This appears to be a relatively new phenomenon. There are several sites out there that gauge our social influence. They take our actions on the top social media sites, sees who interacts with us the most, sees which content we are sharing, see who is sharing our content and comes up with a composite score based on your actions, social influence and general online awesomeness.

They each take into consideration things such as:

• How influential are the people who @ message you?
• How influential are the people who retweet you?
• How influential are the people who follow you?
• How influential are the people who list you?
• How influential are the people who follow the lists you are on?

Each site does tend to measure the social influence a bit differently.

Klout Ranks Social Influencers

Klout was one of the first companies to begin ranking social influence.

According to their definition, Klout is defined as:

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engaged audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.

Empire Avenue is a Social Influence Stock Market

Empire Avenue is the Social Stock Market, where you can Grow your Social Capital online. Here’s how it works, you get to discover valuable, interesting, cool, fun people online and then based scores or share price, invest virtual currency in their profiles by buying shares in our Social Stock Market. It’s an interesting concept. The simple act of buying shares in someone you think is worth your currency, you will create new connections and as people invest in you, grow your own social influence within the game.

Empire Avenue is what you make of it. Empire Avenue can be used as a complement to your social networking, as a way to meet and make great new connections, find individuals who are engaged in each of their networks and as a way to connect online. If you’re new to social media, Empire Avenue can even be a great training tool – a fun way to discover the power of social networks, find out how strong your social media efforts are and how to make your online presence even more effective by growing your social influence.

Triberr Creates Groups of Social Influencers

Basically, its a syndication network. You can build a group of influential people, who like what you like. And everyone agrees to share everyone elses content in their Twitter following.

To join, you must be invited. Which doesn’t look to hard. Seems lots of people are eager to “build their tribe” (especially given that then you will broadcast their content to your following – everyday). Who knew that people would be so eager to promote themselves?

From Triberr.com:

Every time you publish a new post, Triberr sends it to everyone in your tribe and they tweet it to their followers. You do the same for everyone in your tribe. All this is automated of course.

Creating a tight tribe with like-minded people has an interesting impact on the other social influence ranking systems such as Klout and EmpireAvenue. You can literally see the effect on your rankings. I posted a blog post earlier in the week, and my Klout went up 2 points in 4 days. The traffic to the blog post was much higher than normal.

Social Influence is very real.

People gauge your worthiness as a marketer or thought leader by the information that you share, and by who you are connected to, and who shares your information. Some people even put their social influence scores on their resume!

Razorfish also put together a Social Influence Marketing Report, that is worth checking out. There are becoming more and more companies that measure social influence by all of your social accounts, and some that just measure certain networks. Like TwitterGrader.com just measures your twitter account. And PeerIndex does some of the same things that Klout does. So, the space is gaining attention.

Have fun out there, and make sure to invest in my social influence capital on EmpireAvenue (e)TEEDUBYA. But, when my social influence scores start to drop, don’t be afraid to “Sell, Mortimer!! SELLLLLLL!!”

Brian Solis has a great writeup on this topic of social influence. How do you increase social influence? Don’t think about the score

The LGNewsroom site has all of the press information about the new products being released here at CES.

The LG Press Conference began with a video of Jane Lynch from Glee telling us about the power of SMART. Check this, Jane was NOT wearing a jumpsuit.

Wayne Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics, talked about the products that LG is releasing here at CES. The main components of business they are focusing on are the Home Entertainment division, Home Appliance division and Mobile Phones division. They are dedicated to making all of their products “Smarter”.

According to Park, LG is developing technologies to gauge the future market landscape. Strengthening business competitiveness is a key area of focus for LG in 2011, as well as preparing for future business in the coming years. LG is making a strong push in investing in R&D and innovation.

Quality management is another key focus for 2011, LG is championing the mantra of quality, from the top of their organization to the lower ranks.

Face the challenges of 2011 to sustain growth and keep LG at a competitive edge in their core business division.

