Dominik Ras - Web Design and Programming, SEO, ECM, Adobe web and graphical tools

How Social Media Changes Protesting

2012-01-16T01:51:00.000-05:00

Social Media has been a trending topic during the recent several years and keeps affecting new facets of human interactions. Even the phrase “trending topic” is mostly used on microblog-style sites, which fit under the umbrella of Social Media (http://www.whatthetrend.com). Popular stats claim that Social Media (SM) Internet interaction has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web and the leading SM portal, Facebook, has more subscribers than the entire population of United States. If Facebook was a country, it would have been the 3rd largest country in the world (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gt62uAasE)

Social Media Definition
Essentially, social media incorporates the online technology and methods through which people can share content, personal opinions, swap different perspectives and insights into world issues and generally discuss the evolution of media in itself (Jantsch). Social media website content can come in many shapes and forms. One of them is text, which is often used to put across opinions or write web logs (also known as blog). Images and photos are another category; they can display anything from holiday photos to shots by professional photographers. Audio content is the third type of social media content. Podcasts are great example of that type of content. Video also grows in popularity. According to Dybward (2011), Video sites allow anybody with animated graphics to share a visual story about any event, as well as informational, training or marketing material. Since video affects audiences’ senses of vision, hearing and deliver hard to describe motion, channels such as YouTube provide search capabilities used more frequently than Google. Recent “Occupy…” protests are great examples of that phenomenon.

Origin of “Occupy” protest
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City based in Zuccotti Park in the downtown financial district. The protests were initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. As pointed out on OccupyWallStreet website, they are mainly protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed, corporate power and influence over government (particularly from the financial services sector), and of lobbyists. The participants' slogan "We are the 99%" refers to income inequality in the United States between the top 1%, who control about 40% of the wealth, and the rest of the population. Even though that concept is only six weeks old, it has grown into a global movement, a subject of countless debates and titles of official definitions. Certain broadcasting networks attempted to convince their audiences that Occupy Wall Street began to lose momentum and significance while not delivering a concise message. Observers were quick to realize that it may have been only a faint attempt to diminish the impact of recent events and quickly turned their attention to computer and smartphone-based portals. Those Social Media portals allowed them to reach populations larger than United States with simple yet powerful statements, comments, images and videos.

Impact of Social Media on Power of Protests
As initial participants of the Occupy Wall street remained active and devoted to their cause, majority of conventional media concentrated on lack of focus and cohesiveness of protesters’ message. Occasional bystander or a casual observer of prime time news may have been convinced to believe that, while latest computer technology allowed crowds to prove strength of their anger, disapproval and importance of public demonstrations. That latest Internet technology knows as Social Media gave its protesting users an assurance that they will not be denied. Conventional media is no longer in control of what is communicated to audiences – people are. In 21st century, when even the third world areas without running water or permanent roofs over residents heads, communicate via smartphones, the reach of social media’s pull and push technology allows information to travel faster than earthquake shock waves (Parr).

What makes social media platforms really powerful is not only number of active users, but also ease of access and speed of searches. That unsolicited and unmoderated content makes first pages of Google search engine results rather quickly due to significant activity of unique users who tend to link to and from those popular streams of information. Recent protesters noticed that clout and used it to work around TV and print media channels’ reluctance to show objective images of their efforts.

Protests that took place decades ago formed around physical activities and took very long to spread given analog communication channels and limited forms of data and image transmission. 20th century protesters’ paper petitions or door-to-door campaigns may have been effective, but had very limited scope and were very inefficient. Even the bloodiest conflicts took months to spread in small geographical areas. For instance, when anti-communist protests that violently erupted in August of 1980 on Northern coast of Poland, it took until December of that year for residents of southern part of the country (only 300 miles away) to see short mentions of those events on public TV and in print (http://www.gdansk-life.com/poland/solidarity). In that reality, it took nine years for those activists to get what they postulated about.

