Update: : video on MSNBC.com
Three staff members in the office of Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) were outed Thursday for tweeting about drinking on the job. The Congressman’s office reported that the three were fired within an hour of their learning about the tweets.
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Category Archives: Personal Technology
SMS v Voice Mail: Text Please
How Americans Use Text Messaging: Voice Mail v SMS
My cellphone greeting to callers asks for a text rather than a voice mail. It’s an artifact of my life with a Samsung Blackjack that did not reliably or clearly indicate when I’d missed a call. That was before my iPhone, back when I had to wade through a series of keypad prompts to get to messages and then listen to them one-at-a-time.
Periodically, I think about tweaking my greeting, now that I have visual voice mail. But I never seem to get around to it. A new report from Pew will extend my procrastination.
Pew’s research shows that 8-in-10 American adults now own cellphones; three-quarters of those folks use SMS (short message service, aka texting).
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project asked those texters in a survey how they prefer to be contacted on their cell phone and 31% said they preferred texts to talking on the phone, while 53% said they preferred a voice call to a text message.
+1 Takes on New Meaning With Launch Of Google Plus
Google Circles
If you’re longing for a digital networking space that lets you easily share information with the different facets of your life, then put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list. (Assuming you can wrangle an invitation!)
If you’re longing for a digital networking space that lets you easily videoconference with 10 people while everyone watches (and chats about) the same YouTube clip, then put Google Plus (hangouts) at the top of your “to explore” list.
If you’re longing for a digital networking space that integrates functional email, real cloud-based documents, an attractive photo gallery … and lets you eavesdrop on conversations like Twitter does (no reciprocity required in setting up circles) … then put Google Plus at the top of your “to explore” list.
Google Plus, Scarcity and Sharing
Looking for a signal that our economy has moved from scarcity to abundance? Look no further than the launch of Google+ and compare it to the sister app, Wave, launched less than two years ago.
In October 2009, Google launched a not-quite-ready for prime time product. There was a virtual stampede for invitations, which were doled out slowly and in small amounts. Less than a year later, Google would retire Wave.
It’s June 2011. Google launched G+ on Wednesday; early participants could play but not invite anyone. But by late afternoon Thursday, invitations were running wild, although Google did eventually pull the plug. The Google+ interface suggested I could invite 500 people at a time; that’s what Marshall Kirkpatrick (@marshallk, ReadWriteWeb) says that he did: Continue reading
Tips and Tools To Ease The Turbulence In Your Workflow
This month’s Carnival of Journalism is hack-your-workflow, otherwise known as tips and tricks. I focus on tools I share with my students, my experiments with my iPad and tools to use with Twitter. (Not in that order!)