Next up, CTO, Dr. Skott Ahn, the former CEO of the Mobile Communications division. He was responsible for 20% growth year over year, every year in charge.

Smart TV is a product that LG is launching this year. In 2010, they launched broadband TV, in 2011, Smart TV is the reinvention. They will offer premium content providers such as Google Maps, Hulu, Youtube, Netflix and many others.

Plus, they are launching a Smart TV app store that looks pretty impressive. They are launching the Smart TV Upgrader, which will put LG App Store onto any TV with HDMI. This seems very similar to Apple TV.

Mobile Smartphones
Smartphone Roadmap, in 2011, LG is launching the Optimus 2x is the worlds first smartphone with a Dual Core processor, NVidia AP20h, plus it plays 1080p HD. It is also pretty small weighing in at 3.8oz and slim at a mere 0.36 inches. Very slim phone with an amazing display that is very bright. In fact, LG claims it to be the brightest display on smart phones.

Smart Appliances
So, LG has created some new amazing home appliances that can connect via wireless connectivity. The appliances contain what LG calls ThinQ technology, which allows for “smart access”, “smart diagnosis” “smart food management”, “smart adapt” and “smart grid.”

Smart access control allows users to monitor home appliances with their Smartphone / Tablet. You can also personalize your appliacance by downloading wash cycles, recipes, etc.

The Smart Grid function helps reduce electricity automatically.

LG is also have a smaller press event tomorrow where they are launching their line of Tablets.

All in all, I am very impressed with the new line of products by LG. They are launching over 30 new TVs and 14 new mobile devices.

They say that “in honor of 2010 being The Year of The Bieber on Twitter, we’re giving away one pair of Justin Bieber’s Solo Justbeats headphones and limited edition iBeats earbuds.” with a link for you to   Win a Pair of Justin Bieber’s Solo Justbeats Headphones or iBeats Earbuds [CONTEST]

From all of the comments I’ve read – most think that the folks over at Mashable are off their rocker. Literally.

Most boo & hiss that they can’t believe Mashable would offer such a contest that is so obviously out of line with their target demographic.

Some plead a strong case for Facebook to add a “dislike” button.

Others threaten to abandon Mashable for good over this contest.

I’m starting to side with the folks who, though silent, are firm in the belief that even bad comments are still comments and good PR. If you leave a comment, you are still giving them time on your social stage. So go ahead and bitch about the Bieber contest. You are only bringing it more attention.

The people who have commented on this page have now put this post in front of all of their friends (and tweenagers). Yep, you guessed it. Sometimes the best way to get attention is to piss a few people off. Bravo Mashable.

Look at me . . . I’m writing about the damn thing. Case closed.

–

Got Bieber Fever? . . . neither do I.

Want to leave your two cents worth? Head on over  the Mashable Facebook page and tell’em @dhatfield sent you.

Seriously. This will be awesome. Designed by Finland’s own MultiTouch, the Multitouch Twitter Wall will consist of “at least” six MultiTouch Cell 46 displays, each one being 46-inches wide.

Look at this video demo.

Source Engadget

As I skimmed the iPad app store the other night, the one app that struck me most (besides Flipboard) was one that actually set way, way down at #55.  It was the highly-touted Hulu + app, possibly one of the most hoped-for and touted apps by the iPad crowd.

The price was set at $9.99.  So far, the iPad has done a phenomenal job of stretching our limits in what users are willing to spend via digital, download-driven purchases.  The $.99 standard was set years ago with the introduction of iTunes and music downloads, and for the most part, it transitioned over to the app store and became the entry-point for paid apps in the space for over three years.

There is an unspoken expectation in iTunes app land.  If you download a free app, expect/respect the fact the developers need to keep their lights on too, so banners and interstitials are going to be there.   Pay for the app?  Banners are nowhere to be seen.  Heck, one of the biggest selling points in paid apps is the absence of advertising all together.