Social media Internet technology made that form of communication and making global impact much easier these days. Some might argue that the Internet itself changed how world reacts to protests these days. However, only the benefits of social media, where global communities share equal and immediate access to impactful information and important status updates gave the vehicle of protest new wheels and stronger propulsion. Thanks to social media, recent “Occupy” protests remain a focal point of news not only on Wall Street, New York, NY, but globally and with much stronger presence than protesters of communist states in the eighties (Schweitzer).

Overview of Changes that Social Media brought to Protesting
Aside from obvious ease of access to independent information in form of enhanced pull technology, Social Media brings several other changes to protesters’ toolkits. SM also serves as a great broadcasting medium, and if information is widely and socially approved, it will find its way to the top of web search results and into conversations of millions of casual users of social networking sites. Individuals, local teams, remote groups, national communities or global movements are no longer dependent of conventional media broadcasters (Mills). No first page columns in newspapers, prime time TV or popular news anchors are required to allow for news to make headlines where relevant content is shared via social media.

15 Fluid Apps You Can Build for Your Business

2011-12-10T19:26:00.000-05:00

Steven Walling has some really cool recommendations for people who want more out of their desktops. Especially, if most of the activities, work or research actually starts and end in web browsers.

What's really striking is simplicity of the software he writes about, Fluid Apps - all you really need to do is to know your URL, pick a name for your app, a location on your machine, and an icon. That's it.

For more of his insights, check out 15 Fluid Apps You Can Build for Your Business on ReadWrite Enterprise blog.

XSDObjectGen - XSD to class - Sample Code Generator 1.4.2.1

2011-11-27T19:48:00.004-05:00

Vinbhat posted a cool step-by-step list of instructions or dealing with XSD and classes using C# Visual Studio solution. HE listed all his hints in his WordPress blog "Exporting Data: Creating XML Files using C#".

Recently, I noticed that for something a bit more flexible than xsd.exe mentioned in Vinbhat's Step 5, you can always use XSDObjectGen from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7075

I've used it many time to ome to a conclusion that it's super helpful if your XSD contains complex type that are defined by other XSD files. XSD.exe would choke on that - XSDObjectGen will interactively address that setup with you and automatically detect all complex types (related XSD') like that.

Mapping DataSet to XML and backwards

2011-11-26T18:30:00.000-05:00

In case you were wondering how to get the best out of simplest XSD applications, Xun Ding has some hints for you on www.dotnetslackers.com. I just stumbled this article some time ago and it hit me how much easier it is to follow than anything else that comes up on top of Google search results on XSD (XML Schema definitions). to Check it out:

Mapping DataSet to XML and backwards

L+E+A+D - a definition of what it means to be a lead

2011-08-05T12:16:00.000-04:00

L = Listen to your project team and stakeholders

E = Encourage the heart of the team members (motivate them through action and empowerment. Create the WOW environment)

A = Act (demonstrate your abilities, inspire the team, walk the talk, set an example)

D = Deliver (provide what you said you would provide and follow through on promises. Don't make promises you can't keep and make sure you meet your commitments)

7 Key Points to Consider When Dealing With Negative Posts on Facebook

2011-04-25T14:20:00.000-04:00

Great article on how Intel handles negative posts on Facebook. Key points:

Realize that attacks can come from anywhere.
Plan for the worst. The key to responding effectively to negative publicity is having a response plan in place internally and a comments policy clearly posted to your Facebook page.
Watch for warning signs. Do use social media monitoring tools to help keep an eye on your brand's social presence.
Have a fire drill. Try setting up a dummy page on your internal network and practice responding to difficult questions and controversial posts.
Know when to escalate.
Your fans are your best defense. True fans can provide you with the most convincing, authentic response to an attack by arguing on your behalf.
Take it seriously. Respond to legitimate concerns as much as you can.

Read the full article here: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/04/25/spotlight-on-business-to-business-inside-intels-facebook-attack-strategy

Are Livescribe smartpens workplace-ready?

