If you've got a computer, you know what YouTube is.  In fact, most people, including myself, have uploaded videos to YouTube at one point or another until our accounts have inevitably been suspended.  It's the circle of life on the Internet, and I am very pleased with it.  Without YouTube after all, I would be unable to watch my guilty pleasure, America's Next Top Model.

What's the bad news about YouTube?  Well, the videos that are uploaded are typically of lesser quality.  In fact, the most common complaint that you will see on the video comment sections is about the quality.  In reply, most users will explain that "something" happened to their video during the upload process.  There is a hack to be able to view high quality version of videos, but soon, that hack will hopefully be rendered useless.

YouTube has finally announced all users have the option of watching some videos in higher quality. A blog post on their site claims they're slowly integrating this new feature, and videos uploaded in the proper format will be the first to be available in high quality. The rest of the library will soon follow, with any luck.

Simply go into your user account and select the option: "always show me higher quality when available." High speed Internet is going to work best, because otherwise the videos may suffer from lag time.  Nobody likes lag time.

I have been waiting for this feature for a long time.  Finally, my prayers have been answered, and I will soon be able to watch YouTubeHD.  There are enough capital letters in that word to make anyone excited.

A little over a year ago I wrote a post that guessed which emerging technologies would have an impact on the 2008 election cycle. I figured I’d take a quick look back and grade my predictions, as well as list a few new technologies that have emerged since I last covered this ground.

Here are the grades I would give my predictions (original post is here for background):

(1) Ning (Niche Social Networks)

I’d give myself a C on this one. Many of the major Presidential candidates launched niche social networks on their campaign sites, hoping to encourage connections among volunteers. However, none of these niche networks really got that much traction except for Barack Obama’s. And no campaign used the specific service I recommended, Ning (which I think is still worth trying). Ron Paul supporters took the novel approach of trying to turn the entire Internet into a niche social network about Ron Paul, which is another thing entirely. I think there is still something to the idea of niche social networks around campaigns, but most of the action has been taking place on the more established networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

(2) Mozes (Broadcast Text Messaging)

I’d go with a B for this one. The Obama campaign launched a quite aggressive text messaging effort where users are encouraged to text the message “Hope” to 62262 to subscribe to text alerts alerts. Other campaigns have experimented with similar programs. The Obama campaign program works pretty much the exact same way as I described in my post, but no one is using Mozes specifically. It is also really hard to measure the impact of these programs without getting access to subscriber figures.

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Social networking giant Facebook is teaming up with Paramount Pictures to let users download thousand of clips from the filmmaker’s archives.

The VooZoo application, which launched Monday, was developed by FanRocket. The idea is to let individuals re-live some of their favorite scenes and moments from any Paramount film. Clips last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.

Viacom, Paramount Pictures’ parent company, plans to market DVDs through the new tool.

Though FanRocket aims to garner a few hundred thousand users within the first few months, Paramount hasn’t set any revenue goals to its end.

The application features a double-pane window on top – the left side shows the clips you’ve added yourself. On the right, you’ll find a display of your history, with ‘Featured VooHoos,’ or featured clips, just underneath.

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Want further proof of Barack Obama’s popularity online? According to the site Twitterholic, Obama has more followers than any other Twitter user (followers are people who sign up to receive a user’s Twitter updates through the service). Here is a chart showing the top 10 users:

Despite this popularity, Obama’s team doesn’t use the service that aggressively. They have only posted 78 updates. The second most popular user, Robert Scoble, has posted 7,499 updates.

You can visit Obama’s Twitter page here and Twitterholic here.

Update: Twitdir is another great resource for looking at data on top Twitter users.

My friend David Cohn has written an excellent post about social bookmarking sites.  His aim is to coax journalists into using these sites to better research, report, and reach out to their audience.  Although the post has a journalistic focus, it does an excellent job of explaining the differences between the user bases of several major sites that virtually anyone interested in social media will learn from.

As someone who has spent some time on sites like digg, reddit, and Newsvine, I know how different these sites — and perhaps more importantly, their users — are.  That’s why reading David’s post can help the uninitiated since he explains the specific appeal, audiences, and objectives of the sites he spotlights.  The fact that he explains the objective and niche of these sites is really valuable since this helps the uninitiated more efficiently select a site that best meets their needs.

Although I’ll admit that at times I feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless list of bookmarking sites that pop up, I do see utility in the major ones that David features. 

I learned about an interesting social network the other day that will interest Bivings Report readers who follow how news is reported on the Internet; it is for tech savvy journalists who want to improve their general reporting skills and better contribute to the field — even if they have few resources.

The network is called Wired Journalists.  Check it out.

Jerry Johnson of Jerry's Juice Bar fame, and a friend, colleague, client and golf partner has put up a blog called "Taking The Blogosphere Seriously ." He's got some trenchant things to say about both the Serious and Not Serious sides of the Blogosphere.  Give it a read and add your comments. He'll be taking them with him as a panel speaker to the Consumer Electronic Show next week. I know Jerry; he'll give full attribution to whatever you have to add.

