Connecting In A Social Network Based on Your Stuff

After a while of using a social network website, have you connected with so many friends -- and friends of friends -- that you start to hardly know many of the folks in your network?

Or do you have a passion for something -- a car like a Mustang, for instance -- or movies?

Then you could try Acobay, a new kind of social networking website. For instance, you could connect through the Auto network, or the Movie network -- or any of the other computer, gadget or "Anything" other networks out there on Acobay.

For all of the "technical" networks on various types and brands of computers, GPS systems, cameras and such, Acobay clearly is a techie heaven.

And, yet, there is a practical purpose there, for the rest of us. Say, for example, you own a Canon Powershot A40 camera. One day, either something goes wrong with your camera, or you just want some help with features you don't totally understand.

Even today on the Web, you could surf for hours and be frustrated by finding FAQs that are of no help -- and not connecting with anything substantial to help you answer your questions.

But with Acobay, you will have already made a connection -- and found a network of people -- with already some experience and expertise to help meet your needs. And, you can help others in a similar way through Acobay.

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Video of the Day: UNESCO Launches World Digital Library

Nearly six years after the United States rejoined UNESCO after a two-decade absence, US Librarian of Congress James Billington's vision for a library on the worldwide web, aimed at promoting cultural understanding between peoples and featuring tens of thousands of digitized images from around the globe, is poised to become reality as the World Digital Library goes live.

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The Internet Solves Another Family Dilemma

We hear all the time the big ways the Internet has changed our lives -- the way we buy things, the instant global communication.

It's also interesting all the smaller ways the Web has helped us in our day-to-day lives. Take getting directions. It used to be we would have look at maps or call ahead to someone to get driving directions. Now we can look up a route online at any time and be prepared when we venture out to somewhere new.

Now local search solves another of my family's small dilemmas, as well. That's the problem of where to go out to eat. We might want to go out, but we might not agree, or we might want to go out somewhere, but no one has a really clear sense of what they want.

It used to be that in those cases, we might just get in the car and drive around the neighborhood, hoping to get a good idea of where we wanted to stop in. But a website that acts as a quick and easy local yellowpages puts a variety of local restaurants right in front of us.

No more frustrated hunting and searching. Now sitting at home first we can pull up the site and talk amongst ourselves and settle on a restaurant before going out. We can even see how the restaurants are rated -- and rate them ourselves, too.

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Video: How To Circumvent an Internet Proxy

Some governments and organizations employ proxy servers to filter web content, permitting access to some web sites while blocking others. Here are several ways to get around these censorship policies.

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Virtual Health Care Worker Could Save Patient Time, Nursing Resources

With search engine companies establishing online personal health records for their users and surgeons on the brink of making robotic surgery routine, it makes sense to have a remote medical care system that can support nursing staff, care managers and other healthcare workers. Writing in the International Journal of Web and Grid Services, a Japanese team describes a proposal for such a system.

Akio Koyama of Yamagata University, Japan, and colleagues there and at Yamagata College of Industry and Technology, and Fukuoka Institute of Technology, have drafted a proposal for a remote healthcare system with three main functions. The first function acts as a multipoint communication system with video images and voice. The second automatically uploads vital signs data and referencing. The third function involves remote monitoring of drip infusions that provide the patient with a controlled supply of medication or nutrients. The team has already carried out successful field trials with their prototype remote medical care support center.

The researchers point out that their system could address some of important socioeconomic problems, such as providing quality medical care for all citizens, even those living in small towns and rural areas.

Currently, access to sophisticated healthcare is often restricted to those in major conurbations and people in sparsely populated areas are usually required to seek healthcare some distance from their homes. "These trips can require hours of travel time for a relatively short examination, and thus are neither convenient nor an efficient use of the patient's time," says the team. Conversely, having healthcare workers with specialist knowledge travel to remote areas is equally wasteful of resources at various levels. The optimum solution, the team says, is to provide a medical consultancy solution using information and communications technology.

Their remote system brings together technologies that allow video conferencing between patient or local caregiver and healthcare workers, which also allows medical care data to be uploaded to a database. The vital signs data uploading and referencing subsystem likewise would operate via the internet or via cellular phone and allow a remote doctor to advise local caregivers on patient requirements. Finally, a subsystem that monitors the progress of a drip infusion using a sensor network would notify remote nursing staff of further requirements, which could then be passed on to a local carer.

There are several technical aspects of the proposed system that require attention prior to such a remote medical care approach being widely adopted, the researchers add. For instance, delays and throughput of video transfer during communications must be improved as well as diagnosis accuracy of the doctor agent and the prediction accuracy of the drip infusion finishing time.

