Hurray for Twitter!

One simple question; what’s happening? and everyone knows what you’re doing. Brilliant!

With just 140 characters you can tell at any time what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, why you’re doing it or whatever it is that you want to share with your friends on Twitter. But not only is it fun, it can also be very useful.

During the 2008 elections in America, Barack Obama used it for publicity.

At different school around the world Twitter is used in education. In China they use it for native speakers as a tool to train communicative and cultural competence. In Vienna (Austria) they use it for evaluation. And in Texas (USA) they use it as a tool during discussions.

But one thing that I think it is most useful for is during emergencies. Because so many people are on twitter it is a easy way to let people know what is going on and what they can do to help. Good example: The Australian Country Fire Authority used Twitter to send out regular alerts and updates regarding the February 2009 Victorian bushfires. During this time the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, used his Twitter account to send out information on the fires, how to donate money and blood, and where to seek emergency help.

I think Twitter is very useful. So, hurray for Twitter!

*source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Obama and the social media.

July 2009, the security in second life goes up. Why? Barack Obama will be appearing in second life.

He will be giving a speech in Ghana on July 11, which will be shown live in second life. In 2006 during an interview with a Chinese businesses woman Ailin Graef, which was also shown live in second life, flying penises entered the screen. To avoid such situations with Obama, the security goes up.

Since Obama became president of the USA, he uses all kinds of social network. It is the new way to stay in touch with big audiences.

During and after  the elections, he did not just use second life. He was, and is still, using social media like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Flicker, MySpace and YouTube.

On Facebook, President Obama has about 7 million fans. Twitter, he has over 2,7 million followers. Also on YouTube he is very popular. His own YouTube channel has been viewed over 22 million times, he has over 200.000 people following him, and he has posted 1877 videos.

Obama is popular, and I think it is partly because he reaches everyone. He uses the media very well. Social media helped Obama to win the elections.

So can President Obama stay in touch with big audiences? Yes he can!

*source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/10/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5151594.shtml

Second life? Real life.

Real life or second life? What is the difference?

Second life (S.L.), the place to escape your daily life. But do you actually escape your real life? No. S.L. starts more and more looking like your real life. Most that things you can find in the normal world you can find in S.L. as well. You name it and it’s there.

For example: S.L. has its own economy. They have their own money, the Linden Dollar (L$). The GDP of S.L. in 2006 was 9 million USD, which would be L$2.430.000.000. Some people even make profit out of S.L. A few even have a profit of US$ 1 million a year.

but also for your spare time you can go on S.L. You can go to the theatre, attend a live-concert, go to a sports game, and even have sex.

If you want to go to the theatre, you can attend to the SL Shakespeare company. You even can go to a live concert of a singer from real life. The British band Redzone for example, they toured in S.L. in February 2007, and in 2008 they even released their new album on S.L.

In 2007, a S.L. girl was chosen #95 in ‘top 100 hottest females of 2007′ in Maxim magazine.

These are just a few examples of how real life get mingled with S.L. The two worlds are so familiar. So why chose to play life through you computer? My advice for those people: Get a life!