2011-04-19T02:31:00.002-04:00

Livescribe smartpens have been around since 2007. Only recently do they start to pick up in popularity. They seem to be more reliable and more flexible. Aside from a rich feature set that is customizable with additional Apps available for purchase, Anoto Group AB, http://www.anoto.com/, the produce of Livescribe pens, pleased all the hardcore geeks and provided an SDK.

The products get Green Product of the Year awards, make all levels of education (from K-12 to graduate level work) easier and they also manage to connect disabled veterans to the world and back into the society.

That's powerful stuff, but do they fit in a professional workplace? If I'm already at my workstation I can record an audio of a training session, while taking screenshots and annotating them. Even though that example does not seem to be the most efficient, it appears to beat having an additional electronic device in my hand and attempting to write information down, to be able to tap certain words later and hear what was said during that time.

Perhaps there are some rare cases in which a smartpen may turn out to be far more effective and indispensable than that, but so far, despite my love to technology, I am having difficulty finding the perfect use for a new Livescribe in a workplace. I am looking forward to be converted.

4 ways Microsoft OneOne mobile app can increase your productivity

2011-04-11T01:27:00.003-04:00

Rather skeptical at first, I followed a link displayed in my LinkedIn connection's updates to find out about a new mobile app from Microsoft. This time, it's an app for a competitor's platform and it works like a charm on any iPhone device. Free installation of Micorosft OneNote is quick and creates a familiar looking icon on your screen that speaks "if you and/or your organization find MS Office indispensable, I've got just the right piece of functionality you were missing all along, that will allow you to extend your productivity to your iPhone." It is a rather lengthy speech that the icon has for an iPhone user, but with the use of that app, saving that note (or others) for later use, organizing, sharing, editing, tagging and adding things to your to-do list becomes a flick of your finger.

4 new ways Microsoft OneOne mobile app can increase your productivity starts in the palm of your hand.

1. Quick access to writing and/or retrieving organized information
Do you ever catch yourself listening to a webinar where the host or quest speakers ask that you keep your questions until the end of an hour long session? During that time you find a way to check-out speaker's twitter feeds and google some background info, but by the time the end of the webinar comes, your question is gone. Perhaps you can no longer recollect it, or it blended with the info you just heard or read while multitasking. Using OneNote mobile app, you can tap the Quick Note button, type your thought and that's it. While your mind is relaxing or getting ready to absorb another piece of info, OneNote is synchronizing your creativity or brainstorming to the cloud . Lost Internet connectivity? OneNote will sync your stuff as soon as you come back online.

2. Ease of usage
After you launch, the following is available to you within one or two taps:

Writing a lightening-quick note
Get out your inner paparazzi by annotating the picture you just took
Pulling up the most recent note

3. Availability from various locations and platforms
Results of your impromptu creativity or organized note taking is immediately available in your Windows Live space. There, regardless whether you use Internet Explorer or not, Microsoft Office Web Apps allow you to further enhance, share and organize your content. Among countless options, you can mark things as ideas, books to read, questions or items to discuss with you manager, etc. Whatever you or other contributors save in your note, OneNote on your Apple smartphone will know about immediately.

4. Integration for tools and logins that you already use
If you are one of the early adopters of Microsoft's .NET framework, you may recollect the .NET Passport concept, one one point embraced by http://www.expedia.com/ as s secure login option. Years later, that same login will get you access to free Office Web Apps and allow you to edit and manage your content in the could. But the world of OneNote does not end in introductory version of a note taking iPhone app and a hosted solution for extended functionality. For hardcore users of MS Office and addicts of web integration, with one click from the list of your documents in your SkyDrive, you can launch the OneNote program to further enhance your work and save it directly back to your Windows Live space.

Benefits don't end at those 4, and will not end any time soon. Even though, the benefits can be considered significant, the first release of OneNote mobile app appears to be only a quick intro to what's really coming. While Windows 7 still grows in popularity and number of supporters, Windows 8 is already said to exceed some of the end users' expectations by have built-in Windows Live Mesh and SkyDrive Wave integration. Whether you're online. offline or on your phone, Microsoft tends to provide a more interconnected, more interrelated, more streamlined and more intuitive platform for any of its customers.

