California Takes a Big Step Forward: Free, Digital, Open-Source Textbooks

 Education, Internet News  310 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

This week, California took a big step forward in the march toward online education. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a proposal to create a website that will allow students to download digital versions of popular textbooks for free.

The new legislation encompasses two bills: One, a proposal for the state to fund 50 open-source digital textbooks, targeted to lower-division courses, which will be produced by California’s universities. (Students will be able to download these books for free or pay $20 for hard copies.) The other bill is a proposal to establish a California Digital Open Source Library to host those books.

On the textbook side, California will ask the California Open Education Resources Council, comprised of school faculty, to create and oversee a book approval process — which will include the development of a list of targeted courses “for which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials would be developed or acquired” by the University of California, California State University, or California Community College systems. The council will then solicit bids to produce these textbooks in 2013. (The first free books are set to be available for the 2013-2014 school year.) And the bill makes clear that the council has the option to use “existing high-quality digital open source textbooks and related materials” if those materials fit its requirements.

MORE: California Takes a Big Step Forward: Free, Digital, Open-Source Textbooks – Megan Garber – The Atlantic.

 

The perfect diet for your brand – is Facebook or Twitter Engagement better?

 Internet News, Your Brand  399 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

Secret Social Marketing Tip: Find out which social media platform works better for engaging your fans.

Brands need to make the decision as to which social platform they should focus on in order to gain maximum fan engagement. So, we looked at 12 key industries and examined whether brand activity on Facebook or Twitter can engage fans better and what are the reasons.

For the Media, the best channel is Twitter

When studying media performance on both social platforms, we found out that media post on Facebook five times less than brands. The Media engagement rate is only 47% of what brands reach on Facebook. On the other hand, the media engagement rate on Twitter represents 88% of what brands achieve on Twitter.

MORE: The perfect diet for your brand – is Facebook or Twitter Engagement better? – Socialbakers.

 

65 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

 Internet News, Tech News  453 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

Time passes quickly and change is relentless, particularly in the digital sphere. So, if your busy life kept you away from the Internet this week, there’s plenty you may have missed.

But don’t fret — Mashable, your cyber ally, is here to relieve your digital woes. Our staff tracked down every new gizmo, app, game, website and service they could find. Check them out in our weekly roundup of digital resources,

MORE: 65 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed.

 

How to put all your data on the Web—without storing it in the cloud

 interface, Internet News, Tech News  468 Responses »
Sep 282012
 

Local alternatives to Dropbox are worth looking into for those concerned about the security risks of uploading data to a cloud storage provider. We recently profiled AeroFS, which integrates a Dropbox-style folder into your file system and syncs it across computers. While it works quite well, the service is still in a limited beta, does not yet enable mobile or Web-based access, and isnt the only useful approach to building a “personal cloud.”

Another approach a lot of users might find interesting makes every file on your desktop, including those in external hard drives, available to any other computer, smartphone, or tablet. Luckily, this is quite easy these days—even if youve never set up a server, typed a line of code, or learned what NAS stands for.

For the purposes of this article, well look at two services: Tonido and PocketCloud. We chose them because they are cross-platform on both desktop and mobile, friendly to non-techie types, and provide their core services for free without requiring any hardware other than your desktop. At the end, well also briefly discuss some other options for secure file sharing.

Tonido and PocketCloud both keep your data on your own machines, never uploading files to their own servers except in one limited case involving PocketCloud.

MORE: How to put all your data on the Web—without storing it in the cloud | Ars Technica.

 

Facebook Groups get Dropbox integration for more flexible file sharing

 interface, Internet News  392 Responses »
Sep 272012
 

Facebook and Dropbox today announce the integration of the cloud storage service to allow users to easily share Dropbox files with people in their Facebook Groups.

Now when users select “Add File” from the Groups publisher, they will have an option to choose a file from Dropbox. The first time users do this, they will have to connect their Dropbox and Facebook accounts, if they have not done so already. Then, any document, photo or video file they share will show up on the group’s wall and can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet. Group members can like or comment on file posts, just as they can with other group posts. When users make edits to files they’ve shared, the group will get an update automatically.

Group members are able to see a user’s post with the link to the file but do not have access to the rest of the person’s Dropbox. Dropbox creates a unique token used only in that link, however, group members can copy the link and share the file elsewhere.

MORE: Facebook Groups get Dropbox integration for more flexible file sharing.

 

Secret Social Marketing Tip: Tweet This, Not That!

 Internet News, Marketing, Your Brand  331 Responses »
Sep 272012
 

Tweeting is a science; however, a few basic tips will help ensure your Twitter page increases in follower quality. (Did you catch that? Quality, not quantity! More on that later.)

