Chris Dick

On episode 253 of commandN, Jeff and I talked about a number of spoof and fake Twitter accounts, including @FakeElsevier. As an information manager by training, I’ve been following the scientific community’s boycott of publishing powerhouse Elsevier with great interest.

Shortly after our episode was released, I blogged about the issue, but since video is always a great way to summarize big ideas and important concepts, I’m pleased to see that the brains behind @FakeElsevier have just released a short video with an update about the support from the scientific and academic community. The video also hits the main highlights of the issue.

Just today, a petition calling for public access to all Federally funded research in the US was posted to the White House’s ‘We the People’ site. If the petition gets 25,000 signatures in the next 30 days, it will be reviewed by the White House and further action will be considered. Obviously action needs to be taken – legislation is already in place that says federally funded health research through the National Institutes of Health has to be released over open access platforms, but those with something to gain are still trying to mess up the system. Consider signing the petition today and helping to reach that 25K to move this forward quickly.

Take a look!

Open Access Now

On episode 255 of commandN Amber talked about a number of Pinterset clone sites that have sprung up due to the popularity of Pinterest. According to Experian Pinterest is now the third largest social network in the United States so it’s no wonder people are trying to grab some of that momentum. The following are a few apps you can use to Pin on the go:

Official Pinterest App (iOS):
“Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find in your life. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”
Features include browsing pins from people and pinboards you follow, repin, like and comment on your favorite pins, and pin with your camera.

Pin’d for Android:
“A native Pinterest client for Android. The app authenticates with the Pinterest API, and allows users to log in, like, comment and repin pins. The app also allows users to view both public feeds and their home feed. Available now on the Market are both the free and paid versions of the client. The paid version adds the ability to post new pins from either the phone’s web browser, gallery or direct from a camera.”

Pinspiration for Windows Phones:
“You don’t need to have a Pinterest account to browse and share the amazing photos being posted here every day. Pinterest users can login to keep up with their stream then pin, like and repin photos to their heart’s content. The application also has Live Tile which rotates through the most popular pictures currently being shared. Pin your favoriite pinners to start to see their latest pins as a Live Tile as well.”

Flip Pinterest HD (iOS):
“The first and only app to turn your Pinterest stream into a beautiful Flipboard style iPad magazine. Flip through bigger photos than browsing Pinterest.com is much more enjoyable. Open this app, login your PInterest account ,and start flipping! Unlike Pinterest.com all photos are shown in lager and more enjoyable layout. Like and repin need in app purchase to unlock. And it removes ads”

There are many options to choose from to satisfy your cloud storage needs and now with the announcement of Google Drive and the soon closing of Apple’s iDisk (transitioning to iCloud on June 30, 2012) we thought we’d sum up the features of three of the most popular cloud storage services.

All three services behave in the same way by having the user download an app to their computer that puts a special folder that syncs to the cloud. In addition, all three services allow you to access your files from a web browser as well so you have access to your files wherever you have an internet connection.

While there will be differences in the services for the more advanced users there really doesn’t seem to be much difference for the casual user except for the amount of storage you get. Google Drive while not having the highest amount of free storage probably gets a slight advantage in being so integrated with the rest of Google’s products (Documents, Gmail, etc.). If you’re not a user of Google’s services then Microsoft’s SkyDrive looks to be the better option with 7GB free and an extra 20GB for only $10/year which is an amazing deal.

Either way, it looks like DropBox has some stiff competition on its hands.

I’ve seen electroluminescent dancing videos before but this one is top notch with great choreography. It takes a lot of talent to not only choreograph a dance on its own but also choreograph a living, moving light show as well. I really enjoy this performance and I’m sure you will too.

In order to maintain leadership in the search engine market Google is updating the way it searches the web in a significant way. Currently Google search results are based on keywords and taking into account other factors such as how often other sites link to it. In the near future Google will be introducing a semantic search element to it algorithms which will allow it to display facts and answers to user queries. Semantic search tries to understand human language and determine the user’s intent of the search query. The example given in the Wall Street Journal article Google Gives Search a Refresh is

Under the shift, people who search for “Lake Tahoe” will see key “attributes” that the search engine knows about the lake, such as its location, altitude, average temperature or salt content. In contrast, those who search for “Lake Tahoe” today would get only links to the lake’s visitor bureau website, its dedicated page on Wikipedia.com, and a link to a relevant map.