Creative Innovation Starts With Great Hair: Edward's 5 Tips for Greatness | The Next Great Generation

2011-04-02T16:54:00.000-04:00

Creative Innovation Starts With Great Hair: Edward's 5 Tips for Greatness | The Next Great Generation

7, 2, 1 rule

2011-03-14T23:57:00.004-04:00

Including Social Media in your web presence strategy is a common practice these days. Even email marketers include cute buttons that allow a reader to easily Like you on Facebook, Follow you on Twitter or Disqus your message online. But once you eventually convince someone to actually follow or like you via their Web 2.0 profile, how do you keep that user's attention to convey your message or business mission statement, or whatever else your Social Media inner child desires to share. Besides that, how would you continue that newly established relationship, keep that new friend from Facebook engaged?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) experts keep pounding into us that more,new and targeted "content, content, content" is the driving force for online engagement. SEO gurus point out tactical technicalities that increase your chances of making your web presence more attractive via search engines. Other experts may pull an answer to that concern in their own direction as well.

I recently participated in a webinar where yet another expert, mentioned that particular topic, but his feedback was something new. As refreshing as it was, it was rather simple - for an EXPERT talking to a large group of webinar participants - he said that in order to keep your followers attention, interest and engagement, you have to be interesting.

"Easy for interesting people to say" one might think.

That Social Media and Open Enterprise expect, Paul Gillin continued to add that when he meant what this 7-2-1 rule, where according to his company's research and observations, the most successful Twitter profiles are the ones that employ that rule. Per each 10 posts, 7 are totally not related to you or your business - they may in fact actually mention interesting competitors. The next 2 tweets should get closer to you or your line of business, listing events or web references mentioning you indirectly. The last 1 tweet should be your text about you - because your followers should believe that you believe in yourself and/or your business. If that rule works for Twitter, other Social Media platforms may be equally successful if the same 7-2-1 rule is followed.

My Wikipedia contributions

2010-10-03T23:55:00.000-04:00

I never knew how tedious or difficult certain edits to Wikipedia can become. On the other hand, some of the features are quite brilliant, once you really get comfortable with them. I've ran into a couple of snags while I was working on Polonia Technica's (non-profit organization) profile - but overall, it's a rich knowledge sharing device.

Blogging from MS Word

2010-09-02T22:05:00.001-04:00

This is only a simple test of how effective usage of MS Word 2007 can be for bloggers like you and me. Things start from the Office menu, where you pick an option to create a New document and then select a New Blog Post. After that, things are as easy as typing.

Give it a shot. It's really simple!

Click here SEO phenomenon

2010-05-24T21:16:00.000-04:00

Have you ever searched for the phrase "click here" by mistake? If so, you probably wondered, how does Adobe Reader link get on top of the search results without any type of advertising from the vendor and the fact that your search phrase is not listed on that page at all. The answer lies deep beneath the surface of SEO (search engine optimization).

You must have seen pages with links to .PDF files, where webmasters offers a redirection to a free Adobe Reader tool for viewing such content. They write "If you need software to view this document click here" and turn the last two words into a hyperlink to Adobe Reader download site. Every time another webmaster uses the same strategy, search engine crawlers identify "click here" with a link to Adobe's site increasing corresponding PageRank.

Consequently, even though "click here" is not listed anywhere on the page, not in alt attributes of links or in meta tags, SEO algorithms rank the innocent Adobe Reader site the highest when searching for "click here".

ActiveX component can't create object: 'CDOnts.NewMail'

2006-05-24T10:38:00.000-04:00

You might get "ActiveX component can't create object: 'CDOnts.NewMail' " error message when working with ASP pages - CDONTS object especially. Your asp page is supposed to send an email to ... from ... with ..... such and such message, but it chokes on creating the 'email object.'