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Major Online Retailers Hit Sales High on Dec. 18

Americans rushed to the Web on Tuesday, Dec. 18 to complete their 2007 online holiday shopping as Christmas delivery deadlines loomed, resulting in a single-day Chase Paymentech Pulse Index high of $169 million in sales and more than 3 million orders. This notable sales spike is more than 42 percent higher than Friday, December
15th, the peak Pulse Index shopping day in 2006.

Since the start of the 2007 holiday season, the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index has tracked online holiday spending at 10 of the top 30 online retailers as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine. To date, more than $4.7 billion has been spent online
with these merchants, totaling 91 million orders.

"We continue to see tremendous growth in sales and transaction volumes from Pulse Index merchants, which is representative of the sector's performance as a whole," says Michael Duffy, president and chief executive officer, Chase Paymentech. "This year, eRetailers have aggressively promoted free shipping and other incentives and it's clear that savvy shoppers have taken advantage of these promotions during the
peak pre-Christmas period."

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Looking For Someone? Ask Spock

Social networking is rapidly making the Internet less about facts, figures and databases and more about people -- finding people, connecting people and learning about people.

That's making the Web a more dynamic place, but with so many social networking options, how can you make sense of it all? You could spend all day searching a dozen different sites, not knowing who or what you'll find.

That's where Spock.com comes in. It's not another social network -- but rather it's a new people search concept that makes finding people you care about easier. That could either celebrities, politicians and such that simply interest you, or drilling down to people you actually know.

You can search by name or simply attributes and descriptors, like "Syracuse alum" or "web designer."

For instance, try this search for web designers from San Francisco. See what comes up. The search isn't entirely perfect but you'll see a variety of good hits that are well organized with information on each entry that is presented pretty clearly, including relevant links to go next for further information or to contact individuals.

The beauty of a site like Spock.com, however, is how open-ended it is. Try experimenting for yourself. Try entering several different types of searches and see what comes up for you. You may find Spock.com to be another online tool that really adds up to helping your life.

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Video -- Future of Streaming Video?

A look at the possible ways of overcoming internet congestion to offer best quality streaming video.

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Video: Interview With Technorati Vice President

Technorati is at the heart of that fabled place, the "Blogosphere."

Based in San Francisco and founded by David Sifry, Technorati is the Google of the blogs, performing as a search engine for more than 75 million weblogs, according to one estimate.

Today Technorati finds itself competing with Google and Yahoo for blog search.

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Video: Lawyer Offers Tips For Internet Safety For Kids

A lot of effort has gone in the last few years to create software and other tools to help protect kids as they surf the Internet.

Yet the Web still has its pitfalls.

Harry Smith of CBS News talks to Internet privacy and security lawyer Parry Aftab about what parents can do to keep their children safe as they use the Web and social sites like MySpace.

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Easy Web Forms For Your Site

The thing that makes the Internet so different from television is interactivity.

The Web is all about two-way communication. Your site can't merely present information, or even compelling images and graphics.

You need to have a conversation with your visitors.

That's where a good web form comes into play.

Whether it's taking comments from customers, or collecting contact information for sales leads, your site needs forms.

Adding a simple email form or contact form to a website can often be a tough task for an inexperienced web designer. A lot of people who start a website or a small Internet business use simple templates to put a website together while having little or almost no knowledge of HTML programming.

Those who have already used Forms4Free have praised the fact that it has helped liberate them from other services that process their form remotely and use their redirect page as an advertising billboard. Also, if the customer needs further assistance, Forms4Free works with the customer, after they order the formmail file, to fix anything that might be wrong with their form or to resolve any other technical issues until the form works perfectly. It’s a valuable service that will be around for a long time.

Using formmail is important, because it enables webmasters to process their form through their own website, as opposed to using an outside service, which processes forms for the customer on their own server.

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Conservatives Cheer Rejection of 'XXX' Internet Domain

Conservative groups are cheering a move by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for rejecting a proposal that would create a ".xxx" domain address to house pornographic websites.

The ICANN board voted 9-5 to reject the domain, which is the third rejection within the last seven years.

"This is a victory for the American public and our supporters who by the thousands contacted the Commerce Department and ICANN to voice opposition to a XXX domain. Instead of relegating porn to a specific domain, the government would have actually been facilitating the adult industry's growth. In other words, the XXX would have established a virtual red light district, giving pornographers even more opportunities to flood our homes, libraries and communities with illegal, hardcore obscenity," says Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Daniel Weiss, Focus on the Family senior analyst for media and sexuality, says: "ICANN's decisive vote against the .xxx top-level domain is great newsfor families around the world. From the very beginning this idea held outfalse hope for parents concerned with filth on the Internet.

