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Spexclub.com has a brand new look, and they are seeing things differently – much brighter and bolder! Spexclub, the visionary pioneers that have revolutionized the online eyewear market, announce the launch of their updated website Spexclub.com. The new site features a well edited selection of  different, trend-­forward styles for prescription and non-prescription frames, free shipping both ways as well as available upgrades.

Video campaign credit:  photographer Justin Coit  directed by Lauren Graham and scored by L.A. based up & coming band White Arrows.

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Media literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership - and to be aware of how these factors influence content (Source: TeacherInfo)

Photo credit: Alan Levine

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

• The Edgeless University - ...while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.
• Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - ...is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning.
• Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.
• Learning Institutions In a Digital Age - This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.
• Learning Leaders Fieldbook - ...offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization
• Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.
• A Global Reset For Advertising - ...within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

George Siemens' Media Literacy digest helps you uncover interesting trends, new technologies and approaches as well as guiding you to ask the difficult questions needed to make better sense of the fast changing times we live in.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

The Edgeless University

The Edgeless University (.pdf) argues, that while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.

Growing competition, heavy reliance on public funding (which is made even more insecure in today’s economy), technology growth, open content, and social media / networks are forcing universities to adapt.

The author states that technology is the core of the change (p. 8). This isn’t entirely accurate. Technology is one of many change pressures.

The real change pressure is found on points along the longer time lime of change: how we interact with information and with each other. Today’s technology is only one point on the timeline. Language, Gutenberg, and the scientific method all occupy a role in increasing the ability for individuals and society to create / access / validate information.

This report, while focused on UK, provides a good overview of technological and policy concerns universities face. To increase relevance, universities need to become “edgeless”, extending current roles to include informal, collaborative, and participatory learning.

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

This report will get a fair bit of attention: Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning (.pdf).

It joins a long list of meta-analysis by researchers like Abrami, Bernard et al. (.pdf), Tallent-Runnells et al., Zhao et al., and of course the original “no significant difference” site.

The current report - by US Department of Education - is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning. Conclusions of this type likely won’t convince anyone who is antagonistic to technology use in classrooms.

At minimum, the report provides a sweeping overview of how various researchers have tackled the effectiveness of technology in schools over the last decade.

The questions we ask in research are sometimes more interesting than the findings…

Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments

Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.

The talk is an advancement (integration) of Stephen’s ideas over the last several years and looks like a precursor to his large PLE research project at NRC.

During the talk, he makes a distinction between complicated and complex that resonates with my own work around learning theory (and Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework, Ronald Barnett’s work on super complexity). In this distinction we find the driving motivation for reform of education.

Web 2.0 is an instantiation of change. It is not the core change. The shift from settled and stable information (complicated - like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece has a place in our curriculum) to adaptive and emerging (complex - like a weather system where numerous combinations of factors will produce outcomes that cannot be fully predicted) is the core change. New education models must be built on this change. Any system that is out of synch with the market it intends to serve risks irrelevance.

Learning Institutions In a Digital Age

I encourage you to read this report from the MacArthur foundation, published by MIT Press The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (.pdf).

If you’ve followed elearnspace blog - and many others with a similar educational technology focus over the last seven years - you won’t find much new in it. And that’s the problem.

I like the report. It offers many insightful statements that I hope will be considered by leaders who don’t follow edublogs. Statements such as:

“We contend that the future of learning institutions demands a deep, epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution”... and

“participatory learning is about a process and not always a final product”... and

“We advocate institutional change because we believe our current formal educational institutions are not taking enough advantage of the modes of digital and participatory learning available to students today”... and

“Networked learning, however, goes beyond these conversational rules to include correcting others, being open to being corrected oneself, and working together to fashion workarounds when straightforward solutions to problems or learning challenges are not forthcoming”

I could offer many other similar statements. All of which have been discussed at great length on many sites and by many authors that I frequently reference.

One of the first steps in publishing on a subject is to do a literature review.

Type in “networked learning” into Google or Google scholar and you’ll see many individuals that have written at length on the subject: Chris Jones, Stephen Downes, Leigh Blackall, Martin de Laat... as well as entire conferences devoted to the theme. Or, when considering educational change and OERs, where is David Wiley? The list goes on.

The report irritates me because I’ve seen this happen several times: an existing field, and major thinkers within the field, is completely ignored as open, online conversations are squeezed into existing publication processes. This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.

Learning Leaders Fieldbook

Masie Center’s Learning Leaders Fieldbook offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization.

Topics include talent management, role of CLO (including lifecycle, basics of success, team structure), and role of technology.

In all, it’s a good handbook. But, its strength is also a weakness: each chapter is only a few pages. After a few chapters you get the impression that you’re reading a series of blog posts.

This reflects a trend I’ve noticed over the last several years: when did leading thinkers in corporate learning conclude that their audience can not handle complex subjects? Why this push for shallowness?

I presented at a large corporate learning event about five months ago. After the presentation, a VP (in charge of training and development) approached me and stated that simple messages are preferable. I assumed this to mean that I had delivered a presentation that was too complex (I was talking about restructuring training departments to take advantage of existing organizational connections between people and using decentralized methods to achieve adaptive corporate strategies - yes, the topic was a bit complex, but because it was complex, it required a complex treatment).

I responded that a good presentation, in my eyes, should do two things: clarify simple issues and present a complex constellation of important issues.

The organization then faces the challenge of working through complex issues in a manner that reflects organizational and external contexts. If it were simple, we could just write a blog post about it or deliver a one-slide powerpoint presentation.

Corporate learners aren’t dumb. We don’t need to reduce significant training to pablum-like consistency.

Why Free Web Services Aren't Really Free

There are many reasons to love emerging technologies - ease of use, features, ability to connect with family / friends. But for most people “free” is a prominent reason. Unfortunately, it’s not the right kind of free.

The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.

Mark Pilgrim posted on this in 2005 in Freedom 0 where he discusses the dangers of “free enough”.

I don’t mind paying for software, even content, when I actually own it, rather than rent it under the terms provided by a software user’s license.

This short article raises the important concerns about control again: Why free web services aren’t really free: “Trading one closed-source app for another gets us nowhere, even if the new app happens to come from Google”.

A Global Reset For Advertising

Advertising revenue for newspapers, TV, magazines, and other mainstream media will rebound once the current economic situation improves, right? Not according to Ballmer: “I don’t think we are in a recession, I think we have reset,” he said.

“A recession implies recovery [to pre-recession levels] and for planning purposes I don’t think we will. We have reset and won’t rebound and re-grow... within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

The very simple (and obvious) lesson here is this: when a system no longer reflects the external context it serves, it is doomed. Examples are numerous - car manufacturers, mainframe computers, and subscription internet models of the early 90’s (AOL).

The question for educational leaders is how well does our system match the activities of our learners and society as a whole - are the approaches to research, learning, and teaching within education synchronized to the dominant long term trends around information creation, sharing, and personal interactions?.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 3rd, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits:

The Edgeless University - tonob

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - M.G. Mooij

Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Ana Blazic

Learning Leaders Fieldbook - Ilin Sergey

Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - kmitu

A Global Reset For Advertising - Sebastian Kaulitzki

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New Austrian energy drink Bomba needed a unique packaging solution to launch in Australia’s competitive marketplace. The packaging needed to attract a young, fashion conscious market while conveying the product’s natural energetic qualities.