I really enjoy using Facebook as it allows me to connect and remain connected with friends and associates, but there are so many ways that I could use it to better my life and that of others.  Here are five things I would like to do through Facebook in 2008 to better harness its power:

1. Actually catch up with old friends

I have friended heaps of friends on Facebook whom I've done nothing with other than skim their profiles in the last several years.  If they are truly my friends, I should try to get caught up with their lives.  What are they are up to?  Do they still like to (fill in the blank)? Etc.

2. Do something meaningful through a group

Most groups on Facebook aren't very productive.  I just join, and my membership in that group says something about me.  While I have posted a photo or a message on a group page, that's about all I've done.  My membership in a group — not all, but some — should result in productive action.

3. Help someone because I noticed something on their profile

From time to time a friend of mine will say that they're sad, overwhelmed, sick, etc. through their status.  I should take that as a cue to at the very to give them a call to offer support if I know them well enough.

4. Get acquainted with my "Facebook Friends"

Yes, I do have some friends on Facebook that I've never talked to or meet in person or over the phone.  Either they randomly friended me or we were involved in some other project but didn't directly interact.  I should get to know them so that I can feel better about appearing on their friend lists.  Besides they might be really cool.

5. Introduce people to each other

With the wealth of information that people put on their Facebook profiles, I can easily see where friends of mine who don't know each other share common interests.  While other times one friend will mention a job opening at their company when another friend of mine needs a job.  Why not introduce them via Facebook?  I'll have to think about the matchmaker role…

Last week, NewMediaAge.co.uk reported that The Economist magazine intends to launch a social network.  This partly stems from its Project Red Stripe that aimed to produce something innovative with the company's expansive library of quality content but then fizzled with hopes of an altruistic social site.  While the idea is noble, there are many other sites out their now that connect people those who they can help.

For awhile I thought that news sites creating their own social networking site was great since it would help them lure audience members back more often, but now I'm wary of another social networking site.

The concept is not flawed; it is just the idea that I'll have to create another profile, remember more usernames and passwords, and try to woo my associates to do the same that seems so laborious.

Perhaps the magazine could partner with an existing social networking site that many of its readers are either members of or would benefit from joining.  I understand concerns about relying on another company to handle your information and that of your customers as well as branding issues, but if my sentiments are shared by many other people, forget the success of a social networking venture.

Now, who could The Economist partner with?  MySpace and Facebook probably aren't great possible partners since neither are designed for sustained conversations and debates.  The same goes for LinkedIn, but its professional networking emphasis does should jive well with Economist readers.  On the other hand, Gather is centered around conversation, yet, tries to appease a wide variety of folk.

Are there any other sizable social networks that would suit The Economist well?

Is it just me or has Facebook just dropped "is" from its standard status update formula? 

Until today a user was forced to mold their status updates to follow the format "Steve is [custom text]."  Of course, some people's updates didn't make sense with the "is" – whether this was intentional or just from the common lack of concern for grammar on the Internet. 

However, now it appears that you can use whatever verb you want.  Well, at least for me right now.  Maybe I'm special…

If so, I'm not the only one.  Tom Phillips of metro.co.uk reports that this change has rolled out for UK users.  In fact, he refers to a Facebook group titled "Campaign to lose the mandatory 'is' from status updates!" with, as of its posting, has 66,678 members.  Apparently, it has achieved its objective; the group's description states: "***WOOHOO! LOOKS LIKE THE BOTHERSOME IS HAS BEEN BANISHED!***"

Perhaps I should update my status to state: "Steve is wonderings if this is a big deal." 

I became aware of the term tumblelog around a year ago and have been running across examples of tumblelogs with greater and greater frequency lately. According to Wikipedia, a tumblelog “is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author’s creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary.” This site has a list of examples.

After circling around the concept for awhile, I set up a test tumblelog for myself using the Tumblr service. Here are my impressions of tumblelogging generally and Tumblr specifically:

Things I Like

(1) The interface is dead simple and slick. As you’ll see from the screenshot below, all you do is click on the content type you want to post and your off.

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It appears that there is exciting social media action happening out in Ohio.  Public broadcaster WOSU and COSI, an area science museum, in Columbus are now hosting the Columbus Social Media Cafe group in their WOSU@COSI center.

According to the Columbus Social Media Cafe blog, the mission of this group centers around the following question that WOSU and COSI asked themselves:

What if we — your local public broadcaster and science museum — and those of you who are the local blogging experts got together and learned how to use Social Media to bring back that great American tradition of the community taking charge of its own problems?

The group has already met a couple of times this month with great attendance and participation. 

What I find interesting about this group is how much they're using social media.  They have a blog, a mini social network (ning based), and use Twitter.  However, they rely use these tools to complement interaction in the real world.  We'll see if this collaboration between a traditional news organization, museum, and area residents will indeed usher in a better community through the help of social media.

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, tis the season for sweets and treats.  A newspaper article about cookies sounds like a great idea.