RESOLUTION 1: Most likely, your \windows\system32\cdonts.dll in not registered - run regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\cdonts.dll to resolve

RESOLUTION 2: Copy cdonts.dll from a Win 2K machine to your System32 folder. Next, run regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\cdonts.dll to resolve

If the above do not help, you may need to reinstall your SMTP service portion of IIS on your machine.

Dual Head Video Card

2006-05-17T21:08:00.000-04:00

This is for someone, who is looking for a video card that support dual monitors (spanning, not shadowing).
In my search for a dual head Video Card I ran across hundreds different types of cards to choose from. AGP this PCI that, 8x the other.... all meaningless to someone that does not deal with PC hardware on daily basis. My goal was to find a card that will support 2 monitors. Initially I thought that getting a card with two heads is all I need. That is only partially correct.

Some cards, surprisingly, do not support spanning your desktop onto two monitors. They do have two heads, but when you hook Two Monitors to the card you will see your mouse moving around on two screens at the same time. Why would anyone need that?

When you get a card, make sure it supports spanning two your desktop on two monitors, not just shadowing. D-sub is the old schools monitor connector. DVI is the new connector used for the latest monitors. Do not sweat if you purchased a card that gives your 2 DVI connectors and you have two old monitors with D-sub's. EBay has adapters for that purpose for .99 cents (shipping is more expensive than the precious adapter).

Two types. There are basically two different breeds of video cards: AGP and PCI. Those are only the generic families. What you want to look into are AGP 2x, 4x ,8x OR PCI-E. AGP 4x will fit in AGP 4x slot on your motherboard. It does not always work great the other way. AGP 4x will work in AGP 8x slot, only if the manufacturer states so. If you have an older motherboard, you most likely need AGP 2x card - just like I do.

I bought AGP 2x /4x - something that would work more efficiently in a AGP 4x slot, but it works just fine now, and that was one of few that I was able to find for my mother board configuration. When you get your card - investigate your motherboard's architecture FIRST. If you are no sure about the specs, pull out the plug, take off the cover and take a very close look at the current video card. You will need something very similar.

PCI-E is straight forward - there is only one type out there, there are a few main subgroups that require different RAM or Processor speed, but architecture wise, if you have a PCI-E motherboard then you almost can not go wrong when buying a video card. AGP adventure is a lot more challenging.

Nonetheless, I just thought my 2 cents may help someone out there, who catches this blog.
Think positive... post a comment if you need help or want to add... bash my post. All is welcome.

GOOD LUCK!

Spyware vs Viruses

2006-03-23T20:33:00.000-05:00

What's worse, spyware or viruses? How to get rid of it? What to use to clean it up? How to attempt preventing outbreaks?

What's your take on spyware?
Here's my (mintol1) view:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=81&threadID=191617&messageID=1978308

Some people have a lot of valuable information to share in that forum. Beware though, some of them are just IT idiots who claim themselves to know it ALL.

I think it is worth while reading throug at least some of those posts.

Enjoy !!

/dev/Sunnybrook/Blog: Increasing Google Page Rank from Backlinks

2006-03-20T17:27:00.000-05:00

/dev/Sunnybrook/Blog: Increasing Google Page Rank from Backlinks

Napa auto parts in Garfield, NJ is group of rude, obnoxious and unprofessional jerks

2005-07-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

I wanted to help a friend of mine out and fix up her car over the last weekend. She doesn't have a clue about cars - it turned out that all the car needed was some tlc. Oil change, air filter replacement, spark plugs and wires replacement needed to be done. Luckily ( unluckily in the end) there is Napa auto parts store in my friend's neighborhood. I went there with an intension of purchasing stuff for a over 10 year-old Suzuki. I collected some oil and the STP oil treatment under my arm bc they did not have any shopping baskets at all. I can live with that, I only grabbed 4 quarts of 10W-30 oil. While I waited patiently to be served, literally in the face of one of the clerks, he gave me an unpleasant look few times without saying a word to me. All I wanted to do is get two other filers and pay.

In the mean time, somebody else came in and was served before me. I started not liking the place, but I could live with that as well, I was not in a rush.