Via Dieline.

How can you keep yourself updated with everything new and relevant that gets published on the Web? What is the best to find always fresh, new content for your blog to write about?

Photo credit: Robin Good

In this short video Robin Good explains one of the key elements everyone wanting to become an online publisher has to confront with: how do you stay updated on the specific news that are relevant to your focus of interest without wasting hours to visit tens of sites or hundreds of RSS feeds?

Managing all the sources the Internet provides is not a simple task if you don't find an efficient way to filter all of these information and focus only on the ones that seem relevant to you.

This is why, Robin introduces to you his own approach to gathering, reading and picking up the most relevant daily news from hundreds of different sources, a task (newsmastering) and a new emerging professional role (the newsmaster), that according to him will be increasingly in demand.

In fact, Robin argues, it is next to impossible nowadays to have enough time to scour and scan all of the possible relevant news sources in a certain industry, and unless you start relying on intermediary human filters, what he calls "newsmasters", to aggregate, filter and hand-select the very best and most relevant news for your specific industry niche, you may as well give up on the idea of being on top of the news that are relevant to you.

Here's Robin own advice:

Intro by Daniele Bazzano

How To Keep Yourself Updated

Full English Text Transcription

Hi guys, this is Robin Good indeed!

More questions coming into my e-mail inbox from you asking about more stuff on video web publishing and everything it takes to become an effective online publisher.

This time you write me, or I have selected among your very many many questions: How do I keep myself updated on the topics I'm interested the most?

Great question indeed!

Today this is one of the challenges for anyone out there on the information frontier: how do you keep yourself updated? There's no lack of information sources out there, the problem is: how do you manage all that information without going crazy or being overwhelmed by this tsunami of news coming at you every minute?

Most of you already have identified some web sites, some sources, that are ideal for providing the news you're looking for. The best next step you can do after that is to subscribe to the RSS feed of those sites and collect all of those feeds inside an RSS reader.

What does that all mean?

It's very simple. You will notice, if you pay attention, that most web sites now have somewhere written in their navigation information. On the side, of the top right, or at the bottom: RSS feed. You can also see often a little icon that is an orange rectangle with some waves inside. It looks like kind of a speaker sending sounds, waves out.

That orange button stands for the URL, the address of the feed of that site. If you can copy, by right-clicking or ctrl-clicking if you're on a Mac, that logo you would get a URL that is behind that logo. Even if you click and you go to a page where you see a lot of code, grab the URL above. Don't worry about the code you see. Get the URL above and put it inside your RSS reader. One of those would be for example, Google Reader, free to use. You add your RSS feeds inside of it and you start reading in one place all of the many different sites that you're interested into.

But, maybe, I'm getting out of your specific question: how do I get myself updated?

I do all of that, but I do also something more. I feel that when I am looking at the news, I can do something valuable also for the others at the same time.

Because anytime I look at the news, there are some news that are very relevant for me. And since I've decided to help out, to communicate, to create a community of people that wants basically to do exactly what I'm doing everyday, that is finding out how to become a more effective online communicator, publisher, entrepreneur, I just share with my own readers, the contents and the news that I think are most valuable.

I call this activity newsmastering.

By selecting as many sources I think are relevant (I have about one hundred and ten of these), and everyday reading all of these sources and selecting out of them which are the most interesting for me and sharing them on my breaking news, on my homepage, the most valuable ones, allows me to do two great things:

1. Keep myself very update on what is happening.
2. Share absolutely for free with my readers, the very best news that I think they should be reading if they want to be as updated as I am.

Then, when you add your team, your newsroom doing this together with you, and you learning from them and them learning from you, that becomes a tremendously valuable approach to keeping yourself updated while creating valuable content for others.

I hope that answers your question! Look forward to more questions, send them in at Robin.Good[at]masternewmedia.org. Ciao!

Originally shot and recorded by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 14th 2008 as "How To Keep Yourself Updated And Why The Role Of The Newsmaster Is So Important - Video".

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How can you convert the contents of a web page into RSS? How do you generate a RSS feed for a website, search result page or news source that doesn't have one? Can you do this without spending any money and without having any technical HTML skill?

Photo credit: Mipan

In this new Sharewood Guide I have collected the best free tools to convert any web page to RSS.

Web page to RSS converters are free tools, usually web-based, that anyone can use to keep changes of any site which doesn't offer a RSS feed for its readers.

RSS feeds are very intuitive and easy-to-use: to create a feed just grab the desired page's URL, paste it into the box, and click generate. Some of these tools, will also offer advanced options to let you refine which of the items present on a specific web page need to be included in your newly generated RSS feed.

Here the best web page to RSS converters I have found out there (if you know of other ones, please help me out by adding them in the comment area at the end):

Convert Web Pages Contents Into RSS Tool List

1. Dapper
   
   Dapper is a free service that lets you convert any web page content (from YouTube search results to blog posts) into a RSS feed in seconds. Just provide a URL (ore more), select and divide in multiple fields the content that you want to be included in your feed (e.g. titles, descriptions, images...), decide the output format and save your feed. You will need to be registered to create as many feeds as you want. Free.
   http://www.dapper.net/
2. Yahoo! Pipes
   
   Yahoo! Pipes is a RSS feed mixer that mashes content from the web together into new interactive creations. It lets you drag and drop different information feeds, such as the latest news items from your favorite news sources, or search queries, or anything else you want, and combine them through a series of filters into "pipes".The service is completely free to use; a Yahoo! account is required.
   http://pipes.yahoo.com/
3. Feed43
   
   Feed43 is an online service that converts standard web pages or XML documents to RSS feeds. In order to create a new feed, simply identify the web page from which to generate a RSS feed, define the search patterns to help the system locate the news source, and generate the feed. The service is free to use, no registration is needed.
   http://www.feed43.com/
4. RSSxl
   
   RSSxl is an easy-to-use web page to RSS converter, that allows you to convert any page to a normal RSS feed. After you provide the URL of the site, you just have to identify the news items' start and end points by pointing to them with some HTML or string keywords. Then you can click generate, and get your new RSS news feed to keep updated with that page's changes. Free.
   http://www.wotzwot.com/rssxl.php
5. Web2RSS
   
   Web2RSS is a web-based app that automatically turns any website into a RSS news feed. Pasting the site's URL is enough to let Web2RSS convert the content and export it in RSS format, without doing anything. If you want to make it even more precise, you can either match or exclude parts of the page using HTML or string expressions present on the page. Free to use, no registration is needed.
   http://www.baekdal.com/web2rss/
6. RSS Wizard
   
   RSS Wizard is a software for Windows machines than can generate the RSS feed out of any web page without having to edit it first. To create a feed, you have to start the program, paste a URL, provide a start and end string to make the software recognize where the news begin and end, and click OK to create the feed. Free to try, $29.05 to buy.
   http://www.extralabs.net/rss-wizard.htm
7. Feedity
   
   Feedity is an only feed builder that creates a RSS feed out of any website. Feedity is very easy-to-use and lets you get your feed in two steps: enter the URL of the desired website, help the service identify the news source on the page by pointing to some reference points (in simple or advanced mode), and click generate to retrieve your feed. Free to use, doesn't require any registration.
   http://feedity.com/
8. Feedmarklet
   
