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Today, LinkedIn is allowing members to add photos to their profiles. With an easy-to-use photo cropping tool, members can edit their image to create a professional looking headshot for their profile. You can read more about this on the LinkedIn blog.
I think it will be interesting to see pictures on member profiles. What are your thoughts on this?
An article in Social Technologies Change Waves publication forecasts future career possibilities in the year 2020. Citing technological and social changes, the analysts suggest ten new jobs including:
A popular link on Digg shows just how far technology has progressed within the last twenty years.
The "Smart Money" column in the Wall Street Journal provides readers with an easy tip to save money on the latest gadgets. By delaying your purchase of the latest technology, you may be able to save yourself up to 30%. But don't wait too long so that the technology becomes obsolete. According to the senior editor of PC World Magazine, waiting six months after a product release is a safe bet. Tech products have a life cycle of about a year before the "something-cooler-is-on-the-horizon price drop" kicks in.
On Information Week's Digital Life Blog, Mitch Wagner makes a thoughtful post on the future of virtual worlds. While he believes that virtual worlds are here to stay, he also thinks that they're part of a long-term transition that may change the way we think of "being on the Internet" vs. "being away from the computer".
What are some of your thoughts about the future of virtual worlds and their importance within our every day lives?
This week, IBM announced that they would offer free word processing and other office software. Named Lotus Symphony, the group of tools allows the user to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. With the growing number of companies offering free office applications, business managers have more alternatives to deal with the ever-increasing costs associated with software upgrades.
The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has announced activities to celebrate Banned Books Week in the virtual world. Activities will take place in Second Life, Teen Second Life, and on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. You can find out more by reading the ALA's press release.
Google has rolled out their presentation tool to add to the functionality of their current Google Docs product. With the initial announcement made five months ago, the technology is finally here. If you have a Google account, you can access it by selecting the documents option and clicking "New". The presentation application will be visible from the drop-down menu.
IBM has published a report about the development of leadership skills within the gaming environment and what this may mean for the future of business leadership. According to the report, online gaming environments facilitate leadership through:
It's an interesting read and I encourage you to take a quick look at it. You can access the report in PDF here.
A recent Newsweek article details the role of the Boomer generation in helping form today's technology landscape. With their youthful energy and a sense of possibility, innovators like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates set out to change the world. With their accomplishments, baby boomers have continued to influence the world of technology.
An article in the New York Times Technology section reviews a two-year-old social network called Quechup. Upon accepting an invite, the site will provide you with an opportunity to add friends from your email address book. The feature is similar in other social networking sites, but Quechup goes a step farther. It automatically sends these invitations to everybody in your address book without asking for your permission. You can read more about this on Mashable.
I've already received one of these invites but decided to do some digging around since I wasn't familiar with the site. After reading about all the spam complaints, I'm glad I didn't join.
Lunn's post on the Read/WriteWeb blog provides readers with a review of social networking motivators and discusses the factors that will drive their evolution. The author discusses the differences between open networks and gated communities and the role of trust in social networking.
What do you think the future of social networking will be like? As information professionals, how can we influence the development and future use of this technology?
A recent post on the "Between the Lines" blog on ZDNet.com, discusses the future of work and the way that technology is changing the way people work. The panelists included representatives from Microsoft, Google, and Intuit. Smarter software for your inbox as well as the implementation of social software within the enterprise environment were some of the topics that were discussed. If you're interested in more Office 2.0 coverage, visit the conference preview on Webware.com.
Are you addicted to Slashdot or a fan of MySpace and Facebook? Interested in what your surfing habits say about you? Here's a sample:
-Wikipedia users - University students searching for a quick research fix.
- Flickr users - Primary user goal is to create a digital record of adventures.
Visit CNET's UK Crave site to learn more.
According to today's article in the New York Times, Reed Elsevier is trying a new system that will deliver ad-supported content free to subscribers. OncologySTAT.com asks oncologists to register their personal information and in exchange, provides these professionals with immediate free access to the latest in cancer-related content. Executives hope that the site's users would be an attractive target for advertisers, opening the possibility of extending this idea to future sites specializing in other health-related topics.
This idea could potentially save subscribers thousands of dollars per year. It would be interesting to see if other vendors will experiment with the same approach.
I came across a site tagged on del.icio.us exploring the new Internet term: "Bacn". With the term developed at the recent PodCamp event in Pittsburgh, bacn describes those emails that aren't spam but aren't personal email either. Instead, these emails include notifications from sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and those delivered by your Google alerts.
Jott is a free service that allows you to convert your voice into email and text messages from any cell phone. Currently in public beta, the service allows you to eliminate repetitive calls, send email and text messages, and create reminders to help you remember the important things. Bloggers may be especially interested because they are no longer limited by the unavailability of their laptop or an Internet connection. By calling the toll-free number and leaving a voice message, your message is transcribed to text and posted to your blog automatically.
A recent post on the Read/WriteWeb site provides details about a $10,000 scholarship available for college bloggers. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who are currently enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution. The blog must contain unique and interesting things about the blogger or posts on things that s/he is passionate about. The submission deadline is October 6th.
This would be a great tool to open up a discussion with the young people you know about the benefits of blogging. If for nothing else, the scholarship serves as a strong motivator for students to start their own blog.
PCWorld's article on the banning of social networking sites within the workplace suggests that companies may be going overboard in order to fend off cyber slacking. According to a recent release from Britain's Trade Union Congress, the group recommends that companies implement formal policies for the acceptable use of such sites instead of banning them altogether.
A recent post on Mashable.com details a new technology that allows users to combine their videos and presentation slides to deliver their ideas via a new communication method. Vcasmo.com allows users to mix different types of media in order to create rich multimedia experiences for their audiences. The English on the site isn't exactly perfect, but keep in mind that the site is Japanese-based.
If you're familiar with Sonic Foundry's Mediasite technology, you'll see that the presentation experience is very similar.
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