One of the rude clerks reached out to me for the oil bottles without a word and walked over to the register, few steps away.

As he was walking away I mentioned I will need parts in addition to the oil. In response I heard an angry, annoyed and rude "whaaaaa?" That pushed me to the limit, but I was only a minute from the final checkout. It wasn't my own vehicle that I needed parts for, so I hesitated when asked for the year of the Suzuki. All of a sudden the clerks starting announcing all over the stinky and dirty store that I wasn't sure about the year of production of the car.

He used the tone that crossed the limits of my patience. I told the guy I didn't need his aftermarket parts. All he had to say was "oh yeah...?"

I turned around and left the store to get parts from Strauss. They had everything I needed and served me with professionally and courteously.

If you don't mind getting aggravated and wasting time when getting auto parts - go to NAPE in Garfield, NJ, on Midland Ave.

What is gcasDtServ.exe? Should I worry about it?

2005-06-20T15:07:00.000-04:00

gcasDtServ.exe takes vast resources at the startup. Without it the startup may impove upto one minute on a W2k platform. Malware can be named anything so I recommend searching for the file on the HDD and seing where it is running from.
GcasDtServ.exe should be placed in \System32 folder. It associated with MS Antispyware. MS claims it is an essential component of the their Antispyware server.
Do not terminate the process, however, if it becomes a real nightmare, double check where the executable is runnig from.

Good Luck.

Any other suggestions?

CiceroUiWndFrame not responding

2005-06-13T13:20:00.000-04:00

Hi,
Very often, when shutting down, I get a dialog box... with title that says End Program - CiceroUIWndFrame not responding.
I can click cancel or End Task to kill the pop up and continue shutting down.
I'm running the XP Home with all the latest critical updates and service pack 2

Please advise.

IIS - Server Application Error

2005-06-07T13:56:00.000-04:00

When I attept to access localhost I get this:

Server Application Error
The server has encountered an error while loading an application during the processing of your request. Please refer to the event log for more detail information. Please contact the server administrator for assistance.

I created new Virtual folder, I restarted IIS on my w2k machine but still get the Error message. I am not trying any crazy asp files - only the simplest, plain http://localhost/

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Papiez Jan Pawel II - co czujesz wiedzac o jego pogrzebie?

2005-04-04T19:48:00.000-04:00

Najwiekszy z Karoli, z Wojtylow, z Polakow, z Papiezy ... najwikeszy czlowiek swiata odszedl do wiecznosci. Polska zamarla, nawet jedno z najbardziej komercyjnych radiow polski, rmf, zmienilo swoje oblicze i jego stona przypomina stronice z kronik o Papiezu. Wszystkie nowosci to cos roziskrzone odjesciem NASZEGO papieza. W moim rodzinnym domu zawsze, juz od 23 lat wisi obraz czlowieka w bialej czapeczce. Jako kilkuletni brzdzac nie wiedzialem kto to, ale zawsze jakos bilo od jego oblicza czyms szczegolnym. Poniekad czuje sie slabszy wiedzac ze nasz pasterz odszedl. Z drugiej strony czuje sie wiekszy, widzac jak caly swiat nagle zwraca wzrok ku ojczyznie papieza, bo ja tez stamtad jestem. Ziemia na ktorej ja sie wychowalem zrodzila najwiekszego czlowieka swiata. Nikt nie zrobil wiecej dla swiata - D O B R E G O - niz nasz Papiez (z bardzo duzej litery).

Co czujesz slyszac o pogrzebie Papieza?

WMP Error number C00D2EE6

2005-03-30T23:55:00.000-05:00

When I intend to listen to a radio station (http://rmf.fm) I initialize the media player and after a while I get a notification about error number C00D2EE6. How do I get around this error?

Error number -5402 - playing music from Winamp website

2005-03-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

If yo go to Winamp.com to the Music page and select a button for an artist that you would like to listen a .pls file should be downloaded on your PC and Winmap should pick it right up to play and please your senses. It does not happen ... You get an error message. The error number is -5402. What to do ??