Is Social Media a Fad?

“If Facebook  was a country it would be the world’s 4th largest” – I paused, thought about it again, and smiled after watching this video presentation posted on Youtube by a colleague member of the social media group on Linkedin. The 21st Century virtual world is growing enormously and I think it’s based on the fundamental fact that the cyber world has no boundaries let alone, a President, Minister or immigration officer to be in charge. No visa needed, the only green card of citizenship is getting internet access. The speed at which we travel is only a click away in the cyber world.

If the number of people in this virtual world is skyrocketing then obviously, it’s become part of our life today. Some of us first login to our social network pages after launching our browsers before checking emails. Number of friends online are becoming more than offline friends again regardless boundaries with increase in diversity. The spirit of network building among various interest groups in the cyber world is countless – we see it in various discussion groups and forums on Ning, Google, Yahoo, etc. Besides, there’s been high increase in online education according to a report by US Department of Education. Not to mention the high rate of online banking and transactions on Amazon, EBay, and PayPal. In this information age, what happens to anyone in any country stays on; Facebook, Orkut, Bebo, Flickr, Digg, MySpace, Youtube, etc.

News papers are experiencing record decline in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us. For example, more and more pieces of content (web links, news stories, articles, blog posts, notes, articles, photos, videos, podcasts, etc.) are shared on Facebook and Twitter daily. In the near future, we will no longer search for products and services; they will find us with social media.

No wonder businesses and government institutions are partaking in social media activities to reach out to their share of the virtual community. Many business organisations are using Linkedin, Monster.com and Dice.com as their primary tool to find employees. Others target Ads based on either your PC internet protocol (IP) address to determine your location or content of your keywords in search results to market their products and services. If businesses want to innovate and grow, it depends on how they value and treat information as I mentioned in my first blog post "Is business life water". Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators and content providers than traditional advertisers – by listening first and selling second.

Some government use social media to communicate and engage citizens in various policy programs for their country. Others use social media as a target for their campaign purposes.

In this new dawn of the 21st Century, I am yet to read about “Cybernomics Theory” proposed by today’s Adam Smith, depicting the “digital hand” rather than the “invisible hand”.

Social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we live, communicate, connect and relate to each other in the 21 Century. So see you on Facebook and don’t forget to twitt my blog!

© Harry Tetteh

Feeling The Cloud?

I recall my first experience with the internet in year 2000 when I didn’t know what to really do online after all my curiosity and eagerness to experience the internet cafe which was about 10 kilometres from my school. From that time till today, there hasn’t been any single online time for me without trying to learn a new thing on the internet. Just like recently, I have been following the new metaphor in the computing world, “Cloud Computing Technology”.

Speaking at Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Larry Ellison said that the computer industry is more fashion-driven than women's fashion and cloud computing is simply the latest fashion. Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer used “the cloud” more than 3 times in his opening address at the 2009 Consumer Electronic Association (CES) tradeshow, referring to internet. Many technology executives including Christophe Bisciglia - Senior Software Engineer at Google, Marie Hattar - Cisco’s Vice President of Network Systems and Security Solutions, are dancing to the tune of cloud computing recently.

“Cloud” in IT generally refers to the Internet and I think it evolved from the cloud-like symbols in the network topology or diagram which is used to reduce an entire network communication into points of entry and exit. Basically, the cloud symbol represents a communication network without specific details of its architecture. The cloud technology enables resources to be provided as service on the internet, which is popularly known as Software As A Service (SAAS).

Internet companies such as Google and Amazon are working hard to offer more web services for all internet users. At 2009 CES, Steve Ballmer said “Microsoft is transforming what Windows is, from a Personal Computer (PC) operating system to a connected platform and experience across the PC, phones, TV and the cloud”. Microsoft says it’s Software-Plus-a-Service.

I am always thrilled to hear about new innovations in IT and its impact on the global economy. I believe one of the purpose of cloud computing is to be able to reach all customers in any part of the world. But the question is “are we all feeling the cloud?” Or “are we all connected to the internet?”

During this leap forward are the proliferation of high-speed internet connection, cheaper and more powerful chips and drives and the construction of data centres that houses thousand of computers. Seems like it’s time to build an infrastructure for the 21^st Century where broadband value of speed and price would be a national innovational policy for most countries if not all.

© Harry Tetteh