Living Your Lives on the Internet

Charles Trippy is an internet sensation. I know what your thinking “I’ve never even heard of him.” Well don’t feel bad, the measure of his success is questionable, but he has made quite a name for himself in the online video blogging world. I first heard of Charles Trippy when I watched the the video “Twitter Ruined My Life” on youtube.com. I had no idea at the time that Charles had created a brand name for himself by his youtube videos. Charles has the popular video blog Charles Trippy on youtube, and also Internet Killed Television on youtube which he uploads videos with his fiancé Alli Speed. He has won awards for his videos, and blogs. He also has a partnership deal with Youtube and blogtv. He has a verifed twitter account, which is unusual for a "normal person", and has almost 20,000 followers for his blippy account. He has been so successful he makes his living from uploading videos to youtube. (inspiration maybe)

Charles and Alli first began Internet Killed Television back in 2008 when they set out the mission of uploading one video blog everyday for a year documenting their daily lives. After the year was over the channel was so successful the two have continued to upload videos daily to youtube. They are currently on day 423, and have 501 videos on they Internet Killed Television channel. The videos vary in topic and length but are mostly just daily documentaries of their lives. The videos are pretty silly in nature but are mostly funny. They range from footage of feeding their pets to Charles in the car. Each video averages over a 100,00 hits to upwards of 500,000 hits. Internet Killed Television is ranked 12th comedians on youtube, and 52th in partners of youtube and has over 266,000 followers.




Charles Trippy youtube channel is more of that silly comedy banter. He has videos of him spoofing various current pop culture events, but are mostly of him talking to the camera of comedic purposes. These videos average 250,000 hits. He is ranked 23rd of top Youtube subscribers in comedians.






The Charles Trippy video blogs are mostly funny. People who like silly comedy, humor, banter, would be interested in the videos. If you are interested in how two spend their daily lives then Internet Killed Television would be for you. The videos are random, and often add no particular value to your life besides giving you a daily dose of funny. I don’t think any of the blogs (there are five total) are important, but they do have a place on the internet. All of the blogs offer both content and connection. The Internet Killed Television skews towards the connection side as it invites the public into Charles’ and Allie’s lives. It also skews towards content because everyday there is atleast one new video if not more. People can always know what’s going on with Charles and Allie.




I understand why some people video blog. It is quite easy and it can make you a star. You don’t need very much technology, just a camera, cell phone, and a computer. Charles shoots almost all of his videos with a Canon snapshot camera, or an Iphone, and uses Final Cut to edit. While video blogging is very easier I don’t think it’s for me.

BP and Fake Journalists

The Wall Street Journal wrote an expose on BP’s Planet BP, and in house magazine for employees outlining the company’s efforts on the oil spill. BP sent its own public relations professionals in as journalists to report for the recently revived magazine. These “journalists” wrote company articles and public blogs on their first hand experiences of the oil spill. Now these so called journalists and their accounts have been panned by the main stream industry. Most notably The Huffington Post, and Treehugger.com, both very popular blogs which many credible sources of their respective topics.

Both blogs reported on the WSJ article. The Huffington Post uses the same direct quotes the WSJ article but adds colorful commentary in response. It goes through the Wall Street Journal almost quote by quote adding commentary. It includes a link to a similar article written by the Columbia Journalism Review discussing the same public relations professionals posing as journalists. The Huffington Post goes one step further by including an embedded video of link to a Monty Python video mentioned in the WSJ article. It doesn’t add any credibility to the article itself but it fits nicely in with the colorful commentary of the blogger. It also help visualize the hypocrisy the WSJ references in their article.

Treehugger.com, a popular blog operated by Discovery Communications, writes about the same WSJ article. They start the article by bashing BP, and linking to a story of BP denying journalists access to the Gulf. It references one main quote, the most scathing quote, from the WSJ article and then comments. The writer calls the BP’s story and account of “journalist” experiences “hilarious and dubious.” He goes on to call the “journalist” a hack, and the idea of BP sending in PR professionals to report and idiotic idea.

Here are two blogs written by reputable sites that covered both stories. The Huffington Post story was written for a mainstream public, outlining each quote from the original WSJ article. The Treehugger blog was written more for people highly involved in saving the planet. It aims to spark activism and further the hate for BP. I find both articles to be good, but the Huffington Post is more credible.

The Mash on Mashable

Mashable is social media/technology blog. It also features articles on current events and how social media has helped facilitate them. Mashable has various authors who update multiple times a day. Mashable includes many types of Web 2.0 technologies along side writing about them. It has Facebook, Twitter, Digg share buttons posted next to each article. Videos can also been seen with various posts.



I would think conclude that Mashable is a credible site. It's authors are knowledgeable of the subject and many come from the technology industry. The reporters all have a background in blogging and web 2.0 industries, and many have been traditionally trained.

