The Economist Articles on Social Networking

Interesting articles. Some good info, but no real original insights.

A world of connections

Online social networks are changing the way people communicate, work and play, and mostly for the better, says Martin Giles

http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15351002

THE annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, currently in progress, is famous for making connections among the global great and good. But when the delegates go home again, getting even a few of them together in a room becomes difficult. To allow the leaders to keep talking, the forum’s organisers last year launched a pilot version of a secure online service where members can post mini-biographies and other information, and create links with other users to form collaborative working groups. Dubbed the World Electronic Community, or WELCOM, the forum’s exclusive online network has only about 5,000 members.

18 Awesome Tech Things We Didn’t Have 10 Years Ago

18 Awesome Tech Things We Didn’t Have 10 Years Ago

Gregory Galant | Dec. 31, 2009

• Wikipedia
• Gmail
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• AdWords
• Amazon AWS
• RSS (started in ‘99 but didn’t catch on till the ’00s)
• Meetup
• iPod
• Google Maps
• Podcasts
• Mint
• Skype/VOIP
• iPhone
• Google Docs
• Creative CommonsFlickr

http://www.businessinsider.com/18-awesome-things-we-didnt-have-10-years-ago-2009-12

Improbable Plots

Once Upon a Honeymoon

Starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers (1942)

A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.

Back From Eternity

Starring Robert Ryan and Anita Ekberg (1957)

A pilot, a hooker, a killer and eight others crash among headhunters, but only five can leave.

Newspapers, News and Technology

Check out The Economist’s excellent essay on newspapers and the telegraph, and the implications for today:

NETWORK EFFECTS, Dec 17th 2009

They do a wonderful job of tying together the history of how one technology impacted another, and how the Internet will continue to impact not only newspapers, but news itself. It’s worth the read to get the right perspective on all of this.

How a new communications technology disrupted America’s newspaper industry–in 1845

CHANGE is in the air. A new communications technology threatens a dramatic upheaval in America’s newspaper industry, overturning the status quo and disrupting the business model that has served the industry for years. This “great revolution”, warns one editor, will mean that some publications “must submit to destiny, and go out of existence.” With many American papers declaring bankruptcy in the past few months, their readers and advertisers lured away by cheaper alternatives on the internet, this doom-laden prediction sounds familiar. But it was in fact made in May 1845, when the revolutionary technology of the day was not the internet–but the electric telegraph.

For the rest, see the article at http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108618

ReadWriteWeb Top 2009 Products

ReadWriteWeb community’s Top 10 Web Products of 2009.

1. Twitter
2. Google Chrome
3. Google Maps
4. Facebook
5. WordPress
6. Adobe AIR
7. iPhone platform
8. Google Apps
9. Hulu
10. TweetDeck