When it comes to Twitter, followers want to read engaging, interesting tweets. If you think of Twitter in terms of a book, readers do not keep reading the same boring books (or tweets) by the same boring authors (or tweeters). For followers, Twitter is just that: reading. For brands, Twitter is a social platform for which interacting with customers is essential, NOT marketing. Twitter is not an advertisement; it’s a conversation.

So, let’s start increasing your Twitter followers.

1) Use Twitter as a Social Outlet, Not a Marketing Tool

MORE: Secret Social Marketing Tip: Tweet This, Not That! – Socialbakers.

 

Facebook Bug Creates Wall Posts That Can Never Be Deleted

 interface, Internet News  105 Responses »
Sep 272012
 

A recently found Facebook bug lets you to post un-deletable messages to friends’ walls.

Here’s how it works: Once you’ve blocked a person on Facebook, he or she can no longer see content you’ve posted on the social network, including posts you’ve made to their own wall. Since the content is no longer visible, it can’t be deleted. The only way either party can see the post again is if the block is removed.

In a way, Facebook lets you know that’s going to happen when you block someone in the first place: “Blocking means you won’t be able to see or contact each other on Facebook,” reads a message that pops up when you decide to block someone (see screenshot below). However, it’s a one-sided agreement: The person being blocked isn’t notified, and all of the content you’ve previously posted on their wall remains intact but invisible to both of you.

MORE: Facebook Bug Creates Wall Posts That Can Never Be Deleted.

 

Facebook trashes fake accounts, users, and likes

 Internet News  420 Responses »
Sep 272012
 

The purge has commenced. Facebook is throwing out all fake users, accounts, and likes. Thats right, all of those thousands of questionable thumbs ups are starting to disappear.

The social network announced last month that itd start this massive deletion process, but it was unclear when. According to TechCrunch, Facebook confirmed today that the time is now.

Over the course of the day, tens of thousands of fans were quietly dropped from Facebook Pages. Data from Facebook metrics site PageData shows that Zyngas Texas HoldEm Poker lost 96,000 fans today, while Rihanna lost 22,198, and Michael Jackson lost 17,591. Even the Facebook like champion Eminem had fans vanish today — his count dropped by 15,420.

MORE: Facebook trashes fake accounts, users, and likes | Internet & Media – CNET News.

 

Yet another Java flaw allows “complete” bypass of security sandbox

 Internet News, Tech News  274 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Researchers have discovered a Java flaw that would let hackers bypass critical security measures in all recent versions of the software. The flaw was announced today by Security Explorations, the same team that recently found a security hole in Java SE 7 letting attackers take complete control of PCs. But this latest exploit affects Java SE 5, 6, and 7—the last eight years worth of Java software.

“The impact of this issue is critical—we were able to successfully exploit it and achieve a complete Java security sandbox bypass in the environment of Java SE 5, 6, and 7,” Adam Gowdiak of Security Explorations wrote, claiming the hole puts “one billion users” at risk.

Gowdiak wrote that Security Explorations successfully pulled off the exploit on a fully patched Windows 7 32-bit computer in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari. Although testing was limited to Windows 7 32-bit, Gowdiak told Computerworld that the flaw would be exploitable on any machine with Java 5, 6, or 7 enabled (whether it’s Windows 7 64-bit, Mac OS X, Linux, or Solaris).

MORE: Yet another Java flaw allows “complete” bypass of security sandbox | Ars Technica.

 

Volvo Starts Its Engine on Pinterest Campaign

 Internet News, Marketing  466 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Volvo Cars of North America is tapping into the aspirational nature of Pinterest by asking users to describe their ideal road trip in a new campaign it hopes will ultimately present the brand in a new light to a different audience.

This marks Volvo’s first foray into Pinterest and marks the launch of the car manufacturer’s official Pinterest channel.

In the new promotion, Pinterest users who create a pinboard named “Volvo Joyride” through September 26 and pin the Volvo model S60 T5 AWD along with their favorite road trip destination, stops, attractions, outfits, songs, and other items that make up their ideal trip will be entered to win one four-day lease of the aforementioned car. Winners receive additional road trip perks, including a two-night hotel stay and gift cards for gas, food/beverage, clothing, and music.

Three winners will be selected with the most re-pins, likes, and comments.

According to Linda Gangeri, manager of marketing platforms and technologies, Volvo Joyride has over 600 participants to date.

And, so far, Volvo’s new Pinterest page has five boards, 77 pins, and about 775 followers.

Gangeri says Volvo had a soft launch on Pinterest in August.

MORE: Volvo Starts Its Engine on Pinterest Campaign | ClickZ.

 

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