   Feedmarklet gives you the ability to create your own RSS feed instantly through a browser bookmarklet, with no sign up required. After you insert a name for your feed, you can start adding content to it easily: find a link you want to keep an eye on and click on the bookmarklet button in your browser to immediately add the page you are on to your feed. By doing this, you can mix multiple sources into a single feed with one click. Free.
   http://www.feedmarklet.com/
9. FeedFire
   
   FeedFire is an HTML-to-RSS service allowing anyone to automatically create a RSS news feed for any website that does not have one. You simply register at FeedFire, input the URL of the page and it'll do the rest for you in a matter of seconds. The service offers both free and paid feeds, which you can discover by signing up to the service.
   http://www.feedfire.com/
10. FeedYes
    
    FeedYes is a completely automatic tool for creating RSS feeds out of HTML web pages. Three steps are involved in the process: provide the URL of the page out of which you want to create a feed; indicate among the dynamic links found by FeedYes, which one is the first that refers to the news section; select the last item that closes the news section. Then, after a preview is shown, you can proceed and save your feed, or further refine it. Free.
    http://www.feedyes.com/
11. PonyFish
    
    Ponyfish is a web-based tool that allows you to create your own RSS feeds from almost any web page. All you have to do is point Ponyfish to the web page you want to create a feed from, then select at least two links that you will want to see in your feed (this indicates to the system which links are news sources) and finally copy your new RSS feed URL. Free to use, no registration needed.
    http://www.ponyfish.com/
12. Page2RSS
    
    Page2RSS is a completely web-based and automatic service which converts web pages to RSS feeds. You can just paste a page URL, and Page2RSS will instantly give you back a preview of the new RSS feed you just created, with the possibility of subscribing to it with the major RSS readers available. You can also use a toolbar button to create feeds for all the pages that you are currently viewing. Free to use, doesn't require any registration.
    http://page2rss.com/
13. RSSpect
    
    RSSpect is a service that lets you add RSS feeds to any web page. RSSpect offers three kinds of feeds, so you can add a RSS feed to literally anything you find online: “AnySite feeds” allows you to create update feeds from any website or any document online, even those that you don't control; “MySite feeds” allows you to generate advanced RSS feeds from your own website content, automatically. “Podcast feeds” are specially-designed RSS feeds to be used with iTunes. Free to use.
    http://www.rsspect.com/
14. CaRP
    
    CaRP is a PHP script that lets you generate RSS feeds for your web page. CaRP comes in two different versions: LE (basic) and Evolution (enhanced). The LE version allows no control on the appearance of your feeds, while the Evolution version comes with sixteen free bonus plugins to let you customize your RSS-generating experience: auto-update feeds, add images, embed videos, select which part of the text you want to show, sort your feeds, and much more. CaRP LE is free and CaRP Evolution is priced at $47. Registration required for both.
    http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 13th 2008 as "Convert Web Pages Content Into RSS Feeds: Web Page To RSS Converters - Sharewood Guide"

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Web 2.0 has revolutionized the panorama of the information society: users have become information producers and the new web platforms have become relationship venues where new knowledge and ideas emerge. Also the new tools of social networking, social tagging, wikis and blogs enable new forms of social interaction, participation and cooperation. But...

Photo credit: Slate magazine

• Is this participation really democratic?
• Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?
• Is the horizontal leveling of internet communications really an instrument of democracy?
• How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in a real space connected with the physical world of true participation to decision-making?

I have gone out and asked to four people whose intellectual integrity and life vision the above questions: Howard Rheingold, John Blossom, Michel Bauwens, Sepp Hasslberger answer the above questions from four diverse individual viewpoints:

Howard Rheingold of Smartmobs.com

1. Is this participation really democratic?"Democratizing" means making access (to information, tools, policy-making discussions, elections, etc.) widely available. This, however, does not guarantee a healthy democracy.

   What if more people vote, but their picture of political candidates and their policies are distorted by sophisticated public relations tools and strategies?

   What if their educations are so poor that voters are unable to think critically about partisan claims?

   I am wary of projecting hopes onto the tools you mention -- which truly have the potential to inform and involve more people in democratic decision-making -- without paying attention to the less visible parts of the system I mention.

2. Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?I am also wary of governance by instant voting. This is known as the "plebiscite" and can be very dangerous: a demagogue or a government can propagandize people into starting a war or adopting a policy without a process of deliberation.That's why modern democracies are generally republics -- citizens elect representatives who are expected to deliberate openly and transparently.
3. Is the horizontal leveling of internet communications really an instrument of democracy?It CAN be. But more than the technology is required. A healthy public sphere is essential -- most people need to have sufficient education, freedom to criticize, well-trained critical faculties, and ample sources of accurate information.
4. How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in a real space connected with the physical world of true participation to decision-making?Education!

Michel Bauwens of P2P Foundation

The first level is expression, and it is clear that in this context, the Web 2.0 is a resounding success.

And it's importance should not be underestimated since historically, we can see that people with power have always tried to limit and control expression, so we should not be cynical about it.

I think that Web 2.0 generally goes beyond expression, and has also become an efficient tool for mobilization and collective action

But expression is not deliberation. Most Web 2.0 platforms are not very well suited for the kind of complex deliberation that would be needed to create a context for decision-making. I think these kinds of tools, which can integrate complexity, adequately filter for quality, and have a value conscious design approach that insure that a diversity of views are taking into account, are still too far between, but quite a few groups are working on it

The key in politics is not expression, nor expressing discontent or resistance, but actually transforming things. Collective action can change things, but still implies a separation between the 'people' and 'representative institutions'. It implies 'we' are asking 'them', to change their ways.

So I think the real revolution of peer to peer technologies is that it allows people not just expression, but actually a redesign of social processes.

For example, free software communities successfully embed their values in software, and so do the emerging open design communities that are now starting to tackle physical production itself. This is the next great frontier of peer production communities.

But equally crucial, and this is why I believe Lessig made the right decision in moving from Creative Commons to Open Politics, is that we actually start redesigning politics itself.

If you see sites like worldchanging.org, or p2pfoundation.net for that matter, it is rather easy to come to the conclusion that most solutions for contemporary problems already exist, but they are scattered in marginal groups.

At the same time, the current political and economic system seems almost completely oblivious to it, and so these crucial solutions do not seem to be able to scale. This is a sign of a profound disease and insufficiency of current democratic and representative regimes, that are in the hands of privileged elites, who hide their power through a lack of openness.

The big fight now is openness and transparency.

And as we create our own P2P alternatives, we still have to tackle the mainstream system, and since a direct approach seems impossible (simply changing one party by another with very similar standard policies), what we need is to redesign, reprogram the political process itself.

That's the crucial task right now, and Web 2.0 is not sufficient for this, it's merely a first step.

John Blossom of Shore.com

1. Is this participation really democratic?While not all social media tools are available to everyone in the world, by its nature people who have access to social media are participating in the most democratic form of political human expression.

   In the past the power of a political voice was determined by a person's connection to powerful people, by their access to the media or a bullhorn or whatever other device amplified one voice over that of an electorate's voice. In social media the opportunity for all voices to express themselves begins to become a reality.

   However, just because social media tools are being used for political expression doesn't mean that the content being generated by social media is always "the voice of the people."

   Oftentimes powerful individuals and organizations will hire surrogates to spread their opinions using social media tools, creating "astroturf" - content that's supposed to look like "grass roots" opinion but which is in fact sponsored by a controlling interest.