Mom Tweets While Son Drowns

Or so said the headlines that made national news. In truth mom tweeted after son drowned, but that doesn’t carry the same weight as the previous headline.

In Dec of 2009, popular mommy blogger Shellie Ross along with her older (11) son were cleaning out their chicken coop when she asked her older son to turn off the hose running to the screened in pool. After she finished cleaning she went looking for her sons when she saw her son floating in the pool, and then she performed CPR until the medics arrived. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital.

Timeline of events

• 5:22 pm Tweets ‘Fog rolling in thick scared the birds back in the coop
• 5:23 pm Call to 911 from her older son reporting finding toddler floating in pool
• 5:38 pm ambulance arrives and finds toddler in cardiac arrest
• 6:12 pm Shellie Ross tweets “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old feel in pool”



Almost immediately Shellie was bombarded with tweets of concerns, questions, sympathies and skepticism. While her friends (community) went into immediate action organizing pray groups and donations, others used to moment to bash her and call her a horrible mother. Many people said if she hadn’t been tweeting and had been watching her son, he would still be alive. Now at the time of her last tweet she didn't say her son was indeed dead. Ross tweeted at 11:08 “Remembering my million dollar baby” and a link to a photo.

Many people wanted proof and believed Ross was lying and trying to get attention. The most vocal was Madison McGraw who went so far as to call the police and local newspapers near Ross (McGraw is from Pennsylvania) pretending to be Ross looking for verification. McGraw then blogged about how if Ross hadn’t been tweeting her son would still be alive. Now Ross’s followers and friends came to her defense and said she was a good mother and friend and she didn’t deserve to be treated this way. Ross herself told ABC News that “Nobody has a right to question” why she tweeted, and she didn’t “tweet by tweet the accident.” McGraw told ABC News that she received death threats for questioning the validity of Ross’s tweets.

Her friends, many of them she had known from meeting on twitter and through her blogs, came to her defense and said that it wasn’t shocking that Ross tweeted the news, that it was much easier to tweet, and it “immediately set into place a support system.”

This all poses the larger question “Was this an appropriate time to be using social media?”
I mean there is the woman who tweeted that she has a miscarriage while in a meeting, the girl who tweeted Demi Moore that she about to commit suicide (to which Demi successfully talked her down, then got her help), and there is the guy who streamed his suicide on the internet (to which no one thought to call the cops till it was over).

As social media becomes infused into our lives at what point do we step in and say this is too much? And what about the next generation who has always had social media?

Souce1 Source 2 Source 3

In rememberence of Michael Jackson

I found this great melody on youtube this morning.




And because we played this in class today.

RIP Mike Jackson

Because The World Needs To Know What I Had For Breakfast

I joined Twitter! Yay Twitter! And I haven't looked back since.
Twitter is the micro blogging site that allows users to post 140 chars or less of information. These posts called tweets, can range from the menial (ie I'm staring at the ceiling) to the informative (ie Earthquake in Chile). Tweets are then posted on a user's webpage for open access and then distributed to the user's group of followers. Twitter is quite a simple tool it asks the question "What's Happening?" This is changed from their original "What are you doing?" question.



Twitter makes it very easy to communicate with others by disturbing conservations to your followers, and the people in general. If a user is following other users then their updates show on their page. You can reply to a person’s tweets and have conservation. Retweeting allows a person to repost a tweet, for either sharing purposes or make public comments on a person’s tweet. These conservations and commenting aren’t limited to a user’s followers but can be held with any user on twitter.



Twitter lets user cooperate and share photos and video. The most common way is to use a twitter photo and sharing service. The most common used are Twitpic and Twitvid. However Mashable lists the top five Twitter photo sharing and Twitter video sites. Users can comment on photos and videos, tag them with subjects, and share their own. Users can upload through email and sms texts as well.



Twitter is great for collaborating amongst users on a particular subject, or trending topics. Trending topics are the most popular and most talked about subjects of the moment. Users can use hashtags or acronyms to tag their tweets with a trending topic. For instance when watching a popular sporting event, or television show users often hashtag the show (ie #rhony or #worldcup). Here anyone searching for tweeting about the subject will show up in the public timeline of twitter. Twitter often makes large events such as Fifa World Cup, or The Olympics more prominent by including little pictures or verified twitter lists of active Twitter accounts of players.

Connection
Twitter builds connections by allowing people to connect and build relationships over 140 chars. Whether it’s sporting events, television shows, or a user’s love of music connections are made based on mutual interests. Users can follow individuals, companies, or other applications that interest them. Here they can receive updates and inside information that may not be available to the public.

Twitter is a very addictive tool and should be used with caution. Hence my 19,575 updates. And because I'm not the only one addicted

Well Back On Blogger

So the title pretty much says it all. I'm back on blogger after a 3 year hiatus.