It's a strange notion to suggest that we can help kids by sanctioning, endorsing and proliferating the very material that threatens them.

"True and lasting protection will only come from vigorous enforcement of federal obscenity laws. Without the help of federal law enforcement, parents will always be fighting an uphill battle to protect their children," Weiss adds.

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Majority In Poll Say Bloggers Important To Journalism

A majority of Americans (55%) in an online survey say bloggers are important to the future of American journalism and 74% say citizen journalism will play a vital role, according to a new poll.

Most respondents (53%) also say the rise of free Internet-based media pose the greatest opportunity to the future of professional journalism and three in four (76%) say the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism.

The results are based on a recent We Media -- Zogby Interactive poll.

The We Media survey results were released by iFOCOS and pollster John Zogby as part of an iFOCOS conference on media innovation hosted by theSchool of Communication at the University of Miami, with major support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

In the national survey of adults, 72% say they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism today. A majority of conference-goers who were polled on the subject agreed -- 55% say they were dissatisfied,and 61% say they believed traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.

Nearly nine out of 10 media insiders (86%) say they believe bloggers will play an important part in journalism's future.

"We are now seeing mainstream acceptance of what we call the Power of Us -- the value, credibility, and vital expression of citizen and collaborative media," says Dale Peskin, a managing director of iFOCOS, the organization that conducts the annual We Media conference. "We've arrivedat a tipping point. A new definition of democratic media is emerging in our society."

Peskin says that, until recently, many traditional news enterpriseshave been skeptical about We Media. "They were either fearful or dismissive of our 2003 research forecasting and documenting the change in the media ecosystem," he says. "Now the Zogby poll provides additional evidence that 'We Media' is an essential component -- perhaps the essential component --for the agenda for news and information into the future."

"The research documents the widespread recognition that control and influence on how we know what we know is shifting to a vastly moredistributed network of empowered individuals and organizations," says Andrew Nachison, co- founder of iFOCOS. "This obviously will have a big impact on how media organizations evolve and conduct business, but it's really about how we all discover, create, share and apply information, and that's important to all industries, to entrepreneurs, to non-profits, to governments, to individuals and to society as a whole. We are all part of the ecosystem."

The Zogby Interactive survey of 5,384 adults nationwide was conducted Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.4 percentage points. The Zogby Interactive survey of 77 members of the media who attended the Miami conference carries a margin of error of +/- 11.4 percentage points. While periodic audits show the results from Zogbytelephone and Internet surveys closely track each other, a companion telephone survey of this topic was not conducted.

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Anti-Spyware Coalition Unveils Two Major Documents

The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) unveiled a comprehensive set of "best practices" for identifying potentially unwanted technology. Based on more than a year of consultations and building on all of the coalition's previous work, the best practices document provides the clearest description yet of how anti-spyware companies determine whether software may be "unwanted," the coalition says.

Issuing best practices has been a top priority of the ASC since it was founded in 2005 with the mission of educating users, establishing a community for anti-spyware advocates and collaborating to improve the usefulness of anti-spyware technologies. In addition to the best practices, the ASC also today released its conflict identification and resolution process, which establishes a routine methodology for resolving software conflict between anti-spyware tools.

Both spyware documents are available online. You may also comment on the documents at the ASC site.

"This is a watershed moment for the Anti-Spyware Coalition and for the global anti-spyware community. These best practices will be a vital tool -- not only for anti-spyware vendors to use in honing the detection process -- but also to help software developers avoid publishing products likely to be unwanted by consumers," says Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and coordinator of the ASC. "The underlying goal of everyone involved in the Anti-Spyware Coalition is to make the Internet experience safer, more productive and more enjoyable. This document goes a long way toward supporting that goal."

"Best Practices: Factors for Use in the Evaluation of Potentially Unwanted Technologies" details the process by which anti-spyware companies review software applications identifying behaviors which raise red flags as well as behaviors that help to mitigate concerns by providing real value to users. It relies heavily on the ASC's own spyware "definitions" document and its risk-model description, which helped to establish a common understanding of spyware and how it is classified, the spyware coalition says.

The "Conflict Identification and Resolution Process" highlights possible ways in which anti-spyware tools may conflict with one another and offers clear steps to resolve those conflicts. In addition to allowing for better, more structured interactions between developers, the resolution process will also provide a level of transparency to consumers who may be affected by such conflicts, the spyware organization says.


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