Hulu + first erred in this area.  When the $10 monthly fee was announced, a somewhat surprised crowd at least initially surmised that pre, mid and post-rolls would be kicked to the curb.  As fans downloaded and launched the app, they were surprised to see the same ads they saw on its free desktop component laced throughout the app.  Hulu actually thought people would pay $120 a year just to be able to carry an ad-driven Hulu portal around on an iPad vs. a laptop.

Think of the easy comparison, TV.  You have your free and basic cable channels, where we expect a solid 20 minutes of advertising on the hour.  Once we pay for the HBO’s, the Starz, the Showtimes, we pay to have those commercials taken away.  Hulu, in essence, is trying to become an HBO with commercials.  In reality, it appears they are trying to model their pricing after Netflix, while neglecting to reflect their massive DVD infrastructure and mailing centers that justifies a monthly-based fee.

If Hulu was smart they would have realized the subscription-based pricing model (or lack thereof) has so far been a failure in the mobile application space.  Time, Wall Street Journal, the big publications that were once going to be saved and revolutionized on the iPad are nowhere to be seen on the top paid downloads list due to this very reason.  Why pay $240 a year for an iPad Time subscription when I can get the print one for $29?  The reason is twofold:  the tendency for companies to over-estimate how much people are willing to spend on new technologies (see Dyson bladeless fan) and failure to respect the success of the discount-based subscription print models of the last 50 years.

Nearly every application that requires a monthly (or weekly) fee to receive updated content has failed to deliver any sort of discount-based pricing tier.  In the print and magazine world, long-term subscriptions often generated discounts in excess of 70% and a large majority of their business.  In iPad land, it’s $4 or $10 a month, regardless if you are here for a month or here for three years.  The failure to reward loyalty and long-term commitments with discounts is a simple yet huge mistake that quite honestly has not been executed properly in the mobile space yet.  Until this simple “problem” can be fixed, applications that require a monthly or weekly fee will continue to be plagued with low ratings and nasty reviews.

If there was ever a “good bad problem” to have, this would honestly be it for the iPublications and Hulus of the world.  There’s a simple and proven solution out there…discount-based subscriptions and price tiers.  There’s no tech issues, no“app crashing” problems to solve (which seems to be affecting a huge amount of iPhone/iTouch apps that are running O/S 4 on 3G or 3GS right now, but I digress.)  These iPublications and video services need to realize that even in the light of sexy, new technologies, people are still going to be realistic and even cautious with how they spend their money in these spaces  Until they provide a welcoming and realistic pricing model, subscription-based applications will continue to be nothing more than the Ryan Leaf’s of the iPad app store.

“The fastest we go is 172,800x, compressing 24 hours of real time into a blazing 1/2 second. The slowest is 1/32x speed, stretching a mere 1/2 second of real time into a whopping 16 seconds. This gives us a fastest to slowest ratio of 5.5 million. If you like averages, the average speed up factor of the band dancing is 270x. In total we shot 18 hours of the band dancing and 192 hours of LA skyline timelapse – over a million frames of video – and compressed it all down to 4 minutes and 30 seconds! Oh and don’t forget, it’s one continuous camera shot.”

screen capture of Twitter from Zee of The Next Web

Read the full story :: App Store, Hacked. (Updated: iTunes Accounts too.)

Learn the all the facts and what you should do here. Thanks Zee!

If your account has been hacked Apple offers this advice. . .

iTunes Store: What to do if your account has been compromised

Has your account been hacked?

How should Apple handle this?

Freddie25:
A Christmas project with accordion, flutes and other acoustic “instruments”. The original music is from the Legend of Zelda series. (Mostly from The Wind Waker, full song list below.)

MP3 here: http://www.speedyshare.com/704964519….