   What I am noticing in this year's U.S. election is that people are far more aware of the potential for astroturf content and challenging it more quickly and vocally.

   It's also important to note the growth of media outlets that use social media tools but which have editorial staffs that enable them to operate much as any other media publication would. Just because you're using the tools of social media doesn't necessarily mean that you're actually trying to be just one voice in the crowd.

   This is not to say that the powerful should not have a voice as well in social media. In a true democracy all people of all walks of life should have a voice in political discussions.

   But if democracy is a system which says that each person has one voice as well as one vote, then all of the people who have that right should have an equal opportunity to influence their peers through social media.

   Within that framework influential figures arise, leadership forms and actions are taken based on that influence, but the influence, endorsement and leadership is not presumed. Social media is a key venue in which such influence, endorsement and leadership is formed.

2. Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?In my book Content Nation I am highlighting the importance of the coffee houses and the taverns of the American colonies in which influential political pamphlets such as Thomas Paine's Common Sense were discussed.The discussions in those gathering places and the passing of these pamphlets from one person to another was in effect the social media of that era. Without those influential discussions and the local thought leadership that emerged from them there would not have arisen the widespread convictions that led to the actions outside of the rooms in which these discussions took place.

   Democracy is a form of self-organizing government: one cannot form it until people have organized their thoughts as to how they would like to be represented.

   So while oftentimes the discussions in social media forums may appear to be as boistrous as any that one may encounter in a pub or a cafe, that boisterousness leads to the convictions to express oneself through democratic institutions.

   Social media can enable actual decision making - many services provide polling capabilities - but its primary value is to enable people to have the intellectual and emotional interchange necessary to make informed decisions in the democratic process or to inform our representatives of the true opinions of the electorate more efficiently.

   A simple analogy can be found in and about my home town. In the New England region of the U.S. many small towns still govern themselves via direct representation: the citizens of a town gather at appointed times to vote on town budgets and regulations and to discuss and to vote upon important issues. However, as some of these towns grew this form of government gave way to representative town meetings, in which citizens are called upon oftentimes to speak out on issues of public importance at town meetings but in which the elected representatives then are called upon to vote. Both are democratic functions, but in the representative town meeting the voice of the citizens is separate from the actual political action.

   It's feasible over time that social media will enable us to return to more of a direct representation in democratic institutions, but for now I think that it is mostly about enabling people to influence the actions of elected officials and influencing how they are chosen.

3. Is the horizontal leveling of internet communications really an instrument of democracyThe horizontal leveling of the internet can enable democratic views of the world and is without a doubt the most revolutionary invention for human communication since the spoken word.Once voice can decide to speak out and can gain a global audience virtually overnight, influencing political decision making both on a national and global level as well as at a local level, based solely on the influence and endorsement of their peers.

   The ability of any voice anywhere to influence the course of decision-making that impacts society is the foundation of democratic action. The corollary of that freedom, however, is that it takes democratic organization of all of the content generated by social media for people to become aware of such opinions.

   If millions of voices shout out but we hear from the same media-selected opinion-makers again and again then social media has done little good. This is where the traditional media outlets fail us oftentimes.

   It is good to have high-quality traditional media outlets, but social media outlets enable a far broader array of opinions and insights to surface by enabling a far broader array of influencers and leaders to arise through the combined endorsements of individuals. This allows the combing intellect and insight of countless people to factor in to democratic decision making.

4. How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in a real space connected with the physical world of true partecipation to decision-making?

To bring it back to my discussion of New England town government, there is the long-term possibility that social media becomes a more direct instrument of governmental decision-making.

But even today social media is being extended into the political process directly. If you look at Barack Obama's presidential campaign social media tools were an essential factor in organizing his campaign workers: enthusiasm for a political candidate was transformed into political action directly through social media. Obama's record online campaign donations were another example of how social media breaks through into the real space.

People are using social media tools to organize people rapidly in local areas as well: weblogs were a crucial factor in our local elections in 2006 and social media tools have helped to change the course of several local political debates.

Our town's First Selectman, a mayor by most people's understanding, is a blogger! Finally I think that we're seeing more and more use of venues such as Facebook to make people aware of political causes and to be organized to take real-world action. Hundreds of thousands of people who are passionate about a cause can be organized in a matter of a few days. That's highly scalable political activism that just wasn't there a few years ago.

We need the tools of social media to help us form our decision making, but it's up to us to take action based on those experiences.

I trust and expect that the power of social media to enable such transformation of discussions in to action will catch the world by surprise in the months and years ahead.

I doubt that the discussions in coffee houses and taverns in colonial American were taken very seriously by those who were not a part of them. But then people decided to act upon those discussions.

So it will be with social media. People have no idea yet as to just how powerful a tool that it will become.

The courage of convictions is all that's required to make that clear to the world. This happens again and again already in ways large and small, but some day soon the world will be aware that they are a nation of publishers, united in their ability to communicate to the world and to influence one another as citizens of the same.

Sepp Hasslberger of Health Supreme / Hasslberger.com

1. Is this participation really democratic?If democracy means participation, then web 2.0 is really democratic.

   Actually it can be even considered more democratic than what we are used to calling our "democratic society", where participation is not invited. We are supposed to vote once every four-five years, and let the politicians get on with leading us wherever they wish. Not much of the original idea of democracy left there.

2. Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?You could call it a paradox. Everyone can interact on the web, but for now, the decisions are made in other places. Just as I said, we elect politicians and are expected to let them do the leading.It would be much better if there were some connection between what the people want and what the politicians are doing. I could imagine that the web might be used to discuss and decide on actual things in politics, and the politicians take the message that has been "filtered out" and act in accordance with it.

   But this is only a phase of transition. Sooner or later, the web will gain an important role in politics, even to the extent where we no longer need politicians.

   If we can discuss and decide, all we need to implement decisions are administrators - local, regional, national, international - administrators to carry out the will of the people.

3. The horizontal leveling of internet communications is really an instrument of democracy?It should be and it could be, but right now, I think it isn't.
4. How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in real space connected with the physical world of true participation to decision-making?There are several efforts that attempt to bring electronic voting and discussions into the political reality, so far with very limited success.

   To bring true participatory decision making, first of all, we'll have to learn to take our share of responsibility. When there are decisions to be made, and this will be practically constantly, we must be willing to take time out from other efforts to get into the issues that are of interest to us, and participate in the process of maturing a consensus.

   At the same time, we need to link these decisions into the actual administration of things.

   It appears a huge step to take from where we are now, but things are in motion.

Originally written and prepared by Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on October 10th 2008 as "Is Web 2.0 Really Democratic?"

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Are eBooks being adopted? Is eBook usage increasing? Is the Amazon Kindle a total flop? Is the eBooks long promised revolution a rapidly disappearing fad or is this a new industry that is gradually finding its proper niche? What future awaits eBooks hardware and software producers and what should you expect in the near future from eBooks content providers?

Photo credit: Springer

In the report that follows, Springer has gathered data suggesting that despite its newness, the eBook does not suffer from obscurity. Accessed either through the library (at academic institutions) or via sources like Google Scholar or Google Book Search, the eBook, with its unique advantages over printed literature, has definitely found its place among our literature collections.

