsibility
- 5 Essential Tips for Promoting Your Charity Using Social Media
- 20 Ways to Change the World in Only 15 Minutes a Day

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tipografico

Reviews: iStockphoto

Tags: charity, giving, haiti, List, Lists, social good, social media, social networks, socialgood

(Lire la suite) Melissa Jun Rowley

Skribit Helps Fight Writer’s Block par Christina Warren Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Mashable! :: RSS

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Skribit

Quick Pitch: Skribit helps bloggers cure writer’s block by gathering suggestions for what to write about.

Genius Idea: Skribit lets bloggers get feedback from readers, and lets readers suggest topics or story ideas to bloggers and writers. Plus, you can integrate it with your OpenID or Twitter account.

Born out of Atlanta Startup Weekend back in November 2007, Skribit has always had the basic goal of giving blog owners a chance to get feedback and suggestions from their readers. The service officially exited beta last month. All you have to do is sign up for a Skribit account (you can even use your Twitter login or an existing OpenID to speed up the process) and then set up either a widget or suggestions tab that you can easily paste into your blog or website.

Most major platforms are supported — self-hosted WordPress, Movable Type and Blogger, basically as long as you can add javascript, you can add Skribit — and readers have the ability to leave suggestions either signed or anonymously. Once you see a suggestion you like, you can choose to link it with your blog post on the subject, and then any Skribit users interested in seeing a post based on that suggestion will be informed of your entry.

We like Skribit because it’s a nice solution to the common problem of writer’s block. For bloggers that are trying to start a community around their writing, asking for feedback and input is often one of the best ways to get the ball rolling. Skribit lets you do that in a very easy way. The fact that you can also share suggestions through Facebook and Twitter, along with the social element of following other bloggers on Skribit, has turned an individual site-by-site ecosystem into a larger community.

Skribit has two different account types: Free accounts let you use Skribit with one blog and get up to 15 active suggestions at once. Skribit Pro accounts let you use the service on an unlimited number of blogs, take in unlimited suggestions and give you the ability to customize your widget or suggestions tab.

Skribit Pro is $24 for a year of service, but if you use the promo code ackbar42 by January 27, 2010, you can get Skribit Pro for 50% off.

How do you tackle writer’s block on your blog? Let us know!

eBooks and 3G Good, AT&T or Monthly Data Plans Bad

When asked what features the Apple Tablet absolutely needs to have to make it worth buying, the consumers Retrevo surveyed made it clear that a long battery life, the ability to connect to 3G and an eBook store were all top must-have features. What we find really interesting was that the women surveyed were even more keen on having access to eBooks and existing iPhone applications than men.

Another interesting tidbit? Despite 39% of the respondents saying that 3G was a must-have feature, 44% of respondents said that a monthly data plan would prevent them from buying the new Apple device. How 3G data can be reconciled with no additional monthly plan is interesting, and it looks like consumers (or at least the ones that Retrevo surveyed) want Apple to follow in Amazon’s footsteps with the Kindle and offer 3G data as part of the device, sans additional service plans. Of course, having a free data service for a device that mostly transmits text and free data for web browsing and other media-rich activities are two very different things.

What will also keep users from buying an Apple tablet? AT&T. It appears that Luke Wilson isn’t enough to make consumers want to deal with another device hampered by the service provider.

That Whole Price Issue

Apple almost always nails product pricing. As consumers, we might lament that the price isn’t lower or more competitive, but it would be hard to make the argument that Apple doesn’t know what it is doing, especially when you look at its sales figures and margins when compared with the rest of the industry. That said, if the Apple Tablet is to follow in the footsteps of the iPod and the iPhone and become a mainstream consumer device, the pricing is going to have to reach a certain level.

In Retrevo’s survey, 70% of respondents said that any price more than $700 would prevent them from buying the tablet. Thirty percent of respondents seemed willing to entertain the idea of spending more than $700 for the device. While this data is interesting, it isn’t very conclusive, even for this survey. For instance, what percentage of users would be OK with spending $600 on a device?

Granted, of those that are willing to spend above $700, we assume that the expectations and features of the device are going to have to seem worth that price. That’s why trying to gauge pricing thresholds on an unknown device is so difficult. Still, there are plenty of people that seem to be ready to fork over their cash or credit cards just as soon as the new device is available.

What features or lack of features make the Apple Tablet a dealbreaker? What is the maximum you are willing to spend on this type of device? Let us know!

Reviews: iPhone

Tags: Apple Tablet, retrevo, surveys