Stuart Elliott of the New York Times has just an article today, but not one about recipes.  It is about Pepperidge Farm, the cookie company, which is employing social networking in a new advertising campaign.  While other companies establish a presence on an existing social network site by setting up a group, profile, or buying ads, Pepperidge Farm has launched artofthecookie.com.

The Art of the Cookie site is aimed at woman and helping them make connections through cookies. Sally Horchow, co-author of The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections, is a key spokesperson for the campaign.  On the site she posted a diary of a cross country trip she made this summer during which she spoke with women about friendships.  The site offers other tips about friendships.

Companies have taken a more serious look at social networking as many are either creating niche social network sites or participate on existing networks.  Clearly the notion of connecting customers with each other is gaining traction with the common practice of a company speaking to its customers.  

Pepperidge Farm didn't haphazardly decide to pursue a social networking centric campaign.  After conducting research in the homes of its customers, vice president and general manager Michael Simon explained to the NYT that "this notion of connection came up again and again…hectic lifestyles, life in general, has gotten in the way" of fostering friendships.  He expects positive results from portraying the sharing of cookies with others as a great way to make and strengthen relationships. 

It'll be interesting to see how this new campaign works out.  I wonder if a poultry company will launch a campaign about forging business deals over steak… 

MySpace (do I really need to link there?) is going to be offering a pay-for-friend model to record distributors. The catch for the record distributor? Give them the user the music for free. We're talking about commercial music that is also distributed in record stores here, not music from some obscure band.

So how does this work exactly? A user "friends" a record label and in exchange they can download an album. The user has the music they want, the record label has an audience for their brands that they can capitalize on, and MySpace gets a little change in it's pocket. Win, win, win? Maybe. I have my doubts as to whether people are really going buy in to an unfamiliar brand because they were able to download some music for free. But it's an interesting idea and definitely worth a shot. Frankly anything that takes current music business models in a different direction is worth a shot. Hats off to MySpace for the imaginativeness.

Speaking of obscure bands, the first band to try this out on MySpace is a band called Pennywise, via their record label Textango's MySpace profile. This will happen sometime next March.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Via AdWeek.

Last week the New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt announced that the Times had begun allowing user comments on select editorials and news stories appearing on the website (via CyberJournalist). The Times has long allowed commenting on its blogs, but this marks the first time it will allow visitors to comment on stories that actually make it into the print version of the newspaper. All comments will be moderated by Times’ staffers. Hoyt writes about that decision: “The paper is creating a comment desk, starting with the hiring of four part-time staffers, to screen all reader submissions before posting them, an investment unheard of in today’s depressed newspaper business environment.” You can view an example of how comments on the Times site will work here.

In reading Hoyt, it is clear that this is a decision the Times came to very reluctantly. On the one hand, the Times acknowledges the contribution that commenters can make to a site:

“We have two great assets,” said Jonathan Landman, the deputy managing editor who is in charge of the newsroom’s online efforts. “One is the quality of the material we produce; the other is the quality of our readers, some of the most curious, intelligent and sophisticated people on earth.” Putting the knowledge of readers together with the journalism of The Times, he said, could result in “news and information of greater power, reach and quality than even a great newsroom can produce on its own.”

On the other hand, Hoyt provides multiple examples of commenters on the Times’ website run amok and closes with this:

Many major newspapers, like The Washington Post and USA Today, do not have an editor screen comments before posting them. Those two papers allow other readers to object to a comment as abusive, and then an editor will check it.

But Landman said The Times never considered unmoderated comments.

Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president for digital operations of The New York Times Company, said: “A pure free-for-all doesn’t, in my opinion, equal good. It can equal bad.”

I believe that’s especially true if you’re The New York Times and you are trying to maintain a rare tradition of civility. A site with many Rays in Mexican Colony of LA might carry the name of The New York Times, but it would no longer be The New York Times.

I think the solution of allowing comments on select articles is a good one. I also think the decision to allow only pre-screened isn’t going to work for the 99% of newspapers that simply don’t have the resources to devote four full time people to screening comments, as the Times does. The solution simply isn’t scaleable.

If I were running a newspaper website, I would not pre-screen comments. But I would take the following steps to help ensure the conversation maintains a minimum level of quality:

1. Only allow users who have registered with a site to post comments.
2. Screen the first comment a user makes. If the first comment is acceptable then let the user post without screening. If it is objectionable or off topic, then don’t allow the user to comment. This will help prevent the trolls seeking to sidetrack conversations from getting through.
3. Automatically delete all comments that contain profanity.
4. Create a mechanism that allows users to report comments that are objectionable. If a comment is flagged by enough users, it would then be sent into a moderation queue for review by an editor.
5. Give users the ability to hide the comments of users they find objectionable.
6. Provide active oversight of the community. Have editors leave comments themselves. Ban users who are out of line. Delete objectionable comments. You’ll find communities tend to be more civil when administrators maintain an active presence on their site instead of being distant figures.

What do you think is the best way for high volume sites to handle comments?

Update: Thought of one more: (7) Close comments on articles after one week of discussion.  This will free you from having to manage comments on old stories and focus on the new stuff.