But this is not to say that eBooks will be taking the place of your hard-cover favourite novels anytime soon. In fact, this may actually be quite unlikely. If you have ever tried to read from a computer screen for an extended period of time, I am sure you will have no problem understanding why: reading straight from eBooks isn't as enjoyable as reading the same stuff from a traditionally printed book. And this is where printed literature has a definitive advantage.

However, the eBook has begun to make strong progress into the areas of research and work. When individuals use eBooks, they are usually engaged in "horizontal information seeking" and "power browsing" - in other words, they skim quickly through the reading material and bounce from source to source.

eBooks are particularly effective when doing research because they are "convenient, easily accessible" and they offer "enhanced functions" when compared with traditional printed literature. In addition to the fact that no storage space is required, the eBook (because it is electronic) it is easily searchable and for research this fact is key.

Here all the details:

eBooks – The End User Perspective

Executive Summary

eBooks form a growing part of the collections at research and academic libraries. Although still in the early stages of adoption, eBooks have demonstrated advantages in the areas of accessibility, functionality, and cost-effectiveness. End users are just beginning to incorporate eBooks into their information experience and research habits. Libraries are eager to learn more about the rate of eBook adoption among their end users and the ways in which users are interacting with eBooks. In 2007, Springer surveyed librarians at six institu­tions to understand their views on eBook adoption and benefits. In 2008, Springer followed up that study with a survey of end users at five institutions to gauge their usage of and attitudes toward eBooks.

The survey uncovered some encouraging results regarding eBook adoption. Most users were aware of eBooks and had accessed them at least once. Respondents also overwhelmingly said that eBooks are useful and that they would like to incorporate eBooks into their information experience more frequently. These positive findings are supported by additional Springer usage research and studies from independent organi­zations that have found a surprising level of uptake for eBooks given their relative newness.

In terms of user behavior, the 2008 Springer survey found that users mostly access eBooks for research and study purposes and that the types of eBooks most frequently used are reference works and textbooks. A separate Springer study of usage metrics within its own eBooks program found that content age appears to have less of an impact on the usage of eBooks than on the usage of online journals. eBook usage is also less concentrated than online journal usage, with a greater array of titles driving downloads. eBook users appear to find value in a wide variety of titles and content. Finally, the 2008 Springer user survey found that users most frequently locate eBooks through general search engines like Google as well as through online library catalogs.

Users regard convenience, accessibility, and enhanced functionality as the primary benefits of eBooks. Print books are perceived to have an advantage in ease and enjoyability of reading, and users do not expect them to disappear in the near future. However, users anticipate that in five years time, they will prefer the elec­tronic versions of some books and expect that their transition to eBooks will be fastest for research-related activities and for reference works.

Overall, the survey results indicate that eBooks are best suited for research purposes or in a search environ­ment where the user needs to locate specific information. Users are not reading eBooks cover-to-cover in the traditional sense but instead approach them as a resource for finding answers to research questions. eBooks have the potential to stimulate new forms of book content usage and will require libraries to think differently about how to accommodate the needs of users as their eBook collections grow. Viewing eBooks through the lens of traditional print book usage might cause libraries to miss important opportunities for enhancing the user research experience.

An End User Perspective on eBooks

After years of development efforts and high expectations, eBooks have begun to cement their place as a central part of the information experience. Research and academic libraries are gradually building their eBook collections into a valuable resource for their users. A 2007 Springer survey of librarians at six institu­tions found that many libraries recognize eBooks as an ideal opportunity to expand collections while enhancing users’ research experiences. And in a recent Publishers Communication Group study, 43 percent of the librarians surveyed said that their budget for eBooks would likely increase in 2008. While most librar­ians acknowledge that eBook programs are in their early stages, they also clearly recognize the significant impact that eBooks will have on the future of research and information retrieval.

No picture of eBooks’ current status and future potential can be considered complete without including the end user perspective. User experiences with the Internet have created an expectation of instantaneous access to information, both whenever and wherever needed. Given these high expectations for digital information resources, libraries, publishers, and other organizations have sought to better understand how end users perceive and interact with eBooks.

In order to gain insight into the end user perspective on eBooks, Springer conducted a 2008 survey of users at four of the institutions that took part in the 2007 study, plus one additional institution. The following institutions participated in the 2008 study:

• Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI), Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
• University of Muenster, Germany
• University of Turku, Finland
• JRD Tata Memorial Library, Bangalore, India (new participant in 2008)

The purpose of the study was to understand users’ adoption of eBooks, their eBook usage behavior, and their perceptions of eBook advantages and disadvantages. This paper summarizes the findings of the user survey and describes the implications for libraries.

End User Awareness and Usage of eBooks

Despite the relative newness of eBooks as a resource, most of the users surveyed were aware of their exis­tence and had used them at least once, whether through their libraries or through another source. The study found that between 52 percent and 84 percent of respondents at each institution were aware of the avail­ability of eBooks through their libraries. Moreover, between 58 percent and 80 percent of respondents at each institution had used eBooks at least once, whether through their library or other sources. For example, at University of Turku, 84 percent of users said they were aware that they had access to a large number of eBooks through their library, and 73 percent said they had used eBooks at least once.

Springer’s findings on the prevalence of eBook usage are consistent with a recent Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) study in the UK, which found that 60 percent of users surveyed had used eBooks. The JISC study also found that while 46 percent of users obtained the last eBook they used through their library, nearly the same number (43 percent) obtained their last eBook via the Internet. Clearly, even if users do not realize their library contains eBook offerings, they are encountering eBooks in their online research through sources like Google Book Search. Libraries have the opportunity to position themselves as a central, convenient source of extensive eBook content for users who would otherwise turn to the Internet for their eBook searches.

A 2007 study of usage metrics within Springer’s own eBooks program confirms the promising trend in user adoption of eBooks. The study found that for institutions that were early adopters of eBooks, users accessed eBooks with 50 to 100 percent of the frequency with which they accessed online journals. And in the first year of Springer’s eBooks program, eBook usage accounted for roughly a fourth of total usage on the Spring­erLink website with approximately 25 million chapter downloads. Given the relatively recent introduction of eBooks, these usage statistics demonstrate significant promise.

In the 2008 user survey, respondents described the primary obstacle to eBook usage as a lack of awareness of eBook resources available through their libraries. Fortunately, libraries have the power to remove this obstacle by improving the ease of finding eBooks and educating library users about the availability of eBooks as part of library collections.

Trends in eBook User Behavior

Frequency of eBook usage varied by institution, with most users indicating they access eBooks on a weekly or monthly basis. Users also said that they primarily use eBooks for research or study purposes, rather than for leisure or teaching purposes. For example, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 78 percent of users said they use eBooks for research while 56 percent reported using eBooks for study, but only 10 percent mentioned teaching or leisure. Given most users’ existing experience with seeking information on the Internet, research is a natural entry point for eBook usage.

When users were asked what types of eBooks they had used so far, the most frequently given answers varied by institution:

• Reference works at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Reference works and textbooks at Muenster
• Conference proceedings at CWI Amsterdam
• Reference works and textbooks at Turku
• Textbooks at Bangalore

These results are somewhat consistent with the 2007 Springer study of usage metrics within its own eBooks program, which found that reference books, textbooks, and research monographs had the highest average download rate.

