It’s time for the first snap.

I’m new enough to the public relations and technology fields that I’m still surprised when, after reading my first issue of MediaPost’s Omma, I discover yet another unlikely group of people who have embraced Web 2.0. Many diehard sports fans and players alike are now becoming participants in online communities, forums, fantasy games and the whole nine yards, even though I’d be willing to bet on the fact that the average sports fan couldn’t even give a definition of Web 2.0. Okay, so maybe that’s a tricky term that even experts might grumble about before defining, but you get my point.

Touchdown!

So, here I sit, reading about several new ways that sports sites are engaging fans. Sports publications, such as Sporting News, have user created blogs, while Sports Illustrated has partnered with Takkle.com to create a social network where athletes can post rich media content in the hopes of being recruited by colleges. The Indianapolis Colts fans are also creating their own social network, called MyColts.net, which is not yet available, but will be filled with user created blogs, a fan forum, and the opportunity to read reviews and connect with other Colts fans. Love “Perfect” Peyton Manning? You can join the 7,000 other pre-registered users, who receive e-mail updates and will be able to get started right away when the site goes live.

NASCAR more up your alley? There is good news for those fans, as well – their Web site launched a community section last month that, according to Omma’s Seth Elkin (because I couldn’t word it any better than this), is “squarely in the wheelhouse of the auto racing circuit’s rabid fan base.” Fans are starting to seek out more interactive ways to get involved, which is why online communities are being embraced so readily.

There is literally something for everyone.

Halftime show.

Sorry, no Aerosmith or Britney Spears here. Just the facts, ma’am. According to Hitwise Clickstream data, in January, 8.58 percent of the traffic to NFL.com and 13.02 percent of the traffic to NBA.com came from MySpace. No wonder everyone wants to jump on the online bandwagon; I’m certain this number will go up long before it goes down.

Hail Mary play.

It seems as though sports sites might be rushing into this trend a bit late in the game, but besides a few minor setbacks, they seem to be picking up speed. One has to wonder, though, if eventually there will be too many user interfaces for any of them to be used as effective marketing tools. Only time will tell.

Final score.

We’re at the end of the fourth quarter, and sports sites are on top. Why? Starting a conversation isn’t enough for sports fans, anymore. They are now looking for a response, and are able to find one online.

Aerosmith, Britney Spears, effective marketing tools, fantasy games, Forums, Hitwise Clickstream data, Indianapolis Colts, MediaPost, MyColts.net, MySpace, NASCAR, NBA.com, NFL.com, Omma, Online Communities, Peyton Manning, public relations, Seth Elkin, Sporting News, sports fans, Sports Illustrated, Takkle.com, technology, Web 2.0

Faster than a speeding bullet, Facebook has managed to go from a casual place for creator Mark Zuckerberg’s fellow Harvard students to come together and socialize, to, according to Reuters, having 24 million active users, with that number increasing by over 100,000 a day.  Not too shabby. 

Now, at its f8 developer conference in San Francisco, Facebook has announced that they’re created a new platform which allows third-party developers to create their own applications for use on the popular Web site.  So far, about 85 applications have been created, with contributions from large companies such as Microsoft and Digg.com to smaller, lesser known companies as well. 

Here’s the part where I have to brag; I’m all verklempt!  Two of the companies in attendance at this conference are being run by fellow University of Arizona alumni.  Mosoto, which was created Paul Chung and Girard Kelly (my former downstairs neighbors), along with Seth Lesky, Louis Tran, and Srinivasan Chandrasekharan, essentially lets you share files, chat with friends, and discover new ones by finding common interests.  When I casually started asking Paul questions, he laughed and said that I was sounding “like an interview,” but after reading a great Techcrunch article, I’ve found that this application has several cool features, the most interesting of which is being able to upload 1GB of music to a free Box.net account that lets you mix songs from your friends’ accounts into your own play lists.  Mosoto is now in beta, and definitely worth a look!

Another friend that I met almost immediately after moving into the dorms during my freshman year was Matt Van Horn, who is now the COO of Zimride.  This is a very unique platform that calls itself, “the future of carpool and rideshare travel.”  In using this platform, Facebook users can search a listing of people who have made travel plans, befriend and get to know someone who is going to the same place, and ultimately, make the ride with them.  This is a great gathering place for people who don’t have a car, people who do have a car and want to make a few extra bucks by offering a ride, and/or people who just enjoy the feeling of being environmentally friendly while whizzing past all the people who weren’t smart enough to find a carpool.

