"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

The title made me do it. I picked Joe Trippi's book, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" because the title has a connection to a personal experience that I had as a reporter. Back in 2002 (may be it was a year later, I don't recall exactly), the news broke of a coup d'etat in Venezuela, just a few months after I had interviewed President Chavez while he was visiting the U.N. in New York. When I heard the news, I was a little concerned about his security and to be honest, his life. It's not that I like Chavez' policies, but when something like that happens it can end tragically. But Venezuelans had other plans. During the time he was out of power, thousands of Venezuelans protested in the streets and, miraculously, Chavez was back in the presidential palace after only a few hours. Believe it or not, while they protested in the streets, Venezuelan TV was showing the "new government" press conferences' or airing soup operas (at the time, most stations were against Chavez regime and supported the golpistas). During that time, two film makers who were in Venezuela recorded the whole ordeal which became a documentary, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." But Joe's book has nothing to do with this event, I found out later. The original "Revolution" title it's a poem and song written by an African American writer linked to the Black Panther movement. I heard the song the other day and kind of liked it. You'll hear more about the book next Monday.

The "Making" of Chatroulette

My friends (a la John McCain) I'm doing a story about Chatroulette soon and my thought is, who else should I ask for advice but the experts at APOC? I tried the website last week and it was distasteful (to say the least), but it had also an intriguing element. It's a great concept, no wonder why Google wants to buy it. Thinking about my audience, mostly parents, what should they know about Chatroulette? Any ideas?

Can Gaming Make a Better World? Yeah, right...

You saw the presentation, you were impressed...now, do you really believe it? Can playing games really create the environment to change our society's problems. I went to visit Evoke's website (still haven't play it) but it feels that one is not wasting time there. Which leads me to the poll of the week: Can Gaming Make a Better World? Go vote!

Hispanos 2.0

The reading for today's class is eyeopening, to say the least. Don't you agree? I really enjoyed Jane McGonigalon on TED's website. While I was reading the assignment I checked the "Hispanic Market" section on the Future of Media blog. I would like to do this for you, to save you sometime: synthesize the main points that the writer makes about the Hispanic market and give you my make take on it. What should you know this? Well, if you're going to work in social media or will have your own business, chances are that you will have to deal with Pedro or Jose or in a worst case scenario with Roberto. So, Maria Lopez-Knowles wrote the myths and truths of the Hispanic market (my comments in parenthesis).

1. The Hispanics market is Spanish language dominant. Myth.

"U.S. born Hispanics are English-language dominant and engage with English language media (60% of today’s Hispanic market), while the first generation (40% of the market) is primarily Spanish-language dominant."

(I agree, to a certain extend. It depends on the market. If you're in Miami it's Spanish Language dominant. In L.A? Probably English.)

2. The Hispanic Market is not online: Myth

"second-generation Hispanics spend more time online than with any other medium. In fact, among Internet users, more English-language dominant Hispanics have a blog than ANY OTHER demographic group (eMarketer.com)."

(I agree 100%, but I will also note that the first generation [immigrants] are becoming very active recently)

3. The Hispanic Market is brand loyal: Myth

"First generation Hispanics show much greater brand loyalty than second-generation Hispanics; yet, the second-generation is the brand influencer within a multi-generational family."

(Agree. Except it goes both way, depending on the product. What I mean to say is that "mama" will influence her kids about certain products [for instance, food] and vice-versa).

Lopez Knowles seems to count "third generation" and "fourth generation" as part of the Hispanic market. I have my doubts...when do you stop becoming "Hispanic" american? It depends, but if you lose your language, connection to your ancestry, and you were born here... can we just call you an "American"?

Twittering from Mexicali

A few minutes after the 7.2 earthquake that hit the Mexicali area, there were people twittering pictures of the damage. It was real impressive how quick people were sending the pictures to the web. When I clicked on the Google trend link about the earthquake, I could see real time tweets about the earthquake. Once again, just like in Chile, it was Twitter the first at the scene. ABC local was using those same pictures (from Twitter) on its live coverage. While NBC and Telemundo were sending a reporter to the border (Calexico), those pictures were already telling the story. Once again, it's changing how stations are covering and will cover breaking news. How? I don't know, but the technology is way faster than any TV network or station.

Could Social Media Revive the U.S. Economy?

There's little doubt of the effect that social media has on existing businesses. For instance, Yelp.com has done miracles for local businesses and we know how YouTube and Facebook could make or break a brand. But can social media drive the recovery of the U.S. economy?

Latest report: The economy adds 162,000 jobs in March

This is a chart of Social Media related jobs growth in the past years. The graph stops in 2008, so I'm sure the growth is even more impressive now...

The jobs have increased +300% from 2005 to 2008. This is great news for social media enthusiast like us. Facebook could be worth 100 billion in 2015, according to some analyst. This is only one company. Google is currently valued over 135 billion. With those type of numbers, one wonders how powerful these companies are getting and how many jobs they can create with their net profits? I think they can do a lot, not counting the new services or strategies that they bring to improve the growth of existing companies (i.e. how Realtor.com benefits from Google maps). Could this be just the beginning of a huge economic boom?

It Doesn't Look Good for the I-pad...

A recent poll found that 66 percent of respondents were not sure or will not buy an I-pad (above picture courtesy of Wikipedia). The rest said that they will wait for the price to drop before buying it. The poll was conducted a month after Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs introduced the computer on January 27. The I-pad cost starts at $500.00 and goes up depending on the hardware features. Media reception to the computer has been mixed, according to the Wikipedia entry on the subject. Walt Mossberg called the price "modest" for a device of its capabilities, and liked the ten-hour battery life. Yair Reiner said that, "the iPad will compete against e-book devices such as the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Amazon Kindle." The unscientific survey was created by Enlacalle with a sample of 3 people. I hope you vote next time for a more representative sample. My new survey: Should Google pull out of China? Go to Enlacalle.