A few months back, we had a discussion in the EContent office about online commenters. At the time, I said that when a story pops up in my Facebook feed from one of the media outlets I “Like” I am far more likely to comment on that post than I am on the actual story. It’s easier than having to register and sign in with dozens of websites. Now that you can log-in with your Facebook — or other social network info — that point is, perhaps, moot. Nonetheless, I wish I’d written about it before Slate beat me to it:

Anonymity has long been hailed as one of the founding philosophies of the Internet, a critical bulwark protecting our privacy. But that view no longer holds. In all but the most extreme scenarios—everywhere outside of repressive governments—anonymity damages online communities. Letting people remain anonymous while engaging in fundamentally public behavior encourages them to behave badly.

 

The first email was sent 10 years before I was even born, but by the time I was in my first year of college the dotcom bubble had burst. I’d never really thought about it until I saw this interesting time line of social networking.

According to a recent report from Conquest, Facebook and YouTube usage among users ages 16-24, is on the rise, Twitter is on the decline and could potentially meet the same fate as other once-popular sites like MySpace and Bebo. “Project Chatter,” which looks at how social media is integral to young people’s lives, “found that regular Facebook devotees check their accounts over six times a day, with 30% on the site for over an hour at a time.” At the same time, 56% of Twitter users say their use of the site is dwindling and on average, they only visit for five minutes.

While Steve Goldner, a.k.a “Social Steve,” won’t say that these kinds of predictions can ever be spot on, since “no one really knows what’s going to happen in the future,” he does say that these statistics do mean certain things about this age group. (more…)

Todd Barr, Alfresco’s CMO, says 31% of enterprises are using social media tools, which is, in part, why his company is bringing social tools to today’s 3.4 release of its open source ECM solution. “This is Alfresco’s reflection on what’s happening in the industry,” he says of this latest release, because as social media starts to become part of the document management life-cycle. Barr says, “We want to position Alfresco as the solution to this problem.”

Aside from the new social aspects of the 3.4 release, Barr says the WCM and ECM deployments will be coming together, allowing for a more unified workflow. For example, he says, a press release may travel through an ECM workflow, gathering all the appropriate approvals. Once the press release is ready the WCM will transform it for publishing on the web, because as Barr says, “WCM is part of the full content management life-cycle.”

Google, Inc. is slated to announce it’s fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2010 today via webcast.

According to new IHS Screen Digest research, it is estimated that Google’s full-year search advertising revenue in 2010 amounted to $25.4 billion, up 20.2%  from $21.1 billion in 2009.That’s a whopping 83%of market share in 2010, a 2% growth since 2009. Google’s revenue growth was even stronger in display and mobile advertising. As a result, Google’s total revenues are expected to reach $28.9 billion in 2010, up 22.5% from 2009. (more…)

Saturday is Wikipedia’s 10th birthday! (Be sure to send a card.) I remember those early days, when my professors warned me away from using Wikipedia as a resource for my research papers. Now, Wikipedia is the quickest, easiest way to get a good (or good enough) answer to my questions. But even the ubiquitous online encyclopedia acknowledges its rocky beginnings:

The initial results were underwhelming. The article “Astronomer” simply said: “Scientist whose area of Research is Astronomy.” Sweden: “Country in Northern Europe. Inhabitants are called Swedes. Language spoken is Swedish. Capital is Stockholm.” Physics: “Physics is a very broad subject.”

Yes, Physics is, in fact, a very broad subject. These days, Wikipedia is a broad, in-depth resource trusted by people across the globe as a primary reference tool. With the exception of the occasional celebrity death being prematurely reported, Wikipedia’s reputation has grown by leaps and bounds. These days, Wikipedia’s once revolutionary idea seems downright tame. Here at EContent we use wikis for everything from our internal editorial calendars to voting on the EContent 100. Most web-savvy people turn to something like Wikipedia, Ask.com, Yahoo! Answers,  or even their Facebook networks when they need an answer — not to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Despite seeming like the grandfather of online communities, Wikipedia still knows how to party — or at least its volunteers do:

On January 15, the Wikipedia community is coming together in more than 300 locations all over the planet to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the free encyclopedia. From a conference in New York to a concert in Prague, from the launch of a new school project in Nairobi to a museum bootcamp in Amsterdam, from a beer-meet in Bucharest to a film screening in Tel Aviv, the events are organized by volunteers and Wikimedia chapters, as well as independent supporters. The events are open to participation by anyone and reflect the diversity of the community.