The talk was interesting. Putnam used all sorts of data as evidence that social capital is in decline. Church attendance is down, fewer people participate in Parent Teacher Organisations, few people go to public meetings. My argument is that most… Continue Reading
I’m sitting here at 2am reading and thinking about the work of Robert Putnam who is giving one of those inspirational internal lunchtime lectures at work tomorrow. Robert Putnam is a Harvard professor and author of Bowling Alone, a book… Continue Reading
According to a University College London review of 24 patient studies, patient participation in online discussions can have health benefits. BBC News Online reports that the researchers looked at "people’s use of interactive computer websites and programmes, which contained information… Continue Reading
A 19 year old from Paisley, Scotland, is being treated for text and email addiction. According to BBC News Online he was "sending about 700 texts a week and resigned from his job after bosses found out he had sent… Continue Reading
Just when we were all getting worried about the spread of avian flu, a new illness has reached the Chinese mainland – "internet addiction". The BBC’s Daniel Griffiths reports (thanks Smartmobs! ) that China’s first treatment centre for internet addicts… Continue Reading
I was just just updating some of my Amazon associates links and noticed that Amy Jo Kim’s Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities, which is now out of print, is being offered second hand for… Continue Reading
Emily Bell, editor of The Guardian Unlimited, revealed that 1/3 of their visitors links through to an archived article. That means that, instead of coming through the front door at guardian.co.uk, a large number of users are deep linking into… Continue Reading
BBC News is reporting that AOL has purchased Weblogs Inc, a site that pays bloggers to blog. What? Weblogs Inc has a network of 90 blogs that carry advertisements. Each of those blogs is written by a network of freelance… Continue Reading
When most people in the internet industry talk about cross platform we’re talking about websites that can be viewed and/or contributed to via mobile phone or PDA. But not those of us who work for "old" media companies who are,… Continue Reading
Yahoo has acquired yet another social software site, according to TheSocialSoftwareWeblog, which is reporting Yahoo’s purchase of upcoming.org, a collaborative calendar and event listing service. Users of upcoming can search for events by topic (for example "social software") or location… Continue Reading