Facebook's New Homepage

Once again, Facebook has changed the look of their homepage, and just like with the previous changes that Facebook has made to its look and the way that it operates, many of its users are outraged, and just like with every other major change that Facebook has made, stories such as this are popping up on my news feed.

I've thought about why Facebook would continue to change its site so much if everybody seems to get hate every change that they make, and think I've figured out why Facebook continues to change its site.

On the Internet, there's always something new.  We used to use AOL, now we use Gmail.  We used to use Myspace, now we use Facebook.  In order for Facebook not to loose its spot as the dominant social networking website, it needs to continually be something new so its users don't flock to a different site.

Even if this upsets some of its users, it's worth it because the changes to Facebook make the site more modern and ultimately improve it.  If Facebook is essentially a new site every year, what reason do people have to move on to the next "big thing?"

What are your thoughts about this?  Why do you think that Facebook keeps changing its home page even if it upsets its users?

Review: Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals"

Last night, Cobra Starship and Girl Talk came to Dunn Meadow at IU as a part of "B-Town Bash."  I had heard of Girl Talk before in my T101 Media Life class when we were talking about "remixed media," and was excited he came to campus.  Girl Talk (Gregg Michael Gillis) is an artist who makes musical remixes of unauthorized audio samples from a variety of songs. 

Before the concert, I listened to some of his songs on YouTube and liked the music, and he put on quite a show for just being one man "preforming" with a laptop on stage.  After the concert, I decided to download his newest album, "Feed the Animals" on Amazon.com, and would give it an "A."  Remixes are not my favorite genre of music, but Gillis does a great job of making the transitions between songs seamless and making the entire album sound like one continuous piece of music.  I also really appreciate the wide variety of music he uses and his use of classic rock in addition to pop songs. 

His songs are the perfect example of the fact that all media are remixed, a fact that refers to both actual remixes such as this and the reuse of ideas from older media in newer media.

"Feed the Animals" is available from Girl Talk's label's website, illegal-art.net, for download using a "pay-what-you-want model," which can be nothing if you wish.

Photo: pitchfork.com

IU's New Twitter Directory

I Stumbled across the new twitter.iu.edu today and it felt it is blog-worthy because it emphasizes my last post.  This website gives students a clean directory for subscribing to IU-related Twitter feeds, and I discovered the @indiananews feed on it today.  I think that is a smart move on the university's part to promote the Twitter feeds related to IU.

Image: twitter.iu.edu

IU ranks among top Tweeting schools

Indiana University ranks among the top 7% of college users of Twitter, with 16 accounts and an 9,877 followers.  Just checked my Twitter page and it looks like I follow three of them.  I really like how the university tries to connect with students by staying up with current technology.

Source: IndyStar
Photo: Cartoonart

Starbucks and Microsoft Strong in Social-Media Marketing

According to a study that "linked social engagement, customer satisfaction and business success" through a companies use of Social-Media Marketing, Starbucks came out on top, with Microsoft taking fifth place.  These corporations are mastering the new art of communicating and developing a relationship with their customers through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. 

I find it interesting that this new marketing shifts away from expensive ads to promotion that is free.  It costs nothing to make a Twitter account and tweet about a new product or promotion, unlike purchasing ad-space on the Internet or on television.  It is amazing to me that people actually choose to follow the Twitter feeds of companies such as Starbucks.  Doing this is like opting to have more ads on Twitter, yet Starbucks has over a quarter of a million twitter followers!  I thought that we lived in the age of AdBlock Plus and TiVo, an age where people try to avoid advertising wherever they can. 

I would like to ask my readers if they are following any Twitter feeds that are essentially ads?  If so, why do you do this?  Any other thoughts on this phenomenon?

Source: Seattlepi

10/7/09 IU Network Outage

On Tuesday, October 7th, 2009, students and faculty were unable to log in to university computers or access the internet on any computers connected to the IU network.  According to an inside source who prefers to remain anonymous, this was caused by a faulty wireless access point that was continually requesting IP Addresses (the unique numerical address that are assigned to each computer on a network), but not releasing them to computers connected to the access point.  This access point quickly took all available IP addresses on the IU network, causing a chain reaction that took down most services on the network.

This event underscored the importance of Internet access in a modern university, especially IU, where the Internet is needed to do most coursework.  For example, I was unable to complete a reading assignment in a physical text because the assigned pages were located on the internet. 

Even though I had assignments that could be completed offline, I found myself constantly trying to log in to my computer and other university computers during the outage; I felt lost without an Internet connection, even for a few hours.    It amazes me to think that there was ever a time without ubiquitous Internet access.  The Internet is an extremely large part of my life, and my collegiate experience would be fundamentally different without it. 

It is also amazing that it is so natural now to look up information online or complete an assignment on Oncourse (IU's course management system) that we don't even notice how much we are using the Internet until it stops working. 

With this being said, I would like to ask my readers: Have you ever experienced an Internet outage like the one at Indiana University Bloomington yesterday?  Did it make you notice how much you use the Internet without even noticing it?  Please leave your responses below.

Steve Carell's Daughter Profits From Lemonade Sales to Paparazzi

The eight year old daughter of actor and producer Steve Carell is making the big bucks selling lemonade to the paparazzi and even the police in her Los Angeles neighborhood, giving us an interesting look at the business that can be created from media that has nothing to do with the sale or production of media.

Carell explains, "She went down to the corner. ... I figured she'd come back in half an hour or an hour with 75 cents. She came back with $36 in half an hour.

"Billy Ray Cyrus (came) by walking his dog and drops $20 on a cup of lemonade, so she keeps the $20. Then the paparazzi who had been following Billy Ray Cyrus, they all came and bought lemonade as well. And then the police who were called to chase the paparazzi circle back and bought lemonade. Now she thinks she can do that for a living."

Source: SFgate 
Photo: FusedFilm