The 2007 Springer usage study also found that unlike journal content, the age of eBook content does not appear to have a significant impact on usage. eBooks published in 2005 were used as frequently as eBooks published in 2006 and 2007. Moreover, the Springer usage study found that eBook usage is less concentrated than electronic journal usage. The study points to a “long tail” of eBook usage, wherein many book titles that sell only a few copies in print are now findable and frequently used online.

In terms of locating eBook content, the 2008 Springer user survey found that users begin their search for eBooks at different places depending on the institution. At the University of Muenster and CWI Amsterdam, users said they find eBooks mostly through general search engines like Google. But at University of Turku and the University of Illinois, online library catalogs served as the starting point for most users’ eBook searches. The graph below illustrates the detailed response of University of Muenster users. Fifty-two percent of users said they often or very often start their eBook search with a general search engine, while 49 percent often use the library’s online catalog. Vendor-provided sites, the library web site, and regional library cata­logs trailed somewhat as starting points for searches.

These results are supported by the findings of SpringerLink usage investigations, wherein eBook usage was monitored before and after the implementation of Springer eBook MARC records in library catalogs. At Turku University, the average number of eBook chapter downloads per month more than doubled after eBook MARC records were loaded into the library catalog.

A recent study conducted by the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER) offers conclusions that complement the findings of the 2008 Springer user survey. CIBER studied patterns of user behavior in virtual libraries, finding that users often engage in non-traditional reading activities like “horizontal information seeking” and “power browsing”. Instead of spending a long time reading a particular eBook or online journal article, users skim quickly and bounce from source to source. The CIBER study found that users spent an average of only four minutes on a particular eBook site, leading CIBER to conclude that in a virtual environment, users are not reading in the traditional sense. Ultimately, CIBER said that its research

“suggests that eBooks will be the next publishing success story, although demand here could be even more spectacular, simply as a result of the enormous size of the student population, hungry for highly digested content.”

CIBER’s conclusions mesh well with Springer’s studies, which found that users primarily access eBooks for research, use a relatively wide variety of eBook titles, focus on reference works and textbooks, and often locate eBooks through general search engines. The pattern of behavior described in these results is consis­tent with CIBER’s findings that users skim quickly through a variety of digital resources looking for specific pieces of information, rather than engage in extended reading sessions.

End User Evaluation of eBook Advantages and Disadvantages

Encouragingly, users overwhelmingly indicated that eBooks are useful to them and that they would like to use more eBooks. Almost all respondents found eBooks useful, with between 85 percent and 96 percent of respondents at each institution rating them as either very or somewhat useful. Moreover, between 79 percent and 92 percent of users at each institution said that they would like to use more eBooks.

Users cited the difficulty of reading books from a screen and a preference for traditional print books as the primary reasons for not using eBooks more often. Given users’ comfort level and long history with print books, the challenge of making eBooks easier to read is a difficult one. The strides that companies like Amazon.com and Sony are making with their eBook readers might point the way toward resolving this issue in the long term.

The Springer user survey also sought to understand user perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of eBooks. The primary advantages of eBooks for end users revolve around convenience and information access. Users said that they value the ability to access eBooks anytime and anywhere and appreciate that access is fast and easy. Full-text searching was also named as a top eBook advantage.

• "Mostly the advantage of using eBooks would be their convenience. Instead of going through the hassle of tracking down a specific work of inquiry and checking it out, eBooks provide an easily accessible way of accessing said work at my own convenience and leisure. Also, if at any time I need to make a copy, as long as I have access to a computer and printer, I doubt eBooks could make it any easier".
  (User at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• "With eBooks, you can find much faster relevant content by searching for keywords. You can use them anytime and everywhere, in contrast to library-provided books, which are often not available when you need them".

  (User at University of Muenster)

• "I can carry and read [an eBook] everywhere! I can put it on my small laptop or PDA and finish my literature research while traveling on the train".

  (User at CWI Amsterdam)

Echoing their response to the earlier question of why they do not use eBooks more frequently, users described the primary disadvantage of eBooks as the difficulty of reading content from a screen. When viewed from the standpoint of traditional print reading behavior, these recurring mentions of eBook read­ability problems might indicate ongoing challenges for eBook adoption. However, users appear to find value in using eBooks for specific research or information retrieval purposes. In these cases, users do not need to consume lengthy sections of content from a computer screen and eBook readability becomes less of an issue.

• "eBooks are great for research. Cover to cover: print rules".
  (User at University of Turku)
• "A large number of eBooks can be carried in a laptop, where transferring the print books is a real pain. Also if the computer screen is suitable, it doesn’t give much difference with the print book. Of course, print books have different glamour, it’s not quite right to compare them".

  (User at JRD Tata Memorial Library, Bangalore)

Users were also asked to specifically compare the advantages of eBooks and print books. As compared to print books, users said that eBooks have advantages in the areas of storage space required, 24/7 accessibility, up-to-dateness, and ease of making copies. On the other hand, print books have the advantage in terms of ease and enjoyability of reading.

• "In general, I find eBooks more useful in instances where I ‘use’ (look up specific data) rather than ‘read’ (from cover to cover)".

  (User at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

• "The main advantages of eBooks are their availability and searchability. They are perfectly suitable for quick references of detailed, scientifically based information".

  (User at University of Muenster)

What implications do these advantages and disadvantages have for user behavior? Overall, the users surveyed said that they prefer print books for cover-to-cover reading, but see eBooks as useful for specific research needs or as complementary to print books. In other words, eBooks are best suited for research purposes or in a search environment where the user needs to locate specific information. This finding indicates that eBooks have the potential to stimulate new forms of book content usage. Looking at eBooks through the lens of traditional print book usage might offer a skewed viewpoint of eBooks’ value to users and could cause libraries to miss important opportunities for enhancing the user research experience.

The Future of eBook Usage

While users acknowledge that adoption of eBooks will continue to increase, they do not envision print books disappearing within the near future. Users expect that the transition to eBooks will happen fastest for research-related activities, rather than study, teaching, or leisure purposes. They also expect that reference works will most quickly make the transition to eBooks, followed by research monographs and textbooks. These answers further support the conclusion that eBooks are best suited to specific research and informa­tion retrieval purposes. Users recognize the potential of eBooks to support their research activities and believe that digitized reference works will help them quickly locate the specific information they seek.

• "Access to more eBooks is always welcomed in the research world, even when print books are still preferred for heavy reading. Instant access to information is increasingly important and advantageous".
  (User at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• "I don’t need to wait for eBooks to be returned to the library. It’s faster to find specific infor­mation by using [the] search option instead of flip-flopping pages".

  (User at University of Turku)

Most respondents predicted that in five years time they will prefer to read print versions of some books, and electronic versions of others. For example, at the University of Muenster, 53 percent of respondents said they would read both print and eBooks, 35 percent said they would read more print, and seven percent said they would read more eBooks. In the short term, eBooks will continue to be best suited to specific research and information retrieval needs.

The CIBER study takes an even longer viewpoint, looking ahead to the state of virtual libraries in 2017. CIBER describes the “inexorable rise of the eBook”, predicting that print sales will fall sharply as electronic publishing matures and consumer demand grows. CIBER believes that by 2017, eBooks will be the default format for textbooks, scholarly books, and reference works.