I guarantee that if you’re already a Facebook addict, you’ll more than likely never turn off your computer with new applications such as Mosoto and Zimride.  Overall, I’m still unsure about issues that Facebook will have in relation to security and bandwidth, but I still believe that this is a huge step towards expanding Facebook into that utopian all-purpose destination on the Web that everyone seems to be striving towards.

all purpose destination, bandwidth, Box.net, Digg.com, f8, Facebook, Girard Kelly, Harvard, Louis Tran, Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Van Horn, Microsoft, Mosoto, Online Communities, Paul Chung, Reuters, rideshare travel, San Francisco, security, Seth Lesky, social networks, Srinivasan Chandrasekharan, Techcrunch, University of Arizona alumni, Zimride

Close your eyes, relax, and think back to your favorite class.  Any grade, subject or level of study will do.  You probably remember sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair, reaching into your backpack… taking out your laptop, and signing onto a virtual world for faster and easier absorption of knowledge.  Not so much?  Well, welcome to the wave of the future, where several schools, from Pennsylvania’s Gateway High School to Missouri’s Holt Elementary School, are implementing new technology to make their classrooms computerized.

Specifically, the technology is a SMART Board, which is an interactive platform that is quickly replacing blackboards, as well as pens and paper.  Students can push a button to add more space while writing or doing mathematics, play interactive games that help them learn any subject, and bring diagrams to life by magnifying, highlighting, notating and saving images as PDF files for later use.  The SMART Board can also help teachers, who can use the technology to give and instantly score tests, question by question, and pinpoint exactly where their lessons might not have been clear enough.

Honestly, I can’t decide whether this is a groundbreaking technology that I should be excited about, or if I should be hesitant because the divide between wealthy schools and those less fortunate schools will probably increase tenfold.  This presents a very interesting question to me: with our education system in the state that it’s in right now, do we hold back on using technology just because not everyone can have it?

Gateway High School, Holt Elementary School, interactive platform, SMART Board, Uncategorized

What big issue would you tackle if you could harness the collective intelligence of a large community of problem solvers?  While we sometimes wonder about how corporations are harming the environment, one of Eastwick’s former clients, Business Objects, is reminding everyone how technology can benefit humankind by posing that question to the world. 

On Tuesday, the aforementioned makers of business intelligence software, along with Zerofootprint, a nonprofit environmental organization, unveiled an online community called Insight, which is designed to tackle pressing global issues by linking data experts to the tools they need (such as Business Objects Crystal Xcelsius software, blogs, and wikis) to address and solve environmental problems. 

And, from one good idea springs another. They will be awarding $1 million to the person or company who presents the best challenge that can be solved by the Insight community.  As the host of this network, they’ve taken the liberty of submitting the first challenge: create ways to reduce the environmental impact of humans on the planet.

“Today the world becomes more intelligent,” said Bernard Liautaud, founder, chairman and chief strategy officer of Business Objects. “Our goal is to change the way problems get solved, to work on issues that have a global impact and to challenge the conventions and paradigms of online communities.”

I have heard about a few charity social networking sites, such as Helpalot, which is in beta, and will help users find legitimate charity projects by creating a place where they can get feedback from their communities, but I haven’t seen anything on nearly as large a scale as this new Business Objects community.  I think that they’re setting a great example, and I can only hope that it will pave the way for other companies, big and small, to make a difference.

On a personal level, I also look forward to seeing what great changes are going to take place when some of the brightest minds are given the right tools to make a difference.  It’s going to be undeniably big.

Bernard Liautaud, blogs, business intelligence software, Business Objects, collective intelligence, Crystal Xcelsius, global impact, Helpalot, Insight, Online Communities, wikis, Zerofootprint

According to a recent study issued by News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media (FIM), the United States citizens have chosen social networking on sites such as MySpace as their favorite activity, both on and offline, beating out television and coming in about tied with cell phone usage. I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but I am shocked! Yesterday, I would have staked my life on the fact that good old fashioned television watching, or at least the infamous Crackberry, would completely trump social networks as far as “time sucks” go. Good thing I’m not a betting woman.

However, if you look at the incredible effect that social networking has had on many communities throughout the world, it makes perfect sense. For all of you doubters out there, let’s take a look at Exhibit A. A few weeks ago, the Pentagon banned troops’ access to certain Web sites, including social networking and video sharing sites YouTube, MySpace, BlackPlanet, Hi5, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos and FileCabi. Why, you might ask? Says Col. Gary Keck, “These actions were taken to enhance and increase network security and protect the use of the bandwidth.” On the contrary, I was always under the impression that soldiers were fighting to protect their country, although bandwidth is also important, I’m sure.

I digress; Let me be serious for a moment. I completely understand that protecting classified military operations is of the utmost importance, but considering that 60 percent of Americans now oppose the Iraqi war, couldn’t we throw our troops a bone?

If you’re thirsty for more, I’ll move on to Exhibits B, C and D. The University of Minnesota at Duluth has imposed a ban that prevents student athletes from using any social networking site, from Facebook to MySpace to Flickr. Campus athletic directors believe that student athletes should be held to a different standard than other students, and want a chance to thoroughly explain online discretion to all teams. This makes me wonder if a few isolated incidents ruined this for everyone, because I think that student athletes are by no means the only people who are dealing/have dealt with consequences by being part of a social network. Take, for example, the story about 27-year-old student teacher and college senior Stacy Snyder, who was denied teaching credentials by Millersville University officials after they found a picture on her MySpace account labeled “drunken pirate.” She was of a legal drinking age when the picture was taken. This week, she filed a federal lawsuit against the school, and with good reason.