In order to provide this more detailed result page Google will be examining webpages for information about topics instead of just for keywords. This could and most likely will lead to a major shift in how websites perform SEO. The key issue then is how quickly companies adapt their SEO practices to take advantage of the new semantic search formulas. It is quite possible that companies who currently rank highest on Google for their particular set of keywords can see their position fall as more nimble companies adapt to the new system. According to the article mentioned above “the shift to semantic search could directly impact the search results for 10% to 20% of all search queries, or tens of billions per month.”

The answer-engine Wolfram Alpha already has a pretty good handle on how to parse and return results for natural language queries, however, the results are just a list of facts and figures. While that is useful depending on the situation, sometimes you want more in-depth information. Also, it’s pretty much muscle memory to go to Google for search which is why I’m looking forward to when semantic search is implemented to Google. It has the potential to be the best of both worlds.

What do you think about Google’s semantic search plan or semantic search in general?

On commandN episode 253 Jeff and I talk about spoof and parody Twitter accounts, and we received some great examples from viewers of accounts they follow because they’re funny or ridiculous or perhaps posturing for social change. Thanks to @toddwachob, @NosworthyR, @JLBabs, @jumping_geenard, & @Tone_720, to name a few who sent in some favourites!

I talked specifically about @FakeElsevier, a fairly new account. The real company Elsevier publishes over 2500 scientific journals, and relies on academics to voluntarily submit material, review their peers’ work, and polish papers for release, all without pay. In fact, to submit an article for publication, authors generally have to pay a fee (frequently between $1000-$2000) for their research to be considered for publication. Elsevier then sells giant bundles of these journals to academic libraries for a large profit. You don’ t have to be a math wizard to see that free labor plus getting paid to look at submissions plus selling them once they’ve been vetted by volunteer experts means big money.

A few years ago the US Congress passed a law stating that any research funded by the National Institutes of Health, and therefore by US taxpayers, must be made available through open access channels to the public, at no cost. Recently Elsevier was lobbying Congress to change back this law (through the Research Works Act or RWA) so they can sell taxpayer funded research right back to the researchers and the public, rather than be required to make it available through open access channels with no profit. Almost 8000 scientists and researchers are now boycotting Elsevier and refusing to work for free, insisting that publicly funded research belongs to the public. Check out The Cost of Knowledge website for more on the boycott.

Cue @FakeElsevier, the Twitter account that has risen up to point out the many ways Elsevier is being less than above-board with the scientific community. The account bio notes “Lover of life and liver of love. Also a giant Dutch meg-corp that parasitizes scientific publishing.” Following a slew of funny and pointed tweets to help bring awareness to this issue and invite support from the public, Elsevier dropped their support for the RWA, and within hours the US House of Representatives dropped the bill as well.

Of course there were other factors in play than simply a parody Twitter account, but these accounts really can help bring awareness to current events and give audiences an easy, sometimes fun way to spread the word about issues that affect the public. Elsevier’s change of heart happened between filming our commandN episode and releasing it, but we still felt it was important to explain the issue and the role that social media may have played in public awareness of it. Sometimes spoofed social media accounts can contribute to changing the course of not only legislation, but the free dissemination of scientific knowledge.

We’d love to hear from you in the comments about other ways you’ve seen social media used to point out when something should change for the greater social good.

In episode 252 we featured a clip from a wonderful stop-motion short showing the after-dark secret life of books in Type bookstore in Toronto.

If you didn’t have the chance to check out the full version, it’s worth your time – and runs just under 2 minutes. Enjoy!

Facebook is known to make frequent changes in both its design and privacy policies so it is a good idea from time-to-time to check your privacy settings. Recently, Facebook introduced its new Timeline design and with that are changes in how your information is presented to your friends and the general public. Here are five tips on securing your information under the Timeline design.