Conclusion

The emergence of eBooks as a central part of the information experience requires libraries to think differ­ently about how to meet the needs of their users. While eBooks will not replace print books in the near future, users are rapidly adopting them as complementary to print books. Users value the convenience and ease of access that eBooks provide and are engaging in new forms of book content usage to take advantage of their libraries’ growing eBook collections. Libraries can expand eBook usage to an even larger population of users by raising awareness of eBook availability and ensuring that eBook content is easy to find and use.
Institutions participating in the 2007 survey included the following: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States; University of Florida, United States; University Library of Turku, Finland; Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Muenster, Germany; and Victoria University, Australia.
Photo credits:

Executive Summary - Didier Kobi

An End User Perspective on eBooks - Sony

End User Awareness and Usage of eBooks - Springer

Trends in eBook User Behavior - Springer

End User Evaluation of eBook Advantages and Disadvantages - Springer

The Future of eBook Usage - Springer

Conclusion - vacuum3d
Originally written by the Springer Team for Springer and first published as "eBooks – The End User Perspective" - July, 2008.
About the author

Springer is the second-largest publisher of journals in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector and the largest publisher of STM books. It publishes on behalf of more than 300 academic associations and professional societies. Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media, one of the world’s leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. The group publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations in over 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and some 5,000 employees.
References

• E-Books in 2008: Are Librarians and Publishers on the Same Page?
  (Publishers Communication Group, 2008)
• JISC National E-Books Observatory Project, Results of First User Survey

  (Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), 2008)

• Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future

  (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER), 2008)

• eBooks—Costs and Benefits to Academic and Research Libraries

  (Springer, 2007)

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The latest MasterNewMedia traffic trends and statistics for the month of September show a slow but steady increase in volume and additional data further defining MasterNewMedia specific audience demographics and technographics (the characteristics and traits of their technical setup: browser, operating system, screen resolution, etc.).

MasterNewMedia compared head to head with some of its many competitors: Poynter, Scobleizer, Copyblogger, Shoemoney. Source data: Google Trends

The goals of this monthly web traffic publication report are essentially two:

• On one hand I like to provide transparent access to MasterNewMedia internal readership demographics as a way to substantiate the reach and content distribution capacity that I and my team have been able to achieve.
• On the other I want to showcase and model how the public use of traffic data originated by tools and services normally reserved for internal review only, can actually provide greater credibility, authority and valuable information (especially to potential advertisers) to any site, independently of size.

This is data, that unless you collect and organize systematically, may serve only for providing indications of trends or issues to be addressed but remains otherwise largely untapped. My advice is instead to start considering how valuable this traffic data can be for any site if properly collected, sorted and presented publicly in a meaningful way.

What matters today in this new, fast evolving online information space, is not so much the ability to talk to a million people, but the ability to be very credible while building a small, but highly passionate following with strong specific information interests. To this end, publishing your web site traffic and demographics reports can help readers, potential customers, suppliers and advertisers see you and your site, for what they really are.

The key thing to understand here is how powerful it can be to share and make visible what most other sites keep under very closed tabs. Making all of the traffic and demographics info visible and accessible to others, can greatly help your future readers, partners and advertising customers to better understand the focus, size, identity and profile of your site audience.

N.B.: If you would like to suggest additional stats to be included, or would like to recommend a specific analytics technology to add to this web traffic analysis toolkit, feel free to utilize the comments section at the end of this monthly web traffic report. Next month we are adding Qantacast as a new source of traffic data to this list.

MasterNewMedia web traffic stats for September 2008. Here the numbers:

MasterNewMedia Web Traffic and Audience Metrics: September 2008

Unique Visitors and Page Views

• Total Visits on MasterNewMedia: 540,822
• Total Page Views on MasterNewMedia: 787,930

MasterNewMedia International Editions - Breakdown

• MasterNewMedia International - English Version:
  • Unique visitors: 259,933
  • Page Views: 376,395
• MasterNewMedia Italian Version:
  • Unique visitors: 121,986
  • Page Views: 177,757
• MasterNewMedia Latino Version:
  • Unique visitors: 130,757
  • Page Views: 198,002
• MasterNewMedia Brazilian Version:
  • Unique visitors: 28,146
  • Page Views: 35,776

Source data: Google Analytics

Alexa measures the number of pages viewed by site visitors. Multiple page views of the same page made by the same user on the same day are counted only once. The page views per user numbers are the average numbers of unique pages viewed per user per day by the visitors to the site.

Source data: Alexa

Ad Impressions and Clicks

Source data: Google AdSense

Demographics and Technographics

Audience Age

Audience Sex

Audience Education

Audience HouseHold

Source data: Google AdPlanner

Audience Languages

Source data: Google Analytics

Traffic by Platform

Source data: Woopra - data relative to a smaller sample than total audience

Traffic by Browser

Source data: Woopra - data relative to a smaller sample than total audience

Traffic Sources

Source data: Google Analytics

Most Viewed Content

Top 10 articles MasterNewMedia.org September 2008:

1. How To Convert .MOD Video Files To MPEG-2 On Mac And PCs
2. Online Picture Editing: Free Web-Based Image Editing Tools
3. Call The World For Free - From Your PC To Any Mobile Or Landline On The Planet: GizmoCall Is Here
4. Web-Based Instant Messengers: A Mini-Guide
5. Free Video Stock Footage Resources Online
6. Broadcast Yourself Live On The Web: Best Tools To Create Your Own Live Web TV - A Mini-Guide
7. RSS To HTML - How To Convert RSS Feeds Into Published Web Pages - A Mini-Guide
8. Download Video From Popular Video Sharing Sites: A Mini-Guide
9. How to Make Money with Your Blog Site
10. Video Publishing Online: Where To Share Your Video Clips On The Web

Source data: Google Analytics

Authority

Google PageRank

Here below the MasterNewMedia PageRank calculated with PR Checker:

PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be.

If you want learn more about PageRank here are some relevant articles:

• Guide To Understanding Google PageRank
• Google PageRank Explained, Defined, Best Reference Resources
• Future PageRank Helps Reputation And Trustworthiness Shine Over Artificially Inflated Search Results: Google TrustRank

Alexa Rank:

The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach).

Source data: Alexa
Technorati Authority

Source data: Technorati

Link Popularity

Google Inbound Links

• MasterNewMedia English: 2.760
• MasterNewMedia Italian: 1.310
• MasterNewMedia Latino: 344
• MasterNewMedia Brazilian: 177

Source data: Google

Yahoo! Inbound Links

• MasterNewMedia English: 3,346
• MasterNewMedia Italian: 849
• MasterNewMedia Latino: 59

Source data: Yahoo!

Social Popularity

Social News And Social Networks

• Bookmarks at Delicious: 1.094
• Pages posted on Digg: 128
• Pages posted on Reddit: 20
• References from Yahoo! Answers: 110
• Comments on StumbleUpon: 8

Source data: Quarkbase

Twitter

Source data: TwitterCounter

Citations, Mentions and Trackbacks

Source data: Technorati

Source data: BlogPulse

Master New Media RSS Feed Stats

Source data: FeedAnalysis

Edited and prepared by Max Badolati for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 7th 2008 as "MasterNewMedia Web Traffic and Audience Metrics: September 2008"

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Photo credit: Rudat

George Siemens, connectivism guru and respected scholar of the effective use of educational technologies and social media, takes you in this weekly digest to places, writings and people that can help you explore, chart and understand these critical grounds in a serendipitous, explorative fashion.

My personal advice is to follow George in his wanderings as the pointers and resources he shares are always of the greatest value.