Another example that is a little closer to home for me personally was when a fellow journalism major at the University of Arizona was offered a job on the grounds that he take down several photos from his Facebook account.

While I’m a believer in discretion (and tight security settings), I also know that people fear what is unknown to them, and this new wave of communication tools is going to continue to cause quite a stir. In a word, it’s come down to control versus free speech and work versus home life, because really, if you can’t be yourself on a personal social network, then what’s the point of having one at all?

ban, bandwidth, BlackPlanet, Col. Gary Keck, Crackberry, drunken pirate, Facebook, FileCabi, Flickr, Fox Interactive Media, Hi5, IFilm, journalism major, Metacafe, Millersville University, MySpace, Online Communities, online discretion, Pentagon, personal social network, social networks, Stacy Snyder, StupidVideos, University of Arizona, University of Minnesota at Duluth, YouTube

Planning a vacation and not sure if you want to go surfing at Bondi Beach or take a ride on the London Eye?  You’re not alone.  According to research from Harris Interactive, 70 percent of the adults surveyed still have yet to lock down their travel plans, while 43 percent, or more than 2,300 adults, haven’t even chosen a destination yet.  If you are like the many people who don’t have the time to go see a travel agent, there is another solution for you: Yahoo Travel.

This new Web site is one step shy of literally holding your hand and walking you through the entire vacation planning process.  In addition to actually planning your trip, one of the more helpful features is Yahoo Trip Planner, a social network where travelers can keep online journals and photos, so other would-be travelers can browse until they get a better idea of where they’d like to go.  There is also a section for comments, so someone who has been on a 31 day trip throughout the United Arab Emirates can give advice and answer questions about the best places to visit (and avoid).  Although this site was just launched on Wednesday and doesn’t quite have the rich user content, yet, it is already helping people start to plan their summer vacations.  One user who is looking to book a flight to the UAE this summer comments, “You’ve taken very nice photos; we’re planning to travel this year, [and] these pictures will help us a lot for our trip. Thanks!”

In a day and age where people are manically busy, I truly believe that this is the future of vacation planning– I’m going to make a bold statement here and say that my guess is that in five to ten years, travel agents will either go completely online, or else become obsolete.  Web sites such as Yahoo Travel give access to everything, including the expertise, that travel agents provide, but through a Web site it can be done in the comfort of your own home.  So, how do we even compare the two?

Bondi Beach, Harris Research, London Eye, Online Communities, social networks, United Arab Emirates, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Trip Planner

It’s a new age struggle for a solution to an age old problem – How does a presidential candidate find the middle ground between controlling their messaging and allowing the power of voter-generated material to run its course?  The Obama campaign’s recent MySpace debacle has been a prime example of this predicament.

For those of you who haven’t heard, the Obama campaign took control of the presidential candidate’s official MySpace page from Joe Anthony, a 29 year-old paralegal and Obama supporter, who has been running the site (with the campaign team’s permission) for two and a half years.  After the page had amassed an astounding 160,000 friends, Anthony allegedly changed the password so the Obama campaign could no longer access the profile, at which point the Obama campaign decided negotiations were necessary.  These plans fell through after Anthony asked for $39,000 (plus up to $10,000 in added expenses) to maintain and enhance the page.  In the end, MySpace gave the Obama campaign complete control over the official Barack Obama MySpace page, but Anthony’s network of 160,000 friends was transferred to a new page that is entirely his own.

As of Friday afternoon, Sen. Obama’s network has 21,851 friends.  However, Joe Anthony still has the support from 145,019 friends.  One friend, a 24 year-old Texan, said:

“It’s a little absurd for the campaign to co-opt a fan page.  I mean, you want to be President of the USA and can’t get your own MySpace page together?  This is grassroots confusion at its worst.”

This issue proves that strategies associated with presidential campaigns have changed drastically since the 2004 election.  With the coming about of such social networks as MySpace, a site whose second largest audience falls within the critical (yet largely non-voting) target audience of 18-24 year-old adults, a new generation of potential voters can be reached.  Before, voting campaigns such as MTV’s “Rock the Vote or P Diddy’s “Vote or Die” have been geared towards getting a generation of young adults excited about voting.  However, with MySpace, anyone can very easily find and “befriend” any political candidate they want to support or learn more about in an interactive and more personal manner.  I think this new effort by presidential campaigns will be very successful, and I am very curious to see how social networks, and social media in general, will affect the 2008 election.

… And for those of you who are wondering if Joe Anthony still plans to vote for Barack Obama:

“He initially said the candidate lost his vote, but Obama may have begun to win it back after a Wednesday evening phone call that Anthony called a great honor.  Anthony said he was so nervous that he doesn’t remember exactly what Obama said, but the candidate expressed his appreciation and they agreed everyone learned a lesson in this case.” 

2004 election, 2008 election, Barack Obama, Joe Anthony, MySpace, Online Communities, presidential candidate, social media, social networks