Thursday, May 19, 2011

Thursday News Day: Social Media



Some great articles to share with you this week around a theme of social media.


THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA:


 “The Twitter Trap”

-          Featured in: The New York TImes
-          Writer:  Bill Keller
-          Publishing date: May 18, 2011
-          Link: http://nyti.ms/lQTt1d

Bill Keller likens allowing his daughter to join Facebook like passing his child a pipe of crystal meth. He debates the progress of the web and the price tied to this innovative medium. Bill questions if the “price is actually a piece of ourselves.” Great read on how we are “outsourcing our “brains to the cloud.” Bill additionally questions are social mediums displacing “real rapport and real conversation?”  Do you agree or disagree?

Make sure you also read the below article written by Nick Bilton, a writer on Bill’s team, who wrote a rebuttal followed by a further response by Bill. Fantastic series!


Response to the above article:
“This is Your Brain on Twitter”
-          Featured in: The New York TImes
-          Writer:  Nick Bilton
-          Publishing date: May 18, 2011
-          Link: http://nyti.ms/kDtXnI

Fantastic article about how social platforms slice and dice news and that who you follow shapes the social flow of information on the web. Great response as well by the author’s boss (Bill Keller) about how there is a price for progress.   Best article I have read all week!


“For Buyers of Web Start-Ups, Quest to Corral Young Talent.”
-          Featured in: The New York Times
-          Writer: Miguel Helft
-          Publishing date: May 17, 2011
-          Link: http://nyti.ms/mMv1ie

Talent acquisition in the web start-up/Silicon Valley are changing. Companies like Facebook are paying millions for start-ups to only shut them down. Why? They are paying for the talent of the start-up founders. How can you compete this in this world for talent? Facebook is paying between $500,000 to $1 million to “acqhire” engineers. The war for talent is “hotter” than ever, especially for young entrepreneurs and computer whiz kids.  Additional interesting article that expands on the topic: http://nyti.ms/j7ZZle


“The IMF chief, the Canadian-born student – and the tweet that rocked the world.”
-          Featured in: Globe & Mail
-          Writer: Tu Thanh Ha & Ingrid Peritz
-          Publishing Date: May 17, 2011
-          Link: http://bit.ly/j1JyE7

The way information is shared is well demonstrated by this article about how the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (and a potential contender for the French Presidency) Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest was shared via a transatlantic tweet hours before any official mainstream news channels broke the news. 


“LinkedIn IPO: An expensive and unproven venture”
-          Featured in: Globe & Mail
-          Writer: David Milstead
-          Publishing date: May 16, 2011
-          Link: http://bit.ly/ieTrhT

With LinkedIn’s IPO (initial public offering) happening this week investors are placing bets on the long term growth and gains of the social media platform. Interesting insights into how social media platforms make money.


Happy Reading! Thanks to a special friend for forwarding some fantastic articles to contribute to this week’s Thursday News Day.

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