Make Your Timeline Private
There are various privacy levels (Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends, Only Me, and Custom) that either allow or prevent people from viewing content on your timeline. The first step to increase your Timeline privacy is to make your Timeline private.

Under “Privacy Settings” there are two main settings to change. The first is “How You Connect” and the second is “How Tags Work”. In the “How You Connect” section change “Who can see posts by others on your timeline?” from Public to Friends. Or for even more control set it to Custom which allows you to refine who sees your content even further by allowing you to select lists of people you create, exclude specified people, and more.

Adjust Your Tags
In addition to controlling who sees content you post you also need to be aware of what information of yours is shown when someone tags you in a post or photo.

Under “Privacy Settings” click on the “How Tags Work” section and change the settings for “Timeline Review”, “Tag Review”, and “Maximum Timeline Visibility” to “On”, “On”, and “Friends”, respectively. This will allow you to review posts you are tagged in before they appear on your timeline, tags your friends want to add to your post, and set it so that only friends can see posts you are tagged in on your timeline.

Limit Past Posts
In the past if people wanted to see your past posts they had to scroll to the bottom of your wall and let the next 20 posts load. To see posts more than a month old this was a fairly laborious process. However, with the new Timeline all a person has to do is click on the year and month that they want to see in your Timeline.

Under “Privacy Settings” click on “Limit the Audience for Past Posts” which will change all of your past posts from Public to Friends-only visibility. This is a great time saver if you are worried about past posts that may be set to Public visibility. You should note however that there is no mass undo for this change, but you can manually change each post privacy level if you so choose.

Delete Your Posts From Other People’s Timelines
In the past you may have left comments on friend’s timelines that you no longer want out in the public. Especially since you have no way on controlling how other people adjust their privacy settings.

At the top of your Timeline is a button marked “Activity Log” which allows you to see all of your posts, comments, likes, etc. in reverse chronological order. In the top right hand corner of the “Activity Log” is a drop-down menu of various filters you can apply. Change the filter from “All” to “Your Posts” and you will see all the posts you’ve ever made. Now you can delete any post you made that you no longer want published. This will remove the posts from your Timeline as well as your friend’s Timeline.

View Your Profile as One of Your Friends
Once you have your Privacy settings adjusted it’s a good idea to do a test to see who can see what. On the top right of your Timeline click the “cog” icon an choose “View As”. This will allows you to enter a friend’s name to see your profile the way your friend would. You also have the option of seeing how the general public sees your Timeline. If you adjusted your privacy settings properly you should not see anything you don’t want others to see. If you do, you know that you have to go back and adjust your settings until you are satisfied that others can see only what you want them to see.

At the Social Media Lab Symposium 2011 at Dalhousie University in Halifax Jeff and I chatted with Dr Anatoliy Gruzd (@dalprof), Director of the Social Media Lab and assistant professor at Dal’s School of Information Management.

Anatoliy is up on all things social, from analyzing the emotional tone of Twitter messages to showing how academics and generally smart people are networking to advance their work, and collaborating with some colleagues with non-traditional backgrounds, given the utility of new social tools. A short version of our interview appeared in commandN episode 250, but this is your chance to watch the whole thing.

This week, Anatoliy’s work (“Why Twitter Ties Resemble Airline Hub Maps”) with Dr Yuri Takhteyev and Dr Barry Wellman of the University Toronto was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. The story also ran on Slate.com.

We also spoke with @RyanMcNutt, (first-ever) New Media Officer at Dalhousie, and a panelist at the Symposium, about his role in social media in an academic setting. Thanks to Anatoliy and Ryan for talking with us!

Pinterest has been around for a while now (it launched in March 2010) but has only recently picked up steam. The infographic on the left below shows just how fast they are growing. Some of the highlights include:

• Pinterest hit 10 million unique monthly US visitors faster than any other independent site in history.
• Over 1/5 of Facebook-connected users are on Pinterest daily, which is more than 2 million members.
• 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women.

So whether you’re male or female or where your interests lie there are ways you can make use of Pinterest.

Finally, be sure to check out Jeff’s commandN Product Review board where you can find information on products he’s reviewed on the show in one easy place. Let us know in the comments if and how you make use of Pinterest.