0:04 Medli’s Prayer (part of the opening theme)
0:21 Makar’s Prayer (also part of the opening theme)
0:40 Medli’s Prayer again
0:52 Aryll’s Theme + Makar’s Prayer
1:04 Overworld (Ocean Theme)
1:28 Zelda’s Lullaby
1:34 Dark World (A Link to the Past)
1:44 Aryll’s Theme + Medli’s Prayer
1:56 Aryll’s Theme + Makar’s Prayer + Zelda’s Lullaby
2:08 An arrangement of the original Zelda Overworld theme

Most of these songs were already included in a medley at the end of the game though. (The Staff Credits music.)

Upon further debate, I was told that Chuck Klosterman originally posited such a thought.  And it turns out, the American-flavored pop culture obsession with these supernatural blood-friendly fiends has some major symbolic plasma to it.  Terms like “life-drainer” and “sex-crazed” were thrown out, Edward was defended (not Edward!) and suffice it to say, the vampire thoughts did not end there.

Well to get me thinking, I decided I would list the things that ARE wrong with America and see how our Twilight’s and True Blood’s stack up.  So here goes:

#1 thing wrong with America: Our dependence on non-renewable energy.

America: Um, well.
Vampires: Subsist off of human blood and there are upwards of 6.7 billion humans circa 2008 (a.k.a. True Blood Season 1).  Seems to be pretty darn renewable to me, I mean geez that’s a lot of humans!

#2 thing wrong with America: We’re kinda bullies, sometimes.

America: BP is from England—duh, (P.S. follow @BPGlobalPR for a laugh).  And war(s), what war(s)?  Did you see Kate Hudson’s boob job? Who is she kidding anyway?
Vampires: The Cullens live off of animal blood and Bill is mainstreaming TruBlood-style.  While the majority of the two vampire worlds might be seen as less than peaceful, these two figureheads are held up as proof of politically correct blood-flavored sustenance for all.

#3 thing wrong with America: We still don’t have affordable universal healthcare.

America: We’re working on it man, give us some time, like a handful of years or so.
Vampires: Heal themselves.  Stupid self-healing vampires.

#4 thing wrong with America: We’re a lethargic, politically impotent, narcissistic bunch.

America: Quiet, Glee’s about to start.
Vampires: Way faster/stronger/quicker than humans, politics vary by vampire mainstay, and why yes, vampires are quite narcissistic.  Hey you probably would be too if you possessed eternal youth (@MrsKutcher I’m looking at you).

#5 thing wrong with America: We boast an untenable consumerist lifestyle.

America: Haven’t you heard of the Green Movement?  And what about the new iPhone, makes me want to toss my old one in the toilet just so I can get a new one!
Vampires: Some of us have been around and under the radar since before Jesus.  That has to say something.

#6 thing wrong with America: We idolize Paris Hilton instead of Toni Morrison.

America: Toni who?
Vampires: Have become an object of idolization, distracting our already ADHD-prone population even further (Edward!).  But in their own little vampire-written worlds, vampires are worldly fellows, (mostly because they’ve had centuries to become worldly, but worldly nonetheless).

And so as I near the end of my list of things that are wrong with America (obviously I could go on), I realize that vampires, at best, are a self-consciously constructed foil for ourselves.  American culture is still breaking out of slash feeling guilty for our Puritan roots; vampires are hedonists to a T.  And therefore, perhaps the way in which we portray these demons of the night heavily correlates to the way our own demons would like to act in the night (or day for that matter).  Other times, we hold our vampire figments up to a pedestal longingly gazing at them as they drain/glamour/suck whatever it is we constructed them to drain in the first place.  Sometimes I wonder if the vampires are having identity issues; good vampire one second, bad vampire the next.  Luckily, most of them are pretty good actors.

And so there you have it.  Vampires represent all that is evil about America?  Kind of.  Pop culture oozing all that is socially repressed into your favorite fad-of-the-moment fantasy box set?  On sale now.

Rickrolling is an Internet meme typically involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The meme is a bait and switch: a person provides a web link that they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video. The link can be masked or obfuscated in some manner so that the user cannot determine the true destination of the link without clicking.