Here what he has found for you this week:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Internet Users 50+ Are Rapidly Closing the Digital Divide with Booming Online Activity

Not really surprising, but a bit of a push back to advocates who suggest a rigid age-based divide between generational use of the internet: Internet Users 50+ Are Rapidly Closing the Digital Divide with Booming Online Activity "The perception is that Americans over 50 only dabble on the Internet, but we are finding that they are increasingly spending time online becoming involved in robust Internet activities, such as online communities...

In specific areas, there is often little difference in use of online technology between older users and some of the youngest users."

The Future of Online Learning Ten Years On

Stephen Downes delivered a presentation about The future of online learning ten years on. I've reviewed the slides, but haven't had time to listen to the audio (personal whining; my laptop, ipod touch, and other such devices were stolen from my car a few weeks ago...so I'm lacking my usual routine for listening to presentations while I travel).

Stephen offers an interesting look forward by looking back at predictions he made ten years ago. He was quite accurate on many accounts. He mentions (on slide 49) that personal learning environments will replace learning management systems. I hope this is the case. But I'm not sure. Education is a process with multiple stakeholders with dramatically varying needs. To date, those who are served by the existing architecture of LMS' have been dominant in getting their interested addressed (administrators, IT).

The concept of PLEs raises the profile of learners...but until PLEs are able to include the organizational and administrative needs of other stakeholders, they will continue to be marginal.

Blogging Research: Attribution and Ownership of Ideas

Lilia Effimova appears to have completed her PhD research and is actively blogging. She provides a thoughtful and critical voice to online communication. In a recent post she tackles the key challenge of attribution and idea ownership in blogs. The fluid exchange of ideas online means good ideas can be adopted and adapted quickly.

The origin of ideas can be challenging to trace, which obviously makes attribution difficult when the idea has morphed a few times. An idea is like opening a door. Once someone walks through, it's difficult to trace their subsequent activity.

Social Media Starter Kit

Social Media Start Kit is a useful resources intended to "build a toolkit and instructional guides about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organizations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world."

Weekly modules are still in development (looks like they're up to week two), but it looks like a valuable resource.

Shifting Value Point of Content

I've been harping on this for a while - content is no longer a value point in itself. MITs OpenCourseWare and numerous other open educational projects reflect this reality in the education market. In music, news, and other media, a trend of content as a conduit to new value points is evident. Artists are giving away music and hoping to capitalize on live performance and merchandising.

MIT has increased its appeal and reputation by giving away educational resources. Journalists, authors, and theorists share thoughts online (i.e. blog) in order to increase reputation and consulting opportunities.

Will Thalheimer discusses the trend with a focus on elearning - All media will be sold for cheap: "The new business model will involve selling ancillary services or products. This will not only produce a profound shift in how the world works, but it will affect the learning-and-performance industry as well."

Nanotechnology

We can, with only slight abuses of history, say that the 18th century was the era of mathematics, the 19th of chemistry, and the 20th of physics. The 21st will be the age of nanotechnology (he says without bothering to qualify the statement). Nanotechnology, like technology generally, impacts and alters every field it touches. The production of pharmaceuticals, materials, and plants is significantly impacted by developments within nanotech. Applications to humanity suggest a tremendous revision of what it "means to be us".

A recent British Medical Association publication on cognitive enhancements suggests two views of brain alteration: therapeutic (for when something is wrong) and enhancement (when all is well, but we wish to extend the limitations of our mind).

In a similar sense, Visions of our Nano Future offers an intriguing (frightening?) glimpse into what we will likely be able to do with nanotech in only a few years to improve the frailties of the human mind and humanity in general.

Google Lively

Google has announced Lively - an avatar and online room/chat combination.

I just started playing around with it, so it's a bit early to say exactly what its role will be in the world of emerging technologies.

A quick initial reaction: it's Second Life distributed. Or as one commentator suggests: "Google is looking to create a massive distributed virtual world, where every Google account can have its own avatar that can be used wherever a Lively virtual room is present – for example, on a blog, a social networking profile, or a Web page".

Second Life has the elements of a learning management system (LMS), i.e. you go to the site to do what you want to do.

Distributed technologies allow individuals to use a variety of tools and approaches, all of which can be integrated into their own environment. Consider YouTube. I watch most of my YouTube videos as embedded elements in a blog. I don't go directly to YouTube. Same with Slideshare.

The key idea these sites have grasped is that we shouldn't need to go to data/information. We should be able to experience it in our environments (such as blogs, wikis, or even LMS'). At first glance, Google seems to be trying something similar with virtual worlds - namely, have the world available where you want it, rather than forcing you to go to a certain space. Or, as Google puts it: "It’s integrated with the Internet. It’s not an alternate destination. Our intention is to add to your existing life".

Meeting the Future by Doing More of What Worked in the Past

Times of change have an interesting impact. When foundations of tradition are threatened, we see a common response of increased conservatism from certain sectors of society.

The Roman Empire, for example, had numerous failed attempts at reform before finally sliding into obsolescence. Reformers walked a line between doing more of what worked in the past and trying to innovate to meet the reality of a changed world. Occasional glimmers can be seen - such as with Constantine - where change appears to bring back glory days. Such glimmers are fleeting.

So what is an educator to do? Do we do more of what worked or do we change the system to embrace new realities? What do we keep? What do we discard? These are the foundational questions we are facing. And for each successful innovator or conservator in history, we can see many failures of reform. The design of our systems needs to match the reality of the condition. As Kaiser Maximilian's opponents discovered, mismatching strategies for a particular age can have disastrous effects.

Determining the reality of today's system and extrapolating to future trends (while maintaining the essences of humanity - peace, dignity, equality, tolerance, etc.) is the vital starting point. Most reforms are a blend of drawing from the past and anticipating the future.

Ken Robinson recently delivered an interesting speech on models of how education can/should respond to changes (via Ewan McIntosh). I enjoyed the talk - a call to change based on the intuitive creativity of all humanity. Missing, however, was the acknowledgment of the current systemic elements that need to be preserved.

Experts and Organizations Are Losing Trust

Trust is tied to reliability and consistency. The "big institutions" - government, religious, corporate - that were the object of trust in the past have, in the last century in particular, been revealed as flawed.

While people still pursue religious activities and subject themselves to government, the authority of these institutions is being replaced (is augmented a better word) bys personal networks of trut (see, for example, the notion of networked, social, personal spiritual networks in contrast with organized religion).

I'm trying to find an analogy that best summarizes the shift from trust based on authority to trust based on personal relationships. The social best I can come up with is that of a food critic or restaurant reviewer. Every major newspaper has the token food expert that reviews restaurants incognito. These reviews are valuable and can significantly hamper or improve a restaurant's chance of success. But I rarely base my dining decisions on the review of an expert. I typically turn to friends or colleagues. Their opinions of "wow, that was an excellent dining experience" play a much greater role in where I dine than do reviews in a newspaper. Where authority and personal relationships differ, relationships receive greater weight and merit.

People trust people. It's not really much of a surprise that organizations whose appeal is to authority, not relationships, are experiencing some stress - Experts and organizations are losing trust: The Web is about the informed, skeptical society. There is a break developing between this skeptical society and its experts, institutions and organizations. The organization can’t just say: "Trust us. Follow us. We know best".

Originally written by George Siemens and published as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News. First published on July 10th 2008.

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

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