When a person clicks on the link and is led to the web page, he or she is said to have been “rickrolled”. Rickrolling has extended beyond Web links to playing the video or song disruptively in other situations, including public places;[2] this culminated when Astley and the song made a surprise appearance in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,[1] a televised event with tens of millions of viewers. – Wikipedia

Via: Online Schools

"An Epic of epic epicness."

Social networking sites and the media have found synthesis these past few months, as movies and their twitter and Facebook fan pages have been areas where fans can get sneak previews of scenes, exclusive interviews and interact with their favorite actors.

Now, the upcoming motion picture “Scott Pilgrim VS The World” has a cool offer for fans via their Facebook page. Just by “liking” the film and helping it reach 100,000 fans on the site will release the trailer a week early.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Facebook Page

“An Epic of epic epicness.”

Well, with this type of hype, it better be good.

They are doing their best to drum up action.  Not a bad ploy.  They are currently at 86,331 fans.

Synopsis:

Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera).  A bass guitarist for garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams…literally.  The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)?  Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him.  Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker’s quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Scott Pilgrim has never had a problem getting a girlfriend.  It’s getting rid of them that proves difficult.  From the girl who kicked his heart’s ass—and now is back in town—to the teenage distraction he’s trying to shake when Ramona rollerblades into his world, love hasn’t been easy.  He soon discovers, however, his new crush has the most unusual baggage of all: a nefarious league of exes controls her love life and will do whatever it takes to eliminate him as a suitor.

As Scott gets closer to Ramona, he must face an increasingly vicious rogues’ gallery from her past—from infamous skateboarders to vegan rock stars and fearsomely identical twins.  And if he hopes to win his true love, he must vanquish them all before it really is game over. www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com

Genre: Action-Comedy

Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman

Directed by: Edgar Wright

Writers: Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright

Based on the Oni Press Comic Book Series by: Bryan Lee O’Malley

Producers: Marc Platt, Eric Gitter, Edgar Wright, Nira Park

Executive Producers: Ronaldo Vasconcellos, J. Miles Dale

Official Website: www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ScottPilgrim

Via College Humor.

Google said that TV today is too complicated, with too many channels and a poor interface for finding the shows you want to see. I tend to agree. Trying to sorts the thousands of programs on hundreds of channels is a difficult chore. They said many people these days end up watching videos on the Web, because it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for and watch it on your own schedule.

“The problem is, these smaller screens don’t compare to our home entertainment system,” the company says in a promotional video introducing Google TV. No joke, right? My 46 inch TV is way better to watch videos on… which is why people hook up their computer to their TV.

The new service will come integrated into some HDTVs, while other users can buy Google TV through a separate set-top-box. Using an on-screen Google search box, users can type in what they are looking for and find it, either on the Web or through their cable TV.

“It’s basically an entertainment hub that searches all of your channels, recorded shows, YouTube, and other websites,” the video says.

Google TV will feature a home screen like the new tab icon on Chrome does, where you can store your favorite locations, whether they’re cable channels, YouTube channels, websites, or anything else on TV or on the Web. This will come in very handy.

Google TV will also feature the full Chrome Web browser, and has access to the Android Market, so users can download unique applications to run from their HDTV in the living room. With HTML5 coming, this will make your TV the center of your home entertainment once again!

All devices running Google TV must have Wi-Fi and Ethernet built in. It offers integration with an existing cable or satellite set top box using HDMI, and comes with an infrared blaster to control them. Google TV hardware will also include a dedicated GPU, surround sound, a keyboard, and a pointing device.

This song is “Solar” by Goldfrapp. Have lyrics EVER looked so bad ass?

Have I EVER randomly capitalized this many WORDS in one post before?

Check it out at Flight404

Solar, with lyrics. from flight404 on Vimeo.

This is one of the most beautiful and creative advertisements I have ever seen.

ENVISION : Step into the sensory box from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

Via Gizmodo